STUDY ON THE ELEMENTAL CHLORINE FREE BLEACHING OF BAMBOO KRAFT PULP

1INTRODUCTIONChina is a country using the most variety of non-wood fiber raw material and is the largest country producing non-wood fiber pulp and paper in the world[1]. Bamboo is one kind of the main non-wood species for papermaking in China. Although the structure of raw materials for papermaking has being adjusted through increasing the proportion of wood pulp and by effectively utilizing waste paper source, non-wood species will still remain an important fiber resource[1,2].At present…     

Self-incompatibility triggers programmed cell death in Papaver pollen

Sexual reproduction in many angiosperm plants involves self-incompatibility (SI), which is one of the most important mechanisms to prevent inbreeding. SI is genetically controlled by the S-locus, and involves highly specific interactions during pollination between pollen and the pistil on which it lands. This results in the rejection of incompatible ('self') pollen, whereas compatible ('non-self') pollen is allowed to fertilize the plant. In Papaver rhoeas, S-proteins encoded by the stigma component of the S-locus interact with incompatible pollen, triggering a Ca2+-dependent signalling network, resulting in the inhibition of pollen-tube growth. Programmed cell death (PCD) is a mechanism used by many organisms to destroy unwanted cells in a precisely regulated manner. Here we show that PCD is triggered by SI in an S-specific manner in incompatible pollen. This provides a demonstration of a SI system using PCD, revealing a novel mechanism to prevent self-fertilization. Furthermore, our data reveal that the response is biphasic; rapid inhibition of pollen-tube growth is followed by PCD, which is involved in a later 'decision-making' phase, making inhibition irreversible.     

Increased seasonality in Middle East temperatures during the last interglacial period

The last interglacial period (about 125,000 years ago) is thought to have been at least as warm as the present climate. Owing to changes in the Earth's orbit around the Sun, it is thought that insolation in the Northern Hemisphere varied more strongly than today on seasonal timescales, which would have led to corresponding changes in the seasonal temperature cycle. Here we present seasonally resolved proxy records using corals from the northernmost Red Sea, which record climate during the last interglacial period, the late Holocene epoch and the present. We find an increased seasonality in the temperature recorded in the last interglacial coral. Today, climate in the northern Red Sea is sensitive to the North Atlantic Oscillation, a climate oscillation that strongly influences winter temperatures and precipitation in the North Atlantic region. From our coral records and simulations with a coupled atmosphere-ocean circulation model, we conclude that a tendency towards the high-index state of the North Atlantic Oscillation during the last interglacial period, which is consistent with European proxy records, contributed to the larger amplitude of the seasonal cycle in the Middle East.     

Absence of S6K1 protects against age- and diet-induced obesity while enhancing insulin sensitivity

Elucidating the signalling mechanisms by which obesity leads to impaired insulin action is critical in the development of therapeutic strategies for the treatment of diabetes. Recently, mice deficient for S6 Kinase 1 (S6K1), an effector of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) that acts to integrate nutrient and insulin signals, were shown to be hypoinsulinaemic, glucose intolerant and have reduced beta-cell mass. However, S6K1-deficient mice maintain normal glucose levels during fasting, suggesting hypersensitivity to insulin, raising the question of their metabolic fate as a function of age and diet. Here, we report that S6K1-deficient mice are protected against obesity owing to enhanced beta-oxidation. However on a high fat diet, levels of glucose and free fatty acids still rise in S6K1-deficient mice, resulting in insulin receptor desensitization. Nevertheless, S6K1-deficient mice remain sensitive to insulin owing to the apparent loss of a negative feedback loop from S6K1 to insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS1), which blunts S307 and S636/S639 phosphorylation; sites involved in insulin resistance. Moreover, wild-type mice on a high fat diet as well as K/K A(y) and ob/ob (also known as Lep/Lep) mice-two genetic models of obesity-have markedly elevated S6K1 activity and, unlike S6K1-deficient mice, increased phosphorylation of IRS1 S307 and S636/S639. Thus under conditions of nutrient satiation S6K1 negatively regulates insulin signalling.     

The C. elegans genome sequencing project: a beginning.

The long-term goal of this project is the elucidation of the complete sequence of the Caenorhabditis elegans genome. During the first year methods have been developed and a strategy implemented that is amenable to large-scale sequencing. The three cosmids sequenced in this initial phase are surprisingly rich in genes, many of which have mammalian homologues.     

Anandamide and arachidonic acid use epoxyeicosatrienoic acids to activate TRPV4 channels

TRPV4 is a widely expressed cation channel of the 'transient receptor potential' (TRP) family that is related to the vanilloid receptor VR1 (TRPV1). It functions as a Ca2+ entry channel and displays remarkable gating promiscuity by responding to both physical stimuli (cell swelling, innoxious heat) and the synthetic ligand 4alphaPDD. An endogenous ligand for this channel has not yet been identified. Here we show that the endocannabinoid anandamide and its metabolite arachidonic acid activate TRPV4 in an indirect way involving the cytochrome P450 epoxygenase-dependent formation of epoxyeicosatrienoic acids. Application of 5',6'-epoxyeicosatrienoic acid at submicromolar concentrations activates TRPV4 in a membrane-delimited manner and causes Ca2+ influx through TRPV4-like channels in vascular endothelial cells. Activation of TRPV4 in vascular endothelial cells might therefore contribute to the relaxant effects of endocannabinoids and their P450 epoxygenase-dependent metabolites on vascular tone.     

Effect of MWCNT reinforcement on the precipitation-hardening behavior of AA2219

Aluminum alloy matrix composites have found a predominant place in research, and their applications are explored in almost all industries. The aerospace industry has been using precipitation-hardenable alloys in structural applications. However, insufficient literature is available on the influence of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on precipitation-hardenable alloy composite materials; thus, this work was designed to elucidate the effect on MWCNT reinforcement on AA2219 with and without precipitation hardening. Reinforcement with MWCNTs has been reported to accelerate precipitation and to achieve greater hardness within a much shorter time. The addition of 0.75wt% MWCNTs resulted in maximal hardness at 90 min, which is approximately 27% of improvement over the maximum hardness achieved by the corresponding monolithic alloy after 10 h of aging. The sample reinforced with 0.75wt% MWCNTs showed an improvement of 82% in hardness by solutionizing and aging compared to that achieved by sintering.     

A second generation human haplotype map of over 3.1 million SNPs

We describe the Phase II HapMap, which characterizes over 3.1 million human single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) genotyped in 270 individuals from four geographically diverse populations and includes 25-35% of common SNP variation in the populations surveyed. The map is estimated to capture untyped common variation with an average maximum r2 of between 0.9 and 0.96 depending on population. We demonstrate that the current generation of commercial genome-wide genotyping products captures common Phase II SNPs with an average maximum r2 of up to 0.8 in African and up to 0.95 in non-African populations, and that potential gains in power in association studies can be obtained through imputation. These data also reveal novel aspects of the structure of linkage disequilibrium. We show that 10-30% of pairs of individuals within a population share at least one region of extended genetic identity arising from recent ancestry and that up to 1% of all common variants are untaggable, primarily because they lie within recombination hotspots. We show that recombination rates vary systematically around genes and between genes of different function. Finally, we demonstrate increased differentiation at non-synonymous, compared to synonymous, SNPs, resulting from systematic differences in the strength or efficacy of natural selection between populations.