Ecological risk assessment of heavy metals sampled in sediments and water of the Houjing River,Taiwan

The Houjing River flows through Kaohsiung, the most industrialized city in southern Taiwan. In this study, heavy metal concentrations in water and sediments from samples along the river were investigated to illustrate metal contamination levels and call for the awareness of industrial pollution prevention. The heavy metal concentrations in the water samples were low and appear to pose little direct risk to aquatic life and irrigation, but heavy metal concentrations in the sediments are locally very high and present an environmental risk. Cadmium, Cu, and Zn were found in higher concentrations in the river sediments than those recommended in some sediment quality guidelines and findings of river sediments in similar studies worldwide. Hence, the ecological risk of heavy metal contamination in sediments was assessed using the pollution load index (PLI) and potential ecological risk index (RI). Three of the eleven sites sampled were found to have PLI values higher than 1 and 8 of them had ‘considerable’ to ‘very high’ RI values, suggesting a considerable ecological risk. These findings provide an insight into elemental metal contamination of the Houjing River and present a baseline data set, which will be critical for future development and environmental protection plans devised for the region.     

Multicolour photometry of EO Ceti (PB 8783)

We present the first-look analysis of the high-speed multicolour photometry of the bright V361 Hya-type star EO?Ceti (m _V=12.3). The observations were gathered with the three-channel ULTRACAM instrument attached to the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope. The data set has a total time span of 6.2?d and consists of 31 h simultaneous three colour photometry. The main power regions in all three colours are the same as previously reported in the white light photometric campaigns on EO?Ceti. We calculate the frequencies, amplitudes and phases of the significant modes in three colours of the SDSS system, r′, g′ and u′. The amplitudes of the detected modes are the highest in the u′ lightcurve, and the phases are the same in all three colours within the measurement accuracy. The amplitudes of the highest signal-to-noise modes show time variability in all three colours. We analyse the amplitude and phase variations of the five highest signal-to-noise modes in different colours. Even though the amplitudes show variations from night to night, the amplitude ratios are found to be constant to within 2σ level. This result is promising as it allows us to compare the observed amplitude ratios with theoretically calculated amplitude ratios. This may further constrain the mode identification of the highest amplitude modes in EO?Ceti and let us test the proposed seismic and binary evolution models.     

Groundwater flow modelling in the central zone of Hanoi, Vietnam

On the basis of a review of the Quaternary sedimentary architecture in the area of Hanoi city (Vietnam), a numerical, deterministic and three-dimensional groundwater flow model has been built for a simulation between 1995 and 2004. The sedimentary architecture has been constructed on the basis of the data from 32 drillings covering the entire Quaternary sequence (but with little sedimentological detail), as well as hydrographical and hydrogeological data. Both steady- and transient-state conditions were tested. Results calculated by the model seem to indicate that the conceptual hypotheses adopted are reasonable for the modelled domain and period. The simulation allows for calculation of the regional groundwater flow trends. It is also used for assessing the relative importance of the various recharge sources of the shallow aquifer system in Hanoi, and for estimating the interactions between groundwater and the Red River.     

新兴葡萄酒旅游目的地空间网络结构及其影响因素——基于社会网络分析方法(QAP)

以宁夏贺兰山东麓这一新兴葡萄酒旅游目的地为例,构建酒庄和景点之间的空间联系网络,并对影响目的地空间网络结构的因素进行分析。结果表明：热门景点处于贺兰山东麓葡萄酒旅游网络中心,而非酒庄。区域、节点等级、获得等级的时间与可访问性等因素显著影响了新兴葡萄酒目的地的网络结构;在新兴葡萄酒旅游目的地,位于相同区域的酒庄由于地理位置邻近,可以共享客源;酒庄获得类似等级以及获级时间邻近也可共享网络吸引葡萄酒游客。然而,成立时间和景点类型并不是葡萄酒旅游地空间网络的重要影响指标。基于此,提出当地政府应制定促进和发展葡萄酒旅游的战略计划,推动葡萄酒品牌形象提升;酒庄应提升自身星级,加强旅游设施建设、提升接待能力,从而承接更多客流量,获得竞争优势。     

The development of transport infrastructure and attitudes of the local population: a case study from the Republic of Serbia

In the last decades, the development of transport infrastructure has been necessary because of the population increase and expansion of urban centres. Infrastructure development leads to modification and changes in areas characterized by high human population density. The lack of adequate transport infrastructure inhibits local economic and social performance. In the period of economic stability (from 1970 to 1990), important roads that increased the connectedness of the Kolubara District (Western Serbia) with other parts of the country and the surrounding countries were built, but there is still a need for the construction of new roads. In order to examine the attitude of the local population in regard to transport infrastructure, a survey was conducted using a questionnaire consisting of closed questions. This topic is one that has not previously been examined. The data obtained were analyzed statistically and showed that local people have a positive attitude towards the existing infrastructure and towards the construction of new roads. There are statistically significant differences between the attitudes of the local population in different municipalities. The results from this research offer an opportunity to develop guidelines which can influence traffic development in these and similar areas.     

Technical Note Calculation of Mohr-Coulomb Parameters for Rocks of Doha,Qatar

Geotechnical and Geological Engineering - Among practitioners, designers and researchers, modern-day geotechnical software packages still predominantly use Mohr-Coulomb (MC) input modeling...     

Study the elastic properties and the anisotropy of rocks using different machine learning methods

This paper aims to demonstrate that the elastic stiffnesses and the anisotropic parameters of rocks can be accurately predicted from geophysical features such as the porosity, the density, the compression stress, the pore pressure and the burial depth using relevant machine learning methods. It also suggests that the extreme gradient boosting method is the best method for this purpose. It is more accurate, extremely faster to train and more robust than the artificial neural networks and the support vector machine methods. Very high R-squared scores was obtained for the predicted elastic stiffnesses of a relevant dataset that is available in the literature. This dataset contains different types of rocks, and the values of the features are in large ranges. An optimal set of parameters was obtained by considering an appropriate sensitivity analysis. The optimized model is very easy to implement in Python for practical applications.     

Deriving short-duration rainfall IDF curves from a regional climate model

Natural Hazards - Climate change is expected to exacerbate the extremes in the climate variables. Being prone to harsh climate impacts, it is very crucial to study extreme rainfall-induced flooding...     

Holocene estuarine sediments as a source of arsenic in Pleistocene groundwater in suburbs of Hanoi,Vietnam

Groundwater pollution by arsenic is a major health threat in suburban areas of Hanoi, Vietnam. The present study evaluates the effect of the sedimentary environments of the Pleistocene and Holocene deposits, and the recharge systems, on the groundwater arsenic pollution in Hanoi suburbs distant from the Red River. At two study sites (Linh Dam and Tai Mo communes), undisturbed soil cores identified a Pleistocene confined aquifer (PCA) and Holocene unconfined aquifer (HUA) as major aquifers, and Holocene estuarine and deltaic sediments as an aquitard layer between the two aquifers. The Holocene estuarine sediments (approximately 25–40 m depth, 9.6–4.8 cal ka BP) contained notably high concentrations of arsenic and organic matter, both likely to have been accumulated by mangroves during the Holocene sea-level highstand. The pore waters in these particular sediments exhibited elevated levels of arsenic and dissolved organic carbon. Arsenic in groundwater was higher in the PCA (25–94 μg/L) than in the HUA (5.2–42 μg/L), in both the monitoring wells and neighboring household tubewells. Elevated arsenic concentration in the PCA groundwater was likely due to vertical infiltration through the arsenic-rich and organic-matter-rich overlying Holocene estuarine sediments, caused by massive groundwater abstraction from the PCA. Countermeasures to prevent arsenic pollution of the PCA groundwater may include seeking alternative water resources, reducing water consumption, and/or appropriate choice of aquifers for groundwater supply.