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Transposons are genetic elements that are present in mammalian genomes and occupy a large proportion of the pig genome, with retrotransposons being the most abundant. In a previous study, it was found that a SINE retrotransposon was inserted in the 1st intron of the CA5B gene in pigs, and the present study aimed to investigate the SINE insertion polymorphism in this gene in different pig breeds. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to confirm the polymorphism in 11 pig breeds and wild boars), and it was found that there was moderate polymorphism information content in 9 of the breeds. Further investigation in cell experiments revealed that the 330 bp SINE insertion in the RIP-CA5B site promoted expression activity in the weak promoter region of this site. Additionally, an enhancer verification vector experiment showed that the 330 bp SINE sequence acted as an enhancer on the core promoter region upstream of the CA5B gene region. The expression of CA5B in adipose tissue (back fat and leaf fat) in individuals with the (SINE+/+) genotype was significantly higher than those with (SINE+/−) and (SINE−/−) genotypes. The association analysis revealed that the (SINE+/+) genotype was significantly associated with a higher back fat thickness than the (SINE−/−) genotype. Moreover, it was observed that the insertion of SINE at the RIP-CA5B site carried ATTT repeats, and three types of (ATTT) repeats were identified among different individuals/breeds (i.e., (ATTT)4, (ATTT)6 and (ATTT)9). Overall, the study provides insights into the genetic basis of adipose tissue development in pigs and highlights the role of a SINE insertion in the CA5B gene in this process.

Now a days, energy is an essential resource as the number of energy resources are sinking day by day. Movement Aware Smart Street light is a simple yet powerful concept, which uses transistor as a switch and replaces the manual system. It instantly switches the lights ON when the sunlight goes below the visible region. As energy is the scarcest source, this requires finding innovative ways to use it efficiently. Big cities consume a large amount of electricity and it is required to save energy by operating the street-lights at the time of need. In this paper, an effective method of street-light operation is presented which detects the sun set and sun rise alongside detection of vehicle movement on roads to utilise the energy only when it is required. Furthermore, a system is proposed which reduces energy consumption by replacing manually operated street-lights as they are not switched OFF even the sunlight appears and also switched ON earlier before sunset. The proposed mehtod has saved the municipal utility budget by 35% - 45% through energy saving. This paper also discussed the elimination of manual operation like ON time and OFF time setting and clearly demonstrates the working of transistor in saturation region and cut-off region.

Background: The insulin-like growth factor-2 mRNA-binding proteins 1, 2 and 3 (IGF2BP1, IGF2BP2, IGF2BP3) belong to a conserved family of RNA-binding, oncofetal proteins, these RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) modulate important aspects of cell function during development and in cancer. However, the structural variations of IGF2BPs gene generated by retrotransposon insertion have not yet been reported. Methods: In this study, the bioinformatic prediction was performed to screen for retrotransposon insertion polymorphisms (RIPs) in IGF2BP genes.Sixteen predicted RIPs in IGF2BP genes were identified and three RIPs caused by the youngest SINEA1 retrotransposons and located in IGF2BP3 introns were verified by PCR. Result: Polymorphisms of these three RIPs in commercial breeds are poor, but in Chinese native pig breeds, all three RIPs showed abundant polymorphisms. This is consistent with the intensive selection of commercial pigs. In summary, our data suggested that there are at least three RIPs caused by SINE retrotransposons in the IGF2BP3 gene. And they shows different polymorphic distribution in Chinese native and commercial breeds, suggesting that they can be used for population genetic analysis.

Background: Ultrasound (US) imaging can be a convenient and reliable substitute for magnetic resonance imaging in the investigation or screening of articular cartilage injury. However, US images suffer from two main impediments, i.e., low contrast ratio and presence of speckle noise. Aims: A variation of anisotropic diffusion is proposed that can reduce speckle noise without compromising the image quality of the edges and other important details. Methods: For this technique, four gradient thresholds were adopted instead of one. A new diffusivity function that preserves the edge of the resultant image is also proposed. To automatically terminate the iterative procedures, the Mean Absolute Error as its stopping criterion was implemented. Results: Numerical results obtained by simulations unanimously indicate that the proposed method outperforms conventional speckle reduction techniques. Nevertheless, this preliminary study has been conducted based on a small number of asymptomatic subjects. Conclusion: Future work must investigate the feasibility of this method in a large cohort and its clinical validity through testing subjects with a symptomatic cartilage injury.

Background: Insulin-like growth factor binding proteins (IGFBPs) have been considered important candidate genes for economic traits due to their involvement in physiological processes related to growth and development. However, most of the current studies on genetic markers of IGFBPs have focused on SNPs, and large fragment insertion mutations such as retrotransposons have rarely been considered.Results: In total twelve retrotransposon insertion polymorphisms (RIPs) were confirmed using bioinformatics prediction combined with the PCR-based amplification. By linkage genetic analysis, IGFBP3-1-RIP and IGFBP3-2-RIP are completely linked, showing only three genotypes, SINE+/+/LINE-/-, SINE-/-/LINE+/+ and SINE+/-/LINE-/+. The age of 100 kg body weight and longissimus muscle thickness of Large white individuals of SINE+/+/LINE-/-genotype were significantly (P+/+/LINE-/- individuals were significantly (P+/+/LINE-/- genotype. The expression of the IGFBP3 gene in liver and backfat of 30-day Sujiang piglets with SINE+/+/LINE-/- genotype were significantly higher (P-/-/LINE+/+ genotype by qPCR. After the core promoter region of the IGFBP3 gene was identified locating within 482bp upstream of ATG by using the dual-luciferase activity assay, further study was conducted to confirm the effect of SINE of IGFBP3-1-RIP and LINE of IGFBP3-2-RIP on the promoter activity of IGFBP3 based on the PGL3-Promoter-Enhancer. The result revealed that only SINE insertion was significantly increased (P) promoter activity of the IGFBP3 gene, indicating that the SINE may act as an enhancer to regulate the promoter activity of the IGFBP3 gene.Conclusions: Overall, this study identified 12 RIPs in IGFBP gene clusters. Furthermore, SINE insertions in 5’ flanking of IGFBP3 may associated with variations of gene expression and phenotype.