A pipeline of tweets: environmental movements’ use of Twitter in response to the Keystone XL pipeline

Social movements often amalgamate otherwise diffuse public political interests. In recent years, social media use has allowed both groups and individuals to engage with political issues both online and offline. How do organizations use Twitter to mobilize networked publics? To what extent do groups promote both ‘connective action’ online and traditional activism offline? How do their strategies differ according to whether they seek to promote or combat the status quo? And how do they balance encouraging and reinforcing individualized expression through group messaging? The ways pro-Keystone XL pipeline and anti-Keystone XL groups differed in their Keystone-related action on Twitter from January 2010 until October 2014 are analyzed. Boolean searching and Natural Language processing are used to analyze more than three million tweets. The results demonstrate that the frames within Twitter conversations have significant implications for how communities understand, develop, and mobilize around environmental issues.     

Rebound effect and its decomposition – an analysis based on energy types in China

Rebound effect derived from energy efficiency improvement has been widely invested. However, most of studies focus on the rebound effect of the energy composite level and neither distinguish nor compare different energy types. We compare the differences in energy saving and energy rebound between primary and secondary energy sources, and further decompose the rebound effect into production rebound part and final demand component. To do so, we add a module for rebound into a comparative state China-CGE model. We design and test two simulation scenarios using the model. In Scenario 1, all production sectors’ energy efficiency of using primary energy increases by 5%. In Scenario 2, all production sectors’ energy efficiency of using secondary energy increases by 5%. The results show that Scenario 2 leads to more GDP growth and more energy saving. Our scenarios show rebound effects range between 9.6% and 27.9%, and in general are higher when energy efficiency of using primary energy sources is improved. Our decomposition analysis shows that improving energy efficiency in production sectors would stimulates energy use of final demand. Indeed, the consumption side has significant contribution to rebound in secondary energy use, especially in crude oil and gas. This study reveals that improving efficiency of using secondary energy is better than improving that of primary energy, both in terms of economic impact and energy rebound. And complementary policies that prevent energy services prices from falling too much can be adopted to reduce rebound. Controlling residential energy use could also be effective in reducing rebound, this has particular implication to economies in which residential energy consumption are far from saturation.     

基于LCA的废旧资源循环利用节能减排效果评估模式与方法研究——以吉林省某钢铁企业为例

促进废旧资源循环利用是加快推进我国生态文明建设,完成节能减排目标的必然选择。本文基于生命周期评价模式,从微观企业层面入手,构建产品全生命周期基准流程,引入能量输入与环境输出参数,建立废旧资源循环利用节能减排效果量化核算模型,评估再生产品的节能减排经济成效,并以吉林省某钢铁企业为例,评估"废钢-电炉"短流程和"铁矿石-高炉-转炉"长流程的能源、环境、成本差异,辨识影响废钢再循环节能减排效果的主要因素和重要环节。结果显示,再生钢铁全生命周期与原生钢铁全生命周期相比,节能588.48kgce/t,节能率为84%;主要污染物中SO2减排率最高,达92%;CO2总减排1 180.92 kg/t,减排率为67%;总成本却高出198元/t。其中,炼铁工序的节能量和减碳量最大,烧结工序SO2、NOx和烟(粉)尘减排量最大,焦化工序COD和氨氮减排量最大,回收、加工处理、炼钢环节节能量和减碳量以及SO2、NOx和烟(粉)尘减排量均为负。成本方面,再生钢铁生产成本高于原生钢铁308元/t,虽然再生钢铁由于污染减排可节省56元/t的排污费并获取54元/t的碳交易收益,但都不足以扭转电炉炼钢费用较高的现状。因此,国家应在电炉炼钢方面给予钢企及相关企业适当的财税扶持政策,在电价方面给予钢企一定的优惠或补贴,并完善废钢回收加工体系等,以促进废钢循环利用。基于LCA的废旧资源循环利用节能减排效果评估可以实现对产品生命周期全过程的资源、环境、成本的优化管理。     

Health and environmental assessment of mercury exposure in a gold mining community in Western Mindanao, Philippines

The small-scale gold mining activities using mercury began in the late 1980s in Sibutad, Western Mindanao. It is located very near the Murcielagos Bay with tailing ponds directly discharging into bodies of water. This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the health and environmental effects of gold mining activities on the community. Residents were randomly selected and classified into two groups, namely, the directly exposed and indirectly exposed populations using a set inclusion criteria. Complete medical and laboratory examinations were performed. Environmental and biologic samples were collected for total mercury and methylmercury determinations. The results showed that the directly exposed group had significantly higher mean blood total mercury and methylmercury levels in comparison with the indirectly exposed population. Although there were no significant differences between hair total mercury and methylmercury levels, there was a trend for higher levels of these biomarkers among the directly exposed residents as compared with the unexposed group. The absence of statistically significant differences may be attributable to the small sample size. Ambient air quality monitoring for mercury exceeded the allowable levels. However, levels of mercury in drinking water and sediments were within allowable limits. Frequency of gastrointestinal complaints was significantly associated with elevated hair methylmercury levels (p=0.02). Also, there appears to be a trend towards higher blood total mercury levels and frequency of gastrointestinal complaints (p=0.09). An interesting finding in this study was the increasing incidence of elevated diastolic blood pressure with elevated hair total mercury levels (p=0.07). Mercury storage at home is a risk factor.     

铁矿石对脱除烧结废气中NOx的催化效应

向混合料中加添加剂能够在烧结过程中脱除烧结废气中的NO。实验研究了铁矿石对NO脱除反应的催化效应。在900℃下,分别以5种不同铁矿石作为填料层,用2种标准气体和压缩空气配制的混合气体模拟烧结废气。试验结果表明,铁矿石种类对铁矿石的催化能力有重要影响。D型铁矿的催化能力最强而且不会发生弱化,NO转化率接近100%;其它几种铁矿石的催化能力较差,随着反应时间的延长有明显的弱化现象,但很快即基本趋于稳定状态,NO转化率达到了60%~70%。     

苦味酸测定中关键问题的研究

目前测定苦味酸的国标方法为《生活饮用水标准检验方法有机物指标》(GB/T 5750.8—2006)中的衍生物-液液萃取-气相色谱法,在实际测试过程中,发现水样pH值和基质效应会影响苦味酸测定。当pH值为8~12时,生成的氯化苦响应强度变化不大;在pH约为13时,响应强度最大。水质中除腐殖酸、硝基甲烷及2,4,6-三硝基甲苯会影响苦味酸测定外,硝基酚类和甲基酚类同样起到正干扰作用,因此,国标方法不能全面和准确地测定水中的苦味酸含量。     

Thermal decomposition mechanism of 65% lysine sulfate powder and its thermal stability based on thermal analysis

Lysine is widely used in the fields of food, medicine and feed, which generally appears in the form of lysine sulfate or lysine hydrochloride dust because of the high instability of the free L-lysine. The L-lysine Sulfate is in high risk of decomposition, spontaneous ignition and even the dust explosion, because the control temperature in its production process is high up to 90 °C. Thus, the thermal behaviors and its thermal stability of 65% lysine sulfate are experimentally explored in Air and Nitrogen using the simultaneous TG-DSC measurements. Results show: (1) the decomposition of 65% lysine sulfate can be divided into three stages both in the atmospheres of air and nitrogen, and most of the weight loss occurred in the first two stages, which are related with the decarboxylation and deamination process. (2) The effects of atmosphere on the decomposition of 65% lysine sulfate mainly occur at the third stage. In this stage, the weight loss in nitrogen is only 14.2%, which is much lower than that in air (34.3%), which is related to the oxidative degradation at high temperature. Besides, the active energy is slightly increased in nitrogen compared to that in air. (3) The initial temperatures of the decomposition of the 65% lysine sulfate are 145 °C and 155 °C, for the air and nitrogen atmosphere, respectively, which are much lower than that (260 °C) of the pure lysine.     

Spatial and Seasonal Response of Municipal Water Use to Weather across the Contiguous U.S.

Weather variability has the potential to influence municipal water use, particularly in dry regions such as the western United States (U.S.). Outdoor water use can account for more than half of annual household water use and may be particularly responsive to weather, but little is known about how the expected magnitude of these responses varies across the U.S. This nationwide study identified the response of municipal water use to monthly weather (i.e., temperature, precipitation, evapotranspiration [ET]) using monthly water deliveries for 229 cities in the contiguous U.S. Using city‐specific multiple regression and region‐specific models with city fixed effects, we investigated what portion of the variability in municipal water use was explained by weather across cities, and also estimated responses to weather across seasons and climate regions. Our findings indicated municipal water use was generally well‐explained by weather, with median adjusted R² ranging from 63% to 95% across climate regions. Weather was more predictive of water use in dry climates compared to wet, and temperature had more explanatory power than precipitation or ET. In response to a 1°C increase in monthly maximum temperature, municipal water use was shown to increase by 3.2% and 3.9% in dry cities in winter and summer, respectively, with smaller changes in wet cities. Quantifying these responses allows urban water managers to plan for weather‐driven variability in water use.     

Assessing Spatial, Temporal, and Analytical Variation of Groundwater Chemistry in a Large Nuclear Complex, USA

Statistical analyses were applied at the Hanford Site, USA, to assess groundwater contamination problems that included (1) determining local backgrounds to ascertain whether a facility is affecting the groundwater quality and (2) determining a ‘pre-Hanford' groundwater background to allow formulation of background-based cleanup standards. The primary purpose of this paper is to extend the random effects models for (1) assessing the spatial, temporal, and analytical variability of groundwater background measurements; (2) demonstrating that the usual variance estimate s ², which ignores the variance components, is a biased estimator; (3) providing formulas for calculating the amount of bias; and (4) recommending monitoring strategies to reduce the uncertainty in estimating the average background concentrations. A case study is provided. Results indicate that (1) without considering spatial and temporal variability, there is a high probability of false positives, resulting in unnecessary remediation and/or monitoring expenses; (2) the most effective way to reduce the uncertainty in estimating the average background, and enhance the power of the statistical tests in general, is to increase the number of background wells; and (3) background for a specific constituent should be considered as a statistical distribution, not as a single value or threshold. The methods and the related analysis of variance tables discussed in this paper can be used as diagnostic tools in documenting the extent of inherent spatial and/or temporal variation and to help select an appropriate statistical method for testing purposes.     

Bioaccumulation and biological effects in the earthworm Eisenia fetida exposed to natural and depleted uranium

The accumulations of both natural (U) and depleted (DU) uranium in the earthworms (Eisenia fetida) were studied to evaluate corresponding biological effects. Concentrations of metals in the experimental soil ranged from 1.86 to 600 mg kg⁻¹. Five biological endpoints: mortality, animals’ weight increasing, lysosomal membrane stability by measuring the neutral red retention time (the NRRT), histological changes and genetic effects (Comet assay) were used to evaluate biological effects in the earthworms after 7 and 28 days of exposure. No effects have been observed in terms of mortality or weight reduction. Cytotoxic and genetic effects were identified at quite low U concentrations. For some of these endpoints, in particular for genetic effects, the dose (U concentration)-effect relationships have been found to be non-linear. The results have also shown a statistically significant higher level of impact on the earthworms exposed to natural U compared to depleted U.