The use of acidimetric titration as a novel approach to study particulate trace metal speciation and mobility: Application to sediments of the Scheldt estuary

The study of trace metal speciation has benefited from a great deal of interest leading to the development and the diversification of sequential extraction schemes (SES), which triggered the need for harmonization by the standard, measurements and testing programme (SM & T). However, some uncertainties still persist in the application of the harmonized 3-step protocol, because of the difficulty in conceptualizing a technique that can be applied to environmental samples irrespective of their nature. The alternative method proposed in this study is based on the solubility of the sample components progressively dissolved during the course of an acidimetric titration by 1 mol L⁻¹ HCl. The major HCl-reactive mineralogical components are identified using mass balance calculation of H⁺ consumed by their dissolution together with the amount of major elements released into solution. The speciation of minor and trace elements is investigated by comparing their titrations to those of the major elements. This approach is much simpler than SES because it uses simple non-selective H⁺ at room temperature instead of a complex experimental design of so-called specific reagents. The different mineral components of the solid are no longer operationally defined and the problem of selectivity is irrelevant to the titration approach. The method was applied to several sediment samples from the Scheldt estuary and the particulate phase was further examined by Scanning Electron Microprobe and X-ray Diffraction techniques. The nearly complete consumption of H⁺ in the suspension is balanced by the total dissolution of carbonates and Fe-oxyhydroxides. In contrast to the speciation inferred from the Tessier SES, the acidimetric titration has demonstrated that the carbonate phase does not significantly contain trace metals with the exceptions of 40% of the Mn and 30% of the Co. In contrast, the Fe-oxyhydroxides seem to play a major role and account for 70% of Pb and 20% of Cr, in addition to 60% of P and additional amounts of 20% Co and 40% Mn. 70% of the Cu also occur in the oxyhydroxide phase, more likely coprecipitated with gibbsite. 90% of the Cd and 85% of Zn can be attributed to the Acid Volatile Sulfide (AVS) phase as evidenced from S titration. The acidimetric titration method not only provides information on the speciation of trace metals but also allows the quantification of their reactivity and mobility, if one considers that the titration roughly mimics pH changes that may occur as a result of chemical disequilibrium in the environment. The results demonstrate the potential of the acidimetric titration as an alternative to SES protocols in geochemical and environmental regulation studies. This method is applicable to a wide variety of environmental materials with little or minor adjustments.     

甘肃“5·5"黑风暴小波分析

用小波变换理论对１９９３年春季甘肃省河西走廊地区一场特大黑风暴进行了分析。结果表明，小波分析能比较客观地将时间序列中不同时间尺度的振动分离开，使我们能清楚地看到黑风暴中的中尺度扰动。     

A numerical study of the pre-ejection, magnetically-sheared corona as a free boundary problem

A class of magnetostatic equilibria with axial symmetry outside a unit sphere in the presence of plasma pressure and an r ^–2 gravitational field is constructed. The structure contains a localized current-carrying region confined by a background bipolar potential field, and the shape of the region changes subject to the variation of the electric current. The continuity requirement for the magnetic field and plasma pressures at the outer boundary of the cavity defines a free boundary problem, which is solved numerically using a spectral boundary scheme. The model is then used to study the expansion of the current-carrying region, caused by the buildup of magnetic shear, against the background confining field. The magnetic shear in our model is induced by the loading of an azimuthal field, accompanied by a depletion of plasma density.We show that due to the additional effect of confinement by the dense surrounding plasma, the energy of the magnetic field can exceed the energy of its associated open field, presumably a necessary condition for the onset of coronal mass ejections. (However, the plasma beta of the confining fluid is higher than that in the outer boundary of a realistic helmet-streamer structure.) Furthermore, under the assumption that coronal mass ejections are driven by magnetic buoyancy, the result from our model study lends further support to the notion of a suspended magnetic flux rope in the low-density cavity of a helmet-streamer as a promising pre-ejection configuration.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.     

Cadmium and phosphorus cycling in the water column of the South China Sea: The roles of biotic and abiotic particles

The concentrations of cadmium, phosphorus, and aluminum in size-fractionated phytoplankton, zooplankton, and sinking particles are determined using ICPMS to evaluate the roles of biotic and abiotic particles on the cycling and ratios of Cd and P in the water column. Plankton were collected with a filtration apparatus equipped with 10-, 60-, and 150-μm aperture plankton nets on two occasions (2002 and 2006), and sinking particles were sampled by moored sediment traps deployed at depths of 120, 600, and 3500 m from 2004 to 2005. In contrast to what our previous study revealed, i.e., that most of the other bioactive trace metals in plankton were strongly correlated with abiotic Al and adsorbed on phytoplankton [Ho, T.Y., Wen, L.S., You, C.F., Lee, D.C., 2007. The trace metal composition of size-fractionated plankton in the South China Sea: biotic versus abiotic sources. Limnol Oceanogr 52, 1776–88.], Cd/P ratios, ranging from 0.12 to 0.34 mmol/mol P, did not vary with Al and exhibited fairly consistent values among different sizes of plankton, showing that Cd was mostly incorporated on an intracellular basis. In terms of the sinking particles, fluxes in Cd and P as well as in Cd/P ratios were strongly influenced by both biotic and abiotic particles. Overall, the Cd/P ratios in the sinking particles ranged from 0.03 to 1.2 mmol/mol, with the highest value observed in traps at 120 m during the productive season. The lowest value was observed in deep water during high flux periods for lithogenic particles. At surface depth, flux and Cd/P ratios were elevated during the most productive season in the region. The elevated ratios in the traps at 120 m were most likely related to preferential uptake of Cd for the dominant species (coccolithophores) during the productive period. Relatively, Cd/P ratios sharply decreased with increasing Al flux in deep water and ratios were much lower than the expected Cd/P ratios obtained from the relative portion of lithogenic and biogenic particles, indicating that the adsorption of soluble P into lithogenic particles was significant in the deep water during high lithogenic particle flux periods. Using averaged annual fluxes and standing stock in the water column, the residence time of biogenic Cd and P are 0.10 and 0.20, 250 and 100, and 9100 and 5000 years respectively in the top 120 m, 600 m, and water column as a whole, also showing preferential removal for Cd in the euphotic zone but relatively higher removal rates for P in the deep water. Our study suggests that the shift in microalgal community structure along with input of lithogenic minerals are both potentially important factors in influencing Cd/P ratios in oceanic water on a geological time scale.     

Experiments on the reflection coefficients of a detached breakwater in a directional wave field

Results of estimating the directional wave fields in front of a detached breakwater are presented here in this paper. Two of non-phase-locked methods, i.e., the Maximum Likelihood Method (MLM) and the Extended Maximum Entropy Principle Method (EMEP), were adopted for the purpose. In general, the latter outperforms the former. It is shown that the reflection coefficients decrease with increasing distances away from the detached breakwater, and within four wavelengths from the detached breakwater, the rate of the decrease is faster for wave fields having larger directional spreads. When the measuring distance is more than four wavelengths away from the detached breakwaters, the reflection coefficients tend to reach to a constant value. It is shown that, with the use of the non-phase-locked EMEP method, the effective region can be extended, as compared with the results of Huntley and Davidson [J. Waterw. Port Coast. Ocean Eng. 124 (1998) 312].     

Possible Evidence of Long-Term Oscillations in the Solar Atmosphere

We have obtained the temporal correlation function, Q(t), from time sequences of Caii K filtergrams and Dopplergrams from Antarctica, Taiwan Oscillation Network (TON) and Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). Q(t) gives the time evolution of the pattern under examination, supergranulation in this case. It has been found that Q(t) shows oscillatory signals of both 5-min and long-term periods. The 5-min oscillations are suppressed by averaging the images over 10 min. An exponential decay curve which represents the lifetime trend of supergranules, is fitted to Q(t) and subtracted out. The Q(t) residuals thus obtained contain the oscillatory component and are then subjected to a periodogram analysis. Significant periodicities in the range of 1.4–10 hours have been noted. The causes of these oscillations are not fully known at present, but the instrumental and atmospheric factors can be ruled out, pointing to solar origin. Various possibilities are discussed. Some of the observed periodicities may be considered as probable candidates for long-term oscillations in the Sun, such as the elusive gravity modes.     

Disk Galaxies with Finite Thickness

The effect of finite thickness on the properties of disk galaxies is calculated on the basis of a rigorous mathematical treatment in terms of Green function and Bessel Fourier transformation. In our approach, the mass of the galactic halo is determined by fitting the observed rotation curve with a five-component model. We not only choose a bulge, a thin disk and a halobut also include a nuclear bulge (i.e. the Galactic Nucleus) and a thick disk. The effect of finite thickness of the disk on both the radial and vertical self-gravity is considered in detail. The vertical dynamics of this three-dimensional system is also investigated.     

Neutrino reactions in strong magnetic field

We present the energy losses due to several neutrinos processes: (1) synchrotron neutrinos, (2) pair annihilation neutrinos, (3) plasmon neutrinos, and (4) photoneutrinos in the presence of a superstrong magnetic field. Numerical results are tabulated and illustrated for several values of densities and temperatures. In the low density regime (10⁷ g cm^–3) the presence of a magnetic field decreases the luminosity, whereas the opposite is true at higher densities. This last effect is however almost entirely due to the existence of a new process the synchrotron neutrinos that disappear whenH0. Even though the overall effect can only be quantitatively ascertain after a complete cooling computation is performed, one should however expect a much lower temperature for neutron star surface than the one computed in theH=0 case.     

Plasmon neutrinos emission in a strong magnetic field

The decay of a longitudinal plasmon into two neutrinos is studied in the presence of a strong magnetic field. Contrary to the transverse case, for longitudinal plasmons the existence of a new mode, entirely dependent on the magnetic field, greatly enhances the energy loss at high densities. Denoting byQ _HandQ ₀the neutrino energy losses with and without magnetic field respectively, the situation is as follows: atH10¹¹ G andT10⁹K,Q ₀10⁵ Q _Hfor <10¹¹g cm^–3, WhileQ _H10¹⁰ Q ₀for >10¹¹g cm^–3. A second physically interesting feature is the anisotropic character of the energy loss which is highly peaked along the field lines, giving rise to a shorter cooling time in that direction than in any other.     

Acoustic Imaging of Solar Active Regions – (Invited Review)

Acoustic imaging is a new method to construct the acoustic signal at a point on the solar surface or in the solar interior with the signals measured at the solar surface. The constructed signals contain both intensity information and phase information. The intensity is computed by summing the squared amplitude of the constructed signal over time. The phase of constructed signals can be studied by the cross-correlation function between the time series constructed with ingoing waves and outgoing waves. The location of the envelope peak of the cross-correlation function and the phase of the cross-correlation function contain different information on the physical conditions of the plasma along the wave path. From the constructed signals, one can form the two-dimensional outgoing intensity map, absorption map, phase-shift map, and envelope-shift map of a target region at different focal depths. The perturbed physical conditions caused by the magnetic fields of active regions manifest in these maps. The outgoing intensity is lower in magnetic regions than the quiet Sun. The group travel time and phase travel time are smaller in magnetic regions than in the quiet Sun. In this paper, we review the studies of active regions, including emerging flux regions, with acoustic imaging.