An aqueous extract of Liu Wei Di Huang Wan alters the labeling of blood constituents with Technetium-99m

The Liu Wei Di Huang Wan is a formula of a traditional Chinese medicine that is used to treat asthma patients and has been shown to have several important properties,such as antioxidant and free radical scavenging activities.The influence of an extract of Liu Wei Di Huang Wan on the labeling of blood constituents with technetium-99m was investigated.Anticoagulated blood(Wistar rats) was incubated with the extract,stannous chloride and technetium-99m,as sodium pertechnetate.Samples were centrifuged and aliquots of plasma and blood cells were separated and precipitated with trichloroacetic acid,to obtain soluble and insoluble fractions of the blood constituents.The percentage of radioactivity(%ATI) in all the fractions was determined.The analysis of the results shows that the extract at the highest concentration used(70 mg/mL) decreased significantly(P<0.05) the %ATI(from 96.48 ± 1.19 to 54.46 ± 7.38) on blood cells compartment,(from 81.11 ± 4.15 to 61.33 ± 4.74) on insoluble fractions of blood cells and(from 65.91 ± 2.44 to 13.15 ± 3.62) on insoluble fractions of plasma.In conclusion,the results suggest that the substances present on this extract can alter this labeling process,probably due to(i) redox properties(antioxidant and chelator activities) and/or(ii) specific actions in the binding sites where the 99mTc would be bound on the blood constituents.As a consequence,precaution is suggested on the interpretation of the nuclear medicine results from performed with blood constituents labeled with 99m Tc in patients that have undertaken LWDHW,although the current findings were obtained in experimental animal models.     

Rapid appearance and local toxicity of amyloid-beta plaques in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease

Senile plaques accumulate over the course of decades in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease. A fundamental tenet of the amyloid hypothesis of Alzheimer's disease is that the deposition of amyloid-beta precedes and induces the neuronal abnormalities that underlie dementia. This idea has been challenged, however, by the suggestion that alterations in axonal trafficking and morphological abnormalities precede and lead to senile plaques. The role of microglia in accelerating or retarding these processes has been uncertain. To investigate the temporal relation between plaque formation and the changes in local neuritic architecture, we used longitudinal in vivo multiphoton microscopy to sequentially image young APPswe/PS1d9xYFP (B6C3-YFP) transgenic mice. Here we show that plaques form extraordinarily quickly, over 24 h. Within 1-2 days of a new plaque's appearance, microglia are activated and recruited to the site. Progressive neuritic changes ensue, leading to increasingly dysmorphic neurites over the next days to weeks. These data establish plaques as a critical mediator of neuritic pathology.     

Solitons and production of defects in flow-aligning nematic liquid crystals under simple shear flow

The production of defects in flow-aligning nematic liquid crystals under simple shear flow is analyzed by linear stability analysis based on Leslie-Ericksen theory. It is pointed out that the equation of motion of the nematic director under simple shear flow conforms to the driven over-damped sine-Gordon equation and has a soliton solution of amplitude π. It has also been shown that the stationary state with the director uniformly oriented at a Leslie angle is only a metastable state and that the potential, which governs the motion of the director, has infinite numbers of stable stationary states. Therefore, the defects, appearing as a stable solitary solution, can be nucleated from a uniformly aligned flow-aligning type of nematic liquid crystal by shear flow. On the other hand, the bands with long axis parallel to the vorticity axis, appearing as an unstable solution, can be observed as transient patterns at low shear rate and low shear strain value. The theoretical predictions are compared with previous experimental observations.     

Protecting DNA from errors and damage: an overview of DNA repair mechanisms in plants compared to mammals

The genome integrity of all organisms is constantly threatened by replication errors and DNA damage arising from endogenous and exogenous sources. Such base pair anomalies must be accurately repaired to prevent mutagenesis and/or lethality. Thus, it is not surprising that cells have evolved multiple and partially overlapping DNA repair pathways to correct specific types of DNA errors and lesions. Great progress in unraveling these repair mechanisms at the molecular level has been made by several talented researchers, among them Tomas Lindahl, Aziz Sancar, and Paul Modrich, all three Nobel laureates in Chemistry for 2015. Much of this knowledge comes from studies performed in bacteria, yeast, and mammals and has impacted research in plant systems. Two plant features should be mentioned. Plants differ from higher eukaryotes in that they lack a reserve germline and cannot avoid environmental stresses. Therefore, plants have evolved different strategies to sustain genome fidelity through generations and continuous exposure to genotoxic stresses. These strategies include the presence of unique or multiple paralogous genes with partially overlapping DNA repair activities. Yet, in spite (or because) of these differences, plants, especially Arabidopsis thaliana, can be used as a model organism for functional studies. Some advantages of this model system are worth mentioning: short life cycle, availability of both homozygous and heterozygous lines for many genes, plant transformation techniques, tissue culture methods and reporter systems for gene expression and function studies. Here, I provide a current understanding of DNA repair genes in plants, with a special focus on A. thaliana. It is expected that this review will be a valuable resource for future functional studies in the DNA repair field, both in plants and animals.     

Possible solar origin of the 1,470-year glacial climate cycle demonstrated in a coupled model

Many palaeoclimate records from the North Atlantic region show a pattern of rapid climate oscillations, the so-called Dansgaard-Oeschger events, with a quasi-periodicity of approximately 1,470 years for the late glacial period. Various hypotheses have been suggested to explain these rapid temperature shifts, including internal oscillations in the climate system and external forcing, possibly from the Sun. But whereas pronounced solar cycles of approximately 87 and approximately 210 years are well known, a approximately 1,470-year solar cycle has not been detected. Here we show that an intermediate-complexity climate model with glacial climate conditions simulates rapid climate shifts similar to the Dansgaard-Oeschger events with a spacing of 1,470 years when forced by periodic freshwater input into the North Atlantic Ocean in cycles of approximately 87 and approximately 210 years. We attribute the robust 1,470-year response time to the superposition of the two shorter cycles, together with strongly nonlinear dynamics and the long characteristic timescale of the thermohaline circulation. For Holocene conditions, similar events do not occur. We conclude that the glacial 1,470-year climate cycles could have been triggered by solar forcing despite the absence of a 1,470-year solar cycle.     

Mutations in SIL1 cause Marinesco-Sjögren syndrome, a cerebellar ataxia with cataract and myopathy

SIL1 (also called BAP) acts as a nucleotide exchange factor for the Hsp70 chaperone BiP (also called GRP78), which is a key regulator of the main functions of the endoplasmic reticulum. We found nine distinct mutations that would disrupt the SIL1 protein in individuals with Marinesco-Sj?gren syndrome, an autosomal recessive cerebellar ataxia complicated by cataracts, developmental delay and myopathy. Identification of SIL1 mutations implicates Marinesco-Sj?gren syndrome as a disease of endoplasmic reticulum dysfunction and suggests a role for this organelle in multisystem disorders.     

Statistical analyses of freeway traffic flows

This paper concerns the exploration of statistical models for the analysis of observational freeway flow data, and the development of empirical models to capture and predict short‐term changes in traffic flow characteristics on sequences of links in a partially detectorized freeway network. A first set of analyses explores regression models for minute‐by‐minute traffic flows, taking into account time of day, day of the week, and recent upstream detector‐based flows. Day‐ and link‐specific random effects are used in a hierarchical statistical modelling framework. A second set of analyses captures day‐specific idiosyncrasies in traffic patterns by including parameters that may vary throughout the day. Model fit and short‐term predictions of flows are thus improved significantly. A third set of analyses includes recent downstream flows as additional predictors. These further improvements, though marginal in most cases, can be quite radically useful in cases of very marked breakdown of freeway flows on some links. These three modelling stages are described and developed in analyses of observational flow data from a set of links on Interstate Highway 5 (I‐5) near Seattle. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.