Linking mesoscale landscape heterogeneity and biodiversity: gardens and tree cover significantly modify flower-visiting beetle communities

Landscape Ecology - Maintaining biodiversity in multifunction landscapes is a significant challenge. Planning for the impacts of change requires knowledge of how species respond to landscape...     

种子科学专业英语课程教学探讨

种子科学专业英语作为种子科学与工程专业的一门重要的专业课，在提升学生专业素养及英语应用能力方面具有重要的作用。种子科学专业英语作为英语课与常规大学英语课在很多方面又存在诸多不同。通过种子科学专业英语的学习，提升学生的专业英语应用能力，增强其学生在就业及深造中的竞争力，缩短学习与就业衔接的周期，也可以更快适应从本科生学习到研究生科研角色的转变。笔者探讨了当前种子科学专业英语的教学现状、存在问题，以及所做的教学实践，以其在以后的教学过程中更加有效地释放课程的活力，也能够在专业认证过程中发挥有效的支撑作用。     

Effect of melatonin on visceral fat deposition,lipid metabolism and hepatic lipo-metabolic gene expression in male rats

Melatonin (MT) influences lipid metabolism in animals; however, the mechanistic effect of melatonin on liver fat and abdominal adipose deposition requires further clarity. In order to study the effects of melatonin on lipid metabolism, and hepatic fat and abdominal adipose deposition in animals, twenty Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats of 6 weeks of age with similar bodyweight were randomly divided into two groups: control (CTL) and MT-treated (10 mg/kg/day). During a 60-day experiment, food intake and bodyweight were measured daily and weekly respectively. At the end of treatment, blood samples were collected to collect plasma to quantify hormones and metabolic indicators of lipid metabolism. In addition, organ and abdominal adipose depots including liver, and omental, perirenal, and epididymal fat were weighed. Liver tissue was sampled for sectioning, long-chain fatty acid (LCFA) quantification, and gene chip and Real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) analyses. The results showed that liver weight and index (ratio of liver weight to body weight) in MT group reduced by 20.69% and 9.63% respectively; omentum weight and index reduced by 59.88% and 54.93% respectively, and epididymal fat weight reduced by 45.34% (p = 0.049), relative to CTL. Plasma lipid indices, triglyceride (TG), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and total cholesterol (TC) with MT treatment decreased significantly compared with the control. Fat and 8 LCFA content in liver in MT group also decreased. Gene chip and qPCR demonstrated that there were 289 genes up-regulated and 293 genes down-regulated by MT. Further analysis found that the mRNA expression of lipolysis-related genes increased, while the mRNA expression of lipogenesis-related enzymes decreased (p < 0.05) with MT. This study concluded that melatonin greatly affected fat deposition, and hepatic LCFA supply and the expression of genes associated with lipogenesis and lipolysis.