Finite element analysis of excavation

The finite element method has often been used to simulate excavation. When the soil is linearly elastic, the results of excavation should be independent of the number of stages in the excavation process, and lack of such independence indicates an incorrect procedure. The simple direct method described in this paper provides the required independence in the case of linearly elastic materials, and hence can be used for multi-stage excavation in non-linear problems without excessive errors. However methods whose errors increase with the number of stages of excavation are quite unsuitable for non-linear problems. Alternative methods of analysis, errors arising from the inability of the elements to model adequately the stress gradients near the toe of the excavation and excavation adjacent to a diaphragm wall are discussed.     

The expression of CYP1A,vitellogenin and zona radiata proteins in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) after oral dosing with two commercial PBDE flame retardant mixtures: absence of short-term responses

The short-term effects of the commercial PBDE flame retardant mixtures Penta-BDE and cta-BDE on the expression of cytochrome P450 1A (CYP1A), vitellogenin (Vtg) and zona radiata proteins (Zrp) were investigated in juvenile salmon (Salmo salar). For this purpose, groups of fish were dosed twice (oral intake at days I and 4) with 10 and 50 mg/kg body weight of both commercial mixtures. The fishes were sacrificed at day 7 (n = 5 for each group) and 14 (n = 6 for each group), and blood, liver, fillet, and brain were collected. Blanks and positive controls were also part of the experiment. The expressions of Vtg, Zrp, and CYPIA were measured with several techniques (EROD, ELISA, Western, Northern and Slot Blot). The values in the groups of fish treated with Penta-BDE or Octa-BDE did not significantly differ from the reference group for any of the parameters tested. In contrast, the positive control groups treated with estradiol-17beta for Vtg and Zrp expression, and beta-naphthoflavone for CYP1A expression did show a significant response, indicating the potential sensitivity of the fishes for the parameters measured. Since the results of the chemical analyses showed concentrations of a number of PBDE congeners in liver, fillet, and brain that were about three orders of magnitude above those of fish from the North Sea, it is concluded that the short-term toxicity of both commercial PBDE mixtures for these endpoints was low.     

GGM02 – An improved Earth gravity field model from GRACE

A new generation of Earth gravity field models called GGM02 are derived using approximately 14 months of data spanning from April 2002 to December 2003 from the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE). Relative to the preceding generation, GGM01, there have been improvements to the data products, the gravity estimation methods and the background models. Based on the calibrated covariances, GGM02 (both the GRACE-only model GGM02S and the combination model GGM02C) represents an improvement greater than a factor of two over the previous GGM01 models. Error estimates indicate a cumulative error less than 1 cm geoid height to spherical harmonic degree 70, which can be said to have met the GRACE minimum mission goals. Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at     

A scenario of European climate change for the late twenty-first century: seasonal means and interannual variability

A scenario of European climate change for the late twenty-first century is described, using a high-resolution state-of-the-art model. A time-slice approach is used, whereby the atmospheric general circulation model, HadAM3P, was integrated for two periods, 1960–1990 and 2070–2100, using the SRES A2 scenario. For the first time an ensemble of such experiments was produced, along with appropriate statistical tests for assessing significance. The focus is on changes to the statistics of seasonal means, and includes analysis of both multi-year means and interannual variance. All four seasons are assessed, and anomalies are mapped for surface air temperature, precipitation and snow mass. Mechanisms are proposed where these are dominated by straightforward local processes. In winter, the largest warming occurs over eastern Europe, up to 7°C, mean snow mass is reduced by at least 80% except over Scandinavia, and precipitation increases over all but the southernmost parts of Europe. In summer, temperatures rise by 6–9°C south of about 50°N, and mean rainfall is substantially reduced over the same area. In spring and autumn, anomalies tend to be weaker, but often display patterns similar to the preceding season, reflecting the inertia of the land surface component of the climate system. Changes in interannual variance are substantial in the solsticial seasons for many regions (note that for precipitation, variance estimates are scaled by the square of the mean). In winter, interannual variability of near-surface air temperature is considerably reduced over much of Europe, and the relative variability of precipitation is reduced north of about 50°N. In summer, the (relative) interannual variance of both variables increases over much of the continent.     

Cluster analysis of Southeastern U.S. climate stations

Summary A two-step cluster analysis of 449 Southeastern climate stations is used to objectively determine general climate clusters (groups of climate stations) for eight southeastern states. The purpose is objectively to define regions of climatic homogeneity that should perform more robustly in subsequent climatic impact models. This type of analysis has been successfully used in many related climate research problems including the determination of corn/climate districts in Iowa (Ortiz-Valdez, 1985) and the classification of synoptic climate types (Davis, 1988).These general climate clusters may be more appropriate for climate research than the standard climate divisions (CD) groupings of climate stations, which are modifications of the agro-economic United States Department of Agriculture crop reporting districts. Unlike the CD's, these objectively determined climate clusters are not restricted by state borders and thus have reduced multicollinearity which makes them more appropriate for the study of the impact of climate and climatic change.With 5 Figures     

雅鲁藏布中新生代深水沉积盆地形成和演化(Ⅰ)——喜马拉雅造山带沉积特征及演化

通过对喜马拉雅三叠纪到第三纪区域沉积特征分析,阐明了雅鲁藏布喜马拉雅特提斯造山带从裂谷—被动大陆边缘—前陆盆地的沉积盆地演化史。随着以雅鲁藏布带为代表的喜马拉雅特提斯打开,三叠纪到早侏罗世为特提斯早期裂开的大陆边缘裂谷盆地。早期裂谷中心部位不是现在大陆缝合线的雅鲁藏布一带,而在低分水岭带。晚侏罗世到早白垩世,雅鲁藏布江南测为典型被动大陆边缘,其沉积盆地沉降、海平面变化与沉积作用相吻合。晚白垩世到第三纪为前陆盆地演化阶段,从沉积作用可以识别出晚白垩世晚期为造山第一暮,第三纪初为第二幕。     

Seismological services of the Australian Bureau of Mineral Resources,Geology and Geophysics

The Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics provides seismological services which complement those provided by several other agencies.The services comprise the operation of 20 seismograph stations in continental Australia, and the operation of regional data centres for earthquakes and strong earth-motion data. The ambit of the data centres includes BMR stations in Antarctica and Papua New Guinea, and foreign stations in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Most of the data are lodged at World Data Centres, and the remainder are available from the BMR national centre.The combined Australian network has provided data at a regional level only for about the last twenty years. These have however, been sufficient to show that although seismicity is low it is not insignificant, and that there are several areas where damaging earthquakes can be expected to recur at 50-year intervals; about 500 Australian earthquakes are located annually.Complete national location capability does not extend below Richter magnitude 4, and it is unlikely that significant improvements can be expected in the near future. In most of the areas where earthquake risk is important from a civil standpoint the detection capability is about magnitude 3. For the other more remote areas advanced techniques based on unattended seismometers and satellite telemetry will probably be needed to attain the same capability.     

Straightforward methods to detect non-linear response of the soil. Application to the recordings of the Kobe earthquake (Japan, 1995)

Simple straightforward methods are applied to testtheir ability to detect the non-linear response of thesoil. Recordings of the main shock and aftershocks ofthe 1995, Hyogo-ken Nanbu (Kobe) earthquake are used.Non-linear effects are investigated using twodifferent techniques, on a collection of data for 12sites situated on different geological structures inthe Kobe and Osaka areas. The first method used is theso-called receiver functions technique (Langston,1979), which consists of computing the spectral ratiobetween horizontal and vertical components of motion.This ratio has been shown to reveal the fundamentalfrequency of a site (Lachet and Bard, 1994; Lachet etal., 1996; Theodulidis et al., 1995, 1996). For eachsite, recordings of the main shock and a set ofaftershocks are considered. The variation of thisspectral ratio for different values of the maximumacceleration recorded at a site is investigated. Bothvariations of the amplitude of the H/V ratio (due tonon-linear behavior, on the horizontal components inparticular) and of the frequency position of theamplified band-width are observed. The secondtechnique used in this study is related to thevariation of the high frequency content of therecordings during the main-shock and its aftershocks.The high frequency spectral decay of the motion,characterized by parameter, is assumed to berelated mainly to the near-surface attenuation. Itshould then increase with increasing peak velocity, incase of non-linearity. The value of kappa iscalculated for the 12 sites in the Kobe area, fordifferent types of soil conditions, and againdifferent values of peak ground acceleration.Variations of kappa are then related to non-linearbehavior of the soil during the Kobe earthquake.     

Sensitivity of a coupled climate model to canopy interception capacity

The canopy interception capacity is a small but key part of the surface hydrology, which affects the amount of water intercepted by vegetation and therefore the partitioning of evaporation and transpiration. However, little research with climate models has been done to understand the effects of a range of possible canopy interception capacity parameter values. This is in part due to the assumption that it does not significantly affect climate. Near global evapotranspiration products now make evaluation of canopy interception capacity parameterisations possible. We use a range of canopy water interception capacity values from the literature to investigate the effect on climate within the climate model HadCM3. We find that the global mean temperature is affected by up to ?0.64 K globally and ?1.9 K regionally. These temperature impacts are predominantly due to changes in the evaporative fraction and top of atmosphere albedo. In the tropics, the variations in evapotranspiration affect precipitation, significantly enhancing rainfall. Comparing the model output to measurements, we find that the default canopy interception capacity parameterisation overestimates canopy interception loss (i.e. canopy evaporation) and underestimates transpiration. Overall, decreasing canopy interception capacity improves the evapotranspiration partitioning in HadCM3, though the measurement literature more strongly supports an increase. The high sensitivity of climate to the parameterisation of canopy interception capacity is partially due to the high number of light rain-days in the climate model that means that interception is overestimated. This work highlights the hitherto underestimated importance of canopy interception capacity in climate model hydroclimatology and the need to acknowledge the role of precipitation representation limitations in determining parameterisations.     

Increased potential for NAD(P)H-dependent reactive oxygen species production of hepatic subcellular fractions of fish species with in vivo exposure to contaminants.

The present study investigated the proposed involvement of contaminant-stimulated reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in disease processes in fish. NAD(P)H-dependent ROS production of subcellular fractions was determined by the iron/EDTA-mediated oxidation of 2-keto-4-methiolbutyric acid. Hepatic cytosolic NADPH-dependent and microsomal NAD(P)H-dependent ROS production were increased 51-160% (P < 0.05) in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) 15 weeks after a single i.p. injection of polychlorobiphenyl (PCB) (100 mg Clophen A50 kg-1 wet wt.). Hepatic microsomal NADH-dependent ROS production was 114% higher in perch (Perca fluviatilis) from PCB-contaminated Lake J?rnsj?n compared to clean Lake V?nern, Sweden. Hepatic mitochondrial NADH-dependent, cytosolic NADH-dependent and microsomal NADPH-dependent ROS production were variously elevated up to 160% in flounder (Platichthys flesus) at various sites along two pollution transects near to the ports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam, Netherlands. Overall the data indicate increased potential for ROS production in liver of fish exposed to field pollution, and support the hypothesis of oxidative stress as a mechanism of contaminant-mediated disease in fish.