• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.29 no.9
• /
• pp.1239-1246
• /
• 2016

The breeding of yaks is highly seasonal, there are many crucial proteins involved in the reproduction control program, especially in follicular development. In order to isolate differential proteins between mature and immature follicular fluid (FF) of yak, the FF from yak follicles with different sizes were sampled respectively, and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) of the proteins was carried out. After silver staining, the Image Master 2D platinum software was used for protein analysis and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) was performed for differential protein identification. The expression level of transferrin and enolase superfamily member 1 (ENOSF1) was determined by Western blotting for verification analysis. The results showed that 2-DE obtained an electrophoresis map of proteins from mature and immature yak FF with high resolution and repeatability. A comparison of protein profiles identified 12 differently expressed proteins, out of which 10 of them were upregulated while 2 were downregulated. Western blotting showed that the expression of transferrin and ENOSF1 was enhanced with follicular development. Both the obtained protein profiles and the differently expressed proteins identified in this study provided experimental data related to follicular development during yak breeding seasons. This study also laid the foundation for understanding the microenvironment during oocyte development.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.16 no.14
• /
• pp.5907-5912
• /
• 2015

Purpose: To evaluate and update evidence for prognostic effects of kidney-sparing (KS) management and nephroureterectomy (NU) for upper tract urothelial carcinomas. Materials and Methods: Pubmed, Embase and the Cochrane Library were retrieved for the identification of comparative studies of kidney-sparing procedure and nephroureterectomy for upper tract urothelial carcinoma prior to December 2014. The data were extracted independently by 2 reviewers and the quality of the included studies was assessed. Review Manager 5.3 and STATA 13 were used to perform the meta-analysis. Results: Twenty-three observational studies including 1,587 KS and 3,996 NU were evaluated. The results of the meta-analysis showed that nephroureterectomy had no significant benefit with regard to intravesical recurrence (IRFS), metastasis (MFS), cancer specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS) except the total tumor recurrence (RFS) when compared with kidney sparing management. The respectively pooled outcomes were HR 1.36 (0.69-2.68, P=0.38) for IRFS, 1.09 (0.59-2.01, P=0.78) for MFS, 1.17 (0.77-1.79, P=0.47) for CSS, 1.50 (0.90-2.48, P=0.12) for OS and 1.61 (1.03-2.51, P=0.04) for RFS. Conclusions: On the whole, kidney-sparing management had equivalent prognostic effect on upper tract urothelial carcinoma as the standard nephroureterectomy except in tumor recurrence. However, the results should be interpreted with caution for lack of stage and grade stratification and multi-center randomized controlled trials are still needed to verify our results.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
• /
• 2016.05a
• /
• pp.194-194
• /
• 2016

Gansu, located in the northwestern region, is a typical agricultural province of arid, semiarid in China. The shortage of water resources is the biggest obstacle of Gansu Province's development, and the dry farming water-saving is the eternal theme of Gansu agricultural sustainable development. In recent years, intensify reform in Gansu, has walked out a successful way in the agricultural water-saving. Using the integrated river basin governance as opportunity, the total water-using quantity was regarded as rigidity to retrain, distributed to counties (districts), irrigated areas, towns, associations, groups step by step. Agricultural water price was substantially increased, with the surface water price from about $0.1RMB/m^3$ to more than $0.2 RMB/m^3$, and the ground water from zero to more than $0.1RMB/m^3$. Simultaneously, the difference water prices and over-quota water progression price markup were carried out. The transaction of water rights was encouraged to impel the peasant to establish the consciousness of saving-water. The regulatory documents were formulated to standardize the scope, condition, mode, program etc. of agriculture water-rights transaction, to guarantees the transaction of water rights is carries out in order. The pattern of farming was optimized and adjusted, reducing the high water-consumption crop, increasing economic crops with high benefit and low water-consumption, developing industrialized agricultures such as green house. The relative engineering and measuring facility were comprehensively improved, with the anti-seepage of canal system and the enforcement of dynamo-electric well, developing high-efficient water-saving irrigation and overall metering facilities. The water fine-grained management has realized, and obvious water-saving effect has obtained: water-using rate in the irrigation area by river water has brought up to 0.57 from 0.52, and by well water up to 0.84 from 0.76. Although the water price has increased, the proportion that the water rate expenditure accounted for the cost lasts decline, and the farmers' income has gone up. The peasants express, the used water is few, and it is few to till land, but the income is many, and life is better.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.14
• /
• pp.5715-5719
• /
• 2014

Autophagy is crucial in the maintenance of homeostasis and regenerated energy of mammalian cells. Macroautophagy and chaperone-mediated autophagy(CMA) are the two best-identified pathways. Recent research has found that in normal cells, decline of macroautophagy is appropriately parallel with activation of CMA. However, whether it is also true in cancer cells has been poorly studied. Here we focused on cross-talk and conversion between macroautophagy and CMA in cultured Burkitt lymphoma Raji cells when facing serum deprivation and exposure to a toxic compound, arsenic trioxide. The results showed that both macroautophagy and CMA were activated sequentially instead of simultaneously in starvation-induced Raji cells, and macroautophagy was quickly activated and peaked during the first hours of nutrition deprivation, and then gradually decreased to near baseline. With nutrient deprivation persisted, CMA progressively increased along with the decline of macroautophagy. On the other hand, in arsenic trioxide-treated Raji cells, macroautophagy activity was also significantly increased, but CMA activity was not rapidly enhanced until macroautophagy was inhibited by 3-methyladenine, an inhibitor. Together, we conclude that cancer cells exhibit differential responses to diverse stressor-induced damage by autophagy. The sequential switch of the first-aider macroautophagy to the homeostasis-stabilizer CMA, whether active or passive, might be conducive to the adaption of cancer cells to miscellaneous intracellular or extracellular stressors. These findings must be helpful to understand the characteristics, compensatory mechanisms and answer modes of different autophagic pathways in cancer cells, which might be very important and promising to the development of potential targeting interventions for cancer therapies via regulation of autophagic pathways.

• Computers and Concrete
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.111-120
• /
• 2017

This study aimed to design the accelerated life testing (ALT) of concrete, which stimulating the special natural environment maximumly. Its evaluation indexes, such as dynamic elastic modulus, mass and ultrasonic velocity were measured, and the variation of relative mass and relative dynamic elastic modulus of concrete were studied. Meanwhile, the microanalysis method was used. Moreover, an exploratory application of the stochastic approach, the Weibull distribution and the lognormal distribution, were made to assess the durability of concrete structures. The results show that the ALT for simulating natural environment is more close to the service process of concrete structure under actual conditions; The relative dynamic elastic modulus can be used as the dominant durability evaluation parameters, because it is more sensitive to the environmental factors compared with the relative quality evaluation parameters; In the course of the concrete deterioration, the destruction of the salt freezing cycle is the dominant factor, supplemented by other factors; Both of those two stochastic approaches can be used to evaluate the reliability of concrete specimens under the condition of ALT; By comparison, The lognormal distribution method is better to describe the reliability process.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
• /
• v.53 no.4
• /
• pp.493-496
• /
• 2015

Toxoplasmosis, caused by Toxoplasma gondii, is a parasitic zoonosis with worldwide distribution. The present study investigated the prevalence of T. gondii in dogs in Zhanjiang city, southern China, using both serological and molecular detection. A total of 364 serum samples and 432 liver tissue samples were collected from the slaughter house between December 2012 and January 2013 and were examined for T. gondii IgG antibody by ELISA and T. gondii DNA by semi-nested PCR based on B1 gene, respectively. The overall seroprevalence of T. gondii IgG antibody was 51.9%, and T. gondii DNA was detected in 37 of 432 (8.6%) liver tissue samples. These positive DNA samples were analyzed by PCR-RFLP at 3'- and 5'-SAG2. Only 8 samples gave the PCR-RFLP data, and they were all classified as type I, which may suggest that the T. gondii isolates from dogs in Zhanjiang city may represent type I or type I variant. This study revealed the high prevalence of T. gondii infection in dogs in Zhanjiang city, southern China. Integrated measures should be taken to prevent and control toxoplasmosis in dogs in this area for public health concern.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.17 no.8
• /
• pp.3823-3827
• /
• 2016

Background: To investigate the association circumcision with prostate cancer. Materials and Methods: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, and Chinese biomedicine literature database up to August 2015. All case-control studies were identified in which investigated the association circumcision with prostate cancer. Three authors independently assessed study quality and extracted data. All data were analyzed using RevMan 5.3 and STATA version 11.0. Results: Six case-control studies met the inclusion criteria. The pooled meta-analysis showed that there was a lower incidence of circumcision in prostate cancer patients compared with control (OR=0.90, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.82-0.98, P=0.01). The results of meta-analysis also showed that no significant difference was found between circumcision and less aggressive prostate cancer (OR=0.93, 95% CI 0.83-1.04, P=0.19); however, there was a lower incidence of circumcision in more aggressive prostate cancer compared with control (OR =0.84, 95% CI 0.72-0.97, P=0.02). The Egger's results did not show any evidence of publication bias(P=0.798). Conclusions: In summary, within the limits of available data, male with circumcision appears to have a lower incidence of prostate cancer. In the future, high-quality multicenter studies are needed to thoroughly verify the outcome.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.7
• /
• pp.3123-3128
• /
• 2014

The liver is normally the major site of glucose metabolism in intact organisms and the most important target organ for the action of insulin. It has been widely accepted that insulin resistance (IR) is closely associated with postoperative recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the relationship between IR and drug resistance in liver cancer cells is unclear. In the present study, IR was induced in HepG2 cells via incubation with a high concentration of insulin. Once the insulin-resistant cell line was established, the stability of HepG2/IR cells was further tested via incubation in insulin-free medium for another 72h. Afterwards, the biological effects of insulin resistance on adhesion, migration, invasion and sensitivity to cis-platinum (DDP) of cells were determined. The results indicated that glucose consumption was reduced in insulin-resistant cells. In addition, the expression of the insulin receptor and glucose transportor-2 was downregulated. Furthermore, HepG2/IR cells displayed markedly enhanced adhesion, migration, and invasion. Most importantly, these cells exhibited a lower sensitivity to DDP. By contrast, HepG2/IR cells exhibited decreased adhesion and invasion after treatment with the insulin sensitizer pioglitazone hydrochloride. The results suggest that IR is closely related to drug resistance as well as adhesion, migration, and invasion in HepG2 cells. These findings may help explain the clinical observation of limited efficacy for chemotherapy on a background of IR, which promotes the invasion and migration of cancer cells.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
• /
• v.51 no.3
• /
• pp.363-367
• /
• 2013

The prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in birds has epidemiological significance because birds are indeed considered as a good indicator of environmental contamination by T. gondii oocysts. In this study, the prevalence of T. gondii in 313 house sparrows in Lanzhou, northwestern China was assayed by the modified agglutination test (MAT). Antibodies to T. gondii were positive in 39 (12.46%) of 313 samples (MAT titer ${\geq}$ 1:5). Tissues of heart, brain, and lung from the 39 seropositive house sparrows were tested for T. gondii DNA, 11 of which were found to be positive for the T. gondii B1 gene by PCR amplification. These positive DNA samples were typed at 9 genetic markers, including 8 nuclear loci, i.e., SAG1, 5'- and 3'-SAG2, alternative SAG2, SAG3, GRA6, L358, PK1, c22-8 and an apicoplast locus Apico. Of them, 4 isolates were genotyped with complete data for all loci, and 2 genotypes (Type II variants; ToxoDB #3 and a new genotype) were identified. These results showed that there is a potential risk for human infection with T. gondii in this region. To our knowledge, this is the first report of T. gondii seroprevalence in house sparrows in China.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
• /
• v.58 no.1
• /
• pp.93-97
• /
• 2020

The cestode Taenia hydatigena uses canids, primarily dogs, as definitive hosts, while the metacestode larval stage cysticercus infects a range of intermediate hosts, including domestic animals such as goats, sheep, and pigs. Cysticercosis due to T. hydatigena has large veterinary and economic drawbacks. Like other taeniids, e.g., Echinococcus, intraspecific variation is found among the members of the genus Taenia. In Africa, few studies are available on the epidemiology and distribution of T. hydatigena, and even fewer studies are available on its genetic variation. In this study, we molecularly identified 11 cysticerci from sheep in Sudan and demonstrated the genetic variation based on the NADH dehydrogenase subunit 1 (nad1) and cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) mitochondrial genes. The isolates were correctly identified as T. hydatigena with more than 99% similarity to those in the GenBank database. Low diversity indices and insignificant neutrality indices were observed, with 3 and 2 haplotypes for the nad1 and cox1 genes, respectively. The results suggest the presence of unique T. hydatigena haplotypes in Sudan, as haplotypes with 100% similarity were not found in the GenBank database. With few available studies on the genetic variation of T. hydatigena in Africa, this report represents the first insights into the genetic variation of T. hydatigena in Sudan and constitutes useful data.