关于拆除爆破的几点建议

随着科技进步和社会经济的飞速发展 ,在城市改 (扩 )建过程中 ,拆除建筑 (构 )物的爆破工程被广泛应用 ,而爆破安全却日益引起人们重视。笔者分析了我国城市建 (构 )筑物拆除爆破的安全现状 ,指出了城市建筑与危房在爆破拆除中存在的问题 ,提出了相应的一些改进办法和建议     

列车安全操纵仿真系统的研究

探讨了列车牵引力学条件下的铁路列车安全操纵问题 ,开发了一套可用于不同运行条件下的列车安全操纵仿真软件。重点介绍了系统的主体结构、功能模块以及列车安全操纵的计算模型 ,详细描述了在一个时间步长内如何确定列车的工况、手柄位以及停车制动的仿真算法 ,并在实际线路上对电力机车进行了实例分析。系统计算速度快 ,人工干预方便 ,效果良好 ,可以满足现场的实际需求。     

航空维修差错分析及其管理

航空维修差错是诱发或直接导致飞行事故最重要的原因之一 ,对维修差错进行分类和分析有助于航空安全。笔者在分析航空维修环境变化的基础上 ,基于Reason模型构建了维修差错分类与诱因分析的框架 ,并结合机务维修的实际情况 ,对框架所包括的不安全行为、不安全行为的先兆、不安全的管理及组织因素进行了初步编码。文章还简要论述了维修差错的管理技术 ,指出借助框架编制详细的差错分类与分析编码系统是发展的方向。     

木材防腐剂使用与环境安全性

笔者概述了国内外木材防腐剂研究与环境安全性状况 ,讨论了一些常用木材防腐剂的毒性与防腐剂对环境的安全性影响的主要途径 ,分析了木材防腐剂在制备生产中、使用过程中、废弃防腐木材处理以及通过生物体富集和食物链循环产生毒性对环境的污染。介绍了美国木材保护者协会AWPA有关木材防腐处理安全性规范和AWPA木材防腐处理标准 ,并简要论述了低毒和环境无害木材防腐、防蓝药剂的研究进展 ,对国内木材防腐剂研制开发提出了建议。     

基于地理信息系统的UPMIS安全设计

重点论述基于地理信息系统 (GIS)的城市路面管理信息系统 (UPMIS)安全设计的主要思路。即对城市道路具体路面的有关属性编码之后 ,通过GIS信息平台将路面空间属性与路面属性数据联系起来生成路面空间信息系统。从而使路面的管理与道路的地理信息相结合 ,使管理更加直接、形象。并且将研究应用到秦皇岛市路面管理系统的设计中 ,效果很好。笔者通过研究 ,为城市道路信息可视化管理作一些有益的探索。     

Arsenic exposure in Hungary, Romania and Slovakia

Inorganic arsenic is a potent human carcinogen and toxicant which people are exposed to mainly via drinking water and food. The objective of the present study was to assess current exposure to arsenic via drinking water in three European countries. For this purpose, 520 individuals from four Hungarian, two Slovakian and two Romanian countries were investigated by measuring inorganic arsenic and methylated arsenic metabolites in urine by high performance liquid chromatography with hydride generation and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Arsenic in drinking water was determined by atomic absorption spectrometry. Significantly higher concentrations of arsenic were found in both the water and the urine samples from the Hungarian counties (median: 11 and 15 microg dm(-3), respectively; p < 0.001) than from the Slovakian (median: 0.94 and 4.5 microg dm(-3), respectively) and Romanian (median: 0.70 and 2.1 microg dm(-3), respectively) counties. A significant correlation was seen between arsenic in water and arsenic in urine (R(2)= 0.46). At low water arsenic concentrations, the relative amount of dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) in urine was increased, indicating exposure via food. Also, high body mass index was associated with higher concentrations of arsenic in urine (p= 0.03), mostly in the form of DMA. Smokers had significantly higher urinary arsenic concentrations than non-smokers (p= 0.03). In conclusion, elevated arsenic exposure via drinking water was prevalent in some of the counties. Exposure to arsenic from food, mainly as DMA, and cigarette smoke, mainly as inorganic arsenic, are major determinants of arsenic exposure at very low concentrations of arsenic in drinking water.     

Reviving wood-pastures for biodiversity and people: A case study from western Estonia

Wood-pastures are associated with high cultural and biodiversity values in Europe. However, due to their relatively low productivity, large areas of wood-pastures have been lost over the last century. In some areas, incentive schemes have been developed to revive wood-pastures. We investigated the effects of one such scheme in western Estonia. We compared the structure of grazed wood-pastures (old and restored) to those of abandoned wood-pastures and ungrazed forest stands to explore the effects of management, and conducted interviews with 24 farmers to investigate their motivations to carry out the management. We found a positive influence of active management on the semi-open structure of wood-pastures. Financial support was vital for management, but personal values related to tradition also played an important role. The interviewees differed widely in their range of motivations, suggesting that other strategies in addition to financial incentives would further improve the management of wood-pastures in the region.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-015-0719-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Integral assessment of estrogenic potentials in sediment-associated samples

Background, aim, and scope  The enzyme-linked receptor assay (ELRA) detects estrogenic and anti-estrogenic effects at the molecular level of receptor binding and is a useful tool for the integrative assessment of ecotoxicological potentials caused by hormonally active agents (HAA) and endocrine disrupting compounds (EDC). The main advantage of the ELRA is its high sample throughput and its robustness against cytotoxicity and microbial contamination. After a methodological adaptation to salinity of the ELRA, according to the first part of this study, which increased its salinity tolerance and sensitivity for 17-β-estradiol, the optimised ELRA was used to investigate 13 native sediments characterised by different levels of salinity and chemical contamination. The applicability of the ELRA for routine analysis in environmental assessment was evaluated. Salinity is often a critical factor for bioassays in ecotoxicological sediment assessment. Therefore, salinity of the samples was additionally adjusted to different levels to characterise its influence on elution and binding processes of receptor-binding substances. Materials and methods  The ELRA was carried out with the human estrogen receptor α (ER) in a 96-well microplate format using the experimental setup known from the competitive immunoassay based on ligand–protein interaction. It is an important improvement that a physiologically relevant receptor was used as a linking protein instead of an antibody. The microplates were coated with a 17-β-estradiol-BSA conjugate, and dilution series of estradiol and of native sediment samples were added and incubated with the ER. After a washing step, a biotinylated mouse anti-ER antibody was added to each well. Receptor binding to estradiol, agonistic and antagonistic receptor binding, were determined by a streptavidin-POD-biotin complex with subsequent measurement of the peroxidase activity at the wavelength of 450 nm using a commercial ELISA multiplate reader. The sediment elutriates and pore water samples of sediments were tested in a dilution series to evaluate at which dilution step the receptor-binding potential ends. In the elution process (see Section 2.1 to 2.2), a method was developed to adjust the salinity to the levels of the reference testings, which offers an appropriate option to adjust the salinity in both directions. Statistical evaluation was made with a combination of the Mann–Whitney U test and the pT-method. Results  This part of the study characterised the environmental factor ‘salinity’ for prospective applications of the ELRA. Using reference substances such as 17-β-estradiol, the ELRA showed sigmoid concentration-effect relations over a broad range from 0.05 μg/l to 100 μg/l under physiological conditions. After methodological optimisation, both sensitivity and tolerance of the assay against salinity could be significantly raised, and the ELRA became applicable under salinity conditions up to concentrations of 20.5‰. The mean relative inter-test error (n = 3) was around 11% with reference substances and below 5% for single sediments elutriates in three replicates each. For sediment testings, the pore water and different salinity-adjusted elutriates of 13 sediments were used. A clear differentiation of the receptor-binding potential could be reached by application of the pT-method. Thereby, pT-values from one to six could be assigned to the sediments, and the deviation caused by the different salinity conditions was one pT-value. The mean standard deviation in the salinity adaptation procedure of the elutriates was below 5%. Discussion  Although the ELRA has already been used for assessments of wastewater, sludge and soil, its applicability for samples to different salinity levels has not been investigated so far. Even if the ELRA is not as sensitive as the E-screen or the YES-assay, with regard to reference substances like 17-β-estradiol, it is a very useful tool for pre-screening, because it is able to integrate both estrogenic as well as anti-estrogenic receptor-binding effects. According to the results of sediment testing, and given the integrative power to detect different directions of effects, the ELRA shows sufficient sensitivity and salinity tolerance to discriminate receptor-binding potentials in environmental samples. Conclusions  The optimised ELRA assay is a fast, cost-effective, reliable and highly reproducible tool that can be used for high-throughput screening in a microplate format in detecting both estrogenic and anti-estrogenic effects. Additionally, the ELRA is robust against microbial contaminations, and is not susceptible towards cytotoxic interferences like the common cell-culture methods. The general applicability and sufficient sensitivity of the ELRA was shown in freshwater environments. Marine and brackish samples can be measured up to salinity levels of 20.5‰. Recommendations and perspectives  In view of the proven sensitivity, functionality and the fastness of the ELRA, it is recommendable to standardise the test method. At the moment, no adequate in vitro test procedure exists which is standardised to DIN or ISO levels. The E-screen and the yeast estrogen/androgen screens (YES/YAS) sometimes underlie strong cytotoxic effects, as reported in the first part of this study. Further development of an ELRA assay using human androgen receptors appears to be very promising to gain information about androgenic and anti-androgenic effects, too. This would offer a possibility to use the ELRA as a fast and reliable pre-screening tool for the detection of endocrine potentials, thus minimising time and cost-expensive animal experiments.     

Investigating Jacaranda mimosifolia tree as biomonitor of atmospheric trace metals

Studies on the use of tree bark as biomonitors for environmental pollutants are still very scarce. We evaluated the reliability of using Jacaranda mimosifolia, a common tree in Tshwane City of South Africa, as a suitable biomonitor of atmospheric trace metals. Bark samples were collected from ten different locations during two sampling periods. The concentrations of the metals were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The concentrations of the metals were 33.2–1,795 μg/g (Pb), 21.4–210 μg/g (Cu), 68.4–490 μg/g (Zn), 30.6–2,916 μg/g (Cr), 0.12–1.34 μg/g (Cd), and 6.04–68.0 μg/g (V), respectively. The differences obtained for the results from different sites were significant (p?< 0.05). A significant difference was also observed between the two sampling periods. The trace metals concentrations suggested that automobile emissions are a major source of these metals. The study also confirms the suitability of J. mimosifolia as a biomonitor of atmospheric deposition of these metals.