Growth responses of the newly-discovered Cd-hyperaccumulator Rorippa globosa and its accumulation characteristics of Cd and As under joint stress of Cd and As

Rorippa globosa has been identified as a newly-found Cd-hyperaccumulating species. In the present study, growth responses of Rorippa globosa and its accumulation characteristics of Cd and As were examined under joint stress of Cd and As. The results showed that Cd and As had an antagonistic effect on enhancing the growth of Rorippa globosa plants and Cd uptake and accumulation under the low concentration Cd and As treatments. When the concentration of Cd in the soil was 10 mg/kg and the concentration of As was 50 mg/kg, the highest growing height of the plant was up to 35.9 cm and the dry weight of the shoots was up to 2.2 g/pot, respectively. Meanwhile, the accumulation of Cd in the leaves under the joint stress was higher than that at the same level under single Cd pollution. However, there were synergic adverse effects on plant growth and Cd uptake under the combined pollution from a high concentration of Cd and As. Meanwhile, the accumulation of As in the roots was greater than that in the shoots, the translocation factor (TF) was ?0.3 and the bioaccumulation factor (BF) was ?0.6, thus showing that Rorippa globosa had an excluding effect on As uptake. These results confirmed that Rorippa globosa had a strong tolerant ability to the joint stress of Cd and As, and the potential for phytoremediation of soils contaminated by Cd and As.     

三峡库区巴东县龙船河库岸塌岸预测及稳定性评价

采用卡丘金法、工程地质类比法对三峡库区巴东县龙船河库岸不同成因的土质岸坡、岩土混合质岸坡、软硬相间的岩质岸坡在水库蓄水后的塌岸进行了预测,并采用不平衡推力法对其稳定性进行了计算分析与评价,根据预测评价结果进行的防治方案设计,通过了三峡水库三期蓄水的检验,取得了较好的防治效果.     

预测沉积物-水微宇宙系统中化学品浓度变化的多介质模型

沉积物-水微宇宙系统是经济合作发展组织(Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development,OECD)颁布的化学品测试准则中推荐的试验系统之一,可用来测试化学品对底栖生物的慢性毒性。为了在试验前对化学品的浓度变化进行预测,进而确定试验方法,以摇蚊慢性毒性试验系统为例,采用环境多介质模型的建模方法,构建了一种可通过化学品理化性质和试验系统参数,对化学品在沉积物-水试验系统中浓度变化进行预测的模型。结合试验数据和文献资料,给出了模型中试验系统参数的推荐取值,并使用Matlab软件中的Simulink工具对模型进行编程和求解。以此模型为基础,给出了模型在3个方面的应用,即预测蓄积时间、预测平衡时间以及拟合试验数据。对80种已有或假想化学品的蓄积时间和平衡时间进行了计算,得出的范围分别为1~204 d和1~73 d。此外,适当修改模型结构和模型参数,也可将其应用于其他暴露场景中。但使用模型对化学品浓度进行预测时发现,模型仅对沉积物中化学品浓度的预测结果较为准确,而对水中化学品浓度的预测结果与实测值相差1~2个数量级。模型对浓度的预测精度未来仍需进一步提高。上述研究结果完善了沉积物-水微宇宙系统试验方法。     

Prediction of effluent concentration in a wastewater treatment plant using machine learning models

Of growing amount of food waste, the integrated food waste and waste water treatment was regarded as one of the efficient modeling method. However, the load of food waste to the conventional waste treatment process might lead to the high concentration of total nitrogen(T-N) impact on the effluent water quality. The objective of this study is to establish two machine learning models—artificial neural networks(ANNs) and support vector machines(SVMs), in order to predict 1-day interval T-N concentration of effluent from a wastewater treatment plant in Ulsan, Korea. Daily water quality data and meteorological data were used and the performance of both models was evaluated in terms of the coefficient of determination(R~2), Nash–Sutcliff efficiency(NSE), relative efficiency criteria(d rel). Additionally, Latin-Hypercube one-factor-at-a-time(LH-OAT) and a pattern search algorithm were applied to sensitivity analysis and model parameter optimization, respectively. Results showed that both models could be effectively applied to the 1-day interval prediction of T-N concentration of effluent. SVM model showed a higher prediction accuracy in the training stage and similar result in the validation stage.However, the sensitivity analysis demonstrated that the ANN model was a superior model for 1-day interval T-N concentration prediction in terms of the cause-and-effect relationship between T-N concentration and modeling input values to integrated food waste and waste water treatment. This study suggested the efficient and robust nonlinear time-series modeling method for an early prediction of the water quality of integrated food waste and waste water treatment process.     

Activated carbon coated palygorskite as adsorbent by activation and its adsorption for methylene blue

An activation process for developing the surface and porous structure of palygorskite/carbon(PG/C) nanocomposite using ZnC l2 as activating agent was investigated. The obtained activated PG/C was characterized by X-ray diffraction(XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIR), field-emission scanning electron microscopy(SEM), and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller analysis(BET) techniques. The effects of activation conditions were examined,including activation temperature and impregnation ratio. With increased temperature and impregnation ratio, the collapse of the palygorskite crystal structure was found to accelerate and the carbon coated on the surface underwent further carbonization. XRD and SEM data confirmed that the palygorskite structure was destroyed and the carbon structure was developed during activation. The presence of the characteristic absorption peaks of C_C and C–H vibrations in the FTIR spectra suggested the occurrence of aromatization. The BET surface area improved by more than 11-fold(1201 m2/g for activated PG/C vs. 106 m2/g for PG/C) after activation, and the material appeared to be mainly microporous. The maximum adsorption capacity of methylene blue onto the activated PG/C reached 351 mg/g. The activated PG/C demonstrated better compressive strength than activated carbon without palygorskite clay.     

Do vehicular emissions dominate the source of C6–C8 aromatics in the megacity Shanghai of eastern China?

The characteristic ratios of volatile organic compounds(VOCs) to i-pentane, the indicator of vehicular emissions, were employed to apportion the vehicular and non-vehicular contributions to reactive species in urban Shanghai. Two kinds of tunnel experiments, one tunnel with more than 90% light duty gasoline vehicles and the other with more than 60% light duty diesel vehicles, were carried out to study the characteristic ratios of vehicle-related emissions from December 2009 to January 2010. Based on the experiments, the characteristic ratios of C6–C8aromatics to i-pentane of vehicular emissions were 0.53 ± 0.08(benzene), 0.70 ± 0.12(toluene),0.41 ± 0.09(m,p-xylenes), 0.16 ± 0.04(o-xylene), 0.023 ± 0.011(styrene), and 0.15 ± 0.02(ethylbenzene), respectively. The source apportionment results showed that around 23.3% of C6–C8 aromatics in urban Shanghai were from vehicular emissions, which meant that the non-vehicular emissions had more importance. These findings suggested that emission control of non-vehicular sources, i.e. industrial emissions, should also receive attention in addition to the control of vehicle-related emissions in Shanghai. The chemical removal of VOCs during the transport from emissions to the receptor site had a large impact on the apportionment results. Generally, the overestimation of vehicular contributions would occur when the VOC reaction rate constant with OH radicals(k OH) was larger than that of the vehicular indicator, while for species with smaller k OH than the vehicular indicator, the vehicular contribution would be underestimated by the method of characteristic ratios.     

Pollution levels and characteristics of phthalate esters in indoor air in hospitals

The concentrations of phthalate esters(PAEs) in Chinese hospitals were investigated by simultaneously determining concentrations of gas- and particle-phase PAEs. PAEs were detected in two third-class first-grade hospitals, two second-class first-grade hospitals, and a community health service center. Hospital drugstores had the highest concentration(24.19 μg/m3), which was 1.54 times that of newly decorated houses. The second highest concentration was found in the transfusion rooms, averaging 21.89 μg/m3; this was followed by the concentrations of PAEs in the nurse's workstations, the wards, and the doctor's offices, with mean concentrations of 20.66, 20.0, and 16.92 μg/m3, respectively. The lowest concentrations were found in the hallways(16.30 μg/m3). Of the six different kinds of PAEs found, major pollutants included diethyl phthalates, dibutyl phthalates, butylbenzyl phthalates and di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalates, comprising more than 80% of all PAEs present.Meanwhile, a comparison between different wards showed that PAE concentrations in the maternity wards were 1.63 times higher than in the main wards. Based on known health hazards, our results suggest that the PAEs seriously influence the health of the pregnant women and babies; therefore, it is of great importance to take the phthalate concentrations in hospitals into consideration. In addition, hospital indoor air was more seriously contaminated than the air of newly decorated houses.     

HF对Cu-SSZ-13/堇青石的原位合成及脱除NO_x的影响

以Cu-TEPA为模板剂原位水热合成一系列具有优良deNOx特性的Cu-SSZ-13/堇青石整体式催化剂.为进一步改善其氨的选择性催化还原氮氧化物的活性,在制备过程中添加HF对原位制备Cu-SSZ-13/堇青石整体式催化剂进行改性.利用XRD、SEM、XPS、BET、ICP-AES等对样品进行了表征.结果表明,当nHF/nAl在0.015—0.0375时,晶化72 h的Cu-SSZ-13/堇青石表现出了优异的脱硝性能和抗老化性能,其最大转化率为99.8%,NOx转化率保持在90%以上的最宽活性温度窗口为280—640℃,而无HF的新鲜样品的NOx转化率保持在90%以上的活性温度窗口为300—580℃;720℃老化50 h处理后,nHF/nAl=0.015—0.0375样品的NOx转化率保持在90%以上的最宽活性温度窗口为360—520℃,未添加HF的老化样品相应的活性温度窗口为400—500℃.无论新鲜还是老化,nHF/nAl=0.015—0.0375样品在低温段200—300℃和高温段500—700℃的NOx转化率基本都大于未添加HF的样品.结合表征结果,在催化剂原位水热合成过程中HF的加入既提高了样品的相对结晶度和负载量,又增大了样品的比表面积和比孔容,且提高了Cu-SSZ-13/堇青石骨架结构的稳定性,进而在一定程度上改善了Cu-SSZ-13/堇青石的高温脱硝活性和水热稳定性.