Aberrant methylation of donor genome in cloned bovine embryos

Despite recent successes in cloning various animal species, the use of somatic cells as the source of donor nuclei has raised many practically relevant questions such as increased abortion rates, high birth weight and perinatal death. These anomalies may be caused by incomplete epigenetic reprogramming of donor DNA. Genome-wide demethylation occurs during early development, 'erasing' gamete-specific methylation patterns inherited from the parents. This process may be a prerequisite for the formation of pluripotent stem cells that are important for the later development. Here, we provide evidence that cloned bovine embryos may have impaired epigenetic reprogramming capabilities. We found highly aberrant methylation patterns in various genomic regions of cloned embryos. Cloned blastocysts closely resembled donor cells in their overall genomic methylation status, which was very different from that of normal blastocysts produced in vitro or in vivo. We found demethylation of the Bov-B long interspersed nuclear element sequence in normal embryos, but not in cloned embryos, in which the donor-type methylation was simply maintained during preimplantation development. There were also significant variations in the degree of methylation among individual cloned blastocysts. Our findings indicate that the developmental anomalies of cloned embryos could be due to incomplete epigenetic reprogramming of donor genomic DNA.     

海洋场地Rayleigh波传播特性及其影响因素分析

为研究饱和弹性半空间中Rayleigh波在不规则海床的传播与衰减特性及其对海床的影响,结合Zienkiewicz给出的土动力学基本方程,建立了简化的不规则海底场地动力模型. 通过改变边界条件,推导了水-土接触界面为平整界面时,有无上覆海水两个退化模型的Rayleigh方程,推演出了渗透系数、孔隙率、泊松比、界面条件等因素影响下不同场地条件中Rayleigh波的频散和衰减曲线,基于复杂海床模型,分析了各因素在Rayleigh波传播时对海床的孔压、变形等参数的动力响应影响规律. 结果表明：土体参数、弹性模量、渗透系数、孔隙率,以及上覆水、水土交界面等因素均会影响海床的动力响应. 不同Rayleigh波波速对土体力学参数沿土层深度的影响范围和影响程度不同;弹性模量和泊松比是决定土体性质的重要参数,是讨论Rayleigh波传播特性和土体动力响应的先决条件,它们的改变会改变渗透系数、孔隙率等参数的影响规律;在两个简化模型中,岩石地层E=6.017×1010 Pa,泊松比为0.38的条件下,孔隙率与渗透系数对Rayleigh波传播特性曲线有规律性影响.     

Enhancement of Au-Ag-Te contents in tellurium-bearing ore minerals via bioleaching

The purpose of this study was to enhance the content of valuable metals, such as Au, Ag, and Te, in tellurium-bearing minerals via bioleaching. The ore samples composed of invisible Au and Au paragenesis minerals (such as pyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite and galena) in combination with tellurium-bearing minerals (hessite, sylvanite and Tellurobismuthite) were studied. Indigenous microbes from mine drainage were isolated and identified as Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, which were used in bioleaching after adaption to copper. The effect of the microbial adaption on the bioleaching performance was then compared with the results produced by the non-adaptive process. The microbial adaption enhanced the Au-Ag-Te contents in biological leaching of tellurium-bearing ore minerals. This suggests that bioleaching with adapted microbes can be used both as a pretreatment and in the main recovery processes of valuable metals.     

Climate sensitivity constrained by CO2 concentrations over the past 420 million years

A firm understanding of the relationship between atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and temperature is critical for interpreting past climate change and for predicting future climate change. A recent synthesis suggests that the increase in global-mean surface temperature in response to a doubling of the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, termed 'climate sensitivity', is between 1.5 and 6.2 degrees C (5-95 per cent likelihood range), but some evidence is inconsistent with this range. Moreover, most estimates of climate sensitivity are based on records of climate change over the past few decades to thousands of years, when carbon dioxide concentrations and global temperatures were similar to or lower than today, so such calculations tend to underestimate the magnitude of large climate-change events and may not be applicable to climate change under warmer conditions in the future. Here we estimate long-term equilibrium climate sensitivity by modelling carbon dioxide concentrations over the past 420 million years and comparing our calculations with a proxy record. Our estimates are broadly consistent with estimates based on short-term climate records, and indicate that a weak radiative forcing by carbon dioxide is highly unlikely on multi-million-year timescales. We conclude that a climate sensitivity greater than 1.5 degrees C has probably been a robust feature of the Earth's climate system over the past 420 million years, regardless of temporal scaling.     

汽相生长的碲锡铅单晶的质量评价

碲锡铅(Pb_1-xSn_xTe)是一种禁带宽度可调的三元化合物半导体,用它不仅可制备814μm的高灵敏度的红外探测器,而且可以制备长波红外可调谐激光器.