Observations by the international tsunami survey team in Sri Lanka

In response to the 26 December 2004 tsunami, a survey team of scientists was dispatched to Sri Lanka. Measurements made by the team show that the tsunami elevation and runup ranged from 5 to 12 meters. Eyewitnesses report that up to three separate waves attacked the coast, with the second or third generally the largest. Our conclusion stresses the importance of education: Residents with a basic knowledge of tsunamis, as well as an understanding of how environmental modifications will affect overland flow, are paramount to saving lives and minimizing tsunami destruction.     

Irrigation systems as multiple-use commons: Water use in Kirindi Oya, Sri Lanka

Irrigation systems are recognized as common pool resources supplying water for agricultural production, but their role in supplying water for other uses is often overlooked. The importance of non-agricultural uses of irrigation water in livelihood strategies has implications for irrigation management and water rights, especially as increasing scarcity challenges existing water allocation mechanisms. This paper examines the multiple uses of water in the Kirindi Oya irrigation system in Sri Lanka, who the users are, and implications for water rights and management policies. There are important residential, gender, and class differences among the water users. People use irrigation system water not only for field crops, but also for fishing, homestead gardens, and livestock. Even within irrigated farming households, men have more control over paddy crops in the main fields, whereas homestead gardens are women's domain. Because the irrigation system provides water for birds and animals, even wildlife and non-resident environmental groups can be considered stakeholders. Current policies emphasize user involvement in both irrigation and domestic water supply. While government agencies have had primary responsibility, institutions such as Farmers' Organizations are being promoted. These have the potential to serve as user platforms for negotiating water allocation among irrigated farmers. However, the user organizations reflect the sectoral responsibility of the government agencies. Their membership and structure do not take into account the multiple uses or users of water. Developing platforms that accommodate different user groups remains a major challenge for improving the overall productivity, as well as equity, of water use.     

斯里兰卡茶叶生产、加工与销售及对中国的启示

斯里兰卡是世界红茶生产和出口第一大国,茶叶的品质和质量位居世界首位。本文阐述了斯里兰卡茶叶生产过程中十分重视良种技术与茶园管理,加工设备十分先进,加工技术水平很高,生产与加工销售高度整合等现状,为中国乃至世界茶叶生产国家提供借鉴。     

One-time transfers of cash or capital have long-lasting effects on microenterprises in Sri Lanka

Standard economic theory suggests that one-time business grants can have at most temporary effects, and accordingly, policies to increase incomes of the self-employed in developing countries typically rely on sustained engagement. In contrast, we found long-lasting impacts from one-time grants given in a randomized experiment to subsistence firms. Five years after we gave $100 or $200 to 115 of 197 male and 100 of 190 female Sri Lankan microenterprise owners, we found 10-percentage-point-higher enterprise survival rates, and $8-to-$12-per-month-higher profits for male-owned businesses that received the grants. Female-owned businesses showed no long-term (or short-term) impacts. Our follow-up investigation interviewed 94% of the original sample and collected survivorship data from the remaining 6%, demonstrating that tracking long-term outcomes is both feasible and worthwhile. The results suggest that one-off grants may have lasting impacts on some types of subsistence firms, challenging the view that sustained engagement is always required.     

African hot spot volcanism: small-scale convection in the upper mantle beneath cratons

Numerical models demonstrate that small-scale convection develops in the upper mantle beneath the transition of thick cratonic lithosphere and thin oceanic lithosphere. These models explain the location and geochemical characteristics of intraplate volcanos on the African and South American plates. They also explain the presence of relatively high seismic shear wave velocities (cold downwellings) in the mantle transition zone beneath the western margin of African cratons and the eastern margin of South American cratons. Small-scale, edge-driven convection is an alternative to plumes for explaining intraplate African and South American hot spot volcanism, and small-scale convection is consistent with mantle downwellings beneath the African and South American lithosphere.     

Cassini encounters Enceladus: background and the discovery of a south polar hot spot

The Cassini spacecraft completed three close flybys of Saturn's enigmatic moon Enceladus between February and July 2005. On the third and closest flyby, on 14 July 2005, multiple Cassini instruments detected evidence for ongoing endogenic activity in a region centered on Enceladus' south pole. The polar region is the source of a plume of gas and dust, which probably emanates from prominent warm troughs seen on the surface. Cassini's Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) detected 3 to 7 gigawatts of thermal emission from the south polar troughs at temperatures up to 145 kelvin or higher, making Enceladus only the third known solid planetary body-after Earth and Io-that is sufficiently geologically active for its internal heat to be detected by remote sensing. If the plume is generated by the sublimation of water ice and if the sublimation source is visible to CIRS, then sublimation temperatures of at least 180 kelvin are required.     

斯里兰卡引进稻种资源蒸煮食用与营养品质分析

【目的】对引自斯里兰卡的水稻品种进行蒸煮食用及营养品质分析,以期发现可利用的优良或特殊的稻种资源材料,以利于我国水稻生产和育种。【方法】2014年4—10月,以引进的65个籼稻品种为材料,采用单因素随机区组排列,进行田间常规种植收获后,对各品种的蒸煮食用品质和营养品质进行分析。【结果】各品种直链淀粉的质量分数为21.35%~29.34%,供试品种间表现差异不显著;蛋白质质量分数为5.24%~9.17%,供试品种间表现为显著差异;氨基酸总含量中必需氨基酸占33.80%~36.30%,非必需氨基酸占63.70%~66.20%。相关性分析和主成分分析表明,营养品质因子(氨基酸)对稻米品质影响最大(贡献率为53.447%),其含量越高,稻米直链淀粉含量越低,同时蒸煮食用品质越差。通过聚类分析,65个品种被归为4类,各具特点。【结论】所引进的水稻品种,特点不一,可作为原材料供将来生产和育种选用。     

Physalaemin: an amphibian tachykinin in human lung small-cell carcinoma

Immunoreactivity to the amphibian peptide physalaemin was characterized from extracts of a human lung small-cell carcinoma by immunological, chemical, and pharmacological means. Tumor-related peptide cross-reacted with three antiserums to physalaemin to yield 1.1 to 1.6 nanomoles per gram of tissue. Physalaemin and tumor peptide had similar retention times on high-performance liquid chromatography after chemical and enzymic modifications that included pH changes, oxone oxidation, use of a hydrophilic ion-pairing reagent, and digestion with trypsin and pyroglutamate aminopeptidase. Both physalaemin and the tumor peptide produced a contractile response of isolated guinea pig ileum at threshold concentrations of approximately 100 to 150 picograms per milliliter. These data suggest that small-cell carcinoma of the lung contains a physalaemin-like peptide that has structural and biological homology to its amphibian counterpart.     

Phase-resolved spectroscopy of Geminga shows rotating hot spot(s)

Isolated neutron stars are seen in x-rays through their nonthermal and/or surface thermal emissions. X-ray Multimirror Mission-Newton observations of the Geminga pulsar show a 43-electron volt spectrum from the whole neutron star surface, as well as a power-law component above 2 kiloelectron volts. In addition, we have detected a hot (170 electron volts) thermal emission from an approximately 60-meter-radius spot on the pulsar's surface. Such a thermal emission, only visible at selected phase intervals, may be coming from polar hot spot(s), long thought to exist as a result of heating from magnetospheric accelerated particles. It may provide the missing link between the x-ray and gamma-ray emission of the pulsar.     

我国土壤盐碱化问题研究脉络和热点分析

为全面了解我国盐碱地研究的演化脉络、现状及前沿热点,以中国知网为数据源,借助可视化软件CiteSpce,运用文献计量学方法对1992—2021年国内发表的22 606篇论文,从发文量和关键词等方面进行分析。结果表明:1)1992—2021年盐碱地研究经历了稳定发展、快速增长和相对饱和3个时期,发文数量总体呈上升趋势;2)研究主题围绕盐胁迫对植物生理生态特征的影响、盐碱地基础理论研究以及改良修复措施、土壤水盐运移机理和水资源高效利用、土壤盐碱化监测管理和盐生植物开发利用等5个主题展开;3)演化脉络历经盐碱地基础研究、盐碱化动态监测和盐碱地生态修复这3个阶段。综上,当前我国土壤盐碱化问题研究热点主要集中在基于生态修复对新方法、新材料和新技术的探索与利用方面,未来盐碱地应加强基因技术、植物根际促生菌以及机器学习算法等前沿热点在盐碱地治理中的研究和应用。     

48,000 years of climate and forest change in a biodiversity hot spot

A continuous 48,000-year-long paleoecological record from Neotropical lower montane forest reveals a consistent forest presence and an ice-age cooling of approximately 5 degrees to 9 degrees C. After 30,000 years of compositional stability, a steady turnover of species marks the 8000-year-long transition from ice-age to Holocene conditions. Although the changes were directional, the rates of community change were no different during this transitional period than in the preceding 30,000-year period of community stability. The warming rate of about 1 degrees C per millennium during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition was an order of magnitude less than the projected changes for the 21st century.