Ameliorating Effect of Ginkgolide B on Obese Mice

This study aims to explore the effect of ginkgolide B (GB) on obese mice. An obese C57BL/6J mice model was induced by high-fat diet firstly, and then the obese mice were divided into 4 groups according to body weight randomly: Positive model group (PG), GB low dose group (GBL), GB medium dose group (GBM) and GB high dose group (GBH). After 8-week intervention, the obesity-related indexes (weight change, visceral fat coefficient and serum indexes) of mice in each group were measured. Results showed that the weight gain of mice in GBM and GBH were significantly decreased than in PG (P<0.05), and the visceral fat coefficient of mice in GBH group was also reduced significantly (P<0.05) after GB treatment. Meanwhile, the serum indexes (TG, TC, LDL-C and HDL-C) of mice in GBM and GBH were obviously improved, especially in GBH. Besides, histopathologic findings showed that liver fat deposition was apparently reduced in GBM and GBH. Furthermore, qRT-PCR results showed that the mRNA expression level of PPARγ in liver of mice in GBM and GBH was significantly decreased (P<0.05) in comparison with PG, while the mRNA expression level of UCP-2 was significantly increased (P<0.05). In summary, this study demonstrated that GB of medium and high doses improved obesity in mice, and this ameliorating effect might be related to PPARγ-UCP-2 signaling pathway

Multidisciplinary Design and Optimization of Variable Camber Wing with Non-Equal Chord

Since the taper ratio of most wings is not equal to 1, the beam-disk trailing edge deflection mechanism originally designed for the rectangular wing is not fully applicable to the non-equal chord wing. Moreover, it is not only expected that the wing shape can achieve excellent aerodynamic performance under different flight conditions, but one also needs to consider whether the flexible skin can achieve this deformation. This paper used the honeycomb composite structure with zero Poisson’s ratio as the flexible skin of the trailing edge for the variable camber wing, and designed the beam-disk trailing edge deflection mechanism for the non-equal chord wing. The aerodynamic configuration was optimized considering the deformation capability of the skin, and the multidisciplinary design and optimization method of the variable camber wing with non-equal chord was studied. The results show that the aerodynamic performances of the optimized non-equal chord wings were better than before under all given flight conditions. The flexible skin could withstand the strain caused by the maximum deflection of the trailing edge of the wing, and the weight of the wing structure was reduced by 47.1% compared with the initial design when the structural stiffness and strength were satisfied

Active cross-query learning: a reliable labeling mechanism via crowdsourcing for smart surveillance

Crowdsourcing is an effective way to collect plenty of labeled data. Rather than just relying on feedback from the crowd, active learning can intentionally request informative instances to be annotated in surveillance applications. Previous work that combines crowdsourcing with active learning focuses on the scenario with the expert being responsible for the most matching task in common communication surveillance. Compared with similar methods, we propose an innovative approach based on the active cross-query learning scheme, allowing each ordinary worker instead of domain experts to label part of the selected query samples, especially in the networks of smart surveillance. By using the balanced incomplete block design (BIBD), each labeling task is repeated several times to complete the cross-query learning. The generated consensus labels are iteratively added to the existing labeled datasets for training the classifier. Experiments conducted on three real-world datasets with our algorithms demonstrate that our method ensures model accuracy and label quality in terms of text classification compared with the several state-of-the art algorithms

Induction of cross-reactive antibodies against mimotopes of H5N1 hemagglutinin

A sub-library based on peptide mimic 125 was designed and constructed, and 18 phagotopes specifically binding 8H5mAb were isolated. Antisera against three phagotopes, containing peptide 12MH-1, 12MH-5 and 12MH-8 reacted with 3 different H5N1 virus strains, but not with 2 H1N1 and 2 H3N2 viruses by Dot blots. The affinity of 12MH-8 was approximately eight times more than 12MH-1 or 12MH-5 or parent peptide 125. Furthermore, synthesized 12MH-1 and 12MH-8 could block the 8H5mAb binding with 4 H5N1 virus strains via hemagglutinin inhibition. These results suggest that these 3 mimotopes closely mimics the native 8H5 epitopes. (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Science and Technology Foundation of Fujian Province [2008Y0059, F2006BAI01B06]; Chinese Ministry of Education [108157]; Foundation from Ministry of Science and Technology [2005DC105006]; Ministry of Health [2008ZX10004-006

Overexpression of small glutamine-rich TPR-containing protein promotes apoptosis in 7721 cells.

AbstractIt is known that small glutamine-rich TPR-containing protein (SGT) is the member of TPR motif family. However, the biological functions of SGT remain unclear. In this paper, we report that SGT plays a role in apoptotic signaling. Ectopic expression of SGT enhances DNA fragment and nucleus breakage after the induction of apoptosis. Increasing mRNA level of SGT is also observed in 7721 cells undergoing apoptosis, knockdown the expression of endogenous SGT contributes to the decrease of apoptosis of 7721 cells. Deletion analysis reveals that TPR domain is critical to pro-apoptotic function of SGT. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the PARP cleavage and cytochrome c release are enhanced when SGT is overexpressed in 7721 cells during apoptosis. Collectively, our results indicate that SGT is a new pro-apoptotic factor