Deformation characteristics of fine-grained soil under cyclic loading with intermittence

Acta Geotechnica - Since there is an interval time between two trains traveling in the same direction on an automatically blocked line, the dynamic loading on the railway subgrade is composed of...     

Possible NPP changes and risky ecosystem region identification in China during the 21st century based on BCC-CSM2

Journal of Geographical Sciences - Based on simulations by the Beijing Climate Center climate system model version 2 (BCC-CSM2), the possible changes in net primary productivity (NPP) of the...     

Detailed surface co-seismic displacement of the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake in western Taiwan and implication of fault geometry in the shallow subsurface

The northern segment of the Chelungpu Fault shows an unusually large co-seismic displacement from the event of the Mw 7.6 Chi-Chi earthquake in western Taiwan. Part of the northern segment near the Fengyuan City provides an excellent opportunity for characterizing active thrust-related structures due to a dense geodetic-benchmark network. We reproduced co-seismic deformation patterns of a small segment of this Chelungpu Fault using 924 geodetic benchmarks. According to the estimated displacement vectors, we identified secondary deformations, such as local rigid-block rotation and significant shortening within the hanging wall. The data set also allows us to determine accurately a 3D model of the thrust fault geometry in the shallow subsurface by assuming simple relations between the fault slip, and the horizontal and vertical displacements at the surface. The predicted thrust geometry is in good agreement with borehole data derived from two drilling sites close to the study area. The successful prediction supports our assumptions of rigid displacement and control of displacement in the hanging wall by the fault geometry being useful first approximations.     

A note on scaling peak acceleration, velocity and displacement of strong earthquake shaking by Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) and site soil and geologic conditions

It is shown that the overall trends of peak amplitudes of strong motion acceleration, velocity and displacement versus site intensity in the Western United States are consistent with our previous inferences, ¹⁸ but the larger present data base allows us to begin with identification of the additional changes of average peak amplitudes also in terms of the local soil and local geologic site conditions. These trends display a reversal of peak amplitude trends in going from small to large intensities, making it difficult to reconcile the simple scaling of design spectra in terms of peak ground acceleration.     

Korea has no water scarcity!

Water scarcity has been an important issue for many countries. The water scarcity is still growing in some region but may be exacerbated by recent climate change. Both international and domestic reports classified Korea into water scarcity country on the basis of Falkenmark indicator. Korea, however, missed the concept of green water in calculating their annual renewable water resources per capita and erroneously defined them as water scarcity country. A new calculation shows that Korea has no water scarcity with 1712 m³ of annual renewable water resource per capita. Wrong information in Korea was badly used for political propagation and private purpose. This may be happening to other countries. Water resources experts need to include the concept of green water in reanalyzing the annual renewable water resources to provide decision-makers with acceptable guideline. Decision should be made with more reliable ground.     

Alternative Areal Decompositions: An Empirical Study

This article compares area data representation with several areal decomposition alternatives in order to determine any improvement to efficiency at the expense of accuracy. This article utilizes the Voronoi diagram as an underlying base data model, combines polygon partitioning and the Voronoi diagram to provide several alternative hybrid areal decompositions, and empirically examines the efficiency and effectiveness performance of these alternatives for popular GIS operations: geometrical, topological and reclassification operations. Experimental results reveal that most areal decomposition alternatives are likely to produce significant benefits in time efficiency while generating different levels of accuracy.     

Evaluation of the seismic performance of a three‐story ordinary moment‐resisting concrete frame

This study focuses on the seismic performance of Ordinary Moment‐Resisting Concrete Frames (OMRCF) designed only for gravity loads. For this purpose, a 3‐story OMRCF was designed in compliance with the minimum design requirements in the American Concrete Institute Building Code ACI 318 (1999). This model frame was a regular structure with flexure‐dominated response. A 1/3‐scale 3‐story model was constructed and tested under quasi‐static reversed cyclic lateral loading. The overall behavior of the OMRCF was quite stable without abrupt strength degradation. The measured base shear strength was larger than the design base shear force for seismic zones 1, 2A and 2B calculated using UBC 1997. Moreover, this study used the capacity spectrum method to evaluate the seismic performance of the frame. The capacity curve was obtained from the experimental results for the specimen and the demand curve was established using the earthquake ground motions recorded at various stations with different soil conditions. Evaluation of the test results shows that the 3‐story OMRCF can resist design seismic loads of zones 1, 2A, 2B, 3 and 4 with soil types S_A and S_B . For soil type S_C , the specimen was satisfactory in seismic zones 1, 2A, 2B and 3. For soil type S_D , the OMRCF was only satisfactory for seismic zones 1 and 2A. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Temporal and spatial variations in nutrient stoichiometry and regulation of phytoplankton biomass in Hong Kong waters: influence of the Pearl River outflow and sewage inputs

In 2001, the Hong Kong government implemented the Harbor Area Treatment Scheme (HATS) under which 70% of the sewage that had been formerly discharged into Victoria Harbor is now collected and sent to Stonecutters Island Sewage Works where it receives chemically enhanced primary treatment (CEPT), and is then discharged into waters west of the Harbor. The relocation of the sewage discharge will possibly change the nutrient dynamics and phytoplankton biomass in this area. Therefore, there is a need to examine the factors that regulate phytoplankton growth in Hong Kong waters in order to understand future impacts. Based on a historic nutrient data set (1986-2001), a comparison of ambient nutrient ratios with the Redfield ratio (N:P:Si=16:1:16) showed clear spatial variations in the factors that regulate phytoplankton biomass along a west (estuary) to east (coastal/oceanic) transect through Hong Kong waters. Algal biomass was constrained by a combination of low light conditions, a rapid change in salinity, and strong turbulent mixing in western waters throughout the year. Potential stoichiometric Si limitation (up to 94% of the cases in winter) occurred in Victoria Harbor due to the contribution of sewage effluent with high N and P enrichment all year, except for summer when the frequency of stoichiometric Si limitation (48%) was the same as P, owing to the influence of the high Si in the Pearl River discharge. In the eastern waters, potential N limitation and N and P co-limitation occurred in autumn and winter respectively, because of the dominance of coastal/oceanic water with low nutrients and low N:P ratios. In contrast, potential Si limitation occurred in spring and a switch to potential N, P and Si limitation occurred in eastern waters in summer. In southern waters, there was a shift from P limitation (80%) in summer due to the influence of the N-rich Pearl River discharge, to N limitation (68%) in autumn, and to N and P co-limitation in winter due to the dominance of N-poor oceanic water from the oligotrophic South China Sea. Our results show clear temporal and spatial variations in the nutrient stoichiometry which indicates potential regulation of phytoplankton biomass in HK waters due to the combination of the seasonal exchange of the Pearl River discharge and oceanic water, sewage effluent inputs, and strong hydrodynamic mixing from SW monsoon winds in summer and the NE monsoon winds in winter.     

Command and control cities in global space-economy before and after 2008 geo-economic transition

The global economic downturn caused primarily by the US sub-prime mortgage crisis in 2007 engendered revenue loss of the multinational corporations.Existing studies have yet to depict the detrimental impacts on city’s command and control functions induced by the sub-prime mortgage crisis together with its residual wave of global economic recession on the global spatial economy.Recent and previous studies have produced an ’instant history’ of the global spatial economy before the global economic downturn undermines the global economy in late 2008.However,the waxes and wanes of major cities’ command and control functions on the global economic arena before and after the outbreak of financial crisis and its associated geo-economic transitions are still poorly understood.This paper attempts to contribute a new set of customized data to update and fill in the gap in the literature with the investigation of the command and control functions of cities around the world from 2005 to 2009.Particular attentions are paid to the time-space relationship of the geo-economic transition that can capture the recent historical images of the command and control situation of different cities in the world.     

Development of internet-based ship technical information management system

In this paper, internet-based ship technical information management system has been developed as a means to accumulate, manage, share and utilize various distributed applications and information used for ship design and building. The information managed in the system is documents from the whole life cycle including concept design, basic design, detailed design, construction, operation and maintenance. In addition, using the developed system, integrated system framework is also proposed to integrate applications and database in concurrent engineering environment.