Heavy metal pollution and human health risk assessment for exposure to surface soil of mining area: a comprehensive study

Climate change projections indicate an increase in intense rainfall events with consequent river flooding, which could lead to devastating natural disaster     

Prediction of copper content in waste dump of Sarcheshmeh copper mine using visible and near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy

The pore structure characteristics of soil are closely related to soil engineering properties. For saline soil distributed in seasonally frozen areas, existing studies have focused on the influence of freeze–thaw cycles on pore structure, while the influence of soluble salt in the soil is not well understood. This study aims to explore the influence of salt content and salt type on the pore structure of freeze-thawed soil. Soil samples with different salt contents (0–2%) and types (bicarbonate salt and sulfate salt) were subjected to 10 freeze–thaw tests, and their pore size distributions (PSDs) were obtained by mercury intrusion porosimetry tests. In addition, the PSDs were quantitatively analyzed by fractal theory. For both salts, the PSDs of the tested soil samples were bimodal after the freeze–thaw cycles, and the porosity of saline soil samples increased with increasing salt content overall. However, the contents of various types of pores in soil samples with two salt types were quite different. The variation in bicarbonate salt content mainly affected the mesopore and macropore contents in the soil samples, and their change trends were opposite to each other. For soil samples with sulfate salt, the porosity and macropore content increased significantly when the salt content exceeded 1%. In addition, the pore structures in saline soil presented fractal characteristics after the freeze–thaw cycles, and the fractal dimension was positively correlated with macropore content. This study may provide references for understanding the engineering properties of saline soil in seasonally frozen areas at the microscale.     

Wind-driven estuarine turbidity maxima in Mandovi Estuary,central west coast of India

Systematic studies on the suspended particulate matter (SPM) measured on a seasonal cycle in the Mandovi Estuary, Goa indicate that the average concentrations of SPM at the regular station are ∼20mg/l, 5mg/l, 19mg/l and 5mg/l for June–September, October–January, February–April and May, respectively. SPM exhibits low-to-moderate correlation with rainfall indicating that SPM is also influenced by other processes. Transect stations reveal that the SPM at sea-end stations of the estuary are at least two orders of magnitude greater than those at the river-end during the monsoon. Estuarine turbidity maximum (ETM) of nearly similar magnitude occurs at the same location in two periods, interrupted by a period with very low SPM concentrations. The ETM occurring in June–September is associated with low salinities; its formation is attributed to the interactions between strong southwesterly winds (5.1–5.6ms⁻¹) and wind-induced waves and tidal currents and, dominant easterly river flow at the mouth of the estuary. The ETM occurring in February–April is associated with high salinity and is conspicuous. The strong NW and SW winds (3.2–3.7ms⁻¹) and wind-driven waves and currents seem to have acted effectively at the mouth of the estuary in developing turbidity maximum. The impact of sea breeze appears nearly same as that of trade winds and cannot be underestimated in sediment resuspension and deposition     

Numerical simulation of damage–Permeability relationship in brittle geomaterials

Finding a coupling model between a hydraulic parameter such as permeability and a mechanical parameter such as damage is the key element for several recent engineering problems. A review of the technical literature reveals that several mechanical constitutive laws exist which allow determining a damage tensor for a damageable porous material under loading. But the present work develops a method to deduce the permeability change due to the damage propagation.     

Origin of the northern Indus Fan and Murray Ridge, Northern Arabian Sea: interpretation from seismic and magnetic imaging

The nature and origin of the sediments and crust of the Murray Ridge System and northern Indus Fan are discussed. The uppermost unit consists of Middle Miocene to recent channel–levee complexes typical of submarine fans. This unit is underlain by a second unit composed of hemipelagic to pelagic sediments deposited during the drift phase after the break-up of India–Seychelles–Africa. A predrift sequence of assumed Mesozoic age occurring only as observed above basement ridges is composed of highly consolidated rocks. Different types of the acoustic basement were detected, which reflection seismic pattern, magnetic anomalies and gravity field modeling indicate to be of continental character. The continental crust is extremely thinned in the northern Indus Fan, lacking a typical block-faulted structure. The Indian continent–ocean transition is marked on single MCS profiles by sequences of seaward-dipping reflectors (SDR). In the northwestern Arabian Sea, the Indian plate margin is characterized by several phases of volcanism and deformation revealed from interpretation of multichannel seismic profiles and magnetic anomalies. From this study, thinned continental crust spreads between the northern Murray Ridge System and India underneath the northern Indus Fan.     

Gravitational clustering of galaxies in an expanding universe

We inquire the phenomena of clustering of galaxies in an expanding universe from a theoretical point of view on the basis of thermodynamics and correlation functions. The partial differential equation is developed both for the point mass and extended mass structures of a two-point correlation function by using thermodynamic equations in combination with the equation of state taking gravitational interaction between particles into consideration. The unique solution physically satisfies a set of boundary conditions for correlated systems and provides a new insight into the gravitational clustering problem.     

Chromium Removal through Biosorption and Bioaccumulation by Bacteria from Tannery Effluents Contaminated Soil

Four bacterial isolates (two resistant and two sensitive to chromium) were isolated from soil contaminated with tannery effluents at Jajmau (Kanpur), India, and were identified by 16S rDNA gene sequencing as Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Exiguobacterium sp., Pantoea sp., and Aeromonas sp. Biosorption of chromium by dried and living biomasses was determined in the resistant and sensitive isolates. The effect of pH, initial metal concentration, and contact time on biosorption was studied. At pH 2.5 the living biomass of chromium resistant isolate Exiguobacterium sp. ZM‐2 biosorbed maximum amount of Cr⁶⁺ (29.8 mg/g) whereas the dried biomass of this isolate biosorbed 20.1 mg/g at an initial concentration of 100 mg/L. In case of chromate sensitive isolates, much difference was not observed in biosorption capacities between their dried and living biomasses. The maximum biosorption of Cr³⁺ was observed at pH 4.5. However, biosorption was identical in resistant and sensitive isolates. The data on chromium biosorption were analyzed using Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm model. The biosorption data of Cr⁶⁺ and Cr³⁺ from aqueous solution were better fitted in Langmuir isotherm model compared to Freundlich isotherm model. Metal recovery through desorption was observed better with dried biomasses compared to the living biomasses for both types of chromium ions. Bioaccumulation of chromate was found higher in chromate resistant isolates compared to the chromate sensitive isolates. Transmission electron microscopy confirmed the accumulation of chromium in cytoplasm in the resistant isolates.