Disturbances in lipid metabolism are at the core of several health issues facing modern society, including fatty liver and obesity. The SREBP-1 is one important transcription factor regulating lipid metabolism, but the relevant mechanism still remains unknown. The present study determined the transcriptional regulation of SREBP-1 and its target genes (including accα, fas and scd1) in a freshwater teleost, grass carp Ctenopharyngodon idella. We cloned and characterized the 1988 bp, 2043 bp, 1632 bp and 1889 bp sequences of srebp-1, accα, scd1, and fas promoters, respectively. A cluster of putative binding sites of transcription factors, such as SP, YY1, NF-Y, SREs and E-box element, were predicted on their promoter regions. nSREBP-1 overexpression reduced srebp-1 promoter activity, increased scd1 and fas promoter activity, but did not influence accα promoter activity. The site mutation and EMSA analysis indicated that srebp-1, fas and scd1 promoters, but not accα promoter, possessed SREs. In CIK cells of grass carp, nSREBP-1 overexpression significantly reduced srebp-1 mRNA expression, and up-regulated miR-29 mRNA expression. The 3’UTR of srebp-1 possessed the potential miR-29 binding site and miR-29 up-regulated the luciferase activity of srebp-1 3’UTR and srebp-1 mRNA expression, implying a self-activating loop of SREBP-1 and miR-29 in grass carp. Based on these results above, we found two novel transcriptional mechanisms for SREBP-1 in grass carp: (1) the auto-regulation sited on the SREBP-1 promoter regions was suppressive; (2) there was a self-activating loop of SREBP-1 and miR-29.

The effect of maternal folate intake on small-for-gestational-age (SGA) births remains inconclusive. The present study aimed to investigate the associations of maternal folate intake from diet and supplements with the risk of SGA births using data from a cross-sectional study in Shaanxi Province of Northwest China. A total of 7307 women who were within 12 months (median 3; 10th–90th percentile 0–7) after delivery were included. Two-level models were adopted to examine the associations of folate (dietary folate, supplemental folic acid and total folate) intake with the risk of SGA births and birth weight Z score, controlling for a minimum set of confounders that were identified in a directed acyclic graph. Results showed that a higher supplemental folic acid intake during the first trimester was negatively associated with the risk of SGA births (≤60 d v. non-use: OR 0·80; 95 % CI 0·66, 0·96; >60 d v. non-use: OR 0·78; 95 % CI 0·65, 0·94; Ptrend = 0·010; per 10-d increase: OR 0·97; 95 % CI 0·95, 0·99). A higher total folate intake during pregnancy was associated with a reduced risk of SGA births (highest tertile v. lowest tertile: OR 0·77; 95 % CI 0·64, 0·94; Ptrend = 0·010; per one-unit increase in the log-transformed value: OR 0·81; 95 % CI 0·69, 0·95). A similar pattern was observed for the birth weight Z score. Our study suggested that folic acid supplementation during the first trimester and a higher total folate intake during pregnancy were associated with a reduced risk of SGA births.

Higher fiber intake reduced all-cause and cardiovascular mortality among healthy population, but such data in dialysis patients are limited. We aimed to examine these associations in patients on peritoneal dialysis. This single-center prospective cohort study enrolled 881 incident PD patients between October 2002 and August 2014. All patients were followed until death, transfer to hemodialysis, renal transplantation or until being censored in June 2018. Demographic data were collected at baseline. Biochemical, dietary, and nutrition data were examined at baseline and thereafter at regular intervals to calculate the average values throughout the study. The outcomes were defined as all-cause and cardiovascular death. Cox proportional regression models were applied to explore the relationship between fiber intake and outcomes. Participants with higher fiber intake were more likely to be younger, male, and having better residual renal function and serum lipids at baseline. They were prone to maintain better nutrient status, higher blood pressure and lower inflammatory status at baseline and afterward. Neither baseline nor time-averaged fiber intake did show protective effects on all-cause mortality after multivariate adjustment in the whole cohort. Among non-diabetic PD patients, an independent association between fiber intake and all-cause mortality was found, in which each 1g/day of increase in time-averaged fiber intake correlated to 13% of reduction in all-cause mortality. We did not observe any benefits of fiber intake in the CVD mortality for both whole cohort and subgroups. This study revealed that higher dietary fiber intake appeared to have a protective effect on all-cause mortality in non-diabetic PD patients, which suggest that PD patients should be encouraged to eat a diet rich in fibers.

At GE Research, we are combining “physics” with artificial intelligence and machine learning to advance manufacturing design, processing, and inspection, turning innovative technologies into real products and solutions across our industrial portfolio. This article provides a snapshot of how this physical plus digital transformation is evolving at GE.

We assessed inheritance of resistance to sugarcane brown rust (Puccinia melanocephala) in selfing F1 populations of wild sugarcane germplasm Erianthus rockii ‘Yundian 95-19’ and E. rockii ‘Yundian 95-20’. We tested parent and selfing F1 individuals for the brown rust resistance gene, Bru1, that has been shown to confer resistance to brown rust in sugarcane. The Bru1 gene was not detected in E. rockii ‘Yundian 95-19’, E. rockii ‘Yundian 95-20’ or their selfing F1 individuals, and we found there was segregation of resistance in the two selfing F1 populations (segregation ratio: 3:1). The results confirmed resistance in E. rockii ‘Yundian 95-19’ and E. rockii ‘Yundian 95-20’ to sugarcane brown rust is controlled by a novel, single dominant gene.

Annexin A2 (ANXA2) is reported to be associated with cancer development. To investigate the roles ANXA2 plays during the development of cancer, the RNAi method was used to inhibit the ANXA2 expression in caco2 (human colorectal cancer cell line) and SMMC7721 (human hepatocarcinoma cell line) cells. The results showed that when the expression of ANXA2 was efficiently inhibited, the growth and motility of both cell lines were significantly decreased, and the development of the motility relevant microstructures, such as pseudopodia, filopodia, and the polymerization of microfilaments and microtubules were obviously inhibited. The cancer cell apoptosis was enhanced without obvious significance. The possible regulating pathway in the process was also predicted and discussed. Our results suggested that ANXA2 plays important roles in maintaining the malignancy of colorectal and hepatic cancer by enhancing the cell proliferation, motility, and development of the motility associated microstructures of cancer cells based on a possible complicated signal pathway.

We construct a multiply Xiong chaotic set with full Hausdorff dimension everywhere that is contained in some multiply proximal cell for the full shift over finite symbols and the Gauss system, respectively.

Isolated gametes can be used to investigate fertilization mechanisms, and probe distant hybridization between different species. Pollen grains of wheat and Setaria viridis are tricellular, containing sperm cells at anthesis. Sperm from these plants were isolated by breaking open pollen grains in a osmotic solution. Wheat ovules were digested in an enzyme solution for 20 min, and then transferred to an isolation solution without enzymes to separate egg cells from ovules. The fusion of wheat egg cells with wheat and S. viridis sperm was conducted using an electro-fusion apparatus. Under suitable osmotic pressure (10% mannitol), calcium concentration of 0.001% (CaCl2·2H2O), and a 30–35 V alternating electric field for 15 s, egg cells and sperm adhered to each other and became arranged in a line. Electroporation of the plasma membrane of egg cells and sperm using a 300–500 V direct-current electric field (45 µs amplitude pulse) caused them to fuse.

Novel NiMoO4-integrated electrode materials were successfully prepared by solvothermal method using Na2MoO4·2H2O and NiSO4·6H2O as main raw materials, water, and ethanol as solvents. The morphology, phase, and structure of the as-prepared materials were characterized by SEM, XRD, Raman, and FT-IR. The electrochemical properties of the materials in supercapacitors were investigated by cyclic voltammetry, constant current charge–discharge, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy techniques. The effects of volume ratio of water to ethanol (W/E) in solvent on the properties of the product were studied. The results show that the pure phase monoclinic crystal NiMoO4 product can be obtained when the W/E is 2:1. The diameter and length are 0.1–0.3 µm and approximately 3 µm, respectively. As an active material for supercapacitor, the NiMoO4 nanorods material delivered a discharge specific capacitance of 672, 498, and 396 F/g at a current density of 4, 7, and 10 A/g, respectively. The discharge specific capacitance slightly decreased from 815 to 588 F/g with a retention of 72% after 1000 cycles at a current density of 1 A/g. With these superior capacitance properties, the novel NiMoO4 integrated electrode materials could be considered as promising material for supercapacitors.

In this paper, a novel multilayer substrate integrated dual-mode dielectric resonator (DR) filter is proposed. The square dual-mode DR is made of the high permittivity substrate by removing the undesired portions and the surface coppers so that the relatively high unloaded quality factor of the dominate TM11 pair can be obtained which compared to these fully dielectric-filled substrate integrated waveguides. Meanwhile, it can be easily integrated in an equivalent cavity implemented by multilayer printed circuit boards for filter design, showcasing low in-band loss, light weight, and compact size. For demonstration, a multilayer substrate integrated DR bandpass filter centered at X-band is designed and measured. Good agreement between the simulated and measured results can be observed, and the measured insertion loss at the passband center frequency (8.38 GHz) is 1.1 dB.

The antibacterial hydrogels can be widely used in the biomedical area owing to their excellent properties. The main limitation of antibacterial hydrogels is their poor mechanical strength. In this study, the novel hydrogels were fabricated with a mixture of silk fibroin (SF), chitosan (CH), agarose (AG), and silver nanoparticles (SNPs) via facile reaction condition without inorganic substances. The mechanical property of these fabricated hydrogels can be modulated by the concentration of SF or AG. The rheological studies demonstrated enhanced elasticity of CH-doped hydrogels. Because of the presence of CH and Ag in hydrogels, the antimicrobial property against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria was exhibited. Cytocompatibility test proved the very low toxic nature of the hydrogels. In addition, these composite hydrogels have a smaller porosity, higher swelling ratio, and good compatibility, indicating their great potential for biomedical application.

Maternal one-carbon metabolism during pregnancy is crucial for fetal development and programming by DNA methylation. However, evidence on one-carbon biomarkers other than folate is lacking. We, therefore, investigated whether maternal plasma methyl donors, that is, choline, betaine and methionine, are associated with birth outcomes. Blood samples were obtained from 115 women during gestation (median 26·3 weeks, 90 % range 22·7–33·0 weeks). Plasma choline, betaine, methionine and dimethylglycine were measured using HPLC-tandem MS. Multivariate linear and logistic regression models were used to estimate the association between plasma biomarkers and birth weight, birth length, the risk of small-for-gestational-age and large-for-gestational-age (LGA). Higher level of maternal betaine was associated with lower birth weight (–130·3 (95 % CI –244·8, –15·9) per 1 sd increment for log-transformed betaine). Higher maternal methionine was associated with lower risk of LGA, and adjusted OR, with 95 % CI for 1 sd increase in methionine concentration was 0·44 (95 % CI 0·21, 0·89). Stratified analyses according to infant sex or maternal plasma homocysteine status showed that reduction in birth weight in relation to maternal betaine was only limited to male infants or to who had higher maternal homocysteine status (≥5·1 µmol/l). Higher maternal betaine status was associated with reduced birth weight. Maternal methionine was inversely associated with LGA risk. These findings are needed to be replicated in future larger studies.

The accuracy of the Global Positioning System (GPS) observable, especially for the code observable, has improved with the development of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver technology. An evaluation of the GPS code observable is presented in this paper, together with a stochastic model for the code and phase observables in Precise Point Positioning (PPP), established using the evaluated results. The results show that the code observables of Leica GNSS receivers are generally better than those of some other brand receivers and the Root Mean Square (RMS) for the code observables of the Leica GRX1200PRO, which includes the multipath effect, reaches 0·71 m, although Coarse/Acquisition (C/A) code observables are tracked. The static positioning of the code observable can reach centimetre level and the convergence time for the JPLM station is just 2·5 hours. The positioning results show that it is difficult to converge the Up direction to the centimetre level, compared with the North and East directions. The results show that static positioning can be correlated with the accumulation characteristic of the error for the code observable, while that that of the kinematic mode can be correlated to the error value. The shortened PPP convergence times verify that the presented stochastic models are effective.

Magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (MIONPs) are particularly attractive in biosensor, antibacterial activity, targeted drug delivery, cell separation, magnetic resonance imaging tumor magnetic hyperthermia, and so on because of their particular properties including superparamagnetic behavior, low toxicity, biocompatibility, etc. Although many methods had been developed to produce MIONPs, some challenges such as severe agglomeration, serious oxidation, and irregular size are still faced in the synthesis of MIONPs. Thus, various strategies had been developed for the surface modification of MIONPs to improve the characteristics of them and obtain multifunctional MIONPs, which will widen the applicational scopes of them. Therefore, the processes, mechanisms, advances, advantages, and disadvantages of six main approaches for the synthesis of MIONPs; surface modification of MIONPs with inorganic materials, organic molecules, and polymer molecules; applications of MIONPs or modified MIONPs; the technical challenges of synthesizing MIONPs; and their limitations in biomedical applications were described in this review to provide the theoretical and technological guidance for their future applications.

In this paper, high-gain cavity backed patch antenna arrays are proposed based on low temperature co-fired ceramic technology at 140 GHz. By introducing a substrate integrated cavity to the patch antenna element, the gain is enhanced by 3.3 dB. Moreover, a rectangular ring is loaded around the patch for better impedance matching and further gain enhancement. The final simulated maximum gain of the proposed antenna element is 9.8 dBi. Based on the proposed high-gain antenna element, a 4 × 4-element array and an 8 × 8- element array are presented. The 4 × 4-element array shows a measured maximum gain of 16.9 dBi with 9.5 GHz bandwidth (136.2–145.7 GHz) and the 8 × 8-element array shows a measured maximum gain of 21.8 dBi with 9.8 GHz bandwidth(136.7–146.5 GHz), respectively.

Refinement and homogenization of primary Si particles in hypereutectic Al–Si alloys is an effective route to enhance the tensile strength and wear resistance and satisfy the industrial requirements for a wide range of applications. Herein, two kinds of semisolid hypereutectic Al–Si alloys are synthesized by using a rotating-rod-induced nucleation technology. The influence of different cooling conditions and shear rates on the apparent viscosity of molten melt of slurry are examined by self-made high-precision and high-temperature apparent viscosity test equipment. The correlation between the shear rate and the uniformity of hard phases has been investigated from the obtained results, fitting curves, and optical microscope. With the increase in the shear rate, the particles tend to become rounder and the apparent viscosity becomes lower. The enhanced shape factor resulted in more rounded grains, which further reduced the apparent viscosity. During the same cooling time, the higher cooling rate resulted in higher solid fraction, generating higher apparent viscosity. The present study provides unique insight into the filling behavior of semisolid hypereutectic Al–Si alloys and serves as a baseline for future work.