Integrated analyses of the intestinal microbiome and transcriptome in Ningxiang piglets.

Ningxiang (NX) pig has been recognized as one of the most famous Chinese indigenous breeds due to its characteristics in stress resistance. However, intestinal microbial feature and gene profiling in NX piglets have not been studied. Here, we compared the intestinal microbiome and transcriptome between NX and Duroc × Landrace × Large white (DLY) piglets and found the high enrichment of several colonic Bacteroides, Prevotella and Clostridium species in NX piglets. Further functional analyses revealed their predominant function in methane, glycolysis and gluconeogenesis metabolism. Our mRNA-sequencing data unraveled the distinct colonic gene expression between these two breeds. In particular, we showed that the improved intestinal function in NX piglets may be determined by enhanced intestinal barrier gene expression and varied immune gene expression through modulating the composition of the gut microbes. Together, our study revealed the intestinal characteristics of NX piglets, providing their potential application in improving breeding strategies and developing dietary interventions.

Design of Lidar Receiving Optical System with Large FoV and High Concentration of Light to Resist Background Light Interference.

Lidar has the advantages of high accuracy, high resolution, and is not affected by sunlight. It has been widely used in many fields, such as autonomous driving, remote sensing detection, and intelligent robots. However, the current lidar detection system belongs to weak signal detection and generally uses avalanche photoelectric detector units as detectors. Limited by the current technology, the photosensitive surface is small, the receiving field of view is limited, and it is easy to cause false alarms due to background light. This paper proposes a method based on a combination of image-side telecentric lenses, microlens arrays, and interference filters. The small-area element detector achieves the high-concentration reception of echo beams in a large field of view while overcoming the interference of ambient background light. The image-side telecentric lens realizes that the center lines of the echo beams at different angles are parallel to the central axis, and the focus points converge on the same focal plane. The microlens array collimates the converged light beams one by one into parallel light beams. Finally, a high-quality aspherical focusing lens is used to focus the light on the small-area element detector to achieve high-concentration light reception over a large field of view. The system achieves a receiving field of view greater than 40° for a photosensitive surface detector with a diameter of 75 µm and is resistant to background light interference.

Polysaccharide of Atractylodes macrocephala Koidz alleviates NAFLD-induced hepatic inflammation in mice by modulating the TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB pathway.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) not only could cause abnormal lipid metabolism in the liver, but also could cause liver inflammation. Previous studies have shown that Polysaccharide of Atractylodes macrocephala Koidz (PAMK) could alleviate animal liver inflammatory damage and alleviate NAFLD in mice caused by high-fat diet(HFD), but regulation of liver inflammation caused by NAFLD has rarely been reported. In this study, an animal model of non-alcoholic fatty liver inflammation in the liver of mice was established to explore the protective effect of PAMK on the liver of mice. The results showed that PAMK could alleviate the abnormal increase of body weight and liver weight of mice caused by HFD, alleviate the abnormal liver structure of mice, reduce the level of oxidative stress and cytokine secretion in the liver of mice, and downregulate the mRNA expression of TLR4, MyD88, NF-κB and protein expression of P-IκB, P-NF-κB-P65, TLR4, MyD88, NF-κB in the liver. These results indicate that PAMK could alleviate hepatocyte fatty degeneration and damage, oxidative stress and inflammatory response of the liver caused by NAFLD in mice.

Polysaccharide of Atractylodes macrocephala Koidz alleviate lipopolysaccharide-stimulated liver inflammation injury of goslings through miR-223/NLRP3 axis.

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) infection could cause severe liver inflammation and lead to liver damage, even death. Previous studies have shown that polysaccharide of Atractylodes macrocephala Koidz (PAMK) could protect liver from inflammation caused by LPS in mice. However, whether PAMK could alleviate liver inflammatory injury in other animals with LPS is still unknown. For evaluating whether PAMK could alleviate liver inflammatory injury in goslings with LPS, a total of 80 healthy 1-day old Magang goslings were randomly divided into 4 groups (control group, PAMK group, LPS group, and PAMK+LPS group). Goslings in control group and LPS group were fed with basal diet, and goslings in PAMK group and PAMK+LPS group were fed basal diet supplemented with 400 mg/kg PAMK to the end of trial. On 24 d of age, goslings in the control group and PAMK group were intraperitoneal injected 0.5 mL normal saline, and goslings in LPS and PAMK+LPS groups were intraperitoneal injected with LPS at 5 mg/kg BW. The serum and liver samples were collected for further analysis after treatment of LPS at 6, 12, 24, and 48 h. Furthermore, the hepatocytes were extracted from goose embryo to measure the expression of the key genes of miR-223/NLRP3 axis. The results showed that PAMK pretreatment could maintain normal cell morphology of liver, alleviate the enhanced levels of biochemical indexes ALT and AST, decrease the levels of IL-1ß and IL-18, increase the relative mRNA expression of miR-223, and decrease the expression of NLRP3, Caspase-1, and cleaved Caspase-1 in liver and hepatocytes of goslings induced by LPS. These results indicated that PAMK could relieve inflammatory liver tissue damage after LPS treatment and downregulate the level of inflammation factors via miR-223/NLRP3 axis, thus playing a liver protective role in liver inflammation injury in goslings.

Polysaccharide of Atractylodes macrocephala Koidz regulates LPS-mediated mouse hepatitis through the TLR4-MyD88-NFκB signaling pathway.

Feed corruption and poor breeding environment could cause widespread bacterial infection which could cause severe liver inflammation and lead to liver damage, even death. It has been proved that Polysaccharide of Atractylodes macrocephala Koidz (PAMK) could improve the immunity of animal, but the mechanism of its protective effect on hepatitis has been rarely reported. This study investigated the protective effect of PAMK on mouse liver through LPS-induced liver inflammatory. The results showed that LPS caused swelling of hepatocytes, disappearance of hepatic cord structure and infiltration of a large number of inflammatory cells, and LPS could up-regulated mRNA and protein expression levels of TLR4, MyD88, IKBα and NFκB, increased cytokines IL-1ß, IL-4, IL-6 and TNF-α levels, enhance the levels of antioxidant enzymes CAT, GSH-PX, SOD, iNOs and MDA. PAMK pretreatment could relieved histopathological damage caused by LPS, and could activate the TLR4-MyD88-NFκB signalling pathway, reduce the levels of IL-1ß, IL-6 and TNF-α, increase IL-4 levels, inhibit the levels of GSH-PX and MDA. These results indicate that PAMK could reduce inflammatory damage and oxidative stress in mice and play a protective role in the early stages of LPS invasion of the liver.

Polysaccharide of Atractylodes macrocephala Koidz (PAMK) Alleviates Cyclophosphamide-induced Immunosuppression in Mice by Upregulating CD28/IP3R/PLCγ-1/AP-1/NFAT Signal Pathway.

The polysaccharide of Atractylodes macrocephala Koidz (PAMK) is recognized as an immune enhancer, with anti-cancer, anti-tumour, lymphocyte-activating and lymphocytes proliferation-inducing effects. For investigating the mechanism that PAMK alleviates the decline in T cell activation induced by CTX, 24 6-week-old BALB/c female mice were randomly divided into four groups (C, PAMK, CTX, PAMK + CTX). The spleen index, splenocytes morphology and death, cytokine concentration, T cell activating factors (CD25, CD69, CD71), mRNA expression levels related to the CD28 signal pathway were detected. Furthermore, the lymphocytes of mice was isolated and cultured, and then the Th1/Th2 ratio, activating factors, mRNA levels related to the CD28 signal pathway were detected. The results showed that PAMK significantly improved the spleen index, alleviated abnormal splenocytes morphology and death, maintained the balance of Th1/Th2 cells, increased the levels of IL-2, IL-6, TNF-α, and IFN-γ, and increased the mRNA levels of CD28, PLCγ-1, IP3R, NFAT, and AP-1. In conclusion, PAMK increased cytokines levels and alleviated the decline in activation level of lymphocytes induced by CTX through CD28/IP3R/PLCγ-1/AP-1/NFAT signal pathway.

ß-Cyclodextrin-Immobilized Ni/Graphene Electrode for Electrochemical Enantiorecognition of Phenylalanine.

In this work, a Ni/graphene (Ni/G) electrode was designed and fabricated by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) for the ultrasensitive recognition of d- and l-phenylalanine. Through a single-step PECVD process, the Ni/G electrode can achieve better hydrophilicity and larger catalytic surface area, which is beneficial for the electrochemical recognition of bio-objects. After surface modification with ß-cyclodextrin, the Ni/G electrode can distinguish d-phenylalanine from l-phenylalanine according to a 0.09 V peak shift in differential pulse voltammetry tests. Moreover, this Ni/G electrode achieved a detection limit as low as 1 nM and a wide linear range from 1 nM to 10 mM toward l-phenylalanine, with great storage stability and working stability.

A Diamond Temperature Sensor Based on the Energy Level Shift of Nitrogen-Vacancy Color Centers.

The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color center in chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond has been widely investigated in quantum information and quantum biosensors due to its excellent photon emission stability and long spin coherence time. However, the temperature dependence of the energy level of NV color centers in diamond is different from other semiconductors with the same diamond cubic structure for the high Debye temperature and very small thermal expansion coefficient of diamond. In this work, a diamond sensor for temperature measurement with high precision was fabricated based on the investigation of the energy level shifts of NV centers by Raman and photoluminescence (PL) spectra. The results show that the intensity and linewidth of the zero-phonon line of NV centers highly depend on the environmental temperature, and the energy level shifts of NV centers in diamond follow the modified Varshni model very well, a model which is better than the traditional version. Accordingly, the NV color center shows the ability in temperature measurement with a high accuracy of up to 98%. The high dependence of NV centers on environmental temperature shows the possibility of temperature monitoring of NV center-based quantum sensors in biosystems.

Rheological properties of concentrated aqueous injectable calcium phosphate cement slurry.

In this paper, the steady and dynamic rheological properties of concentrated aqueous injectable calcium phosphate cement (CPC) slurry were investigated. The results indicate that the concentrated aqueous injectable CPC showed both plastic and thixotropic behavior. As the setting process progressed, the yield stress of CPC slurry was raised, the area of the thixotropic hysteresis loop was enlarged, indicating that the strength of the net structure of the slurry had increased. The results of dynamic rheological behavior indicate that the slurry presented the structure similar to viscoelastic body and the property of shear thinning at the beginning. During the setting process, the slurry was transformed from a flocculent structure to a net structure, and the strength increased. Different factors had diverse effects on the rheological properties of the CPC slurry in the setting process, a reflection of the flowing properties (or injection), and the microstructure development of this concentrated suspension. Raising the powder-to-liquid ratio decreased the distance among the particles, increased the initial strength, and shortened the setting time. In addition, raising the temperature improved the initial strength, increased the order of reaction, and shortened the setting time, which was favorable to the setting process. The particle size of the raw material had much to do with the strength of original structure and setting time. The storage module G' of CPC slurry during the setting process followed the rule of power law function G'=A exp(Bt), which could be applied to forecast the setting time, and the calculated results thereafter are in agreement with the experimental data.

Effects of the granularity of raw materials on the hydration and hardening process of calcium phosphate cement.

Effects of the granularity of the raw materials on the hydration and hardening process of calcium phosphate cement (CPC) composed of equimolar tetracalcium phosphate (TECP) and dicalcium phosphate anhydrous (DCPA) were investigated systematically. The variation of pH value in CPC slurry indicated that the control step of CPC hydration was the dissolution of DCPA under these experimental conditions. Reducing the particle size of DCPA could accelerate the hydration rate, and decreasing the particle size of TECP would expedite the dissolution of DCPA, which would obviously result in a faster hydration rate. The results of isothermal conduction calorimetry showed that reducing the particle size of TECP could increase the conversion ratio of starting materials to hydration products, which would lead to an increase in the compressive strength of the hardened body of CPC. The sample composed of the smallest particle size of DCPA and TECP obtained the compressive strength of 41 MPa, which would not attain the highest compressive strength, 49 MPa. The smaller the particle size of either DCPA or TECP, the shorter the setting time was. During the setting process of CPC, the microstructure progresses from a gel structure to an agglomeration-crystallization structure. The calculated values of setting time from the rheological model coincided with the experimental data very well. The parameters of AC impedance spectroscopy were closely correlated with the mean pore diameter and porosity of the CPC hardened body. The results of AC impedance spectroscopy further verified that a small particle size of raw materials could result in high hydration rate and the compressive strength of 49.1 MPa.