青藏高原研究进入最佳期和青年肩负的责任

这是中国青藏高原研究会理事长刘东生院士在该会青藏高原青年科技奖第一次颁奖大会(1996年3月6日)上的演讲。本文指出了当前青藏高原研究的方向,表达了对青年一代的殷切期望。征得作者同意,以飨读者。青藏高原青年科技奖获奖者是:丁林、王保海、方小敏、刘晓东、刘燕华、张春光、高锐、姚檀栋、彭敏、廖俊国。     

Quartz-grain surfaces of debris flow material in the marginal mountains of Tibet

Debris flow is a natural phenomenon which occurs on steep slopes of mountain regions. Very often morainic material and nonmorainic sediments, such as debris flow material, fluvial and other sediments, are mixed in the marginal mountain systems of the Tibetan Plateau. The study of quartz-grain surface features of debris flow has an important significance for differentiating between different origins of Quaternary sediments. Features of quartz-grain in debris flow will be described as below:

1. The predominant shapes of quartz grains are irregular.
2. The degree of roundness of grains is in general are angular to subangular in shape.
3. The textures of quartz-grains in debris flows are conchoidal fractures, parallel steps and mechanical V-marks. Parallel steps are especially abundant. Their presence is the most characteristic indicator of debris flow sand, aiding in the differentiation between debris flow and glacial sand.
4. Fresh cleavage planes are extremely flat.

     

Refugee flow or brain-drain? The humanitarian policy and post-Tiananmen mainland Chinese immigration to Canada

"The humanitarian policy that the Canadian government implemented in response to the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown changed a migration system primarily based on personal networks into a brain drain. Post-Tiananmen mainland Chinese immigrants (MCIs) were better educated than those arriving in Canada previously. Among the post-Tiananmen MCIs, those who landed under the policy were better educated than those landing in other categories. The analysis suggests that post-Tiananmen MCIs represented a brain-drain rather than a refugee flow, that the humanitarian policy implicitly contained ideological and human capital concerns in addition to humanitarian concerns, and that Canada benefited from the policy by obtaining human capital as well as satisfying its humanitarian obligations and ideological aspirations."     

人工触发闪电电流测量及特征性分析

通过对１９９３年７月２７日的人工触发闪电电流、跨步电压的直接测量结果的分析发现,在正电场下触发的慢型放电过程由连续电流和双极性的电流脉冲过程组成,其放电特性与雷暴的电特性有关。闪电电流最大值为１．２ｋＡ,持续时间为２５ｍｓ,中和电荷量为８．９Ｃ。跨步电压与电流的测量结果相一致,是一种间接测量电流的方法。     

The effect of an optically thin region on stability of an accretion disk around a supermassive black hole

We analyse conditions of the innermost portion of an accretion disk and establish a set of equations for this region. A stable innermost region may exist, which can probably explain the observed UV and X-ray spectra, avoiding the unstable emission. We then discuss the detailed radial structure of a disk around a black hole for typical AGN parameters and obtain different kinds of- relationships for different regions of a disk. On the basis of this, we discuss the stability. A new type of cycle is present, which we call a double S shaped cycle. In this cycle, the extent of accretion rate variability is much larger than that in dwarf nova cycles. This probably solves the problem of violent variability of AGN. In the meantime, the very high accretion rate at the hottest state in limit cycles in the unstable region may provide continuous injection of matter to the jet and power the relativistic motion of the jet.     

Temperature dependence of large-scale water-retention curves: a case study

A local-scale model for temperature-dependence of water-retention curves may be applicable to large scales. Consideration of this temperature dependence is important for modeling unsaturated flow and transport in the subsurface in numerous cases. Although significant progress has been made in understanding and modeling this temperature effect, almost all the previous studies have been limited to small scales (on the order of several centimeters). Numerical experiments were used to investigate the possibility of extending a local-scale model for the temperature-dependence of water retention curves to large scales (on the order of meters). Temperature effects on large-scale hydraulic properties are of interest in many practical applications. Numerical experiment results indicate that the local-scale model can indeed be applicable to large-scale problems for special porous media with high air entry values. A typical porous medium of this kind is the porous tuff matrix in the unsaturated zone of Yucca Mountain, Nevada, the proposed geologic disposal site for national high-level nuclear wastes. Whether this finding can approximately hold for general cases needs to be investigated in future studies.     

The diet of the Long-eared Owls, Asio otus, in the desert of northwest China

The contents of regurgitated Long-eared Owls (Asio otus) pellets collected in Minqin Desert Experimental Research Station of northwestern China were analysed. A total of 303 individuals representing five species of rodents and one of bird were identified in the pellets. By frequency, the most common species taken by Long-eared Owls was Meriones meridianus, followed by Cricetulus barabensis and Phodopus roborovskii. By biomass, Meriones meridianus was the most important species taken, followed by C. barabensis and Rhombomys opimus. Our results suggest that the Long-eared Owls were nocturnal hunters and fed on a wide range of animals with respect to their habitats.     

Ammonium regeneration in intertidal sediments of the Yangtze estuary during air-exposure

The influences of exposure to the atmosphere on ammonium cycle in the intertidal surface sediments were in situ studied with a geochemical approach at a typical station in the Yangtze Estuary during three tidal cycles in September 2003. During an about 8-h emersion period of each diurnal tide, six high-resolution vertical profiles of adsorbed and dissolved ammonium were measured. It was observed that both adsorbed and dissolved ammonium generally had an increasing trend in sediment cores during the exposure. The rate of ammonium regeneration in sediments was estimated using the accumulation amount of ammonium including adsorbed and soluble fractions during the daytime emersion. The calculation result showed that there was relatively high ammonification rate (˜500 nmol N cm⁻³ day⁻¹), which reflected that organic nitrogen in sediments was quickly decomposed with a residence time of ˜52.7 days. Due to the dramatic temperature difference observed in sediment profiles, free convection was considered an important mechanism of regulating the efflux of produced ammonium into overlying waters. The total estimated amount of regenerated ammonium was ˜1.35×10⁵ t N year⁻¹ in the intertidal flat of the Yangtze Estuary, which occupied 7.6% of the total inorganic nitrogen annually transported to the estuarine ecosystem.