An allosteric modulator activates BK channels by perturbing coupling between Ca2+ binding and pore opening

BK type C

Study on the evaluation of the clinical effects of traditional chinese medicine in heart failure by complex intervention: protocol of SECETCM-HF

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Experts in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) have studied the TCM subject of the pathogenesis of heart failure (HF) for several decades. As a result, the general idea is <it>ben </it>deficiency and <it>biao </it>excess. However, the clinical evaluation system which combined the TCM and western medicine in HF has not been developed yet. The objective is to establish the evaluation index system for the integration of TCM and western medicine. The evaluation indexes which include TCM items will specify the research design and methods.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Nine medical centers in different cities in China will participate in the trial. A population of 340 patients with HF will be enrolled through a central randomized system for different test groups. Group A will be treated with only western medicine, while group B with western and Chinese medicine together. The study will last for 12 months from the date of enrollment. The cardiovascular death will be the primary outcome.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>By putting the protocol into practice, the clinical effects of TCM for HF will be identified scientifically, objectively as well as rationally. The proper index system which built in the study will be helpful for the clinical effect expression of HF by integrated medicine in future.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>ChiCTR-TRC-00000059</p

Research on the Spatio-temporal Differences in the Living Standards of the Counties under the Shandong Province

Using the method of district statistics to verify the correlation of NPP-VIIRS night light data and GDP, the difference between counties in Shandong from 2012 to 2019 can be analysed and the changes of living standards can be quantified. After obtaining the total value of night light brightness in each county, the coefficient of variation is used to calculate the degree of dispersion of each county, and then the regional differences of each city in 2019 and the inter-annual changes from 2012 to 2019 are analyzed and displayed. In conclusion, living standards of different countries in Shandong are different, and the difference becomes obvious with the growth of GDP. However,the difference of living standards of most countries becomes smaller in recent years

Bioremediation of propylbenzenes by a novel marine microalga Rhinomonas reticulata S6A isolated from Daya Bay: acute toxicity, growth kinetics and biodegradation performance

This study investigated the degradation characteristics of propylbenzenes (PBZs, including isopropylbenzene and n-propylbenzene), with high leakage risks and ecological hazards, by a newly isolated marine microalga named Rhinomonas reticulata S6A which is a promising candidate for eco-friendly bioremediation from marine. About 72% and 56% of n-PBZ and i-PBZ can be degraded after 7 days in culture. The acute toxicity of n-PBZ (96h - EC50 = 2.38 mg/L) was higher than that of i-PBZ (96h - EC50 = 3.65 mg/L). The growth inhibition kinetics of this strain were consistent with the Edwards model (R2 = 0.998) and Aiba model (R2 = 0.999). The optimal concentrations for the degradation of n-PBZ and i-PBZ were calculated to be 2.42 mg/L and 2.78 mg/L, respectively. The degradation trends of PBZs conformed to the zero-order kinetic model, and k increased with initial concentrations. The moderate increase in inoculation density could accelerate the degradation of PBZs, with the maximum specific growth rates (r) of 1.116/d (n-PBZ) and 1.230/d (i-PBZ) at the initial inoculation density of 104 cells/mL, while over-inoculation (initial microalgae density more than 105 cells/mL) was not conducive to the degradation of the pollutants. There is not much data on the biodegradation of PBZs in the aquatic environment, so it would be worthwhile to try to apply the new microalgae to explore the fate of PBZs

MACT: A Manageable Minimization Allocation System

Background. Minimization is a case allocation method for randomized controlled trials (RCT). Evidence suggests that the minimization method achieves balanced groups with respect to numbers and participant characteristics, and can incorporate more prognostic factors compared to other randomization methods. Although several automatic allocation systems exist (e.g., randoWeb, and MagMin), the minimization method is still difficult to implement, and RCTs seldom employ minimization. Therefore, we developed the minimization allocation controlled trials (MACT) system, a generic manageable minimization allocation system. System Outline. The MACT system implements minimization allocation by Web and email. It has a unified interface that manages trials, participants, and allocation. It simultaneously supports multitrials, multicenters, multigrouping, multiple prognostic factors, and multilevels. Methods. Unlike previous systems, MACT utilizes an optimized database that greatly improves manageability. Simulations and Results. MACT was assessed in a series of experiments and evaluations. Relative to simple randomization, minimization produces better balance among groups and similar unpredictability. Applications. MACT has been employed in two RCTs that lasted three years. During this period, MACT steadily and simultaneously satisfied the requirements of the trial. Conclusions. MACT is a manageable, easy-to-use case allocation system. Its outstanding features are attracting more RCTs to use the minimization allocation method

Application of a Bytetrack-Based, Multi-Target Tracking Algorithm for Zebrafish Toxicity-Response Behavior Recognition

Petrochemical wastewater contains heavy metals and petroleum-based pollutants and is a major environmental and biological health hazard. Zebrafish are sensitive to water quality changes and can be used as biological indicators for water quality monitoring. The type, concentration, and toxicity of pollutants in the water can be inferred by observing zebrafish survival, behavior, activity, and other parameters. However, the traditional method of monitoring zebrafish toxicity-response behavior by manual observation and analysis is subjective, labor-intensive, and inefficient. Therefore, automating the monitoring and identification of zebrafish toxicity-response behavior using computer vision technology is an important and challenging research goal. The common methods of computer vision technology in zebrafish toxicity-response behavior monitoring and recognition can be divided into three steps: Foreground extraction, target tracking, and behavior analysis. However, there are problems such as sensitivity to light changes, inability to deal with occlusion and overlapping phenomena, and low efficiency. Therefore, the aim of this study was to improve efficiency and detection accuracy in complex situations such as fish shading for the automated and real-time identification of zebrafish toxicity-response behavior. In this study, four typical pollutants (zinc, chromium, lead, and phenol) in petrochemical tail water were selected to experimentally observe the swimming behavior of zebrafish at different concentrations and exposure times. A multi-target tracking technique based on YOLOv8+ Bytetrack was used to extract the characteristic values of zebrafish movements (average velocity, maximum velocity, minimum velocity, and average number of collisions). YOLOv8 is a deep learning-based end-to-end target detection algorithm that enables efficient and accurate target detection. Bytetrack is a multi-target tracking algorithm based on target detection that can achieve real-time target tracking coupled with the use of low-scoring frames in the tracking algorithm for secondary matching, which can effectively optimize the problem of switching IDs due to occlusion in the tracking process. The convolutional neural network Resnet was used to analyze the motion trajectory maps of zebrafish. The bounding box and confidence level output from the YOLOv8 model were inputted into the algorithm to obtain a unique ID and trajectory for each zebrafish. Finally, zebrafish features such as position, speed, number of wall touches, and trajectory were extracted based on the tracking results. The experimental results showed that the algorithm's tracking accuracy, missing rate, and detection time (per 300 frames) reached 90.26%, 16.33%, and 0.19 min, respectively, which represented a considerable improvement in detection time and accuracy over those of traditional target-detection methods. The tracking accuracy of manual labeling was up to 100%, and the monitoring time was 125.62 min, which was 661.16 times greater than that of the multi-target tracking method in this study. Moreover, the detection times of the threshold segmentation-based Kalman filter, SOTMOT-based multi-target tracking, and FairMOT-based multi-target tracking were 3.59, 0.41, and 0.37 min, respectively, representing 18.89-, 2.16-, and 1.95-fold increases over that of the proposed method, and the tracking accuracies were 67.09%, 88.52%, and 90.10%, which represented only 74.32%, 98.07%, and 99.82%, respectively, of the accuracy of this method. Moreover, the missing detection rates were 72.80%, 20.69%, and 26.45%, which were 4.46, 1.27, and 1.62 times greater than the missing detection rate of this method. This method outperforms other multi-target tracking methods (SOTMOT and Deepsort) regarding target-tracking accuracy and precision. Meanwhile, the proposed method can accurately identify the corresponding movement status and trajectory changes in zebrafish based on specific pollutants. An increase and then a decrease in velocity were observed in zebrafish exposed to zinc sulfate and lead acetate as compared to that of the control group. A significant difference (P < 0.05) exists between the effects of zinc sulfate and lead acetate on the increase in velocity of zebrafish at the beginning of the exposure. The velocity of zebrafish in the potassium dichromate-exposed group showed a fluctuating trend, with values slightly lower than those of the control group. In contrast, the proportion of abnormal trajectories was significantly higher (P < 0.05) than that in the other experimental groups. Under phenol exposure conditions, the velocity of zebrafish tended to fluctuate over a wide range, while the number of wall touches was significantly higher than that in the other experimental groups (P < 0.05). At the late stage of exposure, the velocity of zebrafish in zinc sulfate, lead acetate, and potassium dichromate exposure groups gradually stabilized. The velocity of zebrafish under zinc sulfate and lead acetate exposure conditions tended to decrease significantly. In the potassium dichromate group, the velocity of zebrafish under 1 and 2 TU phenol exposure increased sharply and then fluctuated within a certain range, and 4 TU phenol exposure resulted in partial mortality of zebrafish. In summary, the multi-target tracking method can quickly identify the type of pollutant to which zebrafish are exposed by setting thresholds for the speed, number of wall touches, and percentage of abnormal trajectories in zebrafish behavior. This method is simple, effective, performs accurate identification, and determines real-time responses, making it highly valuable for reference in fish toxicity-response behavior identification

Effects of Forchlorfenuron on the Morphology, Metabolite Accumulation, and Transcriptional Responses of Siraitia grosvenorii Fruit

Siraitia grosvenorii fruit, called luo-han-guo (LHG), have been used as a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and dietary supplements for many years. Mogrosides, the main bioactive ingredients in LHG, are commercially available worldwide as a non-sugar-based and noncaloric sweetener. However, the production cannot meet the increasing market demand because of the low content of mogrosides and the small size of LHG. Therefore, some advanced technologies have been applied for improving the quality of LHG. Forchlorfenuron (CPPU), a plant growth regulator, is widely applied to promote plant yield and the secondary metabolite synthesis. Here, the content of nine mogrosides and three intermediates in LHG that were treated with three different concentrations of CPPU were determined by LC-MS/MS and GC-MS, respectively. The total content of mogrosides in LHG treated with CPPU was not enhanced, and the proportion of some main bioactive ingredients, including mogroside V (MV), were decreased relative to that of the control treatment. Morphological and cytological observations showed CPPU could make an early lignification in fruit epidermal cells, and 5 or 25 mg L&minus;1 CPPU could inhibit LHG growth. The expression levels of 24 key genes in the mogroside biosynthesis pathway were measured and revealed that genes downregulated in upstream, and different expressions of SgUGTs would affect the accumulations and proportions of mogrosides in LHG induced by CPPU. This was the first study that applied CPPU individually on LHG, and assessed effects of CPPU on the morphology, the accumulation of metabolites, and expression profiles of 24 structural genes. The CPPU effects on LHG were undesirable, including development inhibition and the decrease of main mogroside content. These will provide guidance for the rational application of CPPU

Two-stage mixotrophic cultivation for enhancing the biomass and lipid productivity of Chlorella vulgaris

Abstract This study proposes a two-stage mixotrophic process for cultivating Chlorella vulgaris. Heterotrophic growth is the dominant step in Phase I (to increase microalgal biomass) and photoautotrophic growth occurs in Phase II (to improve biomass concentration and lipid production). The results show that the addition of the low-cost antioxidant sodium erythorbate (8 g L−1) significantly accelerates the growth of microalgae in the first stage with air aeration. Furthermore, a higher CO2 fixation rate was obtained in the second stage (at least 344.32 mg CO2 L−1 day−1) with 10% CO2 aeration. This approximately corresponds to an increase of 177% over simple photoautotrophic cultivation with 10% CO2 aeration during the whole period. The two-stage cultivation strategy achieved a maximum C. vulgaris biomass concentration of 3.45 g L−1 and lipid productivity of 43.70 mg L−1 day−1, which are 1.85 and 1.64 times those arising due to simple photoautotrophy, respectively. Moreover, an analysis of the product’s fatty acid profile indicates that C. vulgaris might be an ideal candidate for two-stage mixotrophic cultivation of a renewable biomass for use in biodiesel applications. Another interesting point to note from the study is that it is an insufficiency of N and CO2 that probably limits the further growth of C. vulgaris

An energy-saving control strategy for multi-zone demand controlled ventilation system with data-driven model and air balancing control

A data-driven energy-saving control strategy applied to balance the multi-zone demand controlled ventilation system is presented. The proposed strategy consists of two steps: system model construction and air balancing control. Based on observed datasets, a multi-layer perceptron structure is employed to model the multi-zone ventilation system. The model is used to predict the pressure differences of each damper based on the static pressure of the main duct and the desired airflow rates of each damper. Air balancing control approach is implemented based on the empirical formula of the damper. This approach is use to predict the operating positions of each damper based on the predicted pressure differences of the developed model. An experimental apparatus consisting of original components of ventilation system is set up to collect the training and testing data, and simultaneously used to validate the performance of the proposed control strategy. Experimental results demonstrate that the issue of over-ventilation and under-ventilation of demand controlled ventilation system is eliminated, and energy savings of fan power can be obtained with the proposed control strategy.Building and Construction Authority (BCA)National Research Foundation (NRF)This work was partially funded by National Research Foundation of Singapore (NRF2014EWT-EIRP003-014, NRF2011 NRF-CRP001- 090), Building and Construction Authority (BCA) project (94.23.1.3), A Project of Shandong Province Higher Educational Science and Technology Program (J17KA073) and Focus on Research and Development Plan in Shandong Province (2018GGX105011, 2019GGX101055)

Natural CO2 leakage and responses of shallow aquifers in the southern Xining Basin

Objective Geological storage of CO2 is an important technology for reducing CO2 emissions, and the assessment of CO2 leakage risk is the key to its implementation. Research on natural CO2 leakage is an important means to obtain key information for leakage assessment. Methods The source of CO2, the characteristics of CO2 leakage, and the relevant response of shallow aquifers to the CO2 leakage have been analysed through field investigations, on-site measurements, and sampling and testing of water, gas and rock. Results A number of natural CO2 leakages have been discovered in the southern Xining Basin, including CO2-rich springs, CO2-driven cold-water geysers from abandoned wells, and CO2 blowouts, as well as large-scale travertine associated with them. CO2 is the dominant component in the gas phase, and the abundance of carbon isotope of CO2 is between -2.5‰ and -0.4‰, indicating that the leaked CO2 comes from a deep inorganic origin, leaks into shallow confined aquifers through deep faults, and flows and discharges with the groundwater or accumulates secondarily in shallow formations. The concentration of soil 222Rn in areas of CO2 leakage is abnormal (over 9 000 Bq/m3), which can be used as an important method of identifying hidden leakage channels. The groundwater has a pronounced response to CO2 leakage, including a unique phenomenon of intermittent eruptions (eruption for 200 s and incubation for 130 s), changes in groundwater hydrochemical characteristics (e.g., a decrease in pH, an increase in conductance and HCO3- and Ca2+ concentrations, and a drift in oxygen isotopes), and travertine composed mainly of calcite with a bubble structure at the surface. The natural CO2 leakage characteristics at this site are highly similar to those in Utah, USA. Conclusion The results of this study not only provide knowledge of natural analogous for leakage risk assessment of CO2 geological storage, but also contribute to the understanding of geological activity in the deep earth