泰国中-新生代热带植物木化石研究

泰国东北部柯叻府及邻区中-新生代木化石非常丰富并保存有完好的解剖构造,是探究热带植被历史、古气候演化以及古环境变迁等问题的重要实证材料.最近的野外调查和专题研究确认该地区中-新生代木化石11科19属约50个种或种级分类单元,分别隶属于裸子植物和被子植物两大分类群,其中有5科7属20种(包括未定种)为前人在泰国未曾报道的类型.当前木材化石群揭示出在中生代后期,泰国东北部热带针叶树植被以南洋杉科为主;在中新世-更新世时期,该地区主要发育落叶和常绿阔叶树植被,代表热带气候环境.     

南澳岛及其附近岛屿夏季鸟类的初步调查

作者一行于 2 0 0 1年夏季对南澳及其附近岛屿的鸟类资源状况进行了调查研究 .结果发现 ,南澳及其附近岛屿有鸟类 51种 ,隶属 1 3目 2 8科 ,其中雀形目 2 3种 ,占所发现种类的 45% ,非雀形目 2 8种 ,占 55% ;国家一、二级保护动物各一种 ,分别为 :白腹军舰鸟 (F regataandrewsi)和岩鹭 (Egretta sacra) .按鸟类的栖息和迁徙习惯划分 ,有海鸟 8种 ,湿地候鸟 2种 ,湿地留鸟 9种 ,陆地候鸟 4种 ,陆地留鸟 2 8种 .在所有鸟类中以褐翅燕鸥 (Sterna anae-thetus)为优势种 ,数量最大 ,分布最广 .     

Mutations in the gene encoding pejvakin, a newly identified protein of the afferent auditory pathway, cause DFNB59 auditory neuropathy

Auditory neuropathy is a particular type of hearing impairment in which neural transmission of the auditory signal is impaired, while cochlear outer hair cells remain functional. Here we report on DFNB59, a newly identified gene on chromosome 2q31.1-q31.3 mutated in four families segregating autosomal recessive auditory neuropathy. DFNB59 encodes pejvakin, a 352-residue protein. Pejvakin is a paralog of DFNA5, a protein of unknown function also involved in deafness. By immunohistofluorescence, pejvakin is detected in the cell bodies of neurons of the afferent auditory pathway. Furthermore, Dfnb59 knock-in mice, homozygous for the R183W variant identified in one DFNB59 family, show abnormal auditory brainstem responses indicative of neuronal dysfunction along the auditory pathway. Unlike previously described sensorineural deafness genes, all of which underlie cochlear cell pathologies, DFNB59 is the first human gene implicated in nonsyndromic deafness due to a neuronal defect.     

Observation of rare-earth segregation in silicon nitride ceramics at subnanometre dimensions

Silicon nitride (Si3N4) ceramics are used in numerous applications because of their superior mechanical properties. Their intrinsically brittle nature is a critical issue, but can be overcome by introducing whisker-like microstructural features. However, the formation of such anisotropic grains is very sensitive to the type of cations used as the sintering additives. Understanding the origin of dopant effects, central to the design of high-performance Si3N4 ceramics, has been sought for many years. Here we show direct images of dopant atoms (La) within the nanometre-scale intergranular amorphous films typically found at grain boundaries, using aberration corrected Z-contrast scanning transmission electron microscopy. It is clearly shown that the La atoms preferentially segregate to the amorphous/crystal interfaces. First-principles calculations confirm the strong preference of La for the crystalline surfaces, which is essential for forming elongated grains and a toughened microstructure. Whereas principles of micrometre-scale structural design are currently used to improve the mechanical properties of ceramics, this work represents a step towards the atomic-level structural engineering required for the next generation of ceramics.     

Extraction of a weak climatic signal by an ecosystem

The complexity of ecosystems can cause subtle and chaotic responses to changes in external forcing. Although ecosystems may not normally behave chaotically, sensitivity to external influences associated with nonlinearity can lead to amplification of climatic signals. Strong correlations between an El Ni?o index and rainfall and maize yield in Zimbabwe have been demonstrated; the correlation with maize yield was stronger than that with rainfall. A second example is the 100,000-year ice-age cycle, which may arise from a weak cycle in radiation through its influence on the concentration of atmospheric CO2 (ref. 5). Such integration of a weak climatic signal has yet to be demonstrated in a realistic theoretical system. Here we use a particular climatic phenomenon-the observed association between plankton populations around the UK and the position of the Gulf Stream-as a probe to demonstrate how a detailed marine ecosystem model extracts a weak signal that is spread across different meteorological variables. Biological systems may therefore respond to climatic signals other than those that dominate the driving variables.     

Climate-driven trends in contemporary ocean productivity

Contributing roughly half of the biosphere's net primary production (NPP), photosynthesis by oceanic phytoplankton is a vital link in the cycling of carbon between living and inorganic stocks. Each day, more than a hundred million tons of carbon in the form of CO2 are fixed into organic material by these ubiquitous, microscopic plants of the upper ocean, and each day a similar amount of organic carbon is transferred into marine ecosystems by sinking and grazing. The distribution of phytoplankton biomass and NPP is defined by the availability of light and nutrients (nitrogen, phosphate, iron). These growth-limiting factors are in turn regulated by physical processes of ocean circulation, mixed-layer dynamics, upwelling, atmospheric dust deposition, and the solar cycle. Satellite measurements of ocean colour provide a means of quantifying ocean productivity on a global scale and linking its variability to environmental factors. Here we describe global ocean NPP changes detected from space over the past decade. The period is dominated by an initial increase in NPP of 1,930 teragrams of carbon a year (Tg C yr(-1)), followed by a prolonged decrease averaging 190 Tg C yr(-1). These trends are driven by changes occurring in the expansive stratified low-latitude oceans and are tightly coupled to coincident climate variability. This link between the physical environment and ocean biology functions through changes in upper-ocean temperature and stratification, which influence the availability of nutrients for phytoplankton growth. The observed reductions in ocean productivity during the recent post-1999 warming period provide insight on how future climate change can alter marine food webs.     

Aerosols implicated as a prime driver of twentieth-century North Atlantic climate variability

Systematic climate shifts have been linked to multidecadal variability in observed sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic Ocean. These links are extensive, influencing a range of climate processes such as hurricane activity and African Sahel and Amazonian droughts. The variability is distinct from historical global-mean temperature changes and is commonly attributed to natural ocean oscillations. A number of studies have provided evidence that aerosols can influence long-term changes in sea surface temperatures, but climate models have so far failed to reproduce these interactions and the role of aerosols in decadal variability remains unclear. Here we use a state-of-the-art Earth system climate model to show that aerosol emissions and periods of volcanic activity explain 76 per cent of the simulated multidecadal variance in detrended 1860-2005 North Atlantic sea surface temperatures. After 1950, simulated variability is within observational estimates; our estimates for 1910-1940 capture twice the warming of previous generation models but do not explain the entire observed trend. Other processes, such as ocean circulation, may also have contributed to variability in the early twentieth century. Mechanistically, we find that inclusion of aerosol-cloud microphysical effects, which were included in few previous multimodel ensembles, dominates the magnitude (80 per cent) and the spatial pattern of the total surface aerosol forcing in the North Atlantic. Our findings suggest that anthropogenic aerosol emissions influenced a range of societally important historical climate events such as peaks in hurricane activity and Sahel drought. Decadal-scale model predictions of regional Atlantic climate will probably be improved by incorporating aerosol-cloud microphysical interactions and estimates of future concentrations of aerosols, emissions of which are directly addressable by policy actions.     

Myeloid leukaemia inhibitory factor maintains the developmental potential of embryonic stem cells

Embryonic stem (ES) cells, the totipotent outgrowths of blastocysts, can be cultured and manipulated in vitro and then returned to the embryonic environment where they develop normally and can contribute to all cell lineages. Maintenance of the stem-cell phenotype in vitro requires the presence of a feeder layer of fibroblasts or of a soluble factor, differentiation inhibitory activity (DIA) produced by a number of sources; in the absence of DIA the ES cells differentiate into a wide variety of cell types. We recently noted several similarities between partially purified DIA and a haemopoietic regulator, myeloid leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF), a molecule which induces differentiation in M1 myeloid leukaemic cells and which we have recently purified, cloned and characterized. We demonstrate here that purified, recombinant LIF can substitute for DIA in the maintenance of totipotent ES cell lines that retain the potential to form chimaeric mice.