Case History

Landslide dams may form suddenly and unexpectedly, thereby posing hazards that must be rapidly assessed. In areas placed upstream, respect to the river dammed section, waters blocked by the dam may provoke floods spreading for kilometers, causing damages to human activities and interrupting communication lines. This can happen downstream as well, because of the risk of a sudden outburst of the landslide dam, especially when it is not possible to set up a control system for water drainage. As a result the dam may breach ...

Twenty-three species of Conus were described by authors other than Linnaeus between 1766 and 1786. Of these, 3 are Eocene species from England described by Solander in Brander (1766), and the remainder are Recent. Chemnitz (1777) described one valid species. Of the 10 species described by Born (1778), 7 are valid, 2 are junior synonyms of Linnaean species, and 1 is a nomen dubium. Solander in [Lightfoot] (1786) described 5 species, of which 3 are valid and 2 are junior synonyms of Linnaean species. Lightfoot (1786) described 4 species, of which 1 is valid and 3 are junior synonyms of Linnaean species.Holotypes of 7 species and lectotypes of 3 species exist, and representatives of lecto-types of 10 species have been selected. All of these types are illustrated photographically.Between 1758 and 1786, 60 species of Conus were described, of which 45 are now considered valid. Of these, 42 are Recent.

Despite this nation's massive effort during the past 90 years to build levees throughout the upper Mississippi Basin, mean annual flood damage in the region has increased 140% during that time. These levees exacerbate the flood damage problem by increasing river stage and velocity. Thus, rather than continuing to rely on structural solutions for flood control, it is time to develop a comprehensive flood management strategy that includes using wetlands to intercept and hold precipitation where it falls and store flood waters where they occur. History testifies to the truth of this premise: it was the rampant drainage of wetlands in the nineteenth century that gave rise to many of today's water resources management problems. The 1993 flood verifies the need for additional wetlands: the amount of excess water that passed St. Louis during the 1993 flood would have covered a little more than 13 million acres —half of the wetland acreage drained since 1780 in the upper Mississippi Basin. By strategically placing at least 13 million acres of wetlands on hydric soils in the basin, we can solve the basin's flooding problems in an ecologically sound manner.

Catastrophic flank collapses have occurred at many stratovolcanoes worldwide. We present a three-dimensional (3-D) slope stability analysis for assessing and quantifying both the locations of minimum edifice stability and the expected volumes of potential failure. Our approach can search the materials underlying a topographic surface, represented as a digital elevation model (DEM), and determine the relative stability of all parts of the edifice. Our 3-D extension of Bishop's [1955] simplified limit-equilibrium analysis incorporates spherical failure surfaces, variable material properties, pore fluid pressures, and earthquake shaking. Although a variety of processes can trigger collapse, we focus here on gravitationally induced instability. Even homogeneous rock properties strongly influence the depth and volume of the least stable potential failure. For large failures in complex topography, patterns of potential instability do not mimic local ground surface slope alone. The May 18, 1980, catastrophic failure of the north flank of Mount St. Helens provides the best documented case history to test our method. Using the undeformed edifice topography of Mount St. Helens in an analysis of dry, static slope stability with homogeneous materials, as might be conducted in a precollapse hazard analysis, our method identified the northwest flank as the least stable region, although the north flank stability was within 5% of the minimum. Using estimates of the conditions that existed 2 days prior to collapse, including deformed topography with a north flank bulge and combined pore pressure and earthquake shaking effects, we obtained good estimates of the actual failure location and volume. Our method can provide estimates of initial failure volume and location to aid in assessing downslope or downstream hazards.

Strategies of plants, known as metallophytes, in response to metal excess are explored. Specific features of medicinal plants related to metal exposition are discussed. Different parameters used for metallophyte classification are discussed. Bioaccumulation and translocation factors are characterized. Chamomile (Matricaria recutita L.), one of the most important medicinal plants, is presented as a case history. Based on actual knowledge of plant response to metal excess and published data related to chamomile, it has been concluded that this plant species is Cd hyper/accumulator. Thus, chamomile can manifest high potential for cleaning-up (phytoremediation) of the soils contaminated with cadmium. However, it should be stressed that cultivation of this medicinal plant under natural conditions for pharmaceutical use should be carefully supervised.

Within the context of earthquake-resistant design of shallow foundations, the present study is concerned with the determination of the seismic bearing capacity of a circular footing resting on the surface of a heterogene-ous purely cohesive semi-infinite soil layer. In the first part of the paper, a database, containing case histories of civil engineering structures that sustained a foundation seismic bearing

Recently, encouraging results have been obtained to estimate hydraulic conductivity in unconsolidated sediments from induced polarisation (IP) measurements. The work focussed on laboratory experiments in order to establish semi-empirical relationships between complex electrical conductivity and hydraulic parameters. Although field studies are certainly important to evaluate the feasibility of the method in practice, only a limited number of case histories have

Karst phenomena exist in areas in the eastern part of Saudi Arabia, forming solution features such as sinkholes, collapsed dolines and solution caverns, as a result of the chemical leaching of the carbonate and evaporite formations by percolating water. The instability of these karst phenomena could produce land subsidence problems. This paper reviews the geology of documented karstic rock units in Saudi Arabia and proposes a simple engineering classification of the solution features characteristic of limestone. Two case histories in the Dhahran area, eastern Saudi Arabia, will be used as examples for the application of a modified engineering classification.

Closed fishing seasons are sometimes imposed during the breeding period of harvested species in the belief that this will achieve greater annual reproductive output, but no studies have modelled the validity of this. We specifically tested this by simulating reproductive output and yield when closed seasons are imposed at different times of the year, using the limpet Cymbula granatina as a base case for a per-recruit model because (a) the reproduction of individuals that are not harvested is not disturbed by the act of harvesting and (b) the individuals do not aggregate to reproduce, an act that would make them more prone to capture. Model outputs showed that implementation of a closed fishing season during the breeding period does not increase the reproductive output of the population and has only marginal effects on yield if total annual fishing effort remains unchanged. This outcome is, however, dependent on the particular characteristics of the species, particularly whether the species is prone to disturbance or aggregates to breed. When the model was tuned to simulate species that are disturbed by fishing or do become vulnerable to fishing because they aggregate to breed, the reproductive output and yield were substantially increased by the imposition of a closed season during the breeding period. Thus, closure of fishing during the breeding period is effective only for species that conform to either of these conditions, or as a means of reducing annual fishing mortality. The frequent application of closed seasons to species that are not disturbed by harvesting and do not aggregate to breed is therefore generally invalid, despite wide belief that it will improve reproductive success.

This article follows the development of physicist Oliver Lodge's religio-scientific worldview, beginning with his reticent attraction to metaphysics in the early 1880s to the full formulation of his “ether theology” in the late 1890s. Lodge undertook the study of psychical phenomena such as telepathy, telekinesis, and “ectoplasm” to further his scientific investigations of the ether, speculating that electrical and psychical manifestations were linked phenomena that described the deeper underlying structures of the universe, beneath and beyond matter. For Lodge, to fully understand the ether was to force from the universe an ultimate Revelation, and psychical research—as the most modern and probatory science—was poised to replace religion as the means of that disclosure. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Geophysical imaging methods provide solutions to a wide range of environmental and engineering problems: protection of soil and groundwater from contamination; safe disposal of chemical and nuclear waste; geotechnical site testing for underground vaults, subways, dams, ...

Background The hammock technique combines inferior pedicle mammaplasty with retropectoral and inferior suspensions to prevent displacement of breast tissue toward the inferior mammarian pole. This study aimed to assess the long-lasting internal suspension with the author’s mammary reduction technique. Methods From 1987 to 2005, the hammock technique was performed for 623 breast reduction patients (1,201 breasts), including 318 women (636 breasts) who underwent the technique between 1994 and 2005. From the latter group, the author retrospectively reviewed the case histories of 281 patients who had come for long-term follow-up evaluation. All had significant ptosis associated with breast hypertrophy. Preoperative and postoperative examinations included evaluation of postoperative bottoming out by monitoring of three measurements: the sternal notch-to-nipple length, the inferior areolar border-to-inframammary fold length, and the distance between the inframmary fold and the projection of the lowest breast contour on the chest wall. Results The evaluation data on postoperative ptosis are derived from a control study at 30 months, 5 years, and 7 years or more for 281 women (562 breasts) of the 318 who underwent surgery using this technique over the 11-year period. Review after 2.5 to 7 years or more shows that inferior areolar border-inframammary fold distance increases no more than 10 mm. Conclusions The hammock technique suspension achieves true permanent breast lifting through dermis strips from the inferior pedicle itself. This procedure also gives predictable results, a low morbidity rate, and good breast shape.