Radiolarian record to paleoecological environment change events over the past 1.2 MaBP in the southern South China Sea

This note studies the Radiolarian fossil groups since 1.2 MaBP in ODP leg 184 site 1143, the southern South China Sea (SCS). The result shows that radiolarian abundance experienced a significant variation: before 0.9 MaBP it remained at the extremely low level, but increased with low extent between 0.9–0.65 Ma, which corresponded to the Mid-Pleistocene Transition stage, and it increased rapidly after 0.65 MaBP. During the whole process, the average abundance became higher and higher in each stage, and showed regularly periodic fluctuations. The obvious increase after 0.65 MaBP is inferred to result from the enhanced upwelling in this region, which was induced by the intensified monsoon circulation after the “Mid-Pleistocene Transition”. An outstanding result of the spectral analyses is that a long oscillation of ∼ 0.2 Ma cycle was found in the records of radiolarian abundance and complex diversity, which corresponds well to the result of other paleoceanographic indexes. This probably indicated a special cycle characteristic of paleoecological environment evolution in this area. In addition, all of the radiolarian indexes show an obvious boundary in about 0.47 MaBP, indicating the abrupt variation of the community structure and radiolarian abundance level before and after 0.47 MaBP. So we suppose that there existed a distinct change event of oceanic ecology environment during that period.     

Introns in higher plant genes

The intron is an important component of eukaryotic gene. Extensive studies have been conducted to get a better understanding of its structure and function. This paper presents a brief review of the structure and function of introns in higher plant genes. It is shown that higher plant introns possess structural properties shared by all eukaryotic introns, however, they also exhibit a striking degree of diversity. The process of intron splicing in higher plant genes involves interaction between multiple cis-acting elements and trans-acting factors, such as 5′ splicing site, 3′ splicing site and many protein factors. The process of intron splicing is an important level at which gene expression is regulated. Especially alternative splicing of intron can regulate time and space of gene expression. In addition, some introns in higher plant genes also regulate gene expression by affecting the pattern of gene expression, enhancing the level of gene expression and driving the gene expression.     

Landau theory of martensitic transformation in Fe-Mn-Si based alloys

Considering the features of martensitic transformation in Fe-Mn-Si based alloys, the Landau theory is established by introducing the density of stacking faults as a new order parameter ηand the corresponding free energy function. By using such an order parameter, the stacking fault mechanism of the nucleation and growth for the γ(fcc)→ε(hcp) martensitic transformation can be reasonably explained, and a further detailed mechanism is proposed. The stacking faults are generated and overlapped in an irregular form at the beginning and then becoming regular to create some transition structures till a stable phase forms at a certain temperature. The importance of the interface soliton is to complete the transformations into various structures of martensite but not the twinned one. The thermodynamics of fcc→hcp transformation and those between different transition structures are described by the free energy function established in the present note.     

Regularities of formation and lattice distortion of perovskite-type compounds

Based on 489 known perovskite-type complex oxides and a number of other type complex oxides, the pattern recognition-atomic parameter method is adopted to find regularities of the formation and the lattice distortion of the perovskite structure. It has been found that the restriction on Goldschmidt's t factor constitutes only a necessary but not a sufficient condition to form perovskite-type compounds. A more effective mathematical model, which can precisely sum up the regularities of the formation, the lattice distortion,and the cell constants of known perovskite-type compounds and reliably make corresponding predictions on unknown compounds, can be set up by integrating multiple atomic parameters such as ionic radii, ionic valency, and Basanov's electronegativity of constituent elements. Based on it, an intelligent database has been implemented. Its prediction accuracy is tested by eight newly discovered perovskite-type compounds such as Eu(Mn0.5 Ni0.5)O3, etc. (they are not included in the database during the test). The prediction resuits are in agreement with experimental facts.     

Vegetation reconstruction of Bronze Age by using microscopic structure of charcoals

The microscopic structure of charcoals was determined in two sites of Bronze Age, Chifeng area by using the scanning electronic microscope. The results showed that these charcoals are all timbers of Mongolian oak (Quercus mongolica). It has powerful climatic indicative significance. Based on the assemblage of pollen composition, their eco-climatic index and character of community, the vegetation reconstruction of Bronze Age was obtained. The reconstruction showed that the zonal vegetation was Mongolian oak forest and Chinese pine forest in the loess hills in the Chifeng area, which suggested that the climatic condition was warmer and wetter at that time than present time.     

Performance and observation summary of Changchun Satellite Laser Ranging Station

This note introduces the performance and observation summary of the SLR system at Changcun Observatory, the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The performance of the SLR system has been greatly improved since August 1997. The single shot precision is improved from 5–7 cm to 1–2 cm and the normal point precision reaches 4–7 mm. The long-term stability is better than 1 cm. The amount of observation has been increased from 1000 to over 3000 passes. The whole performance of Changcun SLR system has reached the advanced level among the worldwide SLR stations.     

General approach for discrete simulation of complex systems

By applying a general algorithm to differentparticle models, i.e. molecular dynamic (MD) and macro-scale pseudo-particle models (MaPPM), two physical phe-nomena of distinct nature and scale differences, i.e. the mu-tual diffusion of two gases and the instability on the interfacebetween two fluids, are simulated successfully. It demon-strates the possibility that the general algorithms of goodparallelism and software of modular architecture can beestablished for complex physical systems based on the parti-cle methods (PMs), which will thereby develop into a main-stream approach as finite element (FE) and finite difference(FD) approaches.     

Interaction of fluid dynamic factors in the migration and accumulation of natural gas

The migration of fluid petroleum gas, described as fluid potential, depends only on gravity, fluid pressure controlled by depression and capillary force during tectonically stable period; but on tectonic stress during the tectonically active period with severe compression. This method is applied in the Junggar Basin, showing that the migration of Jurassic gas during Cretaceous and Eocene and the migration of Permian gas from Jurassic till the present are determined by capillary force and fluid pressure (including overpressure) which is controlled by depression; the migration of Jurassic gas from Eocene till the present and the migration of Permian gas during Triassic are controlled by tectonic stress.     

Behavior of argon gas release from manganese oxide minerals as revealed by <Superscript>40</Superscript>Ar/<Superscript>39</Superscript>Ar laser incremental heating analysis

Manganese oxides in association with paleo- weathering may provide significant insights into the multiple factors affecting the formation and evolution of weathering profiles, such as temperature, precipitation, and biodiversity. Laser probe step-heating analysis of supergene hollandite and cryptomelane samples collected from central Queensland, Australia, yield well-defined plateaus andconsistent isochron ages, confirming the feasibility dating very-fined supergene manganese oxides by 40Ar/39Ar technique. Two distinct structural sites hostingAr isotopes can be identified in light of their degassing behaviors obtained byincremental heating analyses. The first site, releasing its gas fraction at thelaser power 0.2-0.4 W, yields primarily 40Aratm, 38Aratm, and 36Aratm (atmospheric Ar isotopes). The second sites yield predominantly 40Ar* (radiogenic 40Ar),39ArK, and 38ArK (nucleogenic components), at ～0.5-1.0 W. There is no significant Ar gas released at the laser power higher than 1.0 W, indicating the breakdown of the tunnel sites hosting the radiogenic and nucleogenic components. The excellent match between the degassing behaviors of 40Ar*, 39ArK, and 38ArK suggests that these isotopes occupy the same crystallographic sites and that 39ArK lossfrom the tunnel site by recoil during neutron irradiation and/or bake-out procedure preceding isotopic analysis does not occur. Present investigation supports that neither the overwhelming atmospheric 40Ar nor the very-fined nature of the supergene manganese oxides poses problems in extracting meaningful weathering geochronological information by analyzing supergene manganese oxides minerals.     

Spectroscopic investigation on the telomeric DNA base sequence repeat

Telomeres are protein-DNA complexes at the terminals of linear chromosomes, which protect chromosomal integrity and maintain cellular replicative capacity. From single-cell organisms to advanced animals and plants, structures and functions of telomeres are both very conservative. In cells of human and vertebral animals, telomeric DNA base sequences all are (TTAGGG)n. In the present work, we have obtained absorption and fluorescence spectra measured from seven synthesized oligonucleotides to simulate the telomeric DNA system and calculated their relative fluorescence quantum yields on which not only telomeric DNA characteristics are predicted but also possibly the shortened telomeric sequences during cell division are implied. Oligonucleotide 5′-TTAGGGTTAGGG holds a low relative fluorescence quantum yield and remarkable excitation energy innerconversion, which tallies with the telomeric sequence of (TTAGGG)n. This result shows that telomeric DNA has a strong non-radiative or innerconvertible capability.