A morphometric comparison of dissimilar early development in sibling species of Platynereis (Annelida,Polychaeta)

Summary Early development of Platynereis massiliensis was studied in serial sections of fixed embryos and in living or fixed embryos whose nuclei had been made visible with a fluorescent label. The unfertilized egg is an ellipsoid with three axes of differing length. The longest axis corresponds to the dorsoventral axis of the developing embryo. Egg volume is ten times that in the sibling species, P. dumerilii, mainly due to increased yolk content. The timing and spatial pattern of cleavage were observed from first cleavage to the 62-cell stage. Volumes of the blastomeres, their nuclei, their yolk-free cytoplasm and their yolk were determined from serial sections up to the 29-cell stage. In the P. massiliensis embryo, cell cycles are on average 3.7 times longer than in P. dumerilii; volume proportions among the blastomeres also differ and the macromeres containing the bulk of yolk are particularly large, but otherwise the cleavage patterns, differential segregation of yolk and yolk-free cytoplasm, and the histogenetic fates of the blastomeres are the same as in P. dumerilii. This equivalence of cell lineage and of cytoplasmic segregation mechanisms in both species, maintained in spite of the different appearance of the embryos, suggests functional importance of and selective constraint on these developmental features. The relatively accelerated divisions of the 2d cell line in P. massiliensis may be interpreted as the precocious development of cell lines which give rise to adult structures. Several structures, obviously functional in developing P. dumerilii, have lost their function in P. massiliensis: the egg contains few cortical granules, giving rise to only a moderate egg jelly layer in the zygote; prototroch cells develop cilia, but the heavy embryo is unable to swim; the larva develops three pairs of parapodia but, unlike the corresponding stage in P. dumerilii, is not capable of coordinate locomotion. This loss of motility is related to the brooding habit of the species developing inside the parental tube and is explained as the result of a switch from pelagic to benthic, protected reproduction in P. massiliensis. Offprint requests to: A.W.C. Dorresteijn     

黄色肉芽肿性胆囊炎与胆囊癌的临床特征分析及螺旋CT检查的鉴别诊断价值

目的:研究黄色肉芽肿性胆囊炎(XGC)与胆囊癌的临床特征分析及螺旋CT检查的鉴别诊断价值。方法:选取从2018年1月-2020年12月于我院接受腹部螺旋CT检查的41例XGC患者纳入研究,记作XGC组,另取同期医院接受腹部螺旋CT检查的45例胆囊癌患者作为胆囊癌组。分析两组临床特征、螺旋CT检查结果表现,比较两组血清血管内皮生长因子(VEGF)、糖类抗原19-9(CA19-9)水平的差异。并以病理检查为金标准,分析螺旋CT检查用作XGC与胆囊癌鉴别诊断的价值。结果:XGC组患者食欲下降、体重下降人数占比均低于胆囊癌组(均P<0.05);而两组腹痛、黄疸、发热、白细胞(WBC)升高、谷丙转氨酶(ALT)升高、谷草转氨酶(AST)升高、胆囊扩张发生率对比差异无统计学意义(均P>0.05)。XGC组囊壁增厚均匀、壁内有低密度结节人数占比均低于胆囊癌组,而有肿大淋巴结人数占比高于胆囊癌组(均P<0.05)。螺旋CT检查诊断XGC的灵敏度、特异度、准确度分别为95.12(39/41)、95.56%(43/45)、95.35%(82/86)。XGC组患者血清VEGF、CA19-9水平均低于胆囊癌组,差异均有统计学意义(均P<0.05)。结论:XGC患者食欲下降、体重下降发生率低于胆囊癌患者,螺旋CT检查鉴别诊断XGC与胆囊癌的价值较高,值得临床关注。     

螺旋CT扫描及三维重建技术在股骨颈骨折分型及治疗中的应用

目的:探讨螺旋CT扫描及三维重建技术在股骨颈骨折分型及治疗中的应用价值。方法:选择2010年5月~2013年5月期间我院收治的股骨颈骨折患者237例为研究对象,根据患者扫描检查方式的不同将其分为对照组(112例)和观察组(125例),对照组患者行髋关节X线正位扫描,观察组行髋关节正位64排螺旋CT扫描,两组均根据扫描结果进行分型并制定相应的治疗方案,比较两组患者骨折内固定手术后2年的股骨头坏死率及骨折不愈合率。结果:两组行骨折内固定手术比例比较,差异无统计学意义(P0.05);术后2年,对照组股骨头坏死5例(22.73%),骨不连6例(27.27%);观察组股骨头坏死1例(3.70%),骨不连1例(3.70%),观察组患者股骨头坏死率及骨折不愈合率均显著低于对照组,差异均有统计学意义(P0.05)。结论:螺旋CT扫描及三维重建成像能够全面、准确显示股骨颈骨折的损伤情况,有助于骨折的正确分型和治疗方法的选择,改善预后。     

Electromechanical model of excitable tissue to study reentrant cardiac arrhythmias

We introduce the concept of a contracting excitable medium that is capable of conducting non-linear waves of excitation that in turn initiate contraction. Furthermore, these kinematic deformations have a feedback effect on the excitation properties of the medium. Electrical characteristics resemble basic models of cardiac excitation that have been used to successfully study mechanisms of reentrant cardiac arrhythmias in electrophysiology. We present a computational framework that employs electromechanical and mechanoelectric feedback to couple a three-variable FitzHugh–Nagumo-type excitation-tension model to the non-linear stress equilibrium equations, which govern large deformation hyperelasticity. Numerically, the coupled electromechanical model combines a finite difference method approach to integrate the excitation equations, with a Galerkin finite element method to solve the equations governing tissue mechanics. We present example computations demonstrating various effects of contraction on stationary rotating spiral waves and spiral wave break. We show that tissue mechanics significantly contributes to the dynamics of electrical propagation, and that a coupled electromechanical approach should be pursued in future electrophysiological modelling studies.     

Spiralling upward

Thin vertical leaves often manifest twist. Perhaps the most prominent example of this is in Typha sp., but such twist is also apparent in Narcissus, Pancratium and many other genera. Such a blade is often referred to as a "spiral leaf". We will indicate the mechanical advantage afforded to the leaf by this arrangement, i.e. that it permits the leaf to achieve a greater height without losing stability, that is bending over due to its own weight. We quantify this gain and show how by a simple experiment it can be shown that the advantage is indeed utilized in nature. Typha domingensis is offered as an example.     

The topology of defibrillation

We describe how Art Winfree's ideas about phase singularities can be used to understand the response of cardiac tissue with a random preexisting pattern of reentrant waves (fibrillation) to a large brief current stimulus. This discussion is organized around spatial dimension, beginning with a discussion of reentry on a periodic ring, followed by reentry in a two-dimensional planar domain (spiral waves), and ending with consideration of three-dimensional reentrant patterns (scroll waves). In all cases, we show how reentrant activity is changed by the application of a shock, describing conditions under which defibrillation is successful or not. Using topological arguments we draw the general conclusion that with a generic placement of stimulating electrodes, large-scale virtual electrodes do not give an adequate explanation for the mechanism of defibrillation.     

Minimal model for human ventricular action potentials in tissue

Modeling the dynamics of wave propagation in human ventricular tissue and studying wave stability require models that reproduce realistic characteristics in tissue. We present a minimal ventricular (MV) human model that is designed to reproduce important tissue-level characteristics of epicardial, endocardial and midmyocardial cells, including action potential (AP) amplitudes and morphologies, upstroke velocities, steady-state action potential duration (APD) and conduction velocity (CV) restitution curves, minimum APD, and minimum diastolic interval. The model is then compared with three previously published human ventricular cell models, the Priebe and Beuckelmann (PB), the Ten Tusscher–Noble–Noble–Panfilov (TNNP), and the Iyer–Mazhari–Winslow (IMW). For the first time, the stability of reentrant waves for all four models is analyzed, and quantitative comparisons are made among the models in single cells and in tissue. The PB, TNNP, and IMW models exhibit quantitative differences in APD and CV rate adaptation, as well as completely different reentrant wave dynamics of quasi-breakup, stability, and breakup, respectively. All the models have dominant frequencies comparable to clinical values except for the IMW model, which has a large range of frequencies extending beyond the clinical range for both ventricular tachycardia (VT) and ventricular fibrillation (VF). The TNNP and IMW models possess a large degree of short-term memory and we show for the first time the existence of memory in CV restitution. The MV model also can be fitted to reproduce the dynamics of other models and is computationally more efficient: the times required to simulate the MV, TNNP, PB and IMW models follow the ratio 1:31:50:8084.     

Investigation on chlorosomal antenna geometries: tube,lamella and spiral-type self-aggregates

Molecular mechanics calculations and exciton theory have been used to study pigment organization in chlorosomes of green bacteria. Single and double rod, multiple concentric rod, lamella, and Archimedean spiral macrostructures of bacteriochlorophyll c molecules were created and their spectral properties evaluated. The effects of length, width, diameter, and curvature of the macrostructures as well as orientations of monomeric transition dipole moment vectors on the spectral properties of the aggregates were studied. Calculated absorption, linear dichroism, and polarization dependent fluorescence-excitation spectra of the studied long macrostructures were practically identical, but circular dichroism spectra turned out to be very sensitive to geometry and monomeric transition dipole moment orientations of the aggregates. The simulations for long multiple rod and spiral-type macrostructures, observed in recent high-resolution electron microscopy images (Oostergetel et al., FEBS Lett 581:5435–5439, 2007) gave shapes of circular dichroism spectra observed experimentally for chlorosomes. It was shown that the ratio of total circular dichroism intensity to integrated absorption of the Q _y transition is a good measure of degree of tubular structures in the chlorosomes. Calculations suggest that the broad Q _y line width of chlorosomes of sulfur bacteria could be due to (1) different orientations of the transition moment vectors in multi-walled rod structures or (2) a variety of Bchl-aggregate structures in the chlorosomes. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Spiral Thickenings of Vessel Elements in Magnoliaceae in China

Spiral thickenings in the inner walls of vessels were studied in 10 genera 69 species of Magnoliaceae in China under scanning electron microscopic observation. Spiral thickenings were found in some species. The majority of these species showed complete thickenings of the inner wall, however, in some of which the spiral thickenings were less obvious at both ends. In others, these spiral thickenings existed only in the middle portion, uniformly or irregularly distributed.