Fungal spores are an important component of library air

The airborne fungal spore types were studied in different libraries in Delhi, using an Andersen sampler and a Burkard personal sampler, for culturable and non-culturable fungi respectively. The concentration inside the libraries, before and after the agitation of books, were compared with outside air. The major contributors to the library air areCladosporium, aspergilli/penicillia, smuts andAlternaria, varying from 50 to 14%. Some fungi (Cladosporium, Alternaria, smut,Penicillium chrysogenum andnigricans) showed seasonal occurrence, corresponding to their occurrence in the extramural environment. Aspergilli/penicillia,Drechslera, Curvularia andAspergillus flavus had a significantly higher concentration (P<0.01) inside the library, and recorded a significant increase in concentration after agitation of books. Air-conditioned libraries have low fungal spore concentrations, as compared to naturally ventilated libraries.     

GPGPU加速生物序列比对研究进展

序列比对是生物信息学中最常用和最经典的研究手段。生物序列比对需要有强大计算能力的硬件支撑,而近年快速发展起来的GPGPU正好可堪此任。本文首先介绍GPGPU的发展过程,进而讲述GPGPU硬件设备与其编程环境,然后对GPGPU做科学计算时需要的数学库函数做一介绍,最后综述近年来国内外基于GPGPU的生物序列比对软件和相关研究工作,并总结和展望其辉煌前景。     

Rule extraction in gene–disease relationship discovery

Background

Biomedical data available to researchers and clinicians have increased dramatically over the past years because of the exponential growth of knowledge in medical biology. It is difficult for curators to go through all of the unstructured documents so as to curate the information to the database. Associating genes with diseases is important because it is a fundamental challenge in human health with applications to understanding disease properties and developing new techniques for prevention, diagnosis and therapy.

Methods

Our study uses the automatic rule-learning approach to gene–disease relationship extraction. We first prepare the experimental corpus from MEDLINE and OMIM. A parser is applied to produce some grammatical information. We then learn all possible rules that discriminate relevant from irrelevant sentences. After that, we compute the scores of the learned rules in order to select rules of interest. As a result, a set of rules is generated.

Results

We produce the learned rules automatically from the 1000 positive and 1000 negative sentences. The test set includes 400 sentences composed of 200 positives and 200 negatives. Precision, recall and F-score served as our evaluation metrics. The results reveal that the maximal precision rate is 77.8% and the maximal recall rate is 63.5%. The maximal F-score is 66.9% where the precision rate is 70.6% and the recall rate is 63.5%.

Conclusions

We employ the rule-learning approach to extract gene–disease relationships. Our main contributions are to build rules automatically and to support a more complete set of rules than a manually generated one. The experiments show exhilarating results and some improving efforts will be made in the future.     

Discovery of new PPARγ agonists based on arylopeptoids

In this study we present the design, synthesis and biological evaluation of a small, first-generation library of small molecule aromatic amides based on the arylopeptoid skeleton. The compounds were efficiently synthesized using a highly convenient submonomer solid-phase methodology which potentially allows for access to great product diversity. The synthesized compounds were tested for their ability to activate peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) and they all acted as PPARγ agonists in the μM range spanning from 2.5- to 14.7-fold activation of the receptor. This is the first discovery of bioactive molecules based on the arylopeptoid architecture.     

Design,synthesis and biological evaluation of novel aminothiazoles as antiviral compounds acting against human rhinovirus

We describe here the design, synthesis and biological evaluation of antiviral compounds acting against human rhinovirus (HRV). A series of aminothiazoles demonstrated pan-activity against the HRV genotypes screened and productive structure–activity relationships. A comprehensive investigational library was designed and performed allowing the identification of potent compounds with lower molecular weight and improved ADME profile. 31d-1, 31d-2, 31f showed good exposures in CD-1 mice. The mechanism of action was discovered to be a host target: the lipid kinase phosphatidylinositol 4-kinase III beta (PI4KIIIß). The identification of the pan-HRV active compound 31f combined with a structurally distinct literature compound T-00127-HEV1 allowed the assessment of target related tolerability of inhibiting this kinase for a short period of time in order to prevent HRV replication.     

不同时间服用比索洛尔对非杓型高血压血压的影响

目的:观察不同给药时间分别给予比索洛尔对非杓型原发性高血压患者的降压疗效和血压节律恢复的影响。方法:选取60例非杓型高血压患者,采取随机平行对照试验,观察比索洛尔(n=30)每日早晨(8:00)给药2.5-10mg、比索洛尔(n=30)每日夜间(20:00)给药2.5-10mg治疗8周后的降压疗效。结果:两种给药方法均能降低非杓型高血压患者的全天血压(P<0.05)。两种给药方法在白天的血压控制上无显著性差异(P>0.05),但在夜间血压的控制上夜间服药降压效果具有显著性差异(P<0.05)。夜间服药在血压节律恢复方面优于早晨服药(P<0.05),早晨服药组有10例恢复杓型,夜间服药组有19例恢复杓型。结论:比索洛尔的两种给药方式均能安全有效的降压,但对于非杓型高血压患者夜间服药优于早晨服药,更有利于血压节律的恢复。     

Applying genomics to the avian inner ear: development of subtractive cDNA resources for exploring sensory function and hair cell regeneration

We applied a micro-cDNA-based subtraction method to identify genes expressed in the regenerating sensory epithelia (SE) of the chicken inner ear. Sensory hair cells in the avian utricle SE are in a constant state of turnover, where dying hair cells are replaced by new ones derived from supporting cells. In contrast, hair cells in the cochlea remain quiescent unless damaged. We used this difference to enrich for utricle-specific genes, using reiterative cDNA subtraction and demonstrate enrichment for utricle-specific sequences. A total of 1710 cDNA sequence reads revealed the presence of many cDNAs encoding known structural components of the SE (for example, Harmonin and beta-tectorin), proteins involved in cellular proliferation, such as P311, HIPK2, and SPALT1, among many others of unknown function. These libraries are the first of their kind and should prove useful for the discovery of candidate genes for hearing disorders, regenerative and apoptotic pathways, and novel chicken ESTs.     

当前疫苗工业综述

本文系统化的综述了当前一个热门的研发领域-疫苗工业,并详细分析了其背景和潜在的市场,以及中国疫苗工业在发展中可能遇到的机遇和挑战。此外,还对中国疫苗工业存在的某些问题提出了解决方法。只有加强中国生物技术公司在高端疫苗领域的技术水平才能在根本上与国外制药业巨头竞争一席之地,向广大民众提供更好的药物。     

利用磁珠构建稻瘟菌cDNA文库

本文以稻瘟菌菌丝体为材料提取RNA,[目的]改进张学敏等人的方法,通过磁珠构建稻瘟菌cDNA文库,并用于下一步研究稻瘟菌与水稻之间的互作关系.[方法]通过共价键连接的寡聚oligo(dT)磁珠纯化mRNA,并以磁珠上的oligo(dT)为引物引导第一链cDNA的合成,再利用末端转移酶加尾法合成第二链cDNA.构建过程中避免使用限制酶和连接接头.[结果]用此方法构建的文库容量为8.9×107cfu,滴度为8.9×106 cfu/mL,随机挑取的25个克隆插入片断平均大小达到1380bp.[结论]实验结果表明用改进的方法可构建高质量的cDNA文库,并且方便快捷,所用材料少,构建时间短,利于大规模的功能基因分析.