Investigation of the accumulation of ash,heavy metals,and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons to assess the stability of lysis–cryptic growth sludge reduction in sequencing batch reactor

The accumulation of ash, heavy metals, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (collectively called potential accumulating substances, PAS) was evaluated to ascertain the stability of lysis–cryptic growth sludge reduction process (LSRP) for municipal sludge treatment. One sequencing batch reactor (SBR) incorporated with homogenization was run to test the LSRP and another SBR as a control. The continuous monitoring results for 2 months showed that the ash and heavy metals slightly increased, and the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons decreased by 18.0%, indicating that there may be negligible accumulations during the LSRP. Their accumulations met pattern I, as demonstrated by statistical analysis, proving no PAS accumulation for LSRP. This was further confirmed by sludge activity and system performance. Moreover, the mechanism for no PAS accumulation was discussed. It was concluded that the LSRP was stable with no worries about PAS accumulation under the operational conditions.     

A Two-Stage Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm for MPPT of Partially Shaded PV Arrays

The power-voltage (P-V) characteristic curves of a PV array are nonlinear and have multiple peaks under partially shaded conditions (PSCs). This paper proposes a novel maximum power point tracking (MPPT) method for a PV system with reduced steady-state oscillation based on a two-stage particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. The grouping method of the shuffled frog leaping algorithm (SFLA) is incorporated in the basic PSO algorithm (PSO-SFLA), ensuring fast and accurate searching of the global extremum. An adaptive speed factor is also introduced into the improved PSO to further enhance its convergence speed. Test results show that the proposed method converges in less than half the time taken by the conventional PSO method, and the power is improved by 33% under the worst PSCs, which confirms the superiority of the proposed method over the standard PSO algorithm in terms of tracking speed and steady-state oscillations under different PSCs.     

铁氧化物复合氧化铝催化臭氧化过程中溴酸盐的生成控制

以市售活性炭、硅藻土和氧化铝小球为载体，考察了负载铁基活性组分对催化臭氧化过程中溴酸盐的控制情况，其中，铁基复合氧化铝小球体现出更好的溴酸盐还原特性和催化剂稳定性，证实催化剂中铁氧化物是溴酸盐得到有效控制的主要活性组分。进一步考察了铁基复合氧化铝小球催化臭氧化处理实际原水过程中对溴酸盐的生成控制，以及反应过程中溶解性有机碳（DOC）的去除情况。结果表明，与单独臭氧化相比，该催化剂既能有效去除水中的溶解性有机物，又能明显抑制溴酸盐的生成，反应50h，其活性并没有明显下降。催化剂失活主要归因于吸附位点数量的下降，可以通过负载铁氧化物来实现催化剂的再生。     

武汉地区水环境中全氟化合物污染水平及其分布特征

武汉作为中国氟化工行业的主要生产基地之一,其水环境中全氟及多氟类化合物(PFASs)污染情况对评估该地区水环境生态安全至关重要。采集了武汉城区10个污水处理厂进、出口污水和19个地表水样品,利用HPLC-ESI-MS/MS技术分析研究该区域水环境中PFASs污染水平及其分布特征。结果发现,武汉地区的污水和地表水样品中,PFASs污染均以短链同系物全氟丁酸(PFBA)和全氟丁基磺酸(PFBS)为主。污水处理厂进、出口污水中PFASs总浓度分别为11.8~12 700 ng·L~(-1)和19.1~9 970 ng·L~(-1)。在城区15个湖水样品中,PFASs总浓度为21.0~10 900 ng·L~(-1);在流经城区的4个江水样品中,PFASs总浓度为4.11~4.77 ng·L~(-1),比湖水样品中PFASs浓度水平低1~2个数量级。与污水中PFASs空间分布趋势一致,各湖泊水样中PFASs总体水平呈现汉口汉阳武昌的趋势,表明城市工业布局与人口密度程度直接影响城市PFASs污染空间分布。值得注意的是,与以往水环境中PFASs污染以全氟辛酸(PFOA)和全氟辛基磺酸(PFOS)为主不同,武汉地区水环境中PFASs污染以短链同系物为主,表明短链替代效应已经渐渐在中国化工领域出现,中国全氟行业在响应国际组织规范和建议的基础上做出了实质性进展。然而,对于短链PFASs的污染特征、迁移运输以及生态风险等科学问题,还需要更进一步的研究。     

An automated (novel) algorithm for estimating green vegetation cover fraction from digital image: UIP-MGMEP

Green vegetation cover fraction (VCF) is an important indicator of vegetation status in ecology and agronomy. Digital image analysis (DIA) has been widely accepted as a new VCF measurement technique. In this study, we present a novel fully automatic threshold segmentation algorithm for VCF measurements, which is named as upper inflection point plus mean gradient magnitude of edge pixels (UIP-MGMEP). The algorithm performs VCF estimation upon the vegetation index Excess Green (EXG). UIP-MGMEP optimizes the EXG threshold by searching the upper inflection point (UIP) of the M-Et curve (mean gradient magnitude of edge pixels (MGMEP) vs. EXG threshold), based on the assumption that EXG variance of the boundary pixels between vegetation and background is larger than the variance of the background. Five typical sample images are used to illustrate how ground complexity reduces the distinctness of the UIP. Three controlled experiments are illustrated to test the robustness of UIP-MGMEP to resolution, exposure, and ground complexity. The results show that UIP-MGMEP is a promising algorithm for automatic VCF estimation upon digital images. Compared to broad-leaved grass, narrow-leaved grass is more sensitive to resolution and exposure. To reduce ground complexity, smaller footprint size while more images to cover the same area may be better than one image with large footprint size. UIP-MGMEP is fully automatic, making it promising for batch processing of VCF measurements that is very difficult in any wide-range field survey in the past. UIP-MGMEP algorithm can only extract green vegetation and is not suitable for non-green (even grayish-green) vegetation, due to the limits of vegetation index EXG. In addition, UIP-MGMEP is not recommended for images with VCF less than 0.5% or greater than 99.5%.     

石墨烯纳米材料对哺乳动物的毒性及其作用机制

石墨烯是一种应用广泛的新兴非金属纳米材料，具有独特的电学机械性能、超大的比表面积以及潜在的生物相容性，在材料、电子、能源、光学以及生物医学等领域得到广泛应用。与此同时，石墨烯的环境行为和生物毒性也随之引起日益广泛的关注。本文通过对石墨烯纳米材料的动物毒性、细胞毒性、毒性影响因素和毒性机制等相关研究进展进行总结。石墨烯纳米材料可通过气管滴注、吸入、静脉注射、腹腔注射以及口服等方式进入体内，通过机械屏障、血脑屏障和血液胎盘屏障等积累在肺、肝、脾等部位引起急性或者慢性损伤；目前有关石墨烯毒性机制的研究主要集中于线粒体损伤、DNA损伤、炎性反应、凋亡等终点及氧化应激参与的复杂信号通路，不同石墨烯纳米材料的浓度、尺寸、表面结构和官能团等对石墨烯的生物毒性影响不同。鉴于当前该领域研究的局限性，对石墨烯纳米材料生物毒性研究的发展方向进行了展望，进而为石墨烯材料的安全应用提供理论借鉴和实践参考。     

Effect of tea saponin on phytoremediation of Cd and pyrene in contaminated soils by <Emphasis Type="Italic">Lolium multiflorum</Emphasis>

Tea saponin (TS), a kind of green biosurfactant produced by plants, was added into the Cd–pyrene co-contaminated soils to evaluate its influence on phytoremediation of Cd and pyrene by Lolium multiflorum. The results showed that the accumulation of pyrene in L. multiflorum was significantly promoted by the TS. Compared with no TS treatments (PL and ML), the aboveground concentrations of pyrene in TS treatments (PLT and MLT) increased by 135 and 30%, respectively, and the underground concentrations of pyrene in TS treatments (PLT and MLT) increased by 40 and 25%. The concentrations of Cd in the aboveground and underground parts in single contaminated treatments were all significantly more than those in co-contaminated treatments, while the situation of pyrene was quite the reverse. Besides, the addition of TS enhanced activities of dehydrogenase and polyphenol oxidase in soils and increased the biomass of L. multiflorum. The micromorphology of L. multiflorum was not affected by TS. The study suggests that the use of L. multiflorum with TS is an alternative technology for remediation of Cd–pyrene co-contaminated soils.     

纳米TiO2-石墨烯光催化剂的水热合成及其光催化性能

以钛酸四正丁酯和石墨为原料，通过水热法制备了锐钛矿型为主的纳米TiO2复合光催化剂（纳米TiO2-石墨烯），并采用XRD，FTIR，FESEM，TEM技术对其进行了表征。通过紫外光照射降解溶液中的罗丹明B（RhB）研究了TiO2-石墨烯的光催化活性，分析了初始罗丹明B质量浓度、催化剂加入量、溶液pH和催化剂使用次数等影响降解效果的因素。实验结果表明：在初始RhB质量浓度为20 mg/L、溶液pH为7.10、催化剂加入量为1.000 g/L的条件下，紫外光照射30 min时，纳米TiO2-石墨烯对RhB的降解率高达98.69%，明显高于纳米TiO2的44.69%;纳米TiO2-石墨烯稳定性较强，可多次重复使用。     

Effect of fipronil on biogas production performance during anaerobic digestion of chicken manure and corn straw

Fipronil is a broad-spectrum insecticide that has a good control effect on pests of commercial poultry. Although many studies have reported the environmental fate of fipronil, the influence of residual fipronil in poultry waste on biogas production has not been further explored yet. In this article, an experimental comparative study on anaerobic digestion (AD) of chicken manure (CM) and corn straw (CS) with different fipronil concentrations (FCs) was carried at 8% of total solid (TS) and mid-temperature (35?±?1)°C. The results showed that fipronil had a significant effect on biogas production during AD of CM and CS. When the FC is at a low level (≤10?mg·kg^?1), the biogas production rate is increased and the digestion period was shortened, while higher FC (≥ 20?mg·kg^?1) showed an inhibitory effect. During the monitoring of enzyme activity, low FC showed no significant effect on cellulase and saccharase, but the urease activity increased in the early stage. High FC showed inhibition of activity of cellulase and urease, but the saccharase activity was significantly inhibited until FC reached 40?mg·kg^?1. This study also confirms that the environment in anaerobic digester is favorable for the degradation of fipronil, and its half-life is about 15.83?days.