Accurate forecasting of the undecided population in a public opinion poll

The problem of pollsters is addressed which is to forecast accurately the final answers of the undecided respondents to the primary question in a public opinion poll. The task is viewed as a pattern‐recognition problem of correlating the answers of the respondents to the peripheral questions in the survey with their primary answers. The underlying pattern is determined with a supervised artificial neural network that is trained using the peripheral answers of the decided respondents whose primary answers are also known. With peripheral answers as inputs, the trained network outputs the most probable primary response of an undecided respondent. For a poll conducted to determine the approval rating of the (former) Philippine president, J. E. Estrada in December 1999 and March 2000, the trained network predicted with a 95% success rate the direct responses of a test population that consists of 24.57% of the decided population who were excluded in the network training set. For the undecided population (22.67% of December respondents; 23.67% of March respondents), the network predicted a final response distribution that is consistent with the approval/disapproval ratio of the decided population. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Antiinflammatory and analgesic effect of herbal cocktail Hongbaekjeong via inhibition of proinflammatory cytokines and prostaglandin E2 release

Though Hongbaekjeong(HBJ),a hebal mixture of three medicinal plants,has been traditionally used for arthritis and muscular pain,its scientific evidence still remains unclear.Thus,in the present study,analgesic and anti-inflammatory mechanism of HBJ was evaluated in vitro and in vivo.HBJ significantly reduced NO production and prostaglandin E2(PGE2)release and also attenuated the expression of cyclooxygenase 2(COX-2)in lipopolysaccharides(LPS)and interferon(IFN)-c treated RAW 264.7 cells.Furthermore,HBJ abrogated the production of proinflammatory cytokines such as interleukin(IL)1b,IL-6,IL-8 and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1(MCP-1)in LPS and IFN-c treated RAW 264.7 cells.In addition,HBJ significantly decreased the number of writhing syndrome induced by acetic acid,and also increased latency in hot-plate method and tail flick test in mice.Consistently,HBJ significantly reduced the edema volume in the hind paw of the rats with arthritis induced by Freund’s complete adjuvant(FCA)compared to untreated control.Collectively,our findings demonstrate the antiinflammatory and analgesic potential of HBJ via inhibition of proinflammatory cytokines and PGE2 release for treatment of arthritis and muscular pain.     

Hedgehog/Wnt feedback supports regenerative proliferation of epithelial stem cells in bladder

Epithelial integrity in metazoan organs is maintained through the regulated proliferation and differentiation of organ-specific stem and progenitor cells. Although the epithelia of organs such as the intestine regenerate constantly and thus remain continuously proliferative, other organs, such as the mammalian urinary bladder, shift from near-quiescence to a highly proliferative state in response to epithelial injury. The cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying this injury-induced mode of regenerative response are poorly defined. Here we show in mice that the proliferative response to bacterial infection or chemical injury within the bladder is regulated by signal feedback between basal cells of the urothelium and the stromal cells that underlie them. We demonstrate that these basal cells include stem cells capable of regenerating all cell types within the urothelium, and are marked by expression of the secreted protein signal Sonic hedgehog (Shh). On injury, Shh expression in these basal cells increases and elicits increased stromal expression of Wnt protein signals, which in turn stimulate the proliferation of both urothelial and stromal cells. The heightened activity of this signal feedback circuit and the associated increase in cell proliferation appear to be required for restoration of urothelial function and, in the case of bacterial injury, may help clear and prevent further spread of infection. Our findings provide a conceptual framework for injury-induced epithelial regeneration in endodermal organs, and may provide a basis for understanding the roles of signalling pathways in cancer growth and metastasis.     

Exome sequencing of liver fluke-associated cholangiocarcinoma

Opisthorchis viverrini-related cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), a fatal bile duct cancer, is a major public health concern in areas endemic for this parasite. We report here whole-exome sequencing of eight O. viverrini-related tumors and matched normal tissue. We identified and validated 206 somatic mutations in 187 genes using Sanger sequencing and selected 15 genes for mutation prevalence screening in an additional 46 individuals with CCA (cases). In addition to the known cancer-related genes TP53 (mutated in 44.4% of cases), KRAS (16.7%) and SMAD4 (16.7%), we identified somatic mutations in 10 newly implicated genes in 14.8-3.7% of cases. These included inactivating mutations in MLL3 (in 14.8% of cases), ROBO2 (9.3%), RNF43 (9.3%) and PEG3 (5.6%), and activating mutations in the GNAS oncogene (9.3%). These genes have functions that can be broadly grouped into three biological classes: (i) deactivation of histone modifiers, (ii) activation of G protein signaling and (iii) loss of genome stability. This study provides insight into the mutational landscape contributing to O. viverrini-related CCA.     

有机硫对维多利亚褐煤液化的催化作用之穆斯堡尔研究

我们以Morwell和Coolungoolun两种维多利亚褐煤进行实验,对铁和锡在煤的液化中的催化作用进行了比较,发现锡对低硫的Morwell煤较为有效,而铁则更适合于高硫的Coolungoolun煤。对液化余渣的穆斯堡尔分析的结果,使我们可以用低硫煤中元素态锡的形成以及在高硫煤中磁黄铁矿（Fe_(0.92)S）的形成来对观察到的现象作出解释。硫的损耗数据表明,磁黄铁矿的存在使得煤中的硫转化为气相的量增加了。     

Detection of carbonates in dust shells around evolved stars.

Carbonates on large Solar System bodies like Earth and Mars (the latter represented by the meteorite ALH84001) form through the weathering of silicates in a watery (CO3)2- solution. The presence of carbonates in interplanetary dust particles and asteroids (again, represented by meteorites) is not completely understood, but has been attributed to aqueous alteration on a large parent body, which was subsequently shattered into smaller pieces. Despite efforts, the presence of carbonates outside the Solar System has hitherto not been established. Here we report the discovery of the carbonates calcite and dolomite in the dust shells of evolved stars, where the conditions are too primitive for the formation of large parent bodies with liquid water. These carbonates, therefore, are not formed by aqueous alteration, but perhaps through processes on the surfaces of dust or ice grains or gas phase condensation. The presence of carbonates which did not form by aqueous alteration suggests that some of the carbonates found in Solar System bodies no longer provide direct evidence that liquid water was present on large parent bodies early in the history of the Solar System.     

Genome sequence of enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157:H7

The bacterium Escherichia coli O157:H7 is a worldwide threat to public health and has been implicated in many outbreaks of haemorrhagic colitis, some of which included fatalities caused by haemolytic uraemic syndrome. Close to 75,000 cases of O157:H7 infection are now estimated to occur annually in the United States. The severity of disease, the lack of effective treatment and the potential for large-scale outbreaks from contaminated food supplies have propelled intensive research on the pathogenesis and detection of E. coli O157:H7 (ref. 4). Here we have sequenced the genome of E. coli O157:H7 to identify candidate genes responsible for pathogenesis, to develop better methods of strain detection and to advance our understanding of the evolution of E. coli, through comparison with the genome of the non-pathogenic laboratory strain E. coli K-12 (ref. 5). We find that lateral gene transfer is far more extensive than previously anticipated. In fact, 1,387 new genes encoded in strain-specific clusters of diverse sizes were found in O157:H7. These include candidate virulence factors, alternative metabolic capacities, several prophages and other new functions--all of which could be targets for surveillance.