Search

Dietary zinc oxide nanoparticle (ZnO NP) possessing multiple biological activities might be a potential substitute for the combination of ZnSO4 and antibiotic growth promoter in broiler diets. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the efficacy of dietary ZnO NP as a substitute to the combination of ZnSO4 and xanthomycin for growth, antioxidant capacity, immunity, intestinal barrier and liver function in broilers. Arbor Acres chicks (n = 320) were assigned to 5 treatments with 8 replicates. Birds received a basal diet supplemented with 80 mg/kg ZnSO4 plus 5 mg/kg xanthomycin (ZnSO4 + Xanthomycin) or 0 (negative control, NC), 40, 80, and 160 mg/kg ZnO NP for 42 days. The average daily gain, average daily feed intake and feed-to-gain ratio showed dose-dependent increases with the increasing level of dietary ZnO NP during the 21–42 day and 1–42 day stages. The final body weight (42 d) and serum concentrations of insulin-like growth factor 1 and growth hormone increased linearly with the increasing level of dietary ZnO NP. In addition, 80 mg/kg ZnO NP increased the serum concentrations of IgA, IgG, IgM, andinterleukin-10 and peroxidase activity, the jejunal mucosal villus height, villus width and goblet cell numbers. Dietary 80 or 160 mg/kg ZnO NP significantly altered mRNA abundances of genes related to antioxidant status, intestinal barrier and immunity in the jejunal mucosa. These results indicated that dietary supplementation with 40–160 mg/kg ZnO NP caused no obvious negative effects on liver function, but effectively improved growth performance, intestinal barrier function, immunity and antioxidant capacity. Dietary 40–160 mg/kg zinc oxide nanoparticle (ZnO NP) improved growth performance and enhanced immunity of broilers without obvious negative effects on liver function. Dietary 40–160 mg/kg ZnO NP improved intestinal barrier and intestinal morphology, and enhanced antioxidant capacity via Nrf2/HO-1 pathway. Doses of 40–80 mg/kg ZnO NP were suggested to alternate the combination of 80 mg/kg ZnSO4 and 5 mg/kg xanthomycin in diets of broilers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research evaluated the efficacy of oral nutritional agents including CoQ10, vitamin E, inositols and vitamin D on androgen-associated hormones, glycolipid metabolism and body weight in women with PCOS. A multi-database search was performed from inception to December 2020. Using multi-variate random effects method, a NMA was conducted by synthesizing data pooled from RCTs. It was registered with PROSPERO (registration number CRD42021230292). Twenty-three RCTs and 1291 participants were included. Based on NMA, CoQ10, vitamin E, CoQ10 combined with vitamin E, and inositols were successful in decreasing TT as compared with PA; vitamin E was superior to other agents. Vitamin E and inositols were successful in increasing SHBG levels; inositols were stronger than vitamin E. CoQ10 alone or combined with vitamin E, and inositols were successful in decreasing HOMA-IR. Inositols had the best results among included nutraceuticals to ameliorate HOMA-IR, FBG, FINS, TG, TC, and LDL-C and correlated to improvements in BMI. There was no significant difference between the CoQ10 or vitamin E group and the PA group in ameliorating lipid metabolism, and vitamin D had no positive effects in ameliorating hyperandrogenism, BMI, glycolipid metabolism profiles compared with PA. For women with PCOS, inositols supplementation have some certain advantages in increasing SHBG and improving glycolipid metabolism when compared with nutraceuticals like CoQ10, vitamin E, vitamin D. Besides, vitamin E may be a better option in reducing TT and increasing SHBG. CoQ10 alone or combined with vitamin E can be helpful in decreasing HOMA-IR as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical data are limited to decipher where people live and work in large cities; however, neighborhood information, such as street view image, is rich and abundant. We construct a ResNet-50-based social detection model to explore the potential relationship between street view images and job-housing attributes. The method extracts street view images of a neighborhood in all eight directions to predict land parcels' job-housing attributes and uses an entropy index to measure the degree of job-housing mixture in Shenzhen as an example. The social-detection model performs well with a low RMSE (0.1094) in identifying job-housing patterns. The eight-direction neighborhood method shows the best support for sufficient neighborhood information from street view images (RMSE = 0.1135) compared with other neighborhood methods. This study demonstrates the feasibility of using street-view images and deep learning to characterize job-housing attributes consistent with findings from urban studies with socioeconomic data; for example, the research finding concurs that Shenzhen has many high job-housing mixtures with very few areas designated for jobs or residences. The proposed method, when applied regularly, can help monitor spatial dynamics of urban job-housing patterns to inform city planning and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractTwo new zinc(II) complexes, [Zn2(PBM)2(terephthalate)(formate)2] (1) and {[Zn(PBM)(fumarate)]∙H2O}n (2), were synthesized using 1,3-bis(1H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)propane (PBM) and two different dicarboxylic acids under solvothermal conditions. Complexes 1 and 2 have been characterized by infrared spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. The structural analysis showed that 1 was a binuclear structure and then formed a 3D supramolecular network structure through hydrogen bond and π-π conjugation, while 2 was a one-dimensional coordination polymer. In 1 and 2, the zinc ions were four-coordinate with an N2O2 donor set and a slightly distorted tetrahedral geometry. The solid-state fluorescence properties indicate that the fluorescence peaks belong to the π*-π transition of the ligand PBM, which has a significant red shift and enhancement with the order being 1 > 2 > PBM. The stronger fluorescence of the complexes than the ligand is due to the immobilization of the ligand through coordination, which reduces the energy loss of thermal vibration. The π∙∙∙π conjugation in 1 results in a stronger fluorescence of 1 than 2. Therefore, coordination and π∙∙∙π conjugation will affect the fluorescence of complexes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A numerical method for describing droplet-driven particle motion at low Weber numbers in fluids is proposed. A coupling strategy combining the Shan–Chen (SC) model and the smoothed profile method (SPM) is employed. The proposed scheme correctly resolves the momentum transfer between solid particles and fluid phases, while effectively controlling the wetting condition. An interaction zone where three phases coexist is introduced to solve the contradiction between the SC model and SPM (i.e. whether fluid particles are allowed at the solid nodes). In the interaction zone, partial solid particles are entrapped in the fluids owing to the coexistence of solid and fluid particles, causing solid particles to exchange momentum with fluid particles. Furthermore, the interaction forces between fluid and solid particles near the solid surface are considered at nodes near pure solid particles within this region. Based on the proposed scheme, the interactions between freely moving particles and freely moving droplets were investigated, along with the effects of wettability (Gads) and volume forces (Fp*) on particle–droplet interactions. When a liquid droplet comes into contact with a solid particle, the adhesion force between the droplet and the solid surface promotes the movement of solid particles toward the droplet. When a double emulsion comes into contact with solid particles, the adhesion force between the emulsion film and solid surface causes the double emulsion to break at the connecting point, and the volume force of the emulsion film Fd* causes the solid particles to penetrate the emulsion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) especially those undergoing dialysis have a high prevalence of hyperkalemia, which must be detected and treated immediately. But the initial symptoms of hyperkalemia are insidious, and traditional laboratory serum potassium concentration testing takes time. Therefore, rapid and real-time measurement of serum potassium is urgently needed. In this study, different machine learning methods were used to make rapid predictions of different degrees of hyperkalemia by analyzing the ECG. A total of 1024 datasets of ECG and serum potassium concentrations were analyzed from December 2020 to December 2021. The data were scaled into training and test sets. Different machine learning models (LR, SVM, CNN, XGB, Adaboost) were built for dichotomous prediction of hyperkalemia by analyzing 48 features of chest leads V2-V5. The performance of the models was also evaluated and compared using sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, accuracy, F1 score and AUC. We constructed different machine models to predict hyperkalemia using LR and four other common machine-learning methods. The AUCs of the different models ranged from 0.740 (0.661, 0.810) to 0.931 (0.912,0.953) when different serum potassium concentrations were used as the diagnostic threshold for hyperkalemia, respectively. As the diagnostic threshold of hyperkalemia was raised, the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and precision of the model decreased to various degrees. And AUC also performed less well than when predicting mild hyperkalemia. Noninvasive and rapid prediction of hyperkalemia can be achieved by analyzing specific waveforms on the ECG by machine learning methods. But overall, XGB had a higher AUC in mild hyperkalemia, but SVM performed better in predicting more severe hyperkalemia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the effects of different doses of rutin on the growth performance, immunity, intestinal barrier, and antioxidant capacity of broilers. A total of two hundred and fifty-six 1-day-old male broilers were divided into 4 groups and fed basal diets supplemented with 0 (control group), 250, 500 and 1,000 mg rutin/kg, respectively, for 42 days. In the starter period (days 1–21) and whole trial period (days 1–42), broilers fed diets containing 500 mg rutin/kg had significantly (p < 0.05) higher average daily feed intake, body weight and average daily gain and better feed conversion ratio. Dietary 500 mg rutin/kg increased the villus height, villus height to crypt depth ratio and villus area, while reducing the B cell lymphoma 2 associated X mRNA expression (p < 0.05). Dietary 500 mg rutin/kg increased the level of IgA in serum and decreased serum tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) content, and the nuclear factor kappa-B, interleukin-2 and TNF-α mRNA expression in jejunal mucosa (p < 0.05). Simultaneously, 500 and 1,000 mg rutin/kg significantly decreased serum diamine oxidase activity, D-lactic acid and lipopolysaccharide concentration, increased activities of total superoxide dismutase and total antioxidant capacity in jejunal mucosa (p < 0.05), and upregulated mRNA expressions of genes related to intestinal barrier and antioxidant capacity in jejunal mucosa (p < 0.05). These findings indicate that dietary rutin, especially at 500 mg/kg, improves broilers' growth performance, intestinal barrier function, immunity, and antioxidant capability, which may be related to the nuclear factor erythroid-2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) pathway. Dietary rutin improved growth performance, jejunal morphology, and intestinal barrier function. Dietary rutin enhanced the immunity via inhibiting NF-κB, and improved antioxidant capacity via activating Nrf2/HO-1 pathway in broilers. The optimal dose of rutin was 500 mg/kg in broiler diet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pangenomes are replacing single reference genomes to capture all variants within a species or clade, but their analysis predominantly leverages graph-based methods that require multiple high-quality genomes and computationally intensive multiple-genome alignments. K-mer decomposition is an alternative to graph-based pangenomes. However, how to directly use k-mers for the population genetic analyses is unknown. Here, we developed a novel strategy that uses the variants of k-mer count in the genome for population analyses. To test the effectivity of this method, we compared it directly to the SNP-based method on the analysis of population structure and genetic diversity of 267 Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains within two simulated datasets and a real sequence dataset. The population structure identified with k-mers recapitulates that obtained using SNPs, indicating the effectiveness of k-mer-based approach, and higher genetic diversity within real dataset supported k-mers contained more genetic variants. Based on k-mer frequency, we found not only SNP but also some insertion/deletion and horizontal gene transfer (HGT) fragments related to the adaptive evolution of S. cerevisiae. Our study creates a framework for the alignment- and reference-free (ARF) method in population genetic analyses, which will be more pronounced in the species with no complete genome or highly diverged species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oil-immersed power transformers generate characteristic gases after failure,Therefore, it is necessary to analyse and monitor the soluble gases in transformer oil samples. In this study, the DFT calculation method was used to study the adsorption properties of H2, CO, C2H2, and C2H4 gases in oil on both intrinsic MoTe2 and Rh-doped MoTe2 films. In order to analyse the adsorption characteristics, this paper first obtains the most stable Rh-doped MoTe2 monolayer model through the modelling and computational analysis of different doping sites, then, the adsorption of these gases on the material surface is studied by analysing adsorption energy, charge transfer, total state density, parting density, energy band structure, differential charge density map, molecular front orbital and desorption time, and finally concludes that Rh-MoTe2 monolayer film is the ideal material for hydrogen sensing elements, due to the extremely long desorption time of CO gas, indicating that CO gas is hard to desorption on the surface of adsorbent,which shows that this process has played a certain role in promoting CO removal. Highlights Study focused on gas adsorption using DFT: Rh-MoTe2 ideal for hydrogen sensing and effective for CO removal, intrinsic MoTe2 ineffective and required metal doping. Rh doping enhanced conductivity and gas adsorption capacity in MoTe2. Rh-MoTe2 was suitable for detecting H2, C2H2, and C2H4 gases. Desorption times vary with temperature, with CO removal particularly effective at higher temperatures. Findings suggest potential applications for Rh-MoTe2 in gas sensing and removal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Based on the Activity Theory, this study investigated the effect of an educational tablet app and conventional teaching method on Chinese preschoolers’ symbolic number abilities. With the significant difference of developmental characteristics, this study divided the 4-year-olds (N = 64) into experimental group and control group. The experimental group was trained for three months using an educational tablet app, while the control group followed regular teaching activities. The results showed that in most aspects of Chinese preschoolers’ symbolic number abilities training, the tablet teaching method was generally superior to conventional teaching method. The one-to-one teaching mode of tablets was more conducive to the integration of the six elements in the Activity Theory, thus effectively promoting the development of preschoolers’ symbolic number abilities. This result further confirmed that educational digital game apps can promote the development of the preschoolers’ symbolic number abilities. Therefore, in future educational and teaching practice, we should attach importance to the critical period of intervention and adapt a more effective teaching approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]