The coevolution theory of the origin of the genetic code

A review of the coevolution theory of the origin of the genetic code is presented. This theory maintains that the origin of the code should be sought in the biosynthetic relationships between amino acids. In particular, some amino acids, the precursors, occupied the structure of the genetic code early on. As the product amino acids developed from these precursors, part or all of the codon domain of the precursor amino acid was ceded to the product amino acids, which resulted in the structuring of the genetic code. This paper therefore reviews the evidence in favour of this theory. The existence of some molecular fossils representing the biosynthetic pathways on which the coevolution theory suggests biosynthetic transformations took place (precursor amino acid → product amino acid) seems to be a strong corroboration of this theory. A generalisation imposed by this theory on the ancestral metabolic state is then discussed and, finally, the main prospects that seem to stem from the coevolution theory are presented.     

浙江分布的中国种子植物特有属研究

浙江分布的中国种子植物特有属有49 属, 含63 种, 隶属于30 科, 其中有3 属为浙江特有属;在49 属 中, 单种属29 个, 少种属10 个, 多种属10 个;特有属的特征概括为:单种特有属的比例大, 木本属占优势、 具有相对的原始或古老性和珍稀濒危性以及具有明显的温带性质;浙西北山区, 特别是西天目山是中国 特有属在浙江的分布中心;浙江与全国各省区的共有属的关系为华东(46 属)>华中(36 属)>华南(32) >西北(16 属), 而与东北和华北两地的关系很少有联系;浙江与毗邻省份的特有属相似性分析, 其与江西 和安徽的关系比与福建和江苏更为密切.     

A new method to determine the projected coordinate origin of a cone-beam CT system using elliptical projection

In order to determine the projected coordinate origin in the cone-beam CT scanning system with respect to the Feldkamp-Davis-Kress(FDK)algorithm,we propose a simple yet feasible method to accurately measure the projected coordinate origin.This method was established on the basis of the theory that the projection of a spherical object in the cone-beam field is an ellipse.We first utilized image processing and the least square estimation method to get each major axis of the elliptical Digital Radiography(DR)projections of a group of spherical objects.Then we determined the intersection point of the group of major axis by solving an over-determined equation set that was composed by the major axis equations of all the elliptical projections.Based on the experimental results,this new method was proved to be easy to implement in practical scanning systems with high accuracy and anti-noise capability.     

New Electroweak Formulation Fundamentally Accounting for the Effect Known as “Maximal Parity-Violation”

The electroweak scheme is wholly recast, in the framework of a relativistic quantum field formalism being a covariant fermion–antifermion extension of the usual one for massive spin- point fermions. The new formalism is able to reread the “maximal P-violation” effect in a way restoring P and C symmetries themselves: it provides a natural “chiral field” approach, which gives evidence of the existence of a pseudoscalar (extra) charge variety anticommuting with the scalar (ordinary) one and just underlying the “maximally P-violating” phenomenology. Its zero-mass limit leads to a strict “chiral” particle theory, which remodels any massless spin- fermion and corresponding antifermion as two mere pseudoscalar-charge eigenstates being the simple mirror images of each other. On such a basis, the (zero-mass) electroweak primary fermions are all redefined to be (only left-handed) “chiral” particles (with right-handed complements just standing for their antiparticles) and to carry at most scalar charges subjected as yet to a maximal uncertainty in sign: it is only by acquiring mass, and by gaining an extra helicity freedom degree, that they now may also manifest themselves as “Dirac” particles, with sharp scalar-charge eigenvalues. The fermion-mass appearance is thus made herein a dynamical condition strictly necessary to obtain actual superselected scalar-charge (and first, electric-charge) eigenstates. A pure “internal” mass-generating mechanism, relying only on would-be-Goldstone bosons (even to yield fermion masses) and no longer including an “external” Higgs contribution, is adopted accordingly. This is shown to be a self-consistent mechanism, which still maintains both renormalizability and unitarity. It involves a P-breaking in the neutral-weak-current sector (due to the Weinberg mixing) while it leaves the charged-current couplings truly P-invariant even in the presence of a (standardly parametrized) CP-violation.     

Neutron- and muon-induced background in underground physics experiments

Background induced by neutrons in deep underground laboratories is a critical issue for all experiments looking for rare events, such as dark matter interactions or neutrinoless ββ decay. Neutrons can be produced either by natural radioactivity, via spontaneous fission or (α, n) reactions, or by interactions initiated by high-energy cosmic rays. In all underground experiments, Monte Carlo simulations of neutron background play a crucial role for the evaluation of the total background rate and for the optimization of rejection strategies. The Monte Carlo methods that are commonly employed to evaluate neutron-induced background and to optimize the experimental setup, are reviewed and discussed. Focus is given to the issue of reliability of Monte Carlo background estimates. We dedicate this work to the memory of our friend and colleague Nicola Ferrari, who prematurely passed away in July 2006.     

Geographical traceability of wheat and its products using multielement light stable isotopes coupled with chemometrics

The present study was aimed to investigate the variation of stable isotopic ratios of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen in wheat kernel along with different processed fractions from three geographical origins across 5 years using isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS). Multiway ANOVA revealed significant differences among region, harvest year, processing, and their interactions for all isotopes. The region contributed the major variability in the δ¹³C ‰, δ²H ‰, δ¹⁵N ‰, and δ¹⁸O‰ values of wheat. Variation of δ¹³C ‰, δ¹⁵N ‰, and δ¹⁸O ‰ between wheat whole kernel and its products (break, reduction, noodles, and cooked noodles) were ?0.7‰, and no significant difference was observed, suggesting the reliability of these isotope fingerprints in geographical traceability of wheat‐processed fractions and foods. A significant influence of wheat processing was observed for δ²H values. By applying linear discriminant analysis (LDA) to the whole dataset, the generated model correctly classified over 91% of the samples according to the geographical origin. The application of these parameters will assist in the development of an analytical control procedure that can be utilized to control the mislabeling regarding geographical origin of wheat kernel and its products.     

Sequencing and characterisation of complete mitogenome DNA for Rasbora sarawakensis (Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae: Rasbora) with phylogenetic consideration

The Blueline Rasbora (Rasbora sarawakensis) is a small ray-finned fish categorized under the genus Rasbora in the Cyprinidae family. In this study, the complete mitogenome sequence of R. sarawakensis was sequenced using four primers targeting overlapping regions. The mitogenome is 16,709 bp in size, accommodating 22 transfer RNA genes, 13 protein-coding genes, two ribosomal RNA genes and a putative control region. Identical gene organisation was detected between this species and other genus counterparts. The heavy strand houses 28 genes while the light strand stores the other nine genes. Most protein-coding genes employ ATG as start codon, excluding COI gene, which utilizes GTG instead. The central conserved sequence blocks (CSB-F, CSB-E and CSB-D), variable sequence blocks (CSB-3, CSB-2 and CSB-1) as well as the terminal associated sequence (TAS) are conserved in the control region. The maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree revealed the divergence of R. sarawakensis from the basal region of the Rasbora clade, where its evolutionary relationships with R. maculatus and R. pauciperforata are poorly resolved as indicated by the low bootstrap values. This work acts as steppingstone towards further molecular evolution and population genetics studies of Rasbora genus in future.     

Test sets of integer programs

This article is a survey about recent developments in the area of test sets of families of linear integer programs. Test sets are finite subsets of the integer lattice that allow to improve any given feasible non-optimal point of an integer program by one element in the set. There are various possible ways of defining test sets depending on the view that one takes: theGraver test set is naturally derived from a study of the integral vectors in cones; theScarf test set (neighbors of the origin) is strongly connected to the study of lattice point free convex bodies; the so-calledreduced Gröbner basis of an integer program is obtained from a study of generators of polynomial ideals. This explains why the study of test sets connects various branches of mathematics. We introduce in this paper these three kinds of test sets and discuss relations between them. We also illustrate on various examples such as the minimum cost flow problem, the knapsack problem and the matroid optimization problem how these test sets may be interpreted combinatorially. From the viewpoint of integer programming a major interest in test sets is their relation to the augmentation problem. This is discussed here in detail. In particular, we derive a complexity result of the augmentation problem, we discuss an algorithm for solving the augmentation problem by computing the Graver test set and show that, in the special case of an integer knapsack problem with 3 coefficients, the augmentation problem can be solved in polynomial time.Supported by a Gerhard-Hess-Forschungsförderpreis of the German Science Foundation (DFG).