Beyond the headlines: changing patterns in international student enrollment in the United States

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, newspapers and magazines reported a dramatic decline in the enrollment of international students at US universities. Many of these articles blamed this decrease on the difficulties of getting a visa to the US and expressed concern about the potential impact on the US education system and economy. A look beyond the headlines, however, reveals that this decline cannot be attributed exclusively to the heightened security measures, as student numbers from some countries had already begun to decline before 2001 or continue to increase despite the changed regulations. Therefore, other factors also play a role in explaining the diverse migration patterns—most notably increasing competition from other host countries and changing economic and educational conditions in sending countries. Since international students often stay in their host countries after the completion of their degrees, the United States has a strong interest in continuing to attract international students as potential highly skilled immigrants. In order to achieve this, changes need to be implemented at the government level as well as at individual universities.     

非完整约束的OD/SINS自适应组合导航方法

在地面车载组合导航GNSS/OD/SINS中,全球导航卫星系统（GNSS）信号容易受到环境的干扰甚至发生中断,将非完整性约束（NHC）应用于里程计（OD）/捷联惯性导航系统（SINS）组合,可以有效抑制GNSS信号中断期间组合导航系统的误差发散。通常NHC的噪声设定基于固定的经验值,然而在实际运动过程中,车辆运行轨迹复杂多变,其运动状态不能完全满足NHC前提假设,经验给定的噪声无法准确反映车辆实际运动情况。为此,本文分析了NHC噪声与车辆运动状态的关系,构建了一种基于车辆运动状态的NHC噪声自适应方法。通过所选场景的实测数据验证表明：采用噪声自适应的NHC/OD/SINS组合导航结果相比于固定噪声的NHC/OD/SINS组合,在GNSS信号中断110 s、车辆连续转弯的情况下,最大水平位置误差减小了68.4%;在GNSS信号中断74 s、车辆直线行驶的情况下,最大水平位置误差减小了87.3%;能较好地抑制GNSS中断期间组合导航系统的误差发散。     

S2L-RTK: temporal ionospheric modeling for RTK baselines varying from short to long

GPS Solutions - The multipath effect is well known as one of the dominant error sources in most high-precision GNSS applications, as its site-dependent and fast-changing nature render it...     

Mineralisation and structural changes during the initial phase of microbial degradation of pyrogenic plant residues in soil

The microbial recalcitrance of char accumulated after vegetation fires was studied using pyrogenic organic material (PyOM) with increasing degrees of charring, produced from rye grass (Lolium perenne) and pine wood (Pinus sylvestris) at 350 °C under oxic conditions. Solid state ¹³C and ¹⁵N nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy confirmed increasing aromaticity and the formation of heterocyclic N with prolonged charring. After mixing with a mineral soil, the PyOM was aerobically incubated for 48 days at 30 °C. To account for the input of fresh litter after a fire event, unburnt rye grass residue was added as a co-substrate. The grass-derived PyOM showed the greatest extent of C mineralisation. After 48 days incubation, up to 3.2% of the organic C (OC) was converted to CO₂. More severe thermal alteration resulted in a decrease in the total C mineralisation to 2.5% of OC. In the pine-derived PyOM, only 0.7% and 0.5% of the initial C were mineralised. The co-substrate additions did not enhance PyOM mineralisation during initial degradation. ¹³C NMR spectroscopic analysis indicated structural changes during microbial degradation of the PyOM. Concomitant with a decrease in O-alkyl/alkyl-C, carboxyl/carbonyl C content increased, pointing to oxidation. Only the strongly thermally altered pine PyOM showed a reduction in aromaticity. The small C losses during the experiment indicated conversion of aryl C into other C groups. As revealed by the increase in carboxyl/carbonyl C, this conversion must have included the opening and partial oxidation of aromatic ring structures. Our study demonstrates that plant PyOM can be microbially attacked and mineralised at rates comparable to those for soil organic matter (SOM), so its role as a highly refractory SOM constituent may need re-evaluation.     

GOCE: precise orbit determination for the entire mission

The Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) was the first Earth explorer core mission of the European Space Agency. It was launched on March 17, 2009 into a Sun-synchronous dusk-dawn orbit and re-entered into the Earth’s atmosphere on November 11, 2013. The satellite altitude was between 255 and 225 km for the measurement phases. The European GOCE Gravity consortium is responsible for the Level 1b to Level 2 data processing in the frame of the GOCE High-level processing facility (HPF). The Precise Science Orbit (PSO) is one Level 2 product, which was produced under the responsibility of the Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern within the HPF. This PSO product has been continuously delivered during the entire mission. Regular checks guaranteed a high consistency and quality of the orbits. A correlation between solar activity, GPS data availability and quality of the orbits was found. The accuracy of the kinematic orbit primarily suffers from this. Improvements in modeling the range corrections at the retro-reflector array for the SLR measurements were made and implemented in the independent SLR validation for the GOCE PSO products. The satellite laser ranging (SLR) validation finally states an orbit accuracy of 2.42 cm for the kinematic and 1.84 cm for the reduced-dynamic orbits over the entire mission. The common-mode accelerations from the GOCE gradiometer were not used for the official PSO product, but in addition to the operational HPF work a study was performed to investigate to which extent common-mode accelerations improve the reduced-dynamic orbit determination results. The accelerometer data may be used to derive realistic constraints for the empirical accelerations estimated for the reduced-dynamic orbit determination, which already improves the orbit quality. On top of that the accelerometer data may further improve the orbit quality if realistic constraints and state-of-the-art background models such as gravity field and ocean tide models are used for the reduced-dynamic orbit determination.     

Solid state CPMAS C and N NMR spectroscopy in organic geochemistry and how spin dynamics can either aggravate or improve spectra interpretation

Because the ongoing discussion about the reliability of solid state cross polarization magic angle spinning (CPMAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy still leaves uncertainty with respect to its usefulness in organic geochemistry, the present work provides a brief introduction into the basic principles of this technique and gives some explanation about the potential source of non-quantitative results. In addition, relaxation data are supplied which are necessary for the correct adjustment of NMR acquisition parameters. High contents of paramagnetics or moisture indeed affect the CP dynamics, complicating quantification of solid state NMR data obtained with a standard protocol. Whereas the latter can be avoided by carefully drying the sample, the first is often circumvented by demineralization with hydrofluoric acid (HF). Although this can yield considerable organic matter loss, the given examples demonstrate that differences in the intensity distribution of the spectra before and after HF treatment are most likely due to a selective alteration of the relaxation kinetics of protons closely interacting with paramagnetics. It is further shown that single pulse excitation does not necessarily provide quantitative data, since some geopolymers (e.g. cellulose) relax extremely slowly. At high magnetic fields and low spinning speeds, spinning side bands can overlap with relevant signals and obscure the intensity distribution. At spinning speeds >6 kHz, the range of the correct Hartmann-Hahn match is reduced, resulting in a preferential intensity loss of weakly coupling carbons which can be avoided by the application of special pulse sequences. In principal, the acquisition of quantitative CPMAS NMR data from geochemical samples is possible, although this often requires an in depth analysis of the relaxation parameters. Further, the latter also represents a powerful tool for the identification of geochemical compounds by providing additional information about their physical status and their spatial relationships to each other.     

Chemical pathway analysis of the Martian atmosphere: CO2-formation pathways

The chemical composition of a planetary atmosphere plays an important role for atmospheric structure, stability, and evolution. Potentially complex interactions between chemical species do not often allow for an easy understanding of the underlying chemical mechanisms governing the atmospheric composition. In particular, trace species can affect the abundance of major species by acting in catalytic cycles. On Mars, such cycles even control the abundance of its main atmospheric constituent CO₂. The identification of catalytic cycles (or more generally chemical pathways) by hand is quite demanding. Hence, the application of computer algorithms is beneficial in order to analyze complex chemical reaction networks. Here, we have performed the first automated quantified chemical pathways analysis of the Martian atmosphere with respect to CO₂-production in a given reaction system. For this, we applied the Pathway Analysis Program (PAP) to output data from the Caltech/JPL photochemical Mars model. All dominant chemical pathways directly related to the global CO₂-production have been quantified as a function of height up to 86 km. We quantitatively show that CO₂-production is dominated by chemical pathways involving HO_x and O_x. In addition, we find that NO_x in combination with HO_x and O_x exhibits a non-negligible contribution to CO₂-production, especially in Mars’ lower atmosphere. This study reveals that only a small number of chemical pathways contribute significantly to the atmospheric abundance of CO₂ on Mars; their contributions to CO₂-production vary considerably with altitude. This analysis also endorses the importance of transport processes in governing CO₂-stability in the Martian atmosphere. Lastly, we identify a previously unknown chemical pathway involving HO_x, O_x, and HO₂-photodissociation, contributing 8% towards global CO₂-production by chemical pathways using recommended up-to-date values for reaction rate coefficients.     

Cold-season soil respiration in response to grazing and warming in High-Arctic Svalbard

The influence of goose grazing intensity and open-topped chambers (OTCs) on near-surface quantities and qualities of soil organic carbon (SOC) was evaluated in wet and mesic ecosystems in Svalbard. This study followed up a field experiment carried out in 2003–05 (part of the project Fragility of Arctic Goose Habitat: Impacts of Land Use, Conservation and Elevated Temperatures). New measurements of soil CO₂ effluxes, temperatures and water contents were regularly made from July to November 2007. SOC stocks were quantified, and the reactivity and composition measured by basal soil respiration (BSR) and solid-state ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Results reveal variations in soil carbon cycling, with significant seasonal trends controlled by temperature, water content and snow. Experimental warming (OTCs) increased near-surface temperatures in the growing season, resulting in significantly higher CO₂ effluxes. Different grazing intensities had no significant effects on observed soil respiration, but BSR rates at the mesic site (13–23 µg CO₂ g soil-C⁻¹ h⁻¹) were highest with moderate grazing and lowest in the absence of grazing. A limited effect of grazing on microbial respiration is consistent with a lack of significant differences in SOC quantity and quality. NMR data show that the composition of A-horizon SOC is dominated by O-N-alkyl C and alkyl C groups, and less by carboxyl C and aromatic C groups: but again no marked variation in response to grazing was evident. It can be concluded that two years after a goose grazing experiment, SOC cycling was less than the natural variation within contrasting vegetation types.     

谷歌Nexus 9智能终端原始GNSS观测值的质量分析

受限于低成本、低功耗的全向线性极化天线和导航芯片,手机原始的全球导航卫星系统（global navigation satellite system,GNSS）观测数据存在伪距噪声大、多路径效应严重以及载波相位观测值周跳频繁等特点,从而造成定位不准、轨迹不平滑等问题。基于此,提出了一种速度约束的双频实时伪距差分（real time differential,RTD）/实时动态差分（real time kinematic,RTK）自适应切换滤波定位算法,充分发挥L5/E5a/B2a信号抗多径能力强的优势,提升定位精度和模糊度固定率;使用速度约束载体历元间位置变化的方法,有效平滑了伪距噪声;通过RTD/ RTK自适应切换的方式,保证了不同观测条件下获得稳定的高精度位置信息。基于Huawei Mate40智能手机的实测定位结果表明,静态定位和行人动态定位的模糊度固定率分别为99.67%和57.99%;行人在半遮挡环境的动态定位平面精度约为0.5 m,城市典型环境下车载动态定位中超过70%历元的平面误差在1.5 m以内,实现了手机用户在城市环境下的高精度导航定位。     

Anatomical variation of five plant species along an elevation gradient in Mexico City basin within the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt,Mexico

Change in environmental conditions with altitudinal gradients induces morpho-anatomical variations in plants that have been poorly documented in intertropical regions. Five species with three life forms, cryptophyte (Alchemilla procumbens, Geranium seemannii), hemicryptophyte (Acaena elongata, Lupinus montanus), and phanerophyte (Symphoricarpos microphyllus), distributed along an altitudinal gradient in the Sierra Nevada of central Mexico, were studied. The aims were to identify and evaluate their morpho-anatomical modifications under the hypothesis that the sizes of individuals and of their wood and leaf cell types decrease as elevation increases. Three individuals per species per site were collected at seven locations along the altitudinal gradient (2949-3952 m). Their morpho-anatomical characters were analyzed through multiple regression analyses. Elevation was the variable that best explained anatomical changes in the leaf and wood of the five species. Canopy density and potassium content in the soil also contributed to explain the variation in anatomical variables along the gradient. As elevation increased a bimodal pattern was observed in various anatomical characters as in the leaf width of A. elongata, A. procumbens and G. seemannii and in the vessel diameter of A. procumbens, G. seemannii, and L. montanus. Other features as the vessel diameter of A. elongata, the fiber length of S. microphyllus, and the ray width of A. elongata increased as the elevation increased. Anatomical traits have a tendency to decrease in size but just toward the end of the gradient, which is probably related to changes in canopy density. The plant response to the altitudinal gradient is more focused on anatomical adaptations than morphological variation; it is also species dependent.