A terrain openness index for the extraction of karst Fenglin and Fengcong landform units from DEMs

The Fenglin and Fengcong landform units are considered to be an important representation for defining the degree of development of Karst landforms. However, these terrain features have been proven difficult to delineate and extract automatically because of their complex morphology. In this paper, a new method for identifying the Fenglin and Fengcong landform units is proposed. This method consists of two steps: (1) terrain openness calculation and (2) toe line extraction. The proposed method is applied and validated in the Karst case area of Guilin by using ASTER GDEM with one arc-second resolution. The openness of both the positive and negative terrain and a threshold were used to extract toe lines for segmenting depressions and pinnacles in Fenglin and Fengcong landforms. A comparison between the extracted Fenglin and Fengcong landform units and their real units from high resolution images was carried out to evaluate the capability of the proposed method. Results show the proposed method can effectively extract the Fenglin and Fengcong landform units, and has an overall accuracy of 93.28%. The proposed method is simple and easy to implement and is expected to play an important role in the automatic extraction of similar landform units in the Karst area.     

Exact solution of anisotropic compact stars via mass function

Studying relativistic compact objects is important in modern astrophysics to understand several astrophysical issues. It is therefore natural to ask for an internal structure and physical properties of specific classes of compact stars from astrophysical observations. We obtain a class of new relativistic solutions with anisotropic distribution of matter for compact stars. More specifically, stellar models, described by an anisotropic fluid, establishing a relation between metric potentials and generating a specific form of mass function, are explicitly constructed within the framework of General Relativity. New solutions can be used to model compact objects, which adequately describe compact strange star candidates like SMC X-1, Her X-1 and 4U 1538-52, with observational data taken from Gangopadhyay et al. (Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 431:3216, 2013). As a possible astrophysical application the obtained solutions could explain the physics of selfgravitating objects, and might be useful for strong-field regimes where data are currently inadequate.     

Study of some chaotic inflationary models in $$ gravity

In this paper, we discuss an inflationary scenario via scalar field and fluid cosmology for an anisotropic homogeneous universe model in \(f(R)\) gravity. We consider an equation of state which corresponds to a quasi-de Sitter expansion and investigate the effect of the anisotropy parameter for different values of the deviation parameter. We evaluate potential models like linear, quadratic and quartic models which correspond to chaotic inflation. We construct the observational parameters for a power-law model of \(f(R)\) gravity and construct the graphical analysis of tensor–scalar ratio and spectral index which indicates the consistency of these parameters with Planck 2015 data.     

Projections of the impacts of climate change on the water deficit and on the precipitation erosive indexes in Mantaro River Basin,Peru

Projections of climate change are essential to guide sustainable development plans in the tropical Andean countries such as Peru. This study assessed the projections of precipitation and potential evaporation, rain erosive potential, and precipitation concentration in the Mantaro River Basin, in the Peruvian Andes, which is important for agriculture and energy production in Peru. We assumed the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) A1B greenhouse gas emission scenario and simulated the global climate change by the HadCM3 global climate model. Due to the steepness of the mountain slopes and the narrowness of the river valley, this study uses the downscaling of the global model simulations by the regional Eta model down to 20-km resolution. The downscaling projections show decrease in the monthly precipitation with respect to the baseline period, especially during the rainy season, between February and April, until the end of the 21st century. Meanwhile, a progressive increase in the monthly evaporation from the baseline period is projected. The Modified Fournier Index (MFI) shows a statistically significant downward trend in the Mantaro River Basin, which suggests a possible reduction in the rain erosive potential. The Precipitation Concentration Index (PCI) shows a statistically significant increasing trend, which indicates increasingly more irregular temporal distribution of precipitation towards the end of the century. The results of this study allow us to conclude that there should be a gradual increase in water deficit and precipitation concentration. Both changes can be negative for agriculture, power generation, and water supply in the Mantaro River Basin in Peru.     

Review of pre-processing technologies for ice cores

High-resolution ice core records covering long time spans enable reconstruction of the past climatic and environmental conditions allowing the investigation of the earth system’s evolution. Preprocessing of ice cores has direct impacts on the data quality control for further analysis since the conventional ice core processing is time-consuming, produces qualitative data, leads to ice mass loss, and leads to risks of potential secondary pollution. However, over the past several decades, preprocessing of ice cores has received less attention than the improvement of ice drilling, the analytical methodology of various indices, and the researches on the climatic and environmental significance of ice core records. Therefore, this papers reviews the development of the processing for ice cores including framework, design as well as materials, analyzes the technical advantages and disadvantages of the different systems. In the past, continuous flow analysis (CFA) has been successfully applied to process the polar ice cores. However, it is not suitable for ice cores outside polar region because of high level of particles, the memory effect between samples, and the filtration before injection. Ice core processing is a subtle and professional operation due to the fragility of the nonmetallic materials and the random distribution of particles and air bubbles in ice cores, which aggravates uncertainty in the measurements. The future developments of CFA are discussed in preprocessing, memory effect, challenge for brittle ice, coupling with real-time analysis and optimization of CFA in the field. Furthermore, non-polluting cutters with many different configurations could be designed to cut and scrape in multiple directions and to separate inner and outer portions of the core. This system also needs to be coupled with streamlined operation of packaging, coding, and stacking that can be implemented at high resolution and rate, avoiding manual intervention. At the same time, information of the longitudinal sections could be scanned and identified, and then classified to obtain quantitative data. In addition, irregular ice volume and weight can also be obtained accurately. These improvements are recorded automatically via user-friendly interfaces. These innovations may be applied to other paleomedias with similar features and needs.     

基于MODIS数据的湖北省地级以上城市城区地表温度变化分析

基于MODIS数据,以湖北省地级以上城市城区为研究对象,通过对湖北省13个地级以上城市城区边界矢量数据与地表温度因子进行套合处理,采用叠置分析方法对2000、2015、2017年湖北省地级以上城市城区的地表温度进行统计,并分析城镇化建设对城区地表温度产生的影响。     

Influence of Stress on Void Ratios of Compacted Crushed Rock Masses in Coal Mine Gobs

The transfer and evolution of stress among rock blocks directly change the void ratios of crushed rock masses and affect the flow of methane in coal mine gobs. In this study, a Lagrange framework and a discrete element method, along with the soft-sphere model and EDEM numerical software, were used. The compaction processes of rock blocks with diameters of 0.6, 0.8, and 1.0 m were simulated with the degrees of compression set at 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, and 25%. This study examines the influence of stress on void ratios of compacted crushed rock masses in coal mine gobs. The results showed that stress was mainly transmitted downward through strong force chains. As the degree of compression increased, the strong force chains extended downward, which resulted in the stress at the upper rock mass to become significantly higher than that at the lower rock mass. It was determined that under different degrees of compression, the rock mass of coal mine gobs could be divided, from the bottom to the top, into a lower insufficient compression zone (ICZ) and an upper sufficient compression zone (SCZ). From bottom to top, the void ratios in the ICZ sharply decreased and those in the SCZ slowly decreased. Void ratios in the ICZ were 1.2–1.7 times higher than those in the SCZ.

     

邮轮属性评价与品牌定位

以全球最大的邮轮点评网站——邮轮评论家为数据来源渠道，以编辑（Editor/Expert）的文本点评以及对167艘邮轮10大属性的打分数据为样本，利用词频分析、回归分析、聚类分析和方差分析等方法，对全球21个邮轮品牌的产品属性、总体评价以及品牌定位问题进行了系统研究。结果表明，对于专业型游客来说，餐饮、客房和娱乐是关注度最高的船上属性，服务、性价比和公共空间是满意度最高的船上属性，客房、餐饮、公共空间、性价比和娱乐属性对邮轮总评具有显著影响。方差分析表明，与行业界定下的品牌行为相比，基于专业型游客感知的品牌划分更有效。     

生物土壤结皮对风沙土和黄绵土膨胀特性的影响

作为重要的土壤物理性质，膨胀性在影响土壤导水性、持水性、抗蚀性以及土壤结构的形成和发育等方面发挥着重要作用。为了探讨生物土壤结皮（BSCs）土壤的膨胀特性及其主要影响因素，针对黄土高原风沙土和黄绵土两种典型土壤，利用膨胀仪测定并比较了有、无藓结皮及其在不同因素（初始含水量、干湿循环、冻融循环、温度）下膨胀率的差异，分析了BSCs对土壤膨胀性的影响及其与环境因素和BSCs性质的关系。结果显示：风沙土上藓结皮的膨胀率为1.93%，较无结皮增加了8.65倍；而黄绵土上藓结皮的膨胀率为2.05%，与无结皮相比降低了76.68%。藓结皮的生物量和厚度与其膨胀率在风沙土上均呈线性正相关关系（P < 0.05），在黄绵土上分别呈二次函数（P=0.02）和线性正相关关系（P=0.02）。初始含水量同时影响了土壤最大膨胀率和稳定膨胀时间，影响程度风沙土远大于黄绵土（包括藓结皮和无结皮）；干湿循环次数对无结皮土壤膨胀率的影响程度大于藓结皮土壤，其中风沙土和黄绵土上无结皮的膨胀率分别是50.00%~620.00%和-2.28%~10.81%，而两种土壤上藓结皮的膨胀率分别是-5.70%~10.88%和-10.24%~-21.46%；冻融循环下4种土壤的膨胀率均有不同程度的降低，降幅为0~18.54%。黄绵土无结皮的膨胀率受温度影响程度较大，50℃下黄绵土无结皮的膨胀率分别是25℃和35℃下的1.17倍和1.21倍。BSCs显著地改变了风沙土和黄绵土表层的膨胀性，其影响的程度和方向取决于土壤类型。同时，BSCs的膨胀性受含水量、温度、干湿以及冻融循环等关键因素影响。     

Analysis of Spatial–Temporal Evolution of Mining-Induced Fracture Field: A Case Study Using Image Processing in the Shaqu Coal Mine,China

Natural Resources Research - Mining-induced fracture plays a key role in gas drainage for gas burst-prone underground coal mines, especially for closely multilayered coal seams. The layout and...