Schizophrenia: dopamine beta-hydroxylase activity and treatment response

Cerebrospinal fluid levels of dopamine beta-hydroxylase, found to be relatively constant over time in individual patients, were significantly lower in schizophrenic patients who became nonpsychotic during neuroleptic treatment than in those who remained psychotic. Dopamine beta-hydroxylase activity may delineate a subgroup of patients who have a dopamine-sensitive brain disorder.     

PALEOCLIMATE: The Amazon Reveals Its Secrets--Partly

The role of the tropics in global climate change during glacial cycles is hotly debated in paleoclimate cycles today. Records from South America have not provided a clear picture of tropical climate change. In his Perspective, Betancourt highlights the study by Maslin and Burns, who have deduced the outflow of the Amazon over the past 14,000 years. This may serve as a proxy that integrates hydrology over the entire South American tropics, although the record must be interpreted cautiously because factors other than rainfall may contribute to the variability in outflow.     

ECOLOGY: Forest Fire Plan Kindles Debate

Forest fires burning in the western United States have already scorched over 2.5 million hectares this summer. Now a federal proposal to prevent them by paying loggers to cut smaller trees is generating heat among ecologists, who say the approach may not be right for all forests--or all fires.     

CHANGES IN HUMAN TISSUE ELECTROLYTES IN SENESCENCE

Analyses of tissues from people over seventy years old who died from accidents were compared with analyses of tissues from thirty to forty-year-old people who also died from accidents. The old tissues contained more water, chloride, total base, sodium and calcium; and they contained less potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, nitrogen and ash than the younger tissue.     

The vexing problems of vaccine compensation

Debate continues in the United States over the best way to compensate children who are injured by vaccines administered as part of the public health campaign against childhood diseases. Blaming increased liability costs, several drug companies have stopped production of essential vaccines, raising fears of shortages. Proposals that the federal government sponsor a compensation system have met with approval from parents of injured children, medical associations, and drug companies, although these groups disagree over whether victims should retain the right to sue the vaccine manufacturers as an alternative to receiving federal compensation. Legislation has been introduced in both houses of Congress to establish a compensation program, but Administration opposition is expected to the potential expense and the broad range of coverage.     

Intelligence and blood pressure in the aged

Diastolic hypertension was related to significant intellectual loss over a 10-year period among individuals initially examined in their 60's. Such loss was not found in their age peers in association with normal or mild elevations of blood pressure. Of the subjects initially examined at 70 to 79 years of age, none with hypertension completed the follow-up program, and those with normal and mildly elevated blood pressure showed some intellectual decline over the decade. At the initial examination, hypertension was related to lower intelligence test scores only among those subjects who subsequently did not complete the follow-up program. The results suggest that hypertension is related to intellectual changes among the aged.     

ASIAN-AMERICAN SCIENTISTS: Harbinger of a Litigious Future?

When the chair of the pharmacology department at the University of California, Davis, pledged in writing to find a permanent position for microbiologist Ronald Chuang, Chuang and his wife Linda--a researcher who works in his lab--were delighted. A dozen years later, Ronald Chuang still has no permanent position, and he and his wife filed suit in 1997 over what they allege is a long and egregious series of discriminatory acts by the university.     

我校园艺专业不同生源地本科学生成绩差异性分析

对我校232名已毕业大学生的4年学习成绩进行统计分析。结果表明,园艺学院学生学习成绩有呈逐届下降的趋势,且不同生源地的学生学习成绩也呈现一定的差异,其差异主要体现在基础课和专业基础课上。     

做好科研团队首席科学家需要炼就“四个力”*

2000年,国际通行的首席科学家制度在我国基础科学的重点领域全面确立。首席科学家是优秀科技人员的代表,团队首席的确立,对于国家创新体系的发展、国家综合实力和国际竞争力的提高有着重要的战略意义,其作用和地位不可低估。做好科研团队首席科学家,需要炼就强烈的担当力,敏锐的预见力,坚固的凝聚力和出色的学习力。     

西北地区退耕还林工程实施情况调查分析

为了了解退耕还林工程10 a来的实施情况,根据西北地区退耕还林县和调查人员的分布,对西北6省793个退耕还林农户进行问卷调查,并且进行了深入细致的调查研究。结果发现：参照退耕前,退耕后生态环境、农户生态意识和生计都有显著改善,退耕还林政策执行顺利,受到农民的一致赞成,补助问题是农户普遍关注的问题。此外,分析了当前存在退耕补助兑现水平低,公示度和验收力度不够,树种比例要求不现实,政策宣传力度不强,退耕地收成不高,管理粗放,科技含量低等问题,并针对问题提出了政策性建议。图1表1参10     

Effects of cyclosporine immunosuppression in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus of recent onset

Type I diabetes may be an autoimmune disorder, although the evidence is largely circumstantial. The natural history of the disease after diagnosis includes partial remission in most patients, but only about 3 percent achieve transient insulin independence. beta Cell function, as indicated by the plasma concentration of C-peptide, is lost over 6 to 30 months and islet cell antibodies disappeared over 1 to 2 years. This article describes a pilot study in which 41 patients were treated with the immunosuppressive agent cyclosporine for 2 to 12 months. Of 30 patients treated within 6 weeks of diagnosis, 16 became insulin independent with concentrations of plasma C-peptide in the normal range and decreasing titers of islet cell antibodies. Of 11 patients who entered the study 8 to 44 weeks after diagnosis, two achieved this state. These results indicate that a controlled trial of the effects of cyclosporine in type I diabetes should be conducted.     

Research misconduct. Texas scientist admits falsifying results

A University of Texas (UT) immunologist has admitted to federal officials that he falsified research results over at least a 5-year period, leaving a trail of retracted papers and disgruntled collaborators. The scientist, who resigned and has been barred from receiving federal research grants, was found to have repeatedly duped colleagues by spiking test tubes with doses of a radioactive marker that produced positive results, according to detailed reports by UT and federal investigators.     

失地农民生活保障问题研究

随着中国工业化和城市化进程的加快,失地农民的数量日益增长.农民在失地后,生活保障出现问题,给社会稳定和经济发展带来一定的影响.通过对失地农民生活陷入困境的原因以及生活保障中存在的问题的分析,提出了在构建和谐社会中解决失地农民生活保障的2种途径:一是严格征地制度,明确界定公益用地;二是改革土地征用补偿办法,切实维护失地农民的合法权益.     

浅论黑泽明电影的视听语言特点

日本导演黑泽明是世界著名的电影大师,半个世纪以来一直是东方乃至世界电影行业中令人望尘莫及的标志性人物。黑泽明电影中构图的独特性让人为之赞叹,而黑泽明电影中很多人物激烈的情绪对抗,是通过独特的视听语言手法展现的。这使黑泽明的电影体现出悠久的日本民族文化,更产生了一种独特的东方美。     

Life histories, blood revenge, and warfare in a tribal population

Blood revenge is one of the most commonly cited causes of violence and warfare in tribal societies, yet it is largely ignored in recent anthropological theories of primitive warfare. A theory of tribal violence is presented showing how homicide, revenge, kinship obligations, and warfare are linked and why reproductive variables must be included in explanations of tribal violence and warfare. Studies of the Yanomam? Indians of Amazonas during the past 23 years show that 44 percent of males estimated to be 25 or older have participated in the killing of someone, that approximately 30 percent of adult male dealths are due to violence, and that nearly 70 percent of all adults over an estimated 40 years of age have lost a close genetic relative due to violence. Demographic data indicate that men who have killed have more wives and offspring than men who have not killed.     

ANTIFERROMAGNETISM: Taking a Very Close Look at Magnetic Structures

The drive to smaller and smaller computational devices demands control over the structure, composition, and magnetic properties of materials on a sub-100-nanometer scale. In his Perspective, Scholl highlights a report by Heinze et al., who have been able to image an antiferromagnetic Mn monolayer at atomic resolution using a technique called spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy. Because of its unrivaled resolution, this technique is likely to provide insights into magnetic interactions that are of fundamental importance to magnetic devices.     

EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY: New Science Chief Must Juggle Missions and Politics

With calls to tie the European Space Agency (ESA) more closely to the business and security sectors (see sidebar), space scientists hope David Southwood, who will take over next May as ESA's science director, can nurture the agency's research with the skill he showed transforming its earth sciences division. Experts say he's up to the task.     

PLANETARY SCIENCE: Imaging Spat Pits Amateur Against Pros

A long-running dispute over who should get credit for first reporting landmarks on Mercury's uncharted hemisphere burst into public view on 26 May, when a Boston University press release claimed honors for a BU team without mentioning the contributions of an erstwhile collaborator, amateur astronomer Ron Dantowitz. The row, which has left both sides bitter and unwilling to work with each other, "was the opposite of how a collaboration between amateurs and professionals should be," says one of the scientists involved.     

福建沿岸海域主要经济鱼类生物学研究

根据2006年夏季、冬季和2007年春季、秋季在福建沿岸近海作业的底拖网渔业资源调查结果,对其中17种主要经济鱼类的渔业生物学进行了初步分析,并运用体长频率法估算了Von Bertalanffy生长参数、总死亡系数、自然死亡系数、捕捞死亡系数和开发率.结果表明：大部分鱼类已呈现个体小型化.16种鱼的开发率过高,处于超额开发状态,其中,5种为中度超额开发,开发率介于0.7～0.8之间;11种为轻度超额开发,开发率为0.5～0.7.建议加强渔业资源的保护和管理,以利于鱼类资源的恢复和可持续利用.     

Feedback of speech muscle activity during silent reading: rapid extinction

Surface electromyograms of the laryngeal muscles were made while subjects read silently. Those who showed an increase in electrical activity over that at relaxation were provided with auditory feedback of the muscle activity.This treatment resulted in immediate and long-lasting cessation of the subvocalazation. This method should prove valuable in treating some reading problems.