Analysis of Reaction Forces and Posture of a Bunch of Crop Stalks During Reel Operations of a Combine Harvester

Rosana G. Moreira, Editor-in-Chief; Texas A&M UniversityThis is a Technical Paper from International Commission of Agricultural Engineering (CIGR, Commission Internationale du Genie Rural) E-Journal Volume 4 (2002): Y. Hirai, E. Inoue, K. Mori, and K. Hashiguchi. Analysis of Reaction Forces and Posture of a Bunch of Crop Stalks During Reel Operations of a Combine Harvester. Vol. IV. October 2002

Typhoon 9707 observations with the MU radar and L-band boundary layer radar

International audienceTyphoon 9707 (Opal) was observed with the VHF-band Middle and Upper atmosphere (MU) radar, an L-band boundary layer radar (BLR), and a vertical-pointing C-band meteorological radar at the Shigaraki MU Observatory in Shiga prefecture, Japan on 20 June 1997. The typhoon center passed about 80 km southeast from the radar site. Mesoscale precipitating clouds developed due to warm-moist airmass transport from the typhoon, and passed over the MU radar site with easterly or southeasterly winds. We primarily present the wind behaviour including the vertical component which a conventional meteorological Doppler radar cannot directly observe, and discuss the relationship between the wind behaviour of the typhoon and the precipitating system. To investigate the dynamic structure of the typhoon, the observed wind was divided into radial and tangential wind components under the assumption that the typhoon had an axi-symmetric structure. Altitude range of outflow ascended from 1?3 km to 2?10 km with increasing distance (within 80?260 km range) from the typhoon center, and in-flow was observed above and below the outflow. Outflow and inflow were associated with updraft and downdraft, respectively. In the tangential wind, the maximum speed of counterclockwise winds was confirmed at 1?2 km altitudes. Based on the vertical velocity and the reflectivity obtained with the MU radar and the C-band meteorological radar, respectively, precipitating clouds, accompanied by the wind behaviour of the typhoon, were classified into stratiform and convective precipitating clouds. In the stratiform precipitating clouds, a vertical shear of radial wind and the maximum speed of counterclockwise wind were observed. There was a strong reflectivity layer called a ?bright band' around the 4.2 km altitude. We confirmed strong updrafts and down-drafts below and above it, respectively, and the existence of a relatively dry layer around the bright band level from radiosonde soundings. In the convective precipitating clouds, the regions of strong and weak reflectivities were well associated with those of updraft and downdraft, respectively

Combined wind profiler-weather radar observations of orographic rainband around Kyushu, Japan in the Baiu season

International audienceA special observation campaign (X-BAIU), using various instruments (wind profilers, C-band weather radars, X-band Doppler radars, rawinsondes, etc.), was carried out in Kyushu (western Japan) during the Baiu season, from 1998 to 2002. In the X-BAIU-99 and -02 observations, a line-shaped orographic rainband extending northeastward from the Koshikijima Islands appeared in the low-level strong wind with warm-moist airs. The weather radar observation indicated that the rainband was maintained for 11h. The maximum length and width of the rainband observed in 1999 was ~200km and ~20km, respectively. The rainband observed in 2002 was not so developed compared with the case in 1999. The Froude number averaged from sea level to the top of the Koshikijima Islands (~600m) was large (>1), and the lifting condensation level was below the tops of the Koshikijima Islands. Thus, it is suggested that the clouds organizing the rainband are formed by the triggering of the mountains on the airflow passing over them. The vertical profile of horizontal wind in/around the rainband was investigated in the wind profiler observations. In the downdraft region 60km from the Koshikijima Islands, strong wind and its clockwise rotation with increasing height was observed below 3km altitude. In addition, a strong wind component perpendicular to the rainband was observed when the rainband was well developed. These wind behaviors were related to the evolution of the rainband

A New Experimental Approach to Evaluate Plasma-induced Damage in Microcantilever

Plasma  etching,  during  micro-fabrication  processing  is  indispensable  for  fabricating  MEMS  structures.  During  the plasma  processes,  two  major matters,  charged  ions  and  vacuum–ultraviolet  (VUV)  irradiation  damage,  take  charge  of reliability  degradation.  The  charged  ions  induce  unwanted  sidewall  etching,  generally  called  as  “notching”,  which causes  degradation  in  brittle  strength.  Furthermore,  the  VUV  irradiation  gives  rise  to  crystal  defects  on  the  etching surface.  To  overcome  the  problem,  neutral  beam  etching  (NBE),  which  use  neutral  particles  without  the  VUV irradiation,  has  been  developed.  In  order  to  evaluate  the  effect  of  the  NBE  quantitatively,  we  measured  the  resonance property of a micro-cantilever before and after NBE treatment. The thickness of damage layer (δ) times the imaginary part  of  the  complex  Young's  modulus  (Eds)  were  then  compared,  which  is  a  parameter  of  surface  damage.  Although plasma processes  make the initial surface of cantilevers damaged during their fabrication, the removal of that damage by NBE was confirmed as the reduction in δEds. NBE will realize a damage-free surface for microstructures

Leishmania isoenzyme polymorphisms in Ecuador: Relationships with geographic distribution and clinical presentation

Background: Determinants of the clinical presentation of the leishmaniases are poorly understood but Leishmania species and strain differences are important. To examine the relationship between clinical presentation, species and isoenzyme polymorphisms, 56 Leishmania isolates from distinct presentations of American tegumentary leishmaniasis (ATL) from Ecuador were analyzed. Methods: Isolates were characterized by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis for polymorphisms of 11 isoenzymes. Patients were infected in four different ecologic regions: highland and lowland jungle of the Pacific coast, Amazonian lowlands and Andean highlands. Results: Six Leishmania species constituting 21 zymodemes were identified: L. (Viannia) panamensis (21 isolates, 7 zymodemes), L. (V.) guyanensis (7 isolates, 4 zymodemes), L. (V.) braziliensis (5 isolates, 3 zymodemes), L. (Leishmania) mexicana (11 isolates, 4 zymodemes), L. (L.) amazonensis (10 isolates, 2 zymodemes) and L. (L.) major (2 isolates, 1 zymodeme). L. panamensis was the species most frequently identified in the Pacific region and was associated with several clinical variants of cutaneous disease (CL); eight cases of leishmaniasis recidiva cutis (LRC) found in the Pacific highlands were associated with 3 zymodemes of this species. Mucocutaneous leishmaniasis found only in the Amazonian focus was associated with 3 zymodemes of L. braziliensis. The papular variant of CL, Uta, found in the Andean highlands was related predominantly with a single zymodeme of L. mexicana. Conclusion: Our data show a high degree of phenotypic variation within species, and some evidence for associations between specific variants of ATL (i.e. Uta and LRC) and specific Leishmania zymodemes. This study further defines the geographic distribution of Leishmania species and clinical variants of ATL in Ecuador

Characteristics of gravity waves generated in a convective and a non-convective environment revealed from hourly radiosonde observation under CPEA-II campaign

Analyses of hourly radiosonde data of temperature, wind, and relative humidity during four days (two with convection and two with no convection) as a part of an intensive observation period in CPEA-2 campaign over Koto Tabang (100.32° E, 0.20° S), Indonesia, are presented. Characteristics of gravity waves in terms of dominant wave frequencies at different heights and their vertical wavelengths are shown in the lower stratosphere during a convective and non-convective period. Gravity waves with periods ~10 h and ~4–5 h were found dominant near tropopause (a region of high stability) on all days of observation. Vertical propagation of gravity waves were seen modified near heights of the three identified strong wind shears (at ~16, 20, and 25 km heights) due to wave-mean flow interaction. Between 17 and 21 km heights, meridional wind fluctuations dominated over zonal wind, whereas from 22 to 30 km heights, wave fluctuations with periods ~3–5 h and ~8–10 h in zonal wind and temperature were highly associated, suggesting zonal orientation of wave propagation. Gravity waves from tropopause region to 30 km heights were analyzed. In general, vertical wavelength of 2–5 km dominated in all the mean-removed (~ weekly mean) wind and temperature hourly profiles. Computed vertical wavelength spectra are similar, in most of the cases, to the source spectra (1–16 km height) except that of zonal wind spectra, which is broad during active convection. Interestingly, during and after convection, gravity waves with short vertical wavelength (~2 km) and short period (~2–3 h) emerged, which were confined in the close vicinity of tropopause, and were not identified on non-convective days, suggesting convection to be the source for them. Some wave features near strong wind shear (at 25 km height) were also observed with short vertical wavelengths in both convective and non-convective days, suggesting wind shear to be the sole cause of generation and seemingly not associated with deep convection below. A drop in the temperature up to ~4–5 K (after removal of diurnal component) was observed at ~16 km height near a strong wind shear (~45–55 m s⁻¹ km⁻¹) during active period of convection

Parallel dynamics of continuous Hopfield model revisited

We have applied the generating functional analysis (GFA) to the continuous Hopfield model. We have also confirmed that the GFA predictions in some typical cases exhibit good consistency with computer simulation results. When a retarded self-interaction term is omitted, the GFA result becomes identical to that obtained using the statistical neurodynamics as well as the case of the sequential binary Hopfield model.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Precipitating clouds observed by 1.3-GHz boundary layer radars in equatorial Indonesia

International audienceTemporal variations of precipitating clouds in equatorial Indonesia have been studied based on observations with 1357.5 MHz boundary layer radars at Serpong (6.4° S, 106.7° E) near Jakarta and Bukittinggi (0.2° S, 100.3° E) in West Sumatera. We have classified precipitating clouds into four types: stratiform, mixed stratiform-convective, deep convective, and shallow convective clouds, using the Williams et al. (1995) method. Diurnal variations of the occurrence of precipitating clouds at Serpong and Bukittinggi have showed the same characteristics, namely, that the precipitating clouds primarily occur in the afternoon and the peak of the stratiform cloud comes after the peak of the deep convective cloud. The time delay between the peaks of stratiform and deep convective clouds corresponds to the life cycle of the mesoscale convective system. The precipitating clouds which occur in the early morning at Serpong are dominated by stratiform cloud. Concerning seasonal variations of the precipitating clouds, we have found that the occurrence of the stratiform cloud is most frequent in the rainy season, while the occurrence of the deep convective cloud is predominant in the dry season

Chromosomal-level assembly of the Asian Seabass genome using long sequence reads and multi-layered scaffolding

We report here the ~670 Mb genome assembly of the Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer), a tropical marine teleost. We used long-read sequencing augmented by transcriptomics, optical and genetic mapping along with shared synteny from closely related fish species to derive a chromosome-level assembly with a contig N50 size over 1 Mb and scaffold N50 size over 25 Mb that span ~90% of the genome. The population structure of L. calcarifer species complex was analyzed by re-sequencing 61 individuals representing various regions across the species' native range. SNP analyses identified high levels of genetic diversity and confirmed earlier indications of a population stratification comprising three clades with signs of admixture apparent in the South-East Asian population. The quality of the Asian seabass genome assembly far exceeds that of any other fish species, and will serve as a new standard for fish genomics