A BS T RA C T:The objectives of this study are to investigate the levels of noise pollution in some hospitals in Taiwan and to study the effects of noise pollution on the physiological and psychological reactions and annoyance response of medical care staff, patients and visitors in these hospitals. An instrument for the measurement of sound level was used and a self-answered survey questionnaire on noise pollution was administered. Results showed that the daily average sound levels measured inside these hospitals during daytime were between 52.6 and 64.6 decibels. These are higher than the current daytime environmental noise limit of 50 decibels in Taiwan. Most nursing staff members expressed that "talking of visitors or patient's family members" is the major source of noise inside the wards, whereas "talking of visitors or patient's family members" and "children playing" are the two major noise sources outside the wards. However, most patients or visitors claimed that "doors opening or closing" and "patients moaning or crying" are the two major sources of noise inside the wards. "Footsteps," "renovation of hospitals," "talking of visitors or patient's family members," "shouting of nursing staff" and "doors opening or closing" are the five major noise sources outside the wards. To conclude, noise pollution inside and outside the wards either directly or indirectly affects, in a simultaneous manner, the subjective perception of noise, emotions, physiology and experience of noise inside and outside the wards of both the medical care staff and the patients and visitors.

Four microbial fuel cells (MFCs) inoculated with different bacterial species were constructed. The species were Pseudomonas putida, Comamonas testosteroni, Corynebacterium gultamicum, and Arthrobacter polychromogenes. The MFCs were operated under identical continuous flow conditions. The factors affecting the capabilities of the MFCs for treating organic matter and generating power were evaluated and compared. The factors include microbial species type, organic loading, and substrate degradation rate. For all four MFCs, power output increased with the organic loading rate. Power density also increased with the substrate degradation rate. These findings implied that more organic matter was utilized for power generation at higher organic loading and substrate degradation rates. However, coulombic efficiency increased with decreased organic loading and substrate degradation rates. Apparently, all four MFCs had low efficiencies in generating power from organic matter. These low efficiencies are attributed to the long distance between the anode and the cathode, as well as to the small ratio of the proton exchange membrane surface area to the anode chamber surface area. These features may have caused most of the protons produced in the anode chamber to leave the chamber with the effluent, which led to the low power generation performance of the MFCs.

ABSTRACT:The objectives of this study were to identify the chlorinated volatile organic compounds near the water surface of two heavily polluted rivers in the south of Taiwan and compare their concentration distributions. Air samples were collected seasonally at the upstream, midstream and downstream water surfaces of each river and the chlorinated volatile organic compounds were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively by gas chromatography and electron capture detector. Totally, twelve kinds of chlorinated volatile organic compounds were found at the water surfaces of both rivers and many of them were reported to be carcinogenic or probably carcinogenic to human. The results showed that each chlorinated volatile organic compound had its own distribution pattern and no good correlation of chlorinated volatile organic compounds between both rivers was obtained. The chlorinated volatile organic compounds identified at the river water surface of Fong Shan Stream showed much higher concentration than those of Chuen-Tsen River. Several chlorinated volatile organic compounds, including chlorodibromomethane, hexachlorobutadiene, 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethene and 1,2-dibromo-3-chloropropane were found with much higher concentration (mean concentrations of 124.5 µg/m 3 , 334.5 µg/ m 3 , 92.2 µg/m 3 , 268.4 µg/m 3 , respectively) at the water surface of Fong Shan Stream in some seasons (especially spring and summer, summer and winter, spring and winter, spring and summer, respectively) and they were reported to be possibly carcinogenic to human. Therefore, it may be concluded that the people living close to Fong Shan Stream possibly had higher health risks due to the release of volatile organic compounds from the heavily polluted river.