Metallothionein expression by NG2 glial cells following CNS injury

Metallothionein (MT) expression is rapidly up-regulated following CNS injury, and there is a strong correlation between the presence or absence of MTand improved or impaired (respectively) recovery from such trauma.We now report that a distinct subset of NG2-positive, GFAP-negative glial cells bordering the injury tract express MT following focal injury to the adult rat neocortex. To confirm the ability of these NG2 glial cells to express MT, we have isolated and cultured them and identified that they can express MT following stimulation with zinc. To investigate the functional importance of MT expression by NG2 glial cells, we plated cortical neurons onto these cells and found that expression of MT enhanced the permissivity of NG2 glial cells to neurite outgrowth. Our data suggest that expression of MT by NG2 glial cells may contribute to the overall permissiveness of these cells to axon regeneration.     

A simple interspike interval analyzer for study of neuronal spike trains

Summary A simple, low cost interspike interval analyzer for the analysis of trains of nerve impulses is described. The analyzer is built with readily available integrated circuits and has been used to analyze spike trains in the lateral vestibular nucleus of cats.Acknowledgment. This research is supported in part by Higher Degrees and Research Grant No. 158/363 to J.C.H. from the University of Hong Kong.     

Host cell reactivation capacity of different strains ofE. coli B resistant or sensitive to ozone

Summary Host cell reactivation capacity for ozonated or irradiated phage was determined for different strains ofE. coli either more sensitive or resistant to ozone than the wild type strain. The results suggest that theozr gene product could be involved in the same repair pathway for ozone-induced lesions on DNA as thepolA gene. The possible involment of a specific endonuclease for these lesions is also considered.This research was sponsored by the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. P.L.H. acknowledges a postgraduate scholarship from the NSERC of Canada.     

Mutagenecity in the mal regions ofEscherichia coli

Résumé L'efficacité de la nitrosoguanidine (MNG) dans différents milieux de culture et tampons a été étudiée. Les résultats obtenus montrent qu'avec le temps, la fraction de cellules survivant au traitement diminue progressivement alors que la fréquence de mutation augmente dans tous les milieux. L'activité de cet agent atteint un maximum dans le milieu DM-glucose tandis que dans le tampon TM elle est à son plus bas niveau.     

Function and regulation of Dyrk1A: towards understanding Down syndrome

Down syndrome (DS) is associated with a variety of symptoms, such as incapacitating mental retardation and neurodegeneration (i.e., Alzheimer’s disease), that prevent patients from leading fully independent lives. These phenotypes are a direct consequence of the overexpression of chromosome 21 genes, which are present in duplicate due to non-disjunction of chromosome 21. Accumulating data suggest that the chromosome 21 gene product, dual-specificity tyrosine-(Y)-phosphorylation regulated kinase 1A (Dyrk1A), participates in the pathogenic mechanisms underlying the mental and other physical symptoms of DS. In this review, we summarize the evidence supporting a role for Dyrk1A in DS, especially DS pathogenesis. Recently, several natural and synthetic compounds have been identified as Dyrk1A inhibitors. Understanding the function and regulation of Dyrk1A may lead to the development of novel therapeutic agents aimed at treating DS.     

Key factors for efficiently implementing customized e-learning system in the service industry

In recent years,e-learning system has been adopted as a training tool in many firms,as it can help employees to complete training in a short time and at a low cost.Within this context,since 2003 the Industrial Development Bureau(IDB) of the Ministry of Economic Affairs(MOEA) in Taiwan sponsored more than 50 enterprises each year to help them implement customized e-learning systems. Past research on e-learning mostly focused on one criterion and adopted regression approach,such as examining the relationsh...     

最小学习机

针对极端学习机(ELM)不能用于多层前向神经网络学习的问题,通过揭示单层前向神经网络(SLFN)的ELM与岭回归以及中心化的岭回归之间的关系,提出了SLFN的最小学习机.通过证明核化的中心化岭回归与核化的PCA之间的关系.提出以无限可微的核函数为激励函数的多层前向神经网络(MLFN)的最小学习机LLM.SLFN/MLFN的最小学习机能够保持ELM的上述优势.