Home – Home – Jornals – Advanced Search

The pulp and paper industry is developed in the northern regions. Ecosystems of northern rivers are less capable of biological self-rinsing and more sensitive to anthropogenic pollution. Assessing the pollution of water bodies is important for controlling the conservation of their bioresources. This article provides a literature review which illustrates the main impacts of wastewater of the pulp and paper industry on aquatic ecosystems. It will be useful for monitoring practitioners. This paper discusses examples of the impact of wastewater of the pulp and paper industry on aquatic organisms at different levels of organization - from the molecular to the ecosystem. The review describes the responses of aquatic zoocenoses (zooplankton and zoobenthos) to pollution and the effects of specific substances that enter water bodies from the effluents of the pulp and paper industry. The paper analyses information about transformation of bottom sediments of rivers and lakes in the wastewater zone. An overview of data is given, which evaluates the impact of thermal pollution. This type of pollution often characterizes industrial wastewater. One of the large rivers in the European part of Russia is the Vychegda River. The rivers in its basin are important in the Komi Republic. Therefore, monitoring the condition of communities of aquatic organisms that inhabit it is an urgent task. This paper presents the results of hydrobiological observations carried out in the Vychegda in the 1980s. At that time, changes in communities of aquatic organisms in the area of pulp and paper industry were shown.

The results of three-year measurements (2018-2020) of hydrophysical and hydrochemical indicators of the Vychegda River in places where treated wastewater is discharged from the Mondi Syktyvkar JSC pulp and paper mill are presented. At conventionally background stations and exposed to wastewater in concentrations significantly lower than the MPC: mineralization, the content of ions of Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Cl^-, SO4^2-, NO3^-, heavy metals, oil products, anionic surfactants, benz[a]pyrene were noted, an excess of MPC was noted for Suspended substances, COD, РО4^3-, Fe, Mn. Studies have shown that in connection with the modernization of the treatment facilities of Mondi Syktyvkar JSC, there is a noticeable improvement in the quality of wastewater and a decrease in the environmental load on the ecosystem of the Vychegda River in places of their discharge. With a high water level in the Vychegda River (2018-2019) for all investigated hydrochemical indicators in the places of wastewater discharge, no significant excess over conditionally background values - was revealed. It was possible to register the impact of pollutants only in the low-water period (2020), with a decrease in the degree of dilution by river waters of effluent from treatment facilities. During this period, at the observation points in the places of wastewater discharge, a significant increase was noted relative to the conditionally background indicators of the concentration of ions Cl^-, SO4^2-, РО4^3-, NH₄⁺, S_tot, K, Na, Fhenol, as well as COD, Permanganate Value, turbidity, electrical conductivity. In terms of environmental, sanitary and toxicological indicators, the waters of all surveyed observation points were assigned to the 3rd class of water quality (satisfactory purity).

Like most of the northern rivers, the Vychegda river, the second largest water system of the Komi Republic and the main tributary of the Northern Dvina river, is experienced intense anthropogenic load. Agricultural, domestic and industrial, at a greater extent, waste waters are currently the main polluting sources of river waters. The largest pulp and paper enterprise in Russia, Mondi Syktyvkar JSC, is located on the Vychegda riverbanks among the numerous enterprises operating here. The composition and structure of the zooplankton communities were investigated in the Vychegda river area, where effect of waste waters from the pulp and paper enterprise is observed. The research aim is to find out there is a negative impact of the conditionally treated waste waters on the aquatic biota. As a result, a rich species composition and quantitative development of zooplankton communities were established for the investigated river area. Rotifera was the dominant group on species abundance, number and biomass. This is characteristic feature of zooplankton communities in the watercourse as a whole. The indicator species of waters with a high level of pollution were registered both at points located in the area of waste waters influence and at the background plots of the river. The species which are not peculiar to the natural waters of the river were found in points of waste water discharge. The dominant complexes are represented by 9-15 species лучше. Their composition differs at background, waste waters and downstream points. According to the state of zooplankton communities, the river waters in the studied area are conditionally clean, except the points located downstream of waste waters discharge, where they are qualified as eutrophic.

We characterized the composition and diversity of benthic communities, as well as the current ecological state of Vychegda River in the zone of influence of wastewater from a pulp and paper production. A high diversity of benthic fauna and quantitative indicators of its development which are not typical for benthic biocenoses in the middle reaches of Vychegda River were registered. In the composition of the zoobenthos, 23 taxonomic groups of benthic invertebrates were identified. For 7 model groups, we identified 125 species and forms, as well as a persistent complex of species dominating in the studied section of the river. The model groups were dominated by indicator species of о-β- and β-saprobic conditions. In general, the water quality assessment indices based on the composition and structure of benthic invertebrate communities characterize the state of the river at the monitoring site as “satisfactory”. An exception was the wastewater discharge points, where the role of indicator species of α- and polysaprobic conditions was higher and the values of most of the indices were significantly lower.

In 2018-2020. we identified in Vychegda and Sysola Rivers new for the Komi Republic and the entire Northern Europe species of copepods: Elaphoidella bidens, Phyllognatopus viguieri, Paracyclops imminutus. All of these species were found exclusively in the areas of wastewater discharge of a timber processing company or urban wastewater of the city of Syktyvkar. The analysis of the identified specimens showed their morphological similarity with the type descriptions, only in P. viguieri from Sysola River we found certain features in the structure of the furca which distinguished it from the type form. As a result of molecular genetic studies, we determined that the crustacean Attheyella crassa native to the Vychegda basin is identical in the structure of mtDNA-COI to specimens of this species from the Moscow Oblast, while E. bidens from the zone of influence of wastewaters of a pulp and paper production company in the Vychegda basin differed from representatives of the species from the Moscow Oblast by 14 % and was similar to E. bidens from New Zealand. This characteristic feature of the Vychegda population of E. bidens indirectly confirms that the mechanism of invasion of the species into a new habitat is associated with wastewater. The identified species of copepod crayfish which are new for the Komi Republic represent a facultative synanthropic fauna in the study region that is capable of development only in urbanized areas.

The contextual definition of knowledge proposed by D. Lewis does not solve the Gettier problem. Rather, the problems which Lewis’s approach faces indicate that a satisfactory epistemological theory must accept the primacy of knowledge and the equivalence of knowledge and evidence, which leads to T. Williamson’s knowledge first epistemology. The rules which Lewis introduces for determining the relevant possible scenarios and which should be taken into account in his approach to knowledge are ad hoc . In particular, Lewis admits that he does not know how to reformulate the resemblance rule, so as to exclude the scenario of radical skepticism in a way that is not ad hoc . As a general principle for Lewis’s rules, we propose the principle of family resemblance, understood as the existence of a common Wittgensteinian rule and, in particular, the existence of common hinge propositions. Adjusted accordingly, Lewis’s definition of knowledge is compatible with both Wittgenstein’s hinge epistemology and Williamson’s knowledge first approach.

In its classical formulation, the basic problem of philosophy opposes the material and the ideal. Besides philosophy, the opposition of spirit and matter occurs in many areas, including natural sciences, where it often results in complex problems. One of these is the measurement problem in quantum mechanics. To obtain an effect perceived by the observer, the measured particle should be brought into interaction with the macro-instrument, which leads to a change in the initial parameters of the particle. That is, the observer influences the quantum system, and in an unpredictable probabilistic way. This situation results in epistemological difficulties and raises questions about the cognizability of the world, the violation of causal determinism, etc. For a science that studies the material world and aims at the ideals of objectivity, the perception of the possible influence of the observer’s consciousness on the measurement process is a problematic moment. The analysis shows that attempts to solve the basic problem of philosophy are based on softening the mentioned opposition by introducing an intermediary. It is shown that if we assume the existence of a link between matter and spirit, then the problem of quantum-mechanical measurements can be considered in an unexpected aspect, namely in terms of thermodynamics, which make it possible to provide a natural interpretation of the quantum-mechanical uncertainty arising in the course of measurements.

The study of primates demonstrates that economic behavior is not specifically human at the level of elementary actions such as rating of benefits, risks and decision-making. Behavioral experiments on primates and humans using neuroimaging tools are theoretically capable to reveal the neurophysiological substrate responsible for type of behavior known as economic and construed as rational. These limitations can partially be overcome only by real-time invasive neurovisualisation in real economic conditions. However, this is obviously unacceptable on ethical grounds. Moreover, the most representative neuroimaging tools can only be used in stationary conditions. An approach is proposed based on analysis of behavioral bigdata collected from mobile devices. Some clusters of these data directly reflect economic behavior, while other data represent related cognitive functions

The division of diseases into organic and functional has its own long history and, despite the significantly increased technical capabilities of studying the structural and functional features of vital activity both in normal and in various pathological processes, still continues to divide scientists into two opposite camps. The article provides a brief historical and philosophical analysis of the problem under study in an attempt to prove the inconsistency of the functional concept of general human pathology. As an example, the most common functional diseases of the gastrointestinal tract are given, in which structural disorders are localized in the central nervous system.

Comparison of descriptions of historical observations of passage of Venus on a disk of the Sun on May, 26th, 1761, on May, 23-24rd, 1769 is spent and on December, 8-9th, 1874 with my personal observations on June, 8th, 2004 and on June, 6th, 2012 the opportunity of detection atmosphere of Venus Is studied at pass off the planet from the solar disk. From the point of view of comparison with my observations of transites 2004 and 2012, are especially interesting descriptions of observations 1874 executed in Odessa, Teheran and Luxor. Is considered extreme states of consciousness during transient astronomical observations and an opportunity of their reflection. Carefulness and attentiveness are connected with short duration and a rarity of the phenomenon. Observation of transites of Venus on a disk of the Sun are interesting to verification of historical and own observant experience.