A conformable mathematical model for alcohol consumption in Spain

A study on the conformable model of alcohol consumption in Spain has been presented.For the proposed model,the existence as well as the uniqueness of the solution has been discussed with the help of fixed-point theory.An analytical technique,Variational Iteration Method (VIM),has been used to obtain the solution to the governing system of differential equations.With the help of suitable plots,the role of fractional order derivative has been highlighted.For decreasing values of fractional order derivative,decrease in the number of non-consumers and non-risk consumers has been observed.By increasing the value of fractional order derivative,a sharp decrease can be seen in the compartment of risk-consumers.The agreement between the current study and the already existing studies,with ordinary derivatives,has also been pointed out.     

Primary structure and configuration of tea polysaccharide

Polysaccharide is a class of natural macromole-cules of which many species have been found to carry significant biological activities. Although the research on activities of saccharide has been at a lower level in the past comparing to those of proteins and nucleic acids, much progress has been made in recent years because of accelerated activities worldwide[1]. Such progress has been made mostly in areas of structural analysis, and researches on structure-activity relation-ships. The biologic…     

乙醇酸氧化酶:分布、结构与调节(英文)

Glycolate oxidase(GO, EC 1.1.3.1) is the key enzyme in the photorespiratory glycolate pathway which catalyzes the first reaction in the pathway, i.e., the oxidation of glycolate to glyoxylate. A large amount of research has been done to study the properties and structure of this important enzyme which has been reviewed recently by the author(LI 1988a). During the past ten years studies on the distribution, structure and regulation of this enzyme have been made in     

HIV/AIDS in Asia： The Shape of Epidemics and Their Molecular Epidemiology

The Asia-Pacific region is a home to 60% of the population in the world and to approximately one quarter of people with HIV/AIDS. Close to a million of people has been infected and a half million people died of AIDS annually in Asia,becoming the second largest epicenter of global AIDS epidemic. Molecular epidemiology has been useful tool to track a course of HIV spread. In-depth knowledge from the studies on molecular epidemiology elucidates the dynamics of HIV spread and the interrelationship of epidemics in the different regions in Asia.     

How the Key Finds its Door-Identification of HBV Receptor

HBV is the predominant pathogen associated with hepatitis cases in China. Although the HBV replication mechanism has been extensively documented in recent years, the virus entry mechanism remains elusive; in particular, the HBV receptor has yet to be identified     

Baculoviruses as Vectors in Mammalian Cells

The Baculoviridae are a large family of enveloped DNA viruses exclusively pathogenic to arthropods. Baculoviruses have been extensively used in insect cell-based recombinant protein expression system and as biological pesticides. They have been deomostrated to be safe to mammals, birds and fish. Recently, baculoviruses has been shown to transduce different mammalian cells in spite of the fact that they cannot replicate in mammalian cells (11, 73, 76). This has resulted in the development of baculoviruses as mammalian expression systems and even as vestors for gene therapy.     

Nitrogen use scenario in India

Nitrogen is one of the major plant nutrients without which the agricultural production is not possible. Nitrogen use in Indian agriculture was nearly 55000 tons in 1950-1951 that increased to 11.31 million tons in 2001 -2002. The total food production of the country has also experienced the similar increase from 50.83 to 222 million tons in the respective years. Interestingly the N fertilizer consumption of India remained almost constant during the last six years indicating the possibility of reducing N consumption. The highest N consumption is in North zone owing to the introduction of rice-wheat cropping system followed by West, South and East. The N use efficiency has been reported to be varying between 30% to 50% depending on the crops and the management. But in most of the cases, N use efficiency has been calculated based on the total N removed by the crops (above ground part only) ignoring the N content left in the roots. It has been observed in controlled experiments that the total N uptake by roots varied from 18% to 44% of the total N removed by the above ground parts, i.e. grain and straw. If the root N is also accounted, the N use efficiency will be higher than reported. The management of other organic sources has to be improved so as to increase the fertilizer use efficiency as well as to check the direct release of N in the atmosphere. In this review all these issues will be dealt.     

Advances in regulation and function of stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1 in cancer,from bench to bed

Stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1(SCD1) converts saturated fatty acids to monounsaturated fatty acids. The expression of SCD1 is increased in many cancers, and the altered expression contributes to the proliferation, invasion, stemness and chemoresistance of cancer cells. Recently, more evidence has been reported to further support the important role of SCD1 in cancer, and the regulation mechanism of SCD1 has also been focused. Multiple factors are involved in the regulation of SCD1, including metabolis...     

Genetic basis and biotechnological manipulation of sexual dimorphism and sex determination in fish

Aquaculture has made an enormous contribution to the world food production,especially to the sustainable supply of animal proteins.The utility of diverse reproduction strategies in fish,such as the exploiting use of unisexual gynogenesis,has created a typical case of fish genetic breeding.A number of fish species show substantial sexual dimorphism that is closely linked to multiple economic traits including growth rate and body size,and the efficient development of sex-linked genetic markers and sex control biotechnologies has provided significant approaches to increase the production and value for commercial purposes.Along with the rapid development of genomics and molecular genetic techniques,the genetic basis of sexual dimorphism has been gradually deciphered,and great progress has been made in the mechanisms of fish sex determination and identification of sex-determining genes.This review summarizes the progress to provide some directive and objective thinking for further research in this field.     

Quantitative disease resistance: Multifaceted players in plant defense

In contrast to large-effect qualitative disease resistance,quantitative disease resistance(QDR) exhibits partial and generally durable resistance and has been extensively utilized in crop breeding.The molecular mechanisms underlying QDR remain largely unknown but considerable progress has been made in this area in recent years.In this review,we summarize the genes that have been associated with plant QDR and their biological functions.Many QDR genes belong to the canonical resistance gene catego...     

Virus-Induced Gene Silencing in the Culinary Ginger （Zingiber officinale）： An Effective Mechanism for Down-Regulating Gene Expression in Tropical Monocots

Virus-induced gene silencing （VIGS） has been shown to be effective for transient knockdown of gene expression in plants to analyze the effects of specific genes in development and stress-related responses. VlGS is well established for studies of model systems and crops within the Solanaceae, Brassicaceae, Leguminaceae, and Poaceae, but only recently has been applied to plants residing outside these families. Here, we have demonstrated that barley stripe mosaic virus （BSMV） can infect two species within the Zingiberaceae, and that BSMV-VIGS can be applied to specifically down-regulate phytoene desaturase in the culinary ginger Zingiber officinale. These results suggest that extension of BSMV-VlGS to monocots other than cereals has the potential for directed genetic analyses of many important temperate and tropical crop species.     

Challenges of reducing excess nitrogen in Japanese agroecosystems

Fertilizer N use in Japan has decreased by about 30% from 1960 to 2000, while keeping a little increase in cereal yields. This has resulted in a significant increase in apparent nitrogen use efficiency, in particular for rice. On the other hand, national N load on the environment associated with the production and consumption of domestic and imported agricultural products has almost tripled during this period, mainly due to the dramatic increase of imports of food and feedstuffs. The environmental problems, including water and air pollution, caused by the excessive loads of N are serious public concerns and there is an urgent need to minimize N losses from agricultural production. In order to meet the necessity for reducing the environmental impacts by excess N, political and technological measures have been taken at regional and country levels. In recent years, the Japanese government has embarked on a series of policies to encourage transition to an environmentally conscious agriculture. Promoting proper material circulation with reducing fertilizer impact and utilizing biomass and livestock wastes is emphasized in these policies. The effectiveness of environmental assessment and planning for reducing regional and national N load has been discussed. Implementation of environmentally friendly technologies and management, both conventional and innovational, have been developed and adopted in Japanese agriculture. The effectiveness of conventional technologies in reducing environmental reactive N has been re-evaluated. Innovative technologies, such as use of controlled availability fertilizers and livestock wastes compost pellets, are being investigated and extended. A comprehensive approach that applies political and technological measures with closer cooperation is necessary to control reactive N in the environment.     

Transfusion of donor apoptotic splenocytes prolongs cardiac allograft sur-vival in absence of immunosuppression

Although apoptosis has been recently documented to transmit immunosuppressive signals, their significance in allogeneic transplantation has not been reported. In the present study, we investigated the influence of donor apoptotic splenocytes on allograft survival in a SD to Wistar rat cardiac transplant model. Donor splenocytes were isolated and irradiated with ultraviolet (UV) to induce apoptosis in vitro. 5x107 apoptotic, necrotic or untreated donor spleen cells were transfused preoperatively and cardiac allogeneic transplantation     

The Interaction of Spinach Nitrite Reductase with Ferredoxin： A Site-Directed Mutation Study

A series of site-directed mutants of the ferredoxin-dependent spinach nitrite reductase has been characterized and several amino acids have been identified that appear to be involved in the interaction of the enzyme with ferredoxin. In a complementary study, binding constants to nitrite reductase and steady-state kinetic parameters of site-directed mutants of ferredoxin were determined in an attempt to identify ferredoxin amino acids involved in the interaction with nitrite reductase. The results have been interpreted in terms of an in-silico docking model for the 1：1 complex of ferredoxin with nitrite reductase.     

A Biomimetic Approach to Robot Locomotion in Unstructured and Slippery Environments

While much attention has been given to bio-robotics in recent years, not much of this has been given to the challenging subject of locomotion in slippery conditions. This study begins to rectify this by proposing a biomimetic approach to generating the friction required to give sufficient propulsive force on a slippery substrate. We took inspiration from a successful biological solution-that of applying hair-like structures to the propulsive appendages, similar to the setae found in nereid polychaetes living in muddy habitats. We began by examining the morphology and the mean locomotion parameters of one of the most common nereids: Nereis diversicolor. Following this study, we designed and fabricated a robotic system with appendages imitating the biological shape found in the worm. A flexible control system was developed to allow most of the locomotion parameters observed in the real worm to be applied to the robot. Experiments on three different natural substrates ranging from fine sand to gravel showed     

新起点，新态势 —— 《中国科学：生命科学》2010年述评

The year 2010 marks the sixtieth anniversary for the publication of Science in China series journals,and meanwhile the Science in China Series C: Life Sciences took a new name as Science China Life Sciences(SCLS in short).Simultaneously,it has been reformed to make a new start for this journal in its long history.The journal has appeared with a new face to the readers and authors in both the novel publishing style and the highly qualified articles.An extensive review was given to the journal’s specific progress in the year 2010 by highlighting some of the representative publications.     

Projection of an immunological self shadow to developing T cells via macroautophagy

Due to a production error, a mistake has been introduced in the contents page in the print version of the November issue. The corrected title and author information of the second Research Highlight is as follows：     

Thymic epithelial progenitor cells and thymus regeneration： an update

The thymus provides the essential microenvironment for T-cell development and maturation. Thymic epithelial cells （TECs）, which are composed of thymic cortical epithelial cells （cTECs） and thymic medullary epithelial cells （mTECs）, have been well documented to be critical for these tightly regulated processes. It has long been controversial whether the common progenitor cells of TECs could give rise to both cTECs and mTECs. Great progress has been made to characterize the common TEC progenitor cells in recent years. We herein discuss the sole origin paradigm with regard to TEC differentiation as well as these progenitor cells in thymus regeneration.     

Spotlight on chimeric antigen receptor engineered T cell research and clinical trials in China

T cell mediated adoptive immune response has been characterized as the key to anti-tumor immunity. Scientists around the world including in China, have been trying to harness the power of T cells against tumors for decades. Recently, the biosynthetic chimeric antigen receptor engineered T cell(CAR-T) strategy was developed and exhibited encouraging clinical efficacy, especially in hematological malignancies. Chimeric antigen receptor research reports began in 2009 in China according to our Pub Med search results. Clinical trials have been ongoing in China since 2013 according to the trial registrations on clinicaltrials.gov.. After years of assiduous efforts, research and clinical scientists in China have made their own achievements in the CAR-T therapy field. In this review, we aim to highlight CAR-T research and clinical trials in China, to provide an informative reference for colleagues in the field.