Bianchi type – IX string cosmological models with bulk viscous fluid in general relativity

Some Bianchi Type IX string cosmological models with bulk viscous fluid for massive string is investigated. To get a determinate solution, a supplementary condition a=b ⁿ, between metric potentials, is used wherea and b are function of time alone. A particular solution for n=0 is also discussed. The behaviour of the model in presence and absence of bulk viscosity, is discussed. The physical and implications of the model is also discussed. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Desert methane: Implications for life detection on Mars

Methane, a potential biosignature, has recently been detected in the martian atmosphere. This Note focuses on field investigations/operational simulations and laboratory studies which resulted in successful detection of methane within arid terrestrial soils, as distinct from the usual methanogen environment, but in at least partial analogy to martian conditions.     

Drought and institutional adaptation in the Great Plains of Alberta and Saskatchewan, 1914–1939

Agriculture in the southern Great Plains of Canada has been particularly vulnerable to prolonged episodes of drought. Using climate data and a precipitation minus potential evapotranspiration index, the extent of the region’s exposure to drought is examined. Between 1914 and 1917, the Dry Belt was particularly vulnerable to drought, whereas after 1928, a much larger region known as the Palliser Triangle covering most of southern Alberta and Saskatchewan was much more exposed to drought. These droughts provoked major institutional adaptation, in particular the establishment of the Special Areas Board by the Government of Alberta, and the creation of the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration by the Government of Canada. Both organizations have proved to be relatively permanent public adaptations to the natural hazard of drought in the region. Moreover, these earlier experiences with prolonged drought as well as institution-building may be of value in helping the residents of the Palliser Triangle adapt to predicted climate changes in the future as well as anticipate some of the barriers to effective institutional adaptation.     

Regions and sustainable development: regional planning matters

This paper looks at how the term 'sustainable development' has been used in the process of regional plan making over the past decade. It emphasizes the differing geographies of these debates within England, in terms of how sustainable development has been used to justify different types of approach in different parts of the country. Both drawing on and challenging recent work on state theory, the paper argues the need to see regional planning as a part of a multi-scalar governance system, whose importance should not be underestimated.     

Stable axisymmetric SPH formulation with no axis singularity

The axisymmetric formulation of the governing equations for geomechanics in the framework of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) is presented in this study. Two forms of SPH discretization for the motion equations, which are labeled as form I and form II, are proposed, and the methods to compute the hoop stress and strain terms including hoop strain rate and the acceleration introduced by the hoop stress are compared. To avoid possible singularity problem near the axis of symmetry, a perfectly smooth contact along with ghost particles are applied to prevent the real particles from overly approaching the axis of symmetry to remove this potential singularity. In addition, the Mohr–Coulomb constitutive model is implemented into the SPH formulation in describing soil behavior. Four numerical tests are carried out to validate and compare the accuracy and stability of the proposed algorithms, and their results are compared with analytical solutions and results from FEM analysis. The performance in these comparisons suggests that SPH II with hoop terms computed through direct hoop method is more stable than the others, and the adoption of contact for the symmetric axis is efficient in eliminating the singularity problem. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Physical determinants of intertidal communities on dissipative beaches: Implications of sea-level rise

Sea-level rise is likely to cause significant changes in the morphodynamic state of beaches in the higher latitudes, resulting in steeper beaches with larger particle sizes. These physical changes have implications for beach invertebrate communities, which are determined largely by sediment particle size, and hence for ecosystem function. Previous studies have explored the relationships between invertebrate communities and environmental variables such as particle size, beach slope and exposure to wave action, and often these physical variables can be integrated in various indices of morphodynamic state. Most of these studies incorporated a full range of beach types that included wave-dominated surf beaches, where the wave action is harsh enough to enable reliable estimates of breaker height, a parameter included in several of the indices, and concluded that more dissipative beaches with gentler slopes and finer particle sizes often support a higher number of species and greater abundance than more reflective beaches. Whether these predictions remain valid for less wave-dominated beaches, where breaker height is more difficult to determine, is uncertain. In the present study, the abundance of meio- and macrofauna was quantified across a range of beaches in the UK, which are generally towards the lower energy end of the morphodynamic gradient, and their relationships with beach physical properties explored. No significant relationships were found between abundance and the standard morphodynamic indices, but significant relationships were found for both macro- and meiofaunal abundance when these indices were combined with an exposure index (derived from velocity, direction, duration and the effective fetch). All the relationships identified between abundance and combined morphodynamic indices indicated a higher abundance of both macro- and meiofauna on the more dissipative beaches. The reverse was however found for species richness. If predictions that accelerated sea-level rise will move beaches towards a more reflective morphodynamic state are correct, this could lead to declines in the abundance of meio- and macrofauna, with potential adverse consequences for ecosystem functioning.     

Ecosystem-based management institutional design: Balance between federal,state, and local governments within the Gulf of Mexico Alliance

We present a case study of the organizational framework of the Gulf of Mexico Alliance (GOMA), which was implemented to promote the use of ecosystem-based management (EBM) at a regional level. GOMA is a state-led initiative formed to protect and restore coastal and marine resources of the Gulf of Mexico. Representatives of the US Gulf States, together with their federal partners, clearly defined ecological, social, and economic short- and long-term objectives to be reached through regional collaborations. The aim of this paper is to show how GOMA, and particularly the Ecosystem Integration and Assessment Priority Issue Team, in its attempt to apply ecosystem approaches to manage marine resources, modified the common organizational scheme by implementing partnerships at various governmental (federal, state, local) and nongovernmental levels. We address the following major points considered to be of importance for EBM implementation: (1) multilevel cooperation, (2) stakeholders’ involvement, (3) sharing of information, (4) bridging science and policy, and (5) consensus-based decision making.     

A coupled discrete element model for the simulation of soil and water flow through an orifice

Soil erosion around defective underground pipes can cause ground collapses and sinkholes in urban areas. Most of these soil erosion events are caused by fluidization of the surrounding soil with subsequent washing into defective sewer pipes. In this study, this soil erosion process is simplified as the gradual washout of sand particles mixed with water through an orifice. The discrete element method is used to simulate the large deformation behavior of the sand particles, and the Darcy fluid model is coupled with this approach to simulate fluid flow through porous sand media. A coupled 3D discrete element model is developed and implemented based on this scheme. To simulate previous experiments using this coupled model considering the current computing capacity, we incorporated a ‘supply layer’ to study the continuous erosion process. The coupled model can predict the erosion flow rates of sand and water and the shape of erosion void. Thus, the model can be used as an effective and efficient tool to investigate the soil erosion process around defective pipes. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Neptune: A marine micropaleontology database

Marine micropaleontology must in the future provide more precise chronologic and paleoenvironmental information, which in turn must be based on better, more consistent taxonomic and distributional data. Better tools for synthesis and standardization of this data are needed, as the ever expanding published literature is rapidly becoming unmanageable by purely manual compilation methods. The micropaleontology group at the ETH has developed a large relational database of marine microfossil data to partially meet this need. It currently contains biogeographic data on the distribution in Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) and Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) holes of nearly 8,000 species of Cenozoic planktonic foraminifera, radiolaria, diatoms and calcareous nannofossils. The database also includes full stratigraphic occurrence (range chart) data for these fossil groups from more than 100 selected Neogene holes. A particular feature of the database is that all sample information and species names in the original reports are linked to newly created, updatable, comprehensive age models and synonymy lists which reflect modern chronology and taxonomic usage. Searches of the database automatically make use of this information in producing reports. Species ' occurrences, including first and last occurrence information, can be further analyzed using external spreadsheet and statistics packages; plotted by mapping programs; or displayed by a new program which creates composite age-range charts.