Environmental quality control and environmental games

Conclusion  In this paper we have considered a specific environmental game emphasizing both control-prevention efforts and the propensity to pollute by a firm which adopts a given pollution abatement technology. A random payoff game was constructed and solved under a risk neutral assumption and quadratic utilities for both the firm and the environmental controller. The game thus defined, provides a wide range of interpretations and potential approaches for selecting a control-inspection policies to prevent environmental risks. There are of course many facets to this problem, which could be considered and have not been considered in sufficient depth. For example, more complex control mechanisms and liabilities, the effects of insurance and risk sharing, the application of cooperative efforts and subvention of pollution abatement investments (through tax incentives and their like), etc. have not been considered [5,7]. These are topics for further research. The basic presumption of this paper is that it is very difficult to fully enforce pollution prevention by firms, as a result, some controls are needed to ensure that firms be controlled so that appropriate efforts are carried.     

Degradation of Pesticides on Plant Surfaces and its Prediction - A Case Study on Tea Plant

The degradative kinetics of pesticides on plant surface are characterized by an initial rapid degradation which follows a first-order kinetics, then transferred to a more slower degradative rate. The degradative process mainly consists of photodegradation, evaporation, rainfall elution and growth dilution. The influencing parameters of these processes were investigated by using the tea plant as a case study. The predictive model of the initial concentration, photodegradation rate constant, evaporation rate constant, rainfall elution rate, growth dilution rate and the total degradation rate was discussed and verified in four locations situated in the range of 25°-30°N latitude, and acceptable results were obtained.     

Modeling photocatalytic destruction of the organic contaminants in continuous stir flow reactor

Thin-film technique is becoming an industry standard for the preparation of TiO₂-based photocatalyst for organic destruction. The catalyst provides several advantages over the conventional powder TiO₂ in the treatment of wastewater and groundwater. In this study, a continuous stir flow reactor model is developed capable of describing the photocatalytic process. The model incorporates the following fundamental mechanisms: adsorption, diffusion, liquid-film transfer, UV attenuation, and photocatalytic reaction. All of the simulation results indicate that there exists a highly nonlinear relation between each of these parameters and the destruction rate. Various incident light intensities also are incorporated to simulate the energy efficiency. The simulations illustrate that the photocatalytic model can be used to elucidate the effect of process variables. It is also possible to “custom-design” a catalyst for the treatment of a particular waste stream.     

Integrating disciplinary research into an interdisciplinary framework: A case study in sustainability research

The complexity of today’s research problems increasingly demands that scientists move beyond the confines of their own discipline. In this special issue, the basics of a transdisciplinary framework are established and problems analyzed in a specific discipline are successfully integrated in this transdisciplinary network. The intent has been to go beyond only statements about the importance of enabling early stage researchers to work across disciplinary boundaries, and to show that important discoveries are being made at the intersection of disciplines. Embedding various research projects in a more global framework can meet the demands of an interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary approach (especially for early stage researchers) and contribute significantly to sustainable research.     

A study on the orbit of air temperature movement

In this paper, we describe an air temperature movement by mapping its time series to the polar coordinates: the value of the time series is plotted on the radial coordinate and the time on the angular coordinate. In this way, both the yearly and daily air temperature movements from five different locations of China are used to demonstrate that, in an intuitionistic view, air temperature movement is neither random nor chaotic, but has its own orbit. We then propose an elliptic orbit model for the air temperature movement. Our proposed model provides quite good results when it is applied to the evaluation of yearly air temperature movements in eight locations in various parts of the world, and the evaluation of daily air temperature movements in five locations in Hunan Province of China on December 17, 2005. Results show that our approach provides a concise and helpful model for air temperature analysis.     

Assessing land use impacts on flood processes in complex terrain by using GIS and modeling approach

A distributed hydrologic modeling and GIS approach is applied for the assessment of land use impact in the Steinsel sub-basin, Alzette, Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg. The assessment focuses on the runoff contributions from different land use classes and the potential impact of land use changes on runoff generation. The results show that the direct runoff from urban areas is dominant for a flood event compared with runoff from other land use areas in this catchment, and tends to increase for small floods and for the dry season floods, whereas the interflow from forested, pasture and agricultural field areas contributes to the recession flow. Significant variations in flood volume, peak discharge, time to the peak, etc., are found from the model simulation based on the three hypothetical land use change scenarios.     

Application of a checklist for quality assistance in environmental modelling to an energy model

Large, complex energy models present considerable challenges to develop and test. Uncertainty assessments of such models provide only partial guidance on the quality of the results. We have developed a model quality assistance checklist to aid in this purpose. The model checklist provides diagnostic output in the form of a set of pitfalls for the model application. The checklist is applied here to an energy model for the problem of assessing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Use of the checklist suggests that results on this issue are contingent on a number of assumptions that are highly value-laden. When these assumptions are held fixed, the model is deemed capable of producing moderately robust results of relevance to climate policy over the longer term. Checklist responses also indicate that a number of details critical to policy choices or outcomes on this issue are not captured in the model, and model results should therefore be supplemented with alternative analyses.     

Evaluation of interference to conventional and real-time PCR for detection and quantification of fungi in dust

Advances in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) have permitted accurate, rapid and quantitative identification of microorganisms in pure cultures regardless of viability or culturability. In this study, a simple sample processing method was investigated for rapid identification and quantification of fungal spores from dust samples using both conventional and real-time PCR. The proposed method was evaluated for susceptibility to interference from environmental dust samples. Stachybotrys chartarum and Aspergillus fumigatus were used as test organisms. The sensitivity of detection in pure culture was 0.1 spore DNA equivalents per PCR reaction corresponding to 20 spores ml(-1) in the sample. However, 1 spore DNA equivalent per PCR reaction corresponding to 200 spores ml(-1) in the sample was the lowest amount of spores tested without interference in dust samples spiked with spores of either fungal species. The extent of inhibition was calculated using conventional and real-time PCR reactions containing fungal spores, specific primers, specific probes (for real-time PCR) and various amounts of dust. The results indicate that the extent of inhibition by dust on PCR varies with the type and amount of dust, and number of spores. No interference in the analysis of spiked samples was detected from 0.2 mg ml(-1) of four real-life dust samples at p-value >0.05 using 2 x 10(4) spores for conventional PCR and 2 x 10(5) spores for real-time PCR. However, samples containing >0.2 mg ml(-1) real-life dust compromised the PCR assay. These results suggest the potential usefulness of a simple sample processing method in conjunction with PCR for monitoring the fungal content of aerosols collected from indoor environments.     

中国土壤中溴,碘的背景含量

通过对全国八百余个表层土样的分析测试,获得了中国土壤中溴、碘背景含量的总体水平及在各土类中的含量,相对于地壳丰度,中国土壤中溴、碘普遍得到了富集,溴、碘含量分异变化较大,并具有明显的地域分异特征,影响中国土壤中溴、碘含量的主要因素是降水量、土壤吸附体的含量以及某些特殊母质。     

用液相催化法和脱硫除尘器脱除烟气中SO_2

在由旋风水膜和两块旋流塔板组成的处理气量为７５０ｍ￣３／ｈ的二级脱硫除尘器中，进行了用含催化剂Ｍｎ￣（２＋）的水溶液吸收ＳＯ_２的扩大试验。结果表明，在确定的条件下，脱硫率达到７３％，板效率为０．２５～０．２８。在同一设备中同时完成除尘与脱硫过程，设备投资少；以水为吸收剂，运行费用低；中性条件下吸收，长期运转不结垢，可靠性高。