Adaptation in the Dorsal Belt and Core Regions of the Auditory Cortex in the Awake Rat.

The rat auditory cortex is divided anatomically into several areas, but little is known about the functional differences in information processing among these areas. Three tonotopically organized core fields, namely, the primary (A1), anterior (AAF), and ventral (VAF) auditory fields, as well as one non-tonotopically organized belt field, the dorsal belt (DB), were identified based on their response properties. Compared to neurons in A1, AAF and VAF, units in the DB exhibited little or no response to pure tones but strong responses to white noise. The few DB neurons responded to pure tones with thresholds greater than 60 dB SPL, which was significantly higher than the thresholds of neurons in the core regions. In response to white noise, units in DB showed significantly longer latency and lower peak response, as well as longer response duration, than those in the core regions. Responses to repeated white noise were also examined. In contrast to neurons in A1, AAF and VAF, DB neurons could not follow repeated stimulation at a 300 ms inter-stimulus interval (ISI) and showed a significant steeper ISI tuning curve slope when the ISI was increased from 300 ms to 4.8 s. These results indicate that the DB processes auditory information on broader spectral and longer temporal scales than the core regions, reflecting a distinct role in the hierarchical cortical pathway.

Component Identification and Functional Analysis of Outer Membrane Vesicles Released by Avibacterium paragallinarum.

Avibacterium paragallinarum, the causative agent of infectious coryza, is known to release outer membrane vesicles (OMVs). In the present study, we investigated the composition, bioactivities, and functional properties of the OMVs of A. paragallinarum. Following extraction and purification, the OMVs were observed to be spherical in shape, with diameters ranging from 20 to 300 nm. The vesicles contained endotoxin as well as genomic DNA. The molecular weights of the OMV-contained protein fragments were mostly concentrated at 65 and 15 kDa. The components of the OMV proteins were mainly various functional enzymes (e.g., ATP-dependent RNA helicase), structural components (e.g., streptomycin B receptor and membrane protein), and some hypothetical proteins with unknown functions. The expression levels of inflammation-related factors, such as interleukin (IL)-2, IL-6, IL-1ß, IL-10, and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOs), were significantly upregulated in chicken macrophage cells HD11 incubated with OMVs. Serum IgG antibodies were measured after two intramuscular injections of an OMV-based vaccine into specific pathogen-free (SPF) chickens. The vaccinated chickens were then challenged by A. paragallinarum of homologous and heterologous serovars. It was noted that the vaccinated chickens produced immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies against A. paragallinarum. The OMVs conferred an acceptable level of protection (70%), defined as an absence of colonization and of clinical signs, against the homologous strain (serovar A), while the cross-protection against heterologous challenge with serovars B and C was much weaker. However, the OMVS did provide significant protection against clinical signs for all three serovars. Overall, this study laid a foundation for further unraveling the functional roles of OMVs released by A. paragallinarum.

Integrative stimulus-specific adaptation of the natural sounds in the auditory cortex of the awake rat.

Using oddball stimulus with pure tones, researchers have extensively investigated stimulus-specific adaptation (SSA), which has been regarded as a method of novelty detection, from the inferior colliculus (IC) to the auditory cortex (AC). However, until now, it is not clear whether SSA is preserved for natural sounds or whether it exists for spatial cues in the AC. Moreover, it is also unclear whether SSA integrates different types of cues within a single modality such as sound location and sound identity. Here, we addressed these issues using two natural sounds presented at two different locations while simultaneously performing extracellular recordings in the AC of awake rats. Our data showed that SSA was present in the AC for the natural sounds, the pure tones, and the spatial locations in the neuronal population. We also found that the AC response to a double deviant stimulus (a deviant sound at a deviant location) was stronger than that to a single (either a deviant sound or the same sound at a deviant location); this finding suggests that detecting unexpected events benefits from the integration of different cues within the same modality.

Epidemiology and genotype distribution of human papillomavirus (HPV) in women of Henan Province, China.

BACKGROUND: Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is the commonest sexually transmitted infection, which is associated with various clinical conditions. This study aimed to determine the distribution of HPV genotypes in the women of Henan Province, China. METHODS: Cervical samples were collected by liquid-based method and consecutively evaluated cervical cytology and the presence of HPV DNA. Cytological classification was made according to the Bethesda 2001 criteria. HPV DNA was tested with xMAP technology by Luminex200™. RESULTS: In cervical abnormalities, the infection rate of HPV was 84.0%, single type was 71.0%, multiple type was 13.0%, high risk HPV was 78.0% and low risk HPV was 8.0%. The most common genotypes found were HPV16, 52, 58, 33, 18, 6 and 39. The most common HPV genotypes were HPV16, 52, 6, 58 and 33 in NILM, HPV16, 52, 18, 58 and 6 in ASCUS, HPV52, 16, 58, 6 and 39 in LSIL, HPV16, 33, 58, 18 and 51 in HSIL, and HPV16, 18, 33, 58 and 52 in ICC, respectively. The prevalence of single HPV and multiple HPV was 64.8% and 13.3%, respectively. Age-specific prevalence of multiple HPV exhibited a "U" shaped curve. CONCLUSIONS: Single HPV genotype infection was predominantly detected in different groups of cervical lesions in Henan Province, and HPV16, 52, 58, 33, 18 and 6 were the priority HPV types.

[Recent progress in NIR spectroscopy technology and its application to the field of forestry].

Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) is the most rapidly developing and the most noticeable spectrographic technique in the 80's (the last century). Its developing history and utilization in foreign countries were introduced. The authors mainly summarized the applications of NIRS to the field of forestry. The applications of near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) in fruit quality, timber and seed quality analysis are more active in forestry due to its rapid, timely, less expensive, non-destructive, straightforward analytic characteristics. In the last two decades, non-destructive methods using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to evaluate parameters for estimating maturity were applied to different fruits species to check the ripening status of fruits on trees or to grade fruits in the packing house, to assess fruit quality, such as sugar and acid contents, soluble solids, firmness of fruit, offers great advantages to growers in deciding when to harvest. The near infrared spectrophotometry (NIRS) can also be used the nondestructive quantitative assessment of the solid wood density, the moisture condition and the lignin content in bulky wood. The previous results indicated that the utility of NIRS was a selection tool in breeding programs, for example, three kids of persimmon fruits, astringent, non-astringent and half-astringent, were clearly classified by using Near-infrared (NIR) methods, and based on the combination of near infrared technology and multivariate analysis, the genetic, physiological and technical qualities of both temperate and tropical tree species on single seed basis can be characterized. It has already been shown that NIRS can predict the chemical composition of litters. NIRS is also capable of correlating the initial spectral characteristics of the litters with their short- and medium-term decomposability. The stage of decay of decomposing leaves can be predicted by using the near infrared reflectance spectroscopy. The method is rich in information and quick to conduct. However, the applications of NIRS to the field of forestry in our country are only on the beginning, and are mainly focused on wood characteristics and fruit quality testing. In fact, there are still some further applications of NIRS in forestry in future, such as analyzing trace elements in fruit, biosecurity inspection. In this paper, the authors analyzed the NIRS applications status in home and abroad, and discussed the applied prospects to promote its applications to the field of forestry research and practical programs in our country.