Impact of eco-city construction on firm innovation in the case of China

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - More and more scholars have paid attention to the importance of coordinated development between ecological environmental protection and economy....     

Dynamic of inorganic nitrogen and amino sugar to glucosamine addition in forest soils

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Amino sugars (AS) are routinely used as microbial biomarkers to investigate the dynamics of soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) under different...     

Responses of antioxidant systems and LPO level to benzo(a)pyrene and benzo(k)fluoranthene in the haemolymph of the scallop Chlamys ferrari

The effects of benzo(a)pyrene (BaP), benzo(k)fluoranthene (BkF) and their mixture on antioxidant enzyme activities and lipid peroxidation (LPO) levels of haemolymph of scallop (Chlamys ferrari) were studied. The superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities of 0.5 microg/L and 1.0 microg/L were significantly higher than controls (P<0.05), while it increased at beginning and then dropped (lower than controls) in the end at 10.0 microg/L and 50.0 microg/L PAHs groups. The catalase (CAT) activities were very little during the whole experimental time. The glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities in each PAHs group all increased significantly (P<0.05). LPO levels all increased significantly (P<0.05) with time at each PAHs group except for the 0.5 microg/L group of less than hour 12. The toxicity of PAHs in a descending order was BaP>BkF>mixture of BaP and BkF. The changes in antioxidant enzyme activities and LPO level in haemolymph could reflect the detoxification functions and damage levels of whole organism.     

Modification of light utilization for skeletal growth by water flow in the scleractinian coral <Emphasis Type="Italic">Galaxea fascicularis</Emphasis>

In this study, we tested the hypothesis that the importance of water flow for skeletal growth (rate) becomes higher with increasing irradiance levels (i.e. a synergistic effect) and that such effect is mediated by a water flow modulated effect on net photosynthesis. Four series of nine nubbins of G. fascicularis were grown at either high (600 μE m⁻² s⁻¹) or intermediate (300 μE m⁻² s⁻¹) irradiance in combination with either high (15–25 cm s⁻¹) or low (5–10 cm s⁻¹) flow. Growth was measured as buoyant weight and surface area. Photosynthetic rates were measured at each coral’s specific experimental irradiance and flow speed. Additionally, the instantaneous effect of water flow on net photosynthetic rate was determined in short-term incubations in a respirometric flowcell. A significant interaction was found between irradiance and water flow for the increase in buoyant weight, the increase in surface area, and specific skeletal growth rate, indicating that flow velocity becomes more important for coral growth with increasing irradiance levels. Enhancement of coral growth with increasing water flow can be explained by increased net photosynthetic rates. Additionally, the need for costly photo-protective mechanisms at low flow regimes could explain the differences in growth with flow.     

Empirical analysis on contribution share of safety investment to economic growth: A case study of Chinese mining industry

Insufficient investment in safety is one of the most important reasons which lead to frequent accidents in Chinese mining industry. Safety input has long been regarded as a ‘sunk cost’, lacking output, and little attention from mining companies was focused on increasing safety input according to technical codes or technical requirements due to the narrow understanding on safety input. So, the empirical analysis on the contribution share of safety investment to economic growth is very important. In this paper, a new set of production safety indexes including six 1-level indexes for describing the safety level of mining production in China was constructed on the basis of Granger causality test. Meanwhile, a mining economic growth model was constructed on the basis of the new production safety indexes with co-integration theory and dynamic modeling system. The empirical results show that the production safety factor in the short term indeed drives the GDP growth in the mining industry although labor and capital input remain the major factors impacting mining economic growth, and its long term contribution share is 7.7%. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of production safety indexes, shows that the safety level of mining production increased more than 21-fold during 1991–2009, and the investment in mining technology development capability, mining safety production environment and mechanized level of mining should be the direction to focus for improving the safety level of mining production.     

Reliability analysis of subsea blowout preventer control systems subjected to multiple error shocks

Two configurations of subsea blowout preventer (BOP) distributed control systems, which are triple modular redundancy (TMR) control system and double dual modular redundancy (DDMR) control system, are presented. With respect to common-cause failures, the performances of the two systems are evaluated by using Markov method with multiple error shock model. Due to the complexity, each system is split into three independent modules, and the corresponding Markov models are proposed subsequently. The probability of failure on demand, availability and reliability of the systems are evaluated by merging the independent Markov modules by Kronecker product approach. The results indicate that a same safety integrity level of SIL3 can be attained for the two configurations, which satisfies the requirement of subsea BOP control system, even though both of them have some advantages and shortcomings. In addition, for TMR control system, the effects of multiplicity distribution of multiple error shock and mean time to repair on reliability performances are studied.     

Performance analysis and life cycle greenhouse gas emission assessment of an integrated gravitational-flow wastewater treatment system for rural areas

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Due to the lack of appropriate wastewater treatment facility in rural areas, the discharging of wastewater without sufficient treatment results in...     

Translocation of threatened plants as a conservation measure in China

We assessed the current status of plant conservation translocation efforts in China, a topic poorly reported in recent scientific literature. We identified 222 conservation translocation cases involving 154 species, of these 87 were Chinese endemic species and 101 (78%) were listed as threatened on the Chinese Species Red List. We categorized the life form of each species and, when possible, determined for each case the translocation type, propagule source, propagule type, and survival and reproductive parameters. A surprisingly large proportion (26%) of the conservation translocations in China were conservation introductions, largely implemented in response to large‐scale habitat destruction caused by the Three‐Gorge Dam and another hydropower project. Documentation and management of the translocations varied greatly. Less than half the cases had plant survival records. Statistical analyses showed that survival percentages were significantly correlated with plant life form and the type of planting materials. Thirty percent of the cases had records on whether or not individuals flowered or fruited. Results of information theoretic model selection indicated that plant life form, translocation type, propagule type, propagule source, and time since planting significantly influenced the likelihood of flowering and fruiting on the project level. We suggest that the scientific‐based application of species conservation translocations should be promoted as part of a commitment to species recovery management. In addition, we recommend that the common practice of within and out of range introductions in nature reserves to be regulated more carefully due to its potential ecological risks. We recommend the establishment of a national office and database to coordinate conservation translocations in China. Our review effort is timely considering the need for a comprehensive national guideline for the newly announced nation‐wide conservation program on species with extremely small populations, which is expected to stimulate conservation translocations for many species in the near future.     

Effect of composition and microstructure of humic acid on 3,3′,4,4′-tetrachlorobiphenyl sorption

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The fate and transport of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a class of persistent organic compounds, in soils was markedly affected by their...