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In our studies, micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MEKC) was employed in fingerprint analysis of Cnidium monnieri for the first time. Average chromatography of 10 batches Cnidium monnieri from Jiangsu province, China, which have long been considered as the original and genuine herbal medicine, was first established as the characteristic fingerprint. Within 25 min the major effective components were separated by 18 mM borate, 12 mM phosphate and 50 mM SDS (pH 9.2) containing 20% methanol. The relative standard deviations of migration times and peak areas were less than 5%. As a new approach of fingerprint, MKCE was compared to the conventional approach-HPLC in our experiments. The fingerprint developed by HPLC comprised 8 peaks that were collected within 40 min. Relative standard deviation (RSD) values of retention times of corresponding peaks in HPLC analysis were very small (maximum 3% and average 0.9%). In conclusion, each two methods had its advantages and disadvantages. Furthermore, besides HPLC, MEKC as a feasible method, could be used in the development of fingerprint of Cnidium monnieri.

In this paper, we propose a novel framework, called CATER, for the automated layout of web application user interfaces. This framework is a constraint-based solution, which uses a decision-table to solve the issue of field-to-widget assignment between database table and transactional page and then produces the later automatically. It caches the code skeleton of autogenerated transactional pages and gathers selection frequency of data items from temporary log files respectively to improve the computing performance and optimize the layout of transactional pages. Furthermore, this framework takes into account the UI layout, data validation, persistent store, navigation (flow control), and maintenance completely. Therefore, it can be used as a general solution for transactional web applications.

The enveloped alphavirus Semliki Forest virus (SFV) infects cells via a low pH-triggered membrane fusion reaction mediated by the E1 protein. E1's fusion activity is regulated by its heterodimeric interaction with a companion membrane protein E2. Mature E2 protein is generated by furin processing of the precursor p62. Processing destabilizes the heterodimer, allowing dissociation at acidic pH, E1 conformational changes, and membrane fusion. We used a furin-deficient cell line, FD11, to select for SFV mutants that show increased growth in the absence of p62 processing. We isolated and characterized 7 such pci mutants (p62 cleavage independent), which retained the parental furin cleavage site but showed significant increases in their ability to carry out membrane fusion in the p62 form. Sequence analysis of the pci mutants identified mutations primarily on the E2 protein, and suggested sites important in the interaction of p62 with E1 and the regulation of fusion.

To evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of Serratia marcescens (S311) vaccine in the treatment of malignant pleural effusion.Thirty-four patients with malignant pleural effusion were given S311 as intrapleural injection with a dose of 10(9) U (0.32 mg) on D 1, 8 and 15, and observed for four weeks.The overall response rate (CR + PR) was 97.1% (CR in 12 patients and PR in 21 patients). The systemic toxicity was mild, including fever (82.4%), pleuritic pain (50.7%), nansea (26.5%), dyspnea (17.5%) and chills (5.9%).Serratia marcescens vaccine is effective for malignant pleural effusion, with tolerable toxic effects. Further study is warranted.

The integration of microfabrication and biomaterials enables construction of miniaturized 3D microenvironments with biomimetic micro-architectural and functional features to advance cell-based assays for mechanism investigation of physio/pathology and for prediction of drug responses. However, current biomaterials-assisted constructions of miniaturized 3D cellular microenvironments usually involve cells in the microfabrication process, limiting their wide application in most biomedical labs, where expertise and facilities are not readily available. Here we tackle this challenge by developing off-the-shelf microsponge arrays as pre-formed micro-patterned templates which can separate the microfabrication steps from the cell-handling steps and miniaturize the cell-based assays. The microsponge arrays with tailored microarchitectures (e.g. micropillar/well arrays or bifurcated vascular network) could be stored and delivered to distant locations as ready-to-use chips. The highly porous and microscale sponges enabled automatic and uniform loading of cellular niche components (cells, matrices and soluble factors) by simply pipetting, making it accessible to any lab with basic cell culture setups. Meanwhile, the chips containing miniaturized 3D cellular microenvironments with versatile micro-architectural designs could be integrated (i.e. by autoloading and sandwiching) to enable novel 3D cell-based assays (e.g. discrete gradient-based cytotoxicity test and horizontal 3D invasion assay) in an efficient and parallel manner. The off-the-shelf platform based on microsponge array is expected to be widely applicable across multiple disciplines in cell biology, cell/tissue engineering and pharmacological science.

Semliki Forest virus (SFV) membrane fusion is mediated by the viral E1 protein at acidic pH and regulated by the dimeric interaction of E1 with the E2 membrane protein. During low pH-triggered fusion, the E2/E1 heterodimer dissociates, freeing E1 to drive membrane fusion. E2 is synthesized as a precursor, p62, which is processed to mature E2 by the cellular protease furin. Both the dissociation of the p62/E1 dimer and the fusion reaction of p62 virus have a more acidic pH threshold than that of the mature E2 virus. We have previously isolated SFV mutations that allow virus growth in furin-deficient cells. Here we have used such pci mutations to compare the interactions of the p62/E1 and E2/E1 dimers. Our data suggest that there is an important p62/E1 dimer interaction site identified by an E2 R250G mutation and that this interaction is maintained after processing to the mature E2 protein.