Dietary taurine effect on intestinal barrier function, colonic microbiota and metabolites in weanling piglets induced by LPS.

Diarrhea in piglets is one of the most important diseases and a significant cause of death in piglets. Preliminary studies have confirmed that taurine reduces the rate and index of diarrhea in piglets induced by LPS. However, there is still a lack of relevant information on the specific target and mechanism of action of taurine.

Polyanion-Type Na V (PO ) F @rGO with High-Voltage and Ultralong-Life for Aqueous Zinc Ion Batteries.

Aqueous zinc ion batteries (AZIBs) have attracted much interest in the next generation of energy storage devices because of their elevated safety and inexpensive price. Polyanionic materials have been considered as underlying cathodes owing to the high voltage, large ionic channels and fast ionic kinetics. However, the low electronic conductivity limits their cycling stability and rate performance.

Taurine Prevents LPS-Induced Liver Injury in Weaned Piglets.

This study employed taurine as a feed additive to explore the prophylactic effect of taurine on LPS-induced hepatic injury in piglets. The pathological shifts within hepatic tissue were observed by HE staining. Serum levels of ALT and AST together with SOD, CAT, GSH-PX activity, and MDA serum and liver levels were detected.

Intervention Effect of Taurine on LPS-Induced Intestinal Mechanical Barrier Injury in Piglets.

Taurine has the advantages of being safe, highly efficient, chemically stabile, and biologically active, together with having versatile functions. Presently, it is employed as a veterinary feed additive in animal research. The tight junctions that constitute the intestinal epithelial cells are the most critical structures for ensuring regular and uninterrupted digestion and absorption of food by the intestinal mucosa, while at the same time resisting invasions by toxins.

Metal-Organic Frameworks Functionalized Separators for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries.

Lithium sulfur batteries (LSBs) have attracted tremendous attention owing to their high theoretical specific capacity and specific energy. However, their practical applications are hindered by poor cyclic life, mainly caused by polysulfide shuttling. The development of advanced materials to mitigate the polysulfide shuttling effect is urgently demanded.

Influence of Minimum Alveolar Concentration and Inhalation Duration of Sevoflurane on Facial Nerve Electromyography in Hemifacial Spasm: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: The lateral spread response (LSR) is an electromyography feature of hemifacial spasm; intraoperative reduction in the LSR is associated with positive surgical outcomes. This study examined the effects of different minimum alveolar concentrations (MACs) and durations of sevoflurane inhalation on the LSR.

Methods: Eighty patients undergoing microvascular decompression surgery for hemifacial spasm were randomly allocated to receive propofol-remifentanil total intravenous anesthesia alone or in combination with sevoflurane at 0.

High intracranial pressure may be the initial inducer of elevated plasma D-dimer level after aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage.

The plasma D-dimer has been regarded as a poor prognosis factor in aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage (aSAH) patients, but the reason of elevated D-dimer level has not been revealed. In this study, we retrospectively explored the potential clinical parameters which might be related to D-dimer level and further attempted to explain the pathological process of D-dimer level elevation in aSAH patients. The qualified patients with aSAH were recruited and treated in Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital from 1 October 2015 to 28 February 2018.

Enhanced Transmission and Self-Cleaning of Patterned Sapphire Substrates Prepared by Wet Chemical Etching Using Silica Masks.

Highly transparent and superhydrophilic sapphire with surface antireflective subwavelength structures were prepared by wet etching using colloidal monolayer silica masks. The film thicknesses of the silica masks were adjusted by the volume concentrations of polystyrene spheres. The evolution of etching morphologies of sapphire was studied, and antireflective concave pyramid nanoarrays on sapphire substrates were designed by calculation and were then prepared.

Pegylated Interferon-α Plus Ribavirin Therapy Improves Left Ventricular Diastolic Dysfunction in Patients With Chronic Hepatitis C Attaining Sustained Virological Response.

Background: Pegylated interferon (pegIFN) in combination with ribavirin (RBV) has successfully improved the rate of sustained virological response (SVR) in chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected individuals, which reduces the progression of the chronic liver disease. However, the influence of combination therapy (pegIFN/RBV) on cardiac function has yielded ambiguous results. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of combination therapy with pegIFN/RBV on cardiac function of HCV-infected individuals with SVR.

DCC-Mediated Dab1 Phosphorylation Participates in the Multipolar-to-Bipolar Transition of Migrating Neurons.

Newborn neurons undergo inside-out migration to their final destinations during neocortical development. Reelin-induced tyrosine phosphorylation of disabled 1 (Dab1) is a critical mechanism controlling cortical neuron migration. However, the roles of Reelin-independent phosphorylation of Dab1 remain unclear.

Broad-band anti-reflective pore-like sub-wavelength surface nanostructures on sapphire for optical windows.

Compared with conventional anti-reflective film, an anti-reflective sub-wavelength surface structure provides an ideal choice for a sapphire optical window especially in harsh environments. However, it is still a challenge to obtain a sapphire anti-reflective surface microstructure because of its high hardness and chemical inertness. In this paper, combined with optical simulation, we proposed a facile method based on the anodic oxidation of aluminum film and following epitaxial annealing.

Deformation regimes of collagen fibrils in cortical bone revealed by in situ morphology and elastic modulus observations under mechanical loading.

The mechanical properties of the bone play a decisive role in the resistance of the bone to fracture. Clinically, the quantity of the bone in the mineral phase has been considered as the gold-standard indicator for the risk of bone fracture. However, the bone is a complex tissue with a hierarchical-structure consisting of organic matrix, mineral hydroxyapatite, and water.

Effect of Cholesteryl Ester Transfer Protein Gene TaqIB Polymorphism on the Risk of Ischemic Stroke: A Meta-Analysis.

Background: The association between cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) TaqIB polymorphism and ischemic stroke (IS) risk has generated conflicting results. To investigate whether the TaqIB polymorphism of the CETP gene was associated with the risk of IS, a meta-analysis was performed.

Methods: Studies were retrieved by searching PubMed, Web of Science, the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, the Chinese Wanfang Database, and the Chinese VIP Database before January 16, 2017.

Association of vitamin D receptor gene polymorphisms with susceptibility to childhood asthma: A meta-analysis.

Background: As for the association of vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene polymorphisms with susceptibility to pediatric asthma, results of published studies yielded conflicts. A systematic review was conducted on the relationship between childhood asthma and VDR gene polymorphisms, including ApaI (rs7975232), BsmI (rs1544410), FokI (rs2228570), and TaqI (rs731236).

Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, CBM (Chinese Biomedical Database), CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), and Wanfang (Chinese) database were searched for relevant studies.

[Study on identification of four kinds of Gentianaceae Mongolian medicine Digeda with spectroscopy techniques].

To study the identification of Gentianaceae Mongolian medicine Digeda with spectroscopy techniques, near infrared spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry techniques were applied to study on the identification of 4 kinds of Gentianaceae Mongolian medicine Digeda, and characteristic spectrums obtained were systematically analyzed. In NIR study, the four species of Digeda exist some differences in 4 250-4 400 cm(-1) and 5 650-5 800 cm(-1) of one-dimensional spectra, and show significant differences in 4 100- 4 400 cm(-1), 4 401-4 900 cm(-1) and 5 400-5 800 cm(-1) of the second derivative spectra. DSC curves of them present distinct topological pattern, characteristic peak and peak temperature.

[Study on identification of "Digeda" raw materials in Mongolian patent medicine by PCR amplification of specific alleles].

To explore a new method for identification of Mongolian patent medicine (MPM) by PCR amplification of specific alleles. Eight kinds of MPM were used to study the identification of "Digeda" raw materials. The total DNA of Lomatogonium rotatum and Corydalis bungeana samples were extracted through modified CTAB method, psbA-trnH sequence was amplified by PCR and sequenced directionally.

[Protection, exploitation and utilization states of specialized Mongolian folk medicine resources and related development strategy].

Mongolian folk medicine resource is the origin of Mongolian medicine development, even more important of which is the specialized Mongolian folk medicine resources with regional and high medicine quality, it processes distinctive national characteristics with irreplaceable important position in traditional Mongolian medicine. Nevertheless, due to the serious destroy of ecological environment and sharp increase of demands, etc. A lot of specialized Mongolian folk medicine resources were endangered, and there still existed some problems in the protection and exploitation and utilization.

An optical monitoring method for depositing dielectric layers of arbitrary thickness using reciprocal of transmittance.

An approach extracting information of both optical monitoring signal and phase thickness of deposited layer on a trace diagram is proposed. Realtime fitting and calculation are performed to get both practical thickness and refractive index of deposited layer with the assist of quartz crystal monitoring for keeping steady rate of deposition. Monitoring error of thickness using this approach is analyzed.

[Chemical constituents of leaves of Panax japonicus var. major].

Seven compounds were isolated from the leaves of Panax japonicus var. major by chromatographic methods including silica gel, Sephadex LH-20, ODS and semi-preparative HPLC. Their structures were elucidated by their physical and chemical properties and spectral data analysis as 5, 7-dihydroxy-8-methoxyl flavone (1), ginsenoside Rs2 (2), quinquenoside R1 (3), ginsenoside Rs1 (4), notoginsenoside Fe (5), ginsenoside Rd2 (6) and gypenosiden IX (7).

[Guild structure of forest breeding bird community in Nonggang Nature Reserve of Guangxi].

Surveys about the breeding bird guild structure in karst forest of Nonggang Nature Reserve, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, were conducted successively in May-July 2010, 2011 and 2012. The feeding modes, foraging strata and foraging heights of 44 breeding bird species were analyzed by clustering and principal component method. The results indicated that the avian community could be divided into 6 guilds, including ground feeding guild, lower feeding guild, upper feeding guild, multilayer feeding guild, trunk feeding guild and air strike guild.

[Response of forest bird communities to forest gap in winter in southwestern China].

Although forest gap ecology is an important field of study, research remains limited. By plot setting and point counted observation, the response of birds to forest gaps in winter as well as bird distribution patterns in forest gaps and intact canopies were studied in a north tropical monsoon forest of southwestern China from November 2011 to February 2012 in the Fangcheng Golden Camellia National Nature Reserve, Guangxi. The regression equation of bird species diversity to habitat factor was Y1=0.

Anti-hyperglycemic effect of chebulagic acid from the fruits of Terminalia chebula Retz.

In the present study, we firstly compared rat intestinal α-glucosidase inhibitory activity by different ethanol-aqueous extractions from the dried fruits of Terminalia chebula Retz. The enzymatic assay showed that the 80% ethanol extract was more potent against maltase activity than both 50% and 100% ethanol extracts. By HPLC analysis, it was determined that the 80% ethanol extract had a higher content of chebulagic acid than each of 50% or 100% ethanol extract.

9,9-Dibutyl-9H-fluorene-2-carbonitrile.

The fluorene fragment of the title compound, C(22)H(25)N, is essentially planar, with an r.m.s deviation of the five-membered ring of 0.

Blue-light-emitting multifunctional triphenylamine-centered starburst quinolines: synthesis, electrochemical and photophysical properties.

A series of triphenylamine-centered starburst quinolines (1a-1g) have been synthesized by Friedländer condensation of the 4,4',4''-triacetyltriphenylamine (2) and 2-aminophenyl ketones (3a-3g) in the presence of catalytic sulfuric acid and characterized well. They are thermally robust with high glass transition temperatures (above 176.4 °C) and decomposition temperatures (above 406 °C).

Astragaloside II induces osteogenic activities of osteoblasts through the bone morphogenetic protein-2/MAPK and Smad1/5/8 pathways.

Radix Astragalus has been identified to exert beneficial effects in preventing postmenopausal bone loss. However, the active ingredients and mechanism of action remain unknown. In this study, we examined the effect of Astragaloside II (AST II), which is a monomer of Astragalus saponin, on the viability, proliferation, differentiation and maturation of rat primary osteoblasts, as well as its relevant molecular mechanism.