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The diode laser end-pumped passively Q-switched c-cut Nd:YVO4/Cr:YAG/KTP yellow self-Raman laser at 589 nm sodium D2 line resonance is demonstrated for the first time. With Cr:YAG of initial transmission, T0, 89%, the maximum yellow laser output at 589 nm is 290 mW with the pulse repetition rate of 29.4 kHz and the corresponding conversion efficiency is 4.2%. With Cr:YAG of T0=86%, the averaged pulse energy of yellow laser is about 15 µJ and the averaged pulse peak power is about 4.5 kW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides a new approach to estimate both anthropogenic non-point and point nitrogen (N) inputs to the landscape, and determines their impacts on riverine ammonia-nitrogen (AN) flux, providing a foundation for further exploration of anthropogenic effects on N pollution. Our study site is Huai River Basin of China, a watershed with one of the highest levels of N input in the world. Multi-year average (2003-2010) inputs of N to the watershed are 27 200 ± 1100 kgNkm-2 yr-1. Non-point sources comprised about 98% of total N input and only 2% of inputs are directly added to the aquatic ecosystem as point sources. Fertilizer application was the largest non-point source of new N to the Huai River Basin (69% of net anthropogenic N inputs), followed by atmospheric deposition (20%), N fixation in croplands (7%), and N content of imported food and feed (2%). High N inputs showed impacts on riverine AN flux: fertilizer application, point N input and atmospheric N deposition were proved as more direct sources to riverine AN flux. Modes of N delivery and losses associated with biological denitrification in rivers, water consumption, interception by dams influenced the extent of export of riverine AN flux from N sources. Our findings highlight the importance of anthropogenic N inputs from point and non-point sources in heavily polluted watersheds, and provide some implications for AN prediction and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fresh ginger slices were dehydrated by air drying (AD), microwave drying (MD), vacuum drying (VD), and freezing drying (FD). Volatiles were extracted from fresh ginger pulp and dried ground ginger powder with solid-phase microextraction (SPME), and identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Results indicated that, 19, 28, 21, 20, 31 and 20 novel compounds (70 in total) appeared in dried gingers treated by AD at 50, 60 and 70 °C, MD at 60W, VD in 13.3 kPa at 60 °C and FD in 0.203 kPa at chamber temperature of 22 °C, respectively. Principal component analysis for the main volatiles indicated that drying increased the relative contents of benzene, l-(l,5-dimethyl-4-hexenyl)-4-methyl-, l,3-cyclohexadiene,5-(l,5-dimethyl-4-hexenyl)-2-rnethyl-,[S-(R*,S*)]-, α-farnesene and cyclohexene,3-(l,5-dimethyl-4-hexenyl) -6-methylene-,[S-(R*,S*)]- while decreased those of 2,6-octadienal,3,7-dimethyl-,(Z) and 2,6-octadienal,3,7-dimethyl-. °Cluster analysis disclosed that MD was the most favorite drying way, followed by AD at 60 °C, VD, FD, and AD at 50 and 70 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dielectric properties of (Bi1.3RE0.2)ZnNb1.5O7 ceramics with different rare earth ion substitution in A site were investigated. All the samples showed a pure cubic pyrochlore structure. With the decrease of the ionic radii of rare earth ion RE3 +, the dielectric loss at room temperature kept the magnitude of 10-4 at 1 MHz, and the dielectric constant was in the range of 108 to 127 which was smaller than that of Bi1.5ZnNb1.5O7. The temperature coefficient of dielectric constant was optimized by RE3+ substitution. In low temperature, all the samples showed the relaxation behavior and had a regular change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pre-implantation protein 3 (prei3), which might play a role in pre-implantation embryogenesis, is one of the promising candidate genes for litter size traits in pigs. In this study, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP: T802G) in intron 6 of the pig prei3 gene was detected and a genotyping assay for this SNP was developed. An association study for this SNP with litter size was performed in two independent populations. One population consisted of crossbred sows derived from Landrace, Large White, Chinese Tongcheng and/or Chinese Meishan (Line DIV). The other population constituted of crossbred animals derived from Chinese Qingping and Duroc (QD). Statistical analysis demonstrated that, in first parity, 2.65 more piglets were born and 3.82 more piglets were born alive in sows in Line DIV with genotype TT than with genotype GG. For second and subsequent litters, in both the DIV and QD lines there were significant differences in the number of piglets born alive between TG and GG sows, with the TG sows producing more piglets born alive than the GG sows. These results suggest that the prei3 SNP is significantly associated with litter size in the two populations studied, and could be useful in selection for increasing litter size in pigs. Further investigations on more pig populations with large sample sizes are needed to confirm this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The distribution of the Mur blood group antigen is 5-7% in the south of China, and a much higher prevalence is observed in some areas of the region. Anti-Mur can cause hemolytic disease of the newborn and severe transfusion reactions., Objectives: Genetic testing is more ideal than conventional serological tests because antibodies for detection are usually not available., Methods: In this study, a novel loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay for the detection of Mur blood group antigen was established., Results: Fifteen of 275 (5·5%) samples were confirmed by LAMP as Mur antigen positive. All the Mur antigen-positive samples were GP.Mur subtype which was confirmed with sequencing., Conclusion: The LAMP method has identical results with conventional serology method but more suitable for large-scale screening., (© 2016 British Blood Transfusion Society.)

The aim of the study was to investigate the incidence of thyroid abnormalities in neck irradiated lymphoma patients. Of the 298 patients who had irradiation to the neck for lymphoma between 1966-1988, 174 were found to be alive and free of disease. These patients were invited to participate in the study. From the 174, 93 were able to participate (group 1). Two control groups were recruited; both were sex and aged matched. One group (group 2) consisted of lymphoma patients who were treated with chemotherapy (n=39) or irradiation to areas other than the neck (n=16). The other group (group 3) consisting of healthy volunteers (n=35) recruited from hospital staff and minor surgery attendees, had never had lymphoma or radiotherapy. All participants were required to complete a past medical history and thyroid symptom questionnaire, had blood taken for assays of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), thyroglobulin antibodies, thyroid peroxidase antibodies, sodium iodide symporter antibodies and TSH receptor antibodies and underwent ultrasound and clinical examination of the neck. A significant percentage of patients who had been irradiated in the neck had abnormalities on ultrasound, compared to groups 2 and 3 (77% vs 42% vs 24%). Abnormal TSH levels were found to be significantly more common in neck irradiated patients compared to the other groups (50% vs 9% vs 5%). There is a clear difference between neck irradiated patients and control groups. The importance of screening irradiated patients for thyroid abnormalities is re-emphasised.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that controlled ovarian stimulation by gonadotropins, which enhances estrogen priming, is of beneficial value in the treatment of endometrial defects associated with recurrent miscarriage., Design: A retrospective, observational, nonrandomized study., Setting: A regional recurrent miscarriage clinic in a teaching hospital., Patient(s): Twenty-one subjects with otherwise unexplained recurrent miscarriage who had retarded endometrial development in the mid-luteal phase. Endometrial biopsies were timed by the luteinizing hormone surge., Intervention(s): Controlled ovarian stimulation using human menopausal gonadotropins and repeat endometrial biopsy in the treatment cycle in 13 subjects., Main Outcome Measure(s): Histological dating of endometrial biopsy in treatment cycles and miscarriage rate in treatment and nontreatment cycles., Result(s): Eleven (85%) of the 13 biopsies in the treatment cycle were found to be normal. The miscarriage rate in the treatment group, 2 of 13, was significantly lower than that in the nontreatment group (7/12) (chi2 5.0, P<.05)., Conclusion(s): In this small series, preliminary experience suggests that controlled ovarian stimulation by human menopausal gonadotropins in the follicular phase is an effective treatment for luteal phase defect associated with recurrent pregnancy loss. There is now a case for a prospective, controlled study to confirm the value of such a treatment.

We previously reported that the promoter region of the mouse mitochondrial malate dehydrogenase gene is located within the 160 base-pairs (bp) region upstream from the initiation codon, named P1, and that the -160/-131 bp region contains sequence(s) essential for the promoter activity of mitochondrial malate dehydrogenase gene. To define more precisely the regulatory mechanism of this gene, a 3' deletion analysis was performed using constructs with a constant 3' boundary at -130 bp. We obtained evidence of an additional positive regulatory element located between -393/-249 bp, named P2, the function of which can be separated from that of the P1. DNase I footprinting and gel-sift mobility experiments showed that nuclear protein binding to the P2 was not inhibited in the presence of the P1 sequences.

Prevalence of antibodies to HCV is studied among a blood donor population in Singapore and its relationship to surrogate markers was examined. Sequential serum samples from 4,091 blood donors were tested for the presence of anti-HCV using the second generation immunoassay (Abbott). 275 random serum samples were tested for anti-HBc and ALT. All the samples positive for anti-HCV were also tested for anti-HBc and ALT. Only 22 of the 4,091 donor samples (0.54%) were repeatedly reactive for anti-HCV. Of the 275 random samples tested, 43 samples (15.6%) were positive for anti-HBc and 24 (8.7%) had ALT levels more than 45 IU/l. None of these 67 samples were positive for anti-HCV. Only 3 of the 22 anti-HCV positive samples (13.6%) were positive for anti-HBc and only 6 samples (27.2%) had ALT level more than 45 IU/l. The prevalence of anti-HCV among the donors is only 0.54% which is much lower than the prevalence of HBV. An important finding is that about 60% of the donors positive for anti-HCV had no detectable surrogate markers. Exclusion of blood donors positive for anti-HBc, if implemented in an area where the prevalence of HBV infection is relatively high will result in the loss of blood donors estimated to be 15.6% and the use of raised ALT will result in a further loss of 6.1% of the blood donors.

A novel bifunctional compound, 9-(hydroxymethyl)-2-fluoreneacetic acid, was synthesized, coupled to benzhydrylamine-resin, and evaluated for its application to the solid phase synthesis of protected peptide fragments. Anchor-bond cleavage was achieved with 15% piperidine/DMF. A protected heptapeptide, Boc-Val-Val-Ser(Bzl)-His(Tos)-Phe-Asn-Lys-(Z)-OH, corresponding to the sequence (1-7) of rat-transforming growth factor-alpha, was synthesized using this new support with an overall yield of 46%.

To examine molecular mechanisms of transcription of mammalian isozyme genes functioning in the malate-aspartate shuttle and to observe structural and evolutionary relationships, we investigated gene organizations of cAspAT and mAspAT, and cMDH and mMDH, and isolated and characterized cDNAs and genomic DNAs for these isozymes in mice. The deduced amino acid sequences of mouse cAspAT and mAspAT showed about 47%, and those of mouse cMDH and mMDH, about 23% overall homology. Surprisingly, the homology between the mouse cMDH and thermophilic bacterial MDH, as well as the homology between the mouse mMDH and E. coli MDH, markedly exceeds the intraspecies sequence homology between mMDH and cMDH from mice. The first duplication of a common ancestral MDH gene should thus have occurred long before the emergence of the eukaryotic cells, and subsequently, the mammalian mMDH and E. coli MDH genes have evolved from one of the duplicates. The mammalian cMDH and Thermus flavus MDH genes have no doubt evolved from one of the other duplicates. Moreover, structural organizations of the two-pairs of isozyme genes indicated that introns antedate the divergence of these mitochondrial and cytosolic isozyme genes. The 5' ends of all four isozyme genes lacked the TATA and CAAT boxes characteristic of eukaryotic promoters but did contain G + C-rich sequences and multiple transcription-initiation sites. We found several highly conserved regions in the 5' flanking sequences between mAspAT and cAspAT, between mMDH and mAspAT, and between cMDH and cAspAT genes.