Treated wastewater is a valuable resource, particularly in countries facing water shortage such as Jordan. Nevertheless, excess nutrients, especially phosphorus, may have detrimental impacts on receiving waterbodies. Treated wastewater in Jordan often exceeds the recommended levels set by the Jordanian Standards for wastewater reuse and discharge. Therefore, it is important to reduce phosphorus loads to acceptable levels before discharge. Biofiltration is a low-cost technology that has shown good potential for wastewater treatment. The performance of biofilters largely depends on the media used. In this study, local sand and sand augmented with biochar prepared from the olive oil processing waste (SBC) were used as filter media for phosphorus removal from clarified secondary treated wastewater. The two media types were tested under different hydraulic and phosphorus loading conditions to simulate shock, flooding, and inundation conditions. The results showed that sand media was more effective in removing phosphorus (90.8 ± 2.6%) than sand amended with biochar (83.3 ± 3.2%). Both media showed resilience under extreme loading conditions. Although phosphorus removal efficiency was negatively affected following the extreme loading events, the observed effects were temporary. The simulated inundation event further showed that the media was able to retain the adsorbed phosphorus. Furthermore, the phosphorus concentration in the effluent remained within the prescribed discharge guidelines at all times. 相似文献
Tailings resulted from sulphuric acid leaching process of uranium from sedimentary rocks contain high concentrations of 226Ra and its daughters, the most important of which is 222Rn. Movement of radon gas out of the tailings is strongly influenced by the physicochemical characteristics of these tailings especially their radium content and the grain size. So, the tailing samples were size fractionated into four sizes (>?250, 250–125, 125–74 and <?74 µm). The natural radioactivity was investigated using hyper-pure germanium detector and solid-state nuclear track detectors (CR-39) for bulk size and after size fractionation. The activity concentrations of different radionuclides in size-fractionated tailing samples have been shown to be strongly dependent on the size of the particles. In the range of >?250 and <?74 µm, the activity concentrations of 230Th, 226Ra, 214Pb, 214Bi, 210Pb, 232Th and 40K increased throughout with decreasing particle size, while that of 238U, 234U and 235U have an opposite effect. The results revealed an inverse relationship between the radon exhalation rate and size fractionation. Also, the results showed a good correlation between radium activity concentration and radon mass exhalation rate. 相似文献
Ras Abda plutonic suite, North Eastern Desert of Egypt, consists predominantly of Neoproterozoic calc-alkaline older granites. Minor exposures of pink microgranite are occurring along Wadi Ras Abda within the older granites. Previous studies on this area demonstrated that the microgranite is altered in some parts and contains anomalous concentrations of rare metal elements (Zr, Th, and U). These altered and mineralized zones are re-assessed using field observations, chemical analysis, and by the application of various transmitted light and electron microscopic techniques. The rare metals exist as mineral segregation grew freely into open cavities of the microgranite and concordant with the NNE strike-slip fault movement. The mineralized zones contain an assemblage of secondary magnetite, zircon, uranothorite, columbite-(Mn), fergusonite-(Y), and allanite-(Ce). The extreme abundance of zircon in the mineralized zone, along with other evidence, indicates a hydrothermal origin of this zircon together with associated rare metals. The geochemical investigation and mass balance calculations revealed extreme enrichment of Zr, Th, U, Y, Nb, Ta, and REE. Post-magmatic hydrothermal alterations resulted in such pronounced chemical and mineralogical heterogeneity. The hydrothermal fluids are thought to be oxidizing, alkaline and of medium temperature (>?250 °C). The average contents of the elements Zr (1606 ppm), Th (1639 ppm), U (306 ppm), Nb (955 ppm), and REE (1710 ppm) in the mineralized microgranite reach sub-economic levels and could be a potential source of these elements. 相似文献
This paper presents the results of studies on plant macroremains found in the upper Turonian of the Folwark Quarry, Opole, Poland, associated with palynological studies of the host rocks. In addition to a few macrofossils (gymnosperm wood, conifer Geinitzia reichenbachii and fern ?Didymosorus) rich sporomorphs (bryophyte, lycopod and fern spores, conifer and angiosperm pollen grains) and marine palynomorphs (mainly dinoflagellate cysts) were recorded. The palynological analysis revealed that the vegetation on the neighbouring land (the East Sudetic Island) in the late Turonian was much more diverse than could be reconstructed based on only macrofossil remains. The latter are taxonomically restricted and dominated by one gymnosperm species (Geinitzia reichenbachii), which make them similar to most neighbouring, coeval Central European assemblages. Its over representation is, thus, a result of taphonomy. 相似文献
A spatial quantile regression model is proposed to estimate the quantile curve for a given probability of non-exceedance, as function of locations and covariates. Canonical vines copulas are considered to represent the spatial dependence structure. The marginal at each location is an asymmetric Laplace distribution where the parameters are functions of the covariates. The full conditional quantile distribution is given using the Joe–Clayton copula. Simulations show the flexibility of the proposed model to estimate the quantiles with special dependence structures. A case study illustrates its applicability to estimate quantiles for spatial temperature anomalies. 相似文献
This study aims to quantify the landscape spatio-temporal dynamics including Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) changes occurred in a typical Mediterranean ecosystem of high ecological and cultural significance in central Greece covering a period of 9 years (2001–2009). Herein, we examined the synergistic operation among Hyperion hyperspectral satellite imagery with Support Vector Machines, the FRAGSTATS® landscape spatial analysis programme and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for this purpose. The change analysis showed that notable changes reported in the experimental region during the studied period, particularly for certain LULC classes. The analysis of accuracy indices suggested that all the three classification techniques are performing satisfactorily with overall accuracy of 86.62, 91.67 and 89.26% in years 2001, 2004 and 2009, respectively. Results evidenced the requirement for taking measures to conserve this forest-dominated natural ecosystem from human-induced pressures and/or natural hazards occurred in the area. To our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind, demonstrating the Hyperion capability in quantifying LULC changes with landscape metrics using FRAGSTATS® programme and PCA for understanding the land surface fragmentation characteristics and their changes. The suggested approach is robust and flexible enough to be expanded further to other regions. Findings of this research can be of special importance in the context of the launch of spaceborne hyperspectral sensors that are already planned to be placed in orbit as the NASA’s HyspIRI sensor and EnMAP. 相似文献
Natural Hazards - Despite the controversy regarding their use, school buildings are often assigned as emergency evacuation shelters, temporary accommodation and aid distribution hubs following... 相似文献
This paper presents the results of field tests performed to investigate the compressive bearing capacity of pre-bored grouted planted (PGP) pile with enlarged grout base focusing on its base bearing capacity. The bi-directional O-cell load test was conducted to evaluate the behavior of full scale PGP piles. The test results show that the pile head displacements needed to fully mobilize the shaft resistance were 5.9% and 6.4% D (D is pile diameter), respectively, of two test piles, owing to the large elastic shortening of pile shaft. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that the PHC nodular pile base and grout body at the enlarged base could act as a unit in the loading process, and the enlarged grout base could effectively promote the base bearing capacity of PGP pile through increasing the base area. The normalized base resistances (unit base resistance/average cone base resistance) of two test piles were 0.17 and 0.19, respectively, when the base displacement reached 5% Db (Db is pile base diameter). The permeation of grout into the silty sand layer under pile base increased the elastic modulus of silty sand, which could help to decrease pile head displacement under working load.
Five microearthquake seismographs were used at 11 sites in northern Sinai in the period February 1987 to February 1988 to study the microseismicity of the area around the Maghara coal mine for mine-development studies. A total of 270 events were recorded on 850 records. The magnitude, epicenter and depth of each event were calculated using suitable software for an Egyptian Geological Survey and Mining Authority's (EGSMA) XT computer. The interpretation of the seismic activity in the area is given in view of plate tectonics, the Sinai subplate boundary follows the Gulf of Aqaba and the Dead Sea. The plate and subplate boundaries are presently active, and there seems to be a diffuse zone of deformation between “NW Africa” and “Nubia” affecting the Cairo-Suez district. 相似文献