Effects of initial sucrose concentration on excretion of anthocyanin pigments in suspended cultures of Perilla frutescens cells

Cell cultures of Perilla frutescens, growing on Linsmaier and Skoog medium, released more anthocyanin with 40 to 50 g sucrose/l compared with the control of 30 g sucrose/l of medium. More proteins were also released into the medium with the higher sucrose concentration and the cell volume was smaller, suggesting that the higher osmotic pressure, caused by the high sucrose concentration, may cause these releases. The capacitance of the cultured cells indicated a difference in membrane structure between the cells cultivated with different sucrose concentrations, supporting the hypothesis that cell permeabilization is increased at higher sucrose concentrations.J.-J. Zhong is with the Research Institute of Biochemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, 130 Meilong Road, Shanghai 200237, China, G.-R. Xu is with the Department of Fermentation Technology, Wuxi Institue of Light Industry, Jiangsu 214036, China. T. Yoshida is with the International Center of Cooperative Research in Biotechnology, Faculty of Engineering. Osaka University, Osaka 565, Japan.     

Purification and properties of mannanase from Bacillus subtilis

Extracellular mannanase from Bacillus subtilis NM-39, an isolate from Philippine soil, was purified about 240-fold with a yield of 7.3% by ammonium sulphate fractionation, DEAE-Toyopearl chromatography and Sephacryl S-200 gel filtration. Its M _r was 38 kDa and it had a pI of 4.8 and optimum activity at pH 5.0 and 55°C. It was stable at pH 4 to 9 and below 55°C. The amino acid composition of the enzyme was in the order Gly>Glx>Ser and Asx>Ala.N.S. Mendoza and L.M. Joson are with Industrial Technology Development Institute, Department of Science and Technology, Manila, Philippines. M. Arai and T. Kawaguchi are with Department of Agricultural Chemistry, College of Agriculture, University of Osaka Prefecture, Sakai, Osaka 593, Japan; T. Yoshida is with Faculty of Engineering, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka 565, Japan.     

Isolation of mannan-utilizing bacteria and the culture conditions for mannanase production

A locally isolated strain, Bacillus subtilis NM-39, was selected as an active mannan-utilizing bacterium based on high saccharifying activities on coconut residue and locust bean gum galactomannan. The optimal pH and temperature ranges for activity of the crude enzyme were 5.0 to 6.0 and 50 to 60°C, respectively. The organism gave maximum mannanase activity when grown in liquid mineral salts medium containing 1% (w/v) each of coconut residue and soybean flour, as carbon and nitrogen sources, respectively, at pH 7.0 and in aerobic growth for 28 h at 37°C. High saccharifying activity on coconut mannan was also observed.The authors are with the Industrial Technology Development Institute, Department of Science and Technology, Manila, Philippines. M. Arai and T. Kawaguchi are also currently with the Department of Agricultural Chemistry, College of Agriculture, University of Osaka Prefecture, Sakai, Osaka 593, Japan; T. Yoshida is also with the Faculty of Engineering, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka 565, Japan.     

Exploiting redundancy to boost performance in a RAID-10 style cluster-based file system

While aggregating the throughput of existing disks on cluster nodes is a cost-effective approach to alleviate the I/O bottleneck in cluster computing, this approach suffers from potential performance degradations due to contentions for shared resources on the same node between storage data processing and user task computation. This paper proposes to judiciously utilize the storage redundancy in the form of mirroring existed in a RAID-10 style file system to alleviate this performance degradation. More specifically, a heuristic scheduling algorithm is developed, motivated from the observations of a simple cluster configuration, to spatially schedule write operations on the nodes with less load among each mirroring pair. The duplication of modified data to the mirroring nodes is performed asynchronously in the background. The read performance is improved by two techniques: doubling the degree of parallelism and hot-spot skipping. A synthetic benchmark is used to evaluate these algorithms in a real cluster environment and the proposed algorithms are shown to be very effective in performance enhancement. Yifeng Zhu received his B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1998 from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China; the M.S. and Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from University of Nebraska – Lincoln in 2002 and 2005 respectively. He is an assistant professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at University of Maine. His main research interests are cluster computing, grid computing, computer architecture and systems, and parallel I/O storage systems. Dr. Zhu is a Member of ACM, IEEE, the IEEE Computer Society, and the Francis Crowe Society. Hong Jiang received the B.Sc. degree in Computer Engineering in 1982 from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China; the M.A.Sc. degree in Computer Engineering in 1987 from the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; and the PhD degree in Computer Science in 1991 from the Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA. Since August 1991 he has been at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA, where he is Professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. His present research interests are computer architecture, parallel/distributed computing, cluster and Grid computing, computer storage systems and parallel I/O, performance evaluation, real-time systems, middleware, and distributed systems for distance education. He has over 100 publications in major journals and international Conferences in these areas and his research has been supported by NSF, DOD and the State of Nebraska. Dr. Jiang is a Member of ACM, the IEEE Computer Society, and the ACM SIGARCH. Xiao Qin received the BS and MS degrees in computer science from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 1992 and 1999, respectively. He received the PhD degree in computer science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2004. Currently, he is an assistant professor in the department of computer science at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. He had served as a subject area editor of IEEE Distributed System Online (2000–2001). His research interests are in parallel and distributed systems, storage systems, real-time computing, performance evaluation, and fault-tolerance. He is a member of the IEEE. Dan Feng received the Ph.D degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, in 1997. She is currently a professor of School of Computer, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China. She is the principal scientist of the the National Grand Fundamental Research 973 Program of China “Research on the organization and key technologies of the Storage System on the next generation Internet.” Her research interests include computer architecture, storage system, parallel I/O, massive storage and performance evaluation. David Swanson received a Ph.D. in physical (computational) chemistry at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) in 1995, after which he worked as an NSF-NATO postdoctoral fellow at the Technical University of Wroclaw, Poland, in 1996, and subsequently as a National Research Council Research Associate at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC, from 1997–1998. In 1999 he returned to UNL where he directs the Research Computing Facility and currently serves as an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. The Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation, and the State of Nebraska have supported his research in areas such as large-scale scientific simulation and distributed systems.     

桔小实蝇视叶结构特征及5-羟色胺能神经元的分布

桔小实蝇是重要的果蔬害虫,它对不同颜色的光表现出不同的趋性。为了明确其视觉感受的结构基础,本研究采用免疫组织化学染色技术结合激光共聚焦成像分析了桔小实蝇成虫视叶内神经髓结构组成和体积大小,并利用5-羟色胺(5-hydroxytryptamine,5-HT)抗体标记了视叶内5-羟色胺能神经元,研究了其在视叶内的分布特征及细胞体数量。结果表明,桔小实蝇成虫的视叶由视神经节层、视髓、副视髓、视小叶和视小叶板5个神经髓结构组成,其中雌成虫的视髓相对体积极显著的大于雄虫的视髓相对体积。桔小实蝇每个视叶中包含12个5-HT能神经元细胞体,位于视髓的腹内侧,副视髓的前方。视叶5个神经髓区均含5-HT能神经纤维,但它们的神经纤维来自不同的神经元。对视叶神经髓结构及5-HT能神经元分布特征的研究将为未来构建桔小实蝇视觉神经通路和阐明5-HT对视觉感受的调控机制奠定解剖学基础。     

人工湿地植物种类和多样性对氧化亚氮释放及功能基因丰度的影响

为了解人工湿地处理中碳/氮水平的废水时植物种类及多样性对系统氧化亚氮释放及功能基因丰度的影响,本研究构建了实验尺度的垂直流人工湿地微宇宙实验系统.选取芦苇(Phragmites australis)、千屈菜(Lythrum salicaria)和海寿花(Pontederia cordata)3种人工湿地常用、景观效果好的植物,在系统中配置了3个单种处理和1个三物种混种处理.结果表明:芦苇、千屈菜与海寿花混种系统的氧化亚氮释放强度(24597.0 μg N2O·m-2·d^-1)高于三物种单种系统的平均值(11744.8 μg N2O·m^-2·d^-1)(P<0.001),同氧化亚氮释放一样,混种系统的amoA基因绝对丰度(6.33× 10^7 copies·g^-1 soil)和nirS基因绝对丰度(1.92× 106 copies·g^-1 soil)也高于三物种单种系统的平均值(5.70×10^7和1.58×10^6 copies·g^-1 soil).此外,混种系统的出水硝态氮浓度低于三物种单种系统的平均值(P<0.05),但出水硝态氮浓度、微生物量和植物生物量在单混种系统间无显著差异(P>0.05).3个单种系统间的氧化亚氮释放强度、amoA基因绝对丰度、nirS基因绝对丰度、出水铵态氮浓度、微生物量和植物生物量存在显著差异(P<0.01),但出水硝态氮无显著差异(P>0.05).通过植物种类和丰富度对各指标变异的解释度发现,植物种类和丰富度分别解释变异的比率存在一定差异,总体上,植物丰富度对氧化亚氮释放、amoA基因绝对丰度和nirS基因绝对丰度的影响大于植物种类,植物种类对出水硝态氮浓度的影响大于植物丰富度.     

试栽羊肚菌分子系统分析

[目的]为了弄清陕西汉中试栽羊肚菌的种类归属。[方法]收集到汉中地区试栽羊肚菌子实体19个样品,采用CTAB法提取其基因组DNA,使用通用引物PCR扩增5个基因序列(ITS、LSU、EF1-α、RPB1和RPB2)保守区片段,用1. 0%的琼脂糖凝胶电泳对PCR产物进行检测,并对PCR产物送样测序。依据测序结果构建系统发育树,结合系统发育树进行物种归属鉴定。[结果]获取了所有样品的5个基因序列保守区片段,通过测序比对19个样品5个基因序列保守区片段并进行序列联合,对总长度3 025 bp的保守区序列分析并构建系统发育树,依据系统发育树鉴定出汉中试栽羊肚菌分别为六妹羊肚菌(Morchella sextelata)、梯棱羊肚菌(M. importuna)、隐形羊肚菌(M. cryptica)和北方羊肚菌(M. septentrionalis)。[结论]采用多基因联合分析法弄清楚汉中试栽羊肚菌的种类归属。     

不同酿酒酵母菌株来源异麦芽糖酶IMA1的克隆、表达及表征（英文）

【目的】异麦芽糖酶IMA1在充分利用含有α-1,6-O-糖苷键的低聚糖中起着关键作用。【方法】在本研究中,对来自4株酿酒酵母菌株(包括3株嗜酸性菌株)来源的异麦芽糖酶IMA1进行克隆、表达、纯化和表征。【结果】研究发现,4种异麦芽糖酶IMA1表现出类似的pH和温度依赖性,但表现出不同的动力学参数和热稳定性。IMA1-A对α-MG(α-甲基葡糖苷)表现出最高的结合亲和力、转换数、催化效率和热稳定性。结构和序列分析表明,2个远离活性位点和底物结合位点的氨基酸的差异对异麦芽糖酶IMA1的动力学参数和热稳定性有重要影响。【结论】本研究结果对进一步研究异麦芽糖酶IMA1的结构-功能关系奠定了基础。     

尼罗红示踪纳米制剂在荷瘤裸鼠体内活体成像的应用

目的拟将尼罗红包裹入纳米制剂中,利用其荧光特性来考察纳米制剂在荷瘤鼠体内的肿瘤靶向性与组织分布情况。方法采用CCK-8法检测尼罗红纳米乳[NRNE(O)]对H1688的细胞毒性。建立BALB/c裸鼠肺癌模型,灌胃给予尼罗红混悬液(NRS)及NRNE(O),通过小动物活体成像系统观察其在荷瘤裸鼠中荧光强度的动态分布情况。结果 NRNE(O)具有较低的细胞毒性和良好的生物相容性,并且在体内的吸收量及肿瘤部位的蓄积量均高于NRS;NR在纳米制剂中能快速、稳定、清晰地反映纳米制剂在小鼠体内的动态分布情况。结论本研究中制备的NRNE(O)的稳定性好,为尼罗红作为示踪剂应用于纳米制剂在动物体内的研究提供了重要的研究手段。     

Bt作物秸秆还田对土壤生态系统的影响研究进展

随着Bt作物种植面积的逐年增加, 人们对Bt作物释放后潜在的安全性也越来越关注。Bt作物释放的Bt蛋白可以主要通过秸秆还田方式进入土壤进而可能会对土壤生态系统造成影响。本文综述了Bt作物秸秆还田释放的Bt蛋白在土壤中的降解及对土壤生态系统影响的研究进展。重点阐述了①Bt作物秸秆还田释放的Bt蛋白在土壤中的降解; ②Bt作物秸秆还田对土壤微生物的影响; ③Bt作物秸秆还田对土壤动物的影响; ④Bt作物秸秆还田对土壤酶活性的影响; ⑤Bt作物秸秆还田对土壤养分含量的影响。从而为Bt作物秸秆还田对土壤环境的生态风险评价提供参考。     

灰树花秸秆栽培基质配方的优化

木屑一直是灰树花主要的栽培基质,但木质资源日趋匮乏。本文采用单纯格子法筛选替代木屑基质的原材料及高产配方,以玉米芯、玉米秸秆、大豆秸秆、水稻秸秆为栽培基质,以产量为考核指标,建立各组分配比与产量之间的回归模型,优化栽培配方及考察配方中各组分的互作效应。结果表明:玉米芯可以替代木屑栽培灰树花,大豆秸秆、水稻秸秆和玉米秸秆可以与玉米芯进行合适配比,也可以替代木屑基质。优化的高产配方为75%玉米芯,23%麦麸,2%轻质碳酸钙,每袋产量平均达133.3 g,比对照配方平均产量(97.25 g)高出36.05 g,提高了37.07%。     

Repeated use of Bacillus subtilis cell walls for copper binding

Purified cell walls from Bacillus subtilis were repeatedly suspended in 5 mm CuCl₂ and, after removing unbound Cu, were suspended in 1% (v/v) HNO₃ to release bound Cu. The walls were then regenerated by washing in H₂O. After five cycles, copper binding actually increased slightly, probably due to enhanced exposure of binding sites in the walls. Thus bacterial walls may be used repeatedly for metal removal during bioremediation of heavy metal pollution.R.J.C. McLean is with the Department of Biology, Southwest Texas State University, 601 University Drive, San Marcos, TX 78666-4616, USA A.M. Campbell is with the Department of Chemical Engineering, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3N6, Canada. P.T. Khu is with the Department of Mining Engineering, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3N6, Canada. A.T. Persaud, L.E. Bickerton and D. Beauchemin are with the Department of Chemistry, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3N6, Canada.     

Global dynamics of a selection model for the growth of a population with genotypic fertility differences

A population growth model is considered for a one locus two allele problem with selection based entirely on fertility differences. A local stability analysis is carried out for the critical points — which include possible polymorphic states — of the resulting nonlinear differential equations. The methods of dynamical systems theory are applied to obtain limiting genotypic proportions for every initial state. Thus the results are global and there are no periodic solutions.Research for this paper was partially supported by the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada Grant NSERC A-8130Research for this paper was partially supported by the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada Grant NSERC A-4823Research supported by NSF Grant MCS 7901069. A portion of the work was carried out while the author was a Visiting Professor at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah     

沙尘暴对北京市空气细菌多样性特征的影响

亚洲沙尘暴携带着各类污染物质,严重影响下风向地区大气过程及生态系统和相关人群的健康。然而,沙尘天气对中国华北地区空气细菌群落及多样性特征影响的研究较少。以北京市为例,系统研究了沙尘暴对城市空气细菌多样性特征的影响。2015年4月,通过定点采样连续收集了一次沙尘暴及其前后4天的空气颗粒物样本,DNA提取、PCR扩增后进行16S rRNA基因高通量测序。共获得169122条高质量序列,生物信息学分析表明,北京市空气细菌物种多样性较高,沙尘暴不能引起细菌OTU数目的增加,但沙尘暴天气下细菌群落Pielou、Shannon和Simpson指数显著增加。菌群分类分析发现,北京市空气细菌由35个细菌门构成,其中变形菌门(Proteobacteria)、放线菌门(Actinobacteria)、厚壁菌门(Firmicutes)和拟杆菌门(Bacteroidetes)相对丰度最高,分别占总序列的32.76%、28.09%、25.46%和6.32%;芽单胞菌门(Gemmatimonadetes)和酸杆菌门(Acidobacteria)次之,分别占序列总数的2.11%和1.81%,其他细菌门的相对丰度均低于1%。沙尘暴天气下,变形菌门(Proteobacteria)、拟杆菌门(Bacteroidetes)、芽单胞菌门(Gemmatimonadetes)和酸杆菌门(Acidobacteria)显著升高(P<0.05),分别由31.67%、5.74%、1.82%、1.51%升高至41.46%、10.98%、4.48%和4.26%;而放线菌门(Actinobacteria)、厚壁菌门(Firmicutes)显著降低(P <0.05),分别由28.84%、27.10%降低至22.13%和12.35%。冷杆菌属(Psychrobacter),纤维单胞菌属(Cellulomonas),不动杆菌属(Acinetobacter),假单胞菌属(Pseudomonas)和梭菌属(Clostridium)可能含有人类条件病原菌,其在沙尘暴天气中相对丰度下降,但绝对丰度会大幅增加。沙尘暴能降低人体免疫力,因此致病菌潜在健康风险可能显著增强。通过聚类分析和主成分分析发现,沙尘暴日与非沙尘暴日空气细菌群落差异较大,而沙尘暴前后群落结构差异较小。沙尘暴前后空气细菌群落α-多样性和β多样性均无显著差异,推测沙尘暴只能暂时影响空气细菌群落特征,不能显著改变其群落结构。本研究通过分析了沙尘暴侵袭下北京市空气细菌群落多样性特征及动态,为制定中国北方城市沙尘暴灾害预警措施和建立气传疾病的防控机制提供数据支持。     

城市生态系统能-水-食物-土地-气候的“物理量与政策效果”双维耦合研究综述

城市生态系统内部各组分之间存在着错综复杂的关系,任一组分的变化会对其他组分产生不同程度的影响.快速的城市化进程带来了一系列影响城市可持续发展的问题.若想从根本上消除这些可持续发展隐患,需要采用"耦合"方法.本文明晰了"耦合"的3种应用情景及相应定义表述,同时对城市耦合理论发展脉络进行梳理,分别从物理耦合视角及政策效果耦合视角进行能-水-食物-土地-气候变化(EWFLC)五系统两两分析总结.从物理耦合视角解读发现,目前的耦合研究大多集中在城市尺度,并且主要针对两个系统之间的直接耦合关系,间接耦合关系研究相对缺乏,两系统的关联多会对社会和经济产生积极影响.从政策效果耦合视角来看,目前针对五系统的政策多面向直接解决目标系统问题,政策实施的中间目标大多可量化,且政策效果评估大多含有多个指标.在此基础上,本文提出了可同时结合物理耦合及政策效益耦合的城市EWFLC五系统分析框架,旨在帮助城市开展政策遴选,实现城市可持续发展.     

Methanogenic granular sludge formation in an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactir treating synthetic methanolic waste

A laboratory upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor, seeded with fine, suspended, bacterial floc with 1.76 g volatile suspended solids/l, was used to treat synthetic methanolic waste. After 180 days of continuous peration, granular sludge with discrete granules of 1 to 2 mm diam. was formed, with 52 g volatile suspended solids/l. Granules were brown, relatively soft and had a settling velocity of 1.61 cm/s. Extracellular polymeric matter extracted from the granular sludge had high carbohydrate content but low nucleic acid content. The ash of the granular sludge contained Na⁺, K⁺ and Mg²⁺ up to 15.0, 11.7 and 3.75 mg/g, respectively. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy revealed that the granular sludge was dominated by methanogens resembling Methanosarcina.The authors are with the Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Osaka University, 2-1 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565, Japan