Detour behavior changes associated with prenatal morphine exposure in 11-day-old chicks

The central nervous system exhibits remarkable plasticity in early life. Prenatal morphine exposure may induce adverse behavioral effects on the neonate and the developing offspring. In the present study, we investigated the effect of prenatal morphine exposure (daily from embryonic days 12-16, 20 mg/kg) on 11-day-old chicks using two forms of spatial paradigms: one trial detour behavior task in which animals must bypass an obstacle to reach the desired goal without any training and detour learning task which required several trials of training to reach the detour criterion. The results showed that, on the condition that chicks could successfully detour in the first trial, morphine exposed chicks exhibited longer detour latency to finish the task, coupled by a preference for turning right versus turning left. In contrast, no significant difference in learning and memory was found in detour learning task between morphine exposed chicks and saline chicks. These findings suggest specific behavioral changes associated with prenatal exposure to opioids during mid to late gestation, also raise attention to the possible health hazard from pregnancy drug use in everyday life. (C) 2010 ISDN. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Altitudinal Ranging of Black-Crested Gibbons at Mt. Wuliang, Yunnan: Effects of Food Distribution, Temperature and Human Disturbance

We studied the altitudinal ranging of one habituated group of black-crested gibbons (Nomascus concolor) at Dazhaizi, Mt. Wuliang, Yunnan, China, between March 2005 and April 2006. The group ranged from 1,900 to 2,680 m above sea level. Food distribution was the driving force behind the altitudinal ranging patterns of the study group. They spent 83.2% of their time ranging between 2,100 and 2,400 m, where 75.8% of important food patches occurred. They avoided using the area above 2,500 m despite a lack of human disturbance there, apparently because there were few food resources. Temperature had a limited effect on seasonal altitudinal ranging but probably explained the diel altitudinal ranging of the group, which tended to use the lower zone in the cold morning and the higher zone in the warm afternoon. Grazing goats, the main disturbance, were limited to below 2,100 m, which was defined as the high-disturbance area (HDA). Gibbons spent less time in the HDA and, when ranging there, spent more time feeding and travelling and less time resting and singing. Human activities directly influenced gibbon behaviour, might cause forest degradation and create dispersal barriers between populations. Copyright (C) 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel

Genetic diversity of the black crested gibbon (Nomascus concolor) from the Wuliang Mountains of Yunnan, China: preliminary results.

The authors thank Peng Shi, Scott Groom, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments. This work was supported by grants from the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, 2007CB411600), National Natural Science Foundation of China, and Bureau of Science and Technology of Yunnan Province (to Y.-P.Z.).

Abnormal regional homogeneity of drug-naive obsessive-compulsive patients

To explore the possible abnormal resting-state activity in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the regional homogeneity (ReHo) of 22 pairs of patients and well-matched healthy controls was calculated. Compared with controls, the patients showed higher ReHo in the left anterior cingulate cortex, but lower ReHo in the left inferior temporal gyrus. These findings supported the abnormal resting-state brain activity in drug-naive OCD patients. No significant correlations between ReHo value and four clinical characteristics were found, suggesting that abnormal ReHo might be trait-related in OCD. NeuroReport 21:786-790 (C) 2010 Wolters Kluwer Health vertical bar Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Molecular phylogeography and population structure of a mid-elevation montane frog Leptobrachium ailaonicum in a fragmented habitat of southwest China

Leptobrachium ailaonicum is a vulnerable anuran restricted to a patchy distribution associated with small mountain streams surrounded by forested slopes at mid-elevations (approximately 2000-2600 m) in the subtropical Mount Wuliang and Mount Ailao ranges in southwest China (Yunnan Province) and northern Vietnam. Given high habitat specificity and lack of suitable habitat in lower elevations between these ranges, we hypothesized limited gene flow between populations throughout its range. We used two mitochondrial genes to construct a phylogeographic pattern within this species in order to test our hypothesis. We also examined whether this phylogeographic pattern is a response to past geological events and/or climatic oscillations. A total of 1989 base pairs were obtained from 81 individuals of nine populations yielding 51 unique haplotypes. Both Bayesian and maximum parsimony phylogenetic analyses revealed four deeply divergent and reciprocally monophyletic mtDNA lineages that approximately correspond to four geographical regions separated by deep river valleys. These results suggest a long history of allopatric separation by vicariance. The distinct geographic distributions of four major clades and the estimated divergence time suggest spatial and temporal separations that coincide with climatic and paleogeographic changes following the orogeny and uplift of Mount Ailao during the late Miocene to mid Pliocene in southwest China. At the southern distribution, the presence of two sympatric yet differentiated clades in two areas are interpreted as a result of secondary contact between previously allopatric populations during cooler Pleistocene glacial cycles. Analysis of molecular variance indicates that most of the observed genetic variation occurs among the four regions implying long-term interruption of maternal gene flow, suggesting that L ailaonicum may represent more than one distinct species and should at least be separated into four management units corresponding to these four geographic lineages for conservation. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Sequence Characterization of the MC1R Gene in Yak (Poephagus grunniens) Breeds with Different Coat Colors

Melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) gene plays a key role in determining coat color in several species, including the cattle. However, up to now there is no report regarding the MC1R gene and the potential association of its mutations with coat colors in yak (

Complex networks constructed from irrational number sequences

In this paper, we construct (d, r) networks from sequences of different irrational numbers. In detail, segment an irrational number sequence of length M into groups of d digits which represent the nodes while two consecutive groups overlap by r digits (r = 0,1,...,d-1), and the undirected edges indicate the adjacency between two consecutive groups. (3, r) and (4, r) networks are respectively constructed from 14 different irrational numbers and their topological properties are examined. By observation, we find that network topologies change with different values of d, r and even sequence length M instead of the types of irrational numbers, although they share some similar features with traditional random graphs. We make a further investigation to explain these interesting phenomena and propose the identical-degree random graph model. The results presented in this paper provide some insight into distributions of irrational number digits that may help better understanding of the nature of irrational numbers.

匿名凭证与匿名口令认证技术研究

随着隐私保护越来越为人们所关注，对匿名认证技术的研究已经成为学术领域的一个热点。本文主要着眼于匿名认证中的匿名凭证与匿名口令认证密钥协商。 在对匿名凭证技术的研究中，本文重点分析了防止凭证出借与凭证匿名更新两个匿名凭证系统性质的实现。 凭证出借是指匿名凭证系统中，用户可以随意将自己的凭证与他人共享，从而使多人可以同时使用一个凭证。本文提出一种新的防止凭证出借方法，并给出一个具体的实现方案。该方法将凭证出借与用户隐私联系起来，通过凭证本身实现防止凭证出借。凭证匿名更新则是指凭证内容进行更新时，凭证颁发方只能知道变更的内容信息，不知道其他任何信息。本文提出一种新的实现方法，在原有凭证的基础上，用相对较少的计算量来实现对凭证内容的更新，使用户匿名得到一个新的凭证。 在对匿名口令认证密钥协商的研究中，本文首先提出了两个攻击方案：针对Shin等人的TAP(t≥2)协议的内部假扮攻击和针对TAP(t≥2)协议以及Viet等人的k-out-of-n APAKE协议的离线字典攻击。前者破坏了协议的认证性，内部攻击者可以假扮服务器与用户建立会话密钥。后者破坏了协议最基本的对口令的安全保护，使得内部攻击者可以离线猜测组内所有用户口令。然后，本文提出了一个新的两方的匿名口令认证密钥协商协议：NAPAKE，并在Square Computational Diffiee-Hellman困难假设以及Decision Inverted-Additive Diffie-Hellman困难假设下证明其安全性。同时，还进一步将其扩展为D-NAPAKE协议，以实现多方的匿名口令认证密钥协商，该协议可以抵抗上面的两个攻击。

基于加同态公钥密码体制的匿名数字指纹方案

提出了一种基于加同态公钥密码算法的匿名数字指纹方案，并给出了具有匿名功能的公钥和私钥对的具体构造方法，从而使该匿名指纹方案在发现盗版的情况下，销售商不需要第三方的帮助就能鉴别出数字多媒体作品的非法分发者，解决版权纠纷时也不需要购买者参与并提供相关的秘密信息，从而达到实现两方审判的目的．分析结果表明，该方案具有用户匿名及不可关联、销售商的可保证安全性和用户的可保证安全性等特点．

一种多信任域内的直接匿名证明方案

针对可信计算平台的原始直接匿名证明方案在多信任域的环境下存在的不足,提出了一种多信任域内的直接匿名证明方案.该方案扩展了原始的直接匿名证明方案,解决了可信计算平台在多信任域内的隐私性保护问题.利用理想系统/现实系统模型对该方案进行了安全性的分析和证明.分析表明,该方案满足匿名性和不可伪造性.最后分析方案的计算性能,实验验证了方案的有效性和可行性.

一种基于TPM匿名证书的信任协商方案

为促进分布式网络环境中跨安全域的信息共享与协作，需要一种合理有效的信任协商敏感信息保护机制．可信计算组织(Trusted Computing Group，TCG)专注于从计算平台体系结构上增强其安全性．基于可信计算的匿名证书机制提出一种新的信任协商方案：匿名证书信任协商ACTN(anonymous credentials based trusted negotiation)，良好地解决了跨安全域的敏感信息保护的问题，可以有效地防止重放攻击、窜改攻击和替换攻击．使用一个硬件模块TPM进行隐私信息保护，并通过TPM模块提供可靠的匿名证书和平台认证．定义了ACTN的模型以及模型中的匿名证书，详细说明了匿名证书的基本参数以及匿名证书的创建方法，讨论了策略的安全性、委托机制以及证书链的发现机制，同时设计了 协商节点的框架以及协商过程．通过实验并与TrustBuilder和COTN协商系统进行比较，表明系统具有良好的稳定性和可用性．最后指出相关的一些未来研究方向．

一种面向网格计算的分布式匿名协作算法

基于TCG提出的可信计算技术为网格协作安全性提出一种匿名分组身份验证算法,该算法可以非常可靠地解决网格计算平台之间的身份匿名验证问题.算法使用一个硬件模块TPM解决远程的身份验证,并通过TPM机制可以提供可靠的匿名验证和平台认证功能.算法中所有涉及的验证过程都是基于匿名机制实现的,除了实现匿名验证机制以外,算法还提供一套完整标记恶意网络实体的方法.提出了网格计算中虚拟分组的匿名认证平台架构,并在此架构基础上分成5步实现匿名验证算法,然后说明了算法在一种对等计算平台的应用实例,与GT2,GT3,GT4以及信任管理进行安全性的比较,并设计一个实验评价其性能.

Blue-shift photoluminescence from porous InAlAs

A porous InAlAs structure was first obtained by electrochemical etching. Nano-pore arrays were formed when the In0.52Al0.48As membrane was anodized at constant voltages in an HF aqueous solution. These self-assembled structures showed evident blue-shift photoluminescence emissions. While a quantum size effect alone underestimates the blue-shift energy for a sample with a relatively large average pore wall thickness, a novel effect caused by the asymmetric etching is proposed to account for this phenomenon. The results inferred from the x-ray double crystal diffraction are in good agreement with the experimental data.

品牌表现评价反应时与关注特性的关系

The decision making of customers has been a great concern in the field of customer research. Although China has entered the era of brand consumption and development, due to the different understanding of the regarded attributes between companies and customers, the phenomenon of “The awarded products don’t sell well, but the products which sell well can’t get the award.” appears. At the same time there is little research on the relationship between the brand and the customers has been conducted in China now. Traditional research on customer psychology employ questionnaires, depth interview and group discussions as the major methods. In cognitive psychology, the limitation of explicit memory has been revealed by implicit memory; moreover, unconscious cognition and implicit memory can also influence customers' remark of the brand. Therefore, the traditional methods are not accurate enough. Reaction time is an effective way to reveal testing equality, and it can also reveal implicit cognition. Based on the researches intends to investigate the validity of attention attributes in the method of reaction time by questionnaires and time reaction testing of 360 customers in 3 cities, which may, probably, overcomes the limitation of the traditional research methods. The 352 valid samples were analyzed by SPSS. The results showed there was no distinct corresponding relationship between the product attributes and reaction time. The different key attributes from questionnaire importance rating and the shortest reaction time standards were used to regressively analyze the results of customers’ overall rating (such as overall satisfaction,objective quality, recommend intention).The results indicated that the coefficiency of regression of the special attributes chosen from reaction time to overall rating was distinct, while the coefficiency of the special attributes chosen from importance rating to overall rating was not. The main conclusions are: 1. Regarded attributes can be obtained by the reaction time of brand performance rating. 2. Regarded attributes obtained by the reaction time of brand performance rating are more accurate than those by importance rating questionnaires. 3. The brand’s core attributes should includes regarded attributes during the decision making process.