Low-Molecular-Weight Chondroitin Sulfates Alleviate Simulated Microgravity-Induced Oxidative Stress and Bone Loss in Mice.

(1) Background: Many studies have shown that microgravity experienced by astronauts or long-term bedridden patients results in increased oxidative stress and bone loss. Low-molecular-weight chondroitin sulfates (LMWCSs) prepared from intact chondroitin sulfate (CS) have been demonstrated to possess good antioxidant and osteogenic activities in vitro. This study aimed to assess the antioxidant activity of the LMWCSs in vivo and evaluate their potential in preventing microgravity-induced bone loss. (2) Methods: we used hind limb suspension (HLS) mice to simulate microgravity in vivo. We investigated the effects of LMWCSs against oxidative stress damage and bone loss in HLS mice and compared the findings with those of CS and a non-treatment group. (3) Results: LMWCSs reduced the HLS-induced oxidative stress level, prevented HLS-induced alterations in bone microstructure and mechanical strength, and reversed changes in bone metabolism indicators in HLS mice. Additionally, LMWCSs downregulated the mRNA expression levels of antioxidant enzyme- and osteogenic-related genes in HLS mice. The results showed that overall effect of LMWCSs was better than that of CS. (4) Conclusions: LMWCSs protect against the bone loss caused by simulated microgravity, which may be related to their ability to reduce oxidative stress. LMWCSs can be envisaged as potential antioxidants and bone loss protective agents in microgravity.

Study on primary physicochemical characteristics and nutrient adsorption of four plant cultivation substrates.

The primary physicochemical characteristics and the nutrient adsorption of different substrates were carried out, to select suitable cultivation substrates for plant cultivation in space. Four types of plant cultivation substrates (Profile substrate (P), black ceramsite (B), white ceramsite (W), and vermiculite (V)) were used to test and compare the primary physicochemical characteristics, such as micropore, bulk density, total porosity, specific surface area and available nutrient content, as well as the nutrients adsorption for NH4+, NO3-, PO43- and K+ with seven concentration gradients respectively. Substrate P contained more micropores, with higher parameter values of total porosity, cation exchange capacity, electrical conductivity, and specific surface area, moderate bulk density and pH, and more mineral nutrients such as potassium, magnesium, and sulfur; substrate B was porous, with smaller parameter values of total porosity, cation exchange capacity and specific surface area, minimum electrical conductivity, moderate bulk density, alkaline and smaller content of mineral elements (excepting for calcium); substrate W had smaller micropore size, the highest value of bulk density and contents of NO3- and PO43-. Other physicochemical parameters were equivalent to those of substrate B; substrate V was flaky, with the smallest values of bulk density, and the highest values of total porosity and cation exchange capacity. The values of electrical conductivity and specific surface area were smaller than those of substrate P. It contained more mineral nutrients of calcium and sulfur. Substrate V had the highest adsorption capacity for NH4+, NO3-, PO43- and K+, followed by substrate P, while substrate B and substrate W had relatively weak adsorption capacity. The adsorption capacity of four substrates for cations (NH4+ and K+) was significantly higher than that for anions (NO3- and PO43-). The orders of average adsorption amount for NH4+, NO3-, PO43- and K+ by four substrates were respectively: V > P > B > W, P > V > W > B, V > P > B > W and V > P > W > B. In comparison, substrate P and substrate V had better physicochemical characteristics, and stronger adsorption capacity for NH4+, NO3-, PO43-, and K+.

An Ultra-Energy-Efficient and High Accuracy ECG Classification Processor With SNN Inference Assisted by On-Chip ANN Learning.

The ECG classification processor is a key component in wearable intelligent ECG monitoring devices which monitor the ECG signals in real time and detect the abnormality automatically. The state-of-the-art ECG classification processors for wearable intelligent ECG monitoring devices are faced with two challenges, including ultra-low energy consumption demand and high classification accuracy demand against patient-to-patient variability. To address the above two challenges, in this work, an ultra-energy-efficient ECG classification processor with high classification accuracy is proposed. Several design techniques have been proposed, including a reconfigurable SNN/ANN inference architecture for reducing energy consumption while maintaining classification accuracy, a reconfigurable on-chip learning architecture for improving the classification accuracy against patent-to-patient variability, and a dual-purpose binary encoding scheme of ECG heartbeats for further reducing the energy consumption. Fabricated with a 28nm CMOS technology, the proposed design consumes extremely low classification energy (0.3µJ) while achieving high classification accuracy (97.36%) against patient-to-patient variability, outperforming several state-of-the-art designs.

Effects of LED spectra on growth, gas exchange, antioxidant activity and nutritional quality of vegetable species.

This research aimed to investigate the effects of three LED spectra on growth, gas exchange, antioxidant activity and nutritional quality of three vegetable species. The compressible vegetable facilities (CVF) were developed and three kinds of typical LED lights (spectra) were set, including white LED light (W), red-blue-green LED light (RBG), and red-blue-white LED light (RBW). Three vegetable species, i.e. lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. cv. Rome), cherry radish (Raphanus sativas L. cv. Hongxin) and cherry tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum M. cv. Mosite), were chosen and grown (matrix culture) in the three LED lights for 40, 40 and 100 days, respectively. The results indicated that the vegetable plants grew well and were compact in the RBG and RBW treatments. There was the highest biomass or fruit (tomato) in the RBG treatment and the least one in the W treatment for three vegetable species. There were no significant differences in harvest index, ratio of shoot to root, and water content among three treatments. The production efficiency values of 9.0-9.7, 9.9-13.5 and 11.8-12.5 g DW d-1 m-2 for lettuce, radish and tomato plants in the RBG and the RBW treatments were higher than those in the W treatment. The photosynthetic and transpiration rates of three vegetable species in the RBG treatment were the highest among three treatments and the W treatment had the least one. There were significant effects of three spectra on antioxidant activities of three vegetable species. Higher PPFD percentages of blue in the RBG light and the RBW light increased the antioxidant activities of all vegetable plants compared the W light. But it had no significant difference between the RBG light and the RBW. The organic components including soluble sugar (SS) and protein (Prt) of lettuce and radish plants were affected significantly by three spectra, but not for tomato plants. The contents of Mg and Zn of radish plants in the RBG treatment were higher than those in other treatments. There were significant positive effects of RBW treatment on the contents of N and Mg of tomato plants. The different spectra did not affect the contents of N-NO3 and Cu of vegetable plants. This study demonstrated that the RBG light (spectrum) significantly enhanced the growth, gas exchange, antioxidant activity of the lettuce, radish, and tomato cultivars used in this study, and there are significant effects of different LED spectra on the nutritional quality (including organic components and several mineral elements) of the different species.

Performance of the mixed LED light quality on the growth and energy efficiency of Arthrospira platensis.

The effect of mixed light quality with red, blue, and green LED lamps on the growth of Arthrospira platensis was studied, so as to lay the theoretical and technical basis for establishing a photo-bioreactor lighting system for application in space. Meanwhile, indexes, like morphology, growth rate, photosynthetic pigment compositions, energy efficiency, and main nutritional components, were measured respectively. The results showed that the blue light combined with red light could decrease the tightness of filament, and the effect of green light was opposite. The combination of blue light or green light with red light induced the filaments to get shorter in length. The 8R2B treatment could promote the growth of Arthrospira platensis significantly, and its dry weight reached 1.36 g L-1, which was 25.93% higher than the control. What's more, 8R2B treatment had the highest contents of carbohydrate and lipid, while 8R2G was rich in protein. 8R0.5G1.5B had the highest efficiency of biomass production, which was 161.53 mg L-1 kW-1 h-1. Therefore, the combination of red and blue light is more conducive to the growth of Arthrospira platensis, and a higher biomass production and energy utilization efficiency can be achieved simultaneously under the mixed light quality with the ratio of 8R0.5G1.5B.

[Studies on quantitative trait loci related to activity of lactate dehydrogenase in common carp (Cyprinus carpio)].

The reciprocal intergeneric hybrids between common wheat and Roegneria kamoji were successfully obtained by means of embryo culture. Morphology, chromosome pairing behavior at meiosis, fertility, and resistance to scab of the hybrid F1 and BC1 were studied. The results showed that the morphology of the reciprocal intergeneric hybrids F1 between R. kamoji and T. aestivum cv. Chinese Spring were intermediate type between the two parental species. The chromosome configuration at metaphase I (MI) of pollen mother cell (PMC) in reciprocal F1 was 40.33I + 0.78II + 0.03III and 40.40I + 0.79II, respectively. All of the F1 plants showed complete male sterility, and the seeds of BC1 were obtained by backcrossing with Chinese Spring pollen. The somatic chromosome numbers in BC1 plants of (R. kamoji x Chinese Spring) F1 x Chinese Spring ranged from 55 to 63. Many univalents were observed at MI of PMC, which resulted in the sterility of BC1 plants. Similarly, the chromosome numbers in BC1 plants of (Chinese Spring xR. kamoji) F1 x Chinese Spring also ranged from 55 to 63; however, many bivalents at MI of PMC and fertile pollen were observed resulting in partial fruitfulness in some BC1 plants by self-crossing. A plant (2n=63) with 42 wheat chromosomes and 21 R. kamoji chromosomes was obtained from R. kamoji x Chinese Spring cross, which had a chromosome configuration at MI of 26.40I + 18.30II. Because many univalents existed, this plant showed complete male sterility, and BC1 plants were obtained by back-crossing with Chinese Spring as the pollen parent. The chromosome numbers of BC1 ranged from 40 to 59, which contained less alien chromosomes. Although the morphology of the spike in BC1 plants was similar to that of Chinese Spring, these BC1 plants were still sterile. All F1 and most of the BC1 plants showed high resistance to Fusarium graminearum, which indicated that the resistance to scab from R. kmoji can be transferred into wheat.Microsatellite markers were used to make marker regression analysis on activity of lactate dehydrogenase based on double pseudo-testcross strategy using Windows Map Manager2.0 software. The parents that came from the cross between progenies of Hebao-cold tolerance red carp and Barbless carp and F2 progenies were used as segregating populations. For maker regression, a total of 12 markers associated with activity of lactate dehydrogenase were significant at P<0.05 and HLJE222 was significant at P<0.01. The variance explained by these loci, ranged from 4.00% to 10.00%. Locus HLJE222 was closely linked to the gene related to activity of lactate dehydrogenase of common carp. For further identification, EST-SSR markers were used to screen the protein and nucleotide database using bioinformatics tools in order to find the homologies. High sequence similarities of HLJE222 marker were observed with the nucleotide sequence of DAZ associated protein 1mRNA of zebrafish(94%), and protein sequence of DAZ associated protein 1(97%). DAZ protein is one of the short chain dehydrogenases, which is an important enzyme in the process of glucose metabolism in the organisms. This family contains a wide variety of dehydrogenases. This indicates that locus HLJE222 was closely linked to the gene associated with activity of lactate dehydrogenase of common carp.