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Grape seed procyanidin extract (GSPE) has been shown to possess antioxidative effects. This experiment was designed to study the effect of GSPE during the liquid storage of goat semen. Semen samples were collected from six sexually mature goats. The samples were treated with different concentrations of GSPE (10, 30, 50, and 70 mg/L) in basic diluent and stored at 4 °C for 120 h; samples without GSPE were used as the control group. The results showed that sperm motility, acrosome membrane integrity, mitochondrial activity, plasma membrane integrity, total antioxidative capacity (T-AOC), catalase (CAT) activity, and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity in the treatment groups were significantly higher than in the control group, whereas malondialdehyde (MDA) content was lower than in the control group (p < 0.05). In the treatment group, sperm quality in the 30 mg/L GSPE group was significantly higher than the other groups (p < 0.05). Furthermore, artificial insemination (AI) results showed that litter sizes were higher in the 30 mg/L GSPE group than in the control group (p < 0.05). In summary, this experiment showed that adding GSPE to the basic diluent improved sperm quality and that 30 mg/L of GSPE was the most suitable concentration for the liquid preservation of goat semen at 4 °C.

Water markets are increasingly advocated for combating agricultural water scarcity. However, in developing countries’ arid and semiarid regions, water market performance is greatly weakened by the insufficient demand-side and supply-side driving forces stemming from farmers’ limited awareness and capacity. Building an agent-based model and taking Hami City, Xinjiang in northwestern China as the case study area, this study explores the roles of technology-based and transaction-based subsidies in adjusting market driving forces and promoting the performance of agricultural temporary water markets. The results show that, without government support, water transactions are limited to only 8.054×103 m3, which can hardly protect agricultural interests. However, with improved market driving forces, water transactions can be substantially increased—potentially exceeding 100×103 m3—by technology-based and transaction-based subsidies This effect is particularly evident when the technology-based subsidy induces water shortages for recipients (e.g., retrieve 5820 m3/ha water entitlements) and its acceptance rate is below 50 %, and when the transaction-based subsidy approaches the average opportunity costs of selling water for traditional irrigation farmers (0.462 RMB/m3). Combinations of technology-based and transaction-based subsidies prove to be more cost-effective in improving water market performance and protecting agricultural benefits, owing to the enhanced market driving forces and the promoting effect of transaction-based subsidies on the implementation of technology-based subsidies. This promoting effect also helps to alleviate fiscal burdens. Furthermore, results indicate that irrigation technology promotion and water markets are complementary, and their dynamic interaction can facilitate the gradual transformation of irrigation practices in arid and semiarid regions of developing countries.

Lung cancer has been the most common cancer in the world for several decades, and it was also the most common cause of death from cancer. Despite the several advances in the last few years into treatment of lung cancer, the survival remains extremely low. There is an urgent need to discover viable leads that can be developed into new clinically therapeutic drugs with good treatment effects. The analysis of current reported literatures suggest that natural products possess strong inhibitory efficacy against lung cancer. The plants of Croton genus belonging to Euphorbiaceae family, are widely used as herbal medicine in the folk. Which are reported to have abilities to treat several cancer cell lines especially lung cancer, a successive study was carried out to identify selective anticancer agents from these plants specie. Herein we employed a network pharmacological approach to understand its multi-therapeutics potentiality in Croton genus against lung cancer. In total, the database of the compound was established based on the methods of network pharmacology prediction and the compound-disease target network was constructed. We believed that our study would provide important clues for finding novel drug inhibitors for lung cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using molecular docking and computer network pharmacology, the active ingredients from the anticancer herb medicine, Juglans mandshurica Maxim, and the potential targets related to lung cancer were screened out rapidly. Compounds-targets network of J. mandshurica in lung cancer treatment was constructed based on the network analysis. Additionally, the intermolecular forces between the top ten active compounds and the key target protein were explored. At the systemic level, the active components, potential targets, and interactive relations of J. mandshurica in the treatment of lung cancer were studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The imbalance between the supply and demand of ecological products between society and ecosystems is an important cause of a series of water ecological problems, and water ecological restoration projects aim to improve the above supply–demand relationship by means of inputs from the social side. For this reason, this paper takes the Yellow River Delta region as an example to launch a study on the assessment of the effectiveness of water ecological restoration projects from the perspective of the supply and demand of ecological products. Specifically, the level of the supply and demand of ecological products, as well as the relationship between the supply and the demand in the studied area, were measured using the equivalent factor approach and the water footprint approach, and the effects of the Yellow River Delta hydro-ecological restoration project were assessed by integrating the following four metrics: land use, supply of ecological products (ecosystem services), demand for ecological products, and the relationship between the supply of and demand for ecological products. The results of this study show that although the hydro-ecological restoration project continues to replenish water resources in the Yellow River Delta region, and promotes the level of ecological product supply in the study area through the restoration of wetlands and water, the growing and excessive demand for ecological products in the study area still puts the local ecosystems at risk of degradation. In the future, the Yellow River Delta region should continue to control the scale of land for production and living on the supply side of ecological products and increase its investment in water ecological restoration, while establishing a highly efficient mode of ecological product development and utilization and a reasonable mechanism for the payment of ecological products on the demand side. In addition, the Yellow River Delta region needs to pay attention to the impacts of rising sea levels and other climatic problems on ecological restoration.

Juglans mandshurica Maxim. belongs to Juglans genus in the Juglandaceae family. It is shown from modern researches that J. mandshurica had multiple activities, and the anti-tumor activity of extracts of J.mandshurica was investigated by most researchers. However, few studies were did about anti-tumor effect of human hepatoma cells, and no systematic studies were did on anti-tumor mechanism. Therefore, it is of great significance to investigate the anti-hepatoma active ingredients of J. mandshurica from the perspective of systemic biology with the help of network pharmacology. In order to find active ingredients and identify the major targets of molecule, we used molecular docking and network pharmacology to construct molecule-target network maps. The results showed that bediarylheptanoids were the main active compounds with anti-hepatoma effect in the plants of J. mandshurica, and suggested that there were ten key targets of liver cancer. In order to illustrate the mechanism between compounds and targets, we used DS software to analyze intermolecular forces between three compounds (H79, H78, H84) and aceDAF-12. According to the results of DS, the mechanism of interaction between compounds and targets was clarified and revealed at the molecular level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stellera chamaejasme L., a traditional medicine in China, belongs to the Stellera genus of Thymelaeaceaen family. As a traditional Chinese herb, flavonoids, diterpenes, lignans and coumarins are the main chemical components isolated from this plant. And the extracts of S. chamaejasme have been reported with multiple pharmacological activities and good development prospects, which have drawn enormous attention. Hence, this review summarized the research progress on the chemical components and the pharmacological effects of S. chamaejasme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brucea javanica (L.) Merr, belonging to Simaroubaceae family, is one species of the genus Brucea. The seeds, roots, leaves, fruits, stems and twigs of this plant had been used as a folk medicine for the treatment of various types of diseases. It is reported that there are kinds of chemical components in B. javanica. The main chemical components of this plant include quassinoids, triterpenoids and alkaloids. In this review, we summarized the researches on the chemical components and listed the main compounds isolated from the B. javanica. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]