Rapid discharge connects Antarctic subglacial lakes

The existence of many subglacial lakes provides clear evidence for the widespread presence of water beneath the East Antarctic ice sheet, but the hydrology beneath this ice mass is poorly understood. Such knowledge is critical to understanding ice flow, basal water transfer to the ice margin, glacial landform development and subglacial lake habitats. Here we present ice-sheet surface elevation changes in central East Antarctica that we interpret to represent rapid discharge from a subglacial lake. Our observations indicate that during a period of 16 months, 1.8 km3 of water was transferred over 290 km to at least two other subglacial lakes. While viscous deformation of the ice roof above may moderate discharge, the intrinsic instability of such a system suggests that discharge events are a common mode of basal drainage. If large lakes, such as Lake Vostok or Lake Concordia, are pressurizing, it is possible that substantial discharges could reach the coast. Our observations conflict with expectations that subglacial lakes have long residence times and slow circulations, and we suggest that entire subglacial drainage basins may be flushed periodically. The rapid transfer of water between lakes would result in large-scale solute and microbe relocation, and drainage system contamination from in situ exploration is, therefore, a distinct risk.     

Long gamma-ray bursts and core-collapse supernovae have different environments

When massive stars exhaust their fuel, they collapse and often produce the extraordinarily bright explosions known as core-collapse supernovae. On occasion, this stellar collapse also powers an even more brilliant relativistic explosion known as a long-duration gamma-ray burst. One would then expect that these long gamma-ray bursts and core-collapse supernovae should be found in similar galactic environments. Here we show that this expectation is wrong. We find that the gamma-ray bursts are far more concentrated in the very brightest regions of their host galaxies than are the core-collapse supernovae. Furthermore, the host galaxies of the long gamma-ray bursts are significantly fainter and more irregular than the hosts of the core-collapse supernovae. Together these results suggest that long-duration gamma-ray bursts are associated with the most extremely massive stars and may be restricted to galaxies of limited chemical evolution. Our results directly imply that long gamma-ray bursts are relatively rare in galaxies such as our own Milky Way.     

Deregulation of a Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent kinase leads to spontaneous nodule development

Induced development of a new plant organ in response to rhizobia is the most prominent manifestation of legume root-nodule symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Here we show that the complex root-nodule organogenic programme can be genetically deregulated to trigger de novo nodule formation in the absence of rhizobia or exogenous rhizobial signals. In an ethylmethane sulphonate-induced snf1 (spontaneous nodule formation) mutant of Lotus japonicus, a single amino-acid replacement in a Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase (CCaMK) is sufficient to turn fully differentiated root cortical cells into meristematic founder cells of root nodule primordia. These spontaneous nodules are genuine nodules with an ontogeny similar to that of rhizobial-induced root nodules, corroborating previous physiological studies. Using two receptor-deficient genetic backgrounds we provide evidence for a developmentally integrated spontaneous nodulation process that is independent of lipochitin-oligosaccharide signal perception and oscillations in Ca2+ second messenger levels. Our results reveal a key regulatory position of CCaMK upstream of all components required for cell-cycle activation, and a phenotypically divergent series of mutant alleles demonstrates positive and negative regulation of the process.     

Aberrant methylation of donor genome in cloned bovine embryos

Despite recent successes in cloning various animal species, the use of somatic cells as the source of donor nuclei has raised many practically relevant questions such as increased abortion rates, high birth weight and perinatal death. These anomalies may be caused by incomplete epigenetic reprogramming of donor DNA. Genome-wide demethylation occurs during early development, 'erasing' gamete-specific methylation patterns inherited from the parents. This process may be a prerequisite for the formation of pluripotent stem cells that are important for the later development. Here, we provide evidence that cloned bovine embryos may have impaired epigenetic reprogramming capabilities. We found highly aberrant methylation patterns in various genomic regions of cloned embryos. Cloned blastocysts closely resembled donor cells in their overall genomic methylation status, which was very different from that of normal blastocysts produced in vitro or in vivo. We found demethylation of the Bov-B long interspersed nuclear element sequence in normal embryos, but not in cloned embryos, in which the donor-type methylation was simply maintained during preimplantation development. There were also significant variations in the degree of methylation among individual cloned blastocysts. Our findings indicate that the developmental anomalies of cloned embryos could be due to incomplete epigenetic reprogramming of donor genomic DNA.     

Directly measured mid-depth circulation in the northeastern North Atlantic Ocean

The circulation of water masses in the northeastern North Atlantic Ocean has a strong influence on global climate owing to the northward transport of warm subtropical water to high latitudes. But the ocean circulation at depths below the reach of satellite observations is difficult to measure, and only recently have comprehensive, direct observations of whole ocean basins been possible. Here we present quantitative maps of the absolute velocities at two levels in the northeastern North Atlantic as obtained from acoustically tracked floats. We find that most of the mean flow transported northward by the Gulf Stream system at the thermocline level (about 600 m depth) remains within the subpolar region, and only relatively little enters the Rockall trough or the Nordic seas. Contrary to previous work, our data indicate that warm, saline water from the Mediterranean Sea reaches the high latitudes through a combination of narrow slope currents and mixing processes. At both depths under investigation, currents cross the Mid-Atlantic Ridge preferentially over deep gaps in the ridge, demonstrating that sea-floor topography can constrain even upper-ocean circulation patterns.     

Climate change decreases aquatic ecosystem productivity of Lake Tanganyika,Africa

Although the effects of climate warming on the chemical and physical properties of lakes have been documented, biotic and ecosystem-scale responses to climate change have been only estimated or predicted by manipulations and models. Here we present evidence that climate warming is diminishing productivity in Lake Tanganyika, East Africa. This lake has historically supported a highly productive pelagic fishery that currently provides 25-40% of the animal protein supply for the populations of the surrounding countries. In parallel with regional warming patterns since the beginning of the twentieth century, a rise in surface-water temperature has increased the stability of the water column. A regional decrease in wind velocity has contributed to reduced mixing, decreasing deep-water nutrient upwelling and entrainment into surface waters. Carbon isotope records in sediment cores suggest that primary productivity may have decreased by about 20%, implying a roughly 30% decrease in fish yields. Our study provides evidence that the impact of regional effects of global climate change on aquatic ecosystem functions and services can be larger than that of local anthropogenic activity or overfishing.     

The impact of humidity above stratiform clouds on indirect aerosol climate forcing

Some of the global warming from anthropogenic greenhouse gases is offset by increased reflection of solar radiation by clouds with smaller droplets that form in air polluted with aerosol particles that serve as cloud condensation nuclei. The resulting cooling tendency, termed the indirect aerosol forcing, is thought to be comparable in magnitude to the forcing by anthropogenic CO2, but it is difficult to estimate because the physical processes that determine global aerosol and cloud populations are poorly understood. Smaller cloud droplets not only reflect sunlight more effectively, but also inhibit precipitation, which is expected to result in increased cloud water. Such an increase in cloud water would result in even more reflective clouds, further increasing the indirect forcing. Marine boundary-layer clouds polluted by aerosol particles, however, are not generally observed to hold more water. Here we simulate stratocumulus clouds with a fluid dynamics model that includes detailed treatments of cloud microphysics and radiative transfer. Our simulations show that the response of cloud water to suppression of precipitation from increased droplet concentrations is determined by a competition between moistening from decreased surface precipitation and drying from increased entrainment of overlying air. Only when the overlying air is humid or droplet concentrations are very low does sufficient precipitation reach the surface to allow cloud water to increase with droplet concentrations. Otherwise, the response of cloud water to aerosol-induced suppression of precipitation is dominated by enhanced entrainment of overlying dry air. In this scenario, cloud water is reduced as droplet concentrations increase, which diminishes the indirect climate forcing.     

基于模块化架构的荷源日前有功控制仿真平台

随着我国风电并网比例的逐年增加,采用荷源有功协调控制能有效提高风电消纳水平.为保证荷源有功协调控制策略的有效应用,建立基于模块化架构的荷源日前有功控制仿真平台,包括SQL Server数据库、数据交互时序控制模块、荷源控制策略计算模块、输出结果展示模块,解决了荷源控制仿真过程中数据交互时序的自动控制问题,并对荷源控制效...     

沉积相硒对夹杂带丝蚓的生物累积及效应研究

以底栖模式生物夹杂带丝蚓(Lumbriculus variegatus)为研究对象，在环境相关浓度的沉积相Se(Ⅳ)中暴露21 d后，通过ICP-MS定性定量硒在带丝蚓体内的含量及形态。硒在环境相关浓度下可以有效地在夹杂带丝蚓体内累积，形态主要以Se-Met和Se-Cys为主。此外，沉积相中硒可以促进夹杂带丝蚓体内氧化应激反应、降低Na+/K+-ATP酶活性以及消化系统相关酶活性，从而抑制夹杂带丝蚓的肥满度增长以及对沉积物中硒的生物富集能力。结果表明:环境相关浓度的沉积相Se(Ⅳ)可能影响硒在底栖生物中的累积及其形态的分布，并形成生物效应。研究结果为阐明沉积物中硒对底栖生物的生物累积及效应提供了重要的理论依据和数据支撑。     

网联车混行条件下交通流量融合方法

未来智能网联车与非网联车混行将带来更多的多源交通数据；为了提高数据的可靠性，结合传统交通数据获取方式提出了一种基于粒子群优化径向基神经网络的多源交通数据融合方法。首先选取不同来源的数据构建多源数据集并设置对照数据，利用Elbow Method方法和K-Means算法对多源数据集进行聚类，再以聚类中心坐标为参考构建相应径向基神经网络，最后在神经网络训练过程中引入粒子群算法，以融合结果与对照数据的差值作为粒子群算法迭代的目标函数，帮助求解神经网络中的参数。使用MATLAB实现神经网络并选取一组多源交通流量进行测试，同时再把这组交通流量数据用卡尔曼滤波算法融合，将两种方法的融合结果进行对比。结果表明：相比于传统卡尔曼滤波，使用粒子群优化的径向基神经网络对混行条件下的多源交通流量进行融合时数据误差均降低60%以上。