Apo-14 is required for digestive system organogenesis during fish embryogenesis and larval development

Apo-14 is a fish-specific apolipoprotein and its biological function remains unknown. In this study, CagApo-14 was cloned from gibel carp (Carassius auratus gibelio) and its expression pattern was investigated during embryogenesis and early larval development. The CagApo-14 transcript and its protein product were firstly localized in the yolk syncytial layer at a high level during embryogenesis, and then found to be restricted to the digestive system including liver and intestine in later embryos and early larvae. Immunofluorescence staining in larvae and adults indicated that CagApo-14 protein was predominantly synthesized in and excreted from sinusoidal endothelial cells of liver tissue. Morpholino knockdown of CagApo-14 resulted in severe disruption of digestive organs including liver, intestine, pancreas and swim bladder. Moreover, yolk lipid transportation and utilization were severely affected in the CagApo-14 morphants. Overall, this data indicates that CagApo-14 is required for digestive system organogenesis during fish embryogenesis and larval development.

The Geo-DSCM System and Its Application to the Deformation Measurement of Rock Materials

Digital Speckle Correlation Method (DSCM) is a useful tool for whole field deformation measurement, and has been applied to analyze the deformation field of rock materials in recent years. In this paper, a Geo-DSCM system is designed and used to analyse the more complicated problems of rock mechanics, such as damage evolution and failure procedure. A weighted correlation equation is proposed to improve the accuracy of displacement measurement on a heterogeneous deformation field. In addition, a data acquisition system is described that can synchronize with the test machine and can capture speckle image at various speeds during experiment. For verification of the Geo-DSCM system, the failure procedure of a borehole rock structure is inspected and the evolution of the deformation localization is analysed. It is shown that the deformation localization generally initializes at the vulnerable area of the rock structure but may develop in a very complicated way.

Perspectives on the origin of microfilaments, microtubules, the relevant chaperonin system and cytoskeletal motors - a commentary on the spirochaete origin of flagella

The origin of cytoskeleton and the origin of relevant intracellular transportation system are big problems for understanding the emergence of eukaryotic cells. The present article summarized relevant information of evidences and molecular traces on the origin of actin, tubulin, the chaperonin system for folding them, myosins, kinesins, axonemal dyneins and cytoplasmic dyneins. On this basis the authors proposed a series of works, which should be done in the future, and indicated the ways for reaching the targets. These targets are mainly: 1) the reconstruction of evolutionary path from MreB protein of archaeal ancestor of eukaryotic cells to typical actin; 2) the finding of the MreB or MreB-related proteins in crenarchaea and using them to examine J. A. Lake's hypothesis on the origin of eukaryote from "eocytes" (crenarchaea); 3) the examinations of the existence and distribution of cytoskeleton made of MreB-related protein within coccoid archaea, especially in amoeboid archaeon Thermoplasm acidophilum; 4) using Thermoplasma as a model of archaeal ancestor of eukaryotic cells; 5) the searching for the homolog of ancestral dynein in present-day living archaea. During the writing of this article, Margulis' famous spirochaete hypothesis on the origin of flagella and cilia was unexpectedly involved and analyzed from aspects of tubulins, dyneins and spirochaetes. Actually, spirochaete cannot be reasonably assumed as the ectosymbiotic ancestor of eukaryotic flagella and cilia, since their swing depends upon large amount of bacterial flagella beneath the flexible outer wall, but not depends upon their intracellular tubules and the assumed dyneins. In this case, if they had "evolved" into cilia and lost their bacterial flagella, they would immediately become immobile! In fact, tubulin and dynein-like proteins have not been found in any spirochaete.

Polygynous Mating System and Behavioural Reason of Black Crested Gibbon (Nomascus concolor jingdongensis) at Dazhaizi,Mt.Wuliang, Yunnan,China

2003年8月—2005年8月,对无量山大寨子5个黑长臂猿群体的结构和组成进行了观察。当一个群体在早晨鸣叫或依次通过树冠时,记录群体的结构和组成。每个群体都由1个成年雄性、2个成年雌性及其后代组成。2003年8月平均群体大小为6·2只;到2005年8月,平均群体大小发展为6·4只,其中有2个亚成年雄性从出生群迁出,且有3只幼猿出生。在3个群体(G1、G2和G3)中两个成年雌性都成功繁殖了后代。同一群体内两个成年雌性间无攻击或等级行为。2005年4月15日,当一只亚成年雌性进入G3的领域后,两只成年雌性对其进行追逐驱赶,并且干扰其与成年雄性配合进行二重唱,成年雄性没有直接驱赶流浪的亚成年雌性,10天后这只亚成年雌性离开了G3的领域。亚成年雄性经常与群体其他成员保持一定距离,并且在出生地通过独唱练习鸣叫。黑长臂猿可能通过亚成年雄性和雌性的迁出,及成年雌性对外来流浪雌性的驱赶维持这种一夫二妻的群体结构。

Murine MyaK, a member of a family of yeast YAK1-related genes, is highly expressed in hormonally modulated epithelia in the reproductive system and in the embryonic central nervous system

We have cloned a mouse homologue (designated Myak) of the yeast protein kinase YAK1. The 1210 aa open reading frame contains a putative protein kinase domain, nuclear localization sequences and PEST sequences. Myak appears to be a member of a growing family of YAK1-related genes that include Drosophila and human Minibrain as well as a recently identified rat gene ANPK that encode a steroid hormone receptor interacting protein. RNA blot analysis revealed that Myak is expressed at low levels ubiquitously but at high levels in reproductive tissues, including testis, epididymis, ovary, uterus, and mammary gland, as well as in brain and kidney. In situ hybridization analysis on selected tissues revealed that Myak is particularly abundant in the hormonally modulated epithelia of the epididymis, mammary gland, and uterus, in round spermatids in the testis, and in the corpora lutea in the ovary, Myak is also highly expressed in the aqueduct of the adult brain and in the brain and spinal cord of day 12.5 embryos, Mol. Reprod. Dev. 55:372-378, 2000. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Early ontogeny of Ancherythroculter nigrocauda and effects of delayed first feeding on larvae

Development of embryos and larvae in Ancherythroculter nigrocauda Yih et Woo (1964) and effects of delayed first feeding on larvae were observed after artificial fertilization. The fertilized eggs were incubated at an average temperature of 26.5 degrees C (range: 25.7-27) and the larvae reared at temperatures ranging from 21.8 to 28 degrees C. First cleavage was at 50 min, epiboly began at 7 h 5 min, heartbeat reached 72 per min at 24 h 40 min and hatching occurred at 43 h 15 min after insemination. Mean total length of newly hatched larvae was 4.04 +/- 0.03 mm (n = 15). A one-chambered gas bladder was observed at 70 h 50 min, two chambers occurred at 15 days, and scales appeared approximately 30 days after hatching. Larvae began to feed exogenously at day 4 post-hatch at an average temperature of 24 degrees C. Food deprivation resulted in a progressive atrophy of skeletal muscle fibres, deterioration of the larval digestive system and cessation of organ differentiation. Larval growth under food deprivation was significantly affected by the time of first exogenous feeding. Starved larvae began to shrink, with negative growth from day 6 post-hatch. The point of no return (PNR) was reached at day 11 after hatching. Mortality of starved larvae increased sharply from day 12 after hatching.

Distribution of the macroinvertebrate communities in the Xiangxi River system and relationships with environmental factors

Surveys of macroinvertebrates were carried out in the Xiangxi River system during July of 2001. Among the 121 taxa collected, Ephemeroptera, Trichoptera, and Diptera dominated (41.7, 26.0, and 24.5% of the total relative abundance, respectively). Two-way indictor species analysis and detrended correspondence analysis divided the 49 sites into four groups based on species composition and relative abundance. Canonical correspondence analysis indicated that elevation, SiO2, pH, conductivity, hardness, and NO2-N were significant environmental factors affecting the distribution of macroinvertebrates.

Distribution of epilithic algae in the Xiangxi River system and their relationships with environmental factors

The spatial pattern of epilithic algae in the Xiangxi River system was studied in relation to several environmental factors by two-way indictor species analysis (TWINSPAN), detrended correspondence analysis (DCA), and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA). Eighty-nine taxa including diatoms, green algae, and blue-green algae were observed. Diatoms were dominant, and Cocconeis placentula, Cymbella minuta, Diatoma vulgare, and Gomphonema angustatum appeared in most of sampling sites. By TWINSPAN and DCA, thirty-one sites were divided into three groups based on composition and relative richness of benthic algae. CCA indicated that SiO2, pH, total phosphorus, Ca2+, velocity, elevation, and Cl- were significant environmental factors affecting the distribution of algae communities. In this minimal subset, SiO2 and pH were the most influential variables.

Operation of the qubit based on photon-assisted tunneling in a coupled quantum-dot system and the influence of dephasing

We derive the generalized rate equation for the coupled quantum-dot (QD) system irradiated by a microwave field in the presence of a quantum point contact. It is shown that when a microwave field is tuned in resonance with the energy difference between the ground states of two QD's, the photon-assisted tunneling occurs and, as a result, the coupled QD system may be used as the single qubit. Furthermore, we show that the oscillating current through the detector decays drastically as the dephasing rate increases, indicating clearly the influence of the dephasing effect induced by the quantum point contact used as a detecting device.

Proposed scheme for parallel 10Gb/s VSR system and its Verilog HDL realization

This paper proposes a novel and innovative scheme for 10Gb/s parallel Very Short Reach (VSR) optical communication system. The optimized scheme properly manages the SDH/SONET redundant bytes and adjusts the position of error detecting bytes and error correction bytes. Compared with the OIF-VSR4-01.0 proposal, the scheme has a coding process module. The SDH/SONET frames in transmission direction are disposed as follows: (1) The Framer-Serdes Interface (FSI) gets 16x622.08Mb/s STM-64 frame. (2) The STM-64 frame is byte-wise stripped across 12 channels, all channels are data channels. During this process, the parity bytes and CRC bytes are generated in the similar way as OIF-VSR4-01.0 and stored in the code process module. (3) The code process module will regularly convey the additional parity bytes and CRC bytes to all 12 data channels. (4) After the 8B/10B coding, the 12 channels is transmitted to the parallel VCSEL array. The receive process approximately in reverse order of transmission process. By applying this scheme to 10Gb/s VSR system, the frame size in VSR system is reduced from 15552x12 bytes to 14040x12 bytes, the system redundancy is reduced obviously.

The development of long - Term ambulatory pH monitoring system and its clinical application

This paper introduced a long-term ambulatory intragastric pH monitoring system, which is designed for prolonged ambulatory studies of Gastroesophageal Reflux Diseases. The whole system is composed of the gastric catheter with two pH sensors, a small data logger (Microdatalog), and a notebook PC. In this paper, the design of monitoring system hardware and software are described in detail. Clinical applications reveal good results.