We assessed changes in the microbial communities in ballast water during a trans-Pacific voyage from Japan to Australia that included a mid-ocean ballast-water exchange. Uncultured (i.e., total) and culturable bacteria were counted and were characterized by using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). There was a clear decrease over time in numbers of uncultured microorganisms, except ...

Based on the analysis of operation principles of conventional self-exciting electronic ballast, the cause of high switching loss has been researched. In order to reduce switch temperature and increase the reliability of the whole circuit, drive circuit of self-exciting electronic ballast has been improved to achieve soft switch. Circuit simulations and experimental results are coincided with th...

A ballasted railway track system comprises several components among which steel rails, rail fasteners, timber, steel or concrete sleepers, granular ballast, sub-ballast, and subgrade materials are the main parts. Railway track systems are constructed to provide a smooth and safe running surface for passenger or freight trains. They are designed to sustain the force of lateral, longitudinal and ...

The operation of the carbon cycle forms an important part of the processes relevant to future changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide. The balance of carbon between terrestrial and oceanic reservoirs is an important factor and here we focus in particular on the oceans. Future changes in the carbon cycle that may affect air-sea partitioning of CO(2) are difficult to quantify but the palaeoceanogra...

Ballast water in ships is an important contributor to the secondary spread of invasive species in the Laurentian Great Lakes. Here, we use a model previously created to determine the role ballast water management has played in the secondary spread of viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV) to identify the future spread of one current and two potential invasive species in the Great Lakes, the ...

Structural motifs encapsulate local sequence-structure-function relationships characteristic of related proteins, enabling the prediction of functional characteristics of new proteins, providing molecular-level insights into how those functions are performed, and supporting the development of variants specifically maintaining or perturbing function in concert with other properties. Numerous com...

Nowadays seas and oceans are exposed to serious threats such as land-based sources of marine pollution, the overexploitation of living marine resources, the physical alteration or destruction of the marine habitat and the horizontal transfer of marine species to new environments in ballast water. When marine species are introduced into new environments and the living conditions there are favora...

The spread and invasion of many nonindigenous species in the ship’s ballast water around the world has been a hazard and threat to ecology, economy, and human health. The rapid and accurate detection of marine invasive species in ship’s ballast water is essential. This article is aimed at analysing ballast water quality by means of a changeable microfluidic chip detector thus comply with the D-...

Ship-borne ballast water contributes significantly to the transfer of non-indigenous species across aquatic environments. To reduce the risk of bio-invasion, ballast water should be treated before discharge. In this study, the efficiencies of several conventional and advanced oxidation processes were investigated for potential ballast water treatment, using a marine dinoflagellate species, Scri...

Electrical Engineering (ABSTRACT) In a conventional electronic ballast for a fluorescent lamp, inductor-capacitor-transformer tank circuit is used. A Piezoelectric Transformer (PT) can potentially be used to replace such a tank circuit to save space and cost. In the past, ballast design using a PT requires selecting a PT from available samples which are normally not matched to specific applicat...