Particulate-associated potentially harmful elements in urban road dusts in Xi’an,China

Sixty five urban road dust samples were collected from different land use areas of ∼240 km² in Xi’an, China. The concentrations of Ag, As, Cr, Cu, Hg, Pb, Sb and Zn were determined to investigate potentially harmful element (PHE) contamination, distribution and possible sources. In addition, the concentrations in different size fractions were measured to assess their potential impact on human health. The highest concentrations were found in the fraction with particle diameters between 80 μm and 101 μm, the finest particles (<63 μm) were not the most important carriers for Ag, As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Pb and Zn. The percentages of these elements in particles with diameters less than 63 μm (PM₆₃) and less than 101 μm (PM₁₀₁) were in the range of 7–15%, and 30–55%, respectively. Three main factors influencing element distributions have been identified: (a) industrial activities; (b) prior agricultural land use; and (c) other activities commonly found in urban areas, such as traffic, coal combustion, waste dumping, and building construction/renovation. The highest concentrations were found in industrial areas for As (20 mg kg⁻¹), Cr (853 mg kg⁻¹), Cu (1071 mg kg⁻¹), Pb (3060 mg kg⁻¹) and Zn (2112 mg kg⁻¹), and in previous agricultural areas for Ag and Hg, indicating significant contributions from industrial activities and prior agricultural activities.     

Contribution of Vacuum Field to Angular Deviation of Light Path and Radar Echo Delay

The discovery of ‘twin quasistellar objects’ arose interests among astronomers and astrophysicists to study gravitational lensing problems. The deviation of light from its straight line path is caused by two sources according to the general theory of relativity: (i) the presence of massive objects, i.e. the presence of gravitational field and (ii) the presence of a ‘vacuum field’ which arises because there is a non-zero cosmological vacuum energy. Recently, the research on the relationship between cosmological constant and gravitational lensing process is rather active (see reference [1, 2, 3]. According to the Kottler space time metric, we have deduced an explicit representation of the angular deviation of light path. The deviation term is found to be simply , where M is the mass of the ‘astronomical lens’, r_min is the distance between the point of nearest approach and the centre of M, other symbols have their usual meaning. The presence of this term may be meaningful to the study of cosmological constant using the concept of gravitational lensing; however more sophisticated analysis awaits. Consider a signal radar to be sent from one planet to another. We have found that the radar echo delay contributed by the existence of the cosmological constant Λ is expressible as This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Soliton solutions to the Einstein gravitational field equations in the presence of a spherically-symmetric static background field

Using a differential geometry approach, we have found two sets of new solutions to Einstein's equation of gravity in the presence of a spherically-symmetrical gravitational background, like the Earth. The transverse and longitudinal components of the metric tensor representing the gravity waves are all soliton solutions, propagating towards the origin of the Earth. If we consider the situation where the static background field is absent, the solutions still remain soliton-like in nature. The difference between our result and Einstein's is attributed to the two approximations taken previously — weak field and harmonic condition.On study leave of absence from Zhong Shan University, China     

Regional modeling of climate change impacts on smallholder agriculture and ecosystems in Central America

Climate change will have serious repercussions for agriculture, ecosystems, and farmer livelihoods in Central America. Smallholder farmers are particularly vulnerable due to their reliance on agriculture and ecosystem services for their livelihoods. There is an urgent need to develop national and local adaptation responses to reduce these impacts, yet evidence from historical climate change is fragmentary. Modeling efforts help bridge this gap. Here, we review the past decade of research on agricultural and ecological climate change impact models for Central America. The results of this review provide insights into the expected impacts of climate change and suggest policy actions that can help minimize these impacts. Modeling indicates future climate-driven changes, often declines, in suitability for Central American crops. Declines in suitability for coffee, a central crop in the regional economy, are noteworthy. Ecosystem models suggest that climate-driven changes are likely at low- and high-elevation montane forest transitions. Modeling of vulnerability suggests that smallholders in many parts of the region have one or more vulnerability factors that put them at risk. Initial adaptation policies can be guided by these existing modeling results. At the same time, improved modeling is being developed that will allow policy action specifically targeted to vulnerable groups, crops, and locations. We suggest that more robust modeling of ecological responses to climate change, improved representation of the region in climate models, and simulation of climate influences on crop yields and diseases (especially coffee leaf rust) are key priorities for future research.     

Na,Rb and T1 distributions between phlogopite and sanidine by direct synthesis in a common vapour phase

Using a double-capsule technique, phlogopite and sanidine were equilibrated directly in a common aqueous vapour phase to study the distributions of Na, Rb and T1 at 700°C and 1.5 Kbar. Behaviour of these elements approaches ideality for wt.% concentrations of up to Na = 0.18, Rb = 0.55 and T1 = 0.065 in phlogopite and 0.19, 0.33 and 0.063 respectively in sanidine. The following partition coefficients and K_D values for phlogopite/sanidine were obtained: D (Na) = 0.83, D (Rb) = 2.3 rmand D (T1) = 1.3; K_D(Na/K) = 1.2, K_D(Rb/K) = 3.2 and K_D(T1/K) = 1.8. Although these results are preliminary and in some cases marred by analytical uncertainty, they nevertheless demonstrate the feasibility of the technique as applied to studies of multielement distribution between two or more coexisting solid phases.     

Determination of Rare Earth Elements in Geological Reference Materials: A Comparative Study by INAA and ICP-MS

Data was obtained for the rare earth elements (REE) by instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) in twenty geological reference materials. In general, the precision obtained by ICP-MS is better for the light REE, decreasing with increasing atomic number. This is partly a result of the occurrence of the heavy REE at low concentrations. The precision of the data obtained by INAA is good (5% RSD). The data obtained also showed that for the elements determined by both methods, the accuracy is similar for the light REE and better for the middle and heavy REEs by INAA. Higher uncertainty is achieved by ICP-MS mainly for elements at very low concentrations, occurring at about ten times the chondritic values.     

A semi-empirical sea-spectrum model for scattering coefficient estimation

A semi-empirical sea-spectrum model is proposed to be used in a two-scale radar sea scatter model to obtain estimates of radar backscatter over the frequency bandsLtoKu, the incidence angular range20deg-65deg, the azimuth angular range0deg-180degfrom the wind direction and wind speed range 3.5-30 m/s at 19.5 m above the mean sea level. It is shown that the theoretical estimates obtained are consistent with the existing measurements.     

Application of Refined Land-Use Categories for High Resolution Mesoscale Atmospheric Modelling

A comparison of two separate MM5 land-use datasets (i.e., ‘US Geological Survey (USGS)’ and ‘Pollutants in the Atmosphere and their Transport over Hong Kong (PATH)’, each with different parameter values and different spatial distributions) was performed to understand the importance of land-surface processes and land-atmosphere interactions in the evolution of mesoscale weather phenomena during a high pollution episode in Hong Kong from 28 December 1999 through 1 January 2000. Also, a series of high resolution mesoscale numerical experiments was performed to investigate the possible roles of various surface characteristics or land-use parameters in this high pollution episode. Specifically, the relative importance of six land-use parameters including the roughness length, thermal inertia, soil moisture availability, albedo, surface heat capacity and surface emissivity are studied. Results from this study suggest that the soil moisture availability is the most important controlling parameter on the flow pattern and on surface fluxes. Sensitivity tests also show that the general flow pattern is insensitive to the other five land-use parameters     

Numerical modeling of fracturing in permeable rocks via a micromechanical continuum model

The paper presents a micromechanical approach to describe the failure of low-permeability brittle rocks as a multiscale fracturing process based on a poroelastic microcrack-damage model. Failure is formulated deep down at the fine pore scale as a material degradation phenomenon driven by microcrack growth that also impacts upon hydromechanical properties. A set of damage tensors describes the effect of dual-scale porosities (nanopores and microcracks) on both the hydraulic and poroelastic rock properties. Essentially, the multiscale model reconstructs the coupling effect of hydromechanical forces at the continuum level from the ground up through the upscaling of multiphase interactions at the fundamental structural level of the material. As a result, many macroscopic characteristics emerge naturally such as friction angle, fracture properties, and most importantly, Biot's coefficient taking on a tensorial form that is generally anisotropic. The model is validated within the framework of finite elements to illustrate various baseline constitutive features such as the effect of microcrack growth on the nonlinear stress-strain response and the induced anisotropy in the context of lab experimental tests and boundary value problems. Heterogeneities of the rock samples were incorporated by choosing material properties to be stochastic following Weibull and lognormal distributions. Numerical results appropriately replicated typical experimental observations where fracture localization and propagation are shown to be a multiscale phenomenon emerging from microcrack growth and coalescence at the microscale, with concomitant enhancement in fluid conductivity.     

Temporal changes of polyphenols and enzyme activities in seedlings of Kandelia obovata under lead and manganese stresses

The temporal responses of peroxidase (POD), superoxide dismutase (SOD), total polyphenols (TP), extractable condensed tannins (ECT) to different levels of lead (Pb) or manganese (Mn) stress, as well as the metal accumulation, in seedlings of Kandelia obovata were investigated. Both stress time and stress intensity had significant effects with significant accumulation of Pb and Mn in roots at Day 1. Pb and Mn showed no significant effects on root or leaf TP and ECT at Day 1. Prolonged exposure to metals caused significant drops of root TP and ECT but increased in leaves at Days 7 and 49. POD activities decreased in both roots and leaves at Day 1, while POD and SOD both increased under moderate levels of Pb and Mn at Day 7. The present study showed that antioxidative enzyme activities were more sensitive indicators to Pb or Mn stresses than phenolic compounds.