大兴安岭呼中森林景观的空间点格局分析

基于呼中林业局林相图,采用点格局方法,分析了森林景观的空间格局及各景观间的关联性。结果表明:针叶林在0～25km尺度范围内呈聚集分布;阔叶林在0～14km为聚集分布,在14～25km为随机分布;灌木林在0～10km为聚集分布,在10～25km为随机分布;草甸在0～15km为聚集分布,在15～25km为随机分布。针叶林与灌木林在4.5～25km、阔叶林与草甸在12～24km尺度范围内无关联性;针叶林与阔叶林、针叶林与草甸、阔叶林与灌木林、灌木林与草甸在0～25km尺度范围内均存在空间关联性。这种分布格局对大兴安岭林区森林的可持续经营具有重要的指导意义,小范围内的植被恢复可以采用集中连片的造林方式,而大范围内则可以根据立地条件类型采取随机造林模式。     

Novel Adaptors of Amyloid Precursor Protein Intracellular Domain and Their Functional Implications

Amyloid precursor protein intracellular domain(AICD) is one of the potential candidates in deciphering the complexity of Alzheimer’s disease.It plays important roles in determining cell fate and neurodegeneration through its interactions with several adaptors.The presence or absence of phosphorylation at specific sites determines the choice of partners.In this study,we identified 20 novel AICDinteracting proteins by in vitro pull down experiments followed by 2D gel electrophoresis and MALDI-MS analysis.The identified proteins can be grouped into different functional classes including molecular chaperones,structural proteins,signaling and transport molecules,adaptors,motor proteins and apoptosis determinants.Interactions of nine proteins were further validated either by colocalization using confocal imaging or by co-immunoprecipitation followed by immunoblotting.The cellular functions of most of the proteins can be correlated with AD.Hence,illustration of their interactions with AICD may shed some light on the disease pathophysiology.     

Ca2+调节剂在乙烯催花中对观赏凤梨CaM基因表达特性的调节作用

凤梨科植物乙烯催花技术自1930年代开始使用,效果显著。但凤梨科植物乙烯催花的机理尚不明确。鉴于Ca2+-CaM在多种植物开花过程中具有一定的调节作用,为了研究Ca2+-CaM系统在乙烯诱导凤梨科植物开花中的作用,本文以紫花擎天凤梨成株为试材,通过乙烯分别和Ca2+调节剂(Ca2+促进剂,Ca2+螯合剂和抑制剂)的组合处理植株后,利用RT-PCR和Northern技术分析了CaM基因表达特性的变化。结果表明,乙烯处理的同时,加入Ca2+促进剂,使CaM表达量峰值出现的时间由24h提前到了6h;而加入Ca2+螯合剂和抑制剂,使CaM基因表达量峰值出现的时间延迟到了48h以后。该结果与相应的开花时间进程一致,即加入Ca2+促进剂,使花器官出现的时间提前约5d,而加入Ca2+螯合剂和抑制剂,使花器官出现的时间有不同程度的延迟,表明Ca2+调节剂对CaM表达特性的调节作用对乙烯诱导凤梨开花也有一定的影响。     

单宁酸对布氏田鼠抗氧化水平和肝脏自噬相关基因表达的影响

单宁为植物中广泛存在的酚类植物次生代谢物,具有抗氧化功能,但是否影响动物细胞的自噬功能,仍不清楚.本研究对4周龄雌雄性布氏田鼠饲喂高、低浓度单宁酸溶液9周后,分别用酶联免疫吸附法和荧光定量PCR法测定血浆抗氧化水平和肝脏细胞自噬相关基因表达的变化.结果 显示,单宁酸对布氏田鼠的体重增长率和肝脏指数均无显著影响.高剂量组...     

Synthesis of oxadiazole–morpholine derivatives and manifestation of the repressed CD31 Microvessel Density (MVD) as tumoral angiogenic parameters in Dalton’s Lymphoma

A series of oxadiazole derivatives possessing morpholine 6a–l were synthesized by nucleophilic substitution reaction of key intermediates [1,3,4]-oxadiazole-2-thiol derivatives 5a–l with 4-(2-chloroethyl) morpholine. Compounds 6a–l were evaluated for their in vitro and in vivo antitumor potential in Dalton’s Lymphoma Ascites (DLA) tumor cells. Among 6a–l series, compound 6a with concentration ∼8.5 μM have shown extensive cytotoxicity in vitro and 85% reduction in tumor volume in vivo, attributing an excellent anti-proliferative capability towards the cancer cells. Compound 6a has extensively inhibited the Microvessel Density (MVD) or tumoral neovasculature which was evident from the CD31 immuno staining and peritoneal H&E staining. The major reason for the antiproliferative activity of compound 6a was due to the repression of tumor vasculature.     

EMG signal morphology and kinematic parameters in essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease patients

The aim of this work was to differentiate patients with essential tremor from patients with Parkinson’s disease. Electromyographic data from biceps brachii muscles and kinematic data from arms during isometric tension of the arms were measured from 17 patients with essential tremor, 35 patients with Parkinson’s disease and 40 healthy controls.The EMG signals were divided to smaller segments from which histograms were calculated. The histogram shape was analysed with a feature dimension reduction method, the principal component analysis, and the shape parameters were used to differentiate between different subject groups. Three parameters, RMS-amplitude, sample entropy and peak frequency were determined from the kinematic measurements of the arms.The height and the side differences of the histogram were the most effective for differentiating between essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease groups. The histogram parameters of patients with essential tremor were more similar to patients with Parkinson’s disease than healthy controls. With this method it was possible to discriminate 13/17 patients with essential tremor from 26/35 patients with Parkinson’s disease and 14/17 patients with essential tremor from 29/40 healthy controls. The kinematic parameters of patients with essential tremor were closer to parameters of patients with Parkinson’s disease compared to healthy controls. Combining EMG and kinematic analysis did not increase discrimination efficiency but provided more reliability to the discrimination of subject groups.     

Effect of field sampling design on variation partitioning in a dendritic stream network

Variation partitioning is one of the most frequently used method to infer the importance of environmental (niche based) and spatial (dispersal) processes in metacommunity structuring. However, the reliability of the method in predicting the role of the major structuring forces is less known. We studied the effect of field sampling design on the result of variation partitioning of fish assemblages in a stream network. Along with four different sample sizes, a simple random sampling from a total of 115 stream segments (sampling objects) was applied in 400 iterations, and community variation of each random sample was partitioned into four fractions: pure environmentally (landscape variables) explained, pure spatially (MEM eigenvectors) explained, jointly explained by environment and space, and unexplained variance. Results were highly sensitive to sample size. Even at a given sample size, estimated variance fractions had remarkable random fluctuation, which can lead to inconsistent results on the relative importance of environmental and spatial variables on the structuring of metacommunities. Interestingly, all the four variance fractions correlated better with the number of the selected spatial variables than with any design properties. Sampling interval proved to be a fundamentally influential sampling design property because it affected the number of the selected spatial variables. Our findings suggest that the effect of sampling design on variation partitioning is related to the ability of the eigenvectors to model complex spatial patterns. Hence, properties of the sampling design should be more intensively considered in metacommunity studies.     

Zinc-induced heterodimer formation between metal-binding domains of intact and naturally modified amyloid-beta species: implication to amyloid seeding in Alzheimer’s disease?

Zinc ions and modified amyloid-beta peptides (Aβ) play a critical role in the pathological aggregation of endogenous Aβ in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Zinc-induced Aβ oligomerization is mediated by the metal-binding domain (MBD) which includes N-terminal residues 1–16 (Aβ_1–16). Earlier, it has been shown that Aβ_1–16 as well as some of its naturally occurring variants undergoes zinc-induced homodimerization via the interface in which zinc ion is coordinated by Glu11 and His14 of the interacting subunits. In this study using surface plasmon resonance technique, we have found that in the presence of zinc ions Aβ_1–16 forms heterodimers with MBDs of two Aβ species linked to AD: Aβ containing isoAsp7 (isoAβ) and Aβ containing phosphorylated Ser8 (pS8-Aβ). The heterodimers appear to possess the same interface as the homodimers. Simulation of 200 ns molecular dynamic trajectories in two constructed models of dimers ([Aβ_1–16/Zn/Aβ_1–16] and [isoAβ_1–16/Zn/Aβ_1–16]), has shown that conformational flexibility of the N-terminal fragments of the dimer subunits is controlled by the structure of corresponding sites 6–8. The data suggest that isoAβ and pS8-Aβ can be involved in the AD pathogenesis by means of their zinc-dependent interactions with endogenous Aβ resulting in the formation of heterodimeric seeds for amyloid aggregation.     

Mechanical equilibrium,a prerequisite to unveil auxetic properties in molecular compounds

The unique physical properties of auxetic compounds make them very attractive materials. Nevertheless, no synthesised materials known to exhibit negative Poisson’s ratio at the molecular level have been made. One way to explore such compounds is to predict potential candidates prior to their synthesis. To achieve it, multi-atom simulation is a powerful predicting tool. However, the lack of existing systems means that the crucial step of validation cannot be carried out. This paper aims to provide a procedure to predict the auxeticity of proposed molecular systems. The strategy is based on first revealing the determinant step in reaching the mechanical equilibrium of existing isotropic compounds such as polymers, or organic glasses, to compute efficiently mechanical properties. The Poisson’s ratio is found in good agreement with experimental data. The procedure is thus modified to be applied to anisotropic compounds, liquid crystals. The agreement with experimental behaviour allowed us to extrapolate the procedure to potentially auxetic compounds, thus offering great opportunities to reveal auxetic properties prior to the synthesis of the molecules.