Estimating divergence times among subfamilies in Nymphalidae

The mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit Ⅰ （COⅠ） gene and the nuclear elongation factor 1α （EF-1α） gene were sequenced from 13 species of Nymphalidae. Phylogenetic trees of Nymphalidae, which is the largest family in butterflies, were constructed based on the sequences determined from 13 species sequenced in our laboratory and an additional 43 species obtained from GenBank using the maximum likelihood （ML） and Bayesian methods. Relative-rate tests between lineages in these phylogenetic trees were performed. On the basis of the results of the relative-rate tests and fossil information of Satyrinae, Nymphalinae and Biblidinae, the average divergence times among the subfamilies are estimated as 44.2-87.1 million years ago （Ma）. These results will be helpful for better understanding of the origin and evolution of this family, as well as the divergence time of butterflies and other complex taxa.     

Preparation and characterization of three-dimensionally ordered macroporous polystyrene <Emphasis Type="Italic">via</Emphasis> atom-transfer radical polymerization

Three-dimensionally ordered macroporous polystyrene （3DOM PS） with pore size of 350 nm was fab- ricated using Cp2Co/Ethyl 2-bromoisobutyrate （EBiB） catalytic system by ATRP. The resulting polymers were detected by FT-IR, 1H-NMR, SEM, and GPC. The microstructure of 3DOM PS was confirmed by FT-IR and 1H-NMR. SEM micrographs show that both silica spheres within the templates and pores in the 3DOM polystyrene are arranged in highly ordered fashion, and the shrinkage of the pores in the 3DOM PS is 24%. GPC curves show that the 3DOM PS possesses slightly lower Mn and narrow MWD compared with bulk one. This result indicats that living polymerization is different from non-living polymerizationin in the confined space.     

Visible light-induced degradation of organic pollutants using Fe（ll） supported on silica gel as an effective catalyst

Silica gel-supported Fe（ll） （SiOFe） was prepared and used for heterogeneous degradation of sulforhodamine B （SRB） and 2,4-dichlorophenol （DCP） under visible irradiation （λ 〉 420 nm） as an effective catalyst. UV-visible spectra, and infrared Spectrophotometry （IR）, fluorescence, total organic carbon （TOC） and electron spin resonance （ESR） measurements were employed to analyze the photoreaction products. The results showed that SRB could be efficiently degraded by SiOFe/H2O2 system under visible irradiation with 100% decolorization and 72.3% TOC removal after 180 min illumination. The results of ESR and fluorescence measurements indicated that the oxidative process was predominated mainly by the hydroxyl radical （.OH） generated in the system.     

Crack spacing of unsaturated soils in the critical state

The cracking mechanism of unsaturated soils due to evaporation is poorly understood, and the magnitude of crack spacing is usually hard to estimate. In this work, cracks were postulated to occur succedently rather than simultaneously, that is, secondary cracks appear after primary cracks as evaporation continues. Formulae of the secondary crack spacing and secondary trend crack spacing were then derived after stress analysis. The calculated spacing values were consistent with the published experimental data. Meanwhile, the effect of the Poisson ratio on the crack spacing was analyzed, which showed that the magnitude of crack spacing was proportional to the Poisson ratio in the range of [0.30, 0.35].     

Arctic dipole anomaly and summer rainfall in Northeast China

A dipole structure anomaly in summer Arctic atmospheric variability is identified in this study, which is characterized by the second mode of empirical orthogonal function （EOF） analysis of summer monthly mean sea level pressure （SLP） north of 70°N, accounting for 12.94% of the variance. The dipole anomaly shows a quasi-barotropic structure with opposite anomalous centers over the Canadian Arctic and the Beaufort Sea and between the Kara Sea and the Laptev Sea. The dipole anomaly reflects alternating variations in location of the polar vortex between the western and eastern Arctic regions. The positive phase of the dipole anomaly corresponds to the center of the polar vortex over the western Arctic, leading to an increase in summer mean rainfall in Northeast China. The dipole anomaly has a predominant 6-year periodicity, and shows interdecadal variations in recent decades.     

An optimized staggered variable-grid finite-difference scheme and its application in cross-well acoustic survey

In this paper, an optimized staggered variable-grid finite-difference （FD） method is developed in velocity-stress elastic wave equations. On the basis of the dispersion-relation-preserving （DRP）, e fourth-order finite-difference operator on non-uniform grids is constructed. The proposed algorithm is e continuous variable-grid method. It does not need interpolations for the field variables between regions with the fine spacing end the coarse one. The accuracy of the optimized scheme has been veri-fled with an analytical solution end e regular staggered-grid FD method for the eighth order accuracy in space. The comparisons of the proposed scheme with the variable-grid FD method based on Taylor series expansion ere made. It is demonstrated that this optimized scheme has less dispersion errors than that with Teylor＇s series expansion. Thus, the proposed scheme uses coarser grids in numerical simulations than that constructed by the Teylor＇s series expansion. Finally, the capability of the opti-mized FD is demonstrated for e complex cross-well acoustic simulation. The numerical experiment shows that this method greatly saves storage requirements and computational time, and is stable.     

Effect of the contact distance on transport properties of an orsanic molecular device

Using a spatially symmetric phenyldithiolate molecule sandwiched between two gold electrodes as model system and through shifting one electrode from symmetric contact site to form asymmetric contact, we investigated the properties of electronic transport in such a device by the first-principles. It was found that the/（G ）-V characteristics of a device show significant asymmetry and the magnitudes of current and conductance depend remarkably on the variation of molecule-metal distance at one of the two contacts. Namely, an asymmetric contact would lead to the weak rectifying effects on the current-voltage characteristics of a molecular device. The analysis shows that the HOMO is responsible for the resonant tunneling and its shift due to the charging of the device while the bias voltage is the intrinsic origin of asymmetric/（G）- Vcharacteristics.     

A novel heteroseneous reaction for generating gaseous nitrous acid

The short-lived reactive specimen nitrous acid HONO was generated in the gas phase by the heterogeneous reaction of gaseous HCl with AgNO2 which can generate higher concentration of HONO than other methods. We investigated the process from generation to dissociation in the gas phase under different controlled temperatures, and discussed the ionization and reaction on the solid surface by combination of the photoelectron spectroscopy and photoionization mass spectroscopy （PES-PIMS） and in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy （DRIFTS）.     

Measuring radial Young’s modulus of DNA by tapping mode AFM

Based on tapping mode AFM imaging, a method was demonstrated to evaluate compression elasticity of single double-stranded DNA （dsDNA） molecules in the force region. With images under ambient conditions, Young＇s moduli of dsDNA in compression were calculated. Results demonstrated that Young＇s moduli of dsDNA can be simply deduced according to the proposed model. The method can also be used to evaluate the compression elasticity of similar soft nanomaterials.     

Pulping performance of transgenic poplar with depressed Caffeoyl-CoA O-methyltransferase

This paper evaluated pulping performance of 3-year-old field-grown transgenic poplar （Populus tremula × Populus alba）. The transgenic poplar with anti-sense CCoAOMT had an about 13% decreased lignin content, in which a slight increment was found in S/G ratio. Chemical analysis showed that the transgenic poplar had significantly less benezene-ethanol extractive than that of control wood, but no significant differences were found in contents of ash, cold water extractive, hot water extractive, 1% NaOH extractive, holocellulose, pentosans and cellulose. Fiber assay demonstrated that down-regulation of CCoAOMT expression improved the fiber quality in transgenic poplar. Kraft pulping showed that lower lignin in transgenic poplar led to remarkable improved pulp quality and increased pulp yield.     

Stable dislocation configuration in the surface layer of metals

The stable dislocation configuration in the surface layer of metals was calculated according to dislo-cation energy theory. It was shown that the stable dislocation configuration was only influenced by Burger's vector, while dislocation line could fluctuate closely around the direction vertical to free sur-face in a limited range.     

Induction of corneal epithelial prosenitors from bone-marrow mesenchymal stem cells of rhesus monkeys in vitro

Bioengineered corneas are substitutes for human donor tissue that are designed to treat severe disease affecting ocular surfaces. However, a shortage of candidate seed cells for bioengineering corneas is still a problem. Bone-marrow mesenchymal stem cells （MSCs） are capable of multilineage differentiation. Therefore, we determined whether MSCs differentiate into corneal epithelial cells （ECs）. We applied three exoteric-microenvironmental systems to induce MSCs to become ECs. Induced MSC were identified by means of morphologic examination, immunocytochemical analysis, and flow cytometry. MSCs grown in one microenvironment had characteristics similar to those of corneal epithelial progenitors. Induced MSCs expressed markers for EC, including integrin 61, Cx43, Pax6, and P63. MSCs were successfully induced to become corneal epithelial progenitors. Therefore, the use of MSCs may hold substantial promise for reconstructing the ocular surface after corneal injury.[第一段]     

Using 137Cs tracing technique to estimate wind erosion rates in the typical steppe region,northern Mongolian Plateau

Wind erosion is one of the major factors of land degradation in the typical steppe region, northern Mongolian Plateau. Using ^137Cs tracing technique, we estimated the wind erosion rates of different pastures and abandoned farmland at Bayannur and Karakorum in Mongolia. The pastures and cutting grassland at Bayannur were slightly eroded by wind, with the rates of 64.58-169.07 t·km^-2.a^-1. The abandoned farmland in Karakorum, however, was strongly eroded by wind, with annual surface soil loss of 4.05 mm. a^-1, and wind erosion rates up to 6723.06 t· km^-2. a^-1. The total loss of surface soil due to wind erosion has been 17.4 cm since the cultivation of the steppe land in the 1960s. The wind ero- sion rate at the abandoned farmland was much higher than that at the typical steppe sites, showing that the cultivation led to serious wind erosion in the typical steppe region, northern Mongolian Plateau. By contrast, traditional livestock grazing resulted in less disturbance to the surface soil, and did not induce to devastating wind erosion, which plays an important role in maintaining the stability of the steppe ecosystem in the northern Mongolian Plateau.     

Adhesive contact of a rigid sphere to finitely stretched substrates

Exemplified by adhesive contact of a rigid sphere with equiaxially stretched elastomeric substrates, the effect of finite pre-strain on adhesion behavior is studied based on the JKR model. The analysis indi- cates that the pre-strain reduces the contact area between the sphere and the substrate, but does not alter the adhesion strength.     

Application of atomic force microscopy to living samples from cells to fresh tissues

Atomic force microscopy is a novel method for imaging and characterization in biomedicine. However, high-resolution imaging of living samples from cells to tissues still remains a challenge. In this paper, two types of AFM working mode （contact mode and tapping mode） which are utilized for the imaging of living cells and tissues are discussed. A new magnetic tapping mode （MAC mode）, which is more suitable for living samples, and a novel data collecting system named TREC, are also introduced.     

Compression behavior and equation of state of Ni77P23 amorphous alloy

The compression behavior of Ni77P23 amorphous alloy is investigated at room temperature in a diamond-anvil cell instrument using insitu high pressure energy dispersive X-ray diffraction with a syn- chrotron radiation source. The equation of state is determined by fitting the experimental data accord- ing to Birch-Murnaghan equation: -ΔV/V0=0.08606P-3.2×10-4P2 5.7×10-6P3. It is found that the structure of Ni77P23 amorphous alloy is stable under pressures up to 30.5 GPa.     

Unique optimal solution instance and computational complexity of backbone in the graph bi-partitioning problem

As an important tool for heuristic design of NP-hard problems, backbone analysis has become a hot spot in theoretical computer science in recent years. Due to the difficulty in the research on computa- tional complexity of the backbone, many researchers analyzed the backbone by statistic ways. Aiming to increase the backbone size which is usually very small by the existing methods, the unique optimal solution instance construction (UOSIC) is proposed for the graph bi-partitioning problem (GBP). Also, we prove by using the UOSIC that it is NP-hard to obtain the backbone, i.e. no algorithm exists to obtain the backbone of a GBP in polynomial time under the assumption that P ≠ NP. Our work expands the research area of computational complexity of the backbone. And the UOSIC provides a new way for heuristic design of NP-hard problems.     

Effect of crystallization temperature and propylene sequence length on the crystalline structure of propylene-ethylene random copolymers

Crystallization behavior and resultant crystalline structure of a series of temperature-rising elution-fractionated specimen of a Ziegler-Natta catalyst-synthesized propylene-ethylene random copolymer were studied by DSC, WAXD and AFM. The experimental results indicate that both crystallization temperature and propylene sequence length exhibit great influence on the crystallization behavior and crystalline structure of the copolymer. It was found that the ethylene co-monomers acting as point defects inserted into the polypropylene chains play an important role in the formation of y-iPP. As the co-monomer content increases, the crystallizable sequence length of iPP decreases, which produces an appropriate condition for its y crystallization. At the same time, the existence of chain defects leads to a lower crystallinity of the copolymer and imperfection of the resultant crystals. For each individual sample with certain propylene sequence length or ethylene content, the increment of y-iPP crystal content with increasing crystallization temperature demonstrates that higher crystallization temperature is in favor of the y-iPP crystallization. Pure y-iPP crystals have been got in samples with propylene sequence length lower than 21 under suitable crystallization conditions.     

High pressure effects on the crystal structure and electric conductivity of perovskite like（Ca/Sr）2CuO2Cl2 compounds

The crystal structure stability as well as electric conductance of （Sr/Ca）2CuO2Cl2 compound with K2NiF4 structure was investigated up to 31 GPa using diamond anvil technique. It seems that （Sr/Ca）2CuO2Cl2 is quite stable under pressure but with obvious anisotropic compressibility. The equation of state （EOS） obtained shows relative large bulk modulus.     

Preparation of pH-responsive ceramic composite membranes by grafting acrylic acid onto α-alumina membranes

A pH-responsive ceramic composite membrane was prepared by chemical graft polymerization of acrylic acid （AA） onto the KH-570 modified （x-alumina membrane. The influence of monomer concentration on the gating characteristics of the pH-responsive membrane was investigated. The FT-IR spectrum, contact angle and water filtration rate of the membrane were measured. The monomer concentration was found to have a remarkable effect on the pH-response coefficient and the water filtration rate. In addition, the grafted membrane exhibited fast and reversible response to the pH change in the external solution.