Light for Earthquake Prediction:Shocks before the L'Aquila Earthquake of April 6,2009

The temporal-spatial distribution of mid-small earthquakes in Italy and its surroundings from January 1 to April 5,2009 shows that there were significant foreshocks before the moderate L'Aquila earthquake of April 6,2009.The enhancement of frequency and intensity of small earthquakes and their concentrating tendency to the future main shock have provided a comprehensive case for digging methods of earthquake forecasting with foreshocks.

Coseismic slip distribution of 2009 L'Aquila earthquake derived from InSAR and GPS data

To better understand the mechanism of the Mw6.3 L＇Aquila （Central Italy） earthquake occurred in 2009, global positioning system （GPS） and interferometric synthetic aperture radar （InSAR） data were used to derive the coseismic slip distribution of the earthquake fault. Firstly, based on the homogeneous elastic half-space model, the fault geometric parameters were solved by the genetic algorithm. The best fitting model shows that the fault is a 13.7 km×14.1 km rectangular fault, in 139.3° strike direction and 50.2° southwest-dipping. Secondly, fixing the optimal fault geometric parameters, the fault plane was extended and discretized into 16× 16 patches, each with a size of 1 kmx 1 krn, and the non-uniform slip distribution of the fault was inverted by the steepest descent method with an appropriate smoothing ratio based on the layered crustal structure model. The preferred solution shows that the fault is mainly a normal fault with slight right-lateral strike slip, the maximum slip of 1.01 m is located in the depth of 8.28 km, the average rake is -100.9°, and the total geodetic moment is about 3.34× 1018 N.m （Mw 6.28）. The results are much closer than previous studies in comparison with the seismological estimation. These demonstrate that the coseismic fault slip distribution of the L＇Aauila earthauake inverted by the crustal model considering layered characters is reliable.

Characteristics of Seismic Activity in a 3-Dimensional Space before the Wen'an Earthquake,Hebei Province by Relocation of Small Earthquakes in the China's Capital Area

Characteristics of seismic activity before the M5. 1 earthquake in Wen＇an, Hebei Province on July 4, 2006 are analyzed by relocation of small earthquakes in the China＇s capital area, and some results are obtained as follows：① The seismic activity of ML ≥ 3.0 in the middle part of the Hebei plain seismic belt displayed a feature of strengthening （ lasting 43 months） quiescence （17 months） five years before the Wen＇an earthquake. Simultaneously, the strain release curve showed a variation process of accelerating-flatting. ② A seismogenic gap in a three-dimensional space, located at the depth of 15km - 20km, with 70km long in latitude direction and 90km long in longitude orientation, was formed by M≥2.0 earthquakes four years prior to the Wen＇an earthquake. The initial rupture point of the Wen＇an earthquake is situated at the bottom of the gap. ③ The focal depths of earthquakes with ML ≥ 2. 0 in the middle part of the Hebei plain seismic belt gradually increased from 10km to 30kin during the period from April, 2003 to October, 2004. Meanwhile, the seismic activity obviously strengthened in the middle and lower crust （from 20km to 30km in depth）.

Distribution characteristics of China's key cultural relic tourism resources and suggestions to its development and protection

SPSS13.0 was used to process the data of the 1-6 batch of key cultural relic conservation units promulgated by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China;and multi-element evaluation method was used to calculate the composite distribution index.The spatial distribution of cultural relics of provinces in China can be divided into four grades,namely:very rich areas,rich areas,poor areas and very poor areas;the article analyzes the characteristics of cultural resources in spatial and temporal distribution.The paper holds that(1)the distribution of China's cultural relic tourism resources is relatively concentrated,different sharply from region to region,with more Han nation's heritage,less relics of the ethnic minorities;(2) Henan,Hebei,Shaanxi,Shanxi Province are the main regions with heavy distribution of cultural resources;(3) relics appeared in specific time periods in China's history.Ming and Qing Dynasties,Sui,Tang and Five Dynasties,Song,Liao and Jin,the Western Han,Shang and Zhou dynasties,the New Stone Age are the major periods producing more cultural relics.This paper also analyzes relationships of the emergence of cultural relics with production technology,specific historical process,specific geographical location,political system,religion,national culture,customs,architectural styles and techniques of the traditional cultural educational system.Finally,the paper discusses the development and protection of heritage.

Spatio-temporal Variations in Plantation Forests'Disturbance and Recovery of Northern Guangdong Province Using Yearly Landsat Time Series Observations(1986-2015)

Forest disturbance plays a vital role in modulating carbon storage,biodiversity and climate change.Yearly Landsat imagery from 1986 to 2015 of a typical plantation region in the northern Guangdong province of southern China was used as a case study.A Landsat time series stack(LTSS) was fed to the vegetation change tracker model(VCT) to map long-term changes in plantation forests' disturbance and recovery,followed by an intensive validation and a continuous 27-yr change analysis on disturbance locations,magnitudes and rates of plantations' disturbance and recovery.And the validation results of the disturbance year maps derived from five randomly identified sample plots with 25 km^2 located at the four corners and the center of the scene showed the majority of the spatial agreement measures ranged from 60% to 83%.A confusion matrix summary of the accuracy measures for all four validation sites in Fogang County showed that the disturbance year maps had an overall accuracy estimate of 71.70%.Forest disturbance rates' change trend was characterized by a decline first,followed by an increase,then giving way to a decline again.An undulated and gentle decreasing trend of disturbance rates from the highest value of 3.95% to the lowest value of 0.76% occurred between 1988 and 2001,disturbance rate of 4.51% in 1994 was a notable anomaly,while after 2001 there was a sharp ascending change,forest disturbance rate spiked in 2007(5.84%).After that,there was a significant decreasing trend up to the lowest value of 1.96% in 2011 and a slight ascending trend from 2011 to 2015(2.59%).Two obvious spikes in post-disturbance recovery rates occurred in 1995(0.26%) and 2008(0.41%).Overall,forest recovery rates were lower than forest disturbance rates.Moreover,forest disturbance and recovery detection based on VCT and the Landsat-based detections of trends in disturbance and recovery(LandT rendr) algorithms in Fogang County have been conducted,with LandT rendr finding mostly much more disturbance than VCT.Overall,disturbances and recoveries in northern Guangdong were triggered mostly by timber needs,policies and decisions of the local governments.This study highlights that a better understanding about plantations' changes would provide a critical foundation for local forest management decisions in the southern China.

Characterization of the Crustal Thickness and Poisson's Ratio of the Binchuan Region

This paper presents the changes of crust thickness and Poisson＇s ratios distribution in the Binchuan region, where the first air-gun transmitting station and it＇s a small dense array were deployed. From September 2011 to January 2014, more than 239 teleseismic events of M≥ 6.0 were recorded in 16 stations in the Binchuan region. Their P-wave receiver functions were analyzed respectively. The high spatial resolution result shows that the average crust thickness of Binchuan region is 45.3km, it follows the rule of ＂deeper in the north and east part, shallower in the south and west part. ＂ The deepest region is in Xiaoyindian Station; the crust thickness is 47.9km; the shallowest region is in Paiying Station, it has the thickness of 42. lkm. It shows that the deeper Moho surface nearby the Chenghai fault and shallower nearby the Honghe fault; the isoline distribution of thickness changes greatly nearby the Chenghai fault and slowly nearby the Honghe fault. From the distribution of Poisson＇s ratios, it is unevenly in the study area with a great difference from the north part to the south part, which shows a characteristic of ＂lower in the north, higher in the south＂. The Poisson＇s ratio nearby the Honghe fault is medium too high （ 0. 26 ≤ σ≤0. 29 ） ; lower nearby the Chenghai fault （ ≤0. 26）. This paper concludes the possible reason of different characteristic between Poisson＇s ratio and crust thickness is thicker in the upper crust in the Binchuan region.

Evaluation of development potential of pumped hydroelectric storage and geothermal utilization system in abandoned coal mine

Every year in China,a significant number of mines are closed or abandoned.The pumped hydroelectric storage(PHS)and geothermal utilization are vital means to efficiently repurpose resources in abandoned mine.In this work,the development potentials of the PHS and geothermal utilization systems were evaluated.Considering the geological conditions and meteorological data available of Jiahe abandoned mine,a simple evaluation model for PHS and geothermal utilization was established.The average efficiency of the PHS system exceeds 70%and the regulatable energy of a unit volume is over 1.53 kW·h/m^(3).The PHS system achieves optimal performance when the wind/solar power ratio reaches 0.6 and 0.3 in daily and year scale,respectively.In the geothermal utilization system,the outlet temperature and heat production are significantly affected by the injection flow rate.The heat production performance is more stable at lower rate flow,and the proportion of heat production is higher in the initial stage at greater flow rate.As the operating time increases,the proportion of heat production gradually decreases.The cyclic heat storage status has obvious advantages in heat generation and cooling.Furthermore,the energy-saving and emission reduction benefits of PHS and geothermal utilization systems were calculated.

Digital Art as Urban Communication

As mobility and migration become the norm,citizens in modern cities live among people who remain strangers to each other.This creates new opportunities and challenges for urban social life.Public space is a critical forum in which strangers encounter each other and have the opportunity to develop social protocols for coexisting in diversity.New media technologies have huge impact on the form and quality of public space.Digital art can create experimental public spaces in which mediated connections and embodied presence are combined in new ways.Through the practice and research of digital art,we can imagine a communicative city in which urban digital media is less about spectacle,and more about promoting new forms of public speech and social encounter between people.

Assessing the range of blasting-induced cracks in the surrounding rock of deeply buried tunnels based on the unified strength theory

Blasting-induced cracks in the rock surrounding deeply buried tunnels can result in water gushing and rock mass collapse,posing significant safety risks.However,previous theoretical studies on the range of blasting-induced cracks often ignore the impact of the in-situ stress,especially that of the intermediate principal stress.The particle displacement−crack radius relationship was established in this paper by utilizing the blasthole cavity expansion equation,and theoretical analytical formulas of the stress−displacement relationship and the crack radius were derived with unified strength theory to accurately assess the range of cracks in deep surrounding rock under a blasting load.Parameter analysis showed that the crushing zone size was positively correlated with in-situ stress,intermediate principal stress,and detonation pressure,whereas negatively correlated with Poisson ratio and decoupling coefficient.The dilatancy angle-crushing zone size relationship exhibited nonmonotonic behavior.The relationships in the crushing zone and the fracture zone exhibited opposite trends under the influence of only in-situ stress or intermediate principal stress.As the in-situ stress increased from 0 to 70 MPa,the rate of change in the crack range and the attenuation rate of the peak vibration velocity gradually slowed.

Simulation of Start-Up Process of Turbofan Engine Based on Full-State Characteristics of Fan

Difficulties in obtaining component characteristics in the sub-idle state of rotor constrain the simulation capabilities of ground and windmill start-up processes for turbofan engines.This paper proposes a backbone feature method based on conventional characteristics parameters to derive the full-state characteristics of fan.The application of the fan’s full-state characteristics in component-level model of turbofan engine enables zero-speed iterative simulation for ground start-up process and windmill simulation for windmill start-up process,thereby improving the simulation capability of sub-idle state during turbofan engine start-up.

Three-dimensional conjugate gradient inversion of magnetotelluric sounding data

Based on the analysis of the conjugate gradient algorithm, we implement a threedimensional （3D） conjugate gradient inversion algorithm with magnetotelluric impedance data. During the inversion process, the 3D conjugate gradient inversion algorithm doesn＇ t need to compute and store the Jacobian matrix but directly updates the model from the computation of the Jacobian matrix. Requiring only one forward and four pseudo-forward modeling applications per frequency to produce the model update at each iteration, this algorithm efficiently reduces the computation of the inversion. From a trial inversion with synthetic magnetotelluric data, the validity and stability of the 3D conjugate gradient inversion algorithm is verified.

Temporal-spatial Changes in Inner Mongolian Grassland Degradation during Past Three Decades

[Objective] This study aimed to analyze the temporal-spatial variation of Inner Mongolian grassland degradation during past three decades. [Method] The dis- tribution characteristics of grassland were described by land use types supervised classification with TM/ETM. Then, temporal-spatial changes of grassland coverage were quantified by the mean of maximum vegetation coverage in last 30 years. Lastly, the grassland degradation reasons were explored through statistic analysis between the grassland coverage and precipitation, temperature and grazing intensity. [Result] The grassland degradation index of Inner Mongolia was increased from 1.38 to 1.68, and the smallest was 1.28 in 2005s. Grassland degradation and improve- ment were concurrent after 1980s, but grassland degradation was the major change trend for Inner Mongolia grassland. The area of grassland degradation was enlarged from 18.08×10^4 km2 in 1980s to 22.47×10^4 km2 in 2010s on the whole and distribu- tion range was shifted from central-eastern to west in Inner Mongolia that mainly distributed on Hulun Buir and Xilin Gol grassland in 1980s and Ordos and Alax grassland in 2010s. The grassland area of degradation had a rising trend form 1980s to 1995s, then reduced to 10.8x104 km2 in 2005s, and decreased in 2010s, which mainly speared in the west of Xilin Gol grassland. [Conclusion] Inner Mongo-lian grassland degradation were become more seriously in last 30 years because that temperature, precipitation and graze intensities change, which not performance on decreasing coverage but grassland areas.

Variable-coordinate forward modeling of irregular surface based on dual-variable grid

The mapping method is a forward-modeling method that transforms the irregular surface to horizontal by mapping the rectangular grid as curved; moreover, the wave field calculations move from the physical domain to the calculation domain. The mapping method deals with the irregular surface and the low-velocity layer underneath it using a fine grid. For the deeper high-velocity layers, the use of a fine grid causes local oversampling. In addition, when the irregular surface is transformed to horizontal, the flattened interface below the surface is transformed to curved, which produces inaccurate modeling results because of the presence of ladder-like burrs in the simulated seismic wave. Thus, we propose the mapping method based on the dual-variable finite-difference staggered grid. The proposed method uses different size grid spacings in different regions and locally variable time steps to match the size variability of grid spacings. Numerical examples suggest that the proposed method requires less memory storage capacity and improves the computational efficiency compared with forward modeling methods based on the conventional grid.

On Spatial Variability and Distribution of Soil Nutrients in Different Nitraria tangutorum Bobr.Populations in Tsaidam Basin

In this paper,six important distribution areas of Nitraria tangutorum Bobr.in Tsaidam Basin were selected as research objects,to study spatial variability and distribution of soil nutrients in different N.tangutorum populations and analyze the relationship between soil nutrient contents and geographical location,by measuring soil pH and the contents of organic matter（OM）,total nitrogen（N）,total phosphorus（P）,total potassium（K）,hydrolysis N,available P and available K in soils.Results showed that：（1） soil nutrient contents among different populations showed significant spatial variability,and soil depth had a significant effect on soil nutrients contents,but the variation rules were not obvious.（2）Average pH and average contents of OM,total N,total P,total K,hydrolysis N,available P and available K in soils with different depths（0-15,15-30,30-45 cm） varied in the range of 8.37-9.21,3.34-20.68,0.18-1.21,0.35-0.75,16.12-22.04,5.13-553.28,1.10-52.54 and 103.83-562.28 mg/kg,respectively.（3） The analysis results of correlation between average values of pH and contents of nutrient indexes in soils with different depths（0-15,15-30,30-45 cm） showed that the correlation of these indexes were different.（4）OM and total N contents in soils with different depths（0-15,15-30,30-45 cm） all had a significant positive correlation with latitude and negative correlation with longitude and altitude,and the correlation of available P and available K contents in surface soils（0-15 cm） with latitude,longitude and altitude were significant positive,significant negative and significant negative,respectively;moreover,longitude and latitude also showed a significant impact on soil available K contents with the depth of 30-45 cm.In addition,comprehensive analysis result of nutrient contents showed that N.tangutorum populations in Huaitou Tala Town had the highest fertility,and the fertility levels of N.tangutorum populations in Chaka Town and Wulan Keke Town were relatively lower.

A Study on Vertical Spatial Transfer of Cultivated Land in Yunnan Province from 1986 to 2008

Based upon ArCGIS,the vertical spatial transfer law of cultivated land in Yunnan was studied through referring to three periods of remote sensing data of Land-Use and Land-Cover Change（LUCC） in Yunnan in 1986,1995 and 2000,Digital Elevation Model（DEM） of Yunnan Province and LUCC data in Yunnan from 2000 to 2008.The main factors that promote vertical spatial transfer law of cultivated land were analyzed by using SPSS,and the influence of policies and government acts upon the change of cultivated land was clarified.The findings indicated that for Yunnan cultivated land there is a trend that in the vertical direction steep slope areas and gentle slope areas divert into mid-slope areas.The primary factor influencing the vertical spatial transfer of cultivated land was policies and government acts.Also,the gradient of ground,total population and number of agriculture employed persons were also main factors in influencing the change of cultivated land,whose influence was obviously below policies and government acts.

3D electrical resistivity inversion using prior spatial shape constraints

To minimize the number of solutions in 3D resistivity inversion, an inherent problem in inversion, the amount of data considered have to be large and prior constraints need to be applied. Geological and geophysical data regarding the extent of a geological anomaly are important prior information. We propose the use of shape constraints in 3D electrical resistivity inversion, Three weighted orthogonal vectors （a normal and two tangent vectors） were used to control the resistivity differences at the boundaries of the anomaly. The spatial shape of the anomaly and the constraints on the boundaries of the anomaly are thus established. We incorporated the spatial shape constraints in the objective function of the 3D resistivity inversion and constructed the 3D resistivity inversion equation with spatial shape constraints. Subsequently, we used numerical modeling based on prior spatial shape data to constrain the direction vectors and weights of the 3D resistivity inversion. We established a reasonable range between the direction vectors and weights, and verified the feasibility and effectiveness of using spatial shape prior constraints in reducing excessive structures and the number of solutions. We applied the prior spatially shape-constrained inversion method to locate the aquifer at the Guangzhou subway. The spatial shape constraints were taken from ground penetrating radar data. The inversion results for the location and shape of the aquifer agree well with drilling data, and the number of inversion solutions is significantly reduced.

Influence of Landmarks on Spatial Memory in Short-nosed Fruit Bat, Cynopterus sphinx

In order to study the relationship between landmarks and spatial memory in short-nosed fruit bat, Cynopterus sphinx （Megachiroptera, Pteropodidae）, we simulated a foraging environment in the laboratory. Different landmarks were placed to gauge the spatial memory of C. sphinx. We changed the number of landmarks every day with 0 landmarks again on the fifth day （from 0, 2, 4, 8 to 0）. Individuals from the control group were exposed to the identical artificial foraging environment, but without landmarks. The results indicated that there was significant correlation between the time of the first foraging and the experimental days in both groups （Pearson Correlation： experimental group： r=-0.593, P〈0.01; control group： r=-0.581, P〈0.01）. There was no significant correlation between the success rates of foraging and the experimental days in experimental groups （Pearson Correlation： r=0.177, P〉0.05）, but there was significant correlation between the success rates of foraging and the experimental days in the control groups （Pearson Correlation： r=0.445, P〈0.05）. There was no significant difference for the first foraging time between experimental and control groups （GLM： F0.05,1=4.703, P〉0.05）; also, there was no significant difference in success rates of foraging between these two groups （GLM： F0.05,1=0.849,P〉0.05）. The results of our experiment suggest that spatial memory in C. sphinx was formed gradually and that the placed landmarks appeared to have no discernable effects on the memory of the foraging space.

Geographical Space Distribution of China's Oil and Gas Industry:Characteristics and Drivers

Here, the geographical space distribution of the oil and gas industry in China is comprehensively investigated using the overal Moran’s I index and local Moran’s I index. We found that China’s oil and gas industry development from 2000 to 2010 has a differentiated geographical space distribution upstream （extractive industry） but not downstream （reifning industry）. To analyze upstream and downstream states a spatial econometrics model （SEM） was used to identify inlfuential factors resulting from the spatial concentration of the oil and gas industry. An external effect is the key factor promoting the spatial concentration of the upstream industry in China;governmental economic policy is another important factor.

Temporal and Spatial Variation Characteristics of Precipitation during Crop Growing Season in Northeast China

[Objective] The aims were to understand variation characteristics of water resources and provide theoretical guidance for the formulation of agricultural irrigation methods.[Method] Taking the precipitation records during crop growing season（from April to September）observed by 177 weather stations from 1971 to 2008 in the three provinces of Northeast China（Heilongjiang,Jilin and Liaoning）as research data,annual change and spatial distribution characteristics of precipitation during crop growing season were analyzed by means of small grid interpolation and climatic trend rate.[Result] The precipitation during crop growing season general exhibited the decreasing trend and the precipitation trend rate was-8.6 mm/10a in Northeast China.In addition,there was lack of rain from 1971 to 1980 and relatively abundant of rain during 1981 and 1990 respectively.Moreover,the precipitation obviously exhibited decreasing trend from 1991 to 2008.But the decreasing trend was inconsistent in spatial distributions,that was,the precipitation slightly increased in relatively rainless areas and obviously decreased in relatively rainy areas.[Conclusion] The areas with obvious decreasing trend of precipitation during crop growing season are the main grain producing zones in Northeast China,so the problem of food production security caused by the precipitation changes should be paid enough attention.