Evaluation of standard breast ultrasonography by adding two-dimensional and three-dimensional shear wave elastography: a prospective, multicenter trial.

OBJECTIVE: To reduce the number of biopsies performed on benign breast lesions categorized as BI-RADS 4-5, we investigated the diagnostic performance of combined two-dimensional and three-dimensional shear wave elastography (2D + 3D SWE) with standard breast ultrasonography (US) for the BI-RADS assessment of breast lesions. METHODS: A total of 897 breast lesions, categorized as BI-RADS 3-5, were subjected to standard breast US and supplemented by 2D SWE only and 2D + 3D SWE analysis. Based on the malignancy rate of less than 2% for BI-RADS 3, lesions assessed by standard breast US were reclassified with SWE assessment. RESULTS: After standard breast US evaluation, 268 (46.1%) participants underwent benign biopsies in BI-RADS 4-5 lesions. By using separated cutoffs for upstaging BI-RADS 3 at 120 kPa and downstaging BI-RADS 4a at 90 kPa in 2D + 3D SWE reclassification, 123 (21.2%) participants underwent benign biopsy, resulting in a 54.1% reduction (123 versus 268). CONCLUSION: Combining 2D + 3D SWE with standard breast US for reclassification of BI-RADS lesions may achieve a reduction in benign biopsies in BI-RADS 4-5 lesions without sacrificing sensitivity unacceptably. CLINICAL RELEVANCE STATEMENT: Combining 2D + 3D SWE with US effectively reduces benign biopsies in breast lesions with categories 4-5, potentially improving diagnostic accuracy of BI-RADS assessment for patients with breast lesions. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ChiCTR1900026556 KEY POINTS: • Reduce benign biopsy is necessary in breast lesions with BI-RADS 4-5 category. • A reduction of 54.1% on benign biopsies in BI-RADS 4-5 lesions was achieved using 2D + 3D SWE reclassification. • Adding 2D + 3D SWE to standard breast US improved the diagnostic performance of BI-RADS assessment on breast lesions: specificity increased from 54 to 79%, and PPV increased from 54 to 71%, with slight loss in sensitivity (97.2% versus 98.7%) and NPV (98.1% versus 98.7%).

Application of strain elastography ultrasound to the endometrium of normal women.

BACKGROUND: While there is a scarcity of studies utilizing strain elastography (SE) for the endometrium, commonly used gynecologic ultrasound instruments are equipped with built-in elastography modalities, primarily SE. With the objective of facilitating comprehensive examinations for gynecologic patients on a single ultrasound instrument, we undertook this study. Therefore, our aim was to study the value of SE ultrasonography in the assessment of endometrial elasticity in normal women. METHODS: Three hundred and twenty normal women were recruited at our hospitals from November 2021 to December 2022. Each volunteer underwent a transvaginal two-dimensional (2D) and SE ultrasound during either the endometrial proliferative or secretory phase. The 2D ultrasound indices obtained included endometrial thickness, echo type (type A, B, and C), and blood flow grading (grades 0, 1, 2, and 3). SE indices obtained included endometrial strain values, myometrial strain values, and endometrial strain ratios. Differences in endometrial ultrasound indices between different menstrual cycles and different age groups were compared. RESULTS: Comparison of 2D ultrasound parameters revealed that endometrial thickness in the proliferative phase endometrium group was smaller than that in the secretory phase endometrium group, with a statistically significant difference. Additionally, there was a statistically significant difference in endometrial echo types between the two groups, while the disparity in endometrial blood flow grading was not significant. Regarding SE parameters, the median and mean values of endometrial strain ratio in the proliferative phase endometrium group were smaller than those in the secretory phase endometrium group, showing a statistically significant difference. However, there were no significant differences observed between the two groups in endometrial strain and myometrial strain in the fundus. Furthermore, there were no significant differences in any of the endometrial ultrasound indices among the different age groups. CONCLUSIONS: SE can reflect changes in endometrial stiffness in different menstrual cycles and is an important tool for assessing endometrial softness.

How does the biochar-supported sulfidized nanoscale zero-valent iron affect the soil environment and microorganisms while remediating cadmium contaminated paddy soil?

In previous studies, iron-based nanomaterials, especially biochar (BC)-supported sulfidized nanoscale zero-valent iron (S-nZVI/BC), have been widely used for the remediation of soil contaminants. However, its potential risks to the soil ecological environment are still unknown. This study aims to explore the effects of 3% added S-nZVI/BC on soil environment and microorganisms during the remediation of Cd contaminated yellow-brown soil of paddy field. The results showed that after 49 d of incubation, S-nZVI/BC significantly reduced physiologically based extraction test (PBET) extractable Cd concentration (P < 0.05), and increased the immobilization efficiency of Cd by 16.51% and 17.43% compared with S-nZVI and nZVI/BC alone, respectively. Meanwhile, the application of S-nZVI/BC significantly increased soil urease and sucrase activities by 0.153 and 0.446 times, respectively (P < 0.05), improving the soil environmental quality and promoting the soil nitrogen cycle and carbon cycle. The results from the analysis of the 16S rRNA genes indicated that S-nZVI/BC treatment had a minimal effect on the bacterial community and did not appreciably alter the species of the original dominant bacterial phylum. Importantly, compared to other iron-based nanomaterials, incorporating S-nZVI/BC significantly increased the soil organic carbon (OC) content and decreased the excessive release of iron (P < 0.05). This study also found a significant negative correlation between OC content and Fe(II) content (P < 0.05). It might originate from the reducing effect of Fe-reducing bacteria, which consumed OC to promote the reduction of Fe(III). Accompanying this process, the redistribution of Cd and Fe mineral phases in the soil as well as the generation of secondary Fe(II) minerals facilitated Cd immobilization. Overall, S-nZVI/BC could effectively reduce the bioavailability of Cd, increase soil nutrients and enzyme activities, with less toxic impacts on the soil microorganisms.

Head-to-head comparison of perfluorobutane contrast-enhanced US and multiparametric MRI for breast cancer: a prospective, multicenter study.

BACKGROUND: Multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (MP-MRI) has high sensitivity for diagnosing breast cancers but cannot always be used as a routine diagnostic tool. The present study aimed to evaluate whether the diagnostic performance of perfluorobutane (PFB) contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) is similar to that of MP-MRI in breast cancer and whether combining the two methods would enhance diagnostic efficiency. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This was a head-to-head, prospective, multicenter study. Patients with breast lesions diagnosed by US as Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) categories 3, 4, and 5 underwent both PFB-CEUS and MP-MRI scans. On-site operators and three reviewers categorized the BI-RADS of all lesions on two images. Logistic-bootstrap 1000-sample analysis and cross-validation were used to construct PFB-CEUS, MP-MRI, and hybrid (PFB-CEUS + MP-MRI) models to distinguish breast lesions. RESULTS: In total, 179 women with 186 breast lesions were evaluated from 17 centers in China. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for the PFB-CEUS model to diagnose breast cancer (0.89; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.74, 0.97) was similar to that of the MP-MRI model (0.89; 95% CI 0.73, 0.97) (P = 0.85). The AUC of the hybrid model (0.92, 95% CI 0.77, 0.98) did not show a statistical advantage over the PFB-CEUS and MP-MRI models (P = 0.29 and 0.40, respectively). However, 90.3% false-positive and 66.7% false-negative results of PFB-CEUS radiologists and 90.5% false-positive and 42.8% false-negative results of MP-MRI radiologists could be corrected by the hybrid model. Three dynamic nomograms of PFB-CEUS, MP-MRI and hybrid models to diagnose breast cancer are freely available online. CONCLUSIONS: PFB-CEUS can be used in the differential diagnosis of breast cancer with comparable performance to MP-MRI and with less time consumption. Using PFB-CEUS and MP-MRI as joint diagnostics could further strengthen the diagnostic ability. Trial registration Clinicaltrials.gov; NCT04657328. Registered 26 September 2020. IRB number 2020-300 was approved in Chinese PLA General Hospital. Every patient signed a written informed consent form in each center.

Ultrasound Prostate Segmentation Using Adaptive Selection Principal Curve and Smooth Mathematical Model.

Accurate prostate segmentation in ultrasound images is crucial for the clinical diagnosis of prostate cancer and for performing image-guided prostate surgery. However, it is challenging to accurately segment the prostate in ultrasound images due to their low signal-to-noise ratio, the low contrast between the prostate and neighboring tissues, and the diffuse or invisible boundaries of the prostate. In this paper, we develop a novel hybrid method for segmentation of the prostate in ultrasound images that generates accurate contours of the prostate from a range of datasets. Our method involves three key steps: (1) application of a principal curve-based method to obtain a data sequence comprising data coordinates and their corresponding projection index; (2) use of the projection index as training input for a fractional-order-based neural network that increases the accuracy of results; and (3) generation of a smooth mathematical map (expressed via the parameters of the neural network) that affords a smooth prostate boundary, which represents the output of the neural network (i.e., optimized vertices) and matches the ground truth contour. Experimental evaluation of our method and several other state-of-the-art segmentation methods on datasets of prostate ultrasound images generated at multiple institutions demonstrated that our method exhibited the best capability. Furthermore, our method is robust as it can be applied to segment prostate ultrasound images obtained at multiple institutions based on various evaluation metrics.

Combined role of green productivity growth, economic globalization, and eco-innovation in achieving ecological sustainability for OECD economies.

Since climate change is the paramount concern of recent literature, macroeconomic factors such as green growth and economic globalization may play an integral role in achieving ecological sustainability in the presence of eco-innovation. However, the combined contributions of green growth, economic globalization, and eco-innovation towards achieving ecological sustainability are missing from the existing knowledge. Therefore, we investigate the combined influence of these variables in the presence of human capital, financial development, and gross domestic product on ecological footprint per capita for a panel of 20 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries from 1990 through 2017. The method of panel quantile regression is used to produce sound results across varying levels of the ecological footprint of OECD nations. The main results are as follows: firstly, green productivity growth linearly and non-linearly mitigates the ecological degradation, presenting a more pronounced ecological protection impact for higher quantiles, followed by medium and lower quantiles. Secondly, economic globalization manifests mixed effects: it induces ecological deterioration impact in the absence of its interaction with eco-innovation, while it brings about an ecological protection impact with the interaction term. Thirdly, eco-innovation demonstrates an ecological protection impact for all quantiles, with the most influential impact in countries with higher ecological footprint per capita, followed by medium and lower footprints. Based on empirical results, we propose productive utilization of environmental resources for ecological sustainability through product and process innovation and efficient management practices. Besides, we recommend cultivating energy-efficient and clean environmental technologies for long-term ecological sustainability.

Absent atherosclerotic risk factors are associated with carotid stiffening quantified with ultrafast ultrasound imaging.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate carotid stiffening in participants without conventional cardiovascular risk factors (CVRFs) by using ultrafast pulse wave velocity (ufPWV). METHODS: The present study enrolled 517 participants without conventional CVRFs (CVRF-Free total population). Subjects in this population were defined as current non-smokers with untreated blood pressure < 140/90 mmHg, fasting blood glucose (FBG) < 7.0 mmol/L, total cholesterol (TC) < 6.2 mmol/L, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol < 4.1 mmol/L, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ≥ 1.0 mmol/L. Participants in the subgroup with optimal CVRFs (CVRF-Optimal subgroup; n = 188) were defined as having blood pressure < 120/80 mmHg, TC < 5.2 mmol/L, and FBG < 5.6 mmol/L. Clinical interviews, physical examinations, serum draw, carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT), and ufPWV were evaluated. Adjusted odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals and ordinal logistic regression models were used. RESULTS: Carotid stiffening was present in 46.2-54.5% of CVRF-Free subjects. Age, male sex, and body mass index (BMI) were independently associated with carotid stiffening in both the CVRF-Free total population and CVRF-Optimal subgroup (OR for age = 1.10-1.11, OR for male sex = 2.65-7.19, OR for BMI = 1.34-1.62; p < 0.05). Carotid stiffening was associated with TC only in the CVRF-Free total population (OR for TC = 1.84; p = 0.034). CONCLUSIONS: Many CVRF-Free individuals have carotid stiffening. ufPWV for atherosclerotic stiffening aids the assessment of early atherogenesis and may further clarify the true status of healthy adults without CVRFs. KEY POINTS: • CVRF-Optimal individuals have a lower carotid stiffness than CVRF-Free populations. • ufPWV is a quantitative predictor for the early assessment of AS. • Absent major CVRFs cannot be considered low risk for carotid stiffening and atherosclerosis.

Clinical Significance of Increasing Pressure Curve's Slope When Injecting Ultrasound Contrast Agent During Evaluation of Fallopian Tubal Patency.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the association between Fallopian tubal patency and the slope of the increasing pressure curve for ultrasound contrast agent. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 136 patients underwent transvaginal 4-dimensional hysterosalpingo-contrast sonography (TVS 4D HyCoSy) between August 2015 and January 2016. We divided the patients into 3 groups according to different Fallopian tubal patency status: 71 patients (48.97%) in bilateral tubal patency group, 45 (31.03%) in unilateral tubal patency group, and 20 in bilateral tubal nonpatent group. The ultrasound contrast agent was injected and the pressure curve was recorded automatically in real time using a liquid-injecting machine that traces it as a pressure curve. The slopes of the different groups are compared through independent sample t test. RESULTS: The slopes of the 3 groups were 1.242 ± 0.572, 1.472 ± 0.638, and 2.068 ± 1.236 kPa/s. A correlation was observed between the slope of the increasing pressure curve and tubal patency (R = 0.287, P < .05). The slopes differed significantly between the bilateral tubal patency group and bilateral tubal nonpatent group (P = .001) and between the unilateral tubal patency group and bilateral tubal nonpatent group (P = .012). However, the difference between the bilateral tubal patency and unilateral tubal patency groups was not significant (P = .266). CONCLUSION: The increase of the injecting pressure curve's slope for contrast agent during 4D HyCoSy is associated with the nonpatent degree of the tube. This condition can be used as an objective index of tubal patency and can be a reference in diagnosis and treatment.

Policy distortions, farm size, and the overuse of agricultural chemicals in China.

Understanding the reasons for overuse of agricultural chemicals is critical to the sustainable development of Chinese agriculture. Using a nationally representative rural household survey from China, we found that farm size is a strong factor that affects the use intensity of agricultural chemicals across farms in China. Statistically, a 1% increase in farm size is associated with a 0.3% and 0.5% decrease in fertilizer and pesticide use per hectare (P < 0.001), respectively, and an almost 1% increase in agricultural labor productivity, while it only leads to a statistically insignificant 0.02% decrease in crop yields. The same pattern was also found using other independently collected data sources from China and an international panel analysis of 74 countries from the 1960s to the 2000s. While economic growth has been associated with increasing farm size in many other countries, in China this relationship has been distorted by land and migration policies, leading to the persistence of small farm size in China. Removing these distortions would decrease agricultural chemical use by 30-50% and the environmental impact of those chemicals by 50% while doubling the total income of all farmers including those who move to urban areas. Removing policy distortions is also likely to complement other remedies to the overuse problem, such as easing farmer's access to modern technologies and knowledge, and improving environmental regulation and enforcement.

Fertilizer overuse in Chinese smallholders due to lack of fixed inputs.

Fertilizer overuse by smallholder farmers is widespread in China, leading to significant financial losses and threatening the environment. Understanding what mechanism behind this is critical for agricultural and environmental sustainability. By using a fixed effect panel model of over 20,000 rural households in China from 1995 to 2016, we found that the low ratio of fixed inputs such as machinery and knowledge to total inputs is the key factor leading to over-fertilization in smallholder farms. Low fixed input can result in or interact with nutrient-unbalanced fertilization, low agricultural income ratio and more cash crops that further aggravate fertilizer overuse. Smallholders lack fixed inputs, then compensate by over-applying fertilizer to attempt to achieve their yield goals. Thus, improving fixed input via increasing the average farm size to 3.8 ha or advanced service rental could save not only 45% fertilizers but also increase 16% agricultural net profit, benefiting agricultural and environmental sustainability.

[Multi-feature Extraction and Classification of Breast Tumor in Ultrasound Image].

OBJECTIVE: Feature extraction of breast tumors is very important in the breast tumor detection (benign and malignant) in ultrasound image. The traditional quantitative description of breast tumors has some shortcomings, such as inaccuracy. A simple and accurate feature extraction method has been studied. METHODS: In this paper, a new method of boundary feature extraction was proposed. Firstly, the shape histogram of ultrasound breast tumors was constructed. Secondly, the relevant boundary feature factors were calculated from a local point of view, including sum of maximum curvature, sum of maximum curvature and peak, sum of maximum curvature and standard deviation. Based on the boundary features, shape features and texture features, the linear support vector machine classifiers for benign and malignant breast tumor recognition was constructed. RESULTS: The accuracy of boundary features in the benign and malignant breast tumors classification was 82.69%. The accuracy of shape features was 73.08%. The accuracy of texture features was 63.46%. The classification accuracy of the three fusion features was 86.54%. CONCLUSIONS: The classification accuracy of boundary features was higher than that of texture features and shape features. The classification method based on multi-features has the highest accuracy and it describes the benign and malignant tumors from different angles. The research results have practical value.

Full-length transcriptome sequences and the identification of putative genes for flavonoid biosynthesis in safflower.

BACKGROUND: The flower of the safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) has been widely used in traditional Chinese medicine for the ability to improve cerebral blood flow. Flavonoids are the primary bioactive components in safflower, and their biosynthesis has attracted widespread interest. Previous studies mostly used second-generation sequencing platforms to survey the putative flavonoid biosynthesis genes. For a better understanding of transcription data and the putative genes involved in flavonoid biosynthesis in safflower, we carry our study. RESULTS: High-quality RNA was extracted from six types of safflower tissue. The RNAs of different tissues were mixed equally and used for multiple size-fractionated libraries (1-2, 2-3 and 3-6 k) library construction. Five cells were carried (2 cells for 1-2 and for 2-3 k libraries and 1 cell for 3-6 k libraries). 10.43Gb clean data and 38,302 de-redundant sequences were captured. 44 unique isoforms were annotated as encoding enzymes involved in flavonoid biosynthesis. The full length flavonoid genes were characterized and their evolutional relationship and expressional pattern were analyzed. They can be divided into eight families, with a large differences in the tissue expression. The temporal expressions under MeJA treatment were also measured, 9 genes are significantly up-regulated and 2 genes are significantly down-regulated. The genes involved in flavonoid synthesis in safflower were predicted in our study. Besides, the SSR and lncRNA are also analyzed in our study. CONCLUSIONS: Full-length transcriptome sequences were used in our study. The genes involved in flavonoid synthesis in safflower were predicted in our study. Combined the determination of flavonoids, CtC4H2, CtCHS3, CtCHI3, CtF3H3, CtF3H1 are mainly participated in MeJA promoting the synthesis of flavonoids. Our results also provide a valuable resource for further study on safflower.

Liver Fibrosis with Two-dimensional US Shear-Wave Elastography in Participants with Chronic Hepatitis B: A Prospective Multicenter Study.

Purpose To investigate the diagnostic performance of two-dimensional (2D) shear-wave elastography (SWE) in chronic hepatitis B. Materials and Methods This prospective multicenter study from January 2015 to January 2016 was conducted at 12 hospitals and included 654 participants with chronic hepatitis B who had undergone liver biopsy and 2D SWE examination. Participants were divided into chronic infection and chronic hepatitis groups. The diagnostic performance of 2D SWE was compared with the aspartate amino transferase-to-platelet ratio index (APRI), the Fibrosis-4 index (FIB-4), and transient elastography (TE) by using a DeLong test and was also compared between two subgroups. Dual cutoff values for cirrhosis were determined with multilevel likelihood ratio analysis. Results Overall, 402 participants with chronic hepatitis B were enrolled (154 with chronic infection and 248 with chronic hepatitis). The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 2D SWE (0.87; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.83, 0.90) were higher than those of TE (0.80; 95% CI: 0.68, 0.88), APRI (0.70; 95% CI: 0.65, 0.74), and FIB-4 (0.73; 95% CI: 0.69, 0.78) in cirrhosis. The high area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (0.92; 95% CI: 0.87, 0.96) was achieved in the chronic infection group and was significantly higher than that of the chronic hepatitis group (0.84; 95% CI: 0.78, 0.88; P = .017). Dual cutoff values with the likelihood ratios below 0.1 and above 10 (8.4 kPa and 11.0 kPa to rule out and rule in a diagnosis of cirrhosis, respectively) were effectively determined in chronic infection; a total of 81.2% (125 of 154) participants with cirrhosis were definitively diagnosed. Conclusion The performance of two-dimensional (2D) shear-wave elastography (SWE) was higher than that of other noninvasive methods. 2D SWE was most effective in ruling in and ruling out cirrhosis in participants with chronic infection, which may prompt antiviral treatment. © RSNA, 2018 Online supplemental material is available for this article.

Ammonia Emissions May Be Substantially Underestimated in China.

China is a global hotspot of atmospheric ammonia (NH3) emissions and, as a consequence, very high nitrogen (N) deposition levels are documented. However, previous estimates of total NH3 emissions in China were much lower than inference from observed deposition values would suggest, highlighting the need for further investigation. Here, we reevaluated NH3 emissions based on a mass balance approach, validated by N deposition monitoring and satellite observations, for China for the period of 2000 to 2015. Total NH3 emissions in China increased from 12.1 ± 0.8 Tg N yr-1 in 2000 to 15.6 ± 0.9 Tg N yr-1 in 2015 at an annual rate of 1.9%, which is approximately 40% higher than existing studies suggested. This difference is mainly due to more emission sources now having been included and NH3 emission rates from mineral fertilizer application and livestock having been underestimated previously. Our estimated NH3 emission levels are consistent with the measured deposition of NHx (including NH4+ and NH3) on land (11-14 Tg N yr-1) and the substantial increases in NH3 concentrations observed by satellite measurements over China. These findings substantially improve our understanding on NH3 emissions, implying that future air pollution control strategies have to consider the potentials of reducing NH3 emission in China.

[Safflower's origin and changes of producing areas].

Human's application of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) has a long history, but the origin remains unclear. Safflower was introduced into China for traditional Chinese medicine, and Sichuan was major producing area. However, in recent years, the main producing area is in Xinjiang province, in contrast Sichuan safflower is difficult to find. By reading relevant document literature and the production and marketing information of safflower, and having field investigation in the main producing areas, the origin of safflower and the reasons of producing areas' changes were explored. The origin of safflower is considered as the Fertile Crescent in reasonably. The change of producing areas in China is effected by the factors of natural environment and society. The suitability of producing areas and quality of safflower still need to study further.

[Correlation between accumulation of flavoneand expression of functional genes in Carthamus tinctorius].

The average yield of safflower blooming from 1 to 7 day was recorded and calculated, HPLC was used to detect the percentage composition of HYSA,quercetin,naringenin and kaempferol, and the real-time PCR was used to analyze the expression of chs and chi. The average yield,percentage composition of HYSA and naringenin as well as functional genes' expression presented similar trends. The average yield reached the highest peak at the third day, showing highpositive correlation with the contents of HYSA (r=0.756,P<0.05), and significant correlation with the expression of chi (r=0.892,P<0.01). The contents of naringenin showed a high positive correlation with the expression of chs(r=0.766,P<0.05). The study provides a theory basis for the composition and regulation mechanism of the flavonoid constituents and lays foundation for molecular mechanisms which lead to the difference of quality in C. tinctorius.

[Cloning,Analysis and Expression on Gene of Squalene Synthase in Citrus reticulata Seeds].

Objective: To clone squalene synthase gene( ss) from seeds of Citrus reticulate 'Dahongpao',and to analyze its expression and bioinformatics. Methods: The technology of RT-PCR was used to clone the gene of Citrus reticulata seeds and analyze its expression at various growing stages. Moreover, the bioinformatics was analyzed by online analytical tools. Results: The full-length of ss was1 205 bp and 397 amino acids were encoded, SS had a homology of 99% with that of Citrus sinensis and Citrus clementina. The growth process of Citrus reticulata seeds was divided into three stages: morphogenesis stage, maturity and dehydration periods, and expression of ss was the highest in maturity period. Conclusion: Squalene synthase gene from seeds of Citrus reticulate 'Dahongpa'is obtained for the first time, which provides reference for biosynthesis and regulation mechanism research of limonin compounds in Citrus reticulata seeds.

[Effect of moisture content on vigor of Cyathula officinalis seeds and its anti-aging mechanism analysis].

Effects of nine different moisture contents on vigor of Cyathula officinalis seeds and its anti-aging mechanism were studied by artificial accelerated aging through high temperature and wet. The research results showedthat seed vigor were generally decreased after artificial aging; in general, seed vigor and its anti-aging ability are relatively stronger within the scope of 6.55%-4.78% moisture content, the increase range of seed conductivity, peroxidase activity, malondialdehyde content,and reduce amplitude of activityof dehydrogenase , superoxide dismutaseare alllower as well. And when the moisture content reduced to 5.77%, all of the germination tests index of the non-aged seeds are the highest, and the activity of peroxidase the lowest,conductivity of leaching solution relatively low, activity of dehydrogenase and superoxide dismutase the highest,and catalase activityrelatively high.Therefore, in the low temperature germplasm preservation of C. officinalis seeds, the seed moisture content should be controlled close to the range of (5.70±1)% to keep higher vigor and anti-aging ability.

[Cloning,Bioinformatic Analysis of Chalcone-Flavonone Isomerase Gene( CHI) and Relationship Between Expression of CHI and Accumulation of HSYA in Carthamus tinctorius].

Objective: To clone chalcone-flavonone isomerase( CHI) gene in Carthamus tinctorius,to analyze the bioinformation of CHI,to compare the expression of CHI,and to analyze the percentage composition of hydroxysafflor yellow A( HSYA) during the florescence,in order to provide the foundation for functional verification of CHI and the composition and regulation mechanism of the flavonoid constituents in Carthamus tinctorius. Methods: CHI was cloned,bioinformatics was used to analyze the protein characteristics, real timePCR was used to analyze the expression of CHI,and HPLC was used to analyze the percentage composition of HSYA Results: A 696 bp CHI sequence in Carthamus tinctorius,the expression of CHI and the percentage composition of HSYA during the florescence were obtained. The variation tendency was similar between the expression of CHI and the accumulation of HSYA, which was increased gradually during 1 ~ 4 d and peaked at the fourth day,then decreased sharply during the fifth to the seventh day of florescence. Conclusion: This research provides a foundation for functional verification of CHI and the composition and regulation mechanism of the flavonoid constituents in Carthamus tinctorius.