Effect of coagulation pretreatment on the fouling of ultrafiltration membrane

The purpose of this study is to understand the effect and mechanism of preventing membrane fouling, by coagulation pretreatment, in terms of fractional component and molecular weight of natural organic matter （NOM）. A relatively higher molecular weight （MW） of hydrophobic compounds was responsible for a rapid decline in the ultrafiltration flux. Coagulation could effectively remove the hydrophobic organics, resulting in the increase of flux. It was found that a lower MW of neutral hydrophilic compounds, which could remove inadequately by coagulation, was responsible for the slow declining flux. The fluxes in the filtration of coagulated water and supernatant water were compared and the results showed that a lower MW of neutral hydrophilic compounds remained in the supernatant water after coagulation could be rejected by a membrane, resulting in fouling. It was also found that the coagulated flocs could absorb neutral hydrophilic compounds effectively. Therefore, with the coagulated flocs formed on the membrane surface, the flux decline could be improved.     

旱作小麦─玉米垅种沟盖地膜带田集水调水与增产效应研究

旱作垅种（小麦）沟盖（玉米）地膜带田优于目前推广的沟种（小麦）垅盖（玉米）带田种植形式。在作物共生期相互调水作用更趋合理,平衡了小麦、玉米不同生育阶段对水分的供需矛盾,作物的生态条件更加适宜,群体结构更加协调,提高了作物的生产量,前者比后者增产９０％～１２５％。     

Experimental and simulation studies on the influence of carbon monoxide on explosion characteristics of methane

In underground coal mining, methane explosions often can cause tremendous disasters. In the meantime, carbon monoxide (CO), generated during the process of coal oxidation, may appear in the air. Therefore, the explosion characteristics of the mixture of CH₄ and CO must be investigated to prevent gas explosion accidents in coal mines. We conducted experiments by using a 20-L nearly spherical gas explosion testing device. The software FLACS was used to simulate the explosion of the mixture of CH₄ and CO at various mixing concentrations, and the simulation results corresponded to experimental results. With the increase of CO concentration, both upper and lower explosive limits of CH₄ decreased. On the whole, the explosion characteristic parameters of CH₄ and the mixture are similar. When CH₄ concentration was below the stoichiometric concentration, the addition of CO could promote the intensity of gas explosion; oppositely, excessive CO would inhibit the gas explosion reaction. The inhibitory effects become more significant as the concentration of CH₄ increases.     

Resilience-based approach to safety barrier performance assessment in process facilities

The performance assessment of safety barriers is essential to find vulnerable elements in a safety barrier system. Traditional performance assessment approaches mainly focus on using several static indicators for quantifying the performance of safety barriers. However, with the increasing complexity of the system, emerging hazards are highly uncertain, making it challenging for the static indicators to assess the performance of safety barriers. This paper proposes a resilience−based performance assessment method for safety barriers to overcome this problem. Safety barriers are classified according to their functions first. The dynamic Bayesian network (DBN) is then introduced to calculate the availability function under normal and disruption conditions. The ratio of the system's availability, when affected by the disruption, to the initial availability, is used to determine the absorption capacity of the system. The ratio of the quantity of availability recovery to the total quantity of system represents the adaptation and restoration capacity of the system. The system's resilience is represented by the sum of absorption, adaptation, and restoration capacities. The wax oil hydrogenation process is used to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed methodology.     

城乡建设用地增减挂钩政策观察与思考

中国城乡建设用地利用目前存在着城市建设用地指标紧缺、农村建设用地低效利用和城乡建设用地"双增"严重占用耕地等问题。城乡建设用地增减挂钩政策推动下的城乡建设用地置换有望成为破解该问题的综合路径。但是,政策在执行过程中出现了错位现象,产生了较为严重的社会问题,影响了中国城乡土地资源的可持续利用。在总结了政策的提出与实施历程之后,运用文献分析与规划经验相结合的方法,提出了政策执行错位的症结与根源:①"挂钩"政策缺少科学理论支撑导致实践存在盲目性;②土地财政阻碍城乡土地市场一体化损伤农民利益;③保障体系不完善使政府行为公平性、"挂钩"质量与农村权益保障难以落实;④综合评估滞后使"挂钩"实施面临重大风险。在此基础上,"挂钩"研究的重点在于:①构建支撑城乡建设用地置换的理论与评价体系;②构建支撑城乡建设用地置换的城乡统一土地市场体系;③构建支撑城乡建设用地置换的实施保障体系;④构建支撑城乡建设用地置换的项目实施风险评估体系。     

Heavy metal exposure reduces hatching success of Acartia pacifica resting eggs in the sediment

The potential effects of three heavy metals （Cu, Pb, and Cd） on hatching success ofAcartia pacifica resting eggs in the sediment of Xiamen Bay were experimentally investigated. The number ofA. pacifica nauplii hatched from the sediment sharply decreased with the increase of metal concentration and exposure time from 3 to 30 d. An increase of the Cu concentration from 34.8 to 348 mg/kg, reduced the number of hatched nauplii by 46.6%-100%. An increase of the Pb concentration from 75.2 to 752 mg/kg, reduced the number of hatched nauplii by 21.4%-78.9%. An increase of the Cd concentration from 0.68 to 6.8 mg/kg, reduced the number of hatched nauplii by 31.6%-94.7%. The number of nauplii also significantly decreased with the increase of mixed-metal concentration and exposure time in the mixed-metal test. Trimmed Spearman-Karber analysis gave sediment metal 72-h LC50 values of 1.25 mmol Cu/kg, 1.73 mmol Pb/kg, and 0.054 mmol Cd/kg, which suggested that Cd was the most toxic to A. pacifica resting eggs in the three tested metals. The results indicate that heavy metals with higher concentrations can reduce recruitment of A. pacifica nauplii from benthic resting eggs to planktonic population.     

Impact of land use and land cover changes on the ambient temperature in a middle scale city, Takamatsu, in Southwest Japan

There is a lack of information on urban heat island impact on the thermal environment due to low populated urban sprawl, although densely populated urban sprawl impact has been identified by several researchers. The Takamatsu area has recently developed in a low populated urban sprawl style without any increase in population. This paper examined the impact of a low populated urban sprawl on the thermal environment through an analysis of the last 30 years data set and investigated the contribution of vegetation fraction and population density to the temperature trend. As a consequence, it was shown that one of the most significant causative factors of temperature increase is an expansion of non-vegetated area even without population growth. This result implied that vegetated zones should be maintained in urban areas in order to realize sustainable urbanization.     

Effects of crowding due to habitat loss on species assemblage patterns

Terrestrial animals are negatively affected by habitat loss, which is assessed on a landscape scale, whereas secondary effects of habitat loss, such as crowding, are usually disregarded. Such impacts are inherently hard to address and poorly understood, and there is a growing concern that they could have dire consequences. We sampled birds throughout a deforestation process to assess crowding stress in an adjacent habitat remnant in the southern Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Crowding is expected of highly mobile taxa, especially given the microhabitat heterogeneity of Neotropical forests, and we hypothesized that the arrival of new individuals or species in refuges shifts assemblage patterns. We used point counts to obtain bird abundances in a before-after-control-impact design sampling of a deforestation event. Temporal changes in taxonomic and functional diversity were examined with metrics used to assess alpha and beta diversity, turnover of taxonomic and functional similarity, and taxonomic and functional composition. Over time increased abundance of some species altered the Simpson index and affected the abundance-distribution of traits in the habitat remnant. Taxonomic composition and functional composition changed in the remnant, and thus bird assemblages changed over time. Taxonomic and functional metrics indicated that fugitives affected resident assemblages in refuges, and effects endured >2 years after the deforestation processes had ceased. Dissimilarity of taxonomic composition between pre- and postdeforestation assemblages increased, whereas functional composition reverted to preimpact conditions. We found that ecological disruptions resulted from crowding and escalated into disruptions of species’ assemblages and potentially compromising ecosystem functioning. It is important to consider crowding effects of highly mobile taxa during impact assessments, especially in large-scale infrastructure projects that may affect larger areas than is assumed.     

爆炸性气体在连续拐弯管道中传播特性的实验研究

针对复杂燃气管网燃气爆炸致灾严重,传播规律复杂的问题,利用实验室加工成的连续拐弯管道,模拟研究了复杂燃气管网爆炸性气体通过连续拐弯管道时的火焰传播速度、爆炸波超压变化情况。研究结果表明,当整个管道内充满瓦斯气体时,通过连续拐弯后,火焰传播速度和爆炸波超压值产生显著变化,在连续拐弯管道拐弯处为一扰动源,诱导附加湍流,气流湍流度增大,管道拐弯增加了燃烧区的湍流度,火焰燃烧产生加速度,加速燃烧产生更大能量以推动加速传播。研究结果对指导现场如何防治复杂燃气管网气体爆炸,减轻爆炸的威力具有重要作用。     

Application of fuzzy logic to explosion risk assessment

Safety and health of workers potentially being at risk from explosive atmospheres are regulated by separate regulations (ANSI/AIHA in USA and ATEX in the European Union). The ANSI/AIHA does not require risk assessment whereas it is compulsory for ATEX. There is no standard method to do that assessment. For that purpose we have applied the explosion Layer of Protection Analysis (ExLOPA), which enables semi-quantitative risk assessment for process plants where explosive atmospheres occur. The ExLOPA is based on the original work of CCPS for LOPA taking into account an explosion accident scenario at workplace. That includes typical variables appropriate for workplace explosion like occurrence of the explosive atmosphere, the presence of effective ignition sources, activity of the explosion prevention and mitigation independent protection layers as well as the severity of consequences. All those variables are expressed in the form of qualitative linguistic categories and relations between them are presented using expert based engineering knowledge, expressed in the form of appropriate set of rules. In this way the category of explosion risk may be estimated by the semi-quantitative analysis. However, this simplified method is connected with essential uncertainties providing over or under estimation of the explosion risk and may not provide real output data.In order to overcome this problem and receive more detailed quantitative results, the fuzzy logic system was applied. In the first stage called fuzzification, all linguistic categories of the variables are mapped by fuzzy sets. In the second stage, the number of relation between all variables of analysis are determined by the enumerative combinatorics and the set of the 810 fuzzy rules “IF-THEN” is received. Each rule enables determination of the fuzzy risk level for a particular accident scenario. In the last stage, called defuzzification, the crisp value of final risk is obtained using a centroid method. The final result of the risk presents a contribution of each risk category represented by the fuzzy sets (A, TA, TNA and NA) and is therefore more precise and readable than the traditional approach producing one category of risk only. Fuzzy logic gives a possibility of better insights into hazards and safety phenomena for each explosion risk scenario. It is not possible to receive such conclusions from the traditional ExLOPA calculation results. However it requires the application of computer-aided analyses which may be partially in conflict with a simplicity of ExLOPA.The practical example provides a comparison between the traditional results obtained by ExLOPA and by fuzzy ExLOPA methods.