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Background: Cuscutae Semen (CS) is reported to show a hepatoprotective effect. Chlorogenic acid, hyperoside and astragalin are three major biologically active components from CS. Objective: A sensitive method based on ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) was developed and validated to quantify the three components in rat plasma and was successfully used to study pharmacokinetics in liver injury rats. Methods: Plasma samples were prepared with protein precipitation by acetonitrile. Chromatographic separation was achieved on ACQUITY-XBridge BEH C18 column with gradient elution using the mobile phase containing 0.05% formic acid in water (A) and acetonitrile (B). The three components were quantified using Electrospray Ionization (ESI) source in the negative multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM) mode. Results: Calibration curves of each analyte showed good linearity with correlation coefficients over 0.99. Accuracies (RE%) and precisions (RSD%) were within 15%. The method was stable. Recovery of the target compounds in plasma samples ranged from 87.00% to 102.29%. No matrix effect was found to influence the quantitative method. Conclusion: The UPLC-MS/MS method met the acceptance criteria and was successfully applied to the simultaneous determination of chlorogenic acid, hyperoside and astragalin in rat plasma for the first time. It is suitable for pharmacokinetic application in liver injury rats. It provides the foundation for further development and utilization of the hepatoprotective effect of cuscutae semen.

Additional file 2: Table S2. GO analysis of MTFR2 co-expressed genes.

Additional file 1: Table S1. Co-expressed gene of MTFR2.

Additional file 3: Figure S1. PPI network displayed the relationship among MTFR2 coexpressed genes.

Recently, deep neural networks have been widely used in biomedical relation extraction, especially CNN and LSTM. Relation extraction is a classification task which uses pooling operations in neural networks to reduce dimensions and integration features and it uses regularization to prevent over-fitting. This paper evaluates the performance of CNN and LSTM in Drug-drug interaction extraction. We discuss the models' performance differences using different pooling operations and regularization parameters. Firstly, regularization can prevent over-fitting effectively, but it is important to ensure that the regularization parameters are set within the correct ranges. Secondly, the max pooling is better than other single pooling methods. Max pooling outperforms the others alternatives because is the only one which is invariant to the special pad tokens that are appending to the shorter sentences known as padding.

In recent years, a substantial amount of experimental studies have demonstrated that exogenous administration of corticosterone causes anxiety and depressive-like behaviour in rodents which involves hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis dysregulation. Our present study aimed to explore the neuroprotective potential of mangiferin against corticosterone-induced anxiety and depressive-like behaviour.Corticosterone (40 mg/kg; subcutaneously) was administered once daily in swiss albino mice for 21 days. Mice were treated simultaneously with mangiferin (40 mg/kg; p.o.), 30 min prior to the corticosterone injection.Chronic administration of corticosterone caused anxiety and depressive-like behaviour in mice which was significantly alleviated by mangiferin treatment. Biochemical analysis revealed that mangiferin treatment significantly attenuated corticosterone-induced oxido-nitrosative stress and neuroinflammation in the hippocampus region. Furthermore, concomitant treatment with mangiferin significantly enhanced the hippocampal brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) level and decreased the serum corticosterone level in the corticosterone-treated animals. Western blotting analysis revealed that corticosterone administration significantly up-regulated the indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) protein expression level in the hippocampus which was significantly reduced by mangiferin treatment.Taken together, our results suggest that mangiferin exerts anti-anxiety and antidepressant effect in corticosterone-treated rats, which is probably mediated through up-regulation of BDNF level along with inhibition of oxido-nitrosative stress, neuroinflammation and IDO up-regulation in the hippocampus region.

The SCN1A gene with 1274 point mutations in the coding regions or genomic rearrangements is the most clinically relevant epilepsy gene. Recent studies have demonstrated that variations in the noncoding regions are potentially associated with epilepsies, but no distinct mutation has been reported. We sequenced the 5′ upstream region of SCN1A in 166 patients with epilepsy and febrile seizures who were negative for point mutations in the coding regions or genomic rearrangements. A heterozygous mutation h1u-1962 T > G was identified in a patient with partial epilepsy and febrile seizures, which was aggravated by oxcarbazepine. This mutation was transmitted from the patient’s asymptomatic mother and not found in the 110 normal controls. h1u-1962 T > G was located upstream the most frequently used noncoding exon and within the promoter sequences. Further experiments showed that this mutation decreased the promoter activity by 42.1 % compared with that of the paired haplotype (P

Bamboo shoot shell (BSS), a major byproduct from bamboo shoot industries with a high amount of output annually, needs to be sustainably management due to its impact on environment and human health. Anaerobic digestion is an eco-friendly and sustainable option, but its efficiency is limited by recalcitrance of lignocellulose structure. A cascade pretreatment (CP) using microwave irradiation and fungus metabolism was developed in this work to reduce the recalcitrance of BSS and enhance its methane production. The results showed significant synergistic effects of microwave irradiation and fungus metabolism on anaerobic digestion of BBS. The methane yield by CP increased by 162.9% (reached to 223.4 mL/g VS) when compared to control group. This was higher than both the values of fungal pretreatment (101.0 mL/g VS, 18.9% increase), and microwave pretreatment (110.5 mL/g VS, 30.1% increase) alone. Further mechanisms of the synergistic effects were revealed. Microwave irradiation provided dissolved products and more accessible BBS for fungus action. In particular, the GC–MS analysis indicated the dissolved products induced fungal laccase activity effectively, and the highest activity in CP was 1.91-fold higher than that in fungal pretreatment alone. The fungus in cascade process further increased accessible surface area and reducing sugars (20.2–43.2%, which compared to fungal pretreatment alone), and reduced significantly the lignin content (42.2–49.1%) and crystallinity (4.5–8.1%) of BSS.

Accumulating evidence suggests that microRNAs (miRs) exert vital functions in the development and progression of multiple types of human cancer. However, the role of miR-6852 in gastric cancer (GC) remains unclear. In the present study, miR-6852 expression was significantly downregulated in GC tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues determined by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) analysis. Furthermore, miR-6852 expression levels in patients with GC were reversely correlated with tumor metastasis and TNM stage. Through Cell Counting kit-8 and Transwell assays, it was demonstrated that overexpression of miR-6852 significantly inhibited the proliferation, migration and invasion of GC cells. With regards to the mechanism involved, luciferase reporter assays suggested that miR-6852 directly target forkhead box J1 (FOXJ1) in GC cells. Furthermore, overexpression of miR-6852 markedly inhibited the mRNA and protein expression levels of FOXJ1 in GC cells determined by RT-qPCR and western blot analysis. Additionally, FOXJ1 was overexpressed in GC tissues and cell lines, and its expression was negatively correlated with that of miR-6852 in GC tissues. Rescue assays indicated that overexpression of FOXJ1 significantly reversed the effects of miR-6852 transfection on GC cell proliferation, migration and invasion. Taken together, the present findings demonstrated that miR-6852 exerted a tumor suppressive role through targeting FOXJ1 in GC. These results implied that miR-6852 may be a novel therapeutic target of GC treatment.

In order to achieve the driver function for several types of scientific CCD detector from E2V Co Ltd, and decreasing the size of electronics of CCD detector system, an Application-specified Integrated Circuit (ASIC) was designed. It provides multi-channel clocks and bias voltage for CCD driver. In the ASIC, the clock drivers are made of a clock switch circuit and high voltage amplifier. Two 8-bit current-steering DACs are used to adjust the driver capability and high-level voltage of clocks. The bias drivers are generated by 8-bit current-steering DACs and off-chip operation amplifiers. The Global Foundry 180 nm BCDlite technology is selected to implement this design. The first version of design has been finished and the tests have been done.

A water-soluble fluorescent chemosensor (D) based on 1, 8-naphthalimide derivative has been designed and synthesised as a new fluorescent sensor for successive detection of Fe3+ and CN−. Fluorescence measurements show that chemosensor D has excellent fluorescent-specific selectivity and high sensitivity for Fe3+ over many other metal ions in pure water. Moreover, the complex of D and Fe3+ (D–Fe3+) displayed high sensitivity for CN− over many other anions in the same medium. Even more important, the recognition of the sensor D for Fe3+ and D–Fe3+ complex for CN- could be used successfully in pure water. The test strips based on D and D–Fe3+ exhibited good selectivity to Fe3+ and CN,- respectively, we believe the test strips could serve as convenient and efficient Fe3+ and CN− test kits.

In this study, observational data from 141 meteorological stations in Northwest China, including temperature, precipitation, dust storm, gale days and wind speed, were analyzed statistically to gain insight of the features of basic climate index and extreme climate events. The results showed that the annual mean temperature and seasonal mean temperature rose significantly, and the rising rate of the annual mean temperature is 0.27°C per decade; the extreme high temperature days have increased; the interdecadal change of annual precipitation is marked, and the precipitation in winter and summer increased slightly, while decreased slightly in spring and autumn. The annual precipitation increased in the area west of the Yellow River, whereas decreased in the area east of the river. The drought had an increasing trend. There were 17 droughts during 1961–2010, and 10 droughts from 1991 to 2010. The number of droughts in spring and autumn increased, while decreased in summer. Citation Sun, L.-D., C.-J. Zhang, H.-Y. Zhao, et al., 2013: Features of climate change in Northwest China during 1961–2010. Adv. Clim. Change Res., 4(1), doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1248.2013.012.

Gut microbiota interacts with host immune system in ways that influence the development of disease. Advances in respiratory immune system also broaden our knowledge of the interaction between host and microbiome in the lung. Increasing evidence indicated the intimate relationship between the gastrointestinal tract and respiratory tract. Exacerbations of chronic gut and lung disease have been shown to share key conceptual features with the disorder and dysregulation of the microbial ecosystem. In this review, we discuss the impact of gut and lung microbiota on disease exacerbation and progression, and the recent understanding of the immunological link between the gut and the lung, the gut-lung axis.

A formal synthesis of Jaspine B was completed in 42.4% overall yield with only three purification steps (one by crystallization and two by column chromatography). The key step in the synthesis involves a regio- and stereoselective epoxide ring-opening reaction and the configuration inversion of the C3-hydroxyl group through oxidation and reduction. All of the reagents and materials used were quite common and inexpensive.

On the basis of the light nuclear reaction model, a new kerma coefficient formula has been developed. In terms of the analysis for n+16 O reactions below 30 MeV, the average energies of all kinds of the emitted particles are presented. The calculated partial kerma coefficients agree well with the existing experimental data. The discrepancies of the total kerma coefficients between the calculation and the measurement are analyzed in detail.

In the last decade or more, IE work in China has made great progress and the illiteracy rate has declined substantially, but the task of eliminating illiteracy has not been fully completed.1 Most of China's adult women illiterates are in the rural areas, where the rate of illiteracy among adult women reaches 31 percent, almost three times higher than the rate among men. Most of these women are to be found in the impoverished regions of the West.2 Thus the work of eliminating illiteracy among adults should not only be focused on rural women in the impoverished regions, but must be closely linked with changes in their present vocational situation and in their impoverished state of existence. The state of poverty among these rural women has to do not only with regional and natural environments, but also with the social environment in which they live and their own attributes. The poorest people in the impoverished regions are illiterate women, and they should be given education to enlighten them and provide t...

This paper studies the subway-induced vibrations on two adjacent masonry structures in Shanghai with focus on the vibration level and frequency. The results show that: (1) the vibration levels of the two masonry structures in three directions are all higher during the peak traffic hours than the off-peak hours and are higher in the daytime than at night. In addition, they are higher at the mid-span of the floor than the wall-floor junctions and staircase. (2) The parameters of the numerical model were calibrated by the measured vibration response. The slab properties, room size, and other factors can affect the vibration response distribution. (3) The vertical vibrations in the rooms with precast slab are greater than those with cast-in-situ slab. The vertical vibrations at the ash seam between the precast slabs are amplified. In addition, the room depth has a small effect on the vibration intensity. The relationship between the room depth and the vibration intensity depends on the relative width and depth of the room. (4) The width of the room has a significant effect on the vertical vibration. The floor corner and surrounding wall constraint conditions greatly affect the vibration intensity.

This paper researched the socio-economic structure and educational structure of china, and the supply and demand balance of higher education, On this basis, combined with the dynamic analysis methods of time series and built the VAR and VEC models for the forecast of demand for higher education, the importance of Johansen co-integration test was emphasized. We verified the financial policy of Higher Education and the Students charging in china is reasonable, further, used the Verhulst model to study the balance of higher education supply and demand., and the result showed that the efficiency of charges free are not higher than charges'. Examined the development of higher education whether or not meet the needs of economic development.

Aircraft Spare Parts inventory control is an important part of civil aviation aircraft maintenance and enterprise management. Use the collected tire wear and tear data, erect the process and system model. On this basis, design an aircraft spare parts inventory optimization system using minimum variance control theory. It simulates and researches the system that implements minimum variance control by MATLAB Studies, it has shown that using the minimum variance control can control the variance at a relatively low level, thereby it can reduce the average inventory correspondingly, and achieve the purpose of reducing the cost of maintenance and management. Theoretical analysis and system design results is useful to air material management of airlines.

During the Wenchuan earthquake, many local building structures were suffered huge damage, especially the multi-story RC frames with slabs in which the weak-beam strong-column design philosophy were not realized. The contribution of the slabs can be very important. Current studies focus on pseudo-stastics of connections, pushover analysis and time-history investigation without slabs. Seismic performance of RC frames with casting in-situ slabs under bidirectional seismic excitation has not been reported yet. In order to investigate the influence of floor slabs during earthquake, three FE models are built by ANSYS. These three models are bare frame under bidirectional seismic excitation, frame with slab under unidirectional seismic excitation and frame with slab under bidirectional seismic excitation. Natural period of vibration, cumulative story drift, slabs participation and moment history of the models are compared. The results indicate that the natural period of vibration and the cumulative story drift reduces in frames with slabs. The abnormal and uneven moment equilibrium appears in connections when the participation of the slabs is considered. Compared to unidirectional seismic excitation, slab participation increases with a decrease stress level during bi-directional seismic excitation. The design should be paid more attention.

Due to the complexity of the quality control of higher education and its influence factors, it has always been difficult to have a control on the quality of higher education so as to realize the quantification analysis and give a prediction for the future quality. The ordinary ways of regression analysis have difficulty in establishing models and may lead to “over learning”. The support vector machine (SVM) does not have a strict requirement on the number of samples, the distribution of process errors and sample points, and is easy to promote. In this paper, We make a SVM regression analysis of the quality control and prediction of higher education and put forward a regression model with strong generalization ability from the angle of machine learning. The results of the effect of fitting are good under the Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) test. Thus, the problems of establishing models, making quantification analysis in the quality control of higher education can have a solution

In this paper, moire contour fringes is applied to study the femur's articular surface of the knee of Pongidae. The preliminary division of the femur's articular surface of knee into three types is proposed. The moire contour fringes ofthe medial condyle is taken as a mark according to the references. Owing to the fact that the moire contour fringes obtained from experiments after the 2nd order of fringe basically follow a certain rule, an investigation is made on the distribution of the angle α which is defined as the angle of the major axis of the 2nd order's near-oval shaped moire contour fringe on the medial condyle with the horizontal axis. Preliminary distribution graphs are given in the paper.

In this paper we have studied the moire contour fringes of the skull and femur knee joint of Nycticebus coucany and obtained the following results: 1. The skull's value K is very useful for comparative study with the different kinds of Primate. 2. The moire contour fringes of the tibia facies of knee joint is convex on one side while the other side is concave. 3. At the same condition the grade of the first moire contour fringe of connection on the femur knee joint between the two condyles and its angle β are smaller than Hylobates concolor leucongeuys. This study is significant, because: 1. The evolution of skull may be related with the increased value K. 2. The moire contour fringes of the Nycticebus coucany's tibia and femur knee joint have lower range of activity. 3. From the moire contour fringes of knee, the Nycticebus coucany and. Hylobates concolor leucongeuys are of one kind. But the moire contour Nycticebus of tibia is different form.© (1984) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.