Sesquiterpenes from the red alga Laurencia tristicha

Seven new sesquiterpenes (1-7), together with seven known sesquiterpenes, aplysin (8), aplysinol (9), gossonorol (10), 7,10-epoxy-ar-bisabol-11-ol (11), 10-epi-7,10-epoxy-ar-bisabol-11-ol (12), johnstonol (13), and laurebiphenyl (14), have been isolated from the red alga Laurencia tristicha. The structures of new compounds were established as laur-11-en-2,10-diol (1), laur-11-en-10-ol (2), laur-11-en-1,10-diol (3), 4-bromo-1,10-epoxylaur-11-ene (4), cyclolauren-2-ol (5), laurentristich-4-ol (6), and ar-bisabol-9-en-7,11-diol (7) by means of spectroscopic methods including IR, HRMS, and ID and 21) NMR techniques. Compound 6 possessed a novel rearranged skeleton. All compounds were tested against several human cancer cell lines including lung adenocarcinoma (A549), stomach cancer (BGC-823), hepatoma (Bel 7402), colon cancer (HCT-8), and HELA cell lines. Laurebiphenyl (14) showed moderate cytotoxicity against all tested cell lines, with IC50 values of 1.68, 1.22, 1.91, 1.77, and 1.61 mu g/mL, respectively. Other compounds were inactive (IC50 > 10 mu g/mL).

陕北地区石家湾-李家岔探区三叠系延长组石油成藏条件分析

Shijiawan –Lijiacha area, lying on the northeastern part of the Shanbei Slope of Ordos Basin, was selected as studying area. The previous explorations proved that the 2nd segment and 6th segment of the Yanchang Formation are the most important oil-bearing formations. It is indicated that the sedimentary facies and reservoir characteristics restricted the hydrocarbon accumulation regularity. Therefore, with petrology methodologies, such as outcrop observation, core description, geophysical logging interpretation, thin section determination, scanning electron microscope, as well as rock property analysis, the reservoirs was were systematically studied and characterized. The sedimentary micro-facies, seals, reservoir-seal combines, migration pathways and entrapping modes were taken into account. The author tempted to establish a base for further studies on reservoirs and on petroleum geology, and to provide some reliably geological evidences for later prospect activities. It was found that the sediments in the 2nd and 3rd segments of the Yanchang Formation in Shijiawan –Lijiacha area were deposited in braided rivers, and most sandy-bodies were identified as channel sandbars. The 4+5th and 6th segments were principally deposited in deltaic-plain environment, consisting of corresponding sub-facies such as distributary channels, natural levee, crevasse-splay and marsh. The skeleton sandy-bodies were identified as sandy sediments of distributary channels. The sand grains in reservoir in studied area possess generally low mineralogical maturity and moderate structural maturity, and the form of pores may be classified into intergranular types and dissolved types. Most reservoirs of Yanchang Formation in Shijiawan –Lijiacha area belong to extreme low-porosity low-permeability ones (type III), and the 2nd sediments belongs to low permeability one (type II) and the 6th segment belong to super low-permeability one(type Ⅳ). The reservoirs in the 2nd segment behave more heterogeneous than those in the 6th segment. The statistic analysis results show that, for 6th and 4+5th segments, the high quality reservoir-seal combines may be found everywhere in the studied area except in the northwest and the southwest parts; and for 1st and 2nd segments, in the northeast, central and southwest parts Petroleum migration happened in the duration of the Early Cretaceous period in both lateral and vertical directions. The migration paths were mainly constructed by permeable sandy-bodies. The superimposed channel sandy-bodies consist of the principal part of the system of carriers. the vertical fractures, that may travel through the seals between reservoirs, offered the vertical paths for migrating oil. It may be synthesized that oil coming from south kitchens migrated first laterally in carriers in the 6th segment. When arrived at the studied area, oil will migration laterally or/and vertical within both the sandy-bodies and fractures, in a climbing-stair way. The results demonstrate that the oil was entrapped in traps structure-lithology and/or lithology traps. In some cases, the hydrodynamic force may help to trap oil. Accumulation of oil in the area was mainly controlled by sedimentary facies, seals, structure, and heterogeneity of reservoir in the 2nd, 4+5th and 6th segments. Especially, the oil distributions in both the 2nd and 6th segments were obviously influenced by seals in the 4+5th segment. The existence of seals in 1st segment seems important for accumulation in the 2nd segment.

南海沉积物中的放射虫及其古环境意义

In this paper a systematic study of radiolarian from surface sediments of all the South China Sea (SCS) has initially been done for its deposit ecology, biogeography and paleoenvironment significance. The paleoenvironment information obtained by radiolarian analysis and other sedimentary method for core samples is also made use as the synthesis proxy for revealing the paleoenvironment changes in the SCS and the relations of it with the past globe change during last 200ka. Some results come out of this study as: 1) Radiolarian skeleton chemistry composition and skeleton morphological features were analyzed, chiefly dividing them as 15 types of basic morphological features: 2) Analysis of biogeographical feature demonstrates that the fauna in SCS obviously belonging to a transitional type of west Pacific - Indian Ocean and has a particularity of itself: 3) Tendency of radiolarian population distribution is lower in shallow continental shelf area, increasing gradually toward the abyssal region; 4) Nine character boundaries of radiolarian depth distribution in the sediments from whole the South China Sea may be recognized; 5)Two radiolarian transfer functions for paleotemperature and paleo-primary productivity in the South China Sea have also been established respectively. The equation of transfer function for winter paleotemperature has only an average estimated error of 0.18678 ℃ and the equation for paleo-primary productivity has the calculation accuracy of 85.31%; 6) Changes of radiolarian individuals, numbers of species and H(S) values in core NS93-5 show the completely different oceanic geographical circumstance and ecology structure in the Last Maximum Glacial with present; 7) The abundance variation of some raiolarian warm species and cold species indicate the changes of water masse features along with the paleoenvironment evolution, showing that this sea area clearly is controlled in 6 issues of oxygen isotopes by the cold water masses; 8) By comparative analysis of δ ~(18)O curves with GISP2;s ice core can core 17940 of the northern SCS, the occurring characters of D/O's events 1-21 and Heinrich's events H1-H6 have been revealed in this sea area by core NS93-5, which prove the existence of paleoclimatic tele-connections between the southern SCS and Arctic region since about 200ka BP.

地质体科学计算可视化研究及其应用

Describing visually space-time properties of geological phenomena consists of one of the most important parts in geology research. Such visual images are of usually helpful for analyzing geological phenomena and for discovering the regulations behind geological phenomena. This report studies mainly three application problems of scientific visualization in geology: (Dvisualizing geological body A new geometric modeling technique with trimmed surface patches has been eveloped to visualize geological body. Constructional surfaces are represented as trimmed surfaces and a constructional solid is represented by the upper and lower surface composed of trimmed surface patches from constructional surfaces. The technique can completely and definitely represent the structure of geological body. It has been applied in visualization for the coal deposit in Huolinhe, the aquifer thermal energy storage in Tianjin and the structure of meteorite impact in Cangshan et al. (2)visualizing geological space field Efficient visualization methods have been discussed. Marching-Cube algorithm used has been improved and is used to extract iso~surface from 3D data set, iso-line from 2D data set and iso-point from ID data set. The improved method has been used to visualize distribution and evolution of the abnormal pressures in Zhungaer Basin. (3)visualizing porous space a novel way was proposed to define distance from any point to a convex set. Thus a convex set skeleton-based implicit surface modeling technique is developed and used to construct a simplified porous space model. A Buoyancy Percolation numerical simulation platform has been developed to simulate the process of migration of oil in the porous media saturated with water.

大港油田孔南地区孔一段储层流动单元研究

The main reservoir type in the south of Dagang Oilfield is alluvial reservoir. In this paper, the reservoir structure model and the distribution of connected body and flow barrier were built on base of the study of high-resolution sequential stratigraphic skeleton and fine sedimentary microfacies on level of single sandbody. Utilizing the static and dynamic data synthetically and carrying out the comparision of the classification method for reservoir flow unit in different reservoir, the criterion, which can be used to classify the flow unit in first section of Kongdian formation of Kongnan area, was defined. The qualitative method of well-to-well correlation and the quantitative method of conditional simulation using multiple data are adopted to disclose the oil and water moving regulation in different flow unit and the distribution rule of remaining oil by physical simulation measure. A set of flow unit study method was formed that is suit for the Dagang Oilfield on account of the remaining oil production according to the flow unit. Several outstanding progresses was obtained in the following aspects:It is considered that the reservoir structure of Zao V iow oil group- Zao Vup4 layerand are jigsaw-puzzled reservoir, while ZaoVup3-ZaoVupi layers are labyrinth reservoir,which are studied on base of high-resolution sequential stratigraphic skeleton on the levelof single sandbody in first section of Kongdian formation of Kongnan area and accordingto the study of fine sedimentary microfacies and fault sealeing.When classifying the flow unit, only permeability is the basic parameter using thestatic and dynamic data and, and also different parameters should be chose or deleted, suchas porosity, effective thickness, fluid viscosity and so on, because of the weak or stronginterlayer heterogeneous and the difference of interlayer crude oil character.The method of building predicting-model of flow unit was proposed. This methodis according to the theories of reservoir sedimentology and high-resolution sequencestratigraphic and adopts the quantitative method of well-to well correlation and the quantitative method of stochastic simulation using integrateddense well data. Finally the 3-D predicting-model of flow unit and the interlay er distribution model in flow unit were built which are for alluvial fan and fan delta fades in first section of Kongdian formation of Kongnan area, and nine genetic model of flow unit of alluvial environment that spread in the space were proposed.(4) Difference of reservoir microscopic pore configuration in various flow units and difference of flow capability and oil displacement effect were demonstrated through the physical experiments such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), constant rate mercury penetration, flow simulation and so on. The distribution of remaining oil in this area was predicted combining the dynamic data and numerical modeling based on the flow unit. Remaining oil production measure was brought up by the clue of flow unit during the medium and late course of the oilfield development.

Electrochromatographic evaluation of a silica monolith capillary column for separation of basic pharmaceuticals

A silica-based monolithic capillary column was prepared via a sol-gel process. The continuous skeleton and large through-pore structure were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The native silica monolith has been successfully employed in the electrochromatographic separation of beta-blockers and alkaloids extracted from traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs). Column efficiencies greater than 250000 plates/m for capillary electrochromatography (CEC) separation of basic compounds were obtained. It was observed that retention of basic pharmaceuticals on the silica monolith was mainly contributed by a cation-exchange mechanism. Other retention mechanisms including reversed-phase and normal-phase mechanisms and electrophoresis of basic compounds also played a role in separation. A comparison of the differences between CEC and capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) separation was also discussed.

Volumetric consequences of particle loss by grading entropy.

Chemical and biological processes, such as dissolution in gypsiferous sands and biodegradation in waste refuse, result in mass or particle loss, which in turn lead to changes in solid and void phase volumes and grading. Data on phase volume and grading changes have been obtained from oedometric dissolution tests on sand–salt mixtures. Phase volume changes are defined by a (dissolution-induced) void volume change parameter (Λ). Grading changes are interpreted using grading entropy coordinates, which allow a grading curve to be depicted as a single data point and changes in grading as a vector quantity rather than a family of distribution curves. By combining Λ contours with pre- to post-dissolution grading entropy coordinate paths, an innovative interpretation of the volumetric consequences of particle loss is obtained. Paths associated with small soluble particles, the loss of which triggers relatively little settlement but large increase in void ratio, track parallel to the Λ contours. Paths associated with the loss of larger particles, which can destabilise the sand skeleton, tend to track across the Λ contours.

Analyses of patterns of copper and lead mineralisation in human skeletons excavated from an ancient mining and smelting centre in the Jordanian desert

Grattan, J.P., Al-Saad, Z., Gilbertson, D.D., Karaki, L.O., Pyatt, F.B 2005 Analyses of patterns of copper and lead mineralisation in human skeletons excavated from an ancient mining and smelting centre in the Jordanian desert Mineralogical Magazine. 69(5) 653-666.

Ryanodine receptor expression in trophoblasts

Trophoblasts of the placenta are the frontline cells involved in communication and exchange of materials between the mother and fetus. Within trophoblasts, calcium signalling proteins are richly expressed. Intracellular free calcium ions are a key second messenger, regulating various cellular activities. Transcellular Ca2+ transport through trophoblasts is essential in fetal skeleton formation. Ryanodine receptors (RyRs) are high conductance cation channels that mediate Ca2+ release from intracellular stores to the cytoplasm. To date, the roles of RyRs in trophoblasts have not been reported. By use of reverse transcription PCR and western blotting, the current study revealed that RyRs are expressed in model trophoblast cell lines (BeWo and JEG-3) and in human first trimester and term placental villi. Immunohistochemistry of human placental sections indicated that both syncytiotrophoblast and cytotrophoblast cell layers were positively stained by antibodies recognising RyRs; likewise, expression of RyR isoforms was also revealed in BeWo and JEG-3 cells by immunofluorescence microscopy. In addition, changes in [Ca2+]i were observed in both BeWo and JEG-3 cells upon application of various RyR agonists and antagonists, using fura-2 fluorescent videomicroscopy. Furthermore, endogenous placental peptide hormones, namely angiotensin II, arginine vasopressin and endothelin 1, were demonstrated to increase [Ca2+]i in BeWo cells, and such increases were suppressed by RyR antagonists and by blockers of the corresponding peptide hormone receptors. These findings indicate that 1) multiple RyR subtypes are expressed in human trophoblasts; 2) functional RyRs in BeWo and JEG-3 cells response to both RyR agonists and antagonists; 3) RyRs in BeWo cells mediate Ca2+ release from intracellular store in response to the indirect stimulation by endogenous peptides. These observations suggest that RyR contributes to trophoblastic cellular Ca2+ homeostasis; trophoblastic RyRs are also involved in the functional regulation of human placenta by coupling to endogenous placental peptide-induced signalling pathways.

Anti-AIDS agents 81. Design, synthesis, and structure-activity relationship study of betulinic acid and moronic acid derivatives as potent HIV maturation inhibitors.

In our continuing study of triterpene derivatives as potent anti-HIV agents, different C-3 conformationally restricted betulinic acid (BA, 1) derivatives were designed and synthesized in order to explore the conformational space of the C-3 pharmacophore. 3-O-Monomethylsuccinyl-betulinic acid (MSB) analogues were also designed to better understand the contribution of the C-3' dimethyl group of bevirimat (2), the first-in-class HIV maturation inhibitor, which is currently in phase IIb clinical trials. In addition, another triterpene skeleton, moronic acid (MA, 3), was also employed to study the influence of the backbone and the C-3 modification toward the anti-HIV activity of this compound class. This study enabled us to better understand the structure-activity relationships (SAR) of triterpene-derived anti-HIV agents and led to the design and synthesis of compound 12 (EC(50): 0.0006 microM), which displayed slightly better activity than 2 as a HIV-1 maturation inhibitor.

A unified anatomy ontology of the vertebrate skeletal system.

The skeleton is of fundamental importance in research in comparative vertebrate morphology, paleontology, biomechanics, developmental biology, and systematics. Motivated by research questions that require computational access to and comparative reasoning across the diverse skeletal phenotypes of vertebrates, we developed a module of anatomical concepts for the skeletal system, the Vertebrate Skeletal Anatomy Ontology (VSAO), to accommodate and unify the existing skeletal terminologies for the species-specific (mouse, the frog Xenopus, zebrafish) and multispecies (teleost, amphibian) vertebrate anatomy ontologies. Previous differences between these terminologies prevented even simple queries across databases pertaining to vertebrate morphology. This module of upper-level and specific skeletal terms currently includes 223 defined terms and 179 synonyms that integrate skeletal cells, tissues, biological processes, organs (skeletal elements such as bones and cartilages), and subdivisions of the skeletal system. The VSAO is designed to integrate with other ontologies, including the Common Anatomy Reference Ontology (CARO), Gene Ontology (GO), Uberon, and Cell Ontology (CL), and it is freely available to the community to be updated with additional terms required for research. Its structure accommodates anatomical variation among vertebrate species in development, structure, and composition. Annotation of diverse vertebrate phenotypes with this ontology will enable novel inquiries across the full spectrum of phenotypic diversity.

PenPC: A two-step approach to estimate the skeletons of high-dimensional directed acyclic graphs.

Estimation of the skeleton of a directed acyclic graph (DAG) is of great importance for understanding the underlying DAG and causal effects can be assessed from the skeleton when the DAG is not identifiable. We propose a novel method named PenPC to estimate the skeleton of a high-dimensional DAG by a two-step approach. We first estimate the nonzero entries of a concentration matrix using penalized regression, and then fix the difference between the concentration matrix and the skeleton by evaluating a set of conditional independence hypotheses. For high-dimensional problems where the number of vertices p is in polynomial or exponential scale of sample size n, we study the asymptotic property of PenPC on two types of graphs: traditional random graphs where all the vertices have the same expected number of neighbors, and scale-free graphs where a few vertices may have a large number of neighbors. As illustrated by extensive simulations and applications on gene expression data of cancer patients, PenPC has higher sensitivity and specificity than the state-of-the-art method, the PC-stable algorithm.

Metastatic bone disease

The skeleton is the first and most common site of distant relapse in breast and prostate carcinomas. Tumor bone disease is responsible for a considerable morbidity, which also makes major demands on resources for healthcare provision. Increased bone resorption in tumor bone disease appears to be essentially mediated by the ostoclasts, explaining why bisphosphonates have been successfully used for the treatment of malignant ostolysis. Hypercalcemia occurs in 10-20% of the patients with advanced cancer, and the uncoupling between bone resorption and bone formation is easily demonstrated by the measurement of bone markers. The differential diagnosis between tumor-induced hypercalcemia and primary hyperparathyroidism is most often easy when using intact parathyroid hormone (PTH) assays; moreover, parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) determination can be useful in selected cases. The diagnosis of bone metastases is often easy when the patient is symptomatic. The diagnostic usefulness of bone markers is limited, and the available data indicate that bone markers are so far unsuitable for an early diagnosis of neoplastic skeletal involvement on an individual basis. However, by combining bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (BALP) or modern bone resorption markers with specific tumor markers, such as PSA or CA15.3, the diagnostic sensitivity of bone markers can be improved. Their degree of elevation correlates with the tumor burden and has been shown to be an independent prognostic factor for several tumors. On the other hand, biochemical markers of bone turnover have the unique potential to simplify and improve the monitoring of metastatic bone disease, which remains a continuous challenge for the oncologist. Peptide-bound cross-links could be quite useful to discriminate between patients progressing early on treatment from those with longer disease control. Also, the diagnostic efficiency of a 50% increase in these markers could identify imminent progression. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Evaluación de daños del Yuyo esqueleto (Chondrilla juncea L.) sobre un cultivo de trigo

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Sedimentation of acantharian cysts in the Iceland Basin: Strontium as a ballast for deep ocean particle flux, and implications for acantharian reproductive strategies

Acantharian cysts were discovered in sediment trap samples from spring 2007 at 2000 m in the Iceland Basin. Although these single-celled organisms contribute to particulate organic matter flux in the upper mesopelagic, their contribution to bathypelagic particle flux has previously been found negligible. Four time-series sediment traps were deployed and all collected acantharian cysts, which are reproductive structures. Across all traps, cysts contributed on average 3-22%, and 4―24% of particulate organic carbon and nitrogen (POC and PON) flux, respectively, during three separate collection intervals (the maximum contribution in any one trap was 48% for POC and 59% for PON). Strontium (Sr) flux during these 6 weeks reached 3 mg m―2 d―1. The acantharian celestite (SrSO4) skeleton clearly does not always dissolve in the mesopelagic as often thought, and their cysts can contribute significantly to particle flux at bathypelagic depths during specific flux events. Their large size (∼ I mm) and mineral ballast result in a sinking rate of ∼ 500 m d―1; hence, they reach the bathypelagic before dissolving. Our findings are consistent with a vertical profile of salinity-normalized Sr concentration in the Iceland Basin, which shows a maximum at 1700 m. Profiles of salinity-normalized Sr concentration in the subarctic Pacific reach maxima at ≤ 1500 m, suggesting that Acantharia might contribute to the bathypelagic particle flux there as well. We hypothesize that Acantharia at high latitudes use rapid, deep sedimentation of reproductive cysts during phytoplankton blooms so that juveniles can exploit the large quantity of organic matter that sinks rapidly to the deep sea following a bloom.