Fast core rotation in red-giant stars as revealed by gravity-dominated mixed modes

When the core hydrogen is exhausted during stellar evolution, the central region of a star contracts and the outer envelope expands and cools, giving rise to a red giant. Convection takes place over much of the star's radius. Conservation of angular momentum requires that the cores of these stars rotate faster than their envelopes; indirect evidence supports this. Information about the angular-momentum distribution is inaccessible to direct observations, but it can be extracted from the effect of rotation on oscillation modes that probe the stellar interior. Here we report an increasing rotation rate from the surface of the star to the stellar core in the interiors of red giants, obtained using the rotational frequency splitting of recently detected 'mixed modes'. By comparison with theoretical stellar models, we conclude that the core must rotate at least ten times faster than the surface. This observational result confirms the theoretical prediction of a steep gradient in the rotation profile towards the deep stellar interior.     

DCC constrains tumour progression via its dependence receptor activity

The role of deleted in colorectal carcinoma (DCC) as a tumour suppressor has been a matter of debate for the past 15 years. DCC gene expression is lost or markedly reduced in the majority of advanced colorectal cancers and, by functioning as a dependence receptor, DCC has been shown to induce apoptosis unless engaged by its ligand, netrin-1 (ref. 2). However, so far no animal model has supported the view that the DCC loss-of-function is causally implicated as predisposing to aggressive cancer development. To investigate the role of DCC-induced apoptosis in the control of tumour progression, here we created a mouse model in which the pro-apoptotic activity of DCC is genetically silenced. Although the loss of DCC-induced apoptosis in this mouse model is not associated with a major disorganization of the intestines, it leads to spontaneous intestinal neoplasia at a relatively low frequency. Loss of DCC-induced apoptosis is also associated with an increase in the number and aggressiveness of intestinal tumours in a predisposing APC mutant context, resulting in the development of highly invasive adenocarcinomas. These results demonstrate that DCC functions as a tumour suppressor via its ability to trigger tumour cell apoptosis.     

大熊猫肠道抗生素耐药菌质粒的研究

对分离自四川省卧龙保护区大熊猫肠道的6株大肠杆菌的抗生素抗性与质粒的关系进行了研究,结果显示：6株大肠杆菌中都存在不同大小的质粒DNA;采用SDS高温法处理每株大肠杆菌后,有2类质粒在琼脂糖凝胶上的条带数减少,菌株的抗生素抗性水平也有所降低,有2株菌的某些抗生素抗性完全消失;将分离自6株大肠杆菌的质粒转化大肠杆菌JM109,获得1个氨苄青霉素抗性转化子.这些结果表明,大熊猫肠道中的大肠杆菌的抗生素抗性与它们含有的质粒有关.     

In vivo enhancer analysis of human conserved non-coding sequences

Identifying the sequences that direct the spatial and temporal expression of genes and defining their function in vivo remains a significant challenge in the annotation of vertebrate genomes. One major obstacle is the lack of experimentally validated training sets. In this study, we made use of extreme evolutionary sequence conservation as a filter to identify putative gene regulatory elements, and characterized the in vivo enhancer activity of a large group of non-coding elements in the human genome that are conserved in human-pufferfish, Takifugu (Fugu) rubripes, or ultraconserved in human-mouse-rat. We tested 167 of these extremely conserved sequences in a transgenic mouse enhancer assay. Here we report that 45% of these sequences functioned reproducibly as tissue-specific enhancers of gene expression at embryonic day 11.5. While directing expression in a broad range of anatomical structures in the embryo, the majority of the 75 enhancers directed expression to various regions of the developing nervous system. We identified sequence signatures enriched in a subset of these elements that targeted forebrain expression, and used these features to rank all approximately 3,100 non-coding elements in the human genome that are conserved between human and Fugu. The testing of the top predictions in transgenic mice resulted in a threefold enrichment for sequences with forebrain enhancer activity. These data dramatically expand the catalogue of human gene enhancers that have been characterized in vivo, and illustrate the utility of such training sets for a variety of biological applications, including decoding the regulatory vocabulary of the human genome.     

Supercurrent reversal in quantum dots

When two superconductors are electrically connected by a weak link--such as a tunnel barrier--a zero-resistance supercurrent can flow. This supercurrent is carried by Cooper pairs of electrons with a combined charge of twice the elementary charge, e. The 2e charge quantum is clearly visible in the height of voltage steps in Josephson junctions under microwave irradiation, and in the magnetic flux periodicity of h/2e (where h is Planck's constant) in superconducting quantum interference devices. Here we study supercurrents through a quantum dot created in a semiconductor nanowire by local electrostatic gating. Owing to strong Coulomb interaction, electrons only tunnel one-by-one through the discrete energy levels of the quantum dot. This nevertheless can yield a supercurrent when subsequent tunnel events are coherent. These quantum coherent tunnelling processes can result in either a positive or a negative supercurrent, that is, in a normal or a pi-junction, respectively. We demonstrate that the supercurrent reverses sign by adding a single electron spin to the quantum dot. When excited states of the quantum dot are involved in transport, the supercurrent sign also depends on the character of the orbital wavefunctions.     

甘肃窑街侏罗纪Yuchoulepis szechuanensis Su的发现及地质学意义

对甘肃中侏罗统窑街组油页岩段中的四川渝州鱼化石进行了初步研究，认为该油页岩段的形成时代应为中侏罗世阿林期(Aalenian)——巴柔期(Bajocian)．并利用埋藏学和现代湖泊学的研究，结合含鱼化石上、下地层中生物类群的特点，推测了当时鱼群生活的环境及其死亡原因，论证了此期的气候特点为温暖潮湿性．     

华北落叶松鞘蛾生物学特性及防治技术研究

对华北落叶松鞘蛾在山西省的生活史及其生活习性作了介绍，并提出了综合防治措施。