Predicting quantiles of water quality from catchment characteristics

Water quality is often highly variable both in space and time, which poses challenges for modelling the more extreme concentrations. This study developed an alternative approach to predicting water quality quantiles at individual locations. We focused on river water quality data that were collected over 25 years, at 102 catchments across the State of Victoria, Australia. We analysed and modelled spatial patterns of the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentiles of the concentrations of sediments, nutrients and salt, with six common constituents: total suspended solids (TSS), total phosphorus (TP), filterable reactive phosphorus (FRP), total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), nitrate-nitrite (NO_x), and electrical conductivity (EC). To predict the spatial variation of each quantile for each constituent, we developed statistical regression models and exhaustively searched through 50 catchment characteristics to identify the best set of predictors for that quantile. The models predict the spatial variation in individual quantiles of TSS, TKN and EC well (66%–96% spatial variation explained), while those for TP, FRP and NO_x have lower performance (37%–73% spatial variation explained). The most common factors that influence the spatial variations of the different constituents and quantiles are: annual temperature, percentage of cropping land area in catchment and channel slope. The statistical models developed can be used to predict how low- and high-concentration quantiles change with landscape characteristics, and thus provide a useful tool for catchment managers to inform planning and policy making with changing climate and land use conditions.     

Mass loss from Wolf-Rayet stars

The observed times of minimum light derived from the photometry of the Wolf-Rayet eclipsing binary stars CQ Cep and V444 Cyg are used to estimate the mass-loss rate of the Wolf-Rayet components in several modes of mass-loss and mass-exchange.     

Self-similar solutions for the blast wave problem in radiative gasdynamics,I

Similarity solutions, describing the flow of a perfect gas behind spherical shock waves, are investigated including the radiation heat flux. The shock is assumed to be propagating in a medium at rest. Shock radius varies exponentially with time and density is inversely proportional to fifth power of the shock radius immediately ahead of the shock front.     

A note on the kinematics of the tachyon fluid

It is shown that the kinematical parameters associated with the congruence formed by tachyonic motion can be defined in the manner of Greenberg, but not that of Ehlers. The space-like counterpart of Raychaudhuri's equation has also been obtained.     

Plane Symmetric Domain Wall in Lyra Geometry

In this paper general solutions are found for domain walls in Lyra geometry in the plane symmetric spacetime metric given by Taub. Expressions for the energy density and pressure of domain walls are derived in both cases of uniform and time varying displacement field β. It is also shown that the results obtained by Rahaman et al [IJMPD, 10, 735 (2001)] are particular case of our solutions. Finally, the geodesic equations and acceleration of the test particle are discussed. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The onset of shock wave in an electrically conducting and radiating gas

The present work applies the method of characteristics to study the behaviour of planar and cylindrical wave-heads propagating through a perfectly electrically conducting and thermally radiating inviscid gas under the optically thin limit in the presence of a transverse magnetic field. The true nonlinear progress of the flow variable gradients at the wavefront is predicted and the critical distance at which the characteristics pile up at the wavefront to form a shock wave is obtained. It is investigated as to how the effects of radiative flux, the magnetic field strength and the specific heat ratio influence the process of steepening or flattening of the characteristic wavefront.     

Some aspects related to the asymptotic solutions of the laminar boundary-layer equations with heat flux

The oscillatory, conjugate and asymptotic behaviours of the principal and non-principal solutions of the Blasius and corresponding heat transfer equations governing the compressible laminar boundary-layer flow over a semi-infinite flat plate with heat flux have been studied; the results of the discussion being based on the asymptotic integrations of second-order linear differential equations.     

Wooden Panel Deterioration by Tropical Marine Wood Borers

Wood destruction in test panels ofShorea leprosulawas related to the percentage of fouling, types of wood borers and the number of wood borers. The natural durability ofShorea leprosulapanels was estimated to be 4–5 months in Malaysian marine waters. A higher fouling cover resulted in lower rates of wooden panel deterioration. Larger numbers of wood borers brought about greater panel deterioration. Primary wood destruction was caused by bivalve wood borers, mainlyMartesia striata, Lyrodus pedicellatus, Bankia campanellata, Teredo furciferaandTeredo bartschi. Martesia striatawas the important wood destroying agent in the intertidal zone and, together with the shipworms, was also responsible for panel destruction in the subtidal zone.     

Hysteresis‐based analysis of overland metal transport

Introducing a concept of equivalent mass depth of flow, this study describes the phenomenon of non‐point source pollutant (metal) transport for pavement (or overland) flow in analogy with wave propagation in wide open channels. Hysteretic and normal mass rating curves are developed for runoff rate and mass of 12 dissolved and particulate‐bound metal elements (pollutants) using the rainfall‐runoff and water quality data of the 15 × 20 m² instrumented pavement in Cincinnati, USA. Normal mass rating curves developed for easy computation of pollutant load are found to be of a form similar to Manning's, which is valid for open channel flows. Based on the hysteresis analysis, wave types for dissolution and mixing of particulate‐bound metals are identified. The analysis finds that the second‐order partial‐differential equation normally used for metal transport does not have the efficacy to describe fully the strong non‐linear phenomena such as is described for various metal elements by dynamic waves. In addition, the proportionality concept of the popular SCS‐CN concept is extended for determining the potential maximum metal mass M_p of all the 12 elements transported by a rain storm and related to the antecedent dry period (ADP). For the primary metal zinc element, M_p is found to increase with the ADP and vice versa. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Low-frequency electric field fluctuations excited by ring current protons

Energetic protons haying ring type distributions are shown to generate low-frequency electrostatic waves, propagating nearly transverse to the geomagnetic field lines, in the ring current region by exciting Mode 1 arid Mode 2 nonresonant instabilities and a resonant instability. Mode 1 nonresonant instability has frequencies around ~4 Hz with transverse wavelengths of ~(8–80) km, and it is likely to occur in the region L = (7–8). Mode 2 nonresonant instability can generate frequencies ~(850–1450) Hz with transverse wavelengths ~(2–20) km. The typical frequencies and transverse wavelengths associated with the resonant instability are (950–1250) Hz and (30–65) km. Both the Mode 2 nonresonant instability and the resonant instability can occur in the ring current region with L = (4–6). The low-frequency modes driven by energetic protons could attain maximum saturation electric field amplitude varying from 0.8 mV/m to 70 mV/m. It is suggested that the turbulence produced by the low-frequency modes may cause pitch angle scattering of ring current protons in the region outside the plasmapause resulting in the ring current decay.