Coping with excess salt in their growth environments: osmoregulation and other survival strategies deployed by the mangroves

Mangroves are defined as a collection of woody plants and the associated fauna and flora that use a coastal depositional environment. Here the specific effects of salinity changes in mangroves have been examinated.

Factor intensity and economic returns of alternate shrimp crop and shrimp-salt farming in the coastal areas of Bangladesh

The paper examines the factor intensity and economic returns of alternate shrimp-crop and shrimp-salt farming in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. Data were collected from 30 shrimp-crop and 30 shrimp-salt farmers, 30 shrimp farmers and 30 rice farmers from three selected coastal districts of Bangladesh. Cobb-Douglas production function model was used to determine the effect of various factors on alternate shrimp-crop farming. The chosen variables were stocking of juveniles, paddy seed, labour, fertilizers, feed and farm size of respective type of farming. The results indicated that the production function exhibited increasing remrns to scale for alternate shrimp-rice, alternate shrimp-salt and year round shrimp farming while it indicated decreasing returns for year round rice farming. Economic analysis of same system of farming indicated that higher amount of input use produced higher level of yield, gross return and net return for each type of production system.

Organic pollution in culture water resulting from excess feed and metabolite buildup

Penaeus monodon postlarvae were subjected to increasing feed concentrations and their growth and survival rates were recorded. Measurements were made of dissolved organic matter, and ammonia and nitrite-nitrogen concentrations. Survival was highest at the lowest feeding level and decreased as feed concentration increased. It is concluded that although organic matter enriches the food supply for P. monodon postlarvae, at higher concentration levels it can pollute the culture water, which in turn leads to mass mortality of the postlarvae. Secondly, the survival rate of P. monodon postlarvae is directly related to dissolved organic matter concentration, oxygen tension, and ammonia-nitrogen concentrations in the culture water. Even at sublethal levels these adverse environmental conditions decrease the survival rate.

A reason for unreason: returns-based beliefs in game theory

Players cooperate in experiments more than game theory would predict. We introduce the ‘returns-based beliefs’ approach: the expected returns of a particular strategy in proportion to total expected returns of all strategies. Using a decision analytic solution concept, Luce’s (1959) probabilistic choice model, and ‘hyperpriors’ for ambiguity in players’ cooperability, our approach explains empirical observations in various classes of games including the Prisoner’s and Traveler’s Dilemmas. Testing the closeness of fit of our model on Selten and Chmura (2008) data for completely mixed 2 × 2 games shows that with loss aversion, returns-based beliefs explain the data better than other equilibrium concepts.

Forecasting high-frequency futures returns using online langevin dynamics

Forecasting the returns of assets at high frequency is the key challenge for high-frequency algorithmic trading strategies. In this paper, we propose a jump-diffusion model for asset price movements that models price and its trend and allows a momentum strategy to be developed. Conditional on jump times, we derive closed-form transition densities for this model. We show how this allows us to extract a trend from high-frequency finance data by using a Rao-Blackwellized variable rate particle filter to filter incoming price data. Our results show that even in the presence of transaction costs our algorithm can achieve a Sharpe ratio above 1 when applied across a portfolio of 75 futures contracts at high frequency. © 2011 IEEE.

Excess pore pressures around underground structures following earthquake induced liquefaction

Underground structures located in liquefiable soil deposits are susceptible to floatation following an earthquake event due to their lower unit weight relative to the surrounding saturated soil. This inherent buoyancy may cause lightweight structures to float when the soil liquefies. Centrifuge tests have been carried out to study the excess pore pressure generation and dissipation in liquefiable soils. In these tests, near full liquefaction conditions were attained within a few cycles of the earthquake loading. In the case of high hydraulic conductivity sands, significant dissipation could take place even during the earthquake loading which inhibits full liquefaction from occurring. In the case of excess pore pressure generation and dissipation around a floating structure, the cyclic response of the structure may lead to the reduction in excess pore pressure near the face of the structure as compared to the far field. This reduction in excess pore pressure is due to shear-induced dilation and suction pressures arising from extensile stresses at the soil-structure interface. Given the lower excess pore pressure around the structure; the soil around the structure retains a portion of this shear strength which in turn can discourage significant uplift of the underground structure. Copyright © 2012, IGI Global.

Circular polarization of excitonic luminescence in CdTe quantum wells with excess electrons of different densities

The circular polarization of excitonic luminescence is studied in CdTe/Cd1-xMgxTe quantum wells with excess electrons of low density in an external magnetic field. It is observed that the circular polarization of X and X- emissions has opposite signs and is influenced by the excess electron density. If the electron density is relatively high so that the emission intensity of the negatively charged excitons X- is much stronger than that of the neutral excitons X, a stronger circular polarization degree of both X and X- emissions is observed. We find that the circular polarization of both X- and X emissions is caused by the spin polarization of the excess electrons due to the electron-spin-dependent nature of the formation of X-. If the electron density is relatively low and the emission intensity of X- is comparable to that of X, the circular polarization degree of X and X- emissions is considerably smaller. This fact is interpreted as due to a depolarization of the excess electron spins, which is induced by the spin relaxation of X-.

Excess arsenic in GaAs grown at low temperatures by molecular beam epitaxy

The structural properties of GaAs grown at low temperatures by molecular beam epitaxy (LTMBE GaAs) were studied. The excess arsenic atoms in LTMBE GaAs exist in the form of arsenic interstitial couples (i,e, two ns atoms share the one host site), and cause an increase in the lattice parameter of LTMBE GaAs. Annealing at above 300 degrees C, the arsenic interstitial couples decomposed, and As precipitates formed, resulting in a decrease in the lattice parameter.