The Applications and Obstacles of Metabonomics in Traditional Chinese Medicine

In the recent years, a wide range of metabonomic technologies are widely used in the modern research of traditional chinese medicine (TCM). At present, the most prevailing methods for TCM research are mainly nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). With these techniques, metabonomics will help to understand syndromes, efficacy and toxicity of TCM. However, every analytical technique has its advantages and drawbacks, and there exist some obstacles of its applications on TCM. So, we discuss metabonomics in TCM and analyze some problems of its applications to study TCM in recent years. We believe that with the further development of metabonomic analytical technology, especially multianalysed techniques, metabonomics will greatly promote TCM research and be beneficial to the modernization of TCM

PHTrans: Parallelly Aggregating Global and Local Representations for Medical Image Segmentation

The success of Transformer in computer vision has attracted increasing attention in the medical imaging community. Especially for medical image segmentation, many excellent hybrid architectures based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and Transformer have been presented and achieve impressive performance. However, most of these methods, which embed modular Transformer into CNNs, struggle to reach their full potential. In this paper, we propose a novel hybrid architecture for medical image segmentation called PHTrans, which parallelly hybridizes Transformer and CNN in main building blocks to produce hierarchical representations from global and local features and adaptively aggregate them, aiming to fully exploit their strengths to obtain better segmentation performance. Specifically, PHTrans follows the U-shaped encoder-decoder design and introduces the parallel hybird module in deep stages, where convolution blocks and the modified 3D Swin Transformer learn local features and global dependencies separately, then a sequence-to-volume operation unifies the dimensions of the outputs to achieve feature aggregation. Extensive experimental results on both Multi-Atlas Labeling Beyond the Cranial Vault and Automated Cardiac Diagnosis Challeng datasets corroborate its effectiveness, consistently outperforming state-of-the-art methods. The code is available at: https://github.com/lseventeen/PHTrans.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

ARTICLE Shielding calculation for the CSNS target station

In this paper we firstly calculate the one-dimension shielding models to give the basic data for the Chinese Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) target station. Then the three-dimensional shielding calculations have been performed for the detailed design of the CSNS target station. The gaps and void spaces in the CSNS target station are considered for precise estimation. We find that 4.8-meter-radius steel adding 1.2-meter-thick magnetite concrete can satisfy the shielding requirement in the horizontal direction. The dose rate on the top of the ceiling is a little higher than 2.5 Sv/h due to streaming effect, which originates from the moderator transfer lines. A thin sandwich structure will be adopted for decreasing residual radioactivity dose rate on the altitude directions after considering the engineering cost and maintenance. All these calculations lie on the Monte Carlo simulation code MCNPX2.5.0

Mechanism of Beraprost Effects on Pulmonary Hypertension: Contribution of Cross-Binding to PGE2 Receptor 4 and Modulation of O2 Sensitive Voltage-Gated K+ Channels

Background: The purpose of this study is to elucidate mechanism(s) by which the orally active PGI2 analog, Beraprost (BPS), ameliorates pulmonary hypertension (PH). Prostaglandins are an important treatment for PH. Mechanisms of their action are not fully elucidated in relation to receptor subtype and effects on O2 sensitive Kv channels.Methods: Distal (3rd order and beyond) pulmonary arteries from chronically hypoxic rats and from humans with established PH were studied. Measurements included pulmonary haemodynamics and histology, vascular reactivity, prostanoid receptor expression and activity of the O2 sensitive Kv channels.Results: Prostacyclin receptor (IP), prostaglandin receptor E3 (EP3) and prostaglandin receptor E4 (EP4) are the main pulmonary artery receptor subtypes in both rat and human pulmonary arteries. Circulating levels of PGI2 and PGE2 were reduced in PH. PH was also associated with reduced receptor expression of IP but not of EP4. The effects on IP expression were overcome with BPS. Dilatory responses in PH to BPS were reduced in the presence of EP4 blockade. Expression and activity of oxygen sensitive Kv channels were reduced in pulmonary artery smooth muscle cell from rats with PH and humans with PAH and were also overcome by administration of BPS. Effects of BPS on oxygen sensitive Kv channels were reduced in the presence of EP4 blockade implicating the EP4 receptor, as well as the IP receptor, in mediating BPS effects.Conclusion: Reduced expression of pulmonary IP receptors and reduced activity of O2 sensitive Kv channels are found in PH in both humans and rats. The orally active prostacyclin analogue, BPS, is able to reverse these changes, partly through binding to the EP4 receptor

Genome-wide SNP identification for the construction of a high-resolution genetic map of Japanese flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) : applications to QTL mapping of Vibrio anguillarum disease resistance and comparative genomic analysis

High-resolution genetic maps are essential for fine mapping of complex traits, genome assembly, and comparative genomic analysis. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are the primary molecular markers used for genetic map construction. In this study, we identified 13,362 SNPs evenly distributed across the Japanese flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) genome. Of these SNPs, 12,712 high-confidence SNPs were subjected to high-throughput genotyping and assigned to 24 consensus linkage groups (LGs). The total length of the genetic linkage map was 3,497.29 cM with an average distance of 0.47 cM between loci, thereby representing the densest genetic map currently reported for Japanese flounder. Nine positive quantitative trait loci (QTLs) forming two main clusters for Vibrio anguillarum disease resistance were detected. All QTLs could explain 5.1-8.38% of the total phenotypic variation. Synteny analysis of the QTL regions on the genome assembly revealed 12 immune-related genes, among them 4 genes strongly associated with V. anguillarum disease resistance. In addition, 246 genome assembly scaffolds with an average size of 21.79 Mb were anchored onto the LGs; these scaffolds, comprising 522.99 Mb, represented 95.78% of assembled genomic sequences. The mapped assembly scaffolds in Japanese flounder were used for genome synteny analyses against zebrafish (Danio rerio) and medaka (Oryzias latipes). Flounder and medaka were found to possess almost one-to-one synteny, whereas flounder and zebrafish exhibited a multi-syntenic correspondence. The newly developed high-resolution genetic map, which will facilitate QTL mapping, scaffold assembly, and genome synteny analysis of Japanese flounder, marks a milestone in the ongoing genome project for this species.Peer reviewe

Porcine FcγRIIb Mediates Enhancement of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus (PRRSV) Infection

Antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) of virus infection caused by the uptake of virus-antibody complexes by FcγRs is a significant obstacle to the development of effective vaccines to control certain human and animal viral diseases. The activation FcγRs, including FcγRI and FcγRIIa have been shown to mediate ADE infection of virus. In the present paper, we showed that pocine FcγRIIb, an inhibitory FcγR, mediates ADE of PRRSV infection. Stable Marc-145 cell lines expressing poFcγRIIb (Marc-poFcγRII) were established. The relative yield of progeny virus was significantly increased in the presence of sub-neutralization anti-PRRSV antibody. The Fab fragment and normal porcine sera had no effect. Anti-poFcγRII antibody inhibited the enhancement of infection when cells were infected in the presence of anti-PRRSV antibody, but not when cells were infected in the absence of antibody. These results indicate that enhancement of infection in these cells by anti-PRRSV virus antibody is FcγRII-mediated. Identification of the inhibitory FcγR mediating ADE infection should expand our understanding of the mechanisms of pathogenesis for a broad range of infectious diseases and may open many approaches for improvements to the treatment and prevention of such diseases

The late Eocene rise of SE Tibet formed an Asian ‘Mediterranean’ climate

Southeastern (SE) Tibet forms the transition zone between the high interior Tibetan Plateau and the lowlands of southwest China. So understanding the elevation history of SE Tibet, a biodiversity hotspot, enlightens our understanding of the interactions between tectonics, monsoon dynamics and biodiversity. Here we reconstruct the uplift history of the Markam Basin, SE Tibet, during the middle−late Eocene based on U − Pb dating, plant fossil assemblages, and stable and clumped isotope analyses. Our results suggest that the floor of the Markam Basin was at an elevation of 2.6 ± 0.9 km between 42 Ma and 39 Ma, where the mean annual air temperature (MAAT) was 13.2 ± 2.4 °C. The basin then rose rapidly to 3.8 (+0.6/−0.8) km before 36 Ma. Integrated with existing paleoelevation data, we propose that the high plateau boundary (∼3.0 km) of SE Tibet formed during the late Eocene. Numerical climate modeling with realistic paleo-landscapes shows that with the rise of SE Tibet, a Mediterranean-like climate developed in the region characterized by bi-modal precipitation with two wet seasons in boreal spring and autumn. The high topographic relief of SE Tibet, coupled with this distinctive Mediterranean-like climate system, helped develop the high biodiversity of the Hengduan Mountains

The genome and transcriptome of Japanese flounder provide insights into flatfish asymmetry

Flatfish have the most extreme asymmetric body morphology of vertebrates. During metamorphosis, one eye migrates to the contralateral side of the skull, and this migration is accompanied by extensive craniofacial transformations and simultaneous development of lopsided body pigmentation(1-5). The evolution of this developmental and physiological innovation remains enigmatic. Comparative genomics of two flatfish and transcriptomic analyses during metamorphosis point to a role for thyroid hormone and retinoic acid signaling, as well as phototransduction pathways. We demonstrate that retinoic acid is critical in establishing asymmetric pigmentation and, via cross-talk with thyroid hormones, in modulating eye migration. The unexpected expression of the visual opsins from the phototransduction pathway in the skin translates illumination differences and generates retinoic acid gradients that underlie the generation of asymmetry. Identifying the genetic underpinning of this unique developmental process answers long-standing questions about the evolutionary origin of asymmetry, but it also provides insight into the mechanisms that control body shape in vertebrates.National Natural Science Foundation of China [31130057, 31461163005, 31530078, 31472269, 31472262, 31472273]; State 863 High Technology R&D Project of China [2012AA092203, 2012AA10A408, 2012AA10A403-2]; Education and Research of Guangdong Province [2013B090800017]; Taishan Scholar Climb Project Fund of Shandong of China; Taishan Scholar Project Fund of Shandong of China for Young Scientists; Shanghai Universities First-class Disciplines Project of Fisheries; Program for Professor of Special Appointment (Eastern Scholar) at the Shanghai Institutions of Higher Learning; Shanghai Municipal Science, Special Project on the Integration of Industryinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio