野外使用红外热成像仪搜寻鸟巢实验

红外热成像仪是一种非接触、无损伤性的温度测量仪,它可通过接收被测物体表面的热辐射形成热谱图,对研究对象进行定性观察或定量分析。热成像仪在野生动物调查和实验研究等领域均有应用。我们于2015年4~8月的鸟类繁殖季,使用手持便携式红外热成像仪,对贵州宽阔水国家级自然保护区内4种生境的鸟巢进行系统搜索。共找到鸟巢54个,其中7巢可在红外热成像仪中清晰显示。使用红外热成像仪搜寻鸟巢的成功率为13.0%(7/54)。其中,搜寻地面巢的成功率最大(27.3%,3/11),树上巢的成功率最低(0%,0/5)。在热谱图中所显示的巢,其植被郁闭度显著小于红外热成像仪搜寻不到的巢(t=2.837,df=16,P0.01);而其温差则显著大于红外热成像仪搜寻不到的巢(t=﹣2.476,df=19,P0.05)。这表明,使用红外热成像仪搜寻鸟巢主要受巢上植被郁闭度及巢周围环境温度的影响。巢上植被郁闭度越小,与周围环境的温差越大,则搜寻成功率越高。     

Updating and Recoding Enamel Microstructure in Mesozoic Mammals: In Search of Discrete Characters for Phylogenetic Reconstruction

The previously unknown enamel microstructure of a variety of Mesozoic and Paleogene mammals ranging from monotremes and docodonts to therians is described and characterized here. The novel information is used to explore the structural diversity of enamel in early mammals and to explore the impact of the new information for systematics. It is presently unclear whether enamel prisms arose several times during mammalian evolution or arose only once with several reversals to prismless structure. At least two undisputed reversions or simplifications are known—in the monotreme clade from Obdurodon to Ornithorhynchus (via Monotrematum?), and (perhaps more than once) within the clade from archaeocete to a variety of odontocete whales. Similarly, both prismatic and nonprismatic enamel is present among docodonts. Seven discrete characters showing enough morphological diversity to be of potential importance in phylogenetic reconstructions may be identified as a more appropriate summary of enamel microstructural diversity among mammaliaforms than the single character “prismatic enamel-present/absent” employed in recent matrices. Inclusion of five of these characters in the matrix of Luo et al. (2002) modifies the original topology by collapsing several nodes involving triconodonts and other nontribosphenic taxa. There is considerable support for prismatic enamel as a synapomorphy of trithelodonts plus Mammaliamorpha, and multituberculates appear to have small or “normal” sized prisms as the ancestral condition, with some (as yet) enigmatic changes to nonprismatic structure in some basal members of the group and the appearance of “gigantoprismatic” structure as an autapomorphic state of less inclusive clades. Other potential qualitative characters and the need for attaining appropriate methods to incorporate quantitative features may be important for future analyses.     

New Studies of Enamel Microstructure in Mesozoic Mammals: A Review of Enamel Prisms as a Mammalian Synapomorphy

Characters from enamel microstructure have not been used in recent phylogenetic analyses of Mesozoic Mammalia. Reasons are that enamel characters have been perceived as (A) variable without regard to systematic position of taxa, (B) inconsistently reported within the literature, and (C) simply scored as either prismatic or not prismatic in earlier mammals. Our work on Mesozoic mammals such as Sinoconodon, Gobiconodon, Triconodontidae, Docodon, Laolestes, and others suggests that synapsid columnar enamel (SCE) structure was easily transformed into plesiomorphic prismatic enamel (PPE) and that PPE may be described with at least five independent character states. Two PPE characters—a flat, open prism sheath and a planar prism seam—were present in the cynodont Pachygenelus and in several Jurassic and Cretaceous mammals. We propose that appearance of a prism sheath transforms SCE into PPE and that reduction and loss of a prism sheath reverse PPE into SCE, in both phylogeny and ontogeny. We further propose that no amniote vertebrates other than the trithelodontid cynodont, Pachygenelus, plus Mammalia have ever evolved an ameloblastic Tomes process capable of secreting PPE and that the genetic potential to secrete PPE is a synapomorphy of Pachygenelus plus Mammalia, whether or not all lineages of the clade have expressed that potential.     

一种中小型哺乳动物标本整体塑化制作方法

此方法在改变传统哺乳动物标本制作方法上进行了一些新的尝试与改进,形成了一种小型哺乳动物标本的制作方法.该方法使用无毒的聚乙二醇替代传统的保存药品,可制作哺乳动物的整体标本,并能长期保持其原有形态,所制标本不仅可作为教学、科研材料之用外,由于其无毒处理,还可用于家居装饰.     

LTSE—新的大肠菌群快速检测法

本文报道快速简易、结果准确、应用广泛、效益明显,总大肠菌群和粪大肠菌群在15～18小时内同时检出,费用比部颁三步发酵法(GB)节省75～84%的大肠菌群检测新方法。笔者研究出 Lactose-Tryptone-Sodium Dodecyl sulfate-Trace Elements[简称 LTSE]培养基,加上几种鉴定验证试验的 LTSE 法,用来快速检测水质、食品、冷饮、餐具等各类样品703件,结果与国标法(GB)对照总符合率为99.3%;同时与美国《水和废水标准检验法》(16版1985年)新发展的现行标准检测粪大肠菌群的正式 A-1法相比较特异性强,灵敏度高,能提高检出率,并节约经费38.1%.     

A New Method for Detecting Associations with Rare Copy-Number Variants

Copy number variants (CNVs) play an important role in the etiology of many diseases such as cancers and psychiatric disorders. Due to a modest marginal effect size or the rarity of the CNVs, collapsing rare CNVs together and collectively evaluating their effect serves as a key approach to evaluating the collective effect of rare CNVs on disease risk. While a plethora of powerful collapsing methods are available for sequence variants (e.g., SNPs) in association analysis, these methods cannot be directly applied to rare CNVs due to the CNV-specific challenges, i.e., the multi-faceted nature of CNV polymorphisms (e.g., CNVs vary in size, type, dosage, and details of gene disruption), and etiological heterogeneity (e.g., heterogeneous effects of duplications and deletions that occur within a locus or in different loci). Existing CNV collapsing analysis methods (a.k.a. the burden test) tend to have suboptimal performance due to the fact that these methods often ignore heterogeneity and evaluate only the marginal effects of a CNV feature. We introduce CCRET, a random effects test for collapsing rare CNVs when searching for disease associations. CCRET is applicable to variants measured on a multi-categorical scale, collectively modeling the effects of multiple CNV features, and is robust to etiological heterogeneity. Multiple confounders can be simultaneously corrected. To evaluate the performance of CCRET, we conducted extensive simulations and analyzed large-scale schizophrenia datasets. We show that CCRET has powerful and robust performance under multiple types of etiological heterogeneity, and has performance comparable to or better than existing methods when there is no heterogeneity.     

A New Method for Noninvasive Genetic Sampling of Saliva in Ecological Research

Noninvasive samples for genetic analyses have become essential to address ecological questions. Popular noninvasive samples such as faeces contain degraded DNA which may compromise genotyping success. Saliva is an excellent alternative DNA source but scarcity of suitable collection methods makes its use anecdotal in field ecological studies. We develop a noninvasive method of collection that combines baits and porous materials able to capture saliva. We report its potential in optimal conditions, using confined dogs and collecting saliva early after deposition. DNA concentration in saliva extracts was generally high (mean 14 ng μl^-1). We correctly identified individuals in 78% of samples conservatively using ten microsatellite loci, and 90% of samples using only eight loci. Consensus genotypes closely matched reference genotypes obtained from hair DNA (99% of identification successes and 91% of failures). Mean genotyping effort needed for identification using ten loci was 2.2 replicates. Genotyping errors occurred at a very low frequency (allelic dropout: 2.3%; false alleles: 1.5%). Individual identification success increased with duration of substrate handling inside dog’s mouth and the volume of saliva collected. Low identification success was associated with baits rich in DNA-oxidant polyphenols and DNA concentrations <1 ng μl^-1. The procedure performed at least as well as other noninvasive methods, and could advantageously allow detection of socially low-ranked individuals underrepresented in sources of DNA that are involved in marking behaviour (faeces or urine). Once adapted and refined, there is promise for this technique to allow potentially high rates of individual identification in ecological field studies requiring noninvasive sampling of wild vertebrates.     

一种早期胚胎体外培养新方法的建立

建立一种不依赖于液体石蜡的早期胚胎体外培养方法——套皿法,并比较了4种不同处理方法体外培养胚胎的效果。结果显示,采用套皿法进行胚胎培养,盖液体石蜡和不盖液体石蜡皿中的胚胎在各阶段的发育率差异不显著。与套皿法相比,用单皿微滴覆盖法(Brinster法)培养的胚胎在各阶段的发育率显著降低。不覆盖液体石蜡单皿中的胚胎则阻断于二细胞阶段。实验设计的套皿法是一种有效的早期胚胎体外培养方法,为早期胚胎体外培养提供了一种新方法。     

一种在核苷酸水平检测自然选择的新方法

非编码区序列在基因表达调控中起着重要作用,但其在进化过程中是否受到选择作用一直较难检测。最近有一些研究使用平均的核苷酸替换速率与中性序列的核苷酸替换速率的比值(ω)作为检测非编码区总体受选择作用的指标;但是对于非编码区而言,了解具体哪些核苷酸受到选择作用更具有意义。我们借鉴Nielsen&Yang(1998)检测单个氨基酸位点是否受选择作用的思路,在最大似然法的模型下,提出一种在核苷酸位点水平上对自然选择作用检测的方法。本方法能够检测在进化过程中对功能分化有重要贡献的核苷酸位点,包括编码和非编码区。将此方法应用于熟知的受到正选择作用的蛋白编码基因序列(HIV-1包装蛋白基因编码区),均能够检测到那些已知的受到正选择的核苷酸(密码子)位点,说明此方法可以有效地在核苷酸位点水平检测选择作用;又将此方法应用于非编码区(CTGF基因5′UTR),也得到了良好的结果。     

一种种系发生分析的新方法

利用所测定的猪脂肪组织表达序列标签以及来源于GenBank中非冗余核酸数据库和表达序列标签数据库中的人、牛及小鼠cDNA序列 ,在随机抽样方法建立的基础上 ,分别采集 70个已知功能基因的cDNA序列 ,分析了 4个物种 70× 15 0bp序列连接体的突变规律 ,建立了不同物种之间的综合种系发生分析方法。结果表明 ,在 4个物种 70个已知功能基因所构成的cDNA序列连接体同源性分析中 ,共发现 391个单碱基突变 ,不同物种之间的突变数量大大超过了同一物种基因组水平预测的 1/ 10 0 0。其中以C/T(T/C)转换和A/G(G/A)转换为主要的单碱基突变类型。种系发生分析结果表明 ,作为偶蹄目的猪和牛的遗传关系最近 ,其次是人类 ,小鼠与家猪和牛的遗传关系最远。 4种动物从共同祖先分化的顺序分别为小鼠最早 ,人类次之 ,然后为猪和牛     

A Method for Determining the Activity State of Hair Follicles

A histological method is described for determining the proportion of growing hair follicles h skin samples. A variation of the Sacpic staining method, modified for bulk processing, produces high contrast staining of the principal tissue types present in skin. In particular, the inner root sheath is accentuated, facilitating detection of active follicles. Skin preparations from a range of species are used to illustrate structural characteristics of follicles viewed in cross section at various stages of the hair cycle and to establish criteria for classification of the state of activity of follicles. The hair cycle may be divided into quiescent and active states at the points of rapid transition (early pronanagen and mid catagen). Data from repeated skin biopsies from ferrets and goats are also used to demonstrate quantitative estimation of follicle activity, change in compound follicle size, and the relationship between follicle type and fiber medullation.     

Genipa americana L.: A New Phytochemical for White Hair Coloring

This work describes a new hair dyeing methodology using a chemical reaction between geniposide, an iridoid glycoside extracted from the fruit of Genipa americana (geniposide extract, GE) and the amine group of hair keratin. The influence of reaction conditions (pH, temperature, and extract concentration) on the staining of hair fibers, color development, fiber morphology, and mechanical hair properties of black and white human hair samples, was evaluated before and after GE dyeing treatment. Eye contact safety of GE was also studied using HET-CAM. The treatment of white hair fibers using GE at 20 mg mL⁻¹, temperature of 80 °C and pH 5.5 presented the greatest color change (ΔE=54.0). The higher pH influence was observed at pH 10.0 on white hair tresses (ΔE=6.8), using an GE concentration of 20 mg mL⁻¹ and room temperature (25 °C). Treated samples showed marked changes on mechanical and morphological properties. The HET-CAM did not show any change, thus demonstrating that using GE is safe. In conclusion, the temperature and concentration of the extract were the variables that mostly influenced the color and hair damage. A new approach for hair dyeing was established where iridoids may potentially be useful as a natural hair dyeing.     

TECHNICAL ADVANCES: New strategies for telomere-based age estimation

Telomere dynamics link molecular and cellular mechanisms with organismal processes and therefore may explain variation in a number of important life-history traits. Telomere length has been used to estimate age in free-living populations of animals. Such estimation is a potentially powerful tool in the context of population dynamics and management, as well as the study of life-history trade-offs. The number of studies utilizing telomere restriction fragment assays in the fields of ecology and evolution is steadily growing. However, the field lacks methodological and analytical standardization resulting in considerable variation in telomere length and therefore in the usefulness of these techniques. Here, we illustrate new laboratory and analytical methods to reliably measure telomere length from blood erythrocytes and accurately assess the relationship between telomeres and age. We demonstrate the importance of analysing those telomeres most relevant to age-related studies: the shortest telomeres. We present a reliable method to quickly identify an analysis window (the telomere optimal estimate, TOE) which approaches the optimal window for age estimation. Because the TOE focuses on the shortest telomeres - those telomeres which signal cellular senescence and ageing - TOE can also be used to compare telomeres in age-matched individuals. We also compare constant- and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis to show how each can influence telomere measurement. The use of TOE should provide powerful telomere-based age estimation and enable organismal biologists to readily uncover individual and longitudinal differences with regard to telomere dynamics.     

基于小波的心电信号有效性检测方法

目的：检测采集到的信号是否为有效心电信号,提高后续心电诊断和分析的准确率。方法：将采集到的信号进行预处理,即去噪处理,主要抑制基线漂移,50Hz工频及其谐波干扰和肌电干扰;取滑动窗长度为4s,检测该段内信号是否有效。为了验证算法的准确率及对不同心电波形是否具有普遍适用性,对MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database中48个记录,CU及MIT-BIH Noise Stress Test Database中部分记录进行了仿真、验证。结果：仿真实验证明该方法能正确区分有效和无效信号,错检率较低,实现简单,适合实时处理。结论：本方法准确率高,能减少后续心电诊断和分析的计算量并提高准确率,特别是对室颤检测,符合心电分析的要求。     

A Method for Detecting Dopaminechrome Isomerase Activity on Gels

Melanogenesis involves oxidation of 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (dopa) to dopachrome which then is converted into 5,6-dihydroxyindole by dopachrome isomerase. 5,6-Dihydroxyindole is oxidized to its quinone which in turn is metabolized nonenzymatically to melanin. In addition to dopachrome isomerase, a new dopminechrome isomerase activity involved in the conversion of dopaminechrome into 5,6-dihydroxyindole has been observed in the larva of Rhinoceros oryctes. This dopaminechrome isomerase differs from dopachrome isomerase in its electrophoretic mobility and substrate specificity. The present study reports a specific, sensitive and rapid staining method for detecting dopaminechrome isomerase activity after electrophoresis. Using this new method, the presence of the dopaminechrome isomerase activity, which is involved in melanogenesis, could easily be detected by staining tyrosinase embedded native gels in dopamine solution. Tyrosinase entrapped in the gels converts dopamine in dopaminechrome. The dopaminechrome isomerase separated in the gels catalyzes dopaminechrome to 5,6-dihydroxyindole which is oxidized further by tyrosinase to colored melanochrome. The dopaminechrome isomerase appears as a bluish purple band against a pink background.     

作用于pNPP的磷酸酶在凝胶中的特异性染色

本方法能在聚丙烯酞胺凝胶中快速,简便,灵敏和特异地染能以对硝基苯磷酸盐（pNPP）为底物的磷酸酶．它是根据Goren等人在凝胶中特异性染色环核苷酸磷酸二酯酶的方法[1]改进而成．这是基于pNPP被对硝基苯磷酸酶（pNPPase）作用后释放出的Pi在凝胶中结合铅离子形成磷酸铅,沉淀在胶中形成白色区带,再用硫化铰处理凝胶,将磷酸铅转变为硫化铅,从而使白色区带转变为棕黑色区带．它可同时分析和比较不同动物或细胞以及用不同药物处理的同一来源的动物或细胞的细胞粗提物中pNPPase的生化性质,还可在纯化此类酶的过程中,提前测定在粗提…     

近红外无创伤血糖测量的组织光学基础研究

人体血糖浓度无创伤测量是当今学术界和医学界普遍关注的课题。在分析了血糖浓度无创伤测量的意义、现有的测量方法及其进展后,从组织光学角度分析血糖浓度无创伤测量中包含的研究内容,并根据当前的研究现状,提出血糖浓度无创伤测量所存在的问题。通过组织光学角度对血糖浓度无创伤测量方法的剖析,更加明确血糖测量的研究任务,有望促使其更进一步的发展以及血液中其他成分的无创测量。     

Standardizing Immunohistochemistry: A New Reference Control for Detecting Staining Problems

A new standardized immunohistochemistry (IHC) control for breast cancer testing comprises formalin-fixed human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, estrogen receptor, or progesterone receptor peptide antigens covalently attached to 8-µm glass beads. The antigen-coated beads are suspended in a liquid matrix that hardens upon pipetting onto a glass microscope slide. The antigen-coated beads remain in place through deparaffinization, antigen retrieval, and immunostaining. The intensity of the beads’ stain provides feedback regarding the efficacy of both antigen retrieval and immunostaining. As a first report, we tested the sensitivity and specificity of the new IHC controls (“IHControls”). To evaluate sensitivity, various staining problems were simulated. IHControls detected primary and secondary reagent degradation similarly to tissue controls. This first group of IHControls behaved similarly to tissue controls expressing high concentrations of the antigen. The IHControls were also able to detect aberrations in antigen retrieval, as simulated by sub-optimal times or temperatures. Specificity testing revealed that each antigen-coated bead was specific for its cognate IHC test antibody. The data support the conclusion that, like tissue controls, IHControls are capable of verifying the analytic components of an immunohistochemical stain. Unlike tissue controls, IHControls are prepared in large bulk lots, fostering day-to-day reproducibility that can be standardized across laboratories.