Investigation of significant microRNA-mRNA pairs associated with nonspecific digestive disorder in rabbits

[EN] Nonspecific digestive disorders (NSDD) are one of the major intestinal problems in rabbit, with considerable economic losses in industrial rabbit farms. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), as small non-coding RNAs, have significant biological involvement in intestinal disorders. In this study, we investigated the expression levels of 25 genes and 25 miRNAs in ileum, rabbit sacculus rotundus (RSR) and colon tissues from 9 rabbits with different severity of NSDD. These molecules have been found to be related to NSDD or inflammatory bowel disease, which will help recognise the miRNA-mRNA pairs. Finally, 108 possible pairs of miRNA-mRNA pairs with an anti-correlation were identified by Pearson’s correlation analysis between differentially expressed 25 miRNAs and 23 mRNAs. Ninety-five of these miRNA-mRNA pairs were hitherto unexplored, and their roles in NSDD biology require further elucidation. Our results give a clue to the potential miRNA-mRNA pairs for the NSDD that can further improve the understanding of the pathogenesis of NSDD in rabbit.This work was financially supported by the Earmarked Fund for China Agriculture Research System (Grant No: CARS-44-A-2)Jia, X.; Liao, Q.; Chen, S.; Wang, J.; Lai, S. (2017). Investigation of significant microRNA-mRNA pairs associated with nonspecific digestive disorder in rabbits. World Rabbit Science. 25(4):345-355. https://doi.org/10.4995/wrs.2017.6839SWORD34535525

Above-threshold ionization photoelectron spectrum from quantum trajectory

Many nonlinear quantum phenomena of intense laser-atom physics can be intuitively explained with the concept of trajectory. In this paper, Bohmian mechanics (BM) is introduced to study a multiphoton process of atoms interacting with the intense laser field: above-threshold ionization (ATI). Quantum trajectory of an atomic electron in intense laser field is obtained from the Bohm-Newton equation first and then the energy of the photoelectron is gained from its trajectory. With energies of an ensemble of photoelectrons, we obtain the ATI spectrum which is consistent with the previous theoretical and experimental results. Comparing BM with the classical trajectory Monte-Carlo method, we conclude that quantum potential may play a key role to reproduce the spectrum of ATI. Our work may present a new approach to understanding quantum phenomena in intense laser-atom physics with the image of trajectory.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Dynamics and Berry phase of two-species Bose-Einstein condensates

In terms of exact solutions of the time-dependent Schrodinger equation for an effective giant spin modeled from a coupled two-mode Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) with adiabatic and cyclic time-varying Raman coupling between two hyperfine states of the BEC, we obtain analytic time-evolution formulas of the population imbalance and relative phase between two components with various initial states, especially the SU(2)coherent state. We find the Berry phase depending on the number parity of atoms, and particle number dependence of the collapse revival of population-imbalance oscillation. It is shown that self-trapping and phase locking can be achieved from initial SU(2) coherent states with proper parameters.Comment: 18 pages,5 figure

Use of telemedicine in the postoperative assessment of proctological patients: a case-control study

Background: Telemedicine is emerging as an easy way to communicate between patients and surgeons. Use of telemedicine increased during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. WhatsApp is one of the most common smartphone applications for user-friendly telemedicine. The aim of this study was to evaluate patient perception of health quality and positive outcomes using a diary sent by the patient to the surgeon via WhatsApp during the first post-discharge week after proctologic surgery. Methods: Ninety-eight patients discharged after proctologic surgery at the Israelite Hospital of Rome and the AOU Policlinico Umberto I of Rome in 1 January-31 December 2019 were divided into two groups: the WhatsApp group (group A), (n = 36) and the no WhatsApp group (group B) (n = 62). Group A patients received a protocol to follow for the day-by-day diary during the first post-discharge week and sending it by WhatsApp to the surgeon. Group B patients only received recommendations at discharge. The tool's usefulness was assessed by a questionnaire one month after the intervention. Results: The two groups were homogeneous for age, sex, schooling, employment, and proctologic pathology. Group A patients had less difficulty keeping a diary (p < 0.0001). Group A patients had the perception of better follow-up post-discharge (p = 0.002). The use of the diary sent by WhatsApp significantly improved the perception of positive post-intervention outcomes (p = 0.007). WhatsApp was the only independent predictor of perception of post-surgical positive outcomes (odds ratio = 4.06; 95% CI 1.35-12.24; p = 0.01). Conclusions: The use of WhatsApp in the post-discharge period improves the lifestyle quality of the patients and their perception of the safety and quality of care received

Modification of membrane lipid peroxidation and antioxidant enzymes activation in transgenic rice resistant to Rhizoctonia solani

Activation of membrane lipid peroxidation and antioxidant enzymes were investigated in transgenic rice (Oryza sativa L.) lines J6 and J61 expressing the rice chitinase gene (RCH10) and the alfalfa â-1,3-glucanase gene (AGLU1). Our results show enhanced resistance of both lines to Rhizoctonia solani, the causal agent of rice sheath blight disease. While  malondialdehyde (MDA) was significantly generated with increasing  infection time, maximum production in wild-type (WT) transgenic lines J6 and J61 (44.35, 35.00 and 38.65 ìmol/g FW, respectively) occurred after 4 days. Analysis of superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity after 2 days inoculation also revealed distinct differences between WT (34.45 U/mg protein) and the 2 transgenic lines (J6; 45.86 U/mg protein; J61, 71.90 U/mg protein). On the other hand, the activities of catalase (CAT), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), guaiacol peroxidase (GPX), dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR) and glutathione reductase (GR) were found to be quite similar in all 3 lines. Taken together, these findings suggest that MDA content and SOD activity might play important roles in enhancing pathogen resistance in the transgenic plants. Our study provides a valuable route to analyze the mechanism of transgene-mediated defense in transgenic rice.Key words: Transgenic rice, resistance, sheath blight, Rhizoctonia solani, membrane lipid peroxidation, antioxidant enzymes

Nuclear Effects in Charmonium Production in QCD

It is shown that the nuclear shadowing of charmonium due to the modification of the nuclear parton distribution is similar in the factorization approach based on non relativistic QCD and in the color evaporation model. In the first model, a separate study of the color octet and color singlet contributions to the yields of the various charmonium states as well as the contributions of these states to the total $J/\Psi$ production is performed. It is found a clear $x_F$ dependence of these contributions which can reproduce experimental data for moderate $x_F$.Comment: 11 pages, 5 Postscript figure

Magnetic properties of undoped Cu2O fine powders with magnetic impurities and/or cation vacancies

Fine powders of micron- and submicron-sized particles of undoped Cu2O semiconductor, with three different sizes and morphologies have been synthesized by different chemical processes. These samples include nanospheres 200 nm in diameter, octahedra of size 1 micron, and polyhedra of size 800 nm. They exhibit a wide spectrum of magnetic properties. At low temperature, T = 5 K, the octahedron sample is diamagnetic. The nanosphere is paramagnetic. The other two polyhedron samples synthesized in different runs by the same process are found to show different magnetic properties. One of them exhibits weak ferromagnetism with T_C = 455 K and saturation magnetization, M_S = 0.19 emu/g at T = 5 K, while the other is paramagnetic. The total magnetic moment estimated from the detected impurity concentration of Fe, Co, and Ni, is too small to account for the observed magnetism by one to two orders of magnitude. Calculations by the density functional theory (DFT) reveal that cation vacancies in the Cu2O lattice are one of the possible causes of induced magnetic moments. The results further predict that the defect-induced magnetic moments favour a ferromagnetically coupled ground state if the local concentration of cation vacancies, n_C, exceeds 12.5%. This offers a possible scenario to explain the observed magnetic properties. The limitations of the investigations in the present work, in particular in the theoretical calculations, are discussed and possible areas for further study are suggested.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures 2 tables, submitted to J Phys Condense Matte