The history of environmental change and adaptation in eastern Saloum–Senegal—Driving forces and perceptions

Environmental change in the Sahel–Sudan zone of West Africa has been a major issue in development debates over the last decades. Using remote sensing based land cover change analysis, archival data, national and international statistical data, and household interviews, we analyze the drivers of environmental change in Eastern Saloum in Central East Senegal as well as the local perceptions of these changes and adaptation. Being part of the ground nut basin, Eastern Saloum has witnessed rapid environmental degradation caused by the conversion of forest and savanna areas to agricultural land during the last 20–30 years and by a combination of decline in precipitation, soil degradation, a diversity of policies with little concern for the environment, fluctuating markets and population pressure. Farmers perceive the environmental change mainly as land degradation and poor soil fertility, though recent extensification of agriculture counters this effect and has led to increased vegetation cover in marginal areas. They identified erratic climate, agricultural policies, insufficient food production and desire to increase income as the main drivers of change in the area. We conclude that while climate variability has influenced environmental change in the area, various types of State interventions in agriculture and global market fluctuations appear to have been the main underlying causes of environmental degradation.     

Physical parameters of the continuum emission layer of Mira type stars. II. Radii and expansion velocities

The Pulkovo Spectrophotometric Data Base is used to determine the expansion velocities and radii of the continuum emission layers of the stars RR SCO and OMICR CET. Dependences of the radii and velocities on the phase of the variability cycle are found which agree with the known values obtained from the layers which emit line radiation. __________ Translated from Astrofizika, Vol. 50, No. 4, pp. 557–564 (November 2007).     

1980—2020年中国九大流域蒸散发及其组分时空评估

蒸散发是地表陆气水分交换的纽带,准确量化蒸散发的时空演变格局对于水资源规划与管理至关重要。本文基于GLEAM模型的蒸散发及其组分数据集,借助7个通量观测站数据、120个流域的流域水量平衡及PML_V2蒸散发产品,在中国九大流域系统评估了GLEAM-ET产品,分析了植被恢复背景下,蒸散发（ET）及其组分（植被蒸腾Ec,截留蒸发Ei,土壤蒸发Es）在1980—2020年的时空演变格局。本文主要得到以下结论：① GLEAM-ET产品在中国九大流域具有较好的适用性,其性能与气候类型有关,干旱区效果优于湿润区。此外,GLEAM与PML_V2模型在九大流域相关性较好（R>0.7）,分布格局与变化趋势整体保持一致。② 全国尺度上,ET均值为416.88 mm,增长速率为1.21 mm/a。Ec与ET均呈自东南向西北递减的分布格局,而Es与其相反。Ec、ET在九大流域均呈显著增加趋势（p<0.001）。Ei、Es在季风区流域分别呈显著增加和显著减小趋势;在内陆区流域呈不显著减小（p>0.05）和显著增加趋势。③在植被恢复背景下,ET组分比例发生了变化。Ec占比变化存在南北差异,南方流域Ec占比均减小,北方流域均增加。Ei占比在各流域均增加,Es占比均减小。黄河流域ET组分对植被恢复的响应最为明显,Ec占比增加了5.21%,Es占比减小了5.56%。     

The brightest OH maser in the sky: A flare of emission in W75 N

A flare of maser radio emission in the 1665-MHz OH line with a flux density of about 1000 Jy was discovered in the star-forming region W75 N in 2003. At the time of its observations, it was the strongest OH maser in the entire history of research since the discovery of cosmic OH masers in 1965. The linear polarization of the flare emission reached 100%. A weaker flare with a flux density of 145 Jy was observed in this source in 2000–2001; this was probably a precursor of the intense flare. The intensity of two other spectral features decreased when the flare emerged. This change in the intensity of the emission from maser condensations (a brightening of some of them and a weakening of others) can be explained by the passage of a magnetohydrodynamic shock through regions of enhanced gas concentration.     

Stochastic data in astronomy: Fourier analysis of highly nonuniform time series

The features of the CLEAN algorithm for Fourier analysis of time series with data separated by long pauses are analyzed in detail. Estimates are obtained for the limits of variability of the parameters of harmonic components that can be determined on a specified time grid. This analysis are used to search for harmonic components in the spectral line profile variations of the star Ori A (O8III) obtained in 2001 with the 1 m telescope at the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences.Translated from Astrofizika, Vol. 48, No. 1, pp. 87–100 (February 2005).     

基于空间变异修正普通克里金的矿区复杂地形高精度建模

普通克里金法是构建矿区三维地形模型并揭示地表沉陷形变场动态变化规律的有效方法。但普通克里金法存在平滑效应的问题,导致估计值的空间变异程度小于实际,无法真实反映矿区复杂地表形态的空间变化特征。本文结合矿区实际地形采样数据,提出了一种空间变异修正的普通克里金法,并将其应用于矿区复杂地形的高精度建模,并与已有方法在建模精度和空间变异性复现方面进行了对比分析。研究结果表明,空间变异修正的普通克里金法能够很好地处理平滑效应对建模的影响,具有更高的建模精度和空间变异性复现能力,在矿区复杂地形高精度建模应用中具有较强的适用性,可以作为一种可靠的建模工具用于矿区复杂地形沉陷形变场动态变化规律分析。     

Reliability bearing capacity analysis of footings on cohesive soil slopes using RFEM

Reliability analysis of bearing capacity of a strip footing at the crest of a simple slope with cohesive soil was carried out using the random finite element method (RFEM). Analyses showed that the coefficient of variation and the spatial correlation length of soil cohesion can have a large influence on footing bearing capacity, particularly for slopes with large height to footing width ratios. The paper demonstrates cases where a footing satisfies a deterministic design factor of safety of 3 but the probability of design failure is unacceptably high. Isotropic and anisotropic spatial variability of the soil strength was also considered.     

Evidence for climatic variability and its impact on human development during the Neolithic from Loughmeenaghan,County Sligo,Ireland

High‐resolution pollen and geochemical analyses conducted on a sediment profile from a small lake in County Sligo, Ireland, revealed that human development during the Neolithic was influenced by pronounced climatic oscillations. The primeval woodland around the lake experienced a considerable transformation coinciding with the elm decline at 3810 BC. The subsequent increase in summer temperatures and decrease in precipitation favoured wheat cultivation in the lake's catchment area, which was practised for approximately 140 years. A shift towards pastoral farming took place with the establishment of exceptionally dry conditions between 3650 and 3560 BC, when lake level and influx of allochthonous material were notably low. The onset of cool and wet conditions at the transition from the Early to Middle Neolithic possibly caused the initial decline of human activity in the area. Periods of particularly high precipitation during the Middle and early Late Neolithic contributed to the abandonment of the area by the first farmers. Comparison of the proxy record from the study site with other palynological and archaeological records from Ireland suggests that climatic variability on the decadal to centennial scale represented a primary control on the nature and duration of farming practices during the Neolithic. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

DIAGNOSIS ON LOW FREQUENCY COMPONENT OF ENSO VARIABILITY—PART Ⅱ:ORIGIN OF THE COMPONENT

Diagnosis is undertaken on the origin for the low-frequency component (LFC) of ENSOvariability in the context of 1979—1990 OLR and u-wind datasets.Evidence suggests that ① apower spectrum-yielded maximum,significant statistically,is derived from the OLR monthlyanomalies in a 3—5-year period range over the tropical central/western Pacific;②compositeanalysis of the signals of the monthly anomaly low frequency component (period>3 years)confirms further the dynamic features of the component as documented in Part Ⅰ:③serving asforcing on ENSO,the related monsoon region represents the source area of the component;④theone-point correlation maps of unfiltered OLR monthly anomalies with zonal wind on a lagged,asimultaneous and a leading basis show clearly the close relation between the u wind-associatedeastward travelling low-frequency wave and the low-frequency oscillation of low-latitude central/western Pacific large-scale convection and the east-moving mode is likely to be excited by theoscillation at a 3—5-year period range.It follows that the large-scale convection oscillation showsup as the origin of the eastward waves,i.e.,ENSO LFC.     

On the estimation of scale of fluctuation in geostatistics

Describing how soil properties vary spatially is of particular importance in stochastic analyses of geotechnical problems, because spatial variability has a significant influence on local material and global geotechnical response. In particular, the scale of fluctuation θ is a key parameter in the correlation model used to represent the spatial variability of a site through a random field. It is, therefore, of fundamental importance to accurately estimate θ in order to best model the actual soil heterogeneity. In this paper, two methodologies are investigated to assess their abilities to estimate the vertical and horizontal scales of fluctuation of a particular site using in situ cone penetration test (CPT) data. The first method belongs to the family of more traditional approaches, which are based on best fitting a theoretical correlation model to available CPT data. The second method involves a new strategy which combines information from conditional random fields with the traditional approach. Both methods are applied to a case study involving the estimation of θ at three two-dimensional sections across a site and the results obtained show general agreement between the two methods, suggesting a similar level of accuracy between the new and traditional approaches. However, in order to further assess the relative accuracy of estimates provided by each method, a second numerical analysis is proposed. The results confirm the general consistency observed in the case study calculations, particularly in the vertical direction where a large amount of data are available. Interestingly, for the horizontal direction, where data are typically scarce, some additional improvement in terms of relative error is obtained with the new approach.