A subset of DN1p neurons integrates thermosensory inputs to promote wakefulness via CNMa signaling

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Immunohistochemical localization of vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) in the circumventricular organs of the rat

Summary The indirect peroxidase-antiperoxidase immunohistochemical technique was used to investigate the possible presence of vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) in the circumventricular organs of the rat. Considerable numbers of VIP-immunoreactive fibers were seen in the pineal gland. A moderate amount of VIP-immunoreactive fibers was present in the median eminence, the posterior lobe of the pituitary and the area postrema, but only few fibers were found in the organum vasculosum laminae terminalis. No immunoreactivity was observed in the subfornical organ or the subcommissural organ. The circumventricular organs investigated were completely free of VIP-immunoreactive perikarya. In the circumventricular organs, VIP-immunoreactive fibers were visible between the parenchymal cells and in the perivascular spaces. The presence of coarse VIP-immunoreactive terminals in apposition to the portal vessels in the external layer of the median eminence indicates that VIP may be secreted directly into the pituitary portal circulation, thus influencing the anterior pituitary cells. The presence of large VIP-immunoreactive boutons in the posterior lobe of the pituitary suggests a secretion of VIP directly into the systemic circulation. In the pineal gland, a dense innervation by VIP-immunoreactive fibers was found in the peripheral superficial part of organ, with fibers penetrating into its central portion where they mainly terminate near in vicinity of the capillaries. In the area postrema, VIP-immunoreactive material was mainly found at the ventral border of the organ. In addition to the secretion of VIP into the bloodstream via the circumventricular organs, this study provides evidence that VIP exerts specific influence on the cellular elements of these organs.     

同侧俯卧位对枕后位产程活跃期停滞胎方位纠正率和自然分娩率的影响

目的:研究同侧俯卧位对枕后位产程活跃期停滞胎方位纠正率和自然分娩率的影响。方法:选取我院收治的枕后位产程活跃期停滞产妇160例,采取数字随机法分成同侧组自由组,同侧组采取同侧俯卧位治疗,自由组采取自由卧位治疗,比较两组的治疗对产妇的胎方位纠正率及自然分娩率的影响。结果:同侧组胎方位纠正率90.00%,自由组胎方位纠正率31.25%,同侧组胎方位纠正率高于自由组,差异有统计学意义(P0.05)。同侧组自然分娩率91.25%,自由组自然分娩率77.50%,同侧组自然分娩率高于自由组,差异有统计学意义(P0.05)。结论:同侧俯卧位可提高枕后位产程活跃期停滞胎方位纠正率和自然分娩率,并且无创简便,是一种有效的干预方法。     

Bayesian estimation of inverse dose response

SUMMARY: Inverse dose-response estimation refers to the inference of an effective dose of some agent that gives a desired probability of response, say 0.5. We consider inverse dose response for two agents, an application that has not received much attention in the literature. Through the posterior profiling technique (Hsu, 1995, The Canadian Journal of Statistics 23, 399-410), we propose a Bayesian method in which we approximate the marginal posterior distribution of an effective dose using a profile posterior distribution, and obtain the maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimate for the effective dose. We then employ an adaptive direction sampling algorithm to obtain the highest posterior density (HPD) credible region for the effective dose. Using the MAP and HPD estimates, investigators will be able to simultaneously calibrate the levels of two agents in dose-response studies. We illustrate our proposed Bayesian method through a simulation study and two practical examples.     

A historical literature review on the role of posterior axillary boost field in the axillary lymph node coverage and development of lymphedema following regional nodal irradiation in breast cancer

To elucidate whether (1) a posterior axillary boost (PAB) field is an optimal method to target axillary lymph nodes (LNs); and (2) the addition of a PAB increases the incidence of lymphedema, a systematic review was undertaken. A literature search was performed in the PubMed database. A total of 16 studies were evaluated. There were no randomized studies. Seven articles have investigated dosimetric aspects of a PAB. The remaining 9 articles have determined the effect of a PAB field on the risk of lymphedema. Only 2 of 9 articles have prospectively reported the impact of a PAB on the risk of lymphedema development. There are conflicting reports on the necessity of a PAB. The PAB field provides a good coverage of level I/II axillary LNs because these nodes are usually at a greater depth. The main concern regarding a PAB is that it produces a hot spot in the anterior region of the axilla. Planning studies optimized a traditional PAB field. Prospective studies and the vast majority of retrospective studies have reported the use of a PAB field does not result in increasing the risk of lymphedema development over supraclavicular-only field. The controversies in the incidence of lymphedema suggest that field design may be more important than field arrangement. A key factor regarding the use of a PAB is the depth of axillary LNs. The PAB field should not be used unless there is an absolute indication for its application. Clinicians should weigh lymphedema risk in individual patients against the limited benefit of a PAB, in particular after axillary dissection. The testing of the inclusion of upper arm lymphatics in the regional LN irradiation target volume, and universal methodology measuring lymphedema are all areas for possible future studies.     

Effect of Temperature on Fecundity,Life Span and Morphology of Long‐ and Short‐Spined Clones of Brachionus caudatus f. apsteini (Rotifera)

We investigated the effect of temperature (20, 25 and 30 °C) on fecundity, life span and morphology of the rotifer Brachionus caudatus f. apsteini. For each temperature, short posterior‐spined and long posterior‐spined clones of B. caudatus f. apsteini were individually cultured for up to six generations. The rotifers were fed Chlorella sp. at a density of 1 × 10⁶ cells ml^–1. Morphometric data (body size and spine length) were collected. Total number of offspring producing by a single female per life cycle at high temperature was higher than at low temperature. The duration of juvenile period, reproductive period, post‐reproductive period and life span of both clones of B. caudatus f. apsteini decreased with increasing temperature. All offspring of short posterior‐spined clone produce posterior spines at 20 and 25 °C, with an average length of 19.8 ± 6.6 and 11.9 ± 2.6 μm, respectively. In contrast, they cannot develop posterior spines at 30 °C, at which the average length of the posterior spine remnant was 6.4 ± 1.3 μm. On the other hand, all offspring of long posterior‐spined clone have long posterior spines with average lengths of 36.8 ± 6.1, 36.3 ± 5.2 and 36.6 ± 6.2 μm at 20, 25 and 30 °C, respectively. This study indicated that the production of posterior spines can be induced by low temperature and that short posterior‐spined and long posterior‐spined clones are genetically different. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A site- and time-heterogeneous model of amino acid replacement

We combined the category (CAT) mixture model (Lartillot N, PhilippeH. 2004) and the nonstationary break point (BP) model (BlanquartS, Lartillot N. 2006) into a new model, CAT–BP, accountingfor variations of the evolutionary process both along the sequenceand across lineages. As in CAT, the model implements a mixtureof distinct Markovian processes of substitution distributedamong sites, thus accommodating site-specific selective constraintsinduced by protein structure and function. Furthermore, as inBP, these processes are nonstationary, and their equilibriumfrequencies are allowed to change along lineages in a correlatedway, through discrete shifts in global amino acid compositiondistributed along the phylogenetic tree. We implemented theCAT–BP model in a Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo frameworkand compared its predictions with those of 3 simpler models,BP, CAT, and the site- and time-homogeneous general time–reversible(GTR) model, on a concatenation of 4 mitochondrial proteinsof 20 arthropod species. In contrast to GTR, BP, and CAT, whichall display a phylogenetic reconstruction artifact positioningthe bees Apis mellifera and Melipona bicolor among chelicerates,the CAT–BP model is able to recover the monophyly of insects.Using posterior predictive tests, we further show that the CAT–BPcombination yields better anticipations of site- and taxon-specificamino acid frequencies and that it better accounts for the homoplasiesthat are responsible for the artifact. Altogether, our resultsshow that the joint modeling of heterogeneities across sitesand along time results in a synergistic improvement of the phylogeneticinference, indicating that it is essential to disentangle thecombined effects of both sources of heterogeneity, in orderto overcome systematic errors in protein phylogenetic analyses.