Surprisingly rapid growth in Neanderthals

Life-history traits correlate closely with dental growth, so differences in dental growth within Homo can enable us to determine how somatic development has evolved and to identify developmental shifts that warrant species-level distinctions. Dental growth can be determined from the speed of enamel formation (or extension rate). We analysed the enamel extension rate in Homo antecessor (8 teeth analysed), Homo heidelbergensis (106), Homo neanderthalensis ('Neanderthals'; 146) and Upper Palaeolithic-Mesolithic Homo sapiens (100). Here we report that Upper Palaeolithic-Mesolithic H. sapiens shared an identical dental development pattern with modern humans, but that H. antecessor and H. heidelbergensis had shorter periods of dental growth. Surprisingly, Neanderthals were characterized by having the shortest period of dental growth. Because dental growth is an excellent indicator of somatic development, our results suggest that Neanderthals developed faster even than their immediate ancestor, H. heidelbergensis. Dental growth became longer and brain size increased from the Plio-Pleistocene in hominid evolution. Neanderthals, despite having a large brain, were characterized by a short period of development. This autapomorphy in growth is an evolutionary reversal, and points strongly to a specific distinction between H. sapiens and H. neanderthalensis.     

Neanderthals in central Asia and Siberia

Morphological traits typical of Neanderthals began to appear in European hominids at least 400,000 years ago and about 150,000 years ago in western Asia. After their initial appearance, such traits increased in frequency and the extent to which they are expressed until they disappeared shortly after 30,000 years ago. However, because most fossil hominid remains are fragmentary, it can be difficult or impossible to determine unambiguously whether a fossil is of Neanderthal origin. This limits the ability to determine when and where Neanderthals lived. To determine how far to the east Neanderthals ranged, we determined mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences from hominid remains found in Uzbekistan and in the Altai region of southern Siberia. Here we show that the DNA sequences from these fossils fall within the European Neanderthal mtDNA variation. Thus, the geographic range of Neanderthals is likely to have extended at least 2,000 km further to the east than commonly assumed.     

Hydrologic and climatic implications of a multi－disciplinary study of the mid to late Holocene Lake Eastern Juyanze

A mid to late Holocene exposure in a recently desiccated lake basin in western Inner Mongolia was inves-tigated with regard to palaeoenvir onmental changes and theoverall climatic conditions in NW China between 2.7 and 5.4 cal. ka BP. High lake levels of Lake Eastern Juyanze were recorded by ostracod assemblages, shell geochemistry and sedimentology between 5.1 and 4.1 cal. ka BP. Relatively bumid conditions and a relatively strong influence of the Asian monsoon are indicated by palynological data for the corresponding period. Lake levels decreased afterwards and short-term regressive events occurred at about 4.1, 3.8 and 3.4 cal. ka BP. The overall trend towards lower lake levels culminated in repeated episodes of desiccation of Lake East-ern Juyanze between 3.2 and 2.9 cal. ka BP, in phase with very arid conditions inferred from the palynological record.Individual regressive events as well as the rapid environ-mental fluctuations of Lake Eastern Juyanze at about 3.0 cal.ka BP were regarded as driven by mid to late Holocene summer monsoon fluctuations, supported by the Dunde ice core record.     

五指山小型猪心脏起搏器的放置

将体重为 2 4— 2 6kg的成年五指山小型猪 ,用于颈外静脉放置心脏起搏器的实验研究 ,结果表明此方法操作简单 ,起搏效果好 ,为建立理想的心衰模型提供了可靠的技术方法和措施 ,为小型猪的心衰模型系列开发利用奠定了良好基础。     

职务犯罪案件“立案难”问题探讨

职务犯罪立案难是指在存在较为明显的职务犯罪嫌疑信息的情况下,检察机关也难以进行立案侦查或不能及时立案侦查。职务犯罪立案难有制度上的原因,主要是：检察机关缺乏独立性;刑诉法规定的立案条件不合理;检察机关与纪检监察机构配合不够。解决职务犯罪立案难问题,需要加强检察机关的独立性,在法律中规定合理的立案条件,加强检察机关与纪检监察机构的沟通与协作。     

Extraction of a weak climatic signal by an ecosystem

The complexity of ecosystems can cause subtle and chaotic responses to changes in external forcing. Although ecosystems may not normally behave chaotically, sensitivity to external influences associated with nonlinearity can lead to amplification of climatic signals. Strong correlations between an El Ni?o index and rainfall and maize yield in Zimbabwe have been demonstrated; the correlation with maize yield was stronger than that with rainfall. A second example is the 100,000-year ice-age cycle, which may arise from a weak cycle in radiation through its influence on the concentration of atmospheric CO2 (ref. 5). Such integration of a weak climatic signal has yet to be demonstrated in a realistic theoretical system. Here we use a particular climatic phenomenon-the observed association between plankton populations around the UK and the position of the Gulf Stream-as a probe to demonstrate how a detailed marine ecosystem model extracts a weak signal that is spread across different meteorological variables. Biological systems may therefore respond to climatic signals other than those that dominate the driving variables.     

Holocene climatic change in Hunshandake Desert

Research on the geological data of Hunshandake Desert in China monsoon region revealed that Holocene summer monsoon had experienced six prevailing periods and seven weakening periods. The climatic humidity and the vegetation had also undergone the similar periodical variation influenced by the monsoon periodicity. The period when summer monsoon prevailed or winter monsoon weakened and climatic humidity and vegetation coverage relatively increased, corresponded to the global warming events;whereas the period when summer monsoon weakened or winter monsoon prevailed and climatic humidity and vegetation coverage relatively decreased, corresponded to the arid events in middle to low latitudes and the cold events in North Atlantic. As for the changing regularity of summer monsoon intensity there were two distinct periodicities of 1456 years and 494 years, also these two periodicities had global significance.     

Towards a smallest scale of context in ontology integration

In order to solve the ambiguity problems in the semantic context （structure, granularity or scale） emerging in the process of ontology integration application, this paper analyzes the essential characters of context structure, proposes a novel semantic context generating algorithm, which is implemented over VO-Editor（visual ontology editor）, from the satisfiability-based point of view, and proves that the context entity generated by this algorithm is smallest in scale and unique. It offers a feasible means for developers to handle context problems for ontology integration application.     

宜昌市夏季气候舒适性分析

以宜昌市1986-2015年夏季（6~8月）平均气温、平均风速和平均相对湿度的气象资料为依据,利用模糊评判法和人体舒适度指数计算模型,分析宜昌市夏季气候舒适度情况。结果表明：宜昌市6月份很舒适指数最高,不舒适指数最低,平均较热天数为18 d,气候舒适性较好;7月份不舒适指数最高,平均较热天数为19 d,气候舒适性比6月份较差;8月份不舒适指数低于7月份,平均较热天数为21 d,较热天数最多,3个月份的气候舒适性略有差异。在总体上宜昌市夏季气候是较舒适的,而气候不舒适性主要是高温造成的。     

Amplitude of climatic changes in Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

On the basis of ice core and meteorological data from the Qinghai-Tibetan (Q-T) Plateau, this article focuses on the discussion of the problems related to the sensitivity of temporal and spatial changes of the climate in high-altitude regions, particularly in the Q-T Plateau. The features of abrupt climatic changes of the past 100 ka, 2 000 a and recent years indicate that the amplitude of these changes in the Q-T Plateau was obviously larger than that in low-altitude regions. The scope of temperature change above 6 000 m in the Q-T Plateau between glacial and interglacial stages could reach over 10°C, but only about 4°C in low-elevation regions close to sea level. During the last 2 000 a, the amplitude of temperature changes at Guliya (over 6 000 m a.s.l.) in the Q-T Plateau reached 7°C, in comparison with 2°C in eastern China at low altitude. In the present age, apparent differences of climatic warming have been observed in the Q-T Plateau, indicating that the warming in high-elevation regions is much higher than that in low-elevation regions. The temperature in over 3 500 m regions of the Q-T Plateau have been increasing at a rate of 0.25×10¹/a in recent 30 years, but almost no change has taken place in the regions below 500 m. Thus, we concluded that high-altitude regions are more sensitive to climatic changes than the low-altitude regions.     

Transfer of a beta-turn structure to a new protein context

Four-residue beta-turns and larger loop structures represent a significant fraction of globular protein surfaces and play an important role in determining the conformation and specificity of enzyme active sites and antibody-combining sites. Turns are an attractive starting point to develop protein design methods, as they involve a small number of consecutive residues, adopt a limited number of defined conformations and are minimally constrained by packing interactions with the remainder of the protein. The ability to substitute one beta-turn geometry for another will extend protein engineering beyond the redecoration of fixed backbone conformations to include local restructuring and the repositioning of surface side chains. To determine the feasibility and to examine the effect of such a structural modification on the fold and thermodynamic stability of a globular protein, we have substituted a five-residue turn sequence from concanavalin A for a type I' beta-turn in staphylococcal nuclease. The resulting hybrid protein is folded and has full nuclease enzymatic activity but reduced thermodynamic stability. The crystal structure of the hybrid protein reveals that the guest turn sequence retains the conformation of the parent concanavalin A structure when substituted in the nuclease host.     

The climatic suitability for maize cultivation in China

To provide scientific support for planning maize production and designing countermeasures against the effects of climate change on the national maize crop, we analyzed the climatic suitability for cultivating maize across China. These analyses were based on annual climate indices at the Chinese national level; these indices influence the geographical distribution of maize cultivation. The annual climate indices, together with geographical information on the current cultivation sites of maize, the maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model, and the ArcGIS spatial analysis technique were used to analyze and predict maize distribution. The results show that the MaxEnt model can be used to study the climatic suitability for maize cultivation. The eight key climatic factors affecting maize cultivation areas were the frost-free period, annual average temperature, ≥0°C accumulated temperature, ≥10°C accumulated temperature continuous days, ≥10°C accumulated temperature, annual precipitation, warmest month average temperature, and humidity index. We classified climatic zones in terms of their suitability for maize cultivation, based on the existence probability determined using the MaxEnt model. Furthermore, climatic thresholds for a potential maize cultivation zone were determined based on the relationship between the dominant climatic factors and the potential maize cultivation area. The results indicated that the importance and thresholds of main climate controls differ for different maize species and maturities, and their specific climatic suitability should be studied further to identify the best cultivation zones. The MaxEnt model is a useful tool to study climatic suitability for maize cultivation.     

巧放千根钉及其推广

通过解决一个有趣的"巧放千根钉"的问题,讨论了自然数的"完全拆分"在实际生活中的的应用,并推导出其最简单的拆分形式.     

不同途径中心静脉置管在血透治疗中的对照观察

目的:探讨不同途径中心静脉置管在血透治疗中的优缺点 ,以供临床合理选用。方法:68例患者根据病情 ,分别行颈内静脉及股静脉置管 ,观察导管留置时间 ,相关并发症 ,透析效果评价及患者耐受性。结果:颈内静脉置管血流量充足 ,留置时间长 ,患者耐受性较好。结论:颈内静脉置管是首选的血管通路。     

综采工作面收尾铺网新工艺的探讨

就综采工作面收尾铺网新工艺进行了分析,对锚杆支护所用时间和抽插梁所用时间进行了预算。