The ion selectivity of monensin incorporated phospholipid/alkanethiol bilayers

Monensin was incorporated into phospholipid/alkanethiol bilayers on the gold electrode surface by a new, paint-freeze method to deposit a lipid monolayer on the self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of alkanethiol. The advantages of this assembly system with a suitable function for investigating the ion selective transfer across the mimetic biomembrane are based on the characteristics of SAMs of alkanethiols and monensin. On the one hand, the SAMs of alkanethiols bring out their efficiency of packing and coverage of the metal substrate and relatively long-term stability; on the other hand, monensin improves the ion selectivity noticeably. The selectivity coefficients K-Na+,K-K+, K-Na+,K-Rb+ and K-Na+,K-Ag+ are 6 x 10(-2), 7.2 x 10(-3) and 30 respectively. However, the selectivity coefficient K-Na+,K-Li+ could not be obtained by a potentiometric method due to the specific interaction between Li+ and phospholipid and the lower degree of complexion between Li+ and monensin. The potential response of this bilayer system to monovalent ions is fairly good. For example, the slope of the response to Na+ is close to 60 mV per decade and its linearity range is from 10(-1) to 10(-5) M with a detection limit of 2 x 10(-6) M, The bilayer is stable for at least two months without changing its properties. This monensin incorporated lipid/alkanethiol bilayer is a good mimetic biomembrane system, which provides great promise for investigating the ion transfer mechanism across the biomembrane and developing a practical biosensor.

Potential of the seaweed Gracilaria lemaneiformis for integrated multi-trophic aquaculture with scallop Chlamys farreri in North China

In this study the red alga, Gracilaria lemaneiformis, was cultivated with the scallop Chlamys farreri in an integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) system for 3 weeks at the Marine Aquaculture Laboratory of the Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS) in Qingdao, Shandong Province, North China. The nutrient uptake rate and nutrient reduction efficiency of ammonium and phosphorus from scallop excretion were determined. The experiment included four treatments each with three replicates, and three scallop monoculture systems served as the control. Scallop density (407.9 +/- 2.84 g m(-3)) remained the same in all treatments while seaweed density differed. The seaweed density was set at four levels (treatments 1, 2, 3, 4) with thallus wet weight of 69.3 +/- 3.21, 139.1 +/- 3.80, 263.5 +/- 6.83, and 347.6 +/- 6.30 g m(-3), respectively. There were no significant differences in the initial nitrogen and phosphorus concentration between each treatment and the control group (ANOVA, p > 0.05). The results showed that at the end of the experiment, the nitrogen concentration in the control group and treatment 1 was significantly higher than in the other treatments. There was also a significant difference in phosphorus concentration between the control group and the IMTA treatments (ANOVA, p < 0.05). Growth rate, C and N content of the thallus, and mortality of scallop was different between the IMTA treatments. The nutrient uptake rate and nutrient reduction efficiency of ammonium and phosphorus changed with different cultivation density and time. The maximum reduction efficiency of ammonium and phosphorus was 83.7% and 70.4%, respectively. The maximum uptake rate of ammonium and phosphorus was 6.3 and 3.3 A mu mol g(-1) DW h(-1). A bivalve/seaweed biomass ratio from 1:0.33 to 1:0.80 (treatments 2, 3, and 4) was preferable for efficient nutrient uptake and for maintaining lower nutrient levels. Results indicate that G. lemaneiformis can efficiently absorb the ammonium and phosphorus from scallop excretion and is a suitable candidate for IMTA.

Screening of surfactants for harmful algal blooms mitigation

Screening experiments were conducted in order to find promising synthetic surfactants for harmful algal blooms (HABs) mitigation. The chemically synthesized surfactant cocamidopropyl betaine (CAPB) showed characteristics of relatively high inhibition efficiency, high biodegradability and low cost. The motility inhibition ratios of 10 mg/L CAPB on Cochlodinium polykrikoides and Alexandrium tamarense were about 60% after 5 min. The biodegradation test indicated that the half-life of CAPB in seawater was shorter than one day and 90% was biodegraded after five days under the initial concentration of 100 mg/L at 25degreesC. Further cell lysis experiments revealed the selective lysis effect of CAPB on different HAB organisms. More than 90% of C. polykrikoides lysed at the concentration of 10 mg/L CAPB after 24 h and at 15 mg/L CAPB after 4 h, whereas the lysis effect of CAPB on A. tamarense was slight, no more than 10% after 2 h interaction with 50 mg/L CAPB. This research provided preliminary data for CAPB as a candidate in harmful algal blooms mitigation and pointed out unresolved problems for its practical application in the meantime. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

多水下机器人系统水动力计算的多线程实现

介绍多水下机器人(UUV)数字仿真平台的硬件结构以及单体UUV和多UUV系统的水动力计算流程,在此基础上利用Windows多线程技术实现多UUV的水动力计算,该方法已经用于多UUV数字仿真平台虚拟环境节点的设计中。系统仿真实验表明该方法设计的应用程序具有良好的执行效率和实时响应能力,为以后多UUV半物理仿真平台的水动力计算和实体多UUV系统水动力系数的验证奠定了基础。

模糊Petri网自动生成方法研究

为解决模糊Petri网建模效率低、工作量大、易出错等问题,提出了模糊产生式规则自动生成模糊Petri网的方法,并给出了其映射模型。该方法通过模型映射,结合图元生成与定位实现了模糊Petri网的自动建模。避免了模糊Petri网建模的人为失误,提高了建模效率。使知识库与模型库同步更新,保证二者的一致性。有利于充分发挥模糊Petri网的知识表示、模糊信息处理与动态并行推理的优势,对模糊Petri网理论的广泛应用具有推动作用。通过实例表明该方法是可行的。

听力障碍与听力正常群体视觉注意发展及其机制的比较

One of the most important functions in the individual development is the interaction and integration of each sensory input. There exist two competing theories, i.e. the deficiency theory and the compensatory theory, regarding the origin and nature of changes in visual functions observed after auditory deprivation. The deficiency theory proposed that integrative processes are essential for normal development. In contrast, the compensatory theory stated that the loss of one sense may be met by a greater reliance upon, therefore an enhancement of the remaining senses. Given that hearing impaired children’s learning depends primarily on visual information, it is important to recognize the differences of visual attention between them and their hearing age-mates. Differences among age groups could exist in either selectivity or sustained attention. Study 1 and study 2 explored the selective and sustained attention development of hearing impaired and hearing students with average cognitive ability, aged from 7 years to college students. The analysis and discussion of the results are based on the visual attention development as well as deficiency theory and compensatory theory. According to the results of the study 1 and study 2, the spatial distribution and controlling of the visual attention between hearing impaired and hearing students were also investigated in the study 3 and study 4. The present work showed that: Firstly, both hearing impaired and hearing participants had the similar developmental trajectory of the sustained attention. The ability of children’s sustained attention appeared to improve with age, and in adolescence it reached the peak. The hearing impaired participants had the comparable sustained attention skills to the matched hearing ones. Besides, the results of the hearing impaired participants showed that they could maintain their attention and vigilance on the current task over the observation period. Secondly, group differences of visual attention development were found between hearing impaired and hearing participants. In the childhood, the visual attention developmental speed of the hearing impaired children was slower than that of the hearing ones. The selective attention skill of the hearing impaired were not comparable to the hearing ones, however, their selective skill improved with age, so in the adulthood, hearing impaired students showed the slight advantage in the selective attention skill over the hearing ones. Thirdly, hearing impaired and hearing participants showed the similar spatial distribution in the attention resources. In the low perceptual load condition, both participants were suffered great interference of the distrator at the fixation. In contrast, in the high perceptual load condition, hearing impaired adults were suffered more interference of the peripheral distractor, which suggested that they distributed more attention resources to the peripheral field when faced difficult tasks. Fourthly, both groups showed similar processing in the visual attention tasks. That is, they both searched the target with only the color feature in a parallel way, but in a serial way while processing orientation feature and the features with the combination of the color and orientation. Furthermore, the results indicated that two groups show similar ways in the attention controlling. In summary, the present study showed that visual attention development was dependent upon the integration of multimodal sensory information. Because of the interaction and integration of the input from various sensory, it has a negative impact on the intact sensory at the early stage of one sensory loss, however, it can better the functions of other intact sensory gradually with development and practice.

鸡胚吗啡用药对学习记忆和成瘾易感性的影响及其受体机制

Prenatal morphine exposure affects neural development of fetus by impairing learning and memory, and increasing susceptibility to morphine abuse. Because nervous systems have different developmental characteristics during different developmental stages, administration of morphine at different stages also has different effects on learning, memory, and susceptibility to morphine. Due to the precise developmental processes of neurotransmitter systems in chick embryo’s brain, and unique superiority of chick embryo model, the purpose of the present studies was to explore critical periods correlated to the memory impairment and the increasing susceptibility to morphine, via one-trial passive avoidance and conditioned place preference as behavior models. Then the possible roles of mu and delta opioid receptors as the possible mechanism were analyzed. Experiment 1 showed that injecting low dose of morphine (1 mg/kg) during the period embryonic 5 to 8 significantly impaired the function of learning and memory, worse than any other periods of the same treatment. Experiment 2 showed that injecting low dose of morphine during the period embryonic 17 to 20 significantly increased the susceptibility to morphine in the new-born chicks. The affected chicks acquired the morphine conditioned place preference more quickly, and maintained it much longer. Experiment 3 showed that during E5-8, injecting delta receptor antagonist naltrindole reversed the learning and memory impairment caused by morphine while delta receptor agonist DPDPE impaired learning and partial memory function. On the other hand, mu opioid receptors had little effect. As for E17-20, given naloxonazine can reverse the increases of susceptibility to morphine, and the mu receptor agonist DAGO cause the increases of susceptibility to morphine. Delta receptors have no effect. The above results demonstrated that prenatal morphine expousure at different developmental periods of chick embryo caused different influences on memory and susceptibility to morphine. That is, E5-8 is the critical period correlate to memory impairment; and E17-20 is the critical period correlate to susceptibility to morphine. Delta receptors were critical in learning and memory impairment while mu receptors in susceptibility.

线索位置和搜索方式对视觉搜索绩效的影响

By two different cue paradigms to cue target’s location or locations of all stimuli, this study is to discuss the search efficiency in different search modes. The research includes three experiments. The main results are as follows: The first experiment explores whether cueing target’s location has impact on vis-ual search performance under different search modes (parallel search and serial search). The results are: cueing target’s location has no facilitation effect in parallel search condition while has facilitation effect in serial search condition, the effect reflects the diffidence in slope of reaction time. In the second experiment, we want to explore whether cueing all stimuli’s loca-tions has impact on visual search performance under different search modes. The re-sults show that: cueing all stimuli’s locations has no facilitation effect in parallel search condition but has facilitation effect in serial search condition, the effect reflects the diffidence in intercept of reaction time. The third experiment is to explore the time course of facilitation effect in serial search. The result shows that only a 50ms which cueing all stimuli’s locations has fa-cilitation effect, with the longer cueing time, the more facilitation effect.

Selective oxidations on recoverable catalysts assembled in emulsions

Catalysts assembled in emulsions are found to be potentially recoverable and efficient for a number of catalytic reactions. The catalysts composed of polyoxometalate anions and quaternary ammonium cations have been designed and synthesized according to the catalytic reactions and by optimizing the structures of cations and anions. The catalysts act essentially as surfactants, which are uniformly distributed in the interface of the emulsion droplets, and accordingly behave like homogeneous catalysts. The catalysts show remarkable selectivity and activity in the oxidation of sulfur-containing molecules to sulfones in diesel and the selective oxidation of alcohols to ketones, using H2O2 as oxidant. For an example, the catalyst demonstrated over 96% efficiency of H2O2 and similar to 100% selectivity to sulfones for the selective oxidation of sulfur-containing molecules in real diesel. Moreover, the catalysts can be separated and recycled by a simple demulsification and re-emulsification.