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// Li Hui 1 , Guo Shuangshuang 1 , Yu Jianning 1 and Shi Zhendan 1 1 Key Laboratory of Animal Breeding and Reproduction, Institute of Animal Science, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, China Correspondence to: Li Hui, email: // Shi Zhendan, email: // Keywords : granulosa cell, aging, porcine, gene expression, RNA-seq, Gerotarget Received : July 08, 2017 Accepted : September 20, 2017 Published : October 10, 2017 Abstract Current studies have revealed that aging is a negative factor that suppresses granulosa cell functions and causes low fertility in women. However, the difference in gene expression between normal and aging granulosa cells remains undefined. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the gene expression profiles of granulosa cells during aging. Granulosa cells from young healthy porcine ovaries were aged in vitro by prolonging the culture time (for 48h). First, the extracellular ultrastructure was observed by scanning electron microscopy followed by RNA-seq and KEGG pathway analysis. The results showed that the extracellular ultrastructure was significantly altered by aging; cell membranes were rough, and cavitations were found. Moreover, the formations of filopodia were greatly reduced. RNA-seq data revealed that 3411 genes were differentially expressed during aging, of which 2193 genes were up-regulated and 1218 genes were down-regulated. KEGG pathway analysis revealed that 25 pathways including pathway in cancer, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, focal adhesion, proteoglycans in cancer, and cAMP signaling pathway were the most changed. Moreover, several high differentially expressed genes (CEBPB, CXCL12, ANGPT2, IGFBP3, and BBOX1) were identified in aging granulosa cells, The expressions of these genes and genes associated with extracellular matrix remodeling associated genes (TIMP3, MMP2, MMP3, and CTGF), energy metabolism associated genes (SLC2A1, PPARγ) and steroidogenesis associated genes (StAR, CYP11A1 and LHCGR) were confirmed by quantitative PCR. This study identifies the differently changed pathways and their related genes, contributes to the understanding of aging in granulosa cells, and provides an important foundation for further studies.

Zadnjih je godina točno i učinkovito kratkoročno predviđanje toka prometa u realnom vremenu jedna od ključnih tehnologija u ostvarenju upravljanja i reguliranja tokom cestovnog prometa iz ITS područja (Intelligent Transport System). Analizirajući postojeći model predviđanja toka prometa, predlaže se model za reguliranje cestovnog toka prometa, Model može pronaći nenormalnu točku analizom vremenskih serija toka prometa primjenom pada promjene brzine (slope change rate), i može analizirati taj trend promjena toka prometa u svrhu reguliranja toka prometa. Rezultati pokazuju da je algoritam pogodan za problem reguliranja vršnog cestovnog opterećenja prometa , a može biti učinkovit u reguliranju cestovnog prometa., Real-time, accurate and efficiency short term traffic flow prediction is one of the key technologies to realize traffic flow guidance and traffic control, which has been widely concerned in the domain of ITS (Intelligent Transport System) during recent years. Through the study of the existing traffic flow prediction model, road traffic flow control model with the slope of the change rate is proposed. The model can find out abnormal point from the traffic flow time series by the use of the slope change rate, and it can analyse this trend of traffic flow changes for control purposes of traffic flow. The achieved results indicate that the algorithm is suitable for road traffic flow peak control problem and could be effective for road traffic flow control.

Facing increasingly strict environmental regulations on transportation fuels, China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), the second largest supplier of petroleum products in China, needs to upgrade its transportation fuels. Using the scenario-based analysis method, this paper analyzes how the emission related properties, including antiknock index, and sulfur, olefin, benzene and aromatics contents of gasoline produced by CNPC, vary with the change in the configuration of gasoline production units in the future 5–15 years. The results showed that for CNPC to upgrade its gasoline, the share of fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) naphtha must be reduced, but just increasing reformate or alkylate and isomerate will result in excessive increase in benzene and aromatics contents or a great loss of gasoline octane number. Therefore, CNPC should suitably control the capacity of its FCC units and increase the capacity of reformer, alkylation and isomerization units. Most importantly, CNPC should dramatically expand the capacity of its hydrotreating or non-hydrotreating gasoline upgrading units to decrease the olefin and sulfur contents in FCC gasoline that takes a dominant share of about 80% in the gasoline pool of China.

It has been well recognized that TGF-β is able to induce CD4(+)CD25(+)Foxp3(+) suppressor/regulatory T (iTreg) cells and IL-2 facilitates iTreg induction and expansion, however, only half of TGF-β-induced CD4(+)CD25(+) cells express Foxp3 and remaining CD4(+)CD25(+)Foxp3- cells may represent effector cells. Whether other factor(s) can increase Foxp3 expression by CD4(+)CD25(+) cells induced with TGF-β is still unclear. Here we show that addition of exogenous IFN-γ or IL-4 diminished the ability of TGF-β to induce Foxp3 expression and IL-2 failed to rescue this decreased Foxp3 expression. Conversely, neutralization of IFN-γ and IL-4 significantly enhanced the ability of TGF-β to induce Foxp3 and develop the suppressive activity, indicating that different cytokine profiles affect the differentiation of CD4(+)CD25(+)Foxp3(+) subset induced by TGF-β. These results show that combination of antibodies against IFN-γ and IL-4 and TGF-β enhances the efficacy of generation and function of iTreg cells and may therefore provide a novel therapeutic strategy for the treatment of autoimmune and other chronic inflammatory diseases.