Seal lungs collapse during free diving: evidence from arterial nitrogen tensions

Arterial blood nitrogen tensions of free-diving Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddelli) were measured by attaching a microprocessor-controlled blood pump and drawing samples at depth to determine how these marine mammals dive to great depths and ascend rapidly without developing decompression sickness. Forty-seven samples of arterial blood were obtained from four Weddell seals during free dives lasting up to 23 minutes to depths of 230 meters beneath the sea ice of McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. Peak arterial blood nitrogen tensions of between 2000 and 2500 millimeters of mercury were recorded at depths of 40 to 80 meters during descent, indicating that the seal's lung collapses by 25 to 50 meters. Then arterial blood nitrogen tensions slowly decreased to about 1500 millimeters of mercury at the surface. In a single dive, alveolar collapse and redistribution of blood nitrogen allow the seal to avoid nitrogen narcosis and decompression sickness.     

Wake collapse in a stratified fluid

A two-dimensional model is used to obtain quantitative data on characteristics of turbulently mixed wakes of bodies submerged in stratified fluids (more dense below than above). The time between turbulent mixing and maximum expansion of the wake before vertical collapse starts is 0.44 T, where T is the local V?is?l?-Brunt period. Time after mixing for maximum rate of horizontal spreading is about 2.0 T. The average V?is?l?-Brunt period for the oceans and atmosphere is discussed. It is predicted that the wake collapse phenomenon is not unusual in these environments. The characteristic time for the most active phase of vertical wake collapse should be between a few minutes to several tens of minutes. Qualitative observations of aircraft vapor trails tend to confirm that the phenomenon does occur at full scale.     

免费的网络数据库资源的开发利用

本文收集和研究了网上部分可免费检索的农业二次文献库、原文库及期刊目录库,为农业科技工作者及农业信息服务人员进一步有序利用免费网络数据库提供思路。     

The controlled evolution of a polymer single crystal

We present a method for controlling the initiation and kinetics of polymer crystal growth using dip-pen nanolithography and an atomic force microscope tip coated with poly-dl-lysine hydrobromide. Triangular prisms of the polymer epitaxially grow on freshly cleaved mica substrates, and their in-plane and out-of-plane growth rates can be controlled by raster scanning the coated tip across the substrate. Atomic force microscope images were concomitantly recorded, providing a set of photographic images of the process as it spans the nanometer- to micrometer-length scales as a function of environmental conditions.     

The connectome of a decision-making neural network

In order to understand the nervous system, it is necessary to know the synaptic connections between the neurons, yet to date, only the wiring diagram of the adult hermaphrodite of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has been determined. Here, we present the wiring diagram of the posterior nervous system of the C. elegans adult male, reconstructed from serial electron micrograph sections. This region of the male nervous system contains the sexually dimorphic circuits for mating. The synaptic connections, both chemical and gap junctional, form a neural network with four striking features: multiple, parallel, short synaptic pathways directly connecting sensory neurons to end organs; recurrent and reciprocal connectivity among sensory neurons; modular substructure; and interneurons acting in feedforward loops. These features help to explain how the network robustly and rapidly selects and executes the steps of a behavioral program on the basis of the inputs from multiple sensory neurons.     

海沧隧道建设中的坍方及处理

厦门海沧隧道在建设过程中曾发生较大规模的坍方.在深入分析坍方原因的基础上,应用Terzaghi公式计算土压力并指导坍方治理,取得了成功,为处理隧道坍方提供了一种思路.     

木材皱缩现象中的力学问题探讨

长期以来,木材皱缩现象一直被认为主要是因为木材中液体毛细张力产生的“负压强”压溃细胞壁造成的,该文对此提出了质疑.作者根据YoungLaplace定律设计了一组毛细负压强直接测量试验,发现凹液面上的毛细张力并不能使液体的压强降低.根据水在玻璃表面形成二维冰新结构这一最新发现,对毛细负压强及产生皱缩的主要动力问题提出了一些新的假设.     

原状黄土的地区湿陷特性及其潜在湿陷率

对 3个典型黄土地区的原状黄土样在不同湿度状态下的湿陷特性进行了研究 ,探讨了含水率、干密度、压力对黄土湿陷性的影响规律 ,着重从结构性的角度解释了不同地区间黄土湿陷特性的差异。基于不同地区间黄土湿陷特性的差异这一事实 ,提出了黄土潜在湿陷率的概念。结果表明 ,这一概念可用于对黄土湿陷性的分析 ,并能较好地反映不同黄土种类的结构特性。     

Ecosystem collapse in Pleistocene Australia and a human role in megafaunal extinction

Most of Australia's largest mammals became extinct 50,000 to 45,000 years ago, shortly after humans colonized the continent. Without exceptional climate change at that time, a human cause is inferred, but a mechanism remains elusive. A 140,000-year record of dietary delta(13)C documents a permanent reduction in food sources available to the Australian emu, beginning about the time of human colonization; a change replicated at three widely separated sites and in the marsupial wombat. We speculate that human firing of landscapes rapidly converted a drought-adapted mosaic of trees, shrubs, and nutritious grasslands to the modern fire-adapted desert scrub. Animals that could adapt survived; those that could not, became extinct.     

The genesis and collapse of third millennium north mesopotamian civilization

Archaeological and soil-stratigraphic data define the origin, growth, and collapse of Subir, the third millennium rain-fed agriculture civilization of northern Mesopotamia on the Habur Plains of Syria. At 2200 B. C., a marked increase in aridity and wind circulation, subsequent to a volcanic eruption, induced a considerable degradation of land-use conditions. After four centuries of urban life, this abrupt climatic change evidently caused abandonment of Tell Leilan, regional desertion, and collapse of the Akkadian empire based in southern Mesopotamia. Synchronous collapse in adjacent regions suggests that the impact of the abrupt climatic change was extensive.     

Hydrophobic collapse in multidomain protein folding

We performed molecular dynamics simulations of the collapse of a two-domain protein, the BphC enzyme, into a globular structure to examine how water molecules mediate hydrophobic collapse of proteins. In the interdomain region, liquid water persists with a density 10 to 15% lower than in the bulk, even at small domain separations. Water depletion and hydrophobic collapse occur on a nanosecond time scale, which is two orders of magnitude slower than that found in the collapse of idealized paraffin-like plates. When the electrostatic protein-water forces are turned off, a dewetting transition occurs in the interdomain region and the collapse speeds up by more than an order of magnitude. When attractive van der Waals forces are turned off as well, the dewetting in the interdomain region is more profound, and the collapse is even faster.     

The resilience of long and short food chains: a case study of flooding in Queensland,Australia

This paper provides new insights into the food security performance of long and short food chains, through an analysis of the resilience of such chains during the severe weather events that occurred in the Australian State of Queensland in early 2011. Widespread flooding cut roads and highways, isolated towns, and resulted in the deaths of people and animals. Farmlands were inundated and there were food shortages in many towns. We found clear evidence that the supermarket-based (long) food chain delivery system experienced significant difficulties in supplying food to flood-affected towns. In contrast, more localized (short) food supply chains—which relied upon supply from growers in peri-urban areas and community-based food initiatives—remained largely intact, and provided food at a time when the supermarkets were limited in their ability to respond to consumer demand. However, on closer examination of food distribution during flooding in the regional city of Rockhampton and in the State capital, Brisbane, the demarcation of success between “long” and “short” food chains became blurred. Both types of food supply chains shared some key resilience characteristics in responding to crisis but diverged in other important ways. We argue that conceptualizing food chains in terms of key elements of resilience—scale, diversity, flexibility and cohesion—may be more fruitful than the short-long dichotomy alone. This approach is particularly useful when prioritizing food security as the basis for evaluating food system sustainability in a context of predicted increases in extreme weather events and future climate change.     

The robustness and restoration of a network of ecological networks

Understanding species' interactions and the robustness of interaction networks to species loss is essential to understand the effects of species' declines and extinctions. In most studies, different types of networks (such as food webs, parasitoid webs, seed dispersal networks, and pollination networks) have been studied separately. We sampled such multiple networks simultaneously in an agroecosystem. We show that the networks varied in their robustness; networks including pollinators appeared to be particularly fragile. We show that, overall, networks did not strongly covary in their robustness, which suggests that ecological restoration (for example, through agri-environment schemes) benefitting one functional group will not inevitably benefit others. Some individual plant species were disproportionately well linked to many other species. This type of information can be used in restoration management, because it identifies the plant taxa that can potentially lead to disproportionate gains in biodiversity.     

Conditioning of a free operant response in planaria

The response of breaking a photoelectric cell beam was automatically recorded and reinforced. Termination of an intense light was the reinforcement in an escape conditioning situation. The rate of response for the experimental subjects was significantly different from that of controls matched for equivalent changes in light intensity.     

微波辐射合成淀粉多元接枝型互穿聚合物网络结构超吸水树脂

为获得微波辐射合成淀粉多元接枝型互穿聚合物网络结构超吸水树脂,开发价格低廉、性能优越的超吸水树脂,以吸水倍数为指标,系统研究了影响淀粉-丙烯酸-丙烯酰胺-聚乙烯醇互穿网络型超吸水树脂的聚合条件,并通过SEM、FTIR对产物结构进行了表征。在微波辐射条件下,淀粉与丙烯酸、丙烯酰胺、聚乙烯醇接枝共聚反应的最佳工艺条件为:反应体系pH6.2;反应单体与淀粉的质量比为4∶1,丙烯酸与丙烯酰胺质量比2∶1,交联剂(N,N′-亚甲基双丙烯酰胺)与单体(丙烯酸与丙烯酰胺)质量比0.015,引发剂(过硫酸钾)与单体(丙烯酸与丙烯酰胺)质量比0.09,淀粉与聚乙烯醇质量比5∶1,微波功率420 W,辐射时间120 s。所得产物吸水倍数较高,其中无离子水吸收倍数为891,0.9 g/L的NaCl溶液的吸收倍数为153。