Genetics of Obesity

Numerous classical genetic studies have proved that genes are contributory factors for obesity. Genes are directly responsible for obesity associated disorders such as Bardet–Biedl and Prader–Willi syndromes. However, both genes as well as environment are associated with obesity in the general population. Genetic epidemiological approaches, particularly genome-wide association studies, have unraveled many genes which play important roles in human obesity. Elucidation of their biological functions can be very useful for understanding pathobiology of obesity. In the near future, further exploration of obesity genetics may help to develop useful diagnostic and predictive tests for obesity treatment.     

My avatar,my self: Virtual harm and attachment

Multi-user online environments involve millions of participants world-wide. In these online communities participants can use their online personas – avatars – to chat, fight, make friends, have sex, kill monsters and even get married. Unfortunately participants can also use their avatars to stalk, kill, sexually assault, steal from and torture each other. Despite attempts to minimise the likelihood of interpersonal virtual harm, programmers cannot remove all possibility of online deviant behaviour. Participants are often greatly distressed when their avatars are harmed by other participants’ malicious actions, yet there is a tendency in the literature on this topic to dismiss such distress as evidence of too great an involvement in and identification with the online character. In this paper I argue that this dismissal of virtual harm is based on a set of false assumptions about the nature of avatar attachment and its relation to genuine moral harm. I argue that we cannot dismiss avatar attachment as morally insignificant without being forced to also dismiss other, more acceptable, forms of attachment such as attachment to possessions, people and cultural objects and communities. Arguments against according moral significance to virtual harm fail because they do not reflect participants’ and programmers’ experiences and expectations of virtual communities and they have the unintended consequence of failing to grant significance to attachments that we take for granted, morally speaking. Avatar attachment is expressive of identity and self-conception and should therefore be accorded the moral significance we give to real-life attachments that play a similar role. A shorter version of this paper was presented at the Cyberspace 2005 Conference at Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic     

中国北方地区主要树木的气候生产利研究

水资源短缺严重制约了华北高产粮区农业的可持续发展。本文对华北地区农业可持续发展的水问题况进行了阐述，对华北高产粮区的典型区域山东省桓台县农用水资源利用现状进行了分析，指出水资源浪费、污染严重，水资源管理不善是水资源利用过程中存在的最主要问题。并在区域、农中国北方地区；树木；气候生产力     

枫杨中两性花的发现

This paper reports the bisexual structure of the flowers of Pterocarya stenoptera. The bisexual flowers are borne at the end of a leafy shoot of the current year in many-flowered terminal pendulous catkins. They have the same structure as the general female ones. Each flower grows in the axil of a bract,  with a pair of bracteoles and four small perianths. Each flower has two or three carpels in the centre of the flower,  and upon them there are two or three styles with stigmas on the inner face. They differ from the ge- neral female ones in that each of them contains 4-6 stamens,  forming a single whorl. The stamens alternates with,  or is opposite to,  the perianth elements. Sometimes they contain 8 (-10) stamens,  forming two whorls,  with 6 in the outer whorl and 2 (-4) in the in- ner whorl, and in this case the pistil in the bisexual flower of terminal catkins often becomes a rudiment.       It is interesting that we have also found bisexual flowers in another tree,  which are borne in lateral male catkins. They have the same structure as general male ones,  and the pistils are often represented by a rudiment.       Manning (1940) points out that some female flowers of Pterocarya stenoptera and P. fraxinifolia occasionally have stamens ( ? ) opposite the sepals. In P. stenoptera we have found that both the stamens and the stigmas of bisexual flowers are functional. They are capable of producing functional fruits. This is the same case as in Myrica Gale described by Davey and Gibson (1917). Rendle (1952) points out that in the male flowers of Platycarya the pistils often appeared as a rudiment. He considers,  however,  the male flowers derived from the bisexual flowers with an indefinite number of stamens. The rudimentary pistils of later- al male catkins in P. stenoptera we found are just the same as the ones found in Platycarya by Rendle.       The discovery of the bisexual flowers in P. stenoptera may prove that the unisexual flowers of the present-day Juglandaceae are derived from ancestors with bisexual flowers.This tends to support the hypothesis that Cycadicae is the possible ancestor of the angiosperms.     

Bancroftian filariasis in south east Madhya Pradesh: Pre-control epidemilogical observations

Lymphatic filariasis caused byWuchereria bancrofti is a major health problem next only to malaria. A study had been conducted to estimate the prevalence of microfilaraemia in a rural endemic community near Raipur. The incidence of microfilaramia in the community was found to be about 14% when studied by night finger prick method. The incidence appears to be more in males as compared to females. The infection rate in vector population i.e.,Culex quinquefasciatus was recorded at a rate of 10%. No relationship could be drawn between the rates of vector and human filarial infections or between the density of vector population and the rate of vector/human infection(s). Prior health education is essential before taking up control and preventive measures in given endemic zone.     

中小高校图书馆文献信息咨询服务工作的新任务

本文从改变中小高校图书馆文献信息服务工作运行机制的背景、必要性和可行性等三个方面论述了对改变中小高校图书馆文献信息咨询服务工作运行机制的认识。