Research on the Interstitial Fluid Load Support Characteristics and Start-Up Friction Mechanisms of PVA-HA-Silk Composite Hydrogel

Hydrogel has been extensively studied as an articular cartilage repair and replacement material. PVA-HA-Silk composite hydrogel was prepared by freezing-thawing method in this paper. Mechanical properties were determined by experiments and the friction coefficient of PVA-HA-Silk composite hydrogel against steel ball was verified using micro-tribometer. Finite Element Method （FEM） was used to study the lubrication mechanism of PVA-HA-Silk composite hydrogel and the relation between the interstitial fluid load support and the start-up friction resistance. The results show that the elastic modulus and the permeability are 2.07 MPa and 10^-15m^4N^-1s^-1, respectively, and the start-up friction coefficients of PVA-HA-Silk composite hydrogel are in the range of 0.154）.2 at different contact loads, contact time and sliding speeds. The start-up friction resistance of PVA-HA-Silk composite hydrogel increases with the contact load and contact time. With the increase in sliding speed, the start-up friction resistance of PVA-HA-Silk composite hydrogel decreases. There is an inverse relation between the start-up friction resistance and the interstitial fluid load support. The change of fluid flow with the increase in sliding displacement has an important effect on the interstitial fluid load support and friction resistance. The interstitial fluid load support decreases with the increase in contact load and contact time, while the interstitial fluid load support reinforces with the increase in sliding speed. Moreover, PVA-HA-Silk composite hydrogel has mechanical properties of recovery and self-lubricating.     

人参皂苷抗衰老机制的研究进展

人参皂苷的抗衰老作用被认为是人参皂苷的重要作用之一。人参皂苷主要通过四种途径实现其抗衰老功能:通过提高机体内SOD、CAT、GSH2Px活性,诱导SOD、CAT基因表达,减少LPO、MDA含量等实现其抗衰老作用;通过促进神经递质释放、增加神经递质传递者(Ach)含量、促进NBM神经元TrkB mRNA表达、阻止神经原产生过量硝酸盐等实现其抗衰老功能;通过免疫系统在细胞和分子水平上的适度调节延缓衰老;人参皂苷亦能通过影响细胞周期调控因子、衰老基因表达,延长端粒长度、增强端粒酶活性等来实现其抗衰老功能。人参皂苷抗衰老的更完善和更深入的分子作用机制研究将成为未来研究的重点之一。     

种植密度对夏玉米产量和源库特性的影响

以高产玉米品种郑单958(ZD958)和登海661(DH661)为试验材料,在4个不同区域(山东农业大学、汶口、兖州和莱州)设置22500、45000、67500、90000和112500株.hm-25个种植密度,研究了种植密度对夏玉米产量及源库特性的影响.结果表明:两品种在112500株.hm-2密度条件下玉米籽粒产量和生物产量最高,分别为19132和36965kg.hm-2,与22500和67500株.hm-2密度相比,籽粒产量分别增加了72%和48%,生物产量分别增加了152%和112%.两品种单株叶面积、最大花丝数、穗粒数和千粒重随密度增大而减小,但叶面积指数随密度增大而显著提高.收获指数与粒叶比随密度增大而显著减小,当密度超过67500株.hm-2时差异不显著,表明高密度条件下玉米通过增加群体库来提高产量.     

Characterization of a Novel Plasmid,pMAH135, from Mycobacterium avium Subsp. hominissuis

Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) causes mainly two types of disease. The first is disseminated disease in immunocompromised hosts, such as individuals infected by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The second is pulmonary disease in individuals without systemic immunosuppression, and the incidence of this type is increasing worldwide. M. avium subsp. hominissuis, a component of MAC, causes infection in pigs as well as in humans. Many aspects of the different modes of M. avium infection and its host specificity remain unclear. Here, we report the characteristics and complete sequence of a novel plasmid, designated pMAH135, derived from M. avium strain TH135 in an HIV-negative patient with pulmonary MAC disease. The pMAH135 plasmid consists of 194,711 nucleotides with an average G + C content of 66.5% and encodes 164 coding sequences (CDSs). This plasmid was unique in terms of its homology to other mycobacterial plasmids. Interestingly, it contains CDSs with sequence homology to mycobactin biosynthesis proteins and type VII secretion system-related proteins, which are involved in the pathogenicity of mycobacteria. It also contains putative conserved domains of the multidrug efflux transporter. Screening of isolates from humans and pigs for genes located on pMAH135 revealed that the detection rate of these genes was higher in clinical isolates from pulmonary MAC disease patients than in those from HIV-positive patients, whereas the genes were almost entirely absent in isolates from pigs. Moreover, variable number tandem repeats typing analysis showed that isolates carrying pMAH135 genes are grouped in a specific cluster. Collectively, the pMAH135 plasmid contains genes associated with M. avium’s pathogenicity and resistance to antimicrobial agents. The results of this study suggest that pMAH135 influence not only the pathological manifestations of MAC disease, but also the host specificity of MAC infection.     

辽河口滨海湿地CH4排放特征及其影响因素

采用静态箱-气相色谱法,于2016年6—11月连续观测辽河口芦苇湿地、翅碱蓬湿地和裸滩湿地的CH_4排放速率,同时测定温度、氧化还原电位(Eh)、pH值和电导率(EC)等相关环境因子的动态变化。结果表明,3种类型湿地的CH_4排放具有明显的季节变化特征,均呈先上升后下降趋势。芦苇湿地、翅碱蓬湿地(涨潮前)和裸滩湿地(涨潮前)CH_4排放通量变化范围分别为0.447—10.40、0.045—0.509 mg m~(-2) h~(-1)和0.016—0.593 mg m~(-2) h~(-1),观测期内排放通量均值相应为(3.699±3.679)、(0.165±0.156) mg m~(-2) h~(-1)和(0.198±0.191) mg m~(-2) h~(-1),不同类型湿地之间差异显著(P0.01),芦苇湿地裸滩湿地(涨潮前)翅碱蓬湿地(涨潮前)。涨潮过程中,翅碱蓬湿地和裸滩湿地的排放速率分别变化在0.009—0.353 mg m~(-2) h~(-1)和0.018—0.335 mg m~(-2) h~(-1),观测期间其排放速率均值分别为(0.119±0.132) mg m~(-2) h~(-1)和(0.131±0.103) mg m~(-2) h~(-1),明显低于涨潮前(P0.01)。不同湿地类型间CH_4排放通量与电导率(EC)呈显著负相关(P0.01)。研究结果表明,潮汐和电导率均为影响辽河口不同类型湿地中CH_4排放的关键因子。     

Threshold responses of riverine fish communities to land use conversion across regions of the world

The growing human enterprise has sparked greater interest in identifying ecological thresholds in land use conversion beyond which populations or communities demonstrate abrupt nonlinear or substantive change in species composition. Such knowledge remains fundamental to understanding ecosystem resilience to environmental degradation and informing land use planning into the future. Confronting this challenge has been largely limited to inferring thresholds in univariate metrics of species richness and indices of biotic integrity and has largely ignored how land use legacies of the past may shape community responses of today. By leveraging data for 13,069 riverine sites from temperate, subtropical, and boreal climate zones on four continents, we characterize patterns of community change along diverse gradients of urbanization and agricultural land use, and identity threshold values beyond which significant alterations in species composition exists. Our results demonstrate the apparent universality by which freshwater fish communities are sensitive to even low levels of watershed urbanization (range of threshold values: 1%–12%), but consistently higher (and more variable) levels of agricultural development (2%–37%). We demonstrated that fish community compositional thresholds occurred, in general, at lower levels of watershed urbanization and agriculture when compared to threshold responses in species richness. This supports the notion that aggregated taxon‐specific responses may better reflect the complexity of assemblage responses to land use development. We further revealed that the ghost of land use past plays an important role in moderating how current‐day fish communities respond to land use intensification. Subbasins of the United States experiencing greater rates of past land use change demonstrated higher current‐day thresholds. Threshold responses of community composition, such as those identified in our study, illustrate the need for globally coordinated efforts to prioritize country‐specific management and policy initiatives that ensure that freshwater fish diversity is not inevitably lost in the future.     

Desert breath—How fog promotes a novel type of soil biocenosis,forming the coastal Atacama Desert’s living skin

The Atacama Desert is the driest non‐polar desert on Earth, presenting precarious conditions for biological activity. In the arid coastal belt, life is restricted to areas with fog events that cause almost daily wet–dry cycles. In such an area, we discovered a hitherto unknown and unique ground covering biocenosis dominated by lichens, fungi, and algae attached to grit‐sized (~6 mm) quartz and granitoid stones. Comparable biocenosis forming a kind of a layer on top of soil and rock surfaces in general is summarized as cryptogamic ground covers (CGC) in literature. In contrast to known CGC from arid environments to which frequent cyclic wetting events are lethal, in the Atacama Desert every fog event is answered by photosynthetic activity of the soil community and thus considered as the desert's breath. Photosynthesis of the new CGC type is activated by the lowest amount of water known for such a community worldwide thus enabling the unique biocenosis to fulfill a variety of ecosystem services. In a considerable portion of the coastal Atacama Desert, it protects the soil from sporadically occurring splash erosion and contributes to the accumulation of soil carbon and nitrogen as well as soil formation through bio‐weathering. The structure and function of the new CGC type are discussed, and we suggest the name grit–crust. We conclude that this type of CGC can be expected in all non‐polar fog deserts of the world and may resemble the cryptogam communities that shaped ancient Earth. It may thus represent a relevant player in current and ancient biogeochemical cycling.     

Polyol pathway in tissues of spontaneously diabetic Chinese hamsters (Cricetulus griseus) and the effect of an aldose reductase inhibitor, ONO-2235

1. Sorbitol and fructose levels were significantly elevated in the lens, the sciatic nerve, the retina and the kidney of diabetic Chinese hamsters and inositol level was significantly decreased in the lens and sciatic nerve of diabetics. 2. The activity of an aldose reductase in the kidney was not different between normal and diabetic Chinese hamsters. 3. An aldose reductase inhibitor (ONO-2235) had no effect in sorbitol, fructose and inositol contents of all these tissues from diabetic Chinese hamsters. 4. These results suggest that diabetic Chinese hamsters produce polyol accumulation in tissues but that there is a clear species-specific difference to inhibition of aldose reductase.     

Stable silencing of β-lactoglobulin (BLG) gene by lentivirus-mediated RNAi in goat fetal fibroblasts

β-lactoglobulin (BLG), a dominant allergen in goat milk, is difficult to remove by traditional biochemical methods. Its elimination from goat milk by genetic modification therefore poses a major challenge for modern goat breeders. A shRNA targeting BLG mRNA with high interference efficiency was identified, with which lentiviral vectors were used for mediating stable shRNA interference in goat-fetal fibroblast cells. Apart from high efficiency in the knockdown of BLG expression in these cells, lentivector-mediated RNAi manifested stable integration into the goat genome itself. Consequently, an in vitro model for goat BLG-content control was compiled, and a goat-cell line for accompanying transgenetic goat production created.     

Capital Growth Paths of the Neoclassical Growth Model

This paper derives the first-order approximated paths of both types of capital in the two-capital neoclassical growth model. The derived capital growth paths reveal that the short-run growth effect of capital injection differs considerably depending on which type of capital is enhanced. This result demonstrates the importance of well-targeted capital enhancement programs such as public sector projects and foreign aid.