Composition Analysis of Sargassum Fusiforme in Different Marine Areas and Antioxidant Activity of Polysaccharides

Sargassum fusiforme is rich in a variety of nutrients and active substances, and is one of the important economic seaweeds in China. Its quality could be easily affected by environmental factors such as marine areas. To figure out the differences in nutritional composition of Sargassum fusiforme cultivated in different marine areas, this paper used Sargassum fusiforme cultivated in seven marine areas in Zhejiang Province as the research object, and determined the basic nutrients, amino acids and fatty acids using the National Food Safety Standard. The antioxidant activities of the seven Sargassum fusiforme polysaccharides were determined using DPPH· and ·OH scavenging as evaluation criteria, and the structural composition of seven kinds of Sargassum fusiforme polysaccharides were preliminarily analyzed. The results showed that, the moisture content of seven Sargassum fusiforme was highest, between (82.50±0.32) and (86.50±0.23) g/100 g. In addition to moisture content, the other main nutrient component was polysaccharide. The polysaccharide content of Sargassum fusiforme cultivated in No.7 marine area was the highest (P<0.05), which was 2.51 g/100 g. The fat content of Sargassum fusiforme of each marine area was relatively low, which was (0.30±0.01)~(0.40±0.01) g/100 g, indicating that Sargassum fusiforme was a kind of typically low-fat food. The amino acid content of Sargassum fusiforme varied greatly and the EAAI (Essential Amino Acid Index) values of Sargassum fusiforme in each marine area were all more than 0.9, indicating that Sargassum fusiforme in the seven marine areas were all high-quality protein sources. Furthermore, the amino acid composition ratios of Sargassum fusiforme cultivated in No.2 and No.6 marine areas were reasonable, which were closer to the ideal protein model recommended by WHO/FAO in 1937. A total of eight fatty acids were detected in Sargassum fusiforme from seven marine areas. Except for Sargassum fusiforme cultivated in No.2 marine area, the rest were mainly polyunsaturated fatty acids. The heavy metal content of Sargassum fusiforme complied with the requirements of in National food safety standard-Maximum levels of contaminants in foods (GB 2762-2017). The contents of Ca and K in Sargassum fusiforme cultivated in No.4 marine area were (131.44±6.36) mg/100 g and (1687.63±28.14) mg/100 g, respectively, which were good sources of Ca and K. The polysaccharide structures of Sargassum fusiforme in each marine area were similar, all of which contained sulfate groups and had the activity of scavenging ·OH and DPPH·. Among them, the polysaccharide of Sargassum fusiforme cultivated in No.5 marine area had the highest antioxidant activity, and the IC50 of scavenging ·OH and DPPH· were 0.534 and 0.236 mg/mL, respectively. This study laid a certain foundation for the scientific breeding, processing and quality grade evaluation of Sargassum fusiforme

A new superimposed model of the Tongnanba anticline in northeastern Sichuan and its exploration implications

Understanding the structural style, kinematic process, and timing of superimposed structures worldwide is often difficult due to complex structure deformation process. Fortunately, the newly acquired high-quality seismic reflection data and geological observations covering the Tongnanba anticline provide an excellent chance to characterize such structures. Here, we used geological and seismic data from the Tongnanba region to evaluate the structural style and deformation sequence of Tongnanba anticline. In this regard, we propose a new model of the northeastern Sichuan Basin, which are different from the model that deep structures formed earlier than shallow structures demonstrated by previous studies, and we also discussed the implications of this new model for the deep oil and gas exploration. Compressed by Micangshan and Dabashan thrust belts and controlled by three detachment layers, the Tongnanba anticline shows a complex multi-stage, multi-directional, and multi-level superimposed structure. There were three deformation layers vertically, leading to the multi-level detachment thrust structure style. Specifically, the upper and middle deformation layers were mainly controlled by South Dabashan thrust belt in the early stage, forming long-distance detachment thrust structure extended in the NW-SE direction. A series of pop-up structures propagated toward the upper and middle detachment layers. On the other hand, the lower deformation layer was primarily controlled by the Micangshan thrust belt in the late stage, forming complex basement faults extended in the NE-SW direction, which was consistent with Trishear fault-propagation fold. Along the basement detachment developed multiple branch slopes spread from northeast to southwest. The middle and upper deformation layers was transformed by the basement faults, thus forming the complex superimposed structure of north-south zonation and east-west segmentation at present. It was such complex superimposed structure that control the process of hydrocarbon accumulation and adjustment in each deformation layer, and the deep-ultra-deep ancient oil and gas reservoirs may be worth of exploring

The Bioavailability, Biodistribution, and Toxic Effects of Silica-Coated Upconversion Nanoparticles in vivo

Lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles can convert long wavelength excitation radiation to short wavelength emission. They have great potential in biomedical applications, such as bioimaging, biodetection, drug delivery, and theranostics. However, there is little information available on their bioavailability and biological effects after oral administration. In this study, we systematically investigated the bioavailability, biodistribution, and toxicity of silica-coated upconversion nanoparticles administrated by gavage. Our results demonstrate that these nanoparticles can permeate intestinal barrier and enter blood circulation by microstructure observation of Peyer's patch in the intestine. Comparing the bioavailability and the biodistribution of silica-coated upconversion nanoparticles with oral and intravenous administration routes, we found that the bioavailability and biodistribution are particularly dependent on the administration routes. After consecutive gavage for 14 days, the body weight, pathology, Zn and Cu level, serum biochemical analysis, oxidative stress, and inflammatory cytokines were studied to further evaluate the potential toxicity of the silica-coated upconversion nanoparticles. The results suggest that these nanoparticles do not show overt toxicity in mice even at a high dose of 100 mg/kg body weight

An interlaboratory comparison of aerosol inorganic ion measurements by ion chromatography : Implications for aerosol pH estimate

Water-soluble inorganic ions such as ammonium, nitrate and sulfate are major components of fine aerosols in the atmosphere and are widely used in the estimation of aerosol acidity. However, different experimental practices and instrumentation may lead to uncertainties in ion concentrations. Here, an intercomparison experiment was conducted in 10 different laboratories (labs) to investigate the consistency of inorganic ion concentrations and resultant aerosol acidity estimates using the same set of aerosol filter samples. The results mostly exhibited good agreement for major ions Cl-, SO2-4, NO-3, NHC4 and KC. However, F-, Mg2C and Ca2C were observed with more variations across the different labs. The Aerosol Chemical Speciation Monitor (ACSM) data of nonrefractory SO2-4, NO-3 and NHC4 generally correlated very well with the filter-analysis-based data in our study, but the absolute concentrations differ by up to 42 %. Cl-from the two methods are correlated, but the concentration differ by more than a factor of 3. The analyses of certified reference materials (CRMs) generally showed a good detection accuracy (DA) of all ions in all the labs, the majority of which ranged between 90 % and 110 %. The DA was also used to correct the ion concentrations to showcase the importance of using CRMs for calibration check and quality control. Better agreements were found for Cl-, SO2-4, NO-3, NHC4 and KC across the labs after their concentrations were corrected with DA; the coefficient of variation (CV) of Cl-, SO2-4, NO-3, NHC4 and KC decreased by 1.7 %, 3.4 %, 3.4 %, 1.2 % and 2.6 %, respectively, after DA correction. We found that the ratio of anion to cation equivalent concentrations (AE/CE) and ion balance (anions-cations) are not good indicators for aerosol acidity estimates, as the results in different labs did not agree well with each other. In situ aerosol pH calculated from the ISORROPIA II thermodynamic equilibrium model with measured ion and ammonia concentrations showed a similar trend and good agreement across the 10 labs. Our results indicate that although there are important uncertainties in aerosol ion concentration measurements, the estimated aerosol pH from the ISORROPIA II model is more consistent

Identification of a lncRNA/circRNA-miRNA-mRNA ceRNA Network in Alzheimer's Disease

Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) occurs in the elderly and pre-elderly, characterized by decline of memory, cognitive dysfunction, impairment of learning capacity, and motor dysfunction. Recently a competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network has been found to be related to AD progression, but there is still little understanding of the ceRNA regulatory network in AD. This study aims to explore the important regulatory mechanisms of ceRNA regulatory networks containing long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), circular RNAs (circRNAs), microRNAs (miRNAs), and messenger RNAs (mRNAs) in AD. Methods: Data from the gene expression omnibus (GEO) database were used for the analysis. To study enrichment function for the upregulated and downregulated mRNAs, Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses were performed using the Metascape database, respectively. Based on the STRING database and Cytoscape software 3.9.1, a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed. The hub genes in this network were identified utilizing the CytoHubba plugin in Cytoscape. The TargetScan, miRWalk, and miRDB were selected to calculate the regulatory interaction between miRNAs and the hub genes. LncRNAs were predicted using RNA22. Additionally, circRNA prediction was executed using the circBank database. Results: 711 downregulated and 670 upregulated overlapping mRNAs were identified between AD and control samples. 32 downregulated and 340 upregulated miRNAs were obtained from AD samples compared with control samples. 78 upregulated and 205 downregulated circRNAs were screened. 275 upregulated lncRNAs and 209 downregulated lncRNAs were found between AD samples and control samples. The PPI network constructed consists of 1016 nodes and 13,946 edges. Ten hub genes were selected to identify target miRNAs and ceRNAs. On the basis of the ceRNA hypothesis, a circRNA/lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA network was established. It included five lncRNAs (TRHDE-AS1, SNHG10, OIP5-AS, LINC00926 and LINC00662), 26 circRNAs, five miRNAs (hsa-miR-3158-3p, hsa-miR-4435, hsa-let-7d-3p, hsa-miR-330-5p and hsa-miR-3605-3p), and ten mRNAs (RPL11, RPL34, RPL21, RPL22, RPL6, RPL32, RPL24, RPL35, RPL31, and RPL35A). RPL35 and RPL35A were found to be significantly associated with AD pathology in tau and Aβ line AD models by the AlzData database. The study discovered the significance of several lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA axes and circRNA-miRNA-mRNA axes that included RPL35A and RPL35. Conclusions: ceRNAs were found to be important regulators in the development of AD and provide potential biological therapy targets for AD management

RGB-D-Based Pose Estimation of Workpieces with Semantic Segmentation and Point Cloud Registration

As an important part of a factory&#8217;s automated production line, industrial robots can perform a variety of tasks by integrating external sensors. Among these tasks, grasping scattered workpieces on the industrial assembly line has always been a prominent and difficult point in robot manipulation research. By using RGB-D (color and depth) information, we propose an efficient and practical solution that fuses the approaches of semantic segmentation and point cloud registration to perform object recognition and pose estimation. Different from objects in an indoor environment, the characteristics of the workpiece are relatively simple; thus, we create and label an RGB image dataset from a variety of industrial scenarios and train the modified FCN (Fully Convolutional Network) on a homemade dataset to infer the semantic segmentation results of the input images. Then, we determine the point cloud of the workpieces by incorporating the depth information to estimate the real-time pose of the workpieces. To evaluate the accuracy of the solution, we propose a novel pose error evaluation method based on the robot vision system. This method does not rely on expensive measuring equipment and can also obtain accurate evaluation results. In an industrial scenario, our solution has a rotation error less than two degrees and a translation error &lt; 10 mm

Additional file 1: of A meta-analysis of public microarray data identifies biological regulatory networks in Parkinson’s disease

Table S1. GO biological processes analysis of diferentially expressed genes in blood of Parkinson’s Disease. Table S2. GO biological processes analysis of diferentially expressed genes in substantia nigra of Parkinson’s Disease. Table S3. The PPI information for common DEGs in blood obtained from STRING online software. Table S4. The PPI information for common DEGs in substantia nigra obtained from STRING online software. Table S5. The mTF-miRNA-gene-gTF regulatory network of common PD-specific genes identified in blood datasets. Table S6. The mTF-miRNA-gene-gTF regulatory network of common PD-specific genes identified in brain substantia nigra. Table S7. The mTF-miRNA-gene-gTF regulatory network of common genes identified in blood datasets(other than PD-specific genes). Table S8. The mTF-miRNA-gene-gTF regulatory network of common genes identified in substantia nigra datasets(other than PD-specific genes). (XLS 1121 kb

Ursolic acid attenuates diabetic mesangial cell injury through the up-regulation of autophagy via miRNA-21/PTEN/Akt/mTOR suppression.

To investigate the effect of ursolic acid on autophagy mediated through the miRNA-21-targeted phosphoinositide 3 kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (Akt)/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway in rat mesangial cells cultured under high glucose (HG) conditions.Rat glomerular mesangial cells were cultured under normal glucose, HG, HG with the PI3K inhibitor LY294002 or HG with ursolic acid conditions. Cell proliferation and hypertrophy were assayed using an MTT assay and the ratio of total protein to cell number, respectively. The miRNA-21 expression was detected using RT-qPCR. The expression of phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN)/AKT/mTOR signaling signatures, autophagy-associated protein and collagen I was detected by western blotting and RT-qPCR. Autophagosomes were observed using electron microscopy.Compared with mesangial cells cultured under normal glucose conditions, the cells exposed to HG showed up-regulated miRNA-21 expression, down-regulated PTEN protein and mRNA expression, up-regulated p85PI3K, pAkt, pmTOR, p62/SQSTMI, and collagen I expression and down-regulated LC3II expression. Ursolic acid and LY294002 inhibited HG-induced mesangial cell hypertrophy and proliferation, down-regulated p85PI3K, pAkt, pmTOR, p62/SQSTMI, and collagen I expression and up-regulated LC3II expression. However, LY294002 did not affect the expression of miRNA-21 and PTEN. Ursolic acid down-regulated miRNA-21 expression and up-regulated PTEN protein and mRNA expression.Ursolic acid inhibits the glucose-induced up-regulation of mesangial cell miRNA-21 expression, up-regulates PTEN expression, inhibits the activation of PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway, and enhances autophagy to reduce the accumulation of the extracellular matrix and ameliorate cell hypertrophy and proliferation