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RATIONALE Archaea have characteristic membrane lipids including diether and/or tetraether isoprenoidal core lipids with various polar head groups. Since the polar group is removed soon after the end of archaeal activity, the occurrences of core and polar lipids are regarded as dead and active signals, respectively. The core and polar lipids have generally been analyzed separately using atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) and electrospray ionization (ESI), respectively, coupled with mass spectrometry. METHODS In this study, simultaneous analyses of core and polar archaeal lipids have been examined using heated electrospray ionization (HESI) by high-performance liquid chromatography/high-resolution mass spectrometry (HPLC/HRMS). RESULTS Both core and intact polar lipids can be analyzed simultaneously by HESI with good sensitivity (sub ng to 100 ng) and separation using a semi-bore diol column by normal-phase chromatography. The core lipids eluted firstly to separate archeaol, then glycerol dibiphytanyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs), followed by the polar lipids with glycosides and glycophosphates. The relative GDGT composition is identical between HESI and APCI methods. CONCLUSIONS The simultaneous analysis has the benefit of minimizing sample amount and elution solvent as well as preparation work. The method can also be applied to a compound class fractionation for compound-specific carbon and hydrogen isotope analysis.

To the best of our knowledge, the method of prediction coordinates is the only forecasting method in nonlinear time series analysis that explicitly uses the stochastic characteristics of a system with dynamical noise. Specifically, it generates multiple predictions to jointly infer the current states and dynamical noises. Recent findings based on hypothesis testing show that weather is nonlinear and stochastic and, therefore, so are renewable energy power outputs. This being the case, in this paper, we apply the method of prediction coordinates to forecast wind power ramps, which are rapid transitions in the wind power output that can deteriorate the quality of the electricity supply. First, the method of prediction coordinates is tested using numerical simulations. Then, we present an example of wind power ramp forecasting with empirical data. The results show that the method of prediction coordinates compares favorably with other methods, validating it as a reliable tool for forecasting transitions in nonlinear stochastic dynamics, particularly in the field of renewable energies.

This project studies mathematical theory of modelling complex systems and its wide-ranging transdisciplinary applications in science and technology from the viewpoint of mathematical engineering.

Since the initial discovery of hydrothermal vents in 1977, these ‘extreme’ chemosynthetic systems have been a focus of interdisciplinary research. The Okinawa Trough (OT), located in the semi-enclosed East China Sea between the Eurasian continent and the Ryukyu arc, hosts more than 20 known vent sites but all within a relatively narrow depth range (600–1880 m). Depth is a significant factor in determining fluid temperature and chemistry, as well as biological composition. However, due to the narrow depth range of known sites, the actual influence of depth here has been poorly resolved. Here, the Yokosuka site (2190 m), the first OT vent exceeding 2000 m depth is reported. A highly active hydrothermal vent site centred around four active vent chimneys reaching 364°C in temperature, it is the hottest in the OT. Notable Cl depletion (130 mM) and both high H2 and CH4 concentrations (approx. 10 mM) probably result from subcritical phase separation and thermal decomposition of sedimentary organic matter. Microbiota and fauna were generally similar to other sites in the OT, although with some different characteristics. In terms of microbiota, the H2-rich vent fluids in Neuschwanstein chimney resulted in the dominance of hydrogenotrophic chemolithoautotrophs such as Thioreductor and Desulfobacterium. For fauna, the dominance of the deep-sea mussel Bathymodiolus aduloides is surprising given other nearby vent sites are usually dominated by B. platifrons and/or B. japonicus, and a sponge field in the periphery dominated by Poecilosclerida is unusual for OT vents. Our insights from the Yokosuka site implies that although the distribution of animal species may be linked to depth, the constraint is perhaps not water pressure and resulting chemical properties of the vent fluid but instead physical properties of the surrounding seawater. The potential significance of these preliminary results and prospect for future research on this unique site are discussed., Royal Society Open Science, 4 (12), ISSN:2054-5703

We show that heartbeats can be chaotic under the influence of the central nerve systems only. By using constant flow ventilation, the heartbeats of dogs were separated from phasic respiratory motion and measured. By using techniques of nonlinear time series analysis, three pieces of evidence are presented for the existence of chaos.

We propose a method to reproduce distance matrices and original time series from recurrence plots. The procedure is to (i)convert a recurrence plot to a weighted graph and (ii)calculate a distance between each pair of nodes on this weighted graph. We demonstrate this method by reproducing the topological shape of original time series. We also propose two applications. The first application is to obtain the maximal Lyapunov exponent from a recurrence plot without reproducing the shapes of original time series. The second application is to reconstruct a common deterministic driving force from observations of forced systems. Thus, the method opens new fields in data analysis.

We recorded time series data of calls of Japanese tree frogs (Hyla japonica; Nihon-Ama-Gaeru) and examined the dynamics of the experimentally observed data not only through linear time series analysis such as power spectra but also through nonlinear time series analysis such as reconstruction of orbits with delay coordinates and different kinds of recurrence plots, namely the conventional recurrence plot (RP), the iso-directional recurrence plot (IDRP), and the iso-directional neighbors plot (IDNP). The results show that a single frog called nearly periodically, and a pair of frogs called nearly periodically but alternately in almost anti-phase synchronization with little overlap through mutual interaction. The fundamental frequency of the calls of a single frog during the interactive calling between two frogs was smaller than when the same frog first called alone. We also used the recurrence plots to study nonlinear and nonstationary determinism in the transition of the calling behavior. Moreover, we quantified the determinism of the nonlinear and nonstationary dynamics with indices of the ratio R of the number of points in IDNP to that in RP and the percentage PD of contiguous points forming diagonal lines in RP by the recurrence quantification analysis (RQA). Finally, we discuss a possibility of mathematical modeling of the calling behavior and a possible biological meaning of the call alternation.

Given time series, a primary concern is existence of serial dependence and determinism. They are often tested with Random-shuffle surrogates, which totally break serial dependence, and the Wayland method. Since the statistic of the Wayland method fundamentally shows a smaller value for a more deterministic time series, for real-world data, we usually expect that the statistic for the original data is smaller than or equal to those of Random-shuffle surrogates. However, we show herewith an opposite result with wind data in high time resolution. We argue that this puzzling phenomenon can be produced by observational or dynamical noise, both of which may be produced by a low-dimensional deterministic system. Thus the one-sided test is dangerous.

We have analyzed time series data of sound on interactive calling behavior of two male Japanese tree frogs (Hyla japonica; Nihon-Ama-Gaeru). First, we have extracted two time series data mainly corresponding to respective frogs from the single time series data of calls of two frogs by the free and cross-platform sound editor Audacity. Then, we have quantitatively analyzed timing and inter-call intervals of respective frogs. Finally, we have characterized nonstationarily temporal change of the interactive calling behavior of two frogs by analysis of the cross recurrence plot. The results have shown that a pair of male frogs called in almost anti-phase synchronization after a short-term period of nearly in-phase synchronization, which implies existence of complex interactive calling behavior of two male frogs.

When we observe a system, we often cannot observe all its variables and may have some of its limited measurements. Under such a circumstance, delay coordinates, vectors made of successive measurements, are useful to reconstruct the states of the whole system. Although the method of delay coordinates is theoretically supported for high-dimensional dynamical systems, practically there is a limitation because the calculation for higher-dimensional delay coordinates becomes more expensive. Here, we propose a parsimonious description of virtually infinite-dimensional delay coordinates by evaluating their distances with exponentially decaying weights. This description enables us to predict the future values of the measurements faster because we can reuse the calculated distances and more accurately because the description naturally reduces the bias of the classical delay coordinates toward the stable directions. We demonstrate the proposed method with toy models of the atmosphere and real datasets related to renewable energy.