Selective Solid Phase Extraction for Separation and Preconcentration of Palladium from Gold Ore and Anode Slime after Complexation with a N4O2 Mixed Donor Ligand Derivative

A selective and sensitive method for the preconcentration, separation, and determination of palladium with flame atomic absorption spectrometry using 4,15‐bis[(4‐methylphenyl)sulfonyl]‐20,21‐dinitro‐2,3,4,5,6,7,9,10,12,13,14,15,16,17‐tetradecahydro‐8,11‐ethano‐1,18,4,8,11,15‐benzodioxa tetraaza cycloicosine (TNACIN) on XAD‐2010 was developed. TNACIN–Pd(II) complex formed acidic aqueous solution (0.075–0.100 M HNO₃) was accumulated on XAD‐2010 and then eluted with 1 M HCl in acetone. The effects of some analytical parameters including pH, TNACIN amount, sample volume, eluent type, and concentration, sample flow rate and matrix ions were studied for optimization of the method. Detection limit and precision were calculated for Pd(II). This method was also verified with CRM and internal standard, and satisfactory results were obtained.     

Determination of Cyanuric Acid in Swimming Pool Water and Milk by Differential Pulse Polarography

Cyanuric acid is a suspected gastrointestinal or liver toxicant in humans. Therefore, determination of trace cyanuric acid is very important, in this work a novel, sensitive, and reliable method was developed using differential pulse polarography. Optimum conditions for analytical determination were found to be at a pH of 9.5, Britton–Robinson at a reduction potential of ?105 mV. Experimental results indicate an excellent linear correlation between the peak current and the concentration in the range of cyanuric acid from 0.5 to 27.0 µM (0.06–3.5 µg mL^?1) with a correlation coefficient of 0.997. The limit of detection and limit of quantification were obtained as 0.15 and 0.5 µM (0.02–0.06 µg mL^?1), respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of cyanuric acid in pool water and in spiked milk. Cyanuric acid level in swimming pool water was found as 2.54 ± 0.47 µg mL^?1 (19.7 ± 2.29 µM) in swimming pool water for N = 4 and 95% confidence interval. The recoveries were found to be sufficient. Also, the standard deviation of the data was low which shows high accuracy and precision of proposed differential pulse polarographic method. The influences of some other commonly found inorganic salts on the determination of cyanuric acid were also examined. Some interfering species were eliminated using complexing agents, e.g., EDTA.     

Phytoplankton as an Indicator of Improving Water Quality in the Golden Horn Estuary

The variation in phytoplankton community as a response to improving water quality has been studied in the severely polluted Golden Horn Estuary (GHE). Phytoplankton data collected monthly for 4 years and a detailed set of environmental parameters clearly showed the remarkable change in the GHE. The GHE ecosystem did not respond to numerous rehabilitation efforts to improve water quality, unless strict measures were taken to enhance water circulation. The opening of a bridge operating on large buoys and release of high amounts of fresh water from a dam acted as the turning point for the whole system. The weakening of light limitation and anoxia at upper regions is followed by consecutive blooms of different species/groups and resulted in super-saturated dissolved oxygen concentrations and a significant decrease in nutrient concentrations. When compared to the pre-remediation period, average total eukaryotic phytoplankton abundance increased 11-fold in the lower estuary, while the increase in the upper estuary was over 3 × 10⁴ in the post-remediation period. In addition, species richness continuously increased through the study period and community structure showed very strong variability. Since the estuarine ecosystem is controlled by precipitation in the last decade, the increase in anthropogenic/terrestrial inputs following heavy rainfall had adversely affected water quality and phytoplankton.     

Energy approach to unsaturated cyclic strength of sand

The mechanical response to cyclic loading of saturated cohesionless soils is usually investigated by means of effective stress method considering pore water pressure changes that lead to reduced strength and stiffness. On the other hand, the behavior of partially saturated sands is different from the behavior of saturated sand deposits. The development of negative pore water pressures in particular makes it difficult to estimate the behavior of partially saturated sands. The response of partially saturated sands, however, can be examined in a physically understandable manner by investigating their energy characteristics independently of pore pressure behavior. To establish a general framework for understanding the behavior of partially saturated sand, a total of 52 resonant column and dynamic torsional shear tests were conducted under undrained conditions. The effects of factors such as the amplitude of shear strain, relative density, saturation ratio and confining pressure on the dynamic characteristics of the sand and on energy dissipation were studied. The use of the energy concept in the evaluation of partially saturated soils is shown to be a promising method for the evaluation of the cyclic behavior of partially saturated sands.     

BIBLIOGRAPHY—BIBLIOGRAPHIE

Abstract

The Coupled Routing and Excess STorage model (CREST, jointly developed by the University of Oklahoma and NASA SERVIR) is a distributed hydrological model developed to simulate the spatial and temporal variation of land surface, and subsurface water fluxes and storages by cell-to-cell simulation. CREST's distinguishing characteristics include: (1) distributed rainfall–runoff generation and cell-to-cell routing; (2) coupled runoff generation and routing via three feedback mechanisms; and (3) representation of sub-grid cell variability of soil moisture storage capacity and sub-grid cell routing (via linear reservoirs). The coupling between the runoff generation and routing mechanisms allows detailed and realistic treatment of hydrological variables such as soil moisture. Furthermore, the representation of soil moisture variability and routing processes at the sub-grid scale enables the CREST model to be readily scalable to multi-scale modelling research. This paper presents the model development and demonstrates its applicability for a case study in the Nzoia basin located in Lake Victoria, Africa.

Citation Wang, J., Yang, H., Li, L., Gourley, J. J., Sadiq, I. K., Yilmaz, K. K., Adler, R. F., Policelli, F. S., Habib, S., Irwn, D., Limaye, A. S., Korme, T. &; Okello, L. (2011) The coupled routing and excess storage (CREST) distributed hydrological model. Hydrol. Sci. J. 56(1), 84–98.     

The effects of climate change on historical and future extreme rainfall in Antalya,Turkey

Abstract

There is increasing concern that flood risk will be exacerbated in Antalya, Turkey as a result of global-warming-induced, more frequent and intensive, heavy rainfalls. In this paper, first, trends in extreme rainfall indices in the Antalya region were analysed using daily rainfall data. All stations in the study area showed statistically significant increasing trends for at least one extreme rainfall index. Extreme rainfall datasets for current (1970–1989) and future periods (2080–2099) were then constructed for frequency analysis using the peaks-over-threshold method. Frequency analysis of extreme rainfall data was performed using generalized Pareto distribution for current and future periods in order to estimate rainfall intensities for various return periods. Rainfall intensities for the future period were found to increase by up to 23% more than the current period. This study contributed to better understanding of climate change effects on extreme rainfalls in Antalya, Turkey.     

GIS-based landslide susceptibility mapping using bivariate statistical analysis in Devrek (Zonguldak-Turkey)

Devrek town with increasing population is located in a hillslope area where some landslides exist. Therefore, landslide susceptibility map of the area is required. The purpose of this study was to generate a landslide susceptibility map using a bivariate statistical index and evaluate and compare the results of the statistical analysis conducted with three different approaches in seed cell concept resulting in different data sets in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) based landslide susceptibility mapping applied to the Devrek region. The data sets are created from the seed cells of (a) crowns and flanks, (b) only crowns, and (c) only flanks of the landslides by using ten different causative parameters of the study area. To increase the data dependency of the analysis, all parameter maps are classified into equal frequency classes based directly on the percentile divisions of each corresponding seed cell data set. The resultant maps of the landslide susceptibility analysis indicate that all data sets produce fairly acceptable results. In each data set analysis, elevation, lithology, slope, aspect, and drainage density parameters are found to be the most contributing factors in landslide occurrences. The results of the three data sets are compared using Seed Cell Area Indexes (SCAI). This comparison shows that the crown data set produces the most accurate and successful landslide susceptibility map of the study area.     

Geometry Relations with Bed Load Formulae for Alluvial Boundaries

Employing bed load formulae hydraulic geometry relations were derived for stream width, sediment transport velocity, and bed slope. The relations were examined in terms of friction factor, bed load discharge, bed load diameter, and water discharge. Two fundamental approaches to the prediction of hydraulic geometry have been developed. The first and most widely adopted approach is based on empirical equations whereas the second is based on solution of the governing equations of flow. The applied bed load formulae belong to different authors. Here, the comparison with the other derived relations is presented.     

Assessment of Metal Pollution in Water and Surface Sediments of the Seyhan River,Turkey, Using Different Indexes

The aim of this study was to assess the level of heavy metals (Al, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn) contamination and enrichment in the surface sediments of the Seyhan River, which is the receiving water body of both treated and untreated municipal and industrial effluents as well as agricultural drainage waters generated within Adana, Turkey. Sediment and water samples were taken from six previously determined stations covering the downstream of the Seyhan dam during both wet and dry seasons and the samples were then analyzed for the heavy metals of concern. When both dry and wet seasons were considered, metal concentrations varied significantly within a broad range with Al, 7210–33 967 mg kg^?1 dw; Cr, 46–122 mg kg^?1 dw; Cu, 6–57 mg kg^?1 dw; Fe, 10 294–26 556 mg kg^?1 dw; Mn, 144–638 mg kg^?1 dw; Ni, 82–215 mg kg^?1 dw; Pb, 11–75 mg kg^?1 dw; Zn, 34–146 mg kg^?1 dw in the sediments while Cd was at non‐detectable levels for all stations. For both seasons combined, the enrichment factor (EF) and the geo‐accumulation index (I_geo) for the sediments in terms of the specified metals ranged from 0.56 to 10.36 and ?2.92 to 1.56, respectively, throughout the lower Seyhan River. The sediment quality guidelines (SQG) of US‐EPA suggested the sediments of the Seyhan River demonstrated “unpolluted to moderate pollution” of Cu, Pb, and Zn, “moderate to very strong pollution” of Cr and Ni. The water quality data, on the other hand, indicated very low levels of these metals suggesting that the metal content in the surface sediments were most probably originating from fine sediments transported along the river route instead of water/wastewater discharges with high metal content.     

Spatial sensitivity of seismic hazard results to different background seismic activity and temporal earthquake occurrence models

Spatial sensitivity of seismic hazard results to different models with respect to background seismic activity and earthquake occurrence in time is investigated. For the contribution of background seismic activity to seismic hazard, background area source with uniform seismicity and spatially smoothed seismicity models are taken into consideration. For the contribution of faults, through characteristic earthquakes, both the memoryless Poisson and the time dependent renewal models are utilized. A case study, involving the assessment of seismic hazard for the Bursa province in Turkey, is conducted in order to examine quantitatively the influence of these models on seismic hazard results. The spatial variation of the difference in Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) values obtained from these different models is presented in the form of difference maps for return periods of 475 and 2475 years. Best estimate seismic hazard maps for PGA and Spectral Accelerations (SA) at 0.2 and 1.0 s are obtained by using the logic tree method.