Epidemiological study on the relationship between the environmental pollution and lung cancer in high lung cancer incidence areas,China

Xuanwei and Fuyuan, two counties located in southwest China, are areas with exceptionally high lung cancer incidence since the 1970s. In this study, questionnaires from a total of 18 communes, and 28 administrative villages (consisting of 280 small villages) in the two counties were fulfilled and collected. The sampling sites were randomly chosen in consideration of the incidence rate of lung cancer and the types of coal used. The sampling sites were divided into high lung cancer occurrence areas and low lung cancer occurrence areas. Industrial and environmental information was investigated and finally analyzed for the possible relationship to the lung cancer. It indicated that 78.1 % of the villages in high lung cancer incidence areas had been found using smoky coal or coking coals in people’s everyday lives; 43.4 % of these villages located near the coking factories, 31.1 % near the iron-zinc smelters and 11.8 % near the chemical industries. In the low lung cancer incidence areas, 78.8 % of the villages had been found using non-smoky coals (anthracite) in people’s everyday lives; 26.9 % of these villages are near the coking factories, 23.1 % near the iron-zinc smelters and 5.8 % near the chemical industries. Logistic regression analysis indicated that the coal type used was a foremost risk factor related to incidence of lung cancer [β > 0, Exp (β) >1, P < 0.05]. The use of smoky coals and coking coals seemed to be a hazardous factor for lung cancer generation, while non-smoky coals seemed to have no significant relationship to the lung cancer incidence. The results in this study added basic and important data and should be helpful for the future study on the etiology of lung cancer.     

Economic benefit assessment of the geo-hazard monitoring and warning engineering system in the Three Gorges Reservoir area: a case study of the landslide in Zigui

The completion and operation of the Three Gorges Reservoir in China have increased the frequency of geo-hazards and dangers in the area. To monitor and to warn of geo-hazards effectively, the Chinese government has invested billions of funds for constructing a monitoring and warning engineering system. Similar to other social infrastructure investments, a reasonable assessment of investment returns is necessary. Therefore, this study proposes an economic benefit assessment model, which considers both the expected and the actual values. The economic benefit of the geo-hazard monitoring and warning engineering in the Three Gorges Reservoir areas is evaluated. Based on the engineering characteristics, the model reasonably defines the frontier of the input and output and adds the casualties and the losses of ecological environment into the economic benefit evaluation index system. A case study on the Zhangjiawan landslide in Guojiaba Town, Zigui County, was conducted. The evaluation results show that (1) land has the largest benefit in direct reductional loss (total of 56.7 %), while the largest indirect reductional losses of the hazard-bearing bodies are in agricultural production and ecological environment (total of 97.6 %); (2) the costs-to-expected return ratio of landslide monitoring and warning engineering is 1:280, whereas the cost-to-actual benefit ratio is 1:30; (3) the accumulation of relevant information and the public knowledge of geological disasters should be strengthened.

     

Simulated impacts of irrigation on evapotranspiration in a strongly exploited region: a case study of the Haihe River basin,China

Irrigation is the major water supply for crop production in water‐limited regions. However, this important water component is usually neglected or simplified in hydrological modelling primarily because information concerning irrigation is notably difficult to collect. To assess real effects of irrigation on the simulation of evapotranspiration (ET) in water‐limited region, the Community Land Model version 4 was established over a typical semi‐humid agricultural basin in the northern China – the Haihe River basin. In the irrigated cropland, incorporating an irrigation scheme can enhance the simulated ET and improve the simulation of spatial variability of soil moisture content. We found that different configurations in the irrigation scheme do not cause significant differences in the simulated annual ET. However, simulated ET with simulated irrigation differs clearly from that with observed irrigation in mean annual magnitude, long‐term trend and spatial distribution. Once the irrigation scheme is well‐calibrated against observations, it reasonably reproduces the interannual variability of annual irrigation, when irrigation water management is relatively stable. More importantly, parameter calibration should be consistent with the configuration of the source of irrigation water. However, an irrigation scheme with a constant parameter value cannot capture the trend in the annual irrigation amount caused by abrupt changes in agricultural water management. Compared with different remotely sensed ET products, the enhancement in the simulated ET by irrigation is smaller than the differences among these products, and the trend in simulated ET with the observed irrigation cannot be captured correctly by the remotely sensed ET. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Numerical Simulation Study of Temperature and Pressure Effects on the Breakthrough Pressure of CO2 in Unsaturated Low-permeability Rock Core

Gas breakthrough pressure is a key parameter to evaluate the sealing capacity of caprock, and it also plays important roles in safety and capacity of CO2 geological storage. Based on the published experimental results, we present numerical simulations on CO2 breakthrough pressure in unsaturated low-permeability rock under 9 multiple P-T conditions (which can keep CO2 in gaseous, liquid and supercritical states) and thus, a numerical method which can be used to accurately predict CO2 breakthrough pressure on rock-core scale is proposed. The simulation results show that CO2 breakthrough pressure and breakthrough time are exponential correlated with P-T conditions. Meanwhile, pressure has stronger effects on experimental results than that of temperature. Moreover, we performed sensitivity studies on the pore distribution index λ (0.6, 0.7, 0.8, and 0.9) in van Genuchten-Muale model. Results show that with the increase of λ, CO2 breakthrough pressure and breakthrough time both show decreasing trends. In other words, the larger the value of λ is, the better the permeability of the caprock is, and the worse the CO2 sealing capacity is. The numerical method established in this study can provide an important reference for the prediction of gas breakthrough pressure on rock-core scale and for related numerical studies.     

Excessive greenhouse gas emissions from wastewater treatment plants by using the chemical oxygen demand standard

Chemical oxygen demand(COD)is widely used as an organic pollution indicator in wastewater treatment plants.Large amounts of organic matter are removed during treatment processes to meet environmental standards,and consequently,substantial greenhouse gases(GHGs)such as methane(CH₄)are released.However,the COD indicator covers a great amount of refractory organic matter that is not a pollutant and could be a potential carbon sink.Here,we collected and analysed COD data from 86 worldwide municipal wastewater treatment plants(WWTPs)and applied a model published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to estimate the emission of CH₄ due to recalcitrant organic compound processing in China’s municipal wastewater treatment systems.Our results showed that the average contribution of refractory COD to total COD removal was55%in 86 WWTPs.The amount of CH₄ released from the treatment of recalcitrant organic matter in 2018 could have been as high as 38.22 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent,which amounts to the annual carbon sequestered by China’s wetlands.This suggests that the use of COD as an indicator for organic pollution is undue and needs to be revised to reduce the emission of GHG.In fact,leaving nontoxic recalcitrant organic matter in the wastewater may create a significant carbon sink and will save energy during the treatment process,aiming at carbon neutrality in the wastewater treatment industry.     

中亚造山带东南部晚古生代-早中生代地壳增生和古亚洲洋演化:来自内蒙古东南部林西-东乌旗地区岩浆岩的证据SCIEI北大核心CSCD

本文在系统收集内蒙古林西-东乌旗地区晚古生代-早中生代岩浆岩的年代学、岩石地球化学以及锆石Hf同位素资料基础上,通过分析岩浆岩岩石组合随时空的变化规律,并结合区域地质资料,探讨了中亚造山带东南部洋盆演化和地壳增生等重要地质问题。研究结果表明,二连浩特-贺根山蛇绿岩带南、北两侧晚古生代-早中生代岩浆岩在年代学上显示不同的活动期次,具有不同岩石组合和地球化学特征,指示它们分属于不同的构造岩浆岩带。蛇绿岩带以北晚泥盆世-中二叠世岩浆活动在时间上呈连续分布的特征,并在晚石炭-早二叠世时期达到活动峰值。火成岩构造组合分析表明,晚泥盆世-石炭纪和早-中二叠世岩浆活动分别与二连浩特-贺根山洋盆向乌里雅斯太大陆边缘之下的俯冲和洋盆闭合后俯冲板片断离引起的软流圈上涌造成的区域伸展背景有关。蛇绿岩带以南岩浆活动时间上呈现石炭纪、早-中二叠世、晚二叠世-三叠纪幕式分布特征,各期岩浆活动前锋有随时间向南迁移的趋势。这三期岩浆活动分别与古亚洲洋板片向宝力道岛弧之下的俯冲、板片后撤以及洋盆消失之后古板块的碰撞造山作用有关。锆石Hf同位素分析表明,中亚造山带东南部晚古生代至早中生代时期存在显著的地壳增生;其中二连浩特-贺根山蛇绿岩带以北表现为地壳的垂向增生,以南表现为地壳的侧向增生。     

内蒙古林西县北三段银铅多金属矿床碳、氧、硫、铅同位素特征及成矿物质来源

本文对内蒙古林西县北三段银铅多金属矿床矿体的碳、氧、硫、铅同位素进行了测定,并对其成矿物质来源及演化进行了探讨。矿区样品的δ34S‰变化范围为-0.24‰~2.37‰,平均值为1.29‰,初步认为矿石中的硫主要来源于深部岩浆,并有少量生物还原硫的加入。样品的δ13CPDB变化范围为-4.57‰~-7.33‰,平均值为-5.96‰,δ18O为-3.4‰~-4.8‰,平均值为-4.06‰;δ13CPDB-δ18OSMOW关系表明,矿体中的碳可能主要由基性-超基性岩浆提供,并有部分来源于地层,且受大气水影响明显。铅同位素表明北三段矿床的成矿物质可能由造山带物质和地幔物质两部分提供。     

Experimental study of the effects of non-uniformly distributed fine soil on mechanical properties of Shenyang–Dandong Railway coarse-grained soil

The stress produced by repeated train loads decreases with increasing railway subgrade bed depth, and slightly weathered coarse particles of subgrade bed fillings can be broken at different levels under continuous load. Thus, the mass of fine soil, with a diameter of not more than 0.075 mm, is different at different depths. Fine soil is also sensitive to frost heave and thaw settlement. In order to study the effects of non-uniformly distributed fine soil on the mechanical properties of coarse-grained soil of the Shenyang-Dandong Railway, triaxial tests were conducted with three types of specimens, undergoing six freeze-thaw cycle numbers(0, 1, 3, 7, 9, 12) and three confining pressures(100, 200, 300 k Pa). The freezing temperature is-5 °C and the thawing temperature is +15 °C. The stress-strain behavior, static strength, resilient modulus, cohesive force and the angle of internal friction were measured for different tested specimens. As a result, the law of static strength and resilient modulus of different specimens following the increase of freeze-thaw cycles under three confining pressures is obtained. The changing law of cohesive force and friction angle of three specimens following the increase of freeze-thaw cycles is also calculated, and the different results of different specimens are also compared.     

锡林浩特国家气候观象台观测系统发展的思考

锡林浩特国家气候观象台是全区乃至全国观测项目最多、重要性最强的气象台站之一,但在近几年的发展过程中遇到了一些问题。文章重点分析了锡林浩特国家气候观象台观测系统的组成和存在的问题,探讨了推进锡林浩特国家气候观象台观测系统发展的思路。