Metagenomic and functional analysis of hindgut microbiota of a wood-feeding higher termite

From the standpoints of both basic research and biotechnology, there is considerable interest in reaching a clearer understanding of the diversity of biological mechanisms employed during lignocellulose degradation. Globally, termites are an extremely successful group of wood-degrading organisms and are therefore important both for their roles in carbon turnover in the environment and as potential sources of biochemical catalysts for efforts aimed at converting wood into biofuels. Only recently have data supported any direct role for the symbiotic bacteria in the gut of the termite in cellulose and xylan hydrolysis. Here we use a metagenomic analysis of the bacterial community resident in the hindgut paunch of a wood-feeding 'higher' Nasutitermes species (which do not contain cellulose-fermenting protozoa) to show the presence of a large, diverse set of bacterial genes for cellulose and xylan hydrolysis. Many of these genes were expressed in vivo or had cellulase activity in vitro, and further analyses implicate spirochete and fibrobacter species in gut lignocellulose degradation. New insights into other important symbiotic functions including H2 metabolism, CO2-reductive acetogenesis and N2 fixation are also provided by this first system-wide gene analysis of a microbial community specialized towards plant lignocellulose degradation. Our results underscore how complex even a 1-microl environment can be.     

新型钢管砼框架节点试验研究及其应用

给出了钢管混凝土框架节点的试验结果,并采用有限元法对新型节点模式进行了应力场分析。介绍了该新型节点的设计方案及在实际工程中的应用。     

转炉炼钢的物料结构优化

利用60 t转炉研究了采用不同含铁物料及不同比例石灰石炼钢时的钢铁料消耗、氧气消耗量和煤气产生量的变化规律.研究发现：当采用铁水作为原料,渣钢和块矿作为冷却剂时,钢铁料消耗最低,仅为1072.07 kg·t-1;当采用铁水和废钢作为原料,配有磁选渣铁时,钢铁料消耗最高,达到1092.91 kg·t-1;随着石灰石加入量的增加,钢铁料消耗增加,氧耗略有降低,吨钢煤气产生量增加.研究结果为炼钢过程优化物料结构、降低生产成本提供了新的方法.     

基于匹配效率和计算精度提升的双目三维树干重建算法改进

针对基于双目立体视觉的自然树木枝干的三维重建过程中二维骨架点的匹配效率低,三维坐标点计算精度不高等问题,在骨架点对应方面,将点匹配代之以更大的枝干匹配,大大缩小了对应点的匹配范围,减少了点匹配次数,提高了匹配效率.三维坐标点计算方面,考虑方程组的几何意义,采用异面直线公垂线中点逼近三维空间点的方法,提高了点坐标的计算精度.     

乳状液膜技术在环境保护中的应用

乳状液膜分离技术是一种新兴的节能型分离手段。介绍了乳状液膜分离技术,综述乳状液膜技术在环境保护方面的应用进展情况。     

Dynamics of collapsing and exploding Bose-Einstein condensates.

When atoms in a gas are cooled to extremely low temperatures, they will-under the appropriate conditions-condense into a single quantum-mechanical state known as a Bose-Einstein condensate. In such systems, quantum-mechanical behaviour is evident on a macroscopic scale. Here we explore the dynamics of how a Bose-Einstein condensate collapses and subsequently explodes when the balance of forces governing its size and shape is suddenly altered. A condensate's equilibrium size and shape is strongly affected by the interatomic interactions. Our ability to induce a collapse by switching the interactions from repulsive to attractive by tuning an externally applied magnetic field yields detailed information on the violent collapse process. We observe anisotropic atom bursts that explode from the condensate, atoms leaving the condensate in undetected forms, spikes appearing in the condensate wavefunction and oscillating remnant condensates that survive the collapse. All these processes have curious dependences on time, on the strength of the interaction and on the number of condensate atoms. Although the system would seem to be simple and well characterized, our measurements reveal many phenomena that challenge theoretical models.     

Equilibrating metal-oxide cluster ensembles for oxidation reactions using oxygen in water.

Although many enzymes can readily and selectively use oxygen in water-the most familiar and attractive of all oxidants and solvents, respectively-the design of synthetic catalysts for selective water-based oxidation processes utilizing molecular oxygen remains a daunting task. Particularly problematic is the fact that oxidation of substrates by O2 involves radical chemistry, which is intrinsically non-selective and difficult to control. In addition, metallo-organic catalysts are inherently susceptible to degradation by oxygen-based radicals, while their transition-metal-ion active sites often react with water to give insoluble, and thus inactive, oxides or hydroxides. Furthermore, pH control is often required to avoid acid or base degradation of organic substrates or products. Unlike metallo-organic catalysts, polyoxometalate anions are oxidatively stable and are reversible oxidants for use with O2 (refs 8,9,10). Here we show how thermodynamically controlled self-assembly of an equilibrated ensemble of polyoxometalates, with the heteropolytungstate anion [AIVVW11O40]6- as its main component, imparts both stability in water and internal pH-management. Designed to operate at near-neutral pH, this system facilitates a two-step O2-based process for the selective delignification of wood (lignocellulose) fibres. By directly monitoring the central Al atom, we show that equilibration reactions typical of polyoxometalate anions keep the pH of the system near 7 during both process steps.     

Individual recognition in mice mediated by major urinary proteins.

The ability to recognize individuals is essential to many aspects of social behaviour, such as the maintenance of stable social groups, parent-offspring or mate recognition, inbreeding avoidance and the modulation of competitive relationships. Odours are a primary mediator of individuality signals among many mammals. One source of odour complexity in rodents, and possibly in humans, resides in the highly polymorphic major histocompatibility complex (MHC). The olfactory acuity of mice and rats allows them to distinguish between the urinary odours of congenic strains differing only in single genes within the MHC, although the chemical mediators or odorants are unknown. However, rodent urine also contains a class of proteins, termed major urinary proteins (MUPs), that bind and release small volatile pheromones. We have shown that the combinatorial diversity of expression of MUPs among wild mice might be as great as for MHC, and at protein concentrations a million times higher. Here we show in wild house mice (Mus domesticus) that urinary MUPs play an important role in the individual recognition mechanism.