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Sequestration of CO2 in oil reservoir is one of the feasible options for mitigating atmospheric CO2 building up. The in situ bioconversion of sequestrated CO2 to methane by microorganisms inhabiting oil reservoirs is feasible. To evaluate the potential of in situ microbial fixation and conversion of CO2 into CH4 in oil reservoirs, a comprehensive molecular survey was performed to reveal microbial communities inhabiting four oil reservoirs with different temperatures by analysis of functional genes involved in the biochemical pathways of CO2 fixation and CH4 synthesis (cbbM, cbbL, fthfs, [FeFe]-hydrogenase encoding gene, and mcrA). A rich diversity of these functional genes was found in all the samples with both high and low temperatures and they were affiliated to members of the Proteobacteria (cbbL and cbbM, fthfs), Firmicutes and Actinobacteria (fthfs), uncultured bacteria ([FeFe]- hydrogenase), and Methanomirobiales, Methanobacteriales and Methanosarcinales (mcrA). The predominant methanogens were all identified to be hydrogenotrophic CO2-reducing physiological types. These results showed that functional microbial communities capable of microbial fixation and bioconversion of CO2 into methane inhabit widely in oil reservoirs, which is helpful to microbial recycling of sequestrated CO2 to further new energy in oil reservoirs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Serous ovarian carcinoma is the most lethal gynecological malignancy in Western countries. The molecular events that underlie the development of the disease have been elusive for many years. The recent identification of the fallopian tube secretory epithelial cells (FTSECs) as the cell-of-origin for most cases of this disease has led to studies aimed at elucidating new candidate therapeutic pathways through profiling of normal FTSECs and serous carcinomas. Here we describe the results of transcriptional profiles that identify the loss of the tumor suppressive transcription factor FOXO3a in a vast majority of high-grade serous ovarian carcinomas. We show that FOXO3a loss is a hallmark of the earliest stages of serous carcinogenesis and occurs both at the DNA, RNA and protein levels. We describe several mechanisms responsible for FOXO3a inactivity, including chromosomal deletion (chromosome 6q21), upregulation of miRNA-182 and destabilization by activated PI3K and MEK. The identification of pathways involved in the pathogenesis of ovarian cancer can advance the management of this disease from being dependant on surgery and cytotoxic chemotherapy alone to the era of targeted therapy. Our data strongly suggest FOXO3a as a possible target for clinical intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unavailability of sufficient data at higher elevations causes many uncertainties in research on cold regions. This study considers a cryosphere-hydrology observation system established in 2008 at the Hulu small alpine watershed in the Qilian Mountains of Northwest China. The altitudinal gradient of weather factors is analyzed using data from the Hulu watershed and routine stations located in the Heihe upstream. The data presented here provide the following knowledge of mountain meteorology at elevations from 3367 m to 4166 m/4248 m in the Qilian Mountains: (1) the yearly precipitation-altitude relationship is linear in regions below 4248 m in the Heihe upstream, where the precipitation gradient increased marginally from 1960 to 2011; (2) the yearly air temperature lapse rate (TLR) is weaker at higher elevations (>3000 m), and the seasonal TLR became more divergent between winter and summer half-years from 1960 to 2011 (yearly mean 5.6 °C km-1); (3) in the Hulu watershed, the LRs of water vapor pressure and absolute humidity are higher in warm seasons with yearly means of 1.1 hpa km-1 and 0.84 g m-3 km-1, respectively, and the maximum relative humidity value is found at elevations between 3500 and 3700 m in the Heihe upstream; (4) the long-term existence of snow increases the albedo to yearly means of 0.22, 0.30, 0.35, and 0.27 in areas of grassland, meadow, marshy meadow, and alpine desert in the Hulu watershed, respectively. The relationship between monthly net radiation and soil surface temperature (Ts) is linear, and the mean Ts LR was about 7.5 °C km-1 from July 2009 to September 2011. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming will have direct impacts on regional water resources by accelerating the hydrological cycle. Hydrological simulation is an important approach to studying climate change impacts. In this paper, a snowmelt-based water balance model (SWBM) was used to simulate the effect of climate change on runoff in the Kuye River catchment of the Loess Plateau, China. Results indicated that the SWBM is suitable for simulating monthly discharge into arid catchments. The response of runoff in the Kuye River catchment to climate change is nonlinear, and runoff is more sensitive to changes in precipitation than to changes in temperature. The projections indicated that the Kuye River catchment would undergo more flooding in the 2020s, and global warming would probably shorten the main flood season in the catchment, with greater discharge occurring in August. Although projected changes in annual runoff are uncertain, the possibilities of regional water shortages and regional flooding are essential issues that need to be fully considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the structure and magnetic properties of ferromagnetic face-centered tetragonal (fct) L10-type MnGa isotropic nanocrystalline microparticles prepared by high energy ball milling and subsequent annealing. The L10-type microparticles with a nominal composition of Mn56Ga44 (at.%) have an irregular shape, a particle size mainly in the range of 10–50 \mum, an average crystallite size in the range of 40–62 nm and a Curie temperature of 356^\circC. Post-annealing had little effect on the particle size and morphology but dramatically increased the hard magnetic properties. As the annealing temperature increased, coercivity i\rm Hc first increased from 4.8 kOe after annealing at 400^\circC for 20 min, to a maximum value of 6.2 kOe after annealing at 600^\circC for 20 min, and then decreased after annealing at 650^\circC. The increase in i\rm Hc is attributed to an improvement of crystallinity and chemical ordering of fct \delta-MnGa phase while the decrease may be due to a too coarse crystallite size. Remanence Mr remained almost the same, in the range of 41–42 emu/g, for the samples annealed from 400 to 650^\circC for 20 min. These magnetic properties are comparable to the highest ones reported so far for ferromagnetic fct MnGa films grown by molecular beam epitaxy. After annealing at 700^\circC for 20 min, i\rm Hc decreased to 2.3 kOe and Mr to 10.9 emu/g due to both, an excessive grain growth, and re-precipitation of a nonmagnetic \zeta-Mn8Ga5 phase. Annealing time increase from 10 to 90 min has little effect (within \sim10%) on the magnetic properties for the samples annealed at 550^\circC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimation of genomic breeding values is the key step in genomic selection (GS). Many methods have been proposed for continuous traits, but methods for threshold traits are still scarce. Here we introduced threshold model to the framework of GS, and specifically, we extended the three Bayesian methods BayesA, BayesB and BayesCπ on the basis of threshold model for estimating genomic breeding values of threshold traits, and the extended methods are correspondingly termed BayesTA, BayesTB and BayesTCπ. Computing procedures of the three BayesT methods using Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm were derived. A simulation study was performed to investigate the benefit of the presented methods in accuracy with the genomic estimated breeding values (GEBVs) for threshold traits. Factors affecting the performance of the three BayesT methods were addressed. As expected, the three BayesT methods generally performed better than the corresponding normal Bayesian methods, in particular when the number of phenotypic categories was small. In the standard scenario (number of categories=2, incidence=30%, number of quantitative trait loci=50, h2=0.3), the accuracies were improved by 30.4%, 2.4%, and 5.7% points, respectively. In most scenarios, BayesTB and BayesTCπ generated similar accuracies and both performed better than BayesTA. In conclusion, our work proved that threshold model fits well for predicting GEBVs of threshold traits, and BayesTCπ is supposed to be the method of choice for GS of threshold traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving immune capacity may increase the profitability of animal production if it enables animals to better cope with infections. Hematological traits play pivotal roles in animal immune capacity and disease resistance. Thus far, few studies have been conducted using a high-density swine SNP chip panel to unravel the genetic mechanism of the immune capability in domestic animals. In this study, using mixed model-based single-locus regression analyses, we carried out genome-wide association studies, using the Porcine SNP60 BeadChip, for immune responses in piglets for 18 hematological traits (seven leukocyte traits, seven erythrocyte traits, and four platelet traits) after being immunized with classical swine fever vaccine. After adjusting for multiple testing based on permutations, 10, 24, and 77 chromosome-wise significant SNPs were identified for the leukocyte traits, erythrocyte traits, and platelet traits respectively, of which 10 reached genome-wise significance level. Among the 53 SNPs for mean platelet volume, 29 are located in a linkage disequilibrium block between 32.77 and 40.59 Mb on SSC6. Four genes of interest are located within the block, providing genetic evidence that this genomic segment may be considered a candidate region relevant to the platelet traits. Other candidate genes of interest for red blood cell, hemoglobin, and red blood cell volume distribution width also have been found near the significant SNPs. Our genome-wide association study provides a list of significant SNPs and candidate genes that offer valuable information for future dissection of molecular mechanisms regulating hematological traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to investigate the potential for Penicillium sp. QQ to perform copper adsorption. The following optimal conditions were assigned for biosorption by a response surface methodology (RSM): a biomass concentration of 4.6% (w/v), pH of 5.6, initial copper concentration of 100 mg/L and an established biosorption equilibrium after a 30 min reaction. A copper removal efficiency of about 98% was achieved after 30 min. The kinetics of copper adsorption are discussed, and the experimental data are fit to a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The experimental results were analyzed using the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. The equilibrium constant b and n value show copper has been favorably adsorbed by the QQ strain. The thermodynamic parameters such as the free energy (ΔG°), enthalpy (ΔH°) and entropy (ΔS°) also prove the adsorption process was thermodynamically feasible and spontaneous. The results indicate Penicillium sp. QQ could be used as a promising candidate for removing heavy metal ions from aqueous environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A phytase gene ( phyA), isolated from Aspergillus ficuum (AF537344), was introduced into cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum L.) by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation to increase the phosphorus (P) acquisition efficiency of cotton. Southern and Northern blot analyses showed that the phyA was successfully incorporated into the cotton genome and expressed in transgenic lines. After growing for 45 days with phytate (Po) as the only P source, the shoot and root dry weights of the transgenic plants all increased by nearly 2.0-fold relative to those of wild-type plants, but were similar to those of transgenic plants supplied with inorganic phosphorus. The phytase activities of root extracts prepared from transgenic plants were 2.4- to 3.6-fold higher than those from wild-type plants, and the extracellular phytase activities of transgenic plants were also 4.2- to 6.3-fold higher. Furthermore, the expressed phytase was secreted into the rhizospheres as demonstrated by enzyme activity staining. The transgenic plants accumulated much higher contents of total P (up to 2.1-fold after 30 days of growth) than the wild-type plants when supplied with Po. These findings clearly showed that cotton plant transformed with a fungal phytase gene was able to secret the enzyme from the root, which markedly improved the plant's ability to utilize P from phytate. This may serve as a promising step toward the development of new cotton cultivars with improved phosphorus acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transgenic cotton with an increased level of phytase activity was generated from cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum L.) cv. ND94-7 by subjecting shoot-apex explants to particle bombardment. These tissues were transformed with plasmid pC-KSA2300 carrying a selectable marker (for kanamycin) and a target gene (phytase, or phyA, from Aspergillus ficuum). Primary plants were regenerated in a medium containing 75 mg l kanamycin. Of 1,534 shoot apices, 52 (3.4%) survived on this selection medium. Southern and Northern blot analyses confirmed that phyA was stably integrated and expressed in those primary transgenics. The progenies of the primary transgenic plants were found to have a 3.1- to 3.2-fold increase in root extracellular phytase activity, resulting in improved phosphorus (P) nutrition. Growth also was enhanced when they were supplied with phytate, and their P content was equivalent to that of wildtype plants supplied with inorganic phosphate. These results demonstrate that the expression of phyA in cotton plants improves their ability to utilize organic P in response to a deficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interferon regulatory factor 1 (IRF1) is a member of IRF-family that was discovered to activate promoters in type I interferon (IFN) genes. It is shown to play functionally diverse role in the regulation of the immune system. In this report, the porcine IRF1 cDNA were cloned and a 7500 bp genomic DNA structure was identified. The putative IRF1 protein included 322 amino acids. Alignment and phylogenetic analysis of the predicted porcine IRF1 amino acids sequence with its homologies of other species show high identity (over 88%). Tissues expression of IRF1 mRNA was observed by RT-PCR, the results revealed IRF1 gene expressed widely in all analyzed tissues. Using the radiation hybrid panel, the porcine IRF1 gene was mapped to porcine chromosome 2 and closely linked to the locus IL4 (LOD = 7.09, 57cR). A SNP in exon2 of porcine IRF1 gene was demonstrated by sequencing and PCR-RFLP analysis. The further association analysis indicated that the SNP was significant associate with level of IFN-γ (day 20) in serum (P = 0.0001) and the ratio of IFN-γ to IL10 (day 20; day 35) in serum (P = 0.0165; P = 0.0095). The results suggested that the porcine IRF1 gene is strong candidate gene for these immune traits in pig. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study aims to establish a stable chronic rejection model for orthotopic liver transplantation in the rat and to describe the pathological features of this model. Methods: The livers from different strains of rats were transplanted in various allogeneic donor-recipient combinations with appropriate syngeneic grafts used as controls. The rats were untreated after surgery (acute rejection model) or treated with cyclosporin A (1 mg/kg) and hydrocortisone (0.75 mg/kg) to establish chronic rejection as determined by rejection activity index scores from pathological examination of liver specimens. Results: Acute rejection occurred in all of the untreated recipients of allogeneic orthotopic liver transplants, and all died within 30 days. Among the treated recipients, the combinations of Lewis with brown Norway and dark agouti with Lewis rats developed acute rejection, and no changes characteristic of chronic rejection were observed in the few rats that survived beyond 30 days. In contrast, the treated Lewis recipients of livers from Sprague-Dawley rats exhibited chronic rejection in the liver specimens. Conclusion: We have established an animal model for chronic rejection after transplantation of livers from Sprague-Dawley to Lewis rats under short-term immunosuppression induced by small doses of cyclosporin A and hydrocortisone. Copyright © 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased disease resistance through improved general immune capacity would be beneficial for the welfare and productivity of farm animals. Cytokines are essential diagnostic parameters in veterinary practice. To identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) for cytokine levels in serum in the pig, Interferon-gamma (IFN- γ) and Interleukin 10 (IL-10) levels and the ratio of IFN- γ to IL-10 were measured in a composite pig population, before and after challenge with modified live CSF (classical swine fever) vaccine. Through interval mapping using the variance component approach and the permutation test, 11 QTL (five for IFN- γ, two for IL-10 and four for the ratio of IFN- γ to IL-10) with significance levels of P < 0.10 were identified, of which five were significant at the P < 0.05 level. The most significant QTL (P < 0.01) was found on chromosome 16, with effect on the ratio of IFN- γ to IL-10. Within these QTL regions, a number of known genes were revealed and their potential relationships to the studied traits were discussed. Some of these genes may serve as candidate genes for these traits in swine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glass ceramic materials were fabricated based on BaO–ZnO–B2O3 (BZB) glass with Ba6–3x(Nd1–yBiy)8+2xTi18O54 ceramics. It was investigated that the dielectric properties and the sintering behaviour of glass ceramics. Doped by BZB glass, the sintering temperature of Ba6–3x(Nd1–yBiy)8+2xTi18O54 ceramics was significantly lowered to 900°C in comparison to 1300°C for samples without glass. The low softening point BZB glass provided good wetting between BZB and Ba6–3x(Nd1–yBiy)8+2xTi18O54, and the reaction between glass and ceramics was increased. The dielectric constant of BZB-Ba6–3x(Nd1–yBiy)8+2xTi18O54 system was increased with increasing firing time. The composite sintered at 900°C for 2 h exhibited excellent dielectric properties were achieved, with dielectric constant of 75, the dielectric loss of 5 × 10–5 and the temperature coefficient of ±30 ppm °C–1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]