Control of astrocyte progenitor specification, migration and maturation by Nkx6.1 homeodomain transcription factor.

Although astrocytes are the most abundant cell type in the central nervous system (CNS), little is known about their molecular specification and differentiation. It has previously been reported that transcription factor Nkx6.1 is expressed in neuroepithelial cells that give rise to astrocyte precursors in the ventral spinal cord. In the present study, we systematically investigated the function of Nkx6.1 in astrocyte development using both conventional and conditional Nkx6.1 mutant mice. At early postnatal stages, Nkx6.1 was expressed in a subpopulation of astrocytes in the ventral spinal cord. In the conventional Nkx6.1KO spinal cord, the initial specification of astrocyte progenitors was affected by the mutation, and subsequent migration and differentiation were disrupted in newborn mice. In addition, the development of VA2 subtype astrocytes was also inhibited in the white matter. Further studies with Nkx6.1 conditional mutants revealed significantly delayed differentiation and disorganized arrangement of fibrous astrocytes in the ventral white matter. Together, our studies indicate that Nkx6.1 plays a vital role in astrocyte specification and differentiation in the ventral spinal cord

Hedge fund seeding with fees-for-guarantee swaps

This paper introduces a new instrument in the context of hedge fund seeding, which we call fees-for-guarantee swap, with the aim of alleviating the early-stage funds (ESF)managers’financial constraint caused by severe asymmetric information between investors and managers. The swap plays a role in enhancing the ESFs manager’s credibility by swapping part of her fees for an insurance on the behalf of seeding investors, whom would be fully refunded once the fund defaults. We set up a dynamic continuous-time framework within which closed-form prices for seed capital, guarantee costs and other claims have been derived. Our numerical findings indicate that incentive compensations, managerial ownership and hedge funds liquidation risks not only inhibit ESFs managers’ risk-shifting incentive but align interests among ESFs manager, seeder and insurer as well

Association between Long-Term Changes in Dietary Percentage of Energy from Fat and Obesity: Evidence from over 20 Years of Longitudinal Data

Objectives: This study assessed the associations between long-term trajectories of percentage of energy from fat (PEF) and obesity among Chinese adults. Methods: Longitudinal data collected by the China Health and Nutrition Survey from 1991 to 2015 were analyzed. A body mass index ≥28.0 was defined as general obesity. Participants’ baseline PEF levels were categorized as lower than the recommendation of the Chinese Dietary Guideline (20%), meeting the recommendation (20−30%), and higher than the recommendation (>30%). Patterns of PEF trajectories were identified by latent class trajectory analysis for overall participants and participants in different baseline PEF groups, respectively. Cox proportional hazards regression models with shared frailty were used to estimate associations between PEF and obesity. Results: Data on 13,025 participants with 72,191 visits were analyzed. Four patterns of PEF trajectory were identified for overall participants and participants in three different baseline PEF groups, respectively. Among overall participants, compared with “Baseline Low then Increase Pattern” (from 12% to 20%), participants with “Baseline Normal-Low then Increase-to-High Pattern” (from 20% to 32%) had a higher hazard of obesity (hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confident interval (CI) at 1.18 (1.01−1.37)). Compared with the “Stable Pattern” group (stable at around 18% and 22%, respectively), participants with “Sudden-Increase Pattern” (from 18% to 30%) in the baseline group whose PEF levels were lower than the recommendation and those with “Sudden-Increase then Decrease Pattern” (rapidly increased from 25% to 40%, and then decreased) in the baseline group who met the recommendation had higher hazards of obesity (HRs and 95% CIs being 1.65 (1.13−2.41) and 1.59 (1.03−2.46), respectively). Conclusions: Adults with a trajectory that involved a sudden increase to a high-level PEF had a higher risk of general obesity. People should avoid increasing PEF suddenly

Drugs and herbs given to prevent hepatotoxicity of tuberculosis therapy: systematic review of ingredients and evaluation studies

Background: Drugs to protect the liver are frequently prescribed in some countries as part of treatment for tuberculosis. The biological rationale is not clear, they are expensive and may do harm. We conducted a systematic review to a) describe the ingredients of "liver protection drugs"; and b) compare the evidence base for the policy against international standards. Methods: We searched international medical databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, LILACS, CINAHL, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and the specialised register of the Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group) and Chinese language databases (CNKI, VIP and WanFang) to April 2007. Our inclusion criteria were research papers that reported evaluating any liver protection drug or drugs for preventing liver damage in people taking anti-tuberculosis treatment. Two authors independently categorised and extracted data, and appraised the stated methods of evaluating their effectiveness. Results: Eighty five research articles met our inclusion criteria, carried out in China (77), India (2), Russia (4), Ukraine (2). These articles evaluated 30 distinct types of liver protection compounds categorised as herbal preparations, manufactured herbal products, combinations of vitamins and other non-herbal substances and manufactured pharmaceutical preparations. Critical appraisal of these articles showed that all were small, poorly conducted studies, measuring intermediate outcomes. Four trials that were described as randomised controlled trials were small, had short follow up, and did not meet international standards. Conclusion: There is no reliable evidence to support prescription of drugs or herbs to prevent liver damage in people on tuberculosis treatment

Comparative mRNA and microRNA Expression Profiling of Three Genitourinary Cancers Reveals Common Hallmarks and Cancer-Specific Molecular Events

Genome-wide gene expression profile using deep sequencing technologies can drive the discovery of cancer biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Such efforts are often limited to profiling the expression signature of either mRNA or microRNA (miRNA) in a single type of cancer.Here we provided an integrated analysis of the genome-wide mRNA and miRNA expression profiles of three different genitourinary cancers: carcinomas of the bladder, kidney and testis.Our results highlight the general or cancer-specific roles of several genes and miRNAs that may serve as candidate oncogenes or suppressors of tumor development. Further comparative analyses at the systems level revealed that significant aberrations of the cell adhesion process, p53 signaling, calcium signaling, the ECM-receptor and cell cycle pathways, the DNA repair and replication processes and the immune and inflammatory response processes were the common hallmarks of human cancers. Gene sets showing testicular cancer-specific deregulation patterns were mainly implicated in processes related to male reproductive function, and general disruptions of multiple metabolic pathways and processes related to cell migration were the characteristic molecular events for renal and bladder cancer, respectively. Furthermore, we also demonstrated that tumors with the same histological origins and genes with similar functions tended to group together in a clustering analysis. By assessing the correlation between the expression of each miRNA and its targets, we determined that deregulation of 'key' miRNAs may result in the global aberration of one or more pathways or processes as a whole.This systematic analysis deciphered the molecular phenotypes of three genitourinary cancers and investigated their variations at the miRNA level simultaneously. Our results provided a valuable source for future studies and highlighted some promising genes, miRNAs, pathways and processes that may be useful for diagnostic or therapeutic applications

Main Components of Harmonic Solutions of Nonlinear Oscillations

AbstractIf second order nonautonomous circuit with damping satisfies certain conditions, the oscillations should contain two components, the self-excited and forced oscillations. This paper, on the theoretical basis of power balance, finds the critical value of this condition. With regard to nonautonomous circuits with no damping, active power can keep balance under any situations. The two oscillation components can simultaneously exist unconditionally. Taking nonlinear conservative system with excited source as example, this paper demonstrates that the circuit can produce chaos in all probability

Impact of non-uniform heat flux on ventilation performance of solar chimney

Solar chimney (SC) is an effectively practical way to enhance building natural ventilation through thermal buoyancy force, which is induced due to the temperature difference between indoor and outdoor air temperatures. The ventilation performance of solar chimney directly depends on the heat flux distributions and values in the absorbed plate. Recently, many researches have been done on the thermal performance of solar chimneys under uniform heat flux. However, the uniform heat flow distribution cannot reflect the uneven characteristics of the solar radiation. There are few studies focused on the flow characteristic and thermal performance of solar chimneys under non-uniform heat flux distributions. In this paper, a two-dimensional numerical model of solar chimney integrated building is firstly established to explore the natural ventilation performance under non-uniform heat flux distributions. The numerical simulation is conducted to predict the flow and heat transfer characteristics in the room as well as in solar chimney. Subsequently, the effects of the location of the vent are analyzed to evaluate the performance of the solar chimney system. Finally, a comparison between the ventilation performance of solar chimney under the uniform heat flux and the non-uniform heat flux distributions is presented, and the thermal and flow structures of the solar chimney integrated building are further illustrated simultaneously. Research results show that the ventilation performance of solar chimney is closely related to its heat flux distribution, and the inhomogeneity of the heat flux of solar chimney will decrease the ventilation performance of the building. In addition, the position of the vent have highly influence on the flow structure and thermal performance for the solar chimney as well as the building. This paper will provide theoretical basis and technical approach for the improvement of the performance of the solar chimney, especially for the nonuniform heat flux distribution

Three-Dimensional Device-Free Localization for Vehicle

Device-free localization (DFL) is a promising technique which could provide localization information for a target without requiring an electronic device. With the development of the smart city and smart transportation, DFL could form part of a basic technique that could be used to track and localize roadside vehicles. In this paper, some algorithms for three-dimensional (3D) DFL for vehicle surveillance are developed, including statistical methods for data, a method for communication link selection, a novel method of communication link weight allocation and some other minor approaches to obtain the location and approximate size of a static vehicle, as a basic technique of moving vehicle detection. Then, an experimental system is designed. Through security monitoring wireless sensor networks (WSN), real-time vehicle characteristics (i.e., location and size) are calculated automatically and intuitively displayed through a heat map. Experiments are performed to validate the effect of the proposal and the accuracy of the localization and size estimation

Fabrication, morphology formation mechanism and properties of nanometer Cu2O thin film with KCl-doping

With CH3COONa/(CH3COO)(2)Cu as the electrolyte system, nanometer Cu2O thin film is fabricated by means of electrodeposition at TiO2/ITO electrode under the weak acid environment. The crystal morphology of nanometer Cu2O thin film is characterized by XRD, SEM and XPS. The effects of KCl-doping and annealing treatment upon nanometer Cu2O crystal morphology, thin film response to visible light and open circuit voltage are studied. The mechanism of KCl-doping to control thin film morphology is discussed. The results indicate that with the increase of KCl concentration, making nanometer Cu2O thin film compact, the average grain diameter and the open circuit voltage increase, and the forbidden band width decreases, and exhibited obvious absorbance response in visible light range, the preferred orientation character of Cu2O crystal has changed from the obvious (111) face preferred orientation into the obvious (200) face preferred orientation. The crystal morphology of nanometer Cu2O thin film has changed from regular octahedron into truncated cube when the KCl concentration reaches 7.0 mmol L-1. The transformation of nanometer Cu2O thin film morphology is caused by the preferential adsorption of Cl- at the (200) crystal face of Cu2O crystal. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved