Multiple upstream modules regulate zebrafish myf5 expression

BACKGROUND: Myf5 is one member of the basic helix-loop-helix family of transcription factors, and it functions as a myogenic factor that is important for the specification and differentiation of muscle cells. The expression of myf5 is somite- and stage-dependent during embryogenesis through a delicate regulation. However, this complex regulatory mechanism of myf5 is not clearly understood. RESULTS: We isolated a 156-kb bacterial artificial chromosome clone that includes an upstream 80-kb region and a downstream 70-kb region of zebrafish myf5 and generated a transgenic line carrying this 156-kb segment fused to a green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter gene. We find strong GFP expression in the most rostral somite and in the presomitic mesoderm during segmentation stages, similar to endogenous myf5 expression. Later, the GFP signals persist in caudal somites near the tail bud but are down-regulated in the older, rostral somites. During the pharyngula period, we detect GFP signals in pectoral fin buds, dorsal rostral myotomes, hypaxial myotomes, and inferior oblique and superior oblique muscles, a pattern that also corresponds well with endogenous myf5 transcripts. To characterize the specific upstream cis-elements that regulate this complex and dynamic expression pattern, we also generated several transgenic lines that harbor various lengths within the upstream 80-kb segment. We find that (1) the -80 kb/-9977 segment contains a fin and cranial muscle element and a notochord repressor; (2) the -9977/-6213 segment contains a strong repressive element that does not include the notochord-specific repressor; (3) the -6212/-2938 segment contains tissue-specific elements for bone and spinal cord; (4) the -2937/-291 segment contains an eye enhancer, and the -2937/-2457 segment is required for notochord and myocyte expression; and (5) the -290/-1 segment is responsible for basal transcription in somites and the presomitic mesoderm. CONCLUSION: We suggest that the cell lineage-specific expression of myf5 is delicately orchestrated by multiple modules within the distal upstream region. This study provides an insight to understand the molecular control of myf5 and myogenesis in the zebrafish

Molecular typing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolated from adult patients with tubercular spondylitis

Background/PurposeTuberculosis (TB) is endemic in Taiwan and usually affects the lung, spinal TB accounting for 1–3% of all TB infections. The manifestations of spinal TB are different from those of pulmonary TB. The purpose of this study was to define the epidemiological molecular types of mycobacterial strains causing spinal TB.MethodsWe retrospectively reviewed the medical charts of adult patients diagnosed with spinal TB from January 1998 to December 2007. Patients with positive culture results and/or pathological findings characteristic of TB were enrolled in this study. Spoligotyping was performed to type the Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates.ResultsA total of 38 patients with spinal TB were identified. Their mean age was 68 years, and their median duration of symptoms was 60 days (range 3–720 days). The lumbar and thoracic spine accounted for 76% of the sites involved. Thirteen specimens (from seven male and six female patients) were available for typing. Spoligotyping of these 13 specimens revealed three Beijing (23%) and 10 non-Beijing types (77%). The non-Beijing types included two EAI2 Manilla (15%), two H3 (15%), two unclassified (15%), and one each of BOVIS1, U, T2, and orphan type. No significant predominant strain was found in this study, and no drug-resistant Beijing strains were identified.ConclusionTB spondylitis was found to occur in older patients. Spoligotyping results showed that most of the TB spondylitis cases were caused by non-Beijing type Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Biomechanical comparison of pedicle screw fixation strength among three different screw trajectories using single vertebrae and one-level functional spinal unit

Three key factors are responsible for the biomechanical performance of pedicle screw fixation: screw mechanical characteristics, bone quality and insertion techniques. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no study has directly compared the biomechanical performance among three trajectories, i.e., the traditional trajectory (TT), modified trajectory (MT) and cortical bone trajectory (CBT), in a porcine model. This study compared the pullout strength and insertion torque of three trajectory methods in single vertebrae, the pullout strength and fixation stiffness including flexion, extension, and lateral bending in a one-level instrumented functional spinal unit (FSU) that mimics the in vivo configuration were clarified. A total of 18 single vertebrae and 18 FSUs were randomly assigned into three screw insertion methods (n = 6 in each trajectory group). In the TT group, the screw converged from its entry point, passed completely inside the pedicle, was parallel to the superior endplate, was located in the superior third of the vertebral body and reached to at least the anterior third of the vertebral body. In the MT group, the convergent angle was similar to that of the TT method but directed caudally to the anterior inferior margin of the vertebral body. The results of insertion torque and pullout strength in single vertebrae were analyzed; in addition, the stiffness and pullout strength in the one-level FSU were also investigated. This study demonstrated that, in single vertebrae, the insertion torque was significantly higher in CBT groups than in TT and MT groups (p < 0.05). The maximal pullout strength was significantly higher in MT groups than in TT and CBT groups (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference in stiffness in the three motions among all groups. The maximal pullout strength in FSUs of MT and CBT groups were significantly higher than the TT groups (p < 0.05). We concluded that either MT or CBT provides better biomechanical performance than TT in single vertebrae or FSUs. The lack of significance of stiffness in FSUs among three methods suggested that MT or CBT could be a reasonable alternative to TT if the traditional trajectory was not feasible

Search for heavy resonances decaying to two Higgs bosons in final states containing four b quarks

A search is presented for narrow heavy resonances X decaying into pairs of Higgs bosons (H) in proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC at root s = 8 TeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb(-1). The search considers HH resonances with masses between 1 and 3 TeV, having final states of two b quark pairs. Each Higgs boson is produced with large momentum, and the hadronization products of the pair of b quarks can usually be reconstructed as single large jets. The background from multijet and t (t) over bar events is significantly reduced by applying requirements related to the flavor of the jet, its mass, and its substructure. The signal would be identified as a peak on top of the dijet invariant mass spectrum of the remaining background events. No evidence is observed for such a signal. Upper limits obtained at 95 confidence level for the product of the production cross section and branching fraction sigma(gg -> X) B(X -> HH -> b (b) over barb (b) over bar) range from 10 to 1.5 fb for the mass of X from 1.15 to 2.0 TeV, significantly extending previous searches. For a warped extra dimension theory with amass scale Lambda(R) = 1 TeV, the data exclude radion scalar masses between 1.15 and 1.55 TeV

Measurement of the top quark mass using charged particles in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV

Peer reviewe

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

[[alternative]]Public Kindergarten Teachers' Difficulties and Reaction Strategies for Team Teaching

[[abstract]]　　本研究旨在探討公立幼兒園教保服務人員協同教學所面臨的困境和因應策略之研究，採問卷調查的方式，以中南部地區公立學校附設幼兒園共173 間園所之700位教保服務人員為研究對象，並以自編「幼兒園教保服務人員協同教學問卷」進行調查，得有效樣本549 份。探討的內容有協同教學現況、協同教學實施情形內含實施困境、因應策略，以描述性統計、單因子變異數分析、t 檢定、薛費爾法事後比較等統計方法進行分析。本研究獲得以下結論:一、 協同教學現況幼兒園協同教學現況較多採主從式教學類型之方式，且以不更換協同教學夥伴方式最多，教學夥伴選擇方式以「沒得選擇」的方式最多，而教學夥伴對象則以教師最多。二、 協同教學實施情形(一)不同背景變項中，「年齡、服務年資、學歷、職稱、合作經驗、協同教學夥伴選擇的方式、協同教學夥伴對象、是否有兼園長或主任職務，園所規模」，在對實施協同教學所面臨的困境和因應策略沒有顯著差異。但園所規模在協同教學所面臨困境「教學理念與共識」層面有顯著差異。(二)幼兒園實施協同教學所面臨的困境方面，整體上協同教學為中高程度的品質，顯示所面臨困境屬中低程度的困境。各層面中「互動與溝通」層面最高，「教學理念與共識」層面最低，顯示此層面發生的困境較多。(三)不同教學類型之幼兒園教保服務人員在協同教學所面臨的困境和因應策上有顯著差異。研究結果顯示，搭配式教學所面臨的困境少於於主從式和輪流式，而因應策略也較主從事和輪流式較佳。　　本研究最後根據研究結果提出建議，提供為公立幼兒園教保服務人員協同教學困擾之參考。[[abstract]]　　The purpose of the study was to investigate preschool teachers’ difficulties and coping strategies for cooperative teaching in affiliated kindergarten of public elementary schools. Self-developed questionnair, Cooperative Teaching of Preschool Teacher in Kindergarten Questionnaire, was used to collect data. Five hundred fourty-nine valid participantes were from 173 public kindergartens. Cooperative teaching status, difficulties, and coping strategies were anaylized by descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, t-test, and posteriori comparisons of Scheffe method.　　The major findings are the following:1. Current situation of cooperative teaching in kindergarten mostly adopts master-follower teaching method and fixed teaching partners.2. Backgrounds such as age, seniority, education background, professional title, cooperative experience, how to choose cooperative teaching partner, cooperative teaching partner, cooperative teaching partner object, whether has part-time position such as kindergarten leader or director, and kindergarten size, have no statistically significant differences in the difficulties and coping strategic of cooperative teaching implementation. But the difficulties facing the scale have significant difference in “teaching philosophy and common sense.3. Overall cooperative teaching is of middle-high quality, and the difficulties show with low level of difficulty. Among all levels, “interaction and communication” is at the highest level, “teaching philosophy and common sense” is at the lowest level and shows more difficulties.4. There is statistically significant differences in difficulties and coping strategic facing cooperative teaching of teaching staffs in different types of kindergartens. The results show that collocative-teaching has fewer difficulties than master-slave teaching and take-turn teaching; yet, collocative-teaching has better coping strategies than master-slave teaching and take-turn teaching

The effect of a web-based self-care instruction on symptom experience and quality of life in living liver donors: A randomized controlled trial

Objective: Living liver donors need help to manage symptom distress and improve their quality of life. This study aims to test the effectiveness of a web-based symptom self-care instruction on symptom experience and health-related quality of life of living liver donors. Methods: This study was a randomized controlled trial. Participants were recruited from January 2019 to August 2020. Participants in the experimental group had access to a web-based symptom self-care instruction, which included text and video. The control group received routine care. The primary outcomes were symptom distress and quality of life. Results: A total of 90 living liver donors recruited in this study were assigned randomly to the web group (n = 46) and control group (n = 44). The symptom distress was significantly negatively correlated with quality of life at each data collection time. There was an interaction effect with the participants in the web group experiencing more symptom distress at three months after surgery than the control group (B = 3.616, 95% CI: 7.163–3.990, p = 0.046). There was no significant effect on the quality of life. Conclusion: Patients in the web-based self-care group had higher symptom distress than those in the control group three months after surgery, but there was no difference in quality of life. Future studies could add some interactive elements to the website and include a larger sample size. Registration: This study was registered at the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR1900020518)

Characteristics of tear film lipid layer in young dry eye patients

Background/Purpose: To investigate the characteristics of subjective symptoms and objective parameters among young patients with dry eye disease (DED) and compare them with those of older patients. Methods: We retrospectively enrolled 675 patients with DED who were divided into three age groups (20–41 years [younger], 41–60 years [middle], and >60 years [older]) (n = 143, 304, and 228, respectively). Subjective symptoms were evaluated using Standardized Patient Evaluation of Eye Dryness (SPEED) and Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) questionnaires. Aqueous tear secretion was evaluated with the Schirmer test II. The number of expressible meibomian glands was evaluated with a slit-lamp-aided standardized evaluator. Lipid layer thickness (LLT), blink/incomplete blink rates and meibography were measured with the LipiView® II interferometer. The extent of the meibomian gland dropout was graded using a meiboscale. Results: The younger age group had higher subjective symptom severity, as reflected by higher SPEED (p < 0.001) and OSDI scores (p = 0.051). The SPEED scores negatively correlated with LLT in all patients (r = −0.136, p < 0.001). Younger patients also had thinner average LLT (p < 0.001), lower meiboscale (p < 0.001) and a higher number of expressible meibomian glands (p < 0.001). Additionally, they had significantly more total blinks (p < 0.001), incomplete blinks (p < 0.001), and incomplete blink rate (p = 0.006). Conclusion: Manifestations of DED vary with age. In our cohort, younger age patients had more symptoms and blinks, which may have resulted from thinner LLT as the structure and function of the meibomian glands were affected less than in middle and older age patients