Mitigation of lake eutrophication: Loosen nitrogen control and focus on phosphorus abatement

w Traditionally, nitrogen control is generally considered an important component of reducing lake eutrophication and cyanobacteria blooms. However, this viewpoint is refuted recently by researchers in China and North America. In the present paper, the traditional viewpoint of nitrogen control is pointed out to lack a scientific basis: the N/P hypothesis is just a subjective assumption; bottle bioassay experiments fail to simulate the natural process of nitrogen fixation. Our multi-year comparative research in more than 40 Yangtze lakes indicates that phosphorus is the key factor determining phytoplankton growth regardless of nitrogen concentrations and that total phytoplankton biomass is determined by total phosphorus and not by total nitrogen concentrations. These results imply that, in the field, nitrogen control will not decrease phytoplankton biomass. This finding is supported by a long-term whole-lake experiment from North America. These outcomes can be generalized in terms that a reduction in nitrogen loading may not decrease the biomass of total phytoplankton as it can stimulate blooms of nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria. To mitigate eutrophication, it is not nitrogen but phosphorus that should be reduced, unless nitrogen concentrations are too high to induce direct toxic impacts on human beings or other organisms. Finally, details are provided on how to reduce controls on nitrogen and how to mitigate eutrophication. (C) 2009 National Natural Science Foundation of China and Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier Limited and Science in China Press. All rights reserved.

Generalized phenomenological model for the viscoelasticity of idealized asphalts

A generalized theory for the viscoelastic behavior of idealized bituminous mixtures (asphalts) is presented. The mathematical model incorporates strain rate and temperature dependency as well as nonmonotonic loading and unloading with shape recovery. The stiffening effect of the aggregate is included. The model is of phenomenological nature. It can be calibrated using a relatively limited set of experimental parameters, obtainable by uniaxial tests. It is shown that the mathematical model can be represented as a special nonlinear form of the Burgers model. This facilitates the derivation of numerical algorithms for solving the constitutive equations. A numerical scheme is implemented in a user material subroutine (UMAT) in the finite-element analysis (FEA) code ABAQUS. Simulation results are compared with uniaxial and indentation tests on an idealized asphalt mix. © 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.

Spin-Hall effect in the generalized honeycomb lattice with Rashba spin-orbit interaction

We study the spin-Hall effect in a generalized honeycomb lattice, which is described by a tight-binding Hamiltonian including the Rashba spin-orbit coupling and inversion-symmetry breaking terms brought about by a uniaxial pressure. The calculated spin-Hall conductance displays a series of exact or approximate plateaus for isotropic or anisotropic hopping integral parameters, respectively. We show that these plateaus are a consequence of the various Fermi-surface topologies when tuning epsilon(F). For the isotropic case, a consistent two-band analysis, as well as a Berry-phase interpretation. are also given. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Generalized Viscoplastic Modeling of Debris Flow

Various concepts have been proposed or used in the development of rheological models for debris flow. The earliest model developed by Bagnold was based on the concept of the “dispersive” pressure generated by grain collisions. Bagnold’s concept appears to be theoretically sound, but his empirical model has been found to be inconsistent with most theoretical models developed from non-Newtonian fluid mechanics. Although the generality of Bagnold’s model is still at issue, debris-flow modelers in Japan have generally accepted Takahashi’s formulas derived from Bagnold’s model. Some efforts have recently been made by theoreticians in non-Newtonian fluid mechanics to modify or improve Bagnold’s concept or model. A viable rheological model should consist both of a rate-independent part and a rate-dependent part. A generalized viscoplastic fluid (GVF) model that has both parts as well as two major rheological properties (i.e., the normal stress effect and soil yield criterion) is shown to be sufficiently accurate, yet practical, for general use in debris-flow modeling. In fact, Bagnold’s model is found to be only a particular case of the GVF model. Analytical solutions for (steady) uniform debris flows in wide channels are obtained from the GVF model based on Bagnold’s simplified assumption of constant grain concentration.

Practical Evaluation of Security against Generalized Interpolation Attack

Interpolation attack was presented by Jakobsen and Knudsen at FSE'97. Interpolation attack is effective against ciphers that have a certain algebraic structure like the PURE cipher which is a prototype cipher, but it is difficult to apply the attack to real-world ciphers. This difficulty is due to the difficulty of deriving a low degree polynomial relation between ciphertexts and plaintexts. In other words, it is difficult to evaluate the security against interpolation attack. This paper generalizes the interpolation attack. The generalization makes easier to evaluate the security against interpolation attack. We call the generalized interpolation attack linear sum attack. We present an algorithm that evaluates the security of byte-oriented ciphers against linear sum attack. Moreover, we show the relationship between linear sum attack and higher order differential attack. In addition, we show the security of CRYPTON, E2, and RIJNDAEL against linear sum attack using the algorithm.

Prediction of simultaneously large and opposite generalized Goos-Hanchen shifts for TE and TM light beams in an asymmetric double-prism configuration

It is predicted that large and opposite generalized Goos-Hanchen (GGH) shifts may occur simultaneously for TE and TM light beams upon reflection from an asymmetric double-prism configuration when the angle of incidence is below but near the critical angle for total reflection, which may lead to interesting applications in optical devices and integrated optics. Numerical simulations show that the magnitude of the GGH shift can be of the order of beam's width.

2-DELTA-FUNCTION GENERALIZED PLASMA POLE MODEL FOR 1ST PRINCIPLE CALCULATIONS OF QUASI-PARTICLE ENERGIES IN MANY-ELECTRON SYSTEMS

To evaluate the dynamical effects of the screened interaction in the calculations of quasiparticle energies in many-electron systems a two-delta-function generalized plasma pole model (GPP) is introduced to simulate the dynamical dielectric function. The usual single delta-function GPP model has the drawback of over simplifications and for the crystals without the center of symmetry is inappropriate to describe the finite frequency behavior for dielectric function matrices. The discrete frequency summation method requires too much computation to achieve converged results since ab initio calculations of dielectric function matrices are to be carried out for many different frequencies. The two-delta GPP model is an optimization of the two approaches. We analyze the two-delta GPP model and propose a method to determine from the first principle calculations the amplitudes and effective frequencies of these delta-functions. Analytical solutions are found for the second order equations for the parameter matrices entering the model. This enables realistic applications of the method to the first principle quasiparticle calculations and makes the calculations truly adjustable parameter free.

Small-scale turbulent fluctuations beyond Taylor's frozen-flow hypothesis

The space-time cross-correlation function C-T(r, tau) of local temperature fluctuations in turbulent Rayleigh-Benard convection is obtained from simultaneous two-point time series measurements. The obtained C-T(r, tau) is found to have the scaling form C-T(r(E), 0) with r(E)=[(r-U tau)(2)+ V-2 tau(2)](1/2), where U and V are two characteristic velocities associated with the mean and rms velocities of the flow. The experiment verifies the theory and demonstrates its applications to a class of turbulent flows in which the requirement of Taylor's frozen flow hypothesis is not met.