SURF1, encoding a factor involved in the biogenesis of cytochrome c oxidase, is mutated in Leigh syndrome

A drug with cationic characteristics such as procaine can be conveyed in a Carbomer hydrogel in two different ways: (i) in the form of salt in solution in the aqueous phase, and (ii) in the base form salified with the same polymer. Introduction of the drug into the hydrogel with different concentrations of polymer produced, in both cases, a reduction in viscosity in relation to drug concentration. The gels with procaine salified with the polymer showed greater viscosity. The drug release rate, in general, diminished with the increase in polymer concentration. Nevertheless, when this concentration was maintained, there was no variation in release rate when the viscosity produced as a consequence of drug concentration was changed. Gels with procaine salified with the carboxyvinylic polymer had a faster release rate than those with procaine in the hydrochloride form dissolved in the aqueous phase. These results have also been confirmed by a simulated absorption test.     

Cloning and characterization of a symbiosis-related gene from an ectomycorrhizal fungus Laccaria bicolor

Point-to-point functional movements involve simultaneous shoulder and elbow joint rotations. In able-bodied subjects these movements are fully automatic, and feed-forward control ensures the synergistic activity of many muscles. Synergy between joint rotations was defined and described as a scaling between joint angular velocities [19]. Similarly, subjects who can control their shoulder movements may be assisted in reaching tasks by functional electrical stimulation (FES) of elbow extensor muscles. The synergistic control paradigm can be implemented in real-time by employing a hierarchically structured production-rules method. The use of production-rules necessitates the acquisition of knowledge and the assembly of a rule-base. A nonparametric technique was designed for the identification of the rules. The identification process was divided into two phases: determination of the scaling parameters, and determination of the stimulation parameters. The scaling parameters, needed for the coordination of movements, were determined in able-bodied subjects. Those depend exclusively on the initial and target positions of the hand. The number of scalings could be reduced by dividing the workspace into 12 zones. The stimulation parameters, needed for the execution of movements, were determined in subjects with paralyzed elbow extensor muscles by identifying triplets: elbow angular velocity, elbow angular acceleration (velocity increments), and the corresponding pulse durations for various classes of movements and loads attached to the hand.     

Increased levels of intracellular calcium are not required for the formation of attaching and effacing lesions by enteropathogenic and enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli

Elevated concentrations of intracellular calcium ([Ca]i) have been implicated as an important signalling event during attaching and effacing (A/E) lesion formation by enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC). The highly localized nature of the cytoskeletal and cell surface alterations occurring during A/E lesion formation suggests that there should be equally localized EPEC-induced signalling events. To analyze further the calcium responses to infection of HEp-2 cells by EPEC, we employed calcium-imaging fluorescence microscopy, which allows both temporal and spatial measurements of [Ca]i in live cells. Using this imaging technique, not only were we unable to detect any significant elevation in [Ca]i at sites of A/E EPEC adhesion, but, with several different classical EPEC and enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) strains and three different infection procedures, each of which resulted in extensive A/E bacterial adhesion, we were unable to detect any significant alterations in [Ca]i in infected cells compared to uninfected cells. In addition, chelation of intracellular free calcium with bis-(aminophenoxy)-ethane-N,N,N',N'-tetraacetic acid (BAPTA) did not, as previously reported, prevent A/E lesion formation. We conclude that increased [Ca]i are not required for A/E lesion formation by EPEC and EHEC.     

Differential expression and distribution of focal adhesion and cell adhesion molecules in rat hepatocyte differentiation

The present study has examined the distribution of axons of differing sizes in the optic pathway of the ground squirrel. Axon diameters were measured from electron micrographs at various locations across sections of the optic nerve and tract, and total distributions and numbers were estimated. In both the nerve and tract, roughly 1.2 million optic axons were present. The population of optic axons had a unimodal size distribution, peaking at 0.9 microm in diameter and having an extended tail toward larger diameters. Local axon diameter distributions in the optic tract indicated distinct (though partially overlapping) axon diameter classes, including one of fine sizes peaking at 0.8-0.9 microm, a second of medium sizes peaking around 1.7-1.8 microm, and a third composed of the larger fibers with diameters up to 4.8 microm. The fine-caliber axons were found at all locations in the tract, and were the only axons present immediately adjacent to the pia, while the medium- and coarse-caliber axons were found at deeper locations. Curiously, the larger axons were found primarily in the medial parts of the tract, where axons from the dorsal retina normally course. A similarly restricted distribution of the larger axons was observed in the dorsotemporal parts of the optic nerve, suggesting that this difference in the tract may relate to an asymmetric distribution of ganglion cells on the retina giving rise to these axons. Measurements of axonal size taken within the optic fiber layer in dorsal and ventral parts of the retina confirmed this asymmetry, consistent with previous demonstrations of soma size differences in the dorsal versus ventral retina. The partial segregation of axons by size in the optic tract of the ground squirrel then reflects both the asymmetric distribution of retinal ganglion cell classes and the chronotopic reordering of optic axons that occurs within the chiasmatic region.     

A variational method for contour tracking via covariance matching

This paper presents a novel formulation for contour tracking.We model the second-order statistics of image regions and perform covariance matching under the variational level set framework.Specifically,covariance matrix is adopted as a visual object representation for partial differential equation(PDE) based contour tracking.Log-Euclidean calculus is used as a covariance distance metric instead of Euclidean distance which is unsuitable for measuring the similarities between covariance matrices,because the matrices typically lie on a non-Euclidean manifold.A novel image energy functional is formulated by minimizing the distance metric between the candidate object region and a given template,and maximizing the one between the background region and the template.The corresponding gradient flow is then derived according to a variational approach,enabling partial differential equations(PDEs) based contour tracking.Experiments on several challenging sequences prove the validity of the proposed method.     

城市水土保持区划及功能性评价研究——以宜昌市为例

目前全国地级市水土保持区划工作滞后,宜昌市作为湖北省域副中心城市,城市水土流失严重。为突出地方特色、因地制宜地指导地方水土保持区划工作的落地实施,以宜昌市为例,在国家、省级水土保持区划成果的基础上,紧密结合宜昌市地方特点,逐步进行细化,形成宜昌市水土保持四级区划,并对区划成果进行基本功能分析评价。 宜昌市水土保持区划使用四级分区体系,前三级区划沿用国家水土保持区划中一级、二级、三级分区范围;四级区被分为6个水土保持片区:沿江平原丘陵农田防护区、香溪河山地生态维护区、三峡库区山地丘陵保土区、沮漳河山地丘陵保土区、清江山地水源涵养保土区以及中心城区人居环境维护区。全市共涉及5个水土保持基本功能,分别为农田防护、生态维护、土壤保持、水源涵养和人居环境维护。地级市水土保持区划分区既要在国家、省级水土保持区划基础上进行,同时还需突出地方特点,因地制宜。宜昌市水土流失治理应坚持预防为主,保护水源,并加强水土保持重点监管。     

湖库疏浚技术及淤积物资源化利用技术进展

文章介绍了我国部分河湖水库的淤积现状,评述了当前国内外对河湖疏浚设备和淤泥资源化利用的几种主要途径,包括物理利用、生物处理以及化学处理方法等,同时对新型的干馏法进行了介绍,指出了未来淤泥资源化利用的主要发展方向.     

众筹项目推荐:面向隐式反馈的深度学习协同过滤

目前,在推荐系统研究中,用户的隐式反馈,以及极度稀疏的数据,已成为影响协同过滤推荐效果的主要问题.针对这一现象,本文提出了深度学习协同过滤算法,先利用卷积神经网络,对用户-项目矩阵的隐层特征进行学习,再结合协同过滤,对用户-项目的交互信息进行建模,并将两种特征融合预测推荐列表.以众筹平台的数据为实验对象,比较模型中各参数对推荐效果的影响,并设计与基线方法的对比实验.实验结果表明:均匀采集负反馈,并在一定卷积层数的网络中,数据稀疏度越高,效果越好;对比基线方法,本文提出的算法在公开数据集(Yahoo!Movie)上取得了最好的推荐结果.本文提出的算法有助于提高众筹平台的融资成功率,同时也丰富了推荐系统的研究体系.     

Bead-based polymerase chain reaction on a microchip

We present a bead-based approach to microfluidic polymerase chain reaction (PCR), enabling fluorescent detection and sample conditioning in a single microchamber. Bead-based PCR, while not extensively investigated in microchip format, has been used in a variety of bioanalytical applications in recent years. We leverage the ability of bead-based PCR to accumulate fluorescent labels following DNA amplification to explore a novel DNA detection scheme on a microchip. The microchip uses an integrated microheater and temperature sensor for rapid control of thermal cycling temperatures, while the sample is held in a microchamber fabricated from (poly)dimethylsiloxane and coated with Parylene. The effects of key bead-based PCR parameters, including annealing temperature and concentration of microbeads in the reaction mixture, are studied to achieve optimized device sensitivity and detection time. The device is capable of detecting a synthetically prepared section of the Bordetella pertussis genome in as few as 10 temperature cycles with times as short as 15?min. We then demonstrate the use of the procedure in an integrated device; capturing, amplifying, detecting, and purifying template DNA in a single microfluidic chamber. These results show that this method is an effective method of DNA detection which is easily integrated in a microfluidic device to perform additional steps such as sample pre-conditioning.