Renovation of Nitrogenous Wastewater Via Land Application

Removal of inorganic and organic nitrogen from wastewater prior to recharge of ground and surface waters can be accomplished by judicious land application. This study focused attention upon the feasibility of using sprinkler irrigation as the wastewater delivery system with coastal bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon L.,var. coastal) pasture as the wastewater sink. One site was located on a Sawyer soil near El Dorado, while the other was located on a Savannah soil near Malvern. This report is limited to the renovation of surface waters. Results revealed that nitrogen concentration in runoff water from rainfall was substantially less than nitrogen concentration of the wastewater applied to the soil and similar to background levels. Such results support the consideration of land application as a viable wastewater disposal method

Can acyclic conformational control be achieved via a sulfur-fluorine gauche effect?

The gauche conformation of the 1,2-difluoroethane motif is known to involve stabilising hyperconjugative interactions between donor (bonding, σC-H) and acceptor (antibonding, σ*C-F) orbitals. This model rationalises the generic conformational preference of F-Cβ-Cα-X systems (φFCCX ≈ 60°), where X is an electron deficient substituent containing a Period 2 atom. Little is known about the corresponding Period 3 systems, such as sulfur and phosphorus, where multiple oxidation states are possible. Conformational analyses of β-fluorosulfides, -sulfoxides and -sulfones are disclosed here, thus extending the scope of the fluorine gauche effect to the 3rd Period (F-C-C-S(O) n ; φFCCS ≈ 60°). Synergy between experiment and computation has revealed that the gauche effect is only pronounced in structures bearing an electropositive vicinal sulfur atom (S+-O-, SO2)

Estimating Potential Ground and Surface Water Pollution from Land Application of Poultry Litter - II

In Arkansas, approximately 1 Tg of poultry (Gallus gallus domesticus) manure and litter is produced annually. These waste products are commonly applied to pastures as a soil amendment or fertilizer, but excessive application rates and poor management practices could result in nutrient contamination of ground and surface water. The purpose of this study was to: (1) assess the nutrient concentrations in poultry manure and (2) evaluate the nitrogen loss from land-applied poultry litter and manure due to ammonia volatilization and denitrification. Analyses for total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), inorganic nitrogen (Ni), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) were compared in 12 wet and dry hen manure samples. Drying the manure reduced the TKN from 57 to 40 g N/kg on a dry weight basis in wet and dry manure, respectively. The Ni in the manure was in the ammoniacal form with values of 19 and 2 g N/kg for wet and dry manure, respectively. The P and K levels were not influenced by drying the manure and had values of 24 and 21 g/kg, respectively. The results indicate that the nitrogen content of hen manure can be significantly reduced by drying the sample prior to analysis. In a 10-day laboratory study and an 11-day field study to evaluate ammonia volatilization from surface-applied hen manure, results indicated that 37% of the total nitrogen content of the manure was lost. The results indicated that a substantial amount of nitrogen in surface-applied poultry waste can be lost due to ammonia volatilization. Laboratory studies to evaluate denitrification in a Captina silt loam amended with 9 Mg/ha of poultry litter were conducted. When the soil was aerobically incubated for 168 h and then flooded for 66 h, the nitrate-nitrogen level decreased a net of 17 mg N/kg. The results indicated that, if the ammoniacal nitrogen in the litter is oxidized to nitrate under aerobic conditions and then the soil is flooded and available carbon is present, denitrification can occur rapidly. Results from these studies indicate that soil and environmental conditions playa critical role in determining the potential for nitrate pollution of ground and surface water when poultry manure and litter are surface-applied to pastures

A Raman spectroscopic study of carbon phases in impact melt rocks and breccias from the Gardnos impact structure, Norway

Raman spectroscopy suggests that the C was emplaced in at least two separate episodes into the impactites of the Gardnos impact structure

Comprehensive Organic Analysis of Antartic Micrometeorites

Introduction: Micrometeorites (MMs) are thought to be significant contributors of organic material to the early Earth [1], and a variety of techniques have been employed to identify their organic composition [2-6]. These include the identification of key organic groups using combinations of infrared, energy dispersive Xray, electron energy loss and Raman spectroscopy and scanning transmission X-ray microscopy [2-4], highlighting similarities between that of MMs and carbonaceous chondrites. Few studies, however, have focused on the characterisation of individual micrometeoritic organic components. Microscopic L2MS has been used to identify up to C5 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and their alkyl derivatives [5]. A combination of ionexchange chromatography and fluorimetric detection has also been successful in identifying a number of protein amino acids including glycine and alanine [6]. We have previously reported a method to analyse ?g-sized quantities of extraterrestrial materials, with prior application to assessing organic volatile release from MM atmospheric entry heating simulations [7]. In this study we utilise this technique to characterise the organic composition of Antarctic terrestrial particles and MMs collected in 1994 from Cap-Prudhomme [8]

Optical constraints of kerogen from 0.15 to 40 microns: Comparison with meteoritic organics

Kerogens are dark, complex organic materials produced on the Earth primarily by geologic processing of biologic materials, but kerogens have chemical and spectral similarities to some classes of highly processed extraterrestrial organic materials. Kerogen-like solids were proposed as constitutents of the very dark reddish surfaces of some asteroids and are also spectrally similar to some carbonaceous organic residues and the Iapetus dark material. Kerogen can thus serve as a useful laboratory analog to very dark, spectrally red extraterrestrial materials; its optical constants can be used to investigate the effects of particle size, void space and mixing of bright and dark components in models of scattering by dark asteroidal, cometary, and satellite surfaces. Measurements of the optical constants of both Type 2 kerogen and of macromolecular organic residue from the Murchison carbonaceous chondrite via transmission and reflection measurements on thin films are reported. The real part of the refractive index, n, is determined by variable incidence-angle reflectance to be 1.60 + or - 0.05 from 0.4 to 2.0 micrometers wavelength. Work extending the measurement of n to longer wavelengths is in progress. The imaginary part of the refractive index, k, shows substantial structure from 0.15 to 40 micrometers. The values are accurate to + or - 20 percent in the UV and IR regions and to + or - 30 percent in the visible. The k values of organic residues were also measured from the Murchison meteorite. Comparison of the kerogen and Murchison data reveals that between 0.15 and 40 microns, Murchison has a similar structure but no bands as sharp as in kerogen, and that the k values for Murchison are significantly higher than those of kerogen

Environmental dependence of AGN activity in the supercluster A901/2

We present XMM data for the supercluster A901/2, at z ~ 0.17, which is combined with deep imaging and 17-band photometric redshifts (from the COMBO-17 survey), 2dF spectra and Spitzer 24um data, to identify AGN in the supercluster. The 90ksec XMM image contains 139 point sources, of which 11 are identified as supercluster AGN with L_X(0.5-7.5keV) > 1.7x10^41 erg/cm2/s. The host galaxies have M_R < -20 and only 2 of 8 sources with spectra could have been identified as AGN by the detected optical emission lines. Using a large sample of 795 supercluster galaxies we define control samples of massive galaxies with no detected AGN. The local environments of the AGN and control samples differ at >98 per cent significance. The AGN host galaxies lie predominantly in areas of moderate projected galaxy density and with more local blue galaxies than the control sample, with the exception of one very bright Type I AGN very near the centre of a cluster. These environments are similar to, but not limited to, cluster outskirts and blue groups. Despite the large number of potential host galaxies, no AGN are found in regions with the highest galaxy density (excluding some cluster cores where emission from the ICM obscures moderate luminosity AGN). AGN are also absent from the areas with lowest galaxy density. We conclude that the prevalence of cluster AGN is linked to their environment.Comment: 20 pages, 15 figures. MNRAS accepted. Version with full resolution figures, including Figure 14, is available at http://www.sc.eso.org/~rgilmour

Experimental Simulation of Volatile Organic Contributions to Planetary Atmospheres and Surfaces

We present the results of a new simulation of the atmospheric entry heating experienced by extraterrestrial dust particles, quantifying their volatile loss into the early Earth atmosphere and characterising their organic volatile components