An optical view of BL Lacertae objects

BL Lac objects are active nuclei, hosted in massive elliptical galaxies, the emission of which is dominated by a relativistic jet closely aligned with the line of sight. This implies the existence of a parent population of sources with a misaligned jet that have been identified with low-power radiogalaxies. The spectrum of BL Lacs, dominated by non-thermal emission over the whole electromagnetic range, together with bright compact radio cores, high luminosities, rapid and large amplitude flux variability at all frequencies and strong polarization makes these sources an optimal laboratory for high energy astrophysics. A most distinctive characteristic of the class is the weakness or absence of spectral lines, that historically hindered the identification of their nature and ever thereafter proved to be a hurdle in the determination of their distance. In this paper, we review the main observational facts that contribute to the present basic interpretation of this class of active galaxies. We overview the history of the BL Lac objects research field and their population as it emerged from multi-wavelength surveys. The properties of the flux variability and polarization, compared with those at radio, X-ray and gamma-ray frequencies, are summarized together with the present knowledge of the host galaxies, their environments, and central black hole masses. We focus this review on the optical observations, which played a crucial role in the early phase of BL Lacs studies, and in spite of extensive radio, X-ray, and recently gamma-ray observations, could represent the future major contribution to the unveiling of the origin of these sources. In particular, they could provide a firm conclusion on the long debated issue of the cosmic evolution of this class of active galactic nuclei and on the connection between formation of supermassive black holes and relativistic jets.     

Homogeneous regions for rainfall distribution in the city of Rio de Janeiro associated with the risk of natural disasters

Natural Hazards - Understanding the occurrence of natural disasters in regions where the occurrence is high is very important, and it is known that the occurrence of disasters associated with...     

Displacement of a landslide retaining wall and application of an enhanced failure forecasting approach

The 10-mile Slide is contained within an ancient earthflow located in British Columbia, Canada. The landslide has been moving slowly for over 40 years, requiring regular maintenance work along where a highway and a railway track cross the sliding mass. Since 2013, the landslide has shown signs of retrogression. Monitoring prisms were installed on a retaining wall immediately downslope from the railway alignment to monitor the evolution of the retrogression. As of September 2016, cumulative displacements in the horizontal direction approached 4.5 m in the central section of the railway retaining wall. After an initial phase of acceleration, horizontal velocities showed a steadier trend between 3 and 9 mm/day, which was then followed by a second acceleration phase. This paper presents an analysis of the characteristics of the surface displacement vectors measured at the monitoring prisms. Critical insight on the behavior and kinematics of the 10-mile Slide retrogression was gained. An advanced analysis of the trends of inverse velocity plots was also performed to assess the potential for a slope collapse at the 10-mile Slide and to obtain further knowledge on the nature of the sliding surface.     

The role of intracontinental deformation in supercontinent assembly: insights from the Ribeira Belt,Southeastern Brazil (Neoproterozoic West Gondwana)

In this study, we challenge the multiple collision model for the tectonic evolution of the Neoproterozoic Ribeira Belt in Southeastern Brazil. New U–Pb SHRIMP data reveal Palaeoproterozoic (2153 ± 15 Ma) and Cryogenian (783 ± 6 and 768 ± 8 Ma) granitic rocks in the Embu Domain, and detrital zircon data of metasedimentary units from the Embu and Costeiro domains suggest a coherent tectonic evolution for the whole Ribeira Belt. Rather than by multiple collisions, these data are best explained by a simpler tectonic model involving continent (craton)‐volcanic arc collisions in the Dom Feliciano and Brasilia belts that led to intracontinental crustal thickening of the adjacent thinned hinterland (Ribeira Belt) at ~640–610 Ma, followed by widespread post‐collisional magmatism and rift‐related sedimentation at ~600–540 Ma. We suggest that intracontinental orogeny is a relevant process during supercontinent assembly, as illustrated here by the evolution of significant parts of the Brasiliano orogen.     

Behaviour of metals and nutrients in soils and groundwater of a karst polje

The Croatian south part of the country is mainly composed of strongly krastified carbonate rocks. Also in this south part of Croatia is lacking of large depressions and poljes with thick covers. Some karst poljes and depressions may have thick covers, like for example the Vransko polje. The Vransko polje is characterised by an intensive agricultural activity. At the centre of the polje is located a karst spring (Turanjsko jezero), which is used for the water supply of the town Biograd and its surroundings. Total metals, nutrients (nitrate, ammonia, phosphate), organic matter content and cation exchange capacity (CEC) were measured in soil samples collected from the polje. Metals and nutrients were also measured in the water samples of channel Kotarka (which is passing through the area) and three springs (Turanjsko jezero, Kakma and Tinj). Measured total concentrations of metals of soil samples were treated by R-cluster multivariate statistical analysis. The result of statistical analysis showed grouping of metals with similar behaviour. Content of metals and nutrients were low in the spring samples but high in the water sample of the channel Kotarka, because the channel drains the water from the surroundings. Although agricultural activity in the Vransko polje is high, there is no high anthropogenic influence on groundwater and soil. They are both of good quality.     

Reduced-order optimal control of water flooding using proper orthogonal decomposition

Model-based optimal control of water flooding generally involves multiple reservoir simulations, which makes it into a time-consuming process. Furthermore, if the optimization is combined with inversion, i.e., with updating of the reservoir model using production data, some form of regularization is required to cope with the ill-posedness of the inversion problem. A potential way to address these issues is through the use of proper orthogonal decomposition (POD), also known as principal component analysis, Karhunen–Loève decomposition or the method of empirical orthogonal functions. POD is a model reduction technique to generate low-order models using ‘snapshots’ from a forward simulation with the original high-order model. In this work, we addressed the scope to speed up optimization of water-flooding a heterogeneous reservoir with multiple injectors and producers. We used an adjoint-based optimal control methodology that requires multiple passes of forward simulation of the reservoir model and backward simulation of an adjoint system of equations. We developed a nested approach in which POD was first used to reduce the state space dimensions of both the forward model and the adjoint system. After obtaining an optimized injection and production strategy using the reduced-order system, we verified the results using the original, high-order model. If necessary, we repeated the optimization cycle using new reduced-order systems based on snapshots from the verification run. We tested the methodology on a reservoir model with 4050 states (2025 pressures, 2025 saturations) and an adjoint model of 4050 states (Lagrange multipliers). We obtained reduced-order models with 20–100 states only, which produced almost identical optimized flooding strategies as compared to those obtained using the high-order models. The maximum achieved reduction in computing time was 35%.     

Mechanisms for ground-surface fracturing and incipient slope failure associated with the 2001 eruption of Mt. Etna, Italy: analysis of ephemeral field data

During the July–August 2001 eruption of Mt. Etna development of extensional fractures/faults and grabens accompanied magma intrusion and subsequent volcanic activity. During the first days of the eruption, we performed an analysis of attitude, displacement and propagation of fractures and faults exposed on the ground surface in two sites, Torre del Filosofo and Valle del Leone, located along the same fracture system in the region surrounding the Valle del Bove depression on the eastern flank of Mt. Etna. Fractures and faults formed as the consequence of a shallow intruding dyke system that fed the several volcanic centres developed along the fracture system. The investigated sites differ in slope attitude and in geometrical relationships between fractures and slopes. In particular, the fracture system propagated parallel to the gentle slope (<7° dip) in the Torre del Filosofo area, and perpendicular to the steep slope (25° dip) in the Valle del Leone area. In the Torre del Filosofo area, slight graben subsidence and horizontal extension of the ground surface by about 3 m were recorded. In the Valle del Leone area, extensional faulting forming a larger and deeper graben with horizontal extension of the ground surface by about 10 m was recorded. For the Valle del Leone area, we assessed a downhill dip of 14° for the graben master fault at the structural level beneath the graben where the fault dip shallows. These results suggest that dyke intrusion at Mount Etna, and particularly in the region surrounding the Valle del Bove depression, may be at the origin of slope failure and subsequent slumps where boundary conditions, i.e. geometry of dyke, slope dip and initial shear stress, amongst others, favour incipient failures.