Long-term sensor measurements of lung deposited surface area of particulate matter emitted from local vehicular and residential wood combustion sources

Abstract

Lung deposited surface area (LDSA) is a relatively new metric that has been argued to be more accurate at predicting health effects from aerosol exposure. For typical atmospheric aerosol, the LDSA concentration depends mainly on the concentration of ultrafine particles (e.g. vehicular exhaust emissions and residential wood combustion) and therefore optical methods cannot be used to measure and quantify it. The objective of this study was to investigate and describe typical characteristics of LDSA under different urban environments and evaluate how a diffusion charging-based Pegasor AQ Urban sensor (Pegasor Ltd., Finland) can be used as an alternative to optical sensors when assessing local combustion emissions and respective LDSA concentrations. Long-term (12?months) sensor measurements of LDSA were carried out at three distinctly different measurement sites (four sensor nodes) in the Helsinki metropolitan area, Finland. The sites were affected mainly by vehicular exhaust emission (street canyon and urban background stations) and by residential wood combustion (two detached housing area stations). The results showed that the accuracy of the AQ Urban was good (R² = 0.90) for the measurement of LDSA when compared to differential mobility particle sizer. The mean concentrations of LDSA were more than twice as high at the street canyon (mean 22 µm² cm^?3) site when compared to the urban background site (mean 9.4 µm² cm^?3). In the detached housing area, the mean concentrations were 12 µm² cm^?3, and wood combustion typically caused high LDSA peaks in the evenings. High correlations and similar diurnal cycles were observed for the LDSA and black carbon at street canyon and urban background stations. The utilization of a small-scale sensor network (four nodes) showed that the cross-station variability in hourly LDSA concentrations was significant in every site, even within the same detached housing area (distance between the two sites ～670?m).     

Robust optimisation of sustainable food grain transportation with uncertain supply and intentional disruptions

The proliferating need for sustainability intervention in food grain transportation planning is anchoring the attention of researchers in the interests of stakeholders and environment at large. Uncertainty associated with food grain supply further intensifies the problem steering the need for designing robust, cost-efficient and sustainable models. In line with this, this paper aims to develop a robust and sustainable intermodal transportation model to facilitate single type of food grain commodity shipments while considering procurement uncertainty, greenhouse gas emissions, and intentional hub disruption. The problem is designed as a mixed integer non-linear robust optimisation model on a hub and spoke network for evaluating near optimal shipment quantity, route selection and hub location decisions. The robust optimisation approach considers minimisation of total relative regret associated with total cost subject to several real-time constraints. A version of Particle Swarm Optimisation with Differential Evolution is proposed to tackle the resulting NP-hard problem. The model is tested with two other state-of the art meta-heuristics for small, medium, and large datasets subject to different procurement scenarios inspired from real time food grain operations in Indian context. Finally, the solution is evaluated with respect to total cost, model and solution robustness for all instances.     

Prediction of methane adsorption content in continental coal-bearing shale reservoir using SLD model

Shale gas, as an important unconventional resource, has drawn global attention. It is mainly composed of adsorption gas and free gas. Adsorption gas content could play an important guiding role on both the selection of favorable perspective area and the exploration and exploitation of shale gas resources. In order to accurately measure adsorption gas content, a new approach was established to predict the adsorption isotherm of methane on shale. Based on the simplified local-density (SLD) method, both the adsorption isotherms of illite, illite/smectite mixed-layer, cholorite and type III kerogen and the total shale rock could be well fitted. The fitting results show good coincidences with the true experimental test data, which proves the method is reasonable and dependable and the prediction results are effective and credible. In addition, the good simulation results show that the SLD parameters can reflect the pore structure characteristics and corresponding adsorption characteristics of the shale samples, which can be used for the quantitative characterization of shale pore system.     

Overview of Physical and Chemical,Operational Properties of Nitrous Oxide Used as a Propellant for Low-thrust Rocket Engines

The results of a system analysis of the efficiency of nitrous oxide(N_2O) as a propellant component for small space vehicles(SSV) were presented. A criterion for mass efficiency of the SSV propulsion system(PS) is determined. The current global state-of-the-art of SSV PSs is shown. The application field of nitrous oxide in SSV PSs is calculated and mass efficiency of N_2O application is quantitatively determined. An overview of physical and chemical as well as operational properties of nitrous oxide as a promising, non-toxic component of rocket propellant is provided. Main physical and chemical constants of gaseous and liquid nitrous oxide; chemical properties of N_2O, thermal stability of N_2O, catalytic decomposition of N_2O, a mechanism of decomposition of N_2O, catalysts for decomposition of N_2O, ballast additives to N_2O, application of nitrous oxide, nitrous oxide as a rocket propellant, production of nitrous oxide, toxicity of nitrous oxide, fire hazard of N_2O, requirements to equipment when handling N_2O; storage and transportation of N_2O are considered. It is demonstrated that nitrous oxide is a chemical compound meeting the requirements to rocket propellants, including those related to the environmental friendliness of propellants. With 75 references.     

聚氨酯分散剂在液体靛蓝制备中的应用

采用异佛尔酮二异氰酸酯(IPDI)、聚乙二醇200、400、600、800(PEG200、PEG400、PEG600、PEG800)、2,2-二羟甲基丙酸(DMPA)、1-苯基-1,2-乙二醇、中和剂三乙胺(TEA)、甲乙酮肟等为原料,制备了一种阴离子聚氨酯分散剂.通过FTIR、GPC、TG表征了分散剂的结构与性能.利用自制的分散剂采用研磨法制备了液体靛蓝分散液,以液体靛蓝分散液粒径、离心稳定性、储存稳定性为指标,探讨了分散剂链长、用量对分散液性能的影响.结果表明,研磨1 h后,以PEG400为软段合成的聚氨酯分散剂用量为染料质量的60％时制备的液体靛蓝粒径为277.1 nm,1000 r/min离心稳定性达到93.98％,3000 r/min离心稳定性为51.13％,常温放置7 d后粒径变化在20 nm以内,染色后织物的颜色深度(K/S)为10左右,约是粉状靛蓝染色K/S的2倍,染色织物的颜色性能并未改变,SEM显示分散体颗粒大小分布均匀,与分散剂甲基萘磺酸钠的甲醛缩合物(MF)和木质素85A相比,其分散体系稳定性差别不大.     

Decorative near-infrared transmission filters featuring high-efficiency and angular-insensitivity employing 1D photonic crystals

We present a new scheme for visibly-opaque but near-infrared-transmitting filters involving 7 layers based on one-dimensional ternary photonic crystals, with capabilities in reaching nearly 100% transmission efficiency in the near-infrared region. Different decorative reflection colors can be created by adding additional three layers while maintaining the near-infrared transmission performance. In addition, our proposed structural colors show great angular insensitivity up to ±60° for both transverse electric and transverse magnetic polarizations, which are highly desired in various fields. The facile strategy described here involves a simple deposition method for the fabrication, thereby having great potential in diverse applications such as image sensors, anti-counterfeit tag, and optical measurement systems.

     

Structural dependence of microwave dielectric properties of spinel structured Mg2(Ti1-xSnx)O4 solid solutions: Crystal structure refinement,Raman spectra study and complex chemical bond theory

Mg₂(Ti_1-xSn_x)O₄ (x?=?0–1) ceramics were prepared through conventional solid-state method. This paper focused on the dependence of microwave dielectric properties on crystal structural characteristics via crystal structure refinement, Raman spectra study and complex chemical bond theory. XRD spectrums delineated the phase information of a spinel structure, and structural characteristic of these compositions were achieved with the help of Rietveld refinements. Raman spectrums were used to depict the correlations between vibrational phonon modes and dielectric properties. The variation of permittivity is ascribed to the Mg₂(Ti_1-xSn_x)O₄ average bond covalency. The relationship among the B-site octahedral bond energy, tetrahedral bond energy and temperature coefficient are discussed by defining on the change rate of bond energy and the contribution rate of octahedral bond energy. The quality factor is affected by systematic total lattice energy, and the research of XPS patterns illustrated that oxygen vacancies can be effectively restrained in rich oxygen sintering process. Obviously, the microwave dielectric properties of Mg₂(Ti_1-xSn_x)O₄ compounds were obtained (${\epsilon }_r$= 12.18, $Q\times f$?=?170,130?GHz, ${\tau }_f$?=??53.1?ppm/°C, x?=?0.2).     

太赫兹脉冲焦平面成像技术的发展与应用

作为太赫兹技术中的重要组成部分,太赫兹脉冲焦平面成像一经问世就引起了行业内的广泛关注,人们引入了各种方法去提升此成像技术的测量性能,同时也尝试将此成像技术应用于不同的工业和基础研究领域。本文综述了近年来人们对太赫兹脉冲焦平面成像的技术改良和应用研究,包括提升成像系统的空间分辨率、信噪比、信息获取能力,以及将此成像技术应用于光谱识别检测、超表面器件功能验证、太赫兹特殊光束测量、太赫兹表面波观测等,希望该综述能够推动太赫兹脉冲焦平面成像的进一步技术革新和应用拓展。     

Temperature cycling and its effect on mechanical behaviours of highporosity chalks

Temperature history can have a significant effect on the strength of water-saturated chalk.In this study,hydrostatic stress cycles are applied to understand the mechanical response of chalk samples exposed to temperature cycling between each stress cycle,compared to the samples tested at a constant temperature.The total accumulated strain during a stress cycle and the irreversible strain are reported.Chalk samples from Kansas(USA)and Mons(Belgium),with different degrees of induration(i.e.amount of contact cementation),were used.The samples were saturated with equilibrated water(polar)and nonpolar Isopar H oil to quantify water weakening.All samples tested during 10 stress cycles with varying temperature(i.e.temperature cycled in between each stress cycle)accumulated more strain than those tested at constant temperatures.All the stress cycles were performed at 30℃.The two chalk types behaved similarly when saturated with Isopar H oil,but differently when saturated with water.When saturated with water,the stronger Kansas chalk accumulated more total strain and more irreversible strain within each stress cycle than the weaker Mons chalk.