星形线电除尘器内EHD流动与粒子行为数值模拟

为了研究星形线电除尘器内电流体动力学（EHD）流动与荷电粒子运动行为及两者间相互作用,构建了线板式电除尘器（ESP）内关于EHD和带电粒子运动学的耦合数值模型.该模型采用有限体积法离散求解电场方程和空间电荷方程,在拉格朗日法下建立带电粒子运动方程,并与FLUENT湍流模型进行耦合.利用这一模型,对3种电场风速下星形线电除尘器内流动形态与粒子运动行为进行了细致模拟,并分析了二次流动对气流、粒子浓度分布的影响.结果表明,星形线电除尘通道内二次流动对流动形态和粒子浓度分布存在显著作用.随电场风速的降低,这一作用将越明显.EHD流动对细小荷电粒子运动的影响更为显著.二次流动产生涡旋并作用于主流来影响粒子运动行为.收尘板面的涡旋挤压粒子流远离壁面向流动中心运动,放电极下游的涡旋则促进粒子流向收尘板壁面靠近.此外,由于捕集通道中强二次流的存在,Deutsch计算式对除尘效率、特别是对于亚微米粒子捕集效率的计算并不准确.     

Optimal Timing to Adopt an Environmental Policy in a Strategic Framework

In this paper, the problem of optimal timing, when to adopt an environmental policy in a strategic framework is considered. Using real options theory and some basic tools of game theory, we show that, under certain assumptions, a country behaving strategically should wait longer before adopting such a policy than if it behaves unstrategically or within a larger entity. Such a postponed decision is sub-optimal as regards to the environment protection.     

Complex behaviour of trivalent rare earth elements by humic acids

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The effect of the introduction of prenatal diagnosis on the reproductive history of women at increased risk from neural tube defects

The reproductive history of 45 couples at increased risk for neural tube defect (NTD) who came for genetic counselling in 1970 and 1971 were compared with a similar number counselled in 1975 and 1976, when prenatal diagnostic tests were freely offered. They were subsequently interviewed in their homes and had their reproductive history recorded to the end of 1973 and 1978 respectively. Nearly all had a previous child with an NTD and none of the women were pregnant at the time of counselling. The effect of prenatal diagnosis was to speed somewhat the decision about further pregnancies, but the number of couples deciding on no further children and on having further pregnancies were almost identical in the two groups. The average number of pregnancies was 2·8 per family, with only 1·2 surviving children. The pregnancy outcomes are discussed as are the reasons for not attempting further pregnancies in both groups, which included very high risk of recurrence, a surviving spina bifida child, inability to accept the tests or its implications. Ninety per cent of the second group had tests. Their reactions to the tests were favourable but all complained of the waiting time between amniocentesis and obtaining the results. They all would have tests again in any future pregnancy. The reason for women not having prenatal diagnostic tests included inability to accept termination. It is concluded that couples in South Wales decide either to have no more children or to have further pregnancies regardless of tests. but tests speed a decision and enable the women to enjoy the pregnancy after obtaining the results, and that an NTD greatly reduces the number of children per family. A termination for an NTD is much more acceptable to most than an NTD at term. The reasons for this are discussed.     

Famine forecasting; Prices and peasant behaviour in Northern Ethiopia

This paper, completed in January 1984, begins by briefly outlining the contrasting views of price behaviour during the last Ethiopian famine (1972–1974) put forward by Seaman and Holt (1980) and Sen (1981). A hypothesis is developed to account for peasant behaviour and price responses under developing famine conditions. This is then tested with data recently made available. The paper concludes by summarizing the findings and their implications for famine forecasting, and argues that famine conditions in Northern Ethiopia are likely to worsen during 1984.     

Leaching behaviour of different scrap materials at recovery and recycling companies: Full-, pilot- and lab-scale investigation

Scrap material recovery and recycling companies are confronted with waste water that has a highly fluctuating flow rate and composition. Common pollutants, such as COD, nutrients and suspended solids, potentially toxic metals, polyaromatic hydrocarbons and poly chlorinated biphenyls can exceed the discharge limits. An analysis of the leaching behaviour of different scrap materials and scrap yard sweepings was performed at full-scale, pilot-scale and lab-scale in order to find possible preventive solutions for this waste water problem. The results of these leaching tests (with concentrations that frequently exceeded the Flemish discharge limits) showed the importance of regular sweeping campaigns at the company, leak proof or covered storage of specific scrap materials and oil/water separation on particular leachates. The particulate versus dissolved fraction was also studied for the pollutants. For example, up to 98% of the polyaromatic hydrocarbons, poly chlorinated biphenyls and some metals were in the particulate form. This confirms the (potential) applicability of sedimentation and filtration techniques for the treatment of the majority of the leachates, and as such the rainwater run-off as a whole.     

Understanding and encouraging greater nature engagement in Australia: results from a national survey

Interaction with nature has a range of significant health, ecological and economic benefits and a number of governments are implementing policies to increase humans’ engagement with nature. Using a large nationally representative survey sample in Australia, this study provides a detailed comment on the feasibility of such a policy, as well as contributing to an understanding of the characteristics of individuals who engaged in one or more of five dimensions of nature interaction, namely: nature engagement; conservation participation; nature advocacy; environmentally friendly purchasing and future engagement with nature conservation. The results indicate that age, income, education, marital status and household structure are all important influences on various types of nature engagement. It is suggested that increasing opportunities for young people to interact with nature is important, as well as supporting older people's involvement in conservation, plus focusing on the need to target and direct various policies.     

Photochemical behaviour of musk tibetene

BACKGROUND: Synthetic musk compounds are widely used as additives in personal care and household products. The photochemical degradation of musk tibetene in aqueous solutions or in acetonitrile/water mixtures under different conditions was studied in order to assess its environmental fate. METHODS: Musk tibetene dissolved (or suspended) in water and/or acetonitrile/water mixtures was irradiated at different times by UV-light and by solar light. The irradiation mixtures were analyzed by NMR and TLC. The photoproducts formed were identified by GC-MS and NMR data. RESULTS: The experimental results indicated that musk tibetene was photodegradable in water or acetonitrile/water mixtures with half-life reaction times close to 20 minutes. The irradiation mixtures were separated by chromatographic techniques yielding three photoproducts (3,3,5,6,7-pentamethyl-4-nitro-3H-indole, 3,3,5,6,7-pentamethyl-4-nitro-1H-indoline and 3,3,5,6,7-pentamethyl-4-nitro-3H-indolinone) identified by means of spectroscopic analysis. DISCUSSION: The numerical modelling of the photodegradation concentration-time profiles gave (8.13 +/- 0.15) x 10(-2) and (1.34 +/- 0.04) x 10(-2) mol/E for the overall primary quantum yield of direct photolysis for musk tibetene and the major intermediate (3,3,5,6,7-pentamethyl-4-nitro-3H-indolinone), respectively, in the wavelength range 305-366 nm. The half-life times of photodegradation of the both substances varied from 1-1.5 hours at 20 degrees N during the summer season to 6-10 hours for highest latitudes in winter. CONCLUSIONS: Under solar light, musk tibetene was photolabile in acetonitrile and acetonitrile/water 1/1, while it was slowly degraded when suspended in water. In all media, musk tibetene was photodegraded into three photoproducts. By using a kinetic model, the overall primary quantum yields of direct photolysis of musk tibetene and its main photoproduct, in the wavelength range 305-366 nm, were estimated, indicating that the photodegradation rate for musk tibetene is faster than the photolysis rate of the major by-product. RECOMMENDATIONS AND PERSPECTIVES: The results indicate that, in order to assess the environmental impact of musk tibetene on the aquatic ecosystem, great attention should be focused on the major photoproduct which is proved to be more persistent than the parent compound under light irradiation. The predicted half-life times of direct photolysis for both substances ranged from 1-1.5 hours at 20 degrees N during the summer season to about 6-10 hours for highest latitudes in winter, indicating that, from a photochemical point of view, the environmental persistence of these substances increases by increasing the latitudes and during the cold seasons, making more realistic an intake of these xenobiotic molecules into the food chain of aquatic living organisms. Tanabe reports in his Editorial (Tanabe 2005) that "It is necessary to have knowledge of the global picture of synthetic musk pathways. So, it is conceivable that now is the time to study the transport, persistency, distribution, bioaccumulation and toxic potential of this new environmental menace on a global scale, especially in developing countries". Therefore, the future environmental analysis and investigations on the eco-toxicity of nitro musk compounds should take into account not only the presence of the parent compounds but also their photochemical intermediates or end-by-products.     

Improving Pro-environmental Behaviours in Spain. The Role of Attitudes and Socio-demographic and Political Factors

Over the last 30 years, Spain has witnessed great economic growth. Nevertheless, in spite of an increasing degree of environmental concern, environmentally friendly attitudes and behaviours are still clearly below the European average. In this context, this paper analyses the impact of personal control and attitudes, and of certain socio-demographic, economic and political variables in the development of two environmentally friendly behaviours in Spain: consumption and purchase. The data were provided by a survey carried out in 2007 by the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (Centre for Sociological Research) in Spain. The results show the importance of personal control, level of environmental information, political ideology, age and educational level variables to explaining the development of pro-environmental-related consumption behaviours. Personal attitudes, work situation, female gender and level of environmental information influence pro-environmental purchase behaviour in a positive way. Taking into account that personal attitudes are more determining of pro-environmental purchase than consumption behaviour, policy measures such as informal education, tax measures, social and individual norms and interpersonal and institutional trust are discussed to increase the development of pro-environmental behaviours in Spain.     

Introducing a multi-variate classification method: Risky driving acceptance among different heterogeneous driver sub-cultures

Introduction: Heterogeneous driving populations with many different origins are likely to have various sub-cultures that comprise of drivers with shared driver characteristics, most likely with dissimilar traffic safety cultures. An innovative methodology in traffic safety research is introduced which is beneficial for large datasets with multiple variables, making it useful for the multi-variate classification of drivers, driving attitudes and/or (risky) driving behaviours. Method: With the application of multidimensional scaling analysis (MDS), this study explores traffic safety culture in the State of Qatar using a questionnaire and investigates the similarity patterns between the questionnaire items, aiming to classify attitudes towards risky driving behaviours into themes. MDS is subsequently applied to classify drivers within a heterogeneous driving sample into sub-cultures with shared driver characteristics and different risky driving attitudes. Results: Results show that acceptance of speeding is highest among the young Arabic students and acceptance of distraction and drivers’ negligence such as phone use and not wearing a seatbelt is highest among male Arab drivers. Acceptance of extreme risk-taking like intoxicated driving and red-light running is highest among South-Asian business drivers. Conclusion: It is important and practical to understand risky behavioural habits among sub-cultures and thereby focussing on groups of drivers instead of individuals, because groups are easier to approach and drivers within sub-cultures are found to influence each other. By indicating which groups of drivers are most likely to perform specific risky driving themes, it is possible to target these groups and effectively emphasise certain subsets of risky driving behaviours during training or traffic safety education. Practical Applications: This study provides guidance for the improvement of driver education and targeted traffic safety awareness campaigns, intending to make changes to attitudes and habits within specific driver sub-cultures with the aim to improve traffic safety on the longer term.