Identification of renal Cd36 as a determinant of blood pressure and risk for hypertension

To identify renally expressed genes that influence risk for hypertension, we integrated expression quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis of the kidney with genome-wide correlation analysis of renal expression profiles and blood pressure in recombinant inbred strains derived from the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR). This strategy, together with renal transplantation studies in SHR progenitor, transgenic and congenic strains, identified deficient renal expression of Cd36 encoding fatty acid translocase as a genetically determined risk factor for spontaneous hypertension.     

n维空间中质点之间距离分布及其特征

提出了随机分配的质点之间距离分布的概念,给出了最近距离分布公式,得到了最近距离和k次距离分布的众数,矩及质点空间密度D的充分统计量和极大似然估计.     

CaMnO_3和LaMnO_3的电子结构研究

密度泛函理论(DFT)方法通常难以处理强关联体系,而DFT+U方法的计算结果强烈地依赖于U的取值.利用一种混合了部分DFT交换关联势和非局域Hartree-Fock精确交换势的杂化泛函HSE方法,研究了钙钛矿锰氧化物的两个典型反铁磁绝缘体CaMnO3和LaMnO3的电子结构,分析了二者的能隙特征与Mn离子价态和磁有序态的关联.根据ZSA方案CaMnO3可划分为电荷转移型绝缘体.LaMnO3的能隙表现出各向异性特征,其中沿c轴方向及ab面内的自旋多数通道中能隙的Mott-Hubbard特征更为显著,而自旋少数通道显示出完全的电荷转移型特征.     

Universalism in Context

Using the neurological syndrome kuru as a frame, Warwick Anderson examines the social dynamics and material culture of its medical investigation among the Fore people conducted by D. Carleton Gajdusek beginning at midcentury. The Collectors of Lost Souls: Turning Kuru Scientists into White Men uses a postcolonial framework to complicate dominant/subordinate binaries and diffusionist accounts of indigenous contacts with medical science. Anderson proposes that colonies are specific sites of production of medical knowledge. He draws a distinction between traditional and advanced economies in regard to individual rights to make an argument in support of context-specific ethical regulation for medical research and suggests a role for historians of science in interrogating the process of globalisation.     

Necessity of adjuvants for inducing effective antibody response to zona pellucida antigens

Summary Rhesus monkeys evoked a vigorous antibody response to a single heteroimmunization dose of zona pellucida antigens, when these were administered along with complete Freud's adjuvant. The antisera recognized all the three major porcine zona glycoprotein families and the animals were rendered amenorrheic after such immunization. Monkeys immunized with zona without adjuvant, however, failed to show any anti-zona antibody response and had normal menstrual cycles. Zona pellucida glycoproteins are thus not effective immunogens unless administered along with a powerful adjuvant.     

Identification of the gene responsible for methylmalonic aciduria and homocystinuria, cblC type

Methylmalonic aciduria and homocystinuria, cblC type (OMIM 277400), is the most common inborn error of vitamin B(12) (cobalamin) metabolism, with about 250 known cases. Affected individuals have developmental, hematological, neurological, metabolic, ophthalmologic and dermatologic clinical findings. Although considered a disease of infancy or childhood, some individuals develop symptoms in adulthood. The cblC locus was mapped to chromosome region 1p by linkage analysis. We refined the chromosomal interval using homozygosity mapping and haplotype analyses and identified the MMACHC gene. In 204 individuals, 42 different mutations were identified, many consistent with a loss of function of the protein product. One mutation, 271dupA, accounted for 40% of all disease alleles. Transduction of wild-type MMACHC into immortalized cblC fibroblast cell lines corrected the cellular phenotype. Molecular modeling predicts that the C-terminal region of the gene product folds similarly to TonB, a bacterial protein involved in energy transduction for cobalamin uptake.