Distribution and accumulation of organotin species in seawater, sediments and organisms collected from a Taiwan mariculture area

The present study was undertaken to evaluate the distribution and accumulation of tributyltin (TBT) and triphenyltin (TPhT) in seawater, sediments and selected organisms from a cage mariculture area in southern Taiwan, Hsiao Liouchiou Island. Our results show that ΣOTs were found in concentrations as high as 196 ng/L in seawater collected from the sites in Pai-Sa harbor, and up 1040 ng/g dry wt. in sediments dredged from sites within Da-Fu harbor. Also, ΣOTs concentrations of 859 ng/g dry wt. were observed in the liver of cobia (Rachycentron canadum) from mariculture cages. As most published studies have focused on the acute toxicity and bioaccumulation of organotins in mussels, the effects of organotins on cobia and other marine fauna are still poorly understood. This study highlights the significance of ΣBTs accumulation in cobia, as well as in the sediments and seawater surrounding their culture facilities.     

Seismic design and shake table tests of a steel post‐tensioned self‐centering moment frame with a slab accommodating frame expansion

Post‐tensioned (PT) self‐centering moment frames were developed as an alternative to welded moment‐resisting frames (MRFs). Lateral deformation of a PT frame opens gaps between beams and columns. The use of a composite slab in welded MRFs limits the opening of gaps at the beam‐to‐column interfaces but cannot be adopted in PT self‐centering frames. In this study, a sliding slab is used to minimize restraints to the expansion of the PT frame. A composite slab is rigidly connected to the beams in a single bay of the PT frame. A sliding device is installed between the floor beams and the beams in other bays, wherever the slab is allowed to slide. Many shaking table tests were conducted on a reduced‐scale, two‐by‐two bay one‐story specimen, which comprised one PT frame and two gravitational frames (GFs). The PT frame and GFs were self‐centering throughout the tests, responding in phase with only minor differences in peak drifts that were caused by the expansion of the PT frame. When the specimen was excited by the 1999 Chi‐Chi earthquake with a peak ground acceleration of 1.87g, the maximum interstory drift was 7.2% and the maximum lateral force was 270 kN, equal to 2.2 times the yield force of the specimen. Buckling of the beam bottom flange was observed near the column face, and the initial post‐tensioning force in the columns and beams decreased by 50 and 22%, respectively. However, the specimen remained self‐centering and its residual drift was 0.01%. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Geochronological and geochemical constraints on the petrogenesis of high-K granite from the Suffi abad area, Sanandaj-Sirjan Zone, NW Iran

The Sanandaj-Sirjan Zone (SSZ) trends northwestward in western Iran on the Precambrian to Paleozoic basement and exposes abundant I-type granitoids and calc-alkaline volcanic rocks that were most active during the Late Jurassic to Upper Cretaceous. The petrogenesis of the granitoids and associated volcanic rocks has been widely related to Neotethyan subduction beneath the Iranian plate. We report a geochronological and geochemical study of the Suffi abad granite (SLG) body that crops outs southeast of Sanandaj within the SSZ and is mainly composed of K-feldspar + quartz + plagioclase ± hornblende. The SLG, which shows a high-K calc-alkaline affinity, has LA-ICPMS zircon U–Pb ages ranging between 149 ± 2 and 144 ± 3 Ma and initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr of ∼0.7024–0.7069 and ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd of ∼0.5125–0.5127. These value correspond to an ?_Nd (145 Ma) of +1.5 and +4.9, suggesting that the SLG originated from the juvenile crust or depleted mantle with a young T_DM (650–900 Ma) over the subduction zone beneath the SSZ. Zircon saturation temperatures suggest that crystallization of the zircons, or emplacement of the host magmas, occurred at 560–750 °C, consistent with an intergrowth texture of K-feldspar and quartz that implies crystallization around the K-feldspar-quartz eutectic at lower temperatures. Overall, geochemical data suggest that crystallization of the hornblende and plagioclase played a role in magma differentiation. These data allow us to conclude that the high-K SLG did not originate directly from the juvenile mantle source as do most I-type, calc-alkaline granitoids, but more likely was produced from the partial melting of pre-existing I-type granitoids in the upper continental crust under low pressure conditions.     

A study on measurement and analysis of radon-222 (uranium series) emitted to the atmosphere from construction materials (cement block, kaolin brick, and gypsum board) in living environment

The purpose of this study was to measure, compare, and analyze the air concentration of radon that was emitted to the atmosphere from construction materials such as cement brick, tile, red clay tile, and gypsum tile. The study method was to use continuous radon monitoring equipment (RTM 1688-2) to measure concentrations of radon and thoron contained in brick, tile, red clay tile, and gypsum tile. According to the measurement results, the cement brick among the four samples showed the highest measurement value for radon, while the red clay tile showed the highest measurement value for thoron. When the radon emission concentration was estimated based on materials required for construction per unit area (3.3 m²) in an actual construction, the cement brick had the highest measurement values for radon and thoron. This study confirmed the degree of radon emission from construction materials. The purpose of this study was also to suggest a method to examine the effects of radon and reduce the dose of personal radiation exposure. It is believed that the government should be active in publicizing and managing use of construction materials that have lower levels of radon emission.     

Comparison of model noise in AGCM independent ensemble runs and continuous simulation

Atmospheric General Circulation models (AGCMs) forced by prescribed sea surface temperature (SST) climatological seasonal cycle simulate interannual variabilities that have cyclic characteristics. Such cyclic characteristics generate relationships between one year and the next in the model output. We document these relationships by computing lag-1-year autocorrelation in hundreds of years of CAM3 and ECHAM5 simulations. The autocorrelation is found to be generally less than 0.2, but contain robust structures. In case of zonal averaged zonal wind and air temperature the winter hemisphere is characterized by negative autocorrelation and the summer hemisphere characterized by positive autocorrelation. The presence of autocorrelation means that an average over a 10～25 year AGCM simulation in an effort to reduce the influence of interannual variability on externally-driven climate change might not be very effective. In view of this, we investigate if ensemble runs instead of a continuous simulation is more effective in reducing such influences. The reduction gain by using N 1-year long ensemble runs over N years of continuous run is generally less than 30% and mainly limited to the areas where the autocorrelation is positive. We thus conclude that each year in a continuous simulation can generally be treated as largely independent of the next year in an AGCM run with fixed SST forcing.     

Adaptive generalized multiscale approximation of a mixed finite element method with velocity elimination

Computational Geosciences - In this paper, we propose offline and online adaptive enrichment algorithms for the generalized multiscale approximation of a mixed finite element method with velocity...     

Seismic rehabilitation performance of steel side plate moment connections

Moment connections in an existing steel building located in Kaohsiung, Taiwan were rehabilitated to satisfy seismic requirements based on the 2005 AISC seismic provisions. Construction of the building was ceased in 1996 due to financial difficulties and was recommenced in 2007 with enhanced connection performance. Steel moment connections in the existing building were constructed by groove welding the beam flanges and bolting the beam web to the column. Four moment connections, two from the existing steel building, were cyclically tested. A non‐rehabilitated moment connection with bolted web‐welded flanges was tested as a benchmark. Three moment connections rehabilitated by welding full‐depth side plates between the column face and beam flange inner side were tested to validate the rehabilitation performance. Test results revealed that (1) the non‐rehabilitated existing moment connection made by in situ welding process prior to 1996 had similar deformation capacity as contemporary connection specimens made by laboratory welding process, (2) all rehabilitated moment connections exhibited excellent performance, exceeding a 4% drift without fractures of beam flange groove‐welded joints, and (3) presence of the full‐depth side plates effectively reduced beam flange tensile strain near the column face by almost half compared with the non‐rehabilitated moment connection. The connection specimens were also modeled using the non‐linear finite element computer program ABAQUS to further confirm the effectiveness of the side plate in transferring beam moments to the column and to investigate potential sources of connection failure. A design procedure was made based on experimental and analytical studies. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Correlations between CPT and FVT Results for Busan Clay

In this study, CPT and FVT tests are carried out on young, normally consolidated clay (Busan clay, which is an unusually thick deposit) at several locations in the Nakdong River deltaic plane in Busan, Korea. Two correlation techniques are applied for estimating the cone factors for which the uncorrected and corrected field vane strengths are used as the reference strength. First, due to the scattered data over the entire depth, a direct correlation between the tested results (a method generally used in practice), is applied for each depositional environment (facies) that is detected from the CPT profiles and the geological analysis. Secondly, a special attempt is made to determine the cone factors based on the fact that the ratios of the field vane strength and the (q _t  ? σ _v0) and (u ₂ ? u ₀) values to the effective overburden pressure respectively, are approximately constant for each facies (the indirect correlation). It appears that the values obtained from the two techniques are almost identical. However, the direct correlation is sensitively affected by the fabric effects especially in some of the uppermost and lowermost layers of the clay and hence the arithmetic average values of each facies sometimes result in lower correlation coefficients. It is therefore inferred that the indirect correlation is more proficient for estimating the cone factors at each facies and can be used for practical applications. From the results of the indirect correlation, the cone factors of Busan clay are N _kt  = 7.13–13.06, N _kt,corr  = 9.45–17.07, N _Δu  = 6.10–9.88 and N _Δu,corr  = 8.41–12.24, the corrected values of which are considerably smaller or larger than the general ranges recommended by Lunne et al. (1997a). However, good correlations between N _kt and I _P , and between N _Δu (or N _kt ) and B _q , are not found for the clay.     

Integrated assessment of climate change and urbanization impact on adaptation strategies: a case study in two small Korean watersheds

This study develops an integrated approach to assess climate change and urbanization impacts on adaptation strategies in watersheds. We considered the two adaptation strategies for two small watersheds in Korea: the redevelopment of an existing reservoir and the reuse of highly treated wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent. Climate change scenarios were obtained by statistically downscaling the predicted precipitation and temperature with a global climate model (A1B and A2), and urbanization scenarios were derived by estimating the impervious area ratios with an impervious cover model. With the climate change and urbanization scenarios, we used the Hydrological Simulation Program-Fortran model to derive the flow and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) concentration (conc.) duration curves, and calculate the numbers of days satisfying environmental requirement for instreamflow and the target BOD conc. Climate change reduced the effectiveness of the adaptation strategies with respect to low flow and BOD conc., whereas urbanization generally increased their effectiveness. Climate change had a greater impact on the effectiveness of the adaptation strategies for BOD conc. than for low flow, whereas urbanization had a greater impact on low flow. Comparing impacts of two strategies, a larger decrease in the effectiveness was observed for the WWTP effluent reuse strategy in response to climate change and urbanization. However, the consistent trends cannot be found with ease if climate change and urbanization happens jointly.