Synchronization in a Mutualism Ecosystem Induced by Noise Correlation

Understanding the cause of the synchronization of population evolution is an important issue for ecological improvement. Here we present a Lotka-Volterra-type model driven by two correlated environmental noises and show, via theoretical analysis and direct simulation, that noise correlation can induce a synchronization of the mutualists. The time series of mutual species exhibit a chaotic-like fluctuation, which is independent of the noise correlation, however, the chaotic fluctuation of mutual species ratio decreases with the noise correlation. A quantitative parameter defined for characterizing chaotic fluctuation provides a good approach to measure when the complete synchronization happens.     

Organotin concentrations in the Rivers Bure and Yare,Norfolk Broads,England

Butyltin concentrations have been measured at eight freshwater sites (rivers and lakes) in the Norfolk Broads, UK, during 1986 and 1987. Tributyltin (TBT) was found in water samples from seven of the sites. Wherever TBT was present, dibutyltin and (usually) monobutyltin occurred. Levels of TBT exceeded 100 ng dm^?3 in open stretches of both the Rivers Bure and Yare in 1986 and 1987. The highest concentration of TBT recorded for Wroxham Broad (a shallow lake) was 898 ng dm^?3. Values of up to 3.26 μg dm^?3 were measured in water samples taken from a marina. A depth profile for Wroxham Broad showed TBT to be uniformly distributed throughout the shallow water column. The results are discussed in relation to toxicity of TBT to freshwater organisms. Laboratory measurements of the degradation of TBT in freshwater from a marina gave a half-life of six days at 20°C in the light.     

Novel Process Applications Using PHI-TEC II Adiabatic Calorimeter

This paper presents several applications of the PHI-TEC II that are not commonly associated with adiabatic calorimeters but which have proved to be extremely valuable. These include simulation of a deep oil well for enhanced oil recovery, isothermal calorimetry of a semibatch reaction, catalyst research using flow through reactors (both plug flow and CSTR) with controlled feeds of high pressure liquid and gas.This revised version was published online in November 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

S-烷基异硫脲盐作为硫醇替代物经环氧开环反应合成β-羟基硫化物

S-烷基异硫脲盐作为一种无毒、无味、易于制备的硫醇替代物，在碱性水介质中、室温下与多种环氧化合物发生环氧开环反应，区域选择性、高收率地合成了一系列β-羟基硫化物。     

Determination of organometallic compounds in surface water and sediment samples with SPME-CGC-ICPMS

Organometal compounds of tin, mercury and lead were simultaneously determined in environmental water and sediment samples by CGC-ICPMS. Instead of classical liquid/liquid extractions, solid phase microextraction was used as sampling technique. In this method, the organometallic compounds arein situ derivatised in the aqueous phase and simultaneously extracted onto a polydimethylsiloxane fiber, so that organic solvents are no longer necessary. The sorbed organometals are subsequently released from the fiber in the GC injection liner by thermal desorption. By sampling from the headspace, only the species of interest are sampled and no interfering matrix components are coextracted. With this new method, derivatisation, extraction, preconcentration and injection into the GC takes only 10 min with a minimum of handling steps. Owing to the very low detection limits (0.13–3.7 ng/1 as metal) only small sample amounts (25 ml of water, 0.5 g of sediment) are needed for one analysis. Finally, SPME is an inexpensive sampling technique that can be used with standard split/splitless injection systems.     

Maximum likelihood estimation in the proportional hazards cure model

The proportional hazards cure model generalizes Cox’s proportional hazards model which allows that a proportion of study subjects may never experience the event of interest. Here nonparametric maximum likelihood approach is proposed to estimating the cumulative hazard and the regression parameters. The asymptotic properties of the resulting estimators are established using the modern empirical process theory. And the estimators for the regression parameters are shown to be semiparametric efficient.     

An adaptive cut‐cell method for environmental fluid mechanics

In this work we present a numerical method for solving the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in an environmental fluid mechanics context. The method is designed for the study of environmental flows that are multiscale, incompressible, variable‐density, and within arbitrarily complex and possibly anisotropic domains. The method is new because in this context we couple the embedded‐boundary (or cut‐cell) method for complex geometry with block‐structured adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) while maintaining conservation and second‐order accuracy. The accurate simulation of variable‐density fluids necessitates special care in formulating projection methods. This variable‐density formulation is well known for incompressible flows in unit‐aspect ratio domains, without AMR, and without complex geometry, but here we carefully present a new method that addresses the intersection of these issues. The methodology is based on a second‐order‐accurate projection method with high‐order‐accurate Godunov finite‐differencing, including slope limiting and a stable differencing of the nonlinear convection terms. The finite‐volume AMR discretizations are based on two‐way flux matching at refinement boundaries to obtain a conservative method that is second‐order accurate in solution error. The control volumes are formed by the intersection of the irregular embedded boundary with Cartesian grid cells. Unlike typical discretization methods, these control volumes naturally fit within parallelizable, disjoint‐block data structures, and permit dynamic AMR coarsening and refinement as the simulation progresses. We present two‐ and three‐dimensional numerical examples to illustrate the accuracy of the method. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Approaches to uncertainty evaluation based on proficiency testing schemes in chemical measurements

Since the advent of the Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement (GUM) founding the principles of uncertainty evaluation, numerous projects have been carried out to develop alternative practical methods when it is impossible to model technical or economical aspects of the measurement process. These methods can use all the experimental data available to the laboratories, such as repeatability, reproducibility, quality-control charts, etc. The studies presented in this paper compare the results obtained by the modelling method from GUM with the uncertainties found by applying alternative methods. They show two examples, one in the field of environmental monitoring, the other in the biomedical field, based on the exploitation of PT schemes results. Presented at BERM-11, October 2007, Tsukuba, Japan.     

Studies of the naturally occurring biomethylation of selenium and the determination of the products

A systematic study of the biomethylation of selenium and the determination of the methylated species indicates preliminarily that selenium is susceptible to natural biomethylation under certain environmental conditions. Detectable levels of methylated selenium species, including dimethyl selenide [(CH₃)₂Se], dimethyl diselenide [(CH₃)₂Se₂] and dimethylselenone [(CH₃)₂SeO₂] have been detected by gas chromatography – graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometry (GC – GF AA) from a variety of environmental samples. Findings of naturally methylated selenium species from both soil samples and related air samples suggest that there may exist a localized cycle of selenium between ground soil and the ambient air. Factors that influence the sensitivity and accuracy for the determination of alkyl selenide compounds by GC – GF AA have also been investigated. Flashlike injection mode and addition of about 10% of hydrogen gas to the argon carrier gas provide for highly sensitive detection. Reproducible determination can be obtained with a precision of about 6% and the detection limits are 0.3 ng Se m^?3.