scholarly journals A buoyancy, balance and stability challenge to the hypothesis of a semi-aquaticSpinosaurusStromer, 1915 (Dinosauria: Theropoda)

PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e5409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald M. Henderson

A recent interpretation of the fossil remains of the enigmatic, large predatory dinosaurSpinosaurus aegyptiacusStromer 1915 proposed that it was specially adapted for a semi-aquatic mode of life—a first for any predatory dinosaur. To test some aspects of this suggestion, a three-dimensional, digital model of the animal that incorporates regional density variations, lungs and air sacs was generated, and the flotation potential of the model was investigated using specially written software. It was found thatSpinosauruswould have been able to float with its head clear of the water surface, although it was laterally unstable and would tend to roll onto its side. Similarly detailed models of another spinosauridBaryonyx(Suchomimus)tenerensisSereno et al. 1998, along with models of the more distantly relatedTyrannosaurus rexOsborn 1905,Allosaurus fragilisMarsh 1877,Struthiomimus altusLambe 1902, andCoelophysis bauriCope 1887 were also able to float in positions that enabled the animals to breathe freely, showing that there is nothing exceptional about a floatingSpinosaurus. Validation of the modelling methods was done with floated models of an alligator and an emperor penguin. The software also showed that the center of mass ofSpinosauruswas much closer to the hips than previously estimated, similar to that observed in other theropods, implying that this dinosaur would still have been a competent walker on land. With its pneumatised skeleton and a system of air sacs (modelled after birds), theSpinosaurusmodel was found to be unsinkable, even with its lungs deflated by 75%, and this would greatly hinder a semi-aquatic, pursuit predator. The conclusion is thatSpinosaurusmay have been specialized for a shoreline or shallow water mode of life, but would still have been a competent terrestrial animal.

1987 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 320-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merv D. Palmer ◽  
Rob Jarvis ◽  
Larry Thompson

Near the water surface, dispersion and transport were extensively measured in the coastal regions of Lake Ontario using dye patches and clusters of water sail and surface drogues. The measurements were carried out for 6–8 h. Each method produced different measurements of dispersion magnitudes with the largest dilution occurring for the dye, followed by sail drogue clusters (40% of the dye's value) and then surface drogue clusters (25% of the dye's value). Both the sail and surface drogues measured the two-dimensional dispersion. The mean surface dispersion was about 50% less than the dispersion 1.5 m below the water surface. The dilution characteristics decreased as the water surface was approached. The sail dispersion was about half of the dye-dispersion data. It was not known how much of the difference was attributable to the dye being three-dimensional and affected by dispersion in the vertical direction; consequently, as time progressed, the dye patch was measuring dispersion at greater depth than the water sail drogues, which were set for a depth 1.5 m below the water surface. The statistical increase of the variance with time was computed for each method of measuring dispersion, and the results were compared. A method for predicting dilution envelopes for a location using the path lines of the drogue-cluster centroids or center of mass of the dye patch was developed for both a batch release and a continuous discharge. These dilution envelopes are based entirely on Lagrangian data for both the velocity and dispersion estimates. Key words: lake, dispersion, drogue clusters, dye, surface streaking.


2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 306-311
Author(s):  
Yu. Kurochkin ◽  
Dz. Shoukavy ◽  
I. Boyarina

The immobility of the center of mass in spaces of constant curvature is postulated based on its definition obtained in [1]. The system of two particles which interact through a potential depending only on the distance between particles on a three-dimensional sphere is considered. The Hamilton-Jacobi equation is formulated and its solutions and trajectory equations are found. It was established that the reduced mass of the system depends on the relative distance.


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (15) ◽  
pp. 4116
Author(s):  
Nighat Usman ◽  
Omar Alfandi ◽  
Saeeda Usman ◽  
Asad Masood Khattak ◽  
Muhammad Awais ◽  
...  

Nowadays, there is a growing trend in smart cities. Therefore, Terrestrial and Internet of Things (IoT) enabled Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (TWSNs and IoT-UWSNs) are mostly used for observing and communicating via smart technologies. For the sake of collecting the desired information from the underwater environment, multiple acoustic sensors are deployed with limited resources, such as memory, battery, processing power, transmission range, etc. The replacement of resources for a particular node is not feasible due to the harsh underwater environment. Thus, the resources held by the node needs to be used efficiently to improve the lifetime of a network. In this paper, to support smart city vision, a terrestrial based “Away Cluster Head with Adaptive Clustering Habit” (ACH) 2 is examined in the specified three dimensional (3-D) region inside the water. Three different cases are considered, which are: single sink at the water surface, multiple sinks at water surface,, and sinks at both water surface and inside water. “Underwater (ACH) 2 ” (U-(ACH) 2 ) is evaluated in each case. We have used depth in our proposed U-(ACH) 2 to examine the performance of (ACH) 2 in the ocean environment. Moreover, a comparative analysis is performed with state of the art routing protocols, including: Depth-based Routing (DBR) and Energy Efficient Depth-based Routing (EEDBR) protocol. Among all of the scenarios followed by case 1 and case 3, the number of packets sent and received at sink node are maximum using DEEC-(ACH) 2 protocol. The packets drop ratio using TEEN-(ACH) 2 protocol is less when compared to other algorithms in all scenarios. Whereas, for dead nodes DEEC-(ACH) 2 , LEACH-(ACH) 2 , and SEP-(ACH) 2 protocols’ performance is different for every considered scenario. The simulation results shows that the proposed protocols outperform the existing ones.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 20180043 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascal Freyer ◽  
Bodo D. Wilts ◽  
Doekele G. Stavenga

The blue neck and breast feathers of the peacock are structurally coloured due to an intricate photonic crystal structure in the barbules consisting of a two-dimensionally ordered rectangular lattice of melanosomes (melanin rodlets) and air channels embedded in a keratin matrix. We here investigate the feather coloration by performing microspectrophotometry, imaging scatterometry and angle-dependent reflectance measurements. Using previously determined wavelength-dependent refractive indices of melanin and keratin, we interpret the spectral and spatial reflection characteristics by comparing the measured spectra to calculated spectra by effective-medium multilayer and full three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain modelling. Both modelling methods yield similar reflectance spectra indicating that simple multilayer modelling is adequate for a direct understanding of the brilliant coloration of peacock feathers.


2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 660-664 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. T. Bates ◽  
P. L. Falkingham

Bite mechanics and feeding behaviour in Tyrannosaurus rex are controversial. Some contend that a modest bite mechanically limited T. rex to scavenging, while others argue that high bite forces facilitated a predatory mode of life. We use dynamic musculoskeletal models to simulate maximal biting in T. rex . Models predict that adult T. rex generated sustained bite forces of 35 000–57 000 N at a single posterior tooth, by far the highest bite forces estimated for any terrestrial animal. Scaling analyses suggest that adult T. rex had a strong bite for its body size, and that bite performance increased allometrically during ontogeny. Positive allometry in bite performance during growth may have facilitated an ontogenetic change in feeding behaviour in T. rex , associated with an expansion of prey range in adults to include the largest contemporaneous animals.


2014 ◽  
Vol 69 (6) ◽  
pp. 1334-1343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shasha Lu ◽  
Ruijie Li ◽  
Xiaoming Xia ◽  
Jun Zheng

Measuring pollutant concentrations in major tributaries is the standard method for establishing pollutant fluxes to the sea. However, this method is costly and difficult, and may be subject to a great deal of uncertainty due to the presence of unknown sources. This uncertainty presents challenges to managers and scientists in reducing contaminant discharges to water bodies. As one less costly method, a three-dimensional model was developed and used to predict pollutant fluxes to the sea. The sorptive contaminant model was incorporated into hydrodynamic and sediment models. Adsorption–desorption of copper by sediments in the Oujiang estuary were described using Henry's law. The model was validated using measured data for water surface elevations, flow velocity/direction, suspended sediment concentrations, and the proportion of copper sorbed to sediment. The validated model was then applied to predict fluxes of copper. Combined with the measured data, the copper concentration in the Oujiang River discharge was calculated as 13.0 μg/L and copper fluxes were calculated as 52 t in 2010. This copper flux prediction was verified using measured dissolved copper concentrations. Comparisons between the modeled and measured results showed good agreement at most stations, demonstrating that copper flux prediction in the Oujiang estuary was reasonably accurate.


Author(s):  
Abdullah Guvendi

We investigate the dynamics of a composite system ([Formula: see text]) consisting of an interacting fermion–antifermion pair in the three-dimensional space–time background generated by a static point source. By considering the interaction between the particles as Dirac oscillator coupling, we analyze the effects of space–time topology on the energy of such a [Formula: see text]. To achieve this, we solve the corresponding form of a two-body Dirac equation (fully-covariant) by assuming the center-of-mass of the particles is at rest and locates at the origin of the spatial geometry. Under this assumption, we arrive at a nonperturbative energy spectrum for the system in question. This spectrum includes spin coupling and depends on the angular deficit parameter [Formula: see text] of the geometric background. This provides a suitable basis to determine the effects of the geometric background on the energy of the [Formula: see text] under consideration. Our results show that such a [Formula: see text] behaves like a single quantum oscillator. Then, we analyze the alterations in the energy levels and discuss the limits of the obtained results. We show that the effects of the geometric background on each energy level are not same and there can be degeneracy in the energy levels for small values of the [Formula: see text].


2018 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 00194
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Wolski ◽  
Tomasz Tymiński ◽  
Grzegorz Chrobak

This paper presents results of numerical modelling of riverbed segment with riparian vegetation performed with use of CCHE2 software. Vegetation zones are places where dynamic of water flow increases. Therefore, there is a need of careful examination of hydraulic impact structure of such zones. Accurate research is necessary and should be performed with use of physical or numerical models, two or three dimensional. Paper presents distribution of velocity and area of water surface for two variants of vegetation deposition acquired in CCHE2D software and modelled for riverbed with distinctive riparian vegetation. Results point to significant (30–40%) increase of maximal velocities in riverbed with riparian vegetation, while directly near the vegetation there were zones with very low velocities. Local damming occurs before vegetal zone. Maximal shear stress in zones with increased velocity is significantly augmented compared to conditions with no vegetation, which can cause more intensive erosion in those zones


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madhusmita Das ◽  
Pravati Kumari Mahapatra

The present paper describes a sequential study of the leukocyte profiles and the changes in morphometry and morphology of erythrocytes in the tadpoles ofPolypedates teraiensisduring their development and metamorphosis, that is, transfer from an aquatic mode to a terrestrial mode of life. Blood smears of 21 different stages (Gosner stage 26 to 46) of tadpoles were investigated. Population of erythrocytes was heterogeneous in population represented by various forms (oval, elliptical or rounded cells, comma shaped, teardrop shaped, schistocytes, senile erythrocytes, crenulated RBCs). Correlation between various morphometric values of erythrocytes was determined with different developing stages of tadpoles. Amongst the leucocytes, the lymphocytes were the most abundant cells followed by neutrophils. Neutrophils and monocytes showed varied morphologic forms. The percentage of lymphocytes and neutrophils showed a negative whereas percentage of eosinophil, basophil, and monocytes showed a positive correlation with the developmental stages of tadpoles. Blood platelets were also observed, which were rounded in shape and found in aggregates.


2001 ◽  
Vol 90 (1) ◽  
pp. 205-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guido Baroni ◽  
Alessandra Pedrocchi ◽  
Giancarlo Ferrigno ◽  
Jean Massion ◽  
Antonio Pedotti

The adaptation of dynamic movement-posture coordination during forward trunk bending was investigated in long-term weightlessness. Three-dimensional movement analysis was carried out in two astronauts during a 4-mo microgravity exposure. The principal component analysis was applied to joint-angle kinematics for the assessment of angular synergies. The anteroposterior center of mass (CM) displacement accompanying trunk flexion was also quantified. The results reveal that subjects kept typically terrestrial strategies of movement-posture coordination. The temporary disruption of joint-angular synergies observed at subjects' first in-flight session was promptly recovered when repetitive sessions in flight were analyzed. The CM anteroposterior shift was consistently <3–4 cm, suggesting that subjects could dynamically control the CM position throughout the whole flight. This is in contrast to the observed profound microgravity-induced disruption of the quasi-static body orientation and initial CM positioning. Although this study was based on only two subjects, evidence is provided that static and dynamic postural control might be under two separate mechanisms, adapting with their specific time course to the constraints of microgravity.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document