Reliability analysis of slopes considering spatial variability of soil properties based on efficiently identified representative slip surfaces

Slope reliability analysis considering inherent spatial variability(ISV)of soil properties is timeconsuming when response surface method(RSM)is used,because of the"curse of dimensionality".This paper proposes an effective method for identification of representative slip surfaces(RSSs)of slopes with spatially varied soils within the framework of limit equilibrium method(LEM),which utilizes an adaptive K-means clustering approach.Then,an improved slope reliability analysis based on the RSSs and RSM considering soil spatial variability,in perspective of computation efficiency,is established.The detailed implementation procedure of the proposed method is well documented,and the ability of the method in identifying RSSs and estimating reliability is investigated via three slope examples.Results show that the proposed method can automatically identify the RSSs of slope with only one evaluation of the conventional deterministic slope stability model.The RSSs are invariant with the statistics of soil properties,which allows parametric studies that are often required in slope reliability analysis to be efficiently achieved with ease.It is also found that the proposed method provides comparable values of factor of safety(FS)and probability of failure(Pf)of slopes with those obtained from direct analysis and lite rature.

Understanding the spatial representativeness of air quality monitoring network and its application to PM_(2.5)in the China's Mainland

Air pollution has seriously endangered human health and the natural ecosystem during the last decades.Air quality monitoring stations(AQMS)have played a critical role in providing valuable data sets for recording regional air pollutants.The spatial representativeness of AQMS is a critical parameter when choosing the location of stations and assessing effects on the population to long-term exposure to air pollution.In this paper,we proposed a methodological framework for assessing the spatial representativeness of the regional air quality monitoring network and applied it to ground-based PM_(2.5)observation in the mainland of China.Weighted multidimensional Euclidean distance between each pixel and the stations was used to determine the representativeness of the existing monitoring network.In addition,the K-means clustering method was adopted to improve the spatial representativeness of the existing AQMS.The results showed that there were obvious differences among the representative area of 1820 stations in the mainland of China.The monitoring stations could well represent the PM_(2.5)spatial distribution of the entire region,and the effectively represented area(i.e.the area where the Euclidean distance between the pixels and the stations was lower than the average value)accounted for 67.32%of the total area and covered 93.12%of the population.Forty additional stations were identified in the Northwest,North China,and Northeast regions,which could improve the spatial representativeness by 14.31%.

Representative value of cross-fault in the northeastern margin of the Qinghai-Tibet block and case analysis of the 2016 Menyuan Ms6.4 earthquake

The equation for determining cross-fault representative value is calculated based on hanging wall and foot wall reference level surfaces. The cross-fault data reliability are analyzed base on the stability of reference datum and observation points, thereby facilitating plotting of the representative value curves after removing interference. The spatial and temporal characteristics of fault deformation abnormalities before the 2016 Menyuan Ms6.4 earthquake, as well as the fault-movement characteristics reflected by representative value, are summarized. The results show that many site trends had changed 1-3 years before the Menyuan Ms6.4 earthquake in the Qilian Fault, reflecting certain background abnormalities. The short-term abnormalities centrally had appeared in the 6 months to 1 year period before the earthquake near and in the neighborhood of the source region,demonstrating a significantly increased number of short-term abnormalities. Many sites near and in the neighborhood of the source region had strengthened inverse activities or had changed from positive to inverse activities in the most recent 2-3 years, which reflect stress-field enhancements or adjustment features.

A sparse algorithm for adaptive pruning least square support vector regression machine based on global representative point ranking

Least square support vector regression(LSSVR)is a method for function approximation,whose solutions are typically non-sparse,which limits its application especially in some occasions of fast prediction.In this paper,a sparse algorithm for adaptive pruning LSSVR algorithm based on global representative point ranking(GRPR-AP-LSSVR)is proposed.At first,the global representative point ranking(GRPR)algorithm is given,and relevant data analysis experiment is implemented which depicts the importance ranking of data points.Furthermore,the pruning strategy of removing two samples in the decremental learning procedure is designed to accelerate the training speed and ensure the sparsity.The removed data points are utilized to test the temporary learning model which ensures the regression accuracy.Finally,the proposed algorithm is verified on artificial datasets and UCI regression datasets,and experimental results indicate that,compared with several benchmark algorithms,the GRPR-AP-LSSVR algorithm has excellent sparsity and prediction speed without impairing the generalization performance.

Analysing the behavioural finance impact of ‘fake news’phenomena on financial markets:a representative agent model and empirical validation

This paper proposes an original behavioural finance representative agent model,to explain how fake news’empirical price impacts can persist in finance despite contradicting the efficient-market hypothesis.The model reconciles empirically-observed price overreactions to fake news with empirically-observed price underreactions to real news,and predicts a novel secondary impact of fake news:that fake news in a security amplifies underreactions to subsequent real news for the security.Evaluating the model against a large-sample event study of the 2019 Chinese ADR Delisting Threat fake news and debunking event,this paper finds strong qualitative validation for its model’s dynamics and predictions.

Relationship between Representatives of American Dream and Non-WASPs of America

American dream represents a wonderful wish of pursuit of better life, it attracts not only American, but also people all over the world to realize their dreams through hard-working. Focusing on people who have become representatives of American dream, we will find that most of them are Non-WASPS.

Representative heights for assessing whole-tree values of cell-type proportions in Eucalyptus camaldulensis and E. globulus

Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehnh. and E. globulus Labill. are economically important species for wood and pulpwood materials. Representative heights for assessing whole-tree values of cell-type proportions(vessels, fibers, ray and axial parenchyma percentages) using increment cores were examined by analysis of within-tree variations. Pattern differences were evaluated between trees and species in both radial and axial directions by statistical data analysis(Moses test). In E. camaldulensis,within-tree variation of vessel percentage was generally higher in the upper and outer regions of the trunk. In contrast, E. globulus within-tree variation was unclear. In both species, although no clear pattern of fiber percentages was observed, within-tree variations of ray and axial parenchyma levels were higher in the lower and inner regions.Significant differences in patterns were observed in the axial variation between species for vessel percentages and in the radial variation between trees of E. camaldulensis for ray parenchyma percentages. The representative heights for assessing whole-tree cell-type proportions were 0.8 mabove the ground for E. camaldulensis and 2.8 m for E.globulus, regardless of differences in tree height and pattern of within-tree variation of cell-type proportions.

On the Angular Distribution of the Representative Points of Bases of Human Protein Coding Sequences

A novel diagrammtic method is proposed to show the angular distribution of bases of human protein sequences. Using this method, the distribution sphere[1-4] is divided into four regions with same volume. The picture is clearer and more intuitive than that in [1] .A rule on the angular distribution of the representative points of bases of protein sequences is given. Besides, in 300 representative pointS of human protein sequence samples we find that there are three (not only one) points outside the sphere.

A STUDY ON SAMPLING REPRESENTATIVENESS OF IAEA RM SD-M-2/TM MARINE SEDIMENT BY INAA

The homogeneity of IAEA RM SD-M-2/TM Marine Sediment was tested by INAA. The sampling constants for 6 elements were determined.

Revealing the Pressure-Induced Softening/Weakening Mechanism in Representative Covalent Materials

Diamond, cubic boron nitride(c-BN), silicon(Si), and germanium(Ge), as examples of typical strong covalent materials, have been extensively investigated in recent decades, owing to their fundamental importance in material science and industry. However, an in-depth analysis of the character of these materials' mechanical behaviors under harsh service environments, such as high pressure, has yet to be conducted. Based on several mechanical criteria, the effect of pressure on the mechanical properties of these materials is comprehensively investigated.It is demonstrated that, with respect to their intrinsic brittleness/ductile nature, all these materials exhibit ubiquitous pressure-enhanced ductility. By analyzing the strength variation under uniform deformation, together with the corresponding electronic structures, we reveal for the first time that the pressure-induced mechanical softening/weakening exhibits distinct characteristics between diamond and c-BN, owing to the differences in their abnormal charge-depletion evolution under applied strain, whereas a monotonous weakening phenomenon is observed in Si and Ge. Further investigation into dislocation-mediated plastic resistance indicates that the pressure-induced shuffle-set plane softening in diamond(c-BN), and weakening in Si(Ge), can be attributed to the reduction of antibonding states below the Fermi level, and an enhanced metallization, corresponding to the weakening of the bonds around the slipped plane with increasing pressure, respectively. These findings not only reveal the physical mechanism of pressure-induced softening/weakening in covalent materials, but also highlights the necessity of exploring strain-tunable electronic structures to emphasize the mechanical response in such covalent materials.

Does Geochronology of Few Dykes of a Swarm are True Representative of All Dykes of the Same Magmatic Event?: Constraints from the Geochemistry and Google^(TM) Earth Image–ArcG IS^(TM) Studies of the Paleoproterozoic Mafic Dyke Swarms of the Eastern Dharwa

A precise dating of a mafic dyke of a swarm in shield areas has great advantage to identify Large Igneous Provinces(LIPs;short-lived,mantle-generated magmatic event)(Bryan and Ernst,2008;Ernst et al.,2010).

Projection of Future Changes in Elephant Population in Amboseli under Representative Concentration Pathways

Within savanna environments, movements of elephant are influenced by changes in climate especially seasonal rainfall. In this study, we investigated the possible changes in elephant population based on projected rainfall changes using regional climate models (RCM) and Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs). The relationship between elephant and rainfall was modelled against annual, wet season, dry season rainfall based on various time lags. Future relation between elephant and rainfall was projected based on three RCPs;2.6, 4.5 and 8.5. There was a strong linear relationship between elephant and October-November-December (OND) rains with time lag of 13 years (Y = −4016.43 + 19.11x, r2 = 0.459, P = 0.006). The rainfall trends for RCP 2.6 and 4.5 showed a slight increase in annual rainfall for the period 2006-2100 but driven by OND increases. Rainfall increase for RCP 8.5 was significant and was driven by increase in both March-April-May (MAM) and OND. These rainfall dynamics had influence on the projected elephant population in the Amboseli ecosystem. For RCP 2.6 and 4.5 the elephant population increase was 2455 and 2814 respectively. RCP 8.5 elephant population doubled to an average of 3348 elephants. In all the RCPs there are seasonal and yearly variations and absolute number varies from the average. The range of variation is small in RCPs 2.6 and 4.5 compared to RCP 8.5. Evidently, elephant population will increase based on projected rainfall projections surpassing park capacity. It therefore, requires that the Park authority put in place measures that could contain these numbers including opening of blocked wildlife corridors, maintain the cross border movement of Amboseli elephant with Tanzania in that case ensure there is no poaching. Lastly, work with local communities so that they can benefit from tourism through setting up conservancies through which they could minimize the human elephant conflicts based on the projected elephant population.

District Partisan Homogeneity, Communications, and the Electoral Motive: An Analysis of the Facebook Posts of Members of the U.S. House of Representatives

The research examines the way in which members of the U.S. House of Representative represent themselves on the social network site Facebook. Each member’s activity is observed on seven different occasions and the frequency and substantive character of posts made during the second half of 2013 are established. The focus is on position-taking posts versus posts which mention the district the member serves in. Our expectation is that members from electorally safe districts will be more likely to advertise their policy positions while members from marginal districts will be more inclined to advertise their district connections. We control for minority party status, gender, and ideological extremism among other concerns and learn electoral safety is a good predictor of both “position-taking” and “district mentions”. Consistent with an electoral motive, we also find members from the minority party less likely to take positions on the issues of the day and more likely to mention the district they serve in.

＂Chinese Investors and Businesses Are Always Welcome in Armenia＂-- Exclusive Interview with Hrant Abajyan, the Trade Representative of the Armenian Embassy in China

"I came to China for the first time in 2012 when I was doing my master’s degree in Nanjing.The real China is full of all kinds of different things and is a good place for every kind of person."When talking about his impression of China,Hrant Abajyan,the Trade Representative of the Armenian Embassy in China,told China’s Foreign Trade:"Our doors are always open to all interested parties and people who want to be a part of Sino-Armenian relations,regardless of their sphere or sector of interest."

THE "DIALOGUE" BETWEEN THE FIFTEENTH NATIONAL CONGRESS OF OCP AND GUANGDONG CUSTOMS——Interviewing Liu Wenjie, representative of the Congress, director of Guangdong Customs Branch Office, Director of Guangzhou Customs

The Fifteenth Natlonal Con-gress,a very important andgrand trans—century meeting inthe history Of CCP,was inaugu-rated in Beijing on September 12,1997. Guangdong Customs have sentrepresentatives to attend the Party’sCongress for the first time in his-tory.Among the two representa-tives is Liu Wenjie,director ofGuangdong CUStoms Branch Of-fice and of Guangzhou Customs.On September 23 after conclusionof the Coilgress,this reporter inte-Viewed directory Liu Wenjie in

North American Association Put Manufacturers and Representatives Together

For more than half a centurymanufacturers in search of independentrepresentatives to sell their products innew markets and to establishrelationships with prospective customershave relied upon the services of theManufacturers’ Agents NationalAssociation (MANA).

A State Leader,an Economist and a People's Representative——An exclusive interview with Mr. Cheng Siwei,former Vice-Chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) and President of the Central Committee of the China National Democratic Construction Asso

In the midst of a stock frenzy in China and tight monetary policy carried out by the Chinese government, what knowledge can we glean from a respected state leader, an economist and a people representative?

NEW REGULATIONS ON ESTABLISHING OVERSEAS TRADING COMPANIES AND REPRESENTATIVE OFFICES

With a view to implementing the strategy of broadlybased economic and trade cooperation, facilitating the foreign economic relations and trade compaines and productive enterprises entitled to engage in import and export trade so as to develop their diversified market, and expanding the presence of China’s commodities on the international market, Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) has recently laid down new regulations on examining and approving the establishment of trading companies and representative offices outside the country (excluding Taiwan, HongKong and Macao). 1. The qualifications of the enterprises intending to apply for the establishment of overseas trading companies and representative offices: 1)With regard to foreign eco-

Procedures for the Establishment of Representative Offices of Foreign Enterprises

With the adoption of the policy of reform and opening to the outside world, more and more foreign enterprises (including overseas Chinese, Hongkong and Macao ones) wish to establish permanent representative offices in China. In order to help foreign businessmen understand the rules and regulations and the procedures relating to the establishment of