Sequential extraction and thermal desorption of mercury from contaminated soil and tailings from Mongolia

Mercury forms in contaminated environmental samples were studied by means of sequential extraction and thermal desorption from the solid phase. The sequential extraction procedure involved the following fractions: water soluble mercury, mercury extracted in acidic conditions, mercury bound to humic substances, elemental Hg and mercury bound to complexes, HgS, and residual mercury. In addition to sequential extraction, the distribution of mercury species as a function of soil particles size was studied. The thermal desorption method is based on the thermal decomposition or desorption of Hg compounds at different temperatures. The following four species were observed: Hg⁰, HgCl₂, HgS and Hg^(II) bound to humic acids. The Hg release curves from artificial soils and real samples were obtained and their applicability to the speciation analysis was considered.      

Comparison of mild extraction procedures for determination of plant-available arsenic compounds in soil

In this work three mild extraction agents for determination of plant-available fractions of elements in soil were evaluated for arsenic speciation in soil samples. Pepper (Capsicum annum, L.) var. California Wonder was cultivated in pots, and aqueous solutions of arsenite, arsenate, methylarsonic acid, and dimethylarsinic acid, at a concentration of 15 mg As kg^–1 soil, were added at the beginning of the experiment. Control pots (untreated) were also included. Deionized water, 0.01 mol L^–1 CaCl₂, and 0.05 mol L^–1 (NH₄)₂SO₄ were used to extract the plant-available fraction of the arsenic compounds in soil samples collected during the vegetation period of the plants. Whereas in control samples the extractable arsenic fraction did not exceed 1% of total arsenic content, soil amendment by arsenic compounds resulted in extraction of larger amounts, which varied between 1.4 and 8.1% of total arsenic content, depending on soil treatment and on the extracting agent applied. Among arsenic compounds determined by HPLC–ICPMS arsenate was predominant, followed by small amounts of arsenite, methylarsonic acid, and dimethylarsinic acid, depending on the individual soil treatment. In all the experiments in which methylarsonic acid was added to the soil methylarsonous acid was detected in the extracts, suggesting that the soil bacteria are capable of reducing methylarsonic acid before a further methylation occurs. No significant differences were observed between analytical data obtained by using different extraction procedures.     

On closedness assumptions in selection theorems

We begin by a short survey of various attempts in selection theory to avoid the closedness assumption for values of multivalued mappings. We collect special cases when Michael's Gδ-problem admits an affirmative solution and we prove some unified theorems of such type. We also show that in general this problem has a negative solution. In comparison with a recent result of Filippov, we work directly in the Hilbert cube rather than in the space of all probabilistic measures endowed with different topologies.     

Liftings of graded quasi-Hopf algebras with radical of prime codimension

Let p be a prime, and let RG(p) denote the set of equivalence classes of radically graded finite dimensional quasi-Hopf algebras over C, whose radical has codimension p. The purpose of this paper is to classify finite dimensional quasi-Hopf algebras A whose radical is a quasi-Hopf ideal and has codimension p; that is, A with gr(A) in RG(p), where gr(A) is the associated graded algebra taken with respect to the radical filtration on A. The main result of this paper is the following theorem: Let A be a finite dimensional quasi-Hopf algebra whose radical is a quasi-Hopf ideal of prime codimension p. Then either A is twist equivalent to a Hopf algebra, or it is twist equivalent to H(2), H_±(p), A(q), or H(32), constructed in [5] and [8]. Note that any finite tensor category whose simple objects are invertible and form a group of order p under tensor is the representation category of a quasi-Hopf algebra A as above. Thus this paper provides a classification of such categories.     

A weak discrete maximum principle for hp-FEM

In this paper, we prove a new discrete maximum principle (DMP) for the one-dimensional Poisson equation discretized by the hp-FEM. While the DMP for piecewise-linear elements is a classical result from the 1970s, no extensions to hp-FEM are available to the present day. Due to a negative result by Höhn and Mittelmann from 1981, related to quadratic Lagrange elements, it was long assumed that higher-order finite elements do not satisfy discrete maximum principles. In this paper we explain why it is not possible to make a straightforward extension of the classical DMP to the higher-order case, and we propose stronger assumptions on the right-hand side under which an extension is possible.