今天读到两篇颇不错的science文章，同时刊登的，但是online时间不同，刚好刚才浏览cell research的时候发现也有一篇差不多的文章，一看接收时间刚好在其中一篇sceince文章online之后4天，个人觉得这是巧合还是别人发表之后的无奈之举？ Degradation of Paternal Mitochondria by Fertilization-Triggered Autophagy in C. elegans Embryos Science 25 November 2011 : 1141 - 1144 . Published online 13 October 2011 Postfertilization Autophagy of Sperm Organelles Prevents Paternal Mitochondrial DNA Transmission Science 25 November 2011 : 1144 - 1147 . Published online 27 October 2011 Cell Research (2011) 21 :1662–1669. published online 22 November 2011， Received 17 October 2011 Elimination of paternal mitochondria through the lysosomal degradation pathway in C. elegans SCIENCE-Postfertilization Autophagy of Sperm Organelles Prevents Paternal Mitoch.pdf SCIENCE-Degradation of Paternal Mitochondria by Fertilization-Triggered Autophag.pdf Elimination of paternal mitochondria through the lysosomal degradation pathway i.pdf
November 22, 2011 — Emergency department (ED) physicians were more likely to order blood tests for infants and toddlers with unexplained fever than they were to order tests for urinary tract infections (UTIs), despite longstanding recognition that UTIs should be considered in any young child with an unspecified fever, reveals a study published online November 21 in Pediatrics . Physicians order urine tests for fewer than 18% of infants and toddlers who arrive in the ED with unexplained fever, the research shows. At the same time, physicians requested complete blood counts in 20.5% of visits, even though clinical recommendations suggest such testing is less likely to be needed than urinalysis. "Given that rates of UTI might be as much as 20-fold higher than rates of bacteremia in the post– era, physicians' practice patterns seem inconsistent with the epidemiology of serious bacterial infections," write Alan E. Simon, MD, from the Infant, Child, and Women's Health Statistics Branch, Office of Analysis and Epidemiology, National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Hyattsville, Maryland, and colleagues. Records analyzed for this study did not include children's vaccination status. The researchers examined records of some 1600 visits to EDs by children aged 3 months to 3 years and included in the 2006-2008 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey–Emergency Department, conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics. The investigators focused on those instances when a child's fever had no recognizable source, such as a sore throat or earache. Fever without source accounted for 21.6% (95% confidence interval, 20.2% - 23.0%) of the cases included in the 2006 to 2008 survey, or an estimated 1.7 million ED visits per year nationwide, according to the investigators. The records showed that girls, who are at a higher risk for UTI, were tested more frequently, at 25.5% of the time compared with 10.4% for boys. However, physicians were also 3 times more likely to also include a complete blood count for girls (odds ratio, 3.27). By contrast, recent clinical guidelines suggest that all girls with FWS should undergo urinalysis to rule out a potentially dangerous UTI, whereas complete blood counts are unnecessary for “well-appearing” children under these circumstances. The rate of urinalysis increased among children with higher temperatures. Physicians were twice as likely to order urinalysis for children with temperatures of from 39°C to 39.9°C (odds ratio, 2.09), compared with children whose temperature was 38°C, and 5 times more likely to order it if the child's temperature was 40°C or higher (odds ratio, 5.18, P 0.1 for both). Although the rate of urinalysis increased among children with temperatures of 39°C or higher, still only 40.2% of girls and 15.0% of boys with temperatures 39°C or higher were tested for UTI. Despite a lack of complete blood count or urinalysis in 58.6% of the visits, physicians prescribed antibiotics, including ceftriaxone, in about a quarter of all visits, including 20% of visits in which no testing was performed. This agrees with findings "that antibiotics are often inappropriately prescribed for upper respiratory infections," the authors report. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that the likelihood of a physician ordering urinalysis and a complete blood count increased if a patient had a high temperature, if the patient was a girl, and if the patient lived in a higher-income ZIP code. However, being 24 months to 36 months old was associated with lower odds of receiving these tests (odds ratio, 0.55) compared with children aged 3 months to 11 months. Although uncircumcised boys are also at a higher risk for UTI, the survey records did not include boys' circumcision status. The authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships. Pediatrics . Published online November 21, 2011. Abstract 来源： http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/754065
Published online 21 September 2011 | Nature 477 , 371 (2011) | doi:10.1038/477371a Column: World View China's new forests aren't as green as they seem Impressive reports of increased forest cover mask a focus on non-native tree crops that could damage the ecosystem, says Jianchu Xu. Jianchu Xu In the United Nations' 2011 International Year of Forests, China is heralded as a superstar. Almost single-handedly, the country has halted long-term forest loss across Asia, and even turned it into a net gain. Since the 1990s, China has planted more than 4 million hectares of new forest each year. Earlier this month, President Hu Jintao pledged that China would do even more. He told a meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum in Beijing that the nation would increase its total area of forest by 40 million hectares over the next decade. China, he said, is ready to make new contributions to green, sustainable growth. It sounds impressive, but we risk failing to see the wood for the trees. In China, 'forest' includes uncut primary forest, regenerating natural forest and monoculture plantations of non-native trees. The last of these accounts for most of the 'improvement' in forest cover. The State Forestry Administration has claimed that total forest cover in China reached 20.36% in 2008. Most of this results from the increase in tree crops such as fruit trees, rubber and eucalyptus, not recovery of natural forest, yet Chinese data do not record this shift. The change threatens ecosystem services, particularly watershed protection and biodiversity conservation. “I have seen massive tree plantations on the Tibetan Plateau, in areas where forests never grew.” Exotic tree species are being planted in arid and semi-arid conditions, where perennial grasses with their extensive root systems would be better protectors of topsoil. Plantation monocultures harbour little diversity; they provide almost no habitat for the country's many threatened forest species. Plantations generate less leaf litter and other organic inputs than native forests, so soil fauna and flora decrease, and groundwater depletion can be exacerbated by deep-rooted non-native trees that use more water than native species. Afforestation in water-stressed regions might provide wind-breaks, and tree plantations offer some carbon storage. But these benefits come at a high cost to other ecological functions. Why the intense focus on forest cover? China has long promoted the planting of tree crops. Since 1999, the Grain for Green programme has resulted in some 22 million hectares of new trees on sloping farmland. The programme began after the 1998 Yangtze River floods, which the government blamed on loss of tree cover, although reductions in riparian buffers and soil infiltration capacity probably also had a major role. Since 2008, forest tenure reform has encouraged the privatization of former collective forests, with more than 100 million hectares affected. Privatization can benefit local economies. But in the absence of any management framework, it has also promoted conversion of natural forests into plantations: smallholders often fell natural forests for immediate income, then plant monoculture tree crops for long-term investment. Although the Chinese government has shown that it understands environmental fragility, its scientific and policy guidelines do not adequately address the country's diversity of landscapes and ecosystems. I have seen massive tree plantations on the Tibetan Plateau, in areas where forests never grew before. Local governments face the need to respond to the national imperative for increased forest cover by planting fast-growing species, while also generating the biggest local economic benefits possible. This explains why unsuitable species such as aspens are planted in north China, whereas eucalyptus and rubber trees proliferate in the south. Perhaps the International Year of Forests can help decision-makers to focus on the various meanings of 'forest', and the trade-offs each type entails. Natural recovery is still the best way to restore damaged forests, but restoration requires targeted involvement using the best science. Afforestation can restore ecosystem function only if the right species are planted in the right place. Further studies are needed on how the mix of species affects ecosystem functions. Sloping lands, for example, benefit from perennial root systems and associated soil microfauna, but trees are not the only, or necessarily the best, way to establish these root systems. China's forestry mandate should focus on enhancing environmental services, but policy-makers cannot ignore rural livelihoods. Technical know-how should be provided to local foresters and farmers. Doing away with narrow, one-size-fits-all management targets would also help. The country, with its state-managed market economy, can afford direct payments for forest ecosystem services, but they should only be offered for natural or regenerated forests with proven biological or ecological value. As an ecologist and agroforestry practitioner, I would like to see China establish parallel forest-management programmes for recovery and restoration of natural forests, and for incorporating working trees into farmlands. Each should include best practices from ecosystem science; a clear definition of tree crop plantations for timber or non-timber products would clarify the separate systems. A dual strategy would require increased collaboration throughout China's land-management ministries, well supported by interdisciplinary research. But it could ensure that China's massive investment in forests provides maximum benefits, to both local livelihood and the environment. Jianchu Xu is a senior scientist at the World Agroforestry Centre and a professor at the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
November 14, 2011 — About 85% of parents would prefer to have their newborn tested for congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV), even if testing was not routine, and even if their child turned out to be CMV-positive but never developed problems, according to a new study published online November 14 in Pediatrics . "To our knowledge, this is the first study to have assessed attitudes about newborn screening for CMV among the general public," write Michael Cannon, PhD, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities in Atlanta, Georgia, and colleagues. The authors note that about 30,000 infants are born each year in the United States with congenital CMV infection, and approximately 1 in 5 develop disabilities, most often sensorineural hearing loss and/or mental retardation. However, infected infants are usually either asymptomatic at birth or else exhibit nonspecific symptoms such as jaundice or intrauterine growth restriction. Therefore, most cases of congenital CMV go undetected until the child begins having problems, and at that point it is too late for a diagnostic test, which must be done within the first 2 to 3 weeks after birth. So why is screening not routine? "One of the criteria for evaluating newborn screening relate to the potential adverse psychosocial effects to children and their parents that might result when infants test positive but do not develop clinical disease, which is of special importance in the case of congenital CMV infection, because ~80% of infected children never develop disabilities," Dr. Cannon and colleagues write. To find out how parents feel about CMV screening, the researchers reviewed 3922 responses to the 2009 HealthStyles survey by participants who had responded to at least 1 of the 5 questions related to CMV. The survey was designed to reflect the demographics of the overall US population with regard to age, sex, race/ethnicity, household income, and household size. The survey contained questions covering a wide variety of health-related topics, but the researchers focused specifically on the responses regarding CMV screening: I would want to have my baby tested for CMV even if my doctor/hospital didn't do it routinely. I think CMV problems are too rare to worry about. I would want to know if my child has CMV even if he or she never develops problems. I would worry that the CMV test would lead to unneeded doctor visits and expenses. I would be willing to pay $20 to have my baby tested for CMV. The authors report that the 84% of respondents strongly or somewhat agreed that they would want to have their newborn tested for CMV, even if the test was not performed routinely; 87% strongly or somewhat agreed they would want their child tested, even if it involved an additional cost of $20; and 84% of respondents strongly or somewhat agreed they would want testing for their infant, even if the child never went on to develop CMV-related issues. However, nearly half of respondents (47%) said they would be concerned that CMV testing might lead to unnecessary physician visits and expenses, and nearly a third said they felt that the risks for CMV infection were too remote to worry about. On the basis of the researchers' statistical analysis of the parents' attitudes toward CMV screening, they identified 3 clusters of respondents who had children younger than 19 years at the time of the survey: parents who were strongly in favor of screening (31%), parents who were moderately in favor of screening (49%), and parents who were "weakly opposed" to screening (20%). The authors note that one limitation of the study is that most parents surveyed had probably never heard of CMV before participating in the study, so their responses were based on a hypothetical situation about which they might have little familiarity. "Newborn screening for CMV is a complicated issue," the authors write, "and the scenario and questions might have been difficult to understand." In any case, the authors conclude, " ost parents in our study considered the potential costs, worry, and anxiety associated with newborn screening for CMV to be acceptable." However, the authors point out that because most children with congenital CMV infection will not go on to develop disabilities, and as some parents are likely to oppose screening, it might be that instituting voluntary routine screening would make more sense than mandated screening. They add: "Future pilot screening programs should measure psychosocial outcomes and seek to understand ways of mitigating potential harms." The authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships. Pediatrics . Published online November 14, 2011. Abstract 来源： http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/753523
November 8, 2011 — A significant number of previously healthy children developed severe pneumonia and respiratory failure when infected with H1N1 influenza during the 2009 pandemic. A study published online October 17 in Pediatrics associates an 8-fold increased mortality rate among such children with coinfection by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The dual infection can establish a potentially lethal synergy as the viral assault compromises immunity and the bacterial infection destroys lung tissue. Without widespread vaccination, the situation could return because community-acquired MRSA in children is becoming more prevalent and H1N1 is still in circulation. Members of the Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and Sepsis Investigator's Network analyzed data from 838 children treated at 35 US pediatric intensive care units for probable H1N1 influenza from April 2009 to April 2010. Median age was 6 years. Most patients were in respiratory failure, with 564 (67.3%) requiring mechanical ventilation and 33 (3.9%) receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Despite aggressive treatment and vancomycin use, 75 children (8.9%) died. Overall, 71 (8.5%) of the patients had presumed diagnosis of early S aureus infection of the lung, with 48% of those apparently being MRSA. In their multivariate analysis the investigators controlled for demographics; pediatric intensive care unit admission, comorbidities, and coinfections; treatments; and secondary influenza-related complications such as encephalitis and myocarditis. Of the 838 children, 587 had 1 or more chronic health conditions, including asthma, compromised immune deficiency, or a neurological disorder. Among the 251 previously healthy children, the only shared risk factor for those who died was MRSA lung infection (relative risk, 8; 95% confidence interval, 3.1 - 20.6; P .0001). Of the 251 previously healthy children, 26 (10.4%) had S aureus lung infection, as did 8 of the 18 children who died (44%), 6 of whom were confirmed to have had MRSA. Most of the children receiving vancomycin did not survive. Secondary conditions and MRSA infection may explain the high morbidity and mortality rates among children infected with H1N1 in the study year, the investigators conclude. "There's more risk for MRSA to become invasive in the presence of flu or other viruses," first author Adrienne Randolph, MD, from Boston Children's Hospital in Massachusetts says in a news release. "These deaths in co-infected children are a warning sign." In the study, 88.2% of the children received oseltamivir, but only 5.8% received it before hospital admission. Because of the speed with which either or both infections develop, the researchers advise immediately treating children presenting with severe lower respiratory tract diseases during influenza season with antivirals such as oseltamivir, as well as antibiotics, without waiting for laboratory confirmation of the infections. The researchers write that influenza vaccination is the most effective approach for minimizing morbidity and mortality in coinfected children, because an effective vaccine has not yet been developed for MRSA. Limitations of the study include confirmation of H1N1 in only 65% of cases, lack of systematic detection of additional respiratory pathogens, and bacterial infections masked by use of broad-spectrum antibiotics. The sampling was restricted to large pediatric facilities. This study was supported by US National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Department of Health and Human Services. The authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships. Pediatrics . Published online October 17, 2011. Abstract 来源： http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/753155
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Physics Today Online editor's picks 25 October 2011 SEE THIS AS A WEBPAGE • 25 October 2011 SCIENCE AND THE MEDIA: Media downplay climate-debate development Climate skeptic’s Berkeley study refutes assertions that the planet is not really warming. SINGULARITIES: A peek at dark energy between the pages Books editor Jermey Matthews looks back at the reviews of five books on dark energy that have appeared in the pages of Physics Today since 2000. THE DAYSIDE: A physicist tackles the evolution of word order Murray Gell-Mann was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physics for explaining the diversity of baryons and mesons in terms of quarks. His latest paper, written with Stanford University linguist Merritt Ruhlen, is about language. JOBS: Find your next job or hire Hundreds of new science, engineering, and computing jobs posted each month. You are currently subscribed to receive the Physics Today Online editor's picks by email. You can unsubscribe at any time by visiting http://www.physicstoday.org/alerts . Please read our privacy policy .
Current guidelines to diagnose miscarriage are insufficient and unreliable, and following them may result in the inadvertent termination of wanted pregnancies, according to the results of a systematic review and 3 studies published online October 13 in Ultrasound Obstetrics and Gynecology . "This research shows that the current guidance on how to use ultrasound scans to detect a miscarriage may lead to a wrong diagnosis in some cases," Professor Basky Thilaganathan, MD, editor-in-chief of Ultrasound Obstetrics and Gynecology , said in a news release. "Health professionals need clearer evidence-based guidance to prevent this happening." Nearly 2 decades ago, a landmark study from Cardiff, United Kingdom, first showed that early pregnancies may be erroneously diagnosed as a miscarriage. Investigators of the present studies suggest that their findings will facilitate a more precise definition of miscarriage, and they stress the importance of intervening only when the diagnosis of miscarriage is unequivocal. Systematic Review of Accuracy of First-Trimester Ultrasound Findings of the systematic review , which looked at the accuracy of first-trimester ultrasound in diagnosing early embryonic death, indicated that the evidence base for the current guidelines is old and unreliable. "The majority of ultrasound standards used for diagnosis of miscarriage are based on limited evidence," senior review author Shakila Thangaratinam, MD, from the Women's Health Research Unit at Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom, said in a news release. The reviewers searched MEDLINE from 1951 to 2011, Embase from 1980 to 2011, and the Cochrane Library in 2010, and found 8 relevant studies with 4 test categories, enrolling a total of 872 women. These studies assessed the accuracy of first-trimester ultrasonography in pregnant women for the diagnosis of early embryonic demise. The reviewers calculated accuracy measures including sensitivity, specificity, and likelihood ratios for abnormal and normal test results for each study, and for each test threshold. Only 2 tests had a lower limit of the 95% confidence interval (CI) for specificity greater than 0.95: an empty gestational sac with mean diameter of 25 mm or more, and absent yolk sac with a mean gestational sac diameter of 20 mm or more (specificity, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.96 - 1.00 for both). However, even a 95% CI of 0.96 to 1.00 indicates that up to 4 of every 100 diagnoses may be a false-positive. On the basis of their findings, the reviewers concluded that few high-quality prospective data exist on which to base guidelines for the accurate diagnosis of early pregnancy demise. Their findings were limited by the small number and poor quality of the published studies, small sample sizes, the age of the studies (most were performed 20 years ago), the enrollment of symptomatic as well as asymptomatic women, and heterogeneity in tests and outcome assessment. None of the studies evaluated the reproducibility and repeatability of early pregnancy measurements, and only half had access to an endovaginal probe. "Before guidelines for the safe management of threatened miscarriage can be formulated, there is an urgent need for an appropriately powered, prospective study using current ultrasound technology and an agreed reference standard for pregnancy success or loss," the review authors write. They note that most pregnancy screening tests, such as those for Down syndrome or gestational diabetes, require optimal sensitivity but can tolerate a low false-positive rate (FPR). However, it is essential to have a highly specific test with a zero FPR for threatened early pregnancy loss, for once early embryonic demise is diagnosed, the uterus is evacuated. The only conclusive criterion to diagnose miscarriage is documented spontaneous expulsion of histologically confirmed pregnancy tissue or retained products in the uterus in a woman with previous ultrasound findings of intrauterine gestational sac. Most of the studies identified in this review did not use rigorous standards to diagnose early pregnancy demise. Research Studies "Many of us in clinical practice have been concerned for some time about possible errors relating to the diagnosis of miscarriage," Professor Dirk Timmerman, MD, PhD, from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, who coauthored the research studies, said in a news release. "We are pleased that our data have identified where these errors might occur, so that we can prevent mistakes happening in the future." Current practice to confirm clinical suspicions of miscarriage is to measure gestational sac and embryo size using ultrasound, but cutoff values to define miscarriage are not always reliable. If repeat measurement 7 to 10 days later shows no growth, clinicians often assume there has been a miscarriage. However, a multicenter observational study by Yazan Abdallah, MD, from Imperial College London, Hammersmith Campus, United Kingdom, and colleagues of 1060 women showed that even normal, viable pregnancies may not measurably grow in size during this time. There was an overlap in mean gestational sac diameter (MSD) growth rates between viable and nonviable pregnancies, and there was no cutoff for MSD growth below which a viable pregnancy could be safely excluded, suggesting that criteria to diagnose miscarriage based on growth in MSD and crown–rump length (CRL) are potentially unsafe. In this study, a cutoff value for CRL growth of 0.2 mm/day was always associated with miscarriage, and finding an empty gestational sac on 2 scans more than 7 days apart was highly likely to indicate miscarriage, regardless of growth. "By identifying this problem, we hope that guidelines will be reviewed so that inadvertent termination of wanted pregnancies cannot happen," senior author Tom Bourne, PhD, from University Hospitals, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, said in the news release. "We also hope backing will be given to even larger studies to test new guidelines prospectively. Currently there is a risk that some women seeking reassurance with pain or bleeding in early pregnancy may be told they have had a miscarriage, and choose to undergo surgical or medical treatment when the pregnancy is in fact healthy." A second multicenter, observational cross-sectional study of 1060 women, also performed by Dr. Abdallah and colleagues, investigated the limitations of current definitions of miscarriage using MSD and CRL measurements. When embryo and yolk sac were both absent, the FPR for miscarriage was 4.4% using an MSD cutoff of 16 mm, 0.5% using a cutoff of 20 mm, and 0% using a cutoff of MSD 21 mm or greater. If a yolk sac was present, but not an embryo, the FPR for miscarriage was 2.6% using an MSD cutoff of 16 mm, 0.4% using a cutoff of 20 mm, and 0% using a cutoff of MSD 21 mm or greater. For a visible embryo with no detectable heartbeat, using a CRL cutoff of either 4 or 5 mm yielded an FPR for miscarriage of 8.3%, and there were no FPRs using a CRL cutoff of 5.3 mm or greater. On the basis of their findings, the investigators concluded that some current definitions used to diagnose miscarriage are potentially unsafe, and that current national guidelines should be reviewed to avoid inadvertent termination of wanted pregnancies. They also suggested that using an MSD cutoff of more than 25 mm and a CRL cutoff of more than 7 mm could minimize the risk for a false-positive diagnosis of miscarriage. The last study was a small cross-sectional study that showed that when different clinicians measure the same pregnancy in the first trimester using transvaginal sonography, variation in CRL or MSD may be up to 20%. If the first measurement is an overestimate and the second measurement, taken a few days later, is an underestimate, the false conclusion could be reached that there had been no growth. The higher interobserver variability for MSD would caution against diagnosing miscarriage from this measurement in the absence of a visible embryo or yolk sac. "These errors could lead to a false diagnosis of miscarriage being made in some women," lead study author Anne Pexsters, MD, also from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, said in a news release. "For most women, sadly there is nothing we can do to prevent a miscarriage, but we do need to make sure we don't make things worse by intervening unnecessarily in ongoing pregnancies," Dr. Bourne concluded. "We hope our work means that the guidelines to define miscarriage are made as watertight as we would expect for defining death at any other stage of life." Some of the study authors report various financial relationships and/or support with/from the Research Foundation–Flanders, the Imperial Healthcare National Health Service Trust National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre, Research Council, Ambiorics, MaNet, Optimization in Engineering, and/or Belgian Federal Science Policy Office. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol . Published online October 13, 2011. Review full text , Abdallah study 1 , Abdallah study 2 , Pexsters study 来源： http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/751613
Traffic-related air pollution may increase the risk for preterm births, according to the findings of a new study conducted in southern California. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were especially strongly associated with increased risk, with up to a 30% increase in premature births. Michelle Wilhelm, PhD, from the Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues reported their findings in an article published online October 7 in Environmental Health . According to the researchers, several studies have reported an association between levels of pollutants, including carbon monoxide and particulate matter exposure, and preterm birth; however, only 2 studies have reported a positive association when factoring in traffic levels near homes. The current study sought to examine risk for preterm birth in women from Los Angeles who were exposed to high levels of traffic-related air pollutants prenatally, using "more spatially-resolved exposure models...as well as available data on specific toxics of biologic interest for this outcome." The researchers analyzed data on 241,415 births occurring from June 2004 to March 2006 among women residing within 5 miles of a monitoring station. Of these births, 10,265 preterm births (infants born at 37 completed weeks of gestation) were reported. The number of preterm births was correlated with pregnancy period exposure averages for several pollutants, including PAHs, nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. Each preterm birth was matched with 10 normal-gestation healthy control patients. Three different information sources were used: government "criteria pollutant" monitoring stations (including carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and fine particulate matter), a traffic pollution model (Land Use Regression), and data about toxic chemicals collected by the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The risk for preterm birth increased from 6% to 21% for each quartile increase in exposures to organic carbon, elemental carbon, benzene and diesel, biomass burning, and ammonium nitrate (with aerodynamic diameter 2.5 μm; ie, PM 2.5 ), and a 30% per interquartile increase in PAHs. The short time period (ie, 22 months) was one study limitation. According to the researchers, oxidative stress may be "one potential biological pathway of interest" for the influence of air pollution on preterm birth. " potential biologic mechanism through which and PAHs could exhibit their influence on adverse birth outcomes is through acting on oxidative stress and inflammatory pathways during pregnancy," Dr. Wilhelm and colleagues add. "Our results point to PAHs as pollutants of special concern that should be a focus of future studies," they write. "PAH sources other than traffic also contributed to higher odds of preterm birth, as did ammonium nitrate PM 2.5 , the latter suggesting a role for secondary pollutants." The study was supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the California Air Resources Board. The authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships. Environ Health . Published online October 7, 2011. 来源： http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/751227
Referees' quotes - 2010 Article first published online: 3 DEC 2010DOI: 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2010.02394.x http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1462-2920.2010.02394.x/full Our referees, the Editorial Board Members and ad hoc reviewers, are busy, serious individuals who give selflessly of their precious time to improve manuscripts submitted to Environmental Microbiology. But, once in a while, their humour (or admiration) gets the better of them. Here are some quotes from reviews made over the past year, just in time for the Season of Goodwill and Merriment. * Done! Difficult task, I don't wish to think about constipation and faecal flora during my holidays! But, once a referee, always and anywhere a referee; we are good boy scouts in the research wilderness. Even under the sun and near a wonderful beach. * This paper is desperate. Please reject it completely and then block the author's email ID so they can't use the online system in future. (这个够绝！) * The type of lava vs. diversity has no meaning if only one of each sample is analyzed; multiple samples are required for generality. This controls provenance (e.g. maybe some beetle took a pee on one or the other of the samples, seriously skewing relevance to lava composition). * Very much enjoyed reading this one, and do not have any significant comments. Wish I had thought of this one. * It is sad to see so much enthusiasm and effort go into analyzing a dataset that is just not big enough. （哈哈，这个幽默！） * You call the sample fresh water, this is confusing as it is saline water. * The biggest problem with this manuscript, which has nearly sucked the will to live out of me, is the terrible writing style. * The abstract and results read much like a laundry list. * The information in the tree figs. is pretty inscrutable. * There was little I could think of to improve this nice paper. * Ken, I would suggest that EM is setting up a fund that pays for the red wine reviewers may need to digest manuscripts like this one. (Ed.: this excellent suggestion was duly proposed to the Publisher. However, given the logistical difficulties of problem-solving within narrow time frames, combined with the known deleterious effect of transport on good wine, a modification of the remedy was adopted, namely that Editors would act as proxies for reviewers with said digestive complaints.) * The statement that glycolipids and phospholipids ‘may play an important role in stabilising the outer membrane’ is odd because this they definitely do in all Eubacteria. * Merry X-mas! First, my recommendation was reject with new submission, because it is necessary to investigate further, but reading a well written manuscript before X-mas makes me feel like Santa Claus. * Alfachetoglutarate. * I have to admit that I would have liked to reject this paper because I found the tone in the Reply to the Reviewers so annoying. It may be irritating to deal with reviewer's comments (believe me, I know!) but it is not wise to let your irritation seep through every line you write! * The authors still confuse relative abundance of a transcript in a community transcript pool (which is what they are measuring) with upregulation or downregulation of genes (which they are not measuring). * One might call this not only a skillfully executed paper but also well-rounded and thorough, with unique aspects of microbial systematics and biochemistry The experimental work with chemostats is excellent. I have little to offer other than praise and a few minor comments. * Season's Greetings! I apologise for my slow response but a roast goose prevented me from answering emails for a few days. * I started to review this but could not get much past the abstract. * Hopeless – Seems like they have been asleep and are not up on recent work on metagenomics. * This paper is awfully written. There is no adequate objective and no reasonable conclusion. The literature is quoted at random and not in the context of argument. I have doubts about the methods and whether the effort of data gathering is sufficient to arrive at a useful conclusion. * Stating that the study is confirmative is not a good start for the Discussion. Rephrasing the first sentence of the Discussion would seem to be a good idea. * The main emphasis in the title is the use of a widely used method. This is not very exciting news. The authors are not to be blamed here. Based on titles seen in journals, many authors seem to be more fascinated these days by their methods than by their science. The authors should be encouraged to abstract the main scientific (i.e., novel) finding into the title. * A weak paper, poor experimental design, comparison of sequences using different primers, no statistical analysis possible, carele-ssly written, poorly thought through. * There is a great deal of freely available genomic data in the world and the authors would be much better off training themselves on that while waiting for genomic data to be generated for their system. * This is a long, but excellent report. I had considered asking for EMSAs, but these will not significantly improve the study. It hurts me a little to have so little criticism of a manuscript. * Always dear EMI takes care of its referees, providing them with entertainment for the holiday time in between Xmas and New Year. Plus the server shows, as usual, its inhuman nature and continues to send reminding messages. Well, between playing tennis on the Wii, eating and drinking, I found time and some strength of mind to do this work. * At the risk of appearing unkind, the authors' main selling point for this paper seems to be that it is the biggest soil pyrosequencing project so far. I fear we are entering a phase of repeating all of the studies carried out over the past 15 years, but now using pyrosequencing. * I agreed to review this Ms whilst answering e-mails in the golden glow of a balmy evening on the terrace of our holiday hotel on Lake Como. Back in the harsh light of reality in Belfast I realize that it's just on the limit of my comfort zone and that it would probably have been better not to have volunteered. * I suppose that I should be happy that I don't have to spend a lot of time reviewing this dreadful paper; however I am depressed that people are performing such bad science. * The presentation is of a standard that I would reject from an undergraduate student. Take Table 1: none of the data has units or an explanation. Negative controls gave a positive signal, but there is no explanation of why and how this was dealt with; just that it was different. * This is as solid a write up as I have seen, many spend much more time and space to say considerably less. It is a perfect example of a compact report. * The ecological theory invoked appears more as an afterthought than the true driving ambition of the study. * This paper is afflicted by the same problem of many others re omics: one mutant is made in gene X, authors compare the corresponding transcriptomes and produce a list of genes that go up or down, plus various pages of discussion. Period. Nice, but a bit insufficient, I am afraid. Authors may be invited to go beyond a mere description and document experimentally at least some of their predictions. * I found the manuscript to be well performed in all aspects, from the experimental design to the writing of the manuscript. I wish all manuscripts I review were of this quality. * I usually try to nice but this paper has got to be one of the worst I have read in a long time. * Well, I did some of the work the authors should have done! * To my knowledge the most comprehensive IVET analysis ever done; huge workload, meticulously executed research, concisely presented. * I feel like a curmudgeon, but I still have problems with this paper. * Sorry for the overdue, it seems to me that ‘overdue’ is my constant, persistent and chronic EMI status. Good that the reviewers are not getting red cards! The editors could create, in addition to the referees quotes, a ranking for ‘on-time’ referees. I would get the bottom place. But fast is not equal to good (I am consoling myself!). * I have accepted to see this one, but I still have 2 EM manuscripts whose reviews I have to complete (they will be done by tomorrow). Please be a bit benevolent with the deadline! * landmark paper on P. putida physiology. * The lack of negative controls. . . . results in the authors being loss in the funhouse. Unfortunately, I do not think they even realize this. * Preliminary and intriguing results that should be published elsewhere. * It is always a joy to review manuscripts such as this. Well-conceived, well executed, well edited. Clean. Pristine. From start to finish. * Reject – More holes than my grandad's string vest! * The writing and data presentation are so bad that I had to leave work and go home early and then spend time to wonder what life is about.
美加州2010年秋季Kavili计算神经科学会议视频集锦 Kavli 2010年9－11月 ttp://online.itp.ucsb.edu/online/neuro10/ 参加会议的都是理论神经和神经生理学领域的的牛人 有视频录像 对神经科学的学生学者来说，这是不错的锻炼听力和开拓自己知识面的会议视频集 Time Speaker Title 9/20, 10:15 a.m. All Greeting Salutations from Adrienne, David Fred 9/20, 10:30 a.m. John Hopfield Princeton, IAS How Have Experiment and Theory Informed Each Other in the Past 25 Years? 9/20, 2:00 p.m. Karl Deisseroth Stanford Experimental Approaches to Psychiatric Disorders 9/21, 9:00 a.m. David Kleinfeld UCSD KITP Primer on Classical Brain Connectivity 9/21, 11:00 a.m. Van Wedeen Harvard Med. Tracing Neuronal Connections on an Areal Basis with DTI 9/21, 1:45 p.m. David Heeger NYU Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Activity in Human Visual Cortex 9/21, 4:00 p.m. R. Clay Reid Harvard Med. Experimental Approaches to Delineating Signal Pathways 9/22, 9:00 a.m. Anirvan Ghosh UCSD Molecular Approaches to Unraveling Circuits 9/22, 11:00 a.m. Stephen Smith Stanford Med. Synaptic Architecture of the Brain 9/22, 1:45 p.m. Chuck Stevens Salk Inst. KITP Principles That Govern the Structure of Arbors 9/22, 4:00 p.m. Adrienne Fairhall UW KITP Open Theoretical Issues and the Potential Impact of New Technologies 9/23, 9:00 a.m. Ralph Greenspan Neurosciences Inst. The Present and Future Face of Behavioral Genetics 9/23, 11:00 a.m. Dmitri Chklovskii Howard Hughes Med. KITP Hold That Thought: Networks that Support Persistence 9/23, 1:45 p.m. Axel Nimmerjahn Stanford Optical Imaging of Cell Dynamics in Behaving Animals 9/23, 4:00 p.m. Richard Hahnloser ETH KITP Neural Theory and Practice of Song Learning 9/24, 9:00 a.m. Edward Callaway Salk Inst. Rabies-based Tools to Elucidate Circuits and Link Connectivity to Function 9/24, 11:00 a.m. Srinivas Turaga MIT KITP Constructing the Connectome to Deconstruct the Brain 9/27, 10:00 a.m. Winfried Denk MPI Structural Neurobiology, The New Old Bottleneck 09/27, 12:15 p.m. Fred Wolf MPI KITP Perturbing Neural Circuit Dynamics KITP Blackboard Lunch 9/28, 9:30 a.m. Jimmy Zhou Yale Cholinergic Network in the Retina: From Development to Computation 9/28, 11:00 a.m. Alla Karpova Howard Hughes Med. Optimizing Behavior in Variable and Competitive Environments 9/28, 2:30 p.m. All Organizational Meeting 9/29, 9:30 a.m. Elad Schneidman Weizmann Inst. KITP Correlated Neural Population Codes and Optimal Networks 9/29, 11:00 a.m. Stephen Baccus Stanford Understanding Inhibitory Circuits in the Retina 9/30, 9:30 a.m. David Perkel UW Functions and Mechanisms of Behavioral Variability During Motor Learning 9/30, 11:30 a.m. Anne Churchland Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Spiking Variability as a Window into Neural Computation 9/30, 2:00 p.m. All Group Discussion: High Order Correlations and Maximum Entropy Models of Population Activity in Retina and Cortex 10/01, 9:30 a.m. Jason Kerr MPI KITP Release the Hounds: Imaging Activity in Neuronal Populations in the Freely Moving Animal 10/01, 11:00 a.m. Albert Compte IDIBAPS KITP A Sensory-executive Circuit Model for Visual Selective Attention 10/01, 2:00 p.m. Eran Mukamel Harvard KITP Shaky, Spiky and Sharp: Neural Visual Inference for Hyperacuity amid Fixational Eye Movements 10/04, 10:00 a.m. Jeffrey Magee Howard Hughes Inst. Processing and Storage in Neuronal Dendrites 10/04, 12:00 p.m. Jeffrey Magee Howard Hughes Inst. Processing and Storage in Neuronal Dendrites, Cont'd 10/04, 3:30 p.m. Raoul-Martin Memmesheimer Radboud University, Nijmegen KITP Nonlinear Dendrites, Hippocampal Ripples, and Association of Spike Patterns 10/05, 9:30 a.m. Mark Ellisman UCSD Multiscale Imaging of the Nervous System: Where's the Dark Matter? 10/05, 11:00 a.m. Robert Gütig Hebrew Univ. KITP Spike-timing Based Neuronal Information Processing: Applications to Vision and Speech 10/06, 9:30 a.m. Jackie Schiller Technion Non Linear Dendritic Integration in Neocortical Pyramidal Neurons 10/06, 11:00 a.m. Guoqiang Bi University of Science and Technology of China Self-organizing Plasticity in Small Neuronal Networks 10/07, 9:30 a.m. Peter Latham Univ. College KITP Probabilistic Inference in Networks of Spiking Neurons 10/07, 11:00 a.m. Surya Ganguli UCSF KITP Compressive Sensing Tutorial 10/07, 3:30 p.m. Tao Hu Howard Hughes Medical Institute KITP Estimating Conectomes with Compressed Sensing 10/07, 4:00 p.m. Fleur Zeldenrust UvA KITP Characterizing Neurons in Networks with Noisy Input 10/08, 9:30 a.m. Elisha Moses Weizmann Inst. KITP Architecture and Computation in Neuronal Networks 10/08, 11:00 a.m. Sophie Denève ENS KITP Bayesian Approaches to Dynamics and Coding in Single Neurons and Networks 10/11, 4:00 p.m. William Spain UW Adaptation of Spike Timing Precision: Implications for Sound Localization 10/12, 9:30 a.m. Michael Gutnick Hebrew Univ. KITP Sodium Channels and Excitability in Neocortical Pyramidal Neurons 10/12, 11:00 a.m. Charles Wilson Univ. Texas Neuronal Dynamics in the Subthalamic Nucleus 10/13, 9:30 a.m. David McCormick Yale Med. Neocortical Network Dynamics 10/13, 11:00 a.m. Herbie Levine UCSD KITP Biophysical Models of Complex Neuronal Components 10/13, 2:00 p.m. Fred Wolf MPI KITP Single Neuron Dynamics for Retaining and Destroying Network Information 10/14, 9:30 a.m. David Golomb Ben Gurion Univ. KITP Short-term Synaptic Plasticity, Interneurons, and Cortical Responses 10/14, 11:00 a.m. Dirk Trauner Univ. Munich Teaching Old Receptors New Tricks 10/14, 2:00 p.m. Andrea Hasenstaub Salk Inst. KITP Fast-spiking Interneurons, Network Dynamics, and Response Flexibility 10/15, 9:30 p.m. Michael Famulare UW KITP Deriving the Spike Code from Single Neuron Dynamics 10/15, 11:30 a.m. Ben Strowbridge Case Western KITP Cellular Mechanisms of Persistent Activity in the Hippocampus and Olfactory Bulb 10/18, 10:00 a.m. Mayank Mehta UCLA KITP Relating Plasticity, Place Cells, Oscillations and Sleep 10/18, 2:00 p.m. Group Discussion Is Stimulus Reconstruction an Important Criterion for Choosing Single Neuron Models? 10/18, 3:30 p.m. Surya Ganguli UCSF Fisher Information, Compressed Sensing, and the Origins of Short-term Sequence Memory in Neuronal Networks 10/19, 9:30 a.m. Massimo Scanziani UCSD Excitation and Inhibition in Cortical Space 10/19, 11:00 a.m. Michael Hausser Univ. College London KITP Temporal Sequence Processing in Cortical Neurons 10/19, 2:00 p.m. All Normalization Models 10/20, 9:30 a.m. Rainer Friedrich Friedrich Miescher Inst. Dynamics and Discrete Network States in the Olfactory System 10/20, 11:00 a.m. Theo Geisel Univ. Gottingen/MPI KITP Phase Transitions towards Self-organized Criticality in Networks of Neurons with Dynamical Synapses 10/20, 4:00 p.m. Group Discussion Network Dynamics in Olfactory Processing 10/21, 9:30 a.m. Alex Reyes NYU Stimulus-dependent Switching of Excitatory/Inhibitory Configurations in Neural Networks 10/21, 11:00 a.m. Kenneth Miller Columbia Contrast-dependent Center-surround Interactions "Normalizing" Nonlinearities in Visual Cortex: A Simple Unified Circuit Model 10/21, 4:00 p.m. Livia deHoz Hebrew Univ. KITP Sensory Memory in the Auditory Cortex of Behaving Rodents 10/22, 9:30 a.m. Michale Fee MIT Localizing and Understanding Dynamics in Neural Circuits 10/22, 11:00 a.m. Sara Solla NWU Med. KITP Effective Connectivity Reveals Induced Network Reorganization in Behaving Animals 10/25, 10:00 a.m. David Kleinfeld UCSD KITP Welcome and Introduction to Neurovascular Coupling 10/25, 10:30 a.m. Martin Lauritzen Univ. Copenhagen So Many Signals: How the Vasculature Feeds the Brain 10/25, 2:30 p.m. Brian MacVicar UBC Regulation of Cerebral Blood Vessels by Astrocytes and the Influence of Metabolism 10/26, 9:30 a.m. Frank Kirchhoff Univ. Saarland Two-photon Imaging and Genetic Models to Study Glial Function in Vivo 10/26, 11:00 a.m. Edith Hamel Montreal Neurological Institute Neuronal Networks in the Control of Cerebral Blood Flow 10/26, 2:30 p.m. Pablo Blinder UCSD Illuminating the Angiotome 10/26, 3:15 p.m. Andy Shih UCSD Single-vessel Strokes 10/27, 9:30 a.m. Bruno Weber Univ. Zurich Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism: Feeding a Hungry Organ 10/27, 11:00 a.m. All Open Discussion 10/28, 9:30 a.m. David Hansel CNRS KITP Selective Persistent States in Balanced Networks 10/28, 11:00 a.m. Ila Fiete Univ. Texas, Austin Path Integration and Position Encoding in Grid Cells 10/28, 3:30 p.m. Carl vanVreeswijk Univ. Paris Descartes KITP Emerging Techniques for the Analysis of Network Dynamics 11/01, 3:30 p.m. Robert Froemke NYU KITP Long-term Cortical Synaptic Plasticity Improves Sensory Perception 11/02, 9:30 a.m. Matthias Kaschube Princeton KITP Nature, Nurture, Nonlinearity 11/02, 11:00 a.m. Tim Murphy UBC Synapse and Circuit Level Plasticity after Stroke 11/03, 9:30 a.m. Siegrid Lwel Friedrich-Schiller-Universitt, Jena KITP The Dynamic Architecture of the Cortex during Development and after Lesions 11/03, 11:00 a.m. Gordon Fishell NYU The Requirement for Neuronal Activity for Cortical Interneuron Development 11/04, 9:30 a.m. Venkatesh Murthy Harvard Univ. KITP Synaptic Circuits and Odor Processing in the Mouse Olfactory System 11/04, 11:00 a.m. Botond Roska Friedrich Miescher Inst. Retinal Hardware 11/04, 4:00 p.m. Julijana Gjorgjieva Univ. of Cambridge KITP Plasticity in Developing Circuits Driven by Spontaneous Activity 11/05, 9:00 a.m. Andrew Huberman UCSD Mechanisms for Wiring up Visual Circuits 11/05, 10:30 a.m. Vijay Balasubramanian Univ. Penn Principles of Population Coding: Maps, Parallel Channels, Interactions 11/08, 10:00 a.m. Peter Strick Univ. Pittsburgh 'Old' and 'New' M1: A Tale of Two Cortical Motor Areas 11/08, 1:30 p.m. Group Discussion Emerging Techniques: Perspectives and Challenges 11/08, 3:30 p.m. Chris Fang-Yen Univ. of Penn Optical Dissection of Worm Behavior 11/09, 9:30 a.m. Mark vanRossum Univ. Edinburgh KITP Weight Dependent Synaptic Plasticity Rules 11/10, 9:30 a.m. Yoram Burak Harvard KITP Models of Neural Inference under Dynamic Transformations 11/10, 11:00 a.m. Ehud Ahissar Weizmann Inst. Closed Loop Perception in Whisking Rats and Humans 11/10, 2:00 p.m. Discussion Covariance methods and single neurons 11/10, 3:30 p.m. Yasser Roudi NTNU KITP Mean Field Theory for Non-equilibrium Network Reconstruction 11/11, 9:30 a.m. Alexander Gail German Primate Center The Frontoparietal Sensorimotor Loop for Reaching 11/11, 11:30 a.m. All Wrap-up Discussion
How to improve your English learning by using the dictionaries on line? Someone once told me that he had no time to learn English or practise English. Maybe you will find it happens to you in daily life, too. We are busy now: we have no time to improve our English just like the students in campus and we admire the students for the best opportunitiesto practise all the skills of our languages, such as listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating. Hereis a tip for improving your English learning using the dictionaries online whenthe internet is available after class or for tea/coffee break in office. For example: What's your understanding of the following sentence: 1. Dr. Stevens is on sabbatical next semester. You can search the key word of sabbatical using the Cambridge Dictionaries online: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ sabbatical noun a period of time when college or university teachers are allowed to stop their usual work in order to study or travel, usually while continuing to be paid to take/have a sabbatical She's on sabbatical for six months. sabbatical leave (Definition of sabbatical noun from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary) other websites of dictionaries online: Dictionary and Thesaurus-Free online at your dictionary http://www.yourdictionary.com/ http://dictionary.reference.com/ http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sabbatical Word Origin History sabbatical 1645, of or suitable for the Sabbath, from L. sabbaticus, from Gk. sabbatikos of the Sabbath (see Sabbath ). Meaning a year's absence granted to researchers (originally one year in seven, to university professors) first recorded 1886 (the thing itself is attested from 1880, at Harvard), related to sabbatical year (1599) in Mosaic law, the seventh year, in which land was to remain untilled and debtors and slaves released. Online Etymology Dictionary, 2010 Douglas Harper Some websites can offer the word origin and history of the key words, such as: Another example: 2. It made a lot of things fall into place. If you are not sure the meaning of the idiom of fall into place, you can search it in the website such as: http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/ fall into place 1. if something that happens makes everything fall into place, it makes you understand something that you did not understand before Once I discovered that the woman I had seen him with was his daughter, everything fell into place, 2. if things fall into place in a situation, they happen in a satisfactory way, without problems If a project is well-planned, everything should fall into place. So, whenever the internet is at hand, you can learn your English and practise your skills. It's very interesting and useful for your language learning.
@article{citeulike:3973568, address = {Cambridge, MA, USA}, author = {Collins, Michael and Globerson, Amir and Koo, Terry and Carreras, Xavier and Bartlett, Peter L.}, journal = {J. Mach. Learn. Res.}, pages = {1775--1822}, publisher = {MIT Press}, title = {Exponentiated Gradient Algorithms for Conditional Random Fields and Max-Margin Markov Networks}, volume = {9}, year = {2008} } 待看.
标签: online
