Long-term changes in the equatorial Pacific trade winds [abstract]

EXTRACT (SEE PDF FOR FULL ABSTRACT): Past work has shown that surface zonal equatorial wind stress, zonally integrated from one side of the Pacific to the other, is the key variable for estimating long-term El Niño behavior in the eastern Pacific. ... We used detrended COADS pressure in the eastern and western equatorial Pacific and post-1960 detrended Florida State University equatorial wind stress zonally averaged across the Pacific to verify this relationship.

Climate-related long-term faunal changes in a California rocky intertidal community [abstract]

EXTRACT (SEE PDF FOR FULL ABSTRACT): The effects of gradual climate change (ie, multi-decadal) on biological communities are not well understood for most natural systems, owing principally to the lack of quantitative observations in early studies. ... We resurveyed invertebrate species on an intertidal transect in central California, first established and surveyed in 1931, to assess shifts in community structure.

Long-term response of Torrey pine to coastal climate: precipitation, temperature, and fog

EXTRACT (SEE PDF FOR FULL ABSTRACT): Torrey pine (Pinus torreyana Parry ex Carr.) has one of the most limited geographical ranges and population size in the Pinus genus; it is present only on Santa Rosa Island and on the coast between San Diego and Del Mar, where our research was conducted. A 168-year chronology (1827-1994) was developed using 28 increment cores extracted from 15 living and 2 dead stranding trees at Torrey Pines State Reserve, San Diego, California. ... The spatial correlation with western North America winter and spring precipitation, as well as with published tree-ring chronologies, indicates a connection with the American Southwest. Global correlation maps with winter sea level pressure and sea surface temperature are consistent with the hypothesis that San Diego precipitation is affected by a southerly displaced North Pacific storm track and by warmer water farther south, both leading to higher transport of lower latitude moisture.

A rapid procedure for the approximation of bacterial load in fishery products

The production of colour by homogenised fish material in a simplified sugar medium containing and acid indicator has been made use of for the rapid approximation of bacterial load in such products. The medium thus developed contains poptone, tryptone, yeast extract, sodium chloride and beef extract besides dextrose. The time of colour production is influenced to some extent by the level of sodium chloride in the medium and is almost always inversely proportional to the bacterial load in the homogenate.

Factors influencing colour production from the sugar medium used for the rapid approximation of bacterial counts in fishery products

Results of the studies carried out to elucidate the factors influencing colour production from the sugar medium used for the rapid approximation of bacterial counts in fishery products are reported. The effect of particle size, trace elements, salt soluble protein and non-protein fractions, rate of multiplication of bacteria, in the medium, surface bacteria and the rate of colour production by individual strains of bacteria were studied. It is observed that the best results are obtained when a sea-water homogenate is used.

Low short term timing jitter in an integrated monolithic extended cavity semiconductor mode-locked laser

Jitter measurements were performed on a monolithically integrated active/passive cavity multiple quantum well laser, actively mode-locked at 10 GHz via modulation of an absorber section. Sub-10 ps pulses were produced upon optimization of the drive conditions to the gain, distributed Bragg reflector, and absorber sections. A model was also developed using travelling wave rate equations. Simulation results suggest that spontaneous emission is the dominant cause of jitter, with carrier dynamics having a time constant of the order of 1 ns.

Long-term changes and variability of monthly extreme temperatures in India

Extreme temperatures are changing worldwide together with changes in the mean temperatures. This study investigates the long-term trends and variations of the monthly maximum and minimum temperatures and their effects on seasonal fluctuations in various climatological regions in India. The magnitude of the trends and their statistical significance were determined by parametric ordinary least square regression techniques and the variations were determined by the respective coefficient of variations. The results showed that the monthly maximum temperature increased, though unevenly, over the last century. Minimum temperature changes were more variable than maximum temperature changes, both temporally and spatially, with results of lesser significance. The results of this study are good indicators of Indian climate variability and its changes over the last century. © Springer-Verlag 2009.

Effect of long-term exposure to endosulfan on blood cell count in Channa gachua

In the present investigation, live specimens of Channa gachua were exposed to sublethal concentrations, i.e., 0.0017 and 0.00087 ppm of endosulfan for a period of 60 days. After the completion of 60 days, red and white blood corpuscles were counted from control as well as experimental fishes.