Indoor/outdoor relationships for PM2.5 and associated carbonaceous pollutants at residential homes in Hong Kong - case study

IEECAS SKLLQG

A CE/SE Scheme for Flows in Porous Media and Its Applications

In this paper, a new computational scheme for solving flows in porous media was proposed. The scheme was based on an improved CE/SE method (the space-time Conservation Element and Solution Element method). We described porous flows by adopting DFB (Brinkman-Forchheimer extended Darcy) equation. The comparison between our computational results and Ghia's confirmed the high accuracy, resolution, and efficiency of our CE/SE scheme. The proposed first-order CE/SE scheme is a new reliable way for numerical simulations of flows in porous media. After investigation of effects of Darcy number on porous flow, it shows that Darcy number has dominant influence on porous flow for the Reynolds number and porosity considered.

Land-cover changes in an urban lake watershed in a mega-city, Central China

Urbanization can exert a profound influence on land covers and landscape characteristics. In this study, we characterize the impact of urbanization on land cover and lacustrine landscape and their consequences in a large urban lake watershed, Donghu Lake watershed (the largest urban lake in China), Central China, by using Landsat TM satellite images of three periods of 1987, 1993 and 1999 and ground-based information. We grouped the land covers into six categories: water body, vegetable land, forested land, shrub-grass land, open area and urban land, and calculated patch-related landscape indices to analyze the effects of urbanization on landscape features. We overlaid the land cover maps of the three periods to track the land cover change processes. The results indicated that urban land continuously expanded from 9.1% of the total watershed area in 1987, to 19.4% in 1993, and to 29.6% in 1999. The vegetable land increased from 7.0% in 1987, 11.9% in 1993, to 13.9% in 1999 to sustain the demands of vegetable for increased urban population. Concurrently, continuous reduction of other land cover types occurred between 1987 and 1999: water body decreased from 30.4% to 23.8%, and forested land from 33.6% to 24.3%. We found that the expansion of urban land has at least in part caused a decrease in relatively wild habitats, such as urban forest and lake water area. These alterations had resulted in significant negative environmental consequences, including decline of lakes, deterioration of water and air quality, and loss of biodiversity.

Evaluation of soot particles of biomass fuels with endocrine-modulating activity in yeast-based bioassay

Exposure to indoor air pollution (IAP) from the combustion of biomass fuels is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in developing countries. In the work discussed in this paper we evaluated the endocrine activity of soot particles from biomass fuels by using yeast bioassay. These pollutants could have beta-galactosidase activity with a relative potency (RP) about 10(-7)-10(-9) that of estradiol. Soot particles from wood and straw combustion only partially induced beta-galactosidase activity whereas others produced fully inductive activity in the yeast assay system. These pollutants did not have estrogen antagonist and progesterone agonist activity within the defined concentration range. However, these pollutants require 2-4 orders of magnitude higher IC50 to inhibit the activity of progesterone in a similar dose-response manner to mifepristone. We therefore propose that the endocrine activity of some environmental pollutants may be because of inhibition of the progesterone receptor (hPR). GC-MS results showed that substituted polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) compounds, substituted phenolic compounds and derivatives, aromatic carbonyl compounds, and phytosteroids in these soot particles may be mimicking endogenous hormones.

沈阳市苔藓植物及其对大气质量的指示作用

沈阳是东北地区重要的老工业基地，也是该地区的交通枢纽。本文在对沈阳市进行广泛调查并采集苔藓植物标本的基础上，系统地研究了沈阳市苔藓植物的种类构成、区系、分布格局及其与环境因子的关系，同时利用苔藓植物对沈阳市的大气质量进行了指示。得出的主要结论有： （1）对882份苔藓植物标本进行鉴定，共记录苔藓植物30科67属143种及变种，其中包括苔类（含角苔）9科11属14种，藓类21科56属128种1变种。在记录中发现辽宁省新记录属1个，新纪录种36种，东北新纪录种18种，主要以丛藓科（Pottiaceae）和真藓科（Bryaceae）等地面生藓类为主。 （2）将研究区苔藓植物划分为10个区系成分，其中以北温带分布占据绝对优势，其次为东亚分布和中国特有分布，具强烈的温带性质。通过相似性系数的计算，表明沈阳市苔藓植物区系与鞍山市和抚顺市的亲缘性较大；与上海市和杭州市亲缘性较远。 （3）应用TWINSPAN和DCA，以样点为对象，苔藓植物的重要值为指标，对研究区苔藓植物分布格局进行了分析。结果将样点划分为三个组，从组一到组三，物种丰富度和苔藓盖度逐渐增加。分类与排序的结果与样点的实际物种分布特点基本一致。 （4）采用CCA对沈阳市35种主要地面苔藓植物与环境因子间的关系进行了分析。根据环境因子的影响，将沈阳市主要地面苔藓植物分为两类。同时发现土壤含水量、乔木层郁闭度和人为干扰是影响沈阳市苔藓植物分布的主要因素。 （5）采用大气净度指数法（IAP）和重金属元素（Mn, Fe, Cu, Cr和Pb）化学分析法对沈阳市的大气质量进行了监测。结果表明市区污染远重于郊区，市区西部污染重于东部，南部重于北部；各区以Pb污染最为严重，值得重视。同空气污染指数（API）进行比较，发现IAP与Cu、Pb和API之间具显著负相关性，说明随着重金属含量和API值的升高，IAP值降低，即苔藓植物的种类和盖度下降。以IAP值为自变量，API值为因变量，建立了回归方程y=-0.914x+101.849，进一步说明了IAP值与API值之间的关系。