Oncogenic CARD11 mutations in human diffuse large B cell lymphoma

Diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. In the least curable (ABC) subtype of DLBCL, survival of the malignant cells is dependent on constitutive activation of the nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) signaling pathway. In normal B cells, antigen receptor-induced NF-kappaB activation requires CARD11, a cytoplasmic scaffolding protein. To determine whether CARD11 contributes to tumorigenesis, we sequenced the CARD11 gene in human DLBCL tumors. We detected missense mutations in 7 of 73 ABC DLBCL biopsies (9.6%), all within exons encoding the coiled-coil domain. Experimental introduction of CARD11 coiled-coil domain mutants into lymphoma cell lines resulted in constitutive NF-kappaB activation and enhanced NF-kappaB activity upon antigen receptor stimulation. These results demonstrate that CARD11 is a bona fide oncogenein DLBCL, providing a genetic rationale for the development of pharmacological inhibitors of the CARD11 pathway for DLBCL therapy.     

Strong electrical currents leave the primitive streak of chick embryos

The electrical fields above chick embryos were explored with a vibrating probe. These fields indicate that steady currents with exit densities of the order of 100 microamperes per square centimeter leave the whole streak and return elsewhere through the epiblast. The epicenter of these strong exit currents lies near Hensen's node. They are probably pumped into the intraembryonic space by the epiblast and then leak out of the streak because it is a zone of junctional disruption.     

Meiotic arrest in the mouse follicle maintained by a Gs protein in the oocyte

The mammalian ovarian follicle consists of a multilayered complex of somatic cells that surround the oocyte. A signal from the follicle cells keeps the oocyte cell cycle arrested at prophase of meiosis I until luteinizing hormone from the pituitary acts on the follicle cells to release the arrest, causing meiosis to continue. Here we show that meiotic arrest can be released in mice by microinjecting the oocyte within the follicle with an antibody that inhibits the stimulatory heterotrimeric GTP-binding protein Gs. This indicates that Gs activity in the oocyte is required to maintain meiotic arrest within the ovarian follicle and suggests that the follicle may keep the cell cycle arrested by activating Gs.     

Impact of Space Research on Science and Technology: Space techniques have provided new tools for science and applications

Science and technology are themselves a part of our modern culture. They contribute to the arts, furnish new media for human expression, provide better and new musical instruments and improved acoustics for enriched enjoyment of them, and give the artist new materials and techniques for his work. They enrich the humanities in furnishing man with a broader basis for understanding himself, his potentialities, and his place in nature. The historian has a better approach to his subject because of scientific methodology. The archeologist has a surer grasp on temporal relationships because of the tools that physics and chemistry give him for dating materials and identifying their sources. Slowly, an entire world absorbs the increased understanding of man and nature that science generates, and reflects that understanding in its literature, its social, political, and economic institutions, and its application to human daily living. Today, much of the world's population is aware of the world as a body of a solar system in a galaxy among millions of other galaxies. These people can conceive of man in a historical and cosmological perspective that did not exist in centuries past. As this understanding and these concepts spread to more and more of the world's people, it may be hoped that this common bond of understanding will not only give increased motivation to solve peaceably the problems that beset the world, but will also provide increased means for doing so.     

基于3D-CDF（2,2）和3D SPIHT的序列图像压缩编码研究

研究了3D DWT和3D SPIHT算法,用CDF（2,2）双正交小波为帧内小波变换的小波基,考虑到边界延拓效应,时间维小波变换也选用CDF（2,2）双正交小波为时间维小波变换的小波基,实验结果表明算法对于视频序列图像压缩是非常有效的,其压缩效果明显优于基于3D-DCT的压缩编码算法.     

Testing Usability of Butylated Hydroxytoluene in Conservation of Goat Semen

The objective of this study was to investigate whether butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) could be used as a suitable supporter or alternative of egg yolk during preservation of goat spermatozoa. Three in vitro experiments and a fertility test were conducted to evaluate the effect of BHT on viability of chilled‐stored semen as well as motility and kidding rate of frozen‐thawed spermatozoa. In the first two experiments, ejaculates (n = 30/experiment) were collected from 10 bucks, split, diluted with egg yolk‐based and egg yolk‐free extenders supplemented with or without 0.3, 0.6, 2, 5 and 8 mm BHT and stored at 5°C for 168 h. In the third experiment, 30 ejaculates were collected from the above‐mentioned bucks, split and diluted with egg yolk‐free extenders supplemented with or without 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 mm BHT and egg yolk‐based extenders supplemented with or without 5 mm BHT. Diluted semen was cooled to 5°C over a period of 4 h, frozen and thawed in the form of 0.3‐ml pellets. In the fertility test, 75 ejaculates were collected from two proven fertile bucks, split, diluted with egg yolk‐free extenders containing 0.6 mm BHT and egg yolk‐based extenders supplemented with or without 5 mm BHT, frozen and thawed as described above. An insemination volume of 0.6 ml containing 120–140 × 10⁶ progressively motile spermatozoa was used for a single cervical insemination of cloprostenol‐synchronized does (n = 230). The results showed that addition of 5 mm BHT to egg yolk‐deficient (2.5%) extenders significantly improved viability of chilled‐stored semen together with motility (48.5%) and fertility (62.5%) of frozen‐thawed spermatozoa. Replacement of egg yolk in semen extenders by 0.6 mm BHT could sustain not only viability of chilled‐stored semen but also post‐thaw motility (47.5%) and fertility (53.75%) of frozen‐thawed spermatozoa. In conclusion, supplementation of semen diluents with BHT can ameliorate preservability of goat sperm.     

The epidemiology of AIDS: current status and future prospects

The reported incidence of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) continues to increase in countries throughout the world. On the basis of a polynomial model for extrapolation, the cumulative number of cases diagnosed and reported since 1981 in the United States is expected to double during the next year with over 12,000 additional cases projected to be diagnosed by July 1986. The annual incidence rates for single (never-married) men in Manhattan and San Francisco, intravenous drug users in New York City and New Jersey, and persons with hemophilia A ranged from 261 to 350 per 100,000 population during 1984. For single men aged 25 to 44 years in Manhattan and San Francisco, AIDS was the leading cause of premature mortality in 1984 as measured by years of potential life lost. Infection with HTLV-III/LAV is considerably more common than reported AIDS in high-risk populations and can persist at least for several years, so the presence of specific antibody should be considered presumptive evidence of current infection. The screening of donated blood and plasma for antibody to HTLV-III/LAV and use of safer clotting factor concentrates should greatly reduce HTLV-III/LAV transmission through blood and blood products. Most HTLV-III/LAV infections occur through sexual transmission, use of contaminated needles, and as a result of infected mothers passing the virus to newborns. Continued research commitment is needed to develop an HTLV-III/LAV vaccine and therapy for this infection. In the interim, widespread community efforts are needed to minimize transmission.     

Epidemiology of HIV infection and AIDS in the United States

By the end of 1987, nearly 50,000 cases of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) had been reported since 1981, 20,745 in the past year alone. Black and Hispanic adults and children have reported rates 3 to 12 times as high as whites. This can be largely attributed to higher reported rates in black and Hispanic intravenous (IV) drug abusers, their sex partners, and infants. In 1986, reported AIDS deaths increased adult male and female mortality in the United States by an estimated 0.7 and 0.07%, respectively, with much greater increases in selected age groups or areas of the country. The greatest variation in infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (0 to 70%) has been found in surveys of IV drug abusers, while surveys of homosexual men reveal infection rates of 20 to 50%. Infection with HIV ranged from 0 to 2.6% in limited sexually transmitted disease clinic surveys of heterosexual men and women without a history of IV drug abuse or known sexual contact with persons at increased risk. The modes of HIV transmission are now well understood, but a large amount of biologic variability in efficiency of transmission remains to be explained. The period between initial infection with HIV and the development of AIDS is variable, but the risk for disease progression increases with duration of infection.     

A "Schrodinger Cat" Superposition State of an Atom

A "Schrodinger cat"-like state of matter was generated at the single atom level. A trapped 9Be+ ion was laser-cooled to the zero-point energy and then prepared in a superposition of spatially separated coherent harmonic oscillator states. This state was created by application of a sequence of laser pulses, which entangles internal (electronic) and external (motional) states of the ion. The Schrodinger cat superposition was verified by detection of the quantum mechanical interference between the localized wave packets. This mesoscopic system may provide insight into the fuzzy boundary between the classical and quantum worlds by allowing controlled studies of quantum measurement and quantum decoherence.