A Novel Medical Image Protection Scheme Using a 3-Dimensional Chaotic System

Recently, great concerns have been raised regarding the issue of medical image protection due to the increasing demand for telemedicine services, especially the teleradiology service. To meet this challenge, a novel chaos-based approach is suggested in this paper. To address the security and efficiency problems encountered by many existing permutation-diffusion type image ciphers, the new scheme utilizes a single 3D chaotic system, Chen''s chaotic system, for both permutation and diffusion. In the permutation stage, we introduce a novel shuffling mechanism, which shuffles each pixel in the plain image by swapping it with another pixel chosen by two of the three state variables of Chen''s chaotic system. The remaining variable is used for quantification of pseudorandom keystream for diffusion. Moreover, the selection of state variables is controlled by plain pixel, which enhances the security against known/chosen-plaintext attack. Thorough experimental tests are carried out and the results indicate that the proposed scheme provides an effective and efficient way for real-time secure medical image transmission over public networks.     

Identifying rare and common disease associated variants in genomic data using Parkinson’s disease as a model

Background

Genome-wide association studies have been successful in identifying common genetic variants for human diseases. However, much of the heritable variation associated with diseases such as Parkinson’s disease remains unknown suggesting that many more risk loci are yet to be identified. Rare variants have become important in disease association studies for explaining missing heritability. Methods for detecting this type of association require prior knowledge on candidate genes and combining variants within the region. These methods may suffer from power loss in situations with many neutral variants or causal variants with opposite effects.

Results

We propose a method capable of scanning genetic variants to identify the region most likely harbouring disease gene with rare and/or common causal variants. Our method assigns a score at each individual variant based on our scoring system. It uses aggregate scores to identify the region with disease association. We evaluate performance by simulation based on 1000 Genomes sequencing data and compare with three commonly used methods. We use a Parkinson’s disease case–control dataset as a model to demonstrate the application of our method.Our method has better power than CMC and WSS and similar power to SKAT-O with well-controlled type I error under simulation based on 1000 Genomes sequencing data. In real data analysis, we confirm the association of α-synuclein gene (SNCA) with Parkinson’s disease (p = 0.005). We further identify association with hyaluronan synthase 2 (HAS2, p = 0.028) and kringle containing transmembrane protein 1 (KREMEN1, p = 0.006). KREMEN1 is associated with Wnt signalling pathway which has been shown to play an important role for neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease.

Conclusions

Our method is time efficient and less sensitive to inclusion of neutral variants and direction effect of causal variants. It can narrow down a genomic region or a chromosome to a disease associated region. Using Parkinson’s disease as a model, our method not only confirms association for a known gene but also identifies two genes previously found by other studies. In spite of many existing methods, we conclude that our method serves as an efficient alternative for exploring genomic data containing both rare and common variants.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12929-014-0088-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

蓝色花的形成机制

花色是花卉的一个重要特性,自然界中花卉颜色种类繁多,但却普遍缺少蓝色系的花。如具有梦幻般色彩的蓝色月季的市场需求很强烈,但目前还没有育成真正的蓝色月季。蓝色花花色素的结构和形成机理以及使花显蓝色的基因工程研究一直是近年来的研究热点。笔者就蓝色花的形成机制做一简单介绍。植物的花色(flower color)广义是指显花植物花器官中一切花瓣状结构的颜色,狭义仅指花瓣的颜色。植物花色是多种因子协同作用的结果,但在根本上是因为特定色素在花瓣细胞中的存在。蓝色花的色素苷类型主要是飞燕草色素苷及其衍生物,即3′,5′-羟基花     

A vesicle surface tyrosine kinase regulates phagosome maturation

Phagocytosis is crucial for host defense against microbial pathogens and for obtaining nutrients in Dictyostelium discoideum. Phagocytosed particles are delivered via a complex route from phagosomes to lysosomes for degradation, but the molecular mechanisms involved in the phagosome maturation process are not well understood. Here, we identify a novel vesicle-associated receptor tyrosine kinase-like protein, VSK3, in D. discoideum. We demonstrate how VSK3 is involved in phagosome maturation. VSK3 resides on the membrane of late endosomes/lysosomes with its C-terminal kinase domain facing the cytoplasm. Inactivation of VSK3 by gene disruption reduces the rate of phagocytosis in cells, which is rescued by re-expression of VSK3. We found that the in vivo function of VSK3 depends on the presence of the kinase domain and vesicle localization. Furthermore, VSK3 is not essential for engulfment, but instead, is required for the fusion of phagosomes with late endosomes/lysosomes. Our findings suggest that localized tyrosine kinase signaling on the surface of endosome/lysosomes represents a control mechanism for phagosome maturation.     

Desmoglein 2 (DSG2) Is A Receptor of Human Adenovirus Type 55 Causing Adult Severe Community-Acquired Pneumonia

Virologica Sinica - Human adenovirus type 55 (HAdV-B55) is a re-emergent acute respiratory disease pathogen that causes adult community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). Previous studies have shown that...     

钙调蛋白与拮抗剂TFP相互作用的水质子弛豫速率研究

钙调蛋白(CaM)是一种多功能调节蛋白,它对靶酶的作用受各种药物拮抗.三氟啦嗪(TFP)是CaM的一种有效拮抗剂.本文利用核磁弛豫法测定与TFP结合前后CaM中金属离子配位水的变化,从而推测CaM与TFP相互作用的方式.结合CD谱的测定结果,可以认为TFP与CaM结合摩尔比不超过2时是特异的强结合,但不影响金属结合部位及主链结构.当比例超过2时,额外的TFP以不同于前的方式结合于CaM.     

Role of Breastfeeding and Complementary Food on Hemoglobin and Ferritin Levels in a Cambodian Cross-Sectional Sample of Children Aged 3 to 24 Months

Background

Iron deficiency derives from a low intake of dietary iron, poor absorption of iron, and high requirements due to growth as well as blood loss. An estimated number of about 50% of all anemia may be attributed to iron deficiency among young children in Cambodia.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey was conducted in rural Cambodia in September 2012. Villages in pre-selected communes were randomly chosen using stunting as a primary indicator of nutritional status. In total, 928 randomly selected households with children aged 3–23 months were included. Hemoglobin, ferritin, soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR), and retinol binding protein (RBP) were assessed from capillary blood samples. In addition, length/height and weight of mothers and children were taken and data on dietary diversity was collected. A child feeding index (CFI) was created. Associations between biomarkers of iron and vitamin A status and nutritional status or food intake were explored.

Results

Anemia prevalence was highest among 6- to 12-months-olds (71%). Ferritin and sTfR inversely correlated and were significantly associated with hemoglobin concentrations. The consumption of animal source foods (ASF) significantly impacts on the interaction between ferritin, sTfR and hemoglobin. Concentrations of RBP were significantly higher in children who had received a vitamin A supplement. The CFI was associated with sTfR and hemoglobin. Lower length and weight were associated with lower ferritin levels and showed an indirect effect on hemoglobin through ferritin.

Conclusion

Nutrition programs targeting children under 2 years of age need to focus on the preparation of complementary foods with high nutrient density to sustainably prevent micronutrient deficiency and generally improve nutritional status. Future assessments of the micronutrient status should include identification of hemoglobinopathies and parasitic infections to better understand all causes of anemia in Cambodian infants and young children.

Trial Registration

German Clinical Trials Register DRKS00004379     

Heritable alteration in DNA methylation induced by nitrogen-deficiency stress accompanies enhanced tolerance by progenies to the stress in rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Cytosine methylation is responsive to various biotic- and abiotic-stresses, which may produce heritable epialleles. Nitrogen (N)-deficiency is an abiotic stress being repeatedly experienced by plants. To address possible epigenetic consequences of N-deficiency-stress, we investigated the stability of cytosine methylation in rice (Oryza sativa L.) subsequent to a chronic (a whole-generation) N-deficiency at two levels, moderate (20 mg/L) and severe (10 mg/L), under hydroponic culture. MSAP analysis revealed that locus-specific methylation alteration occurred in leaf-tissue of the stressed plants (S₀) experiencing either level of N-deficiency, which was validated by gel-blotting. Analysis on three non-stressed self-fed progenies (S₁, S₂ and S₃) by gel-blotting indicated that ca. 50% of the altered methylation patterns in somatic cells (leaf) of the stressed S₀ plants were recaptured in S₁, which were then stably inherited to S₂ and S₃. Bisulfite sequencing of two variant MSAP loci with homology to low-copy retrotransposons on one stressed plant (S₀) and its non-stressed progenies (S₁ and S₂) showed that whereas one locus exhibited limited and non-heritable CHH methylation alteration, the other locus manifested dramatic heritable hypermethylation at nearly all cytosine sites within the assayed region. Intriguingly, when two groups of S₂ plants descended from the same N-deficiency-stressed S₀ plant were re-subjected to the stress, the group inheriting the modified methylation patterns showed enhanced tolerance to the N-deficiency-stress compared with the group bearing the original patterns. Our results thus demonstrate heritability of an acquired adaptive trait in rice, which was accompanied by epigenetic inheritance of modified cytosine methylation patterns, implicating an epigenetic basis underlying the inheritance of an acquired trait in plants.     

CCR7 expression in developing thymocytes is linked to the CD4 versus CD8 lineage decision

During thymic development, T cell progenitors undergo positive selection based on the ability of their T cell Ag receptors (TCR) to bind MHC ligands on thymic epithelial cells. Positive selection determines T cell fate, in that thymocytes whose TCR bind MHC class I (MHC-I) develop as CD8-lineage T cells, whereas those that bind MHC class II (MHC-II) develop as CD4 T cells. Positive selection also induces migration from the cortex to the medulla driven by the chemokine receptor CCR7. In this study, we show that CCR7 is up-regulated in a larger proportion of CD4(+)CD8(+) thymocytes undergoing positive selection on MHC-I compared with MHC-II. Mice bearing a mutation of Th-POK, a key CD4/CD8-lineage regulator, display increased expression of CCR7 among MHC-II-specific CD4(+)CD8(+) thymocytes. In addition, overexpression of CCR7 results in increased development of CD8 T cells bearing MHC-II-specific TCR. These findings suggest that the timing of CCR7 expression relative to coreceptor down-regulation is regulated by lineage commitment signals.     

High-throughput mass spectrometric discovery of protein post-translational modifications.

The availability of genome sequences, affordable mass spectrometers and high-resolution two-dimensional gels has made possible the identification of hundreds of proteins from many organisms by peptide mass fingerprinting. However, little attention has been paid to how information generated by these means can be utilised for detailed protein characterisation. Here we present an approach for the systematic characterisation of proteins using mass spectrometry and a software tool FindMod. This tool, available on the internet at http://www.expasy.ch/sprot/findmod.html , examines peptide mass fingerprinting data for mass differences between empirical and theoretical peptides. Where mass differences correspond to a post-translational modification, intelligent rules are applied to predict the amino acids in the peptide, if any, that might carry the modification. FindMod rules were constructed by examining 5153 incidences of post-translational modifications documented in the SWISS-PROT database, and for the 22 post-translational modifications currently considered (acetylation, amidation, biotinylation, C-mannosylation, deamidation, flavinylation, farnesylation, formylation, geranyl-geranylation, gamma-carboxyglutamic acids, hydroxylation, lipoylation, methylation, myristoylation, N -acyl diglyceride (tripalmitate), O-GlcNAc, palmitoylation, phosphorylation, pyridoxal phosphate, phospho-pantetheine, pyrrolidone carboxylic acid, sulphation) a total of 29 different rules were made. These consider which amino acids can carry a modification, whether the modification occurs on N-terminal, C-terminal or internal amino acids, and the type of organisms on which the modification can be found. We illustrate the utility of the approach with proteins from 2-D gels of Escherichia coli and sheep wool, where post-translational modifications predicted by FindMod were confirmed by MALDI post-source decay peptide fragmentation. As the approach is amenable to automation, it presents a potentially large-scale means of protein characterisation in proteome projects.