Constructing and evaluating core inflation measures from component‐level inflation data

This paper undertakes a comprehensive examination of 10 measures of core inflation and evaluates which measure produces the best forecast of headline inflation out‐of‐sample. We use the Personal Consumption Expenditure Price Index as our measure of inflation. We use two sets of components (17 and 50) of the Personal Consumption Expenditure Price Index to construct these core inflation measures and evaluate these measures at the three time horizons (6, 12 and 24 months) most relevant for monetary policy decisions. The best measure of core inflation for both sets of components and over all time horizons uses weights based on the first principal component of the disaggregated (component‐level) prices. Interestingly, the results vary by the number of components used; when more components are used the weights based on the persistence of each component is statistically equivalent to the weights generated by the first principal component. However, those forecasts using the persistence of 50 components are statistically worse than those generated using the first principal component of 17 components. The statistical superiority of the principal component method is due to the fact that it extracts (in the first principal component) the common source of variation in the component level prices that accurately describes trend inflation over the next 6–24 months.     

Systemic Thinking and Practice Toward Facilitating Inclusive Education: Reflections on a Case of Co-Generated Knowledge and Action in South Africa

This article offers our reflections around a case of facilitating systemic thinking and practice in which the first author of the article (Tlale) interacted with research participants/participant researchers with the intention of strengthening systemic thought and action toward fostering inclusive education in the setting (a rural school in the Eastern Cape in South Africa). We reflect upon the process and also how our engagement was perceived by participants, as expressed in feedback received from them. We point to how Tlale introduced the idea of systemic thinking (to teachers, school management team, school governing body, and a district officer for the district) as tied to the possibility of acting to generate transformation toward a more inclusive educational context for the benefit of the learners at the school in question, thus acting as a systemic mediator on their behalf.     

Intrinsically disordered proteins in crowded milieu: when chaos prevails within the cellular gumbo

Effects of macromolecular crowding on structural and functional properties of ordered proteins, their folding, interactability, and aggregation are well documented. Much less is known about how macromolecular crowding might affect structural and functional behaviour of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) or intrinsically disordered protein regions (IDPRs). To fill this gap, this review represents a systematic analysis of the available literature data on the behaviour of IDPs/IDPRs in crowded environment. Although it was hypothesized that, due to the excluded-volume effects present in crowded environments, IDPs/IDPRs would invariantly fold in the presence of high concentrations of crowding agents or in the crowded cellular environment, accumulated data indicate that, based on their response to the presence of crowders, IDPs/IDPRs can be grouped into three major categories, foldable, non-foldable, and unfoldable. This is because natural cellular environment is not simply characterized by the presence of high concentration of “inert” macromolecules, but represents an active milieu, components of which are engaged in direct physical interactions and soft interactions with target proteins. Some of these interactions with cellular components can cause (local) unfolding of query proteins. In other words, since crowding can cause both folding and unfolding of an IDP or its regions, the outputs of the placing of a query protein to the crowded environment would depend on the balance between these two processes. As a result, and because of the spatio-temporal heterogeneity in structural organization of IDPs, macromolecular crowding can differently affect structures of different IDPs. Recent studies indicate that some IDPs are able to undergo liquid–liquid-phase transitions leading to the formation of various proteinaceous membrane-less organelles (PMLOs). Although interiors of such PMLOs are self-crowded, being characterized by locally increased concentrations of phase-separating IDPs, these IDPs are minimally foldable or even non-foldable at all (at least within the physiologically safe time-frame of normal PMLO existence).     

非那雄胺原料药中7种元素的ICP-MS分析

建立电感耦合等离子体质谱（ICP-MS）法测定非那雄胺原料药中7种元素（As、Cd、Cr、Hg、Pb、Pd、Se）。样品经微波消解后，根据待测元素的特性，选用标准模式测定Se、选用碰撞模式（氦模式）测定其余元素，根据各元素的质量数选择相应元素作为内标，采用ICP-MS进行测定。积分时间为50 ms，射频功率为1 550 W，作为载气的氩气流量为1.0 L/min，作为碰撞气的氦气流量为4.3 L/min，等离子体气流量为16.0 L/min，雾化器流量为1.0 L/mim；样品扫描20次，重复次数3次，使用Syngistix软件进行采集并分析数据。结果显示：As、Cd、Cr、Pb、Pd、Se的检测质量浓度线性范围均为1—20 ng/mL（r≥0.999 5）、Hg的检测质量浓度线性范围为0.1—2.0 ng/mL（r=0.999 8）；检出限为1—30 μg/kg，定量限为2—100 μg/kg；回收率为92.0%—103.9%；精密度、稳定性试验的RSD均小于3.9％。该方法操作简便、灵敏度高、分析速度快、准确度好，适用于测定非那雄胺原料药中各元素的含量，对完善其质量标准具有参考意义。     

间接酶联免疫法检测麻疯树核糖体失活蛋白

建立了基于单克隆抗体的间接非竞争酶联免疫法用于检测麻疯树核糖体失活蛋白的含量.优化单克隆抗体最佳工作浓度为312.5ng/mL,辣根过氧化物酶标记山羊抗小鼠IgG最佳工作浓度为200ng/mL.该方法的线性范围为25~300ng/mL,线性回归方程为y=0.0024x+0.0322,相关系数R2=0.9985,定量检测限25ng/mL,定性检出限3.0336ng/mL.试验证明该方法准确度较高,且具有较好的重复性和特异性,可以用于实际检测麻疯树种仁核糖体失活蛋白的含量.     

一个麻疯树C2H2型锌指蛋白基因JcZFP1的克隆与表达分析

从麻疯树胚乳cDNA文库中克隆得到一个C2H2型锌指蛋白基因,JcZFP1,全长931bp,开放阅读框全长735bp,编码244个氨基酸残基,等电点pI=7.0,分子量PA=27.38kD.C2H2型锌指结构位于第81至103个氨基酸残基中,包括植物锌指蛋白特有的保守氨基酸序列QALGGH.在该基因的顺式作用元件上发现了与生长发育和逆境胁迫相关的启动元件.荧光定量PCR(qPCR)检测发现,JcZFP1基因在麻疯树各器官中的表达量依次为:绿果皮花叶根茎种仁,且幼嫩器官表达量高于成熟器官;对麻疯树幼苗进行低温、干旱胁迫时,JcZFP1基因的表达量明显增加,表明该基因可能在麻疯树的生长发育及逆境胁迫应答过程中起重要作用.     

HeLa/GFP-α-tubulin/GFP-CENP-A 细胞系的构建及对其有丝分裂的观察

有丝分裂中染色体的正确排列及准确地分离依赖于一系列的分子调控机制;其中微管的精确组装与运动发挥着重要的调控作用。微管功能调控异常可导致基因组不稳定性,从而促进肿瘤的发生;同时许多以微管为靶点的抗肿瘤药物被临床广泛应用。为了在细胞水平更好地研究微管的作用机制,利用慢病毒系统构建了稳定表达绿色荧光蛋白GFP-tubulinα及GFP-cenp A的HeLa细胞系,通过实时成像的激光共聚焦显微镜,实现了对HeLa细胞在有丝分裂期微管运动的动态观察,为研究肿瘤的发生机制及抗肿瘤药物的作用机理提供了实验基础。