赤泥-煤矸石基公路路面基层材料的耐久与环境性能

以拜耳法赤泥、煤矸石和粉煤灰等工业固废为基本原料在实验室制备了一种公路路面基层材料,并研究了其力学性能、耐久性能和环境性能.通过开展干湿循环以及冻融循环试验研究了该公路路面基层材料的耐久性能,并利用ICP浸出试验和放射性检测研究其环境性能.结果表明,赤泥-煤矸石基路面基层材料赤泥和煤矸石掺量之和75％、固废总掺量97％时,7d养护后无侧限抗压强度达到6 MPa以上;经过20个干湿循环后,矿渣掺量为5％的路面基层试块强度为5.98 MPa,满足国家标准;经过5个冻融循环后,路面基层材料的7d抗压强度仍然达到6.89 MPa,具有良好的耐久性能.浸出试验结果显示,浸出液中Na+浓度均符合国家饮用水标准,同时浸出液中Zn、Hg、Cu、Pb、Ni等重金属均未检测出;放射性试验结果表明,试验所用纯赤泥的放射性符合相应的国家标准.通过对该路面基层材料进行固碱分析以及能谱分析发现,硅铝体系能有效固结钠离子.此公路路面基层材料具有良好的环境效益和社会效益,拓宽了路面基层材料的选材范围.     

Mutations in a Sar1 GTPase of COPII vesicles are associated with lipid absorption disorders

Dietary fat is an important source of nutrition. Here we identify eight mutations in SARA2 that are associated with three severe disorders of fat malabsorption. The Sar1 family of proteins initiates the intracellular transport of proteins in COPII (coat protein)-coated vesicles. Our data suggest that chylomicrons, which vastly exceed the size of typical COPII vesicles, are selectively recruited by the COPII machinery for transport through the secretory pathways of the cell.     

A human IFNGR1 small deletion hotspot associated with dominant susceptibility to mycobacterial infection

The immunogenetic basis of severe infections caused by bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine and environmental mycobacteria in humans remains largely unknown. We describe 18 patients from several generations of 12 unrelated families who were heterozygous for 1 to 5 overlapping IFNGR1 frameshift small deletions and a wild-type IFNGR1 allele. There were 12 independent mutation events at a single mutation site, defining a small deletion hotspot. Neighbouring sequence analysis favours a small deletion model of slipped mispairing events during replication. The mutant alleles encode cell-surface IFNgamma receptors that lack the intra-cytoplasmic domain, which, through a combination of impaired recycling, abrogated signalling and normal binding to IFNgamma exert a dominant-negative effect. We thus report a hotspot for human IFNGR1 small deletions that confer dominant susceptibility to infections caused by poorly virulent mycobacteria.     

Seismology: speed and size of the Sumatra earthquake

Our seismological results reveal that Indonesia's devastating Sumatra-Andaman earthquake on 26 December 2004 was 2.5 times larger than initial reports suggested--second only to the 1960 Chilean earthquake in recorded magnitude. They indicate that it slowly released its energy by slip along a 1,200-km fault, generating a long rupture that contributed to the subsequent tsunami. Now that the entire rupture zone has slipped, the strain accumulated from the subduction of the Indian plate beneath the Burma microplate has been released, and there is no immediate danger of a similar tsunami being generated on this part of the plate boundary, although large earthquakes on segments to the south still present a threat.     

Biopolymers: shape memory in spider draglines

The ductility and strength of spider draglines means that they outperform the best synthetic fibres, but surprisingly little is known about the torsional properties of this remarkable filament. Unlike a mountain climber swinging from a rope, a spider suspended from its silk thread hardly ever twists. Here we show that a spider dragline has a torsional shape 'memory' in that it can reversibly and totally recover its initial form without any external stimulus; its observed relaxation dynamics indicate that these biological molecules have successively different torsional constants.