We present high angular resolution (∼ 1 and 0.6) mm-interferometric observations of the CO(1− 0) and CO(2− 1) line emission in the central 300 pc of the late-type spiral galaxy NGC6946. The data, obtained with the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer (PdBI), allow the first detection of a molecular gas spiral in the inner ∼ 10 (270 pc) with a large concentration of molecular Based on observation...

Our understanding of when and how humans adapted to living on the Tibetan Plateau at altitudes above 2000 to 3000 meters has been constrained by a paucity of archaeological data. Here we report data sets from the northeastern Tibetan Plateau indicating that the first villages were established only by 5200 calendar years before the present (cal yr B.P.). Using these data, we tested the hypothesi...

Newly dated Tertiary strata in the Bolivian central Andean plateau and synthesis of the Tertiary record in the adjacent Subandean fold-thrust belt constrain the age of deformation in both regions. Age of deformation within the plateau is determined by dated crosscutting relations associated with a regionally extensive high-level surface known as the San Juan del Oro surface. New Ar-Ar dates on ...

The Taklimakan Desert is located in the foreland basin of the Tibetan Plateau. We report here the results of stratigraphic investigations of a 1626-meter-thick sequence with interbedded wind-blown silt from the southern marginal Taklimakan Desert. Because the studied section is located downwind of the desert, the eolian silt accumulation is closely linked to desert formation. Our new evidence i...

The Jinsha River, upstream of the Yangtze flows through southeastern margin plateau, providing an opportunity to study plateau uplift relative Sichuan basin fluvial geomorphology. Eight tributaries River located at transition boundary from were analyzed for feature longitudinal profile and its evolution. spatial distribution slope-break knickpoints in catchment was determined by slope-area anal...

Precipitation variation on the Loess Plateau (LP) of China is not only important for rain-fed agriculture in this environmentally sensitive region, but also critical for the water and life securities over the whole Yellow River basin. Here we reconstruct high resolution precipitation variation on the western LP during the past 370 years by using two replicated, annually-laminated stalagmites. S...

Focused groundwater discharge in closed basins provides opportunities to investigate mechanisms for closing hydrologic and solute budgets in arid regions. The Salar de Atacama (SdA), adjacent to the Central Andean Plateau in the hyperarid Atacama Desert, provides an extreme example of halite (>1800 km) and lithium brine (~5000 ppm) accumulation spanning late Miocene to present. Minimum long-ter...

The β radioactivity of snow-pit samples collected in the spring of 2011 on four Tibetan Plateau glaciers demonstrate a remarkable peak in each snow pit profile, with peaks about ten to tens of times higher than background levels. The timing of these peaks suggests that the high radioactivity resulted from the Fukushima nuclear accident that occurred on March 11, 2011 in eastern Japan. Fallout m...

The peak sodium current underlies excitability and conduction in heart muscle, but a late sodium current flowing after the peak contributes to maintaining and prolonging the action potential plateau, and also to intracellular sodium loading, which in turn increases intracellular calcium with consequent effects on arrhythmia and diastolic function. Late sodium current is pathologically increased...

Yak domestication represents an important episode in the early human occupation of the high-altitude Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP). The precise timing of domestication is debated and little is known about the underlying genetic changes that occurred during the process. Here we investigate genome variation of wild and domestic yaks. We detect signals of selection in 209 genes of domestic yaks, sev...