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This study evaluated the effects of high concentrate diets (HCD) on the rumen fermentation and the digestibility of nutrients in different sites of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) in goats. Four goats were used in a crossover design. The goats were fitted with a ruminal cannula and flexible T-cannulae proximal duodenum and terminal ileum. Treatments were as follows: low concentrate group (LCG) and high concentrate group (HCG). Duodenal flow and forestomach digestibility of starch were significantly higher in the HCG than those in the LCG (p < 0.05); There was no significant difference in ileum flow and digestibility of starch in the small intestine, large intestine and total GIT (p > 0.05). The digestibility of crude protein (CP) in the forestomach was significantly higher in the HCG than in the LCG (p < 0.05); the flow of the duodenum and ileum of CP, and the CP digestibility of the small intestine, large intestine and total GIT were not significantly different between groups (p > 0.05). The duodenal and ileal flow of neutral detergent fiber (NDF), the NDF digestibility of the different segments and total GIT were not significantly different between groups (p > 0.05). Compared to the LCG, the ruminal pH of the HCG was significantly lower (p < 0.05). The HCG concentrations of microbial crude protein, ammonia nitrogen and isovaleric acid were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than the LCG. The foam strength, foam production and viscosity of the rumen fluid in the HCG were higher than the LCG (p < 0.01). These results showed that when the goats were fed with HCD, the digestibility of nutrients was not significantly impaired, but the risk of frothy rumen bloat increased. Due to a serious shortage of high-quality roughage in China, producers commonly used a high-concentrate diet in ruminants, which can improve animal production performance. Gastrointestinal digestive function plays a vital role in the absorption of nutrients and the healthy growth of animals. Therefore, this research evaluated the digestibility of various nutrients in different segments of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) under HCD feeding by using three-site cannula goats as experimental animals. The results indicated that the GIT of goats could fully digest nutrients such as starch and protein under HCD feeding conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Objectives] To investigate the mitochondrial genome of Microconema clavata (Meconematinae, Tettigoniidae, Orthoptera), and thereby enhance the Meconematinae's mitochondrial genome database to facilitate mitochondrial genome comparisons and phylogenetic research on this group. [Methods] We measured, assembled, annotated and analyzed, the mitochondrial genome of M. clavate, in order to determine the phylogenetic relationships of this species within the Meconematinae. We used next-generation sequencing technology to sequence the genome of M. clavate, assembled the complete mitochondrial genome sequence, then annotated and analyzed it in detail. The mitochondrial genome sequences of 12 species of the Meconematinae, including M. clavate, were selected to construct a phylogenetic tree based on differences in 13 protein coding genes and two rRNA genes. [Results] The total length of the mitochondrial genome sequence of M. clavate was 15 618 bp, which contained 13 protein coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, two rRNA genes and one control region. The genes were arranged compactly and had the same sequence as ancestral species. The A+T of the mitochondrial genome of M. clavate accounted for 70.7% of the total bases, and there was an obvious AT bias. With the exception of ND1 which began with TTG, the remainder of the 13 protein coding genes began with ATN. All genes have TAG or TAA as the termination signal, except COX1, ND5 and ND4, which have an incomplete termination codon T. All other tRNAs have a typical clover structure except tRNASer(AGN). [Conclusion] The complete mitochondrial genome sequence of M. clavate was obtained. A Bayesian phylogenetic tree indicates that M. clavata is most closely related to Xiphidiopsis gurneyi, Xizicus maculatus and Xizicus fascipes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new chroman-4-ones penicichromanone A (1) and penicichromanone B (2), together with three known compounds conioxepinol C (3), emodin (4) and moniliphenone (5), were obtained from the endophytic fungus Penicillium chrysogenum, which was isolated from the bark of Eucommia ulmoides Oliver. The structures of 1 and 2 were elucidated by detailed analysis of HRESIMS, 1D/2D NMR and ECD spectra. All the compounds were evaluated for their anti-inflammatory activities using HEK293 cells, and compounds 1, 3, 4 and 5 exhibited significant inhibitory effects on TNF-α-stimulated NF-κB activation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uranium is an important nuclear fuel and the risk of human exposure to uranium increases as increasing amounts of uranium‐containing waste enter the environment due to the rapid growth of nuclear power. Therefore, rapid, sensitive, and portable uranium detection is a promising approach to effectively control and monitor uranium contamination. To achieve this goal, abundant oxygen‐ and nitrogen‐containing groups were introduced to molybdenum oxide quantum dot (MoOx QDs) surfaces with dopamine (DA) modification. Due to the excellent coordination ability of oxygen‐ and nitrogen‐containing groups with uranium, the obtained DA‐functionalized MoOx QDs (DA‐MoOx QDs) showed a strong binding affinity for uranium and sensitivity was increased nearly 1000‐fold compared with MoOx QDs alone. The limit of detection was 3.85 nM, which is higher than most of the reported nanomaterials. Moreover, the DA‐MoOx QD‐based method showed high selectivity and uranium could be clearly detected under masking with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid even when the concentration of other metal ions was 100‐fold higher than that of uranium, showing a very promising method for uranium contamination control and monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tuberculosis is one of the main infectious diseases threatening public health, and the development of simple, rapid, and cost‐saving methods for tuberculosis diagnosis is of profound importance for tuberculosis prevention and treatment. The bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) is the pathogen that causes tuberculosis, and assaying for MTB is the only criterion for tuberculosis diagnosis. A new enzyme‐free method based on strand displacement amplification and magnetic beads was developed for simple, rapid, and cost‐saving MTB detection. Under optimum conditions, a good linear relationship could be observed between fluorescence and MTB specific DNA concentration ranging from 0.05 to 150 nM with a correlation coefficient of 0.993 (n = 8) and a detection limit of 47 pM (3σ/K). The present method also distinguished a one base mismatch from MTB specific DNA, showing great promise for MTB genome single base polymorphism analysis. MTB specific DNA content in polymerase chain reaction samples was successfully detected using the new method, and recoveries were 97.8–100.8%, indicating that the present method had high accuracy and shows good potential for the early diagnosis of tuberculosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analytic potential energy surface (APES) for the exchange reaction of HeH+ (X1Σ+) + He at the lowest singlet state 11A/ has been built. The APES is expressed as Aguado-Paniagua function based on the many-body expansion. Using the adaptive non-linear least-squares algorithm, the APES is fitted from 15 682 ab initio energy points calculated with the multireference configuration interaction calculation with a large d-aug-cc-pV5Z basis set. To testify the new APES, we calculate the integral cross sections for He + H+He (v = 0, 1, 2, j = 0) → HeH+ + He by means of quasi-classical trajectory and compare them with the previous result in literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]