Polymorphisms in Epigenetic and Meat Quality Related Genes in Fourteen Cattle Breeds and Association with Beef Quality and Carcass Traits

Improvement for carcass traits related to beef quality is the key concern in beef production. Recent reports found that epigenetics mediates the interaction of individuals with environment and nutrition. The present study was designed to analyze the genetic effect of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in seven epigenetic-related genes (DNMT1, DNMT3a, DNMT3b, DNMT3L, Ago1, Ago2, and HDAC5) and two meat quality candidate genes (CAPN1 and PRKAG3) on fourteen carcass traits related to beef quality in a Snow Dragon beef population, and also to identify SNPs in a total of fourteen cattle populations. Sixteen SNPs were identified and genotyped in 383 individuals sampled from the 14 cattle breeds, which included 147 samples from the Snow Dragon beef population. Data analysis showed significant association of 8 SNPs within 4 genes related to carcass and/or meat quality traits in the beef populations. SNP1 (13154420A>G) in exon 17 of DNMT1 was significantly associated with rib-eye width and lean meat color score (pG) of DNMT3a was significantly associated with six beef quality traits. Those individuals with the wild-type genotype AA of DNMT3a showed an increase in carcass weight, chilled carcass weight, flank thicknesses, chuck short rib thickness, chuck short rib score and in chuck flap weight in contrast to the GG genotype. Five out of six SNPs in DNMT3b gene were significantly associated with three beef quality traits. SNP15 (45219258C>T) in CAPN1 was significantly associated with chuck short rib thickness and lean meat color score (p<0.05). The significant effect of SNP15 on lean meat color score individually and in combination with each of other 14 SNPs qualify this SNP to be used as potential marker for improving the trait. In addition, the frequencies of most wild-type alleles were higher than those of the mutant alleles in the native and foreign cattle breeds. Seven SNPs were identified in the epigenetic-related genes. The SNP15 in CAPN1 could be used as a powerful genetic marker in selection programs for beef quality improvement in the Snow Dragon Beef population

Molecular epidemiology of measles viruses in China, 1995–2003

This report describes the genetic characterization of 297 wild-type measles viruses that were isolated in 24 provinces of China between 1995 and 2003. Phylogenetic analysis of the N gene sequences showed that all of the isolates belonged to genotype H1 except 3 isolates, which were genotype A. The nucleotide sequence and predicted amino acid homologies of the 294-genotype H1 strains were 94.7%–100% and 93.3%–100%, respectively. The genotype H1 isolates were divided into 2 clusters, which differed by approximately 2.9% at the nucleotide level. Viruses from both clusters were distributed throughout China with no apparent geographic restriction and multiple co-circulating lineages were present in many provinces. Even though other measles genotypes have been detected in countries that border China, this report shows that genotype H1 is widely distributed throughout the country and that China has a single, endemic genotype. This important baseline data will help to monitor the progress of measles control in China

INORGANIC HALIDE PEROVSKITE/ORGANIC SEMICONDUCTOR-BASED MATERIALS FOR FIELD-EFFECT TRANSISTOR-RELATED APPLICATIONS

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (FOS

A multi-objective scheduling method for operational coordination time using improved triangular fuzzy number representation.

In modern warfare, the comprehensiveness of combat domain and the complexity of tasks pose great challenges to operational coordination.To address this challenge, we use the improved triangular fuzzy number to express the combat mission time, first present a new multi-objective operational cooperative time scheduling model that takes the fluctuation of combat coordinative time and the time flexibility between each task into account. The resulting model is essentially a large-scale multi-objective combinatorial optimization problem, intractably complicated to solve optimally. We next propose multi-objective improved Bat algorithm based on angle decomposition (MOIBA/AD) to quickly identify high-quality solutions to the model. Our proposed algorithm improves the decomposition strategy by replacing the planar space with the angle space, which helps greatly reduce the difficulty of processing evolutionary individuals and hence the time complexity of the multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition (MOEA/D). Moreover, the population replacement strategy is enhanced utilizing the improved bat algorithm, which helps evolutionary individuals avoid getting trapped in local optima. Computational experiments on multi-objective operational cooperative time scheduling (MOOCTS) problems of different scales demonstrate the superiority of our proposed method over four state-of-the-art multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs), including multi-objective bat Algorithm (MOBA), MOEA/D, non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm version II (NSGA-II) and multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm (MOPSO). Our proposed method performs better in terms of four performance criteria, producing solutions of higher quality while keeping a better distribution of the Pareto solution set

Basicity‐Controlled [3+2] Cyclization of 3‐Hydroxyquinolin‐ones and β‐Chlorinated Nitrostyrenes

The construction of novel skeletons through the recombination of natural products ring systems is attractive. Herein, a basicity-controlled synthesis of (dihydro)furo[2,3-c]quinolin-4(5H)-one derivatives through (3+2) cyclization between 3-hydroxyquinolin-2- ones and β-chlorinated nitrostyrenes was developed. In addition, preliminary study gave the chiral dihydrofuro[2,3-c]quinolin-4(5H)-one derivatives with up to 83% ee

Basicity‐Controlled [3+2] Cyclization of 3‐Hydroxyquinolin‐ones and β‐Chlorinated Nitrostyrenes

International audienceThe construction of novel skeletons through the recombination of natural products ring systems is attractive. Herein, a basicitycontrolled synthesis of (dihydro)furo[2,3-c]quinolin-4(5H)-one derivatives through (3 + 2) cyclization between 3-hydroxyquino-lin-2-ones and β-chlorinated nitrostyrenes was developed. In addition, preliminary study gave the chiral dihydrofuro[2,3c]quinolin-4(5H)-one derivatives with up to 83 % ee

Enhanced Oral Bioavailability, Anti-Tumor Activity and Hepatoprotective Effect of 6-Shogaol Loaded in a Type of Novel Micelles of Polyethylene Glycol and Linoleic Acid Conjugate

：6-shogaol is a promising anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory agent. However, the treatment effectiveness of 6-shogaol is limited by poor water solubility, poor oral absorption and rapid metabolism. Herein, 6-shogaol loaded in micelles (SMs) were designed to improve 6-shogaol&rsquo;s solubility and bioavailability. The micelles of a PEG derivative of linoleic acid (mPEG2k-LA) were prepared by the nanoprecipitation method with a particle size of 76.8 nm, and entrapment of 81.6 %. Intriguingly, SMs showed a slower release in phosphate buffer saline (PBS) (pH = 7.4) compared to free 6-shogaol while its oral bioavailability increased by 3.2&ndash;fold in vivo. More importantly, the in vitro cytotoxic effect in HepG2 cells of SMs was significantly higher than free 6-shogaol. Furthermore, SMs could significantly improve the tissue distribution of 6-shogaol, especially liver and brain. Finally, SMs showed a better hepatoprotective effect against carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced hepatic injury in vivo than free 6-shogaol. These results suggest that the novel micelles could potentiate the activities of 6-shogaol in cancer treatment and hepatoprotection