SOUND RADIATION FROM PLATES ON ELASTIC FOUNDATION UNDER ACTION OF MOVING LINE FORCES

An analysis is made of the problem of sound radiation from infinite one-dimensional plateson elastic foundation, when the plates are subjected to the action of harmonic line forces movingat subsonic speeds (M < 1). The expressions of nondimensional sound power are formulated andthe asymptotic forms of sound power in the low frequency regions are derived. The radiatedsound power is shown as a function of the stiffness of elastic foundation, in terms of stiffness fac-torψ, the moving speed of line force, in terms of Math number M, and the frequency, in termsof wavenumber ratio γ . The effects of the parameter ψ in conjunction with the parameters Mand γ on the radiated sound power level and the phenomenon of coincidence radiation are alsoinvestigated in detail.     

ANALYSIS AND COMPUTATIONAL ALGORITHM FOR QUEUES WITH STATE-DEPENDENT VACATIONS Ⅱ:M(n)/G/1/K

We study a single-server queueing system with state-dependent arrivals and general service-distribution.or simply M(n)/G/1/K.where the server follows an N policy and takes multiple vacationswhen the system is empty.We provide a recursive algorithm using the supplementary variable tech-nique to munerically compute the stationary queue length distribution of the system.The only inputrequirements are the Laplace-Stieltjes transforms of the service time distribution and the vacation timedistribution.and the state-dependent arrival rate.The computational complexity of the algorithm isO(K~3).     

Simvastatin overcomes the resistance to serum withdrawal-induced apoptosis of lymphocytes from Alzheimer’s disease patients

Statins may exert beneficial effects on Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. Based on the antineoplastic and apoptotic effects of statins in a number of cell types, we hypothesized that statins may be able to protect neurons by controlling the regulation of cell cycle and/or apoptosis. A growing body of evidence indicates that neurodegeneration involves the cell-cycle activation in postmitotic neurons. Failure of cell-cycle control is not restricted to neurons in AD patients, but occurs in peripheral cells as well. For these reasons, we studied the role of simvastatin (SIM) on cell survival/death in lymphoblasts from AD patients. We report here that SIM induces apoptosis in AD lymphoblasts deprived of serum. SIM interacts with PI3K/Akt and ERK1/2 signaling pathways thereby decreasing the serum withdrawal-enhanced levels of the CDK inhibitor p21^Cip1 (p21) and restoring the vulnerability of AD cells to trophic factor deprivation.     

Common and rare variants in multifactorial susceptibility to common diseases

Here, we give a historical overview of the search for genetic variants that influence the susceptibility of an individual to a chronic disease, from RA Fisher's seminal work to the current excitement of whole-genome association studies (WGAS). We then discuss the concepts behind the identification of common variants as disease causal factors and contrast them to the basic ideas that underlie the rare variant hypothesis. The identification of rare variants involves the careful selection of candidate genes to examine, the availability of highly efficient resequencing techniques and the appropriate assessment of the functional consequences of the implicated variant. We believe that this strategy can be successfully applied at present in order to unravel the contribution of rare variants to the multifactorial inheritance of common diseases, which could lead to the implementation of much needed preventative screening schemes.     

Environmental biosafety and transgenic potato in a centre of diversity for this crop

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics suggests that introgression of genetic material into related species in centres of crop biodiversity is an insufficient justification to bar the use of genetically modified crops in the developing world. They consider that a precautionary approach to forgo the possible benefits invokes the fallacy of thinking that doing nothing is itself without risk to the poor. Here we report findings relevant to this and other aspects of environmental biosafety for genetically modified potato in its main centre of biodiversity, the central Andes. We studied genetically modified potato clones that provide resistance to nematodes, principal pests of Andean potato crops. We show that there is no harm to many non-target organisms, but gene flow occurs to wild relatives growing near potato crops. If stable introgression were to result, the fitness of these wild species could be altered. We therefore transformed the male sterile cultivar Revolucion to provide a genetically modified nematode-resistant potato to evaluate the benefits that this provides until the possibility of stable introgression to wild relatives is determined. Thus, scientific progress is possible without compromise to the precautionary principle.     

An equilibrium-dependent retroviral mRNA switch regulates translational recoding

Most retroviruses require translational recoding of a viral messenger RNA stop codon to maintain a precise ratio of structural (Gag) and enzymatic (Pol) proteins during virus assembly. Pol is expressed exclusively as a Gag-Pol fusion either by ribosomal frameshifting or by read-through of the gag stop codon. Both of these mechanisms occur infrequently and only affect 5-10% of translating ribosomes, allowing the virus to maintain the critical Gag to Gag-Pol ratio. Although it is understood that the frequency of the recoding event is regulated by cis RNA motifs, no mechanistic explanation is currently available for how the critical protein ratio is maintained. Here we present the NMR structure of the murine leukaemia virus recoding signal and show that a protonation-dependent switch occurs to induce the active conformation. The equilibrium is such that at physiological pH the active, read-through permissive conformation is populated at approximately 6%: a level that correlates with in vivo protein quantities. The RNA functions by a highly sensitive, chemo-mechanical coupling tuned to ensure an optimal read-through frequency. Similar observations for a frameshifting signal indicate that this novel equilibrium-based mechanism may have a general role in translational recoding.     

电流变体单链的轴向应变对导电性质的影响

研究了由平均直径为２１０μｍ的玻璃球在硅油中加直流电场后形成的单链的导电行为，主要研究了链的轴向应变对其导电性质的影响。