Comportamiento agronómico de cocona (Solanum sessiliflorum Dunal var. Sessiliflorum) y de naranjilla (Solanum quitoense Lam var Septentrionale) bajo dos formas de manejo (orgánico y convencional), San Esteban 2, Jinotega

La cocona y la naranjilla, cultivos poco conocidos en el país, crecen de forma silvestre y cultivada principalmente en Jinotega y Matagalpa. Dada la necesidad de conocer más sobre estos cultivos se estableció este ensayo cuyos objetivos fueron: evaluar los efectos principales y sus interacciones de los factores variedad y forma de manejo (orgánica y convencional) y evaluar el comportamiento a través del tiempo de variables de crecimiento y del rendimiento en dependencia de los factores antes mencionados. En el ensayo se estudió una variedad de cocona y otra de naranjilla en un BCA. Los datos de campo se analizaron empleando el ANOVA y MANOVA. Los valores promedios de altura de planta, numero de hojas y de flores resultaron estadísticamente diferentes entre variedades pero no así el rendimiento (aunque naranjilla presentó el mayor número de fr utos cosechados por hectárea). En general no se apreciaron diferencias estadísticas en cuanto a las formas de manejo del cultivo para las diferentes variables en estudio. El análisis de las mediciones repetidas a través del tiempo indicó que las variedades en estudio mostraron un comportamiento (patrón) diferenciado a través de tiempo en particular para número de hojas y de flores. En ambos casos las variedades estudiadas se diferenciaron principalmente durante los últimos muestreos, presentando naranjilla cambios más rápidos en los valores promedios de las dos variables antes mencionadas. En cuanto a rendimiento ambas variedades presentaron un patrón estadísticamente similar a través del tiempo. En conclusión y en base a los análisis de los valores promedios generales y de las mediciones repetidas a través del tiempo el ensayo permitió la diferenciación de las variedades en estudio para las variables de crecimiento aunque no para el rendimiento de frutos/ha.

Transferrina y su posible relación con producción de gonadotrofina corionica equina

La gonadotrofina corionica equina (eGC) es una hormona glicoproteica producida por las células del trofoblasto fetal que invaden el endometrio uterino. La elevada actividad de esta hormona en la estimulación del desarrollo folicular y su alta persistencia in vivo permite que sea usada como agente estimulante en especies heterólogas. El objetivo del presente estudio consistió en evaluar la posible asociación entre un marcador genético y el nivel de eGC. Como marcador genético se seleccionó a la transferrina, ya que por su función biológica está relacionada con el estado general del animal y del endometrio en particular. El plantel en estudio estaba compuesto por caballos mestizos, destinados a la producción de la hormona. Los mismos fueron seleccionados para realizarse cruzamientos dirigidos teniendo en cuenta el genotipo para el locus de las transferrinas, permitiendo conocer el alelo obligado en la cría (dado por herencia paterna). El nivel de hormona producido se calculó mediante el método de enzimoinmunoensayo (EIE). Mientras que para la determinación de los alelos de transferrina se empleó la técnica de electroforesis en geles de poliacrilamida según el método PAGE . Una vez obtenida la información de las variantes que presentaban los individuos para el locus de transferrina, se analizó la posible asociación entre los marcadores genéticos y la producción de eGC, mediante el método de ANOVA multifactorial. A partir de los resultados obtenidos, pudieron elaborarse las siguientes conclusiones: 1) La transferrina evidenció diferencias significativas tanto a nivel fenotípico, como en la presencia/ausencia de los alelos F1 y H. La presencia del alelo F1 se encontró asociado con una mayor producción de eGC. Por el contrario la presencia del alelo H está relacionada con un menor nivel de producción de la hormona. 2) En las yeguas homocigotas para transferrina, se encontró una disminución de la producción de eGC, conforme avanzaba la edad del animal analizado. Este hecho no se observó en las yeguas heterocigotas para el mismo locus. 3) Los fenotipos homocigotas para el alelo F2 presentaron una menor producción de la hormona que los individuos que portaban ese mismo alelo en combinación con D, H o R. A pesar del desarrollo conceptual y metodológico de la mejora genética animal, la selección asistida por marcadores es un área poco transitada en la actualidad. Por lo tanto, aunque preliminar resulta un aporte original, teniendo en cuenta el escaso desarrollo de este tipo de trabajos en equinos y más específicamente en el ámbito de la producción.

Numerical Study on Flow Field and Temperature Distribution in Growth Process of 200 mm Czochralski Silicon Crystals

The melt flow and temperature distribution in a 200 mm silicon Czochralski furnace with a cusp magnetic field was modeled and simulated by using a finite-volume based FLUTRAPP ( Fluid Flow and Transport Phenomena Program) code. The melt flow in the crucible was focused, which is a result of the competition of buoyancy, the centrifugal forces caused by the rotations of the crucible and crystal, the thermocapillary force on the free surfaces and the Lorentz force induced by the cusp magnetic field. The zonal method for radiative heat transfer was used in the growth chamber, which was confined by the crystal surface, melt surface, crucible, heat shield, and pull chamber. It was found that the cusp magnetic field could strength the dominant counter-rotating swirling flow cell in the crucible and reduce the flow oscillation and the pulling-rate fluctuation. The fluctuation of dopant and oxygen concentration in the growing crystal could thus be smoothed.

Efecto de la edad al primer parto sobre la productividad de ovino de carne (Raza, Rasa Aragonesa) en una explotación de zona semiárida en Zaragoza, España

El estudio se realizó en la granja ovina de los hermanos Campos Borras localizada en el municipio de Monegrillo, comarcas de Monegros, provincia de Zaragoza, Comunidad Autónoma de Aragón, localizada en las coordenadas geográficas 41° 38´ 15” latitud norte y 0° 25´ 03” de longitud Este, con el objetivo de evaluar el efecto de la edad al primer parto sobre la productividad de ovino de carne (Rasa Aragonesa) en una explotación de zona semiárida en Zaragoza, España, Se utilizó una base de dato de registros desde 1994 hasta el 2010, la cual fue depurada antes de su análisis en una hoja de cálculo de Excel® de la suite de Microsoft Office. Todos los análisis estadísticos se analizaron mediante el paquete estadístico SAS®, versión 9.1.3. Los registros se agruparon de acuerdo a la edad al primer parto: Grupo 1: 11 a 14 meses, Grupo 2: 15 a 16 meses, Grupo 3: 19 a 22 meses y Grupo 4: 23 hasta 53 meses. Las diferencias entre grupos se analizaron mediante ANOVA y test de Duncan Se evaluó la fertilidad de dos maneras: 4 años desde su fecha de nacimiento y 4 años desde su primer parto. En ambas evaluaciones se midieron las mismas variables (número de partos, intervalo entre parto y prolificidad). Encontrando que la edad al primer parto no influyó sobre la fertilidad de las ovejas evaluadas desde su nacimiento hasta los 4 años, aunque se observaron diferencias significativas (P<0.01) entre todos los grupos cuando se evaluó. Debido a que se encontró un mayor número de partos en las ovejas que tienen una edad menor al primer parto y cuando la fertilidad se evaluó desde su primer parto se encontró que no existía ninguna diferencia significativa entre grupos, siendo la media general 5.4 partos, lo que quiere decir que la edad al primer parto no repercute en su fertilidad en sus próximos 4 años. Palabras Claves: Rasa Aragonesa, Edad al primer parto, Productividad.

模拟弹塑性碰撞的修正SPH方法

从基本的无网格光滑粒子法SPH(Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics)近似出发,修正了模拟固体力学中大变形弹塑性碰撞的SPH方法.在边界处采用修正的边界条件,弹塑性分析过程中采用增量理论计算应力,迭代过程中用守恒光滑法进行滤波修正消除拉力不稳定.对SPH方法进行了程序实现,给出了杆弹塑性碰撞的算例.计算分析表明,SPH方法节点的影响域较大、精度较相同节点间距有限元法的结果有一定差距,但是通过增加粒子数量可以提高SPH的精度,保持了其简单性和计算大变形的特性.

SPH方法在模拟线弹性波传播中的运用

通过对固体中波动问题的模拟建立了一种光滑粒子法的新形式,一种运用SPH的核函数的类似有限体积法的计算方法.通过对统计体积的修正以及对边界粒子的核函数修正,较好地解决了SPH方法中长期以来制约其被广泛应用的主要问题之一边界条件的表述.在此基础上成功地在光滑粒子法中实现了透射边界条件的模拟.同时利用反卷积修正使得较大粒子间距下的计算结果的精度大大提高.这种方法不但保持了SPH的简单性,而且很容易实现应力边界条件.

The distribution and size composition of finfish, American lobster, and long-finned squid in Long Island Sound based on the Connecticut Fisheries Division Bottom Trawl Survey, 1984–1994

The distribution, abundance, and length composition of marine finfish, lobster, and squid in Long Island Sound were examined relative to season and physical features of the Sound, using Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection trawl survey data collected from 1984 to 1994. The following are presented: seasonal distribution maps for 59 species, abundance indices for 41 species, and length frequencies for 26 species. In addition, a broader view of habitat utilization in the Sound was examined by mapping aggregated catches (total catch per tow, demersal catch per tow, and pelagic catch per tow) and by comparing species richness and mean aggregate catch/tow by analysis of variance (ANOVA) among eight habitat types defined by depth interval and bottom type. For many individual species, seasonal migration patterns and preference for particular areas within Long Island Sound were evident. The aggregate distribution maps show that overall abundance was lower in the eastern Sound than the central and western portions. Demersal and pelagic temporal abundance show opposite trends—demersals were abundant in spring and declined through summer and fall, whereas pelagic abundance was low in spring and increased into fall. The analysis of habitat types revealed significant differences for both species richness and mean catch per tow. Generally, species richness was highest in habitats within the central area of the Sound and lowest in eastern habitats. The aggregate mean catch was highest in the western and central habitats, and declined eastward. (PDF file contains 199 pages.)

A smoothing technique for discrete delta functions with application to immersed boundary method in moving boundary simulations.

The effects of complex boundary conditions on flows are represented by a volume force in the immersed boundary methods. The problem with this representation is that the volume force exhibits non-physical oscillations in moving boundary simulations. A smoothing technique for discrete delta functions has been developed in this paper to suppress the non-physical oscillations in the volume forces. We have found that the non-physical oscillations are mainly due to the fact that the derivatives of the regular discrete delta functions do not satisfy certain moment conditions. It has been shown that the smoothed discrete delta functions constructed in this paper have one-order higher derivative than the regular ones. Moreover, not only the smoothed discrete delta functions satisfy the first two discrete moment conditions, but also their derivatives satisfy one-order higher moment condition than the regular ones. The smoothed discrete delta functions are tested by three test cases: a one-dimensional heat equation with a moving singular force, a two-dimensional flow past an oscillating cylinder, and the vortex-induced vibration of a cylinder. The numerical examples in these cases demonstrate that the smoothed discrete delta functions can effectively suppress the non-physical oscillations in the volume forces and improve the accuracy of the immersed boundary method with direct forcing in moving boundary simulations.

Large-eddy simulation of flows past a flapping airfoil using immersed boundary method

The numerical simulation of flows past flapping foils at moderate Reynolds numbers presents two challenges to computational fluid dynamics: turbulent flows and moving boundaries. The direct forcing immersed boundary (IB) method has been devel- oped to simulate laminar flows. However, its performance in simulating turbulent flows and transitional flows with moving boundaries has not been fully evaluated. In the present work, we use the IB method to simulate fully developed turbulent channel flows and transitional flows past a stationary/plunging SD7003 airfoil. To suppress the non-physical force oscillations in the plunging case, we use the smoothed discrete delta function for interpolation in the IB method. The results of the present work demonstrate that the IB method can be used to simulate turbulent flows and transitional flows with moving boundaries.

The influence of diets and body manipulations on the growth of African prawn Macrobrachium vollenhovenii (Herklots)

Live African prawns Macrobrachium vollenhovenii were collected from Asejire reservoir (Nigeria) by trapping. After acclimatization, the prawns were differently amputated: some had their eye-stalks cut; some had their chelae cut; some had both eyestalks and chelae cut while some were intact which served as the control. Each set was placed under different levels of crude protein viz 15%; 20%; and 25%. Weekly weight changes were monitored. Results obtained were subjected to statistical analysis including analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results showed that prawns fed with 20% crude protein had the best growth rate. Specimens with the eyestalk and chelae removed also showed superior growth when compared with the others. Specimens that had their eyestalks removed were able to feed for 18 hours in the day while those with intact body fed for 6 hours during the same period. The amputation of the chelate appendages reduced considerably the cannibalistic urge in the prawns. This enabled a high number of prawns to be grown in the experimental tanks

光滑粒子动力学方法中粒子分布与数值稳定性分析

光滑粒子动力学(SPH)作为一种拉格朗日型无网格粒子方法,已经成功地应用于包括含多相流动界面以及移动边界的可压缩和不可压缩流体运动的研究中.通过对Poiseuille流动的深入研究,探索了SPH方法中粒子分布对计算精度的影响,揭示了一种因为粒子不规则分布而导致的数值不稳定现象.研究显示,这种数值不稳定性起源于SPH方法粒子近似过程中的不连续性.使用了一种新的粒子近似格式以确保SPH方法中粒子近似的连续性.计算结果表明,这种新的粒子近似格式对于规则和不规则的粒子分布都能得到稳定精度的结果.

Convex analysis for minimizing and learning submodular set functions

The connections between convexity and submodularity are explored, for purposes of minimizing and learning submodular set functions.

First, we develop a novel method for minimizing a particular class of submodular functions, which can be expressed as a sum of concave functions composed with modular functions. The basic algorithm uses an accelerated first order method applied to a smoothed version of its convex extension. The smoothing algorithm is particularly novel as it allows us to treat general concave potentials without needing to construct a piecewise linear approximation as with graph-based techniques.

Second, we derive the general conditions under which it is possible to find a minimizer of a submodular function via a convex problem. This provides a framework for developing submodular minimization algorithms. The framework is then used to develop several algorithms that can be run in a distributed fashion. This is particularly useful for applications where the submodular objective function consists of a sum of many terms, each term dependent on a small part of a large data set.

Lastly, we approach the problem of learning set functions from an unorthodox perspective---sparse reconstruction. We demonstrate an explicit connection between the problem of learning set functions from random evaluations and that of sparse signals. Based on the observation that the Fourier transform for set functions satisfies exactly the conditions needed for sparse reconstruction algorithms to work, we examine some different function classes under which uniform reconstruction is possible.

Algorithmic challenges in green data centers

With data centers being the supporting infrastructure for a wide range of IT services, their efficiency has become a big concern to operators, as well as to society, for both economic and environmental reasons. The goal of this thesis is to design energy-efficient algorithms that reduce energy cost while minimizing compromise to service. We focus on the algorithmic challenges at different levels of energy optimization across the data center stack. The algorithmic challenge at the device level is to improve the energy efficiency of a single computational device via techniques such as job scheduling and speed scaling. We analyze the common speed scaling algorithms in both the worst-case model and stochastic model to answer some fundamental issues in the design of speed scaling algorithms. The algorithmic challenge at the local data center level is to dynamically allocate resources (e.g., servers) and to dispatch the workload in a data center. We develop an online algorithm to make a data center more power-proportional by dynamically adapting the number of active servers. The algorithmic challenge at the global data center level is to dispatch the workload across multiple data centers, considering the geographical diversity of electricity price, availability of renewable energy, and network propagation delay. We propose algorithms to jointly optimize routing and provisioning in an online manner. Motivated by the above online decision problems, we move on to study a general class of online problem named "smoothed online convex optimization", which seeks to minimize the sum of a sequence of convex functions when "smooth" solutions are preferred. This model allows us to bridge different research communities and help us get a more fundamental understanding of general online decision problems.

Edad de menarquía e indicadores de adiposidad en universitarias del País Vasco

La revista permite a los autores reutilizar su fichero para depositarlo en su web o repositorio institucional, sin ánimo de lucro y mencionando la fuente original.

The Madden-Julian Oscillation : observation, modeling, and theory

The Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) is a pattern of intense rainfall and associated planetary-scale circulations in the tropical atmosphere, with a recurrence interval of 30-90 days. Although the MJO was first discovered 40 years ago, it is still a challenge to simulate the MJO in general circulation models (GCMs), and even with simple models it is difficult to agree on the basic mechanisms. This deficiency is mainly due to our poor understanding of moist convection—deep cumulus clouds and thunderstorms, which occur at scales that are smaller than the resolution elements of the GCMs. Moist convection is the most important mechanism for transporting energy from the ocean to the atmosphere. Success in simulating the MJO will improve our understanding of moist convection and thereby improve weather and climate forecasting.

We address this fundamental subject by analyzing observational datasets, constructing a hierarchy of numerical models, and developing theories. Parameters of the models are taken from observation, and the simulated MJO fits the data without further adjustments. The major findings include: 1) the MJO may be an ensemble of convection events linked together by small-scale high-frequency inertia-gravity waves; 2) the eastward propagation of the MJO is determined by the difference between the eastward and westward phase speeds of the waves; 3) the planetary scale of the MJO is the length over which temperature anomalies can be effectively smoothed by gravity waves; 4) the strength of the MJO increases with the typical strength of convection, which increases in a warming climate; 5) the horizontal scale of the MJO increases with the spatial frequency of convection; and 6) triggered convection, where potential energy accumulates until a threshold is reached, is important in simulating the MJO. Our findings challenge previous paradigms, which consider the MJO as a large-scale mode, and point to ways for improving the climate models.