Innovation in the Knowledge Age: implications for collaborative science

Current trends validate the notion that multifaceted, multimodal interdisciplinary collaborations lead to increased research productivity in publications and citations, compared to those achieved by individual researchers. Moreover, it may be that scientific breakthroughs are increasingly achieved by interdisciplinary research teams. Nonetheless, despite the perceived importance of collaboration and its bibliometric benefits, today’s scientists are still trained to be autonomous, work individually, and encourage their graduate students to do the same—perpetuating values which impede the creation of collaborative space between disciplines. As a consequence, scientists working in teams typically report serious obstacles to collaboration. This paper builds off of recent recommendations from a 2015 National Academies report on the state of team science which emphasizes greater definition of roles, responsibility, accountability, goals, and milestones. However, these recommendations do not address the subjective, relational components of collaboration which can drive innovation and creativity. The relational side of collaboration is key to understanding the capacity and capabilities of the knowledge workers, such as scientists and engineers, who comprise interdisciplinary research teams. The authors’ recommendations, grounded in organizational communication and knowledge worker literature, include a renewed focus on the process of organizing through communication rather than focusing on organization as an outcome or consequence of teamwork, leading and cultivating team members rather than managing them, and the need to address self-driven, rather than external, motivations to engage in knowledge work.     

生态环境政策举措第三方评估方法研究 ——以江苏省涉铅行业综合整治措施为例

以江苏省涉铅行业综合整治工作为例,建立第三方评估方法,构建由环境效益、经济效益和社会效益三大指标类别组成的综合指标体系,对江苏省已经开展的涉铅行业综合整治措施开展试评估。结果表明,涉铅行业综合整治效果达到预期效果的80%,政策实施对污染防治产生一定效果。研究指出,从环境效益为出发点、兼顾考量社会效益和经济效益建立的指标体系,可较为客观、公正、全面地对环境政策举措产生的效果进行综合评价,真实反映生态环境政策举措对环境、经济、产业、社会造成的影响。提出,第三方评估法可用于指导、推动政策不断改进、修订和补充;生态环境政策在制定时应适当关注社会、经济等因素,实现政策效益最大化,为推动江苏省生态环境政策举措第三方评估提供借鉴。     

Green-Tinted Glasses: How Do Pro-Environmental Citizens Conceptualize Environmental Sustainability?

Recent research has shown that many Australians see pro-environmental behaviour as desirable and identify as being green. However when compared to other countries, Australians score poorly on pro-environmental behaviour measures, engaging mostly in tokenistic pro-environmental actions, and demonstrate low levels of concern for the environment. In this article, we examine this tension through exploring the meaning of the term sustainability to Australian participants who self-identify as pro-environmental. Twenty-six interviews were conducted and analysed using a causal layered analysis. Through the examination of participants’ environmental discourse and practices, some of the deeper socio-psychological processes influencing pro-environmental behaviour are revealed. While participants aspired to be green, their actions were bound by cultural traditions and world views that perpetuate environmental degradation. Participants struggled to define the term sustainability and held self-enhancing motives for adopting what they identify as a pro-environmental identity. These findings highlight the influence of collective cultural constructs in shaping how pro-environmental behaviours are understood and enacted.     

Global change impacts on the Upper Danube Catchment (Central Europe): a study of participatory modeling

Participatory modeling (PM) has become an essential concept in environmental impact assessment and planning in the field of water resources. In this paper, we focus on the use of PM to support the development of the integrated regional modeling system DANUBIA as a scientific concept to analyze the previously unknown impacts of global change, i.e., the combined effects of climate, demographic, economic, social and ecological change, on the Upper Danube Catchment (Germany). We use this case study to examine the specific conditions for PM in the field of complex integrated models on a regional scale. We describe the stepwise PM process and discuss the respective results, focusing on (1) the stakeholder dialogue’s contribution in supporting the development of new, complex modeling systems, particularly on a regional scale, (2) conditions of stakeholder involvement in issues related to the distant future, such as climate change impacts on regional water availability, and (3) limitations of PM and scientists’ motivation to carry out participatory research at all. We conclude that the PM process was not entirely successful in improving the scientific quality and practical applicability of the developed models because the process goals were manifold and overambitious, and the definition of the problem of “global change impacts on a regional scale” was too weak and uncertain to allow for a clear common objective of modelers and stakeholders. We claim that there is a lack of incentives for scientists, particularly natural scientists, to commit to PM activities.     

Multiresidue analysis of organophosphate and pyrethroid pesticides in duplicate-diet solid food by pressurized liquid extraction

An analytical method was developed for determining organophosphate pesticides (OPP) and pyrethroid pesticides (PYR) in duplicate-diet solid food. The method consisted of pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) with dichloromethane followed by cleanup with gel permeation and solid phase extraction columns and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis. Quantitative recoveries (73–117 %) of the target pesticides were obtained for spiked duplicate-diet food samples. The percent standard deviation (% RSD) of replicate food samples was within ± 20 %. Another method was developed for determining a common OPP metabolite, 3, 5, 6-trichloro-2-pyridinol (TCP) in duplicate-diet food. The method consisted of a PLE with methanol followed by liquid-liquid partitioning, derivatization, and GC/MS analysis. Recoveries of TCP ranged from 83 to 101 % for spiked duplicate-diet food samples. The % RSD of replicate food samples was within ± 15 %. The results confirmed that these methods are reliable and robust, and that they can be used in routine analysis. In addition, a storage stability study for a common OPP, chlorpyrifos (CPF), in solid food samples was performed. The fortified ¹⁵N-¹³C-labeled CPF was stable over 16 mo storage at ?20° C in the dark. The developed analytical methods were successfully applied to 278 duplicate-diet food samples from preschool children, demonstrating that these methods are robust and suitable for routine analysis in future exposure monitoring studies.     

Effect of the milling solution on lead stabilization in municipal solid waste incinerator fly ash during the milling processes

The wet milling process had been found to effectively stabilize lead in fly ash. This study adopts this method and looks at the effect of different milling solutions to improve the efficiency of lead stabilization. Different milling solutions (water, phosphoric acid and ethanol) and different milling times (1, 24, 48 and 96 h) were selected as parameters. Since lead oxide can be identified by XRD in this experiment’s samples, 5% lead oxide was added to the extracted mixed fly ash to make instrumental analysis easier. The experimental results indicate that the effect of stabilization of lead after milling could exceed 96%. During milling with water, considerable lead leached into the water in the initial stage (1 h) of the process, but a stable level was reached as the milling time increased. After milling with ethanol and 0.2 M phosphoric acids, the efficiency could exceed 93% after 1 h of milling time. The results of the sequential extraction procedure (SEP) results show that the residual fraction could be increased from 8.93% to 56.16% when a 0.2 M phosphoric acid solution was used. Clearly the choice of an appropriate milling solution can enhance lead stabilization in the fly ash.     

Using nighttime light data to estimate water evaporation inside buildings in China's urban areas

Urbanization has a great impact on urban evapotranspiration. Water evaporation inside buildings is an important part of urban water vapor resources and a crucial core of urban hydrological processes. The systematic studies on building water evaporation (BWE) are mostly the method of experimental monitoring. This study proposed a new method to simulate and estimate water evaporation flux inside buildings in urban areas. Based on the nighttime light data and urban per capita gross domestic product (GDP), a new modeling system was built to simulate the total BWE. Building area was calculated using the nighttime light data. And the BWE coefficient D_f was estimated according to the important indicator of economic development per capita GDP value. Then the water evaporation inside urban buildings and the spatial distribution of water evaporation inside buildings in typical cities could be obtained. The results showed that the total amount of water evaporation inside buildings in China's urban areas was 24.5 billion m³. Among the 31 provincial capitals in China, Shanghai had the largest BWE of 1.08 billion m³. The minimum water evaporation of buildings in Lhasa was 20.0 million m³. Studies of BWE can assess urban water budgets, support on-demand allocation of water resources, and provide a fundamental understanding of the relationship between water resources and energy heat island effects in urban areas.     

矿用改性水泥基封孔材料的抗冲击性能试验

为了解决矿用水泥基封孔材料的抗冲击性问题,利用DTM-1000落锤冲击试验机研究不同掺量聚丙烯纤维对水泥基封孔材料抗冲击性能的影响,试验更接近于工程实际。在试验基础上初步探讨纤维素对水泥基材料的抗冲击性能提升的机理,为了进一步提高水泥基封孔材料的抗冲击性,利用试验研究不同玻璃纤维和聚丙烯纤维的混合比例对封孔材料抗冲击性的影响。最终得出当聚丙烯纤维和玻璃纤维混合比在1.5∶1为最佳提高水泥基材料的抗冲击性的比例。矿用改性水泥基封孔材料的抗冲击性能试验对提高水泥基封孔材料的抗冲击性能研究具有重要的参考意义。     

Evaluating heavy metal contamination of riverine sediment cores in different land-use areas

• Metal pollution was studied in riverine sediments from different land-use areas. • Cd was the most serious heavy metal contaminant in riverine sediment cores. • Riverine sediment cores from industrial area were most polluted by heavy metals. • B1 fraction determined metal pollution, risk and toxicity in riverine sediments. Anthropogenic activities are regarded as the main sources of heavy metal pollution, yet few studies have investigated the effects of land-use setting on heavy metal accumulation in riverine sediments. Based on both total contents and geochemical fractions, heavy metal pollution, risk and toxicity were determined in riverine sediment cores from different land-use areas (mountain area- MA, farm area- FA, city area- CA, and industrial area- IA) of the Yang River Basin in North China. The results showed that FA had higher contents of riverine sedimentary Cu; CA had higher contents of Cd; IA had higher contents of both Cd and Zn. Most riverine sediments from FA and IA were contaminated with the investigated metals, although these concentrations were evaluated to have low potential ecological risk and no toxicity to benthic organisms. However, a high proportion of Cd in the B1 fraction of riverine sediments in IA indicating high risk should receive more attention. The B1 fraction largely determined the contamination, risk and toxicity levels associated with heavy metals in the riverine sediments of the Yang River Basin.     

Real-world vehicle emissions: a summary of the Seventeenth Coordinating Research Council On-Road Vehicle Emissions Workshop

The Coordinating Research Council, Inc. (CRC) held its 17th On-Road Vehicle Emissions Workshop in March 2007, where results of the most recent on-road vehicle emissions research were presented. We summarize ongoing work from researchers who are engaged in improving our understanding of the role and contribution of mobile sources to ambient air quality and emission inventories. Participants in the Workshop discussed efforts to improve mobile source emission models, light- and heavy-duty vehicle emissions measurements, on- and off-road emissions measurements, effects of fuels and lubricating oils on emissions, as well as emerging issues and topics for future research.