No Evidence‐Based Restoration Without a Sound Evidence Base: A Reply to Guldemond et al.

Evidence‐based practice is not possible without an evidence base. Guldemond et al. confuse our attempt at assessing the status of the evidence base of restoration programs in South Africa with attempting to assess whether restoration is evidence‐based. While we fully agree with them that there is a need to assess whether practitioners use evidence in their decision‐making, we assert that use of evidence is the last step in the evidence‐based approach. It is preceded by the generation (and documentation) of evidence through baseline condition assessment, proper goal setting, sound monitoring of the impacts of the chosen intervention as well as effective dissemination of resulting evidence. To answer the question whether restoration is evidence‐based would require the assessment of all stages from generation to use. We chose to start at the beginning, a logical place to start.     

On the Assessment of the Performance of Multiple Test Procedures

Based on the concept of the multiple level of significance two criteria for assessing the performance of multiple tests are proposed: The simultaneous power is defined as the probability of rejecting all false null hypotheses. The probability of a correct decision is defined as the probability of correctly rejecting all false null hypotheses and accepting all true ones. Both criteria are discussed for nonstagewise and stagewise procedures in case of independent test statistics. For the example of 5 independently and normally distributed test statistics the values of the two criteria are calcutated under reasonably simple alternatives.     

The effect of behavioural and morphological plasticity on foraging efficiency in the threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus sp.)

We conducted an experiment to assess the change in foraging efficiency resulting from diet-induced morphological and behavioural plasticity in a species of freshwater, threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus sp.). Different degrees of morphological and behavioural change were induced using two prey items commonly found in the diet of this species, allowing us to estimate the relative importance of each type of plasticity. The purpose of the experiment was twofold. First, earlier work had suggested that diet variability might be an important factor in the evolution of trophic morphological plasticity in sticklebacks. The present results extend this work by revealing the adaptive significance of morphological plasticity. The current experiment also qualitatively assessed the compatibility of the time scale of morphological change with that of the natural resource variability experienced by this species. The results indicate that diet-induced plasticity improves foraging efficiency continuously for up to 72 days of prey exposure. This is probably due in part to plasticity of the external trophic morphology but our results also suggest a complex interplay between morphology and behaviour. The time scale appears to be matched to that of natural diet variability although it is possible that some traits exhibit non-labile plasticity. Our discussion highlights the important distinction between conditions favouring the evolution of labile versus non-labile plasticity. The second objective of the experiment was to determine the relative importance of morphological and behavioural plasticity. Few studies have attempted to quantify the adaptive significance of morphological plasticity and no study to our knowledge has separated the effects of morphological and behavioural plasticity. Our experiment reveals that both behavioural and morphological plasticity are important and it also suggests a dichotomy between the two: behavioural plasticity predominately affects searching efficiency whereas morphological plasticity predominately affects handling efficiency.     

Correlation of urinary inflammatory and oxidative stress markers in very low birth weight infants with subsequent development of bronchopulmonary dysplasia

Abstract

Currently, bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) occurs almost exclusively in pre-term infants. In addition to prematurity, other factors like oxygen toxicity and inflammation can contribute to the pathogenesis. This study aimed to compare urinary inflammatory and oxidative stress markers between the no/mild BPD group and moderate/severe BPD group and between BPD cases with significant early lung disease like respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) (‘classic’ BPD) and with minimal early lung disease (‘atypical’ BPD). A total of 60 patients who were a gestational age < 30 weeks or a birth weight < 1250 g were included. Urine samples were obtained on the 1^st, 3^rd and 7^th day of life and measured the levels of leukotriene E₄ (LTE₄) and 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG). The 8-OHdG values on the 3^rd day showed significant correlation to duration of mechanical ventilation. The 8-OHdG levels on the 7^th day were the independent risk factor for developing moderate/severe BPD. In ‘classic’ BPD, the 8-OHdG values on the 3^rd day were higher than those of ‘atypical’ BPD. In ‘atypical’ BPD, the LTE₄ values on the 7^th day were higher than the values in ‘classic’ BPD. These results suggest that oxidative DNA damage could be the crucial mechanism in the pathogenesis of current BPD and the ongoing inflammatory process could be an important mechanism in ‘atypical’ BPD.     

Selection and Identification of Aptamers Against B Cell Activating Factor

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is the most common autoimmune disease in China. B cell activating factor (BAFF) is an important target for the treatment and detection of SLE. It is of great significance to develop novel molecular recognition elements with high affinity for BAFF. In this study, artificial nucleic acid aptamers against BAFF were screened from a 78 nt single-stranded DNA random library by systematic evolution of ligands exponential enrichment (SELEX) in vitro based on several selection and amplification steps. Through ten rounds of selection, the aptamers with high specificity and affinity for BAFF were identified. After high-throughput sequencing, several aptamers were selected and further examined for binding affinity and specificity. The investigation by dot blotting, Eastern blotting analyses and enzyme-linked oligonucleotide assay (ELONA) showed that the aptamers Apt 7 and Apt 12 with dissociation constants of 241.00±19.75 nmol/L and 413.51±46.94 nmol/L were able to recognize BAFF specifically. After molecular docking analysis, Apt 7 was truncated to Apt 7～1, and the dissociation constant was 192.10±28.61 nmol/L. A sandwich ELONA using Apt 7～1 and BAFF antibodies was established to detect BAFF. The detection limit was estimated to be 0.227 nmol/L. This study provides new molecular recognition elements for the detection of BAFF and the study of antagonists.     

Microbial production of propionic acid from propionibacteria: Current state,challenges and perspectives

Propionic acid (PA) is an important building block chemical and finds a variety of applications in organic synthesis, food, feeding stuffs, perfume, paint and pharmaceutical industries. Presently, PA is mainly produced by petrochemical route. With the continuous increase in oil prices, public concern about environmental pollution, and the consumers’ desire for bio-based natural and green ingredients in foods and pharmaceuticals, PA production from propionibacteria has attracted considerable attention, and substantial progresses have been made on microbial PA production. However, production of PA by propionibacteria is facing challenges such as severe inhibition of end-products during cell growth and the formation of by-products (acetic acid and succinic acid). The integration of reverse metabolic engineering and systematic metabolic engineering provides an opportunity to significantly improve the acid tolerance of propionibacteria and reduce the formation of by-products, and makes it feasible to strengthen the commercial competition of biotechnological PA production from propionibacteria to be comparable to the petrochemical route.     

The subtype-specific molecular function of SPDEF in breast cancer and insights into prognostic significance

Breast cancer (BC) is a molecular diverse disease which becomes the most common malignancy among women worldwide. There are four BC subtypes (Luminal A, Luminal B, HER2-enriched and Basal-like) robustly established following gene expression pattern-based characterization, behave significant differences in terms of their incidence, risk factors, prognosis and therapeutic sensitivity. Thus, there is an urgent need to provide mechanism research, treatment strategies and/or prognosis evaluation based on the patient stratification of BC subtypes. The prostate-derived ETS factor SPDEF was first identified as an activator of prostate specific antigen, and then, the involvements in many aspects of BC have been proposed. However, the subtype-specific molecular function of SPDEF in BC and insights into prognostic significance have not been clearly elucidated. This study demonstrated for the first time that SPDEF may play a diversity role in the expression levels, clinicopathologic importance, biological function and prognostic evaluation in BC via bioinformatics and experimental evidence, which mainly depends on different BC subtyping. In summary, our findings would help to better understand the possible mechanisms of various BC subtypes and to find possible candidate genes for prognostic and therapeutic usage.     

Modeling cell-in-cell structure into its biological significance

Although cell-in-cell structure was noted 100 years ago, the molecular mechanisms of ‘entering'' and the destination of cell-in-cell remain largely unclear. It takes place among the same type of cells (homotypic cell-in-cell) or different types of cells (heterotypic cell-in-cell). Cell-in-cell formation affects both effector cells and their host cells in multiple aspects, while cell-in-cell death is under more intensive investigation. Given that cell-in-cell has an important role in maintaining homeostasis, aberrant cell-in-cell process contributes to the etiopathology in humans. Indeed, cell-in-cell is observed in many pathological processes of human diseases. In this review, we intend to discuss the biological models of cell-in-cell structures under physiological and pathological status.