Seasonal variation of the soil seed bank of grasses in central Argentina as related to grazing and shrub cover

The objectives of this research were to (a) study seasonal variation of the seed bank of grasses in two areas with different grazing history, (b) analyse the effect of the presence of shrubs on the seed bank and (c) study seed viability and dormancy in buried seeds of Piptochaetium napostaense and Stipa tenuis. The seed density of grasses was in general low and showed seasonal variation. Most of the grasses showed maximum seed density in December when seed dispersal occurs. Shrub cover did not show a marked influence in seed accumulation. The relatively high number of damaged seeds suggests that predation may be an important factor in seed bank dynamics in the Caldenal. Seeds of dominant perennial forage grasses showed dormancy that could explain, at least in part, persistence of these species in spite of periodical disturbance.     

西秦岭中川花岗岩岩浆活动特征及地质效应

西秦岭中川花岗岩为3期5次侵入的复式岩体,其主侵入体为印支—燕山期黑云母同碰撞S型二长花岗岩。该岩浆活动在沉积建造中形成热变质作用带和岩浆侵位构造,并产生成矿地质效应。     

Introduction of structural aseismic research in China in recent four years

Introduction Greeting the coming of the 21st century, Professor HU Yu-xian and other Chinese scholars briefed the trend of earthquake engineering in China and aboard (HU, 1999; HU, ZHOU, 1999). The experiences and lessons learning from the destructive earthquakes in China and abroad in re-cent years, the damage action of the large velocity impulse in ground motion in near field in seis-mic design, numerous earthquake examples show that there are many weaknesses in aspects of earthquake p…     

Scattering of elastic waves by a general anisotropic basin. Part 2: a 3D model

Scattering of plane harmonic waves by a three‐dimensional basin of arbitrary shape embedded within elastic half‐space is investigated by using an indirect boundary integral equation approach. The materials of the basin and the half‐space are assumed to be the most general anisotropic, homogeneous, linearly elastic solids without any material symmetry (i.e. triclinic). The unknown scattered waves are expressed in terms of three‐dimensional triclinic time harmonic full‐space Green's functions. The results have been tested by comparing the surface response of semi spherical isotropic and transversely isotropic basins for which the numerical solutions are available. Surface displacements are presented for a semicircular basin subjected to a vertical incident plane harmonic pseudo‐P‐, SV‐, or SH‐wave. These results are compared with the motion obtained for the corresponding equivalent isotropic models. The results show that presence of the basin may cause significant amplification of ground motion when compared to the free‐field displacements. The peak amplitude of the predominant component of surface motion is smaller for the anisotropic basin than for the corresponding isotropic one. Anisotropic response may be asymmetric even for symmetric geometry and incidence. Anisotropic surface displacement generally includes all three components of motion which may not be the case for the isotropic results. Furthermore, anisotropic response strongly depends upon the nature of the incident wave, degree of material anisotropy and the azimuthal orientation of the observation station. These results clearly demonstrate the importance of anisotropy in amplification of surface ground motion. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Inelastic dynamic analysis of RC bridges accounting for spatial variability of ground motion,site effects and soil–structure interaction phenomena. Part 1: Methodology and analytical tools

During strong ground motion it is expected that extended structures (such as bridges) are subjected to excitation that varies along their longitudinal axis in terms of arrival time, amplitude and frequency content, a fact primarily attributed to the wave passage effect, the loss of coherency and the role of local site conditions. Furthermore, the foundation interacts with the soil and the superstructure, thus significantly affecting the dynamic response of the bridge. A general methodology is therefore set up and implemented into a computer code for deriving sets of appropriately modified time histories and spring–dashpot coefficients at each support of a bridge with account for spatial variability, local site conditions and soil–foundation–superstructure interaction, for the purposes of inelastic dynamic analysis of RC bridges. In order to validate the methodology and code developed, each stage of the proposed procedure is verified using recorded data, finite‐element analyses, alternative computer programs, previous research studies, and closed‐form solutions wherever available. The results establish an adequate degree of confidence in the use of the proposed methodology and code in further parametric analyses and seismic design. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Inelastic dynamic analysis of RC bridges accounting for spatial variability of ground motion,site effects and soil–structure interaction phenomena. Part 2: Parametric study

The methodology for dealing with spatial variability of ground motion, site effects and soil–structure interaction phenomena in the context of inelastic dynamic analysis of bridge structures, and the associated analytical tools established and validated in a companion paper are used herein for a detailed parametric analysis, aiming to evaluate the importance of the above effects in seismic design. For a total of 20 bridge structures differing in terms of structural type (fundamental period, symmetry, regularity, abutment conditions, pier‐to‐deck connections), dimensions (span and overall length), and ground motion characteristics (earthquake frequency content and direction of excitation), the dynamic response corresponding to nine levels of increasing analysis complexity was calculated and compared with the ‘standard’ case of a fixed base, uniformly excited, elastic structure for which site effects were totally ignored. It is concluded that the dynamic response of RC bridges is indeed strongly affected by the coupling of the above phenomena that may adversely affect displacements and/or action effects under certain circumstances. Evidence is also presented that some bridge types are relatively more sensitive to the above phenomena, hence a more refined analysis approach should be considered in their case. Copyright @ 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The inversion of anelastic coefficient,source parameters and site respond using genetic algorithm

It gradually becomes a common work using large seismic wave data to obtain source parameters, such as seismic moment, break radius, stress drop, with completingof digital seismic network in China (Hough, et al, 1999; Bindi, et al, 2001). These parameters are useful on earthquake prediction and seismic hazard analysis.Although the computation methods of source parameters are simple in principle and the many research works have been done, it is not easy to obtain the parameters accurately. There are two factors affecting the stability of computation results. The first one is the effect of spread path and site respond on signal. According to the research results, there are different geometrical spreading coefficients on different epicenter distance. The better method is to introduce trilinear geometrical spreading model (Atkinson, Mereu, 1992; Atkinson, Boore, 1995; WONG, et al, 2002). In addition, traditional site respond is estimated by comparing with rock station, such as linear inversion method (Andrews, 1982), but the comparative estimation will introduce some errors when selecting different stations. Some recent research results show that site respond is not flat for rock station (Moya, et al, 2000; ZHANG,. et al, 2001; JIN, et al, 2000; Dutta, et al, 2001). The second factor is to obtain low-frequency level and corner frequency fromdisplacement spectrum. Because the source spectrum model is nonlinear function,these values are obtained by eye. The subjectivity is strong. The small change of corner frequency will affect significantly the result of stress drop.     

A hybrid indirect boundary element—discrete wave number method applied to simulate the seismic response of stratified alluvial valleys

A hybrid indirect boundary element – discrete wavenumber method is presented and applied to model the ground motion on stratified alluvial valleys under incident plane SH waves from an elastic half-space. The method is based on the single-layer integral representation for diffracted waves. Refracted waves in the horizontally stratified region can be expressed as a linear superposition of solutions for a set of discrete wavenumbers. These solutions are obtained in terms of the Thomson–Haskell propagators formalism. Boundary conditions of continuity of displacements and tractions along the common boundary between the half-space and the stratified region lead to a system of equations for the sources strengths and the coefficients of the plane wave expansion. Although the regions share the boundary, the discretization schemes are different for both sides: for the exterior region, it is based on the numerical and analytical integration of exact Green's functions for displacements and tractions whereas for the layered part, a collocation approach is used. In order to validate this approach results are compared for well-known cases studied in the literature. A homogeneous trapezoidal valley and a parabolic stratified valley were studied and excellent agreement with previous computations was found. An example is given for a stratified inclusion model of an alluvial deposit with an irregular interface with the half-space. Results are displayed in both frequency and time domains. These results show the significant influence of lateral heterogeneity and the emergence of locally generated surface waves in the seismic response of alluvial valleys.     

北京市地形图图式应用研究

城市建设出现了地形图图式未规定的地物要素,地形测量、地理信息系统、数字制图技术的应用给图式的设计提出了新的课题,本文旨在探讨设计和修订图式的思路和方法。