The demographics and politics of economic decline in New York City

New York City's economy has been declining since 1969. Although this decline is usually discussed with reference to interregional shifts in population and the migration of industry to the South and West, the root causes can be best understood in terms of the changing demographic, political and economic matrix of the City combined with short-sighted public policies toward business development.After explaining some important aspects of the political economy of economic erosion in New York City, the paper suggests several local government policy alternatives that might help to reverse the tide of economic decline.     

The effect of depositional history on contaminated bed sediment stability

Experiments were conducted in an annular flume using a commercially available kaolinite clay as well as contaminated bed sediment from Hamilton Harbour (Ontario) to assess their stability against erosion. Critical shear stress for erosion was measured under different conditions of bed formation (quiescently deposited beds and shear deposited beds) as well as with and without the presence of a biostabilized bed. Results suggest that a biostabilized bed and a bed formed under a flowing condition, similar to a river scenario, will be more resistant against erosion than will a non-biostabilized bed and a bed formed under quiescent conditions. Up to three cycles of erosion and flocculation/deposition were observed to occur within one experiment. These results suggest that the depositional history and biostabilization of river bed sediments need to be seriously considered within sediment and contaminant transport models if meaningful estimates of sediment and contaminant source, fate and effect are to be generated and used for the management of our aquatic ecosystems.     

The impact of preoxidation of SAS on biosorption efficiency on activated carbon

We have studied the process of a prolonged dynamic filtration on activated carbon in two biosorption systems — without preoxidation treatment of the initial matter and after ozonization. It has been shown that given the uniform load on activated carbon terms of the organic matter the efficiency of the biosorption process after preozonization is 2.3 times as small compared with that that without pretreatment, which correlates with the change of adsorption free energy.     

Engineering geology today

Summary The author discusses the development and present state of the engineering geology. He warns the engineering geologists against a merely mechanical approach and emphasizes that an engineer needs to understand geology as well. Further an analysis of the relation between geology and civil engineering and between engineering geology and soil and rock mechanics is presented. Finally the paper deals with the tasks of engineering geology at designing and construction of structures as well as with the problems of education in engineering geology.

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La Géologie De l’Ingénieur Aujourd’Hui

Résumé L’auteur examine la question du développement et de la situation acutelle de la géologie de l’ingénieur. II préviend d’un accès simplement méchanical en accentuant, qu’il est vraiement nécéssaire pour un ingénieur de comprendre aussi la géologie. Puis, l’auteur analyse la rélation entre la géologie et la construction ainsi qu’entre la géologie de l’ingénieur et la mécanique du sol. Enfin, le travail traits les taches de la géologie de l’ingénieur dans la sphère des projets et de la réalisation des constructions ainsi que les problèmes de l’éducation.

     

Influences of iron, manganese, and dissolved organic carbon on the hypolimnetic cycling of amended mercury

The biogeochemical cycling of iron, manganese, sulfide, and dissolved organic carbon were investigated to provide information on the transport and removal processes that control the bioavailability of isotopic mercury amended to a lake. Lake profiles showed a similar trend of hypolimnetic enrichment of Fe, Mn, DOC, sulfide, and the lake spike ((202)Hg, purity 90.8%) and ambient of pools of total mercury (HgT) and methylmercury (MeHg). Hypolimnetic enrichment of Fe and Mn indicated that reductive mobilization occurred primarily at the sediment-water interface and that Fe and Mn oxides were abundant within the sediments prior to the onset of anoxia. A strong relationship (r(2)=0.986, n=15, p<0.001) between filterable Fe and Mn indicated that reduction of Fe and Mn hydrous oxides in the sediments is a common in-lake source of Fe(II) and Mn(II) to the hypolimnion and that a consistent Mn:Fe mass ratio of 0.05 exists in the lake. A strong linear relationship of both the filterable [Fe] (r(2)=0.966, n=15, p<0.001) and [Mn] (r(2)=0.964, n=15, p<0.001) to [DOC] indicated a close linkage of the cycles of Fe and Mn to DOC. Persistence of iron oxides in anoxic environments suggested that DOC was being co-precipitated with Fe oxide and released into solution by the reductive dissolution of the oxide. The relationship between ambient and lake spike HgT (r(2)=0.920, n=27, p<0.001) and MeHg (r(2)=0.967, n=23, p<0.001) indicated that similar biogeochemical processes control the temporal and spatial distribution in the water column. The larger fraction of MeHg in the lake spike compared to the ambient pool in the hypolimnion suggests that lake spike may be more available for methylation. A linear relationship of DOC to both filterable ambient HgT (r(2)=0.406, n=27, p<0.001) and lake spike HgT (r(2)=0.314, n=15, p=0.002) suggest a role of organic matter in Hg transport and cycling. However, a weak relationship between the ambient and lake spike pools of MeHg to DOC indicated that other processes have a major role in controlling the abundance and distribution of MeHg. Our results suggest that Fe and Mn play important roles in the transport and cycling of ambient and spike HgT and MeHg in the hypolimnion, in part through processes linked to the formation and dissolution of organic matter-containing Fe and Mn hydrous oxides particles.     

Feature analysis of women's wedding dresses in new,style weddings in the Wu culture region in modern times北大核心CSCD

To further clarify the features of wedding dresses in new, style weddings in cities and towns of the Wu culture region, the author sorted out and made a statistical analysis of modern journals and periodicals as well as conducted a comparison in combination with diaries of celebrities and novels in modern times to collect 368 wedding photos in total in the Wu culture region. The analysis results indicate that wedding dresses in the Wu culture region were mainly of modified styles from 1859 to 1949, the development of wedding dresses went through the stages of unitary styles, mixed styles and diversified styles, in each of which there were also representative regular ways of matching. In general, wedding dresses were in simple, elegant and delicate styles, and the silhouettes kept up with popular western styles, showing a high level of acceptance of foreign cultures. The colors of wedding dresses tended to combinations of light colors, while traditional colors were gradually reduced. Besides, patterns of flowers and plants with thin stems and leaves were mainly used to decorate wedding dresses, showing the distribution features of scattering and covering. © 2018 China Silk Association. All rights reserved.     

Boosting the electrochemical performance of Li-garnet based all-solid-state batteries with Li<Subscript>4</Subscript>Ti<Subscript>5</Subscript>O<Subscript>12</Subscript> electrode: Routes to cheap and large scale ceramic processing

All-solid-state batteries based on fast Li⁺ conducting solid electrolytes such as Li₇La₃Zr₂O₁₂ (LLZO) give perspective on safe, non-inflammable, and temperature tolerant energy storage. Despite the promise, ceramic processing of whole battery assemblies reaching close to theoretical capacities and finding optimal strategies to process large-scale and low cost battery cells remains a challenge. Here, we tackle these issues and report on a solid-state battery cell composed of Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ / c-Li_6.25Al_0.25La₃Zr₂O₁₂ / metallic Li delivering capacities around 70–75 Ah/kg with reversible cycling at a rate of 8 A/kg (for 2.5–1.0 V, 95 °C). A key aspect towards the increase in capacity and Li⁺ transfer at the solid electrolyte-electrode interface is found to be the intimate embedding of grains and their connectivity, which can be implemented by the isostatic pressing of cells during their preparation. We suggest that simple adaption of ceramic processing, such as the applied pressure during processing, strongly alters the electrochemical performance by assuring good grain contacts at the electrolyte-electrode interface. Among the garnet-type all-solid-state ceramic battery assemblies in the field, considerably improved capacities and cycling properties are demonstrated for Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ / c-Li_6.25Al_0.25La₃Zr₂O₁₂ / metallic Li pressed cells, giving new perspectives on cheap ceramic processing and up-scalable garnet-based all-solid-state batteries.