RhoGAPs Attenuate Cell Proliferation by Direct Interaction with p53 Tetramerization Domain

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A Conserved Role for Atlastin GTPases in Regulating Lipid Droplet Size

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Systematics and Species Validity of the Dabieshan Pit Viper Protobothrops dabieshanensis Huang et al. 2012: Evidence from a Mitochondrial Gene Sequence Analysis

Aimed to evaluate the phylogenetic position of the recently described Protobothrops dabieshanensis Huang et al. （2012）, phylogenic relationships of 12 species within Protobothrops based on four mtDNA gene fragments （12S RNA, 16S RNA, ND4 and Cyt b） were reconstructed in our study. The result indicates a clade composed ofP dabiesha- nensis, P. jerdonii and P xiangchengsis with strong support. The genetic distance among P dabieshanensis, P jerdonii and P xiangchengsis was much lower than other congeners. Based on the data from the phylogenetic analysis and pre- viously described morphological differences, we conclude that P dabieshanensis is a valid species with close affinities to P jerdonii and P xiangchengsis.     

Comprehensive analysis of the overall codon usage patterns in equine infectious anemia virus

Background

Equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) is an important animal model for understanding the relationship between viral persistence and the host immune response during lentiviral infections. Comparison and analysis of the codon usage model between EIAV and its hosts is important for the comprehension of viral evolution. In our study, the codon usage pattern of EIAV was analyzed from the available 29 full-length EIAV genomes through multivariate statistical methods.

Finding

Effective number of codons (ENC) suggests that the codon usage among EIAV strains is slightly biased. The ENC-plot analysis demonstrates that mutation pressure plays a substantial role in the codon usage pattern of EIAV, whereas other factors such as geographic distribution and host translation selection also take part in the process of EIAV evolution. Comparative analysis of codon adaptation index (CAI) values among EIAV and its hosts suggests that EIAV utilize the translational resources of horse more efficiently than that of donkey.

Conclusion

The codon usage bias in EIAV is slight and mutation pressure is the main factor that affects codon usage variation in EIAV. These results suggest that EIAV genomic biases are the result of the co-evolution of genome composition and the ability to evade the host’s immune response.

     

Nutritional assessment and fate of dna of soybean meal from roundup ready or conventional soybeans using rats

This study was conducted to compare the safety of soybean meal prepared from genetically modified (GM) glyphosate-tolerant (Roundup Ready; RR) soybeans and conventional soybeans. Eighty Sprague-Dawley rats (40 males and 40 females) were randomly allotted to one of four groups according to sex and body weight for a 13-week feeding experiment. The rats were fed corn-based diets containing 60% conventional soybean meal, a mixture of 30% conventional and 30% RR soybean meal, 60% or 90% RR soybean meal. All diets were adjusted to an identical nutrient level except the 90% RR diet. The two soybean meals were similar in chemical analysis and amino acid composition. During the 13-week growth trial, body weight (P?P?cp4 epsps gene specific for the GM constructs from RR soybean meal or a 407?bp of lec gene from endogenous soybean DNA could not be detected in investigated masseter muscle samples. No adverse effects of glyphosate-tolerant soybean meal on rats were seen even at levels as high as 90% of the diet.     

Bag-of-words representation for biomedical time series classification

Automatic analysis of biomedical time series such as electroencephalogram (EEG) and electrocardiographic (ECG) signals has attracted great interest in the community of biomedical engineering due to its important applications in medicine. In this work, a simple yet effective bag-of-words representation that is originally developed for text document analysis is extended for biomedical time series representation. In particular, similar to the bag-of-words model used in text document domain, the proposed method treats a time series as a text document and extracts local segments from the time series as words. The biomedical time series is then represented as a histogram of codewords, each entry of which is the count of a codeword appeared in the time series. Although the temporal order of the local segments is ignored, the bag-of-words representation is able to capture high-level structural information because both local and global structural information are well utilized. The performance of the bag-of-words model is validated on three datasets extracted from real EEG and ECG signals. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is not only insensitive to parameters of the bag-of-words model such as local segment length and codebook size, but also robust to noise.     

Observer-based tracking control of abnormal oscillations in demyelination symptom

Fast axonal conduction of action potentials in mammals relies on myelin insulation. Demyelination can cause slowed, blocked, desynchronized, or paradoxically excessive spiking that underlies the symptoms observed in demyelination diseases. Feedback control via functional electrical stimulation (FES) seems to be a promising treatment modality in such diseases. However, there are challenges to implementing such method for neurons: high nonlinearity, biological tissue constrains and unobservable ion channel states. To address this problem, we propose an estimating and tracking control strategy for systems based on Kalman filter, in order to enhance the action potential propagation reliability of demyelinated neuron via FES. Unscented Kalman filter (UKF) is employed to estimate the unobservable states and parameters in the demyelination neuron model from membrane potential dynamics. Our method could promote the design of new closed-loop electrical stimulation systems for patients suffering from different nerve system dysfunctions.     

TNF—a在糖尿病合并牙周炎大鼠模型中的表达及意义

目的：建立糖尿病合并牙周炎大鼠模型,观察比较近牙槽嵴区牙周膜内肿瘤坏死因子-a（TNF-a）的含量,探讨高血糖对牙周组织炎症程度的影响。方法：糖尿病大鼠（STZ组）模型采用链脲佐菌素一次性腹腔注射制备,单纯牙周炎组州组）注射同剂量的枸橼酸钠缓冲液。成模且稳定后（4周）,两组都采用大鼠牙颈部丝线结扎的方法诱导牙周炎模型,于结扎后1周,2周,3周处死大鼠,采用组织学方法,免疫组织化学结合MATLAB7．0．1图像灰度定量分析法,研究近牙槽嵴区牙周膜中TNF-a水平的变化及牙周组织炎症的进展程度。结果：N组与STZ组除0周外各时间点两组之间比较有显著性差异（P〈0．001）;N组内各时间点每两组之间比较有统计学差别（P〈0．05）;STZ组内各时间点每两组之间比较有统计学差别（P〈0．05）。随时间的增加,各组大鼠的炎症程度增加,TNF—a的表达水平增加,STZ组的病变进展程度显著重于N组。结论：一次性腹腔注射STZ＋牙颈部丝线结扎可成功建立实验性糖尿病大鼠的牙周炎模型。高血糖浓度使糖尿病大鼠牙槽骨TNF-a的表达水平增加,降低了机体的损伤一修复能力,牙周组织的炎症进一步加重。     

舒芬太尼、曲马多用于小儿鼾症手术苏醒期躁动的临床研究

目的：探究舒芬太尼与曲马多对用于小儿鼾症手术苏醒期躁动的作用与影响。方法：60例ASAI或II级扁桃体肥大或腺样体肥大的鼾症手术患儿,年龄6-14岁,无呼吸系统,循环系统等疾病,一般状态良好。随机分为舒芬太尼组（s组）和曲马多（T组）,每组各30例。常规监测各项生命体征。于手术结束前20分钟（min）,S组缓慢静脉输入0．15μg／kg舒芬太尼,T组静脉输入1．2mg／kg曲马多。观察各组的：平均动脉压 （MAP）、心率（HR）、血氧饱和度（SpO2）,进行各组的镇静评分（RSS）、躁动评分（RS）、镇痛评分（VRS）、意识状态评分（OAAS）。记录拔管前（T0）、拔管时（T1）、拔管后5min（T2）、拔管后10min（T3）、拔管后20min（T4）各时间点各参数的变化。记录各组的恶心呕吐、呼吸抑制、烦躁等的发生率。结果：SpO2各组间无显著差异。MAP,HR在各时间点的变化T组大于S组,P〈0．05,有显著差异。T组在RS,RSS,VRS评分与S组有显著差异,P〈0．05。结论：0．15μg／kg的舒芬太尼在小儿鼾症手术的苏醒期可以维持稳定的血流动力学,副作用小,镇痛效果良好,可以有效减少小儿苏醒期的躁动。     

对比不同类型干细胞对于缺血性脑卒中治疗的研究进展

成人中枢神经系统存在着一定量的神经干细胞,其具有两大关键能力;自我更新和多向分化潜能。缺血性脑卒中是一种由于由脑血流的缺失或减少引起的脑动脉闭塞,进而导致脑组织梗死的脑血管疾病。虽然对于脑损伤的药物治疗已经取得了一定的成果,但目前以干细胞为基础的治疗方法仍成为了研究热点。无论是内源性神经干细胞还是外源性神经干细胞移植均可在脑损伤后向远端损伤区迁移并分化成新的神经细胞,从而在中枢神经系统疾病尤其是脑梗死后进行组织修复和功能恢复。因此在这篇综述中,我们主要探讨不同类型的干细胞对脑梗死介导的脑损伤的应用潜能,对比不同类型干细胞对缺血性脑卒中的治疗优缺点。