Variation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigen-specific IFN-γ and IL-17 responses in healthy tuberculin skin test (TST)-positive human subjects.

ObjectiveTo determine the variation of IFN-γ and IL-17 responses to M. tuberculosis antigens in healthy TST+ humans.MethodsWe isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 21 TST+ healthy adults, stimulated them with phytohemagglutinin (PHA), PPD, Ag85B, ESAT-6, and live M. bovis BCG, and assayed IFN-γ and IL-17 secretion by ELISA in supernatants after 24 or 72 hours of incubation respectively.ResultsAs in other studies, we found a wide range of IFN-γ responses to M. tuberculosis antigens; the variation significantly exceeded that observed in the same donors to the polyclonal T cell stimulus, phytohemagglutinin (PHA). In addition, we assayed IL-17 secretion in response to the same stimuli, and found less subject-to-subject variation. Analysis of the ratio of IFN-γ to IL-17 secretion on a subject-to-subject basis also revealed a wide range, with the majority of results distributed in a narrow range, and a minority with extreme results all of which were greater than that in the majority of subjects. The data suggest that study of exceptional responses to M. tuberculosis antigens may reveal immunologic correlates with specific outcomes of M. tuberculosis infection.ConclusionVariation of IFNγ and IFN-γ/IL-17 responses to mycobacterial antigens exceeds that of responses to the polyclonal stimulus, PHA, in TST positive healthy humans. This indicates a quantitative spectrum of human immune responses to infection with M. tuberculosis. Since the outcome of human infection with M. tuberculosis varies greatly, systematic study of multiple immune responses to multiple antigens is likely to reveal correlations between selected immune responses and the outcomes of infection

Taxonomic studies on the subtribe Aphrastobraconina Ashmead (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Braconinae) in China

The species of the subtribe Aphrastobraconina Ashmead from China were studied and five species belonging to three genera (Undabracon Quicke, 1986, Curriea Ashmead, 1900 and Aphrastobracon Ashmead, 1896) recognized. Three new species (Undabracon cariniventris sp. n., Aphrastobracon huanjiangensis sp. n. and A. politus sp. n.) are fully described and illustrated. The genus Undabracon (Quicke, 1986), the species Aphrastobracon flavipennis Ashmead and Curriea tibialis (Ashmead) are reported for the first time from China. A key to the species of the genus Undabracon is provided

Metasurface-mediated anisotropic radiative heat transfer between nanoparticles

Metasurfaces, the two-dimensional (2D) counterpart of metamaterials, have recently attracted a great attention due to their amazing properties such as negative refraction, hyperbolic dispersion, manipulation of the evanescent spectrum. In this work, we propose a theory model for the near field radiative heat transfer (NFRHT) between two nanoparticles in the presence of an anisotropic metasurface. Specifically, we set the metasurface as an array of graphene strips (GS) since it is an ideal platform to implement any metasurface topology, ranging from isotropic to hyperbolic propagation. We show that the NFRHT between two nanoparticles can not only be significantly amplified when they are placed in proximity of the GS, but also be regulated over several orders of magnitude. In this configuration, the anisotropic surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) supported by the GS are excited and provide a new channel for the near-field energy transport. We analyze how the conductance between two nanoparticles depends on the orientation, the structure parameters and the chemical potential of the GS, on the particle-surface or the particle-surface distances by clearly identifying the characteristics of the anisotropic SPPs such as dispersion relations, propagation length and decay length. Our findings provide a powerful way to regulate the energy transport in the particle systems, meanwhile in turn, open up a way to explore the anisotropic optical properties of the metasurface based on the measured heat transfer properties.Comment: 17 pages, 8figures, Journa

Cloning and selection of reference genes for gene expression studies in Ananas comosus

Full length mRNA sequences of Ac-β-actin and Ac-gapdh, and partial mRNA sequences of Ac-18SrRNA and Ac-ubiquitin were cloned from pineapple in this study. The four genes were tested as housekeeping genes in three experimental sets. GeNorm and NormFinder analysis revealed that β-actin was the most appropriate reference gene for qPCR analysis of callus under induction conditions and in different tissue types, meanwhile, 18SrRNA was the most stable reference gene during organ development. Gapdh was the most unstable gene in all tested experimental sets. Transcript level analysis result of AcSERK1 in stressed callus normalized by β-actin and 18SrRNA further confirmed that reference genes selected in this study were suitable for transcript level analysis of pineapple. The expression pattern of AcSERK1 during somatic embryogenesis normalized by β-actin coincided with the cytological features of calluses during somatic embryogenesis. These results will enable more accurate and reliable normalization of qPCR results for transcription analysis in pineapple. Keywords: Reference genes, qPCR, pineapple, geNorm, NormFinder African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 11(29), pp. 7424-7433, 10 April, 201

Spindle oscillations are generated in the dorsal thalamus and modulated by the thalamic reticular nucleus

Spindle waves occur during the early stage of slow wave sleep and are thought to arise in the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN), causing inhibitory postsynaptic potential spindle-like oscillations in the dorsal thalamus that are propagated to the cortex. We have found that thalamocortical neurons exhibit membrane oscillations that have spindle frequencies, consist of excitatory postsynaptic potentials, and co-occur with electroencephalographic spindles. TRN lesioning prolonged oscillations in the medial geniculate body (MGB) and auditory cortex (AC). Injection of GABA~A~ antagonist into the MGB decreased oscillation frequency, while injection of GABA~B~ antagonist increased spindle oscillations in the MGB and cortex. Thus, spindles originate in the dorsal thalamus and TRN inhibitory inputs modulate this process, with fast inhibition facilitating the internal frequency and slow inhibition limiting spindle occurrence

A homogenous nature of native Chinese duck matrilineal pool

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>China, with around 30 unique breeds, has a diverse duck genetic pool. Currently, there is no systematic report which investigates the genetic diversity, phylogenetic relationship, and matrilineal genetic structure of these domestic breeds and wild mallards (<it>Anas platyrhynchos</it>).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study, we sequenced the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region segments in 278 domestic ducks (<it>Anas platyrhynchos domestica</it>) from 19 indigenous breeds/populations and 70 wild mallard samples and analyzed them together with the 101 control region sequences from published sources. Fifty-two samples were then sequenced for a cytochrome <it>b </it>(Cyt <it>b</it>) gene fragment to solidify the pattern emerged from the control region sequences. All domestic duck and wild mallard haplotypes were essentially indistinguishable and were clustered together in the phylogenetic tree. There was no geographic differentiation and breed/population-specific distribution of duck lineages.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results showed that unlike other domesticated farm animals in China such as chicken, cattle, goat, and yak with multiple matrilineal components, the matrilineal pool of Chinese ducks was homogenous.</p

EPAK: A Computational Intelligence Model for 2-level Prediction of Stock Indices

This paper proposes a new computational intelligence model for predicting univariate time series, called EPAK, and a complex prediction model for stock market index synthesizing all the sector index predictions using EPAK as a kernel. The EPAK model uses a complex nonlinear feature extraction procedure integrating a forward rolling Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) for financial time series signal analysis and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for dimension reduction to generate information-rich features as input to a new two-layer K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) with Affinity Propagation (AP) clustering for prediction via regression. The EPAK model is then used as a kernel for predicting each of all the sector indices of the stock market. The sector indices predictions are then synthesized via weighted average to generate the prediction of the stock market index, yielding a complex prediction model for the stock market index. The EPAK model and the complex prediction model for stock index are tested on real historical financial time series in Chinese stock index including CSI 300 and ten sector indices, with results confirming the effectiveness of the proposed models