The alloying effect of Zr on β (body-centred cubic)-phase stability was investigated in α (hexagonal close packed)-type Ti–Al alloys. According to calculations and experiments, adding Zr ...significantly modified the β-phase stability, because Zr was identified as a β-stabilising element in these Ti–Zr–Al alloys under the solution treatment. However, the water-quenched β-phase did not continue to be preserved after aging. In addition, stress-induced α″ (orthorhombic)-phase martensite transformation would occur during deformation.
Background: Childhood obesity has become a nutritional problem in China since the 1990s. Aims: A family based behavioural treatment was developed and tested, to see if its use was feasible in China ...and to evaluate its impact on obese schoolchildren. Methods: In a single school in Beijing, 33 obese children were randomly assigned to a treatment group and 35 to a control group. The treatment group participated in a family based behavioural treatment programme for two years. Height and weight were measured every six months for all participants. Blood pressure, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels were measured at baseline and after two years of programme implementation. Results: Body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) was significantly reduced in the treatment group (from 26.6 (1.7) to 24.0 (0.9), 95% CI 2.06 to 3.18) but not in the control group (from 26.1 (1.5) to 26.0 (1.6)). Total cholesterol decreased 5.5% and triglycerides 9.7% in the treatment group. There was a significant correlation between change in BMI and change in triglycerides. There were no significant changes in plasma lipids in the controls. Blood pressure values also decreased significantly in the treatment, but not the control group. Conclusions: A family based behavioural intervention was feasible to use in treating obesity in schoolchildren in Beijing, China. After two years of implementation, it successfully decreased the degree of obesity, reduced levels of blood pressure, and decreased serum lipids in treatment; there were no significant changes among control children.
ConPred II (http://bioinfo.si.hirosaki-u.ac.jp/~ConPred2/) is a server for the prediction of transmembrane (TM) topology i.e. the number of TM segments (TMSs), TMS positions and N-tail location based ...on a consensus approach by combining the results of several proposed methods. The ConPred II system is constructed from ConPred_elite and ConPred_all (previously named ConPred), proposed earlier by our group. The prediction accuracy of ConPred_elite is almost 100%, which is achieved by sacrificing the prediction coverage (20–30%). ConPred_all predicts TM topologies for all the input sequences with accuracies improved by up to 11% over individual proposed methods. In the ConPred II system, the TM topology prediction of input TM protein sequences is executed following a two-step process: (i) input sequences are first run through the ConPred_elite program; (ii) sequences for which ConPred_elite does not give the TM topology are delivered to the ConPred_all program for TM topology prediction. Users can get access to the ConPred II system automatically by submitting sequences to the server. The ConPred II server will return the predicted TM topology models and graphical representations of their contents (hydropathy plots, helical wheel diagrams of predicted TMSs and snake-like diagrams).
We demonstrate a robust and versatile solution for locking the continuous-wave dye laser for applications in laser cooling of molecules which need linewidth-narrowed and frequency-stabilized lasers. ...The dye laser is first stabilized with respect to a reference cavity by Pound-Drever-Hall (PDH) technique which results in a single frequency with the linewidth 200 kHz and short-term stabilization, by stabilizing the length of the reference cavity to a stabilized helium-neon laser we simultaneously transfer the ± 2 MHz absolute frequency stability of the helium-neon laser to the dye laser with long-term stabilization. This allows the dye laser to be frequency chirped with the maximum 60 GHz scan range while its frequency remains locked. It also offers the advantages of locking at arbitrary dye laser frequencies, having a larger locking capture range and frequency scanning range to be implemented via software. This laser has been developed for the purpose of laser cooling a molecular magnesium fluoride beam.
This paper aims to improve the magnetic properties of sintered Nd-Fe-B magnet. Ni powders were added to the Nd-Fe-B magnet through intergranular addition, and their effects on the microstructure and ...magnetic properties of the magnet were investigated. By adding a proper amount of Ni (0.3 wt%), the intrinsic coercivity Hcj of Nd-Fe-B magnet is significantly improved with only a slight decrease in the remanence Br and the maximum energy product (BH)max. The microstructural and compositional analyses reveal that Ni atoms not only enter the matrix phase but also concentrate in the intergranular regions either as Ni-containing Nd-rich phase or as Ni particles. This is consistent with the thermodynamic calculation results. Furthermore, a sintering mechanism of magnet with intergranular addition of Ni powders is tentatively proposed. These results may provide a reference for improving the magnetic properties of sintered Nd-Fe-B magnets.
Coactosin-like protein (CLP, or Cotl1), is an F-actin-binding protein, whose role in cancer is largely unknown. Here we show that CLP/Cotl1 is highly expressed in a rat epithelial breast cancer cell ...line (FE1.3) compared with its mesenchymal counterpart (FE1.2). Knockdown of CLP/Cotl1 in FE1.3 cells increased cell proliferation, whereas its overexpression in FE1.2 cells inhibited proliferation in culture and reduced tumor growth in xenograft assays in mice. Mechanistically, we identified two major pathways through which CLP/Cotl1 exerts its suppressive effects. First, CLP/Cotl1 re-expression in FE1.2 and in human MCF7 breast cancer cells induced expression of the growth-suppressor gene interleukin-24 (IL-24), which independently of p53 upregulates the tumor-suppressor genes p53 apoptosis effector related to PMP-22 (PERP) and p21
. Second, overexpression of CLP/Cotl1 potentiated the growth-suppressive effect of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGFβ1), leading to downregulation of TGFβ-responsive genes vascular growth factor A/B (VEGFA/VEGFB), hypoxia inducing factor 1α (HIF-1α) and trombospondin 1 (TSP1), which mediate various hallmarks of cancer progression including angiogenesis, invasion and metastasis. CLP/Cotl1 inhibited TGFβ signaling via a non-canonical signaling involving IL-24-instigated inhibition of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) phosphorylation and subsequent post-transcriptional downregulation of SMAD2 and SMAD4. We also showed that CLP/COTL1 expression sensitizes breast cancer cells to chemotherapeutic drugs, and this was further enhanced by addition of exogenous TGFβ1. CLP/Cotl1 expression is lost in many human malignancies including prostate, uterine and breast cancers. Thus, our results uncover a novel tumor-suppressor role for CLP/Cotl1 and identify the downstream effectors interleukin 24 (IL-24)/PERP and IL-24/MAPK/ERK/TGFβ as potential targets for precision therapy.
•Ethanol induced a high risk to metabolic diseases in male offspring rats.•Ethanol induced HPA axis dysfunction in IUGR male offspring rats fed by high-fat diet.•Ethanol induced neuroendocrine ...metabolic programming alteration in male offspring rats.•Ethanol induced metabolic injury of multiple organs in male offspring rats.
The present study was designed to demonstrate that prenatal ethanol exposure (PEE) could enhance the susceptibility of high-fat diet-induced metabolic syndrome (MS) in adult male offspring via a hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis-associated neuroendocrine metabolic programmed mechanism.
Pregnant Wistar rats were intragastricly administrated ethanol 4g/kg·d from gestational day 11 until term delivery. All male offspring were fed with high-fat diet after weaning, exposed to an unpredictable chronic stress at postnatal week (PW) 17 and sacrificed at PW20.
In PEE group, body weight presented a “catch-up growth” pattern, and the HPA axis exhibited a lower basal activity but an enhanced sensitivity to chronic stress, leading to increased levels of serum glucose, insulin, insulin resistant index, total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, and decreased levels of high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol. Furthermore, many lipid droplets and vacuolar degeneration were observed in the hypothalamus, pituitary gland and liver.
PEE induces enhanced susceptibility to MS in adult offspring fed with high-fat diet, and the underlying mechanism involves a HPA axis-associated neuroendocrine metabolic programming alteration.
Abstract
Conventional filtration reducers have limited utility in cementing at deep oil and gas fields because of their poor temperature resistance and single function. As a novel multifunctional ...filtration reducer, graphene oxide-modified polymer GO-PADI was developed by radically copolymerizing 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid (AMPS), N, N-dimethyl acrylamide (DMAM) and itaconic acid (IA) between graphene oxide sheets. The microstructure of GO-PADI was confirmed through the utilization of different methods such as fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The performance evaluation results showed that GO-PADI had the high thermal stability, and could control filtration of cement slurry as conducted by the American Petroleum Institute (API) less than 50 mL, which is 17 % lower than that of the traditional filtration reducer PADI. GO-PADI could increase compressive strength of cement stone by 30.3 %, and decrease elastic modulus by 10.9 % in three-day curing period. GO-PADI has the multifunctional functions of reducing fluid loss, strengthening and toughening, and can effectively improve the engineering performances for high-temperature cement slurry.
Summary
We report a case of an infertile man with severe oligoasthenoteratozoospermia with a partial azoospermia factor b (AZFb) deletion and duplication region within chromosome Yp11.2. The hormonal ...profile was normal for serum concentrations of follicle‐stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, testosterone and oestradiol. The patient, who showed a 46,XY karyotype, had an approximate 2.4 Mb inherited duplication region in Yp11.2 and a de novo partial AZFb deletion, which spanned 5.25 Mb including eight protein coding genes and four non‐coding transcripts, but did not remove the RBMY gene family. Both proximal and distal breakpoints of the deletion were outside any palindromic region or inverted repeat sequence and intra‐chromosomal non‐allelic homologous recombination could not have been the deletion mechanism. The partial AZFb deletion in our case diminished sperm production, but did not completely extinguish spermatogenesis. Considering severe oligozoospermia, spermatozoa in the patient’s ejaculate were used for intracytoplasmic sperm injection, resulting in two twin pregnancies.
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