Anthropology of microbes

We describe the need to further integrate the fields of human microbial ecology and anthropology and outline some of the potential goals and benefits of this collaborative work.     

Use of red ochre by early Neandertals

The use of manganese and iron oxides by late Neandertals is well documented in Europe, especially for the period 60-40 kya. Such finds often have been interpreted as pigments even though their exact function is largely unknown. Here we report significantly older iron oxide finds that constitute the earliest documented use of red ochre by Neandertals. These finds were small concentrates of red material retrieved during excavations at Maastricht-Belvédère, The Netherlands. The excavations exposed a series of well-preserved flint artifact (and occasionally bone) scatters, formed in a river valley setting during a late Middle Pleistocene full interglacial period. Samples of the reddish material were submitted to various forms of analyses to study their physical properties. All analyses identified the red material as hematite. This is a nonlocal material that was imported to the site, possibly over dozens of kilometers. Identification of the Maastricht-Belvédère finds as hematite pushes the use of red ochre by (early) Neandertals back in time significantly, to minimally 200-250 kya (i.e., to the same time range as the early ochre use in the African record).     

不同浓度重组人骨形成蛋白2对人胎盘间充质干细胞增殖和碱性磷酸酶表达的影响

目的初步探讨重组人骨形成蛋白2(rhBMP-2)作用于人胎盘间充质干细胞(HPDMSCs)的适宜浓度范围。方法取健康产妇自愿捐赠的胎盘,采用胶原酶消化法分离HPDMSCs,体外培养扩增并鉴定。取第3代HPDMSCs,根据培养液中加入rhBMP-2浓度的不同分为对照组(rhBMP-2浓度为0)和实验A、B、C、D组(rhBMP-2浓度分别为50、100、150、200ng/ml)。在加药后4、8、12、16d采用CCK-8法检测各组细胞增殖的吸光度值A450,碱性磷酸酶(ALP)定量检测法检测酶表达的吸光度值A520。结果获得的HPDMSCs呈长梭形。CD29、CD44、CD105表达阳性,CD34、CD45、CD106、HLA-DR表达阴性。经鉴定,分离培养的细胞具有成骨和成脂的多向分化能力。CCK-8实验结果显示:A、B、C组A450与对照组相比,在所有时间点下差异均无统计学意义(P>0.05);D组A450低于其它组,差异在大部分时间点有统计学意义(P<0.05)。ALP检测结果显示:A、B、C、D组A520在所有时间点均高于对照组(P<0.01);B、C组在8、12、16d高于其它组(P<0.05);B、C组在所有时间点差异无统计学意义(P>0.05)。结论 rhBMP-2浓度在100～150ng/ml范围可有效诱导HPDMSCs成骨向分化,且对HPDMSCs增殖不产生明显影响。     

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目的 研究不同剂型亚甲基蓝(methylene blue,MB)介导的光动力疗法(photodynamic therapy,PDT)对体外培养的人牙周膜成纤维细胞(human periodontal ligament fibroblasts,HPDLFs)的毒性作用.方法 将体外培养的HPDLFs分别加入两种不同剂型MB中(水剂型和混合剂型,均设置5组浓度,分别为0.1、1.0、10、25、50 μmol/L),孵育10 min,波长670 nm半导体激光照射5min,输出功率40 mW,功率密度10 mW/cm2.光照结束后继续培养24h,用噻唑蓝(MTT)比色法检测细胞毒性,光镜下观察细胞形态学变化.结果 两种不同剂型MB介导的PDT对体外培养的HPDLFs的毒性作用未见明显差异(P＞0.05).当MB浓度≤25 μmol/L时,细胞毒性为1～2级,光镜下观察细胞未发现明显形态学改变;浓度＞ 25 μmol/L时,细胞毒性为3级,并可观察到细胞皱缩、变圆.结论 PDT对HPDLFs的毒性作用受光敏剂浓度影响,适当浓度的两种剂型MB介导的PDT对体外培养的HPDLFs影响轻微,且两种剂型MB介导的PDT对体外细胞毒性无差异.     

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目的    检测rhBMP-2/hTGF-β1 /胶原复合材料与rhBMP-2/hTGF-β1生物学活性的差别。方法        本研究于2010年5—12月在福建医科大学附属口腔医院实验室进行。分离培养的Beagle犬骨髓基质细胞中加入质量浓度相同的rhBMP-2/hTGF-β1或rhBMP-2/hTGF-β1 /胶原复合材料后继续培养4 d,通过细胞计数（MTT法）、碱性磷酸酶（ALP）活性检测,分别对rhBMP-2/hTGF-β1 /胶原复合材料和rhBMP-2/hTGF-β1的生物学活性进行检测,并比较其活性差别。结果    rhBMP-2/hTGF-β1/胶原复合材料和rhBMP-2/hTGF-β1均具有生物学活性,并且其生物学活性差异无统计学意义（P > 0.05）。结论    这种合成rhBMP-2/hTGF-β1 /胶原复合材料的方法不会改变生长因子的生物学活性。     

Throwing Away the Key: The Ethics of Risk Assessment for Preventive Detention Schemes

Preventive detention schemes that aim to protect the community from certain ‘dangerous’ individuals have long existed. While risk assessment is now pervasive in the management and treatment of many individuals, it raises particular issues when a person's liberty is at stake on the basis of what that person might do. This R.G. Myers Memorial Lecture addresses the ethical issues raised by mental health practitioners providing risk assessments for legislative schemes that involve the deprivation of liberty. It will focus in particular on Australian post-sentence preventive detention schemes for sex offenders that have been held by the United Nations Human Rights Committee to breach fundamental human rights. However, the ethical issues discussed also have repercussions for civil commitment laws that enable the detention of those with severe mental or intellectual impairments.     

Apperceptive agnosia and face recognition

Abstract

Are faces and objects recognized by separate visual recognition systems or might a single system subserve the recognition of both classes of input? Recognition of faces and objects by a single system predicts that prosopagnosics, who selectively lose the ability to recognize faces due to brain damage, should also lose the ability to recognize objects. Contrary to this prediction, case studies of prosopagnosia have reported intact object recognition. Further support for separate visual recognition systems comes from the case of HH reported here. Following a stroke involving the left posterior cortex, HH has a severe apperceptive visual agnosia for visually presented objects and an alexia for words. Yet, he shows relatively spared visual face processing. Such a performance pattern completes a double dissociation between face and object processing when coupled with prosopaganosia. More importantly, HH is the first apperceptive visual object agnosic to demonstrate spared face processing. The severity of his object-processing deficit is such that from the earliest levels in the visual processing hierarchy, distinct neural substrates must be responsible for processing some objects and faces. These results are discussed as support for Farah's model (Visual agnosia: disorders of object recognition and what they tell us about normal vision. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990) of object, face and word recognition.     

Biological Activity of sym-Triazines with Acetylcholine-like Substitutions as Multitarget Modulators of Alzheimer’s Disease

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Mechanism of human chorionic gonadotrophin-mediated immunomodulation in pregnancy

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