Cellular microenvironment: a key for tuning mesenchymal stem cell senescence.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) possess the ability to self-renew and differentiate into multiple cell types, making them highly suitable for use as seed cells in tissue engineering. These can be derived from various sources and have been found to play crucial roles in several physiological processes, such as tissue repair, immune regulation, and intercellular communication. However, the limited capacity for cell proliferation and the secretion of senescence-associated secreted phenotypes (SASPs) pose challenges for the clinical application of MSCs. In this review, we provide a comprehensive summary of the senescence characteristics of MSCs and examine the different features of cellular microenvironments studied thus far. Additionally, we discuss the mechanisms by which cellular microenvironments regulate the senescence process of MSCs, offering insights into preserving their functionality and enhancing their effectiveness.

The Effect of Dietary Supplementation with Zinc Amino Acids on Immunity, Antioxidant Capacity, and Gut Microbiota Composition in Calves.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation with zinc (Zn) amino acids at different concentrations on immunity, antioxidant capacity, and gut microbiota composition in calves. Twenty-four one-month-old healthy Angus calves of comparable body weight were randomly divided into three groups (four males and four females in each group) based on the amount of Zn supplementation added to the feed the animals received: group A, 40 mg/kg DM; group B, 80 mg/kg DM; and group C, 120 mg/kg DM. The experiment ended when calves reached three months of age (weaning period). The increase in dietary Zn amino acid content promoted the growth of calves, and the average daily weight gain increased by 36.58% (p < 0.05) in group C compared with group A. With the increase in the content of dietary Zn amino acids, the indexes of serum immune functions initially increased and then decreased; in particular, the content of immunoglobulin M in group A and group B was higher than that in group C (p < 0.05), whereas the content of interleukin-2 in group B was higher than that in the other two groups (p < 0.05). In addition, the content of superoxide dismutase and total antioxidant capacity in the serum of calves in group B was higher than that in group C (p < 0.05), and the MDA level was lower than in group C (p < 0.05). Moreover, alpha diversity in the gut microbiota of calves in group B was higher than that in group A and group C (p < 0.05); the dominant phyla were Firmicutes and Bacteroidota, whereas the dominant genera were Unclassified-Lachnospiraceae and Ruminococcus. Linear discriminant analysis showed that the relative abundance of Bacteroides in the gut microbiota of calves in group B was higher than that in group A, and the relative abundance of Prevotellaceae-UCG-003 was higher compared to that in experimental group C. Thus, dietary supplementation of 80 mg/kg of Zn amino acids to calves could improve the immune function and antioxidant capacity, as well as enrich and regulate the equilibrium of gut microbiota, thus promoting the healthy growth of calves.

Response Characteristics of Electric Potential and Its Relationship with Dynamic Disaster during Mining Activities: A Case Study in Xuehu Coal Mine, China.

Across the world, coal resource is widely utilized in industrial production. During coal mining activities, dynamic disasters may be induced, such as coal and gas outbursts, or rock burst, resulting in serious accidents or disasters. Previous studies have shown that electric potential (EP) signals can be produced during the deformation and fracture process of coal and rock mass under load. The abnormal response characteristics of EP can reveal the damage evolution and failure feather of coal mass. In this paper, the response characteristics of EP signals are analyzed with high gas testing during mining activities within deep coal seams, and the relationship between the EP response and outburst disaster hazard is studied. The results show that: (1) Under the comprehensive action of mining stress and gas effect, the coal mass was damaged and fractured, which can produce abundant EP signals, while the temporal EP response characteristics can reflect the loading state and damage evolution process inside the coal seam. (2) When coal cannon and a sudden increase of gas concentration occurred in the coal mass, the EP signal was at a high level and fluctuated violently. This can be regarded as precursory information for an outburst risk, which was verified by monitoring the results of mining stress and electromagnetic radiation (EMR). (3) Based on the unilateral inversion imaging method, EP spatial distribution law was studied and abnormal zones with high-value were identified. The zone is close to, or coincident with, the high value interval of EMR intensity and count indexes, which revealed the distribution characteristics of coal damage localization. Hence, EP monitoring results can forecast precursor information of outburst hazards temporally, and identify local zones with outburst hazard spatially. This study provides a new idea and application basis for using the EP method to monitor and prevent coal and rock dynamic disaster hazards in the field.

Chromatin accessibility landscape of stromal subpopulations reveals distinct metabolic and inflammatory features of porcine subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue.

Background: Fat accumulation in visceral adipose tissue (VAT) confers increased risk for metabolic disorders of obesity, whereas accumulation of subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) is associated with lower risk and may be protective. Previous studies have shed light on the gene expression profile differences between SAT and VAT; however, the chromatin accessibility landscape differences and how the cis-regulatory elements govern gene expression changes between SAT and VAT are unknown. Methods: Pig were used to characterize the differences in chromatin accessibility between the two adipose depots-derived stromal vascular fractions (SVFs) using DNase-sequencing (DNase-seq). Using integrated data from DNase-seq, H3K27ac ChIP-sequencing (ChIP-seq), and RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq), we investigated how the regulatory locus complexity regulated gene expression changes between SAT and VAT and the possible impact that these changes may have on the different biological functions of these two adipose depots. Results: SVFs form SAT and VAT (S-SVF and V-SVF) have differential chromatin accessibility landscapes. The differential DNase I hypersensitive site (DHS)-associated genes, which indicate dynamic chromatin accessibility, were mainly involved in metabolic processes and inflammatory responses. Additionally, the Krüppel-like factor family of transcription factors were enriched in the differential DHSs. Furthermore, the chromatin accessibility data were highly associated with differential gene expression as indicated using H3K27ac ChIP-seq and RNA-seq data, supporting the validity of the differential gene expression determined using DNase-seq. Moreover, by combining epigenetic and transcriptomic data, we identified two candidate genes, NR1D1 and CRYM, could be crucial to regulate distinct metabolic and inflammatory characteristics between SAT and VAT. Together, these results uncovered differences in the transcription regulatory network and enriched the mechanistic understanding of the different biological functions between SAT and VAT.

The #StopAsianHate Movement on Twitter: A Qualitative Descriptive Study.

Evidence-based intervention and policy strategies to address the recent surge of race-motivated hate crimes and other forms of racism against Asian Americans are essential; however, such efforts have been impeded by a lack of empirical knowledge, e.g., about racism, specifically aimed at the Asian American population. Our qualitative descriptive study sought to fill this gap by using a data-mining approach to examine the contents of tweets having the hashtag #StopAsianHate. We collected tweets during a two-week time frame starting on 20 May 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act. Screening of the 31,665 tweets collected revealed that a total of 904 tweets were eligible for thematic analysis. Our analysis revealed five themes: "Asian hate is not new", "Address the harm of racism", "Get involved in #StopAsianHate", "Appreciate the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community's culture, history, and contributions" and "Increase the visibility of the AAPI community." Lessons learned from our findings can serve as a foundation for evidence-based strategies to address racism against Asian Americans both locally and globally.

A Chinese Conceptual Semantic Feature Dataset (CCFD).

Memory and language are important high-level cognitive functions of humans, and the study of conceptual representation of the human brain is a key approach to reveal the principles of cognition. However, this research is often constrained by the availability of stimulus materials. The research on concept representation often needs to be based on a standardized and large-scale database of conceptual semantic features. Although Western scholars have established a variety of English conceptual semantic feature datasets, there is still a lack of a comprehensive Chinese version. In the present study, a Chinese Conceptual semantic Feature Dataset (CCFD) was established with 1,410 concepts including their semantic features and the similarity between concepts. The concepts were grouped into 28 subordinate categories and seven superior categories artificially. The results showed that concepts within the same category were closer to each other, while concepts between categories were farther apart. The CCFD proposed in this study can provide stimulation materials and data support for related research fields. All the data and supplementary materials can be found at https://osf.io/ug5dt/ .

Longitudinal development of the gut microbiota in healthy and diarrheic piglets induced by age-related dietary changes.

Diarrhea is one of the most common enteric diseases in young piglets. Diverse factors such as an unstable gut microenvironment, immature intestinal immune system, early supplementary feeding, and weaning often induce dysfunction of gut microbiota, thus leading to a continuing high incidence of diarrhea in piglets. However, few studies have characterized the gut microbiota of diarrheic piglets following changes in diet and during the development of intestinal physiology. In this study, we used 16S rRNA gene sequencing to analyze the dynamic establishment of fecal microbiota in six healthy piglets in response to age-related changes in the diet: sow-reared, early supplementary creep-feeding (sow-reared + starter diet), and weaning (solid nursery diet). We compared the gut microbiota of these six healthy piglets with those of diarrheic piglets during each of the three dietary stages (n = 10 sow-reared, n = 10 early supplementary creep-feeding, and n = 5 weaning). We found that weaning (solid nursery feeding) was the primary factor leading to dynamic colonization by microbiota in healthy piglets, and diarrhea primarily affected the microbial communities of piglets before weaning. Healthy piglets showed a continuous decrease in Lactobacillus and Escherichia, as well as a gradual increase in Prevotella with the transition to solid food. An altered relationship between Prevotella and Escherichia may be the main cause of diarrhea in preweaned piglets, whereas reduced numbers of Bacteroides, Ruminococcus, Bulleidia, and Treponema that are responsible for the digestion and utilization of solid feeds may be related to the onset of postweaning piglet diarrhea. The Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States (PICRUSt) functional analysis indicated that a reduction in genes involved in carbohydrate metabolism induced by intestinal dysbacteriosis in diarrheic piglets was one of the major causes of diarrhea at the three dietary stages. These findings provide insights into developing an intervention strategy for better management of diarrhea in piglets.

Analyses of miRNA in the ileum of diarrheic piglets caused by Clostridium perfringens type C.

Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens) type C is one of major pathogenic causing diarrhea and other intestinal inflammatory diseases in piglets, which seriously affects the healthy development of the swine industries. Studies have found that miRNAs play important roles in regulating piglet diarrhea challenged by pathogenic E. coli and Salmonella. However, little is known miRNAs in the ileum of diarrheic piglets caused by C. perfringens type C. Therefore, we studied the expression profiles of the ileum miRNAs of 7-day-old piglets infected with C. perfringens type C using small RNA-Seq, including control (IC), susceptible (IS) and resistant (IR) groups. As a result, 53 differentially expressed miRNAs were found. KEGG pathway analysis for target genes revealed that these miRNAs were involved in ErbB signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway, Jak-STAT signaling pathway and Wnt signaling pathway. The expression correlation analysis between miRNAs and target genes revealed that the expression of miR-7134-5p had negative correlation with target NFATC4, miR-500 had negative correlation with target ELK1, HSPA2 and IL7R, and miR-92b-3p had negative correlation with target CLCF1 in ileum of IR vs IS group, suggesting that miR-7134-5p targeting to NFATC4, miR-500 targeting to ELK1, HSPA2 and IL7R, and miR-92b-3p targeting to CLCF1 were probably involved in piglet resisting C. perfringens type C. The results will provide value resources for better understanding of the genetic basis of C. perfringens type C resistance in piglet and lays a new foundation for identifying novel markers of C. perfringens type C resistance.

Effect of Clostridium perfringens type C on TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB signaling pathway in piglet small intestines.

Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens), a Gram-positive bacterium, is one of the main causing piglet diarrhea, which leads serious economic loss in the world swine industries. Generally, the innate immune response plays a critical role in host defense against pathogen invasion. TLR4, a member of the TLR (Toll-like receptor) family, has been considered to implicate in the host immune responses and induce secretion of inflammatory cytokines during bacterial infection. However, little is clear about the effects of TLR4 and key signaling genes in the process of piglet inflammatory and immune responses after C. perfringens infection. This study aims to explore the effect of C. perfringens type C infection on the key mRNAs of TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB signaling pathways during the process of piglet diarrhea. In this study, the expressions of TLR4 and other key mRNAs in the TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB signaling pathways were quantified in piglet ileum and jejunum tissues among IR (intestinal resistance), IS (intestinal susceptibility) and IC (intestinal control) groups by qPCR and Western blot methods, the concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokines in intestinal tissues and serum immunoglobulins were also tested by ELISA kits. Results showed that compared to IC group, expressions of ileum TLR4 and TNF-α was significantly increased in the IS and IR groups, specially TBK1 gene; the expressions of ileum TLR2, TRAF6, MyD88 and IL-8 mRNAs was significantly up-regulated in the IS group, the expressions of TLR9, NF-κB, IL-6, IFN-γ and MAPK1 genes were not significant differences among the IR, IS and IC groups. Meanwhile, the protein levels of TLR4, HMGB1 and NF-κB were higher in the IS and IR groups. The levels of jejunum IFN-γ and IL-6, ileum IL-6 and IL-12 were risen in the IR group. Serum immunoglobulin IgA and IgG in the IR and IS groups reached a peak on the 72 h and 48 h post infection, respectively. These findings suggest that C. perfringens type C infection induces host immune responses involving in the TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB signaling pathways in ileum than in jejunum, which may provide valuable information for innate immune mechanisms involved in regulation of piglet diarrhea caused by C. perfringens type C infection.

Integrative Analyses of Long Non-coding RNA and mRNA Involved in Piglet Ileum Immune Response to Clostridium perfringens Type C Infection.

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been shown to play important roles in regulating host immune and inflammatory responses to bacterial infection. Infection with Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens), a food-borne zoonotic pathogen, can lead to a series of inflammatory diseases in human and piglet, greatly challenging the healthy development of global pig industry. However, the roles of lncRNAs involved in piglet immune response against C. perfringens type C infection remain unknown. In this study, the regulatory functions of ileum lncRNAs and mRNAs were investigated in piglet immune response to C. perfringens type C infection among resistance (IR), susceptibility (IS) and sham-inoculation (control, IC) groups. A total of 480 lncRNAs and 3,669 mRNAs were significantly differentially expressed, the differentially expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs in the IR and IS groups were enriched in various pathways of ABC transporters, olfactory transduction, PPAR signaling pathway, chemokine signaling pathway and Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, involving in regulating piglet immune responses and resistance during infection. There were 212 lncRNAs and 505 target mRNAs found to have important association with C. perfringens infectious diseases, furthermore, 25 dysregulated lncRNAs corresponding to 13 immune-related target mRNAs were identified to play potential roles in defense against bacterial infection. In conclusion, the results improve our understanding on the characteristics of lncRNAs and mRNAs on regulating host immune response against C. perfringens type C infection, which will provide a reference for future research into exploring C. perfringens-related diseases in human.

Histological and Comparative Transcriptome Analyses Provide Insights into Small Intestine Health in Diarrheal Piglets after Infection with Clostridium Perfringens Type C.

C. perfringens type C can induce enteritis accompanied by diarrhea and annually causes significant economic losses to the global pig industry. The pathogenic mechanisms of C. perfringens type C in pigs are still largely unknown. To investigate this, we challenged seven-day-old piglets with C. perfringens type C to cause diarrhea. We performed hematoxylin & eosin (H&E) staining of the small intestine (including duodenum, jejunum, and ileum) and assessed gene expression in the ileal tissue. H&E staining of the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum demonstrated inflammation and edema of the lamina propria and submucosa. A total of 2181 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were obtained in ileal tissues. Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis of DEGs indicated that the main pathways were enriched in the T cell receptor signaling pathway, NF-kappa B signaling pathway, and (tumor necrosis factor) TNF signaling pathway. These results provide insights into the pathogenicity of C. perfringens type C and improve our understanding of host-bacteria interactions.

Analyses of long non-coding RNA and mRNA profiling in the spleen of diarrheic piglets caused by Clostridium perfringens type C.

BACKGROUND: Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens) type C is the most common bacteria causing piglet diarrheal disease and it greatly affects the economy of the global pig industry. The spleen is an important immune organ in mammals; it plays an irreplaceable role in resisting and eradicating pathogenic microorganisms. Based on different immune capacity in piglets, individuals display the resistance and susceptibility to diarrhea caused by C. perfringens type C. Recently, long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) and mRNA have been found to be involved in host immune and inflammatory responses to pathogenic infections. However, little is known about spleen transcriptome information in piglet diarrhea caused by C. perfringens type C. METHODS: Hence, we infected 7-day-old piglets with C. perfringens type C to lead to diarrhea. Then, we investigated lncRNA and mRNA expression profiles in spleens of piglets, including control (SC), susceptible (SS), and resistant (SR) groups. RESULTS: As a result, 2,056 novel lncRNAs and 2,417 differentially expressed genes were found. These lncRNAs shared the same characteristics of fewer exons and shorter length. Bioinformatics analysis identified that two lncRNAs (ALDBSSCT0000006918 and ALDBSSCT0000007366) may be involved in five immune/inflammation-related pathways (such as Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway, and Jak-STAT signaling pathway), which were associated with resistance and susceptibility to C. perfringens type C infection. This study contributes to the understanding of potential mechanisms involved in the immune response of piglets infected with C. perfringens type C.

Circular RNA expression profile of spleen in a Clostridium perfringens type C-induced piglet model of necrotizing enteritis.

Clostridium perfringens type C is a pathogen that causes necrotizing enteritis (NE), which is an intestinal tract disease in piglets. The pathogenesis of C. perfringens type C-induced NE is still unclear, leading to a lack of effective therapies. Earlier studies have reported that circular RNAs (circRNAs) are involved in the pathogenic processes of various diseases. However, it is not known if circRNAs in spleen play a role in C. perfringens type C infection in NE. To address this question, we infected 7-day-old piglets with C. perfringens type C to induce NE. Hematoxylin and eosin staining of small intestine revealed inflammation, atrophy and shedding of intestinal villi, and intestinal mucosal necrosis. We observed increased expression of cytokine genes (such as IL-1ß and IL-6) and inflammation in the spleen. In addition, we used RNA-seq and bioinformatics analysis to examine changes in circRNA expression. A total of 103 circRNAs were found to be differentially expressed in NE, and Gene Ontology analysis revealed that the genes producing differentially expressed circRNAs were enriched in regulation of the cellular metabolic process protein binding. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis showed that the genes producing differentially expressed circRNAs were involved in the tumor necrosis factor signaling pathway, T cell receptor signaling pathway and nuclear factor-κB signaling pathway. Finally, we found eight circRNAs (including circ_0002220 and circ_0000821) that are related to NE. Therefore, our study provides new insights into the mechanisms underlying C. perfringens type C infection in piglets.

Spontaneous single nucleotide polymorphism in porcine microRNA-378 seed region leads to functional alteration.

Sequence variation in a microRNA (miRNA) seed region can influence its biogenesis and effects on target mRNAs; however, in mammals, few seed region mutations leading to functional alterations have been reported to date. Here, we report the identification of a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) with functional consequence located in the seed region of porcine miR-378. In vitro analysis of this rs331295049 A17G SNP showed significantly up-regulated expression of the mature miR-378 (miR-378/G). In silico target prediction indicated that the SNP would modulate secondary structure and result in functional loss affecting >85% of the known target genes of the wild-type miR-378 (miR-378/A), and functional gain affecting >700 new target genes, and dual-luciferase reporter assay verified this result. This report of a SNP in the seed region of miR-378 leads to functional alteration and indicates the potential for substantive functional consequences to the molecular physiology of a mammalian organism.

A mutation in porcine pre-miR-15b alters the biogenesis of MiR-15b\16-1 cluster and strand selection of MiR-15b.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that are involved in translational regulation of the messenger RNA molecules. Sequence variations in the genes encoding miRNAs could influence their biogenesis and function. MiR-15b plays an important role in cellular proliferation, apoptosis and the cell cycle. Here, we report the identification of a C58T mutation in porcine pre-miR-15b. Through in vitro and in vivo experiments, we determined that this mutation blocks the transition from pri-miRNA to pre-miRNA, alters the strand selection between miR-15b-5p and miR-15b-3p, and obstructs biogenesis of the downstream miR-16-1. These results serve to highlight the importance of miRNA mutations and their impacts on miRNA biogenesis.

Entropic uncertainty relations for Markovian and non-Markovian processes under a structured bosonic reservoir.

The uncertainty relation is a fundamental limit in quantum mechanics and is of great importance to quantum information processing as it relates to quantum precision measurement. Due to interactions with the surrounding environment, a quantum system will unavoidably suffer from decoherence. Here, we investigate the dynamic behaviors of the entropic uncertainty relation of an atom-cavity interacting system under a bosonic reservoir during the crossover between Markovian and non-Markovian regimes. Specifically, we explore the dynamic behavior of the entropic uncertainty relation for a pair of incompatible observables under the reservoir-induced atomic decay effect both with and without quantum memory. We find that the uncertainty dramatically depends on both the atom-cavity and the cavity-reservoir interactions, as well as the correlation time, τ, of the structured reservoir. Furthermore, we verify that the uncertainty is anti-correlated with the purity of the state of the observed qubit-system. We also propose a remarkably simple and efficient way to reduce the uncertainty by utilizing quantum weak measurement reversal. Therefore our work offers a new insight into the uncertainty dynamics for multi-component measurements within an open system, and is thus important for quantum precision measurements.

Structure and Function of the Fecal Microbiota in Diarrheic Neonatal Piglets.

Diarrhea is a leading cause of increased mortality in neonatal and young piglets. Aberration of the gut microbiota is one important factor in the etiology of piglet diarrhea. However, information regarding the structure and function of the gut microbiome in diarrheic neonatal piglets is limited. To investigate the composition and functional potential of the fecal microbiota in neonatal piglets, we performed 16S rRNA gene sequencing on 20 fecal samples from diarrheic piglets and healthy controls, and metagenomics sequencing on a subset of six samples. We found striking compositional and functional differences in fecal microbiota between diarrheic and healthy piglets. Neonatal piglet diarrhea was associated with increases in the relative abundance of Prevotella, Sutterella, and Campylobacter, as well as Fusobacteriaceae. The increased relative abundance of Prevotella was correlated with the reduction in Escherichia coli and the majority of beneficial bacteria that belonging to the Firmicutes phylum (e.g., Enterococcus, Streptococcus, Lactobacillus, Clostridium, and Blautia) in diarrheic piglets. The differentially functional gene abundances in diarrheic piglets were an increase in bacterial ribosome, and contributed primarily by the genera Prevotella, this indicates a growth advantage of the Prevotella in diarrheic conditions. Additional functional gene sets were associated with the reduction of polyamine transport, monosaccharide and sugar-specific PTS transport, amino acid transport, and two-component regulatory system. These profiles likely impact the ability to transport and uptake nutrients, as well as the ability to fight microbial infections in the piglet gut ecosystem. This work identifies a potential role for Prevotella in the community-wide microbial aberration and dysfunction that underpins the pathogenesis of piglet diarrhea. Identification of these microbial and functional signatures may provide biomarkers of neonatal piglet diarrhea.

Exploration quantum steering, nonlocality and entanglement of two-qubit X-state in structured reservoirs.

In this work, there are two parties, Alice on Earth and Bob on the satellite, which initially share an entangled state, and some open problems, which emerge during quantum steering that Alice remotely steers Bob, are investigated. Our analytical results indicate that all entangled pure states and maximally entangled evolution states (EESs) are steerable, and not every entangled evolution state is steerable and some steerable states are only locally correlated. Besides, quantum steering from Alice to Bob experiences a "sudden death" with increasing decoherence strength. However, shortly after that, quantum steering experiences a recovery with the increase of decoherence strength in bit flip (BF) and phase flip (PF) channels. Interestingly, while they initially share an entangled pure state, all EESs are steerable and obey Bell nonlocality in PF and phase damping channels. In BF channels, all steerable states can violate Bell-CHSH inequality, but some EESs are unable to be employed to realize steering. However, when they initially share an entangled mixed state, the outcome is different from that of the pure state. Furthermore, the steerability of entangled mixed states is weaker than that of entangled pure states. Thereby, decoherence can induce the degradation of quantum steering, and the steerability of state is associated with the interaction between quantum systems and reservoirs.

Effect of Genetic Diversity in Swine Leukocyte Antigen-DRA Gene on Piglet Diarrhea.

The swine leukocyte antigens (SLAs) are the multigene families related to immune responses. Little is known about the effect of the DRA gene on diarrheal disease. This study reported the genetic diversity of the DRA gene in exons 1, 3 and 4 in 290 Chinese Yantai black pigs. No variation was identified in exon 3. In exon 1, three genotypes and two alleles were identified, generated by two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). In exon 4, there were eight genotypes and five alleles containing seven SNPs were detected with four SNPs being novel SNPs. The low polymorphism found in swine DRA is consistent with the concept that the DRA gene is highly conserved among all mammalian species. Statistical analyses indicated that the genotypes of exon 1 were not significantly associated with piglet diarrhea (p > 0.05); however, genotypes C4C4 (1.80 ± 0.33) and A4E4 (1.66 ± 0.25) of exon 4 were significantly susceptible to diarrhea (p < 0.01). These indicate that the particular genotypes of the DRA gene are susceptible to diarrheal disease, which provides valuable information for disease-resistance breeding in swine.

High-resolution volume holographic profilometry using the Viterbi algorithm.

We use the Viterbi decoding algorithm to resolve depth features beyond the nominal resolution limit of a volume holographic profilometry system. The formulation treats the truncated point-spread function as an intersymbol interference and uses surface constraints and transition constraints to reduce the computational complexity. A factor-of-5 improvement in resolution was obtained in our experimental demonstration.