Daily variations of airborne pollen in Beijing Olympic Park during August of three consecutive years and their relationships with meteorological factors

A three-year aeropalynological study was carried out in the month of August for each of the three years 2005, 2006 and 2007 in the Beijing Olympic Park. A total of 19550 pollen grains were counted （15057 grains in 2005, 2717 in 2006 and 1776 in 2007） for the following taxa： Gramineae, Chenopodiaceae, Humulus L., Artemisia L., Ambrosia L. and Pinus L. The analysis indicated that in the three consecutive years of 2005-007, airborne pollen types and daily number of pollen in August in the Beijing Olympic Park were closely related to environmental change and vegetation composition. The daily variations of airborne pollen displayed similar patterns in August in each of the three years, which were affected positively by periods of daily sunshine, negatively by daily relative humidity and daily precipitation. Continuously high daily temperatures and stable daily wind speeds seemed to have little effect on the fluctuation of airborne pollen.

Dynamic thermo-mechanical responses of road-soft ground system under vehicle load and daily temperature variation

A complete road-soft ground model is established in this paper to study the dynamic responses caused by vehicle loads and/or daily temperature variation.A dynamic thermo-elastic model is applied to capturing the behavior of the rigid pavement,the base course,and the subgrade,while the soft ground is characterized using a dynamic thermo-poroelastic model.Solutions to the road-soft ground system are derived in the Laplace-Hankel transform domain.The time domain solutions are obtained using an integration approach.The temperature,thermal stress,pore water pressure,and displacement responses caused by the vehicle load and the daily temperature variation are presented.Results show that obvious temperature change mainly exists within 0.3 m of the road when subjected to the daily temperature variation,whereas the stress responses can still be found in deeper places because of the thermal swelling/shrinkage deformation within the upper road structures.Moreover,it is important to consider the coupling effects of the vehicle load and the daily temperature variation when calculating the dynamic responses inside the road-soft ground system.

Monitoring models for base flow effect and daily variation of dam seepage elements considering time lag effect

Affected by external environmental factors and evolution of dam performance, dam seepage behavior shows nonlinear time-varying characteristics. In this study, to predict and evaluate the long-term development trend and short-term fluctuation of the dam seepage behavior, two monitoring models were developed, one for the base flow effect and one for daily variation of dam seepage elements. In the first model, to avoid the influence of the time lag effect on the evaluation of seepage variation with the time effect component of seepage elements, the base values of the seepage element and the reservoir water level were extracted using the wavelet multi-resolution analysis method, and the time effect component was separated by the established base flow effect monitoring model. For the development of the daily variation monitoring model for dam seepage elements, all the previous factors, of which the measured time series prior to the dam seepage element monitoring time may have certain influence on the monitored results, were considered. Those factors that were positively correlated with the analyzed seepage element were initially considered to be the support vector machine(SVM) model input factors, and then the SVM kernel function-based sensitivity analysis was performed to optimize the input factor set and establish the optimized daily variation SVM model. The efficiency and rationality of the two models were verified by case studies of the water level of two piezometric tubes buried under the slope of a concrete gravity dam.Sensitivity analysis of the optimized SVM model shows that the influences of the daily variation of the upstream reservoir water level and rainfall on the daily variation of piezometric tube water level are processes subject to normal distribution.

Daily variation of radon gas and its short-lived progeny concentration near ground level and estimation of aerosol residence time

Atmospheric concentrations of radon（^（222）Rn） gas and its short-lived progenies^（218）Po,^（214）Pb, and^（214）Po were continuously monitored every four hours at the ground level in Jeddah city, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The measurements were performed three times every week, starting from November 2014 to October 2015. A method of electrostatic precipitation of positively charged^（218）Po and ^（214）Po by a positive voltage was applied for determining^（222）Rn gas concentration. The short-lived^（222）Rn progeny concentration was determined by using a filter holder connected with the alpha-spectrometric technique. The meteorological parameters（relative air humidity, air temperature, and wind speed） were determined during the measurements of^（222）Rn and its progeny concentrations.^（222）Rn gas as well as its short-lived progeny concentration display a daily and seasonal variation with high values in the night and early morning hours as compared to low values at noon and in the afternoon. The observed monthly atmospheric concentrations showed a seasonal trend with the highest values in the autumn/winter season and the lowest values in the spring/summer season. Moreover, and in parallel with alphaspectrometric measurements, a single filter-holder was used to collect air samples. The deposited activities of^（214）Pb and the long-lived^（222）Rn daughter ^（210）Pb on the filter were measured with the gamma spectrometric technique. The measured activity concentrations of^（214）Pb by both techniques were found to be relatively equal largely. The highest mean seasonally activity concentrations of ^（210）Pb were observed in the autumn/winter season while the lowest mean were observed in the spring/summer season. The mean residence time（MRT） of aerosol particles in the atmospheric air could be estimated from the activity ratios of ^（210）Pb/^（214）Pb.

Statistical characteristics of the surface ducts over the South China Sea from GPS radiosonde data

Based on the global position system （GPS） radiosonde data near the sea surface, the surface duct characteristics over the South China Sea （SCS） were statistically analyzed. The annual surface duct occurrence over the SCS was about 64%. Of the observed surface ducts, duct heights mainly distributed between 18 and 42 m, with M slopes in the range of -0.3 to -0.2 M units/m. Those ducts accounted for about 80% of the ducting cases. For the total profiles, the duct occurrences in a day changed slowly and were more than 60% in all times. The surface ducts formed more easily in the daytime than in the nighttime and most of the duct height were at bellow about 32 m. Additionally, The seasonal variation of the SCS ducts appeared to be evident, except that the mean duct thickness was almost constant, about 33 m for all seasons. The highest occurrence was about 71% in the autumn, followed by in the summer, spring and winter. In spring, their top-height existed more often at a height of more than 48 m. Their mean duct strength became stronger trend from spring to winter, with the M-slope in the range between -0.26 and -0.18 M units/m. Those results agreed well with other studies, provided considering the data resolution. The statistical analysis was reliable and gave the duct estimation for the SCS. Such duct climatology not only has important implications for communication systems and the reliability of the radar observation, but also can provide useful information to improve the accuracy of the meteorological radar measurements.

Diurnal Variation of Photosynthetic Physiological Characteristics of Kadsura coccinea(Lem.)A.C.Smith

[Objectives]This study was conducted to investigate the diurnal variations of photosynthetic and physiological characteristics in 3-year-old Kadsura coccinea(Lem.)A.C.Smith plants.[Methods]A Li-6400 portable photosynthetic system was used to study the diurnal variations of the photosynthetic physiological characteristics of K.coccinea.[Results]The diurnal variation of the net photosynthetic rate(Pn)of K.coccinea leaves showed a"double peak"curve,and there was a lunch break at noon.The maximum value of Pn[4.51 mmol/(m^(2)·s)]appeared at 10:00,and the daily average Pn was 3.98 mol/(m^(2)·s);and the stepwise regression analysis showed that photosynthetically active radiation(PAR)and stomatal conductance(Gs)were the main factors affecting Pn.The partial correlation analysis and path analysis showed that the order of effects on Pn was Gs>PAR.[Conclusions]This study provides a reference for further research on the development and utilization of K.coccinea.

Circadian clock and temporal meal pattern

The central circadian clock in the brain controls the time-of-the-day variations in acute meal responses,with a low glycemic response but a high satiety/thermo-genic response to meals consumed at waking compared to other time points.Consistently,studies show that consuming a significant proportion of calories,particularly carbohydrates,in breakfast is beneficial for the chronic management of obesity and its associated metabolic syndrome,compared to consuming identical meals at dinner.Conversely,breakfast skipping or/and late dinner can have unfavorable metabolic outcomes.It remains controversial how meal frequency affects metabolic health.In contrast,irregular meals,especially irregular breakfasts,show consistent adverse metabolic consequences.Time-restricted feeding(TRF),with all calories consumed within less than 12-h per day,can improve metabolism and extend lifespan.A major component of TRF in humans is caloric restriction,which contributes significantly to the beneficial effects of TRF in humans.By comparison,TRF effects in rodents can be independent of caloric restriction and show day/night phase specificity.TRF could alleviate metabolic abnormalities due to circadian disruption,but its effects appear independent of the circadian clock in rodents.Understanding neuroendocrine mechanisms underlying clock-mediated metabolic regulation will shed light on the metabolic effects of temporal meal patterns.

OBSERVATIONAL STUDY OF MERIDIONAL VARIATION OF UV-B RADIATION DURING VOYAGES TO THE ARCTIC AND ANTARCTIC REGIONS

Based on 1999-2000 observations made by the first Arctic and sixteenth Antactic scientific voyages,a study is undertaken about the meridional surface UV-B (B band ultraviolet rays) variations in 75°N-70°S.It is mitigated as a function of latitudes and marked by lower radiation averaged over the Northern Hemisphere (NH) than over the Southern Hemisphere (SH),with its daily course basically similar to that of total radiation.Around polar summer noon hours (local time) and where ice albedo is maximum,the strongest UV-B irradiance on the surface perpendicular to sun's beams as found at equatorial latitudes is measured sometimes.In the areas near Zhongshan Station the increase of surface UV-B radiation shows a close relation to the decrease of ozone in the higher atmosphere but it has a less intimate relation with its concentration at ground.