Evaluation of some pollutant levels in environmental samples collected from the area of the new campus of Taif University

The levels of radioactivity and heavy metals in soil, plant and groundwater samples collected from the area of the new campus of Taif University, Saudi Arabia, and its neighbouring areas have been determined. High-resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy was used for radioactivity measurements, and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy was used to determine the concentration of heavy metals. The means of ²²⁶Ra, ²²⁸Ra and ⁴⁰K concentrations in water samples collected from four wells were found to be 0.13±0.03, 0.05±0.03 and 1.3±0.5 Bq l^?1, respectively. The means of ²³⁸U, ²²⁶Ra, ²²⁸Ra (²³²Th for soil samples) and ⁴⁰K concentrations in wild plant and soil samples were found to be 3.7±4.1, 8.8±11.6, 3.8±2.9 and 1025±685, and 8.6±3.4, 12.8±3.4, 16.6±7.1 and 618±82 Bq kg^?1 dry weight (DW), respectively. The ¹³⁷Cs of artificial origin was also detected in soil samples with a mean concentration of 3.8±2.2 Bq kg^?1 DW. Evaluating the results, it can be concluded that the concentrations of ²³⁸U, ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K in soil samples fall within the world average. Furthermore, 19 trace and major elements in groundwater samples and 22 elements in soil and plant samples were determined. The sampling locations of soil can be classified into three groups (relatively high, medium and low polluted) according to their calculated metal pollution index using the contents of trace and major elements. A cluster analysis of the contents of radioactivity and trace element contents in soil samples shows the presence of two main distinct clusters of sampling locations.     

The dose dependence of 45 keV V+ and Bi+Ion sputtering yield of copper

The sputtering yield of 45 keV V⁺ ions on copper is found to decrease with increasing dose even for very large doses, whilst the yield of 45 keV Bi⁺ ions on copper increases with increasing dose until approximately ten times the projected range of the Bi⁺ ions has been sputtered away. The fate of the incoming V⁺ and Bi⁺ ions was investigated. A radiotracer technique showed that vanadium accumulated on the target surface, whilst bismuth diffused into the target, as was seen by means of Rutherford-scattering of light ions.     

不同土壤FTIR分类研究

利用傅里叶变换红外光谱(FTIR)对5种不同类型的土壤进行了研究,结果显示,其红外光谱主要是由碳酸盐、硝酸盐、磷酸盐、锰酸盐等无机盐类,黏土矿物及有机质的振动吸收带组成。五种土壤的红外光谱在1600~750cm-1范围内呈现出差异,作一阶导数处理后,发现其差异主要表现在1440cm-1、875cm-1及798~780cm-1附近。选取1600~750cm-1范围内的一阶导数数据运用Matlab 2010来实现主成分分析,前两个主成分累计贡献率达到90.14%,利用这两个主成分作二维散点分布图,结果表明该分布能对这五种土壤进行有效分类,这为土壤鉴定提供了快捷的光谱手段,同时表明傅里叶变换红外光谱技术用于对土壤的研究,且具有测定快速方便、无损、准确等优点,具有较大的应用潜力。     

Nitrogen-15 Leaching Under Temporarily Weedy Maize

Abstract

In pot experiments the effect of a temporary infestation of maize by Chenopodium album L. on water and nitrogen leaching after a simulated strong rainfall was tested for a silty loam and a loamy sand. The results show that the leaching of ¹⁵N under the initial stage of maize can be reduced considerably by a temporarily weed infestation. Neither yield of maize nor uptake of nitrogen until corn maturity were reduced on both a silty loam and a loamy sand.     

Airborne Nitrogen Input at Four Locations in the German State of Saxony-Anhalt - Measurements using the 15N-Based ITNI-System

Abstract

The amount of atmospheric N deposition in Germany is actual rather uncertain. Estimates using standard methods indicate an N deposition of 30–35 kg N/ha × year. However, the results of long-term field experiments and newly by the ITNI (Integrated Total Nitrogen Input) system could prove a much higher N input of about 50–60 kg N/ha × year. The reason for this difference is that standard methods use wet-only or bulk collectors, which neglect gaseous and organic N deposition as well as direct N uptake by aerial plant parts. By contrast, the ITNI-system is able to measure the total atmospheric N input using the ¹⁵N isotope dilution method. The input of airborne N into a soil/plant system leads to a dilution of the abundance of a previously applied ¹⁵N tracer over a defined time period. The atmospheric N deposition can be calculated from this dilution.

To estimate the actual N input in Central Germany, ITNI measurements were carried out from autumn 1998 to autumn 2000 at four locations in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Atmospheric N depositions between 45 and 75 kg N/ha × year were determined depending on the location. These results closely match to N balances of longterm field experiments. Furthermore, a relationship was found between N deposition and the plant species used as well as plant development.     

Block low-rank single precision coarse grid solvers for extreme scale multigrid methods

Extreme scale simulation requires fast and scalable algorithms, such as multigrid methods. To achieve asymptotically optimal complexity, it is essential to employ a hierarchy of grids. The cost to solve the coarsest grid system can often be neglected in sequential computings, but cannot be ignored in massively parallel executions. In this case, the coarsest grid can be large and its efficient solution becomes a challenging task. We propose solving the coarse grid system using modern, approximate sparse direct methods and investigate the expected gains compared with traditional iterative methods. Since the coarse grid system only requires an approximate solution, we show that we can leverage block low-rank techniques, combined with the use of single precision arithmetic, to significantly reduce the computational requirements of the direct solver. In the case of extreme scale computing, the coarse grid system is too large for a sequential solution, but too small to permit massively parallel efficiency. We show that the agglomeration of the coarse grid system to a subset of processors is necessary for the sparse direct solver to achieve performance. We demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method on a Stokes-type saddle point system solved with a monolithic Uzawa multigrid method. In particular, we show that the use of an approximate sparse direct solver for the coarse grid system can outperform that of a preconditioned minimal residual iterative method. This is demonstrated for the multigrid solution of systems of order up to $10^{11}$ degrees of freedom on a petascale supercomputer using 43,200 processes.     

改进X荧光光谱仪快速检测土壤中重金属

针对传统能量色散X荧光仪(energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence,EDXRF)分析土壤中微量重金属测量精确度低的问题,提出了一种X荧光仪改进方法。为了减少反射X射线的影响,入射X射线垂直照射样品,探测器平行放置与样品一侧且垂直于X射线。样品与探测器之间由准直器连接。对国家标样测量结果表明,仪器对Mo,Zn,Cu,Pb,Zr,Nb的检出限为0.4,6.68,1.97,6.84,1.60,7.59 mg·kg-1。各元素对数偏差在0～0.05之间。元素含量在三倍检出限以上RSD%(GBW)小于7,元素含量在三倍检出限内RSD%(GBW)小于15。为了验证改进后X荧光仪测量效果,在大兴安岭地区采集土壤样品与传统荧光仪进行比较分析。改进X荧光仪提高了土壤中微量重金属测量精度,满足野外地质普查要求。     

Dilation and breakage dissipation of granular soils subjected to monotonic loading

Dilation and breakage energy dissipation of four different granular soils are investigated by using an energy balance equation. Due to particle breakage, the dilation curve does not necessarily pass through the origin of coordinates. Breakage energy dissipation is found to increase significantly at the initial loading stage and then gradually become sta-bilised. The incremental dissipation ratio between breakage energy and plastic work exhibits almost independence of the confining pressure. Accordingly, a plastic flow rule consid-ering the effect of particle breakage is suggested. The critical state friction angle is found to be a combination of the basic friction between particles and the friction contributed by par-ticle breakage.     

墨脱区域滑坡滑带土矿物谱学特征及其工程意义

利用X射线衍射、X射线荧光光谱及红外吸收光谱对墨脱县北侧和格林村两处洪积扇滑坡面内采集的滑带土样品测试,分析了的主要矿物、黏土矿物的组成和含量及其化学成分。结果表明,滑带土中主要矿物组成受洪积扇组分控制,其黏土矿物含量分别占9%和10%,墨脱县附近滑动面中滑带土样品的黏土矿物含大量的伊利石,反应出该滑坡事件在很短的时间内完成,滑坡体滑动速率非常高;两处滑带土样品的红外吸收光试均未发现CO2-₃,HCO1-₃或C—H等振动相应产生的吸收峰,表明洪积扇滑动之后,滑坡面处于封闭系统,没有力学性质较差的碳酸盐等外来矿物或含腐蚀质的次生黏土沿滑动面充填进去,其结果增加了滑坡体的稳定性;样品中含有一定量的埃洛石,反应了区域洪积扇发育在非常潮湿温暖的环境中,同时封闭体系内滑带土所含的Na₂O和CaO等化学组分不能通过淋滤作用排出,滑坡面内发生强烈的水-岩相互作用,促使其内部的黏土矿物发生伊利石-伊利石/蒙脱石混层-蒙脱石趋势的转化,导致格林村附近滑坡面内的滑带土中含大量后期分解形成的伊利石/蒙脱石混层。该类黏土矿物组合很大程度上降低了滑带的摩擦强度值,从而提高了再次发生滑坡的危险性。