Concentration of Heavy Metals in Dominant Moss Species as an Indicator of Aerial Technogenic Load

The concentrations of nickel and copper were determined in mosses Hylocomium splendens and Pleurozium schreberi sampled in 1991 and 2011 at the same sites in the Lapland State Biosphere Reserve located in the impact area of atmospheric emissions from the Severonickel Smelter Combine (Monchegorsk, Murmansk Region, Russia). Both moss species have been confirmed to adequately reflect the levels of aerial technogenic load and can be used equally to monitor environmental pollution from heavy metals. It has been statistically proven that not only the volume of atmospheric emissions of polymetallic dust and the distance to the pollution source affect the concentrations of heavy metals in the studied moss species, but the wind rose and relief are also of importance.     

Effect of UV radiation and artificial acid rain on productivity of wheat

Responses of physiological parameters to UV irradiation of seeds and acid spraying of plants grown from them have been studied in several wheat species. It has been shown that, in a given species, presowing UV irradiation alone and combined UV and acid treatment generally produce a similar effect. Moreover, they have no significant influence on the yielding capacity of most species and, in some cases, even improve this parameter. All the species studied may be regarded as tolerant of these stress factors.     

Application of soft computing to predict water quality in wetland

Prediction of water quality is a critical issue because of its significant impact on human and ecosystem health. This research aims to predict water quality index (WQI) for the free surface wetland using three soft computing techniques namely, adaptive neuro-fuzzy system (ANFIS), artificial neural networks (ANNs), and group method of data handling (GMDH). Seventeen wetland points for a period of 14 months were considered for monitoring water quality parameters including conductivity, suspended solid (SS), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), ammoniacal nitrogen (AN), chemical oxygen demand (COD), dissolved oxygen (DO), temperature, pH, phosphate nitrite, and nitrate. The sensitivity analysis performed by ANFIS indicates that the significant parameters to predict WQI are pH, COD, AN, and SS. The results indicated that ANFIS with Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE = 0.9634) and mean absolute error (MAE = 0.0219) has better performance to predict the WQI comparing with ANNs (NSE = 0.9617 and MAE = 0.0222) and GMDH (NSE = 0.9594 and MAE = 0.0245) models. However, ANNs provided a comparable prediction and the GMDH can be considered as a technique with an acceptable prediction for practical purposes. The findings of this study could be used as an effective reference for policy makers in the field of water resource management. Decreasing variables, reduction of running time, and high speed of these approaches are the most important reasons to employ them in any aquatic environment worldwide.

     

塔里木河中游水盐梯度下的物种多样性研究

根据塔里木河中游5个断面30眼地下水监测井和30个植物样地2006—2008年调查监测的数据,分析了输水堤防修建后地下水埋深、地下水质以及物种多样性的变化及其相互关系。结果表明:地下水埋深的空间变化表现为沿河道方向先增加后减小的趋势,在时间上则表现为,从2006年到2008年埋深呈逐渐增加的特点;地下水化学类型的变化,在空间上表现出沿着河道方向有由Cl-—SO42-—Na+—Mg2+向Cl-—Na+类型转变的趋势,在时间上,地下水矿化度逐渐增加。物种多样性总体上呈现增加变化,地下水位和水质对塔里木河中游物种多样性变化有着密切的关系,地下水埋深2.8~3.7 m,矿化度1.8~2.4 g·L-1水平下的多样性较高,随着地下水埋深的增大和矿化度的升高,物种多样性水平降低。     

A2O工艺活性污泥中可培养丝状细菌的多样性

活性污泥法是应用最广泛的污水处理方法之一,但是由于丝状菌过度繁殖而引发的污泥膨胀是制约其发展的重大难题.本研究从A2O工艺城市污水处理系统的膨胀期活性污泥中分离培养出17株丝状细菌.对各菌株进行了16S rDNA测序和系统发育树分析,结果表明,这些分离的可培养丝状细菌均属于链霉菌属;利用rep-PCR指纹图谱技术进一步分析了所得菌种属内多样性,显示出活性污泥中链霉菌存在丰富的多样性.由于这些可培养丝状细菌与引起污泥膨胀的优势丝状菌(微丝菌)生理特征差别较大,不会在污水处理系统中过度繁殖,本研究向活性污泥中投加一定量的链霉菌分离菌株,发现部分菌株对污泥的沉降性能有明显改善作用,为污泥膨胀的防控提供了新的思路.     

Simulation of flow field and steel/slag interface in the mold region of a thin slab steel continuous caster with tetra-furcated nozzle

A three dimensional steady flow field model in the mold region of a thin slab steel continuous caster is presented using real geometrical dimension starting from the inlet port of the nozzle. The results indicate a special flow pattern in the caster while using a tetra-furcated nozzle. The fluid pattern in the mold region is shown to have two large downward and upward recirculation zones with a classic double-roll and two small vortices generated by the upward flow from the upper ports of the submerged entry nozzle. The flow pattern agrees well with the real observation obtained by full scale water model. This study investigates the interface wave behavior and its mechanism that leads to the breakup of the steel/slag interface, and thus the induction of impurities inside the final steel product. It is shown that a maximum wave height occurred because of the fluid contact from the upper ports. A critical casting speed was defined as the casting speed lead to wave instability, mostly associated with emulsification phenomena.     

Evaluation of DNA damage in the root cells of Allium cepa seeds growing in soil of high background radiation areas of Ramsar – Iran

Plants are unique in their ability to serve as in situ monitors for environmental genotoxins. We have used the alkaline comet assay for detecting induced DNA damage in Allium cepa to estimate the impact of high levels of natural radiation in the soils of inhabited zones of Ramsar. The average specific activity of natural radionuclides measured in the soil samples for ²²⁶Ra was 12,766 Bq kg⁻¹ whereas in the control soils was in the range of 34–60 Bq kg⁻¹. A positive strong significant correlation of the DNA damage in nuclei of the root cells of A. cepa seeds germinated in the soil of high background radiation areas with ²²⁶Ra specific activity of the soil samples was observed. The results showed high genotoxicity of radioactively contaminated soils. Also the linear increase in the DNA damage indicates that activation of repair enzymes is not triggered by exposure to radiation in HBRA.     

A basic neural traffic noise prediction model for Tehran’s roads

We present an artificial neural network model to predict hourly A-weighted equivalent sound pressure levels (L_Aeq,1h) for roads in Tehran at distances less than 4 m from the nearside carriageway edge. Our model uses the UK Calculation of Road Traffic Noise (CORTN) approach. Data were obtained from 50 sampling locations near five roads in Tehran at nearside carriageway edge distances of less than 4 m. The data were randomly assigned to training, testing, and holdout subsets. Model training was carried out using the training and testing subsets and comprised 60% and 20% of the data, respectively. Model validation was performed using the remaining 20% of data as a holdout subset. We examine the overall model efficiency using non-parametric tests, such as the Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test for the training step and the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test for two independent samples for the validation step. Our results indicate that a neural network approach can be applied for traffic noise prediction in Tehran in a statistically sound manner. The Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks test detects no significant difference between the absolute testing set errors of the developed neural network and a calibrated version of the CORTN model.