From the BMC Series Blog:Rethinking reporting guidelines

The BMC series is collaborating with the EQUATOR Network and Penelope Research to improve reporting guidelines, in order to promote transparency and reproducibility in published studies. We are currently testing a software wizard to help authors identify the necessary reporting requirements; in early trials, the wizard was highly accurate and reliable and could prove useful as a general tool to help authors and publishers improve reporting standards.

系统生物学：Mathematical model of planarian stem cells

A mathematical model of feedback control in planarian flatworm stem cells makes testable predictions about the dynamics of the animal’s size, cell mortality and stem cell signaling systems under different conditions of food availability and after events such as wounding.

Evolutionary Biology:Lack of competition influences sperm size in peeper frogs

在安大略省发现的雄性春季青蛙之间缺乏精子竞争会导致精子表型的轻松选择。这可以在从单个青蛙收集的样品中的高度形态和异常频率中观察到这一点。由于异常精子的比例增加可能会对受精产生负面影响，因此这些结果可能反映了孤立的春季窥视蛙的生殖适应性挑战。

Biophysics:预测DNA状态如何影响基因表达

The supercoiled state of DNA can impede RNA Polymerase access and lower transcription initiation rate. Bohrer and Roberts used mathematical modeling to explore the dynamics of supercoil buildup and transcriptional bursts in geographically related genes. The association between expression levels of neighboring genes and the supercoiled state of their chromosomal location demonstrates an intriguing aspect of gene regulation occurring at a structural level.

Image of the month:

彭宁顿踏板桌^TMis equipped with digital tracking capability, so users can continually monitor their usage and progress as they work toward increasing physical activity during the workday. Schuna Jr. et. al.,BMC研究指出，2016年9:74。

生物信息学：Compression of metagenomic data

Sequenced metagenomic samples usually comprise reads from a large number of different bacterial communities. This results in large file sizes typically ranging between 1GB to 10GB which presents challenges in analyzing, transferring and storing the data. InBMC Bioinformatics，Kim和同事描述了基于参考的无损耗压缩的第一个体系结构。所提出的方法还可以并行运行不同的组件，并为用户提供了在执行压缩管道期间生成的分类和组装信息。

Public Health:Alcohol risks vary based on community wealth status

In an English survey, alcohol use was associated with adverse health effects such as smoking, excess weight, and poor exercise habits, particularly in economically deprived communities. Taking these identified correlations into account, tailored approaches to healthcare and public health communications for different socioeconomic groups may be effective in dealing with alcohol usage and its related effects.

Infectious Diseases:Measuring the potential for pandemic spread through airports

Our ability to travel around the world and the increase in flights has resulted in the increased risk and rate of pandemics spreading from one country to another, but the location of the start of the outbreak has an effect on its ability to become a pandemic.