Landscape perceptions and social representations of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Fallopia</Emphasis> spp. in France

Choices have to be made to manage invasive species because eradication often is not possible. Both ecological and social factors have to be considered to improve the efficiency of management plans. We conducted a social study on Fallopia spp., a major invasive plant taxon in Europe, including (1) a survey on the perception of a landscape containing Fallopia spp. using a photoquestionnaire and (2) an analysis of the social representations of Fallopia spp. of managers and users in one highly invaded area and one less invaded area. The respondents to the photoquestionnaire survey appreciated the esthetics of the landscapes less when tall Fallopia spp. were present. Few people were able to identify and name the plant, and this knowledge negatively affected the appreciation of the photos containing Fallopia spp. The central core of the social representation of Fallopia spp. was composed of the invasive status of the plant, its density, and its ecological impacts. The peripheral elements of the representation depended on the people surveyed. The users highlighted the natural aspect whereas the managers identified the need for control. In the invaded area, the managers qualified the species as “unmanageable,” whereas the species was qualified as “foreign” in the less invaded area. Those results provide insights that have to be included when objectives of management plans of these species are selected.     

Anaerobic digestion in mesophilic and room temperature conditions: Digestion performance and soil-borne pathogen survival

Tomato plant waste(TPW) was used as the feedstock of a batch anaerobic reactor to evaluate the effect of anaerobic digestion on Ralstonia solanacearum and Phytophthora capsici survival. Batch experiments were carried out for TS(total solid) concentrations of 2%, 4% and 6% respectively, at mesophilic(37 ± 1°C) and room(20–25°C) temperatures. Results showed that higher digestion performance was achieved under mesophilic digestion temperature and lower TS concentration conditions. The biogas production ranged from 71 to 416 L/kg VS(volatile solids). The inactivation of anaerobic digestion tended to increase as digestion performance improved. The maximum log copies reduction of R. solanacearum and P. capsici detected by quantitative PCR(polymerase chain reaction) were 3.80 and 4.08 respectively in reactors with 4% TS concentration at mesophilic temperatures. However, both in mesophilic and room temperature conditions, the lowest reduction of R. solanacearum was found in the reactors with 6% TS concentration, which possessed the highest VFA(volatile fatty acid) concentration. These findings indicated that simple accumulation of VFAs failed to restrain R. solanacearum effectively, although the VFAs were considered poisonous. P. capsici was nearly completely dead under all conditions. Based on the digestion performance and the pathogen survival rate, a model was established to evaluate the digestate biosafety.     

电解废渣中硒含量及赋存形态的研究

由于电解废渣原始、粗放的堆放,导致了大量重金属离子和有毒有害元素在自然环境中极易迁移并造成污染。为了掌握废渣中硒在多重氧化态中含量及形态分布,对进一步研究其在自然环境中的矿化、迁移规律及毒理学特性等意义重大,该实验采用了改进的SES连续浸提法,提取了电解废渣样品的水溶态、交换态、酸溶态、有机态、单质态及残渣态,以ICP-MS测定提取液中总硒含量,HPLCICP-MS研究了硒赋存形态。研究表明:CCT动态反应碰撞模式优化了ICP-MS检测环境,有效降低了多原子离子造成的干扰;电解废渣的硒含量极高,在自然环境中容易迁移,尤其是酸性环境下;前三态的硒含量超过了总硒的50%,且主要以毒性较高的亚硒酸盐形式存在,小部分以硒酸盐形式存在,含硒电解废渣存在较大的潜在环境风险。     

Detection of Hepatitis E Virus in Sewage After an Outbreak on a French Island

A hepatitis E outbreak, which occurred on a small isolated island, provided an opportunity to evaluate the association between the number of hepatitis E cases in the community and the concentration of virus detected in sewage. Samples were collected from the different sewage treatment plants from the island and analyzed for the presence of hepatitis E (HEV) virus using real-time RT-PCR. We demonstrated that if 1–4 % of inhabitants connected to a WWTP were infected with HEV, raw sewage contained HEV at detectable levels. The finding that such a small number of infected people can contaminate municipal sewage works raises the potential of the further distribution of the virus. Indeed, investigating the routes of transmission of HEV, including the potential for sewage effluent to contain infectious HEV, may help us to better understand the epidemiology of this pathogen, which is considered to be an emerging concern in Europe.     

A spatial approach to combatting wildlife crime

Poaching can have devastating impacts on animal and plant numbers, and in many countries has reached crisis levels, with illegal hunters employing increasingly sophisticated techniques. We used data from an 8‐year study in Savé Valley Conservancy, Zimbabwe, to show how geographic profiling—a mathematical technique originally developed in criminology and recently applied to animal foraging and epidemiology—can be adapted for use in investigations of wildlife crime. The data set contained information on over 10,000 incidents of illegal hunting and the deaths of 6,454 wild animals. We used a subset of data for which the illegal hunters’ identities were known. Our model identified the illegal hunters’ home villages based on the spatial locations of the hunting incidences (e.g., snares). Identification of the villages was improved by manipulating the probability surface inside the conservancy to reflect the fact that although the illegal hunters mostly live outside the conservancy, the majority of hunting occurs inside the conservancy (in criminology terms, commuter crime). These results combined with rigorous simulations showed for the first time how geographic profiling can be combined with GIS data and applied to situations with more complex spatial patterns, for example, where landscape heterogeneity means some parts of the study area are less likely to be used (e.g., aquatic areas for terrestrial animals) or where landscape permeability differs (e.g., forest bats tend not to fly over open areas). More broadly, these results show how geographic profiling can be used to target antipoaching interventions more effectively and more efficiently and to develop management strategies and conservation plans in a range of conservation scenarios.     

基于ANSYS技术的尿素合成塔安全寿命评估

针对国内高压设备的运行状态,为进一步提高尿素高压设备的科学管理水平,最大限度挖掘设备潜力,减少故障损失,提高维修效益,将设备安全寿命评价技术引入尿素高压设备的管理中,建立一套完整的尿素高压设备安全寿命评价体系.结合设备运行的目标期望及现场情况,以乌鲁木齐石化公司化肥厂尿素合成塔为例,运用ANSYS有限元分析技术,提出尿素合成塔安全寿命的评价流程,给出了尿素合成塔安全寿命的简化计算评价方法和基于有限元的精细计算评价方法.根据该方法可以在不同条件和要求下对尿素高压设备寿命进行估算,并利用尿素合成塔安全寿命评估实例对尿素高压设备安全寿命评估体系进行分析和说明.结果表明,该体系能够根据现场情况合理地对尿素高压设备进行寿命评估.