Carboniferous biogeography of the bryozoan Archimedes in North America

The fenestrate bryozoan genus Archimedes apparently originated and then diversified in Early Carboniferous seas of eastern North America. Its highest species richness and greatest abundance are reached in uppermost Lower to lowest Upper Carboniferous (Chesterian) rocks of eastern North America. Following the unconformity that marks the mid‐Carboniferous eustatic event, however, it is known in North America only in Upper Carboniferous basinal deposits of the Oquirrh Mountains and in nearby regions of Utah and Nevada. It is hypothesized that Archimedes’ life‐history patterns caused the biogeographical change: dependence on fragmentation as a means of recruitment did not allow Archimedes to keep up with its rapidly migrating preferred back‐barrier environment during the numerous eustatic transgressive and regressive cycles that caused the shoreline to sweep across North America during the Late Carboniferous. The persistence of Archimedes in the Oquirrh Basin and vicinity is inferred to have resulted from its preferred back‐barrier environment migrating only locally along the relatively steep basinal slope present there during the Late Carboniferous eustatic cycles.     

Labdane-type Diterpene Dialdehyde,Pungent Principle of Myoga,Zingiber mioga Roscoe

The pungent principle of myoga (Zingiber mioga Roscoe) was identified as (E)-8β(17)-epoxylabd-12-ene-15,16-dial (miogadial) on the basis of its physical and spectroscopic properties (MS, NMR, IR, and UV). Galanal A and B, isolated as well as miogadial, had no hot taste. Reduced miogadial also was tasteless. The pungency of miogadial depended on the presence of αβ-unsaturated-1,4-dialdehyde group.     

The Theoretical and Empirical Foundations of the Sociocultural-Interdeterminist Dialogical Metatheory of the Integration of Psychological Knowledge

This article examines the problem of finding the theoretical and empirical foundations of the integration of psychological knowledge in the context of a sociocultural-interdeterminist dialogical metatheory. An argument is made for the idea of the four-dimensionality of the continuums of psychological phenomenology, of which the universal systemic foundation is culture. Heteroqualitative, multidimensional, and multiparadigm psychological knowledge is conceptualized in the form of three four-dimensional continuums. Based on the introduced principle of dialogical interdeterminism, a case is made that the interaction among their constituent structural elements is interdeterminist in character. Theoretical and empirical substantiation is presented for the innovativeness of the approach.     

THE EVOLUTION OF COSTLY MATE PREFERENCES II. THE “HANDICAP” PRINCIPLE

We use a general additive quantitative genetic model to study the evolution of costly female mate choice by the “handicap” principle. Two necessary conditions must be satisfied for costly preference to evolve. The conditions are (i) biased mutation pressure on viability and (ii) a direct relationship between the degree of expression of the male mating character and viability. These two conditions explain the success and failure of previous models of the “handicap” principle. Our model also applies to other sources of fitness variation like migration and host-parasite coevolution, which cause effects equivalent to biased mutation.     

Results of human evolution research in Czechoslovakia

The results of anthropological research into human evolution have been discussed. Only two research places in CSSR have been engaged with the human evolution: the Department Anthropos in the Moravian Museum in Brno and the Laboratory of Evolutionary Biology of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Praha. The first of them has been mainly concerned with the paleontological and archeological research reported elsewhere. In the second, the following main questions of human evolution have been discussed: the evolution of bipedal locomotion, the morphological aspects, both qualitative and quantitative ones, the locomotion in other primates and various aspects of their behaviour have been studied. In this connection also various questions of the evolution the of human mind and social consciousness were studied. Special attention has been paid to role of neoteny in the evolution of man and to the import of synergism of the main evolutionary factors. As one of the main results is the principle of sociogenesis viewed and its various aspects. Its top product is human consciousness integrating the most important results of human thinking. Much attention has been paid to its evolution on the basis of the principle of reflection. Also the philosophical and ideological consequences of the sociogenesis as the main trend in the evolution of organisms have been elaborated in detail.     

Joint modeling of survival and longitudinal data: likelihood approach revisited

The maximum likelihood approach to jointly model the survival time and its longitudinal covariates has been successful to model both processes in longitudinal studies. Random effects in the longitudinal process are often used to model the survival times through a proportional hazards model, and this invokes an EM algorithm to search for the maximum likelihood estimates (MLEs). Several intriguing issues are examined here, including the robustness of the MLEs against departure from the normal random effects assumption, and difficulties with the profile likelihood approach to provide reliable estimates for the standard error of the MLEs. We provide insights into the robustness property and suggest to overcome the difficulty of reliable estimates for the standard errors by using bootstrap procedures. Numerical studies and data analysis illustrate our points.     

人类血型的基因预测与分析

本文用孟德尔遗传规律研究了人类ABO血型系统的基因分布规律．我们得到人类ABO血型系统的基因分布理论上是稳定的．通过对武汉市血液中心的血型的分布数据和用血量分布数据分析发现：人类的健康与血型是相关的,而且纯A型血与纯B型血的人群所占的比例非常小,即武汉市每100人中只有5个人是纯A型血,3个人是纯B型血．我们还用基因网络系统解释了人类血型的一个奇特现象．     

Can biophysics tell us something about the weak equivalence principle vis a vis the thought experiment of Einstein involving human subjects?

Over a period of several decades it has been noticed that most astronauts, either orbiting the earth or on trips to the moon, have observed phosphenes or light flashes (LF) including streaks, spots and clouds of light when their eyes are closed or they are in a darkened cabin. Scientists suspect that two separate components of cosmic rays cause these flashes due to direct interaction with the retina. This phenomenon is not noticed on the ground because of cosmic ray interaction with the atmosphere. The argument is advanced that this effect may provide us with a new method of exploring the weak equivalence principle from the standpoint of Einstein's original thought experiment involving human subjects. This can be done, utilizing the retina only, as an animate quantum mechanical measuring device or, in conjunction with the Anomalous Long Term Effects on Astronauts (ALTEA) facility.     

胰岛素降解酶在阿尔茨海默病发病机制中的研究进展

阿尔茨海默病（Alzheimer’s disease,AD）是一种以进行性认知功能减退为特征的神经退行性疾病。发病的确切机制尚未完全清楚。目前认为胰岛素抵抗与胰岛素信号系统受损是加速AD发病的危险因素,胰岛素降解酶（insulin-degrading enzyme,IDE）在糖代谢异常促使AD发病的过程中发挥重要的作用。除调节β淀粉样蛋白降解和清除之外,还可能通过调节tau蛋白磷酸化水平,协同载脂蛋白Ee4（ApoEe4）及影响胰岛素信号传导等参与AD的发病机制。本文就IDE生物学特性及在AD发病机制中的作用作一综述。