Smooth surface fabrication in mask projection based stereolithography

The surface finish is critical for applications such as optics, micro-fluid flow and mechanical assembly, in which optical lenses, fluidic channels and rotating components are all required to be smooth. However, the stair-stepping effect is well known in the layer-based additive manufacturing processes, in which a three-dimensional model is approximated by a set of two-dimensional layers. Consequently the fabricated surfaces have poor surface finishes especially those that are close to the horizontal plane. In this paper, a novel approach for achieving improved surface finish is presented for the mask-image-projection-based stereolithography (MIP-SL) process. Theoretical models and parameter characterization are presented for the developed methods. Accordingly, the process planning and calibration approaches for fabricating smooth up-facing surfaces in the MIP-SL process have been developed. Multiple test cases based on various types of curved surfaces have been performed. A comparison of the build results based on the traditional and the newly developed approaches illustrates the effectiveness of our method.     

Building regional priorities in forests for development and adaptation to climate change in the Congo Basin

Indentifying common priorities in shared natural resource systems constitutes an important platform for implementing adaptation and a major step in sharing a common responsibility in addressing climate change. Predominated by discourses on REDD + (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation and conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries) with little emphasis on adaptation there is a risk of lack of policy measures in addressing climate change in the Congo Basin. Forest products and ecosystem services provide security portfolios for the predominantly rural communities, and play major roles in national development programmes in both revenue and employment opportunities. Thus, raising the profile of forests in the policy arena especially in the twin roles of addressing climate change in mitigation and adaptation and achieving resilient development is crucial. Within the framework of the Congo Basin Forests and Climate Change Adaptation project (COFCCA) project, science policy dialogue was conducted to identify and prioritize forest based sectors vulnerable to climate change but important to household livelihoods and national development. The goal of the prioritization process was for the development of intervention in forest as measures for climate change adaptation in Central Africa. Participants constituted a wide range of stakeholders (government, Non Governmental Organizations, research institutions, universities, community leaders, private sectors etc.) as representatives from three countries directly involved in the project: Cameroon, Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo. Building on national priorities, four forest related sectors were identified as common priorities at the regional level for focus on climate change adaptation. These sectors included: (1) energy with emphasis on fuel wood and Charcoal; (2) Water principally quality, quantity, accessibility, etc.; (3) Food with emphasis on Non Timber Forest Products, and (4) Health linked to healthcare products (medicinal plants). Using these prioritized sectors, the project focused on addressing the impacts of climate change on local communities and the development of adaptation strategies in the three pilot countries of the Congo Basin region. The four sectors constitute the key for development in the region and equally considered as priority sectors in the poverty reduction papers. Focused research on these sectors can help to inject the role of forests in national and local development and their potentials contributions to climate change adaptation in national and public discourses. Mainstreaming forest for climate change adaptation into national development planning is the key to improve policy coherence and effectiveness in forest management in the region.     

水溶性有机物电子转移能力与荧光峰强度的关系研究

以不同来源的水溶性有机物（DOM）为供试材料,采用电化学方法和荧光光谱法研究了DOM电子转移能力及其与荧光峰强度的关系.采用库仑安培法测定DOM电子转移能力,其中测得的电子接受能力为635.6～1 049.3μmol.（g.C）-1,电子供给能力为27.3～42.3μmol.（g.C）-1.利用循环伏安法研究DOM电化学活性,发现其氧化还原电位在-731～-996 mV（vs.Ag/AgCl）之间.经过电位跃阶法三次氧化还原循环后电子转移能力仍可维持在232.1～897.2μmol.（g.C）-1之间,电子循环率为36.7%～78.2%,说明DOM具有重复利用、反复转移电子的特性.采用荧光激发发射光谱法（EEMS）测定DOM的类富里酸荧光峰强度并比较其与DOM电子转移能力的关系,发现DOM的类富里酸荧光峰强度与DOM的电子循环率具有显著相关（r2=0.92）.实验结果为理解DOM在元素循环、污染物降解以及生物地球化学循环中的作用提供科学依据.     

A juvenile lizard specimen with well-preserved skin impressions from the Upper Jurassic/Lower Cretaceous of Daohugou, Inner Mongolia, China

Lizards are now relatively well known from the Yixian Formation of northeastern China. In this study, we describe a juvenile lizard from a fossil horizon at Daohugou, Inner Mongolia. These beds predate the Yixian Formation, and are probably Late Jurassic or earliest Cretaceous in age. The new specimen thus documents the first lizard material from the Daohugou locality and is the earliest lizard skeleton from China. Comparisons with developmental stages of modern lizards suggest the Daohugou lizard is a hatchling. Although tiny, the specimen is notable in preserving exquisite skin impressions showing the variation in scalation across the body, the shape and position of the cloacal outlet, and details of the manus and pes. These are the earliest recorded lepidosaurian skin traces. In its general proportions and the possession of paired frontals, the small Daohugou lizard resembles both the Yixian taxon Yabeinosaurus tenuis and the questionable Jeholacerta formosa, but it differs from the latter in scalation and, based on other characters, may be distinct from both.     

A new THOR shoulder design: a comparison with volunteers, the Hybrid III, and THOR NT

OBJECTIVE: Since the shoulders are rarely seriously injured in frontal or oblique collisions, they have been given low priority in the development of frontal impact crash test dummies. The shoulder complex geometry and its kinematics are of vital importance for the overall dummy kinematics. The shoulder complex also influences the risk of the safety belt slipping off the shoulder in oblique forward collisions. The first aim of this study was to develop a new 50th percentile male THOR shoulder design, while the second was to compare the new shoulder, mounted on a THOR NT dummy, with volunteer, THOR NT, and Hybrid III range of motion and stiffness data. The third aim was to test the repeatability of the new shoulder during dynamic testing and to see how the design behaves with respect to belt slippage in a 45 degrees far-side collision. METHODS: The new 50th percentile THOR shoulder design was developed with the aid of a shell model of the seated University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) 50th percentile male with coordinates for joints and bony landmarks (Schneider et al., 1983). The new shoulder design has human-like bony landmarks for the acromion and coracoid processes. The clavicle curvature and length are also made similar to that of a male human, as is the range of motion in the anterior-posterior, superior-inferior, and medial-lateral directions. The new shoulder design was manufactured and tested under the same conditions that T?rnvall et al. (2005b) used to compare the shoulder range of motion for the volunteers, Hybrid III, and THOR Alpha. The new design was also tested in two dynamic test configurations: the first was a 0 degrees full-frontal test and the second was a 45 degrees far-side test. The dummy tests were conducted with an R-16 seat with a three-point belt, the Delta V was 27.0+/-0.5 km/h and the maximum peak acceleration was approximately 14.6+/-0.5 g for each test. RESULTS: A new shoulder design with geometry close to that of humans was developed to be retrofitted to the THOR NT dummy. The results showed that the range of motion for the new shoulder complex during static loading was larger by at least a factor of three, for the maximum load (200 N/arm), than that of either the Hybrid III or the THOR NT; this means it was more similar to the volunteers' range of motion. It was observed that the THOR NT with the new shoulder did not slide out of the shoulder belt during a far-side collision. The performance of the new shoulder was reasonably repeatable and stable during both the static tests and the sled tests. CONCLUSION: A new shoulder for the THOR NT has been designed and developed, and data from static range of motion tests and sled tests indicate that the new shoulder complex has the potential to function in a more human-like manner on the THOR dummy.     

Improvement of soil aggregate stability by repeated applications of organic amendments to a cultivated silty loam soil

The objective of this study was to compare the effects of repeated field applications of three urban compost amendments and one farmyard manure amendment over a 9-year period on aggregate stability in a silty loam soil initially characterized by low clay and initial organic matter contents and poor aggregate stability. Three different aggregate stability tests with increasing disruptive intensities (fast wetting > mechanical breakdown > slow wetting tests) and different disaggregation mechanisms, were used. All of the amendments, which were applied at approximately 4 Mg C ha⁻¹ every other year, increased the organic carbon content and improved the stability of the aggregates against the disruptive action of water, as determined by each of the stability tests. However, the year-to-year variations in the aggregate stability that related to factors other than the organic inputs were greater than the cumulative increase in aggregate stability relative to the control. The positive effects of the tested amendments on aggregate stability were linked to their contribution to soil organic C contents (r = 0.54 for the fast wetting test and r = 0.41-0.42 for the mechanical breakdown and slow wetting tests; p < 0.05). The addition of urban composts had a larger positive effect on aggregate stability than farmyard manure at the majority of sampling dates. The addition of biodegradable immature compost, such as municipal solid waste (MSW), improved the aggregate stability through an enhanced resistance to slaking. The addition of mature composts, such as the co-compost of sewage sludge and green wastes (GWS) or biowaste compost (BW), improved the aggregate stability by increasing interparticular cohesion. The MSW compost was the most efficient in improving aggregate stability during the first 6 years of the experiment (average improvements of +22%, +5% and +28% in the fast wetting, mechanical breakdown and slow wetting tests, respectively, compared to the control treatment); this result was likely due to the larger labile organic pool of the MSW compost that was highly effective at stimulating soil microbial activity. After the first 6 years, the two other composts, GWS and BW, became more efficient (average improvements of +25%, +61% and +33% in the fast wetting, mechanical breakdown and slow wetting tests, respectively, compared to the control treatment), which was probably linked to the greater increase in soil organic C contents. Therefore, the application of urban compost to silty soil that is susceptible to water erosion was effective at improving aggregate stability and thus could be used to enhance the resistance of soil to water erosion.     

Distribution of nuclear bomb Pu in Nishiyama area, Nagasaki, estimated by accurate and precise determination of 240Pu/239Pu ratio in soils

Plutonium isotopes in forest soils collected in Nishiyama area, Nagasaki, were successfully determined by high resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry after the treatment with a microwave decomposition system. The (240)Pu/(239)Pu atom ratios observed in the samples in the Nishiyama area were obviously lower than the range of the global fallout. The low ratios (minimum 0.032) observed in Nishiyama area indicated the influence of detonation of the Pu nuclear weapon in 1945. Since the area is contaminated also by global fallout, the (240)Pu/(239)Pu atom ratio can be more sensitive indicator of bomb-derived Pu than Pu activity concentration.     

Removal of copper ions from aqueous solution by calcium alginate immobilized kaolin

Kaolin has been widely used as an adsorbent to remove heavy metal ions from aqueous solutions. However, the lower heavy metal adsorption capacity of kaolin limits its practical application. A novel environmental friendly material, calcium alginate immobilized kaolin (kaolin/CA), was prepared using a sol-gel method. The e ects of contact time, pH, adsorbent dose, and temperature on Cu2+ adsorption by kaolin/CA were investigated. The Langmuir isotherm was used to describe the experimental adsorption, the maximum Cu2+ adsorption capacity of the kaolin/CA reached up to 53.63 mg/g. The thermodynamic studies showed that the adsorption reaction was a spontaneous and endothermic process.     

氧化亚铜类Fenton氧化降解染料活性艳蓝KN-R的研究

氧化亚铜(Cu2O)与H2O2组成的类Fenton体系能很好的氧化降解印染废水中的有机物.实验用Cu2O类Fenton氧化降解染料活性艳蓝KN-R,研究表明,Cu2O类Fenton能很好的氧化降解染料活性艳蓝KN-R.在KN-R的溶液初始pH值为2,水浴温度为50℃的条件下,用0.429 g Cu2O(0.3 mmol)和0.1 mL、质量分数为30%的H2O2处理50 mL、质量浓度为100mg/L的KN-R溶液1 h,其脱色率为95.09%,TOC去除率为56.38%.     

乌梁素海湿地鸟类栖息地生态服务功能评估探讨

本文通过收集近30年鸟类种类及种群数据变化的资料,分析乌粱素海不同鸟类栖息环境的栖息地服务功能,从而评估鸟梁素海湿地鸟类栖息地的综合生态服务功能。评估结果表明：乌梁素海湿地鸟类栖息地综合生态服务功能为不好。