Examining human heat stress with remote sensing technology

Heat stress as an environmental hazard which can seriously affect productivity, health, or even survival of individuals has long been studied. Despite the endeavors that have been made to address the issue quantitatively with various heat stress indices, they are often measured at scatter sites. This research devotes to revealing human heat stress within continuous space with remote sensing technology. The study began with the retrieval of dry-bulb temperature from land surface temperature (LST) with empirical models. As wet-bulb temperature was calculated from dry-bulb temperature and relative humidity, discomfort index (DI) as an indicator of heat stress was revealed for the study area at 1 km spatial resolution for three summer days. Results indicated that DI can be derived within continuous space with remotely sensed data, and its spatial distribution can be dramatically affected by relative humidity. Further comparison between DI and LST indicated that LST as a widely utilized indicator of surface thermal condition fails to address human heat stress as environmental factors such as relative humidity are not taken into account.     

Oxygen radical formation in anoxic transgression and anoxia-reoxygenation: Foe or phantom? Experiments with a hypoxia tolerant bivalve

Intertidal blue mussels, Mytilus edulis, experience hypoxia reoxygenation during tidal emersion and resubmersion cycles, and this is often suggested to represent a major stress for the animals, especially for their respiratory tissues, the gills. We exposed mussels to experimental short and prolonged anoxia and subsequent reoxygenation and analyzed the respiratory response in excised gill tissue and the effects of treatment on reactive oxygen species (mainly ROS: superoxide anion, O₂^·− and hydrogen peroxide, H₂O₂), formation using live imaging techniques and confocal microscopy. Our aim was to understand if this “natural stress” would indeed produce oxidative damage and whether antioxidant defenses are induced under anoxia, to prevent oxidative damage during reoxygenation. Exposure to declining pO₂ in the respiration chamber caused an increase of gill metabolic rate between 21 and 10 kPa, a pO₂ range in which whole animal respiration is reported to be oxyregulating. Exposure of the animals to severe anoxia caused an onset of anaerobiosis (succinate accumulation) and shifted high and low critical p_c values (p_c1: onset of oxyregulation in gills, p_c2: switch from oxyregulation to oxyconformity) to higher pO₂. Concentrations of both ROS decreased strongly during anoxic exposure of the mussels and increased upon reoxygenation. This ROS burst induced lipid peroxidation in the mantle, but neither were protein carbonyl levels increased (oxidative damage in the protein fraction), nor did the tissue glutathione concentration change in the gills. Further, analysis of apoptosis markers indicated no induction of cell death in the gills. To our knowledge, this is the first paper that directly measures ROS formation during anoxia reoxygenation in mussels. We conclude that hypoxia tolerant intertidal mussels do not suffer major oxidative stress in gill and mantle tissues under these experimental conditions.     

Tides in the Tongan Region of the Pacific Ocean

Tidal levels and currents in the Tongan region of the Pacific were simulated using a two-dimensional frequency-domain finite element model. The eight major diurnal and semidiurnal tidal constituents were modeled successfully, using open boundary conditions taken from a global tidal model based on the Topex/Poseidon satellite altimeter. Comparison of model results with observations from the single tide gauge site in the area were later used to adjust the boundary conditions. The validity of omitting horizontal eddy viscosity from the finite element model was checked by running an equivalent finite difference model. The results show that although the submarine Tongan ridge does not appear to trap tidal energy, there are residual tidal currents and possible recirculations which are capable of influencing biological productivity around Tonga. The model results are reduced to a simple method for predicting tidal heights in outlying areas, based only on the tidal calendar for the capital, Nuku'alofa.     

Numerical Modeling of Sediment Mass Sliding and Tsunami Generation: The Case of February 7, 1963, in Corinth Gulf,Greece

Numerical modeling of a landslide process at the continental slope by taking into account slope parameters is performed for the tsunami event of February 7, 1963, reported in the Corinth Gulf, central Greece. A layered sediment structure was considered, and an initial external dynamic action at the landslide process was introduced. The results obtained were quite consistent with the observational runup data as well as with the results arrived at by conventional rigid-body and viscous-fluid models. However, this approach permits to describe in detail the formation of several wave groups and particular tsunami characteristics that are strongly dependent on the landslide model.     

Study on the negative bias temperature instability effect under dynamic stress

This paper studies negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) under alternant and alternating current (AC) stress. Under alternant stress, the degradation smaller than that of single negative stress is obtained. The smaller degradation is resulted from the recovery of positive stress. There are two reasons for the recovery. One is the passivation of H dangling bonds, and another is the detrapping of charges trapped in the oxide. Under different frequencies of AC stress, the parameters all show regular degradation, and also smaller than that of the direct current stress. The higher the frequency is, the smaller the degradation becomes. As the negative stress time is too small under higher frequency, the deeper defects are hard to be filled in. Therefore, the detrapping of oxide charges is easy to occur under positive bias and the degradation is smaller with higher frequency.     

氨氮胁迫对刺参几种免疫酶活性的影响

以养殖刺参(Apostichopus japonicus)为研究对象,对不同浓度的氨氮处理及病菌感染条件下刺参体腔液免疫酶的变化进行了测定.结果表明:随着氨氮处理强度的增加,刺参体腔液中超氧化物歧化酶(SOD)、碱性磷酸酶(ALP)、谷胱甘肽过氧化物酶(GPx)及溶菌酶(LSZ)活性呈现先升高后降低的趋势,而同时感染病菌的情况下,较低质量浓度的氨氮胁迫可使SOD、GPx、ALP及LSZ活性上升,但在较高浓度氨氮处理时,酶活性的诱导则受到抑制.说明适宜浓度的氨氮处理可增强刺参的免疫力,从而减轻病菌感染对刺参造成的免疫功能损伤和提高刺参抗病力.刺参在感染病原菌假交替单胞菌(Pseudoalte-romonas sp)的条件下,3 mg/L、4 mg/L和6 mg/L浓度的氨氮处理第6天,刺参的累积发病死亡率分别为44.4％、55.6％和72.2％,高于对照组,表明较高浓度的氨氮胁迫能够显著降低刺参的免疫力,增加对病原菌的易感性.因此,在刺参养殖过程中,氨氮浓度的调控具有重要的意义.     

横向分布载荷作用下简支舟桥甲板的弯曲特性

采用轻质高强铝合金材料设计舟桥的甲板时,其强度计算是初始设计者最为关心的问题之一.本次研究的舟桥甲板采用三层夹心板的结构形式,其横向分布载荷下的挠度和应力的求解问题与一般的单层板不同,虽然可以用有限元法对此进行结构计算,但在初始设计阶段使用该法的计算量大,不方便应用.本文旨在寻求在横向分布载荷作用下,简支条件时,夹心甲板的挠度和应力的解析解,并与有限元计算相比较,为舟桥甲板初始设计提供良好的基础理论.     

Sensitivity to stress of the estuarine bivalve Macoma balthica from areas between the Netherlands and its southern limits (Gironde)

Variation in the sensitivity to stress of Macoma balthica was measured in several French and Dutch estuaries. For adult and juvenile Macoma balthica exposed to copper under conditions of starvation, differences in mortality rate, condition, glycogen, burrowing rate and copper content were assessed. No significant differences were observed between adults and juveniles; the influence of treatment and origin was always evident. Animals from the most southern estuaries, Loire and Gironde, near to the species's southern limit of distribution, showed, in the field, the strongest deviations for the ecophysiological traits measured, and were in the experiments the most sensitive to stress.     

放养密度对大杂交鲟生长性能的影响及生理应答机制

为探讨放养密度对鱼类生长及生理应答机制的影响规律和作用,作者以大规格大杂交鲟(达氏鳇(Huso dauricus)♀×施氏鲟(Acipenser schrenckii)♂)为实验材料,研究了平均初始体质量约为243 g/尾,放养密度分别为6(SD1组)、9(SD2组)、12(SD3组)、15 kg/m3(SD4组)条件下,不同放养密度处理70 d后的实验鱼生长性能变化及生理应答机制。结果显示,放养密度对大杂交鲟肥满度影响不显著,SD2组鱼类具有最大的特定生长率和生长效率,随着放养密度增加,日增质量显著降低(P0.05),特定生长率和生长效率下降。测定了血液甲状腺素(T4)、三碘甲腺原氨酸(T3)和皮质醇水平变化,发现放养密度能引起大杂交鲟3个血液生理指标发生显著改变;随着养殖时间推移,T3和皮质醇浓度显著升高,T4浓度显著下降(P0.05)。这些结果说明神经内分泌活动的变化引起大杂交鲟血液生理指标变化,进而影响实验鱼生长性能。因此,在该养殖条件下推荐的养殖密度为9 kg/m3。