Benthic community patterns reflect water column processes in the Northeast Water polynya (Greenland)

Benthic community patterns were investigated in the Northeast Water polynya (Greenland) during the summers of 1992 and 1993 to elucidate to what extent the bottom fauna is influenced by the dynamics of the overlying water. Five different fractions of the benthos (foraminiferans, nematodes, polychaetes, peracarid crustaceans, and epibenthic megafauna), ranging in average adult body size over 6 orders of magnitude (from about 100 μm to about 10 cm), were sampled quantitatively at 69 stations in water depths from 40 to 515 m. Total abundances of nematodes, polychaetes and peracarid crustaceans were found to be primarily correlated with parameters characterizing the potential benthic food supply (water column pigment and nitrate concentrations, sediment bound pigments and sediment biological activity), whereas abundances of foraminiferans and megabenthos were largely associated with seabed properties. Four benthic zones were distinguished by separately analyzing the faunistic composition and distribution of the five community fractions for Ob Bank, Western Westwind Trough, Eastern Westwind Trough, and Belgica Trough. This pattern was shown principally to reflect pelagic regimes differing in surface water hydrography, ice cover and euphotic productivity. This is the first time that a synoptic study of several benthic community portions spanning such a range in sizes and life styles has been performed in a polar shelf ecosystem. Our results indicate that abundances as well as composition of Arctic benthos are largely influenced by mesoscale pelagic processes, and thus provide further evidence for the importance of the benthic-pelagic coupling in high latitude seas.     

Driver steering and muscle activity during a lane-change manoeuvre

The article reports an experimental study of driver steering control behaviour in a lane-change manoeuvre. Eight test subjects were instrumented with electromyography to measure muscle activation and co-contraction. Each subject completed 30 lane-change manoeuvres with one vehicle on a fixed-base driving simulator. For each driver, the steering torque feedback characteristic was changed after every ten manoeuvres; the response of the vehicle to steering angle inputs was not changed. Drivers' control strategies were found to be robust to changes in steering torque feedback. Path-following errors, muscle activity and muscle co-contraction all reduce with the number of lane-changes performed by the driver, suggesting the existence of a learning process. Comparing the test subjects, there was some evidence that high levels of co-contraction were used to allow high-frequency steering inputs to be generated. The results contribute to the understanding of vehicle-driver (and more generally, human-machine) dynamic interaction.     

Evasive manoeuvres with a steering robot

In the pursuit of an objective rating on vehicle stability performance, it is always desirable to reduce disturbances and inconsistencies during experimental evaluations, especially the ones introduced by human drivers. This paper presents the development of a steering robot designed for closed-loop steering tasks during evasive manoeuvres. It describes the controller structure and discusses experimental results, in addition to simulation/vehicle model verifications and theoretical control analysis.     

The association of the population recruitment of gulf menhaden, Brevoortia patronus, with Mississippi River discharge

Gulf menhaden, Brevoortia patronus, which constitutes a major industrial reduction fishery in the USA, spawn across the northern Gulf of Mexico with a focus of spawning about the Mississippi Delta. This species is estuarine dependent; adults spawn over the continental shelf and their larvae are transported, by mechanisms that are presently not well understood, to estuarine nursery areas. Larval gulf menhaden, along with some other surface oriented larval fishes, appear to aggregate along the Mississippi River plume front, while evidence of the ecological consequences of this aggregation in terms of the feeding, growth, and survival of larvae is ambiguous. On an annual scale, Mississippi River discharge is negatively associated with numbers of half year old recruits. Discharge of the Mississippi River and the population recruitment of gulf menhaden may be plausibly linked through the action of the river's plume and its front on the shoreward transport of larvae. Greater river discharge results in an expansive plume that might project larvae farther offshore and prolong the shoreward transport of larvae. An indirect, decadal scale, positive response of recruitment and river discharge is possible, but not certain. Recruitment became elevated after 1975 when river discharge increased and became highly variable. This response might owe to enhanced primary and secondary production driven by nutrient influx from the Mississippi River.     

Development of Green-Naghdi models with a wave-absorbing beach for nonlinear, irregular wave propagation

Two-dimensional and three-dimensional Green-Naghdi (GN) models equipped with a numerical wave-absorbing beach have been developed to simulate nonlinear, regular, and irregular wave propagation. The numerical beach is introduced near the downstream boundary to absorb outgoing waves. An appropriate amount of numerical damping and an appropriate length of numerical beach are investigated using numerical experiments. The results show that the GN models with a numerical beach work very well in simulating wave propagation in water in a small computational domain.     

Manpower and employment issues

Overmanning and restrictive labour practices are major causes of low productivity in Indian ports. Proposals are put forward for a programme of reforms to support investment in modern cargo handling systems.     

Basic Analytical Study of Pantograph-catenary System Dynamics

For a high speed electrical rail system, good dynamic performance of the pantograph-catenary system is vital for smooth and continuous current collection. It has been known for many years that to achieve this the head of the pantograph should be made as light as possible and the average stiffness of the catenary should be high. These conclusions, however, have been reached by numerical modelling and operational experience. In this paper the pantograph-catenary system is modelled as a time-varying, single degree-of-freedom system to facilitate an analytical investigation of the system dynamics. Although the model is very simple, it allows physical insight into the dynamic behaviour of the system, and because the excitation is parametric it also allows the stability of the system to be investigated. The finite element method is used to determine the catenary characteristics and Floquet theory is used to analyse the behaviour of the coupled system.     

A high order linear model for the prediction of internal lee waves at the main sill of the Strait of Gibraltar

A linear theory for the physical fields in the water column under the action of large amplitude internal lee waves at the main sill of the Strait of Gibraltar is developed. The procedure is a combination of the perturbation and normal modes methods in order to study steady resonant conditions. The lowest order linear approach of the methodology resumes the Taylor–Goldstein equation, which can reconstruct the main features of the observed fields but the high order approach gives the finest structure and sometimes the largest contributions. The role of the non-linear terms is investigated up to the second order taking into account the non-linear interactions between modes, leading to an effective reconstruction of the whole water column for the velocity field.     

Impact of information technology on public transport fares data

The work described was undertaken as part of the CASSIOPE project in the EC DRIVE programme. A range of fare collection procedures in public transport is described, and the importance of these for data collection by operators is stressed. It is suggested that such data management could be standardized and to this end four case studies were carried out in different European cities. Data models were built for each city, and these models are merged into a preliminary version of a generalized model. The need and uses for such a fare collection data model is explained.