The Measurement by Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) of Disturbance Within the Nasca World Heritage Site

In this paper we report on our use of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) as a means of monitoring the Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Pampas de Jumana World Heritage Site in Peru, where the colossal ground drawings, popularly known as the Nasca Lines, are found. Our research to date indicates that the environment in which the Nasca geoglyphs are found, and the nature of the geoglyphs themselves, are suited perfectly for investigation by SAR. SAR also provides a new and valuable tool for understanding the human activities and natural processes that have damaged the geoglyphs and which, unchecked, will continue to do so in the future. Further, SAR can be used to categorize geoglyphs according to structural differences and similarities in ways that have heretofore not been possible, thereby serving as a basis for a geoglyph catalogue.     

Integrating radar and laser-based remote sensing techniques for monitoring structural deformation of archaeological monuments

Ground-Based Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (GBInSAR) and Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) were purposely integrated to obtain 3D interferometric radar point clouds to facilitate the spatial interpretation of displacements affecting archaeological monuments. The paper describes the procedure to implement this integrated approach in the real-world situations of surveillance of archaeological and built heritage. Targeted tests were carried out on the case study of the Domus Tiberiana sited along the northern side of the Palatino Hill in the central archaeological area of Rome, Italy, and displacements of the monument were monitored over almost one year of acquisition. The GBInSAR – TLS integration provided updated information about the condition of the archaeological structures in relation to their history of instability mechanisms, and did not highlighted a general worsening for the stability of the entire monument. Point-wise and prompt detection of displacement anomalies and/or sudden changes in displacement trends proved the suitability of the method to support early warning procedures, also to evaluate effects on the masonry due to human activities.     

Evaluating chloroplast DNA in prehistoric Texas coprolites: medicinal,dietary, or ambient ancient DNA?

Molecular analysis of coprolites from Hinds Cave, Texas recovered chloroplast DNA sequences. The sequences were interpreted as evidence of diet. We analyzed 19 Hinds Cave coprolites to evaluate the potential sources of the chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) and compared our results to previous studies. This review shows that some cpDNA sequences could be from well-known prehistoric plants foods. Some other sequences could have come from ambient plant material in the guts of small animals eaten by humans in antiquity. Using pollen concentration analysis, we identify sources of ambient plant material which could have been inhaled or imbibed. It is even possible that cpDNA sequences are from proplastids within ambient pollen grains themselves. However, three sequence types cannot be explained as resulting from only dietary or ambient sources. We suggest instead that these might be from medicinal or hallucinogenic plants. We compared these three sequences to existing sequences in the GenBank. We found that these sequences are 100% matches for Rhamnus, Fouquieria, and Solanum.     

对加快青海生物技术产业发展的几点思考

二十世纪八十年代以来,生物技术的飞速发展,促成青海逐步形成生物技术产业。作为新兴产业,它是青海经济发展的一个增长点。但是,青海生物技术产业目前还存在着一些不足,主要是发展还较滞后,层次低,规模小,缺乏相应人才等。今后,要把生物技术作为青海高新技术创新和发展新兴产业的突破口,集中力量,重点攻关,加强科技创新,加快生物技术产业化。     

生物学和分子生物学在考古学研究中的应用

本文就生物学技术,特别是分子生物学技术在考古学研究中的应用进行了综述。主要介绍植 物硅酸体分析技术在农业起源研究中的应用,人和动物骨骼学应用于人类起源和进化、畜牧业的起 源和发展等研究领域。还简单介绍了分子生物学的一些基础知识。并重点论述了分子生物学技术, 如线粒体ＤＮＡ分析技术和Ｙ－染色体ＤＮＡ分析技术在人类起源和现代人种族起源研究中的应 用。ＤＮＡ分析技术在农作物和家畜的起源和进化研究中亦发挥着作用。     

Effects of artificial deformation on cranial morphogenesis in the south central Andes

One of the most interesting issues of the interface between biology and culture is the artificial deformation of the skull. This modification is produced during early morphogenesis through the use of devices that alter the normal growth and development, to obtain a culturally established model. This paper, using a large cranial sample from the South Central Andes (1586 individuals), describes and documents a detailed morphometric study of the changes affecting the vault, cranial base, face, orbits and nasal region resulting from the tabular erect (TE), tabular oblique (TO), circular erect (CE) and circular oblique (CO) deformations with respect to the model without deformation. Data from 17 metric variables were processed by a one‐way ANOVA and LSD test for paired comparisons. All of the deformation types produce significant morphometric divergence in most of the anatomical structures of the skull. The TE exhibits: a restriction of antero‐posterior growth producing expansion in cranial width and height, frontal flattening, shortening of the face and cranial base, widening of the face, increased nasal and orbit height (ORH) and a foramen magnum size increase. The TO exhibits: most change reflected in the widening of the cranial vault, shortening of the cranial base and face, frontal flattening, increased nasal and ORH and foramen magnum size decrease. The CE style exhibits: a decrease in cranial width and strong increase in the cranial height, a reduction in frontal width, expansion of the cranial base and face, increased nasal and ORH, orbital widening and a foramen magnum size increase. The CO style exhibits: a decrease of the cranial vault's width and height, expansion along its length, stretching of the cranial base and face, reduced frontal width, fronto‐malar and biorbitary elongation of the face and further development of foramen magnum. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The architecture of Permian glossopterid ovuliferous reproductive organs

McLoughlin, S. & Prevec, R. 20 September 2019. The architecture of Permian glossopterid ovuliferous reproductive organs. Alcheringa XX, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518

A historical account of research on glossopterid ovuliferous reproductive structures reveals starkly contrasting interpretations of their architecture and homologies from the earliest investigations. The diversity of interpretations has led to the establishment of a multitude of genera for these fossil organs, many of the taxa being synonymous. We identify a need for taxonomic revision of these genera to clearly demarcate taxa before they can be used effectively as palaeobiogeographic or biostratigraphic indices. Our assessment of fructification features based on extensive studies of adpression and permineralized fossils reveals that many of the character states for glossopterids used in previous phylogenetic analyses are erroneous. We interpret glossopterid fertiligers to have been borne in loose strobili in which individual polysperms represent fertile cladodes of diverse morphologies subtended by a vegetative leaf or bract. Polysperms within the group are variously branched or condensed with ovule placement ranging from marginal to abaxial, in some cases occurring on recurved branchlets or in cupule-like structures. Glossopterid polysperms of all types are fringed by one or two ranks of wing-like structures that may represent the remnants of megasporophylls that were, ancestrally, developed on the fertile axillary shoot. Glossopterid fertiligers have similarities to the condensed bract/ovuliferous scale complexes of conifer cones, but comparisons with Mesozoic seed-ferns are hindered by insufficient data on the arrangement and homologies of the ovule-bearing organs of the latter group. Nevertheless, glossopterid polysperms differ from the ovuliferous organs of Mesozoic seed-ferns by longitudinal versus transverse folding, respectively.

Stephen McLoughlin* [steve.mcloughlin@nrm.se], Department of Palaeobiology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, 104 05 Stockholm, Sweden; Rose Prevec [r.prevec@am.org.za], Department of Earth Sciences, Albany Museum, 40 Somerset Street, Makhanda, 6139, Eastern Cape, South Africa, and Department of Botany, Rhodes University, PO Box 94, Makhanda, 6140, Eastern Cape, South Africa.     

Variability in Wood-Frame Building Damage using Broad-Band Synthetic Ground Motions: A Comparative Numerical Study with Recorded Motions

Earthquake damage to light-frame wood buildings is a major concern for North America because of the volume of this construction type. In order to estimate wood building damage using synthetic ground motions, we need to verify the ability of synthetically generated ground motions to simulate realistic damage for this structure type. Through a calibrated damage potential indicator, four different synthetic ground motion models are compared with the historically recorded ground motions at corresponding sites. We conclude that damage for sites farther from the fault (>20 km) is under-predicted on average and damage at closer sites is sometimes over-predicted.     

“激励教学法”在中学生物教学中的运用

教育是门艺术。俗话说“兴趣是最好的老师”,而如何使学生在学习过程中能愉快的学习是需要技巧的。通过对激励教学学法的研究,以及作者对此方法的尝试,认为在中学生物教学中施行“激励教学法”会使我们收到较好的教学效果。     

An Epistemology of Scientific Practice: Positioning Hans-Jörg Rheinberger in Twentieth-Century History and Philosophy of Biology**

In this article, I first outline the professionalization of the history and philosophy of biology from the 1960s onward. Then, I attempt to situate the work of Hans-Jörg Rheinberger with respect to this field. On the one hand, Rheinberger was marginal with respect to Anglo-American philosophical tradition; on the other, he was very influential in building up an integrated history and philosophy of the life sciences community at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and beyond. This marginality results, I suggest, from three main sources: his use of concepts coming from continental traditions in the study of the life sciences, which are foreign to Anglo-American philosophers of science; his focus on practices instead of theories; and his research trajectory as a molecular biologist, which led him to be critical of disciplinary boundaries. As a first step in situating and historicizing Rheinberger's trajectory, this article invites comparative studies and calls for a history of “continental philosophy of biology” in the twentieth century.