Analysis of influencing factors on fine sediment flocculation in the Changjiang Estuary

Based on the test data in dynamic water and static water, the main factors, which influence the fine sediment flocculation, are analyzed with a gray model method of correlation theory. It is shown that the main influencing factors are water temperature, settling time, salinity, grain size, sediment concentration and current velocity according to the correlation coefficients. Among them, the salinity and the sediment grain size are critical type influencing factors (CrTIF); the settling time, the sediment concentration and the velocity are continuous type influencing factors (CoTIF); and the water temperature has the characteristics of both. When the critical values of CrTIF are reached or exceeded, the fine sediments will be flocculated, but values of CrTIF will not influence the settlement strength of floes. The influence of CoTIF is continuous. The values of the CoTIF will not only influence the occurrence of flocculation but also the settlement strength of the floes.

Correlations between the Profile of Mood States (POMS) and the WHOQOL-26 among Japanese University Students

In this study, we investigated six types of mood state (tension-anxiety, depression-dejection, anger-hostility, vigor, fatigue, and confusion) using the Profile of Mood States (POMS) with 40 Japanese university students. We examined five main quality of life (QOL) domains (physical health, psychological health, social relationships, and environmental health) using the World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale (WHOQOL-26). We also examined the total scale score. We examined Spearman’s rank correlations between POMS mood state and QOL scores and compared male and female students’ scores. The results indicated statistically significant correlations between all six mood states and three broad WHOQOL-26 domains (physical health, psychological health, and social relationships). Moreover, the relationship between mood state and QOL showed a gender difference. There were correlations between mood states and the QOL domains of social relationships and environmental health for males. In contrast, mood state correlated with the QOL domains of physical health and psychological health in females. The findings suggest that gender-specific health provision is needed to care for young university students in Japan. However, our study has several limitations;therefore, larger-scale studies with older subjects are needed in the future.

A Study on the Correlation of Milk Yield of Cows with Seismicity and ULF Magnetic Field Variations

A statistical study on the basis of one-year data of 2014 has been performed in order to find whether abnormal animal behavior is related with seismic activity and also whether the ULF (Ultra Low Frequency) electromagnetic radiation might be a possible sensory mechanism of abnormal animal behavior. Abnormal animal behavior has been studied with the use of digitally recorded milk yield of cows at Ibaraki Prefecture Livestock Station, and the ULF magnetic field changes have been studied with the data at a magnetic observatory of Kakioka. As the result of correlation analyses, clear responses are observed for both the milk yield of cows and ULF magnetic field changes (both ULF radiation (ULF emissions from the lithosphere) and ULF depression (as an indicator of lower ionospheric perturbations)) for most powerful and not distant earthquakes (EQs) with magnitude > 6, that is, the milk yield of cows is found to exhibit a conspicuous depletion about 17 - 18 days before an EQ, though the correlation coefficient is not so big. Another important objective in this paper is to identify that ULF radiation is the main agent of abnormal behavior so that we have compared the temporal evolutions of milk yield of cows, ULF radiation and ULF depression for three major EQs. As a result, it is found that ULF radiation happens, at least, during the periods of abnormal depletion of milk yield of cows.

Exploration of whole brain networks modulated by acupuncture at analgesia acupoint ST36 using scale-specific wavelet correlation analysis

Background Previous studies have demonstrated that acupuncture could modulate various brain systems in the resting brain networks. Graph theoretical analysis offers a novel way to investigate the functional organization of the large-scale cortical networks modulated by acupuncture at whole brain level. In this study, we used wavelets correlation analysis to estimate the pairwise correlations between 90 cortical and subcortical human brain regions in normal human volunteers scanned during the post-stimulus resting state. Methods Thirty-two college students, all right-handed and acupuncture na＇fve, participated in this study. Every participant received only one acupoint stimulation, resulting in 16 subjects in one group. Both structural functional magnetic resonance imaging （fMRI） data （3D sequence with a voxel size of 1 mm3 for anatomical localization） and functional fMRI data （TR=1500 ms, TE=30 ms, flip angle=90°） were collected for each subject. After thresholding the resulting scale-specific wavelet correlation matrices to generate undirected binary graphs, we compared graph metrics of brain organization following verum manual acupuncture （ACU） and sham acupuncture （SHAM） groups. Results The topological parameters of the large-scale brain networks in ACU group were different from those of the SHAM group at multiple scales. There existed distinct modularity functional brain networks during the post-stimulus resting state following ACU and SHAM at multiple scales. Conclusions The distinct modulation patterns of the resting brain attributed to the specific effects evoked by acupuncture. In addition, we also identified that there existed frequency-specific modulation in the post-stimulus resting brain following ACU and SHAM. The modulation may be related to the effects of verum acupuncture on modulating special disorder treatment. This preliminary finding may provide a new clue to understand the relatively function- oriented specificity of acupuncture effects.