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The effects of prenatal opioid exposure in adult animals has been widely studied, but little is known about the effects of prenatal opioid on adolescents. Most of the risk behaviors associated with drug abuse are initiated during adolescence. The developmental state of the adolescent brain makes it vulnerable to initiate drug use and susceptible to drug-induced brain changes. In this study, pregnant rats were subcutaneously injected with an increasing dose of morphine (5 mg/kg, 7 mg/kg, 10 mg/kg) for 9 days since the gestation day 11. The effects of prenatal morphine (PNM) on learning and memory, anxiety- and depressive- like behavior, morphine induced conditioned place preference (CPP) as well as locomotor sensitization were tested in both adolescent and adult rats. The results showed that: (1) PNM decreased anxiety-like behavior in both adolescent and adult female rats, but not males; (2) PNM decreased depressive-like behavior in adolescent but increased depressive -like behavior in adult females; (3) PNM increased low dose morphine induced locomotor sensitization in females; (4) PNM decreased tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) expression in the prefrontal cortex but decreased dopamine D1 receptor expression in the nucleus-accumbens (NAc) in female rats. These results suggested that PNM altered the emotional and addictive behavior mainly in female rats, with female rats being less anxiety and depressive during adolescence, but more depressive in adult, and more sensitive to low dose morphine induced locomotor activity sensitization, which might be mediated in part by the differential expression of the TH, dopamine D1 receptors in the female brain.

Distant metastasis (DM) is relatively uncommon in T1 stage gastric cancer (GC). The aim of this study was to develop and validate a predictive model for DM in stage T1 GC using machine learning (ML) algorithms. Patients with stage T1 GC from 2010 to 2017 were screened from the public Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database. Meanwhile, we collected patients with stage T1 GC admitted to the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University from 2015 to 2017. We applied seven ML algorithms: logistic regression, random forest (RF), LASSO, support vector machine, k-Nearest Neighbor, Naive Bayesian Model, Artificial Neural Network. Finally, a RF model for DM of T1 GC was developed. The AUC, sensitivity, specificity, F1-score and accuracy were used to evaluate and compare the predictive performance of the RF model with other models. Finally, we performed a prognostic analysis of patients who developed distant metastases. Independent risk factors for prognosis were analysed by univariate and multifactorial regression. K-M curves were used to express differences in survival prognosis for each variable and subvariable. A total of 2698 cases were included in the SEER dataset, 314 with DM, and 107 hospital patients were included, 14 with DM. Age, T-stage, N-stage, tumour size, grade and tumour location were independent risk factors for the development of DM in stage T1 GC. A combined analysis of seven ML algorithms in the training and test sets found that the RF prediction model had the best prediction performance (AUC: 0.941, Accuracy: 0.917, Recall: 0.841, Specificity: 0.927, F1-score: 0.877). The external validation set ROCAUC was 0.750. Meanwhile, survival prognostic analysis showed that surgery (HR = 3.620, 95% CI 2.164–6.065) and adjuvant chemotherapy (HR = 2.637, 95% CI 2.067–3.365) were independent risk factors for survival prognosis in patients with DM from stage T1 GC. Age, T-stage, N-stage, tumour size, grade and tumour location were independent risk factors for the development of DM in stage T1 GC. ML algorithms had shown that RF prediction models had the best predictive efficacy to accurately screen at-risk populations for further clinical screening for metastases. At the same time, aggressive surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy can improve the survival rate of patients with DM.

Almost all selenogenes are expressed in the testis, and those have the highest and constant expressions will be the primary candidates for functional analysis of selenium (Se) in male reproduction. This study aimed to profile the mRNA expressions of the testis-abundant selenogenes of rat models in responses to growth and dietary Se concentrations. Forty-eight weaning SD male rats were fed Se deficient basal diet (BD) for 5 weeks and then randomly grouped (n = 12/group) for being fed BD or BD plus 0.25, 3, or 5 mg Se/kg for 4 more weeks before sacrifice. Abundances of selenogenomic mRNAs in the liver and testis were determined with relative qPCR and those of the testis-abundant selenogenes in 13 kinds of tissues were assayed with a molecular beacon-based qPCR. Spatiotemporal expressions of rat selenogenome were also analyzed with the RNA-Seq transcriptomic data published by NCBI. mRNA abundances of glutathione peroxidase 4 (Gpx4), nuclear Gpx4 (nGpx4), selenoprotein V (Selenov), and thioredoxin reductase 3 (Txnrd3) in the testis were significantly higher than that in any other tissues (P 0.05). Moreover, testicular mRNA abundances of Gpx4, Selenov, and Txnrd3 were not affected by levels of dietary Se supplementation (P 0.05), and much higher at 6-21 weeks old than at 2 and 104 weeks old (P 0.05). The result showed that Gpx4, Selenov, and Txnrd3 were most highly expressed in the testis of rats especially at reproductive ages and resistant to the impact of dietary Se levels, which suggested their specific importance in male reproduction.

Rapid detection and response to visual threats are critical for survival in animals. The amygdala (AMY) is hypothesized to be involved in this process, but how it interacts with the visual system to do this remains unclear. By recording flash-evoked potentials simultaneously from the superior colliculus (SC), lateral posterior nucleus of the thalamus, AMY, lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) and visual cortex, which belong to the cortical and subcortical pathways for visual fear processing, we investigated the temporal relationship between these regions in visual processing in rats. A quick flash-evoked potential (FEP) component was identified in the AMY. This emerged as early as in the LGN and was approximately 25 ms prior to the earliest component recorded in the SC, which was assumed to be an important area in visual fear. This quick P1 component in the AMY was not affected by restraint stress or corticosterone injection, but was diminished by RU38486, a glucocorticoid receptor blocker. By injecting a monosynaptic retrograde AAV tracer into the AMY, we found that it received a direct projection from the retina. These results confirm the existence of a direct connection from the retina to the AMY, that the latency in the AMY to flashes is equivalent to that in the sensory thalamus, and that the response is modulated by glucocorticoids.

A new zinc(II) complex [Zn(L1)Cl2]‧CH3CN‧1/2H2O (complex 1), where L1 stands for 2,6-Bis{[(2-ethylphenyl)imino]ethyl}pyridine, has been synthesized and characterized. Both the crystal structures of complex 1 and L1 have been determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. L1 crystallizes in monoclinic system P21/n space group, with a = 7.7165(5) A, b = 9.1139(7) A, c = 30.535(2) A, β = 96.037(2)° and Z = 4. Complex 1 crystallizes in the orthorhombic system, space group Pbca, and its crystallographic data are a = 14.0520(9) A, b = 14.5780(11) A, c = 26.3450(17) A, α = β = γ = 90°, and Z = 8. In complex 1, Zn1 atom is five-coordinated with a trigonal bipyramidal geometry. L1 acts as a tridentate ligand and coordinated to Zn1 with three nitrogen atoms. A two-dimensional supermolecular network is formed by hydrogen bonds, in which acetonitrile and water solvent molecules play an important role. The luminescent properties of L1 and complex 1 were investigated in the solid state. The results indicate that when coordinated with Zn atom, the fluorescence intensity of complex 1 increases accompanied by a blue-shift, which can be attributed to metal perturbed π–π* intraligand fluorescence. The single crystals of 2,6-Bis{[(2-ethylphenyl)imino]ethyl}pyridine (L1) and it’s Zinc(II) complex [Zn(L1)Cl2]‧CH3CN‧1/2H2O (1) were determined. In the crystal structure of complex 1, the acetonitrile and water solvent molecules play great role in the formation of hydrogen bonds, forming a two-dimensional supermolecular network structure.

Two new coordination polymers [Dy3(PDA)4(HO)(H2O)2]·6H2O (1) H2[(H3O)Sm3(PDA)6]·14H2O (2) (H2PDA = 2,4-pyridinedicarboxylic acid), have been hydrothermally synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, IR, TG, XRD as well as single-crystal X-ray diffraction. They display different three-dimensional coordination frameworks, in which 2,4-PDA exhibits μ4-(κ5N,O2:O2′:O4:O4′), μ4-(κ5N,O2:O2,O2′:O4:O4′) and μ1-(κ5N,O2) coordination modes. Their topological structures have been analyzed. It is interesting that they have the same topological structure. The luminescence properties of 1 and 2 were determined with solid samples. They show the exclusive luminescence emission of Dy(III) or Sm(III) ions, respectively. The magnetic properties of 1 were also studied. It displays antiferromagnetic Dy(III)···Dy(III) interactions. CCDC 1945187 and 1945188 for complexes 1 and 2, respectively.

Laplacian Eigenmaps is a popular nonlinear dimensionality reduction technique and there exist various scenarios of its extensions. In this paper, a semi-supervised rough fuzzy Laplacian Eigenmaps (SSRFLE) approach is developed for dimensionality reduction of high dimensional hybrid data. In the proposed method, a set of semi-supervised fuzzy similarity granules are constructed to characterize the similarity between samples according to the principle that homogeneous samples have higher similarity degrees than heterogeneous samples. A neighborhood rough fuzzy set model of such fuzzy similarity granules is built to assess the degrees two samples belong to the same class. A Laplacian nearest neighborhood graph and a class-related neighborhood graph are constructed to characterize the topological structure between samples and between each sample and its prototype to ensure homogeneous samples being mapped closer to and more compact around the prototypes in a lower dimensional space. In view of the fact that different features bring out distinct impacts on performances of feature extraction and clustering, the significance of each feature is assessed by designing an information entropy measure and the weighted distance between samples is incorporated into the proposed technique. A series of simulation experiments on real world hybrid datasets are carried out. Experimental results show superior performance of the proposed method in classification accuracy and data visualization compared with other state of the art semi-supervised methods.

With the flourish development of computer vision technology, hand gesture recognition plays a more and more vital role in human-computer interaction for its convenient and nonverbal communication. However, confusion caused by similar gestures brings inherent errors when considering enough meaningful gestures in the database. In this paper, an automatic feature extraction for similar gesture recognition is proposed with respect to confusion arising in similar gestures. Except the orientation feature, four additional innovative features are extracted to distinguish all the similar gestures remarkably in the experimental database containing 10 numbers and 26 letters. Compared with the conventional method that a couple of similar gestures are extracted as a specific feature, the proposed method distinguishes similar gestures with automatic distinctive feature extraction. Experimental results show high recognition rate and versatility of the proposed method.

Advanced maternal or paternal age is associated with increased risks of cognitive and emotional disorders. Chronic stress is also a common experience in human life that causes psychiatric diseases. However, the synergistic effects of these two factors on offspring are rarely studied. In the present study, the offspring of both young (3-4 months) and old (12-14 months) rat parents were given CUMS for 21 days at the age of 4 weeks. The effects of advanced parental age and chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) on emotional and cognitive behaviors and the related cellular mechanisms were investigated by using behavioral and electrophysiological techniques. We found that CUMS decreased sucrose consumption, increased anxiety, and impaired learning and memory in offspring from both old and young breeders. However, advanced parental age impaired fear memory and spatial memory mainly in female offspring. The serum corticosterone of female offspring was lower than males, but advanced parental age significantly elevated serum corticosterone in female offspring in response to electrical foot shocks. In addition, hippocampal LTD was severely impaired in female offspring from older parents. Our results indicated that female offspring from older breeders might be more sensitive to stress, and the hippocampal function was more vulnerable. These results might provide experimental basis for the prevention and treatment of advanced parental age related psychiatric disorders in future.

Thinning algorithms often cause stroke distortions at the crosses or intersections of strokes, which lead to bad results in pattern recognition tasks. In order to overcome these drawbacks, this paper proposes a parallel thinning algorithm based on stroke continuity detection. In the algorithm, before it uses the conditions of parallel algorithms to delete a boundary point, it first detects whether the boundary point is a reserved point to keep stroke’s continuity or not. Consequently, it can produce a skeleton with good symmetry, control the large deformation at the cross or intersection of strokes, and make a better skeleton more quickly. Moreover, it is practically immune to noise.

This study is aimed to investigate the efficiency of plant growth-promoting (PGP) strategies of Enterobacter sp. strain EG16 under metal stress and its potential application in phytoremediation. Production of siderophores and indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) by EG16 were assessed in a hydroponic system in which Hibiscus cannabinus was grown with different concentrations of Cd and Fe. A pot experiment was also carried out to evaluate the practical effect of EG16 on H. cannabinus growth and remediation efficiency. Inoculation with EG16 significantly improved plant growth, probably as a result of increased plant uptake of Fe and immobilization of Cd2+, which resulted in decreased plant accumulation of Cd. Increased production of siderophores by EG16 in response to Cd exposure appeared to be the PGP strategy functioning in the EG16–H. cannabinus association. The bacterial Cd response system promoted plant and bacterial uptake of Fe, alleviated Cd-induced inhibition of bacterial IAA production, and potentially assisted in metal immobilization in the rhizosphere. The EG16–H. cannabinus association may be useful for phytostabilization, as it exhibits good plant growth, low plant accumulation of metals, and reduced metal bioavailability in soil.

The incorporation of LnIII ions into the 12-metallacrown-4 topology affords the formation of four mixed 3d-4f pentanuclear complexes of compositions [NH(C2H5)3]{[Ln(OAc)4] [12-MC Mn III (N)shi-4]}·xH2O (Ln = Sm (1), Gd (2), Tb (3), Dy (4); x = 0.5 for 1 and 3, x = 0.25 for 2, x = 0 for 4; H3shi = salicylhydroxamic acid). Compounds 1–4 were obtained from the reactions of H3shi with Mn(CH3COO)2·4H2O and Ln(NO3)3·6H2O, in the presence of N(C2H5)3. They all contain a crown-like [Mn4Ln(μ-NO)4]11+ core with four MnIII atoms being at the rim of the crown and an LnIII ion occupying the dome of the crown. The peripheral ligation about the core is provided by four η1:η1:µ acetate groups. The identity of the LnIII ions slightly affects the 12-metallacrown-4 frameworks, as demonstrated by the gradual decrease of the distances between the LnIII ions and the centres of the Mn4 planes (1.85 A for 1, 1.81 A for 2, 1.80 A for 3, and 1.77 A for 4). Variable-temperature dc magnetic susceptibility studies were carried out on polycrystalline samples of 1–4. Antiferromagnetic interactions are determined for complexes 1–4.

The employment of silicate ion, SiO4 4−, as a ligand in the coordination chemistry of lanthanides is reported. A series of octanuclear clusters of general formula [Ln8L8(C6H4NH2COO)4SiO4] (H2L = 2-{[(2-hydroxy-3-methoxy-phenyl)methylidene]amino}benzoic acid; Ln = Tb(1), Gd(2), Nd(3), Pr(4), Sm(5)) have been prepared via reactions of lanthanide nitrate salts, H2L and Na2SiO3. The metal skeleton shows rarely observed lamp-shaped conformation with eight metals being connected by a μ 4-silicate bridge. Variable-temperature, solid-state dc magnetic susceptibility studies were carried out on polycrystalline samples of 1 and 2. The data in the 2.0–300 K range reveal antiferromagnetic LnIII⋯LnIII exchange interactions in these two clusters. This work demonstrates the synthetic potential of combining Schiff-base ligands with silicate in the preparation of polymetallic lanthanide clusters.

High-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) was found to be over-expressed in many kinds of human cancer, which binds with several receptors and activates RAGE-Ras-MAPK, Toll-like receptors, NF-κB, and Src family kinase signaling pathways and plays a crucial role in tumorigenesis and cancer progression. However, the function and mechanism of HMGB1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of HMGB1 on HCC progression and explore new molecular mechanism. HMGB1 transient knockdown, stable knockdown, and re-expression were performed by transfection with specific siRNA, shRNA, or expression vector in HCCLM3 cells. Results showed that transient knockdown HMGB1 prevented cell proliferation, promoted apoptosis, induced S phase arrest, and inhibited migration and invasion in vitro, and stable knockdown HMGB1 inhibited xenograft growth in Balb/c athymic mice in vivo. Molecular mechanism investigation revealed that knockdown HMGB1 significantly reduced the activation of MAPKs, including ERK1/2, p38, SAPK/JNK, as well as MAPKKs (MEK1/2, SEK1) and its substrates (c-Jun, c-Myc); downregulated NF-κB/p65 expression and phosphorylation level; decreased MMP-2 expression and activity; and upregulated p21 expression. Interestingly, c-Myc was firstly found to be involved in the promoting function of HMGB1 on HCC progression, which provided a novel clue for the inhibitory effect of HMGB1 on p21 expression by a p53-independent pathway. Collectively, these findings indicated that HMGB1 promoted HCC progression partly by enhancing the ERK1/2 and NF-κB pathways, upregulating MMP-2, and downregulating p21 via an ERK/c-Myc pathway. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13277-015-4049-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The mechanisms involved in immobilization of soil Cu and the role of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in Cu(II) adsorption by Bacillus subtilis DBM were investigated in this study. Adsorption and desorption experiments with intact DBM cells revealed that complexation with surface functional groups and intracellular accumulation were involved in the immobilization of soil Cu. The removal of EPS using cation exchange resin resulted in a 26.6% decrease in the Cu(II) adsorption capacity relative to untreated cells. Compared to intact cells, EPS-free cells showed a 9.9% decrease in the proportion of complexed Cu(II), while the intracellular fraction increased by 8.0%. Surface complexation modeling indicated that the total concentration of complexation sites on the intact DBM cell surface was 1.11 mmol/g dry biomass, which was decreased by 17% to 0.92 mmol/g after EPS removal. Infrared analysis revealed that the pKa values of the carboxyl and phosphate groups in the DBM cell wall differed from those in the EPS. Carboxyl, carbonyl, hydroxyl, amino, and phosphate groups were involved in binding Cu(II) by both intact and EPS-free cells, and Cu(II) was more likely to combine with organic rather than inorganic phosphates. The presence of the EPS increased the binding potential of surface functional groups and may help to prevent heavy metals from entering the cells.

Honeybee is a widely used insect model for learning and memory research. Recently, it has become a potentially good subject for evaluating the effects of addictive drugs on the nervous systems. Our previous study has found that acute morphine injection affected associative memory and locomotor activity in honeybees. In the current study, the effect of chronic morphine treatment and its cessation in honeybees were assessed. The results demonstrated that 1) chronic morphine (0.01, 0.1 and 1 mg/ml) treatment for 7 days severely diminished associative memory in honeybees; 2) 1 mg/ml morphine consumption for 5, 7 and 10 but not 3 days impaired the olfactory memory; 3) Bees withdrawn from morphine for 1 day but not 3 days showed amnesia in the PER conditioning. We also found that bees displayed hyperactivity and tolerance in response to chronic morphine administration. In addition, morphine dose-dependently altered the sucrose responsiveness of bees. The data indicated that chronic morphine has sensory-motor effects and may impair learning and/or memory in honeybees, which were comparative to that in vertebrates.

Alternative splicing (AS) drives determinative changes during mouse heart development. Recent high-throughput technological advancements have facilitated genome-wide AS, while its analysis in human foetal heart transition to the adult stage has not been reported. Here, we present a high-resolution global analysis of AS transitions between human foetal and adult hearts. RNA-sequencing data showed extensive AS transitions occurred between human foetal and adult hearts, and AS events occurred more frequently in protein-coding genes than in long non-coding RNA (lncRNA). A significant difference of AS patterns was found between foetal and adult hearts. The predicted difference in AS events was further confirmed using quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis of human heart samples. Functional foetal-specific AS event analysis showed enrichment associated with cell proliferation-related pathways including cell cycle, whereas adult-specific AS events were associated with protein synthesis. Furthermore, 42.6% of foetal-specific AS events showed significant changes in gene expression levels between foetal and adult hearts. Genes exhibiting both foetal-specific AS and differential expression were highly enriched in cell cycle-associated functions. In conclusion, we provided a genome-wide profiling of AS transitions between foetal and adult hearts and proposed that AS transitions and deferential gene expression may play determinative roles in human heart development.

Odor detection applications are needed by human societies in various circumstances. Rodent offers unique advantages in developing biologic odor detection systems. This report outlines a novel apparatus designed to train maximum 5 mice automatically to detect odors using a new olfactory, relative go no-go, operant conditioning paradigm. The new paradigm offers the chance to measure real-time reliability of individual animal’s detection behavior with changing responses. All of 15 water-deprivation mice were able to learn to respond to unpredictable delivering of the target odor with higher touch frequencies via a touch sensor. The mice were continually trained with decreasing concentrations of the target odor (n-butanol), the average correct percent significantly dropped when training at 0.01% solution concentration; the alarm algorithm showed excellent recognition of odor detection behavior of qualified mice group through training. Then, the alarm algorithm was repeatedly tested against simulated scenario for 4 blocks. The mice acted comparable to the training period during the tests and provided total of 58 warnings for the target odor out of 59 random deliveries and 0 false alarm. The results suggest this odor detection method is promising for further development in respect to various types of odor detection applications.

A p-type device grade silicon wafer was implanted by 1 MeV Ru+ ions to a dose of 5.67 × 1016 cm−2. The microstructures of the as-implanted and annealed samples were studied mainly by analytical transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results showed that the implantation resulted in a well-defined surface layer of about 910 nm in thickness. The layer was composed of ultra-fine Ru2Si3 crystallites in an amorphous matrix. After annealing, the inner part of the layer recovered completely to single crystal Si with nano-scaled Ru2Si3 embedded in it. A ∼660 nm thick polycrystalline region consisting of Si and Ru2Si3 grains was formed at the surface.

In this article, we present some new two-sided bounds for the determinant of some diagonally dominant matrices. In particular, the idea of the preconditioning technique is applied to obtain the new bounds. MS Classification: 65F10; 15A15.

We present a new approach for the measurement of resonance excitation functions of neutron-rich nuclei using Doppler shift information. Preliminary data from the first application of the method is presented in the spectroscopy studies of 7He isobaric analog states in 7Li.