A New Single Chamber Implantable Defibrillator with Atrial Sensing: A Practical Demonstration of Sensing and Ease of Implantation

Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) terminate ventricular tachycardia (VT) and ventricular fibrillation (VF) with high efficacy and can protect patients from sudden cardiac death (SCD). However, inappropriate shocks may occur if tachycardias are misdiagnosed. Inappropriate shocks are harmful and impair patient quality of life. The risk of inappropriate therapy increases with lower detection rates programmed in the ICD. Single-chamber detection poses greater risks for misdiagnosis when compared with dual-chamber devices that have the benefit of additional atrial information. However, using a dual-chamber device merely for the sake of detection is generally not accepted, since the risks associated with the second electrode may outweigh the benefits of detection. Therefore, BIOTRONIK developed a ventricular lead called the Linox^SMART S DX, which allows for the detection of atrial signals from two electrodes positioned at the atrial part of the ventricular electrode. This device contains two ring electrodes; one that contacts the atrial wall at the junction of the superior vena cava (SVC) and one positioned at the free floating part of the electrode in the atrium. The excellent signal quality can only be achieved by a special filter setting in the ICD (Lumax 540 and 740 VR-T DX, BIOTRONIK). Here, the ease of implantation of the system will be demonstrated.     

Folding of intracellular retinol and retinoic acid binding proteins

The folding mechanisms of cellular retinol binding protein II (CRBP II), cellular retinoic acid binding protein I (CRABP I), and cellular retinoic acid binding protein II (CRABP II) were examined. These beta-sheet proteins have very similar structures and higher sequence homologies than most proteins in this diverse family. They have similar stabilities and show completely reversible folding at equilibrium with urea as a denaturant. The unfolding kinetics of these proteins were monitored during folding and unfolding by circular dichroism (CD) and fluorescence. During unfolding, CRABP II showed no intermediates, CRABP I had an intermediate with nativelike secondary structure, and CRBP II had an intermediate that lacked secondary structure. The refolding kinetics of these proteins were more similar. Each protein showed a burst-phase change in intensity by both CD and fluorescence, followed by a single observed phase by both CD and fluorescence and one or two additional refolding phases by fluorescence. The fluorescence spectral properties of the intermediate states were similar and suggested a gradual increase in the amount of native tertiary structure present for each step in a sequential path. However, the rates of folding differed by as much as 3 orders of magnitude and were slower than those expected from the contact order and topology of these proteins. As such, proteins with the same final structure may not follow the same route to the native state.     

Flow injection–chemiluminescence determination of acyclovir

The chemiluminescence (CL) reaction of acyclovir (ACV)–potassium permanganate, with formaldehyde as an enhancer, was investigated by the flow‐injection system, and a new method is reported for the determination of ACV on the basis of the reaction. The method is rapid, effective and simple for the determination of acyclovir in the range 0.2–80 mg/L, with a limit of detection of 0.06 mg/L (3 S:N), a relative standard deviation (RSD) of 3.7% for the determination of 1.0 mg/L acyclovir solution in 11 repeated measurements. The method has been applied to the determination of acyclovir in pharmaceuticals, with satisfactory results. The possible reaction mechanism is also discussed briefly. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

升流厌氧污泥层反应器动力学模型

用碘离子作示踪剂,采用矩形脉冲示踪法测定升流厌氧污泥层(UASB)反应器的流动分布。建立了申级返混加沟流模型。模型简单,能够反映反应器流动分布,具有较强的拟合能力和良好的适用性。运用流动模型和Monod方程,建立了UASB反应器稳态模型,并对模型参数进行了估计。通过灵敏度分析,进水基质浓度S。,废水流量Q,最大比基质降解速率,μmax 对出水基质浓度有较大影响。在稳态模型的基础上又建立了UASB反应器动态模态,利用此模型,对出水基质浓度序列Se,和产气量序列Qg进行计算预测,平均偏差分别5．40％和7．46％,标准偏差分别为7．02％和9．66％。     

Staining with Fluorescein Diacetate Correlates with Hepatocyte Function

To establish the importance of fluorescein diacetate (FDA) as a viability stain for cultured hepatocytes. we hypothesized that FDA staining would correlate positively with hepatocyte viability and function. Mixtures of live and dead cells were stained with FDA and scanned by flow cytometry. A close correlation was observed between the live cell fraction and percent viability as determined by FDA staining (R² = 0.962). Hepatocytes were also sorted into low fluorescence and high fluorescence groups. Both albumin production and lidocaine metabolism (P-450 activity) were significantly increased in the high fluorescence group compared to the low fluorescence group. An automated, fluorescence-activated assay was useful for rapid assessment of hepatocyte viability. In addition. the intensity of green fluorescence following staining with FDA correlated well with two specific measures of hepatocyte function.     

Inference of Gene Flow between Species under Misspecified Models

Genomic sequence data provide a rich source of information about the history of species divergence and interspecific hybridization or introgression. Despite recent advances in genomics and statistical methods, it remains challenging to infer gene flow, and as a result, one may have to estimate introgression rates and times under misspecified models. Here we use mathematical analysis and computer simulation to examine estimation bias and issues of interpretation when the model of gene flow is misspecified in analysis of genomic datasets, for example, if introgression is assigned to the wrong lineages. In the case of two species, we establish a correspondence between the migration rate in the continuous migration model and the introgression probability in the introgression model. When gene flow occurs continuously through time but in the analysis is assumed to occur at a fixed time point, common evolutionary parameters such as species divergence times are surprisingly well estimated. However, the time of introgression tends to be estimated towards the recent end of the period of continuous gene flow. When introgression events are assigned incorrectly to the parental or daughter lineages, introgression times tend to collapse onto species divergence times, with introgression probabilities underestimated. Overall, our analyses suggest that the simple introgression model is useful for extracting information concerning between-specific gene flow and divergence even when the model may be misspecified. However, for reliable inference of gene flow it is important to include multiple samples per species, in particular, from hybridizing species.     

Ageing and longevity in the Decapoda (Crustacea): A review

Ageing and longevity is a neglected field of crustacean biology. Information on longevity is available for less than 2% of the extant species of the Decapoda. Maximum ages reliably determined range from 40 days to 72 years corresponding to a life span difference of a factor of 650. The shortest-lived decapods are planktonic dendrobranchiate shrimps, and particularly long-lived species with life spans of decades are found in the Astacidea. Most decapods seem to live for 1-10 years. High geographical latitude, the deep sea and freshwater caves promote longevity. The majority of the Decapoda is indeterminately growing and presumably characterized by negligible senescence. The adults of the determinately growing decapods like some brachyuran crabs suffer from mechanical senescence and are unable to regenerate lost appendages. The decapod crustaceans have developed many effective anti-ageing mechanisms including moulting, detoxification of free radicals, removal of cellular waste, renewal of tissues by life-long stem cell activity, regeneration of appendages, detoxification of environmental pollutants and isolation of pathogens and diseased tissue areas by melanisation and encapsulation. Age related diseases including cancer are virtually unknown. The present compilation of data on longevity and senescence in decapods is the first one that covers the whole spectrum of a higher invertebrate taxon. It is hoped to provide an interesting source of information for carcinologists and biogerontologists. Further improvement of knowledge on ageing and longevity in the Decapoda would be beneficial for crustacean aquaculture, fisheries and ecological modelling. Some decapods even have good potential to become models for general ageing research.     

An efficient algorithm for DNA fragment assembly in MapReduce

Fragment assembly is one of the most important problems of sequence assembly. Algorithms for DNA fragment assembly using de Bruijn graph have been widely used. These algorithms require a large amount of memory and running time to build the de Bruijn graph. Another drawback of the conventional de Bruijn approach is the loss of information. To overcome these shortcomings, this paper proposes a parallel strategy to construct de Bruijin graph. Its main characteristic is to avoid the division of de Bruijin graph. A novel fragment assembly algorithm based on our parallel strategy is implemented in the MapReduce framework. The experimental results show that the parallel strategy can effectively improve the computational efficiency and remove the memory limitations of the assembly algorithm based on Euler superpath. This paper provides a useful attempt to the assembly of large-scale genome sequence using Cloud Computing.     

Topoisomerase I‐Mediated Antiproliferative Activity of 10‐Substituted and 12‐Substituted Homocamptothecins

Homocamptothecin (hCPT) is an E‐ring modified camptothecin (CPT) analogue, which showed pronounced inhibitory activity of topoisomerase I. In search of novel hCPT‐type anticancer agents, two series of hCPT derivatives were synthesized and evaluated in vitro against three human tumor cell lines. The results indicated that the 10‐substituted hCPT derivatives had a considerably higher cytotoxic activity than the 12‐substituted ones. Among the 10‐substituted compounds, 8a, 8b, 9b , and 9i showed an equivalent or even more potent activity than the positive control drug topotecan against the lung cancer cell line A‐549. Moreover, the hCPT analogues 8a and 8b exhibited a higher topoisomerase I inhibitory activity than CPT at a concentration of 100 μM .