Synthetic organic chemicals (flame retardants and pesticides) with neurotoxic potential induced behavioral impairment on zebrafish (Danio rerio): a non-invasive approach for neurotoxicology

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Behavior responses of organisms can be used as a non-invasive method for neurotoxicology studies since it directly links the nervous system’s...     

Small queens in the ant Ectatomma tuberculatum: a new case of social parasitism

Social parasites exploit the worker force of colonies of other social insects to rear their own young. Social parasitism occurs in several Hymenoptera and is particularly common in several tribes of the ant subfamilies Myrmicinae and Formicinae. Here, we document the occurrence of miniaturized queens (microgynes) in colonies of Ectatomma tuberculatum, an ant belonging to the subfamily Ectatomminae. Behavioral observations and genetic analyses show that microgynes concentrate their reproductive efforts almost exclusively on the production of sexual offspring (microgynes and males), whereas the regular, large queens (macrogynes) produce workers in addition to sexuals. According to mitochondrial and nuclear markers, gene flow between microgynes and macrogynes is extremely limited. Whereas the co-occurrence of microgynes and macrogynes in the related species Ectatomma ruidum constitutes an intraspecific polymorphism associated with alternative dispersal tactics, microgynes found in colonies of E. tuberculatum appear to be a distinct species and to represent the first case of social parasitism in the poneromorph subfamilies of ants.     

长江三峡区间数字流域水系的构建

基于全球陆地一公里基础高程GLOBE数据 ,采用Martz和Garbrecht研制的数字高程流域水系模型自动提取长江三峡万县～宜昌区间的河网水系、各子流域分水线、河网与子流域编码及河网结构拓扑关系 ,从而构成该区域的数字流域和数字水系。结果表明该模型生成的水系是可以接受的 ,与 1:10万地形图上长江三峡万县～宜昌区间的水系一致 ,这为空间分布式模型的建立提供了必备的空间信息数据。最后 ,探讨了数字流域水系在流域生态学中的应用前景 ,构建的数字水系可为中尺度以上流域水体和水生生物的资源保护与合理利用提供决策平台 ,服务于社会经济的可持续发展。     

Material suppliers and industrial metabolism

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is not sufficiently tailored to the analysis of strategic environmental problems of material suppliers. Sustainable development calls for a reduction by a factor of 10 to 20 in the material intensity of the economy, a situation which leads to dramatic shifts in markets for raw materials. Furthermore, a material supplier might have major improvement options in the material’s numerous downstream uses. LCAs, however, can’t cover these two aspects. An adapted form of Substance Flow Analysis (SFA) may be an answer. This approach defines a system in relation to the flow of a specific material through society. All environmental interventions related to the material are inventoried. An emission evaluation indicates the dominant environmental bottlenecks, given the current market volume of each application of the material. This helps to identify improvement options and strategic choices in market portfolios. Scenario analysis on potential measures can further indicate changes of material flows — and thus markets — in the system. The approach is illustrated with a case study on chlorine.     

碘化阶层孔氧化硅纳米球对水中典型有机氯污染物的吸附性能研究

采用共缩聚法,成功地原位合成了碘改性的阶层多孔氧化硅纳米球（SiO₂-I）,研究了其基于卤键作用对典型有机氯污染物六六六的吸附性能,并考察了改性剂I-硅烷含量和pH值对吸附效果的影响.实验结果表明,该纳米材料对六六六表现出优异的吸附富集性能,吸附速率快,60 min内对六六六的去除率为71.6%,240 min内达到吸附平衡,去除率可达98.3%,最大吸附量为178.6 mg·g^-1;吸附动力学符合拟二级动力学模型;碘物种的加入提高了阶层多孔氧化硅的吸附速率和吸附效率.另外,为了便于纳米吸附材料的分离,本研究对SiO₂-I纳米球进行了磁性化.研究发现,磁性化修饰后,SiO₂-I纳米材料仍然保留对六六六优异的吸附富集性能,240 min时的吸附去除率达90.3%.     

生物质炭强化FeOOH类芬顿催化性能及其机制

采用醇助水热法制备了新型生物质炭修饰的α-FeOOH类芬顿催化剂（BC-FeOOH）,并通过扫描电子显微镜（SEM）、透射电子显微镜（TEM）、X射线衍射（XRD）、傅里叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）对催化剂进行了表征,证明生物质炭（BC）成功引入到α-FeOOH中.以罗丹明B（RhB）为目标污染物,考察了BC修饰量、催化剂及H₂O₂投加量对其催化效率的影响.结果表明,BC的引入可以极大地提高FeOOH的类芬顿催化性能.在pH中性、催化剂投加量0.6 g·L^-1、H₂O₂初始浓度10 mmol·L^-1的条件下,BC-FeOOH（22.2% BC）对RhB的降解率可达到90%,重复利用5次活性仍可保持在80%左右,且铁离子溶出浓度仅为0.08 mg·L^-1.进一步通过ESR在不同体系中的测试结果表明,BC的引入不仅可促进H₂O₂有效还原分解产生更多的羟基自由基（·OH）,而且增强了催化剂与污染物RhB的相互作用,促使污染物失电子氧化降解,从而提高了FeOOH的催化活性及催化稳定性.     

Phosphate recovery with granular acid-activated neutralized red mud: Fixed-bed column performance and breakthrough curve modelling

Granular acid-activated neutralized red mud (AaN-RM) has been successfully prepared with good chemical stability and physical strength. However, its potential for industrial application remains unknown. Therefore, the performance of granular AaN-RM for phosphate recovery in a fixed-bed column was investigated. The results demonstrated that the phosphate adsorption performance of granular AaN-RM in a fixed-bed column was affected by various operational parameters, such as the bed depth, flow rate, initial solution pH and initial phosphate concentration. With the optimal empty-bed contact time (EBCT) of 24.27 min, the number of processed bed volumes and the phosphate adsorption capacity reached 496.95 and 84.80 mg/g, respectively. Then, the saturated fixed-bed column could be effectively regenerated with a 0.5 mol/L HCl solution. The desorption efficiency remained as high as 83.45% with a low weight loss of 3.57% in the fifth regeneration cycle. In addition, breakthrough curve modelling showed that a 5-9-1 feed-forward artificial neural network (ANN) could be effectively applied for the optimization of the fixed-bed adsorption system; the coefficient of determination (R²) and the root mean square error (RMSE) evaluated on the validation-testing data were 0.9987 and 0.0183, respectively. Therefore, granular AaN-RM fixed-bed adsorption exhibits promising potential for phosphate removal and recovery from polluted water.     

Seasonal variation and size distribution of biogenic secondary organic aerosols at urban and continental background sites of China

Size-resolved biogenic secondary organic aerosols(BSOA) derived from isoprene and monoterpene photooxidation in Qinghai Lake, Tibetan Plateau(a continental background site) and five cities of China were measured using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry(GC/MS). Concentrations of the determined BSOA are higher in the cities than in the background and are also higher in summer than in winter. Moreover, strong positive correlations(R2= 0.44–0.90) between BSOA and sulfate were found at the six sites,suggesting that anthropogenic pollution(i.e., sulfate) could enhance SOA formation,because sulfate provides a surface favorable for acid-catalyzed formation of BSOA. Size distribution measurements showed that most of the determined SOA tracers are enriched in the fine mode( 3.3 μm) except for cis-pinic and cis-pinonic acids, both presented a comparable mass in the fine and coarse( 3.3 μm) modes, respectively. Mass ratio of oxidation products derived from isoprene to those from monoterpene in the five urban regions during summer are much less than those in Qinghai Lake region. In addition, in the five urban regions relative abundances of monoterpene oxidation products to SOA are much higher than those of isoprene. Such phenomena suggest that BSOA derived from monoterpenes are more abundant than those from isoprene in Chinese urban areas.