The bonobo genome compared with the chimpanzee and human genomes

Two African apes are the closest living relatives of humans: the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) and the bonobo (Pan paniscus). Although they are similar in many respects, bonobos and chimpanzees differ strikingly in key social and sexual behaviours, and for some of these traits they show more similarity with humans than with each other. Here we report the sequencing and assembly of the bonobo genome to study its evolutionary relationship with the chimpanzee and human genomes. We find that more than three per cent of the human genome is more closely related to either the bonobo or the chimpanzee genome than these are to each other. These regions allow various aspects of the ancestry of the two ape species to be reconstructed. In addition, many of the regions that overlap genes may eventually help us understand the genetic basis of phenotypes that humans share with one of the two apes to the exclusion of the other.     

Evolution of type C viral genes: evidence for an Asian origin of man.

Old World monkeys and apes, including man, possess, as a normal component of their cellular DNA, gene sequences (virogenes) related to the RNA of a virus isolated from baboons. A comparison of the viral gene sequences and the other cellular sequences distinguishes those Old World monkeys and apes that have evolved in Africa from those that have evolved in Asia. Among the apes, only gorilla and chimpanzee seem by these criteria to be African, whereas gibbon, orang-utan and man are identified as Asian, leading us to conclude that most of man's evolution has occurred outside Africa.     

Catastrophic ape decline in western equatorial Africa

Because rapidly expanding human populations have devastated gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) and common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) habitats in East and West Africa, the relatively intact forests of western equatorial Africa have been viewed as the last stronghold of African apes. Gabon and the Republic of Congo alone are thought to hold roughly 80% of the world's gorillas and most of the common chimpanzees. Here we present survey results conservatively indicating that ape populations in Gabon declined by more than half between 1983 and 2000. The primary cause of the decline in ape numbers during this period was commercial hunting, facilitated by the rapid expansion of mechanized logging. Furthermore, Ebola haemorrhagic fever is currently spreading through ape populations in Gabon and Congo and now rivals hunting as a threat to apes. Gorillas and common chimpanzees should be elevated immediately to 'critically endangered' status. Without aggressive investments in law enforcement, protected area management and Ebola prevention, the next decade will see our closest relatives pushed to the brink of extinction.     

广西中小学生身体素质和运动能力现状的分析与研究

应用数理统计和灰色聚类评估的方法，对“锻标”项目的测试成绩进行处理分析，研究了广西中小学生身体素质和运动能力的现状。结论是：“锻标”项目反映的各类身体素质和运动能力存在差别；城乡学生的身体素质和运动能力差异显著；各类身体素质和运动能力的增强与年龄的增长不同步；年龄越大，身体素质和运动能力相对越好。     

Virtual cranial reconstruction of Sahelanthropus tchadensis

Previous research in Chad at the Toros-Menalla 266 fossiliferous locality (about 7 million years old) uncovered a nearly complete cranium (TM 266-01-60-1), three mandibular fragments and several isolated teeth attributed to Sahelanthropus tchadensis. Of this material, the cranium is especially important for testing hypotheses about the systematics and behavioural characteristics of this species, but is partly distorted from fracturing, displacement and plastic deformation. Here we present a detailed virtual reconstruction of the TM 266 cranium that corrects these distortions. The reconstruction confirms that S. tchadensis is a hominid and is not more closely related to the African great apes. Analysis of the basicranium further indicates that S. tchadensis might have been an upright biped, suggesting that bipedalism was present in the earliest known hominids, and probably arose soon after the divergence of the chimpanzee and human lineages.     

A century of getting to know the chimpanzee

A century of research on chimpanzees, both in their natural habitat and in captivity, has brought these apes socially, emotionally and mentally much closer to us. Parallels and homologues between chimpanzee and human behaviour range from tool-technology and cultural learning to power politics and intercommunity warfare. Few behavioural domains have remained untouched by this increased knowledge, which has dramatically challenged the way we view ourselves. The sequencing of the chimpanzee genome will no doubt bring more surprises and insights. Humans do occupy a special place among the primates, but this place increasingly has to be defined against a backdrop of substantial similarity.     

Individual differences in non-verbal number acuity correlate with maths achievement

Human mathematical competence emerges from two representational systems. Competence in some domains of mathematics, such as calculus, relies on symbolic representations that are unique to humans who have undergone explicit teaching. More basic numerical intuitions are supported by an evolutionarily ancient approximate number system that is shared by adults, infants and non-human animals-these groups can all represent the approximate number of items in visual or auditory arrays without verbally counting, and use this capacity to guide everyday behaviour such as foraging. Despite the widespread nature of the approximate number system both across species and across development, it is not known whether some individuals have a more precise non-verbal 'number sense' than others. Furthermore, the extent to which this system interfaces with the formal, symbolic maths abilities that humans acquire by explicit instruction remains unknown. Here we show that there are large individual differences in the non-verbal approximation abilities of 14-year-old children, and that these individual differences in the present correlate with children's past scores on standardized maths achievement tests, extending all the way back to kindergarten. Moreover, this correlation remains significant when controlling for individual differences in other cognitive and performance factors. Our results show that individual differences in achievement in school mathematics are related to individual differences in the acuity of an evolutionarily ancient, unlearned approximate number sense. Further research will determine whether early differences in number sense acuity affect later maths learning, whether maths education enhances number sense acuity, and the extent to which tertiary factors can affect both.     

Initial sequence of the chimpanzee genome and comparison with the human genome

Here we present a draft genome sequence of the common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). Through comparison with the human genome, we have generated a largely complete catalogue of the genetic differences that have accumulated since the human and chimpanzee species diverged from our common ancestor, constituting approximately thirty-five million single-nucleotide changes, five million insertion/deletion events, and various chromosomal rearrangements. We use this catalogue to explore the magnitude and regional variation of mutational forces shaping these two genomes, and the strength of positive and negative selection acting on their genes. In particular, we find that the patterns of evolution in human and chimpanzee protein-coding genes are highly correlated and dominated by the fixation of neutral and slightly deleterious alleles. We also use the chimpanzee genome as an outgroup to investigate human population genetics and identify signatures of selective sweeps in recent human evolution.     

基于特征抽取定性映射的事物关系的表示模型

对象及其关系的表示是推理、求解的基础 ,而对象的感觉特征的抽取可归结为一个定性映射 .本文以此为基础并将群体中的研究对象统称为“事物”,给出了群体中事物属性的数学表达及基于属性的事物关系的数学表达模型 ;由此引出了一般事物的属性及属性值的判定规则和“归约”“细化”的推理方法 ,将其用在 KDD中的概念提升中显得自然而方便 ,并得到基于属性的事物分类的数学方法     

CLOTHING COLOUR PREFERENCES IN A HOSPITAL ENVIRONMENT IN HONG KONG: PART I - CHILD PATIENT''''S PREFERENCES OF COLOUR ON NURSE UNIFORM

The aim of this study explored the importance of colour application on clothing and investigated whether there is a preference of colour on clothing among children under hospital environment. A modified colour associated test based on the Luster Color Test was used to carry out the survey. Fifty child patients aged four to sixteen were asked to look at two specially designed colour cards and to name their preferences and associations on each of the colour.     

面向对象的城市空间信息遥感分析的理论框架

提出了面向对象的城市空间信息遥感分析的理论框架.对图像对象、地理空间对象和城市空间对象做出了明确界定,详细说明了三者间的区别和联系;总结了地理空间对象识别的三准则:边界、属性和尺度;提出地理空间对象和城市空间对象由身份、状态和行为三部分构成,对应的形式表达为标识、属性和关系.在分析地理空间对象中所包含信息的三个维度——专题、空间和时间的基础上,详细说明了组成地理空间对象和城市空间对象的专题属性、空间属性、时间属性和专题关系、空间关系、时间关系.在理论基础上,建立了一个通用的面向对象的城市空间信息遥感分析的总体框架.     

First fossil chimpanzee

There are thousands of fossils of hominins, but no fossil chimpanzee has yet been reported. The chimpanzee (Pan) is the closest living relative to humans. Chimpanzee populations today are confined to wooded West and central Africa, whereas most hominin fossil sites occur in the semi-arid East African Rift Valley. This situation has fuelled speculation regarding causes for the divergence of the human and chimpanzee lineages five to eight million years ago. Some investigators have invoked a shift from wooded to savannah vegetation in East Africa, driven by climate change, to explain the apparent separation between chimpanzee and human ancestral populations and the origin of the unique hominin locomotor adaptation, bipedalism. The Rift Valley itself functions as an obstacle to chimpanzee occupation in some scenarios. Here we report the first fossil chimpanzee. These fossils, from the Kapthurin Formation, Kenya, show that representatives of Pan were present in the East African Rift Valley during the Middle Pleistocene, where they were contemporary with an extinct species of Homo. Habitats suitable for both hominins and chimpanzees were clearly present there during this period, and the Rift Valley did not present an impenetrable barrier to chimpanzee occupation.     

Naturally-formed objects categorized as artifacts: Effect of objects’ functional depictions

Past research has identified a variety of factors that influence cognitive processing of artifact concepts, but few experiments tested possible interactive patterns among these factors. Using a natural language depiction based free naming task, we explored how an object’s function and its history (information about how an object was formed by natural force) interact to affect categorization judgment in a 2×2 between- subjects experiment (N = 169). The study had two key findings: (i) Without presenting an object’s function, presenting the history of its natural formation increased subjects’ tendency to name the object under the “natural” domain and decreased their tendency to name it under the “artifact” domain; (ii) once we presented the depiction of an object’s function, the effect of history presentation on categorization disappeared: Subjects in both conditions strongly preferred naming objects as artifacts. In summary, presenting depiction of an object’s function inhibited the effect of history on object categorization. Current findings suggest that an object’s function plays a fundamental role in the cognitive processing of artifact concepts.     

Endurance running and the evolution of Homo

Striding bipedalism is a key derived behaviour of hominids that possibly originated soon after the divergence of the chimpanzee and human lineages. Although bipedal gaits include walking and running, running is generally considered to have played no major role in human evolution because humans, like apes, are poor sprinters compared to most quadrupeds. Here we assess how well humans perform at sustained long-distance running, and review the physiological and anatomical bases of endurance running capabilities in humans and other mammals. Judged by several criteria, humans perform remarkably well at endurance running, thanks to a diverse array of features, many of which leave traces in the skeleton. The fossil evidence of these features suggests that endurance running is a derived capability of the genus Homo, originating about 2 million years ago, and may have been instrumental in the evolution of the human body form.     

Positive selection of a gene family during the emergence of humans and African apes

Gene duplication followed by adaptive evolution is one of the primary forces for the emergence of new gene function. Here we describe the recent proliferation, transposition and selection of a 20-kilobase (kb) duplicated segment throughout 15 Mb of the short arm of human chromosome 16. The dispersal of this segment was accompanied by considerable variation in chromosomal-map location and copy number among hominoid species. In humans, we identified a gene family (morpheus) within the duplicated segment. Comparison of putative protein-encoding exons revealed the most extreme case of positive selection among hominoids. The major episode of enhanced amino-acid replacement occurred after the separation of human and great-ape lineages from the orangutan. Positive selection continued to alter amino-acid composition after the divergence of human and chimpanzee lineages. The rapidity and bias for amino-acid-altering nucleotide changes suggest adaptive evolution of the morpheus gene family during the emergence of humans and African apes. Moreover, some genes emerge and evolve very rapidly, generating copies that bear little similarity to their ancestral precursors. Consequently, a small fraction of human genes may not possess discernible orthologues within the genomes of model organisms.     

北京学的缘起

北京学属“因地中学”，分析了建立北京学这一新学科的起因并提出了建立一种“因地名学”式学科的三个前提，即１）有特定的不同于其它学科的研究对象，而且这一特定的对象必有其与众不同的特殊性。２）研究成果能直接或间接为社会服务。３）必须 了相当数量的相关成果。     

Serial and parallel processing of visual feature conjunctions

Treisman and others have reported that the visual search for a target distinguished along a single stimulus dimension (for example, colour or shape) is conducted in parallel, whereas the search for an item defined by the conjunction of two stimulus dimensions is conducted serially. For a single dimension the target 'pops out' and the search time is independent of the number of irrelevant items in the set. For conjunctions, the search time increases as the set becomes larger. Thus, it seems that the visual system is incapable of conducting a parallel search over two stimulus dimensions simultaneously. Here we extend this conclusion for the conjunction of motion and colour, showing that it requires a serial search. We also report two exceptions: if one of the dimensions in a conjunctive search is stereoscopic disparity, a second dimension of either colour or motion can be searched in parallel.     

极限运算中的几种数学思想

解决数学问题有很多种思想方法，学会运用数学思想方法是学好数学的关键。数学思想的建立，会形成一种良好的、高效的思维模式。这对提高高职学生的数学素质和解决问题的能力很有帮助。结合极限运算中的几个实例，介绍几种数学思想在极限运算中的应用。     

关于配色模纹潜力的探讨

在设计配色模纹时,采用提综图、穿综图和提综图的排列循环以代替配色模纹分区图中组织图的功用,有利于变幻构作配色模纹,并运用数学方法探析色纱与组织配合呈现模纹的多样性,从一个侧面揭示了配色模纹的潜力,也揭示了配色模纹能四季适用于各类纤维织物的原因.     

Tracking an object through feature space

Visual attention allows an observer to select certain visual information for specialized processing. Selection is readily apparent in 'tracking' tasks where even with the eyes fixed, observers can track a target as it moves among identical distractor items. In such a case, a target is distinguished by its spatial trajectory. Here we show that one can keep track of a stationary item solely on the basis of its changing appearance--specified by its trajectory along colour, orientation, and spatial frequency dimensions--even when a distractor shares the same spatial location. This ability to track through feature space bears directly on competing theories of attention, that is, on whether attention can select locations in space, features such as colour or shape, or particular visual objects composed of constellations of visual features. Our results affirm, consistent with a growing body of psychophysical and neurophysiological evidence, that attention can indeed select specific visual objects. Furthermore, feature-space tracking extends the definition of visual object to include not only items with well defined spatio-temporal trajectories, but also those with well defined featuro-temporal trajectories.