广西崇左江州木榄山智人洞古人类遗址及其地质时代

关于现代智人起源的争论一直是国际古人类学研究的前沿与热点. 最近, 在广西崇左木榄山智人洞发现了具有现代人解剖特征初始状态的人类下颌骨化石及大量与之共生的哺乳动物化石. 木榄山智人洞哺乳动物群以江南象与初现的亚洲象及巨獏等组合为其特征, 截然不同于华南早更新世的巨猿动物群和中更新世的大熊猫-剑齿象动物群, 是典型亚洲象动物群的早期代表. 依动物群性质、地层对比及铀系年代测定木榄山化石智人和伴生的哺乳动物群的时代为距今约11万年的晚更新世早期. 该动物群主要由热带-亚热带型动物组成, 但木榄山动物群中森林型动物种类单调, 草地类型的动物相当多, 这表明当时的气候可能比以前干燥. 木榄山智人的发现对研究现代人起源及其环境背景具有非常重要的意义.     

Utilizing Statistical Semantic Similarity Techniques for Ontology Mapping——with Applications to AEC Standard Models

The objective of this paper is to introduce three semi-automated approaches for ontology mapping using relatedness analysis techniques. In the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry, there exist a number of ontological standards to describe the semantics of building models. Although the standards share similar scopes of interest, the task of comparing and mapping concepts among standards is challenging due to their differences in terminologies and perspectives. Ontology mapping is therefore necessary to achieve information interoperability, which allows two or more information sources to exchange data and to re-use the data for further purposes. The attribute-based approach, corpus-based approach, and name-based approach presented in this paper adopt the statistical relatedness analysis techniques to discover related concepts from heterogeneous ontologies. A pilot study is conducted on IFC and CIS/2 ontologies to evaluate the approaches. Preliminary results show that the attribute-based approach outperforms the other two approaches in terms of precision and F-measure.     

在中国环境条件下油菜花粉介导的除草剂抗性基因飘逸

依据转基因安全评估的个案原则, 研究了抗除草剂转基因油菜花粉向中国传统油菜品种的飘逸概率及其影响因素. 通过检测受体植株后代的除草剂抗性检测转基因油菜花粉的飘逸率. 结果表明, 花粉飘逸的距离达2000 m, 且飘逸率随着与花粉源区距离的增加而急剧减少. 但在距花粉源区33.5~2000 m的范围内, 花粉飘逸率均低于0.015%, 且并不随距离增加而逐渐下降, 表现了花粉长距离飘逸和授粉的随机性. 绝大多数花粉散布在花粉源区周围4.5 m范围内, 其中最大飘逸率为1.19%, 出现在距源区1.4 m的取样点. 风向显著影响花粉飘逸的方向和距离. 但是, 授粉昆虫蜜蜂的数量与花粉飘逸方向和距离没有相关性, 表明花粉飘逸的方向性差异并不是由于蜜蜂的数量及分布引起的. 本研究在中国自然环境条件下开展大面积田间试验, 为转基因油菜的商品化生产和安全管理提供科学依据. 花粉空间分布模型为油菜杂交种生产的隔离距离与杂种纯度估计等研究提供了重要的依据.     

基于微丝的PDMS微流动通道制作技术

微流动通道是微流控芯片的重要组成部分, 其加工技术的每一步进化或简化一直为国际学术界与工业界所重视. 提出了一种基于微丝的PDMS微流动通道制作技术. 该技术利用一些简单的模具辅助固定和布置微丝, 然后将PDMS预聚物浇注于模具中浸没微丝并固化, 固化后抽出微丝形成PDMS微通道或通道阵列, 在与通道垂直的方向上打孔并封装, 形成与通道外部物质交换的接口. 实际制作通道时可采用商用化的金属微丝(如不锈钢微丝), 直径从100~20 μm不等. 较为详细地介绍了利用这种技术来构建多种拓扑结构的二维或三维通道或通道阵列, 例如直通道、交叉通道、弯曲通道等的能力. 进一步, 基于金属微丝的电磁特性, 这样的微通道制作工艺还被应用来构建出适于电磁控制和温度控制的微流动通道装置. 最后, 通过圆截面微通道的光路分析、微通道内粒子流动的图像测速(Micro-PIV)与微液滴形成实验及分析进一步印证了这种微流动通道制作技术的可行性和适用性.     

NLRP10 is a NOD-like receptor essential to initiate adaptive immunity by dendritic cells

NLRs (nucleotide-binding domain leucine-rich-repeat-containing receptors; NOD-like receptors) are a class of pattern recognition receptor (PRR) that respond to host perturbation from either infectious agents or cellular stress. The function of most NLR family members has not been characterized and their role in instructing adaptive immune responses remains unclear. NLRP10 (also known as PYNOD, NALP10, PAN5 and NOD8) is the only NLR lacking the putative ligand-binding leucine-rich-repeat domain, and has been postulated to be a negative regulator of other NLR members, including NLRP3 (refs 4-6). We did not find evidence that NLRP10 functions through an inflammasome to regulate caspase-1 activity nor that it regulates other inflammasomes. Instead, Nlrp10(-/-) mice had a profound defect in helper T-cell-driven immune responses to a diverse array of adjuvants, including lipopolysaccharide, aluminium hydroxide and complete Freund's adjuvant. Adaptive immunity was impaired in the absence of NLRP10 because of a dendritic cell (DC) intrinsic defect in emigration from inflamed tissues, whereas upregulation of DC costimulatory molecules and chemotaxis to CCR7-dependent and -independent ligands remained intact. The loss of antigen transport to the draining lymph nodes by a subset of migratory DCs resulted in an almost absolute loss in naive CD4(+) T-cell priming, highlighting the critical link between diverse innate immune stimulation, NLRP10 activity and the immune function of mature DCs.     

Design and Analysis of Prioritized Medium Access Control Protocol for Backbone Routers in Wireless Mesh Networks

A Prioritized Medium Access Control (P-MAC) protocol is proposed for wireless routers of mesh networks with quality-of-service provisioning. The simple yet effective design of P-MAC offers strict service differentiation for prioritized packets. A Markov model is developed to yield important performance matrices including the packet blocking probability due to queue overflow and the packet reneging probability due to delay bound. It is further proved that the service time of P-MAC approximates exponential distribution, and can be effectively estimated. The analytic models with preemptive and non-preemptive schemes, validated via simulations, show that P-MAC can effectively support traffic differentiation and achieve very low packet dropping (both reneging and blocking) probabilities when the traffic load is below the channel capacity. When the network is overloaded, P-MAC can still maintain extremely stable and high channel throughput. Moreover, it is demonstrated that P-MAC performs superior in multihop networks, further proving the advantages of the proposed protocol.