Chronic oil pollution harms Magellanic penguins in the Southwest Atlantic

Petroleum pollution is a problem for seabirds along the Southwest Atlantic coast. Twenty-five groups from Salvador, Brazil (12 degrees 58'S) to San Antonio Oeste, Argentina (40 degrees 43'S) survey or rehabilitate sick or oiled seabirds. Four groups, one each in Brazil and Uruguay, and two in Argentina, kept counts of birds found alive and in need of rehabilitation. An average of 63.7% of the seabirds found were Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus), with 3869 reported since 1987. Mainly adult penguins were found in Argentina (1605 of 2102 penguins of known age class) and Uruguay (158 of 197). Juveniles were most common in Brazil (234 of 325). Oil fouling was the most frequent cause of injury or sickness. The number of oiled penguins reported in their wintering range has greatly increased since the early 1990s and is strongly correlated with petroleum exports from Argentina. Our results show that chronic petroleum pollution is a problem for wildlife from Southern Brazil through Northern Argentina, and regulations and enforcement are failing to protect living resources.     

The meaning of the 'impact factor' in the case of an open-access journal

The dominant model of journal evaluation emerged at the time when there were no open-access journals, and nobody has assessed yet whether this model is able to cope with this modern reality. This commentary attempts to fill the gaps in the common understanding of the role that 'impact factor' should play in evaluation of open-access journals.     

Characteristics of Drought and Flood in Zhejiang Province, East China： Past and Future

On the basis of large amount of historical and measured data,this paper analyzed the regional,periodic,frequency,continuing,and response characteristics of droughts and floods in Zhejiang and proposed the conception of ratio of peak runoff.Main characteristics of droughts and floods in Zhejiang are as follows:1)The western Zhejiang region is plum rain major control area,and the eastern coastal region of Zhejiang is typhoon major control area.2)Within a long period in the future,Zhejiang will be in the long period that features droughts.3)In Zhejiang the 17th century was frequent drought and flood period,the 16th,19th,and 20th centuries were normal periods,while the 18th century was spasmodic drought and flood period.4)The severe and medium floods in Zhejiang were all centered around the M-or m-year of the 11-year sunspot activity period.5)There are biggish years of annual runoff occurred in El Ni?o year(E)or the following year(E 1)in Zhejiang.The near future evolution trend of droughts and floods in Zhejiang is as follows:1)Within a relatively long period in the future,Zhejiang Province will be in the long period of mostly drought years.2)Between 1999 and 2009 this area will feature drought years mainly,while the period of 2010-2020 will feature flood years mostly.3)Zhejiang has a good response to the sunspot activities,and the years around 2009,2015,and 2020 must be given due attention,especially around 2020 there might be an extremely severe flood year in Zhejiang.4)Floods in Zhejiang have good response to El Ni?o events,in El Ni?o year or the following year much attention must be paid to.And 5)In the future,the first,second,and third severe typhoon years in Zhejiang will be 2009,2012,and 2015,respectively.     

江西德安黄金洼锡矿地质特征及控矿因素

介绍了黄金洼锡矿矿体特征,分析了控矿因素,讨论了成矿作用,指出该矿床的形成是多种地质因素综合作用的结果。地处九瑞地区有利多金属成矿带,燕山晚期中酸性花岗岩体的产生是成矿作用发生的起始条件,区内丰富的多级断裂构造体系为岩浆、成矿流体运移和最终就位提供了运、储、移的重要空间,尤其是断层F1和F4之间所形成的次一级密集北西—北西西向裂隙带成为成矿流体汇聚的重要场所,成为主要的矿产聚集地。矿床的形成是多阶段成矿作用的产物,矿物质经历了富集、活化、再次富集、定位成矿的复杂过程。     

THE EFFECT OF MISLABELED SAMPLES ON THE PERFORMANCE OF THE LINEAR LEARNING MACHINE

Over the past 15 years the linear learning machine has been applied to a large number of chemicalproblems.The learning machine approach is conceptually simple and does not require knowledge aboutthe statistical distribution of the data.However,there are problems associated with this approach.Oneproblem which has not been investigated is the influence of mislabeled samples on the positioning of thehyerplane in feature space.If a few samples in a data set are incorrectly tagged prior to training(i.e.thesamples are labeled as members of class 2 even though they are actually members of class 1),it is stilIpossible using the linear learning machine to achieve a classification success rate of 100% for the trainingset.However,unfavorable results will be obtained for the prediction set.The magnitude of this effect andits potential implications regarding the proper use of the linear learning machine are discussed.     

The development of the SCAT process for the assessment of oiled shorelines

The Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Team (SCAT) process is a tool to assess oiled shorelines and is now an integral component of spill response operations. The key element of a SCAT survey is a systematic documentation using standard terms and definitions of the shoreline in the areas affected by an oil spill. SCAT programs were initially established to provide objective and accurate shoreline oiling information directly to cleanup operations. The role of the SCAT program has since expanded and the information generated by the field teams is used now by planners and decision-makers and to develop shoreline treatment recommendations, to select appropriate treatment techniques, and to establish the level or degree of treatment that is appropriate. This latter point is an integral part of establishing shoreline treatment criteria or standards and treatment end points.     

Temporal changes in the vertical distribution of flow and chloride in deep wells

The combination of flowmeter and depth-dependent water-quality data was used to evaluate the quantity and source of high-chloride water yielded from different depths to eight production wells in the Pleasant Valley area of southern California. The wells were screened from 117 to 437 m below land surface, and in most cases, flow from the aquifer into the wells was not uniformly distributed throughout the well screen. Wells having as little as 6 m of screen in the overlying upper aquifer system yielded as much as 50% of their water from the upper system during drought periods, while the deeper parts of the well screens yielded 15% or less of the total yield of the wells. Mixing of water within wells during pumping degraded higher-quality water with poorer-quality water from deeper depths, and in some cases with poorer-quality water from the overlying upper aquifer system. Changes in the mixture of water within a well, resulting from changes in the distribution of flow into the well, changed the quality of water from the surface discharge of wells over time. The combination of flowmeter and depth-dependent water quality data yielded information about sources of high-chloride water to wells that was not available on the basis of samples collected from nearby observation wells. Changing well design to eliminate small quantities of poor-quality water from deeper parts of the well may improve the quality of water from some wells without greatly reducing well yield.     

A tracer dilution method for fracture characterization in bedrock wells

This investigation was undertaken to develop an integrated method of downhole fracture characterization using a tracer. The method presented can be used to locate water-bearing fractures that intersect the well, to determine the ambient fracture flow rate and hydraulic head, and to calculate fracture transmissivity. The method was tested in two fractured crystalline bedrock wells located at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. The method entails injecting a tracer (uranine dye) into the well, while at the same time water is pumped out of the well. After steady-state conditions are reached, a borehole tracer concentration profile is developed. The dilution of the tracer is used to locate the inflowing fractures and to determine their flow rate. The fracture flow rate, plus the drawdown in the well, is then used to determine the fracture hydraulic head, transmissivity, and ambient flow rate.