Supportive elements to the decision-making process in the emergency planning of the Angra dos Reis Nuclear Power Complex,Brazil

Accidents in nuclear power plants are problems of great complexity, mainly due to their consequences, such as the population evacuation from the enterprise influence area. The decision-making and emergency plans must be well articulated and require good local geographic space knowledge and the interactions of their environments. This study is a contribution to the emergency plans for the Almirante Álvaro Alberto Nuclear Power Plant, currently the only nuclear complex in Brazil, located in Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro. The study confirmed the region’s main geoenvironmental aspects as winds and rainfall, landslides and population density were evaluated as important elements in the local emergency process. Their integrated analysis supported scenario identification and critical regional points and highlighted population evacuation escape routes. These important results characterized the support to local emergency management actions and guidelines. Furthermore, the geographic information systems was configured as an integrated spatial and temporal analysis platform to associate meteorological, geological/geomorphological and socio-economic data, playing a key role to support the evacuation planning in the event of nuclear power plant accidents.     

Sensitivity of the elastic anisotropy and seismic reflection amplitude of the Eagle Ford Shale to the presence of kerogen

The Eagle Ford Shale of Central and South Texas is currently of great interest for oil and gas exploration and production. Laboratory studies show that the Eagle Ford Shale is anisotropic, with a correlation between anisotropy and total organic carbon. Organic materials are usually more compliant than other minerals present in organic‐rich shales, and their shapes and distribution are usually anisotropic. This makes organic materials an important source of anisotropy in organic‐rich shales. Neglecting shale anisotropy may lead to incorrect estimates of rock and fluid properties derived from inversion of amplitude versus offset seismic data. Organic materials have a significant effect on the PP and PS reflection amplitudes from the Austin Chalk/Upper Eagle Ford interface, the Upper Eagle Ford/Lower Eagle Ford interface, and the Lower Eagle Ford/Buda Limestone interface. The higher kerogen content of the Lower Eagle Ford compared with that of the Upper Eagle Ford leads to a negative PP reflection amplitude that dims with offset, whereas the PS reflection coefficient increases in magnitude with increasing offset. The PP and PS reflection coefficients at the Austin Chalk/Upper Eagle Ford interface, the Upper Eagle Ford/Lower Eagle Ford interface, and the Lower Eagle Ford/Buda Limestone interface all increase in magnitude with increasing volume fraction of kerogen.     

Mass rig system for shaking table tests of slender columns

A new mass rig system is proposed to minimize the deficiencies in current shaking table testing setups. This is accomplished by placing the inertial mass on a convex path designed to impose P‐Delta demands on slender cantilever columns. The design and performance of the mass rig system, and the principles used in deriving the equations of motion and their analytical validation against results obtained from shaking table tests, are presented. Formulation of the governing equations of motion was based on Lagrangian mechanics and solved using an implicit linear acceleration method with an adaptive time step formulation. Friction developed in the sliding system was also incorporated in the equations of motion. Experimental results validated the accuracy in the derivation and solution of the equations of motion. Validated by analytical and experimental results, P‐Delta effects were found to increase the displacement demands on slender columns in the low‐frequency range of acceleration input, while in the high‐frequency range P‐Delta effects led to no increase and in some cases even a reduction in displacement demands. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Organohalogen contaminants and trace metals in North-East Atlantic porbeagle shark (Lamna nasus)

The North-East Atlantic porbeagle (Lamna nasus) population has declined dramatically over the last few decades and is currently classified as ‘Critically Endangered’. As long-lived, apex predators, they may be vulnerable to bioaccumulation of contaminants. In this study organohalogen compounds and trace elements were analysed in 12 specimens caught as incidental bycatch in commercial gillnet fisheries in the Celtic Sea in 2011. Levels of organohalogen contaminants were low or undetectable (summed CB and BDE concentrations 0.04–0.85 mg kg⁻¹ wet weight). A notably high Cd concentration (7.2 mg kg⁻¹ wet weight) was observed in one mature male, whereas the range observed in the other samples was much lower (0.04–0.26 mg kg⁻¹ wet weight). Hg and Pb concentrations were detected only in single animals, at 0.34 and 0.08 mg kg⁻¹ wet weight, respectively. These contaminant levels were low in comparison to other published studies for shark species.     

Stability of equilibrium points in the generalized perturbed restricted three-body problem

This paper studies the existence and stability of equilibrium points under the influence of small perturbations in the Coriolis and the centrifugal forces, together with the non-sphericity of the primaries. The problem is generalized in the sense that the bigger and smaller primaries are respectively triaxial and oblate spheroidal bodies. It is found that the locations of equilibrium points are affected by the non-sphericity of the bodies and the change in the centrifugal force. It is also seen that the triangular points are stable for 0<μ<μ _c and unstable for \(\mu_{c}\le\mu <\frac{1}{2}\), where μ _c is the critical mass parameter depending on the above perturbations, triaxiality and oblateness. It is further observed that collinear points remain unstable.     

Investigating the molecular systematic relationships amongst selected Plesionika (Decapoda: Pandalidae) from the Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea

Despite the high number of species and ecological diversity of pandalid shrimps, there has been no previous attempt to resolve evolutionary relationships of several genera using molecular tools. Although mitochondrial DNA cytochrome oxidase I (COI) is widely used in barcoding studies to delimit species boundaries, additional insights into phylogenetic affinities can be obtained, especially when used in combination with data from additional genes. The knowledge of molecular diversity is essential to understand phylogenetic relationships and will help systematic clarifications. Based on partial fragments of the 16S and COI genes, we have focused specifically on addressing the systematic relationships of the economically and ecologically important shrimp genus Plesionika within a framework of five genera from within the Pandalidae. Our results showed that species within Plesionika are substantially divergent when compared with other genera, exhibiting the highest average nucleotide divergence, with 0.1123 and 0.0846 in COI and 16S genes, respectively. In addition, sequence divergence was found to vary greatly within the genus Plesionika (COI/16S): 0.0247/0.0016 between Plesionika antigai and Plesionika heterocarpus and 0.1616/0.098 between Plesionika heterocarpus and Plesionika edwardsii. We did not find amino acid sequence divergence between P. heterocarpus and P. antigai compared with P. heterocarpus and P. edwardsii (8.10%, K2P distance). Three species of Plesionika (P. antigai, P. heterocarpus and Plesionika scopifera) appear well separated from other Plesionika species in both maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses. The present study confirms the utility of COI over 16S as a genetic marker to resolve relationships between different species of Plesionika from the Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea, in addition to species delimitation. The findings highlight the need to further review paraphyly within Plesionika in an attempt to recognize a concordance in the evolutionary history of Plesionika with major ecological and geological events.     

Irrigation effects in the northern lake states: Wisconsin central sands revisited

Irrigated agriculture has expanded greatly in the water-rich U.S. northern lake states during the past half century. Source water there is usually obtained from glacial aquifers strongly connected to surface waters, so irrigation has a potential to locally decrease base flows in streams and water levels in aquifers, lakes, and wetlands. During the nascent phase of the irrigation expansion, water availability was explored in works of some fame in the Wisconsin central sands by Weeks et al. (1965) on the Little Plover River and Weeks and Stangland (1971) on "headwater area" streams and lakes. Four decades later, and after irrigation has grown to a dominant landscape presence, we revisited irrigation effects on central sands hydrology. Irrigation effects have been substantial, on average decreasing base flows by a third or more in many stream headwaters and diminishing water levels by more than a meter in places. This explains why some surface waters have become flow and stage impaired, sometimes to the point of drying, with attendant losses of aquatic ecosystems. Irrigation exerts its effects by increasing evapotranspiration by an estimated 45 to 142 mm/year compared with pre-irrigated land cover. We conclude that irrigation water availability in the northern lake states and other regions with strong groundwater-surface water connections is tied to concerns for surface water health, requiring a focus on managing the upper few meters of aquifers on which surface waters depend rather than the depletability of an aquifer.     

Magnetic susceptibility and its relationship with paleoenvironments, diagenesis and remagnetization: examples from the Devonian carbonates of Belgium

To better understand the origin of the initial magnetic susceptibility (??_in) signal in carbonate sequences, a rock magnetic investigation that includes analysis of acquisition curves of the isothermal remanent magnetization (IRM) and hysteresis parameters, was undertaken on Devonian carbonates from the Villers and Tailfer sections, Belgium. Both sections are divided into a lower unit, dominated by biostromal and external ramp facies (biostromal unit) and an upper unit, only consisting of lagoonal facies (lagoonal unit). The variations in ??_in signal are mainly driven by magnetite variation, mostly pseudo-single-domain (PSD) magnetite. Clay minerals, pyrite, hematite and obviously calcite and dolomite are also present but their contribution to the ??_in pattern is not significant. There is a correlation between detrital proxies (Zr, Rb, Al₂O₃, TiO₂) and ??_in for the Tailfer biostromal unit and the entire Villers section. The pervasive presence of fine-grained magnetite is interpreted as related to remagnetization. In absence of external fluids, the iron released during the smectite to illite transition remains in situ. In those situations ??_in may reflect an inherited primary synsedimentary signal. In the lagoonal unit of the Tailfer section, remagnetization appears to have obscured the original detrital information prompting the need for an evaluation of the composition of the susceptibility signal for individual case studies.     

Chlorinated Solvent Source‐Zone Remediation via ZVI‐Clay Soil Mixing: 1‐Year Results

ZVI‐Clay is an emerging remediation approach that combines zero‐valent iron (ZVI)‐mediated degradation and in situ stabilization of chlorinated solvents. Through use of in situ soil mixing to deliver reagents, reagent‐contaminant contact issues associated with natural subsurface heterogeneity are overcome. This article describes implementation, treatment performance, and reaction kinetics during the first year after application of the ZVI‐Clay remediation approach at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Primary contaminants included trichloroethylene, 1,1,2,2‐tetrachloroethane, and related natural degradation products. For the field application, 22,900 m³ of soils were treated to an average depth of 7.6 m with 2% ZVI and 3% sodium bentonite (dry weight basis). Performance monitoring included analysis of soil and water samples. After 1 year, total concentrations of chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOCs) in soil samples were decreased by site‐wide average and median values of 97% and >99%, respectively. Total CVOC concentrations in groundwater were reduced by average and median values of 81% and >99%, respectively. In several of the soil and groundwater monitoring locations, reductions in total CVOC concentrations of greater than 99.9% were apparent. Further reduction in concentrations of chlorinated solvents is expected with time. Pre‐ and post‐mixing average hydraulic conductivity values were 1.7 × 10^?5 and 5.2 × 10^?8 m/s, respectively, indicating a reduction of about 2.5 orders of magnitude. By achieving simultaneous contaminant mass depletion and hydraulic conductivity reduction, contaminant flux reductions of several orders of magnitude are predicted.     

Experimental testing, numerical modelling and seismic strengthening of traditional stone masonry: comprehensive study of a real Azorian pier

Stone masonry is one of the oldest building techniques used worldwide and it is known to exhibit poor behaviour under seismic excitations. In this context, this work aims at assessing the in-plane behaviour of an existing double-leaf stone masonry pier by experimental testing. Additionally, a detailed 3D finite element numerical analysis based on micro-modelling of the original pier is presented (fully describing the geometry and division of each individual elements, namely infill, blocks and joints) aiming at simulating the experimental test results. This numerical strategy can be seen as an alternative way of analysing this type of constructions, particularly useful for laboratory studies, and suitable for the calibration of simplified numerical models. As part of a wider research activity, this work is further complemented with the presentation of an effective retrofit/strengthening technique (reinforced connected plaster) to achieve a significant improvement of its in-plane cyclic response which is experimentally verified in the results presented herein.