Housing Foreclosure as A Geographically Contingent Event: Columbus Ohio 2003–2007

This article seeks to better understand geographic manifestations of housing foreclosure, moving beyond the usual portrayal that highlights, e.g., race/ethnicity and income. We depart from the usual analytical strategy which centers on factors that subsume high proportions of variance. Instead, this is the starting point for considering constellations and idiosyncratic but formative characteristics—contingencies—that further understanding of, e.g., why two households with identical attributes experience different outcomes. Empirical focus is on Columbus Ohio, 2003–2007. Regression analysis identifies central tendencies, followed by regression tree procedures that reveal variable combinations which alter correlational expectations. Unique areas are examined by neighborhood reconnaissance, exploratory data analysis, interviews, and archival research. Relevant factors include race/ethnicity and socio-economic characteristics. Beyond that, differing variable combinations lead to different outcomes, as do processes such as neighborhood life cycle, institutional actions/involvement, and year of home purchase/construction relative to housing de/inflation and mortgage market characteristics.     

二次离子质谱第四纪锆石年代学:台湾金瓜石英安岩定年

高精度第四纪年代学是第四纪研究的基础,对了解地球演化和发展非常关键。大型二次离子质谱(SIMS)锆石U-Th-Pb定年方法,集高空间分辨率、高精度、高效率和近无损分析等优势于一体,可以提取矿物微区中记录的丰富地质信息,在第四纪年代学研究中具有很大的应用潜力。文中对SIMS第四纪锆石原位微区年龄测定的基本原理、分析校正方法进行介绍,并报道我们测定台湾第四纪金瓜石英安岩锆石U-Pb年龄的结果((1.166±0.020)Ma)。     

How much does dry‐season fog matter? Quantifying fog contributions to water balance in a coastal California watershed

The seasonally‐dry climate of Northern California imposes significant water stress on ecosystems and water resources during the dry summer months. Frequently during summer, the only water inputs occur as non‐rainfall water, in the form of fog and dew. However, due to spatially heterogeneous fog interaction within a watershed, estimating fog water fluxes to understand watershed‐scale hydrologic effects remains challenging. In this study, we characterized the role of coastal fog, a dominant feature of Northern Californian coastal ecosystems, in a San Francisco Peninsula watershed. To monitor fog occurrence, intensity, and spatial extent, we focused on the mechanisms through which fog can affect the water balance: throughfall following canopy interception of fog, soil moisture, streamflow, and meteorological variables. A stratified sampling design was used to capture the watershed's spatial heterogeneities in relation to fog events. We developed a novel spatial averaging scheme to upscale local observations of throughfall inputs and evapotranspiration suppression and make watershed‐scale estimates of fog water fluxes. Inputs from fog water throughfall (10–30 mm/year) and fog suppression of evapotranspiration (125 mm/year) reduced dry‐season water deficits by 25% at watershed scales. Evapotranspiration suppression was much more important for this reduction in water deficit than were direct inputs of fog water. The new upscaling scheme was analyzed to explore the sensitivity of its results to the methodology (data type and interpolation method) employed. This evaluation suggests that our combination of sensors and remote sensing allows an improved incorporation of spatially‐averaged fog fluxes into the water balance than traditional interpolation approaches.     

Adaptive methods to solve free boundary problems of flow through porous media

Grid adaptive methods combined with domain adaptation are discussed for two-dimensional seepage flow problems with free boundaries through porous media. Examples of grid and domain adaptive methods are presented to demonstrate several ways to predict grids and shapes of free boundaries using an iterative scheme. Finally, the combined adaptive methods are applied to obtain smooth non-oscillatory shape of a free boundary of seepage flow through non-homogeneous porous media.     

Spatial and Temporal Scale Variations of Sea Surface Temperature in the East Sea Using NOAA/AVHRR Data

Sea surface temperature fields in the East Sea are composed of various spatial structures such as eddies, fronts, filaments, turbulent-like features and other mesoscale variations associated with the oceanic circulations of the East Sea. These complex SST structures have many spatial scales and evole with time. Semi-monthly averaged SST distributions based on extensive satellite observations of SSTs from 1990 through 1995 were constructed to examine the characteristics of their spatial and temporal scale variations by using statistical methods of multi-dimensional autocorrelation functions and spectral analysis. Two-dimensional autocorrelation functions in the central part of the East Sea revealed that most of the spatial SST structures are anisotropic in the shape of ellipsoids with minor axes of about 90–290 km and major axes of 100–400 km. Two dimensional spatial scale analysis demonstrated a consistent pattern of seasonal variation that the scales appear small in winter and spring, increase gradually to summer, and then decrease again until the spring of the next year. These structures also show great spatial inhomogeneity and rapid temporal change on time scales as short as a semi-month in some cases. The slopes in spectral energy density spectra of SSTs show characteristics quite similar to horizontal and geostrophic turbulence. Temporal spectra at each latitude are demonstrated by predominant peaks of one and two cycles per year in all regions of the East Sea, implying that SSTs present very strong annual and semi-annual variations. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The relationship among meteorological,agricultural, and in situ news-generated big data on droughts

Natural Hazards - The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of agricultural drought risk management using news media data (NMD) by elucidating the relationships among the...     

Storm surge prediction with management information systems: A case study of estimating value and observations system

A natural disaster is a major adverse event resulting from the earth’s natural forces. We can now take advantage of information technology (IT) devices to make migration decisions and hazard analysis. The range of IT applications is very wide, and could include robot manufacturing, remote exploration, fuzzy Lyapunov techniques, artificial intelligence, intelligent devices, tension leg platform design, consumer and service quality, and management information systems. Management information systems are especially helpful to medical personnel when carrying out the treatment and medication of patients. Sometimes, though, hospital staff might not have immediate access to a patient’s records such as response to treatments, medication status, or examination results because the computer equipment is not easily portable. In such situations, it is only possible to keep written records, with the data being cataloged or referred to only after returning to the nursing station or office. If the hospital could implement a computerized medical service cart for use in the wards, the above problems would be solved. These computers could use a wireless network system, linked with the central server to access information. The technology now exists and the era of the smart phone has now been entered. Smart phones/tablet PCs could be applied for clinical medical care. For the elderly and patients with chronic diseases, smart health devices designed for home care service are necessary and should be applied as soon as possible. This study designs a wireless physiology signal monitoring system that uses a smart phone with a wireless network apparatus to provide convenient monitoring for patients in the home care service system. The wireless care system is designed for patients who need long-term home care services or assistance with chronic diseases. This paper provides important suggestions to develop ways to connect patients to medical care institutions through the internet.     

Increases of wet deposition at remote sites in Japan from 1991 to 2009

Temporal trends in wet deposition of major ions were explored at nationwide remote sites in Japan from April 1991 to March 2009 by using the seasonal Kendall slope estimator and the nonparametric seasonal Kendall test. For the trend analysis, datasets from eight remote sites (Rishiri, Echizenmisaki, Oki, Ogasawara, Shionomisaki, Goto, Yakushima, and Amami) were selected from the Japanese Acid Deposition Survey (JADS) conducted by the Ministry of the Environment. Deposition of H⁺ has been increasing at remote sites in Japan on a national scale. Significant (p????0.05) increases in H⁺ deposition were detected with changes of +3?C+9?%?year^?1 at seven sites, while insignificant increases were observed at one site. Depositions of non-sea salt (nss)-SO ₄ ^2? and NO ₃ ^? significantly increased at four and six sites, respectively, with changes of +1?C+3?%?year^?1. Significant increases in precipitation at four sites would have contributed to the increase in depositions of H⁺, nss-SO ₄ ^2? , and NO ₃ ^? . The emission trends of SO₂ and NO_x did not corresponded to the deposition trends of nss-SO ₄ ^2? and NO ₃ ^? . The different trends indicated that temporal variation of precipitation amount trend dominated the deposition trends.     

Variation and uncertainty in the predicted flowering dates of cherry blossoms using the CMIP5 climate change scenario

In this study, we analyzed changes in the predicted flowering date (PFD) for cherry blossom trees under changing climate conditions by simulating the PFDs for six sites on the Korean Peninsula between 1981 and 2010. The spatial downscaled climate data from the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) 8.5 scenarios of 30 global climate models (GCMs) were used in the analysis. Here, we present the range of uncertainty in the PFDs, which were calculated by comparing the simulated PFDs to the observed flowering dates. We determined that the root-mean-square errors (RMSEs) of PFDs from individual GCMs, at 7-15 days, were greater in range than those of the mean PFDs from multiple GCMs, at 7-8 days. During three future periods of 2011-2040, 2041-2070, and 2071-2100, the standard deviations (SD), the interquartile ranges (IQRs), and the relative changes in the mean predicted flowering dates (MPFDs) were calculated to quantify the uncertainty levels inherent from the climate scenarios of multiple GCMs. Distinctive changes in the SDs and IQRs of MPFD were found among the analyzed sites. The SDs increased with time between each future period in Seoul, Incheon, and Jeonju, whereas those in Daegu, Busan, and Mokpo decreased with time. In addition, the IQRs increased with time at Seoul, Incheon, Jeonju, and Daegu but not at Busan and Mokpo. The relative changes in the MPFDs at all six sites became greater with time toward the year 2100. Therefore, combining multiple GCM scenarios may not contribute largely to reduce the uncertainty in the PFDs under changing climate conditions, although it may be useful in quantifying the uncertainty in order to make better decisions based on more accurate information.