稀土对蚯蚓体内氨基酸含量的影响

采用滤纸接触染毒法,分别进行了氯化稀土、氯化镧与土居动物蚯蚓接触染毒不同时间和不同浓度的试验。研究其对蚯蚓体内氨基酸含量的影响变化。结果表明。Re、La对蚯蚓体内的氨基酸含量影响较显著,在低浓度时总体表现为促进蚯蚓体内氨基酸的形成,而在高浓度状态下则使蚯蚓体内氨基酸含量下降,产生抑制作用,两种稀土在400mg·L^-1浓度时,蚯蚓体内氨基酸含量除脯氨酸外开始上升,随着作用时间延长,氨基酸含量逐渐下降,在100～1200mg·L^-1浓度范围,两种稀土均引起蚯蚓体内脯氨酸含量的下降,产生抑制作用。     

An integrative approach for the conservation and management of South Africa's floristic diversity at the provincial level

As a party to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), South Africais obliged to ensure that CBD objectives are met. Fundamental to the concept ofbiodiversity are the different levels of biological organization ranging fromlandscapes to genes. Historically, biodiversity conservation has predominantlyfocussed on species, while southern African nature reserves were generally notestablished with biodiversity criteria under consideration. This paper describesan integrative approach to conserving and managing all levels of biodiversity inGauteng, the smallest province in South Africa. Utilizing land cover andvegetation maps for the province, higher level biodiversity considerations willincorporate principles of landscape ecology together with gap analysis anditerative techniques, while lower level biodiversity considerations will involvethe assessment of the status and distribution of Red Data plant species in theprovince. As the final output, a map will be created within a GeographicInformation System depicting priority conservation areas with associated broadmanagement recommendations. A landscape mosaic with simple management guidelinesfor landowners will attempt to facilitate the conservation of landscapeprocesses.     

Role of antioxidant defense system and biochemical adaptation on stress tolerance of high mountain and steppe plants

Plants growing in small fragmented populations under stressful environmental conditions may have reduced sexual reproduction. This can cause low gene flow between populations and eventually extinction. Here we report on a pollination experiment with Sorbus torminalis, a rare fleshy-fruited tree with a submediterranean distribution in Europe. At the northern limit of its range in SE-Denmark two relatively small and isolated populations were studied for effects of seven pollination treatments on fruit production and on the timing of fruit abortion. There was evidence that lack of pollination and spontaneous self-pollination caused particularly high fruit abortion, which indicates that apomixis is unlikely and spontaneous self-pollination not efficient. Fruit abortion was delayed after hand pollination, which suggests limitation by pollen quantity. Self-pollination caused earlier abortion than experimental cross-pollination within or between populations indicating inbreeding depression. There was no evidence for outbreeding depression as measured by fruit abortion. We conclude that generative reproduction of S. torminalis is reduced on its northern distribution limit and that it might be negatively affected by pollen limitation and inbreeding effects, which have not been compensated for by increased self-compatibility or apomixis.     

Analysis of case-control age-at-onset data using a modified case-cohort method

Case-control designs are widely used in rare disease studies. In a typical case-control study, data are collected from a sample of all available subjects who have experienced a disease (cases) and a sub-sample of subjects who have not experienced the disease (controls) in a study cohort. Cases are oversampled in case-control studies. Logistic regression is a common tool to estimate the relative risks of the disease with respect to a set of covariates. Very often in such a study, information of ages-at-onset of the disease for all cases and ages at survey of controls are known. Standard logistic regression analysis using age as a covariate is based on a dichotomous outcome and does not efficiently use such age-at-onset (time-to-event) information. We propose to analyze age-at-onset data using a modified case-cohort method by treating the control group as an approximation of a subcohort assuming rare events. We investigate the asymptotic bias of this approximation and show that the asymptotic bias of the proposed estimator is small when the disease rate is low. We evaluate the finite sample performance of the proposed method through a simulation study and illustrate the method using a breast cancer case-control data set.     

The impact of flooding and drought on seeds of Cnidium dubium, Gratiola officinalis, and Juncus atratus, three endangered perennial river corridor plants of Central European lowlands

The effects of flooding and drought on the post-flooding survival and germinability of seeds in the soil were investigated for three endangered river corridor angiosperms Cnidium dubium (Schkuhr) Thell., Gratiola officinalis L. and Juncus atratus Krocker. Freshly matured seeds were placed in small nylon bags and were buried in pots filled with soil collected from a wetland along the Lower Havel River. The pots were subjected to different winter/spring flooding treatments (30, 60, 120, and 180 days) and to drought for up to 3 years. Every year in spring, after drawdown, the seeds were exhumed, counted and tested for germination. Seed mortality of flooded seeds was low, except for C. dubium. Flooding did not affect germination of seeds of J. atratus. Flooding of seeds of C. dubium and G. officinalis had inconsistent, but no beneficial effects on germination of either. The year of harvest and the interannual variability of weather are found to be the main factors affecting germinability of C. dubium and G. officinalis in the course of the three consecutive years.The experiment showed that the capacity of the flooded seed bank to maintain germination ability and viability for extended periods of time could be directly related to the flooding duration of natural habitats of the three species. The three species are resilient to variable flooding. Seeds appeared desiccation tolerant, and single flooding events do not deplete their seed bank.     

The potencial role of rare earths in the pathogenesis of interstitial lung disease: a case report of movie projectionist as investigated by neutron activation analysis

A 60-year-old male subject who worked as a movie projectionist and who was exposed for 12 years to rare earths (RE) containing dusts from cored arc light carbon electrodes was investigated. Chest X-ray films and pulmonary function tests showed an interstitial lung disease, emphysema and a severe obstructive impairment with marked decrease of carbon monoxide diffusion capacity. The histological examination of a transbronchial biopsy confirmed the diffuse interstitial lung fibrosis. Neutron activation analysis (NAA) of the biopsy showed concentrations of cerium (Ce), lanthanum (La), neodimium (Nd), samarium (Sm), terbium (Tb) and ytterbium (Yb) which were high compared to the corresponding elements in the transbronchial biopsies of 5 unexposed subjects as a control group. Thorium (Th) (which is generally present as an impurity of the RE compounds) was also determined in order to estimate the radiation dose in the lung of the worker.

On the basis of the clinical observations, of the analytical results by neutron activation analysis of RE and of the presence of Th in the transbronchial biopsy, as well as of the differential diagnosis, which tended to exclude other occupational or non-occupational lung diseases, a relation between the observed interstitial lung fibrosis and occupational exposure to RE is highly probable.     

Isolation and characterization of rare earth element-binding protein in roots of maize

Rare earth element-binding protein was isolated from maize, which was grown under greenhouse conditions and characterized in terms of molecular weight, amino acid composition, and ultraviolet absorption. The molecular weight of the maize protein was determined to be 183,000, with two distinct subunits of approximately molecular weights of 22,000 and 69,000, respectively. The protein is particularly rich in asparagine/aspartic acid, glutamine/glutamic acid, glycine, alanine, and leucine and contains 8.0% of covalently bound carbohydrate. The ultraviolet absorption of the protein is low at 280 nm and no change in the adsorption was observed with a change in pH. Compared to the unique features of the metallothioneins with a molecular weight of approximately 10,000, a high cysteine content of 30%, high absorption at 254 nm and a low absorption at 280 nm, and absorption change with pH, the REE-binding protein is unlikely to be plant metallothionein in nature. It was found that an almost twofold greater concentration was found for most of the REEs in the protein isolated from the maize with REE fertilizer use than that without REE fertilizer. This study suggests that the REE-binding protein is a glycoprotein and REEs can be firmly bound with the protein of maize roots.     

Synthesis and photoluminescence enhancement of the LiLa(MoO4)2:Sm3+ red phosphors by co-doping with Bi3+

The LiLa(MoO₄)₂:Sm³⁺ and LiLa(MoO₄)₂:Sm³⁺,Bi³⁺ phosphors were prepared using the citric-acid-fueled combustion method and the influence of concentrations of Bi³⁺ dopant on LiLa(MoO₄)₂:Sm³⁺ red luminescence was investigated. The LiLa(MoO₄)₂:Sm³⁺ and LiLa(MoO₄)₂:Sm³⁺,Bi³⁺ samples matched well with the scheelite structure and I4₁/a space group and did not detect structural changes. Under an excitation of 403 nm, the prepared LiLa(MoO₄)₂:Sm³⁺,Bi³⁺ phosphor was excited and produced orange-red emission. When compared with the LiLa(MoO₄)₂:Sm³⁺ phosphor, the LiLa(MoO₄)₂:Sm³⁺,Bi³⁺ phosphor exhibited enhanced fluorescence intensity because the Bi³⁺ dopant ions are doped as a sensitizer. The optimal doping concentrations of Sm³⁺ and Bi³⁺ were 5 and 1 mol%, respectively. Furthermore, the energy transfer from Bi³⁺ to Sm³⁺ is effective (³P₁ → ⁴K_11/2). Subsequently, the electrons in an unstable excited state were transferred to a stable ground state (⁴G_5/2 → ⁶H_5/2, ⁶H_7/2, ⁶H_9/2). The Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) chromaticity coordinates of the optimized LiLa(MoO₄)₂:Sm³⁺,Bi³⁺ phosphor were situated in the orange-red region. The luminescence of the LiLa(MoO₄)₂:Sm³⁺,Bi³⁺ phosphor generated under near-ultraviolet (UV) irradiation could be used to produce a warm white light, indicating its possible applications in white light-emitting diodes.     

Bootstrap Restricted Likelihood Ratio Test for the Detection of Rare Variants

In this paper the detection of rare variants association with continuous phenotypes of interest is investigated via the likelihood-ratio based variance component test under the framework of linear mixed models. The hypothesis testing is challenging and nonstandard, since under the null the variance component is located on the boundary of its parameter space. In this situation the usual asymptotic chisquare distribution of the likelihood ratio statistic does not necessarily hold. To circumvent the derivation of the null distribution we resort to the bootstrap method due to its generic applicability and being easy to implement. Both parametric and nonparametric bootstrap likelihood ratio tests are studied. Numerical studies are implemented to evaluate the performance of the proposed bootstrap likelihood ratio test and compare to some existing methods for the identification of rare variants. To reduce the computational time of the bootstrap likelihood ratio test we propose an effective approximation mixture for the bootstrap null distribution. The GAW17 data is used to illustrate the proposed test.