Transient and spatial modeling and simulation of polybrominated diphenyl ethers reaction and transport in air, water and soil

The release of the wastes containing polybrominated diphenyl ethers into the environment is a worldwide major concern. Investigation of spatial and temporal variations of polybrominated diphenyl ethers concentrations due to different factors, especially the transport of these species between air and water as well as between air and soil is the purpose of present research. A model was developed and solved using the methods of finite difference and lines. Simulations were implemented for three dimensions of width, length, and height and also time for the air compartment, whereas for the soil and water compartments, variations were considered only with respect to height and time. Transport between water and soil was disregarded for simplicity at this stage. Vancouver’s landfill was considered as a case study. Lower concentrations in air and higher concentrations in water at the interface show that these pollutants tend to diffuse from air to water. Concentrations of all four pollutants decrease near the interface in soil as time passes, but they are predicted to be almost constant at other levels.     

First finds of Late Tithonian and middle-late Albian radiolarian assemblages in volcanogenic-siliceous rocks of the Amur River right lower reaches and their tectonic significance

The lithological-stratigraphic study of volcanogenic-siliceous rocks developed on the left side of the Machtovaya River, a right tributary of the Amur River, yielded the first radiolarian assemblages of the late Late Tithonian, the late Late Tithonian-early Valanginian, and the middle-late Albian age. It is established that the stratigraphic succession of volcanogenic-siliceous rocks in this area is composed of upper Tithonian-Valanginian dark red to red-brown cherts with basalts in the lower part of the section and Albian dark gray clayey cherts, olive-gray siliceous-tuffaceous argillites, and tufaceous siltstones in its upper part. The replacement of cherts by their clayey varieties likely occurred in the Aptian. The composition, structure, and age of these strata and the rocks constituting the Kiselevka-Manoma accretionary complex are different, which indicates their different tectonic origin.     

Automated Kerogen Classification in Microscope Images of Dispersed Kerogen Preparation

We develop the classification part of a system that analyses transmitted light microscope images of dispersed kerogen preparation. The system automatically extracts kerogen pieces from the image and labels each piece as either inertinite or vitrinite. The image pre-processing analysis consists of background removal, identification of kerogen material, object segmentation, object extraction (individual images of pieces of kerogen) and feature calculation for each object. An expert palynologist was asked to label the objects into categories inertinite and vitrinite, which provided the ground truth for the classification experiment. Ten state-of-the-art classifiers and classifier ensembles were compared: Naïve Bayes, decision tree, nearest neighbour, the logistic classifier, multilayered perceptron (MLP), support vector machines (SVM), AdaBoost, Bagging, LogitBoost and Random Forest. The logistic classifier was singled out as the most accurate classifier, with an accuracy greater than 90. Using a 10 times 10-fold cross-validation provided within the Weka software, we found that the logistic classifier was significantly better than five classifiers (p<0.05) and indistinguishable from the other four classifiers. The initial set of 32 features was subsequently reduced to 6 features without compromising the classification accuracy. A further evaluation of the system alerted us to the possible sensitivity of the classification to the ground truth that might vary from one human expert to another. The analysis also revealed that the logistic classifier made most of the correct classifications with a high certainty.     

A geophysical study of the granites and the sedimentary basins of the Xanthi area (N. Greece)

Intrusive features of varying size can be interpreted from the aeromagnetic map of the Xanthi area in N. Greece.The Xanthi pluton, which outcrops north of the city of Xanthi, seems to have the shape of a truncated pyramid. This feature has relatively large areal extent and reaches an approximate depth of 7 km. Another, relatively large magnetic body is buried under the sediments at the estuary of the Nestos River.3-D models of several smaller intrusions were constructed and the produced effect was compared to the observed. Some of these intrusions seem to be detached branches of the large Xanthi pluton.The basement in the outer part of the basin of the Nestos River seems to be buried at about 4 km depth. This figure is obtained by the Multiple Source Werner Deconvolution estimates and it is in agreement with the results of former geophysical studies and deep industrial boreholes.A 3-D model of the Xanthi-Komotini basin suggests that this basin is about 0.4 km deep at its southern part. The depth at its northern boundary is about 1.8 km while the boundary itself is formed by the large Kavala-Xanthi-Komotini fault.The Tertiary basin of the Nestos River and the observed magmatism are consistent with the idea of an older extensional tectonic regime in the area.     

Dynamics of the mid-ocean ridge plate boundary: Recent observations and theory

The global mid-ocean ridge system is one of the most active plate boundaries on the earth and understanding the dynamic processes at this plate boundary is one of the most important problems in geodynamics. In this paper I present recent results of several aspects of mid-ocean ridge studies concerning the dynamics of oceanic lithosphere at these diverging plate boundaries. I show that the observed rift valley to no-rift valley transition (globally due to the increase of spreading rate or locally due to the crustal thickness variations and/or thermal anomalies) can be explained by the strong temperature dependence of the power law rheology of the oceanic lithosphere, and most importantly, by the difference in the rheological behavior of the oceanic crust from the underlying mantle. The effect of this weaker lower crust on ridge dynamics is mainly influenced by spreading rate and crustal thickness variations. The accumulated strain pattern from a recently developed lens model, based on recent seismic observations, was proposed as an appealing mechanism for the observed gabbro layering sequence in the Oman Ophiolite. It is now known that the mid-ocean ridges at all spreading rates are offset into individual spreading segments by both transform and nontransform discontinuities. The tectonics of ridge segmentation are also spreading-rate dependent: the slow-spreading Mid-Atlantic Ridge is characterized by distinct bulls-eye shaped gravity lows, suggesting large along-axis variations in melt production and crustal thickness, whereas the fast-spreading East-Pacific Rise is associated with much smaller along-axis variations. These spreading-rate dependent changes have been attributed to a fundamental differences in ridge segmentation mechanisms and mantle upwelling at mid-ocean ridges: the mantle upwelling may be intrinsically plume-like (3-D) beneath a slow-spreading ridge but more sheet-like (2-D) beneath a fast-spreading ridge.     

Testing for quantized redshifts. I. The project

A project intended to examine the long-standing claims that extragalactic redshifts are periodic or quantized was initiated some years ago at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh. The approach taken is outlined, and the main conclusions to date are summarized. The existence of a galactocentric redshift quantization is confirmed at a high confidence level.     

On the magnetism of stars and planets

A self-consistent statistical approach to the problem of planetary and stellar magnetism is suggested. The mechanism of magnetic field generation in the astronomical objects, where the existence of fields is associated with the axial rotation of objects, is discussed. In the general case the light pressure, the centrifugal, gravitational and other forces produce partial -separation of the charges. As a result of the system rotation, the magnetic fields of the currents of these charges are not compensated. The influence of various factors on the magnetic field of some object is analysed.     

Actinic flux and photolysis frequency comparison computations using the model PHOTOGT

The accurate radiative transfer model GOMETRAN, initially designed to yield radiances at TOA in the wavelength range 240–790 nm, has been extended to allow for the computation of actinic fluxes down to 175 nm and for the calculation of photolysis frequencies in the atmosphere. The capability of the extended model PHOTOGT (PHOTOGOMETRAN) is demonstrated in a number of successful comparison studies both with recent experiments (ground-based, balloonborne, airborne) and model calculations of radiances, actinic fluxes and photolysis frequencies in the stratosphere and troposphere. In an atmospheric case study, the impact of new quantum yield data for the O₃ » O₂+O(¹ d) photodissociation channel on the photolytic production of O(¹ d) atoms in the lower atmosphere has been quantified.     

Overbreak and underbreak in underground openings Part 2: causes and implications

Summary The newly developed light sectioning method has been used to investigate some of the causes and costs of overbreak and underbreak. Investigations at the Aquamilpa Hydroelectric Project in Mexico have shown decreased overbreak and increased underbreak as a result of increased rock quality and decreased explosive energy. A new measure of explosive energy, the perimeter powder factor (PPF), has been defined and shown to be useful in the context of tunnel-wall rock damage. Tentative results indicate that explosive energy (PPF) may be a more important factor in producing underbreak, whereas rock quality may be a greater factor in producing overbreak. A site-specific equation is given for predicting overbreak or underbreak as a function of rock quality and explosive energy, with an evaluation of the cost of underbreak and overbreak.