Integrating disciplinary research into an interdisciplinary framework: A case study in sustainability research

The complexity of today’s research problems increasingly demands that scientists move beyond the confines of their own discipline. In this special issue, the basics of a transdisciplinary framework are established and problems analyzed in a specific discipline are successfully integrated in this transdisciplinary network. The intent has been to go beyond only statements about the importance of enabling early stage researchers to work across disciplinary boundaries, and to show that important discoveries are being made at the intersection of disciplines. Embedding various research projects in a more global framework can meet the demands of an interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary approach (especially for early stage researchers) and contribute significantly to sustainable research.     

A study on the orbit of air temperature movement

In this paper, we describe an air temperature movement by mapping its time series to the polar coordinates: the value of the time series is plotted on the radial coordinate and the time on the angular coordinate. In this way, both the yearly and daily air temperature movements from five different locations of China are used to demonstrate that, in an intuitionistic view, air temperature movement is neither random nor chaotic, but has its own orbit. We then propose an elliptic orbit model for the air temperature movement. Our proposed model provides quite good results when it is applied to the evaluation of yearly air temperature movements in eight locations in various parts of the world, and the evaluation of daily air temperature movements in five locations in Hunan Province of China on December 17, 2005. Results show that our approach provides a concise and helpful model for air temperature analysis.     

环境水样中痕量砷(Ⅲ)的荧光动力学分析

基于酸性介质中As(Ⅲ)能催化碘酸钾氧化丁基罗丹明B使其荧光猝灭,建立了测定痕量As(Ⅲ)的新方法。在最佳实验条件下,测定As(Ⅲ)的线性范围为16~320ng/ml,方法的检出限为5·7ng/ml。平行测定浓度为80ng/ml和160ng/ml的As(Ⅲ)标准溶液的相对标准偏差分别为2·0%和0·92%。并考察了二十多种物质的干扰情况。该方法已用于自来水、地表水、地下水等环境水样中痕量As(Ⅲ)分析。     

车载巡测在区域射频电磁环境质量监测与表征中的应用分析

对北京中央电视塔周围25 km²区域电磁环境质量分别进行了射频的网格法手工监测和车载巡测自动监测，通过SPSS软件等对两种监测方法获取的数据进行了统计对比分析，发现两组数据在总体水平及数值分布特征上较为接近，因此车载巡测监测可以替代网格法监测。以车载巡测数据为基础，绘制了实测数据的道路电磁地图，利用插值法绘制了区域电磁地图，对区域电磁环境质量进行了直观表征。从回应公众关注和城市电磁规划出发，建议今后可利用车载巡测监测加强时域和频域的监测。     

铁路运输业污水治理系统分析

研究了乌鲁木剂铁路局系统污水治理污染控制方法及途径，提出了主要污染物为石油类，其最佳治理对策是：确定重点污染单位、污染源、用最低的治理投入，选择斜板隔油气浮工艺治理重点污染和次重点污染部门，得到较好的治理效果，否定盲目追求“零排放”的高投入方案。     

Assessing land use impacts on flood processes in complex terrain by using GIS and modeling approach

A distributed hydrologic modeling and GIS approach is applied for the assessment of land use impact in the Steinsel sub-basin, Alzette, Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg. The assessment focuses on the runoff contributions from different land use classes and the potential impact of land use changes on runoff generation. The results show that the direct runoff from urban areas is dominant for a flood event compared with runoff from other land use areas in this catchment, and tends to increase for small floods and for the dry season floods, whereas the interflow from forested, pasture and agricultural field areas contributes to the recession flow. Significant variations in flood volume, peak discharge, time to the peak, etc., are found from the model simulation based on the three hypothetical land use change scenarios.     

Application of a checklist for quality assistance in environmental modelling to an energy model

Large, complex energy models present considerable challenges to develop and test. Uncertainty assessments of such models provide only partial guidance on the quality of the results. We have developed a model quality assistance checklist to aid in this purpose. The model checklist provides diagnostic output in the form of a set of pitfalls for the model application. The checklist is applied here to an energy model for the problem of assessing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Use of the checklist suggests that results on this issue are contingent on a number of assumptions that are highly value-laden. When these assumptions are held fixed, the model is deemed capable of producing moderately robust results of relevance to climate policy over the longer term. Checklist responses also indicate that a number of details critical to policy choices or outcomes on this issue are not captured in the model, and model results should therefore be supplemented with alternative analyses.     

Evaluation of interference to conventional and real-time PCR for detection and quantification of fungi in dust

Advances in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) have permitted accurate, rapid and quantitative identification of microorganisms in pure cultures regardless of viability or culturability. In this study, a simple sample processing method was investigated for rapid identification and quantification of fungal spores from dust samples using both conventional and real-time PCR. The proposed method was evaluated for susceptibility to interference from environmental dust samples. Stachybotrys chartarum and Aspergillus fumigatus were used as test organisms. The sensitivity of detection in pure culture was 0.1 spore DNA equivalents per PCR reaction corresponding to 20 spores ml(-1) in the sample. However, 1 spore DNA equivalent per PCR reaction corresponding to 200 spores ml(-1) in the sample was the lowest amount of spores tested without interference in dust samples spiked with spores of either fungal species. The extent of inhibition was calculated using conventional and real-time PCR reactions containing fungal spores, specific primers, specific probes (for real-time PCR) and various amounts of dust. The results indicate that the extent of inhibition by dust on PCR varies with the type and amount of dust, and number of spores. No interference in the analysis of spiked samples was detected from 0.2 mg ml(-1) of four real-life dust samples at p-value >0.05 using 2 x 10(4) spores for conventional PCR and 2 x 10(5) spores for real-time PCR. However, samples containing >0.2 mg ml(-1) real-life dust compromised the PCR assay. These results suggest the potential usefulness of a simple sample processing method in conjunction with PCR for monitoring the fungal content of aerosols collected from indoor environments.     

表征室外人体暴露的监测网络设计(续完)

对悬浮颗粒物室外人体暴露的测定一直受到可用资源的限制。设计有效的网络就要求对测定方法的选择、采样点的数量、采样时间、采样频率等进行调整。采样位置要求能表征因周围污染源对附近地区和城市最小影响的空间数值。虽然大多数判定PM是否达标的测定方法是每第3天至第6天的24h监测，但是室外人体暴露的评价要求连续监测一整天。最好有1h或更短时间的监测时段。更详细的粒径大小和化学性质数据也很有必要，因为较小的颗粒及其特殊的化学物质要比总的样品质量更有助于反映对健康的不良影响。     

表征室外人体暴露的监测网络设计(续一)

对悬浮颗粒物室外人体暴露的测定一直受到可用资源的限制，设计有效的网络就要求对测定方法的选择、采样点的数量、采样时间、采样频率等进行调整。采样位置要求能表征因周围污染源对附近地区和城市最小影响的空间数值。虽然大多数判定PM是否达标的测定方法是每第3天至第6天的24h监测，但是室外人体暴露的评价要求连续监测一整天，最好有1h或更短时间的监测时段。更详细的粒径大小和化学性质数据也很有必要，因为较小的颗粒及其特殊的化学物质要比总的样品质量更有助于反映对缝康的不良影响。