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The carbon capture, transportation and storage (CCS) technology is an important option to achieve carbon emission reduction. Supercritical CO2 pipeline as its intermediate link, in order to prevent pipeline fracture propagation, human injury and transportation medium loss caused by leakage, it is necessary to establish a highly accurate on-line leakage monitoring technology. At present, the law of pressure and temperature response in supercritical CO2 pipeline leakage is not well understood, and the mechanism of pressure and temperature coupling mutation in the propagation of decompression wave is still unclear. Based on the experimental data of pipeline leakage, combined with theoretical analysis and numerical simulation, this paper studies the sudden change mechanism of pressure and temperature at the moment of leakage, analyzes the attenuation law of sudden drop rebound amplitude of pressure and temperature during the propagation of decompression wave, studies the influence of velocity error, dynamic error and other errors on sensor measurement, and puts forward an improved method of high-precision state parameter measurement.

The carbon capture, transportation and storage technology is an important option to achieve carbon peak and carbon neutralization. In order to prevent the pipeline fracture propagation, human injury and medium loss during the longdistance CO2 pipeline leakage, it is necessary to establish the on-line leakage monitoring technology. At present, there is not enough understanding of the law of pressure response and phase change during the leakage of CO2 pipeline, and there is still a lack of accurate leakage monitoring method based on the propagation law of decompression wave. Based on the release experiment data in the industrial scale pipeline, combined with the theoretical analysis, the pressure drop-rebound mechanism as a result of wave propagation at the moment of rupture was studied. The attenuation law of decompression wave strength will be researched for the establishment of the monitoring method of pipeline leakage position and orifice diameter. The reliability of the monitoring method considering the effect of flow state on the leakage characteristics of CO2 pipelines was studied and a modified algorithm for higher measurement accuracy was proposed. This study was of great significance to the stability and safe operation of CO2 long-distance pipeline system.

Hydrogen is important clean, secondary energy and is considered to be one of the important solutions to achieve the goal of “peak carbon dioxide emission and carbon neutrality”. The industrial chain for hydrogen includes the production, storage, transportation, refueling, and terminal utilization, etc. The safe and efficient storage and transportation of hydrogen is a bottleneck problem that needs to be solved urgently in the development of hydrogen industry. The needs for development of hydrogen energy in China have been briefly introduced in the context of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. The failure modes and damage mechanisms of the typical hydrogen storage and transportation pressure equipments have been discussed. The current development status of hydrogen storage and transportation pressure equipments, in terms of the design, manufacturing and maintenance technologies, has been reviewed. Combined with the development trends such as high-pressure, low-temperature, large-capacity and high-density, etc., and focused on different application scenarios including gaseous and liquid hydrogen, technical challenges have been analyzed on safety utilization of hydrogen storage (stationary storage at the refueling stations and on-board storage on fuel cell vehicles) and transportation pressure equipments. The relevant research suggestions on the long-term safety guarantee of the hydrogen storage and transportation pressure equipments have been proposed.

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicle has become the main direction of hydrogen energy utilization because of its advantages of zero emission, short hydrogenation time, long driving range and high efficiency. High pressure hydrogen storage cylinder is one of the key components of hydrogen fuel cell system. Because the temperature of the gas cylinder increases sharply during the rapid hydrogen filling process, and the temperature drops sharply during the hydrogen release process, the drastic temperature change will reduce the fatigue life of the cylinder, which has an important impact on the safety and stability of the whole system. At present, it is necessary to further study the thermodynamic characteristics of gas cylinders in the process of hydrogen filling and discharging. According to the filling and discharging process of high pressure hydrogen cycle, the change and distribution of pressure and temperature and the streamline change in the high pressure cylinder during the process of hydrogen filling and discharging are studied. The pressure and temperature control strategy of high-pressure tank, precooler, test cylinder and low-pressure tank in the process of hydrogen filling and discharging were discussed, and a more safe and effective hydrogen filling and discharging optimization control measure was put forward. This study is of great significance for the stability and safe operation of high pressure hydrogen storage system in the field of hydrogen energy.

This study investigates and analyzes the current state of hydro gen and fuel cell vehicle technologies and policies, comprehensively summarizes the hydrogen and fuel cell in the United States, Japan, the European Union, and China in terms of technologies, products, markets, and institutional mechanisms, and provides an in-depth analysis of the causes of the above-mentioned problems. It clarifies the position of fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen refueling infrastructure in international and Chinese national policies. This paper analyzes the overall development goals and policy priorities of China’s future hydrogen strategy and summarizes the policies, regulations and subsidies in North China, East China, South China and Southwest China. It summarizes the main policies and development goals of hydrogen energy in North, East, South and Southwest China from the perspectives of technology innovation, industrial development and key policies, and makes policy recommendations for the development of hydrogen energy in China.

Virtual power plant (VPP), as a new distributed energy management center, has developed rapidly all over the world. The study of the benefits of VPP in power market exchange can provide VPP operators with more scientific and reasonable dispatching strategy. Moreover, those researches could improve the competitiveness of VPP in power market transactions. In this paper, the concept of VPP is first introduced. A VPP optimal dispatching method is proposed, which takes into account the intermittent output of new energy and the uncertainty of electricity price in power market combined with the existing power market mechanism. Moreover, an optimal dispatching of virtual power plant and its energy loss cost model are introduced. The solution method of stochastic programming is studied. Furthermore, the conditional risk value is introduced to comprehensively evaluate the market transaction risk caused by the different uncertain factors. The simulation results in a VPP containing gas turbine generator, wind power generator and PV system show that the model can effectively analyze the economy of VPP. In order to solve the unbalance problem, a VPP optimal scheduling model is proposed.

With the continuous growth of distributed photovoltaic in China, the original economic incentive policies have been unable to meet the needs of the development of distributed photovoltaic industry. This article describes China's policy attempts in distributed market-based transactions. The development of distributed photovoltaics in China is prospected from the aspects of distributed definition and distributed market-based trading mechanisms.

The Energy Internet, featuring in-depth integration of renewable energy and internet information technology, is the future orientation of the energy industry. This paper breaks through the former studies on energy efficiency which only concentrate on one form or one section of energy. Based on the second law of thermodynamics, it analyzes and proposes five kinds of energy efficiency evaluation indexes from the energy sections of production, transmission, consumption, storage and conversion. It provides guidance to top-level design, project acceptance and optimization of Energy Internet.

A three-dimensional transient computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model has been established for the simulations of supercritical heat transfer of real liquefied natural gas (LNG) mixture in a single tube and a tube bundle of an intermediate fluid vaporizer (IFV). The influence of chemical composition of LNG on the thermal performance has been analyzed. The results have also been compared with those obtained from the one-dimensional steady-state calculations using the distributed parameter model (DPM). It is found that the current DPM approach can give reasonable prediction accuracy for the thermal performance in the tube bundle but unsatisfactory prediction accuracy for that in a single tube as compared with the corresponding CFD data. As benchmarked against pure methane, the vaporization of an LNG containing about 90% (mole fraction) of methane would lead to an absolute deviation of 5.5 K in the outlet NG temperature and a maximum relative deviation of 11.4% in the tube side HTC in a bundle of about 816 U tubes at the inlet pressure of 12 MPa and mass flux of 200 kg·m−2·s−1. It is concluded that the influence of LNG composition on the thermal performance should be taken into consideration in order to obtain an economic and reliable design of an IFV.

Virtual power plant (VPP) is an integrated class of integrated power plant composed of energy management system and small and micro distributed energy resources controlled by it. Its distributed energy sources can be distributed generator sets, distributed energy storage equipment or demand response resources distributed among many demand-side users. Its concept emphasizes more on the function and effect presented to the outside world, updating the operation concept and produce social and economic benefits, in line with the needs and direction of China's power development. Given the uncertainty in renewable energy output and demand response, the VPP market of gas networks, Power to Gas (P2G) equipment, flexible loads and other resources are introduced. Furthermore, VPP's optimal scheduling strategy includes considering power and gas scheduling for both power and gas flows, and studies the optimization model considering the dual energy market to maximize the profits of VPP. Through example studies, the economics and scheduling strategies of the proposed VPP are analyzed. Simulation results show that the VPP proposed in this paper can effectively reduce the proportion of renewable energy emissions reduction by selling power or P2G equipment. Moreover, it is conducive to maintaining the pressure stability and safe operation of the natural gas power grid. VPP can reduce the cost of unbalanced punishment and reduce the impact of uncertainty.

The intermediate fluid vaporizer (IFV) owns various advantages over the other types of liquefied natural gas (LNG) vaporizers. Research findings related to the design of an IFV, including the configurational variations, selection of candidate working fluids, one-dimensional steady-state thermal model, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model for thermal dynamic analysis and cold energy recovery, have been reviewed. It is proposed that further updates to the current one-dimensional thermal model are needed. A three-dimensional unsteady CFD model should be established for the instantaneous flow and heat transfer analysis. Integrating the LNG re-gasification and cold energy recovery will bring more complexity in the process design, optimization and operation.

This paper introduces briefly China’s development plan for intelligent manufacturing, and combining with the present situation of design, manufacture and maintenance of pressure equipment, puts forward the development directions for the digitization, networking and intelligentization of pressure equipment at present and in the next decade from three aspects. The first aspect is digital control of shape and performance of pressure equipment. Taking the furnace tube as an example, the Material Genome technology is recommended for establishing the relationship between the microstructure and macroscopic performance of its material and achieve the target macroscopic performance by the adjustment of composition, phase and microstructure; then the additive manufacturing (3D printing) technology can be used to control the resulting shape of certain special structures so as to achieve the integrated shape and performance and significant improvement of its service life. The second aspect is digitization and network-based interconnection of production factors such as materials, equipment and personnel in the pressure vessel production workshop to realize intelligent manufacturing. Taking the transportable pressure vessel for instance, the real-time identification, diagnosis and control of abnormal conditions can be realized by information and communication technology during the key production processes such as baiting, cutting, forming, welding, heat treatment, and non-destructive testing; and if necessary, the suitable manufacturing resources across different enterprises and regions can be organized to achieve the flexible production and collaborative manufacturing of the components such as heads and flanges, etc. The third aspect is to achieve the real-time online integrity assurance of pressure equipment in process industries (e.g., petrochemical and electric power, etc.) by digitization and networking of risk-based inspection (RBI), fitness-for-service (FFS) assessment technologies and their corresponding database, in combination with real-time monitoring technology based on the characteristic safety parameters. Taking the reactor effluent air cooler (REAC) system as an example, this technology would enable not only the safety warning of critical characteristic parameters, but also the self-limiting and self-prevention of the flow-induced corrosion failure by linking with the distributed control system (DCS).

Pressurized pipelines are the most reliable and cost-effective option for the long-distance transportation of CO2 from an emitter to an onshore storage site. Propagating or unstable factures are considered catastrophic pipeline failures, resulting in a massive escape of inventory within a short period of time. The decompression curve for CO2 exhibits a large drop in decompression wave speed at the phase transition pressure, leading to a higher driving force for crack propagation. The study of fracture control plans is very important for assessing the possibility of fracture propagation and preventing unstable fracturing along CO2 pipelines. Three full-bore rupture (FBR) experiments were performed using an industrial-scale (258 m long, 233 mm inner diameter) CO2 pipeline with initial CO2 states of gaseous, dense and supercritical phases, respectively. The relation between the decompression velocity and the pipeline fracture propagation velocity was analyzed during the process of buried CO2 pipeline release. A fracture propagation criterion was established for the buried CO2 pipeline. For the gaseous CO2 leakage, the pressure plateau corresponding to the decompression wave velocity only appeared near the closed end of the pipeline. For the dense CO2 leakage, the pressure plateau corresponding to the decompression wave velocity was observed near the saturation pressure after rapid decompression. For the supercritical CO2 leakage, the pressure plateau corresponding to the decompression wave velocity was observed in the stage when the supercritical CO2 transformed into the two phases of gas and liquid. Compared with the gaseous and dense CO2, for the supercritical CO2, the initial decompression wave velocity was the smallest, and the requirement of the pipeline safety factor was the highest.

This study aims to further promote rural electrification, optimize the rural energy structure, eliminate poverty among farmers, improve the rural energy efficiency, and achieve an overall well-off and rural revitalization strategy. Shouguang City of Shandong Province, is one of the largest vegetable distribution centres in China and has good policy conditions. This paper examines four types of rural electrification demonstration projects in Shandong Province We have extracted the “Shandong Shouguang Model” with standard construction mode, advanced application technology and complete local policies. The “Shandong Shouguang Model” includes “Four Ones”: “One Platform”, “One Model”, “One type of business” and “ One set of standards” for rural electrification construction, and provided Cost-price and Investment-tax relief policies for rural electrification development across the country. Replicated experience. Promote the achievement of 100% energy cleanliness and 100% end-energy electrification through the construction of Zero-carbon emission demonstration zones and Net-zero energy consumption.

Delayed fetal growth and adverse birth outcomes are some of the greatest public health threats to this generation of children worldwide because these conditions are major determinants of mortality, morbidity, and disability in infancy and childhood and are also associated with diseases in adult life. A number of studies have investigated the impacts of a range of environmental conditions during pregnancy (including air pollution, endocrine disruptors, persistent organic pollutants, heavy metals) on fetal and child development. The results, while provocative, have been largely inconsistent. This review summarizes up to date epidemiologic studies linking major environmental pollutants to fetal and child development and suggested future directions for further investigation.

The re-gasification process plays an important role in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply chain. The advantages of an intermediate fluid vaporizer (IFV) include the better energy efficiency, less sensitivity to ambient conditions and no icing or frosting problem. In this paper, the thermal design method has been established for the IFV when vaporizing the subcritical LNG. The typical heat transfer characteristics in the different sections and flow boiling zones have been predicted. The effects of the operating parameters such as the inlet mass flow rate and pressure of LNG and the inlet seawater temperature on the heat transfer coefficients and the required heat transfer areas of the thermolator, evaporator, condenser and the whole IFV have been investigated. The results indicate that the increase in the LNG pressure not only changes the heat transfer coefficient in each flow boiling zone but also influences the transition from one flow boiling zone to another, and ultimately leads to a profitless increase of the required heat transfer area of the condenser. The results reported here would provide insight into the vaporization process of subcritical LNG and give guidance to the potential design optimization of an IFV.

Rural electrification construction is an important foundation for promoting the rural revitalization strategy. On the basis of field investigation on the current situation of rural electrification development in 8 cities of Shandong Province, theoretical analysis is made on the methods of work development, and a development mode suitable for rural electrification construction in Shandong Province is explored. Government and company cooperation in full aspects is the key to success of rural electrification. Suitable operation mode with support system can help the expectation turn to reality by resolving the technical and financial problem.

A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model has been established for the simulations of supercritical LNG heat transfer in a horizontal tube of an intermediate fluid vaporizer (IFV). The influences of inlet pressure and mass flux on heat transfer have been studied. The predictive capabilities of different heat transfer coefficient (HTC) correlations, which is vital for the economic and reliable design of an IFV, have been evaluated. The results indicate that the Jackson correlation gives more accurate HTC predictions for supercritical LNG at the relatively small mass flux, with a maximum deviation of 10% and an average deviation of 6%; while for the cases with larger mass flux, a modification to the Jackson-Hall correlation works well. Detailed flow and heat transfer characteristics and buoyancy effect have also been analyzed. The reported findings would provide insight into the supercritical LNG vaporization process and give guidance to the design optimization of an IFV.

The mass transfer characteristics of a gas–liquid continuous flow system accompanied by reaction in two commercial inline high shear mixers (HSMs) were evaluated by the sulphite oxidation method. The gas–liquid specific interfacial area, a, and the volumetric mass transfer coefficient, kLa, were measured under different operating conditions involving the rotor speed, the liquid flow rate, the gas flow rate and the surface tension. The results indicate that a and kLa increase with the rotor speed and liquid flow rate due to an increase of turbulence intensity. Both parameters increase slightly first but then decrease with the gas flow rate. For either the dual rows ultrafine-toothed or the single-row blade-screen configuration of HSMs, a increases while kLa decreases with the surfactant concentration, and both of them tend to be changeless at the surfactant concentration higher than 30 mg/L. Correlations for the specific interfacial area and the Sherwood number are obtained to guide the process design and ...

Hydrodynamics of a pilot-scale in-line high shear mixer (HSM) with double rows of ultrafine rotor and stator teeth, including the velocity profiles and power consumptions, were measured using laser Doppler anemometry and a torque transducer, respectively. Computational fluid dynamics simulations were conducted using the standard k-e turbulence model with first- and second-order accuracy and large eddy simulation (LES) with the standard Smagorinsky–Lilly subgrid scale model. Predictive capabilities of the different turbulence models and discretization schemes were assessed based on the experimental data. It is found that the current LES can predict accurately the flow patterns for the strongly rotating and locally anisotropic turbulent flows in the complex in-line HSM. The results obtained are fundamental to explore potential applications of the in-line teethed HSMs to intensify chemical reaction processes. © 2013 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 60: 1143–1155, 2014

Single-pass continuous emulsifications were studied in kerosene– and silicone oil–aqueous systems with two inline high shear mixers (HSMs) adopting two main commercial configurations, including the dual-row ultrafine-toothed and the single-row blade–screen units. The effects of the processing parameters on the measured drop sizes and power consumptions were investigated. Bimodal drop size distributions (DSDs) were observed within both inline HSMs due to the inhomogeneity of the turbulence and shear levels accompanied with the recirculation and re-entrainment flow patterns. The drop sizes increase with increases in the dispersed-phase volume fraction and the continuous-phase flow rate and decrease with increases in the rotor speed and the continuous-phase viscosity. Correlations for the Sauter mean diameters were also obtained. The results obtained here are fundamental for the assessment of emulsification capability as well as the design and selection of inline HSMs.

The large eddy simulation and combined species transport method was validated for the residence time distribution (RTD) predictions of the pilot-scale in-line high shear mixers (HSMs) with ultrafine teeth. RTD characteristics were experimentally and numerically investigated under different rotor speeds and flowrates for the in-line HSM with double rows of inclined stator teeth. The exponential decays of the RTD curves indicate that the in-line HSM generally behaves like a mixed flow reactor, where the mixedness increases under higher rotor speeds and flowrates. It is indicated that the RTDs are greatly dependent on the HSM configurations, such as the shear gap widths, tip-to-base clearances, rows of the rotor and stator teeth, as well as patterns of the stator teeth. Defects of channeling, short circuiting and fluid re-entrainment are resulted from inefficient in-line HSM designs, such as those with large shear gap widths, large tip-to-base clearances, single rows of rotor and stator teeth, or improper angles of stator teeth. It is suggested that the in-line HSM with double rows of inclined stator teeth, narrow shear gap width and tip-to-base clearance has the advantage to provide intensified mass transport efficiency in the view of exploring novel chemical reactors.

High shear mixers (HSMs), characterized by their highly localized energy dissipation, are widely used in process industries for dispersed phase size reduction and reactive mixing. Research findings on typical applications of HSMs have been summarized in this paper, namely liquid–liquid emulsification, solid–liquid suspension and chemical reactions, with an emphasis on the emulsification due to relatively intensive research in this area. The design and control of HSMs as chemical reactors need comprehensive knowledge of both the reactions kinetics and the HSMs hydrodynamics. Therefore, hydrodynamics of HSMs in terms of power draw, flow pattern and energy dissipation are then particularly reviewed from both experimental fluid dynamics (EFD) measurements and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Limited reports on the mass and heat transfer properties in HSMs are also introduced to demonstrate their potential applicability to intensify chemical reaction processes. Due to difficulties and challenges emerged in the experimentations, CFD tools play an important role in the design, optimization and scale-up of HSMs, yet the prediction accuracies still need to be improved.

Many teenagers today live with stress. Due to their spiritual immaturity, teenagers cannot properly cope with stress, which probably brings such bad consequences as depression and even suicide. Hence, it is important to help teenagers timely resolve their stress. Many times, teenagers hesitate to express and reveal their negative emotion to the people nearby. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a web-based virtual chatting tool, which can listen to, comfort, encourage the stressed teenagers and give useful solutions for their problems through chatting and thus releasing their stress. The tool also integrates social media micro-blog not only to support stress detection but also to provide useful resources for stress release.

More and more adolescents today are suffering from various adolescent stress. Too much stress will bring a variety of physical and psychological problems including anxiety, depression, and even suicide to the growing youths, whose outlook on life and problem-solving ability are still immature enough. Traditional face-to-face stress detection and relief methods do not work, confronted with adolescents who are reluctant to express their negative emotions to the people in real life. In this paper, we present a adolescent-oriented intelligent chatting system called TeenChat, which acts as a virtual friend to listen, understand, comfort, encourage, and guide stressful adolescents to pour out their bad feelings, and thus releasing the stress. Our 1-month user study demonstrates TeenChat is effective on sensing and helping adolescents’ stress.

Fewer studies have been published on the association between daily mortality and ambient air pollution in Asia than in the United States and Europe. This study was undertaken in Wuhan, China, to investigate the acute effects of air pollution on mortality with an emphasis on particulate matter (PM*). There were three primary aims: (1) to examine the associations of daily mortality due to all natural causes and daily cause-specific mortality (cardiovascular [CVD], stroke, cardiac [CARD], respiratory [RD], cardiopulmonary [CP], and non-cardiopulmonary [non-CP] causes) with daily mean concentrations (microg/m3) of PM with an aerodynamic diameter--10 pm (PM10), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), or ozone (O3); (2) to investigate the effect modification of extremely high temperature on the association between air pollution and daily mortality due to all natural causes and daily cause-specific mortality; and (3) to assess the uncertainty of effect estimates caused by the change in International Classification of Disease (ICD) coding of mortality data from Revision 9 (ICD-9) to Revision 10 (ICD-10) code. Wuhan is called an "oven city" in China because of its extremely hot summers (the average daily temperature in July is 37.2 degrees C and maximum daily temperature often exceeds 40 degrees C). Approximately 4.5 million residents live in the core city area of 201 km2, where air pollution levels are higher and ranges are wider than the levels in most cities studied in the published literature. We obtained daily mean levels of PM10, SO2, and NO2 concentrations from five fixed-site air monitoring stations operated by the Wuhan Environmental Monitoring Center (WEMC). O3 data were obtained from two stations, and 8-hour averages, from 10:00 to 18:00, were used. Daily mortality data were obtained from the Wuhan Centres for Disease Prevention and Control (WCDC) during the study period of July 1, 2000, to June 30, 2004. To achieve the first aim, we used a regression of the logarithm of daily counts of mortality due to all natural causes and cause-specific mortality on the daily mean concentrations of the four pollutants while controlling for weather, temporal factors, and other important covariates with generalized additive models (GAMs). We derived pollutant effect estimations for 0-day, 1-day, 2-day, 3-day, and 4-day lagged exposure levels, and the averages of 0-day and 1-day lags (lag 0-1 day) and of 0-day, 1-day, 2-day, and 3-day lags (lag 0-3 days) before the event of death. In addition, we used individual-level data (e.g., age and sex) to classify subgroups in stratified analyses. Furthermore, we explored the nonlinear shapes ("thresholds") of the exposure-response relations. To achieve the second aim, we tested the hypothesis that extremely high temperature modifies the associations between air pollution and daily mortality. We developed three corresponding weather indicators: "extremely hot," "extremely cold," and "normal temperatures." The estimates were obtained from the models for the main effects and for the pollutant-temperature interaction for each pollutant and each cause of mortality. To achieve the third aim, we conducted an additional analysis. We examined the concordance rates and kappa statistics between the ICD-9-coded mortality data and the ICD-10-coded mortality data for the year 2002. We also compared the magnitudes of the estimated effects resulting from the use of the two types of ICD-coded mortality data. In general, the largest pollutant effects were observed at lag 0-1 day. Therefore, for this report, we focused on the results obtained from the lag 0-1 models. We observed consistent associations between PM10 and mortality: every 10-microg/m3 increase in PM10 daily concentration at lag 0-1 day produced a statistically significant association with an increase in mortality due to all natural causes (0.43%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.24 to 0.62), CVD (0.57%; 95% CI, 0.31 to 0.84), stroke (0.57%; 95% CI, 0.25 to 0.88), CARD (0.49%; 95% CI, 0.04 to 0.94), RD (0.87%; 95% CI, 0.34 to 1.41), CP (0.52%; 95% CI, 0.27 to 0.77), and non-CP (0.30%; 95% CI, 0.05 to 0.54). In general, these effects were stronger in females than in males and were also stronger among the elderly (or = 65 years) than among the young. The results of sensitivity testing over the range of exposures from 24.8 to 477.8 microg/m3 also suggest the appropriateness of assuming a linear relation between daily mortality and PM10. Among the gaseous pollutants, we also observed statistically significant associations of mortality with NO, and SO2, and that the estimated effects of these two pollutants were stronger than the PM10 effects. The patterns of NO2 and SO2 associations were similar to those of PM10 in terms of sex, age, and linearity. O3 was not associated with mortality. In the analysis of the effect modification of extremely high temperature on the association between air pollution and daily mortality, only the interaction of PM10 with temperature was statistically significant. Specifically, the interaction terms were statistically significant for mortality due to all natural (P = 0.014), CVD (P = 0.007), and CP (P = 0.014) causes. Across the three temperature groups, the strongest PM10 effects occurred mainly on days with extremely high temperatures for mortality due to all natural (2.20%; 95% CI, 0.74 to 3.68), CVD (3.28%; 95% CI, 1.24 to 5.37), and CP (3.02%; 95% CI, 1.03 to 5.04) causes. The weakest effects occurred at normal temperature days, with the effects on days with low temperatures in the middle. To assess the uncertainty of the effect estimates caused by the change from ICD-9-coded mortality data to ICD-10-coded mortality data, we compared the two sets of data and found high concordance rates (99.3%) and kappa statistics close to 1.0 (0.98). All effect estimates showed very little change. All statistically significant levels of the estimated effects remained unchanged. In conclusion, the findings for the aims from the current study are consistent with those in most previous studies of air pollution and mortality. The small differences between mortality effects for deaths coded using ICD-9 and ICD-10 show that the change in coding had a minimal impact on our study. Few published papers have reported synergistic effects of extremely high temperatures and air pollution on mortality, and further studies are needed. Establishing causal links between heat, PM10, and mortality will require further toxicologic and cohort studies.

On the basis of comparison of BPR, TQM and ERP, discussing the internal failure reason of BPR. This paper found that BPR should be treated as one component of the business improvement, and integrated with other management measurement.

In Asia, limited studies have been published on the association between daily mortality and gaseous pollutants of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), and sulfur dioxide (SO2). Our previous studies in Wuhan, China, demonstrated long-term air pollution effects. However, no study has been conducted to determine mortality effects of air pollution in this region. This study was to determine the acute mortality effects of the gaseous pollutants in Wuhan, a city with 7.5 million permanent residents during the period from 2000 to 2004. There are approximately 4.5 million residents in Wuhan who live in the city's core area of 201 km2, where air pollution levels are highest, and pollution ranges are wider than the majority of the cities in the published literature. We used the generalized additive model to analyze pollution, mortality, and covariate data. We found consistent NO2 effects on mortality with the strongest effects on the same day. Every 10-microg/m3 increase in NO2 daily concentration on the same day was associated with an increase in nonaccidental (1.43%; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.87-1.99%), cardiovascular (1.65%; 95% CI: 0.87-2.45%), stroke (1.49%; 95% CI: 0.56-2.43%), cardiac (1.77%; 95% CI: 0.44-3.12%), respiratory (2.23%; 95% CI: 0.52-3.96%), and cardiopulmonary mortality (1.60%; 95% CI: 0.85-2.35%). These effects were stronger among the elderly than among the young. Formal examination of exposure-response curves suggests no-threshold linear relationships between daily mortality and NO2, where the NO2 concentrations ranged from 19.2 to 127.4 microg/m3. SO2 and O3 were not associated with daily mortality. The exposure-response relationships demonstrated heterogeneity, with some curves showing nonlinear relationships for SO2 and O3. We conclude that there is consistent evidence of acute effects of NO2 on mortality and suggest that a no-threshold linear relationship exists between NO2 and mortality.

Two main commercial in-line high shear mixer (HSM) configurations, including the dual rows ultrafine teethed and the single-row blade-screen in-line units, were investigated under the pump-fed mode...