Predicting species' tolerance to salinity and alkalinity using distribution data and geochemical modelling: a case study using Australian grasses

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Salt tolerance has evolved many times independently in different plant groups. One possible explanation for this pattern is that it builds upon a general suite of stress-tolerance traits. If this is the case, then we might expect a correlation between salt tolerance and other tolerances to different environmental stresses. This association has been hypothesized for salt and alkalinity tolerance. However, a major limitation in investigating large-scale patterns of these tolerances is that lists of known tolerant species are incomplete. This study explores whether species' salt and alkalinity tolerance can be predicted using geochemical modelling for Australian grasses. The correlation between taxa found in conditions of high predicted salinity and alkalinity is then assessed. METHODS: Extensive occurrence data for Australian grasses is used together with geochemical modelling to predict values of pH and electrical conductivity to which species are exposed in their natural distributions. Using parametric and phylogeny-corrected tests, the geochemical predictions are evaluated using a list of known halophytes as a control, and it is determined whether taxa that occur in conditions of high predicted salinity are also found in conditions of high predicted alkalinity. KEY RESULTS: It is shown that genera containing known halophytes have higher predicted salinity conditions than those not containing known halophytes. Additionally, taxa occurring in high predicted salinity tend to also occur in high predicted alkalinity. CONCLUSIONS: Geochemical modelling using species' occurrence data is a potentially useful approach to predict species' relative natural tolerance to challenging environmental conditions. The findings also demonstrate a correlation between salinity tolerance and alkalinity tolerance. Further investigations can consider the phylogenetic distribution of specific traits involved in these ecophysiological strategies, ideally by incorporating more complete, finer-scale geochemical information, as well as laboratory experiments.This work was supported by the Australian Research Council

Ground state and edge excitations of quantum Hall liquid at filling factor 2/3

We present a numerical study of fractional quantum Hall liquid at Landau level filling factor $\nu=2/3$ in a microscopic model including long-range Coulomb interaction and edge confining potential, based on the disc geometry. We find the ground state is accurately described by the particle-hole conjugate of a $\nu=1/3$ Laughlin state. We also find there are two counter-propagating edge modes, and the velocity of the forward-propagating mode is larger than the backward-propagating mode. The velocities have opposite responses to the change of the background confinement potential. On the other hand changing the two-body Coulomb potential has qualitatively the same effect on the velocities; for example we find increasing layer thickness (which softens of the Coulomb interaction) reduces both the forward mode and the backward mode velocities.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figure

Transient stability analysis and enhancement of renewable energy conversion system during LVRT

Grid-connected renewable energy conversion systems (RECSs) are usually required by grid codes to possess the low voltage ride through (LVRT) and reactive power support capabilities so as to cope with grid voltage sags. During LVRT, RECS's terminal voltage becomes sensitive and changeable with its output current, which brings a great challenge for the RECS to resynchronize with the grid by means of phase-locked loops (PLLs). This paper indicates that loss of synchronism (LOS) of PLLs is responsible for the transient instability of grid-connected RECSs during LVRT, and the LOS is essentially due to the transient interaction between the PLL and the weak terminal voltage. For achieving a quantitative analysis, an equivalent swing equation model is developed to describe the transient interaction. Based on the model, the transient instability mechanism of RECSs during LVRT is clarified. Furthermore, a transient stability enhancement method is proposed to avoid the possibility of transient instability. Simulations performed on the New England 39-bus test system verify the effectiveness of the method

A possible disk mechanism for the 23d QPO in Mkn~501

Optically thin two-temperature accretion flows may be thermally and viscously stable, but acoustically unstable. Here we propose that the O-mode instability of a cooling-dominated optically thin two-temperature inner disk may explain the 23-day quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) period observed in the TeV and X-ray light curves of Mkn~501 during its 1997 high state. In our model the relativistic jet electrons Compton upscatter the disk soft X-ray photons to TeV energies, so that the instability-driven X-ray periodicity will lead to a corresponding quasi-periodicity in the TeV light curve and produce correlated variability. We analyse the dependence of the instability-driven quasi-periodicity on the mass (M) of the central black hole, the accretion rate ($\rm{\dot{M}}$) and the viscous parameter ($\alpha$) of the inner disk. We show that in the case of Mkn~501 the first two parameters are constrained by various observational results, so that for the instability occurring within a two-temperature disk where $\alpha=0.05-1.0$, the quasi-period is expected to lie within the range of 8 to 100 days, as indeed the case. In particular, for the observed 23-day QPO period our model implies a viscosity coefficient $\alpha \leq 0.28$, a sub-Eddington accretion rate $\dot{M} \simeq 0.02 \dot{M}_{\rm Edd}$ and a transition radius to the outer standard disk of $r_0 \sim 60 r_g$, and predicts a period variation $\delta P/P \sim 0.23$ due to the motion of the instability region.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figure, accepted by AP

Effect of cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) culture duration on in vitro maturation and parthenogenetic development of pig oocyte

We investigated and optimized the cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) culture duration for pig oocyte in vitro maturation and produced a number of high-quality metaphase-II (M-II) oocytes for generation of parthenotes. The present study graded the COCs into levels A, B and C according to layers of cumulus cells, which were cultured in vitro for 24, 32, 38, 44, 48 and 54 h, respectively. Subsequently, the oocytes with extruded polar body at different time point were electrically activated. The rates of cleavage and blastocyst formation were assessed on day 2 and 7, respectively. The maturation rates of COCs of both level A and B arrived at the highest point at 44 to 48 h, which were statistically insignificant (P > 0.05), while level C COCs needed longer maturation time (54 h), for most of the oocytes to become mature. COCs of different levels were cultured in vitro for the same term, the maturation rates of levels A and B were not significantly different (P > 0.05), but both were significantly higher (P < 0.05) than that of level C. After parthenogenetic activation, there were no significant differences between the cleavage rates in the groups of 38 to 54 h  maturation duration, whereas the developmental rate to blastocysts after 44 h (16.1%) and 48 h (16.5%) maturation duration were significantly higher than those from the other term groups (0, 2.2, 9.8 and 12.4% for 24, 32, 38 and 54 h, respectively, P < 0.05). COCs of levels A and B were more suitable for oocytes preparation in vitro, which led to a high  maturation rate: 44 to 48 h duration was beneficial for maturation, cleavage and blastocyst formation. As for 38 h or less maturation duration, rates of blastocyst were extremely low although some oocytes could be seen with the polar body and cleaved to some extent (64.5% for 3 8hIVM), indicating that oocytes were not really matured. Therefore, the developmental maturation of oocytes could not be judged only by excluding the first polar body.Key words: Cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs), IVM, duration, polar body, activation

New Insights into Traffic Dynamics: A Weighted Probabilistic Cellular Automaton Model

From the macroscopic viewpoint for describing the acceleration behavior of drivers, this letter presents a weighted probabilistic cellular automaton model (the WP model, for short) by introducing a kind of random acceleration probabilistic distribution function. The fundamental diagrams, the spatio-temporal pattern are analyzed in detail. It is shown that the presented model leads to the results consistent with the empirical data rather well, nonlinear velocity-density relationship exists in lower density region, and a new kind of traffic phenomenon called neo-synchronized flow is resulted. Furthermore, we give the criterion for distinguishing the high-speed and low-speed neo-synchronized flows and clarify the mechanism of this kind of traffic phenomena. In addition, the result that the time evolution of distribution of headways is displayed as a normal distribution further validates the reasonability of the neo-synchronized flow. These findings suggest that the diversity and randomicity of drivers and vehicles has indeed remarkable effect on traffic dynamics.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Europhysics Letter