Temporal evolution of charged and neutral nanoparticle concentrations during atmospheric new particle formation events and its implications for ion-induced nucleation

Time series of nanoparticle number concentration during new particle formation (NPF) events in the urban environment of Brisbane, Australia, showed that the formation of charged particles often occurred before that of neutral particles. We monitored 241 days during the calendar year 2012 over which NPF events were observed on 108 days. We studied the times at which the charged and neutral particle concentrations in the size range 1.8–3.2 nm reached their peak values and found that they were clearly different in 50 events with the peak neutral particle concentration lagging behind the charged particle concentration during 42 of these events with a mean time lag of 24±12 min. While the charged particles were more likely to form before the neutral particles, once formed, the growth rate of the particles did not depend on their charge. While ion-induced nucleation is not the dominant mechanism of NPF in the atmosphere, our observations suggest that the presence of ions in the atmosphere plays a role that cannot be ignored.

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南通市PM2.5中水溶性离子季节分布特征

对南通市2016年12月-2018年10月大气污染季节分布特征进行了分析。结果表明,南通市ρ(PM2.5)和ρ(水溶性离子)为冬、春季高,夏、秋季低。春夏秋冬四季ρ(水溶性离子)占ρ(PM2.5)百分比分别为68.2%,70.6%,64.5%和74.5%,其中二次离子SNA(NO3-、SO42-和NH4+)占ρ(PM2.5)的百分比分别为63.1%,67.0%,59.3%和66.8%;ρ(NO3-)/ρ(SO42-)表明,移动源已成为南通市春、秋、冬季的主要污染源,四季均存在不同程度的二次转化,且SO2的转化率均大于NO2,NO2冬季转化率最大、夏季最小,SO2夏季转化率最大、秋季最小。南通市NO2转化为硝酸盐的主要形式是气相均相反应,非均相反应和均相反应对SO2转化为硫酸盐的贡献差异不大。     

Bio-processing of solid wastes and secondary resources for metal extraction - A review

Metal containing wastes/byproducts of various industries, used consumer goods, and municipal waste are potential pollutants, if not treated properly. They may also be important secondary resources if processed in eco-friendly manner for secured supply of contained metals/materials. Bio-extraction of metals from such resources with microbes such as bacteria, fungi and archaea is being increasingly explored to meet the twin objectives of resource recycling and pollution mitigation. This review focuses on the bio-processing of solid wastes/byproducts of metallurgical and manufacturing industries, chemical/petrochemical plants, electroplating and tanning units, besides sewage sludge and fly ash of municipal incinerators, electronic wastes (e-wastes/PCBs), used batteries, etc. An assessment has been made to quantify the wastes generated and its compositions, microbes used, metal leaching efficiency etc. Processing of certain effluents and wastewaters comprising of metals is also included in brief. Future directions of research are highlighted.     

Spotted bowerbirds<Emphasis Type="Italic"> Chlamydera maculata</Emphasis> do not prefer rare or costly bower decorations

Females target elaborate secondary sexual traits to acquire either direct benefits, represented or provided by the trait, or indirect benefits usually in the form of genetic components. The link between a males trait and his potential genetic contribution is often unclear. Bowers are extreme examples of secondary sexual traits, built and decorated by males and targeted by females. However, why females should base their mate choice on such structures is unclear. One of the simplest suggestions is that bowers are sites where males exhibit collections of objects that are inherently highly costly, indicating male quality to the choosy female. Such costs can be imposed in two ways, acquisition from the local area, and maintenance in the face of degradation. We studied bowers of spotted bowerbirds Chlamydera maculata at three sites in central Queensland and tested whether components of the bowers that best predict mating success were some of the most costly in the local environment by measuring their abundance, physical dimensions and rate of decay. We also tested whether rare objects per se found on the bowers, were relatively good predictors of mating success. Finally, we experimentally tested whether males preferentially chose rare, and hence costly, objects to use as decorations. We found that objects used on bowers were not unusually costly. Specific objects identified as good predictors of mating success were also some of the more common objects found in the area. They were not the largest objects used on bowers and decayed slowly relative to other objects available for use as decorations. Rare objects in general were not good predictors of mating success and males did not prefer to use rare objects when offered choices. In conclusion, we found no support for the theory that by simply inspecting numbers of decorations and assessing their costs of acquisition and maintenance females can easily obtain information regarding the owners quality. This is due to the fact that decorations used by spotted bowerbirds are not inherently costly.Communicated by J. Graves     

生物加强超滤深度处理城市中水过程膜污染与清洗效果分析

金桥电厂采用生物加强超滤工艺对城市二级排放水进行深度处理,清水用于锅炉循环冷却水补给水。在连续半年的运行期间没有产生严重膜污染情况,通过反洗、在线反洗、鼓风曝气和适当操作条件能很好的防治并预防膜污染,保证系统的稳定运行。     

Intensified wintertime secondary inorganic aerosol formation during heavy haze pollution episodes (HPEs) in Beijing, China

Air pollution in China is complex, and the formation mechanism of chemical components in particulate matter is still unclear. This study selected three consecutive heavy haze pollution episodes (HPEs) during winter in Beijing for continuous field observation, including an episode with heavy air pollution under red alert. Clean days during the observation period were selected for comparison. The HPE characteristics of Beijing in winter were: under the influence of adverse meteorological conditions such as high relative humidity, temperature inversion and low wind speed; and strengthening of secondary transformation reactions, which further intensified the accumulation of secondary aerosols and other pollutants, promoting the explosive growth of PM_2.5. PM_2.5/CO values, as indicators of the contribution of secondary transformation in PM_2.5, were approximately 2 times higher in the HPEs than the average PM_2.5/CO during the clean period. The secondary inorganic aerosols (sulfate nitrate and ammonium salt) were significantly enhanced during the HPEs, and the conversion coefficients were remarkably improved. In addition, it is interesting to observe that the production of sulfate tended to exceed that of nitrate in the late stage of all three HPEs. The existence of aqueous phase reactions led to the explosive growth sulfur oxidation ratio (SOR) and rapid generation of sulfate under high relative humidity (RH>70%).     

Secondary organic aerosol formation from straw burning using an oxidation flow reactor

Herein, we use an oxidation flow reactor, Gothenburg: Potential Aerosol Mass (Go: PAM) reactor, to investigate the secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation from wheat straw burning. Biomass burning emissions are exposed to high concentrations of hydroxyl radicals (OH) to simulate processes equivalent to atmospheric oxidation of 0-2.55 days. Primary volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were investigated, and particles were measured before and after the Go: PAM reactor. The influence of water content (i.e. 5% and 11%) in wheat straw was also explored. Two burning stages, the flaming stage, and non-flaming stages, were identified. Primary particle emission factors (EFs) at a water content of 11% (∼3.89 g/kg-fuel) are significantly higher than those at a water content of 5% (∼2.26 g/kg-fuel) during the flaming stage. However, the water content showed no significant influence at the non-flaming stage. EFs of aromatics at a non-flaming stage (321.8±46.2 mg/kg-fuel) are larger than that at a flaming stage (130.9±37.1 mg/kg-fuel). The OA enhancement ratios increased with the increase in OH exposure at first and decreased with the additional increment of OH exposure. The maximum OA enhancement ratio is ∼12 during the non-flaming stages, which is much higher than ∼ 1.7 during the flaming stages. The mass spectrum of the primary wheat burning organic aerosols closely resembles that of resolved biomass burning organic aerosols (BBOA) based on measurements in ambient air. Our results show that large gap (∼60%-90%) still remains to estimate biomass burning SOA if only the oxidation of VOCs were included.     

Significant contribution of secondary particulate matter to recurrent air pollution: Evidence from in situ observation in the most polluted city of Fen-Wei Plain of China

Particulate matter (PM) pollution in high emission regions will affect air quality, human health and climate change on both local and regional scales, and thus attract worldwide attention. In this study, a comprehensive study on PM_2.5 and its chemical composition were performed in Yuncheng (the most polluted city of Fen-Wei Plain of China) from November 28, 2020 to January 24, 2021. The average concentration of PM_2.5 was 87.8 ± 52.0 μg/m³, which were apparently lower than those observed during the same periods of past five years, attributable to the clean air action plan implemented in this region. NO₃⁻ and organic carbon (OC) were the dominant particulate components, which on average contributed 22.6% and 16.5% to PM_2.5, respectively. The fractions of NO₃⁻, NH₄⁺, OC and trace metals increased while those of crustal materials and elemental carbon decreased with the degradation of PM_2.5 pollution. Six types of PM_2.5 sources were identified by the PMF model, including secondary inorganic aerosol (35.3%), coal combustion (28.7%), vehicular emission (20.7%), electroplating industry (8.6%), smelt industry (3.9%) and dust (2.8%). Locations of each identified source were pinpointed based on conditional probability function, potential source contribution function and concentration weighted trajectory, which showed that the geographical distribution of the sources of PM_2.5 roughly agreed with the areas of high emission. Overall, this study provides valuable information on atmospheric pollution and deems beneficial for policymakers to take informed action to sustainably improve air quality in highly polluted region.     

Characterization of particulate products for aging of ethylbenzene secondary organic aerosol in the presence of ammonium sulfate seed aerosol

Aging of secondary organic aerosol(SOA) particles formed from OH– initiated oxidation of ethylbenzene in the presence of high mass(100–300 μg/m~3) concentrations of(NH_4)_2SO_4seed aerosol was investigated in a home-made smog chamber in this study.The chemical composition of aged ethylbenzene SOA particles was measured using an aerosol laser time-of-flight mass spectrometer(ALTOFMS) coupled with a Fuzzy C-Means(FCM) clustering algorithm.Experimental results showed that nitrophenol,ethyl-nitrophenol,2,4-dinitrophenol,methyl glyoxylic acid,5-ethyl-6-oxo-2,4-hexadienoic acid,2-ethyl-2,4-hexadiendioic acid,2,3-dihydroxy-5-ethyl-6-oxo-4-hexenoic acid,1H-imidazole,hydrated N-glyoxal substituted1H-imidazole,hydrated glyoxal dimer substituted imidazole,1H-imidazole-2-carbaldehyde,N-glyoxal substituted hydrated 1H-imidazole-2-carbaldehyde and high-molecular-weight(HMW) components were the predominant products in the aged particles.Compared to the previous aromatic SOA aging studies,imidazole compounds,which can absorb solar radiation effectively,were newly detected in aged ethylbenzene SOA in the presence of high concentrations of(NH_4)_2SO_4seed aerosol.These findings provide new information for discussing aromatic SOA aging mechanisms.     

Comparative assessment of primary and secondary infection risks in a norovirus outbreak using a household model simulation

Diarrheal diseases can be transmitted via both primary infection due to exposures to contaminated materials from the environment and secondary infection due to personto-person contacts. Usually, the importance of secondary infection is empirically assessed by fitting mathematical models to the epidemic curves. However, these empirical models may not be applicable to other epidemic cases because they are developed only for the target epidemics and they don't consider the detail routes of infection. In our previous study, we developed a theoretical model taking into account the various routes of infection that commonly occur in households(e.g., shaking hands, food handling, and changing diapers).This model was made flexible and applicable to any epidemics by means of adjusting model parameters. In this study, we proposed a new index "Vulnerability indicator to secondary infection(VISI)", which expressed a ratio of secondary infection to primary infection risks and calculated this index in a simulated norovirus(No V) epidemic that involved 10,000 households.The results demonstrated that households composed of more than three members including infant(s) had much higher levels of VISI(5–45) than two-member-households with VISI(0.1–4).These results concluded that the infants were likely to be a hub of secondary infections in highly dense families and therefore careful handling of diapers was deemed indispensible in such families to effectively control the secondary infections.