Honey bee foragers need to asses and make trade-offs between a number of potentially conflicting floral attributes. Here, we investigate multi-attribute decision making in the eastern honey bee, Apis cerana, when foraging on food sources that varied in warmth and sucrose concentration. We show that foragers prefer warm (30 °C) sucrose solution over cool (10 °C) sucrose solution and concentrated (30 % w/w) sucrose solution over dilute (15 % w/w) sucrose solution. When we offered the preferred sucrose concentration (30 % w/w) at the less-preferred temperature (10 °C), and the less-preferred sucrose concentration (15 % w/w) at the preferred temperature (30 °C), foragers prioritized warmth by choosing the warmer, but lower concentration solution. When the temperature difference was less extreme, bees preferred more concentrated cooler syrup (30 % ww at 15 °C over 15 % 30 °C). However, the addition of a decoy item to the choice set had a significant effect on the bees' preferences. Our results highlight the critical importance of considering context effects when measuring the foraging preferences of animals. 相似文献
Combustion-generated hydrogen chloride (HCl) is considered to be a very hazardous acid gaseous pollutant. This paper presents a laboratory study on the dry adsorption of HCl. The experiments were conducted in a dual-layer granular bed filter, at gas temperatures of 500℃-700℃ and n(Ca)/n(Cl)molar ratios of 1.0-5.0 using the silver nitrate titration method by dry adsorbent powders Ca(OH)2. Mainly, the adsorption efficiency of HCI and utilization efficiency of Calcium were studied, by varying relevant factors including n(Ca)/n(Cl), tempera- ture, feeding method, water vapor and CO2. With a relatively higher HCl concentration of 1000ppm, the experimental results revealed that 600℃ may be the optimum temperature for HCl adsorption when optimum n (Ca)/n(Cl) was 2.5 in our tests. The results also demonstrated that the feeding at a constant pressure was more effective, and the HCl adsorption efficiency could rapidly reach over 90% with n(Ca)/n(Cl) = 2.5 at 600℃. Furthermore, the HCl adsorption efficiency was found to be slightly promoted by water vapor, while could be impeded by CO2, and the utilization efficiency of calcium could be up to 74.4% without CO2, while was only 36.8% with CO2 when n(Ca)/n(Cl) was 2.5 at 600℃. 相似文献
To provide information on reclamation of multi-heavy metal polluted soils with conception of phytostabilization, a field survey on the uptake and accumulation of potentially toxic elements such as antimony (Sb), arsenic (As), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), and zinc (Zn) in colonized plant species around the world’s largest antimony mine area, China, was conducted. Samples including leaves and shoots (including roots and stems) of colonized plants as well as rhizospheric soils were collected from eight sampling zones in the studied area. The results showed that the contents of Cu, Zn, and Pb in rhizospheric soils below plants were comparable to the corresponding background values of Hunan province, otherwise Sb, Cd, and As contents were extremely high (17–106, 17–87, and 3–7 times of the corresponding background values). The highest concentration of Sb was found in Aster subulatus (410 mg kg?1); Cd, As, and Zn were in Herba bidentis bipinnatae (10.9, 264, and 265 mg kg?1, respectively); and Cu was in Artemisia lavandulaefolia (27.1 mg kg?1). It also exhibited that all the contents of As in leaves were several times of those in shoots of plants, Cd and other heavy metals showed in a similar pattern in several studied species, implying that the uptake route of these heavy metals via foliar might contribute to the accumulation. With high bioconcentration factors of heavy metals (more than 1, except for Zn), together with the growth abundance, Herba bidentis bipinnatae was considered as the most suitable colonized species for phytostabilization of the multi-heavy metal pollution in soils on this antimony mine area. 相似文献
Plastics are one of the most used materials in human activities, where consumer consumption and industrial production together has imposed vast rise in demand for this material in last century. While plastic is ideally derived from crude oil as a primary source from manufacturers’ perspective, varying crude oil prices are driving manufacturers economically to seek for alternative sources for plastics production. Waste plastic recovered from obsolete consumer products thus becomes an economic substitution for virgin plastics, which is further intensified with the possibility of international waste plastic trading. This study focuses on waste plastic trade between the US and mainland China by performing a correlation analysis of trade data. It is suggested in this study that although waste plastics are traded from the US to mainland China in general, as many of us believes, the route is gradually shifting in the past years. With tightening Chinese customs regulations, waste plastic from the US now tends to take a transit in a third destination (Hong Kong SAR for instance) for preliminary treatment to bypass Chinese customs inspection. Such phenomenon is worth noting, as a complication in waste plastic trading route hinders waste plastic transboundary movement monitoring. Furthermore, it will have adverse consequent consumer, industrial, and environmental impacts. It is thus necessary for national competent authorities to strengthen cooperative study and communication capacity in the future as a response to the changing waste plastic trade pattern. 相似文献
Nitrous oxide (N2O), a potent greenhouse gas, is emitted during nitrogen removal in wastewater treatment, significantly contributing to greenhouse effect. Nitrogen removal generally involves nitrification and denitrification catalyzed by specific enzymes. N2O production and consumption vary considerably in response to specific enzyme-catalyzed nitrogen imbalances, but the mechanisms are not yet completely understood. Studying the regulation of related enzymes’ activity is essential to minimize N2O emissions during wastewater treatment. This paper aims to review the poorly understood related enzymes that most commonly involved in producing and consuming N2O in terms of their nature, structure and catalytic mechanisms. The pathways of N2O emission during wastewater treatment are briefly introduced. The key environmental factors influencing N2O emission through regulatory enzymes are summarized and the enzyme-based mechanisms are revealed. Several enzymebased techniques for mitigating N2O emissions directly or indirectly are proposed. Finally, areas for further research on N2O release during wastewater treatment are discussed.