Adult ; Efficiency ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Psychometrics ; Surveys and Questionnaires

The production technology for the first generation of biofuels has been made great achievements and some countries, such as USA, EU countries, and Brazil, have formed successful biofuel industrial chains. Cellulose ethanol, a representative of the second generation of biofuels and a kind of more promising alternative fuels, has not yet got enough key technological breakthroughs and its large scale commercial production still needs rather some time to realize. Now it is in the early stage of transition to the second generation of biofuels. Taking the development of second generation of biofuels as their national policies, many countries have developed long-term development plans and objectives, and provided a good policy environment and strong support for it. Thus institutes and enterprises are engaging and successing in addressing key issues relating to the development of biofuels. At the mean time, some important issues relating to the sustainable development of biofuels have attracted people's attention.

Biomass resources are strategically vital for the sustainable development of a country.The United States has recently made a variety of plans or roadmaps and taken significant actions in order to promote the R&D of biomass resources.These plans and actions for the key issues in the development of biomass resources were analysed.

OBJECTIVETo study the effects of Annao tablet (main component is beta-asarone) on S100B and NPY of cortex in chronic epilepsy rats.

METHODThe remedy was administered orally. The effects were observed in convulsion model induced by PG, then S100B protein and NPY of cortex were determined.

RESULTAnnao tablet could depress the epileptic degree, postpone spasm latent period and reduce the wet dog sample (WDS) times. The remedy could decline S100B and NPY of cortex in chronic epilepsy rats.

CONCLUSIONAnnao tablet has obvious antiepileptic effects and can reduce the nerve cell damage induced by epilepsy.

Acorus ; chemistry ; Animals ; Anisoles ; administration & dosage ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Anticonvulsants ; administration & dosage ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Cerebral Cortex ; metabolism ; Drug Carriers ; Epilepsy ; metabolism ; physiopathology ; Female ; Male ; Neuropeptide Y ; metabolism ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; S100 Proteins ; metabolism ; Tablets ; beta-Cyclodextrins

OBJECTIVETo study the effects of beta-asarone on expression of immediately early gene c-fos in kindling epilepsy rat brain.

METHODThe rats were randomly divided in to beta-asarone groups (200, 100, 50 mg x kg(-1) x d(-1)), difetoin control group (36 mg x kg(-1)) and model group. The remedy was administered orally. The effects were observed in kindling epilepsy model induced by penicillin, then the expression of c-fos were determined by western blot (hippocampus) and immunohistochemical techniques (cortex).

RESULTBeta-asarone could significantly increase the expression of c-fos in kindling epilepsy rat brain, and show its quantity-effect relation. The expression of c-fos in hippocampus was (1139.45 +/- 155.56), (1109.56 +/- 134.03), (1103.73 +/- 235.82) CNT x mm2 in beta-asarone groups, 920.54 +/- 203.20 in model control group, and 1106.26 +/- 186.24 in difetoin group, respectively. The number of c-fos positive cell was 87.1 +/- 2.2, 76.3 +/- 1.3 and 59.9 +/- 1.3 in beta-asarone groups, 39.3 +/- 2.6 in model control group, and 95.2 +/- 1.1 in difetoin group, respectively.

CONCLUSIONBeta-asarone can obviously increase the expression of c-fos in epilepsy rat brain. It is one of important response to epilepsy.

Animals ; Anisoles ; pharmacology ; Blotting, Western ; Brain ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Epilepsy ; drug therapy ; metabolism ; Female ; Gene Expression ; drug effects ; Immunohistochemistry ; Male ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos ; metabolism ; Random Allocation ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

Objective To investigate the daily total fluoride intake in relating to the prevalence of skeletal fluorosis in two villages in Jiangsu Province,in order to provide the scientific evidences for the control and prevention of endemic fluorosis.Methods Adults sampled from a high-fluoride Village,Wamiao,and a low-fluoride Village,Xinhuai,were surveyed in this study according to the fluoride concentration in their household shallow well.The average daily total fluoride intake from difierent sources and the skeletal fluorosis were investigated in each subject.Then the subjects from two villages were allocated into five subgroups(＜2.00,2.00～,3.00～,4.00～,≥5.00 mg/d),the relation fluoride intake and prevalence of osteofluorosis was analyzed.Results The prevalence of skeletal fluorosis in Wamiao Village was 31.06%(41/132),but no skeletal fluorosis case(0/35)was found in Xinhuai Village.According to the daily total fluoride intake,subjects with higher daily total fluoride intake tended to associated with a higher prevalence of skeletal fluorosis in a significant dose-response relationship(regression equation:y=2.624-6.855x+3.424x2:r=0.997).The benchmark dose lower limitation of daily total fluoride intake with 95% confidencewas 2.50 mg/d calculated according to this dose-response relationship,the reference dose(RfD)was 2.50 mg/d.In Wamiao Village a significant difference was also found between daily total fluoride intake in 41 subjects[(5.09±1.20)mg/d]with X-ray detectable skeletal fluorosis and in 91 subjects[(3.08±1.12)mg/d]without X-ray detectable skeletal fluorosis(t=-9.32,P＜0.01).Conclusions These findings indicate that the daily total fluoride intake has a significant dose-response relationship with the prevalence of skeletal fluorosis in an endemic fluorosis area associated with high-fluoride drinking water;and the RfD in this study was lower than that in the national standard of"Chinese hygienic standard for daily total fluoride intake(WS/T 87-1996)"(3.50 mg/d).

Objective To investigate whether recombinant human endostatin can create a time window of vascular normalization prior to vascular pruning to alleviate hypoxia in Lewis lung carcinoma in mice. Methods Kinetic changes in morphology of tumor vasculature in response to recombinant human endostatin were detected under a confocal microscope with immunofluorescent staining in Lewis lung carcinomas in mice. The hypoxic cell fraction of different time was assessed with immunohistochemical staining . Effects on tumor growth were monitored as indicated in the growth curve of tumors . Results Compared with the control group vascularity of the tumors was reduced over time by recombinant human endostatin treatment and significantly regressed for 9 days. During the treatment, pericyte coverage increased at day 3, increased markedly at day 5, and fell again at day 7. The vascular basement membrane was thin and closely associated with endothelial cells after recombinant human endostatin treatment, but appeared thickened, loosely associated with endothelial cells in control tumors. The decrease in hypoxic cell fraction at day 5 after treatment was also found. Tumor growth was not accelerated 5 days after recombinant human endostatin treatment. Conclusions Recombinant human endostatin can normalize tumor vasculature within day 3 to 7, leading to improved tumor oxygenation. The results provide important experimental basis for combining recombinant human endostatin with radiation therapy in human tumors.

Objective To investigate the alterations of invariant nature killer T( iNKT) cells in peripheral blood samples from patients with rheumatoid arthritis ( RA) and to clarify the correlation between the percentage of iNKT cells and the ratio of IFN-γ/IL-4 in order to further understand the significance of iNKT cells in the development of RA.Methods Peripheral blood mononuclear cells ( PBMCs) were isola-ted from 70 patients with RA and 40 healthy subjects.Among them, thirty patients in the stage of inactive RA were involved in a follow-up study.Fluorescence activated cell sorting ( FACS) was used to detect the percentage of iNKT cells.PBMCs were cultured in vitro for analysis of cytokine production.The dynamic changes of iNKT cells in percentages were analyzed by FACS.MILLIPLEX MAP Human Cytokine/Chemo-kine kit was used to measure the secretion of IFN-γand IL-4 in serum samples and culture media of PBMCs. The expression of IFN-γand IL-4 in iNKT cells at mRNA level were analyzed by RT-PCR.Results Com-pared with the healthy subjects, the patients with active RA showed the delayed proliferation of iNKT cells and the decreased percentages and proliferation rates of iNKT cells (P<0.05).The percentages and prolif-eration rates of iNKT cells in patients with active RA were significantly lower than those in patients with inac-tive RA (P<0.05).No statistical significant differences with iNKT cells were found between healthy sub-jects and patients with inactive RA (P>0.05).The ratios of IFN-γ/IL-4 in serum samples and culture media of PBMCs were increased in patients with active RA as compared with those in patients with inactive RA and healthy subjects (P<0.05).No statistical significant differences with the ratios of IFN-γ/IL-4 were observed between healthy subjects and patients with inactive RA (P>0.05).Compared with healthy subjects and patients with inactive RA, patients with active RA showed increased transcriptional level of IFN-γand decreased transcriptional level of IL-4.No significant differences with the expression of IFN-γand IL-4 in iNKT cells at mRNA level were observed between healthy subjects and patients with inactive RA.The per-centage of iNKT cells was negatively related to the IFN-γ/IL-4 ratio in patients with RA (P<0.05).Con-clusion Decreased percentage and impaired function of iNKT cells were detected in patients with RA. iNKT cells were closely related to the development and disease activity of RA.

Objective To explore the correlation of the operation effects of the miorovascular decompression(MVD) and the findings on magnetic resonance tomographic angiography(MRTA) in patients of neurovascular compression of the cranial nerves.Methods Two hundred and twenty three patients treated with the microvascular decompression were analyzed retrospectively.They were grouped and graded according to the vessel compression on the cranial nerves.The compression were grouped as none, moderate and severe, and the operation effects were graded as Ⅰ ( complete relief), Ⅱ ( partial relief) and Ⅲ ( no relief).The operation effects grades were correlated according to the compression groups by Kruskal-Wallis test and the operation effects between each two of the groups were compared using Nemenyi test.P < 0.05 was defined as statistic significant.Results Of the 53 cases of non-compression group, 31 cases were graded as Ⅰ , 13 cases were graded as Ⅱ and 9 cases were graded as Ⅲ, according to the operation-effects of the decompression.Of the 110 cases of moderate group,95 cases were grade as Ⅰ , 11 cases were graded as Ⅱ and 4 cases were graded as Ⅲ.Of the 60 cases of severe group, 48 cases were graded as Ⅰ, 7 cases were graded as Ⅱ and 5 cases were graded as Ⅲ.There were statistic significance among the three groups,where χ2= 16.84 and P <0.05.The mean rank of the non-compression, the moderate and the severe group was 134.21,102.37 and 110.4 ,respectively.The difference of the mean ranks between the non-compression group and the moderate group was 31.84, and between the non-compression and the severe group was 24.17, respectively, where P < 0.05 both.Conclusions There was close relationship between the findings on magnetic resonance tomographic angiography and the operation effects of the MVD.The operation effects of patients with moderate and severe vessel compression were much better than the non-compression group.MRTA is helpful for MVD surgical indication and its prognosis.

Child ; Humans ; Plasma Exchange ; Thrombotic Microangiopathies ; therapy