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This paper describes the continuous improvement efforts to manage the integrity status of the Southern North Sea subsea pipeline system in the context of free spanning. The dynamic free-spanning threat is typically attributed to a mobile seabed. Current and wave action are constantly moving and eroding sediment by means of sand wave migration and scouring. It can lead to a fluctuation in span characteristics with respect to span length, span height and location over time. It makes pipeline integrity demonstration and spans remediation challenges. Focus areas include (1) identifying regions where operational pipelines are susceptible to critical span formation (2) understanding the broader context of seabed mobility, supported by several years of multibeam echo sound and met ocean data (3) risk-ranking & criticality of span formation (4) developing simplified calculation tool that allows fatigue damage to be estimated and accumulated for every location along the pipeline, conservatively (5) optimising and incorporating risk/event-based survey requirements (6) identification of suitable remediation solutions and developing a decision flow chart to facilitate selection of fit for purpose remediation solutions, with respect to span configuration and the surrounding seabed features. The outcome has improved the robustness of span management, reduced “reactive” span remediation activities, and allowed application of sound technical theory to allocate pipeline traffic light integrity status regarding the observed free spans.

This paper describes a multi-pronged continuous improvement effort to manage the spans of a deep-water pipeline, where even without wave action, the currents are strong enough to move sediments, leading to constantly changing spans. The effort includes: (1) using strakes rather than intermediate supports to suppress VIV, since the latter proved not to be a long-term solution, (2) using partial rather than full strake coverage of spans and developing tools to quantify the level of strake coverage that is required, (3) improving estimates of soil stiffness and damping, and tools to handle amplitude-dependent soil stiffness and damping, (4) performing pluck tests of the operating pipeline by pulling it laterally at midspan with the ROV until a weak link connecting the ROV to the pipe breaks, whereupon the resulting motion of the pipe is recorded with accelerometers, (5) developing tools that allow fatigue damage to be estimated and accumulated for every location along the pipeline (6) sponsoring a joint industry program by DNVGL to quantify the effect of seabed proximity and trench effects on VIV. This paper provides an overview of these activities, with emphasis on recent results and new assessment tools and methods developed and their validation covering items (2–4) above.

To survive, animals have to quickly modify their behaviour when the reward changes. The internal representations responsible for this are updated through synaptic weight changes, mediated by certain neuromodulators conveying feedback from the environment. In previous experiments, we discovered a form of hippocampal Spike-Timing-Dependent-Plasticity (STDP) that is sequentially modulated by acetylcholine and dopamine. Acetylcholine facilitates synaptic depression, while dopamine retroactively converts the depression into potentiation. When these experimental findings were implemented as a learning rule in a computational model, our simulations showed that cholinergic-facilitated depression is important for reversal learning. In the present study, we tested the model’s prediction by optogenetically inactivating cholinergic neurons in mice during a hippocampus-dependent spatial learning task with changing rewards. We found that reversal learning, but not initial place learning, was impaired, verifying our computational prediction that acetylcholine-modulated plasticity promotes the unlearning of old reward locations. Further, differences in neuromodulator concentrations in the model captured mouse-by-mouse performance variability in the optogenetic experiments. Our line of work sheds light on how neuromodulators enable the learning of new contingencies., Author summary Reversal learning likely involves changes in synaptic connections, a neural mechanism known as synaptic plasticity, so old information can be updated. We previously discovered that acetylcholine, an important neuromodulator in the brain, changes synaptic connections in a way that favours reversal learning. Specifically, acetylcholine weakens active synapses in brain slices, but these synapses can later be strengthened by a reward signal. Based on this result in slices, we used a computational model to propose a behavioural function for the action of acetylcholine on synaptic connections. In the model, acetylcholine would weaken synaptic connections associated with an old reward, allowing an agent to quickly learn a new reward location. We tested this hypothesis here by silencing acetylcholine neurons in mice while they navigated a maze for food rewards. These animals were able to learn the location of the first food reward, but were impaired when the reward was shifted to a new location. The behavioural results of this study suggest that acetylcholine indeed facilitates reversal learning, which the computational model attributes to a weakening of synaptic connections that do not lead to reward. Taken together, our experimental and computational work show how synaptic strength changes, gated by neuromodulators, affect learning behaviour.

Background Lineage 4 of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC), mainly epidemic in Europe and Americas, presents in high proportions in South China and is believed to enter China around the 13th century, when the important human migratory events of the Maritime Silk Road and “Huguang Filling Sichuan” population migration happened in China. This study was to explain the coincidence of these two events with lineage 4’s high proportion in South China. Methods Based on the spatial interpolation analysis of the genotyping data of 25,575 MTBC isolates, the distribution of lineage 4 was compared with that of targeted surname populations and the Maritime Silk Road’s main ports. Results The results showed that lineage 4 distribution in China could be mapped to the regions affected by “Huguang Filling Sichuan” population migration; while the distribution of lineage 4’s two sub-lineages in Asia, Europe, Africa and Oceania could be best explained by the Maritime Silk Road. Conclusion Our results suggest that these two events might pose a crucial shared influence, leading to the greater incidence of lineage 4 in South China. And this may contribute to our better understanding of the prevailing tuberculosis landscape in China and facilitate the epidemiological investigations and tracking of emerging MTBC clones.

The uv-faceting imaging is one of the widely used large field of view imaging technologies, and will be adopted for the data processing of the low-frequency array in the first stage of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA1). Due to the scale of the raw data of SKA1 is unprecedentedly large, the efficiency of data processing directly using the original uv-faceting imaging will be very low. Therefore, a uv-faceting imaging algorithm based on the MPI (Message Passing Interface)+OpenMP (Open Multi-Processing) and a uv-faceting imaging algorithm based on the MPI+CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) are proposed. The most time-consuming data reading and gridding in the algorithm are optimized in parallel. The verification results show that the results of the proposed two algorithms are basically consistent with that obtained by the current mainstream data processing software CASA (Common Astronomy Software Applications), which indicates that the proposed two algorithms are basically correct. Further analysis of the accuracy and total running time shows that the MPI+CUDA method is better than the MPI+OpenMP method in both the correctness rate and running speed. The performance test results show that the proposed algorithms are effective and have certain extensibility.

As a high-yielding forage grass, Phalaris arundinacea widely distributed in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau region of China. To explore physiological and molecular response mechanism of Phalaris arundinacea under waterlogging, we analyzed the biomass and physiological indexes of three locally grown strains under the submerged condition of 10 cm. The material Z0611 showed the strongest waterlogging resistance while the YS showed the weakest performance. Transcriptome sequencing analysis demonstrated that the YS and Z0611 had 17010 and 7566 differently expression genes (DEGs), respectively, which were mainly concentrated in the metabolic process, cell, ribosome, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis pathway in GO and KEGG databases. We also identified a large number of genes involved in carbohydrate metabolism, hormone signaling regulation, transcription factors, antioxidant system, and ethylene signaling. Our research may provide a scientific basis for the restoration of wetland environment on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and lay a foundation for further exploration of the waterlogging resistance genes of Phalaris arundinacea and breeding of new strains resistant with waterlogging stress.

Helical strakes can suppress vortex-induced vibrations (VIVs) in pipelines spans and risers. Pure in-line (IL) VIV is more of a concern for pipelines than for risers. To make it possible to assess the effectiveness of partial strake coverage for this case, an important gap in the hydrodynamic data for strakes is filled by the reported IL forced-vibration tests. Therein, a strake-covered rigid cylinder undergoes harmonic purely IL motion while subject to a uniform “flow” created by towing the test rig along SINTEF Ocean's towing tank. These tests cover a range of frequencies, and amplitudes of the harmonic motion to generate added-mass and excitation functions are derived from the in-phase and 90 deg out-of-phase components of the hydrodynamic force on the pipe, respectively. Using these excitation- and added-mass functions in VIVANA together with those from experiments on bare pipe by Aronsen (2007 “An Experimental Investigation of In-Line and Combined In-Line and Cross-Flow Vortex Induced Vibrations,” Ph.D. thesis, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.), the IL VIV response of partially strake-covered pipeline spans is calculated. It is found that as little as 10% strake coverage at the optimal location effectively suppresses pure IL VIV.

A novel solution to mitigate pipeline walking, namely the use of pipe-clamping mattresses (PCMs), was first developed for the Malampaya project (Frankenmolen et al. 2017). Comprising a hinged concrete structure designed to clamp onto a section of pipeline, and supporting (post-installed) ballast weight that is transferred directly to the pipeline, PCMs are considered a highly efficient alternative to more traditional solutions such as rock dump or concrete mattress. The original PCM geotechnical design was based primarily on analyses extrapolated from pipeline-seabed interaction, supported by a standard suite of classification and interface tests. Physical model testing was not performed. While observations (taken since installation) show that the PCMs have effectively mitigated pipeline walking in the seabed conditions at Malampaya, their performance in other soil types has not been investigated. To provide further evidence on the effectiveness of PCMs, and investigate their performance over time, a series of centrifuge tests were performed in a soil sample representative of deep-water Gulf of Mexico conditions. In each test, a model representing the PCM was installed on the pipeline section, which was then subjected to cyclic axial displacement. Settlement of the pipeline-PCM system, as well as changes in axial resistance, were directly measured and are reported in this paper.

Key uncertainties in the assessment of subsea pipeline spans for fatigue due to vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) are the effective axial force, the soil spring stiffness, and the soil damping. To reduce these uncertainties, pluck tests have been carried out, to determine the natural frequency and damping of single and multiple spans. These are carried out by pulling the span laterally at midspan with the ROV, until a 6mm or 8mm PP rope that serves as a weak link in the connection from the pipeline and the ROV breaks. The free vibrations resulting from this pluck are measured with accelerometers attached to the pipeline. The paper presents selected results from these tests and their interpretation in terms modal frequencies and damping ratios. Already at the achieved amplitudes of vibration of up to about 0.01D, the results already show considerable nonlinearity and inelasticity that is thought to come from the soil supporting the pipe at the shoulders of the span, and can be captured in FE models by making the soil springs nonlinear and inelastic.

The detection of topological phases of matter has become a central issue in recent years. Conventionally, the realization of a specific topological phase in condensed matter physics relies on probing the underlying surface band dispersion or quantum transport signature of a real material, which may be imperfect or even absent. On the other hand, quantum simulation offers an alternative approach to directly measure the topological invariant on a universal quantum computer. However, experimentally demonstrating high-dimensional topological phases remains a challenge due to the technical limitations of current experimental platforms. Here, we investigate the three-dimensional topological insulators in the AIII (chiral unitary) symmetry class, which yet lack experimental realization. Using the nuclear magnetic resonance system, we experimentally demonstrate their topological properties, where a dynamical quenching approach is adopted and the dynamical bulk-boundary correspondence in the momentum space is observed. As a result, the topological invariants are measured with high precision on the band-inversion surface, exhibiting robustness to the decoherence effect. Our Letter paves the way toward the quantum simulation of topological phases of matter in higher dimensions and more complex systems through controllable quantum phases transitions.

Behavioral profiling of players in digital games is a key challenge in game analytics, representing a particular challenge in Open-World Games. These games are characterized by large virtual worlds and few restrictions on player affordances. In these games, incorporating the spatial and temporal dimensions of player behavior is necessary when profiling behavior, as these dimensions are important to the playing experience. We present analyses that apply cluster analysis and the DEDICOM decompositional model to profile the behavior of more than 5,000 players of the major commercial title Just Cause 2 integrating both spatio-temporal trails and behavioral metrics. The application of DEDICOM to profile the spatio-temporal behavior of players is demonstrated for the purpose of analysing the entire play history of Just Cause 2 players, but also for the more detailed analysis of a single mission. This showcases the applicability of spatio-temporal profiling to condense player behavior across large sample sizes, across different scales of investigation. The method presented here provides a means to build profiles of player activity in game environments with high degrees of freedom across different scales of analysis - from a small segment to the entire game.

Excitation and added mass functions determined from forced vibration tests of a rigid cylinder undergoing harmonic motion in the flow are used in the semi-empirical software VIVANA to predict the VIV response of pipelines. An advantage of this approach, as opposed to the more-commonly-used response function approach, is that it can account for changing conditions along the length of the pipe, like changing current velocity, seabed proximity, and/or pipe diameter. This makes it useful for pipelines as well as for risers when such changes occur. Further, for pipelines, travelling wave effects play less of a role than for risers, so the VIVANA approach can be simplified by assuming the phase angle of the harmonic response is constant along the span. The interactions between cross-flow and in-line response that complicate the prediction of cross-flow VIV by the excitation function approach, do not arise for pure inline VIV. For the latter case, using the pure in-line forced vibration test data of Aronsen (2007), it is found that both VIVANA approach and simplified ‘SIVANA’ approach thereof predict VIV amplitudes consistent with experiments on flexible pipe (Ormen Lange umbilical VIV tests), and the DNVGL-RP-F105 response function for a range of structural and soil damping values. In a companion paper, this approach is applied partially strake-covered pipeline spans, to show that a relatively small fraction of well-placed strake coverage is enough to suppress in-line VIV.

Glutamine synthetase (GS), which catalyzes the production of glutamine, plays essential roles in most biological growth and biofilm formation, suggesting that GS may be used as a promising target for antibacterial therapy. We asked whether a GS inhibitor could be found as an anti-infective agent of Staphylococcus xylosus (S. xylosus). Here, computational prediction followed by experimental testing was used to characterize GS. Sorafenib was finally determined through computational prediction. In vitro experiments showed that sorafenib has an inhibitory effect on the growth of S. xylosus by competitively occupying the active site of GS, and the minimum inhibitory concentration was 4 mg/L. In vivo experiments also proved that treatment with sorafenib significantly reduced the levels of TNF-α and IL-6 in breast tissue from mice mastitis, which was further confirmed by histopathology examination. These findings indicated that sorafenib could be utilized as an anti-infective agent for the treatment of infections caused by S. xylosus.

A series of experiments is performed in which a strake-covered rigid cylinder undergoes harmonic purely in-line motion while subject to a uniform “flow” created by towing the test rig along SINTEF Ocean’s towing tank. These tests are performed for a range of frequencies and amplitudes of the harmonic motion, to generate added-mass and excitation functions are derived from the in-phase and 90° out-of-phase components of the hydrodynamic force on the pipe, respectively. Using these excitation- and added-mass functions in VIVANA together with those from experiments on bare pipe by Aronsen (2007), the in-line VIV response of partially strake-covered pipeline spans is calculated. It is found that as little as 10% strake coverage at the optimal location effectively suppresses pure in-line VIV. Further advantages of strakes rather than intermediate supports to suppress in-line VIV include: strakes are not affected by the scour which can lower an intermediate support (in addition to creating the span in the first place). Further they do not prevent self-lowering of the pipeline or act as a point of concentration of VIV damage as the spans to each side of the intermediate support grow again.

The atom manipulation technique based on scanning tunneling microscope refers to a method of relocating single atoms or molecules on a certain surface at atomic accuracy by using an atomically sharp tip, which is a unique and powerful tool for studying the quantum physics and prototype quantum devices on a nanometer scale. This technique allows us to build artificial structure atom-by-atom, thus some desired interesting quantum structures which are difficult to grow or fabricate by conventional methods could be realized, and unique quantum states, spin order, band structure could be created by the fine tuning of the structural parameters like lattice constant, symmetry, periodicity, etc. Combined with nanosecond scale time domain electric measurement and autonomous control technique, the atom manipulation would be useful in exploring the atomic precision prototype quantum devices, and providing some valuable knowledge for future electronics. In this review, we introduce the atom manipulation technique and related milestone research achievements and latest progress of artificial quantum structures, including electronic lattices with exotic quantum states on Cu(111), quantum dots on III-V semiconductors, magnetic structures with tunable spin order, structures for quantum information storage and processing, prototype Boolean logic devices and single atom devices. The STM lithography and autonomous atom manipulation are discussed as well. With such improvements, this technique would play more important roles in developing the functional quantum devices in future.

In shallow waters, subsea pipelines can suffer fatigue damage from Vortex Induced Vibrations (VIV) by the combined effects of waves and currents. A full characterization of the joint probability distribution of waves and currents involves at least 5 variables, 2 for currents (magnitude and direction), and 3 for waves (significant wave height, mean wave direction, and wave period at the peak of the spectrum). In lieu of sufficient data to adequately characterize the associated joint probability density function, DNV GL in their “Recommended Practice” propose an approximation: Assume that the direction of current and wave effects is always the same, but for a given direction, waves and currents are assumed statistically independent. In this paper 28 years of hindcast data are used to test the accuracy of this colinearity approximation in the Sea of Okhotsk. Rather than attempting to estimate a joint probability density function in 5 variables, the span fatigue assessment is simply performed for the entire 28 years of the hindcast database to obtain an average rate of fatigue damage. It is found that this history-based approach can lead to fatigue damage rates that are much higher than those derived from the colinearity assumption. This non-conservatism of the colinearity assumption, arises for pipeline orientations for which both waves and currents can contribute strongly to the VIV response without being exactly colinear. It is concluded that caution is needed in using the colinearity assumption, but an update of the span assessment procedure should also address issues for which current assessment procedures are conservative, such as seabed proximity and trench effects, nonlinearity in the pipe-soil interaction, and the change in axial forces due to transverse displacements of the pipe, which are expected under extreme combined current and wave conditions, as envisioned on on-bottom stability design criteria.

China׳s wind power industry experienced rapid growth before 2009. However, the growing rate slowed down and the problem of wind curtailment was serious recent years. This paper focuses on the analysis of the turning point of China׳s wind power industry combing with life circle theory. With a panoramic view of status quo, based on the resource endowment, capacity development and future trends, we draw the following conclusions: (1) China׳s potential wind power reserves are still rich and the development of wind power industry will sustain growth for some period in the future. (2) As for market structure aspect, oligopolistic characteristic of China׳s wind power market is still obvious. The market share of China׳s wind power generation is not very high enough in the total generation market. (3) Turning point of China׳s wind power industry has not come yet and the slowing down of development speed at present is mainly caused by inappropriate government intervention. It is estimated the turning point of wind power industry will come around 2020.