Latest update of the climatology and changes in the seasonal distribution of precipitation over China

Based on daily precipitation data from 524 meteorological stations in China during the period 1960–2009, the climatology and the temporal changes (trends, interannual, and decadal variations) in the proportion of seasonal precipitation to the total annual precipitation were analyzed on both national and regional scales. Results indicated that (1) for the whole country, the climatology in the seasonal distribution of precipitation showed that the proportion accounted for 55 % in summer (June–August), for around 20 % in both spring (March–May) and autumn (September–November), and around 5 % in winter (December–February). But the spatial features were region-dependent. The primary precipitation regime, “summer–autumn–spring–winter”, was located in central and eastern regions which were north of the Huaihe River, in eastern Tibet, and in western Southwest China. The secondary regime, “summer–spring–autumn–winter”, appeared in the regions south of the Huaihe River, except Jiangnan where spring precipitation dominated, and the southeastern Hainan Island where autumn precipitation prevailed. (2) For the temporal changes on the national scale, first, where the trends were concerned, the proportion of winter precipitation showed a significantly increasing trend, while that of the other three seasons did not show any significant trends. Second, for the interannual variation, the variability in summer was the largest among the four seasons and that in winter was the smallest. Then, on the decadal scale, China experienced a sharp decrease only in the proportion of summer precipitation in 2000. (3) For the temporal changes on the regional scale, all the concerned 11 geographic regions of China underwent increasing trends in the proportion of winter precipitation. For spring, it decreased over the regions south of the Yellow River but increased elsewhere. The trend in the proportion of summer precipitation was generally opposite to that of spring. For autumn, it decreased over the other ten regions except Inner Mongolia with no trend. It is noted that the interannual variability of precipitation seasonality is large over North China, Huanghuai, and Jianghuai; its decadal variability is large over the other regions, especially over those regions south of the Yangtze River.     

单层工业厂房-TMD减震控制系统研究

提出了采用质量调谐减震控制技术对厂房结构进行减震控制的方法。利用屋盖系统作为附加质量,屋盖支座采用夹层橡胶隔震垫,建立了厂房-TMD系统模型,并用非线性时程分析法对其进行了多种地震动激励下的计算分析,探讨了厂房-TMD减震体系减震效果的参数影响及减震机理。结果表明,采用质量调谐减震技术对单层工业厂房进行减震是一种有效的方法。     

Grid pattern recognition in road networks using the C4.5 algorithm

Pattern recognition in road networks can be used for different applications, including spatiotemporal data mining, automated map generalization, data matching of different levels of detail, and other important research topics. Grid patterns are a common pattern type. This paper proposes and implements a method for grid pattern recognition based on the idea of mesh classification through a supervised learning process. To train the classifier, training datasets are selected from worldwide city samples with different cultural, historical, and geographical environments. Meshes are subsequently labeled as composing or noncomposing grids by participants in an experiment, and the mesh measures are defined while accounting for the mesh’s individual characteristics and spatial context. The classifier is generated using the C4.5 algorithm. The accuracy of the classifier is evaluated using Kappa statistics and the overall rate of correctness. The average Kappa value is approximately 0.74, which corresponds to a total accuracy of 87.5%. Additionally, the rationality of the classifier is evaluated in an interpretation step. Two other existing grid pattern recognition methods were also tested on the datasets, and comparison results indicate that our approach is effective in identifying grid patterns in road networks.     

Mass-front velocity of dry granular flows influenced by the angle of the slope to the runout plane and particle size gradation

The mass-front velocities of granular flows results from the joint action of particle size gradations and the underlying surfaces.However,because of the complexity of friction during flow movement,details such as the slope-toe impedance effects and momentum-transfer mechanisms have not been completely explained by theoretical analyses,numerical simulations,or field investigations.To study the mass-front velocity of dry granular flows influenced by the angle of the slope to the runout plane and particle size gradations we conducted model experiments that recorded the motion of rapid and long-runout rockslides or avalanches.Flume tests were conducted using slope angles of 25°,35°,45°,and 55° and three particle size gradations.The resulting mass-front motions consisted of three stages:acceleration,velocity maintenance,and deceleration.The existing methods of velocity prediction could not explain the slowing effect of the slope toe or the momentum-transfer steady velocity stage.When the slope angle increased from 25° to 55°,the mass-front velocities dropped significantly to between 44.4% and59.6% of the peak velocities and energy lossesincreased from 69.1% to 83.7% of the initial,respectively.The velocity maintenance stages occurred after the slope-toe and mass-front velocity fluctuations.During this stage,travel distances increased as the angles increased,but the average velocity was greatest at 45°.At a slope angle of 45°,as the median particle size increased,energy loss around the slope toe decreased,the efficiency of momentum transfer increased,and the distance of the velocity maintenance stage increased.We presented an improved average velocity formula for granular flow and a geometrical model of the energy along the flow line.     

Livelihood changes and evolution of upland ethnic communities driven by tourism: a case study in Guizhou Province,southwest China

As an effective livelihood approach to alleviate poverty without rural population migration, ethnic tourism has become the primary choice of economic development in ethnic areas worldwide in addition to traditional livelihood approaches. This article applies the theories of livelihood to study the community evolution driven by tourism livelihood and examine three mountainous tourism communities in different stages of tourist area life cycle. Drawing on the methods of GIS spatial analysis, semi-structured interviews and questionnaires, this article proposes a sustainable livelihood framework for ethnic tourism to explore the evolution of ethnic tourism communities by identifying changes in livelihood assets (natural, financial, social, cultural and human capitals) in the process of tourism development. The results show that the development of ethnic tourism has led to changes in the increase of building land, and the diversification of land use functions with a trend of shifting from meeting local villagers' living needs to satisfying tourists, income composition and uneven distribution of tourism income spatially. Ethnic tourism also led to the deterioration of traditional social management structure, collapse of neighboring relationship, the over- commercialization and staged authenticity of ethnic culture, as well as the gradual vanish of agricultural knowledge with a trend of increasing modern business knowledge and higher education. In addition, these changes, involving livelihood assets from natural, economic, human, social and cultural aspects are interrelated and interactive, which form new evolution characters of ethnic community. This study reveals the conflicts over livelihood approaches which have formed new vulnerabilities to impact on sustainable evolution of ethnic communities. This research provides implications for achieving the sustainable development of ethnic communities with the driving force of tourism livelihood.     

The Fragmentation in a Protoplanetary Disk and the Properties of the Resultant Self-Gravitating Clumps

We study the fragmentation properties in the protoplanetary disk and properties of the resultant self-gravitating clumps using our newly constructed disk model. Our disk model includes the mass inflall term from a molecular cloud core and the photoevaporation winds effect. We adopt the conventional fragmentation criterion to judge whether a protoplanetary disk can fragment. In this work, we follow our previous work to investigate the properties of the resultant self-gravitating clumps. In our calculation, the initial masses of the resultant self-gravitating clumps lie in the range of tens of M_J to more than one hundred of M_J, where M_J is the Jupiter mass. These initial masses can seemingly account for the masses of extrasolar planets in magnitude. We also calculate the subsequent gas accretion of clumps in 1.27 × 10⁴ yr after the formation of self-gravitating clumps. We find that the subsequent gas accretion of self-gravitating clumps is very efficient, and the clump masses grow to hundreds of M_J and the physical radii R_c of clumps increase to about 10 AU. Additionally, we also calculate the orbital migration of clumps. We find that most clumps have short migration timescale to be accreted onto the protostar, and only a small fraction of clumps have long migration timescale (>10⁶ yr) to successfully become gas giant planets. These results are consistent with previous studies.     

Study on failure mechanism of a plain irrigation reservoir soil bank slope under wind wave erosion

Natural Hazards - The wind wave erosion is one of the main factors of the soil bank slope retreat in plain irrigation reservoirs, which plays an important role in the bank profile evolution and...     

Public cognition and response to earthquake disaster: from the 2008 Mw7.9 Wenchuan to the 2013 Mw6.6 Lushan earthquakes in Sichuan Province,China

Natural Hazards - China is one of the countries most affected by earthquakes. Improving public cognition and response to earthquake disaster (EDCR) is an effective means to reduce seismic risk and...     

东北三省城市土地利用效益评价及耦合协调关系研究

在阐述城市土地利用效益系统耦合协调性内涵及其交互作用机理的基础上,构建综合评价指标体系,运用均方差决策法、耦合协调度模型,对东北三省2003~2015年城市土地利用综合效益及其主成分间耦合协调关系进行测度,并分析其时空演化过程。研究认为：① 城市土地利用综合效益表现出随时间“先升后降”的特征,区内三省间差异明显,中心和门户城市长期处于较高水平。② 城市土地利用经济效益亦存在“先升后降”的时序变化特征,空间上表现为“南高北低”,低值区范围缩减明显;社会效益差异不显著,在南北方向上表现出“凸”字型分布特征;区域生态环境效益整体较高,高值区由集中趋向分散。③ 城市土地利用经济、社会、生态环境效益间耦合协调关系在各时间节点均表现为失调,且以中度失调为主,但中心城市和门户城市的三效益耦合协调关系相对较好,向协调方向发展,哈长与辽中南城市群地区协调性优于其他区域,吉林省与辽宁省东部的部分城市协调关系趋向恶化。④ 城市土地利用效益间关系失调主要受复合因素的作用,经济效益滞后是制约土地利用效益耦合协调关系提升的主因,生态环境效益滞后不是限制土地利用效益耦合协调性提升的主要因素。     

Tracing the settlement region of massive floating green algae in the Yellow Sea

Outbreaks of large-scale green tides formed by Ulva prolifera in the Yellow Sea(YS)cause heavy ecological damages and huge economic losses.However,the ecological consequences of green tides remain poorly understood due to the lack of knowledge on the settlement region of massive green algae floating in the YS.In this study,we established a method to trace the settlement region of floating green algae,using 28-isofucosterol preserved in sediment as the specific biomarker for green algae.Sterols including 28-isofucosterol in surface sediment samples collected during an investigation in the YS and the Bohai Sea(BS)in August 2015 were analyzed using gas chromatography coupled with a mass spectrometer(GC-MS).Based on the content of 28-isofucosterol in sediment samples,the potential settlement region of loating green algae was identified in the sea area southeast to the Shandong Peninsula around the sampling site H06(122.66°E,36.00°N).This paper presents a first result on the settlement region of floating green algae in the YS for providing a solid basis to elucidate the ecological consequences of green tides in the area.