Dynamic Studies of Scaffold-dependent Mating Pathway in Yeast

The mating pathway in \emph{Saccharomyces cerevisiae} is one of the best understood signal transduction pathways in eukaryotes. It transmits the mating signal from plasma membrane into the nucleus through the G-protein coupled receptor and the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade. According to the current understandings of the mating pathway, we construct a system of ordinary differential equations to describe the process. Our model is consistent with a wide range of experiments, indicating that it captures some main characteristics of the signal transduction along the pathway. Investigation with the model reveals that the shuttling of the scaffold protein and the dephosphorylation of kinases involved in the MAPK cascade cooperate to regulate the response upon pheromone induction and to help preserving the fidelity of the mating signaling. We explored factors affecting the dose-response curves of this pathway and found that both negative feedback and concentrations of the proteins involved in the MAPK cascade play crucial role. Contrary to some other MAPK systems where signaling sensitivity is being amplified successively along the cascade, here the mating signal is transmitted through the cascade in an almost linear fashion.Comment: 36 pages, 9 figure

A Note about the General Meromorphic Solutions of the Fisher Equation

We employ the complex method to obtain the general meromorphic solutions of the Fisher equation, which improves the corresponding results obtained by Ablowitz and Zeppetella and other authors (Ablowitz and Zeppetella, 1979; Feng and Li, 2006; Guo and Chen, 1991), and wg,i(z) are new general meromorphic solutions of the Fisher equation for c=±5i/6. Our results show that the complex method provides a powerful mathematical tool for solving great many nonlinear partial differential equations in mathematical physics

The effect of personalized intervention on the cognitive function of elderly inpatients

目的  对住院老年患者进行早期认知功能护理干预，评价其效果。方法  2013年1月—2015年1月入院老年科病房的120名患者，运用MMSE量表对其认知功能进行评价，观察干预效果。结果  MMSE总分及MMSE量表中时间定向、短期记忆及插画条目干预后有改善（P＜0.05），地点定向、语言记忆、注意力、物品命名、语言复述、阅读能力、语言能力及语言表达条目改善不明显（P＞0.05）。 结论  个性化的认知干预能够延缓和改善患者认知功能障碍，提高老年患者的生活质量。Objectives: To assess the effect of the early cognitive function nursing intervention on the cognitive function of elderly inpatients. Methods: A total of 120 elderly inpatients in geriatrics ward were rolled from January 2013 to January 2015, and we evaluate the cognitive function of them and gave personalized intervention to them by MMSE scale. Results: The total score of MMSE was increased (P＜0.05); The entries of time orientation, short-term memory and illustration were improved significantly after three-month intervention (P＜0.05); The entries of place orientation, language, memory, attention, article name, repeat language, reading skills, language skills and language were not improved significantly. Conclusions:  Personalized cognitive intervention could improve the cognitive dysfunction and the quality of life of elderly patients

TIDE: adjuvant tislelizumab plus donafenib combined with transarterial chemoembolization for high-risk hepatocellular carcinoma after surgery: protocol for a prospective, single-arm, phase II trial

BackgroundThe high recurrence rate of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after surgery negatively affects the prognosis of patients. There is currently no widely accepted adjuvant therapy strategy for patients with HCC. A clinical study of effective adjuvant therapy is still needed.MethodsIn this prospective, single-arm, phase II clinical trial, an adjuvant regimen of donafenib plus tislelizumab combined with transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) will be used to treat enrolled HCC patients after surgery. Briefly, patients newly diagnosed with HCC by pathological examination who underwent curative resection and had a single tumor more than 5 cm in diameter with microvascular invasion as detected by pathological examination are eligible. The primary endpoint of the study is the recurrence-free survival (RFS) rate at 3 years, and secondary endpoints are the overall survival (OS) rate and the incidence of adverse events (AEs). The planned sample size, 32 patients, was calculated to permit the accumulation of sufficient RFS events in 3 years to achieve 90% power for the RFS primary endpoint.DiscussionVascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)/programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) pathways regulate the relevant immunosuppressive mechanisms of HCC recurrence. Our trial will evaluate the clinical benefit of adding donafenib plus tislelizumab to TACE in patients with early-stage HCC and a high risk of recurrence.Clinical trial registrationwww.chictr.org.cn, identifier ChiCTR2200063003

Inhibition of CASK Expression by Virus-mediated RNA Interference in Medial Prefrontal Cortex Affects Social Behavior in the Adult Mouse

Article信州医学雑誌 69(1): 45-52(2021)journal articl