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Pseudorabies virus (PRV) is one of the causative agents of common infectious diseases in swine herds. Enterococcus faecium is a probiotic belonging to the group of lactic acid bacteria and has excellent immunomodulatory effects. Vaccine immunization is an important approach to prevent animal diseases in the modern farming industry, and good immunization outcomes can substantially reduce the damage caused by pathogens to animals, improve the quality of animals' lives, and reduce economic losses. In the present study, we showed that inactivated E. faecium and inactivated PRV when co-injected intravenously significantly reduced the mortality of mice after inoculation with PRV. The inactivated E. faecium + inactivated PRV intravenous injection group induced more production of Th cells and Tc cells. Additionally, the inactivated E. faecium + inactivated PRV intravenous injection group showed higher concentrations of cytokines (IFN-γ and IL-10) and induced higher antibody production. Thus, the co-injection of inactivated E. faecium and inactivated PRV could remarkably prevent and control the lethality of PRV infection in mice, which is a critical finding for vaccination and clinical development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today's desktop rendering platforms typically use GPUs, which have become the most powerful computing chip to meet the growing visual needs, especially in ray tracing. However, ray tracing is challenging for mobile platforms because mobile GPUs need to accommodate insufficient computing power, hardware resources, and memory bandwidth. This paper presents a novel architecture for the mobile domain called Mobile Multiple stacks Ray Tracing (MMsRT). The most complicated calculations in ray tracing are completed through lightweight embedded design. MMsRT has three key features: First, we set multiple stacks to ensure multiple rays are parallel in the system. Second, it sets a stack cache to store the data in stacks when the storage space of multiple stacks is insufficient. Third, we adopt the data prefetching mechanism to set caches to improve the cache hit rate and performance. An accurate simulator test proves that our design can be applied to mobile devices. We calculate the performance of about 82.9 Million Rays Per Second (MRPS), the chip area is about 0.856 mm2, and 96.85 MRPS/mm2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fumonisin B1 (FB1) has the highest natural contamination rate among all fumonisin analogs and can inhibit food intake and weight gain of pigs. Under laboratory conditions, carboxylesterase FumDSB has a high FB1 degradation rate and excellent pH and thermal stability. The present study sought to estimate the effects of FumDSB on growing pigs from the perspective of a brain–intestinal axis. Twenty-four growing pigs of similar weight were divided into Control, FB1 (5 mg FB1/kg feed), and FumDSB (5 mg FB1/kg and 0.1% FumDSB in the feed) groups. After 42 days of feeding, hypothalamus and jejunum samples were collected for quantitative real-time fluorescence, western blotting, and immunohistochemistry. The results showed that FB1 consumption can destruct the tissue structure of hypothalamus and jejunum, affect the expression and distribution of several appetite-related neuropeptides and inflammatory cytokines, thereby inducing neuroinflammatory responses and affecting food intake and weight gain. However, these anorexia effects and inflammatory responses are alleviated when FumDSB is added to the feed. In short, FumDSB can alleviate the inflammatory response induced by FB1 in growing pigs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Embedded processors are usually limited by silicon budget and power consumption, and utilizing limited resources to design an accurate branch predictor becomes an urgent issue. In this paper, we conduct design space explorations of TAGE predictor with ultra-small RAM for embedded processors. We first define the design space exploration problem, and then we propose PSO-based exploration framework to explore parameters of TAGE predictor. To conduct explorations with different purposes, we propose a composite metric which integrates prediction accuracy, area, and power consumption. For explorations only considering prediction accuracy, results show that compared with Bi-mode and GShare predictor, parameters explored by our method achieves better performance-area efficiency. For explorations considering the area and power consumption, results show that compared to accuracy-first exploration, area-first exploration achieves better performance-area and performance-power efficiency. In addition, area-first exploration and power-first exploration have similar results. We also study how training traces impact overall performance. Results show that the performance gap between different training traces is small and our method is insensitive to traces selected for exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Single-instruction multiple-data (SIMD) architecture is a promising and widely used avenue for enhancing performance. Most of current multicore systems adopt this technique in which each core is equipped with an SIMD engine. However, these SIMD engines are frequently underutilized in single-thread applications. A typical reason is that only one SIMD engine can be utilized for a single thread, even if other SIMD engines are idle, and abundant data-level parallelism (DLP) can be exploited. To address this problem, we propose SIMD Stealing , which is an architectural support for multicore systems that provide the capability of dynamically adjusting the number of SIMD engines during application execution. This approach includes hardware modification and compilation extension, which can improve SIMD efficiency significantly in DLP applications. Experiment results show that SIMD stealing achieves an energy-delay product (EDP) reduction of approximately 53% for kernels and an EDP reduction of 34% for applications on average, with a small area overhead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hardware prefetching has always been a crucial mechanism to improve processor performance. However, an efficient prefetch operation requires a guarantee of high prefetch accuracy; otherwise, it may degrade system performance. Prior studies propose an adaptive priority controlling method to make better use of prefetch accesses, which improves performance in two-level cache systems. However, this method does not perform well in a more complex memory hierarchy, such as a three-level cache system. Thus, it is still necessary to explore the efficiency of prefetch, in particular, in complex hierarchical memory systems. In this paper, we propose a composite hierarchy-aware method called CHAM, which works at the middle level cache (MLC). By using prefetch accuracy as an evaluation criterion, CHAM improves the efficiency of prefetch accesses based on (1) a dynamic adaptive prefetch control mechanism to schedule the priority and data transfer of prefetch accesses across the cache hierarchical levels in the runtime and (2) a prefetch efficiency-oriented hybrid cache replacement policy to select the most suitable policy. To demonstrate its effectiveness, we have performed extensive experiments on 28 benchmarks from SPEC CPU2006 and two benchmarks from BioBench. Compared with a similar adaptive method, CHAM improves the MLC demand hit rate by 9.2% and an improvement of 1.4% in system performance on average in a single-core system. On a 4-core system, CHAM improves the demand hit rate by 33.06% and improves system performance by 10.1% on average. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes stream model execution (SME), a new architectural technique that supports the efficient utilization of single-instruction multiple-data (SIMD) engines on general-purpose processors. SME adopts lightweight streaming processing as the intermediate representation. This process uses a hardware–software co-design approach to support efficient SIMD compilation and utilization. From a hardware perspective, the micro-architecture of SIMD engines is enabled for stream support to provide the key components to address the limitations of SIMD utilization, such as data rearrangement and non-consecutive memory access. Thus, sequential code can be compiled efficiently through a two-step procedure (i.e. C code → SME C code → vectorized code) and then executed by the SME hardware. Our experimental evaluation shows that SME can outperform previous optimization techniques by an average of 58% for multimedia kernels and 26% for applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multicore designs have become the dominant organization for future high performance microprocessors. Instead of increasing cache sizes, clock frequencies, pipeline depths or register file (RF) ports, multicore designs tend to make each processor core simple but highly efficient. This new dimension for improving performance and power efficiency in multicore requires us to rethink processor architecture. Multiply-accumulate (MAC) operation is such a performance improvement technique that needs to be reviewed. MAC operation is the fundamentals of many DSP and multimedia applications, but it tends to be awkward to implement in an orthogonal instruction set architecture (ISA) because of operand bandwidth problem, instruction encoding problem, and hardware cost problem. So a big question is that whether we should support MAC or not in high-efficiency processor designs? This paper does a comparative study on this question and introduce data bandwidth relaxing techniques to eliminate narrow bandwidth provided by two-port RFs. The trade-off are also made to solve the instruction coding and hardware cost problem. So, the new design wisdom becomes that if you support multiply (MUL) operation, then support MAC operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The need for scalable and efficient on-chip communication in future many-core architecture has resulted in the network-on-chip (NoC) design emerging as a popular solution. It is a common belief that packet-based NoC can provide high efficiency, high throughput, and low latency for future applications instead of conventional transaction-based bus. However, these superior features of NoCs are only applied to unicast (one-to-one) latency non-critical traffic. Their multi-hop feature and inefficient multicast (one-to-many) or broadcast (one-to-all) support have made it awkward when performing some kinds of communications including cache coherence protocol, global timing and control signals, and some latency critical communications. This paper presents VBON, a new architecture of incorporating buses into NoCs in order to take advantage of both NOCs and buses in a hierarchical way. The point-to-point links of conventional NoC designs can be used as bus transaction link dynamically for bus request. This can achieve low latency while sustain high throughput for both unicast and multicast communications at low cost. To reduce the latency of physical layout for the bus organization, the hierarchical redundant buses are used. Detailed network latency simulation and hardware characterization demonstrate that VBON can provide the ideal interconnect for a broad spectrum of unicast and multicast scenarios and achieve these benefits with inexpensive extensions to current NoC router. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper proposes dynamic streamization model execution (DSME), a dynamic vectorization technique for single instruction multiple data (SIMD) engines on multicore architectures. The technique uses stream model as intermediate representation for programs to optimize the combination of computation and memory accesses of SIMD engines in general-purpose (GP) designs. DSME allows the dynamic placement of computations on different cores when they are not in use to utilize multiple SIMD engines. This study also discusses hardware extensions to existing GP processor designs as well as related compiler extensions that use the special hardware components. Our extensive experiments demonstrate that performance gains of DSME can be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Highlights: [•] A simple 8-way TTA coprocessor with cost-effective SIMD functional units can efficiently exploit ILP and DLP. [•] Long vector capabilities built upon existing SIMD hardware achieves better cost-performance tradeoff. [•] Unified scalar and vector approach eliminates the transformation overhead between them. [•] The implicit data permutation mechanism can address the conventional permutation limitations of SIMD architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main toxic effects of deoxynivalenol (DON) are the result of long-term accumulation, and there are no obvious clinical signs at the early stage. Specific metabolites in blood and urine can be used as biomarkers and become an important diagnostic indicator for DON poisoning monitoring. This study aimed to reveal the differences in DON-induced metabolites in the serum and urine of weaned rabbits. Thirty-two weaned rabbits were divided into two groups: control group and DON group. Both groups of rabbits were fed a basic diet. Rabbits in the DON group were administered 1.5 mg/kg b.w. DON by intraperitoneal injection on an empty stomach in the morning every two days. Rabbits in the control group were injected with the same amount of saline every two days in the same way. After the 25-day trial, serum and urine samples from different experimental periods were collected. The results based on the LC–MS/MS method showed that DON can be metabolized rapidly in blood, and urine is the main metabolic pathway for DON. Data based on metabolomics illustrated that underlying biomarkers in serum were mainly involved in glycerophospholipid metabolism, tryptophan metabolism and pentose and glucuronate interconversions, while those in urine samples were involved in caffeine metabolism, glycine, serine and threonine metabolism, and terpenoid backbone biosynthesis. Correlation analysis suggested that DON can induce changes in certain disease-related metabolites in serum and urine. In conclusion, the pathogenic mechanism of DON includes multiple levels, indicating that DON poisoning is caused by multiple factors acting on multiple links. [Display omitted] • LC-MS/MS was used to detect the concentration of DON in serum and urine at different time periods. • Differential metabolites in serum and urine were screened and analyzed based on metabolomics. • Weaned rabbits were utilized to analyze the metabolic pathway induced by DON. • Several differential metabolites induce by DON were associated with neurological diseases in the serum and urine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Eu(DBM)3Phen/PS (DBM = dibenzoylmethide; Phen = 1,10-phenanthroline; PS = polystyrene), a novel fluorescent fiber, was synthesized through electrospinning technology. In order to analyze the fluorescent fiber Eu(DBM)3phen/PS, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), fluorescence spectra and fluorescence decay curve were measured. The optical transition intensity parameters Ω λ (λ =2, 4 and 6) were calculated according to the transition intensities of 5D0 → 7FJ (J=2, 4 and 6). The radiative transition properties of 5D0 level including transition rates, fluorescence branching ratios and radiative transition lifetime were also calculated. The evaluation of the results suggested that the novel fluorescent fiber Eu(DBM)3Phen/PS may be a potential efficient luminescent material. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Mono-dispersed microspheres of ternary complex Eu(DBM)3phen (DBM=dibenzoylmethide; phen=1,10-phenanthroline) were prepared through a facile process. The obtained sample was characterized by means of X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). And the luminescence properties of the Eu(DBM)3phen were investigated by the fluorescence spectra and the fluorescence decay. According to Judd–Ofelt theory, the optical transition intensity parameters Ω λ (λ=2, 4 and 6) were obtained to be 20.99×10−20, 0.98×10−20 and 1.79×10−20 cm2, respectively. The radiative transition properties of 5D0 level, including transition rates, branch ratios and radiative transition lifetime were calculated. As a potential material for microsphere lasers, the optical gain performance for 5D0→7F2 transition was also evaluated. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study explored and investigated how zearalenone (ZEA) affects the morphology of small intestine and the distribution and expression of ghrelin and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) in the small intestine of weaned gilts. A total of 20 weaned gilts (42-day-old, D × L × Y, weighing 12.84 ± 0.26 kg) were divided into the control and ZEA groups (ZEA at 1.04 mg/kg in diet) in a 35-d study. Histological observations of the small intestines revealed that villus injuries of the duodenum, jejunum and ileum, such as atrophy, retardation and branching dysfunction, were observed in the ZEA treatment. The villi branch of the ileum in the ZEA group was obviously decreased compared to that of the ileum, jejunum and duodenum, and the number of lymphoid nodules of the ileum was increased. Additionally, the effect of ZEA (1.04 mg/kg) was decreased by the immunoreactivity and distribution of ghrelin and PCNA in the duodenal and jejunal mucosal epithelial cells. Interestingly, ZEA increased the immunoreactivity of ghrelin in the ileal mucosal epithelial cells and decreased the immunoreactivity expression of PCNA in the gland epithelium of the small intestine. In conclusion, ZEA (1.04 mg/kg) had adverse effects on the development and the absorptive capacity of the villi of the intestines; yet, the small intestine could resist or ameliorate the adverse effects of ZEA by changing the autocrine of ghrelin in intestinal epithelial cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deoxynivalenol (DON) is a mycotoxin found in grains that poses a potential threat to human and animal health, and the gastrointestinal tract is the primary target organ. There are few studies focused on the toxicology of DON to rabbits, especially on the relation among DON, microbiota, and the gut-associated lymphoid tissue. A total of 30 weaned rabbits (35 d) were evenly divided into the control group and DON group (1.5 mg/kg bodyweight (BW)) based on their body weight. After a 24-day trial, the ultrastructures of the sacculus rotundus and vermiform appendix were observed using a scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscopy. The morphology and microflora in the ileum, caecum, and colon were also examined. The results proved that the ultrastructure of the sacculus rotundus and vermiform appendix, as well as the integrity of the intestinal barrier (especially for the ileum), were impaired after DON was administrated to the rabbits. Compared to the control group, the relative abundance and diversity of the microflora decreased in all three intestinal segments in the DON group, particularly in the ileum and caecum. In conclusion, the toxic effect of DON on weaned rabbits may be performed by destroying the structure of the sacculus rotundus and vermiform appendix, as well as affecting the structure and diversity of the intestinal flora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Hierarchically structured and coiled actuator is prepared from polyamide-6 nanofibers. • The actuator can reversibly rotate in response to various organic solvents. • The actuator can also be stimulated by heat due to the volume expansion upon heating. • NIR-light and water responsiveness can be further introduced by modifying the actuator with polydopamine. Actuators that can respond mechanically to external stimulus have attracted great interests because of their great potential in applications of artificial muscle, soft robot, sensor, power generator, and so on. However, the creation of low-cost and multi-responsive actuators from conventional materials is still challenging. Herein, we demonstrate a new kind of hierarchically structured and multi-responsive actuator by twisting electrospun polyamide-6 into coiled yarn (CPY). Due to the presence of microscale and nanoscale cavities, the CPY can reversibly rotate in response to various organic solvents, and the rotation speed is depended on the type of solvent. Capillary force driven shrinkage is suggested as the actuating mechanism of our CPY, which is different from all previously reported coiled yarns. The high coefficient of thermal expansion of polyamide-6 also makes the CPY heat responsive, as the CPY shows contraction upon heating due to the volume expansion induced untwisting. In addition, NIR light and water responsiveness can be further inserted into the CPY by modifying the non-woven with polydopamine prior to twisting as demonstrated here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deoxynivalenol (DON) is a potential pathogenic factor to humans and animals, and intestinal tract is the primary target organ of DON. Data concerning the effects of DON on rabbits are scarce, especially for weaning rabbits. In this study, 45 weaning rabbits (35 d) were randomly and equally assigned into three groups. Group A was fed basic diet, while groups B and C were added DON at 0.5 mg/kg BW/d and 1.5 mg/kg BW/d, respectively, based on the basic diet. The experiment lasted for 24 days and the intestinal morphology, expression, and distribution of several cytokines in intestinal segments have been examined. The results indicated that ADG decreased while F/G increased significantly compared with the control group after DON added at 1.5 mg/kg BW/d. Some of the morphometric parameters (villi length, crypt depth, and goblet cells density) changed after DON was added. Meanwhile, the concentration as well as the expression levels of relative protein and mRNA of IL-1β, IL-2, IL-6, and IL-8 increased significantly. The immunohistochemistry results illustrated that the quantity and distribution of positive cells of inflammatory cytokines were changed after DON was added. In conclusion, the addition of DON damaged the intestinal morphology and changed the distribution and expression of inflammatory cytokines. The toxic effect depended on the dosage of DON. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zearalenone (ZEN), a non-steroidal Fusarium graminearum with an estrogen effect, can cause damage to the gastrointestinal tract, immune organs, liver, and reproductive system. Further analysis of the mechanism of ZEN has become an important scientific issue. We have established in vivo and in vitro models of ZEN intervention, used AMPK/mTOR as a targeted pathway for ZEN reproductive toxicity, and explored the molecular mechanism by which ZEN may induce uterine hypertrophy in weaned piglets. Our study strongly suggested that ZEN can activate the phosphorylation of AMPK in uterine endometrial epithelium cells, affect the phosphorylation level of mTOR through TSC2 and Rheb, induce autophagy, upregulate the expression of proliferative genes PCNA and BCL2, downregulate the expression of apoptotic gene BAX, promote uterine endometrial epithelium cells proliferation, and ultimately lead to thickening of the endometrial and myometrium, increased density of uterine glands, and induce uterine hypertrophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies demonstrated that progesterone (P4) can promote prostaglandin (PG) E2 production; however, how P4 mediates the synthesis of PGE2 remains unclear. In this study, cervical epithelial cells from mice during the follicular phase were cultured in vitro and treated with different concentrations of P4 (5, 10, and 20 nM). The results of the present study suggest that treatment of murine cervical epithelial cells with 10 nM P4 for 24 h contributed to: (1) significantly increased expression of protein kinase A (PKA), cytosolic phospholipase A2 (cPLA2) and PGE synthase (PGES)-1; (2) higher phosphorylated (p-) to total extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) 1/2 and hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) ratios; (3) a significant decrease in the number of lipid droplets (LDs) and fatty acid content within LDs in epithelial cells; and (4) enhanced arachidonic acid and PGE2 levels in cells compared with the control (0 nM P4) group (P < 0.01 for all findings). In contrast, the PKA inhibitor H89 contributed to significantly decreased cPLA2, PGES-1 and HSL expression, ERK1/2 phosphorylation and arachidonic acid and PGE2 levels, even in the presence of P4. These data show that P4 can act via the PKA/ERK1/2 pathway to stimulate lipolysis of triacylglycerol in the LD core and degradation of phospholipid in the LD membrane to promote PGE2 synthesis in murine cervical epithelial cells. Progesterone can promote prostaglandin (PG) E2 production, but how progesterone affects PGE2 synthesis remains unknown. The findings of this study suggest that progesterone acts via the protein kinase A/extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 pathway to stimulate lipolysis of lipid droplets and degradation of phospholipid to promote PGE2 synthesis in murine cervical epithelial cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent support for unified memory and demand paging has improved graphics processing unit (GPU) programmability and enabled memory oversubscription. However, this support introduces high overhead when page faults occur. Therefore, when the GPU memory fills to capacity, an important issue is how to select eviction candidates. The widely used policy, LRU, and the advanced replacement policies, RRIP and CLOCK-Pro, suffer from inefficiency when dealing with thrashing access patterns. They also incur significant overhead due to managing metadata at page level. In this article, we propose hierarchical page eviction (HPE), a new replacement policy for GPUs with unified memory. Aided by page walk hit information, HPE manages a page set chain dynamically. It uses statistics to classify applications into three categories and selects an appropriate eviction strategy for each category. It also applies dynamic adjustment to switch the eviction strategy when necessary. The simulation results show that, on average, HPE achieves 1.34 × and 1.16 × speedup (up to 2.81 × ) over LRU when the oversubscription rate is 75% and 50%, respectively. HPE also outperforms RRIP and CLOCK-Pro. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant extracts are considered to be an effective alternative to antibiotics in response to weaning stress in piglets. This study evaluated the effect of Illicium verum extracts (IVE) or Eucommia ulmoides leaf extracts (ELE) on growth performance, serum and liver antioxidant ability of nursery piglets, as well as the difference of IVE and ELE on Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire (DLY) and Chinese native Licha‐black (LCB) piglets. A total of 96 nursery piglets (48 DLY and 48 LCB piglets) with an average body weight of 11.22 ± 0.32 kg were randomly divided into four treatments in a 2 × 4 factorial design. Each treatment had four replicates with 3 DLY and 3 LCB piglets per replicate respectively. Treatments included: basal diet, basal diet + 500 mg/kg IVE, basal diet + 250 mg/kg ELE and basal diet + 50 mg/kg chlortetracycline (CHL). All piglets were housed individually for the 42 days trial period after 7 days adaptation. Results showed that there were significant interactions (p <.05) between piglets species and dietary treatments in average daily gain (ADG) and feed efficiency, serum and hepatic glutathione peroxidase (GSH‐Px) and malondialdehyde (MDA), hepatic integral optical density (IOD) of α‐tumour necrosis factor (TNF‐α), hepatic relative mRNA expressions of nuclear factor erythroid 2‐related factor 2 (Nrf2)/TNF‐α and protein expression of TNF‐α. Regardless of piglets species, supplementation with IVE and ELE increased (p <.05) ADG and feed efficiency, T‐SOD and GSH‐Px in serum and liver, hepatic IOD of Nrf2, hepatic mRNA and protein expression of Nrf2/TNF‐α. However, CHL treatment resulted in lower (p <.05) serum GSH‐Px and hepatic mRNA and protein expression of Nrf2/TNF‐α, and higher hepatic MDA and IOD of TNF‐α. Compared to LCB, DLY piglets had higher (p <.05) ADG and feed efficiency, serum and hepatic MDA, and protein expression of TNF‐α, but lower (p <.05) ADFI, liver index, serum and hepatic GSH‐Px, hepatic IOD of TNF‐α, mRNA expressions of Nrf2/TNF‐α were observed. In conclusion, Illicium verum (500 mg/kg) and Eucommia ulmoides leaf (250 mg/kg) extracts can increase the growth performance and antioxidant ability of DLY and LCB piglets, while chlortetracycline produces undesirable side‐effects on the antioxidant ability of DLY and LCB piglets. Illicium verum and Eucommia ulmoides leaf extracts produced different antioxidant effects in DLY and LCB piglets with the Chinese native Licha‐black pig responding better than Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of unified memory and demand paging has simplified programming of graphics processing units (GPUs). It has also enabled oversubscribing the memory for a GPU. However, the overhead of page management makes page faults a performance bottleneck. Sometimes the page eviction policy is unable to mitigate performance slowdown caused by page faults and memory oversubscription. On average, eviction policies such as Random and CAR are not competitive with a traditional least recently used (LRU) policy. Other policies, such as CLOCK-Pro, are designed to overcome challenges with LRU, but they only achieve limited speedup. Even enhancing LRU with page walk hit information does not lead to notable performance improvement. Based on these observations, we propose optimization opportunities to mitigate performance degradation caused by page faults and memory oversubscription. These optimization opportunities include an effective page eviction policy that retains LRU's advantages while addressing LRU's inability to deal with thrashing access patterns, page prefetch and pre-eviction, memory-aware throttling, and capacity compression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researches have shown that dietary zearalenone (ZEA) caused oxidative stress in the liver and reproductive organs of postweaning gilts. However, information on the effects of ZEA on oxidative stress of the small intestine in the piglets is limited. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of ZEA exposure on oxidative stress, the Kelch-like erythroid cell-derived protein with CNC homology (ECH)–associated protein 1 (Keap1)–nuclear factor erythroid 2–related factor 2 (Nrf2) signaling pathway and on immunohistochemistry of the jejunum in postweaning gilts. A 35-d feeding experiment using 40 postweaning gilts (Landrace × Yorkshire × Duroc) with an average BW of 14.01 ± 0.86 kg in 4 groups fed corn–soybean meal-based diets containing 0, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 mg ZEA/kg was conducted. The jejunum was obtained at the end of the experiment and used for analyses. The results showed that the activities of total superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase and the relative expressions of Keap1 mRNA and protein in the jejunum linearly and quadratically decreased (P < 0.05) with increasing concentrations of ZEA in the diets. The malondialdehyde content, the integrated optical density of Nrf2 and glutathione peroxidase 1 (GPX1), and the relative expressions of Nrf2, GPX1, quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1), and modifier subunit of glutamate-cysteine ligase (GCLM) mRNA and proteins linearly and quadratically increased (P < 0.05) with increasing levels of ZEA. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that Nrf2 and GPX1 immunoreactivity was enhanced by the ZEA treatments, and block localization of yellow and brown immunoreactive substances in the jejunum was observed with increasing levels of ZEA. The results suggest that ingested ZEA induced oxidative stress in the jejunum in postweaning gilts through upregulation of the Keap1–Nrf2 signaling pathway and downstream target genes NQO1, HO1, and GCLM, indicating the important role of the Keap1–Nrf2 signaling pathway in oxidative stress induced by ZEA in the jejunum of the postweaning piglets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Memory access scheduling schemes, often performed in memory controllers, have a marked impact on alleviating the heavy burden placed on memory systems of GPGPUs. Existing out-of-order scheduling schemes, like FR-FCFS, improve memory access efficiency by reordering memory request sequences at the destination. Their effectiveness, however, is at the expense of complex logics and high power consumption. In this paper, we propose a NoC-side memory access scheduling based on the key insight that the transmission of on-chip networks is the dominating factor in destroying the row access locality and causing poor memory access efficiency. With appropriate NoC-side optimization, the straight-forward in-order scheduling can be used in memory controllers to simplify scheduling logics and alleviate the tight power envelope. Moreover, we introduce several light-weight optimizations to further improve the system performance. Experimental results on memory-intensive applications show that, comparing with FR-FCFS, our proposed scheme increases the overall system performance by 10.5%, reduces the power consumption by 20% and improves the energy efficiency by 36.9%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a target tracking algorithm based on 4D millimeter-wave radar point cloud information for autonomous driving applications, which addresses the limitations of traditional 2 + 1D radar systems by using higher resolution target point cloud information that enables more accurate motion state estimation and target contour information. The proposed algorithm includes several steps, starting with the estimation of the ego vehicle's velocity information using the radial velocity information of the millimeter-wave radar point cloud. Different clustering suggestions are then obtained using a density-based clustering method, and correlation regions of the targets are obtained based on these clustering suggestions. The binary Bayesian filtering method is then used to determine whether the targets are dynamic or static targets based on their distribution characteristics. For dynamic targets, Kalman filtering is used to estimate and update the state of the target using trajectory and velocity information, while for static targets, the rolling ball method is used to estimate and update the shape contour boundary of the target. Unassociated measurements are estimated for the contour and initialized for the trajectory, and unassociated trajectory targets are selectively retained and deleted. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified using real data. Overall, the proposed target tracking algorithm based on 4D millimeter-wave radar point cloud information has the potential to improve the accuracy and reliability of target tracking in autonomous driving applications, providing more comprehensive motion state and target contour information for better decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Controlling the topologies of polymers is a hot topic in polymer chemistry because the physical and/or chemical properties of polymers are determined (at least partially) by their topologies. This study exploits the host-guest interactions between dibenzo-24-crown-8 and secondary ammonium salts and metal coordination interactions between 2,6-bis(benzimidazolyl)-pyridine units with metal ions (ZnII and/or EuIII) as orthogonal non-covalent interactions to prepare supramolecular polymers. By changing the ratios of the metal ion additives (Zn(NO3)2 and Eu(NO3)3) linkers to join the host-guest dimeric complex, the linear supramolecular polymers (100 mol% Zn(NO3)2 per ligand) and hyperbranched supramolecular polymers (97 mol% Zn(NO3)2 and 3 mol% Eu(NO3)3 per ligand) are separately and successfully constructed. This approach not only expands topological control over polymeric systems, but also paves the way for the functionalization of smart and adaptive materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Binary64 arithmetic is rapidly becoming inadequate to cope with today's large-scale computations due to an accumulation of errors. Therefore, binary128 arithmetic is now required to increase the accuracy and reliability of these computations. At the same time, an obvious trend emerging in modern processors is to extend their instruction sets by allowing single instruction multiple data (SIMD) execution, which can significantly accelerate the data-parallel applications. To address the combined demands mentioned above, this paper presents the architecture of a low-cost binary128 floating-point fused multiply add (FMA) unit with SIMD support. The proposed FMA design can execute a binary128 FMA every other cycle with a latency of four cycles, or two binary64 FMAs fully pipelined with a latency of three cycles, or four binary32 FMAs fully pipelined with a latency of three cycles. We use two binary64 FMA units to support binary128 FMA which requires much less hardware than a fully pipelined binary128 FMA. The presented binary128 FMA design uses both segmentation and iteration hardware vectorization methods to trade off performance, such as throughput and latency, against area and power. Compared with a standard binary128 FMA implementation, the proposed FMA design has 30 percent less area and 29 percent less dynamic power dissipation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this study, we aimed to assess the effect of diet ZEA on serum hormones, the location and expression of estrogen receptor ERα/β and progesterone receptor (PR) of the uterus in weaned piglets and to reveal the mechanism underneath. A total of 40 healthy weaned gilts were randomly allocated to basal diet supplemented with 0 (Control), 0.5 (ZEA0.5), 1.0 (ZEA1.0) and 1.5 (ZEA1.5) mg ZEA/kg and fed individually for 35 days. Meanwhile, the porcine endometrial epithelial cells (PECs) were incubated for 24 h with ZEA at 0 (Control), 5 (ZEA5), 20 (ZEA20) and 80 (ZEA80) μmol/L, respectively. The results showed that nutrient apparent digestibility (CP and GE), nutrient apparent availability (ME/GE, BV and NPU), the uterine immunoreactive integrated optic density (IOD), relative mRNA and protein expression of ER-α, ER-β and PR and the relative mRNA and protein expression of ER-α and ER-β in PECs all increased linearly (p < 0.05) with ZEA. Collectively, ZEA can interfere with the secretion of some reproductive hormones in the serum and promote the expression of estrogen/progesterone receptors in the uterus and PECs. All these indicate that ZEA may promote the development of the uterus in weaned gilts through estrogen receptor pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Paraformic acid (PFA) is a hyperpolymer formed by polymerization of formic acid monomers, and PFA has a lower pungent smell and corrosiveness to the gastrointestinal tract compared with formic acid. The liver is a crucial metabolic organ, playing a momentous role in nutrients biosynthesis and metabolism, defense against bacterial invasion, and endotoxin clearance. However, in the condition of intensive poultry husbandry, the broiler's liver is susceptible to inflammatory damage. Our results showed that PFA supplemented to the diet improved growth performance, inhibited inflammatory response, and benefited liver protection, which provided a direction for the use of PFA in broiler production. The current study aimed to explore the effects of supplementing paraformic acid (PFA) into broilers' diet on growth performance, inflammatory responses, and liver protection. A total of 567 healthy one-day-old broilers were used in a 42-d study, and they were randomized into three groups. Broilers were fed a basal diet (CON group) or the basal diet supplemented with either 50 mg/kg aureomycin (AB group) or 1000 mg/kg PFA (PFA group). The results showed that the PFA and AB groups had a higher feed conversion rate than the CON group from day 21 to 42 (p < 0.05). Dietary PFA or aureomycin supplementation decreased serum levels of interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-10, alanine transaminase, diamine oxidase, and D-lactate, and significantly increased serum concentrations of immunoglobulin (Ig) A, IgM, and complement C4 (p < 0.05). Moreover, dietary PFA or aureomycin supplementation decreased hepatic levels of caspase-1, NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3), tumor necrosis factor-alpha, IL-6, and IL-18, as well as NF-κB mRNA expression (p < 0.05). Above all, PFA supplementation into the broilers' diet improved growth performance, inhibited inflammatory responses, and benefited liver protection. The protective effects of PFA on the liver might be related to inhibition of caspase-1-induced pyroptosis via inactivating the NF-κB/NLRP3 inflammasome axis in broiler chickens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zearalenone (ZEN), also known as the F-2 toxin, is a common contaminant in cereal crops and livestock products. This experiment aimed to reveal the changes in the proteomics of ZEN-induced intestinal damage in weaned piglets by tandem mass spectrometry tags. Sixteen weaned piglets either received a basal diet or a basal diet supplemented with 3.0 mg/kg ZEN in a 32 d study. The results showed that the serum levels of ZEN, α-zearalenol, and β-zearalenol were increased in weaned piglets exposed to ZEN (p < 0.05). Zearalenone exposure reduced apparent nutrient digestibility, increased intestinal permeability, and caused intestinal damage in weaned piglets. Meanwhile, a total of 174 differential proteins (DEPs) were identified between control and ZEN groups, with 60 up-regulated DEPs and 114 down-regulated DEPs (FC > 1.20 or <0.83, p < 0.05). Gene ontology analysis revealed that DEPs were mainly involved in substance transport and metabolism, gene expression, inflammatory, and oxidative stress. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis revealed that DEPs were significantly enriched in 25 signaling pathways (p < 0.05), most of which were related to inflammation and amino acid metabolism. Our study provides valuable clues to elucidate the possible mechanism of ZEN-induced intestinal injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to explore the effect of zearalenone (ZEA) exposure on uterine development in weaned gilts by quantitative proteome analysis with tandem mass spectrometry tags (TMT). A total of 16 healthy weaned gilts were randomly divided into control (basal diet) and ZEA3.0 treatments groups (basal diet supplemented with 3.0 mg/kg ZEA). Results showed that vulva size and uterine development index were increased (p < 0.05), whereas serum follicle stimulation hormone, luteinizing hormone and gonadotropin-releasing hormone were decreased in gilts fed the ZEA diet (p < 0.05). ZEA, α-zearalenol (α-ZOL) and β-zearalenol (β-ZOL) were detected in the uteri of gilts fed a 3.0 mg/kg ZEA diet (p < 0.05). The relative protein expression levels of creatine kinase M-type (CKM), atriopeptidase (MME) and myeloperoxidase (MPO) were up-regulated (p < 0.05), whereas aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 family member (ALDH1A2), secretogranin-1 (CHGB) and SURP and G-patch domain containing 1 (SUGP1) were down-regulated (p < 0.05) in the ZEA3.0 group by western blot, which indicated that the proteomics data were dependable. In addition, the functions of differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) mainly involved the cellular process, biological regulation and metabolic process in the biological process category. Some important signaling pathways were changed in the ZEA3.0 group, such as extracellular matrix (ECM)-receptor interaction, focal adhesion and the phosphoinositide 3-kinase–protein kinase B (PI3K-AKT) signaling pathway (p < 0.01). This study sheds new light on the molecular mechanism of ZEA in the uterine development of gilts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Tannic acid (TA) is a hydrophilic polyphenolic compound present in most plants. Galla chinensis, a traditional Chinese medicine, is widely available and used in China, and TA is one of the main bioactive components of Galla chinensis. Until now, there is little information available in the scientific literature on the evaluation of the application of Galla chinensis TA in broiler production. A healthy and well-developed intestine is critical in absorbing nutrients and serves as a vital barrier against pathogen invasion. However, the intestine of the broiler is vulnerable to inflammatory damage under intensive poultry farming conditions. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the effects of adding Galla chinensis TA to the diet of broiler chickens on intestinal development and health, and highlight the application of TA sourced from Galla chinensis as a potential feed additive in poultry production. Our results showed that 300 mg/kg microencapsulated TA from Galla chinensis supplementation benefited to improve intestinal development, which might be attributed to the suppression of inflammatory responses via blockage of NF-κB in broiler chickens, and provide guidance for the application of Galla chinensis TA in poultry production. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of adding tannic acid (TA) extracted from Galla chinensis to the diet of broiler chickens on intestinal development. A total of 324 healthy 1-day-old broilers were used in a 42 d study, and divided into two treatment groups at random (six replicates per group). Broilers were either received a basal diet or a basal diet supplemented with 300 mg/kg microencapsulated TA extracted from Galla chinensis. The results showed that dietary supplemented with 300 mg/kg TA from Galla chinensis improved intestinal morphology, promoted intestinal mucosal barrier integrity, and elevated mucosal expressions of nutrients transporters and tight junction protein CLDN3 in broilers. Besides, 300 mg/kg TA from Galla chinensis supplementation decreased the concentrations of inflammatory cytokines in serum and intestinal mucosa and reduced the mRNA expression of NF-κB in intestinal mucosa. Above all, supplementation of 300 mg/kg microencapsulated TA extracted from Galla chinensis showed beneficial effects in improving intestinal development, which might be attributed to the suppression of inflammatory responses via blockage of NF-κB in broiler chickens. These findings will support the use of TA sourced from Galla chinensis in poultry industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Huangjiu usually caused rapid-drunkenness and components such as β-benzyl ethanol (β-be), isopentanol (Iso), histamine (His), and phenethylamine (PEA) have been reported linked with intoxication. However, the destructive effect of these components on gut microbiota and liver is unclear. In this study, we found oral treatment of these components, especially His, stimulated the level of oxidative stress and inflammatory cytokines in liver and serum of mice. The gut microbiota community was changed and the level of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) increased significantly. Additionally, cellular pyroptosis pathway has been assessed and correlation analysis revealed a possible relationship between gut microbiota and liver pyroptosis. We speculated oral His treatment caused the reprogramming of gut microbiota metabolism, and increased LPS modulated the gut-liver interaction, resulting in liver pyroptosis, which might cause health risks. This study provided a theoretical basis for the effect of Huangjiu, facilitating the development of therapeutic and preventive strategies for related inflammatory disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traffic participant classification is critical in autonomous driving perception. Millimetre wave radio detection and ranging (RADAR) is a cost‐effective and robust means of performing this task in adverse traffic scenarios such as inclement weather (e.g. fog, snow, and rain) and poor lighting conditions. Compared to commercial two‐dimensional RADAR, the new generation of three‐dimensional (3D) RADAR can obtain height information about targets as well as their dense point clouds, greatly improving target classification capabilities. This study proposes a multi‐objective classification method for traffic participants based on 3D RADAR point clouds. First, a 22‐dimensional feature vector of the 3D RADAR point cloud distribution was extracted to describe the shape, discrete, Doppler, and reflection intensity features of the targets. Then, dynamic and static datasets containing five classes of targets were produced, creating a 10k frame. Extensive experiments were conducted to build machine learning classifiers. The experimental results show that the trained classifiers can achieve over 92% classification accuracy when the targets are classified into five groups and over 95% classification accuracy when the targets are classified into four groups. The proposed method can guide the design of safer and more efficient intelligent driving systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fumonisin B1 (FB1) is the most common food-borne mycotoxin produced by the Fusarium species, posing a potential threat to human and animal health. Pigs are more sensitive to FB1 ingested from feed compared to other farmed livestock. Enzymatic degradation is an ideal detoxification method that has attracted much attention. This study aimed to explore the functional characteristics of the carboxylesterase FumDSB in growing pigs from the perspective of brain–gut regulation. A total of 24 growing pigs were divided into three groups. The control group was fed a basal diet, the FB1 group was supplemented with FB1 at 5 mg/kg feed, and the FumDSB group received added FumDSB based on the diet of the FB1 group. After 35 days of animal trials, samples from the hypothalamus and jejunum were analyzed through HE staining, qRT-PCR and immunohistochemistry. The results demonstrated that the ingestion of FB1 can reduce the feed intake and weight gain of growing pigs, indicating that several appetite-related brain-gut peptides (including NPY, PYY, ghrelin and obestatin, etc.) play important roles in the anorexia response induced by FB1. After adding FumDSB as detoxifying enzymes, however, the anorexia effects of FB1 were alleviated, and the expression and distribution of the corresponding brain-gut peptides exhibited a certain degree of regulation. In conclusion, the addition of FumDSB can reduce the anorexia effects of FB1 by regulating several brain-gut peptides in both the hypothalamus and the jejunum of growing pigs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• GyV3 induced persistent infection in both chickens and mice. • Bone marrow and cerebrum are GyV3 targets in chickens and mice. • Genetic diversity analysis showed that GyV3 can adapt to new hosts. • Adaptation occurs via rapid evolution in the hypervariable region of VP1. Gyrovirus 3 (GyV3) has been identified in humans and other hosts, suggesting its cross-species pathogenicity, which poses an increased public health risk. In the current study, we established chicken and mouse models of GyV3 infection. We found that GyV3 induced persistent infections, characterized by viremia, aplastic anemia, immunosuppression, and systematic lymphocytic inflammation, in both species. Kinetic viral loads and antigen expression demonstrated rapid viral replication and broad tissue tropism of GyV3 in both models. The highest viral loads and the strongest antigen immunostaining were present in bone marrow and cerebrum in both chickens and mice, indicating that these are target tissues for GyV3. Genetic diversity analysis of VP1 in infected chickens and mice showed that GyV3 adapts to new hosts via rapid evolution of the hypervariable region of the gene encoding the structural protein VP1. Overall, our results indicate that GyV3 is a cross-species pathogenic virus; therefore, more attention needs to be paid to high levels of GyV3-induced neurotropism and aplastic anemia as a public health risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of Illicium verum extracts (IVE) or Eucommia ulmoides leaf extracts (ELE) on nutrient availability, duodenal and jejunal antioxidant ability of Duroc ×Landrace × Yorkshire (DLY) and Chinese native Licha‐black (LCB) piglets was investigated. Ninety‐six piglets (48 DLY and 48 LCB respectively) without significant difference in body weight (11.22 ± 0.32 kg) were used in a 2 × 4 factorial design. Animals were randomly allocated to four treatments, and each had four replicates with three DLY and three LCB piglets. Treatments were basal diet (CON) and basal diet with 500 mg/kg IVE, 250 mg/kg ELE and 50 mg/kg chlortetracycline (CHL) respectively. Animals were placed individually for 7‐days adaptation following 42‐days test. Results showed the significant interaction (p < 0.05) between dietary treatments and pig species in activity of total superoxide dismutase (T‐SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH‐Px), content of malondialdehyde (MDA), and α‐tumour necrosis factor (TNF‐α), nuclear factor erythroid 2‐related factor 2 (Nrf2) and Nrf2/TNF‐α at mRNA and protein level in duodenum and jejunum of DLY and LCB piglets. The IVE and ELE increased (p < 0.05) activity of GSH‐Px and T‐SOD, and the Nrf2/TNF‐α at mRNA and protein level, however, the decreased (p < 0.05) MDA content, and TNF‐α at mRNA and protein level in duodenum and jejunum were observed. The CHL decreased (p < 0.05) activity of GSH‐Px and T‐SOD, TNF‐α and Nrf2 at mRNA and protein level in duodenum, but increased (p < 0.05) MDA content and Nrf2/TNF‐α in jejunum. DLY piglets had higher (p < 0.05) nutrient digestibility (organic matter, crude protein and gross energy), availability (biological value and net protein utilization), MDA content, and TNF‐α at mRNA and protein level in jejunum, and had lower (p < 0.05) activity of GSH‐Px and T‐SOD, and Nrf2 and Nrf2/TNF‐α at mRNA and protein level in duodenum and jejunum than LCB. In conclusion, the 500 mg/kg IVE and 250 mg/kg ELE improved the nutrient availability, and the improvement of antioxidant capacity is realized by activating the Nrf2/TNF‐α of duodenum and jejunum. The CHL had adverse effects on antioxidant ability of DLY and LCB piglets. The results showed that the nutrient digestion and absorption capacity of DLY were stronger than that of LCB piglets, but the antioxidant capacity was lower than that of LCB piglets. Therefore, the IVE and ELE are recommended as a new potential alternative to antibiotics in piglets' diets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lipid droplets (LDs) are reservoirs of arachidonoyl lipids for prostaglandin (PG) E2 synthesis, and progesterone can stimulate PGE2 synthesis; however, the relationship between progesterone and LD metabolism in the murine cervix remains unclear. In the present study we examined LD distribution and changes in the expression of proteins involved in lipolysis and autophagy in the murine cervix during pregnancy, and compared the findings with those in dioestrous mice. During mid-pregnancy, LDs were predominantly distributed in the cervical epithelium. Electron microscopy revealed the transfer of numerous LDs from the basal to apical region in the luminal epithelium, marked catabolism of LDs, an elevated number of LDs and autophagosomes and a higher LD : mitochondrion size ratio in murine cervical epithelial cells (P < 0.05). In addition, immunohistochemical and western blotting analyses showed significantly higher cAMP-dependent protein kinase, adipose triglyceride lipase and hormone-sensitive lipase expression, and a higher light chain 3 (LC3) II : LC3I ratio in the stroma and smooth muscles and, particularly, in murine cervical epithelial cells, during mid-pregnancy than late dioestrus. In conclusion, these results suggest that the enhanced lipolysis of LDs and autophagy in murine cervical tissues were closely related to pregnancy and were possibly controlled by progesterone because LD catabolism may be necessary for energy provision and PGE2 synthesis to maintain a closed pregnant cervix. Lipid droplets in fat cells and non-fat cells are sources of energy and fatty acid hormone production, but whether there are lipid droplets in the uterine cervix and whether lipid droplets are in a degraded state are remain unclear. The findings of this study suggest that lipid droplets are in a degraded state during pregnancy and this is controlled by progesterone. Thus, lipid droplets could play an important role in maintaining cervical closure during gestation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptive routing algorithms can improve performance by balancing load across network channels in the presence of non-uniform traffic patterns. However, out-of-order packets can be introduced due to multi-path transmission of adaptive routing. With out-of-order transmission in the network, packets need to be reordered at the destination before being absorbed. Increasing network size with adaptive routing makes the time when a packet arrives at the destination extremely uncertain, which requires a large buffer to reorder the packets and this can exceed design space. Therefore, the challenge is to balance the trade-off between multi-path transmission and packet reordering. In this paper, we propose a novel packet reordering metric-OOD to quantify the degree of out-of-order. To minimize the OOD of packets, we propose DancerFly, an order-aware network-on-chip router that mitigates out-of-order packets caused by adaptive routing. DancerFly achieves this goal by providing two-level reordering. First, it performs in-buffer reordering by reordering packets queuing in the input buffer. Second, packets from different input ports are reordered before traversing through the router. We evaluate our design and the results show that the OOD can be reduced by 36.3% with comparable performance to the baseline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zearalenone (ZEA) contamination of feed affects animal husbandry and the human health. Currently, the molecular mechanism underlying small intestine-related diseases caused by ZEA-induced oxidative stress is not well understood. In this study, we aimed to identify the mechanisms involved in ZEA (0.5–1.5 mg/kg)-induced oxidative stress in the ileum and mesenteric lymph nodes (MLNs) and the role of the Kelch-like erythroid cell-derived protein with CNC homology-associated protein 1 (Keap1)–nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) signaling pathway in post-weaning gilts. Forty post-weaning gilts (Landrace × Yorkshire × Duroc) with an average body weight of 14.01 ± 0.86 kg were randomly allocated to four groups and fed a corn–soybean meal basal diet supplemented with < 0.1, 0.5, 1.0, or 1.5 mg/kg ZEA. The results showed that the activity of total superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase decreased (p < 0.05) linearly and quadratically and that the content of malondialdehyde increased (p < 0.05) quadratically in the ileum and MLNs with increasing ZEA in the diet. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that the expression of Nrf2 and glutathione peroxidase 1 (Gpx1) immunoreactive proteins in the ileum and MLNs were significantly enhanced with increasing ZEA. The relative mRNA and protein expression of Nrf2 , Gpx1 , quinone oxidoreductase 1 (Nqo1), hemeoxygenase 1 (Ho1), modifier subunit of glutamate-cysteine ligase (Gclm), and catalytic subunit of glutamate-cysteine ligase (Gclc) increased (p < 0.05) linearly and quadratically, and the relative mRNA and protein expression of Keap1 decreased (p < 0.05) linearly and quadratically in the ileum with increasing ZEA concentrations in the diet. Further, the relative mRNA and protein expression of Nrf2 and Gpx1 increased (p < 0.05) linearly and quadratically, and the relative mRNA and protein expression of Nqo1 , Ho1 , and Gclm decreased (p < 0.05) quadratically in the MLNs as ZEA concentrations increased in the diet. Our results provide valuable genetic information on ZEA-induced oxidative stress in the ileum and MLNs of post-weaning gilts and have elucidated the key regulatory genes involved in the Keap1–Nrf2 signaling pathway. Results indicated that the Keap1–Nrf2 signaling pathway might be a key target to further prevent and treat ZEA-induced injury to the ileum in post-weaning gilts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High performance implementation of matrix multiplication is essential for scientific computing. The memory access procedure is quite possible to be the bottleneck of matrix multiplication. The widely used GotoBLAS GEMM implementation divides the integral matrix into several partitions to be assigned to different cores for parallelization. Traditionally, each core deploys a DMA transfer to access its own partition in the DRAM memory. However, deploying an independent DMA transfer for each core cannot efficiently exploit the inter-core locality. Also, multiple concurrent DMA transfers interfere with each other, further reducing the DRAM access efficiency. We observe that the same row of neighboring partitions is in the same DRAM page, which means that there is significant locality inherent in the address layout. We propose the coordinated DMA to efficiently exploit the locality. It invokes one transfer to serve all cores and moves data in a row-major manner to improve the DRAM access efficiency. Compared with a baseline design, the coordinated DMA improves the bandwidth by 84.8 percent and reduces DRAM energy consumption by 43.1 percent for micro-benchmarks. It achieves higher performance for the GEMM and Linpack benchmark. With much less hardware costs, the coordinated DMA significantly outperforms an out-of-order memory controller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Macrococcus caseolyticus is generally considered to be a non‐pathogenic bacterium that does not cause human or animal diseases. However, recently, a strain of M. caseolyticus (SDLY strain) that causes high mortality rates was isolated from commercial broiler chickens in China. The main pathological changes caused by SDLY included caseous exudation in cranial cavities, inflammatory infiltration, haemorrhages and multifocal necrosis in various organs. The whole genome of the SDLY strain was sequenced and was compared with that of the non‐pathogenic JCSC5402 strain of M. caseolyticus. The results showed that the SDLY strain harboured a large quantity of mutations, antibiotic resistance genes and numerous insertions and deletions of virulence genes. In particular, among the inserted genes, there is a cluster of eight connected genes associated with the synthesis of capsular polysaccharide. This cluster encodes a transferase and capsular polysaccharide synthase, promotes the formation of capsules and causes changes in pathogenicity. Electron microscopy revealed a distinct capsule surrounding the SDLY strain. The pathogenicity test showed that the SDLY strain could cause significant clinical symptoms and pathological changes in both SPF chickens and mice. In addition, these clinical symptoms and pathological changes were the same as those observed in field cases. Furthermore, the anti‐microbial susceptibility test demonstrated that the SDLY strain exhibits multiple‐antibiotic resistance. The emergence of pathogenic M. caseolyticus indicates that more attention should be paid to the effects of this micro‐organism on both poultry and public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Gyrovirus 3 (GyV3) has been identified in faeces from children with acute gastroenteritis. However, whether GyV3 is prevalent in poultry has not been determined to date. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to isolate GyV3 from commercial broiler chickens with transmissible viral proventriculitis (TVP) in China. The complete genome of the virus shares 98.4% sequence identity with the FecGy strain that causes acute gastroenteritis in children. Epidemiological investigation from 2013 to 2017 revealed that the infection rate of GyV3 reached 12.5% (42/336) in commercial broiler chickens with TVP, indicating that the infection of GyV3 was ubiquitous in chickens. The emergence of GyV3 in commercial broiler chickens should be highly concerning for public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zearalenone (ZEA) is an estrogenic toxin produced by Fusarium species, which is widely distributed and posed a great health risk to both humans and farm animals. Reproductive disorders associated with ZEA such as premature puberty, infertility and abortion have plagued the animal husbandry, but the molecular mechanism is unclear. Because transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) signaling pathway is involved in the proliferation and apoptosis of cells, proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), B-cell lymphoma/leukemia-2 (BCL-2) and BCL-2 associated X protein (BAX) that all play indispensable roles in the normal development of the uterus, it is hypothesized that ZEA induces reproductive disorders is closely related to the expression of these genes. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of dietary ZEA at the concentrations of 0.5 to 1.5 mg/kg on the mRNA and protein expression of these genes in the uteri of post-weaning gilts and to explore the possible molecular mechanism. Forty healthy post-weaning female piglets (Duroc × Landrace × Large White) aged 38 d were randomly allocated to basal diet supplemented with 0 (Control), 0.5 (ZEA0.5), 1.0 (ZEA1.0), or 1.5 (ZEA1.5) mg/kg purified ZEA, and fed for 35 d. Piglets were euthanized at the end of the experiment and samples were taken and subjected to immunohistochemistry, qRT-PCR and Western blot analyses. The relative mRNA expressions of PCNA, BCL-2 and Smad3 in the uteri of post-weaning gilts increased linearly (p < 0.05) and quadratically (p < 0.05) as ZEA concentration increased in the diet. The relative protein expressions of PCNA, BAX, BCL-2, TGF-β1, Smad3, and phosphorylated Smad3 (p-Smad3) in the uteri of post-weaning gilts increased linearly (p < 0.05) and quadratically (p < 0.001) with an increasing level of ZEA. The results showed that uterine cells in the ZEA (0.5-1.5 mg/kg) treatments were in a high proliferation state, indicating that ZEA could accelerate the proliferation of uteri and promote the development of the uteri. At the same time, the results suggested that ZEA activates the TGF-β1/Smad3 signaling pathway, suggesting it plays an important role in accelerating the development of the uterus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hypervariable antigenicity and immunosuppressive features of avian leukosis virus subgroup J (ALV-J) has led to great challenges to develop effective vaccines. Epitope vaccine will be a perspective trend. Previously, we identified a variant antigenic neutralizing epitope in hypervariable region 1 (hr1) of ALV-J, N-LRDFI A/E/T KWK S/G DD L/H LIRPYVNQS-C. BLAST analysis showed that the mutation of A, E, T and H in this epitope cover 79% of all ALV-J strains. Base on this data, we designed a multi-variant epitope ensemble vaccine comprising the four mutation variants linked with glycine and serine. The recombinant multi-variant epitope gene was expressed in Escherichia coli BL21. The expressed protein of the variant multi-variant epitope gene can react with positive sera and monoclonal antibodies of ALV-J, while cannot react with ALV-J negative sera. The multi-variant epitope vaccine that conjugated Freund's adjuvant complete/incomplete showed high immunogenicity that reached the titer of 1:64,000 at 42 days post immunization and maintained the immune period for at least 126 days in SPF chickens. Further, we demonstrated that the antibody induced by the variant multi-variant ensemble epitope vaccine recognized and neutralized different ALV-J strains (NX0101, TA1, WS1, BZ1224 and BZ4). Protection experiment that was evaluated by clinical symptom, viral shedding, weight gain, gross and histopathology showed 100% chickens that inoculated the multi-epitope vaccine were well protected against ALV-J challenge. The result shows a promising multi-variant epitope ensemble vaccine against hypervariable viruses in animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ovarian theca cells play an indispensable role in ovarian follicular development and hormone secretion. miR-26a-5p was reported to be differentially expressed in mature and immature chicken ovaries in our previous study; however, the role of miR-26a-5p in regulating ovarian follicle function is still unclear. In this study, we demonstrated that the expression dynamics of TNRC6A mRNA in either chicken ovaries or follicles showed an opposite trend compared with that of chicken miR-26a-5p expression. miR-26a-5p inhibited TNRC6A mRNA expression by directly targeting its 3′-untranslated region in cultured chicken theca cells. Overexpression of miR-26a-5p promoted chicken follicular theca cell proliferation in vitro. Furthermore, overexpression of miR-26a-5p and knockdown of TNRC6A significantly upregulated the antiapoptotic BCL-2 gene. Taken together, this study revealed the expression dynamics of miR-26a-5p and TNRC6A in chicken ovaries and ovarian follicles and the relationship between the expression of miR-26a-5p and TNRC6A in chicken ovarian theca cells. These results suggest that miR-26a-5p facilitates chicken ovarian theca cell proliferation by targeting the TNRC6A gene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous reports have provided evidence that zearalenone (ZEN) can increase the weight of genital organs. These findings have been confirmed by many studies in which the ghrelin gene was expressed in the ovary and was implicated in the control of cells in reproductive tissues. The proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) is an important marker of cell proliferation. The present study investigates the effects of a ZEN-treated diet on the development of ovaries in post-weaning piglets by the detection of ghrelin and PCNA protein and relative abundance of mRNA using optical microscopy, immunohistochemistry and quantitative real-time (qRT-PCR). A total of 20 piglets (Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire) weaned at 28 d, with an average body weight of 8.74 ± 0.26 kg ( P = 0.919) were used in this study. Piglets in the control group ( n = 10) were fed a normal basal diet, and those in the treatment group ( n = 10) were fed a diet containing ZEN (1.04 mg/kg), for 35 d. The proportion of growing follicles and diameter of the largest growing follicle in ovaries were greater in piglets fed the diet with ZEN. The total integrated optical densities of protein and mRNA of ghrelin and PCNA were greater with the feeding of the ZEN-treatment diet. The results suggested that 1.04 mg/kg ZEN could promote the autocrine action or expression of the ghrelin gene in piglet ovary, and further accelerate the development of ovaries (follicles). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we examined the ovarian development and its relationship with steroid hormone receptors levels and the precocious puberty in JiNing Gray goats by using optical microscopy, immunohistochemistry, quantitative real-time RT-PCR (qPCR) and Western blotting. We found that in the ovaries of neonatal kids, high level of receptors for estrogen (ERα and ERβ) and progesterone (PR) and their mRNA were observed along with growing follicles. From 0 to 30 days of age, the weight and volume of ovaries increased significantly and the boundary between the inner and outer cortex disappeared, while the expression of ERα, ERβ and PR and their mRNA decreased sharply. When 60 days old, the animals began to ovulate; the expression of ERα, ERβ and PR and their mRNA significantly increased, and the animals reached puberty. On day 90, the animals manifested sexual maturity with biggest mature follicles 6.18 mm in diameter, the expression of ERβ and PR protein and their mRNA was maintained at a high level, with decreased expression of ERα and its mRNA. Before puberty, the expression of ovarian ERα (prepubertal dominant receptor) and it's mRNA was significantly higher than that of ERβ (dominant receptor after sexual maturity). The results showed that JiNing Grey goats' ovaries had fast development and early maturation, and ERα, ERβ and PR protein and mRNA expression in the ovary had distinct specificity for time and space, which may be closely related to the strain's progenitive characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To provide efficient, high-performance routing algorithms, a holistic approach should be taken. The key aspects of routing algorithm design include adaptivity, path selection strategy, VC allocation, isolation, and hardware implementation cost; these design aspects are not independent. The key contribution of this work lies in the design of a novel selection strategy, Destination-Based Selection Strategy (DBSS), which targets interference that can arise in many-core systems running consolidation workloads. In the process of this design, we holistically consider all aspects to ensure an efficient design. Existing routing algorithms largely overlook issues associated with workload consolidation. Locally adaptive algorithms do not consider enough status information to avoid network congestion. Globally adaptive routing algorithms attack this issue by utilizing network status beyond neighboring nodes. However, they may suffer from interference, coupling the behavior of otherwise independent applications. To address these issues, DBSS leverages both local and nonlocal network status to provide more effective adaptivity. More importantly, by integrating the destination into the selection procedure, DBSS mitigates interference and offers dynamic isolation among applications. Results show that DBSS offers better performance than the best baseline selection strategy and improves the energy-delay product for medium and high injection rates; it is well suited for workload consolidation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]