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We are concerned with the uniqueness of solutions for a class ofp-Laplacian fractional order nonlinear systems with nonlocal boundary conditions. Based on some properties of thep-Laplacian operator, the criterion of uniqueness for solutions is established.

Currently, the agricultural water shortage in China has become more and more serious. It is of great importance for scientists and engineers to figure out the ways to utilize the limited water resources efficiently for irrigation. This paper proposes a new irrigation concept which combines advanced soil moisture conserving techniques available in the semi-arid and arid regions of China with the design of water-saving irrigation systems. To show the effectiveness of the new concept, straw mulching used widely in China, a soil moisture conserving technique, was tested in irrigation systems. The experimental results show the way soil moisture, soil microorganism, soil temperature, ecological and physiological indices and maize productivity were affected by straw mulching under irrigation and the improved performance indices with the combination of soil moisture conserving techniques with irrigation systems, which contributed to a higher water use efficiency. It is believed that the combination of soil moisture conserving techniques with irrigation systems will be a new trial for the water-saving irrigation of China, particularly for the semi-arid and arid areas.

To investigate the role and molecular mechanism of membrane-associated guanylate kinase inverted 3 (MAGI3) in glioma cell proliferation.The expression levels of MAGI3 and PTEN were assessed in glioma samples by Western blotting. MAGI3 was stably transfected into C6 glioma cells to obtain C6-MAGI3 cells. Then, the proliferation, the expression levels of MAGI3 and PTEN, and Akt phosphorylation were evaluated in C6 and C6-MAGI3 cells. Xenograft tumor models were established by subcutaneous injection of C6 and C6-MAGI3 cells into nude mice, and the growth rates of xenografts in the mice were compared. The potential role of MAGI3 expression in PI3K/Akt signaling activation was further investigated by examining the correlation between MAGI3 expression and the expression of PI3K/Akt signaling downstream target genes in a glioma dataset using gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA).Expression levels of MAGI3 and PTEN were significantly downregulated in gliomas. Overexpression of MAGI3 in the glioma C6 cell line upregulated PTEN protein expression, inhibited the phosphorylation of Akt, and suppressed cell proliferation. MAGI3 overexpression also inhibited the growth of C6 glioma tumor xenografts in nude mice. Analysis based on the GEO database confirmed the negative correlation between activation of PI3K/Akt pathway and MAGI3 mRNA levels in human glioma samples.The loss of MAGI3 expression in glioma may enhance the proliferation of glioma cells via downregulation of PTEN expression, leading to the activation of the PI3K/Akt pathway. MAGI3 is a potential glioma suppressor.

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is imptortant for cell activities, oncogenesis and cell migration, and EGFR inhibitor can treat cancer efficiently, but its side effects, for example, in skin, limited its usage. On the other hand, EGFR interacting proteins may also lead to oncogenesis and its interacting protein as drug targets can avoid cutaneous side effect, which implies possibly a better outcome and life quality of cancer patients. For the multiple EGFR interaction proteins, B1R enhances Erk/MAPK signaling, while PTPN12, Kek1, CEACAM1 and NHERF repress Erk/MAPK signaling. CaM may alter charge of EGFR juxamembrane domain and regulate activation of PI3K/Akt and PLC-gamma/PKC. STAT1, STAT5b are widely thought to be activated by EGFR, while there is unexpectedly inhibiting sequence within EGFR to repress the activity of STATs. LRIG1 and ACK1 enhance the internalization and degration of EGFR, while NHERF and HIP1 repress it. In this article, proteins interacting with EGFR, their interacting sites and their regulation on EGFR signal transduction will be reviewed.

With the application of polyethylene film, “white pollution” has been becoming worse and worse. In recent years degradable film has become popular in Northern regions of China. Photo-biodegradable polyethylene (PBD-PE) film, containing starch made in Nanjing of China, has been developed and applied in agriculture to find out its field effect. It can increase soil temperature, preserve soil moisture and increase yield as the common polyethylene films with better effect than control. In addition, it can be degraded environmentally after these functions are fulfilled.The application period of this kind of photo-biodegradable films is around 130∼200days, which basically satisfies the needs of such agricultural cultivars as maize, wheat and etc‥ The objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of this sort of PBD-PE on the soil water, soil temperature, the physic-ecological index of wheat and the yield. The final aim is to reveal its mechanism of saving water and increasing yield and provide certain basis for the application of PBD-PE. We are conceived that it is one of the important measures to protect field eco-environment from “white pollution”.

The Multiple T-maze (MTM) and the Barnes maze (BM) are land mazes used for the evaluation of spatial memory. The observation that mice are performing differently in individual mazes made us test the hypothesis that differences in cognitive performances in the two land mazes would be accompanied by differences in hippocampal protein levels. C57BL/6J mice were tested in the BM and in the MTM, hippocampi were extirpated 6 h following the probe trials each, and proteins were extracted for gel-based proteomic analysis. Mice learned the task in both paradigms. Levels of hippocampal proteins from several pathways including signaling, chaperone, and metabolic cascades were significantly different between the two spatial memory tasks. Protein levels were linked to spatial memory specifically as yoked controls were used.