Seasonal studies on cadmium concentration and toxicity, oxygen consumption, digestive gland glycogen, and lipid in dog whelks collected at Aberystwyth, Wales

The concentration of cadmium in Nucella was investigated at different times of the year at one site. There was no significant difference in tissue cadmium at the times of the year investigated but tissue zinc was more variable. Accumulation and toxicity of cadmium were studied using 50–600 μg Cd l⁻¹ for 21 days. There was no significant seasonal difference in the rate of cadmium uptake but mortality appeared to vary with the season. Nucella did not survive 21 days at 600 μg Cd l⁻¹, but at lower concentrations 50–100 μg Cd l⁻¹ all survived.

Although there was significant drop in oxygen consumption between 7 and 14 days it did not appear to be related to the cadmium exposure. Glycogen levels on the other hand showed a decrease after cadmium treatment, while lipid values remained unchanged. Results are discussed in relation to energy source, season, and adaptation to the environment.     

Trace element concentrations of soils, plants and waters caused by a copper smelting plant and other industries, Northeast Turkey

The study area is situated in a large agricultural field which produces tobacco, maize, and other yearly cultivated vegetables in Tekkeköy, Samsun (NE-Turkey). In addition, a significant part of this area to the north along the Black Sea coast is occupied by several industrial plants such as a copper smelting plant (KB?), a fertilizer plant (Tügsa?) and industrial park facilities (IPF). In order to reveal their environmental impacts, heavy metal analyses were conducted on soil, plant leaves and water samples collected within an area of approximately 30 km² around these plants. Soil samples within an area of 10 km² around these facilities are found to be highly polluted with Cu, Zn, Pb, Fe and Mn. Pollution occurs at surface and sharply dies out at 20 cm downwards in soil profile. Since the region is polluted mostly with base metals, the copper smelting factory appears to be the main source of pollution as it processes the massive sulfidic ores of the Black Sea area. Plants show Cu, Pb, Zn and Fe pollution around KB? and Tügsa? and Cu and Pb around IPF. Pollutants observed in tobacco (Nicotiana tobacum) are Cu, Pb, Zn, Fe and S; in maize (Zea mays) Cu, Zn and Fe; and in cabbage (Brassica oleracea) Cu, Pb, Fe and S. The analyses of water samples collected from the study area reveal that Pb and, to a lesser degree, Cu and Fe pollution stem from KB?; Cu, Fe and Mn pollution from Tügsa?; Pb and minor amounts of Fe and Mn pollution from IPF. Factor analyses from analyzed metals and anionic complexes in water show three distinct groups: (a) an association of heavy metals with Na, K and Mg referring to pollution and acid leaching of soil, (b) an association of NH4, Fe, SO₄, Cl and Br indicating agricultural pollution and sea-water invasion in land near the shore line, and (c) HCO₃ behaving in a different manner in heavy metal precipitation.     

Regional Geothermal Characterisation of East Anatolia from Aeromagnetic,Heat Flow and Gravity Data

East Anatolia is a region of high topography made up of a 2-km high plateau and Neogene and Quaternary volcanics overlying the subduction-accretion complex formed by the process of collision. The aeromagnetic and gravity data surveyed by the Mineral Research and Exploration (MTA) of Turkey have been used to interpret qualitatively the characteristics of the near-surface geology of the region. The residual aeromagnetic data were low-pass filtered and analyzed to produce the estimates of magnetic bottom using the centroid method and by forward modelling of spectra to evaluate the uncertainties in such estimates. The magnetic bottom estimates can be indicative of temperatures in the crust because magnetic minerals lose their spontaneous magnetization at the Curie temperature of the dominant magnetic minerals in the rocks and, thus, also are called Curie point depths (CPDs). The Curie point depths over the region of Eastern Anatolia vary from 12.9 to 22.6 km. Depths computed from forward modelling of spectra with 200–600 km window sizes suggest that the bottom depths from East Anatolia from the magnetic data may have errors exceeding 5 km; however, most of the obtained depths appear to lie in the above range and indicate that the lower crust is either demagnetized or non-magnetic. In the interpretation of the magnetic map, we also used reduction-to-pole (RTP) and amplitude of total gradient of high-pass filtered anomalies, which reduced dipolar orientation effects of induced aeromagnetic anomalies. However, the features of the RTP and the total gradient of the high-pass filtered aeromagnetic anomalies are not highly correlated to the hot spring water locations. On the other hand, many high-amplitude features seen on the total gradient map can be correlated with the ophiolitic rocks observed on the surface. This interpretation is supported by Bouguer gravity data. In this paper, we recommend that the sources of the widespread thermal activity seen in East Anatolia must be investigated individually by means of detailed mapping and modelling of high resolution geophysical data to assess further the geothermal potential of the region.     

Triaxial Primaries in Circular Hill Problem

Astronomy Reports - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of the shapes of the primaries and the variation parameter of the smallest body mass in the frame of Hills problem which...     

Triaxial Primaries in Collinear Circular Perturbed 4-body Configuration

Astronomy Reports - Analytical as well as numerical studies are presented for the motion properties of the smallest body under the influence of the triaxial primaries, the small perturbations in...     

Optimal placement of DVFC controllers on buildings subjected to earthquake loading

The dynamic responses of tall civil structures due to earthquakes are very important to the civil engineer. These dynamic responses can produce situations that can range from uncomfortable to unsafe for the building occupants. In recent years classical control theory has been used in civil engineering to reduce the dynamic responses of tall civil structures. Most optimal control algorithms for civil structures involve full state feedback control which requires good estimates of the velocity and displacements throughout the structure. However, there are several important advantages of output feedback control: it takes less computational effort and it has the robustness of passive systems. In this paper, optimal control algorithms are formulated for the optimization of feedback gains and controller placement for building structures. The fundamental basis for these algorithms is the calculation of the gradient of the performance function with respect to the gain matrix. The effectiveness of the algorithm is demonstrated for deterministic earthquake loads in the time domain. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimization of water allocation in the Shatt al-Arab River under different salinity regimes and tide impact

Wastewater effluents from irrigation and the domestic and industrial sectors have serious impacts in deteriorating water quality in many rivers, particularly in areas under tidal influence. There is a need to develop an approach that considers the impact of human and natural causes of salinization. This study uses a multi-objective optimization–simulation model to investigate and describe the interactions of such impacts in the Shatt al-Arab River, Iraq. The developed model is able to reproduce the salinity distribution in the river given varying conditions. The salinity regime in the river varies according to different hydrological conditions and anthropogenic activities. Due to tidal effects, salinity caused by drainage water is seen to intrude further upstream into the river. The applied approach provides a way to obtain optimal solutions where both river salinity and deficit in water supply can be minimized. The approach is used for exploring the trade-off between these two objectives.     

Influence of output size of stochastic weather generators on common climate and hydrological statistical indices

Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment - While Stochastic Weather Generators (SWGs) are used intensively in climate and hydrological applications to simulate hydroclimatic time...     

Responses in Phenotypic Plasticity of Amaranthus palmeri and Polygonum orientale to Soil Factors under Different Habitats

The extension and structure of functional traits variation in response to different soil factors between invasive and native plants are poorly understood. Functional traits and soil factors of the invasive plant Amaranthus palmeri and its coexisting plant Polygonum orientale are investigated under three heterogeneous habitats: roadside (rs), wasteland (wl), and riverbank (rb) in Tianjin, China. The shoot dry weight (SDW) and leaf nitrogen (LN) of A. palmeri are significantly higher compared with P. orientale, while A. palmeri has significantly lower leaf dry weight (LDW), leaf area (LA), leaf carbon (LC), and leaf C/N ratio under different habitats. The larger phenotypic plasticity of A. palmeri is one of the important reasons for their successful invasion to heterogeneous habitats. Similarly, the soil water content (SWC) of both species shows a significant difference (p < 0.05) with maximum in riverbank habitat to lowest in roadside habitat. Soil N/P ratio, C/N ratio, and C/P ratio of rb habitats are significantly lower compared to wl and rs habitats (p < 0.05). A redundancy analysis indicates that SWC is the dominant soil factor affecting the functional traits of A. palmeri and P. orientale. However, A. palmeri forms an environmental adaptation strategy by changing traits of SDW, LN, and leaf C/N ratio, which is different from P. orientale by changing traits of LA and LDW.