Natural Enclosure Research Articles

Hibrit Güneş-Hidroelektrik (GHE) Sistemine Rezervuar Etkisi

The solar-hydroelectric (SHE) energy system is a renewable hybrid energy system consisting of solar and hydroelectric energy. An optimization algorithm has been designed to work out the installed power size of the SHE hybrid system, which is planned to be integrated into the existing hydroelectric power systems. This designed algorithm provides the optimum installed power with the benefit/cost approach. The value of the hydro cost and also the energy generation is taken from the actual values since it's an existing facility, and also the electricity production and price of the solar power are obtained from the algorithm that works iteratively. This study aims to indicate that more electricity will be produced by regulating water flows due to the reservoir of hydroelectric power plants. Hydro energy enables energy management to be administrated more effectively with the reservoir, which could be a natural enclosure, without using the other energy storage equipment/method. As a result of the study, it's been shown that with the regulation of the hydro facility flows with a reservoir, 180% more solar power capacity installation with 20.9 MW installed power and 12% more electricity production with 75.3 GWh electricity production is provided compared to the unregulated situation.

Effects of different vegetation restoration on soil nutrients, enzyme activities, and microbial communities in degraded karst landscapes in southwest China

The karst area in southwestern China is one of the largest and continuous karst landforms in the world, and its ecosystem is highly sensitive and fragile. Appropriate vegetation restoration modes are of great significance for sustaining and improving the stability of the karst ecosystem, the dominant landform type in southwest China. Bacteria, linking soil and plants, play an important role in regulating the succession and restoration of karst vegetation. However, it remains unclear how soil bacterial communities and soil biochemical properties respond to vegetation restoration practices in karst areas. In this study, a 13-year long-term trial was performed using three planting restoration modes of deciduous broad-leaved, mixed evergreen and deciduous broad-leaved forest, and evergreen broad-leaved forests, with controls of natural enclosure. We aimed to investigate the impact of different vegetation restoration modes on the structure of soil microbial communities and their driving mechanisms using 16S rDNA Illumina sequencing, combined with the determination of 11 soil indicators and statistical models. The results showed that artificial restoration can improve soil nutrient contents, enzyme activities and microbial biomass more effectively than natural closure, which is beneficial to the rapid restoration of vegetation after abandoning of farmland. Among them, the effect of deciduous broad-leaved treatment on artificial restoration mode was better than that of mixed evergreen and deciduous broad-leaved forest and evergreen broad-leaved forest. In sequencing results, artificial restoration increased the relative abundance of Proteobacteria, but decreased that of Acidobacteria. In addition, pH, soil microbial biomass carbon, and urease activity significantly increased bacterial diversity. Different vegetation restoration measures significantly changed the soil bacterial community structure. The bacterial community of deciduous broad-leaved forest was the most beneficial to the benign development of soil. Mantel test showed that pH and soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen were the key driving factors of the soil bacterial community. FAPROTAX analysis showed a significant positive correlation between sucrase activity and phototrophy functional bacteria. The results demonstrated that compared with natural enclosure, artificial vegetation restoration promoted rapid community succession, and construction of deciduous broad-leaved forest was the most effective way to manage karst areas, improve soil nutrients, alter its key microbial populations, promote ecosystem services, and eventually benefit the restoration of vegetation in karst areas.

Meeting for Transformation: A Locality for Ritual Activities During the Early Neolithic Funnel Beaker Culture in Central Sweden

The former island of Södertörn, just south of Stock- holm, was intensively settled during the Early Neo- lithic. For more than twenty years a field at Stensborg, Grödinge parish, was surveyed for surface finds. Most numerous among the various artefact categories were axes, with stone axes of different shapes showing that they had been intentionally fragmented. Fragments of pointed-butted and thin-butted flint axes were also found, all of them changed by intensive heat. Just as the flint axes indicate contact with southern Scandi- navia, slate objects demonstrate the existence of net- works extending to northern Sweden.
 During the Early Neolithic the site was a slope situ- ated in the innermost part of a bay, delimited by the shoreline on one side and a ridge on the opposite side. Two small but pronounced ravines of streams also form part of the natural boundary of the site.
 During excavation of the field several small pits were found that were filled with fragments of axes, pottery and other objects, along with a considerable amount of carbonized seed. Most of the finds have in- dications of destruction, either directly or by the use of fire. The field seems to have been used as a place for assemblies, where rituals were an important part of the activities. The Stensborg site seems to represent yet another kind of natural enclosure involving ritual activities during the Early Neolithic. This presenta- tion is part of a project in progress.

Responses of a scatter-hoarding squirrel to conspecific pilfering: a test of the reciprocal pilferage hypothesis

The reciprocal pilferage hypothesis argues that, despite the occurrence of pilferage, scatter-hoarding behaviour could evolve if cache loss is compensated by gains pilfered from others. However, this model has not been strictly tested because of the difficulty associated with tracking caches, including ownership, over long periods. Using infrared radiation cameras, we tracked caching of Juglans regia seeds by groups of two Pere David's rock squirrels, Sciurotamias davidianus, within a large natural enclosure. Our goal was to quantify how squirrels responded to the presence of a conspecific when seed hoarding and pilfering and test the reciprocal pilferage hypothesis. We found that the numbers of seeds harvested from the seed sources and pilfered from conspecifics was initially low, increasing as seeds were removed and then dropping off once few seeds remained at the seed sources. Additionally, the number of seeds scatter hoarded increased with a decreasing number of seeds remaining at the sources. Seeds harvested from the source and pilfered from competitors were at first cached randomly within the enclosure and then centralized to the low-competition area near the nest as seed sources declined. Overall, pilferage was not high. The proportions of seeds pilfered did not vary between conspecifics and were positively correlated with each other over trials. More seeds were harvested from the seed sources than pilfered by competitors at the early stage of hoarding. These results suggest that, under conspecific competition, squirrels appeared first to compete for food at the sources, then for caches with each other as food sources decreased, and finally cache ownership became relatively stable. Squirrels compensated for cache loss by both harvesting food from the sources and pilfering caches from its competitor. The amount of seeds gained from pilfering was sufficient to replace pilfered caches, supporting the reciprocal pilferage hypothesis.

Directing and Acting Designs in Yusril’s Theater Work “Bangku Kayu dan Kamu yang Tumbuh Di Situ”

This research was funded by DRPM Dikti, Ministry of Education and Culture for the Republic of Indonesia. Abstract The theater work entitled “ Bangku Kayu dan Kamu yang Tumbuh Di Situ ” by Yusril takes as its starting point the problem of education in Indonesia which is yet to find the right concept and always changes from one year to another. This phenomenon of education is presented through the symbols of the actors’ body movements and the properties of wooden benches that are constantly changing function. The directing design of this performance is to combine the traditional Minangkabau art of randai with the modern art of hip-hop to create a contemporary performance. The result of the collaboration is packaged in the concept of paco-paco , which is a concept that unites artistic fragments to become a structured form. The acting design of Yusril’s “ Bangku Kayu dan Kamu yang Tumbuh Di Situ ” focuses on the territorial aspect of the wooden bench ( bangku kayu ) and the actor’s body as a personal space that creates a natural enclosure. The actors help to create the work through their elastic bodies that move as their conscience desires. Keywords : design, directing, acting, theater Publication date: September 30 th 2020 DOI: 10.7176/ADS/85-04

TRANSMISSION OF PTERYGODERMATITES NYCTICEBI IN A COLONY OF GOELDI'S MONKEYS ( CALLIMICO GOELDII) AND EVALUATION OF TREATMENT AND CONTROL.

Over a 2-yr period, four Goeldi's monkeys ( Callimico goeldii) died in a private zoo due to infections with the spirurid nematode Pterygodermatites nycticebi. Therapeutic measures with different anthelmintics were not successful. Due to the severe consequences caused by these infections, different actions were initiated, including sanitation measures and controlling of potential intermediate hosts (coprophagous arthropods). To identify possible intermediate hosts, arthropod species detected in the enclosure-parasite-free German cockroaches ( Blattella germanica), European earwigs ( Forficula auricularia), and rough woodlice ( Porcellio scaber)-were experimentally fed with feces of monkeys with patent P. nycticebi infections, resulting in established infections with third-stage larvae (L3) in roaches and earwigs. Furthermore, spiruroid L3 were detectable in 43% of the roaches and 30% of earwigs caught at the zoo. Polymerase chain reaction and sequence analysis of eggs, larval, and adult stages resulted in identical results, confirming the establishment of the parasite's life cycle in the zoo. This is the first documentation of the vector capacity of the European earwigs for P. nycticebi. As a measure of sanitation, a large part of the enclosure was emptied and cleaned. The Goeldi's monkeys were quarantined and treated with levamisole (7.5 mg/kg sc twice in intervals of 2 wk). Repeated coprologic examinations by zinc chloride flotation were undertaken. After the levamisole therapy, eggs were not found in the feces for 3 mo. However, shortly after resettling the monkeys into the sanitized enclosure, reshedding of small amounts of spirurid eggs was observed, whereupon deworming with levamisole was prescribed several times per year. The sanitation measures and the elimination of the intermediate hosts in a natural enclosure are presented as an example of the long-term controlling of the parasites.

Sex- and cohort-specific life-history strategies in Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus)

Information on life-history traits is crucial for understanding rodent evolution, ecology, and behavioral strategies. Here, we report on the results from a 4-year study that collected data on the sexual and seasonal cohort (winter C1, spring C2, and summer C3) life-history traits of Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus) maintained in a natural enclosure, using monthly live trapping, in Inner Mongolia (China). We found no sexual differences in the observed longevity, age of maturity, potential reproductive life span, or dispersal in the year of their birth, apart from a male-biased dispersal after gerbils overwintered as adults. Nevertheless, we did find cohort-specific life-history patterns in the above traits; for example, the C1 females matured at a significantly earlier age than did the C2 and C3 females, while the C3 gerbils commonly delayed their reproduction to the following year. Moreover, 21.7% of C1 and 6.1% of C2 females bred more than one litter, yet none of the C3 females did so during their birth-year breeding season. The average number of litters per female of C1 was greater than that of either C2 or C3 in their birth-year breeding season. Our results suggest that sex-specific life history traits may align with the predictions of sexual selection and the monogamy system hypothesis in Mongolian gerbils. In addition, the seasonal cohort-specific life-history traits revealed here lend support to the hypothesis of an adaptive switching behavior—from fast to slow development in the later-born gerbils—as opposed to the hypothesis of direct environmental limitation, although the slight inter-annual variation detected is consistent with the precipitation constraints.

Puffed and bothered: Personality, performance, and the effects of stress on checkered pufferfish

Although consistent individual-level differences in behaviour are widespread and potentially important in evolutionary and ecological processes, relatively few studies focus on the physiological mechanisms that might underlie and regulate these individual-level differences in wild populations. We conducted experiments to determine whether checkered pufferfish (Sphoeroides testudineus), which were collected from a dynamic (in terms of depth and water temperature) tidal mangrove creek environment in The Bahamas, have consistent individual-level differences in locomotor activity and the response to a simulated predator threat, as well as swimming performance and puffing in response to stressors. The relationships between personality and performance traits were evaluated to determine whether they represented stress-coping styles or syndromes. Subsequently, a displacement study was conducted to determine how personality and performance in the laboratory compared to movements in the field. In addition, we tested whether a physiological dose of the stress hormone cortisol would alter individual consistency in behavioural and performance traits. We found that pufferfish exhibited consistent individual differences in personality traits over time (e.g., activity and the duration of a response to a threat) and that performance was consistent between the lab and the natural enclosure. Locomotor activity and the duration of startled behaviour were not associated with swimming and puffing performance. Locomotor activity, puffing performance, and swimming performance were not related to whether fish returned to the tidal creek of capture after displacement. Similarly, a cortisol treatment did not modify behaviour or performance in the laboratory. The results reveal that consistent individual-level differences in behaviour and performance were present in a population from a fluctuating and physiologically challenging environment but that such traits are not necessarily correlated. We also determined that certain individual performance traits were repeatable between the lab and a natural enclosure. However, we found no evidence of a relationship between exogenous cortisol levels and behavioural traits or performance in these fish, which suggests that other internal and external mechanisms may underlie the behaviours and performance tested.

Long‐Term Effects of Natural Enclosure: Carbon Stocks, Sequestration Rates and Potential for Grassland Ecosystems in the Loess Plateau

The aim of this study was to better understand the effects of grassland restoration on carbon sequestration at the total carbon stock (plant and soil) scale. The objective of the study was to investigate the temporal carbon sink and sequestration dynamics of grassland ecosystems with five different succession communities, namely, Stipa grandis, Stipa bungeana, Artemisia sacrorum, Thymus mongolicus, and cropland succession in the hilly‐gully region of the Loess Plateau, China. Twenty‐four research papers were analyzed to form the basis of the subsequent field survey conducted at the Yunwu Observatory for Vegetation Protection and Eco‐environment in Ningxia. Following the conversion of cropland to grassland, carbon sequestration values all increased at deeper soil depths of 40–100 cm; carbon stocks within the 0–40 cm profile were largely unchanged. Five time intervals, 0 (cropland) 23, 35, 58, and 78 years yielded carbon stocks of 7.69, 14.58, 16.25, 19.22, and 19.95 kg/m2 at the total carbon stock scale. The main finding indicates that the conversion of cropland to grassland results in significant changes to ecosystem carbon pool properties. This finding has broad implications for the anthropogenic management of terrestrial carbon sequestration at the regional scale.

Suspended core subwavelength fibers: towards practical designs for low-loss terahertz guidance

In this work we report two designs of subwavelength fibers packaged for practical terahertz wave guiding. We describe fabrication, modeling and characterization of microstructured polymer fibers featuring a subwavelength-size core suspended in the middle of a large porous outer cladding. This design allows convenient handling of the subwavelength fibers without distorting their modal profile. Additionally, the air-tight porous cladding serves as a natural enclosure for the fiber core, thus avoiding the need for a bulky external enclosure for humidity-purged atmosphere. Fibers of 5 mm and 3 mm in outer diameters with a 150 µm suspended solid core and a 900 µm suspended porous core respectively, were obtained by utilizing a combination of drilling and stacking techniques. Characterization of the fiber optical properties and the subwavelength imaging of the guided modes were performed using a terahertz near-field microscopy setup. Near-field imaging of the modal profiles at the fiber output confirmed the effectively single-mode behavior of such waveguides. The suspended core fibers exhibit transmission from 0.10 THz to 0.27 THz (larger core), and from 0.25 THz to 0.51 THz (smaller core). Due to the large fraction of power that is guided in the holey cladding, fiber propagation losses as low as 0.02 cm(-1) are demonstrated specifically for the small core fiber. Low-loss guidance combined with the core isolated from environmental perturbations make these all-dielectric fibers suitable for practical terahertz imaging and sensing applications.

Activity Patterns and Movements of Subarctic Voles

Activity and movements of female red-backed voles, Clethrionomys gapperi, were monitored by means of a radio telemetry system over a 14-month period in a 900 m2 natural enclosure. Animals exhibited a short-term (2-5 h) activity rhythm which remained relatively constant throughout the year and a circadian rhythm which shifted from diurnal in winter to nocturnal and crepuscular in summer. Among anestrous voles, movements and extra-nest activity were minimized during early winter when the subnivean space had not yet developed, and were maximized in late winter-early spring during snow-melt. In summer, activity and movements generally increased with the progression of reproductive phases from anestrous to lactating.

Radiation Doses Sustained by Lizards in a Continuously Irradiated Natural Enclosure

Desert lizards occupying a 20—acre experimental facility continuously exposed to gamma radiation sustain tissue doses which are less than the cumulative free—air dose. Vegetation and terrain afford some shielding, but time spent below ground is the major source of protection. We estimate that, in the course of a year, tissue doses sustained by Uta stansburiana are from 0.3 to 0.6 of the cumulative free—air dose, and that about 1/3 of the total dose is experienced between June and August. Cnemidophorus tigris spends less time above ground, and sustains annual doses representing only about 0.1 to 0.2 of total incident gamma radiation. The dose experience of Crotaphytus wislizeni is intermediate to the other two species. Dose regimes experienced by Uta stansburiana in the experimental area are not acutely lethal.