Occurrence and Seasonal Variation of Microplastics in the Effluent from Wastewater Treatment Plants in Qingdao, China

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are considered as one of the important sources of microplastics (MPs) in the marine environment. In this paper, the characteristics of MPs in the effluent discharged from five WWTPs in Qingdao, China, in winter and summer were analyzed. The results showed that only fibers and fragments were observed, with fibers as a dominant part. Rayon was the most domain polymer type, followed by Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and chlorinated polyethylene (CPE). The average sizes of fiber MPs were 1010 ± 924 µm and 610 ± 691 µm in winter and summer, respectively. The contents of rayon were higher in summer than in winter. More small and transparent MPs were observed in summer. Rayon abundances ranged from 4.1 to 19.9 items/L and 33.3 to 116.7 items/L, with 12.3 ± 5.6 items/L and 67.6 ± 30.6 items/L as the average value in winter and in summer, respectively. The abundances of other polymer type MPs were 7.23~19.65 items/L with average value of 12.7 ± 4.7 items/L in winter and 12.0~20.0 items/L with 16.8 ± 4.7 items/L in summer. The daily emissions were estimated as 8.38 × 109~4.25 × 1010 items (9.2~27.8 kg) for rayon and 8.0 × 109~1.2 × 1010 items (7.6~5.3 kg) discharged for the other polymer type MPs from the five WWTPs. The results indicated that the seasonal variation of characteristics and emission of MPs in the effluent from WWTPs was mainly caused by increasing discharge of rayon, which may relate to people’s living habits and tourism activities.

Appendicularia (Tunicata) in an Antarctic Glacial Fjord–Chaotic Fjordic Structure Community or Good Indicators of Oceanic Water Masses?

Appendicularians are important but remain poorly studied groups of zooplankton in polar regions. The present research is based on samples collected in Admiralty Bay (King George Island) during a year-long period. Six larvacean species were noted, among which Fritillaria borealis and Oikopleura gaussica were found to be the most numerous, while the other species were relatively rare. Fritillaria borealis was a dominant part of the late summer (warm water) community, while O. gaussica had the highest presence in the winter (cold water) community. The abundance of appendicularians recorded in the bay was less numerous than that described by other authors. The most important factors influencing annual changes in the larvaceans in the bay was season, but only in the case of the two species. These facts were probably linked to the very dynamic changes in the abiotic conditions in the fjord, and the influx of specific masses of water.

Observational appearances of a f(R) global monopole black hole illuminated by various accretions

In this paper, we explore three simple models of accretions on a global monopole black hole in f(R) theory, and numerically study the corresponding observational appearances as seen by an observer located at the asymptotic infinity and the certain region out of black hole. For the thin-disk accretion, the results here show that the brighter lensing ring and the darker photon ring that around black hole shadow, always make a small contribution and a negligible contribution to total observed intensity respectively. While, the direct emission of disk contributes a dominant part, and the size of shadow always depends on the disk’s location. For the static and infalling spherical accretions, it turns out that the radiuses of the shadows and photon spheres are always same for both accretions, which implies that the boundary of shadow represents the signature of the spacetime geometry in this case. However, we also find that the brightness of shadow in infalling accretion is darker than that in static case since the Doppler effect is taken into account. In addition, the effect of the global monopole parameter $$\eta $$ η and f(R) parameter $$\psi _0$$ ψ 0 on observational appearances of black hole are clearly emphasized throughout of this paper. Finally, we conclude that black hole shadows and the related rings with some different observable features can be used for us to distinguish black holes from different gravity theories and set the upper limits to the f(R) parameter $$\psi _0$$ ψ 0 .

Statistical Inversion Approach for Stress Estimation Based on Strain Monitoring in Continuously Pre-Stressed Concrete Beams

Stress is one of the most important physical indexes reflecting the mechanical behavior of concrete structures. In general, stress in structures cannot be directly monitored and can only be estimated through an established model of stress and strain. The accuracy of the estimated stress depends on the rationality of the established model for stress and strain. As the strain measured by sensors contains creep, shrinkage, and elastic strain, it is difficult to establish an analytical model for strain and stress. In this paper, a statistical inverse method was utilized to estimate the stress in continuously pre-stressed concrete beams based on the monitored strain. Stress in the beams and the model uncertainty factors were treated as model parameters. A linear-simplified method was adopted to determine the prior distribution of the stresses. The posterior distribution of the stresses at different locations during bridge construction can be obtained by the proposed method. A continuously pre-stressed concrete beam bridge was taken as the case study to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. Additionally, the constitution of the total strain in the different construction stages was calculated. It was concluded that the creep strain is the dominant part of the total strain.

A Contrastive Analysis of Compound Nouns in German and Albanian Languages

Language is an important mean of communication and it is constantly changing. During the language change a lot of words become out of use and many other new words become part of lexicon . The lexicon of the language is constantly enlarging and one important way to enlarge a language is by word formation. In German and Albanian Languages word formation is defined as a process of forming new words. In both, German and Albanian Languages an important contribution in word formation is given by compounding. In German Language compound words make up 2/3 of lexical language. The dominant part of compound words is the formation of compound nouns. German Language has got a lot of compound nouns so it has the ability to create new compounds between the connection of nouns or the connection of a noun with the other parts of discourse. In most cases the compounds of German Language find their equivalent in Albanian Language in simple words or phrases. In both languages a compound noun consists of two or more (lexical parts) components; they can have subordinate and coordinate relations. The majority of compounds is done by coordinate relations (determinate compositions). The composition components have a strict word order. If the word order changes in German Language, the meaning of composition will change, it will take a new meaning. (Of course there are exceptions in a few cases). If the word order changes in Albanian Language, the word becomes meaningless. In Albanian language the components of a compound noun are connected without fugues. Compound nouns with connecting vowels (o / a) are very few, while in German linking elements (fugues : e-, -s-, -es-, -n-, -en-, -er-, -ens-, -o-, ) are typical.

INTANGIBLE ASSETS IN THE POSTINDUSTRIAL ECONOMY: MYTHS AND REALITY

The purpose of the article is to determine the role and the place of the intangible assets in the postindustrial economy. The points of view of different scientists about the formation and development of the postindustrial economy from the position of globalization have been checked and the main unsolved controversies, which are observed in the process of its development, have been analyzed. The faultiness of some theses, from the position of the critical analysis, about the influence of some intangible assets on the macro and micro-indicators of the postindustrial society in general and the separate enterprises, in particular, has been proved. Based on the statistic data of the countries’ economies of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) the thesis about fast effectiveness and financial feedback from the implementation of the intangible assets has been simplified. The complexity of the dimension of the financial feedback of the intangible assets is in that the results of their implementation into the production process in many cases has intangible character, which is not connected with the creation of the final product of consumption (creation of the organization capital, human capital, etc). R. Sollow’s paradox hypothesis as to information technologies has been proposed to be broadened by the on other types of intangible assets. The accountant legislature of different countries has been analyzed and it has been determined that the number in investments in the performance of the research and development (R&D) might influence the amount of the intangible assets in different ways. The results of the leading world corporations’ assets analysis, working in different areas, have been presented in the article. For this purpose, the structure of their balances for 2018 has been analyzed and it has been determined that intangible assets do not occupy the dominant part in the overall general assets. Keywords: intangible assets, postindustrial economy, R&D, productivity, asset structure in the balance sheet. JEL Classification M41, O33, O34 Formulas 0; fig.: 1; tabl.: 3; bibl.: 18.

Analysis of Digital Customer Communities in terms of their interactions during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has redefined procedures in every business sector. In the first half of 2020, companies had to face an unexpected and unpredictable situation that resulted in both threats and opportunities in real time. Almost overnight, brick-and-mortar establishments of most stores closed, and the dominant part of transactions and activities moved from offline to the online environment. The main goal of the paper is to identify changes in the interactions of digital customer communities of selected e-business representatives in the Czech market. Within a sample of almost one and a half million Facebook users, during the first spring COVID-19 lockdown (March to May 2020), the interactions of the five largest Czech e-shops and their customers were recorded on a daily basis. The data were then subjected to a thorough statistical analysis in order to identify the specifics that resulted from the highly non-standard market situation. The results suggest that during the pandemic, there was a major reallocation of interactions in terms of their timing. Most interactions take place during the working week. From a day-to-day perspective, most of the interactions occur at around noon. In view of the findings, it can be stated that in order to maintain the competitiveness resulting from efficient management of corporate resources, it will be necessary to modify the usual procedures of e-marketing communication, as well as human resources management procedures in terms of the optimization of work of employees working from home.

The Return to/of Theory

In his paper “The Return to Philology,” Paul de Man insists that philology and theory should not be in conflict, but should, rather, mutually enhance one another. This claim that the turn to theory is also a return to philology is explored in the context of the structure of language. In the last twenty to twenty-five years, the return to philology has been a dominant part of the Anglo-Saxon discourse of “world literature,” which has turned away from theory. The return to philology is captured in a market-based adaptation of literature in terms of globalization, transnationalism, and translation. In his latest book The Birth and Death of Literary Theory (2019), Galin Tihanov recalls the legacy of classical literary theory and propounds the contemporary discourse of world literature as an unreflected continuation of this legacy as it was articulated in Viktor Shklovsky’s and Mikhail Bakhtin’s approaches to literature beyond language. Turning this legacy on its head, this essay focuses, rather, on language in literature. In a short-circuiting way, Roman Jakobson’s linguistics and poetics and Erich Auerbach’s nonnational-based philology can be seen as surprisingly close to one another.

Application of Nanopore Sequencing (MinION) for the Analysis of Bacteriome and Resistome of Bean Sprouts

The aspiration these days is to apply rapid methods for parallel analysis of bacteriome and resistome of food samples to increase food safety and prevent antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) spreading. In this work, we used nanopore sequencing (NS) to determine the diversity and dynamics of the microbiome and resistome in two types of bean sprouts. We proved that NS provided an easy, quick, and reliable way to identify the microbiome and resistome of a food sample also. The species diversity obtained by NS and by cultivation methods with MALDI-TOF MS identification was comparable. In both samples, before and after cultivation (30 °C, 48 h), the dominant part of bacteriome formed Gammaproteobacteria (Enterobacteriaceae, Erwiniaceae, Pseudomonadaceae, Moraxellaceae) and then Firmicutes (Streptococcaceae). The diversity and abundance of single ARGs groups were comparable for both samples despite bacteriome differences. More than 50% of the detected ARGs alignments were mutations conferring resistance to aminoglycosides (16S rRNA), resistance to fluoroquinolones (gyrA, gyrB, parC, parD) and elfamycin (EF-Tu). ARGs encoding efflux pumps formed more than 30% of the detected alignments. Beta-lactamases were represented by many variants, but were less abundant.

Purchaser Perspectives Towards Household Solar Power Frameworks

The achievement of the UK strategy to lessen fossil fuel by products is incompletely reliant on the capacity to convince householders to turn into more energy proficient, and to empower establishment of household universes. Sun oriented force is a development in the UK however the current strategy of invigorating the market with awards isn't bringing about inescapable selection. This contextual analysis, utilizing householders in focal England, examines householder perspectives towards qualities of universes and recognizes a portion of the boundaries to appropriation. The examination uses Diffusion of Innovations hypothesis to distinguish perspectives towards framework credits, and disconnects the qualities that are forestalling a logical 'early lion's share' from embracing the innovation. A gathering of 'early adopters', and a gathering of expected 'early dominant part' adopters of solar power were overviewed and the outcomes show that generally, albeit the 'early dominant part' exhibit a positive impression of the ecological attributes of sunlight based force, its monetary, financial and tasteful qualities are restricting selection. Contrasts exist between the two gatherings showing support for the idea of a 'gorge' between adopter classifications after Moore (Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-tech Products to Mainstream Customers, seconded. Harper Perennial, New York). Notwithstanding, if customers can't recognize the overall benefit of sun based control over their current wellsprings of force, which is provided promptly and economically through a mains framework, it is improbable that selection will follow. Suggestions concerning the advertising and advancement of sun based items are distinguished.