浮选剂黄药对蛙类胚胎的致畸毒性

报道了黑斑蛙(Rana nigromaculata)受精卵短期暴露于黄药溶液后对胚胎发育所引起的影响.浓度高于0.1ppm的黄药溶液能显著引起蛙胚的畸形发育,使孵出的蝌蚪呈现单一的畸形症状——脊索蜿蜒弯曲,为黄药污染的水体之水质监测提供了一个生物学指标.     

QSAR法研究取代苯酚的生物活性

基于表征成键原子的生物活性特征值Ai构建取代苯酚的自相关拓扑指数tT,并以0T1、T为结构描述符,分别建立了取代苯酚诱发浮萍萎黄、对日本长腿蛙蝌蚪的QSAR模型:pC=-2.4591+0.51730T-6.3888×10-21T,r=0.9778;24h-LC50=2.1269+1.1013×10-20T+3.4552×10-41T2,r=0.9676.它们的估算结果均优于文献结果,用Jackknife法检验,以上模型具有总体稳健性。     

火山爆发 野生动物失去乐园

尼拉贡戈火山是非洲中部最危险的活火山。25年来，它一直来都很安分守己，但2002年1月17日凌晨，它突然发威，顷刻间便使100多人丧命，50万人无家可归。有专家说，火山喷发的熔岩、火山灰、含硫气体给当地的生态带来灾难，而且灾难刚刚开始。“到处都是火，到处都能闻到硫磺味。”尼拉贡戈火山海拔3469米，位于刚果（金）、卢旺达和乌干达三国交界处，是8座火山中的一座。1月17日凌晨5时，尼拉贡戈火山突然喷发，熔岩从山侧三处缝隙涌出，以时速20公里的速度向四周蔓延，所到之处万物烧毁，场面相当惨烈。尼拉贡戈火山以南20公里的戈马市居…     

食物浪费不仅是道德和经济问题,也是环境问题

"我们生活在一个粮食充足的世界,然而仍有8.7亿人口面临着营养和发育不良的窘境.为了创造一个我们期望的未来,我们必须纠正这种不平等的现象."联合国秘书长潘基文在世界环境日致辞中表示.联合国粮食和农业组织数据显示,每年有1/3、约13亿t食物被浪费,相当于撒哈拉以南非洲国家每年的粮食生产总量,价值约为1万亿美元.与此同时,世界1/7的人口仍处于饥饿状态,并且每天有超过两万名5岁以下的儿童死     

走进非洲大草原

“地球上有一个地方,那里仍然处于生命的最初阶段,庞大的兽群仍然在那里自由奔驰……”这就是地球上最富饶的动物避难所一非洲大草原。     

Molecular characterization and developmental expression patterns of thyroid hormone receptors (TRs) and their responsiveness to TR agonist and antagonist in Rana nigromaculata

Considering some advantages of Rana nigromaculata as an experimental species, we propose that this species, like Xenopus laevis, could be used to assay thyroid hormone（TH） signaling disrupting actions. To validate the utilizability of R. nigromaculata, we investigated the responsiveness of R. nigromaculata to a TH receptor（TR） agonist（T3） and antagonist（amiodarone） by analyzing expression, based on characterizing TR cDNA and developmental expression patterns. With high levels of identity with the corresponding genes in X. laevis, both TRα and TRβ in R. nigromaculata exhibited roughly similar developmental expression patterns to those of X. laevis, in spite of some species-specific differences. Both TRα and TRβ expression had greater changes in the liver and intestine than in the tail and brain during metamorphosis. T3 exposure for 2 days induced more dramatic increases of TRβ expression in stage 27 than in stage34 tadpoles but not in stage 42 tadpoles, showing that the responsiveness of R. nigromaculata to TH decreased with development and disappeared at the onset of metamorphic climax.Corresponding to greater changes of TRβ expression in the liver and intestine than in the tail and brain during metamorphosis, the liver and intestine had higher responsiveness to exogenous T3 than the tail and brain. Amiodarone inhibited T3-induced TRβ expression. Our results show that R. nigromaculata can be used as a model species for assaying TH signaling disrupting actions by analyzing TRβ expression, and intestine tissues at stage 27 are ideal test materials due to high responsiveness and easy accessibility.     

非洲的救灾组织及任务

近年来,非洲国家在保持政治稳定、促进经济发展方面取得了一定的进展。然而,非洲迄今仍是全球最贫困的地区,人民经常遭受各种灾害的威胁。为此,非洲各国以及非洲地区的各种组织相互积极配合,共同致力于非洲的减灾救灾活动。