Enhancement of association of organic molecules on silica gel by surface water: surface photoreaction of stilbene

Here, we show that association of stilbene molecules is facilitated by water on silica gel because of hydrophobic interaction and photodimerization becomes the main photochemical process. Irradiation of trans-stilbene (t-1) on silica gel gives cis-stilbene (c-1), phenanthrene (2), benzaldehyde (3), and dimers r-ctt-4 and r-tct-4. The yields of the dimers increase and those of 2 and 3 decrease with an increase in the amount of t-1 loaded on silica gel. Atmospheric oxygen is responsible for the formation of 2 and 3. The yields of the dimers also increase with an increase in the water on a silica-gel surface and change drastically at the point where the percentage of water to silica gel is around 25 wt%. All active sites on a silica-gel surface would be covered completely with 25 wt% of water.     

Rodent predation on hibernating peacock and small tortoiseshell butterflies

Insects that hibernate as adults have a life span of almost a whole year. Hence, they must have extraordinary adaptations for adult survival. In this paper, we study winter survival in two butterflies that hibernate as adults and have multimodal anti-predator defences—the peacock, Inachis io, which has intimidating eyespots that are effective against bird predation, and the small tortoiseshell, Aglais urticae, which does not have an effective secondary defence against birds. We assessed predation on wild butterflies hibernating in the attic of an unheated house, as well as survival of individually marked butterflies placed by hand on different sites in the attic. Our objectives were to assess (1) the number of butterflies that were killed during hibernation, (2) whether survival differed between butterfly species, and (3) how predation was related to hibernation site and the identity of the predator. There was a strong pulse of predation during the first 2 weeks of hibernation: 58% of A. urticae and 53% of I. io were killed during this period. Thereafter, predation decreased and butterfly survival equalled 98% during the final 16 weeks of hibernation. There was no difference in survival between the two butterfly species, but predation was site-specific and more pronounced under light conditions in locations accessible to a climbing rodent, such as the common yellow-necked mouse, Apodemus flavicollis. We contend that small rodents are likely important predators on overwintering butterflies, both because rodents are active throughout winter when butterflies are torpid and because they occur at similar sites.     

光照与磷的交互作用对两种淡水藻类生长的影响

采用一次性单种培养的方法,研究了磷和光照对铜绿微囊藻和四尾栅藻生长以及叶绿素形成的影响.结果表明,光照水平的提高能够提高藻类最大比增长率,延长藻类指数生长期;但达到一定水平后,光照水平的增加会抑制单细胞藻类体内叶绿素的合成.在试验设定的浓度范围内,磷对藻类最大比增长率的影响不大;而不利于藻类叶绿素的形成.对于铜绿微囊藻的生长,磷与光照表现出明显的交互作用,但对于四尾栅藻,二者的交互作用并不明显.     

Pd/CZ/Al2O3催化剂的制备、表征与三效催化性能

以共浸渍法制得的氧化铝负载铈锆固溶体为载体,并浸渍贵金属Pd得到了Pd/CZ/Al2O3催化剂.实验结果表明,该催化剂在老化前后都表现出良好的三效催化活性,新鲜样品Pd/CZ/Al2O3活性与Pd/CZ相当,老化后样品前者优于后者.结合XRD,BET,TPR等表征手段,讨论了Pd/CZ/Al2O3的催化活性特别是高温老化后活性与其组成结构之间的内在关系,揭示了其老化后仍具有较高活性的主要原因在于保持了Pd与CZ/Al2O3复合载体之间的强相互作用(SMSI).     

上海城市土地利用转变类型及其空间关联分析

基于多时段TM遥感影像资料,通过地图代数和空间关联分析、相邻度分析等空间分析手段的综合应用,论文对上海地区近10年来城市土地利用变化类型、形成过程和相关空间机制进行了研究,结果表明:①近10年来上海城市土地利用扩展经历了“单核扩展”模式为主(1987～1990年)到“单核扩展”、“多核扩展”与“点-轴”扩展模式并存(1990～1995年),直至“多核扩展”及“点-轴”等复杂扩展模式为主(1995～2000年)的变化过程,导致上海中心城区和郊县城镇规模急剧扩张,交通干道沿线区域城市化过程明显增强,并形成整个上海地区城市化网络结构;②面积贡献率较大、转变频率较低的城市土地利用变化类型,与其他类型之间具有较高的关联度和空间亲和性,构成中心城区或卫星城、郊区城镇的扩展核心;③面积贡献率较低的类型,其转变频率较高,分布零散,构成扩展核的外围部分,这些城市周边地区存在一定程度紊乱、不合理的土地利用、开发活动;④城市化过程的内在空间机制与土地利用类型的面积和转变频率有密切关系。在更精细的尺度上依据转变频率划分的类别在一定程度上能更好体现城市土地利用变化类型的空间分异,及其作为宏观驱动机制的社会经济因子所具有的空间差异性。     

Alteration of dominant cyanobacteria in different bloom periods caused by abiotic factors and species interactions

Freshwater cyanobacterial blooms have drawn public attention because they threaten the safety of water resources and human health worldwide. Heavy cyanobacterial blooms outbreak in Lake Taihu in summer annually and vanish in other months. To find out the factors impacting the cyanobacterial blooms, the present study measured the physicochemical parameters of water and investigated the composition of microbial community using the 16S rRNA gene and internal transcribed spacer amplicon sequencing in the months with or without bloom. The most interesting finding is that two major cyanobacteria, Planktothrix and Microcystis, dramatically alternated during a cyanobacterial bloom in 2016, which is less mentioned in previous studies. When the temperature of the water began increasing in July, Planktothrix appeared first and showed as a superior competitor for M. aeruginosa in NO₃^?-rich conditions. Microcystis became the dominant genus when the water temperature increased further in August. Laboratory experiments confirmed the influence of temperature and the total dissolved nitrogen (TDN) form on the growth of Planktothrix and Microcystis in a co-culture system. Besides, species interactions between cyanobacteria and non-cyanobacterial microorganisms, especially the prokaryotes, also played a key role in the alteration of Planktothrix and Microcystis. The present study exhibited the alteration of two dominant cyanobacteria in the different bloom periods caused by the temperature, TDN forms as well as the species interactions. These results helped the better understanding of cyanobacterial blooms and the factors which contribute to them.     

Lower flammability limits of flammable ternary organic mixtures: Synergistic behavior

Organic flammable liquids and their mixtures, which possess high risk of combustion and explosion, are widely used as raw materials and solvents in chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Lower flammability limits (LFL) is one of the most important parameters to characterize the combustion and explosion hazards of combustible gases and liquid vapors. The LFL of various ternary organic mixtures consist of ketone (acetone and butanone), ester (ethyl acetate) and alcohol (ethanol and isopropanol) were tested at 25 °C and atmospheric pressure. The results showed that resulted LFL values of the experiment were always lower than those calculated by volume fraction weighting method when the volume fraction of alcohol was less than 20 vol% but more than 10 vol%. The co-existence of alcohol and ethyl acetate had synergistic effect on reducing the LFL values of ternary organic mixtures and thus increased their explosive risk. The mechanism of synergistic effect was analyzed, and the results showed that the OH· and H· radicals produced by the oxidation decomposition of alcohols and esters accelerated the oxidation process of ternary organic mixtures, which led to the decrease of experimental LFL values and thus corresponding increased of their explosive risk. This study would be expected to provide some guidance for designing or choosing safer and more suitable ternary organic mixtures prior to their applications for engineering.     

Catalytic oxidation of CO over Pt/Fe3O4 catalysts: Tuning O2 activation and CO adsorption

• Strong metal-support interaction exists on Pt/Fe₃O₄ catalysts. • Pt metal particles facilitate the formation of oxygen vacancies on Fe₃O₄. • Fe₃O₄ supports enhance the strength of CO adsorption on Pt metal particles. The self-inhibition behavior due to CO poisoning on Pt metal particles strongly impairs the performance of CO oxidation. It is an effective method to use reducible metal oxides for supporting Pt metal particles to avoid self-inhibition and to improve catalytic performance. In this work, we used in situ reductions of chloroplatinic acid on commercial Fe₃O₄ powder to prepare heterogeneous-structured Pt/Fe₃O₄ catalysts in the solution of ethylene glycol. The heterogeneous Pt/Fe₃O₄ catalysts achieved a better catalytic performance of CO oxidation compared with the Fe₃O₄ powder. The temperatures of 50% and 90% CO conversion were achieved above 260°C and 290°C at Pt/Fe₃O₄, respectively. However, they are accomplished on Fe₃O₄ at temperatures higher than 310°C. XRD, XPS, and H₂-TPR results confirmed that the metallic Pt atoms have a strong synergistic interaction with the Fe₃O₄ supports. TGA results and transient DRIFTS results proved that the Pt metal particles facilitate the release of lattice oxygen and the formation of oxygen vacancies on Fe₃O₄. The combined results of O₂-TPD and DRIFTS indicated that the activation step of oxygen molecules at surface oxygen vacancies could potentially be the rate-determining step of the catalytic CO oxidation at Pt/Fe₃O₄ catalysts. The reaction pathway involves a Pt-assisted Mars-van Krevelen (MvK) mechanism.     

A new approach to spatial source apportionment of haze pollution in large scale and its application in China

Long-lasting expansion of haze pollution in China has already presented a stern challenge to regional joint prevention and control. There is an urgent need to enlarge and reconstruct the coverage of joint prevention and control of air pollution in key area. Air quality models can identify and quantify the regional contribution of haze pollution and its key components with the help of numerical simulation, but it is difficult to be applied to larger spatial scale due to the complexity of model parameters. The time series analysis can recognize the existence of spatial interaction of haze pollution between cities, but it has not yet been used to further identify the spatial sources of haze pollution in large scale. Using econometric framework of time series analysis, this paper developed a new approach to perform spatial source apportionment. We applied this approach to calculate the contribution from spatial sources of haze pollution in China, using the monitoring data of particulate matter (PM_2.5) across 161 Chinese cities. This approach overcame the limitation of numerical simulation that the model complexity increases at excess with the expansion of sample range, and could effectively deal with severe large-scale haze episodes.     

System Dynamics to Sustainable Water Resources Management in the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer Under Water Supply Uncertainty1

Abstract: Water supply uncertainty continues to threaten the reliability of regional water resources in the western United States. Climate variability and water dispute potentials induce water managers to develop proactive adaptive management strategies to mitigate future hydroclimate impacts. The Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer in the state of Idaho is also facing these challenges in the sense that population growth and economic development strongly depend on reliable water resources from underground storage. Drought and subsequent water conflict often drive scientific research and political agendas because water resources availability and aquifer management for a sustainable rural economy are of great interest. In this study, a system dynamics approach is applied to address dynamically complex problems with management of the aquifer and associated surface‐water and groundwater interactions. Recharge and discharge dynamics within the aquifer system are coded in an environmental modeling framework to identify long‐term behavior of aquifer responses to uncertain future hydrological variability. The research shows that the system dynamics approach is a promising modeling tool to develop sustainable water resources planning and management in a collaborative decision‐making framework and also to provide useful insights and alternative opportunities for operational management, policy support, and participatory strategic planning to mitigate future hydroclimate impacts in human dimensions.