A probable stellar solution to the cosmological lithium discrepancy

The measurement of the cosmic microwave background has strongly constrained the cosmological parameters of the Universe. When the measured density of baryons (ordinary matter) is combined with standard Big Bang nucleosynthesis calculations, the amounts of hydrogen, helium and lithium produced shortly after the Big Bang can be predicted with unprecedented precision. The predicted primordial lithium abundance is a factor of two to three higher than the value measured in the atmospheres of old stars. With estimated errors of 10 to 25%, this cosmological lithium discrepancy seriously challenges our understanding of stellar physics, Big Bang nucleosynthesis or both. Certain modifications to nucleosynthesis have been proposed, but found experimentally not to be viable. Diffusion theory, however, predicts atmospheric abundances of stars to vary with time, which offers a possible explanation of the discrepancy. Here we report spectroscopic observations of stars in the metal-poor globular cluster NGC 6397 that reveal trends of atmospheric abundance with evolutionary stage for various elements. These element-specific trends are reproduced by stellar-evolution models with diffusion and turbulent mixing. We thus conclude that diffusion is predominantly responsible for the low apparent stellar lithium abundance in the atmospheres of old stars by transporting the lithium deep into the star.     

Active terahertz metamaterial devices

The development of artificially structured electromagnetic materials, termed metamaterials, has led to the realization of phenomena that cannot be obtained with natural materials. This is especially important for the technologically relevant terahertz (1 THz = 10(12) Hz) frequency regime; many materials inherently do not respond to THz radiation, and the tools that are necessary to construct devices operating within this range-sources, lenses, switches, modulators and detectors-largely do not exist. Considerable efforts are underway to fill this 'THz gap' in view of the useful potential applications of THz radiation. Moderate progress has been made in THz generation and detection; THz quantum cascade lasers are a recent example. However, techniques to control and manipulate THz waves are lagging behind. Here we demonstrate an active metamaterial device capable of efficient real-time control and manipulation of THz radiation. The device consists of an array of gold electric resonator elements (the metamaterial) fabricated on a semiconductor substrate. The metamaterial array and substrate together effectively form a Schottky diode, which enables modulation of THz transmission by 50 per cent, an order of magnitude improvement over existing devices.     

Ecotype,ecospecies, and macroevolution

Summary Der Autor tritt erneut der Ansicht der Neodarwinisten entgegen, daß geographische, erbliche Varianten Vorstufen neuer Arten seien. Für deren Entstehung sowie für Merkmale höherer Einheiten kommen nur plötzlich große und nicht einzelne summierende Mutationsschritte in Betracht. Mikromutationen liefern lediglich das Material für die Entstehung von Rassen und Unterarten. Nicht nur größere systematische Unterschiede, sondern auch Anpassungsmerkmale kommen durch Großmutationen zustande. Als Beispiele werden unter anderem zwei Mutationen beiDrosphila melanogaster angeführt. Bei der einen sind die Flügel in Halteren, oder umgekehrt, diese in Flügel, umgebildet. Bei der anderen, vom Autor aufgefundenen, sind aus den Flügeln beinartige Organe geworden. Diese Mutante ist außerdem deswegen von Bedeutung, weil sich nach Kreuzung mit anderen Mutationen Merkmale entwickeln, die an den letzteren nicht erscheinen.Paper read at the closing session of the International Congress of Zoology, Paris, July, 1948.     

Erratum to: Hesperomyces virescens (Fungi,Ascomycota, Laboulbeniales) attacking Harmonia axyridis (Coleoptera,Coccinellidae) in its native range

正Published online:14 March 2014óScience China Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014Erratum to:Chin.Sci.Bull.(2014)59(5–6):528–532DOI 10.1007/s11434-013-0060-1In the original publication of this paper,the first name and the last name of the first author has been documented     

Error propagation determined iterative channel estimation with ICI mitigation for fast time-varying OFDM channels

The intersubcarrier interference （ICI） degrades the performance of the pilot-aided channel estimation in fast time-varying orthogonal frequency division multiplexing （OFDM） systems.To solve the error propagation in joint channel estimation and data detection due to this ICI,a scheme of error propagation determined iterative estimation is proposed,where in the first iteration,Kalman filter based on signal to interference and noise is designed with ICI transformed to be part of the noise,and for the later iterations,a determined iterative estimation algorithm obtains an optimal output from all iterations using the iterative updating strategy.Simulation results present the significant improvement in the performance of the proposed scheme in high-mobility situation in comparison with the existing ones.     

Copper Salt Catalyzed Amidations of Haloalkynes in the Synthesis of Ynamides

1 Introduction Ynamines [1-aminoalkynes, or N-alkynyl amines] have endured through two contrasting phases in the last four decades. First, they enjoyed a phase of synthetic eminence after the establishment of a practical synthesis in 1963. In the ensuing twenty years, ynamines became one of the most synthetically useful subgroups of alkynes utilized in countless creative work by many synthetic chemists. Reactivities of 1-aminoalkynes were thoroughly explored. However, unlike its close relativ…     

Activation of aldosterone and renin secretion by thermal stress

Résumé Un stress thermique aigu est un activateur rapide et puissant de la sécrétion du système rénineangiotensine et de l'aldosterone au cours d'une alimentation normo ou hyposodée, et peut être utilisé pour mesurer l'intégrité des systèmes de production de ces hormones.     

Subtypes of medulloblastoma have distinct developmental origins

Medulloblastoma encompasses a collection of clinically and molecularly diverse tumour subtypes that together comprise the most common malignant childhood brain tumour. These tumours are thought to arise within the cerebellum, with approximately 25% originating from granule neuron precursor cells (GNPCs) after aberrant activation of the Sonic Hedgehog pathway (hereafter, SHH subtype). The pathological processes that drive heterogeneity among the other medulloblastoma subtypes are not known, hindering the development of much needed new therapies. Here we provide evidence that a discrete subtype of medulloblastoma that contains activating mutations in the WNT pathway effector CTNNB1 (hereafter, WNT subtype) arises outside the cerebellum from cells of the dorsal brainstem. We found that genes marking human WNT-subtype medulloblastomas are more frequently expressed in the lower rhombic lip (LRL) and embryonic dorsal brainstem than in the upper rhombic lip (URL) and developing cerebellum. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and intra-operative reports showed that human WNT-subtype tumours infiltrate the dorsal brainstem, whereas SHH-subtype tumours are located within the cerebellar hemispheres. Activating mutations in Ctnnb1 had little impact on progenitor cell populations in the cerebellum, but caused the abnormal accumulation of cells on the embryonic dorsal brainstem which included aberrantly proliferating Zic1(+) precursor cells. These lesions persisted in all mutant adult mice; moreover, in 15% of cases in which Tp53 was concurrently deleted, they progressed to form medulloblastomas that recapitulated the anatomy and gene expression profiles of human WNT-subtype medulloblastoma. We provide the first evidence, to our knowledge, that subtypes of medulloblastoma have distinct cellular origins. Our data provide an explanation for the marked molecular and clinical differences between SHH- and WNT-subtype medulloblastomas and have profound implications for future research and treatment of this important childhood cancer.