Control chart for monitoring occupational asthma

INTRODUCTION: Work-related asthma has become the most prevalent occupational respiratory disease in the developed world. Occupational asthma is thought to affect 5%-10% of people worldwide. The first step in the diagnosis of occupational asthma is to establish work-relatedness. Although considerable research has been conducted in the area of occupational asthma, no simple, effective, and statistically sound method has been developed that can be used as an initial step to effectively identify the workers at risk for occupational asthma. The purpose of this research was to investigate whether Shewhart control chart method can be used as an effective method to detect occupational asthma. METHOD: Forty-five workers who completed the study and provided usable peak expiratory flow (a lung function marker) recordings while at work and away from work were included in this study. Control charts were developed using Shewhart's Method. The lower control limit of at work control chart (LCL(W)) was compared to each subject's Personal Best (PB) value. RESULTS: Reviewing the results of this comparison showed LCL(W)<60% PB to have a sensitivity of 85.71%, specificity of 87.50%, and an error rate of 13.33%. When the subjects suspected for false positive and false negative diagnoses were identified, the test produced a sensitivity of 95.24%, a specificity of 95.83% and an error rate of 4.44%. CONCLUSIONS: Our results were as good as, and in some cases better than, published clinical guidelines. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Our research showed that the control chart method is an effective, simple, and inexpensive tool for early intervention in workers suspected for occupational asthma.     

城市污水处理工艺对噬菌体的去除效果

测定了北京市3座城市污水处理厂各处理单元出水中的SC噬菌体和F-RNA噬菌体浓度进水中SC噬菌体和F-RNA噬菌体浓度范围分别为6.25 ×103～1.34×104 PFU·mL-1和2.4×10～2.4×103 PFU·mL-1,经过处理,上述2类噬菌体的总去除率分别为72.45%～99.89%和57.84%～93.06%,低于对粪大肠菌的处理效果生物曝气工艺对噬菌体的去除效率最高,深度处理中的砂滤工艺对噬菌体的去除作用不明显.根据测定的F-RNA噬菌体浓度预测水中肠道病毒的浓度,结果显示生活污水经常规处理和深度处理后仍含有0.65～15.8 PFU·L-1的肠道病毒.     

Source attribution for mercury deposition with an updated atmospheric mercury emission inventory in the Pearl River Delta Region,China

Estimated anthropogenic Hg emission was 11.9 tons in Pearl River Delta for 2014. Quantifying contributions of emission sources helps to provide control strategies. More attentions should be paid to Hg deposition around the large point sources. Power plant, industrial source and waste incinerator were priorities for control. A coordinated regional Hg emission control was important for controlling pollution. We used CMAQ-Hg to simulate mercury pollution and identify main sources in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) with updated local emission inventory and latest regional and global emissions. The total anthropogenic mercury emissions in the PRD for 2014 were 11,939.6 kg. Power plants and industrial boilers were dominant sectors, responsible for 29.4 and 22.7%. We first compared model predictions and observations and the results showed a good performance. Then five scenarios with power plants (PP), municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI), industrial point sources (IP), natural sources (NAT), and boundary conditions (BCs) zeroed out separately were simulated and compared with the base case. BCs was responsible for over 30% of annual average mercury concentration and total deposition while NAT contributed around 15%. Among the anthropogenic sources, IP (22.9%) was dominant with a contribution over 20.0% and PP (18.9%) and MSWI (11.2%) ranked second and third. Results also showed that power plants were the most important emission sources in the central PRD, where the ultra-low emission for thermal power units need to be strengthened. In the northern and western PRD, cement and metal productions were priorities for mercury control. The fast growth of municipal solid waste incineration were also a key factor in the core areas. In addition, a coordinated regional mercury emission control was important for effectively controlling pollution. In the future, mercury emissions will decrease as control measures are strengthened, more attention should be paid to mercury deposition around the large point sources as high levels of pollution are observed.     

济南市空气污染现状及控制对策

利用2013年1—12月济南市大气监测数据,分析该市空气质量现状及时空分布特征,结果表明:2013年济南市空气主要污染物质量浓度均超过《环境空气质量标准》(GB 3095—2012)二级标准限值,空气污染严重时段为冬季采暖期,颗粒物污染严重区域为该市西部和西北部地区,SO2、NO2污染严重区为中心城区,并从点源、面源和移动源3个方面提出相应的污染防治对策。在SO2、NOx和工业烟粉尘分别减排22.5%、18.2%和31.4%的条件下,运用Models-3/CMAQ模型模拟计算得出:2015年1月和7月,济南市空气中SO2、NO2、PM10和PM2.5的质量浓度与2010年同期相比将分别降低23.9%和29.7%、11.4%和15.9%、21.9%和32.6%、13.5%和26.9%,空气质量得到明显改善。     

环境风作用下弧形立面机场航站楼自然排烟效果的数值模拟研究

机场航站楼公共区域多采用自然排烟方式,而环境风和排烟窗控制模式会影响排烟效果,尤其在弧形立面航站楼中影响效果显著。以某弧形立面航站楼为研究对象,选取候机指廊弧形区域的自然排烟窗分3段控制启闭,进而确定6种控制模式,采用 FDS火灾动力学模拟软件研究了不同模式下的排烟效果,获得了环境风和发烟量对危险到达时间的影响规律, 提出了排烟窗控制模式流程。结果表明:对于弧形立面航站楼而言,排烟窗分段控制模式下的排烟效果优于不分段控制模式,可以有效降低环境风对自然排烟的影响。当环境风速超过10 m/s时,须关闭迎风向排烟窗,避免烟气倒灌。在法向环境风作用的不利条件下,当发烟量在0. 05~0. 20之间时,危险到达时间的最大值tmax与发烟量x满足一次函数关系式:tmax=-3018x+1030.5。     

环境监测中重金属污染的控制对策分析

在我国社会经济快速发展的过程中,人们对自然资源需求无度,造成生态环境破坏问题非常严重。通过环境监测可以及时分析空气中有毒有害的物质成分,并且对环境污染问题进行及时有效的解决。但是在监测的过程中所采用大量的空气试剂很容易造成环境二次污染等问题,为此必须要积极加强对环境监测中重金属污染的合理控制,对空气试剂产生的大量废弃物进行及时的回收处理,从而有效避免出现二次污染的情况,充分发挥环境监测的作用。     

Alternative method to prevent thermal runaway in case of error on operating conditions continuous reactor

Thermal runaway was studied in a continuous tubular pilot reactor under steady-state regime. Different accident scenarii were conducted by making some errors on reactant concentrations and/or temperature feed. To prevent thermal runaway, control by direct contact by solvent injection was used at different reactor locations. This injection allowed controlling the maximum reaction temperature. A simplified analytical method to estimate the maximum reaction temperature along the reactor was used.Benefit of this control method was the diminution of computational time. Furthermore, by injecting solvent to control maximum reaction temperature, there is no need to shut down the unit. The control method was validated experimentally.     

Application of the Red List Index for conservation assessment of Spanish vascular plants

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List Index (RLI) is used to measure trends in extinction risk of species over time. The development of 2 red lists for Spanish vascular flora during the past decade allowed us to apply the IUCN RLI to vascular plants in an area belonging to a global biodiversity hotspot. We used the Spanish Red Lists from 2000 and 2010 to assess changes in level of threat at a national scale and at the subnational scales of Canary Islands, Balearic Islands, and peninsular Spain. We assigned retrospective IUCN categories of threat to 98 species included in the Spanish Red List of 2010 but absent in the Spanish Red List of 2000. In addition, we tested the effect of different random and taxonomic and spatial Spanish samples on the overall RLI value. From 2000 to 2010, the IUCN categories of 768 species changed (10% of Spanish flora), mainly due to improved knowledge (63%), modifications in IUCN criteria (14%), and changes in threat status (12%). All measured national and subnational RLI values decreased during this period, indicating a general decline in the conservation status of the Spanish vascular flora. The Canarian RLI value (0.84) was the lowest, although the fastest deterioration in conservation status occurred on peninsular Spain (from 0.93 in 2000 to 0.92 in 2010). The RLI values based on subsamples of the Spanish Red List were not representative of RLI values for the entire country, which would discourage the use of small areas or small taxonomic samples to assess general trends in the endangerment of national biotas. The role of the RLI in monitoring of changes in biodiversity at the global and regional scales needs further reassessment because additional areas and taxa are necessary to determine whether the index is sufficiently sensitive for use in assessing temporal changes in species’ risk of extinction.     

Differentiated impacts of environmental policies on the Colombian Frontier: coercive conservation and containment of illicit activities in the Pacific and the Ariari region

ABSTRACT

This article, through the use of political ecology perspectives on coercive conservation, aims to explain how in two separate Colombian Natural Parks and buffer zones, environmental policies designed to (re)take control of the frontier, have produced a similar territorial differentiation in the contention of illicit activities. Los Farallones in the Colombian Pacific and La Macarena/Puerto Rico in the Ariari region have experienced different stages of the armed conflict and are at the center of this analysis. I argue that in the contexts of both conflict escalation (1998–2007) and conflict de-escalation (2008–2016), the State in its attempt to control the frontier has not only had military intervention in areas of conservation but has also reinforced environmental programs that attack illegal mining and coca, producing both a territorially differentiated containment of illicit activities and an uneven progression of the illicit frontier.     

广东土地退化及治理对策

本文概述土地退化的原因和状况。通过对广东山区土壤和东江流域低产耕地的大批土壤剖面分析数据的统计和推算,结果表明,广东的林地退化面积约占全省陆地面积的35％;旱地土地退化面积占全省旱地总面积的95％;水田土地退化面积约占全省水田总面积的25％。根据广东的省情,提出土地退化治理的对策:提高认识,增加投入,组织力量,开展调查摸底;制订整体治理规划,分步实施;明确治理的中心任务,推进面上治理利用,加强研究工作。