Fibre optic monitoring of a deep circular excavation

This paper describes part of the monitoring undertaken at Abbey Mills shaft F, one of the main shafts of Thames Water's Lee tunnel project in London, UK. This shaft, with an external diameter of 30 m and 73 m deep, is one of the largest ever constructed in the UK and consequently penetrates layered and challenging ground conditions (Terrace Gravel, London Clay, Lambeth Group, Thanet Sand Formation, Chalk Formation). Three out of the twenty 1-2 m thick and 84 m deep diaphragm wall panels were equipped with fibre optic instrumentation. Bending and circumferential hoop strains were measured using Brillouin optical time-domain reflectometry and analysis technologies. These measurements showed that the overall radial movement of the wall was very small. Prior to excavation during a dewatering trial, the shaft may have experienced three-dimensional deformation due to differential water pressures. During excavation, the measured hoop and bending strains of the wall in the chalk exceeded the predictions. This appears to be related to the verticality tolerances of the diaphragm wall and lower circumferential hoop stiffness of the diaphragm walls at deep depths. The findings from this case study provide valuable information for future deep shafts in London. © ICE Publishing: All rights reserved.

Enhancement of Moina micrura by the filter-feeding silver and bighead carps in a subtropical Chinese lake

The changes of cladoceran zooplankton from 1980 to 1996 were studied in a hypereutrophic subtropical Chinese lake, Lake Donghu, and an enclosure experiment was conducted to examine the possible role of the increased fish production in the enhancement of Moina micrura in the lake after mid-1980s. During the 1980s, the most striking event of the cladoceran community in the lake was that dominance of Daphnia was replaced by Moina following a steady increase in the production of planktivorous fish. This replacement was a direct result of increased fish predation, since our enclosure experiment indicates that Moina are less vulnerable to fish predation than Daphnia, and that increase in fish-stocking rate favors the development of M. micrura. The stronger resistance of M. micrura to fish predation may be attributed to its smaller body size and higher intrinsic growth rate than the daphnids. The present study has a strong parallel with the responses of zooplankton community to predators observed in many temperate lakes, and perhaps the only real difference is that in our lake the small rapidly growing cladoceran is Moina, rather than Bosmina or some other typical temperate take species. In the present study, the strong fish predation caused a shift from Daphnia to small zooplankton but not a corresponding increase in phytoplankton, which is in sharp contrast to what is expected with the classic "trophic cascade" process.

Comparative investigation on spindle behavior and MPF activity changes during oocyte maturation between gynogenetic and amphimictic crucian carp

The spindle behavior and MPF activity changes in the progression of oocyte maturation were investigated and compared with cytological observation and kinase assay between gynogenetic silver crucian carp and amphimictic colored crucian carp. MPF activity was measured by using histone I-Il as phosphorylation substrate. There were two similar oscillatory MPF kinase activity changes during oocyte maturation in two kinds of fishes with different reproductive modes, but there existed some subtle difference between them. The subtle difference was that the first peak of MPF kinase activity was kept to a longer-lasting time in the gynogenetic silver crucian carp than in the amphimictic colored crucian carp. It was suggested that the difference may be related to the spindle behavior changes, such as tripolar spindle formation and spindle rearrangement in the gynogenetic crucian carp.

Energy budget of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) in relation to ration size

Nile tilapia weighing 8.29-11.02 g were fed a practical diet at seven ration levels (starvation, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4% body weight per day and satiation) twice a day at 30 degrees C. Feed consumption, apparent digestibility, nitrogenous excretion and growth were determined directly, and heat production was calculated by difference of energy budget. The relationship between specific growth rate in wet weight (SGR(w), percentage per day) and ration size (RL, percentage per day) was a decelerating curve described as SGR(w) = 2.98 (1 - e(-0.61(RL-0.43))). The apparent digestibility coefficients for dry matter and protein showed a decreasing pattern with increasing ration while the apparent digestibility coefficient of energy was not significantly affected by ration size. The proportion of gross energy intake lost in nitrogenous excretion tended to decrease with increasing ration. Feed efficiency was highest, and the proportion of gross energy intake channelled to heat production was lowest, at an intermediate ration level (2% per day). The energy budget at the satiation level was: 100IE = 16.9FE + 1.2(ZE + UE) + 62.3HE + 19.6RE, where IE, FE, (ZE + UE), HE and RE represent gross energy intake, faecal energy, excretory (non-faecal) energy loss, heat production and recovered energy (growth), respectively. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.

Q-switched and mode-locked diode-pumped Nd : YVO4 laser with an intracavity composite semiconductor saturable absorber

We have demonstrated a passively Q-switched and mode-locked Nd:YVO4 laser with an intracavity composite semiconductor saturable absorber (ICSSA). Stable Q-switched and mode-locked pulses with Q-switched envelope pulse duration of 180 ns and pulse repetition rate of 72KHz have been obtained. The maximum average output power was 1.45W at 8W incident pump power. The repetition rate of the mode-locked pulses inside the Q-switched envelope was 154 MHz. Experimental results revealed that this ICSSA was suitable for Q-switched and mode-locked solid-state lasers. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Passive mode locking of a diode-end-pumped Nd : GdVO4 laser with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror

We report an end-pumped and passive mode-locking all-solid-state laser. The laser consists of a Nd:GdVO4 crystal and a linear resonator with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror that yield mode locking. We achieved stable continuous-wave mode locking with an 8-ps pulse duration at a 154-MHz repetition rate. The average output power was 600 mW with 4 W of pump power. To our knowledge this is the first report of the use of a Nd:GdVO4 crystal for mode locking with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror. (C) 2003 Optical Society of America.

Effect of Si doping on cubic GaN films grown on GaAs(100)

Epitaxial layers of cubic GaN have been grown by metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy (MOVPE) with Si-doping carrier concentration ranging from 3 x 10(18) to 2.4 x 10(20)/cm(3). Si-doping decreased the yellow emission of GaN. However, the heavily doped n-type material has been found to induce phase transformation. As the Si-doping concentration increases, the hexagonal GaN nanoparticles increase. Judged from the linewidth of X-ray rocking curve, Si-doping increases the density of dislocations and stacking faults. Based on these observations, a model is proposed to interpret the phase transformation induced by the generated microdefects, such as dislocations and precipitates, and induced stacking faults under heavy Si-doping. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

基于Gabor小波的着色及纹理合成算法

着色和纹理合成是图形图像中的两类基本研究课题。前者需根据用户定义的彩色笔触信息，自动对黑白照片、电影或者漫画染上颜色；后者则需根据用户输入的样本纹理，经计算得出与样本纹理视觉上近似的结果纹理。这两类课题都有广泛的应用背景。如着色常常用于给经典的黑白电影或者照片自动上色，解决现在的染色工序中存在的需要大量人工交互的难题；而纹理合成常用于电影和电子游戏的地形地貌、织物、头发等等纹理的自动生成。 这两大类问题都需要分析纹理特征，并且依赖于分析结果的准确性。Gabor小波滤波器与人眼的视觉感受野相当吻合，用它来分析纹理得到的结果比较精确。鉴于此，本文把Gabor小波应用到了着色问题和纹理合成中。对于着色问题，本文用基于Gabor小波的特征向量重新定义邻居关系，然后用最优化方法迭代地对照片和卡通染色。相比以往的算法，本算法具有用户交互少、效果好、算法简单稳健的优点，并且算法允许用户逐步地添加色彩细节。对于纹理合成，本文用基于Gabor小波的特征向量来预计算K-Coherence候选集，提高了K-Coherence算法的准确性，从而改进了纹理合成的最终效果。 本文提出的算法是天然并行的，因而可利用GPU加速，做到实时计算。

基于景观尺度的水电站生态风险评价

基于景观尺度指数构建生态风险评价指标体系,以乌龙山抽水蓄水电站规划方案为背景,运用遥感图像解译和GIS分析的方法,研究水电开发规划方案实施后对区域生态环境的影响。结果表明:规划方案实施后,研究区域景观类型的分布趋于均匀化,景观格局的组合趋于简单化,相对抗干扰能力较弱。此外,生态风险值高于现状6倍之多,应予以重视。

贾第虫的核仁基因组与真核细胞核仁的起源进化

核仁是真核细胞核中最明显的结构，是rRNA转录、加工和核糖体亚基组装的场所。核仁的起源进化无疑是真核细胞起源进化问题的一个极为重要的方面。但迄今为止，这方面的研究很少。本文首先对"不具核仁"的低等单细胞真核生物贾第虫的"核仁"基因及核糖体合成系统的基因群进行了研究，进而对已知的核仁蛋白质组的生物进行了比较基因组研究，从而从基因和基因组的角度对核仁的起源进化问题进行了较为深入的研究。获得了如下结，和结论：1）在"不具核仁"的贾第虫中分离鉴定出了典型真核细胞参与pre-rRNA加工的krr］基因；表明贾第虫中的pre-rRNA加工机制与典型真核细胞的是一致的。在具有核仁结构的典型真核细胞中，krr1基因所编码的KRRIP蛋白是参与Pre一rRNA加工的核仁定位蛋白之一。我们在一度被认为是极为原始的"不具核仁结构"的真核生物－贾弟虫的基因组中分离鉴定出了该基因，并证明该基因在贾第虫中是活跃转录的。同时，还调查发现与KRRIP形成蛋白复合体从而发挥功能的众场，其基因在贾第虫中也是存在的，这提示贾第虫的pre寸RNA加工机制与具有核仁结构的典型真核细胞是一致的。2）对贾第虫核糖体合成系统的基因群／亚基因组进行了全面调查，发现在典型真核生物中所共有的参与核搪体合成的129条保守蛋白基因中有89条在贾第虫基因组具有相应的直系同源基因，包括编码参与rRNA申基化和假尿嗜陡化的蛋白复合体成员以及存在于905、405和605复合体中的蛋白等诸多重要基因。这表明贾第虫的核糖体合成系统与典型的真核生物相似，只是参与的成分相对简单些。以上1）、2）的结果表明贾第虫虽然没有核仁结构，但其核糖体合成机制却与具核仁结构的典型真核细胞一致。这可能意味着真核细胞核仁的核糖体合成功能的起源形成是在核仁结构形成之前，那么核仁结构的形成可能是在此功能之外另有"新意"；另外也可能是由于贾第虫因适应寄生生活而导致核仁"退化"之故，虽然这种可能性偏少，但若果真如此也是生物适应性进化中的一个重要现象，值得深入研究。3）对已知核仁蛋白质组的人、酵母和拟南芥进行了比较基因组学研究。通过搜索KOG直系同源蛋白簇数据库，发现约74％的人的核仁蛋白，约75％的酵母的核仁蛋白以及约84％的拟南芥的核仁蛋白在动物、真菌和植物中都保守。这表明这些高等真核生物的核仁蛋白大都在它们分化之前就已起源形成。进一步的调查发现：共同定位于人和酵母核仁中的同源蛋白中，人有154条蛋白对应于酵母的134条蛋白，其中人的核仁蛋白相对于酵母的有10条蛋白发生了基因重复；同样的分析发现，人的核仁蛋自相对于拟南芥的有21条蛋白发生了基因重复。这些事实表明：随着真核生物的进化，至少在高等真核生物中基因重复是核仁成分复杂化和核仁进化的重要途径。4）用人的442条核仁蛋白（它们在植物和真菌中也都存在同源蛋白，但不一定是核仁蛋白）对原核生物基因组进行了搜索。结果表明，在真细菌和原（古）细菌中都能找到好多同源物，但发现下列重要现象：只在原（古）细菌有同源物的核仁蛋白要比只在真细菌中有同源物的核仁蛋白多得多，包括了RNA修饰蛋白、核糖体蛋自以及参与翻译的相关蛋白等；而只在真细菌中有同源物的核仁蛋白只是RNA螺旋酶和WD重复蛋白。因此，我们认为核仁可能是由真细菌和原细菌复合起源的，但其主体起源于原细菌。