Sequence polymorphism of two major histocompatibility (MH) class II B genes and their association with Vibrio anguillarum infection in half-smooth tongue sole (Cynoglossus semilaevis)

Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class Ⅱ B molecules play an important role in the adaptive immune response in fish. Previous study has reported that two highly polymorphic class ⅡB genes, Cyse-DAB and Cyse-DBB exist in half-smooth tongue sole (Cynoglossus semilaevis). In this study, the polymorphism within exon 2 of the class Ⅱ B genes following bacterial challenge was evaluated. Two hundred C. semilaevis individuals were injected intraperitoneally with Vibrio anguillarum. Muscle tissue from the first 20 dead and 20 of the survivors was collected for genotyping. Sixty alleles from the 40 individuals were isolated, of which 32 belonged to Cyse-DAB and 28 belonged to Cyse-DBB. The rate of dN (non-synonymous substitution) was higher than that of dS (synonymous substitution) in the PBRs (peptide binding residues) of both class Ⅱ B genes. Conversely, the rate of dS was higher than dN in the non-PBRs and the complete exon 2 sequence. Thus, the results suggest that positive selection has occurred in the PBRs and purifying selection in the non-PBRs and exon 2. Thirteen class Ⅱ B alleles were used to study the association between alleles and resistance to infection. Though not significant, alleles Cyse-DAB*0601, Cyse-DAB*0706, and Cyse-DBB*0101, Cyse-DBB*1301 were only found in surviving individuals and may represent alleles that have resistance against V. anguillarum infection. Alleles Cyse-DAB*0701 and Cyse-DAB*1301 were significantly more prevalent in dead individuals than in surviving ones and may represent alleles that are associated with increased susceptibility to V. anguillarum infection.     

The status evaluation of the permafrost environment along the Chaida’er-Muli Railway in southern Qilian Mountains in northern Qinghai Province,China

Engineering construction has major influence on the permafrost environment.This paper analyzes the interaction between engineering construction and permafrost environment along the Chaidaer-Muli Railway(simply,CMR) based on the press-state-response(PSR) framework.The permafrost environmental system is divided into three subsystems,consisting of permafrost thermal stability,proneness to the freeze-thawing erosion and permafrost ecological fragility.Each subsystem considers its most important influencing factors.Catastrophe Progression Method(CPM) is applied to calculate the current environment condition along the railway.The result indicates that:(1) as far as the thermal stability is concerned,most sections along the CMR are mainly concentrated in rank Ⅲ(fair situation),and a few in Ⅱ(good situation) and Ⅳ(bad situation),respectively;(2) for the proneness tothe freeze-thawing erosion,the entire railway route falls largely in rank Ⅱ(good situation);(3) along the CMR,the ecological fragility of the permafrost environment is in rank Ⅱ(good situation),or slightly fragile;(4) overall,the permafrost environments along the CMR are in rank Ⅲ(fair situation) or Ⅱcondition(good situation).In general,the permafrost environment along the CMR is fair.It is mainly because a series of active measures of protecting permafrost were taken for stabilizing the CMR foundation soils.On the one hand,we should try our best to minimize the influences that engineering activities have exerted on ecology and environment,on the other hand,the positive measures have made improvements to prevent the permafrost environment from deterioration.     

A class of force-free magnetic fields for modeling pre-flare coronal magnetic configurations

Three-dimensional, quasi-static evolutions of coronal magnetic fields driven by photospheric flux emergence are modeled by a class of analytic force-free magnetic fields. Our models relate commonly observed photospheric magnetic phenomena, such as the formation and growth of sunspots, the emergence of an X-type separator, and the collision and merging of sunspots, to the three-dimensional magnetic fields in the corona above. By tracking the evolution in terms of a continuous sequence of force-free states, we show that flux emergence and submergence along magnetic neutral lines in the photosphere are essential processes in all these photospheric phenomena. The analytic solutions we present have a parametric regime within which the magnetic energy attained by an evolving force-free field may be of the order of 10³⁰ ergs to several 10³¹ ergs, depending on the magnetic environment into which an emerging flux intrudes. The commonly used indicators of magnetic shear in magnetogram interpretation are discussed in terms of field connectivity in our models. It is demonstrated that the crossing angle of the photospheric transverse magnetic field with the neutral line may not be a reliable indicator of the magnetic shear in the coronal field above, due to the complexity of three-dimensionality. The poorly understood constraint of magnetic-helicity conservation on the availability of magnetic free energy for a flare is briefly discussed.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.     

Development of an -based spectral analysis system for the coded-aperture hard X-ray balloon payload EXITE2

We present the spectral analysis system for the second-generation energetic X-ray imaging telescope experiment (EXITE2) balloon payload. EXITE2 is an imaging hard X-ray telescope using a coded-aperture mask and a NaI/CsI phoswich detector operating in the energy range 20–600 keV. The instrument was flown on a high-altitude scientific balloon from Ft. Sumner, NM on 7–8 May, 1997. We describe the details of the EXITE2 spectral analysis system, with emphasis on those aspects peculiar to coded-aperture instruments. In particular, we have made our analysis compatible with the standard X-ray spectral fitting package by generating a response matrix in the appropriate format including all the effects of a coded-aperture system. The use of , which may be a first for coded-aperture data, permits great flexibility in the fitting of spectral models. The additional effects of our phoswich system, or any other detector-specific considerations, may be easily included as well. We test our spectral analysis using observations of the Crab Nebula, and find that the EXITE2 Crab spectrum is consistent with those recorded by previous instruments operating in this energy range.     

The Origin of Glitches in Pulsars—Phase Oscillation between Anisotropic Superfluid and Normal State of Neutrons in Neutron Stars

Considering neutron star heating by magnetic dipole radiation from 3PF2 super-fluid neutron vortices inside the star, we propose a neutron phase oscillation model between the normal neutron Fermi fluid and the 3PF2 superfluid neutron vortices at the transition temperature of T_(trans) = (2-3)×108 K. With this model we can qualitatively explain most of the observations on pulsar glitches up to date.     

Stokes parameters for thomson scattering in a cold magnetized plasma

The effect of a strong magnetic field on neutron stars or white dwarfs is calculated for Thomson scattering in a fully ionized collisionless plasma. The Stokes parameters for the scattered radiation are computed explicitly in terms of the state of polarization of the incident wave, the electron-cyclotron frequency, the plasma frequency, the angle of incidence, and the angle of scattering. The effects of the plasma are very insensitive to specific values of ( = ₂ ^p /²,_p denotes the electron plasma frequency) so long as 1, whereas the criterion for the magnetic field to substantially affect the Stokes parameters is that the photon frequency be less than the electron-cyclotron frequency. The effects of classical radiation damping and natural line broadening are briefly mentioned.     

Identification and assessment of heavy rainfall–induced disaster potentials in Taipei City

With increasing threat to lives and properties, identifying and assessing disaster potentials has become necessary and prior for effective disaster preparation and rescue planning. This study first introduces practical methods currently used in Taipei City, Taiwan, to identify and assess heavy rainfall–induced potential risks on flood, debris flow, and landslide. The identified disaster potential information is further applied to a series of deterministic and probabilistic risk analyses using Shilin District of Taipei City as a case study. The deterministic risk analyses are conducted to evaluate the impact of various heavy rainfall intensities on the residents. The probabilistic risk analyses are performed to establish risk curves for the population affected by heavy rainfall–induced hazards. The risk curve represents the relationships between the affected population and the annual exceedance probability. This study found the annual exceedance probability is very sensitive to the assumed coefficients of variation of the affected population. It is recommended historical statistical data on the correlation between affected population and rainfall intensity should be recorded and compiled in order to assess the actual probability distribution function of the affected population. Risk analysis results are further applied to assess the community evacuation capacity in this district. Last, short-term and long-term mitigation strategies and recommendations are discussed.     

Determining elastic constants of transversely isotropic rocks using Brazilian test and iterative procedure

The elastic constants of rocks are the basic parameters for rock mechanics, and play a very important role in engineering design. There are many laboratory methods to determine the elastic constants of transversely isotropic rocks, and the Brazilian test is a popular method. This paper presented a method combination of the Brazilian test, back calculation, and iterative procedure to evaluate the five independent elastic constants of transversely isotropic rocks in laboratory. The strain data at the centre of discs were obtained using Brazilian test. The stresses at the centre of discs were computed using numerical programs. By using back calculation, the temporary elastic constants were computed after the stresses and stains were substituted into elastic mechanics equations. After iterative procedure, the convergent values of the elastic constants can be obtained. One numerical example and three experimental cases were proposed to show the applicability of this method. The convergent values of the five independent elastic constants can be obtained in no more than 10 iterative cycles. The results coming from numerical analysis method exhibited satisfactory outcome in accordance with those of generalized reduced gradient method. The merits of this method include convenient specimen preparation of the Brazilian test, simple iterative procedure, and readily available commercially numerical programs, so that this method can be easily popularized in research and engineering analysis. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

西藏朱诺斑岩型Cu-Mo矿床成矿斑岩金红石成因及找矿指示意义

西藏冈底斯成矿带南缘西段新发现的朱诺铜矿床是具有大型规模的斑岩铜钼矿床。金红石是斑岩铜矿床中最典型的副矿物之一,对其成分和结构特征的研究能反演成矿流体演化过程并确定斑岩铜矿的主矿体。在详细的野外地质观察的基础上,对钾化带成矿斑岩(黑云花岗闪长岩)中金红石的研究表明:金红石主要与磁铁矿(Ⅰ类)、赤铁矿共生(Ⅲ类),常形成固溶体分离结构并分布在黑云母裂隙及附近;其次呈板状(长10~80μm,宽3~10μm)、颗粒状(粒径10~40μm)、不规则状独立分布在石英硫化物脉中(Ⅱ类)。Ⅰ类金红石是由钛磁铁矿在富S条件下反应形成的;Ⅲ类金红石由钛铁矿在富氧条件下反应形成的;Ⅱ类金红石是由含Ti的热液结晶沉淀而来的。成矿斑岩全岩中TiO_2的含量为0.66%,为金红石的形成提供了丰富的物源。成矿斑岩金红石中的电子探针分析结果显示,其成分除含有约94%的TiO_2外,还含有V_2O_3,Nb_2O_5,FeO,WO_3,CaO,SiO_2,Al_2O_3,ZrO_2,几乎不含或很少含MgO和MgO。金红石中V_2O_3范围为0.20%~2.39%,平均为0.49%,Nb2O5的含量范围为0.20%~4.63%,平均1.25%,WO_3和FeO的平均含量分别为1.92%和1.81%,且有约0.05%的ZrO_2异常。利用金红石找矿方法开展朱诺矿床外围找矿时,首先必须考虑金红石中V_2O_3的含量(0.2%,Ⅱ类金红石0.5%),在此基础上考虑Nb的含量(0.2%,乙类金红石2.6%),同时考虑W,Fe偏高,Zr异常的特点。对Ⅱ类金红石还需要额外考虑其粒径大于10μm。     

THE SENSITIVITY INFLUENCE OF NUMERICAL MODEL INITIAL VALUES ON FOUR-DIMENSIONAL ASSIMILATION—STUDY BASED ON LORENZ SYSTEM

Numerical experiments of adjoint variational assimilation have been performed using the knownLorenz system.With the increase of sensitivity of model's initial values,it is more and more difficultto use the adjoint method to get the initial values which are consistent with the dynamics of the fore-cast model.Under some circumstances the algorithm completely fails.This shows that four-dimen-sional assimilation is related to the limit of predictability.On the other hand.with the increase ofmodel equation's error,the result of variational assimilation may become worse and worse so that theprediction has no meaning.But if the model parameters are corrected when variational assimilation ismade,the forecast results can be greatly improved based on Lorenz model.