Cistanche deserticola Addition Improves Growth, Digestibility, and Metabolism of Sheep Fed on Fresh Forage from Alfalfa/Tall Fescue Pasture

Publication history: Accepted - 9 April 2020; Published online - 12 April 2020This study is targeted at evaluating whether C. deserticola addition promotes digestion, nitrogen and energy use, and methane production of sheep fed on fresh forage from alfalfa/tall fescue pastures. The sheep feeding trial was conducted with four addition levels with C. deserticola powder, and a basal diet of fresh alfalfa (Medicago sativa) and tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea). Addition levels of 4% and 6% improved average body weight gain (BWG) by 215.71 and 142.86 g/d, and feed conversion ratio (FCR) by 0.20 and 0.14, respectively. Digestibility of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), and ether extract (EE) was 62.25%, 65.18%, 58.75%, and 47.25% under the addition level of 2%, which is greater than that in the control group. C. deserticola addition improved energy utilization efficiency, while addition levels of 2% and 4% increased nitrogen intake and deposited nitrogen. Overall, C. deserticola has the potential to improve growth performance, digestion of sheep, so it has suitability to be used as a feed additive.Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences, grant number XDA20100102 National Natural Science Foundation of China, grant number 31672472 e Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University, grant number IRT_17R50 Major Special Science and Technology Project of Gansu Province, grant number 18ZD2FA00

Low-Carbon and economic flexibility scheduling of power system with multiple generation resources penetration

The operation flexibility of the power system suffers great challenges due to the vigorously developing of renewable energy resources under the promotion of the carbon neutralization goal. To this end, this paper proposes an economical and flexible energy scheduling method for power system integrated with multiple generation resources while considering the operation of low-carbon. Specifically, flexibility evaluation indexes are constructed to describe the characteristics of the flexible generation units. Then they are connected with the flexibility of the power system in an economic and low-carbon flexible energy scheduling model. To coordinate the operation economy, flexibility, and carbon emission reduction, the model incorporates demand response, operational characteristics, and flexibility requirements. Further, the model is fully validated through the simulation on the modified IEEE 30-bus system. Results demonstrate that: the proposed method can reduce the system’s carbon emission and total operating costs and promote photovoltaic consumption

Tissue Engineering in Neuroscience: Applications and Perspectives

Neurological disorders have always been a threat to human physical and mental health nowadays, which are closely related to the nonregeneration of neurons in the nervous system (NS). The damage to the NS is currently difficult to repair using conventional therapies, such as surgery and medication. Therefore, repairing the damaged NS has always been a vast challenge in the area of neurology. Tissue engineering (TE), which integrates the cell biology and materials science to reconstruct or repair organs and tissues, has widespread applications in bone, periodontal tissue defects, skin repairs, and corneal transplantation. Recently, tremendous advances have been made in TE regarding neuroscience. In this review, we summarize TE’s recent progress in neuroscience, including pathological mechanisms of various neurological disorders, the concepts and classification of TE, and the most recent development of TE in neuroscience. Lastly, we prospect the future directions and unresolved problems of TE in neuroscience

The L-ordered L-semihypergroups

This study pursues an investigation on L-semihypergroups equipped with an L-order. First, the concept of L-ordered L-semihypergroups is introduced by L-posets and L-semihypergroups, and some related results are obtained. Then, prime, weakly prime, and semiprime L-hyperideals of L-ordered L-semihypergroups are studied. Moreover, the relationships among the three types of L-hyperideals are established. Finally, the intra-regular L-ordered L-semihypergroups are characterized in terms of these L-hyperideals. The results of the study show that some well-known results on ordered semihypergroups also hold in the case of L-ordered L-semihypergroups

On preference of Yoshida construction over Forest–Ruth fourth-order symplectic algorithm

The Forest–Ruth fourth-order symplectic algorithm is identical to the Yoshida triplet construction when all component integrators of both algorithms are exactly known. However, this equality no longer holds in general when some or all of the components are inexact and when they are second-order with odd-order error structures. The former algorithm is only second-order accurate in most cases, whereas the latter can be fourth-order accurate. These analytical results are supported by numerical simulations of partially separable but globally inseparable Hamiltonian systems, such as the post-Newtonian Hamiltonian formulation of spinless compact binaries. Therefore, the Yoshida construction has intrinsic merit over the concatenated Forest–Ruth algorithm when inexact component integrators are used

Nanoparticle-Based Systems for T1-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging Contrast Agents

Because magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents play a vital role in diagnosing diseases, demand for new MRI contrast agents, with an enhanced sensitivity and advanced functionalities, is very high. During the past decade, various inorganic nanoparticles have been used as MRI contrast agents due to their unique properties, such as large surface area, easy surface functionalization, excellent contrasting effect, and other size-dependent properties. This review provides an overview of recent progress in the development of nanoparticle-based T1-weighted MRI contrast agents. The chemical synthesis of the nanoparticle-based contrast agents and their potential applications were discussed and summarized. In addition, the recent development in nanoparticle-based multimodal contrast agents including T1-weighted MRI/computed X-ray tomography (CT) and T1-weighted MRI/optical were also described, since nanoparticles may curtail the shortcomings of single mode contrast agents in diagnostic and clinical settings by synergistically incorporating functionality

Cy5 labeled single-stranded DNA-polydopamine nanoparticle conjugate-based FRET assay for reactive oxygen species detection

This work reports on a simple and feasible fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) assay for detecting reactive oxygen species (ROS) both in solution and living cell using polydopamine nanoparticle (PDA NP) as energy acceptor and Cy5 labeled single-stranded DNA (Cy5-ssDNA) as energy donor. The Cy5-ssDNA and PDA NPs form self-assembled conjugates (Cy5-ssDNA-PDA NP conjugates) via π-stacking interactions. In the presence of ROS, the PDA NP adsorbed Cy5-ssDNAs can be effectively cleaved, resulting in the release of Cy5 molecules into solution and recovery of fluorescence emission of Cy5. In order to obtain ROS solution, the glucose oxidase-catalyzed oxidation reaction of glucose with O2 is employed to generate hydrogen peroxide for Fenton-like reaction. The formation of ROS in Fenton-like reaction can be detected as low as glucose oxidase-catalyzed oxidation of 100 pM glucose by the Cy5-ssDNA-PDA NP conjugate-based FRET assay. The recovery ratio of Cy5 fluorescence intensity is increased linearly with logarithm of glucose concentration from 100 pM to 1 μM, demonstrating that the FRET assay has wide dynamic range. In particular, intracellular ROS has been successfully detected in chemical stimulated HepG-2 cells by the Cy5-ssDNA-PDA NP conjugate-based FRET assay with a fluorescence microscopy, indicating that this approach has great potential to monitor ROS in living cells