Develop a multi-functional green pervious concrete (MGPC) pavement with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) removal function.

Stormwater runoff induced Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) contaminant increasingly imperils the groundwater quality and the sustainable development of human society due to the potential carcinogenic risks. Pavement can be considered as the first line of defense for contaminant removal of the stormwater runoff. New construction materials with stormwater runoff quantity and quality control are in urgent demand for updating the existing pavement system. An innovative material called Multi-functional Green Pervious Concrete (MGPC) was developed in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of Louisville. This material uses organoclay as the amendment to enhance the PAHs removal capacity of conventional pervious concrete. The objective of this study is to evaluate the potential implementation of MGPC as a pavement material with the groundwater contamination remediation functions. The study was performed in five stages. First, The PAHs remediation function of MGPC was tested by introducing organoclay [bis (hydrogenated tallow alkyl) dimethyl ammonium modified montmorillonite] to the conventional pervious concrete. After test and verification, the mix proportion of MGPC was designed to meet the compressive strength and hydraulic conductivity requirements of pervious concrete. A small amount of organoclay addition was found not to adversely affect the compressive strength and hydraulic conductivity of MGPC. The preliminary study of the PAHs removal functions of MGPC was conducted in stage two. The isothermal batch sorption test was conducted to quantify the sorption capacity of the organoclay modified cement paste, and the column test was performed to investigate the transport mechanism and retardation behavior of PAHs in MGPC. It was found that the developed MGPC with a small addition of organoclay could substantially remove PAHs contaminants and it also has much stronger adsorption and retardation capacity than the conventional pervious concrete. In stage three, a series of comprehensive laboratory-scale tests were conducted to examine the effectiveness of stormwater induced PAHs removal by using the MGPC pavement. The results indicated that the initial concentrations of the PAHs and the flow rates would impact the removal efficiency of MGPC. The tests showed that the MGPC still maintained considerable sorption capacity after 50 PAHs sorption and desorption cycles. An ideal site under steady-state groundwater conditions was generated to simulate the long-term performance of MGPC on PAHs removal by using the finite element method in stage four. The laboratory experiments were used to determine the physicochemical parameters of MGPC, and three sorption isothermal models (linear, Freundlich and Langmuir) were fitted to the sorption test data. The computer simulation revealed that the MGPC had significant remediation efficiency on the PAHs contaminant. Other than the material properties of MGPC, the efficiency of contaminant remediation of MGPC was also found to be influenced by the permeability of the subbase and the initial concentration of PAHs. It was also found that the linear isotherm model would overestimate the removal efficiency of PAHs with higher concentration sources. At last final fifth stage, a Pavement Environment and Performance Index (PEPI) was proposed to evaluate the environmental impacts of three different types of pavements (impervious concrete, conventional pervious concrete, and MGPC). The data from experiments and the Environmental Footprint Database was used to calculate the PEPI. Based on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) results, it was found that the MGPC pavement was much more environmentally friendly with relatively lower greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption, and better environmental performance comparing with the other two types of pavements

Geotechnical laboratory characterization of sand-zeolite mixtures.

Zeolite and sand mixture is an ideal reactive filling material for the Permeable Reactive barrier (PRB) due to its higher hydraulic conductivity and sorption capacity. This study applied three ASTM standard tests to examine the geotechnical engineering properties of ASTM 20-30 sand and zeolite (clinoptilolite) mixtures with varying zeolite mass percentages (25%, 50%and 75%). Conducted lab tests including: Proctor compaction, hydraulic conductivity in rigid wall permeameter and one-dimensional consolidation. The goals of this study were to quantify the impact of zeolite content and compactive effort on the density, conduction and compressibility of the sand-zeolite mixtures

Characteristics of oligonucleotide frequencies across genomes: Conservation versus variation, strand symmetry, and evolutionary implications

One of the objectives of evolutionary genomics is to reveal the genetic information contained in the primordial genome (called the primary genetic information in this paper, with the primordial genome defined here as the most primitive nucleic acid genome for earth’s life) by searching for primitive traits or relics remained in modern genomes. As the shorter a sequence is, the less probable it would be modified during genome evolution. For that reason, some characteristics of very short nucleotide sequences would have considerable chances to persist during billions of years of evolution. Consequently, conservation of certain genomic features of mononucleotides, dinucleotides, and higher-order oligonucleotides across various genomes may exist; some, if not all, of these features would be relics of the primary genetic information. Based on this assumption, we analyzed the pattern of frequencies of mononucleotides, dinucleotides, and higher-order oligonucleotides of the whole-genome sequences from 458 species (including archaea, bacteria, and eukaryotes). Also, we studied the phenomenon of strand symmetry in these genomes. The results show that the conservation of frequencies of some dinucleotides and higher-order oligonucleotides across genomes does exist, and that strand symmetry is a ubiquitous and explicit phenomenon that may contribute to frequency conservation. We propose a new hypothesis for the origin of strand symmetry and frequency conservation as well as for the constitution of early genomes. We conclude that the phenomena of strand symmetry and the pattern of frequency conservation would be original features of the primary genetic information

Analytical Potential Energy Function for the Ground State X^{1} Sigma^+ of LaCl

The equilibrium geometry, harmonic frequency and dissociation energy of lanthanum monochloride have been calculated at B3LYP, MP2, QCISD(T) levels with energy-consistent relativistic effective core potentials. The possible electronic state and reasonable dissociation limit for the ground state are determined based on atomic and molecular reaction statics. Potential energy curve scans for the ground state X^{1} Sigma^+ have been carried out with B3LYP and QCISD(T) methods due to their better performance in bond energy calculations. We find the potential energy calculated with QCISD(T) method is about 0.5 eV larger than dissociation energy when the diatomic distance is as large as 0.8 nm. The problem that single-reference ab initio methods don't meet dissociation limit during calculations of lanthanide heavy-metal elements is analyzed. We propose the calculation scheme to derive analytical Murrell-Sorbie potential energy function and Dunham expansion at equilibrium position. Spectroscopic constants got by standard Dunham treatment are in good agreement with results of rotational analyses on spectroscopic experiments. The analytical function is of much realistic importance since it is possible to be applied to predict fine transitional structure and study reaction dynamic process.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, 3 table

Exploring Driving Factors For Consumers Acceptance Of E-Commerce In Chinese Rural Areas

Despite the rapid development of E-Commerce in global cities, residents in relative lagging areas are still facing issues to benefit from this technology. Such issues are like lack of computing equipment, inadequate technical skills, and expensive delivery services. To alleviate such issues, Chinese E-Commerce organizations (e.g., Alibaba) built up thousands of service stations in Chinese rural areas, and provided resources and services for local residents. In this research, we aim to investigate consumers’ acceptance of E-Commerce in such areas. The potential factors which may influence the consumers’ acceptance of E-commerce in such areas are explored according to a literature analysis. We propose a research model by incorporating the factors, such as perceived accessability, perceived safety, and social influence, based on the Technology Acceptance Model. An empirical study is planned to validate this research model in the future

Magnetothermoelectric DC conductivities from holography models with hyperscaling factor in Lifshitz spacetime

We investigate an Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton-Axion holographic model and obtain two branches of a charged black hole solution with a dynamic exponent and a hyperscaling violation factor when a magnetic field presents. The magnetothermoelectric DC conductivities are then calculated in terms of horizon data by means of holographic principle. We find that linear temperature dependence resistivity and quadratic temperature dependence inverse Hall angle can be achieved in our model. The well-known anomalous temperature scaling of the Nernst signal and the Seebeck coefficient of cuprate strange metals are also discussed.Comment: 1+23 pages, 4 figures, references adde

A novel common triplet profile for GC-rich prokaryotic genomes

AbstractIt has been reported that there is a majority triplet profile among genomes, which was considered as a reflection of general mechanisms of genome evolution (Albrecht-Buehler, 2007). However, there are actually, according to our further analysis and at least among prokaryotic genomes, two common triplet profiles: one is from low-GC content genomes; the other is from high-GC content genomes. Both common profiles would be direct reflections of GC content variations and strand symmetry of genomic sequences