Attitudes towards sex selection for non-medical reasons: a review

Early non-invasive fetal sexing is widely available over the Internet, leading to concerns about its possible use for sex selection. The aim of this review is to summarise the results of surveys describing lay attitudes towards sex selection for non-medical reasons to help address or inform such concerns. A search of electronic databases and key journals was supplemented by an Internet search and citation-tracking. Twenty-one quantitative studies were identified. Most were conducted in the US, with five recent studies in the UK and Germany. Most studies found that, overall, people were not in favour of sex selection. However, this varied from 94 to 18%. People may hold more negative attitudes when the method of sex selection is specified, particularly if this involves termination of pregnancy (TOP). Attitudes towards the general availability of sex selection are less negative than those towards personal use. Attitudes were consistently negative in German surveys. Little is known of such attitudes outside the US, the UK and Germany, and how such attitudes may change as new sex selection technologies become available. Studies of use of early non-invasive fetal sexing for sex selection for non-medical reasons are needed to assess the extent to which concerns about usage are justified and to assist in debates on how these might be most appropriately addressed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Training refugees as primary health care workers: Past imperfect, future conditional

Many problems have been encountered in the planning and implementation of health care in refugee camps, and more specifically in the training of refugees as primary health care workers. A review of the published literature and a "survey" of the opinions and experiences of refugee, national and international health personnel regarding training has therefore been undertaken to provide an overview of what has been done and to make recommendations for future work.
The review highlights the need to reallocate resources away from high visibility emergency aid to development activities, such as training, that will create an infrastructure for primary health care and promote self-reliance.     

水体中酚类化合物分光光度分析方法的研究

对国内外水体中酚类化合物现有的分光光度分析方法进行了文献综述 ,内容包括可见光分光光度法、紫外光分光光度法、荧光分光光度法和流动注射分光光度法。在总结归纳的基础上 ,提出了水体中酚类化合物分光光度分析方法的发展方向。     

城市环境质量定量评价方法

文章基于对于城市环境质量的评价方法的研究,阐述了各类评价方法的优缺点,着重介绍了物元模型、投影寻踪评价法、神经网络、遗传算法优化神经网络四种定量评价方法,并介绍了各类方法在城市环境质量评价中的应用现状.     

2002年我国事故与灾害状况综述

本对我国2002年的安全生产事故及自然灾害情况进行了总结和评述。包括火灾(城乡火灾、森林火灾、草原火灾)、天气气候特征、农业自然灾害(干旱、洪涝、风雹、低温冻害)、海洋灾害(风暴潮、赤潮、海浪)、地质灾害(地震、泥石流、水土流失)等。     

Solar energy for electricity and fuels

Solar energy conversion into electricity by photovoltaic modules is now a mature technology. We discuss the need for materials and device developments using conventional silicon and other materials, pointing to the need to use scalable materials and to reduce the energy payback time. Storage of solar energy can be achieved using the energy of light to produce a fuel. We discuss how this can be achieved in a direct process mimicking the photosynthetic processes, using synthetic organic, inorganic, or hybrid materials for light collection and catalysis. We also briefly discuss challenges and needs for large-scale implementation of direct solar fuel technologies.     

Review of LCA studies of solid waste management systems – Part II: Methodological guidance for a better practice

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is increasingly used in waste management to identify strategies that prevent or minimise negative impacts on ecosystems, human health or natural resources. However, the quality of the provided support to decision- and policy-makers is strongly dependent on a proper conduct of the LCA. How has LCA been applied until now? Are there any inconsistencies in the past practice? To answer these questions, we draw on a critical review of 222 published LCA studies of solid waste management systems. We analyse the past practice against the ISO standard requirements and the ILCD Handbook guidelines for each major step within the goal definition, scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpretation phases of the methodology. Results show that malpractices exist in several aspects of the LCA with large differences across studies. Examples are a frequent neglect of the goal definition, a frequent lack of transparency and precision in the definition of the scope of the study, e.g. an unclear delimitation of the system boundaries, a truncated impact coverage, difficulties in capturing influential local specificities such as representative waste compositions into the inventory, and a frequent lack of essential sensitivity and uncertainty analyses. Many of these aspects are important for the reliability of the results. For each of them, we therefore provide detailed recommendations to practitioners of waste management LCAs.     

碳排放影响因子与碳足迹文献综述:基于研究方法视角

从研究方法的角度出发,对近年来国内外碳排放影响因子及碳足迹的相关研究进行文献综述。根据碳排放影响因子的研究方法—情景分析法、因素分解法中的指数分解法以及其他计量模型,介绍了国内外关于碳排放影响因子的研究现状,最后对方法进行归类和对比。根据碳足迹研究方法—投入产出法、生命周期评价法、IPCC法以及其他模型,分析了国内外关于碳足迹的研究进展。最后通过总结,对碳排放和碳足迹的未来研究方向进行了展望。     

氨氮污染减排技术与政策研究

随着中国经济高速发展,污染物排放量大幅增长,水环境中的氨氮污染问题也已成为水环境治理的关注焦点.文章分别从源头削减和末端治理两个层面介绍了中国工业、农业、城镇生活源氨氮减排的技术的发展,氨氮减排技术为氨氮污染防控工作提供了科学、合理、有效的技术和理论支撑;从政策体制方面介绍了氨氮减排现状和要求,对氨氮减排技术及氨氮减排体制在中国的发展提出了相应的展望,为进一步发展和完善氨氮减排工作提供借鉴和参考.同时,也为未来氨氮污染物排放总量减排会进一步向智能化、精细化发展,氨氮减排技术在减排体制中体现的支撑作用.     

燃煤电厂烟气中的VOCs治理技术研究进展

综述了近年来国内外VOCs治理技术的性能特点和最新研究进展,包括活性炭纤维吸附技术、等离子体—光催化复合净化技术、催化燃烧技术和生物技术,并对VOCs治理技术的未来发展趋势进行了展望。