Period Of Variation Research Articles

City Wind Impact on Air Pollution Control for Urban Planning with Different Time-Scale Considerations: A Case Study in Chengdu, China

Economic development and fast growing urbanization in China have caused severe air pollution, with frequent pollution episodes endangering the health of inhabitants and disturbing social activities, and as an expanding metropolis, Chengdu has suffered ever since. The concentration variations of main air pollutants, such as PM10, PM2.5 and NO2, often show periodicity because of meteorological impact and anthropic activities, and display orientation discrepancies due to influences of wind speed (WS), frequency and pollutant sources. These features have complicated the mechanisms of pollution episodes and deepened the difficulty in pollution control evaluation. The WS has significant influences on the periodicity and orientation variations in pollutant concentrations, and quantifying the influence of which is of high significance and provides sustainable foundations for pollution alleviation strategies. Different time-scale cycles (i.e., Diurnal, weekly, seasonal and annual), along with the WS, wind frequency, wind and spatial orientations in urban areas, were analyzed in this paper. Results show that the periodicity of diurnal, seasonal and annual cycles is remarkable, and weekly cycle is obvious by adding the influence of the WS in 16 orientations. The WS has direct impacts on pollutants varying in the range of 1.5–2.5 m/s, and has a remarkable diffusion effect on pollutants once above 2.5 m/s. Over heavy pollution hours in diurnal, weekly, annual cycles and transitional seasons, the WS had more significant influences on pollutants, and whereas the wind frequency is not the main impact factor for orientation variations. For Chengdu, the northeast orientation is suitable to construct a wind panel with a remarkable diffusion effect on pollutants, while air pollutions in the northwest and southwest orientations were severe with the WS below 1.5 m/s, and pollution diffusion in the north-northwest orientation was the worst. This work can provide guidance and reference for urban planning optimization and air environment protection in cities with air quality control considerations impacted by city wind.

A progestin regulates the prostaglandin pathway in the neuroendocrine system in female mudskipper Boleophthalmus pectinirostris

Sex hormones regulate the reproductive cycle through brain-pituitary axis, but the molecular mechanism is still enigmatic. In the reproductive season, the mudskipper Boleophthalmus pectinirostris possesses a semilunar periodicity spawning rhythm, which coincides with the semilunar periodicity variations in 17α-hydroxyprogesterone, the precursor of 17α,20β-dihydroxy-4-pregnen-3-one (DHP), a sexual progestin in teleosts. In the present study, we investigated in vitro the brain transcriptional differences between DHP-treated tissues and control groups using RNA-seq. Differential expression analysis revealed that 2700 genes significantly differentially expressed, including 1532 up-regulated and 1168 down-regulated genes. The majority of prostaglandin pathway-related genes were dramatically up-regulated, especially the prostaglandin receptor 6 (ptger6). Tissue distribution analysis revealed that ptger6 gene was ubiquitously expressed. In situ hybridization results showed that ptger6, nuclear progestin receptor (pgr), and DHP-induced c-fos mRNA were co-expressed in the ventral telencephalic area, the ventral nucleus of ventral telencephalic area, the anterior part of parvocellular preoptic nucleus, the magnocellular part of magnocellular preoptic nucleus, the ventral zone of periventricular hypothalamus, the anterior tubercular nucleus, the periventricular nucleus of posterior tuberculum, and the torus longitudinalis. DHP significantly enhanced promoter activities of ptger6 via Pgr. Together, this study suggested that DHP regulates the prostaglandin pathway in the neuroendocrine system of teleost fish.

Wavelength modulation in a two-window common path interferometer for phase-shifting

A novel and simple method for phase-shifting under the scheme of a two-window 4f common path interferometer configuration with a binary grating at the Fourier plane is proposed. The proposal is based on periodicity variations of the grating grooves in the frequency space, which is emulated in an experimental implementation by changing the wavelength of a tunable laser diode used as the light source. Because of the common path configuration, it is expected to diminish errors due to undesired vibrations and optical aberrations. The viability of the proposal will be sustained with simulated and experimental, which include phase-shifted interferograms and reconstructed wavefronts. Due to the characteristics of the proposed experimental setup, it can be easily replicated and automated.

Efficient and Accurate Traffic Flow Prediction via Incremental Tensor Completion

Timely and accurate prediction of traffic flow plays an important role in improving living quality of the public, which greatly influences the policies and regulations to be enforced and abided by. In this paper, we propose to model urban highway traffic data with an incremental tensor structure to exploit all available feature aspects. It is conceived on the solid basis of dynamic tensor model for traffic prediction, and a fast low-rank tensor completion algorithm, equipped with gravitational search algorithm, is harnessed to optimize the parameters. The proposed method excavates the inner law of traffic flow data by taking account of multi-mode features, such as daily and weekly periodicity, spatial information, and temporal variations, and so on. Empirically, multi-view experiments demonstrate the superiority of Trapit , and indicate that the proposed method is potentially applicable in large and dynamic highway networks.

Ground-based observation of the cyclic nature and temporal variability of planetary-scale UV features at the Venus cloud top level

A planetary-scale bright and dark UV feature, known as the “Y-feature,” rotates around Venus with a period of 4–5 days and has been long-time interpreted as planetary waves. When assuming this, its rotation period and spatial structure might help to understand the propagation of the planetary-scale waves and find out their role in the acceleration-deceleration of the zonal wind speed, which is essential for understanding the super-rotation of the planet. The rotation period of the UV feature varied over the course of observation by the Pioneer Venus orbiter. However, in previous explorations of Venus such as Pioneer Venus and Venus Express, the spacecraft were operated in nearly fixed inertial space. As a result, the periodicity variations on sub-yearly timescales (one Venusian year is ∼224 Earth days) were obscured by the limitations of continuous dayside observations. We newly conducted six periods of ground-based Venus imaging observations at 365nm from mid-August 2013 to the end of June 2014. Each observation period spanned over half or one month, enabling long-term monitoring of Venus’ atmosphere above the equator region. Distributions of the relative brightness were obtained from the equatorial (EQ) to mid-latitudinal regions in both hemispheres, and from the cyclical variations of these distributions we deduced the rotation periods of the UV features of the cloud tops brightness. The relative brightness exhibited periods of 5.2 and 3.5 days above 90% of significance. The relative intensities of these two significant components also seemed subject to temporal variations. Although the 3.5-day component considered persists throughout the observation periods, its dominance over the longer period varied in a cyclic fashion. The prevailing first significant mode seems to change from 5.2-day waves to 3.5-day waves in about nine months, which is clearly inconsistent with the Venusian year. Clear periodic perturbations, indicating stability of the planetary-scale UV-feature, were observed only in the presence of single longer or shorter periodic waves. During the transition periods of dominant-wave changing, the amplitude of the relative brightness was largely changed. This can be explained by the deformation of the Y-shaped UV feature as observed by Pioneer Venus in 1979.

Influence of disorders on the optical properties of butterfly wing: Analysis with a finite-difference time-domain method

Many butterfly wing scales (BWSs) possess novel periodic fine structures and can influence and manipulate the propagation of light in a certain wavelength range though an interaction similar to that occurring in photonic crystals. Such optical properties and their physical origin can be theoretically analysed by solving Maxwell’s equations. Many previous works have successfully applied a model of strict periodic pine-tree structure to the analysis of the scattering property of BWSs. However, fluctuation of the periodicity is common in the structure of BWSs. Thus clarification of the influence of size or periodicity variations on the optical properties of BWSs is then needed. In the present article, size variations have been considered and their influence on the scattering properties of BWSs is simulated in detail using a Finite-Difference-Time-Domain method (FDTD). The calculated reflectance spectrum will be more representative to the experimental result in the case where disorders, caused by size or periodicity variations, are considered. A detailed analysis shows that the main reflectance peak will be broadened and red-shifted especially when the angle of incidence is confined to a narrow range within 0° ± 10° (−10° ≤ θ ≤ 10°). The results will be stable if the maximal deviation – the pine-tree unit away from its original equilibrium position – is smaller than 50 nm. Finally, we test the visible spectrum of the butterfly Morpho Didius and compare the results to those of our simulation. It is shown that the present results are in good agreement with experimentally observed trends, and this work will be helpful for a better understanding of the colorisation mechanism of materials with the structure of BWSs.

LONG-TERM PERIODICITY VARIATIONS OF THE SOLAR RADIUS

In order to study the long-term periodicity variations of the solar radius, daily solar radius data from 1978 February to 2000 September at the Calern Observatory are used. Continuous observations of the solar radius are difficult due to the weather, seasonal effects, and instrument characteristics. Thus, to analyze these data, we first use the Dixon criterion to reject suspect values, then we measure the cross-correlation between the solar radius and sunspot numbers. The result indicates that the solar radius is in complete antiphase with the sunspot numbers and shows lead times of 74 months relative to the sunspot numbers. The Lomb-Scargle and date compensated discrete Fourier transform methods are also used to investigate the periodicity of the solar radius. Both methods yield similar significance periodicities around similar to 1 yr, similar to 2.6 yr, similar to 3.6 yr, and similar to 11 yr. Possible mechanisms for these periods are discussed. The possible physical cause of the similar to 11 yr period is the cyclic variation of the magnetic pressure of the concentrated flux tubes at the bottom of the solar convection zone.

Periodicity Perturbed Grounded Frequency Selective Surface Arrays as Millimeter Wave Random Phase Coherence Destroying Diffusers

This paper presents the design, construction and testing of perturbed periodicity slot type grounded Frequency Selective Surface (FSS) array as millimeter wave (mm-wave) random phase diffusers to eliminate speckle in active mm-wave imaging. To create a random phase diffuser for destroying the coherence of mm-wave sources we proposed FSS based diffusers arrays where the periodicities between the elements are different thought the slot of the cells are similar. The impacts of periodicity variations of both TM and TE field directions have been investigated. The periodicity of an FSS is the main design parameter used to optimize the phase shifting properties of the arrays. The critical parameters of the diffuser arrays design, such as phase relation with periodicity and optimum designed consideration are discussed. We designed the FSS arrays with Finite Integral Technique, fabricated by using etching technique and characterized the S-parameters with a free space Millimeter Wave Vector Network Analyzer (MVNA).

Evaluations of subsurface flow for reconstructions of climate change using borehole temperature and isotope data in Kamchatka

Subsurface temperature is affected by heat advection due to groundwater flow and surface temperature changes. To evaluate their effects, it was implemented the measurements of temperature–depth profile (T–D profile) and the continuous monitoring of soil temperature in the southern part of Kamchatka which has not affected by human activity. Additionally, stable isotopic compositions of surface water and groundwater were analyzed. T–D profile and stable isotopic compositions show groundwater flow system is differ from the shallow aquifer to the deep aquifer. In the shallow aquifer, T–D profile suggests the existence of upward groundwater flux. On the other hand, the annual variation of soil temperature is divided into the large variation period (VP) and the stable period (SP) by the magnitude of daily and seasonal variation. VP and SP correspond to the summer and the winter season, respectively, and it considers that the difference between VP and SP is caused by the effect of snow cover. Therefore, the T–D profile is affected by not only upward groundwater flux but also the surface warming particularly in the summer season (VP).

Zonal wave numbers 1-5 in planetary waves from the TOMS total ozone at 65° S

Abstract. Planetary waves in the total ozone at the southern latitude of 65° S are studied to obtain the main characteristics of the zonal wave numbers 1–5. The TOMS total ozone data were used to analyze the amplitude and periodicity variations of the five spectral components during August-December of 1979–2003. A presence of the shorter period of waves 1–3 in 1996 (7 days) in comparison with 2002 (8–12 days) is revealed which can be attributed to the distinction in conditions of typical and anomalously weak stratospheric polar vortex, probably, a strong and weak mean zonal wind. The interannual variations of the monthly and 5-month mean amplitudes of the zonal wave numbers 1–5 are described. Wave 1 has the largest amplitude in October (up to 139 DU in 2000) and increasing amplitude trend (15 DU/decade for October 1979–2003). The 5-month mean amplitudes averaged over 1979–2003 are 53.6, 29.9, 15.5, 10.5, and 7.8 DU for the wave number sequence 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, respectively. For the stationary components the amplitudes are 38.3, 4.8, 1.8, 1.2, 0.7 DU, respectively. Thus, the stationary component of wave 1 and the traveling one of waves 2–5 are predominant. The tendencies in a long-term change in the wave number amplitude can be explained by taking into account the degree of wave deformation of the stratospheric polar vortex edge, net meridional displacements of the lower stratosphere air, and the difference between the total ozone loss and negative trends in the polar and mid-latitude regions. Keywords. General circulation – Middle atmosphere dynamics – Waves and tides

Temporal and Spatial Distribution of Savanna Fires in Senegal and the Gambia, West Africa, 1989-90, Derived From Multi-Temporal AVHRR Night Images

Quantitative data on fire regimes from the world's savannas have previously been difficult to obtain due to logistical and scientific reasons. This study addresses the issue for Senegal and The Gambia, West Africa. A bispectral satellite image based method for fire detection has recently been improved and made semi-automatic to provide information on fire regimes of savannas. The method uses thermal night time data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) onboard the National Oceanic and Atrnospheric Administration (NOAA) series of weather satellites. Twenty-six near cloud-free AVHRR images have been classified using this method. Though they constitute a small temporal sample, some features of the seasonal periodicity and spatial variations of the region are suggested. Variations in firectivity at the four daily NOAA satellite passing times were recorded from a small field survey in The Gambia, and compared to data from the satellite images. Established relationships between reiative fire activity and data from the various NOAA passes have been used to estimate the maximum daily fire activity at the afternoon passing time. The seasonal variations for the whole study area and regions within are suggested by the estimated maximum values at the twenty-two dates. The locations of fire events in relation to locations of human activities and fuel loadings are examined and a brief summary of the main factors that regulate burning and fire regimes is given.

Distribution and periodicity of total, faecal coliform bacteria in an aquatic ecosystem

A bacteriological study of the lake water in J. N. University, New Delhi, was carried out during 1979–80 for the period of one year, and the quality of water was assessed to establish the pattern of periodicity and seasonal variations of total and faecal coliform bacteria. Extreme variations were found in the bacterial counts in different samples collected from the lake water, at the same time. There existed a positive correlation between total coliform and faecal coliforms. Observations indicated that the bacteriological quality of water was much below the recommended standards for recreational and drinking waters.