Windsor, Ontario exposure assessment study: design and methods validation of personal, indoor, and outdoor air pollution monitoring

The Windsor, Ontario Exposure Assessment Study evaluated the contribution of ambient air pollutants to personal and indoor exposures of adults and asthmatic children living in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. In addition, the role of personal, indoor, and outdoor air pollution exposures upon asthmatic children's respiratory health was assessed. Several active and passive sampling methods were applied, or adapted, for personal, indoor, and outdoor residential monitoring of nitrogen dioxide, volatile organic compounds, particulate matter (PM; PM < or = 2.5 microm [PM2.5] and < or = 10 microm [PM10] in aerodynamic diameter), elemental carbon, ultrafine particles, ozone, air exchange rates, allergens in settled dust, and particulate-associated metals. Participants completed five consecutive days of monitoring during the winter and summer of 2005 and 2006. During 2006, in addition to undertaking the air pollution measurements, asthmatic children completed respiratory health measurements (including peak flow meter tests and exhaled breath condensate) and tracked respiratory symptoms in a diary. Extensive quality assurance and quality control steps were implemented, including the collocation of instruments at the National Air Pollution Surveillance site operated by Environment Canada and at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality site in Allen Park, Detroit, MI. During field sampling, duplicate and blank samples were also completed and these data are reported. In total, 50 adults and 51 asthmatic children were recruited to participate, resulting in 922 participant days of data. When comparing the methods used in the study with standard reference methods, field blanks were low and bias was acceptable, with most methods being within 20% of reference methods. Duplicates were typically within less than 10% of each other, indicating that study results can be used with confidence. This paper covers study design, recruitment, methodology, time activity diary, surveys, and quality assurance and control results for the different methods used.     

基于FLUENT的废线路板元器件脱焊数值模拟

带元器件的废线路板的手工拆解劳动繁重,在拆解中产生的有害气体损害工人的健康,拆解后的残留物污染环境,因此,废线路板的自动拆解就显得十分必要.针对废线路板上电子元器件自动拆解中焊点的熔焊问题,采用FLUENT计算机软件进行模拟研究,分析了导热介质、初始温度、流体速度对焊点加热熔化效率的影响.结果表明,焊点在初始温度为47...     

Occurrence,speciation, and risks of trace metals in soils of greenhouse vegetable production from the vicinity of industrial areas in the Yangtze River Delta,China

The effect of industrial activities on trace metals in farmland of rapidly industrializing regions in developing countries has increasingly been a concern to the public. Here, soils were collected from 13 greenhouse vegetable production (GVP) farms or bases near industrial areas in the Yangtze River Delta of China to investigate the occurrence, speciation, and risks of Cr, Cu, Zn, Cd, Ni, and Pb in GVP soil. The results revealed that the main metal elements causing GVP soil pollution were Cd, Zn, Ni, and Cu, of which contamination levels were generally unpolluted to moderately polluted. Zinc pollution was mainly attributed to heavy fertilization, while Cd, Ni, and Cu pollution may be greatly ascribed to industrial effluents and coal combustion. Metal speciation studies showed that most of Cr, Ni, Cu, and Zn was present in residual fraction while more than half of Cd and Pb was present in non-residual fractions. Additionally, pollution of Cd, Cu, Ni, and Zn in GVP soil increased their corresponding mobile fractions. Risk assessment using potential ecological risk index and risk assessment code showed that Cd was the major risk contributor. Specifically, Cd generally posed moderate or considerable ecological risk as well as displayed medium or high mobility risk in GVP soil. Thus, great attention should be paid to the contribution of both industrial discharges and intensive farming to soil pollution by trace metals, especially Cd, because of its high mobility risk.

     

Marine Radar Oil-Spill Monitoring through Local Adaptive Thresholding

Marine oil spills affect the environment, economy, and quality of life for coastal inhabitants. This article presents a method of X-band marine radar oil-spill identification by considering the marine radar images of the 2010 Dalian 7-16 accident. The Prewitt operator was improved and a linear interpolation was proposed to suppress co-channel interferences. In addition, a model of a gray-intensity-correcting matrix is proposed to smooth a whole image, thus displaying the oil film more intuitively. Furthermore, a contrast-limited adaptive histogram equalization method was used to increase the contrast inside and outside the oil film. Moreover, the local adaptive thresholding method was improved to segment the oil spills. The results show that the proposed method is an improvement on similar previous approaches for this task when employing X-band marine radar images. The proposed method can provide technical and theoretical bases for emergency response, damage assessment, and liability identification of oil spills.     

Lake dynamics and its relationship to climate change on the Tibetan Plateau over the last four decades

Regional Environmental Change - The high sensitivity of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) to global warming is ascribed not only to its high altitude and low temperature but also to the change in the...     

涪江上游泥石流灾损土地特征及典型流域淤积危险性研究

涪江上游以高山峡谷为主,人地矛盾突出,泥石流灾损土地是山区居民选择的主要生产生活场所。通过野外调查,初步查明目前涪江上游泥石流灾损土地以淤高的发展趋势为主,灾损土地扇形完整性程度达58%,以中等易发为主;大部分灾损土地距离主河距离为100~350 m,距离适中,水热条件良好。基于不同降雨频率条件下泥石流主沟内泥深、流量差异性,建立泥石流灾损土地的淤积危险范围确定方法;快速得到南坝窖子沟20 a一遇、50 a一遇、100 a一遇3种降雨频率条件下泥石流淤积危险范围,分别为0.167 km~2、0.292 km~2、0.420 km~2。为下一步建立基于土地潜力和灾害风险两个指标的灾损土地资源化潜力评估方法,探索泥石流灾损土地资源化利用模式,提供基础条件,并为山区居民进行土地利用提供快速指导。     

Effects of juvenile crucian carp (Carassius carassius) removal on submerged macrophyte growth—implications for subtropical shallow lake restoration

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Rapid expansion of juvenile fish after biomanipulation can delay the successful restoration of submerged macrophytes, leading to a turbid water status...     

Estimating national-scale ground-level PM25 concentration in China using geographically weighted regression based on MODIS and MISR AOD

Taking advantage of the continuous spatial coverage, satellite-derived aerosol optical depth (AOD) products have been widely used to assess the spatial and temporal characteristics of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) on the ground and their effects on human health. However, the national-scale ground-level PM2.5 estimation is still very limited because the lack of ground PM2.5 measurements to calibrate the model in China. In this study, a national-scale geographically weighted regression (GWR) model was developed to estimate ground-level PM2.5 concentration based on satellite AODs, newly released national-wide hourly PM2.5 concentrations, and meteorological parameters. The results showed good agreements between satellite-retrieved and ground-observed PM2.5 concentration at 943 stations in China. The overall cross-validation (CV) R ² is 0.76 and root mean squared prediction error (RMSE) is 22.26 μg/m³ for MODIS-derived AOD. The MISR-derived AOD also exhibits comparable performance with a CV R ² and RMSE are 0.81 and 27.46 μg/m³, respectively. Annual PM2.5 concentrations retrieved either by MODIS or MISR AOD indicated that most of the residential community areas exceeded the new annual Chinese PM2.5 National Standard level 2. These results suggest that this approach is useful for estimating large-scale ground-level PM2.5 distributions especially for the regions without PMs monitoring sites.     

Human and organizational error data challenges in complex,large-scale systems

In complex, large-scale systems, event analyses are constrained by the quality of the data gathered, the maturity of the associated reporting system, and the training and background of the investigator and reporter. Such constraints place limits on the adequacy and strength of analyses conducted with the data. In this paper, we focus on the challenges of measuring performance variability in complex systems, using the lens of human and organizational error modeling. This paper begins with an overview of human and organizational error assessments, and then introduces the particular challenges of data needs in human reliability analyses. A case study of human and organizational error analysis in a complex, large-scale system, marine transportation in Puget Sound, is used to illustrate the impact of the data challenges on risk assessment processes. Suggestions for future research conclude the paper.