Competitive ability, stress tolerance and plant interactions along stress gradients.

Exceptions to the generality of the stress-gradient hypothesis (SGH) may be reconciled by considering species-specific traits and stress tolerance strategies. Studies have tested stress tolerance and competitive ability in mediating interaction outcomes, but few have incorporated this to predict how species interactions shift between competition and facilitation along stress gradients. We used field surveys, salt tolerance and competition experiments to develop a predictive model interspecific interaction shifts across salinity stress gradients.

Prioritization of candidate disease genes by enlarging the seed set and fusing information of the network topology and gene expression.

The identification of disease genes is very important not only to provide greater understanding of gene function and cellular mechanisms which drive human disease, but also to enhance human disease diagnosis and treatment. Recently, high-throughput techniques have been applied to detect dozens or even hundreds of candidate genes. However, experimental approaches to validate the many candidates are usually time-consuming, tedious and expensive, and sometimes lack reproducibility.

Effect of thimerosal on the neurodevelopment of premature rats.

Background: This study was undertaken to determine the effect of thimerosal on the neurodevelopment of premature rats.

Methods: Thimerosal was injected into premature SD rats at a dose of 32.8, 65.