固定化酶载体研究进展

固定化酶技术的应用提高了酶的稳定性和重复使用性,为酶在工业上的大规模运用提供了条件,其中载体是固定化酶技术的关键环节之一,已成为固定化酶技术目前研究的热点。介绍了介孔材料、纳米材料、磁性材料、天然高分子材料在固定化酶领域的的优缺点、研究现状及其应用情况,综述了载体材料固定化酶研究过程中的分析表征手段,包括形貌分析、结构分析、元素分析、比表面积和孔径分析,并提出了固定化酶载体今后的研究方向,为固定化酶载体进一步的研究和合理利用提供参考。     

Myoblast proliferation and syncytial fusion both depend on connexin43 function in transfected skeletal muscle primary cultures

Muscles are formed by fusion of individual postmitotic myoblasts to form multinucleated syncytial myotubes. The process requires a well-coordinated transition from proliferation, through migratory alignment and cycle exit, to breakdown of apposed membranes. Connexin43 protein and cell-cycle inhibitor levels are correlated, and gap junction blockers can delay muscle regeneration, so a coordinating role for gap junctions has been proposed. Here, wild-type and dominant-negative connexin43 variants (wtCx43, dnCx43) were introduced into rat myoblasts in primary culture through pIRES-eGFP constructs that made transfected cells fluoresce. GFP-positive cells and vitally-stained nuclei were counted on successive days to reveal differences in proliferation, and myotubes were counted to reveal differences in fusion. Individual transfected cells were injected with Cascade Blue, which permeates gap junctions, mixed with FITC-dextran, which requires cytoplasmic continuity to enter neighbouring cells. Myoblasts transfected with wtCx43 showed more gap-junctional coupling than GFP-only controls, began fusion sooner as judged by the incidence of cytoplasmic coupling, and formed more myotubes. Myoblasts transfected with dnCx43 remained proliferative for longer than either GFP-only or wtCx43 myoblasts, showed less coupling, and underwent little fusion into myotubes. These results highlight the critical role of gap-junctional coupling in myotube formation.     

CORAL: Building up QSAR models for the chromosome aberration test

A high level of chromosomal aberrations in peripheral blood lymphocytes may be an early marker of cancer risk, but data on risk of specific cancers and types of chromosomal aberrations are limited. Consequently, the development of predictive models for chromosomal aberrations test is important task. Majority of models for chromosomal aberrations test are so-called knowledge-based rules system. The CORAL software (http://www.insilico.eu/coral, abbreviation of “CORrelation And Logic”) is an alternative for knowledge-based rules system. In contrast to knowledge-based rules system, the CORAL software gives possibility to estimate the influence upon the predictive potential of a model of different molecular alerts as well as different splits into the training set and validation set. This possibility is not available for the approaches based on the knowledge-based rules system. Quantitative Structure–Activity Relationships (QSAR) for chromosome aberration test are established for five random splits into the training, calibration, and validation sets. The QSAR approach is based on representation of the molecular structure by simplified molecular input-line entry system (SMILES) without data on physicochemical and/or biochemical parameters. In spite of this limitation, the statistical quality of these models is quite good.     

Computational analysis of a flapping uvula on aerodynamics and pharyngeal wall collapsibility in sleep apnea

Studying the airflows and the resultant aerodynamic pressure/force in the pharyngeal airway is critical for understanding the pathophysiology of snoring and sleep apnea. In this work, an experiment-driven computational study was conducted to examine the aerodynamics in human pharyngeal airway. An anatomically accurate pharynx model associated with different uvula kinematics was reconstructed from human magnetic resonance image (MRI) and high-speed photography. An immersed-boundary-method (IBM)-based direct numerical simulation (DNS) flow solver was adopted to simulate the corresponding unsteady flows in all their complexity. Analyses were performed on vortex dynamics and pressure fluctuations in the pharyngeal airway and force oscillations on the pharyngeal wall under the influence of varying airway obstructions, uvula flapping mode, and uvula flapping frequencies. It was found the vortex formation, aerodynamic pressure, and pharyngeal wall force were significantly affected by the width of the pharyngeal airway. By contrast, the influences from the uvula flapping mode were insignificant when other parameters were similar. Fast Fourier transformation (FFT) and continuous wavelet transform (CWT) analysis of the pressure time history revealed the existence of higher order harmonics of base frequency with significant pressure amplitudes and energy intensities. It was also found the airway pressure and pharyngeal wall force oscillate more dramatically at higher uvula flapping frequencies, which tends to promote the collapse of pharyngeal wall and initiates sleep apnea.     

天山北麓绿洲-荒漠过渡带芨芨草地地表能量通量研究

利用天山北麓绿洲-荒漠过渡带芨芨草地的小气候实测资料,分析了该地区不同天气条件下地表能量及其能量分配日变化特征,并进一步探讨了潜热与其它地表能量的关系。结果表明:晴天各地表能量分量曲线呈"单峰型",阴天表现为峰谷频繁交替的"多峰型",雨天则显示为"偏峰型"。由于该区以晴天为主,阴雨天气发生频率少,平均情况下的各能量曲线变化与晴天基本一致。任何天气条件下能量传输均以潜热(LE)为主,其次为感热(H)和土壤热通量(G)。观测期内LE/Rn平均值介于沙漠和绿洲之间,很好地在能量分配上体现出自身的过渡性。各种天气条件下能量分配的日动态变化趋势基本一致,白天均以潜热为主,夜间则有所不同。LE/Rn、H/Rn、G/Rn曲线白天变化平稳,夜间持续波动,日出和日落前后波动最为剧烈。其中,日出时刻以LE/Rn和G/Rn曲线波动最为强烈,且两者峰谷互补。因辐射强度和日照时数的不同,不同天气条件下曲线早、晚剧烈变化开始时间也有所差别。晴天、平均、阴天(8:00—18:00)波文比依次减小,且均小于1,表明它们在白天能量分配均以潜热为主。而雨天波文比则表现出较大的波动性,整体呈上升趋势。LE与Rn、H、G相关性程度均表现为:晴天与平均相当,阴天次之,雨天最小。     

Observations below multiple lower limits of quantification: How to estimate the mean and variance

Multiple lower limits of quantification (MLOQs) result if various laboratories are involved in the analysis of concentration data and some observations are too low to be quantified. For normally distributed data under MLOQs there exists only the multiple regression method of Helsel to estimate the mean and variance. We propose a simple imputation method and two new maximum likelihood estimation methods: the multiple truncated sample method and the multiple censored sample method. A simulation study is conducted to compare the performances of the newly introduced methods to Helsel's via the criteria root mean squared error (RMSE) and bias of the parameter estimates. Two and four lower limits of quantification (LLOQs), various amounts of unquantifiable observations and two sample sizes are studied. Furthermore, the robustness is investigated under model misspecification. The methods perform with decreasing accuracy for increasing rates of unquantified observations. Increasing sample sizes lead to smaller bias. There is almost no change in the performance between two and four LLOQs. The magnitude of the variance impairs the performance of all methods. For a smaller variance, the multiple censored sample method leads to superior estimates regarding the RMSE and bias, whereas Helsel's method is superior regarding the bias for a larger variance. Under model misspecification, Helsel's method was inferior to the other methods. Estimating the mean, the multiple censored sample method performed better, whereas the multiple truncated sample method performs best in estimating the variance. Summarizing, for a large sample size and normally distributed data we recommend to use Helsel's method. Otherwise, the multiple censored sample method should be used to obtain estimates of the mean and variance of data including MLOQs.     

Quantitative assessment of optical clearing methods in various intact mouse organs

Various tissue optical clearing techniques have sprung up for large volume imaging. However, there are few methods showed clearing and imaging data on different organs while most of them were focused on mouse brain, and as a result, it is difficult to select the suitable method for organs in practical applications due to lack of quantitative evaluation and comprehensive comparison. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate and compare the performances of clearing methods for different organs. In this paper, several typical optical clearing methods were applied, including 3DISCO, uDISCO, SeeDB, FRUIT, CUBIC, ScaleS and PACT to clear intact brain, heart, kidney, liver, spleen, stomach, lung, small intestine, skin and muscle. The clearing efficiency, sample deformation, fluorescence preservation and imaging depth of these methods were quantitatively evaluated. Finally, based on the systemic evaluation of various parameters described above, the appropriate clearing method for specific organ including kidney or intestine was screened out. This paper will provide important references for selection of appropriate clearing methods in related researches.      

Finite elements/Taguchi method based procedure for the identification of the geometrical parameters significantly affecting the biomechanical behavior of a lumbar disc

The aim of this work is to show a quick and simple procedure able to identify the geometrical parameters of the intervertebral disc that strongly affect the behavior of the FEM model. First, we allocated a selection criterion for the minimum number of geometrical parameters that describe, with a good degree of approximation, a healthy human vertebra. Next, we carried out a sensitivity analysis using the ‘Taguchi orthogonal array’ to arrive at a quick identification of the parameters that strongly affect the behavior of the Fem model.     

武夷山杉木林凋落物动态初探

用起伏型时间序列法对武夷山国家级自然保护区杉木林凋落物月动态进行模型,结果令人满意,说明起伏型时间序列分析可应用于森林凋落物动态模拟。