Methotrexate combined with methylprednisolone for the recovery of motor function and differential gene expression in rats with spinal cord injury

Methylprednisolone is a commonly used drug for the treatment of spinal cord injury, but high doses of methylprednisolone can increase the incidence of infectious diseases. Methotrexate has anti-inflammatory activity and immunosuppressive effects, and can reduce in- flammation after spinal cord injury. To analyze gene expression changes and the molecular mechanism of methotrexate combined with methylprednisolone in the treatment of spinal cord injury, a rat model of spinal cord contusion was prepared using the PinPointTM preci- sion cortical impactor technique. Rats were injected with methylprednisolone 30 mg/kg 30 minutes after injury, and then subcutaneously injected with 0.3 mg/kg methotrexate 1 day after injury, once a day, for 2 weeks. TreadScan gait analysis found that at 4 and 8 weeks after injury, methotrexate combined with methylprednisolone significantly improved hind limb swing time, stride time, minimum longitudinal deviation, instant speed, footprint area and regularity index. Solexa high-throughput sequencing was used to analyze differential gene ex- pression. Compared with methylprednisolone alone, differential expression of 316 genes was detected in injured spinal cord treated with methotrexate and methylprednisolone. The 275 up-regulated genes were mainly related to nerve recovery, anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic functions, while 41 down-regulated genes were mainly related to proinflammatory and pro-apoptotic functions. These results indicate that methotrexate combined with methylprednisolone exhibited better effects on inhibiting the activity of inflammatory cytokines and enhancing antioxidant and anti-apoptotic effects and thereby produced stronger neuroprotective effects than methotrexate alone. The 316 differentially expressed genes play an important role in the above processes.

Synthesis and Crystal Structure of 1-(2-Methyl-5-formyl-3-thienyl)-2-(2-methoxylphenyl)perfluorocyclopentene

A new family of photochromic diarylethene compounds, 1-（2-methyl-5-formyl-3- thienyl）-2-（2-methoxylphenyl）perfluorocyclopentene （1o） having an unsymmetrically substituted hexafluorocyclopentene unit, was synthesized and its structure was determined. The crystal belongs to the monoclinic system, space group P21/c with a = 15.4866（5）, b = 9.0744（9）, c = 12.6906（3）, β = 90.1480（10）°, Z = 4, V = 1783.4（3）3, Dc = 1.513 mg/m3, μ = 0.25, F（000） = 824, the final R = 0.0579 and wR = 0.1566 for 2584 observed reflections （I 2σ（I））. Interestingly, a colorless compound 1o undergoes photocyclization upon irradiation of UV light to give the blue isomer diarylethene. Upon irradiation with visible light with wavelength greater than 510 nm, the blue compound can return to its initial colorless state.

Chloride Ion Transmission Model under the Drying-wetting Cycles and Its Solution

The chloride ion transmission model considering diffusion and convection was established respectively for different zones in concrete by analyzing chloride ion transmission mechanism under the dryingwetting cycles. The finite difference method was adopted to solve the model. The equation of chloride ion transmission model in the convection and diffusion zone of concrete was discreted by the group explicit scheme with right single point （GER method） and the equation in diffusion zone was discreted by FTCS difference scheme. According to relative humidity characteristics in concrete under drying-wetting cycles, the seepage velocity equation was formulated based on Kelvin Equation and Darcy＇s Law. The time-variant equations of chloride ion concentration of concrete surface and the boundary surface of the convection and diffusion zone were established. Based on the software MATLAB the numerical calculation was carried out by using the model and basic material parameters from the experiments. The calculation of chloride ion concentration distribution in concrete is in good agreement with the drying-wetting cycles experiments. It can be shown that the chloride ion transmission model and the seepage velocity equation are reasonable and practical. Studies have shown that the chloride ion transmission in concrete considering convection and diffusion under the drying-wetting cycles is the better correlation with the actual situation than that only considering the diffusion.

Video Coding Based on Compressive Sensing via CoSaMP

Compressive sampling matching pursuit （CoSaMP） algorithm integrates the idea of combining algorithm to ensure running speed and provides rigorous error bounds which provide a good theoretical guarantee to convergence. And compressive sensing （CS） can help us ease the pressure of hardware facility from the requirements of the huge amount in information processing. Therefore, a new video coding framework was proposed, which was based on CS and curvelet transform in this paper. Firstly, this new framework uses curvelet transform and CS to the key frame of test sequence, and then gains recovery frame via CoSaMP to achieve data compress. In the classic CoSaMP method, the halting criterion is that the number of iterations is fixed. Therefore, a new stopping rule is discussed to halting the algorithm in this paper to obtain better performance. According to a large number of experimental results, we ran see that this new framework has better performance and lower RMSE. Through the analysis of the experimental data, it is found that the selection of number of measurements and sparsity level has great influence on the new framework. So how to select the optimal parameters to gain better performance deserves worthy of further study.

Synthesis,Photochromism and Crystal Structure of 1-(2-Cyano-1,5-dimethyl-4-pyrryl)-2-[2-methyl-5-(3-pyridyl)-3-thienyl]perfluorocyclopentene

A new family of photochromic diarylethene compounds, 1-（2-cyano-l,5-dimethyl- 4-pyrryl）-2-[2-methyl-5-（3-pyridyl）-3-thienyl]perfluorocyclopentene （lo） having an unsymmetrical pyrryl and thienyl substituted hexafluorocyclopentene unit, was synthesized and its structure was determined by X-ray analysis. The crystal belongs to triclinic system, space group PI with a = 8.897（7）, b = 10.139（8）, c = 12.361（9） A, α = 85.222（7）, ρ = 75.439（7）, γ = 78.736（8）°, Z = 2, V= 1057.8（14） A3, D,.= 1.468 mg/m3, p = 0.220 mm-1, F（000） = 476, the final R = 0.0608 and wR = 0.1754 for 3199 observed reflections （1 〉20（/））. Interestingly, compound 1 exhibits good photochromic properties with alternate irradiation of UV light and visible light （〉 510 nm） to form two photoisomers in hexane solution and crystal phase.

Blocking Effects of Spleen Vaccine on Vertical Transmission of Classical Swine Fever Virus in Sows

[ Objective] To investigate the blocking effects of spleen vaccine on vertical transmission of classical swine fever virus （CSFV） in sows. [ Method] Sows infected by CSFV were selected from three large-scale pig farms and they were randomly divided into group Ⅰ, group Ⅱ and control group. The sows in the group Ⅰ were vaccinated with CSF spleen vaccine at a 1.5 times normal dose per pig; those in the group Ⅱ were vaccinated with CSF spleen vaccine at a 2.0 times normal dose per pig; and those in the control group were vaccinated with cell vaccine at a 4.0 times normal- dose per pig. The CSF antigens of piglets were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay （ELISA）. [ Result] The antigen positive rate of piglets in the experimental group （18.5%） was significantly lower than that in the control group （48.1% ）. No significant difference was found be- tween the group Ⅰ and the group Ⅱ. [ Condmion] CSF spleen vaccine has good blocking effects on vertical transmission of CSFV in sows.

Crystal Structure and Photochromic Properties of [1-(2-Methyl-5-(4-cyanophenyl)-3-thienyl)]-2-(2-methyl-5-phenyl-3-thienyl)perfluorocyclopentene

A new photochromic diarylethene, [1-（2-methyl-5-（4-cyanophenyl）-3-thienyl-2- （2-methyl-5-phenyl-3-thienyl）]perfluorocyclopentene （lo, C28H17F6NS2）, was synthesized and its structure was determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. Its crystal belongs to the monoclinic system, space group P21/c with a = 24.1381（5）, b = 9.3834（6）, c = 11.1073（8）, fl = 94.477（4）°, Z = 4, V= 2508.1（3） A3, Dc = 1.445 mg/m3, μ = 0.275, F（000） = 1112, the final R = 0.0482 and wR = 0.1429 for 5834 observed reflections （I 〉 2σ（I））. Further study demonstrated the diarylethene underwent reversible photochromism, changing between colorless and blue in hexane solution, crystalline phase and PMMA films, respectively.

Ionothermal Synthesis and Characterization of a Threedimensional Anionic Zinc-5-sulfoisophthalate Framework Charge-balanced with the 1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium

The ionothermal reaction of Zn（NO3）2·6H2O with 5-sulfoisophthalic acid monosodium salt（NaH2SIP） and 1,2,4-triazole in 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate（EMIM-BF4） ionic liquid has afforded the compound {（EMIM）[Zn（SIP）]}n（1）.The Zn（Ⅱ） ions are linked by the carboxylate groups of SIP^3- ligands to give a two-dimensional layered structure featuring the centrosymmetric dinuclear Zn2（μ2-COO）2 units.The adjacent two-dimensional layers are further linked by the Zn-0 bonds between the Zn（Ⅱ） ions and the sulfonate O atoms to generate a three-dimensional anionic[Zn（SIP）]n^n- framework featuring one-dimensional open channels propagating along the a axis.The imidazolium cations[EMIM]^＋ derived from ionic liquid act as extraframework charge-balancing species for the anionic[Zn（SIP）]n^n- framework and occupy the void space of the one-dimensional open channels.The rich ionic environments of the ionic liquid may be particularly helpful in the formation of the ionic compound 1.The roles of the ionic liquid in ionothermal synthesis and crystallization of the compound are briefly discussed.Furthermore,compound 1 displays a photoluminescent emission at 490 nm upon excitation at 406 nm.

Construction of Overexpression Vector of ACBP Gene in Zygosaccharomyces rouxii

The Zygosaccharomyces rouxii is a kind of fermentation yeast which yield flavoring substance in the production of soy sauce. In order to the overexpression of the target protein in wild type strains, we choose PYEs2.0 as the original carrier, the acyl-coA binding protein (ACBP) and GFP gene have been cloned in the multiple cloning site. The screening of labeled URA3 gene was replaced by KanMX gene which anti G418. The vector was obtained through the screening of G418 at the concentration of 25 ug/ml.

Effect of rapid evolution of magnetic tilt angle on a newborn magnetar's dipole radiation

We study the electromagnetic radiation from a newborn magnetar whose magnetic tilt angle decreases rapidly. We calculate the evolution of the angular spin frequency, the perpendicular component of the surface magnetic field strength, and the energy loss rate through magnetic dipole radiation. We show that the spin-down of the magnetar experiences two stages characterized by two different timescales. The apparent magnetic field decreases with the decrease of the tilt angle. We further show that the energy loss rate of the magnetar is very different from that in the case of a fixed tilt angle. The evolution of the energy loss rate is consistent with the overall light curves of gamma-ray bursts which show a plateau structure in their afterglow stage. Our model supports the idea that some gamma-ray bursts with a plateau phase in their afterglow stage may originate from newborn millisecond magnetars.

Crystal Structure and Photoreactive Properties of 1-(2,5-Dimethyl-3-thienyl)-2-[2-methyl-5-(N-(quinolin-8-yl)-2-carboxamide)-3-thienyl)]perfluorocyclopentene

The photochromic title compound,C_（26）H_（18）F_6N_2OS_2,contains a 2,5-dimethylthiophene ring and a N-formyl aminoquinolinyl thiophene ring on the C=C double bond of the cyclopentene ring.The dihedral angles between the cyclopentene and attached N-formyl aminoquinolinyl thiophene ring and 2,5-dimethylthiophene ring are 63.0° and 137.1°,respectively.The dihedral angle between the thiophene ring and the adjacent aminoquinoline ring is 5.7°.The molecule adopts an antiparallel conformation,with a distance between the two photoreactive C atoms of 3.763 ？.In addition,the absorption and fluorescence spectral changes were measured in acetonitile and solid at room temperature,and the result showed that the title compound could undergo photochromic reaction in both states.

Computational mechanistic investigation of radiation damage of adenine induced by hydroxyl radicals

The radiation damage of adenine base was studied by B3LYP and MP2 methods in the presence of hydroxyl radicals to probe the reactivities of five possible sites of an isolated adenine molecule. Both methods predict that the C8 site is the more vulnerable than the other sites. For its bonding covalently with the hydroxyl radicals, B3LYP predicts a barrierless pathway, while MP2 finds a transition state with an energy of 106.1 kJ/mol. For the hydroxylation at the C2 site, the barrier was calculated to be 165.3 kJ/mol using MP2 method. For the dehydrogenation reactions at five sites of adenine, B3LYP method predicts that the free energy barrier decreases in the order of H8 〉 H2 〉 HN62 〉 HN61 〉 HN9.

Human Mouth-State Recognition Based on Image Warping and Sparse Representation Combined with Homotopy

It is often necessary to recognize human mouth-states for detecting the number of audio sources and improving the speech recognition capability of an intelligent robot auditory system. A human mouth-state recognition method based on image warping and sparse representation( SR) combined with homotopy is proposed.Using properly warped training mouth-state images as atoms of the overcomplete dictionary overcomes the impact of the diversity of the mouths' scales,shapes and positions so that further improvement of the robustness can be achieved and the requirement for a large number of training samples can be relieved. The homotopy method is employed to compute the expansion coefficients effectively,i. e.,for sparse coding. The orthogonal matching pursuit( OMP) is also tested and compared with the homototy method. Experimental results and comparisons with the state-of-the-art methods have proved the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Damage mechanism of hydroxyl radicals toward adenine–thymine base pair

The adenine-thymine base pair was studied in the presence of hydroxyl radicals in order to probe the hydrogen bond effect. The results show that the hydrogen bonds have little effect on the hydroxylation and dehydrogenation happened at the sites, which are not involved in a hydrogen bond, while at the sites involved in hydrogen bond formation in the base pair, the reaction becomes more difficult, both in view of the free energy barrier and the exothermicity. With a 6-311 ＋＋G（d,p） level of description, both B3LYP and MP2 methods confirm that the C8 site of isolated adenine has the highest possibility to form covalent bond with the hydroxyl radicals, though with different energetics： B3LYP predicts a barrierless pathway, while MP2 finds a transition state with an energy of 106.1 kJ/mol. For the dehydrogenation reactions, B3LYP method predicts that the free energy barrier increases in the order of HN9 〈 HN61 〈 HN62 〈 H2 〈 H8.

The Observation of FSH’s Cellular Internalization

Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) is a kind of glycoprotein gonadotropin, and plays an important role in the diagnosis and treatment of infertility. Follicle stimulating hormone receptor (FSHR) is a kind of G protein coupled receptor (GPCR), found in the ovary and testes, and its activation is required for the hormonal operation during the breeding period. In this study, an experimental model of FSHR mediated FSH into cell membrane, which exhibited a phenomenon of fluorescent localized on cell surfaces internalized into cell interior, was established to verify biological activity of FSH.

The Determination and Evaluation of the Biological Activities for the Commercialization of Recombinant Follicle-Stimulating Hormone in Vitro

Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) plays a central role in mammals reproduction, with the actions of FSH mediated by follicle-stimulating hormone receptors (FSHRs) on the surface of target cells. The purposes of this study were to determine and evaluate the biological activities for the commercialization of recombinant follicle-stimulating hormone (rFSH) in vitro through the cellular internalization using cloned 293T-FSHR cell lines as target. Using imaging approaches we have found here that a little fluorescent signal from the surface of the cell transferred to the cytoplasm and accumulated around the nucleus by endocytosis. Compared with the control groups, the commercialization of rFSH have not the significant differences of internalization, but the rFSH have promoted the internalization of the fluorescent, suggested that this detection system might as a protocol for the bioactivity of recombinant therapeutic proteins in vitro.