From old organisms to new molecules: integrative biology and therapeutic targets in accelerated human ageing

Understanding the basic biology of human ageing is a key milestone in attempting to ameliorate the deleterious consequences of old age. This is an urgent research priority given the global demographic shift towards an ageing population. Although some molecular pathways that have been proposed to contribute to ageing have been discovered using classical biochemistry and genetics, the complex, polygenic and stochastic nature of ageing is such that the process as a whole is not immediately amenable to biochemical analysis. Thus, attempts have been made to elucidate the causes of monogenic progeroid disorders that recapitulate some, if not all, features of normal ageing in the hope that this may contribute to our understanding of normal human ageing. Two canonical progeroid disorders are Werner's syndrome and Hutchinson-Gilford progeroid syndrome (also known as progeria). Because such disorders are essentially phenocopies of ageing, rather than ageing itself, advances made in understanding their pathogenesis must always be contextualised within theories proposed to help explain how the normal process operates. One such possible ageing mechanism is described by the cell senescence hypothesis of ageing. Here, we discuss this hypothesis and demonstrate that it provides a plausible explanation for many of the ageing phenotypes seen in Werner's syndrome and Hutchinson-Gilford progeriod syndrome. The recent exciting advances made in potential therapies for these two syndromes are also reviewed.     

Cryptic subarctic diversity: a new bumblebee species from the Yukon and Alaska (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

It is nearly 90 years since a bumblebee species has been described for the first time from Canada or the USA that was previously unrecognised by science. We describe and illustrate Bombus(Alpinobombus) kluanensis sp. nov. and begin to map its distribution. This species was discovered through analysis of Cytochrome c Oxidase subunit I barcodes and had been unsuspected on the basis of morphological and colour characteristics. So far, 247 female specimens considered to belong to this species are known from the subarctic mountains associated with the Denali Fault running from the Alaska Range (Alaska, USA) to Kluane in the Saint Elias Mountains (Yukon, Canada). A checklist of all species of the subgenus Alpinobombus worldwide is provided.

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:78D524DD-FFBA-4BC4-8D39-3EF4F6BDD39E     

The carcinofauna found in stomach contents of the flying gurnard (Dactylopterus volitans) on the continental shelf of the Campos Basin,Brazil

A total of 3109 crustaceans belonging to 50 taxa distributed in 42 families were found in 117 analysed stomachs of flying gurnard (Dactylopterus volitans). Samples were obtained in April 2008 by the R/V Gyre using a bottom trawl towed in 12 stations at 14–100 m depth on the continental shelf of the Campos Basin, Brazil. The carcinofauna was analysed and the order Calanoida (Copepoda) found to be the most important item in terms of relative abundance and frequency of occurrence, followed by the order Amphipoda (Peracarida), the infraorder Brachyura (Decapoda), the order Stomatopoda and the subclass Myodocopa (Ostracoda). In the order Calanoida, the species Pontellopsis cf. villosa (Pontellidae) represented 98.04% of total crustacean abundance. The diet of Dactylopterus volitans varied according to fish size, with higher diversity of Crustacea at smaller size classes, decreasing in larger fishes. A similar pattern regarding depth was obtained, with greater diversity of taxa in gurnard stomachs caught at shallower depths. Flying gurnard is considered a generalized carnivore of invertebrates, eating mobile macrobenthic organisms, such as crustaceans, and its diet varies with its life stage, without any specific group as its main food source.     

Muhaka icipe,an enigmatic new genus and species of Kleidotomini (Hymenoptera: Figitidae: Eucoilinae) from an East African coastal forest

A remarkable new eucoiline genus and species, Muhaka icipe, is described herein. The genus is clearly a Kleidotomini, but is distinguished from other genera in the tribe by a unique head and scutellar morphology. The genus belongs to the ‘wedge-head’-syndrome group of species that, to date, is unique to Afrotropical eucoilines. The new genus and species is reminiscent of Stentorceps Quinlan and Nanocthulhu Buffington, but is readily distinguished from these genera. Muhaka was collected from a threatened kaya (sacred forest) of coastal Kenya. The biological importance of this and other kaya forests, as well as their protection, is discussed.

http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:6918ED2C-69A4-48FC-A1E4-2B5DFF58E876     

The localities of Arctic Diptera (Insecta) collected by the Russian Kara Expedition of 1909

One of the most important journeys of exploration to Arctic Russia was the so-called 1909 Kara Expedition, to the polar area north of the Ural Mountains. Among the scientific papers resulting from this expedition, that on the Diptera gives only the vaguest locality data, such as ‘Kara tundra’ or ‘polar Urals’, with a date. From the separately published Russian expedition narrative, we present a table giving the day-by-day stops of the expedition, so far as possible with named localities and coordinates. As a result, localities, and especially type-localities of new species, can be precisely located for the Diptera and for other taxonomic groups.     

量子全加法器的修改和算法研究

通过与经典全加器的基本模型进行比较后,讨论了一个改进后的量子平面加法器的基本构型.对其原理、组件和算法进行了研究,比较了本加法器两个主要组件与一般量子加法器的不同.作为应用的例,设计了一个n比特量子全加法器的模型,对其具体运算过程和基本功能进行了说明.