Fundamental study on the response characteristics of drivers during an earthquake based on driving simulator experiments

After the 1995 Kobe earthquake, the expressway structures in Japan were retrofitted and they will not now be seriously damaged under a certain level of strong earthquake motion. However, the stability of a moving vehicle has not been investigated yet. It has been reported that drivers feel seismically induced vibrations, especially in the transverse direction of vehicles. Owing to this phenomenon, drivers have some difficulty in controlling the vehicles during strong shaking. For further safety promotion of the expressway networks, it is important to understand the drivers' reactions to seismic motion. The present authors have performed a series of seismic response analyses of a moving vehicle to investigate its response characteristics based on numerical simulation. However, the responses of the driver were not considered in the simulation process. In order to investigate the drivers' reactions during an earthquake, a series of virtual tests were conducted using a driving simulator. This driving simulator has six servomotor‐powered electric actuators that control its motions. Several types of tests were carried out for different examinees to investigate drivers' responses while controlling the simulator under seismic motion. The results of this study showed that a larger response time lag to strong shaking and over turning of the steering wheel may shift the vehicle into the next lane. According to this finding, trafficaccidents could possibly occur under strong ground shaking in the case of heavy traffic. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

土体冻结过程中的盐分场研究

As to salty soil, salt migrates with water in freezing soils, assembles and crystallizes continuously. Consequently the swelling of the soil volume leads to the phenomenon of salt heaving. It has a practical significance for solving salt-heaving and frost-heaving damage in engineering to deepen the understanding of salt heaving mechanism. In this paper a general overview about new research results at this aspect was presented. And then the study of salt migration and salt heaving mechanism and present salt heaving models were summarized. For further researching the field of salt transfer it is urgent to continually strengthen the salt migration and the numerical simulation study of salt heaving mechanism to expect perfecting the general evaluation of salt heaving prediction models so as to have a better service for engineering.     

Seepage driving effect on deformations of San Fernando dams

In the process of flow deformation of an earth dam, the seepage force inside the dam plays a role as a driving force. The seepage force acts just like the gravitational force in terms of pushing soils away from their original locations after liquefaction is triggered. This paper draws attention to this seepage driving effect by presenting a set of fully coupled finite element analyses on the well-known San Fernando dams, with the objective of evaluating the impact of this seepage effect. The results indicate that while this effect is always there, its practical significance depends on a number of factors. In the case of the upper San Fernando dam, which experienced a significant, but restricted, downstream movement during the 1971 earthquake, the seepage driving effect was indeed significant. On the contrary, for the lower dam, which failed and slid into the upstream reservoir during the same earthquake, this seepage effect was relatively less pronounced. The detailed results of the analyses reveal the likely mechanisms of failure and deformation of the two dams and the likely cause behind the difference between their responses during the earthquake.     

叠前深度偏移述评

叠前深度偏移是理想的改善复杂地区和强横向速度变化的地震资料成像技术,笔者就4种典型叠前深度偏移方法的理论基础与技术特点,存在的问题及国内外最新进展进行了讨论.     

考虑渗流力时对太沙基一维固结理论的修正

考虑渗流力的作用，对太沙基一维固结理论进行了修正，给出了向上及向下渗流时固结度的表达式，并分析了固结过程中渗流应力的变化规律。结果表明：渗流力对固结度的影响较大，特别是在时间因素Tv=0.1附近，是否考虑渗流力的影响将导致固结度的差值达30 %，因而渗流力对固结度的影响是不可忽略的。     

湖北省土壤侵蚀景观空间异质性及驱动因子分析

地域分异是地球表层大小不等、内部具有一定相似性地段之间的相互分化以及由此产生的差异。为了研究不同区位土壤侵蚀问题，从土壤生态景观及系统论出发，运用地质学、地理学、景观生态学、环境学的理论和研究方法，研究湖北省土壤侵蚀景观空间格局及其驱动因子，使土壤侵蚀问题研究提高到一个新的水平。湖北省土壤侵蚀景观具有南北分带、东西分区，为一不对称的断块一环组合，土壤流呈现向长江、江汉盆地中心轴带辐聚、单流向特点。景观空间异质性形成的首要驱动因子是大地构造背景，以房县一襄樊一广济断裂带为界，南北两侧地壳物质组成和构造发展史存在较明显的差异，现代气候带、降雨量、温热程度及土地利用等差异，造成了湖北省区域土壤地理、土壤生态的分异，形成湖北省土壤生态带、区具有南北分带，东西分区的宏观格局；其次大兴安岭一武陵山深部构造陡变带两侧新构造运动强度差异、大别造山带构造强烈隆升，导致土壤侵蚀强度的西强东弱、南北强中间弱的态势；成土母岩差异性决定了土壤可蚀性的多变；空间上“土壤侵蚀内城区”分布在湖北省的周边地区，经济贫困、管理落后，这一地区的经济水平与水土流失间形成“自反馈作用”，这一现象在我国水土保持、生态建设工作中应该引起重视。     

Journeys to the street: the complex migration geographies of Ugandan street children

Children have generally been afforded little attention in migration research or unsatisfactorily included within family migration. Although they are an important consideration in family decisions to move, children also engage in autonomous, independent migration. Further, researchers now argue for the need to situate migration within political, economic and social conditions to obtain a full understanding of why people migrate. Through the use of children-centred research methods, and in-depth interviews with key informants, this paper considers children's journeys to the street in Uganda. By integrating an analysis of Ugandan street children's spatial origins with the familial and societal contexts of their migration decisions, this research highlights the complexity of their migration. In addition, an exploration of the impact of changing social, spatial and temporal conditions on street children's movements illustrates that their journeys are far more than just single processes.     

Pressure State in Deep Crust and Formation Depth of UHP Metamorphic Rocks

INTRODUCTIONSincethediscoveryofeclogiteswithcoesiteanddia mondinclusionsrelatedtothecontinent continentcollision orogenyenvironment,theultrahigh pressuremetamorphism(UHPM )intheDabie Suluhasarousedgreatinterestinmanygeologists (Liouetal .,1994 ;Xuetal.,1992 ) .Experimentalstudieshaveprovedthatsuchmineralsasdia mond ,coesiteandomphaciteoccurredat 2 - 5GPa (andatthecorrespondingtemperatures) (Stevenetal.,1982 ;MirwaldandMasonne ,1980 ) .However,itdoesnotmeanthatthemetamorphicrockscanbe…     

Seafloor spreading, obduction and triple junction tectonics of the Mineoka Ophiolite, Central Japan

The Tertiary Mineoka ophiolite occurs in a fault zone at the intersection of the Honshu and Izu forearcs in central Japan and displays structural evidence for three major phases of deformation: normal and oblique-slip faults and hydrothermal veins formed during the seafloor spreading evolution of the ophiolite at a ridge-transform fault intersection. These structures may represent repeated changes in differential stress and pore-fluid pressures during their formation. The second series of deformation is characterized by oblique thrust faults with Riedel shears and no significant mineral veining, and is interpreted to have resulted from transpressional dextral faulting during the obduction of the ophiolite through oblique convergence and tectonic accretion. This deformation occurred at the NW corner of a TTT-type (trench–trench–trench) triple junction in the NW Pacific rim before the middle Miocene. The third series of deformation of the ophiolite is marked by contractional and oblique shear zones, Riedel shears, and thrust faults that crosscut and offset earlier structures, and that give the Mineoka fault zone its lenticular (phacoidal) fabric at all scales. This deformation phase was associated with the establishment and the southward migration of the TTT Boso triple junction and with the kinematics of oblique subduction and forearc sliver fault development. The composite Mineoka ophiolite hence displays rocks and structures that evolved during its complex geodynamic history involving seafloor spreading, tectonic accretion, and triple junction evolution in the NW Pacific Rim.     

Sense of place and migration histories Idiotopy and idiotope

The aim of this article is to explore a methodological approach relevant to the study of population mobility. The approach considers not only the whole migratory process and the sequence of connected movements, but also what happens between each of them. The study of mobility is considered inseparable from the study of passage, permanence and settlement. This paper establishes the interest in elaborating concepts that express the interaction between people and places, and how these interactions contribute to an understanding of migratory processes and of 'place histories'. In this sense, geographical identification (idiotopy) and place identification (idiotope) are put forward as useful concepts.