Automatic Instrument Research Articles

Evaluation of minimally invasive muscle biopsy method for genetic analysis in horse

Abstract In horses, muscle biopsy is widely used in veterinary practice for routine diagnosis of various muscle disorders. Development of genetic methods such as gene expression measurements using microarrays, RNA-seq, and real-time PCR leads to searching an alternative, less invasive biopsy method in order to obtain an appropriately representative group of animals for genetic testing. In the present study, we proposed a minimally invasive method of muscle sample biopsy using Pro- MagTM Ultra Automatic Biopsy Instrument (Surgical Specialties Corporation, US, Inc.), which is commonly utilized in human medicine. This approach does not require skin incisions and usage of stitches. The quantity of muscle sample gained in accordance with presented procedure was sufficient to obtain RNA with a good quality. Furthermore, application of the automatic biopsy instrument allows obtaining a sufficient amount of biological material for genetic analysis from a wide variety of tissues. Moreover, samples acquired according to this method could be used in other analyses.

Effects of intermedin on dorsal root ganglia in the transmission of neuropathic pain in chronic constriction injury rats.

Neuropathic pain is a common and severely disabling state that affects millions of people worldwide. The P2X3 receptor plays a crucial role in facilitating pain transmission. Intermedin (IMD), which is also known as adrenomedullin 2 (AMD2) is a newly discovered hormone that is a member of the calcitonin/calcitonin gene-related peptide family. The present research investigates the effects of IMD on pain transmission in neuropathic pain states as mediated by P2X3 receptors in dorsal root ganglia (DRG). Chronic constriction injury (CCI) rats were used as the neuropathic pain model. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to five groups as follows: blank control group (Control), sham operation group (Sham), CCI rats treated with saline group (CCI+NS), CCI rats treated with IMD1-53 group (CCI+IMD1-53 ), and CCI rats treated with IMD inhibitor IMD14-47 group (CCI+IMD14-47 ). The mechanical withdrawal threshold (MWT) was tested by the von Frey method, and the thermal withdrawal latency (TWL) was tested via automatic thermal stimulus instruments. Changes in the expression of P2X3 receptors and IMD in CCI rat L4/L5 DRG were detected using immunohistochemistry, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, and Western blotting. After treatment with intrathecal injection (i.t.), mechanical and thermal hyperalgesia in the CCI+IMD1-53 group was maintained, but MWT and TWL in the CCI+IMD14-47 groups increased. The expression levels of P2X3 receptors and IMD in L4/L5 DRG in the CCI+NS and CCI+IMD1-53 groups were significantly increased compared with those in the Control group or the Sham group. After application of IMD14-47 in CCI rats, there was a decrease in the expression levels of P2X3 receptors and IMD in L4/L5 DRG. The phosphorylation of p38 and ERK1/2 in L4/L5 DRG in the CCI+NS group and the CCI+IMD1-53 group was stronger than that in the Control group or the Sham group; however, the phosphorylation of p38 and ERK1/2 in the CCI+IMD14-47 group was much lower than that in the CCI+NS group or the CCI+IMD1-53 group. Our findings indicate that IMD might increase the sensitization effects of IMD on P2X3 receptors to alleviate chronic neuropathic pain injury. The IMD agonist IMD1-53 might enhance nociceptive responses mediated by P2X3 receptors in neuropathic pain, and the IMD inhibitor IMD14-47 could inhibit the sensitization of the P2X3 receptor in chronic neuropathic pain injury.

Dialysis-related peritonitis caused by Gordonia sputi in patient with chronic renal failure

Gordonia species had been reported to be a rare cause of human infection. This may be because they are easily misidentified as Rhodococcus, Nocardia, Arthrobacter or other Actinomycetes by routine biochemical tests. Here, we report a case of dialysis-related peritonitis caused by Gordonia sputi in a patient with chronic renal failure. The organism was not identified originally using an automatic identification instrument (VITEK Compact). The strain was finally identified as G. sputi by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry and sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene.

Real-time and label-free ring-resonator monitoring of solid-phase recombinase polymerase amplification.

In this work we present the use of a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) chip featuring an array of 64 optical ring resonators used as refractive index sensors for real-time and label-free DNA detection. Single ring functionalisation was achieved using a click reaction after precise nanolitre spotting of specific hexynyl-terminated DNA capture probes to link to an azido-silanised chip surface. To demonstrate detectability using the ring resonators and to optimise conditions for solid-phase amplification, hybridisation between short 25-mer single stranded DNA (ssDNA) fragments and a complementary capture probe immobilised on the surface of the ring resonators was carried out and detected through the shift in the resonant wavelength. Using the optimised conditions demonstrated via the solid-phase hybridisation, a 144-bp double stranded DNA (dsDNA) was then detected directly using recombinase and polymerase proteins through on-chip target amplification and solid-phase elongation of immobilised forward primers on specific rings, at a constant temperature of 37°C and in less than 60min, achieving a limit of detection of 7.8·10(-13)M (6·10(5) copies in 50µL). The use of an automatic liquid handler injection instrument connected to an integrated resealable chip interface (RCI) allowed programmable multiple injection protocols. Air plugs between different solutions were introduced to prevent intermixing and a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) temperature controller minimised temperature based drifts.

Automatic musical instrument classification using fractional fourier transform based- MFCC features and counter propagation neural network

This paper presents a novel feature extraction scheme for automatic classification of musical instruments using Fractional Fourier Transform (FrFT)-based Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficient (MFCC) features. The classifier model for the proposed system has been built using Counter Propagation Neural Network (CPNN). The discriminating capability of the proposed features have been maximized for between-class instruments and minimized for within-class instruments compared to other conventional features. Also, the proposed features show significant improvement in classification accuracy and robustness against Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) compared to other conventional features. McGill University Master Sample (MUMS) sound database has been used to test the performance of the system.

Abstract P5-10-11: Comparison of the parallel quantitative expression profiling in paired FF and FFPE samples with IHC4 by using two prespecified prognostic models

Abstract Introduction: Breast cancer is one of the leading malignancies and causes of cancer death for women now in China especially in the developed cities. Early diagnosis and adjuvant therapy have helped to improve the survival of the patients. The technique limitation slowed the pace of development of gene expression profiling. QuantiGene Plex(QGP) assay of bDNA technique without requiring RNA extraction, cDNA synthesis or PCR amplification which is suitable for the FFPE samples analysis. QGP could quantify the expression of RNA in FFPE tissues. Our primary purpose was to verify the value of the QGP platform in conjunction with multi-analysis in paired FFPE and FF tissues. The second purpose is focusing the key genes (ESR1, PGR, ERBB2 and MKI67) expression signature in early breast cancer patients (T1-2N0-1M0), and compare the gene expression profiling with the immunohistochemistry(IHC) corresponding panels by using two prespecified models-power and linear, based on the different combinations of the variables (FF4_P, FF4_L, FFPE4_P, FFPE_L, IHC4_P, IHC4_L). Methods: We retrospectively selected 103 paired archival tumor blocks and fresh frozen samples consecutively from the fresh tissue bank from the year 2006 to now. All the tissues are without neoadjuvant treatment. The tumor specimens with local recurrence or distance metastasis had the priority. The QGP data were harvested from a paralled bDNA assay with multiplex capability of the Luminex platform by coupling xMAP fluorescent beads. We compared the QGP result of FFPE samples with FF and IHC results head-to-head. We used automatic IHC staining instrument (BenchMark XT) to retest all the Ki67 staining. We divide the total sample into training and test groups. According to the data from the training group to create the two models, and through the cross-validation to build a model based on a subset of the provided data, then calculate their average value to create the final model. And then through the test group on the construction of group training model validation. Results: The storage time of the FF and FFPE samples used in our study ranged from 20.5 to 96.6 months. There is no different expression in each storage times intergroup and intra-group. FFPE and FF of QGP assay (single gene markers ESR1, PGR, HER2, and MKI67) correlated with the IHC result. The two models created the different scores. Both the power and linear models scores of FF4, FFPE4 and IHC4 are the prognostic factors in univariate and multivariate analysis of disease free survival with significant statistic(p<0.01), but in the bootstrapping resampling the FFPE4_L was borderline (p=0.068). The AUC of ROC in the test group is from 0.760-0.820 of each scores, and there is no statistic difference between each AUC. Conclusion:The multiplex bDNA assay is a reliable and accuracy technique, and could bridge the gap among the FF tissue to FFPE. The both models of QGP could be complement of the immunohistochemistry panels and provide more reproducible results. The parallel multiplex QGP could leading to a great potential for translational cancer research for future study and resolve the complex pathological interpreting. Citation Format: Xiaoyan Huang, Genhong Di, Xiaojing Xu, Bingyu Sun, Rui Bi, Wentao Yang, Rui Li, Guangyu Liu, Jiong Wu, Zhenzhou Shen, Zhimin Shao. Comparison of the parallel quantitative expression profiling in paired FF and FFPE samples with IHC4 by using two prespecified prognostic models [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Thirty-Seventh Annual CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: 2014 Dec 9-13; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(9 Suppl):Abstract nr P5-10-11.

Analysis of distribution and drug resistance of pathogenic bacteria in patients with lower respiratory tract infection in ICU

Objective To investigate the distribution and drug resistance of pathogenic bacteria in hospital ICU patients with lower respiratory tract infection, and provide scientific reference for clinical rational drug use. Methods The strains were identified by VITEK- 32 automatic bacterial identification instrument,the bacterial sensitivity was determined by K- B disk diffusion method,and the statistical analysis was performed by WHONET 5.4 software. Results The total isolated pathogenic bacteria of lower respiratory tract infection in ICU patients was 453 strains.332 strains of gram negative bacteria accounted for 73.3%,and the former three ones were Pseudomonas aeruginosa(115 strains,accounted for 25.4%),Klebsiella pneumonia(90 strains, accounted for 19.8%), Acinetobacter baumannii(38 strains, accounted for 8.4%).102 strains of gram positive bacteria accounted for 22.5%,and the top three were Staphylococcus aureus(31 strains,accounted for 6.8%), coagulase negative Staphylococcus(22 strains, accounted for 4.9%), Enterococcus(18 strains, accounted for 4%). Meropenem,imipenem(Stenotrophomonas maltophilia was excepted), Cefoperazone/ sulbactam and Amikacin were most sensitive against gram negative bacteria; Teicoplanin and vancomycin were highly sensitive against gram positive bacteria. Conclusion The main pathogenic bacteria of respiratory tract infection in ICU patients was gram negative bacilli,which were seriously resistant to commonly used antimicrobial drugs. So strengthening the infection management of ICU and the control for risk factors,and rationally using of antimicrobial drugs has great significance in reducing the drug resistance of pathogenic bacteria rate. Key words: ICU; lower respiratory tract infection; pathogenic bacteria; drug resistance

Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor in Patients with Affective Disorders

Currently new biological models of the pathogenesis of affective disorders are developed which give crucial irregularities in neurotrophic factors. Objectives of the study was to investigation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) with study the polymorphisms of locus rs6265 of gene BDNF and the content of BDNF in the serum of patients with affective disorders and healthy persons. We studied the patients with a current depressive episode (F32, F33, ICD-10, 218 persons) and 94 mentally healthy persons. Genotyping was performed with TaqMan® SNP Genotyping Assay and StepOnePlus Real-Time PCR System (Applied Biosystems, USA). The concentrations of BDNF was determined by enzyme immunoassay using reagent kits Human BDNF Immunoassay (R&D Systems) and automatic microplate spectrophotometer Epoch BioTek Instruments (USA). Statistical analysis was performed using the program SPSS, version 20.0. Statistical analysis of the results revealed a significant increased frequency of the allele T of gene BDNF in patients compared with healthy people (p=0,0003). Frequency of genotypes CT and TT in patients with affective disorders were significantly higher than in control (OR=1,62, 95% CI=0,94-2,78, p=0,003). The study of concentration of BDNF in patients showed slightly reduced level of neurotrophin in patients compared with healthy individuals (4852,02 (4052,7-4985,15) pg/ml and 4950,33 (4625,03-5003,58) pg/ml). Thus, patients with current depressive episode characterized by changes in the neurotrophic system, increased frequency of the allele T of locus rs6265 and reduced content of BDNF in serum. The investigation is supported by grant of President RF N14.120.14.3854-MK and project of RFBR N14-04-01157 and N14-04-31925.

New Test Method for Surveying Optical Level Instruments Using CMM as a Distance Comparator Technique

Surveying optical level instruments are used for measurement of levels (heights), lengths and distances in the range from 75 cm to 1 km in surveying measurement applications. The verifications of the accuracy of these instruments are realized by the international ISO Standard, ISO 17123-2. This standard needs to conduct complicated tests which take long time, labor and need to carry complicated mathematical analysis. The main problem of these tests that it does not depend on physical reference standard to compare the measurement to it in order to realize the traceability to the international system of units. This article presents a new solution for this problem by the aid of modern coordinate technology. The coordinate technology introduces the coordinate measuring machine which acts as a distance comparator and length reference standard to the tests of surveying optical levels instruments. Three different optical automatic level instruments: Nikon AP8, Nikon Ac-2s and Zeiss NI-007 are used in this article. The experimental results and their analysis allow for determination of the surveying levels errors in details. The regression analyses of distance errors of three types of level instruments are also discussed. Moreover, this work introduces an estimation of the measurements uncertainty that was not provided by the international Standard ISO 17123-2. The results of this work demonstrate the credibility of the accuracy of the results.

Rola automatycznych narzędzi fiskalnych w stabilizowaniu koniunktury w Polsce w latach 2000-2014

The aim of the study is to examine the character of the influence of automatic fiscal policy instruments on the shaping of internal stabilization of the market economy, where this stabilization involves limitation of the amplitude of business fluctuations, reduction of unemployment and restraint of the dynamics of inflation processes. The paper consists of an introduction, three parts and a conclusion. In the first part, after introductory remarks, hypotheses were formulated as concerns goals and role of automatic fiscal policy instruments in the process of stabilizing market economies. The second part presents evolution of tax fiscal instruments applied in Poland and ponders upon the question whether their influence is automatic or discretionary. The subsequent part contains the results of empirical analyses, showing the impact of automatically applied direct taxes on accomplishment of the goals of internal stabilization of Poland’s economy in the period from quarter I 2000 to quarter III 2014.

The effect of chest expansion resistance exercise in chronic stroke patients: a randomized controlled trial.

[Purpose] The aim of this study was to examine the initial effects of chest expansion resistance exercise (CERE) applied to chronic stroke patients on their pulmonary functions, chest expansion, and functional gait ability. [Subjects] Forty chronic stroke patients without any respiration-related rehabilitation program experience (21 men and 19 women; times elapsed since occurrence of stroke: 21.8 ± 5.3 months) were randomly and equally allocated to a CERE group (experimental group) and a control group. [Methods] An ordinary stroke rehabilitation program was performed on the subjects. While the experimental group received a CERE intervention, the control group performed passive range of motion exercise with automatic instruments. [Results] The CERE group’s chest expansion significantly increased after the intervention, whereas the control group did not see any significant difference. As regards VC (vital capacity), FVC (forced vital capacity), and FEV1 (forced expiratory volume in one second), there were no significant changes in either the CERE or control group. In the 10MTWT (10-meter timed walking test), there were no significant changes in either group, but in the 6MWT (6-minute walk test), while there were no significant differences in the control group, the CERE group saw significant changes. [Conclusion] The results of application of CERE to chronic stroke patients demonstrated the importance of respiratory exercise in an approach to stroke rehabilitation treatment intervention and the need to add respiratory exercise to a rehabilitation intervention program.

Surfactant Adsorbed at the Oil-Water Interface and Its Elimination

Surfactants are widely used in the petroleum industry as one kind of Enhanced Oil Recovery methods (EOR). The oil sands mines in Northern Alberta are the largest one in the world. Due to using sodium hydroxide in bitumen extraction process, there are a lot of surfactant molecules in the tailing water. The surfactants from oil sands industry have brought a potential threat to the environment and human health. Depending on the performance of surfactant at the interface, this work focuses on removing these harmful surfactants from the tailing water and not bringing other possible hazardous substances. Moreover, a mathematical model is built to calculate the removal efficiency of the surfactant. The time required for removing the surfactant is determined experimentally. In conclusion, most of surfactant molecules are adsorbed at the oil/water interface. The fraction of the surfactant staying at the oil/water interface is high. Most of the surfactants in tailing water can be eliminated. The time of surfactant migration can be used for setting up the update time of the oil film in the automatic instrument, which can be designed in the future.

C-2015: Experimental Study of deglycerolization of red blood cells with a dilution–filtration system

Freezing of red blood cells (RBCs) is an important application of cryopreservation. As a primary cryoprotectant of RBCs, glycerol must be removed from the thawed previously frozen RBCs prior to transfusion. The most commonly traditional method for deglycerolization is centrifugation, however, this has limitations in time consumption, operational complexity and high cost. Recently, a novel method with a better ability to remove large molecular substances called dilution-filtration was reported in the literature. The method involves pure ultrafiltration for separation, which essentially differentiates it from centrifugation. In this work, an in-depth experiment was done for deglycerolization of red blood cells. In order to achieve this goal, a fully automatic instrument based on the dilution–filtration theory has been developed. Also, the experiment requests to measure some basic haematological parameters of deglycerolized red blood cells, such as red blood cells count, hematocrit, residual glycerol, supernatant hemoglobin and extracellular potassium levels. All these experimental measurement parameters had to meet the blood transfusion requirements that established by the American Association of Blood Banking (AABB). Moreover, a high efficiency and low cost separation membrane product was determined by utilizing dialyzer, blood filter and plasma filter independently during the deglycerolization. Finally, the whole experiment process was carried out in the local blood center. Meanwhile, to ensure our experiment results could be highly persuasive, operations personnel were asked to abide a recommended quality control which was adapted from a standard operating procedure made by the Naval Blood Research Laboratory (NBRL). Taken together, the dilution-filtration system was proved to be efficient and feasible for removing glycerol from the cryopreserved red blood cells. Furthermore, with the ultimate success of industrial operations, it is expected to change centrifugation trades in the deglycerolized field in the future.

Research on the Airborne Pulse Doppler Radar Jamming System Tester

This paper introduces the design of an airborne pulse Doppler radar jamming system tester. Based on a detailed analysis of the functional structure of the radar-jamming system, we summarize the important failure mode. To achieve fault location and performance testing, we have developed an automatic detector for the radar-jamming system, the device uses a mode of hardware platform and software platform, and it can reach the purpose of fault location by a method of encouraging input and measuring the output of each of the radar-jamming system failure mode individually. The automatic test instrument has the features of simple operation, high degree of automation, real-time, scalable, and actual use of running proves it to reach the required design specifications, the test with good results.

NO2: Speeding up Parallel Processing of Massive Compute-Intensive Tasks

Large-scale computing frameworks, either tenanted on the cloud or deployed in the high-end local cluster, have become an indispensable software infrastructure to support numerous enterprise and scientific applications. Tasks executed on these frameworks are generally classified into data-intensive and compute-intensive ones. However, most existing frameworks, led by MapReduce, are mainly suitable for data-intensive tasks. Their task schedulers assume that the proportion of data I/O reflects the task progress and state. Unfortunately, this assumption does not apply to most compute-intensive tasks. Due to biased estimation of task progress, traditional frameworks cannot timely cut off outliers and therefore largely prolong execution time when performing compute-intensive tasks. We propose a new framework designed for compute-intensive tasks. By using instrumentation and automatic instrument point selector, our framework estimates the compute-intensive task progress without resorting to data I/O. We employ a clustering method to identify outliers at runtime and perform speculative execution/aborting, speeding up task execution by up to 25%. Moreover, our improvement to bare instrumentation limits overhead within 0.1%, and the aborting-based execution only introduces 10% more average CPU usage. Low overhead and resource consumption make our framework practically usable in the production environment.

Managed aquifer recharge experiences with shallow wells: first analysis of the experimental activities in the high Vicenza plain (Northern Italy)

In recent decades, groundwater resources of the high Vicenza plain were subjected to an increasing extraction rate and, at the same time, to a lower quantity of groundwater recharge. The result is a decreasing flow from the plain springs and a high reduction in piezometric levels of the middle and lower Venetian aquifers. In order to restore the balance of groundwater resources in the Vicenza area, the Vicenza Province has promoted experimental activities aimed to increase the recharge of the aquifer in the high Vicenza plain and in the River Agno valley, using infiltration wells, forested infiltration areas, infiltration trenches, subsurface fields and infiltration canals. All recharge plants are fed by irrigation water, managed by agricultural consortia only during periods of water surplus. Construction works were preceded by specific geological and hydrogeological investigations to verify the suitability for recharge, with the purpose of optimizing the available economic resources. For the protection of the aquifer system, a chemical background of infiltration water was assessed with periodical chemical-physical and microbiological surveys. After the activation date, a monthly monitoring program started to verify the quality of both surface and groundwater, collecting samples in monitoring wells downstream the infiltration structures. The input flow rate entering the various systems, monitored by automatic instruments either in the superficial structure and in groundwater, have provided interesting information about the volumes and the quality of water. These scientific experiences appear to be very helpful in case of future applications for other sites, especially during critical hydrologic period.

The effect of intense hydrodynamic disturbance on chromophoric dissolved organic matter in a shallow eutrophic lake

Chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) is an important component of aquatic ecosystems and its movement is a complicated process. To investigate the effect of strong wind-induced sediment suspension on CDOM concentration, we carried out an in situ observation in a large, shallow lake, which is seriously affected by eutrophication and cyanobacterial blooms, using a finely stratified sampling device and several automatic monitoring instruments. During the observation, a typhoon-induced strong wind with a mean wind speed of 6.6 m/s swept the Lake Taihu basin. The strong wind-induced hydrodynamic disturbance caused explosive sediment suspension. During the strong winds, the maximum turbidity in the overlying waters reached 175.4 NTU, which was 12.2 times the background value recorded before the strong winds. Sediment suspension resulted in the release of CDOM from within the sediment. The CDOM absorption coefficient a(355) in the overlying water showed that there was no significant difference between any two water layers for all time points during the observation (13 July to 16 July). The CDOM concentration was fully mixed along the water depth. However, the mean a(355) values recorded in all time points during the wind were higher than that before the wind (p < 0.001). The maximum value during the wind event was 2.524 ± 0.097 m−1, which was 1.4 times that of the value before the disturbance. CDOM concentrations were significantly correlated with hourly mean wind speed (p < 0.05) and turbidity (p < 0.01). Because Lake Taihu is frequently affected by strong wind processes, CDOM concentration changes caused by intense hydrodynamic disturbance are important for quantitative remote sensing of water quality and primary productivity.

Intraoperative Registered Transrectal Ultrasound Guidance for Robot-Assisted Laparoscopic Radical Prostatectomy

To provide unencumbered real-time ultrasound image guidance during robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy, we developed a robotic transrectal ultrasound system that tracks the da Vinci® Surgical System instruments. We describe our initial clinical experience with this system. After an evaluation in a canine model, 20 patients were enrolled in the study. During each procedure the transrectal ultrasound transducer was manually positioned using a brachytherapy stabilizer to provide good imaging of the prostate. Then the transrectal ultrasound was registered to the da Vinci robot by a previously validated procedure. Finally, automatic rotation of the transrectal ultrasound was enabled such that the transrectal ultrasound imaging plane safely tracked the tip of the da Vinci instrument controlled by the surgeon, while real-time transrectal ultrasound images were relayed to the surgeon at the da Vinci console. Tracking was activated during all critical stages of the surgery. The transrectal ultrasound robot was easy to set up and use, adding 7 minutes (range 5 to 14) to the procedure. It did not require an assistant or additional control devices. Qualitative feedback was acquired from the surgeons, who found transrectal ultrasound useful in identifying the urethra while passing the dorsal venous complex suture, defining the prostate-bladder interface during bladder neck dissection, identifying the seminal vesicles and their location with respect to the rectal wall, and identifying the distal prostate boundary at the apex. Real-time, registered robotic transrectal ultrasound guidance with automatic instrument tracking during robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy is feasible and potentially useful. The results justify further studies to establish whether the approach can improve procedure outcomes.

Catalytic Cracking of RP-3 Jet Fuel over Pt/CeO2–Al2O3 by Adding Cu/ZSM-5

Cu/ZSM-5 (CZ) zeolite and Pt/CeO2–Al2O3 (PCA) composite catalysts (PCA, PCA + CZ, and CZ) were prepared using the impregnation method, the as-prepared catalysts were characterized using an automatic adsorption instrument, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and temperature-programmed desorption (TPD). Catalytic cracking of Chinese number 3 jet fuel (RP-3) was used to examine the catalytic activities and thermal stabilities of the as-prepared catalysts. It was found that PCA + CZ had better catalytic cracking activities and high-temperature stabilities compared to the other catalysts. This is in well accordance with an increase in the strong acid amount and the appearance of a bimodal structure of PCA + CZ. Rapid deactivation of the heat sink over CZ at 700 °C was possibly caused by their poor stabilities under high temperatures. The addition of CZ onto PCA to form a composite catalyst may be an effective approach to maintain both catalytic activity and thermal stability (>650 °C).

Compositional analysis of the fruiting body of transgenic Flammulina velutipes producing resveratrol

Two strains of transgenic Flammulina velutipes TF71 and TF7H with 4cl and rs genes with the capability to produce resveratrol were obtained. In the nutrition assessment and analysis of transgenic strain and original strain (F7), the amino acid composition and proximate compositions of fruiting bodies were determined by amino acid automatic instrument and standard methods of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC), while 4-coumaric acid, total flavonoids, and resveratrol were extracted by ethyl acetate and quantified by HPLC. Results indicated that significant differences were observed in proximate composition and amino acid between transgenic and original strains, but these detected components were within the normal ranges reported for F. velutipes. Total flavonoids and 4-coumaric acid contents of transgenic strains are lower than F7. Most important of all, resveratrol has been detected from TF71 and TF7H fruiting body but not found in F7, which was firstly produced by a transgenic mushroom.