Centrifuge testing of monopile in clay under monotonic loads

The monopile is at present the most widely applied foundation concept for offshore wind turbines. Monopiles are designed utilising the well-established p-y method. Despite being well-established, there are multiple issues and limitations regarding its use. Investigation into the lateral behaviour of monopiles was carried out by performing monotonic and cyclic lateral load tests on an aluminium model monopile in the centrifuge. The monotonic responses and the behaviour of the monopile are described. Differences between the experimental and DNV design p-y curves and their implications are discussed. Efforts to characterise the shear force acting at the pile toe are also discussed. The results highlight the possible deficiencies of utilising the conventional DNV design p-y curves to design monopiles to resist cyclic lateral loads and the importance of research into the cyclic loading behaviour of monopiles to better improve their design to resist long-term cyclic loads. © 2014 Taylor & Francis Group.

Age and growth of Schizothorax waltoni in the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet, China

Age and growth were studied for Schizothorax waltoni in the middle reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet, southwest of China, from April 2004 to September 2006. A total of 201 specimens were collected ranging from 110 to 580 mm in standard length (SL). In contrast to other otoliths, sectioned lapillus showed a clear pattern of alternating opaque and hyaline zones. Marginal increment analyses showed that the increments, each composed of one opaque and one hyaline zone, are deposited annually. Opaque edges were prevalent from May to August. The von Bertalanffy growth parameters based on sectioned otolith data were L (t) = 689.8{1 - exp[0.051 (t + 3.275)]} for males, and L (t) = 691.1{1 - exp[0.056 (t + 2.466)]} for females. The slow growth and long life indicate that S. waltoni is vulnerable to overfishing and that harvesting strategies for the species should be conservative.

Physico-chemical properties of alkaline phosphatases released by a planktonic crustacean, Daphnia magna (Cladocera)

Our studies investigated the physico-chemical properties of alkaline phosphatase excreted by D. magna. This cladoceran mainly released alkaline phosphatase, though it also released a small amount of acid phosphatase. The alkaline phosphatase showed a broad pH optimum (8.05-10.0), and had a broad optimum temperature (30-35 degrees C) with a temperature coefficient (Q(10)) of 2.45. The K-m of the enzyme is 0.15 +/- 0.02 mM when p-nitrophenyl phosphate is used as a substrate, and the V-max is 0.43 +/- 0.01 mu M pNP mg(-1) DW h(-1). Even though alkaline phosphatase had been incubated in chloroform saturated with WC medium for 13 days, its activity was 54% that of the original. The enzyme was strongly inactivated by EDTA, and appeared to be zinc dependent. The alkaline phosphatase activity remained constant when D. magna was fed different quantities of Chlorella sp. The sensitivity of D. magna phosphatase activity to phosphate was time-dependent. During the first 16 hrs, the enzyme was insensitive to phosphate addition, after 24 hrs incubation the enzyme became sensitive to phosphate addition.

Photosynthetic recovery of desiccated intertidal seaweeds after rehydration

Intertidal seaweeds experience periodical desiccation and rehydration to different extents due to the tidal cycles and their vertical distributions. Their photosynthetic recovery process during the rehydration may show different patterns among the seaweeds from different zonations or depths at intertidal zone. In this study 12 species of seaweeds collected from the upper, middle, lower and sublittoral zones were examined. The relationship of the photosynthetic recovery to vertical distribution was assessed by comparing their patterns of photosynthetic and respiratory performances after rehydration following desiccation. Both the photosynthesis and dark respiration declined during emersion, showing certain degrees of recovery after re-immersion into seawater for most species, but the extents were markedly different from one species to the other. The species from upper intertidal zone after being rehydrated for 1 hour, following 2 hours of desiccation, achieved 100 % recovery of their initial physiological activity, while most of the lower or sublittoral species did not achieve full recovery. It is the ability to withstand desiccation stress (fast recovery during rehydration), but not that to avoid desiccation (water retaining ability) that determines the distribution of intertidal seaweeds. Such physiological behavior during rehydration after desiccation reflects the adaptive strategy of intertidal seaweeds against desiccation and their capability of primary production in the process of rehydration.

Characterization of bulk ZnO single crystal grown by a CVT method - art. no. 68410F

Hall effect, photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL), mass spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction have been used to study bulk ZnO single crystal grown by a closed seeded chemical vapor transport method. Enhancement of n-type electrical conduction and increase of nitrogen concentration are observed of the ZnO samples after high temperature annealing. The results suggest that vacancy is dominant native defect in the ZnO material. These phenomena are explained by a generation of shallow donor defect and suppression of deep level defects in ZnO after the annealing.

基于语音和笔的手写数学公式纠错方法

用识别技术的用户界面往往由于识别率的限制容易出错，如何为这类界面提供自然高效的纠错方法十分重要．手写数学公式具有二维结构，难以识别和纠错．提出一种用于纠正手写数学公式识别错误的多通道技术．它允许用户使用笔纠正切分错误，用笔和语音纠正符号识别和表达式结构分析错误．该技术的核心是一个多通道融合算法．融合算法以笔选择的符号和语音作为输入，根据语音输入的类型是数学术语或者数学符号分别选择融合方法，最后修正手写公式并输出最有可能的识别结果．实验结果表明，该技术能有效地纠正手写数学公式识别中的错误，它比基于笔的单通道纠错技术更加高效．

激波管壁AlO自由基B~2∑~+-X~2∑~+和C~2∏_r-X~2∑~+带系辐射光谱的研究

爆轰驱动过程中产生的高温高压气流对铝质膜片、激波管壁产生烧蚀和冲刷作用,以致激波管壁、端盖上附有氧化铝等杂质,而高温下AlO自由基在气体分子的高速碰撞下被激发并产生强烈的辐射,从而干扰了高温气体辐射光谱的分析。用爆轰驱动加热技术将空气加热到4 000~7 000 K,利用多通道光学分析仪对AlO自由基辐射光谱进行分析,实验发现在460~530 nm波长范围内有多支辐射非常强烈的AlO自由基B2Σ+-X2Σ+(T00=20 689 cm-1)带系辐射谱带,且每支谱带都由多个带头组成,带头间隔约为2 nm,带头处于高频位置并向低频方向伸延。通过实验与理论计算相结合,重点分析了AlO自由基B2Σ+-X2Σ+带系辐射光谱的结构特征。AlO自由基C2Πr-X2Σ+(T00=33 047 cm-1)带系辐射光谱处于270~335 nm波长范围内,其辐射强度相对于B2Σ+-X2Σ+带系较弱,并且与OH基A2Σ+-X2Π(T00=32 682 cm-1)带系辐射光谱互相干扰而难以分辨,对该波段高温空气的辐射光谱分析产生不利的影响。

Dynamics of morphological changes for mitochondrial fission and fusion

Mitochondria experience continuous fusion and fission in a living cell, but their dynamics remains poorly quantified. Here a theoretical model was developed, upon a simplified population balance equation (PBE), to predict the morphological changes induced by mitochondrial fission and fusion. Assuming that both fission and fusion events are statistically independent, the survival probability of mitochondria staying in the fission or fusion state was formulated as an exponentially-decayed function with time, which depended on the time-dependent distribution of the mitochondrial volume and the fission and fusion rates. Parametric analysis was done for two typical volume distributions. One was Gamma distribution and the other was Gaussian distribution, derived from the measurements of volume distribution for individual mitochondria in a living cell and purified mitochondria in vitro. The predictions indicated that the survival probability strongly depended on morphological changes of individual mitochondria and was inversely correlated to the fission and fusion rates. This work provided a new insight into quantifying the mitochondrial dynamics via monitoring the evolution of the mitochondrial volume.