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Objectives of this study were to evaluate the alleviating effects of a commercial beta-1,3-glucan product (Aleta, containing 50% beta-1,3-glucan, Kemin Industries) on metabolic stress in transition Holstein cows as reflected by circulating metabolites and enzymes. Fifty-four multiparous Holstein cows were randomly allocated to three groups with 18 cows each. Cows in each group received a commercial basal diet or the basal diet supplemented with Aleta calculated to supply 5 or 10 g of Aleta per cow per day. Blood samples were collected at day −21, 1, and 21 relative to calving for determination of serum triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) , high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL C) , very low density lipoprotein (VLDL), glucose, insulin, β-hydroxybutyric acid (BHBA), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT), and non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA). Supplementation with Aleta markedly elevated serum concentrations of TG, TC, HDL C, LDL-C and VLDL, implying its positive effect on lipid metabolism in transition dairy cows. Aleta treatment significantly decreased the serum concentrations of NEFA and BHBA, but markedly elevated the serum concentrations of glucose and insulin. Also, Aleta treatment significantly elevated the dry matter intake and milk production in postpartum cows, indicating the alleviating effect of Aleta on negative energy balance in transition cows. Moreover, Aleta treatment significantly reduced the serum activities of AST, ALT and GGT, indicating its hepatoprotective effect on transition cows. These results suggest that Aleta supplementation may help to improve fat metabolism disorder initiated by negative energy balance in transition dairy cows.

In order to address the uneven flow velocity of catalytic reactors and to solve problems such as wear and soaring temperatures in catalysts, a three-dimensional mathematical model of a catalytic reactor was established. A comparison of the physical model and the simulation results revealed that the experimental results were a good fit to the mathematic model. The optimization results revealed the following: advantageous placement of the catalyst was 12.5–17.5 mm from the optimization site; the cross plate + porous plate was preferential; and the area-weighted uniformity index reached 0.93. When the catalyst was placed 25–30 mm from the optimization site, the cross plate + strip plate + hole or cross + grid + plate was preferential and the area-weighted uniformity index reached 0.93.

Dairy cows undergo dramatic physiological changes during the transition from late pregnancy to early lactation, which make them vulnerable to metabolic stress and immune dysfunction. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of a commercial beta-1,3-glucan product (Aleta™, containing 50% beta-1,3-glucan) on productivity, immunity and antioxidative status in transition cows. Fifty-four multiparous Holstein cows received a control diet or a diet supplemented with 5 or 10 g of beta-1,3-glucan per cow per day from 21 days before expected calving to 21 days after parturition. Blood samples were collected at day −21, 1, and 21 relative to calving. Colostrum and milk were collected at day 1 and 21 after calving, respectively. Data showed that supplementation with beta-1,3-glucan had no effect on milk composition, but increased milk production. Beta-1,3-glucan treatment also improved the milk quality, as shown by reduced milk somatic cell count and increased immunoglobulin levels in colostrum. Notably, beta-1,3-glucan markedly reduced serum levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and C-reactive protein, while elevated serum immunoglobulin levels, indicating its immunity enhancement in transition cows. Moreover, beta-1,3-glucan addition reduced the serum malondialdehyde level and enhanced the activities of serum superoxide dismutase and catalase, which enhanced the antioxidative capacity in transition cows. In summary, supplementation with beta-1,3-glucan improves productivity, immunity and antioxidative status in transition dairy cows.

This work attempts to optimize the traditional flow-reverse reactor by establishing a three-dimensional model of a toluene catalytic-combustion reactor through computational fluid dynamics ...

Ru/TiO2 and Ru-Ce/TiO2 catalysts were prepared by the equal-volume impregnation method to test their catalytic oxidation of chlorobenzene(CB), with the aim to investigate the effect of Ce addition on the redox capacity of the catalysts under the premise of reducing the content of noble metals. It was found that the introduction of Ce conserved the high catalytic efficiency of the catalyst while reducing the content of noble metal, and the catalysis of CB was greatly improved at low temperatures. Compared with the 0.4Ru/TiO2 catalyst, the T10 and T90 of the 0.4Ru-1.0Ce/TiO2 catalyst decreased by 50 ℃ and 60 ℃ respectively. It presented high reaction rate at 170 ℃ with an increase from 1.21 × 10−8 mol/min‧m2 for the 0.4Ru/TiO2 catalyst to 10.45 × 10−8 mol/min‧m2, making it even better than the 2.0Ru/TiO2 catalyst. The structure and morphology of the Ru/TiO2 catalyst did not change with the Ce doping and the mesoporous structure of the catalysts was maintained. CeO2 can not only store and release oxygen, but also improve the activity and dispersion of precious metal loaded. The formation of Ru O Ce under the interaction between CeO2 and Ru species promoted electron transfer and improved the mobility of surface oxygen, thus forming RuOx with higher valance. The introduction of Ce improved the yield of COx and selectivity towards inorganic chlorine (HCl and Cl2) and prevented the catalyst from producing more chlorinated by-products, thus greatly reducing the chance of producing more toxic dioxins.

A single metal Pd/γ-Al2O3 catalyst and a bimetallic Pd–Ce/γ-Al2O3 catalyst were prepared by the equal-volume impregnation method to investigate the effect of CeO2 loading on the catalytic oxidation of toluene. The specific surface area, surface morphology, and redox performance of the catalyst were characterized by N2 desorption, scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), H2-TPR, O2-TPD, and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). The results showed that bimetal catalysts loaded CeO2 had smaller nano-PdO particles than those of the Pd/γ-Al2O3 catalyst. Compared with the catalyst of 0.2Pd/γ-Al2O3 (percentage of mass, the same as below), the catalyst doped with 0.3CeO2 had a stronger reduction peak, which was shifted to the low-temperature zone by more than 80 °C. The results of XPS and O2-TPD showed that the introduction of CeO2 provided more surface oxygen vacancy for the catalyst and enhanced its catalytic oxidation ability, and the amount of desorbed O2 increased from 3.55 μmol/g to 8.54 μmol/g. The results of EPR were that the addition of CeO2 increased the content of active oxygen species and oxygen vacancies on the surface of the catalysts, which might be due to the supply of electrons to the O2 and PdO during the Ce3+toCe4+ conversion process. That could have accelerated the catalytic reaction process. Compared with the single precious metal catalyst, the T10 and T90 of the Pd–Ce/γ-Al2O3 catalyst were decreased by 22 °C and 40 °C, respectively.

To explore syndrome and treatment laws for treating diseases of the pulmonary system by establishing database based on clinical works by modern famous veteran doctors of Chinese medicine (CM).Clinical experience and literature of medical records in clinical works by modern famous veteran doctors of CM were taken as data source. Database was established by fields and program design. On these bases, data mining methods such as frequency analysis, cluster analysis, factor analysis, and correlation laws were performed in syndrome and treatment laws for treating diseases of the pulmonary system.Established were database capable of literature searching, information statistics, data mining of modern famous veteran doctors of CM. A total of 34,414 data were input, including medical records and notes 28,045 items (81.49%) and clinical experience 6,369 items (18.51%). In medical records and notes, there were 14,048 items (50.09%) in male and 9,466 items (33.75%) in female, and the ratio of male to female was 1.48:1. There were 4,531 items (16.16%) with no marked gender in medical records or notes. Data mining such as correlation analysis, cluster analysis, factor analysis, correlation laws in more fields could be realized.Medical records and notes were dominated in data collected in this paper. The prevalence of pulmonary diseases was obviously higher in males than in females. The trend of concentrated manifestations in related fields for pulmonary diseases could be surfed by this database. Diagnosis and treatment laws for treating diseases of the pulmonary system could be found by various adaptive data mining targeting different fields. Multi-variables of symptoms, syndromes, prescriptions, and herbal drugs could be data mined in large samples of clinical literatures.

Previous studies have demonstrated that the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway plays an important role in embryo implantation. Low molecular mass polypeptide (LMP) 2 and LMP7 are the two subunits of 20S proteasome, which are critical for proteasome activity. To further elucidate the roles of LMP2 and LMP7 in embryo implantation during early pregnancy, we cloned partial sequences of the LMP2 and LMP7 genes and studied the spatiotemporal expression of LMP2 and LMP7 in rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) uteri on Days 12, 18, and 26 of pregnancy. The results showed that the 349-base pair (bp) LMP2 fragment and the 340-bp LMP7 fragment were 97% and 99% identical, respectively, to those of human homologues. From the statistical results of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, in situ hybridization, and immunohistochemistry, we found that the expression levels of LMP2 and LMP7 significantly increased with the elongation of pregnancy. The LMP2 and LMP7 mRNAs were mainly expressed in the luminal and glandular epithelium on Day 12 of pregnancy. On Days 18 and 26 of pregnancy, strong signals of LMP2 and LMP7 mRNAs were detected in the placental villi, trophoblastic column, and arterial endothelial cells close to the implantation site, and moderate expressions were found in the trophoblastic shell and glandular epithelium. The LMP2 and LMP7 mRNAs were extensively distributed in the stroma on Day 26 of pregnancy. The expression patterns of LMP2 and LMP7 proteins were similar to those of their transcripts, but weak immunostaining of LMP2 and LMP7 proteins was detected in stroma at all stages of pregnancy. These results suggest that LMP2 and LMP7 may be involved in some key processes of trophoblastic invasion, angiogenesis, degradation of the extracellular matrix, immune tolerance, and glandular secretion.

During early pregnancy, an environment of relative low oxygen tension is essential for normal embryonic and placental vasculature. In low-oxygen conditions, the hypoxic-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1), composed of alpha and beta subunits, controls the expression of a number of genes such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a key angiogenic factor. The recent studies in some tumor cells have found that the labile component, HIF-1 alpha, is not only activated by hypoxia but also by peptides such as interleukin-1 (IL-1) in normoxia. In this article, we demonstrated that exposure of normal human cytotrophoblast cells to IL-1 beta stimulated the expression of HIF-1 alpha protein. Meanwhile, IL-1 beta also induced the secretion of VEGF in normal human cytotrophoblast cells. Our data indicated that IL-1 beta induced extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) 1/2 phosphorylation. Moreover, treatment of cells with PD98059, an inhibitor of ERK1/2 signaling, inhibited the stimulation of HIF-1 alpha protein expression and VEGF secretion by IL-1 beta. These data indicate that, in normal human cytotrophoblast cells, IL-1 beta induces HIF- 1 alpha-mediated VEGF secretion and that IL-1 beta-stimulated ERK1/2 activation may be involved in this process.

Previous studies have documented that ubiquitin-related proteins are present in human, baboon, rhesus monkey, cow, sheep, and mouse pregnant uteri, indicating that the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway (UPP) may be involved in the extensive uterine remodeling during mammalian early pregnancy, but there is still no direct evidence. A mouse intrauterine injection model was employed to study the direct effect of the UPP on mouse embryo implantation and its possible mechanisms. On Day 3 of pregnancy in each mouse, one of the uterine horns in each mouse was injected with different concentrations of lactacystin, a specific proteasome inhibitor, or anti-ubiquitin antibody, and the other side was used as a control. On days 5, 6, and 7, the number of implanted embryos was counted and the expression and gelatinolytic activities of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and MMP-9 were studied. Results presented here illustrate that injection of lactacystin and anti-ubiquitin antibody significantly inhibited mouse embryo implantation. Further investigations by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and gelatin zymography showed that MMP-2 and MMP-9 mRNA expression, as well as the gelatinolytic activity of MMP-9 in the lactacystin-treated uterine horn, significantly decreased, whereas the activity of MMP-2 was not significantly affected. The results obtained from this study, together with previous reports, suggest that the UPP is involved in mouse embryo implantation, and UPP's effect on embryo implantation is achieved at least in part by regulating MMP-2 and MMP-9 mRNA expression and the gelatinolytic activity of MMP-9.