Correlation between DNA methylation and Thymic Stromal Lymphopoietin expression in asthmatic airway epithelial cells

Yan‑Li Li,Xi‑Qian Xing,Yi Xiao,Yan‑Hong Liu,Yu‑Shan Zhou,Min Zhuang,Chao‑Qian Li 한국유전학회 2020 Genes & Genomics Vol.42 No.12

Background: The overexpression of TSLP and DNA methylation in asthma were both risk factors the relationship was not clear. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between methylation status of TSLP promoter and mRNA/protein expression in asthmatic airway epithelial cells. Methods: Human bronchial epithelial cells were cultured in vitro and divided into: Control group, treated with PBS, model group, sensitized with LPS (10 μg/mL) for 12 h (37 °C, 5% CO2). Other groups were cultured with the pCMV3 plasmid (M + NC/pCMV), pGPH1 plasmid (M + NC/pGPH), DNMT1/pCMV3 plasmid (M + DNMT1/pCMV), and DNMT1/pGPH1 plasmid (M + DNMT1/pGPH) for 48 h. The expression of DNA methyltransferase 1 and TSLP were measured using real-time PCR and western blotting. Results: Compared with the control group, TSLP mRNA (1.00 ± 0.00 vs. 2.82 ± 0.81 vs. 1, P < 0.001) and protein (1.07 ± 0.04 vs. 1.46 ± 0.11, P < 0.01) were significantly greater, and the methylation of promoter was lower (92.75 ± 1.26 vs. 58.57 ± 3.34, P < 0.05) in the model group. Compared with the model group, TSLP mRNA (2.82 ± 0.81 vs. 1.17 ± 0.10, P < 0.001) decreased, but TSLP promoter methylation increased (58.57 ± 3.34 vs. 92.58 ± 7.30, P < 0.05) in M + DNMT1/pCMV. TSLP mRNA and protein were higher (2.82 ± 0.81 vs. 5.32 ± 0.21, P < 0.001; 1.46 ± 0.11 vs. 1.94 ± 0.11, respectively, P < 0.01), TSLP promoter methylation was lower (58.57 ± 3.34 vs. 33.57 ± 4.29, P < 0.05) in M + DNMT1/pGPH. Conclusions: Overexpression of TSLP in asthmatic airway epithelial cells may be regulated by DNA demethylation.

LPL gene Pvu II polymorphism and hypertriglycer-idemia: a meta-analysis involving 1,640 subjects

( Yan-yan Li ),( Yan-hong Zhou ),( Ge Gong ),( Hong-yu Geng ),( Xin-xing Yang ),( Xiang-ming Wang ),( Chuan-wei Zhou ),( Jian Xu ),( Yun Qian ) 대한내과학회 2017 The Korean Journal of Internal Medicine Vol.32 No.6

Background/Aims: Although lipoprotein lipase (LPL) gene Pvu II polymorphism has been associated with an increased risk of hypertriglyceridemia (HT), there is no clear consensus within the scientific community. Methods: A meta-analysis of 1,640 subjects from six individual studies was conducted to better elucidate the potential relationship between the LPL gene Pvu II polymorphism and HT within the Chinese population. Pooled odds ratios (ORs) and their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were evaluated by using fixed effect models. Results: Our analysis indicated a significant association between LPL gene Pvu II polymorphism and HT within the Chinese population under allelic (OR, 1.550; 95% CI, 1.320 to 1.830; p = 1.158 × 10^-7), recessive (OR, 0.540; 95% CI, 0.390 to 0.750; p = 0.0002), dominant (OR, 1.889; 95% CI, 1.501 to 2.377; p = 5.960 × 10^-8), homozygous (OR, 2.167; 95% CI, 1.531 to 3.067; p = 1.242 × 10^-5), heterozygous (OR, 1.810; 95% CI, 1.419 to 2.309; p = 1.842 × 10^-6), and additive genetic models (OR, 1.553; 95% CI, 1.320 to 1.828; p = 1.158 × 10^-7). Conclusions: Because LPL gene Pvu II restriction fragment length polymorphism polymorphism was associated with an elevated risk of HT, the P+ allele carriers of the LPL gene might be predisposed to HT.

Perceived Convention Destination Image : Evidence from Convention Attendees in Beijing

Yan Zhou,Qiuju Wang 한국무역전시학회 2016 무역전시연구 Vol.11 No.3

Research on destination image has been a main theme in the travel context. The study on convention destination image, especially focusing on Asian cities received little attention in the literature. This study empirically investigated the attendees’ perceived image of Beijing as a convention destination, the relationships between perceived image and overall impression and the intention of revisit in the future. The results show that the perceived image is composed of four dimensions, named organizer and venue capability, hotel facility, humanistic atmosphere and natural environment. Using multiple regression analyses, it is found that humanistic atmosphere, natural environment and organizer and venue capability have positive impact on overall impression; all four factors have positive impact on intention of revisit. It is also found that humanistic atmosphere, natural environment and organizer and venue capability are the key factors determining the attendees’ overall impression and revisit intention. However, the average perceived satisfactory level of natural environment, especially the air quality is much lower than other image attributes. It can be concluded that the air quality in Beijing must be improved significantly to improve the perceived image among all participants, and encourage convention attendees to visit Beijing again. Other suggestions and managerial implication are given too.

Molecular Cloning and Characterization of a Novel Exo-β-1,3-Galactanase from Penicillium oxalicum sp. 68

Zhou, Tong,Hu, Yanbo,Yan, Xuecui,Cui, Jing,Wang, Yibing,Luo, Feng,Yuan, Ye,Yu, Zhenxiang,Zhou, Yifa The Korean Society for Microbiology and Biotechnol 2022 Journal of microbiology and biotechnology Vol.32 No.8

Arabinogalactans have diverse biological properties and can be used as pharmaceutical agents. Most arabinogalactans are composed of β-(1→3)-galactan, so it is particularly important to identify β-1,3-galactanases that can selectively degrade them. In this study, a novel exo-β-1,3-galactanase, named PoGal3, was screened from Penicillium oxalicum sp. 68, and hetero-expressed in P. pastoris GS115 as a soluble protein. PoGal3 belongs to glycoside hydrolase family 43 (GH43) and has a 1,356-bp gene length that encodes 451 amino acids residues. To study the enzymatic properties and substrate selectivity of PoGal3, β-1,3-galactan (AG-P-I) from larch wood arabinogalactan (LWAG) was prepared and characterized by HPLC and NMR. Using AG-P-I as substrate, purified PoGal3 exhibited an optimal pH of 5.0 and temperature of 40℃. We also discovered that Zn²⁺ had the strongest promoting effect on enzyme activity, increasing it by 28.6%. Substrate specificity suggests that PoGal3 functions as an exo-β-1,3-galactanase, with its greatest catalytic activity observed on AG-P-I. Hydrolytic products of AG-P-I are mainly composed of galactose and β-1,6-galactobiose. In addition, PoGal3 can catalyze hydrolysis of LWAG to produce galacto-oligomers. PoGal3 is the first enzyme identified as an exo-β-1,3-galactanase that can be used in building glycan blocks of crucial glycoconjugates to assess their biological functions.

論大學的個性化發展

Zhou, Yan,Yao, Benxian 한국비교정부학회 2005 한국비교정부학보 Vol.9 No.1

With the rapid expansion of scale and the walking into popularization of higher education, how do colleges and universities catch the opportunity, meet the challenge and develop themselves in the market competition is becoming the theme of the reform and development of higher education, to push on personalization development of colleges and universities may be an efficacious way to achieve success.

Root Welding of V-Groove Thick Plate without Backing Plate by MAG-TIG Double-Arc Welding

Yan-Bin Zhou,Disheng Fang,Li-Ming Liu 한국정밀공학회 2017 International Journal of Precision Engineering and Vol.18 No.4

MAG-TIG (metal active gas-Tungsten inert gas) double-arc welding process is applied to make stable back beads in the first layer during one-side multilayer welding without backing plate. To explain the reason why stable back beads can be formed, a comparison was made between single MAG welding and MAG-TIG double-arc welding. Results indicated that during the optimized condition in MAG-TIG double-arc welding, about one-third heat energy of the heat source acts on the root face, and about two-third heat energy acts on the molten pool. The distribution of temperature and surface tension in the molten pool must be more balanced and reasonable, in order to obtain the ideal back weld bead formation. This process is a new welding process giving high quality and efficiency in root welding of thick plate.

Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Antibiotic-Impregnated Shunt Catheters on Anti-Infective Effect of Hydrocephalus Shunt

Zhou, Wen-xiu,Hou, Wen-bo,Zhou, Chao,Yin, Yu-xia,Lu, Shou-tao,Liu, Guang,Fang, Yi,Li, Jian-wen,Wang, Yan,Liu, Ai-hua,Zhang, Hai-jun The Korean Neurosurgical Society 2021 Journal of Korean neurosurgical society Vol.64 No.2

Objective : Shunt infection is a common complication while treating hydrocephalus. The antibiotic-impregnated shunt catheter (AISC) was designed to reduce shunt infection rate. A meta-analysis was conducted to study the effectiveness of AISCs in reduction of shunt infection in terms of age, follow-up time and high-risk patient population. Methods : This study reviewed literature from three databases including PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library (from 2000 to March 2019). Clinical studies from controlled trials for shunt operation were included in this analysis. A subgroup analysis was performed based on the patient's age, follow-up time and high-risk population. The fixed effect in RevMan 5.3 software (Cochrane Collaboration) was used for this meta-analysis. Results : This study included 19 controlled clinical trials including 10105 operations. The analysis demonstrated that AISC could reduce the infection rate in shunt surgery compared to standard shunt catheter (non-AISC) from 8.13% to 4.09% (odds ratio [OR], 0.48; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.40-0.58; p=0.01; I2=46%). Subgroup analysis of different age groups showed that AISC had significant antimicrobial effects in all three groups (adult, infant, and adolescent). Follow-up time analysis showed that AISC was effective in preventing early shunt infections (within 6 months after implant). AISC is more effective in high-risk population (OR, 0.24;95% CI, 0.14-0.40; p=0.60; I2=0%) than in general patient population. Conclusion : The results of meta-analysis indicated that AISC is an effective method for reducing shunt infection. We recommend that AISC should be considered for use in infants and high-risk groups. For adult patients, the choice for AISC could be determined based on the treatment cost.

Analytical solutions to piezoelectric bimorphs based on improved FSDT beam model

Zhou, Yan-Guo,Chen, Yun-Min,Ding, Hao-Jiang Techno-Press 2005 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.1 No.3

This paper presents an efficient and accurate coupled beam model for piezoelectric bimorphs based on improved first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT). The model combines the equivalent single layer approach for the mechanical displacements and a layerwise modeling for the electric potential. General electric field function is proposed to reasonably approximate the through-the-thickness distribution of the applied and induced electric potentials. Layerwise defined shear correction factor (k) accounting for nonlinear shear strain distribution is introduced into both the shear stress resultant and the electric displacement integration. Analytical solutions for free vibrations and forced response under electromechanical loads are obtained for the simply supported piezoelectric bimorphs with series or parallel arrangement, and the numerical results for various length-to-thickness ratios are compared with the exact two-dimensional piezoelasticity solution. Excellent predictions with low error estimates of local and global responses as well as the modal frequencies are observed.

Human Visual System based Automatic Underwater Image Enhancement in NSCT domain

( Yan Zhou ),( Qingwu Li ),( Guanying Huo ) 한국인터넷정보학회 2016 KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Syst Vol.10 No.2

Underwater image enhancement has received considerable attention in last decades, due to the nature of poor visibility and low contrast of underwater images. In this paper, we propose a new automatic underwater image enhancement algorithm, which combines nonsubsampled contourlet transform (NSCT) domain enhancement techniques with the mechanism of the human visual system (HVS). We apply the multiscale retinex algorithm based on the HVS into NSCT domain in order to eliminate the non-uniform illumination, and adopt the threshold denoising technique to suppress underwater noise. Our proposed algorithm incorporates the luminance masking and contrast masking characteristics of the HVS into NSCT domain to yield the new HVS-based NSCT. Moreover, we define two nonlinear mapping functions. The first one is used to manipulate the HVS-based NSCT contrast coefficients to enhance the edges. The second one is a gain function which modifies the lowpass subband coefficients to adjust the global dynamic range. As a result, our algorithm can achieve contrast enhancement, image denoising and edge sharpening automatically and simultaneously. Experimental results illustrate that our proposed algorithm has better enhancement performance than state-of-the-art algorithms both in subjective evaluation and quantitative assessment. In addition, our algorithm can automatically achieve underwater image enhancement without any parameter tuning.

Study on Competitive Advantages of Convention & Exhibition Industry of Beijing Capital Region (Jing-Jin-Ji Area) in China

Yan Zhou,Chuncai Wang 한국무역전시학회 2014 무역전시연구 Vol.9 No.3

Convention industry is one of the fastest growing segments in China in the last decades. As the capital city in China, Beijing became a leading convention city, and the industrial growth reported is around 20% per year. It has been more than 20 years since the regional tourism cooperation started in the Jing-Jin-Ji Economic Zone; however, the performance has not been so satisfactory because of various reasons. How to strengthen the cooperation in this field to better promote regional economic development is not only an important task for practice, but also one area of a focus in the academic field. There are three economic zones in China, which are Jing-Jin-Ji, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta, where the convention industry is also a booming sector of the economy. The article reviews the resources and attributes of these areas, and analyzes the regional competitive advantages in terms of some key indicators like venues, PEO, star hotels, international meetings and tourist attractions. Some suggestions are given too.