珠海市土石场空间分布特征与景观生态影响评价

人为水土流失是一种人类干扰下的典型景观退化现象．将人为侵蚀在空间上的表现称之为人为侵蚀景观．在遥感和GIS技术支持下,结合大量的实地调查资料,对珠海最主要的人为侵蚀景观类型——土石场开展空间分布分析和景观生态影响评价．调查范围内珠海土石场有235个,其中三灶、井岸两镇(区)分布最为集中,分别为28、29个．缓冲区分析表明,土石场的分布与距交通道路的远近呈对数线性相关,其中在距交通道路100～200m距离范围内分布最为集中．设计景观生态影响度评价指数,对面积大于5000m^2的152个土石场进行景观生态影响度评价结果表明,对周边景观生态环境影响极强的土石场有9个,属于强一级的有17个,应首先对这些土石场开展景观生态恢复．     

Differences in root architecture influence attraction of fishes to mangroves: A field experiment mimicking roots of different length, orientation, and complexity

Benthic structure plays an important role as shelter and feeding habitat for demersal fauna. While many studies have investigated the relationship between structural complexity of aquatic vegetation and the number of species or abundance of motile organisms, little is known of the attractiveness of submerged mangrove roots. We tested the importance of various root attributes in attracting fish species in a field experiment using different artificial mangrove units (AMUs) with PVC pipes mimicking roots to exclude interaction with other environmental and biotic factors. We manipulated length, vertical orientation, and three-dimensional structural complexity of root mimics in the AMUs to explore their effects on the fish community variables: fish abundance, number of species and community composition. Pipe length and three-dimensional structure did not have an effect on fish community variables. Vertical pipe orientation had a significant effect and AMUs with standing pipes showed higher total fish abundances and number of species than AMUs with hanging pipes. Also community composition differed greatly between AMUs with standing versus hanging pipes. At species level, demersal fish species mainly occupied AMUs with standing pipes and occurred only at very low abundances when hanging pipes dominated in the AMUs; in contrast, the semi-pelagic swimmer Sphyraena barracuda showed a trend of higher abundance in AMUs with mainly hanging pipes. When analyzed across all AMUs, fish abundances of demersal as well as semi-pelagic species decreased significantly with increasing interspatial pipe distance among AMUs, suggesting that distance to refuge may be the underlying mechanism for the observed patterns. The above findings are important in the context of the worldwide degradation of mangroves, because human alteration to mangrove vegetation affects its structure and thus composition and size of fish communities.     

Tracing Primordial Protein Evolution through Structurally Guided Stepwise Segment Elongation

The understanding of how primordial proteins emerged has been a fundamental and longstanding issue in biology and biochemistry. For a better understanding of primordial protein evolution, we synthesized an artificial protein on the basis of an evolutionary hypothesis, segment-based elongation starting from an autonomously foldable short peptide. A 10-residue protein, chignolin, the smallest foldable polypeptide ever reported, was used as a structural support to facilitate higher structural organization and gain-of-function in the development of an artificial protein. Repetitive cycles of segment elongation and subsequent phage display selection successfully produced a 25-residue protein, termed AF.2A1, with nanomolar affinity against the Fc region of immunoglobulin G. AF.2A1 shows exquisite molecular recognition ability such that it can distinguish conformational differences of the same molecule. The structure determined by NMR measurements demonstrated that AF.2A1 forms a globular protein-like conformation with the chignolin-derived β-hairpin and a tryptophan-mediated hydrophobic core. Using sequence analysis and a mutation study, we discovered that the structural organization and gain-of-function emerged from the vicinity of the chignolin segment, revealing that the structural support served as the core in both structural and functional development. Here, we propose an evolutionary model for primordial proteins in which a foldable segment serves as the evolving core to facilitate structural and functional evolution. This study provides insights into primordial protein evolution and also presents a novel methodology for designing small sized proteins useful for industrial and pharmaceutical applications.     

膝关节人工单髁置换的近期疗效分析

目的:探讨膝关节人工单髁置换治疗晚期膝关节单间室骨性关节炎的近期疗效。方法:选择2007年3月至2011年9月我院采用膝关节人工单髁置换且随访超过2年的单间室病变的骨性关节炎的患者37例,采用膝关节人工单髁置换治疗,随访时行膝关节X线摄片检查,观察有无松动、下沉及另外一侧间室有无退变或是否加重,末次随访时评估HSS评分,比较与术前的疼痛及功能的差异。结果:37例患者均获得随访,随访时间22~38个月,平均29.8个月,所有患者均无松动、下沉及另外一侧间室退变或退变加重,末次随访时HSS评分(95.5±1.7)分,显著高于术前(68.5±2.1)分,差异有统计学意义(P=0.016)。结论:膝关节人工单髁置换手术治疗晚期膝关节单间室骨性关节炎创伤小,患者并发症少,术后功能恢复良好,近期疗效好。     

崇明东滩鸟类栖息地优化区越冬水鸟的栖息地利用及影响因子

阐明水鸟栖息地利用与环境因子的关系有助于制定针对性的水鸟保护对策。本研究在2012~2013年冬季对崇明东滩鸟类栖息地优化区内越冬水鸟的种类、数量以及6种环境因子(植被面积比例、裸地面积比例、水深、地形变异、栖息地结构多样性和干扰)进行调查,以了解水鸟对人工湿地的栖息地利用及其影响因子。野外调查共记录到水鸟24种9 018只,其中优势种为斑嘴鸭(Anas poecilorhyncha)和绿头鸭(A.platyrhynchos);栖息地优化区内水鸟休息的个体数量占总数量的79.2%,这表明优化区是大多数水鸟的休息地,而小(Tachybaptus ruficollis)、白骨顶(Fulica atra)、黑水鸡(Gallinula chloropus)、白琵鹭(Platalea leucorodia)和黑脸琵鹭(P.minor)的觅食个体数量超过60%,说明优化区也为这些鸟类提供了觅食地。逐步回归分析表明,裸地面积比例是影响越冬水鸟种类分布的最主要因子;尽管游禽在地形变异较大、植被面积比例较低的区域数量较多,但在休息时游禽更偏好于裸地面积比例较高的区域,而涉禽休息时偏好于地形变异较大的区域。为增加栖息地优化区内的水鸟多样性,建议在优化区内种植水鸟可食的沉水植物以增加水鸟的食物资源,同时增加裸地面积比例和地形变异程度,更好地为水鸟提供栖息地。     

Hydration, structure, and molecular interactions in the headgroup region of dioleoylphosphatidylcholine bilayers: an electron spin resonance study

The relationship between bilayer hydration and the dynamic structure of headgroups and interbilayer water in multilamellar vesicles is investigated by electron spin resonance methods. Temperature variations of the order parameter of a headgroup spin label DPP-Tempo in DOPC in excess water and partially dehydrated (10 wt % water) show a cusp-like pattern around the main phase transition, Tc. This pattern is similar to those of temperature variations of the quadrupolar splitting of interbilayer D2O in PC and PE bilayers previously measured by 2H NMR, indicating that the ordering of the headgroup and the interbilayer water are correlated. The cusp-like pattern of these and other physical properties around Tc are suggestive of quasicritical fluctuations. Also, an increase (a decrease) in ordering of DPP-Tempo is correlated with water moving out of (into) interbilayer region into (from) the bulk water phase near the freezing point, Tf. Addition of cholesterol lowers Tf, which remains the point of increasing headgroup ordering. Using the small water-soluble spin probe 4-PT, it is shown that the ordering of interbilayer water increases with bilayer dehydration. It is suggested that increased ordering in the interbilayer region, implying a lowering of entropy, will itself lead to further dehydration of the interbilayer region until its lowered pressure resists further flow, i.e., an osmotic phenomenon.     

Non-linear models based on simple topological indices to identify RNase III protein members

Alignment-free classifiers are especially useful in the functional classification of protein classes with variable homology and different domain structures. Thus, the Topological Indices to BioPolymers (TI2BioP) methodology (Agüero-Chapin et al., 2010) inspired in both the TOPS-MODE and the MARCH-INSIDE methodologies allows the calculation of simple topological indices (TIs) as alignment-free classifiers. These indices were derived from the clustering of the amino acids into four classes of hydrophobicity and polarity revealing higher sequence-order information beyond the amino acid composition level. The predictability power of such TIs was evaluated for the first time on the RNase III family, due to the high diversity of its members (primary sequence and domain organization). Three non-linear models were developed for RNase III class prediction: Decision Tree Model (DTM), Artificial Neural Networks (ANN)-model and Hidden Markov Model (HMM). The first two are alignment-free approaches, using TIs as input predictors. Their performances were compared with a non-classical HMM, modified according to our amino acid clustering strategy. The alignment-free models showed similar performances on the training and the test sets reaching values above 90% in the overall classification. The non-classical HMM showed the highest rate in the classification with values above 95% in training and 100% in test. Although the higher accuracy of the HMM, the DTM showed simplicity for the RNase III classification with low computational cost. Such simplicity was evaluated in respect to HMM and ANN models for the functional annotation of a new bacterial RNase III class member, isolated and annotated by our group.     

The effect of ultraviolet-depleted light on the flavonol contents of the cactus species Opuntia wilcoxii and Opuntia violacea

An early investigation at the Biosphere-2 Laboratory, an artificial ecosystem in the Arizona desert, had shown that the flavonoid content of cacti grown in glass-filtered solar light was lower than of cacti grown in normal solar light. This was attributed to the absence of ultraviolet (UV) radiation, which is required for flavonoid biosynthesis. In this study, two species of Opuntia cacti were grown in solar and UV-depleted light, and their flavonol contents of different tissues were determined by HPLC. O. wilcoxii, previously raised in the absence of UV light, was exposed to normal solar light. The flavonol content of young O. wilcoxii pads was 28-fold higher when grown in solar light as compared to UV-depleted light. The flavonol contents of mature outer tissues were only slightly higher. O. violacea, previously raised in solar light, was also maintained in the same UV-depleted artificial ecosystem. The flavonol content after hydrolysis of outer tissues was similar, whether grown in solar light or UV-depleted light. We attribute these responses to different biosynthetic and metabolic rates of young vs. mature plant tissues; slow-growing mature tissues neither produce nor metabolize compounds as quickly as immature tissues. These findings indicate that artificial ecosystems can influence the production of natural products in cultivated plants.     

黄土高原北部紫花苜蓿草地退化过程与植物多样性研究

以陕西省神木县六道沟小流域为研究区域,探讨了黄土高原北部紫花苜蓿人工草地退化过程中植物多样性的变化.结果表明,在黄土高原北部森林草原气候区,紫花苜蓿人工草地的退化演替过程可以划分为3个阶段:紫花苜蓿草地阶段(1～6年)、人工草地向天然草地演替的过渡阶段(6～10年)与长芒草次生天然草地阶段(10年以上).在1～30年的演替过程中,调查样方内共出现高等植物32种,分属于13科28属,其中90%以上出现在前6年.植被演替过程中累积出现的植物科属种数的动态变化可以用对数函数进行较好地描述.在群落演替过程中,物种丰富度指数、多样性指数和Pielou均匀度指数的变化趋势基本一致,在演替前期(第1个阶段)增加较快,在第2个阶段(过渡阶段)达到最高,然后有所降低并渐趋稳定.种植紫花苜蓿可显著地加快植被的自然演替进程,这与人工草地水分消耗强烈加速了土壤的旱化过程密切相关.发展人工草地是黄土高原北部加速天然植被恢复与发展畜牧业、增加农民收入的有机结合点,是西部生态环境建设中生态效益与经济效益兼顾的良好范式.