加工方法对黄花蒿提取青蒿素含量的影响

通过对采收后的黄花蒿植株进行适当的处理及干燥温度和贮藏时间对比试验,采用HPLC法测定,探讨提高青蒿素含量的加工新方法。结果表明:整株立式阴晾一定时间后晒干的处理随着阴晾时间的增加青蒿素含量呈抛物线状变化,4～5d最高,达显著水平,之后逐渐下降;随着干燥温度的升高青蒿素含量呈下降趋势,40℃时叶片青蒿素含量较高;随着贮藏时间的延长青蒿素含量逐渐下降,贮藏100 d后下降明显。采收后整株立式阴晾4～5 d后再晒干方法能提高黄花蒿叶片的青蒿素含量。40℃的干燥温度能使叶片中青蒿素含量损耗较少。黄花蒿叶片的保质贮藏时间约90 d。     

相同条件下的5种甘草中甘草酸含量的比较研究

通过双波长薄层扫描对同一生长环境下生长时间相同的5种甘草进行了甘草酸含量的分析、比较,并首次分析了采收时间对甘草中甘草酸含量的影响。同时通过HPLC法对刺果甘草进行了甘草酸的定性分析。为甘草的质量评价、采收时间及种间鉴别提供了依据。     

黄蜀葵花中β-半乳糖苷酶活性和金丝桃苷含量变化及其影响因素分析

对黄蜀葵[ Abelmoschus manihot( L.) Medikus]花不同部位的β-半乳糖苷酶(β-gal)活性和金丝桃苷含量进行了比较,并研究了开放程度、采收时间及采收后放置时间对花冠中β-gal活性和金丝桃苷含量的影响.结果显示:黄蜀葵花冠中β-gal活性和金丝桃苷含量分别为2.907 U和1.092％,均显著高于花萼和子房,分别为后两者的1.72倍和1.52倍,4.94倍和21.84倍.开放程度、采收时间及采收后放置时间对黄蜀葵花冠中β-gal活性和金丝桃苷含量有显著影响.总体上,完全开放和半开放的花冠中β-gal活性和金丝桃苷含量显著高于未开放及凋谢的花冠;随采收时间的推移(9:00至17:00)以及采收后放置时间的延长(0～5 h),花冠中β-gal活性逐渐升高、金丝桃苷含量逐渐降低;上午9:00采收的花冠中以及采收后0h的花冠中β-gal活性均最低、金丝桃苷含量均最高.研究结果表明:为使黄蜀葵花中金丝桃苷含量维持较高的水平,应于上午9:00左右采收完全开放的花冠,采收后应及时进行相应的处理.     

野生玉竹驯化栽培新技术的研究

主要说明野生玉竹驯化栽培技术,即种子繁殖和根茎繁殖方法的研究以及采收加工、病虫害防治等技术.     

夏枯草采收时期对果穗与种子质量影响的研究

目的:研究夏枯草果穗不同采收时间对其熊果酸含量、种子千粒重和发芽率的影响,以确定适宜的采收期。方法:以果穗成熟度(发黄程度)为采收指标,分6个采收期,分别测定其果穗熊果酸含量、种子千粒重与发芽率,并进行对比。结果:采收期对夏枯草果穗与种子质量存在明显的影响,熊果酸含量、种子千粒重和发芽率均随果穗成熟度的增加而提高,至果穗全黄时达最大值。果穗全黄7 d后采收,熊果酸含量下降明显;千粒重与发芽率无明显变化。结论:夏枯草果穗应在果穗全黄后及时采收。     

利用絮凝进行微藻采收的研究进展

微藻可生产不饱和脂肪酸及色素等多种高附加值产品,同时也可用来生产可再生清洁能源如生物柴油等,具有良好的应用前景。但是,目前微藻细胞的采收成本高居不下,已成为限制微藻生物技术大规模应用的重要因素之一。与其他方法相比,絮凝采收成本低、操作简便,是很有应用前景的采收方法。本文综述了国内外利用化学絮凝、物理絮凝及生物絮凝等方法对不同微藻细胞进行采收的研究,重点对生物絮凝方法进行了总结。利用微生物絮凝剂及微藻细胞的自絮凝进行微藻生物量的回收,是微藻采收技术中环境友好、低成本和行之有效的新方法之一。     

黄蜀葵花的栽培与采收加工

黄蜀葵花是一种新的中药制剂原料,其栽培具有显著的社会和经济效益,本文介绍了它的生物学特性,栽培方法,田间管理和采收加工技术。     

滇重楼可持续采收方法初探

滇重楼是云南传统的道地药材。由于种苗繁育困难和生长周期长,重楼的推广种植多年来未能取得突破。滇重楼的"多年栽培,分期采收"技术是将滇重楼根茎按用途分为药用部分与种苗部分,采收时,仅采收药用部分,种苗部分(带顶芽的根茎)继续生长发育,而不是将整个根茎全部采收作为商品药材。通过考察滇重楼须根比率的月度变化规律及3年的根茎生长量,进行采收时间和经济效益分析。结果表明:实施滇重楼"多年栽培,分期采收"技术间隔时间以3年为宜,每年每公顷收益为11.25万～33.0万元,采收时间以12月至翌年3月份为宜。     

微藻采收方法的研究进展

微藻的生产过程可以实现能源生产、废水净化和CO2减排的高度耦合,在能源危机日益紧张、环境问题日趋严峻的今天,微藻的开发利用具有重要的研究价值和经济、社会效益。制约微藻产业化的瓶颈问题是采收成本过高,一种经济合理的采收方法不但可以大大降低生产成本,还可以奠定微藻产业化发展的基础。本文对目前应用较为普遍的微藻采收方法进行了介绍,重点阐述了絮凝法采收微藻,以期对微藻的低成本高效率采收以及产业化发展提供帮助。     

微藻细胞的连续气浮法采收

以螺旋藻为模型藻,较为详细地研究了藻细胞的絮凝行为以及回流比、藻液浓度、溶气时间和溶气压力因素等对藻细胞连续气浮采收效率的影响。结果表明,调节pH值为11—12可使藻液产生良好的絮凝性能;增大回流比、提高溶气压力、延长溶气时间和接触停留时间,可有效地提高气浮采收效率;藻液浓度较低时,气浮采收效率较高。所提出的连续气浮采收动力学模型可较好地拟合实验结果。     

Decoding Face Information in Time,Frequency and Space from Direct Intracranial Recordings of the Human Brain

Faces are processed by a neural system with distributed anatomical components, but the roles of these components remain unclear. A dominant theory of face perception postulates independent representations of invariant aspects of faces (e.g., identity) in ventral temporal cortex including the fusiform gyrus, and changeable aspects of faces (e.g., emotion) in lateral temporal cortex including the superior temporal sulcus. Here we recorded neuronal activity directly from the cortical surface in 9 neurosurgical subjects undergoing epilepsy monitoring while they viewed static and dynamic facial expressions. Applying novel decoding analyses to the power spectrogram of electrocorticograms (ECoG) from over 100 contacts in ventral and lateral temporal cortex, we found better representation of both invariant and changeable aspects of faces in ventral than lateral temporal cortex. Critical information for discriminating faces from geometric patterns was carried by power modulations between 50 to 150 Hz. For both static and dynamic face stimuli, we obtained a higher decoding performance in ventral than lateral temporal cortex. For discriminating fearful from happy expressions, critical information was carried by power modulation between 60–150 Hz and below 30 Hz, and again better decoded in ventral than lateral temporal cortex. Task-relevant attention improved decoding accuracy more than10% across a wide frequency range in ventral but not at all in lateral temporal cortex. Spatial searchlight decoding showed that decoding performance was highest around the middle fusiform gyrus. Finally, we found that the right hemisphere, in general, showed superior decoding to the left hemisphere. Taken together, our results challenge the dominant model for independent face representation of invariant and changeable aspects: information about both face attributes was better decoded from a single region in the middle fusiform gyrus.     

In vitro studies of peptidoglycan binding and hydrolysis by the Bacillus anthracis germination-specific lytic enzyme SleB

The Bacillus anthracis endospore loses resistance properties during germination when its cortex peptidoglycan is degraded by germination-specific lytic enzymes (GSLEs). Although this event normally employs several GSLEs for complete cortex removal, the SleB protein alone can facilitate enough cortex hydrolysis to produce vulnerable spores. As a means to better understand its enzymatic function, SleB was overexpressed, purified, and tested in vitro for depolymerization of cortex by measurement of optical density loss and the solubilization of substrate. Its ability to bind peptidoglycan was also investigated. SleB functions independently as a lytic transglycosylase on both intact and fragmented cortex. Most of the muropeptide products that SleB generates are large and are potential substrates for other GSLEs present in the spore. Study of a truncated protein revealed that SleB has two domains. The N-terminal domain is required for stable peptidoglycan binding, while the C-terminal domain is the region of peptidoglycan hydrolytic activity. The C-terminal domain also exhibits dependence on cortex containing muramic-δ-lactam in order to carry out hydrolysis. As the conditions and limitations for SleB activity are further elucidated, they will enable the development of treatments that stimulate premature germination of B. anthracis spores, greatly simplifying decontamination measures.     

Cortical Neurovascular Coupling Driven by Stimulation of Channelrhodopsin-2

While functional imaging is widely used in studies of the brain, how well the hemodynamic signal represents the underlying neural activity is still unclear. And there is a debate on whether hemodynamic signal is more tightly related to synaptic activity or action potentials. This study intends to address these questions by examining neurovascular coupling driven by pyramidal cells in the motor cortex of rats. Pyramidal cells in the motor cortex of rats were selectively transduced with the light sensitive cation channel channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2). Electrophysiological recordings and optical intrinsic signal imaging were performed simultaneously and synchronously to capture the neural activity and hemodynamics induced by optical stimulation of ChR2-expressing pyramidal cells. Our results indicate that both synaptic activity (local field potential, LFP) and action potentials (multi-unit activity, MUA) are tightly related to hemodynamic signals. While LFPs in γ band are better in predicting hemodynamic signals elicited by short stimuli, MUA has better predictions to hemodynamic signals elicited by long stimuli. Our results also indicate that strong nonlinearity exists in neurovascular coupling.     

Neurodevelopmental changes in working memory and cognitive control

One of the most salient ways in which our behavior changes during childhood and adolescence is that we get better at working towards long-term goals, at ignoring irrelevant information that could distract us from our goals, and at controlling our impulses - in other words, we exhibit improvements in cognitive control. Several recent magnetic resonance imaging studies have examined the developmental changes in brain structure and function that underlie improvements in working memory and cognitive control. Increased recruitment of task-relevant regions in the prefrontal cortex, parietal cortex and striatum over the course of development is associated with better performance in a range of cognitive tasks. Further work is needed to assess the role of experience in shaping the neural circuitry that underlies cognitive control.     

肾上腺皮质束状带特异性表达Cre重组酶转基因小鼠的构建

肾上腺是人体重要的内分泌器官。由于缺乏肾上腺皮质束状带特异性表达Cre酶的工具鼠,目前对肾上腺皮质束状带细胞中特异表达基因的功能缺乏深入的解析。CYP11B1基因编码类固醇11β-羟化酶,该酶是糖皮质激素合成的关键酶,在肾上腺皮质束状带中特异性表达。本研究旨在利用CYP11B1基因在束状带特异性表达的特点,构建在肾上腺皮质束状带中特异性表达Cre重组酶的转基因动物。采用CRISPR/Cas9技术在CYP11B1基因终止密码子位点定点敲入2A-GfpCre表达框,获得CYP11B1-2A-GfpCre同源重组载体,进而构建CYP11B1Cre小鼠,并通过mTmG和LacZ染色确定Cre酶主要表达在小鼠肾上腺皮质束状带。在此基础上,本研究还用该工具鼠与胱硫醚-γ-裂解酶(cystathionineγ-lyase, CTH)条件性敲除鼠交配,获得了肾上腺皮质束状带CTH特异性敲除的小鼠,并证实了该动物肾上腺皮质束状带中CTH表达缺失。以上结果充分说明肾上腺皮质束状带特异性表达Cre重组酶小鼠构建成功。该工具鼠的成功构建,为深入研究肾上腺皮质束状带相关功能提供了有力工具。     

Postmortem changes in uric acid and ascorbic acid in human cerebral cortex tissues excised after cardiac death

There has been no report on the determination of uric acid (UA) in human brain and heart tissues. UA and ascorbic acid (AA) in human cerebral cortex and heart tissues excised after cardiac death have been studied by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with electrochemical detection (ECD). It has been found that the levels of AA and UA in the human cerebral cortex tissues tend to decrease and increase, respectively, after cardiac death as a function of time between death and forensic operation. In addition, it has been found that there is no special relationship between UA levels in human heart tissues and time after cardiac death, also that the UA levels in the heart are high as compared with those in human cerebral cortex tissues. We have emphasized that the HPLC-ECD method is useful in determining UA and AA in mammalian tissues by one-time chromatography to gain a better understanding of the relationship between disease and serum urate level.     

Cognitive Control in Auditory Working Memory Is Enhanced in Musicians

Musical competence may confer cognitive advantages that extend beyond processing of familiar musical sounds. Behavioural evidence indicates a general enhancement of both working memory and attention in musicians. It is possible that musicians, due to their training, are better able to maintain focus on task-relevant stimuli, a skill which is crucial to working memory. We measured the blood oxygenation-level dependent (BOLD) activation signal in musicians and non-musicians during working memory of musical sounds to determine the relation among performance, musical competence and generally enhanced cognition. All participants easily distinguished the stimuli. We tested the hypothesis that musicians nonetheless would perform better, and that differential brain activity would mainly be present in cortical areas involved in cognitive control such as the lateral prefrontal cortex. The musicians performed better as reflected in reaction times and error rates. Musicians also had larger BOLD responses than non-musicians in neuronal networks that sustain attention and cognitive control, including regions of the lateral prefrontal cortex, lateral parietal cortex, insula, and putamen in the right hemisphere, and bilaterally in the posterior dorsal prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate gyrus. The relationship between the task performance and the magnitude of the BOLD response was more positive in musicians than in non-musicians, particularly during the most difficult working memory task. The results confirm previous findings that neural activity increases during enhanced working memory performance. The results also suggest that superior working memory task performance in musicians rely on an enhanced ability to exert sustained cognitive control. This cognitive benefit in musicians may be a consequence of focused musical training.     

Spatial stereoresolution for depth corrugations may be set in primary visual cortex

Stereo "3D" depth perception requires the visual system to extract binocular disparities between the two eyes' images. Several current models of this process, based on the known physiology of primary visual cortex (V1), do this by computing a piecewise-frontoparallel local cross-correlation between the left and right eye's images. The size of the "window" within which detectors examine the local cross-correlation corresponds to the receptive field size of V1 neurons. This basic model has successfully captured many aspects of human depth perception. In particular, it accounts for the low human stereoresolution for sinusoidal depth corrugations, suggesting that the limit on stereoresolution may be set in primary visual cortex. An important feature of the model, reflecting a key property of V1 neurons, is that the initial disparity encoding is performed by detectors tuned to locally uniform patches of disparity. Such detectors respond better to square-wave depth corrugations, since these are locally flat, than to sinusoidal corrugations which are slanted almost everywhere. Consequently, for any given window size, current models predict better performance for square-wave disparity corrugations than for sine-wave corrugations at high amplitudes. We have recently shown that this prediction is not borne out: humans perform no better with square-wave than with sine-wave corrugations, even at high amplitudes. The failure of this prediction raised the question of whether stereoresolution may actually be set at later stages of cortical processing, perhaps involving neurons tuned to disparity slant or curvature. Here we extend the local cross-correlation model to include existing physiological and psychophysical evidence indicating that larger disparities are detected by neurons with larger receptive fields (a size/disparity correlation). We show that this simple modification succeeds in reconciling the model with human results, confirming that stereoresolution for disparity gratings may indeed be limited by the size of receptive fields in primary visual cortex.     

Episodic memory on the path to Alzheimer's disease

This review is focused on specific circuits of the medial temporal lobe that have become better understood in recent years for their computational properties contributing to episodic memory and to memory impairment associated with aging and other risk for AD. The layer II neurons in the entorhinal cortex and their targets in the dentate gyrus and CA3 region of hippocampus comprise a system that rapidly encodes representations that are distinct from prior memories. Frank neuron loss in the entorhinal cortex is specific for AD, and related structural and functional changes across the network comprised of the entorhinal cortex and the dentate/CA3 regions hold promise for predicting progression on the path to AD.     

Mouse visual cortex

Neurons in mouse visual cortex have diverse receptive field properties and they respond selectively to specific features of visual stimuli. Owing to the lateral position of the eyes, only about a third of the visual cortex receives input from both eyes, but many cells in this region are binocular. Similar to higher mammals, closing one eye during a critical period shifts the responses of cells, such that they are better driven by the non-deprived eye. In this review I illustrate how the combination of transgenic mouse technology with single cell recording and modern imaging techniques might lead to a further understanding of the mechanisms that underlie the development, plasticity, and function of the mammalian visual cortex.