The glycome and glycomedicine

“Life requires more than nucleic acids and proteins; sweet sugar molecules could be another life code beyond the central dogma of molecular biology.”

Bizarre Waveforms in Strong Motion Records

This paper collects a rich set of strong motion records in some typical earthquakes domestic and abroad, checks its seismic events, converts the data format, corrects the zeroline and draws the waveform. Four kinds of abnormal phenomena on the acceleration waveform are revealed, such as spike, asymmetric waveform, obvious baseline drift, and strong motion records packets separation. Then reasonable processing approaches are derived from the preliminary analysis of the generation mechanism for abnormal phenomena. In addition to the effects on time history, Fourier amplitude spectrum and response spectrum are studied before and after strong motion records correction. It is shown that (1) mechanism of spikes is rather complicated; however spikes can be eliminated by “jerk” method, ratio method, and the consistency of the three-component PGA time; (2) mechanism of the asymmetric waveform is of diversity; however, to some extent, the Butterworth low-pass filtering can be applied to correct it; (3) two pieces of strong motion record packets can be connected by searching continuous and repeated data; (4) the method of cumulative adding can be used to find the clear baseline drift; (5) the abnormal waveform directly affects the characteristics of time history and frequency spectrum

EFFECTS OF FOUR WEEKS OF HIGH-DEFINITION TRANSCRANIAL DIRECT CURRENT STIMULATION AND FOOT CORE EXERCISE ON FOOT SENSORIMOTOR FUNCTION

Objective: This study aimed to examine the effects of four weeks of high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) and foot core exercise (FCE) on the foot sensorimotor function (i.e., toe flexor strength and passive ankle kinesthesia). Methods: Thirty-six participants were randomly assigned into three groups: HD-tDCS, FCE, and control group. A total of 12 training sessions was performed over 4 weeks (i.e., three sessions per week) in the laboratory. The participants in the HD-tDCS group performed HD-tDCS and the FCE group completed short foot exercise, towel curls, toe spread and squeeze, and balance board training. Foot muscle strength and passive ankle kinesthesia were assessed at baseline and post-intervention. Results: Compared with the control group, HD-tDCS induced a greater decrease in percent change in the passive kinesthesia thresholds of dorsiflexion ( 9.32%), inversion ( 25.15%), and eversion ( 21.46%). A significantly higher increase in percent change in metatarsophalangeal joint flexor strength was existed in HD-tDCS group (13.77%) and a significantly greater increase in percent change in toe flexor strength was observed in the FCE group (13.13%). Conclusion: Four weeks of high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) can improve foot sensorimotor function and foot core exercise can only strengthen toe flexor muscles

Characterization, phylogeny, alternative splicing and expression of Sox30 gene

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Members of the Sox gene family isolated from both vertebrates and invertebrates have been proved to participate in a wide variety of developmental processes, including sex determination and differentiation. Among these members, <it>Sox30 </it>had been considered to exist only in mammals since its discovery, and its exact function remains unclear.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>Sox30 </it>cDNA was cloned from the Nile tilapia by RT-PCR and RACE. Screening of available genome and EST databases and phylogenetic analysis showed that <it>Sox30 </it>also exists in non-mammalian vertebrates and invertebrates, which was further supported by synteny analyses. Tissue expression in human, mouse and tilapia suggested that <it>Sox30 </it>was probably a gonad-specific gene, which was also supported by the fact that <it>Sox30 </it>EST sequences were obtained from gonads of the animal species. In addition, four alternatively spliced isoforms were isolated from tilapia gonad. Their temporal and spatial expression patterns during normal and sex reversed gonadal development were investigated by RT-PCR and <it>in situ </it>hybridization. Our data suggest that expressions of <it>Sox30 </it>isoforms are related to stage and phenotypic-sex, observed in the germ cells of male gonad and in somatic cells of the female gonad.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p><it>Sox30 </it>is not a gene only existed in mammals, but exists widely throughout the animal kingdom as supported by our bioinformatic, phylogenetic and syntenic analyses. It is very likely that <it>Sox30 </it>is expressed exclusively in gonads. Expression analyses revealed that <it>Sox30 </it>may be involved in female and male gonadal development at different stages by alternative splicing.</p