U.S. agrigenetics: suit filed against NIH

Three environmental groups have filed suit against the National Institutes of Health in an attempt to block an experiment approved in April by the NIH Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee. The experiment, designed by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, to enhance the frost resistance of crops, would release genetically engineered organisms into the general environment for the first time. The suit, filed in a federal court in the District of Columbia, claims that releasing frost-resistant bacteria into the environment could have damaging ecological consequences, that NIH should have issued an environmental impact assessment before approving any experiment involving the release of genetically engineered organisms, and that the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee lacks the expertise to assess environmental risks.     

如何实现应变传感器的高精度检测

应变传感器的信号非常微弱,其幅度甚至小于干扰信号,因而必须通过精密检测电路抑制干扰。应变传感器信号具有其物理极限,利用载频技术实现了信号最大化。通过作为感应信号源的高精度感应分频器和自动校准的周期数可得到很高的增益稳定性。采用高精度检测单元和通用宽频带放大器系统可以高分辨率、高稳定性、有效地抑制和衰减干扰信号与不期望的动态信号,实现高精度检测。     

泰国中-新生代热带植物木化石研究

泰国东北部柯叻府及邻区中-新生代木化石非常丰富并保存有完好的解剖构造,是探究热带植被历史、古气候演化以及古环境变迁等问题的重要实证材料.最近的野外调查和专题研究确认该地区中-新生代木化石11科19属约50个种或种级分类单元,分别隶属于裸子植物和被子植物两大分类群,其中有5科7属20种(包括未定种)为前人在泰国未曾报道的类型.当前木材化石群揭示出在中生代后期,泰国东北部热带针叶树植被以南洋杉科为主;在中新世-更新世时期,该地区主要发育落叶和常绿阔叶树植被,代表热带气候环境.     

The fate of injectant coal in blast furnaces: The origin of extractable materials of high molecular mass in blast furnace carryover dusts

The aim of the work was to investigate the fate of injectant coal in blast furnaces and the origin of extractable materials in blast furnace carryover dusts. Two sets of samples including injectant coal and the corresponding carryover dusts from a full sized blast furnace and a pilot scale rig have been examined. The samples were extracted using 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone (NMP) solvent and the extracts studied by size exclusion chromatography (SEC). The blast furnace carryover dust extracts contained high molecular weight carbonaceous material, of apparent mass corresponding to 10⁷?10⁸ u, by polystyrene calibration. In contrast, the feed coke and char prepared in a wire mesh reactor under high temperature conditions did not give any extractable material. Meanwhile, controlled combustion experiments in a high-pressure wire mesh reactor suggest that the extent of combustion of injectant coal in the blast furnace tuyeres and raceways is limited by time of exposure and very low oxygen concentration. It is thus likely that the extractable, soot-like material in the blast furnace dust originated in tars is released by the injectant coal. Our results suggest that the unburned tars were thermally altered during the upward path within the furnace, giving rise to the formation of heavy molecular weight (soot-like) materials.     

一类二维离散混沌系统在不同系统参数下的自适应混沌同步

基于参量自适应控制中的混沌同步，针对一类二维离散混沌系统，提出了混沌系统在不同系统参 数下的混沌同步方法，并给出了理论证明和实际应用例子。其理论结果很容易扩展到高维系统。     

Lightning activity on the central Tibetan Plateau and its response to convective available potential energy

Lightning flash activities on the central Tibetan Plateau have been studied by using the satellite-based Lightning Imaging Sensor(LIS)database from January 1998 to July 2002.The lightning activity shows a clear diurnal variation on the central Plateau.The peak lightning activity appears at about 17:00 which is 3 h earlier than that in Jingxhou,Hubei in the same latitude belt nearby,indicating that the lightning activity is a sensitive indicator of solar heating on the Plateau.The lightning discharge is weaker on the Plateau than Jingzhou.Hubei and other low-altitude continental regions because of the lower convective available potential energy(CAPE)on the Plateau.The CAPE on the Plateau is 12 times lower than that in Jingzhou,Hubei,and 20 times lower than that in the sea-level region,such as Guangzhou and Florida.However,the sensitivity of lightning activity to CAPE changes on the Plateau is up to 30 times more sensitive than other prominent low-altitude regions.     

Inhibitory effect of the adenovirus type 5 E1A protein expressed in the yeast system

The human adenovirus type 5 E1A, a tumor- suppressor gene[1], codes for two major related proteins of 243 amino acids (12S) and 289 amino acids (13S) by al-ternative splicing in two exons[2]. Studies have been shown that E1A can regulate expression of many genes and cell cycle[3]. Both in vitro and in vivo experiments indicated that E1A could induce tumor cells differentia-tion, convert tumor cells into an epithelial phenotype, in-hibit tumor cell growth and metastasis and strongly en-ha…     

Efficient expression of human factor Ⅸ cDNA in liver mediated by hydrodynamics-based plasmid administration

The transfection of plasmid DNA into mammalian cells is an indispensable tool in the study of gene transfer and gene function. Since the original report in 1990 on the successful expression of a reporter gene in muscle[1], plasmid DNA injection has been widely used to mediate gene transfer study. As a gene transfer vector, naked DNA has many obvious advantages. It is easy and cheap to be prepared and more safe after transfection. But the plasmid mediated gene expression is low because of t…     

^210Pbex depth distribution in soil and calibration models for assessment of soil erosion rates from ^210Pbex measurements

Throughout the past decade, the potential for using nuclear weapon-produced 137Cs ( half-life 30.2 a) fallout to quantify soil erosion rates on both cultivated and uncul- tivated lands for medium-term timescales (≈ 40 a) has been successfully demonstrated in a wide range of envi- ronments in different regions of the world[1—6]. Because in difficulties of distinguishing Chernobyl-derived compo- nent from total 137Cs input in many parts of Europe, and in measuring low activity samples of…