Integrating Effects of Source-Dependent Factors on Sediment-Depth Scaling of Additional Site Amplification to Ground-Motion Prediction Equation

ABSTRACT It is crucial to include additional site amplification effects resulting from the thick sediment on ground motions in the reliable assessment for seismic hazard in sedimentary basins. Ground-motion residual analysis with respect to ground-motion prediction equation is performed to evaluate additional site amplifications at over 200 K-NET stations within and around Kanto basin. We first investigate the potential effects on additional site amplifications resulted from the sediment depth and several source-dependent factors. Results reveal that source-to-site distance, focal depth, and source azimuth all have nonnegligible effects on additional site amplifications, especially the focal depth. Thick sedimentary sites amplify long-period ground motions from distant earthquakes more strongly than those from local earthquakes. Ground motions from shallow crustal earthquakes generally experience much stronger amplifications than those from those deep subduction earthquakes, much more predominant for long-period ground motions (>1.0 s) at thick sedimentary sites. Meanwhile, we develop the empirical model after integrating contributions from sediment depth, source-to-site distance, and focal depth for predicting additional site amplification effects. Considering the typical case of the distant shallow crustal earthquakes, additional site amplifications at thick sedimentary sites within Kanto basin generally show an increasing trend with the oscillation period increased, whereas they are generally characterized by a decreasing trend at shallow sedimentary sites outside the basin. The mean additional site amplification is up to about 2.0 within Kanto basin, whereas 0.5–0.65 outside Kanto basin, for ground motions at oscillation periods of 2.0–5.0 s. Mean amplifications within Kanto basin are about 3.5 times larger than those outside the basin for long-period ground motions at 2.0–5.0 s. Sites northeast to Kanto basin show the largest amplifications up to about 3.0 at periods of 0.15 and 5.0 s, which may be resulted from the basin edge effects.

Birds observed during the monitoring period of 2013-2017 in the revegetation area of ex-coal mining sites in South Kalimantan, Indonesia

Soendjoto MA, Riefani MK, Triwibowo D, Metasari D. 2018. Birds observed during the monitoring period of 2013-2017 in the revegetation area of ex-coal mining sites in South Kalimantan, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 19: 323-329. The number of bird species in the reclaimed and revegetated ex-mine site increases as the vegetation age increases. To test the hypotheses, the number of bird species was recorded at 08.00-12.00 and 14.00-17.00, 6-8 days for eight consecutive semiannual monitorings of 2013-2017 in four revegetation sites. Since the second half of 2015, another revegetation site, namely BP was added. Bird species were recorded in 25 m right side and 25 m left side of the observation path and within a radius of 25 m of observation points. To show an increase in the number of bird species, the number of newly discovered bird species in the given semiannual monitoring was added to the number of bird species in the previous semiannual monitoring. The number of bird species in the early semiannual monitoring was used as the baseline value. A bird species was categorized as a resident if the species was observed in each monitoring in the four vegetated sites. Up to the last monitoring, 53 bird species were recorded in the first four sites and 70 bird species in five sites (four reclamation and revegetation sites and one additional site, BP), while in the early semiannual monitoring (second half of 2013) birds recorded were only 30 species. This result shows that the older the vegetation age in the vegetated site, the greater the number of bird species utilizing the site. Seventeen species of birds were categorized as residents. These resident bird species includes White-breasted Woodswallow, Pied Triller, Scalybreasted Munia, Asian House-martin, Pacific Swallow, Long-tailed Shrike, Blue-throated Bee-eater, Olive-backed Sunbird, Sootyheaded Bulbul, Yellow-vented Bulbul, White-breasted Waterhen, Ashy Tailorbird, Yellow-bellied Prinia.

The Performamatics Model of Sharing and Networking: We’re All Connected

By now you must have realized that we do not shy away from using technology, whether directly in our teaching or in the administration of our Sound Thinking course. A great deal of time, thought, and effort goes into maintaining a very detailed course website where students can access the course syllabus, obtain contact information for each other, review class notes, retrieve assignment parameters, check their grades for each assignment, and find links to a host of resources to help them succeed in the course (please see our course website at soundthinking.uml.edu). Since we also wanted our course website to serve as an archival repository, until recently (more about this later) we linked it to a social networking site. The additional site provided opportunities for student input. The purposes of all the web support is to enable students to interact with us and their peers beyond the classroom and to facilitate their ability to post their reflections, respond to instructor-initiated questions, pose questions themselves and answer questions posed by other students, upload and share music and video links with the class, and post their completed projects so that everyone can see what everyone else did on a given project. In addition, each class is videotaped, archived, and linked to our course website. Our goal in making all of this information readily available is to ensure that everything a student needs to know regarding any aspect of the course can be accessed anytime, anywhere. If, for whatever reason, a student can’t be in class, the assignments, notes on what was covered in class, and an actual video of a particular day’s class are always available 24/7. We all know that on many levels, and for different people at various times in any course, there will be those moments when the learning curve will seem insurmountable. Those moments are most likely to occur at 2:00 AM. To that end, we encourage you to adopt some form of course website as an extension of your face-to-face meeting time.

A detailed account of the reproductive strategy and developmental stages of Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis (Anura: Nasikabatrachidae), the only extant member of an archaic frog lineage

Novel and significant data on the breeding biology and tadpole morphology of Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis expands ourunderstanding of this unusual frog and clarifies some data in other reports. Nonpigmented eggs are laid in arrays or clumpsin small shaded rocky pools in the bedrock of torrential streams, as they are charged by early monsoon rains. The suctorialtadpole adapted to rheophilic habitats, has a strongly depressed body, dorsal eyes, complete marginal papillae, a labialtooth row formula of 2/3 or 2/3(1), and a medial vent with unusual flaps subtending the vent and limb buds. Tadpoles meta-morphose in about 100 days. Additional site records and issues relating to the conservation of this frog and its habitat in the southern Western Ghats of India are discussed.

Triple neural tube defect and the multisite closure theory for neural tube defects: is there an additional site?

✓Triple neural tube defects (NTDs) are rare; only 1 case exists in the available literature. There has been a divergent view on the etiogenesis of NTDs, and 2 main theories have been postulated: the more widely held orderly closure theory and the less accepted multisite closure theory. In this article the authors present 2 cases of patients with triple NTDs, and they examine the embryological basis of NTDs with special reference to the multisite closure theory. The patient in Case 1 had a 2-level myelomeningocele (MMC) along with an encephalocele; the patient in Case 2 had a 3-level MMC. To the authors' knowledge, this paper outlines only the second and third cases described in world literature of triple NTDs including the first case of a triple MMC. The embryogenesis of triple NTDs can be better explained by the multisite closure theory. However, it fails to adequately explain the triple MMC in Case 2, given that the closure has to proceed in an orderly manner. The authors thus propose an additional closure site to explain this.