Unconventional lift-generating mechanisms in free-flying butterflies

Flying insects generate forces that are too large to be accounted for by conventional steady-state aerodynamics. To investigate these mechanisms of force generation, we trained red admiral butterflies, Vanessa atalanta, to fly freely to and from artificial flowers in a wind tunnel, and used high-resolution, smoke-wire flow visualizations to obtain qualitative, high-speed digital images of the air flow around their wings. The images show that free-flying butterflies use a variety of unconventional aerodynamic mechanisms to generate force: wake capture, two different types of leading-edge vortex, active and inactive upstrokes, in addition to the use of rotational mechanisms and the Weis-Fogh 'clap-and-fling' mechanism. Free-flying butterflies often used different aerodynamic mechanisms in successive strokes. There seems to be no one 'key' to insect flight, instead insects rely on a wide array of aerodynamic mechanisms to take off, manoeuvre, maintain steady flight, and for landing.     

昆虫飞行特性的视觉测量方法

该文提出了一种应用立体视觉技术测量昆虫飞行特性的方法。针对昆虫飞行的图像,尤其是对翅脉,进行预处理、分割和特征提取。指出采用区域匹配和特征匹配相结合的匹配方法,对图像进行立体匹配。最后提出对二维图像进行三维重构,计算昆虫空间坐标。通过这些步骤,可以获得描述昆虫飞行特性的信息。该文对方案进行了初步的仿真验证。使用立体视觉这种非接触性测量手段,可以不需要翅膀截面只有一次变形的假设,测量得到昆虫自由飞行时的飞行特性。     

Loss and recovery of wings in stick insects

The evolution of wings was the central adaptation allowing insects to escape predators, exploit scattered resources, and disperse into new niches, resulting in radiations into vast numbers of species. Despite the presumed evolutionary advantages associated with full-sized wings (macroptery), nearly all pterygote (winged) orders have many partially winged (brachypterous) or wingless (apterous) lineages, and some entire orders are secondarily wingless (for example, fleas, lice, grylloblattids and mantophasmatids), with about 5% of extant pterygote species being flightless. Thousands of independent transitions from a winged form to winglessness have occurred during the course of insect evolution; however, an evolutionary reversal from a flightless to a volant form has never been demonstrated clearly for any pterygote lineage. Such a reversal is considered highly unlikely because complex interactions between nerves, muscles, sclerites and wing foils are required to accommodate flight. Here we show that stick insects (order Phasmatodea) diversified as wingless insects and that wings were derived secondarily, perhaps on many occasions. These results suggest that wing developmental pathways are conserved in wingless phasmids, and that 're-evolution' of wings has had an unrecognized role in insect diversification.     

基于Delauany三角形的分时段区域管制扇区划分

根据空域和流量状况划分扇区是提高空域容量、改善空域拥挤和减小管制员工作负荷的有效手段。航班数量的不断增加,使得管制员的工作负荷也随之加大,为降低管制员的工作负荷需要研究扇区动态划分。首先对高空区域管制扇区内各航路点一段时期的每天相同时段的飞行流量进行分析,以航路点建立Delauany三角形,按照各时段飞行流量的不同对Delauany三角形进行加权,随后通过聚类分析生成了加权的Voronoi图,然后采用改进的哈夫曼编码理论对扇区进行了合并给出划分方案。最后结合厦门管制扇区数据进行算例分析验证了所提出方法的可行性。     

Three-dimensional mapping of a deformation field inside a nanocrystal

Coherent X-ray diffraction imaging is a rapidly advancing form of microscopy: diffraction patterns, measured using the latest third-generation synchrotron radiation sources, can be inverted to obtain full three-dimensional images of the interior density within nanocrystals. Diffraction from an ideal crystal lattice results in an identical copy of this continuous diffraction pattern at every Bragg peak. This symmetry is broken by the presence of strain fields, which arise from the epitaxial contact forces that are inevitable whenever nanocrystals are prepared on a substrate. When strain is present, the diffraction copies at different Bragg peaks are no longer identical and contain additional information, appearing as broken local inversion symmetry about each Bragg point. Here we show that one such pattern can nevertheless be inverted to obtain a 'complex' crystal density, whose phase encodes a projection of the lattice deformation. A lead nanocrystal was crystallized in ultrahigh vacuum from a droplet on a silica substrate and equilibrated close to its melting point. A three-dimensional image of the density, obtained by inversion of the coherent X-ray diffraction, shows the expected facetted morphology, but in addition reveals a real-space phase that is consistent with the three-dimensional evolution of a deformation field arising from interfacial contact forces. Quantitative three-dimensional imaging of lattice strain on the nanometre scale will have profound consequences for our fundamental understanding of grain interactions and defects in crystalline materials. Our method of measuring and inverting diffraction patterns from nanocrystals represents a vital step towards the ultimate goal of atomic resolution single-molecule imaging that is a prominent justification for development of X-ray free-electron lasers.     

Carrying large fuel loads during sustained bird flight is cheaper than expected

Birds on migration alternate between consuming fuel stores during flights and accumulating fuel stores during stopovers. The optimal timing and length of flights and stopovers for successful migration depend heavily on the extra metabolic power input (fuel use) required to carry the fuel stores during flight. The effect of large fuel loads on metabolic power input has never been empirically determined. We measured the total metabolic power input of a long-distance migrant, the red knot (Calidris canutus), flying for 6 to 10 h in a wind tunnel, using the doubly labelled water technique. Here we show that total metabolic power input increased with fuel load, but proportionally less than the predicted mechanical power output from the flight muscles. The most likely explanation is that the efficiency with which metabolic power input is converted into mechanical output by the flight muscles increases with fuel load. This will influence current models of bird flight and bird migration. It may also help to explain why some shorebirds, despite the high metabolic power input required to fly, routinely make nonstop flights of 4,000 km longer.     

Hard X-ray diffraction enhanced imaging only using two crystals

Different configurations for the monochromator crystals and the analyzer crystals have been used in hard X-ray diffraction enhanced imaging (DEI) methods to overcome the complex task to adjust each of them to the ideal position. Here we present a very compact DEI configuration, and preliminary results of experiments performed at the Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility (BSRF) using only two crystals: the first one acting as monochromator and the second one as analyzer in the Bragg geometry. Refraction contrast images characterized by high contrast and spatial resolution are obtained and compared with absorption images. Differences among these images will be outlined and discussed emphasizing the potential capabilities of this very simple layout that guarantees a high transmission efficiency.     

Actomyosin structure in contracting muscle detected by rapid freezing

It is now widely accepted that the ATP-induced active sliding of adjacent thin and thick filaments mediated by myosin heads (cross-bridges) is responsible for muscle contraction. Despite intensive studies, the behaviour of the myosin heads during muscle contraction is still unclear. Recent progress in the rapid freezing electron microscope technique has greatly improved the temporal resolution of the images that can be obtained. Here, we report a new type of actomyosin structure captured by rapid freezing. We have analysed images from thin sections of freeze-substituted rabbit skeletal muscle rapidly frozen during isometric contraction. For comparison, we also studied relaxed and rigor muscles. Our results show that, during isometric contraction, most myosin heads are regularly arrayed along the helix of the actin filaments and that this actomyosin structure appears to be distinct from that observed in rigor muscle.     

飞行器表面沉积静电分布仿真

研究飞行器表面沉积静电分布规律对于评估其在飞行过程中的静电安全性具有重要意义.结合某型实体飞机开展1:1仿真建模与计算.通过仿真计算,得到了飞机在飞行状态下的电容,对比分析了模型结构、沉积电荷量对飞机表面电荷密度和电场分布的影响规律.结果表明:在飞行状态下飞机的电容约为460.5 pF;模型结构对飞机机头处的静电场有影响,驾驶舱、机舱舷窗等结构使得机头处的静电场变化约20％,而对其他位置处的静电场影响较小;不同沉积电荷量下飞机各放电刷处的静电场强度呈线性变化规律,飞机各放电刷处静电场强度不同,其中放电刷静电场强度最高处比最低处高约97％.     

Independent evolution of striated muscles in cnidarians and bilaterians

Striated muscles are present in bilaterian animals (for example, vertebrates, insects and annelids) and some non-bilaterian eumetazoans (that is, cnidarians and ctenophores). The considerable ultrastructural similarity of striated muscles between these animal groups is thought to reflect a common evolutionary origin. Here we show that a muscle protein core set, including a type II myosin heavy chain (MyHC) motor protein characteristic of striated muscles in vertebrates, was already present in unicellular organisms before the origin of multicellular animals. Furthermore, 'striated muscle' and 'non-muscle' myhc orthologues are expressed differentially in two sponges, compatible with a functional diversification before the origin of true muscles and the subsequent use of striated muscle MyHC in fast-contracting smooth and striated muscle. Cnidarians and ctenophores possess striated muscle myhc orthologues but lack crucial components of bilaterian striated muscles, such as genes that code for titin and the troponin complex, suggesting the convergent evolution of striated muscles. Consistently, jellyfish orthologues of a shared set of bilaterian Z-disc proteins are not associated with striated muscles, but are instead expressed elsewhere or ubiquitously. The independent evolution of eumetazoan striated muscles through the addition of new proteins to a pre-existing, ancestral contractile apparatus may serve as a model for the evolution of complex animal cell types.     

使用碳纳米管AFM针尖的蛋白质高分辨率成像

原子力显微镜(AFM)是分析生物分子结构的有效手段,而目前使用的探针针尖的性质限制了高分辨率图像的获得。该文将碳纳米管安装到原子力显微镜的传统针尖上,制作出碳纳米管针尖以解决这个问题。运用碳纳米管针尖在大气常温条件下获得了由3个单元组成的小鼠抗体IgG蛋白质的Y形结构,并且分子的尺寸与X射线晶体衍射的结果非常接近,这种效果用传统针尖是无法获得的。获得的蛋白质分子超微结构的高分辨率图像为研究蛋白质分子功能提供了有价值的信息。     

柔性翼微型飞行器的稳定特性

为提高微型飞行器(M AV)的抗风扰动飞行稳定性,需要遵循仿生学原理,效仿自然界中的鸟类和昆虫,探讨抗风飞行的新方法。提出了柔性仿生机翼的概念,阐述了其设计思想与工作原理,并导出了大气扰动下柔性机翼气动力的解析表达。为验证柔性仿生机翼的实际性能,设计和制作了柔性仿生机翼M AV原理样机,并在风中进行了飞行试验。试验结果表明:采用柔性机翼能够显著改善有风条件下M AV的飞行品质,突风过载可降低40%左右,大大减弱了大气扰动对飞行的影响,有效提高了M AV的飞行稳定性。     

论鲁迅小说中动物意象的象征性

鲁迅小说中的动物意象是在深刻洞悉社会生存境遇的基础上按照现实主义的原则创造出来的,是以现实生活的一部分依附于文本结构之中,显示出深刻的丰富性和多层的文化意蕴;其动物意象包括凶猛动物、鸟类、家畜类、昆虫类,是以“群体”或群像而呈现的,这些意象反复的出现在不同的作品中,构成了一种隐喻性的存在,具有象征性。     

Transforming the architecture of compound eyes

Eyes differ markedly in the animal kingdom, and are an extreme example of the evolution of multiple anatomical solutions to light detection and image formation. A salient feature of all photoreceptor cells is the presence of a specialized compartment (disc outer segments in vertebrates, and microvillar rhabdomeres in insects), whose primary role is to accommodate the millions of light receptor molecules required for efficient photon collection. In insects, compound eyes can have very different inner architectures. Fruitflies and houseflies have an open rhabdom system, in which the seven rhabdomeres of each ommatidium are separated from each other and function as independent light guides. In contrast, bees and various mosquitoes and beetle species have a closed system, in which rhabdomeres within each ommatidium are fused to each other, thus sharing the same visual axis. To understand the transition between open and closed rhabdom systems, we isolated and characterized the role of Drosophila genes involved in rhabdomere assembly. Here we show that Spacemaker, a secreted protein expressed only in the eyes of insects with open rhabdom systems, acts together with Prominin and the cell adhesion molecule Chaoptin to choreograph the partitioning of rhabdomeres into an open system. Furthermore, the complete loss of spacemaker (spam) converts an open rhabdom system to a closed one, whereas its targeted expression to photoreceptors of a closed system markedly reorganizes the architecture of the compound eyes to resemble an open system. Our results provide a molecular atlas for the construction of microvillar assemblies and illustrate the critical effect of differences in a single structural protein in morphogenesis.     

等规聚苯乙烯单链单晶的结构和耐辐照性能

利用电子衍射（ED）和高分辨电子显微（HREM）技术，研究等规聚苯乙烯（i－PS）单链单晶的结构．纳米级的单链单晶具有很强的耐电子辐照性能．按照i－PS的晶胞能对ED图中的衍射环和HREM像中的晶格条纹进行晶面指标化，但发现低指数衍射缺失．由于单链单晶的尺寸很小，电子辐照所产生的次级电子可以逸出晶体，使辐照损伤大大减小．另外，单链单晶存在着较少的低指数晶面，未能产生足够的衍射强度，使低指数晶面的衍射缺失．单链单晶对电子辐照稳定，在室温下，可得到高分辨晶格条纹象，这为研究高分子晶体的结构开辟了新的实验方法．     

考虑航路网络结构的离场航班延误预测模型

针对离场航班延误预测缺少对航路网络结构因素的考虑，以及传统多分类预测难以满足高精度的需求，本文提出了一种考虑航路网络结构的离场航班延误预测模型。首先，根据离场航班所在终端区的航路网络结构，提出了航路拥挤指标，即航路流量、航路拥挤度和航路网络拥挤度，从航路网络和网络结构2个维度量化分析了拥挤特征，构造了航路拥挤数据集；然后，基于深度神经网络（deep neural network，DNN），构建了考虑航路网络结构的离场航班延误预测模型；最后，分析各类别延误样本比例，调整焦点损失函数的平衡因子以及各模型参数，进行了不同损失函数、不同数据集和不同模型参数的对比实验。结果表明：调整平衡因子后，模型预测准确率提高了2.3个百分点，融入航路拥挤数据集后，准确率继续提高了1.52个百分点，并且最终达到93.47%。可见，本文所提模型能够对离场航班延误作出有效准确判断，为民航相关单位提供决策参考。     

Storage of X-ray photons in a crystal resonator

The temporal structure and high brilliance of the X-ray beams produced by third-generation synchrotrons open up new possibilities in time-dependent diffraction and spectroscopy, where timescales down to the sub-nanosecond regime can now be accessed. These beam properties are such that one can envisage the development of the X-ray equivalent of optical components, such as photon delay lines and resonators, that have proved indispensable in a wide range of experiments--for example, pump-probe and multiple-interaction experiments--and (through shaping the temporal structure and repetition rate of the beams) time-dependent measurements in crystallography, physics, biology and chemistry. Optical resonators, such as those used in lasers, are available at wavelengths from the visible to soft X-rays. Equivalent components for hard X-rays have been discussed for more than thirty years, but have yet to be realized. Here we report the storage of hard X-ray photons (energy 15.817 keV) in a crystal resonator formed by two plates of crystalline silicon. The photons are stored for as many as 14 back-and-forth cycles within the resonator, each cycle separated by one nanosecond.     

A critical ligamentous mechanism in the evolution of avian flight

Despite recent advances in aerodynamic, neuromuscular and kinematic aspects of avian flight and dozens of relevant fossil discoveries, the origin of aerial locomotion and the transition from limbs to wings continue to be debated. Interpreting this transition depends on understanding the mechanical interplay of forces in living birds, particularly at the shoulder where most wing motion takes place. Shoulder function depends on a balance of forces from muscles, ligaments and articular cartilages, as well as inertial, gravitational and aerodynamic loads on the wing. Here we show that the force balance system of the shoulder evolved from a primarily muscular mechanism to one in which the acrocoracohumeral ligament has a critical role. Features of the shoulder of Mesozoic birds and closely related theropod dinosaurs indicate that the evolution of flight preceded the acquisition of the ligament-based force balance system and that some basal birds are intermediate in shoulder morphology.     

Wing bone stresses in free flying bats and the evolution of skeletal design for flight.

The primary mechanical functions of limb bones are to resist deformation, and hence provide stiff levers against which muscles can act, and to be sufficiently strong to prevent breaking under static or dynamic loads which arise from normal and accidental activities. If bones perform these functions with a minimum amount of material, the energetic costs associated with building, maintaining and transporting the skeleton will be minimized. Appropriate skeletal architecture for minimizing mass while maximizing strength depends on forces imposed on structural elements. In the evolutionary acquisition of flight in the bat lineage, the forelimb skeleton must have come to experience locomotor-forces that differed from those engendered by the terrestrial locomotion of non-flying bat relatives. Here we successfully measure in vivo strain on the wing bones of flying mammals. Our data demonstrate that torsion and shear are unique and crucial features of skeletal biomechanics during flight, and suggest that the evolution of skeletal design in bats and other flying vertebrates may be driven by the need to resist these loads.