Molecular Cloning of phd1 and Comparative Analysis of phd1, 2, and 3 Expression in Xenopus laevis

Intensive gene targeting studies in mice have revealed that prolyl hydroxylase domain proteins (PHDs) play important roles in murine embryonic development; however, the expression patterns and function of these genes during embryogenesis of other vertebrates remain largely unknown. Here we report the molecular cloning of phd1 and systematic analysis of phd1, phd2, and phd3 expression in embryos as well as adult tissues of Xenopus laevis. All three phds are maternally provided during Xenopus early development. The spatial expression patterns of phds genes in Xenopus embryos appear to define a distinct synexpression group. Frog phd2 and phd3 showed complementary expression in adult tissues with phd2 transcription levels being high in the eye, brain, and intestine, but low in the liver, pancreas, and kidney. On the contrary, expression levels of phd3 are high in the liver, pancreas, and kidney, but low in the eye, brain, and intestine. All three phds are highly expressed in testes, ovary, gall bladder, and spleen. Among three phds, phd3 showed strongest expression in heart

Increased expression of TAZ and associated upregulation of PD-L1 in cervical cancer

Background As an important component of the Hippo pathway, WW domain-containing transcription regulator 1 (TAZ), is a transcriptional coactivator that is responsible for the progression of various types of cancers. Programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) receptors in activated T cells and their ligand programming death force 1 (PD-L1) are the main checkpoint signals that control T cell activity. Studies have shown high levels of PD-L1 in various cancers and that PD-L1/PD-1 signals to evade T-cell immunity. Recent data have demonstrated that TAZ can regulate the characteristics of cancer cells via PD-L1. Cervical cancer is a common gynecological disease worldwide. In this study, we attempted to evaluate the effects of TAZ and PD-L1 on cervical cancer. Methods Hela cervical cancer cells were transfected with TAZ plasmid or TAZ siRNA or PD-L1 siRNA by using Lipofectamine 2000. The relationship between TAZ and PD-L1 in cervical cancer cells was determined by qRT-PCR and western blotting. The functional roles of TAZ were confirmed via CCK-8, Transwell and flow cytometry assays. Western blotting was utilized to observe the expression of BCL-2 and Caspase-3. The clinicopathological correlation of TAZ and PD-L1 was evaluated via relevant databases. Result TAZ is upregulated in cervical cancer and induces the growth and metastasis of cervical cancer cells by targeting PD-L1and inhibiting the ratio of apoptotic of cancer cells. High TAZ and PD-L1 expression was observed in different stage, grade, histological patterns, and ages of cervical cancer groups compared with normal cervix groups. Furthermore, high TAZ expression was positively correlated with the infiltration levels of immune cells and the expression of PD-L1

Efficient Implementation of Decimal Floating Point Adder in FPGA

Decimal floating Point adder is one of the most frequent operations used by many financial, business and user-oriented applications but current implementations in FPGAs are very inefficient in terms of both area and latency when compared to binary floating point adder. This paper has shown an efficient implementation of a new parallel decimal floating point module on a reconfigurable platform, which is both area as well as performance optimal. The decimal floating-point Adder was further pipelined into five stages to increase the maximum frequency of operation. The synthesis results for a Stratix IV device indicate that our implementations have 25.1% reduction of the latency and 1.1% reduction of area compared to an existing alter-core adder design, presenting area and delay figures close to those of optimal binary adder trees. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/telkomnika.v11i10.3406

Effect of irrigation frequency during the growing season of winter wheat on the water use efficiency of summer maize in a double cropping system

Our aim was to investigate the potential effects of irrigation frequency during the growing season of winter wheat on the water use efficiency (WUE) of summer maize in a double cropping system. To this end, we conducted a field experiment with winter wheat cultivated with 1, 2, and 3 irrigation applications with 120 mm water at the time of stem elongation, heading, or milking. The results showed that later irrigation applications increased soil moisture before sowing (SMBS) of summer maize. Summer maize grain yield was enhanced in both the common and excessively rainy years with increased SMBS; however, irrigation during the later growing season of winter wheat in rainy years could increase deep percolation of summer maize. In common and rainy years, the more the SMBS, the higher was the grain yield of summer maize. The highest WUE for summer maize was obtained when it was grown after winter wheat irrigated with 120 mm water at milking or 60 mm water at each, the stem elongation and heading stages. Considering the combined WUE of winter wheat and summer maize, the authors think that winter wheat should be irrigated at the stem elongation and heading stages to achieve reasonable WUE and grain yield for both crops

Simulation-Based Dynamic Passenger Flow Assignment Modelling for a Schedule-Based Transit Network

The online operation management and the offline policy evaluation in complex transit networks require an effective dynamic traffic assignment (DTA) method that can capture the temporal-spatial nature of traffic flows. The objective of this work is to propose a simulation-based dynamic passenger assignment framework and models for such applications in the context of schedule-based rail transit systems. In the simulation framework, travellers are regarded as individual agents who are able to obtain complete information on the current traffic conditions. A combined route selection model integrated with pretrip route selection and entrip route switch is established for achieving the dynamic network flow equilibrium status. The train agent is operated strictly with the timetable and its capacity limitation is considered. A continuous time-driven simulator based on the proposed framework and models is developed, whose performance is illustrated through a large-scale network of Beijing subway. The results indicate that more than 0.8 million individual passengers and thousands of trains can be simulated simultaneously at a speed ten times faster than real time. This study provides an efficient approach to analyze the dynamic demand-supply relationship for large schedule-based transit networks

Heavy metal induced ecophysiological function alterations in the euhalophyte Suaeda salsa

Heavy metal accumulation affects the physiological status of plants. Suaeda salsa L. is used to investigate the toxic effects of cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) either alone or mixtures under the static test conditions. Cd-Pb mixture exposure can decrease lignin content and weaken the increase. Mitochondrial calcium content significantly reduced at 30 µM Cd and Pb exposure. Cd-Pb mixture exposure can increase calcium content under the same concentration exposure. Soluble sugar levels noted a significant decrease in Cd, Pb and Cd-Pb mixture exposure. The accumulations of Cd, Pb in S. salsa were significantly increased with exposure time. Soluble protein (SP) in S. salsa at 30 µM concentration treatments decreased with exposure time. Heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) was enhanced lightly along with the increase of added Cd-Pb from 30 to 70 &3181;M and then decreased below the controls which present a synergistic effect. Heat shock protein 60 (HSP60) increased slightly with the increase of Cd-Pb from 30 to 110 µM, and then decreased hereafter and significantly inhibited at 150 ƒÊM (p<0.05). Moreover, Cd-Pb mixture exposure significantly increased the Rubisco activity under lower concentration and presented antagonistic effect. At the same time, the viability percent decreased as increase Cd-Pb concentration exposure (p0.05), it presents a dose-dependent manner. Mitochondrial cells treated with Cd-Pb exposure obviously reduced the reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels in mitochondrial cells.Key words: Suaeda salsa, heavy metal, ecophysiological function

Toxicological responses in alfalfa (Medicago sativa) under joint stress of cadmium and napropamide

Joint effects of Cd2+ and napropamide in seeds, roots or leaves of alfalfa were investigated under different treatments. It was shown that single stress of Cd2+ or napropamide decreased chlorophyll content after 30 days of treatment in different concentrations. The decrease in chlorophyll content became insignificant under joint stress of Cd2+ and napropamide. It can be concluded that the interaction of Cd2+ and napropamide would aggravate the toxic effects on chlorophyll synthesis in leaves of alfalfa. The joint effect of Cd2+ and napropamide was markedly significant (p < 0.05) on the change of SP content in leaves in all treatment. Moreover, Cd2+ and napropamide mixture exposure can increase lignin content and present synergistic effect. In a mixture treated with Cd2+ and napropamide, 52% decrease in β-carotene content contrasted with the control in young leaves. The contents of protein thiols and non-protein thiols in the roots of alfalfa were significantly increased by Cd2+ treatment in all treatment levels. In contrast, increasing napropamide supply did not have any significant effect on the protein thiols and non-protein thiols content. The Cd2+ induced accumulation of O2•- in seeds could be increased by treatment with different Cd2+ concentration. Production of H2O2 and O2•- was also higher in the napropamide treatments than in the control. The addition of napropamide significantly increased the H2O2 and O2•- level in the seeds of alfalfa.Key words: Alfalfa, joint stress, cadmium, napropamide