Analysis of intermittency in submillimeter radio and hard x-ray data during the impulsive phase of a solar flare

We present an analysis of intermittent processes occurring during the impulsive phase of the flare SOL2012-03-13, using hard X-rays and submillimeter radio data. Intermittency is a key characteristic in turbulent plasmas and has so far only been analyzed for hard X-ray data. Since in a typical flare the same accelerated electron population is believed to produce both hard X-rays and gyrosynchrotron radiation, we compare the two time profiles by searching for intermittency signatures. For this, we define a cross-wavelet power spectrum, which is used to obtain the local intermittency measure, or LIMLIM. When greater than three, the square LIMLIM coefficients indicate a local intermittent process. The LIM2LIM2 coefficient distribution in time and scale helps to identify avalanche or cascade energy release processes. We find two different and well-separated intermittent behaviors in the submillimeter data: for scales greater than 20 s, a broad distribution during the rising and maximum phases of the emission seems to favor a cascade process; for scales below 1 s, short pulses centered on the peak time are representative of avalanches. When applying the same analysis to hard X-rays, we find that only the scales above 10 s produce a distribution related to a cascade energy fragmentation. Our results suggest that different acceleration mechanisms are responsible for tens of keV and MeV energy ranges of electrons

Treatment of landfill leachate: Removal of ammonia by struvite formation

This paper presents a study of ammoniacal nitrogen removal by chemical precipitation resulting in the formation of ammonium and magnesium phosphat (MgNH4PO4·6H2O), known as struvite, from the leachate in the Delta A landfill, located in the city of Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil. After the addition of a magnesium source (MgCl2·6H2O), and phosphorus  (Na2HPO4·12H2O), ammoniacal nitrogen was precipitated as highly insoluble salt. The removal of ammoniacal nitrogen from the leachate exceeded 85% when the reaction was performed at an initial pH of 10.0. The highest  efficiencies were achieved when the molar ratio between the ions involved in the reaction, i.e., Mg2+:PO43-:NH4+, was 1.2:1.0:1.0, respectively.Keywords: landfill, leachate, ammonia, nitrogen remova

Dynamics of ecosystem services along ecological network seascapes

Human societies depend on services provided by ecosystems, from local needs as clean water and pest control to global services like ozone layer and the ocean biological pump. Ecosystem services are intrinsically linked to the states of the ecosystem, which are, in turn, governed by a complex web of ecological interactions. These interactions and, consequently, the services they support, are increasingly under threat from environmental changes driven by human activities. Therefore, safeguarding these vital services require an understanding of how the structure and dynamics of ecological interactions are affected by environmental change. A critical step towards this goal is the development of an integrative theoretical framework that can elucidate how ecosystem services are sustained or impaired by interactions within these complex ecosystems in fluctuating environments. Recent years have seen significant progress in quantitatively characterizing the organization and the dynamics of ecological interactions through the study of ecological networks. However, linking temporally varying network structure in fluctuating environments, the seascapes of ecological networks, and their impact on ecosystem services remains a challenge. We propose an approach based upon merging empirical ecological network analysis with Boolean functions and modeling techniques accounting for fluctuating environments to tackle how ecosystem services are affected by the changing structure and dynamics of ecological networks. The approach aims to contribute to the study of how the organization of ecological interactions affects the persistence of ecosystem services. Specifically, we discuss how this approach can be used provide new insights into how environmental change affect the relationship between ecological networks and ecosystem services. The combination of information on ecosystem services, Boolean networks and fluctuating environments might allow to enhance the research around conservation strategies for preserving biodiversity and ecosystem services in the face of ongoing environmental change

Collapse of an ecological network in Ancient Egypt

The dynamics of ecosystem collapse are fundamental to determining how and why biological communities change through time, as well as the potential effects of extinctions on ecosystems. Here we integrate depictions of mammals from Egyptian antiquity with direct lines of paleontological and archeological evidence to infer local extinctions and community dynamics over a 6000-year span. The unprecedented temporal resolution of this data set enables examination of how the tandem effects of human population growth and climate change can disrupt mammalian communities. We show that the extinctions of mammals in Egypt were nonrandom, and that destabilizing changes in community composition coincided with abrupt aridification events and the attendant collapses of some complex societies. We also show that the roles of species in a community can change over time, and that persistence is predicted by measures of species sensitivity, a function of local dynamic stability. Our study is the first high-resolution analysis of the ecological impacts of environmental change on predator-prey networks over millennial timescales, and sheds light on the historical events that have shaped modern animal communities

Vulnerabilidade das microrregiões do Estado de São Paulo à pandemia do novo coronavírus (SARS-CoV-2)

Neste relatório, associamos dados da rede de fluxos rodoviários e da demografia das microrregiões paulistas com os casos confirmados de COVID-19 atualizados em 04/04/2020 para gerar i nformações estratégicas sobre a propagação geográfica da pandemia de SARS-CoV-2 no Estado de São Paulo. Identificamos microrregiões que podem atuar como núcleos propagadores da epidemia ou que têm alta vulnerabilidade a receber pessoas i nfectadas. Desta forma, atualizamos a i dentificação das microrregiões mais vulneráveis à propagação geográfica da pandemia do novo coronavírus ( SARS-CoV-2) no estado