Progress of Air Pollution Control in China and Its Challenges and Opportunities in the Ecological Civilization Era

China’s past economic growth has substantially relied on fossil fuels, causing serious air pollution issues. Decoupling economic growth and pollution has become the focus in developing ecological civilization in China. We have analyzed the three-decade progress of air pollution controls in China, highlighting a strategic transformation from emission control toward air quality management. Emission control of sulfur dioxide (SO₂) resolved the deteriorating acid rain issue in China in 2007. Since 2013, control actions on multiple precursors and sectors have targeted the reduction of the concentration of fine particulate matter (PM_2.5), marking a transition to an air-quality-oriented strategy. Increasing ozone (O₃) pollution further requires O₃ and PM_2.5 integrated control strategies with an emphasis on their complex photochemical interactions. Fundamental improvement of air quality in China, as a key indicator for the success of ecological civilization construction, demands the deep de-carbonization of China’s energy system as well as more synergistic pathways to address air pollution and global climate change simultaneously.     

Ecological Planting Imperative: Functional Systems,Not Stylized Ecologies

The ability of landscape architectural projects to mitigate the worst effects of climate change will depend upon designed ecological systems. These systems will be built with plants. Despite the recognition of ecology as an essential driver of landscapes, the professionals of landscape architecture too often lack the knowledge and practical skills to create robust vegetative systems. New approaches and tools are required. This article outlines principles and methods for designing biodiverse plant systems for urban sites. Planting methods that increase species richness, functional diversity, and spatial complexity are emphasized as a way of developing more resilient plantings. Selecting species with similar evolutionary adaptions to stress, disturbance, and competition—as well as creating multi-layered compositions of diverse plant morphologies—allows designers to create compatible, long-lived plant mixes. To balance the increased visual complexity of diverse plant mixes, the article explores design techniques to make plantings more appealing to the public. The strategies explored here are based on the projects, experience, and research of Phyto Studio, a Washington, D.C. based studio. The methods build on work described in the author’s book, Planting in a Post-Wild World, an exploration of how to create designed plant communities.     

影视广告的生态伦理批评

数字媒体时代下,人们所看到的广告已经不再是单纯的平面化、实体化的户外印刷广告,更多的是以数字媒体为载体的互联网终端广告,影视广告就是典型的存在。为了博得大众眼球、达到广告宣传效果,部分影视广告在内容和形式表现上忽视了生态伦理价值。文章通过对案例分析得出在生态伦理意识上公益影视广告对比商业影视广告的优势,并提出解决商业影视广告生态伦理问题的方法与策略。     

Rescuing Big Rivers Damaged in Industrial Civilization

Large rivers with beautiful landscapes were dreamlands to the author. However, every time upon his arrival to riversides, he was shocked for the heavily polluted rivers that are dirty, messy, and smelling. Engineered dikes and dams made of concrete and steels for a greater height and hardness are built by cities along rivers. As more highways and railways built along rivers, vehicles run at a faster speed, scaring any life who wants to or has to access the water. Most of the tributaries are no longer free flow but end up as hard ditches and the water is polluted heavily. Forests and wetlands are being damaged and eroded. All of these are resulted from humans’ material desires and lack of respect for nature. Nevertheless, ecological civilization may encourage people to appreciate the beauty of nature and get a thorough understanding on river ecosystems and their services, accompanied by systematic planning and implementation of territorial ecological restoration. Moreover, laws and regulations on large river management should be put in place, and efforts should be made to break the worship of grey engineering approaches to flood control. It is expected that nature-based ecological approaches for a better resilience and sustainability in flood management can be more effective to ensure water safety.     

酸性尾矿废弃地生态修复技术进展

酸性尾矿废弃地废石含有硫化物，在雨水的淋溶作用下会产出硫酸，加剧废弃地的酸化，增加企业环保成本，而生态修复工作就是从源头上控制废弃地的酸化。根据尾矿废弃地酸化机理，结合国内外最新研究进展，分析了生态修复技术现状；概述了隔离覆盖、改良剂改良、植物修复、微生物法等多种处理方法在实践中的适应性及优缺点，并分别介绍了隔离覆盖-植物修复技术、原位改良-植物修复技术在Reden煤矿、永平铜矿的成功应用案例。针对酸性尾矿废弃地的特点，单一处理方法具有较大的局限性，需要采用联合工艺进行治理，隔离覆盖-植物修复技术、原位改良-植物修复技术因见效快、效果好、操作简单，势必成为将来研究的主要方向。     

问题意识与理性思辨的结晶--评刘文良《绿色与安全:生态包装设计论》

《绿色与安全:生态包装设计论》是当前少有的专门研究生态包装设计的学术专著。该著对于生态包装的概念、生态包装设计的困惑与对策、食品药品等重要民生品包装设计的安全策略、方法与技术等重要理论与实践问题进行了深入探讨,尤其在科学界定生态包装的内涵、理性思辨关于生态包装的某些不合理"常识"以及与时俱进的学术与实践视野方面取得了重要建树。其鲜明的问题意识、务实的研究思路、严谨的求真精神在这部学术专著中得到了印证,为生态包装设计指明了方向、提供了遵循,堪称一把打开生态包装设计大门的"金钥匙"。     

On the contribution of the senses to food emotional experience

Emotions are an important component of our daily lives and contribute to behavior as well as general well-being. Foods are prominent sources of emotions (e.g. enjoyment, disgust…). One question that may arise in food research is how the different senses interact to create a unified affective representation of food. Indeed, current research suggests that rather than a unimodal processing of each sensory aspect of a food, there is a very early and almost undistinguishable integration of the senses, especially for the construction of flavor. In the present paper, we argue that a multisensory approach is necessary to understand the way senses converge to enable an emotional experience when perceiving food. We further put an emphasis on the fact that such multisensory integration is influenced by higher-order cognitive processes and possibly by emotions as well. After presenting theories in the field as well as experimental data, we discuss some paradigms that could pave the way for future research on food-induced emotional processing.     

Prophages domesticated by bacteria promote the adaptability of bacterial cells

Prophages are temperate phages integrated into the host bacterial genome. They play an important role in the adaptation and the pathogenicity of bacteria, especially pathogenic bacteria. In this review, we described the distribution of prophages in different hosts and different environments, and focused on the significance of prophages. At the singlecell level, prophages can help the host adapt to harsh external environments by directly carrying virulence genes, encoding regulatory factors and activating lysogeny. At the population level, prophages can influence the overall evolutionary direction and ecological function of the host bacterial community. This review will help us understand the important role of prophages as unique organisms in individual bacteria and microbial populations.     

藏族风情自驾旅游区概念规划——以四川松潘县林坡村为例

四川省甘(孜)—阿(坝)民族地区自然环境优美,民族文化浓郁,旅游资源丰富,近年来吸引了大批自驾游客。甘(孜)—阿(坝)地区松潘县川主寺镇林坡村基于生态和少数民族特色村寨保护的理念,围绕区域"硬资源"(自然景观)和"软资源"(民族特色风情)来构建旅游发展格局,形成了民族特色鲜明、生态可持续发展的体验式自驾旅游区。     

Feasibility of online divergent thinking assessment

Two studies explored whether assessment of creative thinking is feasible using web-based methods and how participants reacted to the imposition of time constraints in online settings. Sixty-five participants (Study 1) completed a verbal fluency task and a divergent thinking task, half of the participants doing so over the Internet. Online administration did not affect originality, but led to slightly fewer responses overall. This demonstrated that online administration of creative thinking is indeed feasible and reliable, though steps must be taken to ensure participants exhaust all possible responses. To test the effect of time limits on responses, 84 participants (Study 2) completed a verbal fluency task and three divergent thinking tasks online, half of the participants doing so under time pressure (3 min). There were significant interactions between time limits and task content for both time-on-task and fluency variables, but the task type was the dominant force in the varying fluency and time-on-task scores. Originality was not significantly affected by time limits, but did vary across tasks. In all cases the results illustrate that assessment of divergent thinking, as a proxy of creative thinking, is feasible using online methods. Implications for future work in this area are discussed.