A comparison of economic performance in the fisheries sector: A short- and long-term perspective

Indicators of the economic performance of fishing vessels are frequently computed in various countries. In this paper, we use different types of information to assess capital value and the economic performance of fishing vessels. On the one hand, field surveys provide technical and financial information on the main components of fishing capital. On the other hand, book values are given in bookkeeping databases. We use both sources of information on fishing capital are used for the same set of vessels, namely the commercial fishing fleet of the French region of Brittany. Based on these two sources, measures of economic performance can be produced for the short term using gross surplus; and for the long term including the cost of capital. The measures of performance obtained are presented and the differences between them are then discussed.     

Formula for predicting bedload transport rate in oscillatory sheet flows

The method of Wang [Wang, Y.-H., 2007. Formula for predicting bedload transport rate in oscillatory sheet flow. Coastal Engineering 54, 594–601] to predict the wave friction factor is discussed. At the threshold of sediment entrainment the proposed equation produces a wide scatter of data points when plotted against an equation based on the Shields parameter. It is shown that a better correlation coefficient can be obtained by calculating the critical wave friction factor directly from the wave period, as well as the sediment and water properties.     

Characteristics of developing waves as a function of atmospheric conditions,water properties,fetch and duration

For any specific wind speed, waves grow in period, height and length as a function of the wind duration and fetch until maximum values are reached, at which point the waves are considered to be fully developed. Although equations and nomograms exist to predict the parameters of developing waves for shorter fetch or duration conditions at different wind speeds, these either do not incorporate important variables such as the air and water temperature, or do not consider the combined effect of fetch and duration. Here, the wind conditions required for a fully developed sea are calculated from maximum wave heights as determined from the wind speed, together with a published growth law based on the friction velocity. This allows the parameters of developing waves to be estimated for any combination of wind velocity, fetch and duration, while also taking account of atmospheric conditions and water properties.     

Nonparametric Estimation of Undrained Shear Strength for Normally Consolidated Clays

For decades, various well-known empirical correlations have been established and commonly used to estimate the undrained shear strength of normally consolidated clays in geotechnical practice. However, there are still many contradictory cases regarding the validity of these correlations, so their applicability and reliability are questionable. In this study, an extensive geotechnical database for normally consolidated clays has been compiled. Next, a Bayesian nonparametric method is exploited to identify the most critical soil index properties in inferring the undrained shear strength and a new predictive model is proposed. Finally, the performance of the proposed predictive model is assessed and compared with two well-known correlations using an independent testing database. It confirms that the proposed model not only possesses high predictability, but also provides superior performance over other existing empirical correlations.     

Sunken wood habitat for thiotrophic symbiosis in mangrove swamps

Large organic falls to the benthic environment, such as dead wood or whale bones, harbour organisms relying on sulfide-oxidizing symbionts. Nothing is known however, concerning sulfide enrichment at the wood surface and its relation to wood colonization by sulfide-oxidizing symbiotic organisms.In this study we combined in situ hydrogen sulfide and pH measurements on sunken wood, with associated fauna microscopy analyses in a tropical mangrove swamp. This shallow environment is known to harbour thiotrophic symbioses and is also abundantly supplied with sunken wood. A significant sulfide enrichment at the wood surface was revealed. A 72 h sequence of measurements emphasized the wide fluctuation of sulfide levels (0.1–>100 μM) over time with both a tidal influence and rapid fluctuations. Protozoans observed on the wood surface were similar to Zoothamnium niveum and to vorticellids. Our SEM observations revealed their association with ectosymbiotic bacteria, which are likely to be sulfide-oxidizers. These results support the idea that sunken wood surfaces constitute an environment suitable for sulfide-oxidizing symbioses.     

Equilibrium modeling of the beach profile on a macrotidal embayed low tide terrace beach

Eleven-year long time series of monthly beach profile surveys and hourly incident wave conditions are analyzed for a macrotidal Low Tide Terrace beach. The lower intertidal zone of the beach has a pluriannual cycle, whereas the upper beach profile has a predominantly seasonal cycle. An equilibrium model is applied to study the variation of the contour elevation positions in the intertidal zone as a function of the wave energy, wave power, and water level. When forcing the model with wave energy, the predictive ability of the equilibrium model is around 60% in the upper intertidal zone but decreases to 40% in the lower intertidal zone. Using wave power increases the predictive ability up to 70% in both the upper and lower intertidal zones. However, changes around the inflection point are not well predicted. The equilibrium model is then extended to take into account the effects of the tide level. The initial results do not show an increase in the predictive capacity of the model, but do allow the model free parameters to represent more accurately the values expected in a macrotidal environment. This allows comparing the empirical model calibration in different tidal environment. The interpretation of the model free parameter variation across the intertidal zone highlights the behavior of the different zones along the intertidal beach profile. This contributes to a global interpretation of the four model parameters for beaches with different tidal ranges, and therefore to a global model applicable at a wide variety sites.     

Sigmoidal particle density distribution in a subplinian scoria fall deposit

A general expression to describe particle density distribution in tephra fall deposits is essential to improve fallout tephra mass determination and numerical modelling of tephra dispersion. To obtain particle density distributions in tephra fall deposits, we performed high-resolution componentry and particle density analyses on samples from the 2006 subplinian eruption of Tungurahua volcano in Ecuador. Six componentry classes, including pumice and scoria, have been identified in our sample collection. We determined the class of 300 clasts in each 0.5? fractions from ?4.5? to 3.5? and carried out water pycnometry density measurements on selected size fractions. Results indicate that the mean particle density increases with ? up to a plateau of ~2.6?g/cm³ for clasts finer than 1.5?. The density of scoria and pumice increases between ?3 and 1?, while dense particle density is sub-constant with grainsize. We show that the mean particle density ?? of the vesicular fractions is a function of grainsize i (? scale) given by a sigmoidal law: $ \mu (i)={{{K+\beta }} \left/ {{\left( {1+\alpha {e^{-ri }}} \right)}} \right.} $ , where K, ??, ?? and r are constants. These sigmoidal distributions can be used to determine accurately the load of each componentry class and should be applicable to many tephra deposits and for modelling purposes.     

64排螺旋CT后处理技术对回盲部病变的诊断价值

目的：分析回盲部良恶性病变64排螺旋CT成像特点及其后处理技术的诊断价值。方法：搜集手术病理证实的回盲部病变53例,所有病例均行CT平扫+增强扫描,分析回盲部良恶性病变的成像特点,比较原始轴位图像与后处理图像的诊断效果。结果：原始轴位图像联合MPR/CPR定位定性诊断准确性均高于原始轴位图像,并且差异具有统计学意义（P=0.03;P=0.04）。MPR、CPR能清晰完整地显示回盲部病变的内外结构与邻近器官的关系,提高对回盲部病变的诊断准确性。结论：64排螺旋CT可准确、直观地显示回盲部病变,原始轴位图像结合MPR/CPR图像可以提高对回盲部病变的诊断准确率。     

Features in REE and Methane Anomalies Distribution in the East China Sea Water Column: a Comparison with the South China Sea

Water Resources - This paper presents review of dissolved Rare Earth Elements (REE) and methane anomalies distribution in the East China Sea water column. In general, the REE concentrations of the...     

Meshless BEM and overlapping Schwarz preconditioners for exterior problems on spheroids

We consider the exterior Neumann problem of the Laplacian with boundary condition on spheroids. We propose to use spherical radial basis functions in the solution of the boundary integral equation arising from the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map. Our meshless approach with radial basis functions is particularly suitable for handling scattered satellite data. We also propose a preconditioning technique based on an overlapping domain decomposition method to deal with ill-conditioned matrices arising from the approximation problem.