Integrating Undergraduate Fieldwork into the Study of Human Mobility

Fieldwork has long been fundamental to human geography; however, increasingly unreceptive institutional environments have led to a decline in fieldwork in undergraduate human geography programs. We argue that mobility research presents an opportunity to reinvigorate the undergraduate field trip in human geography. We report on a second-year field course to Noosa, Australia, that blends new technologies with conventional survey techniques to capture data on a spectrum of human spatial behaviour. Over the course of a single weekend, students collect GPS traces of tourist mobility, survey businesses on the journey to work, collect residential migration histories and trace population dynamics on Noosa beach. Over the three years the course has been running, students have constructed a large repository of data on this Australian mobility hotspot, of which we report highlights. Results from standardised student course evaluations confirm the pedagogical value of these initiatives for human geography undergraduates.     

The Geminga fraction

Radio-quiet γ-ray pulsars like Geminga may account for a number of the unidentified EGRET sources in the Galaxy. The number of Geminga-like pulsars is very sensitive to the geometry of both the γ-ray and radio beams. Recent studies of the shape and polarization of pulse profiles of young radio pulsars have provided evidence that their radio emission originates in wide cone beams at altitudes that are a significant fraction (1–10%) of their light cylinder radius. Such wide radio emission beams will be visible at a much larger range of observer angles than the narrow core components thought to originate at lower altitude. Using 3D geometrical modeling that includes relativistic effects from pulsar rotation, we study the visibility of such radio cone beams as well as that of the γ-ray beams predicted by slot gap and outer gap models. From the results of this study, one can obtain revised predictions for the fraction of Geminga-like, radio quiet pulsars present in the γ-ray pulsar population.      

Distribution and characterization of Chilean populations of the brine shrimp Artemia (Crustacea, Branchiopoda, Anostraca)

Hypersaline habitats in Chile, from marine solar salt pans to saline lagoons and pools in Andean salars, were prospected in search of Artemia populations. These saline ecosystems were characterized through physico-chemical parameters and ionic composition of their brines. Biometrics of cysts and nauplii, as well as morphometrics by using multivariate discriminant analysis for adult specimens evidenced that the Chilean populations of brine shrimp belong to A. franciscana. Cross-breeding results supported the former hypothesis of conspecific Chilean populations, and their differences with A. persimilis, also endemic to the New World, but restricted to Argentinean sites.     

2019年北京市PM2.5人群暴露剂量特征分析

近年来,PM_2.5已成为雾霾爆发的主要污染物之一,人口长期暴露在高浓度的PM_2.5中可能会大大的提高居民患病的几率,危害居民身心健康。本研究以空气污染严重且人口高度集中的北京市作为研究区,以2019年北京市的PM_2.5浓度监测数据、人口空间分布栅格数据及不同人群的长期呼吸量等为数据基础,构建了“污染物浓度—暴露人口—呼吸量”的PM_2.5人口暴露剂量评估模型,进而对北京市2019年的PM_2.5人口暴露强度空间分异特征及不同人群的暴露剂量差异进行分析。结果表明：① 2019年北京市的PM_2.5浓度在冬季时最高,日均浓度达48.89 μg/m³,并均呈现出北低南高的整体态势;② PM_2.5人口暴露量存在显著的空间分异特征,不同人群的PM_2.5暴露量均呈现出由城中心向周边减弱的整体态势,高暴露区主要集中于城区地带;③ 不同性别、年龄组人群的PM_2.5人口暴露强度存在明显的空间分异特征,且城市内部不同人群的PM_2.5暴露剂量也存在明显差异;④ PM_2.5的暴露风险并非完全取决于污染物浓度的大小,而是由污染源浓度和暴露受体的空间分布特征等多方面共同决定,北京城区的高PM_2.5人口暴露区才是高风险区,是未来政府有效防控污染物危害的核心区。     

Radio-Loud and Radio-Quiet Gamma-Ray Pulsars from the Galaxy and the Gould Belt

We present results of a population synthesis study of radio-loud and radio-quiet γ-ray pulsars from the Galactic plane and the Gould Belt. The simulation includes the Parkes multibeam pulsar survey, realistic beam geometries for radio and γ-ray emission from neutron stars and the new electron density model of Cordes and Lazio. Normalizing to the number of radio pulsars observed by a set of nine radio surveys, the simulation suggests a neutron star birth rate of 1.4 neutron stars per century in the Galactic plane. In addition, the simulation predicts 19 radio-loud and 7 radio-quiet γ-ray pulsars from the plane that EGRET should have observed as point sources. Assuming that during the last 5 Myr the Gould Belt produced 100 neutron stars, only 10 of these would be observed as radio pulsars with three radio-loud and four radio-quiet γ-ray pulsars observed by EGRET. These results are in general agreement with the recent number of about 25 EGRET error boxes that contain Parkes radio pulsars. Since the Gould Belt pulsars are relatively close by, the selection of EGRET radio-quiet γ-ray pulsars strongly favors large impact angles, β, in the viewing geometry where the off-beam emission from curvature radiation provides the γ-ray flux. Therefore, the simulated EGRET radio-quiet γ-ray pulsars, being young and nearby, most closely reflect the current shape of the Gould Belt suggesting that such sources may significantly contribute to the EGRET unidentified γ-ray sources correlated with the Gould Belt.     

中国近海条石鲷(Oplegnathus fasciatus)群体遗传多样性线粒体DNA序列分析

采用线粒体(mtDNA)DNACOI和Cytb基因片段序列分析方法,进行了中国近海条石鲷(Oplegnathus fasciatus)舟山和胶南群体遗传多样性及其遗传结构现状研究。结果表明,基于mtDNACOI分子标记揭示条石鲷舟山群体遗传多样性水平(h=0.814±0.060,π=0.009±0.005,k=5.653±2.789)显著高于胶南群体(h=0.742±0.116,π=0.003±0.002,k=1.970±1.196);MST分析、NJ系统分析和核苷酸不配对分布分析结果皆显示两群体内存在三个显著分化的单倍型类群,支系间的遗传距离为0.018—0.025;遗传分化指数结果(Fst=0.331,P=0.000)和确切P检验结果显示(P=0.000)两群体间存在显著遗传分化。基于mtDNACytb分子标记显示条石鲷群体遗传多样性总体上呈现较低水平(h=0.874±0.023,π=0.006±0.003,k=2.761±1.492),舟山群体核苷酸多样度水平显著高于胶南群体;NJ系统发育和群体遗传分化研究结果显示,条石鲷群体间未检测到显著的遗传分化。     

基于微卫星的泥蚶5个地理群体遗传多样性分析

为了研究泥蚶不同地理群体的系统发育关系和遗传多样性,运用微卫星DNA标记,对浙江温州(ZJ)、山东日照(SD)、韩国釜山(KR)、广西企沙(GX)、海南海口(HN)等5个泥蚶地理群体进行了17个基因位点的遗传多样性分析。结果显示,从17对引物中共检测出115个等位基因,每个位点等位基因数(Na)2~12个。有效等位基因数(Ne)为1.192~7.849,平均观测杂合度(Ho)为0.430~0.516,平均期望杂合度(He)为0.573~0.656,5个群体的平均多态信息含量(PIC)为0.525~0.608。Hardy-Weinberg平衡检验表明,51.2%的微卫星位点偏离平衡状态(P0.05)。5个群体间的种群遗传分化系数(FST)为0.012~0.062,呈现出较低的遗传分化。UPMGA聚类分析表明,浙江群体和韩国群体首先聚在一起,亲缘关系最近,然后与海南群体聚合;广西群体和山东群体亲缘关系较近,聚为一支,然后与上面三个群体聚合。     

Mixture of populations

A simple example simulating a mixture of two normal populations results in some important observations, nonnormality and nonsymmetry of the mixture conditional pdf, nonlinearity of the conditional mean as a function of the conditioning data, heteroscedasticity of the conditional variance and its nonmonotonicity as a function of distance of the unknown to the conditioning data. A comparison of the mixture statistics with those predicted by traditional models ignoring the mixture reveals the inadequacy and inappropriateness of these traditional approaches. A mixture of two multivariate normal populations is illustrated through the analytical expressions of its conditional distribution and moments.