Ontogenetic behavior and migration of Chinese sturgeon, Acipenser sinensis

The Chinese sturgeon, Acipenser sinensis, is an anadromous protected species that presently only spawns in the Yangtze River. Using laboratory experiments, we examined the behavioral preference of young Chinese sturgeon to physical habitat (water depth, illumination intensity, substrate color, and cover) and monitored their downstream migration. Hatchling free embryos were photopositive, preferred open habitat, and immediately upon hatching, swam far above the bottom using swim-up and drift. Downstream migration peaked on days 0-1, decreased about 50% or more during days 2-7, and ceased by day 8. Days 0-1 migrants were active both day and night, but days 2-7 migrants were most active during the day. After ceasing migration, days 8-11 embryos were photonegative, preferred dark substrate and sought cover. Free embryos developed into larvae and began feeding on day 12, when another shift in behavior occurred-larvae returned to photopositive behavior and preferred white substrate. The selective factor favoring migration of free embryos upon hatching and swimming far above the bottom may be avoidance of benthic predatory fishes. Free embryos, which must rely on yolk energy for activity and growth, only used 19 cumulative temperature degree-days for peak migration compared to 234 degree-days for growth to first feeding larvae, a 1 : 12 ratio of cumulative temperature units. This ratio suggests that sturgeon species with large migratory embryos, like Chinese sturgeon, which require a high level of energy to swim during migration, may migrate only a short time to conserve most yolk energy for growth.

Long-term changes of Copepoda community (1957-1996) in a subtropical Chinese lake stocked densely with planktivorous filter-feeding silver and bighead carp

In contrast to the relatively well documented impact of particulate-feeding fish on zooplankton communities, little attention has been devoted to the impact of filter-feeding fish. Filter-feeding silver and bighead carp are the most intensively cultured fish species in Asia and comprise much of the production of Chinese aquaculture. However, little information is known about the impact of either fish on the zooplankton community. Long-term changes in the Copepoda community (1957-1996) were studied at two sampling stations of a subtropical Chinese lake (Lake Donghu) dominated by silver and bighead carp. For both calanoids and cyclopoids, the littoral station (I) was much more resource profitable than the pelagic station (II). There has been a tremendous increase in the annual fish catch over the past 30 years due to the increased stocking with fingerlings of the two carp species. There was a notably higher fish density at Station I than at Station II. Cyclopoid abundance was notably higher at Station I than at Station II during the 1950s to the 1980s, while the reverse became true in the 1990s. This is probably because when fish abundance increased to an extremely high level, the impact of fish predation on the cyclopoids became more important than that of food resources at the littoral station. At both stations, cyclopoid abundance was relatively low in spite of the presence of abundant prey. Similarly, calanoid density did not differ significantly between the two stations in the 1950s and 1960s, but was significantly lower at Station I than at Station II during the 1980s and 1990s. Such changes are attributed to the gradient of fish predation between the stations and an increasing predation pressure by the fish. The increased fish predation also correlated with a shift in summer-dominant calanoids from larger species to smaller ones. In conclusion, the predaceous cyclopoids are affected by fish predation to a much lesser extent than the herbivorous calanoids, and therefore increased predation by filter-feeding fish results in a definite increase in the cyclopoid/calanoid ratio. Predation by filter-feeding fish has been a driving force in shaping the copepod community structure of Lake Donghu during the past decades.

Characteristics of rDNA intergenic spacer region from a waterbloom cyanobacteria species Oscillatoria sp.

Sequence of rDNA intergenic spacer region (ISR) from a waterbloom cyanobacterial species Oscillatoria sp, was determined and analyzed. The results of sequence comparison showed that the spacer had a high level sequence divergence, suggesting the sequence may be a target sequence for developing cyanobacteria genus- and species-specific oligonucleotide probes. In addition, a 20bp sequence of rDNA ISR was found highly conserved in all species of cyanobacteria, which was not found in other eubacteria. This conserved sequence within a variable region indicates that it might be a functional oligonucleotide in the processing of the rRNA precursor.

A SERINE KINASE REGULATES INTRACELLULAR-LOCALIZATION OF SPLICING FACTORS IN THE CELL CYCLE

Small nuclear ribonucleoprotein particles (snRNPs) and non-snRNP splicing factors containing a serine/arginine-rich domain (SR proteins) concentrate in 'speckles' in the nucleus of interphase cells(1). It is believed that nuclear speckles act as storage sites for splicing factors while splicing occurs on nascent transcripts(2). Splicing factors redistribute in response to transcription inhibition(3,4) or viral infection(5), and nuclear speckles break down and reform as cells progress through mitosis(6). We have now identified and cloned a kinase, SRPK1, which is regulated by the cell cycle and is specific for SR proteins; this kinase is related to a Caenorhabditis elegans kinase and to the fission yeast kinase Dsk1 (ref. 7). SRPK1 specifically induces the disassembly of nuclear speckles, and a high level of SRPK1 inhibits splicing in vitro. Our results indicate that SRPK1 mag have a central role in the regulatory network for splicing, controlling the intranuclear distribution of splicing factors in interphase cells, and the reorganization of nuclear speckles during mitosis.

A programmable SIMD vision chip for real-time vision applications

A programmable vision chip for real-time vision applications is presented. The chip architecture is a combination of a SIMD processing element array and row-parallel processors, which can perform pixel-parallel and row-parallel operations at high speed. It implements the mathematical morphology method to carry out low-level and mid-level image processing and sends out image features for high-level image processing without I/O bottleneck. The chip can perform many algorithms through software control. The simulated maximum frequency of the vision chip is 300 MHz with 16 x 16 pixels resolution. It achieves the rate of 1000 frames per second in real-time vision. A prototype chip with a 16 x 16 PE array is fabricated by the 0.18 mu m standard CMOS process. It has a pixel size of 30 mu m x 40 mu m and 8.72 mW power consumption with a 1.8 V power supply. Experiments including the mathematical morphology method and target tracking application demonstrated that the chip is fully functional and can be applied in real-time vision applications.

Effect of the electrostatic interactions of chromophores on the macroscopic second-order nonlinear optical properties of the polymer films

The polyetherketone (PEK-c) guest-host system thin films doped with 3-(1,1-dicyanothenyl)-1-phenyl-4,5-dihydro-1H-pryazole (DCNP) were prepared. Their second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) coefficients chi(33)((2)) were measured by using Maker fringe method for the polymer films doped with different weight percents of DCNP. Experimental results indicate that the second-order NLO properties of the poled polymer films could decrease with the chromophore loading increasing when the chromophore loading reaches a fairly high level. In this paper, the relationship between the macroscopic second-order NLO coefficient and the chromophore number density was modified under considering the role of the electrostatic interactions of chromophores in the polymer film. According to the modified relationship, the macroscopic second-order NLO coefficient is no longer in direct proportion with the chromophore number density in the polymer film. The effect of the electrostatic interactions of chromophores on second-order NLO properties was discussed. The attenuation of the macroscopic second-order NLO activity can be demonstrated by the role of the chromophore electrostatic interactions at high loading of chromophore in the polymer systems.

A Novel Architecture of Vision Chip for Fast Traffic Lane Detection and FPGA Implementation

This paper presents a novel architecture of vision chip for fast traffic lane detection (FTLD). The architecture consists of a 32*32 SIMD processing element (PE) array processor and a dual-core RISC processor. The PE array processor performs low-level pixel-parallel image processing at high speed and outputs image features for high-level image processing without I/O bottleneck. The dual-core processor carries out high-level image processing. A parallel fast lane detection algorithm for this architecture is developed. The FPGA system with a CMOS image sensor is used to implement the architecture. Experiment results show that the system can perform the fast traffic lane detection at 50fps rate. It is much faster than previous works and has good robustness that can operate in various intensity of light. The novel architecture of vision chip is able to meet the demand of real-time lane departure warning system.

Trace theory

The concept of traces has been introduced for describing non-sequential behaviour of concurrent systems via its sequential observations. Traces represent concurrent processes in the same way as strings represent sequential ones. The theory of traces can be used as a tool for reasoning about nets and it is hoped that applying this theory one can get a calculus of the concurrent processes anologous to that available for sequential systems. The following topics will be discussed: algebraic properties of traces, trace models of some concurrency phenomena, fixed-point calculus for finding the behaviour of nets, modularity, and some applications of the presented theory.

Formal specification and refinement of a safe train control function

Motivated by the design and development challenges of the BART case study, an approach for developing and analyzing a formal model for reactive systems is presented. The approach makes use of a domain specific language for specifying control algorithms able to satisfy competing properties such as safety and optimality. The domain language, called SPC, offers several key abstractions such as the state, the profile, and the constraint to facilitate problem specification. Using a high-level program transformation system such as HATS being developed at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, specifications in this modelling language can be transformed to ML code. The resulting executable specification can be further refined by applying generic transformations to the abstractions provided by the domain language. Problem dependent transformations utilizing the domain specific knowledge and properties may also be applied. The result is a significantly more efficient implementation which can be used for simulation and gaining deeper insight into design decisions and various control policies. The correctness of transformations can be established using a rewrite-rule based induction theorem prover Rewrite Rule Laboratory developed at the University of New Mexico.

改进增强型高安全等级操作系统SECIMOS的设计与实现

本文介绍了以Linux系统为基础,通过改进/增强法来开发高安全等级操作系统SECIMOS,给出了系统的实现框架,全面论述了其中的核心技术,如访问控制、追责机制、保证方法等。分析了改进/增强法存在的问题,指出应探讨更适合今后开发最高安全等级操作系统的方法。

高安全等级数据库系统及测评关键技术研究

作为信息存储和处理的核心环节，数据库管理系统的安全性在整个信息安全体系结构中起着至关重要的作用。高安全等级数据库管理系统的设计与测评既是当前发展的客观需求，同时也是一个极大的挑战。针对这一挑战，本文以高安全等级数据库系统及其测评关键技术为中心展开了一系列工作，并取得了以下重要成果： （1）针对高安全等级数据库系统安全功能开发过程中的问题，本文提出基于通用标准的数据库安全功能开发方法，采用自顶而下的安全需求定义方法，依次对系统运行环境分析、安全目标定义直到可用性表示等开发中的问题进行了分析。依此方法开发的安全产品可以完备地应对安全环境中的所有威胁。 （2）提出了入侵容忍的数据库恶意事务处理方法。该方法利用在事务管理器层次扩展的事务恢复日志分析和查找恶意事务的后继，通过数据回滚使受损数据在线的恢复至攻击前的状态。本文证明了该方法的完备性和正确性，与现有技术相比，该方法可以获得更高的运行效率。 （3）针对信息安全产品测评无法量化的问题，本文提出了一种基于三角模糊数的安全保证量化评估方法。量化评估方法包括：如何构造保证评估框架；如何使用模糊数标识评估员对组件的评价和对权重的分配；如何使用底线折中法形成量化的安全评价值。应用该方法进行测评，可使产品安全性以指标值的形式呈现，方便采购方和决策者规避安全风险。 （4）提出了高等级数据库系统测评平台的实现方法。给出兼容GB17859和GB18336等不同标准体系、高度集成、扩展性良好，并具有保护轮廓评估、安全目标评估、测试用例生成、测试案例管理、安全保证评估和模型形式化验证等功能的测评平台实现方法。为测评人员进行高安全等级数据库产品的测试和评估提供了一个全面的操作平台，提高了测评工作的自动化程度。 总的来说，本文的研究成果推动了高安全等级数据库管理系统及其测评关键技术研究的发展，并为实现我国高等级数据库管理系统及其测评打下了坚实的基础。

中国西南地区青杨(Populus cathayana Rehd)遗传多样性的ISSR研究

青杨作为一个本土树种，能较好的适应潮湿和寒冷的环境，对中国西部的人工造林有着重要的参考价值。在本实验中，选取7个中国西南地区分布的自然群体，用ISSR(inter-simple sequence repeats)作为分子标记研究其遗传多样性水平和遗传结构。通过筛选的8个ISSR引物，获得了158条清晰可重复的DNA条带，其中有156条具有多样性(占98.7%)。平均的Nei’s遗传多样性(h)为0.331；遗传分化系数(GST)为0.477，这表明有47.7％的遗传多样性发生在群体间。这种高水平的分化可能是由于当地复杂多变的地形和气候特点阻碍了基因流而引起的。此外在这7个青杨群体中，遗传距离和地理距离并未体现出有显著相关性（r=0.3122, P>0.05)。联合遗传距离和地理距离分析，鉴定出两处低水平基因交流的地区, 探讨其遗传障碍形成原因。 As a native species to China, Populus cathayana Rehd is well-adapted to the wet and cold environments where it occurs. It is considered to be an important reforestation species in western China. In the present study, we surveyed the level of genetic variation and the pattern of genetic structure in seven natural populations of P. cathayana, originating from the southeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau of China, by using ISSR (inter-simple sequence repeats) markers. Based on eight primers, 158 clear and reproducible DNA fragments were generated, of which 156 (98.7%) were polymorphic. The average value of Nei's gene diversity (h) equaled 0.331. The coefficient of genetic differentiation (GST) equaled 0.477, which means that 47.7% of the total molecular variance existed among populations. Such a high level of divergence present among populations may be caused by the complex topography and variable climatic conditions present in the southeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau which effectively restrict gene flow. Moreover, there is a lack of significant association between genetic and geographical distances (r=0.3122, P>0.05) in the populations of P. cathayana. The application of a novel method, which combines geographical coordinates and genetic differentiation to detect barriers for gene flow, allowed us to identify two zones of lowered gene flow.