A STAGE-STRUCTURED SI ECO-EPIDEMIOLOGICAL MODEL WITH TIME DELAY AND IMPULSIVE CONTROLLING*

This paper formulates a robust stage-structured SI eco-epidemiological model with periodic constant pulse releasing of infectious pests with pathogens. The authors show that the conditions for global attractivity of the ＇pest-eradication＇ periodic solution and permanence of the system depend on time delay, hence, the authors call it ＂profitless＂. Further, the authors present a pest management strategy in which the pest population is kept under the economic threshold level （ETL） when the pest population is uniformly persistent. By numerical analysis, the authors also show that constant maturation time delay for the susceptible pests and pulse releasing of the infectious pests can bring obvious effects on the dynamics of system.     

A recurrent mutation in MED12 leading to R961W causes Opitz-Kaveggia syndrome

Opitz-Kaveggia syndrome (also known as FG syndrome) is an X-linked disorder characterized by mental retardation, relative macrocephaly, hypotonia and constipation. We report here that the original family for whom the condition is named and five other families have a recurrent mutation (2881C>T, leading to R961W) in MED12 (also called TRAP230 or HOPA), a gene located at Xq13 that functions as a thyroid receptor-associated protein in the Mediator complex.     

Phytanic acid impairs mitochondrial respiration through protonophoric action

Refsum disease is a rare, inherited neurodegenerative disorder characterized by accumulation of the dietary branched-chain fatty acid phytanic acid in plasma and tissues caused by a defect in the alphaoxidation pathway. The accumulation of phytanic acid is believed to be the main pathophysiological cause of the disease. However, the exact mechanism(s) by which phytanic acid exerts its toxicity have not been resolved. In this study, the effect of phytanic acid on mitochondrial respiration was investigated. The results show that in digitonin-permeabilized fibroblasts, phytanic acid decreases ATP synthesis, whereas substrate oxidation per se is not affected. Importantly, studies in intact fibroblasts revealed that phytanic acid decreases both the mitochondrial membrane potential and NAD(P)H autofluorescence. Taken together, the results described here show that unesterified phytanic acid exerts its toxic effect mainly through its protonophoric action, at least in human skin fibroblasts. Received 4 August 2007; received after revision 26 September 2007; accepted 10 October 2007 J. C. Komen, F. Distelmaier: These authors contributed equally to this work.     

铝厂污水零排放研究

本文从水质方面分析了西南某铝厂污水零排放的可行性。为了实现污水零排放,对该铝厂东片区、氧化铝厂、热电厂三大污水处理系统进行改进。从现场试验监测及统计分析结果表明,改进后的处理系统处理的水质满足再生水水质指标要求,该铝厂污水零排放的实现创造了极大的经济和社会效益。     

Systematic pathway analysis using high-resolution fitness profiling of combinatorial gene deletions

Systematic genetic interaction studies have illuminated many cellular processes. Here we quantitatively examine genetic interactions among 26 Saccharomyces cerevisiae genes conferring resistance to the DNA-damaging agent methyl methanesulfonate (MMS), as determined by chemogenomic fitness profiling of pooled deletion strains. We constructed 650 double-deletion strains, corresponding to all pairings of these 26 deletions. The fitness of single- and double-deletion strains were measured in the presence and absence of MMS. Genetic interactions were defined by combining principles from both statistical and classical genetics. The resulting network predicts that the Mph1 helicase has a role in resolving homologous recombination-derived DNA intermediates that is similar to (but distinct from) that of the Sgs1 helicase. Our results emphasize the utility of small molecules and multifactorial deletion mutants in uncovering functional relationships and pathway order.     

New Membranes Based on Polybenzimidazole for Polymer Fuel Cells

1 Results Acid-doped polybenzimidazoles[1] are particularly appealing because of high proton conductivity with no or low humidification and promising fuel cells performances. PBI, in fact, contains basic functional groups which can easily interact with strong oxo-acids, such as H3PO4 and H2SO4. The acid partially protonates the polymer and partially is freely dispersed in the polymer backbone, so allowing proton migration via Grotthuss mechanism along the anionic chains[2]. Anyway, a technological limit...