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This study was to elucidate the effects of dietary pantothenic acid (PA) on growth, lipid metabolism, and antioxidant status in juvenile blunt snout bream Megalobrama amblycephala. Fish were fed with four experimental diets containing two lipid levels (5% and 11%) and two PA supplementation levels (24 mg kg-1 and 240 mg kg-1) for eight weeks. The results showed that diets containing 11% lipid significantly increased condition factor, mesenteric fat index, triacylglycerol (TG), and cholesterol (TCH) in the liver as well as total lipid content and TCH in the muscle ( P < 0.05 ), but significantly decreased specific growth rate and whole-body protein ( P < 0.05 ). As the dietary lipid level increased, hepatic antioxidant enzyme activities were significantly increased ( P < 0.05 ) as well as malondialdehyde content ( P < 0.05 ). Besides, cytosolic cytochrome c concentration was also significantly ( P < 0.05 ) increased, while mitochondrial protein, cytochrome c, and Na+-K+-ATPase activities were significantly decreased ( P < 0.05 ). There were no significant changes on growth performance and body composition of PA supplementation. Then, significantly negative ( P < 0.05 ) interactions were observed between dietary lipid and PA supplementation on EPA, DHA, and EPA + DHA content of the muscle. Saturated fatty acid (SFA) and polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) contents in the liver were significantly increased ( P < 0.05 ) with dietary lipid level increased, while liver monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) was significantly decreased ( P < 0.05 ). Muscle SFA, DHA, and EPA + DHA contents were significantly decreased ( P < 0.05 ) when dietary fat level increased. Meanwhile, EPA, DHA, and EPA + DHA content was significantly decreased ( P < 0.05 ) with dietary high PA supplementation. On the whole, a high PA supplementation level of 240 mg kg-1 could alleviate lipid content accumulated and oxidative damage induced by a high-fat diet.

Objective. To investigate the clinical efficacy and safety of bevacizumab, apatinib, and recombinant human endothelial inhibitor in the treatment of advanced gastric cancer. Methods. The medical data of 204 patients with a medium to advanced gastric cancer assessed for eligibility treated in our hospital from February 2019 to April 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. The eligible patients were assigned at a ratio of 1 : 1:1 : 1 to either the control group (chemotherapy), study group I (bevacizumab combined with chemotherapy), study group II (apatinib combined with chemotherapy), or study group III (recombinant human endothelial inhibitor combined with chemotherapy) according to different treatment methods. The treatment efficacy, drug toxicity, quality of life, and serum tumor marker levels before and after treatment were compared among the four groups. Results. Regarding the treatment effects, the effective rate of study group II (68.63%) was significantly higher than that of the control group (33.33%), study group I (58.82%), and study group III (49.02%) ( P < 0.05 ). The four groups showed similar safety and tolerability profiles ( P > 0.05 ). The treatment in study group II led to a significantly higher physiological function score vs. the other three groups, but the scores of other items were not significantly different. Significant reduction was observed in the serum tumor markers after treatment in the four groups ( P < 0.05 ), but treatment in study group II led to a significantly greater reduction than the other three groups ( P < 0.05 ). Conclusion. The addition of apatinib, bevacizumab, and recombinant human endothelial inhibitor injection to chemotherapy for the treatment of medium to advanced gastric cancer can significantly improve the clinical treatment efficacy, among which the use of apatinib combined with chemotherapy achieves the best results, which is worthy of clinical promotion.

Objective The ongoing pandemic of COVID‐19 caused by the novel coronavirus Syndrome‐Coronavirus‐2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) is an emerging, rapidly evolving situation. Excluded typical manifestation of pneumonia and acute respiratory symptoms, COVID‐19 patients also have abnormal D‐dimer concentration in the serum, but the results are controversial. Method A meta‐analysis first aims to explored the connection between D‐dimer concentration and COVID‐19 patients. Results Our results found a significant relationship between D‐dimer and COVID‐19, with a pooled OR of 1.90 (95% CI: 1.32‐2.48; P

Five 2-week feeding trials were conducted to investigate five stimulants on P. sinensis. Two isonitrogenous and isoenergetic diets were formulated, one contained 600 g kg–1 fishmeal (FM diet) and the other contained 420 g kg–1 fishmeal and 225 g kg–1 animal protein blend (APB diet), and each tested one stimulant with four levels. The feeding stimulant candidates were betaine, 2-carboxy-ethyl dimethyl sulphonium bromide (DMPT), inosine-5′-monophosphate (IMP), taurine and squid extract. In the experiment on each stimulant, turtles (10.85 ± 0.10 g) were equally divided into FM and APB groups and fed with an equal mixture of corresponding diets containing four levels of stimulants, respectively. Each diet contained a unique rare earth oxide as inert marker. Turtles were fed twice daily (8:00 and 17:00), and faeces were collected. Preference for each diet was estimated based on the relative concentration of each marker in the faeces. In the FM group, only IMP showed the enhanced attraction. But in APB groups, all the stimulants, except IMP, showed higher preference than basal diets for at least one inclusion level, and the optimum level was 10 g kg–1 for betaine, 0.1 g kg–1 for DMPT, 0.1 g kg–1 for IMP, 5 g kg–1 for taurine and 10 g kg–1 for squid extract, and the squid extract had the strongest stimulating effect among the stimulants.

The Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei), as an economically important species, has been reared in low-salinity water during the last decade. To investigate how juvenile L. vannamei shrimp fed with fructose-enriched Artemia respond to acute low-salinity stress, the shrimp were randomly divided into four treatment groups, three groups were fed with Artemia enriched with either 100, 200 and 300 mg L−1 of fructose and a control group fed with Artemia with no enrichment for 10 days. The results showed that the 300 mg L−1 fructose group demonstrated the maximum survival rate and glycogen content. Additionally, the 300 mg L−1 fructose group showed significantly higher Na+/K+-ATPase activity, total antioxidant capacity, and expression levels of Na+/K+-ATPase α-subunit, V-H ATPase α-subunit, hexokinase, phosphofructokinase, antioxidants (SOD, CAT, GPX) and Hsp70 mRNA when compared with the control group. Furthermore, after exposure to low salinity, the mRNA levels of phosphofructokinase, V-H ATPase α-subunit, GPX, p38, JNK and Rac1 stayed constant in shrimp fed with fructose-enriched Artemia but changed significantly in the control group. Thus, a diet of fructose-enriched Artemia can improve the osmoregulation and survival of juvenile L. vannamei shrimp exposed to low salinities.

A new algorithm is proposed for the optimization of grasping torques. Previous work revealed that the optimization of the contact force can be simplified as a linear programming problem by replacing the nonlinear friction cone with a polyhedral cone. On this basis, further simplification and linearization is completed for various grasp contact constraints of the grasping system, and an optimization model is established with the minimum sum-of-squares of joint torques as an objective function. A timely and effective algorithm based on key constraint sets is then established. This methodology optimizes the joint torque directly and facilitates the control of the dexterous hand. A numerical example and experimental results show that the optimization algorithm has high precision and good real-time performance. The joint torque output obtained using the proposed algorithm was 27.6% lower than the result of the previous algorithm. The optimization algorithm can thus be used for optimal grasping control of a dexterous hand.

Lianhua-Qingwen capsule (LQC) is a commonly used Chinese medical preparation to treat viral influenza and especially played a very important role in the fight against severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002-2003 in China. In this paper, a rapid ultraperformance liquid chromatography coupled with diode-array detector and quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-DAD-QTOF-MS) method was established for qualitative and quantitative analysis of the major constituents of LQC. A total of 61 compounds including flavonoids, phenylpropanoids, anthraquinones, triterpenoids, iridoids, and other types of compounds were unambiguously or tentatively identified by comparing the retention times and accurate mass measurement with reference compounds or literature data. Among them, twelve representative compounds were further quantified as chemical markers in quantitative analysis, including salidroside, chlorogenic acid, forsythoside E, cryptochlorogenic acid, amygdalin, sweroside, hyperin, rutin, forsythoside A, phillyrin, rhein, and glycyrrhizic acid. The UPLC-DAD method was evaluated with linearity, limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantification (LOQ), precision, stability, repeatability, and recovery tests. The results showed that the developed quantitative method was linear, sensitive, and precise for the quality control of LQC.

An 8-week feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the potential of partial replacement of fish meal with rendered animal protein blend (APB) [meat and bone meal (MBM): expanding blood meal (EBM) = 4 : 1] in the diet of juvenile Chinese soft-shelled turtle Pelodiscus sinensis. Seven isonitrogenous and isoenergetic practical diets replacing 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50% and 60% fish meal protein by APB were formulated. Weight gain, feed efficiency, protein efficiency and the apparent digestibility coefficients (ADCs) of dry matter and gross energy in the experimental diets all exhibited no significant difference (P > 0.05) when dietary fish meal was replaced for 0–40%, but decreased significantly (P 0.05) among all the treatments. Nitrogen retention and the ADCs of protein and most amino acids all decreased significantly (P

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of fructooligosaccharide (FOS) and Bacillus licheniformis (B. licheniformis) on growth performance, body composition, intestinal enzymes activities and gut histology of Megalobrama terminalis. Nine experimental diets were formulated to contain three FOS levels (0, 3 and 6 g kg−1) and three B. licheniformis levels (0, 1 and 5 × 107 CFU g−1) following a 3 × 3 factorial design. Accordingly, diets were named as 0/0, 0/3, 0/6, 1/0, 1/3, 1/6, 5/0, 5/3 and 5/6 (B. licheniformis/FOS). At the end of the 8-week feeding trial, weight gain (WG) and specific growth rate (SGR) of fish fed 6 g kg−1 FOS were both significantly (P 0.05) was observed in terms of dietary FOS levels. In addition, a significant (P

The effects of supplemental l-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (APP) in enriched live food (Artemia) on reactive oxygen intermediate (ROI) and free radical scavenging enzyme (superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase and glutathione transferase) activities in the muscle of Penaeus vannamei of two sizes exposed to ambient ammonia-N, were investigated. Significantly, decreased ROI value was found in prawns fed on enriched Artemia compared with those fed on starved Artemia (P