Functional Materials for Catalytic and Magnetic Applications

1 Introduction Metal, metal oxide and metal compound nanoparticles (NPs) received considerable attention due to their unique properties: catalytic, magnetic, optical, electronic, etc. We believe that for different applications, there are preferable morphologies of NP-stabilizing medium composites. For example, small (1-3 nm) nanoparticles formed in micro/mesoporous hypercrosslinked polystyrene demonstrate excellent catalytic properties in various hydrogenation and oxidation reactions due to high surface...     

Sequence and analysis of chromosome 2 of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana

Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) is unique among plant model organisms in having a small genome (130-140 Mb), excellent physical and genetic maps, and little repetitive DNA. Here we report the sequence of chromosome 2 from the Columbia ecotype in two gap-free assemblies (contigs) of 3.6 and 16 megabases (Mb). The latter represents the longest published stretch of uninterrupted DNA sequence assembled from any organism to date. Chromosome 2 represents 15% of the genome and encodes 4,037 genes, 49% of which have no predicted function. Roughly 250 tandem gene duplications were found in addition to large-scale duplications of about 0.5 and 4.5 Mb between chromosomes 2 and 1 and between chromosomes 2 and 4, respectively. Sequencing of nearly 2 Mb within the genetically defined centromere revealed a low density of recognizable genes, and a high density and diverse range of vestigial and presumably inactive mobile elements. More unexpected is what appears to be a recent insertion of a continuous stretch of 75% of the mitochondrial genome into chromosome 2.     

Effects of Hydrophilic Monomer Types and Level on Polystyrene-Acrylate/montmorillonite Nanocomposite Made by Emulsion Polymerization

1 Results Nanocomposite has attracted more and more interest all over the world.Polystyrene (PS) is a commercialized and mass-productive polymer,continuous research efforts have been devoted to the development of polystyrene/montmorillonite (PS/MMT) nanocomposites[1-2].But the polarity of styrene (St) is too small to intercalate the space between the clay layers.The polarity of hydrophilic monomer is so strong that it can intercalate the MMT easily,the intercalated smectic clays maybe exfoliated by usin...     

聚甲基乙撑碳酸酯的交联(英文)

利用过氧化物过氧化二异丙苯(DCP)和多官能团化合物三烯丙基异氰尿酸酯(TAIC),对聚甲基乙撑碳酸酯(PPC)进行了交联研究。研究发现, DCP和TAIC的用量对PPC的交联均有较大影响, PPC交联后,其凝胶含量、机械性能、弹性模量、玻璃化转变温度均有所增加, 1%的DCP和4%的TAIC用量可得到较理想的交联PPC材料。     

Research Frontiers of Agricultural Economics and Management

The focus of research on Agricultural Economics and Management (AEM) has been switching from de-veloped countries to developing countries. In important international journals on AEM such as ““American Jour-nal of Agricultural Economics““ and ““Agricultural Eco-nomics““, the research objectives mainly focus on AEM problems in developing countries, e.g. the effects ofglobalization and liberalization on agricultural produc-tion in developing countries, and problems in agricul-tural resources and environmental protections in devel-oping countries.     

甲型H1N1流感病毒流行株基因组进化分析

2009年4月, 北美地区出现甲型H1N1流感疫情, 并且疫情快速扩散至欧亚非三大洲, 风险等级上升至5级. 截止至5月13日, 甲型H1N1流感病毒已扩散至33个国家和地区, 实验室确认病例5728例, 死亡61人. 从NCBI的IRV和GISAID的EpiFluDB数据库下载甲型H1N1流感病毒序列425条, 进行序列比对与进化分析. 分析结果显示: (ⅰ) 当前流行的甲型H1N1流感病毒是一个三重排A型流感病毒: HA, NA, MP, NP和NS来源于猪流感病毒; PB2和PA来源于禽流感病毒; PB1来源于人流感病毒. (ⅱ) 猪流感病毒的来源可细分为: HA, NP和NS来源于H1N1亚型经典猪流感毒株; NA和MP来源于H1N1亚型禽源猪流感毒株. (ⅲ) 甲型H1N1流感病毒在流行扩散过程中没有显著变异, 同时病毒基因组没有发生重排. 本文除了分析美国代表毒株A/California/04/2009(H1N1)外, 还以墨西哥代表毒株A/Mexico/4486/2009(H1N1)为主进行了同源性和进化分析, 地理范围相对较大, 分析结果更具科学性.     

A laser frequency comb that enables radial velocity measurements with a precision of 1 cm s(-1)

Searches for extrasolar planets using the periodic Doppler shift of stellar spectral lines have recently achieved a precision of 60 cm s(-1) (ref. 1), which is sufficient to find a 5-Earth-mass planet in a Mercury-like orbit around a Sun-like star. To find a 1-Earth-mass planet in an Earth-like orbit, a precision of approximately 5 cm s(-1) is necessary. The combination of a laser frequency comb with a Fabry-Pérot filtering cavity has been suggested as a promising approach to achieve such Doppler shift resolution via improved spectrograph wavelength calibration, with recent encouraging results. Here we report the fabrication of such a filtered laser comb with up to 40-GHz (approximately 1-A) line spacing, generated from a 1-GHz repetition-rate source, without compromising long-term stability, reproducibility or spectral resolution. This wide-line-spacing comb, or 'astro-comb', is well matched to the resolving power of high-resolution astrophysical spectrographs. The astro-comb should allow a precision as high as 1 cm s(-1) in astronomical radial velocity measurements.     

Fibronectin peptide DRVPHSRNSIT and fibronectin receptor peptide DLYYLMDL arrest gastrulation ofRana pipiens

Gastrulation is characterized by dramatic cell migration which is thought to require the interaction of cell adhesion molecules with extracellular molecules. We have tested two novel peptides, a fibronectin peptide and a fibronectin receptor peptide, for their effects on gastrulation of the leopard frogRana pipiens. The fibronectin peptide DRVPHSRNSIT corresponds to residues 1373–1383 of the cell-binding domain of fibronectin; the receptor peptide DLYYLMDL corresponds to residues 124–131 of 1 subunit of a variety of integrins including 51. Either of these peptides significantly inhibited gastrulation after being microinjected into mid-blastulae. These results indicate that these sequences may correspond to the ligand/receptor interaction sites of fibronectin and its receptor(s).     

Holography in artificial neural networks

The dense interconnections that characterize neural networks are most readily implemented using optical signal processing. Optoelectronic 'neurons' fabricated from semiconducting materials can be connected by holographic images recorded in photorefractive crystals. Processes such as learning can be demonstrated using holographic optical neural networks.     

A family of mammalian Na+-dependent L-ascorbic acid transporters.

Vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid) is essential for many enzymatic reactions, in which it serves to maintain prosthetic metal ions in their reduced forms (for example, Fe2+, Cu+), and for scavenging free radicals in order to protect tissues from oxidative damage. The facilitative sugar transporters of the GLUT type can transport the oxidized form of the vitamin, dehydroascorbic acid, but these transporters are unlikely to allow significant physiological amounts of vitamin C to be taken up in the presence of normal glucose concentrations, because the vitamin is present in plasma essentially only in its reduced form. Here we describe the isolation of two L-ascorbic acid transporters, SVCT1 and SVCT2, from rat complementary DNA libraries, as the first step in investigating the importance of L-ascorbic acid transport in regulating the supply and metabolism of vitamin C. We find that SVCT1 and SVCT2 each mediate concentrative, high-affinity L-ascorbic acid transport that is stereospecific and is driven by the Na+ electrochemical gradient. Despite their close sequence homology and similar functions, the two isoforms of the transporter are discretely distributed: SVCT1 is mainly confined to epithelial systems (intestine, kidney, liver), whereas SVCT2 serves a host of metabolically active cells and specialized tissues in the brain, eye and other organs.