Challenges and Research Needs for Risk Assessment of Pesticides for Registration in Africa

Risk assessment is necessary for registration and risk management of new pesticides. The aim of this article is to discuss challenges that risk assessors in Africa face when conducting risk assessment of pesticides. Risk assessment requires toxicity assessment, environmental fate studies, and the use of models for occupational, dietary, residential, and environmental exposure assessments. Toxicity studies are very costly with the result that toxicity data used to register pesticides in Africa are often sourced from northern hemisphere countries. Assessors also often use exposure modeling results from the northern hemisphere. This is not an ideal approach as occupational exposure is influenced by agricultural practices, climatic conditions, and other factors. Furthermore, residential exposure models require time-location-activity information, exposure factors, and toxicokinetic rate constants for particular pesticides. Dietary exposure assessment needs accurate and comprehensive local food consumption data. Authorities in African countries should therefore generate the required data, despite these being very costly and tedious. Authorities should also provide guidance on the type of models and standard scenarios for estimating predicted environmental concentrations in various environmental compartments. It is recommended that higher educational institutions in Africa should incorporate risk assessment in general and pesticide toxicity and exposure models in particular in their curricula.     

中国抗体药物产业现状与发展前景

我国抗体药物起步晚,研发与生产技术与国际水平相比尚有一定的差距,但我国抗体药物产业发展迅速,国家政策支持以及研发投入力度较大,目前已取得一定的成果,市场潜力巨大。根据近年来国内相关文献报道以及CFDA、CDE网站的数据库,对我国抗体药物的上市、注册、审批情况以及产业化现状、重点研发企业、发展方向等方面进行归纳总结。综述了我国抗体药物的研究进展及发展前景,为生物制药企业及从事生产研发的科研人员提供了参考依据。     

Separation and characterisation of light scattering transients from rod outer segments of vertebrate photoreceptors: design and performance of a Multi Angle Flash Photolysis Apparatus (MAFPA)

A device was built for the simple computer-controlled routine determination of the angular dependence of light scattering transients obtained from biological material. It was called Multi Angle Flash Photolysis Apparatus (MAFPA). The MAFPA allows the simultaneous registration of rapid, light-induced light scattering transients at eight scattering angles between 0 degree and 28 degrees. In typical applications changes in scattered light intensity as small as delta I/I = 4 X 10(-5) can be resolved at scattering angles less than 24 degrees, while at 28 degrees the resolution drops to delta I/I = 2 X 10(-4). The time resolution is 32 microseconds. The MAFPA was designed for high accuracy, ease of use and ruggedness. It is made from relatively inexpensive parts and can be copied fairly easily by a good machine/electronics shop. In this communication we describe the design of the MAFPA and how it was used for the characterisation of four structurally distinct light-induced light scattering signals from photoreceptor rod outer segments. These signals are known as P (or binding) signal, G- (or dissociation) signal, N (or rhodopsin) signal and as the ATP-dependent signal AL. The signals have been separated by means of their different angular dependence, their different saturation behavior and nucleotide requirement. A great number of detailed studies will have to be carried out before one can fully understand the physical and biochemical origin of these signals. At this point, however, it can be stated that the so-called 'dissociation signal', showing an angular dependence indicative of a change in refractive index or scattering mass, is not merely an inversion of the preceding 'binding signal', the latter clearly reflecting a gross structural change, i.e. a shrinkage of the disks. Moreover, there are conditions where P signals are observed to persist even after the completion of the subsequent dissociation signals. The two remaining signals N and AL show a pronounced angular dependence which is not easily interpreted. The fact that both exhibit a maximal amplitude at relatively small angles seems to indicate the participation of rather large structural domains.     

Development of an anatomically based whole‐body musculoskeletal model of the Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata)

We constructed a three‐dimensional whole‐body musculoskeletal model of the Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata) based on computed tomography and dissection of a cadaver. The skeleton was modeled as a chain of 20 bone segments connected by joints. Joint centers and rotational axes were estimated by joint morphology based on joint surface approximation using a quadric function. The path of each muscle was defined by a line segment connecting origin to insertion through an intermediary point if necessary. Mass and fascicle length of each were systematically recorded to calculate physiological cross‐sectional area to estimate the capacity of each muscle to generate force. Using this anatomically accurate model, muscle moment arms and force vectors generated by individual limb muscles at the foot and hand were calculated to computationally predict muscle functions. Furthermore, three‐dimensional whole‐body musculoskeletal kinematics of the Japanese macaque was reconstructed from ordinary video sequences based on this model and a model‐based matching technique. The results showed that the proposed model can successfully reconstruct and visualize anatomically reasonable, natural musculoskeletal motion of the Japanese macaque during quadrupedal/bipedal locomotion, demonstrating the validity and efficacy of the constructed musculoskeletal model. The present biologically relevant model may serve as a useful tool for comprehensive understanding of the design principles of the musculoskeletal system and the control mechanisms for locomotion in the Japanese macaque and other primates. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2009. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Computer-aided hepatic tumour ablation: requirements and preliminary results

Surgical resection of hepatic tumours is not always possible, since it depends on different factors, among which their location inside the liver functional segments. Alternative techniques consist in local use of chemical or physical agents to destroy the tumour. Radio frequency and cryosurgical ablations are examples of such alternative techniques that may be performed percutaneously. This requires a precise localisation of the tumour placement during ablation. Computer-assisted surgery tools may be used in conjunction with these new ablation techniques to improve the therapeutic efficiency, whilst they benefit from minimal invasiveness. This paper introduces the principles of a system for computer-assisted hepatic tumour ablation and describes preliminary experiments focusing on data registration evaluation. To keep close to conventional protocols, we consider registration of pre-operative CT or MRI data to intra-operative echographic data.     

Ecological Risk Assessment Approaches Within the Regulatory Framework

Ecological risk assessment has a short history but a framework similar to human health risk assessment. The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) played a significant role in the development of the ecological risk process. Data developed and risk procedures used within TSCA and FIFRA have become generally standardized. Fundamental components of the risk process require data on the effects of chemicals in the form of concentration (or dose) — response profiles for species and an exposure profile to quantify the magnitude, spatial and temporal patterns of exposure relevant to significant biological endpoints being studied. Risk characterization generally involves comparing exposure and effects using point estimates (e.g., quotient method) but risk estimation is moving toward a probabilistic approach by comparing distributions of values with more consideration of the sources of uncertainty. Ecological testing guidelines in TSCA and FIFRA are discussed along with the risk characterization process used in each statute.     

Strategy and software for the statistical spatial analysis of 3D intracellular distributions

The localization of proteins in specific domains or compartments in the 3D cellular space is essential for many fundamental processes in eukaryotic cells. Deciphering spatial organization principles within cells is a challenging task, in particular because of the large morphological variations between individual cells. We present here an approach for normalizing variations in cell morphology and for statistically analyzing spatial distributions of intracellular compartments from collections of 3D images. The method relies on the processing and analysis of 3D geometrical models that are generated from image stacks and that are used to build representations at progressively increasing levels of integration, ultimately revealing statistical significant traits of spatial distributions. To make this methodology widely available to end‐users, we implemented our algorithmic pipeline into a user‐friendly, multi‐platform, and freely available software. To validate our approach, we generated 3D statistical maps of endomembrane compartments at subcellular resolution within an average epidermal root cell from collections of image stacks. This revealed unsuspected polar distribution patterns of organelles that were not detectable in individual images. By reversing the classical ‘measure‐then‐average’ paradigm, one major benefit of the proposed strategy is the production and display of statistical 3D representations of spatial organizations, thus fully preserving the spatial dimension of image data and at the same time allowing their integration over individual observations. The approach and software are generic and should be of general interest for experimental and modeling studies of spatial organizations at multiple scales (subcellular, cellular, tissular) in biological systems.     

农作物种质资源登记区块链模型研究

农作物种质资源工作发展至今取得了巨大的成就,但也存在着农作物种质资源家底不清、共享利用效率不高及种质权属不清等问题,开展农作物种质资源登记工作能够有效解决以上问题.本研究从资源登记信息的流向角度出发,梳理了登记的整体工作流程,并结合区块链技术的优势,提出了农作物种质资源登记区块链网络模型.首先根据农作物种质资源登记的业...     

Elastic image registration of 2-D gels for differential and repeatability studies

One of the main applications of electrophoretic 2-D gels is the analysis of differential responses between different conditions. For this reason, specific spots are present in one of the images, but not in the other. In some other occasions, the same experiment is repeated between 2 and 12 times in order to increase statistical significance. In both situations, one of the major difficulties of these analysis is that 2-D gels are affected by spatial distortions due to run-time differences and dye-front deformations, resulting in images that are significantly dissimilar not only because of their content, but also because of their geometry. In this technical brief, we show how to use free, state-of-the-art image registration and fusion algorithms developed by us for solving the problem of comparing differential expression profiles, or computing an "average" image from a series of virtually identical gels.     

肺癌影像引导放疗人工图像配准方法分析

目的分析千伏锥形束CT（KVCBCT）引导肺癌放疗人工图像配准法的重复性。方法选择16例在我院行根治性放疗的非小细胞肺癌患者,每周行KVCBCT在线引导体位校正一次,获取患者KVCBCT影像。图像配准选择肺尖和椎体作为参考标记,在矢状位、冠状位和横断位等中心层面上配准患者KVCBCT影像和计划设计cT影像。比较同一名医生相隔一周两次配准,不同医生之间配准和医生与技术员之间配准结果的差异,用于评价KVCBCT引导肺癌放疗人工图像配准法的重复性。结果同一位医生相隔一周两次配准同一幅KVCBCT影像与计划设计cT影像,配准结果在患者左右（LR）、头脚（sI）和前后（AP）三个方向上,差值大于3mm所占的比例分别为：0,13％和6％。不同医生之间的配准结果在LR、SI和AP三个方向上,差值大于3mm所占的比例分别为：11％,19％和14％。医生与技术员的配准结果在LR、SI和AP三个方向上差值大于3mm所占的比例,分别为：16％,27％和27％。结论KVCBCT引导肺癌放疗人工图像配准法的重复性有待进一步提高。尤其表现为不同医生,医生与技术员之间应用该方法的重复性较差。KVCBCT引导肺癌放疗的图像配准方法需要进一步研究。