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Objective: The 8p11 myeloproliferative syndrome [EMS] is a rare myeloproliferative disorder which usually develops rapidly with chromosomal translocation of the fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 ...

Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common neurodegenerative disorder that gradually destroys memory and cognitive abilities in the elderly, makes a huge emotional and economic burden on the patients and their families. The presence of senile plaques and the loss of cholinergic neurons in the brain are two neuropathological hallmarks of AD. Maternal separation (MS) is an animal paradigm designed to make early life stress. Studies on wild type rodents showed that MS could induce AD-like cognitive deficit and pathological changes. However, the effects of MS on AD susceptible population or AD animal models are still unclear. In the present study, male APPswe/PS1dE9 transgenic mice were separated from dam and pups 3h per day from postnatal day 2 to day 21. After weaning, all animals were housed under normal conditions (4 mice per cage). At 9-month age, MWM tests were performed to evaluate the learning and memory abilities. Then the pathological changes in the brain were measured by histology staining. The results showed MS mice had more severe deficit of learning and memory. Compared to the control, there were more senile plaques in cortex and hippocampus, fewer cholinergic neurons in nucleus basalis of Meynert in MS mice. These results indicate that MS exacerbates Alzheimer's disease-like behavioral and pathological changes in APPswe/PS1dE9 mice.

Improving the SiC/zinc aluminum silicate (SiC/ZAS) interface was essential for increasing the mechanical strength of SiC/ZAS joints that were used to join carbon/carbon (C/C) composites and lithium aluminum silicate (LAS) glass ceramics. In this work, well-dispersed multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were introduced at the SiC/ZAS interface in the joints by electrophoretic deposition, which changed the fracture feature of the bonded C/C-LAS from SiC/ZAS interface fracture to C/C fracture, resulting in significant improvements of the shear strength. Results showed that the average shear strength of the joints was increased by 94.8% after introducing MWCNTs, which was attributed to the obviously decreased micro-defects at the SiC/ZAS interface in the joints. MWCNT-reinforced joints also exhibited better thermal shock resistance evidenced by higher residual shear strengths than those of neat joints after thermal shock tests from 800 °C to room temperature and 1000 °C to room temperature, respectively, which was primarily attributed to the positive role of MWCNTs in alleviating thermal stress. Keywords: Carbon nanotube, Electrophoretic deposition, Carbon/carbon composite, Joining, Shear strength, Thermal shock resistance

It is crucial to predict the remaining useful life (RUL) of aircraft engines accurately and timely for the aircraft operation safety and appropriate maintenance decision. The key issue is how to efficiently mine the internal relation hiding in historical time series monitoring data with high dimension features. In this paper, a data-driven prediction method is proposed by combining the time window (TW) and extreme learning machine (ELM). First, based on the specific properties of aircraft engines time series data, a sliding time window is introduced to sample the historical data to obtain the input vector. Then, the extreme learning machine is utilized to model the relation between time series data and RUL. The proposed approach is validated on the turbofan data sets widely employed by other literatures. Experimental results verify the prediction accuracy and efficiency of the proposed approach compared with the existing methods.

For nearly two decades, immunization against the β-amyloid peptide (Aβ) has been investigated as a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Despite some disappointing results in clinic trials, greater significance has been attached by some researchers to exploring the immune effects on pathological and cognitive changes in AD or producing new vaccines of AD. In the previous study, we have made a virus-like particles (Aβ-HBc VLPs) as Aβ vaccine candidate. Aβ-HBc VLPs could ameliorate the learning and memory abilities and reduce cerebral Aβ deposit in the old PDAPP mice. In the present study, to observe the preventive effect and the proper time of immunization, 3, 6 and 9-month old PDAPP mice were immunized with Aβ-HBc VLPs for 3 months. All mice generated high titer of anti-Aβ antibody after Aβ-HBc VLPs immunizations. When the mice were 15-month old, Morris Water Maze was used to test their learning and memory abilities. The escape latencies of Aβ-HBc VLPs immunized mice were shorter than that of control mice. These immunized mice entered platform region frequently and spent more time on the platform region and quadrant. 3 m and 6 m Aβ-HBc VLPs immunized groups performed better than the 9 m group. In immunohistochemistry tests, all the Aβ-HBc VLPs immunized mice had less amyloid deposit in cortex and hippocampus. ELISA results showed that soluble Aβ was reduced in the brain homogenates of the Aβ-HBc VLPs immunized mice, and 3- and 6-month groups had less soluble Aβ than the 9-month group. In conclusion, our study showed that Aβ-HBc VLPs immunization could elicit a strong immune response in adult APP mice, and early immunization had better effects on preventing learning and memory deficits, lowering Aβ burden in PDAPP mice.

Tetracalcium phosphate (TTCP, Ca4(PO4)2O) was prepared by the calcination of coprecipitated mixture of nanoscale hydroxyapatite (HA, Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2) and calcium carbonate crystal (CaCO3), followed by cooling in the air or furnace. The effect of calcination temperature on crystal structure and phase composition of the coprecipitation mixture was characterized by transmission electron microscope (TEM), thermal analysis-thermogravimetry (DTA-TG), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and Raman spectroscopy (RS). The obtained results indicated that the synthesized mixture consisted of nanoscale HA and CaCO3with uniform distribution throughout the composite. TTCP was observed in the air quenching samples when the calcination temperature was above 1185°C. With the increase of the calcination temperature, the amount of the intermediate products in the air quenching samples decreased and cannot be detected when calcination temperature reached 1450°C. Unexpectedly, the mixture of HA and calcium oxide was observed in the furnace cooling samples. Clearly, the calcination temperature and cooling methods are critical for the synthesis of high-purity TTCP. The results indicate that the nanosize of precursors can decrease the calcination temperature, and TTCP can be calcinated by low temperature.