Dietary Mulberry leaf 1-deoxynijirimycin supplementation shortens villus height and improves intestinal barrier in fattening rabbits.

Objective: The current study investigated the effects of mulberry 1-deoxynijirimycin (DNJ) on the digestion ability, intestinal morphology, and intestinal barrier of rabbits. Methods: A total of 36 New Zealand White rabbits (male) about 45 days old (mean body weight of 1.05 0.04 kg) were reared and commercial diets were employed, and afterwards divided into three groups (n= 12) with different levels of DNJ extract additive in feed: T0 (0 g/kg), T1 (0.35 g/kg), T2 (0.7 g/kg) for 28 d. Results: The results demonstrated that T2 decreased the average daily gain (ADG) (P < 0.05). T1 and T2 decreased villus height and inflammatory factor levels as compared with T0 (P < 0.05). DNJ significantly decreased the content of valeric acid (P < 0.05). The content of acetic acid, propionic acid, iso butyric acid, iso valeric acid in T1 were higher than those in T0 and T2 (P < 0.05). The content of butyric acid in T2 was lower than it in T0 and T1 (P < 0.05). The content of caproic acid was firstly improved then reduced as the DNJ concentration improved (P < 0.05). T2 significantly increased the abundance of dgA-11_gut_group and Christensenellaceae_R-7_group while decreased Bacteroide and Ralstonia as compared with T0 (P < 0.05). Compared with T0, T1 and T2 significantly improved the gene expression of JAM2, JAM3, mucin4, mucin6 (P < 0.05), T1 significantly decreased the expression of occluding while T2 significantly increased (P < 0.05), T2 significantly increased the expression of claudin1 and claudin2 (P < 0.05). Conclusion: DNJ at high level changed microbiome compositions, inhibited inflammation, and improved intestinal barrier while it decreased the growth performance and shorted villus height in rabbit jejunum by regulating short chain fatty acid (SCFA) compositions in rabbits.

Analysis of Interfacial Mechanical Properties of Steel Beams Strengthened with CFRP Sheets under Temperature and Creep.

Under the combined action of temperature and creep of CFRP (Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer) sheet, the interface between CFRP sheet and steel beams which are strengthened with CFRP sheet will produce relative slip. This slip will affect the interface interaction, reduce the bearing capacity and stiffness of members as well as increase the deformation. In this paper, the elastic method is used to introduce the creep effect of CFRP sheet and the temperature effect of steel beam. The calculation formulas of interface slip between CFRP sheet and steel beam, CFRP sheet tension and steel beam deformation under the combined action of temperature and CFRP creep are established. The accuracy of the analytical formula is verified by finite element analysis using the software ABAQUS. The results show that the CFRP sheet tension is smallest at the beam end while largest at the middle of the span. When the stiffness reaches about 3 ka, CFRP sheet tension basically does not change. When the temperature increases by 5 °C, the tensile force of CFRP sheet increases by about 3.7 kN, 1.8 kN and 2.3 kN, respectively. The increase of stiffness under creep has little effect on the change of CFRP sheet tension. The deformation is largest in the middle of the span while smallest at the beam end. Stiffness, temperature (5-25 °C), CFRP thickness and stiffness under creep have little effect on deformation. When the load increases by 5 kN under creep, the deformation increases by about 2.2 × 10-7 mm, 1.8 × 10-6 mm and 9.4 × 10-7 mm, respectively.

Flexural behaviour of strengthened damaged steel beams using carbon fibre-reinforced polymer sheets.

This paper presents the test and finite element analysis results of a study on the flexural behaviour of damaged steel beams strengthened with carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets. The test results showed that the yield load, ultimate load and elastic stiffness of the steel beams with 100% loss of tension flange were 68.3%, 73.8% and 13.5% greater than the yield load, ultimate load and elastic stiffness of the steel beam with 28% loss of the web after static loading. The yield load and elastic stiffness of the steel beam after overloading were 8.7% and 24.5% greater than the yield load and elastic stiffness of the steel beam without overloading. The damage level had a significant effect on the yield load, ultimate bearing capacity and elastic stiffness of the steel beams regardless of whether the steel beams were under static loading or overloading. The damaged steel beam could be repaired by CFRP sheets, the increased layers of CFRP sheets could improve the yield load, ultimate bearing capacity and elastic stiffness of the steel beams, and the strains of CFRP sheets would decrease because of overloading. The numerical analysis results showed that compared with the steel beam without overloading, the deflection and strains of the steel beam after overloading were much smaller. The yield load and the elastic stiffness increased with the increment of the overloading amplitude, and the increment of overloading number could reduce the yield load and elastic stiffness. All the yield loads of the steel beams after overloading were greater than the yield loads of the steel beams without overloading, but the ultimate bearing capacities were smaller.

Flexural Behavior on Damaged Steel Beams Strengthened with CFRP Sheets Subjected to Overloading.

This paper presents results of testing and numerical analyses of damaged steel beams strengthened with carbon-fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheet and subjected to overloading. The test results showed that as cyclic times increase, the yield load and stiffness increase, but the ultimate bearing capacity decreases to a certain extent. Applying prestress could improve the ductility of the girder. The damage level greatly influenced the girders with overloading, and the increase in damage degree reduced the stiffness, yield load and ultimate load. The numerical calculation showed that the yield load would decrease by 0.4-0.8 kN when the cyclic times increase by 100 times. The yield load would increase by 1-2 kN and the ultimate bearing capacity would decrease by 0.6-1.2 kN when the overloading amplitude increased by 0.02 Pu. The increase in damage degree would obviously reduce the yield load and ultimate bearing capacity of the steel beam after overloading. The yield load and ultimate bearing capacity could be increased by approximately 3 kN when the CFRP sheet thickness increases by 0.05 mm.

Relationship between Ki-67 and CD44 expression and microvascular formation in gastric stromal tumor tissues.

BACKGROUND: A gastric stromal tumor (GST) is a mesenchymal tumor that occurs in the gastrointestinal tract; its biological characteristics are highly complex. Clinically, the severity of a GST is often evaluated by factors such as risk classification, tumor size, and mitotic figures. However, these indicators are not very accurate. Even patients classified as low risk are also at risk of metastasis and recurrence. Therefore, more accurate and objective clinical biological behavior evaluations are urgently needed. AIM: To determine the relationship between Ki-67 and CD44 expression in GSTs and microvessel formation and prognosis. METHODS: Eighty-six GST tissue specimens from our hospital were selected for this study. The immunohistochemical staining technique was used to detect Ki-67, CD44, and microvessel density (MVD) in the collected samples to analyze the different risk grades and mitotic figures. In addition, this approach was used to determine the differences in the expression of Ki-67 and CD44 in GST tissues with varying lesion diameters. RESULTS: In GSTs with positive expression of the Ki-67 protein, the proportions of patients with medium-to-high risk and more than five mitotic counts were 24.07% and 38.89%, respectively. In GSTs with positive expression of the CD44 protein, the proportions of patients with medium-to-high risk and more than five mitotic counts were 23.73% and 38.98%, respectively. In GSTs with negative expression of the Ki-67 protein, these values were relatively high (3.70% and 11.11%, respectively). The MVD in GSTs with positive and negative expression of the CD44 protein was 15.92 ± 2.94 and 13.86 ± 2.98/Hp, respectively; the difference between the two groups was significant (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Ki-67 and CD44 expression in GSTs is correlated with the grade of tumor risk and mitotic figures. CD44 expression is correlated with microvessel formation in tumor tissues.

Estradiol attenuates chronic restraint stress-induced dendrite and dendritic spine loss and cofilin1 activation in ovariectomized mice.

Ovarian hormone deprivation is associated with mood disorders, such as depression, and estradiol therapy is significantly more effective than placebos in treating major depression associated with menopause onset. However, the effect of estradiol on neuronal plasticity and its mechanisms remain to be further elucidated. In this study, behavioral assessments were used to examine the antidepressant effect of estradiol in ovariectomized (OVX) B6.Cg-TgN (Thy-YFP-H)-2Jrs transgenic mice on chronic restraint stress (CRS)-induced dendrite and dendritic spine loss; Yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) is characteristically expressed in excitatory neurons in transgenic mice, and its three-dimensional images were used to evaluate the effect of estradiol on the density of different types of dendritic spines. Quantification and distribution of cofilin1 and p-cofilin1 were determined by qPCR, Western blots, and immunohistochemistry, respectively. The results revealed that treatment with estradiol or clomipramine significantly improved depression-like behaviors. Estradiol treatment also significantly upregulated the dendritic density in all areas examined and increased the density of filopodia-type, thin-type and mushroom-type spines in the hippocampal CA1 and elevated the thin-type and mushroom-type spine density in the PFC. Consistent with these changes, estradiol treatment significantly increased the density of p-cofilin1 immunopositive dendritic spines. Thus, these data reveal a possible estradiol antidepressant mechanism, in that estradiol promoted the phosphorylation of cofilin1 and reduced the loss of dendrites and dendritic spines, which of these dendritic spines include not only immature spines such as filopodia-type, but also mature spines such as mushroom-type, and attenuated the depression-like behavior.

Lentzea alba sp. nov., a novel actinobacterium isolated from soil.

A novel actinobacterium, designated strain NEAU-D13T, was isolated from soil collected from Aohan Banner, Chifeng, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China and characterized using a polyphasic approach. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain NEAU-D13T belonged to the genus Lentzea and shared the highest sequence similarity with Lentzea kentuckyensisJCM 14913T (99.17 %). Morphological and chemotaxonomic characteristics of the strain also supported its assignment to the genus Lentzea. Cell walls contained meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid and the whole-cell sugars were ribose and mannose. The phospholipid profile contained diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, hydroxyphosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylinositol. The menaquinone was only MK-9(H4). The major fatty acids were iso-C16:0, C16:0, anteiso-C17:0, iso-C15:0 and anteiso-C15:0. DNA G+C content was 68.71 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis using the 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that the strain formed a stable clade with L. kentuckyensisJCM 14913T in the genus Lentzea. Meanwhile, a combination of digital DNA-DNA hybridization results and some phenotypic characteristics demonstrated that strain NEAU-D13T could be distinguished from its closely related strain. Therefore, it is concluded that strain NEAU-D13T represents a novel species of the genus Lentzea, for which the name Lentzea alba sp. nov. is proposed, with NEAU-D13T (=CCTCC AA 2019089T=JCM 33970T) as the type strain.