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Three new compounds, polygalapyrone A (

Gastric cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death worldwide with a poor prognosis. Gastric cancer is usually treated with surgery and chemotherapy, accompanied by a high rate of metastasis and recurrence. In this paper, R

High grade-gliomas are highly invasive and prone to metastasis, leading to poor survival and prognosis. Currently, we urgently need a new treatment strategy to effectively inhibit glioma. In this study, artemether and paclitaxel were used as two agents for tumour suppression. Two functional materials were synthesised and modified on the surface of the micelle as targeting molecules. The addition of two functional materials confers the ability of the micelles to effectively cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and then target the glioma cells. Thus, this dual-targeted delivery system allows the drug to play a better role in inhibiting tumour invasion and vasculogenic mimicry (VM) channels. In this paper, the anticancer effects of dual-targeted artemether plus paclitaxel micelles on glioma U87 cells were studied in three aspects: (I)

High-temperature superconducting (HTS) transformers employ highly efficient HTS windings to replace the conventional windings. However, the magnetic field in an HTS transformer affects the transformer's HTS winding performances. The relationship between HTS tape characteristics and the magnetic field has been studied. The HTS windings critical current can be increased with the perpendicular magnetic field decreasing. A concept of unbalanced degree is introduced in this paper. The unbalanced degree of critical current distributions at the ends of windings decreases with the perpendicular magnetic field and the unbalanced degree of perpendicular magnetic field distributions decreasing. For the effects of flux diverter, the unbalanced degrees of perpendicular magnetic field and critical current distributions are analyzed and optimized.

The battery lifetime of electric vehicles (EVs) has significant impacts on the development and popularization of EVs. A method with superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) to stabilize the EV charging system voltage to improve battery life and charge efficiency on a smart grid is presented. In order to verify the influence that the controlled SMES improves the system transient stability, situations under load fluctuation and fault, and the SMES capacity for system compensation have been investigated. The results obtained from the analysis indicate the effectiveness of compensating the instantaneous voltage dip in the grid and improving the power system quality.

Doctors use electronic diagnostics to analyze cancer cells. However, The shape and size of cancer cells are small, and doctors can't accurately analyze cancer cells, leading to misdiagnosis of doctors. In order to solve this problem, we can use multi-scale morphological algorithm to extract tumor cells accurately. In this paper, Top-hat operator is used to enhance the image edge extraction. The edge image is obtained with high degree of closure, you can accurately calculate the cell parameters. This experiments show that the operator not only can filter out the noise, but also maintain the details of the image. This algorithm can highlight edge contours and extract image detail information, which is more effective than traditional morphology

The high temperature superconducting (HTS) cable has a wide application prospect in the future power grid because of its low loss, large capacity and friendly environment. Since without AC loss, the HTS DC cable has a longer cooling distance, and is more suitable for large capacity and long distance transmission. In the near future, with large-scale application of renewable energy, HTS DC cable is a potentially effective way to solve the transmission problem. To more effectively utilize an HTS DC cable and its transmission system, the influence of HTS DC cable capacitance on harmonics in high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission system will be studied in this paper.

With the "four modernizations" synchronous propulsion, entrepreneurship has become the effective way and inevitable choice to farmers' survival and development. Family farm, which takes the family as the main body, is the most ideal organization form of the peasants’ entrepreneurship and is also the foundation of cultivating new professional farmers. In this paper, we put forward the corresponding countermeasures and suggestions by exploring the current situation and existing problems of the professional farmers' entrepreneurship which is based on the family farm. First, it is important to regulate the rural land circulation market and improve the rural social security system. Second, the relevant departments should take measures to improve the rural financial system and implement the preferential tax policy. Third, it is vital to improve the comprehensive quality of family farmers. Fourth, the local government ought to establish and perfect the rural social service system.

Since the three-phase voltage source PWM commutator is hard to obtain favorable accommodation effect under larger disturbance and variational controlled objects when traditional PI control method is used. This paper comes up with a new type double closed-loop compound control method on the basis of traditional double closed loop control method, that is to say the combination of PI control and fuzzy control is applied to outer voltage control, and the load current is served as forward-feed compensation, inner current ring uses the PRcontrol method. By means of MATLAB/Simulink emulation, the results show that the system not only has a favorable steady-state performance, but also strong robustness to external disturbance, which could verify the feasibility of this control scheme.

The thermocouple is the most commonly temperature sensor used in the measurement technique. But because of the fluctuation of the ambient temperature, the cold temperature is difficult to hold invariableness. This paper proposes an improved method. There are all kinds of thermocouple compensation tables in the system. And according to the actual need, we can select the corresponding table to make the cold junction compensation. This system meets the needs of various types of thermocouples.

In order to highlight the advantages of genetic algorithm in hybrid PV-wind system, this paper improves the traditional genetic algorithm, and establishes the mathematical model of photovoltaic power generation and wind power generator by MATLAB, to find out the maximum power point of the mathematical model under the iteration of genetic algorithm.

This paper proposes an image edge detection method based on multi-directional, multi-scale Top-hat operators, and applies the method to the edge detection of OSAHS (Obstructive Sleep Apnea Hypopnea Syndrome) early pathological images. Firstly, construct multi-directional, multi-scale Top-hat operators, and they are used to detect the edge of image. Then the ideal image edge is obtained by combining the edges of the image detected by each operator according to a certain weight, so that we can calculate the actual area of the oral cavity accurately, and then achieve electronic medical diagnosis. The simulation results show that the operator proposed in this paper can filter out the noise better, preserve image detail more completely, so that the edge information of the image is more accurate and complete. Compared with conventional edge operator, it is more effective for image edge detection.

DNA barcoding is expected to be one of the most promising tools in biological taxonomy. However, there have been no agreements on which core barcode should be used in plants, especially in species-rich genera with wide geographical distributions. To evaluate their discriminatory power in large genera, four of the most widely used DNA barcodes, including three plastid regions (matK, rbcL, trnH-psbA) and nuclear internal transcribed spacer (nrITS), were tested in seven species-rich genera (Ficus, Pedicularis, Rhodiola, Rhododendron,Viburnum, Dendrobium and Lysimachia) and a moderate size genus, Codonopsis. All of the sequences from the aforementioned seven large genera were downloaded from NCBI. The related barcodes for Codonopsis were newly generated in this study. Genetics distances, DNA barcoding gaps and phylogenetic trees of the four single barcodes and their combinations were calculated and compared in the seven genera. As for single barcode, nrITS has the most variable sites, the clearest intra- and inter-specific divergences and the highest discrimination rates in the seven genera. Among the combinations of barcodes, ITS+matK performed better than all the single barcodes in most cases and even the three- and four-loci combinations in the seven genera. Therefore, we recommend ITS+matK as the core barcodes for large plant genera.

Objective To study the effects of Sijunzi Dripping Pill (SDP) on gastrointestinal motility of mice. Methods The diarrhea and swimming model of mice was made by Rhei Radix et Rhizoma-induced spleen deficiency. The intestinal transit, gastric emptying test, serum motilin (MTL), vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), and substance P (SP) were chosen to observe the effects of high-, mid-, and low-dose SDP on stomach movements, and the water extractive of Sijunzi Decoction was used as positive control. Results Compared with the control group, the gastric emptying rate in the gastrointestinal motility group was significantly decreased, the intestinal propulsion rate was obviously increased, the levels of MTL, prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), and SP were increased (P Conclusion SDP has the good effect on increasing the gastrointestinal motility of mice, and its function may partly relate to the regulation of the levels of MTL and VIP as well as PGE2.

The lithium niobate integrated optical phase modulator (Y waveguide) is the key device in the digital closed-loop fiber optic gyroscope. However, the half-wave voltage of the lithium niobate changes with the environment temperature, which produces the phase bias drift and ultimately decreases the accuracy of FOG. In this manuscript, the thermal resistor is introduced in the amplification part in the driving circuits of Y waveguide. Due to the characteristic of the thermal resistor, the magnitude of driving voltage on Y waveguide changed with temperature to compensate the electro-optic effects temperature drift of the lithium niobate. This method was proved to improve the performance of fiber optic gyroscopes conveniently in experiment.

The rapid development of 3 g mobile internet technology and the extensive use of intelligent mobile phone system make a user access the Internet not only can through a computer which has networking conditions, but also can through the mobile phone whenever and wherever. This paper designed and developed the method of accessing to the Web server based on the Android platform, it provides a quick and convenient way for the developers.

The innate immunity and inflammatory response plays an important role in AD pathogenesis. Recently, a wealth of information linking the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome to Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis has emerged. Considering the pivotal role of NLRP3 in the inflammatory process and in AD, we hypothesized that variations in NLRP3 gene may also affect susceptibility to AD. Three selected functional single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in NLRP3 gene (rs2027432, rs10754558, rs35829419) were genotyped in 1133 late-onset AD (LOAD) patients and 1159 healthy controls in a large Northern Han Chinese population. Among them, the 5'-flanking rs2027432 polymorphism seemed to be most associated with LOAD risk even after adjusting for age, gender, and ApoE ε4 status. For rs10754558, the genotype frequency differed significantly only in ApoE ε4 carriers. On the other hand, the minor A allele of rs35829419 (Q705K) polymorphism appeared to exert a protective effect against the development of LOAD. Our data support the notion that genetic variation in NLRP3 gene may contribute to LOAD risk in Northern Han Chinese.

Context: Although the antitumor, immunomodulatory activities, and other effects of shikonin have been studied for decades, its systemic toxicity in vivo remains unclear. Objective: To estimate the long-term systemic toxicity of shikonin derivatives (ShD) in a rat model. Materials and methods: The roots of Arnebia euchroma (Royle) Johnst. (Boraginaceae) were extracted in ethanol, passed through a molecular sieve, and dried. A microemulsion solution in water was subsequently prepared. Adult Wistar rats were treated with ShD by gavage at concentrations of 200, 400, and 800 mg/kg per day for 90 days or 180 days. Hematological and biochemical examinations were performed, and the vital organs were subjected to pathological analyses. Results: We did not observe hematological or non-hematological toxicity of ShD at a dose as high as 800 mg/kg per day for 6 months. Discussion and conclusion: Our findings may offer some beneficial information for the practical application and research of Arnebia euchroma. We demonstrated in an animal model that ShD may be safe for usage.

Background Previous studies have suggested that reducing the positive charge of melittin could increase endosomal release activity and improve branched polyethylenimine (BPEI)-mediated transfection. AR-23 is a melittin-related peptide from Rana tagoi, which shows 81% sequence identity with melittin but has less positively-charged residues than melittin. The present study aimed to investigate the mechanistic and functional aspects of the interaction of AR-23 with mammalian cells and thus improve BPEI-mediated gene transfection. Methods AR23 and two AR-23 analogs (AR-20 without positively-charged residues and AR-26 with the same positively-charged residues as melittin) were analyzed. Circular dichroism (CD) spectrometry was used to analyze the secondary structures of the peptides. Peptide-induced depolarization of cell membrane, the membrane-lytic activity of the peptides, and their potency with respect to enhancing the cellular uptake of calcein were evaluated. The physicochemical characters of complexes were measured and the effect of the peptides on BPEI-mediated transfection was determined. Results The CD spectra results indicated that a positive charge in AR-23 played a crucial role in maintaining the α-helical conformation, whereas an extra positive charge could not increase α-helical formation. AR-23 displayed a similar depolarization ability to melittin. However, AR-23 showed a lower membrane lytic activity under physiological conditions and a higher lytic activity at endosomal pH than melittin and AR-26, which possess more positive charges. Compared to melittin and AR-26, AR-23, with a higher endosomal escaping activity, resulted in a higher enhancement of BPEI-mediated gene transfection, as well as the maintainance of a lower cytotoxicity. Conclusions We suggest that AR-23 may be considered as a potential enhancer for improving the transfection efficiency of cationic polymers. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

As one kind of organic photochromic optical storage material, fulgides are well-known for their thermally irreversibility. The two-photon absorption 3D optical storage technology is one of the hot research topics in the field of high-density information storage. Using optical image storage technology the recording and reading rates can be improved. In this paper, it’s found that in one kind of 3-indoly-benzylfulgimide/PMMA film, there exits two-photon absorption property. And depending on this property, the two-photon absorption photochromic optical image storage was realized in an indoly-benzylfulgimide/PMMA film. It is proved that the N-benzyl-1,3,4-trimethyl-2-(2-methyl-) indoly-fulgimide has potential application in the two-photon absorption 3D optical storage.

As one kind of organic photochromic optical storage material, fulgides are well-known for their thermally irreversibility. In this paper, two kinds of new fulgide materials, like pyrrylfulgide/PMMA film and 3-indoly-benzylfulgimide/PMMA film are used as storage materials. Different kinds of optical storage properties, like photosensitive spectral range, light sensitivity, resolution, fatigue resistance and thermal stability of them are measured. The experimental results show that for pyrrylfulgide and 3-indoly-benzylfulgimide, their photosensitive spectral range were 500nm~780nm and 480nm~720nm respectively; their maximum absorption were at 626nm and 573nm respectively; under 633nm light excitation, their light reaction constants of bleaching process on the exciting light polarization direction were 1.4×10-3cm2/mJ and 2.89×10-3cm2/mJ respectively; their resolution were both higher than 1680 lines/mm; they can be recycled more than 33 times and 70 times respectively; at room temperature they can be stored for 12 months and 14 months respectively. And it is concluded that pyrrylfulgide and 3-indoly-benzylfulgimide show better application potential in the field of rewriteable optical storage.

Huai’an salt mining industry exploitation is introduced in this paper. We analysis the problems and influence factors of geological environment, such as rock-salt cavity roof collapse, the pollution to environment, brine leak and based on huai’an geological structure and the current method of rock salt mining process. In the analysis, the reasons due to the problems is be shown in details. We put forward the corresponding suggestions and countermeasures of prevention and control according to these geological environment problems as the references for related engineering design, construction, operation and environmental protection of the local salt mining enterprise and Huaian bureau of land and resources,. and so on.

Enzymatical conversion of A or B RBCs into group O RBCs (ECORBCs) was achieved by using α-N-acetylgalactosaminidase and α-galactosidase, respectively. Now, we initiated AB to O-RBC conversion by using these two enzymes together. But α-N-acetylgalactosaminidase and α-galactosidase's preserving and their reaction buffer were quite different. The aim of this study is to confirm an available system for converting AB to O RBCs, especially to study the maximal permission amount of PCS which was brought to the system-accompanied enzyme addition.Enzyme activity was detected by using GalNAc-pNp or Gal-pNp as substrates. The efficiency of the conversion of A or B antigen was evaluated by routine method and measured by fluorescence-activated cell sorting analysis. The optimal buffer component and the doses of α-N-acetylgalactosaminidase and α-galactosidase were confirmed according to A and B antigen epitope removal efficiency.The activity of α-N-acetylgalactosaminidase and α-galactosidase was not decreased drastically when they were kept in PCS Buffer in 4°C. The optimal reaction buffer composed of glycine 250 mM and NaCl 3 mM, pH 6.8 and PCS less than 10%(v/v). For converting A(1)B to O RBCs completely, the doses of α-N-acetylgalactosaminidase and α-galactosidase were confirmed as 0.015 mg/ml packed RBCs(pRBCs) for A(1) antigen epitopes and 0.005 mg/ml pRBCs for B epitopes. Approximately 0.004 mg α-N-acetylgalactosaminidase and 0.005 mg α-galactosidase were required to convert 1 ml pRBCs.Our studies indicated that α-N-acetylgalactosaminidase and α-galactosidase were stable in PCS buffer and a modified protocol which was propitious to converting AB to O RBCs was provided.

The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that butylphthalide protects the brain of Alzheimer's disease (AD) model rats by inhibiting apoptosis. Ninety Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into drug, control and blank groups of 30 rats in each. The rats in the drug and control groups were treated to induce AD. Then, the rats in the drug group were administered with butylphthalide daily, the rats in the AD control group were given normal saline, and the rats in the healthy group were fed routinely. All rats were sacrificed after 30 days; the brain tissues were used for testing for apoptosis by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl-transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labelling (TUNEL) staining method, for determining mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), ERK and P21 protein by western blot analysis, and their cognate mRNA levels by RT-PCR. The results of the TUNEL staining indicated that apoptosis of the brain tissues of rats in the drug group was significantly less than that in the control group and blank group. The protein expression levels of MAPK in the drug group were significantly lower than that in the control group, but higher than that in the normal healthy group (P

Siderophores, as strong chelators specific to iron, have been intensively studied in relation to the facilitation of biological iron acquisition from iron oxides. In this study, the dissolution of hematite in the presence of the siderophore desferrioxamine B (DFOB) and three low-molecular-weight organic acids (LMWOAs, i.e., oxalic, citric, or malic acid) was investigated at three pH conditions (3.0, 5.5, and 9.0). Hematite dissolution was pH-dependent and LMWOA-specific. The adsorption of DFOB on hematite was significantly higher at pH 9.0 than at the other pH values. The adsorption of oxalic acid on hematite, however, showed a descending trend as pH was increased, and adsorption of citric and malic acids was not significantly affected by pH. The Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) results also indicated the occurrence of these ligands’ adsorption. After acidification, dissolved iron was detected only in suspensions of hematite pre-adsorbed with oxalic acid at pH 5.5 and 9.0 or pre-adsorbed with citric acid at pH 5.5, indicating that these LMWOAs promoted the formation of labile iron on the hematite surface. Based on previous research and the results of this study, a hypothetical model is proposed. These results provide insight into the effect of LMWOAs on the dissolution of hematite promoted by DFOB.

On the basis of review and study on literatures of Chinese medicine, combining the history of medicinal plants of Salvia in China, and investigating the morphological description, geography distribution and therapeutic effects, herbal textural research were carried on the medicinal plants from Salvia. The results showed that the original plant of Danshen is S. miltiorrhiza and related species, the original plant of Dian Danshen is S. yunnanensis, the original plant of Li Zhi Cao is S. plebeia, the original plant of Shi Jian Chuan is Bidens pilosa. or S.chinensis, the original plant of Shu Wei Cao is S. japanica, the original plant of Ye Xia Hong is S. kiangsiensis. And the article aimed to point out the relationship of medicinal plants from Salvia and provided new insight and proof to explore the new natural medicine from medicinal plants of Salvia.

On the basis of discussing cold junction compensation of thermocouple measurement, an improving solution was provided which was based on the stm32 with the programmable the rmocouple transmitter with compensation function. T hermo emf is sent to the MCU of the host computer after A/D conversion, and then a digital compensative algorithm realized through compensative algorithm in the MCU. Tests show that the system is accuracy and stable.

Background Melittin is a commonly used cell-penetrating peptide (CPP) for improving branched polyethylenimine (BPEI)-mediated gene transfection. However, its application is limited owing to the cytotoxicity generated by the lytic activity at neutral pH. In the present study, we report two truncated peptides from melittin and florae with improved transfection efficiency. Methods Two truncated peptides consisting of 1–20 residues of melittin (MT20) and florae (FL20) were synthesized. Circular dichroism (CD) spectrometry was used to analyze the secondary structures of the peptides. The membrane-lytic activity of the peptides and their potency in enhancing cellular uptake of calcein were evaluated. The peptides and BPEI mixtures were mixed with plasmid DNA to prepare peptide/BPEI/DNA complexes. The physicochemical characters of complexes were measured and the effect of the peptides on BPEI-mediated transfection was determined. Results CD analysis and structure observation showed that the truncated peptides have α-helical conformation, which was necessary for penetrating activity. The truncated peptides exhibited several advantages than their parent peptides: (i) they showed higher hemolytic potency in acidic pH but lower lytic activity than their parent peptides in neutral pH; (ii) enhanced calcein efficiently release from both early and late endosome; (iii) they did not affect the DNA-binding affinity of BPEI and the physicochemical characteristics of BPEI/DNA complexes. Moreover, the peptides could increase BPEI-mediated transfection efficiency in different cell lines (293FT, B16F10 and CHO-K1) by simply mixing with BPEI, without causing cytotoxicity. Conclusions The results obtained in the present study indicate that the truncated peptides with higher endosomal disrupting activity were better enhancers for increasing transfection efficiency. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

To explore the relationship between inflammation, oxidative stress and poor myocardial perfusion in patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) after primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).Risk factors and mechanisms of poor reperfusion in patients with STEMI after primary PCI remain unclear.A total of 143 patients who underwent primary PCI after STEMI were divided into good and poor perfusion groups according to sum-ST-segment resolution (sumSTR) and TIMI myocardial perfusion grade (TMP) results. Aortic sinus arterial blood was collected after primary PCI. The platelet-leukocyte aggregation (PLA), platelet-neutrophil aggregation (PNA), platelet-monocyte aggregation (PMA) and platelet-lymphocyte aggregation (PLyA) were measured by flow cytometry. The malondialdehyde (MDA) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels were measured by chemical colorimetry.The leukocyte count, neutrophil ratio and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein were significantly higher in the poor perfusion group than the good perfusion group (p 0.05). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that neutrophil ratio was an independent risk factor of sumSTR in STEMI patients after primary PCI (p 0.01). The poor myocardial perfusion group had higher levels of PLA, PNA, PMA and MDA (p 0.05). There were no differences in PLyA and SOD levels between the good and poor myocardial perfusion groups (p 0.05).Inflammation and oxidative stress were related to poor myocardial perfusion in patients with STEMI after primary PCI.

Superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) becomes an enabling and emerging technology for power system application. The increasing demand for conventional energy sources and the green house effect are driving societies toward the development of electric vehicles (EVs) and alternate energy sources. This paper aims at investigating the effects of SMES on the smart grid incorporated with EVs.

Topology optimization design of a parallel hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) body in white (BIW) by applying Solid Isotropic Microstructure with Penalization (SIMP) method is presented. The BIW optimization of HEV takes into account not only the static loads, but also the loads of HEV in turning and braking conditions. Torsion playing a leading role in vehicle turning process and bending playing a leading role in vehicle braking process are converted to related vertical force imposed on the optimal model. The optimal result shows clear skeleton body in white of parallel HEV when volumetric constraint is 25%. Beam appears in the top of optimal automotive body in white when volumetric constraint is 40%. There is no significant change except increased thickness for the basis body in white of parallel HEV when volumetric constraints continue to enlarge.