Bacteria transport and deposition under unsaturated conditions: the role of the matrix grain size and the bacteria surface protein

Unsaturated (80% water saturated) packed column experiments were conducted to investigate the influence of grain size distribution and bacteria surface macromolecules on bacteria (Rhodococcus rhodochrous) transport and deposition mechanisms. Three sizes of silica sands were used in these transport experiments, and their median grain sizes were 607, 567, and 330 microm. The amount of retained bacteria increased with decreasing sand size, and most of the deposited bacteria were found adjacent to the column inlet. The deposition profiles were not consistent with predictions based on classical filtration theory. The experimental data could be accurately characterized using a mathematical model that accounted for first-order attachment, detachment, and time and depth-dependent straining processes. Visual observations of the bacteria deposition as well as mathematical modelling indicated that straining was the dominant mechanism of deposition in these sands (78-99.6% of the deposited bacteria), which may have been enhanced due to the tendency of this bacterium to form aggregates. An additional unsaturated experiment was conducted to better deduce the role of bacteria surface macromolecules on attachment and straining processes. In this case, the bacteria surface was treated using a proteolitic enzyme. This technique was assessed by examining the Fourier-transform infrared spectrum and hydrophobicity of untreated and enzyme treated cells. Both of these analytical procedures demonstrated that this enzymatic treatment removed the surface proteins and/or associated macromolecules. Transport and modelling studies conducted with the enzyme treated bacteria, revealed a decrease in attachment, but that straining was not significantly affected by this treatment.     

中国环境基准研究重点方向探讨

环境基准是环境标准的科学依据,在国家环境质量评价和风险管理体系中处于基础地位。它主要是依据特定对象在环境介质中的暴露数据,以及与环境要素的剂量效应关系数据,通过科学判断得出的,涉及环境化学、毒理学、生态学、流行病学、生物学和风险评估等前沿学科领域。国家环境基准研究是一个长期的系统工程,本文基于环境基准研究的学科特点和国际前沿,结合国家科技需求和相关领域的研究现状,综合分析并提出了未来中国环境基准研究的重点研究方向:1)环境基准的理论与方法学;2)环境基准基础数据库;3)基准目标污染物的筛选甄别和优先排序技术;4)水体营养物基准;5)生物测试与毒性评价技术;6)人体暴露评价理论与相关技术;7)环境基准的审核和校对;8)环境基准与标准转化理论及其对环境管理支撑技术。本文从环境基准学科发展的角度,阐述了与环境基准研究紧密相关的8个重点研究方面的国内外研究进展、关键科学问题以及未来重点研究内容。同时指出,这些重要的研究方向是环境基准研究的根本,未来环境基准的长期战略发展必将是建立在各个重要方向长足发展的基础之上,环境基准研究也必带动这些方向的共同蓬勃发展,为环境地球化学、毒理学、生态学等学科领域发展注入活力。     

The social and ecological determinants of common pool resource sustainability

We study a dynamic common pool resource game in which current resource stock depends on resource extraction in the previous period. Our model shows that for a sufficiently high regrowth rate, there is no commons dilemma: the resource will be preserved indefinitely in equilibrium. Lower growth rates lead to depletion. Laboratory tests of the model indicate that favorable ecological characteristics are necessary but insufficient to encourage effective CPR governance. Before the game, we elicit individual willingness to follow a costly rule. Only the presence of enough rule-followers preserves the resource given favorable ecological conditions.     

Fish wars and cooperation maintenance

In this paper, a discrete-time game model related to a bioresource management problem (fish catching) is considered. We divide a fishery into regions, which are exploited by single players. The center (referee) shares a reservoir between the competitors. The players (countries), which harvest the fish stock are the participants of this game.We assume that there are migratory exchanges between the regions of the reservoir. Therefore, the stock in one region depends not only on the previous stock and catch in the region, but also on the stock and catch in neighboring regions. We derive the Nash and cooperative equilibria for an infinite planning horizon.We consider two ways to maintain the cooperation: incentive equilibrium and time-consistent imputation distribution procedure. We investigate the cooperative incentive equilibrium in the case when the center punishes players for a deviation.Also we consider the case when the center is a player and find the Shapley value and time-consistent imputation distribution procedure. We introduce a new condition which offers an incentive to players to keep cooperating.     

Use of linkage mapping and centrality analysis across habitat gradients to conserve connectivity of gray wolf populations in western North America

Centrality metrics evaluate paths between all possible pairwise combinations of sites on a landscape to rank the contribution of each site to facilitating ecological flows across the network of sites. Computational advances now allow application of centrality metrics to landscapes represented as continuous gradients of habitat quality. This avoids the binary classification of landscapes into patch and matrix required by patch-based graph analyses of connectivity. It also avoids the focus on delineating paths between individual pairs of core areas characteristic of most corridor- or linkage-mapping methods of connectivity analysis. Conservation of regional habitat connectivity has the potential to facilitate recovery of the gray wolf (Canis lupus), a species currently recolonizing portions of its historic range in the western United States. We applied 3 contrasting linkage-mapping methods (shortest path, current flow, and minimum-cost-maximum-flow) to spatial data representing wolf habitat to analyze connectivity between wolf populations in central Idaho and Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming). We then applied 3 analogous betweenness centrality metrics to analyze connectivity of wolf habitat throughout the northwestern United States and southwestern Canada to determine where it might be possible to facilitate range expansion and interpopulation dispersal. We developed software to facilitate application of centrality metrics. Shortest-path betweenness centrality identified a minimal network of linkages analogous to those identified by least-cost-path corridor mapping. Current flow and minimum-cost-maximum-flow betweenness centrality identified diffuse networks that included alternative linkages, which will allow greater flexibility in planning. Minimum-cost-maximum-flow betweenness centrality, by integrating both land cost and habitat capacity, allows connectivity to be considered within planning processes that seek to maximize species protection at minimum cost. Centrality analysis is relevant to conservation and landscape genetics at a range of spatial extents, but it may be most broadly applicable within single- and multispecies planning efforts to conserve regional habitat connectivity.     

浅析混凝沉降实验研究与实际工艺的差异

介绍混凝沉降实验与实际沉降工艺各自的特点和存在的问题,从相似理论的角度出发,指出了玻璃量筒沉降实验和实际沉降工艺存在着几何尺寸、初始条件、运动条件三方面的不相似,较好地解释了两者的沉降速度和沉降效果的差异;并提出今后的混凝沉降实验应该进一步符合相似理论,从而更加合理地模拟实际沉降工艺.     

Coupled infrared extinction spectra and size distribution measurements for several non-clay components of mineral dust aerosol (quartz, calcite, and dolomite)

Simultaneous size distributions and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) extinction spectra have been measured for several representative components of mineral dust aerosol (quartz, calcite, and dolomite) in the fine particle size mode (D=0.1–1 μm). Optical constants drawn from the published literature have been used in combination with the experimentally determined size distributions to simulate the extinction spectra. In general, Mie theory does not accurately reproduce the peak position or band shape for the prominent IR resonance features in the 800–1600 cm⁻¹ spectral range. The resonance peaks in the Mie simulation are consistently blue shifted relative to the experimental spectra by 20–50 cm⁻¹. Spectral simulations, derived from a simple Rayleigh-based analytic theory for a “continuous distribution of ellipsoids” particle shape model, better reproduce the experimental spectra, despite the fact that the Rayleigh approximation is not strictly satisfied in these experiments. These results differ from our previous studies of particle shape effects in silicate clay mineral dust aerosols where a disk-shaped model for the particles was found to be more appropriate.     

Is the integration of hormesis and essentiality into ecotoxicology now opening Pandora's Box?

Hormesis and essentiality are likely real and common effects at the level of the individual. However, the widespread incorporation of stimulatory effects into applications of ecotoxicology requires the acceptance of assumptions, value judgements and possibly lowering of water/sediment quality standards. There is also currently little data appropriate for considering hormetic effects in the ecotoxicological context. Except perhaps in the case of fitting concentration-response curves, it is not clear that incorporation of hormetic and essentiality type responses into ecotoxicology is necessary. Furthermore, its incorporation presents considerable intellectual and practical changes for ecotoxicology and could have unanticipated consequences.     

On the search for mimetic patterns in environmental disclosure: an international perspective

In this paper, we assert and test the proposition that environmental disclosure (ED) is structured by institutionalised myths and that is why ED is decoupled from environmental performance and media pressures. Focusing on firms from Canada, France and Germany, findings show that ED mimetic isomorphism for different topics varies among countries and by industry sensitiveness to the environment. The results corroborate the institutional presumption that institutionalised myths vary among different contexts. Our findings also suggest that institutionalised ED structures may not reflect environmental performance, mimetic patterns being affected by environmental performance. However, the decoupling between ED mimetic isomorphism and environmental performance decrease when firms’ ED credibility is questioned by the media.     

森林旅游开发中环境保护问题的博弈分析

介绍了博弈论的基本内容,运用了博弈论的基本原理分析和认识森林旅游开发和周边地区生态环境保护之间存在的矛盾,阐述了博弈论的基本理论在森林旅游开发环保中的应用,分析指出应结合市场机制和政府政策改变博弈方的收益,使博弈达到有利于环境保护的纳什均衡,提高森林旅游开发中的环境保护效率,以及处理森林旅游开发中环境保护问题的有效决策.