Isoglycyrrhizin protects mouse lungs against acute respiratory distress syndrome via regulation of AMPK/Nrf2/ARE pathway

Purpose: To study the effect of isoglycyrrhizin on LPS-mediated acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in a mouse model, as well as the associated mechanism of action.Methods: Ninety (90) wild-type C57BL/6 male mice were randomly assigned to 3 groups, viz, control, ARDS and isoglycyrrhizin groups. Pathological lesions in mice lungs were determined using H&E staining. The mRNA and protein expressions of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), heme oxygenase (HO-1), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), AMP- dependent protein kinase (AMPK), serine/threonine proteinkinase (Akt), glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3), nucleotide-binding domain-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3), and Nrf2 were assayed using quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and immunoblotting, respectively.Results: The levels of mRNA and protein expressions of INO) and COX-2 were significantly upregulated in ARDS, when compared to control, but were markedly down-regulated by isoglycyrrhizin (p < 0.05). Similarly, exposure of ARDS mice to isoglycyrrhizin led to upregulations of mRNA and proteinlevels of Nrf2, NQO1, HO-1, GCLM, GCLC, p-GSK3, GSK3, p-AMPK, AMPK, p-Akt and AKT (p < 0.05). Moreover, isoglycyrrhizin significantly downregulated p-IκB and Nucl-p65 with respect to protein and mRNA levels, but upregulated IκBα expression. Histopathological examination revealed that pretreatment of ARDS mice with isoglycyrrhizin significantly reduced the number of infiltrating inflammatory cells, edema and ARDS score (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Isoglycyrrhizin protects mouse lungs against ARDS via regulation of AMPK/Nrf2/ARE pathway. Thus, this compound has potential for use in the treatment of ARDS

Analysis of the Application of Accounting Information Systems of Cash Receipt on the Rsia Kasih Ibu Manado

The accounting information system on cash receipt is an information system that is important to improve the quality and performance of a hospital. The application of the supervision/control system in an organization will provide many benefits to the management in running the business, as well as to maintain the existence of the company in facing competitors. This study aims to analyze the application of cash receipts accounting information systems at RSIA Kasih Ibu Manado. RSIA Kasih Ibu, is one of the agencies that deal with health services for mothers and children. The method used is descriptive method. The results shows, the accounting information systems, especially cash receipts on the RSIA Kasih Ibu has been in accordance with the basic elements of accounting information systems. This is evident by the existence of good records and adequate internal control. It is recommended that the accounting information system in the financial department computerized information system is implemented in accordance with the required accounting information systems also maintain and improve the information system that has been implemented, so that the hospital can have a good quality in service, administration and finance. Keywords: accounting information systems, cash receipt

Neurophysiological Defects and Neuronal Gene Deregulation in Drosophila mir-124 Mutants

miR-124 is conserved in sequence and neuronal expression across the animal kingdom and is predicted to have hundreds of mRNA targets. Diverse defects in neural development and function were reported from miR-124 antisense studies in vertebrates, but a nematode knockout of mir-124 surprisingly lacked detectable phenotypes. To provide genetic insight from Drosophila, we deleted its single mir-124 locus and found that it is dispensable for gross aspects of neural specification and differentiation. On the other hand, we detected a variety of mutant phenotypes that were rescuable by a mir-124 genomic transgene, including short lifespan, increased dendrite variation, impaired larval locomotion, and aberrant synaptic release at the NMJ. These phenotypes reflect extensive requirements of miR-124 even under optimal culture conditions. Comparison of the transcriptomes of cells from wild-type and mir-124 mutant animals, purified on the basis of mir-124 promoter activity, revealed broad upregulation of direct miR-124 targets. However, in contrast to the proposed mutual exclusion model for miR-124 function, its functional targets were relatively highly expressed in miR-124–expressing cells and were not enriched in genes annotated with epidermal expression. A notable aspect of the direct miR-124 network was coordinate targeting of five positive components in the retrograde BMP signaling pathway, whose activation in neurons increases synaptic release at the NMJ, similar to mir-124 mutants. Derepression of the direct miR-124 target network also had many secondary effects, including over-activity of other post-transcriptional repressors and a net incomplete transition from a neuroblast to a neuronal gene expression signature. Altogether, these studies demonstrate complex consequences of miR-124 loss on neural gene expression and neurophysiology

The decimator with multiplier-free realizations for high precision ADC applications

Aiming at the medical application of high precision ECG signal acquisition, an efficient decimator in 18-bit Sigma-Delta ADC with multiplier-free methods is presented. The decimator can be applied with the single loop, multi-loop or cascade Sigma-Delta modulator (SDM). For efficient hardware implementation of the proposed decimator, the Rom-ram construction with CSD decoder is designed instead of the MAC filtering, while the TDM-based cascade of C-DF and single-rate half-band filter is established. To further improve the execution efficiency, a novel multiplier-free approach is employed in multi-rate half-band filter, by synthesizing the filter into sub-filters with only a few powers-of-two representation forms for tap coefficients. As results, the decimator achieves real time processing of 325Hz-baseband ECG signal, with low latency, high filtering performance and low resource cost.http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000341774100174&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=8e1609b174ce4e31116a60747a720701Computer Science, Hardware & ArchitectureEngineering, Electrical & ElectronicTelecommunicationsEICPCI-S(ISTP)

Additional file 3: Figure S1. of The loss-of-function GLABROUS 3 mutation in cucumber is due to LTR-retrotransposon insertion in a class IV HD-ZIP transcription factor gene CsGL3 that is epistatic over CsGL1

Detection of 5005-bp LTR retrotransposon insertion found at the csgl3 allele in natural populations of cucumber. M: 1 kb markers; csgl3: the glabrous mutant RIL-46 M amplifies a 917 bp fragment suggesting presence of the insertion; 1 to 46: representative materials of the natural population (total 384) with 461 bp fragment showing no insertion of the LTR retrotransposon in these materials. (PPTX 138 kb

Numerical simulation and cold experimental research of a low-NOx combustion technology for pulverized low-volatile coal

Large quantities of low-volatile coal are utilized in power plants throughout China. With increasingly stringent environmental regulations, it is important to develop and deploy low-NOx combustion technologies for pulverized coal boilers burning low-volatile coal. The objective of this study was to investigate a novel decoupling combustion system for low-volatile coal via experiments and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The combustion system includes horizontal fuel-rich/lean low-NOx burners (LNB) and the associated air distribution system for a polygonal tangentially fired boiler (PTFB). The effects of coal particle diameter and coal feeding rate on the gas/particle flow characteristics of the burner, and the cold state aerodynamic field of the PTFB were analyzed in detail. The structural design of the LNB results in advantageous gas/particle flow characteristics and the PTFB improved the distribution of the flow field. The CFD models and simulation results were validated by comparing with those of cold experiments data. The simulation results demonstrated that this low-NOx combustion technology enhances staged combustion at different scales, which can reduce NOx generation significantly. In the industrial application on a 300 MW pulverized coal boiler, installation of the LNBs improved the stability of low-volatile coal combustion and reduced NOx emissions significantly. These research findings provide valuable guidance to the design of low-NOx combustion system for pulverized coal boilers using low volatile coal. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.</p

Hsp90β promoted endothelial cell-dependent tumor angiogenesis in hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract Background Vascular endothelial growth factor receptors (VEGFRs) are the major receptors involved in endothelial cell-dependent tumor angiogenesis. There are studies account for the effects of Hsp90 on angiogenesis, but the role and mechanism of Hsp90β isoforms and NVP-BEP800, a specific inhibitor of Hsp90β, in tumor angiogenesis is rarely mentioned. Methods Immunohistochemistry and statistical analysis was used to evaluate the correlation between Hsp90β expression, CD31 endothelial cell-dependent vessel density, and VEGFRs expression in tissue samples of 96 HCCs. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and COX proportional hazards analysis the relation of Hsp90β and prognosis. HUVEC cells were transfected with Hsp90β or treated with NVP-BEP800, and then cell proliferation, migration, invasion and tube formation were investigated. The VEGFR1 and VEGFR2 expression was determined by Western blot and immunofluorescence. The VEGFR1 and VEGFR2 promoter activities were detected by dual luciferase report system. In vivo, the angiogenesis promotion of Hsp90β and anti-angiogenesis efficacy of NVP-BEP800 was tested in HCC xenograft models. Histological analysis was performed on tumor samples to evaluate Hsp90β, VEGFRs expression and MVD. Results This study investigated the correlation between Hsp90β expression and CD31+ endothelial cell-dependent vessel density. Hsp90β promoted VEGFRs expression by increasing their promoter activities. The proliferation, migration, invasion, and tube formation activities of human endothelial cells significantly increased when Hsp90β was overexpressed. NVP-BEP800 down-regulated VEGFRs expression to significantly reduce tubular differentiation, as well as endothelial cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. Furthermore, NVP-BEP800 decreased VEGFR1 and VEGFR2 promoter activities. In vivo, Hsp90β promoted VEGFRs and CD31 expression in human hepatocellular carcinoma tumor xenografts and was associated with increased tumor microvessel density. After 18 days of treatment with 30 mg/kg/day NVP-BEP800, VEGFRs and CD31 expression significantly decreased. Conclusion Hsp90β induced endothelial cell-dependent tumor angiogenesis by activating VEGFRs transcription. NVP-BEP800 has potential as a therapeutic strategy for inhibiting tumor angiogenesis by decreasing endothelial cell progression and metastasis. It can help develop a therapeutic strategy for tumor treatment through the inhibition of endothelial cell progression and metastasis

Research on the Principle of a New Flexible Screw Conveyor and Its Power Consumption

A new screw conveyor with flexible discrete spiral blades is proposed to solve the problem of particle material gathering between the screw and the tube wall in the traditional screw conveyor. With a theoretical analysis, the power consumption model of the screw conveyor with flexible discrete spiral blades is built. Then, its practicability is verified by simulation and experimental testing. The simulation results show that the increase of the spiral angle will raise the transportation speed of the particles. The diameter of the flexible blades raises with the increase of the power consumption of the screw conveyor. The experimental testing verified the analysis and simulation results

Seasonal precipitation and soil microbial community influence plant growth response to warming and N addition in a desert steppe

Aims: Global environmental changes are known to affect terrestrial ecosystems functions (i.e., plant growth and carbon storage). However, how plants and soil microorganisms respond to warming and nitrogen deposition in dry ecosystems with strong seasonal precipitation remains largely unexplored. Methods: Based on a 13-year manipulative field experiment, we investigated the effects of warming and nitrogen addition on soil microbial communities and plant net photosynthetic rates during dry and wet months in a desert steppe in Inner Mongolia. Results: We found that in the wet month, warming and nitrogen addition significantly increased soil microbial biomass. Yet, warming and nitrogen addition significantly increased soil inorganic nitrogen and leaf nitrogen concentration, thus promoting an increase in the net photosynthetic rate of Stipa breviflora. Moreover, warming and nitrogen addition significantly shifted soil microbial composition with an increase in soil bacterial phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) but a reduction in fungal PLFAs. The increased soil inorganic nitrogen indirectly enhanced leaf nitrogen and plant photosynthesis by changing soil microbial community structure. These changes were not significant in the dry month. Conclusions: Our study indicates that warming and nitrogen addition can promote plant photosynthesis by increasing soil nitrogen availability and changing soil microbial community structure. These changes only occurred when there was sufficient precipitation. These results highlight the crucial role of the soil microbial community and precipitation availability in influencing plant growth responses to global change drivers such as warming and nitrogen deposition. These findings suggest the importance of manipulating multiple factors rather than single factors in global change experiments and the role of plant and soil microbial interactions in ecosystem functions (i.e., plant growth and carbon storage) under global change