Carnosic Acid Mitigates Early Brain Injury After Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: Possible Involvement of the SIRT1/p66shc Signaling Pathway

Carnosic acid (CA) has been reported to exhibit a variety of bioactivities including antioxidation, neuroprotection, and anti-inflammation; however, the impact of CA on subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) has never been elucidated. The current study was undertaken to explore the role of CA in early brain injury (EBI) secondary to SAH and the underlying mechanisms. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were perforated to mimic a clinical aneurysm with SAH. CA or vehicle was administered intravenously immediately after the SAH occurred. Mortality, SAH grade, neurologic function scores, brain water content, Evans blue extravasation, and the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels in the ipsilateral cortex were determined 24 h after the SAH occurred. Western blot, immunofluorescence, Fluoro-Jade C (FJC) and TUNEL staining were also performed. Our results showed that CA decreased ROS levels, alleviated brain edema and blood-brain barrier permeability, reduced neuronal cell death, and promoted neurologic function improvement. To probe into the potential mechanisms. We showed that CA increased SIRT1, MnSOD, and Bcl-2 expression, as well as decreased p66shc, Bax, and cleaved caspase-3 expression. Interestingly, sirtinol, a selective inhibitor of SIRT1, abolished the anti-apoptotic effects of CA. Taken together, these data revealed that CA has a neuroprotective role in EBI secondary to SAH. The potential mechanism may involve suppression of neuronal apoptosis through the SIRT1/p66shc signaling pathway. CA may provide a promising therapeutic regimen for management of SAH

Compendium of 5810 genomes of sheep and goat gut microbiomes provides new insights into the glycan and mucin utilization

Background: Ruminant gut microbiota are critical in ecological adaptation, evolution, and nutrition utilization because it regulates energy metabolism, promotes nutrient absorption, and improves immune function. To study the functional roles of key gut microbiota in sheep and goats, it is essential to construct reference microbial gene catalogs and high-quality microbial genomes database. Results A total of 320 fecal samples were collected from 21 different sheep and goat breeds, originating from 32 distinct farms. Metagenomic deep sequencing and binning assembly were utilized to construct a comprehensive microbial genome information database for the gut microbiota. We successfully generated the largest reference gene catalogs for gut microbiota in sheep and goats, containing over 162 million and 82 million nonredundant predicted genes, respectively, with 49 million shared nonredundant predicted genes and 1138 shared species. We found that the rearing environment has a greater impact on microbial composition and function than the host’s species effect. Through subsequent assembly, we obtained 5810 medium- and high-quality metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs), out of which 2661 were yet unidentified species. Among these MAGs, we identified 91 bacterial taxa that specifically colonize the sheep gut, which encode polysaccharide utilization loci for glycan and mucin degradation. Conclusions By shedding light on the co-symbiotic microbial communities in the gut of small ruminants, our study significantly enhances the understanding of their nutrient degradation and disease susceptibility. Our findings emphasize the vast potential of untapped resources in functional bacterial species within ruminants, further expanding our knowledge of how the ruminant gut microbiota recognizes and processes glycan and mucins

Performance of Hybrid Single Well Enhanced Geothermal System and Solar Energy for Buildings Heating

The energy reserves in hot dry rock and hydrothermal systems are abundant in China, however, the developed resources are far below the potential estimates due to immature technology of enhanced geothermal system (EGS) and scattered resources of hydrothermal systems. To circumvent these problems and reduce the thermal resistance of rocks, here a shallow depth enhanced geothermal system (SDEGS) is proposed, which can be implemented by fracturing the hydrothermal system. We find that, the service life for SDEGS is 14 years with heat output of 4521.1 kW. To extend service life, the hybrid SDEGS and solar energy heating system is proposed with 10,000 m2 solar collectors installed to store heat into geothermal reservoir. The service life of the hybrid heating system is 35 years with geothermal heat output of 4653.78 kW. The novelty of the present work is that the hybrid heating system can solve the unstable and discontinuous problems of solar energy without building additional back-up sources or seasonal storage equipment, and the geothermal thermal output can be adjusted easily to meet the demand of building thermal loads varying with outside temperature

Performance of Hybrid Single Well Enhanced Geothermal System and Solar Energy for Buildings Heating

The energy reserves in hot dry rock and hydrothermal systems are abundant in China, however, the developed resources are far below the potential estimates due to immature technology of enhanced geothermal system (EGS) and scattered resources of hydrothermal systems. To circumvent these problems and reduce the thermal resistance of rocks, here a shallow depth enhanced geothermal system (SDEGS) is proposed, which can be implemented by fracturing the hydrothermal system. We find that, the service life for SDEGS is 14 years with heat output of 4521.1 kW. To extend service life, the hybrid SDEGS and solar energy heating system is proposed with 10,000 m(2) solar collectors installed to store heat into geothermal reservoir. The service life of the hybrid heating system is 35 years with geothermal heat output of 4653.78 kW. The novelty of the present work is that the hybrid heating system can solve the unstable and discontinuous problems of solar energy without building additional back-up sources or seasonal storage equipment, and the geothermal thermal output can be adjusted easily to meet the demand of building thermal loads varying with outside temperature

A novel enhanced deep borehole heat exchanger for building heating

Deep borehole heat exchanger (DBHE) technology can be used in various regions due to without dependence on the hot water reservoir. However, its performance can hardly be improved due to poor thermal conductivity of rocks and cement. Here a novel enhanced deep borehole heat exchanger (EDBHE) is first proposed, which applies composite filler, cement and well tube. To depress thermal resistance, graphene is used to mix with ordinary mud and cement respectively to prepare composite filler and composite cement. Especially composite filler is controlled deliberately to flow into leakage formation by adjusting its density, viscosity and back pressure in order to improve the thermal conductivity of surrounding rocks. We find that the extracted thermal output from EDBHE is 1002.34 kW, which is 2.36 times that of DBHE (424.45 kW). EDBHE can be used in low water output zone and difficult recharge zone even dry hole zone with leakage formation, which will increase geothermal heating area substantially

CLeaR: An adaptive continual learning framework for regression tasks

Gefördert durch den Publikationsfonds der Universität Kasse

Performance analysis of shallow depth hydrothermal enhanced geothermal system for electricity generation

There is a large mismatch between potential estimates and developed geothermal resources in China due to high cost and risk for enhanced geothermal system (EGS) and scattered resources and low volume flow rate for hydrothermal system. Here we propose a shallow depth enhanced geothermal system (SDEGS), which can be implemented by fracturing the shallow depth hydrothermal system to create rich fractures in order to enhance permeability and volume flow rate. The mathematical models describing the continuity, momentum and energy equations in the artificial reservoir and surrounding rock, as well as the thermoelectric conversion equations of Organic Rankine cycle (ORC) are developed. From the simulation results we find that the artificial reservoir of SDEGS can provide stable heat output and outlet water temperature of respectively 59499.97 kW and 165 degrees Cfor almost 23 years. For ORC for generating electricity, the net work output and thermal efficiency are respectively 8053.6 kW and 13.54 %. SDEGS can reduce the hydraulic fracturing risk and cost due to existing rich natural fractures in hydrothermal system, thus broadening the application ranges of EGS

Temporal and Spatial Assessment of Soil Salinity Post-Flood Irrigation: A Guide to Optimal Cotton Sowing Timing

Flood irrigation is often applied in the arid regions of Northwest China to facilitate the leaching of salts accumulated in the soil during cotton growth in the previous season. This will, in turn, affect the temporal and spatial patterns of soil salinity, and thus cotton germination. To reveal the salinity of the two soil layers (0–20 cm and 20–60 cm), so as to determine the optimal cotton sowing timing, an electronic ground conductivity meter (EM38-MK2) was employed to measure the soil apparent electrical-conductivity (ECa) on different days: 4 days prior to flood irrigation, and, respectively, 6, 10, 15, 20, and 45 days after flood irrigation. Moreover, geostatistical analysis and block kriging interpolation were employed to analyze the spatial-temporal variations of soil salinity introduced by flood irrigation. Our results indicate that: (1) soil salinity in the two layers on different days can be well inverted from binary first-order equations of ECa at two coils (i.e., ECa1.0 and ECa0.5), demonstrating the feasibility of applying EM38-MK2 to estimate soil salinity in the field; and (2) soil salinity in the 0–20 cm layer significantly decreased during the first 15 days after flood irrigation with the greatest leaching rate of 88.37%, but tended to increase afterwards. However, the salinity in the 20–60 cm layer was persistently high before and after flood irrigation, with merely a brief decrease during the first 10 days after flood irrigation at the highest leaching rate of 40.74%. (3) The optimal semi-variance models illustrate that, after flood irrigation, the sill value (C0 + C) in the 0–20 cm layer decreased sharply, but the 20–60 cm Range of the layer significantly increased, suggesting that flood irrigation not only reduces the spatial variability of surface soil salinity, but also enhances spatial dependence in the 20–60 cm layer. (4) The correlation of the soil salinity between the two soil layers was very poor before flood irrigation, but gradually enhanced during the first 15 days after flood irrigation. Overall, for the study year, the first 15 days after flood irrigation was an optimal timing for cotton sowing when the leaching effects during flood irrigation were most efficient, and overrode the effects of evaporation and microtopography. Although not directly applicable to other years or regions, the electromagnetic induction surveys and spatiotemporal analysis of soil salinity can provide a rapid and viable guide to help determine optimal cotton sowing timing