High Altitude Adaptation and Phylogenetic Analysis of Tibetan Horse Based on the Mitochondrial Genome

研究测定了西藏那曲(4,500 m)、云南中甸(3,300 m)、云南德钦(3,300 m)地区3匹藏马线粒体全基因组序列.3个地区的藏马线粒体基因组全长以及结构均与韩国济州岛的马类似,但比瑞典马线粒体基因组短.藏马基因组在DNA序列上的两两相似性达99.3%.通过对线粒体蛋白编码区的分析发现,NADH6基因的蛋白序列在三匹藏马中均表现快速进化的现象.这表明NADH6基因在藏马高原适应进化过程中扮演着重要角色.此外,利用7匹藏马的D-loop区域序列以及与其亲缘关系较近的马的序列首次构建的藏马的系统发育树显示,那曲藏马与中甸、德钦藏马属于不同的分支,且存在较大的遗传多样性,表明藏马可能为多地区起源.

Rarefied gas dynamics: fundamentals, simulations and micro flows

沙棘(Hippophae rhamnoides L.)在低温和增强UV-B胁迫下的生态生理反应

植物生长和生产力受到自然界各种形式的生物和非生物胁迫因子的影响。这些胁迫包括低温、高温、盐碱、干旱、洪水、重金属、虫害、病害和紫外线辐射等等。而人类活动大大加剧了这些胁迫所带来的影响。由于人类污染而导致臭氧层衰减以及由此产生的地球表面紫外辐射增强已经成为全球气候变化的一个主要方面。UV-B胁迫，甚至当前的辐射水平，所带来的影响已经引起科学工作者的广泛关注。 为了生存和繁殖，植物不得不面临环境中各种潜在胁迫所带来的负面影响。然而，植物生活型的不可移动性决定了其逃避胁迫的局限性。因此，绝大多数植物都是通过对胁迫作出反应，通过修复或者更新组织来降低伤害。而植物应对环境变化的能力则是由其生长模式的种属特异性和本身的遗传组成所决定。在自然界，植物常常同时面临多种胁迫，这些胁迫所引发的植物反应可能具有叠加、协同或者拮抗作用。沙棘是一种具刺、具有固氮功能的多年生雌雄异株灌木，广泛分布于亚欧大陆的温带地区和亚洲亚热带的高海拔地区。在中国，沙棘常常被用作植被恢复中的先锋树种而大量栽培。本文采用沙棘作为模式植物，试图探索木本植物对低温，UV-B辐射增强以及其与干旱的复合胁迫的响应以及沙棘对这些胁迫响应是否具有种群差异性。 对来自南北两个种群的沙棘进行短日照和低温处理，检测了其在抗寒锻炼和抗寒性发育过程中存在的性别差异。结果表明，短日照和低温都分别能够诱导抗寒锻炼的发生，而两者同时存在对所有实验植株抗寒性的大小具有叠加效应。然而，短日照和低温所诱导的抗寒性在两个种群中都具有性别差异性，雄性植株比雌雄植株对短日照和低温更为敏感。同时，南北种群间也存在差异性，北方种群的植物比南方种群的植物对短日照和低温敏感，从而在短日照下抗寒锻炼的发生时间更早，低温诱导的抗寒性更大。短日照和低温诱导植物增加抗寒性的同时伴随着脱落酸的变化。脱落酸的变化因处理，种群和性别的不同而不同。这些生理反应表明不同的沙棘种群，不同的植株性别对同一环境胁迫可能存在不同的生存策略。 比较了来自高低两个海拔的沙棘种群对于干旱和UV-B辐射增强以及两者复合胁迫条件下的生理生态反应。干旱使两个种群中植株总的生物量，总叶面积，比叶面积，叶片含碳量，含磷量，木质素含量和碳氮比显著降低，使根冠比，粗根细根比和叶片脱落酸含量显著增加。干旱而非UV-B使得δ13C 值显著增加。但是，比较而言，来自高海拔的种群对干旱反应更为强烈，而来自低海拔的种群对UV-B更敏感。在UV-B辐射增强的处理下，干旱所诱导的脱落酸的积累被显著抑制。而且我们检测到在一些指标上存在显著的干旱×UV-B交互作用，如两个种群中在总生物量上，低海拔种群中在总叶面积，粗根细根比上，高海拔种群中在比叶面积，δ13C值，木质素含量上都存在明显的交互作用。这些结果表明这两个种群对胁迫具有不同的适应性反应，来自高海拔的种群比来自低海拔的种群更能够抵御干旱和UV-B胁迫。 室外实验表明，UV-B 去除/增补对沙棘高低两个海拔种群的影响都不大。对生物量的积累，植株高度以及一些常见的胁迫反应生理指标比如丙二醛、ABA 和游离脯氨酸都没有显著影响。UV-B 的效应比UV-A 大，植物反应在无UV 和仅有UV-A 的处理间没有什么区别。然而，UV-B 去除的两个处理和UV-B 存在的两个处理间存在显著区别。UV-B 使得两个种群都显著降低了比叶面积(SLA)，但却使长期用水效率增加。但UV-B对光合色素和光合系统II 的影响不大。总体看来，来自低海拔的种群对UV-B 更为敏感。 Plant is adversely affected by various abiotic and biotic stress factors. These stressors includelow temperature, heat, salt, drought, flooding, heavy metal toxicity, wounding by herbivores,infecting by pathogenic microorganisms, ultraviolet (UV) radiation and so on. Variousanthropogenic activities have accentuated the existing stress factors. One of the mostimportant aspects of global change is that of stratospheric ozone depletion caused by seriousanthropogenic pollution and the resulting increase in UV radiation reaching the surface of theEarth. Scientists have become concerned about the effects that considerable UV-B stress, evenat current levels. In order to survive and reproduce, plants have to be able to cope with lots of potentiallyharmful stress factors that are almost constantly present in their environment. Most plants’responses under stress are to neutralize the stress, repairing the damage or regrowing newtissue rather than to avoid it due to their sessile life style. The plant defense capacity dependson plant-specific modular growth patterns and genetic make-up that allows for flexibleresponses to changing environments. Plants usually encounter several stresses simultaneouslyunder field conditions, and the stresses may cause a variety of plant responses, which can beadditive, synergistic or antagonistic. Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.), a thorny nitrogen fixing deciduously perennialshrub, which is widely distributed throughout the temperate zones of Asia and Europe and thesubtropical zones of Asia at high altitudes. It has been widely used in forest restoration as thepioneer species in China. In this paper, we used sea buckthorn as a model, tried to get some understand of how plants fight low temperature, enhanced UV-B radiation level and thatcombination of drought. And also, want to know whether does there exist some populationspecific responses to such stressors. Sexual differences in cold acclimation and freezing tolerance development of two contrastingsea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.) ecotypes from northern and southern regions inChina were recorded after exposure to short day photoperiod (SD) and low temperature (LT).The results demonstrated that cold acclimation could be triggered by exposing the plants toSD or LT alone, and that a combination of both treatments had an additive effect on freezingtolerance in all plants tested. However, development of freezing tolerance was dependent onthe sex of plants under SD and LT, the males were clearly more responsive to SD and LT thanthe females in both ecotypes studied. On the other hand, development of freezing tolerancewas also ecotype-dependent, the northern ecotype was more responsive to SD and LT than thesouthern ecotype, resulting in earlier cold acclimation under SD and higher freezing toleranceunder LT. Moreover, development of freezing tolerance induced by SD and LT wasaccompanied by changes in ABA levels. These alterations in ABA levels were different indifferent treatments, ecotypes and sexes. Therefore, the differences in SD and LT-inducedphysiological responses showed that the different ecotypes and the different sexes mightemploy different survival strategies under environmental stress. Two contrasting populations from the low and high altitudinal regions were employed toinvestigate the effects of drought, UV-B and their combination on sea buckthorn. Droughtsignificantly decreased total biomass, total leaf area, specific leaf area，leaf carbon (C),phophous (P), lignin content and the ratio of C: N in both populations, and increasedroot/shoot ratio, fine root/coarse root ratio and abscisic acid content (ABA), in bothpopulations. Drought but not UV-B resulted in significantly greater carbon isotopecomposition (δ13C) values in both populations. However, the high altitudinal population wasmore responsive to drought than the low altitudinal population. The drought-inducedenhancement of ABA in the high altitudinal population was significantly suppressed in thecombination of drought and elevated UV-B. Moreover, significant drought × UV-B interactionwas detected on total biomass in both populations, total leaf area and fine root/coarse root inthe low altitudinal population, specific leaf area, δ13C value and leaf lignin content in the high altitudinal population. These results demonstrated that there were different adaptive responsesbetween two contrasting populations, the high altitudinal population exhibited highertolerance to drought and UV-B than the low altitudinal population. A field experiment was conducted to investigate effects of UV-B exclusion/supplementationon two altitudinal populations of sea buckthorn. UV-B exclusion or supplementation had littleeffects on both populations investigated. For instance, the total biomass, plant height andsome physiological index such as Malondialdehyde (MDA), ABA and free proline were notchanged significantly. The UV-B effects are more significant than that of UV-A, nodifferences were found between treatments of excluded UV and excluded UV-B. However,compared with treatments of UV-B exclusion (including absent of UV-B and all UV band),the present of UV-B (including near ambient environment and enhanced UV-B) significantdecreased specific leaf area, and increased long time water use efficiency as evaluated by δ13Cvalue. UV-B had little effects on photosynthetic pigments and Photosystem II (PSII). The lowaltitude population is more sensitive to UV-B than that of the high altitude population.

Changes in individual plant traits and biomass allocation in alpine meadow with elevation variation on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Plant traits and individual plant biomass allocation of 57 perennial herbaceous species, belonging to three common functional groups (forbs, grasses and sedges) at subalpine (3700 m ASL), alpine (4300 m ASL) and subnival (>= 5000 m ASL) sites were examined to test the hypothesis that at high altitudes, plants reduce the proportion of aboveground parts and allocate more biomass to belowground parts, especially storage organs, as altitude increases, so as to geminate and resist environmental stress. However, results indicate that some divergence in biomass allocation exists among organs. With increasing altitude, the mean fractions of total biomass allocated to aboveground parts decreased. The mean fractions of total biomass allocation to storage organs at the subalpine site (7%+/- 2% S.E.) were distinct from those at the alpine (23%+/- 6%) and subnival (21%+/- 6%) sites, while the proportions of green leaves at all altitudes remained almost constant. At 4300 m and 5000 m, the mean fractions of flower stems decreased by 45% and 41%, respectively, while fine roots increased by 86% and 102%, respectively. Specific leaf areas and leaf areas of forbs and grasses deceased with rising elevation, while sedges showed opposite trends. For all three functional groups, leaf area ratio and leaf area root mass ratio decreased, while fine root biomass increased at higher altitudes. Biomass allocation patterns of alpine plants were characterized by a reduction in aboveground reproductive organs and enlargement of fine roots, while the proportion of leaves remained stable. It was beneficial for high altitude plants to compensate carbon gain and nutrient uptake under low temperature and limited nutrients by stabilizing biomass investment to photosynthetic structures and increasing the absorption surface area of fine roots. In contrast to forbs and grasses that had high mycorrhizal infection, sedges had higher single leaf area and more root fraction, especially fine roots.

航天运载器尾舱高空热环境数值分析

航天运载器在70km以上高空高速飞行，火箭发动机的喷流是影响其尾舱热环境的主要因素之一。采用代数方程和偏微分方程相结合的多块网格生成方法，达到热流计算中对近壁面网格的正交性和分布上的要求；通过改进的NND有限体积法高超程序，数值耦合求解多组分NS方程、湍流方程、热辐射方程和非平衡化学反应方程，提高了壁面热流计算的精度。计算结果与飞行遥测及地面实验结果对比分析表明，所采用的计算方法及得到的结果是正确有效的。

Kinetic studies of gas flows

Our recent studies on kinetic behaviors of gas flows are reviewed in this paper. These flows have a wide range of background, but share a common feature that the flow Knudsen number is larger than 0.01. Thus kinetic approaches such as the direct simulation Monte Carlo method are required for their description. In the past few years, we studied several micro/nano-scale flows by developing novel particle simulation approach, and investigated the flows in low-pressure chambers and at high altitude. In addition, the microscopic behaviors of a couple of classical flow problems were analyzed, which shows the potential for kinetic approaches to reveal the microscopic mechanism of gas flows.

千瓦级双包层光纤激光器冷却方案设计理论和实验研究

尽管双包层光纤激光器的散热性能好于传统的固体激光器的散热性能,光纤激光器中的热沉积仍然是限制提高其输出功率的重要因素.以双端抽运的400W双包层光纤激光器为实例,定量分析了光纤内的热沉积分布.根据所建立的散热模型,为了确保千瓦级双包层光纤激光器安全稳定的运行,抽运端附近的对流换热系数应大于2.8×10-2W·cm-2K-1.据此设计出高功率双包层光纤激光器抽运端冷却装置并成功应用在激光系统中,获得了千瓦级的激光输出.

α-Al_2O_3:C晶体的热释光和光释光特性

以高纯α-Al2O3和石墨为原料,采用温梯法生长了α-Al2O3:C晶体,使用RisΦTL/OSL-DA-15型热释光和光释光仪研究了其热释光和光释光特性.α-Al2O3:C晶体在462K附近有单一热释光峰,发射波长位于410nm.随着辐照剂量的增加,热释光强度逐渐增强,462K的热释光特征峰位置保持不变.α-Al2O3:C晶体的光释光衰减曲线由快衰减和慢衰减两个部分组成,随着辐照剂量的增加,快衰减部分衰减速率变化不大,而慢衰减部分衰减速率加快.在5×10-6—10Gy剂量范围内,α-Al2O3:C晶体的热释光剂量响应呈现良好的线性关系,30Gy时达到饱和;光释光剂量响应在5×10-6—60Gy剂量范围内呈现良好的线性关系,100Gy时达到饱和.与热释光相比,光释光剂量响应具有更高的灵敏度和更宽的线性剂量响应范围.

青藏高原过牧草地上灌木种类和分布对小尺度植被格局的影响

植物种间作用是决定物种分布、种群动态、群落演变和生态系统功能的重要因子。长期以来，相关研究集中在竞争作用上。然而自1990年代以来，易化作用逐渐受到重视，被认为是植物群落中物种共存的主要推动力，尤其是在极端和受到干扰的环境中。很多研究都揭示出植物对其他特定的物种产生直接或间接的正向的作用。护卫植物主要通过两种机制对临近的物种产生正向作用，即对恶劣的自然环境的改善和对高强度干扰的阻止和减轻。灌木在很多条件下能够成为护卫植物，影响种群的分布、群落的多样性和生态系统的功能。 中国西南部的青藏高原的牧场上，非生物的环境胁迫（比如生长季短暂、辐射强度大和极端温度等）和生物的干扰作用（比如过度放牧等）都很强。有文献表明，随着过度放牧现象的加重和草地的不断退化，灌木的分布有逐渐扩大的趋势。针对灌木对过度放牧草地上小尺度植被格局的影响，我们在若尔盖地区展开了以下两方面的研究。 为了研究不同种类灌木的影响，我们在若尔盖高原上选择了既具有恶劣的自然环境又遭受过度放牧压力的草地，对三种灌木内外的相同大小面积上小尺度范围内的植被进行调查。三种灌木分别是高山绣线菊、窄叶鲜卑花和金露梅，它们在形态结构、高度和可食性上都存在差异。在不考虑灌木种类的基础上，我们发现物种丰度、总盖度、开花的物种数和花序数都是灌木内部高于外部，而均匀度则恰好相反，是外部要高于内部，香农多样性指数内外没有明显的差异。金露梅灌丛中内外物种丰度和均匀度的差异要明显高于窄叶鲜卑花，但是总盖度、开花的物种数和花序数的差异不随着灌木种类的不同而有明显的差异。大多数的物种（占总物种数的47-85%）并没有因为灌木的存在而在内外出现的频数上表现出差异，而相当一部分物种（占总物种数的13-39%）在灌木外部的频率要高，仅仅有很少的物种（占总物种数的3-13%）因为灌木的存在而受益，内部的频数要高于外部。这种对某些物种的保护作用没有表现在群落水平上，即提高群落的物种丰富度和多样性，因为同时发生的灌木和其他植物的竞争作用也会限制以致排除冠层下面某些物种的存在。灌木的可食性和形态结构（比如盖度、高度、冠层的紧实度等）能对它们跟其他植物的相互之间净作用的类型和强度产生影响。不同的灌木能保护不同种类、不同数量的植物，表明易化作用是物种特异性的，跟护卫植物有关，也跟受益者有关。通过植被的排序，金露梅和高山绣线菊内外的植被得到了很明显的分离，而窄叶鲜卑花的则没有。总体上来说，灌木的存在确实能够通过提高出现或开花的频率，保护了某些对放牧比较敏感的物种，而且这种易化作用是物种特异性的。内外植被的差异在放牧压力最大的金露梅灌丛中最大，表明过度放牧导致的大尺度的植被状况对于小尺度上灌丛内外的植被的差异所起的作用比灌木种类的作用更大。 为了研究同种灌木不同的分布类型对植被格局的影响，选择金露梅作为目标灌木。金露梅是当地常见灌木，有的植株孤立存在，有的则是很多株联合形成比较大的斑块。我们选择金露梅形成的斑块中央、外沿金露梅植株内部、外围和孤立的金露梅植株内部、外部五个位置，并在小尺度上进行了植被调查和比较，发现金露梅的存在确实保护了一些物种，但是种类有限，反而是大部分的物种在外部的频数要高与内部;从群落水平来看，金露梅冠层下的植被从丰富度、多样性上来讲并没有超过外部，仅仅是具有更高的均匀度和同质性;生殖方面的结果也是类似的，而且大部分物种跟其分布呈现出基本类似的格局。金露梅斑块的存在和自然围栏的产生没有起到很明显的保护作用，并没有使得斑块中央植被的丰富度、多样性、均匀度提高，而仅仅是提高了植物的长势（表现为具有较高的总盖度等）;在物种水平，没有发现什么特异种的存在，仅仅发现能够促进一些物种在内部的生长或开花，而且比例很低。在这种效应的影响下，斑块边缘的金露梅相对于孤立的金露梅而言，也没有表现出更好的保护植被的能力。几乎所有的群落水平的指标都仅仅是受到灌木内外这个因素的影响，而两种分布格局（即：在斑块边缘和孤立存在）的影响是微乎其微的。植被排序的结果也充分证明了这一点，灌木内外的植被被明显的分离开来，而不同灌木中相应位置的植被则是混杂在一起。并且在物种水平上，除了极个别的物种之外，绝大部分物种内外的差异是是一致的，没有受到灌木分布格局的影响。即使个别物种具有不同的格局，也没有证据表明是受到了斑块中央植被的影响而产生的。

Natural selection on EPAS1 (HIF2 alpha) associated with low hemoglobin concentration in Tibetan highlanders

By impairing both function and survival, the severe reduction in oxygen availability associated with high-altitude environments is likely to act as an agent of natural selection. We used genomic and candidate gene approaches to search for evidence of such genetic selection. First, a genome-wide allelic differentiation scan (GWADS) comparing indigenous highlanders of the Tibetan Plateau (3,200 3,500 m) with closely related lowland Han revealed a genome-wide significant divergence across eight SNPs located near EPAS1. This gene encodes the transcription factor HIF2 alpha, which stimulates production of red blood cells and thus increases the concentration of hemoglobin in blood. Second, in a separate cohort of Tibetans residing at 4,200 m, we identified 31 EPAS1 SNPs in high linkage disequilibrium that correlated significantly with hemoglobin concentration. The sex-adjusted hemoglobin concentration was, on average, 0.8 g/dL lower in the major allele homozygotes compared with the heterozygotes. These findings were replicated in a third cohort of Tibetans residing at 4,300 m. The alleles associating with lower hemoglobin concentrations were correlated with the signal from the GWADS study and were observed at greatly elevated frequencies in the Tibetan cohorts compared with the Han. High hemoglobin concentrations are a cardinal feature of chronic mountain sickness offering one plausible mechanism for selection. Alternatively, as EPAS1 is pleiotropic in its effects, selection may have operated on some other aspect of the phenotype. Whichever of these explanations is correct, the evidence for genetic selection at the EPAS1 locus from the GWADS study is supported by the replicated studies associating function with the allelic variants.

Seasonal variations in the activity budget of Nomascus concolor jingdongensis at Mt. Wuliang, Central Yunnan, China: Effects of diet and temperature

We studied seasonal variation in the activity budget of a habituated group of Nomascus concolor jingdongensis at Mt. Wuliang, Central Yunnan, China from March 2005 to April 2006 via scan sampling at 5-min intervals. The study site is near the northern extreme of the distribution of hylobatids, at high altitude with extreme seasonality of temperature and rainfall. During the day, feeding manifested a bimodal pattern of high activity levels in mid-morning and mid-afternoon, whereas resting reached a peak at midday, with proportionally less time used for traveling. Annually, the group spent an average of 40.0% of the time resting, 35.1% feeding, 19.9% traveling, 2.6% singing, 1.2% playing, and 1.3% in other activities. The proportion of time allocated to activities showed significant monthly variations and was influenced by the diet and temperature. Gibbons increased traveling and playing time and decreased feeding time when they ate more fruit, and they decreased traveling, singing, and playing time and increased feeding time when they ate more leaves. Moreover, when the temperature was low, the gibbons decreased time traveling and increased time resting. In summary, black-crested gibbons employed high-effort activities when they ate more fruit and energy-conservation patterns when they ate more leaves and in low temperature. Behavioral data from the site are particularly useful in understanding gibbon behavioral adaptations to different sets of ecological conditions.