TBT toxicity on the marine microalga Nannochloropsis oculata

Commercial antifouling formulations containing TBT are the major source of organotin contamination in coastal waters. In view of the persisting TBT residues (13 ng Sn l⁻¹) in the coastal waters of South Korea, an attempt has been made to evaluate the growth response and biochemical composition of laboratory-cultured Nannochloropsis oculata to TBT toxicity. It is evident that the persisting concentration level of TBT is high enough to cause adverse effect on the microalgal species. The EC₅₀ (24 h) was found to be at 0.89 nM level of TBT for this marine eustigmatophyte N. oculata. Photosynthetic pigment content was significantly affected. At elevated TBT concentrations of 1.0 nM, especially pronounced changes in biochemical composition was found. TBT tolerance of N. oculata and its growth as well as biochemical responses are discussed.     

SPH modeling of tidal bore scenarios

Natural Hazards - The paper presented a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method to study the three-dimensional (3D) tidal bore scenarios. The SPH method is a mesh-free particle modeling...     

An integrated web-based air pollution decision support system – a prototype

To efficiently and effectively monitor and mitigate air pollution in the urban environment, it is of paramount importance to integrate into a unified whole air pollutant concentration databases coming from different sources including the ground-based stations, mobile sensors, remote sensing, atmospheric-chemical-transport models and social media for the analysis and unraveling of the complex air pollution processes in space and time. This study constructs and implements for the first time a prototype of the fully integrated air pollution decision support system (APDSS) that put together in an integrated manner all relevant multi-scale, multi-type and multi-source data for decision-making on urban air pollution. The prototype contains the main system that handles the multi-source, multi-type and multi-scale databases, queries, visualization and data mining algorithms and the integrated modules that individually and holistically capitalize on the power of the ground-based stations, ground and aerial mobile sensors, satellite-borne remote-sensing technologies, atmospheric-chemical-transport models and social media. It renders a solid scientific foundation and system development methodology for the study of the spatiotemporal air pollution profiles crucial to the mitigation of urban air pollution. Real-life applications of the prototype are employed to illustrate the functionality of the APDSS.     

Uncertainty analysis of space–time prisms based on the moment-design method

Space–time prism (STP) is an important concept for the modeling of object movements in space and time. An STP can be conceptualized as the result of the potential path of a moving object revolving around in the three-dimensional space. Though the concept has found applications in time geography, research on the analysis and propagation of uncertainty in STPs, particularly under high degree of nonlinearity, is scanty. Based on the efficiency and effectiveness of the moment-design (M-D) method, this paper proposes an approach to deal with nonlinear error propagation problems in the potential path areas (PPAs) of STPs and their intersections. Propagation of errors to the PPA and its boundary, and to the intersection of two PPAs is investigated. Performance of the proposed method is evaluated via a series of experimental studies. In comparison with the Monte Carlo method and the implicit function method, simulation results show the advantages of the M-D method in the analysis of error propagation in STPs.     

SPATIAL VARIATION OF Zn GEOCHEMICAL FRACTIONS IN THE SURFACE SEDIMENTS OF THE STRAITS OF MALACCA: NATURAL OR ANTHROPOGENIC?

1INTRODUCTION Studiesonheavymetalcontaminationinsedi mentshavealwaysbeenfocusedonthecoastalandin tertidalareas(Sivalingam,etal.,1980;Ismail,1993;Ismail,etal.,1993;IsmailandRosniza,1997;Yap,etal.,2002a,2002b).Theheavymet alconcentrationsfoundinthesediments…     

Population growth in Bejing: trends and countermeasures

Beijing’ population has experienced a dramatic increase eversince the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Population growthin Beijing can be broadly broken down into three major components:natural increase, immigration, and the growth of floating population. Thecontinuous growth of Beijing’s population is closely linked with its centralized multi-function. The comprehensive countermeasures to control Beijing’s population growth are proposed, for example, decentralizing economicfunctions, including developing the suburbs, developing the metropolitan areaand creating counter-magnetic centers, reforming the administrative and economic systems.     

Role of the Radiation Factor in Global Climatic Events of the Late Holocene

Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics - On the basis of calculations of insolation and insolation characteristics, taking into account changes in solar activity, the causes of global climatic...