Kinetic study of goethite dehydration and the effect of aluminium substitution on the dehydrate

Goethite and Al-substituted goethite were synthesized and were characterized using XRD and XRF. The kinetic study of goethite dehydrate was investigated by TG and DTG at different heating rates (2, 5, 10, 15, 20 ◦C/min) and the effect of Al substitution for Fe on dehydrate was studied. The results showed that two types of absorbed water with the same Ed values of 3.4, 6.2 kJ/mol were confirmed on goethite and Alsubstituted goethite. Three types of hydroxyl units were proved, one being on the surface and the other two being in the structure of goethite. The substitution of Al for Fe in the structure of goethite decreases the desorption rate of hydroxyl, increases the dehydroxylation temperature, broadens the desorption peaks in DTG curves, and improves the Ed values from 19.4, 20.4, 26.1 kJ/mol to 21.6, 30, 33.6 kJ/mol when Al substitution comes to 9.1%

Effect of preparation method of palygorskite-supported Fe and Ni catalysts on catalytic cracking of biomass tar

In this study, the effect of catalyst preparation and additive precursors on the catalytic decomposition of biomass using palygorskite-supported Fe and Ni catalysts was investigated. The catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It is concluded that the most active additive precursor was Fe(NO3)3·9H2O. As for the catalyst preparation method, co-precipitation had superiority over incipient wetness impregnation at low Fe loadings

Magmatic Longevity of Laacher See Volcano (Eifel, Germany) Indicated by U-Th Dating of Intrusive Carbonatites

Uranium-series dating of carbonatitic ejecta clasts constrains the crystallization and differentiation timescales of the Laacher See volcano, which erupted 6·3 km3 of magma (dense rock equivalent) during one of the largest Late Quaternary eruptions in Central Europe. Carbonatites form a distinct population among plutonic ejecta that are present in the middle and late erupted Laacher See tephra. Characteristic trace element patterns of the carbonatites, including negative Eu anomalies, and mantle-like oxygen isotopic compositions preserved in zircon indicate that the Laacher See carbonatites are cogenetic with their phonolite host. Carbonatite U-Th zircon isochron ages range from 32·6 ± 4·1 ka (2σ; MSWD = 1·7; n = 24) to near-eruption age (12·9 ka). Uranium-series carbonatite ages qualitatively agree with alkali feldspar compositions that lack prominent magmatic zonation, but show evidence for perthitic unmixing during subsolidus residence at elevated temperatures (720°C). Model differentiation ages and crystallization ages for the carbonatites overlap within a few thousand years as resolved by U-Th dating and indicate rapid crystallization following carbonatite segregation from its parental phonolite. Model differentiation and zircon isochron ages peak at ∼17 ka, suggesting a major phase of differentiation of the Laacher See magma system at this time, although the onset of phonolite differentiation dates back to at least ∼10-20 kyr prior to eruption. Phenocrysts in the middle and late erupted phonolite magma crystallized shortly before eruption, and the lack of older crystals implies crystal removal through settling or resorption. Crystal ages from both crystal-rich and liquid-dominated parts of a magma system are thus complementary, and reveal different aspects of magma differentiation and residence timescale

Recent N^* Results From J/\psi Decays

Based on 7.8 million J/\psi events collected at BEPC, the events for J/\psi \to p\bar{p}\pi^0 and p\bar{p}\eta have been selected and reconstructed. Clear peaks are observed around 1480 MeV in p\pi^0 (\bar{p}\pi^0) invariant mass spectrum and near the threshold for $\eta$ production in p\eta(\bar{p}\eta) invariant mass spectrum. A partial wave analysis of J/\psi \to p\bar{p}\eta data has been performed. Two J^P={1/2}^- resonances are observed with mass and width (M, \Gamma) at (1540^{+15}_{-17}, 178^{+20}_{-22}) MeV and (1648^{+18}_{-16}, 150)MeV, and are considered to be the nucleon resonances S_{11}(1535) and S_{11}(1650) respectively.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, proceedings for Hadron9

The Application of Barnes Filter to Positioning the Center of Landed Tropical Cyclone in Numerical Models

After a tropical cyclone (TC) making landfall, the numerical model output sea level pressure (SLP) presents many small-scale perturbations which significantly influence the positioning of the TC center. To fix the problem, Barnes filter with weighting parameters C=2500 and G=0.35 is used to remove these perturbations. A case study of TC Fung-Wong which landed China in 2008 shows that Barnes filter not only cleanly removes these perturbations, but also well preserves the TC signals. Meanwhile, the centers (track) obtained from SLP processed with Barnes filter are much closer to the observations than that from SLP without Barnes filter. Based on the distance difference (DD) between the TC center determined by SLP with/without Barnes filter and observation, statistics analysis of 12 TCs which landed China during 2005–2015 shows that in most cases (about 85%) the DDs are small (between −30 km and 30 km), while in a few cases (about 15%) the DDs are large (greater than 30 km even 70 km). This further verifies that the TC centers identified from SLP with Barnes filter are more accurate compared to that directly obtained from model output SLP. Moreover, the TC track identified with Barnes filter is much smoother than that without Barnes filter

Nasal Nitric Oxide and Lifestyle Exposure to Tobacco Smoke

Nitric oxide (NO) is a reactive gas generated by inflammatory cells and mucosal epithelial cells of the nose and paranasal sinuses and is an important mediator in nonspecific host defense against infectious agents. However, NO also mediates physiologic events such as vasodilation, mucus hypersecretion, and mucosal disruption that are associated with inflammatory conditions, and it is a regulator of ciliary beat frequency. In the present study, we hypothesized that lifestyle exposure to tobacco smoke, whether through active smoking or by inadvertent exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke, would result in higher detectable levels of nasal NO (nNO) than are found in well-documented nonsmokers

U-series zircon age constraints on the plumbing system and magma residence times of the Changbai volcano, China/North Korea border

The Changbai (or Baitoushan, Paektu) volcano on the China/North Korea border is best known for its climactic caldera-forming eruption of 100 km 3 of comendite materials 1000 years (1 ka) ago. The polygenetic Changbai volcano also erupted moderate-volume pre-caldera comendite lava at~4 ka and small-volume post-caldera trachyte ignimbrite at~0.3 ka. Here we report 238 U- 230 Th disequilibrium ages of zircons from lavas and ignimbrites of the pre-caldera (~4 ka), syn-caldera (1 ka), and post-caldera (~0.3 ka) events. The zircon isochron ages are 12.2 ± 1.1 ka (2σ) for the 4-ka comendite lava and 12.2 ± 1.7 ka for the 1-ka comendite ignimbrite. Zircons from the 0.3-ka trachyte ignimbrite exhibit 3 respective peaks at 2.6 ± 1.8 ka, 130 ± 10 ka and N 230 ka. The indistinguishable zircon ages for the 4-ka pre-caldera eruption of comendite lava and the 1-ka caldera-forming eruption of comendite pumice and ignimbrite suggest that the 4-ka lava provides an early sampling of a much larger magma body at depth and thus serves as a kind of petrologic early-warning signal. In addition, the 4-ka lava may represent the lowest-temperature magma in the roof zone of a thermally zoned magma chamber that usually escapes first. The distinctive multi-modal zircon age distributions of the 0.3-ka trachytic eruption, however, reveal that this post-caldera eruption tapped a different magma body and indicate that Changbai's magmatic plumbing system had changed after the 1-ka caldera-forming climactic eruption. Our results suggest very short zircon and magma residence times for the Changbai volcano (8 kyr for the 4-ka eruption, 11-12 kyr for the 1-ka eruption and 2.3 kyr for the 0.3-ka eruption)

Fe-Al-rich tridymite-hercynite xenoliths with positive cerium anomalies: preserved lateritic paleosols and implications for Miocene climate

Abstract We report isotopic and chemical compositions of unusual tridymite -hercynite xenoliths in middle Miocene Niutoushan tholeiites from the southeast coastal area of China. These xenoliths are characterized by positive cerium (Ce) anomalies and extremely high Al 2 O 3 (32 -34 wt.%) and total iron oxide (20 -22%). . Their chemical and isotopic compositions suggest that these xenoliths represent preserved aluminous lateritic paleosols that are not genetically related to host tholeiites. These lateritic paleosols with strongly desilicated minerals were formed by intense chemical weathering under warm and humid tropical conditions (with annual average temperature of >19 jC and the annual rainfall of >165 cm) in SE China during the interval from 17 to 15 Ma. The formation age of the paleosols corresponds to a period characterized by slow uplift of the Himalayan -Tibetan Plateau region (and thus less consumption of CO 2 ) after 17 Ma, and eruptions of 17 -15 Ma Columbia River flood basalts, the Vogelsberg basalts, and eastern China basalts (and thus more input of CO 2 into the atmosphere). The tridymite -hercynite xenoliths in the Niutoushan basalts thus preserve evidence of extraordinary climatic greenhouse conditions in the middle Miocene that would otherwise have been lost by the erosion of paleosols.

Gaussian Process Based Bayesian Semiparametric Quantitative Trait Loci Interval Mapping

In linkage analysis, it is often necessary to include covariates such as age or weight to increase power or avoid spurious false positive findings. However, if a covariate term in the model is specified incorrectly (e.g., a quadratic term misspecified as a linear term), then the inclusion of the covariate may adversely affect power and accuracy of the identification of Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL). Furthermore, some covariates may interact with each other in a complicated fashion. We implement semiparametric models for single and multiple QTL mapping. Both mapping methods include an unspecified function of any covariate found or suspected to have a more complex than linear but unknown relationship with the response variable. They also allow for interactions among different covariates. This analysis is performed in a Bayesian inference framework using Markov chain Monte Carlo. The advantages of our methods are demonstrated via extensive simulations and real data analysis

On variance estimate for covariate adjustment by propensity score analysis: On variance estimate for covariate adjustment by propensity score analysis

Propensity score (PS) methods have been used extensively to adjust for confounding factors in the statistical analysis of observational data in comparative effectiveness research. There are four major PS-based adjustment approaches: PS matching, PS stratification, covariate adjustment by PS, and PS-based inverse probability weighting (IPW). Though covariate adjustment by PS is one of the most frequently used PS-based methods in clinical research, the conventional variance estimation of the treatment effects estimate under covariate adjustment by PS is biased. As Stampf et al. have shown, this bias in variance estimation is likely to lead to invalid statistical inference and could result in erroneous public health conclusions (e.g. food and drug safety, adverse events surveillance). To address this issue, we propose a two-stage analytic procedure to develop a valid variance estimator for the covariate adjustment by PS analysis strategy. We also carry out a simple empirical bootstrap resampling scheme. Both proposed procedures are implemented in an R function for public use. Extensive simulation results demonstrate the bias in the conventional variance estimator, and show that both proposed variance estimators offer valid estimates for the true variance and they are robust to complex confounding structures. The proposed methods are illustrated for a post-surgery pain study