Search

Pot experiments were conducted to study the variation and physiological regulation of transpiration efficiency (TE) of four winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) varieties that are widely grown in different ecological regions in North China. Plants were grown under two soil moisture regimes, normal and drought stress. The results showed that under drought stress condition, both TE at plant level and TE at leaf level (TEl) increased significantly. The transpiration rate (Tr) was reduced more strongly than leaf net CO2 assimilation rate (Pn). The decline of Tr was mainly affected by stomatal conductance and the decline of Pn was affected by non-stomatal factors, which was confirmed by the decline in net photosynthetic oxygen evolution rate. The leaf soluble sugar content and proline content were significantly increased under drought stress. The stomatal density was increased and the stomatal length was reduced. These results led us to make the following conclusions: (1) Under drought stress, the increase in TEl appears to be regulated in two ways: via the stomata by regulating Tr, and independent of the stomata through regulation of Pn; regulation via the stomata was more sensitive; (2) Osmotic adjustment was closely correlated to the non-stomatal regulation, and stomatal aperture was closely correlated to the stomatal way.

An open field experiment was conducted under furrow irrigation with 3 treatments: CK (control), PRD (partial root drying) and RDI (regulated deficit irrigation). The results showed that water potential, water content of the leaf and growth were decreased under PRD and RDI and the plants met stronger water stress under RDI than under PRD regime. The water use efficiency (WUE) based on fruit yield reached to 10.95 kg/m3 and 15.33 kg/m3, i.e. 17.1% and 63.9% increase over CK under RDI and PRD, respectively. The transpiration efficiency in RDI was kept at the same level as CK, whereas it was promoted by 32.4% under PRD condition. CAT, SOD and POD activities were more active under RDI and especially under PRD than under CK. Therefore, following conclusions could be made: moderate water stress induced osmotic regulation under PRD conditions, leading to normal water status, higher antioxidant enzymes activities, the same level of biomass and lower water use, thus providing some part of mechanism to higher WUE under PRD condition.

Objective: To compare the differential therapeutic effects of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) instillation and radical cystectomy (RC) for high-risk non-muscle-invasive urothelial cancer (NMIBC) classified as high-grade T1 in initial and repeat transurethral resection of bladder tumors (TURBT) and to construct a prediction model., Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of patients with malignant bladder tumors treated at the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University from January 2016 to December 2017 and compared the differences in 1-year, 2-year, 3-year, 5-year, and comprehensive overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) between BCG instillation treatment and RC treatment. Survival curves were drawn to show differences in OS and PFS between the two groups. Concurrently, univariate and multivariate COX analyses were performed to identify risk factors affecting OS and PFS, and a nomogram was created., Results: In total, 146 patients were included in the study, of whom 97 and 49 were in the BCG and RC groups, respectively. No statistical differences were observed in the 1- and 2-year OS and PFS between the two groups, whereas significant statistical differences were found in the 3-year, 5-year, and comprehensive OS and PFS. Survival curves also confirmed the statistical differences in OS and PFS between the BCG and RC groups. Multivariate COX analysis revealed that the treatment method, concomitant satellite lesions, and albumin-to-alkaline phosphatase ratio (AAPR) were independent risk factors affecting OS and PFS. The nomogram that was further plotted showed good predictive ability for OS and PFS., Conclusion: For patients who exhibit high-level T1 pathology after both initial and repeat TURBT, especially those with low AAPR, and concomitant satellite lesions, choosing RC as a treatment method offers a better prognosis., Competing Interests: The 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 © 2024 Zhen, Hao, Yanhang, Yuxin, Jun and Zhiyu.)

Repeated implantation failure (RIF) is one of the most prominent problems in the field of assisted reproduction. Neu5Gc on the surface of decidual macrophages (dMΦ) leads to different activation patterns of dMΦ, which affects embryo implantation and development. Cmah -/- (Neu5Gc-deficient) mice induced to produce anti-Neu5Gc antibodies in vivo were given a special diet rich in Neu5Gc and their fertility was monitored. The long-term diet rich in Neu5Gc induced the decrease of endometrial receptivity of female mice. The pregnancy rate of female mice fed the normal diet was 63.6% (n = 11) and the average number of embryos was 9.571 ± 1.272, while the pregnancy rate of female mice fed the diet rich in Neu5Gc was 36.4% (n = 11) and the average number of embryos in pregnant mice was 5.750 ± 3.304. The intake of Neu5Gc and the production of anti-Neu5Gc antibody led to M1 polarization of endometrial dMΦ and abnormal embryo implantation., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

In this paper, we report the damage and damage growth in potassium dihydrogen phosphate and its deuterated analog crystals. A time-resolved shadow imaging system was used to investigate the damage behavior in the bulk and on the rear surface. The damage images show differences in the damage sizes of the crystals with different deuterization rates. Theoretical simulations demonstrated that this may be due to differences in the crystallographic defects. The experimental results showed that the development of crystal damage was not only manifested as the expansion of damage on the rear surface of the crystal but also as an increase in pin-point density and size within the crystal. Crystals with higher deuterization rates had higher probability of the increasing of initial damage size, rather than the increasing of pin-point density.

Comprehending the population trend and understanding the distribution range dynamics of species are necessary for global species protection. Recognizing what causes dynamic distribution change is crucial for identifying species' environmental preferences and formulating protection policies. Here, we studied the rear-edge population of the flagship species, giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), to (1) assess their population trend using their distribution patterns, (2) evaluate their distribution dynamics change from the second (1988) to the third (2001) survey (2-3 Interval) and third to the fourth (2013) survey (3-4 Interval) using a machine learning algorithm (eXtremely Gradient Boosting), and (3) decode model results to identify driver factors in the first known use of SHapley Additive exPlanations. Our results showed that the population trends in Liangshan Mountains were worst in the second survey (k = 1.050), improved by the third survey (k = 0.97), but deteriorated by the fourth survey (k = 0.996), which indicates a worrying population future. We found that precipitation had the most significant influence on distribution dynamics among several potential environmental factors, showing a negative correlation between precipitation and giant panda expansion. We recommend that further research is needed to understand the microenvironment and animal distribution dynamics. We provide a fresh perspective on the dynamics of giant panda distribution, highlighting novel focal points for ecological research on this species. Our study offers theoretical underpinnings that could inform the formulation of more effective conservation policies. Also, we emphasize the uniqueness and importance of the Liangshan Mountains giant pandas as the rear-edge population, which is at a high risk of population extinction., (© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Objectives: Time of flight magnetic resonance angiography (TOF-MRA) is the primary non-invasive screening method for cerebral aneurysms. We aimed to develop a computer-aided aneurysm detection method to improve the diagnostic efficiency and accuracy, especially decrease the false positive rate., Methods: This is a retrospective multicenter study. The dataset contained 1160 TOF-MRA examinations composed of unruptured aneurysms (n = 1096) and normal controls (n = 166) from six hospitals. A total of 1037 examinations acquired from 2013 to 2019 were used as training set; 123 examinations acquired from 2020 to 2021 were used as external test set. We proposed an equalized augmentation strategy based on aneurysm location and constructed a detection model based on dual channel SE-3D UNet. The model was trained with a 5-fold cross-validation in the training set, then tested on the external test set., Results: The proposed method achieved 82.46% sensitivity on patient-level, 73.85% sensitivity on lesion-level, and 0.88 false positives per case in the external test set. The performance did not show significant differences in subgroups according to the aneurysm site (except ACA), aneurysm size (except smaller than 3 mm), or MRI scanners. The performance preceded the basic SE-3D UNet by increasing 15.79% patient-level sensitivity and decreasing 4.19 FPs/case., Conclusions: The proposed automated aneurysm detection method achieved acceptable sensitivity while controlling fairly low false positives per case. It might provide a useful auxiliary tool of cerebral aneurysms MRA screening., Key Points: • The need for automated cerebral aneurysms detecting is growing. • The strategy of equalized augmentation based on aneurysm location and dual-channel input could improve the model performance. • The retrospective multi-center study showed that the proposed automated cerebral aneurysms detection using dual-channel SE-3D UNet could achieve acceptable sensitivity while controlling a low false positive rate., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to European Society of Radiology.)

Background: Subarachnoid hemorrhage caused by ruptured cerebral aneurysm often leads to fatal consequences. However, if the aneurysm can be found and treated during asymptomatic periods, the probability of rupture can be greatly reduced. At present, time-of-flight magnetic resonance angiography is one of the most commonly used non-invasive screening techniques for cerebral aneurysm, and the application of deep learning technology in aneurysm detection can effectively improve the screening effect of aneurysm. Existing studies have found that three-dimensional features play an important role in aneurysm detection, but they require a large amount of training data and have problems such as a high number of FPs per case., Methods: This paper proposed a novel method for aneurysm detection. First, a fully automatic cerebral artery segmentation algorithm without training data was used to extract the volume of interest, and then the 3D U-Net was improved by the 3D SENet module to establish an aneurysm detection model. Eventually a set of fully automated, end-to-end aneurysm detection methods have been formed., Results: A total of 231 magnetic resonance angiography image data were used in this study, among which 132 were training sets, 34 were internal test sets and 65 were external test sets. The presented method obtained 97.89±0.88% sensitivity in the five-fold cross-validation and obtained 90.8% sensitivity with 2.47 FPs/case in the detection of the external test sets., Conclusions: Compared with the results of our previous studies and other studies, the method in this paper achieves the best sensitivity while maintaining low number of FPs per case. This result proves the feasibility, superiority, and further improvement potential of the improved method combining 3D U-Net and channel attention in the task of aneurysm detection., Competing Interests: Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Aiming at the problem of gas emissions caused by the high-pressure operation of a large industrial gas (O 2 , N 2 , and Ar) pipeline network, this study establishes a mathematical model of the oxygen transmission and distribution system (OTDS) based on TGNET software. In addition, the study conducts transient simulation, comprehensively considering theoretical constraints and actual operation requirements, and adopts a large air separation company for the OTDS as a case study. After comparing two traditional adjustment methods, a compressor short stop adjustment strategy is proposed to reduce the peak pressure of the pipe network system. This study determines the energy-saving benefits and the difference in the scope of application of compressor short-stop adjustment. Compared with the medium-pressure release and inlet guide vane opening adjustment (IGVOA) strategies, the compressor short-stop adjustment strategy reduced oxygen emission by 3850.9 Nm 3 and increased by 927.1 Nm 3 . Furthermore, the compressor operating energy consumption was reduced by 3349 and 2919 kW h. Compared with the IGVOA strategy, the compressor short-stop adjustment strategy has increased the application range of compressor inlet pressure and medium-pressure pipeline pressure by more than 70%. This strategy is effective for reducing the emission of pipeline gases caused by fluctuations in user demand., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2021 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)

Background and Aims: Recent evidences reveal that epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) exacerbates the process of intestinal fibrosis. Tumor necrosis factor-like ligand 1A (TL1A) is a member of the tumor necrosis family (TNF), which can take part in the development of colonic inflammation and fibrosis by regulating immune response or inflammatory factors. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the possible contribution of TL1A in onset and progression of intestinal inflammation and fibrosis through EMT., Methods: Colonic specimens were obtained from patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and control individuals. The expression levels of TL1A and EMT-related markers in intestinal tissues were evaluated. Furthermore, the human colorectal adenocarcinoma cell line, HT-29, was stimulated with TL1A, anti-TL1A antibody, or BMP-7 to assess EMT process. In addition, transgenic mice expressing high levels of TL1A in lymphoid cells were used to further investigate the mechanism of TL1A in intestinal fibrosis., Results: High levels of TL1A expression were detected in the intestinal specimens of patients with ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease and were negatively associated with the expression of an epithelial marker (E-cadherin), while it was positively associated with the expression of interstitial markers (FSP1 and α -SMA). Transgenic mice with high expression of TL1A were more sensitive to dextran sodium sulfate and exhibited severe intestinal inflammation and fibrosis. Additionally, the TGF- β 1/Smad3 pathway may be involved in TL1A-induced EMT, and the expression of IL-13 and EMT-related transcriptional molecules (e.g., ZEB1 and Snail1) was increased in the intestinal specimens of the transgenic mice. Furthermore, TL1A-induced EMT can be influenced by anti-TL1A antibody or BMP-7 in vitro ., Conclusions: TL1A participates in the formation and process of EMT in intestinal fibrosis. This new knowledge enables us to better understand the pathogenesis of intestinal fibrosis and identify new therapeutic targets for its treatment., Competing Interests: All authors declare that they have no potential conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Jia Wenxiu et al.)

Aromatase is a key enzyme in the transformation of androgen into estrogen. Its high expression will destroy the hormonal balance in the male body, and the excessive transformation of androgen into estrogen in the body will further damage the spermatogenic function of the testis, affect the normal development of the sperm, and cause spermatogenic disturbance. Adipose tissue has a high expression of aromatase and shows high enzymatic activity and ability to convert estrogen. Adipose tissue is the most estrogen-producing nongonadal tissue in the body because of its large size, accounting for about 20% of the body mass in healthy adults. PPAR γ is recognized as the key adipose differentiation in the transcriptional regulation of the transcription factor. In the process of adipocyte differentiation, PPAR γ regulate the expression of aromatase. The increase of aromatase is associated with the inflammatory response in adipose tissue caused by obesity. After obesity, the increase of proinflammatory factors in adipocytes will lead to enhanced transcription of the CYP19 gene encoding aromatase in adipocytes, which in turn will lead to increased expression of aromatase in adipocytes. This article reviews the regulation of male sterility from the angle of the "obesity-inflammation-aromatase" axis., Competing Interests: The authors have no competing interests to declare., (Copyright © 2021 Liu Yuxin et al.)

This study proposes a method for the approximate simulation of field gust in an atmospheric boundary layer wind tunnel driven by an axial fan. Wavelet analysis and genetic algorithm have been adopted to convert actual field gust data into a series of simplified and smooth control signals. One frequency converter is used to receive the signals via a programmable logic controller and change the fan speed correspondingly. Results show that the low-frequency energetic part of field gust on top of a saltation layer has been almost reproduced in the wind tunnel with energy fluctuations ±3.26% from the mean compared with the field data in terms of energy. The appropriate filter frequency for field gust velocity history is 1/32 Hz. A unidirectional natural wind field near a sand bed surface can be approximately simulated in the tunnel by adjusting carefully the roughness element arrangement. The time-averaged velocity profile of the simulated wind, which satisfies the logarithmic law, is nearly equivalent to the steady flow with the same average velocity.

Background: As the rupture of cerebral aneurysm may lead to fatal results, early detection of unruptured aneurysms may save lives. At present, the contrast-unenhanced time-of-flight magnetic resonance angiography is one of the most commonly used methods for screening aneurysms. The computer-assisted detection system for cerebral aneurysms can help clinicians improve the accuracy of aneurysm diagnosis. As fully convolutional network could classify the image pixel-wise, its three-dimensional implementation is highly suitable for the classification of the vascular structure. However, because the volume of blood vessels in the image is relatively small, 3D convolutional neural network does not work well for blood vessels., Results: The presented study developed a computer-assisted detection system for cerebral aneurysms in the contrast-unenhanced time-of-flight magnetic resonance angiography image. The system first extracts the volume of interest with a fully automatic vessel segmentation algorithm, then uses 3D-UNet-based fully convolutional network to detect the aneurysm areas. A total of 131 magnetic resonance angiography image data are used in this study, among which 76 are training sets, 20 are internal test sets and 35 are external test sets. The presented system obtained 94.4% sensitivity in the fivefold cross-validation of the internal test sets and obtained 82.9% sensitivity with 0.86 false positive/case in the detection of the external test sets., Conclusions: The proposed computer-assisted detection system can automatically detect the suspected aneurysm areas in contrast-unenhanced time-of-flight magnetic resonance angiography images. It can be used for aneurysm screening in the daily physical examination.

This study investigated the genetic diversity of morchella species using randomly amplified polymorphic DNA markers. Morchella species are an important group of edible mushrooms belonging to the family Helveliaceae with medicinal and economical significance. In this study we have developed an efficient method of genomic DNA isolation which was amplified by eight RAPD primers to test the polymorphism in three species of morchella. Out of all eight primers tested in current study, one of them (B8) resulted 100% polymorphism among the three studied species. Based on the RAPD profile a similarity matrix was generated to construct a dendrogram for phylogenetic analysis revealing the relationship among the three species of morchella., Competing Interests: No conflict of ninterest exist.

Multidrug resistance (MDR) of tumor cells is one of the major problems encountered during cancer chemotherapy. In this paper, we isolated eight triterpenoids from Poria cocos and evaluated their effects on reversing MDR of KBV200 cells. Eight triterpenoids increase significantly vincristine-induced cytotoxicity in drug-resistant KBV200 cells at the concentrations of 12.5 µg/mL and 25 µg/mL. Dehydrotumulosic acid showed the best reversal effect: it increased KBV200 apoptosis induced by vincristine and inhibited P-gp function through enhancing the accumulation and retention of fluorescent P-gp substrate rhodamine 123 in KBV200 cells but had no effect on P-gp expression., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Plasmid DNA for biopharmaceutical applications is produced easily in Escherichia coli bacteria. The cell lysis is the most crucial step for purification of plasmid DNA. In this paper, we describe a continuous cell alkaline lysis, neutralization, and clarification combination process for production of plasmid pUDK-HGF using hollow fiber ultrafiltration column as a lysis chamber and compare the plasmid DNA yield and homogeneity with the T-connector and manual processes, respectively. The results show that the plasmid pUDK-HGF yield of the combination process is 13% higher than manual lysis, twice higher than using T-connector. When the proportion of lysed cells and neutralization solution is 3:1, the plasmid pUDK-HGF yield can improve by 70%. This process could be easily scaled up to meet the industrial scale for cell lysis., (Copyright © 2011 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.)

Background: Although transplantation of mononuclear cells (MNCs) induces angiogenesis in myocardial infarction, transplantation requires a large amount of bone marrow or peripheral blood cells. We examined the effects of transplantation of peripheral MNCs expressing an exogenous vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene in a pig model of acute myocardial infarction (AMI)., Methods: MNCs were isolated from 20 ml peripheral blood from pigs and transfected with 10 microg of human VEGF165 plasmid (phVEGF). Myocardial infarction was induced by occlusion of the mid portion of the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) in anesthetized pigs. At 4 h after total occlusion, 5 x 10(6) VEGF-transfected MNCs were retrogradely transplanted into the pig via the coronary vein. Cardiac function, neovascularization and histology of the ischemic tissue were evaluated 4 weeks after transplantation., Results: MNCs expressing hVEGF and infused via the coronary vein were efficiently delivered the heart in pigs with myocardial infarction. Transplantation of MNCs expressing hVEGF significantly increased left ventricular (LV) function, collateral vessels, and capillary density in heart from AMI model pigs. Transplantation of MNCs expressing hVEGF increased the wall thickness of the scar in the heart after AMI., Conclusions: Retrograde transplantation of peripheral blood MNCs expressing hVEGF efficiently induced angiogenesis and improved the impaired LV function in hearts of pigs with AMI. These findings indicate that angiogenic cells and gene therapy may be useful to treat ischemic heart disease., (Copyright 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)