线粒体DNA用作分子标记的可靠性和研究前景

mtDNA作为分子标记的广泛应用,使得系统进化、生物地理、群体遗传、人类学及法医鉴定等领域的研究得到前所未有的发展.但随着对线粒体基因组遗传特性的了解不断加深,以mtDNA作为分子标记的潜在问题便逐渐暴露出来.本文从7个方面对mtDNA应用的可靠性问题进行了讨论,并对今后线粒体基因的应用前景做了初步分析。 Abstract:With some special features,mtDNA is used widely as molecular marker in the fields of systematic evolution,biogeography,population genetics,anthropology,and forensic medicine.However,more and more evidences that challenge the traditional concept on mtDNA features re found increasingly.In this paper,seven facts that could affect the reliability of mtDNA used as molecular marker are reviewed,then the perspective on application of mtDNA is discussed.     

Bodily selves in relation: embodied simulation as second-person perspective on intersubjectivity

This article addresses basic aspects of social cognition focusing on the pivotal role played by the lived body in the constitution of our experience of others. It is suggested that before studying intersubjectivity we should better qualify the notion of the self. A minimal notion of the self, the bodily self, defined in terms of its motor potentialities, is proposed. The discovery of mirror mechanisms for action, emotions and sensations led to the proposal of an embodied approach to intersubjectivity—embodied simulation (ES) theory. ES and the related notion of neural reuse provide a new empirically based perspective on intersubjectivity, viewed first and foremost as intercorporeality. ES challenges the notion that folk psychology is the sole account of interpersonal understanding. ES is discussed within a second-person perspective on mindreading.     

A Scooter Inquiry: An Integrated Science,Mathematics, and Technology Activity

The authors illustrate an effective lessonplanning technique known as unpacking for the broad topic of water. Interconnections among science disciplines are shown for numerous possible subtopics. Two lesson sets are included, the first dealing with properties of water and the second dealing with water as a resource.     

Diabetic encephalopathy‐related depression: experimental evidence that insulin and clonazepam restore antioxidant status in rat brain

There is increasing evidence suggesting that oxidative stress plays an important role in the development of many chronic and degenerative conditions such as diabetic encephalopathy and depression. Considering that diabetic rats and mice present higher depressive‐like behaviour when submitted to the forced swimming test and that treatment with insulin and/or clonazepam is able to reverse the behavioural changes of the diabetic rats, the present work investigated the antioxidant status, specifically total antioxidant reactivity and antioxidant potential of insulin and clonazepam, as well as the effect of this drugs upon protein oxidative damage and reactive species formation in cortex, hippocampus and striatum from diabetic rats submitted to forced swimming test. It was verified that longer immobility time in diabetic rats and insulin plus clonazepam treatment reversed this depressive‐like behaviour. Moreover, data obtained in this study allowed to demonstrate through different parameters such as protein carbonyl content, 2′7′‐dichlorofluorescein oxidation, catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase assay, total radical‐trapping antioxidant potential and total antioxidant reactivity that there is oxidative stress in cortex, hippocampus and striatum from diabetic rats under depressive‐like behaviour and highlight the insulin and/or clonazepam effect in these different brain areas, restoring antioxidant status and protein damage. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Perception of Environmental Threat in the Shadow of War: The Effect of Future Orientation

People may express high concern for global warming or environmental degradation, but when forced to evaluate the severity of environmental threats in relation to other threats, environmental threats are pushed to the bottom of the list. The present study was based on the premise that prioritizing threats involves, inter alia, hierarchizing the threats according to their perceived temporal proximity and since environmental threats are perceived, relative to other threats, as more temporally distant, they rank low. Future orientation (FO) is an individual-difference variable that describes the tendency to take into account temporally distant considerations. We predicted that environmental threats would be evaluated as more severe by individuals who were more future-oriented. The strongest effect of FO was found to be on concern about global warming and environmental degradation. This indicated that environmental threats were perceived as temporally farthest and, not surprisingly, received the lowest priority. External security threat was a top-priority; its severity evaluation was uncorrelated to FO, indicating that it was perceived as temporally closest. These evaluations significantly affected environmental attitudes and behavior. The implications on promoting environmental behavior in the presence of ever-existing shorter-term existential threats are discussed.     

A cross-culture,cross-gender comparison of perspective taking mechanisms

Being able to judge another person''s visuo-spatial perspective is an essential social skill, hence we investigated the generalizability of the involved mechanisms across cultures and genders. Developmental, cross-species, and our own previous research suggest that two different forms of perspective taking can be distinguished, which are subserved by two distinct mechanisms. The simpler form relies on inferring another''s line-of-sight, whereas the more complex form depends on embodied transformation into the other''s orientation in form of a simulated body rotation. Our current results suggest that, in principle, the same basic mechanisms are employed by males and females in both, East-Asian (EA; Chinese) and Western culture. However, we also confirmed the hypothesis that Westerners show an egocentric bias, whereas EAs reveal an other-oriented bias. Furthermore, Westerners were slower overall than EAs and showed stronger gender differences in speed and depth of embodied processing. Our findings substantiate differences and communalities in social cognition mechanisms across genders and two cultures and suggest that cultural evolution or transmission should take gender as a modulating variable into account.     

儿童青少年肺通气功能预测的后向传播神经网络方法

本文旨在研究儿童青少年肺通气功能预测的后向传播神经网络(backpropagation neural network,BPNN)方法,以期得到更准确的肺通气功能预计值。样本数据包括内蒙古自治区10~18岁汉族健康儿童青少年999人(男性500人,女性499人),测量身高和体重,使用肺功能仪检测肺通气功能。利用BPNN和多元逐步回归,对用力肺活量(forced vital capacity,FVC)、用力呼气一秒量(forced expiratory volume in one second,FEV1)、最大呼气流量(peak expiratory flow,PEF)、用力呼出25%肺活量时呼气流量(forced expiratory flow at25%of forced vital capacity,FEF25%)、用力呼出50%肺活量时呼气流量(forced expiratoryflow at50%of forced vital capacity,FEF50%)、最大呼气中段流量(maximal mid-expiratory flow,MMEF)、用力呼出75%肺活量时呼气流量(forced expira...     

Knower–guesser differentiation in ravens: others' viewpoints matter

Differentiating between individuals with different knowledge states is an important step in child development and has been considered as a hallmark in human evolution. Recently, primates and corvids have been reported to pass knower–guesser tasks, raising the possibility of mental attribution skills in non-human animals. Yet, it has been difficult to distinguish ‘mind-reading’ from behaviour-reading alternatives, specifically the use of behavioural cues and/or the application of associatively learned rules. Here, I show that ravens (Corvus corax) observing an experimenter hiding food are capable of predicting the behaviour of bystanders that had been visible at both, none or just one of two caching events. Manipulating the competitors'' visual field independently of the view of the test-subject resulted in an instant drop in performance, whereas controls for behavioural cues had no such effect. These findings indicate that ravens not only remember whom they have seen at caching but also take into account that the other''s view was blocked. Notably, it does not suffice for the birds to associate specific competitors with specific caches. These results support the idea that certain socio-ecological conditions may select for similar cognitive abilities in distantly related species and that some birds have evolved analogous precursors to a human theory-of-mind.