Are flocculants required in a flocculant process?

The effectiveness of solids abatement by pH increase was investigated using the jar test procedure with a bentonite tap water suspension and an urban wastewater and an oxidation pond effluent. The results indicated that, depending on the suspended particles and on the dissolved ions, pH values between 9.5 and 12 induced extensive solids elimination without adding any other chemical than a base, i.e. sodium hydroxide or lime. The major effective reactions are then the calcium carbonate precipitation and the magnesium hydroxide precipitation. Moreover, this process does not require a flocculation step but only a precipitation step where the particles are entrapped by sweep coagulation and adsorption-coagulation. A continuous reactor was operated with an oxidation pond effluent. A suspended solids concentration less than 30 mg/l was obtained by adjusting pH between 11 and 11.5 while the reactor was operated up to 20 m/h superficial upflow velocity corresponding to a residence time through the whole unit of only 5 minutes. The sludge settling velocity depends on pH and on the primary particles but a maximum settling velocity larger than 1 m/h is easily reached. The concentration factor is then about 100. Environmental policy implications of this technique are that it allows to significantly upgrade a stabilization pond effluent and can be used when a high pH situation is acceptable.     

Mating System and Sexual Selection in the Scorpionfly Panorpa vulgaris (Mecoptera: Panorpidae)

Panorpa vulgaris   has become a model insect for testing theories of sexual selection. This contribution summarizes that which has been learned in recent years and presents new data that clearly show that the mating system of P. vulgaris is not simply a resource-defense polygyny, as has previously been thought. In P. vulgaris neither the pattern in food exploitation nor the ratio of variance in the lifetime reproductive success of the two sexes is in accordance with that expected in resource defense polygynous mating systems. Lifetime mating duration is the most important proximate determinant of male fitness. Males employing alternative mating tactics obtain copulations of varying duration in relation to the following sequence: saliva secretion  1  food offering  1  no gift. The number of salivary masses which males provide to females during their lifetime is significantly correlated with the lifetime condition index. The condition index depends on the fighting prowess of males and their ability to find food items. Thus saliva secretion of Panorpa is considered a Zahavian handicap, which can serve as an honest quality indicator used by mating females. Our results confirm four main predictions of the indicator model of the theory of sexual selection: (a) the indicator signals high ecological quality of its bearer, (b) the indicator value increases with phenotypic quality, (c) the indicator value is positively correlated with the genetic quality affecting offspring fitness in a natural selection context, and (d) the quality indicator is more costly for low- than for high-quality individuals. The evolutionary consequences of the mating pattern and the sperm competition mechanism in P. vulgaris are discussed in the context the way in which sexual selection creates and maintains sperm mixing and the evolution of a promiscuous mating system.     

基于CFD-CAA技术某封闭靶场内噪声特性数值模拟

目的 预测某封闭靶场排烟室与射击室内的射击噪声特性,为排烟室降噪与射击孔隔音方案设计提供参考。方法 在比测室外射击噪声试验数据,保证仿真精度的前提下,采用CFD-CAA耦合算法,对9 mm手枪射击时特定封闭靶场内的射击噪声进行数值计算。首先使用Realizablek-?模型,结合动网格技术,对封闭靶场内射击时的膛口流场进行数值计算。然后开启FW-H声学计算模型,计算各监测点声学数据。结果封闭靶场内射击时,排烟室内各监测点噪声声压级较室外射击时均有增强,增强效果在20°方位角监测点尤为明显,最大增强2.682 dB。结论 与室外射击相比,在封闭靶场内射击时,排烟室内射击噪声的峰值声压级较大,混响时间加长,应针对性选择吸音方案,降低混响时间。射击室射手人耳处噪声声压级接近安全阈值,应改进射击孔隔音方案,降低人耳处直达声。     

Overestimates of black carbon in soils and sediments

Several recent reports suggest that black carbon (BC), which broadly encompasses charcoal, soot, and other forms of pyrogenic carbon, may constitute a significant proportion of the refractory carbon in soil and sedimentary organic matter. BC is a sink for biospheric and atmospheric carbon dioxide, and is intimately tied to the biogeochemical cycling of both carbon and oxygen through its role in organic matter cycling. Additionally, BC may represent a large fraction of the missing carbon sink in global carbon accounting. Here, we demonstrate that documented measurements of BC may be the result of methodological artifacts, which inadvertently overestimate the amount of BC. We found that a widely used thermal oxidative method can create a residue that falls under the operational definition of BC in samples that are relatively BC-free. Moreover, during this procedure, labile organic matter constituents are condensed into pyrogenic carbon, implying that the labile components are present in lesser quantities. These methodological deficiencies are promoting overestimates in the amount of refractory carbon in soil and sedimentary organic matter and may endorse inaccuracies in the rates of carbon fluxes, the mean residence times of terrestrial carbon, and organic matter burial rates in oceanic environments.     

Conservation of Bio synthetic pheromone pathways in honeybees Apis

Social insects use complex chemical communication systems to govern many aspects of their life. We studied chemical changes in Dufours gland secretions associated with ovary development in several genotypes of honeybees. We found that C28–C38 esters were associated only with cavity nesting honeybee queens, while the alcohol eicosenol was associated only with their non-laying workers. In contrast, both egg-laying anarchistic workers and all parasitic Cape workers from queenright colonies showed the typical queen pattern (i.e. esters present and eicosenol absent), while egg-laying wild-type and anarchistic workers in queenless colonies showed an intermediate pattern, producing both esters and eicosenol but at intermediate levels. Furthermore, neither esters nor eicosenol were found in aerial nesting honeybee species. Both esters and eicosenol are biosynthetically similar compounds since both are recognizable products of fatty acid biosynthesis. Therefore, we propose that in honeybees the biosynthesis of esters and eicosenol in the Dufours gland is caste-regulated and this pathway has been conserved over evolutionary time.     

Optimising the environmental benefits of emission reductions from UK coal- and oil-fired power stations: a critical loads approach

This paper describes a method for determining reductions of SO₂ emissions from coal- and oil-fired power stations, oil refineries and large industrial units in the UK taking into account their pollution potential. The method is based on the use of two gridded data sets: critical loads, which represent the sensitivity of the environment to acid deposition and modelled estimates of total (wet + dry) sulphur deposition for 646 point sources within the UK. An iterative method is used to identify and subsequently reduce emissions from point sources that contribute most to areas of critical loads exceedance. This paper demonstrates how the method may be used to determine an optimal allocation of emissions across the UK which yields the maximum amount of environmental protection per unit of emission.The paper then goes on to consider the changes that will have to take place within the UK power generation industry in order to meet the revised EC Large Combustion Plant Directive which comes into force on 1 January 2008. Particular emphasis is placed upon proposed emissions trading schemes and the environmental implications of allowing trading between stations with high and low pollution potentials. The paper concludes by suggesting that the emissions trading process should take into account the pollution potential of each source, irrespective of whether the proposed emission is within the plant's agreed emission limit. An approach based entirely on minimizing environmental damage rather than one which takes cost into account, as in current integrated assessment modelling, could provide an interesting approach across the rest of Europe.