Earth's surface fluid variations and deformations from GPS and GRACE in global warming

Global warming is affecting our Earth's environment. For example, sea level is rising with thermal expansion of water and fresh water input from the melting of continental ice sheets due to human-induced global warming. However, observing and modeling Earth's surface change has larger uncertainties in the changing rate and the scale and distribution of impacts due to the lack of direct measurements. Nowadays, the Earth observation from space provides a unique opportunity to monitor surface mass transfer and deformations related to climate change, particularly the global positioning system (GPS) and the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) with capability of estimating global land and ocean water mass. In this paper, the Earth's surface fluid variations and deformations are derived and analyzed from global GPS and GRACE measurements. The fluids loading deformation and its interaction with Earth system, e.g., Earth Rotation, are further presented and discussed.Comment: Proceeding of Geoinformatics, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS), June 24-26, 2011, Shanghai, Chin

An expert system based on 1 H NMR spectroscopy for quality evaluation and adulteration identification of edible oils

Abstract(#br)The advantages of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) such as nondestructive and simultaneous detection, high reproducibility and rapidity make it easily develop the objective and credible methods for food analysis and identification. In this study, we developed a computer-aided, MATLAB-scripted expert system which enables NMR data to distinguish different edible oils and evaluate the quality of edible oils. The NMR spectral data of seven species of most popular vegetable edible oils in China were used to establish the assessment criterions including the content percentage of fatty acids and the quality parameters of edible oils. In our case, the identification accuracy of vegetable origin for the pure edible oils is 95.83% and that for the mixed edible oils is 89.58%, and all the recycled waste cooking oils and fried oils were correctly screened out and identified by the expert system. Further, the quality information of the edible oils was also provided. Our results show that the current expert system is a fast, easy-operated and convenient tool for the adulteration identification and quality control of edible oils

Compositional identification and authentication of Chinese honeys by 1 H NMR combined with multivariate analysis

Abstract(#br)Honey authentication has been becoming more and more important and necessary to the honey producers, the consumers and the market regulatory authority due to its favorite organoleptic and healthy properties, high value and increasing export but prevalent falsification practice for economic motivation in China and the potential health risk of adulterated honey. In this study, we obtained the spectral profiles of 90 authentic and 75 adulterated Chinese honey samples by means of high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and 65 kinds of major and minor components in honey were identified and quantified from their NMR spectra. Combining with the multivariate statistical analyses including principal component analysis (PCA), linear discriminant analysis (LDA), and orthogonal partial least squared-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), the discrimination models were successfully established to identify the adulterated honeys from the authentic ones with an accurate rate of 97.6%. Furthermore, the corresponding volcano plot was used to screen out 8 components including proline, xylobiose, uridine, β-glucose, melezitose, turanose, lysine and an unknown component, which are responsible for the differentiation between the authentic and adulterated honeys and will help to control Chinese domestic honey market

Effect of non-condensable gas on the startup of a loop heat pipe

It is essential to address the startup issues prior to the wide application of loop heat pipes (LHPs) in both space and terrestrial surroundings. As non-condensable gas (NCG) is an important factor affecting the startup behavior, its effects on the startup performance of an ammonia-stainless steel LHP with and without preconditioning were experimentally investigated in this work. Nitrogen with controlled amounts was used to simulate the NCG, and the temperature overshoot, liquid superheat and startup time were employed as the evaluation criteria. Four situations relating to initial liquid/vapor distribution in the evaporator were examined: (1) both evaporator core and vapor grooves are filled with liquid, (2) vapor exists in vapor grooves and the evaporator core is filled by liquid, (3) vapor grooves are filled by liquid and vapor exists in the evaporator core, and (4) vapor exists in both evaporator core and vapor grooves. Experimental results showed that with NCG presence in the LHP, the startup could only proceed in situation 1 with preconditioning, while it could proceed in situations 1, 3 or 4 without preconditioning. For the startup in situation 1, a larger NCG inventory led to much degraded startup performance, and a higher startup heat load could benefit the startup. For the startup in situation 3, the most difficult startup situation, NCG resulted in a very high temperature overshoot, which may even exceed the maximum allowable value. For the startup in situation 4, the existence of NCG in the vapor grooves could facilitate the evaporation there, leading to a very desirable startup

Integrated metabolomics and lipidomics evaluate the alterations of flavor precursors in chicken breast muscle with white striping symptom

White striping (WS) is the most common myopathy in the broiler chicken industry. To reveal flavor changes of WS meat objectively, flavor precursors of WS breast muscle were evaluated systematically with integrated metabolomics and lipidomics. The results showed that WS could be distinguished from normal controls by E-nose, and four volatile compounds (o-xylene, benzene, 1,3-dimethyl, 2-heptanone and 6-methyl and Acetic acid and ethyl ester) were detected as decreased compounds by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Lipidomic analysis showed that WS breast fillets featured increased neutral lipid (83.8%) and decreased phospholipid molecules (33.2%). Targeted metabolomic analysis indicated that 16 hydrophilic metabolites were altered. Thereinto, some water-soluble flavor precursors, such as adenosine monophosphate, GDP-fucose and L-arginine increased significantly, but fructose 1,6-bisphosphate and L-histidine significantly decreased in the WS group. These results provided a systematic evaluation of the flavor precursors profile in the WS meat of broiler chickens

Experimental study on pool boiling in a porous artery structure

In this work, a porous artery structure is proposed to enhance the critical heat flux (CHF) of pool boiling based on the concept of “phase separation and modulation” and extensive experimental studies have been carried out for validation. In the experiment, multiple rectangular arteries were machined directly into the top surface of a copper rod to provide individual flow paths for vapor escaping. The arteries were covered by a microporous copper plate where capillary forces can be developed at the liquid/vapor interface to prevent the vapor from penetrating the porous structure and realize strong liquid suction simultaneously. The pool wall was made of transparent quartz glass to enable a visualization study where the liquid/vapor distribution and movement can be observed directly. Favorable results have been reached as expected, and a maximum heat flux up to 805 W/cm2 was achieved with no indication of any dry-out, which successfully validated this new concept. In addition, the effects of the diameter and thickness of the porous copper plate, and the connection method between the porous copper plate and copper fin on the pool boiling heat transfer in the porous artery structure were investigated, and the inherent physical mechanisms were analyzed and discussed

Experimental study on a dual compensation chamber loop heat pipe with dual bayonet tubes

Dual compensation chamber loop heat pipe (DCCLHP) holds great application potential in the future aircraft thermal management. In this work, a DCCLHP with dual bayonet tubes was first proposed and fabricated, aiming to improve its startup performance especially at small heat loads in the terrestrial surroundings. Extensive experimental validation was conducted at three typical attitudes of the evaporator/CCs, i.e., the vertical attitude, 45° tilt angle and the horizontal attitude, mainly focusing on its startup characteristics and heat transport capability. According to the experimental results, the DCCLHP with dual bayonet tubes can successfully realize the startup at small heat loads in whatever attitudes of the evaporator/CCs in the ground condition, and reach a heat transport limit greater than 400 W over a distance of 2.0 m. No obvious operating instability was observed in the DCCLHP operation. In addition, a new flow mechanism was observed in the experiment, i.e., a local natural circulation of the working fluid driven by gravity occurred in the loop composed of the evaporator, the CCs, the bayonet tubes, and the branches of the liquid line. This local circulation of working fluid was identified to appear only when the evaporator/CCs were at a certain tilt angle and the heat loads were relatively small

Solar Ring Mission: Building a Panorama of the Sun and Inner-heliosphere

Solar Ring (SOR) is a proposed space science mission to monitor and study the Sun and inner heliosphere from a full 360{\deg} perspective in the ecliptic plane. It will deploy three 120{\deg}-separated spacecraft on the 1-AU orbit. The first spacecraft, S1, locates 30{\deg} upstream of the Earth, the second, S2, 90{\deg} downstream, and the third, S3, completes the configuration. This design with necessary science instruments, e.g., the Doppler-velocity and vector magnetic field imager, wide-angle coronagraph, and in-situ instruments, will allow us to establish many unprecedented capabilities: (1) provide simultaneous Doppler-velocity observations of the whole solar surface to understand the deep interior, (2) provide vector magnetograms of the whole photosphere - the inner boundary of the solar atmosphere and heliosphere, (3) provide the information of the whole lifetime evolution of solar featured structures, and (4) provide the whole view of solar transients and space weather in the inner heliosphere. With these capabilities, Solar Ring mission aims to address outstanding questions about the origin of solar cycle, the origin of solar eruptions and the origin of extreme space weather events. The successful accomplishment of the mission will construct a panorama of the Sun and inner-heliosphere, and therefore advance our understanding of the star and the space environment that holds our life.Comment: 41 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, to be published in Advances in Space Researc