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International audience; The ancient rock paintings drawn with ochre on the limestone cliffs at 15 sites in Cangyuan County, in southwestern China, contain more than 1200 identifiable figures. The paintings portray scenes of daily life in a remote mountainous area. The inhabitants probably led a sedentary life of animal herding and cultivation and in the scenes they are engaged in activities such as dancing, hunting and fighting. These rock paintings have been known more than 50 years, and have been registered by the State Council of China as major cultural relics under national protection since 2001, but their ages have remained uncertain. In this study, we carried out MC-ICPMS U-series (n = 57) and AMS 14C (n = 4) dating of the carbonate accretions associated with the rock paintings at eight sites. Among them, 25 samples overlying pigment and 14 samples underlying pigment with insignificant initial 230Th contamination yielded highly precise U-series ages. The samples overlying pigment provided reliable minimum ages of 3760, 2920, 2680 and 1110 yr BP for the dated motifs at Sites 2, 7, 14, and 11, respectively. The age ranges for the underlying carbonate accretions overlap those of the overlying ones, from ~3800 to ~3200 yr BP at Site 2 and from ~3000 to ~2700 yr BP at Site 7, suggesting that rock painting was a long-lasting tradition in this region. The combination of all of the reliable U-series dates enables us to constrain the time interval of the main rock painting phase to ~3800–2700 yr BP, which is coeval with the regional late Neolithic culture.

To extend the range of materials that can be used to provide chronological constraint in archaeological and palaeontological settings, we explore the use of cave pearls that form in shallow pools. Here, we present U-series dating results of cave pearls found in cave sediments with mammal fossils collected from systematic excavations at the Diaozhongyan Cave (“DZY”), located in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, southern China. Similar to soda straw stalactites, cave pearls can be transported after formation and subsequently incorporated into sediments. Thus, the U-series ages of the outermost layers of cave pearls are expected to be older than their host sediments and associated archaeological and paleontological materials. In conjunction with U-series dating of mammal teeth, which can provide a reliable minimum age, U-series ages of cave pearls can provide a maximum age limit of the deposits. Thus, dating of the mammal teeth and cave pearls from DZY reasonably constrains the first occurrence of the DZY Ailuropoda-Stegodon fauna to a period between 205.6 ± 1.4 ka and 231.0 ± 12.8 ka. These age constraints agree well with previous estimates for the time range of the late Middle Pleistocene Ailuropoda-Stegodon fauna in southern China. We propose that greater attention should be paid to cave pearls, which are commonly found in cave deposits that were laid down at least in part due to fluvial activity, and can be used for U-series dating to better constrain the age of the associated cave deposits.

To investigate the association between 8 polymorphisms in the catechol-O-methyl transferase gene (COMT) and schizophrenia in Yuedong-Chaoshan region of China.Eight single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs), namely rs4680, rs4818, rs165599, rs737865, rs2075507, rs6267, rs6269 and rs4633, in the COMT gene were genotyped in 279 schizophrenia patients and 100 healthy controls.There was no significant difference between any single SNP and schizophrenia. However, association might exist between haplotypes (G)-G-A-A [(rs4680)-rs165599-rs2075507-rs6269] and A-A-C-(G) [rs2075507-rs6269-rs4633-(rs6267)] and schizophrenia.In the population of Yuedong region of China, the eight SNPs (rs4680, rs4818, rs165599, rs737865, rs2075507, rs6267, rs6269 and rs4633) in the COMT gene are unlikely to play a major role in the susceptibility to schizophrenia. There might be protective haplotypes in the COMT gene against schizophrenia.

To investigate the association between neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha 7 subunit (CHRNA7) gene and schizophrenia.The three polymorphisms rs2337980, rs1909884, rs883473 in CHRNA7 gene were detected based on PCR and polyacrylamide gel microarray in 129 schizophrenic trios. The results of genotyping were analyzed by haplotype relative risk analysis based on haplotype(HHRR), transmission disequilibrium test(TDT) and hyplotype analysis.(1)The HHRR analysis suggested that there was significant differences in rs2337980 allele frequencies between schizophrenia group and dummy control group(P= 0.017); (2)In TDT test, there may be transmission disequilibrium between rs2337980 and schizophrenia, the heterozygous parents excessively transferred the C allele to patients (P= 0.021); (3)The haplotype between rs2337980 and rs1909884 as well as the hyplotype among rs2337980, rs1909884 and rs883473 may have significant association with schizophrenia (global P= 0.034; global P= 0.027), the T-C and T-C-T hyplotype may have transmission disequilibrium with schizophrenia.There may be association between CHRNA7 gene polymorphisms and schizophrenia, the variant allele T in rs2337980 may have a protective effect to schizophrenia.