Previous studies have shown conflicting findings regarding the relationship between maternal vitamin D deficiency (VDD) and fetal growth restriction (FGR). We hypothesised that parathyroid hormone (PTH) may be an underlying factor relevant to this potential association. In a prospective birth cohort study, descriptive statistics were evaluated for the demographic characteristics of 3407 pregnancies in the second trimester from three antenatal clinics in Hefei, China. The association of the combined status of vitamin D and PTH with birth weight and the risk of small for gestational age (SGA) was assessed by a multivariate linear and binary logistic regression. We found that declined status of 25-hydroxyvitamin D is associated with lower birth weight (for moderate VDD: adjusted β = −49·4 g, 95 % CI −91·1, −7·8, P < 0·05; for severe VDD: adjusted β = −79·8 g, 95 % CI −127·2, −32·5, P < 0·01), as well as ascended levels of PTH (for elevated PTH: adjusted β = −44·5 g, 95 % CI −82·6, −6·4, P < 0·05). Compared with the non-VDD group with non-elevated PTH, pregnancies with severe VDD and elevated PTH had the lowest neonatal birth weight (adjusted β = −124·7 g, 95 % CI −194·6, −54·8, P < 0·001) and the highest risk of SGA (adjusted risk ratio (RR) = 3·36, 95 % CI 1·41, 8·03, P < 0·01). Notably, the highest risk of less Ca supplementation was founded in severe VDD group with elevated PTH (adjusted RR = 4·67, 95 % CI 2·78, 7·85, P < 0·001). In conclusion, elevated PTH induced by less Ca supplementation would further aggravate the risk of FGR in pregnancies with severe VDD through impaired maternal Ca metabolism homoeostasis.

Change mode and effects analysis (CMEA) is a powerful technique for measuring product flexibility toward future changes and diminishing the cost of redesign as well as shortening time to market. As a systematic methodology, it provides an in-depth view for the investigation of potential changes, causes, and effects in designs, products, and processes. Traditional CMEA determines the risk priorities of change modes by using change potential number, which requires the risk factors of design flexibility, occurrence, and readiness to be precisely evaluated. However, this is not always possible in real applications due to the uncertainty and subjectivity involved in the early design stages. It has been criticized much for its deficiencies in criteria weighting of the risk factors, change potential number calculation, and risk priorities determination of the change modes. This paper presents a systematic evaluation approach for determining a more rational rank of change modes by combining with the entropy weight method, rough number, and grey relational analysis. In this study, the entropy weight method is adopted to calculate the relative importance of risk factors. Rough number is presented to aggregate individual weights and preferences, and to manipulate the vagueness in the evaluation process. Then a rough number enhanced grey relational analysis is proposed to evaluate the risk ranking of change modes. Finally, a practical example is put forward to validate the performance of the proposed method. The result shows that the proposed change mode evaluation method can effectively overcome the shortcomings of traditional CMEA and strengthen the objectivity of product flexibility measurement.

Creative conceptual design requires significant previous design knowledge. Case-based reasoning enables learning from previous design experience and has a great potential in supporting creative conceptual design by means of seeking to retrieve, reuse, and revise most appropriate cases to generate inspired solutions. However, traditional case-based reasoning based creative conceptual design models focus on design strategies research, pay little attention to defining a consistent knowledge representation model, and neglect the research to make various types of knowledge retrieval tractable. Faced with such drawbacks, the expected design knowledge cannot be retrieved properly, especially in cases where multidisciplinary knowledge is concerned or exact query terms are absent. In order to solve these issues, this paper presents a combined approach to support creative conceptual design process. First, function–behavior–structure knowledge cell is introduced as a unified consistent design knowledge representation model. Second, a hybrid similarity measure is proposed to increase the overall possibility of obtaining useful design knowledge by considering semantic understanding ability. Third, an intelligent creative conceptual design system has been developed with a case study of a novel insulin pump design to demonstrate its usage, and two experiments are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach. The results show that the proposed approach outperforms other case-based reasoning based creative conceptual design models.

Spermatogenesis is a process in adult male mammals supported by spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs). The cultivation of SSCs has potential value, for example for the treatment of male infertility or spermatogonial transplantation. Testicular interstitial fluid was added to culture medium to a final concentration of 5, 10, 20, 30 or 40%, in order to investigate its effects on proliferation of mouse SSCs in vitro, Alkaline phosphatase (AKP) assay, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis and indirect immunofluorescence of cells were performed to identify SSCs, and the proliferation rate and diameters of the SSCs colonies were measured. The results showed that the optimal addition of testicular interstitial fluid to culture medium was 30%. When medium supplemented with 30% testicular interstitial fluid was used to culture mouse SSCs, the optimum proliferation rate and diameter of the cell colonies were 72.53% and 249 μm, respectively, after 8 days in culture, values that were significant higher than those found for other groups (P < 0.05). In conclusion, proliferation of mouse SSCs could be promoted significantly by supplementation of the culture medium with 30% testicular interstitial fluid. More research is needed to evaluate and understand the precise physiological role of testicular interstitial fluid during cultivation of SSCs.

Spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) have the ability to self-renew and offer a pathway for genetic engineering of the male germ line. Cryopreservation of SSCs has potential value for the treatment of male infertility, spermatogonial transplantation, and so on. In order to investigate the cryopreservation effects of different cryoprotectants on murine SSCs, 0.2 M of low-density lipoproteins (LDL), trehalose and soybean lecithin were added to the cryoprotective medium, respectively, and the murine SSCs were frozen at −80°C or −196°C. The results indicated that the optimal recovery rates of murine SSCs in the cryoprotective medium supplemented with LDL, trehalose and soybean lecithin were 92.53, 76.35 and 75.48% at −80°C, respectively. Compared with freezing at −196°C, the optimum temperature for improvement of recovery rates of frozen murine SSCs, cryopreservation in three different cryoprotectants at −80°C, were 17.11, 6.68 and 10.44% respectively. The recovery rates of murine SSCs in the cryoprotective medium supplemented with 0.2 M LDL were significantly higher than that of other cryoprotectants (P < 0.05). Moreover, the recovery rates were demonstrated to be greater at −80°C compared with at −196°C (P < 0.05). In conclusion, 0.2 M of LDL could significantly protect murine SSCs at −80°C. In the freezing–thawing process, LDL is responsible for the cryopreservation of murine SSCs because it can form a protective film at the surface of membranes. However, more research is needed to evaluate and understand the precise role of LDL during the freezing–thawing of SSCs.

The expression patterns of Cry1Ac protein and the resistance to striped stem borer Chilo suppressalis (Walker) of cry1Ac/CpTI transgenic rice (Oryza sativa L.) were investigated by ELISA and laboratory bioassay. ELISA results showed that Cry1Ac protein could be detected in all organs during the development process of cry1Ac/CpTI transgenic rice. The content of Cry1Ac protein varied markedly in different tissues at different stages: it was higher in the earlier stage than in the later stage. The highest level of Cry1Ac protein in terminal leaves of the main stem was found at the jointing stage. Thereafter, it decreased at the booting stage, and a gradual reduction to the lowest level was recorded from the flowering to the filling stage, before a slight increase was shown at the maturing stage. In addition, higher concentrations of this protein were detected in the main stem at the seedling, jointing and flowering stages than at other stages. Relatively lower levels of Cry1Ac protein were found in seeds. The results from laboratory bioassay showed high resistance of terminal leaves of the main stem in all developmental stages to C. suppressalis larvae. Corrected mortality values of C. suppressalis at 4 days after feeding on the detached leaves of cry1Ac/CpTI transgenic rice reached 90% before the filling stage and decreased to nearly 60% after the filling stage. Interestingly, results of whole plant bioassay coincided with those obtained in the detached leaf bioassay. The tendency of larval morality in the detached leaf bioassay and whole plant bioassay was consistent with that of Cry1Ac protein content in the different growing periods and organs.