FUZZY COMPREHENSIVE EVALUATION OF CONTAINER TRANSPORTATION MODES ALONG THE CHANGJIANG RIVER MAIN LINE AND ITS DELTA AREA

The Changjiang River (Yangtze) is one of the fastest growth areas of container transportation in Chi-na. Rail, road and water transportation have competed against each other for container transportation in the Chang-jiang River main line and its delta area. It is of significance to assess these different transportation modes scientifi-cally in order to organize container transportation efficiently in this area and make decision for integral plan and construction of transportation system in this area. This paper outlines application of fuzzy comprehensive evaluation to appraise different modes of typical direction of containers. Twelve assessment indexes were decided. Membership functions were formulated. Evaluation results indicated that road transportation was optimal mode in the Changjiang River delta area, however water transportation was the primary way in the Changjiang River main line.     

Modelling the effect of low soil temperatures on transpiration by Scots pine

For ecosystem modelling of the Boreal forest it is important to include processes associated with low soil temperature during spring‐early summer, as these affect the tree water uptake. The COUP model, a physically based SVAT model, was tested with 2 years of soil and snow physical measurements and sap flow measurements in a 70‐year‐old Scots pine stand in the boreal zone of northern Sweden. During the first year the extent and duration of soil frost was manipulated in the field. The model was successful in reproducing the timing of the soil warming after the snowmelt and frost thaw. A delayed soil warming, into the growing season, severely reduced the transpiration. We demonstrated the potential for considerable overestimation of transpiration by the model if the reduction of the trees' capacity to transpire due to low soil temperatures is not taken into account. We also demonstrated that the accumulated effect of aboveground conditions could be included when simulating the relationship between soil temperature and tree water uptake. This improved the estimated transpiration for the control plot and when soil warming was delayed into the growing season. The study illustrates the need of including antecedent conditions on root growth in the model in order to catch these effects on transpiration. The COUP model is a promising tool for predicting transpiration in high‐latitude stands. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Baryon loading and the Weibel instability in gamma-ray bursts

The dynamics of two counter-streaming electron–positron–ion unmagnetized plasma shells with zero net charge is analysed in the context of magnetic field generation in gamma-ray burst internal shocks due to the Weibel instability. The effects of large thermal motion of plasma particles, arbitrary mixture of plasma species and space charge effects are taken into account. We show that, although thermal effects slow down the instability, baryon loading leads to a non-negligible growth rate even for large temperatures and different shell velocities, thus guaranteeing the robustness and the occurrence of the Weibel instability for a wide range of scenarios.     

ANALYSIS ON THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION VARIATION CHARACTERISTIC OF URBAN HEAT ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY AND ITS MECHANISM——A Case Study of Hangzhou City

Urban heat environmental quality(UHEQ) is affected by the interacting of weather condition and underlying surface framework of urban area .In the last two decades,many researchers from domestic and overseas have studied many problems at the aspect of urban heat environment such as urban heat islands ,urban air temperature and their rela-tion with urban land cover,city population,air pollution etc,In the recent years,Hangzhou,acting as a center city of Zhejiang Province in China,its urbanization quantum and quantity have both changed greatly,in particular ,representing as business affairs building,resident real property and all kins of specialty market having arisen in built-up zone,Based on Landsat TM images data in 1991 and 1999,urban underlying surface temperature value and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) were calculated using image interpreting and supervised classification technique by remote sensing software ERDAS image 8.4,The relation model between urban underlying surface temperature (UUST )and urban air temperature was setup according to the certain correlation patten .Reference to the relational standard of assessing human comfort and other meteorology data of Hangzhou City in summer,the spatial distribution characteristic and the spatial varia-tion degree of human comfort of heat environmental quality are estimated and mapped on a middle scale,that is ,in six districts of Hangzhou City .Then the paper reveals the main characteristic of spatial variation from 1991 to 1999.Lastly,the change mechanism is analyzed and discussed from the viewpoint of city planning,construction and environmental protec-tion.     

Generating interface waves using a freely falling, instrumentedsource

In recent years, interface waves such as the Scholte wave have become important tools in the study of the geoacoustic properties of near-bottom seafloor sediments. Traditionally, these waves have been generated by explosive or pneumatic sources deployed at or near the seafloor and monitored by ocean-bottom seismographs or geophone arrays. While these sources generate the requisite interface waves, they also produce higher frequency compressional waves in the water and sediment that tend to contaminate the surface wave and make inversion of the data difficult in the near field. In this paper, a new source consisting of a freely falling projectile instrumented with an accelerometer is described. When the projectile impacts the bottom, the exact time history of the vertical force applied to the sediment is known and therefore may be convolved with the transfer function of a sediment geoacoustic model to produce accurate synthetic seismograms. Moreover, the vertical force applied to the seafloor is very efficient in generating surface wave motion while producing very little compressional wave energy so that the near-field signals are much more easily analyzed. An example of the use of the new source is presented including inversion of the received signals to obtain shear-wave velocity and attenuation as a function of depth in the near bottom sediments at a shallow-water site     

Studying Hydrodynamic Instability Using Shock-Tube Experiments

The hydrodynamic instability, which develops on the contact surface between two fluids, has great importance in astrophysical phenomena such as the inhomogeneous density distribution following a supernova event. In this event acceleration waves pass across a material interface and initiate and enhance unstable conditions in which small perturbations grow dramatically. In the present study, an experimental technique aimed at investigating the above-mentioned hydrodynamic instability is presented. The experimental investigation is based on a shock-tube apparatus by which a shock wave is generated and initiates the instability that develops on the contact surface between two gases. The flexibility of the system enables one to vary the initial shape of the contact surface, the shock-wave Mach number, and the density ratio across the contact surface. Three selected sets of shock-tube experiments are presented in order to demonstrate the system capabilities: (1) large-initial amplitudes with low-Mach-number incident shock waves; (2) small-initial amplitudes with moderate-Mach-number incident shock waves; and (3) shock bubble interaction. In the large-amplitude experiments a reduction of the initial velocity with respect to the linear growth prediction was measured. The results were compared to those predicted by a vorticity-deposition model and to previous experiments with moderate- and high-Mach number incident shock waves that were conducted by others. In this case, a reduction of the initial velocity was noted. However, at late times the growth rate had a 1/t behavior as in the small-amplitude low-Mach number case. In the small-amplitude moderate-Mach number shock experiments a reduction from the impulsive theory was noted at the late stages. The passage of a shock wave through a spherical bubble results in the formation of a vortex ring. Simple dimensional analysis shows that the circulation depends linearly on the speed of sound of the surrounding material and on the initial bubble radius.     

Effects of Different Diets on the Dietary Attractability and Selectivity of Chinese Shrimp, Fenneropenaeus chinensis

Attractabilities of different diets and dietary selectivity of Chinese shrimp, Fenneropenaeus chinensis were studied through behavior observation and feeding experiment, respectively. The five diets used in the experiment are: Fish Flesh (FF), Shrimp Flesh (SF), Clam Foot (CF), Polychaete Worm (PW), and Formulated Diet (FD). No significant differences of attractability exist between any two different diets when every two natural diets or all five diets are provided simultaneously. On the other hand, significant differences of attractability exist between FD and every single natural diet when they are provided simultaneously. Results of behavioral observation indicate that natural diets are more attractive than FD. In feeding experiment, Chinese shrimp has distinct selectivity on different diets. It positively selects CF and PW, negatively selects FF and SF, and excludes FD absolutely. The results of the present studies indicate that the dietary selectivity of shrimp was based not only on the attractabilities of the diets, but also on the responses such as growth and food conversion.