The Genetic Mechanism of Inertinite in the Middle Jurassic Inertinite-Rich Coal Seams of the Southern Ordos Basin

Inertinite is an important type of organic maceral in coal deposits, andalso an important geological information carrier of coal forming environments. In the southern section of the Ordos Basin, the No. 4 inertinite-richcoal seam of the Middle Jurassic Yan’an Formation in the Binchang Coalfield was selected as an example to study the genetic mechanism of theinertinite. In this study, the results obtained from experimental tests ofcoal rock, including principal and trace elements, stable carbon isotopes,scanning electron microscopy, inertinite reflectance, sporopollen andfree radical retorting methods, were analyzed. Then, the findings werecombined with the previous understanding of the oxygen content in theatmosphere and ground fire characteristics, in order to discuss the genesismechanism of inertinite in the No. 4 coal seam. The obtained researchresults were as follows: (1) During the coal forming period of the No. 4coal seam, the overall climate had been relatively dry. There were fourrelatively dry-wet climate cycles in the No.4 coal seam, which werecontrolled by the eccentricity astronomical period. The inertinite contentwere relatively high during the dry periods; (2) The temperature rangesuitable for microorganism activities during the oxidation processes wasbetween 0 and 80℃ . The simulation results of the free radical concentrations showed that the maximum temperature of fusain in the No. 4 coalseam during the process of coalification had not exceeded 300℃ , whichwas significantly higher than the temperature range of microorganismactivities. Therefore, these were not conducive to the activities of microorganism and formation of inertinite during the coal-forming period;(3) The genesis temperature of the inertinite in the No. 4 coal seam wascalculated according to the reflectance of the inertinite, which was lowerthan 400 ℃ . This result supported the cause of wildfire of the inertiniteand reflected that the type of wildfire was mainly ground fire, along withpartially surface fire. Moreover, the paleogeographic location, climaticconditions, atmospheric oxygen concentration, etc. of the study areashowed that the conditions for wildfire events were in fact available; (4)There were dense and scattered fusinite observed in the No. 4 coal seam,and the thickness of cell walls were found to differ. It was speculated thatthis was related to the type of wildfire, combustion temperatures, combustion timeframes, and different initial conditions of the burned objectsduring the coal forming periods

Effect of ligustrazine injection on the change of oxidative stress system during renal ischemia reperfusion injury in rabbits

目的  通过由兔肾脏缺血/再灌注损伤（IRI）导致的氧化应激体系中的变化，研究中药川芎嗪对IRI干预下的作用机制。方法  建立持续性阻断兔双侧肾动脉血流1h，再灌注5h的肾IRI动物模型。日本大耳兔32只，随机分成3组（n=10）：假手术组(sham，S组)，缺血/再灌注组(ischemia-reperfusion，IR组)，川芎嗪干预缺血/再灌注组（ligustrazine+ ischemia-reperfusion，LZ组），另外两只作为补充实验中意外死亡之用。于缺血前、缺血1h、再灌注1h、3h和5h依次经颈总动脉抽血用以检测超氧化物歧化酶（SOD）活力、黄嘌呤氧化酶（XO）活力以及丙二醛（MDA）含量。在实验结束后取兔肾组织依次检测SOD、XO活力以及MDA含量，并对其进行电镜观察。结果  随着肾缺血和再灌注时间的增加，IR组和LZ组血浆中的XO活力和MDA含量逐渐呈上升趋势，但同时间点LZ组较于IR组明显降低（均P<0.01）；SOD活力随着肾缺血和再灌注时间的增加而逐渐呈下降趋势，但同时间点下，LZ组较于IR组均明显偏高（均P<0.01）。IR组和LZ组相较于S组，肾组织XO活力、MDA含量均明显升高，SOD活力均明显降低（均P<0.01）；而LZ组肾组织中的XO活力、MDA含量均显著低于IR组，SOD活力均显著高于IR组，差异有非常显著性（均P<0.01），LZ组肾组织细胞的超微结构异常改变较IR组显著减轻。结论  川芎嗪能够使氧自由基水平降低，氧化应激损伤减轻，具有保护肾缺血/再灌注损伤的作用。Objective: To investigate the change of oxidative stress system during renal ischemia-reperfusion injury, and to study the mechanism of Ligustrazine on IRI under the intervention. Methods: Establish the IRI animal model by persistent blocking rabbits’ bilateral renal artery blood flow for 1 hour, then reperfusion for another 5 hours. Japanese big ear rabbits, 32, were randomly divided into three groups (n=10): sham operation group (group S), ischemia/reperfusion group (group IR), the effect of ligustrazine on ischemia/ reperfusion group (LZ group), the other two being added in the experiment for accidental death. In 1 hour before ischemia, ischemia, reperfusion 1h, 3h and 5h in turn to check the enzyme activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), xanthine oxidase (XO) and the content of malondialdehyde (MDA) by getting the blood from common carotid artery. At the end of the experiment, the rabbit’s kidney was used to check the enzyme activity of XO, SOD and the content of MDA, then to observe the morphological changes under the electron microscopy. Results: With the increase of renal ischemia and reperfusion time, XO activity and MDA content of IR group and LZ group in plasma gradually up, they were significantly lower in LZ group than in IR group at same time point (all P<0.01), the activity of SOD in plasma was shown a time-dependent decline in both IR group and LZ group, whereas it was significant higher in LZ group compared with IR group at same time point during ischemia reperfusion (all P<0.01). SOD activity gradually decreased with the increase of renal ischemia and reperfusion time, but at the same time point, LZ group compared with IR group were significantly higher (P<0.01), however, for LZ group, as compared with IR group, activity of XO, content of MDA were increased remarkably while activity of SOD was decreased significantly in kidney tissue (all P<0.01) the abnormal changes of ultrastructure were mitigated significantly. Conclusion: Ligustrazine may attenuate renal ischemia-reperfusion injury by dropping oxygen free radical generation and enhancing oxygen free radical scavenge so that it can antagonize oxidative stress

Effect of estradiol on proliferation and differentiation of side population stem/progenitor cells from murine endometrium

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In our previous study, endometrium side population cells (SP cells) were isolated from postpartum murine uterus, and characterized by a heterogeneous population of stem/progenitor cells. In this study, we investigated the effect of estrogen on the proliferation and differentiation of SP cells.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>SP and non-SP cells of postpartum murine endometrium were isolated by DNA dye Hoechst 33342. The expression of estrogen receptor 1 (ESR1) was measured by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), Real-time PCR, Western blot, immunofluorescence and immunohistochemistry. The proliferation and differentiation of SP cells treated with different concentrations [10(-8) M-10(-6) M] of estradiol (E2) and E2+ ICI182780 (Faslodex, inhibitor of ESR1) were measured by 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazoly1-2)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide(MTT) and clonogenic assays.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>(1) SP cells expressed ESR1 at a higher level than non-SP cells. (2) The level of E2 in the serum and the expression of ESR1 in the uterus of postpartum murine changed in the same manner with the ratio of SP cells to total uterus cells at a different postpartum time point. ESR1, as ABCG2 is also predominantly located in the stroma and the glandular epithelium of the uterus. (3) 10(-6) M E2 notably promoted the proliferation of SP cells after treatment for 24 h. This effect could be inhibited by ICI182780. E2 at the concentration of 10(-7) M or 10(-8) M was sent to impair the large cloning efficiency (CE) of SP cells.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The effect of estrogen on the proliferation and differentiation of endometrium SP cells via ESR1 was observed and it was in a concentration dependent fashion. Clearly, more work is needed to understand the <it>in vivo </it>effect of E2 at the physiological concentration on the differentiation of SP cells.</p

Virus database and online inquiry system based on natural vectors

We construct a virus database called VirusDB (http://yaulab.math.tsinghua.edu.cn/VirusDB/) and an online inquiry system to serve people who are interested in viral classification and prediction. The database stores all viral genomes, their corresponding natural vectors, and the classification information of the single/multiple-segmented viral reference sequences downloaded from National Center for Biotechnology Information. The online inquiry system serves the purpose of computing natural vectors and their distances based on submitted genomes, providing an online interface for accessing and using the database for viral classification and prediction, and back-end processes for automatic and manual updating of database content to synchronize with GenBank. Submitted genomes data in FASTA format will be carried out and the prediction results with 5 closest neighbors and their classifications will be returned by email. Considering the one-to-one correspondence between sequence and natural vector, time efficiency, and high accuracy, natural vector is a significant advance compared with alignment methods, which makes VirusDB a useful database in further research.Rui Dong, Hui Zheng, Kun Tian, Shek-Chung Yau, Weiguang Mao, Wenping Yu, Changchuan Yin, Chenglong Yu, Rong Lucy He, Jie Yang, Stephen ST Ya