PQBP1 promotes translational elongation and regulates hippocampal mGluR-LTD by suppressing eEF2 phosphorylation

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Medial septum glutamatergic neurons control wakefulness through a septo-hypothalamic circuit

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Optimizing Online Social Networks for Information Propagation

Online users nowadays are facing serious information overload problem. In recent years, recommender systems have been widely studied to help people find relevant information. Adaptive social recommendation is one of these systems in which the connections in the online social networks are optimized for the information propagation so that users can receive interesting news or stories from their leaders. Validation of such adaptive social recommendation methods in the literature assumes uniform distribution of users'' activity frequency. In this paper, our empirical analysis shows that the distribution of online users'' activity is actually heterogenous. Accordingly, we propose a more realistic multi-agent model in which users'' activity frequency are drawn from a power-law distribution. We find that previous social recommendation methods lead to serious delay of information propagation since many users are connected to inactive leaders. To solve this problem, we design a new similarity measure which takes into account users'' activity frequencies. With this similarity measure, the average delay is significantly shortened and the recommendation accuracy is largely improved.     

What we know and do not know about moth diversity from seven-year-monitoring in Mt. Jirisan National Park,South Korea

We sampled macromoths from 2005 to 2011 at six sites in Mt. Jirisan National Park (JNP), the oldest and largest national park in South Korea, to address the following questions: (1) what is the total macromoth species richness of JNP and can the total moth species richness be estimated after 7-years? (2) What is the proportion of moth families and is this pattern of family dominance similar to that seen in other areas? (3) What are the yearly and monthly patterns of macromoth richness? In total, 24,890 individuals belonging to 948 species of 14 families of macrolepidoptera were collected. An estimated species number of 1096 was calculated using the Chao 1 estimator. A rank abundance plot showed a typical log-normal distribution. The proportions of dominant families were similar to those reported in temperate and tropical moth fauna studies: Noctuidae was the most species-rich taxon, followed by Geometridae, Erebidae, Notodontidae, Drepanidae, and Sphingidae. Overall species richness and abundance were greatest in June, but the patterns of species richness and abundance varied by season and site. Within years, patterns of species richness were correlated with phenology but not the proximity of sites to one another in JNP. We provide various hypotheses to explain the high moth diversity in JNP, and future perspectives based on the results of our 7-year moth monitoring study.     

Soluble expression and purification of Brucella cell surface protein (BCSP31) of Brucella melitensis and preparation of anti-BCSP31 monoclonal antibodies

Brucella cell surface protein (BCSP31) is potentially useful for diagnosing brucellosis. We aimed to establish a monoclonal antibody (MAb) against Brucella melitensis BCSP31 and to investigate its distribution in diagnosis. Soluble recombinant BCSP31 was successfully expressed and purified. Two MAbs (1F1 and 1E5) against B. melitensis BCSP31, effective in detecting both recombinant and cellular proteins, were obtained and characterized. The MAbs did not react with Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, or Bacillus aeruginosus, but strongly reacted with BCSP31 and B. melitensis by ELISA and Western blot analysis. We also tested different Brucella species and brucellosis using the prepared anti-BCSP31 MAbs. BCSP31 and anti-BCSP31 MAbs may play important roles in future research in diagnosing brucellosis.     

A Putative Calcium-Permeable Cyclic Nucleotide-Gated Channel, CNGC18, Regulates Polarized Pollen Tube Growth

A tip-focused Ca^2＋ gradient is tightly coupled to polarized pollen tube growth, and tip-localized influxes of extracellular Ca^2＋ are required for this process. However the molecular identity and regulation of the potential Ca^2＋ channels remains elusive. The present study has implicated CNGC18 （cyclic nucleotide-gated channel 18） in polarized pollen tube growth, because its overexpression induced wider and shorter pollen tubes. Moreover, CNGC18 overexpression induced depolarization of pollen tube growth was suppressed by lower extracellular calcium （[Ca^2＋]ex）. CNGC18-yellow fluorescence protein （YFP） was preferentially localized to the apparent post-Golgi vesicles and the plasma membrane （PM） in the apex of pollen tubes. The PM localization was affected by tip-localized ROP1 signaling. Expression of wild type ROP1 or an active form of ROP1 enhanced CNGC18-YFP localization to the apical region of the PM, whereas expression of RopGAP1 （a ROP1 deactivator） blocked the PM localization. These results support a role for PM-Iocalized CNGC18 in the regulation of polarized pollen tube growth through its potential function in the modulation of calcium influxes.     

Population analysis and determination of the ethnic background are necessary in the study of multifactorial diseases: A study using the Dagestan population as a model

Psoriasis, a multifactorial disease with genetic predisposition, has been used as an example to study the role of the ethnic background in multifactorial diseases in the Dagestan population. The individual information card (IIC) is proposed as the main tool for correct collection and processing of information. The results of the study demonstrate that the Dagestan population is a convenient and adequate model population for studying multifactorial diseases, such as psoriasis, and may serve as an object for studying the role of heredity in the etiologies and pathogeneses of this and other multifactorial diseases.     

The effects of proteasome inhibitor lactacystin on mouse oocyte meiosis and first cleavage

Many studies have shown that the ubiq-uitin-proteasome pathway (UPP) for the degradation of short-lived proteins plays a key role in regulating cell cycle progression[1—3]. At least two distinct prote-olytic pathways are required for cell cycle process. The first pathway promotes transition from G1 to S phase, and the second initiates the onset of anaphase and exit from mitosis. The inhibition of UPP will re-sult in the blockage of cell cycle process. The knowl-edge of the role of UPP in…