Spatiotemporal distribution and the passive dispersal of fungal spores through HVAC systems

Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are widely used to regulate indoor temperature and air quality of modern buildings. The central supply and exhaust system cause the dispersal and removal of bioaerosols. This study presents results from ex situ experiments conducted to a better understanding of the spatiotemporal distribution, passive dispersal and removal of fungal spores through HVAC systems. The study was conducted in a 50 square meters by 3 m high instrument room in a research building with HVAC systems. Plates with Aspergillus flavus colony were attached upside down on the edge of the ceiling vent to imitate the mildew growing. Fungal spores were released for 10 min, collected and counted by the settle plate method in 2 h. Results show that A. flavus spores dispersed to 3.6 m in 2 min and were evenly distributed in the room within 8 min. The concentration of spores decreased from 48 to 3–6 CFU/plate after 60 min and was lower than 1% after 120 min. Our results suggest that airborne fungal spores disperse and remove by HVAC systems efficiently. Without the external and internal source, the HVAC system could greatly reduce the fungal amount in the indoor air to the background level within one hour. This study provided the observed data of the transmission and retention of internal or external biological contaminants through HVAC system.

     

Electroacupuncture Ameliorates Cognitive Impairment Through the Inhibition of NLRP3 Inflammasome Activation by Regulating Melatonin-Mediated Mitophagy in Stroke Rats

Neurochemical Research - Previous studies found that electroacupuncture (EA) at the Shenting (DU24) and Baihui (DU20) acupoints alleviates cognitive impairment in cerebral...     

A New Equation to Estimate Glomerular Filtration Rate in Chinese Elderly Population

Background

We sought to develop a new equation to estimate glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in Chinese elderly population.

Methods

A total of 668 Chinese elderly participants, including the development cohort (n = 433), the validation cohort (n = 235) were enrolled. The new equation using the generalized additive model, and age, gender, serum creatinine as predictor variables was developed and the performances was compared with the CKD-EPI equation.

Results

In the validation data set, both bias and precision were improved with the new equation, as compared with the CKD-EPI equation (median difference, −1.5 ml/min/1.73 m² vs. 7.4 ml/min/1.73 m² for the new equation and the CKD-EPI equation, [P<0.001]; interquartile range [IQR] for the difference, 16.2 ml/min/1.73 m² vs. 19.0 ml/min/1.73 m² [P<0.001]), as were accuracies (15% accuracy, 40.4% vs. 30.6% [P = 0.02]; 30% accuracy, 71.1% vs. 47.2%, [P<0.001]; 50% accuracy, 90.2% vs. 75.7%, [P<0.001]), allowing improvement in GFR categorization (GFR category misclassification rate, 37.4% vs. 53.2% [P = <0.001]).

Conclusions

A new equation was developed in Chinese elderly population. In the validation data set, the new equation performed better than the original CKD-EPI equation. The new equation needs further external validations. Calibration of the GFR referent standard to a more accurate one should be an useful way to improve the performance of GFR estimating equations.     

蚕蛹基础日粮中添加不同脂肪源对框鳞镜鲤生长、体成分及健康状况的影响

将324尾健康框鳞镜鲤Cyprinus carpio var. specularis (10.700.70) g随机平均分配在室内循环水养殖系统的12个养殖缸里。在蚕蛹基础饲料中分别添加2%的大豆油(SO)、菜籽油(RO)、鱼油(FO)及混合油(MIX, 大豆油:菜籽油:鱼油=1:1:1), 配制4组等氮(36.5%)等脂(7.0%)饲料, 饲养58d后, 探讨框鳞镜鲤对不同脂肪源的利用效果。结果表明:(1)大豆油组终末体重显著大于混和油组, 肠长比显著大于其他各组, 肥满度和肠指数显著大于鱼油组(P0.05); 肝胰脏指数混合油组显著低于鱼油组和大豆油组, 菜籽油组显著低于大豆油组(P0.05); (2)全鱼水分大豆油组显著高于菜籽油组和混合油组, 粗脂肪含量显著低于其他各组(P0.05); 肌肉水分大豆油组显著大于鱼油组和混合油组(P0.05); 不同脂肪源对框鲤全鱼和肌肉的粗蛋白和灰分、肌肉粗脂肪、肝胰脏的一般体成分无显著影响(P0.05); (3)肝胰脏和肌肉脂肪酸组成基本反映了饲料的脂肪酸组成; 肝胰脏PUFA水平大豆油和菜籽油组相近, 均显著高于鱼油组(P0.05); 肌肉PUFA水平大豆油组显著高于鱼油组(P0.05), 肌肉HUFA水平菜籽油组显著高于鱼油组和混合油组(P0.05); (4)除菜籽油组血清GLU水平显著高于大豆油组外(P0.05), 4种脂肪源对框鲤其他血清生化指标水平没有显著影响(P0.05); (5)组间血清T-SOD活性没有显著差异(P0.05), 大豆油组GSH-XP活性显著大于其他各组(P0.05), MDA水平显著低于鱼油组及混合油组(P0.05), 鱼油组血清AKP活性显著低于其他各组(P0.05); 鱼油组肝胰脏T-SOD活性显著高于其他各组(P0.05), AKP活性显著高于菜籽油组和混合油(P0.05), GSH-XP活性显著高于混合油组(P0.05), MDA水平各组无显著差异(P0.05)。综上所述, 框鳞镜鲤对大豆油的利用效果最好, 其次是菜籽油、鱼油和混合油利用效果较差。       

Genetic Variations in COMT and DRD2 Modulate Attentional Bias for Affective Facial Expressions

Studies have revealed that catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) and dopaminegic receptor2 (DRD2) modulate human attention bias for palatable food or tobacco. However, the existing evidence about the modulations of COMT and DRD2 on attentional bias for facial expressions was still limited. In the study, 650 college students were genotyped with regard to COMT Val158Met and DRD2 TaqI A polymorphisms, and the attentional bias for facial expressions was assessed using the spatial cueing task. The results indicated that COMT Val158Met underpinned the individual difference in attentional bias for negative emotional expressions (P = 0.03) and the Met carriers showed more engagement bias for negative expressions than the Val/Val homozygote. On the contrary, DRD2 TaqIA underpinned the individual difference in attentional bias for positive expressions (P = 0.003) and individuals with TT genotype showed much more engagement bias for positive expressions than the individuals with CC genotype. Moreover, the two genes exerted significant interactions on the engagements for negative and positive expressions (P = 0.046, P = 0.005). These findings suggest that the individual differences in the attentional bias for emotional expressions are partially underpinned by the genetic polymorphisms in COMT and DRD2.     

胃食管反流病患者自我管理行为依从性及其影响因素调查

目的：调查分析胃食管反流病患者自我管理行为依从性情况及其影响因素。方法：选取2010年2月-2012年6月来我院就诊治疗的胃食管反流患者150例,利用自我行为管理量表、自我效能量表、焦虑自评量表（SAs）及抑郁自评量表（SDS）进行调查,并采用单因素分析及多因素分析法分析其影响因素。结果：所有150例患者的自我行为管理平均得分为37．12＋4．95分,处于中下游水平,其中治疗依从性较好而疾病知识认知方面较差;而从单因素及多因素分析中得知,胃食管反流病患者自我行为依从性的影响因素主要为自我效能、工作学习压力及文化程度（偏回顾系数=0．301、-2．264、1．403）。结论：胃食管返流病患者的自我管理行为依从性较差,这与其文化程度较低、工作学习压力较大有关,医务人员应指导患者减轻工作学习压力,改善生活方式以提高其自我管理行为依从性。     

Synthesis and interaction of bovine serum albumin with p‐hydroxybenzoic acid derivatives

Three novel p‐hydroxybenzoic acid derivatives (HSOP, HSOX, HSCP) were synthesized from p‐hydroxybenzoic acid and sulfonamides (sulfamonomethoxine sodium, sulfamethoxazole and sulfachloropyridazine sodium) and characterized by elemental analysis, HNMR and MS. Interactions between derivatives and bovine serum albumin (BSA) were studied by fluorescence quenching spectra, UV–vis absorption spectra and time‐resolved fluorescence spectra. Based on fluorescence quenching calculation and Förster's non‐radioactive energy transfer theory, the values of the binding constants, basic thermodynamic parameters and binding distances were obtained. Experimental results indicated that the three derivatives had a strong ability to quench fluorescence from BSA and that the binding reactions of the derivatives with BSA were a static quenching process. Thermodynamic parameters showed that binding reactions were spontaneous and exothermic and hydrogen bond and van der Waals force were predominant intermolecular forces between the derivatives and BSA. Synchronous fluorescence spectra suggested that HSOX and HSCP had little effect on the microenvironment and conformation of BSA in the binding reactions but the microenvironments around tyrosine residues were disturbed and polarity around tyrosine residues increased in the presence of HSOP. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Application of Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm to Maximum Likelihood DOA Estimation

Maximum Likelihood (ML) method has an excellent performance for Direction-Of-Arrival (DOA) estimation, but a multidimensional nonlinear solution search is required which complicates the computation and prevents the method from practical use. To reduce the high computational burden of ML method and make it more suitable to engineering applications, we apply the Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm to maximize the likelihood function for DOA estimation. As a recently proposed bio-inspired computing algorithm, ABC algorithm is originally used to optimize multivariable functions by imitating the behavior of bee colony finding excellent nectar sources in the nature environment. It offers an excellent alternative to the conventional methods in ML-DOA estimation. The performance of ABC-based ML and other popular meta-heuristic-based ML methods for DOA estimation are compared for various scenarios of convergence, Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), and number of iterations. The computation loads of ABC-based ML and the conventional ML methods for DOA estimation are also investigated. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed ABC based method is more efficient in computation and statistical performance than other ML-based DOA estimation methods.     

Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel 4β-(1,3,4-oxadiazole-2-amino)-podophyllotoxin derivatives

A series of new 4β-(1,3,4-oxadiazole-2-amino)-podophyllotoxin derivatives were designed and synthesized. Their cytotoxicity in vitro against six tumor cell lines (DU-145, SGC-7901, A549, SH-SY5Y, HepG2 and HeLa) were evaluated by standard MTT assay. The pharmacological results showed that most of the newly synthesized podophyllotoxin derivatives displayed potent cytotoxicity against at least one of the tested tumor cells; and among the new derivatives, 11b was more potent than podophyllotoxin against HepG2 and Hela cell lines. Furthermore, 11b exhibited much better selectivity toward the normal cell lines L929 and Vero than etoposide, 5-Fu and podophyllotoxin. The possible antitumor mechanism of 11b is to inhibit the activity of DNA topoisomerase II, result in the S-phase arrest, and then cause apoptotic cell death.     

重组人神经生长因子rh-β-NGF真核表达载体的构建及其在HEK293细胞中的表达

为大量制备β-NGF,构建了一种稳定、高效表达重组人神经生长因子(Recombinant human nerve growth factor,rh-β-NGF)的真核表达载体及含该重组载体的HEK293细胞株。首先,构建重组质粒p CMV-β-NGF-IRES-dhfr并转染至HEK293细胞系,用MTX加压筛选和有限稀释法进行选择,获得高效表达rh-β-NGF的单克隆重组细胞株;随后逐步降低血清培养,最终使细胞株完全适应无血清培养基并稳定表达rh-β-NGF;SDS-PAGE分析该表达产物,可见相对分子质量约13 k Da的条带,纯度大于50%,经质谱法测定得到其肽图谱与理论序列完全匹配,接着利用离子交换层析和分子筛层析纯化rh-β-NGF;最后进行重组细胞株表达效率和表达稳定性检测,表明重组细胞株可稳定、高效表达rh-β-NGF,其分泌效率大于20 pg/(cell?d),并能诱导PC12细胞的分化,具有良好的生物学活性。