THE BEGINNING OF THE USING OF ZINC IN CHINA.

In my work, Lapidarium Sinicum, the chapter on brass is speciallydevoted to this inquiry. Recently Dr. Read of the U. S. Bureau of Mineswrote to Dr. Ting, suggesting the question whether "The knowledge ofzinc-smelting in India is previous to that developed in China." Therefore     

Bizarre geochemistry of komatiites from the Crixás greenstone belt,Brazil

Komatiite lava flows in the Crixás greenstone belt, Goiás, Brazil, have textures and volcanic structures typical of Archean komatiites, but are geochemically most unusual. The flows are porphyritic and massive, or layered with spinifex upper parts and olivine cumulate lower parts. MgO contents range from 18 to 40%. In such lavas, only olivine (and minor chromite) can have crystallized, but neither major nor trace elements fall on olivine control lines. In MgO variation diagrams, CaO and Sr fall on lines with slopes steeper than olivine control lines; SiO₂, FeO, Na₂O, K₂O and Y show little systematic variation; Zr shows a large variation that does not correlate with MgO; and Al₂O₃ decreases markedly with decreasing MgO. The aberrant behaviour is highlighted by the REE (rare earth elements) in spinifex and olivine cumulate layers from three flows: in the spinifex layers, chondrite-normalized REE patterns are hump-shaped with maxima at Nd or Sm ((La/Sm)_N=0.6, (Gd/Yb)_N=1.6–2.3), whereas cumulate zones in the same flows have steadily sloping patterns, with LREE enriched relative to HREE ((La/Sm)_N=1.3, (Gd/Yb)_N=1.4). Neither normal magmatic processes acting during emplacement of the komatiites, nor thermal erosion and wall-rock assimilation can explain these effects, and we speculate that elements commonly thought of as “immobile” (e.g. Al, Zr, REE) migrated during hydrothermal alteration or metamorphism. A Pb-Pb whole rock isochron gave an age of 2,728±140 Ma and selected Sm-Nd analyses an apparent isochron age of 2,825±98 Ma (ɛ_Nd≈0). The Pb-Pb age is believed to be the approximate time of emplacement. Interpretation of the Sm-Nd data is complicated by the evidence of mobility of REE.     

An Improved Approach for Parameterizing Surface-Layer Turbulent Transfer Coefficients in Numerical Models

Based on classic iterative computation results, new equations to calculate the surface turbulent transfer coefficients are proposed, which allow for large ratios of the momentum and heat roughness lengths. Compared to the Launiainen scheme, our proposed scheme generates results closer to classical iterative computations. Under unstable stratification, the relative error in the Launiainen scheme increases linearly with increasing instability, even exceeding 15%, while the relative error of the present scheme is always less than 8.5%. Under stable stratification, the Launiainen scheme uses two equations, one for 0 < Ri _B ≤ 0.08 and another for 0.08 < Ri _B ≤ 0.2, and does not consider the condition that Ri _B > 0.2, while its relative errors in the region 0 < Ri _B ≤ 0.2 exceed 31 and 24% for momentum and heat transfer coefficients, respectively. In contrast, the present scheme uses only one equation for 0 < Ri _B ≤ 0.2 and another equation for Ri _B > 0.2, and the relative error of the present scheme is always less than 14%.     

The biogeochemical sulfur cycle in the marine boundary layer over the Northeast Pacific Ocean

The major components of the marine boundary layer biogeochemical sulfur cycle were measured simultaneously onshore and off the coast of Washington State, U.S.A. during May 1987. Seawater dimethylsulfide (DMS) concentrations on the continental shelf were strongly influenced by coastal upwelling. Concentration further offshore were typical of summer values (2.2 nmol/L) at this latitude. Although seawater DMS concentrations were high on the biologically productive continental shelf (2–12 nmol/L), this region had no measurable effect on atmospheric DMS concentrations. Atmospheric DMS concentrations (0.1–12 nmol/m³), however, were extremely dependent upon wind speed and boundary layer height. Although there appeared to be an appreciable input of non-sea-salt sulfate to the marine boundary layer from the free troposphere, the local flux of DMS from the ocean to the atmosphere was sufficient to balance the remainder of the sulfur budget.     

Genetic mechanism and failure process of the Mogangling seismic landslide

This paper presents a case study on the Mogangling landslide and its characteristics and geological mechanism. The Mogangling landslide is a giant rock landslide located at the intersection of Dadu river and Moxi river. It is a landslide triggered by an earthquake with large magnitude that occurred in 18th century. Based on detailed site investigation, it shows the Mogangling landslide developed in the Kangding complex strata, composed of completely decomposed aggregates of massive-block stone, debris and soil with some gravels, pebbles and sand layer found distributed in front of the landslide. The control factor of the deformation of this landslide is the combined effect of Detuo fault which is located under the slope, and the regional stress formed along structural planes as well as the free surfaces formed by river cutting. Therefore, when the Kangding-Moxi earthquake (Ms =7.7) occurred on 1st June, 1786, due to seismic shaking, topographic amplification effects and back slope effects, the Mogangling landslide occurred. The Dadu River is the most important river for hydropower development in China; large-scale seismic landslides along the Dadu River are the most important geological issue during the construction of hydropower stations. Therefore, this research is important from the point of view of economic and social benefits.     

Inverse Analysis of Deep Excavation Using Differential Evolution Algorithm

This paper presents the applications of the differential evolution (DE) algorithm in back analysis of soil parameters for deep excavation problems. A computer code, named Python‐based DE, is developed and incorporated into the commercial finite element software ABAQUS, with a parallel computing technique to run an FE analysis for all trail vectors of one generation in DE in multiple cores of a cluster, which dramatically reduces the computational time. A synthetic case and a well‐instrumented real case, that is, the Taipei National Enterprise Center (TNEC) project, are used to demonstrate the capability of the proposed back‐analysis procedure. Results show that multiple soil parameters are well identified by back analysis using a DE optimization algorithm for highly nonlinear problems. For the synthetic excavation case, the back‐analyzed parameters are basically identical to the input parameters that are used to generate synthetic response of wall deflection. For the TNEC case with a total of nine parameters to be back analyzed, the relative errors of wall deflection for the last three stages are 2.2, 1.1, and 1.0%, respectively. Robustness of the back‐estimated parameters is further illustrated by a forward prediction. The wall deflection in the subsequent stages can be satisfactorily predicted using the back‐analyzed soil parameters at early stages. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

中国古代牧业社会骨制品的初步考察:以新疆巴里坤石人子沟遗址为例

考古遗址出土骨制品的研究对于揭示古代社会的动物资源获取和利用、手工业生产、社会组织结构等问题具有重要意义。国内骨制品研究目前多集中在农业区域,这些研究为探讨新石器时代至青铜时代的动物使用及其与社会发展、早期国家形成的关系等问题作出了重要贡献。然而,针对牧业社会骨制品的考察十分缺乏。新疆哈密地区巴里坤草原分布有大量古代牧业文化遗址,石人子沟遗址（43°31'12.8"~43°34'28.9"N,93°13'44.8"~93°16'49.1"E）是其中一处青铜时代晚期至铁器时代早期的大型聚落。本文从动物考古学视角研究该遗址2006年至2011年发掘出土的426件骨制品。结果显示,石人子沟遗址骨制品的原料主要为以羊（Ovis aries/Capra hircus）、马（Equus caballus）为主的家养动物和以鹿（Cervidae）为主的野生动物,其中羊的比例最高（69.7%）,鹿（13.8%）、马（2.3%）次之,这与中原地区青铜时代农业文化遗址的骨制品多以牛为原料的情况明显不同。羊在骨制品原料中占绝对多数且大量使用羊距骨制品的现象是对石人子沟遗址以牧业为主的生业经济方式的直接反映。石人子沟遗址不同类型骨制品的制作各具特点,但整体表现出"省时省力"的特点,即对使用部位细致打磨,对非使用部位仅做简单处理。与中原地区商周时期大型制骨作坊规范化、规模化、产业化的骨器生产不同,石人子沟遗址未见专门的制骨场所,骨制品生产的操作链条也并不完整。遗址的骨制品生产可能是以家庭为单元进行的,产品的专业化、精细化程度也相对较低。该研究填补了我国古代牧业文化遗址出土骨制品动物考古学专门研究的空白,为进一步探究我国古代不同区域、不同生业经济基础下的制骨手工业面貌提供了重要资料。

     

Orbital Evolution of Příbram and Neuschwanstein

The orbital evolution of the two meteorites Příbram and Neuschwanstein on almost identical orbits and also several thousand clones were studied in the framework of the N-body problem for 5,000 years into the past. The meteorites moved on very similar orbits during the whole investigated interval. We have also searched for photographic meteors and asteroids moving on similar orbits. There were five meteors found in the IAU MDC database and six NEAs with currently similar orbits to Příbram and Neuschwanstein. However, only one meteor 161E1 and one asteroid 2002 QG46 had a similar orbital evolution over the last 2,000 years.