[Effect and safety of endobronchial placement of vaseline gauze in the treatment of patients with bronchial fistula].

Objective: To investigate the application of vaseline gauze to occlude the bronchial fistulas and its clinical effectiveness and safety in this retrospective study. Methods: This study retrospectively reviewed the clinical records of 14 patients with bronchial fistulas at Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Shanghai Dongfang Hospital affiliated to Tongji University between June 2019 and June 2022. Seven of the 14 patients were female, and the age ranged from 16 to 74 years. We retrieved all the clinical records of all the enrolled patients during the 6 to 12 months follow-up after the operation, including the information for removal of chest drainage pipe, the failure of endobronchial blockage using vaseline gauze, as well as the complications (migration of the vaseline gauze, obstructive pneumonia, pulmonary atelectasis, et. al.) after the operation. Results: Of the 14 patients, 3 patients had fistula located in main or lobar bronchi; 10 patients had fistula located in distal airways; and 1 patient had fistula located both in main bronchi and distal airways. Ten patients were complicated with pneumonia or pleural cavity infections; Five were complicated with pneumothorax or hydropneumothorax. All of the 14 patients achieved successful airway occlusion after the placement of vaseline gauze in the responsible bronchial airways or stumps for the fistulas. Eleven of the 14 patients successfully removed the drainage tube for the residual cavity, 3 of the 14 patients successfully removed the vaseline gauze for the fistula which was healing during the follow up of 6-12 months. No one of the patients had severe complications or treatment failure. Conclusion: Bronchial placement of vaseline gauze might be a feasible and effective technique for treatment of bronchial fistulas.

Overexpression of a Populus trichocarpa H+-pyrophosphatase gene PtVP1.1 confers salt tolerance on transgenic poplar.

The Arabidopsis vacuolar H(+)-pyrophosphatase (AVP1) has been well studied and subsequently employed to improve salt and/or drought resistance in herbaceous plants. However, the exact function of H(+)-pyrophosphatase in woody plants still remains unknown. In this work, we cloned a homolog of type I H(+)-pyrophosphatase gene, designated as PtVP1.1, from Populus trichocarpa, and investigated its function in both Arabidopsis and poplar. The deduced translation product PtVP1.1 shares 89.74% identity with AVP1. Semi-quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and quantitative real-time PCR analyses revealed a ubiquitous expression pattern of PtVP1.1 in various tissues, including roots, stems, leaves and shoot tips. Heterologous expression of PtVP1.1 rescued the retarded-root-growth phenotype of avp1, an Arabidopsis knock out mutant of AVP1, on low carbohydrate medium. Overexpression of PtVP1.1 in poplar (P. davidiana × P. bolleana) led to more vigorous growth of transgenic plants in the presence of 150 mM NaCl. Microsomal membrane vesicles derived from PtVP1.1 transgenic plants exhibited higher H(+)-pyrophosphatase hydrolytic activity than those from wild type (WT). Further studies indicated that the improved salt tolerance was associated with a decreased Na(+) and increased K(+) accumulation in the leaves of transgenic plants. Na(+) efflux and H(+) influx in the roots of transgenic plants were also significantly higher than those in the WT plants. All these results suggest that PtVP1.1 is a functional counterpart of AVP1 and can be genetically engineered for salt tolerance improvement in trees.

Large magnetoelectric coupling in Co4Nb2O9.

Magnetoelectric materials which simultaneously exhibit electric polarization and magnetism have attracted more and more attention due to their novel physical properties and promising applications for next-generation devices. Exploring new materials with outstanding magnetoelectric performance, especially the manipulation of magnetization by electric field, is of great importance. Here, we demonstrate the cross-coupling between magnetic and electric orders in polycrystalline Co4Nb2O9, in which not only magnetic-field-induced electric polarization but also electric field control of magnetism is observed. These results reveal rich physical phenomenon and potential applications in this compound.

Chimeric repressor of PtSND2 severely affects wood formation in transgenic Populus.

NAC domain transcription factors are important regulators that activate the secondary wall biosynthesis in wood formation. In this work, we investigated the possible functions of an NAC family member SECONDARY WALL-ASSOCIATED NAC DOMAIN PROTEIN2 (PtSND2) using chimeric repressor silencing technology. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, subcellular localization and transcriptional activation analyses indicated that PtSND2 is a wood-associated transcriptional factor with the predicted transcriptional activation activity, which could be inhibited by the repression domain SUPERMAN REPRESSION DOMAIN X (SRDX) in yeast. Wood formation was severely repressed in transgenic poplar plants overexpressing PtSND2-SRDX. Meanwhile, the secondary cell wall thickness of xylem fibers was restrained, and the contents of cellulose and lignin were obviously decreased in the stems of transgenic plants. Further studies indicated that expressions of a number of wood-associated genes were down-regulated in the stems of transgenic plants. Our results suggest that PtSND2 may play important roles during the secondary growth of stems in poplar.

Enterococcus species composition determined by capillary electrophoresis of the groESL gene spacer region DNA.

Marine recreational beaches are monitored for fecal contamination by Enterococcus spp. (ENT) counts. Although different ENT species in the environment tend to thrive in and originate from distinct hosts, the current monitoring method does not differentiate among species. Time-consuming isolation-based species identification precludes routine analysis of environmental ENT communities. Therefore, an isolation-independent DNA fingerprinting method was developed to characterize environmental ENT communities using DNA length polymorphism of the spacer region between the groES and groEL genes common to most ENT species. Capillary electrophoresis resulted in distinct peak sizes of PCR products that carried polymorphic groESL spacers (300-335 bp in length) among 8 different ENT species (Enterococcus avium, Enterococcus gallinarum, Enterococcus casseliflavus, Enterococcus mundtii, Enterococcus hirae, Enterococcus faecium, Enterococcus durans, and Enterococcus faecalis). Distortions in true species ratios observed in electropherograms were caused by PCR biases arising in a mixed ENT community DNA template. E. faecalis was overestimated and E. avium and E. faecium were underestimated compared to the original species ratios in the mixed community. The PCR product bias was constant between species, so good approximation of the species ratio in ENT communities is possible. In environmental samples, a high percentage of E. faecalis (96%) together with high total ENT counts were observed in samples collected from a sewer line and from several sites in a storm drain system where sewage leaks were suspected. In contrast, samples with <400 CFU 100 ml-1 ENT were either dominated by E. mundtii or had 4 or more ENT species. The latter ENT community profiles are considered to be signatures of enterococci rarely associated with animals with low or of non-fecal origin.

Structures and stereochemistry of pseudolarolides K and L, novel triterpene dilactones from pseudolarix kaempferi.

Pseudolarolides K(1) and L(2), two novel triterpenedilactones, were isolated from the seeds of Pseudolarix kaempferi, and their structures characterized from spectral data.

Structure and stereochemistry of pseudolarolide J, a novel nortriterpene lactone from Pseudolarix kaempferi.

Pseudolarolide J (1), a novel nortriterpene lactone, has been isolated from the seeds of Pseudolarix kaempferi and structurally characterized from spectral data and X-ray crstallographic analysis.