Fracture induced emission of alkali atoms from feldspar

Emission of neutral atoms (K and Na) and molecules (H₂O and KOH) observed during fracture of K-feldspar have been accounted for by two independent mechanisms. H₂O and KOH emissions are attributed to the venting of fluid-filled inclusions, while emission of atomic K is due to surface effects accompanying cleavage of crystalline feldspar. The intensity of emitted potassium, at least 6 × 10¹⁴ atoms/cm² of surface area, is sufficient to affect K activities in solution during microbrecciation in the presence of rock-dominated fluids.     

Deflection of the vertical and refraction in three-dimensional adjustment of terrestrial networks

Summary In this paper statistical tests are exploited in order to verify the hypotheses about the refraction and the deflection of the vertical pertaining to a geometrical model for the three-dimensional adjustment of terrestrial networks. The deflections of the vertical and the refraction coefficients can be assumed either as unknowns or fixed input data, at some or all the points of the network. The geometrical model, reported in the appendix for convenience, assumes as observables the slant distances, zenith and horizontal angles, without any reduction neither to the marks on the ground nor to the surface of reference. Further, the observation equations are derived and linearized in terms of Cartesian coordinates in Geocentric or Topocentric system; direction cosines of the vertical and of the ellipsoidal normal are adopted as the relevant direction parameters. Finally, an application to a network from Hradilek (1984), performed under different assumptions about the unknowns and the corrections of the angular observations due to the deflections of the vertical, shows the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Search for Spatial Variability in the Solar Acoustic Spectrum

Motivated by the various examples of spatial variability in the power of the acoustic spectrum, we attempted to look for spatial variability in the peak frequency of the spectrum. However, the determination of this peak frequency on a spatial scale of a single pixel (8 arc sec for the GONG data) is limited by the stochastic variations in the power spectrum presumably caused by the stochastic nature of the excitation process. Averaging over a large number of spectra (100 spectra from a 10 × 10 pixel area) produced stabler spectra. The peak frequencies of 130 such locations were found to be distributed with a FWHM of about 130 Hz. A map of the spatial variation of this peak frequency did not show any strong feature with statistically significant deviation from the mean of the distribution. Likewise, the scatter in the peak frequencies masked the detection of magnetic-field-induced changes in the peak frequency. On a much larger scale, the N latitudes showed a slightly lower value of the peak frequency as compared to the S latitudes, although the difference (25 Hz) is barely larger than the r.m.s. spread (20 Hz).     

Deriving rules from activity diary data: A learning algorithm and results of computer experiments

 Activity-based models consider travel as a derived demand from the activities households need to conduct in space and time. Over the last 15 years, computational or rule-based models of activity scheduling have gained increasing interest in time-geography and transportation research. This paper argues that a lack of techniques for deriving rules from empirical data hinders the further development of rule-based systems in this area. To overcome this problem, this paper develops and tests an algorithm for inductively deriving rules from activity-diary data. The decision table formalism is used to exhaustively represent the theoretically possible decision rules that individuals may use in sequencing a given set of activities. Actual activity patterns of individuals are supplied to the system as examples. In an incremental learning process, the system progressively improves on the selection of rules used for reproducing the examples. Computer experiments based on simulated data are performed to fine-tune rule selection and rule value update functions. The results suggest that the system is effective and fairly robust for parameter settings. It is concluded, therefore, that the proposed approach opens up possibilities to derive empirically tested rule-based models of activity scheduling. Follow-up research will be concerned with testing the system on empirical data. Received: 31 January 2001 / Accepted: 13 September 2001