Mass Collaboration in Earthquake Risk Management

The mechanism of mass collaboration in risk management was studied during the Sichuan earthquake under a Web-based “PeopleFinder” project, where information is contributed and shared among mass contributors. The case study is provided by a great earthquake that happened in Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province, of southwestern China at 2:28 p.m. on May 12, 2008. We witnessed and experienced the rescue and relief efforts for the great earthquake. In this article, two fundamental frameworks are developed to study the mechanism of mass collaboration. Mass collaboration is proven to be effective in a big public crisis such as the Sichuan earthquake.     

Meta-Transcriptome Profiling of Novel Invasive Pest Spodoptera frugiperda in Yunnan,China

正Dear Editor,The fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda(Lepidoptera:Noctuidae), a highly agricultural destructive pest of cereals, is originally rampant in tropical and subtropical America(Kenis et al. 2019). The caterpillars of this moth feed on more than 350 plant species(Harrison et al. 2019),     

Glycogen debranching enzyme: purification, antibody characterization, and immunoblot analyses of type III glycogen storage disease.

Type III glycogen storage disease is caused by a deficiency of glycogen debranching-enzyme activity. Many patients with this disease have both liver and muscle involvement, whereas others have only liver involvement without clinical or laboratory evidence of myopathy. To improve our understanding of the molecular basis of the disease, debranching enzyme was purified 238-fold from porcine skeletal muscle. In sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis the purified enzyme gave a single band with a relative molecular weight of 160,000 that migrated to the same position as purified rabbit-muscle debranching enzyme. Antiserum against porcine debranching enzyme was prepared in rabbit. The antiserum reacted against porcine debranching enzyme with a single precipitin line and demonstrated a reaction having complete identity to those of both the enzyme present in crude muscle and the enzyme present in liver extracts. Incubation of antiserum with purified porcine debranching enzyme inhibited almost all enzyme activity, whereas such treatment with preimmune serum had little effect. The antiserum also inhibited debranching-enzyme activity in crude liver extracts from both pigs and humans to the same extent as was observed in muscle. Immunoblot analysis probed with anti-porcine-muscle debranching-enzyme antiserum showed that the antiserum can detect debranching enzyme in both human muscle and human liver. The bands detected in human samples by the antiserum were the same size as the one detected in porcine muscle. Five patients with Type III and six patients with other types of glycogen storage disease were subjected to immunoblot analysis. Although anti-porcine antiserum detected specific bands in all liver and muscle samples from patients with other types of glycogen storage disease (Types I, II, and IX), the antiserum detected no cross-reactive material in any of the liver or muscle samples from patients with Type III glycogen storage disease. These data indicate (1) immunochemical similarity of debranching enzyme in liver and muscle and (2) that deficiency of debranching-enzyme activity in Type III glycogen storage disease is due to absence of debrancher protein in the patients that we studied.     

Physiology of the ECL cells.

The enterochromaffin-like (ECL) cells of the oxyntic mucosa (fundus) of the stomach produce, store and secrete histamine, chromogranin A-derived peptides such as pancreastatin, and an unanticipated but as yet unidentified peptide hormone. The cells are stimulated by gastrin and pituitary adenylate cyclase activating peptide and suppressed by somatostatin and galanin. Choline esters and histamine seem to be without effect on ECL cell secretion. The existence of a gastrin-ECL cell axis not only explains how gastrin stimulates acid secretion but also may help to explore the functional significance of the ECL cells with respect to the nature and bioactivity of its peptide hormone. From the results of studies of gastrectomized/fundectomized and gastrin-treated rats, it has been speculated that the anticipated ECL-cell peptide hormone acts on bone metabolism.     

A Novel Role of Protein Tyrosine Kinase2 in Mediating Chloride Secretion in Human Airway Epithelial Cells

Ca²⁺ activated Cl⁻ channels (CaCC) are up-regulated in cystic fibrosis (CF) airway surface epithelia. The presence and functional properties of CaCC make it a possible therapeutic target to compensate for the deficiency of Cl⁻ secretion in CF epithelia. CaCC is activated by an increase in cytosolic Ca²⁺, which not only activates epithelial CaCCs, but also inhibits epithelial Na⁺ hyperabsorption, which may also be beneficial in CF. Our previous study has shown that spiperone, a known antipsychotic drug, activates CaCCs and stimulates Cl⁻ secretion in polarized human non-CF and CF airway epithelial cell monolayers in vitro, and in Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR) knockout mice in vivo. Spiperone activates CaCC not by acting in its well-known role as an antagonist of either 5-HT2 or D2 receptors, but through a protein tyrosine kinase-coupled phospholipase C-dependent pathway. Moreover, spiperone independently activates CFTR through a novel mechanism. Herein, we performed a mass spectrometry analysis and identified the signaling molecule that mediates the spiperone effect in activating chloride secretion through CaCC and CFTR. Proline-rich tyrosine kinase 2 (PYK2) is a non-receptor protein tyrosine kinase, which belongs to the focal adhesion kinase family. The inhibition of PYK2 notably reduced the ability of spiperone to increase intracellular Ca²⁺ and Cl⁻ secretion. In conclusion, we have identified the tyrosine kinase, PYK2, as the modulator, which plays a crucial role in the activation of CaCC and CFTR by spiperone. The identification of this novel role of PYK2 reveals a new signaling pathway in human airway epithelial cells.