Using Sediment Budgets to Investigate the Pathogen Flux Through Catchments

We demonstrate a materials budget approach to identify the main source areas and fluxes of pathogens through a landscape by using the flux of fine sediments as a proxy for pathogens. Sediment budgets were created for three subcatchment tributaries of the Googong Reservoir in southeastern New South Wales, Australia. Major inputs, sources, stores, and transport zones were estimated using sediment sampling, dam trap efficiency measures, and radionuclide tracing. Particle size analyses were used to quantify the fine-sediment component of the total sediment flux, from which the pathogen flux was inferred by considering the differences between the mobility and transportation of fine sediments and pathogens. Gullies were identified as important sources of fine sediment, and therefore of pathogens, with the pathogen risk compounded when cattle shelter in them during wet periods. The results also indicate that the degree of landscape modification influences both sediment and pathogen mobilization. Farm dams, swampy meadows and glades along drainage paths lower the flux of fine sediment, and therefore pathogens, in this landscape during low-flow periods. However, high-rainfall and high-flow events are likely to transport most of the fine sediment, and therefore pathogen, flux from the Googong landscape to the reservoir. Materials budgets are a repeatable and comparatively low-cost method for investigating the pathogen flux through a landscape.     

嘉兴电厂2×300MW机组脱硝方案的对比分析

根据嘉兴电厂的实际情况，在对6种主流脱硝工艺进行技术经济分析的基础上，结合电厂近期和远期的NOx控制目标，对各种脱硝工艺的组合进行研究，推荐了可行的脱硝方案，为工程的实施提供了可靠的技术依据。     

工程监理的安全责任研究

为了研究工程监理单位是否应该承担安全监理的责任问题,从工程监理制度与安全施工的关系,从法律、行政法规、技术规范等多方面对工程监理的安全责任进行了全面的分析和详细的研究,最后从法理和现实入手,对工程监理单位的安全责任进行了总结和归纳,对一些条文规定进行了深入的解析。研究结果表明,目前的《建设工程安全生产管理条例》和某些地方政府和行业主管部门对工程监理单位的安全监理责任有扩大化的倾向,应予以制止。     

旋转风幕流场的数值模拟及实验研究

基于流体力学中空气射流理论,建立气幕旋风排风罩流场的三维数学模型。影响气幕旋风排风罩效果的因素很多,主要包括:射流气动参数、吹吸气动参数以及流动空间的边界条件和装置结构等。针对不同送风速度、不同送风角度下两种情况进行分析,并利用FLUENT计算动力学软件对这两种情况下气幕旋风排风罩的流场进行了数值模拟,经过比较确定出最佳效果时的参数,并利用示综烟雾进行了实验。结果表明:所建立的气幕旋风排风罩流场的数学模型完全正确,所确定的最佳效果时的参数和实际情况基本一致,可用于工程实际。     

航空安全文化的研究进展

结合国内外对航空安全文化定量和定性的研究结果,定义了航空安全文化,并阐述航空安全文化的内涵,介绍国内外航空安全文化研究的进展情况,指出了国内外航空安全文化研究的差距,进而给出我国航空安全文化的研究方向。目的在于使以后的研究越来越关注实证角度,为从人为因素角度加强航空安全提供可靠、可信的数据支持,提高飞行绩效,创造安全飞行周期新记录,最终提高航空公司的经济及社会效益。     

室内安全生态学研究

从人们最基本的生存需求之一:安全性需要和室内微型生态系统的可持续发展角度出发,对人们所面临的室内环境问题进行总结归纳;在安全生态学意义下对室内环境问题的研究重新进行了分类;在室内环境问题研究方面提出加强室内安全生态学研究的建议。对室内安全生态学研究提出一些新的观点和看法;给出了室内安全生态学的架构体系;较为全面地归纳了室内各方面的环境问题;初步探讨了如何构建室内安全生态学评价的理论体系。     

Green defaults: Information presentation and pro-environmental behaviour

There is inconsistency in many people's choice of electricity. When asked, they say they prefer a ‘green’ (i.e., environmentally friendly) source for this energy. Yet, although green electricity is available in many markets, people do not generally buy it. Why not? Motivated by behavioural decision research, we argue that the format of information presentation drastically affects the choice of electricity. Specifically, we hypothesise that people use the kind of electricity that is offered to them as the default. We present two natural studies and two experiments in the laboratory that support this hypothesis. In the two real-world situations, there was a green default, and most people used it. In the first laboratory experiment, more participants chose the green utility when it was the default than when ‘grey’ electricity was the default. In the second laboratory experiment, participants asked for more money to give up green electricity than they were willing to pay for it. We argue that changing defaults can be used to promote pro-environmental behaviour. Potential policy-making applications of this work are discussed.     

Prospects for Reconciling the Conflict between Economic Growth and Biodiversity Conservation with Technological Progress

Abstract: The conflict between economic growth and biodiversity conservation is understood in portions of academia and sometimes acknowledged in political circles. Nevertheless, there is not a unified response. In political and policy circles, the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) is posited to solve the conflict between economic growth and environmental protection. In academia, however, the EKC has been deemed fallacious in macroeconomic scenarios and largely irrelevant to biodiversity. A more compelling response to the conflict is that it may be resolved with technological progress. Herein I review the conflict between economic growth and biodiversity conservation in the absence of technological progress, explore the prospects for technological progress to reconcile that conflict, and provide linguistic suggestions for describing the relationships among economic growth, technological progress, and biodiversity conservation. The conflict between economic growth and biodiversity conservation is based on the first two laws of thermodynamics and principles of ecology such as trophic levels and competitive exclusion. In this biophysical context, the human economy grows at the competitive exclusion of nonhuman species in the aggregate. Reconciling the conflict via technological progress has not occurred and is infeasible because of the tight linkage between technological progress and economic growth at current levels of technology. Surplus production in existing economic sectors is required for conducting the research and development necessary for bringing new technologies to market. Technological regimes also reflect macroeconomic goals, and if the goal is economic growth, reconciliatory technologies are less likely to be developed. As the economy grows, the loss of biodiversity may be partly mitigated with end‐use innovation that increases technical efficiency, but this type of technological progress requires policies that are unlikely if the conflict between economic growth and biodiversity conservation (and other aspects of environmental protection) is not acknowledged.     

Long‐Term Dynamics of a Fragmented Rainforest Mammal Assemblage

Abstract: Habitat fragmentation is a severe threat to tropical biotas, but its long‐term effects are poorly understood. We evaluated longer‐term changes in the abundance of larger (>1 kg) mammals in fragmented and intact rainforest and in riparian “corridors” in tropical Queensland, with data from 190 spotlighting surveys conducted in 1986–1987 and 2006–2007. In 1986–1987 when most fragments were already 20–50 years old, mammal assemblages differed markedly between fragmented and intact forest. Most vulnerable were lemuroid ringtail possums (Hemibelideus lemuroides), followed by Lumholtz's tree‐kangaroos (Dendrolagus lumholtzi) and Herbert River ringtail possums (Pseudocheirus herbertensis). Further changes were evident 20 years later. Mammal species richness fell significantly in fragments, and the abundances of 4 species, coppery brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula johnstoni), green ringtail possums (Pseudochirops archeri), red‐legged pademelons (Thylogale stigmatica), and tree‐kangaroos, declined significantly. The most surprising finding was that the lemuroid ringtail, a strict rainforest specialist, apparently recolonized one fragment, despite a 99.98% decrease in abundance in fragments and corridors. A combination of factors, including long‐term fragmentation effects, shifts in the surrounding matrix vegetation, and recurring cyclone disturbances, appear to underlie these dynamic changes in mammal assemblages.