Incorporation of directivity effect in probabilistic seismic hazard analysis and disaggregation of Tabriz city

Near-field ground-motion records affected by directivity may show unusual features in the signal resulting in low-frequency cycle pulses in the velocity time history. Current probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) is not able to predict such effects well; recent studies thus have proposed modified frameworks to incorporate pulse effect in modified PSHA. This paper attempts to carry out the seismic hazard mapping of Tabriz city according to modified and ordinary PSHA for different return periods. Tabriz, located in northwest of Iran, is situated in the vicinity of the North Tabriz Fault, which is one of the major seismogenic faults. Disaggregation results indicate that including pulse-like effects in PSHA, increases the relative contribution of close distances and small epsilons (?). Another major probable result is the high contribution of pulse periods close to spectral period. The contributions to each earthquake scenario at long-period spectral acceleration shift to larger magnitudes with including the pulse effects.     

Integrating Vulnerability Into Estuarine Conservation Planning: Does the Data Treatment Method Matter?

Protected areas will more efficiently protect biodiversity if threats to the persistence of populations are addressed. Seagrass meadows are globally regarded as critical habitats because of their ecosystem services, human use values, and their diminishing extent. While selecting priority areas for conservation of seagrass meadows is largely aimed at maximizing the protection of their biodiversity, little attention is paid to consider simultaneously the representation of biodiversity and the minimization of threats. This study developed and tested an approach for integrating vulnerability of seagrass meadows to anthropogenic disturbance with the selection of estuarine-protected areas. Vulnerability was measured by data on different land use types in subcatchments. Conservation value was measured by irreplaceability, diversity indices, and rarity of macroinvertebrate species in seagrass meadows. Vulnerability was incorporated into conservation planning by plotting grid cell scores for conservation value versus their scores for vulnerability. The results showed that the performance of the model for the integration of vulnerability into estuarine conservation planning was sensitive to the data treatment. The vulnerability of seagrass meadows and accordingly the arrangement of priority areas for conservation and management attention may change if more information is incorporated into the measurement of vulnerability.     

Application of neural network and ANFIS model for earthquake occurrence in Iran

This study examined the spatial-temporal variations in seismicity parameters for the September 10^th, 2008 Qeshm earthquake in south Iran. To this aim, artificial neural networks and Adaptive Neural Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) were applied. The supervised Radial Basis Function (RBF) network and ANFIS model were implemented because they have shown the efficiency in classification and prediction problems. The eight seismicity parameters were calculated to analyze spatial and temporal seismicity pattern. The data preprocessing that included normalization and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) techniques was led before the data was fed into the RBF network and ANFIS model. Although the accuracy of RBF network and ANFIS model could be evaluated rather similar, the RBF exhibited a higher performance than the ANFIS for prediction of the epicenter area and time of occurrence of the 2008 Qeshm main shock. A proper training on the basis of RBF network and ANFIS model might adopt the physical understanding between seismic data and generate more effective results than conventional prediction approaches. The results of the present study indicated that the RBF neural networks and the ANFIS models could be suitable tools for accurate prediction of epicenteral area as well as time of occurrence of forthcoming strong earthquakes in active seismogenic areas.     

Biodegradation of phenol from a synthetic aqueous system using acclimatized activated sludge

Phenol is one of the aromatic hydrocarbons. Phenol and its derivatives are highly toxic. These pollutants can be observed in the effluents of many industries. This research investigates the removal of phenol by the use of activated sludge in a batch system. The effects of influencing factors on biodegradation efficiency have been evaluated. The main factors considered in this study were the volume of acclimatized activated sludge inoculation, pH, temperature, and initial concentration of phenol. The inoculation volumes of 1, 3, and 5 mL of acclimatized activated sludge were taken into account. Different pH values of 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 were examined. The experiments were conducted for temperatures of 25, 30, 35, and 40 °C and initial phenol concentrations of 400, 800, 1,000, and 1,500 ppm. The results show that the acclimatized activated sludge has a high capacity for the removal of phenol. From a 100-mL aqueous solution was removed 1,500 ppm of phenol after 80 h. Furthermore, maximum phenol removal was observed for an inoculation volume of 5 mL for three different phenol concentrations of 100, 400, and 800 ppm. The best pH was 7 for the biodegradation process, and the optimum temperature was 30 °C. It was further found that an increase in the phenol concentration increased its removal time. Moreover, the activated sludge could effectively remove about 99.9 % of phenol from a synthetic aqueous solution in a batch system.     

Effect of treated municipal wastewater on bean growth, soil chemical properties, and chemical fractions of zinc and copper

The current study was carried out in order to investigate the short-term effect of different dilutions of wastewater on soil chemical properties, chemical fractions of zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu), and to assess the chemical buildup of heavy metal on two bean species. The experiment was performed as factorial based on completely randomized design with different dilutions of wastewater on two bean cultivars in two soil textures. The treatments consisted of irrigation with treated wastewater over all growing season, irrigation with wastewater and freshwater in equal proportions, and irrigation with well water only as control. The result showed that soil parameters are significantly affected by application of wastewater irrigation. Irrigation with wastewater increased the concentrations of organic matter, electrical conductivity, N, K, P, Fe, Cu, Zn, Mn, and Ni in soils compared to the control treatment. However, their values were all below international standards. Application of wastewater decreased soil pH and calcium carbonate equivalent. Plant tissue analysis showed increases in N, P, K, Zn, Cu, Zn, and Mn concentrations in grain and frond of beans in wastewater treatment as compared to the control. The concentrations of all elements in plants were lower than the toxic threshold. Chemical fractionations of Zn and Cu indicated that chemical forms of these metals were affected by irrigation with wastewater. Irrigating with wastewater resulted in the movement of Zn from the labile fractions towards the nonlabile fractions. In turn, mobility factor of Cu increased with application of wastewater. Maximum fresh and dry yields of beans were obtained from wastewater treatment compared to the control treatment. This study indicated that wastewater irrigation improves soil properties, plant growth, and yield without any contamination in soil and toxicity in plants.     

Electron acoustic double layers in a plasma with a <Emphasis Type="Italic">q</Emphasis>-nonextensive electron velocity distribution

Electron-acoustic double-layers (EA-DLs) are addressed in a plasma with a q-nonextensive electron velocity distribution. The domain of their allowable Mach numbers depends drastically on the plasma parameters and, in particular, on the electron nonextensivity. As the electrons evolve far away from their thermodynamic equilibrium, the negative EA-DLs shrinks and may develop into compressive EA-DLs. Our results may be relevant to the double-layers observed both in the auroral region and the plasma sheet of Earth’s magnetosphere (during enhanced magnetic activity). These DLs associated parallel electric fields are thought to be responsible for particle (electrons and ions) acceleration. Furthermore, our theoretical analysis brings a possibility to develop more refined theories of nonlinear cosmic DLs that may occur in astrophysical plasmas.     

Effect of <Emphasis Type="Italic">q</Emphasis>-nonextensive distribution of electrons on ion acoustic shock waves in dissipative plasma

Ion acoustic shock waves (IASWs) are studied in a plasma consisting of nonextensive electrons and ions. The dissipation is taken into account the kinematic viscosity among the plasma constituents. The Korteweg-de Vries-Burgers (KdV-Burgers) equation is derived by reductive perturbation method. Shock waves are solutions of KdV-Burgers equation. It is shown that acceptable values of q-parameter (where q stands for the electron nonextensive parameter) are more than 3 in a weakly nonlinear analysis. We have found that the amplitude of shock waves decreases by an increasing q-parameter.     

Initial orbit determination using multiple observations

A novel approach for initial orbit determination based on multiple angles-only observations is presented. The proposed technique is iterative and uses Lagrangian coefficients, f and g. The proposed method does not show singularity for the coplanar cases. In addition, the method is capable of handling multiple observations, providing higher accuracy, whereas the level of the algorithm complexity and processor running time remain almost invariant. The technique presented is compared with the Double r-iteration and Gauss’ methods using data corrupted by noise to simulate true measurements. Results show that the proposed method is a valid alternative to the classical methods of orbit determination.     

Ion-acoustic shock waves in a plasma with weakly relativistic warm ions, thermal positrons and a background electron nonextensivity

A weakly nonlinear analysis is carried out to derive a Korteweg–de Vries-Burgers-like equation for small, but finite amplitude, ion-acoustic waves in a dissipative plasma consisting of weakly relativistic ions, thermal positrons and nonextensive electrons. The travelling wave solution has been acquired by employing the tangent hyperbolic method. Our results show that in a such plasma, ion-acoustic shock waves, the strength and steepness of which are significantly modified by relativistic, nonextensive and dissipative effects, may exist. Interestingly, we found that because of ion kinematic viscosity, an initial solitonic profile develops into a shock wave. This later evolves towards a monotonic profile (dissipation-dominant case) as the electrons deviate from their Maxwellian equilibrium. Our investigation may help to understand the dissipative structures that may occur in high-energy astrophysical plasmas.     

Assessment of floodplain landuse and channel morphology within meandering reach of the Talar River in Iran using GIS and aerial photographs

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to investigate and monitor the landuse and morphological changes in the floodplain part of the Talar River, northern parts of Iran. In the present study, the aerial photographs have been used to produce landuse maps of the floodplain for three periods including 1968, 1994, and 2013. The quantitative analysis of the produced landuse maps showed that the floodplain has undergone substantial landuse changes. Moreover, the sediment bar and the beach area have been decreased about 97 and 90%, respectively, during the 45-year period. Substantial increases of 192 and 622% have been observed for orchards and residential areas, respectively. On the other hand, not only the forest and riparian vegetation were decreased but also the average width of river was decreased about 25.5 m. In addition, flow length of the study reach increased about 8 m. The RNCI was about ?0.7 m per year indicating sedimentation process. During the period of 1968–2013, Caspian Sea has retreated about 150 m and the delta of Talar River was changed. This study showed that morphological actions during first 26 years (1968–1994) were the stable and last 19 years had the change period, especially sedimentation (bar).