‘Public’ Science: Hydrogen Balloons and Lavoisier's Decomposition of Water

The balloon mania between 1783 and 1785 put an extraordinary strain on the Paris Academy of Sciences, threatening its status as the highest tribunal of European science. Faced with repeated royal directives and public frenzy, the Academy manoeuvred carefully to steer the research toward the hydrogen balloon and thereby to maintain its scientific superiority. Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier seized this moment when the promise of ‘the empire of airs’ brought science to the centre of public attention to push his theoretical reform for chemistry. He utilized the established protocol of the Academy and the resources of the Republic of Letters to broadly publicize his first decomposition of water in April 1784. Once he attained the publicity and the balloon fever began to cool, he staged a much more elaborate experiment for the experts in February 1785. Although this second, large-scale experiment cost much expense and effort, Lavoisier never published a full account. The differential care given to the two experiments can only be understood in their divergent rhetorical contexts. The written accounts in 1784 addressed the court of public opinion, while the exclusive performance in 1785 aimed at the court of experts to inaugurate the collaborative phase of the Chemical Revolution.     

Construction of protograph LDPC codes with circular generator matrices

The application of protograph low density parity check(LDPC) codes involves the encoding complexity problem.Since the generator matrices are dense,and if the positions of "1" s are irregularity,the encoder needs to store every "1" of the generator matrices by using huge chip area.In order to solve this problem,we need to design the protograph LDPC codes with circular generator matrices.A theorem concerning the circulating property of generator matrices of nonsingular protograph LDPC codes is proposed.The circulating property of generator matrix of nonsingular protograph LDPC codes can be obtained from the corresponding quasi-cyclic parity check matrix.This paper gives a scheme of constructing protograph LDPC codes with circulating generator matrices,and it reveals that the fast encoding algorithm of protograph LDPC codes has lower encoding complexity under the condition of the proposed theorem.Simulation results in additive white Gaussian noise(AWGN) channels show that the bit error rate(BER) performance of the designed codes based on the proposed theorem is much better than that of GB20600 LDPC codes and Tanner LDPC codes.     

Birds of a Feather Protest Together: Theorizing Self-Organizing Political Protests with Flock Theory

The current research theorizes decentralized and self-organized political protests via flock theory (Rosen 2002), a theory of emergent self-organization in communicative human interaction. Flock theory draws from a theoretical basis of emergence and self-organizing systems, and is presented as a theory of decentralized communication structures. Focusing on the optimization of decentralized networks and roadmap based coordination of organizationally homopholous foci; the current theory poses a model of human interaction that captures the potentially egalitarian effects of cooperative evolution and collective action. Case studies of two separate decentralized political protests against Korean government and FARC are offered as evidences of such phenomena.     

A novel cyclin encoded by a bcl1-linked candidate oncogene

We have previously identified a candidate oncogene (PRAD1 or D11S287E) on chromosome 11q13 which is clonally rearranged with the parathyroid hormone locus in a subset of benign parathyroid tumours. We now report that a cloned human placental PRAD1 complementary DNA encodes a protein of 295 amino acids with sequence similarities to the cyclins. Cyclins can form a complex with and activate p34cdc2 protein kinase, thereby regulating progress through the cell cycle. PRAD 1 messenger RNA levels vary dramatically across the cell cycle in HeLa cells. Addition of the PRAD1 protein to interphase clam embryo lysates containing inactive p34cdc2 kinase and lacking endogenous cyclins allows it to be isolated using beads bearing p13suc1, a yeast protein that binds cdc2 and related kinases with high affinity and coprecipitates kinase-associated proteins. Addition of PRAD1 also induces phosphorylation of histone H1, a preferred substrate of cdc2. These data suggest that PRAD1 encodes a novel cyclin whose overexpression may play an important part in the development of various tumours with abnormalities in 11q13.     

用单个摄像机获取三维视觉信息的一种方法

讨论了在平面坐标系上摄像机的标定和利用单个摄像机获取三维视觉信息的一种方法。实验结果表明，采用单个摄像机获取三维视觉信息的精度与摄像机相对目标物体的高度及对象物本身的厚度有关，在视场范围内，对象物的厚度越小，摄像机坐标中心相对于目标物体表面中心的距离越远，定位精度越好。     

煤层注水效果的数量化理论预测法与参数的修正

本文应用数量化理论，给出了如何建立煤层注水效果的预测数学模型，并结合实例，进行了预测．实例表明，根据本矿已知煤层注水工程的各种信息，采用数量化理论．建立的计算机预测煤层注水效果的方法，不仅可以确切地判定所给定的注水组合参数是否最优，同时还揭露了注水参数与水分增值的内在关系，为调控参数提供了科学手段     

磷酸三丁酯萃取处理镀铬废水的研究

在常温下,以民用煤油作稀释剂,用磷酸三丁酯(TBP)萃取处理镀铬废水。经4—5级萃取,可使水相中Cr~(6+)由70mg/L降至国家排放标准以下。有机相用稀碱溶液经2—3级反萃取再生,Cr~(6+)完全回收利用,这对环境保护大有好处。     

Chronic ethanol causes heterologous desensitization of receptors by reducing alpha s messenger RNA

One of the biochemical results of ethanol exposure is a change in the amount of the intracellular second messenger cyclic AMP (cAMP) produced in response to receptor stimulation. In general, acute ethanol exposure increases the amount of cAMP produced on stimulation of receptors coupled to the enzyme adenylyl cyclase via the GTP-binding protein Gs, whereas chronic ethanol exposure has the opposite effect (results for receptors coupled via Gi have been more variable). We previously reported that adaptation to continuous ethanol exposure reduces receptor-stimulated cAMP production by 25-35% in a neuroblastoma cell line (NG108-15), and an even greater reduction of 75% was observed in lymphocytes taken from actively-drinking alcoholics. This reduction in receptor-stimulated cAMP levels was recently confirmed in platelets from alcoholics. None of these studies, however, determined whether more than one receptor coupled to adenylyl cyclase activity was affected in the same cell. Here we report that chronic ethanol exposure causes desensitization of heterologous receptors coupled to Gs as cAMP production mediated by prostaglandin E1 as well as by adenosine is reduced by approximately 30% in NG108-15 cells. We show that, after chronic ethanol exposure, the activity of the alpha subunit of Gs is decreased by 29%, the amount of alpha s protein is decreased by 38.5%, and alpha s messenger RNA is decreased by 30%. Thus, cellular adaptation to ethanol involves a reduction in alpha s mRNA and, as a consequence, reduced cAMP production by heterologous receptors coupled to Gs. Such changes in cAMP production may account for the tolerance and physical dependence on ethanol in alcoholism.     

如何正视李约瑟博士的中国科技史研究

认为李约瑟博士对中国人民的伟大贡献在于他使中国科学技术史开始获得世界学术界的公认；他的里程碑式的巨著离不开中国政府与海内外华人精神上与金钱上长期的大力支持，同样也离不开众多华裔学者的合作与帮助。     

Genomic instability in Gadd45a-deficient mice.

Gadd45a-null mice generated by gene targeting exhibited several of the phenotypes characteristic of p53-deficient mice, including genomic instability, increased radiation carcinogenesis and a low frequency of exencephaly. Genomic instability was exemplified by aneuploidy, chromosome aberrations, gene amplification and centrosome amplification, and was accompanied by abnormalities in mitosis, cytokinesis and growth control. Unequal segregation of chromosomes due to multiple spindle poles during mitosis occurred in several Gadd45a -/- cell lineages and may contribute to the aneuploidy. Our results indicate that Gadd45a is one component of the p53 pathway that contributes to the maintenance of genomic stability.