Filterability of oil sands tailings

In Canadian oil sands mining operations, bitumen is extracted from oil sands using the hot water extraction process, which produces tremendous amounts of tailings. Currently, these tailings are disposed of in large ponds, in which coarse particles settle out relatively quickly and fine particles remain suspended in water and settle very slowly. After years of settling, the fine particles form a stable suspension in water known as mature fine tailings (MFTs). Long-term storage of the MFT is costly and poses a major environmental liability.Oil sands companies are now actively investigating different approaches to replace or reduce the use of oil sands tailings ponds. Filtration of the tailings to produce “dry tailings” for stacking is now being investigated as an alternative by a number of companies. Fast water drainage is a critical step for the filtration process. In this paper, we use simple laboratory-scale filtration tests to evaluate the filterability of the oil sands tailings and to generate a parameter that can be used in filtration scale-up. It was found that the filterability of the original coarse oil sands tailings was relatively low. However, after the fines are flocculated with the coarse particles to form uniform flocs the filterability was improved by several orders of magnitude. The results demonstrate that filtration of the flocculated coarse tailings to produce the “dry” stackable tailings may be viable.     

秸秆腐解剂在秸秆还田中的效果研究初报

在大田、微区和盆栽条件下,研究了秸秆腐解剂对小麦、水稻生长及产量的影响,同时研究了秸秆腐解剂对小麦、水稻秸秆腐解速率及对土壤肥力的影响。结果表明,稻、麦秸秆还田时施用秸秆腐解剂对提高稻、麦产量具有明显的增产效果,增产的原因是穗数和粒数增加;稻、麦秸秆还田量不同时,还田量大且配施秸秆腐解剂的效果较还田量小好;麦秸秆还田方式不同时,麦秸以栽稻前耕翻还田且配施秸秆腐解剂的效果较好,上水沤制的效果较差;秸秆腐解剂能促进稻、麦秸秆较快腐解,减轻和防止多量秸秆还田给作物生长带来不利影响,并可稳定和提高土壤养分含量。     

EDTA-2Na/Fe(Ⅱ)对自养生物体系下硝酸盐还原过程的影响

采用厌氧序批式生物膜反应器(ASBBR),以固定浓度的硝酸盐和硫酸亚铁为基质,按不同梯度条件添加EDTA-2Na,进行长时间的培养驯化,研究铁盐脱氮的启动过程,同时探究不同EDTA-2Na/Fe(Ⅱ)对铁自养反硝化过程以及硝酸盐异化还原为铵(DNRA)的影响.结果表明:经过65d的培养驯化,反应器成功稳定运行.当EDTA-2Na/Fe(Ⅱ)<1.50时,反应器只进行铁自养反硝化过程,NO₃^--N去除率最高仅为71.70%;当EDTA-2Na/Fe(Ⅱ)≥1.50时,反应器同时进行铁自养反硝化与DNRA过程,NO₃^--N去除率最高为99.70%.值得注意的是,在EDTA-2Na/Fe(Ⅱ)=1.50时,铁自养反硝化速率达到最大值1.63mg/(L·h)的同时,DNRA的产氨量也达到最大值9.75mg/L.Visual MINTEQ模拟结果表明:EDTA-2Na与Fe(Ⅱ)的摩尔比会影响进水中EDTA-2Na与Fe(Ⅱ)的存在形态,物质的量比越大,FeEDTA^2-度越高,Fe...     

太湖蓝藻水华时空分布与预警监测响应的分析

选择2007和2008年200幅EOS/MODIS太湖蓝藻监测遥感影像,统计分析了梅梁湾、竺山湾宜兴段、贡湖湾、东太湖胥口湾和湖州方向湖体蓝藻水华爆发的空间和时间分布规律。并在得出全太湖蓝藻水华空间和时间分布规律的基础上,从环境监测部门蓝藻预警监测工作的实际出发,将蓝藻水华预警监测的响应划分为常规监测和应急监测,提出了具体的监测要求,为环太湖地区的相关部门更好地开展蓝藻预警监测工作提供了科学依据。     

Climate policy support under political consensus: exploring the varying effect of partisanship and party cues

By creating attitudinal rifts among partisan voters, political polarization is expected to negatively affect chances of effectively mitigating climate change. While such expectations generally have found support, less attention has been paid to the opposite claim that political consensus should eliminate the partisan dimension in climate change politics. This study tests this claim by studying how party identification, and party cues specifically, affects public policy attitudes in a context defined by political consensus. Using data from a large online access panel in Sweden, party identification and party cues are shown to matter for policy attitudes even in a consensus context. This effect is not limited to certain issues but is found across a wide range of policies, and the effect of party cues, for a given issue, varies across parties. The implications of this study and areas for future work are discussed.     

Autonomous emergency braking systems adapted to snowy road conditions improve drivers' perceived safety and trust

Objective: This study investigated drivers' evaluation of a conventional autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system on high and reduced tire–road friction and compared these results to those of an AEB system adaptive to the reduced tire–road friction by earlier braking. Current automated systems such as the AEB do not adapt the vehicle control strategy to the road friction; for example, on snowy roads. Because winter precipitation is associated with a 19% increase in traffic crashes and a 13% increase in injuries compared to dry conditions, the potential of conventional AEB to prevent collisions could be significantly improved by including friction in the control algorithm. Whereas adaption is not legally required for a conventional AEB system, higher automated functions will have to adapt to the current tire–road friction because human drivers will not be required to monitor the driving environment at all times. For automated driving functions to be used, high levels of perceived safety and trust of occupants have to be reached with new systems. The application case of an AEB is used to investigate drivers' evaluation depending on the road condition in order to gain knowledge for the design of future driving functions.

Methods: In a driving simulator, the conventional, nonadaptive AEB was evaluated on dry roads with high friction (μ = 1) and on snowy roads with reduced friction (μ = 0.3). In addition, an AEB system adapted to road friction was designed for this study and compared with the conventional AEB on snowy roads with reduced friction. Ninety-six drivers (48 males, 48 females) assigned to 5 age groups (20–29, 30–39, 40–49, 50–59, and 60–75 years) drove with AEB in the simulator. The drivers observed and evaluated the AEB's braking actions in response to an imminent rear-end collision at an intersection.

Results: The results show that drivers' safety and trust in the conventional AEB were significantly lower on snowy roads, and the nonadaptive autonomous braking strategy was considered less appropriate on snowy roads compared to dry roads. As expected, the adaptive AEB braking strategy was considered more appropriate for snowy roads than the nonadaptive strategy. In conditions of reduced friction, drivers' subjective safety and trust were significantly improved when driving with the adaptive AEB compared to the conventional AEB. Women felt less safe than men when AEB was braking. Differences between age groups were not of statistical significance.

Conclusions: Drivers notice the adaptation of the autonomous braking strategy on snowy roads with reduced friction. On snowy roads, they feel safer and trust the adaptive system more than the nonadaptive automation.     

Estimating willingness to pay for a threatened species within a threatened ecosystem

This study conducts a choice experiment to determine the willingness to pay for Palouse Prairie conservation. The giant Palouse earthworm (Driloleirus americanus), a rare species endemic to the Palouse region, is included as an attribute of conservation and serves as a method for determining the willingness to pay for protecting the species. This method evaluates the value of the earthworm as an attribute of an overall willingness to pay for threatened ecosystem preservation rather than a direct willingness to pay for protecting the species. This method is expected to yield a more accurate measure of willingness to pay for rare species. The annual willingness to pay per household for the giant Palouse earthworm is $20.45 based on the conditional logit model and $19.30 based on the mixed logit model. Ranking and relative importance are included as methods for representing a non-monetary value and importance of the giant Palouse earthworm.     

Elite cues,media coverage,and public concern: an integrated path analysis of public opinion on climate change, 2001–2013

To analyze the factors affecting US public concern about the threat of climate change between January 2002 and December 2013, data from 74 separate surveys are used to construct quarterly measures of public concern over global climate change. Five factors should account for changes in levels of concern: extreme weather events, public access to accurate scientific information, media coverage, elite cues, and movement/countermovement advocacy. Structural equation modeling indicates that elite cues, movement advocacy efforts, weather, and structural economic factors influence the level of public concern about climate change. While media coverage exerts an important influence, it is itself largely a function of elite cues and economic factors. Promulgation to the public of scientific information on climate change has no effect. Information-based science advocacy has had only a minor effect on public concern, while political mobilization by elites and advocacy groups is critical in influencing climate change concern.     

污水处理厂剩余污泥对凤仙花和万寿菊生长的影响

采用盆栽方式,通过对花卉植物生长状况和各项生理指标的考察,研究了不同污泥施用比对凤仙花(Impatiens balsamina)和万寿菊(Tagetes erecta L.)生长的影响。结果表明,污泥施用比不高于5%(质量分数)时对两种花卉植物发芽有促进作用。在前期,对照组凤仙花和万寿菊生长较好,其株高、叶绿素和可溶性糖含量高于污泥施用组,丙二醛(MDA)含量低于污泥施用组。而在后期,污泥的施用对两种花卉生长促进作用明显,污泥施用组的两种花卉植物株高和各项生理指标优于对照组,尤其是开花状况显著好于对照组。凤仙花和万寿菊较优的污泥施用比分别为3%~5%和1%~5%。     

全球低碳发展评估及中国低碳发展的实现路径

低碳发展日益成为国际关注的热点问题,中国正处在快速工业化和城镇化进程当中,通过低碳发展实现经济社会转型尤为迫切。在全球大背景下正确判断中国的低碳发展水平,汲取各国有益的低碳发展经验,寻求适合中国的低碳发展路径尤为重要。从低碳发展特征指标变动出发,通过统计分析,得出全球低碳发展历史和现状水平,以及中国所处的位置。研究表明,近20年来全球碳生产力水平不断提高,近年来中国的碳生产力水平飞速提升,但是中国的碳生产力仍然远远低于全球平均水平,离先进国家的差距更大,不足法国的1/10,人均二氧化碳排放增速位居世界前列,减排压力巨大。因此,结合国内外实践经验,总结了中国低碳发展的5个实现路径,分别是调整能源结构、发展低碳产业、倡导低碳消费、建设低碳城市和加强碳汇建设。