ILB®, a Low Molecular Weight Dextran Sulphate,Restores Glutamate Homeostasis,Amino Acid Metabolism and Neurocognitive Functions in a Rat Model of Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

In a previous study, we found that administration of ILB^®, a new low molecular weight dextran sulphate, significantly improved mitochondrial functions and energy metabolism, as well as decreased oxidative/nitrosative stress, of brain tissue of rats exposed to severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI), induced by the closed-head weight-drop model of diffused TBI. Using aliquots of deproteinized brain tissue of the same animals of this former study, we here determined the concentrations of 24 amino acids of control rats, untreated sTBI rats (sacrificed at 2 and 7 days post-injury) and sTBI rats receiving a subcutaneous ILB^® administration (at the dose levels of 1, 5 and 15 mg/kg b.w.) 30 min post-impact (sacrificed at 2 and 7 days post-injury). Additionally, in a different set of experiments, new groups of control rats, untreated sTBI rats and ILB^®-treated rats (administered 30 min after sTBI at the dose levels of 1 or 5 mg/kg b.w.) were studied for their neurocognitive functions (anxiety, locomotor capacities, short- and long-term memory) at 7 days after the induction of sTBI. Compared to untreated sTBI animals, ILB^® significantly decreased whole brain glutamate (normalizing the glutamate/glutamine ratio), glycine, serine and γ-aminobutyric acid. Furthermore, ILB^® administration restored arginine metabolism (preventing nitrosative stress), levels of amino acids involved in methylation reactions (methionine, L-cystathionine, S-adenosylhomocysteine), and N-acetylaspartate homeostasis. The macroscopic evidences of the beneficial effects on brain metabolism induced by ILB^® were the relevant improvement in neurocognitive functions of the group of animals treated with ILB^® 5 mg/kg b.w., compared to the marked cognitive decline measured in untreated sTBI animals. These results demonstrate that ILB^® administration 30 min after sTBI prevents glutamate excitotoxicity and normalizes levels of amino acids involved in crucial brain metabolic functions. The ameliorations of amino acid metabolism, mitochondrial functions and energy metabolism in ILB^®-treated rats exposed to sTBI produced significant improvement in neurocognitive functions, reinforcing the concept that ILB^® is a new effective therapeutic tool for the treatment of sTBI, worth being tested in the clinical setting.     

State-of-the-Art on Wound Vitality Evaluation: A Systematic Review

The vitality demonstration refers to determining if an injury has been caused ante- or post-mortem, while wound age means to evaluate how long a subject has survived after the infliction of an injury. Histology alone is not enough to prove the vitality of a lesion. Recently, immunohistochemistry, biochemistry, and molecular biology have been introduced in the field of lesions vitality and age demonstration. The study was conducted according to the preferred reporting items for systematic review (PRISMA) protocol. The search terms were “wound”, “lesion”, “vitality”, “evaluation”, “immunohistochemistry”, “proteins”, “electrolytes”, “mRNAs”, and “miRNAs” in the title, abstract, and keywords. This evaluation left 137 scientific papers. This review aimed to collect all the knowledge on vital wound demonstration and provide a temporal distribution of the methods currently available, in order to determine the age of lesions, thus helping forensic pathologists in finding a way through the tangled jungle of wound vitality evaluation.     

热浸镀铝技术的研究进展及应用

介绍了热浸镀铝技术的原理和熔剂法、森吉米尔法两种主要工艺,概括了热浸镀铝技术的研究进展和工业应用趋势,指出加入适量的稀土元素在热浸镀层中能有效地改善镀层耐蚀性、耐高温氧化性、成形性和装饰性。热浸镀铝技术将会在以下几个方面开展工作:新工艺的全面细化量化型的研究;对热浸渗原理和浸渗理论的进一步研究和探索;对稀土的作用机理的深入研究以及不断完善工艺和技术,扩大其在工业生产上的应用。     

The Role of the Choroid in Stargardt Disease

Stargardt disease is the commonest juvenile macular dystrophy. It is caused by genetic mutations in the ABCA4 gene. Diagnosis is not always straightforward, and various phenocopies exist. Late-onset disease can be misdiagnosed with age-related macular disease. A correct diagnosis is particularly critical because of emergent gene therapies. Stargardt disease is known to affect retinal pigment epithelium and photoreceptors. Many studies have also highlighted the importance of the choroid in the diagnosis, pathophysiology, and progression of the disease. The choroid is in an integral relationship with the retinal pigment epithelium and photoreceptors, and its possible involvement during the disease should be considered. The purpose of this review is to analyze the current diagnostic tools for choroidal evaluation and the extrapolation of useful data for ophthalmologists and researchers studying the disease.     

Identification and Functional Analysis of the Caffeic Acid O-Methyltransferase (COMT) Gene Family in Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Caffeic acid O-methyltransferase (COMT) is one of the core enzymes involved in lignin synthesis. However, there is no systematic study on the rice COMT gene family. We identified 33 COMT genes containing the methyltransferase-2 domain in the rice genome using bioinformatic methods and divided them into Group I (a and b) and Group II. Motifs, conserved domains, gene structure and SNPs density are related to the classification of OsCOMTs. The tandem phenomenon plays a key role in the expansion of OsCOMTs. The expression levels of fourteen and thirteen OsCOMTs increased or decreased under salt stress and drought stress, respectively. OsCOMTs showed higher expression levels in the stem. The lignin content of rice was measured in five stages; combined with the expression analysis of OsCOMTs and multiple sequence alignment, we found that OsCOMT8, OsCOMT9 and OsCOMT15 play a key role in the synthesis of lignin. Targeted miRNAs and gene ontology annotation revealed that OsCOMTs were involved in abiotic stress responses. Our study contributes to the analysis of the biological function of OsCOMTs, which may provide information for future rice breeding and editing of the rice genome.     

灰色偏相关评价法在认知型学生模型中的应用

针对认知能力评价这类因素较多,且难以进行定量描述的问题,建立认知能力因素评价体系,利用灰色偏相关评价法建立认知型学生模型。首先分析各认知能力因素的相互影响关系,计算偏相关系数得到各认知能力因素的权重值。然后确定评价灰类,建立白化权函数,得到各认知能力因素关于各评价灰类的灰色评价权值,从而建立认知型学生综合评价模型。最后通过实例对方法模型进行验证。实例表明,该方法模型能够对学生知识水平作出评价并引导学生进行学习,其结果具有一定的可靠性。     

Ex-post efficient resource allocation for Self-organizing Cloud

Self-organizing Cloud is a scalable model to provide powerful computability with distributed computers. The resource allocation on it is very challenging since it not only involves various types of divisible resources but needs to cope with social competitions. We propose a novel resource allocation scheme with three features on ex-post efficiency. (1) Ex-post win–win effect: each participant (consumers and suppliers) should always feel satisfied with their ex-post payoffs. (2) Incentive compatibility: we can prove each rational participant gets its optimal payoff iff their resource demands and expected prices are truthfully declared. (3) Ex-post maximized efficiency: more powerful resources should be consumed with higher likelihood, such that the whole system runs quite efficiently with maximized resource utilization. Our simulation shows the approach significantly improves resource suppliers’ incomes by 20% compared to their expectations. Meanwhile, we can guarantee consumers’ payments below their budgets, with no any degradation of task execution performance.     

基于自动区域模型的含分布式电源配电网可靠性评估

提出了一种基于含分布式电源的配电块的简化网络可靠性FMEA算法。根据不同开关的功能,以自动开关装置为边界形成自动区域,将含分布式电源的配电网络简化为只含开关、配电块、负荷以及分布式电源的等效网络,每个自动区域仅含一个自动开关和若干个手动开关,由自动区域特性可知:与主区域直接相连的所有支路的负荷点有相同的故障率,且该类负荷点的故障停运时间由系统元件故障位置来确定;与支路区域相连的负荷点的故障率不受主区域的影响,且该类负荷点的故障停运时间由分布式电源所在支路区域的相对位置来确定。基于配电块的故障模式后果分析法,提出了形式化的含分布式电源的配电网络可靠性评估算法。该算法在很大程度上减少了重复枚举的数量,通过RBTS算例分析,证明了该方法的有效性。     

The working mechanism of organic photovoltaic cell by using copper phthalocyanine as exciton blocking layer

We demonstrate the working mechanism of organic photovoltaic (OPV) cell with copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) as exciton blocking layer (EBL). The new EBL material CuPc, commonly has been used as electron donor in the organic solar cells due to its electron-donating and hole-transporting properties. But here we proves that the α-polymorph CuPc layer can transfer electrons to Al cathode through the half-filled b_1g level, this mechanism is different from that of general EBL material with larger band gap and electron-transporting property, which is based on damage states induced by the heat of evaporating Al.