6 research outputs found
Diversity, abundance and niche differentiation of ammonia-oxidizing prokaryotes in mud deposits of the eastern China marginal seas
No full textThe eastern China marginal seas are prominent examples of river-dominated ocean margins, whose most characteristic feature is the existence of isolated mud patches on sandy sediments. Ammonia-oxidizing prokaryotes play a crucial role in the nitrogen cycles of many marine environments, including marginal seas. However, few studies have attempted to address the distribution patterns of ammonia-oxidizing prokaryotes in mud deposits of these seas. The horizontal and vertical community composition and abundance of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB) were investigated in mud deposits of the South Yellow Sea (SYS) and the East China Sea (ECS) by using amoA clone libraries and quantitative PCR. The diversity of AOB was comparable or higher in the mud zone of SYS and lower in ECS when compared with AOA. Vertically, surface sediments had generally higher diversity of AOA and AOB than middle and bottom layers. Diversity of AOA and AOB showed significant correlation with latitude. Nitrosopumilus and Nitrosospira lineages dominated AOA and AOB communities, respectively. Both AOA and AOB assemblages exhibited greater variations across different sites than those among various depths at one site. The abundance of bacterial amoA was generally higher than that of archaeal amoA, and both of them decreased with depth. Niche differentiation, which was affected by dissolved oxygen, salinity, ammonia and silicate (SiO32-), was observed between AOA and AOB and among different groups of them. The spatial distribution of AOA and AOB was significantly correlated with δ15NTN and SiO32-, and nitrate and δ13C, respectively. Both archaeal and bacterial amoA abundance correlated strongly with SiO32-. This study improves our understanding of spatial distribution of AOA and AOB in ecosystems featuring oceanic mud deposits
Identification and phylogenetic analysis of a novel starch synthase in maize
No full textStarch is an important reserve of carbon and energy in plants, providing the majority of calories in the human diet and animal feed. Its synthesis is orchestrated by several key enzymes, and the amount and structure of starch, affecting crop yield and quality, are determined mainly by starch synthase (SS) activity. To date, five SS isoforms, including SSI-IV and Granule Bound Starch Synthase (GBSS) have been identified and their physiological functions have been well characterized. Here, we report the identification of a new SS isoform in maize, designated SSV. By searching sequenced genomes, SSV has been found in all green plants with conserved sequences and gene structures. Our phylogenetic analysis based on 780 base pairs has suggested that SSIV and SSV resulted from a gene duplication event, which may have occurred before the algae formation. An expression profile analysis of SSV in maize has indicated that ZmSSV is mainly transcribed in the kernel and ear leaf during the grain filling stage, which is partly similar to other SS isoforms. Therefore, it is likely that SSV may play an important role in starch biosynthesis. Subsequent analysis of SSV function may facilitate understanding the mechanism of starch granules formation, number and structure
Stigmatic bodies: The corporeal Qiu Miaojin
Get PDFB1 - Research Book ChaptersDeposited with permission of University of Hawaii PressQiu Miaojin (1969–1995) is Taiwan’s best-known lesbian author. In local lesbian (nütongzhi) subcultures, Qiu’s books are frequently cited as classics, particularly her 1994 novel The Crocodile’s Journal (Eyu shouji), the first novel in Taiwan’s modern literary history to be written by an author commonly known to be a lesbian that takes erotic relationships between women as its central theme. Qiu’s fiction is much celebrated, too, in the mainstream literary establishment; The Crocodile’s Journal won the prestigious China Times Honorary Prize for Literature for Qiu posthumously, following her suicide in mid-1995. Qiu’s unique literary style—mingling cerebral, experimental language use, psychological realism, biting social critique through allegory, and a surrealist effect deriving from the use of arrestingly unusual metaphors—is strongly influenced by both European and Japanese literary and cinematic modernisms. Although her fiction has been compared, in its principal subject-matter, to Radclyffe Hall’s 1920s classic of lesbian alienation, The Well of Loneliness, most frequently cited in Qiu’s writings are male modernist and postmodernist ‘masters’ (many of whose work shows a strongly homoerotic aesthetic) including Andre Gide, Jean Genet, Kobo Abe, Yukio Mishima, Haruki Murakami, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Derek Jarman—locally, Qiu’s work has been critiqued for this apparent masculinist bias. Qiu’s early short stories ‘Zero Degree’ (‘Linjiedian,’ 1988) and ‘Platonic Hair’ (‘Bolatu zhi fa,’ 1990), to be discussed in this chapter, appeared in her first collection, The Revelry of Ghosts (Guide kuanghuan) in 1991, following their earlier serialization in local daily newspapers. They are Qiu’s first works to treat thematically homoerotic desire between women
FMRI evidence for the interaction between orthography and phonology in reading Chinese compound words
No full textCompound words make up a major part of modern Chinese vocabulary. Behavioral studies have demonstrated that access to lexical semantics of compound words is driven by the interaction between orthographic and phonological information. However, little is known about the neural underpins of compound word processing. In this fMRI study, we asked participants to perform lexical decision to pseudohomophones, which were constructed by replacing one or both constituents of two-character compound words with orthographically dissimilar homophonic characters. Mixed pseudohomophones, which shared the first constituent with the base words, were more difficult to reject than non-pseudohomophone nonwords. This effect was accompanied by the increased activation of bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), left inferior parietal lobule (IPL), and left angular gyrus. The pure pseudohomophones, which shared no constituent with their base words, were rejected as quickly as nonword controls and did not elicit any significant neural activation. The effective connectivity of a phonological pathway from left IPL to left IFG was enhanced for the mixed pseudohomophones but not for pure pseudohomophones. These findings demonstrated that phonological activation alone, as in the case of the pure pseudohomophones, is not sufficient to drive access to lexical representations of compound words, and that orthographic information interacts with phonology, playing a gating role in the recognition of Chinese compound words
Stochastic Learning in Oxide Binary Synaptic Device for Neuromorphic Computing
No full textHardware implementation of neuromorphic computing is attractive as a computing paradigm beyond the conventional digital computing. In this work, we show that the SET (off-to-on) transition of metal oxide resistance switching memory becomes probabilistic under a weak programming condition. The switching variability of the binary synaptic device implements a stochastic learning rule. Such stochastic SET transition was statistically measured and modeled for a simulation of a winner-take-all network for competitive learning. The simulation illustrates that with such stochastic learning, the orientation classification function of input patterns can be effectively realized. The system performance metrics were compared between the conventional approach using the analog synapse and the approach in this work that employs the binary synapse utilizing the stochastic learning. The feasibility of using binary synapse in the neurormorphic computing may relax the constraints to engineer continuous multilevel intermediate states and widens the material choice for the synaptic device design
ДВИЖЕНИЕ ИЛИ ПОКОЙ: ЧТО ПРЕДПОЧТИТЕЛЬНЕЕ ДЛЯ ПАЦИЕНТОВ С ЮВЕНИЛЬНЫМ ИДИОПАТИЧЕСКИМ АРТРИТОМ?
Get PDFThe paper reviews the literature dealing with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) prognosis, patient physical activity, its role in the development of functional problems that cause limited vital activity and reduced quality of life, as well as the efficiency of physical exercises (exercise therapy (ET)) in the treatment of this disease. It stresses the relationship between physical developmental delay in patients with JIA and the occurrence of psychological and social problems. There are data of publications about the need for physical loads for patients with various rheumatic diseases, as well as for adults. Special attention is paid to the good endurance of ET that is identified by a number of authors as an additional treatment for JIA patients, which improves their functional status, but fails to affect the course and outcome of the disease. The author analyzes survey papers on the multidisciplinary rehabilitation of children, adolescents in particular, and the importance of science-based propaganda of active lifestyle. By having analyzed the literature, the author concludes that it is expedient to include ET into standard treatment for patients with JIA. Представлен обзор литературы, посвященной прогнозу при ювенильном идиопатическом артрите (ЮИА), физической активности пациентов, ее роли в развитии функциональных проблем, вызывающих ограничение жизнедеятельности и снижение качества жизни, а также эффективности физических упражнений (exercise therapy, лечебной физкультуры – ЛФК) в лечении данной патологии. Подчеркивается связь между отставанием в физическом развитии больных ЮИА и возникновением у них психологических и социальных проблем. Приведены данные публикаций о необходимости физических нагрузок для пациентов с различной ревматологической патологией, в том числе и взрослых. Особое внимание уделено хорошей переносимости ЛФК, которую ряд авторов называет дополнительным лечением больных ЮИА, улучшающим функциональное состояние, но не влияющим на течение и исход заболевания. Проанализированы обзорные работы, посвященные мультидисциплинарной проблеме реабилитации детей и, особенно, подростков и важности научно обоснованной пропаганды активного образа жизни. На основании проведенного анализа литературы сделан вывод о целесообразности включения лечебной гимнастики в стандарты лечения больных ЮИА.
