Impact of the sampling duration on the uncertainty of averaged velocity measurements with acoustic instruments

Average velocity in streams is a key variable for the analysis and modelling of hydrological and hydraulic processes underpinning water resources science and practice. The present study evaluates the impact of the sampling duration on the quality of average velocity measurements acquired with contemporary instruments such as Acoustic Doppler Velocimeters (ADV) an Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCP). The evaluation combines considerations on turbulent flows and principles and configurations of acoustic instruments with practical experience in conducting customized analysis for uncertainty analysis purposes. The study sheds new insights on the spatial and temporal variability of the uncertainty in the measurement of average velocities due to variable sampling durations acting in isolation from other sources of uncertainties. Sampling durations of 90 and 150 s are found sufficient for ADV and ADCP, respectively, to obtain reliable average velocities in a flow affected only by natural turbulence and instrument noise. Larger sampling durations are needed for measurements in most of the natural streams exposed to additional sources of data variability.     

Analytical study of ground motion caused by seismic wave propagation across faulted rock masses

Studying seismic wave propagation across rock masses and the induced ground motion is an important topic, which receives considerable attention in design and construction of underground cavern/tunnel constructions and mining activities. The current study investigates wave propagation across a rock mass with one fault and the induced ground motion using a recursive approach. The rocks beside the fault are assumed as viscoelastic media with seismic quality factors, Q_p and Q_s. Two kinds of interactions between stress waves and a discontinuity and between stress waves and a free surface are analyzed, respectively. As the result of the wave superposition, the mathematical expressions for induced ground vibration are deduced. The proposed approach is then compared with the existing analysis for special cases. Finally, parametric studies are carried out, which includes the influences of fault stiffness, incident angle, and frequency of incident waves on the peak particle velocities of the ground motions.     

Gamma-Hadron Separation using Čerenkov Photon Density Fluctuations

In the atmospheric Čerenkov technique γ-rays are detected against the abundant background produced by hadronic showers. In order to improve the signal to noise ratio of theexperiment, it is necessary to reject a significant fraction of hadronic showers. Traditional background rejection methods based on image shape parameters have been extensively used for the data from imaging telescopes. However, non-imaging Čerenkov telescopes have to develop very different means of statistically identifying and removing cosmic ray events. Some of the parameters, which could be potentially important for non-imaging arrays, are the temporal and spectral differences, the lateral distributions and density fluctuations of Čerenkov photons generated by γ-ray and hadron primaries. Here we study the differences in fluctuations of Čerenkov photon density in the light pool at the observation level from showers initiated by photons and those initiated by protons or heavier nuclei. The database of simulated events for the PACT array has been used to evaluate the efficiency of the new technique. Various types of density fluctuations like the short range and medium range fluctuations as well as flatness parameter are studied. The estimated quality factors reflect the efficiencies with which the hadrons can be rejected from the data. Since some of these parameters are independent, the cuts may be applied in tandem and we demonstrate that the proton rejection efficiency of ∼90% can be achieved. Use of density fluctuations is particularly suited for wavefront sampling observations and it seems to be a good technique to improve the signal to noise ratio. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

重庆地面最高气温与最大风速年极值的渐近分布

利用重庆1951-1990年间地面最高气温和1956-1990年间地面最大风速年极值的记录,采用韦伯分布和耿贝尔分布分别对其渐近分布进行拟合.通过统计推断,找出重庆地面最高气温和地面最大风速年极值遵循的最佳渐近分布--韦伯分布.     

长江中下游地区地下水卤素元素的形成及其分布规律

本文以丰富的实际资料，论证了地下水的卤素元素（F、Cl、Br、I）的形成、含量及其分布规律与含水介质成分、上覆岩土性质、地下水退流条件、氧化还原环境、地下水矿化度之间的关系。根据江汉平原东部区和鄱阳湖区地下水中Br、I元素的调查研究结果及它们形成的控制因素与分布规律，结合长江三角洲南部区水文地球化学环境条件分析对比，指出该区是一个形成Br、I矿泉水的有利地区。     

广西泥盆纪四射珊瑚的分布与组合特征

广西早泥盆世晚期至晚泥盆世的碳酸盐台地区发育有两个不同的四射珊瑚群落,此二群落都有其各具特点的珊瑚组合系列。其中,在开阔台地相区的四射珊瑚可划分为9个组合带,而在台地边缘相区则可划分为8个组合带。在早泥盆世早、中期,因岩相分异不明显,四射珊瑚仅可划分为3个组合带。因此证明,四射珊瑚的发展演化与沉积相演变有密切的关系。     

The size distribution of trans-Neptunian bodies

The magnitude distribution of the trans-Neptunian bodies composed of the Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) and Scattered Disk Objects (SDOs) is determined for absolute magnitudes H?7, using maximum likelihood estimation methods. This is translated into a corresponding size distribution. This gave a differential size index of q=3.966±0.15 for KBOs and q=3.016±0.32 for SDOs. It was found that these two distributions were statistically different. The KBOs were further split into classical KBOs and Plutinos which had indices of q=4.074±0.18 and q=3.301±0.37, respectively. There was no statistical evidence that these are different populations. The classical KBOs were further split and examined for four different semi-major axis ranges and it was found that there was moderate evidence that the entire sample was not well represented by one index. The distribution indices of the SDOs were compared with the distributions of short period comets and found to be similar. It is likely that the scattered disk population is the source of the short period comets.     

模糊划分矩阵在岩土参数概率分布中的应用

讨论如何在小样本条件下用已有的过程经验与试验资料确定岩土参数概率分布,用模糊划分矩阵与BAYES方法相结合,给出由小样本试验数据确定岩土参数的概率分布。     

Evidence of climatic warming in the southern Urals region derived from borehole temperatures and meteorological data

Thirty borehole temperature–depth profiles in the central and southern Urals, Russia were scrutinized for evidence of ground surface temperature histories. We explored two inversion schemes: a simple ramp inversion in which solutions are parameterized in terms of an onset time and magnitude of change and a more sophisticated functional space inverse algorithm in which the functional form of the solution is left unspecified. To enhance and potentially identify latitudinal differences in the ground surface temperature signal, we subdivided the data into three groups based on geographic proximity and simultaneously inverted the borehole temperature–depth logs. The simultaneous inversions highlighted 13 temperature–depth logs that could not both fit a common ground surface temperature history and a priori models within reasonable bounds. Our results confirm that this is an effective way to reduce site-specific noise from an ensemble of boreholes. Each inversion scheme gives comparable results indicating locally variable warming on the order of 1°C starting between 1800 and 1900 AD. Similarly surface air temperature records from 12 nearby meteorological stations exhibit locally variable warming also on the order of 1°C of warming during the 20th century. To explore the degree to which borehole temperatures and surface air temperature (SAT) time series are responding to the same signal, we average the SAT data into the same three groups and used these averages as a forcing function at the Earth's surface to generate synthetic transient temperature profiles. Root mean square (RMS) misfits between these synthetic temperature profiles and averaged temperature–depth profiles are low, suggesting that first-order curvature in borehole temperatures and variations in SAT records are correlated.