Leishmania promastigotes evade interleukin 12 (IL-12) induction by macrophages and stimulate a broad range of cytokines from CD4+ T cells during initiation of infection.

Leishmania major are intramacrophage parasites whose eradication requires the induction of T helper 1 (Th1) effector cells capable of activating macrophages to a microbicidal state. Interleukin 12 (IL-12) has been recently identified as a macrophage-derived cytokine capable of mediating Th1 effector cell development, and of markedly enhancing interferon gamma (IFN-gamma) production by T cells and natural killer cells. Infection of macrophages in vitro by promastigotes of L. major caused no induction of IL-12 p40 transcripts, whereas stimulation using heat-killed Listeria or bacterial lipopolysaccharide induced readily detectable IL-12 mRNA. Using a competitor construct to quantitate a number of transcripts, a kinetic analysis of cytokine induction during the first few days of infection by L. major was performed. All strains of mice examined, including susceptible BALB/c and resistant C57BL/6, B10.D2, and C3H/HeN, had the appearance of a CD4+ population in the draining lymph nodes that contained transcripts for IL-2, IL-4, and IFN-gamma (and in some cases, IL-10) that peaked 4 d after infection. In resistant mice, the transcripts for IL-2, IL-4, and IL-10 were subsequently downregulated, whereas in susceptible BALB/c mice, these transcripts were only slightly decreased, and IL-4 continued to be reexpressed at high levels. IL-12 transcripts were first detected in vivo by 7 d after infection, consistent with induction by intracellular amastigotes. Challenge of macrophages in vitro confirmed that amastigotes, in contrast to promastigotes, induced IL-12 p40 mRNA. Reexamination of the cytokine mRNA at 4 d revealed expression of IL-13 in all strains analyzed, suggesting that IL-2 and IL-13 may mediate the IL-12-independent production of IFN-gamma during the first days after infection. Leishmania have evolved to avoid inducing IL-12 from host macrophages during transmission from the insect vector, and cause a striking induction of mRNAs for IL-2, IL-4, IL-10, and IL-13 in CD4+ T cells. Each of these activities may favor survival of the organism

Energy bands and Landau levels of ultracold fermions in the bilayer honeycomb optical lattice

We investigate the spectrum and eigenstates of ultracold fermionic atoms in the bilayer honeycomb optical lattice. In the low energy approximation, the dispersion relation has parabolic form and the quasiparticles are chiral. In the presence of the effective magnetic field, which is created for the system with optical means, the energy spectrum shows an unconventional Landau level structure. Furthermore, the experimental detection of the spectrum is proposed with the Bragg scattering techniques.Comment: To appear in Journal of Modern Optic

Trophic strategy of diverse methanogens across a river-to-sea gradient

Methanogens are an important biogenic source of methane, especially in estuarine waters across a river-to-sea gradient. However, the diversity and trophic strategy of methanogens in this gradient are not clear. In this study, the diversity and trophic strategy of methanogens in sediments across the Yellow River (YR) to the Bohai Sea (BS) gradient were investigated by high-throughput sequencing based on the 16S rRNA gene. The results showed that the diversity of methanogens in sediments varied from multitrophic communities in YR samples to specific methylotrophic communities in BS samples. The methanogenic community in YR samples was dominated by Methanosarcina, while that of BS samples was dominated by methylotrophic Methanococcoides. The distinct methanogens suggested that the methanogenic community of BS sediments did not originate from YR sediment input. High-throughput sequencing of the mcrA gene revealed that active Methanococcoides dominated in the BS enrichment cultures with trimethylamine as the substrate, and methylotrophic Methanolobus dominated in the YR enrichment cultures, as detected to a limited amount in in situ sediment samples. Methanosarcina were also detected in this gradient sample. Furthermore, the same species of Methanosarcina mazei, which was widely distributed, was isolated from the area across a river-to-sea gradient by the culture-dependent method. In summary, our results showed that a distribution of diverse methanogens across a river-to-sea gradient may shed light on adaption strategies and survival mechanisms in methanogens

Effects of different doses of melamine in the diet on melamine concentrations in milk, plasma, rumen fluid, urine and feces in lactating dairy cows

The objectives of this paper were to evaluate the effects of feeding diets containing different levels of melamine on melamine concentrations in milk, plasma, rumen fluid, urine and feces in Holstein dairy cows. Sixteen Chinese Holstein dairy cows fixed with permanent ruminal cannulas were assigned to 1 of 4 treatments within a completely randomized design for 10 days. Cows were fed different amounts of melamine {20 (group 1), 40 (group 2), 60 (group 3) or 80 (group 4) g/day/cow} once daily in the morning mixed with a melamine free basal diet for 7-days adaptation followed by 3-days urine and feces sample collections. Melamine was found in all samples tested and its concentration generally increased as dose increased in the diet. These results indicated that different doses of melamine in the diet could result in different concentrations of melamine in milk, plasma, rumen fluid, urine and feces. Data suggested that melamine primarily cleared by urinary excretion, followed by fecal excretion in lactating dairy cows. Mammary tissue was apparently not a major tissue to dispose melamine, especially when fed a relatively low dose (lower than 40 g/day/cow).Key words: Melamine, excretion, lactating dairy cow

香港民眾對局勢的評價及社會下層的危機

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Editorial: Understanding Chinese entrepreneurship from a historical perspective: What can we Learn from our Entrepreneurship heritage and How?

In this special issue, we have gathered a collection of a rather diverse, some may also argue, “unconventional”, set of articles utilising both knowledge from disciplines as well as utilising very different methodological approaches. The idea of this special issue was initially discussed with Dr Victor Zheng from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Dr Caleb Kwong from the University of Essex, back in 2013. Two more colleagues, Professor Wong Siu-lun from the University of Hong Kong and Cherry Cheung from the London South Bank University, soon came on board. We took the idea to Dr Jun Li, then the General Editor of the Journal of Chinese Entrepreneurship, and were encouraged to submit a draft proposal. The guest co-editors of this issue drafted several versions of the call-for-papers in consultation with the editors and other entrepreneurship researchers. We decided to focus on the following themes: “stay within the family”, “Chinese aboard”, “entrepreneurship under special conditions”, “law and order”, “culture and Chinese entrepreneurialism” and “studying Chinese entrepreneurship in history”. As the proposal for the special issue developed, we submitted it to the renamed Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies. We announced the call-for-papers in Summer 2014 and attracted a good number of interests. All the articles in this issue have gone through rounds of revision and resubmission. Our reviewers have also played a major part in shaping the contribution and direction of the articles. All the reviews are blinded, and we would like to thank the reviewers for their constructive feedback. For quality control, the allocations of reviewers for each of the research papers were conducted by an editor, including the General Editor, who was not involved in the paper. We would also like to thank Dr Jun Li, the General Editor, for the opportunity and his guidance. Finally, we thank our authors for their stimulating and engaging manuscripts. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited 2016 Published by Emerald Group Publishing Limite

Insufficient activity of MAPK pathway is a key monitor of Kidney-Yang Deficiency Syndrome.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the genetic characteristics and molecular regulator of Kidney-Yang Deficiency Syndrome (KDS). DESIGN: A typical KDS family was collected using a questionnaire of cold feeling and a 40-item scoring table of KDS based on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), by single-blind method repeated annually over three years. Their transcriptomes were assayed by microarray and validated by RT-PCR and ELISA. Simultaneously, 10 healthy volunteers were recruited as controls and the same protocols were performed. RESULTS: This typical KDS family has 35 members, of whom 11 were evaluated as having severe KDS and 6 as having common KDS. Results of the cDNA microarray revealed that there were 420 genes/expressed sequence tags differentially expressed in KDS transcriptomes, indicating a global functional impairment in the mass-energy-information carrying network of KDS patients, involving energy metabolism, signal transduction, development, cell cycle, and immunity. Pathway analysis by gene set enrichment assay (GSEA) and other tools demonstrated that mitogenic activated protein kinase (MAPK) is among the most insufficiently activated pathways, while the oxidative phosphorylation and glycolysis/gluconeogenesis pathways, the two main pathways relevant to ATP synthesis, were among the most excessively activated pathways in KDS patients. Results of RT-PCR and ELISA confirmed the status of insufficient activity of the MAPK pathway. CONCLUSION: KDS patients undergo overall attenuated functions in the mass-energy-information carrying network. The marked low level of energy output in KDS may be primarily attributed to the insufficient activity of the MAPK pathway, which may be a key monitor for the abnormal energy metabolism and other impaired activities in KDS.published_or_final_versio

Downregulation of endothelin (ET)-1 and interleukin (IL)-8 expression in human respiratory mucosa by Pseudomonas aeruginosa pyocyanin (pyo) and 1-hydroxy-phenazine (HP)

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Preface

Preface - The second International Conference on Mathematical Modeling in Physical Sciences (IC-MSQUARE) took place at Prague, Czech Republic, from Sunday 1 September to Thursday 5 September 2013