Acoustics: the vocal tract and the sound of a didgeridoo

The Australian didgeridoo (or yidaki in the Yolngu language of northern Australia) is a simple musical instrument that, at the lips of an experienced player, is capable of a spectacular variety of timbres--considerably greater than those that can be coaxed from orchestral instruments, for example. To understand this phenomenon, we simultaneously measured the sound produced by the didgeridoo and the acoustic impedance of the player's vocal tract. We find that the maxima in the envelope of the sound spectrum are associated with minima in the impedance of the vocal tract, as measured just inside the lips. This acoustic effect is similar to the production of vowel sounds made during human speech or singing, although the mechanism is different, and leads to the surprising conclusion that experienced players are subconsciously using their glottis to accentuate the instrument's tonal variation.     

Low-velocity zone atop the 410-km seismic discontinuity in the northwestern United States

The seismic discontinuity at 410 km depth in the Earth's mantle is generally attributed to the phase transition of (Mg,Fe)2SiO4 (refs 1, 2) from the olivine to wadsleyite structure. Variation in the depth of this discontinuity is often taken as a proxy for mantle temperature owing to its response to thermal perturbations. For example, a cold anomaly would elevate the 410-km discontinuity, because of its positive Clapeyron slope, whereas a warm anomaly would depress the discontinuity. But trade-offs between seismic wave-speed heterogeneity and discontinuity topography often inhibit detailed analysis of these discontinuities, and structure often appears very complicated. Here we simultaneously model seismic refracted waves and scattered waves from the 410-km discontinuity in the western United States to constrain structure in the region. We find a low-velocity zone, with a shear-wave velocity drop of 5%, on top of the 410-km discontinuity beneath the northwestern United States, extending from southwestern Oregon to the northern Basin and Range province. This low-velocity zone has a thickness that varies from 20 to 90 km with rapid lateral variations. Its spatial extent coincides with both an anomalous composition of overlying volcanism and seismic 'receiver-function' observations observed above the region. We interpret the low-velocity zone as a compositional anomaly, possibly due to a dense partial-melt layer, which may be linked to prior subduction of the Farallon plate and back-arc extension. The existence of such a layer could be indicative of high water content in the Earth's transition zone.     

Evaluation of the effect of air pollution control during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games using Lidar data

To examine the effect of pollution control measures on Beijing air quality during the 2008 Olympic Games, this paper analyzes the variation of aerosol extinction coefficient observed with a Dual-wavelength Polarized Lidar in Beijing during the Olympic Games. The results show that (1) during the Beijing Olympic Games, the aerosol extinction coefficient decreased to about 42.3% in the surface layer (below 250 m) compared with that in 2007 under almost the same meteorological conditions, indicating the effecti...     

Two countermeasure strategies to mitigate random disruptions in capacitated systems

We examine a capacitated system exposed to random stepwise capacity disruptions with exponentially distributed interarrival times and uniformly distributed magnitudes.We explore two countermeasure policies for a risk-neutral decision maker who seeks to maximize the long-run average reward.A one-phase policy considers implementation of countermeasures throughout the entirety of a disruption cycle.The results of this analysis form a basis for a two-phase model which implements countermeasures during only a fraction of a disruption cycle.We present an extensive numerical analysis as well as a sensitivity study on the fluctuations of some system parameter values.     

基于网络的个人健康管理实时监控健康分析平台

针对个性化电子医疗服务、高效医疗服务和远程医疗服务的需求,将国际通行个人健康档案标准数据模型、Java手机客户端和网络服务技术相结合,构建一个基于Web2.0的社区医疗服务平台,该平台实现了为医生/患者、教练/运动员4类用户提供基于网络的实时监控及在线远程医疗分析功能.     

Common variants at 6q22 and 17q21 are associated with intracranial volume

During aging, intracranial volume remains unchanged and represents maximally attained brain size, while various interacting biological phenomena lead to brain volume loss. Consequently, intracranial volume and brain volume in late life reflect different genetic influences. Our genome-wide association study (GWAS) in 8,175 community-dwelling elderly persons did not reveal any associations at genome-wide significance (P < 5 × 10(-8)) for brain volume. In contrast, intracranial volume was significantly associated with two loci: rs4273712 (P = 3.4 × 10(-11)), a known height-associated locus on chromosome 6q22, and rs9915547 (P = 1.5 × 10(-12)), localized to the inversion on chromosome 17q21. We replicated the associations of these loci with intracranial volume in a separate sample of 1,752 elderly persons (P = 1.1 × 10(-3) for 6q22 and 1.2 × 10(-3) for 17q21). Furthermore, we also found suggestive associations of the 17q21 locus with head circumference in 10,768 children (mean age of 14.5 months). Our data identify two loci associated with head size, with the inversion at 17q21 also likely to be involved in attaining maximal brain size.     

Genomic revelations of a mutualism: the pea aphid and its obligate bacterial symbiont

The symbiosis of the pea aphid Acyrthosphion pisum with the bacterium Buchnera aphidicola APS represents the best-studied insect obligate symbiosis. Here we present a refined picture of this symbiosis by linking pre-genomic observations to new genomic data that includes the complete genomes of the eukaryotic and prokaryotic symbiotic partners. In doing so, we address four issues central to understanding the patterns and processes operating at the A. pisum/Buchnera APS interface. These four issues include: (1) lateral gene transfer, (2) host immunity, (3) symbiotic metabolism, and (4) regulation.