A new micro-optical vibration sensor has been achieved by combining “integrated optics” and “micromachining” on silicon technologies. The high sensitivity and the wide frequency range have been obtained by using a multimode section in the optical detection circuit. Three prototypes have been installed successfully in an industrial hydroelectric power plant.

The paper presents a software agents society, which implements a more efficient control and monitoring system for a complex heterogeneous system – multiple hydroelectric power plants connected in a chain on Somes River. The agent society can be superimposed over the existing SCADA control and monitoring network and aims to increase performance, efficiency and stability in the existing monitorin...

INTRODUCTION: Hydrilla verticillata L.f. Royle (hydrilla; Hydrocharitaceae), an invasive submersed plant native to Southeast Asia and Australia, was first introduced into the US through the aquarium trade in Florida in the 1950s (Schmitz et al. 1991). Hydrilla impacts freshwater resources in the US by its aggressive, canopy-forming growth that degrades aquatic ecosystems, limits recreation, fou...

Megadamania The global desire to develop energyhungry industries and Western lifestyles, combined with the necessity to do so without further increasing the use of fossil fuels, has led to a massive spree of dam building around the world. A recent assessment by Christiane Zarfl from the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries at Berlin, Germany, and colleagues estimates tha...

Mega hydropower projects in tropical forests pose a major emergent threat to terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity worldwide. Despite the unprecedented number of existing, under-construction and planned hydroelectric dams in lowland tropical forests, long-term effects on biodiversity have yet to be evaluated. We examine how medium and large-bodied assemblages of terrestrial and arboreal verte...

Total mercury (THg) and methylmercury (MeHg) levels have been determined in fish species representing various tropic levels in four major hydroelectric reservoirs (Mtera, Kidatu, Hale-Pangani, Nyumba ya Mungu) located in two distinct geographical areas in Tanzania. The Mtera and Kidatu reservoirs are located along the Great Ruaha River drainage basin in the southern central part of the country ...