Effect of oxide nanoparticles on the morphology and fluidity of phospholipid membranes and the role of hydrogen bonds

Engineered oxide nanoparticles (NPs) are widely applied in insulators, catalyzers, paints, cosmetic products, textiles and semiconductors. Their attachment on cell membrane may lead to cytotoxicity. The effects of Al₂O₃, Fe₂O₃, SiO₂, TiO₂ and ZnO NPs on membrane integrity and fluidity were studied using giant or small unilamellar vesicles in this study. Al₂O₃ and SiO₂ NPs disrupted the oppositely charged membrane, indicating the important role of electrostatic attraction. However, Fe₂O₃, TiO₂ and ZnO NPs did not cause serious membrane disruption as Al₂O₃ and SiO₂ NPs. Membrane fluidity was evaluated by the generalized polarity (GP) values of Laurdan fluorescent emission. SiO₂ NPs induce the membrane gelation of both positively and negatively charged membrane. Al₂O₃ and ZnO NPs induced the gelation of the oppositely charged membrane, but did not cause obvious membrane gelation to the like charged membrane. The phospholipid molecular structural changes after NP exposure were analyzed by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. FT-IR spectra revealed the hydrogen bond formation between NPs and the carbonyl/phosphate groups of phospholipids. Al₂O₃ and SiO₂ NPs showed strongest evidence of hydrogen bonding on their FT-IR spectra. It was consistent with the microscopic observation and fluorescent data that Al₂O₃ and SiO₂ NPs caused more serious membrane disruption and gelation. This study on membrane damage provides further knowledge on the cytotoxicity of nanomaterials and the safety of NP application.     

台州市大气PM_(2.5)中PAHs的污染特征与毒性评价

使用中流量颗粒物采样器采集台州市2015—2016年大气PM_(2.5)样品,利用气相色谱-质谱仪对样品中16种多环芳烃(PAHs)进行分析,研究PAHs的污染特征及可能来源。结果显示:PAHs总浓度为(20.69±4.84)ng/m3,浓度季节变化大小顺序依次为冬季>春季>秋季>夏季,空间变化为商住区>工业区>背景点。PM_(2.5)中PAHs以高环为主(≥4环),占86%。不同季节商住区和工业区PAHs(4环)含量均略高于背景点,PAHs(5~6环)的含量商住区略高于工业区和背景点。PAHs环数分布和比值法结果表明台州市大气PM_(2.5)中PAHs的主要来源是机动车尾气和燃煤。成年人和儿童的终生超额致癌风险(ILCR)分别为8.02×10-7和5.61×10-7,表明台州市PM_(2.5)中PAHs对人体健康影响在可接受范围内。     

Phosphorus recovery from municipal and fertilizer wastewater: China's potential and perspective

Phosphorus (P) is a limited resource, which can neither be synthesized nor substituted in its essential functions as nutrient. Currently explored and economically feasible global reserves may be depleted within generations. China is the largest phosphate fertilizer producing and consuming country in the world. China''s municipal wastewater contains up to 293,163 Mg year of phosphorus, which equals approximately 5.5% of the chemical fertilizer phosphorus consumed in China. Phosphorus in wastewater can be seen not only as a source of pollution to be reduced, but also as a limited resource to be recovered. Based upon existing phosphorus-recovery technologies and the current wastewater infrastructure in China, three options for phosphorus recovery from sewage sludge, sludge ash and the fertilizer industry were analyzed according to the specific conditions in China.     

有机质对p,p′-DDE在土壤中的吸附影响

为研究有机质对p, p′-DDE在土壤中的吸附影响因素,采用批量试验方法,分析p, p′-DDE在包气带土壤及含水层土壤上吸附量的变化及有机质对p, p′-DDE在土壤中的吸附影响.结果表明,p, p′-DDE在土壤中的吸附均符合先快后慢、最后达到吸附平衡的规律;其吸附动力学曲线用一级和二级反应动力学方程均能较好拟合,说明p, p′-DDE在这两种物质中的吸附以简单吸附为主,同时包含表面吸附、颗粒内部扩散等过程.包气带土壤和含水层土壤等温吸附线的拟合相关系数(R2)均大于0.95,符合Freundlich模型和线性模型,而含水层样品与Freundlich模型拟合得更好,表明p, p′-DDE在包气带土壤中的吸附以单分子层吸附为主,而在含水层土壤中的吸附还伴随着多分子层吸附的复杂过程;去除内源DOM(溶解性有机质)后,样品对p, p′-DDE的吸附量呈增加趋势,按吸附增加量由小到大的排序为1-1(0~10 cm) < 1-2(120~150 cm) < 2-4(100~120 cm),说明内源DOM的存在总体上抑制了p, p′-DDE的吸附,并且w(DOM)越高,其抑制作用越强;外源DOM的加入抑制了土壤对p, p′-DDE的吸附;去除有机质后样品对p, p′-DDE的吸附量与w(黏土矿物)具有正相关性.研究显示,有机质对土壤中有机污染物的吸附迁移研究对土壤修复有重要意义,需要对有机质影响土壤的吸附机制进行更深层次的研究.      

Construction of vesicle CdSe nano-semiconductors photocatalysts with improved photocatalytic activity: Enhanced photo induced carriers separation efficiency and mechanism insight

Visible-light-driven photocatalysis as a green technology has attracted a lot of attention due to its potential applications in environmental remediation. Vesicle Cd Se nano-semiconductor photocatalyst are successfully prepared by a gas template method and characterized by a variety of methods. The vesicle Cd Se nano-semiconductors display enhanced photocatalytic performance for the degradation of tetracycline hydrochloride, the photodegradation rate of78.824% was achieved by vesicle Cd Se, which exhibited an increase of 31.779% compared to granular Cd Se. Such an exceptional photocatalytic capability can be attributed to the unique structure of the vesicle Cd Se nano-semiconductor with enhanced light absorption ability and excellent carrier transport capability. Meanwhile, the large surface area of the vesicle Cd Se nano-semiconductor can increase the contact probability between catalyst and target and provide more surface-active centers. The photocatalytic mechanisms are analyzed by active species quenching. It indicates that h+and UO_2~-are the main active species which play a major role in catalyzing environmental toxic pollutants. Simultaneously, the vesicle Cd Se nano-semiconductor had high efficiency and stability.     

Determination of 15 phthalate esters in air by gas-phase and particle-phase simultaneous sampling

Based on previous research, the sampling and analysis methods for phthalate esters (PAEs) were improved by increasing the sampling flow of indoor air from 1 to 4 L/min, shortening the sampling duration from 8 to 2 hr. Meanwhile, through the optimization of chromatographic conditions, the concentrations of 9 additional PAE pollutants in indoor air were measured. The optimized chromatographic conditions required a similar amount of time for analysis as before, but gave high responsivity, the capability of simultaneously distinguishing 15 kinds of PAEs, and a high level of discrimination between individual sample peaks, as well as stable peak generation. The recovery rate of all gas-phase and particle-phase samples of the 15 kinds of PAEs ranged from 91.26% to 109.42%, meeting the quantitative analysis requirements for indoor and outdoor air sampling and analysis. For the first time, investigation of the concentration levels as well as characteristics of 15 kinds of PAEs in the indoor air from four different traffic micro-environments (private vehicles, busses, taxis and subways) was carried out, along with validation of the optimized sampling and analytical method. The results show that all the 9 additional PAEs could be detected at relatively high pollution levels in the indoor air from the four traffic micro-environments. As none of the pollution levels of the 15 kinds of PAEs in the indoor air from the 4 traffic micro-environments should be neglected, it is of great significance to increase the types of PAEs able to be detected in indoor air.     

Quantifying public health benefits of environmental strategy of PM2.5 air quality management in Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region, China

In 2013,China issued "Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan(Action Plan)" to improve air quality.To assess the benefits of this program in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei(BTH)region,where the density of population and emissions vary greatly,we simulated the air quality benefit based on Ben MAP to satisfy the Action Plan.In this study,we estimate PM_(2.5) concentration using Voronoi spatial interpolation method on a grid with a spatial resolution of 1 × 1 km~2.Combined with the exposure-response function between PM_(2.5) concentration and health endpoints,health effects of PM_(2.5) exposure are analyzed.The economic loss is assessed by using the willingness to pay(WTP) method and human capital(HC) method.When the PM_(2.5) concentration falls by 25% in BTH and reached 60 μg/m~3 in Beijing,the avoiding deaths will be in the range of 3175 to 14051 based on different functions each year.Of the estimated mortality attributable to all causes,3117 annual deaths were due to lung cancer,1924 – 6318 annual deaths were due to cardiovascular,and343 – 1697 annual deaths were due to respiratory.Based on WTP,the estimated monetary values for the avoided cases of all cause mortality,cardiovascular mortality,respiratory mortality and lung cancer ranged from 1110 to 29632,673 to 13325,120 to 3579,1091 to 6574 million yuan,respectively.Based on HC,the corresponding values for the avoided cases of these four mortalities were 267 to 1178,161 to 529,29 to 143 and 261 million yuan,respectively.     

Predicting vehicle fuel consumption patterns using floating vehicle data

The status of energy consumption and air pollution in China is serious. It is important to analyze and predict the different fuel consumption of various types of vehicles under different influence factors. In order to fully describe the relationship between fuel consumption and the impact factors, massive amounts of floating vehicle data were used. The fuel consumption pattern and congestion pattern based on large samples of historical floating vehicle data were explored, drivers'' information and vehicles'' parameters from different group classification were probed, and the average velocity and average fuel consumption in the temporal dimension and spatial dimension were analyzed respectively. The fuel consumption forecasting model was established by using a Back Propagation Neural Network. Part of the sample set was used to train the forecasting model and the remaining part of the sample set was used as input to the forecasting model.     

In-situ synthesis of TiO2 rutile/anatase heterostructure by DC magnetron sputtering at room temperature and thickness effect of outermost rutile layer on photocatalysis

TiO_2 rutile/anatase heterostructure thin films with varying rutile thickness have been in-situ synthesized via DC magnetron sputtering with Ar gas at room temperature. The crystal texture, surface morphology, energy gap and optical properties of the films have been investigated by X-ray diffraction meter, grazing incidence X-ray diffraction meter, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and UV–visible spectrophotometer, which indicates that the rutile/anatase heterostructure films are successfully fabricated. The further degradation experiments display that the photocatalytic activity can be dramatically affected by the thickness of the outmost rutile layer and the 100 nm thickness exhibits the best performance in all of the TiO_2 thin films. With the increase of the outmost rutile layer, the optical band gap of TiO_2 film displays a systematic decrease slightly. However,the change in photocatalytic activity does not coincide with that in the band gap. The photoresponse and electrochemical properties of the thin films have been characterized to understand the mechanism of the varied photocatalytic activity.     

闲置厌氧氨氧化微生物的启动及微生物分析

文章以闲置12个月的厌氧氨氧化生物膜填料重新启动厌氧氨氧化反应器,并对反应器的活性恢复情况、脱氮效果和微生物菌群结构开展研究。实验结果表明:在启动的200 d逐渐将进水氨氮、亚硝态氮浓度从50 mg/L提高到70 mg/L,水力停留时间从12 h缩短到4 h,后期氨氮去除率达80%以上,亚硝酸盐去除率达95%。170~200 d的稳定期中,平均去除负荷0.71±0.15 kg/(m~3·d)。另外,通过高通量测序技术对反应器中微生物群落变化情况进行了系统分析。启动过程中填料中污泥微生物浮霉菌门Planctomyctes的相对丰度从13.7%增长到了36.0%,成为优势菌群。