Effects of the Ellagic acid on the N‐Acetyltransferase activity and Acetylation of 2‐aminofluorene in the rat

The effects of the ellagic acid on the in vitro and in vivo acetylation of 2‐aminofluorene were investigated in male Sprague‐Dawley rats. For in vitro examination, cytosols with or without ellagic acid co‐treatment showed different percentage of 2‐aminofluorene acetylation. For in vivo examination, pre‐treatment of male rats with ellagic acid (10 mg/kg) 24h prior to the administration of 2‐aminofluorene (50 mg/kg) resulted in a 26% and 29%, respectively, decrease in the urinary and fecal recovery of N‐acetyl‐2‐aminofluorene, and a 37% decrease in the metabolic clearance of 2‐aminofluorene to N‐acetyl‐2‐aminofluorene. This is the first demonstration that ellagic acid decrease the N‐acetylation of carcinogens in vitro and in vivo.     

煤矿工业废水处理工艺技术及效益分析

我国煤炭资源十分丰富,开采过程中产生大量废水,为了减少煤矿废水治理的投资及运行费用,详尽阐述了实用、可行、高效的处理技术及工艺组合,并在煤矿废水处理中取得良好的处理效果,分析得出煤矿废水经深度处理回用后具有良好经济、环境效益。     

中国城市垃圾典型可行焚烧技术的综合评价

中国城市垃圾处理的主要方式正在由卫生填埋向垃圾焚烧转变. 基于中国城市垃圾焚烧处置需求特征分析,建立了技术评价指标体系,采用层次分析法,从技术的可靠性、经济性和适用性三方面,对国内外现有4种主要城市垃圾焚烧技术进行了综合评价. 结果表明:流化床技术和层燃技术在技术成熟度、技术能力和二NFDA1英污染控制等方面相对可靠,适用于我国多数大城市的垃圾焚烧处置. 国产流化床焚烧技术更加适应当前国内垃圾分类水平较差的大部分城市;层状焚烧技术则比较适用于城市垃圾管理水平高、垃圾分类较好、热值较高、垃圾处置集中度高和规模较大的城市;旋转焚烧和热解焚烧技术则较适用于垃圾成分复杂、尺寸不均匀的小城镇、工业园区垃圾处置或医疗废物处置,但二者均需加强二NFDA1英排放控制.      

Asian Americans and workplace discrimination: The interplay between sex of evaluators and the perception of social skills

In two role‐playing scenarios, we investigate how White male and female evaluators perceive an Asian American versus White job candidate on the dimensions of competence and social skills and how these perceptions affect evaluators' decisions in hiring and promotion. Specifically, Study 1 examines how the perceptions of competence and social skills affect Asian (versus White) college graduates' chance of obtaining a non‐technical (versus technical) position, and Study 2 tests how these perceptions affect Asians' probability of promotion relative to Whites'. Our findings suggest that female evaluators were less likely to select Asian than White candidates into positions involving social skills and were less likely to promote Asian than White candidates into these types of positions. Furthermore, female evaluators' perception that Asians were less socially skilled than Whites mediated both of these decisions. This paper contributes to the understanding of workplace discrimination of Asian Americans. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessment of Pb uptake, translocation and immobilization in kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.) for phytoremediation of sand tailings

The potential of kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.) for phytoremediation of lead (Pb) on sand tailings was investigated.A pot experiment employing factorial design with two main effects of fertilizer and lead was conducted in a nursery using sand tailings from an ex-tin mine as the growing medium.Results showed that Pb was found in the root,stem,and seed capsule of kenaf but not in the leaf.Application of organic fertilizer promoted greater biomass yield as well as higher accumulation capacity of Pb.In Pb-spike...     

Green shipping practices in the shipping industry: Conceptualization, adoption, and implications

There have been increasing concerns about the adverse impacts on the environment caused by cargo movement in international trade. Different stakeholders ranging from shippers and carriers to government bodies and international communities have expressed worries about the environmental impacts brought by shipping related activities. The pollution and waste created in the shipping processes have imposed environmental burdens and accelerated resource depletion. The situation is set to worsen in the face of intensifying trade globalization, which has contributed to sustained growth in international shipping activities. To help protect the environment, many shipping firms have taken the initiative to find ways to lessen the environmental damage of their operations while enhancing their performance. The objective of this study is to examine the environmental awareness and the environmental measures taken in the shipping industry. We propose a conceptual framework for evaluating green shipping practices and develop several propositions stating the conditions under which shipping firms would behave in an environmentally responsible manner. We conclude with managerial and policy implications of the conceptual framework to promote green shipping practices in the shipping industry.     

Bioavailability evaluation of naphthalene in soil using persulfate oxidation and ultrasonic extraction method

Bioavailability is defined as the fraction of a soil contaminant readily available for microbial degradation and for naphthalene it could be estimated by conventional exhaustive extraction methods. In this study, a novel method that employed persulfate oxidation in combination with ultrasonic extraction (POUSE) was developed. Three parameters, temperature, duration of persulfate oxidation, and the ratio of persulfate to soil organic matter (2S,082 /SOM; g g-1), were investigated to obtain an optimum operating conditions. Under the condition, naphthalene bioavailability estimated by the POUSE method was verified and compared with other three exhaustive methods i.e. sonicator, supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), and soxhlet extraction (SE). When the S2,O(8)2-/SOM ratio was controlled at 11.6 g g-1, the optimum operating conditions of the POUSE method were 70 degreesC and 3 hr, for the temperature and duration. Under these conditions, the residual naphthalene concentrations were correlated well with the residual naphthalene concentrations for both the cases of freshly spiked and aged soils. By contrast, the sonicator, SFE, and the SE overestimated the naphthalene bioavailability since these three methods extracted naphthalene much more than that of biodegradation test. These results demonstrated that the POUSE could estimate more precisely the naphthalene bioavailability.     

Integrated estuary management for diffused sediment pollution in Dapeng Bay and neighboring rivers (Taiwan)

This work investigated sediment samples collected from Dapeng Bay and three neighboring rivers (Kaoping River, Tungkang River, and Lingbeng River) in southwestern Taiwan, Republic of China. Multivariate statistical analysis techniques, i.e., factor analysis, cluster analysis, and canonical discriminant analysis were used for the evaluation of spatial variations to determine the types of pollution and to identify pollutant sources from neighboring rivers. Factor analysis results showed that the most important latent factors in Dapeng Bay are soil texture, heavy metals, organic matter, and nutrients factors. Contour maps incorporating the factor scores showed heavy metals accumulate along the lakesides, especially on the southeastern banks of the lakes. A cluster analysis was performed using factor scores computed from these latent factors. We then classified these areas into five distinct classes using sampling stations, and we illustrate that in the three river classes, the sediment properties are influenced by industrial and domestic wastewater and agricultural activities (including livestock rearing and farm activities). However, in Dapeng Bay, the rivers were influenced more by complicated biogeochemical processes; these could be identified as a type of pollution. Canonical discriminant analysis illustrated that two constructed discriminant functions made a marked contribution to most of the discriminant variables, and the significant parameters of porosity and Cd, Cr, Al, and Pb content were combined as the ??heavy metal factor??. The recognition capacities of the two discriminant functions were 82.6% and 17.4%, respectively. It is also likely that the annual mean of the water exchange rate is insufficient (taking about 7 days to eliminate pollutants) and therefore has significantly influenced the carbon and nutrient biogeochemical processes and budgets in the semi-enclosed ecosystem. Thus, the sediment properties are not similar between the lagoon and the neighboring rivers. Our results yield useful information concerning estuary recovery and water resources management and may be applicable to other basins with similar characteristics that are experiencing similar coastal environmental issues.     

Predicting the contents of BTEX and MTBE for the three types of tollbooth at a highway toll station via the direct and indirect approaches

This study was set out to assess the contents of five volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including BTEX (the acronym for benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene) and methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE), in three types of tollbooth (including the car lane/ticket-collecting, car lane/cash-collecting, and bus/truck lane tollbooths) at a highway toll station via the direct and indirect approaches. For the direct approach, VOC samples were collected from the breathing zone of booth attendants at all selected tollbooths during the three workshifts. For samples collected during the dayshift, we found VOC contents of BTEX and MTBE in both the car lane/ticket-collecting (=6.23, 21.93, 3.24, 8.56, and 5.63 ppb, respectively) and car lane/cash-collecting tollbooths (=5.98, 21.71, 3.25, 8.59, and 6.04 ppb, respectively) were quite comparable, but both were significantly higher than that in the bus/truck lane tollbooth (=3.13, 13.91, 2.05, 4.52, and 2.70 ppb, respectively). The same pattern can also be found for the other two workshifts. For the indirect approach, we conducted multivariate regression analyses to predict VOC contents for any given type of tollbooth by using the four independent variables of the vehicle flowrate, wind speed, relative humidity, and air temperature. We found that, except the vehicle flowrate, the other three factors did not have a significant effect on VOC contents in the three types of tollbooth. In addition, the magnitudes of the effect of the vehicle flowrate on VOC contents for the three types of tollbooth were: car lane/cash-collecting>bus/truck lane>car lane/ticket-collecting. All regression results yielded R²-values in the range of 0.41−0.74 indicating that the developed indirect approach was able to predict VOC contents for three types of tollbooth.