Contamination,bioaccessibility and human health risk of heavy metals in exposed-lawn soils from 28 urban parks in southern China's largest city,Guangzhou

The total concentrations and oral bioaccessibility of heavy metals in surface-exposed lawn soils from 28 urban parks in Guangzhou were investigated, and the health risks posed to humans were evaluated. The descending order of total heavy metal concentrations was Fe > Mn > Pb > Zn > Cu > Cr > Ni > Cd, but Cd showed the highest percentage bioaccessibility (75.96%). Principal component analysis showed that Grouped Cd, Pb, Cr, Ni, Cu and Zn, and grouped Cr and Mn could be controlled two different types of human sources. Whereas, Ni and Fe were controlled by both anthropogenic and natural sources. The carcinogenic risk probabilities for Pb and Cr to children and adults were under the acceptable level (<1 × 10⁻⁴). Hazard Quotient value for each metal and Hazard Index values for all metals studied indicated no significant risk of non-carcinogenic effects to children and adults in Guangzhou urban park soils.     

Helical probe tests in residual soils of the Appalachian Piedmont

Helical probe tests (HPT) are a quick and economical means for manual field testing of soils to depths of 1.5 m with readings taken at 0.15-m intervals in only 10 min. The equipment is lightweight (only 2 kg) and thus amenable to deploy on initial site reconnaissance explorations, shallow pavement projects, earth retention walls, and/or compaction of fills. Although suitable for use in a variety of geomaterials: sands, silts, clays, and mixed soils, the specific application to residual fine sandy silts and silty fine sands of the Appalachian Piedmont and Blue Ridge geologic provinces is shown here. Existing relationships for converting the measured HPT torque reading to equivalent cone penetration testing (CPT) tip resistances are reviewed, as well as other trends.     

Calibration of cyclic constitutive models by oscillating functions

Most structures are subjected to more cyclic loads during their life time than static loads. These cyclic action could be a result of either natural or man-made activities and may lead to soil failure. In order to understand the response of the foundation and its interaction with these complex cyclic loadings, various researchers have over the years developed different constitutive models. Although a lot of research is being carried out on these relatively new models, little or no details exist in literature about the model-based identification of the cyclic constitutive parameters which to a large extent govern the quality of the model output. This could be attributed to the difficulties and complexities of the inverse modeling of such complex phenomena. A variety of optimisation strategies are available for the solution of the sum of least-squares problems as usually done in the field of model calibration. However, for the back analysis (calibration) of the soil response to oscillatory load functions, this article gives insight into the model calibration challenges and also puts forward a method for the inverse modeling of cyclic loaded foundation response such that high-quality solutions are obtained with minimum computational effort.     

Factors influencing undrained strength of fine-grained soils at high water contents

Understanding the undrained strength of fine-grained soils has been of interest to geotechnical researchers from many practical considerations. In several civil engineering applications, water content of soil is quite high being near or above the liquid limit of soils, and understanding the factors responsible for imparting the strength of soil at high water contents is of great significance. Recently, it has been reported in the literature that the shear strength of soils at these limiting water contents has significant variation. However, the reasons and the factors that probably influence for this variation have not been reported in the literature. This experimental investigation is an attempt in the direction of understanding the reasons for the variation in the undrained strength at higher limiting water content, namely liquid limit considering the various influencing factors like clay mineralogy and fine-sand content present in soil used for determining liquid limit. The results from this study are quite revealing and have been explained based on the mechanisms controlling the undrained strength at liquid limit.     

Mapping fractional landscape soils and vegetation components from Hyperion satellite imagery using an unsupervised machine-learning workflow

An unsupervised machine-learning workflow is proposed for estimating fractional landscape soils and vegetation components from remotely sensed hyperspectral imagery. The workflow is applied to EO-1 Hyperion satellite imagery collected near Ibirací, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The proposed workflow includes subset feature selection, learning, and estimation algorithms. Network training with landscape feature class realizations provide a hypersurface from which to estimate mixtures of soil (e.g. 0.5 exceedance for pixels: 75% clay-rich Nitisols, 15% iron-rich Latosols, and 1% quartz-rich Arenosols) and vegetation (e.g. 0.5 exceedance for pixels: 4% Aspen-like trees, 7% Blackberry-like trees, 0% live grass, and 2% dead grass). The process correctly maps forests and iron-rich Latosols as being coincident with existing drainages, and correctly classifies the clay-rich Nitisols and grasses on the intervening hills. These classifications are independently corroborated visually (Google Earth) and quantitatively (random soil samples and crossplots of field spectra). Some mapping challenges are the underestimation of forest fractions and overestimation of soil fractions where steep valley shadows exist, and the under representation of classified grass in some dry areas of the Hyperion image. These preliminary results provide impetus for future hyperspectral studies involving airborne and satellite sensors with higher signal-to-noise and smaller footprints.     

冻融循环下初始含水率对非饱和膨胀土剪切特性试验

为探究冻融循环条件下初始含水率对膨胀土偏应力-应变关系和剪切特性的影响,本文对不同初始含水率的非饱和膨胀土进行了不固结不排水三轴剪切试验。结果表明：1）非饱和膨胀土的偏应力-应变曲线的形式随含水率增大由应变软化逐渐转变为应变硬化,偏应力峰值随含水率增大而降低;2）非饱和膨胀土的抗剪强度随初始含水率的增加呈线性下降趋势;3）非饱和膨胀土在第1次冻融循环后偏应力及抗剪强度大幅度下降,在3~7次冻融循环后达到稳定。初始含水率是影响非饱和膨胀土力学性质的主要原因。     

寒区渠基黏土热参数最优概率分布

为分析寒区渠基黏土热参数的随机分布特征及概率分布模型,以寒区渠基黏土的导热系数为样本,结合经典分布拟合法、多项式逼近法、最大熵法和正态信息扩散法,分别对寒区渠基黏土热参数的概率分布规律进行了研究。首先通过分析热参数的离散性,并比较概率分布曲线、拟合检验值和累计概率分布值,对不同方法描述热参数随机性的优劣进行了评价;然后,基于寒区渠基黏土热学参数对温度的敏感性,提出了一个可以达到理想拟合精度的寒区渠基黏土热参数概率推断的区间取值标准。研究结果表明：寒区渠基黏土的热参数具有随机变量的特征;正态信息扩散法可以描述热参数样本的随机波动性;在4种方法中,正态信息扩散法的拟合精度最高。使用3.5σ法,将[μ-3.5σ,μ+3.5σ]（μ为随机变量的均值,σ为标准差）作为概率函数推断时的取值区间,同时考虑偏度的影响,可使得累计概率值达到1.000 0的精度,能够较准确地推断热参数的概率分布函数。     

关键元素与生命健康:中国耕地缺硒吗?

地球上的生命和非生命都是由自然界已发现的92种化学元素组成的,通过全国土壤地球化学基准值与人体血液元素含量对比研究,发现血液中40~50种化学元素平均值与土壤地球化学基准值的分布高度一致,表明这些关键元素与生命息息相关。近年大家持续关注的硒(Se)元素是人体必需的微量元素,缺乏会产生健康风险,但摄入过量也会导致中毒,因此被称为健康窗口元素。过去研究认为,中国耕地缺硒是造成健康危害的原因之一。本文通过对全国3 382个网格化点位土壤采样,获得Se的地球化学基准值和空间分布数据,发现中国贫硒国土面积,按照世界卫生组织推荐值(0.1 mg/kg)和中国规范(0.125 mg/kg)计算,分别占21.1%和31.6%;适宜区(0.125~0.40 mg/kg)面积大约555万km²,占国土面积约57.1%;富硒区(>0.40 mg/kg)面积达110万km²,占国土面积约11.2%。贫硒国土主要分布在青藏高原和内蒙古局部地区,而中国9大平原的粮食主产区耕地总体上不缺硒,其中珠江三角洲平原、广西平原、成都平原、长江中下游平原是富硒区(>0.40 mg/kg),华北平原、东北平原、三江平原、关中平原是硒边缘区-适量区(0.125~0.40 mg/kg),只有河套平原是缺硒区(<0.125 mg/kg)。根据覆盖全国的网格化土壤采样分析结果,发现低硒带呈不连续的片状分布于内蒙古东部至青藏高原一带,与传统认为“低硒带分布于东北三省至西南云贵高原”不完全一致。硒的空间分布模式主要受地质背景、岩石类型、土壤类型和自然地理景观控制。     

Explicit integration of a porosity‐dependent hydro‐mechanical model for unsaturated soils

An adaptive substepping explicit integration scheme is developed for a porosity‐dependent hydro‐mechanical model for unsaturated soils. The model is referred to as the modified σ –Θ model in this paper, which features the employment of the subloading surface plasticity and the stress–saturation approach. On numerical aspects, convex/nonconvex subloading surfaces in the σ –Θ space may result in incorrect loading–unloading decisions during the integration. A new loading–unloading decision method is developed here to solve the problem and then embedded into the explicit integration scheme for the modified σ –Θ model. In addition, to enhance the accuracy of the explicit integration, local errors from both hydraulic and mechanical components are included in the error control for each substep. A drift correction method is also developed to ensure the state point lies on the subloading surface in the σ –Θ space within a set error level. The performance of the loading–unloading decision method for the modified σ –Θ model is discussed through comparing it with the conventional loading–unloading decision method. The importance of involving the hydraulic component in the error control is also demonstrated. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed adaptive substepping explicit integration scheme for the modified p–Θ model are also studied via several numerical examples. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.