Regeneration of fertile plants from isolated tobacco zygotes by<Emphasis Type="Italic">in vitro</Emphasis> culture

Living zygotes of tobacco (Nicotiana Tabacum L.) SR-1 were isolated and cultured in vitro by the microculture technique. Fertile plants were regenerated from the calli derived from cultured zygotes via organogenesis. Ovules were collected 120h after pollination and used as feeder. MS combined with KM8p was selected as basic medium in the experiment. Zygotes isolated from ovules 108h after pollination turned out to be suitable material for in vitro culture.Over 80% such zygotes could divide and around 10% of them could grow into calli and regenerate fertile plants.     

Neural mechanisms of perceptual grouping in human visual cortex

The current work examined neural substrates of perceptual grouping in human visual cortex using event-related potential (ERP) recording. Stimulus arrays consisted of local elements that were either evenly spaced (uniform stimuli) or grouped into columns or rows by proximity or color similarity (grouping stimuli). High-density ERPs were recorded while subjects identified orientations of perceptual groups in stimulus arrays that were presented randomly in one of the four quadrants of the visual field.Both uniform and grouping stimulus arrays elicited an early ERP component (C1), which peaked at about 70ms after stimulus onset and changed its polarity as a function of stimulated elevations. Dipole modeling based on realistichead boundary-element models revealed generators of the C1 component in the calcarine cortex. The C1 was modulated by perceptual grouping of local elements based on proximity, and this grouping effect was stronger in the upper than in the lower visual field. The findings provide ERP evidence for the engagement of human primary visual cortex in the early stage of perceptual grouping.     

Sponge fossil assemblage from the Early Cambrian Hetang Formation in southern Anhui

Abundant well-preserved large articulated sponge fossils and isolated spicules have been reported from the Early Cambrian Hetang Formation, southern Anhui Province. This unique epifaunal fossil assemblage dominated by articulated sponge fossils is called the Xidi Sponge Fauna. The sponge fauna lived in a quiet oxygenic environment below the storm wave base. Bloom of phytoplankton and rapid sedimentation rate resulted in the deposition of the black shales. Sufficient food supply, lack of other competitors, abundant ecological niches, and demand for oxygen during early Cambrian were in favor of the diversification and evolution of large sponges in the Early Cambrian.     

Self-assembly of two-dimensional DNA crystals

Self-assembly of synthetic oligonucleotides into two-dimensional lattices presents a 慴ottom-up?approach to the fabrication of devices on nanometer scale. We report the design and observation of two-dimensional crystalline forms of DNAs that are composed of twenty-one plane oligonucleo-tides and one phosphate-modified oligonucleotide. These synthetic sequences are designed to self-assemble into four double-crossover (DX) DNA tiles. The 憇ticky ends?of these tiles that associate according to WatsonCrick抯 base pairing are programmed to build up specific periodic patterns upto tens of microns. The patterned crystals are visualized by the transmission electron microscopy.     

Sticker DNA computer model ——PartⅡ: Application

Sticker model is one of the basic models in the DNA computer models. This model is coded with sin-gle-double stranded DNA molecules. It has the following advantages that the operations require no strands extension and use no enzymes; What抯 more, the materials are reusable. Therefore, it arouses attention and interest of scientists in many fields. In this paper, we extend and improve the sticker model, which will be definitely beneficial to the construction of DNA computer. This paper is the second part of our series paper, which mainly focuses on the application of sticker model. It mainly consists of the following three sections: the matrix representation of sticker model is first presented; then a brief review of the past research on graph and com-binatorial optimization, such as the minimal set covering problem, the vertex covering problem, Hamiltonian path or cycle problem, the maximal clique problem, the maximal independent problem and the Steiner spanning tree problem, is described; Finally a DNA algorithm for the graph iso-morphic problem based on the sticker model is given.     

Zircon U-Pb SHRIMP ages of eclogites from the North Qilian Mountains in NW China and their tectonic implication

TheNorthQilianMountainsattheboundarybe-tweenGansuandQinghaiProvincesareafamousCaledo-nianplatesuturezoneinthenorthwesternChina.Thissuturezoneis80to100kmwideandextendsintheNWdirectionparalleltotheNorthQaidamUHPbeltinthesouth[1,2].Itconsistspredominantlyofophiolite,island-arccomplexandhigh-presuremetamorphicrocks[38],andshowstypicalfeaturesofPacific-type[9](orB-type)sub-ductionzone.Spatially,thehigh-pressurerockscanbesubdividedintohigh-gradeblueschistbeltandlow-gradeblueschistbelt[5,6].Th…     

Abnormal austenite-ferrite transformation behavior in pure iron

The austenite → ferrite transformation is themost important reaction route in the manufacture ofFe-based materials. Here the austenite (γ) → ferrite (α)transformation of pure iron was systematically explored byhigh-resolution dilatometry. Abnormal transformation ki-netics, multi-peak discontinuous reaction, was recognized inpure iron according to the variation of the ferrite-formationrate. The occurrence the one or the other type of γ→∝ trans-formation strongly depends on the grain size: the transfor-mation type changes from abnormal to normal (single-peakcontinuous reaction) with decreasing grain size. The inherentreason for the occurrence of abnormal transformation couldbe attributed to the repeated nucleation in front of the mov-ing γ/α interface induced by the accumulation of elastic andplastic accommodation energy.     

An arthropod sphinx

The Sphinx is an enigmatic monster in Greek my-thology that had the body of a lion, wings of a bird, and head and bust of a woman. As the myth goes, the Sphinx guarded the gate to Thebes and would kill anyone unableto answer her riddle. The Sphinx riddle was eventuallycorrectly solved by Oedipus who later became the king of Thebes.     

Indonesian Throughflow in an eddy-permitting oceanic GCM

An eddy-permitting quasi-global oceanic GCM was driven by wind stresses from reanalysis data for the period of 1958-2001 to get the time series of the upper circulation in the Indonesian Sea. The model represents a reasonable pathway of Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) with Makassar Strait making the major passage transfer the North Pacific water southward. The simulated annual mean ITF transport is 14.5 Sv, with 13.2 Sv in the upper 700 m. Annual cycle is the dominant signal for the seasonal climatology of the upper layer transport. Both the annual mean and seasonal cycle agree well with the observation. The overall correlation between the interannual anomaly of the ITF transport and Nino 3.4 index reaches -0.65 in the simulation,which indicates that ENSO-related interannual variability in the Pacific is dominant in controlling the ITF transport. The relationship between the interannual anomalies of ITF and sea surface temperature in the Pacific, the Indian Ocean is not fixed in the simulation. In 1994, for instance, the intensive Indian Ocean sea surface temperature anomaly plays a dominant role in the formation of an impressive large transport of ITF.     

Radiative forcing due to dust aerosol over east Asia-north Pacific region during spring, 2001

Atmosphericaerosolsinfluencetheradiationbudgetoftheatmosphere-terrestrialsystem,andthereforeinflu-encetheclimate.Dustaerosolisconsideredtobeacriticalfactortoclimateforcingamongotherkindsofaerosols,whichaccountsfor30percentofaerosolloadingandop-ticaldepth[1].Therearelargeuncertaintiesinthequantita-tiveassessmentsoftheradiativeeffectofdustatthepre-sentday,involvingvariousfactors:refractiveindices,par-ticlesizedistribution,atmosphericaerosolloading,parti-cleshape,etc.[2].Dustaerosolgenerallyorigi…