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Water shortage is the primary limiting factor for crop production and long-term agricultural sustainability of the North China Plain. Forage cultivation emerged recently in this region. A flyer-year field experiment studies were conducted at Yucheng Integrated Experiment Station to quantify the water requirement and water use efficiency of seven forage varieties under climate variability, that is five annuals, i.e., ryegrass (Secale cereale L.), triticale (×Triticosecale Wittmack), sorghum hybrid sudangrass (Sorghum biolor × Sorghum Sudanense c.v.), ensilage corn (Zea mays L.), prince's feather (Amaranthus paniculatus L.) and two perennials alfalfa (Medicago saliva L.) and cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum L.). Average ET for five annual varieties ranged from 333 to 371 mm, significantly lower than that of the perennial varieties. El of alfalfa is 789 mm, which is higher than that of cup plant. Ryegrass and triticale need 1.5 to 2.0 mm water per day, while others 2.9-4.4 mm. Ensilage corn and Sorghum hybrid sudangrass performed better as their irrigation demand is smaller in the dry seasons than others. Ryegrass needs 281 mm irrigation requirement, which is higher than triticale in dry years. Prince's feather is sensitive to climate change and it can be selected when rainfall is greater than 592.9 mm in the growing season. Mean WUE for prince's feather is 20 Kg ha-1 mm-1, for ensilage corn is 41 Kg ha-1 mm-1 and others is close to 26 Kg ha-1 mm-1. Our experiments indicate that excessive rain will reduce the production of alfalfae. The results of this experiment have implications for researchers and policy makers with water management strategy of forage cultivars and it also very useful in addressing climate change impact and adaptation issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study Design: Retrospective study., Objective: To analyze the causes of and factors influencing early recurrence after TELD performed in the treatment of lumbar disc herniation., Methods: We included 285 patients with single-segment lumbar disc herniation treated using transforaminal endoscopy lumbar discectomy TELD from January 2017 to December 2019 at the First Affiliated Hospital of the University of South China. Patients were classified into early recurrence and non-early recurrence groups based on clinical symptoms and MRI reexamination. Imaging data (eg, disc height index (DHI), Pfirrman grades, base width, postoperative annulus-fibrosus tear size, cross-sectional area of the foramen (CSAF), etc.)were analyzed, and multivariate, binomial logistic regression was utilized to determine which factors were associated with early recurrence after TELD., Results: A total of 285 patients completed surgery and clinical follow-up, during which 19 patients relapsed within 6 months postsurgery, for an early recurrence rate of 6.7%. There were statistically significant differences between DHI, Pfirrman grades, base width, postoperative annulus-fibrosus tear size, herniation sites, CSAF and Modic changes between the early recurrence and non-early recurrence groups (P < .05). On multivariate logistic regression,the degree of disc degeneration (OR = .747, P = .037), CSAF (OR = 5.255, P = .006), degree of Modic change (OR = 1.831, P = .018) and base width of the herniation (OR = 4.942, P = .003) were significantly correlated with early recurrence after TELD., Conclusions: Postoperative annulus-fibrosus tear size, DHI, and location of the disc herniation were associated with early recurrence after TELD. Increased base width of the herniation, severe disc degeneration, decreased CSAF and Modic change were risk factors for early recurrence after TELD., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most prevalent diseases and the second leading cause of death worldwide. However, the relationship between CRC and cerebrovascular-specific mortality (CVSM) remains elusive, and less is known about the influencing factors associated with CVSM in CRC. Here, we aimed to analyze the incidence as well as the risk factors of CVSM in CRC., Methods: Patients with a primary CRC diagnosed between 1973 and 2015 were identified from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results database, with follow-up data available until 31 December 2016. Conditional standardized mortality ratios were calculated to compare the incidence of CVSM between CRC patients and the general U.S., Population: Univariate and multivariate survival analyses with a competing risk model were used to interrogate the risk factors for CVSM., Results: A total of 563,298 CRC individuals were included. The CVSM in CRC patients was significantly higher than the general population in all age subgroups. Among the competing causes of death in patients, the cumulative mortality caused by cerebrovascular-specific diseases steadily increased during the study period. While age, surgery, other/unknown race and tumors located at the transverse colon positively influenced CVSM on both univariate and multivariate analyses, male patients and those who had radiotherapy, chemotherapy, a more recent year (2001-2015) of diagnosis, a grade II or III CRC, rectal cancer, or multiple primary or distant tumors experienced a lower risk of CVSM., Interpretation: Our data suggest a potential role for CRC in the incidence of CVSM and also identify several significant predictors of CVSM that may be helpful for risk stratification and the therapeutic optimization of cerebrovascular-specific diseases in CRC patients.

Background: Immunotherapy only achieves efficacy in some cancer patients, and less is known about other immune checkpoint molecules in chordoma. Here, we aimed to determine the expression of PD-L1, HHLA2, B7H3, IDO-1 and Galectin-9 in spinal chordoma and evaluated their association with tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), clinicopathological characteristics and survival of patients., Methods: Using multiplexed quantitative immunofluorescence (QIF), we simultaneously measured the levels of five different immune checkpoint molecules and major TIL subsets in 92 human spinal chordoma samples., Results: Tumor HHLA2 and PD-L1 were positive in 80.0% and 86.0% of cases, respectively. However, B7H3, IDO-1 and Galectin-9 positivity on tumor cells were only seen in 21.0% of cases, despite all showing predominantly stromal expression. Coexpression of these QIF markers in the tumor compartment was scarcely detected except for PD-L1 and HHLA2, which was observed in 69.6% of cases. While tumoral HHLA2 and stromal B7H3 expressions were associated with an aggressive tumor phenotype, suppressive immune response (specifically including elevated PD-1 + TILs level and decreased CD8 + TIL density) and poor prognosis, stromal levels of PD-L1 and Galectin-9 predicted the opposite outcomes. Importantly, HHLA2 and PD-L1 coexpression on tumor cells independently predicted both worse local recurrence-free survival and overall survival., Conclusion: These data provide a better understanding of the immunosuppressive mechanism in chordoma and may be useful for the development of combination or novel immunotherapy approaches aiming to improve therapeutic efficacy and survival., Competing Interests: Author Y-LC was employed by the company Shenzhen Audaque Data Technology Co., Ltd. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Xia, Huang, Chen, Fu, Tang, Zhang, Li, Lv, Yan, Ouyang, Yao, Wang and Zou.)

Background: Published data have suggested a critical role for microRNA (miRNA) expression in chordoma progression. However, most of these studies focus on single miRNA and no multi-miRNA prognostic signature has been currently established for chordoma. In this study, we sought to develop and validate a 6-miRNA risk score (miRscore) model for survival prediction., Methods: Medline, Embase, and Google scholar searches (from inception to July 20, 2018) were conducted to identify candidate miRNAs with prognostic value as per predefined criteria. Quantitative RT-PCR was used to measure miRNA levels in 114 spinal chordoma (54 in the training and 60 in the validation cohort) and 20 control specimens. Subsequently, the miRscore was built based on miRNAs data., Results: Literature searches identified six prognostic miRNAs (miR-574-3p, miR-1237-3p, miR-140-3p, miR-1, miR-155, and miR-1290) with differential expression in tumor tissues. Bioinformatical analysis revealed an important regulatory role for miR-574-3p/EGFR signaling in chordoma and showed that the target genes of these prognostic miRNAs were mainly enriched in transcription regulation, protein binding and cancer-related pathways. In both cohorts, the miRscore was associated with surrounding muscle invasion by tumor and/or other aggressive features. The miRscore model well predicted local recurrence-free survival and overall survival, which remained after adjusting for other relevant covariates. Further time-dependent receiver operating characteristics analysis in the two cohorts found that the miRscore classifier had stronger prognostic power than known clinical predictors and improved the ability of Enneking staging to predict outcomes. Importantly, recursive-partitioning analysis of both samples combined separated patients into four prognostically distinct risk subgroups for recurrence and survival (both P < 0.001)., Conclusions: These data suggest the miRscore as a useful prognostic stratification tool in spinal chordoma and may represent an important step toward future personalized treatment of patients., (Copyright © 2020 Huang, Yan, Wang, Ouyang, Li, Zhang, Wang, Wang, Lv, Li and Zou.)

Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is the most common cause leading to low back pain, a highly prevalent, costly and crippling condition worldwide. Overexpression of miR-21 has been shown to promote proliferation of nucleus pulposus (NP) cells. However, it remains unclear whether miR-21 can promote the degradation of type II collagen (Col II) and aggrecan, two main extracellular matrix components within the disc. Here, the miRNA microassay assay identified 29 differentially expressed miRNAs in NP tissues from IDD patients compared with healthy controls. Following qRT-PCR validation, miR-21 expression was significantly upregulated in degenerated NP tissues, and showed a positive correlation with disc degeneration grade. Through gain-of-function and loss-of-function studies in human NP cells, miR-21 was shown to inhibit autophagy and then upregulate the expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-3 and MMP-9, leading to increased degradation of Col II and aggrecan. Mechanistically, phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) was identified as a direct target of miR-21, and activated PTEN/ Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway was involved in miR-21-induced autophagy inhibition and Col II and aggrecan breakdown. Taken together, these results suggest that miR-21 contributes to Col II and aggrecan catabolism by inhibiting autophagy via the PTEN/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway in human NP cells., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Multilevel cervical reconstruction and fusion after cervical tuberculosis has always been a challenge. The current implantation materials for cervical fusion, including titanium mesh, cage, and plate are limited by its inferior biological mechanical characteristics and the properties of the metallic material. This has led to the increased risk of recurrent infection after surgery. In addition, the unique nature of tuberculosis infection results in the low rate of cervical fusion and high risk of recurrence. This case report presents 1 patient who suffered from long segmental cervical tuberculosis and had reconstruction surgery using a vascularized fibula graft. The patient had successful graft incorporation 3 months postsurgery and was followed-up for 30 months. In this review, we detail the advantages of using vascularized fibular grafts and compare it with other types of grafts., (Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is thought to be the primary cause of low back pain, a severe public health problem worldwide. Current therapy for IDD aims to alleviate the symptoms and does not target the underlying pathological alternations within the disc. Activation of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathway protects against IDD, which is attributed to increase of ECM content, prevention of cell apoptosis, facilitation of cell proliferation, induction or prevention of cell autophagy, alleviation of oxidative damage, and adaptation of hypoxic microenvironment. In the current review, we summarize recent progression on activation and negative regulation of the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway, and highlight its impact on IDD. Targeting this pathway could become an attractive therapeutic strategy for IDD in the near future., Competing Interests: CONFLICTS OF INTEREST The authors have declared no conflicts of interest.

In the title compound, C(15)H(12)O(4)·H(2)O, the two benzene rings are not coplanar, making a dihedral angle of 7.24 (16)°. An intra-molecular hy-droxy-carbonyl O-H⋯O hydrogen bond occurs. In the crystal, four inter-molecular O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds involving the hy-droxy residues, the carbonyl group and the water mol-ecule lead to the formation of a three-dimensional network. The supra-molecular structure is further stabilized by weak C-H⋯O inter-actions.