Tracking ocean heat uptake during the surface warming hiatus.

Ocean heat uptake is observed to penetrate deep into the Atlantic and Southern Oceans during the recent hiatus of global warming. Here we show that the deep heat penetration in these two basins is not unique to the hiatus but is characteristic of anthropogenic warming and merely reflects the depth of the mean meridional overturning circulation in the basin. We find, however, that heat redistribution in the upper 350 m between the Pacific and Indian Oceans is closely tied to the surface warming hiatus. The Indian Ocean shows an anomalous warming below 50 m during hiatus events due to an enhanced heat transport by the Indonesian throughflow in response to the intensified trade winds in the equatorial Pacific. Thus, the Pacific and Indian Oceans are the key regions to track ocean heat uptake during the surface warming hiatus

Control of spiral waves and turbulent states in a cardiac model by travelling-wave perturbations

We propose a travelling-wave perturbation method to control the spatiotemporal dynamics in a cardiac model. It is numerically demonstrated that the method can successfully suppress the wave instability (alternans in action potential duration) in the one-dimensional case and convert spiral waves and turbulent states to the normal travelling wave states in the two-dimensional case. An experimental scheme is suggested which may provide a new design for a cardiac defibrillator.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Northwestern Pacific typhoon intensity controlled by changes in ocean temperatures.

Dominant climatic factors controlling the lifetime peak intensity of typhoons are determined from six decades of Pacific typhoon data. We find that upper ocean temperatures in the low-latitude northwestern Pacific (LLNWP) and sea surface temperatures in the central equatorial Pacific control the seasonal average lifetime peak intensity by setting the rate and duration of typhoon intensification, respectively. An anomalously strong LLNWP upper ocean warming has favored increased intensification rates and led to unprecedentedly high average typhoon intensity during the recent global warming hiatus period, despite a reduction in intensification duration tied to the central equatorial Pacific surface cooling. Continued LLNWP upper ocean warming as predicted under a moderate [that is, Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5] climate change scenario is expected to further increase the average typhoon intensity by an additional 14% by 2100

Application of fibrin glue with bandage contact lens in pterygium surgery

AIM: To explore the efficacy of fibrin glue with bandage contact lens for pain relief after pterygium surgery performed with limbal autograft transplantation.<p>METHODS: A prospective clinical trial was carried out in 52 patients(72 eyes)operated for primary nasal pterygium. All patients were randomly divided into the fibrin glue with bandage contact lens group(experimental group, 28 cases, 38 eyes)and suture group(control group, 24 cases, 34 eyes). Autologous limbal graft taken from the superotemporal limbus was used to cover the sclera after pterygium excision under local anesthesia with 20g/L lidocaine. In experimental group, the transplant was attached to the sclera with fibrin tissue adhesive and in control group with 10-0 Virgin silk sutures. Experimental group weared bandage contact lens after surgery while the control group did not. The degree of pain after surgery was evaluated at 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7d after surgery. Follow-up was 6mo, matching degree of graft and complication such as infection, relapse, implant healing badness and subconjunctival cyst were mainly observed and recorded.<p>RESULTS: The pain index scores of the experimental group were significantly less than those of control group(all <i>P</i>=0.000). In observation period, all conjunctival autografts in both groups were successfully attached and were intact without falling off, dissolution or recurrence and there were no complications such as infection, relapse, implant healing badness and subconjunctival cyst.<p>CONCLUSION: Fibrin glue with bandage contact lens could significantly release pain response afterpterygium excision surgery

Ionic effect on combing of single DNA molecules and observation of their force-induced melting by fluorescence microscopy

Molecular combing is a powerful and simple method for aligning DNA molecules onto a surface. Using this technique combined with fluorescence microscopy, we observed that the length of lambda-DNA molecules was extended to about 1.6 times their contour length (unextended length, 16.2 micrometers) by the combing method on hydrophobic polymethylmetacrylate (PMMA) coated surfaces. The effects of sodium and magnesium ions and pH of the DNA solution were investigated. Interestingly, we observed force-induced melting of single DNA molecules.Comment: 12 page

Are Coiled-Coils of Dimeric Kinesins Unwound during Their Walking on Microtubule?

Dimeric kinesin motor proteins such as homodimeric kinesin-1, homodimeric Ncd and heterodimeric Kar3/Vik1are composed of two head domains which are connected together by a rod-shaped, coiled-coil stalk. Despite the extensive and intensive studies on structures, kinetics, dynamics and walking mechanism of the dimers, whether their coiled-coils are unwound or not during their walking on the microtubule is still an unclear issue. Here, we try to clarify this issue by using molecular dynamics simulations. Our simulation results showed that, for Ncd, a large change in potential of mean force is required to unwind the coiled-coil by only several pairs of residues. For both Ncd and kinesin-1, the force required to initiate the coiled-coil unwinding is larger than that required for unfolding of the single -helix that forms the coiled-coil or is larger than that required to unwind the DNA duplex, which is higher than the unbinding force of the kinesin head from the microtubule in strong microtubule-binding states. Based on these results and the comparison of the sequence between the coiled-coil of Kar3/Vik1 and those of Ncd and kinesin-1, it was deduced that the coiled-coil of the Kar3/Vik1 should also be very stable. Thus, we concluded that the coiled-coils of kinesin-1, Ncd and Kar3/Vik1 are almost impossible to unwind during their walking on the microtubule

A novel PCR strategy for high-efficiency, automated site-directed mutagenesis

We have developed a novel three-primer, one-step PCR-based method for site-directed mutagenesis. This method takes advantage of the fact that template plasmid DNA cannot be efficiently denatured at its reannealing temperature (T(ra)), which is otherwise a troublesome problem in regular PCR. Two flanking primers and one mutagenic primer with different melting temperatures (T(m)) are used together in a single PCR tube continuously without any intervention. A single-stranded mutagenic DNA (smDNA) is synthesized utilizing the high T(m) mutagenic primer at a high annealing temperature, which prevents the priming of the low T(m) primers (i.e. the two flanking primers). A megaprimer is then produced using this smDNA as the template at a denaturing temperature that prevents wild-type template DNA activity. The desired mutant DNA is then obtained by cycling again through these first two steps, resulting in a mutagenic efficiency of 100% in all tested cases. This highly automated method not only eliminates the necessity of any intermediate manipulation and accomplishes the mutagenesis process in a single round of PCR but, most notably, enables complete success of mutagenesis. This novel method is also both cost and time efficient and fully automated