Cyclin-dependent kinase 7 (Cdk7) is the catalytic subunit of the metazoan Cdk-activating kinase (CAK). Activation of Cdk7 requires its association with a regulatory subunit, Cyclin H. Although the Cdk7/Cyclin H complex has been implicated in the regulation of RNA polymerase in several species, the precise function of their orthologs in zebrafish has not been fully elucidated. In this study, we isolated from zebrafish blastula embryos two cDNAs encoding the orthologs of human Cyclin H and Cdk7, and examined the role of Cdk7/Cyclin H in zebrafish embryogenesis. Sequence analysis showed that the zebrafish Cyclin H and Cdk7 cDNAs encode proteins with 65% and 86% identity to the respective human orthologs. RT-PCR and whole-mount in situ hybridization analyses of their expression in unfertilized eggs, embryos and organs of adult fish suggested that Cyclin H and Cdk7 messages are maternally loaded. Our data also showed that their transcripts were detected throughout development. Distribution of Cyclin H transcripts was found to be ubiquitous during early stages of development and become restricted to the anterior neural tube, brain, eyes, procreate tissues, liver and heart by 5 days post-fertilization. Expression of a dominant-negative form of Cyclin H delayed the onset of zygotic transcription in the early embryo, resulting in apoptosis at 5 hours post-fertilization and leading to sever defects in tissues normally exhibiting high levels of Cyclin H expression. These results implicate Cyclin H in the regulation of the transcriptional machinery during midblastula transition and suggest that it is an essential gene in early zebrafish larval development.

The 6061 aluminum alloys with different content of erbium were prepared. The erbium content was optimized by measurement of grain refining effects and tensile strength. After solid solution treatment of the alloy with optimized erbium content at 505 °C ~ 595 °C for 4 h. and then ageing at –160 °C ~ 200 °C for 3 h., the grain size decreased with the content of erbium, achieving the most effective grain size refinement at the erbium content of 0.15wt.%. The tensile strength of as-cast alloy could reach up to 243 MPa at the erbium content of 0.15%. -Combined with the microstructures and mechanical properties, the erbium content of 0.15% was the optimized content, and heat treatments of ageing at 180 °C for 3 h. followed by solid solution at 565 °C for 4 h were suggested.

The effect of the different electromagnetic stirring frequency after low temperature pouring on microstructures and mechanical properties of Al-7Si-0.42 Mg-0.1Cu alloys was studied. It was found that the primary α-Al becomes smaller and tended to be spherical morphology, and the particles were uniformly distributed after electromagnetic stirring. The tensile strength of alloys improved gradually from 193.02 MPa to 212.54 MPa, and the elongation increased from 3.73% to 6.67% when the stirring frequency was 10 Hz. From the fracture morphology, the fracture for alloy stirred at frequency of 10 Hz showed more dimples than that without stirring. When the stirring frequency increased to 15 Hz, the microstructures of primary α-Al appeared to be dendritic structures, and the grains became coarse. As a result, the 10 Hz was the best electromagnetic stirring frequency.

The microstructure and mechanical properties of as-homogenized 6061 aluminum alloy with 0.2wt.% Er were investigated. The microstructures of the as-casted and homogenized alloys were analyzed using optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Energy dispersion X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) was used to analyze the phase chemical composition. The results showed that the homogenizing treatment had a significant influence on the precipitate morphology of the alloy. With increasing homogenization temperature, the long strip-like Fe-rich grain distributed on the boundary phase became discontinuous and sparseness, transforming to short rod and granular shape. In addition, the Fe-rich phase with a large fish-bone structure became smaller. During homogenizing treatment, a large number of dispersive Mg2Si phase appeared inside grains, and large number of the phases containing Er were dissolved into the matrix.