Water pollution: organic compounds in the Charles River, Boston

The major lipophilic organic compounds present in water collected during November and December 1971 from the Charles River Basin (Boston) are as follows: normal alkanes (C(15) to C(31)), alkyl naphthalenes, alkyl anthracenes or phenanthrenes, pyrene, fluoranthene, dibutyl phthalate, and di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate. The concentration of the naphthalenes (determined by liquid chromatography) correlates with the effective storm-water runoff content of the river. These data suggest a multiplicity of sources ranging from indigenous biological materials to automobile exhaust condensate.     

Geologists Get Together to Dissect Earth's Thin Skin

At the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Boston during late October, Earth's crust came in for close scrutiny. One surprise was its age: Chemical and isotopic evidence suggested the crust formed soon after the planet did. Participants also discussed features of today's crust, including a horizontal slice beneath San Francisco and the possibility that a particular kind of crustal stretching, long envisioned, may not actually take place.     

Age of Canada basin deep waters: a way to estimate primary production for the arctic ocean

An empirical model of carbon flux and (14)C-derived ages of the water in the Canada Basin of the Arctic Ocean as a function of depth was used to estimate the long-term rate of primary production within this region. An estimate can be made because the deep waters of the Canadian Basin are isolated from the world oceans by the Lomonosov Ridge (sill depth about 1500 meters). Below the sill, the age of the water correlates with increased nutrients and oxygen utilization and thus provides a way to model the average flux of organic material into the deep basin over a long time period. The (14)C ages of the deep water in the Canada Basin were about 1000 years, the carbon flux across the 1500-meter isobath was 0.3 gram of carbon per square meter per year, and the total production was 9 to 14 grams of carbon per square meter per year. Such estimates provide a baseline for understanding the role of the Arctic Ocean in global carbon cycling.     

成都平原两熟制条件下机插秧播期研究（英文）

在成都平原稻麦两熟制条件下培育适龄机插壮秧是机插秧技术能否获得高产的关键本研究以超级稻II优602为试材,研究播种期对成都平原稻麦两熟区机插秧秧苗生长、机插质量、生育进程、产量的影响,从而探索成都平原机插秧技术的配套高产栽培技术。结果表明：成都平原稻麦两熟区机插秧适宜的播种期为4月10-15日,秧龄45~50 d,此阶段播种的机插秧产量最高延迟播种虽然有利于改善机插质量,提高成穗率,但也会导致群体生长滞后,成穗质量差,有效穗、着粒数、结实率、千粒重等产量构成因子下降,进而产量减少,若推迟15 d播种,减产幅度甚至超过10%。     

40Ar/39Ar dates from the West Siberian Basin: Siberian flood basalt province doubled

Widespread basaltic volcanism occurred in the region of the West Siberian Basin in central Russia during Permo-Triassic times. New 40Ar/39Ar age determinations on plagioclase grains from deep boreholes in the basin reveal that the basalts were erupted 249.4 +/- 0.5 million years ago. This is synchronous with the bulk of the Siberian Traps, erupted further east on the Siberian Platform. The age and geochemical data confirm that the West Siberian Basin basalts are part of the Siberian Traps and at least double the confirmed area of the volcanic province as a whole. The larger area of volcanism strengthens the link between the volcanism and the end-Permian mass extinction.     

Early cambrian foraminifera from west Africa

Agglutinated foraminifera have been recovered from siltstones in the Walidiala Valley, Taoudeni Basin, West Africa. Associated faunas suggest an Early Cambrian age for these strata. These now earliest known unequivocal foraminifera help constrain hypotheses concerning the origin of skeletalization at the beginning of the Phanerozoic.     

The age of the Sahara desert

In the Sahara region, the age of onset of the desert condition has been uncertain until now. Here we report on the discovery of 7,000,000-year-old eolian dune deposits from the northern Chad Basin. This geological archive is the oldest known evidence for desert occurrence in the Sahara.     

Hemoglobins M: identification of Iwate,Boston, and Saskatoon variants

Hemoglobin M variants, M Iwate, M Boston, M Saskatoon are easily and accurately identified by electron spin resonance with small amounts of patients' blood. In hemoglobin M Iwate and M Boston the electron spin resonance of both fresh blood (unprocessed) and isolated pure ferrihemoglobin M revealed similar signal shapes; whereas that of hemoglobin M Saskatoon was doublet in fresh blood and triplet in pure ferrihemoglobin M.     

准噶尔盆地箭杆杨生长规律的研究

[目的]科学合理地利用农田防护林资源,指导农田防护林体系的建设.[方法]以新疆准噶尔盆地农田防护林22 a生箭杆杨为研究对象,运用树干解析法对其树高、胸径、材积等生长特性进行调查研究.[结果]建立箭杆杨的树高、胸径的logistic模型、Richard模型、H=aAr等5种生长模型.[结论]准噶尔盆地箭杆杨农田防护林的树高、胸径的生长模型均为Richards模型拟合最优,其防护初始成熟年限为15 a,数量成熟年龄约为25 a.     

Genomics. University company to exploit heart data

This month, Boston University, which directs the Framingham Heart Study, a massive government effort begun in 1948 to monitor the cardiovascular health of more than 10,000 residents of this suburb of Boston, announced plans to form a bioinformatics company that will mine the data. The university will own 20% of Framingham Genomic Medicine Inc., which hopes to raise $21 million to begin modernizing the immense database and packaging it in a format that will be valuable to the pharmaceutical industry. The plan raises a host of difficult ethical issues, including patient privacy, academic conflicts of interest, and reciprocal value to the Framingham residents whose medical data will form the basis for the new enterprise.     

AAAS Meeting: Science Smorgasbord with Snow

Attendance at the AAAS annual meeting in Boston was at a record high for recent years, with 8700 people braving the half-finished Hynes Convention Center as well as wet snow and gale-force winds that closed Logan Airport on the first full day of the conference. Some hardy participants arrived by train. Others, including some of the speakers, were required to stay in Boston longer than they had planned. But perhaps the Soviets, of which there were 13 in a high-ranking delegation, were made to feel at home. The sessions on Soviet science were a major drawing card; but many other symposia, ranging from the science of protein folding to arms control, attracted large audiences. Some highlights follow.     

塔里木河流域上游水库鲤年龄与生长

【目的】研究塔里木河流域上游水库鲤的年龄与生长。【方法】2015～2016年,采样观察对塔里木河流域上游水库鲤,运用传统生物学测量方法鉴定年龄,分析其生长特征。【结果】塔里木河流域上游水库的鲤,年龄均值为2.80±0.286⁺,年龄结构不符合正太分布,优势年龄个体1⁺;体长和体重相关方程为:W=0.087 2L^2.506(R²=0.878);体长和肠长的关系式为: L_I =3.091 3 L-50.588(R²=0.795 5);上游水库鲤的渐进体长L∞=69.57 cm,生产系数k=0.12,W∞=3 610.79 g,t₀ = - 0.65,t_i=1.65⁺ ;种群总体(n=40)体长和体重生长方程为:L_t = 69.58 (1-e^{-0.12 (t + 0.65)}) 和W_t = 3 610.79 (1-e^{-0.12 (t + 0.65)})^2.506。种群总体成熟系数和丰满度:GSI＝(12.38±1.69)和K＝(72.71±1.62)。【结论】塔里木河流域上游水库鲤属于异速生长,适应性较强,生长性状不稳定,在种群动态和渔业生态平衡,起到了一定的作用。     

Ecology and catastrophic mortality in wild horses: implications for interpreting fossil assemblages

The identities, sexes, and reproductive status of groups of wild horses (Equus caballus) living in the Great Basin Desert of North America were known prior to their deaths on ridgelines. Another group of very young horses died on a quagmire. Snow accumulation or drought was apparently responsible for the mass deaths. These data have implications for reconstructing some aspects of the social structure of fossil mammals on the basis of skewed sex or age ratios in bone assemblages.     

The Ischigualasto Tetrapod Assemblage (Late Triassic, Argentina) and 40Ar/39Ar Dating of Dinosaur Origins

(40)Ar/(39)Ar dating of sanidine from a bentonite interbedded in the Ischigualasto Formation of northwestern Argentina yielded a plateau age of 227.8 +/- 0.3 million years ago. This middle Carnian age is a direct calibration of the Ischigualasto tetrapod assemblage, which includes some of the best known early dinosaurs. This age shifts last appearances of Ischigualasto taxa back into the middle Carnian, diminishing the magnitude of the proposed late Carnian tetrapod extinction event. By 228 million years ago, the major dinosaurian lineages were established, and theropods were already important constituents of the carnivorous tetrapod guild in the Ischigualasto-Villa Unión Basin. Dinosaurs as a whole remained minor components of tetrapod faunas for at least another 10 million years.     

Late Cenozoic Underthrusting of the Continental Margin off Northernmost California

The presence of magnetic anomaly 3, age 5 million years, beneath the continental slope off northernmost California, is evidence for underthrusting of the continental margin during the late Cenozoic. Folded and faulted strata near the base of the slope attest to deformation of the eastern edge of the turbidite sedimzents in the Gorda Basin; the deformation observed is exactly that expected from underthrusting. The relative motions of three crustal plates also suggest underthrusting, possibly with a major component of right-lateral slip.     

和田河流域胡杨、灰叶胡杨种群结构特征的比较研究

在和田河流域设置胡杨、灰叶胡杨样地14块,应用相邻格子法进行每木调查,对胡杨、灰叶胡杨种群结构及空间分布格局进行比较分析,结果表明：（1）和田河流域胡杨、灰叶胡杨的种群结构均呈纺锤形,以Ⅲ一Ⅵ径级的植株数量最多,幼苗严重不足,种群有衰退趋势;（2）胡杨、灰叶胡杨种群存活曲线均接近于DeeveylI型,但灰叶胡杨种群死亡率曲线呈双峰型,胡杨种群随径级增加呈递增趋势。（3）在生长发育过程中,胡杨、灰叶胡杨种群空间分布格局在I一Ⅵ龄级呈聚集分布,Ⅶ一Ⅷ龄级呈均匀分布。（4）在不同尺度上,胡杨、灰叶胡杨种群均呈聚集分布,但聚集强度在1S～6S尺度上胡杨种群大于灰叶胡杨种群,而在9S-25S尺度上,胡杨种群小于灰叶胡杨种群。     

鄱阳湖流域水资源量预测

针对气候变化条件下鄱阳湖流域未来水资源量的问题,分析了鄱阳湖流域历史水资源量、降水量、蒸发量的变化趋势,确定了影响水资源量的主要气候因素,建立了水资源量多元逐步回归预测模型,然后采用全球气候模式(GCM)下的CMIP3数据,预测了鄱阳湖流域3种SRES情景下未来的水资源量,结果显示鄱阳湖流域的水资源量将有小幅增加。该研究结果可为鄱阳湖流域经济社会发展的中、长期规划提供理论支撑。     

A new basis for recognizing the paleocene/eocene boundary in Western interior north america

Fossil pollen grains from Paleocene-Eocene rocks of the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming allow important sequences of terrestrial vertebrate fossils to be correlated with standard marine microfossil zonations. The Paleocene/Eocene boundary as based on pollen evidence falls within the Wasatchian land mammal age, much higher than the boundary used by some fossil mammal workers. This discrepancy partly results from multiple definitions of the Paleocene/Eocene boundary but may also indicate faulty mammal-based correlations to the type Sparnacian of France.     

塔里木河流域天然胡杨林营养积累特征及动态变化

【目的】 研究塔里木河流域天然胡杨林营养积累变化特征,为塔里木盆地天然胡杨林植被恢复及抚育管理提供科学依据。【方法】以塔里木河流域天然胡杨林为研究对象,采用野外标准木全株采伐及室内养分分析相结合的方法,研究胡杨林木不同器官营养分配及积累变化特征。以新疆两次森林资源二类调查数据为基础,分析12年来天然胡杨林营养积累动态变化。【结果】(1)胡杨不同器官中平均N含量由高到低依次为叶>枝>根,P含量为根>叶>枝,K含量为叶>根>枝;林龄对各器官N、P含量影响不显著,表明在胡杨发育过程中各器官中N、P含量具有稳定性。(2)N平均含量由高到低依次为成熟林>过熟林>中龄林>幼龄林>近熟林, P和K平均含量随着龄组的增加均呈先降低后增加的趋势;龄组对胡杨中N和K含量影响不显著,对P含量影响显著(P=0.059)。(3)随着胡杨龄级的增加,林分净生产力呈先降低后增加再降低的趋势,在成熟林阶段达到最高,为3 523.65 kg/(hm²·a);胡杨林单位面积林木N、P、K营养积累量中,成熟林积累量最高,达34.03 kg/(hm²·a),过熟林最低,仅为15.84 kg/(hm²·a)。(4)2014年胡杨林面积较2003年增加了16.29%,达560 288.82 hm^-2,积累N、P、K物质总量较2003年增加了18.68%,达12 619 763.76 kg/hm²,其中成熟林积累营养物质量最高,占总积累量35.67%,幼龄林最低,仅占总量的1.62%。【结论】胡杨在成熟林阶段积累营养物质量最高,在进行胡杨林保育与恢复生态工程中,加强对其他林龄的抚育管理,为维护塔里木河流域生态平衡和环境保护提供有力保障。     

安徽省淮河流域农业旱灾风险正态云模型评估

为合理评估农业旱灾风险,文章从危险性、暴露性、灾损敏感性、抗旱能力四个方面分析安徽省各地区农业旱灾风险等级,建立正态云评估模型。结果表明,淮北、亳州、宿州、蚌埠、阜阳农业旱灾风险为中险;淮南、合肥淮河流域、滁州淮河流域、六安淮河流域为轻险。评估模型可实现评语与评估指标值间不确定映射,体现旱灾评估随机性,为安徽省淮河流域农业旱灾防控提供科学决策参考。