Ecolab

About: Ecolab is a company organization based out in Northwich, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Alkyl & Corrosion. The organization has 2860 authors who have published 3193 publications receiving 51478 citations. The organization is also known as: Economics Laboratory.

Peroxyacid antimicrobial composition

Abstract: A peroxyacid antimicrobial concentrate and use composition is provided comprising a C5 peroxyacid in combination with a C1-C4 peroxyacid, a C6-C18 peroxyacid, or mixtures thereof. The combination of these peracids produces a synergistic effect, providing a much more potent biocide than can be obtained by using these components separately. Other components can be added to the composition such as hydrotrope coupling agents, stabilizers, etc. An effective antimicrobial use solution is formed at low concentrations when the concentrate composition is diluted with water. Sanitizing of substantially fixed, 'in-place' processing lines in dairies, breweries, and other food processing operations is one utility of the composition.

Heavy Metal Stress and Crop Productivity

Abstract: Heavy metal contamination of the environment through anthropogenic activities and/or natural processes is a widespread and serious problem. Heavy metals occur in various forms in soil, which differ greatly with respect to their solubility/bioavailability. The geochemical behavior of heavy metals in soil, their uptake by plants, and effect on crop productivity is affected by various physicochemical properties of soil. Heavy metals mainly accumulate in root cells, due to their blockage by Casparian strips or due to trapping by the cell walls of roots. Excessive heavy metal accumulation in plant tissue impairs either directly or indirectly several biochemical, physiological, and morphological functions in plants and in turns interferes with crop productivity. Heavy metals reduce crop productivity by inducing deleterious effects to various physiological processes in plants including: seed germination, accumulation and remobilization of seed reserves during germination, plant growth, and photosynthesis. At the cellular level, heavy metal toxicity reduces crop productivity by producing reactive oxygen species, disturbing the redox balance and causing oxidative stress. Under heavy metal stress, plants have numerous defense mechanisms to manage heavy metal toxicity and to maintain their productivity, which include reduced heavy metal uptake by plants, sequestration into vacuoles, binding by phytochelatins, and activation of various antioxidants. This chapter presents the effect of heavy metals on physiological reactions in the plants’ crop productivity.

Global distribution of a key trophic guild contrasts with common latitudinal diversity patterns.

Abstract: Most hypotheses explaining the general gradient of higher diversity toward the equator are implicit or explicit about greater species packing in the tropics. However, global patterns of diversity within guilds, including trophic guilds (i.e., groups of organisms that use similar food resources), are poorly known. We explored global diversity patterns of a key trophic guild in stream ecosystems, the detritivore shredders. This was motivated by the fundamental ecological role of shredders as decomposers of leaf litter and by some records pointing to low shredder diversity and abundance in the tropics, which contrasts with diversity patterns of most major taxa for which broad-scale latitudinal patterns haven been examined. Given this evidence, we hypothesized that shredders are more abundant and diverse in temperate than in tropical streams, and that this pattern is related to the higher temperatures and lower availability of high-quality leaf litter in the tropics. Our comprehensive global survey (129 stream sites from 14 regions on six continents) corroborated the expected latitudinal pattern and showed that shredder distribution (abundance, diversity and assemblage composition) was explained by a combination of factors, including water temperature (some taxa were restricted to cool waters) and biogeography (some taxa were more diverse in particular biogeographic realms). In contrast to our hypothesis, shredder diversity was unrelated to leaf toughness, but it was inversely related to litter diversity. Our findings markedly contrast with global trends of diversity for most taxa, and with the general rule of higher consumer diversity at higher levels of resource diversity. Moreover, they highlight the emerging role of temperature in understanding global patterns of diversity, which is of great relevance in the face of projected global warming.

Environmental Roots of the Late Bronze Age Crisis

Abstract: The Late Bronze Age world of the Eastern Mediterranean, a rich linkage of Aegean, Egyptian, Syro-Palestinian, and Hittite civilizations, collapsed famously 3200 years ago and has remained one of the mysteries of the ancient world since the event’s retrieval began in the late 19th century AD/CE. Iconic Egyptian bas-reliefs and graphic hieroglyphic and cuneiform texts portray the proximate cause of the collapse as the invasions of the “Peoples-of-the-Sea” at the Nile Delta, the Turkish coast, and down into the heartlands of Syria and Palestine where armies clashed, famine-ravaged cities abandoned, and countrysides depopulated. Here we report palaeoclimate data from Cyprus for the Late Bronze Age crisis, alongside a radiocarbon-based chronology integrating both archaeological and palaeoclimate proxies, which reveal the effects of abrupt climate change-driven famine and causal linkage with the Sea People invasions in Cyprus and Syria. The statistical analysis of proximate and ultimate features of the sequential collapse reveals the relationships of climate-driven famine, sea-borne-invasion, region-wide warfare, and politico-economic collapse, in whose wake new societies and new ideologies were created.