Catchment urbanisation and increased benthic algal biomass in streams: linking mechanisms to management

1. Urbanisation is an important cause of eutrophication in waters draining urban areas. We determined whether benthic algal biomass in small streams draining urban areas was explained primarily by small‐scale factors (benthic light, substratum type and nutrient concentrations) within a stream, or by catchment‐scale variables that incorporate the interacting multiple impacts of urbanisation (i.e. variables that describe urban density and the intensity of drainage or septic tank systems). 2. Benthic algal biomass was assessed as chlorophyll a density (chl a) in 16 streams spanning a rural–urban gradient, with both a wide range of urban density and of piped stormwater infrastructure intensity on the eastern fringe of metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. The gradient of urban density among streams was broadly correlated with catchment imperviousness, drainage connection (proportion of impervious areas connected to streams by stormwater pipes), altitude, longitude and median phosphorus concentration. Catchment area, septic tank density, median nitrogen concentration, benthic light (photosynthetically active radiation) and substratum type were not strongly correlated with the urban gradient. 3. Variation in benthic light and substratum type within streams explained a relatively small amount of variation in log chl a (3–11 and 1–13%, respectively) compared with between‐site variation (39–54%). 4. Median chl a was positively correlated with catchment urbanisation, with a large proportion of variance explained jointly (as determined by hierarchical partitioning) by those variables correlated with urban density. Independent of this correlation, the contributions of drainage connection and altitude to the explained variance in chl a were significant. 5. The direct connection of impervious surfaces to streams by stormwater pipes is hypothesised as the main determinant of algal biomass in these streams through its effect on the supply of phosphorus, possibly in interaction with stormwater‐related impacts on grazing fauna. Management of benthic algal biomass in streams of urbanised catchments is likely to be most effective through the application of stormwater management approaches that reduce drainage connection.     

A reciprocal connection factor for assessing knee-joint function

In the knee joint, interactions between instantaneous kinetics and kinematics associated with ligamentous and articular tissues are not fully understood. These structures may be represented by the instantaneous screw axis ($) (ISA) and static force vectors ($′). Geometric changes to the joint structure affecting motion have not been fully explained, especially after surgical reconstruction and replacement procedures. The ISA offers a joint-characterisation approach, which is dependent on the combined forces of ligaments, articular contacts and muscles. The standard four-bar linkage model in the sagittal plane demonstrates that the normal contact force and the lines of action of the cruciate ligaments always intersect at the centre of rotation of the joint. A kinematic knee model in which the articular surfaces in the lateral and medial compartments as well as the isometric fascicles in the engaged ligaments may be represented as five constraints in a one-degree-of-freedom parallel spatial mechanism. This study provides a theoretical foundation to elucidate the role of each of these elements in the control of the ISA. A recourse to the principle of virtual work explained through d'Alembert's principle for reducing a dynamics problem to an instantaneous static scenario allows screws to be applied to the biomechanics of human motion. The principle of reciprocity links these approaches together to explain the transmitting load between the tibia and the femur as well as the relative motion within the knee joint. A principal clinical implication of this study is the introduction of the reciprocal connection factor to evaluate knee kinematics and kinetics in one simple term, allowing the quantitative assessment of the outcome of knee-joint treatment and rehabilitation methods.     

Les faunes terrestres quaternaires des Îles du Japon

This paper explains a brief history of research on Quaternary terrestrial mammals in Japan and fossil occurrence of taxa at major localities of each time period at first. Based on these data, then, the changing history of Quaternary terrestrial mammals in Japan is reviewed, especially on such points as (1) importance of strait in western Japan as coming over route, (2) changing history of Plio-Pleistocene terrestrial mammals in Japan, (3) two faunas during the Late Pleistocene, (4) dates of extinctions of large mammals near the end of the Late Pleistocene. Formation process of Quaternary terrestrial mammal fauna in Japan must have been affected by condition of land connection with Asian continent at seaway west to Japan and changing history of climate and vegetation in East Asia, and it should be considered by different time period, e.g. before and after ca. 1.7 Ma. The time period after 1.7 Ma is one affected by glacial sea level fluctuations. Although a new fauna came over from the west to Japan when sea level was low, this time period is basically the age of insularization, and it is presumed that the fauna was becoming endemic during this time period. During the late Late Pleistocene, there were two faunas existed in Japan, e.g. one with Palaeoloxodon naumanni having come over from the west and another with Mammuthus primigenius having come over from the north. The former dwelled mainly in deciduous broad-leaved forest and mixed forest with conifers in temperate climate, while the latter dwelled in steppe and coniferous forest in subboreal climate. Both faunas changed their ranges to north and south repeatedly as climate changed, and the extinction of large mammals of the fauna with Palaeoloxodon naumanni occurred at the same time of the beginning of the LGM (ca. 25–16 ka). On the other hand, large mammals of the fauna with Mammuthus primigenius became extinct or moved to north as climate became warm quickly after the LGM. Thus, it is suggested that the extinction of large mammals at the late Late Pleistocene occurred by “two pulses.” The extinction process of large mammals in Japan seems likely that they went extinct finally near the end of the Pleistocene going through the reduction of habitat and fragmentation of populations caused by the repeated temperature change during the late Late Pleistocene, rather than a single drastic event.     

Dynamic activation model for a glutamatergic neurovascular unit

This article considers a dynamic spatially lumped model for brain energy metabolism and proposes to use the results of a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) based flux balance analysis to estimate the kinetic model parameters. By treating steady state reaction fluxes and transport rates as random variables we are able to propagate the uncertainty in the steady state configurations to the predictions of the dynamic model, whose responses are no longer individual but ensembles of time courses. The kinetic model consists of five compartments and is governed by kinetic mass balance equations with Michaelis-Menten type expressions for reaction rates and transports between the compartments. The neuronal activation is implemented in terms of the effect of neuronal activity on parameters controlling the blood flow and neurotransmitter transport, and a feedback mechanism coupling the glutamate concentration in the synaptic cleft and the ATP hydrolysis, thus accounting for the energetic cost of the membrane potential restoration in the postsynaptic neurons. The changes in capillary volume follow the balloon model developed for BOLD MRI. The model follows the time course of the saturation levels of the blood hemoglobin, which link metabolism and BOLD FMRI signal. Analysis of the model predictions suggest that stoichiometry alone is not enough to determine glucose partitioning between neuron and astrocyte. Lactate exchange between neuron and astrocyte is supported by the model predictions, but the uncertainty on the direction and rate is rather elevated. By and large, the model suggests that astrocyte produces and effluxes lactate, while neuron may switch from using to producing lactate. The level of ATP hydrolysis in astrocyte is substantially higher than strictly required for neurotransmitter cycling, in agreement with the literature.     

Evaluation of osteoclastic resorption activity using calcium phosphate coating combined with labeled polyanion

Osteoclasts are involved in bone resorption, and its activation is considered one of the causes of osteoporosis. The pit assay is the principal method for evaluating osteoclast function by measuring hydroxyapatite resorption in vitro. However, the pit assay requires time and trained techniques, including the pit image analysis, and there is no other easy method for evaluating bone resorption. In this study, we developed a novel approach to quantify the bone resorption activity using a calcium phosphate (CaP) coating labeled with fluorescent polyanion. Fluoresceinamine-labeled chondroitin polysulfate or Hoechst 33258-labeled deoxyribonucleic acid was used for CaP labeling. When macrophage cell line RAW264 was cultured on the labeled CaP under the stimulation with the receptor activator of the NF-κB ligand (RANKL), RAW264 cells differentiated into osteoclastic cells and the fluorescence intensity of the culture supernatant and pit area increased in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, drugs for osteoporosis treatment, such as pamidronate and β-estradiol, inhibited fluorescein release by the cells stimulated with RANKL. A positive correlation between the fluorescence intensity and pit area was observed (r = 0.917). These results indicated that this new method using fluorescent polyanion-labeled CaP is a standardized useful assay system for the evaluation of bone resorption activity.     

Meta-communications in component-based communication frameworks for grids

Applications are faced with several network-related problems on current grids: heterogeneous networks, firewalls, NAT, private IP addresses, non-routed networks, performance problems on WAN. Moreover, the requirements concerning communications are varied and the acceptable tradeoffs highly depends on the applications. A solution to reach the flexibility regarding communication on grids is the use of a component-based communication framework. The users then compose their own protocol stacks by assembling building blocks in the way they want. However, a truly flexible and dynamic component-based communication framework needs a meta-communication channel for its out-of-band communications required by dynamic component assembly in a consistent way on multiple nodes. The meta-communication channel is useful for some “brokered” communication methods, too, and in particular those designed to cross firewalls. The meta-communication channel has often been the “weakest link” of component-based communication frameworks: bottleneck for the performance, back-door from the security point of view, and limited connectivity. In this article, we present an architecture for a meta-communication channel that suffers from none of the aforementioned limitations. It exhibits good properties regarding connectivity, security and performance. Thus, the gain in flexibility brought by software components may be fully exploited without trading anything against flexibility.

Flavonoids isolated from Tridax procumbens (TPF) inhibit osteoclasts differentiation and bone resorption

Background

The Tridax procumbens flavonoids (TPF), are well known for their medicinal properties among local natives. The TPF are traditionally used for dropsy, anaemia, arthritis, gout, asthma, ulcer, piles, and urinary problems. It also used in treating gastric problems, body pain, and rheumatic pains of joints. The TPF have been reported to increase osteogenic functioning in mesenchymal stem cells. However, their effects on osteoclastogenesis remain unclear. The TPF isolated from T. procumbens and investigated the effects of the TPF inhibit on osteoclast differentiation and bone resorption activities using primary osteoclastic cells. Osteoclast formation was assessed by counting the number of tartrate resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) positive multinucleated cells and by measuring both TRAP activities.

Results

The TPF significantly suppressed the RANKL-induced differentiation of osteoclasts and the formation of pits in primary osteoclastic cells. The TPF also decreased the expression of mRNAs related to osteoclast differentiation, including Trap, Cathepsin K, Mmp-9, and Mmp-13 in primary osteoclastic cells. The treatment of primary osteoclastic cells with the TPF decreased Cathepsin K, Mmp-9, and Mmp-13 proteins expression in primary osteoclastic cells.

Conclusion

These results indicated that TPF inhibit osteoclastogenesis and pits formation activities. Our results suggest that the TPF could be a potential anti-bone resorptic agent to treat patients with bone loss-associated diseases such as osteoporosis.     

金针菇交配型B第三个亚位点的发现与遗传

本研究在分析金针菇减数分裂重组热点时发现B交配型位点可能存在第三个亚位点,为此对同核菌株‘6-3’和‘6-21’的B交配型位点进行全基因组注释,获得8对同源信息素受体基因（pheromone receptor gene,pr）和3对同源信息素前体基因（pheromone precursor gene,pp）,组成了2个结构完整、相距326kb的亚位点α和β;‘6-21’菌株还发现1个‘6-3’菌株不具有的pr,组成第3个亚位点γ,它与亚位点α和β没有连锁。‘6-3’和‘6-21’配对形成异核体后出菇,分离获得142个单孢菌株,其B交配型有8种基因型,通过亲和性试验得到证实,同时还验证了第3个亚位点γ具有与α、β相同的功能。     

Clinical and diagnostic features of partially anomalous pulmonary venous connection in an adult female patient: a case report and review of the literature

A 40-year-old woman presented with dyspnoea, chest pain and fatigue. Her medical history was unremarkable. An early systolic ejection murmur was heard in the 3D left inter-costal space. Chest X-ray revealed normal cardiothoracic ratio with an anomalous vessel adjacent to the left pulmonary hilum. Echocardiography and exercise tolerance test were normal. Right heart catheterisation revealed normal pulmonary pressures with normal cardiac output. CT scan and MRI of the thorax were diagnostic for an aberrant pulmonary venous connection between the left lower lobe pulmonary vein and the left brachiocephalic vein without atrial septal defect. She was treated conservatively and remained well.     

双胎输血综合征研究现状及新进展

双胎输血综合征(twin-twin transfusion syndrome,TTTS)是单绒毛膜双胎最常见的一种并发症。TTTS的发病机制尚不完全明确,胎盘间存在血管交通是其发病的必要条件,但它难以解释胎儿所有的病理生理,而内分泌改变为TTTS的发病机制提供了一种可能的解释。TTTS的临床诊断主要依靠超声。Quintero分期是目前使用最广泛的分期标准,但其不能提供预测信息,存在一定的局限性。治疗方面,选择性胎儿镜下激光消融术有着较好的胎儿存活率及神经系统预后,优于传统治疗方法,有较好的发展前景。