Use of historical and contemporary distribution of mammals in China to inform conservation

A systematic understanding of dynamic animal extinction trajectories for different regions in a nation like China is critically important to developing practical conservation strategies. We explored historical and contemporary changes in terrestrial mammalian diversity to determine how diversity in each of the 5 regions in China has changed over time and to examine the conservation potential of these regions. We used records from databases on Pleistocene mammalian fossils and historical distribution records (1175–2020) for Primates (as a case study) to reconstruct evolutionary and historical distribution trajectories of the 11 orders of terrestrial mammals and to predict their prospective survival based on the national conservation strategy applied. The results indicated that since the Pleistocene, 4–5 mammalian orders have been lost in the northeast, 3 in central China, 2 along the coast, and 1 in the northwest. In the southwest, all 11 orders were maintained. Contemporarily, the coast and southwest had the highest and second-highest species densities. The southwest region and southeastern sections of the northwest region were the most historically and contemporarily diverse areas, which suggests that they should be the first priority for protected area (PA) designation. The central and coastal areas should be secondarily prioritized. In these 2 regions, conservation should focus on human coexistence with nature. Less attention should be paid to the PA in the northeast and western northwest because in these areas ecosystems are depauperate and the climate is harsh. Conservation in these areas should focus principally on avoiding further human encroachment on natural areas. Article impact statement: Historical and contemporary patterns of extinction can be a basis for mammalian conservation strategies.     

Treatment and desalination of domestic wastewater for water reuse in a four-chamber microbial desalination cell

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Microbial desalination cells (MDCs) have been studied for contaminant removal from wastewater and salinity reduction in saline water. However, in an...     

Bio-drying and size sorting of municipal solid waste with high water content for improving energy recovery

Bio-drying can enhance the sortability and heating value of municipal solid waste (MSW), consequently improving energy recovery. Bio-drying followed by size sorting was adopted for MSW with high water content to improve its combustibility and reduce potential environmental pollution during the follow-up incineration. The effects of bio-drying and waste particle size on heating values, acid gas and heavy metal emission potential were investigated. The results show that, the water content of MSW decreased from 73.0% to 48.3% after bio-drying, whereas its lower heating value (LHV) increased by 157%. The heavy metal concentrations increased by around 60% due to the loss of dry materials mainly resulting from biodegradation of food residues. The bio-dried waste fractions with particle size higher than 45 mm were mainly composed of plastics and papers, and were preferable for the production of refuse derived fuel (RDF) in view of higher LHV as well as lower heavy metal concentration and emission. However, due to the higher chlorine content and HCl emission potential, attention should be paid to acid gas and dioxin pollution control. Although LHVs of the waste fractions with size <45 mm increased by around 2× after bio-drying, they were still below the quality standards for RDF and much higher heavy metal pollution potential was observed. Different incineration strategies could be adopted for different particle size fractions of MSW, regarding to their combustibility and pollution property.     

Impacts of land use change on ecosystem service value in Lijiang River Basin,China

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - It is of great significance for the coordinated development of the environment and the economy to study the impact of the human driving factors of...     

Environmental knowledge,behaviors, and attitudes regarding caffeine consumption among Chinese university students from the perspective of ecopharmacovigilance

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Caffeine is considered the most representative pharmaceutical emerging contaminant (PEC) because of its ubiquity, high environmental abundance,...     

The interaction effects of FEN1 rs174538 polymorphism and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon exposure on damage in exon 19 and 21 of EGFR gene in coke oven workers

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure and genetic susceptibility were conductive to genotoxic effects including gene damage, which can increase mutational probability. We aimed to explore the dose-effect associations of PAH exposure with damage of exons of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and breast cancer susceptibility gene 1 (BRCA1), as well as their associations whether modified by Flap endonuclease 1 (FEN1) genotype. Two hundred eighty-eight coke oven male workers were recruited, and we detected the concentration of 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OH-pyr) as PAH exposure biomarker in urine and examined base modification in exons of EGFR and BRCA1 respectively, and genotyped FEN1 rs174538 polymorphism in plasma. We found that the damage indexes of exon 19 and 21 of EGFR (EGFR-19 and EGFR-21) were both significantly associated with increased urinary 1-OH-pyr (both P_trend < 0.001). The levels of urinary 1-OH-pyr were both significantly associated with increased EGFR-19 and EGFR-21 in both smokers and nonsmokers (both P < 0.001). Additionally, we observed that the urinary 1-OH-pyr concentrations were linearly associated with both EGFR-19 and EGFR-21 only in rs174538 GA+AA genotype carriers (both P < 0.001). Moreover, FEN1rs rs174538 showed modifying effects on the associations of urinary 1-OH-pyr with EGFR-19 and EGFR-21 (both P_interaction < 0.05). Our findings revealed the linear dose-effect association between exon damage of EGFR and PAH exposure and highlight differences in genetic contributions to exon damage and have the potential to identify at-risk subpopulations who are susceptible to adverse health effects induced by PAH exposure.

     

Research progress on the association between environmental pollutants and the resistance mechanism of PARP inhibitors in ovarian cancer

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The occurrence and progression of ovarian cancer are closely related to genetics and environmental pollutants. Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP)...     

Metal distribution characteristic of MSWI bottom ash in view of metal recovery

Bottom ash is the major by-product of municipal solid waste incineration(MSWI), and is often reused as an engineering material, such as road-base aggregate. However, some metals(especially aluminum) in bottom ash can react with water and generate gas that could cause expansion and failure of products containing the ash; these metals must be removed before the ash is utilized. The size distribution and the chemical speciation of metals in the bottom ash from two Chinese MSWI plants were examined in this study, and the recovery potential of metals from the ash was evaluated. The metal concentrations in these bottom ashes were lower than that generated in other developed countries. Specifically, the contents of Al,Fe, Cu and Zn were 18.9–29.2, 25.5–32.3, 0.7–1.0 and 1.6–2.5 g/kg, respectively. Moreover,44.9–57.0 wt.% of Al and 55.6–75.4 wt.% of Fe were distributed in bottom ash particles smaller than 5 mm. Similarly, 46.6–79.7 wt.% of Cu and 42.9–74.2 wt.% of Zn were concentrated in particles smaller than 3 mm. The Fe in the bottom ash mainly existed as hematite, and its chemical speciation was considered to limit the recovery efficiency of magnetic separation.     

北京市燃煤源排放控制措施的污染物减排效益评估

为分析北京市燃煤源排放控制措施的污染物减排效益,基于MEIC（中国多尺度排放清单模型）,采用情景分析法,评估了北京市电厂能源清洁化与末端治理、燃煤锅炉改造和城区平房区居民采暖改造等措施的污染物减排效益.结果表明,相对于无控情景,2013年北京市电厂能源清洁化与末端治理减少PM_2.5、PM₁₀、SO₂和NO_x排放量为1.28×104、2.10×104、5.13×104和4.98×104 t,分别占无控情景的85%、86%、87%、74%;北京市燃煤锅炉改造减少PM_2.5、PM₁₀、SO₂、NO_x排放量为1.09×104、2.68×104、11.64×104和5.81×104 t,分别占无煤改气情景的83%、89%、83%、83%;北京市老旧平房区的居民采暖改造减少PM_2.5、PM₁₀、SO₂和NO_x排放量分别为630、870、2 070和790 t,均占无煤改电情景的8%.研究显示,北京市从1998年开始采取的各种减排措施有效地减少了污染物的排放,对北京市空气质量改善具有重要意义.      

一种低功耗高性能数据采集数字处理平台的设计

目的构建一套基于中频信号基带数字信号处理的软件无线电平台。方法通过选择芯片设计硬件电路设计出合适的PCB板。结果主要依据软件无线电平台,提出了一种基于A/D+FPGA+D/A的硬件设计方案,该系统包括了前端的A/D数据采集和后端的D/A模拟数据恢复的详细收发电路原理设计。结论构建了一个从前端数据接收到后端模拟发送的高速基带数字信号处理平台。