Electrolyzed functional water possesses a wide variety of antimicrobial activities. Electrolyzed functional water, which used to take place of tap water in producing mung bean sprouts, was studied in this paper. The results showed that electrolyzed water can not only reduce the quantity of microorganism on the surface of mung bean sprouts, but also promote the growth of sprouts. Further research showed that electrolyte leakage rate of mung bean soaked in electrolyzed water was the lowest, while the catalase's activity of mung bean soaked in electrolyzed water was the highest. All of these contribute to the high activity of mung bean. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Aside from monoamine disturbances, recent evidence has implicated particular intracellular pathways, including Wnt signaling, in the pathogenesis of major depressive disorder. In the present study, we investigated the role of Wingless (Wnt)-Dishevelled (DVL)-glycogen synthase kinase 3 beta (GSK3 beta) signaling in the depression-like behaviors exhibited by rats exposed to chronic forced swim stress. We found that the rats subjected to forced swim stress for 14 consecutive days exhibited obvious depression-like behaviors and showed decreased levels of phosphorylated GSK3 beta and beta-catenin in the hippocampus. Chronic citalopram treatment alleviated the depression-like behaviors and reversed the disruptions of the phosphorylated GSK3 beta and beta-catenin in stressed rats. Furthermore, when the stressed rats with citalopram treatment received bilateral, dorsal hippocampus infusions of a DVL inhibitor, sulindac, the depression-like effects induced by chronic stress reappeared. These findings suggest that the Wnt-DVL-GSK3 beta signaling in the hippocampus is markedly involved in the pathophysiology of depression induced by chronic stress. The Wnt-DVL-GSK3 beta pathway may mediate the therapeutic action of citalopram, and the manipulation of DVL could be a target for novel antidepressants. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

This study investigated the changes of toxic compounds in coking wastewater with biological treatment (anaerobic reactor, anoxic reactor and aerobic-membrane bioreactor, A1/A2/O-MBR) and advanced physicochemical treatment (Fenton oxidation and activated carbon adsorption) stages. As the biological treatment stages preceding, the inhibition effect of coking wastewater on the luminescence of Vibrio qinghaiensis sp. Nov. Q67 decreased. Toxic units (TU) of coking wastewater were removed by A1/A2/O-MBR treatment process, however approximately 30 % TU remained in the biologically treated effluent. There is a tendency that fewer and fewer residual organic compounds could exert equal acute toxicity during the biological treatment stages. Activated carbon adsorption further removed toxic pollutants of biologically treated effluent but the Fenton effluent increased acute toxicity. The composition of coking wastewater during the treatment was evaluated using the three-dimensional fluorescence spectra, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The organic compounds with high polarity were the main cause of acute toxicity in the coking wastewater. Aromatic protein-like matters in the coking wastewater with low biodegradability and high toxicity contributed mostly to the remaining acute toxicity of the biologically treated effluents. Chlorine generated from the oxidation process was responsible for the acute toxicity increase after Fenton oxidation. Therefore, the incorporation of appropriate advanced physicochemical treatment process, e.g., activated carbon adsorption, should be implemented following biological treatment processes to meet the stricter discharge standards and be safer to the environment.

Aims: ApoL-I is a newly found component of high-density lipoprotein, and has a potential role in lipid metabolism. This study was mainly to examine the possible association of the ApoL-I gene polymorphism with obesity and plasma lipid levels in the Chinese population. Methods: Three hundred nineteen Han Chinese (109 obese and 210 nonobese control subjects) in Chengdu area were studied using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. Results: The Lys and Glu allele frequencies of the apoL-I gene at the Lys166Glu site in obese and nonobese control groups were 0.830, 0.170 and 0.814, 0.186, respectively. The Ile and Met allele frequencies of the gene at Ile244Met site in the obese and the control groups were 0.844, 0.156 and 0.831, 0.169, respectively. The 166Glu and 244Met allele frequencies of the two polymorphisms in obese subjects were not different from those in the controls, respectively ( p>0.05). In the nonobese group, subjects with genotype Lys/Lys at the Lys166Glu site or Ile/Ile at the Ile244Met site had a higher serum mean concentration of triglyceride (TG) as compared with those of corresponding Glu or Met allele carriers ( p<0.05). In addition, serum apoC-III and apoE levels were affected by genotypes of Lys166Glu and Ile224Met polymorphisms, respectively, in the control group (all p<0.05). Conclusion: The current study, for the first time, provides evidence that Lys166Glu and Ile244Met polymorphisms in apoL-I gene are associated with TG, apoC-III, and apoE levels in nonobese Chinese. However, these polymorphisms are not associated with obesity in the population.

The present study developed a new algorithm to find the implementation plan that had the smallest variance of resources while meeting a fixed duration. And the proposed algorithm modified a population-based search procedure； particle swarm optimization； by adopting an elite archiving scheme to store nondominated solutions and by aptly using members of the archive to direct further search. The termination of the proposed algorithm was set to that no new members have entered into the elite archive. In addition； this paper also established an evaluation function between the resource variance and the actual start time of activities by introducing a virtual variable. Through a practical network； the proposed algorithm is shown effective and efficient in conducting resource optimization analysis. Future applications of the proposed algorithm are suggested in the conclusions.

Environmental antiandrogenic (AA) contaminants in effluents from wastewater treatment plants have the potential for negative impacts on wildlife and human health. The aim of our study was to identify chemical contaminants with likely AA activity in the biological effluents and evaluate the removal of these antiandrogens (AAs) during advanced treatment comprising adsorption onto granular activated carbon (GAC). In this study, profiling of AA contaminants in biological effluents and tertiary effluents was conducted using effect-directed analysis (EDA) including high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fractionation, a recombinant yeast screen containing androgen receptor (YAS), in combination with mass spectrometry analyses. Analysis of a wastewater secondary effluent from a membrane bioreactor revealed complex profiles of AA activity comprising 14 HPLC fractions and simpler profiles of GAC effluents with only 2 to 4 moderately polar HPLC fractions depending on GAC treatment conditions. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-nanospray mass spectrometry analyses of AA fractions in the secondary effluent resulted in detection of over 10 chemical contaminants, which showed inhibition of YAS activity and were potential AAs. The putative AAs included biocides, food additives, flame retardants, pharmaceuticals and industrial contaminants. To our knowledge, it is the first time that the AA properties of N-ethyl-2-isopropyl-5-methylcyclohexanecarboxamide (WS3), cetirizine, and oxcarbazepine are reported. The EDA used in this study was proven to be a powerful tool to identify novel chemical structures with AA activity in the complex aquatic environment. The adsorption process to GAC of all the identified antiandrogens, except WS3 and triclosan, fit well with the pseudo-second order kinetics models. Adsorption to GAC could further remove most of the AAs identified in the biological effluents with high efficiencies. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

This paper explains the petroleum engineering technologies of petroleum enterprise supported by G/S model, which combine process of exploring, developing, and transporting of petroleum enterprise, these key technologies with spatial information technology supported by Digital Earth Platform, resulting in the improvement of the scientificity, accuracy, and rationality of the petroleum engineering technologies and the reduction of the cost and the increase of the benefits. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B. V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of ICAPIE Organization Committee.

In the system on a chip； some cells should be placed along a predefined coordinate within a relatively small region. This constraint comes from the requirement that the data should be ready on the common bus at the same time. In this paper； the module placement problem is studied where some modules have the predefined coordinate alignment (PCA) constraint. The relations are given between constrained modules； from which a necessary condition is induced. A polynomial-time algorithm is developed that can guarantee a feasible placement is always obtainable. The algorithm is implemented and tested on ami33 and ami49. The experimental results show that it is effective.

In this article, we report the first experimental demonstration of an eight-wavelength lambda/8 phased-shifted laser array based on the REC technique in the 1.3 mu m wavelength domain. Measurement results exhibit good linearity of lasing wavelength with +/-0.35 nm wavelength residual. The SLM property was ensured with SMSRs all larger than 38 dB. Moreover, the direct-modulation performance was also tested. The experimental results show that the modulation bandwidth can reach up to 13 GHz even at the small injection current of 40 mA and the measured spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) is up to 87 dB/Hz(2/3), which shows good linearity. These measurements show that REC-based lambda/8 phased-shifted laser array has good modulation performance and it may find potential application in actual fiber-optic systems.

BackgroundThe Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) pathway involves in the pathogen recognition and defense against infection in mammals. Considering that avian and mammalian TLR are differentially mediated, the action of a natural product on avian TLR4 pathway was unclear. High, medium and low doses of Astragalus polysaccharide (APS), were treated the chicken at 7-days-old age by gavage. The sIgA level in the intestinal fluid, the expression of chTLR4 mRNA/protein in bursa of Fabricius as well as the expression of downstream molecules of chTLR4 (chMyD88, chTRIF, chNF-κB, chIRF3, chIFN-β and chTNF-α) were measured on alternate days.ResultsThe content of sIgA and the chTLR4 mRNA expression/protein level were increased in non-dose-dependent manner after APS supplement. Also, the expressions of a subset of MyD88-independent pathway genes were more than MyD88-independent, in particular with low doses of APS supplement for 7 days.ConclusionsThese suggest that administration of APS activates chTLR4 pathway in bursa of Fabricius in MyD88-independent pathway. Meanwhile, low dose of APS shows better performance regarding the activation of chTLR4 and regulation of MyD88-independent pathway.