Functional characteristics of the blood of the deep-sea hydrothermal vent brachyuran crab

Hemocyanin in the whole blood of the hydrothermal vent brachyuran crab, Bythograea thermydron, has a moderate oxygen affinity (P(50) = 6.6 millimeters of mercury at 2.6 degrees C; pH 7.5), which unlike that of other hemocyanins is independent of temperature over the range 2 degrees to 30 degrees C; carbon dioxide and pH have independent effects on the oxygen affinity of this pigment. The pH effect on affinity is moderate (Deltalog P(50)/DeltapH = -0.34), whereas increased carbon dioxide, which can act both directly and by changing pH, has a much larger effect (Deltalog P(50)/DeltapH = -0.81). This blood has a moderately high degree of cooperativity (Hill cooperativity coefficient, n, was 2.8) and a large oxygen-carrying capacity for a crustacean (4.5 milliliters of oxygen per 100 milliliters of blood). These properties characterize an oxygen transport system whose function appears to be largely independent of the wide range of environmental conditions encountered around the vents.     

Hemoglobin Kinetics of the Galapagos Rift Vent Tube Worm Riftia pachyptila Jones (Pogonophora; Vestimentifera)

Kinetics of the reactions of Riftia pachyptila hemoglobin with oxygen were followed spectrophotometrically by stopped-flow and laser flash photolysis techniques. The rate of oxygen dissociation increases eightfold over the range of 5 degrees to 20 degrees C (k = 2.2 sec(-1)at 10 degrees C). Oxygen recombination after flash photolysis was biphasic. The rates of both slow and fast phases of the reaction were independent of temperature from 0 degrees to 20 degrees C(k'fast = 7 x 10(6); k'slow = 1 x 16(6) liter mole (-1) sec(-1)). As the oxygen affinity is relatively temperature independent, analysis in terms of the two-state model of cooperativity requires that the conformational equilibrium constant L decrease by about 50-fold between 3 degrees and 15 degrees C.     

Seal lungs collapse during free diving: evidence from arterial nitrogen tensions

Arterial blood nitrogen tensions of free-diving Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddelli) were measured by attaching a microprocessor-controlled blood pump and drawing samples at depth to determine how these marine mammals dive to great depths and ascend rapidly without developing decompression sickness. Forty-seven samples of arterial blood were obtained from four Weddell seals during free dives lasting up to 23 minutes to depths of 230 meters beneath the sea ice of McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. Peak arterial blood nitrogen tensions of between 2000 and 2500 millimeters of mercury were recorded at depths of 40 to 80 meters during descent, indicating that the seal's lung collapses by 25 to 50 meters. Then arterial blood nitrogen tensions slowly decreased to about 1500 millimeters of mercury at the surface. In a single dive, alveolar collapse and redistribution of blood nitrogen allow the seal to avoid nitrogen narcosis and decompression sickness.     

Hypobaric hypoxia: effects on early development of tryptophan oxygenase in neonatal rats

Despite a reduction in liver and body weights of neonatal rats born and reared at a simulated altitude of 5790 meters (oxygen pressure, 76.36 millimeters of mercury), the hepatic enzyme tryptophan oxygenase develops prematurely in these stressed animals as compared to controls reared at sea level. Also, the specific activities remain distinctly elevated through the first 9 days of age; thus, the competence for premature synthesis ot tryptophan oxygenase is confirmed in neonatal rats.     

Isotopic composition of old ground water from lake agassiz: implications for late pleistocene climate

A uniform oxygen isotope value of -25 per mil was obtained from old ground water at depths of 20 to 30 meters in a thick deposit of clay in the southern part of the glacial Lake Agassiz basin. The lake occupied parts of North Dakota and southern Manitoba at the end of the last glacial maximum and received water from the ice margin and the interior plains region of Canada. Ground water from thick late Pleistocene-age clay deposits elsewhere, a till in southern Saskatchewan, and a glaciolacustrine deposit in northern Ontario show the same value at similar depths. These sites are at about 50 degrees N latitude, span a distance of 2000 kilometers, and like the Lake Agassiz sites, have a ground-water velocity of less than a few millimeters per year. The value of -25 per mil is characteristic of meltwater impounded in the southern basin of Lake Agassiz. This value corresponds to an estimated air temperature of -16 degrees C, compared with the modern temperature of 0 degrees C for this area.     

Thermal preference and tolerance of alvinellids

The highest oceanic temperatures are found at hydrothermal vents, where the polychaete Paralvinella sulfincola lives on vent sulfides within steep and dynamic thermal gradients. To determine P. sulfincola thermotolerance and preference, we developed a high-pressure aquarium that mimics in situ thermal gradients and permits P. sulfincola to move within the gradient. These polychaetes were thermotaxic, preferring temperatures of 40 degrees to 50 degrees C. Some individuals remained at 50 degrees C for 7 hours (the duration of the experiment), whereas others endured exposure to 55 degrees C for over 15 minutes, demonstrating that alvinellids prefer high temperatures and are among the most thermotolerant of marine organisms.     

Chemotransduction in the carotid body: K+ current modulated by PO2 in type I chemoreceptor cells

The ionic currents of carotid body type I cells and their possible involvement in the detection of oxygen tension (Po2) in arterial blood are unknown. The electrical properties of these cells were studied with the whole-cell patch clamp technique, and the hypothesis that ionic conductances can be altered by changes in PO2 was tested. The results show that type I cells have voltage-dependent sodium, calcium, and potassium channels. Sodium and calcium currents were unaffected by a decrease in PO2 from 150 to 10 millimeters of mercury, whereas, with the same experimental protocol, potassium currents were reversibly reduced by 25 to 50 percent. The effect of hypoxia was independent of internal adenosine triphosphate and calcium. Thus, ionic conductances, and particularly the O2-sensitive potassium current, play a key role in the transduction mechanism of arterial chemoreceptors.     

Evidence for deep magma injection beneath Lake Tahoe, Nevada-California

A deep earthquake swarm in late 2003 at Lake Tahoe, California (Richter magnitude < 2.2; depth of 29 to 33 kilometers), was coeval with a transient displacement of 6 millimeters horizontally outward from the swarm and 8 millimeters upward measured at global positioning system station Slide Mountain (SLID) 18 kilometers to the northeast. During the first 23 days of the swarm, hypocentral depths migrated at a rate of 2.4 millimeters per second up-dip along a 40-square-kilometer structure striking north 30 degrees west and dipping 50 degrees to the northeast. SLID's transient velocity of 20 millimeters per year implies a lower bound of 200 nanostrains per year (parts per billion per year) on local strain rates, an order of magnitude greater than the 1996 to 2003 regional rate. The geodetic displacement is too large to be explained by the elastic strain from the cumulative seismic moment of the sequence, suggesting an aseismic forcing mechanism. Aspects of the swarm and SLID displacements are consistent with lower-crustal magma injection under Lake Tahoe.     

Thermal Vent Clam (Calyptogena magnifica) Hemoglobin

A heterodont bivalve mollusk Calyptogena magnifica, from the East Pacific Rise and the Galápagos Rift hydrothermal vent areas, contains abundant hemoglobin in circulating erythrocytes. No other known heterodont clam contains a circulating intracellular hemoglobin. The hemoglobin is tetrameric and has a relatively high oxygen affinity, which varies only slightly between 2 degrees and 10 degrees C. The presence of hemoglobin in the clam may facilitate the transport of oxygen to be used in chemoautotrophic hydrogen sulfide metabolism.     

The effect of magmatic activity on hydrothermal venting along the superfast-spreading East pacific rise

A survey of hydrothermal activity along the superfast-spreading (approximately 150 millimeters per year) East Pacific Rise shows that hydrothermal plumes overlay approximately 60 percent of the ridge crest between 13 degrees 50' and 18 degrees 40'S, a plume abundance nearly twice that known from any other rige portion of comparable length. Plumes were most abundant where the axial cross section is inflated and an axial magma chamber is present. Plumes with high ratios of volatile ((3)He, CH(4), and H(2)S) to nonvolatile (Mn and Fe) species marked where hydrothermal circulation has been perturbed by recent magmatic activity. The high proportion of volatile-rich plumes observed implies that such episodes are more frequent here than on slower spreading ridges.     

Hemoglobin as a tracer in hemodynamic pulmonary edema

Stroma-free hemoglobin is an electron-opaque molecule useful as a tracer for the ultrastructural stuty of pulmonary capillary permeability. After this tracer was infused into the isolated pulmonary lobe of the dog, the endothelial junctions of the capillaries, as revealed by electron microscopy, act like distensible pores, thus allowing the tracer to escape when the pulmonary artery pressure was raised above 50 millimeters of mercury.     

Alcohol breath tests: gross errors in current methods of measuring alveolar gas concentrations

Transitory contact of ethanol with the mucous membranes of the mouth or nasal passages, or both, is sufficient to drastically alter measurements of concentrations of ethanol in so-called "alveolar" gas for more than 20 minutes after such contact. Various concentrations of ethanol were taken into the mouth by human subjects and were expectorated. Readings of so-called "blood alcohol" were then taken at short intervals by means of the Breathalyzer(R) and were continued up to 1 hour after exposure. These readings were compared with blood-alcohol concentrations measured by quantitative chemical analysis of venous blood. When true concentrations of blood alcohol were at or close to zero (plus possible error of 0.0001 gram per 100 milliliters), readings of greater than 0.40 gram per 100 milliliters were obtained on the Breathalyzer. Repeated mouth washing and gargling with water, changes in the nature of the solvent, and stomach loading each had only a slight effect in diminishing these errors.     

Monoclinic hydroxyapatite

The existence of a monoclinic phase of hydroxyapatite, Ca(2)(PO(4))(4)OH, has been confirmed, by single-crystal structure analysis (weighted "reliability" factor = 3.9 percent on |F|(2)). The structure has space group P21/b, a = 9.4214(8) angstroms, b = 2a, c = 6.8814(7) angstroms, and gamma = 120 degrees , and is analogous to that of chlorapatite. The distortions from the hexagonal structure with which the monoclinic structure is pseudosymmetric are similar to those in chlorapatite, including enlargement of that triangular array of oxygen atoms in which the chlorine ion or, in hydroxyapatite, the hydroxyl hydrogen ion is approximately centered. The hydroxyapatite specimen was prepared by the conversion of a single crystal of chlorapatite in steam at 1200 degrees C, was mimetically twinned, and was approximately 37 percent monoclinic.     

Breathing gas mixtures different from air: an adaptation for survival under the ice of a facultative air-breathing fish

Gaseous respiration by central mudminnows (Umbra limi), particularly their use of bubbles composed of gas mixtures other than air, may have evolved as an adaptation to the oxygen-depleted, carbon dioxide-rich water of winterkill lakes. Under simulated winterkill conditions, mudminnows frequently engulfed gaseous bubbles. Use of bubbles was not related to varying methane or nitrogen content (0 to 80 percent) when all bubbles contained 20 percent oxygen. When the oxygen content of bubbles varied (0 to 20 percent), fish visited bubbles randomly but remained longer and took fewer "breaths" at bubbles with high oxygen content. High temperature (16 degrees to 34 degrees C) and low pH (6.8 to 4.5) did not stimulate increased air-breathing when dissolved oxygen was sufficient.     

Superconductivity at 40 K in the Oxygen-Defect Perovskites La2-xSrxCuO4-y

Structural, magnetic, and electronic properties of compounds in the series La2-xSrx CuO4-y for 0.05 相似文献   

Survival at extreme altitude: protective effect of increased hemoglobin-oxygen affinity

Decreased hemoglobin-oxygen affinity is thought to be of adaptive value to humans and nonindigenous animals at high altitude. To test this, hemoglobin-oxygen affinity was modified by carbamoylation of hemoglobin in rats. Exposure of control (low oxygen affinity) and experimental (high oxygen affinity) animals to a pressure equivalent to high altitude revealed that increased, rather than decreased, hemoglobin-oxygen affinity will permit survival at greatly reduced environmental oxygen pressures.     

Air lead: relation to lead in blood of black school children deficient in glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase

Forty-four black children at two elementary schools within 0.7 mile of a battery plant had significantly higher (P < .001) concentrations of lead in their bloods (34.1 +/- 9.7, micrograms per 100 milliliters, mean +/- standard deviation) than 122 students (26.3 +/- 7.1) at seven schools 1 to 3 miles distant; 5 months later there was a comparable difference between red cell lead values (54.1 +/- 18.5 versus 37.4 +/- 12.6). Among the blacks, those deficient in glucose-6-phosphate dehydro-genase had a higher (P < .005) concentration of lead in the blood after correction for anemia (32.9 +/- 9.7) than the nondeficient (25.7 +/- 8.8), and a higher concentration in the red cells (47.3 +/- 14.7 as compared to 35.6 +/- 15.8, P < .001); the enzyme effect was independent of geographic location.     

Anemia in domestic cats: effect on hemoglobin components and whole blood oxygenation

Phenylhydrazine-induced anemia in the domestic cat results in an increase in minor, high oxygen affinity hemoglobin B components and an accompanying decrease in the major, low affinity B component. This change is accompanied by an unusually large increase in erythrocytic adenosine triphosphate and 2,3-diphosphoglycerate, a slight decrease in the oxygen affinity of whole blood, and a large decrease in the Hill constant.     

几种植物对土壤金属离子富集能力的研究

[目的]研究吊兰、绿萝和蜈蚣草对土壤中铅、砷、汞和镉的富集能力。[方法]采用吊兰、绿萝和蜈蚣草对铅、砷、汞和镉污染土壤进行富集试验,测定培养不同时间后3种植物叶片中的铅、砷、汞和镉含量。[结果]1 000 mg/kg铅污染基质对吊兰、绿萝和蜈蚣草的生长没有影响,吊兰对铅的富集效果明显强于绿萝和蜈蚣草,40 d后叶中铅含量达到165.3 mg/kg,同时吊兰对于汞也有一定的富集能力;蜈蚣草对砷的富集能力较强,对镉有一定的富集作用,对铅、砷、汞、镉4种重金属污染的耐受能力均很强;吊兰和绿萝对汞有一定的富集作用,但100 mg/kg镉和汞对吊兰和绿萝有较大的植物毒性。[结论]吊兰用于铅污染土壤的生物修复有一定的应用前景。     

改性生物炭对汞污染土壤绿豆生长及汞含量的影响

为了探究改性生物炭对于汞污染地区植株生长的影响,通过盆栽试验研究了施用不同比例改性生物炭对于汞污染土壤绿豆生物量、汞含量、微量元素和酶活性的影响。试验共设4个处理：不施加改性生物炭(CK);施加0.67%土质量的改性生物炭(C-10);施加2.00%土质量的生物炭(C-30);施加3.33%土质量的改性生物炭(C-50)。结果表明：施加改性生物炭后绿豆各器官生物量均有不同程度的增加,其中以C-30处理效果最佳,根、茎、叶、果实的干生物量增幅分别达到7.04%、40.86%、33.33%和52.76%;各器官汞含量显著降低,其中以C-50处理效果最佳,根、茎、叶、果实中的汞含量降幅分别达到74.34%、86.02%、70.66%和84.93%;C-30和C-50处理果实汞含量分别降低了83.56%与84.93%,远低于国标食品中总汞限量标准0.020mg·kg^-1,达到可食用标准;C-30处理较为显著的促进了植株的生长发育,提高了可食用部分的品质与微量元素含量;施加生物炭后叶片酶活性表现出低促高抑的趋势,过氧化物酶(POD)和过氧化氢酶(CAT)的酶活性均在C-30...