Increased Endogenous Methyl Jasmonate Altered Leaf and Root Development in Transgenic Soybean Plants

Methyl jasmonate （MeJA） is a plant-signaling molecule that regulates plant morphogenesis and expression of plant defense genes. To determine the role of the endogenous MeJA levels in the development of plants, transgenic soybean [Glycine max （L.） Merrill] plants harboring NTR1 gene encoding for jasmonic acid carboxyl methyltransferase （JMT） were produced. The activation of NTR1 gene expression resulted in the production of MeJA. Overexpression of the NTR1 cDNA under the regulation of cauliflower mosaic virus （CaMV） 35S promoter in the transgenic soybean plants was confirmed using Northern blot analysis. The significant differences in leaf and root growth patterns were observed between the transgenic plants and the wild-type plants. The leaves of the transgenic plants were slightly elongated in length but dramatically narrowed in width compared with the nontrans-formed wild-type plants. In addition, elongation of primary root was inhibited in the overexpressed transgenic soybean plantlets, whereas the development of lateral root was stimulated relative to the nontransformed plants. The leaves of the transgenic plants showed 2-2.5-fold higher levels of MeJA than the control plants. These results indicated that the increased endogenous levels of MeJA is involved in regulation of morphogenesis in soybean plants.

Group Size and Composition of Black-and-White Snub-nosed Monkey (Rhinopithecus bieti) Estimated by Faecesof Sleeping Sites at Baima Snow Mountain

This study was designed to introduce a new method of estimating group size and composition of black-andwhite snub-nosed monkeys （Rhinopithecus bieti ） on the basis of faecal amount at sleeping sites at Mt. Baima Nature Reserve. The monkeys spend nights in the form of one-male, multi-female units （OMUs） and all-male units （AMU）, and their faecal pellets can be classified into three categories： adult males （the largest）, adult females （moderate） and immatures （the smallest） based on their size. Total pellets were counted under sleeping trees used for two nights at Nanren village （99°04′E, 28°34′N, northwest of Yunnan Province, China） in each of four seasons in 2000- 2001. Moreover, data on group composition were collected when the monkeys were passing through an open gully in November 2001. Since the number of adults in OMUs shows a positive significant correlation with the amount of pellets amount in each season, the mean number of feces produced per night per individual is the slope of the regression lines. Thus, group size and composition can be relatively reliably and accurately estimated by the faeces under trees compared with the previous methods of estimation, including the use of monkeys＇ activities and tracks such as broken branches on steep slopes, in deep gorges and under lower visibility. The use of pellets for population estimates displayed 9.4% deviation in regards to population size of adult females. Some causes of the bias were also discussed. The method might be applicable to other monkey groups of this species if their habitats and main foods are similar to those of the study group.

College English autonomous teaching and learning research and practice

This paper intends to promote a college English autonomous teaching and learning approach by introducing the whole process of its implementation and feedback from the learners. The theoretical and practical framework of this approach is： with multiple autonomous learning research and practice models as its core, with process syllabus as its guidance, with task-based teaching as its essential principle, with group cooperation and reciprocal learning as its means, with extracurricular activities, online learning and self-access center as its learning environment, with formative assessment system as its guarantee and with cultivation of learners＇ comprehensive English practical skills and autonomy as its goal. Through this approach, we provide the learners with a favorable learning environment where they can learn by themselves and learn by reflection and practice so that they can learn how to learn and how to behave and how to survive.

Heterogeneous Uptake of Hydrogen Peroxide on Mineral Oxides

The interaction of mineral oxides （α-A12O3, MgO, Fe2O3, and SiO2） with hydrogen peroxide was investigated using the Knudsen cell reactor. The initial reactive uptake coefficients for tile commercially available powders are measured as （1.00±0.11）×10-4 for α-A1203, （1.66±0.23）×10-4 for MgO, （9.70±1.95）×10-5 for Fe203, and （5.22±0.9）×10-5 for SiO2. These metal oxide powders exhibit some catalytic behavior toward the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide excluding SiO2. H2O2 can be destroyed on Fe2O3 surface and O2 is formed. The experimental results suggest that the heterogeneous loss on mineral surface can represent an important sink of hydrogen peroxide.

A New Structure for a CMOS Audio Power AMP with Extremely Low THD and Low Power Consumption

A new system-corrected CMOS audio power AMP is presented. Consisting of four single-end OPAs,this structure is a pseudo-differential system. Compared to conventional CMOS power AMPs, it has the merits of low power consumption, extremely low THD,easy compensation, and good driving capability. With 1st silicon 0.25μm 1P4M CMOS technology and a 3V power supply,the output range can be 4Vpp when driving an 8Ω‖ 300pF load, while its power dissipation is less than 3mW. The THD is better than 0. 003% at 1kHz. A new over-current protection circuit, which can effectively protect the power output circuits on the chip, is also demonstrated.

Molecular Cloning, Escherichia coli Expression and Genomic Organization of Squalene Synthase Gene from Artemisia annua

A 1 539 by squalene synthase (AaSQS) cDNA was cloned from a high-yield Artemisia annua L. strain 001 by reverse transcription-polymerise chain reaction (RT-PCR). The amino acid sequence of AaSQS is 70%, 77%, 44% and 39%a identical to that of squalene synthases from Arabidopsis thaliana, tobacco, human and yeast, respectively. The AaSQS genomic DNA has a complex organization containing 14 exons and 13 introns. Full-length or C-terminal truncated cDNA was subcloned into prokaryotic expression vector pET30a and the constructed plasmid was introduced to Escherichia coli strain BL21 (DE3) for induced overexpression. No squalene synthase protein with expected molecular mass was observed in E. cola containing the putative full-length squalene synthase cDNA, however, overexpression in E. coli was achieved by truncating 30 amino acids of hydrophobic region at the carboxy terminus.

Responses of Membrane Lipid Peroxidation and Endogenous Hormones of Soybean Seedlings to UV-B Radiation and Rare Earth

[ Objective] The aim was to provide strategies for development of rare earth and control of environmental pollution. [ Method] Responses of membrane lipid peroxidation and endogenous hormones of soybean seedlings to UV-B radiation and rare earth were studied through hydroponics in laboratory. [ Result] The results showed that under irradiation of UV-B（ T1-0.15 W/m^2 and T2-0.45 W/m^2）, chlorophyll and indole-3-acetic acid（IAA） contents firstly decreased during the stress phase （1 -5 d） and then increased during the restoration phase （6 -9 d） while contents of malonadialdehyde（MDA） and abscisic acid（ABA） gradually increased during the imposition of UV-B radiation （1 -5 d） and subsequently decreased during recovery from UV-B stress （6 -9 d） . With adding of La （III） with the concentration of 20 mg · L^-1 , the decline/dse trend of chlorophyll, IAA, MDA and ABA contents was slowed down during the stress period while the rise/decline speed was accelerated during the recovery period. [ Conclusion] It suggests that the regulation of La （ III ） on membrane lipid peroxidation and endogenous hormones could increase chlorophyll and IAA contents, improve the metabolism of reactive oxygen species （ ROS）, inhibit membrane lipid peroxidation, decrease the accumulation amount of ABA and alleviate injury of UV-B radiation to soybean seedlings. Further, the protective potential of La （ III ） was better under low UV-B radiation than under high one.

Design of an OP-AMP Based on a LDO Regulator

An operational amplifier （OP-AMP） with a ground current of about 0.6μA is presented. Moreover, this amplifier reaps the benefits of incorporating a foldback current limiting circuit,which enables the low-dropout voltage regulator without the need of a special current limiting subblock. Therefore,the object of ultra-low power is realized because of a great reduction in transistors and current limbs.

Construction analysis on integral lifting of steel structure by the vector form intrinsic finite element

A newnumerical method based on vector form intrinsic finite element（VFIFE） is proposed to simulate the integral lifting process of steel structures. First, in order to verify the validity of the VFIFE method, taking the steel gallery between the integrated building and the attached building of Nanjing M obile Communication Buildings for example, the static analysis was carried out and the corresponding results were compared with the results achieved by the traditional finite element method. Then, according to the characteristics of dynamic construction of steel structure integral lifting, the tension cable element was employed to simulate the behavior of dynamic construction. The VFIFE method avoids the iterative solution of the stiffness matrix and the singularity problems. Therefore, it is simple to simulate the complete process of steel structure lifting construction.Finally, by using the VFIFE, the displacement and internal force time history curves of the steel structures under different lifting speeds are obtained. The results show that the lifting speed has influence on the lifting force, the internal force, and the displacement of the structure. In the case of normal lifting speed, the dynamic magnification factor of 1. 5 is safe and reasonable for practical application.

Bioinformatics Analysis on B cell Epitopes of Rice Allergen RAG1

[Objective] To predict the secondary structure and B cell epitopes of the rice major allergen RAG1. [Method] The amino acid sequence of rice allergen RAG1 was acquired from Expasy protein database. The secondary structure of RAG1 was predicted by DNAStar Protean software with Gamier-Robson program, Chou-Fasman program and Karplus-Schulz program; the B cell epitopes of RAG1 was predicted with the Kyte Doolittle hydrophilic program, Emini surface accessibility program and Jameson-Wolf antigenic index program. [Result] The predictions on secondary structure and B cell epitopes showed that the regions of 33-44, 119-129, 155-163 were the dominant B cell epitopes. [Conclusion] This study predicted the potential dominant B cell epitopes in rice allergen RAG1 by comprehensive use of multi-methods and multi-parameters, and provided a theoretical basis for further researches on identification, antigen modification and epitope vaccine design of RAG1 B cell epitopes.

Key Issues on Cryospheric Changes,Trends and Their Impacts

On the basis of analyzing the importance of cryospheric researches in China and current status of cryospheric sciences in the world, this paper addresses key issues and main contents of present cryospheric sciences in China. The key issues currently addressed are： i） mechanisms of different types of glaciers in response to climate change and the scale-conversion in water resources assessments; ii） modeling of water and heat exchanges between frozen soil and vegetation; iii） parameterization of physical processes in cryosphere as well as coupling with climate models. To gain full clarification of these key issues, works of the following three aspects should be highlighted, i.e., cryospheric processes and responses to climate change, influences of cryospheric changes, and adaptation strategies for cryospheric changes.

Improvement of Isomerization Process of Crude Isoamylene with Tertiary-amyl-alcohol Addition

The present work contributed to a new developed production method for enhancing the quality of isoamylene （IA） by adding a small amount of tertiary amyl alcohol （TAA） to the catalyst of strong acid cation exchange resin. TAA improved the selectivity of 2-methyl-2-butene （2M2B） at a high conversion level for the isomerization of IA. Compared with the other results from the current IA units, the conversion of 2-methyl- 1-butene （2M1B）, the mass ratio of 2M2B to 2M1B and the selectivity of 2M2B were increased from 0.5474, 7.32 and 0.6864 to 0.72, 12 and 0.95, respectively, while the dimers content in the products decreased from 4.38% to below 1.0%. Optimized conditions for IA isomerization consisted of temperature between 28 and 33℃ and system pressure of 0.5 MPa, weight hourly space velocity of 8.0 h-1 with TAA mass fraction of 0.7%-0.9% in raw material. The results in lab supported bases for the developed process in industrial application which was later proved to be successful. In addition, a possible mechanism of the isomerization process was speculated to propose a key step of water formation in the TAA-added isomerization process and a verified experiment was conducted to support this speculation.

An extra embryonic phase in the true freshwater crab Sinopotamon yangtsekiense Bott,1967(Decapoda,Potamidae)

The true freshwater crabs(Crustacea,Decapoda,Brachyura) are highly adapted to life in freshwater and complete their life cycle entirely independently of sea water.All true freshwater crabs exhibit direct development and lack the free-living larval forms(zoea and megalopa) typical of most other brachyurans.After a prolonged embryonic period(during which they pass through the typical brachyuran larval forms embryologically) the eggs of true freshwater crabs hatch to produce juvenile(hatchling) crabs.We provide here the first report and description of the continuous record of embryonic development from egg-laying up to hatching in the Chinese true freshwater crab Sinopotamon yangtsekiense Bott,1967(Potamoidea,Potamidae).Direct development(complete secondary embryonization) in S.yangtsekiense was observed to take 77 days and to include an additional embryonic phase(termed here the egg-juvenile-crab) that occurs in the embryo between the imprisoned megalopa and the newly-emerged juvenile(hatchling) crab.This is significant because the only other freshwater crab whose embryonic development has been studied in detail is Potamon fluviatilis(Potamidae) which takes 45-47 days and involves only nine embryonic stages.

Large Deviation Theorem for Empirical Measures of Degenerate Diffusion Processes

A class of multi dimensional degenerate diffusion processes X ε(t) in R r(r≥2) are considered and the asymptotic properties of empirical measures are investigated; here X ε(t) saitisfies the stochastic differential equation dX ε(t)=σ(X ε(t)) d W(t)+B(X ε(t)) d t+ εσ～(X ε(t)) d W(t),ε>0. X ε(t) are small random perturbations of the degenerate diffusion process X(t), which satisfies the stochastic differential equation dX(t)=σ(X(t)) d W(t)+B(X(t)) d t. A large deviation theorem for projection measures ν on R r-n (n<r) of empirical measures μ are proved

Mechanisms of Inhibitory Effects of Breviscapine on Lipid Peroxidation in Rat Brain Mitochondria

The mechanisms by which breviscapine (Bre) inhibits the lipid preoxidation in rat brain mitochondria were investigated. The mitochondrial lipid peroxidation of rat brain induced by oxygen free radical was measured by thiobarbituric acid spectrophotometry. The chelating activities of Bre for Fe 2+ were tested by differential spectrum. Superoxide anion (O 2)from xanthine xanthine oxidase (Xan XO) system and hydroxyl radical (·OH) from FeSO 4 H 2O 2 system were determined with spectrophotometry. It was found that Bre could effectively inhibit the lipid peroxidation of brain mitochondria induced by free radicals driven from Xan XO and FeSO 4 H 2O 2 system. The IC 50 of Bre were 93 01 μmol·L -1 for Xan XO system and 62 18 μmol·L -1 for FeSO 4 H 2O 2 system. Bre also scavenged O 2 and ·OH produced by Xan XO and FeSO 4 H 2O 2 systems. The IC 50 of Bre were 32 63 μmol·L -1 for O - 2 and 20 22 μmol·L -1 for ·OH. Furthermore, the chelating Fe 2+ activity of Bre was shown. It may be concluded that Bre inhibited lipid peroxidation at different stages of the reaction of oxygen free redial with the mitochondria membrane: (1) the formation of ·OH; (2) the initiation of the lipid peroxidation, by chelating Fe 2+ and scavenging O 2 as well as ·OH. The scavenging oxygen free radicals and chelating iron are the mechanisms of inhibitory effect of Bre on lipid peroxidation.

Investigation on Characteristics and the Improving Method of Double Loop Optical Buffer

We establish an equivalent cascaded semiconductor optical amplifier system model to analyze the characteristics of the double loop optical buffer （DLOB）. The theoretical analysis finds that the performance of the DLOB can be improved by inserted amplifying process in an interval of some cycles. The experiment demonstrates that the buffered cycles can be improved from 20 to 50 and the bit error rate is less than 10-9 by inserting amplifying process in an interval of about 10 cycles.

Mechanical properties of porous titanium with different distributions of pore size

To satisfy the mechanical and biological requirement of porous bone substitutes, porous Ti with two different pore sizes designed in advance was fabricated by the space-holder sintering process. Mechanical properties of the porous Ti were explored via room temperature compressive tests. The pore sizes and shapes are uniform throughout the specimens with porosities ranging from 36% to 63%. The compression strength and the elastic modulus are in the range from 94.05 to 468.57 MPa and 2.662 to 18 GPa, respectively. It is worth noting that the relationship between the compressive strength and the porosities is completely linear relation beyond the effect of pore size distributions on the mechanical properties. The value of the constant C achieved from the Gibson-Ashby model suggests that the pore sizes affect the yield strength of the porous Ti and the values of density exponent （n） for porous Ti with two different pore sizes are higher than 2, which suggests that the deformation mode of the porous Ti with a porosity ranging from 36% to 63% is mainly buckling of the cell struts.

Removal of Nitrophenols by Adsorption Using β-Cyclodextrin Modified Zeolites

Removal of nitrophenols （NPs） from aqueous solutions through the adsorption process by using cationic β-cyclodextrin （CCD） modified zeolite （CCDMZ） was investigated. The effects of particle size, contact time, solution pH values and sodium chloride content in the aqueous on adsorption capacity were evaluated through a series of batch experiments. The results showed that CCDMZ had a higher adsorption capacity for removing NPs at a size fraction of 0.45-0.9 mm while adsorption of NPs on CCDMZ reached equilibrium within 60 min. The adsorption process was apparently influenced by pH values and sodium chloride content in aqueous solution. To ascertain the mechanisms of sorption, the experimental data were modeled by using the pseudo-first and pseudo-second order kinetic equations, and the results indicated that the adsorption kinetics of NPs on CCDMZ well-matched with the pseudo-second order rate expression.

Nonlinear characteristics of induced spontaneous combustion process of sulfide ores

To investigate the relationship between nonlinear parameters and spontaneous combustion tendency of sulfide ores, nine different sulfide ore samples were taken from a pyrite mine in China, and induced spontaneous combustion experiment was carried out in the laboratory. Different stages of the induced spontaneous combustion process were studied by integrating wavelet technology and nonlinear dynamics theory. The results show that ignition points of all the ore samples are above 330 ℃, indicating that sulfide ores of the pyrite mine are difficult to combust spontaneously under normal mining conditions. Spontaneous combustion process includes three stages： incubation stage, development stage and approaching stage. The average temperature rising rate of the three stages are 1.0 ~C/min, 2.0 ~C/min and 4.2 ~C/min, respectively. During the spontaneous combustion process, mean values of approximate entropy and correlation dimension increase at first, and then decrease in the following stage. The mean value of the maximum Lyapunov exponent increases with the passage of reaction time. In a whole, correlation among the three nonlinear parameters firstly weakens, then enhances, and the best correlation period is at approaching stage. As ignition point increases, the maximum Lyapunov exponent of approaching stage decreases. Therefore, combustible tendency of sulfide ores could be qualitatively evaluated based on the maximum Lyapunov exponent of this stage.

Mesalamine hypersensitivity and Kounis syndrome in a pediatric ulcerative colitis patient

5-aminosalicylic acid （mesalamine） rarely induces hyper- sensitivity reactions. If chest pain associated with atypical electrocardiographic changes are seen during its administration, one should always bear in mind type I variant of Kounis syndrome. This variant includes patients, of any age, with normal coronary arteries, without predisposing factors for coronary artery disease, in whom the acute release of inflammatory mediators from mast cells can induce either sudden coronary artery narrowing, without increase of cardiac enzymes and troponins, or coronary artery spasm that progresses to acute myocardial infarction, with elevated cardiac enzymes and troponins.