A total of 128 surface soil samples were collected, and eight heavy metals, including As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Ni, Zn, and Hg, were analyzed for their concentrations, potential ecological risks, and human health risks. The mean concentrations of these eight metals were lower than the soil environmental quality standards in China, while they were slightly higher than the background values in Shanxi Province. The enrichment factor, coefficient variation, and potential ecological risk index were used to assess the pollution and eco-risk level of heavy metals, among which, Cd and Hg showed higher pollution levels and potential risks than the others in the studied area. Moreover, multivariate geostatistical analysis suggested that Hg originated mainly from point sources such as industrial emissions, while agricultural activity is the predominant factor for Cd. The human health risk assessment indicated that non-carcinogenic values were below the threshold values. The total carcinogenic risks due to As, Cr, and Ni were within the acceptable range for adults, while for children, they were higher than the threshold value (1.0E-04), indicating that children are facing higher threat to heavy metals in soils. These results provide basic information on heavy metal pollution control and human health risk assessment management in the study regions.
The quest for materials hosting topologically protected skyrmionic spin textures continues to be fueled by the promise of novel devices. Although many materials have demonstrated the existence of such spin textures, major challenges remain to be addressed before devices based on magnetic skyrmions can be realized. For example, being able to create and manipulate skyrmionic spin textures at room temperature is of great importance for further technological applications because they can adapt to various external stimuli acting as information carriers in spintronic devices. Here, the first observation of skyrmionic magnetic bubbles with variable topological spin textures formed at room temperature in a frustrated kagome Fe3Sn2 magnet with uniaxial magnetic anisotropy is reported. The magnetization dynamics are investigated using in situ Lorentz transmission electron microscopy, revealing that the transformation between different magnetic bubbles and domains is via the motion of Bloch lines driven by an applied external magnetic field. These results demonstrate that Fe3Sn2 facilitates a unique magnetic control of topological spin textures at room temperature, making it a promising candidate for further skyrmion‐based spintronic devices.
[1] The circulation in the Gulf of Tonkin had been traditionally considered to be anticyclonic in the summer. This view was challenged recently by results from reanalyzing observational data, which clearly revealed that the circulation is cyclonic in all seasons. The surface wind stress is monsoonal, southwesterly in the summer and reversed in the winter. It remains unexplained why the circulation is always cyclonic, while the surface forcing reverses seasonally. In this study, we hypothesize that the inflow through Qiongzhou Strait, a shallow and narrow channel between Hainan Island and the Chinese mainland, is responsible for maintaining the cyclonic circulation in the summer. Besides the requirements of mass conservation and bathymetry constraint, this flow, even with a rather small transport, carries a considerable amount of potential vorticity (PV) into the gulf, and the integral constraint of PV requires the presence of a frictional torque to be associated with a cyclonic circulation. Several numerical experiments with a three-dimensional model have been conducted to test this hypothesis. When the westward flow through Qiongzhou Strait is blocked, the model simulates an anticyclonic circulation in the summer. When the westward flow through Qiongzhou Strait is allowed, the circulation changes to a cyclonic one, consistent with our hypothesis.
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