The joining of ribosomal subunits in eukaryotes requires eIF5B

Initiation of eukaryotic protein synthesis begins with the ribosome separated into its 40S and 60S subunits. The 40S subunit first binds eukaryotic initiation factor (eIF) 3 and an eIF2-GTP-initiator transfer RNA ternary complex. The resulting complex requires eIF1, eIF1A, eIF4A, eIF4B and eIF4F to bind to a messenger RNA and to scan to the initiation codon. eIF5 stimulates hydrolysis of eIF2-bound GTP and eIF2 is released from the 48S complex formed at the initiation codon before it is joined by a 60S subunit to form an active 80S ribosome. Here we show that hydrolysis of eIF2-bound GTP induced by eIF5 in 48S complexes is necessary but not sufficient for the subunits to join. A second factor termed eIF5B (relative molecular mass 175,000) is essential for this process. It is a homologue of the prokaryotic initiation factor IF2 (re and, like it, mediates joining of subunits and has a ribosome-dependent GTPase activity that is essential for its function.     

一种工业用内窥镜摄影系统

给出一种新型的工业用内窥镜摄影系统，该系统由内窥镜、光学关节（四节刚性转像透镜导管）、摄影联接管和摄影机四部分组成。它可将图像传到高速摄影机拍摄和记录各种动态过程，也可用ＣＣＤ摄像机接收信息送计算机处理，以进行工业检测。给出了内窥镜摄影系统的基本原理、设计要点和实验结果。     

计算机彩色图像分色系统MED－LL

分析了一种新的计算机彩色图像分色系统，对其结构、特点、功能及其彩色图像处理的基本原理进行了讨论。     

智能加工中心的视觉系统

提出了一个智能加工中心（ＩＭＣ）的实验系统方案，计算机视觉系统作为ＩＭＣ的感官部件，利用ＣＣＤ工业摄像机摄下机床工作台上的工件毛坯图像，在零件设计信息指导下，把待加工面抽象成一条封闭的平面曲线，据此识别工件毛坯及其安装状态，进而识别工件坐标在机床坐标系中的位置．从而将视觉信息作为工艺规划的依据．     

燃烧室摄影图像计算机处理系统的探讨

提出了构造内燃机燃烧室摄影图像的计算机捕捉和处理系统，介绍了该系统的主要组成部分──帧捕捉器的软件开发，并对该系统和软件进行了评价，提出了进一步研究的方向。     

脉冲电浮水处理过程中的运动学数学模型

针对脉冲电浮水处理装置的特点,分析了影响该技术处理效果的因素,根据絮凝过程运动学的理论,以钢球模型的简化方式建立自由粒子浮选去除模型,仿真得到自由粒子浓度随时间变化过程.该数学模型为设计絮凝池尺寸参数,以及选择电浮处理参数提供理论依据.结果表明:当处理时间为20～25 min时,可以使自由粒子去除率达到90%以上,这与实验数据相当吻合.     

Defective tryptophan catabolism underlies inflammation in mouse chronic granulomatous disease

Half a century ago, chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) was first described as a disease fatally affecting the ability of children to survive infections. Various milestone discoveries have since been made, from an insufficient ability of patients' leucocytes to kill microbes to the underlying genetic abnormalities. In this inherited disorder, phagocytes lack NADPH oxidase activity and do not generate reactive oxygen species, most notably superoxide anion, causing recurrent bacterial and fungal infections. Patients with CGD also suffer from chronic inflammatory conditions, most prominently granuloma formation in hollow viscera. The precise mechanisms of the increased microbial pathogenicity have been unclear, and more so the reasons for the exaggerated inflammatory response. Here we show that a superoxide-dependent step in tryptophan metabolism along the kynurenine pathway is blocked in CGD mice with lethal pulmonary aspergillosis, leading to unrestrained Vgamma1(+) gammadelta T-cell reactivity, dominant production of interleukin (IL)-17, defective regulatory T-cell activity and acute inflammatory lung injury. Although beneficial effects are induced by IL-17 neutralization or gammadelta T-cell contraction, complete cure and reversal of the hyperinflammatory phenotype are achieved by replacement therapy with a natural kynurenine distal to the blockade in the pathway. Effective therapy, which includes co-administration of recombinant interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), restores production of downstream immunoactive metabolites and enables the emergence of regulatory Vgamma4(+) gammadelta and Foxp3(+) alphabeta T cells. Therefore, paradoxically, the lack of reactive oxygen species contributes to the hyperinflammatory phenotype associated with NADPH oxidase deficiencies, through a dysfunctional kynurenine pathway of tryptophan catabolism. Yet, this condition can be reverted by reactivating the pathway downstream of the superoxide-dependent step.     

A high-intensity highly coherent soft X-ray femtosecond laser seeded by a high harmonic beam

Synchrotrons have for decades provided invaluable sources of soft X-rays, the application of which has led to significant progress in many areas of science and technology. But future applications of soft X-rays--in structural biology, for example--anticipate the need for pulses with much shorter duration (femtoseconds) and much higher energy (millijoules) than those delivered by synchrotrons. Soft X-ray free-electron lasers should fulfil these requirements but will be limited in number; the pressure on beamtime is therefore likely to be considerable. Laser-driven soft X-ray sources offer a comparatively inexpensive and widely available alternative, but have encountered practical bottlenecks in the quest for high intensities. Here we establish and characterize a soft X-ray laser chain that shows how these bottlenecks can in principle be overcome. By combining the high optical quality available from high-harmonic laser sources (as a seed beam) with a highly energetic soft X-ray laser plasma amplifier, we produce a tabletop soft X-ray femtosecond laser operating at 10 Hz and exhibiting full saturation, high energy, high coherence and full polarization. This technique should be readily applicable on all existing laser-driven soft X-ray facilities.     

高速铁路下承式钢箱系杆拱结合桥的受力分析

为了了解下承式系杆拱结合桥的受力性能,根据武广客运专线某140 m下承式钢箱系杆拱结合桥,设计制作1个比例尺为1-8的全桥试验模型,并对桥梁在全桥均布、半桥均布、全桥偏载、半桥偏载和超载共5种工况进行加载试验和分析.研究结果表明:在均布荷载作用下,半桥加载方式引起的竖向挠度约为全桥加载时的2倍;在偏载作用时,重载侧与轻载侧竖向挠度之比小于它们的荷载之比;在受力上,拱肋、系梁和纵梁的半桥均布加载都比全桥均布加载时更不利;对于横梁,端横梁梁端面内接近固结,其他横梁梁端面内接近铰结,面外弯曲问题则可通过采用箱型横梁和加大端横梁截面尺寸等措施加以缓解;刚性吊杆既受轴拉作用,也受弯曲作用,以端吊杆受力最为不利,设计时需引起注意;混凝土板的受力状态以第一系统引起的轴拉作用与竖向荷载引起的弯曲作用为主,采用3%以上的高配筋率时裂缝宽度能得到有效控制.     

Has the Earth's sixth mass extinction already arrived?

Palaeontologists characterize mass extinctions as times when the Earth loses more than three-quarters of its species in a geologically short interval, as has happened only five times in the past 540?million years or so. Biologists now suggest that a sixth mass extinction may be under way, given the known species losses over the past few centuries and millennia. Here we review how differences between fossil and modern data and the addition of recently available palaeontological information influence our understanding of the current extinction crisis. Our results confirm that current extinction rates are higher than would be expected from the fossil record, highlighting the need for effective conservation measures.