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.     

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.     

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%.     

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。     

多元遥感技术在重庆市露天矿恢复治理动态监测中的应用

为在露天矿山恢复治理过程监督管理中提供技术支撑,通过文献阅读,结合重庆实际,提出了基于多源遥感技术的露天矿山恢复治理综合监测方法,主要包括：利用高分辨率遥感影像结合矿山遥感样本特征以及其他专题数据,识别矿山损毁土地范围;利用中分辨率遥感影像（Landsat数据、高分数据）对植被光谱的响应特征,构建植被指数进行矿山恢复治理植被动态监测;利用星载雷达数据（哨兵数据）通过干涉分析,对矿山范围内地表形变动态监测。此外,还可结合无人机采集数据,开展矿山恢复治理倾斜摄影数据查看和分析。     

锆石中磷的分带趋势、成因及地质意义

本文用电子探针对岩浆和变质重结晶锆石进行了成份分带的研究，结果表明，变质重结晶锆石具有从晶体中心至边缘Ｐ２Ｏ５含量增大的特点，可作为它们的成因标型特征，岩浆锆石则Ｐ２Ｏ５含量变化不稳定，本文论述了它们的成因。     

公路路面热效应对环境气温的影响分析

为定量研究公路对气温观测的影响,本文使用2014年1—5月在陕西省开展的两组公路观测试验的逐分钟温度、风向、风速等气象资料,对比分析了合阳县国道和渭蒲高速公路在不同季节、不同天空状况以及不同背景风速条件下对周围环境气温观测的影响程度和影响距离。试验结果表明:公路对周围的环境温度有一定的增温影响,合阳国道对环境温度的增温影响至75m,增温效应达0.25~0.4℃。高速公路的增温影响至125m,增温效应达0.2~0.4℃。冬季,两条公路白天增温效应较夜间明显,春季,高速公路夜间增温更明显。晴天、多云天气比阴天、降雨天气增温程度大。公路对气温的增温影响存在风速阈值,当风速小于对应阈值时,增温效应明显。公路上来往车流量对气温有一定的叠加增温影响,合阳国道白天车流量150~350辆,叠加增温效应0.05~0.1℃,蒲渭高速白天车流量2000~3500辆,叠加增温效应0.16℃。     

Heavy-Rain expert-system realized by logical language prolog

This article, on the basis of the expert’s analyses and theories of the forecast of heavy-rain, summarizes a variety of the current instruments and methods of forecast and, according to the train of thought of the high-rank forecasters, distills their experiences in forecasting heavy-rain into an inference-tree of 106 junctures from which 101 rule-bases are derived. The logical calculation is automatically carried out with our introduced and developed PROLOG, one of the intelligent languagas by means of micro-computer. This process adopts the uncertain inferential method based on the theory of fuzzy sets, breaks through the limits of two-value logic and is characteristic of the thinking of human brain.     

海洋沉积物微量元素地球化学特征对天然气水合物勘探的指示意义

天然气水合物与资源和全球环境变化等重大科学问题密切相关。前期关于甲烷渗漏区地球化学特征的研究主要集中于浅表层沉积物（＜20 m）,而浅层沉积物（＞20 m）地球化学特征知之甚少。为探讨海洋浅层沉积物微量元素特征与天然气水合物勘探的相关关系,对南海神狐海域沉积物进行了4个站位的钻探取样,分析了样品主、微量元素和有机碳地球化学特征,并采用氧化还原状态以及Mo与TOC相关关系的分析方法进行探讨。结果显示,沉积物主量元素特征主要受到陆源碎屑物质输入的主导,与天然气水合物富集无明显关系。水合物赋存段及附近沉积物中Ba和Mo元素高度富集,存在明显的“Ba峰”和“Mo峰”,主要是由于天然气水合物分解释放大量甲烷产生的硫化环境所导致。因此,沉积物中的Ba和Mo富集特征可作为识别可能存在天然气水合物分布的重要地球化学指标。     

太湖14000年以来古环境演变的湖泊记录

本文根据东西太湖短柱岩芯的沉积物的物理、化学、生物指标的综合分析,讨论了该区距今14ka来的古气候变化过程,结果表明14.3-13.3kaBP,太湖水位低,环境指标甚至表现为暴露特征,反映了气候干旱:13.3-12.4kaBP,为偏暖湿的过渡阶段;该孔柱270-280cm (11.5kaBP左右)各类指标均明显反映冷干特征,可能是YoungerDrays事件的记录,与我国东部其它地区有可比性;约10.9-10kaBP,这一时期是整个研究时段内一个较显著的温暖期。表现为还原沉积环境和水位相对较深;约10-7.2kaBP为冷暖交替的过渡带;7.2-5.737kaBP为暖湿气候;5.05kaBP多项分析指标发生突变,反映物源发生显著变化,可能存在沉积间断;表层沉积物则呈现现代环境的特征,西太湖藻类生长茂盛,偏氧化的沉积环境。目前湖泊生产力较高,富营养化程度高,表现为藻型湖泊特征;东太湖有机质来源以东太湖中生长较为茂盛的维管水生植物为主,目前湖泊生产力较低,富营养化程度低,表现为典型的草型湖泊特征。