Aim: Excess dietary fat intake can induce lipotoxicity in non-adipose tissues. The aim of this study was to observe the effects of dietary high-fat lard intake on thyroid in rats. Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed a high-fat lard diet for 24 weeks, and then the rats were fed a normal control diet (acute dietary modification) or the high-fat lard diet for another 6 weeks. The serum lipid profile, total thyroxine (TT4), free thyroxine (FT4) and thyrotropin (TSH) levels were determined at the 12, 18, 24 and 30 weeks. High-frequency ultrasound scanning of the thyroid glands was performed at the 24 or 30 weeks. After the rats were sacrificed, the thyroid glands were collected for histological and immunohistochemical analyses. Results: The high-fat lard diet significantly increased triglyceride levels in both the serum and thyroid, and decreased serum TT4 and FT4 levels in parallel with elevated serum TSH levels. Ultrasonic imaging revealed enlarged thyroid glands with lowered echotexture and relatively heterogeneous features in the high-fat lard fed rats. The thyroid glands from the high-fat lard fed rats exhibited enlarged follicle cavities and flattened follicular epithelial cells under light microscopy, and dilated endoplasmic reticulum cisternae, twisted nuclei, fewer microvilli and secretory vesicles under transmission electron microscopy. Furthermore, the thyroid glands from the highfat lard fed rats showed markedly low levels of thyroid hormone synthesis-related proteins TTF-1 and NIS. Acute dietary modification by withdrawal of the high-fat lard diet for 6 weeks failed to ameliorate the high-fat lard diet-induced thyroid changes. Conclusion: Dietary high-fat lard intake induces significant thyroid dysfunction and abnormal morphology in rats, which can not be corrected by short-term dietary modification.

Organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs) have been detected in various environmental matrices and have been identified as emerging contaminants (EC). Given the adverse influence of OPFRs, many researchers have focused on the absorption, bioaccumulation, metabolism, and internal exposure processes of OPFRs in animals and humans. This paper first reviews the evolution of various types of flame retardants (FRs) and the environmental pollution of OPFRs, the different absorption pathways of OPFRs by animals and humans (such as inhalation, ingestion, skin absorption and absorption), and then summarizes the environmental impacts of OPFRs, including their biological toxicity, bioaccumulation, persistence, migration, endocrine disruption and carcinogenicity. Based on limited available data and results, this study also summarizes the bioaccumulation and biomagnification potential of OPFRs in different types of biological and food nets. In addition, a new governance idea for the replacement of existing OPFRs from the source is proposed, seeking environmentally friendly alternatives to OPFRs in order to provide new ideas and theoretical guidance for the removal of OPFRs.

We investigated giant magnetoresistance (GMR) across cyclopentadienyl−iron multidecker molecules [Fe m (C 5 H 5 ) n ] using the density functional theory and nonequilibrium Green's function techniques. An oscillation behavior of the molecular magnetic moments was observed. Spin-polarized transport calculations through the lead-multidecker molecule-lead junctions predicted large biascontrolled magnetoresistive response, with the highest GMR ratio up to 2.0 × 10 4 %. The positive to negative conversion of the GMR values was also observed with bias change. The transmission spectra and eigenvalues of the molecular junctions were calculated to understand the mechanism of spin transport in these systems. Various ways to manipulate the GMR behavior are illustrated, opening up prospects of new molecular spintronic devices.

PurposeDiammonium glycyrrhizinate (DG) is a replacement for glycyrrhizic acid, which is used as a hepatic protector in clinical practice for most liver diseases. The potential role of immune response during autoimmune hepatitis—induced by concanavalin A (Con A)—remains to be elucidated.MethodsC57BL/6J mice were treated with two different doses of DG (75 and 200 mg/kg) 2 hrs before administering Con A. The mice were sacrificed after administering Con A for 0, 6, and 24 hrs. Liver damage grade and serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and total bilirubin levels were evaluated. The expression level of cleaved-caspase 3 in liver was detected by Western blotting. Inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and interferon γ (IFN-γ) in liver were detected by RT-PCR. Thymus, peripheral blood, spleen, and liver tissues were collected to analyze the percentages of NKT cells, subsets of CD4+CD25−CD69+ and CD8+CD69+ T cells, and subsets of regulatory T cells (Tregs).ResultsOur results revealed that DG pre-treatment significantly decreased the serum ALT and AST levels and improved the histological damage in Con A-induced autoimmune liver injury. Pre-treatment with DG down-regulated the inflammatory cytokines upon challenge with Con A. The DG pre-treatment inhibited the apoptosis of T lymphocytes in the thymus. Further, it effectively suppressed the proliferation of CD4+CD25−CD69+ and CD8+CD69+ subsets in the peripheral blood and spleen. In addition, the DG pretreatment significantly downregulated the frequency of NKT cells, while upregulating the frequency of Tregs in the liver.ConclusionWe believe that the potential protective effect of DG against Con A-induced hepatitis may be partially attributed to its inhibitory activities on inflammatory cytokines in the livers, lymphocyte apoptosis in the thymus, NKT cells proliferation, and activation of CD8+T cells; further, there may also be a possibility of DC promoting Tregs proliferation.

Here we report a method for the site-selective intermolecular C­(sp3)–H amination of carboxamides by merging transition-metal catalysis and the hydrogen atom transfer strategy. The reaction proceeds through a sequence of favorable single-electron transfer, 1,5-hydrogen atom transfer, and C–N cross-coupling steps, thus allowing access to a series of desired products. This reaction could accommodate a wide diversity of nitrogen nucleophiles as well as demonstrate excellent chemoselectivity and functional group compatibility.

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Recently, CNOOC launched the EOR with chemical flooding on more and more offshore oilfields in Bohai Bay in china. With the useful life of platform and the present production state, polymer flooding is considered as an important technology for the strategic development of offshore heavy oil fields in Bohai bay. Up to 2010, there are 3 polymer EOR projects on heavy oil field which the water cut is between 10 – 80%. And about 20 thousand tons polymer powder was used in 27 wells in the past 5 years. It has been seen that the water cut declined while the oil production increased. The application result shown it is feasible. The history of polymer EOR in Bohai Bay was present in the paper.