Relationship of land use/cover on water quality in the Liao River basin, China

AbstractA total of 76 sampling sites were selected in the Liao River basin (21.9×104km2). During the period of 2009-2010, 58 water samples were collected in 2010 and 42 were collected in 2009, physical-chemical variables were analyzed to investigate their spatial-temporal variability in particular the relationship with land use /cover. The results indicated that physical and chemical properties showed obvious spatial heterogeneity in the Liao River basin. Taizi River and Hun River are located in the southeast of the basin, the water quality for two sub-basins: water quality in upstream is better than that in downstream, water quality level in downstream was classified into IV-V. There were no obvious features in the East Liao River basin, water quality in downstream was classified into III level. West Liao River run for many years, water quality was classified into IV. Big Liao River basin was located in middle and east of the Liao River basin. Water quality was classified into V. Correlation and regression analysis indicated that BOD5, COD, sediment, hardness and nitrate–nitrogen (NO3−–N), total dissolved particular (TDP) were significantly related to land use for forest and agriculture

Winning Back Technology Disadopters

This paper addresses the issue of winning back disadopters of an earlier generation of technology when a new technology generation appears on the market. Integrating research on innovation management, attitude strength and change, and consumer win-back, we propose a re-adoption model to predict disadopters’ intentions to come back. Data were collected from 274 disadopters of earlier mobile internet generations facing the advent of 3G. We found that perceived superiority of a new technology generation, prior usage experience, and price value are significant enablers, and their influences are moderated by the reason for disadoption. These findings have significant managerial and theoretical implications

What can the braking indices tell us about pulsars' nature?

As a result of observational difficulties, braking indices of only six rotation-powered pulsars are obtained with certainty, all of which are remarkably smaller than the value ($n=3$) expected for pure magnetodipole radiation model. This is still a real fundamental question not being well answered after nearly forty years of the discovery of pulsar. The main problem is that we are shamefully not sure about the dominant mechanisms that result in pulsars' spin-down. Based on the previous works, the braking index is re-examined, with a conclusion of suggesting a constant gap potential drop for pulsars with magnetospheric activities. New constrains on model parameters from observed braking indices are presented.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, submitted to "Advances in Space Research" (Proceedings of COSPAR 2006

Constitutive Modeling for Al–Cu–Mg Alloy in Creep Aging Process

The aim of this paper is to develop a set of creep aging constitutive equations for Al–Cu–Mg alloys containing plate- or rod-like precipitates. Average length, aspect ratio and relative volume fraction are introduced to quantitatively analyze precipitates evaluation of such alloy in creep aging process. The strong interaction between creep deformation and aging treatment is considered by the intermediate state variables of dislocation density and precipitate characteristic dimension. A unified creep aging constitutive equation is derived, in which the correlations between microscopic characteristics and macroperformances of material are linked by the yield strength of the material. Using AA2124 as subject, a series of uniaxial tensile creep tests are carried out at 185°C for 12 h under different stresses. The material constants within constitutive models are determined with the experimental data. A good agreement between experimental and computed values confirms that the established constitutive equations can well characterize the creep behaviors

Whole genome sequencing of a banana wild relative Musa itinerans provides insights into lineage-specific diversification of the Musa genus

Crop wild relatives are valuable resources for future genetic improvement. Here, we report the de novo genome assembly of Musa itinerans, a disease-resistant wild banana relative in subtropical China. The assembled genome size was 462.1 Mb, covering 75.2% of the genome (615.2Mb) and containing 32, 456 predicted protein-coding genes. Since the approximate divergence around 5.8 million years ago, the genomes of Musa itinerans and Musa acuminata have shown conserved collinearity. Gene family expansions and contractions enrichment analysis revealed that some pathways were associated with phenotypic or physiological innovations. These include a transition from wood to herbaceous in the ancestral Musaceae, intensification of cold and drought tolerances, and reduced diseases resistance genes for subtropical marginally distributed Musa species. Prevalent purifying selection and transposed duplications were found to facilitate the diversification of NBS-encoding gene families for two Musa species. The population genome history analysis of M. itinerans revealed that the fluctuated population sizes were caused by the Pleistocene climate oscillations, and that the formation of Qiongzhou Strait might facilitate the population downsizing on the isolated Hainan Island about 10.3 Kya. The qualified assembly of the M. itinerans genome provides deep insights into the lineage-specific diversification and also valuable resources for future banana breeding

Near-Infrared Variability in Dusty White Dwarfs: Tracing the Accretion of Planetary Material

The inwards scattering of planetesimals towards white dwarfs is expected to be a stochastic process with variability on human time-scales. The planetesimals tidally disrupt at the Roche radius, producing dusty debris detectable as excess infrared emission. When sufficiently close to the white dwarf, this debris sublimates and accretes on to the white dwarf and pollutes its atmosphere. Studying this infrared emission around polluted white dwarfs can reveal how this planetary material arrives in their atmospheres. We report a near-infrared monitoring campaign of 34 white dwarfs with infrared excesses with the aim to search for variability in the dust emission. Time series photometry of these white dwarfs from the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (Wide Field Camera) in the J, H and K bands were obtained over baselines of up to three years. We find no statistically significant variation in the dust emission in all three near-infrared bands. Specifically, we can rule out variability at ∼ 1.3% for the 13 white dwarfs brighter than 16th mag in K band, and at ∼ 10% for the 32 white dwarfs brighter than 18th mag over time-scales of three years. Although to date two white dwarfs, SDSS J095904.69−020047.6 and WD 1226+110, have shown K band variability, in our sample we see no evidence of new K band variability at these levels. One interpretation is that the tidal disruption events which lead to large variabilities are rare, occur on short time-scales

Bailout Embeddings, Targeting of KAM Orbits, and the Control of Hamiltonian Chaos

We present a novel technique, which we term bailout embedding, that can be used to target orbits having particular properties out of all orbits in a flow or map. We explicitly construct a bailout embedding for Hamiltonian systems so as to target KAM orbits. We show how the bailout dynamics is able to lock onto extremely small KAM islands in an ergodic sea.Comment: 3 figures, 9 subpanel