Reconstructed changes in Arctic sea ice over the past 1,450 years

Arctic sea ice extent is now more than two million square kilometres less than it was in the late twentieth century, with important consequences for the climate, the ocean and traditional lifestyles in the Arctic. Although observations show a more or less continuous decline for the past four or five decades, there are few long-term records with which to assess natural sea ice variability. Until now, the question of whether or not current trends are potentially anomalous has therefore remained unanswerable. Here we use a network of high-resolution terrestrial proxies from the circum-Arctic region to reconstruct past extents of summer sea ice, and show that-although extensive uncertainties remain, especially before the sixteenth century-both the duration and magnitude of the current decline in sea ice seem to be unprecedented for the past 1,450 years. Enhanced advection of warm Atlantic water to the Arctic seems to be the main factor driving the decline of sea ice extent on multidecadal timescales, and may result from nonlinear feedbacks between sea ice and the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. These results reinforce the assertion that sea ice is an active component of Arctic climate variability and that the recent decrease in summer Arctic sea ice is consistent with anthropogenically forced warming.     

The role of dyking and fault control in the rapid onset of eruption at Chaitén volcano, Chile

Rhyolite is the most viscous of liquid magmas, so it was surprising that on 2?May 2008 at Chaitén Volcano, located in Chile's southern Andean volcanic zone, rhyolitic magma migrated from more than 5?km depth in less than 4?hours (ref.?1) and erupted explosively with only two days of detected precursory seismic activity. The last major rhyolite eruption before that at Chaitén was the largest volcanic eruption in the twentieth century, at Novarupta volcano, Alaska, in 1912. Because of the historically rare and explosive nature of rhyolite eruptions and because of the surprisingly short warning before the eruption of the Chaitén volcano, any information about the workings of the magmatic system at Chaitén, and rhyolitic systems in general, is important from both the scientific and hazard perspectives. Here we present surface deformation data related to the Chaitén eruption based on radar interferometry observations from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) DAICHI (ALOS) satellite. The data on this explosive rhyolite eruption indicate that the rapid ascent of rhyolite occurred through dyking and that melt segregation and magma storage were controlled by existing faults.     

Human metabolic individuality in biomedical and pharmaceutical research

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified many risk loci for complex diseases, but effect sizes are typically small and information on the underlying biological processes is often lacking. Associations with metabolic traits as functional intermediates can overcome these problems and potentially inform individualized therapy. Here we report a comprehensive analysis of genotype-dependent metabolic phenotypes using a GWAS with non-targeted metabolomics. We identified 37 genetic loci associated with blood metabolite concentrations, of which 25 show effect sizes that are unusually high for GWAS and account for 10-60% differences in metabolite levels per allele copy. Our associations provide new functional insights for many disease-related associations that have been reported in previous studies, including those for cardiovascular and kidney disorders, type 2 diabetes, cancer, gout, venous thromboembolism and Crohn's disease. The study advances our knowledge of the genetic basis of metabolic individuality in humans and generates many new hypotheses for biomedical and pharmaceutical research.     

A Pluto-like radius and a high albedo for the dwarf planet Eris from an occultation

The dwarf planet Eris is a trans-Neptunian object with an orbital eccentricity of 0.44, an inclination of 44 degrees and a surface composition very similar to that of Pluto. It resides at present at 95.7 astronomical units (1?AU is the Earth-Sun distance) from Earth, near its aphelion and more than three times farther than Pluto. Owing to this great distance, measuring its size or detecting a putative atmosphere is difficult. Here we report the observation of a multi-chord stellar occultation by Eris on 6 November 2010 UT. The event is consistent with a spherical shape for Eris, with radius 1,163?±?6?kilometres, density 2.52?±?0.05 grams per cm(3) and a high visible geometric albedo, Pv = 0.96(+0.09)(-0.04). No nitrogen, argon or methane atmospheres are detected with surface pressure larger than ～1?nanobar, about 10,000 times more tenuous than Pluto's present atmosphere. As Pluto's radius is estimated to be between 1,150 and 1,200 kilometres, Eris appears as a Pluto twin, with a bright surface possibly caused by a collapsed atmosphere, owing to its cold environment. We anticipate that this atmosphere may periodically sublimate as Eris approaches its perihelion, at 37.8 astronomical units from the Sun.     

一种QoS感知的基于与或图的Web服务选择模型

本文对Web组合服务选择问题进行了研究.首先,在讨论基本服务之间的关系之后,重新定义了组合服务的QoS质量准则.然后,用与或图来描述基本服务之间的关系,构建基于与或图的QoS感知的组合服务选择模型.接着,提出一种新的基于蚁群算法的组合服务选择算法,新算法针对并行关系和分支关系同时存在的情形给出了解决方案.最后,通过实验...     

全球化语境中少数民族电影的生存方略

从全球化的特定时代环境出发,对少数民族电影的发展轨迹、文化形态进行了回顾与反思。通过电影管理观念及制度、电影创作主体、形式等因素的分析,对少数民族电影如何适应全球化语境,并从中求得生存,为实现中国电影文化真正的多元与完整提出了发展策略。     

知识牵引与数据驱动的兵棋AI设计及关键技术

在分析知识推理型与数据学习型兵棋人工智能(artifical intelligence, AI)优缺点的基础上, 提出了基于知识牵引与数据驱动的AI设计框架。针对框架中涉及的基于数据补全的战场态势感知,基于遗传模糊系统的关键点推理,基于层次任务网的任务规划、计划修复与重规划,基于深度强化学习的算子动作策略优化等关键技术进行深入探讨。结果表明,所提框架具有较强的适应性, 不仅能够满足分队、群队、人机混合等兵棋推演的应用需求, 而且适用于解决一般回合制或即时策略性的博弈对抗问题。     

对称降冰片二烯二羧酸二酯的高选择性单水解

半酯是有机合成中非常重要的中间体,大体积对称二酯的选择性单水解高产率制备半酯的研究具有重要意义.本研究采用THF、DMSO、CH3CN作为共溶剂,在0℃碱溶液中将对称结构的降冰片二烯衍生物进行选择性单水解反应,考察了三种共溶剂比例、不同碱及碱的用量对水解反应的影响.结果表明,当共溶剂与H2O体积比为1∶10的情况下,T...     

涡旋压缩机曲柄销防自转机构分析

建立了曲柄销防自转机构的机构模型,将曲柄销防自转机构简化为平行四连杆机构,验证了其防自转作用,确定了曲柄销数目的合理选择方法.通过对其动力的分析,证实它比半周受力的防自转机构受力减少了一半,是一种精度高、性能好的防自转机构.     

The Perspective of the Instruments: Mediating Collectivity

Numerous studies in the fields of Science and Technology Studies (STS) and philosophy of technology have repeatedly stressed that scientific practices are collective practices that crucially depend on the presence of scientific technologies. Postphenomenology is one of the movements that aims to draw philosophical conclusions from these observations through an analysis of human–technology interactions in scientific practice. Two other attempts that try to integrate these insights into philosophy of science are Ronald Giere’s Scientific Perspectivism (2006) and Davis Baird’s Thing Knowledge (2004). In this paper, these two approaches will be critically discussed from the perspective of postphenomenology. We will argue that Giere and Baird problematically assume that scientific instruments (a) have a determined function, and (b) that all human members of a scientific collective have immediate access to this function. However, these assumptions also allow them to offer a clear answer to the question how scientists can collectively relate to scientific phenomena. Such an answer is not yet (explicitly) formulated within the postphenomenological perspective. By adding a postphenomenological touch to the semiotic approach in Actor-Network Theory, we offer an account of how different individual human–technology relations are integrated into larger scientific collectives. We do so by showing that scientific instruments not only help constitute scientific phenomena, but also the intersubjectivity within such collectives.