Effect of dietary Ginkgo biloba leaf on the growth performance and nonspecific immunity of red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii

This trial investigated the effect of dietary Ginkgo biloba leaf (GBL) on the growth performance and nonspecific immunity of red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii. 180 Crayfishes were randomly divided into three groups. One group was fed with basic diet, whereas the other two groups were fed with diets containing 1% and 3% GBL. After 32 days of feeding, GBL addition tended to increase the body weight gain rate compared with control. In 3% GBL group, the bodyweight gain rate of male crayfish was higher than that of female crayfish. While female crayfish were advantageous in terms of meat yield. Liver-related indexes were influenced by GBL addition and 3% GBL could reduce glutamic pyruvic transaminase and glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase as well as total cholesterol in male crayfish, showing its function in liver protection. Moreover, GBL addition effects on liver protection was better in male crayfish than female crayfish

Time correlation of success recanalization for endovascular recanalization of medically refractory non-acute intracranial arterial occlusions

Background and purposeThe management of patients with symptomatic non-acute atherosclerotic intracranial artery occlusion (sNAA-ICAO), which is a special subset with high morbidity and a high probability of recurrent serious ischemic events despite standard medical therapy, has been clinically challenging. A number of small-sample clinical studies have discussed endovascular recanalization for sNAA-ICAO and the lack of a uniform standard of operation time. The purpose of this study was to investigate the time correlation of successful recanalization.MethodsFrom January 2013 to August 2021, 69 consecutive patients who underwent endovascular recanalization for sNAA-ICAO were analyzed retrospectively in the First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University. The technical success rate, periprocedural complications, and rate of TIA/ischemic stroke during follow-up were evaluated.ResultsThe overall technical success rate was 73.91% (51/69), and the rate of perioperative complications was 37.68% (26/69). The percentage of patients with perioperative symptoms was 27.53% (19/69). The rate of serious symptomatic perioperative complications was 8.70% (6/69). After adjusting for age, sex, and BMI, the effect of the time from the last symptom to operation on successful recanalization was 0.42 (IQR, 0.20, 0.88, P = 0.021), before the inflection point (51 days).ConclusionsEndovascular recanalization for sNAA-ICAO is technically feasible in reasonably selected patients. The perioperative safety is within the acceptable range. Before 51 days, the last symptoms to operation time, for every 10 days of delay, the probability of successful recanalization is reduced by 57%

On Transient Response of Piezoelectric Transducers

In this paper, we report a new model in analysis of spherical thin-shell piezoelectric transducers for transient response, based on Fourier transform and the principle of linear superposition. We show that a circuit-network, a combination of a series of parallel-connected equivalent-circuits, can be used in description of a spherical thin-shell piezoelectric transducer. When excited by a signal with multiple frequency components, each circuit would have a distinctive radiation resistance and a radiation mass, arising from an individual frequency component. Each frequency component would act independently on the electric/mechanic-terminals. A cumulative signal-output from the mechanic/electric-terminals is measured as the overall acoustic/electric output. As a prototype example in testing the new model, we have designed two spherical shin-shell transducers, applied a gated sine electric-signal as the initial excitation, and recorded the experimental information. The transient response and the output signals are calculated based on the new model. The results of calculation are in good agreement with that of experimental observation

Broadening anticancer spectrum by preprocessing and treatment of T- lymphocytes expressed FcγRI and monoclonal antibodies for refractory cancers

BackgroundChimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapies have achieved remarkable success in the treatment of hematological tumors. However, given the distinct features of solid tumors, particularly heterogeneity, metabolic aggressiveness, and fewer immune cells in tumor microenvironment (TME), the practical utility of CAR-T cells for solid tumors remains as a challenging issue. Meanwhile, although anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody (mAb) has shown clinical efficacy, most mAbs also show limited clinical benefits for solid tumors due mainly to the issues associated with the lack of immune cells in TME. Thus, the infiltration of targeted immunological active cells into TME could generate synergistic efficacy for mAbs.MethodsWe present a combinational strategy for solid tumor treatment, which combines armored-T cells to express Fc-gamma receptor I (FcγRI) fragment on the surfaces for targeting various tumors with therapeutically useful mAbs. Choosing CD20 and HER-2 as the targets, we characterized the in vitro and in vivo efficacy and latent mechanism of the combination drug by using flow cytometry, ELISA and other methods.ResultsThe combination and preprocessing of armored T-cells with corresponding antibody of Rituximab and Pertuzumab exerted profound anti-tumor effects, which is demonstrated to be mediated by synergistically produced antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) effects. Meanwhile, mAb was able to carry armored-T cell by preprocessing for the infiltration to TME in cell derived xenograft (CDX) model.ConclusionsThis combination strategy showed a significant increase of safety profiles from the reduction of antibody doses. More importantly, the present strategy could be a versatile tool for a broad spectrum of cancer treatment, with a simple pairing of engineered T cells and a conventional antibody

Fault diagnosis and energy consumption analysis for variable air volume air conditioning system: a case study

Several common faults and their causes in variable air volume (VAV) air conditioning system are presented, and the principle of fault diagnosis of air conditioning system is briefly described. The VAV air conditioning system was modeled in TRNSYS, and five typical faults of the cooling mode were simulated. The comparative analysis of the respective under normal operation and fault operation had been made, and the impact of each fault on the energy consumption was also analyzed. The actual operating characteristics of air conditioning system was then evaluated. Further, some parameters under fault operations were compared with those under the normal operation, from which the changing characteristics of parameters could be discovered, and the characteristics can be used to diagnose faults. The simulation results demonstrate that fault can affect the energy consumption of VAV air conditioning system, and the impact of each fault is different. In addition, monitoring the change of energy consumption and operation parameters is helpful in fault diagnosis, and the effective fault diagnosis has great significance to energy-saving of the air conditioning system

Experimental study of hydraulic stability for variable water volume air conditioning System

The hydraulic stability of the variable water volume air conditioning system has a significant impact on the thermodynamic stability, service life of the pipe network and energy consumption. The hydraulic stability of variable water volume air conditioning system was investigated by means of experiments. An air conditioning system with variable water volume is served as the platform, and then the changes of the passive branches’ hydraulic characteristics are studied in valve action cycle of the active branch under the following three conditions: without pump control, constant differential pressure (DP) control or variable differential pressure set-point control. The results show that the branch with the small flow and high-pressure drop has the good hydraulic stability. Under the pressure difference control, the hydraulic stability of the system is improved obviously, the energy-saving effect of the pump is better, and the energy saving of the chilled water pump at least 20.8% when closed any branch valve. This study provides a reference for the design of variable water volume air conditioning systems with good hydraulic stability

Allergenicity Alleviation of Bee Pollen by Enzymatic Hydrolysis: Regulation in Mice Allergic Mediators, Metabolism, and Gut Microbiota

Bee pollen as a nutrient-rich functional food has been considered for use as an adjuvant for chronic disease therapy. However, bee pollen can trigger food-borne allergies, causing a great concern to food safety. Our previous study demonstrated that the combined use of cellulase, pectinase and papain can hydrolyze allergens into peptides and amino acids, resulting in reduced allergenicity of bee pollen based on in vitro assays. Herein, we aimed to further explore the mechanisms behind allergenicity alleviation of enzyme-treated bee pollen through a BALB/c mouse model. Results showed that the enzyme-treated bee pollen could mitigate mice scratching frequency, ameliorate histopathological injury, decrease serum IgE level, and regulate bioamine production. Moreover, enzyme-treated bee pollen can modulate metabolic pathways and gut microbiota composition in mice, further supporting the alleviatory allergenicity of enzyme-treated bee pollen. The findings could provide a foundation for further development and utilization of hypoallergenic bee pollen products

A novel transcriptional repressor specifically regulates xylanase gene 1 in Trichoderma reesei

Abstract Background The well-known industrial fungus Trichoderma reesei has an excellent capability of secreting a large amount of cellulases and xylanases. The induced expression of cellulase and xylanase genes is tightly controlled at the transcriptional level. However, compared to the intensive studies on the intricate regulatory mechanism of cellulase genes, efforts to understand how xylanase genes are regulated are relatively limited, which impedes the further improvement of xylanase production by T. reesei via rational strain engineering. Results To identify transcription factors involved in regulating xylanase gene expression in T. reesei, yeast one-hybrid screen was performed based on the promoters of two major extracellular xylanase genes xyn1 and xyn2. A putative transcription factor named XTR1 showing significant binding capability to the xyn1 promoter but not that of xyn2, was successfully isolated. Deletion of xtr1 significantly increased the transcriptional level of xyn1, but only exerted a minor promoting effect on that of xyn2. The xylanase activity was increased by ~ 50% with XTR1 elimination but the cellulase activity was hardly affected. Subcellular localization analysis of XTR1 fused to a green fluorescence protein demonstrated that XTR1 is a nuclear protein. Further analyses revealed the precise binding site of XTR1 and nucleotides critical for the binding within the xyn1 promoter. Moreover, competitive EMSAs indicated that XTR1 competes with the essential transactivator XYR1 for binding to the xyn1 promoter. Conclusions XTR1 represents a new transcriptional repressor specific for controlling xylanase gene expression. Isolation and functional characterization of this new factor not only contribute to further understanding the stringent regulatory network of xylanase genes, but also provide important clues for boosting xylanase biosynthesis in T. reesei