LIFETIMES OF RYDBERG LEVELS IN THE PERTURBED 6SNP 3P2 SERIES OF YTTERBIUM-I

Using three-step laser excitation in an atomic beam and a time-resolved spectroscopy technique, we measured both the lifetimes of the Rydberg levels of Yb I belonging to the perturbed series 6nsp 3P2 and the lifetimes of the perturbing 4f(13)5d(2)6s 3P2, 1D2 levels. An expected shortening has been observed for the lifetimes of those levels which are strongly mixed with the perturbers.

PHOTOELECTRON-SPECTRA OF VARIOUS CORE LEVELS IN SOME RARE-EARTH N-ACETYLVALINE BIOINORGANIC COMPLEXES

X-ray photoelectron spectra of some bioinorganic complexes of La, Pr, Nd, Sm, and Gd with N-acetylvaline have-been measured. The complex formation does not give any detectable influence on the binding energy of the N 1s peak in the amino group, but has some appreciable effect on the binding energy of the C 1s peak and the O 1s peak in the carboxyl and carbonyl group of the biological ligand. The spin-orbit splitting between the 3d5/2 and 3d3/2 core level of the rare earth ion in these bioinorganic complexes also becomes slightly larger than that of the free rare earth atom due to the effect of the crystal field from the biological ligands.

HYPERFINE-STRUCTURE OF SOME ODD PARITY LEVELS IN THE THULIUM SPECTRUM

The laser-atomic-beam spectroscopy technique has been used to make measurements of the hyperfine structure in some odd parity levels of thulium by stepwise excitation. With the experimental results the magnetic dipole hyperfine constants A for the four levels in the configurations 4f12 5d6s6p and 4f12 (H-3(5))6s2 6p3/2 and for two intermediate levels have been obtained.

NATURAL RADIATIVE LIFETIMES OF THE EXCITED-LEVELS OF THULIUM

The radiative lifetimes of eight excited levels of thulium have been measured with the method of stepwise excitation from the 4f13(F-degrees-7/2)6s2(1S0)\7/2\ ground state to the states studied using two pulsed dye lasers. Optical transients were recorded through observing fluorescences and evaluated with regard to the decay time. The accuracy of the measured lifetime values is about 10%.

Behavioral responses of tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) to acute fluctuations in dissolved oxygen levels as monitored by computer vision

Behavioral and ventilatory parameters have the possibility of predicting the stress state of fish in vivo and in situ. This paper presents a new image-processing algorithm for quantifying the average swimming speed of a fish school in an aquarium. This method is based on the alteration in projected area caused by the movement of individual fish during frame sequences captured at given time intervals. The image enhancement method increases the contrast between fish and background, and is thus suitable for use in turbid aquaculture water. Behavioral parameters (swimming activity and distribution parameters) and changes in ventilation frequency (VF) of tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) responded to acute fluctuations in dissolved oxygen (DO) which were monitored continuously in the course of normoxia, falling DO level, maintenance of hypoxia (three levels of 1.5, 0.8 and 0.3 mg l(-1)) and subsequent recovery to normoxia. These parameters responded sensitively to acute variations in DO level; they displayed significant changes (P < 0.05) during severe hypoxia (0.8 and 0.3 mg l(-1) level) compared with normoxic condition, but there was no significant difference under conditions of mild hypoxia (1.5 mg l(-1) level). There was no significant difference in VF between two levels of severe hypoxia 0.8 and 0.3 mg l(-1) level during the low DO condition. The activity and distribution parameters displayed distinguishable differences between the 0.8 and 0.3 mg l(-1) levels. The behavioral parameters are thus capable of distinguishing between different degrees of severe hypoxia, though there were relatively large fluctuations. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effect of graded levels of rapeseed oil in isonitrogenous diets on the development of the gastrointestinal tract, and utilisation of protein, fat and energy in broiler chickens

The effect of feeding 0, 4, 8 and 16% rapeseed oil from 12-42 days of age was studied in broiler chickens on performance, digestibility of nutrients, and development of gastrointestinal tract, protein and energy metabolism. Thirty six female chickens (Ross 208) with initial body weight average 246 g were allocated to the four groups and kept pair-wise in metabolism cages. The chickens were fed similar amounts of metabolisable energy (ME) per day and similar amounts of essential amino acids relative to ME by adjusting with crystalline amino acids. The chickens were subjected to four balance periods each of five days with two 24 h measurements of gas exchange in two open-air-circuit respiration chambers inserted on the second and third day of each period. The addition of rapeseed oil increased the amount of gutfill indicating a reduced rate of passage and causing a hypertrophy of the gastrointestinal tract. There was a positive effect on feed utilisation as well as on digestibility especially of dietary fat together with higher utilisation of protein with addition of rapeseed oil. The partial fat digestibility of rapeseed oil estimated by regression was 91.1% and the partial metabolisability (ME/GE) of the rapeseed oil was estimated to 85% yielding an apparent metabolisable energy value of 34.30 MJ/kg.

Digestibility, nutrient balance and urinary purine derivative excretion in dry yak cows fed oat hay at different levels of intake

A feeding trial A as conducted at the farm of Qinghai Academy of Animal and Veterinary Science, Xining, China during 1996 - 1997 with three dry yak cows (initial body weight 163 - 197 kg, age 5 - 6 years) by using 3 x 3 Latin Square Design to determine the effect of levels of feed intake on digestion, nitrogen balance and purine derivative excretion in urine of yak cows. The animals were fed oat hay (nitrogen 13.5 g/kg dry matter (DM), metabolisable energy 8.3 MJ/kg DM), i.e., 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 of voluntary intake (VI). Each intake treatment lasted for 17 days and the samples (feeds, faeces and urine) were collected during last 7 days of each period. The results indicate that digestibility of dietary DM, OM, NDF and ash declined when intake levels increased from 0.3 to 0.9 VI [DM, from 66.1% to 59.1% (P < 0.05); OM, from 68.1% to 59.9% (P < 0.05); NDF, from 62.1% to 54.3% (P < 0.05); and ash, from 33.9% to 11.8% (P < 0.05)]. Around 0.10 g N/kg W-0.75 was deficient daily in yak cows at 0.3 VI, and positive N balances were observed at 0.6 and 0.9 VI. Intake levels significantly (P < 0.05) affected total PD excretion in yak urine. The proportion of allantoin increased (P < 0.05) and uric acid decreased (P < 0.05) as intake level of feed increased. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

不同智力水平儿童的自我调控特点

Self-regulation has recently become an important topic in cognitive and developmental domain. According to previous theories and experimental studies, it is shown that self-regulation consist of both a personality (or social) aspect and a behavioral cognitive aspect of psychology. Self-regulation can be divided into self-regulation personality and self-regulation ability. In the present study researches have been carried out from two perspectives: child development and individual differences. We are eager to explore the characteristics of self-regulation in terms of human cognitive development. In the present study, we chose two groups of early adolescences one with high intelligence and the other with normal intelligence. In Study One Questionnaires were used to compare whether the highly intelligent group had had better self-regulation personality than the normal group. In Study Two experimental psychology tasks were used to compare whether highly intelligent children had had better self-regulation cognitive abilities than their normal peers. Finally, in Study Three we combined the results of Study One and Study Two to further explore the neural mechanisms for highly intelligent children with respect to their good self-regulation abilities. Some main results and conclusions are as follows: (1) Questionnaire results showed that highly intelligent children had better self-regulation personalities, and they got higher scores on the personalities related to self-regulation such as, self-reliance, stability, rule-consciousness. They also got higher scores on self-consciousness which meant that they could know their own self better than the normal children. (2) Among the three levels of cognitive difficulties in self-regulation abilities, the highly intelligent children had faster reaction speed than normal children in the primary self-regulation tasks. In the intermediate self-regulation tasks, highly intelligent children’s inhibition processing and executive processing were both better than their normal peers. In the advanced self-regulation tasks, highly intelligent children again had faster reaction speed and more reaction accuracy than their normal peers when facing with conflict and inconsistency experimental conditions,. Regression model’s results showed that primary and advanced self-regulation abilites had larger predictive power than intermediate self-regualation ability. (3) Our neural experiments showed that highly intelligent children had more efficient neural automatic processing ability than normal children. They also had better, faster and larger neural reaction to novel stimuli under pre-attentional condition which made good and firm neural basis for self-regualation. Highly intelligent children had more mature frontal lobe and pariental functions for inhibition processing and executive processing. P3 component in ERP was closely related to executive processing which mainly activated pariental function. There were two time-periods for inhibition processing—first it was the pariental function and later it was the coordination function of frontal and pariental lobes. While conflict control task had pariental N2 and frontal-pariental P3 neural sources, highly intelligent children had much smaller N2 and shorter P3 latency than normal children. Inconsistency conditions induced larger N2 than conditions without inconsistency, and conditions without inconsistency (or Conflict) induced higher P3 amplitudes than with Inconsistency (or Conflict) conditions. In conclusion, the healthy development of self-regulation was very important for children’s personality and cognition maturity, and self-regulation had its own specific characteristics in ways of presentation and ways of development. Better understanding of self-regulation can further help the exploration of the nature of human intelligence and consciousness.

Is China's fifth-largest inland lake to dry-up? Incorporated hydrological and satellite-based methods for forecasting Hulun Lake water levels

Hulun Lake, China’s fifth-largest inland lake, experienced severe declines in water level in the period of 2000-2010. This has prompted concerns whether the lake is drying up gradually. A multi-million US dollar engineering project to construct a water channel to transfer part of the river flow from a nearby river to maintain the water level was completed in August 2010. This study aimed to advance the understanding of the key processes controlling the lake water level variation over the last five decades, as well as investigate the impact of the river transfer engineering project on the water level. A water balance model was developed to investigate the lake water level variations over the last five decades, using hydrological and climatic data as well as satellite-based measurements and results from land surface modelling. The investigation reveals that the severe reduction of river discharge (- 364±64 mm/yr, ~70% of the five-decade average) into the lake was the key factor behind the decline of the lake water level between 2000 and 2010. The decline of river discharge was due to the reduction of total runoff from the lake watershed. This was a result of the reduction of soil moisture due to the decrease of precipitation (-49±45 mm/yr) over this period. The water budget calculation suggests that the groundwater component from the surrounding lake area as well as surface run off from the un-gauged area surrounding the lake contributed ~ net 210 Mm3/yr (equivalent to ~ 100 mm/yr) water inflows into the lake. The results also show that the water diversion project did prevent a further water level decline of over 0.5 m by the end of 2012. Overall, the monthly water balance model gave an excellent prediction of the lake water level fluctuation over the last five decades and can be a useful tool to manage lake water resources in the future.