The effects on Thailand of China’s import restrictions on waste: measures and challenges related to the international recycling of waste plastic and e-waste

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - This paper has outlined the measures and challenges facing Thailand, which was forced to address a surge in imports of plastic waste and e-waste...     

Is there a difference between urban and rural areas in the disposal of home medical care waste? 13 years of nation-wide repeated cross-sectional study in Japan

Home medical care (HMC) is advancing not only in Japan but also throughout the world. In Japan, HMC waste is legally classified as municipal waste. Nevertheless, some municipalities do not collect some or all the HMC waste because of fear of infection. Therefore, this study was conducted to clarify the following two issues: First, have the municipalities made progress in collecting and appropriate disposal of HMC waste in the past 13 years? Second, is there a difference between a large city and a small city in terms of appropriate disposal progress? A total of 687 municipalities published the treatment of HMC waste. Currently, 42 municipalities collected all HMC waste. 236 municipalities were collecting HMC waste except for self-injection needle. 117 municipalities were collecting HMC waste except for self-injection needle and Syringe. The collection status of HMC waste was better in cities with high population than in cities with low population. HMC waste collection status was progressed over 13 years. However, more than 60% of the municipality staff stated that they could not avoid being anxious about infection caused by HMC waste. We suggest that providing HMC waste education to the municipalities wherein these efforts have not yet progressed is important.

     

Improvement of driver active interventions during automated driving by displaying trajectory pointers—A driving simulator study

Abstract

Objective: The handover of vehicle control from automated to manual operation is a critical aspect of interaction between drivers and automated driving systems (ADS). In some cases, it is possible that the ADS may fail to detect an object. In this event, the driver must be aware of the situation and resume control of the vehicle without assistance from the system. Consequently, the driver must fulfill the following 2 main roles while driving: (1) monitor the vehicle trajectory and surrounding traffic environment and (2) actively take over vehicle control if the driver identifies a potential issue along the trajectory. An effective human–machine interface (HMI) is required that enables the driver to fulfill these roles. This article proposes an HMI that constantly indicates the future position of the vehicle.

Methods: This research used the Toyota Dynamic Driving Simulator to evaluate the effect of the proposed HMI and compares the proposed HMI with an HMI that notifies the driver when the vehicle trajectory changes. A total of 48 test subjects were divided into 2 groups of 24: One group used the HMI that constantly indicated the future position of the vehicle and the other group used the HMI that provided information when the vehicle trajectory changed.

The following instructions were given to the test subjects: (1) to not hold the steering wheel and to allow the vehicle to drive itself, (2) to constantly monitor the surrounding traffic environment because the functions of the ADS are limited, and (3) to take over driving if necessary.

The driving simulator experiments were composed of an initial 10-min acclimatization period and a 10-min evaluation period. Approximately 10?min after the start of the evaluation period, a scenario occurred in which the ADS failed to detect an object on the vehicle trajectory, potentially resulting in a collision if the driver did not actively take over control and manually avoid the object.

Results: The collision avoidance rate of the HMI that constantly indicated the future position of the vehicle was higher than that of the HMI that notified the driver of trajectory changes, χ² = 6.38, P < .05. The steering wheel hands-on and steering override timings were also faster with the proposed HMI (t test; P < .05).

Conclusions: This research confirmed that constantly indicating the position of the vehicle several seconds in the future facilitates active driver intervention when an ADS is in operation.     

Fitness costs of polyandry to female cigarette beetle Lasioderma serricorne

Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology - Close behavioural association between mothers and offspring should enhance survival and growth of the young. Eastern grey kangaroos Macropus giganteus are...     

The utility of electrocardiography and echocardiography in copper deficiency-induced cardiac damage in goats

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Copper deficiency (CuD) is a common mineral disorder in ruminants, which causes histomorphological changes in the heart due to disturbances in...     

Recent survey and effects of cooking processes on levels of PCDDs,PCDFs and Co-PCBs in leafy vegetables in Japan

We report here the latest levels of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) and coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls (Co-PCBs) in leafy vegetables in Japan as well as the effect of cooking processes on the reduction of these contaminants. Three kinds of leafy vegetables (“komatsuna”, lettuce and spinach) from seven districts in Japan in 1998 were analyzed for the 2,3,7,8-chlorine substituted PCDD/Fs and three non-ortho-PCBs (#77, 126 and 169). The mean total TEQ levels (using the WHO-TEFs) in the komatsuna, lettuce and spinach were 0.094, 0.025 and 0.196 pg/g fresh weight, respectively. The TEQ levels are dominated by 2,3,7,8-TCDD, 1,2,3,7,8-PeCDD, 2,3,4,7,8-PeCDF and 3,3^′,4,4^′,5-PeCB in many of the samples. For one of these isomers, the 2,3,4,7,8-PeCDF TEQ levels showed good correlation with the total TEQ levels in the samples (r=0.957). This suggests that 2,3,4,7,8-PeCDF may be an indicator for dioxin contamination in the analysis of the leafy vegetables. Also, the effects of two cooking processes (washing and washing followed by boiling) on the dioxin levels in two types of spinach samples were investigated. On average, in both samples, the total concentrations of the PCDDs, PCDFs and Co-PCB were reduced to about 38%, 73% and 88% of the initial concentrations by washing, and to 21%, 35% and 61% of the initial concentrations by washing followed by boiling. The total TEQ levels were reduced to about 30% of the initial TEQ levels by washing followed by boiling. Significant reductions in the TEQ levels were observed in the cooked samples. Thus, the cooking processes may reduce the risk of dioxin intake from the leafy vegetables.     

Characterization of an adsorbed humin-like substance on an allophanic soil formed via catalytic polycondensation between catechol and glycine, and its adsorption capability to pentachlorophenol

An allophanic soil (AS) catalyzed the formation of dark-colored polymers via polycondensation reactions between catechol and glycine. The organic carbon content of the AS was increased from 0.16% to 1.3%, indicating that some of the dark-colored polymers had been adsorbed to the AS. The characteristics of the dark-colored polymers adsorbed on the AS were similar to those of a humin that is not extractable with an aqueous alkaline solution. Such a humin-like substance (HuLS) was separated from the AS by treatment with a mixture of HF and HCl. The HuLS and humic acid-like substance (HaLS), comprising the acid-insoluble fraction in the reaction mixture, were characterized by elemental analysis, size exclusion chromatography, pyrolysis-GC/MS and ¹³C NMR. However, the structural features of HaLS and HuLS had many points in common. These results suggest that HuLS-AS can be regarded as an organo-clay complex formed by the strong adsorption of HaLS to the AS. The adsorption of pentachlorophenol (PCP) to AS and HuLS-AS was examined at pH 5.5. At this pH, the zeta potential of the HuLS-AS showed a negative value. It would, therefore, be expected that pentachlorophenolate anions would adsorb with difficulty to HuLS-AS because of electrostatic repulsion. Nevertheless, the adsorption coefficient for PCP to HuLS-AS, as estimated by the Freundlich isotherm, was seven times larger than that for AS. These results show that HuLS, when adsorbed on the AS surface, has the capability to enhance the adsorption of PCP.     

High-resolution simulation of volcanic sulfur dioxide dispersion over the Miyake Island

After severe eruptions of the volcano at Miyake Island in August 2000, a large amount of volcanic gas was released into the atmosphere. To simulate flows and dispersion of sulfur dioxide (SO₂) over Miyake Island, a set of numerical models was developed. The multi-nesting method was adopted to reflect a realistic meteorological field and to sufficiently resolve the flow over the island with a diameter of 8 km. The outermost model was the Regional Spectral Model (RSM) of the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) with a horizontal grid size of 10 km. Finer atmospheric structure was simulated with the nonhydrostatic model jointly developed by the Meteorological Research Institute and the Numerical Prediction Division of JMA (MRI/NPD-NHM) with grid intervals of 2 km, 400 m and 100 m. Realistic topography of the island was represented in the innermost model. The Lagrangian particle method was applied to the dispersion model, which is driven by the meteorological field of the 100 m grid MRI/NPD-NHM. The random walk procedure was used to represent the turbulent diffusion. The model was verified in four cases. Simulated SO₂ concentrations agreed well with observed concentrations at a monitoring station including temporal variation. Under a large synoptic change, however, accurate prediction became difficult. Further numerical experiments have been done to investigate characteristics of the flow and the distribution of SO₂. Steady inflows, classified according to the surface wind speed and direction, were assumed. Simulated SO₂ distribution on the ground apparently depends on the surface wind. Under relatively weak inflow, there is a large diurnal change in SO₂ distribution, affected by the thermally induced flow. SO₂ gas is widely spread downstream in the nighttime but hardly reaches the coastal area in the daytime. On the other hand, SO₂ gas steadily reached the downstream coast with little diurnal variation under the stronger inflow. Ground temperature, as well as the static stability of the inflow, also influences downstream wind, turbulent diffusivity and SO₂ distribution.     

松花江水系江水中全氟辛烷磺酸和全氟辛酸污染现状调查

为阐明松花江江水中全氟辛烷磺酸(Perfluorooctane sulfonate,PFOS)、全氟辛酸(Perfluorooctanoic acid,PFOA)的污染现状,以及中国石油吉林石化双苯厂爆炸事件对松花江江水和哈尔滨市内饮用水中PFOS、PFOA浓度的影响,于2005-10-12至2005-10-16间采集嫩江吉林大安江段、第二松花江吉林扶余江段、第一松花江黑龙江肇源江段及哈尔滨江段江水样品共22份.在吉林石化爆炸事件后,于2005-11-24至2005-11-28间每日定时在固定地点采集松花江哈尔滨江段江水样品;于2005-11-23和2005-11-28分别采集哈尔滨市内饮用水样品.采用高效液相色谱/质谱联机法(HPLC/MS)检测样品中PFOS和PFOA.结果表明,松花江水体中普遍存在PFOS、PFOA污染.全部江水样品中PFOS和PFOA浓度范围分别为0.06～8.04ng·L-1和0.02～2.68 ng·L-1,几何平均值分别为1.214 ng·L-1和0.166 ng·L-1.松花江上游江段水中PFOS、PFOA浓度明显低于下游.流经哈尔滨市区时江水中PFOS和PFOA浓度逐渐升高.2005-11-26江水中PFOS浓度水平比2005-11-24江水浓度水平高5.8倍,而PFOA浓度未见变化.哈尔滨市内饮用水PFOS、PFOA平均浓度在2005-11-23停水前和2005-11-28恢复供水后未见差异.研究结果显示,松花江水体中普遍存在PFOS、PFOA污染;吉林石化公司爆炸事件后暂时性升高松花江江水中PFOS浓度,但未对哈尔滨市内饮用水中PFOS、PFOA的浓度产生影响.