Extended megadroughts in the southwestern United States during Pleistocene interglacials

The potential for increased drought frequency and severity linked to anthropogenic climate change in the semi-arid regions of the southwestern United States (US) is a serious concern. Multi-year droughts during the instrumental period and decadal-length droughts of the past two millennia were shorter and climatically different from the future permanent, 'dust-bowl-like' megadrought conditions, lasting decades to a century, that are predicted as a consequence of warming. So far, it has been unclear whether or not such megadroughts occurred in the southwestern US, and, if so, with what regularity and intensity. Here we show that periods of aridity lasting centuries to millennia occurred in the southwestern US during mid-Pleistocene interglacials. Using molecular palaeotemperature proxies to reconstruct the mean annual temperature (MAT) in mid-Pleistocene lacustrine sediment from the Valles Caldera, New Mexico, we found that the driest conditions occurred during the warmest phases of interglacials, when the MAT was comparable to or higher than the modern MAT. A collapse of drought-tolerant C(4) plant communities during these warm, dry intervals indicates a significant reduction in summer precipitation, possibly in response to a poleward migration of the subtropical dry zone. Three MAT cycles ～2?°C in amplitude occurred within Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11 and seem to correspond to the muted precessional cycles within this interglacial. In comparison with MIS 11, MIS 13 experienced higher precessional-cycle amplitudes, larger variations in MAT (4-6?°C) and a longer period of extended warmth, suggesting that local insolation variations were important to interglacial climatic variability in the southwestern US. Comparison of the early MIS 11 climate record with the Holocene record shows many similarities and implies that, in the absence of anthropogenic forcing, the region should be entering a cooler and wetter phase.     

A new monotypic genus of chiggers and four new species of Quadraseta from Venezuela (Acari: Trombiculidae)

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Carebareia, n. gen., and its type - species, C. johnstoni, n. sp., are described. The genus Quadraseta Brennan, 1970, is redefined and a key to the 11 included species given. Four new species, Quadraseta tachirensis, holotype ex Akodon sp., Q. rotstieri, ex Proechimys guyannensis, Q. mirandae, holotype ex Oryzomys albigularis, and Q. falconensis, ex Sylvilagus floridanus, are described.     

Stimulation of induction or inhibition of crown-gall tumor development by RNA-fragments U2. Interference by auxin]

RNA-fragments U2 obtained by mild degradation with RNase U2 of ribosomal RNA containing A and G nucleotides in excess are capable of exhibiting either a stimulatory effect on the induction of Crown-gall tumors or an inhibitory action on their subsequent development. These different effects are dependent on the moment at which RNA-fragments were introduced into wounded Pea seedlings infected by Agrobacterium tumefaciens B6. The results obtained in vitro and in vivo suggest that an interaction between auxin and RNA-fragments U2 may take place, either increasing the tumor induction or inhibiting the proliferation of tumourous cells.     

Heritable changeability: Epimutation and the legacy of negative definition in epigenetic concepts

Epigenetic concepts are fundamentally shaped by a legacy of negative definition, often understood by what they are not. Yet the function and implication of negative definition for scientific discourse has thus far received scant attention. Using the term epimutation as exemplar, we analyze the paradoxical like-but-unlike structure of a term that must simultaneously connect with but depart from genetic concepts. We assess the historical forces structuring the use of epimutation and like terms such as paramutation. This analysis highlights the positive characteristics defining epimutation: the regularity, oxymoronic temporality, and materiality of stable processes. Integrating historical work, ethnographic observation, and insights from philosophical practice-oriented conceptual analysis, we detail the distinctive epistemic goals the epimutation concept fulfils in medicine, plant biology and toxicology. Epimutation and allied epigenetic terms have succeeded by being mutation-like and recognizable, yet have failed to consolidate for exactly the same reason: they are tied simultaneously by likeness and opposition to nouns that describe things that are assumed to persist unchanged over space and time. Moreover, negative definition casts the genetic-epigenetic relationship as an either/or binary, overshadowing continuities and connections. This analysis is intended to assist practitioners and observers of genetics and epigenetics in recognizing and moving beyond the conceptual legacies of negative definition.     

热输入对深海X70粗晶区组织和韧性的影响

为解决深海X70管线钢在实际焊接中粗晶区(CGHAZ)的脆化问题,在不同热循环工艺下对X70管线钢进行了热模拟研究。采用Gleeble-3800热模拟机模拟X70管线钢CGHAZ,研究CGHAZ在10～60 kJ/cm不同热输入(HI)条件下组织和韧性的变化规律,并通过光学显微镜(OM)、扫描电镜(SEM)和夏比冲击试验等手段表征CGHAZ的组织和韧性。结果表明,不同热输入下试验钢的组织主要由粒状贝氏体(GB)、贝氏体铁素体(BF)和马-奥组元(M-A组元)组成;当HI不断增大时,BF比例减少,GB比例增加,M-A组元粗化,冲击吸收能先升高再降低;当HI为20 kJ/cm时,BF和GB可获得优异组合,断口为韧性断裂,冲击吸收能达到173.8 J;当HI大于20 kJ/cm时,断口解离断裂,冲击吸收能下降明显,最低为18.8 J。因此,较低的热输入可提高CGHAZ的韧性,使X70管线钢具有高强度、高韧性和良好的焊接性。研究结果可为优化焊接工艺提供理论依据。     

临近空间等离子体鞘套对太赫兹波传播特性分析

针对高超声速飞行器在临近空间巡航时出现的通信"黑障"问题,根据RAM C提供的飞行试验数据,建立一维等离子体鞘套模型,通过数值计算分析了等离子体与太赫兹波的相互作用机理,并从等离子体厚度、等离子体电子密度、等离子体碰撞频率和太赫兹波入射角等条件得到了太赫兹波在等离子体鞘套中的传输特性曲线。仿真结果表明:把太赫兹波段作为临近空间平台通信,有利于解决"黑障"问题,其中在大气窗口0.22THz处的衰减均在30dB以下。此论证结果可为临近空间平台设计的高超声速飞行器选用通信频段时提供参考。     

Mice deficient in Abl are osteoporotic and have defects in osteoblast maturation

The c-Abl protein is a non-receptor tyrosine kinase involved in many aspects of mammalian development. c-Abl kinase is widely expressed, but high levels are found in hyaline cartilage in the adult, bone tissue in newborn mice, and osteoblasts and associated neovasculature at sites of endochondrial ossification in the fetus. Mice homozygous for mutations in the gene encoding c-Abl (AIM) display increased perinatal mortality, reduced fertility, foreshortened crania and defects in the maturation of B cells in bone marrow. Here we demonstrate that Abl-/- mice are also osteoporotic. The long bones of mutant mice contain thinner cortical bone and reduced trabecular bone volume. The osteoporotic phenotype is not due to accelerated bone turnover--both the number and activity of osteoclasts are similar to those of control littermates--but rather to dysfunctional osteoblasts. In addition, the rate of mineral apposition in the mutant animals is reduced. Osteoblasts from both stromal and calvarial explants showed delayed maturation in vitro as measured by expression of alkaline phosphatase (ALP), induction of mRNA encoding osteocalcin and mineral deposition.     

An equilibrium-dependent retroviral mRNA switch regulates translational recoding

Most retroviruses require translational recoding of a viral messenger RNA stop codon to maintain a precise ratio of structural (Gag) and enzymatic (Pol) proteins during virus assembly. Pol is expressed exclusively as a Gag-Pol fusion either by ribosomal frameshifting or by read-through of the gag stop codon. Both of these mechanisms occur infrequently and only affect 5-10% of translating ribosomes, allowing the virus to maintain the critical Gag to Gag-Pol ratio. Although it is understood that the frequency of the recoding event is regulated by cis RNA motifs, no mechanistic explanation is currently available for how the critical protein ratio is maintained. Here we present the NMR structure of the murine leukaemia virus recoding signal and show that a protonation-dependent switch occurs to induce the active conformation. The equilibrium is such that at physiological pH the active, read-through permissive conformation is populated at approximately 6%: a level that correlates with in vivo protein quantities. The RNA functions by a highly sensitive, chemo-mechanical coupling tuned to ensure an optimal read-through frequency. Similar observations for a frameshifting signal indicate that this novel equilibrium-based mechanism may have a general role in translational recoding.     

Patterning of sodium ions and the control of electrons in sodium cobaltate

Sodium cobaltate (Na(x)CoO2) has emerged as a material of exceptional scientific interest due to the potential for thermoelectric applications, and because the strong interplay between the magnetic and superconducting properties has led to close comparisons with the physics of the superconducting copper oxides. The density x of the sodium in the intercalation layers can be altered electrochemically, directly changing the number of conduction electrons on the triangular Co layers. Recent electron diffraction measurements reveal a kaleidoscope of Na+ ion patterns as a function of concentration. Here we use single-crystal neutron diffraction supported by numerical simulations to determine the long-range three-dimensional superstructures of these ions. We show that the sodium ordering and its associated distortion field are governed by pure electrostatics, and that the organizational principle is the stabilization of charge droplets that order long range at some simple fractional fillings. Our results provide a good starting point to understand the electronic properties in terms of a Hubbard hamiltonian that takes into account the electrostatic potential from the Na superstructures. The resulting depth of potential wells in the Co layer is greater than the single-particle hopping kinetic energy and as a consequence, holes preferentially occupy the lowest potential regions. Thus we conclude that the Na+ ion patterning has a decisive role in the transport and magnetic properties.