DNA sequences from the quagga, an extinct member of the horse family

To determine whether DNA survives and can be recovered from the remains of extinct creatures, we have examined dried muscle from a museum specimen of the quagga, a zebra-like species (Equus quagga) that became extinct in 1883 (ref. 1). We report that DNA was extracted from this tissue in amounts approaching 1% of that expected from fresh muscle, and that the DNA was of relatively low molecular weight. Among the many clones obtained from the quagga DNA, two containing pieces of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) were sequenced. These sequences, comprising 229 nucleotide pairs, differ by 12 base substitutions from the corresponding sequences of mtDNA from a mountain zebra, an extant member of the genus Equus. The number, nature and locations of the substitutions imply that there has been little or no postmortem modification of the quagga DNA sequences, and that the two species had a common ancestor 3-4 Myr ago, consistent with fossil evidence concerning the age of the genus Equus.     

局部固支功能梯度板的横向弯曲研究

研究了局部固支功能梯度方板在横向均布载荷作用下的静力学问题。假设功能梯度材料由陶瓷和钢组成，材料弹性模量设计为沿着板的厚度方向按照幂指数形式连续变化，功能梯度方板的四个边均为局部固支，应用Kirchhoff薄板理论和虚功原理推导了板的静力学有限元方程。另分别考虑了各边50%固支和25%固支两种情况，在板材料为纯陶瓷和纯钢时，将所得结果与ANSYS软件结果对比，验证了所建模型的准确性。最后，重点分析了梯度指数对板面和边界最大挠度的影响。结果表明梯度指数和固支范围是决定最大挠度的关键参数，其中固支范围对边界上最大挠度的影响更大。