Effects of Aqueous Extract of Schizandra Chinensis Fruit on Cadmium-Induced Change of Monoamine Neurotransmitters in Rats

Zheng Lin Zhao,Guang Wen Zhao,Li Li,Meng Quan Li,Li Xin Guan,Xu Dong Yang,Hou Zhong Li,Feng Lin,Jong Rok Lee,Rong Jie Zhao 한국독성학회 2009 Toxicological Research Vol.25 No.1

The effects of aqueous extract of Schizandra Chinensis Fruit (AESC) on cadmium-induced changes of monoamine neurotransmitters in the different brain regions of adult rats were investigated. Male rats were received intraperitoneal (i.p.) administration of CdCl₂ (0.6 ㎎/㎏/d) for 21 days and sacrificed 7 days after the last administration. Concentrations of norepinephrine (NE), dopamine (DA) in striatum and serotonin (5-HT), 5-hydroxyindole acetic acid (5-HIAA) in cortex were measured by HPLC. There were significant decreases of NE, DA, 5-HT and 5-HIAA in Cd intoxicated rats (P < 0.05), while pretreatment with AESC (20 ㎎/㎏/d or 60 mg/kg/d, p.o., 30 min before CdCl₂) greatly inhibited the decrease of monoamine transmitters, respectively (P < 0.05). Also, AESC significantly increased the reduction of glutathione contents and superoxide dismutase activities in cortex induced by CdCl₂. These results suggest that AESC ameliorates Cd-induced depletion of monoamine neurotransmitters in brain through its antioxidant activity.

Crystallization and melting behavior of polypropylene in b-PP/polyamide 6 blends containing PP-g-MA

Zhidan Lin,Zixian Guan,Baofeng Xu,Chao Chen,Guangheng Guo,Jiaxian Zhou,Jiaming Xian,Lin Cao,Yueliang Wang,Mingqing Li,Wei Li 한국공업화학회 2013 Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Vol.19 No.2

In this research, we used a twin-screw extruder to melt and blend PP-g-MA compatibilizer with bpolypropylene (PP)/polyamide 6 (PA6). The influences of the PA6 and PP-g-MA contents in PP/PA6 blends on crystallization and melting behavior of PP phase and morphology were investigated. The results showed that, when PP-g-MA copolymer was added to the b form of nucleated PP/PA6 blends, the anhydride groups in PP-g-MA and PA6 terminal amine groups react to form PP-g-PA graft copolymer in a two-phase interface. This reduces the interfacial tension, improves the interfacial adhesion, and reduces the size of PA6 domains in the blend. The generated PP-g-PA graft copolymer wrapped PA6 phase and buried the anhydride groups of PP-g-MA. When the proportion of PP-g-MA and PA6 was between 0.5 and 0.75, there was no longer interfering to the formation of b-crystals in the PP phase. The content of bcrystal of PP phase in blends was found to reach as large as 85.9%.

Bimodal Phenomenon of the Stress–Strain Curve During Hot Compression of LA43M Mg–Li Alloy

Yi Li,Yanjin Guan,Hu Chen,Jiqiang Zhai,Jun Lin,Liang Chen 대한금속·재료학회 2021 METALS AND MATERIALS International Vol.27 No.10

In this study, the samples of LA43M Mg–Li alloy were compressed to the true strains of 0.12, 0.16, 0.36 and 0.60 under300 °C and the strain rate of 0.1 s−1. Under this condition, the stress–strain curves present a special bimodal phenomenon atthe early deformation stage, which is caused by twinning and dynamic recrystallization. In the process of hot compression,extension twins generated first. Twinning accommodated strain and the glide of twinning dislocations dissipated local strainenergy, resulting in the first local stress drop. Then extension twins coarsened and devoured all the matrix, leading to thechange of grain orientation. Subsequently, dislocations accumulated at the grain boundaries and resulted in the increase instress. With further strain, dynamic recrystallization occurred, discontinuous dynamic recrystallization is the main dynamicrecrystallization mechanism. The generation of dynamic recrystallization resulted in the strain softening and leaded tothe second local stress drop. Twinning retards the occurrence dynamic recrystallization and has a crucial influence on themicrostructure development during the hot compression of LA43M.

Effects of Aqueous Extract of Schizandra Chinensis Fruit on Cadmium-Induced Change of Monoamine Neurotransmitters in Rats

Zhao, Zheng Lin,Zhao, Guang Wen,Li, Li,Li, Meng Quan,Guan, Li Xin,Yang, Xu Dong,Li, Hou Zhong,Lin, Feng,Lee, Jong-Rok,Zhao, Rong Jie Korean Society of ToxicologyKorea Environmental Mu 2009 Toxicological Research Vol.26 No.1

The effects of aqueous extract of Schizandra Chinensis Fruit (AESC) on cadmium-induced changes of monoamine neurotransmitters in the different brain regions of adult rats were investigated. Male rats were received intraperitoneal (i.p.) administration of CdCl2 (0.6 mg/kg/d) for 21 days and sacrificed 7 days after the last administration. Concentrations of norepinephrine (NE), dopamine (DA) in striatum and serotonin (5-HT), 5-hydroxyindole acetic acid (5-HIAA) in cortex were measured by HPLC. There were significant decreases of NE, DA, 5-HT and 5-HIAA in Cd intoxicated rats (P < 0.05), while pretreatment with AESC (20 mg/kg/d or 60 mg/kg/d, p.o., 30 min before $CdCl_2$) greatly inhibited the decrease of monoamine transmitters, respectively (P < 0.05). Also, AESC significantly increased the reduction of glutathione contents and superoxide dismutase activities in cortex induced by $CdCl_2$. These results suggest that AESC ameliorates Cd-induced depletion of monoamine neurotransmitters in brain through its antioxidant activity.

First Report on Bacterial Heart Rot of Garlic Caused by Pseudomonas fluorescens in China

Li, Bin,Yu, Rong Rong,Yu, Shan Hong,Qiu, Wen,Fang, Yuan,Xie, Guan Lin The Korean Society of Plant Pathology 2009 Plant Pathology Journal Vol.25 No.1

An unreported disease of garlic was observed in commercial fields in Jiangsu province, China. The symptoms started as water soaked lesions at the base of the leaves. Later, water-soaked areas developed on stems and spread to the internal tissues, followed by yellowing and necrosis along leaf edges and soft rot of the stems. The causal organism isolated from symptomatic plants was identified as Pseudomonas fluorescens based on its biochemical and physiological characteristics and confirmed by the cellular fatty acid composition and Biolog data as well as 168 rRNA gene sequence analysis. The bacterial isolates caused similar symptoms when inoculated onto garlic plants. In addition, leek and shallot were susceptible to the P. fluorescens pathogen. However, the P. fluorescens pathogen failed to cause any symptoms when it was inoculated onto 15 other plants. This is the first report of a bacterial disease of garlic caused by P. fluorescens in China.

Arm Exoskeleton Rehabilitation Robot with Assistive System for Patient after Stroke

Guan De Lee,Wei-Wen Wang,Kai-Wen Lee,Sheng-Yen Lin,Li-Chen Fu,Jin-Shin Lai,Wen-Shiang Chen,Jer-Junn Luh 제어로봇시스템학회 2012 제어로봇시스템학회 국제학술대회 논문집 Vol.2012 No.10

Exercise dosage is proven to be an important factor in the physical treatment. Robot assistive approach can improve the rehabilitation quality and evaluate patient’s recovery quantitatively. This paper presents kinematic structure, assistive control system, and integrated F/T sensor for an upper limb rehabilitation robot. By using the human arm dynamic, there are three rehabilitation modes presented in this paper: active mode, assistive mode, and passive mode. In assistive mode, we have two strategies to implement it. One is to amplify interactive torque, and the other is to apply assist-as-needed concept. The goal of this mode is to assist patients to finish motion tasks. The rehabilitation robot under investigation has 7 degree of freedom (DOF) actuated by DC motors, which are programmed to drive the robot arm in the 3D space. To validate our control design, some realistic experiments are conducted and its satisfactory performance is demonstrated. This work is approved clinical testing by the Department of Health, Executive Yuan, R.O.C. So far, we are demonstrating the effect of our controller.

Virtual Screening and Testing of GSK-3 Inhibitors Using Human SH-SY5Y Cells Expressing Tau Folding Reporter and Mouse Hippocampal Primary Culture under Tau Cytotoxicity

Lin Chih-Hsin,Hsieh Yu-Shao,Sun Ying-Chieh,Huang Wun-Han,Chen Shu-Ling,Weng Zheng-Kui,Lin Te-Hsien,Wu Yih-Ru,Chang Kuo-Hsuan,Huang Hei-Jen,Lee Guan-Chiun,Hsieh-Li Hsiu Mei,Lee-Chen Guey-Jen 한국응용약물학회 2023 Biomolecules & Therapeutics(구 응용약물학회지) Vol.31 No.1

Glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) is an important serine/threonine kinase that implicates in multiple cellular processes and links with the neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In this study, structure-based virtual screening was performed to search database for compounds targeting GSK-3β from Enamine’s screening collection. Of the top-ranked compounds, 7 primary hits underwent a luminescent kinase assay and a cell assay using human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells expressing Tau repeat domain (TauRD) with pro-aggregant mutation ΔK280. In the kinase assay for these 7 compounds, residual GSK-3β activities ranged from 36.1% to 90.0% were detected at the IC50 of SB-216763. In the cell assay, only compounds VB-030 and VB-037 reduced Tau aggregation in SH-SY5Y cells expressing ΔK280 TauRD-DsRed folding reporter. In SH-SY5Y cells expressing ΔK280 TauRD, neither VB-030 nor VB-037 increased expression of GSK-3α Ser21 or GSK-3β Ser9. Among extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), AKT serine/threonine kinase 1 (AKT), mitogen-activated protein kinase 14 (P38) and mitogenactivated protein kinase 8 (JNK) which modulate Tau phosphorylation, VB-037 attenuated active phosphorylation of P38 Thr180/ Tyr182, whereas VB-030 had no effect on the phosphorylation status of ERK, AKT, P38 or JNK. However, both VB-030 and VB-037 reduced endogenous Tau phosphorylation at Ser202, Thr231, Ser396 and Ser404 in neuronally differentiated SH-SY5Y expressing ΔK280 TauRD. In addition, VB-030 and VB-037 further improved neuronal survival and/or neurite length and branch in mouse hippocampal primary culture under Tau cytotoxicity. Overall, through inhibiting GSK-3β kinase activity and/or p-P38 (Thr180/Tyr182), both compounds may serve as promising candidates to reduce Tau aggregation/cytotoxicity for AD treatment.

Distinctive Endophytic Fungal Assemblage in Stems of Wild Rice (Oryza granulata) in China with Special Reference to Two Species of Muscodor (Xylariaceae)

Zhi-lin Yuan,Zhen-zhu Su,Li-juan Mao,Yang-qing Peng,Guan-mei Yang,Fu-cheng Lin,Chu-long Zhang 한국미생물학회 2011 The journal of microbiology Vol.49 No.1

Ecological niches in the rhizosphere and phyllosphere of grasses capable of sustaining endophytes have been extensively studied. In contrast, little information regarding the identity and functions of endophytic fungi in stems is available. In this study, we investigated the taxonomic affinities, diversity, and host specificities of culturable endophytes in stems of wild rice (Oryza granulata) in China. Seventy-four isolates were recovered. Low recovery rate (11.7%) indicated that there were relatively few sites for fungal infection. Identification using morphology, morphospecies sorting, and molecular techniques resulted in classification into 50 taxa, 36 of which were recovered only once. Nucleotide sequence similarity analysis indicated that 30% of the total taxa recovered were highly divergent from known species and thus may represent lineages new to science. Most of the taxa were classified as members of the classes Sordariomycetes or Dothideomycetes (mainly in Pleosporales). The presence of Arthrinium and Magnaporthaceae species, most often associated with poaceous plants, suggested a degree of host specificity. A polyphasic approach was employed to identify two Muscodor taxa based on (i) ITS and RPB2 phylogenies, (ii) volatile compounds produced, and (iii)an in vitro bioassay of antifungal activity. This to our knowledge is only the second report regarding the isolation of Muscodor spp. in China. Therefore, we hypothesize that wild plants represent a huge reservoir of unknown fungi. The prevalence, novelty, and species-specificity of unique isolates necessitate a reevaluation of their contribution to ecosystem function and fungal biodiversity.

First Report on Bacterial Heart Rot of Garlic Caused by Pseudomonas fluorescens in China

Bin Li,Rong Rong Yu,Shan Hong Yu,Wen Qiu,Yuan Fang,Guan Lin Xie 한국식물병리학회 2009 Plant Pathology Journal Vol.25 No.1

An unreported disease of garlic was observed in commercial fields in Jiangsu province, China. The symptoms started as water soaked lesions at the base of the leaves. Later, water-soaked areas developed on stems and spread to the internal tissues, followed by yellowing and necrosis along leaf edges and soft rot of the stems. The causal organism isolated from symptomatic plants was identified as Pseudomonas fluorescens based on its biochemical and physiological characteristics and confirmed by the cellular fatty acid composition and Biolog data as well as 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. The bacterial isolates caused similar symptoms when inoculated onto garlic plants. In addition, leek and shallot were susceptible to the P. fluorescens pathogen. However, the P. fluorescens pathogen failed to cause any symptoms when it was inoculated onto 15 other plants. This is the first report of a bacterial disease of garlic caused by P. fluorescens in China.

Improved extended kalman filter based on fuzzy adaptation for SLAM in underground tunnels

Zhu-Li Ren,Li-Guan Wang,Lin Bi 한국정밀공학회 2019 International Journal of Precision Engineering and Vol.20 No.12

This study aims to investigate autonomous location and environment mapping of moving objects under conditions of dust and weak illumination in underground tunnels. The standard extended Kalman filter (EKF) algorithm has a issue that system noise and the prior statistical characteristics of the observed noise cannot be accurately predicted. Thus, we propose an improved EKF algorithm to perform fuzzy adaptive simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). Laser matching is added to EKF prediction phase to predict the position, and the weighted average position is used as the final position of the predicted part. By observing the change of the mean value and covariance, the system noise and the weighted value of the observed noise are fuzzy adjusted. The improved filtering algorithm is applied to a SLAM simulation experiment, and the influence of four different landmark arrangements on position estimation is considered. The results show that the positioning and composition accuracy can be improved using the new algorithm, and the accuracy of positioning and composition is increased by more than 53.8% compared with standard EKF in y-direction. It is also found that a landmark layout along the center line of a roadway roof is superior to other arrangement methods.