Interpretation of inorganic arsenic metabolism in humans in the light of observations made in vitro and in vivo in the rat

The toxicity of inorganic trivalent arsenic for living organisms is reduced by in vivo methylation of the element. In man, this biotransformation leads to the synthesis of monomethylarsonic (MMA) and dimethylarsinic (DMA) acids, which are efficiently eliminated in urine along with the unchanged form (As_i). In order to document the methylation process in humans, the kinetics of As_i, MMA and DMA elimination were studied in volunteers given a single dose of one of these three arsenicals or repeated doses of As_i. The arsenic methylation efficiency was also assessed in subjects acutely intoxicated with arsenic trioxide (As₂O₃) and in patients with liver diseases. Several observations in humans can be explained by the properties of the enzymic systems involved in the methylation process which we have characterized in vitro and in vivo in rats as follows: (1) production of As_i metabolites is catalyzed by an enzymic system whose activity is highest in liver cytosol; (2) different enzymic activities, using the same methyl group donor (S-adenosylmethionine), lead to the production of mono- and di-methylated derivatives which are excreted in urine as MMA and DMA; (3) dimethylating activity is highly sensitive to inhibition by excess of inorganic arsenic; (4) reduced glutathione concentration in liver moderates the arsenic methylation process through several mechanisms, e.g. stimulation of the first methylation reaction leading to MMA, facilitation of As_i uptake by hepatocytes, stimulation of the biliary excretion of the element, reduction of pentavalent forms before methylation, and protection of a reducing environment in the cells necessary to maintain the activity of the enzymic systems.     

Altered protein synthesis in rat kidney cells exposed to semiconductor materials

It is thought that the extensive industrial use of arsenic, gallium and indium, which have applications as the materials for III–V semiconductors, will increase human exposure to these compounds in the near future. We have undertaken the development of new biological indicators for assessing exposure to these elements. Element-specific alterations in protein synthesis patterns were expected to occur following exposure to arsenic compounds. We examined alterations in protein synthesis in primary cultures of rat kidney proximal tubule epithelial cells by sodium arsenite, gallium chloride and indium chloride, utilizing two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. After incubation with the chemicals for 20 h, newly synthesized proteins were labeled with [³⁵S]methionine. A protein with a molecular weight (M_r) of 30 000 was markedly induced on exposure to 10 μM arsenite or 300 μM gallium chloride, and synthesis of proteins with M_r values of 85 000, 71 000, 65 000, 51 000, 38 000 and 28 000 were also increased by exposure to arsenite and gallium chloride. No significant changes were observed upon exposure to indium. Some of these increased proteins could be heat-shock proteins.     

Spectral pattern recognition of improved voice quality

The self-organizing map (a neural network) was applied to the spectral pattern recognition of voice quality in 34 subjects: 15 patients operated on because of insufficient glottal closure and 19 subjects not treated for voice disorders. The voice samples, segments of sustained /a/, were perceptually rated by six experts. A self-organized acoustic feature map was first computed from tokens of /a/ and then used for the analysis of the samples. The locations of the samples on the map were determined and the distances from a normal reference were compared with the perceptual ratings. The map locations corresponded to the degree of audible disorder: the samples judged as normal were overlapping or close to the normal reference, whereas the samples judged as dysphonie were located further away from it. The comparison of pre- and postoperative samples of the patients showed that the perceived improvement of voice quality was also detected by the map.     

EXPONENTIAL STABILITY AND PERIODIC SOLUTION OF HYBRID BIDIRECTIONAL ASSOCIATIVE MEMORY NEURAL NETWORKS WITH DISCRETE DELAYS

In this paper, we study the existence, uniqueness, and the global exponential stability of the periodic solution and equilibrium of hybrid bidirectional associative memory neural networks with discrete delays. By ingeniously importing real parameters di > 0 (i = 1,2, …, n) which can be adjusted, making use of the Lyapunov functional method and some analysis techniques, some new sufficient conditions are established. Our results generalize and improve the related results in [9]. These conditions can be used both to design globally exponentially stable and periodical oscillatory hybrid bidirectional associative neural networks with discrete delays, and to enlarge the area of designing neural networks. Our work has important significance in related theory and its application.     

Fuzzy Entropy： Axiomatic Definition and Neural Networks Model

The measure of uncertainty is adopted as a measure of information. The measures of fuzziness are known as fuzzy information measures. The measure of a quantity of fuzzy information gained from a fuzzy set or fuzzy system is known as fuzzy entropy. Fuzzy entropy has been focused and studied by many researchers in various fields. In this paper, firstly, the axiomatic definition of fuzzy entropy is discussed. Then, neural networks model of fuzzy entropy is proposed, based on the computing capability of neural networks. In the end, two examples are discussed to show the efficiency of the model.     

人原始生殖细胞的分离和体外培养

从4～10周龄药物流产胚胎的生殖嵴和肠系膜组织中分离原始生殖细胞(primordial germ cells,PGCs),培养在添加人重组白血病抑制因子(rh LIF)、人重组碱性成纤维细胞生长因子(rh bFGF)和Forskolin的小鼠饲养层细胞上.经过4～7 d培养,PGCs形成典型的鸟巢状集落.集落在传代过程中保持碱性磷酸酶活性,且胚胎阶段性特异抗原1(SSEA-1)、胚胎阶段性特异抗原3(SSEA-3)免疫荧光染色呈阳性.具有分化潜能的PGCs能在体外连续传代培养12代.结果表明从药物流产胚胎中分离的人类PGCs可以在体外培养成为具有分化潜能的多能性干细胞.     

饮食中微量元素砷的分布规律与人体健康关系

采用催化动力学光度法测定了六大类(共三十种)样品中的总砷含量，探讨了砷在食品中的分布规律，建立了砷在人体中的安全系效和积累系效的效学评价公式，用于评价砷与人体健康的关系，这对人们选择食物有一定的指导意义。     

BP人工神经网络用于除草剂活性预测

采用AMI方法研究了10种新型的磺酰脲类除草剂的电子结构，并以原子的Mulliken净电荷和除草剂在不同浓度(100，10mg／L)下对油菜、稗草两种作物的根、茎部位的抑制率为训练样本集。构造并训练得到具有活性预测能力的BP神经网络．结果表明，该BP网络不仅能对训练样本很好拟合。亦能对未知化合物的活性作出很好的预测．     

氧氟沙星和左氟沙星与人血清白蛋白的相互作用研究

用光谱技术研究了水溶液中氧氟沙星(OFLX)和左氟沙星(LVFX)与人血清白蛋白相互作用的机制.荧光猝灭法测得的结果表明反应的结合常数为KOFLX＝0.482×105L@mol-1,KLVFX=0.529×105L@mol-1,结合位点数nOFLX＝0.72,nLVFX=0.74.按照Fōorster非辐射能量转移理论得到药物-蛋白之间的结合距离分别为rOFLX=2.94nm,nVFX=2.85 nm.实验结果说明OFLX与LVFX在体内与蛋白结合直到运输到受体部位这一环节基本相同.