The purpose of this study is to understand the composition of the secondary forest of Nanjenshan area. A 5-ha plot was established at altitudes 200-264m on the north ridge of Nanjenshan. All free-standing woody plantsin the plot with DBH¡Ù1cm were identified, measured, tagged and mapped. A total of 108 tree species belonging to 40 families and 77 genera was recorded. The dominant species are Acacia confusa, Lagerstroemia subcostata, Psychotria rubra, Ficus septica¤ÎDendrocnide meyeniana. The dominant families are Fabaceae, Moraceae, Euphorbiaceae, Rubiaceae¤ÎLythraceae. TWINSPAN analysis reveales four groups. Group 1 is dominanted by Acacia confusa, Glochidion philippicum and Psychotria rubra. Group 2 is dominanted by Acacia confusa, Psychotria rubra and Lagerstroemia subcostata. Group 3 is dominanted by Acacia confusa, Psychotria rubra and Glochidion rubrum. Group 4 is dominanted by Acacia confusa, Lagerstroemia subcostata and Dendrocnide meyeniana. There are four kind of distribution pattern in this plot. Machilus obovatifolia and Osmanthus marginatus occurred on the hilltop; Dendrocnide meyeniana and Ficus virgata occurred on the middle-woody site; Zanthoxylum ailanthoides and Wendlandia uvariifolia only occurred along the steamside; Acacia confusa and Psychotria rubra were commonly distributed over the plot.

¡@¡@Morphological image processing technique has been well applied to many image processing areas. However, its long computation time usually can¡¦t be accepted when run on a general purpose sequential computer. Instead of conventional image data representation, some special data structures have led to the development of efficient algorithms. ¡@¡@The quadtree data structure has been well applied to the field of computer vision such as image segmentation and compression. The quadtree with its hierarchical data structure are advantageous due to its ability to focus on the interesting subsets of the data. Thus, the quadtree data structure are particularly convenient for set operations. Therefore, the computation for morphology processing will be facilitated by using the quadtree data structure since the set operations are the basics of the morphology processing. ¡@¡@Although many fast morphological image processing methods have been presented, there is still a need for developing a distributed computing architecture for morphological processing. We propose a scheme direct connection for client to client to improve the data transfer efficiency. Also, the image data is compressed by the quadtree for the transmission efficiency. Due to the efficiency of the network connection and data compression, we have established an efficient web-based distributed work station for morphological image processing.

This dissertation is intended to explore the design of a dual connection skeleton (DCS), which facilitates effective and efficient exploitation of Internet-centric collaborative workgroup and high performance metacomputing applications. The predominant difference between DCS and conventional frameworks is that DCS administers a network of brokers that are grouped into a logical ring. New mechanisms for group collaboration, load distribution, and fault tolerance, which are three crucial issues in Internet-based computing, are proposed and integrated into the dual connection skeleton. Collaborative workgroup becomes a significant common issue when we attempt to develop wide area applications supporting computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW). For group collaboration, DCS therefore offers a strategy for concurrency control that ensures the consistency of shared resources. By using the strategy, multiple users in a collaborative group are able to simultaneously access shared data without violating its consistency. With respect to load distribution, additionally, DCS applies an adaptive highest response ratio next (AHRRN) algorithm to job scheduling. Performance evaluations on competing algorithms, such as shortest job first (SJF), highest response ratio next (HRRN), and first come, first served (FCFS) are conducted. Simulation results demonstrate that AHRRN is not only an efficient algorithm, but also is able to prevent the well-known job starvation problem. In a parallel computational application, one can further decompose a composite job into constituent tasks such that these tasks can be assigned to different PEs for concurrent execution. The dual connection skeleton thus makes use of a proposed dynamic grouping scheduling (DGS), to undertake task scheduling for performance improvement. The DGS algorithm employs a task grouping strategy to determine computational costs of tasks. It re-prioritizes unscheduled tasks at each scheduling step to explore an appropriate task allocation decision. In terms of the schedule length, the performance of DGS has been evaluated by comparing with some existing algorithms, such as Heavy Node First (HNF), Critical Path Method (CPM), Weight Length (WL), Dynamic Level Scheduling (DLS), and Dynamic Priority Scheduling (DPS). Simulation results show that DGS outperforms these competing algorithms. Moreover, as for fault tolerance, DCS utilizes a dual connection mechanism for computational reliability enhancement. For the sake of constructing dual connection, we examine five approaches: RANDOM, NEXT, ROTARY, MINNUM, and WEIGHT. Each one of these approaches can be incorporated into DCS-based wide-area metacomputing systems. Performance simulation shows that WEIGHT benefits the dual connection the most. A DCS-based scientific computational application named the motion correction is used to demonstrate the fault tolerant ability of DCS. Putting the group collaboration, load distribution, and fault tolerance issues together, the dual connection skeleton forms a seamless and integrated framework for Internet-centric computing.

Abstract The distribution and reproductive cycle of the sponge Halichondria okadai were investigated at Peng-Hu from June, 2000 to February, 2002. The sponge population was mostly distributed in the midlittoral zone. The size of sponges increased or decreased in the range of 33.3% ~ -16.7%. The substrata were mainly composed by grains with sizes of 0.12~0.84 mm. The sponge is gonochorism. Early stage oocytes were found in March. Mature eggs and embryos were observed from April to September, with a peak period from June to August. The reproductive season extends from March through September which is correlated to annual changes of water temperature. The size of embryos ranged from 260 to 450£gm and the density was up to 1331 per (0.5 cm)3 in May. To our knowledge, the embryo density is the highest one in the sponge group. Juveniles settled in the back side of rocks. When the juveniles moved to the rock surface, the color changed from white to black.

The compositions of a series of poly (ethylene/trimethylene terephthalate) copolyesters were identified by 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR. The ethylene terephthalate (ET) units are 8.9, 33.7, 37.9, 50.1, 72.5, 77.8, and 90.8% in the copolyesters with sample codes of C2, C3, C4, C5, C6, C7, and C8, respectively. The triad sequence probabilities were determined from the normalized areas of aromatic quaternary carbons. The calculated average-number sequence lengths of ethylene- and trimethylene- terephthalate units range from 1.0 to 10.2 that depends on the relative ratio of both units in the copolymer. The values of randomness parameter for all of these copolyesters are between 0.96 and 1.1. Both values of sequence length and randomness parameter indicate that these copolyesters are random copolymers. Differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) was used to study the isothermal crystallization kinetics and the melting behaviors at heating rates of 10 and 50¢XC/min. The average enthalpy of isothermal crystallization (DH) decreased from 47 to 28 J/g when the ET units in the copolymer increased from 8.9% (C2) to 72.5% (C6), and then the enthalpy increased up to 42 J/g for the C8 copolymer with 90.8% of ET units. The results of Avrami analysis yielded one (n1) or two exponents. The n1 values of all of these copolymers were between 2.03 and 2.98. It suggests that the primary crystallization followed a heterogeneous nucleation with two-three dimensional form of growth. While investigating the isothermal crystallization, DSC specimens were crystallized for 9-14 times of the peak time to ensure the completion of crystallization. Both heating curves at 10 and 50¢XC/min showed multiple endothermic peaks. Triple-melting peaks were detected at lower crystallization temperature (Tc), then the medium and the highest temperature peaks merged gradually to form double-melting peaks with increase in Tc, finally, all three peaks merged together to become a single peak at higher Tc. The low temperature melting peak was associated with the last step of secondary crystallization. The middle temperature melting peak was considered to be characteristic of the melting of the crystals formed in the primary crystallization. The highest temperature melting peak may be due to the melting of crystallite formed by melting and recrystallization during the DSC heating scans. From the results of multiple melting behaviors at a heating rate of 50¢XC/min, the melting peak temperatures of primary crystals were plotted versus the crystallization temperature, Tc. The Hoffman-Weeks plot gave an equilibrium melting temperature, . Using the half-time of crystallization (t1/2) for analysis, regime II¡÷III transition was found for each copolyester. The pairs of ( , ) in unit of ¢XC are (237.1, 193.6), (198.9, 147.3), (187.9, 140.4), (226.6, 164.8), (230.1, 172.0), and (261.1, 208.4) for C2, C3, C4, C6, C7, and C8, respectively. Finally, the overall crystallization rates (1/ t1/2) were compared at equivalent supercooling, DT ( - Tc). The C2 copolyester crystallized the fastest and at lower supercooling. C3 and C4 copolyesters had very similar rates. The C6 copolyester crystallized the slowest and at higher supercooling. At DT = 50~60¢XC, the rates of C7 were close to those of C3 and C4 copolyesters, then the C7 copolyester crystallized faster at higher supercooling. The average value of DH or crystallinity decreased from ¡V47 to ¡V32 J/g when the minor component, ET unit, increasesd from 8.9% (C2) to 37.9% (C4), and then the crystallinity increased from ¡V28 to ¡V42 J/g as the ET unit increases from 72.5% (C6) to 90.8% (C8). It indicated that the number and the distribution of minor component in the main chain should affect the nucleation rate, the growth rate and the final crystallinity of the copolyesters.

Abstract There are 43 species of deep-sea eels of 8 families, which including 1 species of Chlopsidae, 2 species of Muraenidae, 3 species of Ophichthide, 14 species of Congridae, 2 species of Muraenesocidae, 2 species of Nemichthyidae, 2 species of Nettastomidae, and 15 species of Synaphobranchidae, which its depth from 150 to 1200 meters and distribution from NE coast to the coast of Taitong and SW coast in Taiwan waters. Meanwhile, there are 3 new species (i.e., Dysomma longirostrum, Ophichthus aphotistos, Synaphobranchus sinensis) and 11 new records (i.e., Chilorhinchus platyrhynchus, Ophisurus macrorhynchus, Rhechias retrotincta, Macroceohenchelys brachialis, M. soela, Japonoconger sivicolus, nettastoma solitarium, Meadia abyssale, Dysommina rugosa, Ilyophis brunneus, Synaphobranchus kaupi) are described. The study in this part also recognize vertebral formulae is useful of elucidating the difference among the species. Morphology of swimbladder, stomatch, gonads of the deep-sea eels and the melanin layer of diaphragm are able to be as a distinctive character to find out the relationship among the species and the families. Most eels¡¦ reproductive season concentrate on September to November, whatever, the synaphobranchids have two reproductive seasons, which are on May and September to October. And it should become important to make further research on the above phenomenon. True eels (anguilliforms) form a monophyletic taxon from 16 apomorphic characters, e.g., Well-developed olfactory bulbs, lateral-protruded telencephalon, large-sized tectum, a distinct gap between telencephalon and tectum, reduced neural arch, hamel arch, and uroneural, triangled urostyle, epural absent, convergent hypural, fused hypural 1-2 and hypural 3-4-5, gap between hypural 1-2 and parhypural, and a gap between hypural 1-2 and hypural 3-4-5. The present study also find (1) Muraenoidei and angulloidei are a sister ¡Vgroup by sharing a slit between telencephalon and tectum, smaller olfactory bulb and lobe, and slit on area posttrema; (2)Congroidei is a monophyletic group by sharing an oval tectum, large cerebellum, and ungrooved area postrema, fusion of hypural 3, 4, and 5; (3) Congroidea and Synaphobranchoidea share a fusion of parhypural with hypural 1 and a concave present between uroneural and hypural, which should be treated as a sister group; (4) most eels of Congridae share a FS-caudal-fin and should be treated as a clade; (5) Most eels of Ophichthidae share a reduced and degraded caudal-fin, which should be monoplyletic; (6) Synaphobranchinae¡BSimenchelyinae and Ilyophinae, uniquely sharing well¡Vdeveloped olfactory bulb, small telencephalon, lateral protrusion of telencephalon well developed, and cerebellum folded posteriorly, a CLC- caudal-fin and elevated hypural 3-4-5, and fusion of hypural 4 and 5, are belong to a monophyletic group; (7) a gap between parhypural and hypural 1 indicate Simenchelyinae and Ilyophinae should be treated as a sister group; (8) Eurypharynx, Cyema, and Monognathus sharing a reduced caudal fin and brain, which need further research to elucidate their relationship; (9) Dark-red saccus vasculosus appears to recommend a close relationship between Gavialiceps taeniola and duckbill eels. (10) A disc-like hypophysis suggests the eels, Albula, Pterothrissus, Notacanthus, Megalops, and Elops are closely related groups; (11) Albula, Pterothrissus, Megalops, and Elops share a distinct morphological type of tectum and cerebellum and they should be treated as closely related groups; (12) The brains¡¦ gross morphology of Albula, Pterothrissus, Megalops, and Elops are well developed, a correlation distinctly similar to that of the Clupea which need further study on the relationship among the taxa mentioned above and the Clupeiformes.

Customer side automations including automatic metering reading and load interruption are parts of an overall distribution automations (DA). Fault detection isolation and service restoration are considered the most beneficial functions among various DA functions. Due to the extensive areas covered by the distribution network, it is difficult to gather all real-time information from the distribution network. In order to aid in the monitoring of the power delivery quality and detecting fault, an automatic reporting system based on a digital signal processor, a public telephone system and a database system is presented in this thesis. In this system when the sensor detects a low voltage or lose of power, an alarm call will be placed via the telephone network. It will also report the energy usage of customer on a regular base. The control center master then organizes all incoming data into a useful information and displays the locations as they occur. This system will be useful to monitor power at various levels of the distribution circuits.

This dissertation defines the operational problems of, and develops solution methodologies for, a distribution of multiple products into oil pipeline subject to delivery time-windows constraints. A multiple-product oil pipeline is a pipeline system composing of pipes, pumps, valves and storage facilities used to transport different types of liquids. Typically, products delivered by pipelines are petroleum of different grades moving either from production facilities to refineries or from refineries to distributors. Time-windows, which are generally used in logistics and scheduling areas, are incorporated in this study. The distribution of multiple products into oil pipeline subject to delivery time-windows is modeled as multicommodity network flow structure and mathematically formulated. The main focus of this dissertation is the investigation of operating issues and problem complexity of single-source pipeline problems and also providing solution methodology to compute input schedule that yields minimum total time violation from due delivery time-windows. The problem is proved to be NP-complete. The heuristic approach, a reversed-flow algorithm, is developed based on pipeline flow reversibility to compute input schedule for the pipeline problem. This algorithm is implemented in no longer than O(T*E) time. This dissertation also extends the study to examine some operating attributes and problem complexity of multiple-source pipelines. The multiple-source pipeline problem is also NP-complete. A heuristic algorithm modified from the one used in single-source pipeline problems is introduced. This algorithm can also be implemented in no longer than O(T*E) time. Computational results are presented for both methodologies on randomly generated problem sets. The computational experience indicates that reversed-flow algorithms provide good solutions in comparison with the optimal solutions. Only 25% of the problems tested were more than 30% greater than optimal values and approximately 40% of the tested problems were solved optimally by the algorithms.

The Unidata Program Center is an organization working with the University Center for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), in Colorado. It provides a broad variety of meteorological data, which is used by researchers in many real-world applications. This data is obtained from observation stations and distributed to various universities worldwide, using Unidata’s own Internet Data Distribution (IDD) system, and software called the Local Data Manager (LDM). The existing solution for data distribution has many limitations, like high end-toend latency of data delivery, increased bandwidth usage at some nodes, poor scalability for future needs and manual intervention for adjusting to changes or faults in the network topology. Since the data is used in so many applications, the impact of these limitations is often substantial. This thesis removes these limitations by suggesting improvements in the IDD system and the LDM. We present new algorithms for constructing an application-layer data distribution network. This distribution network will form the basis of the improved LDM and the IDD system, and will remove most of the limitations given above. Finally, we perform simulations and show that our algorithms achieve better average end-to-end latency as compared to that of the existing solution. We also compare the performance of our algorithms with a randomized solution. We find that for smaller topologies (where the number of nodes in the system are less than 38) the randomized solution constructs efficient distribution networks. However, if the number of nodes in the system increases (more than 38), our solution constructs efficient distribution networks than the randomized solution. We also evaluate the performance of our algorithms as the number of nodes in the system increases and as the number of faults in the system increases. We find that even if the number of faults in the system increases, the average end-to-end latency decreases, thus showing that the distribution topology does not become inefficient.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the distribution and growth of the Black-Disease-causing Terpios hoshinota, including the effects of light, depth and nutrient on their growth at Green Island and Orchid Island. We also simulated the future coverage of black disease based on present data. Most T. hoshinota colonies were distributed at 2-3 meters (0-62 ind./100 m2) and the densities decrease with depth (0-5 ind./100 m2, at 10 m). The BD density at north and east coast were higher than that at west coast at Green Island, but no such difference occurred at Orchid Island. There were many small sponges and the number decrease with size. The frequency distribution of log-transformed lengths displayed a normal distribution. In comparing various recruitment models, i.e., normal, uniform, exponential and seasonal, we found that the actual size distribution is only compatible with the exponential temporal pattern. Thus more and more recruits may be entering the population continuously. The average growth rate of T. hoshinota is 0.18 cm/day, therefore the largest sponge at Green Island might have grown for only 2-4 years (340 cm).Two independent nutrient experiments did not detect the effects of nutrient addition on growth rates of the sponge. Comparison of BD densities and house numbers near the reef failed to reveal correlation. Most sponge colonies could not grow normally when shaded. The sponges transported to deeper water (15-20 m) might suffer tissue loss, but if they survived, they grew as fast as those controls at shallow waters (5-10 m). Growth rates of T. hoshinota differed by seasons within our testing period from April to July, 2008. The sponge expanded slower on non-coral substrate, at about 55% the rate, than those on corals. T. hoshinota grow on artificial substrate like glass, antifouling coatings, soft corals and other sponges. Using BD densities, sizes, growth rates and coral coverage, we simulated the BD colony distribution to predict its future coverage. We found that the sponge has the potential to cover the shallow reefs in 3-5 years at Green Island. The actual rate of increase at Gon-guan reef between 2007 and 2008 supports the above prediction.