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Showing papers by "Ocean University of China published in 2008"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present the current state of understanding of the air pollution problems in China's mega cities and identify the immediate challenges to understanding and controlling air pollution in these densely populated areas.

2,164 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
16 May 2008-Science
TL;DR: Although ∼10% of the ocean's drawdown of atmospheric anthropogenic carbon dioxide may result from this atmospheric nitrogen fertilization, leading to a decrease in radiative forcing, up to about two-thirds of this amount may be offset by the increase in N2O emissions.
Abstract: Increasing quantities of atmospheric anthropogenic fixed nitrogen entering the open ocean could account for up to about a third of the ocean's external (nonrecycled) nitrogen supply and up to 3% of the annual new marine biological production, 0.3 petagram of carbon per year. This input could account for the production of up to 1.6 teragrams of nitrous oxide (N2O) per year. Although 10% of the ocean's drawdown of atmospheric anthropogenic carbon dioxide may result from this atmospheric nitrogen fertilization, leading to a decrease in radiative forcing, up to about two-thirds of this amount may be offset by the increase in N2O emissions. The effects of increasing atmospheric nitrogen deposition are expected to continue to grow in the future.

951 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The innate immune mechanisms of protection against pathogens, in relation with the installation and composition of the normal endogenous microbiota in fish and its role on health are reviewed.
Abstract: Although fish immunology has progressed in the last few years, the contribution of the normal endogenous microbiota to the overall health status has been so far underestimated. In this context, the establishment of a normal or protective microbiota constitutes a key component to maintain good health, through competitive exclusion mechanisms, and has implications for the development and maturation of the immune system. The normal microbiota influences the innate immune system, which is of vital importance for the disease resistance of fish and is divided into physical barriers, humoral and cellular components. Innate humoral parameters include antimicrobial peptides, lysozyme, complement components, transferrin, pentraxins, lectins, antiproteases and natural antibodies, whereas nonspecific cytotoxic cells and phagocytes (monocytes/macrophages and neutrophils) constitute innate cellular immune effectors. Cytokines are an integral component of the adaptive and innate immune response, particularly IL-1β, interferon, tumor necrosis factor-α, transforming growth factor-β and several chemokines regulate innate immunity. This review covers the innate immune mechanisms of protection against pathogens, in relation with the installation and composition of the normal endogenous microbiota in fish and its role on health. Knowledge of such interaction may offer novel and useful means designing adequate therapeutic strategies for disease prevention and treatment.

598 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, Wang et al. showed that atmospheric heating induced by the rising surface temperatures on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) can enhance East Asian subtropical frontal rainfall, and the mechanism of the linkage was found to be through two distinct Rossby wave trains and the isentropic uplift to the east of the TP.
Abstract: [1] Observational evidence presented here indicates that the surface temperatures on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) have increased by about 1.8°C over the past 50 years. The precipitation pattern that is projected as a result of this warming resembles the leading pattern of precipitation variations in East Asia (EA). Numerical experiments with atmospheric general circulation models show that atmospheric heating induced by the rising TP temperatures can enhance East Asian subtropical frontal rainfall. The mechanism of the linkage is found to be through two distinct Rossby wave trains and the isentropic uplift to the east of the TP, which deform the western Pacific Subtropical High and enhance moisture convergence toward the EA subtropical front. The model calculations suggest that the past changes in TP temperatures and EA summer rainfall may be linked, and that projected future increases in TP temperatures may lead to further enhanced summer frontal rainfall in EA region.

575 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used SHRIMP U-Pb analysis to identify the earliest arc-related magmatic event in the Luliang Complex, which was followed by the intrusion of the Guojiazhuang gneisses at 2375−±-10−Ma and the Chijianling-Guandishan granitoid at 2199−−2173−Ma.

323 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The antioxidant and biochemical properties of enzymatically hydrolyzed silver carp ( Hypophthalmichthys molitrix ) protein were studied in this paper, and the results suggested that the antioxidant activity of silver carp protein hydrolysates were related to its degree of hydrolysis (DH), hydroxyl radical scavenging activity and molecular weight.

317 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
Shuwei Xia1, Meng Qiu1, Liangmin Yu1, Fuguo Liu1, Haizhou Zhao1 
TL;DR: In this paper, the adsorption behavior of the two imidazoline derivatives on Fe surface has been studied using molecular dynamics (MD) method and density functional theory, and the results indicated that the two derivatives could both adsorb on the Fe surface firmly through the IMD ring and heteroatoms, the two inhibitors both have excellent corrosion inhibition performance.

283 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors reported LA-ICP-MS (laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry) and Hf isotopic data for detrital zircons from the North and South Liaohe Groups.

271 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The fluorescence experiments indicated CMs had influenced the structure of membrane, especially the OCMs were speculated to interact with proteins on the cell membrane, which changed the permeability of membrane and caused cellular leakage that correlated with the hydrophobic interaction between CMs and cytoplasmic membrane phospholipids of Gram-negative bacteria.

264 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, general relationship of riverine bicarbonate concentrations and fluxes as a function of drainage basin mineral content and runoff are examined using a database of the 25 largest rivers in the world.

210 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used the existing water discharge and sediment load records (1950s-2005) at the Hankou gauging station, together with water discharge recorded since 1865 at the same station to reconstruct the changes of sediment flux to the sea since the 1860s.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The bacteria in the anaerobic biofilm on rusted carbon steel immersed in natural seawater were characterized by culturing and molecular biology techniques as mentioned in this paper, and the corrosion mechanism of steel was proposed and its environmental significance.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a thermosensitive hydrogel with chitosan and αβ-glycerophosphate (αβ-GP) was used for sustained release of hydrophilic drugs.

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Dec 2008-Lithos
TL;DR: In this article, the authors presented the results of the isotopic compositions of Mesozoic mafic rocks across the Chenzhou-Linwu Fault within the South China Block to constrain the characteristics and evolution of the mesozoic mantle source.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A sulfated polysaccharide from the green alga Monostroma latissimum was extracted in hot water and purified by ion exchange and size-exclusion chromatography as mentioned in this paper.

Journal ArticleDOI
09 Apr 2008-PLOS ONE
TL;DR: This study shows that fish Vg plays an integrative function in regulating immunity via its pleiotropic effects on both recognizing pathogen-associated molecular patterns and promoting macrophage phagocytosis, and supports the notion that factors normally involved in control of female reproduction are associated with immunity in organisms that rely on Vg for oocyte development.
Abstract: Background Vitellogenin (Vg), a major reproductive protein, has been associated with infection-resistant response in fish. However, the underlying mechanisms by which Vg is involved in anti-infectious response are not understood. Methodology/Results By both protein-microbe interaction analysis and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay as well as phagocytosis test, we demonstrate for the first time that fish Vg acts as a pattern recognition molecule with multiple specificities that can recognize bacteria as well as fungus rather than self components from fish, and functions as an opsonin that can enhance macrophage phagocytosis. Conclusions This study shows that fish Vg plays an integrative function in regulating immunity via its pleiotropic effects on both recognizing pathogen-associated molecular patterns and promoting macrophage phagocytosis. It also supports the notion that factors normally involved in control of female reproduction are associated with immunity in organisms that rely on Vg for oocyte development.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The spatial distribution of putative soil-related AOA in certain sampling stations indicated a strong impact of the Changjiang freshwater discharge on the marine benthic microbial ecosystem.
Abstract: Ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) have recently been found to be potentially important in nitrogen cycling in a variety of environments, such as terrestrial soils, wastewater treatment reactors, marine waters and sediments, and especially in estuaries, where high input of anthropogenic nitrogen is often experienced. The sedimentary AOA diversity, community structure and spatial distribution in the Changjiang Estuary and the adjacent East China Sea were studied. Multivariate statistical analysis indicated that the archaeal amoA genotype communities could be clustered according to sampling transects, and the station located in an estuarine mixing zone harboured a distinct AOA community. The distribution of AOA communities correlated significantly with the gradients of surface-water salinity and sediment sorting coefficient. The spatial distribution of putative soil-related AOA in certain sampling stations indicated a strong impact of the Changjiang freshwater discharge on the marine benthic microbial ecosystem. Besides freshwater, nutrients, organic matter and suspended particles, the Changjiang Diluted Water might also contribute to the transport of terrestrial archaea into the seawater and sediments along its flow path.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The classification, molecular structures, and properties of IAPs are described and the mechanisms of apoptosis are discussed and the promising significance of clinical applications of I APs in the diagnosis and treatment of malignancy is discussed.
Abstract: Apoptosis is a physiological cell death process that plays a critical role in development, homeostasis, and immune defense of multicellular animals. Inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs) constitute a family of proteins that possess between one and three baculovirus IAP repeats. Some of them also have a really interesting new gene finger domain, and can prevent cell death by binding and inhibiting active caspases, but are regulated by IAP antagonists. Some evidence also indicates that IAP can modulate the cell cycle and signal transduction. The three main factors, IAPs, IAP antagonists, and caspases, are involved in regulating the progress of apoptosis in many species. Many studies and assumptions have been focused on the anfractuous interactions between these three main factors to explore their real functional model in order to develop potential anticancer drugs. In this review, we describe the classification, molecular structures, and properties of IAPs and discuss the mechanisms of apoptosis. We also discuss the promising significance of clinical applications of IAPs in the diagnosis and treatment of malignancy.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the physical mechanisms for the summertime offshore detachment of the Changjiang Diluted Water (CDW) into the East China Sea using the high-resolution, unstructured-grid, Finite-Volume Coastal Ocean Model (FVCOM).
Abstract: [1] Physical mechanisms for the summertime offshore detachment of the Changjiang Diluted Water (CDW) into the East China Sea are examined using the high-resolution, unstructured-grid, Finite-Volume Coastal Ocean Model (FVCOM). The model results suggest that isolated low salinity water lens detected west of Cheju Island can be formed by (1) a large-scale adjustment of the flow field to the Changjiang discharge and (2) the detachment of anticyclonic eddies as a result of baroclinic instability of the CDW front. Adding the Changjiang discharge intensifies the clockwise vorticity of the subsurface current (originating from the Taiwan Warm Current) flowing along the 50-m isobath and thus drives the low-salinity water in the northern coastal area of the Changjiang mouth offshore over a submerged plateau that extends toward Cheju Island. Given a model horizontal resolution of less than 1.0 km, the CDW front becomes baroclinically unstable and forms a chain of anticyclonic and cyclonic eddies. The offshore detachment of anticyclonic eddies can carry the CDW offshore. This process is enhanced under northward winds as a result of the spatially nonuniform interaction of wind-induced Ekman flow and eddy-generated frontal density currents. Characteristics of the model-predicted eddy field are consistent with previous theoretical studies of baroclinic instability of buoyancy-driven coastal density currents and existing satellite imagery. The plume stability is controlled by the horizontal Ekman number. In the Changjiang, this number is much smaller than the criterion suggested by a theoretical analysis.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Production of binding factors and proteins, exclusion of metals from cells by ion-selective transporters and excretion or compartmentalization have been suggested with regard to reducing heavy metal toxicity, but a comprehensive description on the mechanisms underlining metal toxicity of microalgae and gaining tolerance is yet to be elaborated.
Abstract: The bioaccumulation and toxicity of heavy metals were reviewed with special reference to microalgae, the key component of the food web in aquatic ecosystems. Heavy metals enter algal cells either by means of active transport or by endocytosis through chelating proteins and affect various physiological and biochemical processes of the algae. The toxicity primarily results from their binding to the sulphydryl groups in proteins or disrupting protein structure or displacing essential elements. Metals can break the oxidative balance of the algae, inducing antioxidant enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPX) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX). The amount of oxidized proteins and lipids in the algal cells thus indicates the severity of the stress. Algal tolerance to heavy metal is highly dependent upon the defense response against the probable oxidative damages. Production of binding factors and proteins, exclusion of metals from cells by ion-selective transporters and excretion or compartmentalization have been suggested with regard to reducing heavy metal toxicity. However, a comprehensive description on the mechanisms underlining metal toxicity of microalgae and gaining tolerance is yet to be elaborated.


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the same authors used the same SA-β-gal assay to screen chemically mutagenized zebrafish, each of which was heterozygous for lesions in multiple genes, under the sensitizing conditions of oxidative stress.
Abstract: There is an interesting overlap of function in a wide range of organisms between genes that modulate the stress responses and those that regulate aging phenotypes and, in some cases, lifespan. We have therefore screened mutagenized zebrafish embryos for the altered expression of a stress biomarker, senescence-associated β-galactosidase (SA-β-gal) in our current study. We validated the use of embryonic SA-β-gal production as a screening tool by analyzing a collection of retrovirus-insertional mutants. From a pool of 306 such mutants, we identified 11 candidates that showed higher embryonic SA-β-gal activity, two of which were selected for further study. One of these mutants is null for a homologue of Drosophila spinster, a gene known to regulate lifespan in flies, whereas the other harbors a mutation in a homologue of the human telomeric repeat binding factor 2 (terf2) gene, which plays roles in telomere protection and telomere-length regulation. Although the homozygous spinster and terf2 mutants are embryonic lethal, heterozygous adult fish are viable and show an accelerated appearance of aging symptoms including lipofuscin accumulation, which is another biomarker, and shorter lifespan. We next used the same SA-β-gal assay to screen chemically mutagenized zebrafish, each of which was heterozygous for lesions in multiple genes, under the sensitizing conditions of oxidative stress. We obtained eight additional mutants from this screen that, when bred to homozygosity, showed enhanced SA-β-gal activity even in the absence of stress, and further displayed embryonic neural and muscular degenerative phenotypes. Adult fish that are heterozygous for these mutations also showed the premature expression of aging biomarkers and the accelerated onset of aging phenotypes. Our current strategy of mutant screening for a senescence-associated biomarker in zebrafish embryos may thus prove to be a useful new tool for the genetic dissection of vertebrate stress response and senescence mechanisms.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The results indicate proteolysis strategy opens the road to simple and cheap large-scale production of a safe antimicrobial peptide from marine bivalved molluscs.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, acid-soluble collagen (ASC) was extracted from the skin of walleye pollock ( Theragra chalcogramma) and partially characterized It exhibited a maximum absorbance at 220nm, but little absorbance near to 280nm Amino acid composition and SDS-PAGE suggested that the collagen might be classified as type I collagen Moreover, FTIR investigations showed the existence of helical arrangements of collagen

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Wang et al. as mentioned in this paper reported that floating algae have appeared since mid-June in coastal waters off Qingdao, China, where the Olympic sailing competitions will be held on 9-23 August.
Abstract: Extensive patches of floating algae have appeared since mid-June in coastal waters off Qingdao, China, where the Olympic sailing competitions will be held on 9–23 August. By 27 June, field surveys showed that the patches occupied about 30%, or 15 square kilometers, of the 50-square-kilometer region designated for the competitions, posing potential problems for them, according to reports in local news media. The floating algae, whose spatial extent is the largest ever reported in the literature for the world's oceans (as revealed by satellite estimates indicated below), have attracted wide national and international attention since late June.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is suggested that IGFBP-5 promotes muscle cell differentiation by binding to and switching on the IGF-II auto-regulation loop.
Abstract: IGF-II stimulates both mitogenesis and myogenesis through its binding and activation of the IGF-I receptor (IGF-IR). How this growth factor pathway promotes these two opposite cellular responses is not well understood. We investigate whether local IGF binding protein-5 (IGFBP-5) promotes the myogenic action of IGF-II. IGFBP-5 is induced before the elevation of IGF-II expression during myogenesis. Knockdown of IGFBP-5 impairs myogenesis and suppresses IGF-II gene expression. IGF-II up-regulates its own gene expression via the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. Adding IGF-II or constitutively activating Akt rescues the IGFBP-5 knockdown-caused defects. However, an IGF analogue that binds to the IGF-IR but not IGFBP has only a limited effect. When added with low concentrations of IGF-II, IGFBP-5 restores IGF-II expression and myogenic differentiation, whereas an IGF binding–deficient IGFBP-5 mutant has no effect. These findings suggest that IGFBP-5 promotes muscle cell differentiation by binding to and switching on the IGF-II auto-regulation loop.

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jan 2008-Lithos
TL;DR: The Emeishan continental flood basalt (ECFB) sequence in Dongchuan, SW China comprises a basal tephrite unit overlain by an upper tholeiitic basalt unit as mentioned in this paper.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: High pullulan yield is related to high activities of α-phosphoglucose mutase, UDPG-pyrophosphorylase and glucosyltransferase in A. pullulans Y68 grown on different sugars.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The South China Sea (SCS) is a semi-enclosed marginal sea with deep a basin, where the ocean circulations are driven principally by the Asia-Australia monsoon as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The South China Sea (SCS) is a semi-enclosed marginal sea with deep a basin. The SCS is located at low latitudes, where the ocean circulations are driven principally by the Asia-Australia monsoon. Ocean circulation in the SCS is very complex and plays an important role in both the marine environment and climate variability. Due to the monsoon-mountain interactions the seasonal spatial pattern of the sea surface wind stress curl is very specific. These distinct patterns induce different basin-scale circulation and gyre in summer and winter, respectively. The intensified western boundary currents associated with the cyclonic and anticyclonic gyres in the SCS play important roles in the sea surface temperature variability of the basin. The mesoscale eddies in the SCS are rather active and their formation mechanisms have been described in recent studies. The water exchange through the Luzon Strait and other straits could give rise to the relation between the Pacific and the SCS. This paper reviews the research results mentioned above.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
05 Nov 2008
TL;DR: This work introduces a probabilistic inference model that encodes internal dependencies among different network elements for online diagnosis of an operational sensor network system, capable of additively reasoning root causes based on passively observed symptoms.
Abstract: Network diagnosis, an essential research topic for traditional networking systems, has not received much attention for wireless sensor networks. Existing sensor debugging tools like sympathy or EmStar rely heavily on an add-in protocol that generates and reports a large amount of status information from individual sen-sor nodes, introducing network overhead to a resource constrained and usually traffic sensitive sensor network. We report in this study our initial attempt at providing a light-weight network diag-nosis mechanism for sensor networks. We propose PAD, a prob-abilistic diagnosis approach for inferring the root causes of ab-normal phenomena. PAD employs a packet marking algorithm for efficiently constructing and dynamically maintaining the inference model. Our approach does not incur additional traffic overhead for collecting desired information. Instead, we introduce a prob-abilistic inference model which encodes internal dependencies among different network elements, for online diagnosis of an operational sensor network system. Such a model is capable of additively reasoning root causes based on passively observed symptoms. We implement the PAD design in our sea monitoring sensor network test-bed and validate its effectiveness. We further evaluate the efficiency and scalability of this design through ex-tensive trace-driven simulations.