Serum Vitamin E Reference Intervals in a Black Congolese Population of Kinshasa

Context: Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant and plays an important role in human reproduction. However, micronutrient deficiency is a major public health problem, particularly in developing countries. This study aimed to establish reference intervals (RIs) for vitamin E in black Congolese people of childbearing age using an ELISA method to provide a reference for clinically assessing vitamin E status. Methods: A total of 127 healthy people between the ages of 20 and 42 who underwent check-ups were randomly selected for the study. ELISA method measured the level of vitamin E. The effect of gender on vitamin E level was assessed, and RI was established using a parametric approach. Results: Women showed significantly higher levels of vitamin E than men (p = 0.01). The RI of vitamin E in people of childbearing age was 3.71 to 13.72, 4.52 to 14.64, and 4.17 to 13.52 mg/L, respectively, for the whole population, women and men. Conclusion: Using an ELISA method, this study established RI for vitamin E in the black Congolese population of childbearing age. We also found that women had significantly higher vitamin E levels than men. The results could provide a scientific basis for interpreting vitamin status in people of childbearing age in our setting.

科研课题伦理审查中遇到的问题及其对策

通过分析科研课题伦理审查中遇到的关于时机、选择方式、研究方案、跟踪审查的问题,并提出了相应的解决对策:申报程序规范化,方式选择多样化,研究方案标准化,跟踪审查严格化。旨在提高科研课题的伦理审查质量,完善伦理审查体系。

导弹飞行测试吊舱遥测遥控系统设计与实现

空空导弹研制过程需要进行一系列空中系留飞行试验,以解决导弹制导系统对真实目标的截获跟踪能力。导弹飞行测试吊舱作为飞行试验中能将目标的GPS信息、可见光以及红外图像实时采集的设备在系留飞行试验中显得尤为重要。作为吊舱的重要组成部分遥测遥控系统负责将目标和背景的信息实时传送并显示在主控计算机中,并且将地面人员的遥控指令实时传送给吊舱中心控制单元,完成了整个试验数据上行和下传。实际应用结果表明,该系统具有较高的可靠性和可扩展性,完全满足导弹飞行测试吊舱的需要。

Insulin-mimetic compound hexaquis(benzylammonium) decavanadate is antilipolytic in human fat cells

AIM To assess in rodent and human adipocytes the antilipolytic capacity of hexaquis(benzylammonium) decavanadate(B6V10), previously shown to exert antidiabetic effects in rodent models, such as lowering free fatty acids(FFA) and glucose circulating levels.METHODS Adipose tissue(AT) samples were obtained after informed consent from overweight women undergoing plastic surgery. Comparison of the effects of B6V10 and reference antilipolytic agents(insulin,benzylamine,vanadate) on the lipolytic activity was performed on adipocytes freshly isolated from rat, mouse and human AT. Glycerol release was measured using colorimetric assay as an index of lipolytic activity. The influence of B6V10 and reference agents on glucose transport into human fat cells was determined using the radiolabelled 2-deoxyglucose uptake assay.RESULTS In all the species studied, B6V10 exhibited a dosedependent inhibition of adipocyte lipolysis when triglyceride breakdown was moderately enhanced by β-adrenergic receptor stimulation. B6V10 exerted on human adipocyte a maximal lipolysis inhibition of glycerol release that was stronger than that elicited by insulin. However, B6V10 did not inhibit basal and maximally stimulated lipolysis. When incubated at dose ≥ 10 μmol/L, B6V10 stimulated by twofold the glucose uptake in human fat cells, but-similarly to benzylamine-without reaching the maximal effect of insulin, while it reproduced one-half of the insulin-stimulation of lipogenesis in mouse fat cells. CONCLUSION B6V10 exerts insulin-like actions in adipocytes, including lipolysis inhibition and glucose transport activation. B6V10 may be useful in limiting lipotoxicity related to obesity and insulin resistance.

A Hybrid Reconfigurable Antenna Design for Cognitive Radio System—Combination of Sensing and Reconfigurable Antennas

This paper presents a modification of an existing cognitive antenna design which contains two antennas: one is a sensing that covers the band from 1 - 11 GHz and the other is a hybrid triangular reconfigurable antenna. Two antennas are combined together to create a new design which called Cognitive Antenna. The new shape of the reconfigurable antenna will affect the cognitive antenna so as to work at two different frequencies via rotation by 180°. At each rotation, the antenna takes single frequency from number of possible frequencies that sensing antenna would find.

Ocular surface squamous neoplasia resistant to topical interferon alpha 2b in a patient with follicular lymphoma

Dear Editor,Treatment for ocular surface squamous neoplasia(OSSN)includes topical mitomycin C(MMC),5-fluorouracil(5-FU)and interferon(IFN)-alpha 2b eyedrops[1-2].Compared to other treatments,such as mitomycin C(MMC),IFN-alpha 2b is well tolerated and causes fewer side effects[1-2].

GRID Activities in ALICE

The challenge of LHC computing,with data rates in the range of several PB/year,requires the development of GRID technologies,to optimize the exploitation of distributed computing power and the authomatic access to distributed data storage.In the framework of the EU-DataGrid project,the ALICE experiment is one of the selected test applications for the early development and implementation of GRID Services.Presently,about 15 ALICE sites are makin use of available GRID tools and a large scale test production involving 9 of them was carried out with our simulation program.Results are discussed in detail,as well as future plans.

日益提高的中小企业环境性能与环保产品宣言指标

在关于改善环境的科学与政策讨论中,最经常提到的话题之一就是如何使小型和中等规模的企业参与进来.……

Timing and regulation of hematopoietic stem cell colonization of the human fetal bone marrow by endothelial and CAR stromal cells during pregnancy

The bone marrow(BM)contains the major reservoir of immature and maturing hematopoietic and immune cells throughout adult life while also harboring most hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells(HSPCs).BM-retained hematopoietic stem cells(HSCs)are mostly maintained in a quiescent,non-motile mode.A small fraction of BM-retained HSPC daily proliferate,differentiate,and migrate to the circulation,to replenish the blood with new immature and maturing blood and(all)immune(both myeloid and lymphoid)cells with a finite life span.1 The anti-coagulation and anti-inflammatory receptor EPCR is also functionally expressed by primitive BM-retained HSCs which are endowed with the highest competitive long-term repopulation potential(LT-HSC).Only BM-retained,quiescent EPCR-positive LT-HSCs are protected from DNA damaging insults including clinical chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

Health effects of air pollution:a Southern European perspective

Objective:To summarize the main updated evidence about the health effects of air pollution,with a special focus on Southern Europe.Data sources:Literature was obtained through PubMed Central and the official websites of European Agencies and Scientific Societies.Study selection:Recent shreds of evidence about the health effects of air pollution coming from international reports and original research were collected and described in this review.Results:Air pollution is an avoidable risk factor that causes a huge burden for society,in terms of death,health disorders,and huge socio-economic costs.The southern European countries face a more threatening problem because they experience the effects of both anthropogenic pollutants and natural dusts(particulate matter[PM]).The European Environment Agency reported the number of premature deaths in the 28 countries of the European Union attributable to air pollutant exposure in the year 2016:374,000 for PM2.5,68,000 for nitrogen dioxide,and 14,000 for ozone.In Italy,time series and analytical epidemiological studies showed increased cardiorespiratory hospital admissions and mortality,as well as increased risk of respiratory diseases in people living in urban areas.Conclusions:Based on abundant evidence,the World Health Organization,which hosts the Global Alliance against Chronic Respiratory Diseases(GARD),the scientific respiratory societies,and the patients’associations,as well as others in the health sector,must increase their engagement in advocacy for clean air policies.

Controlling self-assembling and tumor cell-targeting of protein-only nanoparticles through modular protein engineering

Modular protein engineering is suited to recruit complex and multiple functionalities in single-chain polypeptides. Although still unexplored in a systematic way, it is anticipated that the positioning of functional domains would impact and refine these activities, including the ability to organize as supramolecular entities and to generate multifunctional protein materials. To explore this concept, we have repositioned functional segments in the modular protein T22-GFP-H6 and characterized the resulting alternative fusions. In T22-GFP-H6, the combination of T22 and H6 promotes selfassembling as regular nanoparticles and selective binding and internalization of this material in CXCR4-overexpressing tumor cells, making them appealing as vehicles for selective drug delivery. The results show that the pleiotropic activities are dramatically affected in module-swapped constructs, proving the need of a carboxy terminal positioning of H6 for protein self-assembling, and the accommodation of T22 at the amino terminus as a requisite for CXCR4^+ cell binding and internalization. Furthermore, the failure of self-assembling as regular oligomers reduces cellular penetrability of the fusions while keeping the specificity of the T22-CXCR4 interaction.All these data instruct how multifunctional nanoscale protein carriers can be designed for smart, protein-driven drug delivery, not only for the treatment of CXCR4^+ human neoplasias, but also for the development of anti-HIV drugs and other pathologies in which CXCR4 is a relevant homing marker.

Roles of the human microbiome in cancer

All external surfaces and internal mucosae of the human body are inhabited by rich microbial ecosystems,collectively known as the human microbiome.These microbial communities,formed by bacteria,archaea,fungi,protozoa and viruses interact among them and with our own physiology in ways that we are still far from understand.

The evolving species concepts used for yeasts:from phenotypes and genomes to speciation networks

Here we review how evolving species concepts have been applied to understand yeast diversity.Initially,a phenotypic species concept was utilized taking into consideration morphological aspects of colonies and cells,and growth profiles.Later the biological species concept was added,which applied data from mating experiments.Biophysical measurements of DNA similarity between isolates were an early measure that became more broadly applied with the advent of sequencing technology,leading to a sequence-based species concept using comparisons of parts of the ribosomal DNA.At present phylogenetic species concepts that employ sequence data of rDNA and other genes are universally applied in fungal taxonomy,including yeasts,because various studies revealed a relatively good correlation between the biological species concept and sequence divergence.The application of genome information is becoming increasingly common,and we strongly recommend the use of complete,rather than draft genomes to improve our understanding of species and their genome and genetic dynamics.Complete genomes allow in-depth comparisons on the evolvability of genomes and,consequently,of the species to which they belong.Hybridization seems a relatively common phenomenon and has been observed in all major fungal lineages that contain yeasts.Note that hybrids may greatly differ in their post-hybridization development.Future in-depth studies,initially using some model species or complexes may shift the traditional species concept as isolated clusters of genetically compatible isolates to a cohesive speciation network in which such clusters are interconnected by genetic processes,such as hybridization.

Making Canonical Workflow Building Blocks Interoperable across Workflow Languages

We introduce the concept of Canonical Workflow Building Blocks(CWBB),a methodology of describing and wrapping computational tools,in order for them to be utilised in a reproducible manner from multiple workflow languages and execution platforms.The concept is implemented and demonstrated with the BioExcel Building Blocks library(BioBB),a collection of tool wrappers in the field of computational biomolecular simulation.Interoperability across different workflow languages is showcased through a protein Molecular Dynamics setup transversal workflow,built using this library and run with 5 different Workflow Manager Systems(WfMS).We argue such practice is a necessary requirement for FAIR Computational Workflows and an element of Canonical Workflow Frameworks for Research(CWFR)in order to improve widespread adoption and reuse of computational methods across workflow language barriers.

Trends in yeast diversity discovery

Yeasts,usually defined as unicellular fungi,occur in various fungal lineages.Hence,they are not a taxonomic unit,but rather represent a fungal lifestyle shared by several unrelated lineages.Although the discovery of new yeast species occurs at an increasing speed,at the current rate it will likely take hundreds of years,if ever,before they will all be documented.Many parts of the earth,including many threatened habitats,remain unsampled for yeasts and many others are only superficially studied.Cold habitats,such as glaciers,are home to a specific community of cold-adapted yeasts,and,hence,there is some urgency to study such environments at locations where they might disappear soon due to anthropogenic climate change.The same is true for yeast communities in various natural forests that are impacted by deforestation and forest conversion.Many countries of the so-called Global South have not been sampled for yeasts,despite their economic promise.However,extensive research activity in Asia,especially China,has yielded many taxonomic novelties.Comparative genomics stud-ies have demonstrated the presence of yeast species with a hybrid origin,many of them isolated from clinical or industrial environments.DNA-metabarcoding studies have demonstrated the prevalence,and in some cases dominance,of yeast species in soils and marine waters worldwide,including some surprising distributions,such as the unexpected and likely common presence of Malassezia yeasts in marine habitats.

Correction to:The evolving species concepts used for yeasts:from phenotypes and genomes to speciation networks

The name of the second author was incorrectly captured in the initial online publication,and due to an error at the proofs stage,several proof corrections had been left undone.The original online article has been corrected.