Trialing wetlands to treat coal mining wastewaters in a low rainfall, high evaporation environment

The large number of wetlands treating mining wastewaters around the world have mostly been constructed in temperate environments. Wetlands have yet to be proven in low rainfall, high evaporation environments and such conditions are common in many parts of Australia. BHP Australia Coal is researching whether wetlands have potential in central Queensland to treat coal mining wastewaters. In this region, mean annual rainfall is < 650 mm and evaporation > 2 000 mm. A pilot-scale wetland system has been constructed at an open-cut coal mine. The system comprises six treatment cells, each 125 m long and 10 m wide. The system is described in the paper and some initial results presented. Results over the first fourteen months of operation have shown that although pH has not increased enough to enable reuse or release of the water, sulfate reduction has been observed in parts of the system, as shown by the characteristic black precipitate and smell of hydrogen sulfide emanating from the wetlands. These encouraging signs have led to experiments aimed at identifying the factors limiting sulfate reduction. The first experiment, described herein, included four treatments where straw was overlain by soil and the water level varied, being either at the top of the straw, at the top of the soil, or about 5 cm above the soil. The effect of inoculating with sulfate-reducing bacteria was investigated. Two controls were included, one covered and one open, to enable the effect of evaporation to be determined. The final treatment consisted of combined straw/cattle manure overlain with soil. Results showed that sulfate reduction did occur, as demonstrated by pH increases and lowering of sulfate levels. Mean pH of the water was significantly higher after 19 days; in the controls, pH was < 3.3, whereas in the treatments, pH ranged from 5.4 to 6.7. The best improvement in sulfate levels occurred in the straw/cattle manure treatment. (C) 1997 IAWQ. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.

Paradoxical association between smoking and olfactory identification in psychosis versus controls

Objective: Deficits in olfactory identification have been demonstrated in patients with schizophrenia. This study examined the interaction between smoking and olfactory identification in patients with psychotic disorders versus well controls. Method: Olfactory identification was assessed in three groups of subjects using the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT). Sixteen patients with affective psychoses, 22 patients with nonaffective psychoses, and 21 well controls were tested. Results: There was a significant interaction between diagnostic classification (patient or control) and smoking. Patients who were smokers scored higher on the UPSIT than non-smokers, while controls who were smokers scored lower than non-smokers. Conclusions: Smoking may have a 'normalising' effect on olfactory identification in some patients with psychosis. Further studies are needed to examine the relationship between psychosis, olfactory identification and the effects of nicotine.

Australian norms for a quantitative olfactory function test

Quantitative olfactory assessment is often neglected in clinical practice, although olfactory loss can assist diagnosis and leads to significant morbidity. The aim of this study was to develop normative data for the Australian population for the 'Sniffin' Sticks', an internationally established olfactory function test. As in other populations, Australian females performed better than males and both lost olfactory function with age. From the normative data, criterion test scores for males and females were established for clinical classifications ('normosmic', 'hyposmic', and 'anosmic'). These clinical classifications were assessed in Parkinson's patients: 81.1 % were anosmic or severely hyposmic and only 7.7% were normosmic. A new term ('prebyosmia') is introduced to describe age-related loss of olfactory capacity of unknown aetiology. With these norms, the Sniffin' Sticks can be used in the Australian population to compare an individual's olfactory function against the population of others of similar age and sex and to identify olfactory dysfunction. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sensory Processing in Aquatic Environments

Research on sensory processing or the way animals see, hear, smell, taste, feel and electrically and magnetically sense their environment has advanced a great deal over the last fifteen years. This book discusses the most important themes that have emerged from recent research and provides a summary of likely future directions. The book starts with two sections on the detection of sensory signals over long and short ranges by aquatic animals, covering the topics of navigation, communication, and finding food and other localized sources. The next section, the co-evolution of signal and sense, deals with how animals decide whether the source is prey, predator or mate by utilizing receptors that have evolved to take full advantage of the acoustical properties of the signal. Organisms living in the deep-sea environment have also received a lot of recent attention, so the next section deals with visual adaptations to limited light environments where sunlight is replaced by bioluminescence and the visual system has undergone changes to optimize light capture and sensitivity. The last section on central co-ordination of sensory systems covers how signals are processed and filtered for use by the animal. This book will be essential reading for all researchers and graduate students interested in sensory systems.