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To identify laboratory markers among platelet indices, coagulation parameters, blood lipid parameters, and liver/kidney function variables that can be used to predict preeclampsia.We studied records of 568 women with preeclampsia, gestational hypertension (GH), or normal term pregnancies hospitalized in the Obstetrics Department of the Fujian Maternal and Child Health Hospital from September 2014 to September 2018. We divided the patients' records into three groups (216 with preeclampsia, 136 with gestational hypertension, and 216 with normal pregnancies). We conducted retrospective analyses to compare variable measurements between the groups and find correlations. We looked into maternal pre-onset platelet indices, coagulation parameters (thrombin time [TT], fibrinogen [FIB]), biochemical parameters (total cholesterol [TC], triglycerides [TG], high-density lipoproteins [HDL], alanine transaminase [ALT], serum creatinine [CRE], blood urea nitrogen [BUN], uric acid [UA]), maternal complications, and perinatal outcomes. In addition to our statistical analysis, we trained a back-propagation (BP) neural network to identify the strongest predictors of preeclampsia.We found significant differences among the groups in terms of values for PLT, MPV, PDW, PLCR, TT, FIB, TG, LDH, BUN, and others. After adjusting for confounding factors in a multivariate ordered logistic regression model, we found that mean values for MPV, BUN, TG, and LDH can independently predict the risk of preeclampsia (the OR values were 1.858, 1.583, 1.104, and 1.020, respectively), the C-index (concordance statistic) was 0.73. Also, our BP neural network derived ALB, MPV, BUN, LDH and TG as the strongest predictors of preeclampsia.MPV, TG, LDH, and BUN can help establish the risk for the development of preeclampsia to apply active measures and improve maternal and perinatal outcomes. The BP neural network can be used to study predictive models of preeclampsia.

Visfatin is significantly upregulated in colorectal cancer (CRC). However, its exact role in CRC progression and the regulatory mechanism involved in this process have not been fully illuminated. The aim of this study was to investigate the roles of visfatin in CRC progression and the potential molecular mechanism.In vitro, two CRC cell lines (DLD-1 and SW480) were transfected with visfatin, si-visfatin, and their control vectors. Some cells were transfected with miR-140-3p mimics or miRNA negative control. Cell Counting Kit-8 and transwell invasive assays were used to detect cell proliferation and invasion ability. Luciferase reporter assays were performed to confirm whether CXC motif chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) directly targets miR-140-3p. Western blotting and qRT-PCR analyses were respectively conducted to evaluate the protein and mRNA levels of stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1) and CXCR4. In vivo, DLD-1 cells transfected with visfatin construct or vector control were inoculated into nude mice. After 5 weeks, the mice were sacrificed, and the tumor nodules were weighed. The expression of visfatin, SDF-1, and CXCR4 in tumor tissues was detected via immunohistochemistry analysis.In vitro, the transfection of visfatin promoted the proliferation and invasion of CRC cells, as well as upregulated the expression of SDF-1/CXCR4. MiR-140-3p directly targets the 3'untranslated region of CXCR4. MiR-140-3p expression was downregulated by treatment with visfatin, and miR-140-3p exerted similar effects to those of visfatin knockdown on the proliferation and invasion of CRC cells. In vivo, visfatin stimulated CRC tumor growth and downregulated miR-140-3p expression, whereas it upregulated SDF-1/CXCR4 expression.Visfatin promotes CRC progression by downregulating the SDF-1/CXCR4-mediated expression of miR-140-3p both in vitro and in vivo.

To investigate the recovery effect of exosomes derived from micro ribonucleic acid (miR)-133b-modified adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) on neurological function after spinal cord injury (SCI) and its mechanism.The SCI model of rats was used and divided into the following 5 groups: sham-operation group, 4 d SCI group, phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) group, miR-control group and miR-133b group. At 96 h after operation, rats were euthanatized, and spinal tissues were removed. Next, the level of miR-133b was detected via reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and the expression of RhoA protein was measured via Western blotting. Moreover, expressions of proteins associated with the axon regeneration pathway, including phosphorylated-cAMP-response element binding protein (p-CREB), CREB, phosphorylated-signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (p-STAT3) and STAT3, along with expressions of neurofilament (NF), growth associated protein 43 (GAP43), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and myelin basic protein (MBP), were tested by Western blotting and immunofluorescence staining.The miR-133b mimics significantly upregulated the expression of miR-133b in adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs), compared to blank group (p0.05). The expression of miR-133b was significantly decreased in 4 d SCI group compared with that in sham-operation group (p0.001). The RhoA expression was statistically increased in 4 d SCI group compared with that in sham-operation group (p0.001), and it was partially impaired by using miR-133b compared with that in 4 d SCI group (p0.001). Expressions of NF, GAP43, GFAP and MBP were remarkably higher in 4 d SCI group than those in sham-operation group (p0.01), and they were also significantly increased in miR-133b group than those in 4 d SCI group (p0.01). Besides, our data showed a significant increase of p-CREB/CREB, p-STAT3/STAT3, NF, GAP-43, GFAP and MBP in miR-133b group compared to those in 4 d SCI group, with statistical reduction of RhoA (p0.05).We showed that exosomes derived from miR-133b-modified ADSCs can significantly promote the recovery of neurological function of SCI animals through affecting the signaling pathway related to axon regeneration and expressions of NF, GAP-43, GFAP and MBP.

Vibration frequencies of four nerve agents and two simulators are calculated using B3LYP coupled with ten basis sets. To evaluate the accuracy of calculated spectra, root mean square error (RMSE) and weighted cross-correlation average (WCCA) are considered. The evaluation shows that B3LYP/6-311+g(d,p) performs best in predicting infrared spectra, and polarization functions are found to be more important than diffusion functions in spectra simulation. Moreover, B3LYP calculation underestimates frequencies related to the P atom. The WCCA metric derives 1.008 as a unique scaling factor for calculated frequencies. The results indicate that the WCCA metric can identify six agents based on calculated spectra.

The effect of long-term dietary supplementation with rutin on the lactation performance, ruminal fermentation and metabolism of dairy cows were investigated in this study. Twenty multiparous Chinese Holstein cows were randomly divided into four groups, and each was offered a basal diet supplemented with 0, 1.5, 3.0 or 4.5 mg rutin/kg of diet. The milk yield of the cows receiving 3.0 and 4.5 mg rutin/kg was higher than that of the control group, and the milk yield was increased by 10.06% and 3.37% (p < 0.05). On the basis of that finding, the cows supplemented with 0 or 3.0 mg rutin/kg of diet were used to investigate the effect of rutin supplementation on blood metabolites and hormone levels. Compared with the control group, the serum blood urea nitrogen (BUN) concentration of the 3.0 mg rutin/kg group is significantly decreased (p < 0.05). In another trial, four adult cows with permanent rumen fistula and duodenal cannulae were attributed in a self-control design to investigate the peak occurrence of rutin and quercetin in different parts of the gastrointestinal tract, ruminal fermentation and microbial population in dairy cows. The cows supplemented with 3.0 mg rutin/kg in the diet differed from the control period. Samples of rumen fluid, duodenal fluid and blood were collected at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 h after morning feeding. Compared to the control group, the pH, ammonia nitrogen concentration, number and protein content of rumen protozoa and blood urea nitrogen were lower, but the concentration of total volatile fatty acid (TVFA), microbial crude protein (MCP) and serum lysozyme content were higher for the cows fed the rutin diets. The addition of 3.0 mg rutin/kg to diets for a long term tended to increase the milk yield and improve the metabolism and digestibility of the dairy cows.

We investigate the contact electrification occurring when a small water droplet resting on a metal electrode is brought periodically in contact with a hydrophobic film of fluorinated ethylene propylene. It is found that the maximum current increases with the drop volume according to a power law. The time scale for the contact current to develop is consistent with that required for a droplet to spread and is, therefore, longer than the time required to form the electric double layer. Adding salt into the water does reduce the contact current but not entirely, which suggests that any remaining water layer cannot entirely neutralize the charges developed upon contact. With an average power of 0.7 μW and a peak power near 5 μW at a frequency of 5 Hz, a 200 μL droplet of pure water can be used to light up a light-emitting diode.

Cerebral resuscitation after cardiac arrest (CA) is always an unresolved problem in medical field. The decreased cerebral perfusion or nonperfusion caused by coagulation and fibrinolytic system function disorder and cerebral microthrombosis after CA and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is one of the important reasons.TTo investigate the effect of urokinase on cerebral microcirculatory perfusion after CA and CPR in rabbits. 20 rabbits were randomly divided into experimental group and control group, 10 rabbits in each group. Potassium chloride injection combined with asphyxia method was conducted to establish the CA models. CPR and basic life-support were performed on experimental group. Based on above treatments, intervention with urokinase was conducted on experimental group. Dual-slice spiral CT cerebral perfusion imaging was performed to observe the cerebral blood flow (CBF), cerebral blood volume (CBV) and top teep time (TTP).CBF and CBV in experimental group were significantly higher than those in control group, respectively (p0.01), and TTP in experimental group was significantly shorter than control group (p0.01). The cerebral perfusion in experimental group was better than control group.Thrombolytic therapy with urokinase in CPR after CA can improve the cerebral microcirculatory perfusion in rabbits.

Water contact electric harvesting has a great potential as a new energy technology for powering small-scale electronics, but a better understanding of the dynamics governing the conversion from mechanical to electrical energy on the polymer surfaces is needed. Important questions are how current correlates with droplet kinetic energy and what happens to the charge dynamics when a large number of droplets are incident on the polymer simultaneously. Here we address these questions by studying the current that is generated in an external electrical circuit when water droplets impinge on hydrophobic fluorinated ethylene propylene film containing a grating electrode on the back side. Droplets moving down an inclined polymer plane exhibit a characteristic periodic current time trace, and it is found that the peak current scales with sine of the inclination angle. For single droplets in free fall impinging onto the polymer, it is found that the initial peak current scales with the height of the free fall. The transition from individual droplets to a nearly continuous stream was investigated using the spectral density of the current signal. In both regimes, the high frequency content of the spectral density scales as f −2. For low frequencies, the low frequency content at low volume rates was noisy but nearly constant, whereas for high volume rates an increase with frequency is observed. It is demonstrated that the output signal from the system exposed to water droplets from a garden hose can be rectified and harvested by a 33 μF capacitor, where the stored energy increases at a rate of about 20 μJ in 100 s.

Insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-5 (IGFBP-5) is one of the six members of IGFBP family, important for cell growth, apoptosis and other IGF-stimulated signaling pathways. In order to explore the significance of IGFBP-5 in cells of the Inner Mongolian Cashmere goat (Capra hircus), IGFBP-5 gene complementary DNA (cDNA) was amplified by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) from the animal's fetal fibroblasts and tissue-specific expression analysis was performed by semi-quantitative RT-PCR. The gene is 816 base pairs (bp) in length and includes the complete open reading frame, encoding 271 amino acids (GenBank accession number JF720883). The full cDNA nucleotide sequence has a 99% identity with sheep, 98% with cattle and 95% with human. The amino acids sequence shares identity with 99%, 99% and 99%, respectively. The bioinformatics analysis showed that IGFBP-5 has an insulin growth factor-binding protein homologues (IB) domain and a thyroglobulin type-1 (TY) domain, four protein kinase C phosphorylation sites, five casein kinase II phosphorylation sites, three prenyl group binding sites (CaaX box). The IGFBP-5 gene was expressed in all the tested tissues including testis, brain, liver, lung, mammary gland, spleen, and kidney, suggesting that IGFBP-5 plays an important role in goat cells.

We report how self-assembly of polyelectrolyte thin films alters the contact electrification of polyimide polymer films used in contact based triboelectric energy harvesting systems. Polyimide films of the same size do produce a very small current when brought into contact. However, by covering one of the polyimide films with a polyelectrolyte thin film terminated by positively charged poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH), the current is reversed and a much larger current and voltage are generated upon contact with the other polyimide film. A similar increase in contact current is not seen for polyelectrolyte thin films terminated by the negatively charged poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate). The PAH-terminated Kapton films are used to create an energy harvesting system providing a voltage of about 60 V and a current of 10 μA. At an average power of 11 μW for a load resistance of 100 MΩ, the energy harvester is able to power several light emitting diodes. Further studies on the contact electrification of the polyelectrolyte demonstrate that nanostructuring of the polymer surface using reactive ion etching does not give rise to polarity reversal. This is explained as hidden pockets of charge not accessible to PAH molecules, but which become accessible when the polymer is put under stress. Although the current originating for a PAH-terminated multilayer film does initially have the opposite sign to that of bare polyimide, it is found that the polarity will switch after subjecting it to a periodical mechanical force. Characteristic changes in current signatures associated with the switch are found, and are interpreted as mechanical interpenetration of the charged layers.

To investigate the effect of transforming growth factor (TGF) beta 1 gene transfection on the growth of mesenchymal stem cells(MSCs) and to evaluate a new biomimetic biodegradable polymer as scaffolds for applications in articular cartilage tissue engineering.Principles of tissue engineering were combined organically with principles of gene therapy to produce cultured periosteum-derived MSCs transduced with the full-length rat TGF-beta 1 cDNA in vitro. These cells were then seeded onto three-dimensional porous poly-DL-lactide scaffolds modified with poly-L-lysine that mimicked cell-binding domains found on natural extracellular matrix to promote specific cell adhesion. The adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation of the transfected MSCs were examined with scanning electron microscope within 2 weeks.All cells adhered to the biomimetic matrices well, but more cartilage-like tissue was formed for TGF-beta 1 gene modified MSCs/scaffolds composites than for the control groups. Transfer of gene encoding TGF-beta 1 to MSCs promoted its proliferation and differentiation significantly.The TGF-beta 1 gene transduced MSCs/biomimetic matrix composites used in this study was the first attempt to apply the principles of molecular tissue engineering for articular cartilage repair. This new molecular tissue engineering approach could be of potential benefit to repair damaged articular cartilage, especially in osteoarthritis. The new biomimetic biodegradable polymer matrices modified with biomolecules not only have good structural compatibility, but also have better interfacial compatibility and bioactivity, and can be used as scaffolds for articular cartilage tissue engineering.

The spatial variation of soil nutrients in topsoil (0-20 cm) was analyzed using semivariogram in the Zunhua County of Hebei Province, China. The effect on semivariogram with randomly deleted data and kriged estimates using various reduced sample sizes was also analyzed. The semivariograms of available N, total N, available P, organic matter were best described by a spherical model, except for available K, which best fitted a complex structure of exponential model and linear with sill model. The ratio of nugget to total sample variance ranged from 34.4% to 68.4%, indicating the spatial correlation of tested soil nutrients on a large scale was moderately dependent. Among five soil nutrients, available nitrogen and available phosphorus had the shortest spatial correlation range (5 km and 5.5 km), available K had the longest range (25.5 km), whereas total nitrogen and organic matter had intermediate spatial correlation range (14.5 km and 8.5 km). The semivariograms of available N, total N, available P, and organic matter were insensitive to a 50%-60% reduction in original sampling density, while for available K, it is up to 70%. The estimated spatial distributions of total N by kriging, under various reduced sample sizes, all correlated significantly (P = 0.001) with those obtained from original data. The results showed that the semivariogram was a relatively robust tool when used in a large region and sufficient spatial variation information could be retained regardless of a higher deletion proportion of the original data. The original sample data could be reduced by kriging and the estimates showed no loss of spatial information, however, the results may be unreliable unless a clearly identified semivariogram model could be obtained. The results may provide useful information for determining the appropriate sampling densities for these scales of soil survey.

We have identified and characterized the two genes, clb-1 and clb-2, that encode basement membrane collagen (IV) in Caenorhabditis elegans. Both genes encode 5.5-kilobase mRNAs, similar in size to the mammalian and Drosophila type IV collagen gene transcripts but much larger than the cuticle collagen transcripts of C. elegans. The nucleotide sequences of the NC1 regions of both genes were determined. Comparisons of the clb-1 and clb-2 NC1 amino acid sequences with those of mouse and human show that clb-1 shares 72% identity with mammalian alpha 2(IV) and clb-2 shares 63% identity with mammalian alpha 1(IV), suggesting that clb-1 is the alpha 2(IV) homologue and clb-2 is the alpha 1(IV) homologue. The presence of two type IV collagen genes in C. elegans and the mammals, but a single gene in Drosophila, indicates that the primordial type IV collagen gene had already duplicated early in the evolution of the invertebrates and that one of the genes has been subsequently lost from Drosophila. The mouse and human alpha 1(IV) and alpha 2(IV) genes are separated by only about 130 base pairs and are transcribed in opposite directions from overlapping promoters. We show that the C. elegans genes are located on separate chromosomes, clb-1 on X and clb-2 on III, demonstrating that the mammalian arrangement is not a requirement for all type IV collagen genes. We have identified a candidate genetic locus for the clb-2 basement membrane collagen gene, which will allow us to pursue a genetic analysis of basement membrane structure and function in C. elegans.