Search results for "general [gamma ray]"
showing 10 items of 38681 documents
Analysis of psychoactive substances in water by information dependent acquisition on a hybrid quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer.
2016
Emerging drugs of abuse, belonging to many different chemical classes, are attracting users with promises of “legal” highs and easy access via internet. Prevalence of their consumption and abuse through wastewater-based epidemiology can only be realized if a suitable analytical screening procedure exists to detect and quantify them in water. Solid-phase extraction and ultra-high performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (UHPLC–QqTOF–MS/MS) was applied for rapid suspect screening as well as for the quantitative determination of 42 illicit drugs and metabolites in water. Using this platform, we were able to identify amphetamines, tryptamines, piperazines, p…
Who's better at spotting? A comparison between aerial photography and observer-based methods to monitor floating marine litter and marine mega-fauna.
2020
Pollution by marine litter is raising major concerns due to its potential impact on marine biodiversity and, above all, on endangered mega-fauna species, such as cetaceans and sea turtles. The density and distribution of marine litter and mega-fauna have been traditionally monitored through observer-based methods, yet the advent of new technologies has introduced aerial photography as an alternative monitoring method. However, to integrate results produced by different monitoring techniques and consider the photographic method a viable alternative, this ‘new’ methodology must be validated. This study aims to compare observations obtained from the concurrent application of observer-based and…
A Regional Geography Approach to Understanding the Environmental Changes as a Consequence of the COVID-19 Lockdown in Highly Populated Spanish Cities
2021
Spain has been highly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is reflected at different scales. From an economic point of view, lockdowns and the reduction of activities have damaged the country (e.g., complete lockdown from March 13 to June 21, 2020). However, it is not clear if the associated environmental impacts could be observed in 2020. Currently, studies on the effects of the lockdown (e.g., decrease in economic activities, transport and social communication) on specific parameters related to climate change, such as air temperature or air pollution, due to a drastic decrease in human activities are rare. They are focused on specific cities and short periods of time. Therefore, the m…
Diving below the spin-down limit: Constraints on gravitational waves from the energetic young pulsar PSR J0537-6910
2021
We present a search for continuous gravitational-wave signals from the young, energetic X-ray pulsar PSR J0537-6910 using data from the second and third observing runs of LIGO and Virgo. The search is enabled by a contemporaneous timing ephemeris obtained using NICER data. The NICER ephemeris has also been extended through 2020 October and includes three new glitches. PSR J0537-6910 has the largest spin-down luminosity of any pulsar and is highly active with regards to glitches. Analyses of its long-term and inter-glitch braking indices provided intriguing evidence that its spin-down energy budget may include gravitational-wave emission from a time-varying mass quadrupole moment. Its 62 Hz …
Gravitational-wave Detection and Parameter Estimation for Accreting Black-hole Binaries and Their Electromagnetic Counterpart
2020
We study the impact of gas accretion on the orbital evolution of black-hole binaries initially at large separation in the band of the planned Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). We focus on two sources: (i)~stellar-origin black-hole binaries~(SOBHBs) that can migrate from the LISA band to the band of ground-based gravitational-wave observatories within weeks/months; and (ii) intermediate-mass black-hole binaries~(IMBHBs) in the LISA band only. Because of the large number of observable gravitational-wave cycles, the phase evolution of these systems needs to be modeled to great accuracy to avoid biasing the estimation of the source parameters. Accretion affects the gravitational-wave p…
Passive and Active Biomonitoring of Atmospheric Aerosol with the Use of Mosses
2021
Abstract The aim of the carried out research was passive and active biomonitoring of woodlands in the Opole province. Pleurozium schreberi mosses were used during the research, in which the following heavy metals concentrations were determined: Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb. Concentrations were determined with absorption atomic spectrometry (AAS). On the basis of the carried out research, concentrations of heavy metals in moss samples used in the passive and active biomonitoring methods were compared. The obtained results indicate that Pleurozium schreberi mosses can be successfully used in both passive and active biomonitoring, however, these methods should not be used interchangeably in a…
Spatio-temporal patterns of thermal anomalies and drought over tropical forests driven by recent extreme climatic anomalies
2018
The recent 2015–2016 El Niño (EN) event was considered as strong as the EN in 1997–1998. Given such magnitude, it was expected to result in extreme warming and moisture anomalies in tropical areas. Here we characterize the spatial patterns of temperature anomalies and drought over tropical forests, including tropical South America (Amazonia), Africa and Asia/Indonesia during the 2015–2016 EN event. These spatial patterns of warming and drought are compared with those observed in previous strong EN events (1982–1983 and 1997–1998) and other moderate to strong EN events (e.g. 2004–2005 and 2009–2010). The link between the spatial patterns of drought and sea surface temperature anomalies in th…
Potential impacts of a future Nordic bioeconomy on surface water quality
2020
AbstractNordic water bodies face multiple stressors due to human activities, generating diffuse loading and climate change. The ‘green shift’ towards a bio-based economy poses new demands and increased pressure on the environment. Bioeconomy-related pressures consist primarily of more intensive land management to maximise production of biomass. These activities can add considerable nutrient and sediment loads to receiving waters, posing a threat to ecosystem services and good ecological status of surface waters. The potential threats of climate change and the ‘green shift’ highlight the need for improved understanding of catchment-scale water and element fluxes. Here, we assess possible bio…
Anticipating the impact of pitfalls in kinetic biodegradation parameter estimation from substrate depletion curves of organic pollutants
2019
[EN] Accurate and reliable estimation of kinetic parameters of pollutant biodegradation processes is essential for environmental and health risk assessment. Common biodegradation models proposed in the literature, such as the nonlinear Monod equation and its simplified versions (e.g. Michaelis-Menten-like and first-order equations), are problematic in terms of accuracy of kinetic parameters due to the parameter correlation. However, a comparison between these models in terms of accuracy and reliability, related to data imprecision, has not been performed in the literature. This task is necessary, mainly because the model selection cannot be straightforward, as shown in this work. To facilit…
Land Use Affects Carbon Sources to the Pelagic Food Web in a Small Boreal Lake
2016
Small humic forest lakes often have high contributions of methane-derived carbon in their food webs but little is known about the temporal stability of this carbon pathway and how it responds to environmental changes on longer time scales. We reconstructed past variations in the contribution of methanogenic carbon in the pelagic food web of a small boreal lake in Finland by analyzing the stable carbon isotopic composition (δ13C values) of chitinous fossils of planktivorous invertebrates in sediments from the lake. The δ13C values of zooplankton remains show several marked shifts (approx. 10 ‰), consistent with changes in the proportional contribution of carbon from methane-oxidizing bacteri…