十溴联苯醚(BDE209)在虹鳟体内的羟基代谢产物及其对甲状腺激素水平影响的初步研究

十溴联苯醚(Decabromodiphenyl ether,BDE209)被认为是可疑甲状腺素(TH)干扰物,但干扰机制目前尚不清楚.采用单次腹腔注射的暴露方式,考察了在28d的实验周期内,不同浓度组的十溴联苯醚在虹鳟(Oncorhynchus mykiss)体内的羟基化代谢产物浓度与甲状腺激素(T3和T4)水平.结果表明:十溴联苯醚在虹鳟的肝脏和血液中均可代谢为低溴代羟基多溴联苯醚,且羟基代谢产物在整个实验周期中浓度不断累积;与此同时,血浆中T3和T4浓度均出现下降趋势.进一步的统计分析结果表明,羟基代谢产物与T3和T4浓度水平分别呈显著的负线性相关关系,这说明血浆中的甲状腺激素水平下降可能是由羟基化产物所引起的.     

Asian Americans and workplace discrimination: The interplay between sex of evaluators and the perception of social skills

In two role‐playing scenarios, we investigate how White male and female evaluators perceive an Asian American versus White job candidate on the dimensions of competence and social skills and how these perceptions affect evaluators' decisions in hiring and promotion. Specifically, Study 1 examines how the perceptions of competence and social skills affect Asian (versus White) college graduates' chance of obtaining a non‐technical (versus technical) position, and Study 2 tests how these perceptions affect Asians' probability of promotion relative to Whites'. Our findings suggest that female evaluators were less likely to select Asian than White candidates into positions involving social skills and were less likely to promote Asian than White candidates into these types of positions. Furthermore, female evaluators' perception that Asians were less socially skilled than Whites mediated both of these decisions. This paper contributes to the understanding of workplace discrimination of Asian Americans. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

植物激素对平菇菌丝生长及酶活性的影响

采用固体平板和液体摇瓶培养方法,研究了赤霉素、2,4-D、吲哚乙酸和萘乙酸4种激素对平菇-126菌丝生长及酶活性的影响。结果表明,吲哚乙酸虽然能提高发酵液胞外蛋白的含量和过氧化物酶活性,但对菌丝的生长起抑制作用,这与吲哚乙酸能引起平菇菌丝裂解和细胞膜渗漏有关;萘乙酸、低浓度2,4-D能促进菌丝的伸长;萘乙酸、赤霉素在低浓度下也能促进菌丝的分枝,对菌丝的生长整体上起促进作用。除吲哚乙酸外,其他3种激素对平菇菌丝生长影响都有两重性：低浓度下能促进菌丝的生长,浓度过高则会对菌丝生长产生毒害作用。     

Monitoring perchlorate exposure and thyroid hormone status among raccoons inhabiting a perchlorate-contaminated site

Perchlorate is a water soluble anion that is readily accumulated in vegetation. It inhibits uptake of iodide into thyroid gland tissue, thereby reducing production of thyroid hormones. Potential raccoon food items including berries, fish, and vegetation collected at a contaminated site contained quantifiable concentrations of perchlorate as determined by ion chromatography. Therefore, we monitored resident raccoons for exposure to perchlorate by examining plasma perchlorate and thyroid hormone concentrations. Resulting analytical data failed to demonstrate perchlorate exposure among raccoons that likely consumed food items collected along perchlorate-contaminated water bodies. There were no correlations between triiodothyronine or thyroxine and thyroid stimulating hormone concentrations, but triiodothyronine concentrations in raccoon plasma were significantly higher in 2000 than in 2001 (p = 0.0081). These data suggest that natural attenuation and remedial efforts initiated in January of 2001 may have reduced perchlorate exposure among raccoons inhabiting this site from 2000 to 2001. Temporal, spatial, and analytical factors limited our ability to quantify exposure among raccoons, however, our data do not indicate that raccoons currently inhabiting this site are at risk for significant exposure to perchlorate and subsequent effects.     

Sex pheromone of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Ectinus aterrimus</Emphasis> (L<Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">inné</Emphasis>, 1761) (Coleoptera: Elateridae)

Summary.   Ectinus aterrimus (L.) is a fairly common European click beetle species which develops mainly in forests. In pheromone gland extracts of female E. aterrimus, examined using gas chromatography – mass spectrometry (GC-MS), one single compound was present. This was identified as 7-methyloctyl 9-methyldecanoate by comparison with a synthetic sample. Field trapping trials revealed a highly significant attraction of male E. aterrimus towards this ester. The structure of the compound differs remarkably from the pheromones of the closely related Agriotes spp., which exclusively use terpene esters.     

Insights from complete-incomplete brood sex-ratio disparity

An assertion deeply rooted in the ornithological literature holds that sex-specific mortality causes a sex ratio disparity (SRD) between complete and incomplete broods. Complete broods are thought to reflect the primary sex ratio before any bias introduced by developmental mortality. Contrary to this view, however, complete and incomplete broods should exhibit identical sex ratio distributions even when the sexes experience differential mortality, as shown in the classic paper of Fiala (Am Nat 115: 442–444, 1980). Therefore, in partially unsexed samples, primary sex ratio biases cannot be distinguished from biases caused by differential mortality. In addition, complete broods do not represent primary sex ratio more accurately than incomplete ones and might even be misleading. Despite Fiala’s prediction, SRD does occur in some empirical studies. We show that this pattern could arise if (1) primary sex ratio affects chick mortality rates independently of sex (direct effect), (2) primary sex ratio covaries with a variable that also affects mortality rate, or (3) sex differential mortality covaries with overall mortality rate (indirect effects). Direct effects may cause stronger SRD than indirect ones with a smaller and opposite bias in the overall sex ratio and could also lead to highly inconsistent covariate effects on brood sex ratios. These features may help differentiate direct from indirect effects. Most interestingly, differences in covariate effects between complete and incomplete broods imply that influential variables are missing from the analysis.     

甾体雌激素废水中优势降解菌的分离及特性

从某避孕药生产厂污水处理站好氧池活性污泥中通过富集驯化,分离到一株降解甾体雌激素(3-甲氧基-17a羟基-1,3,5(10),8(9)-雌甾-4-烯,简称MHE)的细菌ZY3菌株.经形态及16SrDNA序列分析初步鉴定,该菌株属于Raoultella属(Raoultellasp.).经过对ZY3菌株以MHE为唯一碳源生长和降解特性的分析表明,ZY3菌株利用MHE生长的最适温度和pH值分别为35℃和10.0,72h内的最适降解浓度为10mg/L.加入营养物质麦芽糖和蛋白胨能促进菌株对底物的降解,在72h内降解率达到了87%和85%.     

Role of water chemistry on estrone removal by nanofiltration with the presence of hydrophobic acids

Hydrophobic acid organic matter (HpoA) extracted from treated effluent has been known to improve the rejection of steroid hormone estrone by reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) membranes. In this study, the effects of solution chemistry (solution pH and ionic strength) on the estrone rejection by NF membrane with the presence of HpoA were systematically investigated. Crossflow nanofiltration experiments show that the presence of HpoA significantly improved estrone rejection at all pH and ionic strength levels investigated. It is consistently shown that the “enhancement effect” of HpoA on estrone rejection at neutral and alkaline pH is attributed to the binding of estrone by HpoA macromolecules via hydrogen bonding between phenolic functional groups in feed solutions, which leads to an increase in molecular weight and appearance of negative charge. The membrane exhibited the best performance in terms of estrone rejection at pH 10.4 (compared to pH 4 and pH 7) as a result of strengthening the electrostatic repulsion between estrone and membrane with the presence of HpoA. At neutral pH level, the ability of HpoA macromolecules to promote estrone rejection became stronger with increasing ionic strength due to their more extended conformation, which created more chances for the association between estrone and HpoA. The important conclusion of this study is that increasing solution pH and salinity can greatly intensify the “enhancement effect” of HpoA. These results can be important for NF application in direct/indirect potable water reuse.     

苦马豆素致糖基转移酶活性改变对小鼠生殖激素分泌的影响

苦马豆素是疯草主要有毒成分,抑制α-甘露糖苷酶的活性,引起N-聚糖加工过程失调。笔者课题组前期研究得出:苦马豆素致糖蛋白激素(促卵泡素和促黄体素)糖基化位点上糖链结构发生改变,引起促性腺激素功能发生改变。而苦马豆素中毒对家畜生殖激素分泌的调节机制尚不明确。苦马豆素腹腔注射对小鼠进行染毒,收集妊娠期和分娩期小鼠的血液、子宫和卵巢组织,检测糖基转移酶活性、生殖激素水平及其受体mRNA和类固醇限速酶蛋白质表达量。结果表明:在妊娠和分娩期,苦马豆素致子宫内膜固有层大量低聚糖蓄积,显著抑制N-聚糖加工过程关键糖基转移酶的活性(P0.05);染毒组小鼠血液的生殖激素包括促卵泡素(FSH)、促黄体素(LH)、雌激素(E2)和孕酮(P4)水平显著低于对照组(P0.05)。在整个妊娠周期,染毒组小鼠4种激素受体mRNA的表达量显著低于对照组(P0.05)。在妊娠后期,染毒组小鼠3-β羟基类固醇脱氢酶(3-βHSD)和芳香化酶(CYP19A1)蛋白表达量显著低于对照组(P0.05)。苦马豆素可使N-聚糖加工紊乱,引起促性腺激素分泌降低,进一步降低生殖激素受体和性类固醇激素限速酶的表达量,致使性类固醇激素分泌下降,导致生殖激素分泌紊乱,最终结果造成机体繁殖性能下降。     

北京市居家空气微生物粒径及分布特征研究

室内外空气微生物对人们健康的危害不仅与微生物的种类和浓度有关,而且还与微生物粒子的大小及粒径分布特征密切相关,并且不同粒径的空气微生物对人们健康影响的作用机制不同.在北京市不同方向选取31户有1～10岁儿童的家庭进行空气微生物取样,系统研究了室内家庭空气微生物粒径及分布特征.结果表明,室内空气细菌和真菌粒径分布特征不随家庭环境、季节特征、儿童性别、房屋结构的变化而变化,但空气细菌和真菌的粒径分布特征不同.总体上空气细菌和真菌粒径均呈对数正态分布,但空气细菌粒子百分比从Ⅰ级(>8.2μm)到Ⅴ级(1.0～2.0μm)逐渐增加,Ⅵ级(<1.0μm)细菌粒子百分比急剧下降,最高值出现在Ⅴ级,而空气真菌粒径百分比从Ⅰ级～Ⅳ级(2.0～3.5μm)逐渐增加,而后从Ⅳ级～Ⅵ级真菌粒径百分比急剧下降,最高值出现在Ⅳ级.不同优势真菌属的粒径分布也不相同,枝孢属、青霉属和曲霉属呈对数正态分布,最高值出现在Ⅳ级,而链格孢属为偏态分布,最高值出现在Ⅱ级(5.0～10.4μm).室内空气细菌的中值直径明显大于空气真菌,1 a中空气细菌和真菌春、夏、秋季的粒径明显大于冬季.