An algorithm for oceanic front detection in chlorophyll and SST satellite imagery

An algorithm is described for oceanic front detection in chlorophyll (Chl) and sea surface temperature (SST) satellite imagery. The algorithm is based on a gradient approach: the main novelty is a shape-preserving, scale-sensitive, contextual median filter applied selectively and iteratively until convergence. This filter has been developed specifically for Chl since these fields have spatial patterns such as chlorophyll enhancement at thermohaline fronts and small- and meso-scale chlorophyll blooms that are not present in SST fields. Linear Chl enhancements and localized (point-wise) blooms are modeled as ridges and peaks respectively, whereas conventional fronts in Chl and SST fields are modeled as steps or ramps. Examples are presented of the algorithm performance using modeled (synthetic) images as well as synoptic Chl and SST imagery. After testing, the algorithm was used on > 6000 synoptic images, 1999–2007, to produce climatologies of Chl and SST fronts off the U.S. Northeast.     

Carbonate chemistry dynamics and carbon dioxide fluxes across the atmosphere–ice–water interfaces in the Arctic Ocean: Pacific sector of the Arctic

Climatic changes in the Northern Hemisphere have led to remarkable environmental changes in the Arctic Ocean, which is surrounded by permafrost. These changes include significant shrinking of sea-ice cover in summer, increased time between sea-ice break-up and freeze-up, and Arctic surface water freshening and warming associated with melting sea-ice, thawing permafrost, and increased runoff. These changes are commonly attributed to the greenhouse effect resulting from increased atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentration and other non-CO₂ radiatively active gases (methane, nitrous oxide). The greenhouse effect should be most pronounced in the Arctic where the largest air CO₂ concentrations and winter–summer variations in the world for a clean background environment were detected. However, the air–land–shelf interaction in the Arctic has a substantial impact on the composition of the overlying atmosphere; as the permafrost thaws, a significant amount of old terrestrial carbon becomes available for biogeochemical cycling and oxidation to CO₂. The Arctic Ocean's role in determining regional CO₂ balance has been ignored, because of its small size (only  4% of the world ocean area) and because its continuous sea-ice cover is considered to impede gaseous exchange with the atmosphere so efficiently that no global climate models include CO₂ exchange over sea-ice. In this paper we show that: (1) the Arctic shelf seas (the Laptev and East-Siberian seas) may become a strong source of atmospheric CO₂ because of oxidation of bio-available eroded terrestrial carbon and river transport; (2) the Chukchi Sea shelf exhibits the strong uptake of atmospheric CO₂; (3) the sea-ice melt ponds and open brine channels form an important spring/summer air CO₂ sink that also must be included in any Arctic regional CO₂ budget. Both the direction and amount of CO₂ transfer between air and sea during open water season may be different from transfer during freezing and thawing, or during winter when CO₂ accumulates beneath Arctic sea-ice; (4) direct measurements beneath the sea ice gave two initial results. First, a drastic pCO₂ decrease from 410 μatm to 288 μatm, which was recorded in February–March beneath the fast ice near Barrow using the SAMI-CO₂ sensor, may reflect increased photosynthetic activity beneath sea-ice just after polar sunrise. Second, new measurements made in summer 2005 beneath the sea ice in the Central Basin show relatively high values of pCO₂ ranging between 425 μatm and 475 μatm, values, which are larger than the mean atmospheric value in the Arctic in summertime. The sources of those high values are supposed to be: high rates of bacterial respiration, import of the Upper Halocline Water (UHW) from the Chukchi Sea (CS) where values of pCO₂ range between 400 and 600 μatm, a contribution from the Lena river plume, or any combination of these sources.     

梁系统计能量分析中传输波的影响

机械系统中激励源传出的波将沿传输路径衰减,并会经由含源子系统边界传递出去,因而只有输入功率的残余部分以混响场的形式消耗在该子系统内。为提高应用统计能量分析法（SEA）计算振动噪声的精度,对上述过程进行深入分析,并以一个简单梁系为例,给出传入该梁系的输入功率的表达式。分析结果表明,传输波对计算结果的影响随着损耗因子的增加而增加。同时,分析将传输波的影响计入诸如舰船这种复杂空间结构的实际可行性。估算结果表明,仅对含源子结构考虑传输波的影响是充分可行的。     

Load Transfer Analysis of a Bus Bay Section Under Standard Rollover Test Using <Emphasis Type="Italic">U</Emphasis>*<Subscript>M</Subscript> Index

Bus rollover accidents are receiving increasing attention due to the associated high fatality rate. In order to improve the bus structural performance during the rollover collision, it is necessary to investigate how the impact force is transferred within the bus superstructure. This paper introduced a method for studying the load transfer behavior of the bus superstructure during the standard rollover test by using the U * _M index. A bus bay section was used as the sample structure to demonstrate the proposed method. The result of the paper reveals that the load transfer analysis based on the U * _M index can provide engineers with the insight of the structural issues and the direction to improve the structural performance, which cannot be accomplished through the conventional finite element analysis.     

Hydrodynamics of a body floating in a two-layer fluid of finite depth. Part 1. Radiation problem

A linearized 2-D radiation problem was considered for a general floating body in a two-layer fluid of finite depth. A boundary integral-equation method was developed for directly computing the velocity potential on the wetted surface of a body which is immersed in both the upper and lower layers as a general case. To do this, appropriate time-harmonic Greens functions were derived, and an efficient numerical method of evaluating those functions is proposed. Based on Greens theorem, hydrodynamic relations such as the energy-conservation principle were derived theoretically for a case of finite depth, and we confirm that those relations are satisfied numerically with very good accuracy. Experiments were also carried out using water and isoparaffin oil as the two fluids and a Lewis-form body. Measured results for the added mass, the damping coefficient, and the amplitude of the generated waves are compared with the computed results, and a favorable agreement is found.     

Hydrodynamics of a body floating in a two-layer fluid of finite depth. Part 2. Diffraction problem and wave-induced motions

A linearized two-dimensional diffraction problem in a two-layer fluid of finite depth was solved for a general floating body and relevant wave-induced motions were studied. In a two-layer fluid, for a prescribed frequency, incident waves propagate with two different wave modes. Thus the wave-exciting forces and resulting motions must be computed separately for each mode of the incident wave. The boundary integral equation method developed by the authors in the Part-1 article was applied to directly obtain the diffraction potential (pressure) on the body surface. With the computed results, an investigation was carried out on the effects of the fluid density ratio and the interface position on the wave-exciting forces on the body and the motions of the body, including the case in which the body intersects the interface. By a systematic derivation using Green's theorem, all the possible reciprocity relations were derived theoretically in explicit forms for a system of finite depth; these relations were confirmed to be satisfied numerically with very good accuracy. Experiments were also carried out using water and isoparaffin oil as the two fluids and a Lewis-form body. Measured results for the sway- and heave-exciting forces and the heave motion were compared with the computed results, and a favorable agreement was found.     

Understanding tourists’ expenditure patterns: a stochastic frontier approach within the framework of multiple discrete–continuous choices

Transportation - This article analyzes the determinants of tourists’ expenditure behavior through the joint adoption of two microeconometric approaches, namely, the Stochastic Frontier (SF)...     

Properties of Air Spring as a Force Generator in Active Vibration Control Systems

In the active vibration control systems of electropneumatic type the air spring is often used not only as the elastic element of the system, but also as the compensation force generator, which caters for improved vibro-isolating effects. To provide this function of the air spring, it is necessary to know its characteristics in sufficient detail. In this paper the procedure of experimental estimation of these characteristics is described and the result is compared with the results of estimation based on theoretical considerations. The paper is completed by the graph of both types of characteristics.     

Uncertainty of estimated rainflow damage for random loads

One way to assess the uncertainty in fatigue damage analysis is to use a so-called safety index. In the computation of such an index the coefficient of variation for the accumulated damage is needed. Employing the rainflow cycle count method for fatigue damage leads to, in most cases, complicated calculations. Here we present a new and simplified method to estimate the coefficient of variation for the accumulated damage when only one sample path of the load is available. Non-stationary, slowly changing, Gaussian loads are given special attention. The approach is illustrated by means of stationary Gaussian loads with nine different spectra, a measured non-Gaussian load, a skewed load and the wave load accumulated during one year in a “seasonally changing environment”.     

Transport integration of Slovenia with the European Union

Today, the extended transport infrastructure along with the communications and information technologies are to a large extent the generator of integration processes all over Europe. Novelties in this area have brought about important changes in the production conditions, distribution and consumption, which exert influence on the changing of economic structure, including similar changes in social, cultural and political relations. In the future, the social and economic development of Slovenia will depend on proportionate development of regions and on the embodiment of Slovenia in a wider European space. The transport infrastructure of Slovenia, along with its transport system, should be integrated in the European transport system in such a way that the developmental interest of Slovenia is fully highlighted and included to an optimum extent in the course of Slovenia's integration to the EU.