Molecular cloning of the duck MyoG and MRF4 genes coding region sequence and their differential expression patterns in the breast and leg muscle during fetal development

The MyoG and MRF4 genes encode for transcription factors that play key roles in muscle formation during embryonic and fetal development. Due to the unique functions of these two genes, they have a specific expression pattern in the same muscle tissues. In order to investigate the different developmental expression patterns of the two genes, the coding region sequences of duck MyoG and MRF4 were cloned and their mRNA expression patterns in the duck breast and leg muscles were measured using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). The duck MyoG and MRF4 both have a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) domain with high homology to several other species. In addition, there is a low homology region at the carboxy-terminus of these two proteins. The mRNA expression of MyoG reaches a peak at embryonic day 14 (E14d) in both the breast muscle and the leg muscle of duck. The peak mRNA expression of MRF4 appears at E14d in the breast muscle and at E18d in the leg muscle. The expression patterns of MyoG and MRF4 were different between the breast muscle and the leg muscle of duck. In the fetal duck, the leg muscle develops earlier than the breast muscle, which may better accommodate the newborn duck to a new environment postnatally.Key words: Duck, MyoG and MRF4, expression pattern, fetal development

Prevalence, pattern and determinants of radiographic hand osteoarthritis in five Russian community-based samples

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the study was to evaluate the prevalence and pattern of radiographic hand osteoarthritis (OA) and its association with age, sex, body mass index (BMI), and place of residence in five Russian community-based samples.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional observational study: The study population comprised ethnic Russians [821 males and 1076 females, aged 18-90 (mean 46.2+/-15.3)], living in five different geographic areas. OA was evaluated for 14 joints of the left hand according to the Kellgren and Lawrence grading scheme. Statistical analyses included prevalence estimation, logistic and generalized model regressions, and chi(2) tests.

RESULTS

We present extensive data on the prevalence of radiographic hand OA in a total Russian sample. After the age of 65, 98.5% of males and 96.8% of females had at least one affected joint. In individuals younger than 50, OA was most prevalent in the metacarpophalangeal joints, and after age 50, was most prevalent in the distal interphalangeal joints. Prevalence of hand OA was significantly higher in males than in females in ages 35-50. After adjustment for age, age(2) and place of residence, there were no associations between prevalence or severity of hand OA and BMI.

CONCLUSIONS

Significant differences in prevalence and severity of hand OA were found between the Russian samples living in different geographic areas. Additional studies are needed to discover the mechanism defining the association between places of residence and development of hand OA.

Urodynamic Study of Bladder Function for Patients with Lumbar Spinal Stenosis Treated by Surgical Decompression

Lumbar spinal stenosis usually leads to different degrees of nerve damage, presenting with back and leg pain, and/or neurogenic bladder symptoms. To determine whether lumbar decompression improved urological function, bladder dysfunction was evaluated in this retrospective study of 26 patients with lumbar spinal stenosis who had undergone lumbar decompression surgery. Urodynamic study procedures were performed pre-operatively and 6 months post-operatively. The Japanese Orthopaedic Association score rating system and Oswestry Disability Index were employed for clinical evaluation. Following surgery, post-voiding residual urine, maximum cystometric capacity and maximum flow rate improved significantly. There was no statistically significant improvement in voided volume, bladder compliance, maximum detrusor pressure or upper urinary tract damage. Urodynamic study was important in the diagnosis of neurogenic bladder dysfunction, prevention of renal deterioration and assessment of post-operative effects after surgical decompression for patients with lumbar spinal stenosis.

Oxidative LDL modification is increased in vascular dementia and is inversely associated with cognitive performance

It is not known whether the association between increased plasma homocysteine (Hcy) associated with LDL modification and propensity for LDL uptake by macrophages in cardiovascular disease patients holds true in vascular dementia (VaD). Plasma from 83 subjects diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (AD), VaD, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and from controls was analysed to examine (1) whether LDL isolated from the plasma of VaD is biochemically and functionally distinct from that isolated from AD, MCI or controls; and (2) whether such biomarkers of LDL phenotype are related to plasma folate levels, Hcy levels and/or to disease severity. Folate and vitamin B6 levels were significantly lower in VaD subjects than in controls. VaD-LDL showed increased protein carbonyl content (p < 0.05) and was more susceptible to scavenging by macrophages (p < 0.05) than AD- or control-LDL. Patients from the VaD cohort were more prevalent in the lowest tertile for HDL:LDL and the upper tertile for LDL oxidation; the combined parameters of HDL cholesterol, LDL oxidation and scavenging by macrophages show 87% sensitivity towards VaD detection. The association between folate deficiency, LDL modification and dysfunction in VaD but not in AD may provide a novel biomarker assessment to discriminate between the diseases.

Morphine preconditioning reduces lipopolysaccharide and interferon-gamma-induced mouse microglial cell injury via delta 1 opioid receptor activation

Microglial cells play an important role in the inflammatory response of a broad range of brain diseases including stroke, brain infection and neurodegenerative diseases. However, there is very little information regarding how to protect microglial cells. Here, we showed that incubation of the C8-B4 mouse microglial cells with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) plus interferon-gamma (IFN gamma) induced cytotoxicity as assessed by the amount of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) released from the cells. Preconditioning the cells with morphine for 30 min concentration-dependently reduced LPS plus IFN gamma-induced cell injury. This morphine preconditioning effect was abolished by naloxone, a general opioid receptor antagonist, by naltrindole, a selective delta opioid receptor antagonist and by 7-benzylidenenaltrexone maleate, a selective delta(1) opioid receptor antagonist. However, this protective effect was not affected by beta-funaltrexamine, a selective mu opioid receptor antagonist, nor-binaltorphimine, a selective kappa opioid receptor antagonist or naltriben, a selective delta(2) opioid receptor antagonist. LPS plus IFN gamma induced the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), which was not affected by morphine preconditioning. Our results suggest that morphine induced a preconditioning effect in microglial cells. This effect may be mediated by delta 1 opioid receptors and may not be through inhibiting the expression of iNOS, a potentially harmful protein.

Texture classification using refined histogram

In this correspondence, we propose a novel, efficient, and effective Refined Histogram (RH) for modeling the wavelet subband detail coefficients and present a new image signature based on the RH model for supervised texture classification. Our RH makes use of a step function with exponentially increasing intervals to model the histogram of detail coefficients, and the concatenation of the RH model parameters for all wavelet subbands forms the so-called RH signature. To justify the usefulness of the RH signature, we discuss and investigate some of its statistical properties. These properties would clarify the sufficiency of the signature to characterize the wavelet subband information. In addition, we shall also present an efficient RH signature extraction algorithm based on the coefficient-counting technique, which helps to speed up the overall classification system performance. We apply the RH signature to texture classification using the well-known databases. Experimental results show that our proposed RH signature in conjunction with the use of symmetrized Kullback-Leibler divergence gives a satisfactory classification performance compared with the current state-of-the-art methods.

Quantitative diffusion tensor imaging for evaluation of motor function in patients with brain infarcts

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the quantitative diffusion value in ipsilateral cerebral peduncle of patients with differing motor function abilities and analyse the thresholds discriminating the poor motor function disability.

METHOD

Twenty-nine patients who previously suffered stroke underwent diffusion tensor imaging examinations. Motor function was evaluated 8 months after the event. The ipsilateral apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and fractional anisotropy (FA) of cerebral peduncle and ADC ratio and FA ratio of patients with different motor function scales were analysed.

RESULTS

The ipsilateral FA value and FA ratio were distinctly different in patients with different motor function scales, and significantly correlated with the motor function scales. There was no significant difference of ipsilateral ADC and ADC ratio, and neither had correlation with motor function scale. The patients with poor motor function scale could be discriminated by the cutoff value of ipsilateral FA of 0.453 and FA ratio of 0.623 with sensitivity of 90%, 75% and specificity of 88.9%, 88.9% respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

The ipsilateral FA value and FA ratio were feasible and better imaging indices in discriminating patients with poor motor function ability.

Treatment of municipal wastewater using a contact oxidation filtration separation integrated bioreactor

A new contact oxidation filtration separation integrated bioreactor (CFBR) was used to treat municipal wastewater. The CFBR was made up of a biofilm reactor (the upper part of the CFBR) and a gravitational filtration bed (the lower part of the CFBR). Polyacrylonitrile balls (50mm diameter, 237 m(2)/m(3) specific surface, 90% porosity, and 50.2% packing rate) were filled into the biofilm reactor as biofilm attaching materials and anthracite coal (particle size 1-2mm, packing density 0.947 g/cm(3), non-uniform coefficient (K(80)=d(80)/d(10))<2.0) was placed into the gravitational filtration bed as filter media. At an organic volumetric loading rate of 2.4 kg COD/(m(3)d) and an initial filtration velocity of 5m/h in the CFBR, the average removal efficiencies of COD, ammonia nitrogen, total nitrogen and turbidity were 90.6%, 81.4%, 64.6% and 96.7% respectively, but the treatment process seemed not to be effective in phosphorus removal. The average removal efficiency of total phosphorus was 60.1%. Additionally, the power consumption of the CFBR was less than 0.15 kWh/m(3) of wastewater treated, and less than 1.5 kWh/kg BOD(5) removal.

Hip strengthening reduces symptoms but not knee load in people with medial knee osteoarthritis and varus malalignment: a randomised controlled trial

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether hip abductor and adductor muscle strengthening reduces medial compartment knee load and improves symptoms in people with medial tibiofemoral OA and varus malalignment.

METHODS

In a randomised controlled trial, 89 participants were randomly allocated to a hip strengthening group or to a control group with no intervention. The strengthening group performed a physiotherapist-supervised home exercise program targeting the hip abductor and adductor muscles for 12 weeks. The primary outcome was the peak external knee adduction moment measured using three-dimensional gait analysis by a blinded assessor. Secondary outcomes included a pain numeric rating scale, Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index, step test, stair climb test, maximum isometric strength of hip and quadriceps muscles and participant-perceived rating of overall change. Intention-to-treat analyses were performed using linear regression modelling adjusting for baseline outcomes and other characteristics.

RESULTS

The trial was completed by 76/89 participants (85%). There was no significant between-group difference in change in the knee adduction moment [mean difference (95% confidence interval (CI)) 0.134 (-0.069 to 0.337) Nm/BW x HT%]. All pain, physical function and muscle strength measures showed significantly greater improvement in the strengthening group (all P<0.05). The relative risk (95% CI) of participant-perceived overall improvement in the strengthening group compared to the control group was 20.02 (6.21-64.47).

CONCLUSIONS

Although strengthening the hip muscles improved symptoms and function in this patient group, it did not affect medial knee load as measured by the knee adduction moment. Thus it is unlikely that hip muscle strengthening influences structural disease progression.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ACTR12607000001493.

Thermal Contraction of Electrodeposited Bi/BiSb Superlattice Nanowires

The lattice parameter of Bi/BiSb superlattice nanowire (SLNW) has been measured using in situ high-temperature X-ray diffraction method. The single crystalline Bi/BiSb SLNW arrays with different bilayer thicknesses have been fabricated within the porous anodic alumina membranes (AAMs) by a charge-controlled pulse electrodeposition. Different temperature dependences of the lattice parameter and thermal expansion coefficient were found for the SLNWs. It was found that the thermal expansion coefficient of the SLNWs with a large bilayer thickness has weak temperature dependence, and the interface stress and defect are the main factors responsible for the thermal contraction of the SLNWs.

MicroRNA-146a and human disease

MicroRNAs (MiRNAs) belong to a class of small non-coding regulatory RNAs that act through repression of protein expression at post-transcriptional level and emerge to play important roles in many physiological and pathophysiological processes. MiR-146a is a miRNA supposed to regulate innate immune, inflammatory response and antiviral pathway negatively. In this review, we focus on the recent progress in functional role of miR-146a in innate immune, inflammatory response, virus infection and human diseases. Together, these findings indicate that manipulation of miR-146a expression may represent a potential new therapy for several human diseases. Potential use of miR-146a as a biomarker for disease diagnosis, prevention and treatment is also discussed.

Initial Growth of Single-Crystalline Nanowires: From 3D Nucleation to 2D Growth

The initial growth stage of the single-crystalline Sb and Co nanowires with preferential orientation was studied, which were synthesized in porous anodic alumina membranes by the pulsed electrodeposition technique. It was revealed that the initial growth of the nanowires is a three-dimensional nucleation process, and then gradually transforms to two-dimensional growth via progressive nucleation mechanism, which resulting in a structure transition from polycrystalline to single crystalline. The competition among the nuclei inside the nanoscaled-confined channel and the growth kinetics is responsible for the structure transition of the initial grown nanowires.

Search for the associated production of a b quark and a neutral supersymmetric Higgs boson that decays into tau pairs

We report results from a search for production of a neutral Higgs boson in association with a b quark. We search for Higgs decays to tau pairs with one tau subsequently decaying to a muon and the other to hadrons. The data correspond to 2.7 fb(-1) of pp collisions recorded by the D0 detector at square root(s)=1.96 TeV. The data are found to be consistent with background predictions. The result allows us to exclude a significant region of parameter space of the minimal supersymmetric model.