A light carbon reservoir recorded in zircon-hosted diamond from the Jack Hills

The recent discovery of diamond-graphite inclusions in the Earth's oldest zircon grains (formed up to 4,252 Myr ago) from the Jack Hills metasediments in Western Australia provides a unique opportunity to investigate Earth's earliest known carbon reservoir. Here we report ion microprobe analyses of the carbon isotope composition of these diamond-graphite inclusions. The observed delta(13)C(PDB) values (expressed using the PeeDee Belemnite standard) range between -5 per mil and -58 per mil with a median of -31 per mil. This extends beyond typical mantle values of around -6 per mil to values observed in metamorphic and some eclogitic diamonds that are interpreted to reflect deep subduction of low-delta(13)C(PDB) biogenic surface carbon. Low delta(13)C(PDB) values may also be produced by inorganic chemical reactions, and therefore are not unambiguous evidence for life on Earth as early as 4,250 Myr ago. Regardless, our results suggest that a low-delta(13)C(PDB) reservoir may have existed on the early Earth.     

Intrinsic coupling of lagging-strand synthesis to chromatin assembly

Fifty per cent of the genome is discontinuously replicated on the lagging strand as Okazaki fragments. Eukaryotic Okazaki fragments remain poorly characterized and, because nucleosomes are rapidly deposited on nascent DNA, Okazaki fragment processing and nucleosome assembly potentially affect one another. Here we show that ligation-competent Okazaki fragments in Saccharomyces cerevisiae are sized according to the nucleosome repeat. Using deep sequencing, we demonstrate that ligation junctions preferentially occur near nucleosome midpoints rather than in internucleosomal linker regions. Disrupting chromatin assembly or lagging-strand polymerase processivity affects both the size and the distribution of Okazaki fragments, suggesting a role for nascent chromatin, assembled immediately after the passage of the replication fork, in the termination of Okazaki fragment synthesis. Our studies represent the first high-resolution analysis--to our knowledge--of eukaryotic Okazaki fragments in vivo, and reveal the interconnection between lagging-strand synthesis and chromatin assembly.     

一种三自由度并联机构几何误差建模、灵敏度分析及装配工艺设计

以一类含平行四边形支链的三平动自由度并联机构为对象, 利用空间矢量链分析方法, 构造出末端位置和姿态误差与几何误差之间的映射关系, 明确揭示出影响这种机构末端不可补偿误差的几何误差源, 并借助灵敏度分析提出抑制该类误差的装配工艺. 研究成果已应用于一台并联机床主模块的研制, 并对指导同类装备的设计与制造具有普遍的意义.