Reproducibility and imputation of air toxics data

Ambient air quality datasets include missing data, values below method detection limits and outliers, and the precision and accuracy of the measurements themselves are often unknown. At the same time, many analyses require continuous data sequences and assume that measurements are error-free. While a variety of data imputation and cleaning techniques are available, the evaluation of such techniques remains limited. This study evaluates the performance of these techniques for ambient air toxics measurements, a particularly challenging application, and includes the analysis of intra- and inter-laboratory precision. The analysis uses an unusually complete-dataset, consisting of daily measurements of over 70 species of carbonyls and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) collected over a one year period in Dearborn, Michigan, including 122 pairs of replicates. Analysis was restricted to compounds found above detection limits in > or =20% of the samples. Outliers were detected using the Gumbell extreme value distribution. Error models for inter- and intra-laboratory reproducibility were derived from replicate samples. Imputation variables were selected using a generalized additive model, and the performance of two techniques, multiple imputation and optimal linear estimation, was evaluated for three missingness patterns. Many species were rarely detected or had very poor reproducibility. Error models developed for seven carbonyls showed median intra- and inter-laboratory errors of 22% and 25%, respectively. Better reproducibility was seen for the 16 VOCs meeting detection and reproducibility criteria. Imputation performance depended on the compound and missingness pattern. Data missing at random could be adequately imputed, but imputations for row-wise deletions, the most common type of missingness pattern encountered, were not informative. The analysis shows that air toxics data require significant efforts to identify and mitigate errors, outliers and missing observations, and that these steps are essential and should be performed prior to using these data in receptor, exposure, health and other applications.     

Study of the Climate Change Impacts on Water Quality in the Upstream Portion of the Cau River Basin,Vietnam

This paper presents simulations of climate change impacts on water quality in the upstream portion of the Cau River Basin in the North of Vietnam. The integrated modeling system GIBSI was used to simulate hydrological processes, pollutant and sediment wash-off in the river basin, and pollutant transport and transformation in the river network. Three projections for climate change based on emission scenarios B1, B2, and A2 of IPCC Special Report on Emission Scenarios (SRES) were considered. By assuming that the input pollution sources and watershed configuration were constant, based on 2008 data, water quality in the river network was simulated up to the terminal year 2050. For each climate change scenario, patterns of precipitation in wet and dry year were considered. The change in annual and monthly trends for dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and ammonium ions (NH4+) load and concentration for different portions of the watershed have been analyzed. The results of these simulations show that climate change has more impact on changing the seasonal water quality parameters than on altering the average annual load of the pollutants. The percent change and change pattern in water quality parameters are different for wet and dry year, and the changes in wet year are smaller than those in dry year.     

长江口潮滩芦苇根表铁膜磁性特征及其环境意义

湿地植物根表铁膜对包括重金属在内的物质迁移转化具有重要作用,其氧化铁组成研究备受重视,但利用环境磁学方法进行表征的研究还未见报道.本文对长江口潮滩植物芦苇根系及周边沉积物进行了磁学分析,并结合沉积物粒度、漫反射光谱等测试,对芦苇根表铁膜的磁性矿物组成进行了系统研究.结果表明,芦苇根表铁膜磁性矿物主要包括磁铁矿和赤铁矿.由于沉积物不同深度氧化还原环境的不同,铁膜磁性矿物组成存在垂向差异.研究柱样24 cm深度以上,由于相对氧化的环境,铁膜磁性矿物除磁铁矿外,还有较多的赤铁矿贡献;24 cm深度以下,因根系处于相对还原的环境,磁性矿物以磁铁矿为主.与沉积物相比,24 cm以上深度铁膜中亚铁磁性矿物含量较低,24 cm深度以下则相反,反映铁膜和沉积物磁性矿物来源不同.本项研究表明,磁性测量方法有助于认识湿地植物根表铁膜的矿物组成,对湿地生物地球化学过程研究具有重要价值.     

Removal of petroleum tar from bird feathers utilizing magnetic particles

A previously reported acute temperature dependency for the effective removal of tarry residue from feather clusters, utilising magnetic particles, has also been demonstrated to occur for the plumage of whole birds, whereby a maximum removal of up to 96% may be achieved. The experimental design allows an approximate equilibrium constant, for the distribution of contaminant between the residue and the magnetic particles, to be estimated at each temperature. This allows the thermodynamics of the process to be examined via application of the van't Hoff equation, suggesting an explanation for the phenomenon.     

Acute temperature dependency in the cleansing of tarry feathers utilizing magnetic particles

We have conducted temperature-dependent studies on the removal of a solidified tarry residue from feathers using magnetic particles. These studies demonstrate an acute temperature dependency whereby no contaminant at all is removed below a certain temperature but, at and above this temperature, the removal rapidly approaches 100%. Significantly, this temperature is well below the temperature at which the tarry residue becomes a flowing liquid. This demonstrates that it is possible for magnetic cleansing to remove up to 100% of tarry residue from feathers under temperature conditions that would be benign to a bird.     

Characteristics of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in ambient air of a tropical mega-area,Ho Chi Minh City,Vietnam: concentration,distribution, gas/particle partitioning,potential sources and cancer risk assessment

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - This is the first investigation on overall characteristics of 25 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) (15 PAHs regulated by US-EPA (excluding...