Horses damp the spring in their step.

The muscular work of galloping in horses is halved by storing and returning elastic strain energy in spring-like muscle-tendon units.These make the legs act like a child's pogo stick that is tuned to stretch and recoil at 2.5 strides per second. This mechanism is optimized by unique musculoskeletal adaptations: the digital flexor muscles have extremely short fibres and significant passive properties, whereas the tendons are very long and span several joints. Length change occurs by a stretching of the spring-like digital flexor tendons rather than through energetically expensive length changes in the muscle. Despite being apparently redundant for such a mechanism, the muscle fibres in the digital flexors are well developed. Here we show that the mechanical arrangement of the elastic leg permits it to vibrate at a higher frequency of 30-40 Hz that could cause fatigue damage to tendon and bone. Furthermore, we show that the digital flexor muscles have minimal ability to contribute to or regulate significantly the 2.5-Hz cycle of movement, but are ideally arranged to damp these high-frequency oscillations in the limb.     

中国人看生物技术——2003-2007研究报告

本文基于"中国公众对生物技术应用态度的研究",项目从2003年开始到2007年结束,先后获得中国和丹麦政府间科技合作项目、浙江省自然科学基金、浙江省科技国际合作项目的资助.研究参照欧洲EUROBAROMETER研究范式设计问卷,采用职业分层抽样的方法,对我国代表性样本浙江四个地区的4157名公众进行了生物技术应用态度的纵向实证研究,定量分析并定性描述了我国公众对生物技术应用态度的轮廓和远景.     

Chemistry of ion coordination and hydration revealed by a K+ channel-Fab complex at 2.0 A resolution.

Ion transport proteins must remove an ion's hydration shell to coordinate the ion selectively on the basis of its size and charge. To discover how the K+ channel solves this fundamental aspect of ion conduction, we solved the structure of the KcsA K+ channel in complex with a monoclonal Fab antibody fragment at 2.0 A resolution. Here we show how the K+ channel displaces water molecules around an ion at its extracellular entryway, and how it holds a K+ ion in a square antiprism of water molecules in a cavity near its intracellular entryway. Carbonyl oxygen atoms within the selectivity filter form a very similar square antiprism around each K+ binding site, as if to mimic the waters of hydration. The selectivity filter changes its ion coordination structure in low K+ solutions. This structural change is crucial to the operation of the selectivity filter in the cellular context, where the K+ ion concentration near the selectivity filter varies in response to channel gating.     

液化天然气冷能利用途径初探

随着我国天然气进口量的大幅增长,绿色环保的伴生型能源LNG冷能利用引起了广泛重视.文章从阐述LNG冷能及能源价值入手,对LNG冷能的主要利用技术进行了分析,对LNG冷能在国内的利用途径进行了探讨,提出了冷能发电的实际可行性及大规模利用的方法.     

右中立Beta过程的一些结果

给出了非参数Bayesian 中的Beta 过程的2个性质,并证明了在考虑非参数Bayesian 时,用Beta 过程和Beta-Stacy 过程作先验是等价的.     

Vaccination against and treatment of tuberculosis, the leishmaniases and AIDS: perspectives from basic immunology and immunity to chronic intracellular infections

The occurrence of infectious disease represents a failure of the immune system, a failure that must be prevented by effective vaccination or remedied by treatment. Vaccination against acute diseases such as smallpox and polio are very effective, due to the rapid and increased immune response of vaccinated individuals upon natural infection. In contrast, effective vaccination against intracellular pathogens that cause chronic diseases, such as the leishmaniases, tuberculosis and AIDS, has not been achieved. Clinical observations suggest cell-mediated, Th1 responses, exclusive of antibody production and the generation of Th2 cells, are optimally protective against these intracellular pathogens. Effective vaccination must ensure the generation of such a protective response. We explore here whether understanding very broad features of the regulation of the immune response can accommodate modern findings on the immunological features of these diseases, and provide a perspective within which strategies for effective vaccination and treatment can be developed.     

多孔结构纺锤形α-Fe2O3的合成及光催化性能

采用碳酸钠和氢氧化钠为沉淀剂,在没有表面活性剂存在的情况下,通过水热法合成得到具有多孔结构的纺锤形α-Fe2O3,单颗粒长约为500 nm,孔径约为50nm.利用X线衍射(XRD)、透射电镜(TEM)、扫描电镜(SEM)和选区电子衍射(SAED)对产物的结构和形貌进行表征,并对多孔结构的形成机理进行解释.通过对甲基橙溶液的降解实验考查产物的光催化性能.光催化实验结果表明其催化性能优于一般α-Fe2O3纳米颗粒,这可能是由于其多孔结构和较大的比表面积造成的.     

Global awareness, future city design and decision making

Our world has been changing at an exponential rate.As a result of this rapid growth,we will be forced to make changes in not only the way we live in the environment but also in the environment itself such as designing the cities of the future to be in greater harmony with the increasing population and growing complexity.The paper contains both reflections on global awareness and comprehensive criteria and their priorities for choosing the most desirable city.