Purinergic mechanisms appear to be involved in motor as well as sensory functions in the urinary bladder. ATP released from efferent nerves excites bladder smooth muscle, whereas ATP released from ...urothelial cells can activate afferent nerves and urothelial cells. In the present study, we used immunohistochemical techniques to examine the distribution of purinoceptors in the urothelium, smooth muscle, and nerves of the normal cat urinary bladder as well as possible changes in the expression of these receptors in cats with a chronic painful bladder condition termed feline interstitial cystitis (FIC) in which ATP release from the urothelium is increased. In normal cats, a range of P2X (P2X(1), P2X(2), P2X(3), P2X(4), P2X(5), P2X(6), and P2X(7)) and P2Y (P2Y(1), P2Y(2), and P2Y(4)) receptor subtypes was expressed throughout the bladder urothelium. In FIC cats, there is a marked reduction in P2X(1) and loss of P2Y(2) receptor staining. Both P2X(3) and P2Y(4) are present in nerves in normal cat bladder, and no obvious differences in staining were detected in FIC. Smooth muscle in the normal bladder did not exhibit P2Y receptor staining but did exhibit P2X (P2X(2), P2X(1)) staining. In the FIC bladder smooth muscle, there was a significant reduction in P2X(1) expression. These findings raise the possibility that purinergic mechanisms in the urothelium and bladder smooth muscle are altered in FIC cats. Because the urothelial cells appear to have a sensory function in the bladder, it is possible that the plasticity in urothelial purinergic receptors is linked with the painful bladder symptoms in IC.
This study investigated the value of computed tomography (CT) in the diagnosis and treatment of hepatic veno-occlusive disease (HVOD) caused by Sedum aizoon (SA). The clinical manifestations, ...treatment results, imaging findings, and histological findings of the liver were analyzed in 39 patients with HVOD caused by SA. Hepatomegaly, liver dysfunction, abdominal effusion, and geographic density changes on liver CT scans were found in all 39 patients. The pathological findings of histological liver examination included swelling and point-like necrosis of liver cells, significant expansion and congestion of the sinuses, endothelial swelling, and wall thickening with incomplete lumen occlusion of small liver vessels. CT geographic density changes were confirmed by histological examination of the liver in 18 patients. Sixteen patients with small amounts of ascites that started within 4 weeks of treatment recovered completely or significantly improved after symptomatic and supportive treatment. However, only 43.75% of the patients with larger amounts of ascites improved following symptomatic and supportive treatment. In conclusion, liver CT examination is a valuable, safe, and noninvasive tool for the diagnosis of HVOD caused by SA. In selected cases, liver CT examination may replace liver biopsy and histological analysis.
This study evaluated the effects of selenium (Se) supplementation in maternal and offspring diets on performance and antioxidant capacity of ducklings aged from 0 to 2 wk. A total of 144 female ...Longyan duck breeders aged 22-wk were allotted into 2 treatments and fed a control diet or a 0.16 mg Se/kg supplemented diet. At 40-wk, 120 offspring from each treatment were divided into 2 groups, with 6 replicates of 10 birds. Using a 2 × 2 factorial design, ducklings from each maternal dietary treatment were assigned to a control diet or a 0.16 mg Se/kg supplemented diet from hatch to 2-wk. Compared with Se-deficient diet, maternal diet supplemented with 0.16 mg Se/kg increased the BW of hatchlings (P < 0.01). There were interactions between maternal and progeny diet with 0.16 mg Se/kg in BW of ducklings aged 2 wk and BW gain (BWG) as ducklings from maternal Se/progeny none treatment had the lightest BW and BWG (P < 0.01). Maternal diet with 0.16 mg Se/kg decreased plasma concentration of uric acid and insulin-like growth factor 1 (P < 0.01), and progeny diet supplemented with 0.16 mg Se/kg increased the activities of glutathione peroxidase 3 (GPx3) in plasma and glutathione peroxidase 1 in erythrocyte (P < 0.01). Maternal diet with 0.16 mg Se/kg increased (P < 0.05) the hepatic activity of total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD). Progeny diet supplemented with 0.16 mg Se/kg increased (P < 0.01) hepatic activity of GPx3 and decreased (P < 0.01) the hepatic concentration of malondialdehyde. Interactions were detected between maternal and progeny diet with 0.16 mg Se/kg in hepatic activity of T-SOD and maternal and progeny diet supplemented with Se displayed the highest hepatic activity of T-SOD (P < 0.05). Overall, Se supplementation in the diet of duck breeders and offspring increased the antioxidant capacity of ducklings. Maternal Se supplementation increased the BW of hatchlings, whereas maternal and progeny dietary Se supplementation did not affect the BWG of ducklings aged from 0 to 2 wk. Se supplementation with additional 0.16 mg/kg in the diet of duck breeders and offspring displayed beneficial effects particularly on the antioxidant capacity in ducklings.
Membrane surface design, especially for the anti-protein fouling property, is vital for the development of synthetic polymer ultrafiltration membranes. Although mussel-inspired antifouling coatings ...have obtained rapid development, the surface chemical adhesion stability still suffers from weak chemical stability especially in strongly alkaline environment. In this paper, the surfaces of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes were modified via traditional polydopamine (PDA) coating followed with polyethylene glycol (PEG) immobilization method and PDA/PEG co-deposition strategy. In contrast to general PDA coating, the fabricated membrane surface exhibits excellent chemical adhesion stability under the different solution environment (whatever in neutral deionic water solution, acidic solution (pH=2) or strongly alkaline solution (pH=14)). The membrane surface elementary composition and morphologies were evaluated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The modified membranes obtained via co-deposition were confirmed to have excellent hydrophilicity, enhanced coating stability and good dynamic/static anti-protein adhesion properties. Overall, this work provides a facile, robust and useful bio-inspired anti-fouling membrane surface modification strategy for broadening the application in water treatment field of ultrafiltration membranes.
Intermediate-velocity projectile impact can cause considerably mass damage on a slab of geomaterials since most of the kinetic energy of the projectile was left in the target during perforation. The ...effect of scabbing preliminarily reduces the effective thickness of slab making the intermediate-velocity impact much more energy-effective in perforation. In this study, 24 shots were conducted on thin slabs of sandstone with three nose-shape projectiles (i.e., flat, hemispherical, and conical) at velocities ranging from 120 to 403 m/s by a one-stage gas gun. Two high-speed cameras were used to establish the stereovision of the rear face of the target at 200,000 frames per second (fps). The volume and velocity of ejected fragments from the rear face were obtained by the three-dimensional digital image correlation (3D-DIC) technique. A side-view high-speed camera was applied to capture the deceleration of projectile to calibrate the constants in the penetration model at a frame rate of 380,000 fps. A variation could be over 10% in predicting the depth of penetration (DOP) with calibrated and uncalibrated parameters. The equations of perforation limit, ballistic limit and residual velocity for intermediate-velocity perforation models are proposed, respectively. The results show that the minimum velocity required to perforate a thin slab by intermediate-velocity perforation model is 71% less than that required in high-velocity perforation.
Membrane surface design, especially for the anti-protein fouling property, is vital for the development of synthetic polymer ultrafiltration membranes. Although mussel-inspired antifouling coatings ...have obtained rapid development, the surface chemical adhesion stability still suffers from weak chemical stability especially in strongly alkaline environment. In this paper, the surfaces of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes were modified via traditional polydopamine (PDA) coating followed with polyethylene glycol (PEG) immobilization method and PDA/PEG one-step co-deposition strategy. In contrast to general PDA coating, the fabricated membrane surface exhibits excellent chemical adhesion stability under the different solution environment (whatever in neutral deionic water solution, acidic solution (pH=2) or strongly alkaline solution (pH=14)). The membrane surface elementary composition and morphologies were evaluated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The modified membranes obtained via one-step codeposition were confirmed to have excellent hydrophilicity, enhanced coating stability and good dynamic/static anti-protein adhesion properties. Overall, this work provides a facile, robust and useful bio-inspired anti-fouling membrane surface modification strategy for broadening the application in water treatment field of ultrafiltration membranes.
In this study, we establish a population-based human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) drug screening platform for toxicity assessment. After recruiting 1,000 healthy donors and screening for ...high-frequency human leukocyte antigen (HLA) haplotypes, we identify 13 HLA-homozygous “super donors” to represent the population. These “super donors” are also expected to represent at least 477,611,135 of the global population. By differentiating these representative hiPSCs into cardiomyocytes and neurons we show their utility in a high-throughput toxicity screen. To validate hit compounds, we demonstrate dose-dependent toxicity of the hit compounds and assess functional modulation. We also show reproducible in vivo drug toxicity results using mouse models with select hit compounds. This study shows the feasibility of using a population-based hiPSC drug screening platform to assess cytotoxicity, which can be used as an innovative tool to study inter-population differences in drug toxicity and adverse drug reactions in drug discovery applications.
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•Development of a population-based iPSC cell bank•Cell bank covers more than 477 million people worldwide based on HLA-A, HLA-B, and DRB1•Population-based toxicity screen of iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes and neurons
Huang et al. use human leukocyte antigen as a genetic marker to identify representative donors that genetically represent the population of Taiwan. Their iPSCs are differentiated into cardiomyocytes and neurons to perform a population-based drug toxicity screen of compounds approved worldwide.
Tartary buckwheat (
Fagopyrum tataricum
Gaertn) has been praised as one of green foods for humans in the 21
st
century. Effects of fertilization on leaf photosynthetic characteristics and grain yield ...of tartary buckwheat has not been yet reported in detail. Our experiment was set as a split-plot factorial. The main plots and subplots were designed by fertilizer ratio and rate as: NPK 1:1:1 (A1), NPK 1:4:2 (A2), NPK 1:2:3 (A3), and 300 (B1), 450 (B2), and 600 (B3) kg (NPK) ha
–1
. Our results showed that the grain yield was significantly and positively correlated with the net photosynthetic rate (
P
N
), stomatal conductance (
g
s
), transpiration rate (
E
), PAR, stomatal limitation value (L
s
), chlorophyll content (SPAD value), and leaf area index (LAI), while significantly and negatively correlated with intercellular CO
2
concentration (
C
i
) and water-use efficiency (WUE). The grain yield,
P
N
,
g
s
,
E
, PAR, L
s
, SPAD, and LAI increased and then decreased with enhanced fertilization, and their maximum values appeared in the A2B2 treatment. The
C
i
and WUE decreased and then increased with enhanced fertilization, and their minimum values appeared in the A2B2 treatment. Our results suggested that fertilization had significant effects on the leaf photosynthetic capacity and grain yield of tartary buckwheat Yunqiao 1, and the best fertilization strategy was 450 kg ha
–1
with NPK 1:4:2.
Precise measurement under high counting rates has been a major challenge for γ-ray spectroscopy, where signals generally pile up with each other and their characteristic values are deeply coupled. An ...off-line pile-up pulse recovery algorithm based on template matching is developed for LaBr3 scintillation detectors and has been applied to data from China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) Back-n white neutron beamline. As an improvement to the traditional Template Matching methods, the predetermined template shape is associated with pulse amplitudes, which is found crucial to achieve the best fitting results. Moreover, a universal strategy of setting the initial values of fitting allows to resolve signals that are separated in time by less than the characteristic rise time. Processing of simulated pulses demonstrates that the lower limit of interval to distinguish successive events is 10 ns, which is a significant improvement to the previous works. The algorithm performs well under a counting rate of 6×107 s−1, and is still effective up to 108 s−1. Analysis of experimental data indicates that this algorithm recovers over 98% count yield under a counting rates of no more than 4×106 s−1 in this work, providing a more reliable approach to deduce neutron-induced reaction cross sections.
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