Inhibition of estuarine bacteria by metal refinery effluent

Water samples from the Humber Estuary adjacent to a discharge of metal refinery effluent were found to have high dissolved metal concentrations and low pH. Bacterial activities and concentrations of viable bacteria were low, indicating inhibition of bacteria and reduction in self-purification. Toxicity tests demonstrated that acid conditions and copper and arsenic amongst metals probably contributed to bacterial inhibition.     

Heavy metals in animals from the north east coast

Analyses of cadmium, zinc, copper and nickel in the tissues of fish and crustaceans from inshore waters off the Northumberland coast reveal some surprisingly high values.     

Late Quaternary vegetational changes on the east side of Yellowstone park,Wyoming

A bog pond 4 km east of Yellowstone Lake has a pollen record starting with an Artemisia spruce assemblage, implying alpine vegetation. A layer of volcanic ash, dated as 14,360 ± 400 BP (probably Glacier Peak or Mt. St. Helens J), occurs within the zone, which terminates at 11,630 ± 180 BP. The rest of the pollen sequence is dominated by lodgepole pine, with reappearance of spruce pollen in modest quantities about 4500 BP, according to dating provided by a layer of Mt. Mazama ash (6600 BP). The present vegetation of the area is marked by forests of lodgepole pine with some stands of spruce and fir. The pollen sequence suggests that the upper treeline before 11,600 y. a. was perhaps 500 m lower than today. The climate then became warmer and/or drier than today (Altithermal interval). About 4500 y. a., a slight climatic reversal took place, roughly contemporaneous with the regrowth of glaciers in the western mountains (neoglaciation).     

Fluoride in marine animals

Fluoride in a greatly diluted form is part of the effluent from an aluminium smelter on the Northumberland coast in north-east England. Fluoride is concentrated in the skelton of birds, fish and invertebrates and to a smaller extent in the skin of fish. All concentrations found both in the seawater and in local animals are within the normal range and it is unlikely that the additions from the smelter materially affect the situation. Since fluoride concentrates in inedible tissues there appears to be little health risk from this source in seafood.     

Airflow pattern and droplet trajectories about an electrostatic cloud droplet probe

Summary This study considers the numerical results for the airflow pattern to obtain droplet trajectories around and into a leading edge hole of a cloud droplet sampling probe. The probe was initially conceived at MIT and developed into a practical airborne system in the Cloud Physics Program at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. The probe is designed to be an ellipsoid of revolution with a circular sampling hole at the forward stagnation point. The external flow field is assumed to be steady, axisymmetric, irrotational and incompressible and depends on four parameters: the hole radius, axial speed in the hole, free stream velocity and the fineness ratio of the ellipsoid. The trajectory calculations are based on a three-dimensional gravity field with a fluid resistance computed from experimental drag coefficients on spheres. Both numerical and theoretical solutions for the flow field have been obtained for various combinations of the above parameters. For these flow fields, trajectories for droplets have been obtained. From the trajectory calculations we have obtained collection efficiencies for the probe and have compared these trajectories with experimental trajectories obtained at NCAR.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.     

Measurement of 3-D hydraulic conductivity in aquifer cores at in situ effective stresses

An innovative and nondestructive method to measure the hydraulic conductivity of drill core samples in horizontal and vertical directions within a triaxial cell has been developed. This has been applied to characterizing anisotropy and heterogeneity of a confined consolidated limestone aquifer. Most of the cores tested were isotropic, but hydraulic conductivity varied considerably and the core samples with lowest values were also the most anisotropic. Hydraulic conductivity decreased with increasing effective stress due to closure of microfractures caused by sampling for all core samples. This demonstrates the importance of replicating in situ effective stresses when measuring hydraulic conductivity of cores of deep aquifers in the laboratory.     

Factory daughters and Chinese modernity: a case from Dongguan

This article investigates how a group of Hong-Kong Chinese managers of the offshore facilities of a US-based corporation extend their firm’s base in southern China while simultaneously establishing themselves as a new kind of “Chinese” manager. These new managers set out to accomplish what their colleagues in other corporate sites have not been able to do: control the turnover rate of a female labor force, described as sexually tumultuous and hormonally problematic. To control the labor turnover rate, these managers create a strategy for keeping workers “just long enough” before they lose their dexterity and attentiveness as a result of repetitive work. Their strategy relies on a discourse of in loco parentis to justify invasive policies for monitoring workers’ bodily functions and basic mobility inside and outside of the factory. To make this argument, the article combines a Marxian critique of value with post-structuralist theories of discursive subjectivity. The objective is to demonstrate how the negotiation of social identity within the capitalist firm proceeds through the representation of binary cultural and sex differences that reinforce the dichotomies of laborer and manager. However, these binaries unfold in unpredictable and uneven ways that can prove problematic for the capitalist endeavor. The material for this article comes from an ethnographic study of this company’s operations in southern China and in northern Mexico.