Air pollution transport in the Balkan region and country-to-country pollution exchange between Romania, Bulgaria and Greece

US EPA Models-3 system is used for calculating the exchange of ozone pollution between three countries in southeast Europe. For the purpose, three domains with resolution 90, 30 and 10 km are chosen in such a way that the most inner domain with dimensions 90 × 147 points covers entirely Romania, Bulgaria and Greece.The ozone pollution levels are studied on the base of three indexes given in the EU Ozone Directive, mainly accumulated over threshold of 40 ppb for crops (AOT40C, period May–July), number of days with 8-h running average over 60 ppb (NOD60) and averaged daily maximum (ADM). These parameters are calculated for every scenario and the influence of each country emissions on the pollution of the region is estimated and commented.Oxidized and reduced sulphur and nitrogen loads over the territories of the three countries are also determined. The application of all scenarios gave the possibility to estimate the contribution of every country to the S and N pollution of the others and detailed blame matrixes to be build.Comparison of the ozone levels model estimates with data from the EMEP monitoring stations is made.     

Perceptions of American and Russian environmental scientists of today’s key environmental issues: a comparative analysis

Modern science is global. This is particularly true of environmental science, which has been guided to a considerable extent by international environmental policy. Accordingly, one might expect the standards of scientific research around the globe to have unified over the last 30 years. Yet environmental scientists from different nations and scientific schools have demonstrably dissimilar views on key environmental issues. This is the conclusion we reached after a series of in-depth interviews with prominent American and Russian environmental scientists. The greatest difference was found in the perception of two global issues—stratospheric ozone depletion and climate change.     

Regionalization of climate scenarios impacts on maize production and the role of cultivar and planting date as an adaptation strategy

Understanding climate change and its impacts on crops is crucial to determine adaptation strategies. Simulations of climate change impacts on agricultural systems are often run for individual sites. Nevertheless, the scaling up of crop model results can bring a more complete picture, providing better inputs for the decision-making process. The objective of this paper was to present a procedure to assess the regional impacts of climate scenarios on maize production, as well as the effect of crop cultivars and planting dates as an adaptation strategy. The focus region is Santa Catarina State, Brazil. The identification of agricultural areas cultivated with annual crops was done for the whole state, followed by the coupling of soil and weather information necessary for the crop modeling procedure (using crop model and regional circulation models). The impact on maize yields, so as the effect of adaptation strategies, was calculated for the 2012–2040 period assuming different maize cultivars and planting dates. Results showed that the exclusion of non-agricultural areas allowed the crop model to correctly simulate local and regional production. Simulations run without adaptation strategies for the 2012–2040 period showed reductions of 11.5–13.5 % in total maize production, depending on the cultivar. By using the best cultivar for each agricultural area, total state production was increased by 6 %; when using both adaptation strategies—cultivar and best planting date—total production increased by 15 %. This analysis showed that cultivar and planting date are feasible adaptation strategies to mitigate deleterious effects of climate scenarios, and crop models can be successfully used for regional assessments.     

Leading from the front? Social networks in navigating groups

In many group-living animals, leadership by only a fraction of the group members can be important for group navigation. It has been shown that subgroups of informed individuals can steer the remainder of the group without direct communication, resolving conflicts of interest through individual-to-individual interactions. We present a model for the navigation of collectively moving groups that includes preferential interactions between individuals as a way of imposing social network structures, known to be present in many species. We show that effective leadership can occur when leaders do not occupy frontal spatial positions and when navigation tendency is appropriately balanced with social position. Our model also shows that small minorities can dominate movement decisions if they have navigational knowledge combined with influential social network positions. Our findings highlight the mechanistic importance of social networks for the movement decisions of animal groups. We discuss the implications of our research for interpreting empirical observations.     

Reconstruction of (131)I radioactive contamination in Ukraine caused by the Chernobyl accident using atmospheric transport modelling

The evaluation of (131)I air and ground contamination field formation in the territory of Ukraine was made using the model of atmospheric transport LEDI (Lagrangian-Eulerian DIffusion model). The (131)I atmospheric transport over the territory of Ukraine was simulated during the first 12 days after the accident (from 26 April to 7 May 1986) using real aerological information and rain measurement network data. The airborne (131)I concentration and ground deposition fields were calculated as the database for subsequent thyroid dose reconstruction for inhabitants of radioactive contaminated regions. The small-scale deposition field variability is assessed using data of (137)Cs detailed measurements in the territory of Ukraine. The obtained results are compared with available data of radioiodine daily deposition measurements made at the network of meteorological stations in Ukraine and data of the assessments of (131)I soil contamination obtained from the (129)I measurements.     

An investigation impact of user’s positions in closed space over SAR in the head induced from mobile phone

The purpose of this work was to investigate the impact of user’s positions in close space over the variations of SAR distribution in human head induced from mobile phone under the worst case conditions. The “worst case” considered in this paper refers to conditions that include (1) a half-wavelength dipole antenna, placed near the model of human head—SAM phantom; (2) a vertically oriented dipole antenna, parallel to the side walls of closed space for maximum reflection; (3) metallic closed space acts as a resonant cavity; and (4) 360 randomly selected observation points. We also used a free space model for comparative purposes. The maximum 1- and 10-g average SAR and average SAR in whole-exposed object probability density function curves have been derived to illustrate the percentage of SAR values that have been induced inside SAM for different locations of user in the closed space. The obtained results show that in more than 86.7% of all investigated user’s positions in the metallic closed space, the induced maximum 1-g average SAR in user’s head is in the boundaries of ±10% of maximum 1-g average SAR, when the user use mobile phone in free space. This relationship keep still at maximum 10-g average SAR, where in 85.9% from all investigated user’s positions, SAR values are in boundaries of ±10% of maximum 10-g average SAR in free space. The results showed that closed space causes more significant changes on average SAR in whole-exposed object than maximal SAR values. When we estimated the average SAR in whole-exposed SAM in 85% from all investigated user’s position in closed space, the induced SAR is higher than SAR values in free space model. It can be noted that the highest obtained SAR values in closed space were with 8.5% (for 1 g), 6.7% (for 10-g average SAR), and 15.1% (for average SAR in whole SAM) higher than these of the free space.     

铁(Ⅲ)-丙酮酸盐配合物光解引发水中铬(Ⅵ)还原

初步研究了含有Fe(Ⅲ)及丙酮酸盐的溶液在高压汞灯照射下对铬(Ⅵ)的光还原反应．考察了溶液pH值、Fe(Ⅲ)浓度、丙酮酸钠浓度、Cr(Ⅵ)浓度对反应的影响．分析了光还原反应的动力学及反应机制．结果表明：铁-丙酮酸盐体系能光还原Cr(Ⅵ)；最佳pH为3．0；Cr(Ⅵ)光还原的初始速率随着加入的铁(Ⅲ)、丙酮酸盐、Cr(Ⅵ)初始浓度的增加而增加；实验条件下的表观动力学方程为：-dGCr(Ⅵ)／dt=0．021[Cr(Ⅵ)]0.39[Fe(Ⅲ)r1.05[CH3COCOONa]0.39；Fe(Ⅲ)-丙酮酸盐配合物光解产生的Fe(Ⅱ)是Cr(Ⅵ)的主要还原剂．     

Mechanism of Methylene Blue adsorption on hybrid laponite-multi-walled carbon nanotube particles

The kinetics of adsorption and parameters of equilibrium adsorption of Methylene Blue(MB)on hybrid laponite-multi-walled carbon nanotube(NT)particles in aqueous suspensions were determined.The laponite platelets were used in order to facilitate disaggregation of NTs in aqueous suspensions and enhance the adsorption capacity of hybrid particles for MB.Experiments were performed at room temperature(298 K),and the laponite/NT ratio(X_l)was varied in the range of 0–0.5.For elucidation of the mechanism of MB adsorption on hybrid particles,the electrical conductivity of the system as well as the electrokinetic potential of laponite-NT hybrid particles were measured.Three different stages in the kinetics of adsorption of MB on the surface of NTs or hybrid laponite-NT particles were discovered to be a fast initial stage Ⅰ(adsorption time t=0–10 min),a slower intermediate stage Ⅱ(up to t=120 min)and a long-lasting final stage Ⅲ(up to t=24 hr).The presence of these stages was explained accounting for different types of interactions between MB and adsorbent particles,as well as for the changes in the structure of aggregates of NT particles and the long-range processes of restructuring of laponite platelets on the surface of NTs.The analysis of experimental data on specific surface area versus the value of X_l evidenced in favor of the model with linear contacts between rigid laponite platelets and NTs.It was also concluded that electrostatic interactions control the first stage of adsorption at low MB concentrations.