Human Health Risk Assessment of a Civilian-Accessible Active Firing Range

The Korean Federation of Teachers Association, the Korea Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, and the Korea Ministry of National Defense (KMND) concluded a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on opening military sites to elementary, middle, and high school students to strengthen national security consciousness. According to the MOU, the KMND decided to open an active firing range; however, due to the ongoing firing activity, site contamination by toxic energetic materials (EMs) was suspected. To identify whether opening the firing range might pose a human health threat to the students and their teachers visiting the site, we conducted a risk assessment to evaluate potential risk. The risk assessment results revealed that both cancer risk and non-cancer risk were negligible. The potential cancer risk was in the range of 1.9 × 10^–11 and 1.4 × 10^–10, and the potential non-cancer hazard index was in the range of 2.3 × 10^–6 and 4.9 × 10^–6.     

The Cellular and Mechanical Basis for Response Characteristics of Identified Primary Afferents in the Rat Vibrissal System

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PARP Activity Fine-tunes the DNA Replication Choreography of Chk1-depleted Cells

Checkpoint Kinase 1 (Chk1) prevents DNA damage by adjusting the replication choreography in the face of replication stress. Chk1 depletion provokes slow and asymmetrical fork movement, yet the signals governing such changes remain unclear. We sought to investigate whether poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases (PARPs), key players of the DNA damage response, intervene in the DNA replication of Chk1-depleted cells. We demonstrate that PARP inhibition selectively alleviates the reduced fork elongation rates, without relieving fork asymmetry in Chk1-depleted cells. While the contribution of PARPs to fork elongation is not unprecedented, we found that their role in Chk1-depleted cells extends beyond fork movement. PARP-dependent fork deceleration induced mild dormant origin firing upon Chk1 depletion, augmenting the global rates of DNA synthesis. Thus, we have identified PARPs as novel regulators of replication fork dynamics in Chk1-depleted cells.     

A K<Superscript>+</Superscript>/H<Superscript>+</Superscript> P-ATPase transport in the accessory cell membrane of the blowfly taste chemosensilla sustains the transepithelial potential

An electrogenic K(+) transport in the tormogen cell of insect chemosensilla is involved in the generation and maintenance of the transepithelial potential (TEP). To gain more information about the K(+) transport system underlying the TEP generation and the location of its components in the plasma membrane of the tormogen cell, we studied the effects of inhibitors of K(+)/H(+) P-ATPase (bafilomycin A1, omeprazole and Na-orthovanadate), of K(+)/Cl(-) co-transport (bumetanide), of Cl(-) channels (NPPB) and of a K(+) channel blocker (BaCl(2)). The relationship between TEP amplitude and spike firing activity was also studied. Experiments were performed on the labellar chemosensilla of the blowfly Protophormia terraenovae using a modified tip-recording technique. Results show that: (a) K(+)/H(+) P-ATPase inhibitors significantly decrease the TEP, when properly applied to the labellum for 20 min, so as to reach the basolateral side of the plasma membrane, while no effect was detected when applied to the apical side, (b) bumetanide, NPPB and BaCl(2) decrease the TEP value only when administered to the apical side, (c) spike activity is positively correlated with the TEP. A model is proposed of the active and passive K(+) transports sustaining the TEP associated with the blowfly chemosensilla.     

胃动素对大鼠下丘脑胃牵张敏感神经元和胃运动的影响(英文)

目的:研究胃动素对下丘脑弓状核胃牵张敏感神经元放电活动和胃运动的影响。方法:采用4管玻璃微电极细胞外记录胃动素对大鼠弓状核胃牵张敏感神经元活动,采用胃内置传感器观察胃动素对对清醒大鼠胃运动的影响。结果:65.5%的弓状核神经元为胃扩张敏感性神经元,其中55.6%为胃扩张兴奋性神经元,44.4%为抑制性神经元。胃扩张刺激后兴奋性神经元的放电频率显著增加(P<0.01),而抑制性神经元的放电频率显著降低(P<0.01)。弓状核内微量注射胃动素,70%的兴奋性神经元在胃扩张刺激后表现为兴奋作用,17.5%的神经元表现为抑制作用,并且放电频率显著增加(P<0.05)。同样,在抑制性神经元中,65.6%在注射胃动素后引起电活动增强,放电频率显著降低(P<0.05)。而胃动素受体拮抗剂GM-109可以完全阻断这种由胃动素诱导的兴奋作用,提示,胃动素在弓状核通过其特异性受体调控神经元活动。在胃运动实验中,弓状核微量注射胃动素后,胃运动的收缩频率和幅度都显著增加(P<0.05);同时,这种兴奋作用也可被GM-109阻断。结论:研究证实了弓状核胃动素神经元接收来自胃感受器的外周躯体感觉传入神经的冲动,并通过某些下级核团通路发挥...     

Lyotropic Ion Channel Current Model Compared with Ising Model

Trans-membrane currents in ligand-gated ion channels are calculated in a non-equilibrium, chemically open whole cell system. The model is lyotropic in the sense that dynamics and parameters such as ligand concentration for half-maximal response (scale of response), and threshold for firing in neurons, are nonlinear functions of the reactant concentrations. The derived total current fits recorded data significantly better than those derived from mass action, Ising, and other equilibrium type models, in which the derived response can be displaced from the assessed response by several orders in the ligand concentration. A comparison of the model obtained with an Ising-like model provides a methodology to obtain the non-equilibrium scaling dependence of Ising-like models on the reactant concentrations.     

Electrophysiological properties and modeling of murine vomeronasal sensory neurons in acute slice preparations

The vomeronasal system is involved in the detection of pheromones in many mammals. Vomeronasal sensory neurons encode the behaviorally relevant information into action potentials that are directly transmitted to the accessory olfactory bulb. We developed a model of the electrical activity of mouse basal vomeronasal sensory neurons, which mimics both the voltage-gated current properties and the firing behavior of these neurons in their near-native state, using a minimal number of parameters. Data were obtained by recordings with the whole-cell voltage-clamp or current-clamp techniques from mouse basal vomeronasal sensory neurons in acute slice preparations. The resting potential ranged from -50 to -70 mV, and current injections of less than 2-10 pA induced tonic firing in most neurons. The experimentally determined firing frequency as a function of injected current was well described by a Michaelis-Menten equation and was exactly reproduced by the model, which could be used in combination with future models that will include details of the mouse vomeronasal transduction cascade.     

乌拉坦对大鼠海马CA1区锥体神经元自发放电的抑制作用

为了深入研究麻醉药乌拉坦对大鼠海马CA1锥体神经元自发放电的作用及其机制,分析了10 mmol/L乌拉坦对自发放电、电压门控钠通道、电压门控钾通道的作用．从自发放电信号中计算了放电频率、提取了峰峰间隔序列(ISI)并利用样品熵和去趋势波动法对ISI进行了非线性分析．结果表明,乌拉坦不仅抑制了自发放电的频率,而且降低了自发放电ISI序列的复杂度并弱化了其长时程相关性．离子通道研究结果表明,乌拉坦显著地抑制了钠通道电流(I_Na),对延迟整流钾通道电流(I_K)和瞬时外向钾通道电流(I_A)虽然也有抑制作用但无统计学意义．由于乌拉坦不影响突触传递,因此它可能通过抑制I_Na使自发放电的阈值升高而降低放电频率,同时,由于参与的通道数量或活性降低而使得ISI的复杂度下降,长时程相关性弱化．     

Tonic contractions allow metabolic recuperation of the adductor muscle during escape responses of giant scallop Placopecten magellanicus

To escape from starfish predators, giant scallops, Placopecten magellanicus, swim using series of strong phasic contractions interrupted by tonic contractions. To investigate whether these tonic contractions allow metabolic recuperation of the adductor muscle, we sampled scallops at rest (Control), after an initial series of phasic contractions (Phasic) and after 1 min of tonic contraction following their initial phasic contractions (Phasic + Tonic) and compared muscle levels of phosphoarginine, adenylate nucleotides (ATP, ADP and AMP) and adenylate energy charge (AEC). Scallops in the two active groups did not differ in the numbers of phasic contractions or the mean phasic force production. Phosphoarginine concentrations in the adductor muscle decreased with phasic activity and remained low after 1 min of tonic contraction. ATP and ADP and total adenylate levels did not differ between the three groups, but AMP levels were higher in the scallops sampled after phasic contractions than in control scallops. The AEC was reduced by phasic contractions but returned to control levels after 1 min of tonic contraction. A significant negative correlation between AEC and the number of claps in the Phasic group disappeared in the Phasic + Tonic group. Thus, tonic contractions following phasic contractions allow partial metabolic recovery of the adductor muscle by returning AEC to control levels. However, phosphoarginine levels did not recover during tonic contractions, and a negative correlation between the number of claps and phosphoarginine levels remained in the Phasic + Tonic group. By interspersing tonic contractions between series of phasic contractions, scallops improved muscle energetic status, which should help maintain phasic force production during the remainder of the escape response.