Hexabromocyclododecanes in surface sediments and a sediment core from Rivers and Harbor in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin

In the present study, hexabromocyclododecanes (HBCDs) were investigated in the sediment from Haihe River (HR), Dagu Dainage Canal (DDC) and Tianjin Harbor (TH) at Bohai Bay using a total of 51 samples of surface sediments and a sediment core collected from May to September in 2010, and its diastereomer- and enantiomer-specific profiles were analyzed. The concentration of total HBCDs were generally high, with mean value and ranges of 31.0 and 1.35–634 ng g^?1 dw, respectively. The contamination followed the order of TH > DDC > HR. Higher levels (up to 634 ng g^?1 dw) occurred in the lower reach of HR and DDC located in an industrial area of Tianjin. This is the first time to report so high concentration of HBCDs in sediment in Southeast Asia. The γ-diastereomer dominated in most samples (44 out of 51), and this is in agreement with the diastereomer distribution pattern in industrial products, while α-HBCD was the dominant diastereomer in the other seven samples. However, only few samples exhibited γ-diastereomer ratio similar to that (75–89%) in technical products, indicating the inter-transformation and variable degradation of the different isomers. The high ratio of γ-diastereomer could be used as an indicator for fresh contamination input. Enantiomeric factors (EFs) of HBCD isomers in most of the samples were statistically different from technical products (p < 0.05), showing a trend of more easily enrichment of the (?)-HBCD-enantiomer compared to the (+)-HBCD-enantiomer. The δ- and ε-diastereomers were frequently detected but at low level. The HBCDs in the sediment core showed several peaks, and the greatest value occurred in 2005, when a plastic manufacture plant using HBCD was set up nearby.     

Effect of chlorination and ultraviolet disinfection on tetA-mediated tetracycline resistance of Escherichia coli

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are an emerging threat to public health during drinking water consumption and reclaimed water reuse. Several studies have shown that the proportions of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in waters may increase when exposed to low doses of UV light or chlorine. In this study, inactivation of tetracycline-resistant Escherichia coli and antibiotic-sensitive E. coli by UV disinfection and chlorination was compared to determine the tolerance of tetracycline-resistant E. coli to UV light and chlorine, and tetracycline resistance of a tetracycline-resistant E. coli population was studied under different doses of the disinfectants. Our results showed that relative to antibiotic-sensitive E. coli, tetracycline-resistant E. coli had the same tolerance to UV light and a potentially higher tolerance to chlorination. The mortality frequency distributions of tetracycline-resistant E. coli exposed to tetracycline were shifted by both chlorination and UV disinfection. When compared to the hemi-inhibitory concentrations (IC₅₀) of tetracycline-resistant E. coli with no exposure to UV or chlorination, the IC₅₀ of tetracycline-resistant E. coli treated with tetracycline was 40% lower when inactivation by UV light or chlorination reached 3-log but was 1.18 times greater when inactivation by chlorination reached 4.3-log. Chlorination applied to drinking water or reclaimed water treatment may increase the risk of selection for highly tetracycline-resistant E. coli.     

In vitro biotransformation of PBDEs by root crude enzyme extracts: Potential role of nitrate reductase (NaR) and glutathione S-transferase (GST) in their debromination

In order to investigate the enzyme transformation of PBDEs and to track the key enzymes involved in PBDE degradation in plants, in vivo exposure of plants of ryegrass, pumpkin and maize and in vitro exposure of their root crude enzyme extracts to PBDEs were conducted. Degradation of PBDEs in the root crude enzyme solutions fit well with the first order kinetics (R² = 0.52–0.97, P < 0.05), and higher PBDEs degraded faster than the lower ones. PBDEs could be transformed to lower brominated PBDEs and hydroxylated-PBDEs by the root crude enzyme extracts with debromination as the main pathway which contributed over 90% of PBDE depletion. In vitro and in vivo exposure to PBDEs produced similar responses in root enzyme activities of which the nitroreductase (NaR) and glutathione-transferase (GST) activities decreased significantly, while the peroxidase, catalase and cytochrome P-450 activities had no significant changes. Furthermore, higher enzyme concentrations of NaR and GST led to higher PBDE debromination rates, and the time-dependent activities of NaR and GST in the root crude enzyme extracts were similar to the trends of PBDE depletion. All these results suggest that NaR and GST were the key enzymes responsible for PBDE degradation. This conclusion was further confirmed by the in vitro debromination of PBDEs with the commercial pure NaR and GST.     

Crystallization Behavior and Dynamic Mechanical Properties of Poly(l-Lactic Acid) with Poly(Ethylene Glycol) Terminated by Benzoate

Effect of the addition of poly(ethylene glycol) terminated by benzoate (PEG-BA) on the crystallization behavior and dynamic mechanical properties of poly(l-lactic acid) PLLA is studied as compared with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG-OH). It is found that PEG-BA is miscible with PLLA and shows good plasticizing effect. Because PEG-OH having the same degree of polymerization is immiscible with PLLA, the end group in PEG-BA, i.e., benzoate, plays an important role in the miscibility. Furthermore, PEG-BA does not induce the PLLA degradation at melt-processing, whereas PEG-OH leads to the hydrolysis degradation. Finally, the addition of PEG-BA pronounces the crystallization rate of PLLA at low crystallization temperatures and thus enhances the degree of crystallinity at conventional processing. Consequently, the temperature dependence of dynamic mechanical properties are similar to that for isotactic polypropylene.     

IFTCIP: An Integrated Optimization Model for Environmental Management under Uncertainty

In this study, an interval-fuzzy two-stage chance-constrained integer programming (IFTCIP) method is developed for supporting environmental management under uncertainty. The IFTCIP improves upon the existing interval, fuzzy, and two-stage programming approaches by allowing uncertainties expressed as probability distributions, fuzzy sets, and discrete intervals to be directly incorporated within a general mixed integer linear programming framework. It has advantages in uncertainty reflection, policy investigation, risk assessment, and capacity-expansion analysis in comparison to the other optimization methods. Moreover, it can help examine the risk of violating system constraints and the associated consequences. The developed method is applied to the planning for facility expansion and waste-flow allocation within a municipal solid waste management system. Violations of capacity constraints are allowed under a range of significance levels, which reflects tradeoffs between the system cost and the constraint-violation risk. The results indicate that reasonable solutions for both binary and continuous variables have been generated under different risk levels. They are useful for generating desired decision alternatives with minimized system cost and constraint-violation risk under various environmental, economic, and system-reliability conditions. Generally, willingness to take a higher risk of constraint violation will guarantee a lower system cost; a strong desire to acquire a lower risk will run into a higher system cost.     

酸雨损害农作物的对策研究——喷水消除酸雨对农作物的损害

经模拟酸雨处理植物的试验表明,酸雨对植物叶片的直接损害是由于酸雨水滴滞留在叶面引起的。若在雨后2h内喷水(pH7.0±0.2)以驱除滞留在叶面的水滴,叶片则无受害症状,叶绿素含量、生物产量和经济产量所受的影响也将减轻甚至完全不受影响。     

Behaviour of selected endocrine-disrupting chemicals in three sewage treatment plants of Beijing, China

Occurrence and fate of eight kinds of selected endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs) in three sewage treatment plants (STPs) of Beijing, China was investigated. These EDCs, composed of 4-octylphenol (4-OP), 4-n-nonylphenol (4-n-NP), bisphenol A (BPA), estrone (E1), 17α-estradiol (17α-E2), 17β-estradiol (E2), estriol (E3) and 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2), in every step of STPs, were simultaneously analysed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry after derivatisation. All the EDCs were detected in the influents of three STPs, and BPA was the most abundant compound. The concentrations of EDCs ranged from 36.6 ng/l of 17α-E2 (STP C) to 1342.3 ng/l of BPA (STP B) in the influent sewages and from below limits of detection of E2 and E3 (STP C) to 142.5 ng/l of E1 (STP B) in the effluent sewages. The STPs could not remove alkylphenols effectively from the aqueous phase with less than 40% reduction. BPA decreased over 90%, and steroid estrogens achieved considerable reductions from 64.8% of E2 to 94.9% of E3. Generally, biological treatment was more effective in removing alkylphenols, BPA and natural estrogens from the aqueous phase than primary treatment. However, the synthetic estrogen, EE2, was mostly removed by the primary treatment with about 63.5% reduction. It is the first time that the concentration of 17α-E2 in the sewage of China was reported in this paper. The compound might have a bearing with the waste effluents of dairy farms around urban area of Beijing.     

Inexact Fuzzy-Stochastic Programming for Water Resources Management Under Multiple Uncertainties

In this study, an interval-parameter fuzzy-stochastic two-stage programming (IFSTP) approach is developed for irrigation planning within an agriculture system under multiple uncertainties. A concept of the distribution with fuzzy-interval probability (DFIP) is defined to address multiple uncertainties expressed as integration of intervals, fuzzy sets, and probability distributions. IFSTP integrates the interval programming, two-stage stochastic programming, and fuzzy-stochastic programming within a general optimization framework. IFSTP incorporates the pre-regulated water resources management policies directly into its optimization process to analyze various policy scenarios; each scenario has different economic penalty when the promised amounts are not delivered. IFSTP is applied to an irrigation planning in a water resources management system. Solutions from IFSTP provide desired water allocation patterns, which maximize both the system’s benefits and feasibility. The results indicate that reasonable solutions are generated for objective function values and decision variables; thus, a number of decision alternatives can be generated under different levels of stream flows.     

Occurrence, distribution, and sources of six phenolic endocrine disrupting chemicals in the 22 river estuaries around Dianchi Lake in China

The objectives of this study are to track the occurrence, distribution, and sources of phenolic endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) in the 22 rivers around Dianchi Lake in China, to estimate the input and output amounts of phenolic EDCs in the water system, and to provide more comprehensive fundamental data for risk assessment and contamination control of phenolic EDCs in aquatic environment. Six phenolic EDCs were systematically evaluated in water and surface sediment in the estuaries of those rivers. The water and sediment samples were preconcentrated by solid-phase extraction system and microwave-assisted extraction system, respectively. Phenolic EDCs were analyzed by GC-MS (Thermo Fisher Scientific, USA) after derivatization. Phenolic EDCs were found ubiquitously in the aquatic environment. The total concentrations ranged from 248 to 4,650 ng/L in water, and 113 to 3,576 ng/g dry weight in surface sediment. The residue amount of phenolic EDCs in Dianchi Lake was 258 kg/a. Concentrations of the phenolic EDCs in the Lake decreased with increase in distance to the estuaries of those rivers which run through urban and industrial areas. The rivers seriously contaminated by phenolic EDCs were Xin River, Yunliang River, Chuanfang River, Cailian River, Jinjia River, Zhengda River, and Daqing River which run through the old area of Kunming City. Satisfying correlations were observed between the concentrations of the target compounds in water and in surface sediment. NP1EO, NP2EO, and BPA were identified as the three predominant phenolic EDCs. There were significant correlations between phenolic EDCs and many basic water quality parameters. Urban and industrial areas are the major contributors for phenolic EDCs, especially in Kunming City. Compositional profiles of phenolic EDCs in surface sediment were similar to those in river water. The concentrations of phenolic EDCs in the rivers located in the northwest part of the valley were very high, and posed a potential risk to aquatic organisms and even human. The concentrations of NP2EO, NP1EO, and BPA were at moderate levels of other areas. The basic water quality parameters (TOC, TN, DO, and pH) play important roles on the distribution, fate, and behavior of phenolic EDCs in the valley.