Paradoxical sleep in two species of avian predator (Falconiformes)

Periods of disconjugate. and conjugate eye movements occur during the sleep cycle in Buteo jamaicensis arborealis and Herpetotheres cachinnans chapmanni. Electromyograms are essentially isoelectric throughout sleep. Slow waves appear only in short bursts of low amplitude in contrast to the long trains of high-amplitude waves reported for chickens and pigeons.     

Preparation of high-crystallinity polyethylene at low pressures

The preparation of highly crystalline polyethylene at low pressures is reported. With careful control of the substrate, the melting and crystallization schedule, and the physical state of the specimen (film thickness), it is possible to prepare polyethylene having a density in excess of 0.999 gram per cubic centimeter, a melting temperature of approximately 140 degrees C, and a heat of fusion in excess of 70 calories per gram. The approach appears to be general and should be applicable to a wide variety of polymers.     

The history and stability of atmospheric oxygen

There are three processes weakly concentration-dependent that keep changes in concentration of atmospheric pressure from being a random walk-inhibition of net photosynthesis by oxygen, the passage of hydrogen through the oxidizing part of the atmosphere before it escapes from the earth, and burial of reduced carbon in anaerobic water. A stronger regulator seems desirable but remains to be found. The cause of the initial rise in oxygen concentration presents a serious and unresolved quantitative problem.     

Hyperbaric oxygen: toxicity to fish at pressures present in their swimbladders

When juvenile Pacific rock-fish, Sebastodes miniatus, are exposed to oxygen tensions equal to those in their swimbladders, they exhibit symptoms characteristic of oxygen poisoning in mammals and ultimately die. Thus their central nervous system appears to be as sensitive to elevated oxygen pressure as that of higher vertebrates, whereas the cells of the gas gland tissue inside the swimbladder must be insensitive to the partial pressure of oxygen which they help to produce.     

Gravitational effects on concentrations and partial pressures in solutions: a thermodynamic analysis

Thermodynamic analysis establishes the equilibrium relationships between the concentrations and partial pressures of the components of liquid and gaseous solutions in the presence of a gravitational field. The conditions of equilibrium between a column of gas and gas-saturated water and the conditions of equilibrium governing a model of the distribution of radioactive heat sources in surface rocks are deduced from the theory.     

Primary sulfates in atmospheric sulfates: estimation by oxygen isotope ratio measurements

The relative amounts of primary and secondary sulfates in atmospheric aerosols and precipitation can be estimated from measurements of the stable oxygen isotope ratios. The oxygen-18 content of sulfates formed in power plant stack gases before emission into the atmosphere is significantly higher than that of sulfates formed from sulfur dioxide after emission. Results show that 20 to 30 percent of the sulfates in rain and snow at Argonne, Illinois, are of primary origin.     

Land floras: the major late phanerozoic atmospheric carbon dioxide/oxygen control

Since at least the late Mesozoic, the abundance of terrestrial vegetation has been the major factor in atmospheric carbon dioxideloxygen fluctuations. Of modern ecosystem types occupying more than 1 percent of the earth's surface, productivity/area ratios of terrestrial ecosystems (excepting tundra and alpine meadow, desert scrub, and rock, ice, and sand) exceed those of marine ecosystems and probably have done so for much of late Phanerozoic time. Reduction of terrestrial ecosystems during marine transgression would decrease the world primary productivity, thus increasing the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and decreasing the oxygen concentration. Regression would produce opposite effects.     

Isotope fractionation and atmospheric oxygen: implications for phanerozoic O(2) evolution

Models describing the evolution of the partial pressure of atmospheric oxygen over Phanerozoic time are constrained by the mass balances required between the inputs and outputs of carbon and sulfur to the oceans. This constraint has limited the applicability of proposed negative feedback mechanisms for maintaining levels of atmospheric O(2) at biologically permissable levels. Here we describe a modeling approach that incorporates O(2)-dependent carbon and sulfur isotope fractionation using data obtained from laboratory experiments on carbon-13 discrimination by vascular land plants and marine plankton. The model allows us to calculate a Phanerozoic O(2) history that agrees with independent models and with biological and physical constraints and supports the hypothesis of a high atmospheric O(2) content during the Carboniferous (300 million years ago), a time when insect gigantism was widespread.     

Nicotine: effect on the sleep cycle of the cat

Small doses of nicotine (0.005 to 0.01 milligram per kilogram of body weight) given intravenously to sleeping cats with indwelling brain electrodes produce (i) initial electroen-cephalographic activation which was accompanied by behavioral arousal; (ii) a few minutes later, slow-wave sleep; and (iii) within 15 to 30 minutes, fast-wave sleep. Although peripheral afferent stimulation, release of epinephrine, and arginine vasopressin contribute to the initial arousal effects, the primary action of nicotine appears to be on the central nervous system.     

The Archean sulfur cycle and the early history of atmospheric oxygen

The isotope record of sedimentary sulfides can help resolve the history of oxygen accumulation into the atmosphere. We measured sulfur isotopic fractionation during microbial sulfate reduction up to 88 degrees C and show how sulfate reduction rate influences the preservation of biological fractionations in sediments. The sedimentary sulfur isotope record suggests low concentrations of seawater sulfate and atmospheric oxygen in the early Archean (3.4 to 2.8 billion years ago). The accumulation of oxygen and sulfate began later, in the early Proterozoic (2.5 to 0.54 billion years ago).     

On atmospheric loss of oxygen ions from earth through magnetospheric processes

In Earth's environment, the observed polar outflow rate for O(+) ions, the main source of oxygen above gravitational escape energy, corresponds to the loss of approximately 18% of the present-day atmospheric oxygen over 3 billion years. However, part of this apparent loss can actually be returned to the atmosphere. Examining loss rates of four escape routes with high-altitude spacecraft observations, we show that the total oxygen loss rate inferred from current knowledge is about one order of magnitude smaller than the polar O(+) outflow rate. This disagreement suggests that there may be a substantial return flux from the magnetosphere to the low-latitude ionosphere. Then the net oxygen loss over 3 billion years drops to approximately 2% of the current atmospheric oxygen content.     

Survival of mammals breathing organic liquids equilibrated with oxygen at atmospheric pressure

Because oxygen and carbon dioxide are very soluble in certain silicone oils and fluorocarbon liquids, these liquids will support respiration of mammals. Mice and cats respiring silicone oil die shortly after return to air breathing, while those breathing fluorocarbon survive for weeks. The respiration of mice is optimally supported by these organic liquids at about 20 degrees C. In cats, arterial oxygenation is excellent, but there is some impairment of carbon dioxide elimination. All animals have suffered some pulmonary damage from breathing fluorocarbon liquids. Continued investigation of organic fluid respiration may lead to development of a safe method to support the respiration of man by liquids equilibrated with gases at atmospheric pressure.     

Understanding reactivity at very low temperatures: the reactions of oxygen atoms with alkenes

A remarkable number of reactions between neutral free radicals and neutral molecules have been shown to remain rapid down to temperatures as low as 20 kelvin. The rate coefficients generally increase as the temperature is lowered. We examined the reasons for this temperature dependence through a combined experimental and theoretical study of the reactions of O(3P) atoms with a range of alkenes. The factors that control the rate coefficients were shown to be rather subtle, but excellent agreement was obtained between the experimental results and microcanonical transition state theory calculations based on ab initio representations of the potential energy surfaces describing the interaction between the reactants.     

Sleep: the effect of electroconvulsive shock in cats deprived of REM sleep

Three cats were deprived of rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep for 10 days, and three were deprived for 12 days. All cats received an electrically induced convulsion on each of the last 3 days of deprivation, as well as on the 1st recovery day just prior to sleep onset. As controls, four cats were deprived of REM sleep for 12 days and one was deprived for 10 days; the controls received no convulsions. Compensatory increases in REM sleep during recovery days were present in the convulsed animals, but were substantially lower than the recovery increases of control animals. During recovery REM sleep, convulsed cats did not display the exaggerated bursts of eye movements and body twitches seen in the nonconvulsed controls.     

Mutagenic effect of oxygen on barley seeds

Resting barley seeds stored under oxygen at a pressure of 100 lb/in.(2) for 4 and 6 weeks exhibit a significant number of chromosome aberrations and mutations. The amount of cytogenetic damage increases with length of storage. The frequencies and types of changes are similar to those induced by 500 r to 1000 r of x-rays.     

低氧条件对锈赤扁谷盗卵孵化的抑制作用

研究了在培养箱温度30℃、相对湿度75%条件下,锈赤扁谷盗Cryptolestes ferrugineus(Stephens)卵暴露在低氧环境中的孵化情况。暴露192 h后,5%、6%、7%、8%、10%和21%(V/V)氧气浓度环境中的锈赤扁谷盗卵孵化率分别为0%、0%、7.1%、47.1%、76.7%和89.6%,此结果表明在30℃下低氧条件对锈赤扁谷盗卵的孵化有显著抑制作用,且氧气浓度越低,其抑制作用越强,其中6%及以下低氧浓度环境中锈赤扁谷盗卵无法完成孵化。     

A neural effect of partial visual deprivation in humans

Certain human subjects have considerable sensitivity differences in the visual resolution of vertical gratings as compared to horizontal gratings. Although only subjects with pronounced ocular astigmatism exhibit this effect, the differences are of neural, rather than optical, origin. It is argued that the resolution anisotropies result from early abnormal visual input caused by astigmatism. This abnormal input permanently modifies the brain.     

Mass-independent oxygen isotope fractionation in atmospheric CO as a result of the reaction CO + OH

Atmospheric carbon monoxide (CO) exhibits mass-independent fractionation in the oxygen isotopes. An 17O excess up to 7.5 per mil was observed in summer at high northern latitudes. The major source of this puzzling fractionation in this important trace gas is its dominant atmospheric removal reaction, CO + OH --> CO2 + H, in which the surviving CO gains excess 17O. The occurrence of mass-independent fractionation in the reaction of CO with OH raises fundamental questions about kinetic processes. At the same time the effect is a useful marker for the degree to which CO in the atmosphere has been reacting with OH.