Temporal and Spatial Properties of Arterial Pulsation Measurement Using Pressure Sensor Array

Conventionally, a pulse taking platform is based on a single sensor, which initiates a feasible method of quantitative pulse diagnosis. The aim of this paper is to implement a pulse taking platform with a tactile array sensor. Three-dimensional wrist pulse signals are constructed, and the length, width, ascending slope, and descending slope are defined following the surface of the wrist pulse. And the pressure waveform of the wrist pulse obtained through proposed pulse-taking platform has the same performance as the single sensor. Finally, the results of a paired samples t-test reveal that the repeatability of the proposal platform is consistent with clinical experience. On the other hand, the results of ANOVA indicate that differences exist among different pulse taking depths, and this result is consistent with clinical experience in traditional Chinese medicine pulse diagnosis (TCMPD). Hence, the proposed pulse taking platform with an array sensor is feasible for quantification in TCMPD

Management of Hepatic Angiomyolipoma

Preoperative diagnosis of hepatic angiomyolipoma is difficult, and the treatment for it remains controversial. The aim of this study is to review our experience in the treatment of hepatic angiomyolipoma and to propose a treatment strategy for this disease. We retrospectively collected the clinical, imaging, and pathological features of patients with hepatic angiomyolipoma. Immunohistochemical studies with antibodies for HMB-45, actin, S-100, cytokeratin, vimentin, and c-kit were performed. Treatment experience and long-term follow-up results are summarized. During a period of 9 years, 10 patients with hepatic angiomyolipoma were treated at our hospital. There was marked female predominance (nine patients). Nine patients received surgical resection without complications. One patient received nonoperative management with biopsy and follow-up. One patient died 11 months after surgery because of recurrent disease. We propose all symptomatic patients should receive surgical resection for hepatic angiomyolipoma. Conservative management with close follow-up is suggested in patients with asymptomatic tumors and meet the following criteria: (1) tumor size smaller than 5 cm, (2) angiomyolipoma proved through fine needle aspiration biopsy, (3) patients with good compliance, and (4) not a hepatitis virus carrier

Detection of SARS-associated Coronavirus in Throat Wash and Saliva in Early Diagnosis

Early detection of SARS-CoV in throat wash and saliva suggests that these specimens are ideal for SARS diagnosis

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Genomic Insights into the Formation of Human Populations in East Asia

厦门大学人类学研究所、厦门大学生命科学学院细胞应激生物学国家重点实验室王传超教授课题组与哈佛医学院David Reich教授团队合作，联合全球43个单位的85位共同作者组成的国际合作团队通过古DNA精细解析东亚人群形成历史。研究人员利用古DNA数据检验了东亚地区农业和语言共扩散理论，综合考古学、语言学等证据，该研究系统性地重构了东亚人群的形成、迁徙和混合历史。这是目前国内开展的东亚地区最大规模的考古基因组学研究，此次所报道的东亚地区古人基因组样本量是以往国内研究机构所发表的样本量总和的两倍，改变了东亚地区尤其是中国境内考古基因组学研究长期滞后的局面。 该研究是由王传超教授团队与哈佛医学院（David Reich教授）、德国马普人类历史科学研究所（Johannes Krause教授）、复旦大学现代人类学教育部重点实验室（李辉教授和金力院士）、维也纳大学进化人类学系（Ron Pinhasi副教授）、南洋理工大学人文学院（Hui-Yuan Yeh助理教授）、俄罗斯远东联邦大学科学博物馆（Alexander N Popov研究员）、西安交通大学（张虎勤教授）、蒙古国国家博物馆研究中心、乌兰巴托国立大学考古系、华盛顿大学人类学系、台湾成功大学考古所、加州大学人类学系等全球43个单位的85位共同作者组成的国际合作团队联合完成的。厦门大学人类学研究所、厦门大学生命科学学院细胞应激生物学国家重点实验室为论文第一完成单位。厦门大学人类学研究所韦兰海副教授、胡荣助理教授、郭健新博士后、何光林博士后和杨晓敏硕士参与了研究工作。The deep population history of East Asia remains poorly understood due to a lack of ancient DNA data and sparse sampling of present-day people1,2. We report genome-wide data from 166 East Asians dating to 6000 BCE-1000 CE and 46 present-day groups. Hunter-gatherers from Japan, the Amur River Basin, and people of Neolithic and Iron Age Taiwan and the Tibetan plateau are linked by a deeply-splitting lineage likely reflecting a Late Pleistocene coastal migration. We follow Holocene expansions from four regions. First, hunter-gatherers of Mongolia and the Amur River Basin have ancestry shared by Mongolic and Tungusic language speakers but do not carry West Liao River farmer ancestry contradicting theories that their expansion spread these proto-languages. Second, Yellow River Basin farmers at ～3000 BCE likely spread Sino-Tibetan languages as their ancestry dispersed both to Tibet where it forms up ～84% to some groups and to the Central Plain where it contributed ～59-84% to Han Chinese. Third, people from Taiwan ～1300 BCE to 800 CE derived ～75% ancestry from a lineage also common in modern Austronesian, Tai-Kadai and Austroasiatic speakers likely deriving from Yangtze River Valley farmers; ancient Taiwan people also derived ～25% ancestry from a northern lineage related to but different from Yellow River farmers implying an additional north-to-south expansion. Fourth, Yamnaya Steppe pastoralist ancestry arrived in western Mongolia after ～3000 BCE but was displaced by previously established lineages even while it persisted in western China as expected if it spread the ancestor of Tocharian Indo-European languages. Two later gene flows affected western Mongolia: after ～2000 BCE migrants with Yamnaya and European farmer ancestry, and episodic impacts of later groups with ancestry from Turan.We thank David Anthony, Ofer Bar-Yosef, Katherine Brunson, Rowan Flad, Pavel Flegontov,Qiaomei Fu, Wolfgang Haak, Iosif Lazaridis, Mark Lipson, Iain Mathieson, Richard Meadow,Inigo Olalde, Nick Patterson, Pontus Skoglund, Dan Xu, and the four reviewers for valuable comments. We thank Naruya Saitou and the Asian DNA Repository Consortium for sharing genotype data from present-day Japanese groups. We thank Toyohiro Nishimoto and Takashi Fujisawa from the Rebun Town Board of Education for sharing the Funadomari Jomon samples, and Hideyo Tanaka and Watru Nagahara from the Archeological Center of Chiba City who are excavators of the Rokutsu Jomon site. The excavations at Boisman-2 site (Boisman culture), the Pospelovo-1 site (Yankovsky culture), and the Roshino-4 site (Heishui Mohe culture) were funded by the Far Eastern Federal University and the Institute of History,Archaeology and Ethnology Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences; research on Pospelovo-1 is funded by RFBR project number 18-09-40101. C.C.W was funded by the Max Planck Society, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 31801040), the Nanqiang Outstanding Young Talents Program of Xiamen University (X2123302), the Major project of National Social Science Foundation of China (20&ZD248), a European Research Council (ERC) grant to Dan Xu (ERC-2019-ADG-883700-TRAM) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (ZK1144). O.B. and Y.B. were funded by Russian Scientific Foundation grant 17-14-01345. H.M. was supported by the grant JSPS 16H02527. M.R. and C.C.W received funding from the ERC under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant No 646612) to M.R. The research of C.S. is supported 30 by the Calleva Foundation and the Human Origins Research Fund. H.L was funded NSFC (91731303, 31671297), B&R International Joint Laboratory of Eurasian Anthropology (18490750300). J.K. was funded by DFG grant KR 4015/1-1, the Baden Württemberg Foundation, and the Max Planck Institute. Accelerator Mass Spectrometry radiocarbon dating work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) (BCS-1460369) to D.J.K. and B.J.C. D.R. was funded by NSF grant BCS-1032255, NIH (NIGMS) grant GM100233, the Paul M. Allen Frontiers Group, John Templeton Foundation grant 61220, a gift from Jean-Francois Clin, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. 该研究得到了国家自然科学基金“中国东南各族群的遗传混合”、国家社科基金重大项目“多学科视角下的南岛语族的起源和形成研究”、厦门大学南强青年拔尖人才支持计划A类、中央高校基本科研业务费等资助

The genetic architecture of the human cerebral cortex

The cerebral cortex underlies our complex cognitive capabilities, yet little is known about the specific genetic loci that influence human cortical structure. To identify genetic variants that affect cortical structure, we conducted a genome-wide association meta-analysis of brain magnetic resonance imaging data from 51,665 individuals. We analyzed the surface area and average thickness of the whole cortex and 34 regions with known functional specializations. We identified 199 significant loci and found significant enrichment for loci influencing total surface area within regulatory elements that are active during prenatal cortical development, supporting the radial unit hypothesis. Loci that affect regional surface area cluster near genes in Wnt signaling pathways, which influence progenitor expansion and areal identity. Variation in cortical structure is genetically correlated with cognitive function, Parkinson's disease, insomnia, depression, neuroticism, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder