Estimates of pollutant temporal and spatial variability in commercial buildings from the joint urban 2003 field experiments

In this paper, we report on the indoor concentrations from a suite of full-scale outdoor tracer-gas point releases conducted in the downtown area of Oklahoma City in 2003. A point release experiment consisted of releases of sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆) in multiple buildings and from different outdoor locations. From the measurements, we are able to estimate the concentration variations indoors for a building operating under “typical” operating conditions. The mean indoor spatial coefficients of variation are 30% to 45% from a daytime outdoor release are around 80% during an outdoor evening release. Having estimates of the spatial coefficient of variation provides stakeholders, including first responders, with the likely range of concentrations in the building when little is known about the building characteristics and operating behavior, such as developing urban-scale hazard and consequence analyses. We show differences in indoor measurements at different distances to the release points, floors of the building, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system (HVAC) operation. We also show estimates at different time resolutions. The statistics show that in the studied medium to large commercial buildings, spatial differences would result in peak indoor concentrations in certain parts of the buildings that may be substantially higher than the building average. To our knowledge, very few tracer gas measurements have been conducted in buildings of this scope, particularly with measurements on multiple floors and within a floor. The resulting estimates of spatial variability provide a unique opportunity for hazard assessment, and comparison to multi-zone models.     

Genetic diversity by AFLP analysis within Jatropha curcas L. populations in the State of São Paulo,Brazil

The genetic diversity of 5 populations of Jatropha curcas L. (Euphorbiaceae), a species cultivated in tropical countries and used in biodiesel production, was analyzed by amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). Plants from distinct populations found in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, had their genetic diversity characterized by using three primer combinations. The number of polymorphic bands obtained reached 184 and the base pair length of bands ranged from 75 to 350, with average PIC values of 0.418. Accessions from the Aguas de Santa Barbara population presented the highest percentage of polymorphic loci (89.76%), followed by the populations of Catanduva (84.24%), Jales (80.98%), Jurucê (78.80%) and Taquaritinga (70.65%). Plants collected from the populations of Taquaritinga and Jales presented the smallest and highest genetic diversities, respectively, measured by using both Nei's genetic variability index (h = 0.2242 and 0.2973) and Shannon's index (I = 0.3359 and 0.4319). The results obtained indicated that 73.1% of genetic variability corresponds to intrapopulational variation and 26.8% to variation among populations. The clustering dendrogram using Jacquard showed four clusters. Three clusters with low genetic diversity grouped most of individuals collected in distinct regions (63.3% JU, 47.0% JA and 82.5% TA) and the fourth with the higher genetic diversity was composed with basically individuals collected in CA and AS, but it also had samples collected in JU, JA and TA, where it is possible to select individuals to be included in breeding programs.     

A Distribution‐freeCUSUMChart for Monitoring Variability of AutocorrelatedProcesses

We present a distribution‐free tabular cumulative sum chart for monitoring the variability of an autocorrelated process. A quantity known as the asymptotic variance parameter is employed as a measure of the variability, and a distribution‐free tabular cumulative sum chart is applied to variance estimates calculated from batches of nonoverlapping samples. The proposed chart is applicable to a stationary process with a general marginal distribution and a general autocorrelation structure. It also determines control limits analytically without trial‐and‐error simulations. The performance of the proposed chart is tested on stationary processes with both normal and nonnormal marginals with various autocorrelation structures. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

变差函数在地下水位估值中的应用研究

用数值方法进行地下水水资源评价时 ,需要给出每个节点上的初始地下水位值。本文着重阐述了区域化变量和变差函数及其计算步骤 ,指出变差函数在分析地下水位的空间变异的重要性     

Red clays from Central and Eastern Crete: geochemical and mineralogical properties in view of provenance studies on ancient ceramics

The existing geochemical diversity of clay deposits consists the underlying assumption for the determination of provenance of archaeological ceramics on the basis of their chemical composition. This assumption was tested on Quarternary red clayey alluviums from Central and Eastern Crete (Greece), an area rich in archaeological pottery and very popular for ceramics provenance studies. This type of clay has been used for pottery production on the island since the antiquity and it is still in use by traditional workshops. Altogether, 17 samples of clayey raw materials were collected from 7 different locations in Central and Eastern Crete, and characterised by chemistry, mineralogy and petrography. The study was focussed on the internal variability within deposits and the diversity among different deposits.It was possible to distinguish all seven deposits from each other on the basis of their chemical composition, taking into account the available mineralogical and petrographical information, although some deposits presented compositional relations. Compared to Neogene clay deposits in the same area, the variability among the examined red clayey deposits was clearly higher and exceeded by far the intra-deposit variability.     

Air entrainment in fresh concrete with PFA

The results of a study into the influence of PFA on air entrainment in fresh concrete are discussed It is shown that the required dosage of AEA to produce an air content of 5.5 ± 0.5% in a PFA modified concrete mix is two-six times that required in the corresponding neat OPC concrete mix. The dosage of a vinsol based air entraining agent (AEA) required appears to be directly related to the PFA content of the mix. Similar direct relationships were obtained with a range of different PFAs. The dosage of an AEA based on the salt of a fatty acid appears to be sensitive to both PFA and OPC contents. For the type of PFA used, the variability of measured air content or the amount of air retained after continued agitation both indicated that vinsol based AEAs show the highest variability whilst fatty acid based AEAs show low variability. The between batch variability of air content was significantly improved by the addition of PFA regardless of the AEA used.     

Soil Apparent Electrical Conductivity (EC<Subscript>a</Subscript>) as a Means of Monitoring Changesin Soil Inorganic N on Heterogeneous Morainic Soils in SE Norway During Two Growing Seasons

An efficient method to monitor changes in soil inorganic N content during crop growth would be a useful means to guide N fertilization to ensure high yields and low N losses to the environment. In this study, soil apparent electrical conductivity (EC_a) measured by the widely used conductivity meter EM38 was tested as an indirect measurement of available N in spring barley during two cropping seasons at two sites with morainic loam in SE Norway. The experiment was constructed to maximize soil variation. In spite of the ȁ8noiseȁ9 caused by the soil heterogeneity, concentrations of inorganic N (cN_inorg) or NO₃-N were most strongly correlated with EC_a in both years and at both locations (with one exception). The measurements of EC_a reflected well the temporal variation in inorganic N content (N_inorg), and a ranking of the treatments based on EC_a fitted very well with a ranking based on N_inorg at the first three sampling times after fertilizing. The best subset of sensor variables (i.e. variables which can be measured ȁ8on-the-goȁ9 by sensor techniques in the field) described 27–69% (average 47%) of the variation in topsoil cN_inorg. When expanding the regression models to include pH as well, the degree of explanation increased significantly. In conclusion, the method of using EC_a appears to be quite robust in terms of detecting relative differences in cN_inorg, whereas a determination of absolute levels of cN_inorg with the method is unreliable.     

gHRV: Heart rate variability analysis made easy

In this paper, the gHRV software tool is presented. It is a simple, free and portable tool developed in python for analysing heart rate variability. It includes a graphical user interface and it can import files in multiple formats, analyse time intervals in the signal, test statistical significance and export the results.     

考虑多因素作用下的RC梁抗力时空退化模型

为研究钢筋混凝土结构锈蚀后的力学性能和抗力退化规律,基于RC梁加速锈蚀试验结果,首先综合考虑均匀锈蚀和点蚀同时发生的影响,对钢筋截面面积的时变模型进行分析,其次探讨裂缝宽度与氯离子扩散系数及RC梁抗力的关系,随后考虑受拉主筋锈蚀不均衡的影响,对结构抗力计算模型进行讨论,最后基于材料性能和结构尺寸的空间变异性,建立RC梁抗力时空退化模型,并对桥梁服役100 a后的抗力进行预测.研究发现:当考虑各参数的空间变异性时,不考虑裂缝影响得到的抗力值比考虑裂缝影响得到的抗力值高了9.91%;考虑各参数空间变异性时的抗力值比不考虑时下降了14.68%;适当的选取波动系数和单元尺寸对考虑结构各参数的空间变异性十分重要;潮汐区和浪溅区环境下结构的剩余抗力分别为初始抗力的43.23%和36.45%,较海岸线大气区环境下的抗力值分别下降了6.73%和21.35%,因此在结构服役期间,应尽量做好防腐措施,减少氯离子侵蚀对结构耐久性的破坏.