A novel prognostic index for sporadic Burkitt lymphoma in adult patients: a real-word multicenter study.

BACKGROUND: Adult sporadic Burkitt lymphoma (BL) is a rare but highly aggressive subtype of lymphoma which lacks its own unique prognostic model. Systemic inflammatory biomarkers have been confirmed as prognostic markers in several types of malignancy. Our objective was to explore the predictive value of pretreatment inflammatory biomarkers and establish a novel, clinically applicable prognostic index for adult patients with sporadic BL. METHODS: We surveyed retrospectively 336 adult patients with newly diagnosed sporadic BL at 8 Chinese medical centers and divided into training cohort (n = 229) and validation cohort (n = 107). The pretreatment inflammatory biomarkers were calculated for optimal cut-off value. The association between serum biomarkers and overall survival (OS) was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox proportional models. The risk stratification was defined based on normal LDH level, Ann Arbor stage of I and completely resected abdominal lesion or single extra-abdominal mass < 10 cm. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that platelets< 254 × 109/L, albumin< 40 g/L, lactate dehydrogenase≥334 U/L independently predicted unfavorable OS. We used these data as the basis for the prognostic index, in which patients were stratified into Group 1 (no or one risk factor), Group 2 (two risk factors), or Group 3 (three risk factors), which were associated with 5-year OS rates of 88.1, 72.4, and 45%, respectively. In the subgroup analysis for high-risk patients, our prognostic model results showed that high-risk patients with no more than one adverse factor presented a 5-year survival rate of 85.9%, but patients with three adverse factors had a 5-year survival rate of 43.0%. Harrell's concordance index (C-index) of the risk group score was 0.768. Therefore, the new prognostic model could be used to develop risk-adapted treatment approaches for adult sporadic BL.

[Effect of chrysin on expression of NOX4 and NF-κB in right ventricle of monocrotaline-induced pulmonary arterial hypertension of rats].

The aim of the present study is to investigate the protective effect of chrysin (5,7-dihydroxyflavone) on right ventricular remodeling in a rat model of monocrotaline-induced pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). PAH rats were induced by a single injection of monocrotaline (60 mg x kg(-1), sc) and were administered with chrysin (50 or 100 mg x kg(-1) x d(-1)) for 4 weeks. At the end of experiment, the right ventricular systolic pressure (RVSP) and mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP) were monitored via the right jugular vein catheterization into the right ventricle. Right ventricle (RV) to left ventricle (LV) + septum (S) and RV to tibial length were calculated. Right ventricular morphological change was observed by HE staining. Masson's trichrome stain was used to demonstrate collagen deposition. The total antioxidative capacity (T-AOC) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in right ventricle were determined according to the manufacturer's instructions. The expressions of collagen I, collagen III, NADPH oxidase 4 (NOX4) and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) were analyzed by immunohistochemisty, qPCR and (or) Western blot. The results showed that chrysin treatment for 4 weeks attenuated RVSP, mPAP and right ventricular remodeling index (RV/LV+S and RV/Tibial length) of PAH rats induced by monocrotaline. Furthermore, monocrotaline-induced right ventricular collagen accumulation and collagen I and collagen III expression were both significantly suppressed by chrysin. The expressions of NOX4, NF-κB and MDA contents were obviously decreased, while the T-AOC was significantly increased in right ventricule from PAH rats with chrysin treatment. These results suggest that chrysin ameliorates right ventricular remodeling of PAH induced by monocrotaline in rats through its down-regulating of NOX4 expression and antioxidant activity, and inhibiting NF-κB expression and collagen accumulation.

Treatment with a vascular disrupting agent does not increase recruitment of indium labelled human endothelial outgrowth cells in an experimental tumour model.

BACKGROUND: The effect of vascular disrupting agents in tumour therapy depends on both the immediate vascular shutdown, and on the following re-vascularization of the tumour. The aim of this study was to use a tumour model to investigate whether endothelial outgrowth cells (EOCs) influenced the short term treatment efficiency of combretastatin A-4 disodium phosphate (CA4P) and 5,6-dimethylxanthenone-4-acetic acid (DMXAA) by increasing EOC tumour recruitment. METHODS: In order to visualize the recruitment of EOCs to the tumours, umbilical cord blood derived human EOCs were labelled with 111Indium-tropolone in a dose of 0.37 MBq pr 3×106 cells and were injected intravenously into mice carrying a C3H mammary carcinoma on their right rear foot. DMXAA and CA4P in different concentrations and at different exposure times were used to create a hypoxic environment in the C3H mammary carcinoma in the mice. Three different mice strains with various degrees of functional immune system were used to study the homing capability of EOCs. RESULTS: Our data showed that approximately 4% of the total injected radioactive dose per gram of tissue was found in the tumour after treatment with CA4P and DMXAA. Regardless of the concentration and the treatment duration, CA4P did not increase EOC recruitment to the tumour in comparison to EOC recruitment in control tumours in any of the 3 mice strains studied. CONCLUSION: Our data showed that regardless of the grade of the immune system, ranging from a fully working to a fully compromised immune system, treatment with CA4P did not increase recruitment of xenotransplanted EOCs to tumour tissue.

Markerless vision-based functional movement screening movements evaluation with deep neural networks.

The functional movement screen (FMS) test is a seven-test battery used to assess fundamental movement abilities of individuals. It is commonly used to predict sports injuries but relies on clinical expertise and is not suitable for self-examination. This study presents an automatic FMS movement assessment framework using a multi-view deep neural network called MVDNN. The framework combines automatic skeleton extraction with manual feature selection to extract 3D trajectory features of human skeleton joints from two different directions. Three mainstream methods of time-series modeling are then used to learn high-level feature representation from skeleton sequences, and motion features from two views are fused to provide complementary information. Results of public FMS movements dataset demonstrate that our MVDNN outperforms current state-of-the-art methods with an average miF1 score of 0.857, maF1 score of 0.768, and Kappa score of 0.640 over ten runs.

N-acetylglucosamine biofunctionalized CdSeTe quantum dots as fluorescence probe for specific protein recognition.

Hsp70 proteins are implicated in resistance to chemotherapy in cancers, the detection of which is important for cancer treatment and prognosis. In this work, we report the study on the detection of specific intracellular target protein in fixed cells using GlcNAc-conjugated CdSeTe QDs. The QDs were coupled with Con A via a carbodiimide reaction and then were further assembled with GlcNAc by lectin-carbohydrate interaction between Con A and GlcNAc. The obtained QDs-Con A-GlcNAc conjugates have an emission wavelength at 650 nm that is close to the near-infrared (NIR) regions and a specific recognition for Hsp70. These results show that the QDs-Con A-GlcNAc probe can be a promising tool for direct localization of the Hsp70 protein.

[Ginsenoside Rg1 antagonizes ß-amyloid peptide-induced apoptosis in primarily cultured rat neurons via mitochondrial pathway].

OBJECTIVE: To assess the neuroprotective effects of ginsenoside Rg1 against ß-amyloid peptide (Aß(25-35))-induced apoptosis in primarily cultured rat cortical neurons. METHODS: Primarily cultured cortical neurons were obtained from embryonic (E18d) rat fetus and maintained in neurobasal medium for 7d. Primary neurons pretreated with 1 µmol/L, 10 µmol/L or 20 µmol/L Rg1 for 24 h were challenged with 10 µmol/L Aß(25-35) for 72 h. Morphological changes of neurons were evaluated; mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm) was measured; with JC-1 staining and the expression of neural apoptosis-related proteins was detected by Western blot analysis. RESULTS: Exposure to Aß(25-35) for 72 h caused serious neural cell insults. A pretreatment with Rg1 significantly reduced Aß(25-35)induced cell death in a dose-dependent manner, with a maximal effect (-90%) obtained at 20 µmol/L. The JC-1 staining results demonstrated the loss of ΔΨm after Aß(25-35) treatment, while Rg1 maintained the normal level of ΔΨm. A series of mitochondrion-mediated apoptotic events happened after Aß(25-35) treatment, such as decrease of Bcl-2/Bax, release of cytochrome C and activation of caspase 9 and caspase 3, which were all blocked by Rg1 pretreatment. Both estrogen receptor (ER) antagonist ICI182, 780 and glucocorticoid receptor (GR) antagonist RU486 blocked the antiapoptotic effects of Rg1. CONCLUSION: Ginsenoside Rg1 protects primary cultured rat cortical neurons from Aß(25-35)-induced injury, which may be associated with mitochondrion-mediated antiapoptosis pathway.

[Effectiveness and Mechanism of Decitabine Maintenance Therapy in Patients with Medium and Low-risk Acute Myeloid Leukemia].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the efficacy and mechanism of decitabine maintenance therapy in patients with medium and low-risk acute myeloid leukemia(AML). METHODS: The newly diagnosed medium- and low-risk AML patients in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University from December 2016 to December 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. Seventy-eight AML patients who were still in remission after consolidation treatment were divided into maintenance treatment group (31 cases) and control group (47 cases). The maintenance treatment patients received decitabine at 20 mg/m2 IV daily for 5 days, every three months for 6 cycles, the control group was only observed and tested regularly. Follow-up was completed by telephone or by viewing outpatient or inpatient medical records. Primary indicators were overall survival (OS), and secondary indicators include relapse-free survival (RFS), tolerance, cellular immune function and analysis of risk factors related to survival. RESULTS: Median RFS in maintenance theatment and control groups was 30.1(26.2-33.8) months and 24.3(21.7-30.3) months (P=0.011), median OS 34.7(29.8-39.7) months and 27.7(24.1-31.3) months respectively（P=0.024）, with a statistically significant difference. For the univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis, only the minimal residual disease (HR=25.185, P<0.001) and the treatment methods (HR=0.124, P<0.001) affected the PFS and OS of patients. In the maintenance treatment group, CD3+T cells, CD8+T cells and NK cells increased significantly after decitabine maintenance treatment, and the regulatory T cells decreased significantly (P<0.05). Patients had a low incidence of grade 3-4 adverse events, hematological adverse events were mainly neutropenia and thrombocytopenia, non-hematological adverse events were mainly digestive tract symptoms, and the patient was well tolerated. CONCLUSION: Maintenance treatment with decitabine provided benefit survival in patients with medium- and low-risk AML and is well tolerated. The mechanism may be inhibition the proliferation of regulatory T cells, induce and enhance the cytotoxic effect of CD8+ T cells on tumor antigens.

Functional movement screen dataset collected with two Azure Kinect depth sensors.

This paper presents a dataset for vision-based autonomous Functional Movement Screen (FMS) collected from 45 human subjects of different ages (18-59 years old) executing the following movements: deep squat, hurdle step, in-line lunge, shoulder mobility, active straight raise, trunk stability push-up and rotary stability. Specifically, shoulder mobility was performed only once by different subjects, while the other movements were repeated for three episodes each. Each episode was saved as one record and was annotated from 0 to 3 by three FMS experts. The main strength of our database is twofold. One is the multimodal data provided, including color images, depth images, quaternions, 3D human skeleton joints and 2D pixel trajectories of 32 joints. The other is the multiview data collected from the two synchronized Azure Kinect sensors in front of and on the side of the subjects. Finally, our dataset contains a total of 1812 recordings, with 3624 episodes. The size of the dataset is 190 GB. This dataset provides the opportunity for automatic action quality evaluation of FMS.

Virtual reality training improves accommodative facility and accommodative range.

AIM: To evaluate the effects of virtual reality (VR) training on different parameters of vision. METHODS: Sixty individuals ranged 18-60 years old with asthenopia were randomly divided into short-term (n=40) and long-term (n=20) treatment groups. They were given a specially designed VR training device only once for 15min or 3-4 times a day for 15min each time for 1mo. The visual acuity, spherical equivalent, accommodative range, accommodative facility, pupil size, and visual fatigue were evaluated before (control) and after VR training. RESULTS: The visual acuity, accommodative range, and accommodative facility increased in subjects of the short-term treatment group, whereas their pupil size contracted significantly. No significant changes in spherical equivalent and visual fatigue were observed. The changes in distant vision and corrected visual acuity were positively correlated with those in pupil size, but not with spherical equivalent. The accommodative range and accommodative facility improved significantly in subjects of the long-term treatment group. No significant changes in visual acuity, spherical equivalent, pupil size, and visual fatigue were noted. CONCLUSION: VR training can improve the accommodative range and accommodative facility of human eyes. Although short-term VR training can transiently improve vision, which probably due to bright light adaptation, there is no evidence that it can improve myopia.

Thermal reversible microemulsion system for poorly water-soluble YH439 for oral delivery.

To improve bioavailability of poorly water-soluble YH439, a thermal reversible microemulsion system was prepared using modified fatty acids such as capric acid and palmitic acid with PEG 400. A combination of Capric-PEG 400 and Palmitic-PEG 400 with a ratio of 1 : 3 used as a lipid matrix and Cremophor RH40 and Neobee M-5 were selected as an oil and a surfactant, respectively. The microemulsion with melting point of 36.5 degrees C was produced by mixing the lipid matrices, Cremophor RH40 and Neobee M-5 with a volume ratio of 5 : 4 : 1. After the microemulsion was dispersed in the aqueous medium, the average particle size of 28 nm was obtained. At the release measurements of YH439 after 45 min suspension in pH 1.2 aqueous medium, about 80%, 65%, 10% and less than 5% of drug were released from the thermal reversible microemulson, Gelucire formulation, 5% Ca-carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) suspension and YH439 powder, respectively. The apparent permeability of YH439 in microemulsion either from apical to basolateral or basolateral to apical after measuring YH439 across a Caco-2 cell monolayer in a Transwell larger than Gelucire formulation or 5% Na-CMC suspension. The area under the drug concentration-time curves (AUC) and maximal blood concentration (C(max)) after oral administration of YH439 loaded on thermal reversible microemulsion were significantly increased than drug loaded on either Gelucire formulation or 5% Na-CMC suspension. Thus, the present work demonstrates that the thermal reversible microemulsion system of YH439 greatly enhances the bioavailability of YH439 after oral administration due to the improvement of solubility and dispersion of the drug in the artificial gastrointestinal tract without pepsin.

Multisource Transfer Learning for Cross-Subject EEG Emotion Recognition.

Electroencephalogram (EEG) has been widely used in emotion recognition due to its high temporal resolution and reliability. Since the individual differences of EEG are large, the emotion recognition models could not be shared across persons, and we need to collect new labeled data to train personal models for new users. In some applications, we hope to acquire models for new persons as fast as possible, and reduce the demand for the labeled data amount. To achieve this goal, we propose a multisource transfer learning method, where existing persons are sources, and the new person is the target. The target data are divided into calibration sessions for training and subsequent sessions for test. The first stage of the method is source selection aimed at locating appropriate sources. The second is style transfer mapping, which reduces the EEG differences between the target and each source. We use few labeled data in the calibration sessions to conduct source selection and style transfer. Finally, we integrate the source models to recognize emotions in the subsequent sessions. The experimental results show that the three-category classification accuracy on benchmark SEED improves by 12.72% comparing with the nontransfer method. Our method facilitates the fast deployment of emotion recognition models by reducing the reliance on the labeled data amount, which has practical significance especially in fast-deployment scenarios.

[Recent advances in the applications of ultrasonic microbubbles as gene or drug vectors].

With the research and application of the new ultrasound microbubble contrast agents, ultrasonic microbubbles can not only help to image, but they can also be used as genes or drug carriers. The microbubbles as genes or drug carriers can pass across the endothelial cell barrier and release genes and drug under the action of ultrasound field, which achieve target treatment effect. Based on the relevant materials, the bioeffects, early successes with gene and drug delivery, and potential clinical applications are reviewed.

Quantitative analysis of non-alcoholic fatty liver in rats via combining multiple ultrasound parameters.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common chronic liver disease. The noninvasive and accurate classification of NAFLD is still a challenging problem. In this study we pro- posed a new quantitative ultrasound (QUS) technique, which combined multiple QUS parameters for distinguishing steatosis stages. NAFLD was induced in the livers of 57 rats by gavage feeding with a high fat emulsion, while 8 rats were given a standard diet to serve as controls. Ex vivo ultrasound mea- surement was conducted for capturing the radiofrequency signal. Six QUS parameters were extracted and selected for linear combination. The results show that the overall performance of the combined parameter is better than that of the single QUS parameter. The accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) while using our proposed method to distinguish mild steatosis (stage S1) from the steatosis under stage S0 are 90.1%, 0.93, 0.88 and 0.97 respectively. In conclusion, the proposed method in this study can make up for the deficiency of single parameter and improve the quantitative staging ability of fatty liver, and thus could play an important role in the diagnosis of NAFLD.

Correlation of endoscopic images and histological findings of a high grade dysplasia developed in a gastric xanthoma.

Gastric neoplasia developed in a xanthoma is very rare. We herein report a high grade dysplasia (HGD) arising in a gastric xanthoma removed by endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD). A 57-year-old man was referred to our hospital for removal of rectal polyps. During surveillance esophago-gastro-duodenoendoscopy before polypectomy, an irregularly shaped gastric xanthoma with unusual color was found in the stomach. Although, magnifying narrow band imaging showed no typical neoplastic vessel or surface pattern on the surface and endoscopic biopsies revealed no tumor, diagnostic ESD was performed because of its irregular shape and unusual color for a commonly seen xanthoma. Histologically, a high grade dysplasia, 6 mm×6 mm in size, was detected within a gastric xanthoma. This is the first report of correlation of endoscopic images and histological findings of a HGD in a gastric xanthoma.

The opposite roles of PAS-5 and Galectin-1 in immune response during the early infection of Angiostrongylus cantonensis.

BACKGROUND: Angiostrongylus cantonensis is a human zoonotic nematode parasite. Our previous studies found that PAS-5 and Galectin-1 (Gal-1) proteins of A. cantonensis could be strongly recognized by sera from mice infected with A. cantonensis. In this study, we further evaluated the potential roles of these two proteins in the induction of immune response in mice. METHODS: Mice were immunized with recombinant PAS-5 or Gal-1 and then challenged with 30 infective A. cantonensis larvae following the last immunization. We then examined the infected mice for changes in serum antibodies and cytokines by ELISA, CD4+ T cells and CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) by flow cytometry, and tissue damage severity by hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) staining. RESULTS: Compared with control mice, the PAS-5-immunized mice exhibited increased levels of serum antibodies and cytokines (except for IL-10) at different time points post-infection. PAS-5 immunization promoted significant proliferation of CD4+ T cells, and caused more damage in the brain tissue. Vaccination with Gal-1 inhibited the production of antibodies (except for IgG1) and IFN-γ, but promoted the expression of IL-4 and IL-10. Gal-1 immunization results in significant increases in the levels of CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ Tregs, and mild inflammatory changes. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our findings show that PAS-5 enhances, but Gal-1 inhibits the immune response in the early stage of A. cantonensis infections.

[Effects of calcitonin gene-related peptide on eIF3a and p27 expression in bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis of rats].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effects of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) on eukaryotic translation initiation factor 3a (eIF3a) and p27 expression in bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis of rats and its possible mechanism. METHODS: Twenty-four male SD rats weighing 180~220 g were randomly divided into three groups (n=8):control group, bleomycin group, bleomycin plus capsaicin group. Bleomycin (5 mg/kg) was used to induce pulmonary fibrosis rat model. Rats were given capsaicin (50 mg/kg·d) by subcutaneous injections 4 days before to deplete endogenous CGRP. At the end of experiments, blood samples were collected from carotid artery to determinate the plasma levels of CGRP by ELISA. The cells were divided into 6 groups as follows:control group, transforming growth factor-ß1 (TGF-ß1) group, +CGRP (1, 10, 100 nmol/L) group, +CGRP 100 nmol/L and CGRP8-37 1 µmol/L group respectively(n=9). TGF-ß1 (5 ng/ml) stimulated proliferation of pulmonary fibroblasts and proliferation was measured by BrdU marking. The expression levels of eIF3a, p27, α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and collagen Ⅰ were detected by immunohistochemisty, real-time PCR or Western blot. RESULTS: The expressions of eIF3a, α-SMA, and collagen I were increased and the expression of p27 was decreasing in pulmonary fibrosis rats induced by bleomycin. Exogenous application of CGRP significantly inhibited TGF-ß1-induced proliferation and differentiation of pulmonary fibroblasts and the expressions of α-SMA, collagen I and eIF3a, and upregulated the expression of p27. All these effects of CGRP were abolished in the presence of CGRP8-37. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that endogenous CGRP is related to the development of pulmonary fibrosis induced by bleomycin, and the inhibitory effect of CGRP on proliferation of lung fibroblasts involves the eIF3a/p27 signaling pathway.

Improved shear wave motion detection using coded excitation for transient elastography.

Transient elastography (TE) is well adapted for use in studying liver elasticity. However, because the shear wave motion signal is extracted from the ultrasound signal, the weak ultrasound signal can significantly deteriorate the shear wave motion tracking process and make it challenging to detect the shear wave motion in a severe noise environment, such as within deep tissues and within obese patients. This paper, therefore, investigated the feasibility of implementing coded excitation in TE for shear wave detection, with the hypothesis that coded ultrasound signals can provide robustness to weak ultrasound signals compared with traditional short pulse. The Barker 7, Barker 13, and short pulse were used for detecting the shear wave in the TE application. Two phantom experiments and one in vitro liver experiment were done to explore the performances of the coded excitation in TE measurement. The results show that both coded pulses outperform the short pulse by providing superior shear wave signal-to-noise ratios (SNR), robust shear wave speed measurement, and higher penetration intensity. In conclusion, this study proved the feasibility of applying coded excitation in shear wave detection for TE application. The proposed method has the potential to facilitate robust shear elasticity measurements of tissue.

Molecular mechanism underlying the anticancer effect of simvastatin on MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells.

Breast carcinoma is the leading cause of cancer-associated mortality in female individuals worldwide. Previous studies have investigated the pro-apoptotic and antimetastatic effects of statins, and have demonstrated that simvastatin exhibits antitumor activity and potent chemopreventive effects. However, the mechanism underlying the effects of simvastatin in breast cancer remains to be elucidated. The present study demonstrated that simvastatin inhibited the proliferation of MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner, decreased the protein expression of B cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) and increased the protein expression of Bcl-2-associated X protein in time- and dose-dependent manners. In addition, simvastatin arrested cells in the G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle, downregulated the protein expression levels of cyclin D1 and cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)2, mediated the mitochondria-dependent caspase cascade by increasing the protein expression levels of caspase-3, -8 and -9, and downregulated the protein expression of X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis, which induced cell apoptosis. In addition, simvastatin decreased the protein expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 and suppressed the activation of nuclear factor (NF)-κB in the MDA-MB-231 cells. Taken together, these results demonstrated that the antitumor effect of simvastatin in the human MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell line was via the inhibition of cell proliferation, affecting the cell cycle, downregulating the expression levels of cyclin D1 and CDKs, inducing apoptosis and decreasing the expression of MMP-2, possibly by inhibiting the activation of NF-κB. Statin treatment may provide a novel therapeutic approach for the treatment of breast cancer.

[Residue and Degradation of Roxarsone in the System of Soil-Vegetable].

The field experiment was developed for simulating the residues, transformation and degradation in soil-vegetable system of Roxarsone contained in organic fertilizer. Under the treatment, the yield of Brassica chinensis decreased in low Roxarsone concentration with a decline by 15% to 32% compared with the control group; there had an accumulating role of vegetables to arsenic, and the root was the main part; total content of arsenic in the soil was positively correlated with the dose of the applied Roxarsone; total arsenic in soil first increased and then decreased with the planting time prolonged and peaked at 12.94 mg x kg(-1), while the level of inorganic arsenic in the soil stabilized after 30 d, which accounting for 66.75% to 98.56% of the total arsenic; there existed a positively significant correlation of total arsenic content between the Brassica chinensis and the soil as well as the arsenic enrichment factor of vegetables; the degradation rate of Roxarsone in soil was slow, there was still some Roxarsone remained in soil after 45 d when added the organic fertilizer which containing Roxarsone with the dose higher than 5 000 kg x hm(-2); Roxarsone could significantly increase the number of bacteria in the soil, and low concentration showed an inhibited role in the growth of fungi and actinomyces, while high concentration of Roxarsone promoted the growth.

[Mercury fluxes from conifer-broadleaf forested field in central subtropical forest zone].

Total gaseous mercury fluxes of forested field soils in the subtropical forest zones, Chongqing, Southwestern China were continually monitored from April 2011 to March 2012 to provide insights into the characteristics of gaseous mercury flux with conifer-broadleaf forest covers. Samples were collected from surfaces of forest fields as the most representative terrestrial surfaces in Jinyun Mountain. Simultaneously, meteorological parameters at the soil level relating to GEM fluxes, such as soil temperature, air humidity, and solar radiation were analyzed, and variations of atmospheric GEM concentration were examined. The results showed that annual averaged fluxes from soils in the forest and open-air site were (16.82 +/- 6.70) ng x (m2 x h)(-1), which was significantly higher than that in the natural background area. Moreover, there was a clear seasonal variation on the forest field. In growing season, the average mercury flux was (22.23 +/- 13.19) ng x (m2 x h)(-1), while in dormant season the value was (6.01 +/- 4. 05) ng x (m2 x h)(-1). Diurnal variation characteristics of mercury fluxes were closely related to solar radiation on the forest field. Mercury fluxes of the soils were significantly correlated with soil temperature, air temperature and relative humidity, which may be caused by the relationship between solar radiation intensity and mercury emission fluxes from soils.