Melatonin Attenuates Noise Stress-induced Gastrointestinal Motility Disorder and Gastric Stress Ulcer: Role of Gastrointestinal Hormones and Oxidative Stress in Rats

( Lei Zhang ),( Ji T Gong ),( Hu Q Zhang ),( Quan H Song ),( Guang H Xu ),( Lei Cai ),( Xiao D Tang ),( Hai F Zhang ),( Fang E Liu ),( Zhan S Jia ),( Hong W Zhang ) 대한소화기기능성질환·운동학회 2015 Journal of Neurogastroenterology and Motility (JNM Vol.21 No.2

Background/Aims There are increasing evidences for gastrointestinal motility disorder (GIMD) and gastric stress ulcer induced by noise stress. The present study was to investigate the reversed effect of melatonin on GIMD and gastric stress ulcer induced by noise stress and potential mechanism. Methods Noise stress was induced on rats, and melatonin (15 mg/kg) was administered to rats by intraperitoneal injection. Differences were assessed in gastric residual rate (GRR), small intestine propulsion rate (SPR), Guth injury score, cortisol, gastrointestinal hormones (calcitonin-gene-related peptide and motilin) and oxidative stress markers (superoxide dismutase and malondialde hyde) in blood plasma as well as gastric mucosa homogenate with or without melatonin. The pathological examination of gastric mucosa was also performed. Results The GRR and SPR were improved by noise stress compared with control (P < 0.05). The pathological examination and Guth injury score revealed gastric stress ulcer. Moreover, the levels of cortisol, motilin and malondialdehyde in blood plasma and malondialdehyde in gastric mucosa homogenate were increased by noise stress (P < 0.05). CGRP and superoxide dismutase activity in both of blood plasma and gastric mucosa homogenate were significantly decreased (P< 0.05). Furthermore, melatonin reversed changes in GRR, SPR, pathological examination, Guth injury score, cortisol, motilin, CGRP, superoxide dismutase activity and malondialdehyde (P < 0.05). Conclusions Melatonin is effective in reversing the GIMD and gastric stress ulcer induced by noise stress. The underlying mechanism may be involved in oxidative stress and gastrointestinal hormones. (J Neurogastroenterol Motil 2015;21:189-199)

Fabrication of Photopolymer Hierarchical Micronanostructures by Coupling Electrospinning and Photolithography for SERS Substrates

Wen-Yi Zhang,Xin-Ze Xiao,Chao Lv,Jia Zhao,Gong Wang,Xuan Gu,Ran Zhang,Bin-Bin Xu,Dan-Dan Zhang,Ai-Wu Li,Yong-Lai Zhang,Hong-Bo Sun 한국고분자학회 2013 Macromolecular Research Vol.21 No.3

Reported here is the fabrication of photopolymer hierarchical micronanostructures through a combinative process of electrospinning and subsequent photolithography. Electrospun SU-8 (epoxy-based negative photoresist)nanofiber films have been patterned into gratings with periods of 100, 200, 300, and 400 μm, respectively. Deposition of a silver nanolayer on these interlaced nanofiber films would lead to the formation of various plasmonic nanostructures,and therefore, giving rise to abundant surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) “hot spots”. In the detection of Rhodamine 6G (R6G), probing molecule, the resultant SERS substrates show both high sensitivity and good reproducibility. The SERS enhancement factor could reach as high as ~108, indicating high efficiency. The fabrication of patterned, highly efficient SERS substrates may hold a great promise for the integration of SERS substrates in various microdevices such as microfluidic chips.

Sensitivity of surface characteristics on the simulation of wind-blown-dust source in North America

Park, S.H.,Gong, S.L.,Gong, W.,Makar, P.A.,Moran, M.D.,Stroud, C.A.,Zhang, J. Pergamon Press ; Elsevier [distribution] 2009 Atmospheric environment Vol.43 No.19

Recently, a wind-blown-dust-emission module has been built based on a state-of-the-art wind erosion theory and evaluated in a regional air-quality model to simulate a North American dust storm episode in April 2001 (see Park, S.H., Gong, S.L., Zhao, T.L., Vet, R.J., Bouchet, V.S., Gong, W., Makar, P.A., Moran, M.D., Stroud, C., Zhang, J. 2007. Simulation of entrainment and transport of dust particles within North America in April 2001 (''Red Dust episode''). J. Geophys. Res. 112, D20209, doi:10.1029/2007JD008443). A satisfactorily detailed assessment of that module, however, was not possible because of a lack of information on some module inputs, especially soil moisture content. In this paper, the wind-blown-dust emission was evaluated for two additional dust storms using improved soil moisture inputs. The surface characteristics of the wind-blown-dust source areas in southwestern North America were also investigated, focusing on their implications for wind-blown-dust emissions. The improved soil moisture inputs enabled the sensitivity of other important surface characteristics, the soil grain size distribution and the land-cover, to dust emission to be investigated with more confidence. Simulations of the two 2003 dust storm episodes suggested that wind-blown-dust emissions from the desert areas in southwestern North America are dominated by emissions from dry playas covered with accumulated alluvial deposits whose particle size is much smaller than usual desert sands. As well, the source areas in the northwestern Texas region were indicated to be not desert but rather agricultural lands that were ''activated'' as a wind-blown-dust sources after harvest. This finding calls for revisions to the current wind-blown-dust-emission module, in which ''desert'' is designated to be the only land-cover category that can emit wind-blown dust.

Diagnostic value of Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound Parametric Imaging in Breast Tumors

Zhang Yuan,Jiang Quan,Zhang Yunxiao,Chen Jian,He Zhu,Gong Liping 한국유방암학회 2013 Journal of breast cancer Vol.16 No.2

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic value of SonoLiver software for parametric imaging in breast tumors. Methods: Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) was performed in 216 breast lesions (113 malignant, 103 benign). The CEUS parameters were compared between benign and malignant lesions. The rise time, the time to peak, the mean transit time and dynamic vessel pattern (DVP) were analyzed using SonoLiver software. Results: Quantitative analysis showed that the rise time was 16.52±4.15 seconds in the benign group vs. 13.86±3.36 seconds in the malignant group (p=0.007), and the time to peak was 19.86±4.87 seconds in the benign group vs. 16.52±4.85 seconds in the malignant group (p=0.009). The mean transit time was 80.55±18.65 seconds in the benign group vs. 65.16±20.28 seconds in the malignant group (p=0.006). The difference between the distribution of DVP in benign and malignant tumors was statistically significant. One hundred one malignant tumors (89.4%) performed an irregular red/yellow fill in the region of interest (ROI) and 85 benign tumors (82.5%) performed a single blue/green fill in the ROI. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of parametric imaging in breast tumors were 84.1%, 85.4%, 84.7%, respectively. Conclusion: The CEUS parametric imaging can distinguish differences between malignant and benign breast tumors as well as provide diagnostic information on breast lesions.

Enhanced Salt Tolerance of Transgenic Vegetable Soybeans Resulting from Overexpression of a Novel Δ1-Pyrroline-5-carboxylate Synthetase Gene from Solanum torvum Swartz

Gong-Chen Zhang,Wen-Li Zhu,Jun-Yi Gai,Yue-Lin Zhu,Li-Fei Yang 한국원예학회 2015 Horticulture, Environment, and Biotechnology Vol.56 No.1

Vegetable soybeans [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] are susceptible to salt stress and, thus, soil salinity can severely affect their growth and productivity. To enhance the salt tolerance of vegetable soybeans, a novel Solanum torvum Swartz Δ1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase gene (StP5CS, GenBank accession number: JN606861) that encodes a critical regulatory enzyme in proline biosynthesis was transformed into the cultivar NY-1001 using an Agrobacteriummediated transformation method. PCR and Southern blot analyses indicated that two independent T0 fertile transgenic plants were generated. The transgenic plants transmitted the transgenes into their T1 progeny in a 3:1 ratio. The T2 and T3 homozygous transgenic lines (HTLs) were examined for salt tolerance in pot and hydroponic cultures, respectively. The StP5CS overexpression conferred salt tolerance in T2 and T3 HTLs. Under NaCl stress conditions, the leaf scorch scores of T2 and T3 HTLs were significantly lower than those of wild-type (WT) plants. The plant height, leaf area, relative chlorophyll content, and number of fresh pods of T2 and T3 HTLs were significantly higher than those of WT plants. Compared with WT plants, T2 and T3 HTLs had significantly higher levels of proline and significantly lower levels of membrane lipid peroxidation. These results indicate that StP5CS overexpression in HTLs results in enhanced salt tolerance associated with higher levels of proline accumulation under salinity stress and that StP5CS can be utilized to improve salinity tolerance in vegetable crop genetic engineering.

Impact of Adjuvant Chemotherapy Cycles on Prognosis of Resectable Stomach Cancer: A Retrospective Analysis

Zhang, Wen-Ying,Zhang, Wen-Jun,Bai, Yu,Yuan, Hai-Hua,Liu, Feng,Gao, Jun,Gong, Yan-Fang,Jiang, Bin Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2013 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.14 No.1

Aims: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of adjuvant chemotherapy cycles on the prognosis of patients with post-operative stomach cancer through retrospective analysis. Methods: A total of 128 patients with gastric cancer who underwent gastrectomy, followed by adjuvant chemotherapy consisting of epirubicin, cisplatin or oxaliplatin, leucovorin, and 5-fluorouracil, according to a defined schedule, were divided into three groups according to the number of chemotherapy cycles: Group I (<6 cycles); Group II (6 cycles); and Group III (>6 cycles). Results: The 5-year overall survival (OS) was 20.8% in Group I, 45.0% in Group II, and 42.9% in Group III, with a median follow-up of 43 months. The 5-year relapse-free survival (RFS) was 15.1% in Group I, 40% in Group II, and 40% in Group III. The OS and RFS in Groups II and III were significantly better than in Group I (OS, p = 0.002 and p=0.003; RFS, P<0.001 and P=0.002). There was no difference in OS (p = 0.970) or in RFS (p = 0.722) between Groups II and III. Multivariate Cox hazard analysis determined that the number of adjuvant chemotherapy cycles was an independent factor that influenced OS and RFS. Conclusion: Six cycles of adjuvant chemotherapy gave encouraging outcomes in patients with resectable gastric cancer. Further prospective randomized controlled investigations are warranted in a multi-center setting.

Effects of sweetener sucralose on diet preference, growth performance and hematological and biochemical parameters of weaned piglets

Zhang, Wenwei,He, Holden,Gong, Limin,Lai, Wenqing,Dong, Bing,Zhang, Liying Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2020 Animal Bioscience Vol.33 No.5

Objective: Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of dietary sucralose on diet preference and growth performance of weaned piglets, and a third experiment was a 28-d safety study to examine if high-dose sucralose could affect the health state of weaned piglets. Methods: In experiment one, 48 piglets had free access to a corn-soybean based diet and the same diet supplemented with 150 mg/kg sucralose for 15 d. In experiment two, 180 piglets were blocked into 5 treatments with 6 replications. They were fed basal diets supplemented with 0, 75, 150, 225, and 300 mg/kg sucralose for 28 days. In experiment three, 108 piglets were randomly assigned to 3 treatments and fed diets supplemented with 0, 150 (suitable level), and 1,500 (ten-fold suitable level) mg/kg sucralose for 28 d. Results: The experiment 1 showed that piglets preferred (p<0.05) diets containing sucralose during experimental period. In experiment 2, piglets fed a diet supplemented with 150 mg/kg sucralose had a higher average daily gain (ADG) and average daily feed intake (ADFI) than pigs in the control group and other treatment groups during the experiment period. The concentrations of sucralose over 150 mg/kg may decrease feed intake. However, no difference in feed conversion ratio was observed. In experiment 3, piglets fed diet supplemented with 150 mg/kg sucralose had a higher ADG and ADFI than that of pigs in the control group and 1,500 mg/kg treatment groups during the experiment period. Clinical blood metabolites, organ index and histological morphology were not significantly different between sucralose treatments. Conclusion: Sucralose can promote feed intake and thereby improve growth performance of weaned piglets. Moreover, inclusion of 1,500 mg/kg sucralose was demonstrated to have no observed adverse effects. Supplementing 150 mg/kg sucralose for weaned piglets is recommended in this study.

Research of high response control technology of a moving coil electromechanical converter

Gong Zhang,Zheng Xu,Weijun Wang,Zhichen Hou,Xing Gu,Ning Lin,Liangwei Luo,Jing Huang 제어로봇시스템학회 2016 제어로봇시스템학회 국제학술대회 논문집 Vol.2016 No.10

Electromechanical converters (EMCs) are regarded as the most widely employed linear motion mechanism in various industry driving fields. This study tries to improve the characteristics deficiency of a moving coil electro-mechanical converter (MC-EMC), such as the output electromagnetic force, response time and response speed, and based on the time constant and currents are effected by inductance and resistance of the transformation coils, the carrying current coils of MC-EMC are adopted a transformation of segmentation and combination. The mathematical model and simulation for the response time, displacement, output electromagnetic force, acceleration of MC-EMC are proposed respectively. Results show that compared coils in parallel divided into three sections with coils in single group, the displacement step response time is reduced from 14.6㎳ to 9.94㎳ the response speed is over doubled, and electromagnetic force is raised about 8 times, the acceleration is increased by 8.7 times, the peak response time is reduced about 0.5 times, which means the design MC-EMC could realize the performance of short response time and high electromagnetic force, and display good prospects.

Multiple-Period Repetitive Controller for Selective Harmonic Compensation with Three-Phase Shunt Active Power Filter

Zhang, Chao,Gong, Maofa,Zhang, Yijun,Li, Yuxia The Korean Institute of Power Electronics 2015 JOURNAL OF POWER ELECTRONICS Vol.15 No.3

This paper presents a shunt active power filter (SAPF) for compensating inter-harmonics and harmonics when inter-harmonics content is evident in the grid. The principle of inter-harmonics generation in the grid was analyzed, and the inter-harmonics effect on repetitive controllers was discussed in terms of control performance. Traditional repetitive controllers are not applicable in inter-harmonic compensation. Moreover, the effect of an ideal controller on harmonics signals was analyzed on the basis of the internal model principle. The repetitive controller was improved in the form of a basis function according to theoretical analysis. The finite-dimensional repetitive controller, which is also called the multiple-period repetitive controller, was designed for the control of multiple periodic signals. A selective harmonic compensation system was developed with SAPF. This system can be used to compensate harmonics and inter-harmonics in the grid. Finally, system control performance was verified by simulation and experimental results.

Research on the Inter-harmonics Equivalent Impedance of Series Hybrid Active Power Filter

Zhang Jian-gong,Liu Jian-ben,Dai Shao-jun,Chen Qiao-fu,He Jun-jia 대한전기학회 2015 Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology Vol.10 No.5

In the series hybrid active power filter (SHAPF) with magnetic flux compensation (MFC), the system current oscillate in the experimental results when adding the same phase harmonic current command in current control block. This condition endangers the security of the SHAPF. Taking the digit period average arithmetic as example, this paper explains the inter-harmonics current oscillation in the experiment. The conclusion is that the SHAPF is unstable to the inter-harmonics current in theory. Limited by the capacity of the inverter, the system current and the inverter output current do not increase to infinite. At last, some methods are proposed to solve this problem. From the practical viewpoint, the voltage feed-forward control is easy to achieve. It can suppress the current oscillation problems, and also improve the filtering effect. The feasibility of the methods is validated by both the emulation and experiment results.