USE OF SELMAGIS FOR PREPARATION OF AIR QUALITY ACTION PLANS

Municipal environmental protection officers have to survey local and regional air quality. Supplementary to air quality monitoring, modelling systems are gaining more and more an importance. Lohmeyer GmbH & Co. KG provides the graphical user interface SELMAGIS, able to accommodate the locally used air quality models. It is completely implemented into ESRI’s geographical information system ArcGIS. Thus the user is able to use his specific air quality models and at the same time all functionalities of the GIS (e.g. intersection of data, interfaces to data bases etc.). SELMAGIS is a modular system, presently containing different dispersion models as AUSTAL2000, PROKAS, MEMO/MUSE, NERI’s OML-Highway being presently implemented. Depending on the individual task, i.e. regional, urban or micro scale modelling, the user is able to choose the adequate dispersion model on a common data base and a common display of the results. SELMAGIS is used in different European countries. The presentation will show the application and advantages of the SELMAGIS procedure for the preparation of the air quality action plan for the German coastal city of Rostock. The determination of the concentrations resulting from the main emission sources industry/harbour, maritimetraffic and road traffic was executed on a meso-scale and an urban scale. The German regulatory model AUSTAL2000, the Gaussian dispersion model PROKAS and its street canyon module have been used, providing the results to be used by the standard tools of ArcGIS. By calculating the contribution of each emission source it was possible to identify the main polluters and to get a first hint on the hotspots in the city of Rostock. At these hotspots the concentrations were calculated in more detail with the prognostic microscale flow and dispersion model WinMISKAM, which also has an interface to GIS formats. Using this analysis for the air quality in Rostock it was possible to trade off actions for reducing PM10 or NO2 concentrations and to prepare the air quality action plan for Rostock

Die Rolle der Abscisinsäure bei der Knospenruhe di- und tetraploider Rebsorten

Ein Vergleich der Austriebsbereitschaft von Rebknospen der di- und tetraploiden Sorten Müller-Thurgau, Portugieser und Riesling mit den parallel ermittelten ABS-Gehalten der Winterknospen und Nodien während der Phase der endogenen Knospenruhe läßt folgende zusammenhänge erkennnen: Die Austriebsbereitschaft der Winterknospen war bei allen Sorten Anfang September sehr ausgeprägt, fiel im Oktober auf Minimalwerte ab und stieg Ende November/Anfang Dezember wieder deutlich an. Aus diesen Untersuchungen ergab sich eine Abgrenzung der endogenen Knospenruhe von der korrelativen Vor- und der exogenen Nachruhe.Im Untersuchungszeitraum stiegen bei allen Sorten die ABS-Gehalte der Winterknospen und Nodien um durchschnittlich das 6,5fache bis zu einem Maximum im Oktober an und sanken bis Anfang Dezember wieder auf etwa ihr Ausgangsniveau ab.Das gegenläufige Verhalten von Knospenaustriebsbereitschaft und ABS-Gehalt sowie zeitliche und quantitative Verschiebungen im Verlauf der Ab- bzw. Zunahmen der Knospenaustriebsbereitschaft bei einzelnen Sorten und Valenzstufen, die mit entsprechenden Verschiebungen im Verlauf der ABS-Gehalte verbunden sind, lassen einen Kausalzusammenhang zwischen endogener Knospenruhe und ABS-Gehalt erkennen.The role of abscisic acid in bud dormancy of di- and tetraploid varieties of grapevinesRates of bud burst, using cuttings of di- and tetraploid grapevines of Müller-Thurgau, Portugieser and Riesling, were compared with the level of abscisic acid (ABA) in buds and nodes analysed by high pressure liquid chromatography in the period of endogenous bud dormancy.After high percentages of bud burst at the beginning of September, in October, in all varieties, bud burst almost completely stopped until Novmeber when all varieties showed increasing bud burst again. These assays allowed to differentiate precisely between the periods of correlative predormancy, endogenous dormancy and exogenous ("imposed") dormancy.In the period of endogenous dormancy in all varieties, the ABA level of buds and nodes increased more than sixfold, with a maximum in October, and decreased in November and December to a level comparable to the initial level.The inverse course of reaction of bud burst and ABA content, as well as the temporal and quantitative differences in the course of decreasing and increasing bud burst of several varieties correlated with corresponding changes in the ABA level, indicate a causal relationship between endogenous bud dormancy and ABA content

Pre-oil globalization in a rural community: the Late Islamic village of Sahlat in the Suhar region

Archaeology of the Near Eas

Symmetry Induced 4-Wave Capillary Wave Turbulence

We report theoretical and experimental results on 4-wave capillary wave turbulence. A system consisting of two inmiscible and incompressible fluids of the same density can be written in a Hamiltonian way for the conjugated pair $(\eta,\Psi)$. When given the symmetry $z\to-z$, the set of weakly non-linear interacting waves display a Kolmogorov-Zakharov (KZ) spectrum $n_k\sim k^{-4}$ in wave vector space. The wave system was studied experimentally with two inmiscible fluids of almost equal densities (water and silicon oil) where the capillary surface waves are excited by a low frequency random forcing. The power spectral density (PSD) and probability density function (PDF) of the local wave amplitude are studied. Both theoretical and experimental results are in fairly good agreement with each other.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Adsorption of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons from aqueous solution: Agrowaste-modified kaolinite vs surfactant modified bentonite

The adsorption efficiency of a new hybrid clay adsorbent for polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is compared with known modified clay adsorbents. The new hybrid clay adsorbent (HYCA) showed far higher adsorption capacities for the adsorption of various PAH molecules compared with sodium dodecyl sulfate modified and humic acid modified Bentonite clay adsorbents. With the new hybrid clay adsorbent (HYCA), the adsorption of some of the larger PAH molecules was complete in the first 1 h as compared with ≈ 62% and ≈ 76% observed for both humic acid modified and sodium dodecyl sulfate modified Bentonite clay adsorbents respectively. In 24 h adsorption of the PAHs was complete for all adsorbents with HYCA adsorbent showing better efficiency in the removal of the PAH molecules from aqueous solutions. No significant change was observed with increase in time up to 48 h. The adsorption was observed to be more spontaneous with HYCA adsorbent than with either modified Bentonite adsorbents. The enthalpy of adsorption did not follow any specific order and were not consistent for all PAH molecules considered

Apple, condom, and cocaine - Body stuffing in prison: A case report

© 2018 The Author(s). Background: Drug dealers and drug users resort to body stuffing to hastily conceal illicit drugs by ingesting their drug packets. This practice represents a medical challenge because rupture of the often insecure packaging can be toxic and even lethal. In an emergency setting, official guidelines are needed to help the medical team decide on the proper treatment. A preliminary observation period is generally accepted but its duration varies from hours to eventual packet expulsion. Case presentation: This case involves a 20-year-old white man in detention who claimed to have ingested one cocaine packet wrapped in plastic food-wrap and a condom in anticipation of an impending cell search. He reached out to medical professionals on day 4 after having unsuccessfully tried several methods to expel the drug packet, including swallowing olive oil, natural laxatives, liters of water, and 12 carved apple chunks. An initial computed tomography scan confirmed multiple packet-sized images throughout his stomach and bowel. After 24 hours of observation and normal bowel movements without expelling any packets, a subsequent scan found only one air-lined packet afloat in the gastric content. Due to the prolonged retention of the package there was an increased risk of rupture. The packet was eventually removed by laparoscopic gastrotomy. Conclusions: This case report illustrates that observation time needs to be adapted to each individual case of body stuffing. Proof of complete drug package evacuation ensures secure patient discharge. Body stuffers should be routinely asked for a detailed history, including how the drug is wrapped, and whether or not they ingested other substances to help expel the packets. The history enables the accurate interpretation of imaging. Repeated imaging can help follow the progress of packets if not all have been expelled during the observation period. Drug packets should be surgically removed in case of prolonged retention. To ensure the best possible outcomes, patients should have access to high-quality, private, and confidential medical care, which is equal to that offered to the general population. This is paramount to earning trust and collaboration from people in detention who resort to body stuffing

ADI splitting schemes for a fourth-order nonlinear partial differential equation from image processing

We present directional operator splitting schemes for the numerical solution of a fourth-order, nonlinear partial differential evolution equation which arises in image processing. This equation constitutes the H−1-gradient flow of the total variation and represents a prototype of higher-order equations of similar type which are popular in imaging for denoising, deblurring and inpainting problems. The efficient numerical solution of this equation is very challenging due to the stiffness of most numerical schemes. We show that the combination of directional splitting schemes with implicit time-stepping provides a stable and computationally cheap numerical realisation of the equation

Mesoscopic modelling of financial markets

We derive a mesoscopic description of the behavior of a simple financial market where the agents can create their own portfolio between two investment alternatives: a stock and a bond. The model is derived starting from the Levy-Levy-Solomon microscopic model (Econ. Lett., 45, (1994), 103--111) using the methods of kinetic theory and consists of a linear Boltzmann equation for the wealth distribution of the agents coupled with an equation for the price of the stock. From this model, under a suitable scaling, we derive a Fokker-Planck equation and show that the equation admits a self-similar lognormal behavior. Several numerical examples are also reported to validate our analysis

Pattern formation of a nonlocal, anisotropic interaction model

We consider a class of interacting particle models with anisotropic, repulsive-attractive interaction forces whose orientations depend on an underlying tensor field. An example of this class of models is the so-called Kücken-Champod model describing the formation of fingerprint patterns. This class of models can be regarded as a generalization of a gradient flow of a nonlocal interaction potential which has a local repulsion and a long-range attraction structure. In contrast to isotropic interaction models the anisotropic forces in our class of models cannot be derived from a potential. The underlying tensor field introduces an anisotropy leading to complex patterns which do not occur in isotropic models. This anisotropy is characterized by one parameter in the model. We study the variation of this parameter, describing the transition between the isotropic and the anisotropic model, analytically and numerically. We analyze the equilibria of the corresponding mean-field partial differential equation and investigate pattern formation numerically in two dimensions by studying the dependence of the parameters in the model on the resulting patterns

The 2015 Annual Meeting of SETAC German Language Branch in Zurich (7-10 September, 2015): ecotoxicology and environmental chemistry-from research to application

This report provides a brief review of the 20th annual meeting of the German Language Branch of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC GLB) held from September 7th to 10th 2015 at ETH (Swiss Technical University) in Zurich, Switzerland. The event was chaired by Inge Werner, Director of the Swiss Centre for Applied Ecotoxicology (Ecotox Centre) Eawag-EPFL, and organized by a team from Ecotox Centre, Eawag, Federal Office of the Environment, Federal Office of Agriculture, and Mesocosm GmbH (Germany). Over 200 delegates from academia, public agencies and private industry of Germany, Switzerland and Austria attended and discussed the current state of science and its application presented in 75 talks and 83 posters. In addition, three invited keynote speakers provided new insights into scientific knowledge ‘brokering’, and—as it was the International Year of Soil—the important role of healthy soil ecosystems. Awards were presented to young scientists for best oral and poster presentations, and for best 2014 master and doctoral theses. Program and abstracts of the meeting (mostly in German) are provided as Additional file 1