Chronic Glucocorticoid Exposure Induces Depression-Like Phenotype in Rhesus Macaque (Macaca Mulatta)

It has long been observed in humans that the occurrence of depressive symptoms is often accompanied by the dysfunction of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The rodent experiments also showed that chronic corticosterone exposure could induce depression-like phenotype. However, rodents are phylogenetically distant from humans. In contrast, non-human primates bear stronger similarities with humans, suggesting research on primates would provide an important complement. For the first time, we investigated the effects of chronic glucocorticoid exposure on rhesus macaques. Seven male macaques were selected and randomized to glucocorticoid or vehicle groups, which were subjected to either prednisolone acetate or saline injections, respectively. The depression-like behaviors were assessed weekly, and the body weights, HPA axis reactivity, sucrose solution consumption and monoaminergic neurotransmitters were further compared between these two groups. The glucocorticoid group was not found to display more depression-like behaviors than the vehicle group until 7 weeks after treatment. Chronic glucocorticoid exposure significantly decreased the levels of cortisol determined from blood (a biomarker for acute HPA axis reactivity) but increased the hair cortisol concentrations (a reliable indicator of chronic HPA axis reactivity) compared with controls. The glucocorticoid group was also found to consume less sucrose solution than controls, a good manifestation of anhedonia. This could be possibly explained by lower dopamine (DA) levels in cerebrospinal fluid induced by chronic glucocorticoid treatment. The results presented here indicate that chronic glucocorticoid exposure could disturb both the acute and chronic HPA axis reactivity, which eventually disturbed the neurotransmitter system and led monkeys to display depression-like phenotype

A conceptual framework for after-sales service risk reduction of Chinese agricultural machinery in South Africa

After-sales service (ASS) plays a significant role following the agricultural machinery being sold. With the development of trade and economic exchange between South Africa and China. Chinese agricultural machinery has increasingly sold to South African and Africa. After- sales service becomes crucial important to maintenance the machinery. Results found that the people whose age was between 30 and 49 that much involved in the research findings. Comparison between South African and China found to be more males participate (79.2%) in China, and more females (29.2%) in South Africa. It found that South African female engaged more than Chinese females. The staff and directors made up the majority of participants, where staff and directors accounted for 54.2% in South Africa and 70.9% from China’s side. The percentage on the degree of high school level of Chinese interviewees showed the highest among these five items, which were 50% compared to the highest degree of South African participants at the college level (37.5%). There was no interviewer who earned a major in engineering in South African involved in this study and there was an endeavor to employ more engineers in South Africa. The highest point was the value of spare parts factor from the perspective of South African participants, followed by the factors repairing, maintenance, technician and training. The focus group was concerned with the other factors that impacted on the ASS of AM. The focus-group in China showed that except for the factors that influenced the ASS of AM, Sanbao; three Guarantees: repair, replacement and return, and customer’s satisfaction played a significant role in the process of ASS of AM. With this, the factors included the revisiting, maintenance, technology assistance, tracking service and customer’s satisfaction. The focus-group in South Africa found that after-sales service was faced a crucial effect to ASS of AM.http://www.ijat-aatsea.comhj2023Graduate School of Technology Management (GSTM

A fast responsive chromogenic and near-infrared fluorescence lighting-up probe for visual detection of toxic thiophenol in environmental water and living cells

Thiophenols as high toxic environmental pollutants are poisonous for animals and aquatic organisms. Therefore, it is indispensable to monitor thiophenols in the environment. Herein, a novel near-infrared fluorescent probe was developed for the detection of thiophenols, which was easily prepared by one-step coupling of 2,4-dini trobenzenesulfonyl chloride with Nile blue. The probe showed a significant near infrared (∼675 nm) fluores cence “turn-on” response to thiophenols with some good features including chromogenic reaction, high sensi tivity and selectivity, fast response, near-infrared emission along with low detection limit (1.8 nM). The probe was employed to rapidly and visually determine thiophenols in several industrial wastewaters with good re coveries (90–110%). Moreover, this probe has been demonstrated good capability for imaging thiophenol in HeLa cellsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Comparison of housing facility management between mainland China and Taiwan region

Recently, mainland China has experienced the fastest urbanization in the world; however, the development of structural regulations regarding facility management (FM) services for housing is relatively recessive. As a result, disputes and conflicts in facility management of the private housing sector have become a serious problem in urban communities, affecting social sustainable development of the building industry. Comparatively, the private housing FM system in the urban areas in the Taiwan region was developed much earlier; thus, it is more advanced and mature than that in mainland China. This paper intends to compare the FM sectors between the two regions to provide suggestions for improving the service quality of the FM system in mainland China.Natural Science Foundation of Shandong (Grant No. ZR2013GQ014) and Independent Innovation Foundation of Shandong University (Grant No. IFW12108; IFW12065).http://ascelibrary.org/journal/jpcfevhb2016Graduate School of Technology Management (GSTM

Spermidine enhances heat tolerance of rice seeds during mid-filling stage and promote subsequent seed germination

IntroductionHeat stress is a vital factor which restricts rice seed quality and yield. However, the response mechanism to heat stress in the mid filling stage of rice seed is unclear.MethodsIn the present study we integrated phenotypic analysis with biochemical, hormone, and gene expression analysis in order to explore technologies for improving rice seeds heat tolerance and subsequent seed germination.ResultsSpermidine (Spd) application effectively alleviated the damage of heat stress treatment during mid-filling stage (HTM, 12-20 days after pollination) on seed development, promoted subsequent seed germination and seedlings establishment. Spd significantly increased seed dry weight, starch and amylose contents during seed development under heat stress, and improved seed germinate, seedlings establishment and seedling characteristics during germination time. Biochemical analysis indicated that, HTM significantly decreased the activities of several starch synthase enzymes and led to a decrease in starch content. While Spd treatment significantly enhanced the activities of ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylas and granule-bound starch synthase, as well as the corresponding-genes expressions in HTM rice seeds, resulting in the increases of amylose and total starch contents. In addition, Spd significantly increased the catalase and glutathione reductase activities together with corresponding-genes expressions, and lowered the overaccumulation of H2O2 and malondialdehyde in HTM seeds. In the subsequent seed germination process, HTM+Spd seeds exhibited dramatically up-regulated levels of soluble sugars, glucose, ATP and energy charges. Consistently, HTM+Spd seeds showed significantly increased of α-amylose and α-glucosidase activities as well as corresponding-genes expressions during early germination. Moreover, HTM evidently increased the abscisic acid (ABA) content, decreased the gibberellin (GA) content, and accordingly significantly declined the GA/ABA ratio during early rice seeds germination. However, Spd treatment did not significantly affect the metabolism of GA and ABA in seed germination stage.DiscussionThe present study suggested that Spd treatment could effectively alleviate the negative impact of HTM on seed development and the subsequent seed germination, which might be closely correlated with starch synthesis and antioxidant defense during seed filling period, starch decomposition and energy supply in seed germination period

SAPPHIRE: Search for exotic parity-violation interactions with quantum spin amplifiers

Quantum sensing provides sensitive tabletop tools to search for exotic spin-dependent interactions beyond the Standard Model, which has attracted great attention in theories and experiments. Here we develop a technique based on quantum Spin Amplifier for Particle PHysIcs REsearch (SAPPHIRE) to resonantly search for exotic interactions, specifically parity-odd spin-spin interactions. The present technique effectively amplifies the pseudomagnetic field generated by exotic interactions by a factor of about 200 while being insensitive to spurious external magnetic fields. Our studies, using such a quantum amplification technique, open the doors to exploring the parity-violation interactions mediated by Z' bosons in the challenging parameter space (force range between 3 mm and 0.1 km) and set the most stringent constraints on Z'-mediated electron-neutron couplings, significantly improving previous limits by up to five orders of magnitude. Moreover, our bounds on Z'-mediated couplings between nucleons reaches into a hitherto unexplored parameter space (force range below 1 m), complementing the existing astrophysical and laboratory studies.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Light Controllable Electronic Phase Transition in Ionic Liquid Gated Monolayer Transition Metal Dichalcogenides

Ionic liquid gating has proved to be effective in inducing emergent quantum phenomena such as superconductivity, ferromagnetism, and topological states. The electrostatic doping at two-dimensional interfaces relies on ionic motion, which thus is operated at sufficiently high temperature. Here, we report the in situ tuning of quantum phases by shining light on an ionic liquid-gated interface at cryogenic temperatures. The light illumination enables flexible switching of the quantum transition in monolayer WS2 from an insulator to a superconductor. In contrast to the prevailing picture of photoinduced carriers, we find that in the presence of a strong interfacial electric field conducting electrons could escape from the surface confinement by absorbing photons, mimicking the field emission. Such an optical tuning tool in conjunction with ionic liquid gating greatly facilitates continuous modulation of carrier densities and hence electronic phases, which would help to unveil novel quantum phenomena and device functionality in various materials