Blue emission from hydrogen-containing a-Si：H／SiO2 multilayers and the investigation of its mechanism

A series of hydrogen-containing a-Si:H/SiO2 multilayers with different a-Si:H sublayer thickness were fabricated by layer-by-layer deposition and in situ plasma oxidation in a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition system (PECVD). Optical induced blue emission from the samples was observed by the naked eye at room temperature, which has never been reported in the luminescence study of Si/SiO2 multilayers up to now. Both the photoluminescence (PL) peak and the absorption edge show a blue shift as the a-Si:H sublayer thickness decreases. The origin of the blue emission and the effect of hydrogen are discussed.     

A proteomic analysis of bacterial strain<Emphasis Type="Italic">Sinorhizobium fredii</Emphasis> RT19 subjected to salt shock

Sinorhizobium fredii RT19, a strain of freeliving bacteria, was subjected to salt shock and its protein expression profiles were analyzed by differential display proteome approaches. The results of separation by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D PAGE) showed that the number of resolved proteins was 481, 465 and 424, corresponding to salt-free control, 5 and 50 min 1 mol/L salt treatment, respectively. Among the resolved proteins, 82 in total had altered expression in response to salt-shock stress. 26 out of the 82 proteins were induced and 23 were completely inhibited, while 12 were up-regulated and 21 down-regulated in response to salt shock. In addition, the appearance of differentially displayed proteins responding to different salt shock periods is also reported. The identity of the 26 induced proteins was revealed by matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF/MS) followed by database searching. Among them, 20 were assigned to proteins with known functions. Their roles in response to salt shock stress are discussed.     

The outbreak pattern of the SARS cases in Asia

The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) caused tremendous damage to many Asia countries, especially China. The transmission process and outbreak pattern of SARS is still not well understood. This study aims to find a simple model to describe the outbreak pattern of SARS cases by using SARS case data commonly released by governments. The outbreak pattern of cumulative SARS cases is expected to be a logistic type because the infection will be slowed down due to the increasing control effort by people and/or due to depletion of susceptible individuals. The increase rate of SARS cases is expected to decrease with the cumulative SARS cases, as described by the traditional logistical model, which is widely used in population dynamic studies. The instantaneous rate of increases were significantly and negatively correlated with the cumulative SARS cases in mainland of China (including Beijing, Hebei, Tianjin, Shanxi,the Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia) and Singapore. The basic reproduction number R0 in Asia ranged from 2.0 to 5.6 (except for Taiwan, China). The R0 of Hebei and Tianjin were much higher than that of Singapore, Hongkong, Beijing, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, indicating SARS virus might have originated differently or new mutations occurred during transmission. We demonstrated that the outbreaks of SARS in many regions of Asia were wall described by the logistic model, and the control measures implemented by governments are effective. The maximum instantaneous rate of increase, basic reproductive number, and maximum cumulative SARS cases were also calculated by using the logistic model.     

Possible developmental mechanisms underlying the origin of the crown lineages of arthropods

The extraordinarily preserved, diverse arthropod fauna from the Lower Cambrian Maotianshan shale, central Yunnan (southwest China), represents different evolutionary stages stepping from stem lineages towards crown arthropods (also called euarthropods), which makes this fauna extremely significant for discussion of the origin and early diversification of the arthropods. Anatomical analyses of the Maotianshan shale arthropods strongly indicate that     

Coupled isomorphic substitution and exsolution of pyroxene,rutile, apatite and quartz in supersilicic garnet

Dissolution of pyroxene in garnet at ultrahigh pressures produces supersilicie garnet with the coupled substitutions of Si^Ⅵ M^Ⅵ= A^Ⅵ A^Ⅵ and Si^Ⅵ Na^Ⅷ=A^Ⅵ M^Ⅷ,which are enhanced by rising pressure. The supersilicic garnet and exsolution of pyroxene, rutile, apatite and quartz in garnet during decompression were found in natural rocks,pointing to the importance in studying mantle-derived rocks and ultrahigh pressure metamorphism related to plate deep subduction. Ti, P, K and H2O enters garnet via the substitutions of Ti = Si, P^Ⅵ Na^Ⅷ = Si^Ⅵ CaⅧ, Si^Ⅵ K^Ⅷ = AI^Ⅵ M^Ⅷ, and [(OH)4]^4- = [SiO4]^4- or [4H]^4 = Si^4 respectively. The possible entering of Eskola pyroxene component M0.5AlSi2O6 in clinopyroxene, together with the common pyroxene component M2Si2O6, into garnet can lead to the presence of the substitution of Si^Ⅵ 0.5□^Ⅷ= A^Ⅵ 0.5M^Ⅷ in garnet structure, which plays a key role in the exsolution of rntile, apatite and quartz in garnet. Two new breakdown reactions are thus proposed on the basis of the new coupled substitution, which can be regarded as a theoretical model for the exsolntion of the 3 minerals in garnet. The real exsolution may be a combination of several breakdown reactions.     

Persistent organic pollutants PCNs and PBDEs in sediments from coastal waters of Qingdao,Shandong Peninsula

Thirty-one congeners of polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs) and 21 congeners of polybrominated diphenylethers(PBDEs)in surface sediments at 5 stations and one mussel sample from Qingdao coastal waters were analyzed. The maximum contents occur at the station near the Haibo River mouth. The total PCNs contents are in the range of 212-1209 pg/g dw, dominated by tri-Cl CN. The total PBDEs contents are in the range of 117-5510 pg/g dw,dominated by tri- to hexa-BrBDEs. The local sources of PCNs are likely from combustion processes such as incinerations and coal burnings. The sources of PBDEs are molecular diffusion from the materials containing them. Except for the area near the river mouth where is affected by the sewage sludges, an important source of PCNs and PBDEs in this area is believed to be the atmospheric deposition. Mussels enrich PCNs and PBDEs relative to the sediments. The total TEQs of PCNs in mussels are lower than the total TEQs of PCBs.     

Cyclotrimerization of nitriles catalyzed by Li<Subscript>3</Subscript>N

Nitriles were unexpectedly trimerized into s-triazines or amino-pyrimidines in high yields in the presence of catalytic amount of Li3N, resulting in a simple, solvent-free and easy-to-scale-up one-pot way to synthesize s-triazines and 4-amino-pyrimidines with high yield.     

Molecular genetic basis for the rhino mouse from Chinese KM subcolony

Both the rhino mouse and hairless mouse resulted from hairless gene mutation, but they show different phenotypes of skin physiology. The rhino mouse has more similar histological characters to human papular alopecia.Therefore rhino mouse is a good experimental animal model for human papular alopecia. This study reports a hairless mouse named rhino KIZ, arose from KM colony in Kunming Institue of Zoology, by systematic studies on morphology,skin histopathology, gene sequence, pedigree and protein domain analysis. The results demonstrate that a C-to-T transition in exon 11 of hr gene (The mutant gene has been applied for a Chinese patent (patent No. 03135280)) results in the rhino KIZ. The rhino KIZ with clear genetic mechanism will be a useful animal model.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">In situ</Emphasis> synthesis of TiC reinforced Cu<Subscript>47</Subscript>Ti<Subscript>34</Subscript>Zr<Subscript>11</Subscript>Ni<Subscript>8</Subscript> bulk metallic glass composites

In situ synthesized TiC particles and β-Ti dendrites reinforced Cu47Ti34Zr11Ni8 bulk metallic glass (BMG) composite ingots were prepared by the suction casting method.The ingots with diameters from 1 up to 4mm were successfully obtained. It was shown that introducing TiC micro-sized particles into the amorphous matrix did not disturb the glass forming ability (GFA) of the matrix,while the yield strength and ductility could be well improved.The phase constitution, microstructure and elements distribution in the composites were studied by OM, XRD, SEM and EDS.It was shown that the in situ synthesized TiC particles acting as heterogeneous nucleation sites promoted the precipitation of β-Ti dendrites, resulting in the formation of the TiC particles and β-Ti dendrites co-reinforced BMG composites. The compressive tests were employed to probe the yield strength and ductility of BMG composites.     

Nonlinearity degree of short-term heart rate variability signal

A nonlinear autoregressive (NAR) model is built to model the heartbeat interval time series and the optimum model degree is proposed to be taken to evaluate the nonlinearity degree of heart rate variability (HRV). A group of healthy persons are studied and the results indicate that this method can effectively get nonlinear information from short (6—7 min) heartbeat series and consequently reflect the degree of heart rate variability, which supplies convenience in clinical application. Finally, a comparison with the traditional time domain method shows that the NAR model method can reflect the complexity of the whole signal and lessen the influence of noise and instability, in the signal.