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The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether morpholin-4-ium 4 methoxyphenyl (morpholino) phosphonodithioate (GYY4137) exhibits a protective effect on ipsilateral testicular injury in experimentally varicocele (VC)-induced rats. A total of 48 rats were randomly divided into the following 6 groups (n=8 each): Group A (control group); group B (sham group); group C (VC group); group D (VC group administered 5 mg/kg/day GYY4137); group E (VC group administered 10 mg/kg/day GYY4137) and group F (VC group administered 20 mg/kg/day GYY4137). Indicators of oxidative stress, apoptosis and inflammation were measured to evaluate the effect of GYY4137 on ipsilateral testicular injury. Compared with groups A and B, rats in group C exhibited severe histological changes and an increase in oxidative stress, apoptosis and inflammation. By contrast, amelioration of testicular damage was evident in the group D, E and F that were treated with GYY4137. These results demonstrate that GYY4137 may be a promising therapy to treat VC as it alleviates oxidative stress, apoptosis and inflammation in experimentally VC-induced rats.

The present study aimed to determine the expression of autophagy and investigate whether the hypoxia‑inducible factor 1α (HIF‑1α)/BCL2 interacting protein (BNIP3)/Beclin‑1 autophagy signaling pathway serves an important role in activating autophagy in varicocele (VC) rat testes cells. Furthermore, the current study aimed to explain the possible association between autophagy and apoptosis. A total of 48 adult male Sprague Dawley rats were divided into group A (control), group B (VC 15‑day), group C (VC 30‑day) and group D (VC 45‑day), with 12 rats in each group. The rats in group A did not receive any interventions, and in groups B, C, and D the VC model was established simultaneously. At 0, 15, 30, and 45 days, an orchidectomy on the left testes was performed in groups A‑D, each on its respective day. Transmission electron microscopy was used to investigate the expression of autophagy. Compared with groups A and B, it was demonstrated that the expression of autophagy in groups C, and D was significantly increased. Hematoxylin and eosin staining revealed that as the rats survived VC longer, the testicular tissue damage became more serious. Furthermore, the Johnson score revealed that VC impaired the spermeiogenesis function of the male rats. Additionally, it was demonstrated that the apoptosis index of the semini-ferous epithelia cells in VC rat testes increased over time, as measured using TUNEL staining. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that as the VC was prolonged, the expression of HIF‑1α gradually increased while the expression of (apoptosis regulator Bcl‑2) Bcl‑2 gradually decreased. Furthermore, western blot analysis revealed that the protein expression of Bcl‑2 decreased and apoptosis regulator Bax increased. Furthermore, HIF‑1α, BNIP3, Beclin1 and microtubule associated protein 1 light chain 3 α (LC3)II/LC3I expression gradually increased. However, significant increases in Beclin 1 and LC3II/LC3I were only observed between the day 0 and day 30 groups. In addition, the expression of p62 significantly increased between day 0 and day 15, but gradually decreased between day 15 and day 45. The results of the present study revealed that VC can lead to testicular tissue hypoxia, and that the HIF‑1α/BNIP3/Beclin1 autophagy signaling pathway may upregulate autophagy in VC rats testes. Thus, the association between autophagy and apoptosis may serve an important role in male infertility caused by VC.

In the current study, the hypothesis that testicular varicocelectomy improves spermatogenesis and attenuates apoptosis via the induction of heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) in a rat model of varicocele was investigated. Adult male Wistar rats (n=75) were randomly divided into 5 groups of 15 each: Control, sham, varicocele, varicocelectomy, and varicocelectomy plus Quercetin. A total of 6 weeks after the varicocelectomy, the left testis of all rats was removed for subsequent examination. Histological changes were compared between the groups. The expression of Hsp70 and apoptosis‑associated indicators were evaluated based on immunohistochemical, western blot and mRNA expression analyses. Compared with the varicocele group, the varicocelectomy group exhibited a markedly reduced Bcl‑2‑associated X protein/B‑cell lymphoma 2 (Bax/Bcl‑2) ratio, and had a decreased expression of caspase‑9, cytochrome c (cyt c) and caspase‑3 through the intrinsic signal transduction pathways. Quercetin treatment inhibited the protective effects of varicocelectomy. The expression of Hsp70 was increased in the varicocele group which was further elevated by the varicocelectomy. These results indicated that varicocelectomy can reduce the Bax/Bcl‑2 ratio, and decrease the levels of caspase‑9, cyt c and caspase‑3 via the mitochondrial signal transduction pathway. Such protective effects on left testis spermatogenesis and against apoptosis may be due to the induction of Hsp70. The findings of the present study suggested that varicocelectomy has a clear advantage in protecting testicular function and ameliorating spermatogenic cells apoptosis.

In this paper, a 3.3 GHz - 3.8 GHz Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) power amplifier (PA) using a 0.25μm GaN on SiC high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) technology for 5G communication system is proposed. The stabilization of the circuit structure is composed of parallel connection of a resistance and a capacitance which called RC stabilization circuits. Determination the optimal impedance matching using Load-Pull. This project measured results demonstrated that the average Pout of 18.12 dBm, an average large signal gain of 8.72 dB over frequency band with a great harmonic isolation that the second harmonic is -25.67 dBc@3.55 GHz and the third harmonic is -46.61 dBc@3.55 GHz. The power amplifier chip is integrated into a 1.0mm×2.6mm QFN package including RF pad.

Anthocyanins contribute greatly to the organoleptic and biochemical properties of grapes and wines. Although there are broadly documented factors involved in grape anthocyanin synthesis, the present work focused on fungal endophytes and their possible role in grape coloration. Our results showed that exposure to endophytic fungi within a dual culture system differentially affected total anthocyanin concentrations and PAL activities in grape cells. Grape cells dual cultured with fungal strains XH-2, R2-21 and B2-17 showed significant differences of their anthocyanin concentrations were subjected to further analysis of their anthocyanidin compositions. Compared to the no-fungus controls, grape cells exposed to fungal strains XH-2 and R2-21 exhibited quantitative promotion of their total anthocyanidin concentrations by 74% and 28%, respectively, whereas treatment with the fungus B2-17 reduced the anthocyanidin content by 19%. A total of 14 species of anthocyanidins were detected from the grape cells in these experiments. Most interestingly, exposure to any of these fungal strains differentially modified the compositional patterns of grape cellular anthocyanidins. The obvious upregulation of the transcription of VvMYB in grape cells treated with fungal strains XH-2 and R2-21 implies that the increased anthocyanin levels in these grape cells may be due to the activated transcriptional factors. In addition, the exposure of grape cells to extracts of these fungi initiated similar responses of anthocyanin contents and PAL activities to exposure to the living fungi and appeared obvious dosage effects. The influence of fungal endophytes on the coloration of grape berries was also examined in this study.

The technology in the field of multimedia image processing improves every day, but there are still some problems that deserve to be further explored and improved. People like to take and preserve the impressive scenery as an unforgettable memory. However, if the object is moving or the photographer is shaking, the captured image is easily blurred, and this blur is called motion blur. However, deblurring an image without the information of speed and direction of moving objects is still a well-known ill-posed problem. In this paper, we proposed a system to deblur image that can estimate important parameter advance to reduce the complexity of deblurring process. The data of sensor of moving object is collected. The BPN neural network is used to train to classify the speed and direction of the object from the sensor data. After that, we can estimate the speed and direction of objects without other algorithms. With such important parameters, deblurring processing will more efficient.

Objective(s): Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) attenuates ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) in different organs. However, its mechanism of action in renal IRI remains unclear. The present study investigated the hypothesis that H2S attenuates renal IRI via the induction of heat shock proteins (HSPs). Materials and Methods: Adult Wistar rats were subjected to unilateral renal ischemia for 45 min followed by reperfusion for 6 hr. One group of rats underwent I/R without treatment, one group was administered 150 μmol/l sodium hydrosulfide (NaHS) prior to I/R, one group was injected with 100 mg/kg quercetin (an HSP inhibitor) intraperitoneally prior to I/R, and another group received quercetin prior to I/R and treatment with NaHS following I/R. Two other groups underwent a sham operation and one of them received 150 μmol/l NaHS following the sham operation whereas the other received no treatment. Renal function and histological changes were compared and relevant indices of oxidative stress, apoptosis, and inflammation were examined. Results: IRI increased serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen concentrations, promoted lipid peroxidation by elevating malondialdehyde levels, suppressed superoxide dismutase activity, stimulated inflammation by inducing NF-kB, IL-2, and TLR-4 expression, and increased renal apoptosis. Levels of HSP 70, heme-oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and HSP 27 were increased following IRI and reversed following H2S treatment. H2S attenuated changes observed in pathology, lipid peroxidation, inflammation, and apoptosis following IRI. The administration of quercetin reversed all protective effects of H2S. Conclusion: The present study indicated that H2S protected renal tissue against IRI induced lipid peroxidation, inflammation, and apoptosis, which may be attributed to the upregulation of HSP 70, HO-1, and HSP 27.

Purpose: To investigate the effect of three anaesthetic drugs on postoperative recovery, regulatory T cells and T cell subset levels in elderly patients. Methods: The patients were randomly divided into groups A, B and C (42 patients per group). Group A received intravenous remifentanil, dexamethasone, dexmedetomidine and propofol, followed by continuous intraoperative inhalation of sevoflurane and continuous intravenous pumping of remifentanil. Group B was given intravenous propofol and midazolam, followed by continuous intraoperative inhalation of sevoflurane, while Group C received intravenous etomidate and rocuronium, with continuous intraoperative inhalation of sevoflurane. The preoperative or 24-h postoperative T regulatory cells (CD4 + CD25 + ) and T cell subsets (CD4 + and CD8 + ) were determined for each group. Results: MMSE scores in the three groups were lower than their pre-operation scores ( p < 0.05). There were significant reductions in 24-h postoperative serum CD4 + CD25 + and CD4 + levels, with higher reductions in group B ( p < 0.05). In contrast, CD8 + increased in all groups, but was lower in group B than in the other two groups ( p < 0.05). Conclusion: These findings strongly suggest that propofol, midazolam and sevoflurane have rapid onset of action and recovery, which improves the comfort of patients while decreasing negative impact on the function of the immune system. Furthermore, these anaesthetic agents enhance the recovery of elderly patients. Keywords: Anaesthesia, Cognitive function, Regulatory T cells, T cell subsets

Background/aim: Cyclosporine A (CsA), a traditional immunosuppressive compound, has been reported to specifically prevent isch-emia reperfusion tissue injury via apoptosis pathway. This study aimed to explore the renoprotective effects of CsA on the kidneys of rabbits undergoing renal pelvic perfusion.Materials and methods: A total of 30 rabbits were randomly assigned into a control group (n = 6) and an experimental group (n = 24). The experimental group underwent a surgical procedure that induced severe hydronephrosis and was then stochastically divided into 4 groups (S1, S1?, S2, and S2?), consisting of 6 rabbits each. Groups S1 and S1? were perfused with 20 mmHg of fluid, while groups S2 and S2? were perfused with 60 mmHg of fluid. Administration to groups S1? and S2? was done intravenously, with CsA once a day for 1 week before perfusion. In the control group, after severe hydronephrosis was induced, a sham operation was performed in a second laparoto-my. Acute kidney damage was evaluated using hematoxylin and eosin staining, in addition to analyzing the mitochondrial ultrastructure and mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP). The cytochrome C (CytC) and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) expression were examined immunohistochemically using Western blotting and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction.Results: It was found that the renal histopathological damage was ameliorated, mitochondrial vacuolization was lower, MMP was high-er, and the CytC and NGAL contents were decreased after drug intervention (groups S1? and S2?) when compared to the experimental groups (S1 and S2). Furthermore, there was no difference between drug intervention groups S1? and S2?.Conclusion: These results suggest that CsA can attenuate renal damage from severe hydronephrosis induced by renal pelvic perfusion in rabbits. It plays a protective role in the acute kidney injury process, possibly through increased MMP and mitochondrial changes.

Figure S3. Co-segregation test on F2 individuals and various rice genotypes. a Co-segregation test on F2 individuals derived from the cross between HC/le mutant. b Co-segregation test on other varieties and O.nivara. 1, Hwacheong; 2, Hwaseonchal, 3. Ilpum, 4. Unkwang, 5. Hapcheon, 6. Nipponbare, 7. Dasan, 8. Hangangchal 1ho, 9. IR36, 10. IR64, 11. IR56, 12. IR21015, 13. O.nivara. (PDF 23 KB)

Figure S1. Types of segregated F2 seed derived from cross-combinations of le/ge (a) and le/ges (b). (PDF 96 KB)

Figure S2. Multiple sequence alignment of LE orthologs. Asterisk represents the location of amino acid substitution caused by one base deletion in le mutant. Substituted amino acid residues by frameshift are highlighted by red background shading. Predicted transmembrane motifs and the C3HC4-type RING finger domain are underlined with blue and red lines, respectively. Conserved residues in the C3HC4-type RING finger domain are enclosed within black open boxes. Os, Oryza sativa; Ta, Triticum aestivum; Hv, Hordeum vulgare; Zm, Zea mays; At, Arabidopsis thaliana; Br, Brassica rapa; Gm, Glycine max. (PDF 531 KB)

Pancreatic carcinoma (PC) is a rapidly progressive, fatal malignant tumor with the poorest prognosis among all major carcinoma types. MicroRNAs (miRNAs/miRs) have been indicated to be key post-transcriptional regulatory factors, which are involved in cancer development. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of miR-23a on PC cell proliferation, metastasis and apoptosis. The expression of miR-23a was detected in a normal pancreatic ductal epithelial cell line and three PC cell lines, and miR-23a inhibitor or mimics were transfected into the Panc-1 and MiaPaCa2 PC cells. The association between miR-23a and tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI)-2 was examined using a luciferase reporter assay. MTT and flow cytometry assays were used to assess cell viability and apoptosis, respectively. Furthermore, wound-healing, Transwell and Matrigel assays were used to evaluate cell migration and invasion abilities, and the protein expression level of TFPI-2 was determined using western blot analysis. The results of the present study revealed that miR-23a was upregulated in PC cells. Furthermore, TFPI-2 was identified as a downstream target of miR-23a, and TFPI-2 expression was found to be increased following miR-23a knockdown. In addition, functional assays revealed that downregulation of miR-23a decreased PC cell proliferation, migration and invasiveness and promoted cell apoptosis, while miR-23a overexpression exerted the opposite effects. Furthermore, TFPI-2 knockdown rescued the biological effects on PC cells, which were induced by miR-23a knockdown. The results of the present study indicated that miR-23a negatively modulated TFPI-2 expression in vitro and enhanced the malignant phenotypes of PC cells. Therefore, miR-23a may be a potential marker and/or target for the diagnosis and treatment of PC.

The measured dynamometer card used to analyze working conditions of pumping units requires a large amount of manpower and material resources, and thus it is very necessary to develop a novel and simple method for the diagnosis of pumping conditions. In this paper, a pattern recognition algorithm is proposed for the classification of working conditions of oil wells based on electrical parameters. To this end, the data of electrical parameters are obtained by the acquisition system; according to the algorithm theories (logistic regression, support vector machine, principal components analysis) of pattern recognition in machine learning, the binary and multiple classifiers of condition diagnosis are used to realize the diagnosis of the working conditions of the oil wells based on electrical parameters. The improvement of the proposed algorithm has been verified by analytical and simulation results.

In this paper, a wideband low noise amplifier (LNA) of bandwidth 2–4 GHz, gain more than 31 dB, flatness fluctuating in ±0.44 dB and maximum noise figure less than 2.2 dB is proposed. The LNA is in a two-stage cascade structure and the same bias voltage conditions is used by each stage. The impedance matching is adjusted by the capacitive feedback at low frequency and the resistance feedback at high frequency. Thus the wide-band matching and flat gain is realized. The output power at 1 dB compression point is more than 14.8 dBm and a compact chip area is 2mm×1.58mm including RF pad. The LNA features broad bandwidth, relatively high gain, low noise figure and an excellent gain flatness, and will be further used in S-band application.

As multimedia image related devices are widely used by the general public, multimedia image processing technology is more and more advanced, however there are still some problems that are worth to be explored and improved. How to deblurring an image without the information of speed and direction of moving objects is still a well-known ill-posed problem. In this paper, we proposed a system to deblurring image that can estimate important parameter advance to reduce the complexity of deblurring process. The data of sensor of moving object is collected. The SOM neural network is used to train to classify the speed and direction of the object from the sensor data. After that, we can estimate the speed and direction of objects without other algorithms. With such important parameters, deblurring processing will more efficient.

The galvanic corrosion behavior of three metal alloys commonly used in water desalination plants was investigated using coupled multielectrode arrays consisting of aluminum-brass (HAl77-2), titanium alloy (TA2), and 316L stainless steel (316L SS). The three electrode types were coupled galvanically and arranged in different geometric configurations. Their corrosion behavior was characterized as a function of the chloride concentration. The potential and current distributions of the three-electrode coupling systems display electrochemical inhomogeneity. Generally, the aluminum-brass wires are anodic versus the titanium alloy and stainless steel. The titanium alloy acts as a primary cathode, and the 316L SS acts as a secondary cathode. The corrosion rate of aluminum-brass depends on the concentration of chloride ion, with a maximum corrosion rate at a chloride concentration of 2.3 wt %. In terms of geometrical arrangements, when the anodic HAl77-2 wires are located on the edge and are connected to the 316L SS wires in the coupling system, the main anodic area enlarges, especially in the area adjacent to the 316L SS wires. When the HAl77-2 wires are located between (in the middle of) the two other types of wires, the corrosion rates are higher than the corrosion rates observed from the other two geometrical arrangements.