Impacts of Atlantic sea surface temperature anomalies on Indo-East Asian summer monsoon-ENSO relationship

Science Bulletin - In this study, the effect of the tropical North Atlantic (TNA) sea surface temperature (SST) variation in inducing the circulation anomaly in the Indo-East Asian monsoon (IEAM)...     

Genome-wide association study identifies five loci associated with susceptibility to pancreatic cancer in Chinese populations

Pancreatic cancer has the lowest survival rate among human cancers, and there are no effective markers for its screening and early diagnosis. To identify genetic susceptibility markers for this cancer, we carried out a genome-wide association study on 981 individuals with pancreatic cancer (cases) and 1,991 cancer-free controls of Chinese descent using 666,141 autosomal SNPs. Promising associations were replicated in an additional 2,603 pancreatic cancer cases and 2,877 controls recruited from 25 hospitals in 16 provinces or cities in China. We identified five new susceptibility loci at chromosomes 21q21.3, 5p13.1, 21q22.3, 22q13.32 and 10q26.11 (P = 2.24 × 10(-13) to P = 4.18 × 10(-10)) in addition to 13q22.1 previously reported in populations of European ancestry. These results advance our understanding of the development of pancreatic cancer and highlight potential targets for the prevention or treatment of this cancer.     

Deep resequencing of GWAS loci identifies independent rare variants associated with inflammatory bowel disease

More than 1,000 susceptibility loci have been identified through genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of common variants; however, the specific genes and full allelic spectrum of causal variants underlying these findings have not yet been defined. Here we used pooled next-generation sequencing to study 56 genes from regions associated with Crohn's disease in 350 cases and 350 controls. Through follow-up genotyping of 70 rare and low-frequency protein-altering variants in nine independent case-control series (16,054 Crohn's disease cases, 12,153 ulcerative colitis cases and 17,575 healthy controls), we identified four additional independent risk factors in NOD2, two additional protective variants in IL23R, a highly significant association with a protective splice variant in CARD9 (P < 1 × 10(-16), odds ratio ≈ 0.29) and additional associations with coding variants in IL18RAP, CUL2, C1orf106, PTPN22 and MUC19. We extend the results of successful GWAS by identifying new, rare and probably functional variants that could aid functional experiments and predictive models.     

Transport and diffusion of Tau protein in neurons

In highly polarized and elongated cells such as neurons, Tau protein must enter and move down the axon to fulfill its biological task of stabilizing axonal microtubules. Therefore, cellular systems for distributing Tau molecules are needed. This review discusses different mechanisms that have been proposed to contribute to the dispersion of Tau molecules in neurons. They include (1) directed transport along microtubules as cargo of tubulin complexes and/or motor proteins, (2) diffusion, either through the cytosolic space or along microtubules, and (3) mRNA-based mechanisms such as transport of Tau mRNA into axons and local translation. Diffusion along the microtubule lattice or through the cytosol appear to be the major mechanisms for axonal distribution of Tau protein in the short-to-intermediate range over distances of up to a millimetre. The high diffusion coefficients ensure that Tau can distribute evenly throughout the axonal volume as well as along microtubules. Motor protein-dependent transport of Tau dominates over longer distances and time scales. At low near-physiological levels, Tau is co-transported along with short microtubules from cell bodies into axons by cytoplasmic dynein and kinesin family members at rates of slow axonal transport.     

离子选择电极应用研究——乙醇-水混合溶剂中硝酸根对铅离子的配合平衡

本文用铅离子选择电极测定了乙醇-水混合溶剂中Pb-NO_3配合物的稳定常数.实验证明,铅和硝酸根可以形成PbNO_3~+和Pb(NO_3)_2两种配合物。所计算的热力学稳定常数表明溶剂中乙醇含量直到76%(w/w)lgβ_i°-1/ε都呈直线关系.     

Applied embryology: no surrogate British mothers

Beardsley reports on the British Medical Association's decision to caution its members against involvement in surrogate motherhood arrangements. The Association's recommendation, together with a House of Commons bill that would make it illegal for agencies to coordinate such arrangements, will likely prevent expansion of the surrogate mother industry in Britain. Concern for the well-being of children born as a result of surrogate pregnancies, as well as apprehension over potential legal difficulties, were behind the BMA's decision. The government's Warnock committee, studying this and other reproductive issues, could be influenced by the BMA's action.     

UK drug trials: row over student trial

The British Medicines Commission has undertaken an urgent review of arrangements for testing new drugs on healthy volunteers in the wake of charges that one company, Charterhouse Clinical Research Unit Ltd., was using London students in toxicity tests of an antitumor drug without having informed the volunteers' physicians of the risks involved and without plans for long-term monitoring of the participants' health. Under current British law, drug studies with healthy volunteers are regarded as a private matter between the volunteers and the drug companies, which vary in their practices on disclosure of risks and compensation for injuries.     

In vitro fertilization: MRC tests the climate

It is reported that Britain's Medical Research Council has published guidelines for MRC-supported research involving human embryos obtained through in vitro fertilization. In ethics committee-approved projects, researchers may use deliberately fertilized ova or, with parents' consent, fertilized ova left over from therapeutic programs. In vitro culture of human embryos is permitted only up to the implantation stage. Conditions are also set for experiments on interspecies fertilization and on freezing of embryos. Concern over physician and public reception of these guidelines has been expressed by the British Medical Association.