纳米材料在生物医学中的应用

纳米生物医学是纳米技术与现代生物医学技术结合的产物,近年来这一领域逐渐受到科学界和企业界的重视,得到了许多振奋人心的进展,具有广泛的应用前景.结合本课题组在纳米材料和生物医学方面取得的研究成果,介绍了量子点、纳米金、碳纳米管、纳米氧化铁和富勒烯几种典型纳米材料在生物医学领域的应用研究现状.     

我国蔬菜硝酸盐污染现状及防治研究

近年来硝酸盐与亚硝酸盐的污染问题引起了越来越多的关注与讨论,已成为研究的热点.蔬菜是硝酸盐易富集的农作物,特别是喜氮的叶菜类蔬菜.当前国际市场上对优质无污染蔬菜大量需求,我国各地正在抓紧发展蔬菜产业,尤其是优质无公害的蔬菜生产,进一步深入研究蔬菜中硝酸盐的污染及防治是十分迫切和必要的.     

Soil fertility limits carbon sequestration by forest ecosystems in a CO2-enriched atmosphere

Northern mid-latitude forests are a large terrestrial carbon sink. Ignoring nutrient limitations, large increases in carbon sequestration from carbon dioxide (CO2) fertilization are expected in these forests. Yet, forests are usually relegated to sites of moderate to poor fertility, where tree growth is often limited by nutrient supply, in particular nitrogen. Here we present evidence that estimates of increases in carbon sequestration of forests, which is expected to partially compensate for increasing CO2 in the atmosphere, are unduly optimistic. In two forest experiments on maturing pines exposed to elevated atmospheric CO2, the CO2-induced biomass carbon increment without added nutrients was undetectable at a nutritionally poor site, and the stimulation at a nutritionally moderate site was transient, stabilizing at a marginal gain after three years. However, a large synergistic gain from higher CO2 and nutrients was detected with nutrients added. This gain was even larger at the poor site (threefold higher than the expected additive effect) than at the moderate site (twofold higher). Thus, fertility can restrain the response of wood carbon sequestration to increased atmospheric CO2. Assessment of future carbon sequestration should consider the limitations imposed by soil fertility, as well as interactions with nitrogen deposition.     

高位沼泽的形成环境与机制

通过对中国东北、白俄罗斯以及西西伯利亚等地高位沼泽自然环境的剖析，探讨高位沼泽环境的控制因素特点及其形成机制，指出高位沼泽环境的形成，受控于气候，地质，地貌，水文等自然因素，是这些因素综合作用的结果。     

大气污染扩散(高斯)摸式简易推导法的研究

在大学环境专业讲述大气污染扩散(高斯)模式的建立时,由于学生未曾系统地学过气象动力学、气象热力学、湍流学等课程,对高斯模式的建立理解难度较大,本文意在通过简单的数学推导和图解,使学生在课堂学习中基本了解该模式的出处,并正确使用该模式。     

职业大学环境监测课程教学改革的研究与实践

从高等职业教育坚持以”能力培养为中心”的指导思想出发，在总结了以往办学的基础上，分别着重在课堂教学，实践教学、考核方式以及师资建设等方面针对职业大学环境类专业监测调和的学科特点及存在的问题，对该课程的教学改革进行了研究和实践。     

Pervasive alteration of tree communities in undisturbed Amazonian forests

Amazonian rainforests are some of the most species-rich tree communities on earth. Here we show that, over the past two decades, forests in a central Amazonian landscape have experienced highly nonrandom changes in dynamics and composition. Our analyses are based on a network of 18 permanent plots unaffected by any detectable disturbance. Within these plots, rates of tree mortality, recruitment and growth have increased over time. Of 115 relatively abundant tree genera, 27 changed significantly in population density or basal area--a value nearly 14 times greater than that expected by chance. An independent, eight-year study in nearby forests corroborates these shifts in composition. Contrary to recent predictions, we observed no increase in pioneer trees. However, genera of faster-growing trees, including many canopy and emergent species, are increasing in dominance or density, whereas genera of slower-growing trees, including many subcanopy species, are declining. Rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations may explain these changes, although the effects of this and other large-scale environmental alterations remain uncertain. These compositional changes could have important impacts on the carbon storage, dynamics and biota of Amazonian forests.     

Hedgehog signalling within airway epithelial progenitors and in small-cell lung cancer

Embryonic signalling pathways regulate progenitor cell fates in mammalian epithelial development and cancer. Prompted by the requirement for sonic hedgehog (Shh) signalling in lung development, we investigated a role for this pathway in regeneration and carcinogenesis of airway epithelium. Here we demonstrate extensive activation of the hedgehog (Hh) pathway within the airway epithelium during repair of acute airway injury. This mode of Hh signalling is characterized by the elaboration and reception of the Shh signal within the epithelial compartment, and immediately precedes neuroendocrine differentiation. We reveal a similar pattern of Hh signalling in airway development during normal differentiation of pulmonary neuroendocrine precursor cells, and in a subset of small-cell lung cancer (SCLC), a highly aggressive and frequently lethal human tumour with primitive neuroendocrine features. These tumours maintain their malignant phenotype in vitro and in vivo through ligand-dependent Hh pathway activation. We propose that some types of SCLC might recapitulate a critical, Hh-regulated event in airway epithelial differentiation. This requirement for Hh pathway activation identifies a common lethal malignancy that may respond to pharmacological blockade of the Hh signalling pathway.     

Engineering evolution to study speciation in yeasts

The Saccharomyces 'sensu stricto' yeasts are a group of species that will mate with one another, but interspecific pairings produce sterile hybrids. A retrospective analysis of their genomes revealed that translocations between the chromosomes of these species do not correlate with the group's sequence-based phylogeny (that is, translocations do not drive the process of speciation). However, that analysis was unable to infer what contribution such rearrangements make to reproductive isolation between these organisms. Here, we report experiments that take an interventionist, rather than a retrospective approach to studying speciation, by reconfiguring the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome so that it is collinear with that of Saccharomyces mikatae. We demonstrate that this imposed genomic collinearity allows the generation of interspecific hybrids that produce a large proportion of spores that are viable, but extensively aneuploid. We obtained similar results in crosses between wild-type S. cerevisiae and the naturally collinear species Saccharomyces paradoxus, but not with non-collinear crosses. This controlled comparison of the effect of chromosomal translocation on species barriers suggests a mechanism for the generation of redundancy in the S. cerevisiae genome.