Using fractals and power laws to predict the location of mineral deposits

Around the world the mineral exploration industry is interested in getting that small increase in probability measure on the earth's surface of where the next large undiscovered deposit might be found. In particular WMC Resources Ltd has operations world wide looking for just that edge in the detection of very large deposits of, for example, gold. Since the pioneering work of Mandelbrot, geologists have been familiar with the concept of fractals and self similarity over a few orders of magnitude for geological features. This includes the location and size of deposits within a particular mineral province. Fractal dimensions have been computed for such provinces and similarities of these aggregated measures between provinces have been noted. This paper explores the possibility of making use of known information to attempt the inverse process. That is, from lesser dimensional measures of a mineral province, for example, fractal dimension or more generally multi-fractal measures, is it possible to infer, even with small increase in probability, where the unknown (preferably large) deposits might be located

Multi-scale interactions of geological processes during mineralization: cascade dynamics model and multifractal simulation

Relations between mineralization and certain geological processes are established mostly by geologist's knowledge of field observations. However, these relations are descriptive and a quantitative model of how certain geological processes strengthen or hinder mineralization is not clear, that is to say, the mechanism of the interactions between mineralization and the geological framework has not been thoroughly studied. The dynamics behind these interactions are key in the understanding of fractal or multifractal formations caused by mineralization, among which singularities arise due to anomalous concentration of metals in narrow space. From a statistical point of view, we think that cascade dynamics play an important role in mineralization and studying them can reveal the nature of the various interactions throughout the process. We have constructed a multiplicative cascade model to simulate these dynamics. The probabilities of mineral deposit occurrences are used to represent direct results of mineralization. Multifractal simulation of probabilities of mineral potential based on our model is exemplified by a case study dealing with hydrothermal gold deposits in southern Nova Scotia, Canada. The extent of the impacts of certain geological processes on gold mineralization is related to the scale of the cascade process, especially to the maximum cascade division number <i>n</i><sub>max</sub>. Our research helps to understand how the singularity occurs during mineralization, which remains unanswered up to now, and the simulation may provide a more accurate distribution of mineral deposit occurrences that can be used to improve the results of the weights of evidence model in mapping mineral potential

Bridgeness: A Local Index on Edge Significance in Maintaining Global Connectivity

Edges in a network can be divided into two kinds according to their different roles: some enhance the locality like the ones inside a cluster while others contribute to the global connectivity like the ones connecting two clusters. A recent study by Onnela et al uncovered the weak ties effects in mobile communication. In this article, we provide complementary results on document networks, that is, the edges connecting less similar nodes in content are more significant in maintaining the global connectivity. We propose an index named bridgeness to quantify the edge significance in maintaining connectivity, which only depends on local information of network topology. We compare the bridgeness with content similarity and some other structural indices according to an edge percolation process. Experimental results on document networks show that the bridgeness outperforms content similarity in characterizing the edge significance. Furthermore, extensive numerical results on disparate networks indicate that the bridgeness is also better than some well-known indices on edge significance, including the Jaccard coefficient, degree product and betweenness centrality.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Quantifying the effects of elevated CO<inf>2</inf> on water budgets by combining FACE data with an ecohydrological model

© 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Response of leaf area index (LAI) is the key determinant for predicting impacts of the elevated CO 2 (eCO 2 ) on water budgets. Importance of the changes in functional attributes of vegetation associated with eCO 2 for predicting responses of LAI has rarely been addressed. In this study, the WAter Vegetation Energy and Solute (WAVES) model was applied to simulate ecohydrological effects of the eCO 2 at two free-air CO 2 enrichment (FACE) experimental sites with contrasting vegetation. One was carried out by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory on the forest (ORNL FACE). The other one was conducted by the University of Minnesota on the grass (BioCON FACE). Results demonstrated that changes in functional attributes of vegetation (including reduction in specific leaf area, changes in carbon assimilation and allocation characteristics) and availability of nutrients are important for reproducing the responses of LAI, transpiration and soil moisture at both sites. Predicted LAI increased slightly at both sites because of fertilization effects of the eCO 2 . Simulated transpiration decreased 10·5% at ORNL site and 13·8% at BioCON site because of reduction in the stomatal conductance. Predicted evaporation from interception and soil surface increased slightly ( < 1·0mmyear -1 ) at both sites because of increased LAI and litter production, and increased soil moisture resulted from reduced transpiration. All components of run-off were predicted to increase because of significant decrease in transpiration. Simulated mean annual evapotranspiration decreased about 8·7% and 10·8%, and mean annual run-off increased about 11·1% (59·3mmyear -1 ) and 9·5% (37·6mmyear -1 ) at the ORNL and BioCON FACE sites, respectively

Dominant bidding strategy in Mobile App advertising auction

The widespread use of intelligent mobile phone has promoted prosperity of mobile App advertising in recent years. Based on existing bidding status, this paper presents the dominant bidding strategy for mobile advertising auction. Firstly, our study characterizes multiple Nash Equilibria resulting from different bidding strategies in wGSP (weighted Generalized Second-Price) auction. Further more, we prove that advertiser’s rank and utility will not decrease by using the dominant bidding strategy. We also consider the situation where the reserve price is set by the mobile advertising platform. It turns out that that advertiser’s payment will be no less than reserve price. Finally, a practical implementation for a virtual market simulates the dynamic bidding process in real world environments.published_or_final_versio