Modelling of intact and jointed mudstone samples under uniaxial and triaxial compression

Rock mass is a highly complex entity where the strength and deformation behaviour can be significantly affected by its secondary structures such as joints, fissures and bedding planes. Whilst many research works have been conducted to study the behaviour of a specific rock mass, a thorough understanding of its strength and deformation behaviour incorporating different joint sets has not been established. In this study, a comprehensive numerical modelling using a three-dimensional distinct element code, 3DEC, was undertaken to study the strength and deformation behaviour of a mudstone, locally found in Melbourne, in unconfined and confined states. The initial unconfined model established for intact mudstone was calibrated against the well-established laboratory-based empirical strength relationships and subsequently compared with some strength test data available for field samples. The intact unconfined model was then extended to study the strength behaviour in the confined state. The results obtained from this confined intact model were compared with existing strength criteria and were found in good agreement. The confined model was extended further to investigate the effects of joint sets and dip angles on the rock mass strength and deformation behaviour by incorporating two different joint configurations (one-joint and two-joint) with varying dip angles (0°–90°). This study found that the rock mass strength in a confined state varied significantly between the two joint configurations.     

Long-Term Trends in Pre-Summer Daytime and Nocturnal Extreme Hourly Rainfall in a Coastal City of South China

The long-term trends in the occurrence frequency of pre-summer daytime and nocturnal extreme hourly rainfall(EXHR) during 1988-2018 in Hong Kong and their spatial distributions are examined and analyzed. Despite a significant increasing trend observed in the occurrence frequency of pre-summer EXHRs during the investigated period,the increase in daytime and nocturnal EXHRs show distinct spatial patterns. Nocturnal EXHRs show uniform increasing trends over the entire Hong Kong. However, the increa...     

Radiometric normalization of overlapping LiDAR intensity data for reduction of striping noise

Airborne LiDAR data are usually collected with partially overlapping strips in order to serve a seamless and fine resolution mapping purpose. One of the factors limiting the use of intensity data is the presence of striping noise found in the overlapping region. Though recent researches have proposed physical and empirical approaches for intensity data correction, the effect of striping noise has not yet been resolved. This paper presents a radiometric normalization technique to normalize the intensity data from one data strip to another one with partial overlap. The normalization technique is built based on a second-order polynomial function fitted on the joint histogram plot, which is generated with a set of pairwise closest data points identified within the overlapping region. The proposed method was tested with two individual LiDAR datasets collected by Teledyne Optech's Gemini (1064?nm) and Orion (1550?nm) sensors. The experimental results showed that radiometric correction and normalization can significantly reduce the striping noise found in the overlapping LiDAR intensity data and improve its capability in land cover classification. The coefficient of variation of five selected land cover features was reduced by 19–65%, where a 9–18% accuracy improvement was achieved in different classification scenarios. With the proven capability of the proposed method, both radiometric correction and normalization should be applied as a pre-processing step before performing any surface classification and object recognition.     

泥沙运动引起的环境问题及环境泥沙学

从两个方面,即水环境中的泥沙问题和泥沙运动引起的环境问题出发,说明了环境中泥沙问题的普遍性,指出了结合泥沙运动研究环境问题和结合环境科学研究泥沙问题的重要性和必要性,并将这方面的工作概括为“环境泥沙学”.它研究受泥沙运动影响的污染物(包括泥沙颗粒本身)在环境中的迁移转化规律、控制及其应用,其核心是将水利工程科学主要是水力学、泥沙运动力学和环境科学的某些学科,如环境化学、环境地球化学等结合起来,研究与泥沙运动有关的环境问题,并对其研究内容和方法进行了探讨.这方面工作的深入,必然推动环境科学的加快发展,在某种程度上,也将推动泥沙科学的向前发展和丰富泥沙科学的研究内容.     

Cloning and developmental expression of kinesin superfamily7 (kif7) in the brackish medaka (Oryzias melastigma), a close relative of the Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes)

kif7 is a member of the kinesin superfamily members which are molecular motor proteins that move along microtubules in a highly regulated manner through ATP hydrolysis. In this paper, we report on the cloning of the Oryzias melastigma kif7 (omkif7) using primers designed according to the Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes) database. The cloned omkif7 has an open reading frame of 3762bp and is deduced to encode a polypeptide of 1254 amino acids that possesses the putative ATP-binding and microtubule-binding motifs in its motor domain at the N-terminal region. We characterized the cloned omkif7 by comparison with the zebrafish kif7. Both omkif7 and zebrafish kif7 are shown to be expressed in all embryonic stages and adult tissues examined with higher expression level in the testis and ovary. Whole-mount in situ hybridization revealed that the expression of omkif7 is ubiquitous during the early stages of embryonic development, but became more restrictive and localized to the brain, fin bud and eye at later development. This study suggested that the brackish O.melastigma can serve as a good seawater model organism for developmental studies by utilizing the resources developed from its close relative of the Japanese medaka.     

Refraction and diffraction of random waves through breakwater

A physical model study of combined refraction and diffraction of waves through a breakwater gap at different incident angles was conducted. Both regular and random waves with narrow and broad frequency and direction spreading were studied. Besides the presence of a mild bottom slope in the lee of the breakwater, the distribution of wave heights across the width of a navigation channel inside the model harbor was also simulated. In addition to contributing to an understanding of the phenomenon of refraction and diffraction of random waves, the relatively complete set of data obtained can serve as a benchmark for testing of numerical models.     

Temporally stable patterns but seasonal dependent controls of soil water content: Evidence from wavelet analyses

Scale‐ and location‐dependent relationships between soil water content (SWC) and individual environmental factors have been widely explored. SWC is controlled by multiple factors concurrently; however, the multivariate relationship is rarely explored at different scales and locations. Multivariate controls of SWC at different scales and locations in two seasons within a hummocky landscape of North America were identified using bivariate wavelet coherency and multiple wavelet coherence. Results showed that depth to CaCO₃ layer, which was correlated with elevation over all locations at scales of 36–144 m and cos(aspect), provided the best individual factor for explaining SWC variations in spring (May 2) and summer (August 23), respectively. Although spatial patterns of SWC were temporally stable, different topographic indices affected spatial distribution of SWC in different seasons (elevation in spring and aspect in summer) due to different dominating hydrological processes. These varying hydrological processes also resulted in the distinct role of soil organic carbon (SOC) content in different seasons: a positive correlation in spring and a negative correlation in summer. Multiple wavelet coherence identified a combination of depth to CaCO₃ layer and SOC in spring and a combination of cos(aspect) and SOC in summer that controlled SWC at different scales and locations, respectively. This indicated a combined effect of soil and topographic properties on SWC distribution and a clear need for these two factors in developing scale‐dependent prediction of SWC in the hummocky landscape of North America.