Effects of Fertilization on Rice Grain Yield and Incidents of Pests and Diseases

Fan Luo,Xue-Feng Hu,Qing Teng,Ming-Yang Cao,Min-Yong Yang 한국토양비료학회 2014 한국토양비료학회 학술발표회 초록집 Vol.2014 No.6

Water photolysis at 12.3% efficiency via perovskite photovoltaics and Earth-abundant catalysts

Luo, Jingshan,Im, Jeong-Hyeok,Mayer, Matthew T.,Schreier, Marcel,Nazeeruddin, Mohammad Khaja,Park, Nam-Gyu,Tilley, S. David,Fan, Hong Jin,Grä,tzel, Michael American Association for the Advancement of Scienc 2014 Science Vol.345 No.6204

<P><B>The power of a pair of perovskites</B></P><P>In the past several years, perovskite solar cells have emerged as a low-cost experimental alternative to more traditional silicon devices. Luo <I>et al.</I> now show that a pair of perovskite cells connected in series can power the electrochemical breakdown of water into hydrogen and oxygen efficiently (see the Perspective by Hamann). Hydrogen generation from water is being actively studied as a supplement in solar power generation to smooth out the fluctuations due to variations in sunlight.</P><P><I>Science</I>, this issue p. 1593; see also p. 1566</P><P>Although sunlight-driven water splitting is a promising route to sustainable hydrogen fuel production, widespread implementation is hampered by the expense of the necessary photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical apparatus. Here, we describe a highly efficient and low-cost water-splitting cell combining a state-of-the-art solution-processed perovskite tandem solar cell and a bifunctional Earth-abundant catalyst. The catalyst electrode, a NiFe layered double hydroxide, exhibits high activity toward both the oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions in alkaline electrolyte. The combination of the two yields a water-splitting photocurrent density of around 10 milliamperes per square centimeter, corresponding to a solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of 12.3%. Currently, the perovskite instability limits the cell lifetime.</P>

Supportive Chinese supervisor, innovative international students: a social exchange theory perspective

Luo Fan,Monowar Mahmood,Md. Aftab Uddin 서울대학교 교육연구소 2019 Asia Pacific Education Review Vol.20 No.1

This study investigates the impact of supervisor support on research innovation pursuit among international doctoral students in China. A total of 120 international doctoral students’ responses were employed through random sampling from the three business schools of Chinese public universities. The data were analyzed using the partial least squares technique, a second-generation statistical software package for structural equation modeling. The results revealed that supervisor support significantly affects students’ research innovation endeavors. The study also suggests that supportive supervision is necessary for fostering citizenship behavior, creativity and innovation pursuit among international doctoral students. The findings of this pioneering study will help higher education administrators, and policymakers revisit existing doctoral program management and deliveries processes and encourage academic supervisors to modify guidance and mentoring procedures for doctoral students.

Cloning and Expression of Yak Active Chymosin in Pichia pastoris

Luo, Fan,Jiang, Wei Hua,Yang, Yuan Xiao,Li, Jiang,Jiang, Ming Feng Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2016 Animal Bioscience Vol.29 No.9

Rennet, a complex of enzymes found in the stomachs of ruminants, is an important component for cheese production. In our study, we described that yak chymosin gene recombinant Pichia pastoris strain could serve as a novel source for rennet production. Yaks total RNA was extracted from the abomasum of an unweaned yak. The yak preprochymosin, prochymosin, and chymosin genes from total RNA were isolated using gene specific primers based on cattle chymosin gene sequence respectively and analyzed their expression pattern byreal time-polymerase chain reaction. The result showed that the chymosin gene expression level of the sucking yaks was 11.45 times higher than one of adult yaks and yak chymosin belongs to Bovidae family in phylogenetic analysis. To express each, the preprochymosin, prochymosin, and chymosin genes were ligated into the expression vector $pPICZ{\alpha}A$, respectively, and were expressed in Pichia pastoris X33. The results showed that all the recombinant clones of P. pastoris containing the preprochymosin, prochymosin or chymosin genes could produce the active form of recombinant chymosin into the culture supernatant. Heterologous expressed prochymosin (14.55 Soxhlet unit/mL) had the highest enzyme activity of the three expressed chymosin enzymes. Therefore, we suggest that the yak chymosin gene recombinant Pichia pastoris strain could provide an alternative source of rennet production.

Allergen-Dependent Differences in ILC2s Frequencies in Patients With Allergic Rhinitis

Dachuan Fan,Xiangdong Wang,Min Wang,Yang Wang,Liang Zhang,Ying Li,Erzhong Fan,Feifei Cao,Koen Van Crombruggen,Luo Zhang 대한천식알레르기학회 2016 Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Research Vol.8 No.3

Purpose: Group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) are a novel population of lineage-negative cells that induce innate type 2 responses by producing the critical Th2-type cytokines IL-5 and IL-13 in response to IL-25 and IL-33 stimulation. ILC2s accumulation in the peripheral blood of patients with allergic rhinitis (AR) is controversial; the precise role of ILC2s in the immunopathogenesis of AR is still not clear. We investigated the role of ILC2s in phenotypic AR sensitized to distinct allergens. Methods: Flow cytometric analysis of the peripheral blood of 7 healthy controls (HCs), 9 patients monosensitized to house dust mite (HDM), and 8 patients monosensitized to mugwort was performed to quantify ILC2s frequency. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated from HDM-AR and mugwort-AR patients, and Lineage- and Lineage+ cells were separated using a fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS). IL-5 and IL-13 levels in the supernatants of PBMCs, and Lineage- and Lineage+ cells stimulated with IL-25 and/or IL-33 combined with IL-2 in vitro were assessed using the Milliplex magnetic bead kit. Results: The percentage of ILC2s was significantly elevated in HDM-AR patients compared to mugwort-AR patients and HCs, while no significant difference was found between mugwort-AR patients and HCs. IL-33±IL-25 plus IL-2 induced a significantly greater release of IL-5 and IL-13 in the PBMCs of HDM-AR patients compared to PBMCs of mugwort-AR patients. IL-25 plus IL-2 also induced a significantly greater release of IL-13 in the PBMCs of HDM-AR patients compared to PBMCs of mugwort-AR patients. Stimulation with IL-33 and/or IL-25 combined with IL-2 also induced a significantly greater IL-5 and IL-13 release from Lineage- cells compared to Lineage+ cells. Conclusions: AR patients sensitized to HDM or mugwort allergen have distinct phenotypic and functional profiles in ILC2s frequencies. ILC2s mediate major type 2 immunity in the development of HDM-AR and may be a potential therapeutic target.

Lycium barbarum Polysaccharides Induce Apoptosis in Human Prostate Cancer Cells and Inhibits Prostate Cancer Growth in a Xenograft Mouse Model of Human Prostate Cancer

Luo, Qiong,Li, Zhuoneng,Yan, Jun,Zhu, Fan,Xu, Ruo-Jun,Cai, Yi-Zhong The Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition 2009 Journal of medicinal food Vol.12 No.4

Lycium barbarum polysaccharides (LBPs) are important functional constituents in red-colored fruits of L. barbarum (Guo Qi Zi, a well-known traditional Chinese medicinal plant commonly known as Goji berry or wolfberry). The influence of LBP on human prostate cancer cells was systematically investigated in vitro and in vivo. The in vitro effects of LBP on two cell lines (PC-3 and DU-145) were examined by using trypan blue exclusion staining, single-cell gel electrophoresis, flow cytometry, terminal dUTP nick-end labeling assay, and immunohistochemical assay (assessment of Bcl-2 and Bax expression). The in vivo effect of LBP on PC-3 cells was assessed in the nude mouse xenograft tumor model. The in vitro results showed that LBP can dose- and time-dependently inhibit the growth of both PC-3 and DU-145 cells. LBP caused the breakage of DNA strands of PC-3 and DU-145 cells; the tail frequency and tail length were significantly higher than that of control cells. LBP also markedly induced PC-3 and DU-145 cell apoptosis, with the highest apoptosis rates at 41.5% and 35.5%, respectively. The ratio of Bcl-2/Bax protein expression following LBP treatments decreased significantly with a dose. effect relationship, which suggested that LBP can regulate the expression of Bcl-2 and Bax to induce apoptosis of PC-3 and DU-145 cells. The in vivo experimental results indicate that LBP might significantly inhibit PC-3 tumor growth in nude mice. Both the tumor volume and weight of the LBP treatment group were significantly lower than those of the control group.

MINIMAL AND MAXIMAL BOUNDED SOLUTIONS FOR QUADRATIC BSDES WITH STOCHASTIC CONDITIONS

Fan, Shengjun,Luo, Huanhuan Korean Mathematical Society 2017 대한수학회보 Vol.54 No.6

This paper is devoted to the minimal and maximal bounded solutions for general time interval quadratic backward stochastic differential equations with stochastic conditions. A general existence result is established by the method of convolution, the exponential transform, Girsanov's transform and a priori estimates, where the terminal time is allowed to be finite or infinite, and the generator g is allowed to have a stochastic semi-linear growth and a general growth in y, and a quadratic growth in z. This improves some existing results at some extent. Some new ideas and techniques are also applied to prove it.

Effects of Nb Addition and Heat Treatment on the Crystallization Behavior, Thermal Stability and Soft Magnetic Properties of FeSiBPCuC Alloys

Fan Chenfeng,Yang Yuanzheng,Xu Jia,Luo Ting,Wang GuoTai 한국물리학회 2020 THE JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY Vol.77 No.2

In this paper, the effect of the replacement of Fe by Nb on the glass forming ability (GFA), the thermal stability and the crystallization behavior of Fe84.5-xSi0.5B10.5P3.5Cu0.7C0.3Nbx (x = 0, 1, 2) alloys were investigated. The results show that the addition of Nb increases the GFA. Increasing Nb content can enhance the first onset crystallization temperature (Tx1), the second onset crystallization temperature (Tx2) and ΔTx (ΔTx = Tx2 - Tx1), which broadens the range of annealing temperatures. The coercivity (Hc) of ribbons decreases with increasing Nb content after annealing at a low heating rate and reach as a minimum of 24.5 A/m when the Nb content is 2 at.%. The process of annealing at a high heating rate distinctly decreases Hc, and all samples present excellent soft magnetic properties. The nanocrystalline alloy exhibits the lowest Hc of 6.4 A/m after annealing at 460 °C for 5 min.

Identification and comparative analysis of piRNAs in ovary and testis of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

Fan Yu,Xi Gan,Yi Zhou,Huan Zhong,Jun Xiao,Jinpeng Yan,Yongju Luo 한국유전학회 2016 Genes & Genomics Vol.38 No.6

It has been shown that piRNA is the largest class of small non-coding RNA in germline cells of animals which plays key roles in transposons regulation and transcriptional activities. In the present study, piRNAs from two small RNA libraries including ovary and testis of Nile tilapia were identified and characterized. By length and k-mer based small RNA prediction algorithm, 279,059 and 583,230 small RNA reads were confirmed as piRNA from ovary and testis, respectively. The identified piRNAs showed evolutionarily conserved characterization, such as uridine bias in the 50 ends. The 142,961 and 296,775 piRNAs from ovary and testis were mapped to the draft assembly of the tilapia genome, respectively. Both ovary and testis piRNAs were enriched from linkage (LG)6 and LG7. Meanwhile, the even distribution of ?strand and -strand suggested the Ping–pong pathway (a double-displacement reaction of ?strand and -strand) hypothesis. These piRNAs were derived from the upstream -2 kb and downstream ?2 kb as well as gene regions which suggested a regulatory function on transcription activities. In gene regions, abundant piRNAs were derived from 50UTR, 30UTR and CDS. Furthermore, we characterized the differentially expressed piRNAs between ovary and testis. In total, 1979 and 2453 piRNAs were significantly higher and lower expressed in ovary compared to that in testis, respectively. Thereinto, the most concentrated up-regulate and down-regulate piRNAs were both from serine/threonine– protein kinase PIM genes of different transcripts. These findings will be helpful to facilitate studies on the piRNAs regulation on genes during gonad development of teleosts.

Deregulated Expression of Cry1 and Cry2 in Human Gliomas

Luo, Yong,Wang, Fan,Chen, Lv-An,Chen, Xiao-Wei,Chen, Zhi-Jun,Liu, Ping-Fei,Li, Fen-Fen,Li, Cai-Yan,Liang, Wu Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2012 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.13 No.11

Growing evidence shows that deregulation of the circadian clock plays an important role in the development of malignant tumors, including gliomas. However, the molecular mechanisms of gene chnages controlling circadian rhythm in glioma cells have not been explored. Using real time polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry techniques, we examined the expression of two important clock genes, cry1 and cry2, in 69 gliomas. In this study, out of 69 gliomas, 38 were cry1-positive, and 51 were cry2-positive. The expression levels of cry1 and cry2 in glioma cells were significantly different from the surrounding non-glioma cells (P<0.01). The difference in the expression rate of cry1 and cry 2 in high-grade (grade III and IV) and low-grade (grade 1 and II) gliomas was non-significant (P>0.05) but there was a difference in the intensity of immunoactivity for cry 2 between high-grade gliomas and low-grade gliomas (r=-0.384, P=0.021). In this study, we found that the expression of cry1 and cry2 in glioma cells was much lower than in the surrounding non-glioma cells. Therefore, we suggest that disturbances in cry1 and cry2 expression may result in the disruption of the control of normal circadian rhythm, thus benefiting the survival of glioma cells. Differential expression of circadian clock genes in glioma and non-glioma cells may provide a molecular basis for the chemotherapy of gliomas.