Protecting people and property: the influence of land-use planners on flood hazard mitigation in New Urbanist developments

Research suggests that characteristics of local government land-use planners help determine the priority that local communities place on flood hazard mitigation. However, research has not examined the significance of land-use planners' values and role orientations for flood hazard mitigation. Multiple regression analysis is used to examine the influence that land-use planners' values and role orientations have on flood hazard mitigation in a national sample of New Urbanist development projects. Findings indicate that land-use planners' values and role orientations have significant implications for flood hazard mitigation in these projects. The paper recommends that local governments adopt a land-use planning approach to flood hazard mitigation that relies on land-use planners to help direct development away from hazardous portions of development sites.     

火灾事故发展趋势预测方法的应用研究

介绍了三种火灾事故发展趋势预测方法：灰色理论预测法、指数平滑法和马尔科夫预测法。结合贵州省1997至2006年火灾四项指标统计数据,探讨了三种预测方法对不同波动幅度数据序列的适用性;给出了贵州省未来两年火灾的发展趋势,可为当地制定正确地防止火灾发生的决策提供重要的参考依据。此外,还对每种方法在预测过程中值得注意的问题进行了讨论。     

Numerical simulations of heat and moisture transport in thermal protective clothing under flash fire conditions.

A numerical model of heat and moisture transport in thermal protective clothing during exposure to a flash fire was introduced. The model was developed with the assumption that textiles are treated as porous media. The numerical model predictions were compared with experimental data from different fabric systems and configurations. Additionally, with the introduction of a skin model, the parameters that affect the performance of thermal protective clothing were investigated.     

The MANAGE database: nutrient load and site characteristic updates and runoff concentration data

The "Measured Annual Nutrient loads from AGricultural Environments" (MANAGE) database was developed to be a readily accessible, easily queried database of site characteristic and field-scale nutrient export data. The original version of MANAGE, which drew heavily from an early 1980s compilation of nutrient export data, created an electronic database with nutrient load data and corresponding site characteristics from 40 studies on agricultural (cultivated and pasture/range) land uses. In the current update, N and P load data from 15 additional studies of agricultural runoff were included along with N and P concentration data for all 55 studies. The database now contains 1677 watershed years of data for various agricultural land uses (703 for pasture/rangeland; 333 for corn; 291 for various crop rotations; 177 for wheat/oats; and 4-33 yr for barley, citrus, vegetables, sorghum, soybeans, cotton, fallow, and peanuts). Across all land uses, annual runoff loads averaged 14.2 kg ha(-1) for total N and 2.2 kg ha(-1) for total P. On average, these losses represented 10 to 25% of applied fertilizer N and 4 to 9% of applied fertilizer P. Although such statistics produce interesting generalities across a wide range of land use, management, and climatic conditions, regional crop-specific analyses should be conducted to guide regulatory and programmatic decisions. With this update, MANAGE contains data from a vast majority of published peer-reviewed N and P export studies on homogeneous agricultural land uses in the USA under natural rainfall-runoff conditions and thus provides necessary data for modeling and decision-making related to agricultural runoff. The current version can be downloaded at http://www.ars.usda.gov/spa/manage-nutrient.     

阳离子表面活性剂十六烷基三甲基溴化铵对酞酸酯类化合物增溶性研究

用阳离子表面活性剂十六烷基三甲基溴化铵对六种酞酸酯类化合物(五种脂肪链酞酸酯和一种苯基酞酸酯)进行了增溶性实验．结果表明,在表观浓度(Ｃｓ)小于临界胶速浓度(ＣＭＣ)时,十六烷基三甲基溴化铵对四种酞酸酯(ＤＭＰ和ＤＰｈＰ除外)有一定程度的增溶作用;当Ｃｓ大于ＣＭＣ时,对六种化合物的增溶性显著增强．其增溶性(Ｓｔ/Ｓｗ)随Ｃｓ增大而线性递增:当Ｃｓ＜ＣＭＣ时,Ｓｔ/Ｓｗ＝ａ＋Ｋｍｎ·Ｃｓ,ｒ＞０．９０,ｎ＝５;当Ｃｓ＞ＣＭＣ时,Ｓｔ/Ｓｗ＝ａ＋Ｋｍｃ·Ｃｓ,ｒ＞０．９９,ｎ＝５． 各化合物增溶系数随各自固有水溶性(Ｓｗ)减小而增大(苯基酞酸酯有所反常),ｌｇＫｍｎ和ｌｇＫｍｃ与各自ｌｇｌ/Ｓｗ具有良好的线性正相关性．本文进一步对增溶机理进行了分析解释．     

Fraction characteristics of rare earth elements in the surface sediment of Bohai Bay, North China

Surface sediment samples were collected at 27 stations of Bohai Bay, North China. Sequential extractions were carried out in this study. REE were leached out from four labile fractions: Exchangeable (L1), bound to carbonates (L2), bound to Fe–Mn oxides (L3), bound to organic matter (L4), and the remainder was residual (R5). The total contents of REE fluctuate slightly in Bohai Bay, and are mainly concentrated in the middle region, showing relatively higher levels in the north than that in the south of Bohai Bay. Percentages of L1, L2, L3, L4, and R5 for REE suggest that the residual fraction accounts for the major component of REE, whereas Fe–Mn oxides also play important roles in combining labile REE. As the REE complex is not stabilized, the competition of complex could induce dissociation of the complex and redistribution of the REE in various environments. According to REE patterns and Y/Ho ratios of samples, REE are not anthropogenic or oceanic sources but riverine input, whereas suitable environment varieties can slightly affect the patterns and fractionations of REE. As powerful tracers for the variable of environment, higher anomaly of Eu and Ce in southern regions indicates a greater reduction in the condition of surface sediment in the south than that in the north of Bohai Bay.     

Changes in thyroid peroxidase activity in response to various chemicals

Thyroperoxidase (TPO) is a large heme-containing glycoprotein that catalyzes the transfer of iodine to thyroglobulin during thyroid hormone (TH) synthesis. Previously, we established an in vitro assay for TPO activity based on human recombinant TPO (hrTPO) stably transfected into human follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC-238) cells. It is important to determine whether environmental chemicals can disrupt TPO activity because it is an important factor in the TH axis. In this study, we used our assay to examine the changes in TPO activity in response to various chemicals, including benzophenones (BPs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Overall, BPs, PAHs, and POPs slightly altered TPO activity at low doses, as compared with the positive controls methimazole (MMI), genistein, and 2,2',4,4'-tetrahydroxy BP. Benzophenone, benzhydrol, 3-methylchloranthracene, pyrene, benzo(k)fluoranthene, benzo(e)pyrene, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), and heptachlor decreased TPO activity, while 2,4-dihydroxy BP, 2,2'-dihydroxy-4-methoxy BP, and dibenzo(a,h)anthracene increased TPO activity. From these data, we can predict the disruption of TPO activity by various chemicals as a sensitive TH end point. TPO activity should be considered when enacting measures to regulate environmental exposure to thyroid-disrupting chemicals.     

Dynamics of the lakes in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River basin, China, since late nineteenth century

The middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River basin have the most representative and largest concentration of freshwater lakes in China. However, the size and number of these lakes have changed considerably over the past century due to the natural and anthropogenic impact. The lakes, larger than 10 km² in size, were chosen from relief maps and remotely sensed images in 1875, 1950, 1970, 1990, 2000, and 2008 to study the dynamics of lakes in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River basin and to examine the causes and consequences of these changes. Results indicated that there was a dramatic reduction in lake areas, which decreased by 7,841.2 km² (42.64 %) during the study period (1875–2008), and the number of lakes in this region changed moderately. Meanwhile, a large number of lakes in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River basin were directly converted into paddy fields, ponds, building lands, or other land-use types over the study period. Therefore, all kinds of lake reclamation should be identified as the major driving factors for the loss of lake in this region. Furthermore, flooding, soil erosion, and sedimentation were also the main factors which triggered lake changes in different periods. Some wetland conservation and restoration projects have been implemented since the 1970s, but they have not reversed the lake degradation. These findings were of great importance to managers involved in making policy for the conservation of lake ecosystems and the utilization of lake resources.