Description: Background: The aims of this study were to evaluate the antioxidant activity and to identify the antioxidant components of a traditional Chinese medicine formula consisting of a combination of Shanzha (the fruit of Crataegus pinnatifida Bge. var. major N.E.Br., SZ) and Danshen (the root of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge., DS). This medicine is extensively used to treat cardiovascular disease. Methods: Twelve samples extracted and fractionated from SZ, DS and the formula (SZ+DS) were analyzed. The concentrations of eight phenolic compounds were determined by high performance liquid chromatography. Oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) assay and 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl assay were conducted to explore the antioxidant activities of the samples and of the 15 phenolic compounds detected. Correlation analysis of the antioxidant activity of herb samples and their phenolic components was performed. Results: The main phenolic component in all SZ+DS samples was salvianolic acid B, which exhibited strong antioxidant activity (ORAC value: 16.73 +/- 2.53, IC50 value: 8.80 +/- 0.06 muM) compared with the other phenolic compounds. For all samples, there was a positive relationship between their total phenolic components and their antioxidant activities. Conclusions: Phenolic compounds were the bioactive components of the herb samples, and salvianolic acid B was identified as the main bioactive compound in the SZ+DS formula.

Description: Background: To compare the value of ultrasonography for diagnosing carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) in patients with and without diabetes mellitus (DM). Methods: Eighty non-DM and 40 DM patients with electromyography-confirmed CTS were assessed and underwent high-resolution ultrasonography of the wrists. Cross-sectional area (CSA) and flattening ratio (FR) of the median nerve were measured at the carpal tunnel outlet (D) and wrist crease (W). Results: The 80 non-DM and 40 DM patients had 81 and 59 CTS-hands, respectively. The CSA_D and CSA_W were significantly larger in the CTS-hands and DM-CTS-hands compared to the normal control (p 〈 0.001). However, there is no difference of CSA_D and CSA_W between DM and non-DM CTS patients. Receiver operating characteristics [ROC] curve analysis revealed that CSA_W 〉=13 mm2 was the most powerful predictor of CTS in DM (area under curve [AUC] = 0.72; sensitivity 72.9%, specificity 61.9%) and non-DM (AUC = 0.72; sensitivity 78.5%, specificity 53.2%) patients. The CSA positively correlated with the distal motor latency of the median compound motor action potential (CMAP), distal sensory latency of the median sensory nerve action potential (SNAP), and latency of the median F wave, but negatively correlated with the amplitude of the median CMAP, amplitude of the median SNAP, and sensory NCV of the median nerve. Stepwise logistic regression revealed that CSA_W (OR 1.21, 95% CI 1.07-1.38; p = 0.003) was independently associated with CTS in DM patients and any 1 mm2 increase in CSA_W increased the rate of CTS by 28%. Conclusions: The CSA of the median nerve at the outlet and wrist crease are significantly larger in CTS hands in both DM and non-DM patients compared to normal hands. The CSA of the median nerve by ultrasonography may be a diagnostic tool for evaluating CTS in DM and non-DM patients.

Description: Background: Phosphatase of regenerating liver (PRL) family is classified as class IVa of protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP4A) that removes phosphate groups from phosphorylated tyrosine residues on proteins. PRL phosphatases have been implicated in a number of tumorigenesis and metastasis processes and are highly conserved. However, the understanding of PRL expression profiles during embryonic development is very limited. Results: In this study, we demonstrated and characterized the comprehensive expression pattern of Drosophila PRL, amphioxus PRL, and zebrafish PRLs during embryonic development by either whole mount immunostaining or in situ hybridization. Our results indicate that Drosophila PRL is mainly enriched in developing mid-guts and central nervous system (CNS) in embryogenesis. In amphioxus, initially PRL gene is expressed ubiquitously during early embryogenesis, but its expression become restricted to the anterior neural tube in the cerebral vesicle. In zebrafish, PRL-1 and PRL-2 share similar expression patterns, most of which are neuronal lineages. In contrast, the expression of zebrafish PRL-3 is more specific and preferential in muscle. Conclusions: This study, for the first time, elucidated the embryonic expression pattern of Drosophila, amphioxus, and zebrafish PRL genes. The shared PRL expression pattern in the developing CNS among diverse animals suggests that PRL may play conserved roles in these animals for CNS development.

Description: IntroductionIndividual recognition and winner/loser effects both play important roles in animal contests, but how their influences are integrated to affect an individual?s contest decisions in combination remains unclear. Individual recognition provides an animal with relatively precise information about its ability to defeat conspecifics that it has fought previously. Winner/loser effects, conversely, rely on sampling information about how an animal?s ability to win compares with those of others in the population. The less precise information causing winner/loser effects should therefore be more useful to an individual facing an unfamiliar opponent. In this study, we used Kryptolebias marmoratus, a hermaphroditic mangrove killifish, to test whether winner/loser effects do depend on opponent familiarity. In addition, as previous studies have shown that subordinates that behave aggressively sometimes suffer post-retreat retaliation from contest winners, we also explored this aspect of contest interaction in K. marmoratus. Results: In the early stages of a contest, subordinates facing an unfamiliar dominant were more likely to signal their aggressiveness with either gill displays or attacks rather than retreating immediately. A winning experience then increased the likelihood that the most aggressive behavioral pattern the subordinates exhibited would be attacks rather than gill displays, irrespective of their opponents? familiarity. Dominants that received a losing experience and faced an unfamiliar opponent were less likely than others to launch attacks directly. And subordinates that challenged dominants with more aggressive tactics but still lost received more post-retreat attacks from their dominant opponents. Conclusions: Subordinates? contest decisions were influenced by both their contest experience and the familiarity of their opponents, but these influences appeared at different stages of a contest and did not interact significantly with each other. The influence of a losing experience on dominants? contest decisions, however, did depend on their subordinate opponents? familiarity. Subordinates and dominants thus appeared to integrate information from the familiarity of their opponents and the outcome of previous contests differently, which warrants further investigation. The higher costs that dominants imposed on subordinates that behaved more aggressively toward them may have been to deter them from either fighting back or challenging them in the future.

Description: Chinese tradition and culture developed from Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism and have influenced ethnic Chinese for thousands of years, particularly thoughts on death. Many ethnic Chinese, particularly olde...

Description: Background: Early diagnosis and treatment of nontuberculous mycobacterial lung diseases (NTM-LD) and pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) are important clinical issues. The present study aimed to compare and identify the chest CT characteristics that help to distinguish NTM lung disease from PTB in patients with acid-fast bacilli (AFB) smear-positive sputum. Methods: From January 2009 to April 2012, we received 467 AFB smear-positive sputum specimens. A total of 95 CT scans obtained from the 159 patients were analyzed, 75 scans were from patients with PTB and 20 scans from NTM-LD. The typical chest CT findings of mycobacterial diseases were analyzed. Results: In patients with PTB, the prevalence of pleural effusion (38.7% vs. 15.0%; P =0.047), nodules 〈 10 mm in size (76.0% vs. 25.0%; P 〈 0.001), tree-in-bud pattern (81.3% vs. 55.0%; P =0.021), and cavities (31.1% vs. 5.0%; P =0.018) were significantly higher than patients with NTM. Of the 20 patients with NTM lung diseases, bronchiectasis and cystic changes were significantly higher than patients with PTB (20.0% vs. 4.0%; P = 0.034). In multivariate analysis, CT scan findings of nodules was independently associated with patients with diagnoses of PTB (odds ratio [OR], 0.07; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.02-0.30). Presence of bronchiectasis and cystic changes in CT scans was strongly associated with patients with NTM-LD (OR, 33.04; 95% CI, 3.01-362.55). Conclusions: The CT distinction between NTM-LD and PTB may help radiologists and physicians to know the most likely diagnoses in AFB-smear positive patients and avoid unnecessary adverse effects and the related costs of anti-TB drugs in endemic areas.

Description: Background: Degradation is essential for RNA maturation, turnover, and quality control. RNA degradome sequencing that integrates a modified 5[prime]-rapid amplification of cDNA ends protocol with next-generation sequencing technologies is a high-throughput approach for profiling the 5[prime]-end of uncapped RNA fragments on a genome-wide scale. The primary application of degradome sequencing has been to identify the truncated transcripts that result from endonucleolytic cleavage guided by microRNAs or small interfering RNAs. As many pathways are involved in RNA degradation, degradome data should contain other RNA species besides the cleavage remnants of small RNA targets. Nevertheless, no systematic approaches have been established to explore the hidden complexity of plant degradome. Results: Through analyzing Arabidopsis and rice RNA degradome data, we recovered 11 short motifs adjacent to predominant and abundant uncapped 5[prime]-ends. Uncapped ends associated with several of these short motifs were more prevalent than those targeted by most miRNA families especially in the 3[prime] untranslated region of transcripts. Through genome-wide analysis, five motifs showed preferential accumulation of uncapped 5[prime]-ends at the same position in Arabidopsis and rice. Moreover, the association of uncapped 5[prime]-ends with a CA-repeat motif and a motif recognized by Pumilio/Fem-3 mRNA binding factor (PUF) proteins was also found in non-plant species, suggesting that common mechanisms are present across species. Based on these motifs, potential sources of RNA ends that constitute degradome data were proposed and further examined. The 5[prime]-end of small nucleolar RNAs could be precisely captured by degradome sequencing. Position-specific enrichment of uncapped 5[prime]-ends was seen upstream of motifs recognized by several RNA binding proteins especially for the binding site of PUF proteins. False uncapped 5[prime]-ends produced from capped transcripts through non-specific PCR amplification were common artifacts among degradome datasets. Conclusions: The complexity of plant RNA degradome data revealed in this study may contribute to the alternative applications of degradome in RNA research.

Description: For most cruciferous plants, which are known as important crops and a number of weeds, hybrid breeding is hampered by the unavailability of a pollination control system. Male sterility induced by a gametocide ...

Description: Experimental studies showed that 25-hydroxy-vitamin D [25(OH)D] deficiency (defined as 25-hydroxy-vitamin D 

Description: Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is more prevalent in Taiwan than in most countries. This population-based cohort study evaluated the dementia risk associated with CKD. Methods: Using claims data of 1,000,000 insured residents covered in the universal health insurance of Taiwan, we selected 37049 adults with CKD newly diagnosed from 2000--2006 as the CKD cohort. We also randomly selected 74098 persons free from CKD and other kidney diseases, frequency matched with age, sex and the date of CKD diagnosed. Incidence and hazard ratios (HRs) of dementia were evaluated by the end of 2009. Results: Subjects in the CKD cohort were more prevalent with comorbidities than those in the non-CKD cohort (p