Assessment of pelagic primary and secondary production in Sefidrud River estuary

Sefid-Rood River Estuary (SRE) is the most important riverine ecosystem in the south Caspian Sea along the Iranian coast lines. The aim of this study was to examine spatial and temporal variability in Phytoplankton and Zooplankton abundance and diversity in SRE. Variability of Chlorophyll a and inorganic nutrient concentration were determined during a year (November 2004– October 2005) in five sampling stations. Primary and secondry production were determined during a year. Total chlorophyll a concentration during the investigation ranged between zero to 22.8 μgl-1 and the highest levels were consistently recorded during summer and the lowest during winter with a annual mean concentration 4.48 μgl-1. Nutrient concentration was seasonally related to river flow with annual mean concentration: NO2 0.05±0.2 mgl-1, NO3 1.13±0.57 mgl-1, NH4 0.51±0.66 mgl-1, total phosphate 0.13±0.1mgl-1 and SiO2 5.68±1.91 mgl-1. Bacillariophytes, Cyanophytes, Chlorophytes, Pyrophytes and Euglenophytes were the dominant phytoplankton groups in this shallow and turbid estuary. The diversity and abundance of phytoplankton had a seasonal pattern while Diatomas and Chrysophytes were dominant throughout the year but Cyanophytes observed only during the summer. Zooplankton community structure was dominated by copepods which 68% of the total zooplankton. In the winter and summer seasons two increased in the number of zooplankton community and usually toward the sea had occurred. Zooplankton also showed a significant spatial and temporal variation. The high turbidity and temperature prime characteristics of SRE seem to be determining factors acting directly on phytoplankton and zooplankton temporal variability and nutrient fluctuations. Everywhere in this estuary nutrients appeared to be in excess of algal requirement and did not influence a phytoplankton and zooplankton composition. Also there was a positive correlation between chlorophyll a and temperature and a negative one with DIN and TP. Primary production determined in this estuary by dark and light butter method and G.P.P. 38.27±34.12 mgcm-2h-1 and N,PP 201.6±289.9 mgcm-2d-1. secondry production determined 15/128 mgc/m3/year. Everywhere in this estuary nutrients appeared to be in excess to algal requirement and did not influence in Chl. a and primary production. The most important factor influence on Chl. a was water temperature.

Influence of cold storage time on the protein changes and fatty acids deterioration of (Rutilus frisi kutum) during frozen storage

The main aim of this research was to identify fatty acids composition of Caspian sea of White fish Rutilus frisi kutum tissue and their changes during one year cold storage (-18Ċ).The secondary aim was to determine the changes of moisture, ash, protein, fat, and to investigate the effects of storage time on peroxide, TBAi, FFA, and extractability of myofibrillar proteins of the fish tissue during one year cold storage (-18 Ċ). 10 samples of (Rutilus frisi kutum) were randomly collected from Anzali landings. The samples were frozen at -30 Ċ and kept in cold storage at -18Ċ for one year. According to time table, the samples were examined. The results showed that 27 fatty acids were identified. The unsaturated fatty acids (UFA) and saturated fatty acids (SFA) were 74/09 and 21/63 %, respectively, in fresh tissue. So that DHA (C22:6) oleic acid (C18:1c) had high amounts (15/07 ,20/57 ) among the UFA and palmitic acid (C16:0) was the most (13/09 %) among the SFA. The effects of freezing and cold storage on fish tissue showed that UFA and SFA contents have reached to 58/79 and 22/17 %, respectively, at the end of cold storage. It indicated that these compound change to each other during frozen storage. Also ω-3 and ω-6 series of fatty acids was 24/22 and 15/56% in fresh tissue, but their contents decreased to 8/68 and 5/11% at the end of period. Among the fatty acids C22:6, C18:1c and C16:0 had the most changes. The changes of fatty acids were significantly at 95% level expected for C18:0. Results showed that moisture, ash, protein, and fat contents were 75/9±0/03, 1/28±0/012, 21/8±0/2, and 4/1±0/01 % respectively, in fresh tissue. The moisture, ash, protein, and fat contents were 72/3±0/04, 1/83±0/05, 1/91±0/01 and 19/9±0/01 % respectively, at the end of storage period. Lipid damage was measured on the basis of free fatty acids (FFA), peroxide value (PV), and Thiobarbituric acid index (TBA-i). PV, TBARS and FFA concentration of frozen Caspian Sea white fish stored at -18 Ċ the temporal variation of these three variables were statistically significant (p<0.001). Results of White fish myofibrillar proteins showed aggregation of bound reduced for stored at 12 months. SDS-PAGE analysis revealed that, the intensity of the myosin heavy chain and actin bound was reduced with increasing storage time. SDS-PAGE patterns showed that myosin heavy chain was much more susceptible to hydrolysis than actin. Key words: Rutilus frisi kutum, frozen storage, ω-3, ω-6, protein myofibrillar

Differential Dynamic Microscopy: a High-Throughput Method for Characterizing the Motility of Microorganism

We present a fast, high-throughput method for characterizing the motility of microorganisms in 3D based on standard imaging microscopy. Instead of tracking individual cells, we analyse the spatio-temporal fluctuations of the intensity in the sample from time-lapse images and obtain the intermediate scattering function (ISF) of the system. We demonstrate our method on two different types of microorganisms: bacteria, both smooth swimming (run only) and wild type (run and tumble) Escherichia coli, and the bi-flagellate alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. We validate the methodology using computer simulations and particle tracking. From the ISF, we are able to extract (i) for E. coli: the swimming speed distribution, the fraction of motile cells and the diffusivity, and (ii) for C. reinhardtii: the swimming speed distribution, the amplitude and frequency of the oscillatory dynamics. In both cases, the motility parameters are averaged over \approx 10^4 cells and obtained in a few minutes.

Absolute and convective instability in gas turbine fuel injectors

Hydrodynamic instabilities in gas turbine fuel injectors help to mix the fuel and air but can sometimes lock into acoustic oscillations and contribute to thermoacoustic instability. This paper describes a linear stability analysis that predicts the frequencies and strengths of hydrodynamic instabilities and identifies the regions of the flow that cause them. It distinguishes between convective instabilities, which grow in time but are convected away by the flow, and absolute instabilities, which grow in time without being convected away. Convectively unstable flows amplify external perturbations, while absolutely unstable flows also oscillate at intrinsic frequencies. As an input, this analysis requires velocity and density fields, either from a steady but unstable solution to the Navier-Stokes equations, or from time-averaged numerical simulations. In the former case, the analysis is a predictive tool. In the latter case, it is a diagnostic tool. This technique is applied to three flows: a swirling wake at Re = 400, a single stream swirling fuel injector at Re - 106, and a lean premixed gas turbine injector with five swirling streams at Re - 106. Its application to the swirling wake demonstrates that this technique can correctly predict the frequency, growth rate and dominant wavemaker region of the flow. It also shows that the zone of absolute instability found from the spatio-temporal analysis is a good approximation to the wavemaker region, which is found by overlapping the direct and adjoint global modes. This approximation is used in the other two flows because it is difficult to calculate their adjoint global modes. Its application to the single stream fuel injector demonstrates that it can identify the regions of the flow that are responsible for generating the hydrodynamic oscillations seen in LES and experimental data. The frequencies predicted by this technique are within a few percent of the measured frequencies. The technique also explains why these oscillations become weaker when a central jet is injected along the centreline. This is because the absolutely unstable region that causes the oscillations becomes convectively unstable. Its application to the lean premixed gas turbine injector reveals that several regions of the flow are hydrodynamically unstable, each with a different frequency and a different strength. For example, it reveals that the central region of confined swirling flow is strongly absolutely unstable and sets up a precessing vortex core, which is likely to aid mixing throughout the injector. It also reveals that the region between the second and third streams is slightly absolutely unstable at a frequency that is likely to coincide with acoustic modes within the combustion chamber. This technique, coupled with knowledge of the acoustic modes in a combustion chamber, is likely to be a useful design tool for the passive control of mixing and combustion instability. Copyright © 2012 by ASME.

Dicke superradiance in GaN quantum wells

We numerically modeled the spatio-temporal dynamics of Dicke superradiance in GaN/InGaN heterostructure quantum wells in a ridge waveguide cavity. Model predictions envisage ultrashort pulses of intensities superior to what can be obtained in mode-locked lasers. ©2010 IEEE.

Control of aircraft in the terminal manoeuvring area using parallelised sequential Monte Carlo

This paper reports on the use of a parallelised Model Predictive Control, Sequential Monte Carlo algorithm for solving the problem of conflict resolution and aircraft trajectory control in air traffic management specifically around the terminal manoeuvring area of an airport. The target problem is nonlinear, highly constrained, non-convex and uses a single decision-maker with multiple aircraft. The implementation includes a spatio-temporal wind model and rolling window simulations for realistic ongoing scenarios. The method is capable of handling arriving and departing aircraft simultaneously including some with very low fuel remaining. A novel flow field is proposed to smooth the approach trajectories for arriving aircraft and all trajectories are planned in three dimensions. Massive parallelisation of the algorithm allows solution speeds to approach those required for real-time use.

Detecting bipedal motion from correlated probabilistic trajectories

This paper is about detecting bipedal motion in video sequences by using point trajectories in a framework of classification. Given a number of point trajectories, we find a subset of points which are arising from feet in bipedal motion by analysing their spatio-temporal correlation in a pairwise fashion. To this end, we introduce probabilistic trajectories as our new features which associate each point over a sufficiently long time period in the presence of noise. They are extracted from directed acyclic graphs whose edges represent temporal point correspondences and are weighted with their matching probability in terms of appearance and location. The benefit of the new representation is that it practically tolerates inherent ambiguity for example due to occlusions. We then learn the correlation between the motion of two feet using the probabilistic trajectories in a decision forest classifier. The effectiveness of the algorithm is demonstrated in experiments on image sequences captured with a static camera, and extensions to deal with a moving camera are discussed. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Seasonal variations in stable isotope ratios of two biomanipulation fishes and seston in a large pen culture in hypereutrophic Meiliang Bay, Lake Taihu

This paper reports on seasonal changes in stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios of seston and muscle tissue of silver carp and bighead carp during 2004 and 2005, focusing primarily on the carbon sources and trophic relationships among phytoplankton, zooplankton and silver carp and bighead carp in a large fish pen of Meiliang Bay (Lake Taihu, China). delta C-13 showed a minimal value in March 2005 and a maximal value in August 2005 in seston both inside and outside the pen, whereas delta N-15 of seston showed the minimum in winter and the maximum during algal blooms. A positive correlation between delta C-13 of silver carp and that of seston suggested that temporal variation Of delta C-13 in seston was preserved in fish via the food chain. The differences of delta C-13 among seston, zooplankton and muscle tissue of silver carp and bighead carp ranged only 0.2-1.7%, indicating that plankton production was the primary food source of filter-feeding fishes. According to a mass balance model, we estimated that the contributions of zooplankton to the diets of silver carp and bighead carp were 45.7% and 54.3%, respectively, based on the delta N-15 values of zooplankton and planktivorous fishes. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Phylogeography of Schizothorax o'connori (Cyprinidae: Schizothoracinae) in the Yarlung Tsangpo River, Tibet

Schizothorax o'connori is endemic to the Yarlung Tsangpo River on the Tibetan Plateau. We assessed the relative impacts of historical and contemporary factors in organizing genetic variation in S. o'connori populations using mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences. We analyzed 191 samples from 11 populations and identified 78 haplotypes. The phylogenetic analyses and analysis of molecular variance all supported the same conclusions of two well-differentiated east-west phylogroups, separated by the Tsangpo Great Gorge. The split between the two clades accounted for 58% of the genetic variance observed among the examined samples. Waterfalls as effective barriers played an important role in shaping the phylogeographical structure of this species. Analyses of migration rates revealed that upstream dispersal was limited crossing waterfalls. Our study revealed substantial spatial and temporal variation in the influence of landscape features on contemporary patterns of genetic structure in S. o'connori. Interglacial range expansions clearly left their mark on contemporary populations above the Tsangpo Great Gorge.

Modal stability theory

This article contains a review of modal stability theory. It covers local stability analysis of parallel flows including temporal stability, spatial stability, phase velocity, group velocity, spatio-temporal stability, the linearized Navier-Stokes equations, the Orr-Sommerfeld equation, the Rayleigh equation, the Briggs-Bers criterion, Poiseuille flow, free shear flows, and secondary modal instability. It also covers the parabolized stability equation (PSE), temporal and spatial biglobal theory, 2D eigenvalue problems, 3D eigenvalue problems, spectral collocation methods, and other numerical solution methods. Computer codes are provided for tutorials described in the article. These tutorials cover the main topics of the article and can be adapted to form the basis of research codes. Copyright © 2014 by ASME.

Benthic algae of the Xiangxi River, China

From June 2000 to June 2002, four sites on the mainstem of the Xiangxi River and one site on each of its major tributaries were sampled 16 times each for benthic algae. All total, 223 taxa (most to species and variety levels) were found (193 Bacillariophyta, 20 Chlorophyta, nine Cyanophyta and one Xanthophyta). The diatoms Cocconeis placentula, Achnanthes linearis, and Diatoma vulgare dominated the system, with relative abundance of 33.3%, 18.8%, and 6.4%, respectively. The abundances of all the other taxa were under 5%, and 210 taxa collectively contributed less than 1% of the total abundance. Taxa diversity peaked in winter and reached a minimum in summer. Species richness varied considerably but was not significantly different over time. Maximum algal density occurred in later winter/spring (1.4 x 10(9) ind./m(2)) but was not significantly different from the minimum density, which occurred in August. Chlorophyll a showed similar seasonal fluctuation but also was not significantly different over time. Canonical correspondence analysis demonstrated that water hardness, depth, conductivity, and alkalinity had important influences on variation of epilithic algae in the Xiangxi River system.

移动对象数据库模型、查询语言及实时交通流分析

提出一种移动对象数据库模型——Dynamic Transportation Network Based Moving Objects Database(简称DTNMOD),并给出了DTNMOD中基于移动对象时空轨迹的网络实时动态交通流分析方法.在DTNMOD中,交通网络被表示成动态的时空网络,可以描述交通状态、拓扑结构以及交通参数随时间的变化过程;网络受限的移动对象则用网络移动点表示.DTNMOD模型包含了完整的数据类型和查询操作的定义,因此可以在任何可扩充数据库(如PostgreSQL或SECONDO)中实现,从而得到完整的数据库模型和查询语言.为了对相关模型的性能进行比较与分析,基于PostgreSQL实现了一个原型系统并进行了一系列的实验.实验结果表明,DTNMOD提供了良好的区域查询及连接查询性能.

子午岭60年辽东栎林种子质量与森林更新

辽东栎是我国暖温带落叶阔叶林地带的优势乔木树种之一。通过26年的定位监测,对子午岭辽东栎林种子质量消减、种子萌发与环境条件、实生苗时空分布动态以及对其森林更新的影响等方面进行了初步探讨。结果表明:辽东栎林在子午岭半阳坡、半阴坡和阴坡3种类型中,平均完好种子占种子总数的26.65%;霉变种子占18.72%;动物取食虫蛀种子在阴坡远高于半阴坡和半阳坡,占到种子总数的26.32%;已发芽的种子占其总数的28.31%,且半阴坡>半阳坡>阴坡。每年均有大量种子生产,但在生境与动物的共同作用下,种子数量和质量受到很大影响,多达73.35%的种子失去生命力,直接影响实生苗的形成;地表覆盖物虽能促进种子的快速发芽,但对成苗却是一个物理障碍,影响是负作用的,主要影响因子是地表覆盖物的厚度和含水量;在辽东栎林下虽有一定的实生幼苗分布,但数量极少,平均密度仅为140~120株/hm2,且不同立地条件差异显著,严重影响森林的天然更新。

次生林林窗光环境时空特征及其对下层植被的影响

林窗是森林中经常发生的重要中小尺度干扰，在森林天然更新中起着重要作用。灌木和草本植物通过与乔木幼苗竞争林窗资源（尤其是光）而影响林窗树种更新，因此，研究林窗光环境时空特征及其与下层植被关系对揭示林窗树种更新机制具有重要意义。然而，林窗光环境的时空异质性及有效测量方法的缺乏导致这方面研究很少。本研究提出了林窗立体结构的相片测量法；基于林窗立体结构、坡度和坡向改进了目前广泛用于估测林窗光环境的林窗光指数(gap light index, GLI)模型，并提出了林窗内任意位置最大光照时长(potential sunshine duration, PSD)的计算方法；采用改进的GLI和PSD分析了东北次生林3个不同大小林窗（110，270，510 m2）及其对应的9个模拟林窗中2007年光环境的时空特征；通过在12个人工林窗中连续3年的植被调查，研究了林窗形成后前3年下层木本和草本植物对4个光强梯度的响应，主要结论如下： 1. 林窗立体结构和光环境的测量方法：1) 等角椭圆扇形法计算的林窗面积比目前使用较多的等角多边形法具有更高的精度；2) 半球面影像法可以测量林窗面积和形状，且精度较高；3) 双半球面影像法不仅可以测量林窗面积、形状，还可以测量任意方位林窗边缘木高度；4) 改进的GLI可以快速、精确计算林窗任意位置的直射光和散射光；5) PSD可用于分析林窗光照强度时空特征。 2. 东北次生林林窗光环境时空特征：1) 水平空间结构（地面层）：光环境空间异质性高，最大值位于林窗北部，坡向对光分布格局影响大而对光强影响小，光强随林窗面积的增大和边缘木高度的降低而增加；2) 垂直空间结构（林窗南北轴）：不同高度层光强最大值均位于林窗南北轴中心偏北，南北轴距地面越高光强最大值则越靠近轴中心；光强随距地面高度下降而衰减，最大衰退速率点位于轴中心偏南，靠近该点光强衰退线呈指数形，远离该点则趋于直线形；3) 光成分特征（地面层南北轴）：南坡林窗整个南北轴上直射光大于散射光，北坡模拟林窗南半轴散射光大于直射光，而北半轴相反；南坡林窗中直射光的均值及其变化范围都比其对应的北坡模拟林窗大，然而，坡向对散射光影响不大；南坡林窗和北坡模拟林窗北半轴的全光和直射光均比南半轴大，但散射光没有这种显著的规律；4) 时间特征：不同月份PSD在相同大小林窗中分布格局十分相似，6月份林窗中被光照射面积和PSD均值最大，而10月份最小；各月PSD在南北轴上从南到北逐渐增加，在东西轴上自西向东缓慢增加。 3. 林窗早期下层植被对光强梯度的响应：1) 木本植物物种丰富度随光照强度的增加而增高，且在林窗形成后的第2和3年均存在显著相关性；2) DCA排序第一轴表明，木本植物物种组成仅第1年在4个光强梯度间存在显著差异，而在各年间存在显著差异；草本植物物种组成在4个光强梯度上存在显著差异，但在各年间不存在显著差异；3) 木本植物生物体积(biovolume)随光强梯度升高而增加，而植株密度不存在显著变化；生物体积逐年增加，平均年增长率为20.3%，植株密度逐年下降，平均年减少率为30.0%；4) 草本层盖度和高度在4个光强梯度间均不存在显著差异，但在林窗形成后的第2、3年均显著比第1年大。