Bedload transport of small rivers in Malaysia

Numerous time-consuming equations, based on the relationship between the reliability and representativeness of the data utilized in defining variables and constants, require complex parameters to estimate bedload transport. In this study the easily accessible data including flow discharge, water depth, water surface slope, and surface grain diameter （ds0） from small rivers in Malaysia were used to estimate bedload transport. Genetic programming （GP） and artificial neural network （ANN） models are applied as complementary tools to estimate bed load transport based on a balance between simplicity and accuracy in small rivers. The developed models demonstrate higher performance with an overall accuracy of 97% and 93% for ANN and GP, respectively compared with other traditional methods and empirical equations.     

浅谈小口径金刚石钻进效率

小口径人造金刚石具有强大的生命力和广阔的发展前途,是加快勘探步伐的重要途径,是当前提高钻进效率的主要技术措施。本文通过四个方面来提高小口径金刚石钻进的效率。     

Towards the economic viability of local seafood programs: Key features for the financial performance of community supported fisheries

Community supported fishery (CSF) programs are emerging as appealing alternatives to large-scale industrial fisheries for some seafood consumers and commercial fishers. While CSFs provide many social, economic, and environmental benefits to their local communities, the associated financial costs can make it difficult for such programs to remain solvent. The goal of this research was to identify specific features that influence the financial performance of CSF programs. Using data collected online and from surveys of past and current North American CSFs, this research identified a combination of three key features associated with positive profit margins: engaging in social media, offering a retail option, and having a fisher as a founding member. The potential reasons behind the influence of these features on financial performance is explored, and recommendations for how they can be incorporated into CSF programs are presented. It is hoped that through integrating these features, prospective and currently operating CSFs could potentially improve their long-term financial performance, enabling them to focus on their non-financial goals and increase their overall economic viability.     

Justifying non-compliance: The morality of illegalities in small scale fisheries of Lake Victoria,East Africa

The literature on compliance in small scale fisheries provides evidence of the normative foundations of fishers’ behaviour. However, the mechanisms through which normative reasoning translates into non-compliance remains unclear due to the tendency to conceive non-compliant behaviour simply as an outcome of ‘moral deficit’. This paper identifies such mechanisms by focusing on moral reasons which undermine the legitimacy of fisheries regulations. Taking the case of Lake Victoria, East Africa, the paper explores how non-compliance can be founded on diverse and competing concepts of fairness by creating a typology of the modes of justification used by respondents who engage in illegal fishing. The paper establishes four areas of justification: the principle of superfluousness, the principle of autonomy, the principle of futility, and the principle of necessity. Investigating the evidence for each, the analysis finds that the majority of fisherfolk believe that regulations are necessary and support government action in fisheries management. However, fishers expressed futility in fishing legally, given the extent of illegal fishing, and justified their non-compliant behaviour through reference to the cost of legal fishing compared to illegal and the need for better catches and income associated with illegal fishing.     

Fixed point automatic interpretation of bender-based G0 measurements

We present a new model updating technique for the automatic calculation of the small strain shear modulus of geomaterials, based on bender element experiments. The technique searches for the shear modulus that maximizes the correlation between the output signal obtained from the experiment and the output signal acquired from its computational simulation. Instead of conventional extremum finding algorithms, a fixed point technique is used to update the shear modulus at each iteration. This option increases substantially the attraction basin of the absolute maximum correlation and improves the convergence of the algorithm.     

Efficient system reliability analysis of rock slopes based on Subset simulation

How to efficiently assess the system reliability of rock slopes is still challenging. This is because when the probability of failure is low, a large number of deterministic slope stability analyses are required. Based on Subset simulation, this paper proposes an efficient approach for the system reliability analysis of rock slopes. The correlations among multiple potential failure modes are properly accounted for with the aid of the “max” and “min” functions. A benchmark rock slope and a real engineered rock slope with multiple correlated failure modes are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Relationship of Pollen-Vegetation-Land Use in Small Watersheds of Mountain Area: A Tentative Study of Quantitative Detecting Human Activities on Environment

With the progress of study on global climate change and the sensitivity simulation of various climate systems, human activities might be one of important factors driving climate change in historical periods. Therefore, since the beginning of this century, Land Cover Change has become the currently hot topic of global change research and climate simulation. The establishment of pollen-vegetation-land use relationship may be one of the effective ways to obtain quantitative estimates of human impact on natural environment. Therefore, in the Taihang Mountains,two small watersheds were selected to detect the relationships quantitatively among pollen, vegetation and land-use of small watershed by using pollen data. There are natural vegetation components and crop pollen types in pollen assemblages, which well reflect the relationships among pollen, vegetation and land-use in small watershed. As altitude decreases, the area of farmland, the intensity of human activities and the cereal, vegetable pollen percentages increases. The regression analysis of pollen percentages and land-use indicate that a linear positive relationship exists between the percentages of cereals, vegetables pollens and the area of farmland, which has a significance for human activities.     

利用小震震源机制解研究太行山断裂带东南缘地区构造应力场

利用P波初动和垂直向记录Pg、Sg振幅比方法,计算得到在太行山断裂带东南缘地区68个中小地震的震源机制解。通过统计方法、系统聚类分析方法分析震源机制解参数,并利用力轴张量计算方法求取区域平均应力场。结果表明,研究区68个中小地震震源机制解走滑类占总数的57%,正断类与逆断类也都存在;最大、最小应力轴倾角都较小,接近水平。该区现今构造应力场的主要特征表现为北东东-南西西向的水平挤压与北北西-南南东向的水平拉伸。     

Study on the Anomaly of Small Earthquake Activity Before Moderate-strong Earthquake in the Northeast Margin of the Qinghai- Xizang （Tibet） Block

26 earthquakes with MS ≥5. 0 have been recorded in the northeast margin of the Qinghai- Xizang (Tibet) block since 1980,22 of which were relatively independent of other moderate- strong earthquakes. Research on the increase of small earthquake activity before the 22 moderate-strong earthquakes has indicated that small earthquake activity was enhanced before 17 of the moderate-strong earthquakes. Though the increased seismicity is a common phenomenon in the northeast margin of the Qinghai-Xizang ( Tibet ) block,we have difficulty in predicting the moderate-strong earthquakes by this phenomenon. In order to predict the moderate-strong earthquakes through the increased seismicity of small earthquakes,this paper attempts to propose a new method, which calculates small earthquake frequency through the change of distribution pattern of small earthquakes, based on the characteristics of small earthquake activity in the northeastern Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) block,and then make primary applications. The result shows that we are able to obtain obvious anomalies in the frequency of small earthquakes before moderate strong earthquakes through the new method,with little spatial range effect on the amplitude of this small earthquake frequency anomaly. We can obtain mid to short-term anomaly indices for moderate-strong earthquakes in the northeast margin of the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) block.     

Hydrochemical changes in a small tropical island’s aquifer: Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia

Small islands groundwater are often exposed to heavy pumpings as a result of high demand for freshwater consumption. Intensive exploitation of groundwater from Manukan Island’s aquifer has disturbed the natural equilibrium between fresh and saline water, and has resulted increase the groundwater salinity and leap to the hydrochemical complexities of freshwater–seawater contact. An attempt was made to identify the hydrochemical processes that accompany current intrusion of seawater using ionic changes and saturation indices. It was observed that the mixing between freshwater–seawater created diversity in geochemical processes of the Manukan Island’s aquifer and altered the freshwater and seawater mixture away from the theoretical composition line. This explained the most visible processes taking place during the displacement.