126 research outputs found
Urban Lead in Minnesota: Soil Transect Results of Four Cities
The focus of this field study was the development of a soil collection and analysis method for the rapid assessment of urban lead (Pb) buildup in four Minnesota cities, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, and Rochester. The results show that soil Pb buildup is mainly a function of urban size, although specific geographic factors, such as a bluff that constrains city development along a narrow corridor, also play a role in Pb distribution and concentration. Maximum urban Pb concentrations were approximately 25, 70, and 100 times rural soil Pb levels, in Rochester, Duluth, and the centers of Minneapolis and St. Paul respectively. The primary source of Pb measured in this study was assumed to be Pb aerosols exhausted from the use of leaded gasoline during the past four or five decades. A portion of the total state Pb exhausts were estimated for each city from state daily vehicle mile (DVM) data. The chain of movement which exposes children to excessive Pb levels from aerosol accumulations in the soil is described along with the remedy to alleviate continued urban Pb buildup
Environmental Lead Risk in the Twin Cities.
Lead is an extremely toxic substance that has been used in large quantities in our technological society. Lead dust has accumulated in the soils of urban areas. In 1989 the Urban Lead Mapping Project collected soil samples from parks, playgrounds, housesides, streetsides, and midyards in the Twin Cities. The resulting maps, showing the distribution of lead dust in this urban area, are the first of their kind. They show that lead content is highest in houseside soils, particularly in inner-city neighborhoods. Parks and playgrounds in the Twin Cities are quite safe in terms of lead risk. This monograph presents the maps and summary statistics from the Urban Lead Mapping Project along with a brief explanation of the dangers of exposure to lead
Nonlinear modulational stability of periodic traveling-wave solutions of the generalized Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation
In this paper we consider the spectral and nonlinear stability of periodic
traveling wave solutions of a generalized Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation. In
particular, we resolve the long-standing question of nonlinear modulational
stability by demonstrating that spectrally stable waves are nonlinearly stable
when subject to small localized (integrable) perturbations. Our analysis is
based upon detailed estimates of the linearized solution operator, which are
complicated by the fact that the (necessarily essential) spectrum of the
associated linearization intersects the imaginary axis at the origin. We carry
out a numerical Evans function study of the spectral problem and find bands of
spectrally stable periodic traveling waves, in close agreement with previous
numerical studies of Frisch-She-Thual, Bar-Nepomnyashchy,
Chang-Demekhin-Kopelevich, and others carried out by other techniques. We also
compare predictions of the associated Whitham modulation equations, which
formally describe the dynamics of weak large scale perturbations of a periodic
wave train, with numerical time evolution studies, demonstrating their
effectiveness at a practical level. For the reader's convenience, we include in
an appendix the corresponding treatment of the Swift-Hohenberg equation, a
nonconservative counterpart of the generalized Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation
for which the nonlinear stability analysis is considerably simpler, together
with numerical Evans function analyses extending spectral stability analyses of
Mielke and Schneider.Comment: 78 pages, 11 figure
Stochastic Energetics of Quantum Transport
We examine the stochastic energetics of directed quantum transport due to
rectification of non-equilibrium thermal fluctuations. We calculate the quantum
efficiency of a ratchet device both in presence and absence of an external load
to characterize two quantifiers of efficiency. It has been shown that the
quantum current as well as efficiency in absence of load (Stokes efficiency) is
higher as compared to classical current and efficiency, respectively, at low
temperature. The conventional efficiency of the device in presence of load on
the other hand is higher for a classical system in contrast to its classical
counterpart. The maximum conventional efficiency being independent of the
nature of the bath and the potential remains the same for classical and quantum
systems.Comment: To be published in Phys. Rev.
Seasonality and Childrenâs Blood Lead Levels: Developing a Predictive Model Using Climatic Variables and Blood Lead Data from Indianapolis, Indiana, Syracuse, New York, and New Orleans, Louisiana (USA)
On a community basis, urban soil contains a potentially large reservoir of accumulated lead. This study was undertaken to explore the temporal relationship between pediatric blood lead (BPb), weather, soil moisture, and dust in Indianapolis, Indiana; Syracuse, New York; and New Orleans, Louisiana. The Indianapolis, Syracuse, and New Orleans pediatric BPb data were obtained from databases of 15,969, 14,467, and 2,295 screenings, respectively, collected between December 1999 and November 2002, January 1994 and March 1998, and January 1998 and May 2003, respectively. These average monthly child BPb levels were regressed against several independent variables: average monthly soil moisture, particulate matter < 10 ÎŒm in diameter (PM(10)), wind speed, and temperature. Of temporal variation in urban childrenâs BPb, 87% in Indianapolis (R(2) = 0.87, p = 0.0004), 61% in Syracuse (R(2) = 0.61, p = 0.0012), and 59% in New Orleans (R(2) = 0.59, p = 0.0000078) are explained by these variables. A conceptual model of urban Pb poisoning is suggested: When temperature is high and evapotranspiration maximized, soil moisture decreases and soil dust is deposited. Under these combined weather conditions, Pb-enriched PM(10) dust disperses in the urban environment and causes elevated Pb dust loading. Thus, seasonal variation of childrenâs Pb exposure is probably caused by inhalation and ingestion of Pb brought about by the effect of weather on soils and the resulting fluctuation in Pb loading
Case studies and evidence-based approaches to addressing urban soil lead contamination
Urban soils in many communities in the United States and internationally have been contaminated by lead (Pb) from past use of lead additives in gasoline, deterioration of exterior paint, emissions from Pb smelters and battery recycling and other industries. Exposure to Pb in soil and related dust is widespread in many inner city areas. Up to 20â40% of urban children in some neighborhoods have blood lead levels (BLLs) equal to or above 5 ÎŒg per decilitre, the reference level of health concern by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Given the widespread nature of Pb contamination in urban soils it has proven a challenge to reduce exposure. In order to prevent this exposure, an evidence-based approach is required to isolate or remediate the soils and prevent children and adult's ongoing exposure. To date, the majority of community soil Pb remediation efforts have been focused in mining towns or in discrete neighborhoods where Pb smelters have impacted communities. These efforts have usually entailed very expensive dig and dump soil Pb remediation techniques, funded by the point source polluters. Remediating widespread non-point source urban soil contamination using this approach is neither economical nor feasible from a practical standpoint. Despite the need to remediate/isolate urban soils in inner city areas, no deliberate, large scale, cost effective Pb remediation schemes have been implemented to isolate inner city soils impacted from sources other than mines and smelters. However, a city-wide natural experiment of flooding in New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina demonstrated that declines in soil Pb resulted in major BLL reductions. Also a growing body of literature of smaller scale pilot studies and programs does exist regarding low cost efforts to isolate Pb contaminated urban soils. This paper reviews the literature regarding the effectiveness of soil Pb remediation for reducing Pb exposure and BLL in children, and suggests best practices for addressing the epidemics of low-level Pb poisoning occurring in many inner city areas
Langevin dynamics with dichotomous noise; direct simulation and applications
We consider the motion of a Brownian particle moving in a potential field and
driven by dichotomous noise with exponential correlation. Traditionally, the
analytic as well as the numerical treatments of the problem, in general, rely
on Fokker-Planck description. We present a method for direct numerical
simulation of dichotomous noise to solve the Langevin equation. The method is
applied to calculate nonequilibrium fluctuation induced current in a symmetric
periodic potential using asymmetric dichotomous noise and compared to
Fokker-Planck-Master equation based algorithm for a range of parameter values.
Our second application concerns the study of resonant activation over a
fluctuating barrier.Comment: Accepted in Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experimen
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