An Air‐Cooled,High‐Yield,Compact and Inexpensive Teflon Still for High‐Purity Reagents

Mattinson’s (1972) well‐known simple design of a sub‐boiling still for the preparation of ultra high‐purity reagents consists of two Teflon bottles connected at right angles with one acting as the feed bottle and heated on its upper surface by infrared radiation and the other kept in a cold water bath serving both as the condenser and receiver. Connection of the two bottles in a vertical configuration and replacement of radiative surface heating with conductive bulk heating result in an equally simple and inexpensive still but with a smaller footprint, much larger yield and higher energy efficiency using only ambient air cooling. It can be easily configured for tandem distillation, supply of continuously purified reagent and fractional distillation. Ease and very low cost of fabrication of this still may be of particular interest to many geochemical laboratories requiring up to 500 ml of mineral acids and other common reagents per day.     

Measurement of rainfall interception by xerophytic shrubs in re-vegetated sand dunes / Mesure de l'interception de la pluie par des arbustes xérophiles sur des dunes de sable replantées

Abstract

More than 40 years of re-vegetation using mainly xerophytic shrubs Artemisia ordosica Krasch. and Caragana korshinskii Kom. at Shapotou Desert Experimental Research Station near Lanzhou, China has resulted in established dwarf-shrub and herbaceous cover on sand dunes. Precipitation, as the sole source of water replenishment in the semiarid area, plays a pertinent role in sustaining the desert ecosystem. A field study was conducted to (a) measure interception loss on shrub canopies during individual rainfall events, (b) determine the canopy storage capacity of individual plants, and (c) explore the relationship between interception and rainfall parameters. The total rainfall and its respective partitions as throughfall were determined and the interception losses in the studied ecosystem were quantified. Interception loss was shown to differ among the xerophyte taxa studied. During the growing seasons, the average shrub community interception loss is 6.9% and 11.7% of the simultaneous overall precipitation, for A. ordosica and C. korshinskii, respectively. Taking into account the observed rainfall conditions and vegetation cover characteristics, it was concluded that the interception loss was 2.7% of the total annual precipitation verified in the period for the A. ordosica community with an average cover of 30%, canopy projection area of 0.8 m₂ and canopy storage capacity of 0.75 mm. In contrast, interception loss for the C. korshinskii community was 3.8% with an average cover of 46%, canopy projection area of 3.8 m² and canopy storage capacity of 0.71 mm. For individual plants of both shrubs, the proportion of interception loss to gross rainfall decreased notably as the rainfall intensity increased between 0 and 2 mm h^?1, while it tended to remain constant at about 0.1–0.2 for A. ordosica and 0.1–0.3 for C. korshinskii when the rainfall intensity was >2 mm h^?1.     

The ultimate summit eruption of Puy de Dôme volcano (Chaîne des Puys,French Massif Central) about 10,700 years ago

The Puy de Dôme volcano is a trachytic lava dome, about 11,000 y old. New pyroclastic layers originating from the volcano itself were discovered covering the summit and the flanks of the volcano. These pyroclastic layers do not fit with the previous interpretation, assuming a non-explosive dome-forming eruption. The tephra display pyroclastic surge features and exhibit fresh trachytic lapilli, basement lithics, allogeneous basaltic lava and clinker fragments requiring an open vent eruption. This ultimate eruption occurred after a period of rest, long enough for vegetation to develop on the volcano, as evidenced by carbonized plant fragments. Radiocarbon dating of some of these fragments gave an age of c.10,700 y also suggesting a significant rest duration.     

Modelling diffusion in a heterogeneous rock matrix with a time-domain Lagrangian method and an inversion procedureModélisation de la diffusion dans une matrice rocheuse hétérogène par une méthode lagrangienne dans le domaine des temps et une procédure d'inversion

A Lagrangian method in time domain is proposed to solve transport by diffusion over large grids such as those extracted from autoradiographs of rock samples. The method is rapid and well suited to simulate out-diffusion experiments in a heterogeneous rock matrix. By coupling with a Gauss–Newton optimiser, it is possible to identify automatically the diffusion coefficients of porous areas in the matrix. This offers a more comprehensive view of a potential transport of contaminants, e.g., after a leak from an underground repository site. To cite this article: F. Delay et al., C. R. Geoscience 334 (2002) 967–973.     

GIS数据在J2ME/J2EE集成中的传输研究

存储在Oracle9i Spatial中的GIS数据可实时为移动用户提供位置服务,本文研究了GIS数据在为MIDP移动用户提供位置服务的数据传输方案,在有线环境下采用XML格式传输,在无线环境下采用自定义格式,在带宽高的有线环境下保持了数据的可读性,在带宽窄的无线环境下尽量减少了传输的数据量,并在J2ME/J2EE集成环境中进行了测试和对比。     

华北北部侏罗纪大型推覆构造带前缘盆地沉积特征和成因机制初探

华北北部的晚侏罗世沉积盆地群产生于自北向南的挤压构造背景下,为燕山-阴山大型推覆构造带的前缘拗陷盆地。盆地中以充填巨厚的红色粗碎屑堆积为特征,沉积环境主要包括网状河流、冲积扇、干化湖泊及沙漠。碎屑沉积物中普遍含有大量的非稳定组分,是在高沉积速率下形成的近源堆积产物,与这一时期曾存在强烈的构造隆升活动有关。初步分析表明,一些地段的逆冲系具有向南推进的特点,并形成背驮式盆地。     

太湖霍甫水丝蚓(Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri Claparède)的时空格局

2005年1-12月对太湖霍甫水丝蚓进行了逐月调查.太湖霍甫水丝蚓年均密度和生物量分别为3273.75 ind./m2和4.697 g/m2,均在2月份达到最大值.根据体长频数分布的周年变化,推测太湖霍甫水丝蚓一年有三代.太湖霍甫水丝蚓密度和生物量在空间上表现出明显的差异性,且随季节变化较小,其高值区域均出现在太湖北部梅梁湾和竺山湾及西部河口湖区,而在其它区域的现存量均较低.分析表明太湖霍甫水丝蚓空间差异可能与营养水平、底质类型、可摄食的食物及生境的稳定性等因素有关.     

Hydrological processes in macrocatchment water harvesting in the arid region of Tunisia: the traditional system of tabias/Processus hydrologiques au sein d’un aménagement de collecte des eaux dans la région aride tunisienne: le système traditionnel des tabias

Abstract

Abstract In arid Tunisia, a tabia system is a traditional macrocatchment water harvesting system. It consists of a runoff area, which occupies two thirds of the slope and is traditionally used for grazing; and one to five cropped plots within U-shaped soil banks arranged in a cascade in the third downstream area. These ?run-on? areas accumulate and store the occasional runoff. Each soil bank is constructed with a discharge weir that allows modification of the flooded area and discharge of excess water towards downstream plots. Such a harvesting system, located in an area with 140 mm annual rainfall, was instrumented during four hydrological years (1995–1999) and 45 rainfall events were recorded. Eleven of these events gave a measurable inflow to at least one of the four plots. The observations showed that the traditional tabia system reduced total surface runoff from the catchment to essentially zero. The harvesting system significantly reduced peaks of surface runoff within the catchment, which also reduced erosion hazards. The cultivated area of about 5% of the total catchment could be supplied by a harvested water amount corresponding to about seven times the amount of each rainfall event larger than 20 mm.     

Suspended sediment estimation using neuro-fuzzy and neural network approaches/Estimation des matières en suspension par des approches neurofloues et à base de réseau de neurones

Abstract

The abilities of neuro-fuzzy (NF) and neural network (NN) approaches to model the streamflow–suspended sediment relationship are investigated. The NF and NN models are established for estimating current suspended sediment values using the streamflow and antecedent sediment data. The sediment rating curve and multi-linear regression are also applied to the same data. Statistic measures were used to evaluate the performance of the models. The daily streamflow and suspended sediment data for two stations—Quebrada Blanca station and Rio Valenciano station—operated by the US Geological Survey were used as case studies. Based on comparison of the results, it is found that the NF model gives better estimates than the other techniques.