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ABSTRACT: Heat shock proteins (HSP) are a group of highly conserved molecular chaperones found in various organisms and have been associated with tumorigenesis, tumor progression, and metastasis. However, the relationship between HSP60 and apoptosis remains elusive. The aim of this study was to explore the role and regulatory mechanisms of apoptosis in response to altered HSP60 expression. We generated DF-1 cell lines of both HSP60 overexpression and knockdown and assessed their impact on apoptosis levels using ELISA and flow cytometry analyses. Additionally, we examined the transcription and protein expression levels of apoptosis-related signaling factors using fluorescence quantitative PCR (qPCR) and Western blotting analyses. Heat shock proteins 60 overexpression led to a significant decrease in apoptosis levels in DF-1 cells, which could be attributed to the downregulation of BAX and BAK expression, the upregulation of Bcl-2, and the decreased expression of Caspase 3. Conversely, HSP60 knockdown led to a substantial increase in apoptosis levels in DF-1 cells, facilitated by the downregulation of BAX and Bcl-2 expression, and the upregulation of BAK expression, which increased Caspase 3 levels, thereby promoting apoptosis. The findings of our study provide the first evidence of the inhibitory effect of HSP60 on apoptosis in DF-1 cells. These observations have significant implications for disease progression and cancer research, with potential medical applications.

Pericarp browning is the key factor for the extension of shelf life and the maintenance of the commercial value of harvested litchi fruit. Water loss is considered a leading factor of pericarp browning in litchi fruit. In this study, based on the distinct structure of litchi fruit, which is a special type of dry fruit with the aril as the edible part, the effects of water supply via pedicel (WSP) treatment on pericarp browning and the fruit quality of litchi were investigated. Compared with the packaging of the control fruit at 25 °C or 4 °C, the WSP treatment was found to significantly reduce pericarp browning and the decay of litchi fruit. The WSP-treated fruit had a higher L* value, total anthocyanin content, and pericarp water content, and the pericarp was thicker. The WSP treatment significantly suppressed the increase in the electrolyte leakage of the pericarp and maintained higher ascorbic acid (AA) contents in the aril. In addition, the WSP treatment was effective in reducing the activity and gene expression of browning-related genes Laccase (ADE/LAC) and Peroxidase (POD) during the storage period. In conclusion, the WSP treatment could be an effective method to delay pericarp browning and maintain the quality of harvested litchi fruit, and this further supports that litchi fruit has dry fruit characteristics.

Abstract Background Salmonella infection in livestock and poultry causes salmonellosis, and is mainly treated using antibiotics. However, the misuse use of antibiotics often triggers the emergence of multi-drug-resistant Salmonella strains. Currently, Salmonella phages is safe and effective against Salmonella, serving as the best drug of choice. This study involved 16 Salmonella bacteriophages separated and purified from the sewage and the feces of the broiler farm. A phage, vB_SalP_LDW16, was selected based on the phage host range test. The phage vB_SalP_LDW16 was characterized by the double-layer plate method and transmission electron microscopy. Furthermore, the clinical therapeutic effect of phage vB_SalP_LDW16 was verified by using the pathogenic Salmonella Enteritidis in the SPF chicken model. Results The phage vB_SalP_LDW16 with a wide host range was identified to the family Siphoviridae and the order Caudoviridae, possess a double-stranded DNA and can lyse 88% (22/25) of Salmonella strains stored in the laboratory. Analysis of the biological characteristics, in addition, revealed the optimal multiplicity of infection (MOI) of vB_SalP_LDW16 to be 0.01 and the phage titer to be up to 3 × 1014 PFU/mL. Meanwhile, the phage vB_SalP_LDW16 was found to have some temperature tolerance, while the titer decreases rapidly above 60 ℃, and a wide pH (i.e., 5–12) range as well as relative stability in pH tolerance. The latent period of phage was 10 min, the burst period was 60 min, and the burst size was 110 PFU/cell. Furthermore, gastric juice was also found to highly influence the activity of the phage. The clinical treatment experiments showed that phage vB_SalP_LDW16 was able to significantly reduce the bacterial load in the blood through phage treatment, thereby improving the pathological changes in the intestinal, liver, and heart damage, and promoting the growth and development of the chicken. Conclusions The phage vB_SalP_LDW16 is a highly lytic phage with a wide host range, which can be potentially used for preventing and treating chicken salmonellosis, as an alternative or complementary antibiotic treatment in livestock farming.

As an important secondary metabolite, aroma endows litchi fruit with unique flavor quality, and it is one of important indexes to evaluate the quality of fresh litchi fruit and its processed products. The studies on litchi aroma components mainly focused on the composition and content identification of volatile substances. With the development of detection methods, headspace solid-phase micro-extraction (HP-SPME) with Gas Chromatogram-Mass Spectrum (GCMS) technology is mainly used for the researches of aroma components of litchi fruits currently, and a variety of volatile components have been identified, such as terpenes, esters, aldehydes, alcohols, acids, phenols and etc., among which terpenes are the main aromatic substances. According to the differences in precursors, the aroma synthesis pathway is divided into terpenoid metabolism, amino acid metabolism and fatty acid metabolism, however, there are few studies on the biosynthesis pathway of aroma components in litchi fruit. Here we review the extraction and detection techniques of volatile substances of litchi fruit and its processed products at home and abroad, the types and components of aroma substances, biosynthesis pathway and the effects of processing technology and post-harvest treatment on the contents of aroma substances. The research direction of aroma substances in litchi fruit is prospected, which will provide scientific theoretical support for the research of litchi fruit flavor quality, and provide a reference for the selection and breeding of excellent litchi varieties and the development of high-quality processed products.

Currently, the purity of hybrid seed is a crucial limiting factor when developing hybrid japonica rice (Oryza sativa L.). To chemically control hybrid seed purity, we transferred an improved atrazine chlorohydrolase gene (atzA) from Pseudomonas ADP into hybrid japonica parental lines (two maintainers, one restorer), and Nipponbare, by using Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. We subsequently selected several transgenic lines from each genotype by using PCR, RT-PCR, and germination analysis. In the presence of the investigated atrazine concentrations, particularly 150 µM atrazine, almost all of the transgenic lines produced significantly larger seedlings, with similar or higher germination percentages, than did the respective controls. Although the seedlings of transgenic lines were taller and gained more root biomass compared to the respective control plants, their growth was nevertheless inhibited by atrazine treatment compared to that without treatment. When grown in soil containing 2 mg/kg or 5 mg/kg atrazine, the transgenic lines were taller, and had higher total chlorophyll contents than did the respective controls; moreover, three of the strongest transgenic lines completely recovered after 45 days of growth. After treatment with 2 mg/kg or 5 mg/kg of atrazine, the atrazine residue remaining in the soil was 2.9-7.0% or 0.8-8.7% respectively, for transgenic lines, and 44.0-59.2% or 28.1-30.8%, respectively, for control plants. Spraying plants at the vegetative growth stage with 0.15% atrazine effectively killed control plants, but not transgenic lines. Our results indicate that transgenic atzA rice plants show tolerance to atrazine, and may be used as parental lines in future hybrid seed production.

Abstract Background Fat to muscle mass ratio (FMR), a novel index integrating fat and muscle composition, has garnered attention in age-related conditions such as type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and neurodegenerative diseases. Despite this research on the relationship between FMR and cognitive impairment (CI) in T2DM remains scarce. This study aimed to investigate the sex-specific association between FMR and CI in elderly T2DM patients. Methods A total of 768 elderly (> 60 years) T2DM in-patients (356 men and 412 women) were recruited from the Department of Endocrinology at Tianjin Nankai University affiliated hospital. Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) was used to assess body composition, and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) was used to evaluate cognitive performance. T2DM patients were categorized into normal cognitive function (NC) and cognitive impairment (CI) groups based on MoCA scores and stratified by sex. Binary logistic regression was employed to examine the association between FMR and CI. Results Among the participants, 42.7% of men and 56.3% of women experienced cognitive deterioration. Women with CI exhibited lower body mass index (BMI) and skeletal muscle mass index (SMI), while men with cognitive disorders showed lower SMI, FMR, and higher fat mass index (FMI). FMR was consistently unrelated to cognition in females, irrespective of adjustment made. However, in males, FMR was significantly associated with an increasing risk of cognitive dysfunction after adjusting for demographic and clinical variables (OR: 1.175, 95% CI: 1.045–1.320, p = 0.007). Furthermore, for each 0.1 increase in FMR, the incidence of CI rose by 31.1% after additional adjustment for BMI. In males, the prevalence of CI increased sequentially across FMR quartiles (p

Abstract Vegetation distribution and composition are expected to change in northern high latitudes under rapid warming, which regulates ecosystem functions but remains challenging to predict. Vegetation change arises from the interplay of chronic climate trends such as warming and transient demographic processes of recruitment, growth, competition, and mortality. Most predictive models overlooked the role of demographic dynamics controlled by plant traits. Here, we simulate vegetation dynamics at the Kougarok Hillslope site in Alaska under historical and future climates using the E3SM Land Model coupled to the Functionally Assembled Terrestrial Simulator (ELM‐FATES). To evaluate the roles of plant traits, we parameterize the model with 5,265 trait configurations representing diverse physiological and demographic strategies. Results show current modeled biomass, composition, and productivity are most sensitive to traits controlling photosynthetic capacity, carbon allocation, allometry, and phenology. Among all trait configurations, ∼5% reproduce in situ biomass and plant functional type (PFT) composition measured in 2016, that are indistinguishable from these two observed ecosystem states. Notably, these same trait configurations produce diverging biomass, composition, and productivity under future climate, where the uncertainty attributable to traits is twice the change attributable to climate change. The variation of projected productivity arises from emerging PFT composition under novel climate regimes, primarily explained by traits controlling cold‐induced mortality, recruitment, and allometry. Our findings highlight the importance and uncertainty of demographic dynamics and its interaction with climate change in shaping Arctic vegetation change. Improved model predictions will likely benefit from explicit consideration of vegetation demography and better constraints of critical traits.

Abstract This work aims to investigate the application of advanced deep learning algorithms and image recognition technologies to enhance language analysis tools in secondary education, with the goal of providing educators with more effective resources and support. Based on artificial intelligence, this work integrates data mining techniques related to deep learning to analyze and study language behavior in secondary school education. Initially, a framework for analyzing language behavior in secondary school education is constructed. This involves evaluating the current state of language behavior, establishing a framework based on evaluation comments, and defining indicators for analyzing language behavior in online secondary school education. Subsequently, data mining technology and image and character recognition technology are employed to conduct data mining for online courses in secondary schools, encompassing the processing of teaching video images and character recognition. Finally, an experiment is designed to validate the proposed framework for analyzing language behavior in secondary school education. The results indicate specific differences among the grouped evaluation scores for each analysis indicator. The significance p values for the online classroom discourse’s speaking rate, speech intelligibility, average sentence length, and content similarity are −0.56, −0.71, −0.71, and −0.74, respectively. The aim is to identify the most effective teaching behaviors for learners and enhance the support for online course instruction.

WRKY transcription factors, transcriptional regulators unique to plants, play an important role in defense response to pathogen infection. However, the resistance mechanisms of WRKY genes in sugarcane remain unclear. In the present study, gene ontology (GO) enrichment analysis revealed that WRKY gene family in sugarcane was extensively involved in the response to biotic stress and in defense response. We identified gene ScWRKY4, a class IIc member of the WRKY gene family, in sugarcane cultivar ROC22. This gene was induced by salicylic acid (SA) and methyl jasmonate (MeJA) stress. Interestingly, expression of ScWRKY4 was down-regulated in smut-resistant sugarcane cultivars but up-regulated in smut-susceptible sugarcane cultivars infected with Sporisorium scitamineum. Moreover, stable overexpression of the ScWRKY4 gene in Nicotiana benthamiana enhanced susceptibility to Fusarium solani var. coeruleum and caused down-regulated expression of immune marker-related genes. Transcriptome analysis indicated suppressed expression of most JAZ genes in the signal transduction pathway. ScWRKY4 interacted with ScJAZ13 to repress its expression. We thus hypothesized that the ScWRKY4 gene was involved in the regulatory network of plant disease resistance, most likely through the JA signaling pathway. The present study depicting the molecular involvement of ScWRKY4 in sugarcane disease resistance lays a foundation for future investigation.

Background: Senecio cannabifolius Less. is a perennial herb belonging to the Compositae family that has been used in traditional medicine as an antitussive and expectorant for treating chronic bronchitis and acute respiratory infections. Traditionally, Feining Granules are prepared from water extracts of the raw plant material. However, the chemical composition and pharmacological mechanisms of Feining Granules have not been thoroughly investigated. Methods: A systematic strategy for the rapid detection and identification of the constituents of Feining Granules was developed using ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography–quadrupole-exactive orbitrap mass spectrometry (MS) with parallel reaction monitoring. Results: Overall, 162 compounds, including flavonoids, alkaloids, organic acids, and others, were identified unambiguously and tentatively by comparing the retention times and MS fragmentation with reference standards and literature data. Ninety-nine of these were reported for the first time to the best of our knowledge. Network pharmacology suggests that Feining Granules can be used to treat chronic bronchitis as they contain active components associated with the ALB, VEGFA, and SRC target genes influenced by HIF-1, VEGF, and other signaling pathways. Conclusion: These results provide information that can help understand the effective substances of S. cannabifolius Less. and improve quality control.

With the rapid development of societal information, electronic educational resources have become an indispensable component of modern education. In response to the increasingly formidable challenges faced by secondary school teachers, this study endeavors to analyze and explore the application of artificial intelligence (AI) methods to enhance their cognitive literacy. Initially, this discourse delves into the application of AI-generated electronic images in the training and instruction of middle school educators, subjecting it to thorough analysis. Emphasis is placed on elucidating the pivotal role played by AI electronic images in elevating the proficiency of middle school teachers. Subsequently, an integrated intelligent device serves as the foundation for establishing a model that applies intelligent classification and algorithms based on the Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome (SOLO). This model is designed to assess the cognitive literacy and teaching efficacy of middle school educators, and its performance is juxtaposed with classification algorithms such as support vector machine (SVM) and decision trees. The findings reveal that, following 600 iterations of the model, the SVM algorithm achieves a 77% accuracy rate in recognizing teacher literacy, whereas the SOLO algorithm attains 80%. Concurrently, the spatial complexities of the SVM-based and SOLO-based intelligent literacy improvement models are determined to be 45 and 22, respectively. Notably, it is discerned that, with escalating iterations, the SOLO algorithm exhibits higher accuracy and reduced spatial complexity in evaluating teachers’ pedagogical literacy. Consequently, the utilization of AI methodologies proves highly efficacious in advancing electronic imaging technology and enhancing the efficacy of image recognition in educational instruction.

Changes in vegetation responses to precipitation may be hydroclimate dependent. Here the authors reveal contrasting trends of vegetation sensitivity to precipitation in drylands vs. wetter ecosystems over the last 4 decades and identify increased CO2 as a major contributing factor.

Shrub encroachment trends are widespread yet complex. Here the authors demonstrate that not considering dispersal and fire leads to overestimating shrub expansion in Arctic tundra and therefore its role as carbon sink.

BackgroundSurgery remains the standard curative treatment for early-stage colorectal and upper gastrointestinal cancer. Reduced preoperative functional capacity, nutritional status, and psychological well-being are associated with poor postoperative outcomes. Prehabilitation aims to improve preoperative functional reserves through physical, nutritional, and psychological interventions. Yet, how it transitions from a trial setting to being integrated into a real-world health setting is unknown. ObjectiveThe primary aim is to evaluate the implementation of a multimodal (supervised exercise, nutrition, and nursing support) prehabilitation program into standard care for patients with gastrointestinal cancer (colorectal and upper gastrointestinal cancer) scheduled for curative intent surgery. The secondary aim is to determine the impact of a multimodal prehabilitation program on functional capacity, nutritional and psychological status, and surgical outcomes. MethodsThis is an implementation study that will investigate a multimodal prehabilitation intervention, in a nonblinded, nonrandomized, single-group, pre-post design. Patients diagnosed with colorectal and upper gastrointestinal cancer scheduled for potentially curative intent surgery at Concord Repatriation General Hospital, with ≥14 intervention days prior to surgery and are medically cleared to exercise will be eligible. The study will be evaluated using the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance Evaluation Framework. ResultsThe protocol was approved in December 2019 by the Concord Repatriation General Hospital Human Research Ethics Committee (reference number 2019/PID13679). Recruitment commenced in January 2020. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, recruitment was paused in March 2020 and reopened in August 2020 with remote or telehealth intervention adaptations. Recruitment ended on December 31, 2021. Over the 16-month recruitment period, a total of 77 participants were recruited. ConclusionsPrehabilitation represents an opportunity to maximize functional capacity and improve surgical outcomes. The study will provide guidance and contribute to the evidence on the integration of prehabilitation into standard care using adaptive models of health care delivery including telehealth. Trial RegistrationAustralian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTR 12620000409976; https://anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=378974&isReview=true International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)RR1-10.2196/41101

Bufalin, a key active ingredient of the Chinese medicine Chan Su, inhibits breast cancer tumorigenesis in vitro and in vivo. Here, we found that the pan-caspase inhibitor zVAD-fmk failed to inhibit bufalin-induced cell death in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells, confirming that the cell death induced by bufalin is caspase-independent. Instead, bufalin increased the expression of the necroptosis mediators RIP1 and RIP3. Bufalin-induced cell death was prevented by small molecule inhibitors of RIP1 and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) or genetic knockdown of RIP3 by shRNA transfection. In addition, ectopic RIP3 expression enhanced cell death by bufalin. We also found that bufalin increased intracellular reactive oxygen species levels; and cell death by bufalin was inhibited by the antioxidant NAC. In a mouse xenograft model of human breast cancer, bufalin induced PARP-1-dependent tumor cell death and inhibited tumor growth. These results demonstrated that bufalin inhibits human breast cancer tumorigenesis by inducing cell death through the reactive oxygen species-mediated RIP1/RIP3/PARP-1 pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has become a hot topic to find natural food substances which can effectively promote calcium absorption in human body. Given this, protein hydrolysate with calcium-binding capacity was prepared from fish scales (FSPH) and its promotion in calcium cellular uptake was investigated in this study. The binding of calcium to the amino nitrogen atoms and the carbonyl oxygen atoms of FSPH led to the structural folding and aggregation. The calcium cellular uptake efficiency in Caco-2 cells population model was significantly increased in the form of FSPH-calcium complex. Furthermore, FSPH-Ca could effectively resist the inhibitory effect of dietary inhibitors on calcium cellular uptake. The mRNA expression of transient receptor potential vanilloid 6 (TRPV6) in Caco-2 cells was remarkably elevated with FSPH-Ca treatment. The results improved the understanding of the interaction mode of protein hydrolysate and calcium, and provided a basis for developing FSPH-Ca as functional foods to improve calcium absorption.

Signal regulatory protein α (SIRPα), a transmembrane protein that is predominantly expressed in dendritic cells (DCs) or macrophages, interacts with CD47 that is overexpressed in almost all types of tumor cells. The interaction between SIRPα and CD47 leads to a negative signal that prevents the phenotypic and functional maturation of DC and inhibits phagocytosis. The SIRPα knockdown in DCs that were pulsed with a modified HPV16E7 (HPV16mE7) protein with enhanced antigenicity and reduced transformation activity results in increased cytokine (TNF-α/IL-12/IL-6) secretion, IFN-γ secretion by T lymphocytes, and in vitro/in vivo tumoricidal activity against cervical cancer cells. Taken together, these results suggest that SIRPα-silenced DC vaccination presented potential therapeutic implications against cervical cancer.

Abstract Fully distributed hydrologic models are often used to simulate hydrologic states at fine spatio-temporal resolutions. However, simulations based on these models may become computationally expensive, constraining their applications to smaller domains. This study demonstrates that a nested-discretization based modeling strategy can be used to improve the efficiency of distributed hydrologic simulations, especially for applications where fine resolution estimates of hydrologic states are of the focus only within a part of a watershed. To this end, we consider two applications where the goal is to capture the groundwater dynamics within a defined target area. Our results show that at the target locations, a nested simulation is able to competently replicate the estimates of groundwater table as obtained from the fine simulation, while yielding significant computational savings. The results highlight the potential of using nested discretization for a detailed yet computationally efficient estimation of hydrologic states in part of the model domain.

Optimality principles that underlie models of stomatal kinetics require identifying and formulating the gain and the costs involved in opening stomata. While the gain has been linked to larger carbon acquisition, there is still a debate as to the costs that limit stomatal opening. This work presents an Euler-Lagrange framework that accommodates water use strategy and various costs through the formulation of constraints. The reduction in plant hydraulic conductance due to cavitation is added as a new constraint above and beyond the soil hydrological balance and is analyzed for three different types of whole-plant vulnerability curves. Model results show that differences in vulnerability curves alone lead to relatively iso- and aniso-hydric stomatal behavior. Moreover, this framework explains how the presence of competition (biotic or abiotic) for water alters stomatal response to declining soil water content. This contribution corroborates previous research that predicts that a plant's environment (e.g., competition, soil processes) significantly affects its response to drought and supplies the required mathematical machinery to represent this complexity. The method adopted here disentangles cause and effect of the opening and closure of stomata and complements recent mechanistic models of stomatal response to drought.

Vegetation composition shifts, and in particular, shrub expansion across the Arctic tundra are some of the most important and widely observed responses of high-latitude ecosystems to rapid climate warming. These changes in vegetation potentially alter ecosystem carbon balances by affecting a complex set of soil–plant–atmosphere interactions. In this review, we synthesize the literature on (a) observed shrub expansion, (b) key climatic and environmental controls and mechanisms that affect shrub expansion, (c) impacts of shrub expansion on ecosystem carbon balance, and (d) research gaps and future directions to improve process representations in land models. A broad range of evidence, including in-situ observations, warming experiments, and remotely sensed vegetation indices have shown increases in growth and abundance of woody plants, particularly tall deciduous shrubs, and advancing shrublines across the circumpolar Arctic. This recent shrub expansion is affected by several interacting factors including climate warming, accelerated nutrient cycling, changing disturbance regimes, and local variation in topography and hydrology. Under warmer conditions, tall deciduous shrubs can be more competitive than other plant functional types in tundra ecosystems because of their taller maximum canopy heights and often dense canopy structure. Competitive abilities of tall deciduous shrubs vs herbaceous plants are also controlled by variation in traits that affect carbon and nutrient investments and retention strategies in leaves, stems, and roots. Overall, shrub expansion may affect tundra carbon balances by enhancing ecosystem carbon uptake and altering ecosystem respiration, and through complex feedback mechanisms that affect snowpack dynamics, permafrost degradation, surface energy balance, and litter inputs. Observed and projected tall deciduous shrub expansion and the subsequent effects on surface energy and carbon balances may alter feedbacks to the climate system. Land models, including those integrated in Earth System Models, need to account for differences in plant traits that control competitive interactions to accurately predict decadal- to centennial-scale tundra vegetation and carbon dynamics.

This study investigated the spatiotemporal variation of vegetation growth and the influence of climatic drivers from 1982 to 2011 across China using datasets from the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and climatic drivers. Long term trends, significance and abrupt change points of interannual NDVI time series were analyzed. We applied both simple regression and multi-regression models to quantify the effects of climatic drivers on vegetation growth and compare their relative contributions. Results show that on average, the growing season NDVI significantly increased by 0.0007 year-1, with 76.5% of the research area showed increasing NDVI from 1982 to 2011. Seasonally, NDVI increased at high rates during the spring and autumn while changed slightly during the summer. At a national scale, the growing season NDVI was significantly and positively correlated to temperature and precipitation, with temperature being the dominant factor. At regional scales, the growing season NDVI was dominated by increasing temperature in most forest-covered areas in southern China and dominated by precipitation in most grassland in northern China. Within the past three decades, the increasing trend of national mean NDVI abruptly changed in 1994, slowing down from 0.0008 year-1 to 0.0003 year-1. To be regional specific, the growing season NDVI in forest covered southern China has accelerated together with temperature since mid 1990s, while parts of the grassland in northern China have undergone stalled NDVI trends corresponding to slowed temperature increment and dropped precipitation since around 2000. Typical region analysis suggested that apart from long term trends and abrupt change points of climatic drivers, the processes of NDVI variation were also affected by other external factors such as drought and afforestation. Further studies are needed to investigate the nonlinear responses of vegetation growth to climatic drivers and effects of non-climate factors on vegetation growth.

During sequential bleaching operations, pulp fiber properties are gradually changed due to mechanical and chemical treatments. In this study, the correlations between pulp or fiber properties such as kappa number, viscosity, total charge, fiber length, and zero-span tensile strength as well as Scott bond of elemental chlorine free (ECF) bleached softwood kraft pulps was investigated. The influence of zero-span tensile strength and Scott bond on tensile and tear strength was also discussed. The Scott bond and zero-span tensile strength showed a strong logarithmic correlation with pulp kappa number and pulp viscosity, while the regression coefficient for Scott bond was negative. An overall deterioration of paper tensile and tear strength from pulps whether beaten or not were observed along the multi-stage ECF bleaching operations. Changing contributions to sheet tensile or tear strength could be mostly attributed to changes in zero-span tensile strength rather than Scott bond during ECF bleaching.

The peroxide bleaching of high yield pulps from wood with Mg(OH)2 has been developing recently in the pulp and paper industry. However, there is still a lack of data on the application of Mg(OH)2 in peroxide bleaching of non-wood fibres. In this work, our purpose was to study the effect of Mg(OH)2 on peroxide bleaching of wheat straw soda-AQ pulp. The results showed that Mg(OH)2 significantly improved peroxide bleaching efficiency (expressed as the ratio between the brightness gain and the H2O2 consumption) and selectivity (expressed as the ratio between the brightness gain and the viscosity losses) of wheat straw soda-AQ pulp. The brightness, viscosity, and yield of bleached pulp can be significantly enhanced by increasing the replacement ratio of Mg(OH)2. However, at 100% replacement of NaOH with Mg(OH)2, the brightness of bleached pulp was much lower than that of the bleached pulp with NaOH as the sole alkaline source. When 24 to 73% of the NaOH was replaced with Mg(OH)2, the COD of the bleaching filtrate was 11 to 38% lower than that of the NaOH as the sole alkaline source. The lower solubility and alkalinity of Mg(OH)2, as well as the reduction of Cu ion content in bleached pulp were proposed as accounting for the favorable effect of Mg(OH)2 on peroxide bleaching of wheat straw soda-AQ pulp.

Growing evidences indicate that Ly-GDI, an inhibitory protein of Rho GTPases, plays an essential role in regulating actin cytoskeletal alteration which is indispensible for the process such as phagocytosis. However, the role of Ly-GDI in inflammation remains largely unknown. In the current study, we found that Ly-GDI expression was significantly decreased in the IgG immune complex-injured lungs. To determine if Ly-GDI might regulate the lung inflammatory response, we constructed adenovirus vectors that could mediate ectopic expression of Ly-GDI (Adeno-Ly-GDI). In vivo mouse lung expression of Ly-GDI resulted in a significant attenuation of IgG immune complex-induced lung injury, which was due to the decreased pulmonary permeability and lung inflammatory cells, especially neutrophil accumulation. Upon IgG immune complex deposition, mice with Ly-GDI over-expression in the lungs produced significant less inflammatory mediators (TNF-α, IL-6, MCP-1, and MIP-1α) in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid when compared control mice receiving airway injection of Adeno-GFP. Mechanically, IgG immune complex-induced NF-κB activity was markedly suppressed by Ly-GDI in both alveolar macrophages and lungs as measured by luciferase assay and electrophoretic mobility shift assay. These findings suggest that Ly-GDI is a critical regulator of inflammatory injury after deposition of IgG immune complexes and that it negatively regulates the lung NF-κB activity.