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Long-term potentiation (LTP) is a neurobiological mechanism of cognitive function, and the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors is fundamental for LTP. Previous studies showed that over activation of NMDA receptors may be a crucial cause of LTP and cognitive impairment induced by stress or corticosterone. However, other studies showed that the function of NMDA receptors is insufficient since the NMDA receptors co-agonist D-serine could improve stress-induced cognitive impairment. The purpose of this study is to clarify whether over activation of NMDA receptors or hypofunction of NMDA receptors is involved in hippocampal impairment of LTP by corticosterone and the underlying mechanisms. Results showed that hippocampal LTP and object location recognition memory were impaired in corticosterone-treated mice. Corticosterone increased the glutamate level in hippocampal tissues, neither NMDA receptors antagonist nor its subtype antagonists alleviated impairment of LTP, while enhancing the function of NMDA receptors by D-serine did alleviate impairment of LTP by corticosterone, suggesting that hypofunction of NMDA receptors might be one of the main reasons for impairment of LTP by corticosterone. Further results showed that the level of D-serine and its precursor L-serine did not change. D-serine release-related protein Na+-independent alanine-serine-cysteine transporter-1 (ASC-1) in the cell membrane was decreased and increasing D-serine release by the selective activator of ASC-1 antiporter activity alleviated impairment of LTP by corticosterone. Taken together, this study demonstrates that hypofunction of NMDA receptors may be involved in impairment of LTP by corticosterone and reduced D-serine release may be an important reason for its hypofunction, which is an important complement to existing mechanisms of corticosterone-induced LTP and cognitive impairment.

Climate change presents an important environmental challenge that is being addressed by the global community. The socio-economic efforts to address climate change involve both international and domestic economic transformation, industrial upgrading, infrastructure protection, and disaster prevention and mitigation, amongst other considerations. In particular, capacity-building is a prerequisite for both participating in global climate governance and for targeting domestic response measures. After the Paris Agreement, global climate governance has entered the new so-called “post-Paris” era. Changes to the United States’ global climate policy have exacerbated the complexity of global climate governance, but domestic actions by stakeholders at the national or sub-national level are still striving toward the goals agreed to in the Paris Agreement. In particular, China faces significant challenges in addressing climate change impacts in both global mitigation efforts and domestic adaptation needs. Here, we identify areas shortcoming in capacity building for China that are targeted for improvement in the “post-Paris” era. Firstly, advances in the basic scientific research capacity of China to study climate change should focus on climate change detection attribution, prediction and impact assessment. One specific approach includes the development of climate system models along with the improvement of the comprehensive climate observation system should be implemented to improve fundamental research on climate related topics. Secondly, it is necessary to further enhance China’s climate adaptation capacity, particularly targeting adaptation goals for agriculture and urbanized areas as well as improving risk assessment and management of for already-occurring disasters. Thirdly, the development of a comprehensive understanding and support system for policy makers that can be used to integrate climate change responses into China’s international and domestic policies is critical for formulating effective mitigation and adaptation efforts. Fourthly, efforts should also be taken in building and enhancing a clear legal system that addresses emerging challenges in mitigation and adaptation. To address many of the above challenges, improvements and expansions also need to be made to strengthen the national expertise in relevant professional fields of climate change, so as to effectively support the pertinence, specialization, refinement, and aptitude in developing strategies for the many climate change-related challenges facing China. Lastly, enhancements in public outreach, awareness and education on climate change will help the public to consciously practice many of the capacity-building efforts being developed, including adopting the concept of green and low carbon in their daily life.

Indicators based on the developed version of the Capability Maturity Model were set up to access the maturity degree of China's seven pilot carbon markets from 2013 to 2017. Results show that the maturity degree of Shenzhen and Beijing pilot carbon markets ranks first; while those of Guangdong, Hubei, and Shanghai rank second. Tianjin and Chongqing rank lowest. Most of pilot markets failed to perform well on price efficiency except Shenzhen. There is significant disparity in the scores that the pilot carbon markets got, with a range from 9 to 73. The drivers to maintain market maturity is different among the pilot markets, either with a good performance on market structure, scale, or efficiency could lead to a certain score. Much could be done to increase the maturity level of the carbon market. Further downscaling the firm size, raising the legislation level, and increasing the participation of the third party entities may help the carbon market to grow healthier. Keywords: China, Carbon market pilots, Maturity assessment, Market structure, Market scale, Market efficiency

Ethnopharmacological relevance Liuwei Dihuang decoction (LW), a classic formula in Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), has been used for nearly one thousand years for various diseases with characteristic features of kidney yin deficiency. LW consists of 6 herbs including Dihuang (prepared root of Rehmannia glutinosa (Gaertn.) DC.), Shanyao (rhizome of Dioscorea polystachya Turcz.), Shanzhuyu (fruit of Cornus officinalis Siebold & Zucc.), Mudanpi (root bark of Paeonia × suffruticosa Andrews), Zexie (rhizome of Alisma plantago-aquatica L.) and Fuling (scleorotia of Wolfiporia extensa (Peck) Ginns). LW-active fraction combination (LW-AFC) is extracted from LW, it is effective for the treatment of kidney yin deficiency in many animal models. Recent researches indicate that the “kidney deficiency” is related to a disturbance in the neuroendocrine immunomodulation (NIM) network, and glucocorticoids play an important role in kidney deficiency. Aim of the study This study evaluated the effects of LW-AFC and the active fractions (polysaccharide, LWB-B; glycoside, LWD-b; oligosaccharide, CA-30) on corticosterone (Cort)-induced long-term potentiation (LTP) impairment in vivo. Materials and methods In this study, LTP was used to evaluate the synaptic plasticity. LW-AFC was orally administered for seven days. The active fractions were given by either chronic administration (i.g., i.p., 7 days) or single administration (i.c.v., i.g., i.p.). Cort was injected subcutaneously 1 h before the high-frequency stimulation (HFS) to induce LTP impairment. Moreover, in order to research on the possible effective pathways, an antibiotic cocktail and an immunosuppressant were also used. Results Chronic administration (i.g.) of LW-AFC and its three active fractions could ameliorate Cort-induced LTP impairment. Single administration (i.c.v., i.g., i.p.) of any of the active fractions had no effect on Cort-induced LTP impairment, while chronic administration (i.g., i.p.) of LWB-B or LWD-b showed positive effects against Cort. Interestingly, CA-30 only showed protective effects via i.g. administration, and there was little effect when CA-30 was administered i.p. In addition, when the intestinal microbiota was disrupted by application of the antibiotic cocktail, CA-30 showed little protective effects against Cort. The effects of LW-AFC were also abolished when the immune function was inhibited. In the hippocampal tissue, Cort treatment increased corticosterone and glutamate, and LW-AFC could inhibit the Cort-induced elevation of corticosterone and glutamate; there was little change in D-serine in Cort-treated animals, but LW-AFC could increase the D-serine levels. Conclusion LW-AFC and its three active fractions could ameliorate Cort-induced LTP impairment. Their protective effects are unlikely by a direct way, and immune modulation might be the common pathway. CA-30 could protect LTP from impairment via modulating the intestinal microbiota. Decreasing corticosterone and glutamate and increasing D-serine in the Cort-treated animals’ hippocampal tissue might be one of the mechanisms for the neural protective effects of LW-AFC. Further study is needed to understand the underlying mechanisms.

Liu-Wei-Di-Huang (LW) is a Yin nourishing and kidney tonifying prescription in traditional Chinese medicine with promising pharmacological characteristics that can be further exploited and developed in modern medicine. We provide a comprehensive and detailed literature report on the clinical and experimental pharmacology of LW, including its quality control parameters, phytochemistry, pharmacokinetics, and toxicology. Our literature review indicates that the LW prescription possesses a unique combination of pharmacological characteristics that can be safely used for treating very different diseases. Quality control and pharmacokinetic parameters of LW are mostly based on its major bioactive phytochemical constituents. We postulate that modulating or rebalancing the neuroendocrine immunomodulation network in the body is the underlying mechanism of the multiple pharmacological activities displayed by LW.

LW-AFC is a new formula derived from the Liuwei Dihuang decoction, a classical traditional Chinese medicine prescription. Based on our research, LW-AFC is a promising drug for Alzheimer's disease (AD). The studies were conducted primarily in two typical AD mouse models: SAMP8 and APP/PS1 mice. The results showed that LW-AFC could improve many cognitive behaviors, such as spatial learning and memory ability, passive and active avoidance response, and object recognition memory capability. In addition, LW-AFC could also alleviate the AD-like pathology in animal models, such as neuron loss and Aβ deposition. Subsequent studies found that LW-AFC could rebalance hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis, and modulate the disturbance of immune system and gut flora. These data suggested that the anti-AD effects of LW-AFC might be mainly via modulating the neuroendocrine immunomodulation (NIM) network. As inhibiting the immune function by immunosuppressant could abolish the protective effects of LW-AFC against long-term potentiation (LTP) impairment model, it is likely that LW-AFC balancing the NIM network is initiated by modulating the immune system.

Polyaniline (PANI) is one of the most attractive materials for pseudocapacitors. To enhance the electrolyte diffusion and improve the electrochemical performance of the electrode, the well-designed morphology of PANI is required. Incorporating carbon materials is also benefic on enhancing the cycling stability as well as the mechanical and electrochemical properties of PANI. In this study, a simple solution method is applied to synthesize the particle-deposited tube-like PANI. Due to the well-defined structure, a specific capacitance (CF) of 437.8 F/g is achieved at the current density of 4 A/g. Furthermore, the self-synthesized graphene oxide (GO) is simply mixed with the particle-deposited tube-like PANI to make a more efficient electrocapacitive material. An enhanced CF value of 475.0 F/g is achieved for the optimized PANI/GO electrode, owing to the synergic effects of the pseudo-capacitance from PANI and the functional groups of GO, as well as the electrochemical double-layered capacitance from GO. After conducting 2000 cycles repeated charge/discharge process, the CF retention of 90% and the average Coulombic efficiency of higher than 90% are also attained for the optimized PANI/GO electrode.

The global community has prepared for the withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris Agreement since Donald Trump was elected as the president of the U.S. However, Trump's formal declaration of withdrawal still caused worldwide reaction. Trump will use the withdrawal to build his political reputation and to renegotiate the Paris Agreement despite its negative effects on the political credibility, international relationships, and potential long-term economic growth of the U.S. In general, the withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris Agreement will not change the development of low-carbon technologies and the transformation trend of the global climate governance regime. However, the long-term goals and international cooperation on climate change will be affected by budget cuts in American climate change research and the cancelation of donations from the multilateral environmental fund of the U.S. If the Paris Agreement is renegotiated, the common but differentiated principle of responsibility of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will be challenged again. Nevertheless, climate change governance remains a main theme of future sustainable development. Instead of national governments, local governments and non-governmental organizations will develop strategies for technical innovation and emphasize pragmatic cooperation, thus expanding their roles in climate change governance. The capacity building on climate change research and public awareness should be enhanced as a long-term objective of global climate change governance.

BACKGROUND This study aimed to investigate the diagnostic values of serum levels of Hcy and UA for predicting vascular mild cognitive impairment (VMCI) in patients with cerebral small vessel disease (SVD). MATERIAL AND METHODS We selected 172 cerebral SVD patients and divided them into a VMCI group and a non-VMCI group. Eighty-six healthy individuals without nervous system diseases were selected as the control group. Enzymatic cycling method was performed to detect serum Hcy and UA levels. Serum levels of folic acid (FOA) and vitamin B12 (VitB12) were detected by chemiluminescence immunoassay. Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA) was applied to evaluate the cognitive function. The ROC curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic values of serum Hcy and UA levels for predicting VMCI. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the possible risk factors. RESULTS Compared with the non-VMCI and control groups, serum FOA and VitB12 levels were lower and serum Hcy and UA levels were higher in the VMCI group. AUC values of serum Hcy and UA levels were 0.703 and 0.829, respectively. Serum Hcy and UA levels were negatively correlated with serum FOA and VitB12 levels, total MoCA score, and subscores on visuospatial ability and executive function, on language ability and on delayed recall, and they were positively correlated with serum cholesterol (CH) level. Serum Hcy and UA levels were indicated as risk factors for VMCI in cerebral SVD patients. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that serum Hcy and UA levels may serve as predictive factors for VMCI in cerebral SVD patients.

Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common cause of dementia among older people, could not be prevented, halted, or reversed up till now. A large body of pharmacological study has revealed that Liuwei Dihuang decoction (LW), a classical traditional Chinese medicinal prescription, possesses potential therapeutic effects on AD. LW-AFC is key fractions from LW. Method: Cognition ability was evaluated by behavioral experiments. Using multiplex bead analysis, radioimmunoassay, immunochemiluminometry and ELISA to determine levels of cytokines and hormones. The splenocyte proliferation and peripheral lymphocyte subsets was investigated by 3 H-thymidine incorporation and flow cytometric analysis, respectively. Results: This study showed the treatment of LW-AFC slowed the aging process of senescence-accelerated mouse prone 8 strain (SAMP8), a robust model sporadic AD or late-onset/age-related AD. LW-AFC had ameliorative effects on spontaneous locomotor activity, object recognition memory, spatial learning and memory, passive and active avoidance impairment in SAMP8 mice. Administration of LW-AFC restored the imbalance of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) and hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis, enhanced the proliferation of splenocytes, corrected the disorder of lymphocyte subsets, and regulated the abnormal production of cytokine in SAMP8 mice. Effects of LW-AFC on pharmacodynamics and neuroendocrine immunomodulation network in SAMP8 mice were better than memantine and donepezil. Conclusion: This data indicated LW-AFC may be a promising therapeutic medicine for AD.

The Paris Agreement reached in December 2015 has created new institutional arrangements for post-2020 global climate change governance, but the implementation details of the agreement are yet to be ironed out. The post-Paris developments in scientific assessments of global climate change has also aroused widespread international concern. In September 2017, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) finalized the outline of the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), which will reshape future international talks and national actions on climate change. This paper provides details about the background and progress of AR6 and future direction of the IPCC, analyzes the trend of scientific assessments of climate change in the post-Paris era and its links to international institutional arrangements addressing climate change, and puts forwards recommendations as to how China could play a more positive role in the IPCC scientific assessment.

Microglia constitute the majority of innate immune cells in the brain, and their dysfunction is associated with various central nervous system diseases. Human microglia are extremely difficult to obtain experimentally, thereby limiting studies on their role in complex diseases. Microglia derived from human stem cells provide new tools to assess the pathogenesis of complex diseases and to develop effective treatment methods. This study aimed to develop a reliable method to derive human microglial-like cells (iMGLs) from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) expressing microglia-specific markers IBA1 and TMEM119 and respond to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation. Thereafter, we compared iMGL functions from Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and cognitive normal controls (CNCs). AD-iMGLs displayed stronger phagocytic ability with or without stimulation. High LPS concentrations (>2μg/ml) caused death in CNC-iMGLs, while AD-iMGLs did not display significant cell death. Cytokine analysis revealed that TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-10 secreted by AD-iMGLs were significantly increased upon LPS stimulation compared to those in CNC-iMGLs. The present results indicate that AD-iMGLs exhibit significant inflammatory characteristics and can reflect some pathological changes in microglia in AD, thereby providing new valuable tools to screen candidate drugs for AD and to elucidate the mechanisms underlying AD pathogenesis.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease, and effective therapeutic drugs in the clinic are still lacking. Ideally, AD progression could be stopped at an early stage, such as at the mild cognitive impairment (MCI) stage. MCI refers to the clinical condition between normal aging and dementia. Patients with MCI experience memory loss but do not meet the criteria for the diagnosis of clinically probable AD. However, few MCI animal models have been established. Here, we used in vivo long-term potentiation (LTP) recording and the Morris water maze (MWM) to evaluate the effects of intracerebroventricular injection of streptozotocin (ICV-STZ) in mice. We found a relationship between cognitive behavior and LTP in vivo and determined the appropriate doses of STZ for a putative MCI animal model. Animals that received≥150μg of STZ exhibited cognitive impairment in the MWM test, and few changes in behavior tests were observed in animals receiving less than 150μg of STZ. In vivo LTP recordings revealed that the induction of LTP decreased significantly in STZ-treated animals, even at the lowest dose (25μg/mouse), in a dose-dependent manner. Pathology analysis revealed STZ-induced neuron loss in a dose-dependent manner, both in the cortex and in the hippocampus, as evidenced by a significantly decreased neuronal number in the cohort treated with 75μg of STZ/mouse. Our study indicated that a low dose (25μg/mouse) of STZ impaired neural plasticity; at a higher dose of 75μg/mouse STZ, further LTP deficits were noted along with induced neuronal loss in both the cortex and the hippocampus, which could be considered a possible MCI or pre-MCI animal model; and finally, at 150μg/mouse STZ, dementia was induced, feasibly indicating a state of AD.

Up to now, at least 806 carbon allotropes have been proposed theoretically. Three interesting carbon allotropes (named Pbam-32, P6/mmm, and I 4 ¯ 3 d ) were recently uncovered based on a random sampling strategy combined with space group and graph theory. The calculation results show that they are superhard and remarkably stable compared with previously proposed metastable phases. This indicates that they are likely to be synthesized in experiment. We use the factor group analysis method to analyze their Γ -point vibrational modes. Owing to their large number of atoms in primitive unit cells (32 atoms in Pbam-32, 36 atoms in P6/mmm, and 94 atoms in I 4 ¯ 3 d ), they have many Raman- and infrared-active modes. There are 48 Raman-active modes and 37 infrared-active modes in Pbam-32, 24 Raman-active modes and 14 infrared-active modes in P6/mmm, and 34 Raman-active modes and 35 Raman- and infrared-active modes in I 4 ¯ 3 d . Their calculated Raman spectra can be divided into middle frequency range from 600 cm−1 to 1150 cm−1 and high frequency range above 1150 cm−1. Their largest infrared intensities are 0.82, 0.77, and 0.70 (D/Å)2/amu for Pbam, P6/mmm, and I 4 ¯ 3 d , respectively. Our calculated results provide an insight into the lattice vibrational spectra of these sp3 carbon allotropes and suggest that the middle frequency Raman shift and infrared spectrum may play a key role in identifying newly proposed carbon allotropes.

The distribution patterns of human activities affecting groundwater vulnerability vary with time. Studying the temporal and spatial changes in groundwater vulnerability, exploring the distribution characteristics of each period, and predicting the trends of development are important to formulate an effective development plan and reduce the risk of groundwater pollution at the same time. Based on the hydrogeological data as well as humanities and social data for 2004, 2010, and 2016 for the Chaoyang District of Beijing, a comprehensive evaluation model considering the human factors such as the land use types was established using the DRASTIC model. The spatiotemporal pattern of groundwater vulnerability was quantitatively characterized by calculating the Global Moran's Ⅰ and Getis-Ord Gi

To restrain the nano zero-valent iron (NZVI) in aqueous solution from being reunited and oxidized, this paper used sodium carboxymethyl starch (CMS), which is an environmentally friendly and cheap material, for coating and surface modification of NZVI so as to improve its dispersity and suspension property. Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to study the microstructure and components of the modified NZVI, and the 2,4-dichlorophenol 2,4-(DCP) removal efficiency was researched through chemical experiment. Experiments showed that the modified NZVI was about 80~100 nm in diameter, present as chain or dispersed particles. The main component was zero-valent iron, and it had strong reducibility. When the proportion of CMS was 80.00%, the suspension property was the best; The NZVI after CMS coating and surface modification retained the original activity. In the experiment investigating the removal effect of 2,4-DCP using different proportion of cladding, the same finding was obtained. When the CMS's proportion was 80%, the removal effect was the best, reaching up to 83.69%, and the dechlorination and degradation were apparent.

There are currently no approved effective therapies for Alzheimer's disease (AD). AD is a classic, multifactorial, complex syndrome. Thus, a polypharmacological or multitargeted approach to AD might provide better therapeutic benefits than monotherapies. However, it remains elusive which biological processes and biomolecules involved in the pathophysiologic processes of AD would constitute good targets for multitargeted therapy. This study proposes that a co-module, consisting of biological processes, cellular pathways and nodes, in a molecular subnetwork perturbed by different therapeutic drugs may be the optimal therapeutic target for an AD multitarget-based intervention. Based on this hypothesis, genes regulated in the hippocampus and cortex of senescence-accelerated mouse prone-8 (SAMP8) mice by traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) prescriptions with different constituents and the same beneficial effects on AD, including the decoctions Liu-Wei-Di-Huang (LW), Ba-Wei-Di-Huang (BW), Danggui-Shaoyao-San (DSS), Huang-Lian-Jie-Du (HL) and Tiao-Xin-Fang (TXF), were investigated via cDNA microarray, and the perturbed subnetworks were constructed and interpreted. After comparing 15 perturbed subnetworks based on genes affected by LW, BW, HL, DSS and TXF, the results showed that the most important common nodes perturbed by these interventions in the brains of SAMP8 mice were RPS6KA1 and FHIT, and that other important common nodes included UBE2D2, STUB1 and AMFR. These five drugs simultaneously and significantly disturbed the regulation of apoptosis and protein ubiquitination among biological processes. These nodes and processes were key components of the co-module regulated by therapeutic drugs in a molecular subnetwork of AD. These results suggest that targeting candidate regulator of apoptosis and protein ubiquitination might be effective for AD treatment, and that RPS6KA1, FHIT, UBE2D2, STUB1 and AMFR might be optimal combinational targets of an AD multitarget-based therapy.

Stress induces cognitive impairments, which are likely related to the damaged dendritic morphology in the brain. Treatments for stress-induced impairments remain limited because the molecules and pathways underlying these impairments are unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study was to find the potential molecules and pathways related to damage of the dendritic morphology induced by stress. To do this, we detected gene expression, constructed a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network, and analyzed the molecular pathways in the brains of mice exposed to 5-h multimodal stress. The results showed that stress increased plasma corticosterone concentration, decreased cognitive function, damaged dendritic morphologies, and altered APBB1, CLSTN1, KCNA4, NOTCH3, PLAU, RPS6KA1, SYP, TGFB1, KCNA1, NTRK3, and SNCA expression in the brains of mice. Further analyses found that the abnormal expressions of CLSTN1, PLAU, NOTCH3, and TGFB1 induced by stress were related to alterations in the dendritic morphology. These four genes demonstrated interactions with 55 other genes, and configured a closed PPI network. Molecular pathway analysis use the Database for Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery (DAVID), specifically the gene ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), each identified three pathways that were significantly enriched in the gene list of the PPI network, with genes belonging to the Notch and transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-B) signaling pathways being the most enriched. Our results suggest that TGFB1, PLAU, NOTCH3, and CLSTN1 may be related to the alterations in dendritic morphology induced by stress, and imply that the Notch and TGF-B signaling pathways may be involved.

To investigate specific changes in metabolites and proteins of Kidney-Yin Deficiency Syndrome (KYDS) patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) in China. KYDS (n=29) and non-KYDS (n=23) patients with DM were recruited for this study. The KYDS was diagnosed by two senior TCM clinicians separately. The metabonomic and proteomic profiles of the patients were assessed using a metabonomic strategy based on NMR with multivariate analysis and a proteomic strategy based on MALDI-TOF-MS, respectively. Eighteen upregulated peptides and thirty downregulated peptides were observed in the plasma of the KYDS patients. Comparing the proteomic profiles of the KYDS and non-KYDS groups, however, no significantly differentially expressed peptides were found. At the same time, major metabolic alterations were found to distinguish the two groups, including eight significantly changed metabolites (creatinine, citrate, TMAO, phenylalanine, tyrosine, alanine, glycine and taurine). The levels of creatinine, citrate, TMAO, phenylalanine and tyrosine were decreased, whereas the levels of alanine, glycine and taurine were increased in the KYDS patients. These biochemical changes were found to be associated with alterations in amino acid metabolism, energy metabolism and gut microflora. The identification of distinct expression profiles of metabolites and signaling pathways in KYDS patients with DM suggests that there are indeed molecular signatures underlying the principles of 'Syndrome Differentiation' in traditional Chinese medicine.

No recommended guidelines currently exist for the therapeutic concentration or dose of botulinum toxin type A (BTXA) injected into the muscle to treat limb spasticity. Therefore, in this randomized controlled trial, we explored the safety and efficacy of two concentrations and two doses of BTXA in the treatment of spastic foot after stroke to optimize this treatment in these patients. Eligible patients (n = 104) were randomized into four groups. The triceps surae and tibialis posterior on the affected side were injected with BTXA at one of two doses (200 U or 400 U) and two concentrations (50 U/mL or 100 U/mL). The following assessments were conducted before as well as 4 days and 1, 2, 4, and 12 weeks after treatment: spasticity, assessed using the modified Ashworth scale; basic functional mobility, assessed using a timed up and go test; pace, assessed using a 10-meter timed walking test; and the ability to walk, assessed using Holden's graded scale and a visual analog scale. The reported results are based on the 89 patients that completed the study. We found significant differences for the two doses and concentrations of BTXA to improve the ability of patients to walk independently, with the high-dose/low-concentration combination providing the best effect. Onset and duration of the ameliorating effects of BTXA were 4–7 days and 12 weeks, respectively. Thus, BTXA effectively treated foot spasms after stroke at an optimal dose of 400 U and concentration of 50 U/mL.

Anxiety disorders represent serious social problems worldwide. Recent neuroimaging studies have found that elevated activity and altered connectivity of the insular cortex might account for the negative emotional states in highly anxious individuals. However, the exact synaptic mechanisms of specific insular subregions have yet to be studied in detail. To assess the electrophysiological properties of agranular insular cortex (AIC) neurons, basic synaptic transmission was recorded and different protocols were used to induce presynaptic and postsynaptic long-term potentiation in mice with anxiety-related behaviors. The presynaptic membrane expression of kainate receptors (KARs) and pharmacologic manipulations were quantified to examine the role of Gluk1 subtype in anxiety-like behaviors. Fear conditioning occludes electrically induced postsynaptic-LTP in the AIC. Quantal analysis of LTP expression in this region revealed a significant presynaptic component reflected by an increase in the probability of transmitter release. A form of presynaptic-LTP that requires KARs has been characterized. Interestingly, a simple emotional anxiety stimulus resulted in selective occlusion of presynaptic-LTP, but not of postsynaptic-LTP. Finally, injecting GluK1-specific antagonists into the AIC reduced behavioral responses to fear or anxiety stimuli in the mouse. These findings suggest that activity-dependent synaptic plasticity takes place in the AIC due to exposure to fear or anxiety, and inhibiting the presynaptic KAR function may help to prevent or treat anxiety disorder.

According to the regulation of "Coal energy saving and emission reduction upgrade, transformation plan action (2014-2020)" in China, aiming at the severe situation of the national energy conservation and emission reduction. We did a unit steam blowing for a power plant which has did a high efficient subcritical parameter rehabilitation. We did a detailed program for the unit steam blowing, overcome the small space for the temporary system pipe. With the strict control of the boiler operating parameters, we successfully complete the unit steam blowing work and fully guarantee the quality.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients suffer a disturbance in the balance between synaptic (GluN2A, mediating the protective pathway) and extrasynaptic NMDA receptors (NMDARs) (GluN2B, mediating the excitotoxic pathway), and, therefore, restoring the balance of GluN2A and GluN2B should be beneficial for AD. In this study, the GluN2B-selective antagonist, ifenprodil, and the non-selective NMDAR agonist, NMDA, had little effect on amyloid-β (Aβ)-induced long-term potentiation deficits. Enhancing the activity of GluN2A had a protective effect against Aβ, and specific activation of GluN2A and inhibition of GluN2B showed a better protective effect. In Aβ ICV-injected animals, the combination of ifenprodil and D-cycloserine (a co-activator of NMDRs similar to D-serine) led to greater improvement in behavior tests (nest building, novel object recognition, and Morris water maze) than ifenprodil (Morris water maze) or D-cycloserine (nest building) alone. Signal pathway analysis showed that Aβ disturbed the GluN2A/GluN2B-related pathway. The ratio of GluN2A to GluN2B decreased in Aβ-treated animals, and TORC dephosphorylation and ERK1/2 activation, which could be initiated by GluN2A, also decreased in the hippocampal tissues of Aβ-treated animals. As a result, the activation of CREB and the content of brain-derived BDNF decreased. The combination of ifenprodil and D-cycloserine reversed the signal pathway more significantly than ifenprodil or D-cycloserine alone, indicating that Aβ-induced toxicology was mediated both by functionally inhibiting GluN2A and enhancing GluN2B. These results indicate that enhancing synaptic NMDARs and inhibiting extrasynaptic NMDARs concurrently showed protective effects against Aβ-induced neurotoxicity, suggesting that modulation of the balance between GluN2A and GluN2B could be a potential strategy for AD drug development and therapy.

The senescence-accelerated mouse prone 8 (SAMP8) strain is considered a robust experimental model for developing preventative and therapeutic treatments for Alzheimer's disease (AD), a neurodegenerative disease which cannot be effectively prevented, halted, or cured. Our previous studies showed that LW-AFC, a new formula derived from the classical traditional Chinese medicinal prescription Liuwei Dihuang decoction, ameliorates cognitive deterioration in PrP-hAβPPswe/PS1ΔE9 transgenic mice and SAMP8 mice. This study aims to investigate the mechanism that mediates how LW-AFC improves cognitive deficit on the basis of the transcriptome. We conducted a genome-wide survey of gene expression in the hippocampus in mice from the senescence accelerated mouse resistant 1 (SAMR1) strain, from SAMP8 and from LW-AFC treated SAMP8. The results showed that LW-AFC reversed the transcriptome in the hippocampus of SAMP8 mice. The specific investigation of altered gene expression in subtypes defined by cognitive profiles indicated that the systemic lupus erythematosus pathway, spliceosomes, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and the insulin signaling were involved in the improvement of cognitive ability by LW-AFC. The expression of genes Enpp2, Etnk1, Epdr1, and Gm5900 in the hippocampus were correlated with that of LW-AFC's ameliorating cognitive impairment in SAMP8 mice. Because LW-AFC is composed of polysaccharides, glycosides, and oligosaccharides, we infer that LW-AFC has direct or indirect effects on altering gene expressions and regulating pathways in the hippocampus of SAMP8 mice. These data are helpful for the enhanced identification of LW-AFC as new therapeutic modalities to AD.

The study used self-made nutshell activated carbon and took catering wastewater as research object. After pretreatment, the catering wastewater was adsorbed by nutshell activated carbon.Throught investigating the adsorption value of methylene blue and iodine,the effect of Peach pit shell activated carbon is higher than others.The optimal conditions are determined: proper time of reaction 4 h, Peach shell activated carbon dosage 30 mg/L, pH 6.0, reaction temperature 30°C. Under this optimum, the removal rate of CODcr as well as grease can be as high as 92.75% and 87.05%, respectively.

In order to select the band-pass filter parameters reasonably, a new method of rolling bearing feature extraction based on wavelet filtering with optimal combination bands is proposed. Filter banks with different number of filter/octave are constructed by Morlet wavelet, which are used to filter the signal. The filters with the optimal frequency-band are selected according to the kurtosis of the filtered signal. Then, the optimal band filters in each filter bank are combined to filter the signals and the feature extraction is available. Through simulation and experimental verification, results show that the proposed method is more effective than the common one.

In order to extract the fault information from rolling element bearing, combined with Kurtosis criteria and Hessian matrix. An improved rolling element bearing fault signal extraction method is proposed. Kurtosis is the cost function. The method is according to the construction principles of blind source separation (BSS), and it uses an analytically derived Hessian matrix in the maximization process of the cost function used. Then the impact signal is extracted successfully. The effectiveness of the method is demonstrated on simulated signal.

In order to extract the weak fault information from complicated vibration signal of rolling element bearing, the Recursive Least-Squares (RLS) Lattice-Ladder Algorithms is introduced into the field of rolling bearing feature extraction. An adaptive feature extraction method is proposed. The RLS Lattice-Ladder algorithms and its adaptive filter property in the process of feature extraction were discussed. The rolling bearing vibration signal was refined by the RLS Lattice-Ladder filter method, and the refined vibration signal was demodulated by square envelope, then the rolling bearing’s characteristic fault frequency was identified by enveloped normalized amplitude-frequency spectrum. Simulation results show that compared with the LMS filter method, this method can identify fault frequency more quickly and more effectively.

Metal oxides-modified Ni-based catalysts for glycerol steam reforming (GSR) to syngas were prepared by impregnation using commercial Ca-containing Linde-type 5A zeolite (LTA) as support, and characterized by XRD, N2-adsorption, CO2-TPD, H2-TPR, and TPO. The XRD and CO2-TPD results indicated that the introduction of alkali and rare earth metals could modify the basic property of Ni/LTA catalysts. H2-TPR results indicated that the simultaneous presence of Mo–La oxides and nonskeletal CaO in Ni/LTA weakened the strong interaction between Ni active metal species and support (SIMS). The catalytic test showed that increase on basic property of Ni/LTA catalysts was helpful to improving glycerol conversion to syngas and inhibiting water–gas shift reaction and methanation during GSR. The Ni/MoLaCa-LTA with a weakened SIMS gave rise to the formation of smaller NiO particles, and exhibited a stable production capacity of gas with a H2/CO ratio of around 2.17, and exhibited no deactivation during 100 h time-on-stream. Although Ni/MoZrCa-LTA in GSR was rapidly deactivated due to carbon deposit after running 40 h, the spent catalyst could be on-line regenerated by calcination at 700 °C in an air flow, which could also be proved by TPO results of spent catalysts.

In order to extract the faint fault information from complicated vibration signal of bearing, a new feature extraction method based on singular value decomposition (SVD) and kurtosis criterion is proposed in my work. According to the method, a group of component signals are obtained firstly using SVD, then component signals with equal kurtosis are selected to be summed together, and the weak fault signal is clearly extracted. The effectiveness of the method is demonstrated on both simulated signal and actual data.

The current paper describes a water environment monitoring system, which is focused on the online monitoring techniques of groundwater detection, data process and transmission, a local experiment equipment is also developed. Besides, an integrated study, in terms of host computer of the groundwater monitoring system, programmable logic controller (PLC) control system and sensor technology is carried out. Moreover, the secondary data process of automatic detection instrumentation and display technology is integrated, as well as the visualized data platform is primarily established. The water environment monitoring system improves the standard of monitoring indicators from the surface water environment to groundwater environment. The detection interval of the system is less than 3min, and the pollution forecast scope surpasses 16 km2. A high accuracy of the forecasting and risk analysis can be obtained.

The feature of correlation analysis were described and applied to analyzing the vibration signal of the gearbox. Aiming to that the diagnosis effect of the rolling bearings incipient fault was not good through the vibration spectrum and the resonance demodulation spectrum directly, the information fusion technology based on the correlation analysis is proposed to processing the vibration and acoustic resonance demodulation signal. The experimental results show that the presented correlation fusion analysis technology can be as the basis of the effective fault diagnosis method for the rolling bearings incipient defect.

Introduction is given to the content of activated sludge model No.3 (ASM3). The simulation program which based on the integration of ASM3 and Anaerobic Digestion Model was used to simulate A2/O with AquaMats Process. The predicted results of effluent COD, NH3-N and NO3-N accorded with the actuality. The removal efficiency of TP was quite low when sludge return rate was 100%. Based on this condition, the improved scheme which adjusts sludge reflux ratio to 60% was put forward and simulated. Process was optimized depending on the simulation results and the removal efficiencies of COD, NH3-N and TP reached to 83.1%, 98.75 and 24.01%. It is verified that ASM3 can be used as the platform of activated sludge process design.

Using Xiquan Lake wetland as an example, the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method in the application of surface water quality assessment was discussed in this paper. This paper chooses six representative pollution index, calculates respectively weight and integrated membership grade of the pollution index during dry season and rain season, and overall evaluates surface water quality of Xiquan Lake wetland comprehensive. Fuzzy comprehensive evaluation results show that water quality is respectively class V and III during dry season and rain season. Surface water quality of Xiquan Lake wetland in rain season is worse than in dry season. The evaluation results are scientific and reasonable, provide effective basis for wetland resources use and management.