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Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Wumei Wan (WMW), a traditional Chinese medicine prescription, has been proved to be effective in treating Colitis-associated colorectal cancer (CAC), but it has not been proven to be effective in different stages of CAC., Aim of the Study: The purpose of our study is to investigate the therapeutic effect and mechanism of WMW on the progression of CAC., Materials and Methods: Azioximethane (AOM) and dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) were used to treat mice for the purpose of establishing CAC models. WMW was administered in different stages of CAC. The presentative chemical components in WMW were confirmed by LC-MS/MS under the optimized conditions. The detection of inflammatory cytokines in the serum and colon of mice were estimated by qRT-PCR and ELISA. The changes of T cells and myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) in each group were detected by flow cytometry. The metabolic components in serum of mice were detected by UPLC-MS/MS. Expression of genes and proteins were detected by eukaryotic transcriptomics and Western blot to explore the key pathway of WMW in preventing CAC., Results: WMW had significant effect on inhibiting inflammatory responses and tumors during the early development stage of CAC when compared to other times. WMW increased the length of mice's colons, reduced the level of IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α in colon tissues, and effectively alleviated colonic inflammation, and improved the pathological damage of colon tissues. WMW could significantly reduce the infiltration of MDSCs in the spleen, increase CD4 + T cells and CD8 + T cells in the spleen of CAC mice, and effectively reform the immune microenvironment in CAC mice. Transcriptomics analysis revealed that 2204 genes had different patterns of overlap in the colon tissues of mice between control group, AOM + DSS group, and early administration of WMW group. And KEGG enrichment analysis showed that PI3K/Akt signaling pathway, ECM-receptor interaction, IL-17 signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway, pancreatic secretion, thermogenesis, and Rap1 signaling pathway were all involved. The serum metabolomics results of WMW showed that the metabolic compositions of the control group, AOM + DSS group and the early stage of WMW were different, and 42 differential metabolites with the opposite trends of changes were screened. The metabolic pathways mainly included pyrimidine metabolism, glycine, serine and threonine metabolism, tryptophan metabolism, and purine metabolism. And amino acids and related metabolites may play an important role in WMW prevention of CAC., Conclusion: WMW can effectively prevent the occurrence and development of CAC, especially in the initial stage. WMW can reduce the immune infiltration of MDSCs in the early stage. Early intervention of WMW can improve the metabolic disorder caused by AOM + DSS, especially correct the amino acid metabolism. PI3K/Akt signaling pathway was inhabited in early administration of WMW, which can regulate the amplification and function of MDSCs., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest All authors disclosed no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Single-pixel imaging (SPI), which offers high-throughput measurement capabilities and a simple structure, has promising applications in near-infrared single-photon imaging. Nevertheless, the low saturation count rate of near-infrared single-photon detectors often leads to photon pile-up effects. This paper delves into the influence of these effects on passive SPI under both random matrix modulation and Hadamard matrix modulation and offers corresponding noise removal solutions. The experimental results validated the efficacy of these noise removal schemes.

The multifunctional derivatization of alcohols has been achieved by the bipyridinium-based conjugated small molecule photocatalysts with redox center and Lewis acid site. Besides exhibiting high activity in the selective generation of aldehydes/ketones, acids from alcohols through solvent modulation, this system renders the first selective synthesis of esters via an attractive cross-coupling pattern, whose reaction route is significantly different from the traditional condensation of alcohols and acids or esterification from hemiacetals. Following the oxidization of alcohol to aldehyde via bipyridinium-mediated electron and energy transfer, the Lewis acid site of bipyridinium then activates the aldehyde and methanol to obtain the acetal, which further reacts with methanol to generate ester. This method not only demonstrates a clear advantage of bipyridinium in diverse catalytic activities, but also paves the way for designing efficient multifunctional small molecule photocatalysts. This metal- and additive-free photocatalytic esterification reaction marks a significant advancement towards a more environmentally friendly, cost-effective and green sustainable approach, attributed to the utilization of renewable substrate alcohol and the abundant, low-cost air as the oxidant. The mildness of this esterification reaction condition provides a more suitable alternative for large-scale industrial production of esters., (© 2024 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Insulin is a potent adipogenic hormone that triggers a series of transcription factors that regulate the differentiation of preadipocytes into mature adipocytes. Ciglitazone specifically binds to peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPARγ), thereby promoting adipocyte differentiation. As a natural ligand of PPARγ, oleic acid (OA) can promote the translocation of PPARγ into the nucleus, regulate the expression of downstream genes, and promote adipocyte differentiation. We hypothesized that ciglitazone and oleic acid interact with insulin to enhance bovine preadipocyte differentiation. Preadipocytes were cultured 96 h in differentiation medium containing 10 mg/L insulin (I), 10 mg/L insulin + 10 µM cycloglitazone (IC), 10 mg/L insulin + 100 µM oleic acid (IO), or 10 mg/L insulin + 10 µM cycloglitazone+100 µM oleic acid (ICO). Control preadipocytes (CON) were cultured in differentiation medium (containing 5% fetal calf serum). The effects on the differentiation of Yanbian cattle preadipocytes were examined using molecular and transcriptomic techniques, including differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and Kyoto Encyclopaedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis. I, IC, IO, and ICO treatments produced higher concentrations of triglycerides (TAG) and lipid droplet accumulation in preadipocytes compared with CON treatment (P < 0.05). Co-treatment of insulin and PPARγ agonists significantly increased the expression of genes involved in regulating adipogenesis and fatty acid synthesis. (P < 0.05). Differential expression analysis identified 1488, 1764, 1974 and 1368 DEGs in the I, IC, IO and ICO groups, respectively. KEGG pathway analysis revealed DEGs mainly enriched in PPAR signalling, FOXO signaling pathway and fatty acid metabolism. These results indicate that OA, as PPARγ agonist, can more effectively promote the expression of bovine lipogenesis genes and the content of TAG and adiponectin when working together with insulin, and stimulate the differentiation of bovine preadipocytes. These findings provide a basis for further screening of relevant genes and transcription factors in intramuscular fat deposition and meat quality to enhance breeding programs., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Homogeneous and heterogeneous reactions wherein the resulting products remain dissolved in solvents generally require complicated separation and purification process, despite the advantage of heterogeneous systems allowing retrieval of catalysts. Herein, we have developed an efficient approach for the one-pot tandem synthesis of quinazolines, quinazolinones and benzothiadiazine 1,1-dioxides from alcohols and amines utilizing a bifunctional bipyridinium photocatalyst with redox and Lewis acid sites using air as an oxidant. Through solvent-modulation strategy, the photocatalytic system exhibits high performance and enables most products to separate spontaneously. Consequently, the homogeneous catalyst can be reused by direct centrifugation isolation of the products. Notably, the method is also applicable to the less active substrates, such as heterocyclic alcohols and aliphatic alcohols, and thus provides an efficient and environmentally friendly photocatalytic route with spontaneous separation of N-heterocycles to reduce production costs and meet the needs of atomic economy and green chemistry., (© 2023 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

Imidacloprid (IMI) is an endogenous neonicotinoid insecticide widely used in agriculture and has attracted researchers' attention because of its risks to the environment and human health. Melatonin (MT) is an antioxidant hormone produced by the pineal gland of the brain. Studies have shown that it has a variety of physiological functions and plays a crucial role in the development of animal germ cells and embryos. The potential protective effects of MT against oocyte damage caused by neonicotinoid pesticide toxicity remain unclear. In this study, we report the toxicity of IMI against, and its effects on the quality of, porcine oocytes and the protective effect of MT on IMI-exposed oocytes. The results show that IMI exposure adversely affected oocyte maturation, while MT supplementation ameliorated its toxic effects. Specifically, IMI exposure increased oxidative stress (OS), endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS), and apoptosis, which may affect polar body expulsion rates and blastocyst formation. Also, IMI exposure reduced oocyte cleavage rates and the number of cells in blastocysts. However, all of these toxic effects can be restored after a melatonin supplementation treatment. In conclusion, these results suggest that melatonin has a protective effect on IMI-induced defects during porcine oocyte maturation.

Image-free tracking methods based on single-pixel detectors (SPDs) can track a moving object at a very high frame rate, but they rarely can achieve simultaneous imaging of such an object. In this study, we propose a method for simultaneously obtaining the relative displacements and images of a translational object. Four binary Fourier patterns and two differential Hadamard patterns are used to modulate one frame of the object and then modulated light signals are obtained by SPD. The relative displacements and image of the moving object can be gradually obtained along with the detection. The proposed method does not require any prior knowledge of the object and its motion. The method has been verified by simulations and experiments, achieving a frame rate of 3332 Hz to acquire relative displacements of a translational object at a spatial resolution of 128 × 128 pixels using a 20000-Hz digital micro-mirror device. This proposed method can broaden the application of image-free tracking methods and obtain spatial information about moving objects.

High-flux measurement characteristics of compressed sensing (CS) imaging causes the imaging system prone to be disturbed by quantization. To realize high-quality CS imaging with limited detector bits, an improved imaging method combining sparse measurements and multiple dithers is proposed to reduce the dynamic range of the measured signals and increase that of effective detection. Simulations and experiments show that compared with traditional CS imaging, the proposed system decreases reconstruction errors caused by quantization distortions and may reduce the required number of detector bits to 1. The effects of detector noise and system parameters are discussed to validate the feasibility and performance of this method.

Response inhibition, a crucial component of executive function, is closely related to personal impulse control, social adaption, and mental health. Previous studies have found response inhibition deficit in patients with major depressive disorder, but whether it also exists in individuals with subclinical depression (SD) remains unclear. This study aimed to identify the ability of response inhibition to emotional face stimuli both under explicit and implicit conditions in individuals with SD. Thirty-six subclinical depressed college students and 39 healthy individuals were recruited and administered the non-emotional, explicit, and implicit emotional stop-signal tasks (SSTs). Mixed-model analyses of variance were used to analyze the differences between and within groups. In implicit emotional SST, the results showed a significant longer stop-signal response time, a shorter stop-signal delay time, a shorter go reaction time, and a similar proportion of stop success in the SD group compared to healthy controls. However, the above indices showed no significant difference between the two groups in the non-emotional SST and explicit emotional SST. These findings suggest a possible defect of response inhibition in implicit emotional processing in individuals with SD, which may potentially serve as a marker of susceptibility to depression and thus be applied to early screening and intervention for major depressive disorder., (© 2022 Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)

A pyridinium-based complex with environment-friendly and earth-abundant Zn II ion was synthesized and explored as a green catalyst applied in activating molecular oxygen for the simple and efficient photooxidation of alcohols into aldehydes under additive-free and mild conditions. The metal coordination was conducive to promoting the electron transfer efficiency and introducing the heavy-atom effect for the increased generation of ⋅O 2 - and 1 O 2 . Accordingly, improved photocatalytic performance of this complex compared to its precursor, no matter activity or selectivity, was obtained, facilitating the transformation of alcohols into aldehydes in a sustainable way., (© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Toxoplasma gondii, a protozoan intracellular parasite, is present in a wide range of hosts, including virtually all species of warm-blooded vertebrates. Toxoplasmosis spreads to humans through a variety of pathways, including contaminated food or water, and close contact with various types of domestic animals. It poses a severe threat to human health, and contributes to important economic losses, not only in cost-of-illness but also in surveillance programs. It is thus necessary to develop a rapid point-of-care field diagnostic technology to control or prevent pathogen transmission to economically important livestock animals, domestic animals, and human beings. In this study, we develop a real-time isothermal amplification method capable of detecting the T. gondii genome in swine and feline blood samples. This method can detect toxoplasma genome with a lowest detection limit of 10 2 copies of per reaction under optimal reaction conditions of 36 °C for 25 min. The assay displayed advantages in sensitivity and specificity in comparison to traditional real-time PCR, and can be performed in a portable instrument., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Carnosic acid (CA), a natural catechol rosin diterpene, is used as an additive in animal feeds and human foods. However, the effects of CA on mammalian reproductive processes, especially early embryonic development, are unclear. In this study, we added CA to parthenogenetically activated porcine embryos in an in vitro culture medium to explore the influence of CA on apoptosis, proliferation, blastocyst formation, reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, glutathione (GSH) levels, mitochondrial membrane potential, and embryonic development-related gene expression. The results showed that supplementation with 10 μM CA during in vitro culture significantly improved the cleavage rates, blastocyst formation rates, hatching rates, and total numbers of cells of parthenogenetically activated porcine embryos compared with no supplementation. More importantly, supplementation with CA also improved GSH levels and mitochondrial membrane potential, reduced natural ROS levels in blastomeres, upregulated Nanog, Sox2, Gata4, Cox2, Itga5, and Rictor expression, and downregulated Birc5 and Caspase3 expression. These results suggest that CA can improve early porcine embryonic development by regulating oxidative stress. This study elucidates the effects of CA on early embryonic development and their potential mechanisms, and provides new applications for improving the quality of in vitro-developed embryos.

Imperatorin (IMP) exhibits a variety of pharmacological properties, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, anti-cancer, and anti-hypertension activities. However, its effects on animal reproduction systems, especially oocyte development, maturation, and aging are not yet clear. In this study, the effects of IMP on oocyte development and aging as well as the underlying molecular mechanisms were explored. Oocytes were cultured for an additional 24 h for aging. Results revealed that the blastocyst formation and hatching rates of embryos, which were parthenogenetically activated aged oocytes, were significantly increased with IMP treatment (40 μM). Simultaneously, well-distributed cortical granules but no significant difference in zona pellucida hardness were observed after IMP treatment. During this stage, intracellular reactive oxygen species, apoptosis, and autophagy levels were decreased, while mitochondrial membrane potential, glutathione level, and activity of superoxide dismutase and catalase were increased. IMP-treated aged oocytes also showed significantly higher expression of MOS, CCNB1, BMP15, and GDF9 than non-IMP-treated aged oocytes although their levels were still lower than those in the fresh oocytes. These results suggest that IMP can effectively ameliorate the quality of aged porcine oocytes by reducing oxidative stress and protecting mitochondrial function., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2020 Luo, Zhang, Li, Liu, Yao, Guo, Jin, Jin, Yuan, Jiang and Kim.)

Leonurine (LEO) is pseudoalkaloid that has been isolated from motherwort. It has been found to have various biological activities, including an antioxidant capacity. This study aimed to confirm whether LEO could be used in porcine in vitro culture (IVC) medium for its antioxidant effect and related molecular mechanisms. The results showed that embryos in IVC medium supplemented with 40 μM LEO had an increased blastocyst formation rate, total cell number, and proliferation capacity and a low apoptosis rate. LEO supplementation decreased reactive oxygen species levels and increased glutathione levels. Moreover, LEO-treated embryos exhibited improved intracellular mitochondrial membrane potential and reduced autophagy. In addition, pluripotency related gene was up-regulated while apoptosis and autophagy related genes were down-regulated with LEO supplementation. These results suggest that LEO has a beneficial effect on pre-implantation embryo development by reducing oxidative stress and enhancing mitochondrial function., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Actin-interacting protein 1 (AIP1), also known as WD repeat-containing protein 1 (WDR1), is ubiquitous in eukaryotic organisms, and it plays critical roles in the dynamic reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton. However, the biological function and mechanism of AIP1 in mammalian oocyte maturation is still largely unclear. In this study, we demonstrated that AIP1 boosts ADF/Cofilin activity in mouse oocytes. AIP1 is primarily distributed around the spindle region during oocyte maturation, and its depletion impairs meiotic spindle migration and asymmetric division. The knockdown of AIP1 resulted in the gathering of a large number of actin-positive patches around the spindle region. This effect was reduced by human AIP1 (hAIP1) or Cofilin (S3A) expression. AIP1 knockdown also reduced the phosphorylation of Cofilin near the spindle, indicating that AIP1 interacts with ADF/Cofilin-decorated actin filaments and enhances filament disassembly. Moreover, the deletion of AIP1 disrupts Cofilin localization in metaphase I (MI) and induces cytokinesis defects in metaphase II (MII). Taken together, our results provide evidence that AIP1 promotes actin dynamics and cytokinesis via Cofilin in the gametes of female mice., (© 2020 Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.)

L-carnitine (LC) is well known for its antioxidant activity. In this study, we explored the potential mechanistic effects of LC supplementation on aged bovine oocytes in vitro. We showed that in-vitro maturation could enhance the subsequent developmental capacity of aging oocytes, when supplemented with LC. After in vitro fertilization, the blastocyst formation rate in the aged oocytes post-LC treatment significantly increased compared to that in untreated aged oocytes (29.23 ± 2.20% vs. 20.90 ± 3.05%). Furthermore, after LC treatment, the level of intracellular reactive oxygen species in aged oocytes significantly decreased, and glutathione levels significantly increased, compared to those in untreated aged oocytes. Mitochondrial membrane potential, the percentage of early apoptotic oocytes, and caspase-3 activity were significantly reduced in LC-treated aged oocytes compared to those in untreated aged oocytes. Furthermore, during in vitro aging, the mRNA levels of the anti-apoptotic genes, Bcl-xl and survivin in LC-treated aged oocytes were significantly higher than those in untreated aged oocytes. Overall, these results indicate that at least in in vitro conditions, LC can prevent the aging of bovine oocytes and improve the developmental capacity of bovine embryo.

A single-pixel compressive imaging technique that uses differential modulation based on the transformation of discrete orthogonal Krawtchouk moments is proposed. In this method, two sets of Krawtchouk basis patterns are used to differentially modulate the light source, then the Krawtchouk moments of the target object are acquired from the light intensities measured by a single-pixel detector. The target image is reconstructed by applying an inverse Krawtchouk moment transform represented in the matrix form. The proposed technique is verified by both computational simulations and laboratory experiments. The results show that this technique can retrieve an image from compressive measurements and the real-time reconstruction. The background noise can be removed by the differential measurement to realize the excellent image quality. Moreover, the proposed technique is especially suitable for the single-pixel imaging application that requires the extraction of the characteristics at the region-of-interest.

Compressive sensing (CS) has been used in LiDAR systems utilizing one single-photon-counting avalanche diode. We demonstrate an unexpected grayscale inversed image of an object at an unchosen depth, which appears in the reconstruction of the infrared single-pixel LiDAR system due to the pile-up effect. A correction algorithm and the sparse measurement are proposed and experimentally verified to effectively reduce the photon pile-up influence, so that the negative images can be completely removed. The correction methods in this research can improve the accuracy and the flexibility of the single-pixel LiDAR systems employing detectors with a low maximum light count.

Measurements of the three-dimensional (3D) structure of spermatozoon are crucial for the study of developmental biology and for the evaluation of in vitro fertilization. Here, we present 3D label-free imaging of individual spermatozoon and perform quantitative analysis of bovine, porcine, and mouse spermatozoa morphologies using refractive index tomography. Various morphological and biophysical properties were determined, including the internal structure, volume, surface area, concentration, and dry matter mass of individual spermatozoon. Furthermore, Holstein cows and Korean native cattle spermatozoa were systematically analyzed and revealed significant differences in spermatozoa head length, head width, midpiece length, and tail length between the two breeds. This label-free imaging approach provides a new technique for understanding the physiology of spermatozoa.

Animal cells have multiple innate effector mechanisms that inhibit viral replication. For the pathogenic retrovirus human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1), there are widely expressed restriction factors, such as APOBEC3 proteins, tetherin/BST2, SAMHD1 and MX2, as well as TRIM5α. We previously found that the TRIM5α gene clearly affects SIVmac or HIV-2 replication, but the major determinant of the combinatorial effect caused by multiple host restriction factors is still not fully clear. APOBEC3G (apolipoprotein B mRNA editing enzyme, catalytic polypeptide-like 3G), a host restriction factor that restricts HIV replication by causing cytosine deamination, can be targeted and degraded by the SIV/HIV-1/HIV-2 accessory protein Vif. Although rhesus macaques are widely used in HIV/AIDS research, little is known regarding the impact of APOBEC3G gene polymorphisms on viral Vif-mediated ubiquitin degradation in Chinese-origin rhesus macaques. In this study, we therefore genotyped APOBEC3G in 35 Chinese rhesus macaques. We identified a novel transcript and 27 APOBEC3G polymorphisms, including 20 non-synonymous variants and 7 synonymous mutation sites, of which 10 were novel. According to the predicted structure of the A3G protein, we predicted that the E88K and G212D mutations, both on the surface of the A3G protein, would have a significant effect on Vif-induced A3G degradation. However, an in vitro overexpression assay showed that these mutations did not influence HIV-2-Vif-mediated degradation of APOBEC3G. Unexpectedly, another polymorphism L71R, conferred resistance to Vif-mediated ubiquitin degradation, strongly suggesting that L71R might play an important role in antiviral defense mechanisms.

Laminarin (LMA), a β-glucan mixture with good biocompatibility, improves the growth performance and immune response when used as food additives and nutraceuticals. The aim of the present research was to explore the effects of LMA on porcine early stage embryo development, as well as the underlying mechanisms. The results showed that the developmental competence of porcine early stage embryos was dramatically improved after LMA supplementation during the in vitro culture period. The presence of 20 μg/mL LMA during the in vitro culture period significantly improved cleavage rate, blastocyst formation rates, hatching rate, and total cell number in the blastocyst compared to that in the control group. Notably, LMA attenuated the intracellular reactive oxygen species generation induced by H 2 O 2 . Furthermore, LMA not only increased intracellular glutathione levels, but also ameliorated mitochondrial membrane potential. In addition, the expression of a zygotic genome activation related gene (YAP1), pluripotency-related genes (OCT4, NANOG, and SOX2), and hatching-related genes (COX2, GATA4, and ITGA5) were up-regulated following LMA supplementation during porcine early stage embryo development. These results demonstrate that LMA has beneficial effects on the development of porcine early stage embryos via regulation of oxidative stress. This evidence provides a novel method for embryo development improvement associated with exposure to LMA., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

This paper reports an efficient method for sound extraction from high-speed light spot videos reconstructed from the coded light spot images captured with a low-speed camera based on compressive sensing, but at the expense of consuming time. The proposed method first gets the high-speed video of the light spot that is illuminated on the vibrating target caused by sound. Then the centroid of the light spot is used to recover the sound. Simulations of the proposed method are carried out and experimental results are demonstrated. The results show that high-speed videos with a frame rate of 2000 Hz can be reconstructed with a low-speed (100 Hz) charge-coupled device (CCD) camera, which is randomly modulated by a digital micro-mirror device (DMD) 20 times during each exposure time. This means a speed improvement of 20 times is achieved. The effects of synchronization between CCD image recording and DMD modulation, the optimal sampling patterns of DMD, and sound vibration amplitudes on the performance of the proposed method are evaluated. Using this compressive camera, speech (counting from one to four in Chinese) was recovered well. This has been confirmed by directly listening to the recovered sound, and the intelligibility value (0⁻1) that evaluated the similarity between them was 0.8185. Although we use this compressive camera for sound detection, we expect it to be useful in applications related to vibration and motion., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

We experimentally demonstrate that the sensitivity of photon-counting imaging can be improved by 2 orders of magnitude with the compressed sensing (CS) theory. The maximum sensitivity of CS imaging under the quantum limit, which is approximately 1 photon in each pixel during one measurement, is quantitatively obtained through theoretical derivation and proved experimentally. The influences of dark noise and shot noise on photon-counting imaging are also studied to confirm the fundamental constrains on the imaging sensitivity of different imaging methods, which can guide the effort for further enhancing the ultra-weak light imaging ability.

Objective: To investigate the effect of Hugan Qingzhi tablets on lipid metabolism and inflammation in rats fed on high-fat diet and explore the underlying mechanisms., Methods: Sixty male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 6 groups, namely HFD group (with high-fat diet and distilled water), control group (with normal diet and distilled water), fenofibrate group (with high-fat diet and treatment with 0.1 g

We present an experimental demonstration of edge detection based on ghost imaging (GI) in the gradient domain. Through modification of a random light field, gradient GI (GGI) can directly give the edge of an object without needing the original image. As edges of real objects are usually sparser than the original objects, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the edge detection result will be dramatically enhanced, especially for large-area, high-transmittance objects. In this study, we experimentally perform one- and two-dimensional edge detection with a double-slit based on GI and GGI. The use of GGI improves the SNR significantly in both cases. Gray-scale objects are also studied by the use of simulation. The special advantages of GI will make the edge detection based on GGI be valuable in real applications.

The performances of different thermal ghost imaging (GI) algorithms are compared in an experiment of computational GI using a digital micromirror device. Here we present a rather different evaluation criterion named receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis that serves as the performance of merit for the quantitative comparison. A ROC curve is created by plotting the true positive rate against the false positive rate at various threshold settings. Both theoretical analysis and experimental results demonstrate that the ROC curve and the area under the curve are better and more intuitive indicators of the performance of the GI, compared with conventional evaluation methods. Additionally, for examining gray-scale objects, the calculation of the volume under the ROC surface is analyzed and serves as a performance metric. Our scheme should attract general interest and open exciting prospects for ROC analysis in thermal GI.

We present a new technique to denoise ghost imaging (GI) in which conventional intensity correlation GI and an iteration process have been combined to give an accurate estimate of the actual noise affecting image quality. The blurring influence of the speckle areas in the beam is reduced in the iteration by setting a threshold. It is shown that with an appropriate choice of threshold value, the quality of the iterative GI reconstructed image is much better than that of differential GI for the same number of measurements. This denoising method thus offers a very effective approach to promote the implementation of GI in real applications.

Conventional single-pixel cameras recover images only from the data recorded in one arm of the digital micromirror device, with the light reflected to the other direction not to be collected. Actually, the sampling in these two reflection orientations is correlated with each other, in view of which we propose a sampling concept of complementary compressive imaging, for the first time to our knowledge. We use this method in a telescopic system and acquire images of a target at about 2.0 km range with 20 cm resolution, with the variance of the noise decreasing by half. The influence of the sampling rate and the integration time of photomultiplier tubes on the image quality is also investigated experimentally. It is evident that this technique has advantages of large field of view over a long distance, high-resolution, high imaging speed, high-quality imaging capabilities, and needs fewer measurements in total than any single-arm sampling, thus can be used to improve the performance of all compressive imaging schemes and opens up possibilities for new applications in the remote-sensing area.

An experiment demonstrating lensless ghost imaging (GI) with sunlight has been performed. A narrow spectral line is first filtered out and its intensity correlation measured. With this true thermal light source, an object consisting of two holes is imaged. The realization of lensless GI with sunlight is a step forward toward the practical application of GI with ordinary daylight as the source of illumination.

Compressed sensing is a theory which can reconstruct an image almost perfectly with only a few measurements by finding its sparsest representation. However, the computation time consumed for large images may be a few hours or more. In this work, we both theoretically and experimentally demonstrate a method that combines the advantages of both adaptive computational ghost imaging and compressed sensing, which we call adaptive compressive ghost imaging, whereby both the reconstruction time and measurements required for any image size can be significantly reduced. The technique can be used to improve the performance of all computational ghost imaging protocols, especially when measuring ultra-weak or noisy signals, and can be extended to imaging applications at any wavelength.

We present a protocol for the amplification and distribution of a one-time-pad cryptographic key over a point-to-multipoint optical network based on computational ghost imaging (GI) and compressed sensing (CS). It is shown experimentally that CS imaging can perform faster authentication and increase the key generation rate by an order of magnitude compared with the scheme using computational GI alone. The protocol is applicable for any number of legitimate user, thus, the scheme could be used in real intercity networks where high speed and high security are crucial.

Objective: To observe the curative effect of acupuncture intervention combined with hyperbaric oxygen chamber treatment for delayed encephalopathy in 32 carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning patients., Methods: A total of 62 CO poisoning encephalopathy patients were randomized into control group (n = 30) and acupuncture group (n = 32). Patients of the two groups were all treated with medicines (energy mixture solution, hormones, brain cell activators, calcium ion blockers, anti-inflammatory agents, etc.) and hyperbaric oxygen treatment (oxygen-inhaling for 90 min/time). Moreover, patients of the acupuncture group received acupuncture stimulation of bilateral Taixi (KI 3), Xuanzhong (GB 39), Hegu (LI 4), Taichong (LR 3), and Fengchi (GB 20). All the treatments were conducted once daily for 30 days. The therapeutic effect of the treatments for neurological function was assessed by NIH Stroke Scale (NIHSS, 34 points in total; including 15 items as consciousness, horizontal eye movement, visual power, visual field, facial muscular motion, limb movement, coordination movement, sensory and language levels, etc.)., Results: After the treatment, of the 30 and 32 cases in the control and acupuncture groups, 1 and 4 were cured, 3 and 8 experienced marked improvement, 4 and 11 were improved, and 22 and 9 invalid, with the effective rates being 26.1% and 72.3%, respectively. The therapeutic effect of the acupuncture group was significantly superior to that of the control group (P < 0.05). The average NIHSS score was 5.01 +/- 0.72 in the acupuncture group, being significantly lower than that (8.30 +/- 0.45) in the control group (P < 0.05)., Conclusion: Acupuncture treatment can effectively strengthen the efficacy of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in the treatment of delayed encephalopathy caused by carbon monoxide poisoning.

We present a protocol for an optical key distribution network based on computational correlation imaging, which can simultaneously realize privacy amplification and multiparty distribution. With current technology, the key distribution rate could reach hundreds of Mbit/s with suitable choice of parameters. The setup is simple and inexpensive, and may be employed in real networks where high-speed long-distance secure communication is required.

Aging process is a key factor influencing the availability and toxicity of heavy metals in soil. However, the aging of chromium (Cr) in soils and its influence factors are still unclear, as a result of complexity of soils in China. This study was conducted to investigate the aging process of Cr(Ill) in 22 typical soils of China by using 0.01 mol.L-1 CaCl2 as the extractant for available Cr. The results manifested that Cr spiked in the soil was time-dependently transferred from the available fraction into less labile fractions. Two regions could be distinguished: the first one for short extraction time (t <21 days), corresponding to a faster transformation of metals and the second for longer extraction time (t >21 days) where the transformation was relatively slower. The decrease of Cr in available fraction during the incubation could be simulated by the Elovich equation, and decrease rates were applied to reflect the transformation rates of aging process among various soils. Multiple regression analysis showed that decrease rates might be related to the organic matter, pH and amorphous Fe oxides of soil, and organic matter was the key factor to the aging process.

We report an experimental demonstration of optical coherence tomography for transmissive objects utilizing second-order correlation ghost imaging with thermal light. To evaluate the longitudinal resolution of our system, the concept of the imaging longitudinal coherence length is introduced, which is more accurate for judging the image quality of ghost imaging with unequal optical paths than the conventional point-to-point longitudinal coherence length. Our work should help clarify our understanding of the longitudinal coherence of thermal light, as well as provide a scheme for performing optical coherence tomography on objects that are not highly reflective.

HSPB8 has been shown to be involved in regulation of cell proliferation and apoptosis, and it has also been found to have divergent properties in solid tumors. The purpose of this study was to investigate the expression and function of HSPB8 in hematopoietic malignancies. Expression and induced expression of HSPB8 was evaluated in hematopoietic tumor cell lines and bone marrow samples from patients with leukemia. Methylation status was investigated by methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction. The role of HSPB8 in hematopoietic malignancies was addressed by reintroducing HSPB8 expression into the K562 (leukemia) and Namalwa (lymphoma) cell lines. Expression of HSPB8 was absent in hematopoietic tumor cell lines and primary patient and normal volunteer samples. Promoter DNA methylation of HSPB8 was observed in these cells. HSPB8 expression could be restored after demethylation treatment with 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine. Overexpression of HSPB8 reduced colony formation of both K562 and Namalwa cell lines, inhibited the cell growth of Namalwa in vitro, and suppressed tumor formation of K562 cells in vivo. The present study demonstrates that HSPB8 is silenced by DNA methylation in hematopoietic malignant and normal cells and its expression can be induced by treatment with 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine. Overexpression of HSPB8 may have an antitumor activity in chronic myelogenous leukemia and lymphoma., (Copyright © 2012 ISEH - Society for Hematology and Stem Cells. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To investigate the relationship between c-reactive protein (CRP) and blood pressure in a general population., Methods: We randomly selected 3889 subjects aged 18 - 74 years stratified by gender and age in Baqiao, a rural area of Jiangsu Province. A standardized questionnaire was used to collect information on medical history, smoking, alcohol intake and use of medications. Blood pressure was measured by mercury sphygmomanometer. Serum CRP (hCRP) concentration was measured using a high sensitivity BNprosec immunonephelometric assay. Subjects were divided into 4 groups according to their interquartile range of CRP levers: group Q1 (men hCRP < 2.04 mg/L; women hCRP < 1.80 mg/L); group Q2 (men 2.04 mg/L ≤ hCRP < 3.01 mg/L; women 1.80 mg/L ≤ hCRP < 2.76 mg/L); group Q3 (men 3.01 mg/L ≤ hCRP < 4.14 mg/L; women 2.76 mg/L ≤ hCRP < 3.84 mg/L); and group Q4 (men 4.14 mg/L ≤ hCRP; women 3.84 mg/L ≤ hCRP)., Results: Systolic blood pressure (SBP, adjusted P = 0.016) and pulse pressure (PP, adjusted P = 0.003) of men and PP (adjusted P = 0.002) of women were increased in proportion to increased CRP levels. Diastolic blood pressure was not associated with CRP levels. Multiple stepwise regression analysis showed that logCRP was independently associated with SBP and PP in men and PP in women. hCRP was independently associated with hypertension in men. Compared with group Q1, male people in group Q4 faced a 40.4% (95% confidence interval: 4.9% - 87.9%) higher risk of hypertension., Conclusions: hCRP was independently associated with PP in men and women, and SBP in men. hCRP was independently associated with hypertension in men but not in women in this study population.

The B cell Ag receptor is a multimeric protein complex consisting of the ligand binding mlg and the Ig alpha/lg beta heterodimer. The cytoplasmic tails of Ig alpha and Ig beta both contain a consensus sequence termed the immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motif (ITAM). This motif is believed to play a critical role in the receptor-mediated signal transduction. To explore the role of ITAM in signaling for B cell death (apoptosis), we transfected CH31 cells, an immature B lymphoma cell line, with expression vectors encoding for the CD8 extracellular/transmembrane domains and the cytoplasmic signal-transducing domain (ITAM) of Ig alpha or Ig beta, respectively. Here, we demonstrate that cross-linking of CD8:Ig alpha or CD:Ig beta with anti-CD8 mAb effectively induced cell growth arrest and apoptosis characterized by [3H]thymidine release and DNA fragmentation; in contrast, CD8:gamma 2a or truncated CD8:Ig alpha lacking the ITAM could not do so. Moreover, selective point mutation of either of the two conserved tyrosine residues within the ITAM, but not the nonconserved tyrosine, completely abrogated the ability of this motif to mediate cell death signals. These findings clearly indicate that ITAM is a critical component required for transmitting growth arrest and apoptotic signals, and that these functions of ITAM are positively regulated by tyrosine phosphorylation.

Crosslinking of membrane immunoglobulin (mIg) receptors by anti-Ig causes growth inhibition and subsequent cell death due to apoptosis in a murine B-cell lymphoma model. The earliest signal transduction via mIg has recently been shown to be dependent on the activation of one or more protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs). In this study, we utilized the CH31 lymphoma, which is extremely sensitive to growth inhibition by anti-Ig, to examine the role of PTKs in cell cycle arrest. This cell line expresses multiple PTKs, whose activities are stimulated by crosslinking mIg. To determine whether PTK activity is essential for the inhibition of cell growth, we exposed CH31 cells to antisense oligodeoxynucleotides for the blk PTK prior to the growth inhibition assay. We found that exposure of CH31 cells to blk antisense effectively prevented anti-mu-chain-mediated growth inhibition and subsequent apoptosis. Corresponding blk sense or antisense oligonucleotides for other PTKs had no protective effect against anti-mu. Moreover, antisense blk oligonucleotides had no effect on transforming growth factor beta-mediated growth arrest and apoptosis. Further experiments showed significantly reduced endogenous p55blk in blk antisense-treated cells. In addition, anti-mu stimulation of antisense-treated cells failed to induce any detectable increase in kinase activity of p55blk, a result suggesting the uncoupling of blk proteins from normal signal pathways that are essential for growth inhibition. These results implicate a role of blk kinase in anti-mu-mediated pathway to cell cycle arrest.

Protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs) have been implicated in signal transduction in a variety of cell types. B lymphocytes express the genes encoding for eight members of the src family of nonreceptor PTKs. Four of these PTKs (p55blk, p53/56lyn, p59fyn, and p56lck) are activated by the ligation of mIg receptors. The functional roles of these PTKs in membrane-bound immunoglobulins (mIg) receptor-mediated activation of resting B lymphocytes were examined using the PTK inhibitor, herbimycin A. Here we show that mIg receptor-mediated B-cell proliferation and differentiation were inhibited by treatment with herbimycin A, while inhibitor-treated B cells retained LPS (mitogen) responsiveness for proliferation and antibody formation. Further studies demonstrated that herbimycin A blocked the G0 to G1 transition during B-cell activation. When the effects of herbimycin A were directly examined by a kinase activity assay, the enzymatic activity of each PTK was inhibited to varying degrees. The inhibition of PTK activity was also reflected by reduced tyrosine phosphorylation of intracellular substrates, including phospholipase C-gamma. These results implicate PTK-dependent signaling pathways in the mIg receptor-mediated functional activation of B lymphocytes.

The src family of non-receptor protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs), including the blk, fyn, lyn and lck kinases, is expressed in B-lineage cells, may associate with the immunoglobulin receptor complex and, therefore, play a role in signal transduction via membrane IgM. To establish which of these PTKs is involved in growth inhibition of B-cell lymphomas by anti-mu, we examined the expression pattern and state of activation of these kinases in nine B-cell lymphomas. Tyrosine-phosphorylated p55blk was constitutively expressed in all growth-inhibitable lymphomas; furthermore, anti-mu caused a relative increase of tyrosine phosphorylation in p55blk and a 2- to 3-fold increase in its kinase activity in these cells within minutes. In contrast, p55blk was not present in three of five anti-mu-resistant lymphomas and there was no detectable increase of blk activity in one of the resistant cell lines tested. Thus, we proposed that activatable blk kinase in the IgM complex is essential for the growth inhibitory effect of anti-mu. To test this hypothesis, CH31 lymphoma cells were treated with antisense oligos for the blk kinase and found to be resistant to anti-mu-mediated growth inhibition and subsequent apoptosis. These studies implicate the blk kinase as an integral part of the growth inhibitory pathway leading to arrest and apoptosis. Transfectants of blk gene constructs are being generated to further test this hypothesis.

Previous studies in our laboratory demonstrated that overnight exposure of adult splenic B cells to anti-Ig resulted in an unresponsive state characterized by decreased antibody synthesis but normal mitogen-driven proliferation (i.e., energy). Because both anti-F(ab')2 and anti-mu were equally effective at inducing tolerance, it was important to determine whether cross-linking of IgD together with or separately from IgM influenced the induction of unresponsiveness. Although anti-mu induced significant unresponsiveness, treatment of adult splenic B cells with anti-delta alone generally failed to reduce the subsequent response to either LPS or fluoresceinated Brucella abortus. Interestingly, anti-delta synergized with suboptimal concentrations of anti-mu to induce tolerance. Synergy could be observed in this system when anti-delta was added either simultaneously with or before (but not after) anti-mu; moreover, anti-delta was effective in a pretreatment (wash-out) protocol. To investigate the role of protein tyrosine kinase (PTK) activity in tolerance induction, splenic B cells were treated with tyrphostin before treatment with either anti-mu or anti-delta. We found that pretreatment with tyrphostin for 2 h before the addition of anti-mu prevented the induction of unresponsiveness with this antibody, whereas this PTK inhibitor facilitated tolerance when used with anti-delta treatment only. We propose that cross-linking of surface IgM directly or indirectly invokes a tyrphostin-sensitive, PTK-dependent pathway leading to the early events in tolerance induction, which can be augmented under limiting conditions by anti-IgD. Because cross-linking of either receptor initiates several common pathways, simultaneous cross-linking can lead to synergy and a dominance of the IgM signal. In contrast, IgD alone may fail to elicit tolerance because this isotype may also be associated with different PTK that cause positive signaling.

The effects of priming on the susceptibility of B-cell subsets to tolerance induction have been tested in a model system in which anti-immunoglobulin (anti-Ig) has been employed as a surrogate for tolerogen. T-cell-depleted B cells were primed in vitro with fluorescein or trinitrophenylated Ficoll (a thymus-independent (TI) antigen) and then exposed overnight to anti-Ig to attempt to induce B-cell anergy. Primed cells were relatively resistant to this tolerance protocol and resistance was hapten specific. The dose response and kinetics suggested that this process was not due to receptor blockade or modulation, but was an active process. Moreover, this priming for resistance to tolerance was reproduced in vivo upon intraperitoneal treatment with haptenated Ficoll. Such in vivo priming for tolerance resistance was long-lasting and did not occur with a thymus-dependent priming protocol with fluoresceinated hemocyanin. These results are discussed in terms of TI priming to drive B cells into cycle and express novel functional and phenotypic properties.

In the present study, we investigated the effect of phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) on induction of differentiation of human T-cell leukemic cell line (CEM). The results showed that uninduced cells were T1+, T4+, T9+, T10+, T3- and TcR-, representing thymus stage II differentiation. When culturing in vitro with PMA for 5 to 7 days, CEM cells expressed mature T-cell marker (T3) whereas the percentage of cells expressing proliferation-association antigen (T9) was markedly decreased. In addition, PMA could significantly inhibit the growth of CEM cells. We also found that after co-culture with PMA for 2 to 3 days, CEM cells showed distinct morphologic changes. These findings indicate that PMA may induce CEM cells to differentiate towards mature stage.

Hairy leukemic cells had altered expressions of accessory proteins (Ii, Ip, p70, p25) which associated intracellularly with class II MHC molecules. Immunoprecipitates from [35S]methionine, pulse-chase labeled leukemic cells, B-lymphoblastoid cells, and Burkitt's lymphoma cells were examined after 2-dimensional, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The class II MHC-associated Ii chain was present in all three cell types, but the Ii-derived p25 protein was not found in HCL cells. Ip, the sialic acid-derivatized form of Ii, was well expressed in BLCL and Raji cells, but weakly in HCL cells. P70 was strongly expressed in BLCL and Raji cells, but negligibly in HCL cells. These alterations might reflect deficient mechanisms for antigen processing and presentation by these leukemic cells.