Hydrochemical properties of transition zone between fresh groundwater and seawater in karst environment of the Adriatic islands, Croatia

Eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea consists of karstified carbonates. It belongs to the well-known Dinaric karst region. The coast is extremely indented and there are 718 islands with numerous rock crags and reefs. Some of the inhabited islands use their own water resources for public water supply, or plan to do it in the future. Since karst rocks are extremely permeable, the seawater intrudes into underground water resources, thereby forming the wedge. A wide transition zone occurs between this seawater wedge and fresh water aquifers. Consequently, island groundwater reserves turn brackish to a certain extent. In this study, 77 water samples were collected from a wide variety of water resources. Comprehensive statistical and mathematical multivariate analysis of these data was performed. Simple statistical approach showed several useful correlations among some parameters, and more complex multivariate techniques extracted three factors in connection with three natural processes: (1) mixing with the seawater, (2) carbonate dissolution and (3) human influence (pollution) and nitrogen transformation processes. The results of this study demonstrate that in situ measurement of electrical conductivity is adequate for the very rough field estimation of numerous parameters

Hybrid nanostructured particles via surfactant-free double miniemulsion polymerization

Double emulsions show significant advantages for microencapsulation but are thermodynamically unstable. Here the authors show, that silica nanocapsules with nanorattles or Janus-like nanomushroom structures can be prepared by stabilizing double emulsions with a silica precursor polymer and subsequent polymerization of the oil phase

Providing the bivariate anomaly map of Cu–Mo and Pb–Zn using combination of statistic methods in Parkam district, Iran

U-statistic method is one of the most important univariate structural methods which considers spatial situation of samples. The U-statistic method could be combined with other methods because it devotes a new value to each sample. However, this method separates anomaly based on one variable. The goal in present study is to use and extend this method in multivariate mode. For this purpose, the U-statistic method should be combined with a multivariate method which devotes a new value to each sample based on several variables. Therefore, the U-statistic was applied on Mahalanobis distance values of samples because Mahalanobis distance is calculated based on several variables. This method is a combination of efficient U-statistic and Mahalanobis distance and is used for the first time. Combination results for Cu, Mo, Pb and Zn elements in Parkam district, Kerman, Iran, led to better performance of these two methods. Results show that samples indicated by the combination of these methods as anomalous are more regular; less dispersed and are more accurate than using just one of them. Also it was observed that combination results (especially for Cu and Mo) are closely associated with the defined zone of potassic alteration in the study area. Finally, bivariate lithogeochemical maps of the study area are provided for Cu–Mo and Pb–Zn which have been prepared using combination of the U-statistic and the Mahalanobis distance methods