Two Immunoregulatory Peptides with Antioxidant Activity from Tick Salivary Glands

Ticks are blood-feeding arthropods that may secrete immunosuppressant molecules, which inhibit host inflammatory and immune responses and provide survival advantages to pathogens at tick bleeding sites in hosts. In the current work, two families of immunoregulatory peptides, hyalomin-A and -B, were first identified from salivary glands of hard tick Hyalomma asiaticum asiaticum. Three copies of hyalomin-A are encoded by an identical gene and released from the same protein precursor. Both hyalomin-A and -B can exert significant anti-inflammatory functions, either by directly inhibiting host secretion of inflammatory factors such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha, monocyte chemotectic protein-1, and interferon-gamma or by indirectly increasing the secretion of immunosuppressant cytokine of interleukin-10. Hyalomin-A and -B were both found to potently scavenge free radical in vitro in a rapid manner and inhibited adjuvant-induced inflammation in mouse models in vivo. The JNK/SAPK subgroup of the MAPK signaling pathway was involved in such immunoregulatory functions of hyalomin-A and -B. These results showed that immunoregulatory peptides of tick salivary glands suppress host inflammatory response by modulating cytokine secretion and detoxifying reactive oxygen species.

方差阴影图中的光渗现象消除算法

方差阴影图算法使用概率的方法计算像素被遮挡的上限概率,通过对深度图滤波的方法来有效地减少阴影图算法中的走样问题,但在深度比较复杂的场景中方差阴影图算法会出现光渗现象,即在应该是阴影的区域却有了亮度.文中使用最小-最大阴影图来辅助消除方差阴影图中的光渗现象,在对深度纹理进行滤波的同时生成一个最小-最大阴影图;在实时绘制场景时,利用最小-最大阴影图来辅助判断当前片元是否完全处在阴影区域内部,由此生成更真实、更准确的阴影.该算法可以很容易地添加到已有的方差阴影图算法的片元处理程序中,并且不会对原有阴影的柔和边界以及绘制的帧率产生影响.

灌溉方式对黄瓜结果期根系特征与产量的影响

采用小区试验研究了不同灌溉方式对津春4号黄瓜根系特性与产量的影响。结果表明,不同灌水方式之间黄瓜根系的特征值差异达到显著水平,前期交替沟灌结果期常规沟灌处理单株根条数、根长、根体积、根冠比均高于其余五种处理,根系伤流量为19.86 mg/min,根系活力高达0.55 mg/(g.h)。灌水方式对黄瓜单果重的影响不大,前期交替沟灌结果期常规沟灌处理的单株产量显著高于常规沟灌。因此,前期交替沟灌结果期常规沟灌有利于黄瓜根系的发育与产量的提高。