Numerical simulation of damage–Permeability relationship in brittle geomaterials

Finding a coupling model between a hydraulic parameter such as permeability and a mechanical parameter such as damage is the key element for several recent engineering problems. A review of the technical literature reveals that several mechanical constitutive laws exist which allow determining a damage tensor for a damageable porous material under loading. But the present work develops a method to deduce the permeability change due to the damage propagation.     

Genealogical concordance,comparative species delimitation,and the specific status of the Caspian pipefish Syngnathus caspius (Teleostei: Syngnathidae)

To evaluate the specific validity of the Caspian pipefish Syngnathus caspius, we used a comparative molecular species delimitation method on a COI barcode library of Syngnathus, as well as principles of genealogical concordance. Comparative species delimitation allowed us to delineate putative species without a priori assignment of individuals to nominal species, while genealogical concordance extended our species delimitation results to multiple genes, multiple codistributed species, and comparisons with biogeographic evidence. All species delimitation analyses including two topology‐based, one network‐based, and one distance‐based analysis showed genetically isolated lineages of pipefish in the Black and Caspian Sea, corresponding to S. abaster and S. caspius, respectively. Mean evolutionary divergence between the two lineages (0.029) was within the range separating species of Syngnathus (0.024–0.217). The interclade/intraclade ratio of variation was comparable to the operational criterion of divergence between clades greater or equal to 10 × the level within clades to recognize separate species. Our argument on taxonomic validity of S. caspius is also supported by the principles of genealogical concordance as a conceptual basis for recognition of biological species. As a second objective, using a limited number of S. caspius specimens from two semi‐confined water bodies along the Caspian Sea south coastal zone (i.e., Anzali Wetland in the west and Gorgan Bay in the east), we searched for a possible matrilineal structure. The retrieved phylogeographic pattern was characterized by a shallow genealogy and lineage distributions varied, most probably caused by low to modest contemporary gene flow between populations of S. caspius across the southern Caspian Sea that are linked tightly through history.     

Modelling groundwater level variations by learning from multiple models using fuzzy logic

Modelling time series of groundwater levels is investigated by three fuzzy logic (FL) models, Sugeno (SFL), Mamdani (MFL) and Larsen (LFL), using data from observation wells. One novelty in the study is the re-use of these three models as multiple models through the following strategies: (a) simple averaging, (b) weighted averaging and (c) committee machine techniques; these are implemented using artificial neural networks (ANN). These strategies provide some evidence that (i) multiple models improve on the performance of individual models and those using committee machines perform better than the other two options; and (ii) committee machine models produce defensible modelling results to develop management scenarios. The study investigates water table declines through management scenarios and shows that in this aquifer water use has higher impacts on water table variations than climatic variations. This provides evidence of the need for planned management in the study area.     

Seismic vulnerability assessment of urban buildings and traffic networks using fuzzy ordered weighted average

Urban buildings and urban traffic network are considered as the vital arteries of cities which have particular effects especially after the crisis in the search and rescue operations. The aim of this study is to determine the vulnerability of urban areas especially, buildings and traffic networks using multicriteria geographic information systems and decisionmaking methods. As there are many effective criteria on the seismic vulnerability that they have uncertain and vague properties, the method of this paper is applying fuzzy ordered weighted average(OWA) to model the seismic vulnerability of urban buildings and traffic networks in the most optimistic and pessimistic states. The study area is district 6 of Tehran that is affected by the four major faults, and thus will be threatened by the earthquakes. The achieved results illustrated the vulnerability with different degrees of risk levels including very high, high, medium, low and very low. The results show that in the most optimistic case 14% and in the pessimistic case 1% of buildings tolerate in very low vulnerability. The vulnerability of urban street network also indicates that in the optimistic case 12% and in the pessimistic case at most 9% of the area are in appropriate condition and the North and NorthEast of the study area are more vulnerable than South of it.     

Latest Tournaisian–late Viséan foraminiferal biozonation (MFZ8–MFZ14) of the Valiabad area,northwestern Alborz (Iran): geological implications

The Mobarak Formation in the Valiabad area (northwestern Alborz, Iran) is composed of bioclastic, oolitic and sandy limestone interbedded with black shale, and is disconformably underlain and overlain by the Cambrian Lalun and Permian Dorud formations, respectively. In this study, 104 foraminiferal species belonging to 12 families and 33 genera were determined. Among them, six genera and nine species are reported for the first time in Iran. Analysis of the foraminiferal assemblages has identified eight local biozones, which can be correlated with the MFZ8 to MFZ14 zones of the Viséan stratotypes in Belgium. The Valiabad equivalents of these biozones are essentially characterized by (1) Eoparastaffella ex gr. rotunda‐‘florigena’–Lysella cf. gadukensis; (2) Eoparastaffella simplex–Lapparentidiscus bokanensis; (3) Ammarchaediscus; (4) Uralodiscus–Glomodiscus; (5) Glomodiscus–Archaediscus; (6) Pojarkovella–Mstinia fallax; (7) Mstinia bulloides–Pseudoendothyra; and (8) Howchinia gibba–Howchinia bradyana–Tubispirodiscus attenuatus. Consequently, the Valiabad section appears to be one of the most complete Viséan sections in Iran. Some taxonomic precisions are provided about the principal taxa. Biogeographically, (1) the MFZ8–MFZ11 biozones are extended to all the shelves of the Palaeotethys (from Ireland to South China) and Urals oceans; nevertheless, due to the complete evolution of archaediscoids, they seem more related to the Perigondwanan assemblages from Sinai and Taurus (including the Antalya Nappes); (2) the MFZ12 assemblage appears relatively endemic; and (3) the impoverished assemblages of the biozones MFZ13‐14 have marked affinities with the Kazakhstan Block. It is currently impossible to indicate precisely if these variations are related with a drift of the Alborz region to the north, or to a change of oceanic currents. Moreover, the double affinity highlights the narrowness of the Palaeotethys in Iran during the Viséan. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Organizational Structure and the Behavior of Firms: Implications for Integrated Assessment

Existing climate/economy models typically treatproduction through the assumptions that firms maximizeprofits and that inputs are transformed to outputsaccording to a neoclassical production function. Yetthese assumptions are at variance with some of theknown empirical features of business behavior. One ofthe most promising ways to model firms morerealistically is to include organizational networkstructure as an integral part of the representation. The firm's optimization problem then includes not onlythe choice of inputs and outputs, but the choice of anorganizational structure as well. This approach makesit possible to examine in a unified framework a numberof issues pertaining to the internal workings of thefirm: the consequences of multiple organizationalobjectives, the possible existence of productivityspillovers from one activity to another, and thealgorithmic characteristics of procedural routines. Understanding how organizational structures influenceoverall performance is an important step towardsbetter representing firms in integrated assessmentmodels. Our results show that phenomena of the typecharacterizing the `Porter hypothesis' (improvedenvironmental performance without reduction inproductivity or profitability) can appear even in verysimple models of the firm, provided the effects oforganizational structure are taken into account.     

An Application of Multivariate Simulation in the Cement Industry

The profitability of a cement plant depends largely on its capacity to produce homogeneous cement with chemical composition close to specified targets for the cement type produced. One crucial step is the mixing of limestone with other raw materials in proportions calculated to meet these targets. Major design and operation decisions depend on the efficiency of this homogenizing step. The adequate modeling of the mixing process requires simulation of representative cross-correlated time series of chemical compositions of the raw materials involved. The chemical composition signals are obtained by multivariate geostatistical simulation using an LU (Cholesky) decomposition of the covariance matrix. Modifications to the usual LU method are presented. First, the effect on the raw covariance matrix of the closure property of chemical analysis is imposed. Second, the problem of memory space limitations in the LU method is tackled by using overlapping sliding neighbourhoods. The simulation algorithm is applied to the Joppa cement plant owned by Lafarge North America. The simulated raw material input streams are fed into the quality mix control (QMC), a proprietary software that models and controls the mixing operation to produce an output stream with cement characteristics as close as possible to desired targets. Two signal series are studied, one autocorrelated with a moderate temporal range and one with no autocorrelation. The QMC produces C₃S output signals having comparable short scale periodic variograms except that the variance of the uncorrelated signal is four times greater than those of the autocorrelated signal and the real Joppa data. The raw material feeder variograms have the same sill for both the white noise and the autocorrelated signals. However, the autocorrelated signal feeder variogram presents lower short term dispersion variance, a characteristic feature of Joppa operations. Our results show the importance of simulating the right temporal structure of the raw materials to realistically forecast the behavior of the output signals. We also discuss some practical implications of these findings for the design and operation of a cement plant.