Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in sediments,mussels and crustacea around a former gasworks site in Shoreham-by-Sea,UK

Concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons have been determined in sediments, mussels and crustacea in the vicinity of a former gasworks site by Shoreham Harbour, UK. Very high concentrations of PAH were found in the substrate, an ash-like material deposited on the former gasworks site, which exhibited a profile consistent with the major source of contamination being coal or coke tar produced during the period of gas production at the site. Elevated PAH concentrations were also found in mussels both from the beach below the former gasworks site, and from sites further to the east in Portslade and Hove. The significance of these concentrations were assessed using an approach which involved the calculation of benzo[a]pyrene equivalent conoentrations (BaPEs), summing concentrations of individual PAH on the basis of their comparative potency as carcinogens. BaPE ranged from values of, or close to, zero for crustacea, to 336 microg kg(-1) wet weight in mussels from Southwick Beach. The contaminated mussels are not exploited commercially but may be taken by casual gatherers, and notices have been posted to warn potential consumers.     

Spherically symmetric cosmological perturbations in the de Donder gauge

Cosmological perturbations on a F-R-W background are considered in a modified de Donder gauge. To guarantee the energy-momentum conservation for the perturbations in the de Donder gauge a compatibility condition is obtained. Finally we present the basic equations for the propagation of spherically symmetric perturbations. These equations are the basis for investigating the influence of cosmological epoches on the growing of density contrasts.     

Nitrogen flow and the interaction of Boston harbor with Massachusetts Bay

This paper summarizes evidence that most of the considerable nitrogen loading (～8, 470 mmol total N m^?2 yr^?1) to Boston Harbor (Massachusetts, USA) is expelled to shallow shelf waters of Massachusetts Bay, where it strongly influences ecological dynamics. Examination of nitrogen concentrations in the harbor, compared with loading, indicated that removal processes are active in the harbor. Comparison to other estuarine systems showed that the harbor’s nitrogen concentrations are consistent with its loading, if they are corrected for tidal flushing effects on the water residence time. Furthermore, extensive measurements of sediment denitrification confirmed that rates of N₂ gas loss are high in an absolute sense (～600–800 mmol N m^?2 yr^?1) but nonetheless remove only a small portion (<10%) of the annual land-derived nitrogen loading. Burial in sediments apparently removes only about 2% of the N input, implying export to offshore environments as the major removal process (～88–90% of N input). Western Massachusetts Bay receiving waters were examined for a signature of export from the harbor. Data consistently show a gradient of decreasing nitrogen concentrations from the harbor to about 10–20 km into the bay. In many cases, plots of nitrogen concentrations versus salinity show nearly conservative mixing character, which implies virtual export. Seasonally, the data suggest most of the export from the harbor in winter is as dissolved inorganic forms (NH₄ ⁺, NO₃ ^?, NO₂ ^?). In summer, export is dominated by the outflow of organic nitrogen forms. Chlorophyll export is evident as well, suggesting that the nutritional coupling of the harbor and bay in summer involves organic fertilization of the bay’s surface water. Finally, high-resolution studies over different stages of the tidal cycle help refine understanding of the advection of chlorophyll and stimulation of in situ chlorophyll growth at the seaward edge of the tidal excursion into the bay.     

Recharge and Groundwater Flow Within an Intracratonic Basin,Midwestern United States

The conservative nature of chloride (Cl^?) in groundwater and the abundance of geochemical data from various sources (both published and unpublished) provided a means of developing, for the first time, a representation of the hydrogeology of the Illinois Basin on a basin‐wide scale. The creation of Cl^? isocons superimposed on plan view maps of selected formations and on cross sections across the Illinois Basin yielded a conceptual model on a basin‐wide scale of recharge into, groundwater flow within and through the Illinois Basin. The maps and cross sections reveal the infiltration and movement of freshwater into the basin and dilution of brines within various geologic strata occurring at basin margins and along geologic structures. Cross‐formational movement of brines is also seen in the northern part of the basin. The maps and cross sections also show barriers to groundwater movement created by aquitards resulting in areas of apparent isolation/stagnation of concentrated brines within the basin. The distribution of Cl^? within the Illinois Basin suggests that the current chemical composition of groundwater and distribution of brines within the basin is dependent on five parameters: (1) presence of bedrock exposures along basin margins; (2) permeability of geologic strata and their distribution relative to one another; (3) presence or absence of major geologic structures; (4) intersection of major waterways with geologic structures, basin margins, and permeable bedrock exposures; and (5) isolation of brines within the basin due to aquitards, inhomogeneous permeability, and, in the case of the deepest part of the basin, brine density effects.     

Renewable energy strategies in England, Australia and New Zealand

The development of renewable energy sources is of prime interest to many countries seeking to pursue greenhouse gas emission reduction obligations. The increased use of renewables offers the possibility of not only contributing to emission reduction, but at the same time improving energy supply diversity and security, and developing employment and business in related supply industries. Two main mechanisms are in common use, one a quota (quantity) instrument often associated with tradable certificates, and the other a prescribed pricing mechanism. This paper considers the renewable energy development strategies of three countries (the UK, Australia, and New Zealand) all using a variant of the quota/certificate approach as the central instrument in their programs. The regulatory frameworks defining the application of the certificate systems differ notably, and the likely differing outcomes suggest that these regulatory settings may be at least as important as the selection of the basic policy instrument, in determining the overall success of programs of this nature.     

Seismic response of heavily damped base isolation systems

The development of an efficient energy-dissipating mechanism that works in conjunction with laminated elastomeric bearings in order to reduce the lateral deformation of the isolation system has always been a goal of base isolation research. Theoretically, this deformation will be reduced to the minimum if damping augmentation of the isolation system can reach a critical value. However, augmenting the isolation damping may cause some unwanted side effects. The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of isolation damping on the seismic response of heavily damped base-isolated buildings. The base isolation system is assumed to be linearly viscoelastic and is analysed using the complex mode method. Solutions derived by using perturbation techniques for a two-degree-of-freedom system and the computer simulation for a multiple-degree-of-freedom system reveal that augmenting the isolation damping can reduce efficiently the deformation of the isolation system, but at the price of increasing the high-frequency vibration in the superstructure. When the damping ratio of the isolation system is beyond some level, increasing the isolation damping will enlarge the extreme values of the base and superstructural accelerations. It is also found that approximate solutions derived from the use of classical damping and classical modes of vibration in the seismic analysis of heavily damped base isolation systems can be substantially in error.     

A framework of region-based spatial relations for non-overlapping features and its application in object based image analysis

Object based image analysis (OBIA) is an approach increasingly used in classifying high spatial resolution remote sensing images. Object based image classifiers first segment an image into objects (or image segments), and then classify these objects based on their attributes and spatial relations. Numerous algorithms exist for the first step of the OBIA process, i.e. image segmentation. However, less research has been conducted on the object classification part of OBIA, in particular the spatial relations between objects that are commonly used to construct rules for classifying image objects and refining classification results. In this paper, we establish a context where objects are areal (not points or lines) and non-overlapping (we call this “single-valued” space), and propose a framework of binary spatial relations between segmented objects to aid in object classification. In this framework, scale-dependent “line-like objects” and “point-like objects” are identified from areal objects based on their shapes. Generally, disjoint and meet are the only two possible topological relations between two non-overlapping areal objects. However, a number of quasi- topological relations can be defined when the shapes of the objects involved are considered. Some of these relations are fuzzy and thus quantitatively defined. In addition, we define the concepts of line-like objects (e.g. roads) and point-like objects (e.g. wells), and develop the relations between two line-like objects or two point-like objects. For completeness, cardinal direction relations and distance relations are also introduced in the proposed context. Finally, we implement the framework to extract roads and moving vehicles from an aerial photo. The promising results suggest that our methods can be a valuable tool in defining rules for object based image analysis.