Animal agency in wildlife conservation and management

Wildlife conservation and management (WCM) practices have been historically drawn from a wide variety of academic fields, yet practitioners have been slow to engage with emerging conversations about animals as complex beings, whose individuality and sociality influence their relationships with humans. We propose an explicit acknowledgement of wild, nonhuman animals as active participants in WCM. We examined 190 studies of WCM interventions and outcomes to highlight 3 common assumptions that underpin many present approaches to WCM: animal behaviors are rigid and homogeneous; wildlife exhibit idealized wild behavior and prefer pristine habitats; and human–wildlife relationships are of marginal or secondary importance relative to nonhuman interactions. We found that these management interventions insufficiently considered animal learning, decision-making, individuality, sociality, and relationships with humans and led to unanticipated detrimental outcomes. To address these shortcomings, we synthesized theoretical advances in animal behavioral sciences, animal geographies, and animal legal theory that may help conservation professionals reconceptualize animals and their relationships with humans. Based on advances in these fields, we constructed the concept of animal agency, which we define as the ability of animals to actively influence conservation and management outcomes through their adaptive, context-specific, and complex behaviors that are predicated on their sentience, individuality, lived experiences, cognition, sociality, and cultures in ways that shape and reshape shared human–wildlife cultures, spaces, and histories. Conservation practices, such as compassionate conservation, convivial conservation, and ecological justice, incorporate facets of animal agency. Animal agency can be incorporated in conservation problem-solving by assessing the ways in which agency contributes to species’ survival and by encouraging more adaptive and collaborative decision-making among human and nonhuman stakeholders.     

A new approach to spatial source apportionment of haze pollution in large scale and its application in China

Long-lasting expansion of haze pollution in China has already presented a stern challenge to regional joint prevention and control. There is an urgent need to enlarge and reconstruct the coverage of joint prevention and control of air pollution in key area. Air quality models can identify and quantify the regional contribution of haze pollution and its key components with the help of numerical simulation, but it is difficult to be applied to larger spatial scale due to the complexity of model parameters. The time series analysis can recognize the existence of spatial interaction of haze pollution between cities, but it has not yet been used to further identify the spatial sources of haze pollution in large scale. Using econometric framework of time series analysis, this paper developed a new approach to perform spatial source apportionment. We applied this approach to calculate the contribution from spatial sources of haze pollution in China, using the monitoring data of particulate matter (PM_2.5) across 161 Chinese cities. This approach overcame the limitation of numerical simulation that the model complexity increases at excess with the expansion of sample range, and could effectively deal with severe large-scale haze episodes.     

Catalytic oxidation of CO over Pt/Fe3O4 catalysts: Tuning O2 activation and CO adsorption

• Strong metal-support interaction exists on Pt/Fe₃O₄ catalysts. • Pt metal particles facilitate the formation of oxygen vacancies on Fe₃O₄. • Fe₃O₄ supports enhance the strength of CO adsorption on Pt metal particles. The self-inhibition behavior due to CO poisoning on Pt metal particles strongly impairs the performance of CO oxidation. It is an effective method to use reducible metal oxides for supporting Pt metal particles to avoid self-inhibition and to improve catalytic performance. In this work, we used in situ reductions of chloroplatinic acid on commercial Fe₃O₄ powder to prepare heterogeneous-structured Pt/Fe₃O₄ catalysts in the solution of ethylene glycol. The heterogeneous Pt/Fe₃O₄ catalysts achieved a better catalytic performance of CO oxidation compared with the Fe₃O₄ powder. The temperatures of 50% and 90% CO conversion were achieved above 260°C and 290°C at Pt/Fe₃O₄, respectively. However, they are accomplished on Fe₃O₄ at temperatures higher than 310°C. XRD, XPS, and H₂-TPR results confirmed that the metallic Pt atoms have a strong synergistic interaction with the Fe₃O₄ supports. TGA results and transient DRIFTS results proved that the Pt metal particles facilitate the release of lattice oxygen and the formation of oxygen vacancies on Fe₃O₄. The combined results of O₂-TPD and DRIFTS indicated that the activation step of oxygen molecules at surface oxygen vacancies could potentially be the rate-determining step of the catalytic CO oxidation at Pt/Fe₃O₄ catalysts. The reaction pathway involves a Pt-assisted Mars-van Krevelen (MvK) mechanism.     

基于吸附质-分子探针的新型交联壳聚糖的吸附特性

研究了CCTS对低浓度游离酸的吸附特性,基于吸附质-分子探针电位法,考察了吸附剂活性中心数目、游离酸种类和温度对吸附行为的影响。结果表明,在30℃时,CCTS吸附游离酸的过程,遵循单分子层机理进行吸附。吸附剂―吸附质相互作用能U制约表观吸附速率常数K,K、U大小分别为2.519×10-2,4.084×10-2,9.398×10-2L/min和7.264,7.420,7.926 kJ/mol,两者存在线性相关性,呈逐渐增大趋势。K、U大小随着活性中心数目G的增加而增大。CCTS吸附游离酸为吸热过程,吸附表观活化能Ea为33.98 kJ/mol。3种类型游离酸K、U的大小顺序为:HClO4>HNO3>H2SO4,吸附分维数Dw分别为1.384、1.567、1.911,Dw值越大,导致表观吸附速率常数降低。     

Risk and characteristics analysis of the flow-induced vibration of the dip tube in opposed multi-burner gasifier

The vibration of dip tube in multi-burner gasifier changes the stress at the connection, causing flange seal failures and high temperature gas erosions with heavy economic losses and industrial accidents. This work aims to reveal the dip tube vibration mechanism, with special focus on obtaining the effect of operational parameters on the fatigue damage and long-term stable operation of gasifiers. A three-dimensional numerical simulation of the water-scrubbing cooling chamber was conducted to obtain the excitation source in the flow field. Then a FSI (fluid-structure interaction) transient dynamics simulation was carried out to investigate the vibration characteristics. Two major flow forms were found: a vertical annular flow near the dip tube outlet in the water-scrubbing cooling chamber; and a gas-liquid coupled flow caused by the syngas entrained the liquid. These two unstable multiphase flow forms exerted an energy excitation on the dip tube, resulting in a self-excited flutter. The dip tube vibration was similar to the first mode of a cantilever beam. The peak frequency was less affected by the initial liquid level and the syngas stream inlet velocity, which was close to its own first natural frequency. Note that, the alternating load generated by vibration may cause fatigue damage, which needs to be specifically considered in the design and manufacturing process of opposed multi-burner gasifier.     

经饮水亚慢性铝染毒对大鼠血铁及相关蛋白水平的影响

为了探讨慢性铝暴露对大鼠铁代谢的影响,将100只4周龄清洁级雄性Wistar大鼠随机均分成摄铝组(430mg·L-1,以Al3+计)与对照组(蒸馏水),饮水染铝,每隔30d处死染铝大鼠和对照大鼠各10只,实验周期为150d.同时,在不同时间点(30d、60d、90d、120d、150d)测量大鼠体重,并进行协方差分析.最后,用火焰原子吸收分光光度法、固相竞争ELISA和比色法检测血浆Al、Fe、转铁蛋白(TF)、可溶性转铁蛋白受体(sTfR)含量及总铁结合力(TIBC).结果表明,在摄铝前期(90d前),染铝对大鼠体重无显著影响,而后期(120d后)染铝对大鼠体重抑制作用较大.在实验周期内,各时间点间对照组血浆中各指标均无显著差异,摄铝组随着时间的延长各指标变化较大.各时间点摄铝组血浆中Al含量及Al/Fe均显著高于对照组(p0.01);30d时摄铝组血浆中Fe含量与对照组相比无显著差异(p0.05),60、90、120d时均显著低于对照组(p0.01),150d时显著高于对照组(p0.01);30、60d时摄铝组血浆TF含量与对照组相比无显著差异(p0.05),90d后显著高于对照组(p0.05;p0.01);30、60d时摄铝组TIBC与对照组相比无显著差异(p0.05),其后各时间点均显著高于对照组(p0.01);30d时摄铝组sTfR含量与对照组相比无显著差异(p0.05),其后各时间点均显著低于对照组(p0.01).由此可见,铝可干扰大鼠体内铁的代谢,影响铁的生物学作用.     

Selective sorption of perfluorooctane sulfonate on molecularly imprinted polymer adsorbents

Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), as a potential persistent organic pollutant, has been widely detected in water environments, and has become a great concern in recent years. PFOS is very stable and difficult to decompose using conventional techniques. Sorption may be an attractive method to remove it from water. In this study, the molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) adsorbents were prepared through the polymerization of 4-vinylpyridine under different preparation conditions in order to remove perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) from water. The MIP adsorbents using perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) as the template had good imprinting effects and could selectively remove PFOS from aqueous solution. The sorption behaviors including sorption kinetics, isotherms, and effect of pH, salt, and competitive anions were investigated. Experimental results showed that the sorption of PFOS on the MIP adsorbents was very fast, pH-dependent, and highly selective. The achieved fast sorption equilibrium within 1 h was attributed to the surface sorption on the fine adsorbents. The sorption isotherms showed that the sorption selectivity of PFOS on the MIP adsorbents decreased at high PFOS concentrations, which may be due to the double-layer sorption and the formation of PFOS micelles on the sorbent surface. The sorption of PFOS on the MIP adsorbents was mainly dominated by the electrostatic interaction between the protonated vinylpyridine on the adsorbent surface and the anionic PFOS. The prepared MIP adsorbents can potentially be applied in water and wastewater treatment for selective removal of PFOS.     

新型氨化菌丝体吸附剂的制备及吸附典型内分泌干扰物的研究

以产黄青霉(Penicillium chrysogenum)菌丝体为原料,通过2步化学反应将含有大量氨基的聚乙烯亚胺(PEI)嫁接到菌丝体表面,优化反应条件,得到最佳的氨化菌丝体吸附剂.该氨化吸附剂的等电点为pH 10.2,是一种表面带正电荷的菌丝体吸附剂,能有效吸附水中的阴离子内分泌干扰物五氯酚钠(PCP)、2,4二氯苯氧乙酸(2,4-D)和全氟辛烷磺酸钾(PFOS).3种污染物的吸附等温线符合Langmuir方程,15℃时最大吸附量分别为342.9、234.1、1725.6 mg/g.热力学计算表明,3种污染物的吸附均是自发发生的,2,4-D和PFOS的吸附是吸热反应,而PCP是放热反应.     

Identification of key factors governing chemistry in groundwater near the water course recharged by reclaimed water at Miyun County, Northern China

Reclaimed water was successfully used to recover the dry Chaobai River in Northern China, but groundwater may be polluted. To ensure groundwater protection, it is therefore critical to identify the governing factors of groundwater chemistry. Samples of reclaimed water, river and groundwater were collected monthly at Chaobai River from January to September in 2010. Fifteen water parameters were analyzed. Two kinds of reclaimed water were different in type (Na-Ca-Mg-Cl-HCO3 or Na-Ca-Cl-HCO3 ) and concentration of nitrogen. The ionic concentration and type in river were similar to reclaimed water. Some shallow wells near the river bed had the same type (Na-Ca-Mg-Cl-HCO3 ) and high concentration as reclaimed water, but others were consistent with the deep wells (Ca-Mg-HCO3 ). Using cluster analysis, the 9 months were divided into two periods (dry and wet seasons), and all samples were grouped into several spatial clusters, indicating different controlling mechanisms. Principal component analysis and conventional ionic plots showed that calcium, magnesium and bicarbonate were controlled by water-rock interaction in all deep and some shallow wells. This included the dissolution of calcite and carbonate weathering. Sodium, potassium, chloride and sulfate in river and some shallow wells recharged by river were governed by evaporation crystallization and mixing of reclaimed water. But groundwater chemistry was not controlled by precipitation. During the infiltration of reclaimed water, cation exchange took place between (sodium, potassium) and (calcium, magnesium). Nitrification and denitrification both happened in most shallow groundwater, but only denitrification in deep groundwater.     

铜绿假单胞菌对铜和铅的吸附

研究了铜绿假单胞菌(Pseudomonas aeruginosa)对Cu和Pb的吸附特性.结果表明,相同条件下,该菌株对Cu~(2+)的吸附率低于Pb~(2+).对于单一重金属体系,吸附率均随时间的延长先上升后平稳变化,2 h达到稳定.吸附率随投菌量的增加先迅速增加,之后趋于平稳.对于Cu~(2+),投菌量为1 g·L~(-1)时吸附率达到稳定,而Pb~(2+)的吸附效果达到平稳时的投菌量为0.5 g·L~(-1).单位质量菌体对Cu~(2+)、Pb~(2+)的吸附量随投菌量的增加而下降.pH为3时,菌体的吸附效果较差,当pH为5~8时,2种重金属的吸附效果较高.对于活菌,Pb~(2+)对菌体吸附Cu~(2+)有抑制作用,而Cu~(2+)对菌体吸附Pb~(2+)的影响无明显规律.对于失活菌,P.aeruginosa吸附Pb~(2+)和Cu~(2+)的效果均随共存重金属浓度的增大而降低,但Cu~(2+)对Pb~(2+)的影响比Pb~(2+)对Cu~(2+)的影响更显著.扫描电镜观察发现,吸附后的菌体较吸附前聚集性更好.总体而言,P.aeruginosa能对水体中共存的Cu~(2+)和Pb~(2+)有较好的吸附效果.