Search results for "Coal"
showing 10 items of 354 documents
Response of soil phosphatase activities to contamination with two types of tar oil.
2018
Tar oil is a complex mixture of hydrocarbon compounds obtained from high-temperature distillation of coal tar. It has been used for over 100 years from now to protect wood and has been applied to wood products, primary utility poles, and railroad ties by pressure methods. Composition of the tar oil depends on the source and typically consists of 85% polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), 10% phenolic compounds, and 5% heterocyclic compounds. In this research, we performed the laboratory experiment to compare two types of tar oil: C and GX-Plus, and their effects on P-cycling enzymes (phosphatases) in sandy loam and loamy sand. Tar oil was applied to soil samples at the following doses: 2,…
Collective Lands and Territories of Life: a Backgrounder on the International Land Coalition
2019
The article describes areas of collaboration between the ICCA Consortium and International Land Coalition
The Commission’s informal agenda-setting in the CFSP. Agenda leadership, coalition-building, and community framing
2020
This study contributes to the literature on informal governance by examining politics of informal agenda-setting in the European Commission. As a ‘hard case’, the paper examines how the European Commission exceeds limited legal Treaty provisions in foreign and security policy (CFSP). This system, where the Commission has come to play a more prominent role than stipulated in the treaties, is interpreted as a normalization of CFSP governance. Three complementary propositions on the informal agenda-setting role of the Commission are developed: agenda leadership (#1), coalition-building (#2), and community framing (#3). To illuminate these propositions, we examine their relevance across three e…
Designing biochar properties through the blending of biomass feedstock with metals: Impact on oxyanions adsorption behavior
2018
Metal-blending of biomass prior to pyrolysis is investigated in this work as a tool to modify biochar physico-chemical properties and its behavior as adsorbent. Six different compounds were used for metal-blending: AlCl3, Cu(OH)2, FeSO4, KCl, MgCl2 and Mg(OH)2. Pyrolysis experiments were performed at 400 and 700 °C and the characterization of biochar properties included: elemental composition, thermal stability, surface area and pore size distribution, Zeta potential, redox potential, chemical structure (with nuclear magnetic resonance) and adsorption behavior of arsenate, phosphate and nitrate. Metalblending strongly affected biochars' surface charge and redox potential. Moreover, it incre…
Weak convergence to the coalescent in neutral population models
1999
For a large class of neutral population models the asymptotics of the ancestral structure of a sample of n individuals (or genes) is studied, if the total population size becomes large. Under certain conditions and under a well-known time-scaling, which can be expressed in terms of the coalescence probabilities, weak convergence in D E ([0,∞)) to the coalescent holds. Further the convergence behaviour of the jump chain of the ancestral process is studied. The results are used to approximate probabilities which are of certain interest in applications, for example hitting probabilities.
Expansion of the CRF19_cpx Variant in Spain
2015
Abstract Background HIV-1 CRF19_cpx, is a recombinant variant found almost exclusively in Cuba and recently associated to a faster AIDS onset. Infection with this variant leads to higher viral loads and levels of RANTES and CXCR4 co-receptor use. Objectives The goal of this study was to assess the presence of CRF19_cpx in the Spanish province of Valencia, given its high pathogenicity. Study design 1294 HIV-1 protease-reverse transcriptase (PR/RT) sequences were obtained in Valencia (Spain), between 2005 and 2014. After subtyping, the detected CRF19_cpx sequences were aligned with 201 CRF19_cpx and 66 subtype D sequences retrieved from LANL, and subjected to maximum-likelihood phylogenetic a…
Effects of activated carbon ageing in three PCB contaminated sediments: Sorption efficiency and secondary effects on Lumbriculus variegatus.
2015
The sorption efficiency and possible secondary effects of activated carbon (AC) (o 63-200 μm) was studied with Lumbriculus variegatus in three PCB contaminated sediments applying long AC-sediment contact time (3 years). AC amendment efficiently reduced PCB bioavailability as determined with both, L. variegatus bioaccumulation test and passive samplers. However, dose related secondary effects of AC on egestion rate and biomass were observed (applied doses 0.25% and 2.5% sediment dry weight). The sorption capacity and secondary effects remained similar when the experiments were repeated after three years of AC-sediment contact time. Further, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) samples reve…
Responses of Lumbriculus variegatus to Activated Carbon Amendments in Uncontaminated Sediments
2012
Activated carbon (AC) amendment is a recently developed sediment remediation method. The strong hydrophobic organic contaminant sorption efficiency of AC has been shown in several studies, but effects on benthic organisms require more investigation. The AC induced effects on egestion rate, growth and reproduction of Lumbriculus variegatus were studied by applying bituminous coal based AC in three different particle size fractions, namely <63 μm (90%, AC(p)), 63-200 μm (AC(m)) and 1000 μm (AC(g)), to natural uncontaminated (HS) and artificial sediment (AS). Egestion rate, growth and reproduction decreased with increasing AC concentration and finer AC particle fractions, effects being stronge…
Water dynamics in different biochar fractions.
2014
Biochar is a carbonaceous porous material deliberately applied to soil to improve its fertility. The mechanisms through which biochar acts on fertility are still poorly understood. The effect of biochar texture size on water dynamics was investigated here in order to provide information to address future research on nutrient mobility towards plant roots as biochar is applied as soil amendment. A poplar biochar has been stainless steel fractionated in three different textured fractions (1.0-2.0 mm, 0.3-1.0 mm and0.3 mm, respectively). Water-saturated fractions were analyzed by fast field cycling (FFC) NMR relaxometry. Results proved that 3D exchange between bound and bulk water predominantly…
Mechanisms of Water Interaction with Pore Systems of Hydrochar and Pyrochar from Poplar Forestry Waste
2014
The aim of this study was to understand the water-surface interactions of two chars obtained by gasification (pyrochar) and hydrothermal carbonization (hydrochar) of a poplar biomass. The two samples revealed different chemical compositions as evidenced by solid state (13)C NMR spectroscopy. In fact, hydrochar resulted in a lignin-like material still containing oxygenated functionalities. Pyrochar was a polyaromatic system in which no heteronuclei were detected. After saturation with water, hydrochar and pyrochar were analyzed by fast field cycling (FFC) NMR relaxometry. Results showed that water movement in hydrochar was mainly confined in very small pores. Conversely, water movement in py…