Systemic Intervention in a University Department: Reflections on Arrested Action Research

This paper reflects on my experience as an insider researcher attempting to use critical systems ideas and practices to promote quality improvement in a university engineering department. Reflection is a key part of learning. This paper is intended to contribute to critically, self-reflective learning for the community of systems practitioners. These reflections on my questions about participation, ethics, politics of process, and the choices and actions resulting from them may help others to formulate their own. The complexity of systems practice places substantial demands on the researcher, particularly in the case of insider, practitioner research. Nevertheless, the exploration of critical systems approaches to critique boundaries and structure ‘problems’ in the core aspects of higher education in locally meaningful ways should continue. While demanding, it still can work to promote learning about authentic quality.     

硒水平对食管癌发病率影响的初步研究

对比研究显示食管癌高发区磁县土壤,粮食,水和正常人发硒的质量分数「分别为０．４２＊１０＾－９,０．０８＊１０＾－９,１．２４＊１０＾－９,１．１６＊１０＾－６」最高,中发区临漳县次之「分别为０．１７４＊１０＾－９,０．０４９＊１０＾－９,０．６８＊１０＾－９,０．９７＊１０＾－６」,低发区魏县最低「分别为０．１４８＊１０＾－９,０．０２６＊１０＾－９,０．２４＊１０＾－９,０．９１＊１０＾－６」,     

Simple scaling relations in geodynamics： the role of pressure in mantle convection and plume formation

Scaling relations are important in extrapolating laboratory experiments to the Earth‘s mantle. In planetary interiors, compression becomes an important parameter and it is useful to explore scalings that involve volume. I use simple volume scaling relations that allow one to extrapolate laboratory experiments and upper mantle behavior, in a thermodynamically self-consistent way, to predict lower mantle behavior. The relations are similar to the quasi-har-monic approximation. Slabs and plates have characteristic dimensions of hundreds of kilometers and time constants of 100 million years, but the volume scalings predict order of magnitude higher values in the deep mantle. The scaling relations imply that the deep mantle is a sluggish system with ancient features. They imply irreversible chemical stratification and do not favor the plume hypothesis.     

Mutations in SMAD3 cause a syndromic form of aortic aneurysms and dissections with early-onset osteoarthritis

Thoracic aortic aneurysms and dissections are a main feature of connective tissue disorders, such as Marfan syndrome and Loeys-Dietz syndrome. We delineated a new syndrome presenting with aneurysms, dissections and tortuosity throughout the arterial tree in association with mild craniofacial features and skeletal and cutaneous anomalies. In contrast with other aneurysm syndromes, most of these affected individuals presented with early-onset osteoarthritis. We mapped the genetic locus to chromosome 15q22.2-24.2 and show that the disease is caused by mutations in SMAD3. This gene encodes a member of the TGF-β pathway that is essential for TGF-β signal transmission. SMAD3 mutations lead to increased aortic expression of several key players in the TGF-β pathway, including SMAD3. Molecular diagnosis will allow early and reliable identification of cases and relatives at risk for major cardiovascular complications. Our findings endorse the TGF-β pathway as the primary pharmacological target for the development of new treatments for aortic aneurysms and osteoarthritis.     

锰系球墨铸铁成分、组织与性能的研究

应用铸态淬火研究了碳量（２．５～４．０％）、硅量（２．５～３．５％）、锰量（０．５～５．５％） 对球墨铸铁组织与性能的影响。结果表明，锰含量增加。试样中针状组织减少，残余奥氏体　增 多、碳化物也增多．低硅时锰对碳化物数量、中硅时锰对残余奥氏体数量影响突出。针状组织数 量及针状组织含碳量对硬度影响较大。适当的碳量可使试样中石墨球、碳化物、针状组织有较佳 的配合，具有较好的综合机械性能。     

Coprophagy: an unusual source of essential carotenoids

The rare Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus) stands out among the Old World vultures (Family Accipitridae) because of its brightly ornamented head, which is coloured yellow by carotenoid pigments, and its practice of feeding on faeces. Here we show that Egyptian vultures obtain these pigments from the excrement of ungulates. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration that faeces can be used as a source of carotenoids by a vertebrate.     

A gravitationally lensed quasar with quadruple images separated by 14.62 arcseconds

Gravitational lensing is a powerful tool for the study of the distribution of dark matter in the Universe. The cold-dark-matter model of the formation of large-scale structures (that is, clusters of galaxies and even larger assemblies) predicts the existence of quasars gravitationally lensed by concentrations of dark matter so massive that the quasar images would be split by over 7 arcsec. Numerous searches for large-separation lensed quasars have, however, been unsuccessful. All of the roughly 70 lensed quasars known, including the first lensed quasar discovered, have smaller separations that can be explained in terms of galaxy-scale concentrations of baryonic matter. Although gravitationally lensed galaxies with large separations are known, quasars are more useful cosmological probes because of the simplicity of the resulting lens systems. Here we report the discovery of a lensed quasar, SDSS J1004 + 4112, which has a maximum separation between the components of 14.62 arcsec. Such a large separation means that the lensing object must be dominated by dark matter. Our results are fully consistent with theoretical expectations based on the cold-dark-matter model.