Climate impact on social systems: the risk assessment approach

A novel approach to the problem of estimating climate impact on social systems is suggested. This approach is based on a risk concept, where the notion of critical events is introduced and the probability of such events is estimated. The estimation considers both the inherent stochasticity of climatic processes and the artificial stochasticity of climate predictions due to scientific uncertainties. The method is worked out in some detail for the regional problem of crop production and the risks associated with global climate change, and illustrated by a case study (Kursk region of the FSU). In order to get local climatic characteristics (weather), a so-called statistical weather generator is used. One interesting finding is that the 3% risk level remains constant up to 1.0–1.1°C rise of mean seasonal temperature, if the variance does not change. On the other hand, the risk grows rapidly with increasing variance (even if the mean temperature rises very slowly). The risk approach is able to separate two problems: (i) assessment of global change impact, and (ii) decision making. The main task for the scientific community is to provide the politicians with different options; the choice of admissible (from the social point of view) critical events and the corresponding risk levels is the business of decision makers.     

Occurrence of dissolved PAHs in the Jinsha River (Panzhihua)--upper reaches of the Yangtze River,Southwest China

16 priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were determined in water samples from the Jinsha River (Panzhihua part), Southwest China. Total dissolved PAH concentrations varied from 21.89 microg l(-1) to 382.8 microg l(-1). It was found that the concentration of PAHs decreased along the flow direction due to the higher density distribution of coal chemical industry in the upstream of our study rivers. The pollution levels in our study area are significantly higher than previously reported values in other waters both in China and other countries. The predominance of benzo[k]fluoranthene and indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene was clearly observed in all water samples. On average these two compounds accounted for 98.3% of the total dissolved PAH concentration in water. The results showed the positive correlations among total dissolved PAHs, benzo[k]fluoranthene and indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene, which suggested that these two predominant PAHs have similar source and environmental behaviors in our study area. When compared with the survey results of organic micropollutants two decades ago, it was found that hydrocarbon pollution both predominated and even increased with the development of coal chemical industry in this area during the past 20 years. The results therefore provide important information on the current contamination status of a key industrial city in China, and points to the need for urgent action to investigate the relationship between the PAH composition and concentration in water from the Jinsha River and the wastewater discharge from coal chemical industry, and to identify the source, transport pathway and fate of PAHs in the area. It should then be necessary to adopt appropriate and instant measures to control the pollution around this area.     

Optimizing the removal of small fish passage barriers

Removing small artificial barriers that hinder upstream migrations of fish is a major problem in riparian habitat restoration. Because of budgetary limitations, it is necessary to prioritize barrier removal and repair decisions. These have usually been based on scoring and ranking procedures, which, although simple to use, can be very inefficient in terms of increasing the amount of accessible instream habitat. We develop a novel decision-making approach, based on integer programming techniques, which optimizes repair and removal decisions. Results show based on real datasets of barrier culverts located in Washington State that scoring and ranking is over 25% below the optimum on average and a full 100% below in the worst case, producing no net habitat gain whatsoever. This is compared to a dynamic programming method that was able to find optimal solutions in less than a second, even for problems with up to several hundred variables, and a heuristic method, which found solutions with less than a 1% average optimality gap in even less time.     

微波消解-氢化物发生原子荧光光谱法测定生活污水中的微量砷

采用硝酸-高氯酸微波消解水样,在盐酸介质中以硫脲-抗坏血酸处理样品,以硼氰化钾的氢氧化钠溶液为还原剂,氢化物发生原子荧光光谱法测定生活污水中的痕量砷.方法检出限＜0.02μg/L,精密度0.14%,加标回收率92%～108%,操作简单,结果准确,重现性好.     

库仑滴定法测定一氧化碳

本文就一氧化碳的测定条件和CO氧化过程中氧化剂的选择进行了研究。试验表明:ReAO_4-Ⅱ为氧化CO的活性催化剂,转化率可达100％(在300℃以上),本法简便,可用于空气中一氧化碳的测定和催化剂对CO活性测试。     

浅谈小型餐饮服务业排污申报登记

简述了小型餐饮服务业的特点，指出排污申报登记制度落实难、废水中各污染物排放量核定难及申报登记表设计欠合理是小型餐饮服务业在排污申报登记中存在的主要问题。提出，应加大宣传力度，进一步提高餐饮服务业业主以及广大公民的环保意识；制定较合理的排污量核算系数，修订申报内容；实行《排污申报登记注册证》制度，强化执法力度，以促进小型餐饮服务业全面实施排污申报登记制度。     

Removal of high concentrated ammonia nitrogen from landfill leachate by landfilled waste layer

The landfill of municipal solid waste(MSW) could be regarded as denitrification reactor and involved in ammonia nitrogen biological removal process. In this research, the process was applied to municipal solid waste collected in Shanghai, China, which was characterized by high food waste content. The NH4^ removal efficiency in the system of SBR nitrifying reactor followed by fresh and matured landfilled waste layer in series was studied. In the nitrifying reactor, above 90% of NH4^ in leachate was oxidized to NO2^- and NO3^- . Then high concentrated NO2^- and NO3^- were removed in the way of denitrification process in fresh landfilled waste layer. At the same time, degradation of fresh landfilled waste was accelerated. Up to the day 120, 136.5 gC/(kg dry waste) and 17.9 gN/(kg dry waste) were converted from waste layer. It accounted for 50.15 % and 86.89 % of the total carbon and nitrogen content of preliminary fresh waste, which was 4.42 times and 5.17 times higher than that of reference column respectively. After filtering through matured landfilled waste, BOD5 concentration in leachate dropped to below 100 mg/L, which would not affect following nitrification adversely. Because the matured landfilled waste acted as a well methanogenic reactor, 23% of carbon produced accumulatively from fresh landfilled waste degradation was converted into CH4.     

对熏烟扩散模式应用的探讨

工程上应用的大气污染物扩散模式中 ,熏烟模式由于其非定常性而与其他扩散模式有很大的区别。正确处理模式中各参数及变量的相互关系才能客观地反映污染物对环境影响的结果。本研究通过对熏烟模式的非定常性和各参数、变量相互关系的分析 ,提出了正确使用该模式的方法     

The modern theory of biological evolution: an expanded synthesis

In 1858, two naturalists, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, independently proposed natural selection as the basic mechanism responsible for the origin of new phenotypic variants and, ultimately, new species. A large body of evidence for this hypothesis was published in Darwins Origin of Species one year later, the appearance of which provoked other leading scientists like August Weismann to adopt and amplify Darwins perspective. Weismanns neo-Darwinian theory of evolution was further elaborated, most notably in a series of books by Theodosius Dobzhansky, Ernst Mayr, Julian Huxley and others. In this article we first summarize the history of life on Earth and provide recent evidence demonstrating that Darwins dilemma (the apparent missing Precambrian record of life) has been resolved. Next, the historical development and structure of the modern synthesis is described within the context of the following topics: paleobiology and rates of evolution, mass extinctions and species selection, macroevolution and punctuated equilibrium, sexual reproduction and recombination, sexual selection and altruism, endosymbiosis and eukaryotic cell evolution, evolutionary developmental biology, phenotypic plasticity, epigenetic inheritance and molecular evolution, experimental bacterial evolution, and computer simulations (in silico evolution of digital organisms). In addition, we discuss the expansion of the modern synthesis, embracing all branches of scientific disciplines. It is concluded that the basic tenets of the synthetic theory have survived, but in modified form. These sub-theories require continued elaboration, particularly in light of molecular biology, to answer open-ended questions concerning the mechanisms of evolution in all five kingdoms of life.Dedicated to Prof. Dr. Dr. hc mult. Ernst Mayr on the occasion of his 100th birthdayThis revised version was published online in March 2004, with corrections to the caption of Figure 6.     

锑的淡水水质基准及其对我国水质标准的启示

针对我国锑水生生物水质基准缺乏的问题，收集筛选了锑对淡水水生生物的急性和慢性毒性数据，使用评价因子法、毒性百分数排序法和物种敏感度分布法分别推导我国锑的淡水水质基准，通过综合分析和比较，选择物种敏感度分布法推导的急性和慢性的水质基准值（466.62μg/L和88.71μg/L）作为最终的基准推荐值.通过与国内外现有锑相关水质标准进行比较，提出在我国相关水质标准修订中分别制定保护水生生物和人体健康水质标准的建议，避免水质标准对水生生物的"过保护"问题.