Triphasic vascular effects of thiol compounds and their oxidized forms on dog coronary arteries

The vascular effects of 2-mercaptoethanol, cysteamine, L-cysteine, glutathione (GSH), cystamine and oxidized GSH (GSSG) on the isometric tension of isolated dog coronary arterial strips were examined, and these effects were compared with the triphasic response induced by dithiothreitol (DTT); a rapid and weak contraction (phase A), an intervening slow relaxation (phase B) and a slowly-developing strong contraction (phase C) which we previously reported. The responses of the arteries induced by 2-mercaptoethanol, cysteamine and L-cysteine consisted of phases A, B and C. The order of contractile potency (ED₅₀ of phase C) was DTTL-cysteine>2-mercaptoethanolcysteamine, while the order of relaxant potency (ED₅₀ of phase B) was DTT>cysteamine2-mercaptoethanol. GSSG and cystamine mainly produced relaxation, which corresponded to phase B. The phase C contraction was specific to the reduced forms of thiols, except for GSH, which produced only relaxation. The participation of endothelial cells was not essential for the contracting or relaxing effects of the thiol compounds. The phase C contraction was depressed by W-7, a calmodulin antagonist, while phase A was not. Therefore calmodulin-dependent protein kinases may participate in phase C, not in phase A.     

W，V对Fe－Cr－Mn奥氏体钢辐照诱起晶界偏析和相稳定性的作用

利用电子束辐照Ｆｅ－Ｃｒ－Ｍｎ（Ｗ，Ｖ）合金的结果表明，添加原子半径尺寸大的溶质元素Ｗ和Ｖ，可形成大量微细碳化物，增多相界面即增加基体中尾闾数目，能有效降低合金基体中点缺陷过饱和浓度，减少空洞肿胀；同时有利于形成高密度位错环，减少它们相互间的间距，缩短点缺陷向尾闾移动扩散的平均自由程，导致点缺陷捕获溶质原子的机会减少，进而抑制辐照诱起晶界偏析，提高合金γ相稳定性。     

拱结构在径向均布荷载下面内稳定的几何非线性分析

薄壁拱结构作为受压为主的结构体系,其稳定性问题是在结构分析中需要重点考虑的因素之一。基于能量泛函变分原理,研究了薄壁拱结构在径向均布荷载下考虑剪力滞效应和几何非线性的稳定临界荷载,分析了薄壁拱结构临界荷载的影响因素。结果表明,几何非线性对拱的临界荷载影响很小,可忽略不计;剪力滞的影响则取决于拱的几何参数;其中,拱轴弧长和拱截面翼缘宽度是主要的影响因素,特别是拱轴弧长较小和翼缘宽度较大时,必须考虑剪力滞对稳定性影响。     

The medaka draft genome and insights into vertebrate genome evolution

Teleosts comprise more than half of all vertebrate species and have adapted to a variety of marine and freshwater habitats. Their genome evolution and diversification are important subjects for the understanding of vertebrate evolution. Although draft genome sequences of two pufferfishes have been published, analysis of more fish genomes is desirable. Here we report a high-quality draft genome sequence of a small egg-laying freshwater teleost, medaka (Oryzias latipes). Medaka is native to East Asia and an excellent model system for a wide range of biology, including ecotoxicology, carcinogenesis, sex determination and developmental genetics. In the assembled medaka genome (700 megabases), which is less than half of the zebrafish genome, we predicted 20,141 genes, including approximately 2,900 new genes, using 5'-end serial analysis of gene expression tag information. We found single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at an average rate of 3.42% between the two inbred strains derived from two regional populations; this is the highest SNP rate seen in any vertebrate species. Analyses based on the dense SNP information show a strict genetic separation of 4 million years (Myr) between the two populations, and suggest that differential selective pressures acted on specific gene categories. Four-way comparisons with the human, pufferfish (Tetraodon), zebrafish and medaka genomes revealed that eight major interchromosomal rearrangements took place in a remarkably short period of approximately 50 Myr after the whole-genome duplication event in the teleost ancestor and afterwards, intriguingly, the medaka genome preserved its ancestral karyotype for more than 300 Myr.     

Decoherence in crystals of quantum molecular magnets

Quantum decoherence is a central concept in physics. Applications such as quantum information processing depend on understanding it; there are even fundamental theories proposed that go beyond quantum mechanics, in which the breakdown of quantum theory would appear as an 'intrinsic' decoherence, mimicking the more familiar environmental decoherence processes. Such applications cannot be optimized, and such theories cannot be tested, until we have a firm handle on ordinary environmental decoherence processes. Here we show that the theory for insulating electronic spin systems can make accurate and testable predictions for environmental decoherence in molecular-based quantum magnets. Experiments on molecular magnets have successfully demonstrated quantum-coherent phenomena but the decoherence processes that ultimately limit such behaviour were not well constrained. For molecular magnets, theory predicts three principal contributions to environmental decoherence: from phonons, from nuclear spins and from intermolecular dipolar interactions. We use high magnetic fields on single crystals of Fe(8) molecular magnets (in which the Fe ions are surrounded by organic ligands) to suppress dipolar and nuclear-spin decoherence. In these high-field experiments, we find that the decoherence time varies strongly as a function of temperature and magnetic field. The theoretical predictions are fully verified experimentally, and there are no other visible decoherence sources. In these high fields, we obtain a maximum decoherence quality-factor of 1.49?×?10(6); our investigation suggests that the environmental decoherence time can be extended up to about 500 microseconds, with a decoherence quality factor of ～6?×?10(7), by optimizing the temperature, magnetic field and nuclear isotopic concentrations.     

基于重构相图相似性检测的单相接地故障选相方法

配电线路在发生单相高阻接地故障时,由于故障特征微弱导致传统以求解电气参量为依据的选相方法存在困难.依据故障支路附加状态的三相电流中健全相与故障相存在幅值相角不一的差异,提出一种利用相空间重构方法对故障附加状态的三相电流进行升维重构,然后依据重构相轨迹图的差异作为故障特征进行单相接地故障选相的新方法.该方法可通过重构相轨...     

Nras loss induces metastatic conversion of Rb1-deficient neuroendocrine thyroid tumor

Mutations in the gene encoding the retinoblastoma tumor suppressor predispose humans and mice to tumor development. Here we have assessed the effect of Nras loss on tumor development in Rb1 heterozygous mice. Loss of one or two Nras alleles is shown to significantly reduce the severity of pituitary tumors arising in Rb1(+/-) animals by enhancing their differentiation. By contrast, C-cell thyroid adenomas occurring in Rb1(+/-) mice progress to metastatic medullary carcinomas after loss of Nras. In Rb1(+/-)Nras(+/-) animals, distant medullary thyroid carcinoma metastases are associated with loss of the remaining wild-type Nras allele. Loss of Nras in Rb1-deficient C cells results in elevated Ras homolog family A (RhoA) activity, and this is causally linked to the invasiveness and metastatic behavior of these cells. These findings suggest that the loss of the proto-oncogene Nras in certain cellular contexts can promote malignant tumor progression.     

Something old,something new and something borrowed: emerging paradigm of insulin-like growth factor type 1 receptor (IGF-1R) signaling regulation

The insulin-like growth factor type 1 receptor (IGF-1R) plays a key role in the development and progression of cancer; however, therapeutics targeting it have had disappointing results in the clinic. As a receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK), IGF-1R is traditionally described as an ON/OFF system, with ligand stabilizing the ON state and exclusive kinase-dependent signaling activation. Newly added to the traditional model, ubiquitin-mediated receptor downregulation and degradation was originally described as a response to ligand/receptor interaction and thus inseparable from kinase signaling activation. Yet, the classical model has proven over-simplified and insufficient to explain experimental evidence accumulated over the last decade, including kinase-independent signaling, unbalanced signaling, or dissociation between signaling and receptor downregulation. Based on the recent findings that IGF-1R “borrows” components of G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) signaling, including β-arrestins and G-protein-related kinases, we discuss the emerging paradigm for the IGF-1R as a functional RTK/GPCR hybrid, which integrates the kinase signaling with the IGF-1R canonical GPCR characteristics. The contradictions to the classical IGF-1R signaling concept as well as the design of anti-IGF-1R therapeutics treatment are considered in the light of this paradigm shift and we advocate recognition of IGF-1R as a valid target for cancer treatment.     

Genome-wide copy number variation study associates metabotropic glutamate receptor gene networks with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common, heritable neuropsychiatric disorder of unknown etiology. We performed a whole-genome copy number variation (CNV) study on 1,013 cases with ADHD and 4,105 healthy children of European ancestry using 550,000 SNPs. We evaluated statistically significant findings in multiple independent cohorts, with a total of 2,493 cases with ADHD and 9,222 controls of European ancestry, using matched platforms. CNVs affecting metabotropic glutamate receptor genes were enriched across all cohorts (P = 2.1 × 10(-9)). We saw GRM5 (encoding glutamate receptor, metabotropic 5) deletions in ten cases and one control (P = 1.36 × 10(-6)). We saw GRM7 deletions in six cases, and we saw GRM8 deletions in eight cases and no controls. GRM1 was duplicated in eight cases. We experimentally validated the observed variants using quantitative RT-PCR. A gene network analysis showed that genes interacting with the genes in the GRM family are enriched for CNVs in ～10% of the cases (P = 4.38 × 10(-10)) after correction for occurrence in the controls. We identified rare recurrent CNVs affecting glutamatergic neurotransmission genes that were overrepresented in multiple ADHD cohorts.     

关于齿顶边星图的优美性

在齿轮图.的每个齿的齿顶分别加上 m_1,m_2,…,m_n,条悬挂边后构成的图称为齿顶边星图,记为,(m_1,m_2,…,m_n).本文给出了、(m_1,m_2…,m_n)的优美标号,从而证明了.(m_1,m_2,…,m_n)是优美图;当m_1=m_2=…,m_n=k 时,(k,k,…k)即为 k 顶边星图,于是解决了“所有的 k 顶边星图都是优美图”这一猜想.