WNT7b mediates macrophage-induced programmed cell death in patterning of the vasculature

Macrophages have a critical role in inflammatory and immune responses through their ability to recognize and engulf apoptotic cells. Here we show that macrophages initiate a cell-death programme in target cells by activating the canonical WNT pathway. We show in mice that macrophage WNT7b is a short-range paracrine signal required for WNT-pathway responses and programmed cell death in the vascular endothelial cells of the temporary hyaloid vessels of the developing eye. These findings indicate that macrophages can use WNT ligands to influence cell-fate decisions--including cell death--in adjacent cells, and raise the possibility that they do so in many different cellular contexts.     

无后处理钢铁常温发黑新工艺及机理

本文介绍无后处理钢铁常温发黑剂的组成，作用及工艺，综合测试了发黑膜的性能及氧化还原的动电位曲线和发黑过程的电位－时间曲线，借助电镜扫描分析了发黑膜的形貌，提出了可能的机理。     

我国移动通信量差异的人口学分析

引人了地理迁移关系模型和社会网络人类动力学模型,将前一个模型中的“1个原型网络系统和2个变形网络系统”转换为演变过程的原始状态、迁移及适应3个阶段,将后一个模型中的“社会网络的典型特征——较高的集聚和较短的平均路径”分解为2个类型(非群体类型和群体类型),作为我国移动通信量人口学分析的研究方法.构建了我国各省的包括3个人口迁移指标、4个人口技术构成指标在内的人口学数据系统,针对3个重要的移动通信指标,分别解释人口学要素与移动通信量的内在联系.研究发现:1)应用地理迁移关系模型可以较好地描述不同演变阶段人口迁移对移动通信使用的影响,这种影响是通过保持原有链接、构建产生新链接而完成的;2)应用社会网络人类动力学模型可以较好地描述人口技术构成因素对移动通信使用的影响.     

Unexpected features of Drosophila circadian behavioural rhythms under natural conditions

Circadian clocks have evolved to synchronize physiology, metabolism and behaviour to the 24-h geophysical cycles of the Earth. Drosophila melanogaster's rhythmic locomotor behaviour provides the main phenotype for the identification of higher eukaryotic clock genes. Under laboratory light-dark cycles, flies show enhanced activity before lights on and off signals, and these anticipatory responses have defined the neuronal sites of the corresponding morning (M) and evening (E) oscillators. However, the natural environment provides much richer cycling environmental stimuli than the laboratory, so we sought to examine fly locomotor rhythms in the wild. Here we show that several key laboratory-based assumptions about circadian behaviour are not supported by natural observations. These include the anticipation of light transitions, the midday 'siesta', the fly's crepuscular activity, its nocturnal behaviour under moonlight, and the dominance of light stimuli over temperature. We also observe a third major locomotor component in addition to M and E, which we term 'A' (afternoon). Furthermore, we show that these natural rhythm phenotypes can be observed in the laboratory by using realistic temperature and light cycle simulations. Our results suggest that a comprehensive re-examination of circadian behaviour and its molecular readouts under simulated natural conditions will provide a more authentic interpretation of the adaptive significance of this important rhythmic phenotype. Such studies should also help to clarify the underlying molecular and neuroanatomical substrates of the clock under natural protocols.     

Inland thinning of West Antarctic Ice Sheet steered along subglacial rifts

Current ice loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) accounts for about ten per cent of observed global sea-level rise. Losses are dominated by dynamic thinning, in which forcings by oceanic or atmospheric perturbations to the ice margin lead to an accelerated thinning of ice along the coastline. Although central to improving projections of future ice-sheet contributions to global sea-level rise, the incorporation of dynamic thinning into models has been restricted by lack of knowledge of basal topography and subglacial geology so that the rate and ultimate extent of potential WAIS retreat remains difficult to quantify. Here we report the discovery of a subglacial basin under Ferrigno Ice Stream up to 1.5?kilometres deep that connects the ice-sheet interior to the Bellingshausen Sea margin, and whose existence profoundly affects ice loss. We use a suite of ice-penetrating radar, magnetic and gravity measurements to propose a rift origin for the basin in association with the wider development of the West Antarctic rift system. The Ferrigno rift, overdeepened by glacial erosion, is a conduit which fed a major palaeo-ice stream on the adjacent continental shelf during glacial maxima. The palaeo-ice stream, in turn, eroded the 'Belgica' trough, which today routes warm open-ocean water back to the ice front to reinforce dynamic thinning. We show that dynamic thinning from both the Bellingshausen and Amundsen Sea region is being steered back to the ice-sheet interior along rift basins. We conclude that rift basins that cut across the WAIS margin can rapidly transmit coastally perturbed change inland, thereby promoting ice-sheet instability.     

Relationship between prospective memory and vigilance: Evidence from ERP

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were used in this study to investigate the neural correlates of prospective memory (PM) and vigilance. Twenty college or graduate students participated in this study. They were administered a PM and a vigilance task and physiological data were collected at the same time. Behavioral results showed that the RT associated with PM cues was longer than those associated with vigilance targets. ERP results showed that PM cues and vigilance targets did not show significant difference in the N2 but PM cues evoked greater N300 than vigilance targets, and vigilance targets evoked greater parietal positivity/P3 than PM cues, suggesting vigilance and PM have similar but also distinctive neural basis.