Altered Functional Connectivity and Small-World in Mesial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

Background

The functional architecture of the human brain has been extensively described in terms of functional connectivity networks, detected from the low–frequency coherent neuronal fluctuations that can be observed in a resting state condition. Little is known, so far, about the changes in functional connectivity and in the topological properties of functional networks, associated with different brain diseases.

Methodology/Principal Findings

In this study, we investigated alterations related to mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE), using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging on 18 mTLE patients and 27 healthy controls. Functional connectivity among 90 cortical and subcortical regions was measured by temporal correlation. The related values were analyzed to construct a set of undirected graphs. Compared to controls, mTLE patients showed significantly increased connectivity within the medial temporal lobes, but also significantly decreased connectivity within the frontal and parietal lobes, and between frontal and parietal lobes. Our findings demonstrated that a large number of areas in the default-mode network of mTLE patients showed a significantly decreased number of connections to other regions. Furthermore, we observed altered small-world properties in patients, along with smaller degree of connectivity, increased n-to-1 connectivity, smaller absolute clustering coefficients and shorter absolute path length.

Conclusions/Significance

We suggest that the mTLE alterations observed in functional connectivity and topological properties may be used to define tentative disease markers.     

砷对农田生态系统污染效应的试验研究

本文通过盆栽及模拟试验,研究了砷对农田生态系统中农作物、土壤微生物、土壤动物的污染效应。结果表明,砷对农作物生长发育有明显不良影响,浓度过高,产量下降并造成农作物体内砷的残留累积;不同种类农作物对砷的敏感程度不同,以对水稻的危害最严重,其次为春小麦、玉米;不同形态砷化物的污染效应有显著差别,亚砷酸盐的毒性最强,砷酸盐次之,硫化砷的影响最小。 砷对土壤微生物具有明显抑制作用,使土壤细菌总数降低,投加亚砷酸钠5ppm,砷酸氢二钠10ppm时,细菌总数开始减少。对土壤固氮菌、解磷细菌、纤维分解细菌等土壤有益微生物有明显抑制作用,使存活率下降。砷污染土壤活性降低,土壤呼吸强度下降。 砷污染影响土壤中蚯蚓的数量与分布,当砷在100—300ppm时,可使蚯蚓致死,死亡率达50—80％。砷在蚯蚓体内明显富集,富集系数为1.32—7.44。     

Pm23: a new allele of Pm4 located on chromosome 2AL in wheat

Powdery mildew, caused by Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici, is one of the major diseases of common wheat (Triticum aestivum) worldwide. The powdery mildew resistance gene Pm23, identified in the common wheat Line 81-7241 and originally assigned to wheat chromosome 5A, was relocated on chromosome 2AL with the aid of molecular markers. Mapping of microsatellite markers in two wheat crosses segregating for Pm23 and Pm4b, respectively, in combination with the reported mapping of Pm4a, indicated that the three genes were all linked to the marker Xgwm356 with a distance of 3-5 cM. Allelism between Pm4b and Pm23 was then confirmed, when the progenies of a cross between VPM1 (Pm4b) and Line 81-7241, were shown to be all resistant to a B. graminis isolate avirulent to the both parents. Pm23 is therefore a new allele of the Pm4 locus, and was redesignated as Pm4c.     

水稻籽实中砷的结合形态特征及其稳定性

利用凝胶层析方法对水稻籽实中As的结合形态特征及其稳定性进行了研究,结果表明,水稻籽实中存在的As主要与表观分子量为54.5KD和5.5KD的蛋白质形成结合体,分子量为54.5KD的蛋白质-As结合体不太稳定,并且在蒸煮加热和体外消化酶的作用下容易分解,生成相对稳定的、小分子的结合体形式。     

Altered effective connectivity network of the amygdala in social anxiety disorder: a resting-state FMRI study

The amygdala is often found to be abnormally recruited in social anxiety disorder (SAD) patients. The question whether amygdala activation is primarily abnormal and affects other brain systems or whether it responds "normally" to an abnormal pattern of information conveyed by other brain structures remained unanswered. To address this question, we investigated a network of effective connectivity associated with the amygdala using Granger causality analysis on resting-state functional MRI data of 22 SAD patients and 21 healthy controls (HC). Implications of abnormal effective connectivity and clinical severity were investigated using the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS). Decreased influence from inferior temporal gyrus (ITG) to amygdala was found in SAD, while bidirectional influences between amygdala and visual cortices were increased compared to HCs. Clinical relevance of decreased effective connectivity from ITG to amygdala was suggested by a negative correlation of LSAS avoidance scores and the value of Granger causality. Our study is the first to reveal a network of abnormal effective connectivity of core structures in SAD. This is in support of a disregulation in predescribed modules involved in affect control. The amygdala is placed in a central position of dysfunction characterized both by decreased regulatory influence of orbitofrontal cortex and increased crosstalk with visual cortex. The model which is proposed based on our results lends neurobiological support towards cognitive models considering disinhibition and an attentional bias towards negative stimuli as a core feature of the disorder.     

无机氮对土壤甲烷氧化作用的影响

无机氮输入(施氮肥和大气N沉降)对土壤CH4氧化作用的影响取决于甲烷氧化菌类型、输N种类和量以及土壤状况．这种作用既有抑制作用,又有刺激作用,但文献报道的抑制作用多于刺激作用,NH4^ 对CH4氧化的抑制作用多于NO3^-．随着全球N输入的增加,应在广泛的土壤类型和气候带观测和评价无机氯对土壤CH4氧化作用的影响．无机氮对土壤CH4氧化的抑制作用表现为立即或直接抑制、延迟抑制以及缺乏抑制等多种模式．尽管目前—些学者用酶基质竞争、增高的阈值、盐作用和离子交换、N转化率和N浓度等来解释抑制现象,但抑制机理依旧不完全清楚．因此,抑制机理是本领域未来研究的主要目标之一．     

人胎肝中低分子抑瘤物的分离纯化、结构鉴定及其对肿瘤细胞生长的选择性抑制作用

在胎儿组织中存在一类低分子肿瘤抑制物。胎肝细胞的甲醇－丙酮提取物中保留有大部分抑瘤活性。用体外液体培养条件下对人急性粒系白血病细胞系（ＨＬ－６０）的抑制作用为指标,跟踪指导分离过程。提取物经反相Ｃ１８中压液相色谱、ＳｅｐｈａｄｅｘＬＨ－２０凝胶色谱及氨基键合相高效液相色谱分离得到一纯活性物质,经ＮＭＲ和ＭＳ鉴定为７－酮基胆固醇（７－ｋｅｔｏｃｂｌｅｓｔｅｒｏｌ,７－ＫＣ）。体外琼脂培养条件下７－ＫＣ对小鼠ＷＥＨ１－３和Ｓ－１８０细胞较对正常小鼠骨髓粒一巨噬系祖细胞有更强的抑制增殖及集落生成作用。７－ＫＣ对ＨＬ－６０细胞增殖较对正常人骨髓ＣＦＵ－ＧＭ有更强的抑制作用。     

农作物对Cd毒害的耐性机理探讨

对生长在Ｃｄ污染条件下的８种作物体内Ｃｄ的存在形态分析表明,作物的耐Ｃｄ性与Ｃｄ的形态分布密切相关,在耐性作物体内,蛋白质（多肽）结合Ｃｄ量的比例低于非耐性作物;有机酸盐和一代磷酸盐态Ｃｄ的比例增加;分离得到Ｃｄ诱导蛋白?其中束缚了一定量的Ｃｄ,限制了Ｃｄ以自由态存在,耐性较低的作物本内,大分子量的蛋白质中富Ｃｄ量较高。     

Evaluating the effective connectivity of resting state networks using conditional Granger causality

The human brain has been documented to be spatially organized in a finite set of specific coherent patterns, namely resting state networks (RSNs). The interactions among RSNs, being potentially dynamic and directional, may not be adequately captured by simple correlation or anticorrelation. In order to evaluate the possible effective connectivity within those RSNs, we applied a conditional Granger causality analysis (CGCA) to the RSNs retrieved by independent component analysis (ICA) from resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. Our analysis provided evidence for specific causal influences among the detected RSNs: default-mode, dorsal attention, core, central-executive, self-referential, somatosensory, visual, and auditory networks. In particular, we identified that self-referential and default-mode networks (DMNs) play distinct and crucial roles in the human brain functional architecture. Specifically, the former RSN exerted the strongest causal influence over the other RSNs, revealing a top-down modulation of self-referential mental activity (SRN) over sensory and cognitive processing. In quite contrast, the latter RSN was profoundly affected by the other RSNs, which may underlie an integration of information from primary function and higher level cognition networks, consistent with previous task-related studies. Overall, our results revealed the causal influences among these RSNs at different processing levels, and supplied information for a deeper understanding of the brain network dynamics.     

火焰南天竹的组织培养和规模化生产

1植物名称火焰南天竹（Nandina domestica‘Fire-power’）。2材料类别带腋芽的嫩茎。3培养条件培养基：（1）MS＋6-BA1.0mg·L-1（单位下同）＋NAA0.2＋IAA0.2;（2）MS＋6-BA0.5＋NAA0.1;（3）1/2MS＋NAA0.1。以上培养基均附加3%的白糖和0.8%的卡拉胶,pH5.8～6.0。培养温度为（25±2）℃;