Errors in velocities and displacements deduced from accelerographs: An approach based on the theory of error propagation

Based on the theory of errors, and in particular on the law of error propagation and approximation techniques, we present some simple formulae for random errors of velocities and displacements computed on the basis of numerical integration of accelerometer records. These errors are regarded as function of the characteristic errors of accelerometers and of the duration of the signal for velocities, and of the square of the duration of the signal for displacements. Instabilities in the sampling rate introduce additional noise, which is proportional to the sum of the squares of measurements of acceleration, mostly influenced by high peaks. Because of uneven weighting, however, peaks at early stages of the record are more important than in their later stages.     

Comparison of derivative-free optimization methods for groundwater supply and hydraulic capture community problems

Management decisions involving groundwater supply and remediation often rely on optimization techniques to determine an effective strategy. We introduce several derivative-free sampling methods for solving constrained optimization problems that have not yet been considered in this field, and we include a genetic algorithm for completeness. Two well-documented community problems are used for illustration purposes: a groundwater supply problem and a hydraulic capture problem. The community problems were found to be challenging applications due to the objective functions being nonsmooth, nonlinear, and having many local minima. Because the results were found to be sensitive to initial iterates for some methods, guidance is provided in selecting initial iterates for these problems that improve the likelihood of achieving significant reductions in the objective function to be minimized. In addition, we suggest some potentially fruitful areas for future research.     

Influence of borehole quantity and distribution on lithology field simulation

This paper aims to study the influence of the number and distribution of drill samples on the simulation accuracy of the lithology field. This research mainly applies the variation function method in geo-statistics, and determines important indicators such as the variation, and then the lithology field is simulated by sequence index simulation. It is shown that(1) simulation error decreases with the increase of sampling density;(2) at the scale and complexity of this study, when the sampling density reaches 40/km^2, the average error of the lithology field simulation can be less than 2.0%;(3) in the study mode of examples, the simulation results of random sampling in the whole region are the most ideal, with an average error of 5.4%. The average error of the simulation results of the centralized sampling is about 10 times that of the random sampling method;(4) known from the influence analysis of the degree of study sample unevenness influence on the imitation results, under the same sample size, the simulation error decreases with the increase of the most adjacent index. When the nearest index reaches 1, the simulation error will be less than 6%, and the error variable range is within 3%.     

The value of high-resolution nutrient monitoring: A case study of the River Frome, Dorset, UK

The River Frome was sampled at sub-daily sampling interval, with additional storm sampling, through an annual cycle. Samples were analysed for total phosphorus (TP), soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP), total oxidisable nitrogen (TON) and dissolved reactive silicon (Si). The resulting data set was artificially decimated to mimic sampling frequencies from 12 h to monthly time interval. Monthly sampling interval resulted in significant errors in the estimated annual TP and SRP load of up to 35% and 28% respectively, and the resulting data sets were insufficient to observe peaks in P concentration in response to storm events. Weekly sampling reduced the maximum percentage errors in annual load estimate to 15.4% and 6.5%. TON and silicon concentrations were less variable with changing river flow, and monthly sampling was sufficient to predict annual load estimates to within 10%. However, to investigate within-river nutrient dynamics and behaviour, it is suggested that a weekly sampling interval would be the minimum frequency required for TON and Si studies, and daily sampling would be a minimum requirement to adequately investigate phosphorus dynamics. The loss in nutrient-concentration signal due to reduced sampling interval is presented. Hysteresis in the nutrient concentration/flow relationships for all 32 storm events during the study period were modelled and seasonal patterns discussed to infer nutrient sources and behaviour. The high-resolution monitoring in this study identified, for the first time, major peaks in phosphorus concentration in winter that coincide with sudden falls in air temperature, and was associated with biofilm breakdown. This study has shown that to understand complex catchment nutrient processes, accurately quantify nutrient exports from catchments, and observe changes in water quality as a result of nutrient mitigation efforts over time, it is vital that the newly emerging field-based automated sampler/analyzer technologies begin to be deployed, to allow for routine high-resolution monitoring of our rivers in the future.     

蒙特卡洛模拟法在辽宁层控碳酸盐岩型铅锌银矿产预测中的应用

蒙特卡洛模拟法是一种概率抽样的方法,它是利用模型区内已知矿床资源量的分布曲线,通过抽样实验模拟出该区在某种概率意义下具有的资源潜力的方法。通过对辽宁省11个矿带、16个矿田层控碳酸盐岩型未知铅锌、银矿床(点)的资源潜力模拟,获得了省内层控碳酸盐岩型铅、锌、银的资源潜力。在模拟过程中所使用的评价方法及所应用的前提条件是成功的,其所获得的层控碳酸盐岩型铅锌、银矿产资源潜力是可信的。本文只讨论第Ⅳ矿带及第16矿田的资源潜力。     

A Kriging-based approach for locating a sampling site—in the assessment of air quality

Air quality assessment studies have either high sampling or analyses costs. In these studies the representation of a city by a single sampling point is still a serious problem, especially in the metropolitans of developing countries, because of the absence of equipments required for sampling at different locations. In this paper, the smoke data measurements of long years are used in the determination of the region for the representation of the city by drawing contours through the Kriging method. Then, the selection of the sampling site in this region is done on the basis of the criteria recommended by the EPA. By this way, the data taken from this sampling point are used for assessing the average city concentrations with lower sampling and analyses costs. This information is valuable for monitoring the air quality and defining environmental policies, although the local distribution and the extreme concentration values over the city are not measurable.     

A relational database of global U-Pb ages

Enhanced understanding of how sampling techniques affect estimates of the global U-Pb age-distribution have, in turn, constrained U-Pb database design. Recent studies indicate that each continent has a unique age-distribution, as determined by zircon ages dated by the U-Pb isotope method. Likewise, broad regions within a continent also exhibit diverse age-distributions. To achieve a reliable estimate of the global distribution, the heterogenous composition of the continental crust requires sampling as many regions as feasibly possible. To attain this goal, and to provide a method for calculating age histograms, the records from a recent global U-Pb compilation are supplemented with 281,631 new records. These additions increase the database size to 700,598 records. In addition, the data are now restructured and made available as a relational database. After filtering the records by the six age-models included with the database, the results reveal two problems that might generally be unrecognized. First, an abrupt switch in the best-age at any given point(such as 1000 Ma) from ~(206)Pb/~(238)U ages to ~(207)Pb/~(206)Pb ages artificially depresses the age-distribution at the cutoff point. Second, rejecting analyses based on either absolute discordance or the magnitude of 2σ precision errors artificially depresses the age-distribution between 900 Ma and 2000 Ma. The results indicate that, when estimating the global U-Pb age-distribution, the methods for determining best-age and for rejecting records both require some attention. Possible solutions include using either an Accuracy Model or a Precision Model for estimating best-age, and then including all U-Pb records in the estimate, rather than rejecting any of them.     

Aquatic macrophyte diversity assessment: Validation of a new sampling method for circular-shaped lakes

We propose and validate a new sampling method to assess the presence, abundance and distribution of macrophytes in circular-shaped lakes according to the requirements of the Water Framework Directive (WFD2000/60/EC). The results of the macrophyte survey, and in particular of macrophyte diversity, obtained using this method are also discussed.The sampling is based on randomly selected transects homogeneously distributed around the perimeter of the lake. The number of transects is proportional to the lake's size. The method was validated on six Italian volcanic lakes using computational resampling procedures on a total of 126 transects.Using resampling procedures, we show that the proposed approach identifies more than 75% of the overall species richness through a moderate sampling effort. According to our results, Charophytes dominate aquatic vegetation in Italian volcanic lakes. Species diversity is highest at shallow depths, whereas the most abundant species, such as Chara polyacantha, are located at an intermediate depth between the shoreline and the maximum growing depth.     

全球LAI地面验证方法及验证数据综述

叶面积指数(LAI)的地面验证是LAI反演算法研究及LAI产品验证的重要部分。近年来,为了验证遥感参数产品以及对大气、地表的系统性研究,国际上在全球主要大洲开展了多个针对主要植被类型的大型观测项目,逐渐形成了较完善的地面采样框架与全球尺度不同植被类型的地面验证数据集。国内外已开展的大型观测项目采用的采样框架对以后观测试验中LAI的地面验证框架的制定与研究具有重要的借鉴意义,同时,已观测到的全球LAI地面验证数据集是开展全球LAI算法及产品验证的基础数据集,因此,有必要对目前全球LAI地面验证方法及验证数据情况做个综述。首先综述全球主要LAI地面观测项目及其所采用的地面验证框架。在此基础上,分析比较各大观测项目中所采用的地面测量方法、采样方法及像元真值估算方法。最后,指出全球LAI产品地面验证中存在的不足,并对尚需进一步研究的方向进行展望。     

区域土壤污染普查监测点位布设方法探讨

以江苏无锡和镇江两地为例,比较了8 km×8 km网格和4 km×4 km网格两种布点方式下,所得到的土壤中11种无机元素（As、Cd、Cr、Cu、Hg、Mn、Ni、Pb、Se、V、Zn）以及4类有机污染物（有机氯农药、多环芳烃、多氯联苯和酞酸酯类）的监测结果。按顺序统计量排列,发现多数无机元素和有机污染物的含量,从最小值到90%值总体吻合,而在90%值以上,两种布点方式的调查测定值出现差异,说明对于污染物含量低的地区,8 km×8 km网格和4 km×4 km网格获得的结论基本一致,而污染物含量高的