Dance education in Singapore: Policy,discourse, and practice

This article provides an overview of dance education in schools in Singapore with regard to physical education, co-curricular activity, initiatives by the National Arts Council's Arts Education unit, and pre-tertiary and tertiary dance programs. In an effort to gain a better understanding of how well the official discourse and the reality of schooling in dance interconnect, a meta-analysis of published articles, conference papers, committee reports, and curricula was conducted. Situated within the larger sociocultural, political, and historical contexts, Singapore presents a curious case for probing the merits and limitations of research, policy initiatives, and policy implementation. In the conclusion, the author argues that the development of a coherent dance education in Singapore requires “fixing” three dilemmas—meritocratic schooling in dance, the ill-defined and exhaustive use of the term “talent,” and the uneven research that has not kept pace with the policy initiatives.     

Ecological and environmental effects of land use change in rapid urbanization: The case of hangzhou,China

Land use changes sharply under rapid urbanization, yet its ecological and environmental effects are often neglected in land use decisions. Using the case of Hangzhou, China, we analyze the ecological and environmental effects of land use changes, including ecosystem services value (ESV) and carbon emissions, based on Landsat TM images from 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2014. We found significant ecological and environmental effects of land use changes under rapid urbanization. The value of ecosystem services in Hangzhou decreased from 546.7 million USD in 1995 to 448.97 million USD in 2014, and the ratio of ESV to GDP decreased from 5.8% to 0.6%. The net carbon emissions associated with land use changes increased from 4.26 million tons in 1995 to 15.10 million tons in 2014, mainly due to the increase of built-up land carbon emissions and the decrease of forest land carbon sink. The ESV is unevenly distributed spatially and low ESV spread from the central to the peripheral area. We use scenario analysis to illustrate that economic growth and environmental protection could be coordinated by bringing ecological and environmental effects into land use decisions.     

Growth and shaping of metacarpal and carpal cartilage anlagen: application of morphometry to the development of short and long bone. A study of human hand anlagen in the fetal period

A histological and morphometric analysis of human metacarpal and carpal anlagen between the 16th and 22nd embryonic weeks was carried out with the aim of studying the establishment of the respective anlage architecture. No differences in the pattern of growth were documented between the peripheral and central zones of the metacarpal epiphyses and those of the carpals. The regulation of longitudinal growth in long bone anlagen occurred in the transition zone between the epiphysis and the diaphysis (homologous to the metaphyseal growth plate cartilage in more advanced developmental stage of the bone). Comparative zonal analysis was conducted to assess the chondrocyte density, the mean chondrocyte lacunar area, the paired chondrocyte polarity in the orthogonal longitudinal and transverse planes, and the lacunar shape transformation in the metacarpal. In transition from epiphysis to diaphysis chondrocyte density decreased and mean lacunar area increased. No significant differences in the chondrocyte maturation cycle were observed between proximal/distal metacarpal epiphyses and the carpal anlagen. The number of paired chondrocyte oriented along the growth vector was significantly higher in both proximal/distal transition zones between epiphysis and diaphysis. Human metacarpals shared with experimental models (like mice and nonmammal tetrapods) an early common chondrocyte maturation cycle but with a different timing due to the slower embryonic and fetal developmental rate of human anlagen.     

Probing binding mechanism of interleukin-6 and olokizumab: in silico design of potential lead antibodies for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases

Computer-aided antibody engineering has been successful in the design of new biologics for disease diagnosis and therapeutic interventions. Interleukin-6 (IL-6), a well-recognized drug target for various autoimmune and inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and psoriasis, was investigated in silico to design potential lead antibodies. Here, crystal structure of IL-6 along with monoclonal antibody olokizumab was explored to predict antigen–antibody (Ag???Ab)-interacting residues using DiscoTope, Paratome, and PyMOL. Tyr56, Tyr103 in heavy chain and Gly30, Ile31 in light chain of olokizumab were mutated with residues Ser, Thr, Tyr, Trp, and Phe. A set of 899 mutant macromolecules were designed, and binding affinity of these macromolecules to IL-6 was evaluated through Ag???Ab docking (ZDOCK, ClusPro, and Rosetta server), binding free-energy calculations using Molecular Mechanics/Poisson Boltzman Surface Area (MM/PBSA) method, and interaction energy estimation. In comparison to olokizumab, eight newly designed theoretical antibodies demonstrated better result in all assessments. Therefore, these newly designed macromolecules were proposed as potential lead antibodies to serve as a therapeutics option for IL-6-mediated diseases.     

D-Cycloserine: Agonist turned antagonist

Summary D-Cycloserine can enhance activation of the NMDA receptor complex and could enhance the induction of long-term potentiation (LTP). In animals and humans, D-cycloserine can enhance performance in learning and memory tasks. This enhancing effect can disappear during repeated administration. The enhancing effects are also lost when higher doses are used, and replaced by behavioral and biochemical effects like those produced by NMDA antagonists. It has been reported that NMDA agonists, applied before or after tetanic stimulation, can block the induction of LTP. This may be the result of feedback inhibition of second messenger pathways stimulated by receptor activation. This may explain the antagonist-like effects of glycine partial agonists like D-cycloserine. In clinical trials of D-cycloserine in age-associated memory impairment (AAMI) and Alzheimer's disease, chronic treatment provided few positive effects on learning and memory. This may be due to inhibition of second messenger pathways following chronic stimulation of the receptor complex.     

Saldanha Bay,South Africa: recovery of Gracilaria verrucosa (Gracilariales,Rhodophyta)

Since World War II the greater Saldanha Bay lagoon system, South Africa, has been an important Gracilaria producer. Two agar factories, built in the 1960's, used Gracilaria from Saldanha Bay as their raw material. In the early 1970's the industry was destroyed as a result of dredging and marine construction operations to establish a harbor in the bay for loading ore. These environmental changes destroyed stocks and prevented the previously significant beachings of the seaweed from occurring. After a few years of no or very low commercial production, the resource slowly started to recover. The size of Gracilaria drifts increased over the following eight years to approximately one-third of the original output. This trend seems to continue. Although the stocks and resultant drifts are unlikely to recover fully to their original quantity, current production is already sufficient to ensure re-establishment of a seaweed industry in Saldanha Bay. This could have considerable socio-economic impact on the area.     

Autism-Misregulated eIF4G Microexons Control Synaptic Translation and Higher Order Cognitive Functions

1. Download : Download high-res image (173KB)
2. Download : Download full-size image

     

The Importance of Amine-degrading Enzymes on the Biogenic Amine Degradation in Fermented Foods: A review

Biogenic amines (BAs) are a class of harmful compounds often be found in high protein foods, especially naturally fermented foods. BAs derive from free amino acid decarboxylation through microbial activities and can cause toxic effects (headache, heart palpitations, vomiting) on humans, depending on individual sensitivity. Indigenous amine-degrading strains or strains producing amine-degrading enzymes (ADEs) have drawn great attention since they play an important role in affecting BA accumulation, and enzymes/genes involved in the biosynthetic mechanisms. They also help maintain the sensory quality of the final products. Besides, due to ADEs’ harmless catalytic products, they can be further utilized in fermented foods and beverages to reduce BAs. This review describes in detail the mechanisms of BAs formation, as well as the diversity of ADEs able to degrade BAs in a model or real food systems. A deeper knowledge of this issue is crucial because ADEs’ activities are often associated with strains rather than species or genera. Moreover, this information can help to improve the selection and characterization of strains for further applications as starters or bioprotective cultures, to obtain high-quality foods with reduced BAs contents.