Diuretic and antifeedant actions byManduca sexta diuretic hormone in lepidopteran larvae

Neuroendocrine disruption of water balance in insect larvae was evaluated as the basis for a new approach to pest insect control. Effects on water balance and food consumption were measured for larvae ofHeliothis virescens (cotton budworm) treated with syntheticManduca sexta diuretic neurohormone (MasDH). Synthetic MasDH (50–250 nM) caused dose-dependent increases in fluid secretion by larval Malpighian tubules in vitro; higher concentrations resulted in lower fluid secretion. Last instar larvae injected with 20–100 pmol MasDH exhibited increasing weight loss. Larvae injected with 500 pmol MasDH dramatically reduced both water excretion and food consumption by 70%. These latter results indicate that high titers of diuretic hormone can suppress feeding damage by larval insects by depressing water excretion and food consumption.     

装配式板桥的横向预应力设计

基于摩擦抗剪的概念,提出一种确定横向预应力张拉设计值的方法.计算表明:在考虑板间铰缝及混凝土桥面板纵向开裂的情形下,装配式板桥的横向联结性能随着横向预应力的增大而增加;但是当横向预应力水平达到一定的程度(如NPO)之后,其横向联结性能基本不变,横向预应力的设计张拉值应大干NPO.通过美国马里兰州的一座装配式实心板桥的车载试验,研究了横向预应力对桥梁横向联结性能的影响.理论及试验表明,当桥面板及铰缝没有纵向开裂时,板间具备了足够的荷载横向传递能力,横向预应力对桥梁的横向联结性能影响不大.但横向预应力的存在,保证了铰缝和铺装层开裂后桥梁具有良好的横向联结性能,可以有效地抑制纵向裂缝病害的发展,确保桥梁的使用性能和安全性.     

Human embryonic stem cell lines derived from single blastomeres

The derivation of human embryonic stem (hES) cells currently requires the destruction of ex utero embryos. A previous study in mice indicates that it might be possible to generate embryonic stem (ES) cells using a single-cell biopsy similar to that used in preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), which does not interfere with the embryo's developmental potential. By growing the single blastomere overnight, the resulting cells could be used for both genetic testing and stem cell derivation without affecting the clinical outcome of the procedure. Here we report a series of ten separate experiments demonstrating that hES cells can be derived from single blastomeres. In this proof-of-principle study, multiple biopsies were taken from each embryo using micromanipulation techniques and none of the biopsied embryos were allowed to develop in culture. Nineteen ES-cell-like outgrowths and two stable hES cell lines were obtained. The latter hES cell lines maintained undifferentiated proliferation for more than eight months, and showed normal karyotype and expression of markers of pluripotency, including Oct-4, SSEA-3, SSEA-4, TRA-1-60, TRA-1-81, nanog and alkaline phosphatase. These cells retained the potential to form derivatives of all three embryonic germ layers both in vitro and in teratomas. The ability to create new stem cell lines and therapies without destroying embryos would address the ethical concerns of many, and allow the generation of matched tissue for children and siblings born from transferred PGD embryos.     

Pregnenolone stabilizes microtubules and promotes zebrafish embryonic cell movement

Embryonic cell movement is essential for morphogenesis and the establishment of body shapes, but little is known about its mechanism. Here we report that pregnenolone, which is produced from cholesterol by the steroidogenic enzyme Cyp11a1 (cholesterol side-chain cleavage enzyme, P450scc), functions in promoting cell migration during epiboly. Epiboly is a process in which embryonic cells spread from the animal pole to cover the underlying yolk. During epiboly, cyp11a1 is expressed in an extra-embryonic yolk syncytial layer. Reducing cyp11a1 expression in zebrafish using antisense morpholino oligonucleotides did not perturb cell fates, but caused epibolic delay. This epibolic defect was partially rescued by the injection of cyp11a1 RNA or the supplementation of pregnenolone. We show that the epibolic delay is accompanied by a decrease in the level of polymerized microtubules, and that pregnenolone can rescue this microtubule defect. Our results indicate that pregnenolone preserves microtubule abundance and promotes cell movement during epiboly.     

菜籽粕发酵脱毒的一些影响因素

报告了菜籽饼粕发酵脱毒的菌种复壮方法及脱毒辅助剂．应用芥子甙的酶分解产物异硫氰酸酯类，通过产物耐受性筛选法，获得提高了脱毒率的曲霉（Ａｓｐｅｒｇｉｌｕｓｓｐ．）菌株．从饲料添加剂中寻找到一种可增强发酵脱毒效果的脱毒助剂，并试验了影响发酵脱毒的各种因子．     

Selective antiproliferative effects of thymidine

A substance with antiproliferative bioactivity in an aqueous extract ofCordyline terminalis was purified and identified by mass spectrometry to be the natural nucleoside, thymidine. 10^–5M Thymidine inhibited EL4 cell replication and decreased cell viability after 12–24 h. The effect was highly specific for this nucleoside. Treated cell cultures showed a significant increase in S phase cells and a corresponding decrease in G₁ phase cells. Nitrobenzylthioinosine (which prevented facilitated entry of thymidine) protected cells from the antiproliferative action of thymidine. A human breast cancer cell line (MCF7) was also growth-inhibited by 10^–5M thymidine but a murine lymphoma cell line (K36) was not. Thus, submillimolar thymidine has effects on cell proliferation which are selective both with respect to specificity for the compound and for different tumour cell lines.     

Cellular and molecular action of the putative GABA-mimetic,gabapentin

Gabapentin was originally designed as an anti-convulsant gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) mimetic capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier. In the present review we show that although gabapentin is not a GABA mimetic, it has great utility as an add-on therapy for epilepsy and as a first-line treatment for neuropathic pain. We summarise the studies that have been performed which demonstrate that gabapentin appears to interact with a novel binding site expressed at high density within the central nervous system (CNS), namely the alpha2delta voltage-dependent calcium channel subunit. The review continues by examining the effects of gabapentin on calcium channel function and neurotransmitter release before, in the latter part of the review, summarising the more recently discovered actions of gabapentin in relation to intracellular signalling.     

An electronic Mach-Zehnder interferometer

Double-slit electron interferometers fabricated in high mobility two-dimensional electron gases are powerful tools for studying coherent wave-like phenomena in mesoscopic systems. However, they suffer from low visibility of the interference patterns due to the many channels present in each slit, and from poor sensitivity to small currents due to their open geometry. Moreover, these interferometers do not function in high magnetic fields--such as those required to enter the quantum Hall effect regime--as the field destroys the symmetry between left and right slits. Here we report the fabrication and operation of a single-channel, two-path electron interferometer that functions in a high magnetic field. This device is the first electronic analogue of the optical Mach-Zehnder interferometer, and opens the way to measuring interference of quasiparticles with fractional charges. On the basis of measurements of single edge state and closed geometry transport in the quantum Hall effect regime, we find that the interferometer is highly sensitive and exhibits very high visibility (62%). However, the interference pattern decays precipitously with increasing electron temperature or energy. Although the origin of this dephasing is unclear, we show, via shot-noise measurements, that it is not a decoherence process that results from inelastic scattering events.