Analysis of fragrance composition in three cultivars of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Osmanthus fragrans</Emphasis> Albus group flower by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

With supercritical CO2 fluid extraction(SCFE), essential oil was extracted from three cultivars of Xianning osmanthus. The fresh osmanthus flower was processed with a petroleum ether digestion method to produce the extractum. The yields of essential oil and extractum were 0.19 % and 0.13 % (m/m) respectively. The essential oil and fragrance composition and content extracted were analyzed with gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS). The result showed that essential oil contained 36.99%(area/total area) of ionone, ionol and 13.11% of linalool; ionone and ionol contained in extractum were as high as up to 33.33%, while linalool up to 21.92%. Whether essential oil or extractum contains only about 40% fat acid and other ester matters. None of environmental estrogen (phthalic ester) was found in fragrance ingredients. The result also showed that the quality of O. fragrans Albus group fragrance in Xianning is better than that produced in Hangzhou and Anhui districts.     

Normalized transfer function for characterizing conversion efficiency and harmonic distortion of all-optical sampling

A novel method for characterizing the nonlinearity of all-optical sampling is proposed based on the normalized transfer function.Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.Furthermore,an all-optical sampling experiment is performed to verify our method.Both simulation and experiment show consistency between our method and the measurements.The method only requires normalization and polynomial fitting of the transfer curve,and enables direct expression of the nonlinearity with the coefficients of the normalized transfer function.     

A venomous arthropod in the Early Cambrian Sea

A number of recently evolved animals possess poison glands for feeding and/or defense.However,examples of such animals are rare in the fossil record.We report a fossil arthropod Isoxys curvirostratus from the Early Cambrian Chengjiang biota of China.This species is regarded as the oldest known venomous arthropod based on the presence of venomous glands in its head region.The adult animal is 2-5 cm long and the body is covered entirely with a carapace.The presence of large stalk eyes and a pair of stout grasping appendages with a terminal spine suggest it was raptorial.Interestingly,the two pear-shaped,three-dimensionally preserved objects that are present in the head region and at the base of the grasping appendages closely resemble the venom glands of some living arthropods in size,shape,and position.These features indicate that the presence of venomous predators could date back 520 million years.Furthermore,our observations suggest that the feeding strategies and organs adapted for this purpose had already reached a high level of diversity and anatomical sophistication in the Early Cambrian ecosystems.     

Tight lower bound of consecutive lengths for QC-LDPC codes with girth at least ten

For an arbitrary (3,L) quasi-cyclic(QC) low-density parity-check (LDPC) code with girth at least ten, a tight lower bound of the consecutive lengths is presented. For an arbitrary length above the bound the corresponding LDPC code necessarily has a girth at least ten, and for the length equal to the bound, the resultant code inevitably has a girth smaller than ten. This new conclusion can be well applied to some important issues, such as the proofs of the existence of large girth QC-LDPC codes, the construction of large girth QC-LDPC codes based on the Chinese remainder theorem, as well as the construction of LDPC codes with the guaranteed error correction capability.     

Role of Tip60 tumor suppressor in DNA repair pathway

To prevent the damage caused by DNA strand breaks, eukaryotic cells have evolved a series of highly conserved DNA repair mechanisms. The ubiquitously expressed acetyltransferase, Tip60, plays a central role in ATM (ataxia-telangiectasia mutated) activation which is involved in DNA repair. Recent work uncovered a new mechanism of ATM activation mediated by Tip60 and demonstrated that histone methylation, specifically, trimethylation of histone H3, is a key factor in the process. Here, we review the current understanding of how Tip60 is activated and how it activates ATM in response to DNA damage.     

Potential influence of water level changes on energy flows in a lake food web

Large seasonal water-level fluctuations may influence isotopic signatures of primary producers and the types and amounts of these potential food sources accessible to aquatic fauna of Poyang Lake,the largest freshwater lake in China.In this study,the isotopic signatures of primary producers and consumers were determined,stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis and mixing models were combined to investigate the influence of water levels on the diet and isotopic composition of Poyang Lake fish and inverteb...     

Angular dependent NEXAFS study of the molecular orientation of PTCDA multilayers on Au （111） surface

The molecular orientation of perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic acid dianhydride (PTCDA) multilayers adsorbed on Au (111) surface has been investigated using angular dependent O K-edge near edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy. The significant angular dependence of important resonant structures (π* and σ*) reveals that PTCDA molecules adopt an ordered geometry on the substrate surface. The average tilt angle of the PTCDA molecular planes is 27°±10° from the Au (111) surface.     

Effect of Ni addition on the glass-forming ability and soft-magnetic properties of FeNiBPNb metallic glasses

The effect of Ni addition on the glass-forming ability (GFA) and soft-magnetic properties of an (Fe1-xNix)75.5B14.5P7Nb3 (x=0-0.6) alloy system were investigated. We found that the addition of Ni was effective in allowing the alloy to approach a eutectic point as well as increasing the thermal stability of the supercooled liquid. By increasing the amount of Ni,the supercooled liquid region (ΔTx),the reduced glass transition temperature Trg (Tg/Tl) and the Y parameter [Tx/(Tg+Tl)] increased from 49 to 75 K,0...     

Effectiveness of sodium silicate as gangue depressants in iron ore slimes flotation

The recovery of iron from the screw classifier overflow slimes by direct flotation was studied. The relative effectiveness of sodium silicates with different silica-to-soda mole ratios as depressants for silica and silicate bearing minerals was investigated. Silica-to-soda mole ratio and silicate dosage were found to have significant effect on the separation efficiency. The results show that an increase of Fe content in the concentrate is observed with concomitant reduction in SiO₂ and Al₂O₃ levels when a particular type of sodium silicate at a proper dosage is used. The concentrate of 58.89wt% Fe, 4.68wt% SiO₂, and 5.28wt% Al₂O₃ with the weight recovery of 38.74% and the metal recovery of 41.13% can be obtained from the iron ore slimes with 54.44wt% Fe, 6.72wt% SiO₂, and 6.80wt% Al₂O₃, when Na₂SiO₃ with a silica-to-soda mole ratio of 2.19 is used as a depressant at a feed rate of 0.2 kg/t.     

Influence of Ag doping on the microstructure and electrical properties of ZnO-Bi<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript>-based varistor ceramics

Silver in the form of AgNO₃ was added to ZnO-based varistor ceramics prepared by the solid-state reaction method. The effects of AgNO₃ on both the microstructure and electrical properties of the varistors were studied in detail. The optimum addition amount of AgNO₃ in ZnO-based varistors was also determined. The mechanism for grain growth inhibition by silver doping was also proposed. The results indicate that the varistor threshold voltage increases substantially along with the AgNO₃ content increasing from 0 to 1.5mol%. Also, the introduction of AgNO₃ can depress the mean grain size of ZnO, which is mainly responsible for the threshold voltage. Furthermore, the addition of AgNO₃ results in a slight decrease of donor density and a more severe fall in the density of interface states, which cause a decline in barrier height and an increase in the depletion layer.