At present, the circulating bioactivity of insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) is estimated by immunological measurements of IGF-I levels. However, immunoassays ignore the modifying effects of the IGF-binding proteins (IGFBPs) on the interaction between IGF-I and the IGF-I receptor (IGF-IR). Therefore, we developed an IGF-I kinase receptor activation assay (KIRA) based on cells transfected with the human IGF-IR gene. The bioassay was sensitive (detection limit 0.08 μg/l), specific (cross-reactivity of insulin, insulin analogs, and proinsulin was <1%; IGF-II cross-reactivity was 12%), and accurate (within- and between-assay coefficients of variation <7 and <15%). The operational range of the assay (0.25–10.0 μg/l) allowed for determination of IGF-I bioactivity in serum from patients with, for example, growth hormone deficiency, type 1 diabetes, and acromegaly. Addition of IGFBPs dose dependently reduced the KIRA signal, whereas addition of IGF-II to preformed complexes (1:1 molar ratio) of IGF-I and IGFBP dose dependently increased IGF-I bioactivity by displacement of bound IGF-I. In conclusion, the KIRA will enable us to compare IGF-I bioactivity with existing immunological measurements of IGF-I in serum and, hopefully, to elucidate the factors that determine IGF-I bioactivity in vivo.

Objective :L iver cirrhosis is characterized by reduced circulating IGF-I and this has been linked to an adverse clinical outcome.Therefore, we investigated the dynamic changes in circulating total, free, and bioactiveI GF-I, IGF-binding protein (IGFBP)-1, IGFBP-2, and IGFBP-1-bound IGF-I (binarycomplex) during an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in patients with liver cirrhosis. Methods:Seven Caucasian males with liver cirrhosis and seven healthymales matched for age (54.4G 3.2 vs 54.6G 4.4 years) and body mass index( 25.3G 1.2 vs 25.9G 1.3 kg/m 2 )w ere studied. Blood samples were drawn at 0, 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, and 180 min for determination of serum total and free IGF-I, IGFBP-1, IGFBP-2, and binarycomplex, while bioactiveIGF-I wasmeasured at 0, 30, 60, 120, and 180 min. Results:Incomparison with healthysubjects, baseline levels of total (47%), free (36%), and bioactive IGF-I (51%) were lower,w hile IGFBP-1 (268%) wash igher ( P ! 0.05), IGFBP-2 (172%) tended to be higher ( P O 0.05), and the binarycomplexunchanged ( w 100%) in cirrhotic patients. Serum total and free IGF-I, and IGFBP-2 remained unchangedinb oth study groups during the OGTT.B ioactiveIGF-I decreased by 29% from baseline to 60 min in cirrhotic patients and remained low at the end of the OGTT ( P ! 0.05). As imilar tendency waso bservedi nh ealthyc ontrols ( P Z 0.052). Concomitantly, IGFBP-1, binarycomplex, and IGFBP-1 saturation indexd ecreased significantlyi nb oth groups. The disappearance of the binarycomplex wasa bout twofold faster than that of IGFBP-1 ( P ! 0.05). Conclusion:D espite unchangedc oncentrations of total and free IGF-I, bioactive IGF-I declined significantlya fter an oral glucose load in patients with liverc irrhosis and the same tendency was observedinhealthysubjects. We speculate that the reduction in bioactiveIGF-I mayberelated to the higher levels of free IGFBP-1 and the faster disappearance of IGFBP-1-bound IGF-I. 155 285-292 European Journal of Endocrinology

Taiwan’s economy mainly relies on the export of agricultural products. If even the suspicion of a pest is found in the crop products after they are exported, not only are the agricultural products returned but the whole batch of crops is destroyed, resulting in extreme crop losses. The species of mealybugs, Coccidae, and Diaspididae, which are the primary pests of the scale insect in Taiwan, can not only lead to serious damage to the plants but also severely affect agricultural production. Hence, to recognize the scale pests is an important task in Taiwan’s agricultural field. In this study, we propose an AI-based pest detection system for solving the specific issue of detection of scale pests based on pictures. Deep-learning-based object detection models, such as faster region-based convolutional networks (Faster R-CNNs), single-shot multibox detectors (SSDs), and You Only Look Once v4 (YOLO v4), are employed to detect and localize scale pests in the picture. The experimental results show that YOLO v4 achieved the highest classification accuracy among the algorithms, with 100% in mealybugs, 89% in Coccidae, and 97% in Diaspididae. Meanwhile, the computational performance of YOLO v4 has indicated that it is suitable for real-time application. Moreover, the inference results of the YOLO v4 model further help the end user. A mobile application using the trained scale pest recognition model has been developed to facilitate pest identification in farms, which is helpful in applying appropriate pesticides to reduce crop losses.

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Background:Spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs) are a group of neurodegenerative disorders that primarily cause the degeneration in the cerebellum, spinal cord, and brainstem. We study the clinical characteristics, radiological features and gene mutation in Chinese families with SCAs.Methods:In this study, we investigated 10 SCAs Chinese families with SCA1, SCA3/Machado–Joseph disease (MJD), SCA7, SCA8. There were 27 people who were genetically diagnosed as SCA, of which 21 people showed clinical symptoms, and 6 people had no clinical phenotype that we called them presymptomatic patients. In addition, 3 people with cerebellar ataxia and cataracts were diagnosed according to the Harding diagnostic criteria but failed to be recognized as SCAs on genetic testing. Clinical characteristic analyses of each type of SCAs and radiological examinations were performed.Results:We found that SCA3/MJD was the most common subtype in Han population in China, and the ratio of the pontine tegmentum and the posterior fossa area was negatively correlated with the number of cytosine-adenine-guanine (CAG) repeats; the disease duration was positively correlated with the International Cooperative Ataxia Rating Scale score; and the CAG repeats number of abnormal alleles was negatively correlated with the age of onset.Conclusions:Collectively our study is a systematic research on SCAs in China, which may help for the clinical diagnosis and prenatal screening of this disease, and it may also aid toward better understanding of this disease.

Based on the theory of Fluid Dynamics CFD and Fluid analysis software Fluent，we accomplished the flow field simulation of internal speed and internal pressure of pneumatic oil mist atomizer. Both the flow field simulation and the results of experiment are in good agreement，particle size and density of oil mist change very little when the pressure of compressed air is kept constant while the distance of nozzle and baffle is varied. When the distance from nozzle to baffle is fixed, and the pressure of compressed air is increased gradually, the density of oil mist will increase and the particle size of oil mist will decrease along with the increasing pressure of compressed air. This decreasing trend of particle size of oil mist will slow down when the pressure of compressed air increases to 0.35Mpa. The particle size of oil mist can reach 2μm.

In order to study the influence of constricting nozzles with different sizes and different distances on the formation of wall-wetted oil film，we measured the thicknesses of wall-wetted oil film under the conditions of different nozzle sizes and different nozzle distances by method of weighing. It is shown in the experiment that the relation between thickness of oil film and nozzle size, nozzle distance is not linear .However, in certain range, the larger the nozzle size, the more effectively the wall-wetted oil film forms and the thicker the thickness of oil film. The further the nozzle distance, the larger the area of the oil film and the thinner the thickness of wall-wetted oil film [1,2].