应用量子力学

本书是为电工和力学工程师、材料科学家和应用物理学家而编写的。书中材料虽取自量子力学理论书，但应用于实际，采用了实际工程的例子、练习和工作解法。内容从经典力学和电磁学出发，发展到现代量子力学及其应用。     

Sialic acid-specific lectins: occurrence, specificity and function

Sialic acids consist of a family of acidic ninecarbon sugars that are typically located at the terminal positions of a variety of glycoconjugates. Naturally occurring sialic acids show an immense diversity of structure, and this reflects their involvement in a variety of biologically important processes. One such process involves the direct participation of sialic acids in recognition events through specific interactions with lectins, a family of proteins that recognise and bind sugars. This review will present a detailed overview of our current knowledge regarding the occurrence, specificity and function of sialic acid-specific lectins, particularly those that occur in viruses, bacteria and non-vertebrate eukaryotes. Received 13 December 2005; received after revision 9 February 2006; accepted 15 February 2006     

CD43, a molecule defective in Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, binds ICAM-1.

THE protein CD43 (also known as sialophorin, leukosialin, large sialoglycoprotein or gp115) is expressed on the surface of T lymphocytes, monocytes, neutrophils, platelets and some B lymphocytes. Expression of CD43 is deficient and/or defective in the X-chromosome-linked immunodeficiency disorder Wiscott-Aldrich syndrome, suggesting that CD43 might have a role in T-cell activation. We have shown that expression of human CD43 in an HLA-DR-specific murine T-cell hybridoma enhances the antigen-specific response to stimulation by the human lymphoblastoid cell line Daudi, and that Daudi cells bind specifically to purified immobilized CD43. These data indicate that the specific interaction of CD43 with a ligand on the surface of Daudi cells might contribute to T-cell activation. Here we report evidence that intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1, or CD54), is a ligand for CD43.     

Role of Mg on Structure and Mechanical Properties in Alloy 718

The role of Mg in alloy/718 has been systematically investigated. Mg raises not only high temperature tensile and stress-rupture ductilities but also increases considerably smooth and notch stress-rupture life. Mg containing alloy 718M is free of stress-rupture notch sensitivity. Mg improves creep and fatigue interaction properties (LCF or cyclic stress rupture) at any grain size. The basic role of Mg is equilibrium segregation at grain boundaries which helps to change continuous grain beundary (5-Ni3Nb morphology to discrete globular form which has a retardation effect on intergranular fracture. Mg promotes the change from intergranular to transgranular fracture mode.     

GABA-A-mediated gastrin release induced by baclofen in the isolated vascularly perfused rat stomach

In order to investigate the role of peripheral GABA-B receptors, the effects of the putative GABA-B agonist baclofen on immunoreactive gastrin release from an isolated vascularly perfused rat stomach preparation were examined. The vascular infusion of baclofen at graded concentrations induced a dose-dependent increase in gastrin release; this was unaffected by the GABA-B antagonist delta-aminovaleric acid, but was fully prevented by the selective GABA-A antagonist bicuculline as well as by atropine or tetrodotoxin. These results suggest that the stimulant effects of baclofen are mediated by nervous cholinergic structures associated with GABA-A receptors, and indicate that this GABA-B agonist must be regarded as a partial agonist of peripheral GABA-A receptors.     

Tolerance of class I histocompatibility antigens expressed extrathymically

Although convincing evidence has been obtained for the imposition of self-tolerance by the intrathymic deletion of self-reactive T cells, the development of tolerance to antigens which are expressed only in the periphery is not so well understood. We have approached this question by creating transgenic mice which carry a class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC) gene (H-2Kb) linked to the rat insulin promoter. Mice expressing the transgene develop diabetes, but do not appear to mount an immune response against the transgene-expressing pancreatic beta-cells, even when the transgene is allogeneic with respect to the endogenous host H-2 antigens. We have now explored the mechanism of this tolerance further. We find that spleen cells from pre-diabetic transgenic (RIP-Kb) mice do not kill targets bearing H-2Kb, whereas thymus cells from the same mice do. The unresponsiveness of these spleen cells can be reversed in vitro by providing recombinant interleukin-2 (rIL-2). In older, diabetic mice, responsiveness develops as the pancreatic beta-cells are lost. Our results point to an extrathymic mechanism of tolerance induction, dependent on the continuous presence of antigen and the lack of IL-2 in the local environment of potentially reactive T cells.     

Stable expression of the bacterial neor gene in Leishmania enriettii

Molecular genetic studies in parasitic protozoa have been hindered by the lack of methods for the introduction and expression of modified or foreign genes in these organisms. Two recent reports described the transient expression of the bacterial chloramphenicol acetyl transferase (CAT) gene under the control of parasite-specific sequences. We now describe the stable expression of a selectable marker, the gene for neomycin resistance (neor) in Leishmania enriettii. A chimaeric gene containing the neor gene inserted between two alpha-tubulin intergenic sequences was introduced into the cells and drug-resistant L. enriettii were observed which stably expressed the neor gene. One goal of this work was to analyse the sequences necessary for trans-splicing of messenger RNA, as trypanosomatids have a novel process of RNA trans-splicing, described initially in Trypanosome brucei and subsequently in several other trypanosomatids, including L. enriettii. Many trypanosomatid genes are arranged in tandem arrays and the intergenic sequences contain both the splice acceptor site for the addition of the spliced leader sequence and a putative polyadenylation site. Messenger RNA isolated from several different neor L. enrietti lines contained the spliced leader sequence joined to the neor gene at the position of the splice acceptor site in the alpha-tubulin intergenic sequence. The neor mRNA was also polyadenylated. Plasmid DNA is present within the drug-resistant organisms and appears to be extrachromosomal. The development of these methods allows the functional analysis of sequences necessary for trans-splicing.     

Structural parts involved in activation and inactivation of the sodium channel

Structure-function relationships of the sodium channel expressed in Xenopus oocytes have been investigated by the combined use of site-directed mutagenesis and patch-clamp recording. This study provides evidence that the positive charges in segment S4 are involved in the voltage-sensing mechanism for activation of the channel and that the region between repeats III and IV is important for its inactivation.     

Two tobacco DNA-binding proteins with homology to the nuclear factor CREB

The 35S promoter of the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) contains a tandem repeat of the sequence TGACG in the region -83 to -63. This 21-base pair (bp) sequence, called as-1, is involved in root expression of the 35S promoter. When inserted in a promoter of a gene expressed specifically in photosynthetic tissues, as-1 confers high level expression in roots. We have described a factor, ASF-1, that binds specifically to as-1 in vitro. There is a good correlation between ASF-1 binding affinity to as-1 related sequences in vitro and the function of these sequences in vivo. These results strongly suggest that ASF-1 is responsible for the function of as-1. Here we report the isolation of tobacco complementary DNA clones encoding two TGACG-sequence-specific binding-proteins (TGA1a and TGA1b). Sequence analysis of the cDNA clones shows that both proteins contain a basic region that shows high homology to a stretch of basic amino acids in the nuclear factors CREB, GCN4, and c-Jun to a 'leucine-zipper' region. On the basis of binding specificity we propose TGA1a to be a good candidate for ASF-1.     

Common variants near MC4R are associated with fat mass, weight and risk of obesity

To identify common variants influencing body mass index (BMI), we analyzed genome-wide association data from 16,876 individuals of European descent. After previously reported variants in FTO, the strongest association signal (rs17782313, P = 2.9 x 10(-6)) mapped 188 kb downstream of MC4R (melanocortin-4 receptor), mutations of which are the leading cause of monogenic severe childhood-onset obesity. We confirmed the BMI association in 60,352 adults (per-allele effect = 0.05 Z-score units; P = 2.8 x 10(-15)) and 5,988 children aged 7-11 (0.13 Z-score units; P = 1.5 x 10(-8)). In case-control analyses (n = 10,583), the odds for severe childhood obesity reached 1.30 (P = 8.0 x 10(-11)). Furthermore, we observed overtransmission of the risk allele to obese offspring in 660 families (P (pedigree disequilibrium test average; PDT-avg) = 2.4 x 10(-4)). The SNP location and patterns of phenotypic associations are consistent with effects mediated through altered MC4R function. Our findings establish that common variants near MC4R influence fat mass, weight and obesity risk at the population level and reinforce the need for large-scale data integration to identify variants influencing continuous biomedical traits.