Antibodies to SARS Coronavirus in Civets

Using three different assays, we examined 103 serum samples collected from different civet farms and a market in China in June 2003 and January 2004. While civets on farms were largely free from SARS-CoV infection, ≈80% of the animals from one animal market in Guangzhou contained significant levels of antibody to SARS-CoV, which suggests no widespread infection among civets resident on farms, and the infection of civets in the market might be associated with trading activities under the conditions of overcrowding and mixing of various animal species

A genetic variation map for chicken with 2.8 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms

We describe a genetic variation map for the chicken genome containing 2.8 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms ( SNPs). This map is based on a comparison of the sequences of three domestic chicken breeds ( a broiler, a layer and a Chinese silkie) with that of their wild ancestor, red jungle fowl. Subsequent experiments indicate that at least 90% of the variant sites are true SNPs, and at least 70% are common SNPs that segregate in many domestic breeds. Mean nucleotide diversity is about five SNPs per kilobase for almost every possible comparison between red jungle fowl and domestic lines, between two different domestic lines, and within domestic lines - in contrast to the notion that domestic animals are highly inbred relative to their wild ancestors. In fact, most of the SNPs originated before domestication, and there is little evidence of selective sweeps for adaptive alleles on length scales greater than 100 kilobases

A Theory for the High-T_c Cuprates: Anomalous Normal-State and Spectroscopic Properties, Phase Diagram, and Pairing

A theory of highly correlated layered superconducting materials isapplied for the cuprates. Differently from an independent-electron approximation, their low-energy excitations are approached in terms of auxiliary particles representing combinations of atomic-like electron configurations, where the introduction of a Lagrange Bose field enables treating them as bosons or fermions. The energy spectrum of this field accounts for the tendency of hole-doped cuprates to form stripe-like inhomogeneities. Consequently, it induces a different analytical behavior for auxiliary particles corresponding to "antinodal" and "nodal" electrons, enabling the existence of different pairing temperatures at T^* and T_c. This theory correctly describes the observed phase diagram of the cuprates, including the non-Fermi-liquid to FL crossover in the normal state, the existence of Fermi arcs below T^* and of a "marginal-FL" critical behavior above it. The qualitative anomalous behavior of numerous physical quantities is accounted for, including kink- and waterfall-like spectral features, the drop in the scattering rates below T^* and more radically below T_c, and an effective increase in the density of carriers with T and \omega, reflected in transport, optical and other properties. Also is explained the correspondence between T_c, the resonance-mode energy, and the "nodal gap".Comment: 28 pages, 7 figure

The Genomes of Oryza sativa: A History of Duplications

We report improved whole-genome shotgun sequences for the genomes of indica and japonica rice, both with multimegabase contiguity, or almost 1,000-fold improvement over the drafts of 2002. Tested against a nonredundant collection of 19,079 full-length cDNAs, 97.7% of the genes are aligned, without fragmentation, to the mapped super-scaffolds of one or the other genome. We introduce a gene identification procedure for plants that does not rely on similarity to known genes to remove erroneous predictions resulting from transposable elements. Using the available EST data to adjust for residual errors in the predictions, the estimated gene count is at least 38,000–40,000. Only 2%–3% of the genes are unique to any one subspecies, comparable to the amount of sequence that might still be missing. Despite this lack of variation in gene content, there is enormous variation in the intergenic regions. At least a quarter of the two sequences could not be aligned, and where they could be aligned, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rates varied from as little as 3.0 SNP/kb in the coding regions to 27.6 SNP/kb in the transposable elements. A more inclusive new approach for analyzing duplication history is introduced here. It reveals an ancient whole-genome duplication, a recent segmental duplication on Chromosomes 11 and 12, and massive ongoing individual gene duplications. We find 18 distinct pairs of duplicated segments that cover 65.7% of the genome; 17 of these pairs date back to a common time before the divergence of the grasses. More important, ongoing individual gene duplications provide a never-ending source of raw material for gene genesis and are major contributors to the differences between members of the grass family

The Ms7.0 Lushan earthquake and the activity of the Longmenshan fault zone

The Ms7.0 Lushan earthquake is directly related to the activity of Longmenshan fault zone. In this article, deformation monitoring data in Longmenshan and its surrounding areas were analyzed and the result shows that the activity trend of Longmenshan fault zone depends on the relative motion between Bayan Har Block and Sichuan Basin, and the main power of the movement comes from the Tibetan Plateau and the upper Yangtze craton massif of push. In recent years, the Longmenshan and its surrounding areas is one of the main seismogenic area in mainland China. In this paper, combination with seismogenic area of geological structure and crustal deformation observation data analysis results, the relationship between the earthquake and Longmenshan fault zone activity was discussed, and the key monitoring areas in the next five years were proposed

Automatic Fusion of Hyperspectral Images and Laser Scans Using Feature Points

Automatic fusion of different kinds of image datasets is so intractable with diverse imaging principle. This paper presents a novel method for automatic fusion of two different images: 2D hyperspectral images acquired with a hyperspectral camera and 3D laser scans obtained with a laser scanner, without any other sensor. Only a few corresponding feature points are used, which are automatically extracted from a scene viewed by the two sensors. Extraction method of feature points relies on SURF algorithm and camera model, which can convert a 3D laser scan into a 2D laser image with the intensity of the pixels defined by the attributes in the laser scan. Moreover, Collinearity Equation and Direct Linear Transformation are used to create the initial corresponding relationship of the two images. Adjustment is also used to create corrected values to eliminate errors. The experimental result shows that this method is successfully validated with images collected by a hyperspectral camera and a laser scanner

Toward High Altitude Airship Ground-Based Boresight Calibration of Hyperspectral Pushbroom Imaging Sensors

The complexity of the single linear hyperspectral pushbroom imaging based on a high altitude airship (HAA) without a three-axis stabilized platform is much more than that based on the spaceborne and airborne. Due to the effects of air pressure, temperature and airflow, the large pitch and roll angles tend to appear frequently that create pushbroom images highly characterized with severe geometric distortions. Thus, the in-flight calibration procedure is not appropriate to apply to the single linear pushbroom sensors on HAA having no three-axis stabilized platform. In order to address this problem, a new ground-based boresight calibration method is proposed. Firstly, a coordinate’s transformation model is developed for direct georeferencing (DG) of the linear imaging sensor, and then the linear error equation is derived from it by using the Taylor expansion formula. Secondly, the boresight misalignments are worked out by using iterative least squares method with few ground control points (GCPs) and ground-based side-scanning experiments. The proposed method is demonstrated by three sets of experiments: (i) the stability and reliability of the method is verified through simulation-based experiments; (ii) the boresight calibration is performed using ground-based experiments; and (iii) the validation is done by applying on the orthorectification of the real hyperspectral pushbroom images from a HAA Earth observation payload system developed by our research team—“LanTianHao”. The test results show that the proposed boresight calibration approach significantly improves the quality of georeferencing by reducing the geometric distortions caused by boresight misalignments to the minimum level

Effects of the differences between the ITRF2000 and ITRF2005 models in GNSS data processing

Abstract:In comparison with the ITRF2000 model, the ITRF2005 model represents a significant improvement in solution generation, datum definition and realization. However, these improvements cause a frame difference between the ITRF2000 and ITRF2005 models, which may impact GNSS data processing. To quantify this impact, the differences of the GNSS results obtained using the two models, including station coordinates, baseline length and horizontal velocity field, were analyzed. After transformation, the differences in position were at the millimeter level, and the differences in baseline length were less than 1mm. The differences in the horizontal velocity fields decreased with as the study area was reduced. For a large region, the differences in these value were less than 1mm/a, with a systematic difference of approximately 2 degrees in direction, while for a medium-sized region, the differences in value and direction were not significant