Integrative transformation of the mycotoxin-producing fungus,Penicillium paxilli

A high frequency transformation system has been developed for Penicillium paxilli using pAN7-1. Up to 44% of the primary transformants were heterokaryons. Loss of hygromycin resistance was observed in primary transformants that were sub-cultured on non-selective media, but single spores of these primary transformants were mitotically stable on both selective and non-selective media. A molecular analysis of the transformants generated showed that 78% had single-site integrations, with half of these containing a single copy of pAN7-1. CHEF-gel electrophoresis showed that P. paxilli has at least six chromosomes with a total genome size of about 23.4 Mb.     

EB病毒转化B淋巴细胞建立的永生细胞株长期传代遗传稳定性的研究

目的 研究EB病毒转化外周血B淋巴细胞建成的永生细胞株在传代过程中遗传特性是否发生改变.方法 对10株永生细胞株进行30代的长期传代培养,采用染色体显带、微卫星DNA及端粒酶活性检测技术,观察不同传代次数的永生细胞株二倍性、染色体核型、微卫星DNA及端粒酶活性的改变.结果 永生细胞株在30代以内,在染色体二倍性、核型、微卫星DNA方面保持稳定,未检测出端粒酶活性.结论 经EB病毒转化的永生细胞株在有限代次内遗传特征是稳定的.     

External fixation of unstable pelvic ring fractures: comparative rigidity of some current frame configurations

The effectiveness of external fixation in the stabilisation of pelvic ring fractures was studied in a laboratory cadaveric series. Shearing displacements occurring at sacroiliac joint and symphysis pubis dislocation sites, due to simplified longitudinal loading of the sacrum in an Instron unit, were monitored using variable-impedence transducers. The rigidity of fixation was compared for the Slätis and the Bonnel single anterior frames, for coupled and uncoupled double anterior frames, and for combined anterior-plus-posterior fixation achieved with separate transfixation pin clusters, with through-and-through pin clusters, or with a posterior screw plate. The data showed that the use of posterior fixation provided greatly enhanced stabilisation compared to that achieved with anterior fixation alone. The complex double anterior frames performed only slightly better than did the simpler single anterior frames. In no case, however, was it possible to recover rigidity levels approaching those of the intact pelvis. The results suggest that the transfixation pin arrangement is the most important determinant of pelvic fixation stability, and that further investigation of posterior screw-plate fixation is warranted.     

手术治疗46例胸腰椎爆裂骨折的临床分析

目的探讨前路、后路、前后路联合手术治疗胸腰椎爆裂骨折的特点。方法依据对患者所选择的前路、后路、前后路联合手术术式分为三组,进行影像学评价和神经功能评价。结果各组末次随访脊髓功能评价分级提高情况采用R×C表x2检查方法进行统计学分析,各组差异无显著意义。各组术后cobb氏角改善率应用秩和检验方法进行统计学分析,各组差异无显著意义。结论我们综合应用Denis和McAfee的分型,结合了骨折形态、损伤机制和稳定性评价,对胸腰椎爆裂骨折的治疗有较好的指导意义。手术方式的选择更多基于脊柱机械性稳定性、神经性稳定性评价。综合考虑骨折部位、骨折后时间、患者年龄、工种以及术者对入路的熟悉程度等。     

Significance of the latissimus dorsi for shoulder instability. I. Variations in its anatomy around the humerus and scapula

In a cadaveric instability model that leaves all muscles intact initially, we studied anteroinferior glenohumeral dislocation behavior after section of the ligaments on the humeral side of the joint. In this study, the latissimus dorsi seemed to play a role when complete section did not result in a locked anteroinferior dislocation. We therefore initiated a study to test the hypothesis that the latissimus dorsi may, in certain circumstances, depending on variations in its anatomy, influence dislocation behavior. Here, in Part I, we present the results of the anatomic study of latissimus dorsi and its tendons. The anatomy of the latissimus dorsi pertaining to the scapula and humerus was studied in 100 cadaver specimens. The distance between the uppermost part of the tendon of both the latissimus dorsi and the teres major and the edge of the articular cartilage of the humeral head (tendon-cartilage distance, TCD) as well as the width and length of the tendons were measured. Furthermore, the relationship between latissimus dorsi and the inferior angle of the scapula was studied. The tendon of the latissimus dorsi inserted at a variable distance from the cartilage of the humeral head: the TCD ranged from 12.6 to 31.6 mm (mean 21.06 mm+/-5.11 mm). The latissimus dorsi can have muscular fibers arising from the inferior angle of the scapula (type 1 scapular connection, 43%). Alternatively, there may be only a few fibrous strands between the muscle and the scapula or there may be an intervening bursa (type 2 scapular connection, 57%). This variability in the morphology of the latissimus dorsi may be a factor explaining the differences observed in a study of humerus-based sequential cutting of the glenohumeral capsule. This possibility is explored in Part II of the study. The latissimus dorsi may also complete the tendinous protection of the humeral side of the capsule generally provided by the rotator cuff.     

Inability to activate muscles maximally during cocontraction and the effect on joint stiffness

In order to determine the maximum joint stiffness that could be produced by cocontraction of wrist flexor and extensor muscles, experiments were conducted in which healthy human subjects stabilized a wrist manipulandum that was made mechanically unstable by using positive position feedback to create a load with the characteristics of a negative spring. To determine a subject's limit of stability, the negative stiffness of the manipulandum was increased by increments until the subject could no longer reliably stabilize the manipulandum in a 1° target window. Static wrist stiffness was measured by applying a 3° rampand-hold displacement of the manipulandum, which stretched the wrist flexor muscles. As the load stiffness was made more and more negative, subjects responded by increasing the level of cocontraction of flexor and extensor muscles to increase the stiffness of the wrist. The stiffness measured at a subject's limit of stability was taken as the maximum stiffness that the subject could achieve by cocontraction of wrist flexor and extensor muscles. In almost all cases, this value was as large or larger than that measured when the subject was asked to cocontract maximally to stiffen the wrist in the absence of any load. Static wrist stiffness was also measured when subjects reciprocally activated flexor or extensor muscles to hold the manipulandum in the target window against a load generated by a stretched spring. We found a strong linear correlation between wrist stiffness and flexor torque over the range of torques used in this study (20–80% maximal voluntary contraction). The maximum stiffness achieved by cocontraction of wrist flexor and extensor muscles was less than 50% of the maximum value predicted from the joint stiffness measured during matched reciprocal activation of flexor and extensor muscles. EMG recorded from either wrist flexor or extensor muscles during maximal cocontraction confirmed that this reduced stiffness was due to lower levels of activation during cocontraction of flexor and extensor muscles than during reciprocal contraction.     

Retrograde transneuronal transport of wheat-germ agglutinin to the retina from visual cortex in the cat

Summary The stability of visual perception despite eye movements suggests the existence, in the visual system, of neural elements able to recognize whether a movement of an image occurring in a particular part of the retina is the consequence of an actual movement that occurred in the visual field, or self-induced by an ocular movement while the object was still in the field of view. Recordings from single neurons in area V3A of awake macaque monkeys were made to check the existence of such a type of neurons (called real-motion cells; see Galletti et al. 1984, 1988) in this prestriate area of the visual cortex. A total of 119 neurons were recorded from area V3A. They were highly sensitive to the orientation of the visual stimuli, being on average more sensitive than V1 and V2 neurons. Almost all of them were sensitive to a large range of velocities of stimulus movement and about one half to the direction of it. In order to assess whether they gave different responses to the movement of a stimulus and to that of its retinal image alone (self-induced by an eye movement while the stimulus was still), a comparison was made between neuronal responses obtained when a moving stimulus swept a stationary receptive field (during steady fixation) and when a moving receptive field swept a stationary stimulus (during tracking eye movement). The receptive field stimulation at retinal level was physically the same in both cases, but only in the first was there actual movement of the visual stimulus. Control trials, where the monkeys performed tracking eye movements without any intentional receptive field stimulation, were also carried out. For a number of neurons, the test was repeated in darkness and against a textured visual background. Eighty-seven neurons were fully studied to assess whether they were real-motion cells. About 48% of them (42/87) showed significant differences between responses to stimulus versus eye movement. The great majority of these cells (36/42) were real-motion cells, in that they showed a weaker response to visual stimulation during tracking than to the actual stimulus movement during steady fixation. On average, the reduction in visual response during eye movement was 64.0 ± 15.7% (SD). Data obtained with a uniform visual background, together with those obtained in darkness and with textured background, indicate that real-motion cells receive an eye-motion input, either retinal or extraretinal in nature, probably acting presynaptically on the cell's visual input. In some cases, both retinal and extraretinal eye-motion inputs converge on the same real-motion cell. No correlation was observed between the real-motion behaviour and the sensitivity to either orientation or direction of movement of the visual stimulus used to activate the receptive field, nor with the retinotopic location of the receptive field. We suggest that the visual system uses real-motion cells in order to distinguish real from self-induced movements of retinal images, hence to recognize the actual movement in the visual field. Based on psychophysical data, the hypothesis has been advanced of an internal representation of the field of view, stable despite eye movement (cf. MacKay 1973). The real-motion cells may be neural elements of this network and we suggest that the visual system uses the output of this network to properly interpret the large number of sensory changes resulting from exploratory eye movements in a stable visual world.     

Novel Semi‐Fluorinated Poly(ether imide)s Derived From 4‐(p‐Aminophenoxy)‐3‐trifluoromethyl‐4′‐aminobiphenyl

An unsymmetrical diamine monomer 4‐(p‐aminophenoxy)‐3‐trifluoromethyl‐4′‐aminobiphenyl has been synthesized successfully. This monomer leads to the synthesis of different novel poly(ether imide)s when reacted with different dianhydrides like pyromellatic dianhydride (PMDA), benzophenone tetracarboxylic acid dianhydride (BTDA), 2,2‐bis(3,4‐dicarboxyphenyl) hexafluoropropane (6FDA), and oxy diphthalic anhydride (ODA). The poly(ether imide) prepared from this monomer on reaction with 6FDA is soluble in several organic solvents such as N‐methylpyrolidinone (NMP), dimethylformamide (DMF), N,N‐dimethylacetamide (DMAc), tetrahydrofuran (THF), and CHCl₃. The poly(ether imide)s prepared from BTDA and ODA are soluble in NMP, DMF, and DMAc but not in THF or CHCl₃, whereas the polymer prepared from PMDA is soluble only in NMP. The water uptake value for these poly(ether imide) films is very low (0.2–0.5%), and exhibited low dielectric constants (2.81 at 1 MHz). The polymers exhibited high thermal stability up to 532 °C in air for 5% weight loss, and high glass transition temperatures up to 288 °C. The polymer exhibited high tensile strength up to 135 MPa, modulus 3.2 GPa, and elongation at break up to 25%, depending on the exact polymer structure.

The structure of the poly(ether imide) synthesised from 4‐(p‐aminophenoxy)‐3‐trifluoromethyl‐4′‐aminobiphenyl and 2,2‐bis(3,4‐dicarboxyphenyl) hexafluoropropane. This polymer was soluble in many organic solvents.     

A neuronal correlate of spatial stability during periods of self-induced visual motion

Summary Motion of background visual images across the retina during slow tracking eye movements is usually not consciously perceived so long as the retinal image motion results entirely from the voluntary slow eye movement (otherwise the surround would appear to move during pursuit eye movements). To address the question of where in the brain such filtering might occur, the responses of cells in 3 visuo-cortical areas of macaque monkeys were compared when retinal image motion of background images was caused by object motion as opposed to a pursuit eye movement. While almost all cells in areas V4 and MT responded indiscriminately to retinal image motion arising from any source, most of those recorded in the dorsal zone of area MST (MSTd), as well as a smaller proportion in lateral MST (MST1), responded preferentially to externally-induced motion and only weakly or not at all to self-induced visual motion. Such cells preserve visuo-spatial stability during low-velocity voluntary eye movements and could contribute to the process of providing consistent spatial orientation regardless of whether the eyes are moving or stationary.     

Stability of Lidocaine in Aqueous Solution: Effect of Temperature,pH, Buffer,and Metal Ions on Amide Hydrolysis

The degradation of lidocaine in aqueous solution obeys the expression k _obs = (k _H+[H ⁺] + k _o ) [H⁺]/([H ⁺ ] + K _a + k_o K _a([H ⁺ ] + K _a) where k _H+ is the rate constant for hydronium ion catalysis, and k _o and k_o are the rate constants for the spontaneous (or water-catalyzed) reactions of protonated and free-base lidocaine. At 80°C, the rate constants for these processes are 1.31 × 10^–7 M ^–l sec^–1, 1.37 × 10^–9 sec^–1, and 7.02 × 10^–9sec^–1; the corresponding activation energies are 30.5, 33.8, and 26.3 kcal mol^–1, respectively. It was found that the room temperature pH of maximum stability is 3–6 and that lidocaine is more reactive in the presence of metal ions such as Fe²⁺ and Cu²⁺. The dissociation constant, K _a, for lidocaine at 25–80°C was also measured at 0.1 M ionic strength and a plot of pK _a versus 1/T gave a slope of (1.88 ± 0.05) × 10³ K^–1 and intercept 1.56 ± 0.16.