Rozprawy doktorskie na temat „Ecco: The Tides Of Time”

The deep demersal community of the bathyal Porcupine Seabight is subject to environmental forcing on diel, seasonal and annual scales, in addition to the stochastic and transient influence of nutritional windfalls from the photic zone. The current regime at bathyal depth in the Porcupine Seabight is characterised by oscillations in current flow with periods of 12.4h and 14.8d. Increased current velocity and particle suspension in summer months synchronises well with the seasonal input of phytoplankton to the seafloor. These physical characteristics may constitute time signals in the deep ocean environment. Consumption and succession processes at bathyal food falls in the North Atlantic are suggestive of a fundamental difference in the community response between the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans. The sinking of small cetacean carcasses constitutes a transient environmental impact on the local community structure which is not limited to the scavenging fauna. There is limited evidence of a response to the seasonal increase in available organic carbon in the white muscle of North Atlantic macrourids. This is in accordance with results from Pacific macrourids and suggests that the seasonal food pulse, experienced by the deep benthos under productive surface waters, is not greatly manifested at higher trophic levels. The successful adaptation of existing baited camera technology to incorporate an autonomous periodic bait-release system has enabled long-term high frequency time-series observations of deep-sea scavenging demersal fish and crustaceans to be made for the first time. An understanding of temporal environmental cues, and of the resultant interactions between organisms and their environment, effectively pervades the study of any aspect of organismal or population ecology.

Ocean tides worldwide have exhibited secular changes in the past century, simultaneous with a global secular rise in mean sea level (MSL). The combination of these two factors contributes to higher water levels, and may increase threats to coastal regions and populations over the next century. Equally as important as these long-term changes are the short-term fluctuations in sea levels and tidal properties. These fluctuations may interact to yield locally extreme water level events, especially when combined with storm surge. This study, presented in three parts, examines the relationships between tidal anomalies and MSL anomalies on yearly and monthly timescales, with a goal of diagnosing dynamical factors that may influence the long-term evolution of tides in the Pacific Ocean. Correlations between yearly averaged properties are denoted tidal anomaly trends (TATs), and will be used to explore interannual behavior. Correlations of monthly averaged properties are denoted seasonal tidal anomaly trends (STATs), and are used to examine seasonal behavior. Four tidal constituents are analyzed: the two largest semidiurnal (twice daily) constituents, M2 and S2, and the two largest diurnal (once daily) constituents, K1 and O1.

Part I surveys TATs and STATs at 153 Pacific Ocean tide gauges, and discusses regional patterns within the entire Pacific Ocean. TATs with statistically significant relations between MSL and amplitudes (A-TATs) are seen at 89% of all gauges; 92 gauges for M2, 66 for S2, 82 for K1, and 59 for O1. TATs with statistically significant relations between tidal phase (the relative timing of high water of the tide) and MSL (P-TATs) are observed at 55 gauges for M2, 47 for S2, 42 for K1, and 61 for O1. Significant seasonal variations (STATs) are observed at about a third of all gauges, with the largest concentration in Southeast Asia. The effect of combined A-TATs was also considered. At selected stations, observed tidal sensitivity with MSL was extrapolated forward in time to the predicted sea level in 2100. Results suggest that stations with large positive combined A-TATs produce total water levels that are greater than those predicted by an increase in MSL alone, increasing the chances of high-water events.

Part II examines the mechanisms behind the yearly (TAT) variability in the Western Tropical Pacific Ocean. Significant amplitude TATs are found at more than half of 26 gauges for each of the two strongest tidal constituents, K1 (diurnal) and M2 (semidiurnal). For the lesser constituents analyzed (O1 and S2), significant trends are observed at ten gauges.

Part III analyzes the seasonal behavior of tides (STATs) at twenty tide gauges in the Southeast Asian waters, which exhibit variation by 10 – 30% of mean tidal amplitudes. A barotropic ocean tide model that considers the seasonal effects of MSL, stratification, and geostrophic and Ekman velocity is used to explain the observed seasonal variability in tides due to variations in monsoon-influenced climate forcing, with successful results at about half of all gauges. The observed changes in tides are best explained by the influence of non-tidal velocities (geostrophic and Ekman), though the effect of changing stratification is also an important secondary causative mechanism.

From the results of these surveys and investigations, it is concluded that short-term fluctuations in MSL and tidal properties at multiple time scales may be as important in determining the state of future water levels as the long-term trends. Global explanations for the observed tidal behavior have not been found in this study; however, significant regional explanations are found at the yearly time scale in the Solomon Sea, and at the seasonal time scale in Southeast Asia. It is likely that tidal sensitivity to annual and seasonal variations in MSL at other locations also are driven by locally specific processes, rather than factors with basin-wide coherence. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)

The feeding behavior of an animal is based on adaptations to the environment and the animal’s body condition. The Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) is an example of a marine mammal that may alter its feeding pattern based on diel and tidal cycles. The increased presence of boats during the day could potentially cause manatees to alter their feeding rates, or the time spent feeding per hour, over the diel cycle. Tide levels may cause manatees to be restricted from areas of preferred vegetation. In addition, the differential reproductive investment between males and females may cause differential time dedicated to feeding between the sexes. This study analyzed sound recordings (lasting up to 24 hr) from manatees tagged in southwest Florida with a digital acoustic recording tag (DTAG) between April and September. Distinctive chewing sounds were indicative of feeding activity. Variation in time spent feeding was analyzed in relation to time of day, sex, female reproductive status, and water level as affected by tides. Manatees dedicated 26% of the time (6 hours) to feeding, on average. During the first year of the study, manatees spent 39% of the time feeding (9 hours), on average, over the course of a 24-hour period; during the second year they spent 15% (2 hours) over the course of a 13-hour daytime period. Adult females fed significantly more, on average, than adult males. Females in late-term pregnancy appeared to spend more time foraging than other non-lactating females, but the sample size was too small to be definitive. Manatee time spent feeding was not correlated with time of day. Increases in feeding activity occurred at mid to high tide levels. This may indicate that manatees had greater access to preferred food sources at this time. An understanding of when manatees 5 are most likely to be feeding and which environmental factors influence this activity may suggest ways to reduce impacts on the endangered population.

L’étude des variations temporelles de gravité ont une longue tradition en Europe Centrale. Dans la station, J9, située à Strasbourg depuis les années 1970, les trois principaux types de gravimètre (ressort, supraconducteur (SG), absolu) ont été utilisés. Ces séries permettent l’examen des améliorations instrumentales à partir de la stabilité à long terme et de la dérive instrumentale. Nous montrons que le SG est l’instrument le plus performant pour l’étude des marées de longues périodes et de faibles amplitudes. Nous montrons les résultats obtenus par analyse de marée de ces petites ondes. Nous estimons la période de la Free Core Nutation et nous recherchons celle de la Free Inner Core Nutation (FICN), qui n'a pas encore été observée. Pour cela nous faisons une étude précise, afin de séparer les ondes de faible amplitude, au voisinage de périodes possibles de la FICN
The study of temporal variations of gravity has a long tradition in Central Europe. Since the 1970s three main gravimeter types (spring, superconducting (SG) and absolute) have been set up at the J9 gravity station located in Strasbourg. These series allow us to review the instrumental improvements from the analyses of long term stability and instrumental drift. We show that the SG is the most powerful tool for thestudy of the low frequency and small amplitudes tides. We show the tidal analysis results for these tidal waves. We estimate the period of the Free Core Nutation and we seek the one of the Free Inner Core Nutation (FICN), which has not yet been observed. For this we make a careful study, in order to separate the low-amplitude waves in the vicinity of possible periods of FICN
La deformación elasto-gravitacional de la Tierra y las correspondientes variaciones temporales de la gravedad asociadas, registradas en la superficie terrestre mediante los gravímetros, son debidas a distintos fenómenos geofísicos con diferentes períodos y amplitudes, incluyendo entre otros a las denominadas mareas terrestres, que son el fenómeno que genera los efectos más fuertes (dichas mareas terrestres son los movimientos inducidos en la Tierra sólida y los cambios en su potencial gravitatorio derivados de las fuerzas de marea generadas por los cuerpos celestes).El objetivo principal de este trabajo consiste en mostrar la importancia tanto de la longitud de las series de datos de gravedad, como de la calidad de dichas series para mejorar nuestro conocimiento sobre la dinámica de la Tierra a través de los análisis de las mareas terrestres. [...]

Em ambientes costeiros, a variabilidade da biomassa de fitoplâncton é dirigida por forçantes físicas locais que apresentam distintas escalas temporais em ocorrência, intensidade e durabilidade. No canal de São Sebastião, ambiente advectivo, parte-se do pressuposto de que qualquer adição da biomassa de fitoplâncton não se deve ao crescimento local, mas ao transporte de células fitoplanctônicas movidas pelas correntes guiadas a ventos e marés. Dessa maneira, o objetivo central deste trabalho é analisar a variabilidade em alta frequência das variações da biomassa fitoplanctônica e investigar suas relações temporais com a intensidade e direção dos ventos e a amplitude das marés. Em média, o acúmulo de clorofila é estável no tempo, com curtos episódios de lento aumento e diminuições bruscas da biomassa fitoplanctônica, sendo os valores encontrados relativamente baixos, característicos de ambientes oligomesotróficos. Análises espectrais da série temporal da concentração de clorofila-a e da altura da maré revelaram alta correlação entre as duas séries durante as marés de sizígia, com periodicidades de aproximadamente 12 e 24 horas. Em relação à direção e intensidade do vento, o espectro cruzado de ondaletas apresentou áreas de forte correlação com a clorofila-a e periodicidades dominantes de três dias. Além disso, observou-se que ventos vindos do quadrante norte/nordeste carregam águas com maiores concentrações de materiais particulados ou detritos.
In coastal environments, the dynamics of phytoplankton biomass is driven by local physical forcings that have different time scales in occurrence, intensity and durability. For being an advective environment, it is normally assumed that any positive change in phytoplankton biomass in the São Sebastião Channel is not due to local growth, but to the transport of phytoplankton cells moved by currents associated with winds and tides. Thus, the main objective of this project is to analyze the variability in high-frequency variations of the phytoplankton biomass and investigate their temporal relationships with intensity and direction of winds and high tides. On average, the chlorophyll accumulation is stable over time, with short episodes of slow rise and sudden decreases of phytoplankton biomass and relatively low values, characteristic of oligo-mesotrophic environments. Spectral analysis of the time series of chlorophyll a concentration and tide height showed a high correlation between the two series during the spring tides, and dominant periodicities of about 12 to 24 hours. Regarding direction and intensity of the wind, the cross wavelet spectrum presented strong correlation areas with chlorophyll a and dominant periodicities of 3 days. In addition, it was observed that winds from the north/northeast quadrant carry water with higher concentrations of particulate matter or debris.

Les plages de sable sont des écosystèmes dynamiques couvrant 70% des côtes mondiales. Ces systèmes abritent un cortège spécifique unique et assurent des fonctions essentielles de nourricerie, de nurserie et d’épuration des eaux. Or à proximité des côtes, la population humaine est en développement constant ce qui accroît les multiples pressions d’origine anthropique sur les écosystèmes côtiers. L’apport en excès de nutriments constitue une menace majeure qui peut se traduire par le développement d’importantes biomasses de macroalgues opportunistes (eutrophisation). La fréquence et l’intensité de ces blooms, communément formés de chlorophycées à court cycle de vie (ulves) et appelés marées vertes (MV), s'amplifient sur les côtes françaises et dans le Monde menaçant le fonctionnement de systèmes prépondérants et uniques.La plupart des études visant à déterminer les effets des MV sur la structure et le fonctionnement d’écosystèmes sédimentaires ont été conduites dans des environnements abrités, micro- ou atidaux. Cette problématique est restée presqu’inexplorée dans des écosystèmes plus dynamiques (systèmes ouverts et macrotidaux) en raison des difficultés de mise en place d’échantillonnage et de détection des effets de stress d’origine anthropique, inhérentes à la variabilité de ces systèmes. Cette thèse a donc eu pour objectif principal de combler ce manque et produire des connaissances en étudiant les réponses in situ des communautés benthiques de plages de sable fin macrotidales en présence ou non de MV. Quatre études ont été menées à différentes échelles spatio-temporelles et en considérant différents compartiments biologiques pour répondre à cette question générale.Ce travail de thèse montre qu’à l’échelle de la région Bretagne (variabilité intégrée sur 2700km de côtes et 7 ans) les communautés benthiques d’écosystèmes dynamiques sont modifiées significativement et de manière conservative par la présence de MV. Ce travail démontre aussi que les marées vertes impactent différemment la faune benthique en fonction du type d’habitat (plages semi-exposées vs. exposées), de la profondeur (mediolittoral vs. infralittoral), et du compartiment biologique (macrofaune benthique vs. juvéniles de poissons plats). Ces comparaisons ont permis d’identifier la faune benthique de médiolittoral inférieur des plages exposées comme étant le système le plus affecté par les MV. L’étude des variations à fine échelle spatio-temporelle de ce dernier montre que les caractéristiques faunistiques (uni- et multi-variées) sont modifiées le long d’un gradient de couverture d’algues vertes. Par exemple, la β-diversité décroît significativement le long de ce gradient. Afin d’explorer les processus pouvant expliquer ces modifications, et déterminer si ces changements ont des répercussions sur le fonctionnement de l’écosystème « plage de sable », les effets de l’accumulation d’ulves sur le réseau trophique à différent(e)s niveaux/échelles ont été mesurés. Les résultats de cette étude montrent qu’une importante biomasse d’ulves induit un changement de la structure entière du réseau trophique et une modification importante du fonctionnement trophique des plages. Les expérimentations menées au cours de cette thèse montrent que les changements observés sont induits par des effets directs (consommation de débris d’ulves) et indirects (modifications d’autres sources de nourriture) de la présence des MV.Cette thèse propose un cadre de travail visant à mieux détecter les effets de stress anthropiques sur la structure et le fonctionnement d’écosystèmes dynamiques. Dans un contexte de changement global forçant les écosystèmes à faire face à de multiples stress, cette approche pourrait se révéler particulièrement utile pour démêler, comprendre et prédire les effets de perturbations induites par les activités humaines sur le fonctionnement des écosystèmes et constituer une aide à la gestion de ces environnements particuliers
Highly dynamic systems, often considered as resilient systems, are characterised by abiotic and biotic processes under continuous and strong changes in space and time. Because of this variability, the detection of overlapping anthropogenic stress is challenging. Coastal areas harbour dynamic ecosystems in the for of open sandy beaches, which cover the vast majority of the world’s ice-free coastline. These ecosystems are currently threatened by increasing human-induced pressure, among which mass-development of opportunistic macroalgae (mainly composed of Chlorophyta, so called green tides), resulting from the eutrophication of coastal waters. The ecological impact of opportunistic macroalgal blooms (green tides, and blooms formed by other opportunistic taxa), has long been evaluated within sheltered and non-tidal ecosystems. Little is known, however, on how more dynamic ecosystems, such as open macrotidal sandy beaches, respond to such stress. This thesis assesses the effects of anthropogenic stress on the structure and the functioning of highly dynamic ecosystems using sandy beaches impacted by green tides as a study case. The thesis is based on four field studies, which analyse natural sandy sediment benthic community dynamics over several temporal (from month to multi-year) and spatial (from local to regional) scales. In this thesis, I report long-lasting responses of sandy beach benthic invertebrate communities to green tides, across thousands of kilometres and over seven years; and highlight more pronounced responses of zoobenthos living in exposed sandy beaches compared to semi-exposed sands. Within exposed sandy sediments, and across a vertical scale (from inshore to nearshore sandy habitats), I also demonstrate that the effects of the presence of algal mats on intertidal benthic invertebrate communities is more pronounced than that on subtidal benthic invertebrate assemblages, but also than on flatfish communities. Focussing on small-scale variations in the most affected faunal group (i.e. benthic invertebrates living at low shore), this thesis reveals a decrease in overall beta-diversity along a eutrophication-gradient manifested in the form of green tides, as well as the increasing importance of biological variables in explaining ecological variability of sandy beach macrobenthic assemblages along the same gradient. To illustrate the processes associated with the structural shifts observed where green tides occurred, I investigated the effects of high biomasses of opportunistic macroalgae (Ulva spp.) on the trophic structure and functioning of sandy beaches. This work reveals a progressive simplification of sandy beach food web structure and a modification of energy pathways over time, through direct and indirect effects of Ulva mats on several trophic levels. Through this thesis I demonstrate that highly dynamic systems respond differently (e.g. shift in δ13C, not in δ15N) and more subtly (e.g. no mass-mortality in benthos was found) to anthropogenic stress compared to what has been previously shown within more sheltered and non-tidal systems. Obtaining these results would not have been possible without the approach used through this work; I thus present a framework coupling field investigations with analytical approaches to describe shifts in highly variable ecosystems under human-induced stress

Les plages de sable sont des écosystèmes dynamiques couvrant 70% des côtes mondiales. Ces systèmes abritent un cortège spécifique unique et assurent des fonctions essentielles de nourricerie, de nurserie et d’épuration des eaux. Or à proximité des côtes, la population humaine est en développement constant ce qui accroît les multiples pressions d’origine anthropique sur les écosystèmes côtiers. L’apport en excès de nutriments constitue une menace majeure qui peut se traduire par le développement d’importantes biomasses de macroalgues opportunistes (eutrophisation). La fréquence et l’intensité de ces blooms, communément formés de chlorophycées à court cycle de vie (ulves) et appelés marées vertes (MV), s'amplifient sur les côtes françaises et dans le Monde menaçant le fonctionnement de systèmes prépondérants et uniques.La plupart des études visant à déterminer les effets des MV sur la structure et le fonctionnement d’écosystèmes sédimentaires ont été conduites dans des environnements abrités, micro- ou atidaux. Cette problématique est restée presqu’inexplorée dans des écosystèmes plus dynamiques (systèmes ouverts et macrotidaux) en raison des difficultés de mise en place d’échantillonnage et de détection des effets de stress d’origine anthropique, inhérentes à la variabilité de ces systèmes. Cette thèse a donc eu pour objectif principal de combler ce manque et produire des connaissances en étudiant les réponses in situ des communautés benthiques de plages de sable fin macrotidales en présence ou non de MV. Quatre études ont été menées à différentes échelles spatio-temporelles et en considérant différents compartiments biologiques pour répondre à cette question générale.Ce travail de thèse montre qu’à l’échelle de la région Bretagne (variabilité intégrée sur 2700km de côtes et 7 ans) les communautés benthiques d’écosystèmes dynamiques sont modifiées significativement et de manière conservative par la présence de MV. Ce travail démontre aussi que les marées vertes impactent différemment la faune benthique en fonction du type d’habitat (plages semi-exposées vs. exposées), de la profondeur (mediolittoral vs. infralittoral), et du compartiment biologique (macrofaune benthique vs. juvéniles de poissons plats). Ces comparaisons ont permis d’identifier la faune benthique de médiolittoral inférieur des plages exposées comme étant le système le plus affecté par les MV. L’étude des variations à fine échelle spatio-temporelle de ce dernier montre que les caractéristiques faunistiques (uni- et multi-variées) sont modifiées le long d’un gradient de couverture d’algues vertes. Par exemple, la β-diversité décroît significativement le long de ce gradient. Afin d’explorer les processus pouvant expliquer ces modifications, et déterminer si ces changements ont des répercussions sur le fonctionnement de l’écosystème « plage de sable », les effets de l’accumulation d’ulves sur le réseau trophique à différent(e)s niveaux/échelles ont été mesurés. Les résultats de cette étude montrent qu’une importante biomasse d’ulves induit un changement de la structure entière du réseau trophique et une modification importante du fonctionnement trophique des plages. Les expérimentations menées au cours de cette thèse montrent que les changements observés sont induits par des effets directs (consommation de débris d’ulves) et indirects (modifications d’autres sources de nourriture) de la présence des MV.Cette thèse propose un cadre de travail visant à mieux détecter les effets de stress anthropiques sur la structure et le fonctionnement d’écosystèmes dynamiques. Dans un contexte de changement global forçant les écosystèmes à faire face à de multiples stress, cette approche pourrait se révéler particulièrement utile pour démêler, comprendre et prédire les effets de perturbations induites par les activités humaines sur le fonctionnement des écosystèmes et constituer une aide à la gestion de ces environnements particuliers
Highly dynamic systems, often considered as resilient systems, are characterised by abiotic and biotic processes under continuous and strong changes in space and time. Because of this variability, the detection of overlapping anthropogenic stress is challenging. Coastal areas harbour dynamic ecosystems in the for of open sandy beaches, which cover the vast majority of the world’s ice-free coastline. These ecosystems are currently threatened by increasing human-induced pressure, among which mass-development of opportunistic macroalgae (mainly composed of Chlorophyta, so called green tides), resulting from the eutrophication of coastal waters. The ecological impact of opportunistic macroalgal blooms (green tides, and blooms formed by other opportunistic taxa), has long been evaluated within sheltered and non-tidal ecosystems. Little is known, however, on how more dynamic ecosystems, such as open macrotidal sandy beaches, respond to such stress. This thesis assesses the effects of anthropogenic stress on the structure and the functioning of highly dynamic ecosystems using sandy beaches impacted by green tides as a study case. The thesis is based on four field studies, which analyse natural sandy sediment benthic community dynamics over several temporal (from month to multi-year) and spatial (from local to regional) scales. In this thesis, I report long-lasting responses of sandy beach benthic invertebrate communities to green tides, across thousands of kilometres and over seven years; and highlight more pronounced responses of zoobenthos living in exposed sandy beaches compared to semi-exposed sands. Within exposed sandy sediments, and across a vertical scale (from inshore to nearshore sandy habitats), I also demonstrate that the effects of the presence of algal mats on intertidal benthic invertebrate communities is more pronounced than that on subtidal benthic invertebrate assemblages, but also than on flatfish communities. Focussing on small-scale variations in the most affected faunal group (i.e. benthic invertebrates living at low shore), this thesis reveals a decrease in overall beta-diversity along a eutrophication-gradient manifested in the form of green tides, as well as the increasing importance of biological variables in explaining ecological variability of sandy beach macrobenthic assemblages along the same gradient. To illustrate the processes associated with the structural shifts observed where green tides occurred, I investigated the effects of high biomasses of opportunistic macroalgae (Ulva spp.) on the trophic structure and functioning of sandy beaches. This work reveals a progressive simplification of sandy beach food web structure and a modification of energy pathways over time, through direct and indirect effects of Ulva mats on several trophic levels. Through this thesis I demonstrate that highly dynamic systems respond differently (e.g. shift in δ13C, not in δ15N) and more subtly (e.g. no mass-mortality in benthos was found) to anthropogenic stress compared to what has been previously shown within more sheltered and non-tidal systems. Obtaining these results would not have been possible without the approach used through this work; I thus present a framework coupling field investigations with analytical approaches to describe shifts in highly variable ecosystems under human-induced stress

碩士
國防醫學院
生理學研究所
105
The purposes of this study is utilizing different echo times(TE) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) sequences to absolutely quantify the cerebral metabolites by linear combination of model (LC model) and try to find the optimal TE parameter in MRS measurements. Proton MRS is a non-invasive imaging technique which provides metabolic information of the molecules. The signals came from the resonance and chemical shift effect when the atoms are exposed to external strong magnetic field. The LC model, an automatic spectroscopy analysis tool, can be used to absolutely quantification of the individual metabolic concentrations within the MRS datasets without artificial errors. In the past studies, due to free induction decay (FID) phenomenon, to detect the shorter cerebral metabolites (such as mI: myoinositol) will face more difficulty than the longer cerebral metabolites (such as NAA: N-Acetylaspartate, Cho: Choline, Cr: Creatine) at longer echo time MRS acquisition. The TE parameter of MRS sequences need careful adjustments in a successful measurement. Thus, suggestive TE was provided by the previous publications to quantify the shorter echo metabolites such as TE=35msec. However, whether it is an optimal TE for detecting these metabolites is an unanswered question. Twelve volunteers without clinical mental and neurological deficits, young normal adults (6 male, 6 female; mean age: 23.6±1.33, in male: 24.0±1.41, in female: 23.2±1.17 years old) were included in this study. 3.0 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system was applied to these subjects. Different MRS sequences (PRESS: point resolved spectroscopy and STEAM: stimulated echo acquisition mode), different TE (30, 40, 50 and 60 msec) and different region-of-interest (ROIs, including frontal, parietal and occipital lobes of cerebrum) were implemented in this study. The parameters of the MRS sequences were as followings: repetition time PRESS (TR): 1500 msec, echo time (TE): 30, 40, 50, 60 msec, field of view (FOV): 24 cm, number of excitation (NEX): 64, BW=4.5kHz，Voxel size=20x20x20mm3，flip angle=450，total scan time is 2 minutes and 12 seconds and STEAM (TR): 1500 msec, echo time (TE): 30, 40, 50, 60 msec, field of view (FOV): 24 cm, number of excitation (NEX): 64, BW=5.5kHz，Voxel size=20x20x20mm3，flip angle=450，total scan time is 2 minutes and 12 seconds for each TE. After the MRS scanning, the datasets were transferred to the independent workstation for LC model analysis. Four metabolites (NAA, Cr, Cho, mI ) were quantify through the LC model. After the LC model analysis, the results were further investigated by the SPSS to verify the difference between TE, sequences and ROI. The spectral quality in the frontal lobe demonstrated poor FWHM as compare to the parietal and occipital lobe. Significantly difference in cerebral lobules and sequences can be noted. No gender differneces can be found. As TE is increased, we found the positive correlation with the concentration, but negative correlation with the signal intensity. Moreover, differnet patterns can be found in the long and short TE metabolites. As TE values were increased, the concentrations of long metabolites were increased, but the short metabolites were decreased. In conclusion, the optimal TE for short metabolites detection should be set to under 30 ms. The detection of Glx still not available with the clinical practical sequence and scan times. The diffent in trendecy of long and short T2 metabolites as the TE increase need further investigated.

The Dixon technique is a well-established method in magnetic resonance imaging for obtaining separate images of water and fat. Here we present a generalized solution to the two-point Dixon problem with a geometric interpretation, allowing for flexible echo times and a multi-peak fat model. By simulation and experiment, we have analyzed the dependence on the echo times of the error in the water, fat, and relative background phasor values due to both signal noise and T2* decay. Furthermore, we have demonstrated that broken symmetry due to the multi-peak nature of fat enables direct water and fat determination without phase correction, and we have quantified the reliability of this technique as a function of the echo times. The results may provide valuable guidance for selecting scan parameters to balance the objectives of optimizing fat-water identification, minimizing error in the pixel values, and minimizing total scan time.

碩士
國立中央大學
水文所
94
The neritic area ocean current changes very big by the wind, but limited by the past instrument resolution and lacked the fine resolution of the ocean current vertical data that would be difficulty to described the vertical stratification ocean current response to suffer a strong stiff wind. This research use vertical fine resolution ADCP ocean current data (2001/5/22~2001/6/26), discusses the Wuchiu sea area ocean current characteristic, including the tidal current, the sub-tidal current, the sub-tidal current influence by the wind and under the wind produces the surface Ekman layer and the Ekman layer at the bottom of the ocean characteristic, as well as the change of the viscosity in the boundary layer. According to the observed data, the semi-major axis direction of the tidal current ellipse is consistent with the isobaths.The density stratification have huge influence in the tidal current , and leads the vertical tidal current to divide into obviously two layers. But the sub-tidal current influenced depths by the wind probably for upper formation 10 m, similarly sub-tidal current also affected by the density stratification in a big way, such as to the influenced layer to be unable developing. In the end of the data, it happened to a typhoon process. Before the typhoon processing , the surface and the bottom of Ekman layer are not all clear; but when the typhoon closest the station, the flow field all clearly appeared the surface and the bottom Ekman layers, but the surface Ekman layer is unable to develop the bottom, because of the density stratification influence , the flow field structure is divides into two layers; After the typhoon, the bottom flow field rotates clockwise, but on 26th the bottom and the surface Ekman layer becomes not obviously. By the ocean current accumulated vector diagram discovered the ocean current develops the surface layer Ekman layer, because of the friction force influence, the bottom current developing the bottom Ekman layer from instrument 17 m apart. Utilizing the effective viscosity formula of depth Zikanov et al. (2003) ,substitute actual data, assumed the bottom boundary layer viscosity along with depth change ν(z), substitute back to the original momentum equilibrium equation, simply estimates the viscosity changes with depth. The result of regression curve is an exponential curve, and the viscosity in the bottom boundary layer bigger along with the bottom distance increasing but it does not include below boundary layer 3 m apart. With Zikanov et al. (2003) is apart from the instrument 1-17 m to the viscosity change to be approximately similar, only different in the bottom, the Zikanov curve is apart from below instrument 5 m, the viscosity become increase, but the viscosity of data analysis in this research goes on lessening to the instrument 3 m apart.

碩士
國立臺中科技大學
商業設計系碩士班
106
A metaphysical scholar, Andy Clark, suggests that a language is a system that its practical niche falls in humen; in other words, a language gains its foothold because humen use it, which also means a language has its niche. After martial law era was ended in 1987, Taiwanese society entered a blooming era of diverse thinkings. Back then, design theories and visual communications flourished and prospered. Gradually, after thirty years, the late post-martial law era arrived. Prior to this time, the development of the once thriving Taiwanese culture design stopped at a point but then proceeded and later prospered again. Was this because the niche of practical culture design not clear and clarified? Since literature developed the awareness of the late post-martial law era, it has been a trend for art practice to echo the prosperous late post-martial law perspectives in recent years. Literature leads the way for art and then for design. However, the advancement in design field still stalls. The demonstration of Taiwanese culture has gained its foothold in literature and art, yet the practice of Taiwanese culture seems to need to advance more in design. To help understand the cultural practice of the late post-martial law era design, through the analysis of literature and documents, this research sorts out and sums up doubts and concludes that design is a system which is needed by culture and history. Therefore, the niche of design lies in culture and history, and the practical niche of Taiwanese culture design lies in the objective interpretations of history. The linguistic environment in the late martial-law society grows prosperous but still has a vague tendency in cultural aspect; also, its core spirit stays in a status of disperse paradox. This causes culture design''s development to hit a bottleneck and make the practice of Taiwanese culture design remain in a state of self-isolation. However, the multicultural Taiwanese society needs to spiritually unite so that its culture design will have a practical implementation to help itself enter the international community and gain its niche in the world. This research suggests that as the contemporary Taiwanese are anticipating prospective thinkings to create a vista of blue ocean strategy, they, especially, should make the practice of Taiwanese culture design have a distinctive, tough aggressiveness so that the existing core spirit of Taiwan can be carried forward to create economic output values in the late post-martial law era and thereby help steady the niche of Taiwanese culture design. Therefore, this research concludes three proposals: (1) Implement Taiwanese island history to be the foundation of culture design; (2) Construct the Taiwanese life values of design aesthetics; (3) Be duty-bound to the establishment of “Branding Taiwan.”

The goal of this PhD thesis is to provide an overview on the very different aspects of modern gravimetric research. In particular, this geophysical method is applied here on the one hand as volcano monitoring tool essentially by continuous gravity observations while, on the other hand, for the construction of density-velocity 3D regional models by an integrated inversion procedure of gravimetric and seismic data. The first section concentrates on continuous gravity observation performed at different sites of both Etna and Stromboli volcanoes. The gravity studies allow investigation of mass displacements (magma) and density variations (deep structures) under volcano edifices. Results are presented from high precision gravity measurements fully corrected using tidal and drift optimization programs and having a standard error of few μgal. Tidal analyses results of the treated data sets are also shown and discussed in the first section. Moreover, the simultaneous recording of external parameters (atmospheric pressure, temperature and humidity) is essential as their effects must be removed from the gravity records. The analyses carried out with different processing techniques on several data sets led us to point out the temperature as the responsible parameter for the annual drift present in the records of spring gravimeters. During the end of 2002 one of the gravimetric signals acquired on Mt. Etna showed, in its final residuals reaching a 5 μgal precision, a strong decrease of about 400 μgal in few hours. Correlation between this gravity decrease, on the one hand, and the other geophysical and geochemical signals – in particular the seismic and ground deformation data – as well as the observed summit activities, on the other hand, enable us to qualify the recorded gravity variation as a precursor of the 2002 eruption period. By comparison with simultaneous ground deformation data it is shown that the observed gravity changes are not in general caused by elevation changes but are due to the direct gravitational effect of subsurface movements of matter. Residual gravity changes are interpretable entirely in terms of mass changes in crater conduits and in near-surface dykes lying along know fissure system. Furthermore, the summit activity is consistent with a source at greater depth. Gravity measurements may thus not only contribute to a better understanding of some important features of geodynamics in volcanoes but may also be used directly for the monitoring and the prediction of the eruptions. Section two addresses the unresolved question of the possible interference between tidal forces and volcanism. After the discussion of gravimetric tide results and the determination of tidal parameters, this section is completely devoted to “tidal modulation” of thermometric data acquired at sites very close to the summit active craters of Mt Etna. The intuition that these types of data may contain some geophysical signals related to the tidal stress-strain action, as an evidence of the tidal influence on volcanic processes, comes from the following boundary consideration: since the volcanic areas are characterised by high heat fluxes due to the presence of magma bodies near the surface, taking into account that convection is the major heat transfer mechanism, the tidal strain field within the volcanic edifice could affect this convective process. Some time variations of the efficiency of the convective process should produce corresponding temperature changes observable at shallow depth. The aim of the study is thus to investigate about the presence of a periodic variation due to the main lunar tidal component (M2, tidal period of 12.421 hours). This component is chosen in order to rule out the solar radiation effects. The data set at hand was thus processed with a stacking technique coupled with a wavelet analysis for a preliminary denoising. Through the proposed procedure an anomalous amplitude of the spectral component with a period equal to that of the M2 tidal wave was found. This evidence opens a scientific speculative argument about the interaction between tidal forces and volcanic processes highlighting the possibility, under some particular conditions, of dynamic triggering. The last section deals with a seismo-gravity integrated inversion procedure for the construction of reliable 3D models of the Sicilian area and its surrounding basins. The proposed procedure allows inverting seismic and gravimetric data with a sequential technique to avoid the problematic optimization of assigning relative weights to the different types of data. The proposed procedure underlined the necessity of the different data integration although the seismic problem seemed to be a priori well constrained. Furthermore, it allowed highlighting some velocity and density features that could play a crucial rule for the reconstruction of the geodynamic evolution of the study area.
Università degli studi di Palermo, I.N.G.V. sezione di Catania, International Center for Earth Tides (Royal Observatory of Belgium)
Unpublished
2.6. TTC - Laboratorio di gravimetria, magnetismo ed elettromagnetismo in aree attive
open

Prostate cancer is the most common malignancy afflicting Canadian men in 2011. Physicians use digital rectal exams (DRE), blood tests for prostate specific antigen (PSA) and transrectal ultrasound (TRUS)-guided biopsies for the initial diagnosis of prostate cancer. None of these tests detail the spatial extent of prostate cancer - information critical for using new therapies that can target cancerous prostate. With an MRI technique called proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (1H-MRSI), biochemical analysis of the entire prostate can be done without the need for biopsy, providing detailed information beyond the non-specific changes in hardness felt by an experienced urologist in a DRE, the presence of PSA in blood, or the “blind-guidance” of TRUS-guided biopsy. A hindrance to acquiring high quality 1H-MRSI data comes from signal originating from fatty tissue surrounding prostate that tends to mask or distort signal from within the prostate, thus reducing the overall clinical usefulness of 1H-MRSI data. This thesis has three major areas of focus: 1) The development of an optimized 1H-MRSI technique, called conformal voxel magnetic resonance spectroscopy (CV-MRS), to deal the with removal of unwanted lipid contaminating artifacts at short and long echo times. 2) An in vivo human study to test the CV-MRS technique, including healthy volunteers and cancer patients scheduled for radical prostatectomy or radiation therapy. 3) A study to determine the efficacy of using the 1H-MRSI data for optimized radiation treatment planning using modern delivery techniques like intensity modulated radiation treatment. Data collected from the study using the optimized CV-MRS method show significantly reduced lipid contamination resulting in high quality spectra throughout the prostate. Combining the CV-MRS technique with spectral-spatial excitation further reduced lipid contamination and opened up the possibility of detecting metabolites with short T2 relaxation times. Results from the in vivo study were verified with post-histopathological data. Lastly, 1H-MRSI data was incorporated into the radiation treatment planning software and used to asses tumour control by escalating the radiation to prostate lesions that were identified by 1H-MRSI. In summary, this thesis demonstrates the clinical feasibility of using advanced spectroscopic imaging techniques for improved diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer.

Traditionally, ocean tides have been modelled in frequency domain with forcing of selected tidal constituents. It is a natural approach, however, non-linearities of ocean dynamics are implicitly neglected. An alternative approach is time-domain modelling with forcing given by the full lunisolar potential, i.e., all tidal constituents are included. This approach has been applied in several ocean tide models, however, a few challenging tasks still remain to solve, for example, the assimilation of satellite altimetry data. In this thesis, we present DEBOT, a global and time-domain barotropic ocean tide model with the full lunisolar forcing. DEBOT has been developed "from scratch". The model is based on the shallow water equations which are newly derived in geographical (spherical) coordinates. The derivation includes the boundary conditions and the Reynolds tensor in a physically consistent form. The numerical model employs finite differences in space and a generalized forward-backward scheme in time. The validity of the code is demonstrated by the tests based on integral invariants. DEBOT has two modes for ocean tide modelling: DEBOT-h, a purely hydrodynamical mode, and DEBOT-a, an assimilative mode. We introduce the assimilative scheme applicable in a time-domain model, which is an alternative to existing...