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The alterations in the gut microbiota have been reported to be correlated with the development of depression. The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes of intestinal microbiota in depressed patients after antidepressant treatment. We recruited 30 MDD patients (MDD group) and 30 healthy controls (control group). The MDD group received individualized treatment with escitalopram at a maximum dose of 20 mg/day. After depressive symptoms improved to a HAMD scale score > 50%, a fecal sample was collected again and used as the follow-up group. The differences of gut microbiota between patients and controls, the characteristics of gut microbiota under treatment and the potential differences in metabolic functions were thus investigated. The Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio was significantly different within three groups, and the ratio of follow-up group was significantly lower than those of the other two groups. Alpha diversity was significantly higher in MDD group than those of the other groups, and the alpha diversity was not significantly different between control and follow-up groups. The beta diversity of some patients resembled participants in the control group. The metabolic function of gut microbiota after treatment was still different from that of the control group. This study suggests that the intestinal flora of depressed patients has a tendency to return to normal under escitalopram treatment.

Organic fluorescence probes play important roles in bioimaging, and the luminogens with AIE characteristics show unique superiority. Unlike common AIE-type building blocks based on the RIM mechanism, keto-salicylaldehyde azine (KSA) is developed combining the ESIPT process in our group. By simply tuning salicylaldehyde derivatives’ chemical structure from FAS and DPAS, a series of KSA-based derivatives with different color emission from cyan to red were prepared, and they inherited the expected AIE feature with high selectivity on targeting LDs and excellent photostability. Interestingly, they could be operated in a washing-free method or by blocking the ESIPT process by NaOH solution treatment, which would recover bright emission in the LDs without any other operation. Employing their excellent comprehensive properties in imaging, they could be applied as a reporter for monitoring the formation process of OA-induced LDs and the development process of LDs changes in a zebrafish larva model. All experiments show that KSA is an anticipated AIEgen building block in imaging and tracing, which might be applied for selectively recognizing other organelles via some modification with targeted groups.

Background The roots, branches, leaves, bark, and nectar of Semiliquidambar cathayensis Hung T. Chang can treat rheumatoid arthritis, lumbar muscle strain, and other diseases. However, limited knowledge of the S. cathayensis Chang genome hampers further research on elucidating the pathways underlying active ingredient synthesis and regulation of its accumulation. In this study, we aimed to generate data to elucidate biosynthetic pathway of the active ingredient synthesis and related molecular mechanisms. Methods We conducted transcriptome sequencing of S. cathayensis Chang leaves, stem epidermis, stem xylem, root epidermis, and root xylem. Results We identified 88,582 unigenes, among which, 36,144 unigenes were annotated to the nr protein database, 21,981 to the Gene Ontology database, 11,565 to the Clusters of Orthologous Groups database, 24,209 to the Pfam database, 21,685 to the SWISS-PROT database, and 12,753 to the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), with 5,072 unigenes common to all six databases. Of those annotated using the KEGG database, 187 unigenes were related to the terpenoid metabolism pathway, and expression analysis of the related genes indicated that the mevalonate and methylerythritol 4-phosphate pathways play different roles in terpenoid biosynthesis in different tissues of S. cathayensis Chang. Conclusions These findings greatly expand the gene resources of S. cathayensis Chang and provide basic data for the study of the biosynthetic pathways and molecular mechanisms of terpenoids.

Semiliquidambar cathayensis is a traditional medicinal plant and endemic species in China. Its roots, branches, leaves, bark, and nectar are known to have therapeutic effects against rheumatoid arthritis, lumbar muscle strain, and several other diseases. However, limited knowledge regarding the molecular properties of S. cathayensis highlights the need for further research in order to elucidate the underlying pathways governing the synthesis of its active ingredients and regulation of its accumulation processes.We conducted transcriptome sequencing of the leaf, stem and root epidermises, and stem and root xylems of S. cathayensis with three biological replicates. Moreover, candidate genes involved in terpenoid biosynthesis, such as IDI, FPPS, DXR, SQS, GPPS, and HMGR were selected for quantitative real-time PCR analysis.We identified 88,582 unigenes. Among which, 36,144 unigenes were annotated to the nr protein database, 21,981 to the Gene Ontology database, 11,565 to the Clusters of Orthologous Groups database, 24,209 to the Pfam database, 21,685 to the SWISS-PROT database, and 12,753 to the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), with 5072 unigenes common to all six databases. Of those annotated using the KEGG database, 187 unigenes were related to the terpenoid metabolism pathway, and expression analysis of the related genes indicated that the mevalonate and methylerythritol 4-phosphate pathways play different roles in terpenoid biosynthesis in different tissues of S. cathayensis.These findings greatly expand gene resources of S. cathayensis and provide basic data for the study of the biosynthetic pathways and molecular mechanisms of terpenoids.

The term “phubbing” is a portmanteau word of “phone” and “snubbing” used to describe the phenomenon, in which an individual focuses on their smartphone during face-to-face communication instead of paying attention to others (Chotpitayasunondh & Douglas, 2016; Karadag et al., 2016). The term “phubber” refers to the person who snubs their conversational partner, while the term “phubbee” describes the person who is phubbed during social interaction. A growing body of research investigated the role of parental phone distraction on their child’s development and parent-child interactions. The term “parental phubbing” is defined as a parent’s undesired mobile phone usage during a parent-child interaction (Xie et al, 2019). Converging evidence demonstrates that parental phubbing hampers the quality of parent-child relational interaction (Xie & Xie, 2020) and adversely associates with children’s mental health (Chotpitayasunondh & Douglas, 2016; Xie et al., 2020) and behavior (Fu et al., 2020; McDaniel& Radesky, 2018; Xie & Xie, 2020). Although these previous studies verified the adverse effects of parental phubbing on a child’s emotional and behavioral outcomes, some limitations exist in these studies. For example, the definition of parental phubbing is problematic, certain geographical areas are overrepresented (e.g., Chinese adolescents), and there are a general lack of causal conclusions, etc. These limitations require further clarification: Whether those effects are strong enough to evoke changes in their child? How much of the adolescent negative behavioral and emotional outcome can be ascribed to parental phubbing? How consistent are the effects across studies and different populations? In which conditions do these observed effects change? To address these questions, this paper will: 1) provide a narrative review of the extant research on parental phubbing, including a look into adolescent child’s associated behavioral and emotional outcomes; 2) examine how parental phubbing is measured and critique the approaches of previous researchers;3) assess the major findings and note areas where findings conflict and gaps remain, thereby allowing us to provide future researchers with directions where additional attention is needed; The central purpose in this paper is to critically review how strong these empirically verified findings are. My paper will consist three sections. Section (1) will provide brief introduction of parental phubbing and the scope of this review. Section (2) will critically review parental phubbing and child’s outcome, including current definition, parental phubbing instruments, applied research method and theory. I will suggest important questions or issues for investigators to consider.

Neutrophils are important effector cells during inflammation, which play complex roles. Therefore, investigating the regulation of neutrophil accumulation during inflammation might provide targets for treating related diseases. In the present study, we generated aripk3-deficient zebrafish line to study the roles of Ripk3 in neutrophil-related inflammation. The homeostatic hematopoiesis and cytokine expression of theripk3-deficient larvae were unaltered. Theripk3-deficient larvae with caudal fin fold injury exhibited similar neutrophil enrichment with wild-type larvae, suggesting that Ripk3 is not essential for non-infectious inflammatory responses. When challenged with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), theripk3-deficient larvae showed significantly less neutrophil accumulation in the injection site and differential expression of several key cytokines. Ripk3 inhibitors could also attenuate neutrophil accumulation in wild-type larvae, indicating that Ripk3 could serve as a candidate target for inflammation treatment. In summary, our study indicated that Ripk3 has an essential role in LPS-induced inflammatory responses. It was suggested that theripk3-deficient zebrafish might be applied in developing infectious disease models, while Ripk3 also has potential as an inflammation-treatment target.

Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) are able to self-renew and can give rise to all blood lineages throughout their lifetime, yet the mechanisms regulating HSPC development have yet to be discovered. In this study, we characterized a hematopoiesis defective zebrafish mutant line named smu07, which was obtained from our previous forward genetic screening, and found the HSPC expansion deficiency in the mutant. Positional cloning identified that slc20a1b, which encodes a sodium phosphate cotransporter, contributed to the smu07 blood phenotype. Further analysis demonstrated that mutation of slc20a1b affects HSPC expansion through cell cycle arrest at G2/M phases in a cell-autonomous manner. Our study shows that slc20a1b is a vital regulator for HSPC proliferation in zebrafish early hematopoiesis and provides valuable insights into HSPC development.

Background: Recently, several studies reported that transplanting feces from depressed patients could induce depression-like behaviors in mice. In addition, antidepressants not only have antidepressant effects, but also have modulation of the gut microbiota in those animals. Therefore, this study firstly investigated on the changes of gut microbiota in depressed patients under effective antidepressant treatment.Methods: We recruited 30 patients with drug-naive first-episode MDD (Patients group) and 30 healthy controls (Control group), and collected their fecal samples to complete 16S rRNA sequencing. Next, the Patients group received individualised treatment with escitalopram with a maximum dose of 20mg/d. After depressive symptoms improved to a HAMD scale score >50%, a second fecal sample was collected. This was classified as the follow-up group. We then investigated into the differences of gut microbiota between patients (Patients and Follow-up groups) and controls (Control group), the characteristics of gut microbiota under treatment, and the potential differences in metabolic functions.Results: A significant difference in gut microbiota abundance was found after escitalopram treatment. The Firmicutes/Bacteroides ratio significantly decreased in the Follow-up group. After treatment, the species diversity of gut microbiota tended to be back to normal state in Follow-up group. The mainly difference of metabolic function were found as follows: Transport and catabolism, Nervous system, Glycan biosynthesis and metabolism.Conclusions: Under escitalopram treatment, the gut microbiota diversity of MDD patients tended to back to normal state. However, several structures and metabolic pathways in microbes remained differences between patients and controls.

The pivotal role of androgen receptor (AR) in regulating male fertility has attracted much research attention in the past two decades. Previous studies have shown that total AR knockout would lead to incomplete spermatogenesis and lowered serum testosterone levels in mice, resulting in azoospermia and infertility. However, the precise physiological role of ar in controlling fertility of male fish is still poorly understood. In this study, we have established an ar knockout zebrafish line by transcription activator-like effectors nucleases. Homozygous ar mutant male fish with smaller testis size were found to be infertile when tested by natural mating. Intriguingly, a small amount of mature spermatozoa was observed in the ar mutant fish. These mature spermatozoa could fertilize healthy oocytes, albeit with a lower fertilization rate, by in vitro fertilization. Moreover, the expression levels of most steroidogenic genes in the testes were significantly elevated in the ar mutants. In contrast, the levels of estradiol and 11-ketotestosterone (11-KT) were significantly decreased in the ar mutants, indicating that steroidogenesis was defective in the mutants. Furthermore, the protein level of LHβ in the serum decreased markedly in the ar mutants when compared with wild-type fish, probably due to the positive feedback from the diminished steroid hormone levels.

Aromatase (encoded by the cyp19a1a and cyp19a1b genes) plays a central role in sex differentiation in fish, but its precise roles during sex differentiation are still largely unknown. Here, we systematically generated cyp19a1a and cyp19a1b mutant lines as well as a cyp19a1a;cyp19a1b double mutant line in zebrafish using transcription activatorlike effector nucleases. Our results showed that cyp19a1a mutants and cyp19a1a;cyp19a1b double mutants, but not cyp19a1b mutants, had impaired sex differentiation, and all cyp19a1a mutants and cyp19a1a;cyp19a1b double mutants were males. During sex differentiation, the ovary-like gonads were not observed and the male sex differentiation program was delayed in the cyp19a1a-null fish, and these phenotypes could be partially rescued by 17β-estradiol treatment. Gene expression analysis indicated that male and female sex differentiation-related genes were significantly decreased in the cyp19a1a mutant. Collectively, our results revealed dual functions of the cyp19a1a gene during sex differentiation: cyp19a1a is not only indispensable for female sex differentiation but also required for male sex differentiation.

It is well known that ovulation is induced by luteinizing hormone (LH) surge. However, the down-stream factors that mediating LH surge induced ovulation are less clear. The cyclooxygenases (also known as PTGS) as key enzymes for prostaglandins synthesis appear to be important for ovulation in mammals, but their functional roles and molecular mechanism in regulation of fish ovulation are largely unexplored. In this study, we have systematically investigated the expression, regulation and functional roles of cox genes during zebrafish ovulation. Three types of cox genes including ptgs1, ptgs2a and ptgs2b have been identified in zebrafish. The ptgs2a was dominantly expressed in the ovary with a maximal level at the maturation stage of the follicles. In addition, the ptgs2a expression is up-regulated by LH signaling in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, co-injection of a selective Ptgs2 inhibitor and non-selective Ptgs inhibitor with hCG could significantly block the stimulatory effect of hCG induced ovulation in vivo. Collectively, our findings indicate that LH signaling induced ptgs2a expression is required for ovulation in zebrafish.

Kisspeptins are considered critical regulators in the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis because they can stimulate secretion of Gonadotropin-releasing hormone in mammals, and may also mediate the feedback regulation of sex steroids in the hypothalamus. Two kiss1 paralogues (kiss1 and kiss2) were identified in teleosts, hinting at their increased complexity of signaling for sex-steroid feedback regulation. In the present study, molecular pathways by which 17β-estradiol (E2 ) exerted feedback regulation on two kiss genes, via three types of estrogen receptors, were investigated in the protogynous orange-spotted grouper (Epinephelus coioides). kiss2 expression in the brain significantly increased in ovariectomized orange-spotted groupers, while E2 replacement in ovariectomized fish reversed these changes to levels in the sham-surgery group; conversely, kiss1 expression did not change. Dual-label in situ hybridization showed that kiss1 and kiss2 neurons express erα, erβ1, and erβ2, indicating that E2 may directly regulate kiss1 and kiss2. Indeed, E2 treatment of transiently transfected HEK293T cells decreased the activity of both kiss promoters in the presence of erβ1 and erβ2 rather than erα. Further deletion and site-directed mutagenesis of the kiss promoters indicated that kiss1 is regulated by E2 via an estrogen-responsive element (ERE)-dependent, classical pathway utilized by Erβ1, as well as via an Activator protein 1 (Ap1)-dependent, non-classical pathway utilized by Erβ2. kiss2 was also differently regulated by E2 through the Creb transcription factor, utilized by Erβ1 as well as a half-ERE-dependent, classical pathway utilized by Erβ2. Taken together, multiple signaling pathways in orange-spotted grouper are clearly involved in the feedback regulation of E2 on kiss genes via different estrogen receptors.

Yichen Huang,1,* Xing Shi,2,* Zhiyong Li,1,* Yang Shen,1,* Xinxin Shi,1 Liying Wang,3 Gaofei Li,3 Ye Yuan,2 Jixiang Wang,4 Yongchao Zhang,4 Lei Zhao,4 Meng Zhang,4 Yu Kang,2 Ying Liang1 1National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, Peking University Sixth Hospital, Institute of Mental Health, Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Ministry of Health, Peking University, Beijing, China; 2CAS Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; 3Department of Psychiatry, Beijing Hospital of Chinese Traditional and Western Medicine, Beijing, China; 4Beijing Gene Tangram Technology Co. Ltd, Beijing, China *These authors contributed equally to this work Background: Gut microbiota can affect human behavior and mood in many ways. Several studies have shown that patients with depression were also accompanied with gut microbiota disorder, in which Firmicutes are related to the protective function of intestinal barrier. In this study, we explore the changes and effects of Firmicutes in the patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Method: We recruited 54 subjects, including 27 patients with MDD. Fecal samples were collected for identification by 16S rRNA sequencing and bioinformatics analysis. Results: The study shows that the alpha diversity indices of MDD patients are lower than those of the healthy controls. Firmicutes is the most significantly decreased phylum in the MDD samples. There are totally 13 taxonomic biomarkers with P-value

Vibriosis is the most common bacterial diseases and brings great economic loss on aquaculture. Vibrio parahaemolyticus ( V. parahaemolyticus) , a gram-negative bacterium, has been identified as one main pathogens of Vibriosis. The pathogenic mechanism of V. parahaemolyticus is not entirely clear now. In our study, a model of V. parahaemolyticus infection of green-spotted puffer fish ( Tetraodon nigroviridis ) was established . T. nigroviridis were injected intraperitoneally (i.p.) with 200 μL of V. parahaemolyticus (8 × 10 10 CFU/mL). V. parahaemolyticus infection caused 64% mortality and infected some organs of T. nigroviridis . Histopathology studies revealed V. parahaemolyticus infection induced tissue structural changes, including adipose hollow space in the liver. Immunohistochemistry showed V. parahaemolyticus were present in infected tissue such as liver, head kidney and spleen. In livers of T. nigroviridis infected by V. parahaemolyticus , the alkaline phosphatases (ALP) activity first gradually increased and then backed to normal level, a trend that was on the contrary to the expression profile of the miR-29b. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis showed that the expression level of TLR1, TLR2, TLR5, TLR9, TLR21, NOD1, NOD2 and IL-6 in response to V. parahaemolyticus infection decreased compared to that of non-infected fish. The establishment of the T. nigroviridis model of V. parahaemolyticus infection further confirmed V. parahaemolyticus spreads through the blood circulation system primary as an extracellular pathogen. Meanwhile, liver is an important target organ when infected by V. parahaemolyticus . miR-29b in liver was involved in the progress of liver steatosis during V. parahaemolyticus infection. Moreover, V. parahaemolyticus infection in vivo may have an effect of immunosuppression on host.

In this paper, a novel temporal-spatial variable scale algorithm (TSVSA) is presented which proposes to solve the problem of detecting multiple moving objects from complex backgrounds. In general, moving objects have multiscale characteristics in both spatial and temporal domains. In the spatial domain, objects differ in size while in temporal domain they differ in moving speed, which means each object has an optimum temporal-spatial detection window. Here we have formalized the detection of moving objects as the problem of searching in the temporal-spatial domain for multiple distinct optimum subspaces where significant evidence for motion exists. Such subspaces that differ in scale determine the positions in the temporal-spatial domain, moving traces, and other such features of moving objects. Then a criterion for a measurement of motion salience is provided, and a fast recursive algorithm called “octree decomposition of the temporal-spatial domain” is proposed. The proposed method can detect and track the objects simultaneously, greatly reducing the incidence of false alarms and miss detection rate. Extensive experiments and detailed analysis are provided in this paper, and multiple experimental results have confirmed the validity and effectiveness of the proposed method.

The LHb expression is up-regulated during puberty in female zebrafish. However, the molecular mechanism underlying how LHb expression is regulated during puberty remains largely unknown. In this study, we found that the mRNA expression levels of lhb, fshb and cyp19a1b were up-regulated along with the puberty onset in zebrafish. Among the three nuclear estrogen receptors (nERs), the esr2b is the only type whose expression is significantly up-regulated during puberty onset in the pituitary. However, in situ hybridization results revealed that lhb mRNA was colocalized with esr1 and esr2a but not esr2b. Exposure to estradiol (E2) significantly stimulates LHb expression in both wild-type and kiss1-/-;kiss2-/-;gnrh3-/- triple knockout pubertal zebrafish. Moreover, exposure of cultured pituitary cells to E2 increased the LHb expression, indicating that the estrogenic effect on LHb expression could be acted at the pituitary level. Finally, we cloned and analyzed the promoter of lhb by luciferase assay. Our results indicated that the E2 responsive regions of lhb promoter for ERα and ERβ2 are identical, suggesting that ERα and ERβ2 could bind to the same half ERE region of the promoter of lhb, exhibiting a classical ERE-dependent pathway. In summary, we demonstrate that E2 could directly act on the pituitary level to stimulate LHb transcription during puberty in zebrafish.

It has been demonstrated that estrogens are indispensable for male fertility in mammals. Aromatase (encoded by CYP19) catalyzes the final step of estradiol biosynthesis. However, less is known about the role of aromatase in male fertility in nonmammalian species. Fish aromatase is encoded by two separate genes: the gonad-specific cyp19a1a and the brain-specific cyp19a1b. In a recent study, we used transcription activatorlike effector nucleases to systematically generate cyp19a1a and cyp19a1b mutant lines and a cyp19a1a;cyp19a1b double-mutant line in zebrafish and demonstrated that cyp19a1a was indispensable for sex differentiation. In this study, we focused on male fertility in these aromatase-deficient zebrafish. Our results showed that all aromatase-deficient male fish had normal fertility even at 1 year after fertilization. Interestingly, we observed more spermatozoa in the cyp19a1a and double-mutant males than in the wild-type and cyp19a1b mutant males. The whole-body androgen levels, follicle-stimulating hormone β and luteinizing hormone β protein levels in the pituitary, and transcript levels of genes known to be involved in spermatogenesis and steroidogenesis in the testes were significantly higher in the cyp19a1a mutant and aromatase double-mutant males than in the wild-type and cyp19a1b mutant males. These results might explain why more spermatozoa were observed in these fish. Collectively, our findings indicate that estrogens are not needed to achieve and maintain normal fertility in male zebrafish. This finding challenges the traditional view that estrogens are indispensable for male fertility.

Gonadal steroids are critical factors in reproduction and sex reverse process. StAR (steroidogenic acute regulatory protein), transferring the cholesterol from the outer mitochondrial membrane to the inner membrane, is the rate-limiting factor of steroidogenesis. 3βHSD (3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase/Δ5-Δ4 isomerase), converting Δ5-steroids into Δ4-steroids, is an important oxidoreductase in steroidogenesis. In the present study, StAR and 3βHSD1 were cloned and characterized from protogynous orange-spotted grouper. StAR cDNA contains an 861bp open reading frame (ORF), encoding a predicted protein of 286 amino acids, and the ORF of 3βHSD1 was 1125bp, encoding a predicted protein of 374 amino acids. The transcript of StAR was mainly expressed in gonad, while 3βHSD1 mRNA was predominantly detected in brain and gonad. In the previous study, we found the expression of GnIH mRNA level in male, as well as in 17 alpha-methyltestosterone (MT)-induced male fish was significantly higher than in female fish, this indicating that GnIH/GnIHR signaling might be involved in the regulation of sex reversal and male maintenance. In order to figure out the function of GnIH in steroidogenesis, the expression of StAR and 3βHSD1 regulated by GnIH was examined. In vitro study showed that treatment of cultured ovary fragments with gGnIH peptides significantly stimulated the expression of StAR and 3βHSD1. In addition, the mRNA levels of StAR and 3βHSD1 were significantly increased after intraperitoneal injection (i.p.) with gGnIH peptides. Moreover, during MT-induced sex change from female to male, the levels of StAR mRNA significantly increased by 5.2, 24.8 and 353.5 folds, and that of 3βHSD1 mRNA by 3.5, 32.5 and 55.4 folds at the 2nd, 4th and 6th week after MT implantation, respectively. Collectively, our results indicate that GnIH may be involved in the regulation of sex reversal or male maintenance by stimulating the expression of StAR and 3βHSD1 in protogynous grouper.

It is well established that the luteinizing hormone surge triggers ovulation, a dynamic process leading to the release of the mature oocyte from the ovarian follicle. But how this process controlled by LH signaling remains largely unknown in non-mammalian species. In this study, we investigated the roles of nuclear progesterone receptor (npr) in LH-induced ovulation. Our results indicate that the nuclear progesterone receptor serves as an important mediator of LH action on ovulation. This conclusion is based on the following results: (1) the expression level of npr peaks at the full-grown stage of the follicles; (2) the expression of npr is stimulated by LH signaling in vitro and in vivo; and (3) the npr null females are infertile due to ovulation defects. Moreover, we further show that LH signaling could induce ptger4b expression in an npr-dependent manner and blockage of Ptger4b could also block hCG-induced ovulation. Collectively, our results not only demonstrate that npr serves an indispensable role in mediating the action of LH on ovulation in zebrafish, but also provide insights into the molecular mechanisms of the regulation of ovulation in fish.

Interferon gamma (IFNγ) is a Th1 cytokine that plays a very important role in almost all phases of immune and inflammatory responses. In this study, we explored the functions of IFNγ1 and IFNγ2 of Tetraodon nigroviridis. Treating T. nigroviridis spleen and head kidney cells in vitro with recombinant T. nigroviridis IFNγ1 protein (rTn IFNγ1) or recombinant T. nigroviridis IFNγ2 protein (rTn IFNγ2) enhanced their nitric oxide responses. Both rTn IFNγ1 and rTn IFNγ2 also induced the expression of interferon-stimulated gene 15 (ISG15), a common anti-viral gene, although the expression of the interferon-inducible Mx gene was markedly inhibited by rTn IFNγ1 and was induced by rTn IFNγ2. The in vivo effects of rTn IFNγ1 and rTn IFNγ2 on Vibrio parahaemolyticus (V. parahaemolyticus) infection were assessed by intraperitoneally injecting rTn IFNγ1 or rTn IFNγ2 (100 ng) and V. parahaemolyticus (8 × 10(10)CFU/mL) into T. nigroviridis. A comparison of the group treated only with V. parahaemolyticus and those also treated with rTn IFNγ1 or rTn IFNγ2 showed that neither of these IFNγs protected T. nigroviridis from V. parahaemolyticus infection. However, rTn IFNγ1 more rapidly and robustly promoted inflammatory responses compared with rTn IFNγ2, whereas rTn IFNγ2 was involved in inducing the host to develop a more effective response earlier during the later stage of a V. parahaemolyticus infection. Moreover, microRNA-29b (miR-29b) expression is inversely correlated with IFNγ2 expression in T. nigroviridis.

For the optical anti-reflection coating (ARC) and passivation properties, the relationship between parameters of PECVD and solar cell photoelectricity properties is investigated in this work. Solar cell’s photoelectricity properties are studied by using various optoelectronic measurement systems. It is found that minority carrier recombination can be reduced by changing the parameters of PECVD, specially tuning pressure parameter, and the hydrogen content is different as the gas total flow changing if the temperature and pressure no changes. And also the hydrogen content can be calculated by absorption spectrum being tested with optoelectronic measurement system.

In photovoltaic industry, two critical way to reduce cost is to reduce material consumption and improve efficiency. In this work, we applied rear passivation (PERC) structure on conventionally industrial P-type screen printed solar cell for high efficiency purpose. And an average efficiency of 19.5% is achieved on 6 inch (156mm × 156mm) Cz mono-crystalline wafers. Due to the excellent rear side passivation, the Voc reaches 646mV and Jsc is 38.5mA/cm2, leading to about 1% absolute efficiency gain over the conventional cell. All processes are developed on high throughput machines, which show a potential for future production.

The back propagation neural network (BPNN) algorithm can be used as a supervised classification in the processing of remote sensing image classification. But its defects are obvious: falling into the local minimum value easily, slow convergence speed, and being difficult to determine intermediate hidden layer nodes. Genetic algorithm (GA) has the advantages of global optimization and being not easy to fall into local minimum value, but it has the disadvantage of poor local searching capability. This paper uses GA to generate the initial structure of BPNN. Then, the stable, efficient, and fast BP classification network is gotten through making fine adjustments on the improved BP algorithm. Finally, we use the hybrid algorithm to execute classification on remote sensing image and compare it with the improved BP algorithm and traditional maximum likelihood classification (MLC) algorithm. Results of experiments show that the hybrid algorithm outperforms improved BP algorithm and MLC algorithm.

This article will review our recent progress in development of high-efficiency cells on n-type monocrystalline Si wafers. With boron-doped front emitter, phosphorous BSF, and screen-printed metallisation, at this moment such cells reach an efficiency of over 19%. We describe recent results of processing with reduced front contact area, and improved BSF and improved rear surface passivation, which are key parameters that limit the cell efficiency. The improved processing leads to an efficiency of 20%. The cell process has also been adopted for fabrication of metal-wrap-through back-contact cells. Without the improved contact recombination and BSF, an MWT cell efficiency of 19.7% is reached, 0.3% higher than the corresponding ‘standard’ (non-back-contact) cells.

A novel high efficiency solar cell and module technology, named PANDA, using crystalline n-type CZ Si wafers has moved into large-scale production at Yingli. The first commercial sales of the PANDA modules commenced in mid 2010. Up to 600MW of mass production capacity from crystal-Si growth, wafer slicing, cell processing and module assembly have been implemented by the end of 2011. The PANDA technology was developed specifically for high efficiency and low cost. In contrast to the existing n-type Si solar cell manufacturing methods in mass production, this new technology is largely compatible with a traditional p-type Si solar cell production line by conventional diffusion, SiNx coating and screen-printing technology. With optimizing all technologies, Yingli's PANDA solar cells on semi-square 6-inch n-type CZ wafers (cell size 239cm2) have been improved to currently have an average efficiency on commercial production lines exceeding 19.0% and up to 20.0% in pilot production. The PANDA modules have been produced and were certified according to UL1703, IEC 61215 and IEC 61730 standards. Nearly two years of full production on scale-up lines show that the PANDA modules have a high efficiency and power density, superior high temperature performance, near zero initial light induced degradation, and excellent efficiency at low irradiance.

N-type Metal Wrap Through (n-MWT) is presented as an industrially promising back-contact technology to reach high performance of silicon solar cells and modules. It can combine benefits from both n-type base and MWT metallization. In this paper, the integration of the MWT technique with a commercial industrial bifacial n-type Si Solar cell (239 cm2) process is described. After the integration, 0.35% absolute efficiency gain was achieved, and Voc gain and Isc gain up to 0.42% and 2.45%, respectively, were obtained, mainly attributed to reduced shadow loss and surface recombination. Based on calculations, the anticipation of further improvements for n-MWT solar cells, by taking better advantage of this integration, is also presented.