In situ measurements of the physical characteristics of Titan's environment

On the basis of previous ground-based and fly-by information, we knew that Titan's atmosphere was mainly nitrogen, with some methane, but its temperature and pressure profiles were poorly constrained because of uncertainties in the detailed composition. The extent of atmospheric electricity ('lightning') was also hitherto unknown. Here we report the temperature and density profiles, as determined by the Huygens Atmospheric Structure Instrument (HASI), from an altitude of 1,400 km down to the surface. In the upper part of the atmosphere, the temperature and density were both higher than expected. There is a lower ionospheric layer between 140 km and 40 km, with electrical conductivity peaking near 60 km. We may also have seen the signature of lightning. At the surface, the temperature was 93.65 +/- 0.25 K, and the pressure was 1,467 +/- 1 hPa.     

Effect of Supervision on Stress and Burnout in School Counsellors: A Case of Action Research

School counsellors are permanently in action, the success of which depends on their systemic approach to their action. Due to the difficulty, complexity and scope of their work, school counsellors are often under a lot of stress, which may eventually develop into occupational burnout. Thus, it is very important that school counsellors can use appropriate i.e. systemic, i.e. requisitely holistic ways of coping with stress and occupational burnout. Recently, after many years, supervision has been gaining importance as an action in the form of professional help to school counsellors to enable them to cope effectively with stress and to prevent occupational burnout. The primary purpose of the reported-about study is to determine how supervision, in accordance with the relational family model, affects the perception of stress and occupational burnout. The sample included 30 school counsellors in Slovenia. They were divided into an experimental group (with the presence of supervision) and a control group (without supervision). Results show a positive effect of supervision, in accordance with the relational family model, on the school counsellors’ perception of stress, since stress decreased after supervisory meetings, while the school counsellors’ perception of their professional burnout after supervisory meetings did not change significantly.     

Corporate Governance and the Practice of Business Ethics in Slovenia

This article contributes both quantitatively and qualitatively to the discussion on implementation of business ethics, as a basic background of social responsibility leading to systemic behaviour. In the frame of business ethics the ethical core values, culture, ethical climate, informal, and formal measures of business ethics implementation is addressed. The article is also aimed to improve understanding of importance of (ethical) corporate governance, key stakeholders’ influence on the enterprise’s core values, culture, the ethical climate, and informal and formal measures of business ethics implementation as the constitutional elements of enterprise ethical behaviour. The article briefs important cognitions of various empirical researches on business ethics in the case of Slovenian enterprises. The business ethics strongly relates to, and matters in, achieving more enterprises’ social responsibility and humankind’s well-being.     

Hydrogen Peroxide in Fluorinated Alcohols：A Potent and Selective Oxidative System

1 Introduction Fluorinated alcohols such as 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-propanol and 2,2,2-trifluoroetanol have particular properties compared to non-fluorinated ones and could provoke changes in the course of reactions in these solvents. Their specific properties are connected mainly to the strong hydrogen bond donor ability and solvation of nuclephiles on one side, and weak hydrogen bond acceptor strength and weak solvation of electrophiles on the other. This dichotomy makes them very attractiv…     

B样条基扩充节点的选择

样条在［ａ，ｂ］区间的Ｂ样条表示需要在区间（ａ，ｂ）外引进附加的节点．本文证明了，若选择所有的附加节点分别为端点ａ和ｂ，那么矩阵（Ｎｊ，ｋ）的范数可以达到最小．同时这样的选择可以简化算法．特别，人们可以用高斯主元消去法稳定地计算Ｂ样条系数，即使对应的矩阵并不全正，也不是对角优势的情况也是如此．     

Nova regulates brain-specific splicing to shape the synapse

Alternative RNA splicing greatly increases proteome diversity and may thereby contribute to tissue-specific functions. We carried out genome-wide quantitative analysis of alternative splicing using a custom Affymetrix microarray to assess the role of the neuronal splicing factor Nova in the brain. We used a stringent algorithm to identify 591 exons that were differentially spliced in the brain relative to immune tissues, and 6.6% of these showed major splicing defects in the neocortex of Nova2-/- mice. We tested 49 exons with the largest predicted Nova-dependent splicing changes and validated all 49 by RT-PCR. We analyzed the encoded proteins and found that all those with defined brain functions acted in the synapse (34 of 40, including neurotransmitter receptors, cation channels, adhesion and scaffold proteins) or in axon guidance (8 of 40). Moreover, of the 35 proteins with known interaction partners, 74% (26) interact with each other. Validating a large set of Nova RNA targets has led us to identify a multi-tiered network in which Nova regulates the exon content of RNAs encoding proteins that interact in the synapse.     

HITS-CLIP yields genome-wide insights into brain alternative RNA processing

Protein-RNA interactions have critical roles in all aspects of gene expression. However, applying biochemical methods to understand such interactions in living tissues has been challenging. Here we develop a genome-wide means of mapping protein-RNA binding sites in vivo, by high-throughput sequencing of RNA isolated by crosslinking immunoprecipitation (HITS-CLIP). HITS-CLIP analysis of the neuron-specific splicing factor Nova revealed extremely reproducible RNA-binding maps in multiple mouse brains. These maps provide genome-wide in vivo biochemical footprints confirming the previous prediction that the position of Nova binding determines the outcome of alternative splicing; moreover, they are sufficiently powerful to predict Nova action de novo. HITS-CLIP revealed a large number of Nova-RNA interactions in 3' untranslated regions, leading to the discovery that Nova regulates alternative polyadenylation in the brain. HITS-CLIP, therefore, provides a robust, unbiased means to identify functional protein-RNA interactions in vivo.