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An evaluation of biotic ligand models predicting acute copper toxicity to Daphnia magna in wastewater effluent
This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2010 SETAC.The toxicity of Cu to Daphnia magna was investigated in a series of 48-h immobilization assays in effluents from four wastewater treatment works. The assay results were compared with median effective concentration (EC50) forecasts produced by the HydroQual biotic ligand model (BLM), the refined D. magna BLM, and a modified BLM that was constructed by integrating the refined D. magna biotic ligand characterization with the Windermere humic aqueous model (WHAM) VI geochemical speciation model, which also accommodated additional effluent characteristics as model inputs. The results demonstrated that all the BLMs were capable of predicting toxicity by within a factor of two, and that the modified BLM produced the most accurate toxicity forecasts. The refined D. magna BLM offered the most robust assessment of toxicity in that it was not reliant on the inclusion of effluent characteristics or optimization of the dissolved organic carbon active fraction to produce forecasts that were accurate by within a factor of two. The results also suggested that the biotic ligand stability constant for Na may be a poor approximation of the mechanisms governing the influence of Na where concentrations exceed the range within which the biotic ligand stability constant value had been determined. These findings support the use of BLMs for the establishment of site-specific water quality standards in waters that contain a substantial amount of wastewater effluent, but reinforces the need for regulators to scrutinize the composition of models, their thermodynamic and biotic ligand parameters, and the limitations of those parameters.EPSRC and Severn Trent Water
The treatment of mixing in core helium burning models -- III. Suppressing core breathing pulses with a new constraint on overshoot
Theoretical predictions for the core helium burning phase of stellar
evolution are highly sensitive to the uncertain treatment of mixing at
convective boundaries. In the last few years, interest in constraining the
uncertain structure of their deep interiors has been renewed by insights from
asteroseismology. Recently, Spruit (2015) proposed a limit for the rate of
growth of helium-burning convective cores based on the higher buoyancy of
material ingested from outside the convective core. In this paper we test the
implications of such a limit for stellar models with a range of initial mass
and metallicity. We find that the constraint on mixing beyond the Schwarzschild
boundary has a significant effect on the evolution late in core helium burning,
when core breathing pulses occur and the ingestion rate of helium is fastest.
Ordinarily, core breathing pulses prolong the core helium burning lifetime to
such an extent that models are at odds with observations of globular cluster
populations. Across a wide range of initial stellar masses (), applying the Spruit constraint reduces the core
helium burning lifetime because core breathing pulses are either avoided or
their number and severity reduced. The constraint suggested by Spruit therefore
helps to resolve significant discrepancies between observations and theoretical
predictions. Specifically, we find improved agreement for , the observed
ratio of asymptotic giant branch to horizontal branch stars in globular
clusters; the luminosity difference between these two groups; and in
asteroseismology, the mixed-mode period spacing detected in red clump stars in
the \textit{Kepler} field.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS; 11 pages, 6 figure
Two-parameter generalization of the logarithm and exponential functions and Boltzmann-Gibbs-Shannon entropy
The -sum () and the
-product
() emerge naturally within nonextensive statistical
mechanics. We show here how they lead to two-parameter (namely, and
) generalizations of the logarithmic and exponential functions (noted
respectively and ), as well as of the
Boltzmann-Gibbs-Shannon entropy
(noted ). The remarkable properties of the
-generalized logarithmic function make the entropic form
to satisfy,
for large regions of , important properties such as {\it
expansibility}, {\it concavity} and {\it Lesche-stability}, but not necessarily
{\it composability}.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure
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