Is mother nature long oil?

Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society -     

Is it better to combine predictions?

We have compared the accuracy of the individual protein secondarystructure prediction methods: PHD, DSC, NNSSP and Predator againstthe accuracy obtained by combing the predictions of the methods.A range of ways of combing predictions were tested: voting,biased voting, linear discrimination, neural networks and decisiontrees. The combined methods that involve `learning' (the non-votingmethods) were trained using a set of 496 non-homologous domains;this dataset was biased as some of the secondary structure predictionmethods had used them for training. We used two independenttest sets to compare predictions: the first consisted of 17non-homologous domains from CASP3 (Third Community Wide Experimenton the Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein StructurePrediction); the second set consisted of 405 domains that wereselected in the same way as the training set, and were non-homologousto each other and the training set. On both test datasets themost accurate individual method was NNSSP, then PHD, DSC andthe least accurate was Predator; however, it was not possibleto conclusively show a significant difference between the individualmethods. Comparing the accuracy of the single methods with thatobtained by combing predictions it was found that it was betterto use a combination of predictions. On both test datasets itwas possible to obtain a ~3% improvement in accuracy by combingpredictions. In most cases the combined methods were statisticallysignificantly better (at P = 0.05 on the CASP3 test set, andP = 0.01 on the EBI test set). On the CASP3 test dataset therewas no significant difference in accuracy between any of thecombined method of prediction: on the EBI test dataset, lineardiscrimination and neural networks significantly outperformedvoting techniques. We conclude that it is better to combinepredictions.     

SDHIs和Qo Is杀菌剂抗性研究进展

使用选择性杀菌剂防治农作物重大病害是保证农产品高产、稳产和优质的重要手段之一。琥珀酸脱氢酶抑制剂类（SDHIs）和甲氧基丙烯酸酯类（QoIs）杀菌剂是当前用量较大的杀菌剂,但是随着用药年限延长、用药量增加和用药范围的不断扩大,田间开始出现杀菌剂抗性问题,时常突发性暴发造成防治失败,使农业安全生产面临了严峻挑战。本文从抗性现状、抗性机制、抗性监测和抗性治理等4个方面概述了SDHIs和QoIs 2类杀菌剂的抗性研究进展,旨在为有害生物的可持续高效防控、抗药性治理及延长药剂使用寿命提供理论依据。     

Is CIELAB one space or many?

Models in colour engineering can have implicit customary usage, outside of whose parameters one is not supposed to venture. CIELAB is one such model: although able to accommodate a prediction of asymmetric matches, CIELAB is used in practice to compare colours only for a given illuminant/observer condition. Should we therefore deem CIELAB to be an infinity of spaces, one for each illuminant/observer combination? This question has its roots in an oddity of CIELAB’s chromatic‐adaptation model. A chromatic‐adaptation oddity also entered CIE models that emerged after CIELAB, and leads to a similarly perplexing question.     

Is Infantile Hemangioma a Neuroendocrine Tumor?

Infantile hemangioma (IH) is the most common infantile tumor, affecting 5–10% of newborns. Propranolol, a nonselective β-adrenergic receptor (ADRB) antagonist, is currently the first-line treatment for severe IH; however, both its mechanism of action and its main cellular target remain poorly understood. Since betablockers can antagonize the effect of natural ADRB agonists, we postulated that the catecholamine produced in situ in IH may have a role in the propranolol response. By quantifying catecholamines in the IH tissues, we found a higher amount of noradrenaline (NA) in untreated proliferative IHs than in involuted IHs or propranolol-treated IHs. We further found that the first three enzymes of the catecholamine biosynthesis pathway are expressed by IH cells and that their levels are reduced in propranolol-treated tumors. To study the role of NA in the pathophysiology of IH and its response to propranolol, we performed an in vitro angiogenesis assay in which IH-derived endothelial cells, pericytes and/or telocytes were incorporated. The results showed that the total tube formation is sensitive to propranolol only when exogenous NA is added in the three-cell model. We conclude that the IH’s sensitivity to propranolol depends on crosstalk between the endothelial cells, pericytes and telocytes in the context of a high local amount of local NA.     

Vaccination against Atherosclerosis: Is It Real?

Atherosclerosis has been known in medicine for several centuries. As early as 1755, the Swedish anatomist Albrecht von Haller used the term “atheroma” to describe vascular lesions. Atherosclerosis may originate from an unbalanced diet or bad habits, and is mainly found in developed countries. Clinical trials have been conducted to establish the causes of atherosclerosis, and also to develop treatments for this disease. However, prevention of the disease has always been better than treatment, so vaccination may be the key to saving thousands of lives. The creation of a vaccine may be directly related to the study of autoimmune processes occurring in the body, immunity. This review considers the issues related to the involvement of the immune response in the development of atherosclerotic lesions. Modern concepts of atherogenesis, immune inflammation in atherosclerosis, and potential vaccine targets are also discussed. There is a particular focus on experimental and clinical data supporting the development of immune therapies to reduce cardiovascular risk.     

Is Multiple System Atrophy a Prion-like Disorder?

Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is a rapidly progressive, fatal neurodegenerative disease of uncertain aetiology that belongs to the family of α-synucleinopathies. It clinically presents with parkinsonism, cerebellar, autonomic, and motor impairment in variable combinations. Pathological hallmarks are fibrillary α-synuclein (αSyn)-rich glial cytoplasmic inclusions (GCIs) mainly involving oligodendroglia and to a lesser extent neurons, inducing a multisystem neurodegeneration, glial activation, and widespread demyelinization. The neuronal αSyn pathology of MSA has molecular properties different from Lewy bodies in Parkinson’s disease (PD), both of which could serve as a pool of αSyn (prion) seeds that could initiate and drive the pathogenesis of synucleinopathies. The molecular cascade leading to the “prion-like” transfer of “strains” of aggregated αSyn contributing to the progression of the disease is poorly understood, while some presented evidence that MSA is a prion disease. However, this hypothesis is difficult to reconcile with postmortem analysis of human brains and the fact that MSA-like pathology was induced by intracerebral inoculation of human MSA brain homogenates only in homozygous mutant 53T mice, without production of disease-specific GCIs, or with replication of MSA prions in primary astrocyte cultures from transgenic mice expressing human αSyn. Whereas recent intrastriatal injection of Lewy body-derived or synthetic human αSyn fibrils induced PD-like pathology including neuronal αSyn aggregates in macaques, no such transmission of αSyn pathology in non-human primates by MSA brain lysate has been reported until now. Given the similarities between αSyn and prions, there is a considerable debate whether they should be referred to as “prions”, “prion-like”, “prionoids”, or something else. Here, the findings supporting the proposed nature of αSyn as a prion and its self-propagation through seeding as well as the transmissibility of neurodegenerative disorders are discussed. The proof of disease causation rests on the concordance of scientific evidence, none of which has provided convincing evidence for the classification of MSA as a prion disease or its human transmission until now.     

Is the metabolic syndrome a useful concept?

The scientific literature is full of references to the metabolic syndrome. At present there are three separate sets of criteria for diagnosing this syndrome. While the same criteria are used in all three definitions the importance assigned to each is different. The WHO definition makes insulin resistance an essential criterion, the ATP III definition gives it equal weight to the other four criteria while the IDF definition makes it a non‐essential criterion. In addition, the role of body weight, body fat and body fat distribution is not clear. These three definitions of the metabolic syndrome have rather lost sight of Gerald Reaven's original formulation of syndrome X which was very clear that insulin resistance and its compensating hyperinsulinaemia are the causes of a variety of metabolic abnormalities which increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Despite its popularity the metabolic syndrome is not a helpful concept.     

Is the metabolic syndrome a useful concept?

Not all obese individuals are insulin resistant while individuals who fail to develop adequate adipose tissue mass, a rare disorder called lipodystrophy, are insulin resistant. These observations suggest that the relationship between body fat and insulin resistance is complex. This relationship can be explained by considering body fat distribution. According to one idea visceral fat is characterised by the overproduction of fatty acids which stimulate glucose production by the liver and inhibit glucose use by skeletal muscle and the underproduction of adipokines such as adiponectin which improve insulin resistance. Hence individuals with excess visceral fat become insulin resistant. According to a second idea excess visceral fat is a marker for dysfunctional adipose tissue. Energy in excess of requirements is normally stored as triacylglycerols in subcutaneous fat. If this is defective then triacylglycerols are stored at other ectopic sites leading to impaired function. Obese individuals without insulin resistance store their triacylglycerols in subcutaneous fat and are protected. Individuals with lipodystrophy have no subcutaneous fat so they develop insulin resistance.     

Continuous manufacturing: Is the process mean stationary?

The statistical framework to systematically detect mean stationarity in the context of continuous manufacturing is described in this article. The methods presented in this article use econometric and financial time‐series analysis concepts in the form of unit‐root and stationarity hypothesis tests. The tests under discussion are the augmented Dickey‐Fuller, Philips‐Perron, Leybourne‐McCabe, and Kwiatkowski‐Phillips‐Schmidt‐Shin. These hypothesis tests are evaluated on data generated by a focused‐beam reflectance measurement sensor implemented on‐line in a continuous plug‐flow crystallizer. This contribution has shown that the hypothesis tests can be used to detect steady‐state conditions on‐line in a plug‐flow crystallizer. Furthermore, this econometric framework can be used as a mean stationarity “certificate” of collected samples to document that the process was mean stationary during the sampling. The statistical framework described in this article can be applied to any continuously operated unit operation or sensor measurement. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 64: 2426–2437, 2018     

Why Is the "Jiangshan"Case Still Outstanding

Fengyuan Group and Worldbest Grouplaunched a protracted dispute threeyears ago for the right of controllingJiangsu Jiangshan Pharmaceutical Co.,Ltd.China International Economic andTrade Commission made the final rul-ing on Aug.3,2004 that former share-holder EA failed to subscribe due capi-     

Is alpha-Pinene a Substrate for Permeability-Glycoprotein in Wood Rats?

alpha-Pinene is the dominant monoterpene in Juniperus monosperma. Wood rat species in the genus Neotoma that consume J. monosperma vary in their inclusion of it in their wild diet and in their tolerance of whole J. monosperma or alpha-pinene in laboratory feeding trials. A proposed mechanism for variable tolerance is a difference in absorption of alpha-pinene from the small intestine that is mediated by the intestinal transporter permeability glycoprotein (Pgp). To determine if alpha-pinene is a Pgp substrate, we tested whether it can competitively inhibit Pgp and thereby increase the accumulation of a known Pgp substrate (digoxin) in (1) everted sleeves of small intestine from Neotoma stephensi, a juniper specialist, N. albigula, a sympatric generalist that consumes juniper, N. cinerea, a more distantly related generalist, and Sprague-Dawley rats, and (2) in Caco-2 cells that over express Pgp. We also measured Pgp ATPase phosphate production in transfected insect membrane vesicles exposed to alpha-pinene. We found no significant increase in digoxin accumulation with competitive inhibition experiments, and no increase in phosphate production with transfected membranes, at any concentration of alpha-pinene up to 100 μM. To test whether other compounds in juniper affect Pgp activity, we acclimated five N. stephensi to a juniper diet for 5 d, but found no significant effect compared to animals on control diet. Our data suggest that alpha-pinene is not a Pgp substrate.     

Iodine value and biodiesel: Is limitation still appropriate?

Iodine value (IV) limitation of biodiesel is currently one of the most discussed topics within the different world‐wide biofuel specifications. Claims concerning engine operability on high IV feedstocks and biodiesel are interrelated. Also, the limitation of feedstock is a major problem for producers as well as for biodiesel trade. In this context, it might be time to re‐evaluate the IV parameter. Based on available data, reports, and experience in this field the enclosed considerations maybe will help to answer the (admittedly provocative) question: Is IV limitation still appropriate?     

Is ammonium perchlorate in composite solid propellant under strain?

Thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate-polystyrene propellant as a function of oxidizer loading has been found to behave in a fashion analogous to the thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate as a function of precompression pressure. It has been argued that the above behaviour of the propellant is due to the strain caused by the binder film on ammonium perchlorate contained in the propellant matrix. The presence of strain has been demonstrated independently by x-ray diffraction peak and infrared peak broadening and strain energy measurements.     

Is Cenobamate the Breakthrough We Have Been Wishing for?

Close to one-third of patients with epilepsies are refractory to current anti-seizure medications; however, trials with cenobamate suggest effectiveness in such patients with focal onset seizures. We searched for data published or otherwise reported on cenobamate and outlined these here. Despite being marketed in the USA, few studies are yet published in full, and trials are ongoing. Nevertheless, cenobamate showed potential for a high degree of efficacy in reducing seizures with an unprecedented seizure-free rate of up to 28%. Rare cases of hypersensitivity reactions seen in early trials seem to be avoided by the current recommended titration schedule. Other adverse events were rated mild-to-moderate and most commonly included dizziness, drowsiness, and headache. If data are confirmed in further published trials, cenobamate will be a welcome new treatment and further analyses may identify those that will benefit the most.     

Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: Is Biological Augmentation Beneficial?

Surgical reconstruction in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) ruptures has proven to be a highly effective technique that usually provides satisfactory results. However, despite the majority of patients recovering their function after this procedure, ACL reconstruction (ACLR) is still imperfect. To improve these results, various biological augmentation (BA) techniques have been employed mostly in animal models. They include: (1) growth factors (bone morphogenetic protein, epidermal growth factor, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, basic fibroblast growth factor, transforming growth factor-β, hepatocyte growth factor, vascular endothelial growth factor, and platelet concentrates such as platelet-rich plasma, fibrin clot, and autologous conditioned serum), (2) mesenchymal stem cells, (3) autologous tissue, (4) various pharmaceuticals (matrix metalloproteinase-inhibitor alpha-2-macroglobulin bisphosphonates), (5) biophysical/environmental methods (hyperbaric oxygen, low-intensity pulsed ultrasound, extracorporeal shockwave therapy), (6) biomaterials (fixation methods, biological coatings, biosynthetic bone substitutes, osteoconductive materials), and (7) gene therapy. All of them have shown good results in experimental studies; however, the clinical studies on BA published so far are highly heterogeneous and have a low degree of evidence. The most widely used technique to date is platelet-rich plasma. My position is that orthopedic surgeons must be very cautious when considering using PRP or other BA methods in ACLR.     

Biomarkers for Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes: There Is a Role?

Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS) are an inherited heterogeneous group of connective tissue disorders characterized by an abnormal collagen synthesis affecting skin, ligaments, joints, blood vessels, and other organs. It is one of the oldest known causes of bruising and bleeding, and it was described first by Hippocrates in 400 BC. In the last years, multiple gene variants involved in the pathogenesis of specific EDS subtypes have been identified; moreover, new clinical diagnostic criteria have been established. New classification models have also been studied in order to differentiate overlapping conditions. Moreover, EDS shares many characteristics with other similar disorders. Although distinguishing between these seemingly identical conditions is difficult, it is essential in ensuring proper patient care. Currently, there are many genetic and molecular studies underway to clarify the etiology of some variants of EDS. However, the genetic basis of the hypermobile type of EDS (hEDS) is still unknown. In this review, we focused on the study of two of the most common forms of EDS—classic and hypermobile—by trying to identify possible biomarkers that could be of great help to confirm patients’ diagnosis and their follow up.