Tricritical-point phase diagram in PrCu9Sn4.

Tricritical phenomenon appearing in multiple phases is a fundamental and attractive issue in condensed-matter physics. In this work, a field-modulated tricritical phenomenon is realized in single-crystal PrCu9Sn4. The magnetization under variable directions of field indicates strong magnetic anisotropy in PrCu9Sn4, which reveals ferromagnetic coupling forH//c. A paramagnetic-to-ferromagnetic magnetic transition occurs withH//catTC= 11.7 K, which is evidenced to be of a first-ordered type. The systematical study of the critical behavior gives thatß= 0.195(8),γ= 0.911(1), andδ= 0.0592(1) forH//cconsistent with a tricritical mean-field model, which suggests a field-modulated tricritical phenomenon. A detailedH-Tphase diagram around the tricritical point (TCP) is constructed for single-crystal PrCu9Sn4forH//c, where ferromagnetic state, forced ferromagnetic phase and paramagnetic state meet at the TCP (Htr= 799 kOe,Ttr= 11.3 K). The single-crystal PrCu9Sn4supplies a platform to deep investigate the field-modulated magnetic couplings and tricritical phenomenon.

An ERF-type transcription factor is involved in the regulation of the dehydrin wzy1-2 gene in wheat.

As stress-inducible proteins, dehydrins exert functional protective role by alleviating the cell damage when plants are suffering from the stresses. However, the upstream regulatory mechanism of these proteins is not very clear. To unravel the regulatory mechanism of dehydrin, a screen of wheat cDNA library from cold and PEG-treated wheat seedlings was performed and a transcription factor TaERF4a (GenBank NO. AFP49822.1) interacting with wheat dehydrin wzy1-2 gene (Gene ID: 100037544) promoter was identified by yeast one-hybrid assay. The regulator TaERF4a and the wzy1-2 gene can respond to the abiotic stress, the induced transcripts of these two genes exhibit a similar expression trend under adverse environmental conditions. In planta, the dual luciferase transient assay analysis showed that TaERF4a can positively regulate the expression of WZY1-2 dehydrin. Therefore, the obtained results suggest that ERF transcription factor can regulate the expression level of the dehydrin gene in wheat.

Fire Control System Operation Status Assessment Based on Information Fusion: Case Study.

In traditional fault diagnosis strategies, massive and disordered data cannot be utilized effectively. Furthermore, just a single parameter is used for fault diagnosis of a weapons fire control system, which might lead to uncertainty in the results. This paper proposes an information fusion method in which rough set theory (RST) is combined with an improved Dempster-Shafer (DS) evidence theory to identify various system operation states. First, the feature information of different faults is extracted from the original data, then this information is used as the evidence of the state for a diagnosis object. By introducing RST, the extracted fault information is reduced in terms of the number of attributes, and the basic probability value of the reduced fault information is obtained. Based on an analysis of conflicts in the existing DS evidence theory, an improved conflict evidence synthesis method is proposed, which combines the improved synthesis rule and the conflict evidence weight allocation methods. Then, an intelligent evaluation model for the fire control system operation state is established, which is based on the improved evidence theory and RST. The case of a power supply module in a fire control computer is analyzed. In this case, the state grade of the power supply module is evaluated by the proposed method, and the conclusion verifies the effectiveness of the proposed method in evaluating the operation state of a fire control system.

Quantitative trait loci analysis and genome-wide comparison for silique related traits in Brassica napus.

BACKGROUND: Yield of rapeseed is determined by three components: silique number, seed number per silique and thousand seed weight. Seed number per silique and thousand seed weight are influenced by silique length, seed density, silique breadth, silique thickness and silique volume. Some QTLs for silique traits have been reported in B. napus, however, no studies have focused on the six agronomic traits (seed number per silique, silique length, silique breadth, silique thickness, seed density and silique volume) simultaneously, and the genetic determinism of such complex traits have not been fully elucidated. RESULTS: In this study, the six silique traits were evaluated using 348 lines of a doubled haploid population, the KN population. The results showed that 2, 4, 1, 1 and 2 QTLs explaining > 10 % of phenotypic variation were obtained for silique length, silique breadth, silique thickness, seed number per silique and silique volume, respectively. Notably, three major effect QTLs (cqSB-C6-1, cqSB-C6-2 and cqSV-C6-3) were identified in at least three environments, and 17 unique QTLs controlling at least two traits were obtained. A high-density consensus map containing 1225 markers was constructed for QTL comparison by combining the KN map with other five published maps. The comparative results revealed that 14, 13 and 11 QTLs for silique breadth, silique thickness and silique volume might be the potential new QTLs because few QTLs for these traits were reported in B. napus. In addition, potential new QTLs for silique length (11), seed number per silique (6) and seed density (5) were also identified. Twenty-five candidate genes underlying 27 QTLs for silique related traits were obtained. CONCLUSIONS: This study constructed QTL analysis in B. napus, and obtained 60 consensus QTLs for six silique related traits. The potential new QTLs will enhance our understanding of the genetic control of silique traits, and the stable QTLs provided the targets for improving seed yield in future. These findings provided comprehensive insights into the genetic network affecting silique traits at QTL level in B. napus.

Lactobacillus reuteri I5007 modulates tight junction protein expression in IPEC-J2 cells with LPS stimulation and in newborn piglets under normal conditions.

BACKGROUND: Tight junctions (TJs) maintain the intestinal mucosal barrier, dysfunction of which plays a vital role in the pathophysiology of a variety of gastrointestinal disorders. Previously, we have shown that L. reuteri I5007 maintained the gut epithelial barrier in newborn piglets. Here we aimed to decipher the influence of L. reuteri I5007 on tight junction (TJ) protein expression both in vivo and in vitro. RESULTS: We found that L. reuteri I5007 significantly increased the protein abundance of intestinal epithelial claudin-1, occludin and zonula occluden-1 (ZO-1) in newborn piglets (orally administrated with 6 × 10(9) CFU of L. reuteri I5007 daily for 14 days). In vitro, treatment with L. reuteri I5007 alone maintained the transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) of IPEC-J2 cells with time. In addition, IPEC-J2 cells were stimulated with 1 µg/mL lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for 1, 4, 8, 12 or 24 h, following pre-treatment with L. reuteri I5007 or its culture supernatant for 2 h. The results showed that LPS time-dependently induced (significantly after 4 or 8 h) the expression of TNF-α and IL-6, and decreased TJ proteins, which was reversed by pre-treatment of L. reuteri I5007 or its culture supernatant. CONCLUSIONS: L. reuteri I5007 had beneficial effects on the expression of TJ proteins in newborn piglets and the in-vitro results showed this strain had a positive effect on TEER of cells and inhibited the reduction of TJ proteins expression induced by LPS. These findings indicated L. reuteri I5007 may have potential roles in protection TJ proteins in TJ-deficient conditions.

Effects of magnesium on the performance of sows and their piglets.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of supplemental magnesium (Mg) on the performance of gilts and parity 3 sows and their piglets. Fifty-six gilts (Trial 1) and 56 sows (Trial 2) were assigned to one of 4 treatments according to their mating weight, respectively. The treatments comprised corn-soybean meal based gestation and lactation diets (0.21% magnesium) supplemented with 0, 0.015, 0.03, or 0.045% Mg from mating until weaning. The results showed that magnesium supplementation significantly (P < 0.05) reduced the weaning to estrus interval in both gilts and sows. There were significant effects (P < 0.05) of supplemental magnesium on the total number of piglets born, born alive and weaned in sows. In late gestation and lactation, the digestibility of crude fiber (quadratic effects, P < 0.05), and crude protein (P < 0.05), were significantly influenced by magnesium in gilts and sows, respectively. There were differences among the 4 groups in terms of the apparent digestibility of dry matter and crude fiber in sows (P < 0.05) during both early and late gestation. The apparent digestibility of gross energy was increased for sows in late gestation (P < 0.05), and lactation (quadratic effects, P < 0.05). At farrowing and weaning, serum prolactin levels and alkaline phosphate activities linearly increased in sows as the Mg supplementation increased (P < 0.05). Serum Mg of sows at farrowing and serum urea nitrogen of sows at weaning was significantly influenced by Mg supplementation (P < 0.05). The Mg concentration in sow colostrum and the serum of their piglets were increased by supplemental magnesium (P < 0.05). In addition, growth hormone levels were linearly elevated (P < 0.05) in the serum of piglets suckling sows. Our data demonstrated that supplemental magnesium has the potential to improve the reproduction performance of sows, and the suitable supplemental dose ranged from 0.015% to 0.03%.

Characterization of three novel SINE families with unusual features in Helicoverpa armigera.

Although more than 120 families of short interspersed nuclear elements (SINEs) have been isolated from the eukaryotic genomes, little is known about SINEs in insects. Here, we characterize three novel SINEs from the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera. Two of them, HaSE1 and HaSE2, share similar 5' -structure including a tRNA-related region immediately followed by conserved central domain. The 3' -tail of HaSE1 is significantly similar to that of one LINE retrotransposon element, HaRTE1.1, in H. armigera genome. The 3' -region of HaSE2 showed high identity with one mariner-like element in H. armigera. The third family, termed HaSE3, is a 5S rRNA-derived SINE and shares both body part and 3'-tail with HaSE1, thus may represent the first example of a chimera generated by recombination between 5S rRNA and tRNA-derived SINE in insect species. Further database searches revealed the presence of these SINEs in several other related insect species, but not in the silkworm, Bombyx mori, indicating a relatively narrow distribution of these SINEs in Lepidopterans. Apart from above, we found a copy of HaSE2 in the GenBank EST entry for the cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii, suggesting the occurrence of horizontal transfer.

Influence of Lactobacillus fermentum I5007 on the intestinal and systemic immune responses of healthy and E. coli challenged piglets.

The effect of feeding Lactobacillus fermentum I5007 on the immune system of weaned pigs with or without E. coli challenge was determined. Twenty-four weaned barrows (6.07 +/- 0.63 kg BW) were randomly assigned to one of four treatments (N = 6) in a factorial design experiment. The first two treatments consisted of healthy piglets with half of the pigs receiving no treatment while the other half was orally administered with L. fermentum I5007 (10(8) CFU/ml) at a daily dose of 20 ml. Pigs in the second two treatments were challenged on the first day with 20 ml of E. coli K88ac (10(8) CFU/ml). Half of these pigs were not treated while the remaining pigs were treated with 20 ml of L. fermentum I5007 (10(8) CFU/ml). Peripheral blood lymphocytes subsets were determined using flow cytometry. The intestinal mucosal immunity of the pigs was monitored by real time polymerase chain reaction. The cytokine content of the pig's serum was also analyzed. Oral administration of L. fermentum I5007 increased blood CD4(+) lymphocyte subset percentage as well as tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interferon-gamma expression in the ileum. Pigs challenged with E. coli had elevated jejunal tumor necrosis factor-alpha while interferon-gamma expression was increased throughout the small intestine. There was no difference in the concentration of the cytokines interleukin-2, interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interferon-gamma in the serum. CD8(+) and CD4(+)/CD8(+) in peripheral blood were not affected by treatment. In conclusion, L. fermentum I5007 can enhance T cell differentiation and induce ileum cytokine expression suggesting that this probiotic strain could modulate immune function in piglets.