Interference of Homologous Sequences on the SNP Study of CYP2A13 Gene

Background and objective It has been proven that cytochrome P450 enzyme 2A13 (CYP2A13) played an important role in the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) and human diseases. Cytochrome P450 enzymes are a group of isoenzymes, whose sequence homology may interfere with the study for SNP. The aim of this study is to explore the interference on the SNP study of CYP2A13 caused by homologous sequences. Methods Taqman probe was applied to detect distribution of rs8192789 sites in 573 subjects, and BLAST method was used to analyze the amplified sequences. Partial sequences of CYP2A13 were emplified by PCR from 60 cases. The emplified sequences were TA cloned and sequenced. Results For rs8192789 loci in 573 cases, only 3 cases were TT, while the rest were CT heterozygotes, which was caused by homologous sequences. There are a large number of overlapping peaks in identical sequences of 60 cases, and the SNP of 101 amino acid site reported in the SNP database is not found. The cloned sequences are 247 bp, 235 bp fragments. Conclusion The homologous sequences may interfere the study for SNP of CYP2A13, and some SNP may not exist

Are personality traits contextualised? Effects of situational characteristics on the manifestation of trait expressions

© 2019 Haisu SunPersonality traits are the main currency of the field of personality psychology. However, historically there has been much confusion concerning the conceptualization of traits in relation to context, which remains unclear to date. Some personality psychologists have proposed that traits are internal and decontextualized dispositions that account for consistency in behaviour and experience across time and situations, whereas others have argued that traits are patterns of behaviour and experience that are contextualized and require appropriate eliciting stimuli for manifestation. Although there is a long history of research on the interplay of traits and situations, the contextualized view has received little attention and not yet been systematically examined in empirical studies. This thesis aims to evaluate the contextualized view of traits, and to clarify what is meant exactly when describing someone as high or low on a personality trait, specifically in relation to context. When we call someone an ‘extravert’, are we describing their typical patterns of behaviour and experience across all contexts, or are we describing their typical patterns of behaviour and experience in particular contexts? Among all traits, extraversion and neuroticism are perhaps the best understood in terms of eliciting stimuli—reward and threat, respectively— which have been described and incorporated in several personality theories. For this reason, they are the focus of this thesis. It is expected that traits will predict their corresponding expressions most strongly within situations containing relevant eliciting stimuli. The hypotheses were: (a) the relation between trait extraversion and patterns of state extraversion would be the strongest within contexts characterized by rewarding stimuli; and (b) the relation between trait neuroticism and patterns of state neuroticism would be the strongest within contexts characterized by threatening stimuli. A collection of four studies were designed to examine the contextualized nature of extraversion and neuroticism using different methodologies. The first study was an online survey, examining the hypotheses by asking participants to imagine their behaviour in certain context, the second one in a controlled lab environment, and the third and the fourth studies in people’s everyday life context using experience sampling methods. Across these studies, a mixture of subjective and objective measures of personality states and situations were employed. All four studies showed that extraversion and neuroticism significantly predicted state extraversion and state neuroticism, respectively, across all contexts. Meanwhile, state extraversion was significantly higher in rewarding contexts and state neuroticism was significantly higher in threatening contexts—both within-person and between-persons. However, the magnitude of the relation between trait and state extraversion, or between trait and state neuroticism, did not vary strongly across contexts. Although the results differed slightly depending on the study, the trait (extraversion vs. neuroticism), and the measure used (subjective vs. objective situation ratings), overall there was very weak evidence that trait-state associations vary across context. These findings therefore suggest trait extraversion and neuroticism are not strongly contextualized. These findings have broad theoretical implications for understanding what a trait is in relation to context. Additionally, some findings may have theoretical implications for how traits influence experiences of situations via situation perception and selection processes. Some practical implications concern the use of situation reappraisal as a coping strategy to improve people’s functioning in different contexts. Future studies could extend this thesis by examining the contextualized view in relation to other trait domains, aspects, and facets. They could also explore personality’s effects on situations more rigorously to disentangle the various mechanisms concerned with situation perception, situation selection, situation transformation, and situation evocation. Furthermore, they could apply these understanding to improve people’s wellbeing and facilitate personality change

Seismic Behavior of the Removable Links in Eccentrically Braced Frames with Semirigid Connections

Eccentrically braced frames (EBFs) have good elastic stiffness, while semirigid joints can provide greater ductility and make all components easy to fabricate. With application of semirigid connections to EBFs, a seismic structure can be formed. After earthquake, damaged components can be easily replaced, and repair costs and maintenance time can be reduced. In order to study the seismic performance of this type of structure, four single-story plane specimens were tested under low-cycle cyclic loads. Also, a total of 7 EBF models were investigated through three-dimensional, nonlinear finite element analysis. Good agreement is achieved between the simulation and experimental results. The results show that the failure modes of the EBFs with semirigid connections are the fracture at link end plate connection, and no obvious buckling deformation and cracks occur in the other components. The EBFs with semirigid connections exhibit good inelastic rotation ability, and the inelastic rotation of all specimens and models exceeds the limit of 2016 AISC specification. Due to the slip between members, the hysteretic curves of those new structures show different degrees of pinching phenomenon and it becomes more obvious with the increase of the length of links. By analyzing the strain of the bolts, it is found that the bolt strains of the joints of link-to-beam are the highest, while the bolt strains of the joints of beam-to-column and column-to-brace are smaller. This structure system shows higher energy dissipation capacity and good economic benefits

Safety Analysis of Lining Structure Influenced by Blasting of Tunnel with Extralarge Section and Small Space

In order to ensure the safety of the Daling tunnel with extralarge section and small space, the three-dimensional model of blasting dynamic simulation had been established and verified. Then, the model was used to analyze the influence of the surrounding rock characteristics and blasting design parameters on the blasting vibration of the first hole, and the analysis of the sensitivity of each factor was carried out. The results showed that blasting of the second hole had a serious impact on the safety of the first hole lining structure. Based on the safety threshold and analysis of sensitivity, the explosive velocity, charge density, and digging length were selected as the key parameters affecting the safety of the tunnel structure. Meanwhile, the corresponding engineering measure was taken based on the results of sensitivity and the actual situation on site, and, after that, the maximum PPV of the right wall of the first hole had been reduced to 9.3 cm/s, which effectively guaranteed the safe construction of the tunnel

Seismic Performance of an Exterior Joint between a Square Steel Tube Column and an H-Shape Steel Beam

This study developed a 1:2 scale model using T-shape steel with one-side bolts to connect a square steel tube column to an H-shape steel beam for a quasi-static test to investigate the mechanical properties and seismic behavior of semi-rigid joints. Within the study context, the joint’s failure characteristics, hysteresis characteristics, and strain tendency under cyclic load were determined. In addition, this research analyzed the force characteristics and seismic performance of such joints based on the test outcomes. In order to further study the seismic performance of such joints, ABAQUS finite element software was used to establish a numerical model and perform parametric analysis. The findings indicated that the force on both sides of the joint is inconsistent, resulting in different seismic performances on both sides of the joint. Selecting a T-shape steel connector significantly affects the seismic capacity of beam–column joints. The seismic capacity of joints can be improved by increasing the size of the T-shape steel. The stability of one-side bolts under repeated load is good, and their strain value rises steadily. Hence, this type of one-side bolt is suitable for connecting closed steel tube columns and other components. In general, the seismic performance of square steel tube column–H-shape steel beam joints with one-side bolts and a T-shape steel connection is good and is recommended for practical engineering

A Multidimensional Multiplexing Mode-Locked Laser Based on a Dual-Ring Integrative Structure for Tri-Comb Generation

The tri-comb-based multi-heterodyne detection technique has been proven to be a powerful tool for precision metrology, e.g., laser ranging and spectroscopy. However, in existing tri-comb generation methods, it is difficult to provide a large and variable difference in tri-comb repetition rates. In this paper; we propose a multidimensional multiplexing mode-locked laser based on a dual-ring integrative structure. Combining the dimensions of sub-ring multiplexing and wavelength multiplexing, two modes of tri-comb generation can be achieved with the dual-ring single cavity laser. The generated combs are identified based on the relative intensity of the pulse trains and optical spectrum, and the repetition rates of dual-combs from the same sub-ring are distinguished based on dispersion analysis. With repetition rates of approximately 47 MHz and 49.6 MHz, the minimum and maximum repetition rate difference of the generated tri-comb can be changed from 2.38 kHz and 2.59526 MHz to 2.74 kHz and 2.59720 MHz merely by switching the operation mode of the dual-ring integrated mode-locked laser. The obtained results indicate that our method can offer a powerful scheme for future multi-comb generation and its application in multi-heterodyne detection-based laser ranging and spectroscopy

Construction of the suppression subtractive cDNA libraries of human large cell lung cancer line L9981 before and after transfection with nm23-H1 gene

Background and objective It has been proven that nm23-H1 gene is an important metastatic-suppressed gene of lung cancer. In order to screen the differential expression genes related to nm23-H1, we constructed the suppression subtractive cDNA libraries of human large cell lung cancer line L9981 transfected and untransfected with nm23-H1 gene by suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) in this study, which lay a solid foundation for further screening and cloning metastatic-related genes of nm23-H1. Methods The forward and reverse suppression subtractive cDNA libraries were constructed in the human large cell lung cancer line L9981 before and after transfection with nm23-H1 gene (L9981 and L9981-nm23-H1) by SSH method. The positive clones were preliminarily screened by blue-white colony, and precisely identified by PCR. Results The suppression subtractive cDNA libraries were successfully constructed in the human large cell lung cancer line L9981 transfected and untransfected with nm23-H1 gene (L9981-nm23-H1 and L9981). After the blue-white screening, about three hundred positive clones in the forward subtracted library and four hundred positive clones in the reverse subtracted library were obtained. Ramdom analysis of 96 clones in each library with colony PCR methods showed that 84 clones in the forward subtracted library and 83 clones in the reverse subtracted library contained (300-750) bp inserts. Conclusion SSH is proved to be an efficient tool for differential expression gene cloning. The forward and reverse suppression subtractive cDNA libraries of human large cell lung cancer line L9981 transfected and untransfected with nm23-H1 gene (L9981-nm23-H1 and L9981) are successfully constructed by SSH and T/A cloning technology. The expression of nm23-H1 gene in the human large cell lung cancer cell lines may affect the differential expression of some metastatic-related genes

Reduced learning bias towards the reward context in medication-naive first-episode schizophrenia patients

Background Reinforcement learning has been proposed to contribute to the development of amotivation in individuals with schizophrenia (SZ). Accumulating evidence suggests dysfunctional learning in individuals with SZ in Go/NoGo learning and expected value representation. However, previous findings might have been confounded by the effects of antipsychotic exposure. Moreover, reinforcement learning also rely on the learning context. Few studies have examined the learning performance in reward and loss-avoidance context separately in medication-naive individuals with first-episode SZ. This study aimed to explore the behaviour profile of reinforcement learning performance in medication-naive individuals with first-episode SZ, including the contextual performance, the Go/NoGo learning and the expected value representation performance. Methods Twenty-nine medication-naive individuals with first-episode SZ and 40 healthy controls (HCs) who have no significant difference in age and gender, completed the Gain and Loss Avoidance Task, a reinforcement learning task involving stimulus pairs presented in both the reward and loss-avoidance context. We assessed the group difference in accuracy in the reward and loss-avoidance context, the Go/NoGo learning and the expected value representation. The correlations between learning performance and the negative symptom severity were examined. Results Individuals with SZ showed significantly lower accuracy when learning under the reward than the loss-avoidance context as compared to HCs. The accuracies under the reward context (90%win- 10%win) in the Acquisition phase was significantly and negatively correlated with the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) avolition scores in individuals with SZ. On the other hand, individuals with SZ showed spared ability of Go/NoGo learning and expected value representation. Conclusions Despite our small sample size and relatively modest findings, our results suggest possible reduced learning bias towards reward context among medication-naive individuals with first-episode SZ. The reward learning performance was correlated with amotivation symptoms. This finding may facilitate our understanding of the underlying mechanism of negative symptoms. Reinforcement learning performance under the reward context may be important to better predict and prevent the development of schizophrenia patients' negative symptom, especially amotivation