超短脉冲技术测量癌细胞荧光光谱与荧光寿命

研究用于癌症诊断与治疗的光敏剂血卟啉（hematoporphyrin derivative,HPD）的超快光动力学过程,采用超短脉冲激光光谱技术和皮秒时间相关单光子计数系统,测量经血卟啉培养的活体癌细胞与正常细胞的荧光光谱、荧光寿命特性及荧光峰值强度随时间变化曲线,并测量单一细胞内部不同位置的荧光寿命特性,观测到：癌细胞样品在645 nm处具有特有的光谱谱峰;癌细胞样品荧光寿命的快成分约150 ps慢成分约1200 ps,而正常细胞样品快成分约300 ps慢成分约2500 ps;癌细胞样品的荧光峰值强度经12小时衰减约10%,而正常细胞样品衰减约55%;在细胞内部荧光寿命300 ps的快成分十分显著,且中心部位血卟啉浓度最高.癌细胞与正常细胞的荧光光谱、荧光寿命特性及荧光峰值强度随时间变化曲线相差十分明显,反映了癌细胞与正常细胞对血卟啉亲和特性有显著的差异,测量结果确认了荧光光谱技术诊断与治疗癌症的可行性,并对发展超短脉冲激光光谱技术早期诊断与治疗癌症具有重要的指导意义和临床应用价值.     

生物多样性价值的经济学处理：一些理论障碍及其克服

本文首先对国际生态经济学界围绕“世界生态系统功能价值计量”的方法学论争进行短简的评价,接着阐述了生物多样性价值的新的概念框架,并据此就生物多样性价值计量中尚未得到关注的问题（生物多样性价值的可计算性,价值计量方法的恰当性,价值分量的可加性和可解析性,价值误差测算）提出解决思路,本文最后讨论了两个保护经济学问题方法学构架,其一是生物多样性破坏的经济损失计算,其二是生物多样性保护工程的成本－效益体质与成本－效果分析。     

A quick method of determining rock surface area for quantification of the invertebrate community

Stone and rock substrates provide important habitat for many types of stream-dwelling invertebrates. Measures of the invertebrate communities inhabiting rock substrates are often an important component of ecological, monitoring and disturbance studies in streams. A major obstacle to researchers examining rock-inhabiting invertebrates is the time and effort expended on currently used methods of determining rock surface area to derive invertebrate densities on these substrates. In an attempt to more efficiently determine invertebrate densities from rock substrates in streams, we tested a direct method of calculating rock surface area from rock weight or displacement volume. This method allows very quick determinations of rock surface area in the field. Surface area estimates made using this technique were highly correlated to those from a widely used and more time-consuming method. Measurements made using this new method should theoretically give better surface area estimates than any other commonly used technique.     

Non-invasive methods for determination of cellular growth inPodophyllum hexandrum suspension cultures

Culture conductivity and on-line NADH fluorescence were used to measure cellular growth in plant cell suspension cultures ofPodophyllum hexandrum. An inverse correlation between dry cell weight and medium conductivity was observed during shake flask cultivation. A linear relationship between dry cell weight and culture NADH fluorescence was obtained during the exponential phase of batch cultivation in a bioreactor under the pH stat (pH 6) conditions. It was observed that conductivity measurement were suitable for biomass characterisation under highly dynamic uncontrolled shake flask cultivation conditions. However, if the acid/alkali feeding is done for pH control the conductivity measurement could not be applied. On the other hand the NADH fluorescence measurement allowed online-in situ biomass monitoring of rather heterogenous plant cell suspension cultures in bioreactor even under the most desirable pH stat conditions.     

Nonparametric,GINI-like Measures of Location and Dispersion

GINI's nonparametric measure of dispersion, defined as the mean of (n/2) pairs of a sample of n measurements, is modified for triplets. That way a GINI-like measure of location G* is defined as the mean of the (n/3) triplet medians, and a GINI-like measure of dispersion is defined as the mean of the (n/3) triplet ranges. G* and g* are less sensitive to outlier measurements than are the corresponding parametric measures, arithmetic mean and standard deviation, in small samples. Applications and application-related problems are discussed.     

Design and operation of a completely automated Beckman microsequencer

A unique, efficient, and inexpensive system has been designed and built for the automatic conversion of anilinothiazolinone derivatives extracted from a Beckman spinning-cup sequencer with subsequent on-line high-pressure liquid chromatography separation of the phenylthiohydantoin derivatives. The Auto Converter-Auto Sampler system is controlled by a tape programmer or microprocessor and operates by transfer of the sample from the conversion vial into an HPLC injection loop by nitrogen pressure. Incorporation of a minor programming change on the sequencer allows the introduction of nitrogen vapor into the spinning cup during phenylisothiocyanate coupling. These modifications have resulted in a completely automated subnanomole protein sequencer.     

On-line estimation of biomass concentration during transient growth on yeast chemostat culture using light reflectance

The application of light reflectance for estimating biomass concentration was investigated on oxidative chemostat culture of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. A correlation between light reflectance and dry weight was established for biomass concentrations from 0.5 to 10 g l^–1. The light reflectance signal was stable during the course of chemostat culture and proved to be sensitive to slight but fast changes in biomass concentration following shift-up in dilution rate, acetate pulse or during an oscillation. On-line estimated biomass revealed a larger time window of the biological response during spontaneous oscillations and could be used to predict carbohydrate storage.     

Molecular Semiotics toward the Emergence of Life

Molecular imprints of organisms serving as both the agents and the products of the underlying sign activities are quantum mechanical in their origins. In particular, molecules in any reaction networks constituting a biological organism are semiotic or context-dependent in the sense that their activities reside within the proper coordination of the entire networks. The origin of life could have been related to a specific aspect of molecular semiotics, especially in the transition from molecules as the physical symbols of material units to molecules as the semiotic signs having the capacity of pointing to something else other than the molecules themselves. Quantum mechanical underpinning of the molecular imprints leading to the emergence of life is in the appraisal of the material capacities of both coherent assimilation and decoherent dissociation already latent in the imprints. One empirical evidence suggesting the likelihood of both coherent assimilation and decoherent dissociation in prebiotic settings could have been found in synthetic chemical reactions running in hydrothermal circulation of seawater through hot vents in the Haedean ocean on the primitive Earth.