Povezanost estrusa s tjelesnom aktivnošću i preživanjem mliječnih krava na farmama u Kini

This study aimed to describe the estrus-related changes in dairy cattle in parameters automatically recorded through an HR-Tag (SCR Engineers Ltd., Netanya, Israel) or a neck collar (Nedap Livestock Management, Groenlo, Netherlands). On two commercial dairy farms, the baseline period was defined as the mean of 3 d before and 3 d after estrus day. In the HR-Tag monitored herd, changes in physical activity and behavioral parameters (lying bouts, lying duration, total lying time, lying ratio) were studied in 78 estrous cycles. The cows were classified in groups according to parity (primiparous, n = 34; and multiparous, n = 44), milk production (MK1, n = 7, > 47 kg/d; MK2, n = 12, 42-47 kg/d; MK3, n = 43, 31-42 kg/d; and MK4, n = 16, 41 kg/d; MK2, n = 17, 32-41 kg/d; and MK3, n = 13, 47 kg/d; MK2, n = 12, 42 – 47 kg/d; MK3, n = 43, 31 – 42 kg/d; MK4, n = 16, 41 kg/d; MK2, n = 17, 32 – 41 kg/d; and MK3, n = 13, < 32 kg/d). Proveden je test ANOVA kako bi se ustanovile razlike u podacima i usporedile metode kojima su se procjenjivale razlike unutar skupine i među skupinama putem SPSS 23.0. Za prilagodbu podataka korištena je ordinalna logistička regresija kako bi se analizirali čimbenici koji utječu na tjelesnu aktivnost na dan estrusa. Rezultati u stadu praćenom HR-Tag-om pokazali su da se na dan estrusa tjelesna aktivnost povećala u odnosu na početno razdoblje, a prosječne su vrijednosti koje se odnose na ležanje na dan estrusa bile znatno niže nego u početnoj fazi, kao i ukupno vrijeme ležanja i omjer ležanja, s vrijednostima od -3,53 ± 0,55, -188,02 ± 21,46 i -14,05 ± 1,37. U stadu praćenom ovratnikom, kada se TFT u skupini MK2 povećao za jednu jedinicu, tjelesna aktivnost povećala se 3,19 puta (P = 0,03) u usporedbi sa skupinama u kojima se TFT nije povećao. Rezultati ovog istraživanja općenito upućuju na tjelesne i ponašajne promjene te promjene u preživanju koje su vezane za estrus, a otkrivene su automatiziranim sustavom praćenja. Pretpostavlja se stoga da sustav HR-Tag i ovratnici mogu biti prikladan način detekcije estrusa u komercijalnim stadima mliječnih krava

Association between the metabolic score for insulin resistance (METS-IR) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) among health check-up population in Japan: A retrospective cross-sectional study

AimThis study aimed to investigate the relationship between a new metric—metabolic score for insulin resistance (METS-IR)—and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) among Japanese participants who underwent health check-ups.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study that involved participants in a medical health screening program, which was conducted at the Medical Health Check-up Center in Japan. This retrospective study examined the relationship between METS-IR and eGFR among 881 individuals that joined the program between March 1, 2004, and December 31, 2012. Covariates consisted of serum laboratory tests and lifestyle questionnaires. Multivariate linear regression analysis was used to explore the association between METS-IR and eGFR. In addition, subgroup and interaction analyses were done based on age, sex, body mass index (BMI), alcohol use, smoking status, and hyperuricemia.ResultsA total of 881 individuals participated in this study. High METS-IR was highly linked with reduced eGFR (adjusted β = -5.04, 95% confidence interval (CI): -7.65 to -2.43), while METS-IR was utilized as a categorical variable inside the multiple regression analysis. A decrease in eGFR of 2.54 units was reported for every 10-unit rise in METS-IR (adjusted β = -2.54, 95% CI: -4.04 to -1.05, P-value = 0.001). Stratified analysis suggested no marked interaction between METS-IR and eGFR across age, sex, BMI, and alcohol consumption groups. However, there was an indication of interaction between METS-IR level, smoking status (P-value = 0.001), and uric level (P-value = 0.011) on eGFR decrease.ConclusionsMETS-IR is remarkably associated with eGFR among the participants who underwent health check-ups in Gifu, Japan. Although more studies are required to prove it, METS-IR could be applied as a monitoring index for early screening, primary prevention, and diagnostic and treatment management strategies for chronic kidney disease

CDKN1C (p57KIP2) Is a Direct Target of EZH2 and Suppressed by Multiple Epigenetic Mechanisms in Breast Cancer Cells

CDKN1C (encoding tumor suppressor p57KIP2) is a cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitor whose family members are often transcriptionally downregulated in human cancer via promoter DNA methylation. In this study, we show that CDKN1C is repressed in breast cancer cells mainly through histone modifications. In particular, we show that CDKN1C is targeted by histone methyltransferase EZH2-mediated histone H3 lysine 27 trimethylation (H3K27me3), and can be strongly activated by inhibition of EZH2 in synergy with histone deacetylase inhibitor. Consistent with the overexpression of EZH2 in a variety of human cancers including breast cancer, CDKN1C in these cancers is downregulated, and breast tumors expressing low levels of CDKN1C are associated with a poor prognosis. We further show that assessing both EZH2 and CDKN1C expression levels as a measurement of EZH2 pathway activity provides a more predictive power of disease outcome than that achieved with EZH2 or CDKN1C alone. Taken together, our study reveals a novel epigenetic mechanism governing CDKN1C repression in breast cancer. Importantly, as a newly identified EZH2 target with prognostic value, it has implications in patient stratification for cancer therapeutic targeting EZH2-mediated gene repression

Rhizosphere Microenvironments of Eight Common Deciduous Fruit Trees Were Shaped by Microbes in Northern China

The rhizosphere microenvironment is the site of nutrient circulation and microbial community formation, and thus is an ongoing topic of research. Although research on this topic is extensive, studies into the rhizosphere microenvironment of fruit trees remain rare. To elucidate the mechanisms driving the fruit tree rhizosphere microenvironment, we assessed soil physicochemical properties, enzyme activities, the community-level physiological profile (CLPP) and microbial diversity in rhizospheric soils of eight common deciduous fruit trees in northern China. We found that the available minerals, pH, enzyme activities, microbial utilization of six types of carbon (C) substrates, and microbial diversity in the rhizosphere varied among tree species. Redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that rhizosphere microenvironmental parameters (ammonia nitrogen content, soil pH and invertase activity) were closely related to the soil microbial community. Further analysis revealed that the soil microbial utilization of six C sources, nitrate nitrogen content, and invertase activity were negatively correlated with Ambiguous species and Alternaria; however, these groups were positively correlated with pH. The ammonia nitrogen content was positively correlated with C source utilization and negatively correlated with Ambiguous, Lysobacter, Nitrospira, Alternaria, Fusarium, and Colletotrichum. Interestingly, invertase was closely linked to the microbial community, especially fungal diversity, and was positively correlated with plant-beneficial microbes such as Mortierella, Geomyces, Lysobacter, and Chaetomium, but negatively correlated with pathogenic microbes such as Alternaria, Fusarium, and Colletotrichum. Hence, rhizosphere soil physicochemical properties, enzyme activities and microbial community were significantly affected by tree species. Additionally, a variety of environmental factors were closely related to the microbial community in the rhizospheric soils of eight species of deciduous fruit trees

New Insights Into the Response of Metabolome of Escherichia coli O157:H7 to Ohmic Heating

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of ohmic heating and water bath heating (WB) on the metabolome of Escherichia coli O157:H7 cells at the same inactivation levels. Compared to low voltage long time ohmic heating (5 V/cm, 8.50 min, LVLT) and WB (5.50 min), the high voltage short time ohmic heating (10 V/cm, 1.75 min, HVST) had much shorter heating time. Compared to the samples of control (CT), there were a total of 213 differential metabolites identified, among them, 73, 78, and 62 were presented in HVST, LVLT, and WB samples, revealing a stronger metabolomic response of E. coli cells to HVST and LVLT than WB. KEGG enrichment analysis indicated that the significantly enriched pathways were biosynthesis and metabolism of amino acids (alanine, arginine, aspartate, and glutamate, etc.), followed by aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis among the three treatments. This is the first metabolomic study of E. coli cells in response to ohmic heating and presents an important step toward understanding the mechanism of ohmic heating on microbial inactivation, and can serve as a theoretical basis for better application of ohmic heating in food products

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Effect of Batch Annealing Temperature on Microstructure and Resistance to Fish Scaling of Ultra-Low Carbon Enamel Steel

In the present work, an ultra-low carbon enamel steel was batch annealed at different temperatures, and the effect of the batch annealing temperature on the microstructure and resistance to fish scaling was investigated by optical microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and a hydrogen permeation test. The results show that the main precipitates in experimental steel are fine TiC and coarse Ti4C2S2 particles. The average sizes of both TiC and Ti4C2S2 increase with increasing the batch annealing temperature. The resistance to fish scaling decreases with increasing the annealing temperature, which is caused by the growth of ferrite grain and the coarsening of the TiC and Ti4C2S2 particle

Adaptive sliding mode control for uncertain airplane control systems based on higher-order differential sliding mode surface

Airplane control system is a typical multitude input and multitude output (MIMO) nonlinear system with strong coupling and uncertainties, which would increase the controlling difficulty. The tracking control problem has been investigated for a class of airplane attitude control systems in this paper. Firstly, a new higher-order differential sliding mode surface is presented and its stability of the sliding mode surface is proved by coordinate transformation of airplane attitude control system and considering the existing of the input uncertainties. Then, a smooth adaptive sliding mode controller is design based on this higher-order differential sliding mode surface and the approximation ability of the neural network. Based on Lyapunov stability theory, it is proved that the designed controller not only ensures the airplane attitude control system with good tracking performance, but also avoids the appearance of the chattering phenomenon of traditional sliding mode controllers. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed controller is verified by simulation results. The controller proposed in this paper has very fine application prospects in the field of airplane attitude control comparing the traditional one