Postcranial evidence from early Homo from Dmanisi, Georgia

The Plio-Pleistocene site of Dmanisi, Georgia, has yielded a rich fossil and archaeological record documenting an early presence of the genus Homo outside Africa. Although the craniomandibular morphology of early Homo is well known as a result of finds from Dmanisi and African localities, data about its postcranial morphology are still relatively scarce. Here we describe newly excavated postcranial material from Dmanisi comprising a partial skeleton of an adolescent individual, associated with skull D2700/D2735, and the remains from three adult individuals. This material shows that the postcranial anatomy of the Dmanisi hominins has a surprising mosaic of primitive and derived features. The primitive features include a small body size, a low encephalization quotient and absence of humeral torsion; the derived features include modern-human-like body proportions and lower limb morphology indicative of the capability for long-distance travel. Thus, the earliest known hominins to have lived outside of Africa in the temperate zones of Eurasia did not yet display the full set of derived skeletal features.     

基于遥感与区域化方法的无资料流域水文模型参数优化方法

针对无资料流域径流预报的难点, 探讨水文模型参数优化的共性问题, 综述区域化方法和遥感方法的研究现状。首先从水文模型参数优化面临的共性问题, 即水文地理数据生成、目标函数构建和优化方法选择等问题出发, 分析其对参数优选结果的影响, 并归纳出当前广泛认可的解决方案。然后结合区域化方法的技术原理和研究进展, 着重论述测站密度对区域化方法性能的影响, 并分析该方法在中国的适用性。接着从研究区域、水文模型结构、遥感资料以及率定目标等方面归纳总结遥感方法优化水文模型参数的最新研究进展。最后对区域化方法和遥感方法的优缺点及未来发展前景进行对比分析, 为中国无资料或缺资料流域径流预报实践提供参考。     

Facultative cheater mutants reveal the genetic complexity of cooperation in social amoebae

Cooperation is central to many major transitions in evolution, including the emergence of eukaryotic cells, multicellularity and eusociality. Cooperation can be destroyed by the spread of cheater mutants that do not cooperate but gain the benefits of cooperation from others. However, cooperation can be preserved if cheaters are facultative, cheating others but cooperating among themselves. Several cheater mutants have been studied before, but no study has attempted a genome-scale investigation of the genetic opportunities for cheating. Here we describe such a screen in a social amoeba and show that cheating is multifaceted by revealing cheater mutations in well over 100 genes of diverse types. Many of these mutants cheat facultatively, producing more than their fair share of spores in chimaeras, but cooperating normally when clonal. These findings indicate that phenotypically stable cooperative systems may nevertheless harbour genetic conflicts. The opportunities for evolutionary moves and countermoves in such conflicts may select for the involvement of multiple pathways and numerous genes.     

华蟾素注射液治疗恶性肿瘤的研究

华蟾素是国家新产品、国家中药保护品种。目前研究表明，华蟾素具有良好的抗肿瘤作用，使用安全，已广泛用于恶性肿瘤临床治疗。华蟾素存在中药制剂普遍固有的缺点，即确切的有效组分报道不一，临床试验设计尚不全面规范等。迫切需要进一步研究，以获得华蟾素确切抗癌安全性、有效性信息，为提高制剂质量和临床疗效提供保证。项目利用外方先进的科学技术和研究理念，为促进中药产品创新和进入发达国家药品主流市场打下坚实的基础。     

Withdrawing Unfalsifiable Hypotheses

There has been little research into the weak kindsof negating hypotheses. Hypotheses may be unfalsifiable. In this case it is impossible tofind a contradiction in some area of the conceptualsystems in which they are incorporated.Notwithstanding this fact, it is sometimes necessaryto construct ways of rejecting the unfalsifiablehypothesis at hand by resorting to some external forms of negation, external because wewant to avoid any arbitrary and subjectiveelimination, which would be rationally orepistemologically unjustified. I will consider akind of ``weak' (unfalsifiable) hypotheses that arehard to negate and the ways for making it easy. Inthese cases the subject can ``rationally' decide towithdraw his hypotheses even in contexts where it is``impossible' to find ``explicit' contradictions: theuse of negation as failure (an interestingtechnique for negating hypotheses and accessing newones suggested by artificial intelligence) isilluminating. I plan to explore whether this kind ofnegation can be employed to model hypothesiswithdrawal in Poincaré's conventionalism of theprinciples of physics and in Freudian analyticreasoning.