Dendrites play irreplaceable roles in the nerve conduction pathway and are vulnerable to various insults.Peripheral axotomy of motor neurons results in the retraction of dendritic arbors,and the dendritic arbor can be...Dendrites play irreplaceable roles in the nerve conduction pathway and are vulnerable to various insults.Peripheral axotomy of motor neurons results in the retraction of dendritic arbors,and the dendritic arbor can be re-expanded when reinnervation is allowed.RhoA is a target that regulates the cytoskeleton and promotes neuronal survival and axon regeneration.However,the role of RhoA in dendrite degeneration and regeneration is unknown.In this study,we explored the potential role of RhoA in dendrites.A line of motor neuronal conditional knockout mice was developed by crossbreeding HB9~(Cre+)mice with RhoA~(flox/flox)mice.We established two models for assaying dendrite degeneration and regeneration,in which the brachial plexus was transection or crush injured,respectively.We found that at 28 days after brachial plexus transection,the density,complexity,and structural integrity of dendrites in the ventral horn of the spinal cord of RhoA conditional knockout mice were slightly decreased compared with that in Cre mice.Dendrites underwent degeneration at 7 and 14 days after brachial plexus transection and recovered at 28–56 days.The density,complexity,and structural integrity of dendrites in the ventral horn of the spinal cord of RhoA conditional knockout mice recovered compared with results in Cre mice.These findings suggest that RhoA knockout in motor neurons attenuates dendrite degeneration and promotes dendrite regeneration after peripheral nerve injury.展开更多
Background Genome editing has been considered as powerful tool in agricultural fields.However,genome editing progress in cattle has not been fast as in other mammal species,for some disadvantages including long gestat...Background Genome editing has been considered as powerful tool in agricultural fields.However,genome editing progress in cattle has not been fast as in other mammal species,for some disadvantages including long gestational periods,single pregnancy,and high raising cost.Furthermore,technically demanding methods such as microinjection and somatic cell nuclear transfer(SCNT)are needed for gene editing in cattle.In this point of view,electroporation in embryos has been risen as an alternative.Results First,editing efficiency of our electroporation methods were tested for embryos.Presence of mutation on embryo was confirmed by T7E1 assay.With first combination,mutation rates for MSTN and PRNP were 57.6%±13.7%and 54.6%±13.5%,respectively.In case of MSTN/BLG,mutation rates were 83.9%±23.6%for MSTN,84.5%±18.0%for BLG.Afterwards,the double-KO embryos were transferred to surrogates and mutation rate was identified in resultant calves by targeted deep sequencing.Thirteen recipients were transferred for MSTN/PRNP,4 calves were delivered,and one calf underwent an induction for double KO.Ten surrogates were given double-KO embryos for MSTN/BLG,and four of the six calves that were born had mutations in both genes.Conclusions These data demonstrated that production of genome edited cattle via electroporation of RNP could be effectively applied.Finally,MSTN and PRNP from beef cattle and MSTN and BLG from dairy cattle have been born and they will be valuable resources for future precision breeding.展开更多
A system for fully automatic selection of welding specifications in resistance welding equipment has been developed to address the problem of workers frequently choosing the wrong specifications during manual welding ...A system for fully automatic selection of welding specifications in resistance welding equipment has been developed to address the problem of workers frequently choosing the wrong specifications during manual welding of multiple parts on a single machine in automobile factories. The system incorporates an automatic recognition system for different workpiece materials using the added machine fixture,visual detection system for nuts and bolts,and secondary graphical confirmation to ensure the correctness of specification calling. This system achieves reliable,fully automatic selection of welding specifications in resistance welding equipment and has shown significant effects in improving welding quality for massproduced workpieces,while solving the problem of specification calling errors that can occur with traditional methods involving process charts and code adjustments. This system is particularly suitable for promoting applications in manual welding of multiple parts on a single machine in automobile factories,ensuring correct specification calling and welding quality.展开更多
Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi produces abundant root-specific f lavones(RSFs),which provide various benefits to human health.We have elucidated the complete biosynthetic pathways of baicalein and wogonin.However,the ...Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi produces abundant root-specific f lavones(RSFs),which provide various benefits to human health.We have elucidated the complete biosynthetic pathways of baicalein and wogonin.However,the transcriptional regulation of f lavone biosynthesis in S.baicalensis remains unclear.We show that the SbMYB3 transcription factor functions as a transcriptional activator involved in the biosynthesis of RSFs in S.baicalensis.Yeast one-hybrid and transcriptional activation assays showed that SbMYB3 binds to the promoter of flavone synthase II-2(SbFNSII-2)and enhances its transcription.In S.baicalensis hairy roots,RNAi of SbMYB3 reduced the accumulation of baicalin and wogonoside,and SbMYB3 knockout decreased the biosynthesis of baicalein,baicalin,wogonin,and wogonoside,whereas SbMYB3 overexpression enhanced the contents of baicalein,baicalin,wogonin,and wogonoside.Transcript profiling by qRT–PCR demonstrated that SbMYB3 activates SbFNSII-2 expression directly,thus leading to more abundant accumulation of RSFs.This study provides a potential target for metabolic engineering of RSFs.展开更多
Effect of the specific gene knockout on the main metabolism in Escherichia coli was reviewed, and the regulation mechanisms were clarified based on different levels of information such as gene expressions, enzyme acti...Effect of the specific gene knockout on the main metabolism in Escherichia coli was reviewed, and the regulation mechanisms were clarified based on different levels of information such as gene expressions, enzyme activities, intracellular metabolite concentrations, and metabolic fluxes together with fermentation data. The effects of the knockout of such genes as pflA, pta, ppc, pykF, adhE, and ldhA on the metabolic changes were analyzed for the case under anaerobic condition. The effects of the knockout of such genes as pgi, zwf, gnd, ppc pck, pyk, and lpdA on the metabolic changes were also analyzed for the case under aerobic condition. The metabolic regulation analysis was made focusing on the roles of transcription factors.展开更多
The Stinger PDC cutter has high rock-breaking efficiency and excellent impact and wear resistance, which can significantly increase the rate of penetration (ROP) and extend PDC bit life for drilling hard and abrasive ...The Stinger PDC cutter has high rock-breaking efficiency and excellent impact and wear resistance, which can significantly increase the rate of penetration (ROP) and extend PDC bit life for drilling hard and abrasive formation. The knowledge of force response and mechanical specific energy (MSE) for the Stinger PDC cutter is of great importance for improving the cutter's performance and optimizing the hybrid PDC bit design. In this paper, 87 single cutter tests were conducted on the granite. A new method for precisely obtaining the rock broken volume was proposed. The influences of cutting depth, cutting angle, and cutting speed on cutting force and MSE were analyzed. Besides, a phenomenological cutting force model of the Stinger PDC cutter was established by regression of experimental data. Moreover, the surface topography and fracture morphology of the cutting groove and large size cuttings were measured by a 3D profilometer and a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Finally, the rock-breaking mechanism of the Stinger PDC cutter was illustrated. The results indicated that the cutting depth has the greatest influence on the cutting force and MSE, while the cutting speed has no obvious effects, especially at low cutting speeds. As the increase of cutting depth, the cutting force increases linearly, and MSE reduces with a quadratic polynomial relationship. When the cutting angle raises from 10° to 30°, the cutting force increases linearly, and the MSE firstly decreases and then increases. The optimal cutting angle for breaking rock is approximately 20°. The Stinger PDC cutter breaks granite mainly by high concentrated point loading and tensile failure, which can observably improve the rock breaking efficiency. The key findings of this work will help to reveal the rock-breaking mechanisms and optimize the cutter arrangement for the Stinger PDC cutter.展开更多
Specific and sustained release of nutrients from capsules to the gastrointestinal tract has attracted many attentions in the field of food and drug delivery.In this work,we reported a monoaxial dispersion electrospray...Specific and sustained release of nutrients from capsules to the gastrointestinal tract has attracted many attentions in the field of food and drug delivery.In this work,we reported a monoaxial dispersion electrospraying-ionotropic gelation technique to prepare multicore millimeter-sized spherical capsules for specific and sustained release of fish oil.The spherical capsules had diameters from 2.05 mm to 0.35 mm with the increased applied voltages.The capsules consisted of uniform(at applied voltages of≤10 k V)or nonuniform(at applied voltages of>10 k V)multicores.The obtained capsules had reasonable loading ratios(9.7%-6.3%)due to the multicore structure.In addition,the obtained capsules had specific and sustained release behaviors of fish oil into the small intestinal phase of in vitro gastrointestinal tract and small intestinal tract models.The simple monoaxial dispersion electrospraying-ionotropic gelatin technique does not involve complicated preparation formulations and polymer modification,which makes the technique has a potential application prospect for the fish oil preparations and the encapsulation of functional active substances in the field of food and drug industries.展开更多
The cerebral cortex is one of the most complex structures of the mammalian central nervous system and accounts for the extraordinary cognitive abilities in primates and humans.Since the 19th century,neur ons have been...The cerebral cortex is one of the most complex structures of the mammalian central nervous system and accounts for the extraordinary cognitive abilities in primates and humans.Since the 19th century,neur ons have been believed to be the main players in the building of the brain,yet astrocytes also play a crucial role as fundamental building blocks of the cerebral cortex complexity.展开更多
Objective The protein interacting with C kinase 1(PICK1)plays a critical role in vesicle trafficking,and its deficiency in sperm cells results in abnormal vesicle trafficking from Golgi to acrosome,which eventually di...Objective The protein interacting with C kinase 1(PICK1)plays a critical role in vesicle trafficking,and its deficiency in sperm cells results in abnormal vesicle trafficking from Golgi to acrosome,which eventually disrupts acrosome formation and leads to male infertility.Methods An azoospermia sample was filtered,and the laboratory detection and clinical phenotype indicated typical azoospermia in the patient.We sequenced all of the exons in the PICK1 gene and found that there was a novel homozygous variant in the PICK1 gene,c.364delA(p.Lys122SerfsX8),and this protein structure truncating variant seriously affected the biological function.Then we constructed a PICK1 knockout mouse model using clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat cutting technology(CRISPRc).Results The sperm from PICK1 knockout mice showed acrosome and nucleus abnormalities,as well as dysfunctional mitochondrial sheath formation.Both the total sperm and motility sperm counts were decreased in the PICK1 knockout mice compared to wild-type mice.Moreover,the mitochondrial dysfunction was verified in the mice.These defects in the male PICK1 knockout mice may have eventually led to complete infertility.Conclusion The c.364delA novel variant in the PICK1 gene associated with clinical infertility,and pathogenic variants in the PICK1 may cause azoospermia or asthenospermia by impairing mitochondrial function in both mice and humans.展开更多
A<sub>2</sub>FeCoO<sub>6-δ</sub> (A = Ca or Sr) is synthesized by the solid-state synthesis method and their specific heat capacities are evaluated at 40˚C using a heat flow meter. The effect ...A<sub>2</sub>FeCoO<sub>6-δ</sub> (A = Ca or Sr) is synthesized by the solid-state synthesis method and their specific heat capacities are evaluated at 40˚C using a heat flow meter. The effect of the A-cation size on the specific heat capacity of these compounds is observed. The specific heat capacity of Sr<sub>2</sub>FeCoO<sub>6-δ</sub> is found to be the highest, and that of Ca<sub>2</sub>FeCoO<sub>6-δ</sub> is the lowest while CaSrFeCoO<sub>6-δ</sub> shows the intermediate value. The specific heat capacity decreases with the decrease of the average A-site ionic radius, demonstrating the relationship between heat capacity and A-site ionic radius. The relationship between specific heat capacity and molar mass is also confirmed as the δ value decreases or molar mass increases from Ca<sub>2</sub>FeCoO<sub>6-δ</sub> to CaSrFeCoO<sub>6-δ</sub> to Sr<sub>2</sub>FeCoO<sub>6-δ</sub>.展开更多
This work aims to compute stability derivatives in the Newtonian limit in pitch when the Mach number tends to infinity.In such conditions,these stability derivatives depend on the Ogive’s shape and not the Mach numbe...This work aims to compute stability derivatives in the Newtonian limit in pitch when the Mach number tends to infinity.In such conditions,these stability derivatives depend on the Ogive’s shape and not the Mach number.Generally,the Mach number independence principle becomes effective from M=10 and above.The Ogive nose is obtained through a circular arc on the cone surface.Accordingly,the following arc slopes are consideredλ=5,10,15,−5,−10,and−15.It is found that the stability derivatives decrease due to the growth inλfrom 5 to 15 and vice versa.Forλ=5 and 10,the damping derivative declines with an increase inλfrom 5 to 10.Yet,for the damping derivatives,the minimum location remains at a pivot position,h=0.75 for large values ofλ.Hence,whenλ=−15,the damping derivatives are independent of the cone angles for most pivot positions except in the early twenty percent of the leading edge.展开更多
Objectives: The study aimed to determine the most appropriate hearing screening test to identify disabling hearing loss for adults aged 65 years or older.Methods: This study included 577 older adults. Four hearing scr...Objectives: The study aimed to determine the most appropriate hearing screening test to identify disabling hearing loss for adults aged 65 years or older.Methods: This study included 577 older adults. Four hearing screening tests were considered in the study, including the Hearing Handicap Inventory for Elderly Screening(HHIE-s), three single question tests, the whisper test, and the finger rub test. The sensitivity and specificity of these tests referenced to the hearing threshold of disabling hearing loss were estimated.Results: Among all tests, only the single self-perception question(0.7064 for sensitivity;0.7225 for specificity) and whisper test(0.7833 for sensitivity;0.7708 for specificity) could obtain both sensitivity and specificity higher than 70% for adults aged ≥65 years.Conclusion: Overall, we suggest using the whisper test to identify disabling hearing loss(>40 dB HL at the better ear) for adults aged 65 years or older. However, if the conditions do not permit, the single selfperception question is also acceptable. Moreover, HHIE-s might not be a good test to detect disabling hearing loss for adults aged 80 years or older.展开更多
An rGO−like carbon compound has been synthesized from biomass,i.e.,old coconut shell,by a carbonization process followed by heating at 400°C for 5 h.The nitrogen doping was achieved by adding the urea(CH4N2O)and ...An rGO−like carbon compound has been synthesized from biomass,i.e.,old coconut shell,by a carbonization process followed by heating at 400°C for 5 h.The nitrogen doping was achieved by adding the urea(CH4N2O)and stirring at 70°C for 14 h.The morphology and structure of the rGO-like carbon were investigated by electron microscopies and Raman spectroscopy.The presence of C-N functional groups was analyzed by Fourier transform infrared and synchrotron X-ray photoemission spectroscopy,while the particle and the specific capacitance were measured by particle sizer and cyclic voltammetry.The highest specific capacitance of 72.78 F/g is achieved by the sample with 20%urea,having the smallest particles size and the largest surface area.The corresponding sample has shown to be constituted by the appropriate amount of C–N pyrrolic and pyridinic defects.展开更多
Mitochondrial dysfunction is proposed to be substantially associated with ageing and ageing-related diseases like Alzheimer's disease(AD). However, it is unclear whether different mouse models with mitochondrialre...Mitochondrial dysfunction is proposed to be substantially associated with ageing and ageing-related diseases like Alzheimer's disease(AD). However, it is unclear whether different mouse models with mitochondrialrelated diseases have similar changes in mitochondrial morphology of the same tissues. Moreover, whether similarities in mitochondrial morphology can be a suitable marker for screening and/or discovering mitochondrial-protective substances remains unknown. Mitochondria morphology in different tissues of a novel mitochondrial outer membrane protein Slc25a46 knockout mouse and a traditional APP_(SWE)/PS1ΔE9 transgenic mouse were examined using transmission electron microscope(TEM). Both young Slc25a46 knockout mice and aged APP_(SWE)/PS1ΔE9 mice models showed similar mitochondrial damage in cerebellum tissues. The results indicated that different mitochondrial-related diseases shared similar alteration and defects in mitochondrial morphology. Furthermore, Lycium ruthenicum Murr. extract, a bioactive food substance with cognition-improving property, could effectively improve muscle strength and increase body weight in the Slc25a46 knockout mice. These findings suggest that mitochondrial morphology defects in mice models, particularly in the mitochondrial compartment, represent a unified and effective marker for screening and validating natural product-derived functional substances with mitochondrial protective properties. It also holds potential application in mitochondrial-impaired senile neurodegenerative diseases, especially in AD.展开更多
Functional brain networks (FBN) based on resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) have become an important tool for exploring underlying organization patterns in the brain, which can provide an ob...Functional brain networks (FBN) based on resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) have become an important tool for exploring underlying organization patterns in the brain, which can provide an objective basis for brain disorders such as autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). Due to its importance, researchers have proposed a number of FBN estimation methods. However, most existing methods only model a type of functional connection relationship between brain regions-of-interest (ROIs), such as partial correlation or full correlation, which is difficult to fully capture the subtle connections among ROIs since these connections are extremely complex. Motivated by the multi-view learning, in this study we propose a novel Consistent and Specific Multi-view FBNs Fusion (CSMF) approach. Concretely, we first construct multi-view FBNs (i.e., multiple types of FBNs modelling various relationships among ROIs), and then these FBNs are decomposed into a consistent representation matrix and their own specific matrices which capture their common and unique information, respectively. Lastly, to obtain a better brain representation, it is fusing the consistent and specific representation matrices in the latent representation spaces of FBNs, but not directly fusing the original FBNs. This potentially makes it more easily to find the comprehensively brain connections. The experimental results of ASD identification on the ABIDE datasets validate the effectiveness of our proposed method compared to several state-of-the-art methods. Our proposed CSMF method achieved 72.8% and 76.67% classification performance on the ABIDE dataset.展开更多
Understanding the factors behind apple farmers’willingness to pass on the management of their farms to their descendants is crucial to the continuity of apple production.Due to the high specificity of the human capit...Understanding the factors behind apple farmers’willingness to pass on the management of their farms to their descendants is crucial to the continuity of apple production.Due to the high specificity of the human capital,physical assets,land assets,and geographical location in apple production,this study used a binary logistic regression and a mediating effect model to explore the impact of asset specificity on farmers’intergenerational succession willingness of apple management(FISWAM)and to examine the mediating effects of loss aversion in the impact of asset specificity on the FISWAM.The results showed that about 18.68%of the respondents expressed willingness to transfer their apple business between generations,and the FISWAM was generally weak.In addition to the negative impact of geographical location specificity(GLS),human capital specificity(HCS),physical assets specificity(PAS),and land assets specificity(LAS)can enhance the FISWAM.Loss aversion plays a partial mediating role in the impact of PAS,LAS,and GLS on the FISWAM.展开更多
A series of steady and unsteady numerical calculations of the internal flow in mixed-flow pumps with three different specific speeds were carried out based on the N-S equation coupled with the standard k-εturbulence ...A series of steady and unsteady numerical calculations of the internal flow in mixed-flow pumps with three different specific speeds were carried out based on the N-S equation coupled with the standard k-εturbulence model under different operating conditions to investigate the relationship between the impeller specific speed and the pump performance as well as pressure pulsations.Meanwhile,the pump performance and pressure pulsations inside the mixed-flow pump with three different specific speeds were also analyzed and compared with the corresponding test data.From the results,the averaged deviations between the predicted and tested head among different impellers are below 5%,and with respect to the equivalent impeller specific speeds of 280 and 260,the values are 4.30%and 3.69%,respectively.For all the impeller schemes,the best efficiency point of the mixed-flow pump is found at the flow rate of 1.2 Q_(d) and the higher head deviation occurs at lower flow rates.Especially,it can be found that the specific speed has a slight effect on the pressure fluctuation in the impellers.Eventually,it is determined that the pump performance curves calculated by numerical simu-lations have good agreement with the relevant experimental results,which verifies that the numerical methods used in the present study are accurate to a certain extent.Furthermore,the results also provide some references to the pressure pulsation analysis and the performance improvement of the mixed-flow pump design.展开更多
Akkermansia muciniphila, one of the most promising next-generation probiotics, was reported to exhibit beneficial modulatory effects on the gut barrier. However, the strain-specific and underlying regulatory mechanism...Akkermansia muciniphila, one of the most promising next-generation probiotics, was reported to exhibit beneficial modulatory effects on the gut barrier. However, the strain-specific and underlying regulatory mechanisms of this species on gut barrier function were not well studied. Therefore, this study evaluated the protective effect of A. muciniphila strains on the intestinal barrier and investigated the mode of action and material basis of this modulatory effect. We first confirmed the strain-specific effects of A. muciniphila on intestinal barrier regulation and found that this phenomenon may be explained by the different abilities of strains to affect tight junction protein expression in enterocytes. Comparative genomic analysis proved that the ability of A. muciniphila to regulate the intestinal barrier was exerted in part by the functional genes(such as COG0438, COG0463, and COG2244)related to the synthesis of cellular surface proteins. The role of these surface proteins in intestinal barrier regulation was further verified by strain-comparative experiments in animal and cell models and surface protein removal trials. This study confirmed the different effects of A. muciniphila strains on gut barrier modulation and provided molecular and genetic targets for the screening of A. muciniphila strains with superior protection against gut barrier dysfunction.展开更多
Big data on product sales are an emerging resource for supporting modular product design to meet diversified customers’requirements of product specification combinations.To better facilitate decision-making of modula...Big data on product sales are an emerging resource for supporting modular product design to meet diversified customers’requirements of product specification combinations.To better facilitate decision-making of modular product design,correlations among specifications and components originated from customers’conscious and subconscious preferences can be investigated by using big data on product sales.This study proposes a framework and the associated methods for supporting modular product design decisions based on correlation analysis of product specifications and components using big sales data.The correlations of the product specifications are determined by analyzing the collected product sales data.By building the relations between the product components and specifications,a matrix for measuring the correlation among product components is formed for component clustering.Six rules for supporting the decision making of modular product design are proposed based on the frequency analysis of the specification values per component cluster.A case study of electric vehicles illustrates the application of the proposed method.展开更多
Domain adaptation(DA) aims to find a subspace,where the discrepancies between the source and target domains are reduced. Based on this subspace, the classifier trained by the labeled source samples can classify unlabe...Domain adaptation(DA) aims to find a subspace,where the discrepancies between the source and target domains are reduced. Based on this subspace, the classifier trained by the labeled source samples can classify unlabeled target samples well.Existing approaches leverage Graph Embedding Learning to explore such a subspace. Unfortunately, due to 1) the interaction of the consistency and specificity between samples, and 2) the joint impact of the degenerated features and incorrect labels in the samples, the existing approaches might assign unsuitable similarity, which restricts their performance. In this paper, we propose an approach called adaptive graph embedding with consistency and specificity(AGE-CS) to cope with these issues. AGE-CS consists of two methods, i.e., graph embedding with consistency and specificity(GECS), and adaptive graph embedding(AGE).GECS jointly learns the similarity of samples under the geometric distance and semantic similarity metrics, while AGE adaptively adjusts the relative importance between the geometric distance and semantic similarity during the iterations. By AGE-CS,the neighborhood samples with the same label are rewarded,while the neighborhood samples with different labels are punished. As a result, compact structures are preserved, and advanced performance is achieved. Extensive experiments on five benchmark datasets demonstrate that the proposed method performs better than other Graph Embedding methods.展开更多
基金the Ministry of Science and Technology China Brain Initiative Grant,No.2022ZD0204701the National Natural Science Foundation of China,Nos.82071386&81870982(all to JG)。
文摘Dendrites play irreplaceable roles in the nerve conduction pathway and are vulnerable to various insults.Peripheral axotomy of motor neurons results in the retraction of dendritic arbors,and the dendritic arbor can be re-expanded when reinnervation is allowed.RhoA is a target that regulates the cytoskeleton and promotes neuronal survival and axon regeneration.However,the role of RhoA in dendrite degeneration and regeneration is unknown.In this study,we explored the potential role of RhoA in dendrites.A line of motor neuronal conditional knockout mice was developed by crossbreeding HB9~(Cre+)mice with RhoA~(flox/flox)mice.We established two models for assaying dendrite degeneration and regeneration,in which the brachial plexus was transection or crush injured,respectively.We found that at 28 days after brachial plexus transection,the density,complexity,and structural integrity of dendrites in the ventral horn of the spinal cord of RhoA conditional knockout mice were slightly decreased compared with that in Cre mice.Dendrites underwent degeneration at 7 and 14 days after brachial plexus transection and recovered at 28–56 days.The density,complexity,and structural integrity of dendrites in the ventral horn of the spinal cord of RhoA conditional knockout mice recovered compared with results in Cre mice.These findings suggest that RhoA knockout in motor neurons attenuates dendrite degeneration and promotes dendrite regeneration after peripheral nerve injury.
基金financially supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF-2021R1A5A1033157 for SRC program:382 Comparative medicine Disease Research Center,NRF-2021R1F1A105195313)the Research Institute of Veterinary Science,the BK21 Four for Future Veterinary Medicine Leading Education and Research Center,and a Seoul National University(SNU)grant(#550e2020005)。
文摘Background Genome editing has been considered as powerful tool in agricultural fields.However,genome editing progress in cattle has not been fast as in other mammal species,for some disadvantages including long gestational periods,single pregnancy,and high raising cost.Furthermore,technically demanding methods such as microinjection and somatic cell nuclear transfer(SCNT)are needed for gene editing in cattle.In this point of view,electroporation in embryos has been risen as an alternative.Results First,editing efficiency of our electroporation methods were tested for embryos.Presence of mutation on embryo was confirmed by T7E1 assay.With first combination,mutation rates for MSTN and PRNP were 57.6%±13.7%and 54.6%±13.5%,respectively.In case of MSTN/BLG,mutation rates were 83.9%±23.6%for MSTN,84.5%±18.0%for BLG.Afterwards,the double-KO embryos were transferred to surrogates and mutation rate was identified in resultant calves by targeted deep sequencing.Thirteen recipients were transferred for MSTN/PRNP,4 calves were delivered,and one calf underwent an induction for double KO.Ten surrogates were given double-KO embryos for MSTN/BLG,and four of the six calves that were born had mutations in both genes.Conclusions These data demonstrated that production of genome edited cattle via electroporation of RNP could be effectively applied.Finally,MSTN and PRNP from beef cattle and MSTN and BLG from dairy cattle have been born and they will be valuable resources for future precision breeding.
文摘A system for fully automatic selection of welding specifications in resistance welding equipment has been developed to address the problem of workers frequently choosing the wrong specifications during manual welding of multiple parts on a single machine in automobile factories. The system incorporates an automatic recognition system for different workpiece materials using the added machine fixture,visual detection system for nuts and bolts,and secondary graphical confirmation to ensure the correctness of specification calling. This system achieves reliable,fully automatic selection of welding specifications in resistance welding equipment and has shown significant effects in improving welding quality for massproduced workpieces,while solving the problem of specification calling errors that can occur with traditional methods involving process charts and code adjustments. This system is particularly suitable for promoting applications in manual welding of multiple parts on a single machine in automobile factories,ensuring correct specification calling and welding quality.
基金supported by the National Key R&D Program of China(2018YFC1706200)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31870282 and 31700268)+1 种基金the Chenshan Special Fund for Shanghai Landscaping Administration Bureau Program(G182401,G192419,and G212401)the Youth Innovation Promotion Association,Chinese Academy of Sciences.
文摘Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi produces abundant root-specific f lavones(RSFs),which provide various benefits to human health.We have elucidated the complete biosynthetic pathways of baicalein and wogonin.However,the transcriptional regulation of f lavone biosynthesis in S.baicalensis remains unclear.We show that the SbMYB3 transcription factor functions as a transcriptional activator involved in the biosynthesis of RSFs in S.baicalensis.Yeast one-hybrid and transcriptional activation assays showed that SbMYB3 binds to the promoter of flavone synthase II-2(SbFNSII-2)and enhances its transcription.In S.baicalensis hairy roots,RNAi of SbMYB3 reduced the accumulation of baicalin and wogonoside,and SbMYB3 knockout decreased the biosynthesis of baicalein,baicalin,wogonin,and wogonoside,whereas SbMYB3 overexpression enhanced the contents of baicalein,baicalin,wogonin,and wogonoside.Transcript profiling by qRT–PCR demonstrated that SbMYB3 activates SbFNSII-2 expression directly,thus leading to more abundant accumulation of RSFs.This study provides a potential target for metabolic engineering of RSFs.
文摘Effect of the specific gene knockout on the main metabolism in Escherichia coli was reviewed, and the regulation mechanisms were clarified based on different levels of information such as gene expressions, enzyme activities, intracellular metabolite concentrations, and metabolic fluxes together with fermentation data. The effects of the knockout of such genes as pflA, pta, ppc, pykF, adhE, and ldhA on the metabolic changes were analyzed for the case under anaerobic condition. The effects of the knockout of such genes as pgi, zwf, gnd, ppc pck, pyk, and lpdA on the metabolic changes were also analyzed for the case under aerobic condition. The metabolic regulation analysis was made focusing on the roles of transcription factors.
基金supported by the Joint Funds of The National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.U19B6003-05)the National Key Research and Development Program of China(No.2019YFA0708302)+2 种基金the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars(Grant No.51725404)the Beijing Outstanding Young Scientist Program(Grant No.BJJWZYJH01201911414038)the Strategic Cooperation Technology Projects of CNPC and CUPB(Grant No.ZLZX2020-01).
文摘The Stinger PDC cutter has high rock-breaking efficiency and excellent impact and wear resistance, which can significantly increase the rate of penetration (ROP) and extend PDC bit life for drilling hard and abrasive formation. The knowledge of force response and mechanical specific energy (MSE) for the Stinger PDC cutter is of great importance for improving the cutter's performance and optimizing the hybrid PDC bit design. In this paper, 87 single cutter tests were conducted on the granite. A new method for precisely obtaining the rock broken volume was proposed. The influences of cutting depth, cutting angle, and cutting speed on cutting force and MSE were analyzed. Besides, a phenomenological cutting force model of the Stinger PDC cutter was established by regression of experimental data. Moreover, the surface topography and fracture morphology of the cutting groove and large size cuttings were measured by a 3D profilometer and a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Finally, the rock-breaking mechanism of the Stinger PDC cutter was illustrated. The results indicated that the cutting depth has the greatest influence on the cutting force and MSE, while the cutting speed has no obvious effects, especially at low cutting speeds. As the increase of cutting depth, the cutting force increases linearly, and MSE reduces with a quadratic polynomial relationship. When the cutting angle raises from 10° to 30°, the cutting force increases linearly, and the MSE firstly decreases and then increases. The optimal cutting angle for breaking rock is approximately 20°. The Stinger PDC cutter breaks granite mainly by high concentrated point loading and tensile failure, which can observably improve the rock breaking efficiency. The key findings of this work will help to reveal the rock-breaking mechanisms and optimize the cutter arrangement for the Stinger PDC cutter.
基金supported by research grants from the National Key R&D Program(2019YFD0902003)。
文摘Specific and sustained release of nutrients from capsules to the gastrointestinal tract has attracted many attentions in the field of food and drug delivery.In this work,we reported a monoaxial dispersion electrospraying-ionotropic gelation technique to prepare multicore millimeter-sized spherical capsules for specific and sustained release of fish oil.The spherical capsules had diameters from 2.05 mm to 0.35 mm with the increased applied voltages.The capsules consisted of uniform(at applied voltages of≤10 k V)or nonuniform(at applied voltages of>10 k V)multicores.The obtained capsules had reasonable loading ratios(9.7%-6.3%)due to the multicore structure.In addition,the obtained capsules had specific and sustained release behaviors of fish oil into the small intestinal phase of in vitro gastrointestinal tract and small intestinal tract models.The simple monoaxial dispersion electrospraying-ionotropic gelatin technique does not involve complicated preparation formulations and polymer modification,which makes the technique has a potential application prospect for the fish oil preparations and the encapsulation of functional active substances in the field of food and drug industries.
文摘The cerebral cortex is one of the most complex structures of the mammalian central nervous system and accounts for the extraordinary cognitive abilities in primates and humans.Since the 19th century,neur ons have been believed to be the main players in the building of the brain,yet astrocytes also play a crucial role as fundamental building blocks of the cerebral cortex complexity.
基金supported by grants from Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China(No.LQ21H200007)National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.82202605,No.81772664 and No.82172363)+1 种基金Zhejiang Provincial People’s Hospital Excellent Scientific Research Start-up Fundation of China(No.ZRY2019C008)Hangzhou Medical College Fundamental Scientific Research Project of China(No.KYQN202116).
文摘Objective The protein interacting with C kinase 1(PICK1)plays a critical role in vesicle trafficking,and its deficiency in sperm cells results in abnormal vesicle trafficking from Golgi to acrosome,which eventually disrupts acrosome formation and leads to male infertility.Methods An azoospermia sample was filtered,and the laboratory detection and clinical phenotype indicated typical azoospermia in the patient.We sequenced all of the exons in the PICK1 gene and found that there was a novel homozygous variant in the PICK1 gene,c.364delA(p.Lys122SerfsX8),and this protein structure truncating variant seriously affected the biological function.Then we constructed a PICK1 knockout mouse model using clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat cutting technology(CRISPRc).Results The sperm from PICK1 knockout mice showed acrosome and nucleus abnormalities,as well as dysfunctional mitochondrial sheath formation.Both the total sperm and motility sperm counts were decreased in the PICK1 knockout mice compared to wild-type mice.Moreover,the mitochondrial dysfunction was verified in the mice.These defects in the male PICK1 knockout mice may have eventually led to complete infertility.Conclusion The c.364delA novel variant in the PICK1 gene associated with clinical infertility,and pathogenic variants in the PICK1 may cause azoospermia or asthenospermia by impairing mitochondrial function in both mice and humans.
文摘A<sub>2</sub>FeCoO<sub>6-δ</sub> (A = Ca or Sr) is synthesized by the solid-state synthesis method and their specific heat capacities are evaluated at 40˚C using a heat flow meter. The effect of the A-cation size on the specific heat capacity of these compounds is observed. The specific heat capacity of Sr<sub>2</sub>FeCoO<sub>6-δ</sub> is found to be the highest, and that of Ca<sub>2</sub>FeCoO<sub>6-δ</sub> is the lowest while CaSrFeCoO<sub>6-δ</sub> shows the intermediate value. The specific heat capacity decreases with the decrease of the average A-site ionic radius, demonstrating the relationship between heat capacity and A-site ionic radius. The relationship between specific heat capacity and molar mass is also confirmed as the δ value decreases or molar mass increases from Ca<sub>2</sub>FeCoO<sub>6-δ</sub> to CaSrFeCoO<sub>6-δ</sub> to Sr<sub>2</sub>FeCoO<sub>6-δ</sub>.
文摘This work aims to compute stability derivatives in the Newtonian limit in pitch when the Mach number tends to infinity.In such conditions,these stability derivatives depend on the Ogive’s shape and not the Mach number.Generally,the Mach number independence principle becomes effective from M=10 and above.The Ogive nose is obtained through a circular arc on the cone surface.Accordingly,the following arc slopes are consideredλ=5,10,15,−5,−10,and−15.It is found that the stability derivatives decrease due to the growth inλfrom 5 to 15 and vice versa.Forλ=5 and 10,the damping derivative declines with an increase inλfrom 5 to 10.Yet,for the damping derivatives,the minimum location remains at a pivot position,h=0.75 for large values ofλ.Hence,whenλ=−15,the damping derivatives are independent of the cone angles for most pivot positions except in the early twenty percent of the leading edge.
文摘Objectives: The study aimed to determine the most appropriate hearing screening test to identify disabling hearing loss for adults aged 65 years or older.Methods: This study included 577 older adults. Four hearing screening tests were considered in the study, including the Hearing Handicap Inventory for Elderly Screening(HHIE-s), three single question tests, the whisper test, and the finger rub test. The sensitivity and specificity of these tests referenced to the hearing threshold of disabling hearing loss were estimated.Results: Among all tests, only the single self-perception question(0.7064 for sensitivity;0.7225 for specificity) and whisper test(0.7833 for sensitivity;0.7708 for specificity) could obtain both sensitivity and specificity higher than 70% for adults aged ≥65 years.Conclusion: Overall, we suggest using the whisper test to identify disabling hearing loss(>40 dB HL at the better ear) for adults aged 65 years or older. However, if the conditions do not permit, the single selfperception question is also acceptable. Moreover, HHIE-s might not be a good test to detect disabling hearing loss for adults aged 80 years or older.
基金supported by“Hibah Penelitian Dasar Kompetitif Nasional”,Ministry of Education,Culture,Research and Technology,Indonesia,2021–2022(D).The use of the synchrotron XPES facility at SLRI(Public Organization),Thailand,and some experimental facilities at UNIMAP and UPM,Malaysia,would also be appreciated.
文摘An rGO−like carbon compound has been synthesized from biomass,i.e.,old coconut shell,by a carbonization process followed by heating at 400°C for 5 h.The nitrogen doping was achieved by adding the urea(CH4N2O)and stirring at 70°C for 14 h.The morphology and structure of the rGO-like carbon were investigated by electron microscopies and Raman spectroscopy.The presence of C-N functional groups was analyzed by Fourier transform infrared and synchrotron X-ray photoemission spectroscopy,while the particle and the specific capacitance were measured by particle sizer and cyclic voltammetry.The highest specific capacitance of 72.78 F/g is achieved by the sample with 20%urea,having the smallest particles size and the largest surface area.The corresponding sample has shown to be constituted by the appropriate amount of C–N pyrrolic and pyridinic defects.
基金supported by National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFD0901101)the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province Research (2019A1515012230)+1 种基金Development Program in Key Areas of Guangdong Province (2019B020210002)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2019KZ01)。
文摘Mitochondrial dysfunction is proposed to be substantially associated with ageing and ageing-related diseases like Alzheimer's disease(AD). However, it is unclear whether different mouse models with mitochondrialrelated diseases have similar changes in mitochondrial morphology of the same tissues. Moreover, whether similarities in mitochondrial morphology can be a suitable marker for screening and/or discovering mitochondrial-protective substances remains unknown. Mitochondria morphology in different tissues of a novel mitochondrial outer membrane protein Slc25a46 knockout mouse and a traditional APP_(SWE)/PS1ΔE9 transgenic mouse were examined using transmission electron microscope(TEM). Both young Slc25a46 knockout mice and aged APP_(SWE)/PS1ΔE9 mice models showed similar mitochondrial damage in cerebellum tissues. The results indicated that different mitochondrial-related diseases shared similar alteration and defects in mitochondrial morphology. Furthermore, Lycium ruthenicum Murr. extract, a bioactive food substance with cognition-improving property, could effectively improve muscle strength and increase body weight in the Slc25a46 knockout mice. These findings suggest that mitochondrial morphology defects in mice models, particularly in the mitochondrial compartment, represent a unified and effective marker for screening and validating natural product-derived functional substances with mitochondrial protective properties. It also holds potential application in mitochondrial-impaired senile neurodegenerative diseases, especially in AD.
文摘Functional brain networks (FBN) based on resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) have become an important tool for exploring underlying organization patterns in the brain, which can provide an objective basis for brain disorders such as autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). Due to its importance, researchers have proposed a number of FBN estimation methods. However, most existing methods only model a type of functional connection relationship between brain regions-of-interest (ROIs), such as partial correlation or full correlation, which is difficult to fully capture the subtle connections among ROIs since these connections are extremely complex. Motivated by the multi-view learning, in this study we propose a novel Consistent and Specific Multi-view FBNs Fusion (CSMF) approach. Concretely, we first construct multi-view FBNs (i.e., multiple types of FBNs modelling various relationships among ROIs), and then these FBNs are decomposed into a consistent representation matrix and their own specific matrices which capture their common and unique information, respectively. Lastly, to obtain a better brain representation, it is fusing the consistent and specific representation matrices in the latent representation spaces of FBNs, but not directly fusing the original FBNs. This potentially makes it more easily to find the comprehensively brain connections. The experimental results of ASD identification on the ABIDE datasets validate the effectiveness of our proposed method compared to several state-of-the-art methods. Our proposed CSMF method achieved 72.8% and 76.67% classification performance on the ABIDE dataset.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(71573211)the Humanities and Social Sciences Youth Foundation+1 种基金Ministry of Education of China(22YJC790164)the earmarked fund for China Agriculture Research System(CARS-28)。
文摘Understanding the factors behind apple farmers’willingness to pass on the management of their farms to their descendants is crucial to the continuity of apple production.Due to the high specificity of the human capital,physical assets,land assets,and geographical location in apple production,this study used a binary logistic regression and a mediating effect model to explore the impact of asset specificity on farmers’intergenerational succession willingness of apple management(FISWAM)and to examine the mediating effects of loss aversion in the impact of asset specificity on the FISWAM.The results showed that about 18.68%of the respondents expressed willingness to transfer their apple business between generations,and the FISWAM was generally weak.In addition to the negative impact of geographical location specificity(GLS),human capital specificity(HCS),physical assets specificity(PAS),and land assets specificity(LAS)can enhance the FISWAM.Loss aversion plays a partial mediating role in the impact of PAS,LAS,and GLS on the FISWAM.
基金National Natural Science Foundation of China(51976078)Senior Personnel Scientific Research Foundation of Jiangsu University:(15JDG073)Open Research Subject of Key Laboratory of Fluid and Power Machinery,Ministry of Education(szjj2016-065)。
文摘A series of steady and unsteady numerical calculations of the internal flow in mixed-flow pumps with three different specific speeds were carried out based on the N-S equation coupled with the standard k-εturbulence model under different operating conditions to investigate the relationship between the impeller specific speed and the pump performance as well as pressure pulsations.Meanwhile,the pump performance and pressure pulsations inside the mixed-flow pump with three different specific speeds were also analyzed and compared with the corresponding test data.From the results,the averaged deviations between the predicted and tested head among different impellers are below 5%,and with respect to the equivalent impeller specific speeds of 280 and 260,the values are 4.30%and 3.69%,respectively.For all the impeller schemes,the best efficiency point of the mixed-flow pump is found at the flow rate of 1.2 Q_(d) and the higher head deviation occurs at lower flow rates.Especially,it can be found that the specific speed has a slight effect on the pressure fluctuation in the impellers.Eventually,it is determined that the pump performance curves calculated by numerical simu-lations have good agreement with the relevant experimental results,which verifies that the numerical methods used in the present study are accurate to a certain extent.Furthermore,the results also provide some references to the pressure pulsation analysis and the performance improvement of the mixed-flow pump design.
基金supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20200084)The National Natural Science Foundation of China (32021005 and 31871773)Collaborative Innovation Center of Food Safety and Quality Control in Jiangsu Province。
文摘Akkermansia muciniphila, one of the most promising next-generation probiotics, was reported to exhibit beneficial modulatory effects on the gut barrier. However, the strain-specific and underlying regulatory mechanisms of this species on gut barrier function were not well studied. Therefore, this study evaluated the protective effect of A. muciniphila strains on the intestinal barrier and investigated the mode of action and material basis of this modulatory effect. We first confirmed the strain-specific effects of A. muciniphila on intestinal barrier regulation and found that this phenomenon may be explained by the different abilities of strains to affect tight junction protein expression in enterocytes. Comparative genomic analysis proved that the ability of A. muciniphila to regulate the intestinal barrier was exerted in part by the functional genes(such as COG0438, COG0463, and COG2244)related to the synthesis of cellular surface proteins. The role of these surface proteins in intestinal barrier regulation was further verified by strain-comparative experiments in animal and cell models and surface protein removal trials. This study confirmed the different effects of A. muciniphila strains on gut barrier modulation and provided molecular and genetic targets for the screening of A. muciniphila strains with superior protection against gut barrier dysfunction.
基金National Key R&D Program of China(Grant No.2018YFB1701701)Sailing Talent Program+1 种基金Guangdong Provincial Science and Technologies Program of China(Grant No.2017B090922008)Special Grand Grant from Tianjin City Government of China。
文摘Big data on product sales are an emerging resource for supporting modular product design to meet diversified customers’requirements of product specification combinations.To better facilitate decision-making of modular product design,correlations among specifications and components originated from customers’conscious and subconscious preferences can be investigated by using big data on product sales.This study proposes a framework and the associated methods for supporting modular product design decisions based on correlation analysis of product specifications and components using big sales data.The correlations of the product specifications are determined by analyzing the collected product sales data.By building the relations between the product components and specifications,a matrix for measuring the correlation among product components is formed for component clustering.Six rules for supporting the decision making of modular product design are proposed based on the frequency analysis of the specification values per component cluster.A case study of electric vehicles illustrates the application of the proposed method.
基金supported in part by the Key-Area Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province (2020B010166006)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (61972102)+2 种基金the Guangzhou Science and Technology Plan Project (023A04J1729)the Science and Technology development fund (FDCT)Macao SAR (015/2020/AMJ)。
文摘Domain adaptation(DA) aims to find a subspace,where the discrepancies between the source and target domains are reduced. Based on this subspace, the classifier trained by the labeled source samples can classify unlabeled target samples well.Existing approaches leverage Graph Embedding Learning to explore such a subspace. Unfortunately, due to 1) the interaction of the consistency and specificity between samples, and 2) the joint impact of the degenerated features and incorrect labels in the samples, the existing approaches might assign unsuitable similarity, which restricts their performance. In this paper, we propose an approach called adaptive graph embedding with consistency and specificity(AGE-CS) to cope with these issues. AGE-CS consists of two methods, i.e., graph embedding with consistency and specificity(GECS), and adaptive graph embedding(AGE).GECS jointly learns the similarity of samples under the geometric distance and semantic similarity metrics, while AGE adaptively adjusts the relative importance between the geometric distance and semantic similarity during the iterations. By AGE-CS,the neighborhood samples with the same label are rewarded,while the neighborhood samples with different labels are punished. As a result, compact structures are preserved, and advanced performance is achieved. Extensive experiments on five benchmark datasets demonstrate that the proposed method performs better than other Graph Embedding methods.
