The atmospheric conditions that lead to strong offshore surface winds in Southern California, commonly referred to as Santa Ana winds, are investigated using the North American Regional Reanalysis and a 12-year, 6-km resolution regional climate simulation of Southern California. We first construct an index to characterize Santa Ana events based on offshore wind strength. This index is then used...

Clay from deposit Bilalovac, Central Bosnia, was characterized by chemical, IR, XRD and DTA/TG analysis. The major mineral components are kaolinite, illite, muscovite and quartz. Raw clay may be used for pottery products and terracotta. Clay was beneficiated by wet method removing fraction over 20 μm. Beneficiation process increased content of kaolinite and decreased content of quartz. Benefici...

High resolution (<10 nm) transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy-®ltering TEM (EFTEM), and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) have been used for the direct microstructural imaging and analysis of clay-organic matter aggregates in ®ne-grained aquatic sediments from Jourdan River Estuary, MS, USA. EFTEM and EELS allow rapid, high-resolution spatial mapping and analysis of light eleme...

Some organisms disperse energy, associated with the transportation of resource, which is not necessarily food. Stingless bees of Central Amazonia (Melipona flavolineata and M. lateralis) collect clay in banks along streams for nest building. The moisture of the clay varies along the bank, and bees collect clay from specific location, indicating that there is some sort of preference regarding th...

Sodium montmorillonite (Na-MMT) clay was modified with three different unnatural amino acids in order to design intercalated clay structures that may be used for bone biomaterials applications. Prior work on polymer-clay nanocomposites (PCNs) has indicated the effect of the appropriate choice of modifiers on enhancing properties of PCNs. Our X-ray diffraction results indicate an increase in the...

Define a mixture with volume V containing a certain amount of clay (Vc) and sand (Vs), i.e. V = Vc + Vs. The intrinsic porosity of the clay is φc, defined as the ratio of pore volume in the clay V c p to the volume of clay, i.e. φc = V c p /Vc, and the intrinsic porosity of sand is φs = V s p /Vs. The surface areas of the pores in the clay and in the sand are noted S p and S s p respectively. S...

Metal ions present on smectite clay (montmorillonite) platelets have preferential reactivity towards peroxy/alkoxy groups during polyamide 6 (PA6) thermal decomposition. This changes the decomposition pathway and negatively affects the ignition response of PA6. To restrict these interfacial interactions, high-temperature-resistant polymers such as polyetherimide (PEI) and polyimide (PI) were us...

High performance epoxy resin (tetra-glycidyl-4,4’diamino-diphenyl methane-TGDDM) is brittle and is sensitive to moisture absorption and thermooxidative effects. An approach to mitigate polymer sensitivity towards moisture and thermal effects is to add clay. The addition of clay to resin systems (e.g. diglycidyl ether bisphenol A-DGEBA) has often yielded an overall improvement in properties of t...

BACKGROUND Health management tools need to be developed to foster healthy ageing at work and sustain employability of ageing work-forces. The objectives of this study were to 1) perform a needs assessment to identify the needs of offshore workers in the Dutch Continental Shelf with regard to healthy ageing at work and 2) to define suitable program objectives for a future healthy ageing at work ...

a r t i c l e i n f o In Soil Taxonomy three diagnostic subsurface horizons reflect clay enrichment: the argillic, kandic, and natric horizons. Clay illuviation is recognized in Soil Taxonomy at some level in 10 of the 12 orders, including the percent of the soil series in the USA contain taxonomically defined clay-enriched horizons. However, many other soils contain Bt horizons that do not qua...