The tumour-suppressor genes lgl and dlg regulate basal protein targeting in Drosophila neuroblasts

Drosophila neuroblasts are a model system for studying asymmetric cell division: they divide unequally to produce an apical neuroblast and a basal ganglion mother cell that differ in size, mitotic activity and developmental potential. During neuroblast mitosis, an apical protein complex orients the mitotic spindle and targets determinants of cell fate to the basal cortex, but the mechanism of each process is unknown. Here we show that the tumour-suppressor genes lethal giant larvae (lgl) and discs large (dlg) regulate basal protein targeting, but not apical complex formation or spindle orientation, in both embryonic and larval neuroblasts. Dlg protein is apically enriched and is required for maintaining cortical localization of Lgl protein. Basal protein targeting requires microfilament and myosin function, yet the lgl phenotype is strongly suppressed by reducing levels of myosin II. We conclude that Dlg and Lgl promote, and myosin II inhibits, actomyosin-dependent basal protein targeting in neuroblasts.     

Ce-MCM-41分子筛催化臭氧氧化水中腐殖酸

采用水热法合成铈掺杂MCM-41（Ce-MCM-41）介孔分子筛,并将其用于臭氧氧化水中腐殖酸.本文研究了催化剂投加量、铈掺杂量、反应温度和初始pH对腐殖酸降解及矿化的影响. 结果表明,腐殖酸在Ce-MCM-41/O3体系内可实现有效降解. 与单独臭氧氧化相比,Ce-MCM-41催化剂的加入可提高臭氧氧化腐殖酸的矿化效果. 催化剂投加量为100 mg/L时,催化剂具有较好的催化活性,反应60min,DOC去除率为70.58%（Si/Ce=80）;三种铈掺杂量催化剂的添加均能提高腐殖酸矿化效果. 在278 ~308 K实验范围内,腐殖酸溶液的DOC去除率和UV254去除率均随反应温度升高而提高.溶液初始pH为6.0~8.5时,DOC去除率随碱性增强而略微下降. 表明温度和溶液初始pH影响催化臭氧氧化去除腐殖酸的效果. 此外,还考察了添加Ce-MCM-41对含溴水臭氧氧化过程中溴酸盐生成的影响,与单独臭氧相比,1.00 g Ce-MCM-41分子筛的加入减少了46.94%溴酸盐生成. 结果表明添加Ce-MCM-41分子筛可抑制溴酸盐的生成. 因此Ce-MCM-41分子筛可用于提高臭氧氧化腐殖酸效果和减少含溴水臭氧氧化过程中溴酸盐的生成.     

The suppression of star formation by powerful active galactic nuclei

The old, red stars that constitute the bulges of galaxies, and the massive black holes at their centres, are the relics of a period in cosmic history when galaxies formed stars at remarkable rates and active galactic nuclei (AGN) shone brightly as a result of accretion onto black holes. It is widely suspected, but unproved, that the tight correlation between the mass of the black hole and the mass of the stellar bulge results from the AGN quenching the surrounding star formation as it approaches its peak luminosity. X-rays trace emission from AGN unambiguously, whereas powerful star-forming galaxies are usually dust-obscured and are brightest at infrared and submillimetre wavelengths. Here we report submillimetre and X-ray observations that show that rapid star formation was common in the host galaxies of AGN when the Universe was 2-6 billion years old, but that the most vigorous star formation is not observed around black holes above an X-ray luminosity of 10(44) ergs per second. This suppression of star formation in the host galaxy of a powerful AGN is a key prediction of models in which the AGN drives an outflow, expelling the interstellar medium of its host and transforming the galaxy's properties in a brief period of cosmic time.     

Superconductivity in the non-oxide perovskite MgCNi3

The interplay of magnetic interactions, the dimensionality of the crystal structure and electronic correlations in producing superconductivity is one of the dominant themes in the study of the electronic properties of complex materials. Although magnetic interactions and two-dimensional structures were long thought to be detrimental to the formation of a superconducting state, they are actually common features of both the high transition-temperature (Tc) copper oxides and low-Tc material Sr2RuO4, where they appear to be essential contributors to the exotic electronic states of these materials. Here we report that the perovskite-structured compound MgCNi3 is superconducting with a critical temperature of 8 K. This material is the three-dimensional analogue of the LnNi2B2C family of superconductors, which have critical temperatures up to 16 K (ref. 2). The itinerant electrons in both families of materials arise from the partial filling of the nickel d-states, which generally leads to ferromagnetism as is the case in metallic Ni. The high relative proportion of Ni in MgCNi3 suggests that magnetic interactions are important, and the lower Tc of this three-dimensional compound-when compared to the LnNi2B2C family-contrasts with conventional ideas regarding the origins of superconductivity.     

Silane as Electrolyte Additives for Lithium Ion Batteries

1 Results In order to overcome the inherent incompatibility of PC with graphite in the lithium ion battery system, improve their electrochemical performance at low temperature,phenyl tris-2-methoxydiethoxy silane (PTMS) has been studied as an additive to the PC-based electrolyte of lithium ion batteries with graphite anode. From the cyclic voltammogram for the graphite anode in the PC-based electrolyte,we find that in the case of the electrolyte without the additive,there is a large irreversible peak ne...     

Preservation of ancient and fertile lithospheric mantle beneath the southwestern United States

Stable continental regions, free from tectonic activity, are generally found only within ancient cratons-the centres of continents which formed in the Archaean era, 4.0-2.5 Gyr ago. But in the Cordilleran mountain belt of western North America some younger (middle Proterozoic) regions have remained stable, whereas some older (late Archaean) regions have been tectonically disturbed, suggesting that age alone does not determine lithospheric strength and crustal stability. Here we report rhenium-osmium isotope and mineral compositions of peridotite xenoliths from two regions of the Cordilleran mountain belt. We found that the younger, undeformed Colorado plateau is underlain by lithospheric mantle that is 'depleted' (deficient in minerals extracted by partial melting of the rock), whereas the older (Archaean), yet deformed, southern Basin and Range province is underlain by 'fertile' lithospheric mantle (not depleted by melt extraction). We suggest that the apparent relationship between composition and lithospheric strength, inferred from different degrees of crustal deformation, occurs because depleted mantle is intrinsically less dense than fertile mantle (due to iron having been lost when melt was extracted from the rock). This allows the depleted mantle to form a thicker thermal boundary layer between the deep convecting mantle and the crust, thus reducing tectonic activity at the surface. The inference that not all Archaean crust developed a strong and thick thermal boundary layer leads to the possibility that such ancient crust may have been overlooked because of its intensive reworking or lost from the geological record owing to preferential recycling.     

Emergent excitations in a geometrically frustrated magnet

Frustrated systems are ubiquitous, and they are interesting because their behaviour is difficult to predict; frustration can lead to macroscopic degeneracies and qualitatively new states of matter. Magnetic systems offer good examples in the form of spin lattices, where all interactions between spins cannot be simultaneously satisfied. Here we report how unusual composite spin degrees of freedom can emerge from frustrated magnetic interactions in the cubic spinel ZnCr(2)O(4). Upon cooling, groups of six spins self-organize into weakly interacting antiferromagnetic loops, whose directors -- the unique direction along which the spins are aligned, parallel or antiparallel -- govern all low-temperature dynamics. The experimental evidence comes from a measurement of the magnetic form factor by inelastic neutron scattering; the data show that neutrons scatter from hexagonal spin clusters rather than individual spins. The hexagon directors are, to a first approximation, decoupled from each other, and hence their reorientations embody the long-sought local zero energy modes for the pyrochlore lattice.     

Impact of bolus volume on small intestinal intra-luminal impedance in healthy subjects

AIM: To assess the impact of bolus volume on the characteristics of small intestinal (SI) impedance signals.METHODS: Concurrent SI manometry-impedance measurements were performed on 12 healthy volunteers to assess the pattern of proximal jejunal fluid bolus movement over a 14 cm-segment.Each subject was given 34 boluses of normal saline (volume from 1 to 30 mL) via the feeding tube placed immediately above the proximal margin of the studied segment.A bolus-induced impedance event occurred if there was > 12%...     

Generation and annotation of the DNA sequences of human chromosomes 2 and 4

Human chromosome 2 is unique to the human lineage in being the product of a head-to-head fusion of two intermediate-sized ancestral chromosomes. Chromosome 4 has received attention primarily related to the search for the Huntington's disease gene, but also for genes associated with Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, polycystic kidney disease and a form of muscular dystrophy. Here we present approximately 237 million base pairs of sequence for chromosome 2, and 186 million base pairs for chromosome 4, representing more than 99.6% of their euchromatic sequences. Our initial analyses have identified 1,346 protein-coding genes and 1,239 pseudogenes on chromosome 2, and 796 protein-coding genes and 778 pseudogenes on chromosome 4. Extensive analyses confirm the underlying construction of the sequence, and expand our understanding of the structure and evolution of mammalian chromosomes, including gene deserts, segmental duplications and highly variant regions.     

茉莉酸受体多功能纳米探针的合成与应用

将巯基丙酸修饰的CdTe量子点和植物激素茉莉酸通过一步法偶联到表面修饰氨基的Fe3O4纳米颗粒表面,合成了一种同时具有荧光信号、磁响应性能和特异性标记植物原生质体中茉莉酸受体的多功能磁性荧光纳米探针. 荧光光谱测试表明该探针保持了CdTe量子点荧光性能,具有荧光强度高,适用体系的pH范围宽,抗光漂白性能好等优点. 磁响应及磁滞回线测试充分说明该探针具有良好的超顺磁性. 使用该探针对绿豆原生质体中茉莉酸受体进行成像,结果表明,该探针对茉莉酸受体具有选择性标记的功能,茉莉酸受体主要存在于原生质体膜上. 该标记方法简单方便,能为茉莉酸信号转导研究提供可视化的信息.