Effective AC and DC responses of nonlinear composites at higher concentration

For higher concentration of inclusions, an effective medium approximation (EMA) method is used to investigate the bulk effective response of weakly nonlinear composites, which are subject to the constitutive relation of electric displacement and electric field, D-alpha = epsilon E-alpha + chi(alpha)|E|(2) E. As an example of three dimensions, under the external AC and DC electric fields E-app = E-a (1 + sin omega t), we have derived the general effective nonlinear response of composites by the EMA method for higher concentration of spherical inclusions. Furthermore, the effective nonlinear responses at harmonics are predicted.

Transformation field method for calculating the effective properties of isotropic graded composites having arbitrary shapes

A method of transformation field is developed to estimate the effective properties of graded composites whose inclusions have arbitrary shapes and gradient profiles by means of a periodic cell model. The boundary-value problem of graded composites having arbitrary inclusion shapes is solved by introducing the transformation field into the inclusion region. As an example, the effective dielectric response of isotropic graded composites having arbitrary shapes and gradient profiles is handled by the transformation field method (TFM). Moreover, TFM results are validated by the exact solutions of isotropic graded spherical inclusions having a power-law profile and good agreement is obtained in the dilute limit. Furthermore, it is found that the inclusion shapes and the parameters of the gradient profiles can have profound effect on the effective properties of composite systems at high concentration of inclusions.

Effects of effective population size on the F-2 growth and survival of bay scallop Argopecten irradians irradians (Lamarck)

In 2002, six cohorts of broodstock bay scallop Argopecten irradians irradians (Ne=1, 2, 10, 30, 50 and control) were randomly chosen from a population of bay scallop to produce offspring. After one year rearing, with the progeny matured, the similar experiment was done to produce the F-2 generation. To determine the magnitude of Ne effects, the growth and survival rates in larvae and adult of six F2 groups were compared. Results showed that inbreeding depression existed not only in the Ne=1 group but also in the Ne=2 group. The growth and survival rates of the two groups were significantly lower than those of the other groups (Ne=10, 30, 50, control), and there were no significant differences among the latter (P>0.05). At the same time, the amount of depression in the Ne=1 group was significantly higher than that of the Ne=2 group (P<0.05). These results indicated that the low effective population size (Ne), which increases the possibility of inbreeding, could lead to some harmful effects on the offspring. So it is essential to maintain a high level of Ne in commercial seed production. Furthermore, as the high fecundity of bay scallop might lead to increased inbreeding, selecting broodstock from different growout sites is recommended.

Interannual fluctuations in floral longevity, pollinator visitation and pollination limitation of an alpine plant (Gentiana straminea Maxim., Gentianaceae) at two altitudes in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Prolonged floral longevity and bumblebees as dominate pollinators in alpine ecosystem have been suggested to overcome pollination limitation of alpine plants arising from the decrease of pollinator activity with increasing altitude. However, this conclusion has never been examined in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP), the highest and largest plateau in the world. In this study, we intended to test year-to-year correlations between floral longevity, visiting frequency and pollen limitation of this species between two populations (at 3200 m and 4000 m) of Gentiana straminea in this plateau. Pollinator exclusion elongated both male and female phases greatly at both sites, and durations of both male and female phases in natural condition varied greatly over three years. The visiting frequency of bumblebees varied greatly at the higher altitude, but seemed to be stable at the lower altitude. Seed production was pollination limited in both populations in most studied years. The floral durations, pollinator frequency and pollination limitation showed no significant and consistent variations with the increase of altitude. The previous hypothesis that the prolonged floral longevity of alpine plants can compensate for low levels of pollinator visitation therefore could not be confirmed, and our results further suggested that in the QTP platform, the altitude shows no consistent effect on the reproductive performance of this species, despite that the fluctuation of visit frequency intensified at the higher altitude.

Pollinator shift and reproductive performance of the qinghai-tibetan plateau endemic and endangered Swertia przewalskii (Gentianaceae)

Reproductive failure results in many plant species becoming endangered. However, little is known of how and to what extent pollinator shifts affect reproductive performance of endangered species as a result of the artificial introduction of alien insects. In this study we examined breeding systems, visitor species, visiting frequency and seed set coefficients of Swertia przewalskii in two years that had different dominant pollinator species (native vs. alien). Flowers of this species were protandrous and herkogamous and insects were needed for the production of seeds. The stigmatic receptivity of this species was shorter than for other gentians. No significant difference in seed set coefficient was found for hand-pollinated plants between the two years, indicating that pollinator shift only had a minor effect on this plant's breeding system. The commonest pollinators in 2002 were native bumblebees, alien honeybees and occasional solitary bees, however, only alien honeybees were observed in 2004. The flower visitation rate in both years was relatively high, although the total visit frequency decreased significantly in 2004. The control flowers without any treatment produced significantly fewer seed sets in 2004 than in 2002. In the past decade the seed production of this species may have partly decreased due to pollination by alien honeybees, however, we suggest that they might have acted as alternative pollinators ensuring seed production of S. przewalskii when native pollinators were unavailable. The main reason that this plant is endangered is probably the result of habitat destruction, but changes in land use, namely intensified agricultural practice and unfavorable animal husbandry have also contributed to its decline. We recommend that in-situ conservation, including the establishment of a protected area, is the best way to preserve this species effectively.

Restructuring Sparse High Dimensional Data for Effective Retrieval

The task in text retrieval is to find the subset of a collection of documents relevant to a user's information request, usually expressed as a set of words. Classically, documents and queries are represented as vectors of word counts. In its simplest form, relevance is defined to be the dot product between a document and a query vector--a measure of the number of common terms. A central difficulty in text retrieval is that the presence or absence of a word is not sufficient to determine relevance to a query. Linear dimensionality reduction has been proposed as a technique for extracting underlying structure from the document collection. In some domains (such as vision) dimensionality reduction reduces computational complexity. In text retrieval it is more often used to improve retrieval performance. We propose an alternative and novel technique that produces sparse representations constructed from sets of highly-related words. Documents and queries are represented by their distance to these sets. and relevance is measured by the number of common clusters. This technique significantly improves retrieval performance, is efficient to compute and shares properties with the optimal linear projection operator and the independent components of documents.

Developing an effective electronic social care record for care in the home

Cooper, J. & Urquhart, C. (2005). Developing an effective electronic social care record for care in the home. In J. Bryant (Ed.), Current Perspectives in Healthcare Computing conference, Harrogate 21-23 March 2005 (CD-ROM). Swindon: BCS HIC Sponsorship: AHRC

Biological rationale for regular physical exercise as an effective intervention for the prevention and treatment of depressive disorders

Depression is a major medical and social problem. Here we review current body of knowledge on the benefits of exercise as an effective strategy for both the prevention and treatment of this condition. We also analyze the biological pathways involved in such potential benefits, which include changes in neurotrophic factors, oxidative stress and inflammation, telomere length, brain volume and microvessels, neurotransmitters or hormones. We also identify major caveats in this field of research: further studies are needed to identify which are the most appropriate types of exercise interventions (intensity, duration, or frequency) to treat and prevent depression.