Evaluation of Interpolation Accuracy of Neural Kriging with Application to Temperature-Distribution Analysis

An interpolation method based on a multilayer neural network (MNN), has been examined and tested for the data of irregular sample locations. The main advantage of MNN is in that it can deal with geoscience data with nonlinear behavior and extract characteristics from complex and noisy images. The training of MNN is used to modify connection weights between nodes located in different layers by a simulated annealing algorithm (one of the optimization algorithms of the network). In this process, three types of errors are considered: differences in values, semivariograms, and gradients between sample data and outputs from the trained network. The training is continued until the summation of these errors converges to an acceptably small value. Because the MNN trained by this learning criterion can estimate a value at an arbitrary location, this method is a form of kriging and termed Neural Kriging (NK). In order to evaluate the effectiveness of NK, a problem on restoration ability of a defined reference surface from randomly chosen discrete data was prepared. Two types of surfaces, whose semivariograms are expressed by isotropic spherical and geometric anisotropic gaussian models, were examined in this problem. Though the interpolation accuracy depended on the arrangement pattern of the sample locations for the same number of data, the interpolation errors of NK were shown to be smaller than both those of ordinary MNN and ordinal kriging. NK can also produce a contour map in consideration of gradient constraints. Furthermore, NK was applied to distribution analysis of subsurface temperatures using geothermal investigation loggings of the Hohi area in southwest Japan. In spite of the restricted quantity of sample data, the interpolation results revealed high temperature zones and convection patterns of hydrothermal fluids. NK is regarded as an interpolation method with high accuracy that can be used for regionalized variables with any structure of spatial correlation.     

Elastic properties of a single-crystal forsterite Mg2SiO4, up to 1,200 K

Elastic moduli of forsterite were measured between 300 and 1,200 K (? 1.6 times the Debye temperature) by the Rectangular Parallelepiped Resonance method. All the moduli decrease regularly with temperature. A summary of the results is as follows:

Topographical effects on the distributions of rainfall and 18O distributions: a case in Miyake Island,Japan

In this paper, we try to calculate precipitation in Miyake Island, Japan. In order to know the temporal and spatial variations of precipitation, we have set 15 rain gauges randomly in the island to collect the monthly precipitation data since June 1994. It is found that the precipitation is very different from point to point. First, we used statistical methods to get the correlations between the monthly precipitation at our survey points and that at the weather station. Next, regression analyses were used to establish formulae to calculate precipitation as a function of altitude, aspect of the geomorphological surface and wind direction. Based on these results, distributions of monthly and yearly precipitation and δ¹⁸O over the island were assessed. The results show that landscape patterns strongly influence precipitation distribution over the island, with the highest precipitation being found on the windward side, about 400–600 m above sea level. Even at places at the same altitude, the precipitation was different because of the aspect of the landscape. At the same time, altitude effects for δ¹⁸O on both the windward and leeward sides were −0·10‰/100 m and −0·15‰/100 m, respectively. Comparing with the distribution of precipitation distribution, it was also found that δ¹⁸O for the windward and leeward sides was different from that for precipitation, which means that both topographical effects must be considered separately. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fluctuations in isothermal spheres

Isolated isothermal spheres of N gravitationally interacting points with equal mass are believed to be stable when density contrasts do not exceed 709. That stability limit does not, however, take into consideration fluctuations of temperature near the onset of instability. These are important when N is finite.
Here we correlate global mean quadratic temperature fluctuations with the onset of instability. We show that such fluctuations trigger instability when the density contrast reaches a value near 709×exp(−3.3 N ^−1/3). These lower values of limiting density contrasts are significantly smaller than 709 when N is not very large, and this suggests (i) that numerical calculations with small N may not reflect correctly the onset of core collapse in clusters with large N , and (ii) that a greater number of globular clusters than is normally believed may already be in an advanced stage of core collapse, because most of the observed globular clusters with parameters that fit quasi-isothermal configurations are close to marginal stability.     

Bifurcation current along the southwest coast of the Kii Peninsula

Along the southwest coast of the Kii Peninsula, a bifurcation current is regularly observed. By using ADCP data taken on board the R/V Wakayama of the Wakayama Prefectural Fisheries Experimental Station, characteristics of this bifurcation current are analyzed. The occurrence frequency of the bifurcation current reaches about 70% in the period from 1988 to 1996. The bifurcation point appears to be changeable and occurs almost evenly between Cape Ichie and Cape Shionomisaki. The current divergence in the alongshore direction was also investigated. Positive divergence values dominated in the whole analyzed area, and an onshore current appears to be dominant along the southwest coast of the Kii Peninsula, except in 1990 when the Kuroshio flowed in a large meandering path.     

The causes of forest cover loss in the hill forests in Bangladesh

The Hill Forests in Bangladesh have been depleted and degraded in volume, area, and quantity, thus requiring urgent forest protection by identifying the causes of forest loss. This study seeks to identify the fundamental causes of the shrinking forest cover in the Hill Forests in Bangladesh. The results indicate four sets of causes: (i) indigenous forest dwellers, having their own types of problems; (ii) migrants, who, because of problems in their places of origin, have decided to move to the forests; (iii) the timber industry, which, legal or not, are cutting too many trees; and (iv) the government through its Forest Department which is not able or willing to implement suitable policies to regulate the cutting trees and to prevent illegal cutting. Because it is a time consuming task to mitigate the first and second sets of factors, we recommend to involve forest dwellers in forestry practices as much as possible and taking necessary steps to alleviate the third and fourth sets and thereby reduce the rate of forest depletion. Accordingly, a number of strategies that should be adopted to halt the loss of remaining forest cover are discussed. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Nickel–bearing Djerfisherite in Gehlenite-Spurrite Skarn at Kushiro, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan

Abstract: Djerfisherite occurs intimately intergrown with troilite and pentlandite in gehlenite-spurrite skarn at Kushiro, mainly as inclusions in gehlenite and andradite grains. The mode of occurrence indicates that the djerfisherite formed in the culminated stage of the contact metamorphic-metasomatic process. The chemical compositions of the mineral are approximately represented by a formula of K₆Na(Fe, Ni, Cu)₂₄S₂₆Cl with Ni up to 4. 85. It is likely that high temperature condition corresponding to the formation of gehlenite-spurrite skarn as well as low f_O2 and f_S2 conditions are responsible for the formation of djerfisherite in the potassium-rich chemical environments.     

Diffuse bifurcations engraving diverse shear bands in granular materials

Shear bands with characteristic spatial patterns observed in an experiment for a cubic or parallelepiped specimen of dry dense sand were simulated by numerical bifurcation analysis using the Cam‐clay plasticity model. By incorporating the subloading surface concept into the plasticity model, the model became capable of reproducing hardening/softening and contractive/dilative behavior observed in the experiment. The model was reformulated to be compatible with the multiplicative hyperelasto‐plasticity for finite strains. This enhanced constitutive model was implemented into a finite‐element code reinforced by a stress updating algorithm based on the return‐mapping scheme, and by an efficient numerical procedure to compute critical eigenvectors of elastoplastic tangent stiffness matrix at bifurcation points. The emergence of diamond‐ and column‐like diffuse bifurcation modes breaking uniformity of the materials, followed by the evolution of shear bands through strain localization, was observed in the analysis. In the bifurcation analysis of plane strain compression test, unexpected bifurcation modes, which broke out‐of‐plane uniformity and led to 3‐dimensional diamond‐like patterns, were detected. Diffuse bifurcations, which were difficult to observe by experiments, have thus been found as a catalyst creating diverse shear band patterns.     

Impact of mesoscale eddies on particulate organic carbon flux in the western subarctic North Pacific

The mechanism that controls particulate organic carbon (POC) flux in the deep sea differs depending on the season and sea. The POC produced in the western subarctic North Pacific are known to be transported to the deep sea efficiently, but the direct relationship between the POC flux and physical processes is still unclear. In this study, we evaluated the effect of mesoscale eddies on POC flux in the western subarctic North Pacific. The seasonal and interannual variabilities of POC flux were investigated using data from a time-series sediment trap deployed at 4810 m at station K2 (47°N, 160°E) from 2005 to 2018. POC flux was high during May–November, appearing to reflect spring and fall blooms at the ocean surface. POC flux also showed interannual variability, with twelve peaks that were mostly affected by enhanced bloom just before the peak. Nine peaks of the twelve peaks were affected by mesoscale eddies, which enhanced bloom around K2 by extending the area with a high chlorophyll-a concentration along the coastal region into the offshore region, suggesting that mesoscale eddies strongly impact the interannual variability of POC flux at K2.