Interaction of nano-TiO2 with lysozyme: insights into the enzyme toxicity of nanosized particles

Background, aim, and scope  

Nanomaterials have been used increasingly in industrial production and daily life, but their human exposure may cause health risks. The interactions of nanomaterial with functional biomolecules are often applied as a precondition for its cytotoxicity and organ toxicity where various proteins have been investigated in the past years. In the present study, nano-TiO₂ was selected as the representative of nanomaterials and lysozyme as a representative for enzymes. By investigating their interaction by various instrumentations, the objective is to identify the action sites and types, estimate the effect on the enzyme structure and activity, and reveal the toxicity mechanism of nanomaterial.     

Formation of shaped barium sulfate-dye hybrids: waste dye utilization for eco-friendly treatment of wastewater

Purpose

Owing to the present complexity and difficulty of concentrated dye wastewater treatment, this work aimed to synthesize a reproducible waste-sorbing material for the treatment of wastewater by forming the dye-conjugating complex hybrid.

Methods

The inorganic/organic hybridization was applied to prepare the objective material by immobilizing waster dye-Mordant blue 9 (MB) with barium sulfate (BaSO₄). The composition and pattern of the formed material were determined by spectrometry and characterized by SEM and XRD, and their formation process was clarified. The adsorption of cationic dye-basic blue BO (BB) and copper ion was investigated..

Results

The hybrid of MB alone into growing BaSO₄ formed the pineapple-like particles while that of the MB/BB-conjugating complex was the rhombus material. The adsorption of BB on the MB–BaSO₄ hybrid was probably attributed to ion-pair equilibrium and that of Cu²⁺ may result from the complexation. The treatment of dye and heavy metal wastewaters indicated that the MB hybrid material removed 99.8% BB and 97% Cu²⁺ and the dye-conjugating hybrid with growing BaSO₄ 100% MB, 99.5% BB, and 44% Cu²⁺.

Conclusion

The waste MB–BaSO₄ hybrid material is efficient to treat cationic dye and Cu²⁺ wastewater. The dye-conjugating hybridization method is the first to be advanced for in situ wastewater treatment, and it showed a combined effect for the removal of both organic dyes and heavy metals.     

Turning calcium carbonate into a cost-effective wastewater-sorbing material by occluding waste dye

Background, aim, and scope  

Over the years, organic pollution in the environment has aroused people’s concern worldwide, especially persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Particularly in developing countries, plenty of concentrated organic wastewaters treated noneffectively are discharged into aquatic environments from chemical, textile, paper-making, and other industries to seriously threaten the surface and drinking water. The conventional wastewater treatment techniques are often helpless due to high cost with multilevel processing. Adsorption as an efficient method is often applied to the treatment of wastewater. The aim of this work is to develop an eco-friendly and cost-effective wastewater-sorbing material with weak acidic pink red B (APRB) and calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) by reusing highly concentrated dye wastewater.     

不同模糊评价方法在水环境质量评价中的应用比较

近年来,运用模糊评价方法对水质和水体营养化程度进行评价逐渐受到重视。目前,对模糊评价方法的研究多集中在实测数据标准化、权重的确定和模糊模式识别模型研究几个方面。以滇池历年营养物质数据为实测数据,通过对几种实测数据标准化方法、权重确定方法和模糊模式识别方法的组合应用,获得水环境质量模糊评价最优组合方法。结果表明,在评价方法中,实测数据标准化方法采用线性内插法,权重的确定采用超标倍数法,模糊模式识别模型采用广义海明距离和加权海明距离法,即采用超标倍数法的广义海明距离和加权海明距离法能够更真实反映水环境质量的实际情况。     

膨润土接枝丙烯酸高吸水性树脂的抑尘性能研究

在微波辐射下制备了膨润土接枝丙烯酸高吸水性树脂(SAP)(一种加入聚乙烯醇(PVA),另一种不加入PVA)。结果表明:(1)红外光谱图表明,PVA与聚合网络形成了半互穿网络结构;X射线衍射图表明,膨润土与PVA、丙烯酸形成了具有无定形结构的复合产物。(2)不论是沙土堆还是尘土堆,喷洒膨润土接枝丙烯酸SAP溶液的抑尘效果明显比喷洒自来水好;喷洒膨润土接枝丙烯酸SAP溶液的尘土堆的抑尘效果好于沙土堆。(3)在温度为15℃时,考虑到节约成本的问题,首选不加入PVA的膨润土接枝丙烯酸SAP做抑尘剂;在温度为45℃时,加入PVA的膨润土接枝丙烯酸SAP适合做抑尘剂。(4)膨润土接枝丙烯酸SAP浓度越高,其耐蒸发性越高。     

珠江三角洲潮土和水稻土酸缓冲特性试验研究

珠江三角洲潮土和水稻土对不同种类的酸具有一定的缓冲性,不同种类的酸对不同类型土壤的酸化趋势不同。大旺水稻土对酸的敏感性强于龙山潮土,龙山潮土属于稍易受害的稍敏感土壤,大旺水稻土属于易受害的敏感土壤;同一土壤对酸的缓冲能力比对碱的缓冲能力强;不同种类的酸对土壤的敏感性不同,土壤对硝酸的敏感性强于对硫酸的敏感性;土壤加酸后酸缓冲曲线和土壤中铝释放曲线的交点可以作为衡量土壤对酸敏感性的指标,交点越低,敏感性越强;加酸后土壤中铝的释放可以用模型y=nx+k来预测。     

South Pole Antarctica observations and modeling results: New insights on HOx radical and sulfur chemistry

Measurements of OH, H₂SO₄, and MSA at South Pole (SP) Antarctica were recorded as a part of the 2003 Antarctic Chemistry Investigation (ANTCI 2003). The time period 22 November, 2003–2 January, 2004 provided a unique opportunity to observe atmospheric chemistry at SP under both natural conditions as well as those uniquely defined by a solar eclipse event. Results under natural solar conditions generally confirmed those reported previously in the year 2000. In both years the major chemical driver leading to large scale fluctuations in OH was shifts in the concentration levels of NO. Like in 2000, however, the 2003 observational data were systematically lower than model predictions. This can be interpreted as indicating that the model mechanism is still missing a significant HO_x sink reaction(s); or, alternatively, that the OH calibration source may have problems. Still a final possibility could involve the integrity of the OH sampling scheme which involved a fixed building site. As expected, during the peak in the solar eclipse both NO and OH showed large decreases in their respective concentrations. Interestingly, the observational OH profile could only be approximated by the model mechanism upon adding an additional HO_x radical source in the form of snow emissions of CH₂O and/or H₂O₂. This would lead one to think that either CH₂O and/or H₂O₂ snow emissions represent a significant HO_x radical source under summertime conditions at SP. Observations of H₂SO₄ and MSA revealed both species to be present at very low concentrations (e.g., 5 × 10⁵ and 1 × 10⁵ molec cm^?3, respectively), but similar to those reported in 2000. The first measurements of SO₂ at SP demonstrated a close coupling with the oxidation product H₂SO₄. The observed low concentrations of MSA appear to be counter to the most recent thinking by glacio-chemists who have suggested that the plateau's lower atmosphere should have elevated levels of MSA. We speculate here that the absence of MSA may reflect efficient atmospheric removal mechanisms for this species involving either dynamical and/or chemical processes.     

Influence of regional development policies and clean technology adoption on future air pollution exposure

Future air pollution emissions in the year 2030 were estimated for the San Joaquin Valley (SJV) in central California using a combined system of land use, mobile, off-road, stationary, area, and biogenic emissions models. Four scenarios were developed that use different assumptions about the density of development and level of investment in transportation infrastructure to accommodate the expected doubling of the SJV population in the next 20 years. Scenario 1 reflects current land-use patterns and infrastructure while scenario 2 encouraged compact urban footprints including redevelopment of existing urban centers and investments in transit. Scenario 3 allowed sprawling development in the SJV with reduced population density in existing urban centers and construction of all planned freeways. Scenario 4 followed currently adopted land use and transportation plans for the SJV. The air quality resulting from these urban development scenarios was evaluated using meteorology from a winter stagnation event that occurred on December 15th, 2000 to January 7th 2001. Predicted base-case PM2.5 mass concentrations within the region exceeded 35 μg m^?3 over the 22-day episode. Compact growth reduced the PM2.5 concentrations by ～1 μg m^?3 relative to the base-case over most of the SJV with the exception of increases (～1 μg m^?3) in urban centers driven by increased concentrations of elemental carbon (EC) and organic carbon (OC). Low-density development increased the PM2.5 concentrations by 1–4 μg m^?3 over most of the region, with decreases (0.5–2 μg m^?3) around urban areas. Population-weighted average PM2.5 concentrations were very similar for all development scenarios ranging between 16 and 17.4 μg m^?3. Exposure to primary PM components such as EC and OC increased 10–15% for high density development scenarios and decreased by 11–19% for low-density scenarios. Patterns for secondary PM components such as nitrate and ammonium ion were almost exactly reversed, with a 10% increase under low-density development and a 5% decrease under high density development. The increased human exposure to primary pollutants such as EC and OC could be predicted using a simplified analysis of population-weighted primary emissions. Regional planning agencies should develop thresholds of population-weighted primary emissions exposure to guide the development of growth plans. This metric will allow them to actively reduce the potential negative impacts of compact growth while preserving the benefits.     

Assessment of the uncertainty of using an inverse-dispersion technique to measure methane emissions from animals in a barn and in a small pen

Dispersion techniques are useful for assessing the effectiveness of management practices in mitigating methane (CH₄) emissions from animal operations. In this paper, the accuracy of an inverse-dispersion technique was examined for two common situations: 1) emissions from animals in a barn and 2) emissions from animals in a pen. For both situations, the accuracy of emission estimates generally increased with increasing fetch (scaled to barn height, h, or to pen width, X_s) between the source and the concentration measurement. The gas recovery ratio increased from 0.66 at 5 h to 0.93–1.03 at 10 h–25 h for the barn, and decreased from 1.59 at 0 X_s to 0.99 at 5 X_s and from 1.54 at 0 X_s to 1.09 at 5 X_s for the two small pen scenarios, due to the declining sensitivity of the dispersion model to errors in wind complexity and errors in the assumed source configuration. However, the relative uncertainty of the measured concentration increased with fetch due to the decreasing gas concentrations. Hence, improving the accuracy of emission estimates is a compromise between the source configuration sensitivity and the concentration measurement sensitivity. Fetches of about twice the size of the pen and about 10 times the height of the barn are suggested.     

钢渣吸附处理苯酚废水的研究

采用恒温振荡的方法,考察了钢渣粒径、吸附温度、振荡速度、溶液pH值、溶液初始浓度对苯酚去除率的影响。结果表明,在粒径为120~180目、pH=4.0、苯酚溶液浓度在500 mg/L以内、苯酚/钢渣质量比为1∶1 000时吸附效果最好。钢渣对苯酚的吸附能较好地符合Langmuir和Freundlich吸附等温线,线性相关系数分别为0.9971和0.9916,吸附机理为表面吸附。