Comparative analysis of chimpanzee and human Y chromosomes unveils complex evolutionary pathway

The mammalian Y chromosome has unique characteristics compared with the autosomes or X chromosomes. Here we report the finished sequence of the chimpanzee Y chromosome (PTRY), including 271 kb of the Y-specific pseudoautosomal region 1 and 12.7 Mb of the male-specific region of the Y chromosome. Greater sequence divergence between the human Y chromosome (HSAY) and PTRY (1.78%) than between their respective whole genomes (1.23%) confirmed the accelerated evolutionary rate of the Y chromosome. Each of the 19 PTRY protein-coding genes analyzed had at least one nonsynonymous substitution, and 11 genes had higher nonsynonymous substitution rates than synonymous ones, suggesting relaxation of selective constraint, positive selection or both. We also identified lineage-specific changes, including deletion of a 200-kb fragment from the pericentromeric region of HSAY, expansion of young Alu families in HSAY and accumulation of young L1 elements and long terminal repeat retrotransposons in PTRY. Reconstruction of the common ancestral Y chromosome reflects the dynamic changes in our genomes in the 5-6 million years since speciation.     

A diffusion model for products with indirect network externalities

This paper develops a new diffusion model that incorporates the indirect network externality. The market with indirect network externalities is characterized by two‐way interactive effects between hardware and software products on their demands. Our model incorporates two‐way interactions in forecasting the diffusion of hardware products based on a simple but realistic assumption. The new model is parsimonious, easy to estimate, and does not require more data points than the Bass diffusion model. The new diffusion model was applied to forecast sales of DVD players in the United States and in South Korea, and to the sales of Digital TV sets in Australia. When compared to the Bass and NSRL diffusion models, the new model showed better performance in forecasting long‐term sales. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relativistic jet activity from the tidal disruption of a star by a massive black hole

Supermassive black holes have powerful gravitational fields with strong gradients that can destroy stars that get too close, producing a bright flare in ultraviolet and X-ray spectral regions from stellar debris that forms an accretion disk around the black hole. The aftermath of this process may have been seen several times over the past two decades in the form of sparsely sampled, slowly fading emission from distant galaxies, but the onset of the stellar disruption event has not hitherto been observed. Here we report observations of a bright X-ray flare from the extragalactic transient Swift J164449.3+573451. This source increased in brightness in the X-ray band by a factor of at least 10,000 since 1990 and by a factor of at least 100 since early 2010. We conclude that we have captured the onset of relativistic jet activity from a supermassive black hole. A companion paper comes to similar conclusions on the basis of radio observations. This event is probably due to the tidal disruption of a star falling into a supermassive black hole, but the detailed behaviour differs from current theoretical models of such events.     

利用松材线虫的内寄生真菌Esteya vermicola防治松萎蔫病

Esteya vermicola是首次发现的松材线虫的内寄生真菌。最近从韩国土壤中发现了该菌的一个新菌株。该菌株能产生两种孢子,并能在4~5 d内感染几乎所有测试的松材线虫分离物。最近2年里在韩国进行了该菌株的温室和林间的接种试验,使用了3种方法进行接种,即喷施、注干和将感染的松材线虫接种到松树上。结果证明,该菌在松树幼树中生长并侵染到接种松树中的松材线虫,在松树中也观察到该菌的存在。目前,对该菌的使用方法和施用配方的评价和商品化工作正在展开。     

Stream-power incision model in non-steady-state mountain ranges： An empirical approach

Stream-power incision model has always been applied to detecting the steady-state situation of ranges. Oblique arc-continent collision occurring during the period of Penglai Orogeny caused the Taiwan mountain belt to develop landscape of three evolution stages, namely stages of pre-steady-state (growing ranges in southern Taiwan), steady-state (ranges in central Taiwan) and post-steady-state (decaying ranges in northern Taiwan). In the analysis on streams of the Taiwan mountain belt made by exploring the relationship between the slope of bedrock channel (S) and the catchment area (A), the topographic features of the ranges at these three stages are acquired. The S-A plot of the steady-state ranges is in a linear form, revealing that the riverbed height of bedrock channel does not change over time (dz/dt = 0). The slope and intercept of the straight line S-A are related to evolution time of steady-state topography and tectonic uplift rate respectively. The S-A plots of the southern and northern ranges of Taiwan mountain belt appear to be in convex and concave forms respectively, implying that the riverbed height of bedrock channel at the two ranges rises (dz/dt > 0) and falls (dz/dt < 0) over time respectively. Their tangent intercept can still reflect the tectonic uplift rate. This study develops an empirical stream-power erosion model of pre-steady-state and post-steady-state topography.     

面向对象环境参数设置与模拟研究

模拟一般是为了应用于特定领域的问题而设计的,而模拟语言可以设计通用领域的问题,相对难度较大.开发模拟软件,有必要提供使用者容易掌握的参数和模拟技术环境,从而降低开发难度.介绍一种灵活的利用总体构造信息和各种规模参数自动建立模型的设计方法.构建以程序文档作为模拟技术中各种模型的基础,储存于模型数据库,选定相应模型的模板,输入相应参数,就可自动生成所需的特定模型.利用这一系统,建模者可以用最小的工作量形成复杂的大模型.选用两个案例实验验证其实用性和有效性.