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Background: To reveal the spatio-temporal distribution of malaria vectors in the national malaria surveillance sites from 2005 to 2010 and provide reference for the current National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) in China., Methods: A 6-year longitudinal surveillance on density of malaria vectors was carried out in the 62 national malaria surveillance sites. The spatial and temporal analyses of the four primary vectors distribution were conducted by the methods of kernel k-means and the cluster distribution of the most widely distribution vector of An.sinensis was identified using the empirical mode decomposition (EMD)., Results: Totally 4 species of Anopheles mosquitoes including An.sinensis, An.lesteri, An.dirus and An.minimus were captured with significant difference of distribution as well as density. An. sinensis was the most widely distributed, accounting for 96.25% of all collections, and its distribution was divided into three different clusters with a significant increase of density observed in the second cluster which located mostly in the central parts of China., Conclusion: This study first described the spatio-temporal distribution of malaria vectors based on the nationwide surveillance during 2005-2010, which served as a baseline for the ongoing national malaria elimination program.

The present study is aimed to investigated the firing activity of pyramidal neurons and interneurons in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in rats with bilateral intraventricular injection of 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine (5,7-DHT) by using in vivo extracellular recording. The results showed that the injection of 5,7-DHT reduced the 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) levels in the mPFC and dorsal raphe nucleus in the rats. The firing rate of mPFC pyramidal neurons in rats with 5,7-DHT injection was significantly higher than that of normal rats, and the firing pattern of these neurons also changed significantly towards a more burst-firing, while the injection decreased the firing rate of mPFC interneurons and changed the firing pattern of the interneurons towards a more irregular. These results indicate that the lesions of the serotonergic neurons lead to the changes in the firing activity of mPFC pyramidal neurons and interneurons, suggesting that serotonergic system plays an important role in the regulation of the neuronal activity in the mPFC.

As one very precious traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), Huoshan Dendrobium has not only high price, but also significant pharmaceutical efficacy. However, different species of Huoshan Dendrobium exhibit considerable difference in pharmaceutical efficacy, so rapid and absolutely non-destructive discrimination of Huoshan Dendrobium nobile according to different species is crucial to quality control and pharmaceutical effect. In this study, as one type of miniature near-infrared (NIR) spectrometer, MicroNIR 1700 was used for absolutely nondestructive determination of NIR spectra of 90 batches of Dendrobium from five species of differ- ent commodity grades. The samples were intact and not smashed. Soft independent modeling of class analogy (SIMCA) pattern recognition based on principal component analysis (PCA) was used to classify and recognize different species of Dendrobium samples. The results indicated that the SIMCA qualitative models established with pretreatment method of standard normal variate transformation (SNV) in the spectra range selected by Qs method had 100% recognition rates and 100% rejection rates. This study demonstrated that a rapid and absolutely non-destructive analytical technique based on MicroNIR 1700 spectrometer was developed for successful discrimination of five different species of Huoshan Dendrobium with acceptable accuracy.

Objective: To explore the in vitro anti-tumor effect and mechanism of dendritic cell (DC) tumor vaccine induced by astragalus polysacharin (APS)., Methods: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) isolated from human peripheral blood. DCs obtained from human peripheral blood were cultivated and added with culture solution for in vitro inducing them to immature DCs. On the 5th day of culture, 100 microg/mL (as the final concentration) APS was added to cells in the APS group. DCs were induced to mature in the cytokine groups by adding 20 ng/mL rhTNF-alpha (as the final concentration). Changes of morphology and phenotype of DCs were observed. Mature DCs were sensitized with tumor antigen SGC-7901 and co-cultured with allogeneic T cells. The proliferative function of T lymphocytes was detected by MTT assay. Levels of IL-12 and IFN-gamma in co-cultured supernatant were detected by ELISA. Cytotoxic lymphocytes (CTL) activated by DC were co-cultured with tumor cell SGC-7901. The specific killing capacity of CTL to target cells was detected by LDH release assay., Results: The morphological observation and phenotypic identification of APS induced DCs were in accordance with the characteristics of mature DCs. APS induced mature DCs could stimulate the proliferation of allogeneic T lymphocytes. The proliferation index of T cells increased with increased ratio of stimulator cells to effector cells (P < 0.05). Levels of IL-12 and IFN-gamma in co-culture supernatant significantly increased in a time-dependent manner (P < 0.05). CTL cells activated by sensitization of DCs could significantly kill tumor cells, and the killing effect increased along with increased effector-to-target ratio., Conclusion: APS could in vitro induce DCs to mature, promote its antigen-presenting capacity, effectively activate CTLs, and enhance anti-tumor function of the organism.

Little is known about disability caused by unintentional injury (accidents) worldwide. This study estimates the prevalence of disability caused by unintentional injury amongst people aged 15-60 years across different cities in the People's Republic of China with the aim of providing a scientific basis for developing prevention and control programmes. The prevalence of disability caused by unintentional injury in this target group in sampled cities across the country was estimated from data from the Second Chinese National Sample Survey on Disability. Using the statistical evolution tree approach, cities automatically clustered into a tree structure according to the level of social security and industrial structure. The Kruskal- Wallis test was applied to compare the prevalence in various types of city. The results show that the prevalence of disability due to unintentional injury in the target population group varied significantly across the 16 types of city investigated, but that it was particularly common among the unemployed and poor. With regard to occupational structure, cities with activities oriented towards transport and construction had the highest average prevalence despite access to local, relatively sound social security systems and adequate medical resources. It was also found that people struck by unintentional injury were treated in various ways depending on the availability of social assistance, medical care and job training, which differed widely between cities depending on each city's main occupational activity. High-risk cities areas were identified for that would benefit particularly by additional medical resource allocation as it would reduce their burden of unintentional injury.

Irradiation from diverse sources is ubiquitous and closely associated with human activities. Radiation therapy (RT), an important component of multiple radiation origins, is a common therapeutic modality for cancer. More importantly, RT provides significant contribution to oncotherapy by killing tumor cells. However, during the course of therapy, irradiation of normal tissues can result in a wide range of side effects, including self-limited acute toxicities, mild chronic symptoms, or severe organ dysfunction. Although numerous promising radioprotective agents have emerged, only a few have successfully entered the market because of various limitations. At present, the widely accepted hypothesis for protection against radiation-caused injury involves the Wnt canonical pathway. Activating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway may protect the salivary gland, oral mucosa, and gastrointestinal epithelium from radiation damage. The underlying mechanisms include inhibiting apoptosis and preserving normal tissue functions. However, aberrant Wnt signaling underlies a wide range of pathologies in humans, and its various components contribute to cancer. Moreover, studies have suggested that Wnt/β-catenin signaling may lead to radioresistance of cancer stem cell. These facts markedly complicate any definition of the exact function of the Wnt pathway.

Hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) is the most common and widespread infectious disease in the People's Republic of China. Although there has been a substantial increase of HFMD in many parts of the country in recent years, its spatial dynamics and determinants remain unclear. When we collected and analysed weekly data on HFMD cases from 1,456 counties and the corresponding meteorological factors from 1 May 2008 to 27 March 2009, it was found that HFMD was spatially dispersed across the country in the summer and winter, while clustered in the spring and autumn. The spatial variation of HFMD was found to be affected by a combination of climate variables, while its spatio-temporal transmission was largely driven by temperature variations with a 7-week lag implying that (i) the dispersal of the disease can be anticipated based on the variation of the temperature and other climate variables; and (ii) the spatial dynamics of HFMD can be robustly predicted 7 weeks ahead of time using temperature data only. The findings reported allow prompt preparation and implementation of appropriate public health interventions to control and prevent disease outbreaks.

The present study reports a case of cutaneous plasmacytosis in a 51-year-old patient suffering from infiltrated erythema of the right lower lateral femur for 4-5 years and perioral and abdominal erythema for 1 year. Histopathological examination showed that dense mature plasma cell-dominant inflammatory cell infiltration appeared in the deep dermis and between part of the subcutaneous tissues and that there were small numbers of lymphocytes and polykaryocytes. Immunopathogenetic analysis showed that the infiltrating plasma cells were positive for CD79a and CD138. The patient was diagnosed with cutaneous plasmacytosis.

Background: Typhoid and paratyphoid fever are endemic in Hongta District and their prevalence, at 113 per 100,000 individuals, remains the highest in China. However, the exact sources of the disease and its main epidemiological characteristics have not yet been clearly identified., Methods and Findings: Numbers of typhoid and paratyphoid cases per day during the period 2006 to 2010 were obtained from the Chinese Center of Disease Control (CDC). A number of suspected disease determinants (or their proxies), were considered for use in spatiotemporal analysis: these included locations of discharge canals and food markets, as well as socio-economic and environmental factors. Results showed that disease prevalence was spatially clustered with clusters decreasing with increasing distance from markets and discharge canals. More than half of the spatial variance could be explained by a combination of economic conditions and availability of health facilities. Temporal prevalence fluctuations were positively associated with the monthly precipitation series. Polluted hospital and residential wastewater was being discharged into rainwater canals. Salmonella bacteria were found in canal water, on farmland and on vegetables sold in markets., Conclusion: DISEASE TRANSMISSION IN HONGTA DISTRICT IS DRIVEN PRINCIPALLY BY TWO SPATIOTEMPORALLY COUPLED CYCLES: one involving seasonal variations and the other the distribution of polluted farmland (where vegetables are grown and sold in markets). Disease transmission was exacerbated by the fact that rainwater canals were being used for disposal of polluted waste from hospitals and residential areas. Social factors and their interactions also played a significant role in disease transmission.

There has been discrepancies between the daily air quality reports of the Beijing municipal government, observations recorded at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, and Beijing residents' perceptions of air quality. This study estimates Beijing's daily area PM(2.5) mass concentration by means of a novel technique SPA (Single Point Areal Estimation) that uses data from the single PM(2.5) observation station of the U.S Embassy and the 18 PM(10) observation stations of the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau. The proposed technique accounts for empirical relationships between different types of observations, and generates best linear unbiased pollution estimates (in a statistical sense). The technique extends the daily PM(2.5) mass concentrations obtained at a single station (U.S. Embassy) to a citywide scale using physical relations between pollutant concentrations at the embassy PM(2.5) monitoring station and at the 18 official PM(10) stations that are evenly distributed across the city. Insight about the technique's spatial estimation accuracy (uncertainty) is gained by means of theoretical considerations and numerical validations involving real data. The technique was used to study citywide PM(2.5) pollution during the 423-day period of interest (May 10, 2010 to December 6, 2011). Finally, a freely downloadable software library is provided that performs all relevant calculations of pollution estimation.

Felidae (cats) is one of the strict carnivorous groups in the order Carnivora, many of which are most familiar and spectacular to us. They are the top predators in the world. Thirty-six of 37 living cat species are considered as either "endangered" or "threatened". The relationships among species of the family Felidae, which evolved recently and rapidly, are difficult to resolve, and have been the subject of debate. Construction of a reliable Felidae phylogeny will be of evolutionarily significance and conservation value. In this paper, we summarized phylogeny of Felidae, including cytological, morphological and molecular evidence, and pointed out the existing phylogenetic problems. This review is expected to guide future researches of Felidae phylogeny, and to lay a theoretic foundation for the protection of this animal group.

A Bayesian geostatistical model was used to identify factors related to topographical variation in the analysis of mortality risk for children less than 5 years of age in the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in the People's Republic of China. Epidemiological data from a standardized survey were available from 115 locations across the study area. Physical and demographic factors measured directly at the township level were examined with respect to risk. The geostatistical model explicitly accounted for spatial correlation present in child mortality by fitting a Gaussian linear model to the data. Results identified the role of several factors in explaining geographical heterogeneity in child mortality and show that it was significantly correlated with earthquake intensity, population density, migrant labour, and the percentage of collapsed houses.

Objective: To investigate the roles of daidzein in the expressions of steroid receptor coactivator-1 (SRC-1) and nuclear receptor corepressor (NcoR) in MC3T3-E1 osteoblastic cells., Methods: MC3T3-E1 cells were cultured in α-minimal essential medium (α-MEM) containing 2% fetal bovine serum and treated with various concentrations of daidzein (10(-9), 10(-7) and 10(-5) mol/L) or 17β-estradiol at 10(-8) mol/L for 3 d. The protein levels of SRC-1 and NcoR in MC3T3-E1 cells were determined by Western blotting. Estrogen receptor (ER) antagonist ICI182780 at 10(-7) mol/L or specific ERα antagonist methyl-piperidino-pyrazole (MPP) at 10(-6) mol/L were used to block the corresponding receptors, and then MC3T3-E1 cells were treated with daidzein at 10(-7) mol/L or 10(-5) mol/L for 3 d. SRC-1 and NcoR protein levels were detected by Western blotting., Results: The protein levels of SRC-1 increased by 2.5 fold (P<0.05) and 2 fold (P<0.05) by 10(-7) and 10(-5) mol/L of daidzein respectively, while the NcoR levels were not significantly altered. 17β-Estradiol at dose of 10(-8) mol/L did not affect the expression of SRC-1 but decreased NcoR protein expression by 35% (P<0.05). Compared with the control, daidzein at 10(-7) and 10(-5) mol/L did not increase SRC-1 expression when ERs were blocked by antagonist ICI182780. Daidzein at 10(-7) and 10(-5) mol/L up-regulated SRC-1 by 1.8 fold (P<0.05) and 2.4 fold (P<0.05) respectively while ERα was blocked by MPP., Conclusion: Daidzein increases protein level of SRC-1 and the ratio of SRC-1/NcoR. ERβ, instead of ERα, participates in the action of daidzein in regulating SRC-1 expression. Up-regulation of SRC-1 and increase of SRC-1/NcoR are part of the mechanism of the estrogenic effect of daidzein in improving osteogenesis.

• With growing concerns over serious ecological problems, a particular challenge is to reveal the complex mechanisms underlying rapid expansion of invasive species. Ageratina adenophora is of particular interest in addressing this question. • We used geographic information systems and logistic regression to identify the geographic and environmental factors contributing to the presence of A. adenophora. Join-count spatial statistics with reproduction mode examination were employed to elucidate the spatiotemporal dispersal mechanisms. • Multiple factors have significantly contributed to the rapid expansion of A. adenophora. Its biological traits, favoring dispersal by water and wind coupled with local spatiotemporally heterogeneous geography and ecology, promote invasion downstream and upstream along river valleys, while other factors associated with human activities facilitate its invasion over high mountains and across river valleys, providing new scope for progressive invasions. We further identified an unusual invasion event of A. adenophora subsequent to a great flood that amplified its dispersal ability from vegetative propagules and seeds. • These findings suggest that dynamic interactions of multiple factors in heterogeneous ecogeographical environments - a 'combinatorial' invasion mechanism - would generate an unexpected invasion rate of an alien species or a seemingly stochastic invasion event., (© 2011 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2011 New Phytologist Trust.)

Objective: To investigate the association of the IL-6 -572C > G polymorphism with the risk of prostate cancer (PCa) in the Chinese Han population in Jiangsu and Anhui area., Methods: We obtained peripheral blood genome DNA from 200 PCa patients and 279 age-matched PCa-free healthy controls, analyzed the site polymorphism of IL-6 -572C > G with the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) technique, and studied the correlation of different genotypes with the susceptibility to PCa., Results: The subjects that carried the CCGG genotype had a risk of PCa 2.46 times that of the CC genotype carriers (95% CI = 1.41-4.29), and 2.47 times that of the CC/GC genotype carriers (95% CI = 1.47-4.17). This risk was significantly increased among the following subgroups of CCGG genotype carriers: age > 70 yr (OR = 3.06, 95% CI: 1.44-6.49), BMI > 23 kg/m2 (OR = 3.72, 95% CI: 1.79-7.74), no cigarette smoking (OR = 2.96, 95% CI: 1.30-6.72), alcohol drinking (OR = 2.73, 95% CI: 1.28-5.79), with a family history of cancer (OR = 6.67, 95% CI: 1.50-29.69)., Conclusion: In the Chinese Han population in Jiangsu and Anhui area, IL-6 -572C > G polymorphism is associated with the susceptibility to PCa, and GG might be a susceptible genotype to PCa.

Cadherins are found in almost all living organisms. In addition to their role in the formation and maintenance of normal tissue architecture, cadherins seem to play a crucial role in the cell-cell interactions of cancer cells in tumorigenesis, invasion and metastasis. The aim of the present study was to identify the role of CDH12 in the invasion and metastasis of salivary adenoid cystic carcinoma (SACC). Real-time PCR results showed that CDH12 is abnormally expressed in the highly metastatic SACC cell line ACC-M, compared to ACC-2, a SACC cell line with low metastatic ability. CDH12 expression was significantly higher in clinical samples with metastasis and recurrence than in those without metastasis and recurrence (P<0.05), as demonstrated by immunohistochemical analysis. Overexpression of the CDH12 protein in ACC-M cells infected with an adenovirus vector containing CDH12 enhanced the invasive and migratory ability of ACC-M cells in vitro compared to ACC-M cells infected with empty vector. Likewise, knockdown of CDH12 by small interfering RNA efficiently inhibited the invasion and migration of ACC-M cells in vitro. These results indicate that CDH12 may play an important role in the invasion and metastasis of SACC.

Objective: To analyze the pilot results of both temporal and temporal-spatial models in outbreaks detection in China Infectious Diseases Automated-alert and Response System (CIDARS) to further improve the system., Methods: The amount of signal, sensitivity, false alarm rate and time to detection regarding these two models of CIDARS, were analyzed from December 6, 2009 to December 5, 2010 in 221 pilot counties of 20 provinces., Results: The sensitivity of these two models was equal (both 98.15%). However, when comparing to the temporal model, the temporal-spatial model had a 59.86% reduction on the signals (15 702) while the false alarm rate of the temporal-spatial model (0.73%) was lower than the temporal model (1.79%), and the time to detection of the temporal-spatial model (0 day) was also 1 day shorter than the temporal model., Conclusion: Comparing to the temporal model, the temporal-spatial model of CIDARS seemed to be better performed on outbreak detection.

Objective: To analyze the results of application on China Infectious Diseases Automated-alert and Response System (CIDARS) and for further improving the system., Methods: Amount of signal, proportion of signal responded, time to signal response, manner of signal verification and the outcome of each signal in CIDARS were descriptively analyzed from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2010., Results: A total of 533 829 signals were generated nationwide on 28 kinds of infectious diseases in the system. 97.13% of the signals had been responded and the median time to response was 1.1 hours. Among them, 2472 signals were generated by the fixed-value detection method which involved 9 kinds of diseases after the preliminary verification, field investigation and laboratory tests. 2202 signals were excluded, and finally 246 cholera cases, 15 plague cases and 9 H5N1 cases as well as 39 outbreaks of cholera were confirmed. 531 357 signals were generated by the other method - the 'moving percentile method' which involved 19 kinds of diseases. The average amount of signal per county per week was 1.65, with 6603 signals (1.24%) preliminarily verified as suspected outbreaks and 1594 outbreaks were finally confirmed by further field investigation. For diseases in CIDARS, the proportion of signals related to suspected outbreaks to all triggered signals showed a positive correlation with the proportion of cases related to outbreaks of all the reported cases (r = 0.963, P < 0.01)., Conclusion: The signals of CIDARS were responded timely, and the signal could act as a clue for potential outbreaks, which helped enhancing the ability on outbreaks detection for local public health departments.

Background: The Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease (HFMD) is the most common infectious disease in China, its total incidence being around 500,000~1,000,000 cases per year. The composite space-time disease variation is the result of underlining attribute mechanisms that could provide clues about the physiologic and demographic determinants of disease transmission and also guide the appropriate allocation of medical resources to control the disease., Methods and Findings: HFMD cases were aggregated into 1456 counties and during a period of 11 months. Suspected climate attributes to HFMD were recorded monthly at 674 stations throughout the country and subsequently interpolated within 1456 × 11 cells across space-time (same as the number of HFMD cases) using the Bayesian Maximum Entropy (BME) method while taking into consideration the relevant uncertainty sources. The dimensionalities of the two datasets together with the integrated dataset combining the two previous ones are very high when the topologies of the space-time relationships between cells are taken into account. Using a self-organizing map (SOM) algorithm the dataset dimensionality was effectively reduced into 2 dimensions, while the spatiotemporal attribute structure was maintained. 16 types of spatiotemporal HFMD transmission were identified, and 3-4 high spatial incidence clusters of the HFMD types were found throughout China, which are basically within the scope of the monthly climate (precipitation) types., Conclusions: HFMD propagates in a composite space-time domain rather than showing a purely spatial and purely temporal variation. There is a clear relationship between HFMD occurrence and climate. HFMD cases are geographically clustered and closely linked to the monthly precipitation types of the region. The occurrence of the former depends on the later.

Extraction of meaningful information from large experimental data sets is a key element in bioinformatics research. One of the challenges is to identify genomic markers in Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) that are associated with HCC (liver cancer) development by comparing the complete genomic sequences of HBV among patients with HCC and those without HCC. In this study, a data mining framework, which includes molecular evolution analysis, clustering, feature selection, classifier learning, and classification, is introduced. Our research group has collected HBV DNA sequences, either genotype B or C, from over 200 patients specifically for this project. In the molecular evolution analysis and clustering, three subgroups have been identified in genotype C and a clustering method has been developed to separate the subgroups. In the feature selection process, potential markers are selected based on Information Gain for further classifier learning. Then, meaningful rules are learned by our algorithm called the Rule Learning, which is based on Evolutionary Algorithm. Also, a new classification method by Nonlinear Integral has been developed. Good performance of this method comes from the use of the fuzzy measure and the relevant nonlinear integral. The nonadditivity of the fuzzy measure reflects the importance of the feature attributes as well as their interactions. These two classifiers give explicit information on the importance of the individual mutated sites and their interactions toward the classification (potential causes of liver cancer in our case). A thorough comparison study of these two methods with existing methods is detailed. For genotype B, genotype C subgroups C1, C2, and C3, important mutation markers (sites) have been found, respectively. These two classification methods have been applied to classify never-seen-before examples for validation. The results show that the classification methods have more than 70 percent accuracy and 80 percent sensitivity for most data sets, which are considered high as an initial scanning method for liver cancer diagnosis.

Background: Population health attributes (such as disease incidence and prevalence) are often estimated using sentinel hospital records, which are subject to multiple sources of uncertainty. When applied to these health attributes, commonly used biased estimation techniques can lead to false conclusions and ineffective disease intervention and control. Although some estimators can account for measurement error (in the form of white noise, usually after de-trending), most mainstream health statistics techniques cannot generate unbiased and minimum error variance estimates when the available data are biased., Methods and Findings: A new technique, called the Biased Sample Hospital-based Area Disease Estimation (B-SHADE), is introduced that generates space-time population disease estimates using biased hospital records. The effectiveness of the technique is empirically evaluated in terms of hospital records of disease incidence (for hand-foot-mouth disease and fever syndrome cases) in Shanghai (China) during a two-year period. The B-SHADE technique uses a weighted summation of sentinel hospital records to derive unbiased and minimum error variance estimates of area incidence. The calculation of these weights is the outcome of a process that combines: the available space-time information; a rigorous assessment of both, the horizontal relationships between hospital records and the vertical links between each hospital's records and the overall disease situation in the region. In this way, the representativeness of the sentinel hospital records was improved, the possible biases of these records were corrected, and the generated area incidence estimates were best linear unbiased estimates (BLUE). Using the same hospital records, the performance of the B-SHADE technique was compared against two mainstream estimators., Conclusions: The B-SHADE technique involves a hospital network-based model that blends the optimal estimation features of the Block Kriging method and the sample bias correction efficiency of the ratio estimator method. In this way, B-SHADE can overcome the limitations of both methods: Block Kriging's inadequacy concerning the correction of sample bias and spatial clustering; and the ratio estimator's limitation as regards error minimization. The generality of the B-SHADE technique is further demonstrated by the fact that it reduces to Block Kriging in the case of unbiased samples; to ratio estimator if there is no correlation between hospitals; and to simple statistic if the hospital records are neither biased nor space-time correlated. In addition to the theoretical advantages of the B-SHADE technique over the two other methods above, two real world case studies (hand-foot-mouth disease and fever syndrome cases) demonstrated its empirical superiority, as well.

In the title compound, C(20)H(15)N(3)O, the diazepine ring adopts a boat conformation. The dihedral angle between pyridine and benzene rings is 55.2 (1)°. The benzoyl phenyl ring forms dihedral angles of 49.4 (1) and 75.9 (1)°, respectively, with the pyridine and benzene rings. In the crystal, mol-ecules are linked into centrosymmetric dimers by pairs of C-H⋯N hydrogen bonds.

The Notch signaling pathway is important for cell-cell communication; it is involved in gene regulation mechanisms that control multiple cell differentiation processes during embryonic and adult life. Notch is present in all metazoans, and vertebrates possess four different Notch receptors: Notch-1, Notch-2, Notch-3, and Notch-4. The aim of the present study was to identify the role of Notch protein in the metastasis of salivary adenoid cystic carcinoma (SACC). Real-time PCR results showed that Notch-1, Notch-2, and Notch-4 were upregulated in the highly metastatic SACC cell line ACC-M, compared to ACC-2, a SACC cell line with low metastatic ability. Knockdown of Notch-4 by small interfering RNA efficiently inhibited the invasion of ACC-M cells. Notch-4 expression was significantly higher in the clinical samples with metastasis and recurrence compared to that in control (p<0.05), shown by immunohistochemistry analysis. These results indicate that Notch-4 may play an important role in SACC metastasis.

Objective: To predict neural tube birth defect (NTD) using support vector machine (SVM)., Method: The dataset in the pilot area was divided into non overlaid training set and testing set. SVM was trained using the training set and the trained SVM was then used to predict the classification of NTD., Result: NTD rate was predicted at village level in the pilot area. The accuracy of the prediction was 71.50% for the training dataset and 68.57% for the test dataset respectively., Conclusion: Results from this study have shown that SVM is applicable to the prediction of NTD., (Copyright © 2010 The Editorial Board of Biomedical and Environmental Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Fibroblast growth factor 10 (FGF10) plays important roles in vertebrate limb development, lung branching morphogenesis, and epidermis regeneration. The receptor (FGFR2b) binding specificity is an essential element in regulating the diverse functions of FGF10. Analyzing the FGF10:FGFR2b complex we found that Thr-114 in beta4 of FGF10 could form specific interactions with D3 of FGFR2b. To investigate the role of Thr-114 played on functions of FGF10, two mutants of FGF10 were constructed, named TA (Thr-114-->Ala) and TR (Thr-114-->Arg), respectively. The biological activity assays showed that the receptor-binding affinity, the stimulating growth effect on rat tracheal epithelium (RTE) cells, and the inducing ability in receptor phosphorylation of both mutants were decreased, which were consistent with the interaction analysis of the TA:FGFR2b and TR:FGFR2b complexes. These results suggested that Thr-114 is a crucial functional residue for FGF10, and mutating Thr-114 to Ala or Arg would lead to great decrease in receptor-binding affinity and biological activity of FGF10., (2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Neural tube defect (NTD) prevalence in northern China is among the highest worldwide. Dealing with the NTD situation is ranked as the number one task in China's scientific development plan in population and health field for the next decade. Physical and social environments account for much of the disease's occurrence. The environmental determinants and their effects on NTD vary across geographical regions, whereas factors that play a significant role in NTD occurrence may be buried by global statistics analysis to a pooled dataset over the entire study area. This study aims at identification of the local determinants of NTD across the study area and exploration of the epidemiological implications of the findings., Methods: NTD prevalence rate is represented in terms of the random field theory, and Rushton's circle method is used to stabilize NTD rate estimation across the geographical area of interest; NTD determinants are represented by their measurable proxy variables and the geographical weighted regression (GWR) technique is used to represent the spatial heterogeneity of the NTD determinants., Results: Informative maps of the NTD rates and the statistically significant proxy variables are generated and rigorously assessed in quantitative terms., Conclusions: The NTD determinants in the study area are investigated and interpreted on the basis of the maps of the proxy variables and the relationships between the proxy variables and the NTD determinants. No single determinant was found to dominate the NTD occurrence in the study area. Villages where NTD rates are significantly linked to environmental determinants are identified (some places are more closely linked to certain environmental factors than others). The results improve current understanding of NTD spread in China and provide valuable information for adequate disease intervention planning.

Objective: To clarify the correlation between primary gout and insulin-resistance (IR), and to observe the effect of serial gout granules (SGGs) on IR in patients with primary gout., Methods: Pearson's correlation analysis and multiple stepwise correlation analysis were conducted between 60 patients and 60 healthy volunteers in terms of blood pressure (BP), blood levels of uric acid (sUA), fasting plasma glucose (FPG), fasting insulin (FINS), fasting leptin (FL), triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and C-peptide (CP), body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), insulin resistance index (IRI) and insulin sensitivity index (ISI). Besides, the 60 primary gout patients were equally randomized into two groups, the treatment group treated with SGGs (huzhang gout granule and yinlian gout granule), and the control group treated with diclofenac sodium dual release enteric-coated capsules and Benzbromarone. bove-mentioned indexes in them were assessed before and after 12 weeks of treatment., Results: The levels of sUA, FPG, TC, TG, LDL-C, FINS, CP, FL, IRI, BMI, and WHR were higher while the levels of HDL-C and ISI was lower in gout patients than those in healthy controls (all P < 0.05); Pearson's correlation analysis showed that level of sUA was positively correlated with levels of FPG, FINS, IRI, BMI, TC, TG, LDL-C, CP, FL, systolic pressure and diastolic pressure (r = 0.444, 0.496, 0.660, 0.542, 0.414, 0.467, 0.344, 0.470, 0.419, 0.275, 0.330 respectively, P < 0.05), but negatively correla- ted with levels of ISI and HDL-C (r = -0.569, -0.264 respectively, P < 0.05). Multiple stepwise correlation analysis showed that sUA was also positively correlated with IRI, TG and BMI (r = 5.758, 2.849, 3. 425 respectively, P < 0.05). After 12 weeks of treatment, the lowed range of TC, TG, FINS, FPG and IRI, and the increased amplitude of HDL-C and ISI in the treatment group were superior to those in the control group respectively (P < 0.05)., Conclusion: Patients with primary gout are low in insulin sensitivity and indicating the existence of IR. SGGs could enhance patients' insulin sensitivity and improve IR to a certain extent.

Objective: To observe the effect of beta(3)-adrenoceptor (AR) in regulating resting intracellular Ca(2+) concentration of the ventricular myocytes and investigate the signaling pathway in rats with experimental heart failure., Methods: Rat models of experimental heart failure were established by ligation of the anterior descending artery, and the myocytes were isolated by enzymatic digestion. The resting intracellular Ca(2+) concentration was determined using laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM) in the cells stimulated with 1 micromol/L BRL37344 (a selective beta(3)-AR agonist) alone or in combination with PTX, L-NAME, or methylene blue., Results: In the ventricular myocytes from normal control rats, BRL373444 reduced the resting intracellular Ca(2+) concentration of by 45.5%, while the reduction increased to 59.4% in the cells from rats with heart failure. In combination with L-NAME (10 micromol/L), methylene blue (10 micromol/L), and PTX (2 microg/ml), BRL373444 caused a reduction in resting intracellular Ca(2+) concentration of the ventricle myocytes from normal control rats by 10.1%, 16.9%, and 15.4%, respectively in control group, while the rate was 16.9%, 19.3%, and 11.7% in the heart failure group., Conclusions: Beta(3)-AR agonist can decrease the resting intracellular Ca(2+) concentration of the ventricular myocytes, but the reduction is smaller in cells from rats with heart failure than in cells of normal rats. This effect is mediated through the PTX-NOS-NO pathway.

This study was aimed to explore the influence of staphylokinase derivative (SAKD) on the hemoagglutinative and fibrinolytic systems, and to determine the safety of the staphylokinase derivative in application. The normal and model rats each 30 were divided into normal saline, SAKD and rSAK groups. The hemorrhage, bleeding time (BT), blood platelet count (BPC), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), prothrombin time (PT), thrombin time (TT), fibrinogen (Fg), D-dimer (D-D), plasminogen (PLG) and plasmin inhibitor activity (PI) were detected before and after the administration with staphylokinase derivative 0.5 mg/kg body weight, once three days for consecutive 15 days. The results indicated that one case of normal rats with SAKD and two cases of high fat diet model group had mild hemorrhage, all of which showed automatic hemostasis; and 3 cases in rSAK group had mild hemorrhage. And the platelet counting, D-D, PLG and PI in all groups did not significantly change. The rats of high fat diet group treated with SAKD showed the significant extension of APTT, PT and TT times, and the decrease of Fg time (p < 0.05). All the experimental results demonstrated that the influence of SAKD on the hemagglutination of the normal animals was lower, however, which can improve the high-hemagglutination status of the rats with high fat diet. It is concluded that the SAKD at the dosage of this study has the higher safety, which can alleviate the high hemagglutination symptoms of the rats with high fat diet.

Satellite remote sensing (RS) is an important contributor to Earth observation, providing various kinds of imagery every day, but low spatial resolution remains a critical bottleneck in a lot of applications, restricting higher spatial resolution analysis (e.g., intra-urban). In this study, a multifractal-based super-resolution reconstruction method is proposed to alleviate this problem. The multifractal characteristic is common in Nature. The self-similarity or self-affinity presented in the image is useful to estimate details at larger and smaller scales than the original. We first look for the presence of multifractal characteristics in the images. Then we estimate parameters of the information transfer function and noise of the low resolution image. Finally, a noise-free, spatial resolution-enhanced image is generated by a fractal coding-based denoising and downscaling method. The empirical case shows that the reconstructed super-resolution image performs well in detail enhancement. This method is not only useful for remote sensing in investigating Earth, but also for other images with multifractal characteristics.

Sampling and estimation of geographical attributes that vary across space (e.g., area temperature, urban pollution level, provincial cultivated land, regional population mortality and state agricultural production) are common yet important constituents of many real-world applications. Spatial attribute estimation and the associated accuracy depend on the available sampling design and statistical inference modelling. In the present work, our concern is areal attribute estimation, in which the spatial sampling and Kriging means are compared in terms of mean values, variances of mean values, comparative efficiencies and underlying conditions. Both the theoretical analysis and the empirical study show that the mean Kriging technique outperforms other commonly-used techniques. Estimation techniques that account for spatial correlation (dependence) are more efficient than those that do not, whereas the comparative efficiencies of the various methods change with surface features. The mean Kriging technique can be applied to other spatially distributed attributes, as well.

An optimal and integrative tsunami warning system is introduced that takes full advantage of remote sensing and geographical information systems (GIS) in monitoring, forecasting, detection, loss evaluation, and relief management for tsunamis. Using the primary impact zone in Banda Aceh, Indonesia as the pilot area, we conducted three simulations that showed that while the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami claimed about 300,000 lives because there was no tsunami warning system at all, it is possible that only about 15,000 lives could have been lost if the area had used a tsunami warning system like that currently in use in the Pacific Ocean. The simulations further calculated that the death toll could have been about 3,000 deaths if there had been a disaster system further optimized with full use of remote sensing and GIS, although the number of badly damaged or destroyed houses (29,545) could have likely remained unchanged.

Background: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) was first reported in November 2002 in China, and spreads to about 30 countries over the next few months. While the characteristics of epidemic transmission are individually assessed, there are also important implicit associations between them., Methods: A novel methodological framework was developed to overcome barriers among separate epidemic statistics and identify distinctive SARS features. Individual statistics were pair-wise linked in terms of their common features, and an integrative epidemic network was formulated., Results: The study of associations between important SARS characteristics considerably enhanced the mainstream epidemic analysis and improved the understanding of the relationships between the observed epidemic determinants. The response of SARS transmission to various epidemic control factors was simulated, target areas were detected, critical time and relevant factors were determined., Conclusion: It was shown that by properly accounting for links between different SARS statistics, a data-based analysis can efficiently reveal systematic associations between epidemic determinants. The analysis can predict the temporal trend of the epidemic given its spatial pattern, to estimate spatial exposure given temporal evolution, and to infer the driving forces of SARS transmission given the spatial exposure distribution.

In the title compound, {[Cu(C(10)H(14)N(4))(2)(H(2)O)(2)](NO(3))(2)}(n), the Cu(II) ion lies on an inversion center and is six-coordinated in an octa-hedral environment by four N atoms from four different 1,1'-butane-1,4-diyldiimidazole ligands and two O atoms from the two water mol-ecules. Bridging by the ligands results in a ribbon structure. Adjacent ribbons are linked to the nitrate anions via O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming layers. One nitrate O atom is disordered equally over two positions.

In genetic programming (GP), evolving tree nodes separately would reduce the huge solution space. However, tree nodes are highly interdependent with respect to their fitness. In this paper, we propose a new GP framework, namely, instruction-matrix (IM)-based GP (IMGP), to handle their interactions. IMGP maintains an IM to evolve tree nodes and subtrees separately. IMGP extracts program trees from an IM and updates the IM with the information of the extracted program trees. As the IM actually keeps most of the information of the schemata of GP and evolves the schemata directly, IMGP is effective and efficient. Our experimental results on benchmark problems have verified that IMGP is not only better than those of canonical GP in terms of the qualities of the solutions and the number of program evaluations, but they are also better than some of the related GP algorithms. IMGP can also be used to evolve programs for classification problems. The classifiers obtained have higher classification accuracies than four other GP classification algorithms on four benchmark classification problems. The testing errors are also comparable to or better than those obtained with well-known classifiers. Furthermore, an extended version, called condition matrix for rule learning, has been used successfully to handle multiclass classification problems.

This study was purposed to investigate the angiogenin (ANG) expression in COS-7 cells and its biological activity. The gene of angiogenin was obtained from mononuclear cells of peripheral blood by using RT-PCR and inserted into eukaryotic expression vector of pcDNA3.1. After being transfected into COS-7 cells, the recombinant ANG was identified by Western blot assay. The function of promoting proliferation of ANG to ECV304 cells was detected by MTT method, and its activity of vascularization was analyzed by chick embryo chorioallantois treated by the culture supernatant after transfection with pcDNA3.1-ang. The result showed that recombinant ANG was expressed in COS-7 cells after transfection for 24 to 36 hours. It could specifically react with monoclonal antibody against ANG. The recombinant ANG could obviously promote the proliferation of ECV304 cells. In contrast with the control group, the culture supernatant of pcDNA3.1-ang transfected group could stimulate the angiogenesis in embryo chorioallantois. It is concluded that the ang transiently expresses in COS-7 cells, and its expression product obviously stimulates the cell proliferation and angiogenesis.

Objective: To evaluate the possible association between Tpeak-Tend (Tp-e) interval in surface standard ECG and cardiac events in patients with Brugada syndrome (BrS)., Method: Tp-e interval in surface standard ECG was compared between BrS patients (n = 23, all males) and paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT) patients (n = 20, all males) as well as between BrS patients with (n = 16) or without (n = 7) cardiac events., Results: There was significant difference in Tp-e interval between BrS patients and PSVT patients [(109.57 +/- 22.86) ms vs. (88.50 +/- 13.08) ms, P < 0.05]. Tp-e interval was also significantly longer in BrS patients with cardiac events (syncope, clinical ventricular fibrillation and induced VF during electrophysiological study) than BrS patients without cardiac events [(118.12 +/- 20.40) ms vs. (90.00 +/- 15.27) ms, P < 0.05] while Tp-e interval was similar between BrS patients without cardiac events and PSVT patients (P > 0.05)., Conclusion: The prolongation of Tp-e (> or = 120 ms) was associated with higher cardiac events in BrS patients.

Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic applicability of human papillomavirus (HPV) liquid chip assay which is based on Luminex XMAP System, and perform a HPV epidemiologic study with the liquid chip in women of Shandong province., Methods: To detect HPV genotypes on a 96-well plate with the liquid chip which can simultaneously detect and identify 26 common HPV genotypes in a total of 2925 cervical scrapes obtained from gynecological outpatients as well as to analyze the relationship between HPV types and different cervical diseases by studying the distribution of HPV genotypes and pathologic diagnosis., Results: Among 639 cases who performed pathologic/cytological and histological diagnoses, 184 cases are in group of normal cytology, 266 cases in group of, 77 cases in group of cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia (CIN) I, 7 cases in group of CIN I - II, 46 cases in group of CIN I - II, 46 cases in group of CIN I - II and 13 cases in group of cervical cancer. The overall incidence of HPV in our samples is 36.0% (1054/2925) and 23 types of all 26 types on liquid chip are found. The most common genotypes found are HPV-16 (26.75%), HPV-52 (25.75%), HPV-58 (10.47%), HPV-18 (8.87%) and HPV-11 (6.94%). Among all the positive types, 87.32% are high-risk HPV and 13.68% are low-risk HPV genotypes. Both single and multiple types are easily identified, showing 66.22% ( n = 698) single type and 33.78% ( n = 356) multiple types. Of all the 1054 HPV-positive cases, 261 (24.8%) is occupied by women 21 to 25 years of age and progressively lower by older age groups, reaching 4.9% by women between 51 to 67 years old. The incidence of HPV in our samples is 23.37%, 33.08%, 54.54%, 57.14%, 82.61%, 91.30% and 100% for normal cytology, inflammation,CIN I ,CIN I - II, CIN II ,CIN III, and carcinomas specimens, respectively. Infections with more that one virus are common, accounted for 4.89%, 7.14%, 18.18%, 28.57%, 41.30%, 43.37% and 38.46% for normal cytology, inflammation, CIN I, CIN I - II, CIN II, CIN III, and carcinomas specimens, respectively. Based on the criteria of histology and pathology, the sensitivity, specificity, positive-predictive value and negative-predictive value of HPV liquid chip assay for detecting all cases of CIN II, III are 88.57%, 76.63%, 68.89% and 92.16% respectively. Conclusion The common types of HPV infection are 16, 52, 58, 18, 11, 6, 56 and 31. The HPV-positive rate increased along with the increase of grading on cervical lesions. There are more younger women among all the HPV-positive ones. Multiplex HPV genotyping by liquid chip appears to be highly suitable for diagnostic screening as well as the conduction of large-scale epidemiological studies.

This study was aimed to construct the soluble HLA-A*0201-PR1 complex for preparation of HLA-A*0201-PR1 tetramer. The recombinant HLA-A*0201-BSP (BirA substrate peptide) fusion protein as heavy chain and beta(2)-microglobulin (beta(2) m) as light chain were expressed highly as insoluble aggregates in Escherichia coli and then purified with gel filtration, and the final purity reached above 90%. The two subunits were refolded to form an HLA-A*0201-peptide complex by dilution method in the presence of an antigenic peptide PR1, a HLA-A2-restricted peptide from proteinase 3 (aa 169 - 177, VLQELNVTV). Refolded HLA-A*0201-PR1 complex was biotinylated using a BirA enzyme and purified by anion exchange chromatography on a Q-Sepharose (fast flow) column. The extent of reconstitution of the HLA-A*0201-PR1 complex was analyzed by HPLC gel filtration. The refolded and biotinylated products were detected by Western blot and ELISA with monoclonal antibody BB7.2 that recognized the natural conformations of HLA-A2 and streptavidin. The results showed that the refolded complex was composed of HLA-A*0201-BSP aggregate, HLA-A*0201-PR1 complex and beta(2) m, and reconstitution yields of 18% with PR1 was obtained. Refolded HLA-A*0201-PR1 complex could be confirmed by practical immunological method and biotinylated efficiently. It is concluded that the refolding and biotinylation of HLA-A*0201-PR1 complex is successfully obtained. This work provides the basis for the preparation of HLA-A*0201-PR1 tetramer.

High-yield production of HLA-A*0201 heavy chain is a prerequisite to the preparation of HLA-A2 tetramer. The present study was aimed to construct the expression vector of recombinant HLA-A*0201-BSP fusion gene for preparing HLA-A2 tetramers. The extracellular region HLA*0201 was cloned by RT-PCR from HLA-A2(+) donor, and a 15-amino acid biotin-protein ligase (BirA) substrate peptide (BSP) for BirA-dependent biotinylation was added to the COOH-terminus of HLA-A*0201 heavy chain. Then the fusion gene was cloned into pBV220 vector at EcoRI and Bam HI sites and its sequence was confirmed by DNA sequence analysis. The recombinant plasmid pBV220-HLA-A*0201-BSP was transformed to the competent cells of E.coli DH5alpha. The results showed that the HLA-A*0201-BSP fusion protein was successfully expressed in the form of inclusion body and amounted to over 28% of total cell proteins via induction at 42 degrees C. After washed with triton X-100 and urea, the inclusion body was dissolved with 8 mol/L urea and then purified with Sepharcyl S-300 HR, and the final purity reached above 90%. It is concluded that the HLA-A*0201-BSP fusion gene was cloned successfully and expressed efficiently in E.coli DH5alpha. This work establishes a convenient approach for purification of large quantity of recombinant HLA-A*0201-BSP. This provides the basis for the preparation of HLA-A2 tetramers.

Human beta(2)-microglobulin (beta(2)m) is the light chain of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecule. High-yield production of this protein is a prerequisite to the preparation of MHC class I tetramer. The present study was aimed to obtain recombinant human beta(2)m expressed in Escherichia coli (E. coli) for preparing MHC class I tetramers. For cloning of human beta(2)m gene, a pair of specific primers was designed based on the published sequence of this gene. A 300 bp specific DNA fragment corresponding to the encoding region of beta(2)m lack of the signal peptide sequence was obtained by RT-PCR from the total RNA of human leukocytes. The amplified cDNA was inserted into the IPTG-inducible expression plasmid pET-17b by Nde I and Bam H I sites and its sequence was confirmed by DNA sequence analysis. The recombinant plasmid pET-beta(2)m was transformed to the competent cells of E. coli BL21 (DE3). The results showed that beta(2)m was expressed in the form of inclusion body and amounted to over 32% of total cell proteins after IPTG induction. After washing with triton X-100 and urea, the inclusion body was dissolved with 4 mol/L urea and then purified with Sephacryl S-200 HR, and the final purity reached above 95%. The denatured protein was renatured by dilution method. Western blot assay indicated that the monoclonal antibody against human native beta(2)m could react specifically with the recombinant protein. In conclusion, the human beta(2)m gene was cloned successfully and expressed efficiently in E. coli BL21 (DE3). This work establishes a convenient approach for renaturation and purification of large quantity of recombinant beta(2)m. This provides the basis for the preparation of MHC tetramers.

Objective: To analyse the multi-dimension nature of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) transmission., Methods: Based on the data of SARS in 2003 and the geographic information system of Beijing, as well as under the broad range of the theorems and techniques of data-driven and model-driven knowledge mining, hierarchical techniques were used to test the hot spots. Wavelet technique was also used to decompose Moran's I frequency to survey the spatial clustering process of SARS. For factors analysis, BW test was used to distinguish factors which influencing SARS process. In temporal aspects, susceptive-infective-removal model (SIR) without Taylor expansion was solved by a genetic-simulated annealing algorithm, that directly provided a new approach to obtain epidemic parameters from the SIR model., Results: Different order of spatial hot spots were noticed and the clustering were relevant with the means of transportation. Diffusion dynamics were changed along with the temporal process of SARS. Regarding factor analysis, geographic relationship, population density, the amount of doctors and hospitals appeared to be the key elements influencing the transmission of SARS. The predictable number of SARS cases evolving with time were also calculated., Conclusions: Cluster detection of close contacts of SARS infective in Beijing revealed the spatial characters of urban population flow and having important implications in the prevention and control of this communicable diseases. Some human and physical environment factors played statistical significant roles in different periods during SARS epidemics. An efficient algorithm was developed to solve SIR model directly, enabling the estimation of epidemic parameters from SIR and early forecast.

N-phosphorylamino acids are chemically active species that have many biomimic activities. alpha-COOH in amino acids and peptides behaviors rather differently than beta-COOH in many biochemical processes and takes a more important role in the origin of life. Activity differences between alpha-COOH and beta-COOH in the peptide formation of phosphoryl amino acids are studied by 1D, 2D NMR techniques and by ab initio and density functional theory (DFT) calculations in this paper. Phosphoryl dipeptide is formed directly from phosphoryl aspartic acids without any coupling reagents. Only the alpha-dipeptide ester is observed by 1D (1)H, (13)C, and (31)P NMR and 2D NMR. In the ab initio and DFT calculations, the pentacoordinate phosphorane intermediates containing five-membered rings are predicted to be more favored than those with six-membered rings. Both the experimental results and the theoretical calculations suggest that only the alpha-COOH group is activated by N-phosphorylation in N-phosphorylaspartic acid under mild conditions.

LC1 is a type of novel antibacterial polypeptide secreted by a Bacillus subtilis strain. It consists of 47 residues. Using bioengineering, LC1 was expressed in E.coli DH5alpha by using recombinant plasmid PBVAB16. By means of two-dimensional DQF-COSY, TOCSY and NOESY spectroscopies, protons of all 47 residues are identified. The studies show that the secondary structures of LC1 are principally anti-parallel beta sheets and extended conformations. It was speculated that there may be a hydrophobic core around Trp(23) in its three-dimensional structure.