In this manuscript we present a nonlinear site amplification model for ground-motion prediction equations(GMPEs)in Japan,using a site period-based site class and a site impedance ratio as site parameters.We used a lar...In this manuscript we present a nonlinear site amplification model for ground-motion prediction equations(GMPEs)in Japan,using a site period-based site class and a site impedance ratio as site parameters.We used a large number of shear-wave velocity profiles from the Kiban-Kyoshin network(KiK-net)and the Kyoshin network(K-NET)to construct the one-dimensional(1D)numerical models.The strong-motion records from rock-sites in Japan with different earthquake categories and taken from the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center dataset were used in this study.We fit a set of 1D site amplification models using the spectral amplification ratios derived from 1D equivalent linear analyses.Parameters of site impedance ratios for both linear and nonlinear site response were included in the 1D model.The 1D model could be implemented into GMPEs using a new proposed adjustment method.The adjusted site amplification ratios retain the nonlinear characteristics of the 1D model for strong motions and match the linear amplification ratio in GMPE for weak motions.The nonlinearity of the present site model is reasonably similar to that of the historical models,and the present site model could satisfactorily capture the nonlinear site response in empirical data.展开更多
Allometric equations developed for the Lama forest, located in southern Benin, West Africa, were applied to estimate carbon stocks of three vegetation types：undisturbed forest, degraded forest, and fallow. Carbon sto...Allometric equations developed for the Lama forest, located in southern Benin, West Africa, were applied to estimate carbon stocks of three vegetation types：undisturbed forest, degraded forest, and fallow. Carbon stock of the undisturbed forest was 2.7 times higher than that in the degraded forest and 3.4 times higher than that in fallow. The structure of the forest suggests that the individual species were generally concentrated in lower diameter classes. Carbon stock was positively correlated to basal area and negatively related to tree density, suggesting that trees in higher diameter classes contributed significantly to the total carbon stock. The study demonstrated that large trees constitute an important component to include in the sampling approach to achieve accurate carbon quantification in forestry. Historical emissions from deforestation that converted more than 30% of the Lama forest into cropland between the years 1946 and 1987 amounted to 260,563.17 tons of carbon per year（t CO2/year） for the biomass pool only. The study explained the application of biomass models and ground truth data to estimate reference carbon stock of forests.展开更多
According to the growth characteristics of natural Korean pine (Pinus Koraiensis) forests, 6 equations such as Chapman-Richards equation, Logistic equation, Power equation, and so on were selected to ftt for the growt...According to the growth characteristics of natural Korean pine (Pinus Koraiensis) forests, 6 equations such as Chapman-Richards equation, Logistic equation, Power equation, and so on were selected to ftt for the growth modeIs for Korean pine forest. The growth models were developed based on 208 random trees and 24o dominant trees. Results show that the Chapman-Richards equation is the best model for estimating tree height by age and DBH, while the Parabola equation is fittest for predicting DBH by age or estimating age from DBH. The site index table of Korean pine forest was compiled by using the proportional method with the Chapman-Richards equation as the guide curve and vaIidated by accuracy test.展开更多
We study the dynamical energy equipartition properties in the integrable Toda model with additional uniform or disordered on-site energies by extensive numerical simulations. The total energy is initially equidistribu...We study the dynamical energy equipartition properties in the integrable Toda model with additional uniform or disordered on-site energies by extensive numerical simulations. The total energy is initially equidistributed among some of the lowest frequency linear modes. For the Toda model with uniform on-site potentials, the energy spectrum keeps its profile nearly unchanged in a relatively short time scale. On a much longer time scale, the energies of tail modes increase slowly with time. Energy equipartition is far away from being attached in our studied time scale. For the Toda model with disordered on-site potentials, the energy transfers continuously to the high frequency modes and eventually towards energy equipartition. We further perform a systematic study of the equipartition time teq depending on the energy density ε and the nonlinear parameter α in the thermodynamic limit for the Toda model with disordered on-site potentials. We find teq∝ （1/ε）^a（1/α）^b, where b≈ 2a. The values of a and b are increased when increasing the strengths of disordered on-site potentials or decreasing the number of initially excited modes.展开更多
There has been an increasing global and local interest in developing renewable, clean, and cheap energy towards achieving Goal number 7 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). However, decisions involving suitable...There has been an increasing global and local interest in developing renewable, clean, and cheap energy towards achieving Goal number 7 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). However, decisions involving suitable and sustainable locations for renewable energy projects remain an important task. This study employed Geographic Information System (GIS) and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) to spatially analyze and model wind farm site suitability in Nasarawa State. The aim is to integrate the environmental, social, and economic aspects of decision-making for identifying sustainable wind farm sites. The study distinguished between two sets of decision criteria: decision constraints and decision factors. The former defined the exclusion zones while the latter were standardized based on fuzzy logic to depict varying degrees of suitability across the State. The MCDA applied the weighted linear combination method, with relative weights generated through pairwise comparisons of the analytic hierarchy process to analyze three policy scenarios: equal weights, environmental/social priority, and economic priority scenario. A combination of resulting composite maps from the constraints and the factors gave the final suitability maps. The resulting suitability index (SI) for the respective policy scenario describes the degrees of suitability: Ideal locations were denoted by one (1) and the not suitable locations by zero (0), with values in-between depicting varying degrees of wind farm site suitability. Based on the SI, priority locations indicating areas with good prospects, in addition to the most suitable parcels of land, were identified and delineated. The composite decision constraint revealed that wind farm projects would not be viable in more than half (57.58%) of the State. Wind speed was the major constraint and accounted for the exclusion of 46.25%, with a mean fuzzy membership value of 0.2008 indicating low suitability across the State. Also, the average acceptable wind farm location for the three-policy scenario was 33.33% of the entire study area. Lafia, Obi, Keana, Awe, Nasarawa-Eggon, Wamba and Kokona LGAs were the identified priority Local Government Areas (LGAs). However, only Lafia, Obi, and Nasarawa-Eggon were consistent with changes in the policy objectives. All the priority LGAs have one or more of the most suitable parcels within their administrative boundaries except for Wamba. Despite the severe limitations of wind speed, substantial parts of Nasarawa State still provide great development potentials for wind energy. The “most suitable” locations in Lafia, Nasarawa-Eggon, and Obi LGAs should have first consideration for the development of wind energy in the State.展开更多
Characterization of unknown groundwater contaminant sources is an important but difficult step in effective groundwater management. The difficulties arise mainly due to the time of contaminant detection which usually ...Characterization of unknown groundwater contaminant sources is an important but difficult step in effective groundwater management. The difficulties arise mainly due to the time of contaminant detection which usually happens a long time after the start of contaminant source(s) activities. Usually, limited information is available which also can be erroneous. This study utilizes Self-Organizing Map (SOM) and Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) algorithms to develop surrogate models that can approximate the complex flow and transport processes in a contaminated aquifer. The important feature of these developed surrogate models is that unlike the previous methods, they can be applied independently of any linked optimization model solution for characterizing of unknown groundwater contaminant sources. The performance of the developed surrogate models is evaluated for source characterization in an experimental contaminated aquifer site within the heterogeneous sand aquifer, located at the Botany Basin, New South Wales, Australia. In this study, the measured contaminant concentrations and hydraulic conductivity values are assumed to contain random errors. Simulated responses of the aquifer to randomly specified contamination stresses as simulated by using a three-dimensional numerical simulation model are utilized for initial training of the surrogate models. The performance evaluation results obtained by using different surrogate models are also compared. The evaluation results demonstrate the different capabilities of the developed surrogate models. These capabilities lead to development of an efficient methodology for source characterization based on utilizing the trained and tested surrogate models in an inverse mode. The obtained results are satisfactory and show the potential applicability of the SOM and GPR-based surrogate models for unknown groundwater contaminant source characterization in an inverse mode.展开更多
This study investigated the effects of pH on the transport of Pb 2＋ , Mn 2＋ , Zn 2＋ and Ni 2＋ through lateritic soil columns. Model results by fitting the symmetric breakthrough curves （BTCs） of bromide （Br ） ...This study investigated the effects of pH on the transport of Pb 2＋ , Mn 2＋ , Zn 2＋ and Ni 2＋ through lateritic soil columns. Model results by fitting the symmetric breakthrough curves （BTCs） of bromide （Br ） with CXTFIT model suggested that physical non-equilibrium processes were absent in the columns. The heavy metal BTCs were, however, asymmetrical and exhibited a tailing phenomenon, indicating the presence of chemical non-equilibrium processes in the columns. The retardation factors of Pb 2＋ were the largest of the four metal ions at both pH 4.0 （33.3） and pH 5.0 （35.4）. The use of Langmuir isotherm parameters from batch studies with HYDRUS-1D did not predict the BTCs well. Rather the two-site model （TSM） described the heavy metal BTCs better than the equilibrium linear/nonlinear Langmuir model. The fraction of instantaneous sorption sites （ f ） of all four metal ions on the lateritic soil was consistently about 30%–44% of the total sorption sites.展开更多
Generic polymer models capturing the chain connectivity and excluded-volume interactions between polymer segments can be classified, according to whether or not the 3D integral of the latter diverges, into hard- and s...Generic polymer models capturing the chain connectivity and excluded-volume interactions between polymer segments can be classified, according to whether or not the 3D integral of the latter diverges, into hard- and soft-core models. Taking homogeneous systems of compressible homopolymer melts (or equivalently homopolymer solutions in an implicit, good solvent) in the continuum as an example, we recently compared the correlation effects on the structural and thermodynamic properties of the hard- and soft-core models given by the polymer reference interaction site model (PRISM) theory with the Percus-Yevick (PY) closure (Polymers 2023, 15, 1180). Here we analyzed in detail the numerical errors and behavior of the interchain pair correlation functions (PCFs) given by the PRISM-PY calculations of these models using an efficient numerical approach that we proposed. Our numerical approach has the least number of independent variables to be iteratively solved, analytically treats the discontinuities caused by the non-bonded pair potential (such as that of the hard spheres) and takes only the inverse Fourier transform of the interchain indirect PCF between polymer segments (which is continuous and decays towards 0 with increasing wavenumber much faster than both the interchain direct and total PCFs), and is essential for us to accurately solve the PRISM-PY theory for chain length N as large as 106. To capture the correlation-hole effect, the real-space cut-off in the PRISM calculations should be proportional to the square root of N.展开更多
基金National Science Foundation of China under Grant No.51578470。
文摘In this manuscript we present a nonlinear site amplification model for ground-motion prediction equations(GMPEs)in Japan,using a site period-based site class and a site impedance ratio as site parameters.We used a large number of shear-wave velocity profiles from the Kiban-Kyoshin network(KiK-net)and the Kyoshin network(K-NET)to construct the one-dimensional(1D)numerical models.The strong-motion records from rock-sites in Japan with different earthquake categories and taken from the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center dataset were used in this study.We fit a set of 1D site amplification models using the spectral amplification ratios derived from 1D equivalent linear analyses.Parameters of site impedance ratios for both linear and nonlinear site response were included in the 1D model.The 1D model could be implemented into GMPEs using a new proposed adjustment method.The adjusted site amplification ratios retain the nonlinear characteristics of the 1D model for strong motions and match the linear amplification ratio in GMPE for weak motions.The nonlinearity of the present site model is reasonably similar to that of the historical models,and the present site model could satisfactorily capture the nonlinear site response in empirical data.
基金conducted as part of the project ‘‘Pilot site:quantification and modelling of forest carbon stocks in Benin’’ funded by the Global Climate Change Alliance and the European Union(No.00009 CILSS/SE/UAM-AFC/2013)
文摘Allometric equations developed for the Lama forest, located in southern Benin, West Africa, were applied to estimate carbon stocks of three vegetation types：undisturbed forest, degraded forest, and fallow. Carbon stock of the undisturbed forest was 2.7 times higher than that in the degraded forest and 3.4 times higher than that in fallow. The structure of the forest suggests that the individual species were generally concentrated in lower diameter classes. Carbon stock was positively correlated to basal area and negatively related to tree density, suggesting that trees in higher diameter classes contributed significantly to the total carbon stock. The study demonstrated that large trees constitute an important component to include in the sampling approach to achieve accurate carbon quantification in forestry. Historical emissions from deforestation that converted more than 30% of the Lama forest into cropland between the years 1946 and 1987 amounted to 260,563.17 tons of carbon per year（t CO2/year） for the biomass pool only. The study explained the application of biomass models and ground truth data to estimate reference carbon stock of forests.
文摘According to the growth characteristics of natural Korean pine (Pinus Koraiensis) forests, 6 equations such as Chapman-Richards equation, Logistic equation, Power equation, and so on were selected to ftt for the growth modeIs for Korean pine forest. The growth models were developed based on 208 random trees and 24o dominant trees. Results show that the Chapman-Richards equation is the best model for estimating tree height by age and DBH, while the Parabola equation is fittest for predicting DBH by age or estimating age from DBH. The site index table of Korean pine forest was compiled by using the proportional method with the Chapman-Richards equation as the guide curve and vaIidated by accuracy test.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.11575087 and 11305045)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities,China(Grant No.2017B17114)
文摘We study the dynamical energy equipartition properties in the integrable Toda model with additional uniform or disordered on-site energies by extensive numerical simulations. The total energy is initially equidistributed among some of the lowest frequency linear modes. For the Toda model with uniform on-site potentials, the energy spectrum keeps its profile nearly unchanged in a relatively short time scale. On a much longer time scale, the energies of tail modes increase slowly with time. Energy equipartition is far away from being attached in our studied time scale. For the Toda model with disordered on-site potentials, the energy transfers continuously to the high frequency modes and eventually towards energy equipartition. We further perform a systematic study of the equipartition time teq depending on the energy density ε and the nonlinear parameter α in the thermodynamic limit for the Toda model with disordered on-site potentials. We find teq∝ （1/ε）^a（1/α）^b, where b≈ 2a. The values of a and b are increased when increasing the strengths of disordered on-site potentials or decreasing the number of initially excited modes.
文摘There has been an increasing global and local interest in developing renewable, clean, and cheap energy towards achieving Goal number 7 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). However, decisions involving suitable and sustainable locations for renewable energy projects remain an important task. This study employed Geographic Information System (GIS) and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) to spatially analyze and model wind farm site suitability in Nasarawa State. The aim is to integrate the environmental, social, and economic aspects of decision-making for identifying sustainable wind farm sites. The study distinguished between two sets of decision criteria: decision constraints and decision factors. The former defined the exclusion zones while the latter were standardized based on fuzzy logic to depict varying degrees of suitability across the State. The MCDA applied the weighted linear combination method, with relative weights generated through pairwise comparisons of the analytic hierarchy process to analyze three policy scenarios: equal weights, environmental/social priority, and economic priority scenario. A combination of resulting composite maps from the constraints and the factors gave the final suitability maps. The resulting suitability index (SI) for the respective policy scenario describes the degrees of suitability: Ideal locations were denoted by one (1) and the not suitable locations by zero (0), with values in-between depicting varying degrees of wind farm site suitability. Based on the SI, priority locations indicating areas with good prospects, in addition to the most suitable parcels of land, were identified and delineated. The composite decision constraint revealed that wind farm projects would not be viable in more than half (57.58%) of the State. Wind speed was the major constraint and accounted for the exclusion of 46.25%, with a mean fuzzy membership value of 0.2008 indicating low suitability across the State. Also, the average acceptable wind farm location for the three-policy scenario was 33.33% of the entire study area. Lafia, Obi, Keana, Awe, Nasarawa-Eggon, Wamba and Kokona LGAs were the identified priority Local Government Areas (LGAs). However, only Lafia, Obi, and Nasarawa-Eggon were consistent with changes in the policy objectives. All the priority LGAs have one or more of the most suitable parcels within their administrative boundaries except for Wamba. Despite the severe limitations of wind speed, substantial parts of Nasarawa State still provide great development potentials for wind energy. The “most suitable” locations in Lafia, Nasarawa-Eggon, and Obi LGAs should have first consideration for the development of wind energy in the State.
文摘Characterization of unknown groundwater contaminant sources is an important but difficult step in effective groundwater management. The difficulties arise mainly due to the time of contaminant detection which usually happens a long time after the start of contaminant source(s) activities. Usually, limited information is available which also can be erroneous. This study utilizes Self-Organizing Map (SOM) and Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) algorithms to develop surrogate models that can approximate the complex flow and transport processes in a contaminated aquifer. The important feature of these developed surrogate models is that unlike the previous methods, they can be applied independently of any linked optimization model solution for characterizing of unknown groundwater contaminant sources. The performance of the developed surrogate models is evaluated for source characterization in an experimental contaminated aquifer site within the heterogeneous sand aquifer, located at the Botany Basin, New South Wales, Australia. In this study, the measured contaminant concentrations and hydraulic conductivity values are assumed to contain random errors. Simulated responses of the aquifer to randomly specified contamination stresses as simulated by using a three-dimensional numerical simulation model are utilized for initial training of the surrogate models. The performance evaluation results obtained by using different surrogate models are also compared. The evaluation results demonstrate the different capabilities of the developed surrogate models. These capabilities lead to development of an efficient methodology for source characterization based on utilizing the trained and tested surrogate models in an inverse mode. The obtained results are satisfactory and show the potential applicability of the SOM and GPR-based surrogate models for unknown groundwater contaminant source characterization in an inverse mode.
基金the National Center of Excellence for Environmental and Hazardous Waste Management(NCE-EHWM)the Geology Department of Chulalongkorn University
文摘This study investigated the effects of pH on the transport of Pb 2＋ , Mn 2＋ , Zn 2＋ and Ni 2＋ through lateritic soil columns. Model results by fitting the symmetric breakthrough curves （BTCs） of bromide （Br ） with CXTFIT model suggested that physical non-equilibrium processes were absent in the columns. The heavy metal BTCs were, however, asymmetrical and exhibited a tailing phenomenon, indicating the presence of chemical non-equilibrium processes in the columns. The retardation factors of Pb 2＋ were the largest of the four metal ions at both pH 4.0 （33.3） and pH 5.0 （35.4）. The use of Langmuir isotherm parameters from batch studies with HYDRUS-1D did not predict the BTCs well. Rather the two-site model （TSM） described the heavy metal BTCs better than the equilibrium linear/nonlinear Langmuir model. The fraction of instantaneous sorption sites （ f ） of all four metal ions on the lateritic soil was consistently about 30%–44% of the total sorption sites.
基金the donors of The American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund for partial support of this research
文摘Generic polymer models capturing the chain connectivity and excluded-volume interactions between polymer segments can be classified, according to whether or not the 3D integral of the latter diverges, into hard- and soft-core models. Taking homogeneous systems of compressible homopolymer melts (or equivalently homopolymer solutions in an implicit, good solvent) in the continuum as an example, we recently compared the correlation effects on the structural and thermodynamic properties of the hard- and soft-core models given by the polymer reference interaction site model (PRISM) theory with the Percus-Yevick (PY) closure (Polymers 2023, 15, 1180). Here we analyzed in detail the numerical errors and behavior of the interchain pair correlation functions (PCFs) given by the PRISM-PY calculations of these models using an efficient numerical approach that we proposed. Our numerical approach has the least number of independent variables to be iteratively solved, analytically treats the discontinuities caused by the non-bonded pair potential (such as that of the hard spheres) and takes only the inverse Fourier transform of the interchain indirect PCF between polymer segments (which is continuous and decays towards 0 with increasing wavenumber much faster than both the interchain direct and total PCFs), and is essential for us to accurately solve the PRISM-PY theory for chain length N as large as 106. To capture the correlation-hole effect, the real-space cut-off in the PRISM calculations should be proportional to the square root of N.
