Pounding of buildings modelled by an impact oscillator

Pounding of adjacent buildings is modelled by an impact oscillator subjected to harmonic excitation. Non-linear impact stiffness is represented by a Hertz-type relationship. Spectra of impact velocity are presented for a range of model parameters. These spectra are characterized by a strong peak near a period equal to one half the natural period of a similar non-impacting oscillator. Bands of response are found in which periodic multiple impacts and non-periodic or chaotic impacts occur.     

A Synoptic Climatology of Severe Storms in Virginia*

A synoptic climatology is developed for Virginia using 21 years of late spring and summer surface and upper air observations. The climatology is produced by applying a combination of principal components analysis and cluster analysis such that each day is classified into one of a distinct number of synoptic situations. Days on which at least one severe storm occurred in Virginia are merged with the synoptic climatology. A majority of severe storms are associated with one synoptic situation distinguished by moderate instability and a high moisture content.     

Estimation of regionalized compositions: A comparison of three methods

A regionalized composition is a random vector function whose components are positive and sum to a constant at every point of the sampling region. Consequently, the components of a regionalized composition are necessarily spatially correlated. This spatial dependence—induced by the constant sum constraint—is a spurious spatial correlation and may lead to misinterpretations of statistical analyses. Furthermore, the cross-covariance matrices of the regionalized composition are singular, as is the coefficient matrix of the cokriging system of equations. Three methods of performing estimation or prediction of a regionalized composition at unsampled points are discussed: (1) the direct approach of estimating each variable separately; (2) the basis method, which is applicable only when a random function is available that can he regarded as the size of the regionalized composition under study; (3) the logratio approach, using the additive-log-ratio transformation proposed by J. Aitchison, which allows statistical analysis of compositional data. We present a brief theoretical review of these three methods and compare them using compositional data from the Lyons West Oil Field in Kansas (USA). It is shown that, although there are no important numerical differences, the direct approach leads to invalid results, whereas the basis method and the additive-log-ratio approach are comparable.     

Late Quaternary Vegetation and Climate of the Wind River Range, Wyoming

Sediments from Rapid Lake document glacial and vegetation history in the Temple Lake valley of the Wind River Range, Wyoming over the past 11,000 to 12,000 yr. Radiocarbon age determinations on basal detrital organic matter from Rapid Lake (11,770 ± 710 yr B.P.) and Temple Lake (11,400 ± 630 yr B.P.) bracket the age of the Temple Lake moraine, suggesting that the moraine formed in the late Pleistocene. This terminal Pleistocene readvance may be represented at lower elevations by the expansion of forest into intermontane basins 12,000 to 10,000 yr B.P. Vegetation in the Wind River Range responded to changing environmental conditions at the end of the Pleistocene. Following deglaciation, alpine tundra in the Temple Lake valley was replaced by a Pinus albicaulis parkland by about 11,300 ¹⁴C yr B.P. Picea and Abies, established by 10,600 14C yr B.P., grew with Pinus albicaulis in a mixed conifer forest at and up to 100 m above Rapid Lake for most of the Holocene. Middle Holocene summer temperatures were about 1.5°C warmer than today. By about 5400 ¹⁴C yr B.P. Pinus albicaulis and Abies became less prominent at upper treeline because of decreased winter snowpack and higher maximum summer temperatures. The position of the modern treeline was established by 3000 ¹⁴ C yr B.P. when Picea retreated downslope in response to Neoglacial cooling.     

A First Comparison of the Surface Brightness Fluctuation Survey Distances with the Galaxy Density Field: Implications for H0 and Omega

We compare the peculiar velocities measured in the surface brightness fluctuation survey of galaxy distances with the predictions from the density fields of the IRAS 1.2 Jy flux-limited redshift survey and the optical redshift survey (ORS) to derive simultaneous constraints on the Hubble constant H0 and the density parameter beta=Omega0.6&solm0;b, where b is the linear bias. We find that betaI=0.42+0.10-0.06 and betaO=0.26+/-0.08 for the IRAS and ORS comparisons, respectively, and that H0=74+/-4 km s-1 Mpc (with an additional 9% uncertainty due to the Cepheids themselves). The match between predicted and observed peculiar velocities is good for these values of H0 and beta, and although there is covariance between the two parameters, our results clearly point toward low-density cosmologies. Thus, the unresolved discrepancy between the "velocity-velocity" and "density-density" measurements of beta continues.     

Spectral index determination between 408 MHz and 5 GHz in the northern sky

We present the joint analysis of two 5-GHz interferometric surveys of the northern sky, taken with different baselines. The two surveys were carried out on the Jodrell Bank 5-GHz interferometer based at Manchester. The Maximum Entropy Method is used to check the consistency of the two surveys and the final two-dimensional maps are used, together with low-frequency full sky surveys, to put constraints on the Galactic spectral index. It is found that synchrotron emission is the dominant process at high Galactic latitudes below 5 GHz.