Convection in rotating annular channels heated from below. Part 1. Linear stability and weakly nonlinear mean flows

Convection in a Boussinesq fluid in an annular channel rotating about a vertical axis with lateral rigid sidewalls, stress-free top and bottom, uniformly heated from below is investigated. The sidewalls are assumed to be either perfectly insulating or conducting. Three different types of convection are identified when the channel is rotating sufficiently fast: (i) global oscillatory convection preferred for small Prandtl numbers in channels with intermediate or large aspect ratios (width to height ratio), (ii) wall-localized oscillatory convection representing the most unstable mode for moderate or large Prandtl numbers in channels with intermediate or large aspect ratios and (iii) global stationary convection preferred in channels with sufficiently small aspect ratios regardless of the size of the Prandtl number. The corresponding weakly nonlinear problem describing differential rotation and meridional circulation is also examined, showing that geostrophic, multiple-peaked (two prograde and two retrograde) differential rotation can be maintained by the Reynolds stresses in wall-localized convective eddies in a rapidly rotating channel.     

Reliable Procedure for Molecular Analysis of Airborne Microflora in Three Indoor Environments: An Office and Two Different Museum Contexts

Biological aerosols from air constitute a significant source of exposure to microorganisms in public places. Airborne microorganisms are involved in the development of certain respiratory symptoms, allergies, or infections among users and occupants. Various sampling instruments have commonly been used in aerobiology to collect bacteria and fungi suspended in the air. The objective of this study was to develop a reliable procedure for sampling in indoor public environments presenting different levels of occupancy, airborne bacteria and fungi to be subjected to molecular analysis (bacteria and fungi quantitative PCR, capillary electrophoresis single strand conformation polymorphism fingerprinting). Four different sampling devices were tested in situ in an office building (open‐plan type) and the sampling strategy chosen was tested in two museum contexts. In accordance with the drawbacks involved to our study (quantitative and qualitative aspects, cost, and overcrowding), cyclone device appeared to be most suitable. The results underline the effectiveness of this high‐volume aerosol sampling device for both qualitative and quantitative molecular analysis. Four in situ sampling collections were carried out in 1 day in the Louvre Museum to study quantitative and qualitative variations of airborne bacterial and fungal diversity. The quantitative results revealed a similar order of magnitude for the numbers of both bacteria and fungi. In the Louvre Museum, the samples yielded between 3.7 × 10⁴ and 4.1 × 10⁴ genome equivalent (GE) bacteria/m³ air and between 5.0 × 10⁴ and 5.9 × 10⁴ GE fungi/m³ air and in the Decorative Arts Museum between, 2.1 × 10⁴ and 2.5 × 10⁴ GE bacteria/m³ air and between 1.4 × 10⁴ and 1.7 × 10⁴ GE fungi/m³ air. The results also indicate that the dominant bacterial community displayed a stable structure over a short period of time whereas dominant eukaryotic airborne community appeared more variable.     

Field Evaluation of Arid Soils Wetting Pattern in Subsurface Drip Irrigation Scheme

A field study evaluating wetted radius (Wr), downward depth (Dd), and upward movement (Um) under different emitter discharges and lateral depths was conducted. Four emitter discharges (2, 4, 8, and 16 L/h) and four lateral depths (0, 10, 20, and 30 cm) were tested in a clay loam soil. Relationships were found between the emitter discharge and lateral depth versus Wr, Dd, and Um. Wetting area at the surface occurs under different emitter discharges and lateral depths except at 30 cm lateral depth. At lateral depth of 0 and 10 cm, Wr and emitter discharge were positively correlated. The Dd was not affected by emitter discharge except for laterals installed at 20 cm depth. At 30 cm lateral depth, the correlations between each of Wr, Um, and Dd with emitter discharge were poor. The ratios of Wr/Dd and Um/Dd, with respect to emitter position, were less than unity over different emitter discharges and lateral depths. These results shed some light on the design of subsurface drip irrigation scheme so that the spacing between emitters should be determined based on the lateral depths and discharge of emitters. Evaporation losses were negligible for the 30‐cm‐lateral depth since the upward moisture movement has not reached the soil surface area at all discharge rates tested in the study.     

Catalyzed Reactions on Mineral Plaster Materials Used for Indoor Air Purification

Zeolites have been used for a long time for purification and catalytical purposes. Recently, first products appeared on the market using zeolites also for improving the indoor air quality so far volatile organic compounds (VOC) are concerned. However, porous compounds like zeolites can be found also in plaster material. Therefore, it was manifest to evaluate the capability of plaster with regard to air cleaning. In this article, the contribution of plaster compounds toward adsorption and catalytical decomposition of VOCs is evaluated using α‐pinene, chlorobenzene, 2‐ethoxyethylacetate, and pentanal as target substances under standard conditions (23°C, 50% r.H.). These compounds were chosen because of their VOC typical physicochemical properties like molecular dimensions, density, boiling point, vapor pressure, and octanol–water distribution coefficient (logk_ow). Hydrated lime and metakaolin were found out to have good adsorption properties under these circumstances. Also natural zeolites showed good results especially on pentanal. By investigations in environmental chambers the reduction potential of test plasters on chlorobenzene and 2‐ethoxyethylacetate concentrations could be shown. Application of coatings had no or only temporary influence on the performance of the plaster. Additional tests in small chambers demonstrated the possibility to improve the properties of plasters with help of FAU‐ or MFI‐type zeolites but the experiments also showed that α‐pinene and pentanal undergo chemical reactions. Further effort should be made on investigations also toward other compounds, especially more volatile ones like formaldehyde. Also additional building materials like insulation material or boards should be taken into account.     

Regulating Environmental Factors of Nutrients Release from Wheat Straw Biochar for Sustainable Agriculture

One mechanism by which biochar application enhances soil nutrient availability is through direct nutrients release from biochar. However, factors controlling the release processes are poorly understood. In this study, the effects of pH, biochar to water ratio, temperature, ionic strength, and equilibration time on the release of PO, NO, NH, K⁺, Na⁺, Ca²⁺, and Mg²⁺ from biochar were evaluated in simulated experiments. The release of PO, K⁺, Ca²⁺, and Mg²⁺ was significantly affected by extraction pH, suggesting that their release from biochar was pH dependent or an H⁺‐consuming process. Correlation analysis indicated that PO and Ca²⁺, PO and Mg²⁺, and Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ were co‐solubilized with increasing soil acidity. To a lesser extent, the recovery of the nutrients was also affected by the ratio of biochar to water: more nutrients were soluble with more water supply. In contrast, the release of Na was not affected by pH while the concentration increased with decreasing biochar to water ratio. Meanwhile, other factors (temperature, ionic strength, and equilibration time) had less effect on nutrient release from biochar. Under the influence of pH, the patterns of NO and PO release from biochar were different: extractable NO concentration was not affected by the pH but more PO was released in strongly acidic conditions. Our data suggested that P was mainly retained in inorganic forms while N was in organic forms in biochar. We conclude that environmental factors have marked influences on nutrients release from biochar.     

Mapping efficiency and information content

This paper proposes two compound measures of mapping quality to support objective comparison of spatial prediction techniques for geostatistical mapping: (1) mapping efficiency – defined as the costs per area per amount of variation explained by the model, and (2) information production efficiency – defined as the cost per byte of effective information produced. These were inspired by concepts of complexity from mathematics and physics. Complexity i.e. the total effective information is defined as bytes remaining after compression and after rounding up the numbers using half the mapping accuracy (effective precision). It is postulated that the mapping efficiency, for an area of given size and limited budget, is basically a function of inspection intensity and mapping accuracy. Both measures are illustrated using the Meuse and Ebergötzen case studies (gstat, plotKML packages). The results demonstrate that, for mapping organic matter (Meuse data set), there is a gain in the mapping efficiency when using regression-kriging versus ordinary kriging: mapping efficiency is 7% better and the information production efficiency about 25% better (3.99 vs 3.14 EUR B⁻¹ for the GZIP compression algorithm). For mapping sand content (Ebergötzen data set), the mapping efficiency for both ordinary kriging and regression-kriging is about the same; the information production efficiency is 29% better for regression-kriging (37.1 vs 27.7 EUR B⁻¹ for the GZIP compression algorithm). Information production efficiency is possibly a more robust measure of mapping quality than mapping efficiency because: (1) it is scale-independent, (2) it can be more easily related to the concept of effective information content, and (3) it accounts for the extrapolation effects. The limitation of deriving the information production efficiency is that both reliable estimate of the model uncertainty and the mapping accuracy is required.     

土壤水分对土壤参数的敏感性及其参数优化方法研究

利用2008年1月1日至2009年9月31日黑河流域阿柔冻融观测站的气象和土壤水分数据,采用基于方差的多参数敏感性分析方法研究通用陆面模型(Common Land Model,CoLM)模拟的土壤水分对土壤质地(砂土和黏土)的敏感性,进而采用SCE-UA参数优化算法分别优化土壤质地和土壤水力参数,分析不同优化策略对土壤水分模拟结果的影响。研究结果表明,浅层土壤水分对土壤质地较为敏感,敏感性系数达到了0.45以上,并且砂土含量对土壤水分的影响更为显著;利用SCE-UA算法优化土壤质地或土壤水力参数都可以有效地提高土壤水分的模拟精度,优化土壤水力参数易产生"异参同效"现象,而优化土壤质地能够使土壤水力参数的取值范围更加合理。     

Stratified convection with multiple states

A simplified box model of the cooling of a salt-stratified ocean is analyzed analytically and numerically. A large isothermal basin of salt water has a layer of fresh water at the surface. Beside this is a small basin, cooled from above and connected to the large basin by horizontal tubes at the top, middle and bottom. For small cooling rate, fresh water enters the small basin, is cooled and leaves through the middle tube. For greater cooling rate, the fresh water leaves the small basin through the middle and bottom tube. If the top tube is smaller than the deeper tubes and the fresh water layer is sufficiently shallow, flow in the middle tube reverses at a critical cooling rate. In this case, a mixture of salt and fresh water is cooled and leaves the bottom tube. Increased cooling produces much greater flow rate; consequentially temperature increases rather than decreases in the small basin. A relaxation heat flow condition results in multiple equilibria. One of the stable modes has fresh surface water descending in the small basin and flowing out through the middle and bottom tube. The other has a greater rate of flow of both fresh and salty water (through the middle tube) into the basin with the flow of mixed salty water out of the bottom tube. Implications for deep convection in the ocean are discussed.     

空地异常组合特征分析与找矿

根据航空物探资料及地面查证（包括地质观察、地面磁法、电法、化探等）资料,探讨了空地异常组合特征与铁及多金属矿产的关系。在综合分析的基础上,初步建立了利用空地异常组合特征寻找铁及多金属矿的分析方法,对于今后利用空地综合方法确定找矿目标具有一定的指导意义。     

淮南矿区新集二矿1煤地面排水钻孔的设计施工

新集二矿的主采煤层位于山西组的底部,受到下伏太原组岩溶裂隙含水层的威胁。为缓解井下的防治水压力．采用了在地面施工排水孔的防治水思路。根据钻孔的位置及地层情况,采用了泥浆循环钻进与空气潜孔锤钻进相结合的方法。由于在钻孔施工过程中,发生了泥浆向巷道渗漏的情况,为保证钻孔施工安全及井下生产安全而对钻孔设计深度进行了调整,从而顺利的完成了该孔的钻探施工任务。此孔的成功,可为类似地区施工矿井防治水钻探工程提供借鉴。