ILB®, a Low Molecular Weight Dextran Sulphate,Restores Glutamate Homeostasis,Amino Acid Metabolism and Neurocognitive Functions in a Rat Model of Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

In a previous study, we found that administration of ILB^®, a new low molecular weight dextran sulphate, significantly improved mitochondrial functions and energy metabolism, as well as decreased oxidative/nitrosative stress, of brain tissue of rats exposed to severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI), induced by the closed-head weight-drop model of diffused TBI. Using aliquots of deproteinized brain tissue of the same animals of this former study, we here determined the concentrations of 24 amino acids of control rats, untreated sTBI rats (sacrificed at 2 and 7 days post-injury) and sTBI rats receiving a subcutaneous ILB^® administration (at the dose levels of 1, 5 and 15 mg/kg b.w.) 30 min post-impact (sacrificed at 2 and 7 days post-injury). Additionally, in a different set of experiments, new groups of control rats, untreated sTBI rats and ILB^®-treated rats (administered 30 min after sTBI at the dose levels of 1 or 5 mg/kg b.w.) were studied for their neurocognitive functions (anxiety, locomotor capacities, short- and long-term memory) at 7 days after the induction of sTBI. Compared to untreated sTBI animals, ILB^® significantly decreased whole brain glutamate (normalizing the glutamate/glutamine ratio), glycine, serine and γ-aminobutyric acid. Furthermore, ILB^® administration restored arginine metabolism (preventing nitrosative stress), levels of amino acids involved in methylation reactions (methionine, L-cystathionine, S-adenosylhomocysteine), and N-acetylaspartate homeostasis. The macroscopic evidences of the beneficial effects on brain metabolism induced by ILB^® were the relevant improvement in neurocognitive functions of the group of animals treated with ILB^® 5 mg/kg b.w., compared to the marked cognitive decline measured in untreated sTBI animals. These results demonstrate that ILB^® administration 30 min after sTBI prevents glutamate excitotoxicity and normalizes levels of amino acids involved in crucial brain metabolic functions. The ameliorations of amino acid metabolism, mitochondrial functions and energy metabolism in ILB^®-treated rats exposed to sTBI produced significant improvement in neurocognitive functions, reinforcing the concept that ILB^® is a new effective therapeutic tool for the treatment of sTBI, worth being tested in the clinical setting.     

State-of-the-Art on Wound Vitality Evaluation: A Systematic Review

The vitality demonstration refers to determining if an injury has been caused ante- or post-mortem, while wound age means to evaluate how long a subject has survived after the infliction of an injury. Histology alone is not enough to prove the vitality of a lesion. Recently, immunohistochemistry, biochemistry, and molecular biology have been introduced in the field of lesions vitality and age demonstration. The study was conducted according to the preferred reporting items for systematic review (PRISMA) protocol. The search terms were “wound”, “lesion”, “vitality”, “evaluation”, “immunohistochemistry”, “proteins”, “electrolytes”, “mRNAs”, and “miRNAs” in the title, abstract, and keywords. This evaluation left 137 scientific papers. This review aimed to collect all the knowledge on vital wound demonstration and provide a temporal distribution of the methods currently available, in order to determine the age of lesions, thus helping forensic pathologists in finding a way through the tangled jungle of wound vitality evaluation.     

The P2X7R-NLRP3 and AIM2 Inflammasome Platforms Mark the Complexity/Severity of Viral or Metabolic Liver Damage

P2X7R-NLRP3 and AIM2 inflammasomes activate caspase-1 and the release of cytokines involved in viral-related liver disease. Little is known about their role in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and non-alcoholic steato-hepatitis (NASH). We characterized the role of inflammasomes in NAFLD, NASH, and HCV. Gene expression and subcellular localization of P2X7R/P2X4R-NLRP3 and AIM2 inflammasome components were examined in histopathological preparations of 46 patients with biopsy-proven viral and metabolic liver disease using real-time PCR and immunofluorescence. P2X7R, P2X4R, and Caspase-1 are two- to five-fold more expressed in patients with NAFLD/NASH associated with chronic HCV infection than those with metabolic damage only (p ≤ 0.01 for all comparisons). The AIM2 inflammasome is 4.4 times more expressed in patients with chronic HCV infection, regardless of coexistent metabolic abnormalities (p = 0.0006). IL-2, a cytokine playing a pivotal role during chronic HCV infection, showed a similar expression in HCV and NASH patients (p = 0.77) but was virtually absent in NAFLD. The P2X7R-NLRP3 complex prevailed in infiltrating macrophages, while AIM2 was localized in Kupffer cells. Caspase-1 expression correlated with elastography-based liver fibrosis (r = 0.35, p = 0.02), whereas P2X7R, P2X4R, NRLP3, Caspase-1, and IL-2 expression correlated with circulating markers of disease severity. P2X7R and P2X4R play a major role in liver inflammation accompanying chronic HCV infection, especially when combined with metabolic damage, while AIM2 is specifically expressed in chronic viral hepatitis. We describe for the first time the hepatic expression of IL-2 in NASH, so far considered a peculiarity of HCV-related liver damage.     

热浸镀铝技术的研究进展及应用

介绍了热浸镀铝技术的原理和熔剂法、森吉米尔法两种主要工艺,概括了热浸镀铝技术的研究进展和工业应用趋势,指出加入适量的稀土元素在热浸镀层中能有效地改善镀层耐蚀性、耐高温氧化性、成形性和装饰性。热浸镀铝技术将会在以下几个方面开展工作:新工艺的全面细化量化型的研究;对热浸渗原理和浸渗理论的进一步研究和探索;对稀土的作用机理的深入研究以及不断完善工艺和技术,扩大其在工业生产上的应用。     

The Role of the Choroid in Stargardt Disease

Stargardt disease is the commonest juvenile macular dystrophy. It is caused by genetic mutations in the ABCA4 gene. Diagnosis is not always straightforward, and various phenocopies exist. Late-onset disease can be misdiagnosed with age-related macular disease. A correct diagnosis is particularly critical because of emergent gene therapies. Stargardt disease is known to affect retinal pigment epithelium and photoreceptors. Many studies have also highlighted the importance of the choroid in the diagnosis, pathophysiology, and progression of the disease. The choroid is in an integral relationship with the retinal pigment epithelium and photoreceptors, and its possible involvement during the disease should be considered. The purpose of this review is to analyze the current diagnostic tools for choroidal evaluation and the extrapolation of useful data for ophthalmologists and researchers studying the disease.     

Identification and Functional Analysis of the Caffeic Acid O-Methyltransferase (COMT) Gene Family in Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Caffeic acid O-methyltransferase (COMT) is one of the core enzymes involved in lignin synthesis. However, there is no systematic study on the rice COMT gene family. We identified 33 COMT genes containing the methyltransferase-2 domain in the rice genome using bioinformatic methods and divided them into Group I (a and b) and Group II. Motifs, conserved domains, gene structure and SNPs density are related to the classification of OsCOMTs. The tandem phenomenon plays a key role in the expansion of OsCOMTs. The expression levels of fourteen and thirteen OsCOMTs increased or decreased under salt stress and drought stress, respectively. OsCOMTs showed higher expression levels in the stem. The lignin content of rice was measured in five stages; combined with the expression analysis of OsCOMTs and multiple sequence alignment, we found that OsCOMT8, OsCOMT9 and OsCOMT15 play a key role in the synthesis of lignin. Targeted miRNAs and gene ontology annotation revealed that OsCOMTs were involved in abiotic stress responses. Our study contributes to the analysis of the biological function of OsCOMTs, which may provide information for future rice breeding and editing of the rice genome.     

灰色偏相关评价法在认知型学生模型中的应用

针对认知能力评价这类因素较多,且难以进行定量描述的问题,建立认知能力因素评价体系,利用灰色偏相关评价法建立认知型学生模型。首先分析各认知能力因素的相互影响关系,计算偏相关系数得到各认知能力因素的权重值。然后确定评价灰类,建立白化权函数,得到各认知能力因素关于各评价灰类的灰色评价权值,从而建立认知型学生综合评价模型。最后通过实例对方法模型进行验证。实例表明,该方法模型能够对学生知识水平作出评价并引导学生进行学习,其结果具有一定的可靠性。     

基于软件接收机的GPS信号快速捕获算法

针对GPS信号C/A码的捕获,利用多项式拟合估计多普勒频率偏移值,减少了频率搜索范围;将直接求相关值和利用FFT/IFFT变换的算法相结合,用于确定C/A码相位。且在信号处理上利用抽取避免重复采样。仿真结果表明,该算法在同等的定位精度要求下,降低了计算复杂度,提高了C/A码的捕获速度。     

Ex-post efficient resource allocation for Self-organizing Cloud

Self-organizing Cloud is a scalable model to provide powerful computability with distributed computers. The resource allocation on it is very challenging since it not only involves various types of divisible resources but needs to cope with social competitions. We propose a novel resource allocation scheme with three features on ex-post efficiency. (1) Ex-post win–win effect: each participant (consumers and suppliers) should always feel satisfied with their ex-post payoffs. (2) Incentive compatibility: we can prove each rational participant gets its optimal payoff iff their resource demands and expected prices are truthfully declared. (3) Ex-post maximized efficiency: more powerful resources should be consumed with higher likelihood, such that the whole system runs quite efficiently with maximized resource utilization. Our simulation shows the approach significantly improves resource suppliers’ incomes by 20% compared to their expectations. Meanwhile, we can guarantee consumers’ payments below their budgets, with no any degradation of task execution performance.