Description: Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution September 1989

Description: This thesis studies mixing and convection in a rectangular basin driven by a specified heat flux at the surface. A numerical model is constructed for this purpose. The main focus of the study is on the density and circulation structure resulting from the thermal forcing. In chapter two, a simple vertical one-dimensional model is developed to examine the mixing processes under a given surface heat flux. In order to simulate strong vertical mixing in the region where stratification is unstable, turbulent processes are modeled by a convective overturning parameterization of eddy viscosity and diffusivity. The results show that the density structure is strongly affected by the convective overturning adjustment as surface cooling prevails, and the resulting density field is nearly depth independent. In chapter three, a more complicated two-dimensional model is constructed to simulate mixing and circulation in a vertical rectangular basin with rigid boundaries. The aspect ratio of the basin ranges from 1 to 0.001 and Rayleigh number from 104 to 2 x 1012. It is found that the circulation pattern is dominated by these two important numbers. The roles of density overturning and density-momentum overturning mixing are further investigated. The results show that the convective overturning not only homogenizes the density field in the unstably stratified region but also contributes to increase the circulation. A crude scale analysis of the system shows that the characteristics of the density and momentum fields from the analysis agree well with the numerical results.

Description: Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution September 1992

Description: This study concerns the barotropic interactions between a mesoscale eddy and a straight monotonic bottom topography. Through simple to relatively complicated modeling effort, some of the fundamental properties of the interaction are investigated. In chapter two, the fundamental aspects of the interaction are examined using a simple contour dynamics model. With the simplest model configuration of an ideal vortex and a step topography, the basic dynamical features of the observed oceanic eddy-topography interaction are qualitatively reproduced. The results consist of eddy-induced cross-topography exchange, formation of topographic eddies, eddy propagation and generation of topographic waves. In chapter three, a more complicated primitive equation model is used to investigate a mesoscale eddy interacting with an exponential continental shelf/slope topography on both f and β-planes. The f-plane model recasts the important features of chapter two. The roles of the eddy size and strength and the geometry of topography are studied. It is seen that the multiple anticyclonic eddy-slope interactions strongly affect the total cross-slope volume transport and the evolution of both the original anticyclone and the topographic eddy. Since a cyclone is trapped at the slope and eventually moves on to the slope, it is most effective in causing perturbation on the shelf and slope. The responses on the shelf and slope are mainly wavelike with dispersion relation obeying that of the free shelf-trapped wave modes. On the β-plane, the problem of an eddy colliding onto a continental shelf/slope from a distance with straight or oblique incident angles is investigated. It is found that the straight eddy incident is more effective in achieving large onslope eddy penetration distance than the oblique eddy incident. The formation of a dipole-like eddy pair consisting of the original anticyclone and the topographic cyclone acts to suppress the eddy decay due to long Rossby wave radiation. A weak along-slope current near the edge of the slope is found, which is part of a outer slope circulation cell originated from the Rossby wave wake trailing the propagating eddy. Model-observation comparisons in_chapter four show favorable qualitative agreement of the model results with some of the observed events in the eastern U.S. continental margins and in the Gulf of Mexico. The model results give dynamical interpretations to some observed features of the oceanic eddy-topography interactions and provide enlightening insight into the problem.

Description: Unusual cold filaments are uncovered during the spring intermonsoon season in the South China Sea (SCS) using a suite of satellite observations. They have a width of about 100 km on average and extend several hundreds of kilometers offshore on the sea surface, providing significant cross-shelf transport of heat and nutrients. The eastward current associated with mesoscale eddies in spring in the western SCS is found to play an important role in the filament formation by advecting coastal cold waters far offshore. The meridional location of the cold filament displays considerable interannual variability ranging between 9 o N and 18 o N, which can be attributed to the interannual south-north shift of the eastward current associated with eddies. It is also found that in the spring, cold filaments have profound effects on the chlorophyll a concentration in the upper ocean and the overlying atmosphere. These findings provide new insights into the role of eddies in cross-shelf exchange and mesoscale air-sea interaction in the marginal seas.

Description: Journal of the American Chemical Society DOI: 10.1021/jacs.7b07965

Description: The recessive N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea–induced phenotype toku is characterized by delayed hair growth, progressive hair loss, and excessive accumulation of dermal cholesterol, triglycerides, and ceramides. The toku phenotype was attributed to a null allele of Gk5, encoding glycerol kinase 5 (GK5), a skin-specific kinase expressed predominantly in sebaceous glands. GK5 formed a...

Description: Analytical Chemistry DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.7b03823

Description: Water, Vol. 9, Pages 865: Cyanobacterial Nitrogen Fixation Influences the Nitrogen Removal Efficiency in a Constructed Wetland Water doi: 10.3390/w9110865 Authors: Xiaodong Zhang Xin Jia Liang Yan Jinzhi Wang Xiaoming Kang Lijuan Cui Nitrogen removal efficiency in constructed wetlands (CW) is influenced by multiple environmental factors. However, little is known about the role of cyanobacterial nitrogen fixation in affecting nitrogen removal efficiency. This study investigated how cyanobacterial nitrogen fixation affects the efficiency, at which a CW removes nitrogen from an associated artificial lake (AL) in Beijing. For this purpose, we measured cell densities of N-fixing and non-N-fixing cyanobacteria, the aquatic nitrogen fixation rate (RNfix), and the concentration of various nitrogen fractions over the growing season (April–November) of 2014 in both AL and CW. We found that the removal of particulate organic nitrogen (PON) contributed to >90% of the total nitrogen removal in the CW. The removal efficiency of PON was lower during August–October (55.45 ± 27.49%) than during April–July (68.86 ± 8.83%). Phytoplankton proliferation in summer, as one of the main sources of PON, may have exceeded the capacity of the CW and led to declines in PON removal efficiency. RNfix peaked in July–October (3–169 ng N·L−1·h−1) and was positively correlated with both PON concentration and the cell density of N-fixing Anabaena sp. over the growing season, suggesting that aquatic nitrogen fixation (primarily in the AL) may increase PON and thereby reduce the its removal efficiency in the CW.

Description: Daily Time-Use Patterns and Obesity and Mental Health among Primary School Students in Shanghai: A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study Daily Time-Use Patterns and Obesity and Mental Health among Primary School Students in Shanghai: A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study, Published online: 23 November 2017; doi:10.1038/s41598-017-15102-4 Daily Time-Use Patterns and Obesity and Mental Health among Primary School Students in Shanghai: A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study

Description: Author(s): Ryan Stearrett, W. G. Wang, Xiaoming Kou, J. F. Feng, J. M. D. Coey, J. Q. Xiao, and E. R. Nowak The strength of the exchange bias field is found to influence the low-frequency magnetoresistive noise associated with the magnetic reference layer in sputtered-deposited and electron-beam-evaporated CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB tunnel junctions. The noise is due to magnetic losses arising in the reference layer... [Phys. Rev. B 86, 014415] Published Mon Jul 16, 2012

Description: Energy & Fuels DOI: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.7b00409