The influence of chronic nicotine treatment on stress-induced gastric ulceration and emptying rate in rats.

Ten-day treatment with nicotine (5, 25 or 50 micrograms/ml drinking water) dose-dependently intensified gastric ulceration induced by cold-restraint, and emptying rate. Stomach contractions produced by graded doses of bethanechol i.v. were elevated further by nicotine treatment. It is suggested that chronic nicotine administration produces hypersensitivity of the gastric muscarinic receptors; stomach hypermotility contributes to the ulcer-worsening action of the alkaloid.     

Efficient and power-awareness query over sensor networks

Sensor networks consisted of low-cost, low-power, multifunctional miniature sensor devices have played an important role in our daily life. Light and humidity monitoring, seismic and animal activity detection, environment and habitat monitoring are the most common applications. However, due to the limited power supply, ordinary query methods and algorithms can not be applied on sensor networks. Queries over sensor networks should be power-aware to guarantee the maximum power savings. The minimal power consumption by avoiding the expensive communication of the redundant sensor nodes is concentrated on. A lot of work have been done to reduce the participated nodes, but none of them have considered the overlapping minimum bounded rectangle (MBR) of sensors which make them impossible to reach the optimization solution. The proposed OMSI-tree and OMR algorithm can efficiently solve this problem by executing a given query only on the sensors involved. Experiments show that there is an obvious improvement compared with TinyDB and other spatial index, adopting the proposed schema and algorithm.     

基于土性相关蒙特卡罗法的争岗滑坡堆积体可靠性分析

针对澜沧江古水水电站争岗滑坡堆积体工程地质务件,在室内剪切试验、工程类比、参数反演基础上综合确定了岩土体力学参数及其统计分布规律.采用基于黏聚力c与内摩擦角φ相关抽样下的蒙特卡罗法对堆积体典型剖面进行了多种工况下的可靠性分析,预测了其未来的变形失稳特征.研究结果表明:当前堆积体B-B'剖面在正常运行工况下的破坏概率为2...     

Oxysterols direct immune cell migration via EBI2

Epstein-Barr virus-induced gene 2 (EBI2, also known as GPR183) is a G-protein-coupled receptor that is required for humoral immune responses; polymorphisms in the receptor have been associated with inflammatory autoimmune diseases. The natural ligand for EBI2 has been unknown. Here we describe the identification of 7α,25-dihydroxycholesterol (also called 7α,25-OHC or 5-cholesten-3β,7α,25-triol) as a potent and selective agonist of EBI2. Functional activation of human EBI2 by 7α,25-OHC and closely related oxysterols was verified by monitoring second messenger readouts and saturable, high-affinity radioligand binding. Furthermore, we find that 7α,25-OHC and closely related oxysterols act as chemoattractants for immune cells expressing EBI2 by directing cell migration in vitro and in vivo. A critical enzyme required for the generation of 7α,25-OHC is cholesterol 25-hydroxylase (CH25H). Similar to EBI2 receptor knockout mice, mice deficient in CH25H fail to position activated B cells within the spleen to the outer follicle and mount a reduced plasma cell response after an immune challenge. This demonstrates that CH25H generates EBI2 biological activity in vivo and indicates that the EBI2-oxysterol signalling pathway has an important role in the adaptive immune response.     

Efficient and power-awareness query over sensor networks

Sensor networks consisted of low-cost, low-power, muhifunctional miniature sensor devices have played an important role in our daily life. Light and humidity monitoring, seismic and animal activity detection, environment and habitat monitoring are the most common applications. However, due to the limited power supply, ordinary query methods and algorithms can not be applied on sensor networks. Queries over sensor networks should be power-aware to guarantee the maximum power savings. The minimal power consumption by avoiding the expensive communication of the redundant sensor nodes is concentrated on. A lot of work have been done to reduce the participated nodes, but none of them have considered the overlapping minimum bounded rectangle （MBR） of sensors which make them impossible to reach the optimization solution. The proposed OMSI-tree and OMR algorithm can efficiently solve this problem by executing a given query only on the sensors involved. Experiments show that there is an obvious improvement compared with TinyDB and other spatial index, adopting the proposed schema and algorithm.     

The PDZ2 domain of zonula occludens-1 and -2 is a phosphoinositide binding domain

Zonula occludens proteins (ZO) are postsynaptic density protein-95 discs large-zonula occludens (PDZ) domain-containing proteins that play a fundamental role in the assembly of tight junctions and establishment of cell polarity. Here, we show that the second PDZ domain of ZO-1 and ZO-2 binds phosphoinositides (PtdInsP) and we identified critical residues involved in the interaction. Furthermore, peptide and PtdInsP binding of ZO PDZ2 domains are mutually exclusive. Although lipid binding does not seem to be required for plasma membrane localisation of ZO-1, phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PtdIns(4,5)P ₂) binding to the PDZ2 domain of ZO-2 regulates ZO-2 recruitment to nuclear speckles. Knockdown of ZO-2 expression disrupts speckle morphology, indicating that ZO-2 might play an active role in formation and stabilisation of these subnuclear structures. This study shows for the first time that ZO isoforms bind PtdInsPs and offers an alternative regulatory mechanism for the formation and stabilisation of protein complexes in the nucleus.     

ITPKC functional polymorphism associated with Kawasaki disease susceptibility and formation of coronary artery aneurysms

Kawasaki disease is a pediatric systemic vasculitis of unknown etiology for which a genetic influence is suspected. We identified a functional SNP (itpkc_3) in the inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate 3-kinase C (ITPKC) gene on chromosome 19q13.2 that is significantly associated with Kawasaki disease susceptibility and also with an increased risk of coronary artery lesions in both Japanese and US children. Transfection experiments showed that the C allele of itpkc_3 reduces splicing efficiency of the ITPKC mRNA. ITPKC acts as a negative regulator of T-cell activation through the Ca2+/NFAT signaling pathway, and the C allele may contribute to immune hyper-reactivity in Kawasaki disease. This finding provides new insights into the mechanisms of immune activation in Kawasaki disease and emphasizes the importance of activated T cells in the pathogenesis of this vasculitis.