Growth in urban extent and allometric analysis of West African cities

Urban area expansion is happening at much faster rates in Asian and African cities than elsewhere in the world. This study uses multi-temporal Landsat images to map the urban extent of six small to large cities in West Africa at four different time steps from the early 1970s–2010. The selected cities are Kumasi of Ghana, Daloa of Cote d’Ivoire, Abuja and Kano in Nigeria, Kindia of Guinea, and Ouagadougou of Burkina Faso. All cities revealed significant urban growth in both urban area and population; however, it was apparent that there was a lot of variability in urban area development. Exponential urban growth rates in the cities were measured as ranging between 0.026 and 0.077, with allometric scaling factors matching those of other countries.     

Comparative acute toxicity of two phytosanitary molecules,lambda-cyhalothrin and acetamiprid,on Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis Niloticus) juveniles

Abstract

This study aimed to compare the toxicity for fish of two active ingredients (lambda-cyhalothrin-20?g L^?1, a pyrethroid, and acetamiprid-15?g L^?1, a neonicotinoid) which are components of a commercial insecticide (Acer 35 EC) used in cotton crop in many West African countries. The juveniles of Oreochromis niloticus (4.01?±?0.34?g, mean body weight) were exposed for 96?h to increasing concentrations of active ingredients (lambda-cyhalothrin and acetamiprid) or a mixture similar to Acer 35 EC (composed by 20?g of chemical compound lambda-cyhalothrin and 15?g of acetamiprid dissolved in 1?L of acetone). The experiments were carried out under controlled conditions in aquaria according to OECD Guidelines. During the experiments, the behavioral responses (loss of balance, color change, hyperactivity, etc.) that usually precede death were observed in exposed fish. Mortalities were recorded in each aquarium and the LC₅₀-96h of each chemical was determined. The LC₅₀-96h obtained were respectively 0.1268, 0.0029, 182.9 and 0.5685?ppm for Acer 35 EC, lambda-cyhalothrin, acetamiprid and mixture. All insecticides used in this study had profound impact on Nile tilapia behavior which may confirm the neurotoxicity of each single active compound as well as of their mixture.     

Review of advances in the thin layer chromatography of pesticides: 2004–2006

Applications of thin layer chromatography and high performance thin layer chromatography for the separation, detection, and qualitative and quantitative determination of pesticides, other agrochemicals, and related compounds are reviewed for the period from July 1, 2004 to November 1, 2006. Analyses are covered for a variety of samples, such as food, crops, biological, environmental, pharmaceuticals, and formulations, and for residues of pesticides of various types, including insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides, belonging to different chemical classes. In addition to references on residue analysis, studies such as pesticide-structure relationships, metabolism, degradation, and lipophilicity are covered, many of which make use of thin layer radiochromatography.     

Effects of methamidophos on the community structure,antagonism towards Rhizoctonia solani,and phlD diversity of soil Pseudomonas

A microcosm incubation study using an aquic brown soil from northeast China (a Cambisol in the UN Food and Agriculture Organization FAO Soil Taxonomy) was conducted to examine the effects of different concentrations (0, 50, 150, and 250 mg kg^?1) of methamidophos (O,S-dimethyl phosphoramidothioato) on Pseudomonas, one of the most important gram-negative bacteria in soil. Amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis (ARDRA) was performed to study the Pseudomonas community structure, an in vitro assay was made to test the antagonistic activity of isolated Pseudomonas strains against soil-borne Rhizoctonia solani, a major member of the pathogens highly related to soil-borne plant diseases, and special primer amplification and sequencing were performed to investigate the diversity of phlD, an essential gene in the biosynthesis of 2, 4-diacetylphloroglucinol (2, 4-DAPG), which has biocontrol activity in phlD ⁺isolates. With exposure to increasing methamidophos concentrations, the total number of soil Pseudomonas ARDRA patterns decreased significantly, but with less change in the same treatments over 1, 3, and 5 weeks of incubation. The number of isolated Pseudomonas strains with antagonistic activity against R. solani as well as the diversity and appearance frequency of the strains' phlD gene also decreased with increasing concentrations of methamidophos, especially at high methamidophos concentrations. Applying methamidophos could increase the risk of soil-borne plant diseases by decreasing the diversity of the soil Pseudomonas community and the amount of R. solani antagonists, particularly those with the phlD gene.     

Supercritical Fluid Extraction for Forensic Analysis of Hydrocarbons in Soil

Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) was investigated to evaluate its potential for obtaining high quality chromatographic fingerprints from soils encountered in environmental investigations. While the volatile and semivolatile fractions of light nonaqueous phase liquid (LNAPL) samples can be “fingerprinted” in a single chromatographic run, it is commonly not possible to obtain samples of LNAPL in the locations of interest. For this and other reasons, it was desirable to develop this method (SFE) of soil extraction, which allows chromatographic fingerprinting of the same quality routinely obtained with LNAPL so that environmental forensic investigations could be extended to areas beyond those containing LNAPL in monitoring wells. In this study, SFE was compared to conventional dichloromethane extraction. Both artificially spiked soil and soil from petroleum release sites were tested. Since water can be a problem when using the SFE method, particular attention was given to handling soils with high moisture contents. The SFE extracts showed excellent retention of low molecular components, including pentanes. Gas chromatography of SFE extracts yielded molecular distributions that showed no significant bias toward either low or high molecular weight components. These results show that SFE can be used to obtain an unbiased, single-run chromatographic “fingerprint” of both volatile and semivolatile hydrocarbons in contaminated soil samples.     

可旋转径向式微粒捕集器消声特性影响因素灰色关联分析

为降低可旋转径向式微粒捕集器中的排气噪声,采用有限元法建立可旋转径向式微粒捕集器声学特性模型,分析得到了其消声特性和传递损失曲线,并采用灰色关联分析方法研究可旋转径向式微粒捕集器结构参数对消声特性的影响程度。结果表明,可旋转径向式微粒捕集器具有降噪能力,且对高频噪声消声效果明显好于低频噪声,平均消声量为20 dB左右;直径比和扩张管锥角是影响可旋转径向式微粒捕集器消声特性的2个主要因素,适当选用小的直径比和扩张管锥角,有利于提高可旋转径向式微粒捕集器的消声性能。     

化学沉淀法强化常规工艺应急去除水中的镉

在常规工艺基础上,通过投加氢氧化钠,实验进行了应急去除重金属镉的研究。实验结果表明,该方法能有效去除饮用水水源的镉,效果稳定,可进行应急处理。对pH、镉初始浓度和混凝剂投加量3个影响因素的灰色关联分析表明,3个因素对镉去除效果影响的大小排序为:滤后水pH>混凝剂投加量>镉初始浓度。在水源镉突发污染时,在原有常规水处理工艺基础上,通过控制滤后水pH可实现对重金属镉的去除,pH的控制值与水源水质有关。     

一种新型活性半焦吸附剂的制备及其表面特征分析

对一种原料半焦进行粉碎、筛分,取其中10～20目的颗粒;用去离子水冲洗后高温下烘干至恒重;依次进行HNO3活化、KOH活化和加压水热化学活化,制备出活性半焦吸附剂。经实验证明,该活性半焦吸附剂对甲苯的吸附等温线符合Langmuir模型,其甲苯吸附容量可达207 mg/g,穿透时间由80 min延长至235 min。该活性半焦吸附剂的比表面积为555.56 m2/g,碘值为811.38 mg/g,表面酸碱总量为0.8649 mmol/g,并通过SEM扫描进行了表面微观形态分析。数据表明,经改性后制备出的新型活性半焦对甲苯的去除率明显增加,其表面物化性质也有明显改变,是一种优良的有机废气吸附剂。     

基于ISO 16750-2的汽车电源异常现象分析

本文通过研究汽车电源异常现象的来源,结合ISO 16750-2及各大车厂的要求,对各种汽车电源异常现象进行了分类和全面的阐述,使大家对ISO 16750-2有更加深入的理解。同时对ISO 16750-2:2010中出现的几个标误进行了分析说明,可供实验室和相关产品的供需双方参考。     

中国与美国对外直接投资区位选择的比较研究

基于邓宁的国际生产折衷理论,对比了中美两国投资规模、空间分布和发展阶段,利用灰色关联分析法比较了影响两国投资区位的因子.结果表明,影响美国对外投资的主要因子是人均GNP、CH和CO2的排放量,影响中国的主要因子是直接投资净流入量、航空运输量和CPI;美国对外直接投资属于市场导向型,而中国尚处于转型期,为对外投资第三阶段.