Mulberry Fruit Extract Affords Protection against Ethyl Carbamate-Induced Cytotoxicity and Oxidative Stress

Ethyl carbamate (EC) is a food and environmental toxicant and is a cause of concern for human exposure. Several studies indicated that EC-induced toxicity was associated with oxidative stress. Mulberry fruits are reported to have a wide range of bioactive compounds and pharmacological activities. The present study was therefore aimed to investigate the protective property of mulberry fruit extract (MFE) on EC-induced cytotoxicity and oxidative stress. Chemical composition analysis showed that total phenolic content and total flavonoid content in MFE were 502.43 ± 5.10 and 219.12 ± 4.45 mg QE/100 g FW. Cyanidin-3-O-glucoside and cyanidin-3-O-rutinoside were the major anthocyanins in MFE. In vitro antioxidant studies (DPPH, ABTS, and FRAP assays) jointly exhibited the potent antioxidant capacity of MFE. Further study indicated that MFE protected human liver HepG2 cells from EC-induced cytotoxicity by scavenging overproduced cellular ROS. EC treatment promoted intracellular glutathione (GSH) depletion and caused mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) collapse, as well as mitochondrial membrane lipid peroxidation, whereas MFE pretreatment significantly inhibited GSH depletion and restored the mitochondrial membrane function. Overall, our study suggested that polyphenolic-rich MFE could afford a potent protection against EC-induced cytotoxicity and oxidative stress

Object Detection Algorithm for 3D Coordinate Attention Path Aggregation Network

In practical industrial applications, YOLO series algorithms are not accurate enough to locate the object prediction boxes, and it is difficult to apply to realistic scenarios with high positioning requirements. The object detection algorithm YOLO-T of the three-dimensional coordinate attention path aggregation network is proposed. Firstly, the shortcut connection method is used to fuse the cross-layer features of the path aggregation feature pyramid to retain its shallow semantic information. Secondly, based on the coordinate attention mechanism, a three-dimensional coordinate attention (TDCA) model is proposed, which is used to pay attention weight to the features in the path aggregation feature pyramid (TPA-FPN (TDCA path aggregation feature pyramid networks)) to retain useful information and remove redundant information. Thirdly, the loss matrix calculation method of SimOTA (simplify optimal transport assignment) in the label allocation strategy is improved, which enhances the performance while ensuring no loss of efficiency. Finally, Depthwise Separable Conv is used to improve the convolution module in the backbone feature extraction network to make the model lightweight. Experimental results show that the detection accuracy [email protected] of the algorithm is 1.3 percentage points higher than that of YOLOX-S on the PASCAL VOC2007+2012 dataset, and the [email protected]:0.95 is improved by 3.8 percentage points. The average detection accuracy [email protected]:0.95 is improved by 2.4 percentage points on the COCO2017 dataset

Neuroprotective Effects and Mechanism of β

Emerging evidence suggests that activated astrocytes play important roles in AD, and β-asarone, a major component of Acorus tatarinowii Schott, was shown to be a potential therapeutic candidate for AD. While our previous study found that β-asarone could improve the cognitive function of rats hippocampally injected with Aβ, the effects of β-asarone on astrocytes remain unclear, and this study aimed to investigate these effects. A rat model of Aβ1–42 (10 μg) was established, and the rats were intragastrically treated with β-asarone at doses of 10, 20, and 30 mg/kg or donepezil at a dose of 0.75 mg/kg. The sham and model groups were intragastrically injected with an equal volume of saline. Animals were sacrificed on the 28th day after administration of the drugs. In addition, a cellular model of Aβ1–42 (1.1 μM, 6 h) was established, and cells were treated with β-asarone at doses of 0, 2.06, 6.17, 18.5, 55.6, and 166.7 μg/mL. β-Asarone improved cognitive impairment, alleviated Aβ deposition and hippocampal damage, and inhibited GFAP, AQP4, IL-1β, and TNF-α expression. These results suggested that β-asarone could alleviate the symptoms of AD by protecting astrocytes, possibly by inhibiting TNF-α and IL-1β secretion and then downregulating AQP4 expression

DNMTs Play an Important Role in Maintaining the Pluripotency of Leukemia Inhibitory Factor-Dependent Embryonic Stem Cells.

Naive pluripotency can be maintained in medium with two inhibitors plus leukemia inhibitory factor (2i/LIF) supplementation, which primarily affects canonical WNT, FGF/ERK, and JAK/STAT3 signaling. However, whether one of these three supplements alone is sufficient to maintain naive self-renewal remains unclear. Here we show that LIF alone in medium is sufficient for adaptation of 2i/L-ESCs to embryonic stem cells (ESCs) in a hypermethylated state (L-ESCs). Global transcriptomic analysis shows that L-ESCs are close to 2i/L-ESCs and in a stable state between naive and primed pluripotency. Notably, our results demonstrate that DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) play an important role in LIF-dependent mouse ESC adaptation and self-renewal. LIF-dependent ESC adaptation efficiency is significantly increased in serum treatment and reduced in Dnmt3a or Dnmt3l knockout ESCs. Importantly, unlike epiblast stem cells, L-ESCs contribute to somatic tissues and germ cells in chimeras. L-ESCs cultured under such simple conditions as in this study would provide a more conducive platform to clarify the molecular mechanism of ESCs in in vitro culture

An assessment of the causes of the errors in the 2015 UK General Election opinion polls

The opinion polls undertaken prior to the 2015 UK General Election under-estimated the Conservative lead over Labour by an average of 7 percentage points. This collective failure led politicians and commentators to question the validity and utility of political polling and raised concerns regarding a broader public loss of confidence in survey research. In this paper, we assess the likely causes of the 2015 polling errors. We begin by setting out a formal account of the statistical methodology and assumptions required for valid estimation of party vote shares using quota sampling. We then describe the current approach of polling organisations for estimating sampling variability and suggest a new method based on bootstrap re-sampling. Next, we use poll micro-data to assess the plausibility of different explanations of the polling errors. Our conclusion is that the primary cause of the polling errors in 2015 was unrepresentative sampling

An Adaptive Torque Observer Based on Fuzzy Inference for Flexible Joint Application

Torque observation techniques have been widely employed to estimate the load torque of flexible joints driven by a permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM). However, the performance of the observer degrades significantly when the position and orientation of the robot continuously changes, resulting in substantial irregular load variations. In this paper, an adaptive torque observer based on fuzzy inference is proposed to overcome this issue. Instead of relying on theoretical or numerical derivation, the relationship between the load inertia and the closed-loop poles of the torque observer is expressed by fuzzy inference. This approach enables the flexible configuration of the poles based on the load inertia, allowing for automatic tuning of the gain matrix. Consequently, the observer can ensure robustness and maintain superior performance under varying load conditions. The effectiveness of the proposed observer is validated through simulation and experimental results. It shows that compared to the classical Luenberger observer, the proposed adaptive torque observer can achieve more accurate observation results and exhibits a more dynamic response in the presence of varying load inertia

The complete chloroplast genome of Altingia chinensis (Hamamelidaceae)

Altingia chinensis is an important native broad-leaved tree in southern China. Its wood can be used as an excellent edible fungus culture medium, in addition, aromatic oil can be extracted for medicine and spices. Its full-length chloroplast genome is 160,410 bp, including a large single copy (LSC) region of 88,936 bp, a small single copy (SSC) region of 18,917 bp, and a pair of inverted repeat (IR) regions of 26,274 bp. Furthermore, we also found 132 genes, 86 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, and 8 rRNA genes in the chloroplast genome of Altingia chinensis. Phylogenetic analysis shows that Altingia chinensis is most closely related to Liquidambar formosana and Semiliquidambar cathayensis. This study can provide basic data for research on molecular-assisted breeding of Altingia chinensis,and phylogeny of Hamamelidaceae

The Analysis and Solution of Current Differential Protection Maloperation for Transmission Line with High Series Compensation Degree

With the increasing integration of huge-size generators and tighter interconnection among power grids, in internal fault, the fault current of Series Compensated (SC) lines may be reversed. At this time, the differential protection of SC lines may fail to operate due to insufficient sensitivity. In this research analyzes the reasons for the current reverse in SC lines and its effect on differential protection. The operation characteristics of differential protection are studied by focusing on multiple factors, including different series compensation degree, fault types, system operation mode, power angle difference, fault points, and transition resistance. An improved criterion based on the current amplitudes and phases on both sides of the series compensated lines is proposed. Further, to strengthen the operation characteristics of differential protection, the triple-fold line is chosen to improve the sensitivity for internal faults in this paper. The criterion is effective to improve the protection sensitivity of SC lines during internal fault. The PSCAD/EMTDC simulation and the power system dynamic physics simulation demonstrates that protection sensitivity is obviously increased in the improved scheme

The complete chloroplast genome of Semiliquidambar cathayensis (Hamamelidaceae)

Semiliquidambar cathayensis is a semi-evergreen broad-leaved tree species distributed in southern China. In 1999, it was approved and published as a national secondary protected plant. We obtained the complete chloroplast genome sequence of S. cathayensis by Illumina sequencing data. The complete chloroplast sequence is 160,430 bp, include large single-copy (LSC) region of 88,991 bp, small single-copy (SSC) region of 18,917 bp, and a pair of invert repeats (IR) regions of 26,261 bp. Plastid genome contain 133 genes, 86 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, and 8 rRNA genes. Phylogenetic analysis showed that S. cathayensis is closely related to Liquidambar formosana