Development of a Measurement System Far-IR Using a MCT Sensor

The far-infrared radiation （Far-IR） has good effects on us, promoting the circulation of the blood and metabolic. So textile products including far-IR have been developed. But it is very difficult to measure the amount of far-IR in the textile quicHy and correctly. Newly developed Mercury Cadmium Telluride （MCT） sensor system could solve this problem.     

Aberrant methylation of donor genome in cloned bovine embryos

Despite recent successes in cloning various animal species, the use of somatic cells as the source of donor nuclei has raised many practically relevant questions such as increased abortion rates, high birth weight and perinatal death. These anomalies may be caused by incomplete epigenetic reprogramming of donor DNA. Genome-wide demethylation occurs during early development, 'erasing' gamete-specific methylation patterns inherited from the parents. This process may be a prerequisite for the formation of pluripotent stem cells that are important for the later development. Here, we provide evidence that cloned bovine embryos may have impaired epigenetic reprogramming capabilities. We found highly aberrant methylation patterns in various genomic regions of cloned embryos. Cloned blastocysts closely resembled donor cells in their overall genomic methylation status, which was very different from that of normal blastocysts produced in vitro or in vivo. We found demethylation of the Bov-B long interspersed nuclear element sequence in normal embryos, but not in cloned embryos, in which the donor-type methylation was simply maintained during preimplantation development. There were also significant variations in the degree of methylation among individual cloned blastocysts. Our findings indicate that the developmental anomalies of cloned embryos could be due to incomplete epigenetic reprogramming of donor genomic DNA.     

Buyer Search and the Role of Broker in an Emerging Housing Market： A Case Study of Guangzhou

Introduction Housing markets have distinct characteristics that re- sult in a higher level of imperfect information than markets of other goods. Houses are unique and hetero- geneous, so buyers must gather enough information concerning the quality as well…     

Reducing uncertainty about carbon dioxide as a climate driver

The lack of an adequate ancient analogue for future climates means that we ultimately must use and trust climate models, evaluated against modern observation and our best geologic records of warm and cold climates of the past. Armed with an elevated confidence in the models, we will then be able to make reliable predictions of the Earth's response to our risky experiment with the climate system.     

The effect of laser surface texturing on the tribological performance of different Sialon ceramic phases

A tribological performance was carried out on different types of hot press Sialon ceramics regarding the phases, i.e., the α-Sialon phase, the β-Sialon phase, and the α/β-Sialon composite phase. The different phases of Sialon ceramics were analyzed by XRD patterns. For the tribological performance, the Sialon ceramics were laser textured and the starved lubrication method was applied with different dimple pitches under a load of 10 N at room temperature. The material having a dimple pitch of 200 mm shows the lowest coefficient of friction. The α/β-Sialon composite phase shows the least coefficient of friction i.e. 0.04 and 0.1 for the textured and polished(without being textured) samples, respectively. The Sialon ceramics show mild wear and therefore, the wear rate of the steel ball(mating partner) was taken into account for the wear analysis. The α-Sialon phase having a higher hardness shows the least wear in comparison to the α/β-Sialon composite phase and the β-Sialon phase.     

Mice deficient for corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor-2 display anxiety-like behaviour and are hypersensitive to stress

Corticotropin-releasing hormone (Crh) is a critical coordinator of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. In response to stress, Crh released from the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus activates Crh receptors on anterior pituitary corticotropes, resulting in release of adrenocorticotropic hormone (Acth) into the bloodstream. Acth in turn activates Acth receptors in the adrenal cortex to increase synthesis and release of glucocorticoids. The receptors for Crh, Crhr1 and Crhr2, are found throughout the central nervous system and periphery. Crh has a higher affinity for Crhr1 than for Crhr2, and urocortin (Ucn), a Crh-related peptide, is thought to be the endogenous ligand for Crhr2 because it binds with almost 40-fold higher affinity than does Crh. Crhr1 and Crhr2 share approximately 71% amino acid sequence similarity and are distinct in their localization within the brain and peripheral tissues. We generated mice deficient for Crhr2 to determine the physiological role of this receptor. Crhr2-mutant mice are hypersensitive to stress and display increased anxiety-like behaviour. Mutant mice have normal basal feeding and weight gain, but decreased food intake following food deprivation. Intravenous Ucn produces no effect on mean arterial pressure in the mutant mice.     

Functional imaging with cellular resolution reveals precise micro-architecture in visual cortex

Neurons in the cerebral cortex are organized into anatomical columns, with ensembles of cells arranged from the surface to the white matter. Within a column, neurons often share functional properties, such as selectivity for stimulus orientation; columns with distinct properties, such as different preferred orientations, tile the cortical surface in orderly patterns. This functional architecture was discovered with the relatively sparse sampling of microelectrode recordings. Optical imaging of membrane voltage or metabolic activity elucidated the overall geometry of functional maps, but is averaged over many cells (resolution >100 microm). Consequently, the purity of functional domains and the precision of the borders between them could not be resolved. Here, we labelled thousands of neurons of the visual cortex with a calcium-sensitive indicator in vivo. We then imaged the activity of neuronal populations at single-cell resolution with two-photon microscopy up to a depth of 400 microm. In rat primary visual cortex, neurons had robust orientation selectivity but there was no discernible local structure; neighbouring neurons often responded to different orientations. In area 18 of cat visual cortex, functional maps were organized at a fine scale. Neurons with opposite preferences for stimulus direction were segregated with extraordinary spatial precision in three dimensions, with columnar borders one to two cells wide. These results indicate that cortical maps can be built with single-cell precision.     

薄层色谱指纹图谱在丹参药材质量评价中的应用研究

利用薄层色谱（TLC）技术对中药材丹参的有效成分进行了指纹图谱分析．以不同等级的中江丹参和不同采收期的丹参、南丹参为分析对象，采用适宜的水溶性及脂溶性成分提取方法和TLC分析条件，可获得其相应的TLC图像及色谱图．通过对不同丹参药材的色谱图像的分析，结合化学计量学方法对其各主要指标成分的信息进行提取，初步构建了丹参的TLC指纹图谱．结果表明，在254nm波长下获取脂溶性和水溶性成分共7个共有指纹峰，各峰相对比移值（R1）和峰面积的相对标准偏差分别小于1．7％和4．0%．通过对薄层色谱斑点的RI值、斑点颜色和大小的比较。并进行主成分分析和聚类分析，实现了对不同等级的丹参进行归属，并确立了最佳采收期．本实验建立的薄层色谱指纹图谱方法具有较高的稳定性、良好的精密度和重现性，可用于丹参药材的质量评价和控制．     

Detection of large-scale variation in the human genome

We identified 255 loci across the human genome that contain genomic imbalances among unrelated individuals. Twenty-four variants are present in > 10% of the individuals that we examined. Half of these regions overlap with genes, and many coincide with segmental duplications or gaps in the human genome assembly. This previously unappreciated heterogeneity may underlie certain human phenotypic variation and susceptibility to disease and argues for a more dynamic human genome structure.     

几何非线性与材料非线性

从基本概念出发,通过例子讨论在结构分析中产生几何非线性与材料非线性的原因,澄清关于它们必然同时出现的误解,并指出根据问题非线性的类型正确选择分析方法的重要性。