Environmental Pollution Assessment and Monitoring

Herbicide-resistant oilseed rape (Brassica napus) cultivation in our country entails the risk of gene transfer to related wild species. One of these species is the wild turnip (B. rapa), an important weed of winter crops widely distributed in the Pampas region. Despite hybridization risks, Clearfield ® oilseed rape is available in Argentina. In 2008, a B. rapa population, which was sympatric to an imidazolinone resistant and a conventional oilseed rape cultivar, was located on a farm in the main cropping area of the country. Herbicide resistant individuals were found in the progeny of this population in a herbicide screening test. Therefore, a molecular characterization using cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence (CAPS) and simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers was conducted on these plants to determine their hybrid nature and to establish the origin of the imidazolinone resistance trait. The results of this study, along with information of field records, confirmed that the resistant plants were first generation interspecific hybrids. Imidazolinone resistance had been effectively transferred from the herbicide-resistant oilseed rape, even in the particular situation of pollen competition. Oilseed rape resistant cultivars are becoming more common in the country. So, considering that seed loss and crop volunteers are common in these species, it is crucial to avoid the dispersion of new resistant weed biotypes as they reduce the effectiveness of chemical control technologies.

In present scenario of the world, controlling air pollution is one of the leading challenges. Most often the educational institutions and organizations in developing countries suffer from contaminated environment due to improper planning and poor infrastructure. Students and faculties in a classroom could suffer from health issues due to prolonged exposure to such environment. A low cost environment monitoring device is developed to detect different pollutant gases like CO, CO2 and noise along with relative humidity and temperature. It has observed that the same type of sensors for the same gases give different values although the sensitivity of sensors is acceptable, so it has also tried to perform calibration of the sensors using machine learning technique. It can also be used to detect the pollution in the indoor environment.

One of the most significant environmental problems of Thermaikos Gulf is the occasional formation of extended eutrophication phenomena (red tides, mucilaginous aggregates). Herein, we investigate the contribution of hydrodynamic processes on the formation of such events, under the effects of different meteorological and river discharge conditions. We conducted field observations (physical-chemical measurements), microscopy analysis of phytoplankton samples, satellite ocean color image analysis, and implemented high-resolution numerical hydrodynamic simulations with updated river discharge outflows to detect eutrophication events and relate them with the prevailing physical processes and ocean circulation patterns. The eutrophication events were mainly associated with the dominance of southerly winds. Northerly winds contribute on the renewal of the Gulf imposing a two-layer flow, especially along the eastern coasts.

The extraction of oil from African locust bean seeds was carried out in this work. Standard
procedures were followed to determine the yield present in the oil feed stocks using n-hexane in a
Soxhlet extraction apparatus. Analyses were carried out to determine their proximate compositions
and physicochemical characteristics. The determination of the functional groups and fatty acid
compositions present in the extracted oils was also carried out using Fourier Transform Infrared
Spectrophotometry (FTIR) and Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrophotometry (GC-MS)
respectively. The results revealed that African locust bean seed has higher oil yield, crude fat,
crude protein, ash content, crude fibre, moisture content than some other seeds such as Date palm
seed with the exception of the carbohydrates content. Similarly, African locust bean seed oil which
was yellowish brown in colour contained higher acid value, iodine value, peroxide value, free fatty
acid with the exception of saponification value and specific gravity in comparism. Result from the
FTIR analysis shows that 15 peaks were noticed in African locust bean seed oil, indicating the
presence of various functional groups such as OH, C-H, C=C, C=O, C≡    − . Similarly, the
GC-MS result also reveals that there are 6 dominating fatty acid compounds present in locust
beans seed oil in relation to their relative weight composition abundance. In locust bean seed oil, linoleic acid stood out as the fatty acid compound with the highest weight composition of 31.9%
having a relatively high degree of unsaturation. Furthermore, capric acid and lauric acid were found
in this oil. Judging from all the results in this work, it can be deduced that African locust bean seed
oil may serve as better alternative oil for consumption and in large-scale production of lubricants,
cosmetics, paints, and hydraulic brake fluid.