The decline and impending extinction of the South China tiger

The South China tiger Panthera tigris amoyensis is the rarest of the five living tiger subspecies, the most critically threatened and the closest to extinction. No wild South China tigers have been seen by officials for 25 years and one was last brought into captivity 27 years ago. The 19 reserves listed by the Chinese Ministry of Forestry within the presumed range of the tiger are spatially fragmented and most are too small to support viable tiger populations. Over the last 40 years wild populations have declined from thousands to a scattered few. Despite its plight and occasional anecdotal reports of sightings by local people, no intensive field study has been conducted on this tiger subspecies and its habitat. The captive population of about 50 tigers, derived from six wild-caught founders, is genetically impoverished with low reproductive output. Given the size and fragmentation of potential tiger habitat, saving what remains of the captive population may be the only option left to prevent extinction of this tiger subspecies, and even this option is becoming increasingly less probable. This precarious dilemma demands that conservation priorities be re-evaluated and action taken immediately to decide if recovery of the wild population will be possible.

网湖鲫鱼的生长与资源评估

根据1984—1986年在湖北省网湖进行渔业资源调查的资料,应用Von Bertalanffy生长方程描述该湖鲫鱼的生长模式,同时按照Joneo体长股分析模型和Thompson-Bell体长预测模型分别推算鲫鱼资源量和不同捕捞强度下资源量和渔获量的理论值,并求得最大持续渔获量。据此,对该湖鲫鱼资源的合理开发和利用进行了分析和讨论,并提出渔业对策。

Upstream regulatory region of zebrafish lunatic fringe: Isolation and promoter analysis

Lunatic fringe (Lfng), one modulator of Notch signaling, plays an essential part in demarcation of tissues boundaries during animal early development, especially somitogenesis. To characterize the promoter of zebrafish 1fng and generate somite-specific transgenic zebrafish, we isolated the upstream regulatory region of zebrafish 1fng by blast search at the Ensembl genome database (http://www. ensembl.org) and analyzed the promoter activity using green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a reporter. Promoter activity assay in zebrafish shows that the 0.2-kb fragment containing GC-box, CAAT-box, and TATA-box can direct tissue-specific GFP expression, while the 0.4-kb and 1.2-kb fragments with further upstream sequence included drive GFP expression more efficiently. We produced 1fngEGFP-transgenic founders showing somite-specific expression of GFP and consequently generated a hemizygous 1fngEGFP-transgenic line. The eggs from 1fngEGFP-transgenic female zebrafish show strong GFP expression, which is consistent to the reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction PCR (RT-PCR) detection of 1fng transcripts in the fertilized eggs. This reveals that zebrafish 1fng is a maternal factor existing in matured eggs, suggesting that fish somitogcnesis may be influenced by maternal factors.

Morphology, biometry and distribution of Difflugia biwae Kawamura, 1918 (Protozoa : Rhizopoda)

The freshwater testate amoeba Difflugia biwae Kawamura, 1918, isolated from Mulan Lake, Hubei Province, China is investigated using light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The morphology, biometry and distribution of this little known species are supplied. After careful comparison with three other similar species, including D. delicatula Gauthier-Livre et Thomas, D. elegans Penard and D. oblonga caudata Stepanek, we believe that the characteristics of smooth fusiform shell, conspicuous great collar flare (always larger than body-width) around the aperture, constriction behind the aperture and a somewhat curved aboral horn set D. biwae apart from all other Difflugia species. This species shows a great diversity in total length, collar height and aboral horn length which have high variability (CV between 11.76 and 24.52). However, body width, collar diameter, neck width, body length and aperture diameter are fairly constant with low variability (CV between 5.34 and 8.79) which shows a remarkable uniformity of D. biwae. Also, the size frequency distributions of both body width and body length yield bell-shaped (normally distributed) curves and indicate that D. biwae is a size-monomorphic species, characterized by a main-size class and a small size range. D. biwae is probably endemic to East Asia (China and Japan) because it has such a large size (165-306 mu m) that it would have been easily found in Europe and North America, if it were there. Consequently, D. biwae must have a restricted geographical distribution, disproving the old hypothesis that microscopic organisms are cosmopolitan.

Gene transfer into genomes of human cells by the sleeping beauty transposon system

The Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposon system, derived from teleost fish sequences, is extremely effective at delivering DNA to vertebrate genomes, including those of humans. We have examined several parameters of the SB system to improve it as a potential, nonviral vector for gene therapy. Our investigation centered on three features: the carrying capacity of the transposon for efficient integration into chromosomes of HeLa cells, the effects of overexpression of the SB transposase gene on transposition rates, and improvements in the activity of SB transposase to increase insertion rates of transgenes into cellular chromosomes. We found that SB transposons of about 6 kb retained 50% of the maximal efficiency of transposition, which is sufficient to deliver 70-80% of identified human cDNAs with appropriate transcriptional regulatory sequences. Overexpression inhibition studies revealed that there are optimal ratios of SB transposase to transposon for maximal rates of transposition, suggesting that conditions of delivery of the two-part transposon system are important for the best gene-transfer efficiencies. We further refined the SB transposase to incorporate several amino acid substitutions, the result of which led to an improved transposase called SB11. With SB11 we are able to achieve transposition rates that are about 100-fold above those achieved with plasmids that insert into chromosomes by random recombination. With the recently described improvements to the transposon itself, the SB system appears to be a potential gene-transfer tool for human gene therapy.

Tuning of the two electron states in quantum rings through the spin-orbit interaction

The effect of the Coulomb interaction on the energy spectrum and anisotropic distribution of two electron states in a quantum ring in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit interaction (RSOI) and Dresselhaus SOI (DSOI) is investigated in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field. We find that the interplay between the RSOI and DSOI makes the single quantum ring behaves like a laterally coupled quantum dot and the interdot coupling can be tuned by changing the strengths of the SOIs. The interplay can lead to singlet-triplet state mixing and anticrossing behavior when the singlet and triplet states meet with increasing magnetic field. The two electron ground state displays a bar-bell-like spatial anisotropic distribution in a quantum ring at a specific crystallographic direction, i.e., [110] or [1 (1) over bar0], which can be switched by reversing the direction of the perpendicular electric field. The ground state exhibits a singlet-triplet state transition with increasing magnetic field and strengths of RSOI and DSOI. An anisotropic electron distribution is predicted which can be detected through the measurement of its optical properties.

Optimal teleportation via thermal entangled states of a two-qubit Heisenberg chain

We study the optimal teleportation based on Bell measurements via the thermal states of a two-qubit Heisenberg XXX chain in the presence of the Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya (DM) anisotropic antisymmetric interaction and obtain an optimal unitary transformation. The explicit expressions of the output state and the teleportation fidelity are presented and compared with those of the standard protocol. It is shown that in this protocol the teleportation fidelity is always larger and the unit fidelity is achieved at zero temperature. The DM interaction can enhance the teleportation fidelity at finite temperatures, as opposed to the effect of the interaction in the standard protocol. Cases with other types of anisotropies are also discussed. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2009

Competition between band gap and yellow luminescence in undoped GaN grown by MOVPE on sapphire substrate

Undoped GaN epilayer on c-face (0 0 0 1) sapphire substrate has been grown by metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy (MOVPE) in a horizontal-type low-pressure two-channel reactor. Photoluminescence (PL) as a function of temperature and excitation intensity have been systematically studied, and the competition between near band gap ultraviolet (UV) and defect-related yellow luminescence (YL) has been extensively investigated, It is revealed that the ratio of the UV-to-YL peak intensities depends strongly on the excitation intensity and the measurement temperature. The obtained results have been analyzed in comparison with the theoretical predications based on a bimolecular model. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Photoluminescence and optical quenching of photoconductivity studies on undoped GaN grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Deep levels in undoped GaN materials grown by modified molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) are investigated by photoluminescence (PL) and optical quenching of photoconductivity measurements. A broad band which extends from 2.1 to 3.0 eV with a maximum at about 2.7 eV is observed, and four prominent quenching bands were found located at 2.18, 2.40, 2.71, and 2.78 eV above the valence band, respectively. These levels are attributed to four holes trap levels existence in the material. The defects cannot be firmly identified at present. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V, All rights reserved.

High-speed photodetector characterization using tunable laser by optical heterodyne technique - art. no. 60200A

An ultra-wide-band frequency response measurement system for optoelectronic devices has been established using the optical heterodyne method utilizing a tunable laser and a wavelenath-fixed distributed feedback laser. By controlling the laser diode cavity length, the beat frequency is swept from DC to hundreds GHz. An outstanding advantage is that this measurement system does not need any high-speed light modulation source and additional calibration. In this measurement, two types of different O/E receivers have been tested. and 3 dB bandwidths measured by this system were 14.4GHz and 40GHz, respectively. The comparisons between experimental data and that from manufacturer show that this method is accurate and easy to carry out.

High-output very small aperture laser and its near-field distribution properties - art. no. 60200L

A Very-Small-Aperture Laser with a 250 X 500 nm(2) aperture has been created on a 650nm edge emitting LD. The highest far-field output power is 1.9mW and the power per unit emission area is about 15 MW/mu m(2). The special fabrication process and high output power mechanism are demonstrated respectively. The near-field distribution properties are also analyzed theoretically and experimentally.

Electroabsorption-modulated DFB laser integrated with dual-waveguide spot-size converter - art. no. 60200N

A 1.55-mu m ridge DFB laser and electroabsorption modulator monolithically integrated with a buried-ridge-stripe dual-waveguide spot-size converter at the output port for low-loss coupling to a cleaved single-mode optical fiber was fabricated by means of selective area growth, quantum well intermixing and dual-core technologies. These devices exhibit threshold current of 28 mA, side mode suppression ratio of 38.0 dB, 3-dB modulation bandwidth of 12.0 GHz, modulator extinction ratios of 25.0 dB dc. The output beam divergence angles of the spot-size converter in the horizontal and vertical directions are as small as 8.0 degrees x 12.6 degrees, respectively, resulting in 3.2 dB coupling loss with a cleaved single-mode optical fiber.

Tandem electroabsorption modulators integrated with DFB laser by ultra-low-pressure selective-area-growth MOCVD for 10 GHz optical short pulse generation - art. no. 60200O

A novel device of tandem multiple quantum wells (MQWs) electroabsorption modulators (EAMs) monolithically integrated with DFB laser is fabricated by ultra-low-pressure (22 mbar) selective area guowth (SAG) MOCVD technique. Experimental results exhibit superior device characteristics with low threshold of 19 mX output light power of 4.5 mW and over 20 dB extinction ratio when coupled into a single mode Fiber. Moreover, over 10 GHz modulation bandwidth is developed with a driving voltage of 2 V. Using I this sinusoidal voltage driven integrated device, 10GHz repetition rate pulse with a width of 13.7 ps without any compression elements is obtained.

Wavelength-selectable DFB laser with wide gain bandwidth realized in nonidentical quantum well - art. no. 60200W

Width varied quantum wells show a more flat and wide gain spectrume (about 115nm) than that of identical miltiple quantum well. A new fabricating method was demonstrated in this paper to realize two different Bragg grating in an selectable DFB laser based on this material grown identical chip using traditional holographic exposure. A wavelength by MOVPE was presented. Two stable distinct single longitudinal mode of 1510nm and 1530nm with SMSR of 45 dB were realized.

Microwave packaging for 10 Gb/s EML modulators - art. no. 60201O

A novel microwave packaging technique for 10Gb/s electro-absorption modulator integrated with distributed feedback laser (EML) is presented. The packaging parasitics and intrinsic parasitics are both well considered, and the packaging circuit was synthetically designed to compensate for the intrinsic parasitic of the chip. A butterfly-packaged EMI module has been successfully developed to prove that. The small-signal modulation bandwidth of the butterfly-packaged module is about 10 GHz. Optical fiber transmission experiments have shown that the module can be used for 10Gb/s optical transmission system. After transmission through 40km,. the power penalty is less than 1 dBm at a bit-error-rate of 10-12.