Development of intermediate foodstuff derived from freshwater fish in China

According to the three-dimensional contour maps showing the gel-forming properties of surimi derived from freshwater fish, 8 species of surimi were classified into two types. The-valley type surimi （silver carp, big-head carp, Chinese snake head and blunt snout bream） shows easy setting, low resistance to gel collapse, high enhancement ability with two-step heating, and narrow optimum heating temperature and time area, which are of the same characteristics as the walleye pollack surimi. In contrast, the Plateau type surimi （tilapia, grass carp, mud carp and common carp） exhibits difficult setting, high resistance to gel collapse, no enhancement ability with two-step heating, and wide optimum heating temperature and time area. There are seasonal changes of gelling properties of silver carp surimi, and the setting ability of surimi gel is higher in winter and lower in summer. The marine fish meat gels and the freshwater fish meat gels have the same acceptability for inland Chinese according to the sensory evaluation results. A slight increase in sensory scorings of kamaboko gels occurred when the extract from walleye pollack muscle was added, especially in the odor scoring of silver carp kamaboko gels.     

Bifurcation current along the southwest coast of the Kii Peninsula

Along the southwest coast of the Kii Peninsula, a bifurcation current is regularly observed. By using ADCP data taken on board the R/V Wakayama of the Wakayama Prefectural Fisheries Experimental Station, characteristics of this bifurcation current are analyzed. The occurrence frequency of the bifurcation current reaches about 70% in the period from 1988 to 1996. The bifurcation point appears to be changeable and occurs almost evenly between Cape Ichie and Cape Shionomisaki. The current divergence in the alongshore direction was also investigated. Positive divergence values dominated in the whole analyzed area, and an onshore current appears to be dominant along the southwest coast of the Kii Peninsula, except in 1990 when the Kuroshio flowed in a large meandering path.     

U–Pb zircon ages of the Nakanogawa Group in the Hidaka Belt,northern Japan: Implications for its provenance and the protolith of the Hidaka metamorphic rocks

Zircon U–Pb ages of two acidic tuff and two turbidite sandstone samples from the Nakanogawa Group, Hidaka Belt, were measured to estimate its depositional age and the development of the Hokkaido Central Belt, northeast Japan. In the northern unit, homogeneous zircons from pelagic acidic tuff from a basal horizon dated to 58–57 Ma, zircons from sandstone from the upper part of the unit dated to 56–54 Ma, and zircons from acidic tuff from the uppermost part dated to 60–56 Ma and 69–63 Ma. Both of the tuff U–Pb ages are significantly older than the youngest radiolarian fossil age (66–48 Ma). Therefore, the maximum depositional age of the turbidite facies in the northern unit is 58 Ma and the younger age limit, estimated from the fossil age, is 48 Ma. In the southern unit, homogeneous zircons from turbidite sandstone dated to 58–57 Ma. Thus the depositional age of this turbidite facies was interpreted to be 66–56 Ma from the fossil age, probably close to 57 Ma. Most of the zircon U–Pb ages from the Nakanogawa Group are younger than 80 Ma, with a major peak at 60 Ma. This result implies that around Hokkaido volcanic activity occurred mainly after 80 Ma. Older zircon ages (120–80 Ma, 180–140 Ma, 340–220 Ma, 1.9 Ga, 2.2 Ga, and 2.7 Ga) give information about the provenance of other rocks in the Hidaka Belt. It is inferred that the Nakanogawa Group comprises protoliths of the upper sequence of the Hidaka Metamorphic Zone, which therefore has the same depositional age as the Nakanogawa Group (66–48 Ma). The depositional ages of the lower sequence of the Hidaka Metamorphic Zone and the Nakanogawa Group are probably the same.     

Probing the evolution of early-type galaxies using multicolour number counts and redshift distributions

We investigate pure luminosity evolution models for early-type (elliptical and S0) galaxies (i.e. no number density change or morphological transition), and examine whether these models are consistent with observed number counts in the B , I and K bands, and redshift distributions of two samples of faint galaxies selected in the I and K bands. The models are characterized by the star formation time-scale τ _SF and the time t _gw when the galactic wind starts to blow, in addition to several other conventional parameters. We find that the single-burst model ( τ _SF=0.1 Gyr and t _gw=0.353 Gyr), which is known to reproduce the photometric properties of early-type galaxies in clusters, is inconsistent with the redshift distributions of early-type galaxies in the field environment, owing to overpredictions of the number of galaxies at z ≳1.4 even with strong extinction which is at work until t _gw. In order for dust extinction to be more effective, we treat τ _SF and t _gw as free parameters, and find that models with τ _SF≳0.5 Gyr and t _gw>1.0 Gyr can be made consistent with both the observed redshift distributions and the number counts, if we introduce strong extinction [ E ( B − V )≥1 as a peak value]. These results suggest that early-type galaxies in the field environment do not have the same evolutionary history as described by the single-burst model.     

Spreading of river water in Suruga Bay

We have investigated the spreading of river water in Suruga Bay by performing numerical experiments and conducting field surveys with drifting buoys. There are clear seasonal variations in the large river discharges into the bay: increased discharge in the rainy summer season and decreased discharge in the dry winter season. The numerical model reproduces the main feature that has been observed in the actual sea: the river water extends gradually from the northwestern to the southeastern regions in the bay, especially in summer. The river water spreading is greatly influenced by the bottom topography of the bay: the Fuji River water spreads over a deep continental slope as a surface-advected plume and extends well offshore, since a large bulge (anticyclonic eddy at the river mouth) extends well offshore and effectively transports the river water offshore. On the other hand, the Oi River water tends to flow parallel to isobaths (along a coastline) on a shallow continental shelf as a bottomadvected plume. Moreover, the influences of seasonal variations in the stratification and a bay-scale, wind-driven circulation are also investigated. Trajectories of the drifting buoys, which were released around the Fuji River mouth, certainly suggest that the bulge exists there.     

Isotopic composition of gas hydrates in subsurface sediments from offshore Sakhalin Island, Sea of Okhotsk

Hydrate-bearing sediment cores were retrieved from recently discovered seepage sites located offshore Sakhalin Island in the Sea of Okhotsk. We obtained samples of natural gas hydrates and dissolved gas in pore water using a headspace gas method for determining their molecular and isotopic compositions. Molecular composition ratios C₁/_C2+ from all the seepage sites were in the range of 1,500–50,000, while δ¹³C and δD values of methane ranged from ?66.0 to ?63.2‰ VPDB and ?204.6 to ?196.7‰ VSMOW, respectively. These results indicate that the methane was produced by microbial reduction of CO₂. δ¹³C values of ethane and propane (i.e., ?40.8 to ?27.4‰ VPDB and ?41.3 to ?30.6‰ VPDB, respectively) showed that small amounts of thermogenic gas were mixed with microbial methane. We also analyzed the isotopic difference between hydrate-bound and dissolved gases, and discovered that the magnitude by which the δD hydrate gas was smaller than that of dissolved gas was in the range 4.3–16.6‰, while there were no differences in δ¹³C values. Based on isotopic fractionation of guest gas during the formation of gas hydrate, we conclude that the current gas in the pore water is the source of the gas hydrate at the VNIIOkeangeologia and Giselle Flare sites, but not the source of the gas hydrate at the Hieroglyph and KOPRI sites.     

Bathymetric influences of the Emperor Seamounts upon the subarctic gyre of the North Pacific: Examining boundary current dynamics along the eastern side of the mountain ridge with an idealized numerical model

The possible influences of the Emperor Seamounts (ESs) upon the subarctic gyre of the North Pacific (NPSAG) were investigated by a series of numerical experiments. In the experiments, a two-layer ocean with a meridional mountain ridge was forced by seasonally varying wind stress. We focused on how the return ratio, the ratio of the boundary transport along the eastern side of the ridge to the interior Sverdrup transport, changes with ridge height, width and density stratification. It was found that the return ratio can be large if the ridge width is greater than the width of the viscous boundary layer. In this case, the bottom pressure torque determines the return ratio; the return ratio is almost proportional to the ridge height when the ridge height is small and some contours of planetary potential vorticity pass over the ridge. However, the return ratio is independent of the ridge height and decreases with the stratification when the ridge height is large and all the contours of planetary potential vorticity are closed. These dependences of the return ratio were understood in terms of barotropic and baroclinic components of the bottom pressure torque. Implications for the bathymetric influences of ESs on the actual NPSAG are also discussed.     

Numerical experiments on wind-driven circulations and associated transport processes in Suruga Bay

The dynamics of the wind-driven circulations and surface transport processes in Suruga Bay have been examined by performing numerical experiments. While strong winds exist outside the bay, the winds inside the bays are greatly reduced, which generates a strong wind stress curl in winter and autumn. In particular, in winter, a strong positive curl region is located across the bay mouth, and a strong surface circulation with counterclockwise rotation is generated beneath it. The circulation is nearly geostrophic, but is not affected by the bottom topography in the deep bay. It is suggested that intense surface water exchange through the bay mouth occurs in winter, whereas it is not active in the other seasons when no significant vorticity is supplied on the bay mouth from the atmosphere. Moreover, we propose a hypothesis that the atmospheric wind stress curl will cause the frequent appearance of the counterclockwise circulation in winter in the real ocean.     

Development of a Multi-Layer Urban Canopy Model for the Analysis of Energy Consumption in a Big City: Structure of the Urban Canopy Model and its Basic Performance

A multilayer one-dimensional canopy model was developed to analyze the relationship between urban warming and the increase in energy consumption in a big city. The canopy model, which consists of one-dimensional diffusion equations with a drag force, has three major parameters: building width, distance between buildings, and vertical floor density distribution, which is the distribution of a ratio of the number of the buildings that are taller than some level to all the buildings in the area under consideration. In addition, a simplified radiative process in the canopy is introduced. Both the drag force of the buildings and the radiative process depend on the floor density distribution. The thermal characteristics of an urban canopy including the effects of anthropogenic heat are very complicated. Therefore, the focus of this research is mainly on the basic performance of an urban canopy without anthropogenic heat. First, the basic thermal characteristics of the urban canopy alone were investigated. The canopy model was then connected with a three-dimensional mesoscale meteorological model, and on-line calculations were performed for 10 and 11 August, 2002 in Tokyo, Japan. The temperature near the ground surface at the bottom of the canopy was considerably improved by the calculation with the canopy model. However, a small difference remained between the calculation and the observation for minimum temperature. Deceleration of the wind was well reproduced for the velocity at the top of the building by the calculation with the canopy model, in which the floor density distribution was considered.     

中国东南部与日本中—新生代构造-岩浆作用对比研究

重点讨论了中国东南部和日本中、新生代火成岩的时空分布及其构造环境,总结了两者的异同性。印支期和燕山早期（190～170Ma）中国东南部和日本具有不同的岩浆活动演化史。在165～150Ma期间,中国东南部广泛分布有过铝和弱过铝的S型花岗岩,而170～130Ma则为日本岩浆活动沉寂期。燕山晚期,中国东南部和日本都发生大规模的火山-侵入活动,同是库拉-太平洋板块向欧亚大陆俯冲-碰撞及其后伸展-裂解的产物,日本开始时代晚（130Ma）,并一直持续到始新世（45Ma）。进入喜马拉雅期,在日本海打开之前（>15Ma）,中国东南部和日本同处于大陆伸展构造环境,在日本海打开之后（<15Ma）,中国东南部和日本进入完全不同的构造演化阶段。