Metabolism of polychaete Neanthes japonica Izuka: relations to temperature, salinity and body weight

Polychaete Neanthes japonica is a species geographically specific in China and Japan with important scientific implication and commercial value. In this study, the relations of body weight, salinity and temperature to oxygen consumption and ammonia excretion of N. japonica were determined. Three different groups in body weight (large: 2.34 +/- 0.36 g, middle: 1.50 +/- 0.21 g and small: 0.62 +/- 0.12 g) were set for all experiments. Results show that the body weight is negatively related to the rates of oxygen consumption and ammonia excretion; and the relationship is significant. The oxygen consumption and ammonia excretion at 24A degrees C decreased at salinity from 5 to 30 and increased above 30, indicating that both lower and higher salinity are adverse and certain degree of salinity stress is necessary for enhancing the energy demand. At salinity 30, rising temperature from 18A degrees C to 30A degrees C, the oxygen consumption increased before 27A degrees C and then decreased. However, the relation of ammonia excretion and temperature seems more complex. Two-way ANOVA shows that salinity, temperature and body weight all have a significant effect on the oxygen consumption and ammonia excretion of the worm. Moreover, interaction between salinity/temperature and body weight is also significant. O:N (oxygen/nitrogen) ratio varies greatly in this case from 5.97 to 463.22, indicating that N. japonica can regulate the type of metabolic substrate against environment changes.

Origin of mitochondrial DNA diversity of domestic yaks

Background: The domestication of plants and animals was extremely important anthropologically. Previous studies have revealed a general tendency for populations of livestock species to include deeply divergent maternal lineages, indicating that they were domesticated in multiple, independent events from genetically discrete wild populations. However, in water buffalo, there are suggestions that a similar deep maternal bifurcation may have originated from a single population. These hypotheses have rarely been rigorously tested because of a lack of sufficient wild samples. To investigate the origin of the domestic yak (Poephagus grunnies), we analyzed 637 bp of maternal inherited mtDNA from 13 wild yaks (including eight wild yaks from a small population in west Qinghai) and 250 domesticated yaks from major herding regions.Results: The domestic yak populations had two deeply divergent phylogenetic groups with a divergence time of > 100,000 yrs BP. We here show that haplotypes clustering with two deeply divergent maternal lineages in domesticated yaks occur in a single, small, wild population. This finding suggests that all domestic yaks are derived from a single wild gene pool. However, there is no clear correlation of the mtDNA phylogenetic clades and the 10 morphological types of sampled yaks indicating that the latter diversified recently. Relatively high diversity was found in Qinghai and Tibet around the current wild distribution, in accordance with previous suggestions that the earliest domestications occurred in this region. Conventional molecular clock estimation led to an unrealistic early dating of the start of the domestication. However, Bayesian estimation of the coalescence time allowing a relaxation of the mutation rateConclusion: The information gathered here and the previous studies of other animals show that the demographic histories of domestication of livestock species were highly diverse despite the common general feature of deeply divergent maternal lineages. The results further suggest that domestication of local wild prey ungulate animals was a common occurrence during the development of human civilization following the postglacial colonization in different locations of the world, including the high, arid Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

Hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha cDNA cloning and its mRNA and protein tissue specific expression in domestic yak (Bos grunniens) from Qinghai-Tibetan plateau

Adaptation to hypoxia is regulated by hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1), a heterodimeric transcription factor consisting of an oxygen-regulated a-subunit and a constitutively expressed beta-subunit. How animals living on Qinghai-Tibetan plateau adapt to the extreme hypoxia environment is known indistinctly. In this study, the Qinghai yak which has been living at 3000-5000 m attitude for at least two millions of years was selected as the model of high hypoxia-tolerant adaptation species. The HIF-1 alpha ORFs (open reading frames) encoding for two isoforms of HIF-1 alpha have been cloned from the brain of the domestic yak. Its expression of HIF-1 alpha was analyzed at both mRNA and protein levels in various tissues. Both its HIF-1 alpha mRNA and protein are tissue specific expression. Its HIF-1 alpha protein's high expression in the brain, lung, and kidney showed us that HIF-1 alpha protein may play an important role in the adaptation to hypoxia environment. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Relations between A-type granites and copper mineralization as exemplified by the Machangqing Cu deposit

This paper deals with the relations between the Machangqing rockbody which corresponds to the A-type granites and porphyry copper mineralization in terms of petrochemistry, trace element geochemistry, fluid inclusion geochemistry and isotope geochemistry. The results show that the Machangqing porphyry copper deposit was formed from the fluid predominated by mag-matic fluid. This kind of ore-forming fluid was just differentiated from the magma responsible for the A-type granites. therefore,as viewed from whereer they contain water or not,the A-type granites can,at least,be divided into two types: water-bearing and water-free.The water-bearing A-type granites can serve as the host ofporphyry copper deposits under certain geological conditions.

Automatic Recognition of Tractability in Inference Relations

A procedure is given for recognizing sets of inference rules that generate polynomial time decidable inference relations. The procedure can automatically recognize the tractability of the inference rules underlying congruence closure. The recognition of tractability for that particular rule set constitutes mechanical verification of a theorem originally proved independently by Kozen and Shostak. The procedure is algorithmic, rather than heuristic, and the class of automatically recognizable tractable rule sets can be precisely characterized. A series of examples of rule sets whose tractability is non-trivial, yet machine recognizable, is also given. The technical framework developed here is viewed as a first step toward a general theory of tractable inference relations.

Industrial relations in the privatised coal industry: continuity, change and contradictions.

This study seeks both to describe and account for the patterns of industrial relations which have emerged in the UK coal industry since privatisation in 1994. In doing so, it also aims to address some of the wider questions concerning the relationship between ownership and industrial relations. A series of hypotheses are advanced concerning how changes in ownership might affect industrial relations within the industry, and whether such changes would have positive or negative implications for organised labour. A case study approach is utilised to analyse labour relations developments at a number of collieries, and it is shown that the industrial relations strategies adopted by management within the new coal enterprises have had a determining effect upon the patterns of labour relations within the privati sed industry. This study also demonstrates that the emergent pattern of labour relations in the privatised industry is characterised by both continuity and change. However, whilst continuity with the patterns of labour relations established during the final decade of public ownership is shown to have had negative implications for organised labour within the industry, the changes associated with privatisation are demonstrated to have been a more ambivalent force. Change has, in different contexts, had some positive implications for organised labour, but in the majority of cases, the implications for labour have been negative. Overall, therefore, this study concludes that privatisation has had a significant influence upon industrial relations within the coal industry, and that organised labour has been detrimentally affected by these developments.

Causes of a Divided Discipline: Rethinking the Concept of Cause in International Relations theory

Kurki, M. (2006). Causes of a Divided Discipline: Rethinking the Concept of Cause in International Relations theory. Review of International Studies, 32 (2), 189-216. RAE2008

Can Institutions Have Responsibilities? Collective Moral Agency and International Relations

Erskine, Toni, Can Institutions Have Responsibilities? Collective Moral Agency and International Relations (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), pp.xii+241 RAE2008

Why Ideas Matter in International Relations : Hans Morgenthau, Classical Realism, and the Moral Construction of Power Politics

Williams, Mike, 'Why ideas matter in International Relations: Hans Morgenthau, Classical Realism, and the Moral Construction of Power Politics', International Organization (2004) 58(4) pp.633-665 RAE2008

Critical realism and causal analysis in international relations

Kurki, M. (2007). Critical realism and causal analysis in international relations. Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 35 (2), 361-378. RAE2008

Strategic intelligence, Counter-Intelligence and Alliance Diplomacy in Anglo-French relations before the Second World War

Jackson, Peter, and Joe Maiolo, 'Strategic intelligence, Counter-Intelligence and Alliance Diplomacy in Anglo-French relations before the Second World War', Military History (2006) 65(2) pp.417-461 RAE2008

C.A.W. Manning and the Study of International Relations

Suganami, H., C.A.W.Manning and the Study of International Relations, Review of International Studies (2001), 27 : 091-107 RAE2008