Social capital, community based management, and fishers’ livelihood in Bangladesh

This paper examines the impact of Community Based Fisheries Management (CBFM) on fishing households’ welfare in Bangladesh. It analyses how the various types of livelihood assets contribute to fishers’ household incomes. The study found that fishers in CBFM project areas have improved their access to different assets including social, human, physical, financial and natural capitals. The regression results show that social capital contributed significantly to household income, indicating that social factors play very important roles in poverty alleviation in Bangladesh. Future poverty alleviation policy options need to give priority to investments in human, physical and natural capital assets.     

High temporal and spatial resolution observations of meso-scale features of pre- and mature summer monsoon cloud systems over Bangladesh

Meso-scale characteristics of disturbances that bring about atmospheric disasters in pre- and mature monsoon seasons in Bangladesh are analyzed. Several types of meteorological instruments capable of observations with high temporal and spatial resolutions were introduced for the first time in this area to capture the meso-scale structure of rainfall systems. We installed an automatic weather station (AWS) and several automatic raingauges (ARGs) and utilized the weather radar of Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD). From the radar image in the summer of 2001 (16–18 July), a striking feature of the systematic diurnal variation in this area was elucidated. In these 3 days, the diurnal evolutions of convective activity were remarkably similar to each other, implying that this pattern can be understood as a typical response of local cloud systems to the diurnal variation of insolation under some summer monsoon situations. The ARG data show the difference in characteristics of rainfall between pre- and mature monsoon seasons. The short intense downpour tends to occur more frequently in the pre-monsoon season than in the mature monsoon season. The pre-monsoon rainfall also has clear diurnal variation with a peak that is more strongly concentrated in time. In the northern part the rainfall peak is found in between midnight and early morning, while it is observed in the daytime in central to western parts of the country. Two disaster cases caused by meso-scale disturbances are analyzed. Although they occurred in the same season, the structures of the cloud systems were largely different from each other. The disturbance brought about tornadoes on 14 April 2004, consisting of many spherical cloud systems of approximately 20 km size. On the other hand, another one that caused the tragic river water transport accident on 23 May 2004 had meso-scale rain band structure. The latter case was captured by the AWS located at Dhaka. Sudden changes in temperature, wind and pressure were observed clearly, showing the typical structure of convective rain bands.     

Ore minerals and geochemical characterization of the Dungash gold deposit,South Eastern Desert,Egypt

The Dungash historic gold mine is located in the South Eastern Desert of Egypt. The gold-bearing quartz veins are hosted by the metavolcanic and metavolcaniclastic rocks along an ENE–WSW trending shear zone. Alteration types recorded in the wall rocks are sericitization, silicification, carbonatization, chloritization, sulfidization, ferruginization, and listwanitization. The ore mineral assemblage comprises arsenopyrite, pyrite, native gold, pyrrhotite, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, and galena. The primary sulfide mineral assemblage formed during a hypogene hydrothermal stage whereas anglesite and goethite occur as secondary supergene phases. Microthermometric fluid inclusion analysis revealed that the auriferous quartz precipitated from a moderately saline (5 to 11.22 wt% NaCl_equiv) solution at temperatures above the recorded homogenization temperatures (T _h), which range from 380 to 177 °C. The minimum pressures of trapping are between 350 and 400 bars. The fluid evolution during mineralization is explained by mixing of a magmatic fluid with meteoric waters. Initially, the high temperature and moderately saline magmatic fluid dominated and progressively became diluted with meteoric waters. Highest gold content is recorded in the carbonatized zone and the quartz veins. However, gold content in the carbonatized zone of the footwall exceeds several times its content in the quartz veins and the carbonatized zone of the hanging wall.     

Error distribution modelling of satellite soil moisture measurements for hydrological applications

Satellite‐based soil moisture data accuracies are of important concerns by hydrologists because they could significantly influence hydrological modelling uncertainty. Without proper quantification of their uncertainties, it is difficult to optimize the hydrological modelling system and make robust decisions. Currently, the satellite soil moisture data uncertainty has been limited to summary statistics with the validations mainly from the in situ measurements. This study attempts to build the first error distribution model with additional higher‐order uncertainty modelling for satellite soil moisture observations. The methodology is demonstrated by a case study using the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity satellite soil moisture observations. The validation is based on soil moisture estimates from hydrological modelling, which is more relevant to the intended data use than the in situ measurements. Four probability distributions have been explored to find suitable error distribution curves using the statistical tests and bootstrapping resampling technique. General extreme value is identified as the most suitable one among all the curves. The error distribution model is still in its infant stage, which ignores spatial and temporal correlations, and nonstationarity. Further improvements should be carried out by the hydrological community by expanding the methodology to a wide range of satellite soil moisture data using different hydrological models. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Advanced performance in geotechnical engineering using tomography analysis

This paper presents the technique to demonstrate reliable two-dimensional (2-D) tomography of near-surface soil through multichannel analysis of surface wave (MASW) method. The MASW method is used as seismic method for determining the shear wave velocity profile of near-surface soil with better performance. Normally, this method represents one-dimensional (1-D) soil layer profile to delineate anomalous subsurface materials and detect soil characteristics in geotechnical investigations. Conventionally, the MASW method is able to represent depth corresponding shear wave velocity through 1-D representation. In this paper, this method is improved through representation of depth and distance versus shear wave velocity profile using 2-D tomography analysis in geotechnical investigations. The outcomes of the newly developed method are more reliable and informative in comparison to the outcome of the conventional MASW method. The significance of this research is incorporating advanced tomography technique with MASW method to obtain 2-D tomography of geotechnical characteristics with consistency.     

Modelling gravel transport and morphology for the Fraser River Gravel Reach, British Columbia

A two-dimensional (2D) numerical hydrodynamic-morphological model is developed to investigate gravel transport and channel morphology in a large wandering gravel-bed river, the Fraser River Gravel Reach, in British Columbia, Canada. The model takes into count multi-fraction bedload transport, including the effects of surface coarsening, hiding and protrusion. Model outputs together with river discharge statistics were analyzed, producing distributed sediment budget and well-defined, localised zones of aggradation and degradation along the gravel reach. Long-term channel response to gravel extraction from aggrading zones as a flood hazard mitigation measure was also investigated numerically to assess the effectiveness of such an extraction. The total computed sediment budget agrees well with results based on field measurements of gravel transport available to us. This study points to the importance of a number of factors to bedload predictions: the gravel-to-sand ratio, the adequacy of resolving the wandering planform, and the distinction between bed shear stress driving bedload transport and bed resistance on the flow. These are in addition to the physical processes governing the flow field and gravel mobilization. The methodology presented in this paper can provide a scientific basis for gravel management including monitoring and extraction in order to maintain adequate flood protection and navigation, while preserving the ecosystem.     

Heterogeneity analysis of reservoir porosity and permeability in the Late Ordovician glacio-fluvial Sarah Formation paleovalleys,central Saudi Arabia

The Late Ordovician glacio-fluvial Sarah Formation is an important tight gas reservoir target in Saudi Arabia. This study uses statistical methods to characterize the petrophysical heterogeneity of the paleovalleys of the Sarah Formation that crop out in central Saudi Arabia. Four paleovalleys were studied: Bukayriyah, Hanadir, Sarah, and Khanasir Sarah. Several lithofacies were identified in each that vary in texture, porosity, permeability, and facies abundance that reflect periods of ice advance and retreat. The heterogeneity analysis is based on three statistical measures, namely, the coefficient of variation, the Dykstra-Parsons coefficient, and the Lorenz coefficient. The coefficient of variation values is in the 0.62–1.94 range, indicating an extremely heterogeneous distribution. The Dykstra-Parsons coefficient values are in the 0.56–0.88 range, suggesting very high to extremely high heterogeneity in the reservoirs. The Lorenz coefficient correlates well with the Dykstra-Parsons coefficient for paleovalleys of the Sarah Formation. The heterogeneity parameters studied here indicate that the outcrops of Sarah Formation paleovalleys represent heterogeneous to very heterogeneous reservoirs, which may be attributed to complex depositional and diagenetic variations that have affected the porosity and permeability distribution.     

Error minimization of polynomial approximation of Delta T

The difference between Universal time (UT) and Dynamical time (TD), known as Delta T (ΔT) is tabulated for the first day of each year in the Astronomical Almanac. During the last four centuries it is found that there are large differences between its values for two consecutive years. Polynomial approximations have been developed to obtain the values of ΔT for any time of a year for the period AD 1620 to AD 2000 (Meeu 2000) as no dynamical theories describe the variations in ΔT. In this work, a new set of polynomials for ΔT is obtained for the period AD 1620 to AD 2007 that is found to produce better results compared to previous attempts.     

Wormholes supported by two non-interacting fluids

We provide a new matter source that supplies fuel to construct wormhole spacetime. The exact wormhole solutions are found in the model having, besides real matter, an anisotropic dark energy. We have shown that the exotic matters that are the necessary ingredients for wormhole physics violate null and weak energy conditions but obey strong energy condition marginally. Though the wormhole comprises of exotic matters yet the effective mass remains positive. We have calculated the effective mass of the wormhole up to 8 km from the throat (assuming throat radius as 4 km) as 1.3559M _⊙. Some physical features are briefly discussed.     

Analysis of radio astronomy bands using CALLISTO spectrometer at Malaysia-UKM station

The e-CALLISTO system is a worldwide network that aims to observe solar radio emission for astronomical science. CALLISTO instruments have been deployed worldwide in various locations that together can provide continuous observation of the solar radio spectrum for 24 h per day year-round. Malaysia-UKM is a strategic equatorial location and can observe the Sun 12 h per day. This paper gives an overview of the spectrum allocation for radio astronomy, which falls in the specified operating frequency band of the CALLISTO spectrometer. The radio astronomy bands are analyzed at the Malaysia-UKM station according to the International Telecommunication Union recommendations. Some observational results are also presented in this paper.