Trace metal and radionuclide pollution in marine sediments of the Aegean Sea (Izmir Bay and Didim)

To determine radioactivity and trace metal levels, surface sediments were collected from two important areas (?zmir Bay and Didim) in the Aegean Sea region of Turkey, and were analyzed for concentrations of ²¹⁰Po, ²¹⁰Pb and trace metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn). The average ²¹⁰Po and ²¹⁰Pb massic activities in sediments varied in the range of 24 ± 5 to 126 ± 6 Bq kg^?1 dry wt. and 18 ± 3 to 59 ± 4 Bq kg^?1 dry wt., respectively. Izmir Bay exhibited the highest polonium activities in sediments, likely due to specific sedimentation processes and other sediment characteristics. The trace metal results showed that the Izmir Bay is facing trace metal pollution. The metal concentrations in sediment samples are low compared to those from the other neighboring marine environments.     

Geochemistry of phosphate bearing sedimentary rocks in parts of Sonrai block,Lalitpur District,Uttar Pradesh,India

Major, trace and rare earth elements of phosphatic rocks around Sonrai block of Paleo-Mesoproterozoic age having phosphatic breccia, quartzite, shale, sandstone, limestone and ironstone, have been determined to evaluate their correlation, relationship with the phosphorus content, the nature of possible substitution of various elements and regional distribution pattern over the area. The study indicates that the number of elements is substituted in the apatite structures; few of them are associated with phosphate and carbonate minerals. The variable concentration of major, trace and rare earth elements in the phosphatic rocks has been influenced by various physico-chemical processes involved during weathering and leaching of the source rocks. The distribution of the major, trace and rare earth elements is controlled by the environmental variations in the sediment water interface. The majority of trace elements were mainly influenced by the principle adsorbents like the phosphate minerals in addition to clay, iron oxides and silicate minerals. The PAAS normalized REE patterns of Sonrai block of phosphorites are characterized by negative Ce anomalies and Positive Eu anomalies. It is inferred from the distribution and interrelationship of major, trace and rare earth elements that the deposition of phosphate minerals might have occurred in highly oxidizing to slightly reducing conditions in supratidal to intertidal continental margins and shallow marine environment. The deposition was controlled by marine upwelling leading to excess charge of phosphate in certain zones of phosphogenic basins, lithologic facies variations in restricted circulations of basinal waters and electrochemical factors such as negative Eh, pH and other factors, which influenced the deposition of phosphates. The replacement, precipitation in voids and fissures and diagenesis were also important mechanisms of phosphate generation in Sonrai basin. The main source for various elements may be the minerals of cratonic mass of Bundelkhand Granitic Complex, a basement of Bijawar Basin, which also provided land derived phosphorus through weathering of the terrestrial cover.     

Adsorption capacity and mineralogical and physico-chemical characteristics of Shuwaymiyah palygorskite (Oman)

In this paper, Shuwaymiyah palygorskite in the Sultanate of Oman has been characterized mineralogically by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and electron microscopy, chemically by oxide compositions, structural formulae, and cation exchange capacity (CEC), and physically by specific surface area and adsorption isotherms. Batch adsorption studies were performed to evaluate the adsorption performance of methylene blue (MB) basic dye on the local clay mineral. The quantitative XRD analysis indicates that the purity of some selected samples of palygorskite clay is very high (about 70% of the clay minerals are palygorskite and 30% kaolinite). The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images clearly support this conclusion. The adsorption equilibrium revealed that Shuwaymiyah palygorskite clay can uptake up to 51 mg of MB per 1 g mass of clay. MB adsorption is best fitted by Langmuir isotherm, and a pseudo-second-order kinetic model can be efficiently used to predict the kinetic of adsorption of MB by the palygorskite. The results obtained from these laboratory-scale adsorption tests indicate the promising adsorption capability of the Omani palygorskite.     

<Superscript>1</Superscript>H NMR-based serum metabolic profiling of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Carassius auratus gibelio</Emphasis> under the toxicity of Pb<Superscript>2+</Superscript> and Cd<Superscript>2+</Superscript>

Lead and cadmium are the two widely recognized toxic metals, with known ecological risk to freshwater fish in contaminated ecosystems. However, their effect at environmentally realistic level in a mixture has been rarely investigated. In the present study, serum metabolic responses of Crucian carp exposed to Pb (30 µgL^?1), Cd (100 µgL^?1) and Pb+Cd (30 + 100 µgL^?1) for 21 days were investigated by ¹H NMR-based metabolomics. The metabolic responses were compared to control by multivariate techniques (PCA, PLS-DA and OPLS-DA), and metabolites that significantly contributed to the variation were identified. Metal dependent metabolic responses revealed a decline of alanine, lysine and tyrosine in Pb exposed fish, indicating changes in neurotransmitters, and amino acid metabolism, while fish exposed to Cd showed significant decrease in lysine, isoleucine, leucine, alanine and increase in 3-hydroxybutyrate, acetone, lactate, choline, inosine, guanosine and threonine. The coexposure of Pb and Cd had additive effect on metabolic profile with increase in pyruvate, guanosine and inosine. The overall metabolic changes due to Pb and Cd were characterized by disturbed energy metabolism, impaired osmotic regulation and a shift from aerobic to anaerobic respiration. Moreover, ¹H NMR-based metabolomics was proved to be a powerful tool in elucidating the toxic effects of environmental pollutants and underlying mechanism.     

Towards an integrated arid zone water management using simulation-based optimisation

For ensuring both optimal sustainable water resources management and long-term planning in a changing arid environment, we propose an integrated Assessment-, Prognoses-, Planning- and Management tool (APPM). The new APPM integrates the complex interactions of the strongly nonlinear meteorological, hydrological and agricultural phenomena, considering the socio-economic aspects. It aims at achieving best possible solutions for water allocation, groundwater storage and withdrawals including saline water management together with a substantial increase of the water use efficiency employing novel optimisation strategies for irrigation control and scheduling. To obtain a robust and fast operation of the water management system, it unites process modeling with artificial intelligence tools and evolutionary optimisation techniques for managing both water quality and quantity. We demonstrate some key components of our methodology by an exemplary application to the south Al-Batinah region in the Sultanate of Oman which is affected by saltwater intrusion into a coastal aquifer due to excessive groundwater withdrawal for irrigated agriculture. We show the effectiveness and functionality of a new simulation-based water management system for the optimisation and evaluation of different irrigation practices, crop pattern and resulting abstraction scenarios. The results of several optimisation runs indicate that due to contradicting objectives, such as profit-oriented agriculture versus aquifer sustainability only a multi-objective optimisation can provide sustainable solutions for the management of the water resources in respect of the environment as well as the socio-economic development.     

210Po and 210Pb variations in fish species from the Aegean Sea and the contribution of 210Po to the radiation dose

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in the significance of natural radionuclides, particularly (210)Po, in the marine environment. (210)Po, a naturally occurring alpha emitter, accumulates in marine organisms and reflects differences in their diets. In the literature, there is no data for (210)Po and (210)Pb activity concentrations for fish species on the Turkish coast of Aegean Sea. Therefore, in this study, multiple fish species were collected from six stations seasonally on the Turkish coast of Aegean Sea and were analyzed for their (210)Po and (210)Pb content. The (210)Po and (210)Pb concentrations in the fish samples were found to vary from undetectable levels to 499 ± 44 Bq kg(-1) dry weight (dw) and from 1.0 ± 0.3 Bq kg(-1) to 35 ± 4.0 Bq kg(-1) (dw), respectively. There were no significant differences in the activity concentrations of (210)Po and (210)Pb in fish samples between seasons (ANOVA, P>0.05). The highest dose contribution of (210)Po to humans was calculated to be 10,530 μSv year(-1).     

EXOTIME: searching for planets around pulsating subdwarf B stars

In 2007, a companion with planetary mass was found around the pulsating subdwarf B star V391 Pegasi with the timing method, indicating that a previously undiscovered population of substellar companions to apparently single subdwarf B stars might exist. Following this serendipitous discovery, the EXOTIME (http://www.na.astro.it/~silvotti/exotime/) monitoring program has been set up to follow the pulsations of a number of selected rapidly pulsating subdwarf B stars on time scales of several years with two immediate observational goals:

1. determine $\dot{P}$ of the pulsational periods P
2. search for signatures of substellar companions in O–C residuals due to periodic light travel time variations, which would be tracking the central star’s companion-induced wobble around the centre of mass

These sets of data should therefore, at the same time, on the one hand be useful to provide extra constraints for classical asteroseismological exercises from the $\dot{P}$ (comparison with “local” evolutionary models), and on the other hand allow one to investigate the preceding evolution of a target in terms of possible “binary” evolution by extending the otherwise unsuccessful search for companions to potentially very low masses. While timing pulsations may be an observationally expensive method to search for companions, it samples a different range of orbital parameters, inaccessible through orbital photometric effects or the radial velocity method: the latter favours massive close-in companions, whereas the timing method becomes increasingly more sensitive toward wider separations. In this paper we report on the status of the on-going observations and coherence analysis for two of the currently five targets, revealing very well-behaved pulsational characteristics in HS?0444+0458, while showing HS?0702+6043 to be more complex than previously thought.     

Determination of Soil Parameters via the Solution of Inverse Problems in Infiltration

In this paper, we propose an efficient method for the identification of soil parameters in unsaturated porous media, using measurements from infiltration experiments. The infiltration is governed by Richard's nonlinear equation expressed in terms of effective saturation. The soil retention and hydraulic permeability functions are expressed using the Van Genuchten-Mualem ansatz in terms of the soil parameters. The mathematical algorithm is based on a transformation of Richard's equation to a system of ordinary differential equations completed by the governing equation for the movement of the wetness front. This system can be efficiently solved by specialized packages for the solution of stiff systems of ODE. The unknown parameters are determined using the optimization approach of minimizing a cost functional for the discrepancy between the model output and the measurements. The gradient and Hessian of the solution with respect to soil parameter vector are determined using automatic differentiation. Several numerical experiments are included.     

Über die Auswahl der Sterne bei der Methode der Gleichen Höhen

В статье рассматривается вопрос наиболее целесообразного выбора звезд по методу равных высот. Были рассмотрены равномерные выборы звезд, симметричные вокруг двух взаимно пернендикулярных осей. Такие выборы не определяют с одинаковой точностью координаты ? и λ. Расположение обеих взаимно перпендикулярных осей относительно меридиана или первого вертикала может быть также произвольным, причем точность определения ? и л сохраняется неизменной. К таким выборам относятся секторные выборы, как напр. ранее применяемый выбор вокруг меридиана и ? вертикала [2] а также равномерное распределение по всему альмукантарату. В целях получения однородного материала в обеих координатах по методу равных высот, выбор звезд не должен быть равномерный. Для симметричного выбора звезд (имеющего то достоинство, что при нем погашается влияние возможных систематических изменений высоты в течение измерений на ? и λ и не предоставляющего преимущества звездам в некотором квадранте) и для наиболее равномерного распределения звезд по альмукантарату, при одновременном вынолнении условия равноточности получается выбор звезд таким образом, что их распределение в экваториальных областях имеет равномерный характер и что звезды с возрастанием широты неуклонно все более и более сгущаются вокруг ? вертикала, в то время как вокруг меридиана их число убывает. На более высоких широтах, превышающих 70°, метод равных высот, собственно говоря, превращается в метод Цингера, так как практически все звезды (конечного числаn одной серии наблюдений) расположены в секторах ±30° вокруг первого вертикала. Это значит, что на более высоких щиротах с помощью этого метода оказалось бы возможным определить обе координаты так, как бы измерялосьz отдельных пар или как бы все пары проходили на равной высоте. Однородный выбор (обозначим его через ?) одновременно обеспечивает определение каждой координаты с наибольщей точнбстью. А это по той причине, что никакой симметрический выбор не обеспечивает определение обеих координат с больщей точностью или одной из координат с одинаковой точностью, а другой с больщей точностью, чем однородный выбор ?. Если же в результате иного симметрического выбора точность определения одной из координат повысится, то точность определения другой по сравнению с ? всегда понижается. Отыскивался симметрический выбор (обозначим его через Ω), который обладал бы наибольщей общей точностью, что касается положепия определяемого места. Такой выбор существует. Аналогично тому, как это было следано у ?, определялось снова наиболее равномерное распределение выбора Ω. В основном, выбор Ω походит на ?, У Ω звезды с возрастанием щироты сгущаются вокруг ? вертикала несколько менее, чем у ?. В области 35° вокруг экватора оба выбора практически совпадают. В качестве пригодных выборов можно принять все выборы, расположенные между ? и Ω. Все эти выборы с наблюдательской точки зрения вытодны, так как распределение звезд находится в хорошем согласии с естественной частотой прохождений через альмукантарат. В качестве предела для метода точных симультанных определений (применясмого для определення положения точек Лапласа в астрономо-геодезической сети) была найдена щирота, соответствующая примерно полярным кругам. Для высокоточной работы этот предел будет несколько ниже и будет находиться примерно на 60°. Метод равных высот более выгоден для определения ?, чем для λ. После математической обработки было применено идеализированное распределение звезд, которое в программе наблюдений практически никогда не может быть вынолнено. Однако для теоретического анализа идеализирование пригодно и принимается в качестве масщтаба и примера для действительных случаев, более или менее приближающихся к идеальным случаям. При составлении программы наблюдений достаточно лищь учитывать общие принципы, касающиеся распределения звезд на определенной щироте и сохранять лищь число звезд, находящихся в теоретическом распределении между ? и Ω, в интервалах азимутов, проходящих по 20° или 30° и заполняющих весь альмукантарат.