Global Transcriptional Analysis of Olfactory Genes in the Head of Pine Shoot Beetle, Tomicus yunnanensis

The most important proteins involved in olfaction include odorant binding protein (OBP), chemosensory protein (CSP), olfactory receptor (OR), and gustatory receptor (GR). Despite that the exhaustive genomic analysis has revealed a large number of olfactory genes in a number of model insects, it is still poorly understood for most nonmodel species. This is mostly due to the reason that the small antenna is challenging for collection. We can generally isolate one or few genes at a time by means of the traditional method. Here, we present the large-scale identifying members of the main olfactory genes from the head of Tomicus yunnanensis using Illumina sequencing. In a single run, we obtained over 51.8 million raw reads. These reads were assembled into 57,142 unigenes. Nearly 29,384 of them were functionally annotated in the NCBI nonredundant database. By depth analysis of the data, 11 OBPs, 8 CSPs, 18 ORs, and 8 GRs were retrieved. Sequences encoding full length proteins were further characterised for one OBP and two CSPs. The obtained olfactory genes provide a major resource in further unraveling the molecular mechanisms of T. yunnanensis chemoperception. This study indicates that the next generation sequencing is an attractive approach for efficient identification of olfactory genes from insects, for which the genome sequence is unavailable

Postoperative steroids after Kasai portoenterostomy for biliary atresia: A meta-analysis

AbstractAim: The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to determine if adjunct steroids affect jaundice-free, cholangitis, and survival rates after Kasai portoenterostomy. Methods: The literature was searched using the following terms: biliary atresia, portoenterostomy, steroids, glucocorticoids, dexamethasone, prednisolone, and hydrocortisone. The primary outcome was the jaundice-free rate. Secondary outcomes were cholangitis and survival rates. Results: Ten studies were included in the systematic review and 8 in the meta-analyses. Steroid treatment regimens were inconsistent between studies. The pooled odds ratio (OR) for the jaundice-free rate did not significantly favor steroid over non-steroid treatment (1.95; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.91–4.11; P = 0.087), nor did the pooled OR for the cholangitis rate (0.75; 95% CI: 0.48–1.17; P = 0.202). Overall survival ranged from 58 to 95% in the steroid group and from 36 to 96% in the control group. Native liver survival ranged from 30 to 56% in the steroid group and from 31 to 48% in the control group. The survival data were not suitable for meta-analysis. Conclusions: Although these results imply that adjunct steroids after Kasai portoenterostomy for BA may not improve jaundice-free or cholangitis rates, the quality of available evidence is limited and therefore not definitive. Additional high quality studies are needed

Numerical simulation and experimental study of aeolian sand load under aeolian sand environment

Concrete structures in a sandstorm environment suffer from sandstorm erosion for a long time, which reduces the durability of concrete buildings, and then threatens the safety of buildings. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to study the aeolian sand load under the aeolian sand environment. In this paper, by numerical simulation of the sand load on the surface of bridge and simulation test of the sand load on the surface of the concrete in the sand environment, the variation law of the sand load under different sand parameters is studied. Through comparative analysis, it is concluded that the variation law of aeolian sand load in numerical simulation and test tends to be consistent with the variation of aeolian sand velocity and sand content ratio