WNT7b mediates macrophage-induced programmed cell death in patterning of the vasculature

Macrophages have a critical role in inflammatory and immune responses through their ability to recognize and engulf apoptotic cells. Here we show that macrophages initiate a cell-death programme in target cells by activating the canonical WNT pathway. We show in mice that macrophage WNT7b is a short-range paracrine signal required for WNT-pathway responses and programmed cell death in the vascular endothelial cells of the temporary hyaloid vessels of the developing eye. These findings indicate that macrophages can use WNT ligands to influence cell-fate decisions--including cell death--in adjacent cells, and raise the possibility that they do so in many different cellular contexts.     

Human dorsal anterior cingulate cortex neurons mediate ongoing behavioural adaptation

The ability to optimize behavioural performance when confronted with continuously evolving environmental demands is a key element of human cognition. The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), which lies on the medial surface of the frontal lobes, is important in regulating cognitive control. Hypotheses about its function include guiding reward-based decision making, monitoring for conflict between competing responses and predicting task difficulty. Precise mechanisms of dACC function remain unknown, however, because of the limited number of human neurophysiological studies. Here we use functional imaging and human single-neuron recordings to show that the firing of individual dACC neurons encodes current and recent cognitive load. We demonstrate that the modulation of current dACC activity by previous activity produces a behavioural adaptation that accelerates reactions to cues of similar difficulty to previous ones, and retards reactions to cues of different difficulty. Furthermore, this conflict adaptation, or Gratton effect, is abolished after surgically targeted ablation of the dACC. Our results demonstrate that the dACC provides a continuously updated prediction of expected cognitive demand to optimize future behavioural responses. In situations with stable cognitive demands, this signal promotes efficiency by hastening responses, but in situations with changing demands it engenders accuracy by delaying responses.     

Structure of yeast Argonaute with guide RNA

The RNA-induced silencing complex, comprising Argonaute and guide RNA, mediates RNA interference. Here we report the 3.2 ? crystal structure of Kluyveromyces polysporus Argonaute (KpAGO) fortuitously complexed with guide RNA originating from small-RNA duplexes autonomously loaded by recombinant KpAGO. Despite their diverse sequences, guide-RNA nucleotides 1-8 are positioned similarly, with sequence-independent contacts to bases, phosphates and 2'-hydroxyl groups pre-organizing the backbone of nucleotides 2-8 in a near-A-form conformation. Compared with prokaryotic Argonautes, KpAGO has numerous surface-exposed insertion segments, with a cluster of conserved insertions repositioning the N domain to enable full propagation of guide-target pairing. Compared with Argonautes in inactive conformations, KpAGO has a hydrogen-bond network that stabilizes an expanded and repositioned loop, which inserts an invariant glutamate into the catalytic pocket. Mutation analyses and analogies to ribonuclease H indicate that insertion of this glutamate finger completes a universally conserved catalytic tetrad, thereby activating Argonaute for RNA cleavage.     

解构建筑施工立体教学框架的搭建与实施

《建筑施工技术》是土木工程专业的重点主干课程之一,在学科体系中具有举足轻重的地位。目前各高校《建筑施工技术》课程教学普遍存在着一定的问题。笔者通过深入一线施工企业调查研究,开发课程教学的纵向体系,积极探索构建真正意义上的立体教学框架.     

Copy number polymorphism in Fcgr3 predisposes to glomerulonephritis in rats and humans

Identification of the genes underlying complex phenotypes and the definition of the evolutionary forces that have shaped eukaryotic genomes are among the current challenges in molecular genetics. Variation in gene copy number is increasingly recognized as a source of inter-individual differences in genome sequence and has been proposed as a driving force for genome evolution and phenotypic variation. Here we show that copy number variation of the orthologous rat and human Fcgr3 genes is a determinant of susceptibility to immunologically mediated glomerulonephritis. Positional cloning identified loss of the newly described, rat-specific Fcgr3 paralogue, Fcgr3-related sequence (Fcgr3-rs), as a determinant of macrophage overactivity and glomerulonephritis in Wistar Kyoto rats. In humans, low copy number of FCGR3B, an orthologue of rat Fcgr3, was associated with glomerulonephritis in the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus. The finding that gene copy number polymorphism predisposes to immunologically mediated renal disease in two mammalian species provides direct evidence for the importance of genome plasticity in the evolution of genetically complex phenotypes, including susceptibility to common human disease.     

轴向柱塞泵瞬时流量的理论分析

针对轴向柱塞泵的流量脉动是工程噪声控制的主要因素之一,找出了轴向柱塞泵瞬时流量的影响因素,并运用计算机仿真分析给出了减小流量不均匀系数的方法.求得轴向柱塞泵瞬时流量脉动系数比工作介质不可压缩时大一个数量级,且与柱塞数的奇偶性无关.同时指出流量脉动系数最大的影响因素是油液的弹性模量和油泵的工作压力,其次是柱塞数.     

中药新药前列栓给药途径选择的药动学依据

采用RP-HPLC法,比较研究前列栓经口和经肛门给药的药动学差异.结果表明: (1) 经肛门途径用药,小檗碱在多数兔体内为一室开放模型,少数呈现为二房室模型,个别只能用统计矩拟合,其中一房室模型药代参数为 t 1/2 K e=(96.2±37.8)mi n, c max =(178.9±88.9)μg·L-1 ,AUC=(47917.4±23255.6) μg·L-1·min;(2)经灌胃途径给药,多数兔血药浓度在检测限以下,仅有2只能测到完整曲线,可用一房室模型拟合,药代参数为 t 1/2 K e =(573.4±212.2) min, c max =(7.0±2.5)μg·L-1 ,AUC=(7725.2±4764.6)μg·L-1·min,灌胃与肛塞相比的相对生物利用度仅为26.07%和6.18%;(3) 前列腺组织药物浓度,经肛塞途径能测到部分1～2h时间点的小檗碱浓度,但不足以构成可分析的浓度-时间曲线,而灌胃途径则根本无法测到小檗碱浓度,两组间差异极显著.经肛塞给药有以下优点: 吸收速度快、血药浓度高、血药有效浓度维持时间长、靶器官前列腺组织内药物浓度相对较高,且药动学参数随兔不同而有较大的差异.研究为前列栓的经肛门途径给药和栓剂剂型的确立,提供了药代动力学依据.