This study investigated particulate and gaseous emission factors (EFs) from an ocean-going cargo vessel operating under different real-world conditions. EFs were determined for criteria gaseous (including NO, NO2, CO, CO2, SO2) and particulate pollutants (including PM2.5 and PM2.5 components, such as organic carbon, elemental carbon, BC, water-soluble inorganic ions and metal elements). The results showed that the gaseous emissions were dominated by CO2 and NO, the EFs of which were ranging from 489 g/kWh to 1040 g/kWh, and 11.2 g/kWh to 29.1 g/kWh, respectively. And the EFs of PM2.5 were ranging from 0.13 g/kWh to 1.12 g/kWh. Vanadium, silicon, calcium and nickel were the main contributors to the presence of inorganic metal elements. Marine diesel oil (MDO) and heavy fuel oil (HFO) were used in the cargo vessels sailing along the coastline and in the ocean, respectively. When using MDO instead of HFO, the SO2, NOX and PM2.5 emissions were reduced by 5%, 90% and 60%, respectively. There seemed no obvious effect of the fuel type on the CO2 emission. Besides, the CO2 and SO2 emissions of HFO were linearly correlated with PM2.5. Moreover, the energy efficiency management system (EEMS) was used to estimate the relationship between emissions and engine working conditions. Effective thermal efficiency (ηet) was calculated based on combustion status. CO and BC decreased with increasing ηet for both HFO and MDO, while NO increased with increasing ηet. These results could provide important data support for the use of certification values for emissions inventories.

The background for this paper was a wish to extend the understanding of how sustainable transitions in sociotechnical systems come about, especially the characteristics of processes and the role of actors. The empirical context was the case of developing biogas production and improving transport in the Trondheim region in Norway. The case consisted of two connected units; establishment of a biogas plant (production side) and development of a sustainable public transport system (use side). As a template for the analysis, the Multilevel Perspective (MLP) on sociotechnical transitions was applied. The core in this perspective is the (sociotechnical) regime level, where changes have to occur in order for sustainable transitions to take place. Central at the regime level is the interaction between actors, technologies and institutions. Transitions can take place if actors experience threats from the external world and have access to niche innovations. Analysis of the case showed that the development first went through a transformation phase (ca. 1990-2009) where R&D actors developed basic technical innovations. In the next phase (2009-2019) there was a reconfiguration process were politicians and market actors engaged. Over the years, this process resulted in significant sustainability outcomes (increased production of biogas and exchange of fossil for biofuels in transport). Three major lessons can be drawn: 1) the crucial role of leadership when it comes to interpreting external changes, timing of actions and coordination of resources, 2) the necessity of new technological innovations and their adoption on regime level, and 3) differentiated state support can develop demand for renewable products and is necessary for compensating extra costs for niche actors.

In recent decades, conventional intensive agricultural practices have led to serious non-point-source pollution in China and have imposed serious ecological threats to agroecosystems, especially in ecologically sensitive areas. The Middle Line of the South-to-North Water Diversion project, which covers one of the largest ecologically sensitive areas in China, began in December 2014. In the study area around the Danjiangkou Reservoir belonging to the Middle Line of the South-to-North Water Diversion project, organic farming has been encouraged instead of conventional farming. This study aimed to measure the difference in ecological safety between conventional and organic farming based on the ecological footprint combined with life cycle assessment, which integrated the assessments of carbon footprint (CF), water footprint (WF) and nitrogen footprint (NF). This paper hypothesized that the EF of organic farming in the target area would be lower than that of conventional farming because of the reduced chemical inputs. The results showed that, as expected, first, organic farming had a lower footprint with a higher ecological remainder than conventional farming in 2015, indicating that organic farming practices made greater contributions to regional ecological safety in the study area. Second, in conventional farming, the total grey water footprint (nitrogen, phosphorus pentoxide and potassium oxide) was much higher than that of the farms in which only nitrogen fertilizer were used, indicating that both phosphorus pentoxide and potassium oxide also play indispensable roles in water footprint evaluation. Third, the energy-related nitrogen footprint was greatest in organic farming, caused by higher diesel oil consumption due to greater farm size for mechanical operation. Finally, the methods of calculating the amount of ecological compensation were improved. According to reduced ecological footprints, an extra payment (CF = 115.17 CNY ha−1; WF = 0.09 CNY ha−1; NF = 102.20 CNY ha−1) for organic farming should be seriously considered by different stakeholders, due to its benefit to greater ecological safety. From the perspective of ecological footprints, ecological compensation policies for organic farming might effectively promote ecological safety in the South-to-North Water Diversion watershed in the future. Footprint, as an accounting tool, offers great potential in assessment of ecological safety and ecological compensation worldwide and needs to be further explored in more dimensions such as phosphorus footprint, biodiversity footprint and so on.

Pilot and industrial scale tests for the preparation of permeable bricks were carried out in a refractory plant. The permeable bricks were firstly prepared using 82wt.% ceramic waste large aggregate by pilot test. The permeability, flexural strength and apparent porosity of the obtained permeable bricks can reach 3.2×10-2 cm/s, 6.8 MPa and 28%, respectively, and the relationships between these properties were studied. Moreover, industrial scale test was performed based on the best conditions of the pilot test, and 100 permeable bricks having a size of 140 mm × 280 mm × 80 mm were successfully produced using 600 kg of raw materials. The produced permeable brick has a high permeability of 3.0×10-2 cm/s, flexural strength of 6.3 MPa, as well as a relatively high apparent porosity of 26%, which exceed Chinese national standard GB/T 25993-2010. It has been found that a large number of through holes are homogeneously distributed within the permeable brick, which ensures the high permeability. Meanwhile, the binders make the aggregates interconnect with each other, guaranteeing sufficient mechanical strength. In addition, the energy consumption for whole producing process of permeable bricks is relatively low, about 1.4 MJ/kg. Hence, it is completely feasible to achieve industrial production of permeable bricks with good performance by using solid waste, which not only contributes to the construction of the sponge city, but also meets the requirements of cleaner production and brings obvious ecological and economic benefits.

In this research, UiO-66 and its composite nanoparticles with thermally oxidized nanodiamond (OND) were synthesized via a simple solvothermal method and utilized as solid adsorbent for the removal of anionic methyl red (MR) dye and cationic malachite green (MG) dye from contaminated water. The synthesized adsorbents were analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), N2 adsorption–desorption, and zeta potential analyzer. The influences of various factors such as initial concentrations of the dyes, adsorption process time, solution pH, solution temperature and ionic strength on adsorption behavior of MR dye onto OND-UiO hybrid nanoparticle were investigated. The adsorption of MR onto OND-UiO hybrid nanoparticle could be well described by Langmuir isotherm model. Meanwhile, pseudo-second order kinetic model was found to be suitbale for illustration of adsorption kinetics of MR onto OND-UiO. Thermodynamic investigation suggeted that the adsorption process was spontaneous and endothermic, and controlled by an entropy change instead of enthalpy effect. The experimental adsorption results indicated that OND-UiO hybrid nanoparticle could simultaneously adsorb 59% of MR and 43% of MG from the mixture of both dyes in only 2 minutes showing synergistic effect compared with single UiO-66 and OND nanoparticles in terms of adsorption rate and removal capacity of anionic dyes. The appropriate removal efficiency, rapid adsorption kinetic, high water stability, and good reusability make OND-UiO hybrid nanoparticle attractive candidate for simultaneously removal of both anionic MR and cationic MG dyes from wastewater.

Toxicity Identification Evaluation (TIE) is a useful method for the classification and identification of toxicants in a composite environment water sample. However, its extension to a larger sample size has been restrained owing to the limited throughput of toxicity bioassays. Here we reported the development of a high-throughput method of TIE Phase I. This newly developed method was assisted by the fluorescence-based cellular oxidation (CO) biosensor fabricated with roGFP2-expressing bacterial cells in 96-well microplate format. The assessment of four river water samples from Langat river basin by this new method demonstrated that the contaminant composition of the four samples can be classified into two distinct groups. The entire toxicity assay consisted of 2338 tests was completed within 12 h with a fluorescence microplate reader. Concurrently, the sample volume for each assay was reduced to 50 μL, which is 600 to 4700-times lesser to compare with conventional bioassays. These imply that the throughput of the CO biosensor-assisted TIE Phase I is now feasible for constructing a large-scale toxicity monitoring system, which would cover a whole watershed scale.

This paper presents an evaluation of UV/PAA process for degradation of four pharmaceuticals venlafaxine (VEN), sulfamethoxazole (SFX), fluoxetine (FLU) and carbamazepine (CBZ) with comparison to UV/H2O2 process. The effectiveness of combining PAA and H2O2 at various proportions while irradiating with UVC were also evaluated. UVC/PAA (λ = 254 nm) was effective in degrading all four pharmaceuticals and followed pseudo first-order kinetics. Increasing PAA dosage or UVC intensity resulted in a linear increase in pseudo-first order rate coefficient. Both PAA in dark conditions and UVA/PAA (λ = 360 nm) were marginally effective to degrade SFX and ineffective to degrade VEN, CBZ and FLU; indicating the need for UVC irradiation for activation of PAA. For similar oxidant dosages of 50 mg/L UVC/H2O2 was found to be faster than UV/PAA for VEN, CBZ and FLU by 55%, 75% and 33%, respectively. Under similar conditions, SFX was degraded 24% faster by UV/PAA. Increase in the proportion of H2O2 to PAA in UVC/PAA/H2O2 improved kinetics of degradation compared to PAA alone. Tests on TOC were conducted to determine the amount of acetic acid that is released to water when treatment by UVC/PAA is conducted. Results demonstrated that 70% of PAA by mass was ultimately converted to acetic acid and remained in the treated solutions. Hydroxyl radical attack is hypothesized to be the main mechanism of degradation by UV/PAA as degradation intermediates identified for all the target pharmaceuticals coincided with by-products identified during UV/H2O2 process.

In the present study, we investigated the role of the constructed wetlands (CWs) integration with the bioelectrochemical system (BES), which can concurrently treat the wastewater effectively with energy recovery. This CWs integrated system utilizes NH4+-N (96.66%), NO3- -N (83.09%), PO43- -P (91.04%) and SO42- (83.98%) to enable effective pollutants removal from sewage wastewater. Nitrite accumulation was not observed in the systems with applied voltage >15 mV and MFCs-ME. The ME-30-CWs system favour all the pollutants removals, except ammonia. The average, power density and the current density of 1.723 mWm−2 and 5.423 mAm−2 were recorded in MFC-CWs during wastewater treatment. The waterborne diseases causing Shigella sp. and Salmonella sp. were significantly eliminated in the CWs integrated system. The promising potential of CWs, bioelectrochemical technology can be an effective alternative to water-energy nexus for waste stream applications.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of motor vehicles contribute greatly to ground-level ozone formation, especially in the megacity regions. While the variations of tailpipe VOC emissions along with the vehicle technologies and road conditions are rarely investigated systematically. Thus, on-road tailpipe VOC emissions from in-use vehicles, including light-duty gasoline vehicles (LDGV), light-duty diesel trucks (LDDT), heavy-duty diesel truck (HDDT) and liquefied petroleum gas-electric hybrid bus (LPGB), were sampled with a combined portable emission measurement system (PEMS). A total of 102 individual VOC species were quantified by a gas chromatography mass spectrometry detector (GC-MSD), and the maximum incremental reactivity (MIR) scale was used to calculate the ozone formation potentials (OFPs). Results showed that aromatics and alkanes were the major VOC groups regardless of the vehicle type, accounting for 68.1–98.0%. For the LDGV, i-pentane, acetone, and propane were the top three VOC species. Naphthalene, dodecane and n-undecane were main VOC constituents in the diesel exhaust. Acetone was the most abundant VOC species for the LPGB, followed by i-pentane, i-butane and n-butane. Road conditions had a significant impact on the VOC emission factors. Specifically, emission factors on urban roads were 3.3–7.0 times those on the highway. The OFPs were 70.7, 128.1, 2189.4 and 124.7 mg O3/km for the LDGV, LDDT, HDDT and LPGB, respectively; aromatics were the main contributors, occupying 49.6–93.4% of the total OFPs. Results indicated that emission factors and dominant species of VOCs were strongly affected by vehicle technologies and road conditions, but aromatics were the major group for both VOC composition and OFPs.

Eco-Industrial Parks (EIPs), network of industries that collaborate by utilizing each other's byproducts and wastes, are highly desirable for both the industries themselves, their environment, and governments due to their economic, environmental, and social advantages. Previous work has shown that EIPs are not as successful as they could be in terms of mimicking the behavior of biological ecosystems, highlighting that more work needs to be done for EIPs to truly mimic their biological-counterparts. The Kalundborg EIP, located in Kalundborg, Denmark, is a well documented example of an EIP with long-term success. Using the water network within the Kalundborg EIP as a case study, two bio-inspired networks are selected from an optimization based on the ecosystem metric robustness. The bio-inspired solutions are compared with a traditionally cost-minimized solution to understand what bio-inspired design can offer when a network is disturbed. Disturbances such as connection breakages and industry shutdowns are tested, showing that the bio-inspired designs require minimal recovery costs – in stark contrast to the traditional network solution. The results show that the bio-inspired designs reduce the network's dependence on a scarce import (freshwater) and have higher overall network resilience in the event of disturbances. The three network solutions are discussed from a ecological perspective, explaining differences from the standpoint of ecosystem characteristics. The analysis highlights the benefits of using ecology to understand the nature of and improve the design of industrial networks.

Respiratory dust and dust fall from the mechanized excavation faces of coal mines are crucial issues that require immediate attention. The dust fall technique for two-phase gas–water spraying is effective in solving these issues. We designed a spray dust fall simulated experimental system to test the dust fall efficiency for six grain sizes of water mist: D50 = 9.00 μm, 18.75 μm, 29.87 μm, 49.85 μm, 75.85 μm, and 116.47 μm, respectively. The results demonstrate that the smaller the D50 of the water mist particles, the better is the trapping effect of the respiratory dust. The main dust catching stage of water mist of different particle sizes is different. The main dust catching stage of water mist of small particle size is the initial contact stage of mist particles and respirable dust, while the main dust catching stage of water mist of large particle size appears later. The research findings will lay a theoretical groundwork for the application of new-type nozzle in the coal mines and provide technical support to the clean production of the coal mines.

The industrial energy recovery network has a large energy-saving potential. The retrofit of the original heat exchanger network (HEN) plays an important role in reducing energy consumption in existing process industries. However, a single economic or energy target is no longer sufficient to meet the retrofit needs of existing process industries. Therefore, an improved retrofit method that comprehensively considers many-objective is worthy of exploration. In this study, a many-objective optimization model with energy, economic, environmental and engineering quantity (4E) indexes for heat exchanger network retrofit is proposed, which avoids the one-sided analysis brought by single-objective optimization. The non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm based on reference point (NSGA-III) is applied to solve the proposed retrofit model. Three typical cases are used to verify and analyze the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method. The case results show that the many-objective optimization method provides diverse retrofit options and flexibility to decision makers. Retrofit schemes with comparative energy, economic or environmental performance may take on notable difference in engineering quantity. Compared with the original networks, the retrofitted networks in the case studies can achieve a decrease in energy consumption up to 49.6%, a decrease in the total annual cost up to 22.2%, and a decrease in environmental impact up to 32.8%. Compared with the literature, the proposed method obtains optimization solutions with less energy consumption, capital cost, environmental impact and payback period.

The main objective of this paper is to propose a loan approval evaluation framework of public-private partnership project (PPP) of battery storage power station (BSPS) for the commercial bank to evaluate and select the optimal project to provide the loan and then promote the development of BSPS-PPP. In order to achieve this goal, this study proposed a loan approval evaluation index system which consist of 5 attributes, 14 criteria and 45 sub-criteria. The novelty of this loan evaluation index system is that it reflects the basic requirement of loan approval of the commercial bank based on the characteristics of BSPS and PPP project, the commercial banks can better prepare for possible risks of BSPS-PPP. The proposed decision model was established based on the interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy value (IVIFV) and interval number. Its novelty is that ①The model not only satisfies the experts’ expression habit of uncertainty, but also can be handled the uncertainty in the performance evaluation value and the criteria’s weights properly;②the proposed weight determining method based on the deviation maximization principle can not only maintain the will of decision makers as much as possible, but also decrease the uncertainty of weights. Finally, the effectiveness of loan approval evaluation framework was verified based on a case study of China. According to the application effect of the evaluation index system and the proposed model, 3 managerial implication are put forward.

Although large firms have already begun addressing energy efficiency issues and adopting “cleaner” types of energy, companies with fewer resources, such as small and medium-sized enterprises, are more reluctant to implement these measures. Given that strategies leading to energy sustainability have become a key aspect of business competitiveness, decision makers in small and medium-sized enterprises could clearly benefit from a new approach that provides a better understanding of energy-change impacts on their business activities. The present study combined fuzzy cognitive mapping and the system dynamics approach to develop an informed, transparent model for use in analyses of energy-change effects on the sustainability of small and medium-sized enterprises. This dual methodology facilitated an examination of cause-and-effect relationships between decision criteria and the clarification of dynamic interactions between variables from a holistic, real-world perspective, thereby enriching the extant literature. The results of the proposed decision-support system were validated by two senior staff members of the Directorate for Energy Sustainability Services of Portugal’s Directorate General for Energy and Geology. The advantages, limitations, and implications of our constructivist, process-oriented framework for research and practice are also discussed.

Three kinds of turbines (Vestas V-47:660kW, Enercon E-40:600kW, Vestas V-66:1.75MW) were installed on three selected sites (Mailiao, Jhongtun, Chunfong) as wind power plants for electricity generation on an island. However, such power plants including turbines in establishment and operation during entire life cycle are bound to consume energy and produce carbon emission, causing environmental problems. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to evaluate the effects of three wind power plants on the environment during their entire life cycle. This paper made the calculations of carbon emissions of three wind power plants, and compared and discussed the occupied shares of each primary energy input in manufacture, construction, operation and disposal phases using the methods of mathematics and materials input-output life cycle assessment. The results show that the CO2 emission factor of three systems was on average 3.9 g/kWh for the whole life cycle. The average CO2 emission intensity of all raw materials was 1.35 kg/kg. The occupied share of CO2 emissions in manufacturing, construction, and decommissioning phases was 44%, 16%, and 40% respectively. The primary energy input intensity was on average 0.0625 MJ/kWh of three systems for whole life cycle. The average energy input intensity of three systems was 21.48 MJ/kg. The combined CO2 emission intensity of all steel materials was 1.98 kg/kg. The demands for materials and energy inputs, and carbon emissions are positively related to the rated power value of a wind turbine. Wind power has a priority to produce clean energy, and can significantly decrease CO2 emissions.

The shortage of resources and environmental pollution have become the social issues of world concern, they have seriously affected the sustainable development. Remanufacturing has been recognized as an effective technology helps to improve the energy and materials utilization, and reduce environmental emissions with a low cost. we performed a comprehensive literature review of assessing energy, environment, and economy in remanufacturing based on life cycle assessment method to summarize the development of remanufacturing technologies, conclude new progress of remanufacturing in energy, environment and economy and review the remanufacturing trend. Firstly, we reviewed the life cycle assessment (LCA) method and its application in remanufacturing assessment. Some remanufacturing assessment methods based on LCA were analyzed here. Secondly, a framework of assessing energy, environment, and economy in remanufacturing based on LCA was built. Corresponding assessment methods in remanufacturing were studied and summarized in dimensions of energy, environment and economy respectively. Then following the integrated studies of energy-environment-economic assessment in remanufacturing was also described. In this paper, the remanufacturing and assessment about energy, environment, economy based on LCA were described systematically, so as to better understand and apply LCA and promote remanufacturing. Finally, the limitations of the LCA method were discussed, furthermore, in order to catch up with the trend of the manufacturing industry, the integration of remanufacturing and emerging technologies was proposed at the end of the paper, which will be conducive to the continuous innovation of remanufacturing.

Coral reefs are the foundation of productive ecosystems in the global, tropical oceans and are under threat from a variety of local to global scale stressors. Satellite imagery provides a tool to identify and understand the processes that control coral reef degradation, however due to the dynamic nature of seawater constituents, current spaceborne multispectral sensors cannot reliably discriminate between the many coral reef benthic classes necessary to detect change. Hyperspectral imagers may provide sufficient spectral resolution to estimate water column properties and differentiate benthic classes, however, the effects of depth, seawater constituents, and classification algorithm on the accuracy of benthic classifications have not been systematically assessed. Here, we simulate the ability of a spaceborne hyperspectral imager to accurately map fractional cover of coral reef benthic classes under a variety of conditions. Benthic reflectance is simulated by combining pure reflectance spectra of coral, algae, and sand and projecting these mixed spectra through a fully crossed set of water columns. We then use a semi-analytical optimization procedure to estimate the water column properties and multiple endmember spectral mixture analysis to estimate the fractional cover of the benthic classes using many independent endmember spectra. We compare our estimated benthic class fractions to the original, actual fractions used to produce the mixed coral reef spectra to quantify several measures of error. We found that multiple endmember spectral mixture analysis decreases fractional retrieval error, which is also reduced when the first derivative of the mixed and endmember spectra is used prior to unmixing. The estimation of fractional benthic class cover is most accurate for depths ≤3 m for most water conditions. Depths ≥5 m should be classified only if chlorophyll and sediment concentration are <0.1 mg m−3 and <0.1 g m−3, respectively. Our results indicate that the fractional cover of coral and algae should be at least 25% for accurate benthic class estimates (mean relative error < 50%), however there will be many ways to leverage the repeat measurements of a hyperspectral satellite sensor, such as a stable depth retrievals and benthic cover estimates, to produce more accurate and useful fractional cover data. We show how this simulation analysis can be used to generate maps of predicted benthic cover fractional retrieval uncertainty across a coral reef system using aerial hyperspectral imagery acquired over Hawaii, USA, although reef-specific, within pixel variations in depth and benthic class complexity should be considered.

Recently, there have been significant efforts in the integration of in-situ and satellite observations for effective monitoring of coastal areas (e.g., the Copernicus program of the European Space Agency). In this study, a 15-year diurnal variation of Water Constituent Concentrations (WCCs) was retrieved from multi-sensor satellite images and in-situ hyperspectral measurements using Radiative Transfer (RT) modeling in the Dutch Wadden Sea. The existing RT model 2SeaColor was inverted against time series of in-situ hyperspectral measurements of water leaving reflectances (Rrs [sr−1]) for the simultaneous retrieval of WCCs (i.e., Chlorophyll-a (Chla), Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM), Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM)) on a daily basis between 2003 and 2018 at the NIOZ jetty station (the NJS) located in the Dutch part of the Wadden Sea. At the same time, the existing coupled atmosphere-hydro-optical RT model MOD2SEA was used for the simultaneous retrieval of WCCs from time series of multi-sensor satellite images of the MEdium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) onboard ENVISAT, Multispectral Instrument (MSI) onboard Sentinel-2 and Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI) onboard Sentinel-3 between 2003 and 2018 over the Dutch Wadden Sea. At the NJS, a direct comparison (Taylor diagram and statistical analysis) showed strong agreement between in-situ and satellite-derived WCC values (Chla: R2 ≥ 0.70, RMSE ≤7.5 [mg m−3]; SPM: R2 ≥ 0.72, RMSE ≤5.5 [g m−3]; CDOM absorption at 440 nm: R2 ≥ 0.67, RMSE ≤1.7 [m−1]). Next, the plausibility of the spatial variation of retrieved WCCs over the study area was evaluated by generating maps of Chla [mg m−3], SPM [g m−3], and CDOM absorption at 440 nm [m−1] from MERIS and OLCI images using the MOD2SEA model. The integration of the spatio-temporal WCC data obtained from in-situ measurements and satellite images in this study finds applications for the detection of anomaly events and serves as a warning for management actions in the complex coastal waters of the Wadden Sea.

Atmospheric particulate matters have a crucial impact on climate change, visibility and human health. In this study, a detailed characteristic of summertime PM1 was real-time measured in south suburb of Beijing from 16th August to 16th September 2018. Averaged PM1 concentration of 24.1 ± 18.0 μg m−3 was observed, consisting of OM (50.8%), SO42− (16.0%), BC (13.2%), NO3− (10.2%), NH4+ (9.2%), and Cl− (0.6%). There was an accumulation mode with a peak diameter of ∼500 nm for all the species (except BC), and OM was additionally characterized by a smaller mode of <100 nm. Elemental analysis of OM showed that the diurnal variations of H/C, O/C, N/C, and S/C were correlated to the photochemical and aqueous-phase process. Four organic factors including one hydrocarbon-like (HOA) and three oxygenated (LO-OOA, SV-OOA and MO-OOA) organic aerosol factors were identified by positive matrix factorization (PMF) analysis. The contributions of these factors varied with PM1 concentration and their average values were 31%, 30%, 14%, and 25%, respectively. Contribution of HOA was RH-independent but decreased with the increasing PM1 concentration, while OOA factors were a combined result of RH and Ox (=O3+NO2), revealing the important role of photochemical and aqueous-phase process in OA evolution. The contribution of SV-OOA with the highest S/C increased significantly with RH, indicating a certain number of S-containing organics. Our results also showed that secondary OA was the dominant species, as well as increased with the pollution level, implicating VOCs and NOx should be controlled to relieve the secondary OA pollution.

Composites of polypeptidylated hemoglobin supported on different iron oxide weights (0.5:1 and 1:1) were developed and demonstrated to function as efficient adsorbents for Eriochrome black-T dye removal. The synthesis of these adsorbents were performed through N-carboxyanhydride (NCA) polymerization at low temperature (4 °C) and near-neutral pH for 24 h followed by chemical co-precipitation. The synthesized adsorbents were found to exhibit BET surface area (54–87 m2/g), pore volume (0.30–0.35 cm3/g), average pore diameter (160–218 Å) and average pore width (136–171 Å). The developed adsorbents were tested in a batch dye adsorption system. Adsorption was found to follow pseudo-second order kinetics and the Langmuir adsorption capacities were 123, 204 and 217 mg/g for Fe3O4, 0.5:1 and 1:1 adsorbent samples, respectively. Chemical regeneration was successfully carried out using methanol and the reusability of the adsorbents were demonstrated with a decrease in adsorption capacities from ∼49 to ∼33 mg/g after the fourth reuse.

Copper as developmental toxicants have been reported extensively in freshwater fish, however, the sublethal and chronic toxic effects of Cu to the early life stages of marine fish are not clear. Embryo (3–5 hpf) and newly hatched larvae of marine medaka (Oryzias melastigma) were exposed to 0.01–1.28 mg L−1 waterborne Cu to investigate the developmental toxic effects. The results showed that Cu accumulation in the whole embryos presented a dose- and time-response increase while it decreased dramatically once hatching. Most of Cu accumulated in the chorion suggests that chorion is an effective barrier to Cu absorption. However, Cu that penetrated chorion and entered embryo still caused significant lethal and sublethal effects. Cu concentrations at ≥0.16 mg L−1 led to low hatchability, delayed hatching, high mortality, morphological abnormalities and increased egg size in the embryos. Heart beats and the total body length of the newly hatched larvae were significantly increased when exposed to ≥0.02 mg L−1. Cu exposure accelerated early development and promoted or delayed hatching of embryo. High Cu concentration (≥0.16 mg L−1) exposure induced morphological abnormalities of embryo and larvae, particularly skeletal and vascular system abnormalities and reduction of pigmentation. The 30 d-LC50 for embryo development was 0.138 mg L−1 and 7d LC50 for larvae survival was 10.15 mg L−1, demonstrating that embryos were more sensitive to Cu than larvae. In summary, O. melastigma embryos development is highly sensitive to Cu exposure, and the sublethal effects occurred at low Cu concentration might be as potential biomarkers in marine fish.

Due to their use in various domestic and industrial formulations, benzalkonium compounds have been isolated in many environmental matrices. Sorption to soil components has been shown to play a key role in their environmental fate. Whereas sorption of benzalkonium compounds to soils is attributed to cation exchange and van der Waals forces, the relative contributions of these two mechanisms at environmental levels have not been clearly defined. In this study a previously reported algal toxicity assay-based method was employed to determine the distribution coefficients (Kd) of benzalkonium compounds between water and soil components, at environmental concentrations. Cation exchange capacity corrected Kd values for organic matter and clays were all within one order of magnitude. This implies that ion exchange is the dominant mechanism of sorption benzalkonium compounds. When the sorption data were used to compute sorption energies for four homologues of benzalkonium ions, the magnitude of the free energy change of sorption increased with size of the molecule. The increase in sorption energy could be partly explained by increased energy of hydration with addition of methylene groups to the alkyl chain. A model that predicts sorption coefficients of benzalkonium compounds to soils using organic carbon content and cation exchange capacity was also defined. When tested using an artificial soil, the model estimates were all within one order of magnitude of the experimental values.

Abstract Illegal activities and use of park resources are the main challenges facing mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) conservation and the protection of their habitats in the East Africa’s Greater Virunga Transboundary Landscape (GVTL). Indigenous residents around GVTL are considered the primary illegal users of park resources. Despite this, there is limited understanding of the current and past perceptions of indigenous residents living in communities adjacent to two GVTL parks; Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in Uganda. Equally, there is also limited understanding regarding the actual incidences of illegal activities inside both parks. This paper addresses these gaps. Perception data were collected from indigenous residents living adjacent to both parks. Further, Ranger-based Monitoring (RbM) data from both parks were analyzed to determine actual numbers and types of illegal activities over the 9-year period. Interestingly, findings indicated that residents perceived the prevalence of illegal activities to be decreasing across GVTL. To the contrary, RbM findings indicated that the number of actual illegal activities was increasing significantly, particularly in Volcanoes National Park. The discrepancy found between the two perspectives provides for a discussion of the social biases potentially present in these data, and their implications for management. Results also illuminated the subsistence-related nature of most illegal behaviors and suggest that to reduce illegal activities and local dependency on park resources, park management must work with communities and support them in tapping into alternative livelihoods and finding ways to address community household subsistence needs.

Abstract Landscapes are changing, with rural areas becoming increasingly urbanized. Children and adolescents are underrepresented in the sense-of-place literature. Our study aimed to understand how adolescent residents of a rural–urban transition area perceive and value their urbanizing landscape by examining sense of place and perceptions of landscape change. A Public Participation GIS approach, accompanied by a questionnaire survey, was applied to elicit responses from a sample of 747 students aged 12–18 in Colmenar Viejo, Madrid (Spain). Respondents’ sense of “self-in-place” or home range was small, around 1 km, although valued places were identified up to around 17 km away, and occasionally further afield. Most responses were associated with urban land, with clear difference between the urban core, strongly associated with emotions, and the suburbs, with activities. Functional locations (i.e. sports facilities) and places which were valued for their social meaning (i.e. shopping malls), could be differentiated. Students were perceptive about change processes in the urban area, but not about those on the peripheral semi-natural land. Younger children were less aware than older children of spaces outside of the town and carried out fewer activities there. Females carried out fewer outdoor activities than male adolescents. In contrast to the adult population, students were more strongly focused on urban areas than on their surrounding rural landscapes. Here, awareness-raising and incentives are needed, particularly those encouraging females into the use of areas beyond the urban land. Our results suggest a lack of meaningful integration between the core city and the periphery, with lessons for urban planners.

We attempted to prevent the thermal risk of a runaway reaction of polymerization in a batch reactor and to realize online monitoring and emergency inhibition of the thermal runaway behavior. Styrene thermal initiation of bulk polymerization was studied. A full-size model of the styrene polymerization reactor was constructed by referring to the reactor model of the Mettler Toledo automatic calorimeter, which was combined with the kinetic and thermodynamic models of styrene polymerization. The DIV thermal runaway critical criterion based on chaos divergence theory was used to judge the thermal runaway reaction. The critical point of the runaway reaction was determined and used to inhibit the thermal runaway of styrene polymerization by injecting cooling diluents at the liquid surface. The influence of injection rate (vc=0.5、0.8、1m/s), injection position (in-1、in-2、in-3), and amount of cooling diluents (no add、50%、70%、100%) injected on the thermal runaway inhibition of the reaction was investigated and elucidated. The results indicated that a better inhibiting effect can be obtained by injecting the inhibitors at higher rates near the edge of the paddle blade. Moreover, appropriately increasing the injection amount of the inhibitors can achieve better inhibition of the runaway reaction.

The effects of NO2 and SO2 on the atmospheric heterogeneous reaction of acetic acid on α-Al2O3 in the presence and absence of simulated irradiation were investigated at ambient conditions by using the diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS) technique. The experiment was divided into two parts: the heterogeneous reaction experiment and the pre-adsorption reaction experiment under light and dark conditions. In the heterogeneous reaction experiment, solar radiation stimulates the formation of more acetate and nitrate. At the same time, it can promote the partial conversion of sulfites to sulfates in the heterogeneous reaction of SO2 on α-Al2O3 particles. It can be seen that solar radiation plays a significant role in the heterogeneous reactions of inorganic and organic gases on mineral particles. In the pre-adsorption reaction experiment, the pre-adsorbed nitrate, sulfite or sulfate have conspicuous inhibition influence on the formation of acetate in the presence and absence of simulated irradiation. This indicates that the role of pre-adsorbed species should be given more attention for the heterogeneous reaction of acetic acid on the surface of α-Al2O3 particles. When α-Al2O3 particles were pre-adsorbed by different species, simulated irradiation could facilitate the growth of different amount of acetate. It was found that the extent to which solar radiation contributes to heterogeneous reactions of different kinds of gases on different mineral particles is different. This further emphasizes the complexities of the heterogeneous conversion processes of atmospheric trace gases on the surface of mineral aerosols, promoting a better understanding of the effects of solar radiation and pre-adsorption on the heterogeneous reaction in the atmosphere.

Supported by preferential policies and government funding, the technological innovation of China's photovoltaic industry has been improved greatly. As a capital-intensive practice, will innovation activities in China's photovoltaic industry be affected by the continuous decline of government subsidies in recent years? Therefore, it is essential to study the relationship between government subsidies and innovation performance of Chinese photovoltaic industry. However, there is less empirical research on this topic. In this context, this study aims to supplement existing studies by proposing a micro-level perspective to measure the innovation performance based on the data of Chinese listed photovoltaic companies from 2012 to 2016. Moreover, we assess the effects of government subsidies and other influencing factors on innovation performance. The findings reveal that, firstly, the average innovation efficiency of Chinese listed photovoltaic companies is over 0.9, which is relatively high. Secondly, government subsidies make a positive influence on innovation performance. Thirdly, financial leverage and ownership concentration have significant positive impacts, while firm size has a significant negative effect on the innovation efficiency of China's photovoltaic industry. The findings will serve as a reference for policy-making to promote further technological progress and sustainable development of China's photovoltaic industry.

Current Account (CA) imbalances reveal the unequal Trade and Foreign Direct Investment (T&FDI) flows between various countries. This paper investigates the performance of the CA component of the Balance of Payments (BoP) of major advanced economies following the recent global financial and economic crisis (2013–2017) using a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) second-stage approach. Slack-based inefficiency (SBI) DEA models are proposed, using both a conventional perspective and a sustainability perspective that consider greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as an undesirable output. The efficiency assessment aims to identify output slacks (i.e. exports and income inflows shortfalls) as well as input slacks (i.e. import and income outflows excesses). In the second stage, explanatory factors of the observed CA inefficiencies have been investigated, using regression models under frequentist and Bayesian frameworks. Although some differences exist between the Conventional and Sustainability scenarios regarding the negative effects of trade diversification and external debt and energy dependency on CA inefficiency, in both scenarios the results indicate links between CA inefficiency and geographical regions, socio-economic development and the burden of customs procedures.

Recent advances in L-band passive microwave remote sensing provide an unprecedented opportunity to monitor soil moisture at ~40 km spatial resolution around the globe. Nevertheless, retrieval of the accurate high spatial resolution soil moisture maps that are required to satisfy hydro-meteorological and agricultural applications remains a challenge. Currently, a variety of downscaling, otherwise known as disaggregation techniques have been proposed as the solution to disaggregate the coarse passive microwave soil moisture into high-to-medium resolutions. These techniques take advantage of the strengths of both the passive microwave observations of soil moisture having low spatial resolution and the spatially detailed information on land surface features that either influence or represent soil moisture variability. However, such techniques have typically been developed and tested individually under differing weather and climate conditions, meaning that there is no clear guidance on which technique performs the best. Consequently, this paper presents a quantitative assessment of the existing radar-, optical-, radiometer-, and oversampling-based downscaling techniques using a singular extensive data set collected specifically for that purpose, being the Soil Moisture Active Passive Experiment (SMAPEx)-4 and -5 airborne field campaigns, and the OzNet in situ stations, to determine the relative strengths and weaknesses of their performances. The oversampling-based soil moisture product best captured the temporal and spatial variability of the reference soil moisture overall, though the radar-based products had a better temporal agreement with airborne soil moisture during the short SMAPEx-4 period. Moreover, the difference between temporal analysis of products against in situ and airborne soil moisture reference data sets pointed to the fact that relying on in situ measurements alone is not appropriate for validation of spatially enhanced soil moisture maps.

Quorum sensing signals regulate various functions within activated sludge processes such as formation of microbial aggregates. Disturbance of this signaling system, known as quorum quenching (QQ), provides opportunities for eliminating some problems related to biological wastewater treatment (e.g., biofouling and excess sludge production). However, it is poorly understood how and to what extent QQ systems can affect the microbial aggregation processes and the following floc formation. In particular, an in-depth structural characterization at the scale of microbial aggregate while considering nutrient conditions in the reactor is still largely disregarded. Here, we evaluated the QQ effects at the short-term time scale (i.e., after 4 h for the exogenous period and 19 h for exogenous/endogenous period), by combining advanced techniques for microbial characterization (flow cytometry, CARD-FISH, and confocal laser scanning microscopy) and conventional physical-chemical assessments. The results indicated that by implementing QQ agents (immobilized Acylase I enzyme in porous alginate beads) the abundance of single cells and suspended microbial aggregates in the supernatant did not show significant changes during the exogenous period. Conversely, at the end of the exogenous/endogenous period a significant increase of single prokaryotic cells, small and large microbial aggregates favored the growth of grazers, including free-living nanoflagellates and ciliates. Flocs became looser and thinner than those in the control reactor, thus affecting the sludge settling behavior. Inability of microbial community in degradation of soluble protein during the endogenous period confirmed that the QQ agents are likely to inhibit the secretion of protease enzyme within microbial communities of activated sludge.

The effects of aeration and stirring systems on the physical properties of sludge were analyzed using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. The aims of this study were to (1) compare the effects of aeration and stirring on sludge properties using the same turbulent mixing intensity, and (2) to reveal the relationship between sludge properties and hydrodynamic indicators to determine how hydrodynamic conditions influence sludge flocculation. Mixing experiments with stirring and aeration were carried out in 2-L beakers with the average velocity gradient (G) set to 90, 190, or 280 s−1. The sludge flocculation performance, zeta potential, and Gibbs free energy (ΔG) were analyzed and the flow rate, turbulence energy, turbulence dissipation rate, and Kolmogorov microscale were calculated as hydrodynamic parameters. The average flow rate and the turbulence dissipation rate were obviously higher in the stirring system than in the aeration system at the same G. However, the turbulence energy and Kolmogorov microscale in the aeration system were much higher than those in the stirring system. Both the zeta potential and ΔG were lower in the aeration system than the stirring system. The zeta potential and ΔG results for the two systems suggest that aeration is more beneficial for sludge flocculation than stirring even though the sludge flocculation performance F/F0 in the stirring and aeration systems showed no obvious differences. Significant relationships between hydrodynamic parameters calculated based on the CFD model and average values of sludge properties in the stable phase showed that the Kolmogorov microscale, average flow rate, and turbulence energy were appropriate hydrodynamic parameters for evaluating the flocculation performance F/F0, zeta potential, and ΔG, respectively.

Shorebird researchers and land managers recognize human disturbance as a serious threat facing shorebirds. Yet, a common understanding of what defines human disturbance is lacking. To address this issue, we employed the Delphi technique, an iterative consensus-building social science method, to bring scientists and managers together to develop a shared definition of human disturbance and a list of priority human activities that could affect migratory shorebirds. During four iterative rounds, participants with extensive knowledge on human disturbance to shorebirds from varying geographic locations within the Northeastern U.S. worked together to produce a shared understanding. Through analyzing participants' open-ended responses, we identified important themes for the definition. The participants then refined and ranked these themes through surveys, and the top-ranked themes were used to draft a final definition also reviewed by the participants. Participants provided 94 human activities in response to our request to list and describe all potential human disturbances that affect shorebirds during fall migration. From there, we grouped the activities into 23 categories. Through rating and ranking tasks, participants reduced this list to 12 priority disturbance categories that represent the perceived most significant human disturbances in the Northeastern United States. We also compared responses among the different participant groups (i.e., managers, scientists, and manager/scientists), finding that groups' responses generally did not significantly differ. While nearly all participants were satisfied with the process, we provide some suggestions to improve it. The outputs of the Delphi technique have informed a best practices guidance document for shorebird management.

This study examined the role of place attachment in determining visitors' willingness to engage in climate friendly behavior in parks and support for management actions to minimize climate-change impacts. The sample consisted of visitors to Missouri State Parks (n = 1775). Place attachment was measured using 12 items of place identity, place dependence, and social bonding. Exploratory factor analysis of climate friendly behavior items revealed two dimensions: Visit based (i.e., short-term, immediate actions individuals could take during their visit) and Big Picture (i.e., advocacy actions that suggest a long-term engagement with parks). A path analysis demonstrated that the dimensions of place attachment predict climate friendly behavior and support for climate friendly management action in different ways. Specifically, place identity increased climate friendly behavior (big picture) and place dependence increased both climate friendly behavior (visit based) and support for climate friendly management action. Findings from this study provided evidence for the importance of place attachment as a means for engaging visitors in climate-related actions both in and beyond the park setting.

Constructed stormwater wetlands (CSWs) are used to address contaminants in urban stormwater such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), but their performance is variable. Ephemeral CSWs tend to be less effective than perennial CSWs at removing N and P. We asked: How does wetland vegetation and sediment affect nutrient cycling/release from sediment and vegetation in ephemeral CSWs? We focused on two ephemeral urban CSWs in Pocatello, ID, USA, one densely vegetated and the other nearly bare. We rewetted intact cores of dry wetland sediments and, separately, senesced vegetation for 1 week at the end of the summer dry period to assess whether wetland sediments and vegetation acted as sources or sinks of N and P. For both CSWs, there was a pulse of nutrients immediately following rewetting, but the magnitude of that pulse and subsequent changes in nutrient concentrations suggest different processes dominate at each wetland, driven by differences in wetland vegetation and associated sediment characteristics. There was evidence of denitrification between and during events at the vegetated wetland, but larger fluxes of P at this site suggests a tradeoff between denitrification and P release. While the experimental results suggested specific biogeochemical controls, CSW nutrient concentrations during three events were more dynamic and suggested more biogeochemical complexity than that represented in our experiment, both within events and seasonally. Ephemeral CSWs may create unique biogeochemical conditions and require careful design to ensure N and P retention. Managers will also need to consider whether perennial water sources would improve CSW function.

The use of biodiversity offsets to compensate for residual impacts on biodiversity resulting from a development or land-use change, is becoming more prevalent. While much has been published on this topic, there has been little published on the theoretical foundation on which biodiversity offsets are based. This paper seeks to unpack the theoretical and practical tenets of biodiversity offsets in relation to the public trust doctrine, responsibilities of the developer and the State, and significant unmitigable impacts on biodiversity. It was reasoned that the responsibility of the developer and the life of a biodiversity offset are finite, and that the concept of 'in perpetuity' may not exist practically and in law. It was further discovered that a sound understanding of the public trust doctrine is critical for consistent offset-based decision-making, particularly in those circumstances where an impasse between the potential significant loss to biodiversity and an indispensable need for a development or land-use change arises.

Black carbon (BC) is a major component in atmospheric particulate matter (PM), which causes adverse health impacts and contributes significantly to climate change. Without widespread and accurate BC measurements, it remains difficult to track incomplete combustion sources and reduce BC emissions. Currently commercial BC sensors remain too costly to be deployed widely. In this work, a fast, cost-effective, and easily accessible method based on a smartphone camera was used to quantify color information of PM collected on filters to estimate BC and elemental carbon (EC) loadings. A robust RGB (red, green, blue)-based linear interaction model was built and validated using 1,878 PM samples collected in three different regions with collocated BC and EC measurements. After applying image correction methods, this model shows a good predictability with an R-squared (R2) of 0.904 with state-of-the-art BC measurement techniques, and a coefficient of variation of the root mean square error (CV(RMSE)) of 25.3% despite the complex sources and different reference measurement techniques. This work validates the viabilities of using smartphones to quantify BC or EC loading on PM filters with a unified model and track incomplete combustion sources.

In many inventory deterioration problems of real world, deterioration rate of some items may be affected by other adjacent items. Accordingly, the effect of deteriorated items on other items could be declined by removing them through inspection. In this sense, an inventory model for deteriorating items is introduced in this paper, considering the effect of inspection times during the replenishment period on average deterioration rate. Also, supplier is considered to impose some prepayments to the retailer. In the proposed model, the average deterioration rate is related to the number of inspections at each period. Likewise, to illustrate the uniqueness of the solution, the convexity of the model is proved. Moreover, the proposed model is validated by discussing and analyzing a case study in Iran through which noticeable results are achieved. The findings indicate that compared to previous models, the proposed model is superior in cost management.

Southern China is susceptible to urban heat island (UHI) effect due to the rapid urbanization and subtropical climate. However, comprehensively assessing long-term UHI and its driving factors across southern China remains elusive. In this study, we investigate the UHI effect and its relationship with several critical factors in the urban agglomerations of southern China from 2003 to 2015 using remotely sensed derived products and land surface Noah model outputs. Results indicate that (1) the UHI intensity (UHII) in southern China is 1.49 K with an increasing trend of 0.011 ± 0.004 K per year. This relates to the land cover changes caused by the urbanization, which explains ∼40% of UHII trend variance; (2) Resided in the subtropical maritime climate, UHII across southern China is closely related to two climate factors: solar radiation and precipitation. Specifically, the adverse impact of precipitation on UHII is significant across southern China, where sufficient rainfall can modify soil moisture condition and improve the thermal regulation of watershed; (3) Diurnal temperature range and surface net radiation that describes surface property cannot fully explain UHII across southern China. Nevertheless, variations of sensible flux and latent flux correlate better with UHII. The sensible flux (associated with aerodynamic roughness) is responsible for 32% of UHII while the latent flux (attributed to evaporation cooling) is responsible for 13% of UHII. This result underscores the substantial contribution of sensible flux on UHI. In addition, our study suggests the effect of anthropogenic intervention may could explain the inconsistent performances of heat fluxes in responding to UHI. Our findings highlight the significance of land-atmosphere controlling factors on UHI, which have practical implications for researching urban climate.