轿车双侧顶盖抗压性能的虚拟实验评估

研究了小型汽车在双侧顶盖抗压试验中的安全性能,评估了不同滚动角及俯仰角组合对顶盖强度的影响,并分析了顶盖近侧及远侧之间抗压性能的差异.通过顶盖抗压试验对汽车的有限元模型进行验证;基于不同滚动角度及俯仰角度进行全因子正交试验设计.虚拟试验结果表明:俯仰角和滚动角的变化对顶盖抗压性能有显著影响,在127mm(5inch)的压缩行程中,当俯仰角相同时,在10°～45°滚动角范围内随着角度增加顶盖两侧强度持续下降;而当滚动角相同时,在5°～15°俯仰角范围内随着角度增加顶盖两侧强度逐渐减弱.总体来看,近侧顶盖的强度性能明显高于远侧.     

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.     

Body plan innovation in treehoppers through the evolution of an extra wing-like appendage

Body plans, which characterize the anatomical organization of animal groups of high taxonomic rank, often evolve by the reduction or loss of appendages (limbs in vertebrates and legs and wings in insects, for example). In contrast, the addition of new features is extremely rare and is thought to be heavily constrained, although the nature of the constraints remains elusive. Here we show that the treehopper (Membracidae) 'helmet' is actually an appendage, a wing serial homologue on the first thoracic segment. This innovation in the insect body plan is an unprecedented situation in 250 Myr of insect evolution. We provide evidence suggesting that the helmet arose by escaping the ancestral repression of wing formation imparted by a member of the Hox gene family, which sculpts the number and pattern of appendages along the body axis. Moreover, we propose that the exceptional morphological diversification of the helmet was possible because, in contrast to the wings, it escaped the stringent functional requirements imposed by flight. This example illustrates how complex morphological structures can arise by the expression of ancestral developmental potentials and fuel the morphological diversification of an evolutionary lineage.     

Tat-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes select for SIV escape variants during resolution of primary viraemia

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infections are characterized by early peaks of viraemia that decline as strong cellular immune responses develop. Although it has been shown that virus-specific CD8-positive cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) exert selective pressure during HIV and SIV infection, the data have been controversial. Here we show that Tat-specific CD8-positive T-lymphocyte responses select for new viral escape variants during the acute phase of infection. We sequenced the entire virus immediately after the acute phase, and found that amino-acid replacements accumulated primarily in Tat CTL epitopes. This implies that Tat-specific CTLs may be significantly involved in controlling wild-type virus replication, and suggests that responses against viral proteins that are expressed early during the viral life cycle might be attractive targets for HIV vaccine development.     

线双折射对高圆双折射光纤电流传感器输出信号的影响

对采用高圆双折射光纤的电流传感器中光纤特性的不完善,如光纤中存在的固有线双折射及弯曲引入的线双折射,传感器输出信号受到的影响进行了详细的理论分析及数值计算,获得了线双折射影响传感器输出信号的数据及曲线,并提出消除光纤中线双折射对传感器输出信号影响的方法。这些结果对分析传感器实际测量结果,提高传感器稳定性及性能以及传感用高圆双折射光纤的设计等都有很大的实用和参考价值。     

A high-resolution map of human chromosome 12

Our sequence-tagged site-content map of chromosome 12 is now integrated with the whole-genome fingerprinting effort. It provides accurate and nearly complete bacterial clone coverage of chromosome 12. We propose that this integrated mapping protocol serves as a model for constructing physical maps for entire genomes.