3D image reconstruction of terahertz computed tomography at sparse angles by total variation minimization.

Continuous-wave terahertz computed tomography (THz-CT) is an important three-dimensional imaging method for probing the profile and inner properties of a sample's structure. We applied the total variation (TV) minimization iterative algorithm to squeeze 75% data acquisition time of THz-CT without the loss of reconstruction fidelity. The imaging system is built based on a 278.6 GHz avalanche diode source. A zero-order Bessel beam is generated by an axicon, for which the intensity profile remains essentially propagation invariant within the non-diffracting zone. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by using three optically opaque objects. The reconstruction results show that the TV-minimization algorithm can effectively suppress noise, artefacts, and shape distortion created in sparse angle reconstruction.

Microwave ablation of breast pseudoaneurysm.

Breast pseudoaneurysm is a very rare complication. In this study, we report a patient with huge breast pseudoaneurysm after ultrasound-guided vacuum-assisted biopsy (UGVAB) of breast nodules. In treatment, we used microwave ablation to treat the pseudoaneurysm, and then used UGVAB again to eliminate the complicated hematoma. The patients obtained good therapeutic effect. From this case, we experience that, before the interventional operations for breast nodules, the systematic ultrasound examination should be performed. In the needle entering channel, the obvious blood vessels should be avoided to reduce the unnecessary vascular injury. When the pseudoaneurysm occurs, the patient's condition, pseudoaneurysm situation and hematoma size should be comprehensively considered, combined with the multidisciplinary consultation, for selecting the best treatment strategy.

ANO10 is a potential prognostic biomarker and correlates with immune infiltration in breast cancer.

Several diseases have been linked to the dysfunction of anoctamins. Anoctamins play a wide range of physiological roles, including cell proliferation, migration, epithelial secretion, and calcium-activated chloride channel activity. However, the function of anoctamin 10 (ANO10) in breast cancer is still unclear. ANO10 was highly expressed in bone marrow, blood, skin, adipose tissue, thyroid gland and salivary gland, while ANO10 was expressed at low levels in liver and skeletal muscle. Compared to benign breast lesions, the protein level of ANO10 was lower in malignant breast tumors. However, breast cancer patients with low ANO10 expression have favorable survival outcomes. ANO10 was negatively correlated with the infiltration of memory CD4 T cells, naïve B cells, CD8 T cells, chemokines and chemokine receptors. Furthermore, the ANO10 low expression group was more sensitive to certain chemotherapy drugs, including bleomycin, doxorubicin, gemcitabine, mitomycin and etoposide. Altogether, ANO10 is a potential biomarker that can effectively predict the prognosis of breast cancer. Our findings highlight the promising prognostic value and therapeutic target of ANO10 in breast cancer.

Dietary supplementation with pyrroloquinoline quinone promotes growth, relieves weaning stress, and regulates metabolism of piglets compared with adding zinc oxide.

Hindered growth often occurs because of psychological and environmental stress during the weaning period of piglets. This study aimed to compare the effects of growth performance, diarrhea indices, digestibility of nutrients, antioxidant capacity, neurotransmitters levels and metabolism of weaned pigs fed diets supplemented with pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) and zinc oxide (ZnO). Pigs weaned at d 28 (n = 108) were fed with three different diets including: the basal diet (CTRL group), the basal diet supplemented with 3.0 mg/kg PQQ (PQQ group) and the basal diet containing 1,600 mg/kg ZnO (ZNO group). During the first 14 d, weaned pigs fed the diet supplemented with PQQ and ZnO decreased feed to gain ratio and diarrhea rate (P < 0.01). Compared with the CTRL group, average daily gain was increased in weaned pigs in the PQQ group from d 15 to 28 (P = 0.03). Compared with the CTRL group, pigs fed PQQ and ZnO supplemented diets showed improved apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of nutrients (P ≤ 0.05). During the overall experimental period, the concentration of malondialdehyde was decreased in plasma of pigs in the PQQ and ZNO groups compared with the CTRL group (P < 0.05). At d 28, the concentration of vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) was lower in plasma of weaned pigs in the PQQ and ZNO groups compared with the CTRL group (P < 0.05). There was no difference between the PQQ and ZNO group in growth performance, ATTD of nutrition, antioxidant capacity and neurotransmitters levels. PQQ increased 3-methoxy-4-hydroxymandelate (P < 0.05) compared with the CTRL group. According to metabolomic analysis, erucamide, formononetin and 3-methyl-L-histidine were up-regulated in the PQQ group (P < 0.05). Compared with the CTRL group, aloesin and dibutyl adipate were down-regulated in the PQQ group (P < 0.05). In conclusion, similar to ZnO, PQQ improves growth performance, digestibility of nutrients, antioxidant capacity, neuromodulation and metabolism of weaned pigs. Thus, like ZnO, PQQ can be effectively applied in weaned pigs.

Evaluating and predicting net energy value of wheat and wheat bran for broiler chickens.

OBJECTIVE: It is crucial to accurately determine the net energy (NE) values of feed ingredients because the NE system is expected to be applied to the formulation of broilers feed. The NE values of 5 wheat and 5 wheat brans were determined in 12-to 14-day old Arbor Acres (AA) broilers with substitution method and indirect calorimetry method. METHODS: A total of 12 diets, including 2 reference diets (REF) and 10 test diets (5 wheat diets and 5 wheat bran diets) containing 30% of test ingredients, were randomly fed to 864 male AA birds with 6 replicates of 12 birds per treatment. These birds were used to determine metabolizable energy (ME) (8 birds per replicate) in the chicken house and NE (4 birds per replicate) in the chamber respectively at the same time. After a 4-d dietary and environment adaptation period, growth performance, energy values, energy balance and energy utilization were measured during the following 3 d. Multiple linear regression analyses were further performed to generate prediction equations for NE values based on the chemical components and ME values. The NE prediction equation were also validated on another wheat diet and another wheat bran diet with high correlation (r = 0.98, r = 0.75). RESULTS: The NE values of 5 wheat and 5 wheat bran samples are 9.34, 10.02, 10.27, 11.33, and 10.49 MJ/kg, and 5.37, 5.17, 4.87, 5.06, and 4.88 MJ/kg DM, respectively. The equation with the best fit were NE = 1.968AME-0.411×ADF-14.227 (for wheat) and NE = -0.382×CF-0.362×CP-0.244×ADF+20.870 (for wheat bran). CONCLUSION: The mean NE values of wheat and wheat bran are 10.29 and 5.07 MJ/kg DM in AA broilers. The NE values of ingredients could be predicted by their chemical composition and energy value with good fitness.

Impact of combined α-galactosidase and xylanase enzymes on growth performance, nutrients digestibility, chyme viscosity, and enzymes activity of broilers fed corn-soybean diets.

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of a combined α-galactosidase and xylanase preparation on nutrients digestibility and growth performance in broiler chickens. Experiment 1 had 240 broilers allocated to 3 treatments with the dietary supplementation of 0, 300, and 500 g/t of the enzyme combination. Diet and amino acid (AA) digestibility were assessed. Experiment 2 was a 2 × 3 (enzyme × diet) factorial arrangement with 10 replicates of 12 male broilers per replicate. Diets were based on corn-soybean meal (SBM) diet and had 3 nutritional levels (normal, 2% apparent metabolizable energy (AME) and crude protein (CP) reduction, and 4% AME and CP reduction). Each of these diets was fed with or without enzyme supplementation. Growth performance, chyme viscosity, nutrients digestibility, and endogenous enzymes activity were assessed. In experiment 1, enzyme supplementation improved the digestibility of Ca (P = 0.025) and ileal digestibility of total AA, Pro, Alu, Ile, Lys, His, Thr, Glu, Val, Leu, Tyr, and Phe (P < 0.05), and also tended to increase the AME of diets (P < 0.10). In experiment 2, broilers fed the corn-SBM diet with 4% nutrient reduction had better growth performance (P < 0.05), jejunal digesta viscosity at 42 d (P < 0.01), and lower digestibility of gross energy (GE; P < 0.05) when compared with those fed the normal nutrient diet. Enzyme inclusion increased digestibility of CP (P = 0.044), GE (P = 0.009), raffinose (P < 0.001) and stachyose (P < 0.001), improved average daily gain (P = 0.031), and reduced jejunal digesta viscosity at 42 d (P = 0.011). Besides, similar improvements trend in amylase, trypsin, sucrase, and maltase activity with enzyme inclusion were observed as with energy. These data support that the enzyme supplementation increased nutrients and ileal AA digestibility, improved performance and endogenous enzymes activity.

Screening and identification of cardiac-specific peptides / 国际生物医学工程杂志

Objective To screen cardiac-specific short-acting peptides on live myocardial slices using phage display technology,so as to improve the targeted delivery efficiency of drugs in myocardium and provide effective candidates for the targeted therapy of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and other cardiomyopathies.Methods Myocardial tissue slices were prepared and cultured in vitro.The protein activities of the tissues were examined by immunohistochemistry.The in vitro cultured myocardial tissue slices were co-incubated with phage library (1×1012 pfu),and the phages that bound to the myocardium were recovered and amplified.The cardiac-specific targeting phages were identified by five rounds of in vitro phage biopanning.The candidate phage-related insertion sequence was sequenced,and the in vivo tissue distribution of the highly enriched phages was verified.Results A platform for in vitro culturing of live myocardial slices was established.Myocardial slices with good biological activity were obtained.After 48 hours of culturing,the normal expression and localization of Dystrophin protein were detected.Using phage library,candidate phages were screened after five rounds of phage biopanning.The results of the sequencing analyses and in vivo tissue distribution verification indicated that the selected candidate phages showed significant enrichment in myocardium and skeletal muscle,and showed low levels in liver and kidney tissues.Conclusions The candidate phages showed higher binding efficiency in both myocardium and skeletal muscle,indicating that the candidate peptides had myocardial targeting property,and that can provide a new method for myocardial targeting therapy of DMD.

[Breakthrough characteristics of dimethyl phthalate in granular activated carbon].

The dynamic adsorption characteristics of dimethyl phthalate (DMP) in water by granular activated carbon (GAC) were investigated. A series of column tests were conducted to determine the breakthrough characteristics, with effects of various water flow rate (0.65 - 4 mL x min(-1)), particle diameter of GAC (550 - 1 250 microm), influent concentration of DMP (50 - 400 mg x L(-1)), and quantity of GAC (0.75 - 1.4 g) taken into consideration. As a matter of fact, the high DMP adsorption capacity could be achieved by GAC, and the Yoon-Nelson model was found to fit the breakthrough curves well under all the conditions; the dynamic adsorption capacity decreased with increasing water flow rates or particle diameter of GAC, but increased with growing influent concentrations of DMP or quantity of GAC on the contrary. The values of breakthrough parameters of Yoon-Nelson model, such as K', T, breakthrough time (t1) and balance time (t2) were obtained by experimental data through calculation. On the basis of the relations between every influencing factors and above parameters of Yoon-Nelson model, taking influence factors and breakthrough time into account, the dynamic model were set up, which can be used to indicate the relationship between the effluent concentration of DMP from GAC column and breakthrough time under different initial parameters.

[Kinetics of endocrine disrupting chemical 4-tert-butylphenol during chlorination in aqua].

The kinetics of endocrine disruptor 4-tert-butylphenol by chlorination in aqua was studied. The results showed that 4-TBP was rapidly oxidized by chlorine with different initial concentrations of HOCl and pH, and second-order reaction kinetics was observed between 4-TBP and chlorine. The apparent kinetic rate constants were influenced by pH values, and k(app) reached its highest and lowest level at pH 5 and 9 respectively. The kinetic rate constant of every elementary reaction was calculated. The rate constants for the acid-catalyzed reaction and the reaction between ClO- and 4-TBP were 4.99 x 10(6) L2 (mol min)(-1) and 1.96 x 10(4) L (mol min)(-1) respectively. The reaction between HOCl and 4-TBP or HOCl and 4-TBP- was very slow, and CIO- did not react with 4-TBP- . 4-TBP was influenced by chlorine disinfection during water treatment. The corresponding half-life time was 12.1 min when chlorine concentration was 3 mg/L.