Stimulation induced depletion of the synaptic vesicles in excitatory motor nerve terminals of the locust,Locusta migratoria L

Summary Neural stimulation at high frequency induced gross changes in the ultrastructural properties and depleted the synaptic vesicles in fast axon terminals of locust extensor tibiae muscles. After a 1-h-rest the synaptic vesicle populations recovered and the ultrastructural properties of these recovering neuromuscular junctions closely resembled those of the controls.Acknowledgment. The authors wish to thank Mr M. J. Parker for invaluable help with the statistical analyses. R. P. Botham gratefully acknowledges the SRC for financial assistance.     

Palaeomagnetism of the Vredefort meteorite crater and implications for craters on Mars

Magnetic surveys of the martian surface have revealed significantly lower magnetic field intensities over the gigantic impact craters Hellas and Argyre than over surrounding regions. The reduced fields are commonly attributed to pressure demagnetization caused by shock waves generated during meteorite impact, in the absence of a significant ambient magnetic field. Lower than average magnetic field intensities are also observed above the Vredefort meteorite crater in South Africa, yet here we show that the rocks in this crater possess much higher magnetic intensities than equivalent lithologies found elsewhere on Earth. We find that palaeomagnetic directions of these strongly magnetized rocks are randomly oriented, with vector directions changing over centimetre length scales. Moreover, the magnetite grains contributing to the magnetic remanence crystallized during impact, which directly relates the randomization and intensification to the impact event. The strong and randomly oriented magnetization vectors effectively cancel out when summed over the whole crater. Seen from high altitudes, as for martian craters, the magnetic field appears much lower than that of neighbouring terranes, implying that magnetic anomalies of meteorite craters cannot be used as evidence for the absence of the planet's internally generated magnetic field at the time of impact.     

钢筋混凝土构件的断裂韧度

本文对带裂纹的钢筋混凝土构件进行了断裂力学分析,并通过试验和有限元计算得到了含裂纹钢筋混凝土构件中KIc的尺寸效应和s/w(跨高比)值对KIc值的影响等问题进行了研究.在测试中还成功地应用了声发射测试技术监测裂纹的临界扩展点.     

可演化网络中移动代理的性能分析及优化方法

针对以移动代理软件方式实现的可演化网络的性能问题,提出了一种快速激活及加载方法.通过对移动代理非执行转发、执行转发及执行各步骤的详细性能测量及分析,发现网络节点的执行环境为移动代理执行所做的准备工作时间消耗较大.该快速方法首先解开移动代理包中的所有程序代码并进行预先加载,在加载主程序时优先搜索已预先加载的代码,从而能够较快地找到程序代码.快速方法通过优化代码加载时的搜索顺序,有效地加快了可演化网络中移动代理的执行过程.测试结果表明,采用快速方法使典型的移动代理平均启动加载时间缩短了3.26 ms,网络节点的吞吐率提高了58%.     

DNA-protein interaction at erythroid important regulatory elements of MEL cells byin vivo footprinting

Using ligation-mediated PCR method to study the status of DNA-protein interaction at hypersensitive site 2 of locus control Region and β^maj promoter of MEL cell line before and after induction, MEL cell has been cultured and induced to differentiation by Hemin and DMSO, then the live cells have been treated with dimethyl sulfate. Ligation mediated PCR has been carried out following the chemical cleavage. The results demonstrate that before and after induction, the status of DNA-protein interaction at both hypersensitive site 2 and β^maj promoter change significantly, indicating that distal regulatory elements (locus control region, hypersensitive sites) as well as proximal regulatory elements (promoter, enhancer) of β-globin gene cluster participate in the regulation of developmental specificity.     

多孔纤维吸声材料填充蜂窝结构的声学性能

本文理论研究了多孔纤维吸声材料填充矩形蜂窝结构的声学特性.假设周期蜂窝结构将多孔纤维吸声材料划分为独立周期子空间,理论建模中选取单个蜂窝胞元进行分析.蜂窝结构内部的多孔纤维吸声材料采用等效流体模型进行模拟,斜入射的声波在各个子空间呈驻波分布,由声场的声压和速度可积分得到通过蜂窝结构入射平面和透射平面的能量流,从而得到多孔纤维吸声材料填充蜂窝结构的吸声及传声损失性能.与单一多孔纤维材料声学性能的对比发现,多孔纤维吸声材料填充蜂窝结构的吸声性能得到了有效提高.基于理论模型,进一步分析了结构参数对多孔纤维吸声材料填充蜂窝结构吸声/传声损失性能的影响.     

Recognition of apoptotic cells by phagocytes

Effective removal of dying cells is crucial to a variety of processes in health and disease. Cells undergoing apoptosis are recognized and ingested intact by phagocytes, which are not stimulated to release inflammatory mediators. The alternative uncontrolled form of cell death, necrosis, is associated with release of cell contents with the potential to cause tissue damage and inflammation. Four distinct molecular mechanisms have been identified to date which mediate recognition by phagocytes of mammalian cells undergoing apoptosis, but further mechanisms remain to be discovered. The capacity for phagocyte removal of cells undergoing apoptosis may be closely regulated, for example by local cytokines.     

Homeotic transformation of the occipital bones of the skull by ectopic expression of a homeobox gene.

Murine Hox genes have been postulated to play a role in patterning of the embryonic body plan. Gene disruption studies have suggested that for a given Hox complex, patterning of cell identity along the antero-posterior axis is directed by the more 'posterior' (having a more posterior rostral boundary of expression) Hox proteins expressed in a given cell. This supports the 'posterior prevalence' model, which also predicts that ectopic expression of a given Hox gene would result in altered structure only in regions anterior to its normal domain of expression. To test this model further, we have expressed the Hox-4.2 gene more rostrally than its normal mesoderm anterior boundary of expression, which is at the level of the first cervical somites. This ectopic expression results in a homeotic transformation of the occipital bones towards a more posterior phenotype into structures that resemble cervical vertebrae, whereas it has no effect in regions that normally express Hox-4.2. These results are similar to the homeotic posteriorization phenomenon generated in Drosophila by ectopic expression of genes of the homeotic complex HOM-C (refs 7-10; reviewed in ref. 3).