Population increase of forest birds in the Czech Republic between 1982 and 2003

Capsule Populations of most forest bird species increased between 1982 and 2003, probably due to increased forest cover and changes in forest age-class composition.

Aims To determine population changes of forest birds in the Czech Republic and to determine their possible causes.

Methods Population data were collected via the Breeding Bird Monitoring Programme, which is based on skilled volunteers counting birds at point transects using a standardized technique. Population trends and indices for the period 1982–2003 were calculated for 47 species using log-linear models. Published data on development of forest cover and forest age composition in the Czech Republic were used to indicate environmental change over the same period.

Results Populations of most forest species increased between 1982 and 2003. There was also an increase in forest cover and an increase in the proportion of older forest age-classes. The increase in forest specialist birds was positively correlated with the average increase in forest coverage.

Conclusions The populations of Czech forest birds have increased in the last two decades. This contrasts with widely reported declines of farmland bird populations throughout Europe. The correlation between populations of specialized forest species and extent of forest habitat suggests that changes in land-use are an important factor. However, increasing cover of mature forests could have a similar effect on the populations of specialist species.     

Roseovarius marisflavi sp. nov., isolated from an amphioxus breeding zone in the coastal region of the Yellow Sea, China

A novel Gram stain-negative, catalase- and oxidase-positive, strictly aerobic bacterium, designated strain H50^T, was isolated from an amphioxus breeding zone in the coastal region of the Yellow Sea, China. Cells were observed to be ovoid or short rods, lacked flagella and were found to contain bacteriochlorophyll a. Poly-beta-hydroxybutyrate was found to be accumulated. The temperature range for growth was determined to be 0–37 °C (optimum 28–37 °C). The halotolerance range for growth is 1–15 % NaCl (optimum 2–7 %). The pH range for growth is 6.0–8.0 (optimum 7.0). The major fatty acids were identified as C_18:1ω7c and C_16:0. The following polar lipids were found to be present: diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and a lipid. The predominant respiratory quinone was determined to be Q-10. DNA G+C content was determined to be 57.7 mol%. Strain H50^T exhibited the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to Pelagicola litoralis DSM 18290^T (96.1 %), Roseovarius mucosus DSM 17069^T (95.8 %) and Roseovarius tolerans DSM 11457^T (95.7 %). In the phylogenetic trees, strain H50^T was clustered with the genus Roseovarius but not Pelagicola. On the basis of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and genotypic data, strain H50^T is considered to represent a novel species in the genus Roseovarius, for which the name Roseovarius marisflavi sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is H50^T (=CGMCC 1.10799^T=JCM 17553^T).     

MST1 activation by curcumin mediates JNK activation,Foxo3a nuclear translocation and apoptosis in melanoma cells

Different groups including ours have shown that curcumin induces melanoma cell apoptosis, here we focused the role of mammalian Sterile 20-like kinase 1 (MST1) in it. We observed that curcumin activated MST1-dependent apoptosis in cultured melanoma cells. MST1 silencing by RNA interference (RNAi) suppressed curcumin-induced cell apoptosis, while MST1 over-expressing increased curcumin sensitivity. Meanwhile, curcumin induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in melanoma cells, and the ROS scavenger, N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC), almost blocked MST1 activation to suggest that ROS might be required for MST1 activation by curcumin. c-Jun N-terminal protein kinase (JNK) activation by curcumin was dependent on MST1, since MST1 inhibition by RNAi or NAC largely inhibited curcumin-induced JNK activation. Further, curcumin induced Foxo3 nuclear translocation and Bim-1 (Foxo3 target gene) expression in melanoma cells, such an effect by curcumin was inhibited by MST1 RNAi. In conclusion, we suggested that MST1 activation by curcumin mediates JNK activation, Foxo3a nuclear translocation and apoptosis in melanoma cells.     

Fine mapping and candidate gene analysis of LM3, a novel lesion mimic gene in rice

A rice lesion mimic mutant, lm3, was obtained by the mutagenesis of an indica cultivar, 93-11, using γ-ray radiation. Brownish lesions appeared on the leaves of lm3 at the young seedling stage and persisted until the ripening stage. The lm3 mutant was characterised by a shorter plant height and delayed heading compared with the wild-type 93-11. A genetic analysis indicated that the lesion mimic phenotype was controlled by a single recessive gene. Using simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers, the target gene LM3 was first located between marker RM5748 and RM14906 on chromosome 3. We then developed Insertion-Deletion (InDel) markers to fine-map LM3, and the locus was localised to a 29 kb region defined by two InDel markers, In12571 and In12600. Five ORFs were predicted in the candidate region, and DNA sequencing detected a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the coding region of LOC Os03g21900. The SNP in the fourth exon (C in 93-11; T in lm3) of LOC_Os03g21900 results in the substitution of a proline (P) with a serine (S) at the 140^th amino acid of the deduced uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase protein. We did not detect polymorphisms in the other predicted ORF regions between lm3 and 93-11. These results suggest that LOC_Os03g21900 is the most likely candidate gene for LM3.     

一类带有脉冲出生和垂直传染的时滞SEIS传染病模型

建立并分析了一个带有脉冲出生、垂直传染和时滞的SEIS传染病模型.利用频闪映射得到了无病周期解的存在性,并得到了两个临界值R~*和R_*,当R~*<1时,无病周期解全局吸引,疾病消失;当R_*>1时,疾病持续.     

Chlorogenic acid,a dietary polyphenol,protects acetaminophen-induced liver injury and its mechanism

Chlorogenic acid (CGA) is one of the most abundant dietary polyphenols, possessing well-known antioxidant capacity. The present study is designed to observe the protection provided by CGA against acetaminophen (AP)-induced liver injury in mice in vivo and the underlying mechanisms engaged in this process. Serum transaminases analysis and liver histological evaluation demonstrated the protection of CGA against AP-induced liver injury. CGA treatment decreased the increased number of liver apoptotic cells induced by AP in a dose-dependent manner. CGA also inhibited AP-induced cleaved activation of caspase-3, 7. Moreover, CGA reversed AP-decreased liver reduced glutathione (GSH) levels, glutamate-cysteine ligase (GCL) and glutathione reductase activity. Further results showed that CGA increased mRNA and protein expression of the catalytic subunit of GCL (GCLC), thioredoxin (Trx) 1/2 and thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) 1. Furthermore, CGA abrogated AP-induced phospholyated activation of ERK1/2, c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), p38 kinases and molecular signals upstream. The results of this study demonstrate that CGA counteracts AP-induced liver injury at various levels by preventing apoptosis and oxidative stress damage, and more specifically, both the GSH and Trx antioxidant systems and the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling cascade appear to be engaged in this protective mechanism.     

Novel Pancreatic Endocrine Maturation Pathways Identified by Genomic Profiling and Causal Reasoning

We have used a previously unavailable model of pancreatic development, derived in vitro from human embryonic stem cells, to capture a time-course of gene, miRNA and histone modification levels in pancreatic endocrine cells. We investigated whether it is possible to better understand, and hence control, the biological pathways leading to pancreatic endocrine formation by analysing this information and combining it with the available scientific literature to generate models using a casual reasoning approach. We show that the embryonic stem cell differentiation protocol is highly reproducible in producing endocrine precursor cells and generates cells that recapitulate many aspects of human embryonic pancreas development, including maturation into functional endocrine cells when transplanted into recipient animals. The availability of whole genome gene and miRNA expression data from the early stages of human pancreatic development will be of great benefit to those in the fields of developmental biology and diabetes research. Our causal reasoning algorithm suggested the involvement of novel gene networks, such as NEUROG3/E2F1/KDM5B and SOCS3/STAT3/IL-6, in endocrine cell development We experimentally investigated the role of the top-ranked prediction by showing that addition of exogenous IL-6 could affect the expression of the endocrine progenitor genes NEUROG3 and NKX2.2.     

Study of Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering of Single Molecule Adsorbed on the Surface of Metal Nanogeometries: Electrostatic Approach

Plasmonics - In this paper, we have studied the surface enhanced raman scattering (SERS) from a molecule adsorbed on coated and non-coated spherical shape metallic nanoparticles. We have accounted...     

Numerical Simulation of Broadband Scattering by Coated and Noncoated Metal Nanostructures Using Discrete Dipole Approximation Method

We suggest numerical method to study the optical response of metal nanostructures. The analysis of optical properties such as scattering and absorption by coated and noncoated nanogeometry has been done using discrete dipole approximation (DDA) method. The core-shell nanogeometry supports surface plasmon resonances, which are highly tunable from 400 to 1100 nm. The tunability of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) highly depends on the structural anisotropy and chosen core-shell material. Further, we have observed that aspect ratio is one of the key parameter to decide the nature and position of the plasmonic peaks and magnitude of optical cross section. We have also shown that coated nanospheroid is a more appropriate geometry as compared to coated nanosphere and noncoated nanospheroid in terms of wide tunability of surface plasmon resonance. The wide tunability in SPR is observed for the effective radii 90 nm core-shell (Au@SiO₂) nanospheroid with aspect ratio 0.1.