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Refractory high entropy alloys NbMoTaWTi and NbMoTaWZr were prepared by vacuum arc melting.The microstructure and component distribution characteristics were analyzed, and the dynamic behavior during room temperature to 1500℃, as well as the isothermal oxidation behavior at 1200℃ were studied. Results reveal that NbMoTaWTi mainly consists of single body-centred cubic (BCC) phase, and NbMoTaWZr is composed of BCC and Zr-rich phases.These two alloys are both seriously oxidized above 700℃. Comparatively, NbMoTaWTi alloy is superior to NbMoTaWZr in antioxidation below 1300℃.For both two alloys, the oxygen diffusion inward mainly occurs during isothermal oxidation at 1200℃ and catastrophic oxidation takes place after 3 h. The Ti and Zr addition cannot cause selective oxidation. Although these two elements form a composite oxide layer with other refractory metal oxides, the density and the ability to prevent oxidation is not enough.

Dark septate endophytic fungi are symbiotes that play an important role in plant resistance to biotic and abiotic stress. In this study, 65 strains of endophytic fungi were obtained from tobacco roots using a tissue isolation method. Strains NYN8C05 and NYN8G01 were identified as Acrocalymma vagum based on ITS rDNA sequence analysis and morphological characteristics. Co-culture experiments showed that strains NYN8C05 and NYN8G01 can promote the growth of tobacco seedlings. Observations of roots after trypan blue staining showed that strains NYN8C05 and NYN8G01 colonized the roots and formed dark septate hyphae and microsclerotia. These results confirmed that strains NYN8C05 and NYN8G01 were dark septate endophytic fungi. Pot experiments showed that NYN8C05 and NYN8G01 significantly decreased the heavy metal content in leaves of tobacco plants. A. vagum strains NYN8C05 and NYN8G01 are dark septate endophytic fungi that have application potential for decreasing heavy metal content in tobacco leaves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To study the serum level of carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA125) in patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) and its relation with pulmonary hypertension., Methods: Forty-six patients with AECOPD complicated by pulmonary hypertension, 46 with AECOPD and 38 healthy control subjects were examined for their clinical data, pulmonary function, echocardiographic findings, and serum levels of lung tumor markers and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP)., Results: Compared with the healthy control group, COPD patients with or without pulmonary hypertension showed significantly decreased pulmonary function (P<0.05), especially in those with AECOPD and concurrent pulmonary hypertension (P<0.05). Serum CA125 level was obviously higher in AECOPD group than in the healthy control group, and further increased in AECOPD patients with pulmonary hypertension (P<0.05). The levels of lung tumor markers (CEA, NSE, CYFRA and PROGRP) were similar among the 3 groups (P>0.05). The serum level of BNP in patients with AECOPD and concurrent pulmonary hypertension was significantly higher than that in patients with AECOPD (P<0.05). Pearson linear correlation analysis showed that serum CA125 was positively correlated with pulmonary artery systolic pressure and BNP in AECOPD patients with pulmonary hypertension (P<0.01)., Conclusion: Serum CA125 may serve as a serological index to identify AECOPD patients with pulmonary hypertension.

Objective: To compare the accuracy and precision of C-G equation, simplified MDRD equation, the Chinese equation, Ruijin equation, and CKD-EPI equation for estimating glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in Chinese diabetic patients., Methods: Diabetic patients visiting the West China Hospital (both outpatient and inpatient departments) of Sichuan University who were older than 18 years old were enrolled in this study. Their general health and clinical characteristics were recorded. The GFR of those patients were evaluated by 99mTc-DTPA dynamic renal imaging (rGFR). We compared the accuracy and precision of C-G equation, simplified MDRD equation, the Chinese equation, Ruijin equation and CKD-EPI equation for estimating GFR (eGFR). We also tested whether levels of GFR, plasma creatinine (Scr) and fasting plasma glucose (FPG) influenced the accuracy and precision of the equations., Results: 217 diabetic patients (139 males and 78 females) were enrolled in this study. Compared with rGFR, C-G equation underestimated GFR slightly; whereas simplified MDRD equation, the Chinese equation, Ruijin equation and CKD-EPI equation overestimated GFR. Ruijin equation had the best accuracy and precision in all the equations, followed by CKD-EPI equation. When patients had lower than 133 microml/L Scr, Ruijin equation had the best accuracy and precision. When patients had 133-177 micromol/L Scr, CKD-EPI equation had the best accuracy and precision. When patients had higher than 177 micromol/L Scr, there was no obvious difference in accuracy and precision among the equations. Regardless of the level of FPG, Ruijin equation had the best accuracy and precision in all the equations., Conclusion: Ruijin equation is the best equation for estimating GFR, followed by CKD-EPI equation.

The middle temporal area (MT/V5) plays an important role in motion processing. Neurons in this area have a strongly selective response to the moving direction of objects and as such, the selectivity of MT neurons was proposed to be a neural mechanism for the perception of motion. Our previous studies have found degradation in direction selectivity of MT neurons in old monkeys, but this direction selectivity was calculated during the whole response time and the results were not able to uncover the mechanism of motion perception over a time course. Furthermore, experiments have found that direction selectivity was enhanced by attention at a later stage. Therefore, the response should be excluded in experiments with anesthesia. To further characterize the neural mechanism over a time course, we investigated the age-related changes of direction selectivity in the early stage by comparing the proportions of direction selective MT cells in old and young macaque monkeys using in vivo single-cell recording techniques. Our results show that the proportion of early-stage-direction-selective cells is lower in old monkeys than in young monkeys, and that the early stage direction bias (esDB) of old MT cells decreased relative to young MT cells. Furthermore, the proportion of MT cells having strong early stage direction selectivity in old monkeys was decreased. Accordingly, the functional degradation in the early stage of MT cells may mediate perceptual declines of old primates in visual motion tasks.

Aim: To survey glutathione (GSH) S-transferase (GST) isoforms in mitochondria and to reveal the isoforms' biological significance in diabetic mice., Methods: The presence of GSTs in mouse liver mitochondria was systematically screened by two proteomic approaches, namely, GSH affinity chromatography/two dimensional electrophoresis (2DE/MALDI TOF/TOF MS) and SDS-PAGE/LC ESI MS/MS. The proteomic results were further confirmed by Western blotting using monoclonal antibodies against GSTs. To evaluate the liver mitochondrial GSTs quantitatively, calibration curves were generated by the loading amounts of individual recombinant GST protein vs the relative intensities elicited from the Western blotting. An extensive comparison of the liver mitochondrial GSTs was conducted between normal and db/db diabetic mice. Student's t test was adopted for the estimation of regression and significant difference., Results: Using GSH affinity/2DE/MALDI TOF/TOF MS, three GSTs, namely, alpha3, mu1 and pi1, were identified; whereas five GSTs, alpha3, mu1, pi1, kappa1 and zeta1, were detected in mouse liver mitochondria using SDS-PAGE/LC ESI MS/MS, of these GSTs, GST kappa1 was reported as a specific mitochondrial GST. The R² values of regression ranged between values of about 0.86 and 0.98, which were acceptable for the quantification. Based on the measurement of the GST abundances in liver mitochondria of normal and diabetic mice, the four GSTs, alpha3, kappa1, mu1 and zeta1, were found to be almost comparable between the two sets of animals, whereas, lower GST pi1 was detected in the diabetic mice compared with normal ones, the signal of Western blotting in control and db/db diabetic mice liver mitochondria is 134.61 ± 53.84 vs 99.74 ± 46.2, with P < 0.05., Conclusion: Our results indicate that GSTs exist widely in mitochondria and its abundances of mitochondrial GSTs might be tissue-dependent and disease-related.