眶额叶区5-HT与Glu、NO在急性强迫游泳应激抑郁症模型中的关系

目的：探讨眶额叶区5-羟色胺（5-HT）与谷氨酸（Glu）、一氧化氮（N0）在急性强迫游泳应激抑郁症模型中的相互作用。方法：雄性SD大鼠随机分为对照组及各种药物注射组,强迫游泳制造大鼠应激性抑郁模型,眶额叶区微量注射各组药物,敞箱实验及游泳测试观察大鼠的抑郁样行为表现。结果：①与对照组比,注射Glu使大鼠强迫游泳不动时间显著增加;注射NMDA受体拮抗剂（MK-801）使大鼠强迫游泳不动时间减少;与Glu组比,MK-801预注射后Glu注射使大鼠强迫游泳不动时间减少;②与5-HT组比,MK-801预注射后5-HT注射使大鼠强迫游泳不动时间增加;③与对照组比,注射L-精氨酸（L-Ars）使大鼠强迫游泳不动时间显著增加;注射NOS抑制剂（L-NAME）（10μg/μl）使大鼠强迫游泳不动时间减少;L-NAME（20μg／μl）注射使大鼠强迫游泳不动时间增加;L-NAME（40μg/μl）注射使大鼠强迫游泳不动时间增加;④与L-NAME（10μg/μl）组比较,5-HT1A受体拮抗剂spipemne预注射后LNAME（10μg／μl）注射使大鼠强迫游泳不动时间增加。结论：眶额叶（OFC）区Glu含量的增加能够诱发抑郁,其作用可能主要是通过NMDA受体实现的,Glu经NMDA受体引发抑郁的同时还可能通过调节突触后膜上5-HT1A受体减弱5-HT的抗抑郁作用;OFC区NO可通过调节5-HT神经元进而参与抑郁的发生。     

Peste des petits ruminants (PPR): Disease appraisal with global and Pakistan perspective

Peste des petits ruminants (PPR), is a highly contagious viral disease affecting domestic and wild small ruminants. It is in the list of animal diseases to be notified to the World Organization for Animal Health (Office International des Epizooties, OIE). Because of the high magnitude of importance of sheep and goats for the poor and landless farmers, the control of disease, which has a negative impact on their productions, is aimed at poverty alleviation. A single injection of live attenuated monovalent vaccine (Nig/75/1) can induce protective immunity for at least the economic life of the animals, however vaccine efficacy only holds if the vaccination is done before exposure and when the animals at sub-clinical level of infection. In Pakistan, though published reports on existence of PPR in the country are few but findings on clinical signs and course of the disease are consistent with the internationally published reports on PPR elsewhere and the neighboring countries. The limited reports of incidence of PPR from few places/provinces do not exclude the possibility of presence of infection in other parts/province of the country. Therefore, the epidemiology, pathogenicity, host susceptibility/resistance and molecular nature of PPR virus have become multifaceted than considered formerly. It is anticipated that patent PPR vaccines and sophisticated diagnostic tests that differentiate infected and vaccinated animals might improve the diagnostic and epidemiological capabilities.     

Manual lateralization in early primates: a comparison of two mouse lemur species

In humans, 90% of the population is right handed. Although population hand preference has been found in some primate species, the evolution of manual lateralization in primates is not yet clear. To gain insight into manual lateralization of ancestral primates, we studied hand usage in unspecialized quadrupedal, nocturnal lemurs, using a large sample size. We compared two closely related mouse lemur species to explore the variation of hand preference within the same genus. We tested 44 gray mouse lemurs and 19 Goodman's mouse lemurs in a forced food grasping task. The tests were videotaped. Measures of hand preference (i.e. the hand that is spontaneously chosen for a specific task) and successful hand usage (i.e. the hand that is successful in completing a specific task) were taken to explore manual lateralization. Both species showed manual lateralization at an individual, but not at a population level. Goodman's mouse lemurs showed stronger individual hand preferences than gray mouse lemurs. This suggests that strength in hand preference is variable within the same genus. No sex and age effects were found. The hand preference of offspring was negatively correlated to that of their mothers, but not correlated to that of their fathers. Thus, no clear genetic effect can be derived from these results. In the Goodman's mouse lemurs, hand preference increased with increasing task experience. However, successful hand usage was not affected by task experience, suggesting that successful hand usage is a more stable measurement for manual lateralization than hand preference.     

基于营养视角的中国食物进口需求研究

基于2000-2016年中国食物进口数据,从营养视角考察了中国热量及主要供能营养素进口来源分布情况,并实证估计了中国各营养成分进口需求弹性。研究发现：美国、巴西、阿根廷和东盟是中国热量、蛋白质、脂肪和碳水化合物进口的主要来源地;从支出弹性来看,美国和阿根廷的热量及主要营养素的支出富有弹性;所有营养的自价格弹性都为负。交叉价格弹性结果表明,在中国热量进口市场,美国与巴西和东盟之间表现出显著的替代关系;在蛋白质和脂肪进口市场,美国与巴西之间均表现出显著的替代关系;在脂肪进口市场,东盟与巴西和阿根廷之间存在着显著的互补关系;在碳水化合物进口市场,美国与东盟之间存在较强的替代关系。     

Rapid assessment of oxidation via middle-down LCMS correlates with methionine side-chain solvent-accessible surface area for 121 clinical stage monoclonal antibodies

Susceptibility of methionine to oxidation is an important concern for chemical stability during the development of a monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapeutic. To minimize downstream risks, leading candidates are usually screened under forced oxidation conditions to identify oxidation-labile molecules. Here we report results of forced oxidation on a large set of in-house expressed and purified mAbs with variable region sequences corresponding to 121 clinical stage mAbs. These mAb samples were treated with 0.1% H₂O₂ for 24 hours before enzymatic cleavage below the hinge, followed by reduction of inter-chain disulfide bonds for the detection of the light chain, Fab portion of heavy chain (Fd) and Fc by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. This high-throughput, middle-down approach allows detection of oxidation site(s) at the resolution of 3 distinct segments. The experimental oxidation data correlates well with theoretical predictions based on the solvent-accessible surface area of the methionine side-chains within these segments. These results validate the use of upstream computational modeling to predict mAb oxidation susceptibility at the sequence level.     

Seasonal dynamics and thresholds governing recurrent epidemics

Driven by seasonality, many common recurrent infectious diseases are characterized by strong annual, biennial and sometimes irregular oscillations in the absence of vaccination programs. Using the seasonally forced SIR epidemic model, we are able to provide new insights into the dynamics of recurrent diseases and, in some cases, specific predictions about individual outbreaks. The analysis reveals a new threshold effect that gives clear conditions for the triggering of future disease outbreaks or their absence. The threshold depends critically on the susceptibility S ₀ of the population after an outbreak. We show that in the presence of seasonality, forecasts based on the susceptibility S ₀ are more reliable than those based on the classical reproductive number R ₀ from the conventional theory.      

Cooperative coordination as a social behavior

Coordinating behavior is widespread in contexts that include courtship, aggression, and cooperation for shared outcomes. The social significance of cooperative coordination (CC) is usually downplayed by learning theorists, evolutionary biologists, and game theorists in favor of an individual behavior → outcome perspective predicated on maximizing payoffs for all participants. To more closely model CC as it occurs under free-ranging conditions, pairs of rats were rewarded for coordinated shuttling within a shared chamber with unrestricted social interaction. Results show that animals learned to work together with sensitivity to the task and type of partner. Moreover, social interaction and coordination influenced both consumption of the reward solution immediately following a session and preference for cooperation, suggesting that affective states and incentives related to cooperation extend beyond the outcomes obtained. These results support field studies by showing not only how cooperation is performed but also the importance of considering how the behavior of cooperating affects outcomes and preference for cooperating. This article and some of the research described here were supported in part by Grant 96-00293 from the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation to the author and Peter R. Killeen of Arizona State University. Richard Schuster (Ph.D. in Psychology, Harvard University 1968) has been a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Zambia (1971–1977), with field research on antelopes, and a Lecturer at the Department of Psychology, University of Haifa, Israel (1977-present). His main research focus is on laboratory models of social behavior.     

Nutritional evaluation of treated X’pelon seed (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp) in the feeding of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

Legume seed products are used extensively in human and animal nutrition, but high levels of inclusion are often avoided as their secondary compounds can interfere with digestion and absorption of nutrients in the digestive tract. Due to the well-known benefits of some physicochemical treatments on nutritional value, this experiment was completed to assess effects of soaking and heat treatment on the nutritional value of dehulled and hulled X’pelon seeds (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp) to Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) fingerlings. Seeds were soaked for 16 h in a 2 g/kg sodium bisulphate solution in water. Seeds were divided into two lots, being hulled and dehulled. Three heat treatments were used to convert the seeds to meal, being 5 h of hot air flow (70 °C); autoclaving at 119 °C for 30 min to 1.05 kg/cm², and 7 h in a forced air oven at 48 °C. The resultant crude protein (CP) quality of each meal was evaluated by amino acid analysis and by a tilapia feeding study in which fingerlings were fed one of eight diets, each containing 350 g CP/kg of DM, of which seven diets were formulated with 0.80 of CP provided by fish meal and 0.20 by the X’pelon meals and one control diet was formulated with fish meal as the sole CP source. The study encompassed 9 weeks during which fingerlings were fed ad libitum. Chemical and secondary compound analysis of treated seeds showed that heat flow reduced phytic acid by 34.9% and trypsin inhibitors and hemaglutinin decreased by 94.5%, while complete elimination was obtained with autoclaving. Soaking and heat treatment are suitable for partial or complete elimination of the secondary compounds of X’pelon seeds without affecting the content and bioavailability of amino acids, with heat treatment by hot air flow the best. Partial replacement of fish meal with X’pelon meal improved growth and feed efficiency of Nile tilapia, whether the meal was treated or raw.