The extent of linkage disequilibrium in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Linkage disequilibrium (LD), the nonrandom occurrence of alleles in haplotypes, has long been of interest to population geneticists. Recently, the rapidly increasing availability of genomic polymorphism data has fueled interest in LD as a tool for fine-scale mapping, in particular for human disease loci. The chromosomal extent of LD is crucial in this context, because it determines how dense a map must be for associations to be detected and, conversely, limits how finely loci may be mapped. Arabidopsis thaliana is expected to harbor unusually extensive LD because of its high degree of selfing. Several polymorphism studies have found very strong LD within individual loci, but also evidence of some recombination. Here we investigate the pattern of LD on a genomic scale and show that in global samples, LD decays within approximately 1 cM, or 250 kb. We also show that LD in local populations may be much stronger than that of global populations, presumably as a result of founder events. The combination of a relatively high level of polymorphism and extensive haplotype structure bodes well for developing a genome-wide LD map in A. thaliana.     

A new species of Phrynobatrachus (Amphibia: Anura: Phrynobatrachidae) from the Northern Mountains of Tanzania

ABSTRACT

Using integrative approaches, a new large-bodied species of Phrynobatrachus is described from a series of 48 specimens from the montane forests of the West Usambara and North Pare Mountains of Tanzania. The most distinguishing morphological feature separating Phrynobatrachus ambanguluensis sp. nov from similar species is the markedly overhanging and pointed upper jaw and snout. Mitochondrial 16S rRNA indicates that the new species differs from all other species with published sequence data by a minimum distance of 4.75% and is sister to P. krefftii, with which it has been confused in the past. The new species is known from two forest reserves and is of high conservation concern given these areas are highly impacted by anthropogenic change.

http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:E0C82A87-47A5-426B-978D-96D27FA7A3B7     

灾害性天气对新疆高等级公路交通安全的影响

应用新疆吐乌大高等级公路和乌奎高速公路交通事故统计资料，对包括雨、雪、雾、风、沙等在内的灾害性天气对新疆高等公路交通安全的影响进行了研究分析。根据各种天气现象危害程度的不同，指出了高等级公路特定路段对灾害性天气的预防重点。结果表明，大风是影响吐乌大高等级公路交通安全的主要因素，降雨是影响乌奎高速公路的主要因素。     

共轭亚油酸乙酯与β-环糊精包结作用的紫外光谱研究

采用UV-9100型紫外可见分光光度计，分别测定了共轭亚油酸乙酯与β-环糊精在四种溶剂正巳烷、水、甲醇、乙醇中204-260nm范围内的吸光度，发现，甲醇和乙醇是较为理想的溶剂；即使β-CD在甲醇和乙醇中的溶解度极其微小，共轭亚油酸乙酯与β-CD所形成包结物溶液的紫外吸收光谱也有较为显的增加；β-环糊精对长链脂肪酸乙酯的包结能力在不同溶剂中也有一定选择性，在水中β-环糊精对共轭亚油酸乙酯有较强的增溶作用，有利于乳液的稳定，延长团聚的时间。     

The signature of the first stars in atomic hydrogen at redshift 20

Dark and baryonic matter moved at different velocities in the early Universe, which strongly suppressed star formation in some regions. This was estimated to imprint a large-scale fluctuation signal of about two millikelvin in the 21-centimetre spectral line of atomic hydrogen associated with stars at a redshift of 20, although this estimate ignored the critical contribution of gas heating due to X-rays and major enhancements of the suppression. A large velocity difference reduces the abundance of haloes and requires the first stars to form in haloes of about a million solar masses, substantially greater than previously expected. Here we report a simulation of the distribution of the first stars at redshift 20 (cosmic age of around 180 million years), incorporating all these ingredients within a 400-megaparsec box. We find that the 21-centimetre hydrogen signature of these stars is an enhanced (ten millikelvin) fluctuation signal on the hundred-megaparsec scale, characterized by a flat power spectrum with prominent baryon acoustic oscillations. The required sensitivity to see this signal is achievable with an integration time of a thousand hours with an instrument like the Murchison Wide-field Array or the Low Frequency Array but designed to operate in the range of 50-100 megahertz.