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The genus Dracaena is the main source of dragon’s blood, which is a plant resin and has been used as traditional medicine since ancient times in different civilizations. However, the chromosome numbers and karyotypes present in this genus remain poorly understood. In this study, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) using oligonucleotide probes for ribosomal DNAs (5S and 45S rDNA) and telomeric repeats (TTTAGGG)3 was applied to analyze 4 related species: Dracaena terniflora Roxb., Dracaena cambodiana Pierre ex Gagnep., Aizong (Dracaena sp.), and Dracaena cochinchinensis (Lour.) S.C. Chen. In all 4 species, both 5S and 45S rDNA showed hybridization signals in the paracentromeric region of a pair of chromosomes; the sizes of the 45S rDNA signals were larger than those of the 5S rDNA. Importantly, the telomeric repeat signals were located in the telomeric regions of almost all chromosomes. The results indicated that the chromosome number of all 4 Dracaena species is 2n = 40, and the lengths of the mitotic metaphase chromosomes range from 0.99 to 2.98 μm. Our results provide useful cytogenetic information, which will be beneficial to future studies in genome structure of the genus Dracaena.

Wurfbainia neoaurantiaca is a medicinal plant endemic to Yunnan Province, China. In this study, its complete chloroplast genome was assembled and characterized. The total genome size of W. neoaurantiaca was 158,484 bp in length, consisting of a large single-copy region (LSC), a small single-copy region (SSC) and two inverted repeat regions (IRs) with 88,605 bp, 15,285 bp and 29,822 bp, respectively. Its GC content was 36.08%. The chloroplast genome encoded 113 unique genes, including 79 protein-coding, 30 tRNA, and four rRNA genes. The result of the phylogenetic analysis indicated that W. neoaurantiaca was related to W. villosa var. xanthioides and supported de Boer’s classification that W. compacta, W. longiligularis, W. neoaurantiaca, W. villosa, W. villosa var. xanthioides and Amomum krervanh belonged to the Wurfbainia Clade.

Heortia vitessoides Moore is the most serious insect defoliator of Aquilaria sinensis (Lour.) Gilg, an endangered and economically important plant that produces highly prized agarwood. Samples from recently identified indigenous natural populations of Trichogramma pintoi Voegele were collected from H. vitessoides eggs in A. sinensis forests in Yunnan Province, China. To assess the potential capacity of this parasitoid for use as a biological control agent, its functional response, female reproductive potential, and male insemination capacity were investigated in this study. Females successfully parasitized 1- to 4-d-old eggs of H. vitessoides but failed to parasitize 5- to 8-d-old eggs. The parasitoid exhibited a Holling type II functional response, and the estimated maximum numbers of 1- to 4-d-old H. vitessoides eggs parasitized by a single T. pintoi female were 38.1, 29.8, 26.0, and 22.2 eggs over a 24-h period, respectively. Additionally, the parasitoid’s average lifetime fecundity was 89.8 ± 2.5 eggs, of which 66.26% were laid within the first 2 d. The average number of total females that mated with a male in his lifetime (4.70 ± 0.13 d) was 10.4, and the average number of total daughters of a male was 292.1. On day 1 of male adult life, the greatest number of females were inseminated by males, and the most daughters were produced; however, the number of copulations and insemination ability decreased rapidly with male age. These results suggest that T. pintoi is a promising candidate for inundative release against H. vitessoides in China, and these findings will guide efforts in achieving mass production of this parasitoid.

To ensure the safety of medications, it is vital to accurately authenticate species of the Apocynaceae family, which is rich in poisonous medicinal plants. We identified Apocynaceae species by using nuclear internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) and psbA-trnH based on experimental data. The identification ability of ITS2 and psbA-trnH was assessed using specific genetic divergence, BLAST1, and neighbor-joining trees. For DNA barcoding, ITS2 and psbA-trnH regions of 122 plant samples of 31 species from 19 genera in the Apocynaceae family were amplified. The PCR amplification for ITS2 and psbA-trnH sequences was 100%. The sequencing success rates for ITS2 and psbA-trnH sequences were 81% and 61%, respectively. Additional data involved 53 sequences of the ITS2 region and 38 sequences of the psbA-trnH region were downloaded from GenBank. Moreover, the analysis showed that the inter-specific divergence of Apocynaceae species was greater than its intra-specific variations. The results indicated that, using the BLAST1 method, ITS2 showed a high identification efficiency of 97% and 100% of the samples at the species and genus levels, respectively, via BLAST1, and psbA-trnH successfully identified 95% and 100% of the samples at the species and genus levels, respectively. The barcode combination of ITS2/psbA-trnH successfully identified 98% and 100% of samples at the species and genus levels, respectively. Subsequently, the neighbor joining tree method also showed that barcode ITS2 and psbA-trnH could distinguish among the species within the Apocynaceae family. ITS2 is a core barcode and psbA-trnH is a supplementary barcode for identifying species in the Apocynaceae family. These results will help to improve DNA barcoding reference databases for herbal drugs and other herbal raw materials.

Four different material of activated carbon, i.e., coconut shell, fruit shell, wood and coal, were used to be mixed with concrete, the radon exhalation rates of concrete then was measured. At the same time, the pore distribution of activated carbon and some performances of concrete were tested. The results show that coconut shell carbon has the best effect for reduction radon exhalation rates of concrete, fruit shell carbon comes second. The adsorption mechanisms of activated carbon towards the radon gas in the solid and in the air are similar. Activated carbon have less effect on the strength of concrete, however, they have greater influence on the constructability and durability.

FTIR fingerprint of the leaves and immature stems of Alstonia scholaris (L.) R. Br. was established as a content determination method for the detection of picrinine, ursolic acid and oleanolic acid. Different medicinal parts were identified based on principal component analysis, while exploring the influence of immature stems for the leaves and the application of FTIR and HPLC in the Dai quality control in order to speed up the pace of Dai medicine modernization. Infrared spectroscopy of different batches samples were collected and the data was preprocessed as to automatic baseline correction, smooth, ordinate normalization, second order derivative, and then to PCA, all the datum in triplicate. For content determination of picrinine, mobile phase was acetonitrile (40) water (contain 0.1% ammonia water) (60) and the wavelength was set at 287 nm. For ursolic acid and oleanolic acid, the mobile phase was mixture (12∶88) of 0.1% formic acid in water (A) and methanol (B). Wavelength was 210 nm. As the results, the original spectrum difference was not obvious for leaves and stems. Pretreatment spectroscopy had a significant variation on absorption peak number and intensity in 3 000～2 800 and 1 800～500 cm(-1). The results of PCA showed that, the leaves and stems were separated; in addition the difference of different batches leaves was bigger than the stems. The mean contents of picrinine, ursolic acid and oleanolic acid in leaves were 0.79，8.47，7.51 and 0.21，1.78，1.67 mg·g(-1) in stems, respectively. The content of ursolic acid and oleanolic acid is higher than picrinine, but ursolic acid and oleanolic acid content had no obvious difference. Mean content of three ingredients in leaves is much higher than in stems. Picrinine content in leaves was 3.8 times of immature stems, ursolic acid and oleanolic acid content were 5.1 and 4.2 times of immature stems, respectively. The variety of picrinine content in different batches samples was biggest, ursolic acid and oleanolic acid content was relatively stable. The overall quality of leaves has an obvious difference compared with the immature stems, so the leaves of A. scholaris mix with immature stems could not be as Dai medicine in Dai clinic. Infrared spectroscopy combined with chromatography can quickly identify different medicinal parts and evaluate overall quality of Dai medicine, which can apply to quality control of Dai medicine.

In order to study the effect elements of anthers opening-closing movement of Paris polyphylla var. yunnanensis, and its cell morphology regulatory mechanism. Anthers daily opening in the morning and closing in the evening and its corresponding ecological elements changes were recorded. Different light, temperature, humidity experiment and artificial rainfall experiment were designed to observe the effect on anthers opening-closing movement, paraffin sections were made to observe the cell morphology change when the anthers daily opening and closing. The result showed that the movement of anthers daily opening and closing was regulated by ecological elements. The overall trend was high temperature and strong light, low humidity was favorable for anther opening, and low temperature, weak light, high humidity was favorable for anther closing. In this experiment, the effect of these ecological elements on the movement of anthers opening from strong to weak was humidity, temperature, light. The effect of these ecological elements on the movement of anthers closing from strong to weak was light, humidity, temperature. The direct contact of the raindrops causes the rapid closing of the anthers in the rain. Observing the cell morphology change when anthers opening and closing, it was a pollen sac dehydration and water-absorption process, different light, temperature and humidity conditions induce different physiological activities in the cell, which caused the cell osmotic pressure change, eventually resulting in anther opening and closing movement. But anthers closing caused by the rain was a simple physical adjustment process, the raindrops fell on the anthers directly, which caused anthers soaked water and change of the cell osmotic pressure, then resulting in anther closing.

To investigate the phenotypic trait variation range of Clerodendranthus spicatus, and to look for phenotypic traits closely related with its yield and quality, in order to provide reference for its breeding.Randomly labelled plants of Clerodendranthus spicatus, observed its phenotypic traits and analyzed by variation, principal component, correlation and path analysis.13 phenotypic traits in the 15 germplasms of Clerodendranthus spicatus had great variations, the variations mainly distributed in yield, growth and genetic characteristics. Correlation and path analysis showed that, the plant dry weight had an extremely significantly positive correlation with fresh weight, and a positive correlation with stem height, stem diameter and root diameter. Plant fresh weight had a majorly direct contribution to the plant dry weight, stem height, stem diameter and root diameter also had a direct contribution to the plant dry weight. The other characters, including root length, branches, the number of leaf nodes, leaf number, leaf length, leaf width, fresh weight/dry weight ratio, rosmarinic acid content and ursolic acid content all had a negatively direct contribution to the plant dry weight. Rosmarinic acid content had a positive correlation with fresh weight, and a significantly positive correlation with fresh weight/dry weight ratio. Fresh weight had a majorly direct contribution to the rosmarinic acid content, stem height and stem diameter also had a direct contribution to the plant rosmarinic acid content. The other characters, including root length, root diameter, branches, the number of leaf nodes, leaf length, leaf width, dry weight, fresh weight/dry weight ratio, and ursolic acid content all had a negatively direct contribution to the rosmarinic acid content.The phenotypic traits of Clerodendranthus spicatus had rich variations on yield, growth and genetic characteristics. When choosing good germplasm, plant fresh weight, stem height, stem diameter and plant fresh weight/dry weight ratio having promoting effects on the plant dry weight and rosmarinic acid content should be considered comprehensively, and plant with vigorous growth, tall stem and more leaves can be choosed firstly.

To investigate the phenotypic trait variation range of Paris polyphylla var. yunnanensis, and to look for phenotypic traits closely related with yield, in order to provide reference for its breeding in the future.Wild plants of Paris polyphylla var. yunnanensis populations cultivated for three years in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province were chosen. The plants of Paris polyphylla var. yunnanensis were randomly labelled, its phenotypic traits were observed and analyzed by variation, principal component, correlation, variance and path analysis.Eleven phenotypic traits variation of the populations of Paris polyphylla var. yunnanensis were great, mainly distributed in yield, growth and genetic characteristics. Phenotypic trait of different growth years (4 - 10 years) including stem height, stem diameter, flower stem height, flower stem diameter, leaf number, leaf length and leaf width had no significant difference(P0. 05). The underground phenotypic traits including root weight, root length and root diameter increased significant (P0. 05) with plant growth years. Effect of the other phenotypic traits on root weight was as follows: root diameter (0. 2550)root growth years (0. 1183 )root length(0. 0202)stem diameter(0. 0081)stem height (0. 0044)leaf number (0. 0025)leaf length (0. 0018)leaf width (0. 0004)flower stem height (0. 0003)flower stem diameter (0. 0001).The phenotypic traits on yield, growth and genetic characteristics have rich variations, and the phenotypic traits on the ground have no relationship with plant growth years, the plant growth years mainly affect the underground phenotypic traits. When choosing different root types, root diameter can be used as the preferred character, stem diameter as the second preferred traits when the root traits information not be easily obtained.

To provide the basic guidance for seed breeding and cross-breeding of Paris polyphylla var. yunnanensis.The floral behavior and pollinators were observed; 0.5% TTC solution was used for the pollen viability test and benzidine and -H2O2 was used for estimation of the stigma receptivity. The mating systems were tested by out crossing index (OC1), and pollination experiment was carried out by bagged and emasculated test in the field.Commonly, stigma lobes spread slightly, and anthers started presenting the pollen from the outer ring while the flower was just beginning to open. Consequently, the distance between the stigma and its own pollen was relatively far, this "floral behavior" may be conducive to outcrossing. Then the flower entered the later period, while the stigma lobes spread widely, anthers all split, and this "floral behavior" shortened the stigma and its own pollen's distance, which may be conducive to selfing. P. polyphylla was partly protogynous. Stigma life-span was about 10-12 d. After anther dehiscence, the pollen viability maintained about 10% within 2 days, and 20% within 10 days. The value of out crossing index (OC1) was 4. By pollination experiment and pollinators observed, P. polyphylla was self-compatible, but no capacity for autonomous self-fertilization; In natural circumstances, outcrossing fructification rate was low, and mainly anemophilous. Assisted selfing-fertilization fructification rate was higher, spider was the main pollinators.P. polyphylla has a mixed mating system with self-pollination and cross-pollination characteristics. Floral behavior has important adaptive significance in avoiding female and male interference, outcrossing, and delayed selfing. P. polyphylla is ambophily (a combination of both wind and insect pollination), pollinators changes due to environment. Pollen limitation is the main cause of low fructification rate under natural conditions.

A survey of 420 exposures of mammography was performed with the parameters recorded. Entrance skin air kerma (ESAK) was measured and the mean glandular dose (MGD) was calculated according to the Dance's formula. Correlation analysis showed that several factors could affect the MGD level. Mann-whitney test and Non-parametric ANOVA analyses were used to compare the MGD level grouped by view type and radiographic systems. No significant difference was found in MGD between the craniocaudal (CC) group and the mediolateral oblique (MLO) group. The MGD level was higher in the CR group than in the other two groups. MGD was positively correlated with the compressed breast thickness (CBT). MGD varied with the half value layer (HVL) and increased first then decreased. The mean MGD level in China is about 1.6 mGy and is lower than the guidance level in the International Basic Safety Standards (IBSS).

To establish the seedling quality grading standard of Dendrobium nobile.Height, stem thickness and stem nodes of seedlings (test-tube seedling and cutting seedling) from Chishui city Guizhou province were tested. Through statistical analysis, the key indicators for seedling quality grading were defined.Height and the number of cluster were the primary indicator of test-tube seedling; Height and the number of buds were the primary indicator of cutting seedling.The grade test-tube seedling quality of each grade should reach the following requirements: for the first grade seedlings heightor = 17cm, the numbers of clusteror = 3; For the second seedling height 11 -17cm, the numbers of clusteror =2. The grade cutting seedling requires the first grade seedlings heightor = 12cm, the numbers of budsor = 3; The second grade seedling height 6 - 12cm, the numbers of clusteror = 2. Seedlings those can hot reach the second grade requirements are defined as unqualified seedlings.

Studies on the relationship between depression and mortality in elderly community populations have yielded contradictory findings, although an association frequently is found in studies of elderly psychiatric patients. These different results may be due to differences in the measures of depression, the populations under study, the covariates in the analysis, or to sample attrition. In this study of elderly residents of an urban neighborhood, depressive symptoms are measured at two time points. People are classified as consistently nonsymptomatic (N-N), with emergent symptoms (N-D), in remission (D-N), or persistently symptomatic (D-D). Symptoms of depression, sociodemographic characteristics, and measures of changes in health, functional status, number of chronic medical conditions, and social support are examined in relation to mortality in multivariate Cox regression models. Although symptoms of depression are not found to be related to time-to-death, older people, those with declines in health and functional status, and men have greater relative risks of mortality over a three-year follow-up.