Wmic-GMTS and Wmic-GMERR criteria for micron-scale crack propagation in red-bed soft rocks under hydraulic action

Micron-scale crack propagation in red-bed soft rocks under hydraulic action is a common cause of engineering disasters due to damage to the hard rockesoft rockewater interface.Previous studies have not provided a theoretical analysis of the length,inclination angle,and propagation angle of micron-scale cracks,nor have they established appropriate criteria to describe the crack propagation process.The propagation mechanism of micron-scale cracks in red-bed soft rocks under hydraulic action is not yet fully understood,which makes it challenging to prevent engineering disasters in these types of rocks.To address this issue,we have used the existing generalized maximum tangential stress(GMTS)and generalized maximum energy release rate(GMERR)criteria as the basis and introduced parameters related to micron-scale crack propagation and water action.The GMTS and GMERR criteria for micronscale crack propagation in red-bed soft rocks under hydraulic action(abbreviated as the Wmic-GMTS and Wmic-GMERR criteria,respectively)were established to evaluate micron-scale crack propagation in redbed soft rocks under hydraulic action.The influence of the parameters was also described.The process of micron-scale crack propagation under hydraulic action was monitored using uniaxial compression tests(UCTs)based on digital image correlation(DIC)technology.The study analyzed the length,propagation and inclination angles,and mechanical parameters of micron-scale crack propagation to confirm the reliability of the established criteria.The findings suggest that the Wmic-GMTS and Wmic-GMERR criteria are effective in describing the micron-scale crack propagation in red-bed soft rocks under hydraulic action.This study discusses the mechanism of micron-scale crack propagation and its effect on engineering disasters under hydraulic action.It covers topics such as the internal-external weakening of nano-scale particles,lateral propagation of micron-scale cracks,weakening of the mechanical properties of millimeter-scale soft rocks,and resulting interface damage at the engineering scale.The study provides a theoretical basis for the mechanism of disasters in red-bed soft-rock engineering under hydraulic action.

MIXING OF SALT WATER AND FRESH WATER IN THE CHANGJIANG RIVER ESTUARY AND ITS EFFECTS ON SUSPENDED SEDIMENT

Using field hydrological data, the relationship between the mixing of salt water and fresh water and the tidal range/ high tidal level in the Changjiang (Yangtze) River estuary is discussed, and the transporting and concentrating of suspended sediment in the estuary were also analysed in respect to the circulation, flocculation and stratified interface resulting from mixing.The calculation results by two-dimentional box model have confirmed the effects of the circulation on the concentrating of suspended sediment in the estuary. The conclusions derived from this work have deepened the understanding on the mixing in the Changjiang River estuary and are of significance in bo’th theory and practice.

DUAL FILTRATION EFFECT OF GEOCHEMICAL AND BIOGEOCHEMICAL PROCESSES IN THE CHANGJIANG ESTUARY

Dissolved nutrients (NO3- , PO4 3- , SiO32- ) and oxygen , chlorophyll- a , pH and Eh were measured on board during a cruise in August 1988 in the Changjiang Estuary region . Heavy metals , organic matter and carbonate contents were analyzed in laboratory. The results show that geochemical processes in the Changjiang Estuary have dual filtration effect: on the one hand geochemical filtration effect, reflected by ferromanganese oxide flocculation and sedimentation , occurs near the turbidity maximum, and leads to enrichment of heavy metals in suspended matter and sedi -ments; on the other hand biogeochemical filtration , reflected by nutrients consumption , organic matter and carbonate sedimentation and enrichment of trace elements in suspended matter. occurs outside the plume water front. The biogeochemical filtration affects the environmental conditions ; the dissolved oxygen and pH increase in surface water and decrease in bottom water. The biogeochemical filtration effect outside the plume front is

Impacts of the large amount of sand mining on riverbed morphology and tidal dynamics in lower reaches and delta of the Dongjiang River

The sand dredging and its impacts on riverbed evolution and tidal dynamic change in the lower reaches and delta of the Dongjiang River are examined in this paper. The large amount of sand, totally 3.32 billion m^3 from 1980 to 2002, was mined from the riverbeds of the lower reaches and delta of the Dongjiang River. Increasing of the channel capacity, lowering of the average riverbed elevation, deepening of the water depth and decreasing of the longitudinal riverbed gradient are the main effects on the riverbed evolution brought by the large amount of sand dredging. Under the strong sand dredging and associated significant riverbed deformation, the notable changes of the tidal dynamic in the lower reaches and delta of the Dongjiang River occurred, including： （1）in the upper reaches of the Dongjiang River delta and lower reaches of the Dongjiang River, tidal level dropped apparently, tidal range widened, flood tidal duration became longer, amplitudes for major tidal components became bigger and tidal dynamics intensified; （2） tidal wave spread faster; and （3） the limits of the tidal level, tidal current and salt water moved upstream.

Coastline configuration and geomorphologic development mode of arc-shaped coast in South China

Coastline configuration indexes of 34 typical arc-shaped coasts in South China are investigated by the method of principal component analysis, and meanwhile deposition and geomorphologic features of arc-shaped coast are also analyzed. The results show: (1) The configuration of arc-shaped coast in South China is of the characteristic of variability and complexity. (2) The wave power and the openings of the bay are the decisive factors to result in the changes of the configuration of the arc-shaped coast in South China, however, incidence direction of the wave has no effect on configuration development of the coast. (3) Commonly, geomorphologic modes of the arc-shaped coast system in South China consist of barriers, lagoons and tidal-inlets, and can be divided into four types:the openings of the bay leaning to the east, the openings of the bay leaning to the south, the openings of the bay leaning to the west and the openings of the bay leaning to the north.

Impacts of human interventions on the seasonal and nodal dynamics of the M_(2)and K_(1)tidal constituents in Lingdingyang Bay of the Zhujiang River Delta,China

Natural and human-induced changes may exert considerable impacts on the seasonal and nodal dynamics of M2 and K1 tidal constituents.Therefore,quantifying the influences of these factors on tidal regime changes is essential for sustainable water resources management in coastal environments.In this study,the enhanced harmonic analysis was applied to extract the seasonal variability of the M2 and K1 tidal amplitudes and phases at three gauging stations along Lingdingyang Bay of the Zhujiang River Delta.The seasonal dynamics in terms of tidal wave celerity and amplification/damping rate were used to quantify the impacts of human-induced estuarine morphological alterations on M2 and K1 tidal hydrodynamics in inner and outer Lingdingyang Bay.The results show that both tidal amplification/damping rate and wave celerity were considerably increased from the pre-anthropogenic activity period(Pre-AAP)to the post-anthropogenic activity period(Post-AAP)excepting the tidal amplification/damping rate in outer Lingdingyang Bay,and the variations in outer Lingdingyang Bay was larger than those in inner Lingdingyang Bay.The alterations in these two parameters were more significant in flood season than in dry season in both inner and outer Lingdingyang Bay.The seasonal variability of M2 and K1 tidal amplitudes were further quantified using a regression model accounting for the 18.61-year lunar nodal modulation,where this study observes a considerable alteration in M2 constituent owing to human interventions.During the Post-AAP,the M2 amplitudes at the downstream station were larger than those that would have occurred in the absence of strong human interventions,whereas the opposite was true for the upstream station,leading to a substantial decrease in tidal amplification in outer Lingdingyang Bay.However,it is opposite in inner Lingdingyang Bay.The underlying mechanism can be primarily attributed to channel deepening and narrowing caused by human interventions,that resulted in substantial enlargement of the bay volume and reduced the effective bottom friction,leading to faster wave celerity and stronger amplified waves.

The influence of runoff and wind on the dispersion patterns of suspended sediment in the Zhujiang(Pearl) River Estuary based on MODIS data

Cloud-free moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer(MODIS) images of the Zhujiang(Pearl) River Estuary(ZRE) taken between 2002 and 2012 are retrieved and used to study the spatial and temporal patterns of suspended sediment concentrations(SSCs) across the estuary under runoff, wind, and tropical storm conditions.Five typical dispersal patterns of suspended sediments in the estuary are defined: Case I shows generally low SSCs under low dynamics; Case Ⅱ shows a river-dominant dispersal pattern of suspended sediments from the outlets,particularly from Modaomen, Jiaomen, Hengmen, and others; Case Ⅲ shows wind-dominant dispersal of high SSCs derived from the west shoal and southwesterly transport under a strong NE wind; Case IV is the combination of relatively large runoff and wind; and Case V is caused by a strong tropical storm with high river discharge and wind, which is characterized by the high SSCs across the entire estuary that are transported eastward by winddriven and buoyancy currents outside the estuary. Runoff is a dominant factor that controls seasonal and annual SSC variations in the ZRE, with the area of high SSCs being largest in the summer and smallest in the spring. The correlation coefficients between the monthly averaged river-suspended sediment discharge and the area of the high SSCs are approximately 0.6. The wind power over the west shoal increases with a wind speed, which induces more sediment resuspension and shows a close relationship between the wind speed and high SSC area.

GEOCHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SEDIMENTS AND ANALYSIS OF THE CHANGJIANG ESTUARY ENVIRONMENT

Analysis of material from three 55- cm long cores collected with box corer m summer of 1988 in the Changjiang Estuary region yielded data on the sedimentation rate, granulometric composition and contents of carbonates, organic matter, Al, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu and Pb there. Subsequent study of the data led to the conclusion that there is no obvious pollution in the region based on the absolute value of the content of heavy metals, but the region is in potential danger of being polluted as seen by the obvious increase of sedimentation flux of heavy metals to and the enrichment of them on the surface sediment during the last several years, e.g. Pb increased by 10-20μg/g, Zn by about 30μg/g, Cu by 5-10μg/g and Mn by 150μg/g.A ferromanganese redox interface was found at about 40 cm depth of sediments where Fe and Mn and associated trace metals are enriched. The trace metals such as Zn, Cu have (but Pb does not) the same source, forms, displacement mechanism and geochemical behaviours as those of Fe and Mn in

Short-term variations and influencing factors of suspended sediment concentrations at the Heisha Beach,Guangdong,China

Knowledge of sediment variation processes is essential to understand the evolution mechanism of beach morphology changes.Thus,a field measurement was conducted at the Heisha Beach,located on the west coast of the Zhujiang River(Pearl River)Estuary,to investigate the short-term variation in suspended sediment concentrations(SSCs)and the relationship between the SSC and turbulent kinetic energy,bottom shear stress(BSS),and relative wave height.Based on extreme event analysis results,extreme events have a greater influence on turbulent kinetic energy than SSC.Although a portion of the turbulent kinetic energy dissipates directly into the water column,it plays an important role in suspended sediment motion.Most of the time,the wave-current interaction is strong enough to drive sediment incipience and resuspension.When combined,the wave-current interaction and wave-induced BSSs have a greater influence on suspended sediment transport and SSC variation than current-induced BSS alone.The relative wave height also has a strong correlation with SSC,indicating that the combined effect of water depth and wave height significantly impacts SSC variation.Water depth is mainly controlled by the tide on the beaches;thus,the effects of tides and waves should be conjunctively considered when analyzing the factors influencing SSC.

SEASONAL CHANGES OF THE TIDAL FLAT FROM JINHUIGANG TO CAOJING ALONG THE NORTH BANK OF HANGZHOU BAY

This paper deals with the seasonal changes of the tidal flat along the north bank of Hangzhou Bay. Analysis of a one year set of weekly measured tidal flat profiles from Jinhuigang to Caojing shows that the tidal flat on the north bank of Hangzhou Bay accretes during winter and erodes during summer. To identify the characteristic patterns of the tidal flat spatio-temporal variations, Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) is applied on the tidal flat profile data. The results show that most of the variations of the tidal flat profiles can be represented by three eigenfunctions corresponding to the three largest eigenvalues. The first eigenfunction represents the long-term variation of the tidal flat over a year, the second eigenfunction represents the seasonal changes of the tidal flat resulting from the seasonal variations in wave regime, the third eigenfunction indicates sediment exchanges between different parts of the tidal flat associated with the variations of sea level.

A Statistical Distribution of Surface Elevation for Nonlinear Random Sea Waves and Its Physical Explanation

Based upon the nonlinear model of random sea waves,a commonly applicable statistical distribution of wave surface elevation exact to the third order is derived through the direct calculations of each order moment.The distribution arrived reduces,in the sense of being exact to H_6,to the Gram-Charlier series due to Longuet-Higgins for deep water,provided that only the two simplest kinds of wave-wave inter- actions are taken into account The reason why the agreement of Gram-Charlier series with experimental data becomes worse and worse as the terms of series are increased is explicited for the first time.

Distribution, sources, and risk assessment of polychlorinated biphenyls in surface waters and sediments of rivers in Shanghai, China

The distribution, sources, and potential risks of polychlorinated biphenyl （PCB） contamination in the rivers of Shanghai, China were investigated. Fourteen PCB congeners in surface waters and sediments, which were collected from 53 sampling sites, were quantified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometer （GC-MS）. The total concentrations of PCBs in the dissolved phase, in particulates, and in sediments ranged from not detected （nd） to 34.8 ng.L^-1, from 0.76 to 39.71 ng.L^-1, and from 1.46 to 46.11 ng.g^-1 （dry weight, dw）, respectively. The corresponding WHO toxic equivalents （TEQs） of dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls （dl-PCBs） ranged between nd-1135.63 pg TEQ-L^-1, 0.02-605.94 pg TEQ.L^-1, and 0.05-432.12 pg TEQ-g^-1 dw, respectively. Thepenta-CBs, especially PCB 118 and PCB 105, were the dominant congeners in all samples. Principle Component Analysis （PCA） indicated that the PCBs were mainly influenced by a historical accumulation of commercial PCB products, the burning of house coal, and emissions from municipal solid waste incineration （MSWI） and secondary metallurgy industries. The center of Shanghai was significantly affected by PCB contamination, followed by the industrial parklands and suburban towns, while the farmland of Chongming Island was the least affected area. Adverse biological and health effects would be likely in the central urban areas, industrial parks, and residential towns of Shanghai.

Second-Order Nonlinear Characteristics of Ocean Waves (Ⅱ)——Interpretation,Deduction and Verification

The theoretical results derived in Part 1 have been physically interpreted and respectivelyapplied to three-dimensional waves in deep water and to two-dimensional waves in finite-and infinite-depthwater,so that the analytical expressions of the second-order nonlinear characteristics are systematically giv-en for the main wave models.The experiments performed in a wind-wave flume are reported briefly and themeasured data are used to verify the theoretical results obtained.A fairly good agreement is seen between thetheory and the experiments.

Differential introgression suggests candidate beneficial and barrier loci between two parapatric subspecies of Pearson＇s horseshoe bat Rhinolophus pearsoni

Observations that rates of introgression between taxa can vary across loci are increasingly common. Here, we test for differential locus-wise introgression in 2 parapatric subspecies of Pearson＇s horseshoe bat （Rhinolophus pearsoni chinensis and R. p. pearsoni）. To efficiently identify putative speciation genes and/or beneficial genes in our current system, we used a candidate gene approach by including loci from X chromosome that are suggested to be more likely involved in reproductive isolation in other organisms and loci underlying hearing that have been suggested to spread across the hybrid zone in another congeneric species. Phylogenetic and coalescent analyses were performed at 2 X-linked, 4 hearing genes, as well as 2 other autosomal loci individually. Likelihood ratio tests could not reject the model of zero gene flow at 2 X-linked and 2 autosomal genes. In contrast, gene flow was supported at 3 of 4 hearing genes. While this introgression could be adaptive, we cannot rule out stochastic processes. Our results highlight the utility of the candidate gene approach in searching for speciation genes and/or beneficial genes across the species boundary in natural populations.

Response characteristics of beach morphologies in an arc-shaped coast to typhoon waves

High waves and storm surges caused by typhoon(or storm)are the disaster eventsfor the serious erosion in coasts,to which scientists have paid close attention.However,there have been little report on the response processes of the beach morphologiesin different sections of the arc-shaped coast to such calamities.A sequence of beachchanges that were measured in the field during the Typhoon 8616 at the arc-shaped coastof the Shuidong in Guangdong Province,South China is analyzed in this note.

Genome-wide association analysis reveals regulation of at-risk loci by DNA methylation in prostate cancer

Epigenetic changes are potentially important for the ontogeny and progression of tumors but are not usually studied because of the complexity of analyzing transcript regulation resulting from epigenetic alterations.Prostate cancer(PCa)is characterized by variable clinical manifestations and frequently unpredictable outcomes.We performed an expression quantitative trait loci(eQTL)analysis to identify the genomic regions that regulate gene expression in PCa and identified a relationship between DNA methylation and clinical information.Using multi-level information published in The Cancer Genome Atlas,we performed eQTL-based analyses on DNA methylation and gene expression.To better interpret these data,we correlated loci and clinical indexes to identify the important loci for both PCa development and progression.Our data demonstrated that although only a small proportion of genes are regulated via DNA methylation in PCa,these genes are enriched in important cancer-related groups.In addition,single nucleotide polymorphism analysis identified the locations of CpG sites and genes within at-risk loci,including the 19q13.2-q13.43 and 16q22.2-q23.1 loci.Further,an epigenetic association study of clinical indexes detected risk loci and pyrosequencing for site validation.Although DNA methylation-regulated genes across PCa samples are a small proportion,the associated genes play important roles in PCa carcinogenesis.

Genetic diversity of coronaviruses in Miniopterus fuliginosus bats

Coronaviruses, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, pose significant public health threats. Bats have been suggested to act as natural reservoirs for both these viruses, and periodic monitoring of coronaviruses in bats may thus provide important clues about emergent infectious viruses. The Eastern bent-wing bat Miniopterus fuliginosus is distributed extensively throughout China. We therefore analyzed the genetic diversity of coronaviruses in samples of M. fuliginosus collected from nine Chinese provinces during 2011–2013. The only coronavirus genus found was Alphacoronavirus. We established six complete and five partial genomic sequences of alphacoronaviruses, which revealed that they could be divided into two distinct lineages, with close relationships to coronaviruses in Miniopterus magnater and Miniopterus pusillus. Recombination was confirmed by detecting putative breakpoints of Lineage 1 coronaviruses in M. fuliginosus and M. pusillus(Wu et al., 2015), which supported the results of topological and phylogenetic analyses. The established alphacoronavirus genome sequences showed high similarity to other alphacoronaviruses found in other Miniopterus species, suggesting that their transmission in different Miniopterus species may provide opportunities for recombination with different alphacoronaviruses. The genetic information for these novel alphacoronaviruses will improve our understanding of the evolution and genetic diversity of coronaviruses, with potentially important implications for the transmission of human diseases.

Study of the Second-Order Nonlinear Characteristics of Ocean Waves (Ⅰ)——Theoretical Derivation

This paper investigates the second-order nonlinear characteristics of random waves. Based upon the solutions derived strictly for 3-dimensional random waves in water of arbitrary uniform depth , the sea surface skewness and the second-order spectrum are exactly rededuced in a more reasonable way, and the bispectrum of sea surface elevation is theoretically given for the first time.