Clinicopathological significance of B-cell-specific Moloney murine leukemia virus insertion site 1 expression in gastric carcinoma and its precancerous lesion

AIM： To explore the relation between B-cell-specific Moloney murine leukemia virus insertion site 1 （Bmi-1） expression and the clinicopathological features of gastric carcinoma （GC）.METHODS： Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of Bmi-1 and ki-67. Doublelabeling staining was used to display the distribution of Bcl-2^＋/ki-67 cells in 162 cases of GC and its matched normal mucosa and precancerous lesion.RESULTS： The positive rate of Bmi-1 expression in GC（52.5%） was significantly higher than that in normal gastric mucosa （21.6%, X^2 = 33.088, P 〈 0.05）. The Bmi-1 expression in GC was closely related with the Lauren＇s and Borrmann＇s classification and clinicalstage （X^2 = 4.400, 6.122 and 11.190, respectively, P〈 0.05）. The expression of ki-67 was related to the Borrmann＇s classification （X^2 = 13.380, P 〈 0.05）.Bcl-2 expression was correlated with the Lauren＇s classification （Z2 = 4.725, P 〈 0.05）, and the Bmi-1 expression both in GC （rk = 0.157, P 〈 0.05） and inintestinal metaplasia （rk = 0.270, P 〈 0.05）.CONCLUSION： Abnormal Bmi-1 expression in GCmay be involved in cell proliferation, apoptosis andcancerization. This marker can objectively indicate theclinicopathological characteristics of GC.

Development of Bioinfo-Portal Tool for the Analysis of Genomic and Proteomic Data

The recent explosion of biological data and the concomitant proliferation of distributed databases make it challenging for biologists and bioinformaticians to discover the best data resources for their needs, and the most efficient way to access and use them For the biologist, running bioinformatics analyses involve a time-consuming management of data and tools. Users need support to organize their work, retrieve parameters and reproduce their analyses. They also need to be able to combine their analytic tools using a safe data flow software mechanism. Finally we have designed a system, Bioinfo-Portal, to provide a flexible and usable web environment for defining and running bioinformatics analyses. It embeds simple yet powerful data management features that allow the user to reproduce analyses and to combine tools using an adobe flex tool. Bioinfo-Portal can also act as a front end to provide a unified view of already-existing collections of bioinformatics resources. Users can analyze genomic and proteomic data by using the tools that has been integrated in the portal （tools for alignments, dotplots, motif detection, domain analysis, profile searching and tertiary structure prediction）. The sequences that user obtained from portal＇s nucleotide and protein databases are easily analyzed by the portal tools on the same interface in no time. User can also take benefit from the animations.

Palynoflora of Wulaga dinosaur site in Jiayin(Zeya-Bureya Basin, China)

The palynological assemblage from Wulaga dinosaur site in Jiayin from southeastern Zeya-Bureya Basin was studied. The high content of pteridophytes spores is characteristic for this assemblage. The further characters are in decrease of abundance-tricolpate pollen, Ginkgocycadophytus, pollen of Taxodiaceae, Cupressaceae and Taxaceae (TCT), bisaccate pollen of Pinaceae, and triporate pollen. The bone-bearing burials of Wulaga dinosaur site formed under conditions of vast swampy river valley covered by ferns and taxodialeans. Tricolpate pollen, produced by plants, close to those of Platanaceae, Fagaceae, Betulaceae, and Juglandaceae, counts in favor of valley river open canopy forests.

Site-Floristic Variability of Foxteil Meadows in Poland

On the basis of multifaceted investigations of approximately 600 phytosociological surveys of foxtail meadows taken in years 2002-2012 in river valleys with the assistance of the Braun-Blanquet method, the authors carried out evaluation of the floristic composition with respect to phytosociological structure, floristic variability, degree of synanthropisation and life form structures. In addition, they ascertained the dependence of floristic variability of Alopecuretum pratensis phytocenoses on site conditions determined using： the phytoindication method and the laboratory analyses assessed the soil content of available forms of P and K and of Mg. The greatest areas among the recognised syntaxons are taken up by patches of a typical sub-association developed in fresh sites on soils of lightly acid reaction and moderate nitrogen availability. Floristic variability of Alopecuretum pratensis is characterised by： presence in the phytosociological structure of species characteristic for other syntaxons, floristic abundance and botanical structure, domination of species of the 1 st and 2nd degree of stability, high proportion of synanthropic species, values of the floristic diversity index （H＇）, natural and fodder score values. Geobotanical variability of foxtail meadows confirms difficulties with unequivocal determination of the systematic position of the Alopecuretum pratensis association.

Clay mineral assemblages at IODP Site U1340 in the Bering Sea and their paleoclimatic significance

Clay mineral assemblages and crystallinities in sediments from IODP Site 1340 in the Bering Sea were analyzed in order to trace sediment sources and reconstruct the paleoclimatic history of the Bering Sea since Pliocene （the last -4.3 Ma）. The re- sults show that clay minerals at Site U1340 are dominated by illite, with a moderate amount of smectite and chlorite, and minor kaolinite. Sediment source studies suggest that the clay mineral assemblages and their sources in the studied core are controlled primarily by the climate conditions. During the warm periods, clay minerals originated mainly from the adjacent Aleutian Is- lands, and smectite/（illite＋chlorite） ratios increased. During the cold periods, clay minerals from the Alaskan region distinctly increased, and smectite/（illite＋chlorite） ratios declined. Based on smectite/（illite＋chlorite） ratios and clay mineral crystallinities the evolutionary history of the paleoclimate was revealed in the Bering Sea. In general, the Bering Sea was characterized by warm and wet climate condition from 4.3 to 3.94 Ma, and then cold and dry condition associated with the enhanced volcanism from 3.94 to 3.6 Ma. Thereafter, the climate gradually became cold and wet, and then was dominated by a cold and dry condi- tion since 2.74 Ma, probably induced by the intensification of the Northern Hemisphere Glaciation. The interval from 1.95 to 1.07 Ma was a transitional period of the climate gradually becoming cold and wet. After the middle Pleistocene transition （1.07 to 0.8 Ma）, the Bering Sea was governed mainly by cold and wet climate with several intervals of warm climate at -0.42 Ma （MIS 11）, -0.33 Ma （MIS 9） and ~0.12 Ma （MIS 5）, respectively. During the last 9.21 ka （the Holocene）, the Bering Sea was characterized primarily by relatively warm and wet climatic conditions.