The transformation of outdoor ammonium nitrate aerosols in the indoor environment

Recent studies associate particulate air pollution with adverse health effects; however, the exposure to indoor particles of outdoor origin is not well characterized, particularly for individual chemical species. We conducted a field study in an unoccupied, single-story residence in Clovis, California to provide data and analyses to address issues important for assessing exposure. We used real-time particle monitors both outdoors and indoors to quantify nitrate, sulfate, and carbon particulate matter of particle size 2.5 μm or less in diameter (PM-2.5). The results show that measured indoor ammonium nitrate concentrations were significantly lower than would be expected based solely on penetration and deposition losses. The additional reduction can be attributed to the transformation indoors of ammonium nitrate into ammonia and nitric acid gases, which are subsequently lost by deposition and sorption to indoor surfaces. A mass balance model that accounts for the kinetics of ammonium nitrate evaporation was able to reproduce measured indoor ammonium nitrate and nitric acid concentrations, resulting in a fitted value of the deposition velocity for nitric acid of 0.56 cm s⁻¹. The results indicate that indoor exposure to outdoor ammonium nitrate in Central Valley of California are small, and suggest that exposure assessments based on total particle mass measured outdoors may obscure the actual causal relationships for indoor exposure to particles of outdoor origin.     

临安市实施清洁生产和发展绿色产业总体构思

以临安市为例，通过对该市社会经济发展现状及其制约“瓶颈”的分析，指出县域经济的进一步发展存在强烈的路径依赖，即必须按照可持续发展的基本原则，以清洁生产与绿色产业为目标取向，并相应提出一些设想和措施。     

A microcosm approach to assessing the effects of earthworm inoculation and oat cover cropping on CO2 fluxes and biological properties in an amended semiarid soil

We designed a microcosm experiment to assess the influence of inoculation with Eisenia foetida earthworms and the establishment of an Avena sativa cover crop on biological (enzyme activities and labile carbon fractions) soil quality indicators in a soil treated with a composted organic residue, and to determine the contribution of these treatments to carbon dioxide emissions from the soil to the atmosphere of the microcosm. The microcosms were incubated for 53 days under 28 °C/18 °C day/night temperatures. The addition of earthworms and the planting of A. sativa increased dehydrogenase activity of compost amended soil by about 44% after 23 days of incubation. The metabolic potential, calculated as the ratio dehydrogenase activity/water soluble C, was higher in the compost amended soil planted with A. sativa. The highest total amount of CO₂–C evolved occurred in the soil treated with composted residue and earthworms (about 40% of the total amount of CO₂ evolved came from earthworm activity). The planting of A. sativa increased the decomposition rate constant of organic matter in the amended soil but decreased the potentially mineralizable C pool. In conclusion, the establishment of an A. sativa cover crop and the addition of E. foetida to a degraded agricultural soil treated with composted residue were effective treatments for improving the biological and biochemical quality and the metabolic potential of the soil.     

Endocrine disruption of water and sediment extracts in a non-radioactive dot blot/RNAse protection-assay using isolated hepatocytes of rainbow trout

Goal, Scope and Background In order to evaluate the estrogenic activity of sediments and XAD water extracts of selected sites of the catchment area of the River Neckar, a river system in Southern Germany, an integrative assessment approach was used to assess the ecological hazard potential of endocrine-disrupting compounds in sediment and water. Methods The approach is based on estrogen receptor-mediated vitellogenin synthesis induced in isolated hepatocytes of rainbow trout and quantified in a non-radioactive dot blot/RNAse protection-assay in parallel to comprehensive chemical analyses of estrogenic substances. Results and Discussion Numerous investigated extracts revealed an estrogen activity comparable to that of the positive control (1 nM 17?-estradiol corresponding to 270 ng/L in the test medium). Based on a concentration factor of 30 in the extracts and a recovery of XAD resins of approximately 80 %, 17?-estradiol equivalent concentrations between 20 and 26.7 ng/L could be calculated downstream of a sewage treatment plant (< 0.1 ng/L for a reference site). A comparison of the bioassay-derived Bio-TEQs (toxicity equivalents) and the Chem-TEQs revealed a high correlation with a Pearson coefficient of 0.85, indicating that the same ranking of the samples could be obtained with respect to the endocrine disrupting potential with both chemical and bioanalytical analysis. However, the TEQ concentrations computed from chemical analyses were significantly lower than the bioassay-derived TEQ concentrations. In fact, in none of the samples, more than 14 % of the vitellogenin-inducing potency could be attributed to the substances (steroids, alkylphenols, bisphenol A, diethylstilbestrol) analyzed. A comparison of the endocrine disrupting potential of sediments extracted by the solvents acetone and methanol revealed lower biological effects for acetone-extracted samples. Possible reasons may be a masking of endocrine effects in acetone extracts by cytotoxicity, a low extraction efficiency of the solvent acetone, or anti-estrogen potencies of some extracted sediment compounds. Using a mass balance approach, the contribution of the compounds analyzed chemically (Chem-TEQs) to the total endocrine activity (Bio-TEQs) was calculated. Based on the very low detection limits, particularly of the steroids with their high TEF factors, results revealed that a calculation of the Chem-TEQs is associated with considerable scale inaccuracy: Whereas only 7-15 % of the biological effectiveness (Bio-TEQs) could be explained by endocrine substances identified above the detection limits, the assumption of concentrations slightly below the given detection limits would result in a significant over estimation (137-197 %) of the Bio-TEQs. Even the interassay variation of the dot blot assay with different fish donors for primary hepatocyte (factor 2 - 2.5) is relatively low, when compared to the large range of the Chem-TEQ concentrations (factor 20) obtained when applying different modes of calculation. Conclusions and Outlook Overall, only a minor portion of the endocrine activity detected by bioassays could be linked to compounds identified by chemical analysis. In vitro assays for assessment of endocrine activities are useful as sensitive integrating methods that provide quantitative estimates of the total activity of particular receptor-mediated responses. Although discrepancies may also result from different bioanalytical approaches, it is overall likely that bioanalytical and not chemical analytical approaches give the correct estimate of endocrine disrupting potencies in environmental samples. As a conclusion, assessment of endocrine disruption based on chemical analysis alone does not appear sufficient and further research into the spectrum of substances with potential endocrine activity as well as into additive or even synergistic effects in complex environmental samples is urgently needed.     

PCR-DGGE技术在水解酸化-缺氧法处理采油废水的微生物研究中的应用

采用PCR-DGGE技术直接从水解酸化和缺氧反应器中的污泥样品提取DNA,测定部分菌种的16S rDNA V3区片段序列,通过NCBI基因库比对,初步确定不同生物反应器内优势菌种,并进行了多样性指数分析.结果表明,水解酸化反应器中的生物膜与缺氧反应器中悬浮污泥微生物种群结构存在较大的差异,显示了在不同环境条件下,微生物群落结构的连续动态变化过程.     

磷钨酸光催化降解甲基橙溶液的研究

以磷钨酸为光催化剂,在紫外灯照射下,对模拟染料废水甲基橙溶液进行光催化降解,并研究了催化剂加入量、pH值、甲基橙初始浓度和外加氧化剂H2O2对光催化降解效果的影响.结果表明,磷钨酸光催化剂加入量为300 mg/100 mL,pH=2.5时,甲基橙溶液的降解率明显高于其他pH值的降解率;在较低浓度下,甲基橙溶液的光催化降解反应符合一级动力学方程;外加氧化剂H2O2可提高光催化反应速率.     

无机陶瓷纳滤膜分离高钠盐废水中的锶

本实验研究表明,仅用截留分子量为1000的无机陶瓷纳滤膜分离高钠盐模拟溶液中的锶,分离效果并不理想.为提高陶瓷纳滤膜对锶的选择分离效果,选择了分子量为3000的聚丙烯酸作为陶瓷纳滤膜分离的强化剂,重点探讨了溶液pH值、聚丙烯酸浓度、温度及离子强度对模拟溶液盐分离效果和膜通量的影响,并得到了适宜的锶钠分离条件.实验结果表明,在适宜条件下,通过聚丙烯酸强化和两级分离,陶瓷纳滤膜可大大提高模拟溶液中锶离子的选择分离效果,锶/钠的分离因子高达205.     

清洁生产审核在企业ISO14000环境管理体系实施中的应用

对清洁生产、ISO14000环境管理体系的内涵作了简介，着重从理论到实践经验上探讨清洁生产审核在ISO14000环境管理体系推进过程中，环境因素和重大环境因素识别；目标、指标、环境管理方案建立；具体实施过程中的应用。     

施加磷元素后对小麦抗重金属铜毒性的影响

将小麦幼苗放在含有不同浓度磷元素（1 mmol/L和10 mmol/L）和铜元素（0.16μmol/L、100μmol/L和1 mmol/L）的培养液中处理12 h后,观察植物体内铜元素的含量、叶绿素含量、抗坏血酸循环的变化.结果表明,当培养液中施加的铜元素浓度相同时,施加较高浓度的磷（10 mmol/L）能促进植物根部吸收和积累铜,并能促进铜元素从根部向地上部的运输.此外,实验结果还表明,当培养液中都含有较少量的铜（0.16μmol/L）元素时,比较磷浓度对植物体内生理反应的影响时,发现在含有高浓度磷的培养液中培养的小麦体内的受到较少的膜质过氧化损伤,光合色素的含量保持稳定.但是,当培养液中有较高浓度的铜元素（100μmol/L和1 mmol/L）时,施加高浓度的磷反而加剧了植物体内的膜质过氧化损伤和引起光合色素的分解,从而不利于植物正常的生长发育.     

常规水处理厂中小隐孢子虫卵囊的去除效果

介绍了小隐孢子虫卵囊的特点及其对人体的危害，分析了pH、混凝剂种类与投加量、电导率和天然有机物含量等对小隐孢子虫卵囊的Zeta电位的影响，总结了混凝－沉淀－过滤和直接过滤对小隐孢子虫卵囊的去除效果，探讨了水温、水质、混凝剂种类与投加量、滤料层组成和滤速等对去除效果的影响。