Maternal control of axial–paraxial mesoderm patterning via direct transcriptional repression in zebrafish

AbstractAxial–paraxial mesoderm patterning is a special dorsal–ventral patterning event of establishing the vertebrate body plan. Though dorsal–ventral patterning has been extensively studied, the initiation of axial–paraxial mesoderm pattering remains largely unrevealed. In zebrafish, spt cell-autonomously regulates paraxial mesoderm specification and flh represses spt expression to promote axial mesoderm fate, but the expression domains of spt and flh initially overlap in the entire marginal zone of the embryo. Defining spt and flh territories is therefore a premise of axial–paraxial mesoderm patterning. In this study, we investigated why and how the initial expression of flh becomes repressed in the ventrolateral marginal cells during blastula stage. Loss- and gain-of-function experiments showed that a maternal transcription factor Vsx1 is essential for restricting flh expression within the dorsal margin and preserving spt expression and paraxial mesoderm specification in the ventrolateral margin of embryo. Chromatin immunoprecipitation and electrophoretic mobility shift assays in combination with core consensus sequence mutation analysis further revealed that Vsx1 can directly repress flh by binding to the proximal promoter at a specific site. Inhibiting maternal vsx1 translation resulted in confusion of axial and paraxial mesoderm markers expression and axial–paraxial mesoderm patterning. These results demonstrated that direct transcriptional repression of the decisive axial mesoderm gene by maternal ventralizing factor is a crucial regulatory mechanism of initiating axial–paraxial mesoderm patterning in vertebrates

Assessment of the feasibility and coverage of a modified universal hearing screening protocol for use with newborn babies of migrant workers in Beijing

BACKGROUND: Although migrant workers account for the majority of newborns in Beijing, their children are less likely to undergo appropriate universal newborn hearing screening/rescreening (UNHS) than newborns of local non-migrant residents. We hypothesised that this was at least in part due to the inadequacy of the UNHS protocol currently employed for newborn babies, and therefore aimed to modify the protocol to specifically reflect the needs of the migrant population. METHODS: A total of 10,983 healthy babies born to migrant mothers between January 2007 and December 2009 at a Beijing public hospital were investigated for hearing abnormalities according to a modified UNHS protocol. This incorporated two additional/optional otoacoustic emissions (OAE) tests at 24–48 hours and 2 months after birth. Infants not passing a screening test were referred to the next test, until any hearing loss was confirmed by the auditory brainstem response (ABR) test. RESULTS: A total of 98.91% (10983/11104) of all newborn children underwent the initial OAE test, of which 27.22% (2990/10983) failed the test. 1712 of the failed babies underwent the second inpatient OAE test, with739 failing again; thus significantly decreasing the overall positive rate for abnormal hearing from 27.22% to 18.36% ([2990–973 /10983)]; p = 0). Overall, 1147(56.87%) babies underwent the outpatient OAE test again after1-month, of whom 228 failed and were referred for the second outpatient OAE test (i.e. 2.08% (228/10983) referral rate at 1month of age). 141 of these infants underwent the referral test, of whom 103 (73.05%) tested positive again and were referred for a final ABR test for hearing loss (i.e. final referral rate of 1.73% ([228-38/10983] at 2 months of age). Only 54 infants attended the ABR test and 35 (0.32% of the original cohort tested) were diagnosed with abnormal hearing. CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that it is feasible and practical to achieve high coverage rates for screening hearing loss and decrease the referral rates in newborn babies of migrant workers, using a modification of the currently employed UNHS protocol

Effects of Linpan nature therapy on health benefits in older women with and without hypertension

BackgroundNature therapy can significantly benefit the physiology and psychology of middle-aged and older people, but previous studies have focused on forest environments. The restoration potential of rural environments in urban fringe areas, which are more accessible to older people on a daily basis, has not been fully studied. This study assessed the effects of nature therapy on the physical and mental health of older women in a rural setting (locally known as Linpan) in the urban fringe area of Chengdu, China.MethodsWe recruited a total of 60 older women (65.3 ± 5.5 years old) living in cities for 3 days of nature therapy in the winter (30 subjects) and spring (30 subjects), including 20 hypertensive patients.ResultsThe results showed that the overall blood pressure, pulse and sleep dysfunction rating scores of the participants were significantly lower than the pretest levels, and the finger blood oxygen saturation, mid-day salivary alpha-amylase and cortisol were increased post-treatment. Increases in these biomarker indicates and increase in stress. There were significant differences in the changes in systolic blood pressure between the hypertension group (HTN) and the normal group (normal) (HTN decreased by 8.8%, normal decreased by 5.4%), salivary alpha-amylase content (HTN decreased by 0.3%, normal increased by 16.9%), and sleep dysfunction rating scores (HTN decreased by 59.6%, normal decreased by 54%). The decreases in systolic blood pressure and pulse in the winter group were higher than those in the spring group by 1.8 and 4.4%, respectively, while the increases in salivary alpha-amylase content and salivary cortisol content were lower than those in the spring group by 11.7 and 11.2%, respectively, and the decrease in sleep dysfunction rating scores was lower than that in the spring group by 7.1%.ConclusionOur study concluded that nature therapy based on various health activities in the Linpan has significant health effects on older women. It can regulate blood pressure and pulse in older women, relieve cardiovascular disease, improve sleep quality. Meanwhile, older women with high blood pressure experienced a more significant effect than the healthy group

Effects of forest spatial types, element compositions and forest stands on restorative potential and aesthetic preference

IntroductionAs global urbanization intensifies, the physical and mental stressors of modern life have led to the growing prevalence of suboptimal health conditions. Spending time in a forest benefits human health and well-being. In this context, based on the forest spatial types (forest interior and forest edge spaces), landscape elements (architecture, water and roads) and forest stands (coniferous, broadleaf and bamboo forests), this study investigated the effects of different forest spatial landscape characteristics on the restorative potential for college students, aesthetic preference and eye movement behavior (total fixation duration and fixation count).MethodsIn this study, a total of 60 subjects were exposed to 42 photographs depicting typical forest landscapes acquired through field studies. The Short-version Revised Restoration and Preference Scale and eye-tracking technology, were employed to study the recovery efficiency and visual attraction of forest spatial of different forest spatial types, element compositions and forest stands.Results(1) The restorative potential and aesthetic preference score of forest edge spaces were significantly higher than those of forest interior spaces. (2) The restorative potential of bamboo forests was significantly higher than those of coniferous and broadleaf forests. (3) In terms of forest interior space, the restorative potential of “forest + 1 element” composition and “forest + 2 elements” composition was significantly higher than that of pure forest, and the restorative potential of interior space of bamboo forest was significantly higher than those of coniferous and broadleaf forests. (4) In terms of forest edge space, the restorative potential of “forest + 2 elements” composition was significantly higher than that of pure forest, and the restorative potential of pure forests was significantly higher than that of the “forest + 1 element” composition. (5) The restorative potential of forest spatial landscape characteristics positively correlated with aesthetic preference and negatively correlated with total fixation duration and fixation count. These results can provide a reference for future forest landscape research, construction and management

A BAFF-R mutation associated with non-Hodgkin lymphoma alters TRAF recruitment and reveals new insights into BAFF-R signaling

A BAFF receptor mutation associated with non-Hodgkin lymphoma provides new insight into the proximal players of normal BAFF-R signaling

Neutrino Physics with JUNO

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), a 20 kton multi-purposeunderground liquid scintillator detector, was proposed with the determinationof the neutrino mass hierarchy as a primary physics goal. It is also capable ofobserving neutrinos from terrestrial and extra-terrestrial sources, includingsupernova burst neutrinos, diffuse supernova neutrino background, geoneutrinos,atmospheric neutrinos, solar neutrinos, as well as exotic searches such asnucleon decays, dark matter, sterile neutrinos, etc. We present the physicsmotivations and the anticipated performance of the JUNO detector for variousproposed measurements. By detecting reactor antineutrinos from two power plantsat 53-km distance, JUNO will determine the neutrino mass hierarchy at a 3-4sigma significance with six years of running. The measurement of antineutrinospectrum will also lead to the precise determination of three out of the sixoscillation parameters to an accuracy of better than 1\%. Neutrino burst from atypical core-collapse supernova at 10 kpc would lead to ~5000inverse-beta-decay events and ~2000 all-flavor neutrino-proton elasticscattering events in JUNO. Detection of DSNB would provide valuable informationon the cosmic star-formation rate and the average core-collapsed neutrinoenergy spectrum. Geo-neutrinos can be detected in JUNO with a rate of ~400events per year, significantly improving the statistics of existing geoneutrinosamples. The JUNO detector is sensitive to several exotic searches, e.g. protondecay via the $p\to K^++\bar\nu$ decay channel. The JUNO detector will providea unique facility to address many outstanding crucial questions in particle andastrophysics. It holds the great potential for further advancing our quest tounderstanding the fundamental properties of neutrinos, one of the buildingblocks of our Universe

RNA-dependent RNA polymerase-mediated antiviral defense and gene silencing

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the molecular mechanisms of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RDR)-mediated antiviral defense and gene silencing. Arabidopsis plants expressing a tobacco NtRDR1 transgene showed enhanced resistance to RNA viruses. Early induction of NtRDR1 transgene expression before virus challenge inhibited viral transcript accumulation both locally and systemically. 3\u27 truncated transcripts from the NtRDR1 transgene and a transgene with three direct repeats of GUS reporter gene were detected in rdr6 mutant plants but not in a wild-type genetic background, indicating an RNA degradation mechanism mediated by RDR6. A correlation between aberrant RNA production and RDR6-dependent RNA silencing was uncovered by directly comparing the GUS accumulation levels of various constructs. Aberrant RNA probably serves as a direct target of nuclear-localized RDR6 for dsRNA generation. In addition, long Arabidopsis cDNAs were efficiently suppressed in Arabidopsis plants in an RDR6-independent manner. Methylation inhibitor treatment enhanced RNA accumulation from the transgenes. No significant differences were observed in methylation status of the promoter that was used to drive expression of Arabidopsis cDNAs of various sizes. It is possible that methylation and other epigenetic modifications affect transcription elongation and therefore, suppress the expression of large transgenes

The strong and uniform ball-covering properties

In this paper, we first introduce the formal definitions of the strong ball-covering property (SBCP) and the uniform ball-covering property (UBCP) for Banach spaces which implicitly appeared in the papers of Cheng, Shi and Zhang [4] and Fonf and Zanco [5]. While the SBCP and the BCP are equivalent under renormings, we show that there exist Banach spaces with the BCP but failing the SBCP. We also construct a Banach space having the SBCP but without the UBCP. Then we prove that the SBCP and the UBCP for a Banach space X pass to ℓp(X) 1≤p≤∞ and Lp([0,1],X) (1≤p\u3c∞). Moreover, if E is a Banach space with an 1-unconditional basis (en), then Banach space X has the UBCP if and only if E(X) has the UBCP, where E(X) is the Banach space of sequences (xn)⊂X with ∑n‖xn‖en converging in E and ‖(xn)‖=‖∑n‖xn‖en‖