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Volcaniclastic rocks are important unconventional oil and gas reservoirs from which it is difficult to determine the protolith due to strong metasomatic alteration. Intensive alteration has occurred in much of western China, but few robustly documented examples are known from which to assess the alteration processes. Further recognition from the petrological and mineralogical record is essential to quantify the diagenetic environment, the degree of alteration, and its impacts. Permian volcanic rocks are widely developed in the western Sichuan Basin (southwestern China), with a thickness of more than 200 m. The thickness of volcaniclastic rocks in the Permian Emeishan Basalt Formation is up to 140 m, with a 5600~6000 m burial depth. In this study, we demonstrate an approach to recognizing hydrothermal alteration by the occurrence of scapolite megacryst mineral pseudomorphs (SMMPs) in Permian volcaniclastic rocks in the Sichuan Basin (southwestern China). The results show that SMMPs in the Permian volcaniclastic rocks in the western Sichuan Basin mainly occur in the lower part of the Permian basalts as intragranular minerals and rock inclusions. Scapolite is transformed into quartz and albite, and only the pseudomorph is preserved, indicating secondary hydrothermal fluid metasomatic alteration. Scapolite is formed after microcrystalline titanite and is the product of the high-temperature pneumatolytic metasomatism of plagioclase from the mafic protolith during the post-magmatic stage. The mixing of meteoric water and barium-rich hydrothermal fluid leads to the precipitation of barite; additionally, the pores are filled with barite and halite after the alteration of scapolite. The silicification and hydrothermal dissolution of scapolite and the albitization of sodium-rich matrix minerals increase the pore volume, which is conducive to the later recharge by hydrothermal fluids. The discovery of SMMPs can serve as an indicator of the high-temperature pneumatolytic metasomatism and mixing of meteoric water and deep hydrothermal fluid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Earthquakes and other catastrophic events frequently occurring worldwide can be considered as outliers and cause a growing and urgent need to improve our understanding of the negative effects imposed by such disasters. Earthquakes can intensively impact the birth outcomes upon psychological and morphological development of the unborn children, albeit detailed characteristics remain obscure. Methods and Findings: We utilized the birth records at Du Jiang Yan and Peng Zhou counties to investigate the birth outcomes as a consequence of a major earthquake occurred in Wenchuan, China on May 12, 2008. Totally 13,003 of neonates were recorded, with 6638 and 6365 for pre- and post- earthquake, respectively. Significant low birthweight, high ratio of low birthweight, and low Apgar scores of post-earthquake group were observed. In contrast, the sex ratio at birth, birth length and length of gestation did not show statistical differences. The overall ratio of birth-defect in the postearthquake (1.18%) is statistically high than that of pre-earthquake (0.99%), especially for those in the first trimester on earthquake day (1.47%). The birth-defect spectrum was dramatically altered after earthquake, with the markedly increased occurrences of ear malformations. The ratio of preterm birth post-earthquake (7.41%) is significant increased than that of pre-earthquake (5.63%). For the birth outcomes of twins, significant differences of the ratio of twins, birth weight, ratio of low birthweight and birth-defect rate were observed after earthquake. Conclusion: A hospital-based study of birth outcomes impacted by the Wenchuan earthquake shows that the earthquake was associated with significant effects on birth outcomes, indicating it is a major monitor for long-term pregnant outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Gastric cancer is one of the common malignant tumors with a high incidence and mortality in China. Prognostic biomarkers and potential predictors of the treatment efficacy of gastric cancer urgently need to be identified. Integrin‐β (ITGB) is a superfamily of integrins and is involved in cell adhesion, tissue repair, immune response, and tumor metastasis. Methods: We analyzed ITGB1 expression in our hospital samples of the gastric cancer cohort. And the public data of The Cancer Genome Atlas stomach adenocarcinoma (TCGA‐STAD), The Asian Cancer Research Group (ACRG)/GSE62254, and GSE15459 data sets were analyzed by using the bioinformatic methods. The relationships between ITGB1 expression and clinicopathological features, patient prognosis, activation of the Wnt/β‐catenin signaling pathway, and tumor immunosuppressive factors were also explored. Results: The positive rate of ITGB1 expression in the Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center gastric cancer tumor tissues was 61.4% (258/420) and correlated with deep invasion (p = 0.017), an advanced clinical stage (p = 0.011), and a poor prognosis (p < 0.05). The TCGA‐STAD/ACRG/GSE15459 cohorts also showed similar results. ITGB1 is one of the upstream molecules of the Wnt/β‐catenin signaling pathway and is correlated with tumor immune suppression. In gastric cancer, we found a correlation between ITGB1 expression and Wnt/β‐catenin signaling pathway activity. In the TCGA‐STAD/ACRG/GSE15459 cohorts, ITGB1 expression was positively associated with immunosuppressive factors and negatively associated with immunoactive factors. Patients with low ITGB1 expression exhibited a significantly high immunotherapy response ratio according to an analysis of tumor immune dysfunction and exclusion (TIDE), which may indicate that ITGB1 is a potential predictor of immunotherapy efficacy. Conclusions: ITGB1 affects the prognosis in gastric cancer patients and plays a core role in immune suppression in gastric cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The red swamp crayfish, Procambarus clarkii (Girard, 1852), is currently an economically important aquaculture animal. Its genetic basis has been scarcely reported, however, partly due to the absence of abundant molecular markers in the genome. In this study, Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) loci were mined, based on genome survey sequencing via the next generation sequence of the red swamp crayfish. A total of 4897 SSR loci were identified, with the most abundant type being the di-nucleotide repeat motifs (75.2%), followed by tri- (20.4%), tetra- (3.8%), penta- (0.5%), and hexanucleotide (0.2%) repeats. In total, 1546 SSR markers were validated to be amplified, and 721 of these were identified as polymorphic SSR markers. Fifty polymorphic SSR markers were randomly selected for the identification of the genetic diversity of the 14 red swamp crayfish populations in China. The expected and observed heterozygosity and polymorphism information content were 0.39, 0.30, and 0.29, respectively, on average. The results indicated a medium genetic diversity among the 14 investigated populations. These probably cluster into three genetic populations. The current study provides abundant genetic markers and information on the 14 populations, which can be helpful for genetic diversity estimation and molecular breeding of the red swamp crayfish. Résumé: L'écrevisse rouge de Louisiane, Procambarus clarkii (Girard, 1852), est une espèce d'aquaculture importante économiquement. Sa base génétique est peu connue, due en partie à l'absence de marqueurs moléculaires abondants dans son génome. Dans cette étude, l'analyse des microsatellites (SSR) de l'écrevisse rouge a été effectuée, sur la base d'un séquençage du génome par séquençage nouvelle génération (NGS). Un total de 4897 loci SSR ont été identifiés, le type le plus abondant de motifs répétés étant les di-nucléotides (75,2%), suivi par les répétitions à tri- (20,4%), tétra- (3,8%), penta- (0,5%), et hexa-nucléotides (0,2%). Au total, 1546 marqueurs ont été validés pour être amplifiés, et 721 d'entre eux ont été identifiés comme marqueurs SSR polymorphiques. 50 marqueurs SSR polymorphiques ont été sélectionnés au hasard pour l'identification de la diversité génétique des 14 populations d'écrevisse rouge de Louisiane en Chine. L'hétérozygotie attendue et observée et l'indice de polymorphisme ont été, en moyenne, respectivement de 0,39, 0,30, et 0,29. Les résultats montrent une diversité génétique moyenne parmi les 14 populations étudiées, qui se regroupent probablement dans trois populations génétiques. Cette étude fournit des marqueurs génétiques abondants et des informations sur les 14 populations, qui peuvent être utiles pour l'estimation de la diversité génétique et la sélection moléculaire de l'écrevisse rouge de Louisiane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]