Desorption of tetracycline from montmorillonite by aluminum,calcium, and sodium: an indication of intercalation stability

As the uptake of cationic drugs, such as tetracycline (TC), was attributed to cation exchange, the stability of adsorbed TC on a Ca-montmorillonite SAz-2 was studied using cationic solutions of different valence charges under different pH conditions. At the initial loading of 356 mg g^?1, the amounts of TC desorbed by 0.05 M AlCl₃, CaCl₂, and NaCl were 133 ± 4, 83 ± 6, and 50 ± 4 mg g^?1, respectively, or 37, 23, and 14 %. However, when the amount or percentage of TC desorbed was normalized to the equivalence of each cation, the values were in the range of 44–50 mg g^?1 or 11–14 % per 10 mmol of charge. The kinetics of TC desorption were moderately fast and almost reached equilibrium in 6 h. The results followed the pseudo-second-order kinetic model with reaction rate in the order of AlCl₃ > CaCl₂ > NaCl at a higher initial TC loading level. The total amount of TC desorbed after five desorption cycles followed the order of AlCl₃ > CaCl₂ > NaCl, too, suggesting that cations with higher positive charges, thus, less hydrated, are preferred to remove adsorbed cationic drugs. The FTIR analyses showed larger band shift when Al³⁺ was used as the desorbing reagent. The XRD patterns before and after TC desorption revealed no changes in basal spacing, even after five desorption cycles, suggesting that the removal of TC from SAz-2 was largely from the external surfaces.     

Caspian Sea level prediction using satellite altimetry by artificial neural networks

The demand for accurate predictions of sea level fluctuations in coastal management and ship navigation activities is increasing. To meet such demand, accessible high-quality data and proper modeling process are critically required. This study focuses on developing and validating a neural methodology applicable to the short-term forecast of the Caspian Sea level. The input and output data sets used contain two time series obtained from Topex/Poseidon and Jason-1 satellite altimetry missions from 1993 to 2008. The forecast is performed by multilayer perceptron network, radial basis function, and generalized regression neural networks. Several tests of different artificial neural network (ANN) architectures and learning algorithms are carried out as alternative methods to the conventional models to assess their applicability for estimating Caspian Sea level anomalies. The results derived from the ANN are compared with observed sea level values and with the forecasts calculated by a routine autoregressive moving average (ARMA) model. Different ANNs satisfactorily provide reliable results for the short-term prediction of Caspian Sea level anomalies. The root mean square errors of the differences between observations and predictions from artificial intelligence approaches can be significantly reduced by about 50 % compared with ARMA techniques.     

Dynamics of deformation and water flow in heterogeneous porous media and its impact on soil properties

The interaction of geomechanics and flow within a soil body induces deformation and pore pressure change. Deformation may change hydrogeological and elastic properties, which alters the mechanical behaviour and results in non‐linearity. To investigate this interaction effect in a heterogeneous porous medium, a stochastic poroelastic model is proposed. Monte Carlo simulations are performed to determine the mean and uncertainty of the parameter changes, displacement, and change in pore water pressure. Hydraulic conductivity is treated as the only random variable in the coupled geomechanics‐flow system due to its large variation compared to other mechanical and hydrogeological properties in natural environments. The three considered non‐linear models for the interaction between parameters and deformation are those that consider (1) porosity and hydraulic conductivity; (2) porosity and Young's modulus; and (3) a combined effect that includes porosity, hydraulic conductivity, and Young's modulus. Boundary effects on the coupled system are also explored. The relationships between changes of porosity, hydraulic conductivity, and Young's modulus are analytically shown to be non‐linear. Among the considered parameters, the deformation effect induces the largest reduction in hydraulic conductivity. The deformation‐induced change in hydraulic conductivity shows the most significant effect on the mean and variance of the change in pore water pressure and displacement, while changes in Young's modulus have the least effect. When the deformation effect is considered, the superposition relationship does not exist in the mean displacement and mean change in pore water pressure for the three scenarios considered; it exists for the case without deformation effects. Deformation also causes a reduction in the effective hydraulic conductivity for the whole domain. The scenario that considers both loading and discharge boundaries has larger changes in hydrogeological and geo‐mechanical parameters than those in scenarios that consider loading and discharge boundaries separately. The results indicate that the interaction between deformation and changes in parameters has a profound effect on the poroelastic system. The effect of deformation should thus be considered in modelling and practice. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

我国四种典型土类有机碳剖面分布特征

以中国黑土、褐土、水稻土和砖红壤4种典型农田土类为研究对象,分析了不同土类有机碳、碳氮比和有机碳密度的剖面分布特征。结果表明：土壤有机碳含量随土层加深而呈现递减趋势;褐土有机碳含量最低,固碳潜力较大;黑土、砖红壤C／N比值明显高于水稻土和褐土,各类土壤耕地表层土壤C／N比值与第二次土壤普查数据相比有明显降低,有可能会影...     

Eco-environmental impact assessment of pre-leisure beach nourishment on the benthic invertebrate community at Anping coast

In recent years,owing to global warming and the rising sea levels,beach nourishment and groin building have been increasingly employed to protect coastal land from shoreline erosion.These actions may degrade beach habitats and reduce biomass and invertebrate density at sites where they were employed.We conducted an eco-environmental evaluation at the Anping artificial beach-nourishment project area.At this site,sand piles within a semi-enclosed spur groin have been enforced by use of eco-engineering concepts since 2003.Four sampling sites were monitored during the study period from July 2002 to September 2008.The environmental impact assessment and biological investigations that we conducted are presented here.The results from this study indicate that both biotic(number of species,number of individual organisms,and Shannon-Wiener diversity) and abiotic parameters(suspended solids,biological oxygen demand,chemical oxygen demand,dissolved inorganic nitrogen,dissolved inorganic phosphorus,total phosphorus,total organic carbon,median diameter,and water content) showed significant differences before and after beach engineering construction.Biological conditions became worse in the beginning stages of the engineering but improved after the restoration work completion.This study reveals that the composition of benthic invertebrates changed over the study period,and two groups of organisms,Bivalvia and Gastropoda,seemed to be particularly suitable to this habitat after the semi-enclosed artificial structures completion.     

Transient analysis for fluid injection into a dome reservoir

A dome-shaped layer can be selected as a storage site for fluid injection. In this study, we develop a mathematical model for simulating transient head distribution in a heterogeneous and anisotropic dome-shaped layer due to a constant-head injection in a fully penetrating well. In the model, a form of step change is adopted to approximate the upper and lower boundaries of the dome and then the layer is split into two regions. The Laplace-domain solution of the model is developed using the Laplace transform and method of separation of variables. The transient injection rate at wellbore can then be obtained based on Darcy’s law and Bromwich integral method. The predicted head contours from the head solution show significant vertical flow components near the location of step change in the dome reservoir. The results of sensitivity analysis indicate that the hydraulic conductivity is the most sensitive parameter and the specific storage is the least sensitive one to the injection rate after a short period of injection time. In addition, the injection rate for a dome reservoir is also very sensitive to the change of the height for the reservoir near the injection well (first region) at a very early injection time. In contrast, the injection rate is more sensitive to the change of the height of the second region than that of the first region at late time. This analytical solution may be used as a primary tool to assess the capacity of fluid injection to various dome reservoirs.