A new role for cryptochrome in a Drosophila circadian oscillator

Cryptochromes are flavin/pterin-containing proteins that are involved in circadian clock function in Drosophila and mice. In mice, the cryptochromes Cry1 and Cry2 are integral components of the circadian oscillator within the brain and contribute to circadian photoreception in the retina. In Drosophila, cryptochrome (CRY) acts as a photoreceptor that mediates light input to circadian oscillators in both brain and peripheral tissue. A Drosophila cry mutant, cryb, leaves circadian oscillator function intact in central circadian pacemaker neurons but renders peripheral circadian oscillators largely arrhythmic. Although this arrhythmicity could be caused by a loss of light entrainment, it is also consistent with a role for CRY in the oscillator. A peripheral oscillator drives circadian olfactory responses in Drosophila antennae. Here we show that CRY contributes to oscillator function and physiological output rhythms in the antenna during and after entrainment to light-dark cycles and after photic input is eliminated by entraining flies to temperature cycles. These results demonstrate a photoreceptor-independent role for CRY in the periphery and imply fundamental differences between central and peripheral oscillator mechanisms in Drosophila.     

基于循环迭代的LDPC码环长扩展算法

为了易于DSP的硬件实现,提出了一种简单的较高码率的无4-环准规则LDPC(low-density parity-check)码的母矩阵构造方法,从理论上给出了母矩阵扩展因子L的下限值,并在此基础上通过循环迭代的环长扩展算法,使母矩阵大量的短环得到了消除,并且它们的编码复杂度和码长成线性关系。仿真结果表明,经过环长扩展的LDPC码略好于M ackay的随机构造同码率的码字性能,而比一次扩展的码字有0.4 dB左右的性能增益。采用循环迭代的环长扩展算法非常有利于硬件实现。     

微波照射后玄武岩损伤机理试验研究

为探究微波循环照射下玄武岩损伤机理,在不同微波照射参数下,对玄武岩试件进行微波循环照射和连续照射,通过超声波检测、巴西圆盘劈裂试验,以纵波波速、抗拉强度、损伤变量作为定量指标,衡量微波辐射对岩石损伤效应影响程度。结果表明:采用低功率微波照射时,因单次微波输入能过低不足以达到裂纹起裂能,使得循环照射的功效无法显现,此时不宜使用循环照射微波加载模式;采用高功率微波照射时,微波循环照射对岩石的损伤效应随着循环次数的增多而增强,且较之于连续照射,可实现用较少的能耗达到更好的损伤弱化效果;水是引起岩石损伤的重要因素,在循环照射间歇采用冲水冷却方式可增强岩石受损程度;可见高功率微波循环照射方式可提高破岩效果。     

Circadian organization in reindeer

The light/dark cycle of day and night synchronizes an internal 'biological clock' that governs daily rhythms in behaviour, but this form of regulation is denied to polar animals for most of the year. Here we demonstrate that the continuous lighting conditions of summer and of winter at high latitudes cause a loss in daily rhythmic activity in reindeer living far above the Arctic Circle. This seasonal absence of circadian rhythmicity may be a ubiquitous trait among resident polar vertebrates.     

Unexpected features of Drosophila circadian behavioural rhythms under natural conditions

Circadian clocks have evolved to synchronize physiology, metabolism and behaviour to the 24-h geophysical cycles of the Earth. Drosophila melanogaster's rhythmic locomotor behaviour provides the main phenotype for the identification of higher eukaryotic clock genes. Under laboratory light-dark cycles, flies show enhanced activity before lights on and off signals, and these anticipatory responses have defined the neuronal sites of the corresponding morning (M) and evening (E) oscillators. However, the natural environment provides much richer cycling environmental stimuli than the laboratory, so we sought to examine fly locomotor rhythms in the wild. Here we show that several key laboratory-based assumptions about circadian behaviour are not supported by natural observations. These include the anticipation of light transitions, the midday 'siesta', the fly's crepuscular activity, its nocturnal behaviour under moonlight, and the dominance of light stimuli over temperature. We also observe a third major locomotor component in addition to M and E, which we term 'A' (afternoon). Furthermore, we show that these natural rhythm phenotypes can be observed in the laboratory by using realistic temperature and light cycle simulations. Our results suggest that a comprehensive re-examination of circadian behaviour and its molecular readouts under simulated natural conditions will provide a more authentic interpretation of the adaptive significance of this important rhythmic phenotype. Such studies should also help to clarify the underlying molecular and neuroanatomical substrates of the clock under natural protocols.     

Constant darkness is a circadian metabolic signal in mammals

Environmental light is the 'zeitgeber' (time-giver) of circadian behaviour. Constant darkness is considered a 'free-running' circadian state. Mammals encounter constant darkness during hibernation. Ablation of the master clock synchronizer, the suprachiasmatic nucleus, abolishes torpor, a hibernation-like state, implicating the circadian clock in this phenomenon. Here we report a mechanism by which constant darkness regulates the gene expression of fat catabolic enzymes in mice. Genes for murine procolipase (mClps) and pancreatic lipase-related protein 2 (mPlrp2) are activated in a circadian manner in peripheral organs during 12 h dark:12 h dark (DD) but not light-dark (LD) cycles. This mechanism is deregulated in circadian-deficient mPer1-/-/mPer2m/m mice. We identified circadian-regulated 5'-AMP, which is elevated in the blood of DD mice, as a key mediator of this response. Synthetic 5'-AMP induced torpor and mClps expression in LD animals. Torpor induced by metabolic stress was associated with elevated 5'-AMP levels in DD mice. Levels of glucose and non-esterified fatty acid in the blood are reversed in DD and LD mice. Induction of mClps expression by 5'-AMP in LD mice was reciprocally linked to blood glucose levels. Our findings uncover a circadian metabolic rhythm in mammals.     

哺乳期营养状况对小鼠性发育启动时间的影响

选用近交系BALB/c小鼠,按每只母鼠哺乳出生后小鼠数量的多少分成营养过剩、营养均衡和营养不良3组,研究哺乳期营养状况对小鼠性发育启动时间的影响,以阴门开启和阴茎包皮分离分别作为雌鼠和雄鼠性发育启动的指标。雌小鼠性发育启动年龄:营养过剩组<营养均衡组<营养不良组(P<0.002),但是,3组小鼠性发育启动时的体重没有明显差异。雄小鼠性发育年龄:营养过剩组<营养均衡组<营养不良组(P<0.01);而发育时体重:营养过剩组>营养均衡组>营养不良组(P<0.01)。哺乳期营养状况对小鼠性发育启动时间有重要影响,但影响方式存在性别差异。     

Spectral sensitivity of a novel photoreceptive system mediating entrainment of mammalian circadian rhythms

Environmental light cycles are the dominant synchronizers of circadian rhythms in the field, and artificial light cycles and pulses are the major tools used in the laboratory to analyse properties of circadian systems. It is therefore surprising that few studies have analysed the physical parameters of light stimuli that affect circadian rhythms. There have previously been no spectral sensitivity measurements for phase shifting the circadian rhythms of mammals and only two preliminary reports on the wavelength dependence of this response exist. Using the magnitude of phase shift caused by a single 15-min pulse of monochromatic light given 6 h after activity onset, we have now characterized the spectral sensitivity of the photoreceptors responsible for phase shifting the locomotor rhythm of the hamster (Mesocricetus auratus). The sensitivity curve for this response has a maximum near 500 nm and is similar to the absorption spectrum for rhodopsin. Although the spectral sensitivity is consistent with a rhodopsin-based photopigment, two features of the photoreceptive system that mediates entrainment are unusual: the threshold of the response is high, especially for a predominantly rod retina like that of the hamster, and the reciprocal relationship between intensity and duration holds for extremely long durations (up to 45 min). These results suggest that the photoreceptive system mediating entrainment is markedly different from that involved in visual image formation.     

干湿循环及水平循环荷载下的码头群桩侧向累积位移

为了揭示干湿循环及水平循环荷载作用下码头群桩累积侧向位移分布特征,基于水平循环受荷的刚度衰减模型和土体抗剪强度干湿循环弱化模型,通过ABAQUS进行二次开发实现了土体刚度衰减和土体抗剪强度干湿循环弱化,并依托三峡库区某在役货运码头,建立了码头群桩-岸坡相互作用三维数值模型.通过数值结果系统分析了三峡库区在干湿循环及水平循环荷载作用下码头群桩桩顶及桩身累积侧向位移.研究表明:干湿循环和水平循环荷载产生的循环效应集中在循环周期的前面阶段;存在临界水平循环荷载比,当水平循环荷载比小于临界值时,累积位移随着循环次数的增加而逐渐增大,在加载后期桩基侧向位移趋于稳定;当水平循环荷载比大于临界值时,累积位移随循环次数的增加而不断增大,在加载后期仍有不断增加的趋势,当桩基设计从控制变形考虑时,建议将水平循环荷载比控制在0.5以内;干湿循环后在水平循环荷载作用下,桩侧累积位移有明显增大的趋势;最后,根据数值计算结果,提出了干湿循环后水平循环荷载作用下群桩桩顶侧向累积位移预测模型,可供工程实践参考.     

A behavioural method for accelerating re-entrainment of rhythms to new light-dark cycles

The idea of ameliorating jetlag with drugs has received considerable attention. Melatonin has been found to reduce feelings of jetlag in people after transatlantic flights. In hamsters, injections of triazolam, a benzodiazepine, increase the rate of adjustment of activity rhythms to an 8 h advance of the light-dark (LD) cycle. But melatonin can make people drowsy and triazolam often induces hamsters to run in their wheels. Therefore, it is not clear whether these chemicals exert their chronotypic effects by acting directly on circadian pacemakers or because they first alter behavioural states. Non-photic behavioural events (for instance, social interactions) are capable of entraining rhythms and causing phase shifts. Thus, it is possible that behavioural events alone could alter the rate of adjustment to new LD cycles. To investigate this possibility, we studied the rate of re-entrainment of hamsters in a testing paradigm similar to that used with triazolam. We found that the rate of adjustment could be more than doubled simply by making the animals active on a single occasion in the middle of their normal rest period, immediately after the shift in the LD cycle.     

ATP mediates rapid reversal of cyclic GMP phosphodiesterase activation in visual receptor membranes

Weak or strong lights will activate visual receptor rod disk membrane (RDM) cyclic GMP phosphodiesterase (PDE) in the presence of GTP cofactor. A similarly activated GTPase can exhaust small amounts of initially present GTP to deactivate the PDE. However, further additions of GTP reactivate PDE without more light, and deactivation by simple GTP depletion takes minutes or more, even at GTP concentrations 100 to 1,000 times lower than physiological levels. A more rapid deactivation mechanism must exist if modulation of cytoplasmic cyclic GMP by light is to play a role on the time scale (seconds) of events in vision. We report here that ATP is essential to such rapid control and that its presence permits multiple cycles of activation-deactivation. The complete control mechanism seems to involve gamma phosphate transfer from both ATP and GTP.     

Decadal-scale variability of warm season temperature in Beijing over the past 2650 years

A continuous record of surface temperature for the past 2650 years was obtained in an earlier study from a Beijing stalagmite based on sedimentary layer counting and thickness measurements.Singular spectrum analysis,multi-taper and wavelet spectral analyses are used in this study to identify decadal-scale signals and their origins in this record.Besides long-term cycles of solar origin identified in earlier studies,this record contains cycles that dominate temperature with periods of 102-70,66-50,31,25-22,19,15,12 and 9 years.The 102-70,25-22,12 and 9 year cycles are attributable to solar variation,while the others are likely to be related to low-latitude ocean forcing.These results suggest that century-scale changes in the Beijing summer temperature over the past 2650 years are primarily controlled by solar variation,while ocean-atmospheric interactions play a prominent role in modu-lating decadal-scale variability.     

Stimulated activity mediates phase shifts in the hamster circadian clock induced by dark pulses or benzodiazepines

A number of environmental and pharmacological stimuli capable of inducing phase shifts and/or period changes in the circadian clock of mammals have now been identified. Agents that can alter circadian clocks provide a means for investigating the cellular and neural mechanisms responsible for their generation, regulation and entrainment. Two stimuli that have been used to probe the basis of circadian rhythmicity are pulses of darkness on a background of constant light and injections of short-acting benzodiazepines, such as triazolam. Surprisingly, these two very different stimuli have remarkably similar phase-shifting effects on the circadian clock of hamsters. The observation that a short-term increase in locomotor activity occurs when the circadian activity rhythm of hamsters is shifted by dark pulses or triazolam injections, coupled with the finding that activity bouts themselves are capable of shifting this rhythm, raises the possibility that dark pulses or triazolam alter the circadian clock by inducing acute hyperactivity. Here we demonstrate that the phase-advancing and phase-delaying effects of dark pulses or triazolam on the circadian activity rhythm can be totally suppressed by immobilization of the animals during treatment. These results indicate that behavioural events mediate the phase-shifting effects of both dark pulses and triazolam on the circadian activity rhythm and question present hypotheses regarding the pathways by which light-dark information and pharmacological agents influence circadian pacemakers.     

母株在慈竹克隆繁殖和幼竹发枝中的作用

比较了慈竹在有母株和无母株条件下发笋的根茎数、竹笋成活率、竹笋基径和幼竹发枝的差异，以探讨母株对克隆繁殖和幼竹发枝的贡献．结果表明，母株对慈竹根茎发笋和竹笋成活影响显著．有母株时，样方中发1笋和2笋的平均根茎数都显著大于无母株时的平均根茎数．有母株竹笋的成活率显著高于无母株的相应情况．1级和2级母株的存在对竹笋基径和幼竹发枝都无显著影响．这些结果显示，从笋期到幼竹期，母株对慈竹克隆后代的贡献越来越小．     

Circadian rhythms in olfactory responses of Drosophila melanogaster.

The core mechanism of circadian timekeeping in arthropods and vertebrates consists of feedback loops involving several clock genes, including period (per) and timeless (tim). In the fruitfly Drosophila, circadian oscillations in per expression occur in chemosensory cells of the antennae, even when the antennae are excised and maintained in isolated organ culture. Here we demonstrate a robust circadian rhythm in Drosophila in electrophysiological responses to two classes of olfactory stimuli. These rhythms are observed in wild-type flies during light-dark cycles and in constant darkness, but are abolished in per or tim null-mutant flies (per01 and tim01) which lack rhythms in adult emergence and locomotor behaviour. Olfactory rhythms are also abolished in the per 7.2:2 transgenic line in which per expression is restricted to the lateral neurons of the optic lobe. Because per 7.2:2 flies do not express per in peripheral oscillators, our results provide evidence that peripheral circadian oscillators are necessary for circadian rhythms in olfactory responses. As olfaction is essential for food acquisition, social interactions and predator avoidance in many animals, circadian regulation of olfactory systems could have profound effects on the behaviour of organisms that rely on this sensory modality.     

笼养条件下两种鼠春季昼夜的活动节律比较

研究鼠类活动节律,对于更有效地控制和综合治理鼠害具有重要意义。采用计算机红外监控技术,对从野外捕获的3只黑线姬鼠(Apodemus agrarius)和5只社鼠(Niviventer confucianus)在笼养条件下的活动节律进行19次昼夜记录观察。结果表明,两者均在夜间活动,但黑线姬鼠的活动主要在20:00-3:00,且分别在22:00和2:00有两个活动高峰;社鼠活动主要在19:00-6:00,其活动频次的高峰在清晨4:00-6:00,活动时间高峰在22:00。两种鼠的活动频次高峰和活动时间高峰均相反,这是鼠类活动节律的种间差异,也可能是两者在同一生境中存在的一种适应形式。但两种鼠之间的活动频次和活动时间的量没有显著的差异。另外,社鼠雌、雄两性间活动节律也有所不同。     

A circadian oscillator in cultured cells of chicken pineal gland

The activity of serotonin N-acetyltransferase, the key enzyme of melatonin synthesis, shows a marked circadian rhythm in the pineal glands of various animal species. The regulation mechanism of the N-acetyltransferse rhythm in birds is different from that in mammals. N-Acetyltransferase activity in rat pineal gland is controlled by the central nervous system through the sympathetic nerves from the superior cervical ganglion, while in chicken the endogenous oscillator for N-acetyltransferase rhythm is presumably located in the pineal gland. Recently it has been shown that N-acetyltransferase activity oscillates in a circadian manner in the organ culture of chicken pineal glands. When chicken pineal glands were organ-cultured under continuous illumination, the nocturnal increase of enzyme activity was suppressed. These observations suggested that chicken pineal gland contains a circadian oscillator, a photoreceptor and melatonin-synthesising machinery. A central question arises whether the circadian oscillation of N-acetyltransferase activity and its response to environmental lighting are generated within the cell or are emergent properties of interaction between different types of pineal cells. I report here that in the dispersed cell culture of chicken pineal gland, N-acetyltransferase activity exhibits a circadian rhythm and responds to environmental lighting in the same manner as in the organ culture.