A genetic polymorphism and its genetic effects on goat myogenin gene in intron 1

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the myogenin (MyoG) gene were tested using primer induced restriction fragment length polymorphism assay-polymerase chain reaction (PIRA-PCR) from Bore goat and its upgrading offspring to Tangshan diary goat (including F1, F2 and F3). The effects of the myogenin gene on the birth weight, 1-month body weight and the weaning weight were also analyzed. On the basis of the DNA sequence of the goat myogenin gene (FJ607135), primers were designed to amplify myogenin gene. The result showed that one polymorphism (transition of g.558C>T) was found in intron 1 of goat myogenin gene, in which two alleles (A and B) and three genotypes (AA, AB and BB) were examined. The distributions of three genotypes were basically identical in four goat populations, and allele A was the dominant gene. The effect of the myogenin genotypes on the birth weight, 1-month body weight and the weaning weight were all not significant (P > 0.05) due to the small number of BB gaots; however, the values of AA genotype goats and AB genotype goats were obviously higher than those of BB genotype goats for three growth traits, in the order of AA > AB > BB. These results suggest that the myogenin genotype has some effects on partial growth traits of goat, and selecting the individuals with A allele could be favorable to the birth weight, 1-month body weight and the weaning weight.Key words: goats, myogenin gene, primer induced restriction fragment length polymorphism assay-polymerase chain reaction (PIRA-PCR), genetic polymorphisms, genetic effects

Literature review and analysis of the development of health outcomes assessment instruments in Chinese medicine

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the development of health outcomes assessment instruments in Chinese medicine. METHODS: A comprehensive literature search for all published articles in China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database, Chongqing VIP Database and WANFANG Data was conducted. The studies that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were used to extract information according to a predesigned assessment instrument. RESULTS: A total of 97 instruments for health outcome assessment in Chinese medicine were identified. Of these questionnaires, 7 were generic, 12 were condition-specific and 78 were disease-specific. All instruments were suitable for adults, children, and both men and women. These instruments aimed to evaluate the health-related quality of life, signs and symptoms as well as patient satisfaction and doctor-reported outcome. However, the descriptions were poorly constructed for some of the most basic parameters, such as the domains and items, administrative mode, response options, memory recall periods, burden evaluation, format, copyright, content validity, and other properties. CONCLUSION: The instrument development for health outcomes assessment in Chinese medicine is increasing rapidly; however, there are many limitations in current methodologies and standards, and further studies are needed. © 2013 Feng-bin Liu et al

Tutte polynomial of pseudofractal scale-free web

The Tutte polynomial of a graph is a 2-variable polynomial which is quite important in both combinatorics and statistical physics. It contains various numerical invariants and polynomial invariants, such as the number of spanning trees, the number of spanning forests, the number of acyclic orientations, the reliability polynomial, chromatic polynomial and flow polynomial. In this paper, we study and gain recursive formulas for the Tutte polynomial of pseudofractal scale-free web (PSW) which implies logarithmic complexity algorithm is obtained to calculate the Tutte polynomial of PSW although it is NP-hard for general graph. We also obtain the rigorous solution for the the number of spanning trees of PSW by solving the recurrence relations derived from Tutte polynomial, which give an alternative approach for explicitly determining the number of spanning trees of PSW. Further more, we analysis the all-terminal reliability of PSW and compare the results with that of Sierpinski gasket which has the same number of nodes and edges with PSW. In contrast with the well-known conclusion that scale-free networks are more robust against removal of nodes than homogeneous networks (e.g., exponential networks and regular networks). Our results show that Sierpinski gasket (which is a regular network) are more robust against random edge failures than PSW (which is a scale-free network). Whether it is true for any regular networks and scale-free networks, is still a unresolved problem.Comment: 19pages,7figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1006.533

A pore-expanded supramolecular organic framework and its enrichment of photosensitizers and catalysts for visible-light-induced hydrogen production

A pore-expanded three-dimensional supramolecular organic framework SOF-bpb, with a previously unattained aperture size of 3.6 nm, has been constructed in water from the co-Assembly of cucurbit[8]uril (CB[8]) and a tetraphenylmethane-cored 1,4-bis(pyridin-4-yl)-benzene-Appended building block M1. The periodicity of SOF-bpb in water and in the solid state has been confirmed using synchrotron X-ray scattering and diffraction experiments. SOF-bpb can adsorb anionic and neutral Ru complex photosensitizers and anionic Wells-Dawson-Type and Keggin-Type polyoxometalates (POMs). The adsorption leads to an important enrichment effect, which remarkably increases the catalytic efficiency of the Ru complex-POM systems for visible light-induced reduction of protons to produce H . The expanded aperture of SOF-bpb also facilitates light absorption of the adsorbed Ru complex photosensitizers and electron transfer between excited complexes and the POM catalysts, leading to enhanced photocatalytic activities as compared with the prototypical SOF that has an aperture size of 2.1 nm. 2+ 2+ 2+

Microhoneycomb monoliths prepared by the unidirectional freeze-drying of cellulose nanofiber based sols: Method and extensions

© 2018 Journal of Visualized Experiments. Monolithic honeycomb structures have been attractive to multidisciplinary fields due to their high strength-to-weight ratio. Particularly, microhoneycomb monoliths (MHMs) with micrometer-scale channels are expected as efficient platforms for reactions and separations because of their large surface areas. Up to now, MHMs have been prepared by a unidirectional freeze-drying (UDF) method only from very limited precursors. Herein, we report a protocol from which a series of MHMs consisting of different components can be obtained. Recently, we found that cellulose nanofibers function as a distinct structure-directing agent towards the formation of MHMs through the UDF process. By mixing the cellulose nanofibers with water soluble substances which do not yield MHMs, a variety of composite MHMs can be prepared. This significantly enriches the chemical constitution of MHMs towards versatile applications

A Nacre-Like Carbon Nanotube Sheet for High Performance Li-Polysulfide Batteries with High Sulfur Loading

© 2018 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries are considered as one of the most promising energy storage systems for next-generation electric vehicles because of their high-energy density. However, the poor cyclic stability, especially at a high sulfur loading, is the major obstacles retarding their practical use. Inspired by the nacre structure of an abalone, a similar configuration consisting of layered carbon nanotube (CNT) matrix and compactly embedded sulfur is designed as the cathode for Li-S batteries, which are realized by a well-designed unidirectional freeze-drying approach. The compact and lamellar configuration with closely contacted neighboring CNT layers and the strong interaction between the highly conductive network and polysulfides have realized a high sulfur loading with significantly restrained polysulfide shuttling, resulting in a superior cyclic stability and an excellent rate performance for the produced Li-S batteries. Typically, with a sulfur loading of 5 mg cm−2, the assembled batteries demonstrate discharge capacities of 1236 mAh g−1 at 0.1 C, 498 mAh g−1 at 2 C and moreover, when the sulfur loading is further increased to 10 mg cm−2 coupling with a carbon-coated separator, a superhigh areal capacity of 11.0 mAh cm−2 is achieved

New insight into fouling behavior and foulants accumulation property of cake sludge in a full-scale membrane bioreactor

© 2016 Elsevier B.V.. Cake sludge attached on membrane surfaces was collected and characterized in a full scale membrane bioreactor (MBR) compared with bulk sludge. The morphological, chemical and microbial properties were examined through microscopic observations, particle size distribution (PSD) analysis, chemical analysis, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-diffusive X-ray (EDX) analysis, specific oxygen utilization rate (SOUR) measurements and Biolog assay. The results showed that fiber-like substances might have served as the skeleton of larger size aggregates in cake sludge. Moreover, much more polysaccharides and inorganic elements such as multivalent cations were accumulated in cake sludge than proteins and humics. Cake sludge showed lower microbial activity for aerobic degradation than bulk sludge, but higher metabolic activity for the degradation of refractory substances (aromatic proteins and humics) other than polysaccharides. Based on batch filtration experiments, it was found that cake sludge had much higher cake layer fouling potential but lower membrane pore blocking resistance, probably due to the heterogeneous structure of cake sludge resulting from accumulation and interaction of various inorganic and organic foulants. This investigation could assist in obtaining a better understanding of the fouling behavior and foulants accumulation properties of cake sludge in the full-scale MBRs

Genetic neural network for Traditional Chinese medicine

The research into the impersonality and information of the Traditional Chinese-medicine Diagnosis (TCMD) is a key work to realize the Traditional Chinese-medicine (TCM) medicine examination system. So the paper studies the application of Artificial Neural Networks (NN) to TCM and uses the Genetic Algorithm (GA) to optimize the ANN, which is used to the diagnosis of TCM. The initial structure of the ANN is arbitrary and the GA is able to find a near optimal connection weight and structure of the ANN for the TCMD. In this paper, we emphatically describe t the GA to optimal the connection weight of the NN - Genetic NN, which has a relatively fixed three-layer and was used to the TCM eight principal syndromes by the tongue feature