Environmental pollution of China to foreign investors: detrimental or beneficial?

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - This study investigates the dynamic linkage among foreign direct investment, energy consumption, and environmental pollution of China spanning from...     

Real-World Emissions from a Modern Production Vehicle Driven in Los Angeles

The emissions of hydrocarbons, nitric oxide, and carbon monoxide from one modern vehicle were measured using on-board instrumentation during about 350 miles of driving in Los Angeles, California. Emissions during on-road driving were compared to those obtained on dynamometers using the urban dynamometer driving schedule (UDDS). Although this study only used one driver and vehicle, tested over a relatively short distance, the analysis technique may be useful for a larger evaluation of off-cycle emissions.

The test vehicle had low warmed-up running emissions over the UDDS and for most of the on-road testing where the air-to-fuel ratio was maintained at the stoichiometric point. However, occasional heavily-loaded conditions during the on-road testing led to richerthan-stoiehiometric operation.

During these brief enrichment events, which lasted up to 29 seconds, CO emissions were increased by a factor of 2500 and HC by a factor of 40 over closed-loop stoichiometric operation. Nitrogen oxide emissions were similar during low-load stoichiometric operation and high-load enriched operation. The relatively constant gram-per-second emission rate of CO and HC observed during enriched operation suggests that such information can be combined with determinations of the frequency of enrichment for a large number of vehicles with similar calibrations to estimate the impact of the additional emissions from enrichment on emissions inventories.     

Maintaining high-volume, low-pressure surface-coating regulatory compliance using the U.s. Environmental Protection Agency's data quality objectives process

To effectively reduce the environmental compliance costs associated with meeting specific requirements under the Aerospace Manufacturing and Rework Facility's National Emission Standard for Hazardous Air Pollutants rule, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Data Quality Objective (DQO) process has been proposed as a suitable framework for developing a scientifically defensible surface compliance monitoring program. By estimating the variability associated with the air cap pressure of high- volume, low-pressure (HVLP) surface-coating spray equipment, the number of monitoring samples necessary for an affected facility to claim compliance with a desired statistical confidence level was established. Using data taken from the pilot test facility, the DQO process indicated that the mean of at least 21 HVLP air cap pressure samples taken over the compliance period must be < or = 10 pounds per square inch (psig) gauge for the facility to claim regulatory compliance with 99.99% statistical confidence. Fewer compliance samples could be taken, but that decision would lead to a commensurate reduction in the compliance confidence level. Implementation of the DQO-based compliance sampling plan eliminates the need for an affected facility to sample all regulated HVLP surface-coating processes while still maintaining a high level of compliance assurance.     

Lithium bioaccumulation in Lentinus crinitus mycelia grown in media with different lithium sources and pH values

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Lentinus crinitus bioaccumulates lithium in mycelia, but bioaccumulation may be affected by pH of the culture medium. Lithium is used in clinical...     

Modeling the photo-oxidation of dissolved organic matter by ultraviolet radiation in freshwater lakes: implications for mercury bioavailability

Uncertainties in projected ultraviolet (UV) radiation may lead to future increases in UV irradiation of freshwater lakes. Because dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is the main binding phase for mercury (Hg) in freshwater lakes, an increase in DOC photo-oxidation may affect Hg speciation and bioavailability. We quantified the effect of DOC concentration on the rate of abiotic DOC photo-oxidation for five lakes (DOC=3.27-12.3 mg L(-1)) in Kejimkujik National Park, Canada. Samples were irradiated with UV-A or UV-B radiation over a 72-h period. UV-B radiation was found to be 2.36 times more efficient at photo-oxidizing DOC than UV-A, with energy-normalized rates of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) production ranging from 3.8×10(-5) to 1.1×10(-4) mg L(-1)J(-1) for UV-A, and from 6.0×10(-5) to 3.1×10(-4) mg L(-1)J(-1) for UV-B. Energy normalized rates of DIC production were positively correlated with DOC concentrations. Diffuse integrated attenuation coefficients were quantified in situ (UV-A K(d)=0.056-0.180 J cm(-1); UV-B K(d)=0.015-0.165 J cm(-1)) and a quantitative depth-integrated model for yearly DIC photo-production in each lake was developed. The model predicts that, UV-A produces between 3.2 and 100 times more DIC (1521-2851 mg m(-2) year(-1)) than UV-B radiation (29.17-746.7 mg m(-2) year(-1)). Future increases in UV radiation may increase DIC production and increase Hg bioavailability in low DOC lakes to a greater extent than in high DOC lakes.     

The behaviour of residual contaminants at a former station site,Antarctica

In 1994, New Zealand's only mainland Antarctic base, Vanda Station, was removed from the shores of Lake Vanda, in the McMurdo Dry Valleys region of southern Victoria Land, Antarctica. Residual chemical contamination of the station site has been identified, in the form of discrete fuel spills, locally elevated Pb, Zn, Ag and Cd concentrations in soil and elevated Cu, Ni, Co and phosphate concentrations in suprapermafrost fluids in a gully formerly used for domestic washing water disposal. Pathways for contaminant transfer to Lake Vanda, potential environmental impacts and specific remediation/monitoring options are considered. While some contaminants (particularly Zn) could be selectively leached from flooded soil, during a period of rising lake level, the small area of contaminated soils exposed and low level of contamination suggests that this would not adversely affect either shallow lake water quality or the growth of cyanobacteria. Phosphate-enhanced growth of the latte may, however, be a visible consequence of the minor contamination occurring at this site.     

Assessment and Prediction of Soil Erosion and its Impact on the Storage Capacity of Reservoirs in the Bharathapuzha River Basin,India

Environmental Modeling & Assessment - Soil, one of the non-renewable resources on this planet, is being depleted at an alarming rate due to various anthropogenic activities. The effect of soil...     

Exploring Environmental Data in a Highly Immersive Virtual Reality Environment

Geography inherently fills a 3D space and yet we struggle with displaying geography using, primarily, 2D display devices. Virtual environments offer a more realistically-dimensioned display space and this is being realized in the expanding area of research on 3D Geographic Information Systems (GISs). Traditionally, a GIS has only limited tools for statistical analysis, and 3D GIS research has concentrated on the visualization of the geographical terrain. Here we discuss linking multivariate statistical graphics to geography in the highly immersive C2 virtual reality environment at Iowa State University using mid-Atlantic streams data.