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Integrated crop–livestock systems (ICLSs) can improve the sustainability of agriculture. The configuration of an ICLS to achieve sustainable development while maintaining the effectiveness of resource utilization is complicated due to conflicts between economic performance and environmental protection. In this paper, a novel optimization model-based emergy evaluation (OMEE) method is proposed for ICLS configuration. OMEE encompasses an emergy analysis and an improved non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) programming model. Based on the emergy analysis, the emergy economic efficiency index (EYR), emergy environmental efficiency index (ELR) and emergy sustainability index (ESI) are used for the sustainable development evaluation, and the results provided the basis for the objective function for economic and environmental equilibrium. Considering programming issues, the configured initial data and hierarchical evaluation results are integrated into the improved NSGA-II (CIHE-NSGA-II) model. This model is capable of (1) configuring the initial solution based on original farming data and (2) performing hierarchical evaluations of EYR, ELR and ESI based on bilevel programming. This exploratory approach was verified based on a real case study in northern China. The results showed that the ESI increased by 16.8% when the proposed approach was applied. This simulation research demonstrates the usefulness of CIHE-NSGA II in optimizing the allocation of resources in ICLSs, and OMEE can provide evaluation results that aid in meeting decision-making goals and configuring crop and livestock resources.

The myodural bridge (MDB) is a dense connective tissue bridge connecting the suboccipital muscles to the spinal dura mater, and it has been proven to be a normal common existing structure in humans and mammals. Some scholars believe that the suboccipital muscles can serve as a dynamic cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pump via the MDB, and they found head rotations promote the CSF flow in human body, which provided evidence for this hypothesis. Head movement is a complex motion, but the effects of other forms of head movement on CSF circulation are less known. The present study explored the effects of head-nodding on CSF circulation. The CSF flow of 60 healthy volunteers was analyzed via cine phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging at the level of the occipitocervical junction before and after one-minute-head-nodding period. Furthermore, the CSF pressures of 100 volunteers were measured via lumbar puncture before and after 5 times head-nodding during their anesthetizing for surgical preparation. As a result, it was found that the maximum and average CSF flow rates at the level of the upper border of atlas during ventricular diastole were significantly decreased from 1.965 ± 0.531 to 1.839 ± 0.460 ml/s and from 0.702 ± 0.253 to 0.606 ± 0.228 ml/s respectively. In the meantime, the changes in the ratio of cranial and caudal orientation of the net flow volume were found differed significantly after the one-minute-head-nodding period (p = 0.017). And on the other hand, the CSF pressures at the L3–L4 level were markedly increased 116.03 ± 26.13 to 124.64 ± 26.18 mmH2O. In conclusion, the head-nodding has obvious effects on CSF circulation and head movement is one of the important drivers of cerebrospinal fluid circulation. We propose that the suboccipital muscles, participating in various head movements, might pull the dura sac via the myodural bridge, and thus, head movement provides power for the CSF circulation.

C32H41N7NiO8, monoclinic, P21/c (no. 14), a = 10.0076(5) Å, b = 18.6561(10) Å, c = 19.0893(18) Å, β = 108.532(6)°, V = 3378.4(4) Å3, Z = 4, Rgt (F) = 0.0607, wRref (F 2) = 0.1340, T = 111.9(1) K.

C26H31N5NiO8, monoclinic, P21/n (no. 14), a = 12.554(3) Å, b = 12.401(3) Å, c = 18.718(5) Å, β = 107.844(3)°, V = 2774.0(12) Å3, Z = 4, R gt (F) = 0.0438, wR ref (F 2) = 0.1175, T = 153(2) K.

University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Science. Our inspiration behind this thesis is nutritional data, more specifically nutritional data collected through short term methods such as the 24HR recall. These collection methods obtain results that are quite accurate in what a subject consumed in a day, but is not an accurate representation of what a subject’s consumption pattern looks like in long term. This leads to many statistician using measurement error models to adjust for the difference. As our society as a whole becomes more aware of our health and how our eating pattern may effect it, more and more studies have come to focus on such ideas. And more recently, studies have come to focus on just understanding what the distribution of a populations consumption pattern looks like, in hopes to answer questions such as how does our society as a general consume a nutrition of interest, are we over or under consuming a certain food group or nutrition, has our consumption pattern changed as time passes, and so on. So far in studies that use measurement error models to help obtain a density curve that represents a populations consumption patterns, most studies require additional information or additional assumptions that are given without specifying a reason such as assuming a certain distribution for the error terms of the model. For our thesis, we wish to develop a method that can obtain an unbiased distribution of a populations long term consumption pattern without additional information and minimal assumptions. In this thesis, we start with a simple classical error model that will work well for continuous data, this may be good with nutrition data such as protein, fat and fiber. We then move on to allowing replicates in our observed variable, in doing so, we can let go of most assumptions on the error term. We do this because most 24HR recalls collect multiple entries from the same subject, which can work as replicates. We then move on to a more complex error model that is designed for zero-inflated data. We are interested in such a model since data collection methods such as the 24HR recall also collects information on what food we eat in a day, since it is very rare that we will eat every type of food in a 24 hour period, the 24HR recall will contain a large amount of zero. We hope to develop a method that can help with estimating a populations long term consumption pattern using data collected using this short term method that contains excess zero.

Objective Vasculogenic mimicry (VM) is a novel mechanism of tumor blood supply distinct from endothelial vessel (EV). VM is associated with malignancy, invasion, metastasis, and poor prognosis. Hitherto a noninvasive method for the assessment of VM in vivo has been lacking. Methods Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) was performed to evaluate the quantitative parameters of tumors in mice. CD31 immunohistochemistry-Periodic Acid-Schiff double staining was conducted to identify the VM or EV in tumor tissues. Correlations between perfusion parameters and VM density was analyzed by Pearson correlation test. Results By the 15th day after tumor inoculation, the EV and VM density was 31.15 ± 7.14 and 14.11 ± 2.99 per 200× field. The maximal intensity (IMAX) was 301.19 ± 191.56%, and the rise time (RT), time to peak (TTP) and mean transit time (mTT) were 17.38 ± 7.82 s, 20.27 ± 9.61 s and 58.09 ± 26.44 s, respectively. VM density positively correlated to RT (r = 0.3598, P = 0.0226), TTP (r = 0.3733, P = 0.0177) and mTT(r = 0.6483, P

The myodural bridge (MDB) is a dense connective tissue that connects muscles with the cervical spinal dura mater via the posterior atlanto-occipital and atlato-axial interspaces. To date, the physiological function of the MDB has not been fully elucidated. Recent studies have identified the presence of the MDB in mammals, but very little information is available on the existence of the MDB in avifauna. We selected Gallus domesticus to explore the existence and the fiber property of the MDB in avifauna. We found that in this species, fibers originating from the ventral aspect of the rectus capitis dorsal minor are fused with the dorsal atlanto-occipital membrane and that numerous trabeculae connect the dorsal atlanto-occipital membrane with the cervical spinal dura mater. Furthermore, the occipital venous sinus is located between the trabeculae. The MDB is mainly composed of collagen type I fibers. Our results show that the MDB is present in G. domesticus and lead us to infer that the MDB is a highly conservative evolutionary structure which may play essential physiological roles.

Peptides, bound to the tegument of live Schistosoma japonicum schistosomula, were differentially screened by phage display in vitro using three rounds of reverse absorption and bio-panning. Three M13 phage peptides were isolated and identified by determination of their recovery rate, immunohistochemical localization, immunoblot analysis, and their anti-schistosomal effects in vivo and in vitro. Of the three, M13 phage peptide ZL4 (MppZL4, YSGLQDSSLRLR, 1.4kDa, pI 8.8) bound to the tegument of mechanically transformed schistosomula and to other developmental stages of S. japonicum from the mammalian host. By contrast, MppZL4 did not bind to the surface of cercariae. To further examine its binding properties, MppZL4 was conjugated to Rhodamine B (RhB-YSGLQDSSLRLR, RhB-ZL4) and a peptide control (RhB-AIPYFSGILQWR, RhB-12P) was similarly synthesized. The binding capacities of RhB-ZL4 to the surface membrane of S. japonicum schistosomula in vitro and of S. japonicum adult worms in vivo were examined and revealed specificity for binding. When examined for anti-parasite activity, both MppZL4 and RhB-ZL4 exhibited a potent schistosomicidal effect in vitro. Further MppZL4 also affected the growth and development of schistosomula in vivo. These findings extend previous studies showing that phage display techniques can recover polypeptides that bind specifically to living schistosomes and, moreover, that these bound peptides have the potential to inhibit key physiological processes in these parasites. Our findings suggest further that ectogenic polypeptides, which can bind to the tegument of S. japonicum, might be adapted as vectors to deliver experimental probes and/or pharmacologically relevant compounds to the schistosome tegument, including drugs and immunological mediators.

Based on the study of the effect of parametric variation of quartz flexible accelerometer in storage condition, the varying mechanism and causes of bias and scale factor varying were analyzed. According to the analysis results of mechanism, the parts of finite element modeling and the parameters-input forms were determined. Considering the varying magnetic properties of permanent magnetic material impacted on the accelerometer, an approach of loading the servo-circuit formulas and modeling the quartz flexible accelerometer in ANSYS finite element analysis (FEA) software was given, and the algorithm process of FEA coupled magneto-structural simulation was also given. Finally, one certain accelerometer was simulated by FEA software, and a temperature testing was made. It is tested that the trend of the test under various temperature stress was consistent with that of the above output voltage values which is obtained by finite element simulation. Moreover, it demonstrates the correctness of the modeling and the analysis results.

In order to improve the fatigue strength of TC4, Nd:Glass pulse laser was used to impact the surface of cylindrical specimens, X-ray stress analyzer was used to test the residual stress distribution of treated area, the laser shock processing on different ratio (η) between the diameter of specimens and laser spot were simulated with ANSYS at the same time. The numerical simulation results were well agreement with experimental data. The results indicate that the different η mainly affect residual stress distribution along the circumferential direction. Contrarily, it has few effects on longitudinal direction and in-depth direction.

The residual stress induced by Laser shock processing (LSP) can improve properties of fatigue crack growth. In this paper, the CT models of LSP and fatigue crack growth have been built. We experimented the TC4 alloy treated by LSP and fatigue crack growth and then simulated the fatigue crack growth. The results show that the values of simulations are conform to experiments. With the increment of peak pressures and overlapping rates, the fatigue lives have been increased, the fatigue crack growth rates have been descent. The fatigue lives have been 1.46-3.03 times compared with untreated by LSP, the fatigue crack growth rates have been 0.127-0.95 time compared with untreated by LSP, but to overlapping rates, it is not obvious with the improvement compared with peak pressures.

Background: Studies on Cox-2 and Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Treg) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) showed that Treg suppress local immune response in a Cox-2-dependent fashion. Aims: To investigate Cox-2 expression, Foxp3+ Treg infiltration and CD4+ T cell frequency in HCC tumors. Methods: Tumors and the corresponding nontumor hepatitis B virus-related liver tissues from 40 HCC patients with hepatitis B virus infection, plus 10 liver samples from patients with hemangioma as controls, were assessed for Cox-2 expression, Foxp3+ Treg and total CD4+ T cell numbers using immunohistochemistry. Serum TGF-β1 was assessed by ELISA. Results: Reduced Cox-2 expression, increased Treg and increased CD4+ T cells were shown in tumor as compared with nontumor tissues. Moreover, of 40 tumor tissues, 23 that expressed Cox-2 showed increased Foxp3+ Treg and reduced CD4+ T cells compared with the remaining 17 that did not express Cox-2. Correlation analyses showed that within tumors Treg infiltration correlated positively with Cox-2 expression, and that Treg infiltration or Cox-2 expression correlated negatively with CD4+ T cells. Additionally, serum TGF-β1 was higher in HCC patients than in controls. Conclusion: Within tumors, Cox-2 expression, Treg infiltration and CD4+ T cell frequency were increased, and the Cox-2 expression correlated positively with Treg infiltration and negatively with CD4+ T cell frequency.

To screen and analyze the peptides in 12 phage-display peptide library specifically binding to the schistosomulum tegument of Schistosoma japonicum.A 12 phage-display peptide library was screened with the S. japonicum schistosomula as the target cells for biopanning by degrees, positive clones picked randomly were deduced by DNA sequencing. According the sequence seeing result, immunohistochemical staining was performed to determine the specificity of the phages to the tegument. To test their targeting efficacy, the interested phage clones were infused back to the mice infected with S. japonicum, mice were sacrificed 2.5 hours later, and the phage distribution in the liver and the tegument of schistosomula was appraised, respectively.After 3 rounds of biopanning, the phage recovery rate increased from 0.77 x 10(-8) to 0.75 x 10(-5), indicating that the phage library was successfully enriched in the tegument of schistosomula. Seventy-five percent (15/20) of the analyzed sequences were identical with a sequence of QHPRIRKOOOOO. The immunohistochemical stainings showed this sequence specifically binding to the tegument. In vivo titering displayed that this sequence selectively targeted the tegument.The peptide of QHPRIRKOOOOO specifically binds to the schistosomulum tegument.

The concept of DC-based tumour vaccine has been tested both clinically and experimentally for the past two decades. Even though only limited success has been achieved to date, DC vaccination remains a promising immunological approach against tumours and deserves further exploration. It aims to elicit and establish specific immunity to destroy tumours. By such an approach, DC are used not only as a vector to deliver tumour antigens, but also as a “natural adjuvant” to boost vaccine efficacy. Tumours are however of mutated “self”, to which the host immune system is essentially tolerated in the absence of external perturbation otherwise. Such a live cell-based approach is unfortunately extremely sensitive to, hence its efficacy inevitably limited by, the tumour microenvironment. Certain immunosuppressive mechanisms triggered by the tumour cells are therefore major obstacles against successful DC vaccination. Attempts have since been made in order to overcome these hurdles. This brief review summarises some of the earlier and current findings, and compares the effectiveness of various approaches used in these studies. It focuses particularly on strategies aimed at enhancing DC immunogenicity, through molecular modifications and functional conditioning of the cell vectors, targeting both the positive and negative regulators of DC functions. By dissecting the roles of DC in immunity versus tolerance induction, and the very mechanisms underlying autoimmunity, we examine further and try to explain how the suppressed or “misguided” immunity may be alternatively switched-on and more effectively redirected for cancer therapy.

Recent studies have found that Cyclooxygenase-2(Cox-2) is frequently inappropriately expressed in primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), suggesting that abnormal Cox-2 expression plays an important role in hepatocarcinogenesis. But it remains controversial in these reports. Moreover, there are only a few studies on the correlation between Cox-2 and infiltrating immunocytes in the tumor-microenvironment. CD4+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) and infiltrating immunocytes around the tumor are closely correlated to the development of the tumor, but so far no reports are available showing the relationship among Cox-2, CD4+ TIL of tumor and CD4+ infiltrating T-lymphocytes of adjoining non-tumorous (ANT) tissues in tumor-microenvironment. This study is designed to appropriately select and collect patients' specimens to better reflect Cox-2 expression in human HCC, and also to stress the correlation among Cox-2, CD4+ TIL and CD4+ infiltrating T-lymphocytes in the tumor-microenvironment.Tumor tissue, and its matched ANT tissue removed less than 1 cm from the solid tumor border, were obtained from 25 HCC patients all of whom came from Hunan province, China, and were infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV). Normal liver tissues of 10 hemangiomas were collected as controls. Both Cox-2 expression and the number of CD4+ TIL and CD4+ infiltrating T-lymphocyte were detected by immunohistochemistry, and data were analyzed closely with patients' clinical figures so as to investigate the correlation between the 3 elements.In 25 HCC patients, remarkably higher Cox-2 expression in both tumor and ANT tissues was observed compared with normal liver tissues (p0.001). The percentage of Cox-2 positive cells was, remarkably, higher in ANT tissues than in tumors (p0.001). Similarly the distribution of CD4+ T cells was significantly higher in ANT tissue than in tumor tissue (p0.0001), and also significantly higher in tumor tissue than in normal tissue (p0.0001). Importantly, in the group of patients with Cox-2-expressing tumors, the number of CD4+ infiltrating T-lymphocyte in ANT tissues was 79.4(+)9.92/hpf, which is obviously lower (p = 0.019) than that of the group with non-Cox-2-expressing tumors with the number of CD4+ infiltrating T-lymphocyte in ANT tissues at 118.13(+)12.47/hpf. Cox-2 expression of tumors showed a significant negative correlation with number of CD4+ infiltrating T cells of ANT tissues (r = 0.499, p = 0.024). The number of CD4+ TILs are lower in Cox-2-expressing tumors than in non-Cox-2-expressing tumors, but there was not statistical significance (p = 0.057).Taken together we suggest in the tumor-microenvironment of HCC the expression of Cox-2 may inhibit the number CD4+ infiltrating T-lymphocyte in ANT tissues. As a result, Cox-2 overexpression may contribute to both suppression of local immune responses and enhancement of metastatic potential in human HCC.

The dendritic cell (DC)-based tumor immunotherapy has been a new promise of cure for cancer patients, but animal studies and clinical trials have thus far only shown limited success, especially in treating established tumors. Certain immunosuppressive mechanisms triggered by tumor cells or the derivatives are believed to be a major obstacle. We studied the role of DC-derived IL-10 and its negative impact on vaccine efficacy in mouse models. Liver tumor cells were injected via the portal vein, giving rise to disseminated intrahepatic tumors, or s.c. to form solid but extrahepatic tumors. Bone marrow-derived DCs were generated from normal or IL-10-deficient mice and used as the vector to deliver tumor Ags. We demonstrate here that DCs devoid of IL-10, a potent immunosuppressive cytokine, are superior over conventional DCs in triggering antitumor immunity. The IL-10−/−DCs were highly immunogenic, expressed enhanced levels of surface MHC class II molecules, and secreted increased amounts of Th1-related cytokines. By inducing tumor-specific killing and through the establishment of immunological memory, the vaccines delivered by IL-10−/−DCs could evoke strong therapeutic and protective immunity against hepatocellular carcinoma in the mouse models. These findings will have great clinical impact once being translated into the treatment of malignant, and potentially infectious, diseases in humans.

To investigate the enhancement effect of IL-4 expression plasmid on cathepsin B DNA vaccine of Schistosoma japonicum (Sj) in mice.The recombinant IL-4 plasmid constructed by cloning PCR amplified product of murine IL-4 gene into eukaryotic expression vector pcDNA3.1 was co-injected intramuscularly with Sj cathepsin B expression plasmid DNA to mice as the test group. The other three groups of mice were set up as control including IL-4 expression plasmid, Sj cathepsin B expression plasmid and two vacant vector plasmids. The expression of IL-4 and cathepsin B was visualized by immunohistochemistry. Challenge infection in mice was carried out 3 weeks after the last vaccination and immune protection was assessed by worm and egg reduction rates.The recombinant mIL-4 plasmid and cathepsin B DNA vaccine were expressed in muscular cells of the vaccinated mice. Immunization with cathepsin B DNA plus recombinant mIL-4 plasmid yielded a 43.2 % of worm reduction rate and a 76.6% of egg reduction rate, showing a significant difference (P0.01, P0.05) compared with that of cathepsin B DNA vaccine alone.As an adjuvant, IL-4 DNA can improve the protective effect of cathepsin B DNA vaccine in mice against S. japonicum infection.

To clone and characterize new genes of Schistosoma japonicum, Sj, and to provide efficient vaccine candidates.Sj adult cDNA library was screened with rabbit sera raised against male worm soluble antigen. The inserted cDNA fragments from the positively selected clones were amplified with PCR and further sequenced, as well as characterized through internet NCBI GenBank software.Eleven positive clones were obtained and two were verified by GenBank as new, including a novel gene designated as Sj-P8 (GenBank accession No. AF517843) and a new partial cDNA of Sj myosin (GenBank accession No. AY770506). The two new genes encoded a transmembrane protein of 75 amino acids and a myosin protein fragment of 212 amino acids respectively.The newly obtained genes may provide useful information for the research on Sj vaccine.