晋西黄土区典型乔灌木短期水分利用效率对环境因子的响应

为明确晋西黄土区植物的水分利用规律及对半干旱区的适应策略, 提高黄土地区植被建设效益, 该研究对该地区典型乔灌木短期水分利用效率随环境因子的变化进行了探究。以典型乔木油松(Pinus tabuliformis)、刺槐(Robinia pseudoacacia)及其林下灌木黄刺玫(Rosa xanthina)、杠柳(Periploca sepium)为研究对象, 测定叶片可溶性糖稳定碳同位素比值(δ¹³C_leaf)与枝条渗出液稳定碳同位素比值(δ¹³C_branch), 使用δ¹³C_leaf推导计算7-10月叶片尺度下植物短期水分利用效率(WUE_leaf)变化趋势, 使用δ¹³C_branch明确植物光合作用后分馏情况, 确定半干旱区植物在生长季的水分变化规律对环境因子变化的响应。结果表明: (1) 7-10月4种植物δ¹³C_leaf总体呈现降低趋势, δ¹³C_branch呈现先升高后降低趋势。δ¹³C_leaf在种间和生活型中均存在差异。具体表现为: 灌木>乔木, 常绿乔木(油松) >落叶乔木(刺槐)。研究过程中未发现明显的碳同位素在光合作用后发生分馏的情况。(2) 4种植物WUE_leaf在7-8月保持稳定, 9-10月逐渐升高。21.5 ℃、0.9 kPa、52.4%分别为WUE_leaf随温度(T_a)、饱和水汽压差(VPD)、相对湿度(RH)变化的突变点, 突变点之后4种植物WUE_leaf均表现出稳定的变化趋势, 不再随T_a、VPD、RH升高而降低。(3) WUE_leaf与T_a、RH、VPD之间存在显著负相关关系, T_a通过非气孔因素, 即酶的作用改变光合速率, 引起WUE_leaf变化。RH、VPD等水分因子则通过改变气孔开度, 影响蒸腾, 进而改变WUE_leaf。随着土壤含水量(SWC)的升高, WUE_leaf呈现先升高后降低的趋势。油松林和刺槐林在SWC分别达到15%-18%、13%-14%时, WUE_leaf达到最高值。经过混合线性模型(LMM)分析得到, 油松和刺槐WUE_leaf主导环境因子分别为RH和VPD, 黄刺玫和杠柳WUE_leaf主导环境因子均为T_a。该研究得到了黄土地区典型乔灌木生长季水分利用效率变化的规律和主要环境影响因子, 明确了黄土地区植物对气候因子变化的适应机制。     

Biogeographical and bioclimatic outline of Antarctica

Abstract

This study proposes a bioclimatic characterization and a new biogeographic division for the Antarctic territories up to the province level following the criteria and models of Rivas-Martínez et al. The Antarctic Kingdom comprises the continent of Antarctica, the surrounding ice-covered Antarctic islands, and the associated cold oceanic islands and archipelagos. It has two biogeographic regions: the Antarctic Region and the Subantarctic Insular Region. The Antarctic Region includes the entire pergelid Antarctic continent and the surrounding islands and archipelagos, and is characterized by upper suprapolar hyperoceanic and oceanic or Polar pergelid bioclimates on the coasts. The region has been divided into three pr6ovinces: Maritime Antarctica, West Antarctica and East Antarctica. The Subantarctic Insular Region comprises the circumantarctic islands and archipelagos that are widespread at the southern tip of the planet’s most important oceans, mostly in the subtemperate latitudinal zone inside or not far from the Antarctic Convergence. Bioclimatically, all insular subantarctic territories (excluding the South-American Tierra de Fuego, Terra Magellanica and large islands) are characterized by thermo-suprapolar and semipolar antarctic hyperoceanic bioclimates on the coasts. Four provinces – Falklandian-South Georgian, Kerguelenian, Macquarian and Aucklandian-Campbellian – have been recognized in this region. All these units are characterized by floristic bioindicators.     

Viscoelastic creep induced by repetitive spine flexion and its relationship to dynamic spine stability

Repetitive trunk flexion elicits passive tissue creep, which has been hypothesized to compromise spine stability. The current investigation determined if increased spine flexion angle at the onset of flexion relaxation (FR) in the lumbar extensor musculature was associated with altered dynamic stability of spine kinematics. Twelve male participants performed 125 consecutive cycles of full forward trunk flexion. Spine kinematics and lumbar erector spinae (LES) electromyographic (EMG) activity were obtained throughout the repetitive trunk flexion trial. Dynamic stability was evaluated with maximum finite-time Lyapunov exponents over five sequential blocks of 25 cycles. Spine flexion angle at FR onset, and peak LES EMG activity were determined at baseline and every 25th cycle. Spine flexion angle at FR increased on average by 1.7° after baseline with significant increases of 1.7° and 2.4° at the 50th and 100th cycles. Maximum finite-time Lyapunov exponents demonstrated a transient, non-statistically significant, increase between cycles 26 and 50 followed by a recovery to baseline over the remainder of the repetitive trunk flexion cycles. Recovery of dynamic stability may be the consequence of increased active spine stiffness demonstrated by the non-significant increase in peak LES EMG that occurred as the repetitive trunk flexion progressed.     

生物化学教学中采用案例教学法之案例设计与分析

案例教学法是被普遍采用的一种教学方式,将其应用于生物化学教学中,并用图解的形式给出案例的归纳与分析,使抽象难懂、错综复杂、生涩冷僻的教学内容变得直观明了。加深了学生对教学内容的理解,增强了课堂教学的趣味性与学生学习的主动性,同时提高了学生分析问题和解决问题的能力。     

Inhibition of the cardiac inward rectifier potassium currents by KB-R7943

KB-R7943 (2-[2-[4-(4-nitrobenzyloxy)phenyl]ethyl]isothiourea) was developed as a specific inhibitor of the sarcolemmal sodium–calcium exchanger (NCX) with potential experimental and therapeutic use. However, KB-R7943 is shown to be a potent blocker of several ion currents including inward and delayed rectifier K⁺ currents of cardiomyocytes. To further characterize KB-R7943 as a blocker of the cardiac inward rectifiers we compared KB-R7943 sensitivity of the background inward rectifier (I_K1) and the carbacholine-induced inward rectifier (I_KACh) currents in mammalian (Rattus norvegicus; rat) and fish (Carassius carassius; crucian carp) cardiac myocytes. The basal I_K1 of ventricular myocytes was blocked with apparent IC50-values of 4.6 × 10^− 6 M and 3.5 × 10^− 6 M for rat and fish, respectively. I_KACh was almost an order of magnitude more sensitive to KB-R7943 than I_K1 with IC₅₀-values of 6.2 × 10^− 7 M for rat and 2.5 × 10^− 7 M for fish. The fish cardiac NCX current was half-maximally blocked at the concentration of 1.9–3 × 10^− 6 M in both forward and reversed mode of operation. Thus, the sensitivity of three cardiac currents to KB-R7943 block increases in the order I_K1 ~ I_NCX < I_KACh. Therefore, the ability of KB-R7943 to block inward rectifier potassium currents, in particular I_KACh, should be taken into account when interpreting the data with this inhibitor from in vivo and in vitro experiments in both mammalian and fish models.     

Experimental and observational evidence reveals that predators in natural environments do not regulate their prey: They are passengers,not drivers

Among both ecologists and the wider community there is a tacit assumption that predators regulate populations of their prey. But there is evidence from a wide taxonomic and geographic range of studies that predators that are adapted to co-evolved prey generally do not regulate their prey. This is because predators either cannot reproduce as fast as their prey and/or are inefficient hunters unable to catch enough prey to sustain maximum reproduction. The greater capacity of herbivores to breed successfully is, however, normally restricted by a lack of enough food of sufficient quality to support reproduction. But whenever this shortage is alleviated by a large pulse of food, herbivores increase their numbers to outbreak levels. Their predators are unable to contain this increase, but their numbers, too, surge in response to this increase in food. Eventually both their populations will crash once the food supply runs out, first for the herbivores and then for the predators. Then an “over-run” of predators will further depress the already declining prey population, appearing to be controlling its abundance. This latter phenomenon has led many ecologists to conclude that predators are regulating the numbers of their prey. However, it is the same process that is revealed during outbreaks that limits populations of both predator and prey in “normal” times, although this is usually not readily apparent. Nevertheless, as all the diverse cases discussed here attest, the abundance of predators and their co-evolved prey are both limited by their food: the predators are passengers, not drivers.     

“What Dr Venter did on his holidays”: exploration,hacking, entrepreneurship in the narratives of the Sorcerer II expedition

The Sorcerer II is the highly mediatized and spectacular Venter Institute's ship that circumnavigated the planet between 2003 and 2006 to collect and classify marine microbial genomes. We analyze Craig Venter's public communication activities and strategies especially focusing on the images of science and scientist he proposes: that of an eighteenth-century “savant” and nineteenth-century naturalist devoted to the exploration of new worlds, and that of the hacker, hero of informational capitalism. Emphasizing his independence from both academy and industry, but building strong alliances with both spheres and with the media, Craig Venter sails the oceans of the contemporary biotechnologies' market, interpreting a specific typology of the relationship between science and society, enterprises, universities.     

Androgen receptor expression in satellite cells of the neonatal levator ani of the rat

Androgens are thought to mediate sexual differentiation of spinal nucleus of the bulbocavernosus (SNB) motoneurons via actions on androgen receptors (ARs) within their target muscles bulbocavernosus and levator ani (LA). However, the cells within these muscles which mediate masculinization of the SNB remain undefined. Until recently, myocytes were thought to be the most likely candidate cell type. However, genetic tests of AR function in myocytes have failed to support a sufficient role for these cells in producing masculine SNB morphology, suggesting the involvement of other cell types. To identify other candidate cell types in the LA, we evaluated whether satellite cells or fibroblasts express AR. Fluorescent immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy were used to evaluate whether satellite cells and fibroblasts express AR in neonatal male and female rats in the LA and an adjacent sexually monomorphic control muscle (CM). We found that a small proportion of satellite cells in the LA express AR and that this proportion is significantly greater in the LA compared to the CM. No sex differences were found between the proportions of satellite cells expressing AR in either muscle. Less colocalization of satellite cells and AR was seen in postnatal day 3 muscle than in postnatal day 1 muscle. In contrast, only negligible amounts of fibroblasts labeled with S100A4 express AR in either the LA or the CM. Together, findings support satellite cells, but not fibroblasts, as a candidate cell type involved in the sexual differentiation of the SNB neuromuscular system. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 73: 448–454, 2013.