星座判别分析法及其在天气预报中的应用

本文把星座与Fisher判别分析结合起来,建立了两个数学模型,把多维点聚图投影到复平面上,(?)多元判别分类时很直观,并用于伏旱强度的客观预报,效果较好.     

基于NOAA/AVHRR数据的西部植被覆盖变化监测

应用图像差分技术、生物量变化线性方程斜率和主成分分析方法，对1981—2001年间西部植被的变化状况进行时间序列分析，并讨论了影响变化监测的因素．结果显示，1981—2001年的20年间，四川盆地和西部塔里木盆地周缘的耕地以及具有高NDVI的南方林区的生物量处于较好的持续增加状态；而内蒙古以及西藏东北部的草地出现大面积的退化现象．总体分析来看，西部的林地、草地都发生了高比例、大面积的退化，只有很小比例的植被得以改善，表现出局部改善、总体恶化的局面．     

Direct dating of Early Upper Palaeolithic human remains from Mladec

The human fossil assemblage from the Mladec Caves in Moravia (Czech Republic) has been considered to derive from a middle or later phase of the Central European Aurignacian period on the basis of archaeological remains (a few stone artefacts and organic items such as bone points, awls, perforated teeth), despite questions of association between the human fossils and the archaeological materials and concerning the chronological implications of the limited archaeological remains. The morphological variability in the human assemblage, the presence of apparently archaic features in some specimens, and the assumed early date of the remains have made this fossil assemblage pivotal in assessments of modern human emergence within Europe. We present here the first successful direct accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dating of five representative human fossils from the site. We selected sample materials from teeth and from one bone for 14C dating. The four tooth samples yielded uncalibrated ages of approximately 31,000 14C years before present, and the bone sample (an ulna) provided an uncertain more-recent age. These data are sufficient to confirm that the Mladec human assemblage is the oldest cranial, dental and postcranial assemblage of early modern humans in Europe and is therefore central to discussions of modern human emergence in the northwestern Old World and the fate of the Neanderthals.     

Magnetoreception and its trigeminal mediation in the homing pigeon

Two conflicting hypotheses compete to explain how a homing pigeon can return to its loft over great distances. One proposes the use of atmospheric odours and the other the Earth's magnetic field in the 'map' step of the 'map and compass' hypothesis of pigeon homing. Although magnetic effects on pigeon orientation provide indirect evidence for a magnetic 'map', numerous conditioning experiments have failed to demonstrate reproducible responses to magnetic fields by pigeons. This has led to suggestions that homing pigeons and other birds have no useful sensitivity to the Earth's magnetic field. Here we demonstrate that homing pigeons (Columba livia) can discriminate between the presence and absence of a magnetic anomaly in a conditioned choice experiment. This discrimination is impaired by attachment of a magnet to the cere, local anaesthesia of the upper beak area, and bilateral section of the ophthalmic branch of the trigeminal nerve, but not of the olfactory nerve. These results suggest that magnetoreception (probably magnetite-based) occurs in the upper beak area of the pigeon. Traditional methods of rendering pigeons anosmic might therefore cause simultaneous impairment of magnetoreception so that future orientation experiments will require independent evaluation of the pigeon's magnetic and olfactory systems.     

Expression ofPseudomonas phosphotriesterase activity in the fall armyworm confers resistance to insecticides

Summary The gene encoding for the phosphotriesterase (opd) fromPseudomonas diminuta has been subcloned into a baculovirus expression system. Functional enzyme is produced when the recombinant baculovirus is used to infect either culturedSpodoptera frugiperda sf9 cells or the larval stage of the fall armyworm. The LD₅₀ for paraoxon toxicity was found to increase 280-fold in the larvae after infection with the recombinant baculovirus and expression of the functional phosphotriesterase.This work was supported by the Army Research Office (DAAL03-87-K-0017) and the Texas Advanced Technology Program. F.M.R. is the recipient of NIH Research Career Development Award DK-01366.