Indoor and outdoor air pollution and lung cancer in New Hampshire and Vermont

Indoor and outdoor air pollution is known to contribute to increased lung cancer incidence. This study is the first to address the contribution of home heating fuel and geographical course particulate matter (PM₁₀) concentrations to lung cancer rates in New Hampshire, USA. First, Pearson correlation analysis and geographically weighted regression were used to investigate spatial relationships between outdoor PM₁₀ and lung cancer rates. While the aforementioned analyses did not indicate a significant contribution of PM₁₀ to lung cancer in the state, there was a trend towards a significant association in the northern and southwestern regions of the state. Second, case-control data were used to estimate the contributions of indoor pollution and secondhand smoke to the risk of lung cancer with adjustment for confounders. Increased risk was found among those who used wood or coal to heat their homes for more than 10 winters before the age of 18, with a significant increase in risk per winter. Resulting data suggest that further investigation of the relationship between heating-related air pollution levels and lung cancer risk is needed.     

市场经济与土肥科技

土肥的基础地位是不随社会性质或社会经济类型的变化而变化的，它既具重要性，又具长久性．市场经济是仍然需要土肥科技的．土肥科技的教学、科研和推广的力度必须加大，局面必须改观，且宜快不宜迟．土肥科技工作者一定要将培肥地力作为中心工作．根据广东的实际，增施有机肥是培肥地力的主要措施，因而抓秸秆还田和发展冬绿肥是我们工作的重点．     

Heavy metals and pesticides in anuran spawn and tadpoles,water, and sediment

High concentrations of metals (cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc) and of lindane were measured in the sediment and in the spawn and tadpoles of Bufo bufo, Rana dalmatina, and Rana ridibunda from two Austrian locations. Residues in spawn suggest maternal transfer. Increase of the metal concentrations from spawn to advanced tadpole stage is explained by the larval microphaguous feeding habits which cause high exposition of the tadpoles to substances concentrating in sediments and suspended particles. Metal and pesticide concentrations in spawn and tadpoles are toxic to various other aquatic organisms and are furthermore considered to be potentially hazardous to the anurans themselves. The results are conform with world‐wide observations of contamination of anuran larvae with heavy metals, and prove the significance of non‐point source chemical exposure due to allochthonous toxicant input by wind load and precipitation.     

Individual and combined effect of mercury and manganese on phenol and proline content in leaf and stem of mungbean seedlings

Mungbean (Vigna radiata L. Wilczelk cv. Pusa Baisakhi seedlings were raised in individual (0, 1, 10, 100 and 1000 ppm) and combined solutions (1 : 1, 10: 1, 1: 0 ppm Hg : Mn) of mercury and manganese for 6 days. Phenol and proline were found to accumulate in leaves in response to treatment with heavy metals. The magnitude of accumulation correlated with concentration of metals. However, a reverse trend was noticed in stem for phenol. Accumulation of phenol in response to heavy metal treatment was organ specific and occurred at higher rate in plant parts, which faced the stress mostly. However, accumulation of proline helped the plant to survive stress situation. In combined solutions, amelioration of mercurial toxicity by manganese was recorded.     

Characteristics of dispersions and water-soluble extracts of crude and refined oils and their toxicity to estuarine crustaceans and fish

The quantitative hydrocarbon composition and behavior in seawater of water-soluble fractions (WSF) and oil-in-water dispersions (OWD) of 4 oils was investigated. Two crude oils, South Louisiana crude and Kuwait crude, and two refined oils, No. 2 fuel oil and bunker C residual oil, were used in these investigations. The WSFs of the crude oils had higher total oil-hydrocarbon concentrations and were richer in light aliphatics and single-ring aromatics than were the WSFs of the refined oils. The WSFs of the refined oils contained significantly higher concentrations of naphthalenes than did those of the crudes. The hydrocarbon composition of the aqueous phase of OWDs closely resembled that of the parent oils. Gentle aeration of the OWDs resulted in a loss of 80 to 90% of the aqueous hydrocarbons in 24 h. Alkanes disappeared from the dispersions more rapidly than aromatics. The WSFs and OWDs of the refined oils were considerably more toxic to the 6 test species than were those of the crude oils. The test species can be ranked according to increasing sensitivity to oil as follows: Cyprinodon variegatus, Menidia beryllina, Fundulus similus, Penaeus aztecus postlarvae, Palaemonetes pugio and Mysidopsis almyra. The results of this investigation are discussed in relation to the potential impacts of oil spills on the marine and estuarine environments.     

Instream and offstream environmental conditions and stream biotic integrity: Importance of scale and site similarities for learning and prediction

Two different methods to predict biotic integrity were tested and compared in the present paper. The first one tries to predict the fish indices of biotic integrity (IBI) at the state or regional scale based on the most similar observations to a specific target site of interest using the simple to implement k-nearest neighbors (or kNN) method. Two different distance functions were considered to find the k-nearest neighbors: the Euclidean and the Mahalanobis. The second method was applied on the same datasets and consisted of a step-wise multiple regression. The two modeling approaches yielded similar results but kNN proved to be more time-efficient and very fast computationally for the given dataset sizes, which allowed applying a leave-one-out cross validation.In an attempt to reveal the importance of scale in the prediction of IBI, regression models were constructed at the state (or regional) scale and at the more refined cluster of sampling sites scale. Clusters of sites were extracted using Kohonen's self-organizing maps (SOM) followed by k-means clustering of the SOM neurons. Cluster-level regression models, constructed after site patterning, performed better in IBI prediction than global regression models constructed without any previous site patterning. The importance of identifying groups of sites with similar environmental characteristics affecting the IBI was revealed. The combined use of site patterning and regression modeling for IBI prediction also helped identifying important variables acting at the local scale which remain latent at the global scale.     

Myths and assumptions about human-wildlife conflict and coexistence

Recent extinctions often resulted from humans retaliating against wildlife that threatened people's interests or were perceived to threaten current or future interests. Today's subfield of human-wildlife conflict and coexistence (HWCC) grew out of an original anthropocentric concern with such real or perceived threats and then, starting in the mid-1990s, with protecting valued species from people. Recent work in ethics and law has shifted priorities toward coexistence between people and wild animals. To spur scientific progress and more effective practice, we examined 4 widespread assumptions about HWCC that need to be tested rigorously: scientists are neutral and objective about HWCC; current participatory, consensus-based decisions provide just and fair means to overcome challenges in HWCC; wildlife threats to human interests are getting worse; and wildlife damage to human interests is additive to other sources of damage. The first 2 assumptions are clearly testable, but if they are entangled can become a wicked problem and may need debunking as myths if they cannot be disentangled. Some assumptions have seldom or never been tested and those that have been tested appear dubious, yet the use of the assumptions continues in the practice and scholarship of HWCC. We call for tests of assumptions and debunking of myths in the scholarship of HWCC. Adherence to the principles of scientific integrity and application of standards of evidence can help advance our call. We also call for practitioners and interest groups to improve the constitutive process prior to decision making about wildlife. We predict these steps will hasten scientific progress toward evidence-based interventions and improve the fairness, ethics, and legality of coexistence strategies.     

Hotspot detection and clustering: ways and means

This paper reviews the development of methods for the analysis of hotspots and clustering. Discussion focusses on different data types and the usefulness of density estimation, scan testing and model-based approaches to clustering. Various application areas are considered ranging from ecology, over health mapping to genomics and landscape analysis. A discussion of software availability is also provided.     

杨梅嫁接和扦插繁殖技术试验

杨梅树体内富含单宁、嫁接和扦插繁殖不易成活．在嫁接上,采用先将砧木挖出,让其失去5—7％的水分后再嫁接定植的“掘接法”,使嫁接成活率由8．5％提高到62％;在扦插上,先将插条基部用250mg／l的去单宁剂丙酮浸泡2h,再用激素综合处理,使杨梅扦插生根。成活率由4％提高到66．07％,最高达83．3％．表5,参5．     

河流底泥污染及其控制与修复

水体底泥污染是世界范围内的一个环境问题。污染物通过大气沉降、废水排放、雨水淋溶与冲刷进入水体,最后沉积到底泥中并逐渐富集,使底泥受到严重污染。在河流环境中,河床沉积底泥以推移和悬浮形式输送,很大程度上导致了上覆水和沉积底泥的相互物理作用。河流有强有力的自然环境,在河流系统中趋向有利于沉积底泥的解吸作用,从而将会影响上覆水的水质。因此,在水质管理计划中,应该将已污染的沉积底泥作为一个污染源予以考虑,沉积底泥是河流污染的一个重要方面。文章根据近年来国内外对河流底泥污染的控制、处理、修复及利用的文献资料,分析了河流底泥的污染现状及主要类型,包括重金属、NP营养物质、难降解有机物和持久性有毒污染物等,指出了目前在底泥污染修复中存在的问题。针对河流底泥污染控制与修复技术,介绍了除控制外源污染物外的物理修复、化学修复和生物修复等几种主要的修复方法和技术,分析了各种方法的利弊以及适用情况。在阐述了堆肥、建材利用、低温热解、湿地及栖息地建设、修复废弃地和建设填方等利用方式后,提出具体的控制和修复应因地制宜,综合各种恢复技术及利用方式,以达到控制及修复污染的河流底泥,恢复河流生态系统之目的。     

乡镇企业可持续发展与小城镇建设

通过对乡镇企业的经济效益、环境效益和社会效益以及小城镇发展的优越性分析可知，乡镇企业不宜在农村发展，应该在小城镇中发展。     

湿解产物与堆肥在土壤中的稳定性和腐熟度比较分析

研究了不同培养阶段湿解产物与土壤混合物(HTS)的物质变化特征、稳定性和腐熟度,并与堆肥和土壤混合物(CS)及自然土壤进行了对比。结果表明:在培养过程中,所有HTS和CS的参数变化趋势相似,HTS的温度变化接近于CS的温度变化,稍高于自然土壤的温度,低于环境温度;pH值变化不大,基本稳定在7.6左右;在培养初期,水溶性有机碳比有机态氮w(WSC)/w(Norg)小于0.55,种子发芽系数(GI)高于80%;培养14d后,w(C)/w(N)降低至小于20,w(NH4 -N)/w(NO3--N)渐渐趋于稳定至小于0.16,GI基本高于100%;49d后,HTS的CO2释放率接近CS和自然土壤的CO2释放率;种子发芽系数的变化表明,湿解产物中含有更丰富的营养元素,可以促进植物根系的生长;相关性分析显示,w(WSC)/w(Norg)、w(NH4 -N)/w(NO3--N)和GI可以作为湿解产物腐熟度的评价指标。综合各项参数表明,湿解产物在土壤中会很快达到稳定,可以安全应用。     

Geese and dietary allelochemicals — food palatability and geophagy

Summary The palatability of plants was studied in young, immature and adult geese of three species,Anser anser, Anser indicus andBranta canadensis, with respect to secondary plant metabolites. In their first 1–4 weeks of life, hand-reared goslings feed on a wide variety of plants, more or less irrespective of their allelochemical contents. Older birds become more selective, but still consume plants which are normally considered to be unpalatable or even toxic for other animals. Choice experiments were performed with pure secondary metabolites which were offered on otherwise highly palatable food items, such as leaves ofTaraxacum officinale. These experiments revealed a similar trend, in that very young goslings discriminate their food much less than older goslings or adult geese. In general, food contaminated with essential oils was rejected, whereas alkaloids, glycosides, amines and sulfur compounds were tolerated to a remarkable degree. In consequence, especially young, but also adult geese must have a high capacity to tolerate and/or to detoxify dietary allelochemicals. Another detoxification mechanism became evident during the experiments: geese ingest soil and mud quite regularly. It could be shown experimentally that the respective soil had a high capacity to bind alkaloids. We assume that geophagy is a means (besides a presumed active detoxification in the liver) to adsorb and thus reduce the contents of dietary allelochemicals.     

Linking Terrestrial and Marine Conservation Planning and Threats Analysis

Abstract:  The existence of the Gulf of Mexico dead zone makes it clear that marine ecosystems can be damaged by terrestrial inputs. Marine and terrestrial conservation planning need to be aligned in an explicit fashion to fully represent threats to marine systems. To integrate conservation planning for terrestrial and marine systems, we used a novel threats assessment that included 5 cross-system threats in a site-prioritization exercise for the Pacific Northwest coast ecoregion (U.S.A.). Cross-system threats are actions or features in one ecological realm that have effects on species in another realm. We considered bulkheads and other forms of shoreline hardening threats to terrestrial systems and roads, logging, agriculture, and urban areas threats to marine systems. We used 2 proxies of freshwater influence on marine environments, validated against a mechanistic model and field observations, to propagate land-based threats into marine sites. We evaluated the influence of cross-system threats on conservation priorities by comparing MARXAN outputs for 3 scenarios that identified terrestrial and marine priorities simultaneously: (1) no threats, (2) single-system threats, and (3) single- and cross-system threats. Including cross-system threats changed the threat landscape dramatically. As a result the best plan that included only single-system threats identified 323 sites (161,500 ha) at risk from cross-system threats. Including these threats changed the location of best sites. By comparing the best and sum solutions of the single- and cross-system scenarios, we identified areas ideal for preservation or restoration through integrated management. Our findings lend quantitative support to the call for explicitly integrated decision making and management action in terrestrial and marine ecosystems.     

Growth and pollution convergence: Theory and evidence

Stabilizing pollution levels in the long run is a pre-requisite for sustainable growth. We develop a neoclassical growth model with endogenous emission reduction predicting that, along optimal sustainable paths, pollution growth rates are (i) positively related to output growth (scale effect) and (ii) negatively related to emission levels (defensive effect). This dynamic law reduces to a convergence equation that is empirically tested for two major and regulated air pollutants – sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides – with a panel of 25 European countries spanning the years 1980–2005. Traditional parametric models are rejected by the data. More flexible regression techniques confirm the existence of both the scale and the defensive effect, supporting the model predictions.     

Estimation and simulation for geospatial porosity and permeability data

Reservoir simulation of \(\hbox {CO}_2\) sequestration, energy recovery, and environmental contamination scenarios must be accompanied by uncertainty quantification. Typically this is done by stochastically modeling porosity and permeability fields, simulating realizations based on the model, and then numerically simulating flow and transport. The challenge is to generate simulated porosity and permeability fields with characteristics as similar as possible to those known of the reservoir under study. In this paper we focus on the first two steps above in analyzing a large 3-dimensional array of geospatial porosity data and using the results to produce simulated data with characteristics mimicking those of the original porosity observations. The spatial covariance is empirically approximated from horizontal cross sections of the data via a kernel principle component analysis yielding dimension reduction. Simulations in three dimensions are produced by linking consecutive parallel cross sections via conditioning on a small subarray of the data. The conditional simulations effectively reproduce observed channeling, an important large scale feature of interest in the sub-surface relevant to transport of contaminates. The original porosity data is non-Gaussian and requires additional analysis and transformation to generate both porosity and permeability fields.     

湖南省水土流失及其危害

目前湖南省水土流失面积已由50a前的1.87万km2增加为4.40万km2，占全省土地总面积的20.8％。水土流失为中等以上的县市占全省的比例达到了60％。湖南省水土流失以面蚀为主，水土流失日趋严重。水土流失主要有以下危害降低土壤肥力，加剧旱洪灾害尤其是湖区的洪涝灾害，降低水利工程效益和阻碍水上交通。由此可见，水土保持工作不仅关系到湖南山区的经济发展和广大山区人民的脱贫致富，还关系到保护环境、资源和洞庭湖区的长治久安问题。     

Morphological and histological changes during the growth and starvation of herring and plaice larvae

Reared herring (Clupea harengus L.) and plaice (Pleuronectes platessa L.) were examined for morphological and histological changes during growth and starvation. The growth rate of herring larvae of 0.22 mm/day was less than that reported for wild stock, but this difference was attributed to survival of runts in laboratory. Larval plaice had a growth rate of 0.16 mm/day. The relative condition factor (antilogarithm of intercept of length-weight line) was used to assess condition throughout the larval stages. Starvation resulted in a progressive collapse of the larval body, especially of the ventral body surface around the pectoral girdle of both species (assessed by the pectoral angle) and of the spacing between the organs of the head in herring. There was a breakdown of the herring gut with decreases in epithelial cell height and catabolism of the connective tissue coat and a marked reduction in the transverse sectional area of the plaice liver. The changes in the pectoral angle in both herring and plaice and the eye height to head height ratio in herring should be useful to fishery biologists for assessing nutritional condition, even on board ship.     

天津地区表层土壤和河流沉积物中甾烷与五环三萜烷的分布特征及污染源分析

分析了天津地区表层土壤和具有代表性的河流沉积物中甾烷和五环三萜烷系列化合物的组成与分布特征，讨论了这类化合物的来源及环境意义。分析表明，在天津地区不同环境功能区表层土壤和河流沉积物中均检测到了甾烷和五环三萜烷系列化合物，但样品之间其含量存在明显的差别；表层土壤与河流沉积物中甾烷、五环三萜烷化合物的组成与石油中的基本一致，样品间这类化合物在饱和烃中的相对含量与正烷烃CPI之间有较好的负相关关系，表明它们主要来源于石油及副产品，可以根据样品中甾、萜化合物与正构烷烃的比值来反映饱和烃中石油烃污染源的贡献。论文根据样品中甾烷、五环三萜烷化合物与正构烷烃的比值，并结合正烷烃CPI参数初步分析了天津地区不同环境功能区表层土壤和河流沉积物中饱和烃污染物的污染源。     

Recycling behaviour and attitude: the case of the Hong Kong people and commercial and household wastes

The increasing environmental awareness caused by the green movement has led to changes in attitude towards our traditionally wasteful society. Recent surveys in Hong Kong have shown that waste recycling has gained increasing verbal support among its citizens. This paper reports on recent findings which reveals that some discrepancies exist between people's attitude and behaviour towards waste recycling. The implication of this phenomenon on how and when a waste recycling policy should be carried out is considerable. Two major types of barriers to waste recycling and reduction were evident. Technical barriers to recycling included lack of appropriate information, lack of conveniently located bins and of temporary storage space, whilst the most critical barrier to paper waste recycling was the presence of non-recyclable materials in some paper items. Psychological barriers included the attitude of being troubled, and that too little waste was involved to be worth the effort. Technical barriers were found to dominate in commercial paper waste recycling, and can usually be overcome while psychological barriers were more significant in household waste recycling and are more difficult to solve. Thus, it might be concluded that, if a large scale household waste recycling programme were in place in Hong Kong, more effort should be devoted towards educating the public, to eliminate as many psychological barriers as possible. Findings from attitude surveys on recycling can provide valuable information for policy makers. However, a review of the literature indicates that findings from attitudinal and self-reported behavioural surveys may exaggerate the proportion of those who have a favourable attitude towards the surveyed subject matter. Thus, it is prudent for policy makers to consider the response rate of the surveys also.