Putting Japanese investment in Europe in its place

Summary Research on Japanese economic activity in Europe concentrates almost exclusively on investment in manufacturing. However, this paper demonstrates that this emphasis both underestimates the longevity of Japanese direct investment in Europe and also grossly underdefines the importance of services. Not only does Japanese direct investment have a much longer history in Europe than is usually recognized but also—and perhaps more significantly—the bulk of that investment is not in manufacturing production per se but in a variety of circulation services. Using establishment-level data, this paper shows that the spatial manifestation of these circulation services is very different from that of manufacturing production.     

Three-dimensional stability of landslides based on local safety factor

Unlike the limit equilibrium method (LEM), with which only the global safety factor of the landslide can be calculated, a local safety factor (LSF) method is proposed to evaluate the stability of different sections of a landslide in this paper. Based on three-dimensional (3D) numerical simulation results, the local safety factor is defined as the ratio of the shear strength of the soil at an element on the slip zone to the shear stress parallel to the sliding direction at that element. The global safety factor of the landslide is defined as the weighted average of all local safety factors based on the area of the slip surface. Some example analyses show that the results computed by the LSF method agree well with those calculated by the General Limit Equilibrium (GLE) method in two-dimensional (2D) models and the distribution of the LSF in the 3D slip zone is consistent with that indicated by the observed deformation pattern of an actual landslide in China.     

Correlation of spectroscopic properties and substitutional sites of Cr3+ in aluminosilicates: II. Andalusite and sillimanite

This paper is an extension of the earlier one dealing with kyanite in which the best fitting value of the oxygen ligand distance for Cr³⁺ is adopted to study the spectroscopic properties of Cr³⁺ ions doped at the two possible Al sites in the other two polymorphs of the aluminosilicate group (Al₂O₃ · SiO₂), namely, andalusite and sillimanite. The superposition model and the crystal field analysis package recently developed for 3d ions doped at arbitrary low symmetry sites in crystals are used to predict energy levels and statevectors within the whole 3d ³ configuration. Then the values of the ground state zerofield splitting for Cr³⁺ ions at each Al sites in the two crystals are obtained. The splittings of the lower excited states ² E and ⁴ T ₂ as well as the admixture of ⁴ T ₂ into ² E have also been predicted. Comparison of our results with the available experimental data enable us to correlate the optical and EPR Spectroscopic properties with the substitutional Cr³⁺ sites. The conclusion is that in andalusite and sillimanite only the Al sites with nearly-octahedral six-fold coordination seem to be occupied by Cr³⁺ ions.     

晚古生代古亚洲洋俯冲作用:来自珲春前山镁铁质侵入岩的年代学和地球化学记录

珲春地区前山镁铁质侵入岩主要由橄榄辉长岩、苏长岩和辉长闪长岩组成,形成年龄273±2Ma,为早二叠世侵入岩。该岩体显示出岛弧拉斑玄武岩的元素地球化学特征,弱富集LREE且正Eu(Eu/Eu*=1.05～1.44)异常的REE配分模式,在不相容元素中富集大离子亲石元素(LILE)如Ba和Sr,亏损高场强元素(HFSE)(La/Nb=2.8～4.8;Zr/Sm=8.0～22.5),与起源于流体交代地幔楔部分熔融的岛弧低钾拉斑玄武岩类似。在同位素特征上低放射成因Sr,高放射成因Nd和Hf(87Sr/86Sr(i)=0.70295～0.70375;εNd(t)=+4.5～+6.4;εHf(t)=+9.6～+14.6),反映其来源于同位素组成亏损的交代地幔。结合区域地质背景,我们认为前山镁铁质岩形成于晚古生代期间古亚洲洋向华北板块的俯冲作用背景,其亏损Nb-Ta、Zr-Hf及Hf-Nd同位素解耦特点说明该岩体最有可能来源于俯冲流体交代的地幔楔。     

Development of an operational rainfall data quality-control scheme based on radar-raingauge co-kriging analysis

Abstract

Automatic raingauge data often serve as an important input to hydrological and weather warning operations. They are not only fundamental in quantitative rainfall analysis, but also act as the ground truth in warning operation and forecast validation. Quality control is required before the data can be used quantitatively due to systematic and random errors. Extremely large random errors and unreasonably small or false zero values can hamper effective monitoring of heavy rain. Yet both are difficult to detect in real-time by objective means. In an attempt to address these problems, a rainfall data quality-control scheme based on radar-raingauge co-kriging analysis was developed. The important threshold values required in the data quality control of 60-min raingauge rainfall were determined from a detailed analysis of the distributions of rainfall residuals defined as the arithmetic difference and the logarithm of the ratio between a raingauge measurement and its co-kriging estimate. The scheme has been developed and is in real-time use in Hong Kong, a coastal city of about 1100 km² area with more than 150 raingauges installed. Geographically, it is located in the subtropics and dominated by heavy convective rainfall in the summer. As a basis of the quality-control scheme, the co-kriging rainfall analysis was shown through a verification exercise to be superior to those obtained by the Barnes analysis and ordinary kriging of raingauge data. The performance of the quality-control algorithm was assessed using selected cases and controlled tests, and was found to be satisfactory, with a high error detection rate for the two targeted types of error. Limitations and operational issues identified during a real-time trial of the quality-control scheme are also discussed.

Citation Yeung, H.Y., Man, C., Chan, S.T., and Seed, A., 2014. Development of an operational rainfall data quality-control scheme based on radar-raingauge co-kriging analysis. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 59 (7), 1285–1299. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2013.839873     

Analyses of the warm season rainfall climatology of the northeastern US using regional climate model simulations and radar rainfall fields

We examine the warm season (April-September) rainfall climatology of the northeastern US through analyses of high-resolution radar rainfall fields from the Hydro-NEXRAD system and regional climate model simulations using the weather research and forecasting (WRF) model. Analyses center on the 5-year period from 2003 to 2007 and the study area includes the New York-New Jersey metropolitan region covered by radar rainfall fields from the Fort Dix, NJ WSR-88D. The objective of this study is to develop and test tools for examining rainfall climatology, with a special focus on heavy rainfall. An additional emphasis is on rainfall climatology in regions of complex terrain, like the northeastern US, which is characterized by land-water boundaries, large heterogeneity in land use and cover, and mountainous terrain in the western portion of the region. We develop a 5-year record of warm season radar rainfall fields for the study region using the Hydro-NEXRAD system. We perform regional downscaling simulations for the 5-year study period using the WRF model. Radar rainfall fields are used to characterize the interannual, seasonal and diurnal variation of rainfall over the study region and to examine spatial heterogeneity of rainfall. Regional climate model simulations are characterized by a wet bias in the rainfall fields, with the largest bias in the high-elevation regions of the model domain. We show that model simulations capture broad features of the interannual, seasonal, and diurnal variation of rainfall. Model simulations do not capture spatial gradients in radar rainfall fields around the New York metropolitan region and land-water boundaries to the east. The model climatology of convective available potential energy (CAPE) is used to interpret the regional distribution of warm season rainfall and the seasonal and diurnal variability of rainfall. We use hydrologic and meteorological observations from July 2007 to examine the interactions of land surface processes and rainfall from a regional perspective.     

InSAR detection of residual settlement of an ocean reclamation engineering project: a case study of Hong Kong International Airport

Man-made land or islands that are reclaimed from the sea are suitable for building airports, harbors, and industry parks for material transportation because of their broad air and land spaces. However, the reclaimed foundation settlement process is of public concern, including the continuous impact of ocean processes on its stability. The majority of the buildings and facilities of Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) are built on a reclaimed foundation. The reclaimed foundation has been in residual settlement since completion of the filling project in 1994. In this study, we use persistent scatterer interferometry (PSI) and ENVISAT (European Satellite) advanced synthetic aperture radar (ASAR) data to detect the residual settlement rates from 19 April 2006 to 9 January 2008. We use ground truth data to develop empirical correction models for correcting systematic biases in the ASAR PSI-detected settlement rates. The corrected data follow the Lorentz distribution well, implying that the residual settlement process is dominated by two modes or categories of settlement rates. The first category represents a relatively stable state and the second category represents a continuous settlement state. A ground settlement rate map of HKIA shows that an area of the Passenger Terminal Building and an area of the Southern Runway are two relatively stable areas. There are two major continuous settlement areas. One covers the airport Midfield. Another is along the coastline, implying that attention should be paid to impacts of ocean processes on the stability of airport foundations.