The risk of water erosion is one of the main environmental concerns in the southern Mediterranean regions. Thus, quantification of soil loss is an important issue for soil and water conservation managers. The objective of this paper is to examine the applicability of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model in The Sarrath river catchment, North of Tunisia, and to identify the most vulner...

The in vitro survival of Escherichia coli O157:H7 at 15°C under two experimental conditions (sterile soil and sterile natural water) was examined. DNA microarrays of the entire set of E. coli O157:H7 genes were used to measure the genomic expression patterns after 14 days. Although the populations declined, some E. coli O157:H7 cells survived in sterile stream water up to 234 days and in steril...

Activity of the enzymes can give information on the kind and duration of the effects of pollutants on the metabolic activity of soil. Results of studies on the dehydrogenase activity in soils experimentally contaminated with diesel fuel, with and without modification used in investigation over biodegradation process (including fertilization, stirring and inoculation) were presented in paper. St...

This study challenges the paradigm that salt marsh plants prevent lateral wave-induced erosion along wetland edges by binding soil with live roots and clarifies the role of vegetation in protecting the coast. In both laboratory flume studies and controlled field experiments, we show that common salt marsh plants do not significantly mitigate the total amount of erosion along a wetland edge. We ...

sulfur mustard (sm, bis- (2-chloroethyl) sulphide) is a chemical warfare agent that causes dna alkylation, protein modification and membrane damage. sm can trigger several molecular pathways involved in inflammation and oxidative stress, which cause cell necrosis and apoptosis, and loss of cells integrity and function. epigenetic regulation of gene expression is a growing research topic and is ...

Random finite element method (RFEM) provides a rigorous tool to incorporate spatial variability of soil properties into reliability analysis and risk assessment of slope stability. However, it suffers from a common criticism of requiring extensive computational efforts and a lack of efficiency, particularly at small probability levels (e.g., slope failure probability Pf<0.001). To address this ...

An integral component in the development of media-specific values for the ecological risk assessment of chemicals is the derivation of safe levels of exposure for wildlife. Although the derivation and subsequent application of these values can be used for screening purposes, there is a need to identify the threshold for effects when making remedial decisions during site-specific assessments. Me...