ATM activation by oxidative stress

The ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) protein kinase is activated by DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) through the Mre11-Rad50-Nbs1 (MRN) DNA repair complex and orchestrates signaling cascades that initiate the DNA damage response. Cells lacking ATM are also hypersensitive to insults other than DSBs, particularly oxidative stress. We show that oxidation of ATM directly induces ATM activation in the absence of DNA DSBs and the MRN complex. The oxidized form of ATM is a disulfide-cross-linked dimer, and mutation of a critical cysteine residue involved in disulfide bond formation specifically blocked activation through the oxidation pathway. Identification of this pathway explains observations of ATM activation under conditions of oxidative stress and shows that ATM is an important sensor of reactive oxygen species in human cells.     

狗脊髓动脉分布

将加有红色颜料的乳胶注入狗的脊髓动脉,肉眼观察脊髓外部动脉的分布。结果表明:脊髓外部动脉包括伸延于脊髓腹正中裂内的脊髓腹侧动脉和沿脊髓背外侧沟分布的两条脊髓背外侧动脉。自上述脊髓动脉发出分支分布于脊髓表面,即脊髓周缘支。周缘支互相吻合,形成脊髓表面的动脉网。动脉网的分支穿入脊髓内部,供应深部结构。脊髓背外侧动脉也直接发出穿支,深入脊髓。脊髓腹侧动脉向腹正中裂中发出沟动脉,沟动脉分支再穿入脊髓内部。脊髓背外侧动脉和脊髓腹侧动脉由来自枕动脉、椎动脉、颈深动脉、胸背动脉、肋间动脉、腰动脉和荐外侧动脉的脊髓支一根动脉分支构成。构成类型有多种形式。本文还将狗脊髓动脉的分布特征与人类脊髓动脉的分布特征进行了比较和讨论。     

Neuronal generation of the leech swimming movement

The swimming movement of the leech is produced by an ensemble of bilaterally symmetric, rhythmically active pairs of motor neurons present in each segmental ganglion of the ventral nerve cord. These motor neurons innervate the longitudinal muscles in dorsal or ventral sectors of the segmental body wall. Their duty cycles are phase-locked in a manner such that the dorsal and ventral body wall sectors of any given segment undergo an antiphasic contractile rhythm and that the contractile rhythms of different segments form a rostrocaudal phase progression. This activity rhythm is imposed on the motor neurons by a central swim oscillator, of which four bilaterally symmetric pairs of interneurons present in each segmental ganglion appear to constitute the major component. These interneurons are linked intra- and intersegmentally via inhibitory connections to form a segmentally iterated and inter-segmentally concatenated cyclic neuronal network. The network appears to owe its oscillatory activity pattern to the mechanism of recurrent cyclic inhibition.     

A primitive T cell-independent mechanism of intestinal mucosal IgA responses to commensal bacteria

The immunoglobulin A (IgA) is produced to defend mucosal surfaces from environmental organisms, but host defenses against the very heavy load of intestinal commensal microorganisms are poorly understood. The IgA against intestinal commensal bacterial antigens was analyzed; it was not simply "natural antibody" but was specifically induced and responded to antigenic changes within an established gut flora. In contrast to IgA responses against exotoxins, a significant proportion of this specific anti-commensal IgA induction was through a pathway that was independent of T cell help and of follicular lymphoid tissue organization, which may reflect an evolutionarily primitive form of specific immune defense.     

Contributions of the visual ventral pathway to long-range apparent motion

Objects displaced intermittently across the visual field will nonetheless give an illusion of continuous motion [called apparent motion (AM)] under many common conditions. It is believed that form perception is of minor importance in determining AM, and that AM is mediated by motion-sensitive areas in the "where" pathway of the cortex. However, form and motion typically interact in specific ways when natural objects move through the environment. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure cortical activation to long-range AM, compared to short-range AM and flicker, while we varied stability of structural differences between forms. Long-range AM activated the anterior-temporal lobe in the visual ventral pathway, and the response varied according to the form stability. The results suggest that long-range AM is associated with neural systems for form perception.     

Structure of HP1 chromodomain bound to a lysine 9-methylated histone H3 tail

The chromodomain of the HP1 family of proteins recognizes histone tails with specifically methylated lysines. Here, we present structural, energetic, and mutational analyses of the complex between the Drosophila HP1 chromodomain and the histone H3 tail with a methyllysine at residue 9, a modification associated with epigenetic silencing. The histone tail inserts as a beta strand, completing the beta-sandwich architecture of the chromodomain. The methylammonium group is caged by three aromatic side chains, whereas adjacent residues form discerning contacts with one face of the chromodomain. Comparison of dimethyl- and trimethyllysine-containing complexes suggests a role for cation-pi and van der Waals interactions, with trimethylation slightly improving the binding affinity.     

Functional compartmentalization and viewpoint generalization within the macaque face-processing system

Primates can recognize faces across a range of viewing conditions. Representations of individual identity should thus exist that are invariant to accidental image transformations like view direction. We targeted the recently discovered face-processing network of the macaque monkey that consists of six interconnected face-selective regions and recorded from the two middle patches (ML, middle lateral, and MF, middle fundus) and two anterior patches (AL, anterior lateral, and AM, anterior medial). We found that the anatomical position of a face patch was associated with a unique functional identity: Face patches differed qualitatively in how they represented identity across head orientations. Neurons in ML and MF were view-specific; neurons in AL were tuned to identity mirror-symmetrically across views, thus achieving partial view invariance; and neurons in AM, the most anterior face patch, achieved almost full view invariance.     

Induction of APOBEC3G ubiquitination and degradation by an HIV-1 Vif-Cul5-SCF complex

Human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) Vif is essential for viral evasion of host antiviral factor CEM15/APOBEC3G. We report that Vif interacts with cellular proteins Cul5, elongins B and C, and Rbx1 to form an Skp1-cullin-F-box (SCF)-like complex. The ability of Vif to suppress antiviral activity of APOBEC3G was specifically dependent on Cul5-SCF function, allowing Vif to interact with APOBEC3G and induce its ubiquitination and degradation. A Vif mutant that interacted with APOBEC3G but not with Cul5-SCF was functionally inactive. The Cul5-SCF was also required for Vif function in distantly related simian immunodeficiency virus mac. These results indicate that the conserved Cul5-SCF pathway used by Vif is a potential target for antiviral development.     

Crystal structure of human toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) ectodomain

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play key roles in activating immune responses during infection. The human TLR3 ectodomain structure at 2.1 angstroms reveals a large horseshoe-shaped solenoid assembled from 23 leucine-rich repeats (LRRs). Asparagines conserved in the 24-residue LRR motif contribute extensive hydrogen-bonding networks for solenoid stabilization. TLR3 is largely masked by carbohydrate, but one face is glycosylation-free, which suggests its potential role in ligand binding and oligomerization. Highly conserved surface residues and a TLR3-specific LRR insertion form a homodimer interface in the crystal, whereas two patches of positively charged residues and a second insertion would provide an appropriate binding site for double-stranded RNA.     

Structure of hexameric DnaB helicase and its complex with a domain of DnaG primase

The complex between the DnaB helicase and the DnaG primase unwinds duplex DNA at the eubacterial replication fork and synthesizes the Okazaki RNA primers. The crystal structures of hexameric DnaB and its complex with the helicase binding domain (HBD) of DnaG reveal that within the hexamer the two domains of DnaB pack with strikingly different symmetries to form a distinct two-layered ring structure. Each of three bound HBDs stabilizes the DnaB hexamer in a conformation that may increase its processivity. Three positive, conserved electrostatic patches on the N-terminal domain of DnaB may also serve as a binding site for DNA and thereby guide the DNA to a DnaG active site.     

基于3S技术的北京市植被覆盖空间格局变化研究

处理三期Landsatrim影像,计算NDVI,利用等密度模型提取植被覆盖度并通过计算景观指标对植被覆盖变化分析。分析表明：北京市植被覆盖程度整体呈下降趋势。全植被覆盖斑块面积整体下降,分布趋于离散;高植被覆盖斑块面积减少,形状趋于复杂;中植被覆盖斑块面积整体增加,有团聚分布趋势;低植被覆盖斑块面积显著增加,有团聚分布趋势;无植被覆盖斑块面积稍有上升,破碎度高,有团聚分布趋势。     

Microscale patchiness of nutrients in plankton communities

Autoradiography was used to identify the presence of nutrient patches produced by zooplankton. Algal cells which encounter patches of phosphorus-33 released by swimming animals accumulate more label than cells that do not enter the patches. Differential labeling of algae does not occur when turbulence in the fluid is increased by stirring. Nutrient patchiness at the scale of millimeters or less in nature probably influences the course of competition and coexistence among the phytoplankton.     

祁连山东段缀块水平冰雪景观变化的研究

采用美国陆地资源卫星两期卫星遥感图像,从缀块水平研究了祁连山东段地区1994-2008年的冰雪景观变化.研究结果表明,2008年祁连山东段地区冰雪景观与1994年同期相比,缀块总数量缩减了28.2%;冰雪景观总面积减少了19.6%;冰雪景观总体形状趋于复杂,10~100 hm2和1 000 hm2以上的缀块形状复杂度变大,<1hm2和100~1 000 hm2的缀块形状变化不显著;冰雪景观的总体破碎度减小,连接度增大,景观稳定性增加.     

基于人脸检测的视频压缩

本文在研究监控系统的视频图像压缩基础上,提出了给予人脸对象分割的视频压缩。首先利用运动信息分割出入体轮廓,并综合运用人体的特征与形态数学的方法成功地分离出入脸大致区域;然后采用基于改进统计彩色信息模型方法,精确分割出入脸区域,去掉了不相关的冗余信息;最后提出了利用图像小波变换结合差分链码技术描述了人脸对象,并实现了高效的视频压缩。本文提出的视频压缩算法在同等压缩效率下,与MPEG-2算法相比提高了图像PSNR近3dB,而且经过本算法处理的视频序列,可以方便地用于人脸检测,为基于内容的检测打下良好的基础。     

The 46{degrees} Halo and Its Arcs

Ice crystals in the form of right hexagonal prisms have faces that form 90 degrees prisms. Light rays were traced through these prism faces by computer calculation, and the light patterns that would be produced in the sky for a particular distribution of crystal orientations were simulated. Crystals with random orientations produce a 46 degrees halo. Hexagonal plate crystals with nearly horizontal end faces produce circumzenithal and circumhorizontal arcs. Hexagonal column crystals with horizontal axes produce supralateral and infralateral arcs. Plate crystals spinning about a horizontal axis that is a face diagonal of the crystal produce a series of arcs touching the 46 degrees halo. Each of these effects was simulated for several elevations of the sun.     

Ocular dominance column development: analysis and simulation

The visual cortex of many adult mammals has patches of cells that receive inputs driven by the right eye alternating with patches that receive inputs driven by the left eye. These ocular dominance patches (or "columns") form during early life as a consequence of competition between the activity patterns of the two eyes. A mathematical model of several biological mechanisms that can account for this development is presented. Analysis of this model reveals the conditions under which ocular dominance segregation will occur and determines the resulting patch width. Simulations of the model also exhibit other phenomena associated with early visual development, such as topographic refinement of cortical receptive fields, the confinement of input cell connections to patches, monocular deprivation plasticity including a critical period, and the effect of artificially induced strabismus. The model can be used to predict the results of proposed experiments and to discriminate among various mechanisms of plasticity.     

稻谷腹部、背部微观结构差异性分析

【目的】从微观角度对糙米腹部、背部的结构差异性进行研究,从宏观角度对糙米的三点弯曲破碎力学性能进行研究,以建立微观结构与宏观力学性能之间的相关关系,为稻谷籽粒裂纹起始于腹部建立理论依据。【方法】对两个品种糙米横截面的腹部、背部在淀粉粒和细胞层次以及糊粉层进行扫描电镜观察,采用三点弯曲法测试糙米的破碎力学性能。【结果】糙米腹部、背部微观结构在淀粉粒、细胞层次以及糊粉层均存在差异,籽粒腹部、背部微观结构的差异对其腹部、背部的结构强度产生影响,使籽粒腹部的结构强度小于背部,与力学测试性能一致,并且腹部、背部微观断裂形式亦存在差异。【结论】稻谷籽粒在解吸和吸湿条件下裂纹起始于腹部与其腹部结构强度小于背部有关。     

Gamma-secretase gene mutations in familial acne inversa

Acne inversa (AI), also known as hidradenitis suppurativa, is a chronic, recurrent, inflammatory disease of hair follicles that often runs in families. We studied six Chinese families with features of AI as well as additional skin lesions on back, face, nape, and waist and found independent loss-of-function mutations in PSENEN, PSEN1, or NCSTN, the genes encoding essential components of the γ-secretase multiprotein complex. Our results identify the γ-secretase component genes as the culprits for a subset of familial AI, implicate the γ-secretase-Notch pathway in the molecular pathogenesis of AI, and demonstrate that familial AI can be an allelic disorder of early-onset familial Alzheimer's disease.     

Differentiation stage-specific inhibition of the Raf-MEK-ERK pathway by Akt

Extracellular signals often result in simultaneous activation of both the Raf-MEK-ERK and PI3K-Akt pathways (where ERK is extracellular-regulated kinase, MEK is mitogen-activated protein kinase or ERK kinase, and PI3K is phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase). However, these two signaling pathways were shown to exert opposing effects on muscle cell hypertrophy. Furthermore, the PI3K-Akt pathway was shown to inhibit the Raf-MEK-ERK pathway; this cross-regulation depended on the differentiation state of the cell: Akt activation inhibited the Raf-MEK-ERK pathway in differentiated myotubes, but not in their myoblast precursors. The stage-specific inhibitory action of Akt correlated with its stage-specific ability to form a complex with Raf, suggesting the existence of differentially expressed mediators of an inhibitory Akt-Raf complex.