华北平原及黄土高原啮齿动物物种丰富度的空间格局及其分异

在采用网格法对华北平原及黄土高原啮齿动物调查的基础上,分析了啮齿动物物种丰富度空间格局。华北平原物种丰富度最低,其次为晋、翼山地和汾、渭谷地,而南蒙高原和黄土高原的丰富度较高;物种丰富度纬向变化不明显,而经向变化显著,由东向西,物种丰富度呈递增趋势;丰富度在海拔上的变化并不存在相关的地理模式;丰富度与山地面积呈正相关,与平原面积呈负相关,而与丘陵面积相关不显著,丰富度与各地地貌类型面积的总和呈明显的正相关;丰富度与温度相关不明显,而与降雨量呈负相关。在华北平原及黄土高原,生境结构类型愈复杂的地区,啮齿动物物种丰富度愈高。     

Composition des faunes de mammifères quaternaires en Chine selon un gradient Nord-Sud

During Pleistocene Epoch, quite a number of meridionale mammals inhabited north China, such as Stegodon, Macaca, Hystrix, Dicerorhinus, Bubalus and several kinds of other probscideans. On the contrary, some boreal mammals once appeared in south China, such as Megaloceros and Ursus arctos etc. The frequent appearance of warm-adapted mammals in North China can be explained by two alternative assumptions: one is that those mammals were of palearctic origin; the other is the climate-driven northward dispersal. According to the fossil evidences, it seems that the northward dispersal events were much more frequent than the southward ones during Pleistocene in China. It maybe means that during Pleistocene, the temperature fluctuated very frequently and the boundary between the Paleartic and Oriental Regions were always keeping on shifting. But it's still not clear how many episodes or phases of such dispersal events had occurred. The Qinling Mountains weren't responsible for the faunal differentiation between the North and the South, neither was the Yangtze River; because the former is not big enough, and the latter cannot be regarded as an efficient barrier for those animals, which are capable of flying and swimming. Maybe the climate zonation is the root cause of zoogeographical changes.     

Biological Rhythms of Biochemical Serum Parameters in a Brazilian Population: a Three‐Year Study

A marked decrease in analytical and post‐analytical variability has been achieved in clinical laboratories by the use of automated analytical systems. Current studies are now focused on the origin of pre‐analytical variability, such as that due to intra‐individual differences and biological rhythms. The objective of this work was to evaluate the occurrence of biological rhythms in several biochemical serum parameters in a Brazilian population. A retrospective study (1996 to 1998) was carried out to collect the test results within the reference intervals of adults, from 21 to 50 yr of age (average age of 36 yr) attending the outpatient clinics of the Teaching Hospital at the University of Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil. The reference sample was 52.9% male and 47.1% female and encompassed 15,036 calcium, 7,478 phosphorus, 53,641 urea, 58,315 creatinine and 6,433 uric acid determinations (140,903 in total). Significant annual rhythms were detected in serum calcium (p≤0.001), with maximum and minimum values in fall and spring, and in serum creatinine (p≤0.002), with maximum and minimum values in summer and winter. The other parameters did not present significant annual rhythmicity. The seasonal rhythms present in the serum concentrations of calcium and creatinine observed in this large population study, although of small amplitude, should be considered a component of the pre‐analytical variation of these clinical laboratory tests.     

Problems of techniques in anthropometric studies in India

Anthropometric studies in India have been conducted on a fairly large scale but the lack of uniform techniques has rendered data non-comparable. Here, the magnitude of differences in values on account of differences in techniques under two methods has been demonstrated by measuring the cranial height of 35 skulls in the Department of Anthropology, University of Lucknow, India. The direct method gives as much as 5 mm lower values than the subtraction method. Furthermore, the position of vertex relative to apex is highly variable. Such differences are likely to be more magnified in skulls with plano-occipitals. It is therefore re-emphasized that anthropometrists should employ uniform techniques, and adequately describe them so that the data remains comparable.     

Absence of nasal bone and brachydactyly: A probable new familial syndrome

Brachydactyly is a relatively common congenital abnormality and can be associated with many other malformations. However, brachydactyly in association with absence of nasal bone is rare. Two Chinese siblings with a combination of nasal bone absence and brachydactyly are presented, apparently without other abnormalities. This combination of features do not fit into any previously described syndrome and we suggest that this case represents a new familial syndrome. Molecular genetics screening didn't revealed any specific pathogenic variants in the two siblings.     

Fuzzy methods for the detection of copy number variations in comparative genomic hybridization arrays

Genomic copy number variations (CNVs) are considered as a significant source of genetic diversity and widely involved in gene expression and regulatory mechanism, genetic disorders and disease risk, susceptibility to certain diseases and conditions, and resistance to medical drugs. Many studies have targeted the identification, profiling, analysis, and associations of genetic CNVs. We propose herein two new fuzzy methods, taht is, one based on the fuzzy inference from the pre-processed input, and another based on fuzzy C-means clustering. Our solutions present a higher true positive rate and a lower false negative with no false positive, efficient performance and consumption of least resources.     

Microevolution of outer and inner structures of upper molars in Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene humans

In this study, we investigate outer and inner variations of upper second molars (UM2) for Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene modern humans, at a key-period in our evolutionary history associated with major sociocultural, economic and environmental changes. Non-metric traits have been recorded on 89 UM2 of 66 Upper Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic individuals, and 40 UM2 have been microscanned to assess variations in enamel thickness (ET) distribution and enamel–dentine junction (EDJ) shape. Major changes are found between Mesolithic and Neolithic periods: a decrease of the metacone expression combined with an increase of the hypocone development; an increase of the heterogeneity of ET distribution between lingual and buccal cusps; and an increase of the development of the dentine horn tips corresponding to the hypocone and, to a lesser extent, to the metacone. These morphological modifications could be linked to the masticatory functional changes associated with the transition to agriculture.     

Pyloric caecal morphology of brook charr,Salvelinus fontinalis,in relation to diet

Synopsis Brook charr, Salvelinus fontinalis, shifts its diet from zoobenthos to pelagic prey when living sympatrically with white sucker, Catostomus commersoni, in lakes of the Laurentian Shield. We tested the hypothesis that this diet difference would have a significant impact on their pyloric caecal morphology in 5 lakes containing allopatric brook charr populations and 6 other lakes containing both brook charr and white sucker. We observed that the mean length of the most posterior caecum of charr was significantly greater in sympatry than in allopatry (X ± 1 SD: 9.91 ± 1.12 mm versus 8.44 ± 0.67 mm). This is equivalent to an increase of 18% of total pyloric caecal mass (dry weight) in sympatric brook charr. These results indicate that this response to differences in diet, well known in birds, also occurs in fish.     

Flavonoid variation and evolution inAsplenium normale and related species (Aspleniaceae)

Flavonoid profiles of 132 populations (472 individuals) ofAsplenium normale, and related species,A. boreale, A. shimurae, andA. oligophlebium var.oligophlebium and var.iezimaense in Japan were surveyed by HPLC and 2D-PC. Of the five taxa, each ofAsplenium boreale, A. shimurae andA. oligophlebium including var.iezimaense had consistent flavonoid composition: apigenin 7, 4′-di-O-rhamnoside (9) inAsplenium boreale, 7-O-glucosyirhamnosides of apigenin and luteolin (6 and 7) inA. shimurae and genkwanin 4′-O-glucosyl-rhamnoside (5) in twoA. oligophlebium varieties. On the other hand,Asplenium normale was divided into seven chemotypes A-G: A-type has 7-O-dirhamnosides of apigenin and luteolin (1 and 2) and genkwanin 4′-O-glucosylrhamnoside (5); B-type, 5 alone; C-type, apigenin 7-O-rhamnoside-4′-O-glucosylrhamnoside (8); D-type, 1 and 2; E-type, 1,2 and 8; F-type, 1, 2, 5 and 8; and G-type, 5 and 8. Among them, the most frequent types were A, B and C, and A-type was mainly distributed in inland of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu, while B- and C-types extended their distribution areas southwards in general and occur along the Pacific coast with several exception. Chemical and evolutionary relationships amongAsplenium boreale, A. shimurae, A. oligophlebium, and the chemotypes ofA. normale were discussed on the basis of general biosynthetic pathway.     

Microduplications in 22q11.2 and 8q22.1 associated with mild mental retardation and generalized overgrowth

The 22q11.2 microduplication is a genomic disorder, characterized from a variable phenotype ranging from different defects to normality. The most common microduplication of 22q11.2 is 3 Mb in size, but there are also cases reported with atypical duplications between 0.8 Mb and 6 Mb.