Ethanol extract of Hedyotis diffusa willd. induction of apoptosis via PI3K/Akt and XIAP pathways in human leukemic THP-1 cells

Hedyotis diffusa (H. diffusa) Willd. is known to induce apoptosis in cancer cells. However, the molecular mechanism of its anti-cancer activity has not been fully elucidated. In this study, we found that the ethanol extract of H. diffusa Willd. (EEHDW) reduced cell viability and induced apoptosis in a dose- and time-dependent manner in human leukemic THP-1 cells. The induction of apoptosis was also accompanied by the down regulation of PI3K/Akt and the inhibitor of apoptosis protein (IAP) family proteins. Moreover, we observed that EEHDW treatment resulted in activation of caspase-3, which may partly explain the anti-cancer activity of EEHDW.Key words: Hedyotis diffusa Willd., THP-1, apoptosis, caspase

Effects of different doses of melamine in the diet on melamine concentrations in milk, plasma, rumen fluid, urine and feces in lactating dairy cows

The objectives of this paper were to evaluate the effects of feeding diets containing different levels of melamine on melamine concentrations in milk, plasma, rumen fluid, urine and feces in Holstein dairy cows. Sixteen Chinese Holstein dairy cows fixed with permanent ruminal cannulas were assigned to 1 of 4 treatments within a completely randomized design for 10 days. Cows were fed different amounts of melamine {20 (group 1), 40 (group 2), 60 (group 3) or 80 (group 4) g/day/cow} once daily in the morning mixed with a melamine free basal diet for 7-days adaptation followed by 3-days urine and feces sample collections. Melamine was found in all samples tested and its concentration generally increased as dose increased in the diet. These results indicated that different doses of melamine in the diet could result in different concentrations of melamine in milk, plasma, rumen fluid, urine and feces. Data suggested that melamine primarily cleared by urinary excretion, followed by fecal excretion in lactating dairy cows. Mammary tissue was apparently not a major tissue to dispose melamine, especially when fed a relatively low dose (lower than 40 g/day/cow).Key words: Melamine, excretion, lactating dairy cow

Biomechanical study of the funnel technique applied in thoracic pedicle screw replacement

Background: Funnel technique is a method used for the insertion of screw into thoracic pedicle.Aim: To evaluate the biomechanical characteristics of thoracic pedicle screw placement using the Funnel technique, trying to provide biomechanical basis for clinical application of this technology.Methods: 14 functional spinal units (T6 to T10) were selected from thoracic spine specimens of 14 fresh adult cadavers, and randomly divided into two groups, including Funnel technique group (n=7) and Magerl technique group (n=7). The displacement-stiffness and pull-out strength in all kinds of position were tested and compared.Results: Two fixed groups were significantly higher than that of the intact state (P<0.05) in the spinal central axial direction, compression, anterior flexion, posterior bending, lateral bending, axial torsion, but there were no significant differences between two fixed groups (P>0.05). The mean pull-out strength in Funnel technique group (789.09±27.33) was lower than that in Magerl technique group (P<0.05).Conclusions: The Funnel technique for the insertion point of posterior bone is a safe and accurate technique for pedicle screw placement. It exhibited no effects on the stiffness of spinal column, but decreased the pull-out strength of pedicle screw. Therefore, the funnel technique in the thoracic spine affords an alternative for the standard screw placement.Keywords: Thoracic; Pedicle screws; Biomechanics; Funnel techniqu

Real-time counting of single electron tunneling through a T-shaped double quantum dot system

Real-time detection of single electron tunneling through a T-shaped double quantum dot is simulated, based on a Monte Carlo scheme. The double dot is embedded in a dissipative environment and the presence of electrons on the double dot is detected with a nearby quantum point contact. We demonstrate directly the bunching behavior in electron transport, which leads eventually to a super-Poissonian noise. Particularly, in the context of full counting statistics, we investigate the essential difference between the dephasing mechanisms induced by the quantum point contact detection and the coupling to the external phonon bath. A number of intriguing noise features associated with various transport mechanisms are revealed.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

CHD1L protein is overexpressed in human ovarian carcinomas and is a novel predictive biomarker for patients survival

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Identification of genes differentially expressed in Jining Grey and Liaoning Cashmere goats ovaries

To search for genes controlling high prolificacy of Chinese indigenous goats, differential display reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (DDRT-PCR) was used to screen differentially expressed cDNA bands in the sexually matured ovaries of 3-year-old prolific Jining Grey goats and monotocous Liaoning Cashmere goats with 24 combinations of three anchored primers and eight arbitrary primers. 22 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were proved to be the positive bands by Northern hybridization. They comprised 10 known ESTs and 12 ESTs without homologous sequences in the GenBank. These results indicate that several genes such as GATA-4, metallothionein-like protein, CAT genes and unknown ESTs (CV983340 and CV983341) were expressed only in Jining Grey goats.Keywords: Differential display reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, goat, ovary, prolificacyAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(27), pp. 4408-441

Optimizing ET-based irrigation scheduling for wheat and maize with water constraints

© 2017 American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. Deficit irrigation has been shown to increase crop water use efficiency (WUE) under certain conditions, even though the yield is slightly reduced. In this study, the Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM) was first calibrated with measured data from a large weighing lysimeter from 1998 to 2003 at the Yucheng Experimental Station in the North China Plain for daily evapotranspiration (ET), soil water storage (0-120 cm), leaf area index (LAI), aboveground biomass, and grain yield. The calibrated model was then used to explore crop responses to ET-based irrigation management using weather data from 1958 to 2015 and identify the most suitable ET-based irrigation schedules for the area. Irrigation amount was determined by constraining irrigation to a percentage of potential crop ET (40%, 60%, 80%, and 100% ETc) at the various growth stages of wheat [planting to before winter dormancy (P-D), green up to booting (G-B), booting to flowering (B-F), and flowering to maturity (F-M)] and of maize [planting to silking (P-S) and silking to maturity (S-M)], subject to seasonal water availability limits of 100/50, 200/100, 300/150, and 400/200 mm and no water limit for wheat/maize seasons, respectively. In general, wheat was more responsive to irrigation than maize, while greater influence of weather variation was simulated on maize than on wheat. For wheat with seasonal water limits, the highest average WUE was simulated with the highest targeted ETc levels at both the G-B and B-F stages and lower targeted ETc levels at the P-D and F-M stages. However, the highest average grain yield was simulated with the highest targeted ETc levels at all four growth stages for no water limit and the 400 mm water limit, or at both the G-B and B-F stages for the 300 and 200 mm water limits. For maize, lower targeted ETc levels after silking did not significantly affect maize production due to the high season rainfall, but irrigation of 60% ETc before silking was recommended. These results could be used as guidelines for precision irrigation along with real-time weather information

The effect of Matmo typhoon on mixed zone between the Yellow sea and Bohai sea

The results of remote sensing, buoy and profile based on measured data indicate that the wind speed, H-1/3 and salinity increased, sea surface temperature declined, and wind direction changed greatly during the transit of the Matmo typhoon on July 25. It was found that the typhoon transport the Yellow Sea Cold Water Mass into the the Yellow and Bohai seas mixed zone

Demonstration of a portable HTS MMIC microwave receiver front-end

© 2014 IEEE. We report the first demonstration of a portable HTS monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) receiver front-end module operating on a commercial mini cryocooler. The HTS circuit consists of a step-edge junction mixer and a number of HTS filters fabricated on a single MgO substrate. The HTS MMIC circuit is integrated with the mini cryocooler. The sample vacuum chamber, cold-head, compressor and cooling fans are all packed into one customer-designed portable box of approximately 350 mm × 350 mm × 250 mm in dimension. The HTS Josephson junction-based microwave circuit operated successfully in the cryocooler unshielded without observable performance degradation. The design and implementation of the compact unit and performance evaluation of a HTS MMIC frequency down-converter are presented

Phase separation and suppression of critical dynamics at quantum transitions of itinerant magnets: MnSi and (Sr1−x_{1-x}Cax_{x})RuO3_{3}

Quantum phase transitions (QPTs) have been studied extensively in correlated electron systems. Characterization of magnetism at QPTs has, however, been limited by the volume-integrated feature of neutron and magnetization measurements and by pressure uncertainties in NMR studies using powderized specimens. Overcoming these limitations, we performed muon spin relaxation ($\mu$SR) measurements which have a unique sensitivity to volume fractions of magnetically ordered and paramagnetic regions, and studied QPTs from itinerant heli/ferro magnet to paramagnet in MnSi (single-crystal; varying pressure) and (Sr$_{1-x}$Ca$_{x}$)RuO$_{3}$ (ceramic specimens; varying $x$). Our results provide the first clear evidence that both cases are associated with spontaneous phase separation and suppression of dynamic critical behavior, revealed a slow but dynamic character of the ``partial order'' diffuse spin correlations in MnSi above the critical pressure, and, combined with other known results in heavy-fermion and cuprate systems, suggest a possibility that a majority of QPTs involve first-order transitions and/or phase separation.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, 21 authors, to appear in Nature Physic