Response of sediment-dwelling annelida community in relation to geochemical parameters in the Gorgan Bay,Caspian Sea

This study aimed to investigate the population of annelida communities in relation to environmental factors and heavy metals accumulated in sediments of the Gorgan Bay. The pollution load index and potential ecological risk (PER) were calculated. The results indicated mean concentrations (ppm) of heavy metals were (mean ± SD) Pb: 11.5 ± 4.88, Cu: 18 ± 8.83, Zn: 42 ± 22.15, Ni: 29.20 ± 14.68, Co: 10.56 ± 14.68, As: 7.77 ± 2.12, Sr: 1,449 ± 902.59 and V: 26.64 ± 10.25. Considering PER, sediments of the Gorgan Bay had low ecological risk. Based on abundance data, dominant species were Streblospio gynobranchiata, Nereis diversicolor, Tubificoides fraseri and Tubificidae unknown, respectively. Results of redundancy analysis displayed that T. fraseri and N. diversicolor were associated with high values of Sr. All the species were negatively correlated with As. There were positive correlation between S. gynobranchiata and N. diversicolor with values of clay, salinity, depth and silt. The present study provided the relative importance of heavy metals and environmental variables which partly assist in structuring assemblages of annelida in a transitional area.     

Development of stochastic dynamic Nash game model for reservoir operation. I. The symmetric stochastic model with perfect information

Increasing water demands, higher standards of living, depletion of resources of acceptable quality and excessive water pollution due to agricultural and industrial expansions have caused intense social and political predicaments, and conflicting issues among water consumers. The available techniques commonly used in reservoir optimization/operation do not consider interaction, behavior and preferences of water users, reservoir operator and their associated modeling procedures, within the stochastic modeling framework. In this paper, game theory is used to present the associated conflicts among different consumers due to limited water. Considering the game theory fundamentals, the Stochastic Dynamic Nash Game with perfect information (PSDNG) model is developed, which assumes that the decision maker has sufficient (perfect) information regarding the associated randomness of reservoir operation parameters. The simulated annealing approach (SA) is applied as a part of the proposed stochastic framework, which makes the PSDNG solution conceivable. As a case study, the proposed model is applied to the Zayandeh-Rud river basin in Iran with conflicting demands. The results are compared with alternative reservoir operation models, i.e., Bayesian stochastic dynamic programming (BSDP), sequential genetic algorithm (SGA) and classical dynamic programming regression (DPR). Results show that the proposed model has the ability to generate reservoir operating policies, considering interactions of water users, reservoir operator and their preferences.     

From regulated access to transferable harvesting rights: Policy insights from New Zealand

The dramatic decline in yields from many of the world's fisheries has prompted an assessment of traditional regulatory approaches to management. Transferable harvesting rights provide an alternative institutional structure in fisheries management. This paper has two aims. First, it links outcomes in the fishery with institutional structure. Second, the paper identifies several important institutional variables if a transition is to be made to from command-and-control management to tradeable rights. In particular, the transition phase must deal with the expectations that attach to the status quo structure of rights in the fishery. The paper's empirical content is drawn from New Zealand's experience with the introduction of transferable harvesting rights.     

地下水封洞库施工巷道开挖对仰坡稳定性的影响规律

巷道或隧道开挖对洞口仰坡稳定性有重要影响,处理不慎极易酿成工程事故。以山东某地下水封洞库施工巷道洞口风化花岗岩仰坡为研究对象,基于离散元模拟和监测数据,选取仰坡最大位移、塑性区体积及稳定系数作为评价指标,研究了巷道开挖进尺、断面尺寸及W值(上覆地层厚度与巷道跨度之比)对仰坡稳定性的影响。结果表明:随着开挖进尺的增加,坡面最大位移增长速率呈匀速—加速—稳定的变化规律,塑性区体积不断增大,且开挖断面越大,位移、塑性区增长速率越大;仰坡稳定系数随进尺的增加先降低后趋于稳定,且断面尺寸越大其降低速率和幅度越大,最终降低幅度为6.9%~27.6%;随着W值增大,仰坡稳定系数先降低后趋于稳定,降低速率随断面尺寸增大而增大,根据特定断面下稳定系数降低速率不同,将关系曲线划分为骤降区、缓降区、陡降区和平稳区。研究结论可为类似工程洞口段划分、施工及稳定性评价提供参考。     

云南个旧卡房铜矿床地质地球化学特征及其成因探讨

云南个旧是世界上最大的锡多金属矿田,卡房铜矿是个旧矿田主要的产铜区。卡房铜矿主要的矿床类型有两类:玄武岩层中或玄武岩与大理岩层间的似层状矿体以及花岗岩与围岩接触带矿体。围岩蚀变主要有夕卡岩化、阳起石化和金云母化。电子探针分析结果显示,卡房铜矿夕卡岩中的辉石主要为透辉石-钙铁辉石系列,石榴子石端元组分以钙铝榴石-钙铁榴石为主。流体包裹体及氢、氧同位素研究显示,从主成矿期到后成矿期,流体温度有显著降低(从260～360℃到160～280℃),而流体盐度则基本保持不变(从1.74%～12.51%到1.74%～11.93%)。氢、氧同位素组成表明,早期成矿流体主要以岩浆水为主,而晚期成矿流体可能在上升过程中与地层中的大气降水相混合。硫同位素分析结果表明,卡房铜矿似层状矿体中硫化物的硫来源于三叠系玄武岩,而燕山期花岗岩和三叠纪玄武岩共同为卡房铜矿接触带矿体提供了成矿所需的大部分的硫。铅同位素分析结果显示,卡房铜矿似层状矿体的成矿物质主要来源于三叠系玄武岩,而接触带矿体的铅可能主要来源于燕山期花岗岩。     

Reliability analysis of a rangeland system: the application of Profust theory

Reliability is the ability of a system to perform its required functions under stated conditions for a specified period of time. A number of researchers from various research backgrounds have shown that the binary state assumption in the traditional reliability theory (e.g., defining a natural system as fully failed or functioning) is not extensively acceptable, and thus the fuzzy state assumption should be used to replace the binary state assumption. In the present paper, the concept of profust reliability theory is introduced and a conceptual model of profust reliability for reliability analysis of a rangeland system, on the basis of the fuzzy state and the probability assumptions, is developed. This model is consisted of two parts, the fuzzy part which considers the vagueness in the system failure and the probabilistic part that incorporates the failure randomness in the reliability analysis. The ability of this model in reliability analysis of a natural system is illustrated for a real case study of rangeland system. For this purpose, the failure is defined as the rangeland system’s transition from its normal state. Generally, such transitions take place as a result of drought events. Furthermore, to determine the randomness in failure a conditional probability formulation is developed. This formulation determines the probability of the next drought duration, given the amount of severity in the present state. The result shows that the rangeland system reliability has been increased by 22% after constructing eight floodwater spreading systems.     

Coral reefs of the Glorieuses Islands,western Indian Ocean

The benthic fauna on reefs around the Glorieuses Islands, a small and protected Indian Ocean archipelago northwest of Madagascar, was surveyed in November 2015, focusing particularly on the orders Alcyonacea (soft corals and gorgonians) and Scleractinia (stony corals). The species richness of both groups was rather low for a protected, relatively pristine environment in the region. Though certain soft ‘fugitive’ alcyonacean species were noticeably abundant, other soft corals were rare. Sediment-tolerant faviid corals were abundant among the scleractinians. The sediment around the reefs was fine-grained and white, and appeared to be derived from abundant green macroalgae Halimeda and coralline seaweeds. The abundance of these, in turn, might have been attributable to nutrient enrichment from guano deposited on one of the islands by migratory seabirds, causing the aforementioned anomalies in coral biodiversity and abundance.     

Effects of obstacles on Rayleigh wave dispersion obtained from the SASW test

This study investigates the effects of underground obstacles on a Rayleigh Wave dispersion curve obtained by spectral analysis of surface waves (SASW) testing. The SASW test is simulated by a transient response analysis of an axisymmetric finite element method. Both rigid obstacles and cavities with a variety of shapes and embedment depths are considered. Results show strong fluctuations in the dispersion curve obtained from the signals recorded by receivers in the vicinity of an obstacle. The fluctuations are primarily a result of wave reflections from the near and far faces of an obstacle. Results obtained from a finite element model are explained through a comparison with a simple theoretical model and experimental results are published. Fluctuations shown in the dispersion curve can result in misinterpretation of the shear wave velocity profile. Wherever obstacles are known to exist, an SASW test should be performed in a way that minimizes these effects. The parameters that will reduce or aggravate these effects were studied and are discussed.     

Advance first order second moment (AFOSM) method for single reservoir operation reliability analysis: a case study

Reservoir system reliability is the ability of reservoir to perform its required functions under stated conditions for a specified period of time. In classical method of reservoir system reliability analysis, the operation policy is used in a simple simulation model, considering the historical/synthetic inflow series and a number of physical bounds on a reservoir system. This type of reliability analysis assumes a reservoir system as fully failed or functioning, called binary state assumption. A number of researchers from various research backgrounds have shown that the binary state assumption in the traditional reliability theory is not extensively acceptable. Our approach to tackle the present problem space is to implement the algorithm of advance first order second moment (AFOSM) method. In this new method, the inflow and reservoir storage are considered as uncertain variables. The mean, variance and covariance of uncertain variables are determined using moment values of reservoir state variables. For this purpose, a stochastic optimization model developed based on the constraint state formulation is applied. The proposed model of reliability analysis is used to a real case study in Iran. As a result, monthly probabilities of water allocation were computed from AFOSM method, and the outputs were compared with those from Monte Carlo method. The comparison shows that the outputs from AFOSM method are similar to those from the Monte Carlo method. In term of practical use of this study, the proposed method is appropriate to determine the monthly probability of failure in water allocation without the aid of simulation.     

Analytical solutions to nonlinear conservative oscillator with fifth-order nonlinearity

This paper describes analytical and numerical methods to analyze the steady state periodic response of an oscillator with symmetric elastic and inertia nonlinearity. A new implementation of the homotopy perturbation method (HPM) and an ancient Chinese method called the max-min approach are presented to obtain an approximate solution. The major concern is to assess the accuracy of these approximate methods in predicting the system response within a certain range of system parameters by examining their ability to establish an actual (numerical) solution. Therefore, the analytical results are compared with the numerical results to illustrate the effectiveness and convenience of the proposed methods.