ISOTOPIC CHARACTERISTICS AND AGE DATING OF THE PUMICE IN OKINAWA TROUGH

The data on the isotope compositions of rubidium, strontium and oxygen in the pumice of Okinawa Trough are reported for the first time. The ages of the pumice were successfully dated with the method of U-series disequilibrium. Then, the material source, crystallization evolution of magma and activity cycles of volcanos are explored. Isotopic data show that pumice magma was originally from the mantle, but had undergone a full crystallization differentiation and had been contaminated to a fair extent by crust-derived materials before the magma was erupted out of the sea floor. According to the dating results available so far, the earliest volcanic eruption in Okinawa Trough occurred about 70,000 a ago and the latest eruption was about 10,000 a B.P. During this period, there were three volcanic eruption cycles which were respectively corresponding to the middle Late Pleistocene, the late Late Pleistocene and the Early Holocene.

THE COMPOUND EYE AS AN INDICATOR OF AGE AND SHRINKAGE IN ANTARCTIC KRILL

Laboratory studies have shown that Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) shrink if maintained in conditions of low food availability. Recent studies have also demonstrated that E. superba individuals may be shrinking in the field during winter. If krill shrink during the winter, conclusions reached by length-frequency analysis may be unreliable because smaller animals may not necessarily be younger animals. In this study, the correlation between the body-length and the crystalline cone number of the compound eye was examined. Samples collected in the late summer show an apparent linear relationship between crystalline cone number and body-length. From a laboratory population, it appears that when krill shrink the crystalline cone number remains relatively unchanged. If crystalline cone number is little affected by shrinking, then the crystalline cone number may be a more reliable indicator of age than body-length alone. The ratio of crystalline cone number to body-length offers a method for detecting the effect of shrinking in natural populations of krill. On the basis of the crystalline cone number count, it appears from a field collection in early spring that E. superba do shrink during winter.

Age-dependence of urinary normal and modified nucleosides in childhood as determined by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography

Modified nucleosides have been characterized as tumor markers for a number of malignant diseases. In order to use these markers in children, the age-dependence of the nucleoside levels in healthy children has to be established and taken into account in diagnostic decisions. In this study, the levels of 12 normal and modified nucleosides in urine of 166 healthy children and adolescents with an age between 1 day and 19 years are determined by reversed-phase HPLC, and age-dependent reference ranges are defined. The urinary nucleoside concentrations are related to the creatinine concentrations, which allows the use of randomly collected urine samples. All nucleoside levels in urine of children decrease with age, most pronounced during the first 4 years of life, and the age-dependence of the reference values of the individual nucleosides can be approximated by a mathematical function y = b(0) + b(1) (1/x) with the regression coefficients b(0) and b(1), the nucleoside levels y and the age x between 1 year and 19 years. In the very young children, the shifts in the nucleoside concentrations are more differentiated. Starting with low levels on the first day of life, the concentrations of all studied nucleosides rise up to an age of 1-2 months, when they reach their absolute maximum for all age periods, and then decrease. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.