Microwave-assisted continuous flow phytosynthesis of silver nanoparticle/reduced graphene oxide composites and related visible light catalytic performance

The creation of an environmentally friendly synthesis method for silver nanomaterials (AgNPs) is an urgent concern for sustainable nanotechnology development. In the present study, a novel straightforward and green method for the preparation of silver nanoparticle/reduced graphene oxide (AgNP/rGO) composites was successfully developed through the combination of phytosynthesis, continuous flow synthesis and microwave-assistance. Oriental persimmon (Diospyros kaki Thunb.) extracts were used as both plant reducing and capping agents for fast online synthesis of AgNP/rGO composites. The experimental parameters were optimized and the morphologies of the prepared materials were investigated. The characterization results reveal that spherical AgNPs were quickly synthesized and uniformly dispersed on rGO sheets using the proposed online system. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis confirmed that phenols, flavonoids, and other substances in the plant extracts played a decisive role in the synthesis of AgNP/rGO composites. Using sodium borohydride (NaBH₄) degradation of p-nitrophenol (4-NP) as a model, the catalytic activity of the prepared AgNP/rGO materials was evaluated. The complete degradation of 4-NP was achieved within 12 min through the use of AgNP/rGO materials, and the composite had a much better catalytic activity than the bare AgNPs and rGO had. Compared with the conventional chemical method, our online method is facile, fast, cost-efficient, and environmentally friendly.     

从植被演替和抗风性研究包兰线沙坡头段人工植被稳定性

运用群落演替与风沙流因子分析相结合的方法论证了群落的稳定性。在沙坡头地区,以油蒿为主的人工群落在长期的自然演替过程中已达到与生境条件相互适应的动态稳定过程。通过沙坡头与周边地区植被演替的比较研究,表明了该地区现有植被正形成(或已形成)偏途顶极序列,该植被在相当长的时间内会稳定存在,这些演替可促使沙坡头地区的人工植被向更为稳定的人工+自然复合生态系统以及自然生态系统方向变化。此外,风洞实验结果显示,沙坡头现有主要植被和地表能够抵抗较大风沙流胁迫,已形成了能够忍耐沙尘暴的生态系统。     

化学吸收法采集固定污染源氨气的影响因素探究

固定污染源氨气的手工监测,干扰因素较多,其中采样环节尤为关键。实验通过催化氧化-化学发光法考察不同采样管线材质对氨气的吸附效果,离子色谱法考察化学吸收法采集氨气的吸收瓶类型、采样流量、吸收液种类、吸收液浓度及体积等采样条件对氨气吸收效率的影响。实验表明,316 L不锈钢与聚四氟乙烯对氨气的吸附较小,氨气的采样流量不宜超过1.0 L/min,棕色气泡式吸收瓶更适用于氨气样品的采集,磷酸溶液作吸收液对氨气的吸收效率较好,对于低浓度的氨气样品,应采用低流量长时间采集。     

VPT511BF-SY多孔流速仪在烟气流量在线监测中的应用

针对目前国内基于单个探头的单点在线测试烟气流量与参比方法监测比对合格率不高的问题,提出一种新颖的基于平均差压皮托管法的多孔流速仪,通过对不同的安装位置及安装数量的多孔烟气流速仪的烟气在线流量监测结果与手工监测结果进行比对,验证在适当位置安装一定数量的多孔烟气流速仪可以确保与手工监测比对结果满足要求。     

长江上游典型区域丰枯转换期水资源变化分析

针对长江上游金沙江下游区域近几年6月和10月出现的较剧烈的水资源丰枯转换现象,以2018年金沙江下游来水过程作为研究案例,考虑金沙江下游流域来水组成及水利工程建设情况,从区间流量分析及上游水库群调蓄影响分析两方面开展了研究工作。研究结果表明:金沙江下游流域丰枯转换主要影响因素为三堆子流量变化,三堆子至溪洛渡区间流量变化影响较小。在6月,上游水库群调蓄对金沙江下游流域丰枯转换影响较大,10月影响相对较小。相关研究成果可为溪洛渡-向家坝梯级水库调度计划制订及实际调度工作提供参考。     

Neutral modelling of agricultural landscapes by tessellation methods—Application for gene flow simulation

Neutral landscape models are not frequently used in the agronomical domain, whereas they would be very useful for studying given agro-ecological or physical processes. Contrary to ecological neutral landscape models, agricultural models have to represent and manage geometrical patches and thus should rely on tessellation methods. We present a three steps approach that aimed at simulating such landscapes. Firstly, we characterized the geometry of three real field patterns; secondly, we generated simulated field patterns with two tessellation methods attempting to control the value of some of the observed characteristics and, thirdly, we evaluated the simulated field patterns. For this evaluation, we considered that good simulated field patterns should capture characteristics of real landscapes that are important for the targeted agro-ecological process. Real landscapes and landscapes simulated using either a Voronoi or a rectangular tessellation were thus compared when used as input data within a gene flow model. The results showed that neither tessellation method captured field shapes correctly, thus leading to over or (small) under estimation of gene flow. The Voronoi tessellation, though, performed better than the rectangular tessellation. Possible research directions are proposed to improve the simulated patterns, including the use of post-processing, the control of cell orientation or the implementation of other tessellation techniques.     

EcoTroph: Modelling marine ecosystem functioning and impact of fishing

EcoTroph (ET) is a model articulated around the idea that the functioning of aquatic ecosystems may be viewed as a biomass flow moving from lower to higher trophic levels, due to predation and ontogenetic processes. Thus, we show that the ecosystem biomass present at a given trophic level may be estimated from two simple equations, one describing biomass flow, the other their kinetics (which quantifies the velocity of biomass transfers towards top predators). The flow kinetic of prey partly depends on the abundance of their predators, and a top-down equation expressing this is included in the model. Based on these relationships, we simulated the impact on a virtual ecosystem of various exploitation patterns. Specifically, we show that the EcoTroph approach is able to mimic the effects of increased fishing effort on ecosystem biomass expected from theory. Particularly, the model exhibits complex patterns observed in field data, notably cascading effects and ‘fishing down the food web’. EcoTroph also provides diagnostic tools for examining the relationships between catch and fishing effort at the ecosystem scale and the effects of strong top-down controls and fast-flow kinetics on ecosystems resilience. Finally, a dynamic version of the model is derived from the steady-state version, thus allowing simulations of time series of ecosystem biomass and catches. Using this dynamic model, we explore the propagation of environmental variability in the food web, and illustrated how exploitation can induce a decrease of ecosystem stability. The potential for applying EcoTroph to specific ecosystems, based on field data, and similarities between EcoTroph and Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) are finally discussed.     

Song dialects do not restrict gene flow in an urban population of the orange-tufted sunbird, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Nectarinia osea</Emphasis>

Geographic variation in vocalizations is widespread in passerine birds, but its origins and maintenance remain unclear. In this study, we test the hypothesis that song dialect, a culturally transmitted trait, is related to the population genetic structure of the orange-tufted sunbird, Nectarinia osea. To address this, we compared mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence variation together with allele frequencies at five microsatellite loci from an urban population of sunbirds exhibiting two distinct song dialects on a microgeographic scale. Our findings reveal no association between dialect membership and genetic composition. All genetic measures, from both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, indicate high levels of gene flow between both dialect populations. The low F _ST values obtained from mtDNA and microsatellite analysis imply that the variation among dialects does not account for more than 2%, at best, of the overall genetic variation found in the entire population. These measures fall well within the range of similar measures obtained in other studies of species exhibiting vocal dialects, most of which fail to detect any dialect-based genetic differentiation. The persistence of dialects in the orange-tufted sunbird may thus best be explained by dispersal of individuals across dialect boundaries and possibly from surrounding areas, followed by postdispersal vocal matching. Because genetic structuring appears weaker than cultural structure in this species, we discuss the behavioral mechanisms underlying dialect maintenance in the presence of apparent gene flow.     

Response of bioaerosol cells to photocatalytic inactivation with ZnO and TiO2 impregnated onto Perlite and Poraver carriers

•ZnO/Perlite inactivated 72% of bioaerosols in continuous gas phase. •TiO₂ triggered the highest level of cytotoxicity with 95% dead cells onto Poraver. •Inactivation mechanism occurred by membrane damage, morphological changes and lysis. •ZnO/Poraver showed null inactivation of bioaerosols. •Catalysts losses at the outlet of the photoreactor for all systems were negligible. Bioaerosols are airborne microorganisms that cause infectious sickness, respiratory and chronic health issues. They have become a latent threat, particularly in indoor environment. Photocatalysis is a promising process to inactivate completely bioaerosols from air. However, in systems treating a continuous air flow, catalysts can be partially lost in the gaseous effluent. To avoid such phenomenon, supporting materials can be used to fix catalysts. In the present work, four photocatalytic systems using Perlite or Poraver glass beads impregnated with ZnO or TiO₂ were tested. The inactivation mechanism of bioaerosols and the cytotoxic effect of the catalysts to bioaerosols were studied. The plug flow photocatalytic reactor treated a bioaerosol flow of 460×1 0⁶ cells/m³_air with a residence time of 5.7 s. Flow Cytometry (FC) was used to quantify and characterize bioaerosols in terms of dead, injured and live cells. The most efficient system was ZnO/Perlite with 72% inactivation of bioaerosols, maintaining such inactivation during 7.5 h due to the higher water retention capacity of Perlite (2.8 mL/g_Perlite) in comparison with Poraver (1.5 mL/g_Perlite). However, a global balance showed that TiO₂/Poraver system triggered the highest level of cytotoxicity to bioaerosols retained on the support after 96 h with 95% of dead cells. SEM and FC analyses showed that the mechanism of inactivation with ZnO was based on membrane damage, morphological cell changes and cell lysis; whereas only membrane damage and cell lysis were involved with TiO₂. Overall, results highlighted that photocatalytic technologies can completely inactivate bioaerosols in indoor environments.     

聚丙烯酰胺对聚合物驱含油污水中油珠沉降分离的影响

研究发现阴离子聚丙烯酰胺(HPAM)对聚合物驱含油污水处理有正反2方面影响.聚合物能增加污水粘度,降低油珠上浮速度,而且聚合物能增加油水界面水膜强度,延缓油珠聚并时间,这是聚合物对油珠沉降分离的不利影响;同时,聚丙烯酰胺具有絮凝性,能将水中油珠连接到一起,有利于油珠聚并.当聚丙烯酰胺相对分子质量为2.72×10⁶,浓度小于800mg/L时,絮凝作用大于粘度作用,有利于油珠的沉降分离.初始油珠粒径小是聚合物驱含油污水难处理的主要原因.横向流除油器可以加速油珠聚并,缩短沉降时间,适合处理聚合物驱含油污水.