Genetic Variation of Wood Density in Luanta Fir Tested in Central Taiwan

Forty-nine wind-pollinated families representing 8 provenances of Luanta fir (Cunninghamia konishii) were sampled from the species' range in Taiwan. The study plantation was established in central Taiwan with 49 ten-tree linear plots in each of 5 blocks in the randomized complete block design. In July 1998 at plantation age 25, a 0.45-cm caliber increment core sample was extracted at breast height in the east cardinal direction from the best tree per plot; altogether 245 cores (1 core/family/plot X 49 families X 5 blocks) were sampled. From each core, only the 6 outermost growth rings (near the bark) were used to determine extracted specific gravity according to the maximum moisture content method. Genetic variations among provenances and among families within provenances were tested following a general linear model. There was no apparent geographic variation pattern, and the main source of specific gravity variation was attributable to differences among families within provenance. Overall specific gravity was 0.36 and the narrow-sense family heritability was 0.46. Wood specific gravity is strongly controlled by additive genetic variance, suggesting that this trait would respond to selection breeding. The importance of family selection was emphasized in the improvement of this wood property in Taiwan

Is Taiwan's R&D productivity in decline? A microeconometric analysis

Innovation is widely recognized as the main stimulus of economic growth. Considering that Taiwan has devoted increasingly more efforts to R&D since the late 1980s, a crucial question is posed: did the R&D productivity of firms begin to decline in Taiwan during the post-Asian Financial Crisis period when Taiwan's economic growth began to decelerate? This study investigates changes in R&D productivity for Taiwan's manufacturing firms from 1990 to 2003. By employing various approaches to obtain robust results, findings from firm-level microeconometric analysis suggests that overall R&D productivity in Taiwan appears to have been ascendant, particularly during the post-crisis period. This result is also evidenced by segmenting the sample into industry groups, whereby electronics firms have a significantly high R&D productivity growth relative to firms outside the electronics industry. Therefore, the slowdown of Taiwan's economic growth in the past decade is attributed to other influences rather than a slowdown in R&D productivity

Haemoglobin A1C Levels Constantly Below Lower Reference Limit in a Diabetic Patient With Microcytic Anaemia

Introduction: Haemoglobin A1C (A1C), as a parameter of long-term glycaemic control, has been adopted to guide diabetic therapy all over the world. However, falsely high or low A1C could be troublesome in daily practice. Case description: A 75-year-old male diabetic patient affected by a reasonably inferred life-long history of microcytic anaemia was found to have abnormally low A1C values in the previous 5 months. Subsequent laboratory assessment with brilliant cresyl blue staining and haemoglobin electrophoresis detected haemoglobin H disease as the underlying cause of both the microcytic anaemia and the disturbed A1C measurement. Discussion: Enhanced erythrocyte destruction such as in haemoglobin H disease could explain a falsely decreased A1C level very well. Upon facing a questionable A1C value, physicians dealing with diabetes should consider the possibility of undiscovered underlying causes rather than too tightly glycaemic control

Altered neuronatin expression in the rat dorsal root ganglion after sciatic nerve transection

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Several molecular changes occur following axotomy, such as gene up-regulation and down-regulation. In our previous study using Affymetrix arrays, it was found that after the axotomy of sciatic nerve, there were many novel genes with significant expression changes. Among them, neuronatin (Nnat) was the one which expression was significantly up-regulated. Nnat was identified as a gene selectively expressed in neonatal brains and markedly reduced in adult brains. The present study investigated whether the expression of Nnat correlates with symptoms of neuropathic pain in adult rats with transected sciatic nerve.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Western blotting, immunohistochemistry, and the Randall and Selitto test were used to study the protein content, and subcellular localization of Nnat in correlation with pain-related animal behavior.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>It was found that after nerve injury, the expression of Nnat was increased in total protein extracts. Unmyelinated C-fiber and thinly myelinated A-δ fiber in adult dorsal root ganglions (DRGs) were the principal sub-population of primary afferent neurons with distributed Nnat. The increased expression of Nnat and its subcellular localization were related to mechanical hyperalgesia.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results indicated that there was significant correlation between mechanical hyperalgesia in axotomy of sciatic nerve and the increased expression of Nnat in C-fiber and A-δ fiber of adult DRG neurons.</p

A protein interaction based model for schizophrenia study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Schizophrenia is a complex disease with multiple factors contributing to its pathogenesis. In addition to environmental factors, genetic factors may also increase susceptibility. In other words, schizophrenia is a highly heritable disease. Some candidate genes have been deduced on the basis of their known function with others found on the basis of chromosomal location. Individuals with multiple candidate genes may have increased risk. However it is not clear what kind of gene combinations may produce the disease phenotype. Their collective effect remains to be studied.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Most pathways except metabolic pathways are rich in protein-protein interactions (PPIs). Thus, the PPI network contains pathway information, even though the upstream-downstream relation of PPI is yet to be explored. Here we have constructed a PPI sub-network by extracting the nearest neighbour of the 36 reported candidate genes described in the literature. Although these candidate genes were discovered by different approaches, most of the proteins formed a cluster. Two major protein interaction modules were identified on the basis of the pairwise distance among the proteins in this sub-network. The large and small clusters might play roles in synaptic transmission and signal transduction, respectively, based on gene ontology annotation. The protein interactions in the synaptic transmission cluster were used to explain the interaction between the NRG1 and CACNG2 genes, which was found by both linkage and association studies. This working hypothesis is supported by the co-expression analysis based on public microarray gene expression.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>On the basis of the protein interaction network, it appears that the NRG1-triggered NMDAR protein internalization and the CACNG2 mediated AMPA receptor recruiting may act together in the glutamatergic signalling process. Since both the NMDA and AMPA receptors are calcium channels, this process may regulate the influx of Ca²⁺. Reducing the cation influx might be one of the disease mechanisms for schizophrenia. This PPI network analysis approach combined with the support from co-expression analysis may provide an efficient way to propose pathogenetic mechanisms for various highly heritable diseases.</p

Inhibition of FAK Signaling Elicits Lamin A/C-Associated Nuclear Deformity and Cellular Senescence

Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) is a non-receptor kinase that facilitates tumor aggressiveness. The effects of FAK inhibition include arresting proliferation, limiting metastasis, and inhibiting angiogenesis. PF-573228 is an ATP-competitive inhibitor of FAK. Treating lung cancer cells with PF-573228 resulted in FAK inactivation and changes in the expressions of lamin A/C and nuclear deformity. Since lamin A/C downregulation or deficiency was associated with cellular senescence, the senescence-associated β-galactosidase (SA-β-gal) assay was used to investigate whether PF-573228 treatment drove cellular senescence, which showed more SA-β-gal-positive cells in culture. p53 is known to play a pivotal role in mediating the progression of cellular senescence, and the PF-573228-treated lung cancer cells resulted in a higher p53 expression level. Subsequently, the FAK depletion in lung cancer cells was employed to confirm the role of FAK inhibition on cellular senescence. FAK depletion and pharmacological inhibition of lung cancer cells elicited similar patterns of cellular senescence, lamin A/C downregulation, and p53 upregulation, implying that FAK signaling is associated with the expression of p53 and the maintenance of lamin A/C levels to shape regular nuclear morphology and manage anti-senescence. Conversely, FAK inactivation led to p53 upregulation, disorganization of the nuclear matrix, and consequently cellular senescence. Our data suggest a new FAK signaling pathway, in that abolishing FAK signaling can activate the senescence program in cells. Triggering cellular senescence could be a new therapeutic approach to limit tumor growth