The Huntington's disease candidate region exhibits many different haplotypes.

Analysis of 78 Huntington's disease (HD) chromosomes with multi-allele markers revealed 26 different haplotypes, suggesting a variety of independent HD mutations. The most frequent haplotype, accounting for about one third of disease chromosomes, suggests that the disease gene is between D4S182 and D4S180. However, the paucity of an expected class of chromosomes that can be related to this major haplotype by assuming single crossovers may reflect the operation of other mechanisms in creating haplotype diversity. Some of these mechanisms sustain alternative scenarios that do not require a multiple mutational origin for HD and/or its positioning between D4S182 and D4S180.     

Structure of the detoxification catalyst mercuric ion reductase from Bacillus sp. strain RC607

Several hundred million tons of toxic mercurials are dispersed in the biosphere. Microbes can detoxify organo-mercurials and mercury salts through sequential action of two enzymes, organomercury lyase and mercuric ion reductase (MerA). The latter, a homodimer with homology to the FAD-dependent disulphide oxidoreductases, catalyses the reaction NADPH + Hg(II)----NADP+ + H+ + Hg(0), one of the very rare enzymic reactions with metal substrates. Human glutathione reductase serves as a reference molecule for FAD-dependent disulphide reductases and between its primary structure and that of MerA from Tn501 (Pseudomonas), Tn21 (Shigella), p1258 (Staphylococcus) and Bacillus, 25-30% of the residues have been conserved. All MerAs have a C-terminal extension about 15 residues long but have very varied N termini. Although the enzyme from Streptomyces lividans has no addition, from Pseudomonas aeruginosa Tn501 and Bacillus sp. strain RC607 it has one and two copies respectively of a domain of 80-85 residues, highly homologous to MerP, the periplasmic component of proteins encoded by the mer operon. These domains can be proteolytically cleaved off without changing the catalytic efficiency. We report here the crystal structure of MerA from the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus sp. strain RC607. Analysis of its complexes with nicotinamide dinucleotide substrates and the inhibitor Cd(II) reveals how limited structural changes enable an enzyme to accept as substrate what used to be a dangerous inhibitor. Knowledge of the mode of mercury ligation is a prerequisite for understanding this unique detoxification mechanism.     

Cartesian causation: body–body interaction, motion, and eternal truths

There is considerable debate among scholars over whether Descartes allowed for genuine body–body interaction. I begin by considering Michael Della Rocca’s recent claim that Descartes accepted such interaction, and that his doctrine of the creation of the eternal truths indicates how this interaction could be acceptable to him. Though I agree that Descartes was inclined to accept real bodily causes of motion, I differ from Della Rocca in emphasizing that his ontology ultimately does not allow for them. This is not the end of the story however, since two of Descartes’s successors offered incompatible ways of developing his conflicted account of motion. I contrast the occasionalist view of Nicolas Malebranche that changes in motion derive directly from divine volitions with the non-occasionalist claim of Pierre-Sylvain Regis that such changes derive from a nature distinct from God. In light of Della Rocca’s interpretation, it is noteworthy that the issue of eternal truths is relevant to both alternative accounts. Indeed, Regis took the doctrine that such truths are created to provide crucial support for his alternative to an occasionalist account of body–body interaction. What does not help Della Rocca, however, is that Regis’s view of motion requires a fundamental revision of Descartes’s ontology.     

配电变压器经济运行方式研究

通过分析变压器损耗，采用某110kV变电站两台主变进行验证，提出一种新的配电变压器经济运行算法，使变压器达到降低损耗．节约能源和经济运行的目的。     

内照射小器官剂量计算中减方差技巧的比较和应用

在用人体模型计算内照射比吸收分数的Monte Carlo模拟中,对小尺寸、远距离器官的计算结果通常精度不够,可信度差,这就要求采用减方差技巧。该文采用一个简单模型比较了直接模拟和区域粒子分裂-轮盘赌、强迫碰撞与DXTRAN球、指向概率强迫碰撞3种减方差技巧的效果。结果表明指向概率强迫碰撞方法能更有效解决此类问题。利用中国人体数学模型,选择一组典型的源靶器官对,计算了一个实例,得到了可信度高的吸收分数值并体现了指向概率强迫碰撞方法的优越性。     

信息不对称下企业并购信号传递博弈模型研究

根据企业并购中的信息不对称现象,结合不完全信息动态博弈及信息经济学的有关理论,建立了目标企业与并购企业之间的信号传递博弈模型,并进行了实例分析,结果表明,目标企业所发出的信号能够反映出目标企业的真实质量,尽管并购企业不能直接观察到目标企业的价值,但可以通过观测目标企业发出的信号来判断目标企业的预期价值水平,并据此作出正确的并购行为.     

造价工程师素质的探讨

分析了造价工程师应具备的素质,阐明了对造价工程师进行继续教育的原则和培养目标。     

一个强耦合系统的整体吸引子的存在性

考虑一个强耦合抛物系统的初边值问题,通过利用抛物方程解的先验估计的技巧以及微分-积分不等式,给出了这个系统解的整体吸引子的存在性.