Tide and current observations in the central Chukchi Sea during the summer of 2012

Current data from a moored Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler(ADCP) deployed at 69?30.155′N,169?00.654′W in the central Chukchi Sea during 2012 summertime is analyzed in the present paper.Characteristics of tidal and residual currents are ob-tained with Cosine-Lanczos filter and cross-spectral analyses.The main achievements are as follows:1) Along with the local inertial frequency of 12.8 h,two other peaks at ~12-h and ~10-d dominate the time series of raw velocity;2) The M_2 dominates the 6 resolved tide constituents with significant amplitude variations over depth and the ratios of current speed of this constituent to that of the total tidal current are 54% and 47% for u and v components,respectively.All the resolved tidal constituents rotate clockwise at depth with the exception of MM and O1.The constituents of M_2 and S_2 with the largest major semi-axes are similar in eccentricity and orientation at deeper levels;3) The maximum of residual currents varies in a range of 20–30 cms~(-1) over depth and the current with lower velocities flow more true north with smaller magnitudes compared to the current in surface layer.The ~10 d fluctuation of residual current is found throughout the water column and attributed to the response of current to the local wind forcing,with an approximate 1.4 d lag-time at the surface level and occurring several hours later in the lower layer;4) Mean residual currents flow toward the north with the magnitudes smaller than 7 cms~(-1) in a general agreement with previous studies,which suggests a relatively weaker but stable northward flow indeed exists in the central Chukchi Sea.     

Phase characteristic analysis of continuous depth air-gun source wavelet

Air guns are important sources for marine seismic exploration. Far-field wavelet of air gun arrays, as a necessary parameter for pre-stack processing and source models, plays an important role during marine seismic data processing and interpretation. When an air gun fires, it generates a series of air bubbles. Similar to onshore seismic exploration, the water forms a plastic fluid near the bubble; the farther the air gun is located from the measurement, the more steady and more accurately represented the wavelet will be. In practice, hydrophones should be placed more than 100 m from the air gun; however, traditional seismic cables cannot meet this requirement. On the other hand, vertical cables provide a viable solution to this problem. This study uses a vertical cable to receive wavelets from 38 air guns and data are collected offshore Southeast Qiong, where the water depth is over 1000 m. In this study, the wavelets measured using this technique coincide very well with the simulated wavelets and can therefore represent the real shape of the wavelets. This experiment fills a technology gap in China.     

Provenance of buried esker groundwater: the case of Vars-Winchester esker aquifer,Eastern Ontario,Canada

An innovative mode of groundwater recharge to a buried esker aquifer is considered. The current conceptual model affords a natural safeguard to underlying aquifers from the overlying muds. A hypothesis of groundwater recharge to a buried esker aquifer via preferential pathways across its overlying muds is tested here by heuristic numerical one-dimensional and two-dimensional modeling simulations. The hypothesis has been tested against two other conventionally accepted scenarios involving: (1) distal esker outcrop areas and (2) remote shallow-bedrock recharge areas. The main evidence comes from documented recharge pressure pulses in the overlying mud aquitard and in the underlying esker hydraulic-head time series for the Vars-Winchester esker aquifer in Eastern Ontario, Canada. These perturbations to the potentiometric surface are believed to be the aquifer response to recharge events. The migration rate of these pressure pulses is directly related to the hydraulic diffusivity of the formation. The measured response time and response amplitude between singular radar precipitation events and well hydrographs constituted the heuristic model calibration targets. The main evidence also includes mud-layering deformation (water escape features) which was observed in seismic surveys of the over-esker muds. These disturbed stratigraphic elements provide a realistic mechanism for migrating water to transit through the muds. The effective hydraulic conductivities of these preferential pathways in the muds were estimated to be between 2?×?10^?6 and 7?×?10^?6 m/s. The implications of these findings relate to the alleged natural safeguard of these overlying muds.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Robinia pseudoacacia</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Melandrium album</Emphasis> in trace elements biomonitoring and air pollution tolerance index study

The accumulation efficiency of selected trace elements in the leaves of Melandrium album and Robinia pseudoacacia grown on heavy metal contaminated sites in comparison with a non-contaminated one was evaluated. The study was undertaken to calculate air pollution tolerance index and to determine the contents of selected metabolites: glutathione, non-protein thiols, ascorbic acid, chlorophyll and the activity of antioxidant enzymes: guaiacol peroxidase and superoxide dismutase. Such estimations can be useful in better understanding of plants defense strategies and potential to grow in contaminated environments. The results in the most contaminated site revealed higher contents of metals in M. album leaves, especially Zn, Cd and Pb (3.4, 6 and 2.3 times higher, respectively) in comparison with the R. pseudoacacia. Better accumulation capacity found in M. album was shown by metal accumulation index values. The plants could be used as indicators of Zn, Cd (both species) and Pb (M. album) in the soil. Glutathione content (in both species) and peroxidase activity (in M. album), general markers of heavy metals contamination, were increased in contaminated sites. In most cases in contaminated areas R. pseudoacacia had decreased ascorbic acid and chlorophyll levels. Opposite tendency was recorded in M. album leaves, where similar or higher contents of the above-mentioned metabolites were found. In our study, M. album and R. pseudoacacia proved to be sensitive species with the air pollution tolerance index lower than 11 and can be recommended as bioindicators.     

Activated sludge acclimation for toluene and DEHP degradation in a two-phase partitioning bioreactor

The effect of activated sludge acclimation on the biodegradation of toluene in the presence of a biodegradable non-aqueous phase liquid, di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), in a two-phase partitioning bioreactor was characterized. The influence of the presence of DEHP, at a ratio of 0.1 % (volume ratio), and of the acclimation of activated sludge (AS) on the biodegradation of hydrophobic VOC was studied. AS was acclimated to both toluene and DEHP simultaneously. Using acclimated cells, 73 and 96 % improvement of the mean biodegradation rates was recorded for toluene and the organic solvent (DEHP), respectively, if compared to the values recorded in the absence of acclimation, during tests performed in Erlenmeyer flasks. Degradation rates were further improved by the use of acclimated AS in a reactor with a large head space; degradation yields for toluene and DEHP were above 99 and 89 %, respectively.     

Bioadsorption by sugarcane bagasse for the reduction in oil and grease content in aqueous effluent

Several techniques have been used to reduce the oil and grease content in aqueous streams; one excellent is bioadsorption. With a view to provide a sustainable method for the treatment of oily effluents, the aim of this study was to evaluate sugarcane bagasse as bioadsorbent to reduce the oil and grease content of aqueous effluents. Analysis of the material was performed, and the adsorption experiments were in a batch system, using a synthetic effluent. The results showed that the kinetic equilibrium occurred in 0.08 h of contact. The study of influence of pH of the aqueous phase and the temperature showed that the adsorption capacity was proportional to the pH value, but inversely proportional to the temperature. The adsorption isotherm was obtained at a temperature of 298.15 K using the Langmuir and Langmuir–Freundlich models, and the maximum adsorption capacity obtained was 6.65 kg of hydrocarbon per kg of bioadsorbent. It was verified that sugarcane bagasse represents an excellent material for application in the treatment of oily aqueous effluents, since it is associated with low cost and a high adsorption capacity. The variation in the adsorption capacity observed as a function of pH of the aqueous phase was not found to be significant. This is an important characteristic of the material in terms of its industrial application, verifying the possibility for its implementation in any treatment process, demonstrating the great potential of sugarcane bagasse for use as a sustainable alternative in the reduction in oil and grease in aqueous effluents.     

Prediction of ground vibration due to quarry blasting based on gene expression programming: a new model for peak particle velocity prediction

Blasting is a widely used technique for rock fragmentation in opencast mines and tunneling projects. Ground vibration is one of the most environmental effects produced by blasting operation. Therefore, the proper prediction of blast-induced ground vibrations is essential to identify safety area of blasting. This paper presents a predictive model based on gene expression programming (GEP) for estimating ground vibration produced by blasting operations conducted in a granite quarry, Malaysia. To achieve this aim, a total number of 102 blasting operations were investigated and relevant blasting parameters were measured. Furthermore, the most influential parameters on ground vibration, i.e., burden-to-spacing ratio, hole depth, stemming, powder factor, maximum charge per delay, and the distance from the blast face were considered and utilized to construct the GEP model. In order to show the capability of GEP model in estimating ground vibration, nonlinear multiple regression (NLMR) technique was also performed using the same datasets. The results demonstrated that the proposed model is able to predict blast-induced ground vibration more accurately than other developed technique. Coefficient of determination values of 0.914 and 0.874 for training and testing datasets of GEP model, respectively show superiority of this model in predicting ground vibration, while these values were obtained as 0.829 and 0.790 for NLMR model.     

Enhancement of a hypoplastic model for granular soil–structure interface behaviour

Modelling of interfaces in geotechnical engineering is an important issue. Interfaces between structural elements (e.g., anchors, piles, tunnel linings) and soils are widely used in geotechnical engineering. The objective of this article is to propose an enhanced hypoplastic interface model that incorporates the in-plane stresses at the interface. To this aim, we develop a general approach to convert the existing hypoplastic model with a predefined limit state surface for sands into an interface model. This is achieved by adopting reduced stress and stretching vectors and redefining tensorial operations which can be used in the existing continuum model with few modifications. The enhanced interface model and the previous model are compared under constant-load, stiffness and volume conditions. The comparison is followed by a verification of two the approaches for modelling the different surface roughness. Subsequently, a validation between available experimental data from the literature versus simulations is presented. The new enhanced model gives improved predictions by the incorporation of in-plane stresses into the model formulation.     

Must critical state theory be revisited to include fabric effects?

Critical state (CS) is a physically observed state of granular materials at failure, based on which the critical state theory (CST) was founded. CST attempts to describe analytically the material response when CS failure occurs and constitutes the framework within which constitutive modeling techniques have been developed in the last half-century. The conditions of CST defined as necessary and sufficient to characterize CS do not include fabric orientation of material samples. In the present work, this absence of fabric is discussed in light of a newly developed anisotropic critical state theory (ACST) that enhances the classical CST by introducing an additional condition that fabric must satisfy at CS. The use of ACST framework in constitutive modeling is presented in a generic way, usable in conjunction with various constitutive models that comply with CST. Answers to some fundamental questions are attempted or suggested, e.g., as to whether the conditions of classical CST are necessary and sufficient for CS to occur, whether the ACST is simply a convenient supplement to CST or a necessary enhancement, and if the latter is true, the merits and open questions that arise. The presentation focuses on the justification and thoughts behind the proposed specific features of ACST, provides clarifications not made before, while several suggestions and disclaimers are made, and alternate approaches are proposed for further investigations on the subject matter.     

Autonomic visiting in digital 3D scenes

Human-machine interactive visiting and fixed-route visiting are currently the main roaming modes in digital three-dimensional (3D) scenes. However, in general, when a person visits an attraction area, s/he does not follow a fixed path, but instead wander about according to his/her interests. Here, we propose a new roaming mode, called autonomic visiting. That is, in a digital 3D scene, a user selects several interest spots, then a route connecting these spots can be automatically determined and 3D scene can be seen along this route. This study presents a technical approach that enables the realization of autonomic visiting in 3D scenes. Firstly, Delaunay triangular meshes for the terrain in 3D scene are established. Secondly, a plane-growth algorithm and a line-connection algorithm are introduced to automatically mend the broken parts of these triangular meshes. Thirdly, the triangular meshes are then merged and differently weighted according to different layers. Finally, a progress-zone transmission algorithm is presented to optimal the shortest route, which is derived from A-Star (A*) algorithm. Digital 3D campus of Nanjing University, China, is taken as the experimental materials. The experimental results prove the effect of the proposed approach.