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Xue Wang,&ast; Yue Zhang,&ast; Hong-Liang Sun, Li-Ting Wang, Xue-Feng Li, Fei Wang, Yan-Lin Wang, Qing-Chun Li Department of Reproductive Medicine, Binzhou Medical University Hospital, Binzhou, 256603, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Qing-Chun Li; Yan-Lin WangDepartment of Reproductive Medicine, Binzhou Medical University Hospital, No. 661 Huanghe 2nd Road, Binzhou, 256603, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86 543 325 8715; +86 543 325 8713Fax +86 543 325 7792Email qingchunli_doc@163.com; docylwang2003@163.comObjective: The aim of the present study was to explore related clinical pregnancy outcome factors in intrauterine insemination (IUI).Materials and Methods: The clinical data of 3984 IUI cycles in 1862 couples experiencing infertility who attended the Reproductive Center of Binzhou Medical University Hospital between July 2006 and July 2017 were retrospectively analyzed. Female and male patient age, endometrial thickness (EMT), the post-wash total motile sperm count (PTMC), artificial insemination timing, insemination frequency, and ovarian stimulation protocols were compared between the study’s pregnant group and non-pregnant group in order to explore any correlation.Results: There were statistically significant differences in female and male age, EMT, artificial insemination timing, insemination frequency, and ovarian stimulation protocols between the two groups (p < 0.05). The clinical pregnancy rate was significantly higher in ovarian stimulation cycles than in natural cycles (21.2% and 11.6%, respectively; p < 0.01), the clinical pregnancy rate was significantly higher in double IUI than in single IUI (17.8% and 12.1%, respectively; p < 0.01), and EMT was significantly greater in the pregnant group than in the control group (p < 0.05). However, the differences in clinical pregnancy rates among the PTMC groups were not statistically significant (14.8%, 14.4%, 17.3%, and 17.3%, respectively; p > 0.05).Conclusion: The results of the present study demonstrate that the clinical IUI pregnancy rate is correlated with the factors of female age, male age, EMT, artificial insemination timing, insemination frequency, and ovarian stimulation protocols; the ovarian stimulation protocol can noticeably improve the patient pregnancy outcome. Furthermore, compared with single IUI, double IUI can significantly increase the clinical pregnancy rate.Keywords: intrauterine insemination, clinical pregnancy rate, post-wash total motile sperm count, ovarian stimulation cycle, timing of intrauterine insemination

This study aimed to promote the coordinated development of regional social economy and ecological environment, build a better living environment, accurately prevent and control pollution, and carry out in-depth surveys and general surveys of air pollution in Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei. Based on 6 years (June 2014 to December 2019) of ground environmental observation data and satellite data from 2000 to 2019, the distribution characteristics and evolution trend of air pollution in different time and spatial scales were analyzed. The results showed that:① according to the daily average concentration of PM

The mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) is a potential strategy in the pretreatment of traumatic acute lung injury (ALI), a disease that causes inflammation and oxidative stress. This study aimed to investigate whether MSC-exosomal microRNA-124-3p (miR-124-3p) affects traumatic ALI. Initially, a traumatic ALI rat model was established using the weight-drop method. Then, exosomes were obtained from MSCs of Sprague-Dawley rats, which were injected into the traumatic ALI rats. We found that miR-124-3p was abundantly-expressed in MSCs-derived exosomes and could directly target purinergic receptor P2X ligand-gated ion channel 7 (P2X7), which was overexpressed in traumatic ALI rats. After that, a loss- and gain-of-function study was performed in MSCs and traumatic ALI rats to investigate the role of miR-124-3p and P2X7 in traumatic ALI. MSC-derived exosomal miR-124-3p or silenced P2X7 was observed to increase the survival rate of traumatic ALI rats and enhance the glutathione/superoxide dismutase activity in their lung tissues. However, the wet/dry weight of lung tissues, activity of methylenedioxyamphetamine and H2O2, and levels of inflammatory factors (TNF-a, IL-6, and IL-8) were reduced. Similarly, the numbers of total cells, macrophages, neutrophils, and lymphocytes in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid were also reduced when treated with exosomal miR-124-3p or silenced P2X7. In conclusion, the results provide evidence that miR-124-3p transferred by MSC-derived exosomes inhibited P2X7 expression, thus improving oxidative stress injury and suppressing inflammatory response in traumatic ALI, highlighting a potential pretreatment for traumatic ALI.

Cheng-Xiang Wang,1,&ast; Yue Zhang,1,&ast; Qing-Feng Li,2 Hong-Liang Sun,1 Hai-Ling Chong,1 Jian-Xi Jiang,1 Qing-Chun Li1 1Department of Reproductive Medicine, Binzhou Medical University Hospital, Binzhou, Shandong, People’s Republic of China; 2Smart Gas Division, Qingdao iESLab Electronic Co., Ltd, Qingdao, Shandong, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Qing-Chun LiDepartment of Reproductive Medicine, Binzhou Medical University Hospital, No. 661 Huanghe 2nd Road, Binzhou, 256603, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86 543 325 8715Fax +86 543 325 7792Email qingchunli_doc@163.comObjective: The present study aims to evaluate the effect of monosodium glutamate on testicular spermatogenesis in mice from the perspective of the hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular axis and whether this destructive effect is alleviated with time.Methods: Neonatal mice were randomly divided into a monosodium glutamate (MSG) group and a control group, just below the interscapular region after birth with 10 μL MSG to deliver 4 mg/g (body mass), or with equivalent volumes of 0.9% saline. Samples which involved blood, brains and testicles of mice were collected and measured at puberty at 60 days and adulthood at 90 days.Results: The results show that the fluorescence intensity of GnRH nerve fibers, the levels of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), and testosterone (T) hormones in the reproductive system, the number of spermatocytes and spermatozoa in testicular sections, the body length, body weight, testicular weight, and testicular index in the 60-day-old mice in monosodium glutamate group (MSG60 group) and the MSG90 group were lower than those in the 60-day-old mice in normal control group (NC60 group) (p < 0.05), but the number of apoptotic cells in the testicular section was higher than in the NC60 group (p < 0.05). When the 90-day-old mice in monosodium glutamate group (MSG90 group) was compared with the MSG60 group, except for body weight and testicular weight increase (p < 0.05), there is no significant difference in the other parameters mentioned above (p > 0.05).Conclusion: Monosodium glutamate can cause reproductive toxicity to male mice by damaging GnRH neurons, and this reproductive toxicity cannot be relieved spontaneously over time. These findings are supported by observed histological changes.Keywords: monosodium glutamate, neurotoxicity, GnRH neurons, reproductive organs

The temporal and spatial distribution characteristics, evolution trend and potential climatic effects of air pollution in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) were analyzed on different time scales and spatial spaces, based on ground environment observation data from June 2014 to December 2018 and satellite remote sensing inversion products from 2000 to 2018. The results show that:① From the in-situ observed daily average concentration of PM

Rayleigh wave imaging is efficient in estimating the shear- (S) wave velocity in near-surface exploration. The key is to accurately extract the dispersion of Rayleigh wave. We propose a method to calculate the dispersion of the active-source Rayleigh wavefield by using the Aki formulation. The spectrum after the cross correlation of two-channel records in the frequency domain is expressed by the Bessel function. Using the corresponding relation between the zero point of the spectrum real part and the Bessel function root, the phase velocity at the discrete frequency point is obtained and the dispersion curve is extracted. First, the theoretical basis and calculation method used in the active-source Rayleigh wave data are introduced. Then, three sets of theoretical models are calculated by this method and the results are consistent with the theoretical dispersion. Finally, we process a group of real Rayleigh wave data and obtain the phase velocity profiles and compared them with the results obtained by the multichannel surface wave analysis method. The effectiveness and applicability of the Aki method in active-source data processing are verified. Compared with multichannel wave processing, the advantage of the Aki method lies in the use of two-channel data in a single-shot record. When the number of acquisition channels in a shot gathers is insufficient or there is a bad channel, the quality of the extracted dispersion is guaranteed.

From May 3 to 5, 2017, a special heavy pollution event occurred in Beijing. The meteorological conditions associated with the heavy pollution were relatively special, so the pollution forms and causes were studied. The general characteristics of this pollution event were obtained based on data from 35 environmental monitoring stations in Beijing. Matching characteristics of PM

The Cu–Al composite casts were prepared by the method of pouring molten aluminum. The solidification process and the microstructure of the transition layer were investigated during the recombination process of the liquid Al and the solid Cu. The results reveal that the microstructure of the transition layer in the Cu–Al composite cast consists of α(Al)+α(Al)–CuAl2 eutectic, α(Al)–CuAl2 eutectic, CuAl2+α(Al)–CuAl2 eutectic and Cu9Al4. Additionally, the pouring temperature, cooling mode of the Cu plate surface and start time of the forced cooling after pouring have no effect on the microstructure species. But the proportion of the various microstructures in the transition layer changes with the process parameters. The pure Al at the top of the transition layer starts to solidify first and then the α(Al) phase grows in a dendritic way, while the CuAl2 phase exhibits plane or cellular crystal growth from the two sides of the transition layer towards its interior. The stronger the cooling intensity of the Cu plate outer surface, the more developed the dendrite, and the easier it is for the CuAl2 phase to grow into a plane crystal.

In order to ensure the smooth progress of the new round of electricity reform and reduce market operation risks, it is necessary to study the impact of the market rules on the market performance through the power market simulation before the formal implementation of the market rules, in order to test the rationality of the trading rules and discover the existence of the defects in the rules, so as to further optimize and perfect the market design, establish corresponding market risk control strategies, and resolve risks in the stage of market design and rule making. This article is based on the fact that users of production and consumption can trade their own elastic load capacity on the feature vector trading platform, that is, when they respond to the imbalance of distributed generation/power consumption of production and consumption groups, the environmental protection benefits of distributed power generation can be reflected before they can obtain corresponding response power Subsidies for environmental benefits. According to the principle of power trading evaluation, the eigenvector model is used for analysis, and the simulation experiment environment is used to simulate the reasonable range of benefits in power trading, which proves that the research content of this paper is true and effective, and plays a popular role in power trading evaluation.

To reveal the effect of Mountain Valley Breeze (MVB) and Sea Land Breeze (SLB) in winter on the spatial-temporal distribution of air pollutants in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, hourly data from Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) and hourly air pollutant concentration data in December 2016 from the China National Environmental Monitoring Center were used to calculate the average wind vector fields and PM

To investigate the role of pH2AX in the reversibility of mouse testicular reproductive function impaired by single heat stress.Twenty-four C57 male mice were randomly divided into heat stress and control groups and immersed in water at 43℃ and 25℃, respectively, for 15 minutes. At 1, 7, and 14 days of heat exposure, all the mice were sacrificed and their testis tissues collected for determining the apoptosis of the germ cells by TUNEL and measuring the expression level of the pH2AX protein by immunohistochemistry and Western blot.The highest percentage of apoptotic cells were found in the seminiferous tubules of the mice in the heat stress group on the 1st day of the exposure and almost no apoptosis was observed at 7 and 14 days. The pH2AX protein was expressed in the nuclei of the basement membrane of adjacent seminiferous tubules. Compared with the control group, the expression of pH2AX was significantly increased on the 1st day of exposure (0.47 ± 0.02 vs 1.61 ± 0.04, P0.01), then decreased at 7 days (0.85 ± 0.03) in comparison with that on the 1st day (P0.01), and again elevated at 14 days (1.72 ± 0.02) as compared with either those at 1 and 7 days (P0.01) or that of the control (P0.01).Heat stress causes dynamic changes of the pH2AX expression in the testis of the mouse, which are associated with heat stress-induced proliferation and division of the testicular spermatogenic cells.目的： 探讨pH2AX在单次热应激致小鼠睾丸生殖功能可逆性中的表达变化。方法： C57雄性小鼠24只，随机按1、7、14 d分为对照组(n = 6)和热应激组(n = 6)。热应激组和对照组小鼠下腹部分别置于43 ℃和25 ℃水浴中干预15 min，于处理后1、7、14 d 取睾丸组织。TUNEL检测睾丸细胞凋亡情况，免疫组化染色检测pH2AX蛋白定位及表达，Western 印迹检测pH2AX蛋白表达水平。结果： TUNEL结果显示，在热应激后的第1天生精小管中的凋亡细胞数量最多，第7、14天细胞凋亡基本消失。免疫组化显示，pH2AX蛋白在睾丸生精小管基底膜处细胞核表达。Western印迹检测显示，与对照组相比，热应激后的第1天，pH2AX蛋白表达明显增加（0.47±0.02 vs 1.61±0.04，P0.01）；第7天（0.85±0.03）与热应激处理第1天相比pH2AX蛋白表达显著减少（P0.01）；第14天（1.72±0.02）与热应激处理第1、7天及对照组相比pH2AX蛋白表达显著增加（P均0.01）。结论： 小鼠睾丸热应激处理后pH2AX蛋白表达量在睾丸中出现动态变化，这种变化与热应激后睾丸生精细胞的增殖分裂相关。.

Carbide precipitation and martensite transformation in Cr5 steel have been observed in situ by high-temperature confocal laser-scanning microscopy. In this way, the influences of pulsed current and pulsed magnetic field complex pretreatment on carbide precipitation and martensite transformation during continuous cooling have been studied. The results show that the electropulsing complex pretreatment promotes the precipitation of M7C3-type carbides at high temperature, increases the start and finish temperatures of martensite transformation, and extends the phase transformation time. Martensite prefers to nucleate in the austenite with less precipitation of carbides due to the chemically homogeneous distribution of solute atoms.

The aim of the present study was to determine whether arcuate nucleus (ARC) lesions affect the ghrelin level in the plasma and the stomach in monosodium glutamate (MSG)‑treated mice. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the ARC was destroyed in mice treated neonatally with MSG, and whether the ARC lesions affect the ghrelin level in the plasma and lipid mobilization in MSG‑treated mice. The results revealed that MSG led to a marked reduction in ARC cresyl violet staining, tyrosine hydroxylase-immunoreactive (IR) neurons and neuropeptide Y‑IR fibers, compared with saline controls. MSG‑treated mice exhibited significantly increased body mass compared with saline controls, and MSG treatment did not prevent food deprivation‑induced decrease in white adipose tissue mass compared with controls. Plasma ghrelin levels were significantly increased in MSG‑treated mice that were fasted for 48 h, compared with the levels prior to fasting and re‑feeding, and the preprandial peak of plasma ghrelin persisted in MSG‑treated mice. In summary, the ARC was not found to be essential for food deprivation‑induced lipid mobilization and preprandial peak in MSG‑treated mice. However, this finding does not mean that ARC neurons do not contribute to food sensing and lipid mobilization under normal conditions, as compensatory mechanisms may have emerged after the ablation of ARC neurons.

Up to 50% of recurrent miscarriage cases in women occur without an underlying etiology. In the current prospective case–control study, we determined the impact of CGG trinucleotide expansions of the fragile-X mental retardation 1 (FMR1) gene in 49 women with unexplained recurrent miscarriages. Case group consisted of women with two or more unexplained consecutive miscarriages. Blood samples were obtained and checked for the presence of expanded alleles of the FMR1 gene using PCR. Patients harboring the expanded allele, with a threshold set to 40 repeats, were further evaluated by sequencing. The number of abortions each woman had, was not associated with her respective CGG repeat number (P=0.255). The repeat sizes of CGG expansion in the FMR1 gene were significantly different in the two population groups (P=0.027). All the positive cases involved intermediate zone carriers. Hence, the CGG expanded allele of the FMR1 gene might be associated with unexplained multiple miscarriages; whether such an association is coincidental or causal can be confirmed by future studies using a larger patient cohort.

The δ-ferrite to γ-austenite phase transformation process of low carbon steel was observed in-situ under a confocal scanning laser microscope and the influence of manganese and chromium on the migration of δ/γ interphase boundary during the δ to γ phase transformation was studied. It was found that the δ/γ interphase boundary becomes unstable with the decrease of temperature, from planar to curved morphology during the δ to γ phase transformation of Fe-0.08C steel and Fe-0.08C-0.8Mn steel. But in Fe-0.08C-0.8Cr steel, the δ/γ interphase boundaries are stable with planar morphology during the whole δ-ferrite to γ-austenite transformation. The destabilization of δ/γ interphase boundary in Fe-0.08C and Fe-0.08C-0.8Mn steels results from high degree of supercooling and sub-boundaries in γ, respectively. The stabilization of δ/γ interphase boundary in Fe-0.08C-0.8Cr steel results from the slow diffusion rate of carbon atom induced by the addition of chromium.

Signal extraction is critical in GRP data processing and noise attenuation. When the target depth is shallow, its reflection echo signal will overlap with the background noise, affecting the detection of arrival time and localization of the target. Thus, we propose a noise attenuation method based on the curvelet transform. First, the original signal is transformed into the curvelet domain, and then the curvelet coefficients of the background noise are extracted according to the distribution features that differ from the effective signal. In the curvelet domain, the coarse-scale curvelet atom is isotropic. Hence, a two-dimensional directional filter is designed to estimate the high-energy background noise in the coarsescale domain, and then, attenuate the background noise and highlight the effective signal. In this process, we also use a subscale threshold value of the curvelet domain to filter out random noise. Finally, we compare the proposed method with the average elimination and 2D continuous wavelet transform methods. The results show that the proposed method not only removes the background noise but also eliminates the coherent interference and random noise. The numerical simulation and the real data application suggest and verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.

The radial growth of δ-phase in Fe-0.15%C-0.8% Mn steel during solidification was in-situ observed under a high-temperature confocal scanning laser microscope (HTCSLM). The correlation between radial growth rate of cylindrical solid and time in melt was investigated, and the expression was deduced. The results indicate that the radius of cellular δ-phase rapidly enlarges at the beginning, and then the enlargement amplitude gradually declines. The variation of radial growth rate vs time is the same for each cellular δ-phase, and the radial growth rate of δ-phase rapidly declines to about 1.5 μ m/s within 10 s at a cooling rate of 2.7 K/min, after that the growth rate slowly falls. The experimental data of the radial growth rate of cellular δ-phase are consistent with the calculation results for Fe-0.15%C-0.8% Mn steel.

In this paper, we design a 6-degree of freedom (6-DOF) mobile manipulator and present a method of coordinating motion planning. Through analyzing the structure and motions of our mobile manipulator, we obtain some multiple constraints, including static constraints, dynamic constraints and obstacle constraints. To avoid the multiple results of inverse kinematics, joint angles constraints are adopted. Under the condition of these constraints, we put forward a method of coordinating motion planning to guarantee that the mobile manipulator can get the optimal solution by the maximum fitness method (MFM). The method includes two steps: first, the mobile platform moves from non-operable region to operable region; second, the coordinating motion between mobile platform and machine arm in order to achieve the purpose of dredging and unloading materials. Simulation experiments on the mobile manipulator show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

The growth of proeutectoid ferrite in Fe-0. 15%C-0. 8%Mn carbon steel during continuous cooling process was observed in-situ and tracked dynamically by using a high-temperature confocal scanning laser microscope (HTC-SLM), and the growing process was also investigated. The growth regularity of proeutectoid ferrite plates within austenite was obtained by analyzing the growth fashions and directions and quantitatively studying the growth rates. The results show that the proeutectoid ferrite plates grow in the fashion of creeping, twisting, branching off and deflection within austenite grain. The proeutectoid ferrite plates can grow up along preferential orientation but not strictly. Its growth direction fluctuates and changes in a small range. The growth rate also changes with the change in growth fashion and direction. When the proeutectoid ferrite grows in the fashion of deflection, the average growth rate of proeutectoid ferrite before its deflection is about 61. 9, and 46. 2 μm/s after the 15° deflection. At the beginning of proeutectoid ferrite growing, there is a fast growing stage. As the tip of proeutectoid ferrite extends forward continuously, the growth rate will slow down. Therefore, it will induce the proeutectoid ferrite to deflect and grow along another favorable direction, then it will grow rapidly again.

We discuss the problem of nonsingularity of complex partitioned matrices and give the new criterion for determining nonsigularity of complex partitioned matrices and irreducible partitioned matrices by the additive approach. And we obtain the new condition for a matrix to be a positive stable matrix.

The research of traveling salesman problem (TSP) is important in logistics distribution. Because many stochastic cost factors affecting logistics distribution in real life, a class of stochastic programming model is considered in TSP in this paper. Through given a class of synthesizing effect functions which synthesis expectation and variance of cost factors, stochastic programming model of TSP with stochastic cost can be converted into a class of crisp programming models. A genetic algorithm based on real coding is used in an illustrative example. It is provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed model and method.

The moving process of δ/δ grain boundary during the solidification process of Fe-0.2%C-0.8%Cr has been observed in-situ with confocal scanning laser microscope (CSLM), and the establishment of δ/δ grain boundary, the moving mode, the moving speed and the influence of correlative factor were explored in deta.il. The results showed that the clear grain cannot be formed when δ phase merged during solidification process of the steel if the actual cooling rate was 0.045 °C · s−1. The δ/δ grain boundary with shape of flat will be formed if there is no essential conjunction between δ phase in a long period of time. The movement of δ grain boundary cross point drives other δ/δ grain boundaries to move. The moving process is not stable, and the moving rate variation ranges from 0.12 to 1.65 μm · sp−1. Temperature of the system is the chief factor for influencing the moving rate of δ/δ grain boundary during the solidification. When the temperature fluctuation of system appears, the solidified grain boundary is re-melted, which results in the catastrophic fluctuation of moving rate for δ/δ grain boundary. When the solidification process reaches its end, the average moving rate of δ/δ grain boundary is quicker than that of L/δ interface. The coarsening rate of crystal grain in the melt is slower than that of solidified solid phase crystal grain.

// Meng-Meng Jia 1 , Jie Deng 1 , Xiao-lin Cheng 1 , Zhen Yan 1 , Qing-Chun Li 1 , Ying-Ying Xing 1 , Dong-Mei Fan 1 , Xiao-Yu Tian 1 1 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital, and College of Clinical Medicine of Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang 471003, China Correspondence to: Xiao-Yu Tian, email: tianxiaoyu816@163.com Keywords: HE4, tumour marker, ovarian cancer, diagnosis, meta-analysis Received: September 09, 2016 Accepted: November 23, 2016 Published: December 26, 2016 ABSTRACT Urine HE4 has been reported as the potential novel diagnostic biomarker for ovarian cancer in several studies, but their results were inconsistent. Therefore, we conducted a systematic analysis to evaluate the diagnostic value of urine HE4 in detecting ovarian cancer. A comprehensive electronic and manual search was conducted for relevant literatures through several databases up to May 5, 2016. The quality of the studies included in the systematic review was assessed using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS-2) tool. All analyses were conducted using Meta-DiSc 1.4 and STATA 12.0 software. A total of seven publications were included in this study, and these studies included 413 ovarian cancer patients and 573 controls. The summary estimates were: sensitivity 0.76 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.72–0.80), specificity 0.92 (95% CI: 0.89–0.94), positive likelihood ratio 8.39 (95%CI: 4.81–14.63), negative likelihood ratio 0.23 (95% CI: 0.13–0.39), diagnostic odds ratio 37.90 (95% CI: 18.69–76.83), and area under the curve 0.93. According to our results, urine HE4 has greater diagnostic value in detecting ovarian cancer. In addition, considering the high heterogeneity, further research studies with more well-designed and large sample sizes are needed in the future.

In the current study the antiproliferative effect of arctigenin, plant lignin, was evaluated on human colon cancer cell line HT-29. Furthermore, attempts were made to explore the signaling mechanism which may be responsible for its effect.Cell growth inhibition was assessed by MTT and LDH assays. Flow cytometric analysis was performed to determine cell arrest in the cell cycle phase and apoptosis. Furthermore, to confirm the apoptotic activity of arctigenin, caspase-9 and -3 activities analysis was performed. The levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and p38 mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) were investigated to determine their role in inducing apoptosis in arctigenin-treated HT-29 colon cancer cell line.MTT and LDH results demonstrated significant cell growth inhibitory effect of arctigenin on HT-29 cells in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, increase in cell number arrested at G2/M phase was observed in flow cytometric analysis upon arctigenin treatment. In addition, arctigenin increased the apoptotic ratio in a dose-dependent manner. The involvement of intrinsic apoptotic pathway was indicated by the activation of caspase-9 and -3. Moreover, increased ROS production, activation of p38 MAPK and changes in mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm) also revealed the role of intrinsic apoptotic signaling pathway in cell growth inhibition after arctigenin exposure.Arctigenin induces apoptosis in HT-29 colon cancer cells by regulating ROS and p38 MAPK pathways.

The solid-state graphitization process of spherical graphite iron after electropulsing pretreatment was observed in-situ by using a high-temperature confocal scanning laser microscope (HTCSLM). The influence of electropulsing pretreatment on the decomposition of cementite and the formation of graphite during the solid-state graphitization was studied. The result indicates that the electropulsing pretreatment can accelerate the decomposition of cementite, and make more neonatal graphite in small size be formed near the cementite. The neonatal graphite nucleates and grows chiefly at the temperature range of 800 to 850 °C, and the average growth rate of neonatal graphite is 0.034 μm2/s during the heating process. For the spherical graphite iron after normal and electropulsing pretreatment, the decomposition rate of cementite during the heating process is 0.16 and 0.24 μm2/s, respectively. Analysis shows that the electropulsing pretreatment promotes the dislocation accumulation near the cementite, consequently, the decomposition of cementite and the formation of neonatal graphite is accelerated during the solid-state graphitization.

The self-made device to test the shrinkage ratio and temperature of cast ingot is used to measure the shrinkage mass of Fe-0.1%C, Fe-0.15%C, Fe-0.33%C cast ingot with the dimension of 200×80×100mm. The results show that the total shrinkage mass of cast ingot is increased with the increase of carbon content. In the carbon content range of the experiment, the rate of shrinkage and expansion of Fe-0.15%C steel during, before and after eutectoid reaction is all the quickest. The solid-state shrinkage rate of Fe-0.15%C steel before eutectoid reaction is 288 μm•s-1. The shrinkage mass and rate of cast ingot after eutectoid reaction are 0.051 mm and 127 μm•s-1, respectively. The expansion mass and rate of cast ingot during eutectoid reaction are 0.016 mm and 53.3 μm•s-1, respectively.

In consideration of the composition characteristics and quality requirements of L80-3Cr high chromium Steel, the reasonable alloying system, temperature system and key technologies in continuous casting process are employed in the development of a full-line operation of LD-LF-RH-Bloom continuous casting on steelmaking with semi-steel, which meets the economic production of steel has been realized. The industrial tests show that the average effective rate of Cr is 98.2% in smelting process, and Cr content in steel products is consistent. T[O] content of rolled products is ranged from 10×10-6 to 16×10-6 with an average content of 13.5×10-6. Various inclusions of the products are no more than 1.0 level. There is good surface quality and internal quality of rolled products.

The behavior of inclusions in the process of δ-phase growth during the solidification of Fe-0. 15C-0. 8Mn steel was in-situ observed using a high-temperature confocal scanning laser microscope (HTCSLM). The results show that inclusions arrive the S/L (solid/liquid) interface by way of direct impact or gradual drift, when the cell spacing is approximately equal to 177 μm during the growth of cellular δ-phase. The inclusions easily stay at the positions of trailing vortex formed by the circumferential motion of molten steel around δ-phase. Some inclusions reaching the S/L interface are captured by the solid-phase. Some of them move along the normal direction of the S/L interface because of pushing of solid-phase, and the others get away from the S/L interface after being pushed for a distance. The faster the growth rates of the solid-phase are, the easier the inclusions are captured by the S/L interface. The slower the growth rates of the solid-phase are, the easier the inclusions move with the S/L interface.

The δ→γ phase transformation in the steel was studied in detail, and the relationship between δ→γ phase transformation and the crack formation in continuous casting slabs was discussed as well. The results indicate that the micropores are formed at the positions where δ-phase transformation terminates during the δ→γ phase transformation for low-carbon non-peritectic steel. The micropores will also be formed at the positions where the peritectic reaction of the steel terminates, then the pores are remained on the grain boundary of γ-phase when γ-phase becomes granulated. The micropores distributing on the grain boundary of γ-phase is one of the results for the crack formation of continuous casting slabs and the obvious plasticity decrease of δ-phase zone in the steel. The theoretical analysis results are basically consistent with the experimental results.

The influence of pulse electric field on the columnar crystals growth has been studied by employing pulse electric field vertically to the solid/liquid interface during unidirectional solidification. The results showed that the pulse electric field was favorable to columnar crystals growth with the increase of pulse electric field intensity when the liquid phase was the positive electrode of pulse electric field. The formation of equiaxed crystal was accelerated when the degree of composition supercooling in front edge of solid/liquid interface reached the degree of nucleation supercooling by pulse electric field. When the liquid phase was the negative electrode of pulse electric field, the growth of columnar crystals was hindered, and the formation of equiaxed crystal was accelerated by pulse electric field.

The annealing process of 800MPa grade hot dip galvanized DP steel was simulated on Gleeble-1500 thermo-mechanical simulator. The recovery and recrystallization of ferrite and the formation of austenite during the continuous heating process were studied in this paper. The results show that the fine equiaxed recrystallized nucleus started emerging nearby grain boundaries of deformed ferrites when the heating temperature was 630°C. With the increase of temperature, the recrystallized grain began to grow up, some new crystallized nucleus formed in other places with high stored energy of deformation. when the heating temperature was 690°C, the recrystallization process was basically finished, the deformed microstructure had been replaced by equiaxed ferrite grains. When the heating temperature was 730°C, the austenite nucleated on the carbide particles of the ferrite grain boundaries in the original pearlite area mainly. Some austenite also nucleated on the ferrite grain boundaries or the carbide particles within the ferrite grain. When the temperature was 750°C, the austenite began to grow along and parallel to ferrite grain boundaries.

Under the condition that the solid-liquid interface bends periodically in continuous casting, the expression of solid-phase growth rate adapting to continuous casting was set up, and then the growth rates were calculated. On this basis, the morphologic of crystal growth and the variation of primary dendrite spacing during continuous casting slabs were studied. The results show that the growth rate is the fastest when solid-phase moves to wave crest within a deformation periodicity, whereas the growth rate is the slowest when the crystal moves to wave hollow. The bigger the bulge size is, the greater the variation amplitude of the growth rate will become. The variation of the growth rate results in the S/L interface to develop towards a planar surface. Because the value is much smaller than the critical value of the transformation from cells to dendrites, and the crystals only grow in the fashion of dendrites. The primary dendrite spacing at wave crest is bigger than the primary dendrite spacing at wave hollow in early stage of columnar crystal growth, and the dendrite spacing at wave crest is basically equal with the dendrite spacing at wave hollow in the late stage of solidification, and they quickly simultaneous increase. Good correlation is obtained between the experimental results and the calculation results of the dendrite arm spacing.

The tensile process of 800MPa grade dual-phase steel was observed in-situ by SEM. The initiation and propagation of crack in dual-phase steel, the initiation of micro-pores, the deformation behavior of ferrite and martensite were analyzed in this paper. The results show that the main crack goes across the soft ferrite and around the hard martensite during its propagation in the beginning. When the applied stress is small, the micro-pores are easy to form inside the ferrite grain or on the interface of ferrite and martensite. The micro-pores can also form in the fracture site of martensite with the increase of applied stress. The fracture morphology of the dual-phase steel is dimple and the formation of fracture belongs to plastic fracture.

The testing device self-designed was used to measure the shrinkage ratio of Fe-0.18%C alloy in the length direction of cast ingot with the dimension of 200×80×100 mm. The results show that the total linear shrinkage mass of cast ingot is 0.0281 mm in the range of 4 mm near the inner surface of water-cooled crystallizer from the beginning of solidification to the end of δ→γ transformation. The shrinkage mass of δ phase and δ→γ transformation is 0.0211 mm and 0.007 mm, which is 75% and 25% of total shrinkage mass, respectively. The shrinkage rate of δ phase and δ→γ transformation is 0.45 μm·s-1and 1.45 μm·s-1, respectively. The shrinkage mass in the cross section of cast ingot is less than the free shrinkage mass observed by using a confocal laser scanning microscope.