MFC-MBR耦合系统运行效果

膜生物反应器(MBR)是一种高效的污水处理工艺,而微生物燃料电池(MFC)能有效降解污泥中的胞外生物有机质(EBOM)并回收电能.将MFC与MBR联用,建立了一套能够有效抑制膜污染同时回收电能的新系统——MFC-MBR耦合系统,MBR的剩余污泥经MFC处理后回流.以传统MBR为对照,对耦合系统中污水处理效果、膜污染情况和污泥混合液的性质进行研究.研究表明,耦合系统的污水处理效果没有明显恶化,COD去除率为94％,NH4+-N的去除率为92％.耦合系统能够有效减缓膜污染的发生,清洗周期延长了28％.污泥混合液的MLVSS/MLSS稳定在80％ ～ 88％,系统内几乎没有无机颗粒积累.松散结合态胞外聚合物(LB-EPS)降低了48％,使污泥混合液性质得到改善.较低的污泥比阻(2.69×1012m/kg)和标准化毛细吸水时间(1.67 s·L/g MLSS),证明耦合系统污泥混合液脱水性能提高了.     

Development of a fuel cell propulsion system for the existing Mercedes B-Class 160 of petrol driven car

This paper presents a theoretical comparison between fuel cell (FC) power train and conventional petrol driven propulsion system. FC has potential to reduce the CO₂-emissions from road. However, FC power trains require energy storing device, to meet the peak power during extreme drive situations and also able to recover the kinetic energy of the vehicle during break operation. The proposed system includes a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) based drive train and a super capacitor connected in parallel. The system is designed and dimensioned for a conventional petrol driven propulsion system of the Mercedes B-Class160. The feasibility study also includes comparison between the existing conventional systems. It is shown that although FC power train is heavier compared to existing system, urban performance is better and produces no CO₂ and other harmful emissions.     

Fetal cells and DNA in maternal blood

Although fetal cells have been known to escape to the maternal circulation for a number of years, research attempts to use them for prenatal diagnosis have not had any consistent success. This review attempts to trace the history of such attempts and to document their progress and reasons for success or failure. The opinions of recent conferences including that of the US National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, a sponsor of major US research in the field, are reported and discussed. It is concluded that although basic work has demonstrated the biologic availability of both fetal cells and their free DNA representatives in the maternal circulation at gestational ages relevant to prenatal diagnosis, much work remains to develop practical technology for their consistent recovery and assay. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

EMMC process for combined removal of organics, nitrogen and an odor producing substance

In order to improve the process performance regarding the removal of organics, nitrogen, and an odor-causing compound (sulfide) contained in domestic wastewater, an entrapped-mixed-microbial cell (EMMC) with and without humic substances for both fixed and moving carrier reactors and conventional suspended growth culture (i.e. conventional activated sludge process) were investigated simultaneously. Both synthetic (simulated to the organics concentration of general domestic sewage) and actual domestic wastewater were investigated under operational conditions of 12 h of hydraulic retention time (HRT) with 1 h of aeration and 1 h of non-aeration, and 6 h of HRT with continuous aeration, at a room temperature of 25 +/- 2 degrees C. It was found that entrapping humic substances in the EMMC carriers had no impact on the removal of organics, nitrogen, and the odor-producing compound. Additionally, the performance of the EMMC moving carrier system for the removal of these pollutants is similar to that of the EMMC fixed carrier system. In general, the EMMC associated systems which provide high solids retention time achieve a better removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD), nitrogen, and the odor-producing substance than the suspended growth system for both HRTs of 6 h (continuous aeration) and 12 h (1 h of aeration and 1 h of non-aeration). Both the fixed and moving carrier EMMC processes, therefore, have the potential for improvement or replacement of the existing conventional activated sludge process with regard to improving the effluent qualities (such as COD, nitrogen and odor-producing compound) for reuse/disposal.     

Demographic Analysis of Tree Colonization in a20-Year-Old Right-of-Way

Past tree colonization dynamics of a powerline-right-of-way (ROW) corridor in the Haut-Saint-Laurent region of Quebec was studied based on the present age distribution of its tree populations. This colonization study spans 20 years, from 1977 (ROW clearance) to 1996. The sampled quadrats were classified into six vegetation types. Tree colonization dynamics were interpreted in each type, and three distinct patterns were identified. (1) Communities adapted to acidic conditions were heavily colonized by Acer rubrum, at least for the last 12 years. (2) Communities adapted to mesic or to hydric conditions were more intensely colonized in the period 1985-1987 than in the following 9 years; this past success in tree colonization may have been caused by herbicide treatments, which could have facilitated tree establishment by damaging the herbaceous and shrub vegetation. (3) Cattail, vine-raspberry, and reed-dominated communities contained few tree individuals, with almost all trees establishing between 1979 and 1990; those three vegetation types appear as the most resistant to tree invasion in the ROW studied. This study supports the need for an integrated approach in ROW vegetation management, in which the selection of vegetation treatment methods would depend on the tree colonization dynamics in each vegetation type. Minimizing disturbances inflicted on ROW herbaceous and shrub covers should be the central strategy because disturbances jeopardize natural resistance to future tree invasion, except in communities adapted to acidic conditions where the existing vegetation does not prevent invasion by A. rubrum. Many trees are surviving the successive cutting operations by producing new sprouts each time, particularly in communities adapted to mesic and hydric conditions. In these cases, mechanical cutting should be replaced by a one-time stump-killing operation, to avoid repeated and unsuccessful treatments of the same individuals over time.     

Cultured human-cell-based bioassay for environmental risk management

Among bioassays for evaluating various impacts of chemicalson humans and ecosystems, those based on culturedmammalian-cells can best predict acute lethal toxicity to humans. Weexpect them to be employed in the future in environmentalrisk management alongside mutagenicity tests and endocrine-disrupting activity tests. We recently developed adisposable bioassay device that immobilizes humanhepatocarcinoma cells in a small micropipette tip. Thisenables very quick (within 2 h) evaluation of acute lethaltoxicity to humans. For bioassay-based environmentalmanagement, 2 promising approaches have been demonstrated bythe US-EPA: toxicity identification evaluation (TIE) andtoxicity reduction evaluation (TRE). The Japanese Ministryof Environment has been supporting a multi-center validationproject, aimed at assembling a bioassay database. To makefull use of these resources, we present a numerical modelthat describes contribution of individual chemical toobserved toxicity. This will allow the selection of the mosteffective countermeasure to reduce the toxicity. Bioassay-based environmental risk management works retrospectively,whereas impact assessment using substance flow models andtoxicity databases works prospective. We expect that these 2approaches will exchange information, act complementarily,and work effectively in keeping our environment healthy inthe 21st century.     

云南省生物多样性与生态安全形势研究

云南省以其得天独厚的自然条件孕育了丰富而又脆弱的生物多样性资源，然而外来物种入侵破坏了云南的生物多样性，威胁到国家的生态安全。分析了外来物种入侵、生物多样性及生态安全三者之间的关系，提出生物多样性资源是我国的核心竞争力所在，要将维护生态安全提升到国家战略高度予以重视，同时采取多种措施防范外来物种入侵。     

外来生物入侵关键点控制管理体系——基于风险管理的研究

将风险管理理论与外来生物入侵风险分析相结合，借鉴食品质量控制中的关键点控制原理，提出了防止外来生物入侵风险的关键点控制方法。针对人类有意引种、随人类活动无意引入以及自然传入3类外来生物入侵的传入途径，在入侵途径上确定若干个风险控制关键点，有针对性地提出了相应的控制措施，以减小外来生物的入侵风险，提高我国在防止外来生物入侵方面的管理与控制效率。     

Toxicological characterization of the landfill leachate prior/after chemical and electrochemical treatment: A study on human and plant cells

In this research, toxicological safety of two newly developed methods for the treatment of landfill leachate from the Piškornica (Croatia) sanitary landfill was investigated. Chemical treatment procedure combined chemical precipitation with CaO followed by coagulation with ferric chloride and final adsorption by clinoptilolite. Electrochemical treatment approach included pretreatment with ozone followed by electrooxidation/electrocoagulation and final polishing by microwave irradiation. Cell viability of untreated/treated landfill leachate was examined using fluorescence microscopy. Cytotoxic effect of the original leachate was obtained for both exposure periods (4 and 24 h) while treated samples showed no cytotoxic effect even after prolonged exposure time. The potential DNA damage of the untreated/treated landfill leachate was evaluated by the comet assay and cytokinesis-block micronucleus (CBMN) assay using either human or plant cells. The original leachate exhibited significantly higher comet assay parameters compared to negative control after 24 h exposure. On the contrary, there was no significant difference between negative control and chemically/electrochemically treated leachate for any of the parameters tested. There was also no significant increase in either CBMN assay parameter compared to the negative control following the exposure of the lymphocytes to the chemically or electrochemically treated landfill leachate for both exposure periods while the original sample showed significantly higher number of micronuclei, nucleoplasmic bridges and nuclear buds for both exposure times. Results suggest that both methods are suitable for the treatment of such complex waste effluent due to high removal efficiency of all measured parameters and toxicological safety of the treated effluent.