Responses of soil respiration in non-growing seasons to environmental factors in a maize agroecosystem,Northeast China

Based on continuous three-year measurements (from 2004 to 2007) of eddy covariance and related environmental factors, envi-ronmental controls on variation in soil respiration (R_s) during non-growing season were explored in a maize agroecosystem in Northeast China. Our results indicated that during non-growing seasons, daily Rs was 1.08–4.08 g CO2 m^–2 d^–1, and the lowest occurred in late November. The average R_s of non-growing season was 456.06 ± 20.01 g CO2 m^–2, accounting for 11% of the gross primary production (GPP) of the growing season. Additionally, at monthly scale, the lowest value of R_s appeared in January or February. From the beginning to the end of non-growing season, daily R_s tended to decrease first, and then increase to the highest. There was a significant quadratic curve relationship between Rs and soil temperature at 10 cm depth when soil temperature was more than 0°C (P<0.001), with the explaining ratio of 38%–70%. When soil water content was more than 0.1 m³ m^–3, soil moisture at 10 cm depth was significantly parabolically correlated with R_s (P<0.001), explaining the rate of 18%–60%. Based on all the data of soil temperature of more than 0°C, a better model for R_s was established by coupling soil temperature and moisture, which could explain the rate of up to 53%–79%. Meanwhile, the standard error of regression estimation between the values of prediction and observation for R_s could reach 2.7%–11.8%. R_s in non-growing season can account for 22.4% of R_s in growing season, indicating that it plays a critical role in assessing the carbon budget in maize agroecosystem, Northeast China.     

A phase field study for influence of elastic energy on L1<Subscript>0</Subscript>→L1<Subscript>2</Subscript> transient ordering in Ni<Subscript>75</Subscript>Al<Subscript>17</Subscript>Zn<Subscript>8</Subscript>

The influence of the elastic energy on L1₀→L1₂ transient ordering transformation was investigated by microscopic phase field method. It is found that there are three stages experienced in atomic ordering: solute clustering+L10 short range ordering → L1₀ long range ordering → L1₂ long range ordering. Before the formation of the high ordered L1₂ phase, it has firstly taken place the transformation from matrix to L1₀ phase, and then held the L1₀→L1₂ secondary transformation. Elastic energy is proved to take little effect on the stage of short range ordering, but as the elastic energy is multiplied, it obviously shortened the course of the solute clustering, and speeded up the proceeding of the L1₀ long range ordering transition. Accordingly, the increased elastic energy also strengthens the single crystalline directionality of L1₀ phase projecting on 2D plane and makes the ordered degree of Al and Zn atoms enhanced. With the temperature elevation, Al’s and Zn’s ordered degree decreased in L10 phase.     

Language clusters based on linguistic complex networks

To investigate the feasibility of using complex networks in the study of linguistic typology, this paper builds and explores 15 lin-guistic complex networks based on the dependency syntactic treebanks of 15 languages. The results show that it is possible to classify human languages by means of the following main parameters of complex networks: (a) average degree of the node, (b) cluster coefficients, (c) average path length, (d) network centralization, (e) diameter, (f) power exponent of degree distribution, and (g) the determination coefficient of power law distributions. The precision of this method is similar to the results achieved by means of modern word order typology. This paper tries to solve two problems of current linguistic typology. First, the language sample of a typological study is not real text; second, typological studies pay too much attention to local language structures in the course of choosing typological parameters. This study performs better in global typological features of language and not only enhances typological methods, but it is also valuable for developing the applications of complex networks in the humanities, social, and life sciences.     

Radioprotectors from pyrodextrins

Cornstarch heated in the range of 230–280°C depolymerized into pyrodextrins characterized by two-component EPR signals of relatively stable free radicals. These thermally generated radicals could serve as efficient scavengers for free radicals generated from pyrodextrins with the 200 Gy dose of γ-radiation. The most efficient traps/scavengers were produced from cornstarch at 250–280°C. IR data indicated incorporation of the OH groups to the pyrodextrins. These groups most probably originated from the OH· radicals formed by the radiolysis of water. EPR spectra provided evidence for trapping free radicals generated by γ-irradiation and for their subsequent annihilation on contact with pyrodextrins. Water affected radical processes occurring in pyrodextrins caused by γ-irradiation.     

NPP distribution related to the terrains along the North-South Transect of Eastern China

Vegetation net primary productivity (NPP) is defined as the accumulative amount of organic matters per unit area and time, which is calculated from the difference between accumulative photosynthesis and accumulative autotrophic respiration by green plants. Since the NPP reflects the physiological and ecological characteristics of the plants and the interactive results of the environmental factors, it is an important index to evaluate a structure of ecological system, functional features and …     

Stability Analysis of Stochastic Swarm Systems

In this paper,we present a model of stochastic swarm system and prove the stability of this kind of systems. We establish the stable aggregating behavior for the group using a coordination control scheme. This individual-based control scheme is a combination of attractive and repulsive interactions among the individuals in the group,which ensures the cohesion of the group and collision avoidance among the individuals. The dynamics of each individual depends on the relative positions between the individuals and the influences of the random disturbances. Under the influences of the noises,this position-based control strategy still generates the stable aggregating behavior harmoniously for the group and the self-organized swarm pattern is formed.     

Soil Organic Carbon Loss under Different Slope Gradients in Loess Hilly Region

Based on field runoff plots observation and sample analysis, the effect of slope gradient on soil organic carbon loss was studied under natural rainfall conditions in loess hilly region. The results showed that with slope gradient increasing （from10° to 30°）, the changing trend of soil erosion intensity （A） was A20°〉A30°〉A15°〉A10°〉A25°, suggesting that slope gradient between 20° and 25° was a critical degree ranger to exist. Soil organic carbon loss was mainly influenced by soil erosion intensity, appearing the same trend as did soil erosion intensity with increasing slope gradient. Soil erosion results in organic carbon enrichment in sediment. Average enrichment ratios of five runoff plots varied from 2.27 to 3.74, and decreased with increasing erosion intensity and slope gradient. The decrease of surface runoff and soil erosion is the key to reduce soil organic carbon loss.     

A New Generalized Similarity-Based Topic Distillation Algorithm

The procedure of hypertext induced topic search based on a semantic relation model is analyzed, and the reason for the topic drift of HITS algorithm was found to prove that Web pages are projected to a wrong latent semantic basis. A new concept-generalized similarity is introduced and, based on this, a new topic distillation algorithm GSTDA（generalized similarity based topic distillation algorithm） was presented to improve the quality of topic distillation. GSTDA was applied not only to avoid the topic drift, but also to explore relative topics to user query. The experimental results on 10 queries show that GSTDA reduces topic drift rate by 10% to 58% compared to that of HITS（hypertext induced topic search） algorithm, and discovers several relative topics to queries that have multiple meanings.     

Analysis of Conditional Value-at-Risk for Newsvendor with Holding and Backorder Cost under Market Search

We consider a distribution system with one supplier and two retailers. For the two retailers, they face different demand and are both risk averse. We study a single period model which the supplier has ample goods and the retailers order goods separately. Market search is measured as the fraction of customers who unsatisfied with their ＂local＂ retailer due to stock-out, and search for the goods at the other retailer before leaving the system. We investigate how the retailers game for order quantity in a Conditional Value-at-Risk framework and study how risk averse degree, market search level, holding cost and backorder cost influence the optimal order strategies. Furthermore, we use uniform distribution to illustrate these results and obtain Nash equilibrium of order strategies.     

Synthesis of CaCO3 crystals using hydroxypropylmethyl cellulose hydrogel as template

Calcium carbonate crystallization was performed in hydrogel of hydroxypropylmethyl cellulose (HPMC). Results showed that the polyhydroxy functionalities in HPMC gel network facilitated the nucleation of aragonite which was not found in experiment without HPMC hydrogel and in experiment using methylcellulose (MC) hydrogel as template. On the other hand, due to the unique assembly of the macromolecules in HPMC hydrogel network, which was different from other hydrogels used in some previous reports, particular crystal morphology, corncob-like CaCO_3, was obtained for the first time.