Genetic improvement of the herbivorous blunt snout bream (Megalobrama amblycephala)

Selection experiments with the herbivorous blunt snout bream or Wuchang bream (Megalobrama amblycephala) were started in 1985. Mass selection for size and length/depth ratio resulted in a significant increase in growth and better shape, while inbreeding led to a significant decrease in growth. The total selection ratio from fry to mature brooders was about 0.03 per cent per generation. In the grow out stage, the average daily body weight gains of two lines of fifth generation (F5) fish were 29 per cent and 20 per cent respectively more than the control group, with an average of 5.8 per cent and 4 per cent improvements per generation, respectively. The body was 4 per cent deeper in ratio of standard length/body depth. The effects of inbreeding were examined by crossing full-sibs, the offspring of which were kept without selection. The third generation inbred fish showed 17 per cent lower growth as compared to the control group, with an average of 7.5 per cent per generation. The results demonstrate that selection is a powerful tool to improve the economic traits of the blunt snout bream, but inbreeding can rapidly lead to a reduction in performance. In 2000, the 6th generation of selected bream was certified by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture as a good breed for aquaculture

Elasticity solutions for a transversely isotropic functionally graded circular plate subject to an axisymmetric transverse load qrk

AbstractThis paper considers the bending of transversely isotropic circular plates with elastic compliance coefficients being arbitrary functions of the thickness coordinate, subject to a transverse load in the form of qrk (k is zero or a finite even number). The differential equations satisfied by stress functions for the particular problem are derived. An elaborate analysis procedure is then presented to derive these stress functions, from which the analytical expressions for the axial force, bending moment and displacements are obtained through integration. The method is then applied to the problem of transversely isotropic functionally graded circular plate subject to a uniform load, illustrating the procedure to determine the integral constants from the boundary conditions. Analytical elasticity solutions are presented for simply-supported and clamped plates, and, when degenerated, they coincide with the available solutions for an isotropic homogenous plate. Two numerical examples are finally presented to show the effect of material inhomogeneity on the elastic field in FGM plates

A High-gain and Low-scattering Waveguide Slot Antenna of Artificial Magnetic Conductor Octagonal Ring Arrangement

A novel design of high-gain and low-scattering waveguide slot antenna is proposed in this paper. Firstly the scattering pattern of artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) composite surface is estimated by array factor analysis method. The comparison between octagonal ring arrangement and chessboard arrangement proves that the former arrangement has the characteristic of diffuseness-like and expands the bandwidth of radar cross section (RCS) reduction. Secondly, the metal surface of waveguide slot antenna (WSA) is replaced by the octagonal ring arrangement composite surface (ORACS). The gain is improved because of spurious radiation units which are around the slot. At the same time using the phase cancellation principle, a backscatter null achieves RCS reduction in the vertical direction. Experimental results show that the novel antenna after loading with the ORACS, the gain is improved by 5dB; the bandwidth of RCS reduction (reduction greater than 10dB) is 5.24-5.92 GHz

Bound magnetic polaron driven low-temperature ferromagnetism in Cu1−xMnxO compounds

AbstractPartial Mn atoms have been confirmed to enter the CuO lattice and form the Cu1−xMnxO compounds in the case of doping with 0≤x≤0.2 by the sol–gel method. With increasing Mn content, magnetism is observed. The magnetic critical transition temperature increases with enhanced magnetism, which obeys the bound magnetic polaron theory. The electronic transportation shows an insulating behavior as the band-gap decreases. Our results may indicate that CuO may be used as a candidate of magnetic semiconductor

In silico cloning and chromosomal localization of EST sequences that are related to leaf senescence using nulli-tetrasomes in wheat

Leaf senescence is a notably important trait that limits the yield and biomass accumulation of agronomic crops. Therefore, determining the chromosomal position of the expression sequence tags (ESTs) that are associated with leaf senescence is notably interesting in the manipulation of leaf senescence for crop improvement. A total of 32 ESTs that were previously identified during the delaying leaf senescence stage in the stay-green wheat cultivar CN17 were mapped to 42 chromosomes, a chloroplast, a mitochondrion, and a ribosome using in silico mapping. Then, we developed 19 pairs of primers based on these sequences and used them to determine the polymorphisms between the stay-green cultivars (CN12, CN17, and CN18) and the control cultivar MY11. Among the 19 pairs of primers, 5 pairs produced polymorphisms between the stay-green cultivar and the non-stay-green control. Further studies of Chinese Spring nullisomic-tetrasomics show that JK738991 is mapped to 3B, JK738983 is mapped to 5D, and JK738989 is mapped to 2A, 4A, and 3D. The other two ESTs, JK738994 and JK739003, were not assigned to a chromosome using the Chinese Spring nullisomic-tetrasomics, which indicates that these ESTs may be derived from rye DNA in the wide cross. In particular, the ESTs that produce polymorphisms are notably useful in identifying the stay-green cultivar using molecular marker-assisted selection. The results also suggest that the in silico mapping data, even from a comparison genomic analysis based on the homogeneous comparison, are useful at some points, but the data were not always reliable, which requires further investigation using experimental methods

A Statistical Mechanical Problem in Schwarzschild Spacetime

We use Fermi coordinates to calculate the canonical partition function for an ideal gas in a circular geodesic orbit in Schwarzschild spacetime. To test the validity of the results we prove theorems for limiting cases. We recover the Newtonian gas law subject only to tidal forces in the Newtonian limit. Additionally we recover the special relativistic gas law as the radius of the orbit increases to infinity. We also discuss how the method can be extended to the non ideal gas case.Comment: Corrected an equation misprint, added four references, and brief comments on the system's center of mass and the thermodynamic limi

Performance investigation of hybrid excited switched flux permanent magnet machines using frozen permeability method

This study investigates the electromagnetic performance of a hybrid excited switched flux permanent magnet (SFPM) machine using the frozen permeability (FP) method. The flux components due to PMs, field excitation windings and armature windings have been separated using the FP method. It has been used to separate the torque components due to the PMs and excitations, providing a powerful insight into the torque generation mechanism of hybrid excited SFPM machines. It also allows the accurate calculation of d- and q-axis inductances, which will then be used to calculate the torque, power and power factor against rotor speed to compare the relative merits of hybrid excited SFPM machines with different types of PMs (i.e. NdFeB, SmCo and Ferrite). This offers the possibility of choosing appropriate PMs for different applications (maximum torque or maximum speed). Although only one type of hybrid excited PM machine has been employed to carry out the investigations, the method used in this study can also be extended to other hybrid excited PM machines. The predicted results have been validated by tests

Extended Fermi coordinates

We extend the notion of Fermi coordinates to a generalized definition in which the highest orders are described by arbitrary functions. From this definition rises a formalism that naturally gives coordinate transformation formulae. Some examples are developped in which the extended Fermi coordinates simplify the metric components.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figur

Three-Particle Correlations from Parton Cascades in Au+Au Collisions

We present a study of three-particle correlations among a trigger particle and two associated particles in Au + Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV using a multi-phase transport model (AMPT) with both partonic and hadronic interactions. We found that three-particle correlation densities in different angular directions with respect to the triggered particle (`center', `cone', `deflected', `near' and `near-away') increase with the number of participants. The ratio of `deflected' to `cone' density approaches to 1.0 with the increasing of number of participants, which indicates that partonic Mach-like shock waves can be produced by strong parton cascades in central Au+Au collisions.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures; Final version to appear in Physics Letters

On the Convergence of Ritz Pairs and Refined Ritz Vectors for Quadratic Eigenvalue Problems

For a given subspace, the Rayleigh-Ritz method projects the large quadratic eigenvalue problem (QEP) onto it and produces a small sized dense QEP. Similar to the Rayleigh-Ritz method for the linear eigenvalue problem, the Rayleigh-Ritz method defines the Ritz values and the Ritz vectors of the QEP with respect to the projection subspace. We analyze the convergence of the method when the angle between the subspace and the desired eigenvector converges to zero. We prove that there is a Ritz value that converges to the desired eigenvalue unconditionally but the Ritz vector converges conditionally and may fail to converge. To remedy the drawback of possible non-convergence of the Ritz vector, we propose a refined Ritz vector that is mathematically different from the Ritz vector and is proved to converge unconditionally. We construct examples to illustrate our theory.Comment: 20 page