The water volume for sediment transport affects the distribution of sediments in rivers and offers important guidance for river dredging, management and remediation. In this paper, with daily water and sediment data of major hydrological stations of main stream of Liaohe River from 1988 to 2010, we calculated the average water volume and unit water volume for sediment transport of the year with the methods of sediment discharge, sediment concentration and erosion and silting ratio correction that are based on net water volume method. We analyzed the relations between change process of water volume for sediment transport and its impact factors to identify the critical water volume for sediment transport for non-scouring and non-silting situation. The results showed that (1) according to the calculation with the hydrological data from the major hydrological stations in Tongjiangkou, Tieling, Mahushan, Ping’anpu and Liujianfang, the average water volume and the unit water volume for sediment transport during the flood season of the year were 13.88×108m3 and 1136.62m3/t respectively; (2) According to the theoretical calculation, the water demand model for hydraulic sediment dredging in the major reaches of the main stream of Liaohe River was determined and there was linear function relationship between the sediment discharge and the water demand. When the channel kept the sediment from silting, the water demand at Tieling was ≥18.73×108m3, ≥5.49×108m3 at Mahushan, ≥2.90×108m3 at Ping’anpu and ≥10.97×108m3 at Liaozhong. In a word, net water volume method can accurately calculate the amount of sediment transport in sediment-laden rivers with a prospect of broad application.

Plankton diversity acts as an ecological indicator of aquatic ecosystems due to their rapid response to environmental changes. Plankton samples were collected monthly for a period of 24 months. A total of 35 genera of phytoplankton belonging to three classes, Bacillariophyceae (21 genera), Chlorophyceae (9 genera) and Cyanophyceae (5 genera) were found. The abundance of phytoplankton was in the order, Bacillariophyceae (83%) followed by Chlorophyceae (9%) and Cyanophyceae (8%). Maximum phytoplankton density in winter season was attributed to the low water temperature, gentle water velocity, high transparency, availability of sufficient nutrients and most stable substratum. Eight genera of zooplankton belonging to three major groups, Protozoa (2 genera), Rotifera (5 genera) and Copepoda (1 genus) was recorded. Shannon-Wiener diversity index of phytoplankton and zooplankton was computed maximum to be 2.61 and 1.56 respectively in the winter season. PCA indicates Cymbella, Navicula, Synedra, Cocconeis, Achnanthidium, Amphora, Nitzschia, Tabellaria, Fragilaria, Ulothrix, Spirogyra and Phormidium to be most dominant genera in the Mandakini river. Total alkalinity, water temperature, transparency, velocity, dissolved oxygen, free carbon dioxide, turbidity, phosphate and nitrate were found to be the most important factors affecting plankton diversity in the Mandakini river.

Petroleum fuels have served mankind successfully for more than a century mainly for mobility in the form of vehicles, power generation and industrial activities. As crude oil is a fossil fuel, we cannot rely upon it forever. Transportation is the backbone for the mobility for which fuel is the basic necessity. As the petroleum products are at the verge of their extinction, finding alternative fuels is the need of the time. Alternative fuels are obtained from seeds of many edible and non-edible oil plants. Edible oils due to their consumption for cooking purposes, may not be advisable to use for commercial activity, however, non-edible oils can be attempted as a source to serve the purpose as engine fuels. Nonedible oils can be blended with the petroleum products and can be used mainly in the diesel engine with slight or no modifications. The performance studies are being carried out by various researchers all over the world using many such refined oils as engine fuels. This review paper attempts to collate the published research literature. The focus in this review paper is on analysis of availability, engine performance and pollution characteristics when oils such as Jatropha curcas, Calophyllum inophyllum, Mahua and Pongamia pinnata are used.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a bacteria which can live in freshwater, soil and plants. It is a commensal of the digestive tube, slightly abundant in human body. Its presence in wells water is a result of current anthropogenic activity and pollution loads. It is an important nosocomial pathogenic agent characterized by an intrinsic resistance to multiple antimicrobial agents which can develop high-level multidrug resistance. To assess the contamination of these well waters by this pathogenic germ, two hundred samples were collected for four seasonal campaigns between March 2017 and May 2018 with a rate of forty three (43) samples per season in an irrigated zone. The samples were analysed to identify P. aeruginosa, then the isolated serotypes were determined by slid agglutination test using four pools and 20 monovalent Antisera. The detected P. aeruginosa were tested for susceptibility to 18 antibiotics. A total of (n=85/139) isolated strains were identified as P. aeruginosa representing 61.15 % of prevalence among Pseudomonas spp. Antimicrobial resistance revealed that 68% of them are multidrug resistant, while15.09 % of strains resist at least to 7 antibiotics, 30.19% resist at least to 11 antibiotics, 13.21% resist at least to 12 antibiotics, 5.66% resist at least to 13 antibiotics, and 3.77% resist at least to 14 antibiotics. The high level resistance of P. aeruginosa is observed with piperacillin tazobactam (100/10μg) (84.91%), ciprofloxacin (5μg) (79.25%), imipenem (10μg) and ceftazidime (30μg) (37.58%). The resistance of phenotypes of P. aeruginosa strains allowed to identify (n=20/85) ESBL, (n=31/85) oxacillinase broad spectrum ES-OXA, (n=5/85) phenotype of impermeability to imipenem, (n=12/85) cephalosporinase AMPC, and (n=17/85) wild type. The results showed the high antibiotic resistance levels of P. aeruginosa strains from well water samples against antibiotics. Furthermore, based on the results, these well waters can be a source of P. aeruginosa and human and animal susceptibility to other opportunistic pathogens.

Based on the systematic collection of the shallow groundwater samples in the urban area of Suzhou, Anhui province, China, the concentrations of zinc have been analysed by statistical and spatial methods. The results show that the zinc concentrations in the groundwater samples are low, and all the samples can meet the national groundwater quality standard of China with Class I and II, which means that the groundwater can be used for drinking purpose. However, the zinc concentration has high coefficient of variation and low p-values of normal distribution, implying that it has been affected by anthropogenic activities, which was also demonstrated by the consistency of the distribution of the samples with high zinc concentrations and the areas with high density of human and transportation, as well as the high-high cluster of the spatial autocorrelation analysis of zinc. Based on the statistical analysis, the environmental background has been calculated to be 0-62.6 μg/L, whereas the environmental background has been calculated to be 0-69.8 μg/L with spatial analysis. They are different because of the different basis of the two methods, the former based on the hypothesis of normal distribution of the background values, whereas the latter do not need such a hypothesis.

With the accelerating industrialization and urbanization in China, the energy consumption of the transportation industry in the country is increasing quickly, and its proportion to the total social energy consumption is significantly growing. The transportation industry is a main source of carbon emission in urban areas. The unreasonable structure of energy consumption, the low proportion of new-energy use, and low energy utilization influence the energy-saving and emission reduction in the transportation industry. Thus, in this work, the influencing factors of transportation-induced carbon emission were estimated to analyze the environmental pollution caused by the transportation industry further. Regression analysis was performed on the environmental pollution caused by the transportation industry and the influencing factors of carbon emission in Jiangxi Province, China. Subsequently, a random STIRPAT model was constructed, and the influencing factors of carbon emission from the transportation industry in Jiangxi Province from 2007 to 2017 were analyzed through the partial least squares (PLS) method. Regression results based on the PLS method were relatively ideal. Increases in gross domestic product per capita, population size, passenger person kilometers, rotation freight transport kilometers, and the number of car ownerships can intensify transportation-induced carbon emission. This emission is increased when transportation energy intensity declines, but can be significantly inhibited by increased energy prices. The conclusions of this study can provide references for the continuous optimization of the energy use structure in the transportation industry, saving of energy resources, reduction of greenhouse gas and pollutant emission, and acceleration of low carbonization in the transportation industry.

Hydrogen is recognized as the green energy with the greatest potential for future development, but currently, China’s hydrogen production is highly dependent on raw fossil materials, which conflicts with the original intention of developing hydrogen energy. As the abandoned hydropower problem in Southwestern China is serious. The current strategy can be focused using surplus hydropower to produce hydrogen in a green way. In this study, the technical cost and advantage of hydrogen produced using surplus hydropower using the levelized cost of energy model was analyzed. The results show that cheap surplus hydropower will considerably reduce the cost of hydrogen produced using electrolyzing water, and the cost is comparable to that of coal gasification hydrogen production. The hydropower to be abandoned by Southwestern China annually can drive the hydrogen production with 1.2 million tons per year, providing a technically and economically feasible approach to developing hydrogen energy.

The concentration of chlorophyll-α in the Gorontalo Bay is necessary to be observed since it could describe the condition of water richness. The semi-enclosed Gorontalo Bay morphology causes the status of water fertility to be largely determined by the input of inorganic or organic materials originating from the mainland. This study aimed to figure out the concentration and horizontal distribution pattern of the chlorophyll-α then further to decide the relationship between the concentration of chlorophyll-α and the nutrients in the Gorontalo Bay. There were fifteen sub-sampling sites selected based on coastal and ecological characteristics. Results showed that the distribution pattern of chlorophyll-α in the Gorontalo Bay in June and July 2017 was dissimilar and its concentration ranged from 0.984 to 3.744 mg.m-3. In addition, there was a positive and substantial relationship between chlorophyll-α and phosphate (p<0.01). Nonetheless, there was no significant correlation between chlorophyll-α and nitrate (p>0.01) and ammonia (p>0.01).

Pyrethroids are used in agricultural to control pests on a variety of crops. Bifenthrin, a synthetic pyrethroid, is a broad spectrum insecticide. It acts mainly on the nervous system of vertebrates as well as invertebrates. It is susceptible to the biodegradation by some soil bacteria. The present paper deals with the toxicological studies of bifenthrin and its metabolites benzene 1,1(methylthio) ethylidine, resorcinol and monochloro trifluromethane that were produced by a newly isolated strain of Paracoccus siganidrum APGM1 on earthworms, which play an important role in the improvement of the soil fertility. The toxicity was assessed by 48 hrs filter paper contact test, 14 days soil test and histopathological methods. The results of filter paper contact test revealed that the earthworms were more susceptible to bifenthrin than their metabolites. The LC50 value of bifenthrin and its metabolites was 6 ppm and 20 ppm respectively. The soil test showed that at 6 ppm concentration of bifenthrin, half the number of earthworms died after 14 days and with the increase in the concentration, mortality increased. At 10 ppm concentration, all the earthworms died. However, half the number of earthworms died after 14 days at the metabolite concentration of 20 ppm. The adverse effects of bifenthrin and very little effect of their metabolites on the morphological properties and structural integrity of the tissues were observed in histopathological studies. Thus, the metabolites of bifenthrin were less toxic to earthworms than the bifenthrin.

Use of the high-rate vermicomposting system and its relevant technology were successfully applied to accomplish direct vermicomposting of coral vine leaves - devoid of any pre-treatment/composting or amended with cow dung as earlier proclaimed protocols for the vermicomposting of various phytomass had necessitated. Three earthworm species tested were Eisenia fetida, Eudrilus eugeniae and Perionyx excavatus, and they had shown efficient vermicast recovery with few instances of mortality and good reproduction over the 150-day experiment. In this duration, all vermireactors were run in semi-continuous mode at the solid retention time of 15 days. This process enabled us to improve process efficacy of the reactor by the required pointers and systematic process monitoring. This paper substantiates the potential of the high-rate vermicomposting system in direct and potential vermicomposting of coral vine without any pre-treatment/composting or cow dung amendments. The observations have significance for enhancing process economics and therefore, process utility.