走向战场的微型“空中飞鸟”

在3月20日开始的美、英对伊战争中，在伊上空不时出现一些不明身份的像鸟一般大小的飞行物，它就是20世纪90年代初期开始发展起来的微型空中飞行器。其基本特征是：重量为10-100克，有效载荷1—18克，续航时间20—60分钟．巡航速度35—70千米/小时，航程1—10千米(用机炮发射可达20千米以上)。外形采用固定翼、旋翼或其布局，酷似各种昆虫或小飞鸟。最佳使用高度为几十—几百米，单价不超过1000美元。

Micro-bubble Drag Reduction on a High Speed Vessel Model

Ship hull form of the underwater area strongly influences the resistance of the ship. The major factor in ship resistance is skin friction resistance. Bulbous bows, polymer paint, water repellent paint （highly water-repellent wall）, air injection, and specific roughness have been used by researchers as an attempt to obtain the resistance reduction and operation efficiency of ships. Micro-bubble injection is a promising technique for lowering frictional resistance. The injected air bubbles are supposed to somehow modify the energy inside the turbulent boundary layer and thereby lower the skin friction. The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of injected micro bubbles on a navy fast patrol boat （FPB） 57 m type model with the following main dimensions： L=2 450 ram, B=400 mm, and T=190 mm. The influence of the location of micro bubble injection and bubble velocity was also investigated. The ship model was pulled by an electric motor whose speed could be varied and adjusted. The ship model resistance was precisely measured by a load cell transducer. Comparison of ship resistance with and without micro-bubble injection was shown on a graph as a function of the drag coefficient and Froude number. It was shown that micro bubble injection behind the mid-ship is the best location to achieve the most effective drag reduction, and the drag reduction caused by the micro-bubbles can reach 6%-9%.

Large scale northward expansion of warm water species Skeletonema tropicum (Bacillariophyceae) in China seas

Skeletonema tropicum is regarded as a species with an affinity to warm waters and it has never been reported in seas where temperatures drop below 11℃ in winter. Previous studies in China reported that S. tropicum was restricted to subtropical and warm temperate seas （East and South China Seas）, but the species was recently found during August cruises of 2009 and 2010 in Jiaozhou Bay, Yellow Sea, located several hundred kilometers to the north. Here, winter water temperatures often drop below 5℃. Identification of S. tropicum was confirmed under light and scanning electronic microscopes and maximum cell abundance in Jiaozhou Bay was estimated as 1.73× 10^4 celI/L. This record of S. tropicum in Jiaozhou Bay represents a significant northward expansion in the geographic range of the species. Ship ballast water was identified as a possible carrier of S. tropicum from southern places along Chinese coastline, and in addition, thermal pollution from local power stations and seawater desalination plants may provide suitable conditions for species over-wintering.

Structural Characteristics of Vessels in Three Families of Cycadopsida

The pinna of Cycasferruginea F.N. Wei （Cycadaceae）, pinnas or rachises ofStangeria eriopus （Kune） Baill. （Stangeriaceae）, Dioon holmgrenii De Luca, Sabato ＆ Vazq. Torres, Macrozamia moorei F. Muell. ex C. Moore （Zamiaceae） were macerated and dissociated by Jeffrey＇s technique, rinsed with water, dehydrated and gold-plated for observation with scanning electron microscopes. The results showed that the pinna and rachis of the leaf tissues of the four cycad species possess many vessel elements and a few tracheid elements in the conducting tissue of the xylem. Annular, spiral, scalariform, pitted and reticulate vessels and some transitional types, including scalariform-pitted, scalariform-reticulate and reticulate-pitted vessels, were observed in the conducting tissues. The characteristics of the vessels of each species, and the evolutionary relation of four genera of cycads were analyzed. Compared with those of angiosperms, the structural characters of vessels of cycad are at the moderate level of evolution and more advanced than some primitive taxa of angiosperms and ferns. Vessels have been discovered in many genera of ferns, which are even more primitive than cycads. In many ferns, only vessel elements, but no tracheids are found in vascular tissue. In the present study, the authors discovered vessels in different genera of three families ofcycads which showed that the existence of vessels in primitive plant taxa is a widespread phenomenon. Vessel elements in vascular tissues of cycads have probably allowed cycads to adapt to various environmental stresses and enabled their persistence over their long evolutionary history. Cycads are the most primitive of the extant seed plants and the widespread existence of vessels in the group has broad implications for plant systematics, evolution and comparative morphology.

Research on pore microstructure features for dredger fill based on mercury intrusion method

The material composition and microstructure have a comprehensive influence on geological engineering properties of dredger fill.The porosity of the dredger fill is an important characteristic of microscopic structure.Taken dredger fill from Binhai New Area in Tianjin as research object,the distribution trend of pore is obtained by granularmetric analysis,mineral composition analysis and mercury intrusion method.By discussing the variation regulation of dredger fill in two different kinds of processing methods,certain theoretical basis is provided for evaluating the engineering geological properties of dredger fill.It can be concluded from the test results that after drainage treatment,the porosity decreased and the structure unit changed from the relatively loose state to aggregate state.In certain depth range,the consolidation effect of dredger fill with drainage treatment is better than that without drainage treatment.

A composite optimization method for separation parameters of large-eccentricity pico-satellites

A spacecraft＇s separation parameters directly affect its flying trace. If the parameters exceed their limits, it will be difficult to adjust the flying attitude of the spacecraft, and the spacescraft may go off-track or crash. In this paper, we present a composite optimization method, which combines angular velocities with external moments for separation parameters of large-eccentricity pico-satellites. By changing the positions of elastic launch devices, the method effectively controls the popping process under the condition of less change in the separation mechanism. Finally, the reasons for deviation of angular velocities and unreliable optimization results are presented and analyzed. This optimization method is proved through a ground test which offsets the gravity. Simulation and test results show that the optimization method can effectively optimize the separation parameters of large-eccentricity pico-satellites. The proposed method adapts particularly to the fixed and non-stable status elastic parameters, the distribution of all kinds of elastic devices, and large-eccentricity spacecrafts for which attitude corrections are difficult. It is gen- erally applicable and easy to operate in practical applications.

Driving functions and traces of the Loewner equation

We consider the chordal Loewner differential equation in the upper half-plane,the behavior of the driving functionλ(t)and the generated hull Kt when Kt approachesλ(0)in a fixed direction or in a sector.In the case that the hull Kt is generated by a simple curveγ(t)withγ(0)=0,we prove some sharp relations ofλ(t)/√t andγ(t)/√t as t→0 which improve the previous work.

A Hybrid Firefly Algorithm for Optimizing Fractional Proportional-Integral-Derivative Controller in Ship Steering

In this paper, a new algorithm which integrates the powerful firefly Mgorithm （FA） and the ant colony optimization （ACO） has been used in tracking control of ship steering for optimization of fractional-order proportional-integral-derivative （FOPID） controller gains. Particle swarm optimization （PSO） algorithm is also used to optimize FOPID controllers, and their performances are compared. It is found that FA optimized FOPID controller gives better performance than others. Sensitivity analysis has been carried out to see the robustness of optimum FOPID gains obtained at nominal conditions to wide changes in system parameters, and the optimum FOPID gains need not be reset for wide changes in system parameters.