109 resultados para Orbital maneuvers


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Analysis of periodic oscillations of climate is very important in understanding the behavior of the climate system. Milankovitch hypothesis, which holds that the glacial-interglacial climatic cycles during the Quaternary were primarily driven by variations in orbital parameters, has been supported by substantial geological evidence. Continuous long-term and high-resolution records are crucial to detect how variations of Earth's orbital parameters affected climate before the Quaternary when the boundary conditions were significantly different. Qinan loess formed in the Miocene is nearly continuous aeolian deposit in northern China. Previous study has established a constrained chronology, which provides a basis to examine long-term climatic variations. One of important issues to untangle the mechanisms behind major climate changes is the investigation of climate cycles recorded in Qinan loess. In this paper, two climatic proxies, magnetic susceptibility and redness, are analyzed for QA-I section to evaluate climate cycles using Maximum entropy spectral analysis and Blackman-Tuckey method. Main conclusions are presented as following: Results exhibit significant peaks at periods of 100 ka, 64 ka, 41 ka, 30 ka and 23 ka, but also 1000 ka, 600 ka and 400 ka. These peaks correspond to the dominant periods of the Earth's orbit parameters, which indicates that the formation of the aeolian sediment in northern China might be primarily driven by variations in orbital parameters. Fluctuations with different cycles respectively dominated in different periods. Major shifts in the dominant cycles occurred at 20.3, 19.0, 17.9, 15.2, 12.5 and 11.3 Myr ago. The transition that happened at 17.9 Myr ago was synchronous with the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau, while others at 15.2, 12.5 and 11.3 Myr ago were in good agreement with the timing of the development of Antarctic ice sheet. Therefore we inferred that these shifts might be related to changes in global ice volume and/or the Tibetan uplift. 3. The strong period of 100 ka is observed between 17.9 and 15.2, and 12.5 and 11.3 Myr ago. Ice sheet-climate models that have been used to explain the cause of the 100 ka period since the middle Pleistocene couldn't be responsible for driving the 100 ka climate cycle in the Miocene in Northern China because of the different boundary of climatic conditions between the Quaternary and Miocene. Further investigation is needed to understand how this cycle became dominant in Qinan loess records during these two time segments.

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The Nihewan Basin is a key area for research into human occupation at high northern latitudes in northeast Asia after the initial expansion of early humans out of Africa. Well-developed late Cenozoic lacustrine deposit sequence in this basin offers a unique opportunity to address this issue. In this thesis, detailed magnetostratigraphic investigation coupled with mineral magnetism was conducted on the Donggutuo and Cenjiawan sections in the eastern basin, where lacustrine deposits sequences containing the Donggutuo, Maliang and Cenjiawan Paleolithic sites are well developed. The sequences are mainly composed of grayish-white clays, grayish-green clayey silts, grayish-yellow silts and fine-grained brown sands, which have recorded reliable polarity variations of geomagnetic field.Characteristics of the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility show that the sediments have preserved typical original magnetic fabric for sediments, indicating that the strata were developed in a low-energy lake environment and were never perturbed by tectonic stress since deposition. High-temperature magnetic susceptibility measurements (x-T) of representative specimens and demagnetization experiments indicate that the dominant magnetic mineral and remanent carrier at the two sections is magnetite. In addition, hematite and possibly minor maghemite exists in some portions of the sequences. The majority of the samples have relatively simple demagnetization behaviors. After removal of soft magnetic components, the stable characteristic remanent magnetizations (ChRMs) are isolated, which can represent the original remanences.The Donggutuo section mainly records the Brunhes chron, the Matuyama chron and the Jaramillo subchron. The Maliang stone artifact layer occurs just below the Brunhes/Matuyama boundary; and the Donggutuo artifact layer, just below the Jaramillo onset. Accordingly, the Maliang and Donggutuo sites can be dated at about 0.78 Ma and 1.1 Ma, respectively. The Cenjiawan section has recorded a portion of the Matuyama chron. After correlations with the magnetic polarity sequence of the Majuangou section adjacent to this section, the Cenjiawan stone artifact layer is determined below the Jaramillo onset, with an estimated age of 1.1 Ma.To establish the magnetic stratigraphy framework for the lacustrine sediments in the eastern Nihewan Basin, this thesis draws on the magnetic polarity sequences of the Donggutuo and Cenjiawan sections as well as previously obtained results from the Majuangou, Haojiatai, Xiaochangliang and Donggou sections for magnetostratigraphic correlations. The accumulation of the lacustrine sequences at the east margin of the basin commenced from about 2.0 Ma. These sequences record not only the coarse magnetostratigraphy of the Brunhes normal chron and the middle to late Matuyama reverse chron (that is, the Jaramillo and Olduvai subchrons) but also some of the fine structure (that is, the Kamikatsura, Santa Rosa, Punaruu and Cobb Mountain geomagnetic events). The development of the Nihewan paleolake experienced at least twice large expansion periods, split by a large-scale shrinking event in the middle period of the paleolake development. The accumulation of the lacustrine strata was controlled by fault activities.After temporal control for the Donggutuo, Maliang and Cenjiawan Paleolithic sites were established, the three sites along with other well-dated Paleolithic/hominin sites of the Early Pleistocene in North China were combined to construct a chronological sequence of early human occupation in northeastern Asia. Furthermore, after incorporation of paleoclimate changes retrieved from Chinese loess/paleosol sequences and marine sediments, it could be possibly proposed that human groups of the Early Pleistocene in North China might have survived repeated warm/humid interglacials and cold/dry glacials, which were paced by earth orbital variations of the Eastern paleomonsoon.

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Sediment cores DH99a and DH99b recovered in the central part of Daihai Lake in north-central China were analysed at 2- to 4-crn intervals for grain-size distribution. Grain-size distributions of the lake sediments are inferred to be a proxy for past changes in East Asian monsoon precipitation, such that greater silt-size percentage and higher median grain size reflect increased monsoonal precipitation rates. The grain-size record of Daihai Lake sediments spanning the last ca 11,000 yr indicates that the monsoonal precipitation in the lake region can be divided into three stages: the Early, Middle and Late Holocene. During the Early Holocene before ca 7900 cal yr BP, the median grain size (Md) and the silt-fraction content were relatively low and constant, suggesting relatively low precipitation over the lake region. The Middle Holocene between ca 7900 and 3100 cal yr BP was marked by intensified and highly variable monsoonal precipitation, as indicated by high and variable Md values and silt contents of the lake sediments. During this period, average precipitation rate gradually increased from ca 7900 to 6900 cal yr BP, displayed intense oscillations between ca 6900 and 4400 cal yr BP, and exhibited a decreasing trend while fluctuating from ca 4400 to 3100 cal yr BP Although generally high during the Middle Holocene, both the Md and the silt content assumed distinctly low values at the short intervals of ca 6500-6400, 6000-5900, 5700-5600, 4400-4200 cal yr BP, implying that monsoonal precipitation might have been significantly reduced during these intervals. During the Late Holocene since ca 3100 cal yr BP, grain-size values suggest that precipitation decreased. However, during the Late Holocene, relatively higher Md values and silt contents occurring between ca 1700 to 1000 cal yr BP may denote an intensification of hydrological cycles in the lake area. Changes in the East Asian monsoonal precipitation were not only directly linked with the changing seasonality of solar insolation resulting from progressive changes in the Earth's orbital parameters, but also may have been closely related to variations in the temperature and size of the Western Pacific Warm Pool, in the intensity of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation, and in the path and strength of the North Equatorial Current in the western Pacific.

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To explore the neural mechanisms underlying conditioned immunomodulation, this study employed the classical taste aversion (CTA) behavioral paradigm to establish the conditioned humoral and cellular immunosuppression (CIS) in Wistar rats, by paring saccharin (CS) with intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of an immunosuppressive drug cyclophophamide (UCS). C-fos immunohistochemistry method was used to observe the changes of the neuronal activities in the rat brain during the acquisition, expression and extinction of the conditioned immunosuppression (CIS). The followings are the main results: 1. Five days after one trial of CS-UCS paring, reexposure to CS alone significantly decreased the level of the anti-ovalbumin (OVA) IgG in the peripheral serum. Two trials of CS-UCS paring and three reexposures to CS not only resulted in further suppression of the primary immune response, but also reduced the numbers of peripheral lymphocytes and white blood cells. This finding indicates that CS can induce suppression of the immune function, and the magnitude of the effects is dependent on the intensity of training. 2. On day 5 following two trials of CS-UCS pairing, CS suppressed the spleen lymphocytes responsiveness to mitogens ConA, PHA and PWM, and decreased the numbers of peripheral lymphocytes and white blood cells. On day 15, only PHA induced lymphocyte proliferation was suppressed by CS. On day 30, presentation of CS did not have any effect on these immune parameters. These results suggest that the conditioned suppression of the cellular immune function can retain 5-15 days, and extinct after 30 days. 3. CTA was easily induced by one or two CS-UCS parings, and remained robust even after 30 days. These data demonstrate that CIS can be dissociated from CTA, and they may be mediated by different neural mechanisms. 4. Immunohistochemistry assays revealed a broad pattern of c-fos expression throughout the rat brain following the CS-UCS pairing and reexposure to CS, suggesting that many brain regions are involved in CIS. Some brain areas including the solitary tract nucleus (Sol), lateral parabrachial nucleus (LPB) and insular cortex (IC), showed high level c-fos expressions in response to both CS and UCS, suggesting that they may be involved in the transmission and integration of the CS and UCS signals in the brain. There were dense c-FOS positive neurons in the paraverntricular nucleus (PVN) and supraoptic nucleus (SO) of hypothalamus, subfornical organ (SFO) and area postrema (AP) etc. after two trials of CS-UCS paring and after the reexposure to CS 5 days later, but not in the first training and after the extinction of CIS (30 days later). The results reflect that these nuclei may have an important role in CIS expression, and may also response to the immunosuppression of UCS. The conditioned training and reexposure to CS 5 days later induced high level c-fos expression in the cingulate cortex (Cg), central amygdaloid nucleus (Ce), intermediate part of lateral septal nucleus (LSI) and ventrolateral parabrachial nucleus (VLPB) etc. But c-fos induction was not apparent when presenting CS 30 days later. These brain regions are mainly involved in CIS, and may be critical structures in the acquisition and expression of CIS. Some brain regions, including the frontal cortex (Fr), ventral orbital cortex (VO), IC, perirhinal cortex (PRh), LPB and the medial part of solitary nucleus (SolM), showed robust c-FOS expression following the conditioning training and reexposure to CS both on day 5 and day 30, suggesting that they are critically involved in CTA.