The complete amino acid sequence of growth hormone and partial amino acid sequence of prolactin and somatolactin from sea perch (Lateolabrax japonicus)

Growth hormone (GH), prolactin (PRL) and somatolactin (SL) were purified simultaneously under alkaline condition (pH 9.0) from pituitary glands of sea perch (Lateolabrax japonicas) by a two-step procedure involving gel filtration on Sephadex G-100 and reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (rpHPLC). At each step of purification, fractions were monitored by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and by immunoblotting with chum salmon GH. PRL and SL antisera. The yields of sea perch GH, PRL and SL were 4.2, 1.0 and 0.28 mg/g wet tissue, respectively. The molecular weights of 19,200 and 20,370 Da were estimated by SDS-PAGE for sea perch GH and PRL, respectively. Two forms of sea perch SL were found: one (28,400 Da) is probably glycosylated, while the other one (23,200 Da) is believed to be deglycosylated. GH bioactivity was examined by an in vivo assay. Intraperitoneal injection of sea perch GH at a dose of 0.01 and 0.1 mug/g body weight at 7-day intervals resulted in a significant increase in body weight and length of juvenile rainbow trout. The complete sea-perch GH amino acid sequence of 187 residues was determined by sequencing fragments cleaved by chemicals and enzymes. Alignment of sea-perch GH with those of other fish GHs revealed that sea-perch GH is most similar to advanced marine fish, such as tuna, gilthead sea bream, yellowfin porgy, red sea bream, bonito and yellow tail with 98.4, 96.2%, 95.7%, 95.2%, 94.1% and 91% sequence identity, respectively. Sea-perch GH has low identity to Atlantic cod (76.5%), hardtail (73.3%), flounder (68.4%), chum salmon (66.3%), carp (54%) and blue shark (38%). Partial amino-acid sequences of 127 of sea-perch PRL and the N-terminal of 16 amino-acid sequence of sea-perch SL have been determined. The data show that sea-perch PRL has a slightly higher sequence identity with tilapia PRL( 73.2%) than with chum salmon PRL(70%) in this 127 amino-acid sequence. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Transformation of accommodation space of the Cretaceous Qingshankou Formation, the Songliao Basin, NE China

Analysis of accommodation space variation during deposition of the Cretaceous Qingshankou Formation in the Songliao Basin, NE China, indicates that accommodation space changed both through time and across the basin as a seesaw movement. The mid-upper Qingshankou Formation is divided into three units. In each unit, changes of accommodation space differ in the southern and northern part of the basin. Increasing accommodation in the southern part is accompanied by a decrease in the northern part, and vice versa. Between the northern and southern basin, there was a neutral belt that is like a fulcrum, called the transformation belt here, where the accommodation did not change to any significant degree. We call this response 'accommodation transformation', whose characteristics are defined by tectonic subsidence analysis, palaeontological and sedimentary analyses. The accommodation increasing belt, decreasing belt, transformation belt and accommodation transformation boundary together constitute the accommodation transformation system. The recognition of accommodation transformation in the Songliao Basin provides a new insight into sequence stratigraphy and might be widely applicable.

Mineralogy of smectites in the surface sediments from the East Pacific and its significance

XRD, TEM, SEM and EDS are employed to analyze smectites in the clay fraction of the surface sediments from the East Pacific. It is shown from the XRD results that the clay fraction consists of about 20% smectites. Three types of smectites are identified, Fe-rich (Type I), Fe, Mg-rich (Type II) and Na,Ca smectite (Type III), and most of them are not well-crystallized. Type I is widely distributed in sediments, showing honeycomblike in the SEM, and aggregated or dispersive hairlike, or cloudy assemblage with a bit curl near its edge in the TEM. This type is considered to be typomorphic type of authigenic smectite in the East Pacific. Type II is similar to Type I in micromorphology in the TEM, showing a transition micronite, while Type III is tabletlike in the TEM with an unclear edge. Type I may be altered from volcanics and some of them even precipitated from the low subthermal water. Type II could also be formed in the ocean floor, while Type III comes from dry and distant continental area. This study suggests that the characteristic of chemical composition and morphology of smectite may give a clue to understand sediment source, origin of minerals and sedimentation in the deep sea.

Preparation and in vitro antioxidant activity of kappa-carrageenan oligosaccharides and their oversulfated, acetylated, and phosphorylated derivatives

In order to study the relationship between chemical structure and properties of modified carrageenans versus antioxidant activity in vitro, K-carrageenan oligosaccharides were prepared through mild hydrochloric acid hydrolysis of the polysaccharide, and these were used as starting materials for the partial synthesis of their oversulfated, acetylated, and phosphorylated derivatives. The structure and substitution pattern of the oligosaccharides and their derivatives were Studied using FTIR and C-13 NMR spectroscopy, and their in vitro antioxidant activities were investigated. Certain derivatives of the carrageenan oligosaccharides exhibited higher antioxidant activity than the polysaccharides and oligosaccharides in certain antioxidant systems. The oversulfated and acetylated derivatives, which scavenge superoxide radicals, the phosphorylated and low-DS acetylated derivatives, which scavenge hydroxyl radicals, and the phosphorylated derivatives, which scavenge DPPH radicals, all exhibited significant antioxidant activities it, the systems examined. The effect of the molecular weight of the carrageenan on antioxidant activities, however, is not obvious from these studies. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mining expressed sequences for single nucleotide polymorphisms in Pacific abalone Haliotis discus hannai

Although single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are important resources for population genetics, pedigree analysis and genomic mapping, such loci have not been reported in Pacific abalone so far. In this study, a bioinformatics strategy was adopted to discover SNPs within the expressed sequences (ESTs) of Pacific abalone, Haliotis discus hannai, and furthermore, polymerase chain reaction direct sequencing (PCR-DS) and allele-specific PCR (AS-PCR) were used for SNPs detection and genotype scoring respectively. A total of 5893 ESTs were assembled and 302 putative SNPs were identified. The average density of SNPs in ESTs was 1%. Fifty-two sets of sequencing primers were designed from SNPs flanking ESTs to amplify the genomic DNA, and 13 could generate products of expected size. Polymerase chain reaction direct sequencing of the amplification products from pooled DNA samples revealed 40 polymorphic SNP loci. Using a modified tetra-primer AS-PCR, seven mitochondrial and six nuclear SNPs were typed and characterized among 37 wild abalones. In conclusion, it is feasible to discover SNPs from number limited ESTs and the AS-PCR as a simple, robust and reliable assay could be a primary method for small- and medium-scale SNPs detection in abalones as well as other non-model organisms.

工业无线网络化控制系统结构及调度问题研究

无线通信技术在工业网络化控制系统中的应用已成为当今工业领域中的研究热点。然而无线通信技术在恶劣的工业环境中通信质量严重下降，使得现有无线通信技术在工业网络化控制系统中的应用受阻。为此在不断提高和改进无线信号传输性能的同时，更要在控制系统级层面上充分考虑无线通信技术的特点，进行相关系统结构和实时调度机制等方面的改进，以达到使系统产生的通信任务在应用层上得到可靠、实时调度的目的。同时也要从无线网络技术层面上入手，解决上层下达的通信任务在数据链路层中的实时调度问题。要设计适合工业无线网络化控制系统应用特点的MAC协议来有效调度网络所有节点的信息收发，减少高层下达的通信任务在网络中的平均时延，提高吞吐量，进而保证工业无线网络化控制系统的实时性。 因此，本文从工业无线网络化控制系统中的通信任务在数据链路层和应用层上的调度角度出发，以解决、改善工业无线网络化控制系统的实时性和可靠性等性能指标为目的。对工业无线网络化控制系统的结构、应用层调度策略和优化以及数据链路层中的MAC协议进行了系统的研究。主要工作和贡献有以下几点： （1）对工业网络化控制系统的基本问题和引入无线通信技术后产生的问题进行了探讨。在定性分析了工业环境对无线通信的影响及要求的同时，又推导出了无线通信的链路预算模型，并利用Matlab对该预算模型进行了建模，计算出了在工业级噪声指数和工业要求的误码率下，IEEE802.11b和IEEE802.15.4两大主流无线通信技术的链路预算情况及具体的量化数据。 （2）提出了工业无线网络化控制系统的双频二级拓扑结构和多路径传输机制。利用了无线信道特点和路径冗余优势，在系统级上改进了目前无线通信技术在工业网络化控制系统中的应用模式，部分缓解了无线通信技术在工业恶劣环境中的实时性和可靠性问题。为工业无线网络化控制系统结构的设计做了有益的尝试。同时，首次将DS-UWB技术应用于工业网络化控制系统中，设计出了基于该结构的UWB和FF及PROFIBUS的集成方案，为该结构的快速应用提供了有效的途径。 （3）提出了极大容忍无线通信时延的调度算法(GTD)。有效解决了工业无线网络化控制系统中周期性通信任务的实时性问题,部分弥补了因无线网络时延而导致周期性通信任务超时的缺陷。并针对GTD调度算法产生的通信窗口碎片问题进行了优化处理，又提出了面向非周期信息吞吐量最大化的优化调度算法，该算法提高了非周期性通信任务的吞吐量。同时，给出了基于这两种调度算法的非线性规划模型的调度时间表求解方法。 （4）提出了根据通信任务调度时间表进行分配无竞争期的混合CAP和CFP的MAC协议（HAF-MAC）。解决了工业无线网络化控制系统上层下达的周期性通信任务和非周期性通信任务在数据链路层中的实时调度问题，并有效解决了本文提出的应用层调度算法生成的预留时间可能存在浪费的问题。同时，在理论分析了HAF-MAC协议时隙利用率的基础上，提出了基于时隙的HAF-MAC（TSHAF-MAC）协议。TSHAF-MAC协议比HAF-MAC协议提高了时隙利用率，使吞吐量和平均延时得到了进一步改善，进而提高了非周期性通信任务的实时性。最后，对这两个协议进行了仿真建模与验证，进而较系统地解决了工业无线网络化控制系统中的通信任务的实时调度问题。 （5）分别将论文中的第三章和第四章的部分研究成果,在本人博士研究阶段研发的无线智能照明控制系统这一物理实验平台上进行了一定的验证。

溶蚀岩体渗透水力学特性研究

Seepage control in karstic rock masses is one of the most important problems in domestic hydroelectric engineering and mining engineering as well as traffic engineering. At present permeability assessment and leakage analysis of multi-layer karstic rock masses are mainly qualitative, while seldom quantitative. Quantitative analyses of the permeability coefficient and seepage amount are conducted in this report, which will provide a theoretical basis for the study of seepage law and seepage control treatment of karstic rocks. Based on the field measurements in the horizontal grouting galleries of seepage control curtains on the left bank of the Shuibuya Hydropower Project on the Qingjiang river, a hydraulic model is established in this report, and the computation results will provide a scientific basis for optimization of grouting curtain engineering. Following issues are addressed in the report. (1) Based on the in-situ measurements of fissures and karstic cavities in grouting galleries, the characteristics of karstic rock mass is analyzed, and a stochastic structural model of karstic rock masses is set up, which will provide the basis for calculation of the permeability and leakage amount of karstic rock mass. (2) According to the distribution of the measured joints in the grouting galleries and the stochastic results obtained from the stochastic structural model of karstic rock mass between grouting galleries, a formula for computation of permeability tensor of fracturing system is set up, and a computation program is made with Visual Basic language. The computation results will be helpful for zoning of fissured rock masses and calculation of seepage amount as well as optimization of seepage control curtains. (3) Fractal theory is used to describe quantitatively the roughness of conduit walls of karstic systems and the sinuosity of karstic conduits. It is proposed that the roughness coefficient of kastic caves can be expressed by both fractal dimension Ds and Dr that represent respectively the extension sinuosity of karstic caves and the roughness of the conduit walls. The existing formula for calculating the seepage amount of karstic conduits is revised and programmed. The seepage amount of rock masses in the measured grouting galleries is estimated under the condition that no seepage control measures are taken before reservoir impoundment, and the results will be helpful for design and construction optimization of seepage curtains of the Shuibuya hydropower project. This report is one part of the subject "Karstic hydrogeology and the structural model and seepage hydraulics of karstic rock masses", a sub-program of "Study on seepage hydraulics of multi-layer karstic rock masses and its application in seepage control curtain engineering", which is financially supported by the Hubei Provincial key science and technology programme.