Systemic Research Practices Towards the Development of an Eco-Community in Vietnam: some Joint Post-Facto Reflections

In this article we discuss how an interdisciplinary research team partnered with a variety of stakeholders concerned with and/or affected by the impacts of climate change in the Red River Delta of Vietnam. The research, undertaken from 2016 to 2018, drew upon a wide range of methods to investigate systemically these impacts – with a view to the research inputting into the development of (more) sustainable ways of living. The research solicited various accounts of the experience of climate change in the community, set up learning processes in community meetings, and created an interface with government officials positioned at commune, district, provincial, and national levels. The intention was to offer support towards developing a learning process (broadly defined as including learnings/systemic inquiry across organizational levels of the society) to pursue options for sustainable living. The article offers our post-facto reflections which render more explicit (to ourselves and for the benefit of audiences) how the research team, with Hoang as lead researcher, facilitated the inquiry process towards developing a synthesis which underscored the assets for resilience to climate change and supported interventions to strengthen such (defined) assets.

     

Further evidence for small-bodied hominins from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia

Homo floresiensis was recovered from Late Pleistocene deposits on the island of Flores in eastern Indonesia, but has the stature, limb proportions and endocranial volume of African Pliocene Australopithecus. The holotype of the species (LB1), excavated in 2003 from Liang Bua, consisted of a partial skeleton minus the arms. Here we describe additional H. floresiensis remains excavated from the cave in 2004. These include arm bones belonging to the holotype skeleton, a second adult mandible, and postcranial material from other individuals. We can now reconstruct the body proportions of H. floresiensis with some certainty. The finds further demonstrate that LB1 is not just an aberrant or pathological individual, but is representative of a long-term population that was present during the interval 95-74 to 12 thousand years ago. The excavation also yielded more evidence for the depositional history of the cave and for the behavioural capabilities of H. floresiensis, including the butchery of Stegodon and use of fire.     

Formation of molecular gas in the tidal debris of violent galaxy-galaxy interactions

In many gravitational interactions between galaxies, gas and stars that have been torn from the precursor galaxies can collect in tidal 'tails'. Star formation begins anew in some of these regions, producing tidal dwarf galaxies. Observations of these new galaxies provides insight into processes relevant to galaxy formation more generally, because the timescale of the interaction is well defined. But tracking the star formation process has hitherto been difficult because the tidal dwarf galaxies with young stars showed no evidence of the molecular gas out of which those young stars formed. Here we report the discovery of molecular hydrogen (traced by carbon monoxide emission) in two tidal dwarf galaxies. In both cases, the concentration of molecular gas peaks at the same location as the maximum in atomic-hydrogen density, unlike the situation in most gas-rich galaxies. We infer from this that the molecular gas formed from the atomic hydrogen, rather than being torn in molecular form from the interacting galaxies. Star formation in the tidal dwarf galaxies therefore appears to mimic the process in normal spiral galaxies like our own.     

Archaeology and age of a new hominin from Flores in eastern Indonesia

Excavations at Liang Bua, a large limestone cave on the island of Flores in eastern Indonesia, have yielded evidence for a population of tiny hominins, sufficiently distinct anatomically to be assigned to a new species, Homo floresiensis. The finds comprise the cranial and some post-cranial remains of one individual, as well as a premolar from another individual in older deposits. Here we describe their context, implications and the remaining archaeological uncertainties. Dating by radiocarbon (14C), luminescence, uranium-series and electron spin resonance (ESR) methods indicates that H. floresiensis existed from before 38,000 years ago (kyr) until at least 18 kyr. Associated deposits contain stone artefacts and animal remains, including Komodo dragon and an endemic, dwarfed species of Stegodon. H. floresiensis originated from an early dispersal of Homo erectus (including specimens referred to as Homo ergaster and Homo georgicus) that reached Flores, and then survived on this island refuge until relatively recently. It overlapped significantly in time with Homo sapiens in the region, but we do not know if or how the two species interacted.     

本溪地区BIF中玄武质围岩的高场强元素特征

辽宁本溪地区条带状铁矿(BIF)与其玄武质火山围岩之间的时空关联非常密切.对于玄武质火山围岩高场强元素(HFSE)的研究表明:wNb/wTa比值(7.00~19.93)表现出明显的分异,而wZr/wHf比值(33.46~38.28)则变化不大;从弓长岭到南芬、歪头山样品的wNb/wTa比值变化具有明显的循序性.这种高场强元素的迁移和分异特征反映出俯冲作用与盆地演化之间的关联.研究区玄武质火山围岩(wNb/wYb)N比值大于1(1.21~18.45,平均2.72),这进一步表明,其形成的构造背景为陆内弧后盆地提供了有利于BIF形成的条件.     

基于热压块的不锈钢粉尘还原实验

为了从不锈钢粉尘中回收利用Fe,Cr和Ni等,对不锈钢粉尘热压块制备及其自还原过程进行了研究.在热压温度为200℃,热压压力为35 MPa条件下,抗压强度达到900 N/个以上.高温条件下,煤热解产生的挥发分可参与不锈钢粉尘还原反应,当还原温度为1 400,1 450℃时,挥发分还原作用率达到0.4.据XRD分析和热力学计算,自还原过程中含铬物质的物相转变顺序为Fe Cr2O4,Cr2O3,Cr7C3,[Cr]Fe-Cr-Ni-C.当还原温度为1 450℃,烟煤中固定碳与粉尘中可去除氧的物质量的比(xc/xo)为0.72时,不锈钢粉尘热压块不能完全还原;当xc/xo大于0.8,还原20 min时,不锈钢粉尘热压块能完全还原.     

A new small-bodied hominin from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia

Currently, it is widely accepted that only one hominin genus, Homo, was present in Pleistocene Asia, represented by two species, Homo erectus and Homo sapiens. Both species are characterized by greater brain size, increased body height and smaller teeth relative to Pliocene Australopithecus in Africa. Here we report the discovery, from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia, of an adult hominin with stature and endocranial volume approximating 1 m and 380 cm3, respectively--equal to the smallest-known australopithecines. The combination of primitive and derived features assigns this hominin to a new species, Homo floresiensis. The most likely explanation for its existence on Flores is long-term isolation, with subsequent endemic dwarfing, of an ancestral H. erectus population. Importantly, H. floresiensis shows that the genus Homo is morphologically more varied and flexible in its adaptive responses than previously thought.     

综框模态特性对综框运动的影响

在喷气织机的开口系统上测量了综框的加速度时间历程,并把数据转换到频域,测量范围定在0～200HZ。测量结果表明综框横振动模态是影响综框振动和产生故障的主要因素,建议综框应改刚性结构为弹性框架,这样将改善综框的动态性能和延长使用寿命。