GLOBAL MANUFACTURING VIRTUAL NETWORK （GMVN）：A REVISITING OF THE CONCEPT AFTER THREE YEARS FIELDWORK

The idea of the global manufacturing virtual network (GMVN) was introduced in 2000 in order to highlight an emerging as well as an alternative manufacturing system which will have strong impacts on industry and implications to management theory. During the last three years, more than thirty companies - based in the electronics, bio-pharmaceuticals, garment, and home electronics appliance industries - have been studied in the UK and China. The research project addresses the emergence of the collaborative manufacturing phenomenon at three levels - sector, system and enabling technology. This paper summarises preliminary research findings from fieldwork conducted over the last three years. It seeks to clarify the characteristics and functionality of GMVN through the case studies and to contrast it to other types of business model, such as the multinational corporations (MNC) and international strategic alliances (ISAs). It also raises some new research questions and themes for further research into GMVN.     

Variants modulating the expression of a chromosome domain encompassing PLAG1 influence bovine stature

We report mapping of a quantitative trait locus (QTL) with a major effect on bovine stature to a ～780-kb interval using a Hidden Markov Model-based approach that simultaneously exploits linkage and linkage disequilibrium. We re-sequenced the interval in six sires with known QTL genotype and identified 13 clustered candidate quantitative trait nucleotides (QTNs) out of >9,572 discovered variants. We eliminated five candidate QTNs by studying the phenotypic effect of a recombinant haplotype identified in a breed diversity panel. We show that the QTL influences fetal expression of seven of the nine genes mapping to the ～780-kb interval. We further show that two of the eight candidate QTNs, mapping to the PLAG1-CHCHD7 intergenic region, influence bidirectional promoter strength and affect binding of nuclear factors. By performing expression QTL analyses, we identified a splice site variant in CHCHD7 and exploited this naturally occurring null allele to exclude CHCHD7 as single causative gene.     

绿色化学——化学工业走向可持续发展和具有竞争力的有效途径

绿色化学是化学工业走向可持续发展和具有竞争性的有效途径,并日益为政府、工业界及公众接受为社会、经济及环境发展的必要目标.本文对绿色化学的概念、进展及实践作了评介.     

The Continuous Improvement Grid: An Empirical Investigation into the Effectiveness of a Systems,and Action Research,Based Continuous Improvement Intervention,for ‘New’ Organisation Development

This paper is a rare example of a large scale (n = 1310), positivist, evaluation of an action research program. It documents how the Royal Navy used the principles of scholarly consulting and pragmatic science to develop, apply and review a systems based tool, and associated ‘new organisation development’ intervention, to help staff explore and share perceptions of working practices, in order to expand their awareness of their current work situation and so uncover opportunities for improvement. Survey results suggest that the majority of individuals found the interventions valuable and participants in the events enjoyed significantly higher levels of understanding of the organisation, and greater collective, and individual, benefit from it. Findings also provide empirical evidence of the importance of involvement to making successful change, especially when dealing with the change averse. Overall the experience, of which the action research based study and associated positivist survey were part, reinforce the importance of what is described as ‘normative realigning pedagogy’—helping people change by facilitating their generation of new forms of understanding.     

Abundance and condition indices of coyotes on Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge, Oregon

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff at Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge (HMNAR), southeastern Oregon, documented high pronghorn ( Antilocapra americana ) fawn mortality, subsequent low fawn recruitment, and declining pronghorn numbers from 1996 to 1999. Coyote ( Canis latrans ) predation was the primary cause, accounting for 60-85% of fawn mortalities each year, and fawns were not physiologically predisposed to predation. Therefore, we investigated certain coyote population parameters (age structure, survival, density, physiology) to evaluate how or if these factors influence coyote predation rates on pronghorn fawns. We captured 11 coyotes (5 male and 6 female) in December 1998. Age of captured animals ranged from 1.7 to 10.7 yrs (￣x = 5.0 years), and all coyotes appeared healthy upon capture. There were no known mortalities through December 1999. We estimated pre-whelping (December through February 1997-1999) density from howling surveys conducted within HMNAR to be 0.40-0.53 km -2 . Compared to other published studies, we found significant ( P ≤ 0.05) differences in selected blood parameters (e.g., blood urea nitrogen, total protein, white blood cell counts), indicating coyote nutrition may be marginal to deficient during winter at HMNAR. A high percentage of coyotes (91%) tested positive for serum-neutralizing antibodies to canine parvovirus. We judged that parasite ( Toxascaris spp., Alaria spp., Sarcocystis spp., and Isospora spp.) prevalence and intensity were not high enough to influence coyote condition. Based on our data, the coyote population at HMNAR is old aged, at a relatively high density, and stable, but their nutrition may be marginal to deficient during winter. Presently, we are unable to draw direct conclusions relating the parameters we sampled with predation rates by this unexploited coyote population.     

Deciphering the evolution and metabolism of an anammox bacterium from a community genome

Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) has become a main focus in oceanography and wastewater treatment. It is also the nitrogen cycle's major remaining biochemical enigma. Among its features, the occurrence of hydrazine as a free intermediate of catabolism, the biosynthesis of ladderane lipids and the role of cytoplasm differentiation are unique in biology. Here we use environmental genomics--the reconstruction of genomic data directly from the environment--to assemble the genome of the uncultured anammox bacterium Kuenenia stuttgartiensis from a complex bioreactor community. The genome data illuminate the evolutionary history of the Planctomycetes and allow us to expose the genetic blueprint of the organism's special properties. Most significantly, we identified candidate genes responsible for ladderane biosynthesis and biological hydrazine metabolism, and discovered unexpected metabolic versatility.     

Evidence for complete denitrification in a benthic foraminifer

Benthic foraminifera are unicellular eukaryotes found abundantly in many types of marine sediments. Many species survive and possibly reproduce in anoxic habitats, but sustainable anaerobic metabolism has not been previously described. Here we demonstrate that the foraminifer Globobulimina pseudospinescens accumulates intracellular nitrate stores and that these can be respired to dinitrogen gas. The amounts of nitrate detected are estimated to be sufficient to support respiration for over a month. In a Swedish fjord sediment where G. pseudospinescens is the dominant foraminifer, the intracellular nitrate pool in this species accounted for 20% of the large, cell-bound, nitrate pool present in an oxygen-free zone. Similarly high nitrate concentrations were also detected in foraminifera Nonionella cf. stella and a Stainforthia species, the two dominant benthic taxa occurring within the oxygen minimum zone of the continental shelf off Chile. Given the high abundance of foraminifera in anoxic marine environments, these new findings suggest that foraminifera may play an important role in global nitrogen cycling and indicate that our understanding of the complexity of the marine nitrogen cycle is far from complete.     

The banana (Musa acuminata) genome and the evolution of monocotyledonous plants

Bananas (Musa spp.), including dessert and cooking types, are giant perennial monocotyledonous herbs of the order Zingiberales, a sister group to the well-studied Poales, which include cereals. Bananas are vital for food security in many tropical and subtropical countries and the most popular fruit in industrialized countries. The Musa domestication process started some 7,000 years ago in Southeast Asia. It involved hybridizations between diverse species and subspecies, fostered by human migrations, and selection of diploid and triploid seedless, parthenocarpic hybrids thereafter widely dispersed by vegetative propagation. Half of the current production relies on somaclones derived from a single triploid genotype (Cavendish). Pests and diseases have gradually become adapted, representing an imminent danger for global banana production. Here we describe the draft sequence of the 523-megabase genome of a Musa acuminata doubled-haploid genotype, providing a crucial stepping-stone for genetic improvement of banana. We detected three rounds of whole-genome duplications in the Musa lineage, independently of those previously described in the Poales lineage and the one we detected in the Arecales lineage. This first monocotyledon high-continuity whole-genome sequence reported outside Poales represents an essential bridge for comparative genome analysis in plants. As such, it clarifies commelinid-monocotyledon phylogenetic relationships, reveals Poaceae-specific features and has led to the discovery of conserved non-coding sequences predating monocotyledon-eudicotyledon divergence.