Nystose attenuates bone loss and promotes BMSCs differentiation to osteoblasts through BMP and Wnt/β-catenin pathway in ovariectomized mice

Increasing the osteogenic differentiation ability and decreasing the adipogenic differentiation ability of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells(BMSCs)is a potential strategy for the treatment of osteoporosis(OP).Naturally derived oligosaccharides have shown significant anti-osteoporotic effects.Nystose(NST),an oligosaccharide,was isolated from the roots of Morinda officinalis How.(MO).The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of NST on bone loss in ovariectomized mice,and explore the underlying mechanism of NST in promoting differentiation of BMSCs to osteoblasts.Administration of NST(40,80 and 160 mg/kg)and the positive control of estradiol valerate(0.2 mg/kg)for 8 weeks significantly prevented bone loss induced by ovariectomy(OVX),increased the bone mass density(BMD),improved the bone microarchitecture and reduced urine calcium and deoxypyridinoline(DPD)in ovariectomized mice,while inhibited the increase of body weight without significantly affecting the uterus weight.Furthermore,we found that NST increased osteogenic differentiation,inhibited adipogenic differentiation of BMSCs in vitro,and upregulated the expression of the key proteins of BMP and Wnt/β-catenin pathways.In addition,Noggin and Dickkopf-related protein-1(DKK-1)reversed the effect of NST on osteogenic differentiation and expression of the key proteins in BMP and Wnt/β-catenin pathway.The luciferase activities and the molecular docking analysis further supported the mechanism of NST.In conclusion,these results indicating that NST can be clinically used as a potential alternative medicine for the prevention and treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis.

Nail Holding Performance of Self-Tapping Screws on Masson Pine and Chinese Fir Dimension Lumbers

Screw connection is a type most commonly applied to timber structures.As important commercial tree species in China,Masson pine and Chinese fir have the potential to prepare wood structures.In this study,the effects of the diameter of the self-tapping screw and the guiding bores on the nail holding performance on different sections of Masson pine and Chinese fir dimension lumbers were mainly explored.The results showed that:(1)The nail holding strength of the tangential section was the maximum,followed by that of the radial section,and that of the cross section was the minimum.(2)The nail holding strength of Masson pine was higher than that of Chinese fir.(3)The nail holding strength grew with the increase in the diameter of self-tapping screws,but a large diameter would lead to plastic cracking of the timber,thus further affecting the nail holding strength.Masson pine and Chinese fir reached the maximum nail holding strength when the diameter of self-tapping screws was 3.5 mm.(4)Under a large diameter of screws,prefabricated guiding bores could mitigate timber cracking and improve its nail holding strength.(5)Prefabricated guiding bores were more necessary for the screw connection of Masson pine.The results obtained could provide a scientific basis for the screw connection design of Masson pine and Chinese fir timber structures.

Effects of Different Harvest Periods on Seed Quality of Alpinia oxyphylla Miq.

[Objectives] To clarify the appropriate harvest period of Alpinia oxyphylla Miq. seed and improve the quality of seeds. [Methods] In this experiment,the basic parameters and germination characteristics of A. oxyphylla Miq. seeds during different harvest periods were analyzed and compared. [Results] The results showed that the A. oxyphylla Miq. fruit picking period was closely related to the seed quality,and the seed maturity was highest 100 d after the flowering of A. oxyphylla Miq.,that is,the A. oxyphylla Miq. fruit skin turned from green to yellow( yellow-green),the peel had a small number of brown spots,it was spicy enough,the fruit dry/fresh weight ratio was greater than0. 34,the seed thousand kernel weight reached 11 g or more,and the dried seed moisture content was 13. 01%. Using the TTC method,the seed viability index was determined to be 85%,and in this case,it was the best time of harvesting seed. The water permeability of A. oxyphylla Miq. seed was poor,and the seed imbibition and water absorption time was long,about 72 h. The maximum water absorption rate was about23. 71% at the imbibition and water absorption stage,and it was inferred that the A. oxyphylla Miq. seeds were hard seeds. The germination time of A. oxyphylla Miq. seeds was long,the mature A. oxyphylla Miq. seeds began to germinate on the 12 th d,and the germination rate reached 75. 56% on the 50 th d. [Conclusions] This study determined the optimum harvest period of A. oxyphylla Miq. seeds,clarified the biological characteristics of slow seed water absorption and long germination cycle,and concluded that the seed coat was the main factor leading to slow seed water absorption and long seed germination cycle.

Automatic Construction Method for Domain Concepts Based on Wikipedia Semantic Knowledge Base

This paper proposes a method to construct conceptual semantic knowledge base of software engineering domain based on Wikipedia. First, it takes the concept of SWEBOK V3 as the standard to extract the interpretation of the concept from the Wikipedia, and extracts the keywords as the concept of semantic;Second, through the conceptual semantic knowledge base, it is formed by the relationship between the hierarchical relationship concept and the other text interpretation concept in the Wikipedia. Finally, the semantic similarity between concepts is calculated by the random walk algorithm for the construction of the conceptual semantic knowledge base. The semantic similarity of knowledge base constructed by this method can reach more than 84%, and the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified.