Platinum pollution in road dusts,roadside soils,and tree barks in Seoul,Korea

This study presents the level of platinum in urban environment in and around Seoul, the capital city of Korea. Road dust, roadside soil, and tree bark samples were collected from the sites of various traffic volumes and from control sites in the suburbs. The above samples were analyzed for Pt by ICP-MS and other heavy metals by ICP-OES. Platinum levels in road dusts and roadside soils from Seoul were in the range of 3.8–444 ng/g (av. 115.0 ng/g) and 0.7–221 ng/g (av. 49.7 ng/g), respectively, whereas those in the suburbs were in the range of 2.3–5.2 ng/g (av. 3.9 ng/g) in road dusts and 0.4–5.1 ng/g (av. 2.4 ng/g) in roadside soils. The highest Pt levels in road dusts were found from major roads with high traffic volume. The remarkable difference in average Pt level between heavy traffic roads (av. 132.2 ng/g) and light traffic roads (av. 22.8 ng/g) reflects that an important source of Pt in roadside environment is automobile catalytic converter. High Pt level in road dust was found from the site of erratic stop–start driving condition, for example, 178 ng/g Pt in road dust around a vehicle crossing gate. Platinum level in tree barks ranged from 0.9 to 4.5 ng/g, which indicates the existence of Pt-containing particulate matter in the atmosphere. Road dusts with high Pt level were enriched in traffic-related heavy metals.     

温带典型草地土壤净氮矿化作用研究

应用树脂芯方法,研究了内蒙古锡林河流域不同降水强度3种草地类型土壤净氮矿化作用.结果表明,7～10月份,羊草草原的平均净氮矿化率为0.333 kg·(hm²·d)^-1,贝加尔针茅草原为0.316 kg·(hm²·d)^-1,克氏针茅草原为0.211 kg·(hm²·d)^-1;在相同的培养周期内,分阶段培养和连续培养对土壤的净氮矿化量和净氮矿化速率有显著影响;降雨是影响该区域氮素矿化的主要因素之一,3种草地类型土壤水分变化量与土壤净氮矿化速率呈正相关关系,相关系数分别为0.80、0.61、0.56.     

Mid-21st century climate and weather extremes in Cyprus as projected by six regional climate models

We present climate change projections and apply indices of weather extremes for the Mediterranean island Cyprus using data from regional climate model (RCM) simulations driven by the IPCC A1B scenario within the ENSEMBLES project. Daily time-series of temperature and precipitation were used from six RCMs for a reference period 1976–2000 and for 2026–2050 (‘future‘) for representative locations, applying a performance selection among neighboring model grid-boxes. The annual average temperatures of the model ensemble have a ±1.5°C bias from the observations (negative for maximum and positive for minimum temperature), and the models underestimate annual precipitation totals by 4–17%. The climatological annual cycles for the observations fall within the 1σ range of the 6-model average, highlighting the strength of using multi-model output. We obtain reasonable agreement between models and observations for the temperature-related indices of extremes for the recent past, while the comparison is less good for the precipitation-related extremes. For the future, the RCM ensemble shows significant warming of 1°C in winter to 2°C in the summer for both maximum and minimum temperatures. Rainfall is projected to decrease by 2–8%, although this is not statistically significant. Our results indicate the shift of the mean climate to a warmer state, with a relatively strong increase in the warm extremes. The precipitation frequency is projected to decrease at the inland Nicosia and at the coastal Limassol, while the mountainous Saittas could experience more frequent 5–15 mm/day rainfall. In future, very hot days are expected to increase by more than 2 weeks/year and tropical nights by 1 month/year. The annual number of consecutive dry days shows a statistically significant increase (of 9 days) in Limassol. These projected changes of the Cyprus climate may adversely affect ecosystems and the economy of the island and emphasize the need for adaptation strategies.     

商品和服务消费在家庭温室气体计算表中的重要性

尽管生活方式，尤其是商品和服务消费，对于温室气体排放的全球性不公平和不可持续性具有关键作用，但这些问题在有关的情报和教育资料如温室气体计算表中常常没有给予充分的表述。通常的结论是，对于气候变化负有责任的是个人，而且只限于读者周围的环境，如家庭和私人汽车，而商品和服务的消费却几乎一直被忽略。结果是，有关减少个人温室气体排放的建议都集中在次要的电力和燃料的使用方面，没有把减少商品和服务消费这个更重要的问题作为减轻气候变化的一个有效途径。本文以最近发表的家庭温室气体排放调查表为例，阐述上述缺点。同时也提出了一个温室气体综合计算表的实例。     

Integrated assessment of CCS in the German power plant sector with special emphasis on the competition with renewable energy technologies

The study presents the results of an integrated assessment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the power plant sector in Germany, with special emphasis on the competition with renewable energy technologies. Assessment dimensions comprise technical, economic and environmental aspects, long-term scenario analysis, the role of stakeholders and public acceptance and regulatory issues. The results lead to the overall conclusion that there might not necessarily be a need to focus additionally on CCS in the power plant sector. Even in case of ambitious climate protection targets, current energy policy priorities (expansion of renewable energies and combined heat and power plants as well as enhanced energy productivity) result in a limited demand for CCS. In case that the large energy saving potential aimed for can only partly be implemented, the rising gap in CO₂ reduction could only be closed by setting up a CCS-maximum strategy. In this case, up to 22% (41 GW) of the totally installed load in 2050 could be based on CCS. Assuming a more realistic scenario variant applying CCS to only 20 GW or lower would not be sufficient to reach the envisaged climate targets in the electricity sector. Furthermore, the growing public opposition against CO₂ storage projects appears as a key barrier, supplemented by major uncertainties concerning the estimation of storage potentials, the long-term cost development as well as the environmental burdens which abound when applying a life-cycle approach. However, recently, alternative applications are being increasingly considered?Cthat is the capture of CO₂ at industrial point sources and biomass based energy production (electricity, heat and fuels) where assessment studies for exploring the potentials, limits and requirements for commercial use are missing so far. Globally, CCS at power plants might be an important climate protection technology: coal-consuming countries such as China and India are increasingly moving centre stage into the debate. Here, similar investigations on the development and the integration of both, CCS and renewable energies, into the individual energy system structures of such countries would be reasonable.     

Prenatal diagnosis of aortic atresia by colour doppler flow mapping

A case of aortic atresia with insufficiency of mitral valve diagnosed prenatally at 33 weeks of gestation is presented. An accurate diagnosis of this fetal cardiovascular malformation was possible by application of Doppler colour flow mapping, which demonstrated (a) the absence of forward flow in the hypoplastic ascending aorta, (b) reverse flow of blood from the ductus arteriosus into the severely hypoplastic ascending aorta in the late systole, (c) pansystolic mitral valve regurgitation, and (d) absent flow across the foramen ovale as a result of premature closure of the foramen ovale.