Evaluation of "unique" aspects of human vertebral bodies and pedicles with a consideration of Australopithecus africanus

Recent functional studies of human vertebrae have revealed that loads borne by the axial skeleton during bipedal postures and locomotion pass through the pedicles and posterior elements as well as through the bodies and discs. Accordingly, particular morphological attributes of these vertebral elements have been linked exclusively with bipedalism. In order to test the validity of current form-function associations in human vertebral anatomy, this study considers the morphology of human thoracolumbar vertebral bodies and pedicles in the context of a wide comparative primate sample. The last lumbar vertebra of STS 14 (Australopithecus africanus) is also included in the analysis. Results indicate that certain features of human vertebrae previously thought to reflect bipedalism are characteristic of several nonhuman primates, including those whose posture is habitually pronograde. These features include the decrease in vertebral body surface area and the increase in cross-sectional area of the pedicle between the penultimate and last lumbar vertebra. In addition, although humans have relatively large and wide last lumbar pedicles, the enlargement and widening of the pedicle between the penultimate and last lumbar vertebra is not unique to humans. On the other hand, human vertebrae do exhibit several unique adaptations to bipedal posture and locomotion: (1) the vertebral body surface areas of the lower lumbar vertebrae and the cross-sectional areas of the last lumbar pedicles are large relative to body size, and (2) the last lumbar pedicles are wider relative to length and to body size than are those of nonhuman primates. The last lumbar vertebra of STS 14 does not exhibit any of these human-like vertebral features—its pedicles and body surface areas are relatively small, and its pedicles are not relatively wide, but relatively short.     

Understanding the evolutionary processes of fungal fruiting bodies: correlated evolution and divergence times in the Psathyrellaceae

Fruiting body evolution is one of the central topics in fungal evolutionary biology. A number of hypotheses have been developed to explain the contemporary diversity of fruiting body forms, but their evaluation has been hampered by the lack of well-sampled data sets and suitable statistical methods. Phylogenetic evidence of the physiological changes that accompany switches in fruiting body type is lacking, and very little is known about the age of major events of fruiting body evolution. Based on a new multigene phylogeny, by using Bayesian methods, we demonstrate the existence of correlation between a number of morphological features and switches from nondeliquescent to deliquescent (autodigesting) fruiting bodies in the mushroom family Psathyrellaceae. Our results show that switches in the anatomy of two types of spacer cells (cystidia and pseudoparaphyses) and basidia (bimorphic or monomorphic) as well as the structure of the mushroom cap follow the evolution of deliquescent fruiting bodies, which suggests strong functional linkage between these traits. We performed Bayes factor-based tests, referred hereafter to as evolutionary pathway test (EPT), to decide which of the correlated characters were gained first during evolution. The EPTs strongly suggest that deliquescence was gained first, followed after short waiting times by the other morphological features. Bayesian relaxed molecular clock analyses suggest that the various events of switching between fruiting body types occurred independently at various ages during the history of the family. The utility of two mushroom fossils (Archaemarasmius and Protomycena), the only ones with unambiguous taxonomic positions, for the calibration of agaric trees were also examined. Based on our results, we suggest that the evolutionary benefit of deliquescence may be prevention against desiccation via accelerated ontogeny of the fruiting body. Hypotheses regarding the functional significance of the correlated evolution are presented and discussed. Further, we argue that the changes in fruiting body types in mushrooms in general can be attributed to independent events (e.g., dispersal and adaptation) and not to particular geologic ages.     

Voxel-based computational models of real human anatomy: a review

Computational models of human anatomy are mathematical representations of human anatomy designed to be used in dosimetry calculations. They have been used in dosimetry calculations for radiography, radiotherapy, nuclear medicine, radiation protection and to investigate the effects of low frequency electromagnetic fields. Tomographic medical imaging techniques have allowed the construction of digital three-dimensional computational models based on the actual anatomy of individual humans. These are called voxel models, tomographic models or phantoms. Their usefulness lies in their faithful representation of human anatomy and the flexibility they afford by being able to be scaled in size to match the required human dimensions. Segmenting medical images in order to make voxel models is very time-consuming so semi-automatic segmentation techniques are being developed. Some 21 whole or partial body models currently exist and more are being prepared. These models are listed and discussed.     

Cat dissection vs. sculpting human structures in clay: an analysis of two approaches to undergraduate human anatomy laboratory education

Many human anatomy courses are taught using cat dissection. Alternatives are available, but information regarding learning outcomes is incomplete. In 2003, approximately 120 undergraduates enrolled in a human anatomy course were assigned to one of two treatment groups. In the control group, students performed cat dissections (emphasizing isolation and identification) of the muscular, digestive, and cardiovascular systems. In the experimental treatment group, students built clay sculptures of each human body system. Student learning was evaluated by using both low- and high-difficulty questions. On pre- and postexperiment control exams, there were no significant differences in student performance. On exams after a cat dissection vs. a human-clay sculpting experience, the students in the human-clay sculpting treatment group scored significantly higher than their classmates in the cat dissection group on both the low- and high-difficulty questions. Student attitudes toward dissection and taking future human anatomy courses were also measured. There were no differences in student attitudes at the beginning of the experiment; afterward, students exposed to a cat dissection experience viewed dissection more favorably than students in the human-clay sculpting treatment group. There were no treatment effects on student willingness to take future human anatomy courses. The experimental design makes it difficult to conclude precisely why students assigned to the human-clay sculpting experience performed better on exams, but as each method was performed in this particular human anatomy course, our data indicate that human-clay sculpting may be a viable alternative to cat dissection in an anatomy course in which the students focus on human anatomy.     

Tongue as a first-line immune organ?

The tongue is an organ strategically situated at the beginning of the gastrointestinal(Gl)system,yet it has been remarkably understudied.Not only there is no separate subspecialty dedicated to the tongue,it is even excluded from 27 human organs/tissues thoroughly archived in the NCBI gene expression database.Almost none of my physician colleagues in Western medicine have paid attention to it,except a few who study tongue cancer.The tongue is typically described as a muscular organ important for taste,mastication,speech and sensation.Other than its development,anatomy/gross structural analyses and taste function(for recent reviews,see Roper and Chaudhari,2017),the human tongue is poorly studied in Western medicine,in particular,in terms of its roles in systemic diseases.In traditional Chinese medicine(TCM),however,the tongue holds a special place.Assessing the“tongue coating”,"tongue body”and morphological features is one of the most critical skills that TCM doctors have relied on for disease diagnoses for thousands of years before the advent of Western Medicine.     

Information,Representation, Biology

Biosemiotics contains at its core fundamental issues of naturalism: are normative properties, such as meaning, referent, and others, part of the natural world, or are they part of a second, intentional and normative, metaphysical realm — one that might be analogically applied to natural phenomena, such as within biological cells — but a realm that nevertheless remains metaphysically distinct? Such issues are manifestations of a fundamental metaphysical split between a “natural” realm and a realm of normativity and intentionality. This problematic metaphysical split derives from conceptual problems originating with the Pre-Socratics; transcending that split requires correcting those problems. In particular, transcending that split requires a model of metaphysical emergence, and, in particular, normative emergence. This paper will limn that argument regarding metaphysical emergence, but focus most strongly on an overview of a model of normative, representational emergence that overcomes that metaphysical diremption.     

Electric-field controlled liposome formation with embedded superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles

Liposomes are one of the most promising biomaterial carriers to deliver DNA,(1) proteins, drugs and medicine in human bodies. However, artificially formed liposomes have to satisfy some crucial functions such as: (i) to efficiently carry drugs to targeted systems, (ii) to be biologically stable until they are removed from human body, (iii) to be biodegradable, and (iv) to be sufficiently small in size for effective drug delivery. Here, we report an efficient and novel method to simultaneously manufacture and incorporate super-paramagnetic iron-oxide nanoparticles (efficient target finder in the presence of external magnetic field) into the liposome's interior and its bilayer. In this technique, we use electric field to control the formation of liposomes and the incorporation of iron oxide nanoparticles. Our preparation procedure does not require any chemical or ultrasound treatments. Apart from that, we also provide further experimental investigations on the role of electric fields on the formation of liposomes using XPS(2) and the magnetic-optical microscope.     

The role of mechanical resonance in the neural control of swimming in fishes

The bodies of many fishes are flexible, elastic structures; if you bend them, they spring back. Therefore, they should have a resonant frequency: a bending frequency at which the output amplitude is maximized for a particular input. Previous groups have hypothesized that swimming at this resonant frequency could maximize efficiency, and that a neural circuit called the central pattern generator might be able to entrain to a mechanical resonance. However, fishes swim in water, which may potentially damp out many resonant effects. Additionally, their bodies are elongated, which means that bending can occur in complicated ways along the length of the body. We review previous studies of the mechanical properties of fish bodies, and then present new data that demonstrate complex bending properties of elongated fish bodies. Resonant peaks in amplitude exist, but there may be many of them depending on the body wavelength. Additionally, they may not correspond to the maximum swimming speed. Next, we describe experiments using a closed-loop preparation of the lamprey, in which a preparation of the spinal cord is linked to a real-time simulation of the muscle and body properties, allowing us to examine resonance entrainment as we vary the simulated resonant frequency. We find that resonance entrainment does occur, but is rare. Gain had a significant, though weak, effect, and a nonlinear muscle model produced resonance entrainment more often than a linear filter. We speculate that resonance may not be a critical effect for efficient swimming in elongate, anguilliform swimmers, though it may be more important for stiffer carangiform and thunniform fishes.     

活血化瘀法对肠道菌群结构及 肠屏障功能影响的研究

随着人们对于肠道菌群种类以及作用认识的逐渐深入,我们发现作为人体庞大而又复杂的微生态系统,肠道菌群的结构及和菌群分布有紧密联系的肠屏障功能的改变与人体的健康息息相关。中药作为传统医学的一种治疗方法,其对人体的治疗作用是十分显著的,而活血化瘀法是使用具有消散作用及攻逐体内淤血作用的药物来治疗人类各种疾病的一种方法,这种方法对于肠道菌群以及肠屏障功能也产生了深远的影响。本文围绕肠道菌群结构改变及肠黏膜屏障功能的变化,对近十年关于肠道菌群与活血化瘀方药的相关文献进行综述,探究活血化瘀法(中药及中药复方)对于肠道菌群的影响,为临床治疗提供新思路。     

Body Building on Diamonds

Whereas conservative therapies aim to stall the advance of disease,regenerative medicine strives to reverse it.The capacityof most tissues to regenerate derives from stem cells,but there are a number of barriers which have to be circumvented before itwill be possible to use stem-cell-based therapies.Such therapies,however,are expected to improve human health enormously,and knowledge gained from studying stem cells in culture and in model organisms is now laying the groundwork for a new eraof regenerative medicine.One of the most prominent methods to study stem cell differentiation is to let them to form embryoidbodies.Under favourable conditions any stem cell line will form embryoid bodies.However,the mechanism of the formation ofembryoid bodies is not very well understood,and to produce them in the laboratory is in no way trivial-an important technicalbarrier in stem cell research.Recently,the embryoid body cultivation step has been successfully circumvented for the derivationof osteogenic cultures of embryonic stem cells.Here we report on a simple and reusable system to cultivate embryoid bodies inextremely short times.The method is inspired by the principles that lead to the establishment of the biomimetic triangle.     

Identification of PatL1, a human homolog to yeast P body component Pat1

In yeast, the activators of mRNA decapping, Pat1, Lsm1 and Dhh1, accumulate in processing bodies (P bodies) together with other proteins of the 5'-3'-deadenylation-dependent mRNA decay pathway. The Pat1 protein is of particular interest because it functions in the opposing processes of mRNA translation and mRNA degradation, thus suggesting an important regulatory role. In contrast to other components of this mRNA decay pathway, the human homolog of the yeast Pat1 protein was unknown. Here we describe the identification of two human PAT1 genes and show that one of them, PATL1, codes for an ORF with similar features as the yeast PAT1. As expected for a protein with a fundamental role in translation control, PATL1 mRNA was ubiquitously expressed in all human tissues as were the mRNAs of LSM1 and RCK, the human homologs of yeast LSM1 and DHH1, respectively. Furthermore, fluorescence-tagged PatL1 protein accumulated in distinct foci that correspond to P bodies, as they co-localized with the P body components Lsm1, Rck/p54 and the decapping enzyme Dcp1. In addition, as for its yeast counterpart, PatL1 expression was required for P body formation. Taken together, these data emphasize the conservation of important P body components from yeast to human cells.     

Understanding complex systems: lessons from Auzoux’s and von Hagens’s anatomical models

Animal and human anatomy is among the most complex systems known, and suitable teaching methods have been of great importance in the progress of knowledge. Examining the human body is part of the process by which medical students come to understand living forms. However, the need to preserve cadavers has led to the development of various techniques to manufacture models for teaching purposes. A variety of materials, such as wax, wood, papier-maché, or glass, have long been used to construct animal and plant models. In the case of the human body, the most innovative, yet controversial, method of preservation has been plastination, invented by the German physician Gunther von Hagens, by which actual human bodies are preserved as odourless and aesthetic models for teaching and exhibitions. We point out in our study that the ‘hands-on’ approach that some anatomical models allow, namely, the (clastic) disassembly and reassembly of the parts of complex systems and their models, is not only a crucial tool for learning, but is far superior to the simple passive observation that rigid, single-piece models allow. And what is valid for the learning of anatomy can be generalized to the acquisition of knowledge of other complex physical systems.     

PBL教学应用于少数民族学生解剖学教学的体悟

人体解剖学是直接影响其他基础医学和临床医学课程教学成效的重要基础课程。新疆是多民族聚居区,我校也是以少数民族学生居多,所以如何结合他们的民族特点,运用良好的教学方法和教学手段,对提高我校少数民族人体解剖学的教学质量具有至关重要的作用。我们在教学过程中开展了PBL教学探索,认为PBL教学可以锻炼学生的自主学习能力,激发学生的学习兴趣,以弥补传统教学中的呆板、缺乏灵活性等缺点,让学生更快更好更有兴趣地学习人体解剖学,从而达到提高教学质量的目的,为少数民族教育探索提供了新的途径。     

Changes of blood volume distribution by postural changes in rats

During a space flight the human body responds to many different gravities. The launching of the rocket, the weightlessness, the re-entry of the spacecraft, and other factors influence the astronaut's body. The fluid shifts and the effect on the cardiovascular system arising from these gravitational changes have been frequently studied in space medicine by using body tilting, lower body negative pressure (LBNP) and centrifugal accelerators. There exist, however, few reports about the changes in whole body blood volume distribution caused by body tilting. These changes can be measured using radioisotopes: scintigraphy using 99mTechnetium-labeled human serum albumin (99mTc-HSA), etc. In humans, however, because the visual field of the scintillation camera is so small, the simultaneous measurement of whole body blood volume distribution cannot be done during body tilting. We therefore used rats, whose whole bodies can be encompassed within the visual field of the camera, and we discussed the changes in blood volume distribution induced by body tilting. We also measured the blood concentrations in each organ by using whole body autoradiography in mice, and discussed the effect of postural changes on some abdominal organs.     

Self‐ownership,relational dignity,and organ sales

Material property has traditionally been conceived of as separable from its owner and thus alienable in an exchange. So it seems that you could sell your watch or even your kidney because it can be removed from your wrist or abdomen and transferred to another. However, if we are each identical to a living human animal, self‐ownership is impossible for self‐separation is impossible. We thus cannot sell our parts if we don't own the whole that they compose. It would be incoherent to own all of your body's parts but not the whole body; and it would be arbitrary to own some but not all of your removable parts. These metaphysical obstacles to organ sales do not apply to the selling of the organs of the deceased. The human being goes out of existence at death and is not identical to the body's remains. Any objections to selling the organs of the deceased must instead be due to dignity rather than metaphysical or conceptual considerations. But the remains lack the intrinsic dignity of the human being, instead possessing, at best, relational dignity. Relational dignity would not provide sufficient reason to prohibit life‐saving sales.     

Reflections on humanizing biomedicine

Although biomedicine is responsible for the "miracles" of modern medicine, paradoxically it has also led to a quality-of-care crisis in which many patients feel disenfranchised from the health-care industry. To address this crisis, several medical commentators make an appeal for humanizing biomedicine, which has led to shifts in the philosophical boundaries of medical knowledge and practice. In this paper, the metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical boundaries of biomedicine and its humanized versions are investigated and compared to one another. Biomedicine is founded on a metaphysical position of mechanistic monism, an epistemology of objective knowing, and an ethic of emotionally detached concern. In humanizing modern medicine, these boundaries are often shifted to a metaphysical position of dualism/holism, an epistemology of subject knowing, and an ethic of empathic care. In a concluding section, the question is discussed whether these shifts in the philosophical boundaries are adequate to resolve the quality-of-care crisis.     

Protein kinases predominately expressed in human ES cell lines during differentiation

Capacity of human embryonic stem cells (ESC) for unlimited proliferation and differentiation make them an attractive object in fundamental science and medicine. Little is known about the mechanisms that direct cells to particular differentiation or sustain them in an undifferentiated state. Activation of these mechanisms is determined by gene expression mediated by cascades of signal transduction. Protein kinases are essential components of signal pathways. The study of protein kinases expression in ESC and embryoid bodies facilitates a better understanding of the processes underlying the differentiation stages. We isolated cDNA libraries with fragments of catalytic domains of protein kinases expressed in human ESC and embryoid bodies (EB) of hESM01 and hESM02 cell lines. Using Northern hybridization, we revealed a high level of protein kinases MAK-V in human ESC. Expressions of MAK-V, A-RAF-1, MAPK3, IGF1R, NEK3, and NEK7 in ESC and EB in hESM01 and hESM02 cell lines were compared by the semiquantitative method RT-PCR.