The brecciated texture of polymict eucrites: Petrographic investigations of unequilibrated meteorites from the Antarctic Yamato collection

We report on the petrography and mineralogy of five Yamato polymict eucrites to better constrain the formation and alteration of crustal material on differentiated asteroids. Each sample consists of different lithic clasts that altogether form four dominant textures and therefore appear to originate from closely related petrological areas within Vesta′s crust. The textures range from subophitic to brecciated, porphyritic, and quench‐textured, that differ from section to section. Comparison with literature data for these samples is therefore difficult, which stresses that polymict eucrites are extremely complex in their petrography and investigation of only one thick section may not be representative for the host rock. We also show that sample Y‐793548 consists of more than one lithic unit and must therefore be classified as polymict instead of monomict. The variety and nature of lithic textures in the investigated Yamato meteorites indicate shock events, intense post‐magmatic thermal annealing, and secondary alteration. These postmagmatic features occur in different intensities, varying from clast to clast or among coexisting mineral fragments on a small, local scale. Several clasts within the eucrites studied have been modified by late‐stage alteration processes that caused deposition of Fe‐rich olivine and Fe enrichment along cracks crosscutting pyroxene crystals. However, formation of these secondary phases seems to be independent of the degree of thermal metamorphism observed within every type of clast, which would support a late‐stage metasomatism model for their formation.     

Extracting invariant characteristics of sketch maps: Towards place query‐by‐sketch

In geography, invariant aspects of sketches are essential to study because they reflect the human perception of real‐world places. A person's perception of a place can be expressed in sketches. In this article, we quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed the characteristics of single objects and characteristics among objects in sketches and the real world to find reliable invariants that can be used to establish references/correspondences between sketch and world in a matching process. These characteristics include category, shape, name, and relative size of each object. Moreover, quantity and spatial relationships—such as topological, ordering, and location relationships—among all objects are also analyzed to assess consistency between sketched and actual places. The approach presented in this study extracts the reliable invariants for query‐by‐sketch and prioritizes their relevance for a sketch‐map matching process.     

Asteroid impact effects on Snowball Earth

Several Snowball Earth periods, in which the Earth has been (almost) totally glaciated, are known from Earth history. Neither the trigger for the initiation, nor the reason for the ending of such phases, are well understood. Here we discuss some mechanical effects of the impact of asteroids 5–10 km in diameter on the Snowball Earth environment. An impact of this scale is the largest impact that is statistically predictable for 10–60 Myr time periods. The impact cratering itself (shock waves, impact crater formation) is not powerful enough to change the natural climate evolution path on Earth. However, the products of impact (mainly—water vapor) can be quickly distributed over a substantial part of the globe, influencing the global circulation (e.g., facilitating cloud formation). It is a question for future studies to confirm if such an event (which is possible statistically during this interval) may or may not have influenced the global climate of the Snowball Earth, and/or contributed to deglaciation.     

Using otolith weight to predict the age of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pennahia macrocephalus</Emphasis> in the mouth of the Beibu Gulf

The relation between otolith weight (OW) and the age of marine fish is studied. A total of 222 individuals of bighead white croaker, Pennahia macrocephalus were sampled seasonally in the mouth of the Beibu Gulf, the South China Sea, in 2007. Since there are no significant differences in sagittal OW between otolith in pairs (P≥0.05), the undamaged left sagittal otolith is used for age determination. The highest correlations among standard length, OW and fish ages are confirmed by linear, exponential and multinomial regression. Results show that sagittal OW overlaps only occasionally among age groups, and to individuals with similar standard length, the older and slower-growing fish has a heavier otolith because of the continued otolith material deposition. There are differences in sagittal OW among different age groups and significant positive linear relationship with age (P<0.05). The age readings can be verified by plotting the sagittal OW versus the standard length for age groups, and the individuals with similar standard length but in different ages can be separated by sagittal OW frequency analysis. Mostly, the predicted ages using the regression between sagittal OW and ages are closed to the observed ages by counting annulus on scale. It indicates that the sagittal OW analysis is a useful technique for validating the accuracy of age determination by annuli counts, especially for individuals of similar size. Furthermore, the technique is applied for Pennahia macrocephalus with discussion in this paper. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 30771653) and Bureau of Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture     

Isolation and identification of bacteria associated with the surfaces of several algal species

We conducted this study to assess the diversity of bacteria associated with the surfaces of algae based on 16S rDNA sequence analyses.Twelve strains of bacteria were obtained from the surfaces of the following four species of algae:Gracilaria textorii,Ulva pertusa,Laminaria japonica,and Polysiphonia urceolata.The isolated strains of bacteria can be divided into two groups:Halomonas and Vibrio,in physiology,biochemical characteristics and 16S rDNA sequence analyses.The phylogenetic tree constructed based on ...     

Characterization of a new lectin involved in the protoplast regeneration of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bryopsis hypnoides</Emphasis>

A group of coenocytic marine algae differs from higher plants,whose totipotency depends on an intact cell(or protoplast).Instead,this alga is able to aggregate its extruded protoplasm in sea water and generate new mature individuals.It is thought that lectins play a key role in the aggregation process.We purified a lectin associated with the aggregation of cell organelles in Bryopsis hypnoides.The lectin was ca.27 kDa with a pI between pH 5 and pH 6.The absence of carbohydrate suggested that the lectin was ...     

Metabolism of pectenotoxins in brown crabs <Emphasis Type="Italic">Cancer pagurus</Emphasis> fed with blue mussels <Emphasis Type="Italic">Mytilus edulis</Emphasis>

We investigated the metabolism of pectenotoxins in brown crabs(Cancer pagurus).The crabs were fed with blue mussels(Mytilus edulis) for 21 d then depurated for 42 d.We extracted the toxins from the digestive glands of contaminated crabs,uncontaminated crabs(control group),and the meat of blue mussels using methanol.Extracts of the crab digestive glands were fractionated by liquid-liquid partitioning and solid phase extraction.The fractions were analyzed by liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spec...     

Initiation of primary cell culture from amphioxus <Emphasis Type="Italic">Branchiostoma belcheri tsingtauense</Emphasis>

Amphioxus, a cephalochordate, is an important model fish for studies in evolution and comparative biology. A successful cell culture from amphioxus tissues in vitro would help understanding some basic issues. To determine the optimal culture conditions for proliferation of amphioxus cells, primary cultures were initiated from buccal cirri, tail, gill, gut and metapleural fold of amphioxus Branchiostoma belcheri tsingtauense. The media tested were L-15, F-12, M 199, MEM, DMEM, PRMI 1640 and LDF, each was supplemented with 20% fetal bovine serum. The optimal conditions include tail tissue cultured in L-15 or F-12 with supplement of 20% FBS and 1.5% NaCl at about 25°C. Supported by Doctoral Initial Fund of Ludong University (No.43304)     

Effects of salinity fluctuation amplitudes on growth, osmolarity, Na＋-K＋-ATPase activity and Hsp70 of juvenile Chinese shrimp Fenneropenaeus chinensis Osbeck

The effects of various salinity fluctuation amplitudes (2, 4, 6 and 8) on the growth, osmolarity, Na⁺-K⁺-ATPase activity and Hsp70 of juvenile Fenneropenaeus chinensis cultured in seawater with a salinity of 20 were studied. The results show that weight gain in the salinity fluctuation treatments was better than that in control; in particular, the weight gain of treatments S4 and S0, at 231.8% and 196.3%, respectively, was significantly different (P<0.05). The hemolymph osmolarity of treatments S0, S2, S4, S6 and S8 was 635.4, 630.8, 623.6, 614.4 and 600.3 mOsm/kg, respectively, and decreased with increasing salinity fluctuation amplitude. The level of Na⁺-K⁺-ATPase activity in gills of F. chinensis was higher than that in hepatopancreas, but there were no significant differences among all treatments, either in gills or hepatopancreas (P>0.05). The relative level of Hsp70 in treatment S4 was 48.4% and 40.4% higher than control in muscle and eyestalks, respectively, with the highest values being recorded under a salinity fluctuation amplitude of 4.     

Karyotype analysis of four nemertean species

We performed a karyotype analysis on four species from Phylum Nemertea using regenerating somatic cells. Two palaeonemertean species, Cephalothrix hongkongiensis and Cephalothrix sp., had the same chromosome number (2n=28), but different karyotypes (16 m+10 sm+2 st, NF=54 and 22 m+4 sm+2 st, NF=54, respectively). The karyotypes of the two heteronemerteans, Notospermus geniculatus and Ramphogordius sanguineus were 2n=38, 30 m+6 sm+2 sm/st (NF=76/74) and 2n=56, 48 m+4 sm+4 sm/st (NF=112/108), respectively.