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Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have a wide range of anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects and have been observed to have potential therapeutic potential in the clinical treatment of various diseases. We pretreated lung cancer cells A549 with tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α), knocked down the key chemokine receptor CXCR4 on MSCs using lentivirus, and induced acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) mouse model using lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and CXCL12 expression in vivo by adeno-associated virus (AAV-rh10) infection in mice. By co-culturing the MSCs with A549 and in vivo experiments, we observed the effects of MSCs on cell biological functions after inflammatory stimulation, oxidative stress, and the amelioration of lung injury in ARDS mice. TNF-α inhibited A549 proliferation and promoted apoptosis, scorch death-related factor activity, and oxidative stress factor were increased and CXCL12 levels in the cell supernatant were decreased. The co-culture of MSCs was able to increase cell activity and decrease oxidative stress factor levels, and this effect was not present after the knockdown of CXCR4 in MSCs. In vivo transplantation of MSCs significantly attenuated lung injury in ARDS, inhibited serum pro-inflammatory factors in mice, and down-regulated expression of apoptotic and focal factors in lung tissues while blocking CXCR4 or CXCL12 lost the repairing effect of MSCs on ARDS lung tissues. After the co-culture of MSC and lung cancer cells, the expression of CXCR4 on the surface of lung cancer cells was significantly increased, and more CXCR4 and CXCL12 acted together to activate more pro-survival pathways and inhibit apoptosis induced by TNF-α.

Numerous collapses and landslides caused by the Wenchuan earthquake provide abundant loose materials for a large number of debris flows that occurred after the earthquake. Most of the check dams were silted or damaged by debris flow due to the increased volume of materials after the earthquake. Taking the debris flows in the Qinglin Basin in China as a case study, 43 sets of numerical simulations of debris flow with different probabilities of occurrence and different facility combinations were performed to obtain the submerged range, velocity, and mud depth of debris flow in the residential area. The total risk of the residential area is calculated on the basis of the risk of a single building according to the vulnerability of the property and population and combined with the depth and velocity of debris flow. According to the change in risk in the residential area under different facility combinations, a novel method of quantitative evaluation of the benefits of facilities for disaster mitigation based on risk reduction per unit height of facility (RRPH) has been proposed. According to the result of the analysis, the method can quantify the benefits of disaster reduction by different facilities, analyze whether existing facilities meet disaster mitigation goals, and determine the optimal facility height, facility combination, or existing facilities improvement and optimization scheme.

The southwest mountainous area is a frequent debris flow disaster area in China, which poses a serious threat to the regional roads and greatly affects the normal traffic operation and the safety of residents’ lives and property. The debris flow risk assessment of highway can quantify the threat degree of debris flow to the roads. In this paper, from the perspective of villages and towns, taking the upper reaches of Minjiang River as the research area, four factors including road network density, highway disaster resistance capacity, population density and highway cost are selected, and the weight is obtained by using entropy weight method, and the debris flow vulnerability evaluation results of highway are obtained by weighted calculation. Four indexes of debris flow density, shape factor, relative height difference and annual rainfall are selected to evaluate the debris flow hazard of highway by using the information method. Based on the vulnerability and hazard evaluation results, the risk of highway debris flow is evaluated, and the results are classified and discussed. The results show that: the risk of debris flow on the upper reaches of Minjiang River is relatively low, the overall spatial distribution shows a trend of high in the East and low in the west, and the overall risk of township roads in Wenchuan county is the highest; The risk of debris flow is generally high within -10 to 30 km from the central fault zone of Longmenshan.

A large catastrophic landslide occurred on July 23, 2019, after a continuous heavy rainfall at Jichang (N 26°15′22.99″, E 104°40′6.33″), Shuicheng county, Guizhou province, China. This landslide had a maximum runout distance of 1295 m, a maximum falling height of 477 m between the highest point of the source area and the leading edge, and a maximum speed of 45.5 m/s. The 1.4 million cubic meters of debris instantly buried twenty-one buildings, destroyed six buildings, and resulted in 42 fatalities and 9 people missing. This paper analyzes the extent and mechanisms of initiation and runout distance of the landslide. The landslide occurred in the eluvial and deluvial accumulation of basalt, and its initiation mechanisms were different from the bedrock landslides that are typical of the interbedded soft and hard rocks in Guizhou and basalt landslides in Southwest China. The prolonged heavy rainfall, lush vegetation, and road construction played the roles in landslide initiation. Subsequently, the landslide can be divided into three sliding regions caused by the valley on both sides and the stepped terrain in the middle, and the valley topography enhanced the disaster intensity and reach.

Hanper ewes that were either monotocous or polytocous provided ovarian follicles of diameter 3 mm in the follicular phase and, in the luteal phase, samples of corpora lutea that had developed from follicles of diameter 3 mm. Differentially expressed mRNAs (monotocous versus polytocous) were then identified, and their functions were predicted. Results showed that 1508 mRNAs were differentially expressed in the follicular phase, with 885 being in the luteal tissues. Those which were differentially expressed in the follicular phase were mainly involved in the regulation of the ferroptosis and lysosome signalling pathways, whereas, for the luteal tissue, the differentially expressed mRNAs were mainly involved in the regulation of steroid biosynthesis. Based on the results, it was inferred that these pathways could explain variations in the fecundity of sheep.

Objective. This study focused on elucidating the influence of early multidisciplinary collaboration on preventing intensive care unit- (ICU-) acquired weakness (AW) in critically ill patients (CIPs). Methods. Ninety-five CIPs admitted between December 2018 and December 2021 were selected and assigned to the following two groups according to the intervention pattern: the control group (the Con; n = 40 ) treated with routine early rehabilitation intervention, and the research group (the Res; n = 55 ) intervened by early multidisciplinary collaborative intervention. The incidence of complications (ICU-AW, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and pressure ulcers (PSs)) and recovery indices (days of ventilator use, ICU treatment time, and length of hospital stay (LOS)) were recorded. Besides, patients’ activity function and quality of life (QoL) were evaluated and compared, among which the former was evaluated by the Barthel Index (BI), ICU Mobility Scale (IMS), and Medical Research Council (MRC) Scale, and the latter was assessed by the World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment (100-item version) (WHOQOL-100). Results. The data identified statistically a lower incidence of complications (ICU-AW, DVT, and PSs) and shorter time of ventilator use, ICU residence, and LOS in the Res compared with the Con. In addition, BI, IMS, MRC, and WHOQOL-100 scores in the Res elevated statistically after treatment and were higher than those of the Con. Conclusions. Early multidisciplinary collaboration can validly prevent ICU-AW in CIPs, reduce the incidence of DVT and PSs, and promote patients’ rehabilitation, mobility, and QoL.

This paper considers set stability of Boolean networks (BNs) from initial set to destination set. The existing set stability is the stability that for any initial state, i.e., there exists a finite time, such that the trajectory from any initial state belongs to the given subset after finite time. But in some cases, the interests may be not the whole state space, only a subset of the whole state space, such as the partial synchronization of a collection of locally interconnected systems. In this paper, we study the the set stability of BNs from initial set to destination set. The technique used in this paper is semi-tensor product of matrices. First, a necessary and sufficient condition is presented for set stability from initial set to destination set. Then as the application, stabilization of Boolean control network (BCN) via state-based networked controller is considered and a necessary and sufficient condition is provided. Finally, an example is provided to interpret the results.

Simple Summary Litter size is an important trait affecting reproductive capacity and breeding economics in meat sheep. Consequently, revealing its molecular mechanism helps us understand multiple lambs from the genetic perspective. In this study, we provide a genome-wide expression profile of circular RNAs (circRNAs) expression in Hanper sheep, which is a new breed of meat sheep raised by cross and self-group breeding for 15 years. In this study, ovarian circular RNAs and miRNAs associated with high and low fertility Hanper sheep are identified during the follicular and luteal phases of the estrous cycle, and their potential biological functions are predicted through Gene Ontology (GO), KEGG, GSEA, STEM, WGCNA analysis. Abstract Litter size is a considerable quality that determines the production efficiency of mutton sheep. Therefore, revealing the molecular regulation of high and low fertility may aid the breeding process to develop new varieties of mutton sheep. CircRNAs are the important factors regulating follicular development, but their mechanism role in the regulation of litter size in Hanper sheep is not clear. In the present study, ovarian tissues from the follicular (F) or luteal phase (L) of Hanper sheep that were either consecutive monotocous (M) or polytocous were collected. Then, we performed transcriptome sequencing to screen for differentially expressed circRNAs (DE-circRNAs) and elucidate their function. In total, 4256 circRNA derived from 2184 host genes were identified in which 183 (146 were upregulated, while 37 were downregulated) were differentially expressed in monotocous sheep in the follicular phase versus polytocous sheep in the follicular phase (MF vs. PF). Moreover, 34 circRNAs (14 were upregulated, while 20 were downregulated) were differentially expressed in monotocous sheep in the luteal phase versus polytocous sheep in the luteal sheep (ML vs. PL). This was achieved through DE-circRNAs function enrichment annotation analysis by GESA, GO, and KEGG, which function through the EGF-EGFR-RAS-JNK, TGF-β and thyroid hormone signaling pathway to affect the litter size of Hanper sheep in MF vs. PF and ML vs. PL. STEM results showed that MAPK signaling pathways play a key role in MF vs. PF and ML vs. PL. Through WGCNA analysis, AKT3 was a core gene in MF vs. PF and ML vs. PL. Moreover, competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network analysis revealed the target binding sites for miRNA such as oar-miR-27a, oar-miR-16b, oar-miR-200a/b/c, oar-miR-181a, oar-miR-10a/b, and oar-miR-432 in the identified DE-cirRNAs.

Background: CathepsinB (CTSB) is a lysosomal cysteine protease which has been implicated in a variety of physiological and pathological processes. However, the sequence and structure characteristics of sheep CTSB gene are still unclear, which severely restricts the further study about genetic variation, molecular evolution.Methods: Therefore the coding sequence (CDS) of sheep CTSB gene from ovary was cloned by reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) amplification and regular sequencing technology. The characteristics of nucleotide and amino acid sequence of CTSB gene were analyzed through bioinformatics and the phylogenetic tree was constructed employing the Bayesian inference based on amino acid sequence of different species in this study.Result: A complete coding sequence of 1008 bp of CTSB was obtained from ovary, which encoded 335 amino acids. Functional prediction of CTSB protein suggested that containing five conserved sequence motif sites in which the site of amino acids between 158 and 205 was the most conserved region. Secondary structure analysis showed that á-helices were the major structure at the N-terminus, while random coils were the major structure at the C-terminus. Additionally, the motif II in the random coils, in which two active sites of His278 and Asn298 were located therein, was more conserved. The high similarity of CTSB amino acids alignment between sheep and other species recommended that CTSB was highly conservative in the evolutionary process.

Litter size is an important trait that determines the production efficiency of sheep bred for meat. Its detailed investigation can reveal the molecular mechanisms that control the fecundity of sheep and possibly accelerate the breeding process of new varieties of sheep that have high prolificacy. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have proven to be an important factor in the regulation of follicular development. However, the mechanisms by which lncRNAs regulate litter size in sheep remain unclear. In the present study, ovarian tissues from the follicular (F) or luteal phase (L) of Hanper sheep that were either monotocous (M) or polytocous (P; FM, FP, LM and LP groups) were collected and sequenced to identify differentially expressed lncRNAs and predict their function. The results indicate that the number of up- and down-regulated lncRNAs in the follicular phase (FM vs. FP) was 95 and 111 and 109 and 49, respectively, in the luteal phase (LM vs. LP). The functional enrichment of the different lncRNAs coexpressed with mRNA was analysed. The results demonstrated that the KISS1-GnRH-LH/FSH-E2 and EGF-EGFR-RAS-PI3K signalling pathways promoted the initiation of the primordial period, follicular development and ovulation in the follicular phase (FM vs. FP). During the luteal phase (LM vs. LP), the production and development of the corpus luteum in ewes was influenced by the KITLG-KIT/FGF-FGFR/HGF-MET-RAS-ERK signalling pathway. STEM clustering functional enrichment analysis of the differentially expressed lncRNAs indicated that profile11 was principally enriched in the Cytokine-Jak-STAT, PDGF-PDGFR-PI3K and KITLG-KIT-RAS-ERK signalling pathways. By analysis of the differential expression of the lncRNAs and their expression in each group, lncRNAs Xist (loc101112291) and Gtl2 (loc101123329) were found to be highly expressed, suggesting that regulation of follicular development was mediated through methylation processes.

As the byproduct of finger millet, millet straw is a new forage resource of ruminants. The effect of the combined utilization of millet straw with corn straw on fattening lamb production is seldom reported. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of different proportions of millet straw instead of corn straw on the growth performance, blood metabolites, immune response, meat yield, and quality of fattening lamb. Sixty-three-month-old healthy Small-Tailed Han sheep crossbred rams with an average initial weight of 19.28 &plusmn, 2.95 kg were randomly divided into four groups, with three replicates in each group and five lambs in each replicate. The replacement ratio of millet straw of each group (Group I, II, III, IV) was 0%, 25%, 35%, 50% at the first stage (the first two months) and 0%, 20%, 28%, 40% in the second period (final two months), respectively. The experiment lasted 4 months 10 days of the pre-feeding period. The results indicated that the body weight gain and average daily gain of group Ⅱ were significantly higher than those of group Ⅰ and group Ⅳ (p &lt, 0.05). The concentration of total protein in group Ⅳ was significantly increased compared to those of the other three groups at the second stage (p &lt, 0.05), which proved that the protein synthesis metabolism capacity was improved with the addition of millet straw. The concentration of the plasma glutamic-oxalacetic transaminase and lactic dehydrogenase of lambs was significantly decreased in group Ⅱ (p &lt, 0.05). The combination of millet straw and corn straw had no impact on the glucose, total cholesterol, and triglycerides metabolism (p &gt, 0.05). There was no significant difference in the pre-slaughter weight, carcass weight, dressing percentage, loin-eye area, and GR value among the four groups (p &gt, 0.05). Furthermore, the immune response and meat quality were not impacted by the different proportions of millet and corn forage diets. The results showed that the combined utilization of millet straw with corn straw could improve the blood biochemistry metabolism capability of fattening lambs. The replacement of 50% of corn straw with millet straw could improve the growth performance and be an application in fattening lamb production.

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) technology has been applied in the construction of disease model, production of transgenic animals, therapeutic cloning, and other fields. However, the cloning ...

Well-shaped intermetallic compounds with unique electronic structures and characteristic long range atomic orders have gained tremendous interest due to their attractive electrocatalytic performances and promising long-term durabilities. In this study, we report a facile strategy for the efficient synthesis of ordered PtFe intermetallics in nanotube shapes using cost-effective premade elongated β-FeOOH as a microstructure template followed by surface self-assembly with an ultra-thin layer of platinum shell and controlled heat treatments under mild experimental conditions. Compared to the commercial Pt black catalyst, the proposed ordered PtFe intermetallic nanotubes (NTs) exhibit an enhancement in mass activity (536.67 A g−1) by a factor of 2.0 and specific activity (61.64 A m−2) by 5.8 for the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR). These results pave the way for the fabrication of well-shaped ordered intermetallic catalysts towards practical applications in fuel cells.

In vitro developmental competence of sheep oocytes is still relatively low. In this study, we investigated cathepsin B activity in sheep cumulus-oocyte complexes, the expression of cathepsin B and apoptosis rates in sheep cumulus cells, and the correlations between these indicies and in vitro developmental competence of sheep oocytes. The present result suggested that the active form of cathepsin B in cumulus-oocyte complexes was predominantly present in cumulus cells rather than oocytes. Cathepsin B activity in cumulus-oocyte complexes was strongly inhibited by cathepsin inhibitor E-64. RT-PCR analysis showed that cathepsin B expression in cumulus cells decreased during in vitro maturation. TUNEL staining and flow cytometry of cumulus cells showed that the apoptosis rate increased after in vitro maturation, and treatment with E-64 reduced both cathepsin B expression and apoptosis levels. Furthermore, E-64 treatment increased blastocyst rates of sheep.

Previous studies have shown that four and a half LIM domain protein 2 (FHL2) plays an essential role in the regulation of follicular development in mammals. Although the FHL2 genes of human and mouse have been well characterized, the expression and location of FHL2 in ovary and the biological functions of FHL2 on granulosa cells (GCs) of ovine are still not clear. In this study, full-length complementary DNA (cDNA) of FHL2 from ovine follicular GCs was amplified by real-time PCR (RT-PCR). The expression and location of FHL2 in ovary and GCs of ovine were studied by immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence, and the biological effects of FHL2 on the cell proliferation, cell apoptosis, cell cycles and expression level of related genes of ovine GCs were also explored by overexpression or knockdown of FHL2. The results indicated that FHL2 was expressed in ovine follicular GCs and the sequence of the FHL2 cDNA was consistent with that predicted in GenBank, which did not cause an amino acid change. According to the results, FHL2 was expressed in ovine ovary and mainly located in the cytoplasm and nucleus of GCs. In addition, overexpression of FHL2 significantly reduced the cell viability, promoted the cell apoptosis and decreased the percentage of G0/G1 and S phase cells. RT-PCR showed that overexpression of FHL2 significantly increased the mRNA expression level of Bax and decreased the expression of Bcl-2 and the Bcl-2/Bax mRNA ratio compared with the control group. Besides, the knockdown of FHL2 gene in ovine GCs significantly improved the cell viability, suppressed the cell apoptosis, decreased the mRNA expression level of Caspase-3 gene, increased the Bcl-2/Bax mRNA ratio and increased the percentage of S and G2/M phase cells. Our results suggest that FHL2 may play an important role in the biological functions of GCs in ovine.

A load-sensing hydraulic system is an energy-saving fluid power transmission that supplies "on-demand" flow at a prescribed pressure margin greater than load pressure. In the paper, based on bond graph methodology, a complex and non-linear load-lensing (LS) hydraulic system model is constructed, in which the dynamic behaviours of an LS valve are taken into account. Moreover, a series of experiments are performed to validate the model. Two reduced models based on activity index analysis are obtained to achieve a balance between accuracy and complexity. The results indicate that the system order and computation time can be reduced. By quantifying the relative importance of the elements based on activity index analysis, it shows that the inner leakage of the pump plays a major role in system dynamics due to its correlation to the damping coefficient. Furthermore, the results prove the rationality of representing LS pump dynamics with a fourth-order differential equation and the fact that the dynamics of LS valves have not been well-covered in the literature. Hidravlični sistemi z zaznavanjem obremenitve (sistemi LS) so energijsko varčni prenosniki z delovnim fluidom, ki zagotavljajo pretok na zahtevo s specificiranim dodatkom nad tlakom obremenitve. Sistemi LS so nagnjeni k oscilacijam in lahko včasih postanejo nestabilni zaradi povratne zanke mehanizma za zaznavanje obremenitve. Tudi zagotavljanje celotne zmogljivosti ni preprosto zaradi nasprotujočih si zahtev po energijski učinkovitosti in hitrem dinamičnem odzivu, še posebej v širokem razponu obratovalnih pogojev. Snovanje sistemov LS je zato običajno bistveno zahtevnejše kot snovanje konvencionalnih hidravličnih sistemov.

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) technology has been applied in the construction of disease model, production of transgenic animals, therapeutic cloning, and other fields. However, the cloning efficiency remains limited. In our study, to improve SCNT efficiency, brilliant cresyl blue (BCB) staining were chosen to select recipient oocytes. In addition, DNA methyltransferase inhibitor Zebularine (5 nmol/L) and histone deacetylase inhibitor Scriptaid (0.2 μmol/L) were jointly used to treat sheep donor cumulus cells and reconstructed embryo. Moreover, the expression levels of embryonic development-related genes (

Interactions between the nervous system and immune system have been studied extensively. However, the mechanisms underlying the neural regulation of immune activity, particularly the neuroendocrine regulation of immunologic functions, remain elusive. In this review, we provide a comprehensive examination of current evidence on interactions between the immune system and hypothalamic oxytocin-secreting system. We highlight the fact that oxytocin may have significant effects in the body, beyond its classical functions in lactation and parturition. Similar to the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis, the oxytocin-secreting system closely interacts with classical immune system, integrating both neurochemical and immunologic signals in the central nervous system and in turn affects immunologic defense, homeostasis, and surveillance. Lastly, this review explores therapeutic potentials of oxytocin in treating immunologic disorders.

Aberrant DNA methylation reduces the developmental competence of mammalian somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) embryos. Thus, hypomethylation-associated drugs are beneficial for improving reprogramming efficiency. Therefore, in the present study we investigated the effect of zebularine, a relatively novel DNA methyltransferase inhibitor, on the developmental potential of ovine SCNT embryos. First, reduced overall DNA methylation patterns and gene-specific DNA methylation levels at the promoter regions of pluripotency genes (octamer-binding transcription factor 4 (Oct4), SRY (sex determining region Y)-box 2 (Sox2) and Nanog) were found in zebularine-treated cumulus cells. In addition, the DNA methylation levels in SCNT embryos derived from zebularine-treated cumulus cells were significantly reduced at the 2-, 4-, 8-cell, and blastocyst stages compared with their corresponding controls (P

The 12-oxo-phytodienoic acid reductases (OPRs), which belong to the old yellow enzyme (OYE) family, are flavin mononucleotide (FMN)-dependent oxidoreductases with critical functions in plants. Despite the clear characteristics of growth and development, as well as the defense responses in Arabidopsis, tomato, rice, and maize, the potential roles of OPRs in wheat are not fully understood. Here, forty-eight putative OPR genes were found and classified into five subfamilies, with 6 in sub. I, 4 in sub. II, 33 in sub. III, 3 in sub. IV, and 2 in sub. V. Similar gene structures and conserved protein motifs of TaOPRs in wheat were identified in the same subfamilies. An analysis of cis-acting elements in promoters revealed that the functions of OPRs in wheat were mostly related to growth, development, hormones, biotic, and abiotic stresses. A total of 14 wheat OPR genes were identified as tandem duplicated genes, while 37 OPR genes were segmentally duplicated genes. The expression patterns of TaOPRs were tissue- and stress-specific, and the expression of TaOPRs could be regulated or induced by phytohormones and various stresses. Therefore, there were multiple wheat OPR genes, classified into five subfamilies, with functional diversification and specific expression patterns, and to our knowledge, this was the first study to systematically investigate the wheat OPR gene family. The findings not only provide a scientific foundation for the comprehensive understanding of the wheat OPR gene family, but could also be helpful for screening more candidate genes and breeding new varieties of wheat, with a high yield and stress resistance.

The Wenchuan Earthquake of May 12, 2008 triggered large numbers of geo-hazards. The heavy rain on 13 August 2010 triggered debris flows with total volume of more than 6 million cubic meters and the debris flows destroyed 500 houses and infrastructure built after the Wenchuan Earthquake. The study area Qingping Town was located in the northwestern part of the Sichuan Basin of China, which needs the second reconstructions and the critical evaluation of debris flow. This study takes basin as the study unit and defines collapse, landslide and debris flow hazard as a geo-hazard system. A multimode system composed of principal series system and secondary parallel system were established to evaluate the hazard grade of debris flow in 138 drainage basins of Qingping Town. The evaluation result shows that 30.43% of study basins (42 basins) and 24.58% of study area, are in extremely high or high hazard grades, and both percentage of basin quantity and percentage of area in different hazard grades decrease with the increase of hazard grade. According to the geo-hazard data from the interpretation of unmanned plane image with a 0.5-m resolution and field investigation after the Wenchuan Earthquake and 8.13 Big Debris Flow, the ratio of landslides and collapses increased after the Wenchuan Earthquake and the ratios of extremely high or high hazard grades were more than moderate or low hazard grades obviously. 23 geo-hazards after 8.13 Big Debris Flow in Qingping town region all occurred in basins with extremely high or high hazard grades, and 9 debris flows were in basins with extremely high hazard grade. The model of multimode system for critical evaluation could forecast not only the collapse and landslide but also the debris flow precisely when the basin was taken as the study unit.

Ni-doped TiO2 film catalysts were prepared by a plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) method and were mainly characterized by means of SEM, EDS, XRD, XPS, and DRS, respectively. The effects of Ni doping on the structure, composition and optical absorption property of the film catalysts were investigated along with their inherent relationships. The results show that the film catalyst is composed of anatase and rutile TiO2 with microporous structure. Doping Ni changes the phase composition and the lattice parameters (interplanar crystal spacing and cell volume) of the films. The optical absorption range of TiO2 film gradually expands and shifts to the red with increasing dosages. Both direct and indirect transition band gaps of the TiO2 films are deduced consequently. Moreover, the photocatalytic activity of the film catalysts for splitting Na2S+Na2SO3 solution into H2 is enhanced by doping with an appropriate amount of Ni. The as-prepared TiO2 film catalyst doping with 10 g/L of Ni(Ac)2 presents the highest photocatalytic reducing activity.

1College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, People’s Republic of China 2Institute of Animal Science and Veterinary of Hebei Province, Baoding 071000, People’s Republic of China 3College of Animal Science and Technology, Agricultural University of Hebei, Baoding 071000, People’s Republic of China 4Hebei Liansheng Agricultural Development Company Limited, Baoding 072750, People’s Republic of China

Although the success rate of sheep cloning remains extremely low, using a histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor to increase histone acetylation in SCNT embryos has significantly enhanced developmental competence in several species. The objective was to determine whether HDAC inhibitors trichostatin A (TSA) and the novel inhibitor Scriptaid enhance cloning efficiency in sheep cumulus cell (passage 2) reconstructed embryos. In this study, 0.2 μmol/L Scriptaid yielded a high blastocyst development rate, almost twice that of the untreated group (25/103 [24.3%] vs. 12/101 [11.9%]; P < 0.05). Furthermore, 0.2 μmol/L Scriptaid was more effective than 0.05 μmol/L TSA in terms of the blastocyst percentage for cloned ovine embryos in vitro (17/66 [25.7%] vs. 11/65 [16.8%]; P < 0.05). Furthermore, treatment with Scriptaid increased acetylation (compared with the Control, P < 0.05) at lysine residue 12 of histone H4 (acH4K12) and lysine residue 9 of histone H3 (acH3K9) in one-, two-, four-, and eight-cell stages, as well as blastocyst stages, in cloned embryos. In conclusion, Scriptaid was more effective than TSA to enhance in vitro developmental competence in ovine SCNT embryos; furthermore, Scriptaid improved epigenetic status.

With geometric fractal methods, the aftershock spatial-temporal fractal dimension of Wenchuan earthquake was calculated, and the variation rule of seismic b-value were compared with the results, which proved that the aftershock spatial-temporal fractal dimensions were shown with the overall decreasing trend in Wenchuan earthquake, which was the same to the variation rule of seismic b-value; strong aftershocks mainly occurred in the descending stage and the low valley area of the spatial-temporal fractal and b-value curve. This variation of spatial-temporal fractal was considered to represent the clustering variation of seismic spatial-temporal, reflecting the process of destruction and energy release with the tectonic stress action of earth crust rock mass.

Understanding where earthquake-induced landslides are most likely to occur is important for reducing damage and loss of life in future earthquakes. The paper took Wenchuan earthquake as an example, and formed the multimode parallel system composed of the geologic body and three key factors firstly, and applied the means of reliability analysis of multimode system with matrix on the research of critical evaluation of earthquake-induced landslides secondly. At last, not only the primary and secondary risky grades could be obtained for every county, but also the value of reliability of each county in different risky grades could be computed in Wenchuan earthquake. This method is significant for further study on critical evaluation of earthquake-induced landslides.

As to substantial problems of seismic landslide disasters induced by Wenchuan earthquake, and based on the formation mechanism and movement features of Wenchuan seismic landslide, the seismic landslide is divided into two types of vibration-sliding and collapse-sliding. Of which, the vibration-sliding is also classified into the overall-sliding and fracture-sliding; the collapse-sliding is classified into the fall-sliding, dump-down-sliding and fall-ejection-sliding. Cases of various types of seismic landslide are cited in this thesis, where the formation mechanism and the developmental features are analyzed and summarized. It has certain significance for improving the understanding of seismic landslide and its induced geo-environmental hazards, and provides a scientific basis for the prevention of seismic landslide disasters.

We investigated whether or not there are autoantibodies for DKK1 (Dickkopf-1) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and whether this autoantibody can be used for cancer detection.The levels of DKK1 autoantibodies were determined in 93 NSCLC patients and 87 healthy controls.We found that, in the sera, the presence of autoantibody against DKK1 was highly correlated with NSCLC. High anti-DKK1 autoantibody titres were found in the sera of NSCLC patients, whereas low or negative titres were found in the control group. The ROC curve results showed that autoantibody immunoassay exhibited 62% sensitivity and 84% specificity. The sensitivity for the detection of NSCLC in stage I also reach 64.3%. Furthermore, a combined ELISA assays for both DKK1 and autoantibody DKK1 increased sensitivity and classified 81.7% (76/93) of the NSCLC patients as positive, whereas only 13.8 % (12/87) of healthy volunteers were falsely diagnosed as positive.Our results suggest that the detection of circulating DKK1 autoantibody could potentially serve as a useful non-invasive marker for determining lung cancer status.