Distribution patterns of chlorophyll a in spring and autumn in association with hydrological features in the southern Yellow Sea and northern East China Sea

Two field studies were conducted to measure pigments in the Southern Yellow Sea (SYS) and the northern East China Sea (NECS) in April (spring) and September (autumn) to evaluate the distribution pattern of phytoplankton stock (Chl a concentration) and the impact of hydrological features such as water mass, mixing and tidal front on these patterns. The results indicated that the Chl a concentration was 2.43 +/- 2.64 (Mean +/- SD) mg m(-3) in April (range, 0.35 to 17.02 mg m(-3)) and 1.75 +/- 3.10 mg m(-3) in September (from 0.07 to 36.54 mg m(-3)) in 2003. Additionally, four areas with higher Chl a concentrations were observed in the surface water in April, while two were observed in September, and these areas were located within or near the point at which different water masses converged (temperature front area). The distribution pattern of Chl a was generally consistent between onshore and offshore stations at different depths in April and September. Specifically, higher Chl a concentrations were observed along the coastal line in September, which consisted of a mixing area and a tidal front area, although the distributional pattern of Chl a concentrations varied along transects in April. The maximum Chl a concentration at each station was observed in the surface and subsurface layer (0-10 m) for onshore stations and the thermocline layer (10-30 m) for offshore stations in September, while the greatest concentrations were generally observed in surface and subsurface water (0-10 m) in April. The formation of the Chl a distributional pattern in the SYS and NECS and its relationship with possible influencing factors is also discussed. Although physical forces had a close relationship with Chl a distribution, more data are required to clearly and comprehensively elucidate the spatial pattern dynamics of Chl a in the SYS and NECS.

Photocatalytic degradation of CI Acid Blue 80 in aqueous suspensions of titanium dioxide under sunlight

The dye C.I. Acid Blue 80 (AB80) was easily degraded by TiO2-P25 assisted photocatalysis in aqueous dispersion under irradiation of sunlight. The optimal reaction conditions were [TiO2] = 2.0 g/L, pH = 10, [H2O2] = 5 mmol/L. The photocatalytic reaction followed pseudo-first order kinetics. The adsorption of AB80 onto TiO2 was in accord with Langmuir equation.

Comparison of the total amount of eggshell pigments in Dongxiang brown-shelled eggs and Dongxiang blue-shelled eggs

Based on the knowledge of the heme biosynthetic and metabolic pathway and the structures of biliverdin and protoporphyrin, experiments were carried out to compare the difference between the total quality of eggshell pigments in blue-shelled eggs and brown-shelled eggs from the same population (Dongxiang, China) and to analyze the correlation between the quantity of protoporphyrin and biliverdin in the 2 kinds of eggshells. It was found that there was no significant difference between the total quantity of eggshell pigments in Dongxiang blue-shelled eggs and Dongxiang brown-shelled eggs (P = 0.9006), and a highly significant positive correlation between the quantity of protoporphyrin and biliverdin in blue eggshells (P < 0.01) and a significant positive correlation between the quantity of protoporphyrin and biliverdin in brown eggshells (P < 0.05). These results suggested that eggshell protoporphyrin and eggshell biliverdin probably derived from common precursor material.

从字形到语义：跨语言Stroop效应的ERP研究

According to the influential dual-route model of reading (Coltheart, Rastle et al. 2001), there are two routes to access the meaning of visual words: one directly by orthography (orthography-semantic) and the other indirectly via the phonology (phonology-semantic). Because of the dramatic difference between written Chinese and alphabetical languages, it is still on debate whether Chinese readers have the same semantic activation processes as readers of alphabetical languages. In this study, the semantic activation processes in alphabetical German and logographic Chinese were compared. Since the N450 for incongruent color words in the Stroop tasks was induced by the semantic conflict between the meaning of the incongruent color words and color naming, this component could be taken as an index for semantic activation of incongruent color words in Stroop tasks. Two cross-script Stroop experiments were adopted to investigate the semantic activation processes in Chinese and German. The first experiment focused on the the role of phonology, while the second one focused on the realative importance of orthography. Cultural differences in cognitive processing between individuals in western and eastern countries have been found (Nisbett & Miyamoto, 2005). In order to exclude potential differences in basic cognitive processes like visual discrimination capabilities during reading, a visual Oddball experiment with non-lexical materials was conducted with all participants. However, as indicated by the P300 elicited by deviant stimuli in both groups, no group difference was observed. In the first Stroop experiments, color words (e.g., “green”), color-word associates (e.g., “grass”), and homophones of color words were used. These words were embedded into color patches with either congruent color (e.g. word “green” in green color patch) or incongruent colors (e.g. word “green” in either red or yellow or blue color patch). The key point is to observe whether homophones in both languages could induce similar behavioral and ERP Stroop effects to that induced by color words. It was also interesting to observe to which extent the N450 was related to the semantic conflicts. Nineteen Chinese adult readers and twenty German adult readers were asked to respond to the back color of these words in the Stroop experiment in their native languages by pressing the corresponding keys. In the behavioral data, incongruent conditions (incongruent color words, incongruent color-word associates, incongruent homophones) had significantly longer reaction times as compared to corresponding congruent conditions. All incongruent conditions in the Geman group elicited an N450 in the 400 to 500 ms time window. In the Chinese group, the N450 in the same time window was also observed for the incongruent color words and incongruent color-word associates. These results indicated that the N450 was very sensitive to semantic conflict-even words with semantic association to colors (e.g. “grass”) could elicite similar N450. However, the N450 was absent for incongruent homophones of color words in the Chinese group. Instead, in a later time window (600-800 ms), incongruent homophones elicited a positivity over left posterior regions as compared to congruent homophones. Similar positivity was also observed for color words in the 700 to 1000 ms time window in the Chinese group and 600 to 1000 ms time window for incongruent color words and homophones in the Geman group. These results indicate that phonology plays an important role in Geman semantic activation processes, but not in Chinese. In the second Stroop experiment, color words and pseudowords which had similiar visual shape to color words in both languages were used as materials. Another group of eighteen Chinese and twenty Germans were involved in the Stroop experiment in their native languages.The ERPs were recorded during their performance. In the behavioral data, strong and comparable Stroop effects (as counted by substract the reaction times in the congruent conditions from reaction times in the incongruent conditions) were observed. In the ERP data, both incongruent color words and incongruent pseudowords elicited an N450 over the whole brain scalp in both groups. These results indicated that orthography played an equally important role in semantic activation processes in both languages. The results of the two Stroop experiments support the view that the semantic activation process in Chiense readers differs significantly from that in German readers. The former rely mainly on the direct route (orthography-semantic), while the latter use both direct route and incirect route (phonology-semantic). These findings also indicate that the characteritics of different languages shape the semantic activation processes.

Heuristics for protecting competitive knowledge in association rule mining.

2006

Genes and the ageing muscle: a review on genetic association studies

Western populations are living longer. Ageing decline in muscle mass and strength (i.e. sarcopenia) is becoming a growing public health problem, as it contributes to the decreased capacity for independent living. It is thus important to determine those genetic factors that interact with ageing and thus modulate functional capacity and skeletal muscle phenotypes in older people. It would be also clinically relevant to identify 'unfavourable' genotypes associated with accelerated sarcopenia. In this review, we summarized published information on the potential associations between some genetic polymorphisms and muscle phenotypes in older people. A special emphasis was placed on those candidate polymorphisms that have been more extensively studied, i.e. angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene I/D, α-actinin-3 (ACTN3) R577X, and myostatin (MSTN) K153R, among others. Although previous heritability studies have indicated that there is an important genetic contribution to individual variability in muscle phenotypes among old people, published data on specific gene variants are controversial. The ACTN3 R577X polymorphism could influence muscle function in old women, yet there is controversy with regards to which allele (R or X) might play a 'favourable' role. Though more research is needed, up-to-date MSTN genotype is possibly the strongest candidate to explain variance among muscle phenotypes in the elderly. Future studies should take into account the association between muscle phenotypes in this population and complex gene-gene and gene-environment interactions.

Scalable Multi-Relational Association Mining

Clare, A., Williams, H. E. and Lester, N. M. (2004) Scalable Multi-Relational Association Mining. In proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Data Mining ICDM '04.

Evaluating the development of virtual learning environments in higher and further education

Urquhart, C., Spink, S., Thomas, R., Yeoman, A., Durbin, J., Turner, J., Fenton, R. & Armstrong, C. (2004). Evaluating the development of virtual learning environments in higher and further education. In J. Cook (Ed.), Blue skies and pragmatism: learning technologies for the next decade. Research proceedings of the 11th Association for Learning Technology conference (ALT-C 2004), 14-16 September 2004, University of Exeter, Devon, England (pp. 157-169). Oxford: Association for Learning Technology Sponsorship: JISC

Pink Worlds and Blue Worlds: A Portrait of Intimate Polarity

Griffiths, Merris, 'Pink Worlds and Blue Worlds: A Portrait of Intimate Polarity', In: 'Small Screens: television for children', D. Buckingham (Ed.), (London: Leicester University Press), pp. 159-184, 2002 RAE2008

Association of candidate genes with flowering time and water-soluble carbohydrate content in Lolium perenne (L.)

Sk?t, L., Humphreys, J., Humphreys, M. O., Thorogood, D., Gallagher, J. A., Sanderson, R., Armstead, I. P., Thomas, I. D. (2007). Association of candidate genes with flowering time and water-soluble carbohydrate content in Lolium perenne (L.). Genetics, 177 (1), 535-547. Sponsorship: BBSRC RAE2008