MINTEQ modeling for evaluating the leaching behavior of heavy metals in MSWI fly ash

At present,all kinds of municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) fly ash stabilization technology has been reported and successfully applied in many countries.However,leaching procedures are very different that the technologies lack uniform standard,and it is even impossible to predict the long-term stabilization.Geochemical model can explain the environmental stabilization based on chemical phase and thermodynamic crystal structure,and it is also able to guide the development of environment-friendly stabi...     

Males do not see only red: UV wavelengths and male territorial aggression in the three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus)

Animal colour signals serve important functions in intraspecific interactions, including species recognition, mate choice and agonistic behaviour. An increasing interest concerns ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths, for instance studies on the effect of UV in mating decisions. More recently, some studies also established that UV signals affect intrasexual interactions. We studied the role of UV during aggressive encounters between male three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus), a species in which UV has an effect on female and male mate choice and shoaling behaviour. To that aim, we compared the aggressive response of a territorial male to male intruders, either seen in UV-including (UV+) or UV-lacking (UV-) conditions. Our prediction was that, if UV wavelengths are used in male-male competition, a territorial male should show less competitive behaviour towards an intruder representing a lower threat, i.e. the one presented without UV light. Male sticklebacks showed significantly lower levels of aggression towards male opponents lacking an UV component to their coloration than male opponents possessing this colour component. Discrimination was not influenced by a difference in brightness between the UV+ and UV- stimuli. Finally, we present some reflectance-spectrophotometrical data of two skin regions (cheek and abdomen) of the experimental males and analysed relationships between colorimetric variables, body variables and behaviour. Our study emphasises that UV visual cues are of importance in different communicational tasks in the three-spined stickleback.     

四氯化碳显色目视比色法测定溶解氧方法的研究

本文介绍了四氯化碳显色目视比色法测定溶解氧方法的研究过程,通过时分析方法中,标准试剂的选择,萃取剂的选择,碘化钾（K1）用量的选择,及稳定性实验,消除干扰实验,环境温度实验,方法准确度及精密度实验,表明此方法快速、准确、分析结果直观、适合应急监测。     

Visualizing the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Debate

Environmental organizations often use visual material to inform society about environmental concerns and their associated policy issues. This case study examines the process by which the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP) and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) use a Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition (RAVE) to draw attention to the environmental issues surrounding the Chesapeake Bay watershed. In addition, the study analyzes the resulting photographs captured during the event. The CBF and the iLCP strategically use the RAVE to create scientific and local knowledge that they use to present their understanding of the Chesapeake Bay. An analysis of the slideshows generated from the RAVE shows how the strategies the photographers employ help to depict power relations among the stakeholders in the watershed area. The strategies may encourage audiences to develop a regional collective identity of concerned citizens who will work together to help to protect and clean the watershed.     

Imaging Toxins

This essay examines how toxins are visually represented in news and popular media. More specifically, it analyzes the function of visual narratives, identity, place, and uncertainty in the construction of the controversial toxicant Agent Orange, a defoliant used by the US military during the Vietnam War to reduce jungle cover and destroy cropland causing devastating health and environmental effects. Toxins present an interesting challenge for visual construction in that they are often invisible and banal in their esthetics. The essay concludes with five observations for understanding the relationship between images and toxins.     

Selling Nature In a Resource-based Economy: Romantic/Extractive Gazes and Alberta's Bituminous Sands

Recent literature has explored the interplay between the Romantic gaze and the extractive gaze to conclude that in separating people from nature, both gazes function similarly to subordinate the land to human purposes. Such representations may be seen as part of a wider trend in which media visualizations of nature are based on an implicit ideology, tending to perpetuate and justify existing power relations; those visualizations use images which are increasingly abstract or iconic, and which by force of repetition, replace alternative representations and obscure connections to societal processes such as globalism and consumerism. This article takes up and extends that argument to a critical visual discourse analysis of an official place-branding slideshow produced by the Province of Alberta (Canada), which boasts an economy based significantly on producing non-renewable fossil fuels. In examining that slideshow in terms of Romantic/extractive gazes, this study situates Alberta's rebranding on Corbett's continuum of anthropocentric–ecocentric values; interrogates connections among Alberta's rebranding and invisible flows of power at work in broader, underlying societal processes like globalization, Neoliberalism and consumerism; and tests the commonality of the relationship between extractive and Romantic gazes in light of those processes.     

Young convict cichlids use visual information to update olfactory homing cues

In this study, we tested the tendency of young cichlids to orient towards their parents using chemical cues. Convict cichlids have biparental defence of their free-swimming young. If young become separated from their family they must rejoin their family within minutes to have any chance of survival. Here, we used a dichotomous Y-maze to test if displaced convict cichlid young can use chemical cues to orient to their family. First, we showed that young preferentially orient toward water taken from their home tank versus blank water taken from a tank that contained no fish. Second, we showed that young prefer home tank water to water from a tank containing another family of convict cichlids. In a third experiment, we placed young convict cichlids in a small aquarium inserted within a larger aquarium. The large aquarium contained either their parents or no fish. The small insert aquarium contained blank water from a tank that had never contained fish. After 20 min in the insert tank, young convict cichlids were placed in the Y-maze and given a choice between either their home tank water or water from the insert tank. Convict cichlids that did not see their parents during the 20-min conditioning period oriented strongly toward chemical cues of their home tank water. Young that saw their parents during the 20-min conditioning period oriented strongly toward the chemical cues of the insert tank. These data indicate that young convict cichlids use visual cues to learn and reset the smell of “home” in less than 20 min.     

Same stimuli,different responses: a pilot study assessing air pollution visibility impacts on emotional well-being in a controlled environment

● Emotional responses to visibility-reducing haze was assessed in a controlled lab. ● Valence and arousal have non-linear responses to pollution-caused low visibility. ● Repetitive exposure aggravates negative emotions in severely polluted conditions. ● Emotional bias to pollution relates with gender, decisiveness, attitude to clean air. A growing number of studies have shown that impaired visibility caused by particulate matter pollution influences emotional wellbeing. However, evidence is still scant on how this effect varies across individuals and over repetitive visual exposure in a controlled environment. Herein, we designed a lab-based experiment (41 subjects, 6 blocks) where participants were presented with real-scene images of 12 different PM_2.5 concentrations in each block. Emotional valence (negative to positive) and arousal (calm to excited) were self-rated by participants per image, and the response time for each rating was recorded. We find that as pollution level increases from 10 to 260 µg/m³, valence scores decrease, whereas arousal scores decline first and then bounce back, following a U-shaped trend. When air quality deteriorates, individual variability decreases in hedonic valence but increases in arousal. Over blocks, repetitive visual exposure increases valence at a moderate pollution level but aggravates negative emotions in severely polluted conditions (> 150 µg/m³). Finally, we find females, people who are slow in making responses, and those who are highly aroused by clean air tend to express more negative responses (so-called negativity bias) to ambient pollution than their respective counterparts. These results provide deeper insights into individual-level emotional responses to dirty air in a controlled environment. Although the findings in our pilot study should only be directly applied to the conditions assessed herein, we introduce a framework that can be replicated in different regions to assess the impact of air pollution on local emotional wellbeing.     

景观影响评价中"景观"的内涵和应用探讨

针对目前不同学科对于景观概念存在多种不同的解释,文章对环境影响评价中所基于的景观概念的内涵进行了探讨,指出了景观科学具有边缘性和开放性的特点。并根据目前中国景观影响评价的实际情况,提出了一些建议。     

Communal visual histories to detect environmental change in northern areas: Examples of emerging North American and Eurasian practices

This article explores the pioneering potential of communal visual-optic histories which are recorded, painted, documented, or otherwise expressed. These materials provide collective meanings of an image or visual material within a specific cultural group. They potentially provide a new method for monitoring and documenting changes to ecosystem health and species distribution, which can effectively inform society and decision makers of Arctic change. These visual histories can be positioned in a continuum that extends from rock art to digital photography. They find their expressions in forms ranging from images to the oral recording of knowledge and operate on a given cultural context. For monitoring efforts in the changing boreal zone and Arctic, a respectful engagement with visual histories can reveal emerging aspects of change. The examples from North America and case studies from Eurasia in this article include Inuit sea ice observations, Yu’pik visual traditions of masks, fish die-offs in a sub-boreal catchment area, permafrost melt in the Siberian tundra and early, first detection of a scarabaeid beetle outbreak, a Southern species in the Skolt Sámi area. The pros and cons of using these histories and their reliability are reviewed.