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Currently, feed enzymes are primarily obtained through fermentation of fungi, bacteria, and other microorganisms. Although the manufacturing technology for feed enzymes has evolved rapidly, the activities of these enzymes decline during the granulating process and the cost of application has increased over time. An alternative approach is the use of genetically modified plants containing complex feed enzymes for direct utilization in animal feedstuff. We co-expressed three commonly used feed enzymes (phytase, β-glucanase, and xylanase) in barley seeds using the Agrobacterium-mediated transformation method and generated a new barley germplasm. The results showed that these enzymes were stable and had no effect on the development of the seeds. Supplementation of the basal diet of laying hens with only 8% of enzyme-containing seeds decreased the quantities of indigestible carbohydrates, improved the availability of phosphorus, and reduced the impact of animal production on the environment to an extent similar to directly adding exogenous enzymes to the feed. Feeding enzyme-containing seeds to layers significantly increased the strength of the eggshell and the weight of the eggs by 10.0%-11.3% and 5.6%-7.7%, respectively. The intestinal microbiota obtained from layers fed with enzyme-containing seeds was altered compared to controls and was dominated by Alispes and Rikenella. Therefore, the transgenic barley seeds produced in this study can be used as an ideal feedstuff for use in animal feed.

The present study compares the pharmacokinetics of amoxicillin and clavulanate potassium suspension (200 mg/28.5 mg) during fasting and postprandial conditions, and the sample adds a stabilizer study. Two randomized, crossover trials were conducted in an open-label, single-center study (a fasting trial and a postprandial trial). In each part of the study, the subjects were randomly assigned to receive either test or reference products (200 mg/28.5 mg) in a 1:1:1 ratio, followed by the alternative products after a 7-day washout period. Plasma amoxicillin and clavulanic acid concentrations were analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. WinNonlin software was used to evaluate the pharmacokinetic parameters (noncompartmental model). The formulations were considered bioequivalent if the geometric means of area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUC) and maximum plasma concentration (C

The genusOsmundaL. contains approximately 10 extant species widely distributed in tropical and temperate regions, with the greatest concentration of species in East and Southeast Asia.Osmundais characterized by dimorphic or commonly hemidimorphic fronds with dimorphic pinnae. Its geological history has been traced back to the Triassic. Most records of the genus are based on rhizomes and rarely on pinnae bearing sporangia and spores. Here, we describe fossil pinnae, sporangia, and spores ofOsmunda lignitum(Giebel) Stur recovered from the middle Eocene of the Changchang Formation in the Changchang Basin, Hainan Island and the Youganwo Formation in the Maoming Basin, Guangdong, South China. The fossils closely resemble the extantOsmunda banksiifolia(C. Presl) Kuhn of the subgenusPlenasiumon the basis of their morphological and anatomical structures. The present occurrence ofO. lignitumindicates subg.Plenasiumflourished and extended from the high latitude regions such as Northeast China to the low latitude areas of South China during the middle Eocene. Large numbers of specimens described here also indicate thatOsmundawas the dominant understory fern element beneath mixed evergreen broad-leaf angiosperm and gymnosperm forests living in a warm and humid environment.

Objectives Exploring approaches of extending the haematopoiesis time window of MPPs and lineage‐committed progenitors might produce promising therapeutic effects. NUP98‐HOXA10hd (NA) fusion protein can expand long‐term haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and promote engraftment competitiveness without causing obvious oncogenesis. Our objectives were to investigate the roles of NA fusion protein in MPP and downstream lineage‐committed progenitor context. Material and Methods 300 sorted MPPs (Lin−CD48−c‐kit+Sca1+CD135+CD150−) were mixed with 5 × 105 total BM helper/competitor cells and injected into irradiated recipients. For secondary transplantation, 5 × 106 total BM cells from primary recipient mice were injected into lethally irradiated recipients. NA‐MPP recipient mice were sacrified for flow cytometric analysis of bone marrow progenitors at indicated time points. Sorted MPPs and myeloid progenitors were used for RNA‐seq library preparation. Results We showed that NA‐expressing MPPs achieved significantly longer multi‐lineage haematopoiesis (>44‐week) than natural MPPs (20‐week). NA upregulated essential genes regulating long‐term haematopoiesis, cell cycle, epigenetic regulation and responses to stress in MPPs. These molecular traits are associated with the earlier appearance of a Sca1‐c‐kit+ myeloid progenitor population, and more abundant cellularity of lineage‐committed progenitor as well as bone marrow nucleated cells. Further, the NA‐derived primary bone marrow cells, which lack NA‐LSK cells, successfully repopulated secondary multi‐lineage haematopoiesis over 20 weeks. Conclusions This study unveiled that NA fusion protein promotes MPP and lineage‐committed progenitor engraftment via extending long‐term multi‐lineage haematopoiesis., Yong Dong et al. show that MPPs overexpressing NUP98‐HOXA10hd fusion protein (NA) generate abundant lineage committed progenitors and sustain long‐term multi‐lineage hematopoiesis in transplant setting. Overexpression of NA in MPPs offer promising means to involve MPPs in clinical transplant settings.

BACKGROUND Tumor-associated immune factors are heterogeneous and play an important role in determining outcome in cancer patients. In this study, the expression levels of immune factors in tumor tissue-conditioned media from lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) and lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) were analyzed. METHODS LUAD and LUSC tissue specimens were collected immediately after surgery for antibody array analysis and real-time quantitative PCR. RESULTS Higher levels of chemokines MCP1/CCL2 (21.11-fold increase) and MIP-1β/CCL4 (19.33-fold increase) were identified in LUAD than in LUSC. Western blot and quantitative real-time PCR analyses showed higher co-expression of CCL2 and CCL4 in LUAD tissues compared to LUSC (P

The fern genus Tectaria (Tectariaceae) is morphologically diverse and difficult in terms of recognizing species and species groups. To infer the systematic positions of some species and identity-unknown collections with special morphological characters, we conducted phylogenetic analyses based on sequences of five plastid regions (atpB, ndhF plus ndhF-trnL, rbcL, rps16-matK plus matK, and trnL-F). Three analysis methods (maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian inference) were used to reconstruct the phylogeny of Tectaria. The most surprising result is that T. menyanthidis, T. ternata, and T. variabilis are revealed to represent a distinct lineage from Tectaria, which should be called Polydictyum and is supported as sister to Pteridrys. Other accessions of Tectaria are well resolved into four major clades, which is consistent with the results of previous studies. Of the four clades, Clade II (T. subtriphylla group) is unpredictable, with morphologically very diverse species clustered there, and is supposed to be a minor evolutionary line within Tectaria in the Old World. In addition, the position of the climbing genus Arthropteris and the utility of molecular data in recognizing species of Tectaria are briefly discussed. As a conclusion we formally reinstate the genus Polydictyum by providing diagnostic characters, key to species, nomenclature, and information of detailed distribution and habit for the currently known three species.

Mussel meat is rich in amino acids and is a good source of flavor enhancers. To find a high‐efficiency and suitable method for the Maillard reaction (MR) of enzymatic hydrolysate derived from mussel meat, we studied the changes of Maillard reaction between enzymatic hydrolysate and glucose/xylose under ultrasonic treatment (UsT), heat treatment (HT) and ultrasonic‐assisted heat treatment (Us‐HT). It was found the Us‐HT displayed the highest Maillard reaction rate and a significant increase in intermediate products and melanoidins compared to HT and UsT. The Maillard reaction products (MRPs) derived from the three treatments showed higher antioxidant activity, while the MRPs from Us‐HT had the highest antioxidant activity and ideal sensory properties. Therefore, Us‐HT is a potential method to prepare the Maillard flavor enhancer from mussel meat. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: The ultrasonic technology was applied as a novel food processing technique and can effectively promote the interaction of certain ingredients. Compared with single ultrasonic or heat treatment, ultrasonic‐assisted heat treatment can accelerate the reaction and improve sensory properties and antioxidant activities of MRPs derived from mussel meat hydrolysate. The ultrasonic‐assisted heat treatment is a potential technology for preparing the Maillard flavor enhancer. This efficient method supports the utilization of mussel meat and the development of flavoring essence and functional foods in the future.

1,1-Dilithioethylene is a prototypical carbon-lithium compound that is not known experimentally. All low-lying singlet and triplet structures of interest were investigated by using high-level theoretical methods with correlation-consistent basis sets up to pentuple ζ. The coupled cluster methods adopted included up to full triple excitations and perturbative quadruples. In contrast to earlier studies that predicted the twisted C2v triplet to be the ground state, we found a peculiar planar Cs singlet ground state in the present research. The lowest excited electronic state of 1,1-dilithioethylene, the twisted Cs triplet, was found to lie 9.0 kcal mol(-1) above the ground state by using energy extrapolation to the complete basis set limit. For the planar Cs singlet and twisted Cs triplet states of 1,1-dilithioethylene, anharmonic vibrational frequencies were reported on the basis of second-order vibrational perturbation theory. The remarkably low (2050 cm(-1) ) C-H stretching fundamental (the C-H bond near the bridging lithium) of the singlet state was found to have very strong infrared intensity. These highly reliable theoretical findings may assist in the long-sought experimental identification of 1,1-dilithioethylene. Using natural bond orbital analysis, we found that lithium bridging structures were strongly influenced by electrostatic effects. All carbon-carbon linkages corresponded to conventional double bonds.

Propylene polymerization is carried out with a C 2 -symmetric metallocene catalyst of rac-Et(Ind)2 ZrCl2 /MAO at 40 °C in the presence of a cyclo-triene of trans,trans,cis-1,5,9-cyclododecatriene ((E,E,Z)-CDT). Comonomer incorporations are rather low (0.10 mol%). However, it is shown for the first time that the comonomer causes a noticeable increase in poly-propylene -isotacticity (7% in [mmmm]). (E,E,Z)-CDT is speculated to coordinate to the metal center forming comonomer-complexed active sites in charge of the entire polymerization reaction with decreased activity however increased propylene -enantiomorphic selectivity.

Regio-chemistry control in copolymerization of propylene with isoprene is pursued with C-2-symmetric ansa-metallocene catalysts in order to efficiently synthesize isotactic polypropylene bearing pendant vinylidene functionality (iPP-g-VD) using isoprene as a convenient asymmetric diene feedstock. Two paths are taken by employing two well-known but structurally different metallocenes that exhibit discrepant regio-chemistry for -olefin insertion, namely rac-Me2Si(2-Me-4-Ph-Ind)(2)ZrCl2 (1) and rac-CH2(3-t-Bu-Ind)(2)ZrCl2 (2), both of which tend to an improvement of isoprene 4,3- (primary) insertion specificity whilst depressing the regio-reversed 3,4- (secondary) insertion. In the case of using 1-methylaluminoxane (MAO), the strategy is to use increased dosage of H-2 to effectively integrate isoprene 3,4-insertion into iPP main chain without developing -allyl-metal deadlock. In the case of using 2-MAO, however, the sterically highly hindered ligand structure only accommodates primary isoprene 4,3-insertion. Synthesis of iPP-g-VD becomes much more controllable, with up to 1.91 mol% of side-chain vinylidene groups having been realized on iPP, at fairly good catalyst activities and little or no sacrifice of polymer molecular weight. iPP-g-VD is revealed to be fully eligible as an intermediate for accessing polar-functionalized polypropylene, with both hydroboration and subsequent hydroxylated functionalization and poly(methyl methacrylate) grafting proceeding with high yields. (c) 2015 Society of Chemical Industry

To evaluate haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in children and adolescents, we reviewed the records of 47 patients who were ≤18 years, had relapsed or refractory anaplastic large cell lymphoma, and received HSCT between 1990 and 2010. At HSCT, complete remission (CR) was less common in allogeneic HSCT recipients (n = 24) than in autologous HSCT recipients (n = 23) (P = 0·01). The autologous and allogeneic HSCT groups differed in terms of 5-year event-free survival (EFS) (38% vs. 50%, P = 0·63), cumulative incidence of progress or relapse (49% vs. 28%, P = 0·25), and treatment-related mortality (12% vs. 25%, P = 0·40). However, these differences were not significant. Patients with non-CR at autologous HSCT had a significantly lower EFS rate (14% vs. 48%, P = 0·03). Conversely, although those with non-CR at allogeneic HSCT had a lower EFS rate, this was not significant (44% vs. 63%, P = 0·26). Reduced-intensity conditioning regimens were used for three of the 16 allogeneic HSCTs received by patients with non-CR. These three patients achieved CR, surviving 32-65 months after HSCT. These results demonstrated that allogeneic HSCT might be a treatment option for patients who do not achieve CR through conventional chemotherapy.

AIM The azygous anterior cerebral artery (Az) is a rarely observed anomaly of the anterior cerebral artery, and its associated aneurysm is even rarer. Our aim was to evaluate 3-dimensional time-of-flight magnetic resonance angiography (3-D-TOF MRA) in the diagnosis of Az and associated aneurysms. MATERIALS AND METHODS Three thousand five hundred seventy-two consecutive patients underwent 3-D-TOF MRA at 3.0 T. Postprocessing techniques, including volume rendering (VR) and single artery highlighting, were performed by a 3-D specialist. All MRA data and clinical information were recorded and stored in a database for further analysis. RESULTS Fourteen patients (.39%) were identified as having an Az. Among these cases, 3 males (21.43%) had an aneurysm located at the distal bifurcation of the Az, with a mean size of 9.43 ± 3.33 mm. In MRA, the common trunk of the Az was slightly larger in diameter than the A1 segment (2.62 ± .35 mm vs. 2.54 ± .35 mm; P = .008). CONCLUSIONS With the VR technique, 3-D-TOF MRA is feasible and valuable in detecting an Az and associated aneurysm. Our MRA-based study has proved that the Az is a rare anomaly but has a relatively high incidence of associated aneurysms.

A Grignard reagent, n-BuMgCl, is found to be able to reduce graphite oxide to form loosely aggregated graphene sheets immobilized with few Mg–Cl species. Further complexing with TiCl4 leads to a graphene-based supported catalyst that is ready for in situ olefin polymerization to access electrically conductive polyolefin/graphene nanocomposites. PP/graphene nanocomposites thus prepared possess a rather low electrical percolation threshold (approximately 0.2 vol%) and high conductivities (e.g., 3.92 S·m−1 at 1.2 vol%, 28.5 S·m−1 at 4.1 vol%, and 163.1 S·m−1 at 10.2 vol%).

In this work, the composition of MgCl2-supported Ziegler-Natta (ZN) catalysts bearing different amounts of 9,9-bis(methoxymethyl)fluorine (BMMF) and the propylene polymerization over these catalysts are investigated. Based on the experimental results, the models of active sites suitable for ZN catalysts with/without internal donor BMMF are established, and they can be described as follows: atactic site (I)—isolated TiCl4 monomeric species on the (110) lateral cut (around which there is no complexes), weakly isospecific site (II)—semi-isolated and surrounded TiCl4 monomeric species on the (110) lateral cut (in the vicinity of which BMMF or other TiCl4 is adsorbed), and highly isospecific site (III)—dimeric TiCl4 species (Ti2Cl8) on the (104) lateral cut. Meanwhile, the mechanism underlying the role of BMMF on active sites is revealed (i) convert atactic sites (I) to weakly isospecific site (II) by occupying either or both of L1 or/and L2 vacancies around site; (ii) improve the isotacticity of weakly isospecific site (II) in donor-free ZN catalyst by adsorbing at L2 vacancy or/and replacing the Cl for TiCl4 at L1; and (iii) replace highly isospecific site (III). In addition, these roles of BMMF are successively achieved according to the amount of BMMF added. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012

In this article, the surfactants, (2-hydroxylethyl) octadecyl dimethylammonium nitrate (OH-C18), hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide(C16), and mixture of trimethylchlorosilane (TM) and OH-C18 were ion-exchanged with cations in the montmorillonite (MMT) to generate three organic MMTs (named as OH-C18-MMT, C16-MMT, and MMMT), leading to different environments of catalyst species in MMT interlayer gallery. Et[Ind]2ZrCl2 (abbreviated as EI) was supported on the above three types of OMMTs to prepare the PE/OMMT nanocomposites via in situ polymerization. By contrast, EI/MMMT showed higher activity than EI/OH-C18-MMT and EI/C16-MMT under the same polymerization conditions. The other two types of catalysts, such as [(tert-Bu)NSi(Me2)C5Me4]TiCl2 (CGCT) and Bis[N-(3-tert-butylsalicylidene)anilinato] titanium (IV) dichloride (FI) were also supported on the OH-C18-MMT for in situ ethylene polymerization. It was found that the activity of FI/OH-C18-MMT for ethylene polymerization was much lower than the other two corresponding catalysts under the similar reaction conditions. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012

This paper presents two facile methods to achieve functionalization of isotactic polypropylene (i-PP) by azide and alkyne groups. One method comprises metallocene-catalyzed isospecific propylene polymerization with dialkylzinc as chain transfer agent to produce iodo-terminated i-PP, which can be transformed to azide-terminated i-PP. The other utilizes hydroxyl-grafted i-PP as a raw material to react with bis(trichloromethyl)carbonate and propargyl amine, generating grafted alkyne groups. Both approaches are effective, controllable and safe. The azide-terminated and alkyne-grafted i-PP are readily applicable to click chemistry for construction of new i-PP architecture, e.g. long-chain branched i-PP. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This communication reports a strategy for scale-up of an in situ polymerization technique for polyolefin-based nanocomposites preparation, taking layered silicate (clay) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as examples of nanofillers. The strategy is realized by transforming the nanofillers into granular "nanosupports" for Ziegler-Natta catalysts. With a catalyst to polymer replication effect on particle morphology, the in situ prepared nanocomposites are of controlled granular particle morphology. With the polymer particle morphology controlled, the in situ polymerization technique becomes suitable for industrial olefin polymerization processes for mass production of polyolefin nanocomposites.

Based on coordination polymerization mechanism only, novel stereoregular graft copolymers with syndiotactic polystyrene main chain and isotactic polypropylene side chain (sPS-g-iPP) were synthesized via two steps of catalytic reactions. First, a chain transfer reaction was initiated by a chain transfer complex composed of a styrene derivative, 1,2-bis(4-vinylphenyl)ethane, and hydrogen in propylene polymerization mediated by rac-Me 2 Si[2-Me-4-Ph(Ind)] 2 ZrCl 2 and MAO, which gave iPP macromonomer bearing a terminal styryl group (iPP-t-St). Then the iPP-t-St macromonomers of varied molecular mass were engaged in syndiospecific styrene polymerization over a typical mono-titanocene catalyst (CpTiCl 3 /MAO) under different conditions to produce sPS-g-iPP graft copolymers of varied structure. With an effective purification process, well-defined sPS-g-iPP copolymers were obtained, which were then subjected to differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and polarized optical micrograph (POM) studies. The graft copolymers were generally found with dual melting and crystallization temperatures, which were ascribable respectively to the sPS backbone and iPP graft. However, it was revealed that the two segments displayed largely different melting and crystallization behaviors than sPS homopolymer and the precursory iPP-t-St macromonomer. Consequently, the graft copolymer exhibited much distinctive crystalline morphologies when compared with their individual components.