15,702 research outputs found
Una interpretación de a-ka-na-jo ( a3-ka-na-jo)
The author studies the word a-ka-na-jo in the PY Cn 328 tablet and taking into account some factors she proposes αγναιος as the reading of this word.The author studies the word a-ka-na-jo in the PY Cn 328 tablet and taking into account some factors she proposes αγναιος as the reading of this word
Environmental influences over the last 16 ka on compound-specific δ13C variations of leaf wax n-alkanes in the Hani peat deposit from northeast China
Compound-specific carbon isotope ratios (δ13C) of leaf wax n-alkanes (C21-C33 odd carbon numbered n-alkanes) were measured in the Hani peat sequence from northeast China. These data were compared with lipid biomarker compositions to assess changes in local vegetation and paleoclimate for the last 16 ka The δ13C values of n-alkanes range between -36.6 and -30.7‰, showing that the compounds originate from C3 plants. Much larger variations (∼5.4‰) in the n-alkane δ13C values than those of atmospheric CO2 during the last 16 ka (< 0.5‰) indicate that the isotopic values were affected by environmental factors in addition to the postglacial δ13C variations in the atmospheric reservoir. The stratigraphic records of δ13C reveal decoupled fluctuations among the individual n-alkanes, particularly between 15.5 to 11.4 ka. Synchronous excursions in the δ13C offsets among individual n-alkanes (Δδ13C) and lipid biomarker paleoplant proxies (Paq, and C23/C31 and C27/C31) from 14.9 to 13.2 ka and 12.7 to 11.6 ka suggest that vegetational changes are the most likely causes for the decoupled δ13C variations. Parallel fluctuations of the δ13C values of terrestrial higher plant-derived C29 and C31 n-alkanes and the n-alkane average chain-length (ACL) from 11 to 6 ka indicate that the δ13C variations responded to net evaporation changes. Negative shifts in the n-alkane δ13C values coinciding with the ACL decreases at 10.5-9.3 ka and 8.1 ka indicate the short-term onset and fluctuations of the summer monsoon strength in eastern China during the early Holocene
NRF2 and chemoprevention: signaling, epigenetics and role in intestinal carcinogensis
Prevention is better than cure. The carcinogenesis could take as long as 20 to 30 years to develop from initiated cells to malignant tumor, therefore providing us various opportunities to prevent the appearance of tumors with the use of chemopreventive compounds in the early stage. Chemoprevention becomes an increasing important concept and has led to the intense research about the mechanisms of actions of various chemopreventive compounds. They can be generally classified into blocking agents and suppressing agents. The chemopreventive compounds usually prevent or slow progression of cancer by maintaining a low oxidative stress and inflammatory environment in cells. This is brought about by the activation of Nrf2, the key protein being investigated in our lab. In this dissertation, I will be discussing the use of compounds as suppressing agents and blocking agents, how compounds activates Nrf2 signaling, how novel Nrf2 interaction partner IQGAP1 mediates Nrf2-Keap1 signaling axis, how expression level of Nrf2 could be regulated epigenetically, apart from the well-known post-translational control by Keap1-Ubiquitinase-Protesome axis and finally how loss of Nrf2 could enhance intestinal tumorigenesis in Apc(min/+) mice.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesIncludes vitaby Ka Lung Cheun
Nearby fibroblasts' response to multiple acupuncture needle revolutions on fibroblast populated collagen gels
Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese healing practice, and an alternative therapy for alleviating pain and chronic disorders. For over twenty years, research is trying to understand the mechanisms that lead to its therapeutic effect. Our laboratory investigates the cellular and molecular events in the connective tissue that occur by acupuncture needling. An in vitro assay was developed to evaluate some of the potential contributors to acupuncture’s effects using a cellular collagen gel as a loose connective tissue mimic. It was hypothesized besides immediate changes to cells under mechanical loading from an acupuncture needle, there were chemical factors released to nearby cells in acupuncture. This thesis investigates whether mechanically stimulating collagen gels with fibroblasts at different revolutions would release chemical factors to nearby fibroblasts where flow cytometry was used to observe cell proliferation as an indicator. Results reveal mechanically stimulating cellular collagen gels at different revolutions does not cause any changes in cell proliferation to nearby cells. However, dead stained mechanically stimulated cellular collagen gels showed cell death occurs around the acupuncture needle. It is possible there were no effects in cell proliferation because when a cellular collagen gel was needle manipulated, some chemical factors were released into the nearby cells. Then as needle manipulation increased, more chemical factors were released, but restricted by the larger amount of cell death around the needle from the increasing rotation.M.S.Includes bibliographical referencesby Ka Po Ch
Duan wei xia mu xie lei de xin xing he nei DNA fen zi xi tong biao ji zhi jian ding
Leung Ka Chun.Thesis M.Phil. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2013.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-110).Abstracts also in Chinese.Title from PDF title page (viewed on 21, September, 2016).Leung Ka Chun
San zhong chao jian dai teng hu dui gao wen de sheng li fan ying ji zhuan lu ti yan jiu
Wong, Ka Wing Karen.Thesis M.Phil. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2014.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 143-157).Abstracts also in Chinese.Title from PDF title page (viewed on 30, November, 2016).Wong, Ka Wing Karen
Involvement of subtype 1 metabotropic glutamate receptors in apoptosis and caspase-7 over-expression in spinal cord of neuropathic rats
The effect of the non-selective, 1-aminoindan-1,5-dicarboxylic acid (AIDA), and selective (3,4-dihydro-2H-pyrano[2,3-b]quinolin-7-yl)-(cis-4-methoxycyclohexyl) methanone (JNJ16259685), metabotropic glutamate subtype 1 (mGlu1) receptor antagonists, on rat sciatic nerve chronic constrictive injury (CCI)-induced hyperalgesia, allodynia, spinal dorsal horn apoptosis, and gliosis was examined at 3 and 7 days post-injury. RT-PCR analysis showed increased expression of bax, apoptotic protease-activating factor-1 (apaf-1), nestin, GFAP, and caspase-7 mRNA in the dorsal horn spinal cord by 3 days post-CCI. At 7 days post-CCI, only over-expression of bcl-2, nestin and GFAP mRNA was observed. Administration of AIDA reduced thermal hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia at 3 and 7 days post-CCI; administration of JNJ16259685 reduced thermal hyperalgesia at 3 and 7 days post-CCI, but not mechanical allodynia. AIDA decreased the mRNA levels of bax, apaf-1, GFAP and caspase-7 genes. JNJ16259685 increased the mRNA levels of bcl-2 and GFAP gene, and decreased APAF-1 and caspases-7 genes. Inhibiting mGlu1 receptors also reduced TUNEL-positive profiles and immunohistochemical reactivity for caspase-7. We report here that despite inhibiting CCI-induced over-expression of pro-apoptotic genes in the spinal cord dorsal horn, the selective mGlu1 receptor antagonist JNJ16259685 exerted only a slight and transient allodynic effect. Moreover, JNJ16259685, but not the non-selective AIDA, increased astrogliosis which may account for its decreased analgesic efficacy. This study provides evidence that the contemporary and partial blockade of group I and likely ionotropic glutamate receptors may be a more suitable therapy than selective blockade of mGlu1 subtype receptors condition to decrease neuropathic pain symptoms. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Stroke causes a transient imbalance of interhemispheric information flow in EEG during non-REM sleep
Objective: Large-scale connectivity, especially interhemispheric connections, plays a crucial role for recovery after stroke. Here we used methods from information theory to characterize interhemispheric information flow in wake- and sleep-EEG after cerebral ischemia.Methods:34 patients with unilateral ischemic stroke were included. Symbolic Transfer Entropy (STE) was applied between bipolar EEG signals on the left and the right cerebral hemisphere during polysomnographic recordings in the acute phase and 3 months after stroke.Results:In the acute phase, we found a sleep stage-dependent preferred interhemispheric asymmetry: during non-REM sleep the information flow was predominantly directed from the contralesional toward the ipsilesional hemisphere. This effect was greatly reduced in a follow-up recording 3 months after stroke onset.Conclusion: Our findings are consistent with functional imaging studies showing a transient hyperactivity of contralesional areas after stroke. We conclude that STE is a robust method for detecting post-stroke connectivity reorganizations, and that sleep stages have to be taken into account when assessing functional connectivity.Significance EEG is more widely available than functional MRI. Future studies will have to confirm whether EEG derived STE can be useful in a clinical setting during rehabilitation after stroke. (C) 2018 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
The application of S-band polarimetric radar measurements to Ka-band attenuation prediction
In September 1993, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) was deployed into a geostationary orbit near 100° W longitude. The ACTS satellite employs two Ka-band beacons, one at 20.185 GHz and another at 27.505 GHz. Impairments due to rain attenuation and tropospheric scintillations will significantly affect new technologies for this spectrum. Heavy rain at Ka-band can easily produce 30 dB of attenuation along the propagation path. Propagation experiments being conducted in seven different climatic zones involve multiyear attenuation measurements along the satellite-earth slant path. Measurements in the B2 climatic zone are made with an ACTS propagation terminal located in northeast Colorado. In order to gain more understanding about the physical processes that are responsible for Ka-band attenuation, the Colorado State University CHILL S-band polarimetric radar is used to take radar measurements along the slant path. The Colorado Front Range experiences a variety of weather conditions throughout the year ranging from upslope rain conditions to winter storms. Four such events measured along the slant path are illustrated in this paper. They include two convective cases and two "bright-band" cases. The S-band polarimetric radar data is used to initialize radar-based attenuation-prediction models, which are applied to the four precipitation events described. The comparisons of predicted attenuation to measured attenuation are quite good. It was also found during the course of the experiment that water droplets standing on the antenna surface can cause appreciable attenuation at Ka-band frequencies. That finding needs to be recognized in future model development and statistical analysis
Full-Length Transcriptomes Reconstruction Reveals Intraspecific Diversity in Hairy Vetch (Vicia villosa Roth) and Smooth Vetch (V. villosa Roth var. glabrescens)
Hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth) and smooth vetch (V. villosa Roth var. glabrescens) are important cover crops and legume forage with great economic and ecological values. Due to the large and highly heterozygous genome, full-length transcriptome reconstruction is a cost-effective route to mining their genetic resources. In this study, a hybrid sequencing approach combining SMRT and NGS technologies was applied. The results showed that 28,747 and 40,600 high-quality non-redundant transcripts with an average length of 1808 bp and 1768 bp were generated from hairy vetch and smooth vetch, including 24,864 and 35,035 open reading frames (ORFs), respectively. More than 96% of transcripts were annotated to the public databases, and around 25% of isoforms underwent alternative splicing (AS) events. In addition, 987 and 1587 high-confidence lncRNAs were identified in two vetches. Interestingly, smooth vetch contains more specific transcripts and orthologous clusters than hairy vetch, revealing intraspecific transcript diversity. The phylogeny revealed that they were clustered together and closely related to the genus Pisum. Furthermore, the estimation of Ka/Ks ratios showed that purifying selection was the predominant force. A putative 3-dehydroquinate dehydratase/shikimate dehydrogenase (DHD/SDH) gene underwent strong positive selection and might regulate phenotypic differences between hairy vetch and smooth vetch. Overall, our study provides a vital characterization of two full-length transcriptomes in Vicia villosa, which will be valuable for their molecular research and breeding
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