Minority women’s microenterprises in rural areas of the United States of America: African American,Hispanic American and Native American case studies

Women in many rural areas of the US often engage in small-scale businesses as one of several avenues for contributing to household incomes. In those geographical areas that contain a significant minority population, many of the women's businesses display the cultural diversity of the regions in which they live. Likewise, women's roles as economic providers as well as wives and mothers are reflected in the manner in which they operate their businesses. Candida Brush suggests that women's strategies for operating their businesses are highly integrative because women's business decisions are intertwined with familial responsibilities, household economic demands and desires to contribute to their communities. Hispanic and Native American women in the Four Corners region of southwestern US and African American women in central Virginia participated in interviews in which they responded to numerous short answer and open-ended questions about their businesses and decision-making strategies. From these interviews an image emerges of rural minority business women who are operating their businesses at the nexus of family obligations, economic necessities, cultural ties and with a commitment for serving their communities. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Pollution history and recovery of a boreal lake exposed to a heavy bleached pulping effluent load

We examined the effects of heavy pulp mill discharges on the Lake Lievestuoreenjärvi ecosystem and the later recovery of diatom and chironomid communities from age-dated short core samples. Beginning in 1927 the lake received a heavy effluent load from a sulphite pulp mill. Except for the recession during the Second World War and the temporary closure of the mill from 1967 to 1971, the industrial load, containing large quantities of nutrients, organic matter and toxic compounds, increased continuously. In the early 1980s, laboratory documents were falsified by the directors of the mill and the systematic illegal effluent overload led to a collapse of the whole lake ecosystem. In 1985, the outdated plant was finally closed down. Based on the assessment of chemical properties and biological remains of the sediment, we distinguished five developmental phases in the ecological state of the lake. In the pre-industrial phase, the pelagic and profundal benthic communities were dominated by species preferring ultraoligotrophic or oligotrophic lakes. Concomitant with the increasing discharge and deposition of chlorine compounds, resin acids, and mercury, as well as strong acidity and hypolimnetic and epilimnetic anoxia, the ecological status changed in a short period from excellent to bad. Finally, in the early 1960s, the majority of the lake was virtually dead and the aquatic life survived only in the uppermost littoral zone. Since 1985, a fast recovery in the water quality has led to a strong, but temporary eutrophy in pelagic communities. The main peak of eutrophication was caused by the invasion of a species new to the lake,Aulacoseira granulata var.angustissima. Later, the pelagic communities shifted towards oligotrophy, but the original, pre-industrial status has not been re-established. The profundal benthic communities have not achieved the pre-industrial structure, but at present indicate mesotrophy.     

基于二维小波变换的FMI图象分割

为了从FMI资料中定量提取参数，一个重要的步骤是从实际FMI资料中分离出反映溶孔、溶洞、裂缝的子图像。本文给出的方法，考虑图像像元邻域的特征，应用二维小波变换求出目标与背景边缘的点集，按这个边缘点集的坐标点所对应的原图像像素灰度值的平均值作为分割阈值进行图像分割。实际资料处理表明，应用这种方法可以从实际的FMI资料中准确地分割出孔洞、裂缝的子图像并且可以按深度段连续自动处理，为后续定量计算参数奠定了良好基础。     

Assessing the Comparability of Ammonium,Nitrate and Sulfate Concentrations Measured by Three Air Quality Monitoring Networks

Airborne fine particulate matter across the United States is monitored by different networks, the three prevalent ones presently being the Clean Air Status and Trend Network (CASTNet), the Interagency Monitoring of PROtected Visual Environment Network (IMPROVE) and the Speciation and Trend Network (STN). If combined, these three networks provide speciated fine particulate data at several hundred locations throughout the United States. Yet, differences in sampling protocols and samples handling may not allow their joint use. With these concerns in mind, the objective of this study is to assess the spatial and temporal comparability of the sulfate, nitrate and ammonium concentrations reported by each of these networks. One of the major differences between networks is the sampling frequency they adopted. While CASTNet measures pollution levels on seven-day integrated samples, STN and IMPROVE data pertain to 24-hour samples collected every three days. STN and IMPROVE data therefore exhibit considerably more short-term variability than their CASTNet counterpart. We show that, despite their apparent incongruity, averaging the data with a window size of four to six weeks is sufficient to remove the effects of differences in sampling frequency and duration and allow meaningful comparison of the signals reported by the three networks of concern. After averaging, all the sulfate and, to a lesser degree, ammonium concentrations reported are fairly similar. Nitrate concentrations, on the other hand, are still divergent. We speculate that this divergence originates from the different types of filters used to collect particulate nitrate. Finally, using a rotated principal component technique (RPCA), we determined the number and the geographical organization of the significant temporal modes of variation (clusters) detected by each network for the three pollutants of interest. For sulfate and ammonium, the clusters’ geographical boundaries established for each network and the modes of variations within each cluster seem to correspond. RPCA erformed on nitrate concentrations revealed that, for the CASTNet and IMPROVE networks, the modes of variation do not correspond to unified geographical regions but are found more sporadically. For STN, the clustered areas are unified and easily delineable. We conclude that the possibility of jointly using the data collected by CASTNet, IMPROVE and STN has to be weighed pollutant by pollutant. While sulfate and ammonium data show some potential for joint use, at this point, combining the nitrate data from these monitoring networks may not be a judicious choice.     

Enhanced bioremoval of refractory compounds from dyeing wastewater using optimized sequential anaerobic/aerobic process

The upflow anaerobic sludge blanket process followed by the biological aerated filter process was employed to improve the removal of color and recalcitrant compounds from real dyeing wastewater. The highest removal efficiency for color was observed in the anaerobic process, at 8-h hydraulic retention time, seeded with the sludge granule. In the subsequent aerobic process packed with the microbe-immobilized polyethylene glycol media, the removal efficiency for chemical oxygen demand increased significantly to 75 %, regardless of the empty bed contact time. The average influent non-biodegradable soluble chemical oxygen demand was 517 mg/L, and the average concentration in effluent from the anaerobic reactor was 363 mg/L, suggesting the removal of some recalcitrant matters together with the degradable ones. The average non-biodegradable soluble chemical oxygen demand in effluent from the aerobic reactor was 87, 93, and 118 mg/L, with the removal efficiency of 76, 74, and 67 %, at 24-, 12-, and 8-h empty bed contact time, respectively. The combined anaerobic sludge blanket and aerobic cell-entrapped process was effective to remove the refractory compounds from real dyeing wastewater as well as in reducing organic loading to meet the effluent discharge limits. This integrated process is considered an effective and economical treatment technology for dyeing wastewater.     

The early Miocene (~25 Ma) volcanism in the northern Kyushu-Palau Ridge,enriched mantle source injection during rifting prior to the Shikoku backarc basin opening

The northern Kyushu-Palau Ridge (KPR), remnant conjugate arc of the Izu-Ogasawara (Bonin)-Mariana (IBM) active arc, is dominated by basalt-andesite except for the Komahashi-Daini Seamount where acidic plutonic rocks of 38 Ma were recovered. These mafic to intermediate volcanics are produced by the rifting volcanism in the proto-IBM arc associated with spreading of the Shikoku Basin. The HFSE and HREE contents and ratios of these volcanics indicate enriched source mantle composition compared to recent volcanic front. The LILE ratios exhibit similar characteristics to reararc volcanism of the recent Izu arc, and some enriched volcanics exhibit high abundance of sediment melt inputs. Based on these observations and compilations of the published data set, the replacement event of the wedge mantle under the IBM arc occurred two times. The first event occurred between 45 and 38 Ma, with Pacific type mantle being replaced by depleted Indian type mantle. The second event occurred between 36 and 25 Ma, enriched mantle flowed from reararc side. The slab component during the proto-IBM arc rifting was a similar characteristic to recent reararc volcanism of the Izu arc, and sediment melt added in a local area.     

Citizens as sensors: the world of volunteered geography

In recent months there has been an explosion of interest in using the Web to create, assemble, and disseminate geographic information provided voluntarily by individuals. Sites such as Wikimapia and OpenStreetMap are empowering citizens to create a global patchwork of geographic information, while Google Earth and other virtual globes are encouraging volunteers to develop interesting applications using their own data. I review this phenomenon, and examine associated issues: what drives people to do this, how accurate are the results, will they threaten individual privacy, and how can they augment more conventional sources? I compare this new phenomenon to more traditional citizen science and the role of the amateur in geographic observation.     

An Overview of Dissolved and Suspended Matter Fluxes in the Loire River Basin: Natural and Anthropogenic Inputs

The spatial and temporal distributions of major elements were investigated in the surface waters and in associated suspended matter at two sites of the upper Loire basin (Orleans and Brehemont) between 1995 and 1998.According to geochemical and isotopic patterns, the dissolved load appears to result from a process of mixing rainwater inputs, weathering processes of carbonate and silicate bedrock, and agricultural and urban inputs. Natural inputs influence 60% of water chemical composition at both sites. Annual dissolved fluxes were estimated to be 1300 10³ t/y at Orleans and 1620 10³ t/y at Brehemont. Major elements are transported mainly in the dissolved fraction. After correcting for atmospheric and anthropogenic inputs, the silicate specific export rate was calculated to be 11 t/y/km² throughout the basin and the carbonate specific export rate to be from 47 t/y/km² at Orleans to 23 t/y/km² at Brehemont.The suspended load appears to result from at least two particle reservoirs: a silicate reservoir and a carbonate reservoir. The silicate reservoir has a detrital origin, mainly during periods of high flow, while the carbonate reservoir has a detrital origin during periods of high flow and an authigenic origin during periods of low flow. Of the total annual flow of suspended matter, this authigenic material represents 16% at Orleans, 25% at Brehemont and 37% in the fluvial part of the estuary. After correcting authigenic inputs, the specific export rate due to mechanical weathering was estimated to be 8 t/y/km² throughout the Loire basin.