Assessment of potentially toxic elements in Swiss chard and sediments of Akaki River,Ethiopia

For the determination of 15 potentially toxic elements (V, Cr, Fe, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Ag, Cd, Sn, Hg, and Pb) in plant and sediment samples of the Akaki River, Ethiopia, inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry, inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectrometry, and a RA-915+ mercury analyzer were applied. Sediment and plant samples were mineralized using a closed-vessel microwave-assisted digestion system. The elemental concentrations varied considerably in plant and sediment samples. The minimum concentration was observed for known toxic elements (As, Hg, and Cd) while the highest concentration was observed for the elements of relatively low toxicity Zn, Mn, and Fe. The concentration of Cr, Fe, Pb, Zn, and As in Swiss chard surpassed the maximum permissible levels at specific sites. At some of the sites, the sediment quality guidelines are surpassed for Cu, Zn, and Pb.     

介质阻挡放电反应器中的二硫化碳降解特性

为了解CS₂(二硫化碳)在介质阻挡放电反应器中的降解特性,提高其去除率,设计并制作了同轴圆柱介质阻挡放电反应器,研究了介质层数、外施电压、中心电极材料及直径、背景气氛种类和RH(相对湿度)对CS₂去除率的影响. 结果表明:在外施电压(4.0～6.5kV)较低时,单介质反应器的CS₂去除率高于双介质反应器;而在外施电压(6.5～9.0kV)较高时,双介质反应器对CS₂的去除效果更好,增大外施电压有利于CS₂的降解. 铜丝比不锈钢丝更适合用作反应器的中心电极,此外,增加中心电极的直径也可提高CS₂去除率. 当中心电极直径从 3.2mm增至4.8mm时,CS₂平均去除率由63%增至75%,但平均质量能耗由510kJ/mg增至611kJ/mg. 同等条件下,CS₂在氧气中的平均去除率(74%)最大,空气(59%)中次之,氮气(48%)中最小;背景气氛中适量的RH(26%)有助于提高CS₂去除率,但RH太大(大于50%)反而会降低CS₂去除率.      

基于HFACS的空中相撞事故分析及建议

空中相撞事故往往是由诸多人为差错相互叠加、耦合和作用而导致的,要找出事故的真正诱因,防止类似事故再次发生,难度非常大。为了有效地分析和定位人为差错,以更好地服务于防相撞的管理与决策,提出一种基于人为因素分析分类系统（HFACS）的空中相撞事故分析方法,它按照从显性差错到隐性差错的思路来分析事故的诱因,最终找出组织因素对事故的影响。并利用HFACS对巴西卡欣布上空发生的一起空中相撞事故进行了系统分析。案例分析结果表明,该方法不仅能够找出导致空中相撞事故的人为差错,解释事故发生的原因和过程,而且能够据此提供防止相撞事故发生的安全建议。     

等离子工艺与H_2O_2联合处理酸性橙Ⅱ溶液的研究

对气液两相滑动弧等离子与H2O2联合处理酸性橙Ⅱ溶液进行了研究。结果表明:两者具有明显的协同效应,可减少等离子放电时间,提高了降解效率。质量浓度为300 mg/L的酸性橙Ⅱ溶液,加入体积分数为0.48～0.96 mL/L的H2 O2(30%),循环降解2次的脱色率在92%以上。当加入过氧化氢的体积分数是1.92 mL/L时,循环降解1次脱色率为93.32%。而且降解后的溶液随着放置时间的延长,脱色率进一步降低;且放置8 h时,降解率下降最明显。     

How humans shape wolf behavior in Banff and Kootenay National Parks, Canada

This paper describes the conceptualization and implementation of an agent-based model to investigate how varying levels of human presence could affect elements of wolf behavior, including highway crossings; use of areas in proximity to roads and trails; size of home ranges; activities, such as hunting, patrolling, resting, and feeding pups; and survival of individuals in Banff and Kootenay National Parks, Canada. The model consists of a wolf module as the primary component with five packs represented as cognitive agents, and grizzly bear, elk, and human modules that represent dynamic components of the environment. A set of environmental data layers was used to develop a friction model that serves as a base map representing the landscape over which wolves moved. A decision model was built to simulate the sequence of wolf activities. The model was implemented in a Java Programming Language using RePast, an agent-based modeling library. Six months of wolf activities were simulated from April 16 to October 15 (i.e., a season coherent with regard to known wolf behaviors), and calibrated with GPS data from wolf radiocollars (n = 15) deployed from 2002 to 2004. Results showed that the simulated trajectories of wolf movements were correlated with the observed trajectories (Spearman's rho 0.566, P < 0.001); other critical behaviors, such as time spent at the den and not traveling were also correlated. The simulations revealed that wolf movements and behaviors were noticeably affected by the intensity of human presence. The packs’ home ranges shrank and wolves crossed highways less frequently with increased human presence. In an extreme example, a wolf pack whose home range is traversed by a high-traffic-volume highway was extirpated due to inability to hunt successfully under a scenario wherein human presence levels were increased 10-fold. The modeling prototype developed in this study may serve as a tool to test hypotheses about human effects on wolves and on other mammals, and guide decision-makers in designing management strategies that minimize impacts on wolves and on other species functionally related to wolves in the ecosystem.     

Human transformities in a global hierarchy: Emergy and scale in the production of people and culture

In emergy research, transformities are of fundamental importance. They are factors that are used to convert the inputs to a process into emergy. Once placed in emergy units, the inputs to any process can then be added together or compared. Furthermore, as a product of an emergy analysis, new transformities for outputs can be used in other analyses. By this process the collection of known transformities grows, and subsequent emergy analyses become more accurate. Human labor is often a critical input to an emergy analysis. Transformities for humans have only been roughly estimated based on education level, and should be judged as first approximations. This paper refines the existing values for human services, using similar techniques, but with some different assumptions. The result is a larger range of human transformities, expanded at both lower and upper ends that range from 7.53E4 to 7.53E13. There are many applications of this knowledge, from improving empirical studies to expositions of hierarchy that more reliably “locate” humans, economic production, and information within energy transformation hierarchies.     

Analysis of underlying causes of investigated loss of containment incidents in Dutch Seveso plants using the Storybuilder method

In the Netherlands there are around 400 “Seveso” sites that fall under the Dutch Major Hazards Decree (BRZO) 1999. Between 2006 and 2010 the Dutch Labour Inspectorate's Directorate for Major Hazard Control completed investigations of 118 loss of containment incidents involving hazardous substances from this group. On the basis of investigation reports the incidents were entered in a tailor-made tool called Storybuilder developed for the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment for identifying the dominant patterns of technical safety barrier failures, barrier task failures and underlying management causes associated with the resulting loss of control events. The model is a bow-tie structure with six lines of defence, three on either side of the central loss of containment event. In the first line of defence, failures in the safety barriers leading to loss of control events were primarily equipment condition failures, pre start-up and safeguarding failures and process deviations such as pressure and flow failures. These deviations, which should have been recovered while still within the safe envelope of operation, were missed primarily because of inadequate indication signals that the deviations have occurred. Through failures of subsequent lines of defence they are developing into serious incidents. Overall, task failures are principally failures to provide adequate technical safety barriers and failures to operate provided barriers appropriately. Underlying management delivery failures were mainly found in equipment specifications and provisions, procedures and competence. The competence delivery system is especially important for identifying equipment condition, equipment isolation for maintenance, pre-start-up status and process deviations. Human errors associated with operating barriers were identified in fifty per cent of cases, were mostly mistakes and feature primarily in failure to prevent deviations and subsequently recover them. Loss of control associated with loss of containment was primarily due to the containment being bypassed (72% of incidents) and less to material strength failures (28%). Transfer pipework, connections in process plant and relief valves are the most frequent release points and the dominant release material is extremely flammable. It is concluded that the analysis of a large number of incidents in Storybuilder can support the quantification of underlying causes and provide evidence of where the weak points exist in major hazard control in the prevention of major accidents.     

Treatment of Dichloromethane Using Gliding Arc Plasma

Decomposition of dichloromethane (CH₂Cl₂) using a gliding plasma was examined and reported in this paper. The effects of initial concentrations of CH₂Cl₂, total gas flow rates, and input frequency have been studied to evaluate the performance of gliding arc on CH₂Cl₂ decomposition. Using atmospheric pressure air as the carrier gas, experimental results indicate that the maximum conversion of CH₂Cl₂ was 95.1% at a total gas flow rate of 180 L/hr containing 1% by volume of CH₂Cl₂. The reaction occurred at an exothermic condition and gaseous products are dominated by CO, CHCl₃, and Cl₂. CO₂ and CCl₄ are also detected in the product stream in small amounts. The conversion of CH₂Cl₂ increases with the increasing applied voltage and decreasing total gas flow rate.     

Trans-ocean wireless transfer of electricity from continent to continent

The author offers collections from his previous research of the revolutionary new ideas: wireless transfer of electric energy to a long distance – from one continent to another continent through the Earth's ionosphere and the storage of the electric energy in the ionosphere. Earlier he also suggested the use of electronic tubes as the method for transportation of electricity into outer space and the 100-km electrostatic space towers for connection to the Earth's ionosphere. Earlier a connection to the Earth's ionosphere using 100-km solid or inflatable towers was suggested. however, the technology faces difficulties. In this work, connection to the Earth's ionosphere by thin plastic tubes supported in the atmosphere by electron gas and electrostatic force is researched. Building this system is cheap and easy using the current technology. The computation allows estimating the possibility of the suggested method.