Identification of Albula sp. (Albulidae: Albuliformes) Leptocephalus Collected from the Southern Coastal Waters of Korea using Cytochrome b DNA Sequences

A single specimen ofAlbula leptocephalus (55.7 mm SL) was collected from the southern coastal waters of Korea using an aquatic lamp. It is characterized by having a ribbonlike body with a small head and a well-forked caudal fin. Although the general appearance was similar to the leptocephalus ofA. vulpes including myomere counts and fin ray counts, the melanophore deposition was different from that ofA. vulpes. This leptocephalus specimen was confirmed withA. forsteri using the cytochrome b mtDNA (Cytb) analysis. The genetic distance ofCytb between the present leptocephalus andA. forsteri is 0.006-0.038, which falls into the cutoff point separatingAlbula species into eight deep lineages including the four valid species. Its genetic characteristic have more similarities to those of Fiji than those of Hawaii and the Northern territory of Australia.     

Real-time assimilation of streamflow observations into a hydrological routing model: effects of model structures and updating methods

This paper comparatively assesses the performance of five data assimilation techniques for three-parameter Muskingum routing with a spatially lumped or distributed model structure. The assimilation techniques used include direct insertion (DI), nudging scheme (NS), Kalman filter (KF), ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) and asynchronous ensemble Kalman filter (AEnKF), which are applied to river reaches in Texas and Louisiana, USA. For both lumped and distributed routing, results from KF, EnKF and AEnKF are sensitive to the error specification. As expected, DI outperformed the other models in the case of lumped modelling, while in distributed routing, KF approaches, particularly AEnKF and EnKF, performed better than DI or nudging, reflecting the benefit of updating distributed states through error covariance modelling in KF approaches. The results of this work would be useful in setting up data assimilation systems that employ increasingly abundant real-time observations using distributed hydrological routing models.     

Physiological differences in the growth and maturation of Eisenia bicyclis and Ecklonia cava gametophytes in Korea

The objective of this study was to examine the ef fects of temperature and light intensity on growth of female gametophytes of Eisenia bicyclis and Ecklonia cava and responses of these female gametophytes to Fe addition and daylength. Female gametophytes of each species were cultured at four temperatures(10, 15, 20, and 25°C) and under a combination of four light intensities(10, 20, 40, and80 μmol photons/(m 2 ·s)) with two temperatures(15 and 20°C for E i. bicyclis; 20 and 25°C for E c. cava) to clarify their optimal growth conditions. Growth and maturation of female gametophytes of these two species under a combination of five Fe-EDTA concentrations(0, 1, 2, 4, and 8 μmol/L) and three daylengths(10,12, and 14 h) were also examined. The growth of E i. bicyclis gametophyte was maximal at approximately15–20°C, 20 μmol photons/(m 2 ·s), Fe-EDTA concentration of 8 μmol/L and daylengths of 12–14 h. While E c. c ava gametophytes showed optimal growth at approximately 20–25°C, 20 μmol photons/(m 2 ·s), FeEDTA concentration of 8 μmol/L and daylength of 14 h. Maturation of gametophytes was enhanced at Fe-EDTA concentration of 4 μmol/L for E i. bicyclis and at 2 μmol/L for E c. c ava. In conclusion, optimal growth temperatures and Fe-EDTA concentrations for maturation of E i. bicyclis and E c. c ava gametophytes were dif ferent. Higher optimal growth temperature for E c. c ava gametophytes may contribute to its wider geographical distribution compared to E i. bicyclis which has restricted habitats in Korea. This suggests that addition of Fe ion could be used to recover beds of these two species in barren grounds of Korea.     

Evaluation of reliquefaction resistance using shaking table tests

Cases of modern and prehistoric liquefaction illustrate that sand deposits can be liquefied again (or “reliquefied”) by a subsequent earthquake after initially liquefying during seismic shaking. In order to test the validity of two postulates regarding reliquefaction mechanisms and to examine the role of gradational characteristics on reliquefaction resistance, 1 g shaking table tests were performed using five sands with differing gradation characteristics. The test results demonstrate that the number of cycles required to reliquefy each sand decreased significantly following the 1st liquefaction event as a result of destroying the “aged” sand fabric developed prior to the 1st shaking event via secondary compression of the initially loose sands. Reliquefaction resistance correlated reasonably well with a proxy for c_v (∝D₁₀²D_r^2.8), illustrating that both the permeability and compressibility of the sand play significant roles in the post-liquefaction fabric (and hence reliquefaction resistance) formed by a sand. While the initial decrease in reliquefaction resistance supports both the Oda et al. [8] and the Olson et al. [5] reliquefaction postulates, only the Olson et al. [5] postulate reasonably explains the subsequent, large increase in reliquefaction resistance observed during the 3rd through 5th shaking events. These tests suggest that the coefficient of consolidation, c_v=k_v/γ_wm_v (or proxy values such as D₁₀²D_r^2.8 or D₁₀/C_U) may be a useful tool for evaluating reliquefaction potential in forward and inverse (i.e., paleoliquefaction) analysis.     

Conditional bias-penalized kriging (CBPK)

Simple and ordinary kriging, or SK and OK, respectively, represent the best linear unbiased estimator in the unconditional sense in that they minimize the unconditional (on the unknown truth) error variance and are unbiased in the unconditional mean. However, because the above properties hold only in the unconditional sense, kriging estimates are generally subject to conditional biases that, depending on the application, may be unacceptably large. For example, when used for precipitation estimation using rain gauge data, kriging tends to significantly underestimate large precipitation and, albeit less consequentially, overestimate small precipitation. In this work, we describe an extremely simple extension to SK or OK, referred to herein as conditional bias-penalized kriging (CBPK), which minimizes conditional bias in addition to unconditional error variance. For comparative evaluation of CBPK, we carried out numerical experiments in which normal and lognormal random fields of varying spatial correlation scale and rain gauge network density are synthetically generated, and the kriging estimates are cross-validated. For generalization and potential application in other optimal estimation techniques, we also derive CBPK in the framework of classical optimal linear estimation theory.     

Responsive geo-referenced content visualization based on a user interest model and level of detail

With steady growth in the deployment of sensor networks and widespread usage of mobile devices, the production of geo-referenced data is increasing exponentially, while analysis of the data typically uses a variety of application services on the Internet for activities such as logging and driving. This geo-referenced content needs to be classified and organized according to user interest for location-based decision-making. In this study, we define a user interest model and propose a method for organizing and presenting content based on the model. Our approach reconstructs geo-referenced content from a variety of sources based on points of interest organized by the user interest model. We present typical cases of using the proposed method, including a theme park resort, personal weather stations, and travel planning to show how the proposed method facilitates user decision-making based on the geo-referenced content.     

Hydroclimatic controls on dissolved organic matter (DOM) characteristics and implications for trace metal transport in Hwangryong River Watershed,Korea, during a summer monsoon period

Frequent heavy rainfalls during the East Asian summer monsoon drastically increase water flow and chemical loadings to surface waters. A solid understanding of hydroclimatic controls on watershed biogeochemical processes is crucial for water quality control during the monsoon period. We investigated spatio‐temporal variations in the concentrations and spectroscopic properties of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and the concentrations of trace metals in Hwangryong River, Korea, during a summer period from the relatively dry month of June through the following months with heavy rainfall. DOM and its spectroscopic properties differed spatially along the river, and also depended on storm and flow characteristics around each sampling time. At a headwater stream draining a forested watershed, the concentrations (measured as dissolved organic carbon (DOC)), aromaticity (measured as specific UV absorbance at 254 nm), and fulvic acid‐ and protein‐like fluorescence of DOM were higher in stormflow than in baseflow waters. DOC concentrations and fluorescence intensities increased along the downstream rural and urban sites, in which DOC and fluorescence were not higher in stormflow waters, except for the ‘first flush’ at the urban site. The response of DOM in reservoir waters to monsoon rainfalls differed from that of stream and river waters, as illustrated by storm‐induced increases in DOM aromaticity and fulvic‐like fluorescence, and no significant changes in protein‐like fluorescence. The results suggest that surface water DOM and its spectroscopic properties differentially respond to changes in hydroclimatic conditions, depending on watershed characteristics and the influence of anthropogenic organic matter loadings. DOC concentrations and intensities of spectroscopic parameters were positively correlated with some of the measured trace metals (As, Co, and Fe). Further research will be needed to obtain a better understanding of climate effects on the interaction between DOM and trace metals. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Theoretical calculations of interactions between urban breezes and mountain slope winds in the presence of basic-state wind

Theoretical and Applied Climatology - Many big cities around the world are located near mountains. In city-mountain regions, thermally and topographically forced local winds are produced and they...     

Spectral dependence on the correction factor of erythemal UV for cloud,aerosol, total ozone,and surface properties: A modeling study

Radiative transfer model simulations were used to investigate the erythemal ultraviolet(EUV) correction factors by separating the UV-A and UV-B spectral ranges. The correction factor was defined as the ratio of EUV caused by changing the amounts and characteristics of the extinction and scattering materials. The EUV correction factors(CFEUV) for UV-A[CFEUV(A)] and UV-B [CFEUV(B)] were affected by changes in the total ozone, optical depths of aerosol and cloud, and the solar zenith angle. The differences between CFEUV(A) and CFEUV(B) were also estimated as a function of solar zenith angle, the optical depths of aerosol and cloud, and total ozone. The differences between CFEUV(A) and CFEUV(B) ranged from-5.0% to 25.0% for aerosols, and from-9.5% to 2.0% for clouds in all simulations for different solar zenith angles and optical depths of aerosol and cloud. The rate of decline of CFEUV per unit optical depth between UV-A and UV-B differed by up to 20% for the same aerosol and cloud conditions. For total ozone, the variation in CFEUV(A) was negligible compared with that in CFEUV(B) because of the effective spectral range of the ozone absorption band. In addition, the sensitivity of the CFEUVs due to changes in surface conditions(i.e., surface albedo and surface altitude) was also estimated by using the model in this study. For changes in surface albedo, the sensitivity of the CFEUVs was 2.9%–4.1% per 0.1 albedo change,depending on the amount of aerosols or clouds. For changes in surface altitude, the sensitivity of CFEUV(B) was twice that of CFEUV(A), because the Rayleigh optical depth increased significantly at shorter wavelengths.     

Side-by-Side Correlation of Texas Cone Penetration and Standard Penetration Test Blowcount Values

This paper presents side-by-side comparisons of blowcount values for the Texas cone penetration (TCP) test and the standard penetration test (SPT). The comparisons yielded statistically-significant regression models for both coarse-grained soils and fine-grained soils. Consistent with expected trends and published data, the TCP–SPT relationship is nonlinear, with weak to fair correlation strength (R² = 23–44%). For TCP blowcounts (N_{60, TCP}) varying from 25 to 200 blows/30 cm (1 ft), corresponding SPT blowcounts (N_{60, SPT}) are typically 30–60% lower than N_{60, TCP} in fine-grained soils. Likewise, corresponding N_{60, SPT} blowcounts are 10–70% lower than N_{60, TCP} in coarse-grained soils, all other things being equal. Comparative data were obtained from published sources and from project-specific field research sites used for full-scale deep foundation load tests. The final dataset consisted of 225 test pairs obtained in similar soils and geomaterials, at equivalent depths, with all blowcounts normalized to 30 cm (12 in.) penetration (i.e., blows/30 cm or blows/ft) within the bounds of typical test precision, and corrected to 60% hammer efficiency. The generally weak correlations do not support conversion of N_{60, TCP} to N_{60, SPT} (or vice versa) to compute foundation capacity for final design. But, engineers can certainly get an intuitive feel about site conditions and preliminary foundation capacity by using the correlation equations to translate their knowledge of one test to the other. This study extends previous work by formally comparing and contrasting the similar yet different SPT and TCP test methods in such a way as to make the results useful to users of both tests and to the broader geotechnical engineering community.