Transcriptome profiling of plerocercoid and adult developmental stages of the neglected medical tapeworm Spirometra erinaceieuropaei.

The plerocercoid larvae of the tapeworm Spirometra erinaceieuropaei can parasitize humans and animals and cause serious parasitic zoonosis. However, our knowledge of the developmental process of S. erinaceieuropaei is still inadequate. To better characterize differential and specific genes and pathways associated with parasite development, a comparative transcriptomic analysis of the plerocercoid stage and the adult stage was performed using RNA-seq and de novo analysis. Approximately 13,659 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in plerocercoids versus adults, of which 6455 DEGs were upregulated and 7204 were downregulated. DEGs involved in parasite immunoevasion were more active in plerocercoid larvae than in adults, while DEGs associated with metabolic activity were upregulated in adults. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes (KEGG) analyses revealed that most DEGs involved in protein phosphorylation/dephosphorylation and the Wnt signalling pathway were much more active in plerocercoid larvae. The molecular functions of upregulated unigenes in adults were mainly enriched for metabolic activities. qPCR validated that the expression levels of 10 selected DEGs were consistent with those in RNA-seq, confirming the accuracy of the RNA-seq results. Our results contributed to increasing the knowledge on the S. erinaceieuropaei gene repertoire and expression profile and also provide valuable resources for functional studies on the molecular mechanisms of S. erinaceieuropaei.

A data process of human knee joint kinematics obtained by motion-capture measurement.

BACKGROUND: The motion capture has been used as the usual method for measuring movement parameters of human, and most of the measuring data are obtained by partial manual process based on commercial software. An automatic kinematics data process was developed by programming on MATLAB software in this paper. METHODS: The motion capture measurement of healthy volunteers was carried out and the MATLAB program was used for data process. Firstly, the coordinate data of markers and anatomical points on human lower limb measured by motion capture system were read and repaired through the usual and the patch program. Meantime, the local coordinate systems of human femur and tibia were established with anatomical points. Then flexion/extension, abduction/adduction and internal/external rotation of human knee tibiofemoral joint were obtained by special coordinate transformation program. RESULTS: Using the above methods, motion capture measurements and batch data processing were carried out on squatting and climbing stairs of 29 healthy volunteers. And the motion characteristics (flexion/extension, internal/external rotation and adduction/abduction) of the knee joint were obtained. For example, the maximum internal/external rotation in squatting and climbing stairs were respectively was 30.5 degrees and 14 degrees, etc. Meantime, the results of this paper also were respectively compared with the results processed by other research methods, and the results were basically consistent, thus the reliability of our research method was verified. After calibration processing, the compiled MATLAB program of this paper can directly be used for efficient batch processing and avoiding manual modeling one by one. CONCLUSION: A novel Patch Program of this paper has been developed, which can make reasonable compensation for missing and noise signals to obtain more complete motion data. At the same time, a universal data processing program has also been developed for obtaining the relative movement of various components of the human body, and the program can be modified for detail special analysis. These motion capture technologies can be used to judge whether the human body functions are abnormal, provide a reference for rehabilitation treatment and design of rehabilitation equipment, and evaluate the effectiveness before and after surgery.

UV-Vis Spectrum Characteristics of Phycocyanin Purification in Water from Chao Lake.

Fresh blue algal from Chao Lake was used in this study. The crude extracts of phycocyanin were obtained with freeze-thaw method. The purification of phycocyanin was performed by combining two-step salt precipitation and two-step column chromatography. The reagent grade phycocyanin was achieved. Phycocyanin and impurity solution were obtained respectively in various stages subjected to the UV-Vis absorption spectrum scanning. With the development of the four-step purification process, the absorption peak of phycocyanin solution was redshifted from 260 to 280 nm in the wavelength range from 250 to 300 nm, and the maximum absorption peak of phycocyanin was redshifted from 617 to 620 nm in the wavelength range from 500nm to 700 nm. In the wavelength range from 250 to 700 nm, it showed that the impurity solution mainly contained impurity proteins and part of the phycocyanin in the first salting out, and mainly contained nucleic acids and vitamins substance in the second salting out. The first outflow components mainly contained phycoerythrin separated by the first column chromatography. The last outflow components mainly contained allophycocyanin separated by the second column chromatography. After the four-step purification process, the final purity of phycocyanin (A620/A280) is greater than 4,which met the standard of reagent grade．Thus it can be seen that two-step salt precipitation had a main function which was to remove impurity proteins, nucleic acids and vitamins substance, and two-step column chromatography main function was to remove phycoerythrin and allophycocyanin which were similar to phycocyanin.