3,5-Dimeth­oxy-N,N-bis­(2-pyridylmeth­yl)aniline

In the title mol­ecule, C20H21N3O2, the benzene ring forms dihedral angles of 80.8 (1) and 83.5 (1)° with the two terminal pyridine rings. In the crystal structure, weak inter­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds link the mol­ecules into chains propagating in [001]

Rapid flocculation-sedimentation of microalgae with organosilane-functionalized halloysite

Microalgae is a promising feedstock of biofuel for alternating fossil fuels. The major challenge of microalgal biofuels for commercial applications is in designing an efficient harvesting method with high economic feasibility. In this study, a rapid flocculation-sedimentation harvesting method induced by organosilane-functionalized halloysite flocculant was achieved for Scenedesmus dimorphus harvest. The harvesting efficiency was significantly influenced by the pH of microalgal dispersion and the dosage of flocculant. The optimized harvesting condition was pH 3.0 with flocculant dosage of 1.0 g.g(-1) cell dry mass. Under the optimized harvesting condition, microalgae rapidly reached 93% harvesting efficiency within 0.5 min of settling time, and reached 98% harvesting efficiency within 2 min of settling time. The rapid flocculation was attributed to the charge neutralization of the negatively-charged microalgae cells by the positively-charged organosilane-functionalized halloysite flocculant and to the sweep flocculation by organosilane-functionalized halloysite flocculant. The organosilane-functionalized halloysite flocculant did not affect the lipid extraction of microalgae, and not contaminate the extracted residuals. The organosilane-functionalized halloysite flocculant is of high efficient, cost-effective, and eco-friendly, makes it be of promising application for commercial microalgae harvesting.</p

RNA sequencing analysis to capture the transcriptome landscape during skin ulceration syndrome progression in sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus

Complement and coagulation cascades pathways (tif). Red boxes represent up-regulated genes, and green boxes represent down-regulated genes. (TIF 627 kb

Characterization and identification of the integrin family in silkworm, Bombyx mori

YesAs an important economic insect, Bombyx mori is also a useful model organism for lepidopteran insect. Integrins are evolutionarily conserved fromsponges to humans, and play vital roles inmany physiological and pathological processes. To explore their diverse functions of integrins in insect, eleven integrins including sixα and five β subunitswere cloned and characterized fromsilkworm. Our results showed that integrins fromsilkwormown more family members compared to other invertebrates. Among those α subunits, integrins α1, α2, and the other four subunits belong to PS1, PS2, and PS3 groups, respectively. The β subunits mainly gather in the insect βν group except the β1 subunit which belongs to the insect β group. Expression profiles demonstrated that the integrins exhibited distinct patterns, but were mainly expressed in hemocytes. α1 and β2 subunits are the predominant ones either in the embryogenesis or larva stages. Interestingly, integrins were significantly up-regulated after stimulated by 20-hydroxyecdysone (20-E) in vivo. These results indicate that integrins performdiverse functions in hemocytes of silkworm. Overall, our results provide a newinsight into the functional and evolutionary features of integrins.National Basic Research Programof China (No. 2012cb114603), the Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (20130182110003), the Natural Science Foundation of Chongqing (cstc2013jcyjys0007), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (SWU111014)

Mild traumatic brain injury is associated with effect of inflammation on structural changes of default mode network in those developing chronic pain

BACKGROUND: Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) has a higher prevalence (more than 50%) of developing chronic posttraumatic headache (CPTH) compared with moderate or severe TBI. However, the underlying neural mechanism for CPTH remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the inflammation level and cortical volume changes in patients with acute PTH (APTH) and further examine their potential in identifying patients who finally developed CPTH at follow-up. METHODS: Seventy-seven mTBI patients initially underwent neuropsychological measurements, 9-plex panel of serum cytokines and MRI scans within 7 days post-injury (T-1) and 54 (70.1%) of patients completed the same protocol at a 3-month follow-up (T-2). Forty-two matched healthy controls completed the same protocol at T-1 once. RESULTS: At baseline, mTBI patients with APTH presented significantly increased GM volume mainly in the right dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and dorsal posterior cingulate cortex (dPCC), of which the dPCC volume can predict much worse impact of headache on patients\u27 lives by HIT-6 (β = 0.389, P = 0.007) in acute stage. Serum levels of C-C motif chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2) were also elevated in these patients, and its effect on the impact of headache on quality of life was partially mediated by the dPCC volume (mean [SE] indirect effect, 0.088 [0.0462], 95% CI, 0.01-0.164). Longitudinal analysis showed that the dACC and dPCC volumes as well as CCL2 levels had persistently increased in patients developing CPTH 3 months postinjury. CONCLUSION: The findings suggested that structural remodelling of DMN brain regions were involved in the progression from acute to chronic PTH following mTBI, which also mediated the effect of inflammation processes on pain modulation. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrial.gov ID: NCT02868684 ; registered 16 August 2016

An Approach for Integrated Analysis of Human Factors in Remote Handling Maintenance

Considering dangerous environmental conditions, maintenance of radioactive equipment can be performed by remote handling maintenance (RHM) system. The RHM system is a sophisticated man-machine system. Therefore, human factors analysis is an inevitable aspect considered in guaranteeing successful and safe task performance. This study proposes an approach for integrated analysis of human factors in RHM so as to make the evaluating process more practical. In the approach, indicators of accessibility, health safety, and fatigue are analyzed using virtual human simulation technologies. The human error factors in the maintenance process are analyzed using the human error probability (HEP) based on the success likelihood index method- (SLIM-) analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The psychological factors level of maintenance personnel is determined with an expert scoring. The human factors for the entire RHM system are then evaluated using the interval method. An application example is present, and the application results show that the approach can support the evaluation of the human factors in RHM

Integrated analysis of miRNA and mRNA expression profiles in tilapia gonads at an early stage of sex differentiation

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) represent a second regulatory network that has important effects on gene expression and protein translation during biological process. However, the possible role of miRNAs in the early stages of fish sex differentiation is not well understood. In this study, we carried an integrated analysis of miRNA and mRNA expression profiles to explore their possibly regulatory patterns at the critical stage of sex differentiation in tilapia. We identified 279 pre-miRNA genes in tilapia genome, which were highly conserved in other fish species. Based on small RNA library sequencing, we identified 635 mature miRNAs in tilapia gonads, in which 62 and 49 miRNAs showed higher expression in XX and XY gonads, respectively. The predicted targets of these sex-biased miRNAs (e.g., miR-9, miR-21, miR-30a, miR-96, miR-200b, miR-212 and miR-7977) included genes encoding key enzymes in steroidogenic pathways (Cyp11a1, Hsd3b, Cyp19a1a, Hsd11b) and key molecules involved in vertebrate sex differentiation (Foxl2, Amh, Star1, Sf1, Dmrt1, and Gsdf). These genes also showed sex-biased expression in tilapia gonads at 5 dah. Some miRNAs (e.g., miR-96 and miR-737) targeted multiple genes involved in steroid synthesis, suggesting a complex miRNA regulatory network during early sex differentiation in this fish. The sequence and expression patterns of most miRNAs in tilapia are conserved in fishes, indicating the basic functions of vertebrate miRNAs might share a common evolutionary origin. This comprehensive analysis of miRNA and mRNA at the early stage of molecular sex differentiation in tilapia XX and XY gonads lead to the discovery of differentially expressed miRNAs and their putative targets, which will facilitate studies of the regulatory network of molecular sex determination and differentiation in fishes.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-016-2636-

A promoting role of androgen receptor in androgen-sensitive and -insensitive prostate cancer cells

Although the vital role of the androgen receptor (AR) has been well demonstrated in primary prostate cancers, its role in the androgen-insensitive prostate cancers still remains unclear. Here, we used a small hairpin RNA approach to directly assess AR activity in prostate cancer cells. Reduction of AR expression in the two androgen-sensitive prostate cancer cell lines, LNCaP and LAPC4, significantly decreased AR-mediated transcription and cell growth. Intriguingly, in two androgen-insensitive prostate cell lines, LNCaP-C42B4 and CWR22Rv1, knockdown of AR expression showed a more pronounced effect on AR-induced transcription and cell growth than androgen depletion. Using cDNA microarrays, we also compared the transcriptional profiles induced by either androgen depletion or AR knockdown. Although a significant number of transcripts appear to be regulated by both androgen depletion and AR knockdown, we observed a subset of transcripts affected only by androgen depletion but not by AR knockdown, and vice versa. Finally, we demonstrated a direct role for AR in promoting tumor formation and growth in a xenograft model. Taken together, our results elucidate an important role for the AR in androgen-insensitive prostate cancer cells, and suggest that AR can be used as a therapeutic target for androgen-insensitive prostate cancers

Association between pelvic floor muscle strength and sexual function based on PISQ-12—an analysis of data from a multicenter cross-sectional study on 735 nulliparae during pregnancy

BackgroundPelvic floor muscle strength is well-known to be associated with female sexual function. However, there were a few studies that reported on the relationship between pelvic floor muscle strength and female sexual function in pregnant women, and the presented results were inconsistent. Nulliparae represent a specific cohort with simplicity to exclude confounding factors that are caused by parity. The present study aimed to explore the association of pelvic floor muscle strength and sexual function based on the Pelvic Organ Prolapse/Urinary Incontinence Sexual Questionnaire (PISQ-12) of nulliparae during pregnancy.MethodsThis is the second analysis of the baseline data from a randomized controlled trial (RCT), which aimed to study the protective efficacy of pelvic floor muscle training on stress urinary incontinence at 6th week postpartum (registration number: ChiCTR2000029618). Nulliparae aged 20–40 years with singleton pregnancy before 16 weeks of gestation were enrolled in this study, and data, including participants' demographic information, the Modified Oxford Scale (MOS), and PISQ-12, were collected. Eligible nulliparae were divided into two groups: Group MOS &gt; 3 and Group MOS ≤ 3. Demographic information of the two groups was compared. Sexual function based on the PISQ-12 scores of the two groups was compared. A comparison of the PISQ-12 scores between the two groups was calculated by the Mann–Whitney U-test using SPSS version 23.0.ResultsA total of 735 eligible nulliparae were enrolled in this study. Along with MOS grading up, PISQ-12 scores tended to get lower. Of the 735 nulliparae, there were 378 and 357 participants included in Group MOS &gt; 3 and Group MOS ≤ 3, respectively. The PISQ-12 scores of Group MOS &gt; 3 were significantly lower than those of Group MOS ≤ 3 (11 vs. 12, p &lt; 0.001). The scores of the frequency of feeling sexual desire, orgasm achievement, sexual excitement, sexual activity satisfaction, sexual intercourse pain, fear of urinary incontinence, and negative emotion reactions with the sexual intercourse of Group MOS &gt; 3 were lower than those of Group MOS ≤ 3 (p &lt; 0.05).ConclusionPelvic floor muscle strength was positively associated with sexual function based on the questionnaire of young nulliparae during their first trimester. Up to half of the nulliparae during the first trimester were suffering from weak pelvic floor muscle strength and nearly a quarter of the nulliparae were facing this weakness combined with sexual dysfunction.Trial registrationThis study has been registered at http://www.chictr.org.cn (registration number: ChiCTR2000029618)