A method has been developed for the determination of tellurium(Te) in soil by hydride generation(HG) atomic fluorescence spectrometry(AFS) based on dielectric barrier discharge(DBD) plasma as low-temperature atomizer. The samples were dissolved by aqua regior acid without matrix separation. The characteristics of the DBD atomizer and the effects of different experimental parameters, such as discharge power, flow rates of discharge gas and AFS carrier gas, lamp current, negative high voltage, observation height, KBH4 concentration and acid medium on the determination were studied and the analytical performances of the present method were evaluated. The detection limit of Te was 0.08 μg/L. The linear range was from 0.5 to 80 μg/L. Recoveries of spiked sample was from 90% to 103 %. The accuracy of this method was verified by the determination of Te in the reference materials. The results agreed well with the reference values.

Objective To study the association between clinical symptoms,psychosomatic factors and autonomic nervous function in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).Methods Thirty-four patients with GERD diagnosed by reflux disease questionnaire (RDQ) and endoscopy and 15 healthy control subjects were enrolled in this study.All the subjects were divided into two groups,one with normal scores of Zung's self-rating anxiety scale (SAS) and Zung's depression scale (SDS) as GERD (-) and the other with abnormal scores of SAS and SDS as GERD (+).Reflux symptom score was recorded for both groups at the same time.Autonomic nervous function was assessed by their heart rate variability (HRV) on dynamic electrocardiogram (DCG).The time domain parameters analyzed included standard deviation (SD) of average R-R interval during 24 hours (SDNN),SD of average 5-minute sinus heart rate (SDANN),mean square root of the difference of adjoining two R-R interval (rMSSD),and proportion of the heart beats with difference of R-R interval more than 50 ms from the total heart beats (PNN 50),and the frequency domain parameters analyzed included low-frequency (LF),high-frequency (HF) and ratio of LF to HF.Results Average scores of SAS and SDS were significantly higher in patients with GERD than those in healthy controls (48?9 vs 38?6 and 48?11 vs 41?6,respectively,P

Objective To observe the effects of chronic arsenic exposure on estrogen receptor-binding fragment-associated gene 9 (Ebag9) and estrogen-responsive finger protein (efp) mRNA expression in female rat' s myocardium.Methods Fifty female Wistar rats were randomly divided into five groups according to arsenic (As2O3) concentrations in drinking-water:0.00(control),0.05,0.10,0.20,0.40 mg/L groups and RT-PCR was used to detect Ebag9 and efp mRNA expression of myocardium at the 32 weeks of experiment.Results Ebag9 and efp mRNA expression levels in 0.00,0.05,0.10,0.20,0.40 mg/L groups were respectively as follows:0.54 ±0.14,0.52 ± 0.10,0.48 ± 0.24,0.58 ± 0.13,0.45 ± 0.19 and 0.85 ± 0.14,0.86 ± 0.12,0.87 ± 0.09,0.99 ±0.10,0.86 ± 0.19.Compared to the control group,Ebag9 mRNA level of the 0.20 mg/L group was increased,and decreased in other groups,but the difference between two groups was not significant(all P ＞ 0.05).Compared to control group,the efp mRNA level of 0.20 mg/L group increased significantly(P ＜ 0.05),and showed increased tendency in other arsenic groups,but the difference between two groups was not significant (all P ＞ 0.05).Conclusions Ebag9 and efp mRNA expression have changed in myocardium of rats exposed to chronic arsenic.Arsenic may has endocrine disruptor effect to female rat's myocardium.

Objective To study the influence of arsenic exposure on menstruation.Methods A cluster sampling method was applied to select the subjects of women aged 10 to 65 from Linhe,Hangjinhouqi and Wuyuan counties in Inner Mongolia in 2004.Drinking water samples were collected to detect arsenic levels,and menstrual related situation was surveyed.The subjects were divided into four groups according to drinking water arsenic concentration:control(≤0.01 mg/L),low(＞ 0.01-0.10 mg/L),moderate(＞ 0.10-0.20 mg/L) and high(＞ 0.20mag/L).Results A total of 602 women were surveyed.There were 83 subjects exposed to arsenic before menarche and their menarche age was (14.37 ± 1.54) years old.There were 90 people exposed to arsenic before menopause and the menopause age was (48.13-0.41) years old.The age of menarche and menopause were positively related to the years of arsenic exposure,and correlation coefficients were 0.268 and 0.278 (all P ＜ 0.05).Compared to control group(14.0％,16/112),menstrual abnormality rate decreased in low(12.1％,21/173) and high dose groups(10.2％,19/186),while increased in the moderate dose group(18.2％,16/88),but the differences were not statistically significant(x2 =3.664,P ＞ 0.05).Conclusions Long-term arsenic exposure delays the menarche and menopause age,suggesting that arsenic has certain endocrine disruption or estrogen-like effects.

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) is a simple biological labora-tory animal, with similar biological structure and physiological functions to mammals. Almost transparent embryos, in vitro de-velopment of embryos and up to 87% of human genetic similari- ties enable a wide application of zebrafish in the field of pharma-ceutical research. In this paper, we have studied the application of zebrafish in drug metabolism, the research of Chinese medi-cine, the evaluation of drug toxicology and safety, the screening of drugs and the discovery of new drugs, the research of regener- ative drugs, so as to provide new ideas of zebrafish in the field of pharmacy.

The objective of this study was to analyze the relationship between some chemokines and the pathogenesis of GVHD and to find some biomarkers with diagnostic significance through observing and comparing the changes of some chemokine levels in samples from patients with or without aGVHD after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). 26 plasma samples were obtained from 26 patients undergoing allo-HSCT at various time points after transplantation, of which 13 samples from patients with aGVHD were served as investigating group and 13 samples from patients without GVHD after Allo-HSCT were used as control group. The patient characteristics between the two groups were compared, the levels of 40 chemokines in these samples were detected by ELISA, the changes of chemokine levels in samples of 2 groups were analyzed by means of significance analysis microarray (SAM), clustering method and c-test. The results showed that there were significant differences in levels of 6 chemokines including HCC-1, MIF, IP-10, ITAC, TARC and NAP-2 between 2 groups, in which the level of MIF in plasma samples after HSCT was the highest, the difference of TARC level between 2 groups was over 10-fold. It is concluded that the level changes of chemokines mentioned above can be used as a indicator of GVHD presence, but their pathogenetic role in occurrence of aGVHD remains to be determined.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Chemokines ; blood ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Graft vs Host Disease ; blood ; pathology ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; adverse effects ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Transplantation, Homologous ; Young Adult

Objective To construct double gene deletions at the htrA and clpP loci on the chromosome of Streptococcus mutans(Sm) and to remove the antibiotic resistance markers with the Cre-loxP*site-specific recombination system. Methods The htrA gene was cloned into the pGEM-T-Easy TA cloning vector and then inactivated via the insertion of a kanamycin resistance cassette(lox71-Km-lox66), yielding pGEM-T-△htrA/Km for deleting the htrA gene. Using the same method, the pGEM-T-△clpP/Sp was constructed for deleting the clpP gene. Following the transformation of pGEM-T-△htrA/Km in Sm, the homologous recombination event was selected. One such mutant was transformed with a cre expression plasmid (pCrePA). The kanamycin resistance gene was then excised. The pCrePA was then easily eliminated at nonpermissive temperatures, resulting in a mutant strain (MS △ htrA) carrying a deletion at the htrA loci without a selectable marker. This mutant was verified by PCR and DNA sequencing. Then, the clpP and spectinomycin resistance gene were deleted from MS △htrA, yielding markerless mutant strain lacking clpP and htrA. Results The deletion of htrA, clpP and antibiotic resistance markers were confirmed by PCR analysis and DNA sequencing. Conclusions A mutant of Sm was constructed successfully which contained a deletion of the htrA and clpP gene without selectable marker. The Cre-loxP*system can be applied to Sm, which provides experimental evidence for generating markerless multiple gene deletion mutants.

Objective To investigate the function of luxS in sulfurmetabolism of Streptococcus mutans (Sm). Methods The growth with absorbency(A) of the standards and mutant strains was measured and analyzed in the sulfur-limited defined medium at different periods. The laser scanning confocal microscopy( LSCM ) was used to observe and compare the biofilm thickness of the two kinds of strains at different culture conditions. Results The significant increases in the thickness of mutant strain biofilm and its growth were observed after the addition of cysteine, but did not reach the standards strain levels ( P ＜0. 05). The growth and the biofilm thickness of the mutant strains were ( 1. 301 ±0. 009) and (45.009 ±0. 429) μm. When methionine and S-adenosylhomocysteine of certain concentrations were respectively added, the biofilm thickness and the growth of mutant strain were raised but did not reach the level of the standards strain at 24 h( P ＜0. 05 ), but at 48 h they did. When the methionine was added in the mutant strains for 24 h, the biofilm thickness and the growth of mutant strain were (0. 448 ± 0. 028 ) and ( 37. 068 ± 2. 392 ) μm, as for the adding of S-adenosylhomocysteine were (0. 460 ± 0. 005 ) and ( 27. 343 ±1. 107 ) μm. When adding the supernatant fluid of standard strains, the biofilm thickness and the growth levels of mutant strain were much higher than those of the standards strain. The biofilm thickness and growth of both kinds of strains decreased after the addition of S-adenosylmethionine. Conclusions luxS gene plays not only a role in quorum sensing but also a role in sulfurmetabolism.

Based on the outpatient interview and literature review,the initial framework of the outpatient experience of human caring scale was formed with 9 dimensions of outpatient process.The research aim was to improve the scale by Delphi method.Sixteen experts in medical management,human caring or medical education were invited to evaluate the importance of the dimensions and items of the scale and provided some expertise via filling out the Delphi consultation questionnaires twice in the consulting round.In the first round,the recovery rate showing the experts' positivity was 80％;the coefficient of reliability (Cr) ascertaining the authority of the evaluation was 0.92;the mean and full mark ratios responding the concentration of the evaluation were 2.88-4.94 and 6.25％-93.75％ respectively;the coefficients of variation (CV) and the Kendall's W determining the concordance of the evaluation were 5.06％-52.15％ and 0.21-0.24 respectively.In the second round,the recovery rate was 93.75％;the Cr was 0.93;the mean was 3.93-4.93;the full mark ratios were 26.67％-93.33％;the Kendall's W was 0.14-0.31,the CV was 5.25％-23.61％.Via the two-round Delphi study,the scale that included 10 dimensions and 61 items has been improved.Ten dimensions are pre-hospital medical service,guidance,registration,waiting,diagnosis & treatment,paying,inspection & assay,medicine receiving,therapy/injection/transfusion and global evaluation.It was concluded that Chinese scholars have paid high attention to human caring and outpatient experience.The experts have given high agreements about the dimensions which were established with Chinese outpatient process.The dimensions are different from the similar researches about outpatient experience study.In the future,it is necessary to survey the outpatients to test the construct validity,internal consistency reliability and others of the scale to improve the scale.

OBJECTIVEThis study aimed to clone the acetyl-CoA C-acetyl transferase (AACT) gene from Aquilaria sinensis and analyze the bioinformatics and expression of the gene.

METHODOne unique sequence containing partly AACT gene sequence was discovered in our previous transcriptome dataset of A. sinensis. AACT gene was cloned by RT-PCR and RACE strategy with the template of RNA extracted from A. sinensis stem. The bioinformatic analysis of this gene and its corresponding protein was performed. The AsAACT expression in calli was analyzed with GADPH gene as an internal control gene in wounded condition by qRT-PCR technique.

RESULTOne unique sequence of AACT, named as AsAACT, was cloned from A. sinensis. The full length of AsAACT cDNA was containing a 1 236 bp ORF that encoded 411 amino acids. The result of qRT-PCR displayed that the highest expression level was at 4 h. which indicated that it was possibly involved in early-stage response to wound.

CONCLUSIONCloning and analyzing AsAACT gene from A. sinensis provided basic information for study the function and expression regulation of AsAACT in terpenoid biosynthesis.

Acetyl-CoA C-Acetyltransferase ; chemistry ; genetics ; metabolism ; Amino Acid Sequence ; Base Sequence ; Cloning, Molecular ; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant ; Models, Molecular ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Protein Structure, Secondary ; Thymelaeaceae ; enzymology ; genetics