Academic literature on the topic 'DRASTIC index. eng'

Abstract The groundwater vulnerability assessment is normally applied to rural watersheds. However, urbanization modifies the hydrogeological processes. A modified DRASTIC model was adopted to establish a groundwater vulnerability map in an urbanized watershed. The modified DRASTIC model incorporated a land-use map, and net recharge was calculated taking into account the specificity of the urban hydrogeological system. The application of the proposed approach to the Mannouba watershed demonstrates that the groundwater vulnerability indexes range from 80 to 165. The study's results shows that 30 percent of the Mannouba watershed area has a high vulnerability index, 45 percent of the area has a medium index, and 25 percent of the study area has a low vulnerability index. To specify the effect of each DRASTIC factor on the calculated vulnerability index, sensitivity analyses were performed. Land use, topography, and soil media have an important theoretical weight greater than the effective weight. The impact of the vadose zone factor has the most important effective weight and affects the vulnerability index. The sensitivity assessment explored the variation in vulnerability after thematic layer removal. In this analysis, the removal of hydraulic conductivity and impact of vadose zone modified the vulnerability index. Groundwater vulnerability assessment in urbanized watersheds is difficult and has to consider the impact of urbanization in the hydrogeological parameters.

SUMMARY It is maintained that the basic semiotic concepts of icon and index in the Peircean sense give the best tools for both describing and explaining change. The notion of iconic index is used to explicate assimilation, morphophonemics, sociolectal pronunciation variation, grammatical agreement, and semantic change. In all these cases, the iconic index gives an accurate and insightful explanation. As a real demonstration of the worth of the concept of the iconic index, drastic lexical change is analyzed through the examples of Cockney rhyming slang and Australian avoidance (e.g., 'mother-in-law') languages. The iconic index also allows one to draw some parallels to certain Western taboos. Even in these instances of drastic lexical change, the iconic index holds its ground as a descriptive and explanatory tool. RÉSUMÉ Les auteurs maintiennent que les concepts fondamentaux de C. S. Peirce de 'icon' et de 'index' offrent les meilleurs outils pour la description et l'explication du changement linguistique. La notion de 'iconic index' est utilisée pour expliquer l'assimilation, la morphophonologie, la variation dans la prononciation individuelle, l'accord grammatical et le changement sémantique. Dans tous ces cas, l'index iconique donne une explication précise et perspicace. Pour démontrer l'utilité de ce concept, des exemples de changement lexical abrupt tirés du rime patois du Cockney et des langues australiennes qui connaissent un système qui fait les locuteurs éviter certains mots (e.g., ceux qui ont affaire avec la belle-mère). L'index iconique permet également d'établir certains parallèles ä des tabous occidentaux. Même dans ces cas de changement abrupt dans le lexique, le concept d'index iconique maintient son utilité comme moyen de description et d'explication. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG Die Autoren stellen die Behauptung auf, daß von Charles Sanders Peirce entwickelte Begriffe wie 'Ikon' und 'Index' uns die besten Mittel an die Hand geben, Veränderungen zu beschreiben und zu erklaren. Der 'ikonische Index' dient dazu, Assimilation, Morphophonologie, Variationen in der individuellen Aussprache, grammatische Übereinstimmung sowie Bedeutungswandel zu erklären. In all diesen Fällen bietet der 'ikonische Index' genaue und erhellende Erklärungen. Um den Wert dieses Konzepts zu illustrieren, werden Beispiele aus volkstumlichen Reimen des Cockney und aus australischen Sprachen ge-wählt, die ein Prinzip kennen, demzufolge bestimmte lexikalische Bereiche (z.B. die Schwiegermutter betreffend) umgangen werden. Der 'ikonische Index' erlaubt uns auch, Parallelen zu bestimmten abendländischen Tabus zu ziehen. Selbst in diesen Fallen eines drastischen lexikalischen Wechsels erweist sich das Konzept als ein wichtiges Beschreibungs- und Erklärungs-mittel.

Drought is one of the most drastic events, which has imposed irreparable damages on human societies and may occur in any climate regime. To define drought, given its properties of multidimensionality and randomity, one cannot rely on a single variable/index (e.g., precipitation, soil moisture, and runoff). Accordingly, implementing a novel approach, this study investigated drought events in two basins with different climatic regimes, using multivariate frequency analyses of drought duration, severity, and severity peak, based on developing a Two-variate Standardized Index (TSI). The index was developed based on the concept of copula, by applying rainfall-runoff data (1974–2019) and comparing them with two popular drought indices, the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and Standardized Stream Flow Index (SSFI), in terms of derived drought characteristics. The results show that TSI determined more severe drought conditions with fewer return periods than SPI and SSFI in a specific drought event. This implies that the disadvantages of SPI and SSFI might not be found in TSI. The developed index can be employed by policymakers and planners to protect water resources from drought.

Abstract The effect of increased fiber charge on refining, cationic starch adsorption, and hornification was examined. Two pulps were investigated: (1) a softwood (SW) kraft pulp (KP) which was bleached elementally chlorine-free (ECF) and served as control; and (2) a control pulp treated with alkaline peroxide, which had a higher fiber charge. It was shown that increased fiber charge can improve the efficiency of the refining treatment, as indicated by differences in tensile index refined from 0 to 1000 revolutions. When the control pulp was refined from 4000 to 8000 revolutions, the tensile index decreased. In contrast, the tensile index of the higher fiber charge pulp (HCP) was higher under the same refining conditions. Upon addition of 2% cationic starch to both pulps, the tensile index of the control pulp increased by 13.7% and that of HCP by 23.7%. Atomic force microscopy did not reveal differences in the surface morphology of the two pulps with and without cationic starch adsorption. Peroxide treatment enhanced the fiber charge of the never-dried pulp. This was beneficial in reducing hornification when pulp was dried at 105°C. However, if the once dried pulp at 105°C was treated with peroxide, this resulted in a drastic decrease in intrinsic viscosity of the pulp and lower tensile and burst indices of the test sheets.

SummaryThis work evaluated if an in vitro test, with the combined power of the statistical evaluation of spermatozoa and zona pellucida (ZP) competitive binding ability and a rapid method for accessory sperm counts, could predict the bull fertility. Ten Holstein Friesian bulls of known field fertility (five of high and five of low fertility) were selected. An in vitro heterospermic insemination approach, based on differential staining, was tested on 45 possible pairs of bulls (two batches per bull). Motility and quality (abnormalities and membrane status) seminal characteristics and estimated relative conception rates (ERCR) highlighted only one association between membrane integrity and ERCR (p = 0.007). Differences in ZP binding allowed us to rank bulls into two categories based on low and high binding ability. For eight bulls, this classification reflected the ERCR. Differences between batches were reported for two bulls, in which the effect of heterospermic insemination (the number of sperm binding to ZP from different bulls not in a 1:1 ratio) showed a significant bull-related effect (p < 0.001) in the first batch and no effect (p > 0.05) in the second batch for both bulls. Reduction of the number of oocytes per assay from 25 to 5 had no effect (p > 0.5) on the bulls’ ranking. Our results suggest that in vitro competitive binding is a promising approach for estimating bull fertility and support concepts for further implementation, e.g. drastic reduction of oocyte number in a single pair assay and larger scale testing for batches.

In the past decades, food consumption in China has undergone a rapid increase and a significant structure transition, as a result of population growth and economic development. The food system is increasingly threatening the environment by depleting water resources, deteriorating water bodies, aggravating climate change, degrading ecosystems, etc. It is significant to understand how food consumption affected the environment and how its impacts were driven in the historical period. This study reveals the environmental impacts of China’s food system from 1961 to 2017 from a consumption perspective by assessing water, carbon, and ecological footprints. The logarithmic mean Divisia index method was used to examine the drivers of the growing environmental footprints. The assessment results show that all three environmental footprints have had a drastic increase of more than two times during the studied period, which indicates the high environmental pressure posed by food consumption. We also found that, before the 1980s, the main driving forces of the increasing footprints were population and per capita energy intake. From 1984, the diet pattern started to take a positive effect and then became the dominant driver of the growing environmental footprints after the end of the 1990s.

<p>Aiming to analyze biological character of reproduction and to realize effective breeding activity, annual patin breeding activity 2006 was examined in JFADC Indonesia. Females of two generations, strain of 2001 and 2003 were induced during the year. Various parameters, such as body weight, collected egg weight, number of 1g egg, harvested larvae, were recorded in every trial of breeding. After collecting all of data in 2006, correlation of productivity with fish size and age were analyzed integrating data. All female were also identified by using PIT tag system and alteration of maturity was monitored monthly, observing development of abdomen, from January to June. Accumulated parameters during the year showed negative correlation of egg somatic index (ESI) with fish body weight. Furthermore, hatching rate showed declined tendency as increasing body weight, suggesting less productivity by too-big female. All of elder female performed low productivity due to the low reading of some parameters such as ESI, hatching rate, larvae number/kg. Proportion of matured female was quite high from January until April. Individual monitoring of maturation showed quick reproduction of gonad in 2 month, from January to March, suggesting active reproductive stimulation on this season. Other many females also performed high gonadal maturity and its duration until April in many case. However, maturation has decreased suddenly on May and low maturation had lasted until November. It suppose due to the seasonal alteration of precipitation and remains as awkward issue for stable patin production in Jambi.</p> <p>Keywords: breeding, Asian catfish, <em>egg somatic index</em>, maturation</p> <p> </p> <p>ABSTRAK</p> <p>Evaluasi kegiatan pembenihan patin siam Tahun 2006 di BBAT Jambi Indonesia dilakukan dengan tujuan untuk analisa karakter biologi reproduksi ikan patin siam dan untuk mewujudkan kegiatan pembenihan yang efektif. Betina dari 2 generasi yaitu generasi 2001 dan 2003 dipijahkan selama Tahun 2006. Beberapa parameter seperti bobot tubuh, bobot telur yang diovulasikan (<em>egg somatic index</em>), jumlah 1 gram telur, dan jumlah larva yang dihasilkan dicatat setiap kegiatan pemijahan. Data yang terkumpul dan dianalis, hubungan produktivitas dengan ukuran dan umur induk dievaluasi secara terpadu. Semua betina ditandai dengan menggunakan PIT <em>tag system</em> (<em>micro chip</em>). Perkembangan kematangan gonad dimonitor tiap bulan. Data yang terkumpul menunjukkan adanya korelasi negatif antara <em>egg somatic index</em> dengan bobot tubuh ikan. Selain itu daya tetas cendrung menurun dengan meningkatnya bobot tubuh.. Semua betina yang lebih tua menunjukkan produktivitas yang rendah, hal ini ditunjukkan dengan rendahnya ESI, daya tetas dan jumlah larva/kg induk. Prosentase induk matang gonad cukup tinggi dari bulan Januari sampai April. Pengamatan kematangan gonad per individu menunjukkan siklus reproduksi yang cepat dalam 2 bulan.dari Januari sampai Maret. Beberapa induk lain ditemukan dengan tingkat kematangan gonad yang tinggi pada periode tersebut sampai bulan April. Secara umum tingkat kematangan menurun secara drastis pada bulan Mei dan kematangan yang rendah sampai bulan Nopember.</p> <p>Kata kunci : pembenihan, patin siam, <em>egg somatic index</em>, kematangan</p>

Background: An interferon-free regimen including sofosbuvir and ribavirin (RBV) for patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 2 (G2) infection leads to a drastic improvement of sustained virological response (SVR). However, the safety, tolerability, and efficacy in patients aged 75 or older have not been completely understood. Summary: Fifty-six patients with HCV G2 infection who were treated with sofosbuvir and weight-based dose of RBV were enrolled. Thirty-seven patients aged ≥75 and 19 patients aged ≤74 were classified as the aged and non-aged groups, respectively. The aged group was characterized by significantly more number of women, history of hepatocellular carcinoma, low serum albumin (ALB) level, low hemoglobin (Hb) concentration, low estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and high fibrosis-4 index (p = 0.0029). Forty-one patients were evaluated for SVR at 12 weeks after the end of therapy (SVR12); of them, all but one completed the treatment scheduled for 12 weeks. The aged group showed lower SVR12 rate than the non-aged group (81.3% for aged and 96.0% for non-aged groups). Although the Hb concentration and eGFR are significantly lower in the aged group throughout the clinical course, all patients in the aged group completed the 12-week treatment with a gradual increase of serum ALB level. Key Messages: The combination of sofosbuvir plus RBV is tolerable and beneficial in patients aged >75. However, intensive management of anemia by dose reduction of RBV is necessary, which could lead to a low SVR12 rate compared to that observed in patients younger than 75 years.

Changes in land use and agricultural landscapes are primarily the result of socio-political and economic changes. This research is based on the analysis of old maps, pertaining to different historical periods, aiming to capture the dynamics of the landscape in the Central Bărăgan Plain. The cartographic materials used have the Map of Southern Romania from 1864, the Firing Master Plans and the Corine Land Cover dataset (1990, 2000, 2018) as reference. For the case studies, these sources are supplemented by the orthophotoplan from 2012 and the remotely-sensed image acquired by Corona satellites in 1974. The results highlight the fact that between 1864 and 2018, the Central Bărăgan Plain recorded important changes in land resources. The most significant transformations took place in the period between 1864 and 1959, when 58% of the plain area was purposed for another use in that large areas of land were introduced in the agricultural use. If in 1864 the agricultural lands represented less than half (196.896 ha) of the Central Bărăgan area, the natural areas being dominant (201.473 ha), in the first half of the 20th century, they increased exponentially (361.674 ha), the natural vegetation occupying much smaller areas (28.481 ha) mainly along the Ialomița and Călmățui rivers and near lakes. This trend is also expressed by the values of the index of naturalness which shows a drastic decrease, from 51.7% in 1864, to 10.6% in 1916–1959. There is also an increase of the area cover by settlements which should be explained by the occurrence of new villages and the increase in size of the existing villages. Another result of the approach concerns the changes that occurred in the agricultural landscape in the middle, respectively at the end of the 20th century, which is a fact quantified by computing the index of land fragmentation. The dynamics of land use and the changes in the features of the agricultural landscape, as far as the analyzed area is concerned, are due to the agrarian reforms pertaining to different historical periods, as well as to the forced relocations during the communist regime. Therefore, the study aims to highlight changes during historical, socio-economic and political time in land use and to reduce the degree of naturalness of the territory at the same time.

Abstract. During the past decades, human water use has more than doubled, yet available freshwater resources are finite. As a result, water scarcity has been prevalent in various regions of the world. Here, we present the first global assessment of past development of water stress considering not only climate variability but also growing water demand, desalinated water use and non-renewable groundwater abstraction over the period 1960–2001 at a spatial resolution of 0.5°. Agricultural water demand is estimated based on past extents of irrigated areas and livestock densities. We approximate past economic development based on GDP, energy and household consumption and electricity production, which are subsequently used together with population numbers to estimate industrial and domestic water demand. Climate variability is expressed by simulated blue water availability defined by freshwater in rivers, lakes, wetlands and reservoirs by means of the global hydrological model PCR-GLOBWB. We thus define blue water stress by comparing blue water availability with corresponding net total blue water demand by means of the commonly used, Water Scarcity Index. The results show a drastic increase in the global population living under water-stressed conditions (i.e. moderate to high water stress) due to growing water demand, primarily for irrigation, which has more than doubled from 1708/818 to 3708/1832 km3 yr−1 (gross/net) over the period 1960–2000. We estimate that 800 million people or 27% of the global population were living under water-stressed conditions for 1960. This number is eventually increased to 2.6 billion or 43% for 2000. Our results indicate that increased water demand is a decisive factor for heightened water stress in various regions such as India and North China, enhancing the intensity of water stress up to 200%, while climate variability is often a main determinant of extreme events. However, our results also suggest that in several emerging and developing economies (e.g. India, Turkey, Romania and Cuba) some of past extreme events were anthropogenically driven due to increased water demand rather than being climate-induced.

Orientador: Maria Rita Caetano Chang
Banca: André Celligoi
Banca: Carlos de Almeida Nóbrega
Resumo: Utilizando-se de dados hidrogeológicos em área selecionada na cidade de Londrina (PR), foi realizada avaliação da vulnerabilidade natural do aqüífero constituído pelo manto de alteração das rochas basálticas da Formação Serra Geral, através da aplicação do índice DRASTIC. Este método possui características de simplicidade, de baixo custo, de fácil aplicação e é amplamente utilizado em estudos de vulnerabilidade natural. A caracterização da susceptibilidade do meio à poluição fornece subsídios para tomada de decisões quanto ao uso e ocupação do solo e conseqüentemente ao planejamento sócio-econômico. Na zona não-saturada, através dos ensaios de infiltração, obteve-se baixa permeabilidade dos solos, com variações entre 10-3 cm/s e 10-5 cm/s. Os ensaios de slug, na zona saturada, por sua vez, indicaram condutividade hidráulica de 10-1 a 10-4 cm/s, apresentando média ao redor de 10-2 cm/s. Dessa forma, o poluente ao atingir a zona dos saprolitos, tende a se espalhar rapidamente através das linhas de fluxo subterrâneo. O fluxo preferencial subterrâneo apresenta-se orientado de sul para norte, seguindo grosso modo o declive do terreno. Em geral, na área de estudo predomina a vulnerabilidade moderada, enquanto que nas proximidades do ribeirão Lindóia e nos divisores d'água, as vulnerabilidades foram classificadas como alta e baixa, respectivamente.
Abstract: The DRASTIC index was used for the evaluation of the natural vulnerability of groundwater constituted by the mantle of weathering of the basaltic rocks of the Serra Geral Formation. DRASTIC method was used in this evaluation, for its simplicity, low cost, easy application and it has been widely used for analysis of the natural vulnerability. The characterization of the enviromental to the pollution supports the decisions about ground use and occupation for partner-economic planning. Hydraulic conductivities in the unsaturated and saturated zones, as well as the groundwater flow direction were determined. In the unsaturated zone, permeability of the soils is low, as reveled by infiltrations tests with ranging 10-3 cm/s to 10-5 cm/s. Hydraulic conductivity obtained from slug tests range from 10-1 to 10-4 cm/s, with average around 10-2 cm/s. The flow direction occurs from south to north, accompanying the general slope of the landscape. The pollutant when reaches the zone of the saprolite, tends to spread quickly through the groundwater flow lines. In general, the vulnerability of the studied area can be classified as moderate, while that in the water divide region and in the vicinity of ribeirão Lindóia, are ranked low and high, respectively.
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