Effects of 38 years of wildfires on tree density in the Blue Mountains,Australia

Forests are vital for biodiversity, carbon storage and ecosystem services, but can be potentially threatened by fires. Given the significance of forests and fire in a changing climate, research into the long-term effects of fire on forests plays an important role in understanding the global carbon cycle by the forests functioning as a large terrestrial carbon sink or source. In this study, we used aerial photography from 1975 and 2013 to count the change in the number of trees in 560 dry sclerophyll plots (40 × 40m) in the Blue Mountains of Australia. We analysed the relationship between the number of fires and severe fires in that period on the change in numbers of trees. We found that the average response was an increase of 1 tree per plot over 38 years. The number of fires had a small positive effect on tree numbers; plots with 2 or 3 severe fires had 1 and 2 extra trees, respectively, than those without fire. One exception was a severe fire in 2001 that did not show this positive effect, probably because it corresponded with extensive drought. Our findings suggest that number of forest canopy trees is resilient to the number of fires and number of severe fires.     

Solvent-induced proteome profiling for proteomic quantitation and target discovery of small molecular drugs

Target identification by modification-free proteomic approaches can potentially reveal the pharmacological mechanism of small molecular compounds. By combining the recent solvent-induced protein precipitation (SIP) method with TMT-labeling quantitative proteomics, we propose solvent-induced proteome profiling (SIPP) approach to identify small molecule–protein interactions. The SIPP approach enables to depict denaturation curves of the target protein by varying concentrations of organic solvents to induce unfolding and precipitation of the cellular proteome. By using this approach, we have successfully identified the known targets of market drugs and natural products and extended the proteome information of SIP for target identification.     

DegU调控单核细胞增生李斯特菌感染宿主细胞及适应高温的机制研究

【目的】本研究旨在探究孤儿调节因子DegU在介导单核细胞增生李斯特菌(Listeria monocytogenes)宿主感染和高温环境适应性方面的调控机制。【方法】本研究以单增李斯特菌参考菌株EGD-e、degU基因缺失菌株ΔdegU和回补菌株CΔdegU为研究材料，通过细胞模型、实时荧光定量聚合酶链式反应和凝胶阻滞试验等方法探究DegU对单增李斯特菌感染宿主细胞和适应高温的调控机制。【结果】研究结果表明：缺失degU后，单增李斯特菌在Caco-2上的黏附和侵袭能力显著降低，在RAW264.7中的增殖能力显著降低，在L929中的空斑形成能力也显著降低；进一步通过实时荧光定量聚合酶链式反应检测degU基因缺失后引起的单增李斯特菌毒力因子转录水平变化，发现多个重要毒力因子转录水平均显著下调；该试验结果还发现与毒力相关的热应激基因clpE(受CtsR抑制的ATP依赖蛋白水解酶编码基因)转录水平显著升高，而在43℃高温条件下，clpE转录水平显著降低；进一步通过凝胶阻滞试验结果表明DegU能够与clpE的启动子直接结合。【结论】综上所述，degU基因缺失能够降低单增李斯特菌在宿主感染过程中的细...     

Differing myocardial response to a single session of hemodialysis in end-stage renal disease with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus and coronary artery disease

The ninth edition of the congress of the European Association of Echocardiography (EAE) (former working group of Echocardiography) held in Florence has just finished with a great success of participant attendance (2.842) and abstract submissions. Hot topics at EuroEcho 9 were: 1-live 3-dimensional echocardiography and surgical decision making; in pediatric cardiology; in resynchronization therapy 2- stress echocardiography beyond wall motion: from valve diseases to contractility to coronary flow reserve to diastolic function; 3- pulmonary cardiogenic interstitial thickening recognized by ultrasonic lung comets; 4- the "proven clinical inefficacy" of the many technologies sold as breakthrough: color kinesis, tissue characterization, strain rate, tissue Doppler, applied to stress echocardiography.