A clip domain serine protease (cSP) from the Chinese mitten crab Eriocheir sinensis: cDNA characterization and mRNA expression

Clip domain serine protease (cSP), characterized by conserved clip domains, is a new serine protease family identified mainly in arthropod, and plays important roles in development and immunity. In the present study, the full-length cDNA of a cSP (designated EscSP) was cloned from Chinese mitten crab Eriocheir sinensis by expressed sequence tags (ESTs) and PCR techniques. The 1380 bp EscSP cDNA contained a 1152 bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding a putative cSP of 383 amino acids, a 5'-untranslated region (UTR) of 54 bp, and a 3'-UTR of 174 bp. Multiple sequence alignment presented twelve conserved cysteine residues and a canonical catalytic triad (His(185), Asp(235) and Ser(332)) critical for the fundamental structure and function of EscSP. Two types of cSP domains, the clip domain and tryp_spc domain, were identified in the deduced amino acids sequence of EscSP. The conservation characteristics and similarities with previously known cSPs indicated that EscSP was a member of the large cSP family. The mRNA expression of EscSP in different tissues and the temporal expression in haemocytes challenged by Listonella anguillarum were measured by real-time RT-PCR. EscSP mRNA transcripts could be detected in all examined tissues, and were higher expressed in muscle than that in hepatopancreas. gill, gonad, haemocytes and heart. The EscSP mRNA expression in haemocytes was up-regulated after L anguillarum challenge and peaked at 2 h (4.96 fold, P < 0.05) and 12 h (9.90 fold, P < 0.05). Its expression pattern was similar to prophenoloxidase (EsproPO), one of the components of crab proPO system found in our previous report. These results implied that EscSP was involved in the processes of host-pathogen interaction probably as one of the proPO system members. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Structural analysis of SNARE motifs from sea perch, Lateolabrax japonicus by computerized approaches

Three cDNA sequences encoding four SNARE (N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive fusion protein attachment protein receptors) motifs were cloned from sea perch, and the deduced peptide sequences were analyzed for structural prediction by using 14 different web servers and softwares. The "ionic layer" structure, the three dimensional extension and conformational characters of the SNARE 7S core complex by using bioinformatics approaches were compared respectively with those from mammalian X-ray crystallographic investigations. The result suggested that the formation and stabilization of fish SNARE core complex might be driven by hydrophobic association, hydrogen bond among R group of core amino acids and electrostatic attraction at molecular level. This revealed that the SNARE proteins interaction of the fish may share the same molecular mechanism with that of mammal, indicating the universality and solidity of SNARE core complex theory. This work is also an attempt to get the protein 3D structural information which appears to be similar to that obtained through X-ray crystallography, only by using computerized approaches. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Seismic profiles across the middle Tan-Lu fault zone in Laizhou Bay, Bohai Sea, eastern China

The stratigraphic architecture, structure and Cenozoic tectonic evolution of the Tan-Lu fault zone in Laizhou Bay, eastern China, are analyzed based on interpretations of 31 new 2D seismic lines across Laizhou Bay. Cenozoic strata in the study area are divided into two layers separated by a prominent and widespread unconformity. The upper sedimentary layer is made up of Neogene and Quaternary fluvial and marine sediments, while the lower layer consists of Paleogene lacustrine and fluvial facies. In terms of tectonics, the sediments beneath the unconformity can be divided into four main structural units: the west depression, central uplift, east depression and Ludong uplift. The two branches of the middle Tan-Lu fault zone differ in their geometry and offset: the east branch fault is a steeply dipping S-shaped strike-slip fault that cuts acoustic basement at depths greater than 8 km, whereas the west branch fault is a relatively shallow normal fault. The Tan-Lu fault zone is the key fault in the study area, having controlled its Cenozoic evolution. Based on balanced cross-sections constructed along transverse seismic line 99.8 and longitudinal seismic line 699.0, the Cenozoic evolution of the middle Tan-Lu fault zone is divided into three stages: Paleocene-Eocene transtension, Oligocene-Early Miocene transpression and Middle Miocene to present-day stable subsidence. The reasons for the contrasting tectonic features of the two branch faults and the timing of the change from transtension to transpression are discussed. Crown Copyright (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Isotopic feature and uranium dating of the volcanic rocks in the Okinawa Trough

Volcanic rocks from the northern and middle Okinawa Trough were dated by uranium-series dating method. Differential fractions using magnetic procedure were designed to separate samples. New report on the ages and isotopic data of rocks in the northern trough (especially black pumice) was discussed. Based on the uranium dates and Sr-Nd isotopic ratio, magmatic evolution process of the Okinawa Trough was noted. Firstly, there have been wide silicic volcanic activities in the Okinawa Trough from late Pleistocene to present, and the volcanic rocks can be divided into three subgroups. Secondly, magma generally came from PREMA source area under the Okinawa Trough. Magmatic evolution in the northern trough was similar to the middle, but different to the south. Finally, volcanic activities indicated that opening of the southern Okinawa Trough did not happen due to the collision between Luson Arc and Eurasian Plate until the early Pleistocene.

Progress of large-scale air-sea interaction studies in China

This paper summarizes the progress of large-scale air-sea interaction studies that has been achieved in China in the four-year period from July 1998 to July 2002, including seven aspects in the area of the air-sea interaction, namely air-sea interaction related to the tropical Pacific Ocean, monsoon-related air-sea interaction, air-sea interaction in the north Pacific Ocean, air-sea interaction in the Indian Ocean, air-sea interactions in the global oceans, field experiments, and oceanic cruise surveys. However more attention has been paid to the first and the second aspects because a large number of papers in the reference literature for preparing and organizing this paper are concentrated in the tropical Pacific Ocean, such as the ENSO process with its climatic effects and dynamics, and the monsoon-related air-sea interaction. The literature also involves various phenomena with their different time and spatial scales such as intraseasonal, annual, interannual, and interdecadal variabilities in the atmosphere/ocean interaction system, reflecting the contemporary themes in the four-year period at the beginning of an era from the post-TOGA to CLIVAR studies. Apparently, it is a difficult task to summarize the great progress in this area, as it is extracted from a large quantity of literature, although the authors tried very hard.

Relationships between nitrogen and phosphorus forms and ratios and the development of dinoflagellate blooms in the East China Sea

During late spring and early summer of 2005, large-scale (> 15 000 km(2)), mixed dinoflagellate blooms developed along the the coast of the East China Sea. Karenia mikimotoi was the dominant harmful algal bloom species in the first stage of the bloom (late May) and was succeeded by Prorocentrum donghaiense approximately 2 wk later. Samples were collected from different stations along both north-south and west-east transects, from the Changjiang River estuary to the south Zhejiang coast, during 3 cruises of the Chinese Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms Program, before and during the bloom progression. Nitrogen isotope tracer techniques were used to measure rates of NO3-, NH4+, urea, and glycine uptake during the blooms. High inorganic nitrogen (N), but low phosphorus (P) loading from the Changjiang River led to high dissolved inorganic N:dissolved inorganic P ratios in the sampling area and indicate the development of P limitation. The rates of N-15-uptake experiments enriched with PO43- were enhanced compared to unamended samples, suggesting P limitation of the N-uptake rates. The bloom progression was related to the change in availability of both organic and inorganic N and P. Reduced N forms, especially NH4+, were preferentially taken up during the blooms, but different bloom species had different rates of uptake of organic N substrates. K mikimotoi had higher rates of urea uptake, while P. donghaiense had higher rates of glycine uptake. Changes in the availability of reduced N and the ratios of N:P in inorganic and organic forms were suggested to be important in the bloom succession. Nutrient ratios and specific uptake rates of urea were similar when compared to analogous blooms on the West Florida Shelf.

Impacts of HAB species Heterosigma akashiwo on early development of the scallop Argopecten irradians Lamarck

The effects of Heterosigma akashiwo on the early development of Argopecten irradians Lamarck: eggs, D-shaped larvae, eye-spot larvae and juveniles, were investigated under laboratory conditions. Exposing fertilized eggs to various densities of H. akashiwo algal culture revealed that the development of the embryos to the gastrula was significantly slowed at densities of more than 1 X 10(4) cells/ml algal cells, and mostly was arrested when the embryos reached the trochophore larvae stage. At this stage, several trochophore larvae were adhered together by the algal cells, resulting in the inhibition of their swimming activity. Larvae had still not developed into D-shaped larvae after 30 h, and therefore did not finish the hatching process. The attachment and adherence of the algal cells to the larvae might be an important process in the mechanism of the impact on egg hatching success. The activity of the D-shaped larvae was significantly inhibited after 48 h exposure to H. akashiwo at a density of 15 X 10(4) cells/ml and after 96 h at 10 X 10(4) cells/ml. The survival rate of the eye-spot larvae was decreased significantly after 48 h exposure to the algal culture at densities of more than 1 X 10(4) cells/ml. However, all the juveniles could survive and their climbing and attachment activity were not affected after 1 and 5 h exposure to the algal culture at all the various algal cell densities tested from 5 to 20 X 10(4) cells/ml. The results indicated that susceptibility of embryos or larvae to the alga H. akashiwo differs depending on the developmental stage. The embryos and the eye-spot larvae of A. irradians are more sensitive stages to the toxicity of H. akashiwo. Observed effects of H. akashiwo exposure on early development of A. irradians serve to point out to the potential danger of this alga for scallop populations. The possible toxicological mechanisms of H. akashiwo on the scallop embryos and larvae are discussed. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.

草毡寒冻雏形土有机质补给、分解及大气CO2通量交换

调查草毡寒冻雏形土生物量及土壤有机质,利用涡度相关技术观测该区域作用层与大气CO2通量.结果表明：地下90%生物量集中于0～10 cm的表土层,年总净初级生产量约935.0 g/m2;土壤有机质含量在6.401～7.060%之间;净CO2通量呈明显的日变化和季节变化规律;5月中旬到9月底为CO2的净吸收（780 g CO2/m2）,其中以7月最高,净吸收量明显高于非生长季的,10月到翌年5月初CO2的净排放量（383 g CO2/m2）;全年固定碳高达397 g/m2.

不同去甲肾上腺素剂量下布氏田鼠非颤抖性产热比较

非颤抖性产热是小型哺乳动物的一种重要产热方式。关于其定量测定，一般采用注射去甲肾上腺素（norepinephrine，NE）诱导的最大耗氧量的方式获得。因此，去甲肾上腺素剂量的选择就显得很重要。我们利用常用的3种经验公式计算剂量，即：（1）NE（mg／kg DK）=2．53W^-0．4；（2）NE（mg／kg）=3．3W^0.458；和（3）NE（mg／kg）=6．6W^0.458,W是体重（g），以布氏田鼠为实验对象，测定了3种剂量诱导的非颤抖性产热情况。结果表明，3种剂量都能诱导出最大非颤抖性产热能力，在非颤抖性产热大小上没有显著性差异，分别为6．190±1．342（公式1）、6．166±0．852（公式2）和7．005±1．501（公式3），但公式（3）剂量下体温增加程度显著高于前两个剂量，分别增加了1．9±0．9℃（公式3）、0．9±0．2℃（公式1）和0．7±0．2℃（公式2）。为了防止动物体温过高引起死亡，我们推荐公式（1）和（或）（2）。

HPLC法测定麻黄及其两种制剂中麻黄碱的含量

麻黄为常用中药,其中含有多种有机胺类生物碱,主要成分为L-麻黄碱、D-麻黄碱,具有松弛平滑肌、收缩血管、抗炎、兴奋中枢等作用[1],但如果用量过大或长期使用,会产生震颤、焦虑失眠、心悸等副作用,其含量常作为评价药材品质及其复方制剂质量标准的主要指标[2].麻杏石甘丸和鹏力止鼾颗粒均是以麻黄为主要原料的复方制剂,因此对其进行含量测定是控制麻杏石甘丸和鹏力止鼾颗粒质量的关键.目前国内外学者对麻黄中麻黄碱含量的测定报道较多[3,4],本文采用HPLC法测定其中的麻黄碱含量,现将结果报道如下。

Embryology of Swertia (Gentianaceae) relative to taxonomy

The embryological features of three species of Swertia (s.l.) - S. erythrosticta, S. franchetiana, and S. tetraptera were characterized, and the observations were used, together with previously gathered data on other species, to evaluate a recently proposed polyphyly, based on molecular data, of Swertia s.l. Comparisons of species within the genus showed that they have diversified embryologically, and there are significant between-species differences. Notable features that vary between species include the number of cell layers that form the anther locule wall, the construction of the wall of the mature anther, tapetum origin, the cell number in mature pollen grains, the structure of the fused margins of the two carpels, the ovule numbers in placental cross-sections, the shape of the mature embryo sac, the degree of ovule curvature, antipodal variation and the presence of a hypostase, and seed appendages. They share characters that are widely distributed in the tribe Gentianeae, such as a dicotyledonous type of anther wall formation, a glandular tapetum with uninucleate cells, simultaneous cytokinesis following the meiosis of the microsporocytes, tetrahedral microspore tetrads, superior, bicarpellary and unilocular ovaries, unitegmic and tenuinucellar ovules, Polygonum-type megagametophytes, progamous fertilization, nuclear endosperm, and Solanad-type embryogeny. The presence of variation in embryological characters amongst the species of Swertia s.l. strongly supports the view that Swertia s.l. is not a monophyletic group. Frasera is better separated from Swertia s.l. as an independent genus, and is only distantly related to Swertia s. s. judging from the numerous differences in embryology. Swertia tetraptera is very closely related to Halenia, as they show identical embryology. (C) 2007 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2007, 155, 383-400.

金属粉末激光成形过程中的检测与闭环控制研究

金属粉末激光成形技术是基于快速原型(Rapid Prototyping，RP)技术基础上发展起来的一项新型金属零件加工技术。该技术利用高能量激光束直接作用在金属粉末上，可以直接成形高熔点、形状复杂或异质材料功能梯度零件，其成形过程是按照零件几何形状，利用金属粉末逐层逐道累积成形零件的。其独特的金属零件加工特点使其得到了迅速发展，在航空、军事、医学和汽车等众多领域得到了成功应用，并发挥了重要作用。作为一项新兴技术，金属粉末激光成形技术不可避免的存在一些问题，由于激光成形过程是一个多参数影响的过程，成形过程中各参数存在较强的耦合作用，参数的不稳定往往导致成形效果难以保证，例如成形零件外形尺寸精度低、内部组织性能不佳等。这一问题，引起了国内外许多学者的关注，对加工过程中的一些重要参数与成形效果之间的关系展开研究，通过对成形过程中的一些中间过程输出参数进行实时检测，并实现闭环反馈控制，从而达到改善成形产品质量的目的。本文正是在这种背景下进行研究的，本文对熔池场几何尺寸、熔池温度场、熔覆高度与熔覆宽度实时检测进行了深入研究并实现了切实可行的检测方法，在实践中取得了较好的效果，并进行了熔覆成形过程动态辨识，研究了成形过程控制方法，提出了具有较强自适应能力的模糊PID控制方法，取得了较好的仿真效果。本课题主要研究工作有以下几个方面。 1. 激光成形过程中的熔池场包含大量的过程信息，对熔池进行实时检测，并提取熔池特征信息，为熔池场的闭环控制提供依据。为此建立了熔池场实时检测视觉传感系统，实现了图像采集、图像处理和信息提取等功能，课题成功的进行了硬件系统构建和软件系统开发。 2. 实现了红外图像比色测温法在金属粉末激光成形过程中熔池温度场检测中的应用。研究了测温原理，完成了硬件双波长图像采集系统的构建，对滤光片波长进行了选择并对选择结果进行了仿真。阐述了软件测温实现过程。 3. 激光加工过程中，对熔覆高度进行实时检测，从而实现熔覆高度闭环控制是成形高质量零件的保证。加工过程是一个多参数耦合的非线性过程，在分析激光参数对熔覆高度影响的基础上，建立利用激光工艺参数预测熔覆高度的BP神经网络模型，为实现激光加工过程熔覆高度实时预测与闭环控制打下了基础。 4. 熔覆宽度是激光成形过程中与成形效果密切相关的中间过程输出参数，该参数的实时检测为调整扫描间距，确定合理搭接率，提高熔覆表面平整度具有重要作用。提出了一种基于卡尔曼滤波技术的激光熔覆宽度检测方法。利用视觉传感系统获取激光加工过程中的熔池图像，经过图像处理求熔池宽度作为参量建立系统状态方程和测量方程，应用卡尔曼滤波原理对图像上的熔宽和熔宽变化进行状态估计，得到最小均方差条件下的熔覆宽度最佳预测值，从而减小过程噪声和测量噪声引起的熔覆宽度测量偏差，实现加工过程熔覆宽度的精确检测。 5. 成形过程动态辨识，利用阶跃响应法进行了激光参数与熔覆高度、熔覆宽度的辨识实验，建立了激光功率、扫描速度、送粉速率与熔覆高度、熔覆宽度之间的数学模型，对成形过程有了基本了解，为控制器设计与动态过程调节规范确立打下良好基础。 6. 设计了PID熔覆高度控制系统，并利用遗传算法进行了PID参数寻优，寻优获得的参数可以实现较好的控制效果，但不适于实时控制过程。为此设计了模糊PID控制系统，利用模糊逻辑算法对PID参数实现在线自动调整，控制系统具有较强的适应能力和实时处理能力，对于金属粉末激光成形过程具有较好的控制效果。

贵州中、下寒武统界线层型候选剖面地球化学特征研究

在贵州台江八郎凯里组中，下寒武统界线层型候选剖面上，对中，下寒武统界线剖面沉积岩地球化学特征进行了研究，发现沉积岩中的微量元素含量和稀土元素分布模式沿剖面的变化均具有规律性，元素反映的沉积环境也具有类似特点，剖面微量元素及稀土元素地球化学特征在界线剖面12－13层之间变化明显，突变点主要分布在这两层样品中，因此，将八郎界线剖面上中，下寒武统界线置于剖面12－13层之间。