A potent anti-oxidant property: fluorescent recombinant alpha-phycocyanin of Spirulina

To express and product a fluorescent antioxidant holo-alpha-phycocyanin (PC) of Spirulina platensis (Sp) with His-tag (rHHPC; recombinant holo-alpha-phycocyaninof Spirulina platensis with His-tag) in 5-l bench scale. A vector harbouring two cassettes was constructed: cpcA along with cpcE-cpcF in one cassette; ho1-pcyA in the other cassette. Lyases CpcE/F of Synechocystis sp. PCC6803 (S6) could catalyse the 82 site Cys in apo-alpha-PC of Sp linking with bilin chromophores, and rHHPC was biosynthesized in Escherichia coli BL21. The constant feeding mode was adopted, and transformant reached the biomass of rHHPC up to 0.55 g l(-1) broth in 5-litre bench scale. rHHPC was purified by Ni2+ affinity column conveniently. The absorbance and the fluorescence emission spectra of rHHPC had lambda(max) at 621 and 650 nm, respectively. The IC50 values of rHHPC were 277.5 +/- 25.8 mu g ml(-1) against hydroxyl radicals and 20.8 +/- 2.2 mu g ml(-1) against peroxyl radicals. Combinational biosynthesis of rHHPC was feasible, and the constant feeding mode was adopted to produce good yields of rHHPC. Fluorescent rHHPC with several unique qualitative and quantitative features was effective on scavenging hydroxyl and peroxyl radicals. A potent antioxidant rHHPC was co-expressed, produced and characterized for nutritional and pharmacological values, which would help to develop phycobiliproteins' applications in their fluorescent and biological activities.

Analysis of the expression and antioxidative property of a peroxiredoxin 6 from Scophthalmus maximus

Peroxiredoxins (Prxs) are a group of antioxidant proteins that protect cells from oxidative damage caused by various peroxides. To date, six different isoforms of peroxiredoxin (Prx1 to Prx6) have been identified, of which, Prx6 belongs to the 1-Cys Prx subfamily. Although Prx6 of several fish species have been reported at sequence level, there are very few documented studies on the potential function of fish Prx6. In this report, we describe the identification and analysis of a Prx6 homologue, SmPrx6, from turbot Scophthalmus maximus. The full length cDNA of SmPrx6 contains a 5'- untranslated region (UTR) of 60 bp, an open reading frame of 666 bp, and a 3'-UTR of 244 bp. The deduced amino acid sequence of SmPrx6 shares 81-87% overall identities with known fish Prx6. In silico analysis identified in SmPrx6 a conserved Prx6 catalytic motif, PVCTTE, and the catalytic triads putatively involved in peroxidase and phospholipase A2 activities. Expression of SmPrx6 was detected in most fish organs, with the highest expression levels found in blood and heart and the lowest level in spleen. Experimental challenges with bacterial pathogens and poly(I:C) upregulated SmPrx6 expression in liver and spleen in a manner that is dependent on the challenging agent and the tissue type. Treatment of cultured primary hepatocytes with H2O2 enhanced SmPrx6 expression in a dose-dependent manner. Recombinant SmPrx6 expressed in and purified from Escherichia coli exhibited thiol-dependent antioxidant activity and could protect cultured hepatocytes from H2O2-induced oxidative damage. Taken together, these results indicate that SmPrx6 is a Prx6 homologue with antioxidative property and is likely to be involved in both cellular maintenance and protective response during host immune defense against bacterial infection. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of antioxidant property of extract and fractions obtained from a red alga, Polysiphonia urceolata

Antioxidant activity (AA), total phenolic content, and reducing power of the crude extract, fractions, and subfractions derived from a red alga, Polysiphonia urceolata, were evaluated and determined. The antioxidative activity was measured using the alpha,alpha-diphenyl-beta-pierylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging assay and the P-carotene-linoleate assay systems, and compared with that of butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), gallic acid (GA), and ascorbic acid (AscA). The results showed that the crude extract and the ethyl acetate-soluble fraction exhibited higher AA than BHT in the DPPH assay model, at all of four concentration levels tested (from 0.4 to 50 mu g/ml), while, in the beta-carotene-linoleate assay system, the crude extract and the ethyl acetate-soluble fraction exhibited similar or, in most cases, higher AA than GA and AscA at the same concentrations (from 10 to 200 mu g/ml). The ethyl acetate-soluble fraction was further fractionated into seven subfractions F1-F7 by silica gel vacuum liquid chromatography. F1 was found to be the most effective subfraction in both assay systems. The total phenolic content and reducing power were determined using the Folin-Ciocalteu and the potassium ferricyanide reduction methods, respectively. Statistical analysis indicated a significant association between the antioxidant potency and total phenolic content as well as between the antioxidant potency and reducing power. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Research on crustal structure and lithosphere property in the Okinawa Trough area

A mass of geological, geophysical and geochemical data and information from the Okinawa Trough area are collected for comprehensive research in the study area from East China to Okinawa Trough and then to Ryukyu Island Are region. According to the seismic tomography result (P and S wave) and the processing result of free-air and Bouguer gravity anomaly and magnetic anomaly data in the study area, the comprehensive interpretation is carried out. The Moho depth distribution of the study area is obtained by the inversion calculation based on gravity data using the Harmonious Series method. The crust properties are analyzed. Meantime, some Cenozoic basalt data from Kuandian (NE China), Hannuoba (North China), Minxi (South China), Penghu Islands (Taiwan Strait), Okinawa Trough and Japan Island Arc regions are chosen to make the comparison research on element- isotopes. The result indicates that the lithosphere thickness in the Okinawa Trough area has obviously decreased, where a Low -velocity layer of upper-mantle has reached the Moho interface and the metasometized asthenosphere has formed. The research result on element- isotopes shows that the characteristic of the crust in the Okinawa Trough area is different from that in East China area and the Ryukyu Island Arc area. It is considered that the crust in the Okinawa Trough area belongs to the transition type, which is quite similar to the feature of the oceanic crust.

Molecular cloning, expression and biochemical property analysis of AtKP1, a kinesin gene from Arabidopsis thaliana

Kinesins are common in a variety of eukaryotic cells with diverse functions. A cDNA encoding a member of the Kinesin-14B subfamily is obtained using X-RACE technology and named AtKP1 (for Arabidopsis kinesin protein 1). This cDNA has a maximum open reading frame of 3.3 kb encoding a polypeptide of 1087 aa. Protein domain analysis shows that AtKP1 contains the motor domain and the calponin homology domain in the central and amino-terminal regions, respectively. The carboxyl-terminal region with 202 aa residues is diverse from other known kinesins. Northern blot analysis shows that AtKP1 is widely expressed at a higher level in seedlings than in mature plants. 2808 bp of the AtKP1 promoter region is cloned and fused to GUS. GUS expression driven by the AtKP1 promoter region shows that AtKP1 is mainly expressed in vasculature of young organs and young leaf trichomes, indicating that AtKP1 may participate in the differentiation or development of Arabidopsis thaliana vascular bundles and trichomes. A truncated AtKP1 protein containing the putative motor domain is expressed in E. coli and affinity-purified. In vitro characterizations indicate that the polypeptide has nucleotide-dependent microtubule-binding ability and microtubule-stimulated ATPase activity.

基于实时障碍物预测的机器人运动规划

本文给出了移动机器人的虚力导航和运动规划系统．这种方法结合最小方差估计算法（ＬＭ ＳＥ）能有效地对机器人进行实时导航和避撞．在预测过程中，根据导航的不同阶段和预测误差的变化情况，采用Ｆｕｚｚｙ 规则动态地调整误差函数中的权重，使预测过程尽可能准确．导航算法的基本思想是首先通过预测算法来获得移动机器人的运动信息，然后虚力系统根据预测信息决定机器人的未来运动，仿真结果表明该方法实时性好，能准确躲避障碍物并且到达目标点

悬索桥隧道式锚碇与围岩系统的破坏模式研究

The anchorages are unparalleled structures only in a suspension bridge, and as main bearing facilities, play an important role in connecting the superstructures and the ground. The tunnel anchorage, as one alternative type of the anchorages, has more advantages over its counterpart, the gravity anchorage. With the tunnel anchorages adopted, not only can surface excavation be reduced to protect the environment, and natural condition of the rock be utilized and potential bearing capacity of surrounding rock be mobilized to save engineering cost, but also the technological predominance of auxiliary engineering measures, such as prestressed concrete, anchoring piles, rock anchors and collar beam between the two separated anchorages, can be easily cooperated to work together harmoniously under the circumstances of poor rock quality. There are plentiful high mountains and deep canyons in west part of China, and long-span bridge construction is inevitably encountered in order to realize leapfrogging development of the transportation infrastructure. Western mountainous areas usually possess the conditions for constructing tunnel anchorages, and therefore, the tunnel anchorages, which are conformed to the conception of resource conservative and sustainable society, extremely have application and popularization value in western underdeveloped region. The scientific and technological problem about the design, construction and operation of tunnel anchorages should be further investigated. Combining the engineering of western tunnel anchorages for the Balinghe Suspension Bridge, this paper probed into the survey method and in-situ test method for tunnel anchorages, scientific rock quality evaluation of surrounding rock to provide reasonable physical and mechanical parameters for design, construction and operation of tunnel anchorages, bearing capacity estimation for tunnel anchorage, deformation prediction of the anchorage-rockmass system, tunnel-anchorage slope stability analysis and the evaluation of excavation stability and degree of safety of the anchorage tunnel. The following outcomes were obtained: 1. Materials of tunnel anchorages of suspension bridge built (and in progress) at home and abroad were systematically sorted out, with the engineering geological condition and geomechanical property of surrounding rock around the anchorage tunnel, the design size of anchorages and the construction method of anchorage tunnel paid more emphasis on, to unveil the internal relationship between the engineering geological conditions of surrounding rock and the design size and axis angle of anchorages and provide references for future design, construction and study of tunnel anchorages. 2. Physical and mechanical parameters were recommended based on three domestic and foreign methods of rock quality evaluation. 3. In-situ tests, adopting the back-thrust method, of two kinds of reduced scale model, 1/30 and 1/20, for the tunnel anchorages were conducted in the declining exploration drift with rock mass at the test depth being the same as surrounding rock around real anchorages, and reliable field rockmass displacement data were acquired. Attenuation relation between the increment of distance from the anchorage and the decrement of rockmass displacement under maximum test load, and influential scope suffered by anchorage load were obtained. 4. Using similarity theory, the magnitude of real anchorage and rockmass displacement under design load and degree of safety of the anchorage system were deduced. Furthermore, inversion analysis to deformation modulus of slightly weathered dolomite rock, the surrounding rock of anchorage tunnel, was performed by the means of numerical simulation. 5. The influential law of the geometrical size to the limit bearing capacity of tunnel anchorage was studied. 6. Based on engineering geological survey data, accounting for the combination of strata layer and adverse discontinuities, the failure patterns of tunnel anchorage slope were divided into three modes: sliding of splay saddle pier slope, superficial-layer slippage, and deep-layer slippage. Using virtual work principle and taking anchorage load in account, the stability of the three kinds of failure patterns were analyzed in detail. 7. The step-by-step excavation of anchorage tunnel, the numerical overload and the staged decrement of rock strength parameters were numerically simulated to evaluate the excavation stability of surrounding rock around anchorage tunnel, the overload performance of tunnel anchorage, and the safety margin of strength parameters of the surrounding rock.

基于工程地质力学的岩土工程加固理论、技术与实践

In the engineering reinforcement of-rock and soil mass, engineers must consider how to obtain better reinforcing effect at the cost of less reinforcing expense, which, in fact, is the aim of reinforcement design. In order to accomplish the purpose, they require not only researching the material used to reinforce and its structure, but also taking into account of several important geological factors, such as the structure and property of rock and soil mass. How to improve the reinforcing effect according to engineering geomechanical principle at the respect of the reinforcement of engineering soil and rock mass is studied and discussed in this paper. The author studies the theory, technology and practice of geotechnical reinforcement based on engineering geomechanics, taking example for the soil treatment of Zhengzhou Airport, the effect analysis of reinforcement to the slope on the left bank of Wuqiangxi Hydropower Station and the reinforcing design of the No. 102 Landslide and unique sand-slide slope on the Sichuan-Tibet Highway. The paper is comprised of two parts for the convenience of discussion. In the first part, from the first chapter to the fifth chapter, trying to perform the relevant research and application at the viewpoint of soil mass engineering geomechanics, the author mainly discusses the study of reinforcing soft ground soil through dynamical consolidation and its application. Then, in the second part, from the sixth chapter to the eleventh chapter, the study of new technologies in the rock slope reinforcement and their application are discussed. The author finds that not only better reinforcing effect can be gained in the research where the principle and method of rock mass engineering geomechanics is adopted, but also new reinforcing technologies can be put forward. Zhengzhou Airport is an important one in central plains. It lies on Yellow River alluvial deposit and the structure of stratum is complex and heterogeneous. The area of airport is very large, which can result in differential settlement easily, damage of airport and aircraft accident, whereas, there are no similar experiences to dispose the foundation, so the foundation treatment become a principal problem. During the process of treatment, the method of dynamic compaction was adopted after compared with other methods using the theory of synthetic integration. Dynamic compaction is an important method to consolidate foundation, which was successfully used in the foundation of Zhengzhou Airport. For fill foundation, controlling the thickness of fill so as to make the foundation treatment can reach the design demand and optimum thickness of the fill is a difficult problem. Considering this problem, the author proposed a calculation method to evaluate the thickness of fill. The method can consider not only the self-settlement of fill but also the settlement of the ground surface under applied load so as to ensure the settlement occurred during the using period can satisfy the design demand. It is proved that the method is correct after using it to choose reasonable energy of dynamic compaction to treat foundation. At the same time, in order to examine the effect of dynamic compaction, many monitor methods were adopted in the test such as static loading test, modulus of resilience test, deep pore pressure -test, static cone penetration test and the variation of the pore volume measurement. Through the tests, the author summarized the discipline of the accumulation and dissipation of pore pressure in Yellow River alluvial deposit under the action of dynamic compaction, gave a correct division of the property change of silt and clay under dynamic compaction, determined the bearing capacity of foundation after treatment and weighted the reinforcing effect of dynamic consolidation from the variation of the soil particle in microcosmic and the parameter of soil mass' density. It can be considered that the compactness of soil is in proportion to the energy of dynamic compaction. This conclusion provided a reference to the research of the "Problem of Soil Structure-the Central Problem of Soil Mechanics in 21 Century ". It is also important to strengthen rock mass for water conservancy and electric power engineering. Slip-resistance pile and anchoring adit full of reinforced concrete are usually adopted in engineering experience to strengthen rock mass and very important for engineering. But there also some deficiency such as the weakest section can't be highlighted, the monitor is inconvenient and the diameter of pile and adit is very large etc. The author and his supervisor professor Yangzhifa invented prestressed slip-resistance pile and prestressed anchoring adit full of reinforced concrete, utilizing the advantage that the prestressed structure has better anti-tensile characteristic (this invention is to be published). These inventions overcome the disadvantages of general slip-resistance pile and anchoring adit full of reinforced concrete and have the functions of engineering prospecting, strengthening, drainage and monitor simultaneous, so they have better strengthened effect and be more convenient for monitor and more economical than traditional methods. Drainage is an important factor in treatments of rock mass and slop. In view of the traditional drainage method that drainage pore often be clogged so as to resulted in incident, professor Yangzhifa invented the method and setting of guide penetration by fiber bundle. It would take good effect to use it in prestressed slip-resistance pile and anchoring adit full of reinforced concrete. In this paper, the author took example for anchoring adit full of reinforced concrete used to strengthen Wuqiangxi left bank to simulate the strengthened effect after consolidated by prestressed slip-resistance pile, took example for 102 landslide occurred along Sichuan-Tibet highway to simulate the application of slip-resistance pile and the new technology of drainage. At the same time the author proposed the treatment method of flowing sand in Sichuan-Tibet highway, which will benefit the study on strengthening similar engineering. There are five novelties in the paper with the author's theoretical study and engineering practice: 1. Summarizing the role of pore water pressure accumulation and dissipation of the Yellow River alluvial and diluvial soil under the action of dynamical consolidation, which has instructive significance in the engineering construction under the analogical engineering geological conditions in the future. It has not been researched by the predecessors. 2. Putting forward the concept of density D in microcosmic based on the microcosmical structure study of the soil sample. Adopting D to weight the reinforcing effect of dynamic consolidation is considered to be appropriate by the means of comparing the D values of Zhengzhou Airport's ground soil before with after dynamically consolidating reinforcement, so a more convenient balancing method can be provided for engineering practice. 3. According to the deep research into the soil mass engineering geology, engineering rock and soil science, soil mechanics, as well as considerable field experiments, improving the consolidating method in airport construction, from the conventional method, which is dynamically compactmg original ground surface firstly, then filling soil and dynamically layer-consolidating or layer-compacting at last to the upgraded method, which is performing dynamical consolidation after filling soil to place totally at the extent of the certain earth-filling depth. The result of the dynamical consolidation not only complies with the specifications, but also reduces the soil treatment investment by 10 million RMB. 4. Proposing the method for calculating the height of the filled soil by the means of estimating the potential displacement produced in the original ground surface and the filled earth soil under the possible load, selecting the appropriate dynamically-compacting power and determining the virtual height of the filled earth soil. The method is proved to be effective and scientific. 5. According to the thought of Engineering Geomechanics Metal-Synthetic Methodology (EGMS), patenting two inventions (to the stage of roclamation, with Professor Yang Zhi-fa, the cooperative tutor, and etc.) in which multi-functions, engineering geological investigation, reinforcement, drainage and strength remedy, are integrated all over in one body at the viewpoint of the breakage mechanism of the rock slope.

Intellectual Property in Computing: (How) Should Software Be Protected? An Industry Perspective

The future of the software industry is today being shaped in the courtroom. Most discussions of intellectual property to date, however, have been frames as debates about how the existing law --- promulgated long before the computer revolution --- should be applied to software. This memo is a transcript of a panel discussion on what forms of legal protection should apply to software to best serve both the industry and society in general. After addressing that question we can consider what laws would bring this about.

Supporting Dynamic Languages on the Java Virtual Machine

In this note, I propose two extensions to the Java virtual machine (or VM) to allow dynamic languages such as Dylan, Scheme and Smalltalk to be efficiently implemented on the VM. These extensions do not affect the performance of pure Java programs on the machine. The first extension allows for efficient encoding of dynamic data; the second allows for efficient encoding of language-specific computational elements.

Virtual Visual Hulls: Example-Based 3D Shape Estimation from a Single Silhouette

Recovering a volumetric model of a person, car, or other object of interest from a single snapshot would be useful for many computer graphics applications. 3D model estimation in general is hard, and currently requires active sensors, multiple views, or integration over time. For a known object class, however, 3D shape can be successfully inferred from a single snapshot. We present a method for generating a ``virtual visual hull''-- an estimate of the 3D shape of an object from a known class, given a single silhouette observed from an unknown viewpoint. For a given class, a large database of multi-view silhouette examples from calibrated, though possibly varied, camera rigs are collected. To infer a novel single view input silhouette's virtual visual hull, we search for 3D shapes in the database which are most consistent with the observed contour. The input is matched to component single views of the multi-view training examples. A set of viewpoint-aligned virtual views are generated from the visual hulls corresponding to these examples. The 3D shape estimate for the input is then found by interpolating between the contours of these aligned views. When the underlying shape is ambiguous given a single view silhouette, we produce multiple visual hull hypotheses; if a sequence of input images is available, a dynamic programming approach is applied to find the maximum likelihood path through the feasible hypotheses over time. We show results of our algorithm on real and synthetic images of people.