The use of inclined hemisphere projections for analyzing failure mechanisms in discontinuous rocks

This paper demonstrates the advantages of using inclined stereographic projections in kinematic analysis of rock blocks in discontinuous rock masses. Some examples of limiting cases are presented. The application of inclined projections is illustrated by its use in a mine slope in Brazil. It is clear from the discussion of these examples that inclined hemisphere projections provide better results than horizontal projections. It is also demonstrated that horizontal projections can lead to incorrect results in limiting cases.     

Determination of silica sand stiffness

Site investigation and evaluation of properties of soil or rock are important aspects of geotechnical design. Determination of the ground stiffness is one of the important parameters in geotechnical engineering. Since the measurement of shear modulus is very sensitive to soil disturbance, especially for sand, determination of the stiffness of soil in the field is more reliable than in laboratory tests on sampled specimens. Measurement of shear modulus is one of the most common applications of self-boring pressuremeter testing. As an in situ device, the pressuremeter provides a unique method for assessing directly the in situ shear modulus of a soil. This paper describes a laboratory study of silica sand stiffness, which varies with stress level and strain amplitude. The results show that the elastic shear modulus value is mainly dependent on the value of the mean effective stress and relative density.     

Local site effects in Latur, India: an empirical study based on the aftershocks of the Killari earthquake of September 29, 1993

The site amplification is estimated at five seismic stations of the Latur region using the horizontal to vertical spectral ratios of 33 aftershocks of the main Killari earthquake of September 29, 1993 (UTC). Spectral amplifications, ranging from a factor of 2–6 are found to vary with frequency at different places. Significant amplification is found at four sites within the Latur region, at Basavakalyan, Kasgi, Killari, and Mudgad Eakoji villages. Our results show a positive correlation between the site amplification and the damage pattern in area. The pattern and the nature of the site amplification estimated in the present study corroborates also with the analytical models and the borehole data indicating alternating layers of unconsolidated sediments and basaltic rocks.     

Web-Based interrogation of large-scale geophysical data sets from handheld devices

This paper describes the issues related to using handheld devices to interrogate wirelessly large-scale geophysical data over the Web using a client–server configuration. A modification of our current Web-based data interrogation program addresses specifically the limitations of current handheld devices with wireless access, such as processor speed, screen size and resolution, memory, and network speeds. The system uses a combination of Java, Python, and C in order to run remotely from the handheld device, while incorporating the power and memory capacity of a large workstation server.     

On Rhythmical Layering of Rocks Formed from Basaltic Magma

Formation of rhythmical layering in intrusive basic and ultrabasic rock bodies is explained in different ways, in particular, by the movement of microparticles (mineral clusters) of plagioclase and pyroxene within the basalt melt under the influence of thermal and gravitational forces. A model of cluster movement is proposed as a consequence of the forces appearing when ultrasonic elastic fluctuations pass through the melt. The model is based on fundamental dynamic equations. Depending on cluster density, wave parameters, and magmatic chamber size, in the melt there can form different combinations of rhythmically alternating layers of different composition.     

Stepwise Conditional Transformation for Simulation of Multiple Variables

Most geostatistical studies consider multiple-related variables. These relationships often show complex features such as nonlinearity, heteroscedasticity, and mineralogical or other constraints. These features are not handled by the well-established Gaussian simulation techniques. Earth science variables are rarely Gaussian. Transformation or anamorphosis techniques make each variable univariate Gaussian, but do not enforce bivariate or higher order Gaussianity. The stepwise conditional transformation technique is proposed to transform multiple variables to be univariate Gaussian and multivariate Gaussian with no cross correlation. This makes it remarkably easy to simulate multiple variables with arbitrarily complex relationships: (1) transform the multiple variables, (2) perform independent Gaussian simulation on the transformed variables, and (3) back transform to the original variables. The back transformation enforces reproduction of the original complex features. The methodology and underlying assumptions are explained. Several petroleum and mining examples are used to show features of the transformation and implementation details.     

从118.75 GHz附近六通道亮温反演大气温度廓线的数值模拟研究

为了能在静止气象卫星上实现微波被动遥感探测大气温度廓线,并保持一定的地面空间分辨率(如视场小于60 km),就需要使用高频微波及大天线.欧洲和美国下一代静止气象卫星上都已考虑采用118.75 GHz附近通道.为了充分了解118.75 GHz附近通道遥感反演温度廓线的能力,为仪器研制及今后资料的解释反演提供必要的基础数据,作者开展了采用118.75 GHz附近六个通道遥感反演大气温度廓线的数值模拟研究.统计反演的数值试验表明,118.75 GHz附近六通道对温度垂直分布有一定的遥感反演能力;温度反演较好的层次对应于权重函数峰值所在的位置.     

正电子断层扫描仪与PET图像重建概述

概述了PET（Positron emission tomography，正电子断层扫描仪）及其图像重建的基本原理、方法与临床使用，介绍了常用的图像重建FBP（滤波反投影，Filtered Back-Projection)算法和OSEM（有序子集最大似然法，Ordered Subset Expectation Maximization)算法，描述了如何通过PET的临床协议中的参数选择以得到满意的重建效果。此外，对PET的准三维重建也做了一些简介。