Grassy balds of the Great Smoky Mountains: Their history and flora in relation to potential management

The origin of the grassy balds of the Great Smoky Mountains is examined. Some of the areas were cleared by settlers. Grazing by sheep and cattle and the cutting of trees were probably the most important factors in maintaining the grass sward; fire apparently was not used.Vegetation survey plots indicated that little of the original balds' area was still grassy and that most of the invading trees and shrubs could be expected to sprout if cut or burned. Areas presently trampled or mowed had a flora similar to a bald that was still grazed. High-elevation burn scars had many species in common with the grassy balds but had dissimilar community structures; therefore, a policy favoring natural fires would be unlikely to encourage maintanence or formation of grassy balds.The management of open grassy areas on National Forest lands was investigated. Burning was the favored technique, although hand cutting, mowing, and grazing were used. The results of testing various management practices on Gregory Bald are reviewed in terms of cost, impact, and historical authenticity. Implications for park management are discussed.     

推进养殖污染防治,实现产业优化与环境保护双赢——对《水污染防治行动计划》的解读

针对《水污染防治行动计划》提出的畜禽养殖污染治理思路和措施,梳理了我国现阶段畜禽养殖污染防治中存在的问题,对《水污染防治行动计划》中提出的"调布局、建设施、促利用"三大举措进行了分析和解读,提出了落实《水污染防治行动计划》的几项重点工作,为地方推进畜禽养殖污染防治工作提供参考。     

Use of watershed characteristics to select control streams for estimating effects of metal mining wastes on extensively disturbed streams

Impacts of sediments and heavy metals on the biota of streams in the copper-mining district of southwestern Montana were examined by comparing aquatic communities of impacted streams with those of control streams. Control streams were chosen through the use of a technique that identifies similar streams based on similarities in their watershed characteristics. Significant differences between impacted and control sites existed for surface substrate, riparian vegetation, and the number of macroinvertebrate taxa. These results revealed that: (a) chemical and physical habitats at the impacted sites were disrupted, (b) the presence of trout was an inadequate measure of ecological integrity for these sites, and (c) watershed classification based on a combination of mapped terrestrial characteristics provided a reasonable method to select control sites where potential control sites upstream and downstream were unsuitable.     

情景分析技术在制定区域大气复合污染控制方案中的应用研究

目前我国区域性大气复合污染日益严重,迫切需要明晰的控制技术路线指引。本文尝试将情景分析技术应用于区域复合污染控制方案制定中。建立了包括确定主题、驱动力筛选、驱动力预测、排放量预测和情景构建等步骤的情景设计方法。并利用本文建立的方法,详细介绍了在构建区域大气复合污染压力-状态-响应模型的基础上,利用主要驱动力与压力之间的数学关系,进行驱动力预测、构建基线情景和控制情景的方法。讨论了在制定区域协同控制方案过程中,确定满足区域总量控制目标的分区减排原则,并提出实现区域协同控制区域性大气复合污染的控制目标的分区削减方案情景设计的方法建议。     

防灾工程动态投资决策方法初探

本文提出了防灾工程的抗力、灾损度和灾害的灾度、灾害势以及动态决策准则等概念,基于现代控制理论,初步建立了防灾工程动态投资决策的一般方法,并对其进行了理论分析和研究。这里的决策包括防灾工程的初始投资(或设防水平)决策及其防灾规划期(或寿命期)内的防灾减灾维护投资(或维护水平)决策.文中还给出了算例,对上述方法进行了应用。算例结果表明,本文提出的防灾工程动态投资决策方法具有比较显著的经济效益。     

论地质灾害防治对策及其系统决策

本文在讨论地质灾害基本属性的基础上,提出了地质灾害防治的基本对策,并基于多目标决策特点,构造了三类地质灾害防治决策最优化模型。     

Control chart for monitoring occupational asthma

INTRODUCTION: Work-related asthma has become the most prevalent occupational respiratory disease in the developed world. Occupational asthma is thought to affect 5%-10% of people worldwide. The first step in the diagnosis of occupational asthma is to establish work-relatedness. Although considerable research has been conducted in the area of occupational asthma, no simple, effective, and statistically sound method has been developed that can be used as an initial step to effectively identify the workers at risk for occupational asthma. The purpose of this research was to investigate whether Shewhart control chart method can be used as an effective method to detect occupational asthma. METHOD: Forty-five workers who completed the study and provided usable peak expiratory flow (a lung function marker) recordings while at work and away from work were included in this study. Control charts were developed using Shewhart's Method. The lower control limit of at work control chart (LCL(W)) was compared to each subject's Personal Best (PB) value. RESULTS: Reviewing the results of this comparison showed LCL(W)<60% PB to have a sensitivity of 85.71%, specificity of 87.50%, and an error rate of 13.33%. When the subjects suspected for false positive and false negative diagnoses were identified, the test produced a sensitivity of 95.24%, a specificity of 95.83% and an error rate of 4.44%. CONCLUSIONS: Our results were as good as, and in some cases better than, published clinical guidelines. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Our research showed that the control chart method is an effective, simple, and inexpensive tool for early intervention in workers suspected for occupational asthma.     

Source attribution for mercury deposition with an updated atmospheric mercury emission inventory in the Pearl River Delta Region,China

Estimated anthropogenic Hg emission was 11.9 tons in Pearl River Delta for 2014. Quantifying contributions of emission sources helps to provide control strategies. More attentions should be paid to Hg deposition around the large point sources. Power plant, industrial source and waste incinerator were priorities for control. A coordinated regional Hg emission control was important for controlling pollution. We used CMAQ-Hg to simulate mercury pollution and identify main sources in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) with updated local emission inventory and latest regional and global emissions. The total anthropogenic mercury emissions in the PRD for 2014 were 11,939.6 kg. Power plants and industrial boilers were dominant sectors, responsible for 29.4 and 22.7%. We first compared model predictions and observations and the results showed a good performance. Then five scenarios with power plants (PP), municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI), industrial point sources (IP), natural sources (NAT), and boundary conditions (BCs) zeroed out separately were simulated and compared with the base case. BCs was responsible for over 30% of annual average mercury concentration and total deposition while NAT contributed around 15%. Among the anthropogenic sources, IP (22.9%) was dominant with a contribution over 20.0% and PP (18.9%) and MSWI (11.2%) ranked second and third. Results also showed that power plants were the most important emission sources in the central PRD, where the ultra-low emission for thermal power units need to be strengthened. In the northern and western PRD, cement and metal productions were priorities for mercury control. The fast growth of municipal solid waste incineration were also a key factor in the core areas. In addition, a coordinated regional mercury emission control was important for effectively controlling pollution. In the future, mercury emissions will decrease as control measures are strengthened, more attention should be paid to mercury deposition around the large point sources as high levels of pollution are observed.     

Alternative method to prevent thermal runaway in case of error on operating conditions continuous reactor

Thermal runaway was studied in a continuous tubular pilot reactor under steady-state regime. Different accident scenarii were conducted by making some errors on reactant concentrations and/or temperature feed. To prevent thermal runaway, control by direct contact by solvent injection was used at different reactor locations. This injection allowed controlling the maximum reaction temperature. A simplified analytical method to estimate the maximum reaction temperature along the reactor was used.Benefit of this control method was the diminution of computational time. Furthermore, by injecting solvent to control maximum reaction temperature, there is no need to shut down the unit. The control method was validated experimentally.