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Neuromodulators influence the activities of collections of neurons and have profound impacts on animal behavior. Male courtship drive is complex and subject to neuromodulatory control. Using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, we identified neurons in the brain (inferior posterior slope; IPS) that impact courtship drive and were controlled by tyramine-a biogenic amine related to dopamine, whose roles in most animals are enigmatic. We knocked out a tyramine-specific receptor, TyrR, which was expressed in IPS neurons. Loss of TyrR led to a striking elevation in courtship activity between males. This effect occurred only in the absence of females, as TyrR(Gal4) mutant males exhibited a wild-type preference for females. Artificial hyperactivation of IPS neurons caused a large increase in male-male courtship, whereas suppression of IPS activity decreased male-female courtship. We conclude that TyrR is a receptor for tyramine, and suggest that it serves to curb high levels of courtship activity through functioning as an inhibitory neuromodulator.

Objective To investigate the expression of AKAP12 in HER2-positive breast cancer and its relation with clinicopathological factors and clinical significance. Methods UALCAN database was used to explore AKAP12 mRNA expression in breast cancer and para-cancerous tissues. AKAP12 protein expression in 120 cases of breast cancer tissues, adjacent tissues and 8 cases of metastases tissues were detected by immunohistochemistry. Then we analyzed the relation between AKAP12 protein expression and clinicopathological factors. Bc-GenExMiner v4.4 database was used to explore the relation between AKAP12 mRNA expression and overall survival. The relation between AKAP12 protein expression and overall survival was analyzed by GraphPad Prism 7.0. Results AKAP12 expression in breast cancer tissues was lower than that in para-cancerous tissues (P < 0.05). AKAP12 protein expression in metastasis was lower than that in primary lesion (P < 0.05). AKAP12 was negatively related to tumor size and TNM stage (P < 0.05). Survival analysis showed that patients with low AKAP12 mRNA and protein expression had shorter overall survival than those with high AKAP12 expression (P < 0.05). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses revealed that AKAP12 expression, vascular infiltration and radiotherapy were independent risk factors for the prognosis of HER2-positive breast cancer patients. Conclusion The low AKAP12 expression is related to the prognosis of HER2-positive breast cancer patients.

Most of existing comprehensive exploration technologies for water-hazard on coal mine working face adopt conventional rotary drilling method with lots of boreholes and heavy workload. In addition, blending deformation of drill pipes, geological condition variation in boreholes and alterations of drilling parameters during construction process would lead to borehole deflection, which may cause wrong decision about water-hazard exploration. For above problems, a comprehensive exploration technology based on directional drilling was proposed and applied to water-hazard detection on fully mechanized mining face of a coal mine. The application process is as follows: Firstly, mine audio-frequency electric penetration technology is used in the comprehensive exploration technology to detect anomalous area with low apparent resistivity on the working face, and then directional drilling technology is adopted to directly expose water-rich zone. It is determined that there is a water-conductive collapse column of Ordovician limestone karst in the anomalous area through observing water gushing in the boreholes and chemically examine quality of the water. Meanwhile, extension state and boundary of the water-conductive collapse column in the working face are delineated. Position of open-off cut is redesigned according to comprehensive exploration results, so as to effectively eliminate hidden water-inrush danger caused by exposing the water-conductive collapse column during mining process.