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The incidence and mortality of HCC in China account for approximately 50% of all cases worldwide. Low early diagnosis rate and high postoperative recurrence rate are two major causes for poor 5-year survival rate of HCC patients in China. At present, multiple problems such as low performance and compliance of screening technology and lack of effective markers for predicting postoperative recurrence, remain to be resolved. Due to the simplicity and accuracy, new molecular markers, such as liquid biopsy, are expected to serve as supplementary tools to traditional screening and early warning approaches, thereby realizing early detection and accurate treatment of HCC. In this article, research progress upon the clinical application of liquid biopsy in early screening and prediction of postoperative recurrence of HCC was reviewed, and prospects the future research.中国肝细胞癌（HCC）发病及死亡人数约占全球50%。HCC早期诊断率低及术后复发率高是我国HCC患者5年生存率欠佳的两大原因。当前存在筛查技术性能及依从性较低、缺乏有效预测术后复发标志物等问题。液体活检等新型分子标志物因其简便、精准等特点，有望成为传统筛查预警方法的有益补充，实现HCC的早期发现及精准治疗。现就液体活检在HCC早筛及治疗后复发预测中的临床转化应用进行论述，并对未来研究进行展望。.

2岁6月龄和10月龄患儿均以排稀水便起病，临床表现为顽固性腹泻、大量水样便、重度营养不良、低蛋白血症，病理示小肠黏膜绒毛萎缩，固有膜淋巴细胞浸润，伴隐窝凋亡，例1血清抗杯状细胞抗体阳性，2例患儿诊断为自身免疫性肠病。该病临床罕见，以营养支持及免疫抑制治疗为主。.

Nipah virus disease (NVD) is a newly emerged zoonosis with a case fatality rate of 40%-75%. NVD is a severe threat to human health and the development of livestock farming. NVD has become one of the emerging infectious diseases with great concern globally during more than 20 years. Nipah virus (NiV) is a pathogen for NVD, the natural host of which is Fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family. The clinical spectrum of NiV infection is broad, including asymptomatic infection, acute respiratory infection, fatal encephalitis, and even death. Since NiV was first identified in Malaysia in 1999, it has been prevalent mainly in Southeast Asia and South Asia. NiV is primarily transmitted to humans through bat-pig-human, contaminated food. Currently, there are no specific therapeutic drugs and vaccines for NVD. Although there are no cases of NVD reported in China, which has close personnel and trade exchanges with major NVD-endemic countries, and NiV antibody has also been detected in relevant bats. There is a potential risk of importing NVD and domestic outbreaks in the future in this country. This paper provides a systematic review of the research progress in the prevention and control of NVD etiology, epidemiology, clinical manifestations and laboratory diagnosis to help relevant staff to understand NVD more comprehensively and systematically.尼帕病毒病（NVD）是一种新发现的人兽共患病，致死率达40%~75%，严重威胁人类健康和畜牧业的发展，已成为近20多年来国际高度关注的新发传染病之一。尼帕病毒（NiV）是NVD病原体，其自然宿主是狐蝠科的果蝠。NiV可致人和动物感染，临床谱广泛，包括无症状感染、急性呼吸道感染、致命性脑炎甚至死亡。NiV自1999年首次在马来西亚被发现以来，主要在东南亚和南亚地区流行。NiV主要通过蝙蝠-猪-人、被污染的食物传播给人类造成人际传播。目前，尚无NVD特异性治疗药物和疫苗。我国目前没有NVD病例报道，但我国与NVD主要流行国家经济贸易及人员往来频繁，并且已在我国相关蝙蝠体内也检测到了NiV抗体，我国存在NVD输入与本地流行潜在风险。本文围绕NVD病原学、流行病学、临床表现和实验室诊断等预防控制的研究进展进行系统综述，帮助相关工作人员较为全面和系统地了解NVD。.

The Global Evaluation of SARS-CoV-2/hCoV-19 Sequences 2 (GESS v2 https://shiny.ph.iu.edu/GESS_v2/) is an updated version of GESS, which has offered a handy query platform to analyze single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) on millions of high coverages and high-quality severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) complete genomes provided by the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (GISAID). Including the tools in the first version, the GESS v2 is embedded with new functions, which allow users to search SNVs, given the viral nucleotide or amino acid sequence. The GESS v2 helps users to identify SNVs or SARS-CoV-2 lineages enriched in countries of user’s interest and show the migration path of a selected lineage on a world map during specific time periods chosen by the users. In addition, the GESS v2 can recognize the dynamic variations of newly emerging SNVs in each month to help users monitor SNVs, which will potentially become dominant soon. More importantly, multiple sets of analyzed results about SNVs can be downloaded directly from the GESS v2 by which users can conduct their own independent research. With these significant updates, the GESS v2 will continue to serve as a public open platform for researchers to explore SARS-CoV-2 evolutionary patterns from the perspectives of the prevalence and impact of SNVs.

The clinical data of 47 patients [41 males, 6 females, aged (62±7) years] treated at the Department of Neurology of the Sixth Medical Center of PLA General Hospital from October 2018 to October 2020 who were diagnosed with severe bilateral vertebral artery stenosis/occlusion through Digital Subtraction Angiography (DSA) were retrospectively collected, and the characteristics of the compensatory pathways of collateral circulation were determined. Results showed that there were 8 intracranial and extracranial compensatory pathways, with posterior communicating artery as the major type (21 cases) for intracranial ones and deep carotid artery as the major type (16 cases) for extracranial ones. As the establishment of the compensatory pathway is closely related to the lesion site, DSA assessment for patients with severe bilateral vertebral artery stenosis/occlusion is helpful for clinicians to make judgement on prognosis of patients and choose individualized treatment plans.回顾性分析2018年10月至2020年10月解放军总医院第六医学中心神经内科收治的47例经数字血管减影术（DSA）证实存在双侧椎动脉重度狭窄/闭塞患者的临床资料及侧支循环代偿特点。其中男41例，女6例，年龄（62±7）岁。颅内外共存在8种代偿途径，颅内以后交通动脉为主（21例）、颅外以颈深动脉侧支为主（16例）。不同部位病变启动的代偿途径不同，对于此类患者进行DSA评估，有助于患者预后判断及个体化治疗方案选择。.

Porcelain tooth technology is widely used in the treatment of oral diseases, but there are few reports on the possible occupational hazard factors in the process of porcelain tooth production. Porcelain teeth production will produced a large amount of silica dust and metal dust during the grinding process. The technical workers who have been engaged in this work for a long time are very prone to pneumoconiosis due to their poor personal protection awareness. This paper analyzed the clinical data of a pneumoconiosis patient engaged in porcelain tooth making, and analyzed the possible occupational hazard factors in the process of porcelain teeth production, so as to improve the understanding of relevant enterprises, technical workers and medical personnel on the disease and reduce the risk of porcelain teeth production workers suffering from pneumoconiosis.烤瓷牙技术广泛应用于口腔疾病的治疗，但目前对烤瓷牙制作过程中可能存在的职业病危害因素报道较少。烤瓷牙制作在研磨过程中会产生大量二氧化硅粉尘和金属烟尘，如个人防护意识差，长期从事此项工作的技术工人极易患尘肺病。本文通过分析一例从事烤瓷牙制作的尘肺病患者的临床资料，分析烤瓷牙制作过程中可能存在的职业病危害因素，以提高相关企业、技术工人和医务人员对该病的认识，降低烤瓷牙制作工人患尘肺病的风险。.

Globally, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most highly morbid, fatal, and malignant tumors, with a poor prognosis in advanced stage. In the past decade, new advances have been emerged in the field of HCC therapy, including surgery, ablation, transvascular intervention, external radiotherapy, and systemic therapy. Among them, systemic treatments, particularly targeted and immune checkpoint drugs have made outstanding progress, significantly improving the five-year survival rate of liver cancer patients. In addition, the management of liver cancer patients, especially the screening management and multidisciplinary collaborative diagnosis and treatment of high-risk populations, has significantly increased the early diagnosis rate and improved the overall treatment efficacy. Considering our country's condition and the development of existing treatment, the most effective strategy to reduce HCC mortality in the future is to accurately identify high-risk populations, increase the early diagnosis rate, and formulate personalized treatment strategies.肝细胞癌（HCC）是全世界范围内发病率和死亡率极高的恶性肿瘤之一，肿瘤晚期预后欠佳。近十年来，HCC治疗领域出现的新进展涵盖了外科手术、消融、经血管介入、外放射治疗、系统治疗等方面，其中尤以靶向和免疫检查点药物等系统治疗方面的进展尤为突出，显著提高了肝癌患者的五年生存率。此外，针对肝癌患者的管理，尤其是高风险人群的筛查和多学科协作诊疗，提升了肝癌的早诊率和改善了总体治疗效果。考虑到我国国情和现有治疗手段的发展情况，在未来，精准识别高危HCC人群，提高HCC早诊率，制定个性化的HCC治疗策略，将是降低HCC死亡率的最有效手段。.

Background: Oral treprostinil (TRE) decreased the risk of adjudicated clinical worsening (CW) compared to placebo (PBO) in FREEDOM-EV (HR 0.74; 95% CI 0.56,0.97; p=0.0391). This prespecified analysis hypothesized that changes in NT-proBNP, World Health Organization Functional Class (FC), Borg dyspnea score (BDS), and 6-minute walk distance (6MWD) would be dose-dependent. Methods: Participants with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) taking one PAH medication were randomized to TRE or PBO and titrated to 12 mg thrice daily (TID). Results are compared for TRE Results: Baseline characteristics were similar. More than half (54%) assigned to TRE reached ≥3 mg TID at W24; median dose was 3.6 mg TID. The ≥3 mg TID group had greater clinical response compared to PBO and Conclusions: Higher TRE dose facilitated greater clinical improvements at W24 in this a priori analysis. Although 6MWD effect with ≥3 mg TID was modest, it was coupled with a significant reduction in BDS. AEs did not appear dose dependent. A dose ≥3 mg TID may be a reasonable initial target in clinical practice.

BACKGROUND Recent evidence suggests melasma to be a photoaging disorder. Triple combination creams (TCC: fluocinolone acetonide 0.01%, hydroquinone 4% and tretinoin 0.05%) remain the gold standard treatment. Picosecond alexandrite laser treatment using a diffractive lens array (DLA) has been identified to be effective for improving photoaging conditions. OBJECTIVE We aimed to compare the efficacy and tolerance of the picosecond alexandrite laser with those of DLA and TCC in female Asian patients with melasma. METHODS Twenty-nine patients were randomly assigned to group A1 (3 laser sessions at 4-week intervals), A2 (5 laser sessions at 4-week intervals) or B (TCC daily for at least 8 weeks and then tapered until the final evaluation). The Melasma Area, Severity Index (MASI) score and VISIA were assessed at baseline, week 12 and week 20. By week 20, the follow-up periods for groups A1 and A2 were 3 months and 1 month, respectively. RESULTS Nine, 11 and 6 participants in groups A1, A2 and B completed the study, respectively. MASI scores were significantly improved in all 3 groups at weeks 12 and 20. In groups A1, A2 and B, the improvement rates at week 20 were 53%, 38% and 50%, respectively. VISIA® analysis additionally revealed a significant improvement in spots, porphyria, pores and brown spots after 3 laser sessions (P

An endophytic fungus producing 1,8-cineole from Neolitsea pulchella (Meissn.) Merr. was identified as Annulohypoxylon sp. by phylogenetic analyses of the sequence alignments of ITS rDNA, β-tubulin, Actin and EF1-α. This isolate produces an attractive spectrum of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) with only one dominant component, 1,8-cineole, as identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The fungus was able to grow in seven media with different carbon sources, and five raw agro-forest residues. The content of 1,8-cineole in the mixed VOCs via fungus reached up to 94.95% and 91.25% relative area in PDA and raw poplar sawdust, respectively. Under optimum test conditions, the fungus produced 1,8-cineole at the 0.764 ppmv in 50 mL head spaces in PDA. Interestingly, 1,8-cineole is an ideal fuel additive for both diesel and gasoline engines. Also, this is the first isolate, in this group of fungi, making cineole, which produces as its primary VOC product which makes it an ideal organism for strain improvement. Such as step will be critical for its ultimate use in biofuel production.

BACKGROUND As Mycobacterium tuberculosis is an aerobic microbe, hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) could trigger progression from latent tuberculous infection (LTBI) to active tuberculosis (TB) disease. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of HBOT on TB reactivation. DESIGN Our study sample was from the National Health Insurance Research Database containing one million beneficiaries. We identified a group of patients who underwent HBOT, and matched this group with individuals without HBOT. We compared the incidence of activation of TB between these two groups. RESULTS A total of 2258 patients were identified, with each group comprising 1129 patients. One year after exposure to hyperbaric oxygen, the number of cases of active TB was significantly higher in the HBOT group than in the non-HBOT group (11 cases vs. 1 case, P = 0.006). Multiple regression analysis showed that HBOT was the only statistically significant contributor to TB activation. CONCLUSION HBOT is likely to trigger the reactivation of TB. High-risk patients should undergo the tuberculin skin test or interferon-gamma release assays before HBOT to identify patients with LTBI.

Summary Chinese traditional medicines have been used for several thousands of years in Asian countries, not only in humans but also in many animal species. These compounds prevent and control different types of diseases including internal diseases as well as some infectious diseases, where the aetiological agent is viral, bacterial, parasitic or mycotic. Rhizoma coptidis is believed to inhibit Shigella dysenteriae and that Radix isatidis can prevent flu caused by the influenza virus. It is thus hypothesized that some of these traditional herbal compounds will have anti-fungal activity. Saprolegniosis is a disease common in fish and their eggs in both fresh and brackish water; a newer, safer medication against Saprolegnia is needed after the prohibition in many countries of the extremely effective fungicide, malachite green. In the present study an attempt is made to identify herbal compounds that have anti-Saprolegnia activity. A strain of Saprolegnia, CCF1301, was isolated from the skin of infected grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) and identified as Saprolegnia ferax by the 26S rDNA D1/D2 region and ITS region. This strain was used to evaluate the antifungal activity of thirty Chinese traditional herbal medicine extracts, and a modified dish dilution method was developed for the evaluation. Saprolegnia-infected rapeseeds with visible hyphae were transplanted onto prepared PDA plates containing 2 g L−1 herbal plant extracts and incubated at 20°C for 48 h. Each herbal plant species was tested in triplicate. Those herbal plant extracts that showed negative mycelium presence at 2 g L−1 were further tested for minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) evaluation. The results showed that Syzygium aromaticum, Magnolia officinalis, Melaphis chinensis, Euphorbia fischeriana Steud, and Sophora flavescentis exhibited enhanced growth inhibition at 2 g L−1 and MIC values of 500, 62.5, 250, 62.5, 250 mg L−1 concentrations, respectively. It was obvious that Magnolia officinalis and Euphorbia fischeriana Steud exhibited the best antifungal activity. Since there is a high natural toxicity in Euphorbia fischeriana Steud, its applicability as the main ingredient in an aquaculture therapeutic formulation requires further research. Thus, Magnolia officinalis would appear to be the more valuable antifungal herbal species with which to pursue further research.

Polyamines (PAs) are ubiquitous biogenic amines that play important roles in the environmental stress tolerance of crops. However, the relationship between PAs and plant waterlogging (WL) tolerance has received little attention. In this study, the protective effects of spermidine (Spd) against WL stress were investigated by Zea mays. WL treatment inhibited root growth and caused a significant increase in lipid peroxidation, membrane permeability and DNA damage in maize roots. Pre‐soaking seeds with Spd markedly alleviated these effects caused by WL. Spd pre‐soaking also significantly increased the endogenous Spd content in both control and waterlogged maize roots. In addition, the activity of antioxidant enzymes (catalase, CAT; glutathione reductase, GR; superoxide dismutase, SOD; peroxidase, POD) was enhanced in Spd‐pre‐soaked maize roots under WL stress. Thus, hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and superoxide‐radical (O2·−) accumulation were reduced. Spd treatment also enhances the expression and protein abundance of heat shock protein (HSP) 70 and 90 during the period of WL stress. Furthermore, Spd pre‐soaking reversed the inhibition effect of WL on H⁺ efflux and K⁺ influx in maize roots. The PM H⁺‐ATPase activity in Spd‐pre‐treated seedlings exhibited less inhibitory under WL conditions. In conclusion, this study suggests that WL stress could be alleviated by priming seeds with Spd in maize species. This alleviative effect was partially attributable to (i) up‐regulated activity of antioxidant enzymes; (ii) maintained PM H⁺‐ATPase activity; and (iii) increased Hsp70 and Hsp90 gene expression and protein abundance.

Residual stress relaxation during post-weld heat treatment (PWHT) is a thermodynamic process, which is affected not only by the heat treatment process, but also by the welding residual stress. In this study, the residual stresses in as welded and heat treated surfacing metal were measured using blind hole and X-ray method. The results reveal that the welding residual stresses are compressive at the surface of the weld and tensile at inner weld. However, after PWHT, the residual stresses at surface and inner weld change to the opposite state. Finite element simulations show that the differences of expansion coefficients between base metal and filler material are the main factor to the changes of stress state. The experimental results verify that the expansion coefficients of base metal and filler materials have been changed greatly after long soaking at high temperature.

This paper presents a finite-element (FE) analysis of the effect of subsoil in a reinforced piled embankment and compares the findings with predictions from a theoretical method. It shows that the subsoil can carry as much as 75% arching embankment load for the present standard model (pile spacing of 2.5 m, geogrid stiffness of 6 MN/m, embankment height of 6 m, and subsoil compression index of 0.7). Also, the proportion is much larger for the lower value of pile spacing, geogrid stiffness, embankment height, and subsoil compression index. The maximum settlement of subsoil is found to be more sensitive to the pile spacing than to the geogrid stiffness. The theoretical method shows reasonable agreement with the FE results and can therefore be used to predict the effect of subsoil in reinforced piled embankments. The geogrid has a significant role in carrying the entire embankment load without the subsoil support. However, this effect may lead to intolerable geogrid strain due to relatively large set...

Hybrid plasmonic lasers in nanowires of small size have been intensively studied in the past few years. However, there is a condition, which is that the size of the nanowire should be small enough (diameter ∼ 100 nm) to suppress the lasing of the photonic modes. Because the photonic modes suffer less loss, leading to lower threshold. Thus for large-size nanowires, it is hard to achieve the lasing of plasmonic modes. Here we study the lasing actions in larger-radius nanowire based hybrid plasmonic nanostructure and explore the possibility of reducing the thresholds of spasers. We have successfully observed hybrid plasmonic nanolasers at room temperature by placing CdS nanowires onto SiO 2 coated Ag film, even though the diameters of CdS nanowires are similar to or even larger than the lasing wavelengths. Most importantly, while the effective mode volumes of plasmonic lasers are kept on the nanoscale, their thresholds become comparable to photonic lasers for the first time. The photonic modes are strongly scattered by the nanoparticles and suppressed, whereas the plasmonic modes take most of the amplifications and lase. We believe that our research will be important to improve the performances of hybrid plasmonic nanolasers.

Semiconductor microwires have attracted much current attention due to their excellent geometric uniformities, inherent optical gain, relatively high refractive index, making them potential candidates for microscale electronic and optoelectronic building blocks, especially as the next frontier in miniaturization of semiconductor lasers. Recently, organic-lead halide perovskite semiconductors (CH 3 NH 3 PbX 3 with X = Cl, Br, I), with high optical absorption coefficient, optimal direct band gap, and long electron/hole diffusion lengths, good optical properties and long electron hole diffusion length, which ensure adequate gain and efficient optical feedback, have become a research hotspot to achieve semiconductor lasers. Up to now, both Fabry-Perot (FP) lasing and Whispering Gallery Mode (WGM) lasing have been observed in perovskite micro-cavities, such as microwires, hexagonal microplates and square microdisks. However, the lasing mechanism is fixed once the perovskite microcavity is synthesized. Here the transition between FP lasing and WGM lasing is demonstrated in perovskite microwires and moreover, the transition is reversible without any damage to the samples. The CH 3 NH 3 PbBr 3 perovskite microwires are synthesized with one-step solution based self-assembled method and the typical lengths are tens of microns with an aspect ratio about 1 in the transverse plane. When perovskite microwire on glass substrate is pumped uniformly above threshold, FP lasing action can be observed which oscillates between the two end facets along the microwire axial direction. By repositioning the microwire on a perovskite block with one end suspending in the air or placing a perovskite block on one end of the microwire via micromanipulation, the FP lasing mode can be suppressed. In such case, single mode lasing can be excited when the suspending end of the microwire is pumped. After transferring the microwire to glass substrate again, FP lasing can be observed when pumped uniformly. Numerical simulations show that the perovskite block induces huge leaky loss to the microwire, which suppresses the FP lasing mode. As the lasing modes corresponds to the high quality (Q) modes, WGM modes exhibit larger Q factor than the FP modes in the transverse plane. Therefore, the single mode lasing originates from WGM mode in the transverse plane when the FP modes are suppressed. By introducing perovskite blocks, transition between FP lasing in the microwire axial direction and WGM lasing in the transverse plane can be achieved without any damage to the sample. The proposed mechanism provides a simple and flexible way to tailor the perovskite lasing actions, exhibiting potential applications in integrated photonic circuits and light sources.

Stimulated by the non-Hermitian nature of micro- and nanophotonic systems, modal interaction has been proposed to play a more essential role in controlling lasing actions. Here we demonstrate its impact on mode management in microcavity lasers. Single-mode laser emission with extinction ratio above 10 dB has been obtained in twin-microdisks with a radius about 40 µm. Unlike conventional single-mode lasers, here the lasing mode can hop to a nearby lasing mode deterministically without varying the pumping profile or cavity structures. The laser spectra show that the initial lasing mode experiences a negative power slope until it is finally suppressed by the second lasing mode. Interestingly, the characteristics of lasers such as mode spacing and lasing wavelengths remain unchanged. All these observations are intrinsically different from the predictions from the recently developed parity-time symmetric lasers and bistability caused mode switching in microcavities. The corresponding theoretical and numerical calculations show that they are caused by the modal interaction via gain saturation. This type of interaction induced mode switching is found to be quite robust for different materials and cavity shapes. In additional to the twin disks, similar mode switching has also been observed in a single perovskite microrod. Our finding may have applications in optical memory, flip-flop, and other functional devices.

In past few years, while lead halide perovskite micro-lasers have been thoroughly studied, their performances at high excitation power have rarely explored. Here, we study the perovskite micro-lasers with high pumping density and explore the mechanism to improve their laser characteristics. By transferring a CH 3 NH 3 PbBr 3 perovskite micro-rod onto a few-layered graphene slice, whispering gallery like lasing modes have been formed in the transverse plane of the microrod. Interestingly, the “gain saturation” of conventional CH 3 NH 3 PbBr 3 perovskite micro-rod laser has been released. The maximal output intensity has been significantly improved more than 4 times and the threshold is reduced around 20%. The following experiments show that such improvements are caused by the electron acceptor property of graphene. By attracting electron with graphene, the electrons and holes are partially separated in the hybrid perovskite/graphene system and thus the Auger recombination at high pumping power has been inhibited. We believe that our finding will be important not only for the perovskite lasers but also for other semiconductor light emitting devices.

Background and purpose: Animal experiments indicate that the cerebral thrombin is associated with secondary brain damage after intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). This study was aimed to investigate the concentrations of thrombin-antithrombin complex (TAT) in hematoma fluid and plasma of the patients with ICH after surgery and analyze the correlation between TAT complex levels and severity of ICH. Methods: Sixty patients with ICH were enrolled. Craniotomy for removal of intracranial blood clot was performed within 24 h after ICH. Hematoma fluid and plasma were collected on postoperative days 1, 2, and 4. The plasma obtained from healthy subjects and cerebrospinal fluid from patients without cerebrovascular diseases served as controls, respectively. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to determine the concentrations of TAT complex in the patients and controls. Results: TAT complex concentrations in both postoperative plasma and hematoma fluid of patients with ICH were significantly higher than those of the controls (P

Background and purpose: Doxorubicin evokes oxidative stress and precipitates cell apoptosis in testicular tissues. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the Ginkgo biloba extract 761 (EGb), a widely used herbal medicine with potent anti-oxidant and anti-apoptotic properties, could protect testes from such doxorubicin injury. Experimental approach: Sprague-Dawley male rats (8 weeks old) were given vehicle, doxorubicin alone (3 mg kg−1 every 2 days for three doses), EGb alone (5 mg kg−1 every 2 days for three doses), or EGb followed by doxorubicin (each dose administered 1 day after EGb). At 7 days after the first drug treatment oxidative and apoptotic testicular toxicity was evaluated by biochemical, histological and flow cytometric analyses. Key results: Compared with controls, testes from doxorubicin-treated rats displayed impaired spermatogenesis, depleted haploid germ cell subpopulations, increased lipid peroxidation products (malondialdehyde), depressed antioxidant enzyme activities (superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase and glutathione), reduced antioxidant enzyme expression (superoxide dismutase) and elevated apoptotic indexes (pro-apoptotic modulation of Bcl-2 family proteins, intensification of p53 and Apaf-1, release of mitochondrial cytochrome c, activation of caspase-3 and increase of terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase nick-end labelling/sub-haploid cells), while EGb pretreatment effectively alleviated all of these doxorubicin-induced abnormalities in testes. Conclusions and implications: These results demonstrate that EGb protected against the oxidative and apoptotic actions of doxorubicin on testes. EGb may be a promising adjuvant therapy medicine, potentially ameliorating testicular toxicity of this anti-neoplastic agent in clinical practice.

Primary palatogenesis in mice is similar to that in humans, and spontaneous cleft lip appears to be multifactorially determined in both. Binding of a ligand to erbB4 has been shown to stimulate the receptor's protein kinase activity, which subsequently stimulates a signal-transduction cascade leading to cell growth and differentiation, and to morphogenesis during development. In this study, an immunohistochemical technique was used to investigate the temporal and spatial expression of erbB4 in the primary palate of cleft (A/WySn) and noncleft strains of mice (BALB/cBy). Positive staining of erbB4 was found in ectodermal and mesenchymal cells of facial prominences before the primary palate formation stage (day 10, hour 20) in both strains. During the primary palate formation stage (day 11, hour 20), positive staining of erbB4 was found in the ectodermal and mesenchymal cells of the facial prominences of the noncleft strain, but not in those of the cleft strain. These results suggest erbB4 expression may be associated with normal primary palatogenesis of mice and, conversely, cleft lip may be associated with a deficiency of erbB4 expression during primary palate formation in mice.

With the increasing computational speed of PC processors, lowering hardware prices, and the increasing accessibility of open source software, PC clusters have become an attractive option for exploring budgetary high performance computation on high resolution environment modelling. This paper documents the implementation and operation of a Beowulf-class PC cluster called DOBSON built in the Atmospheric Modelling Laboratory at National Central University in Taiwan. Based on our current configuration, the DOBSON cluster achieves a 4.4-8.7 times of speedup with 8 and 14 CPUs, respectively, compared with a 1 CPU in simulations of the Antarctic vortex. The potential impacts of running a high resolution environmental modelling system on the DOBSON cluster were examined by case simulations of Typhoon Haiyan with a nested five-domain configuration. These results show that the complicated topographical flow in the Taipei Basin can only be properly resolved when model grid resolutions less than 9km were used.

The Antarctic vortex plays a well-known role in stratospheric ozone depletion in the early southern spring. One key requirement for this phenomenon is the isolation of air from inside the vortex to that from mid-latitudes. This paper seeks a new way to present this separation leading to isolation process by integrating several Lagrangian methods: a flow following coordinate system that combines a contour advection technique, a Lagrangian particle model, and a vortex diagnostic method, with new ways of contour particle initializations, visualization, and interpretations. We found that there exists a distinctive area with low density of contour particle numbers in the vortex edge region, and this low particle density region separates high particle density areas inside the vortex from those in mid-latitudes. We demonstrated the existence of an area with low particle numbers surrounded by the high particle numbers to the north (inside the vortex) and to the south (mid-latitudes). We show that the polar night jet is (1) efficient in generating this low particle density plateau that separate particles from inside the vortex to that from outside the vortex. (2) The polar night jet can pull particles from outside the vortex to the vortex edge region, and maintaining these particles in the polar night jet and carrying them around the polar vortex. Hence, the existence of a proper polar night jet is the key process in separating particles from inside the vortex to those from mid-latitudes, and the meridional profile of zonal winds and their time-varying behaviour directly affect the distribution of particles both inside the vortex and at mid-latitudes.

Continuous ambient monitoring data of major air pollutants such as CO, NOx and NMHC (non-methane hydrocarbons) for the 1994–2001 period were analysed to establish the relationship between patterns of vehicular emitting species and vehicular emissions in the urban area of Taipei. These characteristics are consistent with measurements in London and Athens, indicating that vehicular emissions are a major contributing factor to air pollution in Taipei. Sensitivity studies relating ambient air pollution to vehicular emissions in the urban area of Taipei were performed and further examined by analysing some special events where the city’s overall vehicle usage were at their extremes. Analysis of ambient measurements during the passing of Typhoon Nari shows very low levels of CO (0.3–0.4 ppmv), NOx (5–10 ppbv) and NMHC (0.01–0.05 ppmv), with no well-defined daily patterns. The measurements during Typhoon Nari were compared with measurements during the Chinese New Year and during Typhoon Herb. All analyses show distinctive low pollution periods surrounded by elevated trace gas concentrations, initiated by normal working practices. This revealed the severe impact of vehicle exhaust emissions on air pollution levels in Taipei City. Further impacts from vehicles were examined by comparing the post-Nari measurements with those before the arrival of the typhoon and comparing these data with a photochemical modelling system. It was found that as high as 15 ppmv of CO, 250 ppbv of NOx and 2.5 ppmv of NMHC were measured during the day time, with about a 50% increase in ambient vehicular pollutants in the first 2 days after the passing of Typhoon Nari. Implications for pollution related impacts on human health within Taipei are noted.

In this paper, techniques for the modelling of both large-scale and convective precipitation in a three-dimensional off-line chemical transport model are proposed. Relatively simple formulations are proposed that will yield meaningful rainfall rates to be used for the wet deposition of chemical species without compromising the computational efficiency of the model. As the profiles of humidity and temperature obtained from available meteorological analyses are too stable to produce any rainfall, we destabilize them through advection. This technique has been tested here for the large-scale rainfall only, but can also be applied to the convective rainfall to make it less spotty and improve the comparison with observations. For an off-line model, TOMCAT seems to capture surprisingly well the global distribution pattern of the rainfall as witnessed by observational climatologies. It performs well in capturing the dry subtropical regions and the wet Asian monsoon season as well as the mitigation of rains in the tropics with the change of season. However, it underestimates precipitation in the continents in the summer and south of 30 °S all year round. These shortcomings could be improved if we apply the advection technique to the convective rainfall as well. In addition, we could obtain the surface precipitation totals from the meteorological analyses and subsequently scale these amounts vertically using our model-derived grid point condensation rate. Copyright © 2004 Royal Meteorological Society.

A three-dimensional chemistry-transport model has been used to assess the impacts of aircraft traffic in the upper troposphere. Aircraft engines emit NOx, which has the potential to perturb the chemical composition at the flight altitude paths, i.e. at a 10–12 km height for subsonic flights. The model used includes a comprehensive chemistry scheme, so perturbations to other species apart from NOx could also be examined. More specifically, the model showed that the monthly mean increase for NOx due to aircraft is around 60 pptv (parts per trillion volume (30 per cent increase) and for HNO3 it is 100 pptv (30 per cent increase). Consequently, O3 is enhanced by 2500 pptv (5 per cent increase) due to aircraft traffic. To assess the regional and temporal variations in the perturbations, a time series analysis above a central European grid cell located at 47 °N 18 °E has also been performed. The analysis has indicated that the local perturbations can be much larger than the monthly mean values and can reach 200 pptv for NOx, 150 pptv for HNO3 and 5000 pptv for O3.

Background On the basis of the importance of the enteric nervous system (ENS) in gastrointestinal motility, we hypothesized that the ENS may mediate the therapeutic efficacy of electro-acupuncture (EA) in constipation by regulating the mechanisms underlying the effects of EA on gastrointestinal function. Methods Model mice with constipation were generated by gastric instillation of 0-4°C normal saline. Defecation time and stool (form and wet and dry weight) were assessed. The effect of EA at ST37 or ST25 on colorectal motility and proximal colonic motility was assessed using a water-filled balloon. The expression of protein gene product 9.5 (PGP9.5), the cholinergic neuron marker acetyltransferase (ChAT) and the anticholinergic neuron marker nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) was detected by immunohistochemistry, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and western blot analysis. Key results ST37 and ST25 improved colorectal pressure; however, ST37 but not ST25 improved proximal colonic pressure. In the proximal colon, the expression of PGP9.5 returned to normal after EA at ST 37, while EA at ST25 did not have this effect. In addition, qPCR and western blot analysis showed that ST37 could downregulate the expression of nNOS and upregulate the expression of ChAT to normal levels, while ST25 could only downregulate the expression of nNOS to normal levels. Conclusions and inferences Electro-acupuncture at specific acupoints can improve intestinal motility in constipation by altering the ENS and differentially affecting excitatory and inhibitory neurons, restoring the coordination between contraction and relaxation muscles, and working in concert with the central nervous system and peripheral neural pathways.

In response to the new requirements of the operation mode of wind-storage combined system and demand side response for transmission network planning, this paper presents a joint planning of energy storage and transmission considering wind-storage combined system and demand side response. Firstly, the charge-discharge strategy of energy storage system equipped at the outlet of wind farm and demand side response strategy are analysed to achieve the best comprehensive benefits through the coordination of the two. Secondly, in the general transmission network planning model with wind power, both energy storage cost and demand side response cost are added to the objective function. Not only energy storage operation constraints and but also demand side response constraints are introduced into the constraint condition. Based on the classical formulation of TEP, a new formulation is developed considering the simultaneous addition of the charge-discharge strategy of energy storage system equipped at the outlet of the wind farm and demand side response strategy, which belongs to a typical mixed integer linear programming model that can be solved by mature optimization software. The case study based on the Garver-6 bus system shows that the validity of the proposed model is verified by comparison with general transmission network planning model. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that the joint planning model can gain more economic benefits through setting up different cases.

In this paper we review a theoretical formulation of the adjoint method to be used in four-dimensional (4D) chemistry data assimilation. The goal of the chemistry data assimilation is to combine an atmospheric-chemistry model and actual observations to produce the best estimate of the chemistry of the atmosphere. The observational dataset collected during the past decades is an unprecedented expansion of our knowledge of the atmosphere. The exploitation of these data is the best way to advance our understanding of atmospheric chemistry, and to develop chemistry models for chemistry-climate prediction. The assimilation focuses on estimating the state of the chemistry in a chemically and dynamically consistent manner (if the model allows online interactions between chemistry and dynamics). In so doing, we can: produce simultaneous and chemically consistent estimates of all species (including model parameters), observed and unobserved; fill in data voids; test the photochemical theories used in the chemistry models. In this paper, the Hilbert space is first formulated from the geometric structure of the Banach space, followed by the development of the adjoint operator in Hilbert space. The principle of the adjoint method is described, followed by two examples which show the relationship of the gradient of the cost function with respect to the output vector and the gradient of the cost function with respect to the input vector. Applications to chemistry data assimilation are presented for both continuous and discrete cases. The 4D data variational adjoint method is then tested in the assimilation of stratospheric chemistry using a simple catalytic ozone-destruction mechanism, and the test results indicate that the performance of the assimilation method is good.

In part 3 of this series of papers on a new 3-D global troposphericchemical transport model, using an Integrated Modelling System (IMS), anevaluation of the model performance in simulating global distributions andseasonal variations for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the atmosphere,is presented. Comparisons of model OH concentrations with previous modelstudies show consistent modelled OH levels from the subtropics tomidlatitudes, while more discrepancies occur over the tropical lowlatitudes, with IMS predicting the highest levels of OH. The close agreementbetween modelled OH concentrations over midlatitudes, where high surfaceNOxand VOC concentrations are also found, is indicative of the strongphotochemical coupling between NOx, VOCs and O3 overthese latitudes. IMSOH concentrations in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) midlatitudes during summerare generally lower than available measurements, implying that models ingeneral are underestimating OH levels at this location and time of year.Substantial differences between model OH concentrations over low latitudesclearly highlight areas of uncertainty between models. IMS OH concentrationsare the highest in general of the models compared, one possible reason isthat biogenic emissions of species such as isoprene and monoterpenes arehighest in IMS, leading to higher O3 levels and hence higher OH.Generally, the IMS VOC concentrations show a similar seasonality to themeasurements at most locations. In general though, IMS tends to underestimatethe NH wintertime VOC maximum and overestimate the NH summertime VOCminimum. Such an overestimate in summer could be due to IMSunderestimating OH levels, or an overestimation of VOC emissions or possiblya problem with model transport, all of these possibilities are explored.Except for n-pentane, the model underprediction of a VOC maximum during theNH winter month strongly suggests a missing emission mechanism in the modelor an underestimate of an existing one. It is very likely that there is alack of time varying emission sources in the model to account for theseasonal change in emission behaviour such as increasing energy usage (e.g.,electricity and gas), road transportation, engine performance, and otheranthropogenic factors which show strong seasonal characteristics. Theanomalous overprediction of wintertime n-pentane compared with its closesummertime prediction with the measurements suggest that emissions in thiscase may be too high.

In part two of this series of papers on the IMS model, we present the chemistry reaction mechanism usedand compare modelled CH4, CO, and O3 witha dataset of annual surface measurements. The modelled monthly and 24-hour mean tropospheric OH concentrationsrange between 5–22 × 105 moleculescm−3, indicating an annualaveraged OH concentration of about 10 × 105 moleculescm−3. This valueis close to the estimated 9.7 ± 0.6 × 105 moleculescm−3 calculated fromthe reaction of CH3CCl3 with OH radicals.Comparison with CH4 generally shows good agreementbetween model and measurements, except for the site at Barrow where modelledwetland emission in the summer could be a factor 3 too high.For CO, the pronounced seasonality shown in the measurements is generally reproduced by the model; however, the modelled concentrations are lower thanthe measurements. This discrepancy may due to lower the CO emission,especially from biomass burning,used in the model compared with other studies.For O3, good agreement between the model and measurements is seenat locations which are away from industrial regions. The maximum discrepancies between modelled results and measurementsat tropical and remote marine sites is about 5–10 ppbv,while the discrepancies canexceed 30 ppbv in the industrial regions.Comparisons in rural areas at European and American continental sites arehighly influenced by the local photochemicalproduction, which is difficult to model with a coarse global CTM.The very large variations of O3 at these locations vary from about15–25 ppbv in Januaryto 55–65 ppbv in July–August. The observed annual O3amplitude isabout 40 ppbv compared with about 20 ppbv in the model. An overall comparison of modelled O3 with measurements shows thatthe O3seasonal surface cycle is generally governed bythe relative importance of two key mechanisms that drivea springtime ozone maximum and asummertime ozone maximum.

In this paper we report on the improvement of a 3D CTM and a 4D variational data assimilation (4DDA) on a vector machine CRAY J90. Significant speedup has been achieved by applying a general multitasking strategy to both a 3D CTM and a 4DDA on the shared-memory platform of a CRAY J90. The 3D CTM has been multitasked to study many complex processes involved in the troposphere. For example, annual simulation to study the interaction between the atmosphere, biosphere (e.g., terrestrial vegetation), and oceans; while the 4DDA has been multitasked to assimilate observational data from satellites (e.g., UARS and ATMOS) and other measurements (e.g., ozonesondes and aircrafts). Evaluation of the multitasked models (both 3D CTM and 4DDA) are carried out by comparing (1) required job elapsed time, and (2) spatial and temporal distribution of long-lived and short-lived chemical species, physical fields, and photolysis rates between the single-threaded and the multitasked simulations. The agreement from the later comparisons indicate a correct multitasking strategy, while the first comparison shows a significantly reduced elapsed time. This validates the need of a multitasking strategy in complex global biogeochemical modeling and 4D chemical data assimilation.

The role of baroclinic-wave driven chemical transport is examined using the framework of a Lagrangiantrajectory model.The Lagrangian motion of transported trace gases are closely monitored through labelledboundary-layer tracers binned accordingto their latitudinal locations.From a set of 14-day Lagrangian paths, the mechanistically liftedsubtropical boundary-layer tracers track along tilted poleward paths, whilethe subsiding high-latitude tracers track along tilted equator-ward paths.The most significantmovements of tracers occur between days 6 and8. The vertical and latitudinal displacements during this time interval are3 km and 15° latitude. During a baroclinic-wave life-cycle,boundary-layertracers can either ascend vertically from 1 km to 7 km or descend to thesurface, while they arelatitudinally transported from 37° to 73° and from 45° to near 15° during the poleward and equator-ward motions,respectively.Vertical mixing of tracers occurs vigorously at mid-latitudes, where more than50%, by day 7, and a maximum of 70%, between days 9 and 10, of the boundary layer tracers have beentransported intothe free troposphere during the baroclinic-wave life-cycle.A clear 3D picture emerges from a Lagrangian analysis.Each time the tracer travels equator-ward, it descends, whilewhen it travels poleward, it ascends.Almost all of the low latitude tracers show tilted upward and poleward paths,while high latitude tracersshows downward tilted and equator-ward path.The maximum vertical displacement between poleward andequator-ward tracers are shown in mid-latitudes.Two types of the tilted upward and poleward paths are generally seen in thelatitude-height projections:anti-clockwise and clockwise paths.Both types of path transport tracers upward, however, the anti-clockwise pathsdeliver tracersequator-ward, while the clockwise paths deliver tracers poleward.Hence, whenlow latitude warm air arrives at mid-latitude, it can pick up enhanced tracerconcentrationand carry them on either poleward or equator-ward.