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Nitrogen and oxygen co-doped hierarchical porous carbon (N,O-HPC) networks has been synthesized using cattle bones as precursors via pre-carbonization and carbonization combined with KOH activation. The effects of carbonization and activation temperature on the physiochemical and electrochemical performances of the N, O-HPCs were systematically studied. The N,O-HPC obtained at 850 °C (referred to as N,O-HPC-850) possesses a mesopore-dominant hierarchical porous network with a large specific surface area (2520 m2 g−1), a relatively high content of N (1.56%) and O (10.2%) and a good electrical conductivity (421.9 S m−1). As it is used as supercapacitor electrode material, N,O-HPC-850 exhibits a large specific capacity (444 F g−1 at a scan rate of 5 mV s−1 and 435 F g−1 at a current density of 0.1 A g−1, respectively) and good rate performance (252 F g−1 at a scan rate of 500 mV s−1 and 309 F g−1 at a current density of 20 A g−1, respectively) in 6 M KOH solution. Moreover, the assembled symmetric supercapacitor based on N,O-HPC-850 electrode delivers the energy density of 30.3 and 9.7 Wh kg−1 at the power density of 0.341 and 43.8 kW kg−1, respectively, and exhibits a good cycling stability with a capacitance retention of 97.5% after 20000 cycles in 1 M Na2SO4 solution.

A feeding experiment was conducted to determine the effects of Schizochytrium sp. on growth performance, antioxidant capacity and non-specific immunity in golden pompano (Trachinotus ovatus).Two diets were formulated with or without Schizochytrium sp. supplemented (D1:0% and D2: 3%) to feed fish for 8 weeks. Results showed that growth performance, feed intake and survival rate increased significantly with Schizochytrium sp. supplemented (P 0.05). Feed coefficient rate (FCR) of golden pompano fed the diet supplemented with Schizochytrium sp. was significantly lower than that of fish fed the control diet (P 0.05). No significant differences were found in antioxidant capacity both in transcriptional level, including nclear factor erythroid-2-related factor-2 (Nrf2), Kelch-like-ECH-associated protein (keap1), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX) and heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) and enzyme activity, such as total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC), malondialdehyde (MDA) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) (P 0.05). Gut amylase and lipase were significantly higher in dietary Schizochytrium sp. supplemented treatment than that in control group (P 0.05). The relative peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-α (PPARα) expression level in liver was significantly higher in Schizochytrium sp supplemented treatment than that in control one (P 0.05). The mRNA expression of myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88), IL-1R-associated kinases 4 (IRAK4), interferon regulating Factor 3 (IRF3), interferon regulating Factor 3(IRF7) and heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) were significantly lower in Schizochytrium sp. supplemented treatment than that in control one (P 0.05). In Schizochytrium sp. supplemented diet, golden pompano had significantly longer villi length than that in control diet (P 0.05); muscle thickness in Schizochytrium sp. supplemented diet was thicker than that in control one (P 0.05) and there were more goblet cells in Schizochytrium sp. treatment (P 0.05). After the rearing trial, an air exposure trial was conducted. Results showed that the air-exposure mortality (AEM) and mRNA expression level of Nrf2, keap1, CAT, GSH-PX and HO-1 showed no significant difference (P 0.05). These results indicated that dietary Schizochytrium sp. improved the growth performance and non-specific immunity of golden pompano while made no difference to antioxidant capacity.

Heme oxygenase-1(HO-1) is a stress-inducible enzyme that mediates antioxidative and cytoprotective effects to maintain cellular redox homeostasis. In the present study, the full sequence of HO-1 was cloned from golden pompano(Trachinotus ovatus) by RT-PCR and RACE-PCR. The full cDNA sequence of HO-1 was 1349 bp in length which comprised of a 726 bp open reading frame (ORF) preceded by 262 bp 5′-untranslated region (UTR), and followed by a 360 bp 3′UTR, encoding 241 amino acid residues. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that HO-1 showed highest similarity to that of Takifugu rubripes. Tissue distribution analysis showed that the expression level of HO-1 was relatively high in heart, liver and spleen. A trial was conducted to investigate the response of Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathway to oxidative stress induced by copper. The results showed that mRNA expression of NF-E2-related nuclear factor2 (Nrf2), Kelch-like-ECH-associated protein1 (keap1), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), HO-1, NAD(P)H quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) and Glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX) all significantly increased in copper treated group than that in the control group. This work provides new insight into the molecular mechanism underlying the Nrf2/HO-1 pathway in oxidative response in T. ovatus.

Pharmacodynamic drug-drug interactions (DDIs) occur when the pharmacological effect of one drug is altered by that of another drug in a combination regimen. DDIs often are classified as synergistic, additive, or antagonistic in nature, albeit these terms are frequently misused. Within a complex pathophysiological system, the mechanism of interaction may occur at the same target or through alternate pathways. Quantitative evaluation of pharmacodynamic DDIs by employing modeling and simulation approaches is needed to identify and optimize safe and effective combination therapy regimens. This review investigates the opportunities and challenges in pharmacodynamic DDI studies, and highlights examples of quantitative methods for evaluating pharmacodynamic DDIs, with a particular emphasis on the use of mechanism-based modeling and simulation in DDI studies. Advancements in both experimental and computational techniques will enable the application of better, model-informed assessments of pharmacodynamic DDIs in drug discovery, development, and therapeutics.

Cecropin AD (CAD) is a commercial cationic antimicrobial peptide that has been seldom studied in marine fish. This study investigated the effects of dietary CAD on intestinal health, immune response, disease resistance, and growth performance of turbot. A diet using fishmeal and plant protein as the main protein resources was used as the control (crude protein 53%, crude lipid 12%). CAD was supplemented into the control diet at the level of 250, 500, 750, and 1000 mg kg−1 to formulate four experimental diets, C1, C2, C3, and C4, respectively. No significant difference was observed in fish growth performance, feed utilization efficiency and whole-body composition among all groups. Dietary CAD significantly increased the activity of lysozyme and complement component 3 level in both serum and distal intestine (DI), as well as the immunoglobulin M content in DI. The gene expression of immune cytokines such as IFN-γ, IL-1β, and chemokine SmCCL19, and the goblet cell number in DI were also significantly increased by dietary CAD supplementation. Compared with the control group, the microbiota analysis indicated group C4 showed significantly decreased α-diversity, obvious alternation in dominant bacteria composition at phylum level, different clustering, and significantly decreased relative abundance of Lactobacillus. Besides, the relative abundance of Bacteroides was significantly decreased in groups C1, C3, and C4. In addition, the lowest mortality of turbot challenged with Edwardsiella tarda was observed in fish fed diets C2 and C3. In conclusion, moderate levels of CAD in diet of turbot improved the intestinal immune response without disrupting the intestinal bacterial community, and enhanced the disease resistance. However, dietary CAD at 1000 mg kg−1 greatly affected the intestinal bacterial composition and showed potentially inhibitory effects towards Lactobacillus.

This study was conducted to elucidate the effects of dietary mixed probiotics on growth, non-specific immunity, intestinal morphology and microbiota of juvenile pacific white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei. Juvenile shrimp (initial body weight 1.21 ± 0.01 g) were fed diets containing graded probiotics (F1: 0 mg/kg probiotics; F2: 1000 mg/kg probiotics; F3: 2000 mg/kg probiotics; F4: 4000 mg/kg compound probiotics; F5: 6000 mg/kg probiotics; F6: 8000 mg/kg probiotics) for 8 weeks. The result of this trial showed that the growth performance (SGR, WG, FBW) of shrimp fed diets containing probiotics (F2∼F6) were significantly higher than that of shrimp fed diet without supplemental probiotics (F1) (P 0.05), and the highest values of the growth performance (SGR, WG, FBW) and lowest FCR were found in shrimp fed the diet containing 2000 mg/kg probiotics. Total antioxidant capacity of shrimp fed diet F2 and F3 were significantly higher than that of shrimp fed the basal diets (P 0.05). Superoxide dismutase in F4 treatment was significantly higher than that of basal treatment (P 0.05). Catalase of shrimp in all probiotics supplemented (F2∼F6) treatments were significantly higher than that of the control one (F1) (P 0.05). Malondialdehyde in F5 groups was significantly lower than that of F1 groups (P 0.05). Alkline phosphatase and acid phosphatase in F3 treatments were significantly higher than those of the basal one (P 0.05). Lysozyme of shrimp fed F2∼F6 were significantly higher than that of shrimp fed F1 diet (P 0.05). The lipase and amylase activities in 2000 mg/kg probiotics groups showed the highest activities and were significantly higher than that of control one (P 0.05). Intestinal villi height in F3∼F6 treatments were significantly higher than that of control one (P 0.05). Alpha diversity indices including observed species, chao1, ACE and shannon indices showed that F2 and F3 groups had higher microbial diversity in their intestines, both richness and evenness. PCA plot showed that there was a clear shift of F2 and F3 groups from the control groups in microbial community structure. The dominant phyla in pacific white shrimp are proteobacteria, bacteroidetes and actinobacteria, the dominant genus were algoriphagus and vibrio. As the probiotics increased, the gemmatimonadetes, acidobacteria, deltaproteobacteria and xanthomonadales firstly increased and then decreased, with the highest content in F2 group, which was no significant difference to F3 group (P 0.05) while significantly higher than other groups (P 0.05). In conclusion, the supplement of mixed species probiotics can promote growth performance, enhance the non-specific immunity, influence the microbiota of the pacific white shrimps and the recommended optimum dosage in diet of Litopenaeus vannamei was 2000 mg/kg.

The mathematical modeling is one of the ten core concepts proposed by the Ministry of Education's “Compulsory Education Mathematics Curriculum Standards”. The cultivation of mathematical modeling ideas and methods can help students get clear mathematical thinking and gradually form a scientific method to understand the world to improve students' basic mathematical literacy and interest in learning. This paper expounds the connotation and the significance of elementary school mathematical modeling. Through the abstraction and simplification of practical problems, two cases of teaching modeling are given.

An 8 weeks feeding experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation with hydrolyzed yeast (HY) (Rhodotorula mucilaginosa) on growth performance, hematological parameters, immune response and antioxidant ability of juvenile Nile tilapia. Five isonitrogenous and isolipidic diets (32% protein and 4% lipid) with different levels (0%, 0.125%, 0.25%, 0.5%, 1%) of HY were formulated. Each diet was randomly assigned to quadruplicate groups of fish (initial body weight 19.1 ± 0.01 g). Results indicated that significantly higher specific growth rate (SGR) and lower feed conversion rate (FCR) were obtained in fish fed 1% HY diet than that of fish fed 0% HY diet (P 0.05). Fish fed 0.25% HY diet showed the lowest value of hepatopancreas somatic indices (HSI) and significantly lower than that of fish fed 0% HY diet (P 0.05). Meanwhile, protein and ash in the whole-body content of fish fed 1% HY diet was significantly higher than that of fish fed 0%-0.5% HY diets. Serum immunological parameters showed that the lysozyme (LZM) activity and Complement C3 content were significantly increased by dietary supplementation of 0.5%-1% HY (P 0.05). However, dietary supplementation with 0.125%-1% HY significantly decreased the activity of myeloperoxidase (MPO) (P 0.05). Antioxidant status in serum and liver was significantly enhanced by dietary supplementation of 0.25%-1% HY through the remarkably improved superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity both in serum and liver, the raised total antioxidative capacity (T-AOC) of serum as well as the notably reduced malondialdehyde (MDA) content in the liver (P 0.05). However, T-AOC in the liver was not significantly influenced among all diet treatments (P 0.05). Villi height and intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEFs) of mid-intestine were significantly higher in fish fed 0.5%-1% HY diets (P 0.05). The challenge test demonstrated the enhanced protection against Streptococcus iniae strain by the obtained higher cumulative survival rate. In conclusion, dietary supplementation of 1% HY could maintain the better growth performance, nutrient composition as well as immune response and antioxidant capacity for juvenile Nile tilapia.

The study was conducted to compare and evaluate effects of four different macro-algaes on growth, immune response, and intestinal microbiota of Litopenaeus vannamei. In the rearing trial 1, shrimp were fed five diets containing four sources of macro-algaes for 8 weeks, named D1 (without macro-algae), D2 (Porphyra haitanensis), D3 (Undaria pinnatifida), D4 (Saccharina japonica), and D5 (Gracilaria lemaneiformis), respectively. Growth performance of shrimp in D5 diet was significantly higher than that of shrimp fed the control and D4 diet (P < 0.05); however, there is no significant difference among D2, D3, and D5 diets (P > 0.05). Apparent digestibility coefficients of dry matter from the D2, D3, and D5 diets were significantly higher than that from the control and D4 diets (P < 0.05). Supplementary macro-algaes enhanced hepatopancreas immunity through positively increasing total antioxidant status (TAS) and prophenoloxidase activity (ProPO), as well as up-regulating the hepatopancreas RNA expression of ProPO and IκBα and down-regulating the expression of transforming growth factor β. Furthermore, dietary macro-algaes modified intestinal microbiota of L. vannamei, boosting the relative abundance of beneficial bacterial such as Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Bacillaceae, and decreasing those detrimental bacterial such as Gammaproteobacteria and Vibrionaceae. In the white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) challenge trial, shrimps were injected for 6-day after the rearing trial. On the fourth day, shrimp death started to occur, and the mortality in D2, D3, and D5 diets was significantly lower than that in control and SJ diets during 4–6 challenged days (P < 0.05). Dietary macro-algaes ameliorated hepatopancreas damage in L. vannamei by increasing TAS and ProPO activities and decreasing SOD activity, inhibiting the lipid peroxidation (malondialdehyde), as well as regulating the immune-related genes expression. Taken together, dietary macro-algaes availably relieved enterohepatic oxidative damage by improving antioxidant ability and immunity and regulated intestinal microbiota in L. vannamei. These results indicated that G. lemaneiformis is the most suitable macro-algae and then followed by U. pinnatifida and P. haitanensis as the feed ingredient for L. vannamei.

e13069 Background: The PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway is frequently altered in breast cancer. Everolimus is a selective inhibitor of mammalian target of Rapamycin (mTOR).The benefit of everolimus in metastatic breast cancer patients with PI3K/AKT/mTOR mutations remains unclear, especially in TNBC patients. Our study aimed to investigate the efficacy of the everolimus-containing chemotherapy in metastatic breast cancer patients with PI3K/AKT/mTOR mutations. Methods: 13 cases of HER2- metastatic breast cancer with PI3K/AKT/mTOR mutations treated with everolimus-containing chemotherapy were analyzed. The genetic profile in PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway was studied. Results: Overall, 4 cases were hormone receptor (HR) positive and 9 were TNBC. 7 patients only had PIK3CA mutations, 1 patient had only PIK3R1 mutations, and 5 patients had other mutations in the pathway in addition to PIK3CA, including PTEN, PIK3CB, CTNNB1, FGFR1 and TSC2. 5 cases were treated as first or second line chemotherapy, and 8 were as third line or above. The ORR (CR+PR) was 38.5% (5/13), and DCR (CR+PR+SD) was 84.6% (11/13), including 5 cases of PR, 6 cases of SD, and 2 cases of PD. The median PFS was 5.8 months (95% CI 3.7-9.7), and the median OS was 14.3 months (95% CI 6.47-null). However, the ORR of TNBC patients was higher than that of HR-positive, which were 44.4% (4/9) and 25% (1/4), respectively ( p = 0.070). The mPFS was also longer than that of HR-positive with 5.8 months versus 1.7 months, as well as the mOS with 14.3 versus 3.8 months. We also found that the patients carrying other mutations besides PIK3CA in the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway had a longer PFS compared to the patients without other mutations, which was 9.7 months and 4.3 months respectively ( p = 0.272). And the DCR of the two groups were 100% and 75% respectively ( p = 0.451). Conclusions: We found that everolimus-containing chemotherapy was effective in the treatment of HER2- metastatic breast cancer with PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway activation. TNBC patients had a trend of longer mPFS than HR+ patients. And the patients carrying other mutations besides PIK3CA in the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway have a trend of longer PFS and higher DCR compared to the patients without other mutations. However, trails with larger samples are needed for further verification.

The present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary lipid levels on lipid metabolism, growth performance, antioxidant ability and intestinal morphology of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) under cage culture with flowing water. O. mykiss (average initial body weight 17.64 ± 0.05 g) were fed with six diets (L1, L2, L3, L4, L5 and L6) containing six levels of lipid (10.03 %, 12.97 %, 17.22 %, 20.16 %, 23.19 %, 26.06 %) for 8 weeks. Result showed that weight gain (WG), specific growth rate (SGR) and feed intake (FI) of fish were increased with increasing of dietary lipid levels (P < 0.05). Fish fed D6 diet had higher viscerosomatic index (VSI) and mesenteric fat index (MFI) compared with fish fed other diets. The moisture and crude protein contents in whole body and muscle decreased with increasing of dietary lipid levels, but crude lipid content showed the opposite trend. The hepatic superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity was increased with increasing of dietary lipid levels (P < 0.05), while no significant differences were found in hepatic malondialdehyde (MDA) content (P> 0.05). Correspondingly, the mRNA relative expression of SOD in liver was increased with increasing of dietary lipid levels (P < 0.05). Fish fed the diet (L6) containing 26.06 % lipid level showed the optimal intestinal morphology not only in villus amount and height but also in muscular layer thickness. The lipid metabolism related genes expression such as fatty acid synthetase (FAS), lipoprotein lipase (LPL), were significantly affected by dietary lipid levels (P < 0.05). The mRNA relative expression of FAS was increased from L1 to L4 and then decreased with the increasing of dietary lipid levels. The mRNA expression of LPL in fish fed with L5 and L6 diets were significantly higher than other treatments. These results indicated that the suitable lipid requirement of rainbow trout under cage culture with flowing water was not less than 26.06 %.

An 8-week feeding trial was proceeded to assess the effects of yeast and yeast extract on growth performance, anti-oxidant ability and intestinal microbiota of Litopenaeus vannamei. Five diets supplemented with 0% (Control), 3% beer yeast (Y), 0.5% yeast extract (YE0.5), 1% yeast extract (YE1) and 2% yeast extract (YE2) respectively were assigned to L. vannamei (four replicates per diet, 30 shrimp in each replicate, initial body weight 1.38 ± 0.01 g). The results showed higher weight gain and specific growth rate in shrimp fed diet YE2 compared with those fed the Control (P

Bile acid (BA) has been reported to improve growth performance and play an important role in lipid metabolism of fish. Five diets were formulated to investigate the effects of dietary bile acid (chenodeoxycholic acid) supplementation on growth performance, antioxidant capacity, lipid metabolism and intestinal health of juvenile largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides). Fish (18.35 ± 0.05 g) were randomly fed five diets: the positive control diet (10.87% lipid, C), high fat diet (18.08% lipid, HF), and HF diets supplemented with 300, 600 and 900 mg/kg chenodeoxycholic acid (HFC1, HFC2 and HFC3, respectively). After 9 weeks of feeding experiment, the weight gain (WG) and special growth rate (SGR) were significantly lower in the fish fed diet HF compared with those fed diet C (P 0.05). Viscerosomatic index (VSI) and intraperitoneal fat ratio (IPF) were significantly higher in fish fed high fat diets than those fed the control diet (P 0.05), while the crude lipid of muscle significantly decreased in HFC2 group (P

An 8-week feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effect of fish-meal replacement on growth performance, whole body composition, apparent digestibility coefficients and anti-oxidative ability of juvenile Pacific white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei . Five practical diets were formulated to contain graded levels (5, 10, 15, 20 and 25%) of fish-meal. Soy protein concentrate and soybean meal based protein blend was used to replace fish-meal, amino acids were supplemented in the low fish-meal diet to get similar amino acid profile as the high fish-meal diet. Weight gain, survival, feed conversion rate (FCR), feed intake and protein efficiency ratio (PER) did not show any significant differences between any of the groups. Alanine ratio in whole body were higher in shrimp fed high fish-meal diets while arginine decreased with the increasing fish-meal levels. The Fe content in whole body was significantly lower in shrimp fed the low fish-meal diets, while the other minerals showed no difference among all the groups. Apparent digestibility coefficients (ADC) of dry matter, protein, Ca, P, Cu, Zn and Mg were equal in all the treatments, while ADC of Fe decreased with the decreasing fish-meal levels. When dietary fish-meal decreased, the anti-oxidant related enzymes activity (Total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) and Catalase (CAT)). Superoxide dismutase (SOD) was unaffected by treatments. Nitric oxide (NO) contents in hemolymph significantly decreased with the decreasing fish-meal levels, while Phenoloxidase (PO) was unaffected. The results indicated that growth performance and apparent digestibility coefficients of nutrients were not affected when fish-meal was replaced from 25% to 5%, but anti-oxidative ability and immune response were damaged after fish-meal level decreased to 15%. Statement of relevance The results of this manuscript contribute to the commercial feed industry of white shrimp, it will be helpful in fish meal replacement, which is very important to the sustainable development of aquaculture.

An 8-week feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effect of N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) and glycine supplementation on growth performance, glutathione (GSH) synthesis, anti-oxidative and immune ability of Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus. Four practical diets were formulated, control, control +0.2% NAC, control +0.5% glycine, control +0.2% NAC +0.5% glycine. Each diet was randomly assigned to quadruplicate groups of 30 fish (approximately 9.5 g). The weight gain and specific growth rate were significantly increased with the supplementation of NAC and glycine. While they had no effect on feed efficiency feed intake and survival. Glutathion peroxidase (GPx) was increased by NAC and γ-glutamine cysteine synthase (γ-GCS) in plasma were increased by glycine. After the feeding trail, fish were challenged by Streptococcus iniae, fish fed the diet supplemented with NAC obtained significantly higher survival rate after 72 h challenge test. NAC also decreased malonaldehyde (MDA) in liver, increased glutathione S-transferase (GST) activity in plasma, up-regulated mRNA expression of Superoxide dismutase (SOD) and GPx in liver and headkidney. Dietary supplementation of glycine increased the anti-oxidative ability of tilapia through increase anti-oxidative enzyme activity (SOD, glutathione reductase, myeloperoxidase) and up-regulate anti-oxidative gene expression (SOD). Immune ability only enhanced by the supplementation of NAC through increased interleukin-1β (IL-1β) mRNA expression. These results clearly indicated that the supplementation of NAC and glycine can significantly improve the growth performance of tilapia, and NAC also enhance the anti-oxidative and immune capacity of tilapia, glycine could only enhance the anti-oxidative ability.

An 8-week feeding trial followed by an acute combined stress of low-salinity and nitrite were designed to examine the effects of Rhodiola rosea on growth, body composition and antioxidant capacity of the white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei. Shrimp (3.60 ± 0.03 g) were randomly allocated to 4 groups, with 3 replicates per group and 30 shrimp per replicate. The dietary groups were given as follows: control and diets containing R. rosea (300, 1000 and 3000 mg kg−1). Antioxidant capacity including total antioxidant status (TAS), activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), catalase (CAT) as well as gene expression of GSH-Px and CAT in hepatopancreas of shrimp was analysed at the end of feeding trial and again during the combined stress. The results showed that supplemental R. rosea had no significant impacts on growth and whole body composition of shrimp. There was significant effect of R. rosea supplementation dose and times on the antioxidant status parameters of L. vannamei. R. rosea (3000 mg kg−1) significantly improved the resistance of L. vannamei against the combined stress of low-salinity and nitrite, as indicated by the significant higher activities of TAS, GSH-Px and CAT (P

Cadmium (Cd) is one of the major transitional metals that have toxic effects on aquatic organisms. To investigate the effects of dietary cadmium on growth, salinity stress, hepatotoxicity in juvenile Pacific white shrimp (L. vannamei) and potential protective effect of Zn(II)-curcumin, five experimental diets (control, 100mg/kg Zn(II)-curcumin, 30mg/kg Cd, 30mg/kg Cd+100mg/kg Zn(II)-curcumin, 30mg/kg Cd+200mg/kg Zn(II)-curcumin) were formulated. The results showed that Cd at 30mg/kg induced significant increase in weight gain, specific growth rate and visible alterations to the hepatopancreas structures of L. vannamei. Compared with control diet, 100mg/kg Zn(II)-curcumin added diet had no effect on growth performance or feed utilization, while healthier hepatopancreas and less plasma ALT, AST production was found. Moreover, 200mg/kg dietary Zn(II)-curcumin significantly ameliorated the Cd induced hepatotoxicity while 100mg/kg dietary Zn(II)-curcumin slightly ameliorated. Cd accumulation in the whole body was decreasing and Metallothioneins like was increasing in hepatopancreas with increasing dietary Zn(II)-curcumin level. The shrimp fed with dietary Zn(II)-curcumin showed higher survival rate after acute salinity change. Therefore, it can be demonstrated that hepatotoxicity and hormesis could be induced by Cd when Cd levels were 30mg/kg, Zn(II)-curcumin could mitigate the effects of dietary Cd on L. vannamei.

An 8-week feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of different inclusion levels of Gracilaria lemaneiformis powder ( G. lemaneiformis ) on growth performance, hematological parameters and salinity stress tolerance test of juvenile Litopenaeus vannamei . Six formulated diets with six different levels (0%, 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, 5%) of G. lemaneiformis were fed to triplicate groups of juvenile L. vannamei (mean initial weight 0.27 ± 0.01 g) for 8 weeks. After 8 weeks trial, results showed that final body weight (FBW) and weight gain (WG) of shrimp fed with 2% and 3% G. lemaneiformis diets were significantly higher than those of shrimp fed with other diets ( P G. lemaneiformis diets were significantly lower than that of shrimp fed with 0%, 1%, 4% and 5% G. lemaneiformis diets ( P G. lemaneiformis diet ( P > 0.05). Protein efficiency ratio (PER) and muscle percent had the same trend with WG. No significant differences were found in whole body and muscle compositions ( P > 0.05). Hematological parameters showed that AST of shrimp fed with 2% G. lemaneiformis diet was significantly lower than that of shrimp fed with 0%, 1%, 4% and 5% G. lemaneiformis diets ( P G. lemaneiformis diet ( P > 0.05); ALT of shrimp fed with 2% G. lemaneiformis diet was significantly lower than that of shrimp fed with all other diets ( P G. lemaneiformis diets were higher than that of shrimp fed with 0% G. lemaneiformis diet, and the highest survival rate was found in shrimp fed with 2% G. lemaneiformis diet. These results indicated that G. lemaneiformis powder can improve growth performance, non-specific immune response and salinity stress resistance of juvenile L. vannamei . The WG indicated that the optimum supplement of dietary G. lemaneiformis should be 2%–3%. Statement of relevance This study indicates that moderate levels of dietary G. lemaneiformis can significantly improve growth performance and resistance to salinity stress of L. vannamei . The results will contribute to promote the application of G. lemaneiformis in aquafeed of the white shrimp.

The knee is one of the most complicated joints in the human body, but it could be easily injured. Ultrasound imaging is an important technology for the diagnosis of the knee disease. To assist doctors in the treatment and reduce errors of judgment, we investigate the segmentation of disease regions and the automated identification of the typical knee joint diseases. First, we use deep learning to segment the Region of Interest (ROI). To solve the mis-segmentation and poor edge segmentation that occur when the ultrasound image is directly fed into the deep neural network, an image segmentation framework is proposed that integrates snake preprocessing, dilated convolution to expand the receptive fields, and multi-channel learning. Second, due to the small difference in features among various categories of ultrasound images, a hybrid algorithm is proposed based on the Resnet rough classification and quadratic training with graph embedding. Finally, the experiments show that the proposed image segmentation framework achieves 10% greater accuracy than a common segmentation network. By visualizing the feature vectors extracted from the classification network, we verify that the feature vectors are closer on similar images after quadratic training by graph embedding. Employing the optimization with quadratic training, we increase the classification accuracy by 11% compared to the Resnet approach.

Antibiotics have been widely used (mainly mixed with feed) in aquaculture, while few studies have evaluated the interactions between feed composition and antibiotics. Sulfamethoxazole (SMX) is a fat-soluble antibiotic, an eight weeks feeding trial was conducted to investigate the interactions between dietary lipid levels and chronic exposure of legal aquaculture dose of sulfamethoxazole in juvenile largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides, and evaluated the possible human health risk. Six practical diets were formulated to three levels of crude lipid (11, 14.5, 18 %) and two levels of SMX (0 and 0.3 %), namely low fat (LF), moderate fat (MF), high fat (HF), low fat and SMX (LFS), moderate fat and SMX (MFS), high fat and SMX (HFS), respectively. Each diet was assigned to three tanks (20 fish per tank, average weight 30.65 ± 0.02 g). Growth and organ indices were increased by SMX. Higher malformation rate and lower hypoxia stress resistance were found in fish exposed to SMX than those not exposed. Cholesterol and bile acid synthesis related gene expressions were down-regulated by SMX exposure. Oxidative stress, inflammation and apoptosis were increased in fish exposed to SMX. Significant interactions between dietary lipid levels and SMX on renal immune response of fish were observed. Remarkable damage of intestinal histology was observed in fish fed the diet HFS. In addition, dietary SMX exposure increased pathogen susceptibility of largemouth bass and induced dysbiosis of gut microbiota. The concentrations of SMX in muscle of fish fed diets containing SMX were higher than those fed other diets, and close to the maximum residue limit (MRL) in China and international organizations. Although chronic legal aquaculture dose of dietary SMX also increased the target hazard quotient (THQ) and estimated daily intake (EDI), there is no health risk in adults and children consuming fish filet.

Strengthening the interfacial interaction in heterogeneous catalysts can lead to a dramatic improvement in their performance and allow the use of smaller amounts of active noble metal, thus decreasing the cost without compromising their activity. In this work, a facile phase-segregation method is demonstrated for synthesizing platinum-tin oxide hybrids supported on carbon black (PtSnO2 /C) in situ by air annealing PtSn alloy nanoparticles on carbon black. Compared with a control sample formed by preloading SnO2 on carbon support followed by deposition of Pt nanoparticles, the phase-segregation-derived PtSnO2 /C exhibits a more strongly coupled PtSnO2 interface with lattice overlap of Pt (111) and SnO2 (200), along with enhanced electron transfer from SnO2 to Pt. Furthermore, the PtSnO2 active sites show a strong ability to degrade reactive oxygen species. As a result, the PtSnO2 /C nanohybrids exhibit both excellent activity and stability as a catalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction, with an overall performance which is superior to both the control sample and commercial Pt/C catalyst. This phase-segregation method can be expected to be applicable in the preparation of other strongly coupled nanohybrids and offers a new route to high-performance heterogeneous catalysts for low-cost energy conversion devices.

Filamentous microalga Tribonema sp. contains multiple bioactive compounds, such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), palmitoleic acid and chrysolaminarin. Tribonema sp. is potentially a nature and safe ingredient in aquatic feed. Therefore, 6-week feeding experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of Tribonema sp. on growth performance, antioxidant capacity, immunity and hepatic health of Trachinotus ovatus. Three isonitrogenous and isolipidic diets (TS0, TS1 and TS5) containing 0% (control group), 1% and 5% Tribonema sp. were formulated, respectively. Results indicated that T. ovatus fed with TS5 diet significantly improved the growth performance by enhancing digestive enzyme activities and up-regulating the expression of growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor (IGF-I). T. ovatus fed with TS5 diet also significantly facilitated the antioxidant capacity through activating the Nrf2-ARE signal pathway and increasing antioxidant enzyme activities. Meanwhile, TS5 diet significantly promoted liver health by upregulating the expression of anti-inflammatory cytokines and downregulating the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Furthermore, TS5 diet also upregulated the expression levels of non-specific immune related genes, including complement 4 (C4), c-type lysozyme (C-Lyz) and heat shock protein 70 (HSP70). In conclusion, Tribonema sp. can be used as feed ingredients to increase growth performance, antioxidant capacity, immunity and improve hepatic health in T. ovatus.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most fatal human cancers with a 5-year survival rate of approximately 6%. Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the predominant (~90%) histological type among pancreatic cancers. The poor prognosis of PDAC is due to a combination of factors including late stage diagnosis at a locally advanced or metastatic stage, due to its asymptomatic progression. PDAC is a highly chemoresistant malignancy owing to its genetic heterogeneity and dense stromal environment. FOLFIRINOX (FFX) is a combinatorial chemotherapeutic approach consisting of 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU)/Leucovorin (LV), Irinotecan and Oxaliplatin, and is a first-line treatment option for pancreatic cancer patients. Despite its superior clinical benefit for the treatment of metastatic PDAC compared to gemcitabine, its high toxicity profile limits its use to patients with high performance status. In-depth pharmacodynamic (PD) modelling of the interactions between the individual agents of the regimen is required. Here, the effect of the FFX regime was investigated using both established and primary pancreatic cancer cell-lines cultured as 2D and 3D models. Cells were exposed to a concentration range of each agent in single, double and triple combinations. Cell viability assayed after 5 days. The addition of LV to 5-FU had no effect in vitro in Panc-1, Mia-PaCa-2 and primary PT99 cells, and was excluded from further analysis. The active metabolite of Irinotecan, SN-38, was used in-vitro. The Bliss Independent method was used to fit the cell viability data for all cell lines using SAS 9.4 software. A psi value less than 1 suggests synergistic interactions. Of 4 cell lines tested, MIA-PaCa-2 cells were the most sensitive to the agents of the FFX regimen, with the triple combination demonstrating synergistic interactions with a psi value of 0.036. However, in Panc-1, BxPC-3 and PT127 cells the triple combination was antagonistic, with psi values of 5.167, 3.598 and 5.349 respectively. For the double combination, Ox + SN-38 was shown to have synergistic interactions in 3 of 4 cell lines. The 5-FU + SN-38 and 5-FU + Ox combinations were synergistic in 3 of 4 cell lines. The differences in cellular response observed between the cell lines mirrors the heterogeneity of patients in the clinic and highlights the importance of mathematical modelling to better understand the PD interactions of multidrug treatment regimens. While the triple combinations were determined as antagonistic, meaning the net effect is less than the additive effect of individual agents, it still resulted in greater cell kill than any agent alone. Therefore despite findings of antagonism this further supports the need for all 3 drugs. In conclusion, the results suggest a complex interplay between the three agents, and the PD data could be used to assess whether lower doses and/or alternate dosing schedules would be feasible. This potentially translatable finding may result in FFX being available to more PDAC patients. Citation Format: Taylor Allen-Coyle, Jin Niu, Eva Welsch, Fiona O'Neill, Martin Clynes, Finbarr O'Sullivan, Donald E. Mager, Robert M. Straubinger, Sandra Roche. Could pharmacodynamic modelling of FOLFIRINOX lead to more therapeutically advantageous treatment of pancreatic cancer? [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Virtual Special Conference on Pancreatic Cancer; 2020 Sep 29-30. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(22 Suppl):Abstract nr PO-028.

This study was to explore the impacts of water-soluble chitosan and mixed probiotics on growth performance, intestinal short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and immunity and ammonia resistance in Litopenaeus vannamei. Shrimp were fed one of four experimental diets including basal diet (CON), 0.10% water-soluble chitosan diet (WSC), 0.30% mixed probiotics (MP) and 0.10% water-soluble chitosan +0.30% mixed probiotics (SYN) for 8 weeks. Results showed shrimp fed with dietary MP and SYN diets could significantly improve growth performance and feed utilization in comparison with those of shrimp fed with CON diet (P

Carbohydrates are the cheapest source of dietary energy for fish. Utilization of carbohydrates in feed is beneficial to sparing protein consumption as energy source and saving feed cost. Therefore, 8-week feeding experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of starch level on growth performance, antioxidant capacity, serum biochemical parameters, intestinal morphology and intestinal microbiota of Trachinotus ovatus. Six isonitrogenous and isolipidic diets (D1, D2, D3, D4, D5 and D6) containing 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% corn starch were formulated, respectively. Each diet was randomly assigned to triplicate groups of fish (initial body weight 11.84 g) fed twice daily to apparent satiation. Results showed that percent weight gain, specific growth ratio, hepatosomatic index, total antioxidation capacity and glutathione content of fish fed with D6 diet were the highest among all experimental treatments. Feed conversion rate was significantly lower in fish fed with D5 and D6 diets, than in fish fed with D1-D4 diets. No significant differences were found in the survival rate, viscerasomatic index, malondialdehyde and serum triglyceride contents among all diet treatments. The superoxide dismutase activity of T. ovatus fed with D3-D6 diets were relatively higher than those fed with D1 and D2 diets. Fish fed with D3 diet showed the highest value of serum total cholesterol. High-density lipoprotein cholesterol / low-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio of fish fed with D1 and D6 diets were relatively higher than those fed with D2-D5 diets. No significant pathological changes in the foregut were observed among all diet treatments. Dietary starch level lead to alterations in the intestinal microbiota in T. ovatus. D2-D5 dietary treatments increased the abundance of harmful bacteria such as Vibrio, Photobacterium, Mycoplasma. D1 and D6 dietary treatments had similar intestinal microbiota composition. In conclusion, 25% starch level was beneficial to the growth and health of T. ovatus.

A 25-days experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary protein levels on growth, survival, digestive enzymes and protein synthesis of post-larval Litopenaeus vannamei. Post-larval white shrimp (mean initial weight 2.1 mg) were fed five isoenergic diets containing gradient levels of protein (456, 469.9, 484.6, 501.4, 512.9 g/kg). Results indicated that 501.4 g/kg dietary protein increased the survival of post-larval white shrimp. Special growth rate (SGR) and weight gain (WG) showed no difference among each group. Whole body protein contents increased with the dietary protein increased to 484.6 g/kg. The relative mRNA levels of trypsin and chymotrypsin also increased with the dietary protein increased to 484.6 g/kg. Target of Rapamycin (TOR) and eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E-binding protein (4EBP) mRNA expressions were significantly higher in shrimp fed the 484.6 g/kg dietary protein than other groups. The mRNA expression of two important translation initiation factors eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E (eIF4E) and eukaryotic translation initiation factor 3k (eIF3k) were increased with the increasing dietary protein levels. Three endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress related genes (eIF2α, XBP1 and ATF4) expression also increased with the dietary protein increased to 484.6 g/kg. These results clearly indicated that proper dietary protein improved the survival, and enhanced the protein synthesis of post larval white shrimp. Quadratic regression analysis based on survival indicated that the optimal dietary protein level of post-larval white shrimp was 495.8 g/kg.

The present study was conducted to evaluate a multi-strain probiotic (MP) on growth performance, immune and antioxidant function, response to hypoxia stress and resistance to Aeromonas hydrophila of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella). Based on the viable cell counts of aerobic Bacillus spp., six experimental diets with MP supplemented at 0, 0.34, 1.68, 3.36, 6.72, 10.1 g kg−1 were formulated and 900 juveniles (7.30 ± 0.01 g) were equally distributed into 30 aquaria with respective diet for 60 days. Results showed that fish with 0.34–1.68 g kg−1 MP had better growth and feed utilization. Further, plasma total protein, albumin and high-density lipoprotein were remarkably increased with dietary MP at >1.68 g kg−1. Dietary MP supplementation at 6.72–10.1 g kg−1 strikingly elevated plasma myeloperoxidase activity and complement C3 content. For fish with MP at 1.68 and 6.72–10.1 g kg−1, their liver malondialdehyde and glutathione peroxidase were remarkably declined and promoted. After hypoxia stress, fish with 3.36–6.72 g kg−1 MP showed significantly higher respiratory burst activity. Challenge test by A. hydrophila confirmed the protection effects of MP through the decreased cumulative mortality rates. For intestinal histomorphology and enzymatic analyses, fish with 1.68 g kg−1 MP displayed significantly higher intestinal villi height, goblet cells and alkaline phosphatase activity. In conclusion, dietary MP supplementation at 1.68 g kg−1 could promote growth, intestinal morphology and antioxidant capacity, while enhancing host immunity requires higher dosages of MP. Broken-line analysis of weight gain revealed that 1.34 g kg−1 is the optimum dosage for the growth of grass carp.

p65 is an important component of NF-κB signaling pathways. However, information about p65 subunit in golden pompano (Trachinotus ovatus) is quiet limit. Thus, the full length of p65 subunit was cloned from T. ovatus in this study. The full-length cDNA sequence was 3162 bp in length and comprised of a 1886 bp open reading frame (ORF) preceded by 153 bp 5′-untranslated region (UTR), and followed by a 1143 bp 3′UTR. The p65 of T. ovatus contains a conserved N-terminal REL-homology domain (RHD) with 273 amino acids. The phylogenetic tree showed that p65 in T. ovatus was clustered in the clade of that in marine fish. mRNA expression of p65 was detected in 12 different tissues. The results showed that expression of p65 in liver was higher than that in other tissues (P 0.05). After 8-weeks feeding, the hepatic expression level of p65 and IL1β in fish fed diet with high fat showed significant difference with that in control diet (P

A 5-weeks experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of deoxynivalenol on growth performance, histological morphology, anti-oxidative ability and immune capacity of Litopenaeus vannamei. White shrimp (mean initial weight 1.02 g) were fed seven isonitrogenous diets, Diet 1 as the control, Diet 2–4 was supplemented with grade levels (250, 500 and 1000 μg kg−1) of deoxynivalenol (DON), Diet 5–7 were formulated to contain graded levels of contaminated wheat flour. Each diet was assigned to four tanks (30 shrimp). The weight gain was decreased with the increasing dietary DON levels, survival was lower in shrimp fed high levels of DON-contaminated wheat flour (P

Two trials were conducted to determine the effects of dietary macroalgae Porphyra haitanensis on growth, immunity and intestinal microbiota of Litopenaeus vannamei. In trial 1, shrimp (mean initial wet weight about 0.64 g) were fed with seven diets (P0, P1, P2, P3, P4, P5 and P6) containing 0% (basal diet), 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, 5% and 6% P. haitanensis in triplicate for 60 days. Growth performance (weight gain, WG; specific growth rate, SGR) of shrimp fed the P4 diet were significantly higher than that of shrimp fed P0, P5 and P6 diets (P 0.05) but without significant differences with shrimp fed P1-P3 diets (P 0.05). Hepatopancreas phenoloxidase (PO) activity of shrimp fed the P. haitanensis containing diets was significantly higher than that of shrimp fed the basal diet (P0) (P 0.05). Total haemocyte count (THC) of shrimp fed basal diet (P0) was significantly lower than that of shrimp fed diets containing P. haitanensis. Our results declared that dietary P. haitanensis supplementation increases the abundance of beneficial bacterials such as Nitrosopumilus, Marinobacter or Bifidobacterium and reduces the abundance of harmful bacterias such as Vibrio, and especially pronounced in P4 diet treatment. In trial 2, a WSSV injection challenge test was conducted for 7-day after the rearing trial and shrimp survival was also compared among treatments. A sudden shrimp death was found from the 4th day, and values of survival of shrimp fed the P3-P4 diets were higher than that of shrimp fed other diets during 4-7 days challenge test. The immune response in trial 2 were characterized by higher superoxide dismutase activity (SOD) and PO activities, lower THC and higher HCT compared to levels found in trial 1. In conclusion, suitable dietary P. haitanensis could enhance the growth performance, antioxidant capacity and alter total bacterial numbers or microbial diversity of L. vannamei and furthermore reduce oxidative stress and immune depression challenged by WSSV injection stress, and the level of P. haitanensis supplemented in the diet should be between 2.51% and 3.14%.

Aflatoxins, which was produced by Aspergillus flavus or Aspergillus parasiticus fungi during grain and feed processing or storage, could cause severe health problems and reduction of yield during shrimp cultures. To evaluate toxic effects of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) in juvenile Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) and potential protective effect of Zn(II)-curcumin (Zn-CM), four experimental diets (control, 500 μg/kg AFB1, 500 μg/kg AFB1+100 mg/kg Zn-CM, 500 μg/kg AFB1+200 mg/kg Zn-CM) were formulated in quadruplicate to feed the shrimp for 8 weeks. The results revealed that AFB1 could induce significant decrease in final body weight (FBW), weight gain (WG, %) and visible variations of the hepatopancreas structures in L.vannamei. Compared with AFB1 group, AFB1+100 mg/kg Zn-CM group significantly ameliorated the toxic effects of AFB1 on growth performance, while AFB1+100 mg/kg Zn-CM group had no effect on growth performance. Dietary AFB1+100 mg/kg Zn-CM enhanced phenoloxidase (PO) (P 0.05) activity. Both dietary AFB1+100 mg/kg Zn-CM and AFB1+200 mg/kg Zn-CM reduced inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) activity and glutathione (GSH) level, decreased the content of malondialdehyde (MDA) (P 0.05) in hepatopancreas compared with AFB1 group. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis demonstrated that Zn-CM could relieve the microvilli transformation and mitochondria accumulation reduction caused by AFB1. Consequently, the results demonstrated that suitable Zn-CM could mitigate the AFB1-induced hepatotoxicity and immunotoxicity effects on L.vannamei.

A 25-days experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary Haematococcus pluvialis on growth, survival, immune response and stress tolerance ability of post-larval Litopenaeus vannamei. Post-larval white shrimp (mean initial weight 2.1 mg) were fed five isoenergic and isonitrogenous diets containing grade levels of Haematococcus pluvialis (0, 1.7, 3.3, 6.7 and 13.3 g kg−1 diet, respectively). Results indicated that 3.3 g Haematococcus pluvialis kg−1 diet increased the survival rate of post-larval white shrimp. Specific growth rate (SGR) and weight gain (WG) showed no difference among each groups. After the acute salinity stress (salinity decreased rapidly from 28‰ to 5‰), survival of shrimp fed 6.7 g Haematococcus pluvialis kg−1 diet significant higher than the control (P

Two trials were conducted to compare L-lysine HCl and L-lysine sulphate regarding its availability to Penaeus monodon, and further evaluate the optimum dietary lysine requirement. In experiment 1, five experimental diets were formulated (D1, D2, D3, D4 and D5), a basal diet (D1), aimed at a low-lysine concentration (2.22% dry matter), with lysine concentration of the other four diets increasing in two 0.25% L-lysine intervals from either L-lysine HCl (D2 and D3) or L-lysine sulphate (D4 and D5). Each diet was fed at a restricted rate to three groups of 40 shrimp for 74 days. The highest values of growth performance (weight gain, WG; specific growth rate, SGR) and survival were observed with shrimp fed the L-lysine HCl diet. Feed efficiency (FE) of shrimp fed D2 was significantly higher than that of shrimp fed D1 and D5 (P 0.05). In experiment 2, six diets (d1, d2, d3, d4, d5 and d6) were formulated with six graded levels of lysine (2.21%, 2.41%, 2.59%, 2.87%, 3.11% and 3.29% of diet). Each diet was randomly assigned to triplicate groups of 40 shrimp for 74 days. WG, SGR and survival increased increasing levels of lysine up to 2.41% of diet and reached an apparent plateau. Broken-line model analysis on WG and SGR indicated that the optimum dietary lysine level for optimal growth of shrimp was 2.37% of diet, corresponding to 5.78% of dietary protein. In conclusion, results of this trial suggest that L-lysine HCl is superior to L-lysine sulphate when fed to Penaeus monodon and optimal growth can be obtained at lysine levels corresponding to 2.37% of diet, or 5.78% of dietary protein in this specie.

The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary soybean isoflavones (SI) supplementation on growth performance, innate immune responses, hepatic antioxidant abilities, heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) gene expression and resistance to the pathogen Vibrio harveyi in Trachinotus ovatus. A basal diet was supplemented with SI at 0, 10, 20, 40, 60, 80 mg kg(-1) feed for 8 weeks. Significantly maximum weight gain (WG) and specific growth rate (SGR) were observed in treatment with 40 mg kg(-1) SI supplement (P < 0.05). Feed conversion ratio (FCR), feeding rate (FR) and survival rate were not significantly different among treatments. Fish fed a diet with 40 mg kg(-1) SI showed significant increase in plasma total protein content, complement 3 content, lysozyme activity as well as respiratory burst activity, but decrease in alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase activities (P < 0.05). Increased plasma alkaline phosphatase activity, hepatic total antioxidative capacity, catalase activity and superoxide dismutase activity were also noticed in fish fed SI at 40 or 60 mg kg(-1) (P < 0.05). On the contrary, the lowest hepatic malondialdehyde (MDA) content was observed in fish fed SI at 40 mg kg(-1) (P < 0.05). Compared with the control, the relative level of HSP70 mRNA in fish fed SI at 40-80 mg kg(-1) were significantly increased, respectively (P < 0.05). After challenge with V. harveyi, significant higher post-challenge survival was observed in fish fed diets with 40-80 mg kg(-1) SI supplement than that in control group (P < 0.05). These results indicated that dietary intake containing SI could enhance the immune ability of fish and improve its resistance to infection by V. harveyi. Especially supplementation with 40 mg kg(-1) SI to the fish for 8 weeks showed remarkable improvement in the growth, non-specific immune responses, hepatic antioxidant abilities and HSP70 gene expression.

The experiment was conducted to determine the effect of dietary DL-methionine addition in fish meal reduction diet for juvenile golden pompano (Trachinotus ovatus). The trial comprises the following of 11 diet treatments. (i) D1 diet as the standard was formulated with fish meal as the main protein source. (ii) D2–D5 diets were formulated to replace fish meal with soybean meal at 60, 120, 180 and 300 g kg−1, respectively, and the amino acid profiles (including methionine and lysine) of D2–D5 were referred to the amino acid profile of D1. (iii) D6-D9 diets were the same as D2–D5, respectively, but without methionine supplementation. (iv) D10 and D11 diets were the same as D3 and D5 diets, respectively, but without lysine supplementation. Each diet was randomly fed to groups of 20 fish (initial average weight about 18 g) per net cage (1.0 × 1.0 × 1.5 m) in triplicate and the feeding experiment lasted for 56 days. Weight gain (WG, %) and final body weight (FBW, g) of fish fed D3 diet were significantly higher than those of fish fed D8 and D9 diets (P 0.05). Feed conversion ratio (FCR) of D3, D4 and D5 diet treatments were significantly lower than that of D11 diet treatment (P 0.05). Whole-body protein contents of fish fed D3–D5 were significantly higher than those of fish fed D7–D9 (P 0.05). In conclusion, the replacement of fish meal by soybean meal could reach 300 g kg−1 without detrimental but profitable effect on growth and survival when enough methionine and lysine were supplemented in the diet; moreover, lysine is not the first-limiting amino acid relative to methionine for juvenile T. ovatus from the present growth and proximate composition results.

In order to assess dietary arginine requirement for juvenile golden pompano, an experiment of six different diets with six dietary arginine levels (2.05%, 2.38%, 2.65%, 2.98%, 3.25% and 3.58%) was conducted. The results showed that the content of dietary arginine had a significant effect on weight gain (WG), specific growth rate (SGR), feed conversion rate (FCR) and protein efficiency ratio (PER) of golden pompano (P 0.05). Dietary arginine content had a significant effect on serum and hepatic total nitric oxide synthase and lysozyme activities as well as survival rate in a Vibrio harveyi challenge experiment (P < 0.05). Quadratic regression analysis on WG, SGR, FCR and PER indicated that the recommended optimum dietary arginine level for optimal growth of juvenile pompano was 2.73–2.74% of the dry diet, corresponding to 6.32–6.35% of dietary protein.

A growth trial was conducted to determine the optimum dietary carbohydrate level of juvenile golden pompano ( Trachinotus ovatus ). Six isonitrogenous and isoenergetic experimental diets (43% crude protein and 16.8 MJ kg − 1 diet) using corn starch as the carbohydrate source were formulated to contain six carbohydrate levels. Each diet was tested in triplicate for 8 weeks. Weight gain, specific growth rate, feed intake, protein efficiency ratio, hepatosomatic index, and viserosomatic index increased significantly as dietary starch levels increased from 0% to 16.8% ( P P P > 0.05) among all treatments. Carcass lipid content decreased but carcass protein content increased significantly as dietary carbohydrate levels increased ( P P > 0.05) among all treatments. Glycogen content in muscle and liver increased significantly as dietary carbohydrate levels increased ( P P + , K + -ATPase activities all increased with dietary carbohydrate levels up to 11.2% ( P P > 0.05). Hepatic hexokinase activity increased and hepatic glucose-6-phosphatase activity decreased significantly as dietary carbohydrate levels increased ( P P > 0.05). Expression of hepatic growth hormone (GH) gene was positively related to growth performance. In conclusion, results suggested that the optimum carbohydrate level for juvenile golden pompano could be 11.2–16.8% of the diet.

A novel lanthanum cadmium complex [LaCd(bpy)4(NO3)5] (where bpy = 2,2′-Bipyridine) has been synthesized and structurally characterized by X-ray diffraction method, elemental analysis, spectral method (IR), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), electronic spectra (UV–vis) and photoluminescence properties. The complex crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P21/c with unit cell parameters a = 16.883(2) A, b = 14.382(2) A, c = 18.981(3) A, β = 96.806(2), V = 4576.5(11) A3, and Z = 4. The complex is completed by two crystallographically and chemically independent, octahedrally coordinated Cd(II) ion and icosahedronly coordinated La(III) ion. The electronic spectra and photoluminescence of the complex has been described.[Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals to view the free supplemental file.]

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary wakame on growth, immunity and intestinal structure of Penaeus monodon . Seven formulated diets with seven different levels (0%, 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, 5%, and 6%) of wakame were fed to triplicate groups of juvenile Penaeus monodon (mean initial weight 0.69 ± 0.03 g) for 56 days. After the 56-day trial, results showed that weight gain (WG) and specific growth rate (SGR) were firstly increased and then decreased with increasing dietary wakame levels; the maximum values of WG and SGR were found in 2% wakame diet treatment and showed significant differences with other diet treatments ( P P P P P > 0.05). Whole body lipid contents of shrimp fed 3% and 4% wakame diets were significantly higher than that of shrimp fed other diets ( P P P > 0.05). The higher phenoloxidase (PO) activities were found in shrimp fed 2%–6% wakame diets and showed no significant difference among them. The highest values of the intestinal folds height and width were found in shrimp fed 1% and 3% wakame diets, respectively. Second-degree polynomial regression of WG and protein retention indicated that the optimum supplement of dietary wakame should be 2.17%–2.87%.

This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy).This article has been retracted at the request of the Authors. The authors deeply apologize that due to their misunderstanding of the nature of the conference proceedings of WCPT7, this article became a duplicate of a paper that has already been published in RSC Adv., (2014), 4, 29435-29438. DOI: 10.1039/C4RA02236J.One of the conditions of submission of a paper for publication is that authors declare explicitly that the paper is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. As such this article represents a severe abuse of the scientific publishing system.The scientific community takes a very strong view on this matter and apologies are offered to readers of the journal that this was not detected during the processing of this submission.

NH2-terminated Si nanoparticles with an ultrathin silica shell have been efficiently obtained by a one-step reaction in ammonia–water–ethanol solution. Graphene nanosheet (GNS) encapsulated Si@ultrathin SiOx has been fabricated by self-assembly and thermal treatment. Because of the uniform ultrathin SiOx shell and superior GNS encapsulation structure, this material shows a reversible capacity of 2391.3 mA h g−1, maintaining 1844.9 mA h g−1 after 50 cycles at a current density of 200 mA g−1, and good rate and long cycle performance (∼700 mA h g−1 at 2000 mA g−1 after 350 cycles) as well.

Despite decades of effort, pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains an intractable clinical challenge. An insufficient understanding of mechanisms underlying tumor cell responses to chemotherapy contributes significantly to the lack of effective treatment regimens. Here, paclitaxel, a first-line chemotherapeutic agent, was observed to interact synergistically with birinapant, a second mitochondrial-derived activator of caspases mimetic. Therefore, we investigated molecular-level drug interaction mechanisms using comprehensive, reproducible, and well-controlled ion-current-based MS1 quantification (IonStar). By analyzing 40 biological samples in a single batch, we compared temporal proteomic responses of PDAC cells treated with birinapant and paclitaxel, alone and combined. Using stringent criteria (e.g. strict false-discovery-rate (FDR) control, two peptides/protein), we quantified 4069 unique proteins confidently (99.8% without any missing data), and 541 proteins were significantly altered in the three treatment groups, with an FDR of