Dynamic contact angle effects on gas-liquid behaviors in the cathode of proton exchange membrane fuel cell with stirred tank reactor design

Liquid water management is still a critical issue in the improvement of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) performance. In this work, for the first time, the liquid water behavior and transport inside the cathode of a PEMFC with a stirred tank reactor (STR) design, rather than the conventional PEMFC flow channel design, are numerically studied. The dynamic contact angle (DCA) is applied to multiple wall boundaries in the numerical model through a user-defined-function (UDF) code, i.e., STR-DCA model. Another numerical model with the static contact angle (SCA) and same operating conditions, i.e., STR-SCA model, is also developed for comparison. The volume of fluid (VOF) method is employed in the simulation to track the gas-liquid interface. The results show that the liquid water distribution and transport are significantly different between these two models, indicating the remarkable effects of DCA on the simulation results. It is also verified the capability of STR-PEMFC to reduce the liquid water flooding, showing the potential of this channel-less type fuel cell in the further development.     

Kinetic study of phytotoxicity induced by foliar lead uptake for vegetables exposed to fine particles and implications for sustainable urban agriculture

At the global scale, foliar metal transfer occurs for consumed vegetables cultivated in numerous urban or industrial areas with a polluted atmosphere. However, the kinetics of metal uptake, translocation and involved phytotoxicity was never jointly studied with vegetables exposed to micronic and sub-micronic particles (PM). Different leafy vegetables (lettuces and cabbages) cultivated in RHIZOtest® devices were, therefore, exposed in a greenhouse for 5, 10 and 15 days to various PbO PM doses. The kinetics of transfer and phytotoxicity was assessed in relation to lead concentration and exposure duration. A significant Pb accumulation in leaves (up to 7392 mg/kg dry weight (DW) in lettuce) with translocation to roots was observed. Lead foliar exposure resulted in significant phytotoxicity, lipid composition change, a decrease of plant shoot growth (up to 68.2% in lettuce) and net photosynthesis (up to 58% in lettuce). The phytotoxicity results indicated plant adaptation to Pb and a higher sensitivity of lettuce in comparison with cabbage. Air quality needs, therefore, to be considered for the health and quality of vegetables grown in polluted areas, such as certain megacities (in China, Pakistan, Europe, etc.) and furthermore, to assess the health risks associated with their consumption.     

MSWNet: A visual deep machine learning method adopting transfer learning based upon ResNet 50 for municipal solid waste sorting

● MSWNet was proposed to classify municipal solid waste. ● Transfer learning could promote the performance of MSWNet. ● Cyclical learning rate was adopted to quickly tune hyperparameters. An intelligent and efficient methodology is needed owning to the continuous increase of global municipal solid waste (MSW). This is because the common methods of manual and semi-mechanical screenings not only consume large amount of manpower and material resources but also accelerate virus community transmission. As the categories of MSW are diverse considering their compositions, chemical reactions, and processing procedures, etc., resulting in low efficiencies in MSW sorting using the traditional methods. Deep machine learning can help MSW sorting becoming into a smarter and more efficient mode. This study for the first time applied MSWNet in MSW sorting, a ResNet-50 with transfer learning. The method of cyclical learning rate was taken to avoid blind finding, and tests were repeated until accidentally encountering a good value. Measures of visualization were also considered to make the MSWNet model more transparent and accountable. Results showed transfer learning enhanced the efficiency of training time (from 741 s to 598.5 s), and improved the accuracy of recognition performance (from 88.50% to 93.50%); MSWNet showed a better performance in MSW classsification in terms of sensitivity (93.50%), precision (93.40%), F1-score (93.40%), accuracy (93.50%) and AUC (92.00%). The findings of this study can be taken as a reference for building the model MSW classification by deep learning, quantifying a suitable learning rate, and changing the data from high dimensions to two dimensions.     

Evaluating repeated patient handling injuries following the implementation of a multi-factor ergonomic intervention program among health care workers

Objective

The objective of this study was to evaluate repeated patient handling injuries following a multi-factor ergonomic intervention program among health care workers.

Methods

This was a quasi-experimental study which had an intervention group and a non-randomized control group. Data were collected from six hospitals in Saskatchewan, Canada from September 1, 2001 to December 1, 2006.

Results

A total of 1,480 individuals who had a previous injury were eligible for the study. Medium and small size hospitals in the intervention group had significantly fewer repeated injuries than in the control group. Multivariate analysis showed that the intervention group had 38.1% lower odds of having repeated injury compared to the control group, after adjusting for hospital size.

Conclusions

The work-related repeated injury after a multi-factor intervention program was reduced. The synergistic relationships between components of multi-factor intervention and applicability of injury prevention programs to different settings need to be further explored.

Impact on Industry

Implementing a multi-factor program with the right equipment and training can lower the risk of injury among health care workers.     

微波消解-GFAAS法测定土壤中的总铅

研究了微波消解-GFAAS法测定土壤样品中总铅的方法。土壤样品加入HNO3+HF,经微波消解体系消解后,在恒温加热器上赶酸并除硅,石墨炉原子吸收光谱法(GFAAS)测定土壤样品中的总铅。测定数据经过与国标(GB/T 17141-1997)消解方法的比对,以及对不同土壤及土壤标准物质的测试。结果表明,两者无显著性差异,且此法重复性好,试剂用量少,安全易控制,结果可靠。     

Decadal changes in a NW Mediterranean Sea food web in relation to fishing exploitation

We analysed changes in the ecological roles of species, trophic structure and ecosystem functioning using four standardized mass-balance models of the South Catalan Sea (North-western Mediterranean). Models represented the ecosystem during the late 1970s, mid 1990s, early 2000s, and a simulated no-fishing scenario. The underlying hypothesis was that ecosystem models should quantitatively capture the increasing exploitation in the ecosystem from the 1970s to 2000s, as well as differences between the exploited and non-exploited scenarios. Biomass showed a general decrease, while there was an increase in biomass at lower trophic levels (TL) from the 1970s to 2000s. The efficiency of energy transfer (TE) from lower to higher TLs significantly increased with time. The ecosystem during the 1990s showed higher biomass and flows than during the 1970s and 2000s due to an increase in small pelagic fish biomass (especially sardines). Exploited food webs also showed similarities in terms of general structure and functioning due to high intensity of fishing already in the 1970s. This intensity was highlighted with low trophic levels in the catch, high consumption of production by fisheries, medium to high primary production required to sustain the catches and high losses in secondary production due to fishing. Significant differences on ecosystem structure and functioning were highlighted between the exploited and no-fishing scenarios. Biomass of higher TLs increased under the no-fishing scenario and the mean trophic level of the community and the fish/invertebrate biomass ratios were substantially lower in exploited food webs. The efficiency of energy transfer (TE) from lower to higher TLs was lower under the no-fishing scenario, and it showed a continuous decrease with increasing TL. Marine mammals, large hake, anglerfish and large pelagic fish were identified as keystone species of the ecosystem when there was no fishing, while their ecological importance notably decreased under the exploited periods. On the contrary, the importance of small-sized organisms such as benthic invertebrates and small pelagic fish was higher in exploited food webs.     

重庆城区大气颗粒物的元素、离子及物相组成研究

采用X－射线能谱（EDX），傅立叶红外光谱（FT－IR），X－射线衍射（XRI）对重庆市区大气颗粒污染物的元素组成，离子，物相组成进行顾研究，EDX检出了S，Cl,K,Ca,Ti,Cr,Mn,Fe,Cu,Se,Sr,Zr,Rb,Ga,Hg,Zn,Ni元素，FT－IR光谱发现主要存在SO4^2-,NH4^ 和NO3^-,XRD结果表明存在CaSO4.2H2O,α-SiO2,(NH4)2Ca(SO4)2.2H2O,(NH4)2SO4等4个主要物相以及Fe3O4,CaCO3等物相，初步讨论了重庆大气颗粒物的污染来源及其时间，空间分布。     

生活垃圾填埋场封场后种植植物中重金属迁移研究

在上海老港生活垃圾填埋场填埋单元封场的覆盖土中掺混了矿化垃圾种植植物,分析Cd、Pb、Cu、Zn 4种重金属在土壤和植物中的迁移变化,研究表明:(1)覆盖土土质从一般耕作土变成肥沃土壤;覆盖土和种植混合土重金属Cd、Pb、Cu、Zn中Cd、Pb含量相近,但种植土的Cu含量略大于覆盖原土,Zn含量远大于覆盖原土;(2)植物能富集土壤和垃圾中的重金属,木本植物的根部富集重金属的能力强于草本植物,但重金属在草本植物根、茎、叶中的迁移速度大于木本植物;(3)植物根、茎、叶的Cu、Zn含量均远大于未受污染土壤种植植物相应部位的Cu、Zn含量,种植的植物不能供家养动物食用,以免通过食物链作用危及人体安全.     

红外光谱法检测PP/PE复合体系中PE含量

介绍了热混注塑法制备PP/PE复合体系,并将其用于红外光谱定性和定量分析。分析了聚乙烯PE在聚丙烯PP中的FTIR图谱,确定719 cm-1为PE在PP中的特征吸收峰。分析了PE含量对所测谱图和工作曲线的影响。由标准曲线可知,PE的含量与吸收强度具有良好的线性关系,其线性相关系数为0.999 2,回收率最低为96.50%,并将其用于再生料PP的检测,其准确性高,对分析PP/PE复合体系再生料具有深远意义。     

直接进样-高效液相色谱-串联质谱分析水中微囊藻毒素

建立了直接进样-高效液相色谱-串联四极杆质谱分析环境水样中微囊藻毒素-LR的分析方法。方法使用C18反相柱为分离柱,柱温40℃,流速0.7 mL/min,乙腈和甲酸水溶液(0.1%)作流动相,采用梯度洗脱,保留时间4.13 min。串联质谱采用多反应监测模式,使用ESI(+)源电离水样。在上述条件下,水样过粒径为0.45μm的滤头后可直接进样,进样体积25μL时检出限可达0.04μg/L,在0.10~200μg/L范围内线性良好(R=0.999 8);样品加标回收率为96.6%~106%,相对标准偏差为1.3%~5.6%。同时方法应用到实际环境水样分析中也具有令人满意的结果。该方法灵敏度高,快速简单,适用于环境水样中MC-LR的分析。