Itinerant Ecocriticism, Southern Thought, and Italian Cinema on Foot

This short essay explores an impulse guiding Italian ecocriticism, and also a recurrent trend in Italian cinema: that of thinking on foot. Drawing on the work of sociologist and philosopher Franco Cassano, I consider why contemporary philosophers seek to understand Italy at a pace that works strategically (sometimes defiantly) against petroleum-fueled speed. Brief examples from three recent Italian films that proceed on foot (Basilicata Coast to Coast [2010], La lunga strada gialla [2016], and Il cammino dell’Appia antica [2016]) attempt to reanimate southern Italian landscapes as “vehicles of identity, solidarity, and development” (Cassano xxxvi). Each film represents a socio-political project enabled by its walking pace; each, in turn, has the potential to unveil how these projects depend on the naturalcultural health of the landscapes being traversed. Against the “slow violence” being perpetrated on Italian landscapes—a slow violence of toxic contamination at the hand of ecomafias, of the cementification of agricultural lands and delicate coasts—and against the speed of turbocapitalism, thinking on foot enables modes of ethics and aesthetics simultaneously attuned to historical depth and ecological crisis. In this view, Italy is no longer a “bel paese,” but rather an ecocultural landscape in which the seeds for meaningful change are deeply embedded.

Methodological approaches to emergency recovery onboard the International Space Station

Keeping parameters of the atmosphere within a manned space complex close to those on Earth is a pre-requisite for the crew’s being able to live and work in space. Any relatively small change in atmospheric parameters may pose a threat to the life of the crew and calls for an immediate response to the situation. The emergencies which are to be handled exclusively by the crew of the manned space complex include depressurization of pressurized volumes, fire and toxic contamination of the atmosphere. Crew actions in such situations are governed by special flight procedures. The paper describes main assumptions and requirements taken as a basis for developing crew procedures for response to emergencies onboard the International Space Station (ISS), as well as methodological techniques embodies in the flight procedures, which make it possible to optimize crew emergency response taking into account the locations of the modules and crew rescue vehicles within the Russian Segment of the ISS. Key words: manned space station, emergency, International Space Station

Scaling Up Solutions to Toxic Contamination in Communities

In this special issue of IJERPH, we feature studies conducted by research translation and community engagement teams that are funded through the Superfund Research Program in the United States. These and other teams funded by this program demonstrate how environmental and health communication research can contribute to generalizable lessons about helping and empowering contaminated communities. These types of applied behavioral, social and communication projects are important because while much about our communities is unique and must be addressed on a case by case basis, other aspects of research translation and community engagement processes are potentially generalizable across sites and can thus be used to scale up solutions to toxic contamination to other communities and countries more rapidly than would otherwise occur.

Analysis of impact of anaerobic condition on the aflatoxin production in Aspergillus parasiticus Speare

Aflatoxins are the natural carcinogens that are the best characterized as fungal secondary metabolites. The producers that are responsible for aflatoxin biosynthesis are strongly associated in toxic contamination of essential agricultural products. Aspergillus parasiticus is an exclusive fungus that participates in causing hepatic problems in humans and cattle. These mycotoxins are greatly influenced by abiotic stresses. The fungal growth, proliferation and its toxigenicity are highly influenced by these stresses. Present study aimed to restrict the mycelial growth and to prevent aflatoxin preparation in A. parasiticus under the anoxic stress. The monosporic strains of A. parasiticus were grown in two different Erlenmeyer conical flasks containing Czapek Dox Broth and Czapek Dox Agar under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions. The anoxic condition was maintained using Anaero Bag System. Aflatoxin was isolated after 10 days, and quantitative estimation was done by using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The experimental outcome showed that there was a drastic decrease in both the morphological growth and the aflatoxin biosynthesis of A. parasiticus in anoxic state.

ANALYSIS OF EXISTING AND JUSTIFICATION OF APPLYING NEW AUTOMATIC SYSTEM FOR FIRE-AND-EXPLOSION PREVENTION AT VESSELS, SHIPS, OFFSHORE OIL PLATFORM

Introduction. A brief analysis of catastrophic fires and explosions on the offshore oil platform, ships and vessels is performed. It’s shown the relevance of the qualitative improvement of marine fire equipment. Analysis of modern fire fighting systems on vessels, ships: sprinkler, deluge, gas and pneumatic-impulse fire extinguishing systems is carried out. It’s substantiated new equipment for upgrading existing systems — subsystems of multi-module pulse, vortex combined quenching for the protection of ships, vessels, tankers, offshore oil platforms. The choice of the arrangement of modules based on the results of polygon tests is described. There are created systems of modules for the upper decks, engine rooms, holds, corridors, gangways, sections, electrical cabinets, etc.The modules create gas-water squalls, gas-powder vortices that extinguish all fires and continuous fires in all or part of the compartment and deck in seconds. The participation of pilot modules in operations for eliminating the consequences of disasters in hard-to-reach zones of collapses, with high levels of radioactive and toxic contamination in emergency locations is described.Description and analysis of experiments. The recommendations on the use of multi-barrel modules based on the analysis of experiments on the creation of fine-dispersed water squalls for extinguishing developed fires of classes A, B, C, F, the inhibition of explosive vapor-air clouds, the deposition and detoxification of gas-air clouds of ammonia and chlorine are substantiated and developed. The localization and liquidation of oil and oil products are described. The possibility of reducing the cost of liquidation of 1 sq m of bottling from $ 20-40 to $ 1-3 is shown, and reducing the time for liquidation of bottles to 5-10 times, which in a more multiple degree will reduce material and environmental losses from oil bottling.Conclusion. The advantages of introducing new technology and techniques for eliminating the consequences of accidents at sea and preventing their development into a catastrophe are summarized.

The Mysteries of Toxaphene and Toxic Fish

Toxaphene offers a case study on the history of toxic contamination in Lake Superior fish. How did chemicals such as toxaphene make their way into fish in the postwar era? How did governments and communities around the Great Lakes struggle to comprehend and then control these toxics? This chapter explores the intersection of human culture with the pollutants that have made their way into water bodies — and the bodies of fish and the people who eat those fish — everywhere. Fish is a healthy source of protein that we’re encouraged to eat, and eating fish is also of great cultural significance to people, particularly tribal communities, throughout the Great Lakes region. But the potential toxicity of fish today forces people to make difficult trade-offs: How much fish do you eat when it’s culturally important? How much do you eat when you’re pregnant?

Grieving over the Degradation of Nature in Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring focuses on the loss of species as a result of toxic contamination and pesticides. The loss of nature and environment affected people and led them to grieve. The term environmental melancholia which is used by Renee Lertzman deals with the grief and mourning over the loss of nature. Therefore, the current paper intends to shed light on Silent Spring by applying Lertzman’s environmental melancholia. As people face the degradation of the nature and they are unable to take any action, they will lead to melancholia. Therefore, this paper will indicate the ways people contribute in nature saving or its improvement based on Silent Spring. Besides the article will explain how to take care of the environment and nature.