Acteoside (verbascoside) is a typical phenylethanoid glycoside, extracted from various plants. It has various biological functions such as anti-oxidant, anti-inflammation, and anti-hypertension. Specially, it was powerful anti-oxidants either by direct scavenging of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, or by acting as chain-breaking peroxyl radical scavengers. We examined the role of acteoside in IVM medium on the morphological progress of meiosis, developmental competence, and ROS in porcine oocytes. And we investigated effect of acteoside on the oocytes condition represented by cytoplasmic maturation by homogeneous distribution and formation of cytoplasmic organelles and regulation of apoptosis-related genes. The selected COCs were cultured in TCM-199 with various concentration of acteoside: 0 (control), 10, 30, and 50 μM. After 22 h of maturation with hormones, the oocytes were washed twice in a fresh maturation medium before being cultured in hormone-free medium for additional 22 h. The oocytes maturation rates of supplemented with acteoside were no significantly different compared with control group (71.13, 75.96, 72.95 and 73.68%, respectively). Level of ROS was significantly decreased in acteoside treated group. Furthermore, the parthenogenetic blastocyst rate was significantly improved in 10 μM acteoside treated group compared with control group (40.03 vs. 22.95%). During IVM, 10 μM acteoside treated oocytes showed that the mitochondria and lipid droplet were smaller and homogeneous distribution in cytoplasm compare with non-treated control oocytes. And reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) witarthenogenetic blstocysts revealed that acteoside increased the anti-apoptoticgenes, otherwise reibued pro-apoptotic genes. In conclusion, our results represents that addition of acteoside to the IVM medium has a beneficial effect in physiology of porcine oocytes such as viability and activation, providing a improved method for porcine oocytes in vitro.

The composition of culture media is a key element in the process of in vitro embryo production. With the development of defined culture media, many components that are present in trace amounts in follicular fluid and serum have been excluded from the in vitro embryo production system. Among these are hormones, which have important regulatory roles in growth, metabolism and differentiation and are known to be present in follicular fluid, serum and the female reproductive tract. We have investigated the effects of supplementation of in vitro maturation and/or culture medium with testosterone (T), androstenedione (A4) and thyroid hormones (TH) on bovine in vitro embryo production and the mechanisms of action of TH in developing embryos. Our results show that testosterone, but not androstenedione or thyroid hormone supplementation increased cleavage rates. None of the treatments significantly altered the sex ratio. Addition of thyroid hormones, T3 and T4, to the in vitro culture media resulted in a significant increase in the rate of development to the blastocyst stage. In addition, blastocysts from the T3/T4 treated groups had higher cell number and lower rates of apoptosis. We have confirmed the expression of mRNAs for both Thyroid hormone receptor α and β (TR α and β) in cumulus‐oocyte‐complexes, oocytes, and in both treated and control blastocyst. Quantitatively, the expression of TR mRNA was higher in the treated embryos but the difference was not statistically significant. TR proteins were detectable in blastocysts of both groups with a difference in the distribution pattern. TH treated embryos had peri‐nuclear concentration of TR while in control embryos it was homogenously distributed in the cytoplasm. Preliminary studies of inhibition of TR α and β by siRNA knockdown by micro injection at the zygote stage show a drastic reduction in development suggesting that TH play an essential role in embryo development. They appear to mediate this effect by their receptors, TR α and β. Overall the results show that the presence of hormones in maturation and the culture medium can alter the outcome of in vitro embryo production and highlight the significance of biological components missing from in defined embryo culture media.

Colloidal stability is one of crucial factors for many applications of nanodiamond. Despite recent development, nanodiamonds available on the market often exhibit a high impurity content, wide size distribution of aggregates and low resistance to sedimentation. In the current study, four commercial nanodiamond powders synthesized by detonation synthesis were surface modified and then separated with respect to the size into six fractions by centrifugation. The fractions were evaluated by zeta potential, particle size distribution and elemental composition. The results showed that the modified nanodiamonds form stable colloidal suspensions without sedimentation for a long time.

nanopowders with anatase structure were firstly prepared by controlling the pH value of a precursor solution without any heat-treatment at room temperature. The prepared nanopowders were hydrothermally treated in 10M NaOH solution at . Then, the samples were washed in DI water or 0.1M HCl. The nanotubes were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The gas sensitivity of nanotubes for toluene gas was also investigated. The results show that nanotubes can be prepared by hydrothermal treatment. The morphology of nanotubes prepared by 0.1M HCl washing is destroyed to some extent. nanotubes with DI water washing show better sensitivity than that with 0.1M HCl washing.

This study was conducted to examine the ability of the predacious mite G. occidentalis to limit population density of T. urticae infesting roses in the greenhouse, Washington state university, Pullman, U.S.A. Population fluctuations of T. urticae, G. occidentalis, and Macrosiphum euphorbiae were assessed for over two years on greenhouse roses through time series data. During the first half of experiment a stratified random sampling was performed (from May 2000 to May 2001) and the presence/absence and randomized sampling method was utilized during second half (from June 2001 to September 2002). Populations of T. urticae and G. occidentalis were estimated by R-functions or discrete prey-predator equations. During 121 weeks there were six population fluctuations of T. urticae, G. occidentalis and M. euphorbiae. The variation of G .occidentalis was closely associated with that of T. urticae but G. occidentalis did not overexploit T.urticae. The predicted populations of both mites were explained by above equations. M. euphorbiae and T. urticae might be compete for limited resource in the greenhouse rose and the movement of G. occidentalis was inhibited by the honeydew of M. euphorbiae. Therefore, M. euphorbiae showed negative relationship with T. urticae and G. occidentalis from the results of non-linear regression analysis. Although the relationship between T. urticae and G. occidentalis was negative it was unlikely to present complete biological control of T. urticae on greenhouse roses. It might be necessary an integrated management strategy to control T. urticae in bent-cane greenhouse roses.