Assessing the Effects of Alternative Setback Channel Constraint Scenarios Employing a River Meander Migration Model

River channel migration and cutoff events within large river riparian corridors create heterogeneous and biologically diverse landscapes. However, channel stabilization (riprap and levees) impede the formation and maintenance of riparian areas. These impacts can be mitigated by setting channel constraints away from the channel. Using a meander migration model to measure land affected, we examined the relationship between setback distance and riparian and off-channel aquatic habitat formation on a 28-km reach of the Sacramento River, California, USA. We simulated 100 years of channel migration and cutoff events using 11 setback scenarios: 1 with existing riprap and 10 assuming setback constraints from about 0.5 to 4 bankfull channel widths (bankfull width: 235 m) from the channel. The percentage of land reworked by the river in 100 years relative to current (riprap) conditions ranged from 172% for the 100-m constraint setback scenario to 790% for the 800-m scenario. Three basic patterns occur as the setback distance increases due to different migration and cutoff dynamics: complete restriction of cutoffs, partial restriction of cutoffs, and no restriction of cutoffs. Complete cutoff restriction occurred at distances less than about one bankfull channel width (235 m), and no cutoff restriction occurred at distances greater than about three bankfull widths (∼700 m). Managing for point bars alone allows the setbacks to be narrower than managing for cutoffs and aquatic habitat. Results suggest that site-specific “restriction of cutoff” thresholds can be identified to optimize habitat benefits versus cost of acquired land along rivers affected by migration processes.     

The effects of direct and indirect constraints on biological communities

Human activities are expected to result in a diversity of directional or stochastic constraints that affect species either directly or by indirectly impacting their resources. However, there is no theoretical framework to predict the complex and various effects of these constraints on ecological communities. We developed a dynamic model that mimics the use of different resource types by a community of competing species. We investigated the effects of different environmental constraints (affecting either directly the growth rate of species or having indirect effects on their resources) on several biodiversity indicators. Our results indicate that (i) in realistic community models (assuming uneven resource requirements among species) the effects of perturbations are strongly buffered compared to neutral models; (ii) the species richness of communities can be maximized for intermediate levels of direct constraints (unimodal response), even in the absence of trade-off between competitive ability and tolerance to constraints; (iii) no such unimodal response occurs with indirect constraints; (iv) an increase in the environmental (e.g., climatic) variance may have different effects on community biomass and species richness.     

Ecosystems emerging. 5: Constraints

Ecosystem constraints are both ontic and epistemic. They limit activity, and as problems to be solved they drive organization, which is our hypothesis:

The driver of organization is constraint.

Solutions proliferate further constraints in an unending spiral of problem (constraint) generation and solution. As constraints proliferate, behavior narrows, and species diversify to compensate (paradox of constraint). Resource enrichment reduces constraints, releases behavior, and reduction of challenges decreases diversity (paradox of enrichment)—high diversity is expressed in low-resource environments and low diversity in high-resource environments. A three-part model of constraints is formulated for non-living systems, and also for goal-directed, problem-solving biota. Mode 1: dynamical means behavior is co-determined by internal states and external inputs. Mode 2: cybernetic employs negative feedback to keep dynamics within goal-oriented operating limits. Mode 3: model-making entails ability to represent (model) physical reality and respond to both phenomenal (modeled) and physical inputs; this property distinguishes living from nonliving systems. Principal sections of the paper elaborate dynamical constraints (three classes), boundary constraints (expressed in edge effects and trophic dynamics), physical constraints (space, time, temperature), chemical constraints (environment fitness, ecological stoichiometry, chemical evolution, limiting factors), coding constraints (environmental vs. genetic coding), network and pathway constraints (connectivity), and natural selection constraints (fitting to the biosphere). Consideration of how the world would look without constraints suggests how fundamental these are in ecosystem emergence, and how the next property in this series, differentiation, would be unmotivated without them. We conclude that constraints as a category are under-studied in ecology, poorly understood in ecological phenomenology, and (our hypothesis) comprise a ubiquitous organizing force in nature.     

覆盖件模具特征约束模型及其应用

针对覆盖件模具设计的复杂性、灵活性、经验性、模糊性．提出了一种基于特征的分层的约束模型。覆盖件模具特征分为冲压工艺特征、功能组合特征和基元特征三个层次，与此相应建立了分层的约束网，并叙述了其推理过程。     

金属塑性变形有限元模拟中的约束处理算法

此文提出了适用于金属体积成形过程有限元模拟的约束处理算法.该算法分为三部分.首先,将整个变形域上的节点分为潜在接触节点和非接触节点,分别建在立以节点位移为变量的子系统刚度方程.然后,以潜在接触节点的子系统为对象,确定每个节点与模具的接触状态,对实际接触摸具节点施加位移约束和摩擦条件,并求解耦合了位移约束和摩擦条件的刚度方程.第三,将上述求解的位移结果回代到非接触节点的子系统中,得到剩余节点的位移值.因此,整个系统的位移场以及应变、应力分布亦可确定.该算法的优点在于,将大系统分解为小系统分开求解,使每次求解的变量数目减少,从而可以处理较大规模的工程问题;只对含接触节点的子系统施行坐标变换、约束处理等,提高了有限元计算的效率;将位移约束、摩擦条件直接耦合到子系统中求解,当N—R迭代收剑时,力平衡条件与几何约束条件同时得到满足,从而保证了各控制方程之间的相容性,有利于提高迭代收敛速度和计算稳定性.