Effects of Loganin on Bone Formation and Resorption In Vitro and In Vivo

Osteoporosis is a disease caused by impaired bone remodeling that is especially prevalent in elderly and postmenopausal women. Although numerous chemical agents have been developed to prevent osteoporosis, arguments remain regarding their side effects. Here, we demonstrated the effects of loganin, a single bioactive compound isolated from Cornus officinalis, on osteoblast and osteoclast differentiation in vitro and on ovariectomy (OVX)-induced osteoporosis in mice in vivo. Loganin treatment increased the differentiation of mouse preosteoblast cells into osteoblasts and suppressed osteoclast differentiation in primary monocytes by regulating the mRNA expression levels of differentiation markers. Similar results were obtained in an osteoblast–osteoclast co-culture system, which showed that loganin enhanced alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and reduced TRAP activity. In in vivo experiments, the oral administration of loganin prevented the OVX-induced loss of bone mineral density (BMD) and microstructure in mice and improved bone parameters. In addition, loganin significantly increased the serum OPG/RANKL ratio and promoted osteogenic activity during bone remodeling. Our findings suggest that loganin could be used as an alternative treatment to protect against osteoporosis.     

4-O-Methylascochlorin-Mediated BNIP-3 Expression Controls the Balance of Apoptosis and Autophagy in Cervical Carcinoma Cells

4-O-methylascochlorin (MAC) is a 4-fourth carbon-substituted derivative of ascochlorin, a compound extracted from a phytopathogenic fungus Ascochyta viciae. MAC induces apoptosis and autophagy in various cancer cells, but the effects of MAC on apoptosis and autophagy in cervical cancer cells, as well as how the interaction between apoptosis and autophagy mediates the cellular anticancer effects are not known. Here, we investigated that MAC induced apoptotic cell death of cervical cancer cells without regulating the cell cycle and promoted autophagy by inhibiting the phosphorylation of serine-threonine kinase B (Akt), mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), and 70-kDa ribosomal protein S6 kinase (p70S6K). Additional investigations suggested that Bcl-2/adenovirus E1B 19 kDa protein-interacting protein 3 (BNIP-3), but not Hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF-1α), is a key regulator of MAC-induced apoptosis and autophagy. BNIP-3 siRNA suppressed MAC-induced increases in cleaved- poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) and LC3II expression. The pan-caspase inhibitor Z-VAD-FMK suppressed MAC-induced cell death and enhanced MAC-induced autophagy. The autophagy inhibitor chloroquine (CQ) enhanced MAC-mediated cell death by increasing BNIP-3 expression. These results indicate that MAC induces apoptosis to promote cell death and stimulates autophagy to promote cell survival by increasing BNIP-3 expression. This study also showed that co-treatment of cells with MAC and CQ further enhanced the death of cervical cancer cells.     

紫外分光光度法测定核酸含量的影响因素分析

选择寡聚核苷酸、鲑鱼精单链DNA、小牛胸腺双链DNA标准物质为样本,系统研究了溶液p H、苯酚、丙酮、蛋白质、多糖等对紫外分光光度法测量结果的影响情况,另外考察了核糖核酸(RNA)和脱氧核糖核酸(DNA)的相互影响情况。研究发现基于分光光度法的核酸定量分析,易受溶液p H、苯酚、丙酮、蛋白质、多糖等的影响,另外,DNA和RNA之间也会相互干扰。因此,紫外分光光度法测定核酸含量时,特别是该方法用于核酸标准物质特性量值确定时,需要样品高度纯化,p H确定的条件下才能保证测量结果的准确可靠。     

Challenges and recent progress in thermal management with heat pipes for lithium-ion power batteries in electric vehicles

Electric vehicles(EVs) are globally undergoing rapid developments, and have great potentials to replace the traditional vehicles based on fossil fuels. Power-type lithium-ion batteries(LIBs) have been widely used for EVs, owing to high power densities,good charge/discharge stability, and long cycle life. The driving ranges and acceleration performances are gaining increasing concerns from customers, which depend highly on the power level of LIBs. With the increase in power outputs, rising heat generation significantly affects the battery performances, and in particular operation safety. Meanwhile, the cold-start performance is still an intractable problem under extreme conditions. These challenges put forward higher requirements for a dedicated battery thermal management system(BTMS). Compared to traditional BTMSs in EVs, the heat pipe-based BTMS has great application prospects owing to its compact structure, flexibility, low cost, and especially high thermal conductivity. Encompassing this topic, this review first introduces heat generation phenomena and temperature characteristics of LIBs. Multiple abuse conditions and thermal runaway issues are described afterward. Typical cooling and preheating methods for designing a BTMS are also discussed. More emphasis on this review is put on the use of various heat pipes for BTMSs to enhance the thermal performances of LIBs. For lack of wide application in actual EVs, more efforts should be made to extend the use of heat pipes for constructing an energy-efficient, cost-effective, and reliable BTMS to improve the performances and safety of EVs.     

基于水力水文学法的大渡河上游生态流量确定

利用湿周法、Tennant法、Tessman法、逐月最小径流法分别计算大渡河上游的最小生态流量,并通过鱼类繁殖产卵所需的流量验证4种方法的合理性.结果表明,Tennant法、Tessman法、逐月最小径流法能保证足木足断面鱼类繁殖产卵所需的最低流量,大金断面4种方法均能满足.推荐3-8月采用Tennant法,9月至次年...     

遗传算法优化 BP 神经网络的非接触式 血压估计方法

血压是人体重要的生理参数,能够反应心脏泵血功能、外周血管阻力、血容,对其进行非接触连续测量在日常生活和诸多应用场合中具有很重要的意义。从面部视频中获取相关脉搏波信号,然后提取信号中与血压相关性高的特征参数,从而利用这些参数建立血压估计的神经网络模型,并采用遗传算法对其进行优化。通过验证得出遗传算法优化BP神经网络(GA-BP)模型估计能力和拟合精度明显提高,且其估计结果满足相应血压测量标准并能实现血压非接触连续估计,其收缩压估计准确率为93.1%,舒张压估计准确率为96.6%。故通过脉搏波特征参数建立GA-BP模型是一种有效非接触式血压估计方法。     

小波变换法在姿态解算中的应用

在惯性导航系统中,为提高陀螺仪的姿态测量精度,抑制低频噪声的影响,提出采用小波变换法融合陀螺仪、加速度计数据解算姿态角。首先将陀螺仪采集的数据进行2层小波分解,剔除低频分量和不稳定的信号,并和高频分量重构,得到滤波后的陀螺仪数据。然后利用加速度计采集的数据解算姿态角,用来不断迭代初始四元数,由初始四元数求出重力向量,再由重力向量叉积求出误差,并作PID控制来修正陀螺仪的角度。最后把修正和滤波后的陀螺仪数据用龙格库塔法计算新的四元数,用该四元数进行负增益调节,最终解算出精确的姿态角。仿真结果表明,解算姿态角的精度提高了80%,可以有效地抑制低频噪声,更加精确地计算姿态角,从而进一步提高导航系统的定位精度。     

论技术创新及对我国技术创新的思考

从“技术创新理念”、“技术创新的实现与动因”、“对我国技术创新的思考”几个方面对技术创新及我国面临的技术创新问题作了论述 ;强调了技术创新的经济学涵义及创造与创效的基本特征。技术创新的实现是一系列活动相继或交织展开与不断反馈的动态过程 ,技术创新的动因是以市场拉动为主导的多维整合效应。对于我国技术创新所取得的成绩 ,特别是所存在的问题及其原因作了分析     

有色观测噪声下的自适应 UKF 在北斗多路径误差削弱中的研究

针对由环境复杂性而造成的北斗多路径误差不能有效削弱的问题, 提出了一种基于新的误差模型下的自适应无迹卡 尔曼滤波(UKF)方法。 该方法首先利用量测状态扩增法来解决量测噪声为有色噪声的问题,再用改进的 Sage-Husa 自适应 UKF 来动态估计系统噪声和量测噪声,从而解决噪声统计特性未定造成的误差削弱效果不明显的情况。 实验结果表明在有色 观测噪声下的改进 Sage-Husa 自适应 UKF 算法相比于传统 UKF,能够将多路径误差削弱近 60%,该方法在针对北斗定位中由于 多路径误差产生的噪声不可知的情况具有很强的适用性。     

The Neuroprotective Effects of Exosomes Derived from TSG101-Overexpressing Human Neural Stem Cells in a Stroke Model

Although tissue-type plasminogen activator was approved by the FDA for early reperfusion of occluded vessels, there is a need for an effective neuroprotective drug for stroke patients. In this study, we established tumor susceptibility gene (TSG)101-overexpressing human neural stem cells (F3.TSG) and investigated whether they showed enhanced secretion of exosomes and whether treatment with exosomes during reperfusion alleviated ischemia-reperfusion-mediated brain damage. F3.TSG cells secreted higher amounts of exosomes than the parental F3 cells. In N2A cells subjected to oxygen–glucose deprivation (OGD), treatment with exosomes or coculture with F3.TSG cells significantly attenuated lactate dehydrogenase release, the mRNA expression of proinflammatory factors, and the protein expression of DNA-damage-related proteins. In a middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) rat model, treatment with exosomes, F3 cells, or F3.TSG cells after 2 h of occlusion followed by reperfusion reduced the infarction volume and suppressed inflammatory cytokines, DNA-damage-related proteins, and glial fibrillary acidic protein, and upregulated several neurotrophic factors. Thus, TSG101-overexpressing neural stem cells showed enhanced exosome secretion; exosome treatment protected against MCAO-induced brain damage via anti-inflammatory activities, DNA damage pathway inhibition, and growth/trophic factor induction. Therefore, exosomes and F3.TSG cells can affect neuroprotection and functional recovery in acute stroke patients.