Associations between soil lead concentrations and populations by race/ethnicity and income-to-poverty ratio in urban and rural areas

Lead (Pb) is a well-studied environmental contaminant that has many negative health effects, especially for children. Both racial/ethnic and income disparities have been documented with respect to exposure to Pb in soils. The objectives of this study were to assess whether soil Pb concentrations in rural and urban areas of South Carolina USA, previously identified as having clusters of intellectual disabilities (ID) in children, were positively associated with populations of minority and low-income individuals and children (≤6 years of age). Surface soils from two rural and two urban areas with identified clusters of ID were analyzed for Pb and concentrations were spatially interpolated using inverse distance weighted analysis. Population race/ethnicity and income-to-poverty ratio (ITPR) from United States Census 2000 block group data were aerially interpolated by block group within each area. Urban areas had significantly higher concentrations of Pb than rural areas. Significant positive associations between black, non-Hispanic Latino, individuals and children ≤6 years of age and mean estimated Pb concentrations were observed in both urban (r = 0.38, p = 0.0007) and rural (r = 0.53, p = 0.04) areas. Significant positive associations also were observed between individuals and children with an ITPR < 1.00 and Pb concentrations, though primarily in urban areas. Racial/ethnic minorities and low ITPR individuals, including children, may be at elevated risk for exposure to Pb in soils.     

Species richness in a riparian plant community along the banks of the Xiangxi River,the Three Gorges region

The distribution of vascular plant species richness along an altitudinal gradient and their relationships with environmental variables, including slope, aspect, bank (flooding) height, and river width of the Xiangxi River, Hubei Province, were examined. Total vascular plant species richness changed with elevation: it increased at lower elevations, reached a maximum in the midreaches and decreased thereafter. In particular, tree and herbaceous species richness were related to altitude. Correlation analysis (Kendall's τ) between species richness and environmental variables indicated that the change in species richness in the riparian zone was determined by riparian environmental factors and characteristics of regional vegetation distribution along the altitudinal gradient. The low species richness at lower elevations resulted from seasonal flooding and human activities – agriculture and fuel collection – and the higher species richness in the midreaches reflected transitional zones in natural vegetation types that had had little disturbance. These results on species distribution in the riparian community could be utilized as a reference for restoration efforts to improve water quality of the emerging reservoir resulting from the Three Gorges Hydroelectric Dam project.     

Environmental and energy-related challenges to sustainable tourism in the United States and China

This article examines the relationship between tourism, energy, and environment. This article approaches tourism as a complex adaptive system composed of consumers, transportation providers, travel intermediaries, and destinations composed of multiple tourism-related companies and other stakeholder groups. Environmental and energy-related challenges of components to the system are examined as well as various units – the system as a whole, enterprises and individuals – within the system. A total of 92 peer-reviewed articles were studied that address ‘energy’ and ‘tourism’ published between 1974 and 2011. Also addressed are the impacts of social and cultural differences between the United States and China concerning responses to environmental and energy-related challenges. This article concludes with recommendations for addressing the challenges associated with such challenges, including building system capacity, technology development and adoption, support of individual behavior change, increasing understanding of the trade-offs and interactions within the system, and adoption of multidisciplinary approaches to these challenges within the tourism system.     

Space-time stick-breaking processes for small area disease cluster estimation

We propose a space-time stick-breaking process for the disease cluster estimation. The dependencies for spatial and temporal effects are introduced by using space-time covariate dependent kernel stick-breaking processes. We compared this model with the space-time standard random effect model by checking each model’s ability in terms of cluster detection of various shapes and sizes. This comparison was made for simulated data where the true risks were known. For the simulated data, we have observed that space-time stick-breaking process performs better in detecting medium- and high-risk clusters. For the real data, county specific low birth weight incidences for the state of South Carolina for the years 1997–2007, we have illustrated how the proposed model can be used to find grouping of counties of higher incidence rate.     

外源渗透保护剂对活性污泥耐盐能力的影响

高盐分是导致很多工业废水生物处理效率下降的主要因素之一。探讨在生物处理系统中添加渗透保护剂提高活性污泥耐盐能力的可行性。结果表明:添加海藻糖、谷氨酸、甜菜碱和钾离子能提供有效的渗透保护作用,减轻盐分对污泥降解活性的抑制,其中以甜菜碱的渗透保护效果最好。对于未经盐分驯化的非耐盐污泥,当NaCl质量分数为3%时,添加20 mg/L的甜菜碱可使其耗氧速率从9.5 mg/h提高到29.5 mg/h;对于经过盐分驯化的耐盐污泥,当NaCl质量分数为6%时,添加50 mg/L的甜菜碱可使其耗氧速率从10.5 mg/h提高到24.9 mg/h。当生物处理系统受到瞬时盐分冲击时,活性污泥中的微生物细胞可以快速吸收添加的甜菜碱而平衡外界渗透压,从而缩短活性污泥对高盐环境的适应期,减轻盐分对活性污泥的毒害。     

典型全氟辛烷磺酸盐(PFOS)替代品对土壤跳虫的生态毒性

利用土壤模式动物白符跳(Folsomia candida),评价4种PFOS替代产品,包括50%的全氟丁基有机铵盐阳离子表面活性剂(简称表面活性剂)、用调聚法合成的三防织物整理剂(含固率23.7%,简称织物三防整理剂)、用电解氟化法合成的C4织物及C6织物三防整理剂的生态毒性,目的是为筛选安全高效的PFOS替代品提供科学依据。研究表明,表面活性剂与三防织物整理剂对跳虫急性毒性的LC50(7d)分别为4959和1007mg·kg-1,而C4与C6整理剂对跳虫急性毒性的LC50(7d)均大于5000mg·kg-1;表面活性剂、织物三防整理剂与C4整理剂对跳虫慢性毒性的EC50(28d)分别为0.15、0.12和0.18mg·kg-1,而C6织物三防整理剂对跳虫慢性毒性的EC50(28d)大于1mg·kg-1;4种替代品生态毒性顺序为织物三防整理剂>表面活性剂>C4>C6织物三防整理剂。通过与本实验室PFOS生态毒性的研究结果比较发现,除织物三防整理剂,其余3种替代品对跳虫的生态毒性作用均小于PFOS,其中C6整理剂对跳虫的毒性最小,有望成为替代PFOS的环保型织物整理剂。     

冷藏技术对发光细菌活性及毒性测试性能的影响

由于发光细菌的在线毒性监测技术受到了细菌生物活性稳定性保持问题的制约,探索一种脱脂牛奶菌悬液冷藏复苏方法,以提高发光细菌活性的保持时间。比较了明亮发光杆菌新鲜菌液冷藏、冻干粉菌悬液冷藏和脱脂牛奶菌悬液冷藏对发光细菌生物活性的影响,同时,比较了不同渗透压调节液对菌悬液急性毒性测试的灵敏度和稳定性的影响。结果表明,质量分数为25%的脱脂牛奶可提高发光细菌生物活性的稳定性,菌悬液冷藏7d后复苏,相对发光率仍可达92%。2%NaCl和10%蔗糖为渗透压调节液时,冷藏至第7天的发光细菌脱脂牛奶菌悬液对重金属毒性测试的灵敏度,与新鲜菌液基本相同,但添加蔗糖降低了其对有机物的测试灵敏度。利用发光细菌脱脂牛奶冷藏菌悬液对Zn~(2+)进行连续7d的毒性测试,EC_(50)的变异系数小于15%,结果稳定性良好。     

啤酒废水同步脱氮除磷工艺启动研究

为了将短程硝化反硝化与A/O法除磷同时应用于SBR工艺处理啤酒废水,通过改变序批式反应器(SBR)工艺运行方式,使活性污泥依次经历厌氧、好氧、缺氧3个阶段,控制ρ(MLSS)=4 700 mg/L、pH=7.5～8.0、DO=0.3～0.5 mg/L(好氧阶段)。反应器内短程硝化反硝化同步除磷效果明显,氨氮去除率大于90%,亚硝酸盐积累率大于85%,磷去除率大于98%。试验结果表明短程硝化反硝化与A/O法除磷可同时应用于SBR工艺处理啤酒废水。     

Changes in CO2 flux for different recovery processes of desertification in the alpine meadows of Northwest Sichuan北大核心CSCD

Desertification has emerged as a serious threat to the alpine meadows of Northwest Sichuan in recent decades. Artificial vegetation had certain effects on desertification recovery, while how the CO2 flux changed and its reasons are still unclear. During the growing season in 2016 (i.e., from July to September), we selected the desertified alpine meadows with different recovery degrees, including the early stage of restoration, the middle stage of restoration, the late stage of restoration, and control (the unrecovered desertification meadow) as four transects. CO2 flux was measured by the instrument LI-8100, and the microenvironment factors that affected CO2 flux changes were analyzed. The results showed that the carbon sequestration function of desertified alpine meadows gradually increased with the degree of recovery. Net ecosystem exchange (NEE) were -1.61, -3.55, and -4.38 μmol m-2 s-1 in the early, mid-term, and late transects, respectively, and the most dramatic changes occurred from the early stage to mid-term stage, increasing by 120.50%. Both ecosystem respiration (ER) and soil respiration (SR) were enhanced significantly with restoration (P < 0.05). In mid or late July, NEE, ER, and SR reached their maximum values, and thereafter, the indicators varied to near zero (P < 0.05). During the whole growing season, the daily dynamic in CO2 flux for the control alpine meadow was mild and retained the trend of continuous release all day, but that in the desertified alpine meadow was a single peak pattern. Moreover, with restoration process, the peak of CO2 flux increased and reached a peak in the late stage of the recovery process. The regression analysis showed that there was a significant positive correlation between CO2 flux and vegetation coverage, aboveground biomass, and soil moisture (0-5 cm) (P < 0.01), and a weak correlation with 0-5-cm soil temperature (P < 0.01). This indicates that topsoil moisture (5 cm) is a more significant factor for CO2 flux than topsoil temperature during the growing season in the restoration of desertified alpine meadows in Northwest Sichuan. In general, the vegetation recovery significantly improved the carbon-sequestration ability of the desertified alpine meadows during the growing season in Northwest Sichuan, and at the middle stage of restoration, the carbon-sequestration ability improved significantly due to vegetation restoration and increase in topsoil (0-5 cm) moisture. © 2018 Science Press. All rights reserved.     

Cd~(2+)暴露对斑马鱼肝脏和卵巢抗氧化和免疫系统的影响及蓝LED光预暴露的保护作用

本研究探讨了急性镉暴露(Cd~(2+))对斑马鱼抗氧化和免疫系统的影响及蓝LED光源(LDB)预暴露的缓解作用。斑马鱼均分为2组,分别用白炽灯和LDB处理4周(辐照度为0.9 W·m-2)。4周后每组再分为2个小组,分别在白炽灯下用0和0.97 mg·L~(-1)Cd~(2+)的水体处理4 d。结果表明:Cd~(2+)暴露导致肝脏和卵巢丙二醛(MDA)和一氧化氮(NO)含量的显著升高。在肝脏中,Cd~(2+)暴露下调了铜锌超氧化物歧化酶(Cu/Zn-SOD)和过氧化氢酶(CAT)的酶活和m RNA表达水平,上调了环氧化酶2(COX-2)和诱导型一氧化氮合酶(i NOS)的表达和酶活。在卵巢中,Cd~(2+)导致Cu/Zn-SOD和CAT的表达,CAT、COX-2和i NOS的酶活显著升高。在卵巢中,LDB预暴露可显著缓解Cd~(2+)引起的MDA和NO含量、Cu/Zn-SOD的表达、CAT的表达和酶活、COX-2和i NOS的酶活的升高。在肝脏中,LDB预暴露不能影响Cd~(2+)引起的MDA和NO含量的升高,但是显著缓解了Cd~(2+)引起的Cu/Zn-SOD和CAT表达和酶活的下降和COX-2和i NOS表达的升高。在这些过程中,核转录相关因子2(Nrf2)和核转录因子-κB(NF-κB)与其目标基因的表达及其抑制因子Kelch样ECH联合蛋白1(Keap1a和Keap1b)和抑制蛋白激酶(IκBαa和IκBαb)显示了紧密的关联性。综上结果表明,斑马鱼急性Cd~(2+)暴露后,机体处于氧化应激状态,导致肝脏和卵巢氧化性损伤和炎症的产生,而LDB预暴露能够改善机体这种不利状态。这个过程可能分别涉及Nrf2和NF-κB诱导的抗氧化和免疫系统。