‘After the break’: re-conceptualizing ethnicity,national identity and ‘Malaysian-Chinese’ identities

Focusing on ethnic Chinese as cultural citizens of the nation, this paper examines national identity in the context of generational change. In so doing, it connects to colonialist conceptions of identity the dominant framework of ethnicity that operates in Malaysia. It argues that this framework allows for the nationalist imagining of ‘Malaysian-Chinese’ as ‘outsiders’. In probing the complex conceptual relationship between ethnicity, national identity and cultural citizenship, this article asks: How does ‘ethnicity’ enter into negotiations over the ‘national’ in the cultural realm? What are the notions of cultural difference and national otherness that operate in the negative dualisms by which nation and ethnicity are defined? How are these dualisms tied to notions of authenticity and cultural citizenship? Using the novel The Harmony Silk Factory by Malaysian author Tash Aw to address these questions, this paper argues the need to rethink current policies and narratives of ethnic and national identity in Malaysia.     

Construction and characterization of a gridded cattle BAC library

A bovine genomic large-insert bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library has been constructed from leukocytes of a Holstein-Friesian male. Size fractionated DpnII-digested genomic DNA was ligated to the dephosphorylated BamH1 ends of a pBACe3.6 vector. Approximately 8.3 x 10(4) individual BAC clones were picked into 384-well plates. Two-hundred and sixty-seven randomly chosen clones were characterized by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). The average insert size was 104 kb with a frequency of clones without inserts of 5.5%. Thirty-four BAC clones were mapped by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to cattle chromosomes. Three showed signals at more than one location, one of them on the centromeric regions of all autosomes, indicating that the clone contains centromeric repeats. A subset of these BAC clones was used for the development of sequence tagged sites. Both subcloning and direct sequencing of the BACs were used for generating sequence tagged site information. The clones from the library were gridded onto high-density membranes, and PCR superpools were produced from the same set of clones. Membranes and superpools are available through the Resource Centre of the German Human Genome Project in Berlin (http:// www.rzpd.de).     

Fluorescence in blue light (FLU) is involved in inactivation and localization of glutamyl‐tRNA reductase during light exposure

Fluorescent in blue light (FLU) is a negative regulator involved in dark repression of 5‐aminolevulinic acid (ALA) synthesis and interacts with glutamyl‐tRNA reductase (GluTR), the rate‐limiting enzyme of tetrapyrrole biosynthesis. In this study, we investigated FLU‘s regulatory function in light‐exposed FLU‐overexpressing (FLUOE) Arabidopsis lines and under fluctuating light intensities in wild‐type (WT) and flu seedlings. FLUOE lines suppress ALA synthesis in the light, resulting in reduced chlorophyll content, but more strongly in low and high light than in medium growth light. This situation indicates that FLU's impact on chlorophyll biosynthesis depends on light intensity. FLU overexpressors contain strongly increased amounts of mainly membrane‐associated GluTR. These findings correlate with FLU‐dependent localization of GluTR to plastidic membranes and concomitant inhibition, such that only the soluble GluTR fraction is active. The overaccumulation of membrane‐associated GluTR indicates that FLU binding enhances GluTR stability. Interestingly, under fluctuating light, the leaves of flu mutants contain less chlorophyll compared with WT and become necrotic. We propose that FLU is basically required for fine‐tuned ALA synthesis. FLU not only mediates dark repression of ALA synthesis, but functions also to control balanced ALA synthesis under variable light intensities to ensure the adequate supply of chlorophyll.     

In vitro vRNA–vRNA interactions in the H1N1 influenza A virus genome

The genome of influenza A virus consists of eight-segmented, single-stranded, negative-sense viral RNAs (vRNAs). Each vRNA contains a central coding region that is flanked by noncoding regions. It has been shown that upon virion formation, the eight vRNAs are selectively packaged into progeny virions through segment-specific packaging signals that are located in both the terminal coding regions and adjacent noncoding regions of each vRNA. Although recent studies using next-generation sequencing suggest that multiple intersegment interactions are involved in genome packaging, contributions of the packaging signals to the intersegment interactions are not fully understood. Herein, using synthesized full-length vRNAs of H1N1 WSN (A/WSN/33 [H1N1]) virus and short vRNAs containing the packaging signal sequences, we performed in vitro RNA binding assays and identified 15 intersegment interactions among eight vRNAs, most of which were mediated by the 3′- and 5′-terminal regions. Interestingly, all eight vRNAs interacted with multiple other vRNAs, in that some bound to different vRNAs through their respective 3′- and 5′-terminal regions. These in vitro findings would be of use in future studies of in vivo vRNA–vRNA interactions during selective genome packaging.     

Solution structure of the phosphotyrosine binding (PTB) domain of human tensin2 protein in complex with deleted in liver cancer 1 (DLC1) peptide reveals a novel peptide binding mode

The protein deleted in liver cancer 1 (DLC1) interacts with the tensin family of focal adhesion proteins to play a role as a tumor suppressor in a wide spectrum of human cancers. This interaction has been proven to be crucial to the oncogenic inhibitory capacity and focal adhesion localization of DLC1. The phosphotyrosine binding (PTB) domain of tensin2 predominantly interacts with a novel site on DLC1, not the canonical NPXY motif. In this study, we characterized this interaction biochemically and determined the complex structure of tensin2 PTB domain with DLC1 peptide by NMR spectroscopy. Our HADDOCK-derived complex structure model elucidates the molecular mechanism by which tensin2 PTB domain recognizes DLC1 peptide and reveals a PTB-peptide binding mode that is unique in that peptide occupies the binding site opposite to the canonical NPXY motif interaction site with the peptide utilizing a non-canonical binding motif to bind in an extended conformation and that the N-terminal helix, which is unique to some Shc- and Dab-like PTB domains, is required for binding. Mutations of crucial residues defined for the PTB-DLC1 interaction affected the co-localization of DLC1 and tensin2 in cells and abolished DLC1-mediated growth suppression of hepatocellular carcinoma cells. This tensin2 PTB-DLC1 peptide complex with a novel binding mode extends the versatile binding repertoire of the PTB domains in mediating diverse cellular signaling pathways as well as provides a molecular and structural basis for better understanding the tumor-suppressive activity of DLC1 and tensin2.     

基于智能体模型的青岛市林地生态格局评价与优化

设计并在GIS平台上开发了基于智能体的生态格局评价模型,以青岛市及周边地区林地为研究对象,分析不同林地空间格局及生态网络保护框架对于物种生存与扩散的影响.结果表明,与现状相比,不同等级的生态网络框架对物种种群数量与物种迁移都有明显提升,且等级越高的生态网络框架提升作用越明显.然而仅仅依靠生态网络框架不足以使研究区域林地系统形成功能上的相互连通,因此,在分析研究区域现状土地利用格局基础上,提出与湿地系统结合,在胶州湾周围及大沽河干流地区增加林地的空间布局.通过模型模拟分析,发现优化后的林地空间格局结合生态网络框架能有效提升林地之间的物种扩散.基于模拟结果,为研究区林地生态格局构建提出如下建议:(1)保证现有的规模较大的林地不被破坏;(2)青岛市中部湿地系统可以作为新增林地的理想区域;(3)生态网络框架可作为青岛市建立城市组团间生态间隔的空间参考.     

柠条锦鸡儿籽油体外抗真菌作用及其机制研究(英文)

参照美国临床实验室标准化委员会(NCCLS)推荐的《产孢丝状真菌的液基稀释法抗真菌药物敏感性试验方案》(M38-A),测定超临界CO2萃取的柠条锦鸡儿籽油对3种(每种15株)临床常见的皮肤癣菌的最低抑菌浓度(MIC);高效液相色谱法研究柠条锦鸡儿籽油对真菌细胞膜麦角甾醇生物合成的影响以探讨其作用机制。结果表明柠条锦鸡儿籽油对犬小孢子菌、须癣毛癣菌、红色毛癣菌的MIC范围分别为64～512μg/mL、32～512μg/mL、64～1024μg/mL;高效液相色谱法检测显示,与其生长对照菌相比,籽油作用的皮肤癣菌细胞膜上麦角甾醇含量明显降低,且具有剂量依赖性。柠条锦鸡儿籽油主要是通过影响真菌细胞膜上麦角甾醇的合成而发挥抗真菌作用。