Feasibility of using sea surface temperature imagery to mitigate cheloniid sea turtle–fishery interactions off the coast of northeastern USA

As sea turtles migrate along the Atlantic coast of the USA, their incidental capture in fisheries is a significant source of mortality. Because distribution of marine cheloniid turtles appears to be related, in part, to sea surface temperature (SST), the ability to predict water temperature over the continental shelf could be useful in minimizing turtle–fishery interactions. We analyzed 10 yr of advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) SST imagery to estimate the proportion of 18 spatial zones, nearshore and offshore of Hatteras, North Carolina, USA (35° N), to north of Cape Sable, Nova Scotia (44° N), at temperatures >10 to 15°C, by week. Detailed examples for 11°C, the temperature employed by some management actions in the study area, and for 14°C, the lowest temperature at which turtles were sighted by some studies in the area, demonstrate a predictable pattern of rapid warming in March and April, followed by rapid cooling in October and November, with nearshore waters warming more rapidly than those offshore. Of those loggerhead turtles Caretta caretta that stranded, were sighted, or were incidentally captured between Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and Cape Cod, Massachusetts, those at lower latitudes occurred when 25% or more of the area reached a water temperature of 11°C, while those in the northern zones did not occur until 50% or more of the area had reached a water temperature of 14°C. This analysis provides a means of predicting marine cheloniid turtle presence, which can be helpful in regulating fisheries that seasonally interact with turtles.

百合鳞茎低温贮藏及热胁迫下新铁炮百合的光合特性

百合是重要的球根花卉，是世界五大切花之一。我国的百合野生资源丰富，但百合鲜切花生产与世界花卉大国相比仍然存在差距，优质的商品种球大量依靠进口，实现商品种球国产化能够促进百合鲜切花生产和农业经济发展。温度是影响百合生长发育最重要的因子之一，影响百合鳞茎发育，限制百合的分布区域。 百合鳞茎具有自然休眠的特性，低温处理是目前打破百合鳞茎休眠的最常用的方法。低温处理期间，鳞茎内发生复杂的反应，淀粉水解，鳞茎内的淀粉酶（α-淀粉酶和β-淀粉酶）活性增加，可溶性糖主要是蔗糖积累;可溶性蛋白质含量增加，游离氨基酸在鳞茎相对幼嫩的器官中集中;休眠解除期间脱落酸和玉米素核苷含量呈下降趋势，赤霉素含量呈上升趋势且活性增高，鳞茎各部位生长素都有上升，一些其他生长调节剂如Me-JA和多胺对解除百合鳞茎也有作用。低温处理期间，鳞茎内各种激素相互作用，共同调控鳞茎的休眠状态。利用低温处理打破百合鳞茎休眠的过程中，温度要求控制在稳定的范围内。利用冰箱低温处理打破百合鳞茎休眠的实验中，放入样品前冰箱内的温度在所设定温度±1℃范围内波动，且不同部位温度均匀;但冰箱内放入样品后，其内部不同部位的温度相差较大，表现为上部温度高，下部温度低，冰箱内部不同部位温度差异很大。 从百合资源在中国的分布看，华北地区的百合资源相对稀缺，温度是限制其生长的重要环境因子。新铁炮百合能够在炎热的华南地区露地栽培，将其在华北地区进行区域化露地栽培实验，对百合栽培应用推广，扩大栽培面积，降低运输成本，以及保证鲜切花质量有重要意义。通过气体交换测定的光合作用是对高温最敏感和综合的生理指标，可以在植物生长和生物量积累未发生明显变化之前揭示高温的影响。本研究通过人工气候箱，设定四个温度梯度：25℃，32℃，38℃，44℃，处理2h，通过测定新铁炮百合幼苗的光合特性研究其耐热程度、探讨可能的耐热机制。结果表明：净光合作用速率（Pn）在小于38℃时下降幅度不大，大于38℃后显著下降，随着处理温度的提高，气孔导度（Gs）呈下降的趋势，胞间二氧化碳浓度（Ci）则上升，而气孔限制值（Ls）下降。高温下，两品种叶片最小荧光（Fo）无明显变化，最大荧光（Fm）和光系统II（PSⅡ）最大光化学效率（Fv/Fm）下降程度较小;光下，PSⅡ实际光化学效率（ΦPSⅡ）呈下降趋势，44℃处理后显著下降;NPQ随处理温度的提高而上升;处理温度升高，SOD、APX、CAT、POD活力增强。研究表明新铁炮百合能够耐受32-38℃的高温;热胁迫下，叶片通过提高非光化猝灭和抗氧化酶活性两种机制来抵御高温胁迫。

Risk-sensitive optimal feedback control accounts for sensorimotor behavior under uncertainty

Many aspects of human motor behavior can be understood using optimality principles such as optimal feedback control. However, these proposed optimal control models are risk-neutral; that is, they are indifferent to the variability of the movement cost. Here, we propose the use of a risk-sensitive optimal controller that incorporates movement cost variance either as an added cost (risk-averse controller) or as an added value (risk-seeking controller) to model human motor behavior in the face of uncertainty. We use a sensorimotor task to test the hypothesis that subjects are risk-sensitive. Subjects controlled a virtual ball undergoing Brownian motion towards a target. Subjects were required to minimize an explicit cost, in points, that was a combination of the final positional error of the ball and the integrated control cost. By testing subjects on different levels of Brownian motion noise and relative weighting of the position and control cost, we could distinguish between risk-sensitive and risk-neutral control. We show that subjects change their movement strategy pessimistically in the face of increased uncertainty in accord with the predictions of a risk-averse optimal controller. Our results suggest that risk-sensitivity is a fundamental attribute that needs to be incorporated into optimal feedback control models. © 2010 Nagengast et al.

Contact and channel modelling using part and function libraries in a function-based design approach

To support the development and analysis of engineering designs at the embodiment stage, designers work iteratively with representations of those designs as they consider the function and form of their constituent parts. Detailed descriptions of "what a machine does" usually include flows of forces and active principles within the technical system, and their localization within parts and across the interfaces between them. This means that a representation should assist a designer in considering form and function at the same time and at different levels of abstraction. This paper describes a design modelling approach that enables designers to break down a system architecture into its subsystems and parts, while assigning functions and flows to parts and the interfaces between them. In turn, this may reveal further requirements to fulfil functions in order to complete the design. The approach is implemented in a software tool which provides a uniform, computable language allowing the user to describe functions and flows as they are iteratively discovered, created and embodied. A database of parts allows the user to search for existing design solutions. The approach is illustrated through an example: modelling the complex mechanisms within a humanoid robot. Copyright © 2010 by ASME.

Facilitation of learning induced by both random and gradual visuomotor task variation.

Motor task variation has been shown to be a key ingredient in skill transfer, retention, and structural learning. However, many studies only compare training of randomly varying tasks to either blocked or null training, and it is not clear how experiencing different nonrandom temporal orderings of tasks might affect the learning process. Here we study learning in human subjects who experience the same set of visuomotor rotations, evenly spaced between -60° and +60°, either in a random order or in an order in which the rotation angle changed gradually. We compared subsequent learning of three test blocks of +30°→-30°→+30° rotations. The groups that underwent either random or gradual training showed significant (P < 0.01) facilitation of learning in the test blocks compared with a control group who had not experienced any visuomotor rotations before. We also found that movement initiation times in the random group during the test blocks were significantly (P < 0.05) lower than for the gradual or the control group. When we fit a state-space model with fast and slow learning processes to our data, we found that the differences in performance in the test block were consistent with the gradual or random task variation changing the learning and retention rates of only the fast learning process. Such adaptation of learning rates may be a key feature of ongoing meta-learning processes. Our results therefore suggest that both gradual and random task variation can induce meta-learning and that random learning has an advantage in terms of shorter initiation times, suggesting less reliance on cognitive processes.

Observations on two species of phyllodistomes (Trematoda : Gorgoderidae) from fishes of the Hubei Province, central China, with an erection of Neophyllodistomum gen. n.

Two rare trematode species so far reported in the genus Phyllodistomum Braun, 1899, P. pawlovskii (Zmeev, 1936) and P. serrispatula Chin, 1963, were found in the urinary system the yellow catfish Pelteobagrus fulvidraco (Richardson) of Bao'an Lake (prevalence 8 %) and the swamp eel Monopterus albus (Zouiev) of Liangzi Lake (prevalence 6 9/6), respectively, from the Hubei Province, central China. In contrast to the original description, P. pawlovskii showed a considerable morphological variability particularly in the shape, size and topography of testes. A unique morphological feature of P. serrispatula is the presence of many conspicuous lateral outgrowths on the hindbody and, principally based on this character, a new genus Neophyl-lodistomum is erected (type species N. serrispatula (Chin, 1963) comb. n.)) to accommodate this species. Both trematode species are briefly redescribed. P. pawlovskii and N. serrispatula are reported for the first time from the Hubei Province and the former from the Yangtze River drainage system.

Single-electron capture in keV Ar15+...18++He collisions

Single-electron capture in 14 keV q(-1) Ar15+...18++He collisions is investigated both experimentally and theoretically. Partial cross sections and projectile scattering angle dependencies have been deduced from the target ion recoil momenta measured by the COLTRIMS technique. The comparison with close-coupling results obtained from a two-centre extension of the basis generator method yields good overall agreement, demonstrating the applicability of close-coupling calculations to collision systems involving highly charged ions in charge states up to 18+.

Gait Dynamics for Recognition and Classification

This paper describes a representation of the dynamics of human walking action for the purpose of person identification and classification by gait appearance. Our gait representation is based on simple features such as moments extracted from video silhouettes of human walking motion. We claim that our gait dynamics representation is rich enough for the task of recognition and classification. The use of our feature representation is demonstrated in the task of person recognition from video sequences of orthogonal views of people walking. We demonstrate the accuracy of recognition on gait video sequences collected over different days and times, and under varying lighting environments. In addition, preliminary results are shown on gender classification using our gait dynamics features.

Monitoring Activities from Multiple Video Streams: Establishing a Common Coordinate Frame

Passive monitoring of large sites typically requires coordination between multiple cameras, which in turn requires methods for automatically relating events between distributed cameras. This paper tackles the problem of self-calibration of multiple cameras which are very far apart, using feature correspondences to determine the camera geometry. The key problem is finding such correspondences. Since the camera geometry and photometric characteristics vary considerably between images, one cannot use brightness and/or proximity constraints. Instead we apply planar geometric constraints to moving objects in the scene in order to align the scene"s ground plane across multiple views. We do not assume synchronized cameras, and we show that enforcing geometric constraints enables us to align the tracking data in time. Once we have recovered the homography which aligns the planar structure in the scene, we can compute from the homography matrix the 3D position of the plane and the relative camera positions. This in turn enables us to recover a homography matrix which maps the images to an overhead view. We demonstrate this technique in two settings: a controlled lab setting where we test the effects of errors in internal camera calibration, and an uncontrolled, outdoor setting in which the full procedure is applied to external camera calibration and ground plane recovery. In spite of noise in the internal camera parameters and image data, the system successfully recovers both planar structure and relative camera positions in both settings.