贵州凉风洞石笋的古气侯记录与古生态环境意义

自20世纪60年代以来，探索全球性气候变化规律和环境变迁史的研究工作在世界各国广泛开展。大规模的深海岩芯的研究、中国北方黄土的系统研究、大型湖泊沉积岩芯的研究及对树木年轮、泥炭、珊瑚、冰芯等“自然环境历史档案”开展的研究工作，都为重建古气候和古生态环境提供了大量的资料。洞穴化学沉积物（石笋）由于其特有的微层结构及其内的稳定氧、碳同位素和微量元素所蕴含的古气候与古生态环境信息，并且具有分布广、时间长、信息保存完整等特点，因此，它是研究地球环境变化很好的自然环境历史档案。本论文通过对凉风洞洞穴体系的综合研究和对凉风洞石笋（微层）生长特征及石笋的碳、氧稳定同位素组成的研究，系统探讨了贵州凉风洞石笋的古气候记录和古生态环境意义，得出以下主要结论：1，地表植被的类型及生物量等信息可综合反映于洞穴体系的不同组．分（气样、土样、水样）中。而洞穴的水动力条件也能很好的被洞穴滴水中所含微量（常量）元素记录。根据分析，洞穴综合体系对外界气候与生态环境的响应关系存在一定规律性。通过对比说明，我们所选的凉风洞基岩的溶蚀和缓冲对水体中的信息影响不大，即洞穴滴水较好的继承了土壤水所携带的地表气候与生态环境信息，是理想的研究对象。2．凉风洞石笋具有多个沉积旋回，不同沉积旋回的纹层组合及纹层结构存在一定的差异，指示不同的沉积环境。根据年龄数据判断，旋回①至旋回⑧之间年龄跨度为1570-8000 aBP，以呈缓平顶（柱）对称叠复状的沉积形态组合为主，示洞顶滴水量较大，滴水点相对稳定，且均匀，与全新世较为稳定的气候与环境变化的主旋律相一致。旋回⑧以下至底部石葡萄状沉积物之上部分之间年龄跨度为8000-14220 aBP，期间经历末次冰期晚期向全新世大暖期过渡，受诸如新仙女木事件（Younger Dryas）等的影响，气候变化幅度大，且经历多次反复，石笋生长的沉积学特征表现为斜锥（柱）、尖顶锥不对称叠复纹层组合，示洞顶滴水水量较小但变化较大，且洞穴滴水不稳（固）定。与此时间段内不稳定的气候与环境变化的主旋律也相一致。3．凉风洞石笋上段微层具有典型南方石笋微层发育的特性：微层发育较差，层面多弯曲，层间界面模糊等。下段因为沉积间断较多、风化层面厚及受到若干时段内碳酸钙重结晶而导致晶体穿插层位生长的影响，尽管在某些层位有微层发育，但无法对石笋微层作连续观察记录。根据高精度的石笋TIMS、ICP-MS测年数据和在显微镜下所数石笋微层数量的对比，扣除若干个沉积间断及风化层导致的微层缺失，以及显微镜下肉眼对细小微层计数的误差，我们认为，凉风洞石笋微层是年生长层的可能性较大。4，由于部分测年数据仍在测试中，目前无法精确控制石笋中沉积间断的存在导致的信息缺失，因此，我们仅仅根据部分石笋测年数据，建立了凉风洞石笋在不同时段的生长速率。全新世以来石笋的生长速率在22μm／yr-51μm／yr之间，明显高于末次冰期晚期向全新世过渡这一时间段内的石笋生长速率（16μm／yr）。这些数据间接印证了石笋生长响应于外界气候，尤其是降雨的变化。5．通过对洞穴体系的综合分析对比，我们判断凉风洞洞穴综合体系相对完整，洞穴化学沉积物的6先值较为直接的响应了土壤c压的61t值变化，即反映了地表的植被（c3植物和c；植物）的组成状况。贵州地区降雨80％集中在5-10月份，在此期间，基本受西南季风和东亚季风所控制。西南季风盛行时贵州各地的降雨频繁，是一年中雨量最集中的时期，在东亚季风影响时期，贵州多晴少雨，往往形成干早的天气。又西南季风控制区大气降雨创的值的加权平均值明显低于东亚季风控制区大气降雨δ18O值的加权平均值。因此，贵州地区年均降雨量和年均降雨δ18O值主要取决于西南（印度洋）季风的强弱：西南季风加强，降雨量增加，年均降雨剐、值偏负；西南季风减弱，降雨量减少，年均降雨δ18O值偏正。洞穴滴水的6旧O值变化基本继承了大气降水的别勿值变化。因此，对地处我国西南地区贵州南部的凉风洞，源于洞穴滴水的凉风洞石笋的别勺值变化直接响应了外界的大气降雨量的变化和西南季风与东亚季风相互的强弱交替。6．对凉风洞石笋碳、氧同位素组成的时间序列曲线作20点移动平均，发现，特别是进入全新世后，石笋的引3c值和扩、值几乎具有完全一致的同步变化，只是在变化幅度上在某些时段存在差异。说明在凉风洞石笋反映的14220-1570 aBP时间段内，尤其是10500-1570 aBP期间，本区域气候具有雨热（或干冷）同期的气候特征：在气温较高时间段，西南季风增强，气候湿润多雨，更有利于地表。植物的生长。气温降低时，随着东亚季风增强，西南季风减弱，气候干旱少雨，地表C；植物的生长占有一定的比例。据此重建和恢复了本地区14220-1570 aBP期间的古气候和古生态环境：（1）．14220-10500aBP，处于末次冰期晚期，气温较低。凉风洞石笋此时段的司、值都大于-9.8‰，最小值为-9.31‰，最大值达-7.290‰，平均值为-8.552‰。说明凉风洞洞穴地表的生长植被。植物占有一定的组分，石笋的δ18C值受C3植物和C4植物的共同影响。此时段内石笋6、值也存在一定的波动（-5.651‰－6.942‰），考虑到末次冰期晚期先全新世过渡期间气温变幅较大，O'Neil等（1969）所建立的氧同位素平衡分馏方程中的温度变化已不能忽略，并且大气降雨的温度效应作用也比较明显，因此我们对此时段的季风和大气降雨量的变化不作讨论。（2）. 10500-9300 aBP，新仙女木事件结束，进入全新世，气温逐渐回升。凉风洞石笋此时段的扩3c值大都小于-9.8‰，最小值为-10.377‰，最大值为-9.267‰，平均值为-9.910‰。凉风洞洞穴地表植被已逐渐由C3植物占主导。此时段石笋δ18C值明显卜降，最小值为-7.420‰，最大值为-6.077‰，平均值为-6.854‰。反映在全新世早期夏季风盛行，降雨量较大，西南季风对本地区全年降雨贡献率大。（3）．9300-8300 aBP，经历一段明显温度波动变化。仟3c值在-9.8‰上下波动，最小值为-10.155‰，最大值为-9.096‰，平均值为-9.712‰。凉风洞洞穴地表植被C4植物所占比例存在反复。此时段石笋岁a0值变化幅度不是很大，最小值为-6.796‰，最大值为-6.260‰，平均值为-6.490‰。受冬季风影响，夏季风有一定的减弱，总体降雨量一般，东亚季风对本地区全年降雨贡献率比全新世初期有所增大。（4）．8300-3l000BP，俗称全新世大暖期，此时段全球气温明显回升，石笋δ18C值总体逐渐降低，最小值为-n．926编，平均值为-10.496‰。凉风洞洞穴地表植被基本由C3植物所控制。但在扩飞值总体逐渐降低的趋势一F，也存在若干扩3c值明显增大时段，如7700-6700 aBP时段，61七值最大值达-8.110‰，地表C4植物所占比例已不能忽略。此时段石笋6150值变化幅度较大，最小值为-7.373‰，最大值为-5.047‰，平均值为-6.261‰。反映在全新世大暖期的大背景下西南季风和东亚季风的交替以及大气降雨量的变化存在较大的波动，说明了季风气候的不稳定性。（5）．3100-1570 aBP，在3100aBP前后，凉风洞石笋的δ18C值和δ18O值均急剧上升，标志进入晚全新世。此时段气温变幅很大，δ18C值总体虽然仍偏低，平均值为-10.275‰，但刻畜介于-6.495-12.097‰之间；δ18C值平均值为-6.184‰，变幅介于-4.677-8.65‰之间，均超过以往任何时段。此时段凉风洞洞穴地表植被基本上仍然由C。植物所控制，始于3100 aBP的急速降温事件使得在全新世晚期开始时段C4植物所占比例有一定的上升。此时段内西南季风和东亚季风反复多次交替，大气降雨量存在较大幅度的变化，说明了季风气候在此时段的很不稳定性。对于169于巧70 oBP百年时间段内石笋的δ18C值和司、值巨大幅度的急剧升高，有待进一步研究，也不排除石笋表层长期裸露受外界污染所致。

Mean Field Theory for Sigmoid Belief Networks

We develop a mean field theory for sigmoid belief networks based on ideas from statistical mechanics. Our mean field theory provides a tractable approximation to the true probability distribution in these networks; it also yields a lower bound on the likelihood of evidence. We demonstrate the utility of this framework on a benchmark problem in statistical pattern recognition -- the classification of handwritten digits.

A New Version of Toom's Proof

There are several proofs now for the stability of Toom's example of a two-dimensional stable cellular automaton and its application to fault-tolerant computation. Simon and Berman simplified and strengthened Toom's original proof: the present report is simplified exposition of their proof.

Measuring Bottleneck Bandwidth of Targeted Path Segments

Accurate measurement of network bandwidth is crucial for flexible Internet applications and protocols which actively manage and dynamically adapt to changing utilization of network resources. These applications must do so to perform tasks such as distributing and delivering high-bandwidth media, scheduling service requests and performing admission control. Extensive work has focused on two approaches to measuring bandwidth: measuring it hop-by-hop, and measuring it end-to-end along a path. Unfortunately, best-practice techniques for the former are inefficient and techniques for the latter are only able to observe bottlenecks visible at end-to-end scope. In this paper, we develop and simulate end-to-end probing methods which can measure bottleneck bandwidth along arbitrary, targeted subpaths of a path in the network, including subpaths shared by a set of flows. As another important contribution, we describe a number of practical applications which we foresee as standing to benefit from solutions to this problem, especially in emerging, flexible network architectures such as overlay networks, ad-hoc networks, peer-to-peer architectures and massively accessed content servers.

Uniformly convergent finite element methods for singularly perturbed parabolic partial differential equations

This thesis is concerned with uniformly convergent finite element methods for numerically solving singularly perturbed parabolic partial differential equations in one space variable. First, we use Petrov-Galerkin finite element methods to generate three schemes for such problems, each of these schemes uses exponentially fitted elements in space. Two of them are lumped and the other is non-lumped. On meshes which are either arbitrary or slightly restricted, we derive global energy norm and L2 norm error bounds, uniformly in the diffusion parameter. Under some reasonable global assumptions together with realistic local assumptions on the solution and its derivatives, we prove that these exponentially fitted schemes are locally uniformly convergent, with order one, in a discrete L∞norm both outside and inside the boundary layer. We next analyse a streamline diffusion scheme on a Shishkin mesh for a model singularly perturbed parabolic partial differential equation. The method with piecewise linear space-time elements is shown, under reasonable assumptions on the solution, to be convergent, independently of the diffusion parameter, with a pointwise accuracy of almost order 5/4 outside layers and almost order 3/4 inside the boundary layer. Numerical results for the above schemes are presented. Finally, we examine a cell vertex finite volume method which is applied to a model time-dependent convection-diffusion problem. Local errors away from all layers are obtained in the l2 seminorm by using techniques from finite element analysis.

Invertebrate diversity in Irish and British forests

Ireland and Britain were once covered in natural forest, but extensive anthropogenic deforestation reduced forest cover to less than 1% and 5 %, respectively, by the beginning of the 20th century. Large-scale afforestation has since increased the level of forest cover to 11% in Ireland and 12% in Britain, with the majority of planted forests comprising small monoculture plantations, many of which are of non - native conifer tree species. At present the forest cover of Ireland and Britain generally consists of small areas of remnant semi-natural woodland and pockets of these plantation forests within a predominantly agricultural landscape. Invertebrates comprise a large proportion of the biodiversity found within forested habitats. In particular, spiders and carabid beetles play an important role in food webs as both predators and prey and respond to small-scale changes in habitat structure, meaning they are particularly sensitive to forest management. Hoverflies play an important role in control and pollination and have been successfully used as indicators of habitat disturbance and quality. This research addressed a number of topics pertinent to the forest types present in the contemporary Irish and British landscapes and aimed to investigate the invertebrate diversity of these forests. Spiders and carabid beetles were sampled using pitfall trapping and hoverflies were sampled using Malaise net trapping. Topics included the impacts of afforestation, the importance of open space, the choice of tree species, and the use of indicators for biodiversity assessment, as well as rare native woodlands and the effect of grazing on invertebrate diversity. The results are discussed and evidence-based recommendations are made for forest policy and management to protect and enhance invertebrate biodiversity in order to promote sustainable forest management in Ireland and Britain.

Das Bistum Konstanz 6. Das reichsunmittelbare Prämonstratenserstift Marchtal

Im sechsten Band der Germania Sacra zum Bistum Konstanz behandelt Wilfried Schöntag das 1171 gegründete Prämonstratenserstift Obermarchtal bis zu seiner Aufhebung 1803 und bietet zugleich einen ersten Einstieg in die Geschichte der Schwäbischen Zirkarie. Während das Stift im 13. und in der ersten Hälfte des 14. Jahrhunderts mit politischen und wirtschaftlichen Schwierigkeiten zu kämpfen hatte, konnten die Prämonstratenser später eine geschlossene Niedergerichtsherrschaft aufbauen, die Ende des 15. Jahrhunderts Grundlage für die Reichsunmittelbarkeit wurde. Die nach 1570 von Prémontré aus betriebene Reform zeitigte nach 30 Jahren auch in Marchtal große Erfolge und führte zu einer neuen Spiritualität und zu einer Konsolidierung der Wirtschaft. Das 17. Jahrhundert ist als das große Jahrhundert der Marchtaler Äbte und Konventualen anzusehen. In der Zirkarie und im Schwäbischen Reichsprälatenkollegium dominierte Abt Nikolaus Wirieth (1661–1691). Er begann 1668 mit dem Bau der neuen barocken Stiftskirche. Neben der Besitz- und Verwaltungsgeschichte stellen die Viten der Pröpste, Äbte und Konventualen, die Bildungsgeschichte sowie die Bau- und Kunstgeschichte Schwerpunkte der Arbeit dar. Da die liturgischen und spirituellen Fragen auf den Sitzungen der Zirkarie festgelegt worden sind, sind diese Passagen auch für die anderen Stifte der Zirkarie von Bedeutung.

One sound or two? Object-related negativity indexes echo perception.

The ability to isolate a single sound source among concurrent sources and reverberant energy is necessary for understanding the auditory world. The precedence effect describes a related experimental finding, that when presented with identical sounds from two locations with a short onset asynchrony (on the order of milliseconds), listeners report a single source with a location dominated by the lead sound. Single-cell recordings in multiple animal models have indicated that there are low-level mechanisms that may contribute to the precedence effect, yet psychophysical studies in humans have provided evidence that top-down cognitive processes have a great deal of influence on the perception of simulated echoes. In the present study, event-related potentials evoked by click pairs at and around listeners' echo thresholds indicate that perception of the lead and lag sound as individual sources elicits a negativity between 100 and 250 msec, previously termed the object-related negativity (ORN). Even for physically identical stimuli, the ORN is evident when listeners report hearing, as compared with not hearing, a second sound source. These results define a neural mechanism related to the conscious perception of multiple auditory objects.

Ontological considerations of time, meta-predicates and temporal propositions

A natural approach to representing and reasoning about temporal propositions (i.e., statements with time-dependent truth-values) is to associate them with time elements. In the literature, there are three choices regarding the primitive for the ontology of time: (1) instantaneous points, (2) durative intervals and (3) both points and intervals. Problems may arise when one conflates different views of temporal structure and questions whether some certain types of temporal propositions can be validly and meaningfully associated with different time elements. In this paper, we shall summarize an ontological glossary with respect to time elements, and diversify a wider range of meta-predicates for ascribing temporal propositions to time elements. Based on these, we shall also devise a versatile categorization of temporal propositions, which can subsume those representative categories proposed in the literature, including that of Vendler, of McDermott, of Allen, of Shoham, of Galton and of Terenziani and Torasso. It is demonstrated that the new categorization of propositions, together with the proposed range of meta-predicates, provides the expressive power for modeling some typical temporal terms/phenomena, such as starting-instant, stopping-instant, dividing-instant, instigation, termination and intermingling etc.

Nursing resources and patient outcomes in intensive care: a systematic review of the literature

Objectives: To evaluate the empirical evidence linking nursing resources to patient outcomes in intensive care settings as a framework for future research in this area. Background: Concerns about patient safely and the quality of care are driving research on the clinical and cost-effectiveness of health care interventions, including the deployment of human resources. This is particularly important in intensive care where a large proportion of the health care budget is consumed and where nursing staff is the main item of expenditure. Recommendations about staffing levels have been trade but may not be evidence based and may not always be achieved in practice. Methods: We searched systematically for studies of the impact of nursing resources (e.g. nurse-patient ratios, nurses' level of education, training and experience) on patient Outcomes, including mortality and adverse events, in adult intensive care. Abstracts of articles were reviewed and retrieved if they investigated the relationship between nursing resources and patient Outcomes. Characteristics of the studies were tabulated and the quality of the Studies assessed. Results: Of the 15 studies included in this review, two reported it statistical relationship between nursing resources and both mortality and adverse events, one reported ail association to mortality only, seven studies reported that they Could not reject the null hypothesis of no relationship to mortality and 10 studies (out of 10 that tested the hypothesis) reported a relationship to adverse events. The main explanatory mechanisms were the lack of time for nurses to perform preventative measures, or for patient surveillance. The nurses' role in pain control was noted by One author. Studies were mainly observational and retrospective and varied in scope from 1 to 52 units. Recommendations for future research include developing the mechanisms linking nursing resources to patient Outcomes, and designing large multi-centre prospective Studies that link patient's exposure to nursing care oil a shift-by-shift basis over time. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.