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Chicken coccidiosis is an extremely common and lethally epidemic disease caused by Eimeria spp. The control measures of coccidiosis depend mainly on drugs. However, the ensuing drug resistance problem has brought considerable economic loss to the poultry industry. In our previous study, comparative transcriptome analyses of a drug-sensitive (DS) strain and two drug-resistant strains (diclazuril-resistant (DZR) and maduramicin-resistant (MRR) strains) of Eimeria tenella were carried out by transcriptome sequencing. The expression of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase of E. tenella (EtGAPDH) was upregulated in the two resistant strains. In this study, we cloned and characterized EtGAPDH. Indirect immunofluorescence localization was used to observe the distribution of EtGAPDH in E. tenella. The results showed that the protein was distributed mainly on the surface of sporozoites and merozoites, and in the cytoplasm of merozoites. qPCR was performed to detect the transcription level of EtGAPDH in the different developmental stages of the E. tenella DS strain. The transcription level of EtGAPDH was significantly higher in second-generation merozoites than in the other three stages. The transcription level of EtGAPDH in the different drug-resistant strains and DS strain of E. tenella was also analyzed by qPCR. The results showed that the transcription level was significantly higher in the two drug-resistant strains (MRR and DZR) than in the DS strain. As the concentration of diclazuril and maduramicin increased, the transcription levels also increased. Western blot results showed that EtGAPDH protein was upregulated in the DZR and MRR strains. Enzyme activity showed that the enzyme activity of EtGAPDH was higher in the two resistant strains than in the DS strain. These results showed that EtGAPDH possess several roles that separate and distinct from its glycolytic function and maybe involved in the development of E. tenella resistance to anticoccidial drugs.

The fermentation broth of Salinivibrio proteolyticus strain YCSC6 shows potent anti-parasitic activity against Uronema marinum, with activity varying in each fermentation stage. To investigate the biosynthetic mechanism of anti-parasitic compounds in strain YCSC6, a comprehensive analysis of metabolomics and transcriptomics over four different time points (12, 24, 48, and 72 h) was performed. Metabolomics detected 17 943 metabolites with 1 129 known metabolites. A trend analysis of the known metabolites showed that 575 metabolites, including 69 polyketides, were continuously enhanced, being the potential source of anti-parasitic agents. In addition, 941 genes mapped to the same pathways of these metabolites, were screened through the association analysis of metabolites and genes. KEGG pathway enrichment of these genes showed 270 genes mapped to the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites and 192 genes mapped to the biosynthesis of antibiotics. This demonstrates the potent secondary metabolic capacity of strain YCSC6. Finally, a gene-metabolite correlation network was created based on the 575 continuously enhanced metabolites and 43 continuously up-regulated genes. This revealed 13 genes at the key position that mapped to a putative metabolic pathway associated with the biosynthesis of polyketides and caprylic acid, which contributes to the potent anti-parasitic activity of strain YCSC6. This comprehensive analysis of metabolomics and transcriptomics provides insights into the biosynthetic mechanisms of anti-parasitic compounds in strain YCSC6 and guides the exploitation of more anti-parasitic agents for aquaculture.

Research on the presence of an upward spillover effect of children’s education on parental health is rapidly developing. However, there are certain differences in the conclusions of relevant studies, and no consistent viewpoint has been reached. Using the exogenous differences in education generated by the expansion of higher education enrollment that China implemented as a reform in 1999, we analyze this issue by studying the effect of children’s higher education on their parents’ health. The instrumental variable (IV) estimation results show that children who received higher education have a significant and positive effect on the physical health of their parents. Compared with the ordinary least squares (OLS) estimation results, the coefficient of the effect of children receiving higher education is larger in the IV estimation. Children’s education can generate a significant active effect on parental health, affecting parental physical health via its effect on parental health cognition and health behaviors. Based on heterogeneity analyses, the effect of a son’s education on parental health is more significant than the effect of a daughter’s education, and among rural children, higher education has a more significant effect on parental health.

After 40 years of reform and opening up, China’s social and economic conditions have undergone tremendous changes. For individuals who have experienced this historical period, the socioeconomic transition has brought different effects on their health status. This research examines the issue and provides evidence that government policies need to be improved. This study adopted data from the 2015 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). We set the education level, occupation, and family income during old age as the socioeconomic status for the early, middle, and late stages of life. Based on specific criteria, we classified the population as disadvantaged and advantaged, considering eight changing trajectories of socioeconomic status. We used multiple regression analysis to examine how the eight trajectories affect individuals’ physical and mental health. After controlling for social demography and health behavior variables, we found that, compared with those in the advantaged group long term, people who were in the disadvantaged group suffered from a significantly negative impact of their socioeconomic status on physical and mental health. The health status of those who moved upward in socioeconomic status was substantially better than those who remained in the same status. This study confirms that early disadvantaged socioeconomic status has a long-term adverse effect on health. However, the negative impact can be mitigated by improving one’s occupation during middle age or family income during old age throughout China’s socioeconomic transitions. Therefore, increasing upward social mobility at any stage helps eliminate health inequalities.

BackgroundThere is a huge controversy about whether xenograft or allograft in the “immune-privileged” brain needs immunosuppression. In animal studies, the prevailing sophisticated use of immunosuppression or immunodeficient animal is detrimental for the recipients, which results in a short lifespan of animals, confounds functional behavioral readout of the graft benefits, and discourages long-term follow-up.MethodsNeuron-restricted neural progenitor cells (NPCs) were derived from human embryonic stem cells (ESCs, including H1, its gene-modified cell lines for better visualization, and HN4), propagated for different passages, and then transplanted into the brain of immunocompetent rats without immunosuppressants. The graft survivals, their cell fates, and HLA expression levels were examined over time (up to 4 months after transplantation). We compared the survival capability of NPCs from different passages and in different transplantation sites (intra-parenchyma vs. para- and intra-cerebroventricle). The host responses to the grafts were also investigated.ResultsOur results show that human ESC-derived neuron-restricted NPCs survive extendedly in adult rat brain parenchyma with no need of immunosuppression whereas a late-onset graft rejection seems inevitable. Both donor HLA antigens and host MHC-II expression level remain relatively low with little change over time and cannot predict the late-onset rejection. The intra-/para-cerebroventricular human grafts are more vulnerable to the immune attack than the intrastriatal counterparts. Prevention of graft hyperplasia by using hypoproliferative late passaged human NPCs further significantly extends the graft survival time. Our new data also shows that a subpopulation of host microglia upregulate MHC-II expression in response to the human graft, but fail to present the human antigen to the host immune system, suggestive of the immune-isolation role of the blood–brain barrier (BBB).ConclusionsThe present study confirms the “immune privilege” of the brain parenchyma and, more importantly, unveils that choosing hypoproliferative NPCs for transplantation can benefit graft outcome in terms of both lower tumor-genic risk and the prolonged survival time without immunosuppression.

The different conditions of use of a component result in a variety of damage levels. Therefore, excluding differences in shape and size, used parts show a high degree of uncertainty regarding failure characteristics, quality conditions, and remaining life, which seriously affects the efficiency of a remanufacturing scheme design. Aiming to address this problem, a remanufacturing scheme design method based on the reconstruction of incomplete information of used parts is proposed. First, the remaining life of the reconstructed model is predicted by finite element analysis, and the demand for the next life cycle is determined. Second, the scanned 3D damage point cloud data are registered with the original point cloud data using the integral iterative method to construct a missing point cloud model to achieve the restoration of geometric information. Then, according to reverse engineering and laser cladding remanufacturing, the tool remanufacturing process path can be generated by the tool contact point path section line method. Finally, the proposed method is adopted for turbine blades to evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed scheme. This study proposes a remanufacturing scheme design method based on the incomplete reconstruction of used part information to solve the uncertain and highly personalized problems in remanufacturing.

The femtosecond laser color marking stainless steel surfaces with different incident wavelengths were investigated theoretically and experimentally. It indicates that the spectral regions of the colors firstly increase and then reduce with increasing spatial periods of the ripples induced by laser irradiation. Additionally, the colors are gradually changed from blue to red due to the elongation of the diffracted light wavelengths. As a result, the color effects are distinctly different. This study offers a new controllable parameter to produce diverse colors, which may find a wide range of applications in the laser color marking, art designing and so on.

We have developed a high-performance laser energy meter based on anisotropic Seebeck effect in a strongly correlated electronic (SCE) thin film. SCE thin films, typically represented by high-temperature superconductor (HTS) cuprate and colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) manganite thin films, demonstrate tremendous anisotropic Seebeck effect. In this study, a La2/3Ca1/3MnO3 thin film grown on a tilted LaAlO3 substrate is tested with the fundamental, the second, the third, and the fourth harmonics (1064, 532, 355, 266 nm, respectively) of a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser over a wide range of temperatures from room temperature to 16 K. The peak-value of the laser-induced thermoelectric voltage signal shows a good linear relationship with the laser energy per pulse in the measured wavelength and temperature ranges. The combined advantages over other commercial laser detectors such as nanosecond-order response and spectrally broad and flat response over a wide range of temperatures, in situ real-time measurement, and energy savings, make the device an ideal candidate for next-generation laser detectors and laser power/energy meters.

Human neural stem cells hold great promise for research and therapy in neural disease. We describe the generation of integration-free and expandable human neural progenitor cells (NPCs). We combined an episomal system to deliver reprogramming factors with a chemically defined culture medium to reprogram epithelial-like cells from human urine into NPCs (hUiNPCs). These transgene-free hUiNPCs can self-renew and can differentiate into multiple functional neuronal subtypes and glial cells in vitro. Although functional in vivo analysis is still needed, we report that the cells survive and differentiate upon transplant into newborn rat brain.

A single-crystal silicon(111) wafer surface fixed on an x–y translation stage is scanned with a focused femtosecond laser beam at a wavelength of 800 nm under different atmospheres (air, vacuum, and nitrogen). Different colors from different angles on the surface of the silicon then appear. From the result of the experiments, periodic ripple surface structures emerge on the surface of colorized silicon, and the phenomenon is more obvious in vacuum and nitrogen than in air. The periods of the surface structures on silicon are not the same in the different atmospheres. Under vacuum, the period is the longest and is closer to the wavelength of the laser irradiation. Different from metals, the range of energy density is smaller when the colorized silicon appears with femtosecond laser pulses. Through SEM, TEM, and AFM, we observe in detail the microstructures of colorized silicon that forms in air, vacuum, and nitrogen and analyze the possible physical mechanism. Finally, research into the optical reflection of the colorized silicon indicates that the reflectivity is not higher than 30% in the 250–800 nm range.

Time stability plays an important role in the applications of scanning probe microscopes (SPMs). Although SPMs integrated with a closed-loop control system could reduce the drift greatly, drift would still exist. The SPM drift in the lateral direction has been well studied, and several measurement methods have also been developed. However, due to coupling of the lateral drift, it is still difficult to determine the drift in the vertical direction. In this paper, we propose a method to measure the vertical drift of an SPM based on scanned topography images. This method considers the influence of the lateral drift. Experimental results show that the vertical drift of the SPM is non-negligible, and the vertical drift on each pixel of one scanned image is different from each other. By such a method, instability in the vertical direction of the SPM instrument could be revealed and evaluated.

To implement a dual-pickup-head multi-layer data storage system, it is necessary to measure the synchronizing focus error of the two pickup heads to validate the feasibility of the focus servo method. By using the ABCD transforming matrix method of geometric optics, we calculate the relationship between the output energy and the space interval of the two heads. After confirming the detection system working in the linear area, the voice coil motors of the two pickup heads were driven by sine signals with different frequencies and recorded the output signals of the quadrant photodetector under different movement states respectively, including static, lower pickup head movement and dual-pickup-head synchronizing movement. The synchronizing focus error, which is caused by the characteristic parameter mismatch of the two pickup heads, could be obtained through frequency-domain analysis of these output signals. The experimental result shows that the amplitude of synchronizing focus error under 20 Hz is less than 1 μm, which could adequately satisfy the focus servo requirement of the multi-layer data storage system.