Ash Heap Research Articles

Interdisciplinary research of ash heap sediment near Stepnoye settlement (Chelyabinsk Oblast)

An ash heap is defined as a specific object at an archaeological site, usually in the form of a separate hillock containing a layer of finely-dispersed greyish-yellow or ash-coloured soil. The existing assumptions about the formation and functional pur-pose of ash heaps, as special archaeological objects found near the Bronze Age pastoral settlements, have so far been poorly supported by scientific data. At the ash heap near the Sintashta fortified settlement of Stepnoye, Chelyabinsk Oblast, for the first time, large-scale and comprehensive studies were carried out on the structure of these deposits, their granulometric and geo-chemical composition, in combination with the analysis of plant macroremains, paleoparasites, microbiomorphic and palynologi-cal complexes, indicative bacterial groups, and keratinophilic fungi. Judging by the archaeological materials, it is patently obvi-ous that this was a multifunctional object that developed over many centuries and played different roles at different stages. The results of the conducted analyses showed that the 45 cm thick “ash” horizon in the Stepnoye ash heap contains a significant proportion of a fine sand fraction, and not a silty fraction. An increase in the biophilic elements (predominantly calcium, as well as phosphorus and sulphur), accumulated mainly in the organic matter of faunal origin, was noted in the upper bench of the ash layer. However, the high concentration of phytoliths in the “ashy” deposits indicates that the layer was formed mainly as a result of the accumulation of a large amount of plant organic matter. The absence of charcoal and the scarcity of charred macro-remains indicate that the deposited organic material was not burnt but decomposed naturally. The increased content of sapro-trophic bacteria in the “ashy” layer also supports the natural decomposition of an organic matter. The composition of the phyto-lithic and pollen spectrum of the “ashy” horizon is not typical for the steppe of the south of Western Siberia, since it is dominated by a group of mixed herbs with elements of a ruderal flora, and not by cereals. All the data supports the hypothesis that the ash heap is the result of regular practice of cleaning of the floor and interiors of the buildings of the fortified settlement of Stepnoye. This is evidenced by the increase in the number of keratinophilic fungi, which decompose wool and hair and therefore accumu-late in the occupational layer of the structures. Based on the results of the study, the hypotheses that the Stepnoye ash heap is a place of consolidated ash removal or composting of stable manure were rejected.

Men Becoming Gods in “Style”

Men Becoming Gods in “Style”

Pink Triangle Legacies: Coming Out in the Shadow of the Holocaust. By W. Jake Newsome

Come to San Francisco in June and look up. On the eastern slopes of Twin Peaks, a garish pink triangle towers over the city. The symbol, which National Socialists first used to designate homosexual concentration camp prisoners, is meant to shock. Every year since 1996, activists have claimed an acre of hillside during LGBTQ Pride month to remind onlookers of the persecution that queer people continue to face. The pink triangle is one of the most recognizable symbols of queer politics, surpassed only by the iconic rainbow flag originally designed in 1978. Yet its ubiquity in the United States is also curious, a strange transposition of collective memory from across the Atlantic. That transatlantic exchange is the focus of Pink Triangle Legacies, W. Jake Newsome’s first monograph, which traces the triangle’s evolution from a symbol of persecution to one of liberation. In so doing, it not only delves into the history of postwar LGBTQ activism, but also asks about the specific ways that memory interacts with and even constitutes modern politics. Weaving together archival research, oral histories, and the findings of other scholars, Pink Triangle Legacies is a lovingly written book by a public historian committed to ensuring that this past will not be relegated to the ash heap of history. That is, it is both an analysis of the political uses to which memory of Nazi persecution has been put and one such political use in its own right.

ACE! How the Waste Management Phoenix Open Rose from the Ash Heap to become a Sponsorship Exemplar

ACE! How the Waste Management Phoenix Open Rose from the Ash Heap to become a Sponsorship Exemplar

The Ash Heaps of Kweneng, South Africa

The Ash Heaps of Kweneng, South Africa

Strategies to Prevent Ventilator.associated Lung Injury in Critically Ill Patients

Life-saving mechanical ventilation (MV) induces or exacerbates a range of pulmonary pathologies, collectively known as ventilator-induced lung injury if there is evidence of direct causation (i.e., in the research laboratory). However, in clinical practice, the term ventilator-associated lung injury (VALI) is more appropriate. While several factors are involved, the main drivers of the pathogenesis are regional overdistention and clinical atelectasis. This understanding has led to search for strategies to attenuate VALI and improve survival. The current approaches focus on reduction of lung stress and strain by limitation of alveolar–plateau pressure and tidal volume. Recent data suggest that control of driving pressure (plateau pressure–positive end-expiratory pressure) and mechanical power applied during ventilation may also be beneficial. More exciting are the various new techniques for MV (e.g., airway pressure release ventilation and neurally adjusted ventilatory assist), emerging alternative modalities for gas exchange (e.g., extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), and novel biological therapies (e.g., anti-inflammatory stem cells) that promise to revolutionize the management of respiratory failure and relegate VALI to the ash heap of history. However, there are currently insufficient data to recommend their use in routine clinical practice.

“Adjusting the Ash Heaps”: Extinction and the Modernist Archive

One of the saddest features of civilisation is the disappearance of so many beautiful and curious creatures from this world of ours. From all parts of the earth the same story comes; and we now seem to be within measurable distance of a time when wrecks and remnants of once compact and indigenous assemblages of organisms will be all that remain to us, and such a thing as a

The Anthropogenic Impact on Indoor Radon Concentrations for Secunda, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa.

Secunda is a town built amid the coalfields of the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. Surrounding the town are 11 coal-fired plants (CFPs) contributing around 59% of the country's energy needs. It is also home to Sasol Synfuels, which produces synthetic gas through coal gasification and natural gas reforming. Coal, like most materials found in nature, contains trace elements of the naturally occurring primordial radionuclides 40K, 238U, 232Th, and their decay products. The milling and combustion of coal in a CFP increases the mass concentration of these trace elements, and the residuals end up on ash heaps as fly ash, bottom ash, and boiler slag. A small percentage of fly ash also ends up in the atmosphere. This paper sets out to determine the anthropogenic impact of the industrial activity on indoor radon in the town of Secunda in the Mpumalanga region of South Africa. Measurements were done in 37 homes during July when higher indoor radon levels are expected due to homes typically being closed due to the low temperatures. The average indoor radon concentration was found to be 76.4 Bq m-3. This indicates that the fallout from the industrial activity surrounding Secunda does not enhance the emanation of radon. This may be due to the type of activity or the climate and prevailing winds mitigating its indoor build-up. Measurements during the warmer months and in neighboring towns with different industrial activities are required to confirm the trends established by this research.

Distribution of heavy metals in water, soil and vegetables adjacent to ash heaps from lignite‐fired power plants

AbstractThis study investigated the environmental impact of the operation of lignite‐fired power plants in Yunnan Province. Soil, water, vegetable plant, and bottom ash samples were collected from around three lignite‐fired power plants in the area and the contamination levels of Cr, Cu, U, Mn, Cd, Ba, Pb, Sb, Co, and Ni in the samples were measured by inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry (ICP‐MS). These results showed the pollutants contents in the soils taken from around the three plants were similar. Ba, Mn, and Sb had the highest concentrations of 15492, 2417, and 281 mg/kg respectively, and rapidly migrated from ash to soil. The contents of the metals in four common vegetable plants grown in the area (pine, smilax, Artemisia apiacea, duchesnea) were also measured and found to be substantially less than those in the soils and ashes. The heavy metal concentrations in the plants and water were below the standard level. The running of the power plant thus only had negative impacts on the ambient soils, especially Ba and Mn pollution.

Effects of Secondary Dust Lifting on Ambient Particulate Matter in Open-yard Stockpile

Dust emission from open-yard stockpile is an important source of atmospheric particulate pollution. However, there were few literatures on on-site sampling analysis to study the effects of secondary dust lifting on atmospheric particulate matter concentration in open-yard stockpile. Field testing was the most effective means of verifying the accuracy of wind tunnel tests and numerical simulation methods. In order to study the contribution of secondary dusts to the ambient particulate matter pollution in the open-yard stockpile, field tests are carried out on three typical stockpiling sites of Haihua thermoelectric coal-fired power plant surface coal pile, Open-air soda ash heap in Haihua soda ash plant and Yingyang flavour and fragrance company boiler coal stack. The test results show that the contribution rates of thermal power plant coal pile to particulate matter 2.5 micrometres or less in diameter (PM2.5) and particulate matter 10 micrometres or less in diameter (PM10) are 34.3 % and 26.1 %, the contribution rates of soda plant slag pile to PM2.5 and PM10 are 22.3 % and 36.2 % respectively, and is greatly influenced by the local wind direction and wind speed. The research results provide a solid field test data basis for identifying the contribution of secondary dust to the surrounding atmospheric environment and the law of dust diffusion, which is of great significance for winning the blue sky war.

Reclaiming the Present or a Return to the Ash Heap of the Future?

Reclaiming the Present or a Return to the Ash Heap of the Future?

Experimental studies on humidified/water influx O2 gasification for enhanced hydrogen production in the context of underground coal gasification

Underground water present in aquifer has the tendency to encroach during underground coal gasification (UCG) operation because of pressure reduction in the reservoir. The water seepage into the cavity can act as a source for H2 production through char-steam gasification and water gas shift reaction. The enhanced production of H2 raises the production of hydrocarbons in UCG product gas. Low temperature steam or superheated steam can be used for the production of H2 enriched syngas in the in-situ gasification operation. However, low temperature steam causes difficulty in sustaining the combustion front in a UCG seam while superheated steam may lose its sensible heat through pipelines or ash heap in case of deep coal seam. It is necessary to utilize a cheaper gasifying medium for replacing steam in UCG for economic operation. In the present study, four different experiments were conducted using three different coal blocks, which are having similar properties, in order to simulate both the effect of ground water influx and O2/moisture gasification in the context of UCG. Novel humidified oxygen experiments show a better alternate to the steam based UCG gasification for enhanced production of H2 and hydrocarbons. Results show that a maximum concentration of 31% H2, 21% CH4 and 3% C2H6 is generated using humidified oxygen as a gasifying medium.

The ash heap of crystallography: restoring forgotten basic knowledge. Corrigendum

One imprecise and one incomplete statement in the article by Nespolo [J. Appl. Cryst. (2015), 48, 1290–1298] are corrected.

City of Bones: A Testament

directed to the poet’s mother by her husband , the poet’s father. In the second, it is directed to the poet-speaker by her own husband, and, both times, it is a prologue to the husbands’ confessions to infidelity. Figuratively, the poet-speaker may be heard whispering the same sentence—telling herself and her readers some things. A short excerpt from “Garage Door” illustrates both the tone and the unvarnished veracity of the collection. “I watch you spread the ladder’s legs far enough // to support your hulking frame. And, as you balance / on your good shoes, the ones you like so much, // I almost wish you wouldn’t fall.” Despite centering on formidable subjects such as racism, motherhood, and the suffering of children, the poems never stoop to melodrama. Instead, they are exquisitely crafted, often shockingly honest evaluations of the poet’s interior landscape , delivered in a singular voice sometimes tinged with the sardonic but never with self-pity. For example, in “Wait for It,” the poetspeaker watches her son catch, then eat, a crab, “snapping off / its pereopods to suck at their hinges, cracking open / the propodus so he can dig at the meat.” The primal violence is palpable; the speaker discloses that when watching her son she “shudder(s) at this creature I couldn’t have made.” In a poem set early in the collection, the lion’s heart of the collection reveals itself, although readers might not fully recognize this poem’s importance until the second reading. “And, afterward, poking through the smoking / ash heap of this conflagration, / I will search for remnants of my humanity / I might salvage, still.” Leona Sevick chaperones her readers through an emotional and psychological journey that makes us better human beings for having accompanied her. Jeanetta Calhoun-Mish Oklahoma City University Kwame Dawes. City of Bones: A Testament. Evanston, Illinois. Triquarterly Books / Northwestern University Press. 2017. 218 pages. City of Bones: A Testament is an impressive collection of poems, divided into four parts, which employs a structure that subverts linearity through a constant movement from the past to the present moment. The parts are interconnected through a recurrence of imagery, symbols, and voices that speak to the complexities of the present moment and to the traumas of the past condition. The book is part of the continuum within Kwame Dawes’s body of work concerned with exploring the contemporary Caribbean cultural experience through the lenses of the legacy. Yet it marks a departure from his previous works in placing the poems in conversation with the work of the African American playwright August Wilson. There are many allusions to Wilson’s A Gem of the Ocean, a play written in 2004 that tells the story of the Middle Passage and describes “the city of bones” in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean through the voice of Esther, one of the major characters. The very title of this collection alludes to the “city of bones” that Wilson’s play evokes. While Dawes draws on characters, voices, and places from Wilson’s work, he artfully reinvents them by drawing on his personal experience and adding other spatial frameworks and other resonances such as blues and reggae music as well as references from the Bible. The character of Esther, for instance, is reinvented through the voice of Mama Ola, through whom Dawes conveys his vison of the future. While familiarity with Wilson’s work can enhance the reading of this collection, it is not indispensable to engage with this collection. Moving from poem to poem, the reader is taken into different time spans and spaces, creating a sense of a “journey” to Ivailo Petrov Wolf Hunt Trans. Angela Rodel Archipelago Books Set against the backdrop of a Bulgaria under Soviet communism, six neighbors embark on a hunting trip that becomes a collision of passions and histories. With powerfully pragmatic prose, Ivailo Petrov’s tragic work details the deep wounds inflicted on rural Bulgarian communities by the Soviet regime, using the stories of these six men as an intensely personal example. Alfredo de Palchi Nihil Trans. John Taylor Xenos Books / Chelsea Editions This stunning collection by Italian poet Alfredo de Palchi pairs autobiographical poetic...

Recovery of Alumina from Coal Fly Ash by CaCl2 Calcination Followed by H2SO4 Leaching

In this paper, a calcination-leaching method by using CaCl2 and H2SO4 to recover alumina from coal fly ash (CFA) is developed. The process conditions including the parameters of CaCl2 content, calcination temperature and time, acid concentration and leaching time are studied. Heat treatment under 900°C for 1 h of the ash with 80 wt.% CaCl2 significantly enhances the alumina leachability (>96.6%) in comparison with the directing acid-leaching (2.31-4.78%) method. The recovery rate increases dramatically with the increasing of CaCl2 content from 20% to 80%, and a H2SO4 leaching time from 10 minutes to 1 hour as well, but it remains near constantly as the increasing of CaCl2 dosage >80% or acid-leaching time >1 h. The reaction mechanism is studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis to determine the crystalline phases change. The results indicate that quartz, mullite and amorphous phases have been destroyed after calcination with CaCl2 and transformed to gehlenite, calcium aluminum silicate, andradite, wollastonite and mayenite, which are susceptible to acid leaching. The mineralogical characteristics of roasted clinker indicate that molten CaCl2 can promote the incorporation of Ca into silica and silicates and result in the progressive susceptibility to acid attack. The potential chemical reactions during calcinating and leaching processes are also studied via chemical equations. The reuse and resource of coal fly ash can reduce the environmental impact of ash heap and the heavy metal pollution to the surrounding environment.

Impact of Taxonomic Resolution on the Indicatory Information: Studies on Carabid Beetles in Poland

The informative power of species surrogacy with respect to ecological processes and anthropogenic influences has been rarely studied. Thus, five datasets on carabid beetles collected using pitfall traps were analysed in order to study the impact of changing the taxonomic resolution from species to genus level on their indicatory information: a dataset of eight study sites in differently managed habitats sampled in 2013, a dataset tracing successional changes from 2004 to 2013 in a naturally regenerated pine forest, a dataset of three sites on a heap of power plant ashes and a dataset of four sites on a colliery spoil heap, both sampled from 2004 to 2011, and a dataset of six sites along the roadside of a highway being renovated in 2009, sampled in 2008 and from 2010 to 2012. The datasets were analysed by studying correlations of species numbers with genus numbers and species based Shannon diversity with genus based Shannon diversity, testing compliance between species based and genera based similarity matrices, and comparing the information provided by ordination diagrams based on species information or genus information respectively. The results indicate that at least in our study a substantial amount of information provided by species data is still contained in the genus data, but information about fine graded differences between study sites gets lost. We conclude that, even if carabid genus information might be useful in some cases (e.g. preliminary biodiversity assessment), the limitation to higher taxonomic levels like the genus level has to be done with caution.

A Queen in My Blue Jeans

A Queen in My Blue Jeans Tessa McCoy (bio) 1 It is a week until Christmas and Momma is nodding out by the tree. In a thin cotton shift, she sits Indian style, one leg folded under the other, next to a kerosene heater trying to wrap presents. A burning cigarette in one hand. A pair of scissors in the other. A heap of ashes cradled in the fold of the gown between her knees. [End Page 85] Every time her chin hits her chest, she opens her eyes slightly as if she is straining against the weight of her own existence and says, “Get.” When Momma’s doing pills, she likes to be by herself. There’s something lonely about the sound of a pill being crushed against a plate that reminds her of her past, of her failures, of her victories. Or so she says. On nights like tonight, when Momma is real bad off, I stay near enough. I am afraid a lit cigarette will drop and burn the house down, and us with it, if she is alone. I am afraid she will stop breathing and no one will know and she will die. On nights when we pile up together and sleep in the same bed, I lie next to her with my hand on her belly. The uneven rise and fall of her breathing is never enough to put me to sleep, but it is enough to know that that night isn’t the night. “O Come All Ye Faithful” is playing in the background of a local car dealership commercial on TV. “Jesus saves and so do we! Money that is! Come all ye faithful to Carl Gregory of Johnson City—Johnson City, Tennessee!” Momma hates this commercial. She says it is cheap. I turn the volume up. Momma stirs. She certainly looks faithful passed out against the Christmas tree like that. In this light, if I squint hard enough, she even looks like Mary, the Virgin Mother who, despite just giving birth to the Christ child, Savior of the world, still isn’t ready for the commitment of a five year lease on a new or preowned Chrysler, Jeep, or Dodge. 2 The baby’s bottle spins around and around on a crusty glass plate. The piss-yellow light and hum of the microwave invite me to lie down on the cold linoleum and sleep. It is 1:30 am and in six hours the school bus will run. It is going to be a tough morning at school if I don’t get some sleep, but the baby is crying. He is hungry. [End Page 86] In first grade, I was in a gifted program where I taught my classmates, who were struggling, how to read. At age four, spelling words like mountain posed no trouble at all because Momma taught me how to read and write before I started Kindergarten. “By God,” she’d say, her dark hand covering mine, tracing letters in big blocky print, MOUNTAIN. MOUNTAIN. MOUNTAIN. MOUNTAIN. MOUNTAIN. MOUNTAIN, “I’ll see to it that you do better than me.” Now, I am a freshman at Ervinton High School and my grades are slipping. It is too hard to think about classes, or grades, or anything much other than the baby and wonder if Momma is taking care of him when I’m not around. One day last month, he pulled a hot iron down on his hand. Ruth, Momma’s friend, took him to the hospital in Abingdon. When I came home from school, Momma was passed out on the couch and the baby was sitting in the middle of the floor sucking air through an empty baby bottle. His chubby hand was wrapped in light blue gauze with goldfish on it. “The hospital said the baby has second-degree burns. I am sorry for leaving the iron plugged in,” reads a note from Ruth that was laying on the floor next to Momma and a half empty case of beer. It went on to say she was going home to Grundy to take care of her Momma who was ill. I didn’t know if...

Bacterial Viability within Dental Calculus: An Untrodden, Inquisitive Clinico-Patho- Microbiological Research.

Chronic inflammatory periodontal diseases i.e. gingivitis and periodontitis are one of the most common afflictions faced by human beings. Dental plaque, which is a pool of pathogenic microorganisms, remains to be current mainstay in etiopathogenesis. Dental calculus, which is a mineralized product of this plaque remains ignored and is considered merely as an ash heap of minor significance. However, the intriguing array in disease etiopathogenesis bulldozed researchers to suspect the role of calculus in disease chrysalis but still the viability of bacteria inside calculus and thus its pathogenicity remains an intricacy; the answer to which lies in the Pandora's Box. The present study was undertaken to investigate the viability of bacteria within dental calculus along with their identification. Also, to classify dental calculus on the basis of mineralization and to observe the variation of viable microflora found in dental calculus with the extent of mineralization and disease severity. A total of 60 samples were obtained, by harvesting two samples of supragingival calculus from each patient having chronic inflammatory periodontal disease. These samples were divided into two groups (Group A and Group B). Samples of Group A were kept non-irradiated and samples of Group B were exposed to UV radiation. The samples were categorized into less, moderately and highly mineralized according to the force required for crushing them. All the crushed calculus samples were then divided into three parts. These were used for dark-field microscopy, gram staining and bacterial cultures. Bacterial identification of the cultures obtained was also carried out by performing various biochemical assays. The present study revealed the presence of motile spirochaetes within the samples under dark-field microscope. Gram staining revealed presence of numerous gram positive cocci and gram negative bacilli. Bacterial cultures showed growth of variety of aerobic and capnophilic microorganisms. The present study concludes the presence of viable aerobic and capnophilic bacteria inside dental calculus which may reside within the lacunae and channels in the calculus.

Tracing potential soil contamination in the historical Solvay soda ash plant area, Jaworzno, Southern Poland.

This study of soil conditions was carried out on 30 meadow soil (podzol) samples from the vicinity of the soda ash heap in Jaworzno, supplemented by analyses of 18 samples of waste deposited on the heap. In all samples, the total content of macroelements (Ca and Na) and heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Ni, Pb and Zn) as well as pH were analysed. The element concentrations were measured using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The materials examined were neutral to ultra-alkaline. Total accumulations (mg kg−1) of chemical elements in the soil vary from 130.24 to 14076.67 for Ca, 41.40–926.23 for Na, 0.03–3.34 for Cd, 0.94–103.62 for Cr, 0.94–35.89 for Ni, 3.51–76.47 for Pb and 12.05–279.13 for Zn, whereas quantities of the same elements in the waste samples vary from 171705.13 to 360487.94 for Ca, 517.64–3152.82 for Na, 0.2–9.89 for Cd, 1.16–20.40 for Cr, 1.08–9.79 for Ni, 0.1–146.05 for Pb and 10.26–552.35 for Zn. The vertical distribution of the metals was determined in each soil profile. Despite enrichment of heavy metals in the uppermost horizon on the top of the heap, the results lead to the conclusion that the relation of historical production of soda ash in Jaworzno to current contamination of the local soil environment is insignificant.

After Obergefell: Dignity for the Second Amendment

On June 26, 2015, a sharply divided United States Supreme Court issued its ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, commonly known as the “same sex marriage” cases. Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing the majority opinion, introduced the rationale for striking down state laws that did not recognize a right to same sex marriage: a theretofore unrecognized and unenumerated “dignity” right that took legal precedence over longstanding principles of federalism and the bedrock American legal tradition of allowing states to experiment with solutions to a wide range of social issues. Justice Kennedy didn’t explicitly consign federalism to the ash heap of history, but to put the Court’s ruling into effect (that is, to force each of the 50 states to recognize a right to same sex marriage), the basic premise of federalism - that each state has the right to make its own laws, other than to the extent there is federal preemption for a limited universe of topics - has to be disemboweled. This description of the fate of federalism is particularly true in light of the fact that prior to Obergefell, there was no question that the regulation of marriage was a matter strictly consigned to state control. What does Obergefell mean for other state and local laws that purport to regulate other matters that have been found to be protected by the Constitution? In particular, can any state laws that regulate the right to keep and bear arms, a right protected by the Second Amendment, survive in a post-Obergefell world?This paper examines the Obergefell opinion (and the dissenting opinions) to argue that Justice Kennedy's opinion results in the effective preemption of all state and local laws that affect fundamental rights, including the individual right to keep and bear arms.(Note: This paper is an expansion of the amicus brief the author submitted in the Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court case, available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2589220. The amicus brief has been downloaded from SSRN approximately 290 times as of September 2015.)