农业科学

以研究农业生产的目的和问题为任务的农业科学,其内容包括:土壤耕作、农作物的栽培和收获、牲畜饲养以及一定程度的农畜产品的商品加工。 哪里采用了科学方法,哪里就出现革新的农业。前科学(prescientific)农业,6个人除其自身以外,只能养活另外4人。如遇歉收连年,就仅仅只够本人糊口。科学研究的开展和先进技术的应用,只须5人从事农业生产,就足够养活自身以外的95人。农民已经能够提高按英亩和按每头牲畜计算的产量,可以减少虫害和其他损失。

Role of potassium in acid secretion

Potassium (K+) ions are critical for the activation and catalytic cycle of the gastric H+,K+-ATPase, resulting in the secretion of hydrochloric acid into the parietal cell canaliculus. As both symptom, severity and esophageal mucosal damage in gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) are related to the degree of acid exposure, K+ is a logical target for approaches to inhibit acid production.The probable K+ binding site on the gastric H+,K+-ATPase has recently been described and studies are elucidating how K+ activates the enzyme. K+ channels in the apical membrane of the parietal cell are implicated in the recycling of K+ and, to date, three potential K+ channels (KCNQ1, Kir2.1 and Kir4.1) have been identified. The channels represent theoretical sites for agents to control acid secretion but it will be difficult to develop selective blockers. An alternative strategy is to prevent K+ from activating gastric H+,K+-ATPase; the potassiumcompetitive acid blocker (P-CAB) class inhibits acidsecretion by binding at or near the K+ binding site.Ongoing research is further defining the role of K+ in the functioning of the gastric H+,K+-ATPase, as well as determining the clinical utility of agents directed toward this important cation.

Effect of Autophagy Over Liver Diseases

In recent years, increasingly evidences show that autophagy plays an important role in the pathogenesis and development of liver diseases, and the relationship between them has increasingly become a focus of concern. Autophagy refers to the process through which the impaired organelles, misfolded protein, and intruding microorganisms is degraded by lysosomes to maintain stability inside cells. This article states the effect of autophagy on liver diseases （hepatic fibrosis, fatty liver, viral hepatitis, and liver cancer）, which aims to provide a new direction for the treatment of liver diseases.

Prioritization of orphan disease-causing genes using topological feature and GO similarity between proteins in interaction networks

Identification of disease-causing genes among a large number of candidates is a fundamental challenge in human disease studies.However,it is still time-consuming and laborious to determine the real disease-causing genes by biological experiments.With the advances of the high-throughput techniques,a large number of protein-protein interactions have been produced.Therefore,to address this issue,several methods based on protein interaction network have been proposed.In this paper,we propose a shortest path-based algorithm,named SPranker,to prioritize disease-causing genes in protein interaction networks.Considering the fact that diseases with similar phenotypes are generally caused by functionally related genes,we further propose an improved algorithm SPGOranker by integrating the semantic similarity of gene ontology(GO)annotations.SPGOranker not only considers the topological similarity between protein pairs in a protein interaction network but also takes their functional similarity into account.The proposed algorithms SPranker and SPGOranker were applied to 1598 known orphan disease-causing genes from 172 orphan diseases and compared with three state-of-the-art approaches,ICN,VS and RWR.The experimental results show that SPranker and SPGOranker outperform ICN,VS,and RWR for the prioritization of orphan disease-causing genes.Importantly,for the case study of severe combined immunodeficiency,SPranker and SPGOranker predict several novel causal genes.

Discussion of Issues on Several Crucial Basic Study Directions of Agriculture in China

To solve those problems such as farmland deficiency, ecological environment deterioration, high consumption of resources with low efficiency, serious agricultural pollution, and lack of scientific and technological support for agriculture, the basic researches in breeding theories, serious birds epidemic diseases, agriculture protections, multiple information acquisition methods and diagnosis mechanisms in precision farming, quality formation process of crop produces, and mechanisms of nondestructive examination were explored in this paper, And the results could provide information resources to strengthen the scientific and technologyical support for agriculture and its sustainable development.

Development of artemisinin drugs in the treatment of autoimmune diseases

Artemisinin drugs are a family of sesquiterpene trioxane lactone agents originally derived from Artemisia annua L. Due to the big victory in the antimalarial battle,the 2015 Nobel Prize goes to the discoverer of artemisininbased therapy for malaria. Beyond antimalaria, artemisinin and its derivatives are also being investigated in diseases like schistosomiasis, viral infection, cancers and inflammation. Over the past decades, the anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects of artemisinin drugs have been comprehensively studied. In this article, we will briefly describe the development of artemisinin drugs, especially novel artemisinin derivatives, in the treatment of autoimmune diseases.

G protein-coupled receptors in energy homeostasis

G-protein coupled receptors(GPCRs)compromise the largest membrane protein superfamily which play vital roles in physiological and pathophysiological processes including energy homeostasis.Moreover,they also represent the up-to-date most successful drug target.The gut hormone GPCRs,such as glucagon receptor and GLP-1 receptor,have been intensively studied for their roles in metabolism and respective drugs have developed for the treatment of metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes(T2D).Along with the advances of biomedical research,more GPCRs have been found to play important roles in the regulation of energy homeostasis from nutrient sensing,appetite control to glucose and fatty acid metabolism with various mechanisms.The investigation of their biological functions will not only improve our understanding of how our body keeps the balance of energy intake and expenditure,but also highlight the possible drug targets for the treatment of metabolic diseases.The present review summarizes GPCRs involved in the energy control with special emphasis on their pathophysiological roles in metabolic diseases and hopefully triggers more intensive and systematic investigations in the field so that a comprehensive network control of energy homeostasis will be revealed,and better drugs will be developed in the foreseeable future.