Cloning and characterization of two subunits of calcineurin cDNA in naked carp (Gymnocypris przewalskii) from Lake Qinghai, China

The naked carp (Gymnocypris przewalskii), a native teleost, plays an important role in maintenance of the ecological balance in the system of Lake Qinghai (altitude, 3.2 km) on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China. Calcineurin (CN) is the only member of the serine/threonine phosphatase family that can be activated by both Ca2+ and calmodulin (CaM) and involved in many important physiological processes such as salt tolerance/adaption. In this report, cDNAs of CN catalytic subunit paralogue isoforms: GpCAα (GenBank accession no.JQ407043), GpCAγ (GenBank accession no. JQ407043), and CN regulatory subunit (GpCB) (GenBank accession no. JQ410473), were isolated from Gymnocypris przewalskii and their expression patterns in embryos developmentwere characterized. Gene expression profile demonstrated that GpCA and GpCB mRNA was distributed ubiquitously in all embryonic stages and showed decline until final stage of development. Immunohistologicalanalysis revealed CN localization in different tissues including kidney, heart, brain, spermary, and gill. Collectively, these results provide molecular basis and clues to further understand the role of CN during embryos development and its function in tissues for the adaptation mechanism of naked carp

Overview of BioCreative II gene mention recognition.

Nineteen teams presented results for the Gene Mention Task at the BioCreative II Workshop. In this task participants designed systems to identify substrings in sentences corresponding to gene name mentions. A variety of different methods were used and the results varied with a highest achieved F1 score of 0.8721. Here we present brief descriptions of all the methods used and a statistical analysis of the results. We also demonstrate that, by combining the results from all submissions, an F score of 0.9066 is feasible, and furthermore that the best result makes use of the lowest scoring submissions

Challenges in QCD matter physics - The Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment at FAIR

Substantial experimental and theoretical efforts worldwide are devoted to explore the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter. At LHC and top RHIC energies, QCD matter is studied at very high temperatures and nearly vanishing net-baryon densities. There is evidence that a Quark-Gluon-Plasma (QGP) was created at experiments at RHIC and LHC. The transition from the QGP back to the hadron gas is found to be a smooth cross over. For larger net-baryon densities and lower temperatures, it is expected that the QCD phase diagram exhibits a rich structure, such as a first-order phase transition between hadronic and partonic matter which terminates in a critical point, or exotic phases like quarkyonic matter. The discovery of these landmarks would be a breakthrough in our understanding of the strong interaction and is therefore in the focus of various high-energy heavy-ion research programs. The Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment at FAIR will play a unique role in the exploration of the QCD phase diagram in the region of high net-baryon densities, because it is designed to run at unprecedented interaction rates. High-rate operation is the key prerequisite for high-precision measurements of multi-differential observables and of rare diagnostic probes which are sensitive to the dense phase of the nuclear fireball. The goal of the CBM experiment at SIS100 (sqrt(s_NN) = 2.7 - 4.9 GeV) is to discover fundamental properties of QCD matter: the phase structure at large baryon-chemical potentials (mu_B > 500 MeV), effects of chiral symmetry, and the equation-of-state at high density as it is expected to occur in the core of neutron stars. In this article, we review the motivation for and the physics programme of CBM, including activities before the start of data taking in 2022, in the context of the worldwide efforts to explore high-density QCD matter.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures. Published in European Physical Journal

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

A Simple Integrated Geometrical Error Model for Laser Tracer

Geometrical errors of 2D gimbal mount axes are studied for laser tracer for the sake of realizing rapid detection for numerical control equipment. The high precision reference sphere, which serves as the reflection unit and is set on the base, avoids the influence on measurement accuracy caused by the movements of rotatory axes, and ensures that laser tracer owns large tracing angle. The nonlinear coupling relationship between the geometrical errors and the measurement accuracy of laser tracer is analyzed; the integrated geometrical error model of 2D gimbal mount axes and laser interferometry system is established; the error map of the measuring system is brought. The simulation results demonstrate that the measurement error of the laser tracer is certain and unique after the value and direction of all the geometrical errors determined

A Simple Integrated Geometrical Error Model for Laser Tracer

Geometrical errors of 2D gimbal mount axes are studied for laser tracer for the sake of realizing rapid detection for numerical control equipment. The high precision reference sphere, which serves as the reflection unit and is set on the base, avoids the influence on measurement accuracy caused by the movements of rotatory axes, and ensures that laser tracer owns large tracing angle. The nonlinear coupling relationship between the geometrical errors and the measurement accuracy of laser tracer is analyzed; the integrated geometrical error model of 2D gimbal mount axes and laser interferometry system is established; the error map of the measuring system is brought. The simulation results demonstrate that the measurement error of the laser tracer is certain and unique after the value and direction of all the geometrical errors determined

Research on Measurement Accuracy of Laser Tracking System Based on Spherical Mirror with Rotation Errors of Gimbal Mount Axes

This paper presents a novel experimental approach for confirming that spherical mirror of a laser tracking system can reduce the influences of rotation errors of gimbal mount axes on the measurement accuracy. By simplifying the optical system model of laser tracking system based on spherical mirror, we can easily extract the laser ranging measurement error caused by rotation errors of gimbal mount axes with the positions of spherical mirror, biconvex lens, cat’s eye reflector, and measuring beam. The motions of polarization beam splitter and biconvex lens along the optical axis and vertical direction of optical axis are driven by error motions of gimbal mount axes. In order to simplify the experimental process, the motion of biconvex lens is substituted by the motion of spherical mirror according to the principle of relative motion. The laser ranging measurement error caused by the rotation errors of gimbal mount axes could be recorded in the readings of laser interferometer. The experimental results showed that the laser ranging measurement error caused by rotation errors was less than 0.1 μm if radial error motion and axial error motion were within ±10 μm. The experimental method simplified the experimental procedure and the spherical mirror could reduce the influences of rotation errors of gimbal mount axes on the measurement accuracy of the laser tracking system

Optimization Method for Solution Model of Laser Tracker Multilateration Measurement

Multilateration measurement using laser trackers suffers from a cumbersome solution method for high-precision measurements. Errors are induced by the self-calibration routines of the laser tracker software. This paper describes an optimization solution model for laser tracker multilateration measurement, which effectively inhibits the negative effect of this self-calibration, and further, analyzes the accuracy of the singular value decomposition for the described solution model. Experimental verification for the solution model based on laser tracker and coordinate measuring machine (CMM) was performed. The experiment results show that the described optimization model for laser tracker multilateration measurement has good accuracy control, and has potentially broad application in the field of laser tracker spatial localization

Sustainable Treatment and Resource Recovery of Anion Exchange Spent Brine by Pilot-Scale Electrodialysis and Ultrafiltration

The anion exchange (AIX) spent brine, generated during the NDMP-3 resin regeneration process, highly loaded with organic substances mainly humic substances (HSs) and salts (mainly NaCl) remains an environmental concern. In this study, pilot-scale electro dialysis (ED) and ultrafiltration (UF) hybrid technologies were first used to recover NaCl solution as a resin regeneration agent and HSs, which could be utilized as a vital ingredient of organic fertilizer, from the AIX spent brine. Recovered ≈ 15% w/w NaCl solution obtained by two-stage pilot-scale ED can be used to regenerate saturated NDMP-3 anion exchange resins; the regeneration–readsorption performance of NDMP-3 resins was equivalent to that of fresh ≈ 15% w/w NaCl solution. The two-stage dilute solution with low-salt content (0.49% w/w) was further concentrated by pilot-scale UF, so that the HS content in the retentate solution was >30 g/L, which meets the HS content required for water-soluble organic fertilizers. The HS liquid fertilizer could significantly stimulate the growth of green vegetables with no phytotoxicity, mainly due to special properties of HSs. These results demonstrate that ED + UF hybrid technologies can be a promising approach for the sustainable treatment and resource recovery of AIX spent brine

Frequency-Shifted Optical Feedback Measurement Technologies Using a Solid-State Microchip Laser

Since its first application toward displacement measurements in the early-1960s, laser feedback interferometry has become a fast-developing precision measurement modality with many kinds of lasers. By employing the frequency-shifted optical feedback, microchip laser feedback interferometry has been widely researched due to its advantages of high sensitivity, simple structure, and easy alignment. More recently, the laser confocal feedback tomography has been proposed, which combines the high sensitivity of laser frequency-shifted feedback effect and the axial positioning ability of confocal microscopy. In this paper, the principles of a laser frequency-shifted optical feedback interferometer and laser confocal feedback tomography are briefly introduced. Then we describe their applications in various kinds of metrology regarding displacement measurement, vibration measurement, physical quantities measurement, imaging, profilometry, microstructure measurement, and so on. Finally, the existing challenges and promising future directions are discussed