Effects of size and temperature on metabolic rate

We derive a general model, based on principles of biochemical kinetics and allometry, that characterizes the effects of temperature and body mass on metabolic rate. The model fits metabolic rates of microbes, ectotherms, endotherms (including those in hibernation), and plants in temperatures ranging from 0 degrees to 40 degrees C. Mass- and temperature-compensated resting metabolic rates of all organisms are similar: The lowest (for unicellular organisms and plants) is separated from the highest (for endothermic vertebrates) by a factor of about 20. Temperature and body size are primary determinants of biological time and ecological roles.     

Cutaneous water loss in reptiles

Cutaneous and respiratory evaporation were compared in five species of reptiles at 23 degrees C. There seemed to be a clear correlation between water loss and aridity of the animal's habitat, total evaporation from the desert lizard Sauromalus obesus being about 5 percent of that from the crocodilian Caiman sclerops. Cutaneous evaporation was the major avenue of water loss in all animals examined. This is contrary to the common belief that reptilian skin is practically impermeable to water.     

Lead-iron phosphate glass: a stable storage medium for high-level nuclear waste

Results are presented which show that lead-iron phosphate glasses are a promising new waste form for the safe immobilization of both high-level defense and high-level commercial radioactive waste. Relative to the borosilicate nuclear waste glasses that are currently the "reference" waste form for the long-term disposal of nuclear waste, lead-iron phosphate glasses have several distinct advantages: (i) an aqueous corrosion rate that is about 1000 times lower, (ii) a processing temperature that is 100 degrees to 250 degrees C lower, and (iii) a much lower melt viscosity in the temperature range from 800 degrees to 1000 degrees C. Most significantly, the lead-iron phosphate waste form can be processed using a technology similar to that developed for borosilicate nuclear waste glasses.     

Short-lived oxygen diffusion during hot, deep-seated meteoric alteration of anorthosite

Heterogeneous oxygen isotope compositions of plagioclase from the Boehls Butte anorthosite include some of the most oxygen-18-depleted values (to -16 per mil) reported for plagioclase in meta-igneous rocks and indicate high-temperature (T > 500 degrees C) isotopic exchange between plagioclase and nearly pristine meteoric fluid. Retrograde reaction-enhanced permeability assisted influx of meteoric-hydrothermal fluids into the deep-seated anorthosite. Isotopic gradients of about 14 per mil over 600 micrometers in single crystals require short-lived (about 10(4) years) diffusional exchange of oxygen and locally large effective water:rock ratios, followed by rapid loss of water and cessation of oxygen diffusion in the anorthosite.     

双孢菇对壳聚糖保鲜剂的响应及其保鲜技术优化

以3种不同分子质量的壳聚糖为主要原料,以新采收的双孢菇为试验材料,研究了无毒无残留无公害绿色双孢菇保鲜方法.通过测定不同处理的双孢菇的失水率、硬度、腐烂度、开伞率和褐变度的变化,对其保鲜技术进行了优化.探讨了壳聚糖保鲜剂在双孢菇贮藏过程中所起的生理生化作用.结果表明,在贮藏过程中,经壳聚糖处理的双孢菇,其失水率、硬度、腐烂度、开伞率和褐变度均显著低于对照;子实体可溶性蛋白、总糖、还原糖的均含量明显高于对照;还原糖、MDA的含量、相对电导率均低于对照;SOD和CAT的活性明显高于对照;壳聚糖能维持细胞膜的完整性,避免了PPO与酚类物质的接触,从而抑制了双孢菇的褐变发生     

Geographic control of Titan's mid-latitude clouds

Observations of Titan's mid-latitude clouds from the W. M. Keck and Gemini Observatories show that they cluster near 350 degrees W longitude, 40 degrees S latitude. These clouds cannot be explained by a seasonal shift in global circulation and thus presumably reflect a mechanism on Titan such as geysering or cryovolcanism in this region. The rate of volatile release necessary to trigger cloud formation could easily supply enough methane to balance the loss to photolysis in the upper atmosphere.     

Peripheral thermoregulation: foot temperature in two Arctic canines

Arctic foxes and gray wolves maintain their foot temperature just above the tissue freezing point (about -1 degrees C)when standing on extremely cold snow, or when the foot is immersed in a -35 degrees C bath in the laboratory. Proportional thermoregulation stabilized the subcutaneous temperature of the foot pad to a precision of +/- 0.7 degrees C (largest deviations). Selective shunting of blood-borne body heat through a cutaneous vascular plexus in the foot pad accounted for more than 99 percent of measured heat loss from the pad surface. Maximum energetic efficiency is achieved because the unit of heat exchange is located in the pad surface which contacts the cold substrate rather than throughout the pad.     

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.     

Thermoluminescence of lunar samples

Appreciable natural thermoluminescence with glow curve peaks at about 350 degrees centigrade for lunar fines and breccias and above 400 degrees centigrade for crystalline rocks has been recognized in lunar samples. Plagioclase has been identified as the principal carrier of thermoluminescence, and the diference in peak temperatures indicates compositional or structural differences between the feldspars of the different rock types. The present thermoluminescence in the lunar samples is probably the result of a dynamic equilibrium between acquisition from radiation and loss in the lunar thermal environment. A progressive change in the glow curves of core samples with depth below the surface suggests the use of thermoluminescence disequilibrium to detect surfaces buried by recent surface activity, and it also indicates that the lunar diurnal temperature variation penetrates to at least 10.5 centimeters.     

Atmospheric carbon dioxide: its role in maintaining phytoplankton standing crops

The rate of invasion of carbon dioxide into an artificially eutrophic Canadian Shield lake with insufficient internal sources of carbon was determined by two methods: measuring the carbon : nitrogen : phosphorus ratios of seston after weekly additions of nitrogen and phosphorus, and measuring the loss of radon-222 tracer from the epilimnion. Both methods gave an invasion rate of about 0.2 gram of carbon per square meter per day. The results demonstrate that invasion of atmospheric carbon dioxide may be sufficient to permit eutrophication of any body of water receiving an adequate supply of phosphorus and nitrogen.     

Magnetic Anomalies over the Mid-Atlantic Ridge near 27{degrees}N

Ten magnetic profiles across the mid-Atlantic ridge near 27 degrees N show trends that are parallel to the ridge axis and symmetrical about the ridge axis. The configuration of magnetic bodies that could account for the pattern supports the Vine and Matthews hypothesis for the origin of magnetic anomalies over oceanic ridges. A polarity-reversal time scale inferred from models for sea-floor spreading in the Pacific-Antarctic ridge and radiometrically dated reversals of the geomagnetic field indicates a spreading rate of 1.25 centimeters per year during the last 6 million years and a rate of 1.65 centimeters per year between 6 and 10 million years ago. A similar analysis of more limited data over the mid-Atlantic ridge near 22 degrees N also indicates a change in the spreading rate. Here a rate of 1.4 centimeters per year appears to have been in effect during the last 5 million years; between 5 and 9 million years ago, an increased rate of 1.7 centimeters per year is indicated. The time of occurrence and relative magnitude of these changes in the spreading rate, about 5 to 6 million years ago and 18 to 27 percent, respectively, accords with the spreading rate change implied for the Juan de Fuca ridge in the northeast Pacific.     

Isolation of two seven-membered ring C58 fullerene derivatives: C58F17CF3 and C58F18

Fluorination of C60 at 550 degrees C leads to milligram quantities of two stable fullerene derivatives with 58-carbon cage structures: C58F18 and C58F17CF3. The compounds were characterized by mass spectrometry and fluorine nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and the data support a heptagonal ring in the framework. The resulting strain, which has hindered past attempts to prepare these smaller quasi-fullerenes, is mitigated here by hybridization change of some of the carbons in the pentagons from sp2 to sp3 because of fluorine addition. The loss of carbon from C60 is believed to occur via sequential fluorine addition to a CC single bond and an adjacent CC bond, followed by loss of a:CF2 carbene.     

不同含水率速生杨木DMA图谱分析及应用

采用动态热机械分析仪对绝干、6％、12％、18％、30％、50％、100％和水饱和8种含水率速生杨木试件进行了动态黏弹性分析.动态力学分析参数为:温度扫描范围35～ 350℃,升温速度5℃·min-1,测量频率10Hz.储能模量的变化表明:各含水率试件在整个扫描温度范围内均出现2个明显的弹性转变过程,完成次级弹性转变的...     

不同的干制方法对木瓜维生素C含量的影响

[目的]了解不同干制方法对木瓜中维生素C含量的影响。[方法]试验采用不同的干制方法对木瓜进行干燥处理,分别为单一热风干燥、单一真空干燥、热风与冷冻组合干燥、真空与冷冻组合干燥,并采用2,6-二氯酚靛酚滴定法定量测定木瓜维生素C含量。[结果]试验表明,干燥后的木瓜提取液中维生素C含量均低于新鲜木瓜,单一热风干燥处理的木瓜维生素C损失最为严重,损失率可达85%以上,低温真空干燥能较好地减少维生素C的损失,损失率在20%左右,其中以真空冷冻组合干燥的木瓜维生素C损失最少,维生素C含量为449.2 mg/kg,损失率为4.66%。[结论]采用真空冷冻组合干燥木瓜,维生素C损失率低,具有工业化应用价值和前景。     

48,000 years of climate and forest change in a biodiversity hot spot

A continuous 48,000-year-long paleoecological record from Neotropical lower montane forest reveals a consistent forest presence and an ice-age cooling of approximately 5 degrees to 9 degrees C. After 30,000 years of compositional stability, a steady turnover of species marks the 8000-year-long transition from ice-age to Holocene conditions. Although the changes were directional, the rates of community change were no different during this transitional period than in the preceding 30,000-year period of community stability. The warming rate of about 1 degrees C per millennium during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition was an order of magnitude less than the projected changes for the 21st century.     

Liquid water in frozen tissue: study by nuclear magnetic resonance

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy was used to examine the behavior and extent of liquid water in postrigor-frozen tissue of cod at temperatures below 0 degrees C. A liquid-water phase persists in the tissue down to about -70 degrees C; the extent of the phase decreases rapidly between 0 degrees and -10 degrees C and slowly at lower temperatures. That the NMR absorption peak of the liquid water increases in width, with decreasing temperature, suggests loss of mobility or structuring of the phase. A technique for introducing geometrically uniform cores of muscle into the probe of the high-resolution spectrometer permits quantitative determinations of liquid water.     

Stibnite (Sb2S3) Solubility in Sodium Sulfide Solutions

The solubility of stibnite ( Sb(2)S(3)) was measured at 25 degrees C and 1 atmosphere in solutions ranging from 0.45 to 7.16 percent Na(2)S by weight. Sb(2)S(3): Na(2)S mole ratios of saturated solutions range from 0.238 to 0.403. Stibnite solubility increases at an increasing rate with rising Na(2)S concentration. The reaction that best fits the experimental data is 2Sb(2)S(3) + HS- + OH-= Sb(4)S(7)(2-) + H(2)O, for which an equilibrium constant was estimated to be about 5.0.     

The polar ionosphere of venus near the terminator from early pioneer venus orbiter radio occultations

Fourteen profiles of electron density in the ionosphere of Venus were obtainecd by the dual-frequency radio occulation method with the Pioneer Venus orbiter between 5 and 30 December 1978. The solar zenith angles for these measurements were between about 85 degrees and 92 degrees , and the latitudes ranged from about 81 degrees to 88 degrees (ecliptic north). In addition to the expected decreasein peak electron density from about 1.5 x 10(3) to 0.5 x 10(3) per cubic centimeter with increasing solar zenith angle, a region of almost constant electron density above about 250 kilometers was observed. The ionopause height varies from about 300 to 700 kilometers and seems to be influenced by diurnal changes in solar wind conditions. The structures of the profiles are consistent with models in which O(2)(+) dominates near the ionization peak and is replaced by O(+) at higher altitudes.     

K326上部叶烘烤过程失水干燥特性研究

[目的]研究K326上部叶烘烤过程失水干燥特性,为烘烤工艺优化提供理论依据.[方法]以K326上部叶为试验材料,分析烘烤过程中烟叶失水特性、形态变化特性及两者间的相关性.[结果]烘烤过程中,烟叶各部分失水程度表现为叶片>全叶>主脉,叶片失水质量占全叶失水质量比例呈先减小后略有增大再减小的变化趋势,主脉失水质量占全叶失水质量比例呈先增大后略有减小再增大的变化趋势;叶面积收缩率和主脉周长收缩率均随烘烤温度的升高呈逐渐增大趋势;全叶失水程度和主脉失水程度均与主脉周长收缩率呈显著线性正相关(R2>0.9500,下同),叶片失水程度与叶面积收缩率呈显著线性正相关.[结论]烘烤过程中K326上部叶各部分失水特性及形态变化特性不同,可通过主脉形态变化判断密集烘烤过程中烟叶失水程度,进而为烘烤工艺烟叶状态参数优化提供理论参考.     

“神索”葡萄体细胞胚干化保存的研究

以酿酒葡萄品种"神索"的体细胞胚为试验材料,研究了干化对体细胞胚的保存效应.结果表明:葡萄体细胞胚失水量与萌发率有关,失水量在40%~50%之间萌发率较高,达58%左右,较未经干化的胚状体萌发率高9.4%;在较高相对湿度下,体胚失水速度变慢,延长了干化处理时间,提高了体细胞胚的存活率和萌发率;相对湿度为70%,体细胞胚干化15 d效果最好,胚状体萌发率可由未经干化处理的33.5%提高到经干化处理15 d的56.2%.