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Background Orosomucoid (ORM) is a positive acute phase protein verified to be upregulated in various forms of exercise-induced fatigued (EIF) rodents. However, its association with EIF among human beings remained unknown. This study aimed to explore the association between serum ORM and EIF triggered by military basic combat training (BCT). Methods The degree of EIF were measured by Borg’s Rating of Perceived Exertion Scale (Borg-RPE-Scale®) as RPE score after BCT. Fifty-three male recruits were classified into three groups according to the RPE score: (1) group 1 (slight fatigue group): RPE score after BCT 14. The levels of blood ORM, lactate (LAC), cortisol and C-reactive protein (CRP) were determined before and after BCT. The diagnostic value of ORM was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and logistic regression. Results After BCT, the level of LAC, CRP, and cortisol increased among all groups, but the changes had no significant between-group difference (all p > 0.05). The level of ORM had a specific significant increase in group 3 (p = 0.039), and the changes of ORM (ΔORM) had significant difference among groups (p = 0.033). ROC curve analysis showed that the estimated area under ROC curve for ΔORM was 0.724 (p = 0.009) with the recommended optimal cut-off value as 0.2565 mg/mL. Logistic analysis showed that recruits with ΔORM ≥ 0.2565 mg/mL had higher odds for suffering from severe EIF, 5.625 times (95% CI 1.542–20.523, p = 0.009) as large as those with ΔORM Conclusion ORM might be a promising biomarker of severe EIF triggered by BCT among male recruits. Its potential optimal cut-off value regarding ΔORM was recommended to be 0.2565 mg/mL.

To enhance specific or total sophorolipids (SLs) production by Starmerella bombicola for specific application, mutant library consisting of 106 mutants from 7 batches was constructed via atmospheric and room-temperature plasma (ARTP). When compared to the wild strain, 11, 36 and 12 mutants performed increases over 30% in lactonic, acidic or total SLs production. Genetic stability investigation showed that 8, 7, and 4 mutants could maintain the improved SLs production capacity. Mutants of A6-9 and A2-8 were selected out for enhanced specific SLs and total SLs production in fed-batch cultivation in flask. Without optimization, A6-9 obtained the highest reported lactonic SLs production of 51.95 g/l and A2-8 performed comparable acidic and total SLs production of 68.75 g/l and 100.33 g/l with all the reported stains. The structural composition of the obtained SLs was analyzed by HPLC and LC/MS, and the results confirmed the enhancement of SLs and certain SL components. These mutants would be important in industrial applications because the production and purification costs of SLs could be greatly reduced. Besides, the acquisition of these mutants also provided materials for the investigation of regulation mechanism of SLs biosynthesis for further genetic engineering of S. bombicola. Furthermore, critical micelle concentration (CMC), minimum surface tension (STmin) and hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB) of the SLs obtained from the wild and mutant strains were also examined and compared. These results demonstrated the feasibility of obtaining SLs with different properties from different strains and the high efficiency of mutation breeding of S. bombicola by ARTP.

Background Diabetic nephropathy serves as one of the most regular microvascular complications of diabetes mellitus and is the main factor that causes end-stage renal disease and incident mortality. As the beneficial effect and minute adverse influence of Celastrol on the renal system requires further elucidation, the renoprotective function of Celastrol in early diabetic nephropathy was investigated. Methods In high-fat and high-glucose diet/streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats which is the early diabetic nephropathy model, ALT, AST, 24 h urinary protein, blood urea nitrogen, and serum creatinine content were observed. Periodic acid-Schiff staining, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, immunohistochemical analysis, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, and western blot analysis were used to explore the renoprotective effect of Celastrol to diabetic nephropathy rats and the underlying mechanism. Results High dose of Celastrol (1.5 mg/kg/d) not only improved the kidney function of diabetic nephropathy (DN) rats, and decreased the blood glucose and 24 h urinary albumin, but also increased the expression of LC3II and nephrin, and downregulated the expression of PI3K, p-AKT, and the mRNA level of NF-κB and mTOR. Conclusion Celastrol functions as a potential therapeutic substance, acting via the PI3K/AKT pathway to attenuate renal injury, inhibit glomerular basement membrane thickening, and achieve podocyte homeostasis in diabetic nephropathy.

Environment-induced decoherence would shorten the transmission distance or storage time of entangled states. Enhancing the intrinsic robustness and prolonging the disentangling time of entangled states are thus of importance. We here study the problem of optimal qubit-basis under which a two-qubit state has maximal residual entanglement or longest entanglement lifetime in general Pauli channels with the probabilities of three types of errors being not all the same. It is shown that the optimal qubit-bases are not the same in different cases. The advantages of the entangled states with optimal qubit-bases are obvious, e.g., sudden death of entanglement could be avoided. These results are expected to serve entanglement-based quantum protocols of which the real-world success or high-quality implementation relies on the longevity of entanglement in two-particle or multi-particle quantum states.

Effects of various concentrations of Cu(2+) and Zn(2+) (0.0, 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, or 1.0 mg/L) on the growth, malondialdehyde (MDA), the intracellular calcium, and physiological characteristics of green algae, Cladophora, were investigated. Low Zn(2+) concentrations accelerated the growth of Cladophora, whereas Zn(2+) concentration increases to 0.25 mg/L inhibited its growth. Cu(2+) greatly influences Cladophora growth. The photosynthesis of Cladophora decreased under Zn(2+) and Cu(2+) stress. Cu(2+) and Zn(2+) treatment affected the content of total soluble sugar in Cladophora and has small increases in its protein content. Zn(2+) induced the intracellular calcium release, and copper induced the intracellular calcium increases in Cladophora. Exposure to Cu(2+) and Zn(2+) induces MDA in Cladophora. The stress concent of Cu(2+) was strictly correlated with the total soluble sugar content, Chla+Chlb, and MDA in Cladophora, and the stress concent of Zn(2+) was strictly correlated with the relative growth rate (RGR) and MDA of Cladophora.

Members of the ISWI family of chromatin remodelers mobilize nucleosomes to control DNA accessibility and, in some cases, are required for recovery from DNA damage. However, it remains poorly understood how the non-catalytic ISWI subunits BAZ1A and BAZ1B might contact chromatin to direct the ATPase SMARCA5. Here, we find that the plant homeodomain of BAZ1A, but not that of BAZ1B, has the unusual function of binding DNA. Furthermore, the BAZ1A bromodomain has a non-canonical gatekeeper residue and binds relatively weakly to acetylated histone peptides. Using CRISPR-Cas9-mediated genome editing we find that BAZ1A and BAZ1B each recruit SMARCA5 to sites of damaged chromatin and promote survival. Genetic engineering of structure-designed bromodomain and plant homeodomain mutants reveals that reader modules of BAZ1A and BAZ1B, even when non-standard, are critical for DNA damage recovery in part by regulating ISWI factors loading at DNA lesions and supporting transcriptional programs required for survival., ISWI chromatin remodelers regulate DNA accessibility and have been implicated in DNA damage repair. Here, the authors uncover functions, in response to DNA damage, for the bromodomain of the ISWI subunit BAZ1B and for the non-canonical PHD and bromodomain modules of the paralog BAZ1A.

Graphene, as a novel carbon nanomaterial, exhibits superior performance in electrochemical sensors. Here, graphene was applied to the microelectrode system by a simple method. A novel graphene coating carbon fiber microelectrode (G-CFM) was fabricated by electrodepositing graphene on the surface of carbon fiber. The fabrication method is fast and simple. Scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy demonstrated that carbon fiber was successfully modified by graphene. The electrochemical behavior of G-CFM was characterized by potassium ferricyanide and dopamine (DA). The electrode exhibited much larger current response and less overpotential response, compared to CFM. The microsensor for DA showed good sensitivity and selectivity, and the electrode had good stability. It is believable that the unique characteristic of graphene holds promise for the advanced microelectrode system for highly sensitive detection of various targets.

The hydration of cyclohexene was determined in a stirred tank of 100 mL in a batch mode in the presence of modified or unmodified resin as catalyst. The ion-exchange sulfonate resin was modified with alkyl secondary amine. At an optimum amination rate of 15%, the conversion of cyclohexene reached to 22% and the selectivity of cyclohexanol was 95.6%. In a temperature range of 90–150 °C, the activity and selectivity of the modified resin catalyst were much higher than those of the unmodified resin catalyst, which was attributed to the inclusion formed between cyclohexene and alkyl chain and also the quasi-lipophilic phase formed around the outer surface of resin beads. The formed quasi-lipophilic phase formed enhanced the conversion of cyclohexene and depressed the formation of by-products.

Co nanotubes were successfully prepared in the pores of anodic aluminium oxide templates using a DC electrodeposition method. The dependence of the product morphology on the applied potential was studied over the range −1.0 to −3.0 V. The results showed that the wall thickness of the nanotubes became thinner as the applied potential was reduced, and that there existed a critical potential (vc) related to the electrodeposition parameters, below or above which the electrodeposition process is dominated by kinetics and thermodynamics, respectively. The formation of nanotubes is the result of kinetics dominating the electrodeposition process. Magnetic measurements showed that the hysteresis loops of the nanotubes were discontinuous. Theoretical analysis suggested the existence of some peculiar magnetization configuration such as a vertical Bloch line, which was responsible for the discontinuity of the hysteresis loops.

Growth of alkaliphilic Bacillus halodurans C-125 both on agar plates and in liquid culture was inhibited by methyl-beta-cyclodextrin (CD). Furthermore, resting cells of the strain were lysed by contact with methyl-beta-CD higher than 10 mM. alpha-CD also showed lysis activity against Bacillus and related strains. The activity was not observed with Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria except for Bacillus strains. Fluorescence staining and scanning electron microscopy of cells revealed that methyl-beta-CD disrupted cell membranes, and consequently, the cells were lysed. This is a novel physiological property of CDs.

Seismic monitoring is one of the most important approaches for ground-based nuclear explosion monitoring. In order to improve the monitoring capability for low magnitude seismic events, a seismic information system was developed by using the technologies of geographic information system and database. This paper describes the designing and critical technologies of the Seismic Information System in CTBT Verification developed based on ArcGIS and ORACLE platforms. It is a combination of the database storage framework, application programming interface and graphic application software for users to meet their monitoring objectives. Combining the ArcSDE Geodatabase, RDBMS ORACLE and ArcObjects developing technique on COM, not only the multi-sources data has been seamlessly integrated, but also the most functions of ORACLE, for example, consistency, concurrent access, security mechanism, etc, have been reserved. For easy access to the information system we develop two different mechanisms. The first is a menu-driven internal system that is run on NT platforms. The second access mechanism is based on LAN and easily accessible by any web browsers.

With the rapid development of agricultural informalization in the world, the demand of agricultural information has been a focus in the international agriculture and information fields. Based on the investigation, this paper presented the four characteristics of the demand of agricultural information in China, including regionality, seasonality, great potential demand and variation in kind and level. The factors influencing the demand of agricultural information were analyzed by the Optimized Less Square (OLS) method. The result shows that, of all factors influcing agricultural information demand, the most important one is economy, the second is facility of information pass, and knowledge and education of user, credit of agricultural information service system and production situation follow. Taking Jilin Province as an example, this article also elaborated the agricultural information demand status, and deduced the regression model of agricultural information demand and verified it by the survey in rural Jilin.

Flotillins are markers of lipid microdomains, and have emerged as a key concept in cellular biology. However, it remains unclear whether flotillin proteins exist in prokaryotic cells. The amino acid sequence of the BH3500 protein from Bacillus halodurans was 30% identical to that of flotillin-1. Motif analysis revealed that several specific residues (SPFH and flotillin domains, an AEA-repeat structure) and five potential phosphorylation sites are conserved in the BH3500 protein. In addition, the BH3500 protein was found to possess two trans- membrane-spanning domains at the N-terminus, which is consistent with the common properties of flotillin-1. The BH3500 protein was detected in the Triton-insoluble, buoyant membrane fraction of B. halodurans by mass spectrometry and Western blotting. Interestingly, BH3500 was expressed strongly in alkaline conditions at both transcriptional and translational levels, which implies that it is one of the alkali-inducible proteins.

We present the results of 3-D MHD simulations of collisions between an equilibrium current and a plasmoid. Three typical equilibrium configurations were analyzed. Our simulation results show that when a plasmoid approaches a current loop, an active region is created in front of the plasmoid bounded on the front side by a bow shock wave and on the back side by a reverse shock wave. The collision process modifies the current system and a strong electric field is also induced in the active region. An additional magnetic field generated by the induced current upsets the initial equilibrium condition. As a result, the whole loop is compressed and heated. We found that when the plasmoid approaches the loop, before reaching it the induced electric field amounts to its maximum value. The current loop is curved under the collision. The core of the plasmoid can not drive into the loop, it is sprung back by a magnetic counterpressure. This collision process between a plasmoid and a current loop may be responsible for the triggering of a solar flare observed by Yohkoh.