Sea Ranching Feasibility of the Hatchery-Reared Tropical Sea Cucumber Stichopus monotuberculatus in an Inshore Coral Reef Island Area in South China Sea (Sanya, China)

Sea ranching of tropical edible sea cucumbers is an effective way to relieve the overfishing stress on their natural resources and protect the coral reef ecosystem, yet only a few species have been applied in the sea ranching practice based on hatchery-reared juveniles around the world. In this study, an 8-month (April to December) sea ranching study for hatchery-reared edible sea cucumber Stichopus monotuberculatus juveniles was carried out at a tropical coral reef island area in Sanya, China. Several growth performance indexes and basal nutritional components were monitored. Results revealed that the sea cucumbers had a growth rate of 0.35~0.78 mm day-1 during the experimental period, reaching 15.9 cm long before winter. The weight gain reached 491.13% at the end, and most sea cucumbers were able to grow to the commercial size (over 150 g WW) in the first year of sea ranching. The overall specific growth rate (SGR) and survival rates were 0.73 and 27.5%. Most of the death occurred in the first month after release (25.0%–37.5%), and this is probably due to inadaptation to the sudden change of the environment from the hatchery to the wild, which is proved by the remarkable decrease in nutritional indexes (amino acids, total lipid, and crude protein). Stable isotope and lipid biomarkers revealed that the food source mainly comes from water deposits (with microbes), Sargassum sanyaense seaweed debris, phytoplankton, and coral mucus-derived organics. The study proved the feasibility of the sea ranching of the hatchery-reared S. monotuberculatus juveniles in the tropical coral reef island area. Also, it is highly recommended that appropriate acclimation operation before release should be carried out to improve the survival rate of this species

The Role of Sialyl Glycan Recognition in Host Tissue Tropism of the Avian Parasite Eimeria tenella

Eimeria spp. are a highly successful group of intracellular protozoan parasites that develop within intestinal epithelial cells of poultry, causing coccidiosis. As a result of resistance against anticoccidial drugs and the expense of manufacturing live vaccines, it is necessary to understand the relationship between Eimeria and its host more deeply, with a view to developing recombinant vaccines. Eimeria possesses a family of microneme lectins (MICs) that contain microneme adhesive repeat regions (MARR). We show that the major MARR protein from Eimeria tenella, EtMIC3, is deployed at the parasite-host interface during the early stages of invasion. EtMIC3 consists of seven tandem MAR1-type domains, which possess a high specificity for sialylated glycans as shown by cell-based assays and carbohydrate microarray analyses. The restricted tissue staining pattern observed for EtMIC3 in the chicken caecal epithelium indicates that EtMIC3 contributes to guiding the parasite to the site of invasion in the chicken gut. The microarray analyses also reveal a lack of recognition of glycan sequences terminating in the N-glycolyl form of sialic acid by EtMIC3. Thus the parasite is well adapted to the avian host which lacks N-glycolyl neuraminic acid. We provide new structural insight into the MAR1 family of domains and reveal the atomic resolution basis for the sialic acid-based carbohydrate recognition. Finally, a preliminary chicken immunization trial provides evidence that recombinant EtMIC3 protein and EtMIC3 DNA are effective vaccine candidates

Atomic resolution insight into host cell recognition by Toxoplasma gondii.

Accepted versio

Construction deviation control method of transverse super large inclined asphalt pavement

The speed of test vehicles on the high-speed car track of the automobile test field is very high. Reducing the construction error of asphalt pavement is very important to ensure the safety of the test vehicle. In order to realize the paving of asphalt concrete pavement with super-large lateral inclination in the curve section of the high-speed car track in the automobile test field, a special paving control device and control method for the construction on the curve section with super-large lateral inclination were developed. Use the direction of the hanging hammer under the GPS device of paver to adjust the position of GPS device in real time, so that the geometric centre line of GPS device is always perpendicular to the horizontal plane. The reference control line is preset in the paver operation control device, and the lateral displacement deviation of the paver is adjusted to synchronize the data of the paver control device with the travel route. The precise control of the paver’s forward route is realized, the construction precision of the super-large inclined asphalt pavement on the high-speed car track of the automobile test field is achieved, and the construction efficiency is greatly improved. It has important reference value for similar projects such as automobile testing field and racing track

Novel 3D nano-fence matrixes for integrated nanofluidic channels

Combining the advanced silicon etch system (ASETM) with electron beam lithography (EBL), we utilize the silicon sidewall scallops to fabricate 3D nano-fence matrixes for nanofluidic channels. We acquire the scallop size and the effective range of nano mask width for the formation of nano-fences under a fixed etch recipe. We then realize the controllability of fabricating silicon fences by simply varying the nano mask width. The fence matrixes make the micro-channel into integrated nano-channels, which will be very useful for fluid purification, segregation and bias application in certain fluid detection. ? 2014 IEEE.EI

The phenomenon of “sharp corner” of Electrolyte-Oxide-Semiconductor structure for copper ions detection

We report a 'sharp corner' phenomenon in the diodetype current-voltage (I-V) curves of the Electrolyte-Oxide-Semiconductor (EOS) structure which is made up of Cu-ion solution, SiO2 layer and Si substrate. The phenomenon just appears when the voltage scans from positive value to negative value due to the particularity in electrochemical interaction between Cu ions and Si-SiO2 system. Two kinds of Cu-ion electrolyte solution and different test conditions were employed to study the phenomenon. Other samples had also been tested to compare with the phenomenon. It has the potential to be developed into an electrochemical method of detecting Cu ions in solution phase. ? 2014 IEEE.EI