Dust Storms are an Indication of an Unhealthy Environment in East Asia

Dust storms frequently occur in Mongolia and in northern China. Each year there are 30 to 120 dusty days in source regions of Mongolia and 14–20 dusty days on the Korean Peninsula. Intense sand storms and associated dust falls produce environmental impacts in East Asia. This paper discusses the environmental degradation in Mongolia and the social, economic and atmospheric impacts of dust storms in the sink area. The impact of dust storms on environmental compartments as well as their direct and indirect consequences to basic resources like water and energy demand and supply is explained. Governments are encouraged to take appropriate action in specified regions. For monitoring dust storms there is a need for international cooperation to combat growing environmental and human security concerns.     

日照市畜牧业生产对环境的污染及其防治措施研究

畜禽粪便中大量有机污染物污染着人们赖以生存的土壤和水体，粪尿分解产生的大量有害气体污染了大气。本文结合日照市畜牧业生产的实际，对日照市畜牧业生产对环境的污染现状进行了分析，找出了日照市畜牧业生产对环境污染产生的主要原因和存在问题，提出畜牧业生产对环境污染的防治对策。     

有机中性化技术对重金属污染土壤锌有效性的长期影响

通过田间定位试验,研究了石灰(L)、钙镁磷肥(G)、泥炭(P)、猪粪(M)、石灰 泥炭(L P)、石灰 猪粪(L M)、钙镁磷肥 泥炭(G P)、钙镁磷肥 猪粪(G M)等改良材料对新罗区特钢厂附近的重金属污染田的长期改良效应.结果表明:大部分处理可提高土壤的pH值、有机质含量,降低了土壤的有效锌含量,石灰 泥炭、钙镁磷肥 泥炭的改良效果要优于单施有机、中性化改良剂和其它处理,和对照相比,有效锌含量和糙米锌含量最高分别降低了59.2%、36.2%.     

Risk-evaluation of Hi-tech Enterprise in the Process of Approaching Global Market

In the high technology industry, small and medium sized technology enterprises (SMSTEs) play a pivotal role in advancing the whole industry. To achieve sustainable development, they need to extend their scope of business activities beyond a national view and exploit international market actively to meet international competitions that increase quickly in the form of allocating resources within the scope of the world. However, the SMSTEs are also facing risks associated with themselves during the process of exploiting international market owing to their own restrictions, so what they should do is to consider risk evaluations in exploiting the international market.     

生态足迹影响因子的定量分析

人口的膨胀和人类工业化进程的加剧，使得人类向自然界获取越来越多的资源，同时向环境源源不断的输入废弃物，已经严重超过了自然生态系统的供给能力和环境容量，生态环境日益恶化，水土流失、草场退化、植被消亡、生物多样性锐减、全球变暖等情况已经严重到难以遏制的地步，危及到人类自身的生存。在和平与发展成为世界两大主题的今天，人们越来越关注可持续发展的问题。在现有资料的基础上，利用主成分分析方法，定量地讨论了中国各省（区市）1999年生态足迹大小与其影响因子间的关系。结果表明，生态足迹的大小是各省（区市）的大中型企业个数、全社会固定生产投资等众多因子共同作用的结果，其中总人口和GDP是生态足迹大小的主要影响因子，其因子载荷量分别达到了0.940和0.913。值得一提的是非农业人口与生态足迹的相关系数超过了农业人口，这说明由于消费模式和生活水平等的差异，非农业人口对生态足迹的影响大于农业人口对生态足迹的影响。在此基础上建立了生态足迹影响因子的多元线性回归模型，以期为生态足迹在进行区域可持续发展评价的方法上提供新的思路。     

Effects of calibration on L-THIA GIS runoff and pollutant estimation

Urbanization can result in alteration of a watershed's hydrologic response and water quality. To simulate hydrologic and water quality impacts of land use changes, the Long-Term Hydrologic Impact Assessment (L-THIA) system has been used. The L-THIA system estimates pollutant loading based on direct runoff quantity and land use based pollutant coefficients. The accurate estimation of direct runoff is important in assessing water quality impacts of land use changes. An automated program was developed to calibrate the L-THIA model using the millions of curve number (CN) combinations associated with land uses and hydrologic soil groups. L-THIA calibration for the Little Eagle Creek (LEC) watershed near Indianapolis, Indiana was performed using land use data for 1991 and daily rainfall data for six months of 1991 (January 1-June 30) to minimize errors associated with use of different temporal land use data and rainfall data. For the calibration period, the Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient was 0.60 for estimated and observed direct runoff. The calibrated CN values were used for validation of the model for the same year (July 1-December 31), and the Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient was 0.60 for estimated and observed direct runoff. The Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient was 0.52 for January 1, 1991 to December 31, 1991 using uncalibrated CN values. As shown in this study, the use of better input parameters for the L-THIA model can improve accuracy. The effects on direct runoff and pollutant estimation of the calibrated CN values in the L-THIA model were investigated for the LEC. Following calibration, the estimated average annual direct runoff for the LEC watershed increased by 34%, total nitrogen by 24%, total phosphorus by 22%, and total lead by 43%. This study demonstrates that the L-THIA model should be calibrated and validated prior to application in a particular watershed to more accurately assess the effects of land use changes on hydrology and water quality.     

Gas chromatographic methods for monitoring of wastewater chlorophenol degradation in anaerobic reactors

Wastewater samples from an anaerobic reactor were extracted with hexane and derivatized with diazomethane (method 1) and with acetic anidride (method 2). Gas chromatography with electron-capture detection (ECD) was employed for separating the parent compound and intermediates trichlorophenols (TCP) and dichlorophenols (DCP) which originated from the penta chlorophenol (PCP) degradation process. The relations between concentrations of PCP, TCP and DCP areas were linear in the range of concentrations of 0.2 to 8 mg/L and 0.025 mg/L to 5 mg/L for methods 1 and 2, respectively. The repeatability of the extraction methods was satisfactory, with variation coefficients lower than 11%. For method 1, at the fortification level of 0.2 mg/L, recovery of PCP, TCP, and DCP was 112%, 74% and 45%, respectively. For method 2, the corresponding recovery values at the fortification level of 0.1 mg/L were 91%, 93% and 103%, respectively. Storage of the frozen samples did not alter their PCP determination properties. The chromatographic methods adapted for chlorophenol determination in wastewater were suitable with relatively simple manipulation techniques. The obtained results were reproducible and allowed identification of intermediates formed during the PCP degradation process.     

Thermal conversion of rice husks and sawdust to liquid fuel

The paper focuses on studying the conversion of rice husks and sawdust into liquid fuel. Rice husks, sawdust and their mixture are pyrolyzed at temperatures between 420 and 540 degrees C, and the main product of liquid fuel is obtained. The experimental result shows that the yield of liquid fuel depends on various factors such as feedstock and temperature. The maximum yields for rice husks, sawdust and their mixture are 56%, 61% and 60% at 465, 490 and 475 degrees C, respectively. Analyses with GC-MS and other apparatus show that the liquid fuel is a complicated compound with low caloric value and can be directly used as a fuel oil for combustion in a boiler or a furnace without any upgrading. Alternatively, the fuel can be refined to be used by vehicles.     

A directional passive air sampler for monitoring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in air mass

A passive air sampler was developed for collecting polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in air mass from various directions. The airflow velocity within the sampler was assessed for its responses to ambient wind speed and direction. The sampler was examined for trapped particles, evaluated quantitatively for influence of airflow velocity and temperature on PAH uptake, examined for PAH uptake kinetics, calibrated against active sampling, and finally tested in the field. The airflow volume passing the sampler was linearly proportional to ambient wind speed and sensitive to wind direction. The uptake rate for an individual PAH was a function of airflow velocity, temperature and the octanol-air partitioning coefficient of the PAH. For all PAHs with more than two rings, the passive sampler operated in a linear uptake phase for three weeks. Different PAH concentrations were obtained in air masses from different directions in the field test.     

Phosphate recovery with granular acid-activated neutralized red mud: Fixed-bed column performance and breakthrough curve modelling

Granular acid-activated neutralized red mud (AaN-RM) has been successfully prepared with good chemical stability and physical strength. However, its potential for industrial application remains unknown. Therefore, the performance of granular AaN-RM for phosphate recovery in a fixed-bed column was investigated. The results demonstrated that the phosphate adsorption performance of granular AaN-RM in a fixed-bed column was affected by various operational parameters, such as the bed depth, flow rate, initial solution pH and initial phosphate concentration. With the optimal empty-bed contact time (EBCT) of 24.27 min, the number of processed bed volumes and the phosphate adsorption capacity reached 496.95 and 84.80 mg/g, respectively. Then, the saturated fixed-bed column could be effectively regenerated with a 0.5 mol/L HCl solution. The desorption efficiency remained as high as 83.45% with a low weight loss of 3.57% in the fifth regeneration cycle. In addition, breakthrough curve modelling showed that a 5-9-1 feed-forward artificial neural network (ANN) could be effectively applied for the optimization of the fixed-bed adsorption system; the coefficient of determination (R²) and the root mean square error (RMSE) evaluated on the validation-testing data were 0.9987 and 0.0183, respectively. Therefore, granular AaN-RM fixed-bed adsorption exhibits promising potential for phosphate removal and recovery from polluted water.