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Background and aimsGalanin is a naturally occurring peptide that plays a critical role in regulating inflammation and energy metabolism, with expression in the liver. The exact involvement of galanin in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and related fibrosis remains controversial.MethodsThe effects of subcutaneously administered galanin were studied in mice with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) induced by a high-fat and high-cholesterol diet for 8 weeks, and in mice with liver fibrosis induced by CCl4 for 7 weeks. The underlying mechanism was also studied in vitro on murine macrophage cells (J774A.1 and RAW264.7).ResultsGalanin reduced inflammation, CD68-positive cell count, MCP-1 level, and mRNA levels of inflammation-related genes in the liver of NASH mice. It also mitigated liver injury and fibrosis caused by CCl4. In vitro, galanin had anti-inflammatory effects on murine macrophages, including reduced phagocytosis and intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS). Galanin also activated AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)/acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) signaling.ConclusionGalanin ameliorates liver inflammation and fibrosis in mice, potentially by modifying macrophage inflammatory phenotype and activating AMPK/ACC signaling.

Additional file 1: Supplementary methods, tables and figures.

Runs of homozygosity (ROH) are widely used to investigate genetic diversity, demographic history, and positive selection signatures of livestock. Commercial breeds provide excellent materials to reveal the landscape of ROH shaped during the intense selection process. Here, we used the GeneSeek Porcine 50K single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) Chip data of 3,770 American Duroc (AD) and 2,096 Canadian Duroc (CD) pigs to analyze the genome-wide ROH. First, we showed that AD had a moderate genetic differentiation with CD pigs, and AD had more abundant genetic diversity and significantly lower level of inbreeding than CD pigs. In addition, sows had larger levels of homozygosity than boars in AD pigs. These differences may be caused by differences in the selective intensity. Next, ROH hotspots revealed that many candidate genes are putatively under selection for growth, sperm, and muscle development in two lines. Population-specific ROHs inferred that AD pigs may have a special selection for female reproduction, while CD pigs may have a special selection for immunity. Moreover, in the overlapping ROH hotspots of two Duroc populations, we observed a missense mutation (rs81216249) located in the growth and fat deposition-related supergene (ARSB-DMGDH-BHMT) region. The derived allele of this variant originated from European pigs and was nearly fixed in Duroc pigs. Further selective sweep and association analyses indicated that this supergene was subjected to strong selection and probably contributed to the improvement of body weight and length in Duroc pigs. These findings will enhance our understanding of ROH patterns in different Duroc lines and provide promising trait-related genes and a functional-altering marker that can be used for genetic improvement of pigs.

Silver nanoparticles are deposited on aramid fiber surfaces by a three-step process. Calcium chloride/ethanol coarsening of the aramid fiber is followed by surface functionalization with poly(dopamine) and electroless silver plating. The chemical structure and elemental composition of the aramid fibers are determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, respectively. The surface morphology of the modified aramid fibers is investigated by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The crystalline structure and thermal stability of the modified aramid fibers before and after silver plating are analyzed by X-ray diffraction and thermogravimetric analyses. A four-point probe is used to determine the electrical resistivity of the silver-plated aramid fibers. The results show that after the silver plating of the aramid fiber surface, its electrical resistance was reduced. At 20 g/L AgNO3, the silver layer on the aramid fiber surface is stable and durable with a high electrical resistivity.

Additional file 2: Table S2. Chromosome distribution of all 695 CNVRs detected in the porcine genome (based on Sscrofa 11.1 reference genome assembly).

Additional file 4: Table S4. Descriptive statistics and variance components of growth traits in Duroc pigs.

Additional file 1.Table S1. All the positive ion features.

Polylactic acid (PLA) and poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) were blended in a twin-screw extruder with a compatibilizer of PLA grafted using glycidyl methacrylate (PLA-g-GMA), providing PLA-g-GMA/PLA/PBAT composites. The chemical structures of the composites were determined using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The effects of the PLA-g-GMA amount on the thermal properties, rheological performance, and mechanical behavior of the composites were studied through differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) using an advanced rheometer and material testing machine. The results revealed that the reaction between the PLA/PBAT and epoxy groups within the PLA-g-GMA promotes an entanglement between molecular chains, which increases the glass transition temperature Tg, cold crystallization temperature Tc, and melting temperature Tm of the samples. Moreover, the PLA-g-GMA/PLA/PBAT composites show higher tensile and notch impact strengths than PLA/PBAT.

In this study, a cyclic disulfide-bonded peptide (ATTO 590-cyclo(2,11)-HCHVH DPLPHLHCH, clyco(ATTO-HCHV) was designed and synthesized. The β-turn design by the dipeptide d-Pro-l-Pro and the intradisulfide bridge using two cysteines make all histidines residues align on one face of the peptide, suggesting less steric hindrance during the self-assembly with quantum dots (QDs) and higher binding affinity than histag. QDs and clyco(ATTO-HCHV) at different molar ratio were sequentially injected into the capillary; strong Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) signals were observed in both donor and acceptor channels, indicating the efficient binding of the novel cyclic peptide ligand onto the QDs to form clyco(ATTO-HCHV)-QD assembly inside the capillary. Capillary electrophoresis coupled with fluorescence detection (CE-FL) results indicated that the cyclic ligand clyco(ATTO-HCHV) had a much higher binding affinity than that of the linear form peptide ligand ATTO-HCHV. Additionally, the interval time of the injection and the sampling time were also investigated using CE-FL combining with FRET technology. Lastly, the stability of clyco(ATTO-HCHV)-QD was systematically examined in the presence of the imidazole competitor. It is believed that this new in-capillary assay significantly reduced the sample consumption and the analysis time.

Adaptive model is the basis of engine fault diagnosis, performance monitoring, engine control, etc. This paper presents an improved kalman filter method which uses engine measurable parameters deviation to estimate the degradation parameters to correct the nominal model, and the acquisition and application of multiple kalman filter gain matrices in the whole flight envelope is analyzed. Simulation is carried out taking a civil engine as simulation object, the simulation results show that the method used in this paper to establish unmeasured parameters adaptive model can get the engine parameters better.

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of wogonin on the mechanism of melanin synthesis in the A375 melanoma cell line. A375 cells, cultured in vitro, were treated with wogonin and the activity of tyrosinase (TYR) and melanin synthesis were examined via MTT assay, L-dopa oxidation assay and an NaOH lysis assay. Protein expression levels of TYR and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) were examined via western blotting. mRNA expression levels of TYR, tyrosinase related protein (TRP)-1, TRP-2, extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)-1, ERK-2 and JNK-2 were analyzed by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Furthermore, the effect of wogonin on estrogen receptor inhibitor (ICI182780) and ERK pathway inhibitor (U0126) was investigated. Safe doses of wogonin (10, 1, 10−1, 10−2 or 10−3 µmol/l) significantly inhibited melanin synthesis and TYR activity (P

Random numbers (in one sense or another) have applications in computer simulation, Monte Carlo integration, cryptography, randomized computation, radar ranging, and other areas. It is impractical to generate random numbers in real life, instead sequences of numbers (or of bits) that appear to be ``random" yet repeatable are used in real life applications. These sequences are called pseudorandom sequences. To determine the suitability of pseudorandom sequences for applications, we need to study their properties, in particular, their statistical properties. The simplest property is the minimal period of the sequence. That is, the shortest number of steps until the sequence repeats. One important type of pseudorandom sequences is the sequences generated by feedback with carry shift registers (FCSRs). In this dissertation, we study statistical properties of N-ary FCSR sequences with odd prime connection integer q and least period (q-1)/2. These are called half-ℓ-sequences. More precisely, our work includes: The number of occurrences of one symbol within one period of a half-ℓ-sequence; The number of pairs of symbols with a fixed distance between them within one period of a half-ℓ-sequence; The number of triples of consecutive symbols within one period of a half-ℓ-sequence. In particular we give a bound on the number of occurrences of one symbol within one period of a binary half-ℓ-sequence and also the autocorrelation value in binary case. The results show that the distributions of half-ℓ-sequences are fairly flat. However, these sequences in the binary case also have some undesirable features as high autocorrelation values. We give bounds on the number of occurrences of two symbols with a fixed distance between them in an ℓ-sequence, whose period reaches the maximum and obtain conditions on the connection integer that guarantee the distribution is highly uniform. In another study of a cryptographically important statistical property, we study a generalization of correlation immunity (CI). CI is a measure of resistance to Siegenthaler's divide and conquer attack on nonlinear combiners. In this dissertation, we present results on correlation immune functions with regard to the q-transform, a generalization of the Walsh-Hadamard transform, to measure the proximity of two functions. We give two definitions of q-correlation immune functions and the relationship between them. Certain properties and constructions for q-correlation immune functions are discussed. We examine the connection between correlation immune functions and q-correlation immune functions.

A test system including light path system and software system is built for measuring the refractive index of fiber by using the digital holographic tomography technology. Based on the phase distribution curve of object wave the optimal hologram is recorded. The spectral range corresponding to the object wave is selected accurately based on the optimization of the spectrum. The phase distribution information of object wave is extracted with the angular spectrum reconstraction. The accuracy of extracted phase information has been verified through the simulation holograms of optical fiber. Combined with the multilayers model of fiber, the refractive index distribution along the diameter direction of fiber tomogram is recovered from a single hologram. Single-mode and multi-mode optical fiber are tested as samples. The experiment results are consistent with the results of S14 refractive index profiler, the precision is 10-4. The compare result shows that our method is simple, fast and accurate for the measurement of the refractive index of fibers. We have also studied the measurement of the refractive index distribution of the special optical fiber.

The generation, propagation and application of vortex beams have been hot research topics in recent years. In this paper we introduce the novel multiple-ring vortex beams, including double-ring vortex beams and triple-ring vortex beams, which are generated by the coaxial superposition of multiple Laguerre-Gaussian vortex beams with different topological charge numbers and different waist parameters, and their intensity distribution is of multiple-ring. We study the generation and distribution characteristics of multiple-ring vortex beams theoretically, obtain the computer generated hologram of multiple-ring vortex beams based on conjugate symmetric extension Fourier computer generated holography, and experimentally generate quality multiple-ring vortex beams using a spatial light modulator. Excellent agreement between theoretical and experimental results is observed. The study indicates that each ring of multiple-ring vortex beams carries different orbital angular momentum, and the spatial distribution is independent. The novel multiple-ring vortex beams provide more controllable parameters and more diverse structure distributions, which enable their applications in the fields of micro-manipulation as optical tweezers or optical spanner. Furthermore, they also have potential applications as available encoding tools in optical communication.