Inner ear of the coelacanth fish Latimeria has tetrapod affinities

Auditory reception in elasmobranchs, teleosts and amphibians may be mediated by various inner-ear sensory epithelia 1–3, including the basilar papilla, which seems to be the precursor of the cochlea in mammals. The origin of the basilar papilla remains a major unsolved problem for understanding the evolution of hearing in terrestrial vertebrates4–6. Study of living species indicates that the basilar papilla is a unique feature of tetrapods 6,7, but palaeonto-logical data indicate that this epithelium as well as a middle ear, is already present in crossopterygian fish 8–10. However, no basilar papilla has been found in the only living crossopterygian species, the coelacanth Latimeria chalumnae 11. I have re-examined the inner ear of adult and embryonic Latimeria and find a membranous specialization which resembles in structure, position and innerva-tion pattern the basilar papilla of tetrapods, in particular amniotes. No epithelium comparable to the basilar papilla was found in lungfish. I suggest that the basilar papillae of Latimeria and tetrapods are homologous and evolved only once in their common ancestor.     

静电陀螺寻北仪的力学原理

静电陀螺仪是当今世界上精度最高的陀螺仪,研制静电陀螺寻北仪是为了寻求高精度的方位测量仪器。采用静电陀螺仪组成寻北仪可采用以下两种方式：力反馈方式和自由陀螺方式。前者水平方向包含两个力反馈回路,通过测量反馈回路电流得出方位角。后者陀螺自由转动数分钟,通过测量静电陀螺水平轴偏角得出方位角。该文讨论了力反馈方式和自由陀螺方式静电陀螺寻北仪力学原理,其中包括两种方式下坐标变换及获得方位角的算法推导,并得出结论。     

静电陀螺寻北仪中的磁干扰

电磁兼容性的问题尤其对采用静电陀螺作为核心元件的高精度寻北仪越来越显得重要。有关静电陀螺的文献对于静电干扰讨论较多,本文则侧重对静电陀螺寻北仪中的磁干扰进行讨论。磁干扰包括外部磁干扰和内部磁干扰,外部磁干扰可通过严格的电磁屏蔽加以排除,对于内部磁干扰本文推导了有关数学关系式,必要时可以加以补偿。     

超滤法分级和纯化蛋白质的现状和前景(英文)

超滤法具有高产率、低成本、容易放大等显著优点,但其低选择性一直限制其在生物蛋白制品的分级和纯化中的应用。本文总结和分析了超滤法用于蛋白质分级和纯化的近期研究成果,对其低选择性的原因进行了分析,提出并论证了提高超滤选择性的技术途径。     

Symmetry perception in an insect

Symmetrical visual patterns have a salient status in human perception, as evinced by their prevalent occurrence in art, and also in animal perception, where they may be an indicator of phenotypic and genotypic quality. Symmetry perception has been demonstrated in humans, birds, dolphins and apes. Here we show that bees trained to discriminate bilaterally symmetrical from non-symmetrical patterns learn the task and transfer it appropriately to novel stimuli, thus demonstrating a capacity to detect and generalize symmetry or asymmetry. We conclude that bees, and possibly flower-visiting insects in general, can acquire a generalized preference towards symmetrical or, alternatively, asymmetrical patterns depending on experience, and that symmetry detection is preformed or can be learned as perceptual category by insects, because it can be extracted as an independent visual pattern feature. Bees show a predisposition for learning and generalized symmetry because, if trained to it, they choose it more frequently, come closer to and hover longer in front of the novel symmetrical stimuli than the bees trained for asymmetry do for the novel asymmetrical stimuli. Thus, even organisms with comparatively small nervous systems can generalize about symmetry, and favour symmetrical over asymmetrical patterns.     

今年的“厄尔尼诺”有可能成为世纪之最

近6个月来,太平洋的热带水域一直在扩散,从国际日期变更线蔓延到了南美洲沿海。气象学家对此一直非常关注,密切跟踪着它的变化,因为这就是能够在大气和海洋中翻云覆雨的"厄尔尼诺"现象。而且,有迹象表明,眼下的"厄尔尼诺"现象正在积蓄力量,有可能在未来的几个月内给世界天气带来巨大的变化。热带风暴频频造访墨西哥、智利和秘鲁,使之大雨不断,澳大利亚和印度尼西亚干旱少雨......科学家认为,种种迹象表明,强大的"厄尔尼诺"已经左右了世界天气。本年度的"厄尔尼诺"很可能使本世纪所有的"厄尔尼诺"相形见细。它对热带洋面的影响范…     

Holocene lake deposits of Bosten Lake, southern Xinjiang, China

A 9.25-m-long sediment core from Bosten Lake,Xinjiang, provides detailed information about changes in the water budget and biological acticity over the last 8400 cal-endar years. The chronology is constructed from six AMS radiocarbon dates on the terrestrial plant remains. Based onanalyses of TOC, CO3, detrital compounds and biogenic SiO2,lake level fluctuations and periods of remarkably-negative water budget appeared at 8.4-8.2 cal ka, 7.38-7.25 cal ka,5.7-5.5 cal ka, 3.7-3.4 cal ka and 3.3-2.9 cal ka, respec-tively. As they are in-phase with low lake levels at Sumxl Co and Bangong Co in western Tibet Plateau and with paleo-lakes in Inner Mongolia, a climate-induced change to some-what drier and warmer conditions is inferred. A further drop in lake level after 1320 AD of about 200 yr duration may heattributed to a negative water balance prior to the main phase of the Little Ice Age. Deep and stable lake phases of 1500 yr and 1800 yr duration at 7.2-5.7 cal ka and 5.5-3.7cal ka coincide with maximum moisture during the Holocene Megathermai in China. The long term trend towards aridity since about 4.3 cal ka can dearly be recognised. The reduced water budget of Bosten Lake from 640-1200 AD may be attributed to local effects.     

基因图的导向

基因图的导向ＢｅｎＨａｒｄｉｎ著梁宪实译许国平校随着世界上第一张牛和猪的基因构造图谱的公布，人们期望性畜育种技术将发生巨大的进展，进入一个崭新的时代。自从１９９４年４月第一阶段交互式基因组数据库进入计算机网络，美国农业研究署的化学家ＣｒａｉｇＷ．Ｂｅ...