Successful outcome following prenatal intervention in a female fetus with bladder outlet obstruction

Bladder outlet obstructions are a diverse and heterogeneous group of developmental abnormalities that generally involve obstruction of the proximal urethra in the male fetus. Indications for prenatal intervention are few and are usually restricted to the male fetus because bladder outlet obstruction in female fetuses is usually caused by complex cloacal development anomalies. We report on a female fetus with an enlarged bladder and a dilated proximal urethra (known as typical keyhole sign). A vesicoamniotic shunt was performed despite non-reassuring prognostic factors, but the procedure resulted in a successful outcome. We propose that in selected cases of bladder outlet obstruction, fetal intervention should be considered even when the fetus is female. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modelling the Choice Between Multiple-Use vs. Specialised Forest Management and its Impact on Forest Management Costs

Forests provide ecosystem services, including timber production. In some cases, private forest owners perform management actions in order to enhance the provision of such services, or they may be encouraged by public policies and payments. This paper focuses specifically on the decision to set forest land aside for biodiversity conservation, as part of the more general question of the efficiency of multiple-use vs. specialised management of forest lands. We propose an econometric analysis to identify factors in the set-aside choice and measure the impact of this decision on forest management costs. The results show that the set-aside choice depends on the landowners’ income and motivations related to forest amenities. The choice of specialised management, as reflected in the set-aside decision, has a significant and positive impact on the intensity of management in the remainder of the forest and on management costs. From a policy implications point of view, these results suggest that instruments such as forest certification, subsidies and reverse auctions for conservation will be most likely to attract the interest of those forest owners with personal motivations and forest properties that offer both benefit and cost advantages in opting for such specialised management strategies.

     

Recovery of iron oxide and calcium chloride from an iron-rich chloride waste using calcium carbonate

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - The ilmenite-chloride process has used for the production of TiCl4 from the ilmenite (FeTiO3) ore, which produces cyclone dust containing mostly...     

Study on microstructure and extinction characteristics of particulate matter in diesel engine fueled with different biodiesels

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Biodiesel combustion particulate matter (PM) is different from diesel combustion PM in terms of microscopic morphology, which directly affects the...     

水下连接器试压帽结构动态仿真及密封性分析

为解决水下连接器现有力学模型过于简化，预紧力加载不够合理，密封性能分析结果不够准确的问题，基于ABAQUS有限元模拟提出了新的动态接触分析方法，针对水下连接器试压帽双头螺柱结构，探究了安装和试压工况中该结构形式的密封特性及其与等效拧紧力矩的非线性关联。研究结果表明:在塑性失效设计准则范围内，2种工况下密封环的Mises值最大为399.4 MPa；安装工况下，随预紧力的增加，密封环上、下锥面最大接触应力先增大后略微减小；1 145 Nm螺栓拧紧力矩可完成安装工况，并能在试压工况中保证各部件不被弹开；试压工况下，随试验内压的增加，密封环上锥面最大应力缓慢增加，下锥面最大接触应力几乎不变，最终2值近似相等约为850 MPa，密封宽度合理。     

Changes in biomass activity and characteristics of activated sludge exposed to low ozone dose

In this paper, the response mechanism of activated sludge exposed to low-dose ozone at less than 20 mg O₃ g⁻¹ total suspended solids (TSS) was studied by analyzing the changes in sludge activity and the evolution of C, N, P and metals from sludge following ozonation. The intracellular ATP concentration was not affected at less than 5 mg O₃ g⁻¹ TSS and thereafter decreased rapidly to around 60% when the ozone dose increased to 20 mg O₃ g⁻¹ TSS. Similarly, the efficiency of sludge solubilization initially changed a little and then increased rapidly to around 30% at an ozone dose of 20 mg O₃ g⁻¹ TSS. However, the activities of superoxide dismutase and protease decreased immediately upon exposure to ozone. These findings indicate that ozone firstly destroys the floc, leading to the disruption of the compact aggregates, which does not affect cells viability but induces a decrease in enzyme activities. Ozone then attacks the bacterial cells of the sludge, causing a decrease in cells viability. During ozonation, the content of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus in the sludge matrix decreased, while the content of these elements in the micro-solids and supernatant gradually increased. Most of the released metals from the sludge matrix were found in the micro-solids.     

Enhanced aminophenols monitoring using in-channel amperometric detection with dual-channel microchip capillary electrophoresis

Improved techniques are needed to monitor toxic aminophenols in industrial wastewater. Microchip capillary electrophoresis (CE)-electrochemical detection (ECD) can be used to develop miniaturized system providing on-site monitoring. Here, a dual-channel microchip CE-ECD has been applied for the monitoring of aminophenols. The effect of conductance and capacitance between a working electrode and a reference electrode has been studied to minimize the noise that was generated in the amperometric detection. A mixture of aminophenols dissolved in a running buffer has been monitored. A separation efficiency with a plate number of 4770 and a high linear concentration dependence from 100 nM to 1 mM have been achieved for p-aminophenol. As a result, the analysis system has been applied for the monitoring of the pollutants with low detection limits of p-aminophenol (14.6 nM), o-aminophenol (10.6 nM) and m-aminophenol (15.3 nM). Here, we show that a wastewater sample from a natural gas refinery can be monitored using the microchip CE-ECD system.     

航空装备研制风险的综合赋权-双基点法评估

为实现对航空预研项目技术风险的定量评估,建立技术风险评价指标体系,建立基于综合赋权和双基点方法的综合评估模型,采用层次分析法(AHP)求得主观权重,熵值赋权法求得客观权重,运用线性规划方法求得对2类权重加权的权值,构造综合权重;使用正负理想点间的投影距离代替传统的相对欧式距离对TOPSIS方法进行改进;实例分析中,通过对某航空预研项目5种不同的方案进行风险评估,得出各方案的优劣度,选出了较为优化的技术方案,该方法可用于指导其他装备研制风险的评估。