PDE-Based Medial Axis Extraction and Shape Manipulation of Arbitrary Meshes

Shape skeletonization （i.e., medial axis extraction） is powerful in many visual computing applications, such as pattern recognition, object segmentation, registration, and animation. In this paper, the authors expand the use of diffusion equations combined with distance field information to approximate medial axes of arbitrary 3D differential properties. It offers an alternative solids represented by polygonal meshes based on their but natural way for medial axis extraction for commonly used 3D polygonal models. By solving the PDE along time axis, this system can not only quickly extract diffusion-based medial axes of input meshes, but also allow users to visualize the extraction process at each time step. In addition, the proposed model provides users a set of manipulation toolkits to sculpt extracted medial axes, then use diffusion-based techniques to recover corresponding deformed shapes according to the original input datasets. This skeleton-based shape manipulation offers a fast and easy way for animation and deformation of complicated mesh objects.     

不同林地清理方式下生物炭和氮添加对桉树红锥混交林土壤养分的影响

【目的】阐明不同林地清理方式下(火烧清理和人工清理)生物炭和氮添加对桉树红锥混交林土壤养分的影响,为人工林的经营管理提供参考。【方法】在火烧清理和人工清理林地的桉树红锥混交林中,设置生物炭和氮添加的控制实验,研究生物炭和氮添加对土壤有机碳(SOC)、全氮(TN)、全磷(TP)、全钾(TK)、有效磷(AP)和有效钾(AK)含量的影响。【结果】不同林地清理方式下,生物炭和氮添加对林地土壤养分的影响存在差异:与对照相比,人工清理林地时,添加生物炭显著增加了20～40cm土层的AP含量;氮添加极显著增加了0～10cm土层的SOC、TP、AP含量和C∶N;10～20cm土层的SOC、AK含量,20～40cm土层的AP和AK含量也显著增加;而0～10cm土层的N∶P则极显著降低。林地清理方式为火烧清理时,生物炭添加极显著增加0～10cm土层的TP含量,而0～10cm、10～20cm土层的SOC和AK含量,0～10cm土层的C∶N,10～20cm的AP∶TP、C∶P以及0～10cm、10～20cm、20～40cm土层的AK∶TK显著降低,0～10cm土层的AP含量、AP∶TP、C∶P和N∶P更是极显著降低。氮添加显著降低10～20cm土层的N∶P以及0～10cm土层的AP∶TP,0～10cm土层的AP含量以及10～20cm的TN含量下降达到极显著水平。【结论】人工清理林地条件下,实施生物炭和氮添加有利于提高桉树红锥混交林的土壤养分。     

Frictional ageing from interfacial bonding and the origins of rate and state friction

Earthquakes have long been recognized as being the result of stick-slip frictional instabilities. Over the past few decades, laboratory studies of rock friction have elucidated many aspects of tectonic fault zone processes and earthquake phenomena. Typically, the static friction of rocks grows logarithmically with time when they are held in stationary contact, but the mechanism responsible for this strengthening is not understood. This time-dependent increase of frictional strength, or frictional ageing, is one manifestation of the 'evolution effect' in rate and state friction theory. A prevailing view is that the time dependence of rock friction results from increases in contact area caused by creep of contacting asperities. Here we present the results of atomic force microscopy experiments that instead show that frictional ageing arises from the formation of interfacial chemical bonds, and the large magnitude of ageing at the nanometre scale is quantitatively consistent with what is required to explain observations in macroscopic rock friction experiments. The relative magnitude of the evolution effect compared with that of the 'direct effect'--the dependence of friction on instantaneous changes in slip velocity--determine whether unstable slip, leading to earthquakes, is possible. Understanding the mechanism underlying the evolution effect would enable us to formulate physically based frictional constitutive laws, rather than the current empirically based 'laws', allowing more confident extrapolation to natural faults.     

The evolutionary context of the first hominins

The relationships among the living apes and modern humans have effectively been resolved, but it is much more difficult to locate fossil apes on the tree of life because shared skeletal morphology does not always mean shared recent evolutionary history. Sorting fossil taxa into those that belong on the branch of the tree of life that leads to modern humans from those that belong on other closely related branches is a considerable challenge.     

人体肝脾血吸虫病的发病机制及其防治研究进展

研究了血吸虫对人体肝脾所致损伤的机理、多因素的发病机制、肝脾硬化导致的循环障碍、矸脾功能代偿失调、肝脾血吸虫病的诊断、预后及其防治难点。     

The knockout mouse project

Mouse knockout technology provides a powerful means of elucidating gene function in vivo, and a publicly available genome-wide collection of mouse knockouts would be significantly enabling for biomedical discovery. To date, published knockouts exist for only about 10% of mouse genes. Furthermore, many of these are limited in utility because they have not been made or phenotyped in standardized ways, and many are not freely available to researchers. It is time to harness new technologies and efficiencies of production to mount a high-throughput international effort to produce and phenotype knockouts for all mouse genes, and place these resources into the public domain.     

Increasing dominance of large lianas in Amazonian forests

Ecological orthodoxy suggests that old-growth forests should be close to dynamic equilibrium, but this view has been challenged by recent findings that neotropical forests are accumulating carbon and biomass, possibly in response to the increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide. However, it is unclear whether the recent increase in tree biomass has been accompanied by a shift in community composition. Such changes could reduce or enhance the carbon storage potential of old-growth forests in the long term. Here we show that non-fragmented Amazon forests are experiencing a concerted increase in the density, basal area and mean size of woody climbing plants (lianas). Over the last two decades of the twentieth century the dominance of large lianas relative to trees has increased by 1.7-4.6% a year. Lianas enhance tree mortality and suppress tree growth, so their rapid increase implies that the tropical terrestrial carbon sink may shut down sooner than current models suggest. Predictions of future tropical carbon fluxes will need to account for the changing composition and dynamics of supposedly undisturbed forests.     

Book Reviews: Behavior Change in the Human Services: An Introduction to Principles and Applications by Martin Sundel and Sandra S. Sundel. Exploring Personality: An Intellectual Odyssey by Russell L. Ackoff. The Ecologist: The Cosmic Covenant.

Systemic Practice and Action Research -