菲律宾Boracay岛和Mambukal岛三种共栖狐蝠对人类活动的行为和激素反应

栖息地丧失和捕猎导致许多大型狐蝠濒危。尽管在东半球热带地区已经禁止捕猎和采伐,狐蝠的数量仍然在下降。既能维护当地居民利益又能保护狐蝠的折衷对策是生态旅游。然而,人类活动对狐蝠的影响还是未知的。菲律宾Boracay和Mambukal都是旅游区,前者游人少而稳定,后者游人密集且变异较大。我们用非损伤取样法研究了这两个旅游区三种狐蝠的生理紧张情况。在Mambukal,当狐蝠外出采食时,采集狐蝠的粪样,实验室分析粪样肾上腺皮质激素代谢物(GCM)浓度。我们观察记录了紧张反应等一些行为,同时记录了环境因素和人类活动情况。结果表明狐蝠已经习惯了游人的活动,表现在:(1)我们发现两个旅游区游人数量和活动强度差异显著,但是两地狐蝠的行为没有明显的差异;并且在有干扰和无干扰的日期之间,狐蝠的行为也无显著差异;两个旅游区的狐蝠行为表达一致;(2)各种行为与测定的粪样GCM浓度都不相关;(3)尽管在不同研究地点人类活动变异很大,我们发现人类活动并未影响粪样GCM浓度;不过,栖息在狐蝠群中心位置个体的粪样GCM浓度低于在群外围个体的GCM浓度;(4)一些环境因素(如干扰以及与栖息群的距离)影响狐蝠一些行为(如不安、身体护理和哈欠)的表达。如果干扰没有造成狐蝠紧张反应,那么生态旅游将不失为一种保护濒危狐蝠栖息地的理想方案。不过,我们还应认识到,人类干扰对狐蝠行为的影响可能比本研究观察到的更加复杂。因此,对于保护濒危狐蝠,时刻保持干扰最小是最好的选择。     

Can the presence of curved forms of the diatom Aulacoseira ambigua in the Nile (Egypt) and Vaal (South Africa) Rivers be ascribed to similar water quality conditions?

Spiral colonies of the diatom Aulacoseira ambigua were assigned the rank of forma (Aulacoseira ambigua f. japonica). This spiral-shaped, colonial, centric diatom has limited geographical distribution and is currently reported to occur in only a few countries in the world. In Africa this species was described for the first time from the Vaal River, South Africa, but recent research on the Nile River also revealed its presence in Egypt. Physical and chemical data on water quality in these two river systems were compared to determine whether the presence of this uncommon ‘phenoecodeme’ could be ascribed to similar environmental conditions. Results indicate that the rivers are dissimilar with regard to many variables, but both rivers provide turbid, warm and eutrophic waters with medium to high mineral content and it was concluded that these factors favour and sustain the growth of this curved form.     

The PINE study: rationale and design of a randomised comparison of epidural injection of local anaesthetics and steroids versus care-as-usual to prevent postherpetic neuralgia in the elderly [ISRCTN32866390]

BACKGROUND: Postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) is by far the most common complication of herpes zoster (HZ) and one of the most intractable pain disorders. Since PHN is seen most often in the elderly, the number of patients with this disorder is expected to increase in our ageing society. PHN may last for months to years and has a high impact on the quality of life. The results of PHN treatment are rather disappointing. Epidural injection of local anaesthetics and steroids in the acute phase of HZ is a promising therapy for the prevention of PHN. Since randomised trials on the effectiveness of this intervention are lacking, the PINE (Prevention by epidural Injection of postherpetic Neuralgia in the Elderly) study was set up. The PINE study compares the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a single epidural injection of local anaesthetics and steroids during the acute phase of HZ with that of care-as-usual (i.e. antivirals and analgesics) in preventing PHN in elderly patients. METHODS / DESIGN: The PINE study is an open, multicenter clinical trial in which 550 elderly (age >/= 50 yr.) patients who consult their general practitioner in the acute phase of HZ (rash < 7 days) are randomised to one of the treatment groups. The primary clinical endpoint is the presence of HZ-related pain one month after the onset of the rash. Secondary endpoints include duration and severity of pain, re-interventions aiming to treat the existing pain, side effects, quality of life, and cost-effectiveness. CONCLUSION: The PINE study is aimed to quantify the (cost-) effectiveness of a single epidural injection during the acute phase of HZ on the prevention of PHN.     

Algorithms and software for support of gene identification experiments

MOTIVATION: Gene annotation is the final goal of gene prediction algorithms. However, these algorithms frequently make mistakes and therefore the use of gene predictions for sequence annotation is hardly possible. As a result, biologists are forced to conduct time-consuming gene identification experiments by designing appropriate PCR primers to test cDNA libraries or applying RT-PCR, exon trapping/amplification, or other techniques. This process frequently amounts to 'guessing' PCR primers on top of unreliable gene predictions and frequently leads to wasting of experimental efforts. RESULTS: The present paper proposes a simple and reliable algorithm for experimental gene identification which bypasses the unreliable gene prediction step. Studies of the performance of the algorithm on a sample of human genes indicate that an experimental protocol based on the algorithm's predictions achieves an accurate gene identification with relatively few PCR primers. Predictions of PCR primers may be used for exon amplification in preliminary mutation analysis during an attempt to identify a gene responsible for a disease. We propose a simple approach to find a short region from a genomic sequence that with high probability overlaps with some exon of the gene. The algorithm is enhanced to find one or more segments that are probably contained in the translated region of the gene and can be used as PCR primers to select appropriate clones in cDNA libraries by selective amplification. The algorithm is further extended to locate a set of PCR primers that uniformly cover all translated regions and can be used for RT-PCR and further sequencing of (unknown) mRNA.      

Estimation of the membrane potential of cultured macrophages from the fast potential transient upon microelectrode entry

Analysis of membrane potential recordings upon microelectrode impalement of four types of macrophages (cell lines P388D1 and PU5-1.8, cultured mouse peritoneal macrophages, and cultured human monocytes) reveals that these cells have membrane potentials at least two times more negative than sustained potential values (E(s)) frequently reported. Upon microelectrode entry into the cell (P388D1), the recorded potential drops to a peak value (E(p)) (mean -37 mV for 50 cells, range -15 to -70 mV) within 2 ms, after which it decays to a depolarized potential (E(n)) (mean -12 mV) in about 20 ms. Thereafter, the membrane develops one or a series of slow hyperpolarizations before a final sustained membrane potential (E(s)) (mean -14 mV, range -5 to -40) is established. The mean value of the peak of the first hyperpolarization (E(h)) is -30 mV (range -10 to -55 mV). The initial fast peak transient, measured upon microelectrode entry, was first described and analyzed by Lassen et al. (Lassen, U.V., A.M. T. Nielson, L. Pape, and L. O. Simonsen, 1971, J. Membr. Biol. 6:269-288 for other change in the membrane potential from its real value before impalement to a sustained depolarized value. This was shown to be true for macrophages by two-electrode impalements of single cells. Values of E(p), E(n), E(h), E(s), and membrane resistance (R(m)) measured for the other macrophages were similar to those of P388D1. From these results we conclude that E(p) is a better estimate of the true membrane potential of macrophages than E(s), and that the slow hyperpolarizations upon impalement should be regarded as transient repolarizations back to the original membrane potentials. Thus, analysis of the initial fast impalement transient can be a valuable aid in the estimation of the membrane potential of various sorts of small isolated cells by microelectrodes.     

Feedback equilibrium control during human standing

Equilibrium maintenance during standing in humans was investigated with a 3-joint (ankle, knee and hip) sagittal model of body movement. The experimental paradigm consisted of sudden perturbations of humans in quiet stance by backward displacements of the support platform. Data analysis was performed using eigenvectors of motion equation. The results supported three conclusions. First, independent feedback control of movements along eigenvectors (eigenmovements) can adequately describe human postural responses to stance perturbations. This conclusion is consistent with previous observations (Alexandrov et al., 2001b) that these same eigenmovements are also independently controlled in a feed-forward manner during voluntary upper-trunk bending. Second, independent feedback control of each eigenmovement is sufficient to provide its stability. Third, the feedback loop in each eigenmovement can be modeled as a linear visco-elastic spring with delay. Visco-elastic parameters and time-delay values result from the combined contribution of passive visco-elastic mechanisms and sensory systems of different modalities     

Alternative splicing and protein function

Background  

Alternative splicing is a major mechanism of generating protein diversity in higher eukaryotes. Although at least half, and probably more, of mammalian genes are alternatively spliced, it was not clear, whether the frequency of alternative splicing is the same in different functional categories. The problem is obscured by uneven coverage of genes by ESTs and a large number of artifacts in the EST data.     

Molecular evolution of a repetitive region within the per gene of Drosophila

The clock gene period (per) controls a number of biological rhythms in Drosophila. In D. melanogaster, per has a repetitive region that encodes a number of alternating threonine-glycine residues. We sequenced and compared this region from several different Drosophila species belonging to various groups within the Drosophila and Sophophora subgenera. This part of per shows a great variability in both DNA sequence and length. Furthermore, analysis of the data suggests that changes in the length of this variable region might be associated with amino acid replacements in the more conserved flanking sequences.      

Weight loss is not mandatory for exercise-induced effects on health indices in females with metabolic syndrome

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of moderate aerobic training on functional, anthropometric, biochemical, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) parameters on women with metabolic syndrome (MS). Fifteen untrained women with MS performed moderate aerobic training for 15 weeks, without modifications of dietary behaviours. Functional, anthropometric, biochemical, control diet record and HRQOL parameters were assessed before and after the training. Despite body weight maintenance, the patients presented decreases in waist circumference (P = 0.001), number of MS components (P = 0.014), total cholesterol (P = 0.049), HDL cholesterol (P = 0.004), LDL cholesterol (P = 0.027), myeloperoxidase activity (P = 0.002) and thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances levels (P = 0.006). There were no differences in total energy, carbohydrate, protein and lipid intake pre- and post-training. Furthermore, improvements in the HRQOL subscales of physical functioning (P = 0.03), role-physical (P = 0.039), bodily pain (P = 0.048), general health (P = 0.046) and social functioning scoring (P = 0.011) were reported. Despite the absence of weight loss, aerobic training induced beneficial effects on functional, anthropometric, biochemical and HRQOL parameters in women with MS.