Resolving mechanisms of toxicity while pursuing ecotoxicological relevance?

In this age of modern biology, aquatic toxicological research has pursued mechanisms of action of toxicants. This has provided potential tools for ecotoxicologic investigations. However, problems of biocomplexity and issues at higher levels of biological organization remain a challenge. In the 1980s and 1990s and continuing to a lesser extent today, organisms residing in highly contaminated field sites or exposed in the laboratory to calibrated concentrations of individual compounds were carefully analyzed for their responses to priority pollutants. Correlation of biochemical and structural analyses in cultured cells and tissues, as well as the in vivo exposures led to the production and application of biomarkers of exposure and effect and to our awareness of genotoxicity and its chronic manifestations, such as neoplasms, in wild fishes. To gain acceptance of these findings in the greater environmental toxicology community, “validation of the model” versus other, better-established often rodent models, was necessary and became a major focus. Resultant biomarkers were applied to heavily contaminated and reference field sites as part of effects assessment and with investigations following large-scale disasters such as oil spills or industrial accidents.

Over the past 15 years, in the laboratory, small aquarium fish models such as medaka (Oryzias latipes), zebrafish (Danio rerio), platyfish (Xiphophorus species), fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas), and sheepshead minnow (Cyprinodon variegatus) were increasingly used establishing mechanisms of toxicants. Today, the same organisms provide reliable information at higher levels of biological organization relevant to ecotoxicology. We review studies resolving mechanisms of toxicity and discuss ways to address biocomplexity, mixtures of contaminants, and the need to relate individual level responses to populations and communities.     

青岛市短时强降水的气候特征和天气系统分型

利用1981—2012年4—10月青岛市7个观测站逐时降水量资料和同期NCEP再分析资料,统计分析青岛市短时强降水的时空分布特征,建立青岛市短时强降水天气概念模型。结果表明：青岛市年短时强降水日数无明显变化趋势;4—10月均有短时强降水出现,7—8月是多发月份;短时强降水的日变化有2个多发时段,主峰在下午到傍晚时段,次峰在凌晨时段;即墨、平度、黄岛为青岛市短时强降水的多发区域,其中黄岛为连续性短时强降水出现最多的区域;青岛市产生短时强降水的天气系统可分为六种类型,西风槽型、横槽型、冷涡型、热带低值系统型、西北气流型、切变线型,其中西风槽型出现次数最多。     

An Improved Approach for Parameterizing Surface-Layer Turbulent Transfer Coefficients in Numerical Models

Based on classic iterative computation results, new equations to calculate the surface turbulent transfer coefficients are proposed, which allow for large ratios of the momentum and heat roughness lengths. Compared to the Launiainen scheme, our proposed scheme generates results closer to classical iterative computations. Under unstable stratification, the relative error in the Launiainen scheme increases linearly with increasing instability, even exceeding 15%, while the relative error of the present scheme is always less than 8.5%. Under stable stratification, the Launiainen scheme uses two equations, one for 0 < Ri _B ≤ 0.08 and another for 0.08 < Ri _B ≤ 0.2, and does not consider the condition that Ri _B > 0.2, while its relative errors in the region 0 < Ri _B ≤ 0.2 exceed 31 and 24% for momentum and heat transfer coefficients, respectively. In contrast, the present scheme uses only one equation for 0 < Ri _B ≤ 0.2 and another equation for Ri _B > 0.2, and the relative error of the present scheme is always less than 14%.     

Genetic mechanism and failure process of the Mogangling seismic landslide

This paper presents a case study on the Mogangling landslide and its characteristics and geological mechanism. The Mogangling landslide is a giant rock landslide located at the intersection of Dadu river and Moxi river. It is a landslide triggered by an earthquake with large magnitude that occurred in 18th century. Based on detailed site investigation, it shows the Mogangling landslide developed in the Kangding complex strata, composed of completely decomposed aggregates of massive-block stone, debris and soil with some gravels, pebbles and sand layer found distributed in front of the landslide. The control factor of the deformation of this landslide is the combined effect of Detuo fault which is located under the slope, and the regional stress formed along structural planes as well as the free surfaces formed by river cutting. Therefore, when the Kangding-Moxi earthquake (Ms =7.7) occurred on 1st June, 1786, due to seismic shaking, topographic amplification effects and back slope effects, the Mogangling landslide occurred. The Dadu River is the most important river for hydropower development in China; large-scale seismic landslides along the Dadu River are the most important geological issue during the construction of hydropower stations. Therefore, this research is important from the point of view of economic and social benefits.     

Inverse Analysis of Deep Excavation Using Differential Evolution Algorithm

This paper presents the applications of the differential evolution (DE) algorithm in back analysis of soil parameters for deep excavation problems. A computer code, named Python‐based DE, is developed and incorporated into the commercial finite element software ABAQUS, with a parallel computing technique to run an FE analysis for all trail vectors of one generation in DE in multiple cores of a cluster, which dramatically reduces the computational time. A synthetic case and a well‐instrumented real case, that is, the Taipei National Enterprise Center (TNEC) project, are used to demonstrate the capability of the proposed back‐analysis procedure. Results show that multiple soil parameters are well identified by back analysis using a DE optimization algorithm for highly nonlinear problems. For the synthetic excavation case, the back‐analyzed parameters are basically identical to the input parameters that are used to generate synthetic response of wall deflection. For the TNEC case with a total of nine parameters to be back analyzed, the relative errors of wall deflection for the last three stages are 2.2, 1.1, and 1.0%, respectively. Robustness of the back‐estimated parameters is further illustrated by a forward prediction. The wall deflection in the subsequent stages can be satisfactorily predicted using the back‐analyzed soil parameters at early stages. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

气候序列的层次结构

一个气候时间序列含有多个时间尺度 ,形成不同尺度的气候层次。气候是冷还是暖是随着尺度而变化的。文中用北半球地表月平均气温气候资料的子波变换分析表明 :气候突变点既随尺度有规律的变化 ,也具有随尺度变化而不变的性质 ,即标度不变性。不论什么尺度 ,气候总是有冷暖之分 ,这种自相似性可以帮助笔者从气候资料的子波变换中建立一个一维映射动力系统 ,它反映出气候突变时间的演变规律和气候的层次结构。     

中国古代牧业社会骨制品的初步考察:以新疆巴里坤石人子沟遗址为例

考古遗址出土骨制品的研究对于揭示古代社会的动物资源获取和利用、手工业生产、社会组织结构等问题具有重要意义。国内骨制品研究目前多集中在农业区域,这些研究为探讨新石器时代至青铜时代的动物使用及其与社会发展、早期国家形成的关系等问题作出了重要贡献。然而,针对牧业社会骨制品的考察十分缺乏。新疆哈密地区巴里坤草原分布有大量古代牧业文化遗址,石人子沟遗址（43°31'12.8"~43°34'28.9"N,93°13'44.8"~93°16'49.1"E）是其中一处青铜时代晚期至铁器时代早期的大型聚落。本文从动物考古学视角研究该遗址2006年至2011年发掘出土的426件骨制品。结果显示,石人子沟遗址骨制品的原料主要为以羊（Ovis aries/Capra hircus）、马（Equus caballus）为主的家养动物和以鹿（Cervidae）为主的野生动物,其中羊的比例最高（69.7%）,鹿（13.8%）、马（2.3%）次之,这与中原地区青铜时代农业文化遗址的骨制品多以牛为原料的情况明显不同。羊在骨制品原料中占绝对多数且大量使用羊距骨制品的现象是对石人子沟遗址以牧业为主的生业经济方式的直接反映。石人子沟遗址不同类型骨制品的制作各具特点,但整体表现出"省时省力"的特点,即对使用部位细致打磨,对非使用部位仅做简单处理。与中原地区商周时期大型制骨作坊规范化、规模化、产业化的骨器生产不同,石人子沟遗址未见专门的制骨场所,骨制品生产的操作链条也并不完整。遗址的骨制品生产可能是以家庭为单元进行的,产品的专业化、精细化程度也相对较低。该研究填补了我国古代牧业文化遗址出土骨制品动物考古学专门研究的空白,为进一步探究我国古代不同区域、不同生业经济基础下的制骨手工业面貌提供了重要资料。

     

Hα emission objects in Circinus

We present a new survey for Hα emission objects in the Circinus cloud complex and introduce an efficient photometric method for detecting Hα emission via observations in a narrow‐band filter. The observed flux is compared to a blackbody fit of the continuum. Our search strategy reveals 20 stars with strong Hα emission (EW > 10 Å), eight of them being new detections. All Hα stars display infrared excess corroborating their youth. On the other hand, the region contains a number of infrared excess objects that do not show Hα emission. Our results support the picture that accretion – as witnessed by Hα emission – is a highly variable phenomenon. Therefore, Hα surveys can only trace the temporarily active objects. In contrast, infrared excess is a more robust tracer that reveals most of the population of young stellar objects in a star forming region. Our analysis of the general stellar content of the region yields a reliable distance of 450 pc for the Circinus cloud. Moreover, we find a ratio of total‐to‐selective extinction of R^V = 2.8 suggesting that smaller‐than‐normal dust grains may be present. (© 2013 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

福建明溪上地幔热结构及流变学特征

通过对采自福建明溪的幔源包体样品的详细研究,建立了该区上地幔的地温线,探讨其流变学特征。所获地温线高于大洋地温线,但稍低于中国东部和澳大利亚东南部地温线。由该地温线推导的壳幔边界为３８ｋｍ左右,但尖晶石二辉橄榄岩在３２ｋｍ左右即已开始出现,表明存在上地幔物质的底侵作用。同样,尖晶石二辉橄榄岩和石榴子石二辉橄榄岩包体平衡温度有所重叠,表明两者不是截然分开,其间存在有５￣１０ｋｍ的过渡带。包体的变形特     

Mineralogical, chemical, and crystallographic properties of supergene jarosite-group minerals from the Xitieshan Pb-Zn sulfide deposit, northern Tibetan Plateau, China

Supergene jarosite-group minerals are widespread in weathering profiles overlying Pb-Zn sulfide ores at Xitieshan, northern Tibetan Plateau, China. They consist predominantly of K-deficient natrojarosite, with lesser amounts of K-rich natrojarosite and plumbojarosite. Electron microprobe (EMP) analyses, scanning electron microcopy (SEM) investigation, and X-ray mapping reveal that the jarosite-group minerals are characterized by spectacular oscillatory zoning composed of alternating growth bands of K-deficient and K-bearing natrojarosite (K₂O >1 wt.%). Plumbojarosite, whenever present, occurs as an overgrowth in the outermost bands, and its composition can be best represented by K_0.29Na_0.19Pb_0.31Fe_2.66Al_0.22(SO₄)_1.65(PO₄)_0.31(AsO₄)_0.04(OH)_7.37. The substitution of monovalent for divalent cations at the A site of plumbojarosite is charge balanced by the substitution of five-valent for six-valent anions in XO₄ at the X site. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) of representative samples reveal mass losses of 11.46 wt.% at 446.6 °C and 21.42 wt.% at 683.4 °C due to dehydroxylation and desulfidation, respectively. TGA data also indicate that the natrojarosite structure collapses at 446.6 °C, resulting in the formation of NaFe(SO₄)₂ and minor hematite. The decomposition products of NaFe(SO₄)₂ are hematite and Na₂SO₄. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses show that the jarosite-group minerals have mean unit-cell parameters of a?=?7.315 Å and c?=?016.598 Å. XRD and EMP data support the view that substitutions of Na for K in the A site and full Fe occupancy in the B site can considerably decrease the unit-cell parameter c, but only slightly increase a. The results from this study suggest that the observed oscillatory zoning of jarosite-group minerals at Xitieshan resulted mainly from substitutions of K for Na at the A site and P for S at the X site.