Manganese neurotoxicity presents with Parkinson-like symptoms that are associated with the generation of reactive oxygen species. Thus, its occurrence and severity can be reduced by cellular antioxidants. The components of the transcription factor NF-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2)/antioxidant response element (ARE) pathway are the central regulators of cellular antioxidant responses. In this study, we investigated the role of activation of Nrf2 in response to oxidative damage induced by manganese chloride (MnCl(2)) in rat adrenal pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells. Exposure of PC12 cells to MnCl(2) for 24 h promoted an increased cytosolic and nuclear accumulation of Nrf2 and enhanced the binding of Nrf2 to the HO-1 gene ARE, thereby inducing the expression of an Nrf2-regulated gene, HO-1. Pre-treatment with tert-butylhydroquinone (tBHQ), a known agent that activates the Nrf2/ARE-HO-1 pathway, for 16 h prior to the 24 h MnCl(2) exposure attenuated both the cytotoxicity and the apoptosis induced by MnCl(2). These protective effects of tBHQ indicated a protective role for Nrf2 against MnCl(2)-induced cell damage. Taken together, these findings suggest that Nrf2 may play an important role in the protection of PC12 cells against MnCl(2) neurotoxicity.

Homeostasis of the gut microbiota is a critical contributor to the growth and health of weaning piglets. Fish oil is widely reported to benefit well-being of mammals including preventing intestinal dysfunction, yet its protective effect during suckling-to-weaning transition in piglets remains undetermined. Here, low (30 g/d) and high (60 g/d) doses of n-3-rich fish oil were individually supplemented in sows’ diet from day 90 of gestation to day 21 of lactation, with 15 replicates per treatment. Piglets were weaned on day of 21, and 8 piglets with average body weight of its litter were randomly selected, and body weights, serum indicators, gut microbiota and post-weaning diarrhea were measured to evaluate the effects of maternal fish oil on growth performance, systemic immunity, and diarrhea severity. Docosahexenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) concentrations in the colostrum and serum of piglets were significantly and linearly increased by maternal intake of fish oil (all P < 0.05). Growth factors, IGF1 and T3 in nursery (21d old) and weaned (28d old) piglets were significantly induced by maternal administration of fish oil (both P < 0.05), and the increase of IGF1 was dependent on the dosage of maternal fish oil. Meanwhile, colostrum IgG, plasma IgG, IgM in suckling piglets, IgG, IgM and IgA in weaned piglets were significantly lifted up as maternal replenishment of fish oil increased (all P < 0.05). In addition, circulating zonulin, diamine oxidase (DAO), and D-lactate were significantly decreased in suckling and weaned piglets (P < 0.05), and plasma LPS in weaned piglets was also decreased by maternal fish oil (P < 0.05), all in a dosage-dependent way. Moreover, stress hormone, cortisol, was not greatly altered in suckling piglets but significantly reduced in weaned pigs by maternal fish oil (P < 0.05), regardless of dosage. Accordingly, diarrhea incidence were significantly lower in weaned piglets by dietary replenishment of fish oil. Furthermore, 16S rRNA sequencing revealed that maternal exposure to fish oil significantly increased the α-diversity of fecal microbiota in nursery piglets, and fecal Lactobacillus genus, positively correlated with post-weaning IgA, was significantly increased by high dosage of fish oil. Collectively, complementary fish oil in the sow diet during late pregnancy and lactation significantly promoted growth, enhanced immunity, and reduced post-weaning diarrhea, therefore facilitated the suckling-to-weaning transition in piglets, which may be partially due to the altered gut microbial community.

With the development of artificial intelligence, the application of machine learning has played a key role in medicine, finance, retail, tourism, etc. This article scientifically assesses the application of machine learning in medical diagnostic functions to determine the risk of heart disease in patients by building effective machine learning models derived by using classification methods to select the key symptoms and living factors. 2020 heart disease datasets were applied and 19 indicators in the datasets have been evaluated to predict whether a patient has a risk of having heart disease. To make a more accurate correlation between these indicators and heart disease, the indicators are developed by feature transformation, normalization, and feature selection after cleaning raw datasets. The linear regression and random forest classification algorithms were applied and tested. The result shows that the test of random forest model with oversampling revision has a higher accuracy of 91.00%.

With the development of robot technology and the extensive application of robots, the research on special robots for some complex working environments has gradually become a hot topic. As a special robot applied to transmission towers, the climbing robot can replace humans to work at high altitudes to complete bolt tightening, detection, and other tasks, which improves the efficiency of transmission tower maintenance and ensures personal safety. However, it is mostly the ability to autonomously locate in the complex environment of the transmission tower that limits the industrial applications of the transmission tower climbing robot. This paper proposes an intelligent positioning method that integrates the three-dimensional information model of transmission tower and visual sensor data, which can assist the robot in climbing and adjusting to the designated working area to guarantee the working accuracy of the climbing robots. The experimental results show that the positioning accuracy of the method is within 1 cm.

BackgroundCervical kyphosis (CK) is an abnormal structure that accelerates cervical disc degeneration and causes neck pain. Nearly a quarter of young people have CK, yet its treatment remains controversial. Case presentation We present an interesting case of CK; In this case report, a 32-year-old male patient with neck pain was seen in our hospital, whose cervical sagittal alignment was kyphotic and was given a cervical manipulation therapy (CMT). CK was subsequently reversed into lordosis in one day after the treatment along with the patient’s clinical symptoms alleviated. Three months later, the patient complained his neck pain had come back, so we scheduled him a second X-ray. We gave him a second CMT because the radiograph showed he got CK again. A follow-up after 6 months showed that the patient’s neck pain relieved and the cervical spine was still lordotic. ConclusionsIt suggested that CK can be reversed into CL by CMT immediately, but requires continuous treatment at the early stage; neck pain may relate to CK.