Modeling Sediment Suspensions in an Idealized Tidal Embayment: Importance of Tidal Asymmetry and Settling Lag

Suspended sediment transport processes in a short tidal embayment with a simple geometry are investigated using analytic and numerical models. On the basis of numerical results, the horizontal gradient of depth-averaged suspended sediment concentration can be parameterized with a combination of the first harmonic and mean. Using the parameterization, the solution of the analytic model is obtained. Evaluation of the major terms from the solution of the analytic model shows that a quarter-diurnal frequency is significant near the mouth while a semidiurnal component dominates the interior area. The settling lag consists of local and nonlocal components. The local phase lag is a function of the ratio between tidal period and settling time. The nonlocal phase lag is determined by the phase difference between tidal velocity and the horizontal gradient of sediment concentration and by the strength of erosion and horizontal advection.     

Generating vague neighbourhoods through data mining of passive web data

Neighbourhoods have been described as ‘the building blocks of public services society’. Their subjective nature, however, and the resulting difficulties in collecting data, means that in many countries there are no officially defined neighbourhoods either in terms of names or boundaries. This has implications not only for policy but also business and social decisions as a whole. With the absence of neighbourhood boundaries many studies resort to using standard administrative units as proxies. Such administrative geographies, however, often have a poor fit with those perceived by residents. Our approach detects these important social boundaries by automatically mining the Web en masse for passively declared neighbourhood data within postal addresses. Focusing on the United Kingdom (UK), this research demonstrates the feasibility of automated extraction of urban neighbourhood names and their subsequent mapping as vague entities. Importantly, and unlike previous work, our process does not require any neighbourhood names to be established a priori.     

Moment method for the inverse radiative transfer in inhomogeneous media

In the present paper, an inverse problem of radiative transfer in an inhomogeneous plane medium of scattering albedo =₀ exp(-/s) is solved by a moment method. The results are compared with those obtained by Dunn (1983) using Monte Carlo method.Paper presented at the IAU Third Asian-Pacific Regional Meeting, held in Kyoto, Japan, between 30 September–6 October, 1984.     

1s2 1S-1s np 1P transitions of the helium isoelectronic sequence members up to Z = 30

Radial integrals have been calculated under the one-electron hydrogenic model. Two different values of the effective charge parameter, one for the initial state and the other for the final state, are retained in these formulae. The model is able to reasonably reproduce the existing dipole oscillator strength values with little effort. The dipole oscillator strength values are given for many ions for the first time.     

Predicting the maximum amplitude for the sunspot cycle from the rate of rise in sunspot number

Examined are associational aspects as they relate the maximum amplitude R _M for the sunspot cycle to the rate of rise R _t during the ascending phase, where R _M is the smoothed sunspot number at cycle maximum and R _t is the sum of the monthly mean sunspot numbers for selected 6-month intervals (t) measured from cycle onset. One finds that, prior to about 2 yr into the cycle, the rate of rise is not a reliable predictor for maximum amplitude. Only during the latter half of the ascent do the fits display strong linearity, having a coefficient of correlation r 0.9 and a standard error S _yx 20. During the first four intervals, the expected R _M and the observed R _M were found to differ by no more than 20 units of smoothed sunspot number only 25, 42, 50, and 58 % of the time; during the latter four intervals, they differed by no more than 20 units 67, 83, 92, and 100% of the time.     

Isotopic and thermochronologic evidence of extremely cold lithosphere associated with a slab flattening in the Central Andes of Argentina

We present mineralogic, isotopic and thermochronologic analyses on psammopelitic and tuffaceous levels from the Bermejo and Vinchina basins – both foreland depocentres of the Central Andes of Argentina – that define a low‐temperature regime for the crust akin to a slab shallowing and flattening process. The contents of illite in illite/smectite interstratified (I/S) show a progressive illitization into the deeper parts of both basins. The distribution of I/S is compatible with theoretical simulations and predicted heat flow values of ca. 26 mW m^?2 in the 8–3.4 Ma interval for the Vinchina Basin and ca. 42 mW m^?2 since 9 Ma for the Bermejo Basin. The latter shows heat flow values that are comparable to those reported by magnetotelluric analysis (36–40 mW m^?2) in agreement with previously published heat flow calculations along the modern Andean foreland. The Rb–Sr isochrones in psammopelites (<2 μm fractions) show ages between 125 and 165 Ma, whereas the K–Ar ages decrease as the grain size is smaller (136–224 Ma for 1–2 μm, 112–159 Ma for 0.2–1 μm, 76–116 Ma for <0.2 μ and 39.3–42 Ma for <0.1 μm). These ages are significantly older than the sedimentation in the basins (ca. 16 Ma for the Vinchina Basin; U–Pb age), and can be explained by the presence of a significant amount of detrital components, mainly illite, even in the finer fractions. The preservation of detrital ages is consistent with the shallow diagenesis related to a low‐temperature regime, proposed here for the basins. Younger K–Ar ages (21.3–12 Ma) were obtained for a basal tuffaceous level. Clay mineralogy and R0 ordering in the deepest part of the Vinchina Basin, together with the evolution model of I/S with depth, suggest that the burial temperatures would have not exceeded ca. 100°C in agreement with (U–Th)/He analyses performed on apatite extracted from two tuffaceous units. Thermal indicators from both studied basins confirm the existence of a low‐temperature regime during flat subduction.     

Using cosmo-skymed images to detect wet snow cover on the Kraków Ice Field,King George Island,Antarctica

This work analysed the spatio-temporal variation of snow cover on the Kraków Ice Field, located in the King George Island, Antarctica. High spatial resolution images of COSMO-SkyMed were used in this study. These X-band images are vertically and horizontally co-polarized and their intensity data were converted to amplitude (dB). The COSMO-SkyMed images were classified by a minimum distance algorithm and post-classified based on knowledge of adjacency relationships of snow zones. Hypsometric, slope, aspect and solar radiation maps to support the interpretation of backscatter patterns in the COSMO-SkyMed images. Three radar zones were classified in these images: percolation, slush and wet snow radar zone. Positive surface air temperatures and rainfall events, registered from a meteorological station, lead to increase in wet snow and slush zones. The COSMO-SkyMed images and minimum distance algorithm were adequate to discriminate the snow cover and to assess the supraglacial melting pattern during the ablation season in the study area.     

Antifouling effect of bioactive compounds from selected marine organisms in the Obhur Creek,Red Sea

Three species of sponges and a tunicate were collected from Obhur creek of Jeddah coast for this bioactivity study. In order to assess the antifouling efficacy of selected marine organisms, methanolic extracts of these organisms were tested against different fouling bacterial forms and II-instar stage of the barnacle, Balanus amphitrite. Antibiosis, bioactivity and followed by multivariate analyses were carried out to check the efficacy of antifouling effect of the selected marine organisms. Principal component analysis revealed the exemplary antifouling efficacy of the sponge extracts of Stylissa sp. observed followed by Hyrtios sp. against bacterial forms in the laboratory study. De-trended correspondence analysis confirmed that the contribution of antifouling efficacy of the selected sponge extracts was observed to be more towards Bacillus sp., Vibrio sp. and Alteromonas sp. Moreover, the efficacy of Hyrtios sp. extract(20.430 μg m L~(-1)) followed by Stylissa sp.(30.945 μg m L~(-1)) showed higher against barnacle instar compared with other extracts in the bioactivity assay. Bray-Curtis cluster analysis under paired linkage categorized all the sponge extracts into one major cluster with 75% similarity, and one outlier tunicate. More than 80% similarity observed between Hyrtios sp. and Stylissa sp. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIR) showed that the contribution of major peaks found in the marine organisms were towards sulfones, sulfoxides, cyanates and ketones.     

An optimized spatial proximity model for fine particulate matter air pollution exposure assessment in areas of sparse monitoring

GIS-based proximity models are one of the key tools for the assessment of exposure to air pollution when the density of spatial monitoring stations is sparse. Central to exposure assessment that utilizes proximity models is the ‘exposure intensity–distance’ hypothesis. A major weakness in the application of this hypothesis is that it does not account for the Gaussian processes that are at the core of the physical mechanisms inherent in the dispersion of air pollutants.

Building upon the utility of spatial proximity models and the theoretical reliability of Gaussian dispersion processes of air pollutants, this study puts forward a novel Gaussian weighting function-aided proximity model (GWFPM). The study area and data set for this work consisted of transport-related emission sources of PM_2.5 in the Houston-Baytown-Sugar Land metropolitan area. Performance of the GWFPM was validated by comparing on-site observed PM_2.5 concentrations with results from classical ordinary kriging (OK) interpolation and a robust emission-weighted proximity model (EWPM). Results show that the fitting R² between possible exposure intensity calculated by GWFPM and observed PM_2.5 concentrations was 0.67. A variety of statistical evidence (i.e., bias, root mean square error [RMSE], mean absolute error [MAE], and correlation coefficient) confirmed that GWFPM outperformed OK and EWPM in estimating annual PM_2.5 concentrations for all monitoring sites. These results indicate that a GWFPM utilizing the physical dispersing mechanisms integrated may more effectively characterize annual-scale exposure than traditional models. Using GWFPM, receptors’ exposure to air pollution can be assessed with sufficient accuracy, even in those areas with a low density of monitoring sites. These results may be of use to public health and planning officials in a more accurate assessment of the annual exposure risk to a population, especially in areas where monitoring sites are sparse.