Metallothionein as a biomarker for mercury in tissues of rat fed orally with cinnabar

Cinnabar, as one of the most widely used mineral drugs in traditional Chinese medicines, has been proven to have prominent curative effects in clinical use for more than 2000 years. But the safety and toxicity of the drug has been under constant debate in clinic usage. Metallothionein (MT) contains about 30% of cysteine in the molecule, and plays an important detoxification role against heavy metals. In this study, it was used as a biomarker to assess mercurial accumulation in rats fed orally with cinnabar. After feeding rats with cinnabar by gastric gavage at different dosages and at different times, the distribution of heavy metals (including mercury, copper and zinc) and MT was investigated among rat tissues, including liver, kidney, heart, brain, testis and blood. Metals and MT determinations were carried out using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP‐MS) and a modified mercury saturation assay technique respectively. The results indicated that mercury was easily accumulated in the tissues of rats exposed to cinnabar, especially in kidney. For example: at a feeding dosage of 5 g kg^?1 (bw) for 4 weeks, the mercury concentrations in kidney were 13, 8.7, 21.6 and 26 times those in liver, testis, brain and heart respectively; and at 2.5 g kg^?1 (bw) for 2 weeks, the mercury concentrations in kidney were 21, 2.1, 3 and 21 times those in liver, testis, brain and heart respectively. In addition, mercury in kidney and liver of all cinnabar groups was significantly higher than that of the control group (P < 0.01). A high positive correlation observed between MT concentrations and mercury levels in both liver and kidney (R² = 0.9299, P < 0.02 for liver; R² = 0.9923, P < 0.0008 for kidney) indicated that MT could be used as a biomarker for mercury in tissues. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical analysis of the rotating viscous flow approaching a solid sphere

A numerical simulation is performed to investigate the flow induced by a sphere moving along the axis of a rotating cylindrical container filled with the viscous fluid. Three‐dimensional incompressible Navier–Stokes equations are solved using a finite element method. The objective of this study is to examine the feature of waves generated by the Coriolis force at moderate Rossby numbers and that to what extent the Taylor–Proudman theorem is valid for the viscous rotating flow at small Rossby number and large Reynolds number. Calculations have been undertaken at the Rossby numbers (R_o) of 1 and 0.02 and the Reynolds numbers (R_e) of 200 and 500. When R_o=O(1), inertia waves are exhibited in the rotating flow past a sphere. The effects of the Reynolds number and the ratio of the radius of the sphere and that of the rotating cylinder on the flow structure are examined. When R_o ? 1, as predicted by the Taylor–Proudman theorem for inviscid flow, the so‐called ‘Taylor column’ is also generated in the viscous fluid flow after an evolutionary course of vortical flow structures. The initial evolution and final formation of the ‘Taylor column’ are exhibited. According to the present calculation, it has been verified that major theoretical statement about the rotating flow of the inviscid fluid may still approximately predict the rotating flow structure of the viscous fluid in a certain regime of the Reynolds number. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Shape Hessian for generalized Oseen flow by differentiability of a minimax: A Lagrangian approach

The goal of this paper is to compute the shape Hessian for a generalized Oseen problem with nonhomogeneous Dirichlet boundary condition by the velocity method. The incompressibility will be treated by penalty approach. The structure of the shape gradient and shape Hessian with respect to the shape of the variable domain for a given cost functional are established by an application of the Lagrangian method with function space embedding technique. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Fund of China (No. 10371096) for ZM Gao and YC Ma.     

亚细胞器诱导的2,4,6-三硝基甲苯阴离子自由基的ESR研究

本文在无氧条件下利用ESR分别观察了肝脏和晶状体的微粒体及线粒体酶在NADPH存在下还原三硝基甲苯(TNT)的过程,检测到参数为g=2.0048±0.0005,A_对位~N=1.215mT,A~N=0.800±0.010mT,A~H=0.122±0.0206mT的自由基信号,并通过电子计算机对ESR谱的模拟证明该自由基信号为TNT硝基阴离子自由基,根据其超精细分裂常数认为,其不配对电子的电子云密度主要分布在对位硝基上。     

Syntheses,crystal structures and blue emission of three zinc(II) coordination polymers with a 4,4′‐dicarboxybiphenyl sulfone ligand

Three novel zinc complexes [Zn(dbsf)(H₂O)₂] ( 1 ), [Zn(dbsf)(2,2′‐bpy)(H₂O)]·(i‐C₃H₇OH) ( 2 ) and [Zn(dbsf)(DMF)] ( 3 ) (H₂dbsf = 4,4′‐dicarboxybiphenyl sulfone, 2,2′‐bpy = 2,2′‐bipyridine, i‐C₃H₇OH = iso‐propanol, DMF = N,N‐dimethylformamide) were first obtained and characterized by single crystal X‐ray crystallography. Although the results show that all the complexes 1–3 have one‐dimensional chains formed via coordination bonds, unique three‐dimensional supramolecular structures are formed due to different coordination modes and configuration of the dbsf^2? ligand, hydrogen bonds and π–π interactions. Iso‐propanol molecules are in open channels of 2 while larger empty channels are formed in 3 . As compared with emission band of the free H₂dbsf ligand, emission peaks of the complexes 1–3 are red‐shifted, and they show blue emission, which originates from enlarging conjugation upon coordination. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Momentum transfer from vacuum field to anisotropic electromagnetic media

It is demonstrated that many novel vacuum effects will be caused if an anisotropic electromagnetic environment, which can break the universal symmetry of vacuum, is achieved. It is thus possible for the momentum to be transferred from the vacuum zero-point field to the anisotropic electromagnetic media. In addition to the effect considered by Feigel more recently [A. Feigel, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92 (2004) 020404], there may exist another vacuum-fluctuation contribution to the momentum of a medium. Such an effect has a relativistic origin (resulting from the relativistic transformation of the optical constants), which, however, was not taken into account by Feigel.     

Effect of a low magnetic field on crystallinity and magnetic susceptibility of molecular magnet {NBu4[FeCr(ox)3]}x (NBu4=tetra( n-butyl) ammonium ion; ox=oxalate ion)

Molecular magnet {NBu₄[Fe Cr(ox)₃]}_x (NBu₄⁺=tetra(n-buty1) ammonium ion; ox²⁻=oxalate ion) was synthesized under an applied low magnetic field of 0.3 T in comparison to that synthesized without a field. Their crystallinities, morphologies and magnetic properties were characterized by using the X-ray diffractionmeter, the transmission electron microscope, and a superconducting quantum interference device. It is found that the average size of particles synthesized under the applied field appears larger than that synthesized without a field. Moreover, its crystallinity, morphology and magnetic susceptibility have also been improved. However, its chemical structure and ferromagnetic phase transition temperature T_c do not change. Possible reasons to explain this effect are also discussed.     

红磷增效Al（OH）3／Mg（OH）2阻燃的聚丙烯结晶形态

借助宽角Ｘ－射线衍射、差热分析、偏光显微镜对红磷增效Ａｌ（ＯＨ）ａ和Ｍｇ（ＯＨ）２混合填充的阻燃聚丙烯体系的结晶形态进行了研究。发现这种体系中不仅出现ａ型而且还出现β型聚丙烯晶体。β型晶体可能是由于Ａｌ（ＯＨ）ａ和Ｍｇ（ＯＨ）ａ协同诱发而生成的。