Fibulin-5/DANCE is essential for elastogenesis in vivo.

The elastic fibre system has a principal role in the structure and function of various types of organs that require elasticity, such as large arteries, lung and skin. Although elastic fibres are known to be composed of microfibril proteins (for example, fibrillins and latent transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta-binding proteins) and polymerized elastin, the mechanism of their assembly and development is not well understood. Here we report that fibulin-5 (also known as DANCE), a recently discovered integrin ligand, is an essential determinant of elastic fibre organization. fibulin-5-/- mice generated by gene targeting exhibit a severely disorganized elastic fibre system throughout the body. fibulin-5-/- mice survive to adulthood, but have a tortuous aorta with loss of compliance, severe emphysema, and loose skin (cutis laxa). These tissues contain fragmented elastin without an increase of elastase activity, indicating defective development of elastic fibres. Fibulin-5 interacts directly with elastic fibres in vitro, and serves as a ligand for cell surface integrins alphavbeta3, alphavbeta5 and alpha9beta1 through its amino-terminal domain. Thus, fibulin-5 may provide anchorage of elastic fibres to cells, thereby acting to stabilize and organize elastic fibres in the skin, lung and vasculature.     

Heterogeneous Round-Trip Trading and the Emergence of Volatility Clustering in Speculation Game

Journal of Systems Science and Complexity - This study is a detailed analysis of Speculation Game, a simple agent-based model of financial markets, in which the round-trip trading and the dynamic...     

高效液相色谱测定鸟氨酸脱羧酶活性方法的改进

对柴彪新等报道的高效液相色谱测定鸟氨酸脱羧酶(ODC)活性的方法作了改进.结果表明,改进后的方法更灵敏,更简便,线性范围明显扩大,相关系数为0.9998,显著高于柴彪新等报道的0.9939.同时,新方法还可使苯甲酸和苯甲酰氯降到很低.     

团簇离子FenPm+结构的量子化学研究

对激光等离子体反应生成的原子团簇 Ｆｅｎ Ｐｍ ＋ （ｎ＝ １～３, ｍ ＝ ２～１２）进行了量子化学从头算研究, 对可能的几何结构进行了试探性计算, 并对其中较稳定构型进行结构优化． 结果表明： Ｆｅ Ｐｍ ＋ 中, Ｆｅ 倾向与 Ｐ形成多配位磷化物． 其中 Ｆｅ Ｐ６＋ 较稳定． 同时, 铁与磷易形成多铁磷化物．讨论了 Ｆｅ２ Ｐ５＋ ～ Ｆｅ２ Ｐ８＋ , Ｆｅ３ Ｐ２＋ ～ Ｆｅ３ Ｐ１２＋ 不同构型对其稳定性的影响．     

具有可变形剪切连接件的连续复合梁的结构行为

对原型双跨复合梁的结构行为给出了详细的有限元研究．由于基本上认为剪切连接件是非刚性的,在高等有限元模型中采用弹簧单元可以将它们的非线性荷载一滑移性质考虑在内．对各种原型双跨复合梁进行了参数研究,并提出了主要的研究结果．主要的结构参数包括剪切连接件在正弯矩和负弯矩区域内的变形韧性和变形程度．总共比较和讨论了9个具有不同类型和剪切件数目的复合梁的结构行为,对目前的设计缺陷进行了鉴定．由于提出的有限元模型对详细调查复合梁的结构行为非常有效,有效地利用所提出的模型将对更具有改善结构精度和效率的细化设计准则的发展有帮助．     

Controlled multiple quantum coherences of nuclear spins in a nanometre-scale device

The analytical technique of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is based on coherent quantum mechanical superposition of nuclear spin states. Recently, NMR has received considerable renewed interest in the context of quantum computation and information processing, which require controlled coherent qubit operations. However, standard NMR is not suitable for the implementation of realistic scalable devices, which would require all-electrical control and the means to detect microscopic quantities of coherent nuclear spins. Here we present a self-contained NMR semiconductor device that can control nuclear spins in a nanometre-scale region. Our approach enables the direct detection of (otherwise invisible) multiple quantum coherences between levels separated by more than one quantum of spin angular momentum. This microscopic high sensitivity NMR technique is especially suitable for probing materials whose nuclei contain multiple spin levels, and may form the basis of a versatile multiple qubit device.     

Interannual variability in the oxygen isotopes of atmospheric CO2 driven by El Niño

The stable isotope ratios of atmospheric CO(2) ((18)O/(16)O and (13)C/(12)C) have been monitored since 1977 to improve our understanding of the global carbon cycle, because biosphere-atmosphere exchange fluxes affect the different atomic masses in a measurable way. Interpreting the (18)O/(16)O variability has proved difficult, however, because oxygen isotopes in CO(2) are influenced by both the carbon cycle and the water cycle. Previous attention focused on the decreasing (18)O/(16)O ratio in the 1990s, observed by the global Cooperative Air Sampling Network of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Earth System Research Laboratory. This decrease was attributed variously to a number of processes including an increase in Northern Hemisphere soil respiration; a global increase in C(4) crops at the expense of C(3) forests; and environmental conditions, such as atmospheric turbulence and solar radiation, that affect CO(2) exchange between leaves and the atmosphere. Here we present 30 years' worth of data on (18)O/(16)O in CO(2) from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography global flask network and show that the interannual variability is strongly related to the El Ni?o/Southern Oscillation. We suggest that the redistribution of moisture and rainfall in the tropics during an El Ni?o increases the (18)O/(16)O ratio of precipitation and plant water, and that this signal is then passed on to atmospheric CO(2) by biosphere-atmosphere gas exchange. We show how the decay time of the El Ni?o anomaly in this data set can be useful in constraining global gross primary production. Our analysis shows a rapid recovery from El Ni?o events, implying a shorter cycling time of CO(2) with respect to the terrestrial biosphere and oceans than previously estimated. Our analysis suggests that current estimates of global gross primary production, of 120 petagrams of carbon per year, may be too low, and that a best guess of 150-175 petagrams of carbon per year better reflects the observed rapid cycling of CO(2). Although still tentative, such a revision would present a new benchmark by which to evaluate global biospheric carbon cycling models.     

Spin crossover and iron-rich silicate melt in the Earth's deep mantle

A melt has greater volume than a silicate solid of the same composition. But this difference diminishes at high pressure, and the possibility that a melt sufficiently enriched in the heavy element iron might then become more dense than solids at the pressures in the interior of the Earth (and other terrestrial bodies) has long been a source of considerable speculation. The occurrence of such dense silicate melts in the Earth's lowermost mantle would carry important consequences for its physical and chemical evolution and could provide a unifying model for explaining a variety of observed features in the core-mantle boundary region. Recent theoretical calculations combined with estimates of iron partitioning between (Mg,Fe)SiO(3) perovskite and melt at shallower mantle conditions suggest that melt is more dense than solids at pressures in the Earth's deepest mantle, consistent with analysis of shockwave experiments. Here we extend measurements of iron partitioning over the entire mantle pressure range, and find a precipitous change at pressures greater than ～76?GPa, resulting in strong iron enrichment in melts. Additional X-ray emission spectroscopy measurements on (Mg(0.95)Fe(0.05))SiO(3) glass indicate a spin collapse around 70?GPa, suggesting that the observed change in iron partitioning could be explained by a spin crossover of iron (from high-spin to low-spin) in silicate melt. These results imply that (Mg,Fe)SiO(3) liquid becomes more dense than coexisting solid at ～1,800?km depth in the lower mantle. Soon after the Earth's formation, the heat dissipated by accretion and internal differentiation could have produced a dense melt layer up to ～1,000?km in thickness underneath the solid mantle. We also infer that (Mg,Fe)SiO(3) perovskite is on the liquidus at deep mantle conditions, and predict that fractional crystallization of dense magma would have evolved towards an iron-rich and silicon-poor composition, consistent with seismic inferences of structures in the core-mantle boundary region.