Topography and landslides in weathered granitic rock areas—Hai Van landslide in central Vietnam

Many landslides occur every year during heavy rains at the Hai Van Pass and surrounding area in central Vietnam, where granitic rocks are distributed. As is common in granite areas, these landslides often occur as small-scale flow-type and slump-type landslides. However, several horseshoe-shaped loose slopes of widths and lengths of 500 to 800 m, which incorporate these landslides, are observed on slopes across the area. These topographies resemble those formed by past and present large-scale landslides. The presence of such a topography and the repeated occurrences of landslides within this topography are rare in granite areas, where shallow flow-type landslides are generally frequent. To understand the mechanism causing the landslides in the Hai Van region, and as a support for future risk assessment, the factors and processes leading to the formation of such a topography and their relationship with these landslides must be identified and assessed. This study investigated the history of past landslide movement in the Hai Van Pass and surrounding area through observations of drill cores and outcrops, and analysis of the direction of remanent magnetism in the granitic rocks. Mineral compositions, cracks, degrees of weathering, and topographic shapes of the granitic rocks and their relationship to the landslides occurring today were also investigated. The results of the study reveal no variation in the direction of remanent magnetism in the granitic rocks in the region that would indicate disturbance of the ground due to a past large-scale landslide. No evidence of such an event could also be found both in the drill cores and the rock outcrops. Further, results of the analysis of cracks and weathering pattern confirm that the topography of the region is affected by the weathering of the granitic rocks that progresses in concentric circles of various sizes. Thus, it can be concluded that these topographies were not formed by a singular large-scale landslide of the past, but rather by a composite of relatively shallow landslides occurring on the slope of dome structures unique to granite areas, which are formed by differential weathering and denudation regulated by cracks.     

Role of extracellular polymeric substances in metal ion complexation on Shewanella oneidensis: Batch uptake, thermodynamic modeling, ATR-FTIR, and EXAFS study

The effect of cell wall-associated extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) of the Gram-negative bacterium Shewanella oneidensis strain MR-1 on proton, Zn(II), and Pb(II) adsorption was investigated using a combination of titration/batch uptake studies, surface complexation modeling, attenuated total reflectance - Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, and Zn K-edge extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy. Both unmodified (wild-type (WT) strain) and genetically modified cells with inhibited production of EPS (ΔEPS strain) were used. Three major types of functional groups (carboxyl, phosphoryl, and amide groups) were identified in both strains using ATR-FITR spectroscopy. Potentiometric titration data were fit using a constant capacitance model (FITEQL) that included these three functional groups. The fit results indicate less interaction of Zn(II) and Pb(II) with carboxyl and amide groups and a greater interaction with phosphoryl groups in the ΔEPS strain than in the WT strain. Results from Zn(II) and Pb(II) batch adsorption studies and surface complexation modeling, assuming carboxyl and phosphoryl functional groups, also indicate significantly lower Zn(II) and Pb(II) uptake and binding affinities for the ΔEPS strain. Results from Zn K-edge EXAFS spectroscopy show that Zn(II) bonds to phosphoryl and carboxyl ligands in both strains. Based on batch uptake and modeling results and EXAFS spectral analysis, we conclude that the greater amount of EPS in the WT strain enhances Zn(II) and Pb(II) uptake and hinders diffusion of Zn(II) to the cell walls relative to the ΔEPS strain.     

Simultaneous Organic Matter and Nitrogen Removal from Piggery Slaughterhouse Wastewater Using Bioaugmented Gaslift Membrane Bioreactor

A single bioaugmentation reactor and a side-stream gaslift membrane bioreactor combined with bioaugmentation are conducted to treat real wastewater from a centralized piggery slaughterhouse in Vietnam. The bioaugmented reactor is inoculated with heterotrophic microorganisms (Bacillus sp.) isolated from piggery slaughterhouse wastewater. The results of a single bioaugmentation experiment show high removal efficiency of chemical oxygen demand (COD) (84.8%–97.5%) and total nitrogen (TN) (69.9%–87.2%) at loading rates of 1.28–3.89 and 0.14–0.37 kg m⁻³ d⁻¹, respectively. The combined system demonstrates a significantly higher TN removal efficiency (89.0%–96.1%) (p < 0.001), more stable flux (36.0–38.4 L m⁻² h⁻¹), and transmembrane pressure (0.95–1.05 bar), and better capacity of separation of solid–liquid phases compared to the single bioaugmentation. High COD and TN removal efficiency is possibly due to assimilation and simultaneous nitrification and denitrification processes. The results of this study also indicate the feasibility and propitious efficiency of the bioaugmented gaslift membrane bioreactor for piggery slaughterhouse wastewater treatment.     

地下水中蕴藏的海平面变化信息

文章对第四纪海平面变化,特别是近五万年以来海平面变化提供了一些地下水蕴藏的信息。上海第四纪沉积厚度达３６０ｍ以上,根据取自Ⅲ、Ⅳ、Ⅴ含水层的样品测年,上海及其附近地区主要含水层的地下水形成距今约５万年到１．５万年之间,当时海平面曾发生过一次明显相对缓慢的下降过程,在我国东海达到－１５５ｍ,所以可以推断在上海以东广大海域地区,包括舟山群岛地区海域都有大面积的含水层分布,其水文地质条件和上海地区存在连续关系。     

Dependency of typhoon intensity and genesis locations on El Ni?o phase and SST shift over the western North Pacific

The effects of the El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phase and the shifting of the ENSO sea surface temperature (SST) on the intensity of tropical cyclones (TC) have been extensively investigated in terms of TC genesis locations in the western North Pacific (WNP). To advance the hypothesis for a relation of genesis location–intensity that the TC formation location hints its intensity, two cases have been compared, which include the phase of the decaying El Ni?o turning over to La Ni?a (type I) and the phase that recovers to a neutral condition (type II). In addition, the shift of ENSO SST to the central Pacific warming (CPW) from the East Pacific warming (EPW) has been examined. The genesis potential index (GPI) and the accumulated cyclone energy have been applied to compare the differences between the ENSO phase and the TC formation location. It was apparent that ENSO influences the WNP typhoon formation location depending on the cycle of the ENSO phase. In addition, the typhoon activity was affected by the zonal shift of the El Ni?o SST. The CPW, which has maximum SST over the central Pacific, tends to have a persistently high GPI over the WNP in September–November and June–August, demonstrating that the formation locations of strong TCs significantly shift southeastward compared with the EPW having SST maximum over the eastern Pacific. CPW years revealed a distinguishable relationship between the TC formation location and the TC between the tropical depression (TD) + tropical storm (TS) and the intense typhoon of category 4?+?5.     

Regional eco-efficiency evaluation and spatial pattern analysis of the Yangtze River Economic Zone

The environmental ecology of the Yangtze River Economic Zone(YREZ) faces ecological function decline, deterioration and degradation under intense human activities, long-term development and utilization and its economy has developed rapidly over recent decades. Eco-efficiency is considered as a measure of coordinated development of economy, resources, environment and ecology, and is currently considered a very important issue. In this paper, based on the slack-based measure and data envelope analysis model, we take 129 prefecture-level cities of the YREZ as the study unit and measure the eco-efficiency of the YREZ in 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015, which considers undesired output. The evaluation of the status quo of the regional eco-efficiency development was carried out at provincial, prefectural and city scales. The spatial autocorrelation test model and standard deviation ellipse were used to analyze the spatially distributed characteristics and the evolutionary regularity of eco-efficiency. Our study suggested that the eco-efficiency value varied significantly at different spatiotemporal scales and the overall distribution presented an "N-shaped" pattern, the value is the largest downstream and the smallest upstream. Regional eco-efficiency presented certain volatility in growth and a clear spatial positive agglomeration trend from 2000 to 2015. The spatial distribution of each agglomeration area was also significantly different, forming some high-high agglomeration areas at the center of the shaft with Shanghai and surrounding cities, and some low-low agglomeration areas at the center with middle reaches and upstream cities. The low-high over-aggregation and high-low polarization clusters were fewer. At the same time, with the change of the research period, the degree of positive agglomeration became increasingly pronounced and the eco-efficiency gap of the neighborhoodunit reduced. The regional eco-efficiency value of the YREZ presented a spatial distribution pattern in the northeast-southwest axis and the evolutionary pattern of the regional eco-efficiency similarly showed a northeast-southwest orientation.     

Seasonal prediction and predictability of the Asian winter temperature variability

Efforts have been made to appreciate the extent to which we can predict the dominant modes of December–January–February (DJF) 2 m air temperature (TS) variability over the Asian winter monsoon region with dynamical models and a physically based statistical model. Dynamical prediction was made on the basis of multi-model ensemble (MME) of 13 coupled models with the November 1 initial condition for 21 boreal winters of 1981/1982–2001/2002. Statistical prediction was performed for 21 winters of 1981/1982–2001/2002 in a cross-validated way and for 11 winters of 1999/2000–2009/2010 in an independent verification. The first four observed modes of empirical orthogonal function analysis of DJF TS variability explain 69 % of the total variability and are statistically separated from other higher modes. We identify these as predictable modes, because they have clear physical meaning and the MME reproduces them with acceptable criteria. The MME skill basically originates from the models’ ability to capture the predictable modes. The MME shows better skill for the first mode, represented by a basin-wide warming trend, and for second mode related to the Arctic Oscillation. However, the statistical model better captures the third and fourth modes, which are strongly related to El Niño and Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variability on interannual and interdecadal timescales, respectively. Independent statistical forecasting for the recent 11-year period further reveals that the first and fourth modes are highly predictable. The second and third modes are less predictable due to lower persistence of boundary forcing and reduced potential predictability during the recent years. In particular, the notable decadal change in the monsoon–ENSO relationship makes the statistical forecast difficult.     

长波辐射资料整理与内蒙古地区震例分析

将NASA官方网站下载的OLR原始数据资料,处理为二维空间数据和单点时序数据,通过地震目录核实对比,利用OLR月平均场演变法和月平均场距平法分析1974年以来内蒙古及周边地区发生的337次地震事件（Ms≥5）前,长波辐射的时空变化特征。结果发现：在震前约3—5个月,在许多地震前长波辐射（OLR）出现明显的异常反映,许多点位在震前异常比较明显。     

Assessment of tributyltin contamination in a shipyard area using a mussel transplantation approach

Mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) were transplanted to seven stations around a large shipyard for 126 days to evaluate tributyltin (TBT) contamination. Although the application of TBT-based paints to ships is totally banned in Korea, butyltin compounds were found to accumulate in mussels following transplantation. Concentrations of TBT and total butyltins in transplanted mussels near the shipyard were in the range of 40-350 ng Sn/g and 74-530 ng Sn/g on a dry weight basis, respectively. Obviously, low TBT concentrations (6.0-53 ng Sn/gdw) were determined in mussels at four stations outside the shipyard. A negative gradient of TBT concentrations and TBT portion to total butyltin concentrations were found in both the surface water and transplanted mussels according to distance from the shipyard. In addition, TBT concentrations in surface water and transplanted mussels showed significant correlation (r(2) = 0.71; p < 0.001). These results indicate that the shipyard still releases fresh TBT into surrounding waters even after TBT regulation in Korea, and mussel transplantation is useful in evaluating TBT contamination in shipyard area.