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We aimed to explore the role of T helper cell 1 (Th1)/Th2 imbalance mediated by T cell glycolytic rate-limiting enzymes hexokinase 2 (HK2), phosphofructokinase-1 (PEK1) and pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) in oral lichen planus (OLP).

The objective of this study was to evaluate the reproduction and production performance and meat quality characteristics of KBF4, a crossbreed of South African Kalaha (SK) and Guizhou black (GB) goats (5/11 SK lineage and 11/16 GB lineage), which was developed through molecular breeding and hybridization after four generations of breeding in six years. KBF4 showed overall improved production performance and meat quality, which were between those of its parents. The lambing rate (LR), survival rate (SR), daily weight gain (DWG) during the first three months of age, adult body weight (ABW), and dressing percentage (DP) of KBF4 were 195.0%, 95.3%, 275.5 g, 55.8 kg, and 53.5%, respectively. The pH of the meat of KBF4 was higher than that of its parents, which corroborated the meat of KBF4 had lower drip loss (DL) and moisture content (MC). In addition, the meat of KBF4 showed decreased ash content of decreased and increased contents of crude protein (CP) and intramuscular fat (IMF) compared with the parents. The amino acid score of the meat of KBF4 was lower than that of its parents, but the amino acid composition and the taste profile were basically consistent with those of SK, and KBF4 was slightly inferior to GB in terms of sweet and umami taste. The contents of essential fatty acids (EFA), monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) increased in the meat of KBF4 compared with its parents, and the contents of beneficial fatty acids including oleic acid, palmitoleic acid, linoleic acid, arachidonic acid, alpha-linolenic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenioc acid (DHA) increased compared with GB. The hypocholesterolemic fatty acid (DFA) values of KBF4 increased significantly, while the arteriosclerosis index (AI), thrombosis index (TI), and n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio decreased significantly compared with those of GB, indicating a reduced cardiovascular disease risk. The major factors influencing the meat quality of KBF4 and its parents included DWG, MUFA, taste-active amino acids (AA), SFA, MC, EFA, PUFA, ABW, DP, CP, DL, IMF, and aromatic AA. In conclusion, KBF4 exhibited greatly improved production efficiency and enhanced meat quality in terms of tenderness, juiciness, and nutrition. Its amino acid and fatty acid composition was more similar to that of SK overall.

ABSTRACT: The anti-inflammatory role of lutein has been widely recognized, however, the underlying mechanism is still not fully elucidated. Hence, the effects of lutein on the intestinal health and growth performance of broilers and the action of mechanism were investigated. 288 male yellow-feathered broilers (1-day old) were randomly allocated to 3 treatment groups with 8 replicates of 12 birds each, and the control group was fed a broken rice-soybean basal diet, while the test groups were fed a basal diet added with 20 mg/kg and 40 mg/kg of lutein (LU20, LU40), respectively. The feeding trial lasted for 21 d. The results showed that 40 mg/kg lutein supplementation tended to increase ADFI (P = 0.10) and ADG (P = 0.08) of broilers. Moreover, the addition of lutein caused a decreasing trend of gene expression and concentration of proinflammatory cytokines IL-1β (P = 0.08, P = 0.10, respectively) and IL-6 (P = 0.06, P = 0.06, respectively) and also tended to decrease the gene expression of TLR4 (P = 0.09) and MyD88 (P = 0.07) while increasing gene expression and concentration of anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-4 and IL-10 (P < 0.05) in the jejunum mucosa of broilers. Additionally, lutein supplementation increased the jejunal villi height of broilers (P < 0.05) and reduced villi damage. The experiment in vitro showed that lutein treatment reduced the gene expression of IL-1β, IL-6, and IFN-γ in chicken intestinal epithelial cells (P < 0.05). However, this effect was diminished after knock-down of TLR4 or MyD88 genes using RNAi technology. In conclusion, lutein can inhibit the expression and secretion of proinflammatory cytokines in the jejunum mucosa and promote intestinal development of broilers, and the anti-inflammatory effect may be achieved by regulating TLR4/MyD88 signaling pathway.

Objective This study aims to elucidate the underlying mechanism of hyperglycemia induced Alzheimer's disease (AD)-like pathological changes. Methods Thirty Sprague Dawley rats (aged 18 weeks) were randomly divided into one control groups and two experimental groups (n=10 for each group), including control group, STZ+HFD group, and STZ+HFD+AICAR group. Control rats (n=10) was fed with the standard diet and experimental rats (n=20) was fed with high fat diet (HFD) for 8 weeks. 8 weeks after feeding, we estimated the reliability of the experimental model by measuring blood glucose levels (each week) of rats, serum insulin concentrations and oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) test. Then experimental rats were injected with 50 mg/kg/ day Streptozotocin (STZ) intraperitoneally for three days, whereas the control rats were given the same dose of citric acid buffer for comparison. Morris water maze tests was performed to observe the functional changes of brain regions related to spatial learning and memory in each group. Western blot was performed to detect the abundances of AMPK, p-AMPK, SIRT1, H3acK9 and CDK5 in rats. Immunohistochemistry staining was performed to evaluate the levels of MAPT/Tau which can reflect the AD-like pathological changes. Furthermore, AMPK agonist (AICAR) was used to assess whether AMPK/SIRT1 pathway, which participate in the AD-like pathological changes, is the upstream molecules of H3acK9 and CDK5. Results We found treatment with HFD and STZ significantly increased blood glucose and serum insulin levels, and impaired glucose tolerance in rats. Hyperglycemia led to a decrease in the activity of AMPK and expression of SIRT1. The expression levels of underlying molecules of AMPK including H3acK9 and CDK5 significantly increased. The levels of phosphorylated Tau significantly increased in brain tissues. Additonally, AICAR administration partial reversed hyperglycemia-induced AD-like molecular pathologic changes through activating AMPK/SIRT1, decreasing expression of H3acK9 and CDK5, and inhibiting Tau protein hyperphosphorylation in rat brain tissues. Conclusion Hyperglycemia induces inactivation of AMPK/SIRT1 pathway which promotes excessive deacetylation of H3K9 and over expression of CDK5, these changes in turn lead to Tau protein hyperphosphorylation and AD-like molecular pathologic changes.

Health anxiety is a continuous spectrum of symptoms from mild to severe. Persistent health anxiety can increase an individual's risk of developing depressive disorders, which can have serious physical and mental effects. This paper reviews the concept of health anxiety, main assessment tools, influencing factors and psychological intervention, and provides reference for further scientific development of nursing intervention measures of health anxiety and improvement of patients' quality of life. (健康焦虑是一种由轻到重的连续性的症状谱。持续存在的健康焦虑可能增加个体罹患抑郁障碍的风险, 对患者的身心造成严重的影响。本文从健康焦虑的概念、主要评估工具、影响因素及心理干预进行综述, 以期为今后进一步科学制定健康焦虑的护理干预措施以及提高患者的生活质量提供借鉴。)

Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) technology has been applied to electric vehicles (EVs), for its convenience, safety, and high reliability. However, for the traditional single-transmitter-single-receiver WPT system, due to its uneven electromagnetic field distribution, the power transfer capability and the anti-offset performance are always insufficient. The multi-transmitter-multi-receiver (MTMR) WPT system based on modular inverters with coils can not only improve the transmission power of the system but also boost the system’s anti-offset ability due to its more uniform magnetic field distribution. In this study, the topology and transmission characteristics of the MTMR WPT system are discussed accordingly: 1) A decoupling method of transmitting coil based on capacitance compensation is proposed, and the particle swarm optimization algorithm is used to derive the optimal design scheme of magnetic coupling coil. 2) A phase-shifting control strategy is proposed to realize the phase synchronization and current sharing control of coil current at each transmitter. Finally, the simulation and experimental results show that the modular wireless power transfer system with multiple transmitters and multiple receivers has strong power transmission capability and anti-offset performance.

Objective: The flavor formation process of stewed pork was investigated in this study. Methods: Electronic nose and gas-phase mass spectrometry （GC-MS） techniques were used to compare the key processes such as bleaching, frying, stewing and addition of sauces during the processing of stewed pork, and to analyze the changes of flavor compounds. Results: The results of electronic nose measurement were consistent with the results of gas chromatography analysis. The flavor content of raw pork and sauces was the highest, and the flavor substances decreased in the blanching, frying and stewing stages. However, the characte-ristic flavor substances were formed continuously. A total of 148 compounds were detected by GC-MS, including 39, 32, 23, 20, 38, and 65 compounds in raw pork, blanched, fryed, stewed and finished products and sauces, respectively, which mainly produced aldehydes and ketones, esters and alcohols, heterocyclic compounds, and aromatic hydrocarbons and their derivatives. The characteristic flavors of finished products were hexanal, benzaldehyde, 1-octen-3-ol, cinnamaldehyde, 2-pentylfuran, 2-acetyl pyrrole, 2,3-dimethyl-5-ethylpyrazine, etc. The content of acetoin was higher in the pre-preparation stage of stewed pork, while methoxy-phenyl-Oxime stayed high in all of the processes. Conclusion: The electronic nose technique can be used to detect the changes of flavor substances in different processing stages of stewed pork, but the specific substance changes need to be determined and analyzed by GC-MS.

In order to solve the problem that the total sugar content of the chlortetracycline fermentation tank can not be automatically detected online, a prediction method which combines the output recursive wavelet neural network and the Gauss process regression is proposed in this paper. A soft sensor model between the measurable parameters (inputs) and the total sugar content (output) of the chlortetracycline fermentation tank was established. The soft sensor model was trained by self updating algorithm. Based on field data, the accuracy and generalization ability of the soft sensor model were analyzed. It is shown that the prediction accuracy of the combined model proposed in this paper is better than that of other single models. The results demonstrate the superiority of the method, and MRE and RMSE are used to evaluate the performance of the soft sensor model. It shows that the prediction precision of the soft sensor model based on ORWNN-GPR combination is relatively high in the long period of fermentation, and is suitable for on-line prediction of the total sugar content of the chlortetracycline fermentation tank. The soft sensor method can effectively reduce the labor intensity of the analysts and saves the production cost for enterprise.

Oil rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) is a typical winter biennial plant, with high cold tolerance during vegetative stage. In recent years, more and more early-maturing rapeseed varieties were planted across China. Unfortunately, the early-maturing rapeseed varieties with low cold tolerance have higher risk of freeze injury in cold winter and spring. Little is known about the molecular mechanisms for coping with different low-temperature stress conditions in rapeseed. In this study, we investigated 47,328 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of two early-maturing rapeseed varieties with different cold tolerance treated with cold shock at chilling (4°) and freezing (−4°) temperatures, as well as chilling and freezing stress following cold acclimation or control conditions. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis indicated that two conserved (the primary metabolism and plant hormone signal transduction) and two novel (plant-pathogen interaction pathway and circadian rhythms pathway) signaling pathways were significantly enriched with differentially-expressed transcripts. Our results provided a foundation for understanding the low-temperature stress response mechanisms of rapeseed. We also propose new ideas and candidate genes for genetic improvement of rapeseed tolerance to cold stresses.

Abstract This paper reports the photoluminescence (PL) properties of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well (MQW) light-emitting diodes grown on silicon substrates which were designed with different tensile stress controlling architecture like periodic Si δ-doping to the n-type GaN layer or inserting InGaN/AlGaN layer for investigating the strain-controlled recombination mechanism in the system. PL results turned out that tensile stress released samples had better PL performances as their external quantum efficiencies increased to 17%, 7 times larger than the one of regular sample. Detail analysis confirmed they had smaller nonradiative recombination rates ((2.5~2.8)×10−2 s−1 compared to (3.6~4.7)× 10−2 s−1), which was associated with the better crystalline quality and absence of dislocations or cracks. Furthermore, their radiative recombination rates were found more stable and were much higher ((5.7~5.8) ×10−3 s−1 compared to [9~7] ×10−4 s−1) at room temperature. This was ascribed to the suppression of shallow localized states on MQW interfaces, leaving the deep radiative localization centers inside InGaN layers dominating the radiative recombination.

Nanotechnology is a new technology for observing and manipulating atoms and molecules in the range of 0.1–100 nm. The development of nanotechnology provides a new way for biomedicine. Based on the unique physical and chemical properties of nanomaterials, the novel biosensor based on bio-nanotechnology can be used for early diagnosis and therapy of tumors. Nowadays, the application of nanomedicine is mainly focused on the following points: tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, the accurate diagnosis and real-time monitoring of the disease, novel imaging and analysis techniques, and multifunctional drug delivery system and targeting therapy. Nanotechnology will provide effective means for accurate diagnosis and treatment of cancer. This article reviews the new progress of nanotechnology in cancer diagnosis and treatment.

In large-scale natural disasters and military supplies, multiple parafoils are more capable of performing actual tasks. The cooperative paths planning for multiple parafoils with different initial positions and headings is an important step in multiple parafoils airdrop, which has to satisfy multiple objectives, namely, parafoils can’t collide with each other, parafoils should rendezvous at same target area, most of parafoils need to keep alignment against wind, and planned paths should be in the range of maneuver performance constraints to ensure that every parafoil’s path is fl yable. Due to more factors need to be considered, it is more diffi cult to plan paths for multiple parafoils than single parafoil. In this paper an improved genetic algorithm is used to solve the multi-objective cooperative paths planning problem of multiple parafoils system. Parafoils’paths are encoded by real matrix, and the cooperative relationship between parafoils is realized by paths fi tness function. The random single point crossover and Gaussian mutation are introduced to accelerate algorithm convergence rate. Finally, a simulation example is given, simulation results show that proposed method can plan feasible paths for all parafoils, meanwhile, it satisfies the requirements of anti-collision, rendezvous to target point, and keep alignment against the wind.

The Linbeiken area is located in the village of Pingding, Taiwan. Since the Mindulle and Aere Typhoons in 2004, and as a result of the landslide triggered by the continuous heavy rainfall on 9 June 2006, there has been a persistent collapse of side slopes in the area. This paper describes the equipment that was installed to collect on-site topographic and hydrological information in the Linbeiken area upstream of the Pingding River and to monitor changes in the landslide area, as well as the measurements that were collected during the 2008 Typhoon Sinlaku. A case study of a landslide in Pingding, Taiwan was used to monitor the accurate coordinate changes in the potential landslide areas during typhoons. The goal of this study was to establish warning indexes, and to strengthen the software and hardware at the local disaster response center in the hope of gaining a full idea of the surface movement in landslide areas in future flood seasons. This is important for boosting the preparedness to adapt to landslide hazards, for improving disaster warnings, and for reporting efficiently to better protect the lives and property of local residents. The results show that the landslide disaster monitoring and warning system in Taiwan, as applied during Typhoon Sinlaku in 2008, is both effective and comprehensive.

Forest fires constitute a major environmental problem in tropical countries, especially in the context of climate change and increasing human populations. This paper aims to identify the causes of frequent forest fires in Son La Province, a fire-prone and forested mountainous region in northwest Vietnam, with a view to constructing a forest fire-related database with multiple layers of natural, social and economic information, extracted largely on the basis of Landsat 7 images. The assessment followed an expert systems approach, applying multi-criteria analysis (MCA) with an analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to determine the weights of the individual parameters related to forest fires. A multi-indicator function with nine parameters was constructed to establish a forest fire risk map at a scale of 1:100,000 for use at the provincial level. The results were verified through regression analysis, yielding R2 = 0.86. A real-time early warning system for forest fire areas has been developed for practical use by the relevant government authorities to provide more effective forest fire prevention planning for Son La Province.

The early-warning model for flash floods is based on a hydrological and geomorphological concept connected to the river basin, with the principle that flash floods will only occur where there is a high potential risk and when rainfall exceeds the threshold. In the model used to build flash-floods risk maps, the parameters of the basin are analyzed and evaluated and the weight is determined using Thomas Saaty’s analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The flash-floods early-warning software is built using open source programming tools. With the spatial module and online processing, a predicted precipitation of one to six days in advance for iMETOS (AgriMedia—Vietnam) automatic meteorological stations is interpolated and then processed with the potential risk maps (iMETOS is a weather-environment monitoring system comprising a wide range of equipment and an online platform and can be used in various fields such as agriculture, tourism and services). The results determine the locations of flash floods at several risk levels corresponding to the predicted rainfall values at the meteorological stations. The system was constructed and applied to flash floods disaster early warning for Thuan Chau in Son La province when the rainfall exceeded the 150 mm/d threshold. The system initially supported positive decision-making to prevent and minimize damage caused by flash floods.

Library preparation for next-generation DNA sequencing (NGS) remains a key bottleneck in the sequencing process which can be relieved through improved automation and miniaturization. We describe a microfluidic device for automating laboratory protocols that require one or more column chromatography steps and demonstrate its utility for preparing Next Generation sequencing libraries for the Illumina and Ion Torrent platforms. Sixteen different libraries can be generated simultaneously with significantly reduced reagent cost and hands-on time compared to manual library preparation. Using an appropriate column matrix and buffers, size selection can be performed on-chip following end-repair, dA tailing, and linker ligation, so that the libraries eluted from the chip are ready for sequencing. The core architecture of the device ensures uniform, reproducible column packing without user supervision and accommodates multiple routine protocol steps in any sequence, such as reagent mixing and incubation; column packing, loading, washing, elution, and regeneration; capture of eluted material for use as a substrate in a later step of the protocol; and removal of one column matrix so that two or more column matrices with different functional properties can be used in the same protocol. The microfluidic device is mounted on a plastic carrier so that reagents and products can be aliquoted and recovered using standard pipettors and liquid handling robots. The carrier-mounted device is operated using a benchtop controller that seals and operates the device with programmable temperature control, eliminating any requirement for the user to manually attach tubing or connectors. In addition to NGS library preparation, the device and controller are suitable for automating other time-consuming and error-prone laboratory protocols requiring column chromatography steps, such as chromatin immunoprecipitation.

Using method of moment, the calculating model of electric current distributing and scattered electric field for carbon nanofibers is established in this paper. Based on it, the expression of absorption cross section, scattering cross section and extinction cross section are got. The relationship between infrared extinction cross section of carbon nanofiber and electrical conductivity is analyzed and calculated by using Matlab. The results show that the infrared extinction cross section increases with electrical conductivity increase and peak value appeares when wavelength is longer than the length of carbon nanofiber. The electrical conductivity on peak value is related to wavelength.

Clustering analysis is an important field in data mining, and also one of the current research hotspots in computer science. This paper focus on some classical data clustering algorithms and swarm intelligence, especially ant colony optimization, trying to combine these two kinds of algorithms and improve the efficiency and accuracy of data clustering. This paper proposes a new ant colony optimization data clustering algorithm, named ant colony clustering algorithm with elitist ant and local search (ACC-EAL). This algorithm adopts a new pheromone incremental calculation method, making the distances among the clusters tend to increase, and the clusters get denser. Meanwhile local search provides the ants more opportunity to find optimal solution and the elite ant strategy makes the ants with optimal solutions contribute more to the pheromone increment.