The Role of Legume Crops in Improving the Ecological State of the Soil

In this article is considered the role of legumes in improving the ecological state of the soil and the problem of developing energy-efficient, inexpensive, biologically and environmentally clean production technologies for crop production. The use of valuable chemical fertilizers and pesticides in order to obtain high yields from crops increases the pollution of the environment, ie soil, air and groundwater, the products contain nitrates, herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, residues harmful to human health.

Application of carbon monolith based on exfoliated graphite for sorption and subsequent chromatographic determination of volatile organic compounds in soil air

The possibility of using a new graphene-based carbon monolith for searching new oil deposits or branches adjacent to the already registered oilfields by areal geochemical survey is demonstrated. The material has been developed at the Faculty of Chemistry of M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University. Sorption of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from soil air at the oilfield was carried out using two sorbents (carbon adsorbent and Tenax-TA traditionally used for such analyses) with subsequent determination by gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection and thermal desorption as a way of sample injection (TD/GC/MS). The new material absorbs more hydrocarbons (n-alkanes and monoaromatics) in the range from C8 to C16 than Tenax-TA, the intensities of the chromatographic peaks of the compounds also being higher. The phenomenon of irreversible sorption from carbon materials is observed for VOCs from C17 and more. However, the concentration of such substances in the soil air is rather low due to the low pressure of saturated vapors of these compounds under normal conditions. Hence, the chromatogram of carbon monolith reflects the macro-characteristics of this oil deposit better than Tenax-TA. To increase the sensitivity of the determination, a preliminary optimization of thermal desorption conditions was carried out. The values of the helium flow rate through the sorbent sample and the desorption time of the compounds are chosen to get the largest peak area. The regeneration of sorbent samples is carried out to provide the possibility of their reusage. Tenax-TA decomposes at lower temperatures compared to carbon sorbent and thus cannot be purified completely unlike the new monolith. The graphene-based sorbent is reusable and much cheaper in the manufacture than imported polymer Tenax-TA since it is made of domestic materials.

FUNGAL RHINO SINUSITIS DURING COVID-19 ERA

Fungal rhino sinusitis is a life threating, aggressive, angioinvasive infection caused by a group of fungai called mucormycetes and aspergillus as well1. Spores of these fungai are present in the soil, air decaying material and animal dungs. They are inhaled and swallowed to cause infection. It affects mainly immune compromised patients like uncontrolled diabetes (fungus grows and flourish at high sugar level), organ transplant individuals and patients on long term steroid therapy2. Apart from the Covid-19 the fungal infection is not contagious.

Nonscalability of “citizen science” in post-Fukushima Japan: Unpacking articulations of citizen radiation measuring organizations

This article explores and discusses understandings of citizen science with members of Japanese citizen radiation measuring organizations who began measuring radioactive contamination in food, soil, air, and human bodies after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident. Building on in-depth interviews with organization members and extensive multi-site fieldwork (2018, 2020), the article takes shimin kagaku (citizen science in Japanese) to examine articulations of citizenship and science, while discussing citizen radiation measuring organization activities. Adopting Tsing’s notion of nonscalability, it draws attention to the manifold articulations of citizenship and science, unearthing frictions embedded in Japanese science–society relations. In this way, this article outlines the diversity of notions of citizenship and science, and of citizen participatory practices in science. By bringing nonscalability to bear on an analysis of different articulations of shimin kagaku, this article encourages scientists and public authorities to engage with citizen participatory practices reflexively and responsibly by considering local articulations and knowledges.