High-Precision Fiber Noise Detection and Comparison over a 260 km Field Fiber Link.

In this paper, we present a high-precision optical frequency noise detection and comparison technique using a two-way transfer method over a 260 km field fiber link. This method allows for the comparison of optical frequencies between remote optical references without the need for data transfer through communication. We extend a previously established two-way comparison technique to obtain all data at the local site. Two optical carrier signals are injected into the bidirectional fiber from both ends, and one carrier is reflected back from the remote end. This enables the phase comparison of the two carrier signals at a single site without the need to transmit experimental data. The common-mode frequency noise induced by the bidirectional fiber link is detected and effectively suppressed without the need for sophisticated active fiber noise control. Our demonstration system, which uses a 260 km field fiber link and a common laser source, achieves a fractional instability of 2.5×10-17 at 1 s averaging time and scales down to 3.5×10-21 at 8000 s. This scheme offers the distinct advantage of completing the comparison at a single site, eliminating the need for remote data transfer via communication. This method is expected to enhance reliability for high-precision frequency comparisons between remote optical clocks and advanced atomic clocks.

Coherent phase transfer via fiber using heterodyne optical phase locking as optical amplification.

We demonstrate a coherent phase transfer via a 224 km cascaded fiber link comprising two 112 km links stabilized by two phase-locking loops, respectively. The optical signal is regenerated employing heterodyne optical phase locking (HOPL) after the first 112 km transfer. With a gain of more than 50 dB, the HOPL is capable of tracking the frequency of the incoming carrier with a fluctuation of 0.48 mHz and preserving the instability of the incoming laser to 6×10-20 at 1000 s. The phase noise cancellation of each span is investigated, and the out-loop transfer instability of the 224 km link reaches 7.7×10-19 at 10,000 s. The relation between the transfer instability of each span and that of the whole link is also deduced in the paper, in agreement with experimental results of the 224 km link.

Clinical Application of Fully Covered Self-Expandable Metal Stents in the Treatment of Bronchial Fistula.

Background The study was designed to access the feasibility, safety, and efficacy of fully covered self-expandable metal stents in the treatment of bronchial fistula. Methods Clinical data of nine patients (seven males and two females) who were treated with placement of tracheobronchial or bronchial fully covered self-expandable metal stents from August 2005 to November 2011 were analyzed retrospectively. Among these patients, seven were diagnosed with bronchopleural fistula, one with tracheopleural fistula, and one with left main bronchoesophageal fistula. Eight had accompanying thoracic empyema. The fistula orifices ranged from 3.5 mm to 25 mm in diameter. All patients received topical anesthesia. L-shaped stents were placed in six patients and I-shaped stents in three under fluoroscopic guidance. After stent placement, patients with empyema were treated with pleural lavage. Results Stent placement in the tracheobronchial tree was successful in all patients, without procedure-related complications. The operating time was 5 to 16 minutes. A small amount of bubble overflowed from the intrathoracic drainage tube of only one patient. In the other patients, the bubble in the intrathoracic drainage tube disappeared immediately or angiography showed no overflow of contrast agent from the fistula orifice. The effective rate of fistula orifice closure after stent placement was 100%, with 88.9% rated as excellent. One patient coughed the stent out 5 days after placement and hence a new stent was placed. Among the patients with empyema, one died of septicemia arising from empyema on day 8 and another died of brain metastases of lung cancer 6 months after stent insertion with persistent empyema. In the other six patients, empyema resolved after 2 to 5 months (cure rate 75%). Seven patients were followed up for 3 to 36 months. During follow-up, one stent was removed 8 months after implantation due to difficult expectoration, without recurrent empyema. The remaining patients tolerated the stents well. The stents remained stable without migration or empyema recurrence, and they could eat and drink well. Conclusion The use of fully covered self-expandable metal stents is a safe, effective, and fast minimally invasive method to treat bronchial fistula, especially for selected cases with empyema.

[Clinical application of a fully covered self-expandable metallic stent in treatment of airway fistula].

OBJECTIVE: To assess the feasibility, safety and efficacy of the use of a fully covered self-expandable stent for the treatment of airway fistula. METHODS: From August 2005 to November 2011, 9 patients underwent treatment by the introduction of a tracheo-bronchial or bronchial fully covered self-expandable metallic stent. There were 7 males and 2 females, aged from 28-65 years with a mean of 46 years. In this group, 7 cases were diagnosed as bronchopleural fistula, 1 case as tracheopleural fistula, 1 case as broncho-esophageal fistula, 8 cases with thoracic empyema. The fistula orifices were from 3.5-25.0 mm in diameter with a mean 8.4 mm. All patients received topical anesthesia, and L-shaped stent was placed in 6 patients and I-shaped stent in 3 patients under fluoroscopic guidance. After the stent placement, the patients with empyema were treated with continual irrigation of the empyema cavity. RESULTS: Stent placement in the tracheo-bronchial tree was technically successful in all patients, without procedure-related complications. The operating time was from 5-16 minutes, mean time (10 ± 4) minutes. Except for 1 patient, immediate closure of the airway fistula was achieved in the other patients after the procedure, as shown by the immediate cessation of bubbling in the chest drain system or the contrast examination. In this study, 1 patient coughed the inserted stent out due to irritable cough on the 5th day and had to receive repositioning of a new stent. Among the patients who were with empyema, 1 patient died of septicemia on the 8th day and 1 patient died of brain metastases from lung cancer 6 months after the stent insertion with empyema not cured, the other 6 patients' empyema healed from 2-5 months, mean time 3.7 months. Seven patients were followed from 3 to 36 months with a median of 13.5 months. During follow-up, 1 stent was removed from a patient 8 months after the stent implantation without empyema recurred. The remaining patient presented good tolerability to the existence of stent. The stents remained stable, no migration occurred, no empyema recurred, and the patient with broncho-esophageal fistula fed and drunk well. CONCLUSION: The use of fully covered self-expandable stents proved to be a safe, effective and fast minimally invasive method to treat airway fistula, especially for patients with a higher surgical risk or other failed treatments.

Select, Purify, and Exchange: A Multisource Unsupervised Domain Adaptation Method for Building Extraction.

Accurately extracting buildings from aerial images has essential research significance for timely understanding human intervention on the land. The distribution discrepancies between diversified unlabeled remote sensing images (changes in imaging sensor, location, and environment) and labeled historical images significantly degrade the generalization performance of deep learning algorithms. Unsupervised domain adaptation (UDA) algorithms have recently been proposed to eliminate the distribution discrepancies without re-annotating training data for new domains. Nevertheless, due to the limited information provided by a single-source domain, single-source UDA (SSUDA) is not an optimal choice when multitemporal and multiregion remote sensing images are available. We propose a multisource UDA (MSUDA) framework SPENet for building extraction, aiming at selecting, purifying, and exchanging information from multisource domains to better adapt the model to the target domain. Specifically, the framework effectively utilizes richer knowledge by extracting target-relevant information from multiple-source domains, purifying target domain information with low-level features of buildings, and exchanging target domain information in an interactive learning manner. Extensive experiments and ablation studies constructed on 12 city datasets prove the effectiveness of our method against existing state-of-the-art methods, e.g., our method achieves 59.1% intersection over union (IoU) on Austin and Kitsap → Potsdam, which surpasses the target domain supervised method by 2.2% . The code is available at https://github.com/QZangXDU/SPENet.

Cluster Alignment With Target Knowledge Mining for Unsupervised Domain Adaptation Semantic Segmentation.

Unsupervised domain adaptation (UDA) carries out knowledge transfer from the labeled source domain to the unlabeled target domain. Existing feature alignment methods in UDA semantic segmentation achieve this goal by aligning the feature distribution between domains. However, these feature alignment methods ignore the domain-specific knowledge of the target domain. In consequence, 1) the correlation among pixels of the target domain is not explored; and 2) the classifier is not explicitly designed for the target domain distribution. To conquer these obstacles, we propose a novel cluster alignment framework, which mines the domain-specific knowledge when performing the alignment. Specifically, we design a multi-prototype clustering strategy to make the pixel features within the same class tightly distributed for the target domain. Subsequently, a contrastive strategy is developed to align the distributions between domains, with the clustered structure maintained. After that, a novel affinity-based normalized cut loss is devised to learn task-specific decision boundaries. Our method enhances the model's adaptability in the target domain, and can be used as a pre-adaptation for self-training to boost its performance. Sufficient experiments prove the effectiveness of our method against existing state-of-the-art methods on representative UDA benchmarks.

Synthesis, Crystal Structure and Separation Performance of p-tert-butyl(tetradecyloxy)calix[6]arene.

This work describes the investigation of separation performance of the p-tert-butyl(tetradecyloxy)calix[6]arene (C6A-C10-OH) as stationary phase for gas chromatography (GC) separations. Its structure was characterized by IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, MS and single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. The C6A-C10-OH column shows good separation capacity for aliphatic, aromatic and cis-/trans- isomers. Especially, it exhibits multiple molecular recognition interactions for the analytes with a wide range of polarity, including dispersion, π-π, H-bonding and dipole-dipole interactions. The present work provides experimental and theoretical basis for the designing of the new calixarene stationary phases in GC analyses.

LYAR promotes the proliferation of non-small cell lung cancer and is associated with poor prognosis.

INTRODUCTION: The aim of the study was to investigate the clinical significance of Ly-1 antibody reactive clone (LYAR) in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). MATERIAL AND METHODS: The expressions of LYAR at the protein level in representative paired NSCLC tumor tissues and adjacent non-tumor tissues were measured by Western blot and immunohistochemistry. Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate the survival curve of patients with NSCLC. Cell Counting Kit-8 assay and flow cytometry were used to estimate the cell proliferation and cell cycle, respectively. Terminal-deoxynucleotidyl-transferase-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay was performed to detect cell apoptosis. RESULTS: LYAR was dramatically overexpressed in NSCLC tissues which were closely related to the survival of patients with NSCLC. In clinical studies, the expression of LYAR was related to the clinical stage, histological differentiation, and Ki-67 expression. A positive correlation was found between LYAR and Ki-67 expression by Spearman's correlation test. After serum starvation for 72 h, serum re-addition significantly increased the expression of LYAR, PCNA, and Cyclin A and promoted the cell cycle progression. LYAR knockdown inhibited the proliferation and induced the G0/G1 cell cycle arrest and apoptosis of A549 cells. CONCLUSIONS: The present study revealed the clinical significance of LYAR in NSCLC. LYAR might serve as a tumor promoter in NSCLC progression by promoting the proliferation and inhibiting the apoptosis of NSCLC cells. Inhibiting the expression of LYAR was considered as a potential novel therapeutic strategy for NSCLC.

Fatal hemoptysis in patients with advanced esophageal cancer treated with apatinib.

Targeted therapy is commonly used for treating advanced malignant tumors. Compared with cytotoxic drugs, targeted drugs have the characteristics of good curative results, less adverse effects, and convenient oral administration. Hence, they are especially suitable for patients with cancer who are not able to tolerate chemotherapy. Anti-angiogenic therapy can achieve the objective by inhibiting the formation of new blood vessels in tumors. Apatinib is a novel tyrosine kinase inhibitor targeting the intracellular domain of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2. It has been proven to be effective and safe in treating patients with gastric carcinoma and gastroesophageal junction carcinoma. So far, no reports are available on the treatment of esophageal cancer with apatinib. Two patients with advanced esophageal cancer were treated with oral apatinib because of their poor physical condition. After treatment, the dyspnea symptoms disappeared and quality of life significantly improved. Chest computed tomography showed massive necrosis of tumor tissues in each patient. The tumors significantly reduced and a cavity was formed locally in each patient. However, both patients died of massive hemoptysis, probably due to the rupture of the bronchial artery eroded by tumors. The results indicated that apatinib was effective in treating some patients with advanced esophageal cancer, and adverse effects were controllable. However, doctors should choose appropriate candidates according to apatinib's indications. In addition, the use of apatinib should be carefully controlled for patients with esophageal cancer, especially in those with large vessels and trachea or bronchus eroded by tumor, so as to avoid or reduce the occurrence of fatal hemorrhage.

Inhibitory effect of dexamethasone on residual Lewis lung cancer cells in mice following palliative surgery.

Previous studies found that glucocorticoids were closely associated with the oncogenesis and development of numerous types of tumors. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of dexamethasone on the growth and angiogenesis of Lewis lung cancer cells in mice who received palliative surgery. Lewis lung carcinoma cells were inoculated subcutaneously into the right axilla of C57BL/6 mice. When tumor diameter reached 0.5 cm, 2 weeks later, palliative surgery was performed, and the mice were randomly divided into 3 groups with 6 animals in each group (control group, cisplatin group and dexamethasone group). From the first postoperative day, all the mice were administered with saline, cisplatin or dexamethasone for 10 days, and changes in xenograft tumor volumes were monitored. Cisplatin and dexamethasone were dissolved in normal saline (0.9%). All mice were sacrificed on postoperative day 11, and the whole body and the local tumors were weighed immediately. The expression levels of hypoxia inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), proliferating cell nuclear antigen and the microvessel density (MVD) in the tumor mass, were measured by immunohistochemistry, western blotting and quantitative polymerase chain reaction. In the present study, tumor growth was inhibited in the cisplatin group and dexamethasone group, and the weights of tumors were significantly decreased in the cisplatin group and dexamethasone group compared with the control group (P<0.001). The expression levels of HIF-1α and VEGF and the MVD were significantly lower in the cisplatin group and dexamethasone group than in the control group (P<0.01). In conclusion, dexamethasone can inhibit the growth and angiogenesis of residual Lewis lung carcinoma subsequent to palliative surgery partially through downregulation of HIF-1α and VEGF signaling pathways.

Expression and Clinicopathological Significance of Mel-18 and Bmi-1 in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

The Polycomb group genes are a general class of regulators that are responsible for maintaining homeotic gene expression throughout cell division. Polycomb group expression plays an important role in oncogenesis of several types of human cancer. Melanoma nuclear protein 18 and B-cell-specific Moloney leukemia virus insert site 1 are key Polycomb group proteins. Studies have shown that melanoma nuclear protein 18 is a potential tumor suppression, and B-cell-specific Moloney leukemia virus insert site 1 is overexpressed in several human malignancies. However, the roles of melanoma nuclear protein 18 and B-cell-specific Moloney leukemia virus insert site 1 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma are still unclear. In this study, we analyzed the expression levels of melanoma nuclear protein 18 and B-cell-specific Moloney leukemia virus insert site 1 in 89 esophageal cancer tissues and paired normal mucosal tissues using immunohistochemistry, Western blotting, and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analyses. We found that the expression of melanoma nuclear protein 18 in the carcinoma tissues was significantly lower than that in the noncancerous mucosal tissues (P < .05), and B-cell-specific Moloney leukemia virus insert site 1 expression in the carcinoma tissues was significantly higher than that in the noncancerous mucosal tissues (P < .05). In addition, the expression of melanoma nuclear protein 18 was correlated with clinical stage, depth of invasion, and lymph node metastasis (P < .05) but was not correlated with gender, age, degree of differentiation, or disease-free survival (P > .05). B-cell-specific Moloney leukemia virus insert site 1 expression was strongly correlated with the degree of differentiation, clinical stage, and lymph node metastasis (P <.05) but was not correlated with the gender, age, depth of invasion or disease-free survival (P > .05). Moreover, there was a negative correlation between melanoma nuclear protein 18 and B-cell-specific Moloney leukemia virus insert site 1 expressions in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (P < .05). Our study suggests that melanoma nuclear protein 18 and B-cell-specific Moloney leukemia virus insert site 1 may play a crucial role in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Melanoma nuclear protein 18 or B-cell-specific Moloney leukemia virus insert site 1 may be a potential biomarker for diagnosis and prognosis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

B-cell specific Moloney leukemia virus insert site 1 and peptidyl arginine deiminase IV positively regulate carcinogenesis and progression of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

High expression of B-cell specific Moloney leukemia virus insert site 1 (Bmi-1) and peptidyl arginine deiminase IV (PADI4) is associated with esophageal carcinoma. However, few studies have investigated the association between the Bmi-1 and PADI4 genes. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the expression of Bmi-1 and PADI4 and identify the association between the Bmi-1 and PADI4 genes in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) tissues. Bmi-1 and PADI4 gene expression levels were measured using immunohistochemistry, western blotting and reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction in ESCC tissues from 86 patients who had not received pre-operative chemoradiation. The results revealed that the Bmi-1 and PADI4 genes had increased expression in carcinoma tissues compared with pericarcinous tissue (P<0.05). Bmi-1 gene expression was revealed to be associated with differentiation degree, clinical stage and lymph node metastasis (P<0.05), but had no association with gender, age or depth of invasion (P>0.05). The expression of PADI4 was associated with clinical stage, depth of invasion and lymph node metastasis (P<0.05), but was not associated with gender, age or differentiation degree (P>0.05). In addition, there was a positive association between Bmi-1 and PADI4 gene expression in ESCC (P<0.05). These results indicated that Bmi-1 and PADI4 positively regulate carcinogenesis and progression of ESCC.

GATA3-induced vWF upregulation in the lung adenocarcinoma vasculature.

Lung adenocarcinoma (LAC) is the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Aberrant expression of genes expressed preferentially in the lung tumor vasculature may yield clues for prognosis and treatment. Von Willebrand factor (vWF) is a large multifunctional glycoprotein with a well-known function in hemostasis. However, vWF has been reported to exert an anti-tumor effect, independent of its role in hemostasis. We investigated the expression of vWF in LAC through immunohistochemical staining of tumor tissue microarrays (TMAs). We found that vWF was overexpressed preferentially in the tumor vasculature of LAC compared with the adjacent tissue vasculature. Consistently, elevated vWF expression was found in endothelial cells (ECs) of fresh human LAC tissues and transplanted mouse LAC tissues. To understand the mechanism underlying vWF up-regulation in LAC vessels, we established a co-culture system. In this system, conditioned media (CM) collected from A549 cells increased vWF expression in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), suggesting enhanced expression is regulated by the LAC secretome. Subsequent studies revealed that the transcription factor GATA3, but not ERG, a known regulator of vWF transcription in vascular cells, mediated the vWF elevation. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays validated that GATA3 binds directly to the +220 GATA binding motif on the human vWF promoter and A549 conditioned media significantly increases the binding of GATA3. Taken together, we demonstrate that vWF expression in ECs of LAC is elevated by the cancer cell-derived secretome through enhanced GATA3-mediated transcription.

Lipoma-Like Bronchogenic Cyst in the Right Chest Sidewall: A Case Report and Literature Review.

Bronchogenic cyst most commonly occurs in the mediastinum, followed by the lung. We admitted a 59-year female patient with bronchogenic cyst being uniquely located on the right chest wall of the parietal pleura. Preoperative CT scan showed a local low-density lesion on the right chest wall. The lesion was removed by the thoracoscopic surgery. During the surgical resection, the lesion was observed to be located on the right chest wall. The lesion was surrounded by adipose tissue and covered with entire parietal pleura, which looks like lipoma. Pathological examination demonstrated that the lesion was bronchogenic cyst. In addition, previously reported cases of bronchogenic cyst were reviewed, and the relevant clinical knowledge was discussed.

Clinical Application of Recombinant Human Endostatin in Postoperative Early Complementary Therapy on Patients with Non-small Cell Lung Cancer in Chinese Mainland.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the clinical application of recombinant human endostatin (Endostar) in the treatment of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in Chinese mainland. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 75 patients diagnosed as NSCLC were randomly divided into control group (37 cases) and treatment group (38 cases). Control group was treated with postoperative complementary chemotherapy containing two-agent platinum protocol on postoperative d21, 3 weeks as a cycle, for totally 4~6 cycles. On this basis, treatment group was added with Endostar 7.5 mg/m2 on postoperative d8~9, 3~4 h/time, qd, 14 weeks as a cycle, for totally 4 cycles. The interval between every two cycles was 7 d. The 5-year progression-free survival (PFS), 5-year survival time and complications in both groups were observed. RESULTS: Compared with control group, the average PFS increased evidently in treatment group by 9.8 months (41.6 months vs. 31.8 months), and there was significant difference (P<0.05). And the median PFS was 42.5 months in treatment group, obviously longer than that in control group (33.7 months) by 8.8 months (P<0.05). Additionally, the 5-year overall survival rate (OS), average survival time and median survival time (MST) were 47.4%, 50.1 months and 59.3 months in treatment group, significantly higher than the 29.7%, 42.1 months and 43.5 months in control group (P<0.05). Only 1 patient showed poor healing of surgical wound in treatment group, but no surgery-associated complication was found in control group. Moreover, the postoperative complementary therapy-connected complication rates were 63.2% (24/38) and 59.5% (22/37) in treatment group and control group respectively, but there was no significant difference (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The application of Endostar combined with sensitive platinum-contained chemotherapeutic agents in the postoperative complementary chemotherapy can be widely used in clinic because it can significantly prolong the long-term survival time of patients with NSCLC.

Definitive chemoradiotherapy with capecitabine and cisplatin for elder patients with locally advanced squamous cell esophageal cancer.

PURPOSE: The aim of this retrospective study is to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) or sequential chemoradiotherapy (SCRT) with capecitabine and cisplatin for elderly patients with locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). METHODS: A total of 75 patients elder than 65 years with histologically proven stage II-III ESCC were enrolled, in whom 40 patients were treated with CCRT consisted of two cycles of intravenous cisplatin and oral capecitabine during and after radiotherapy and 35 patients were treated with SCRT as two cycles of capecitabine plus cisplatin before and after radiotherapy. Response rate, overall survival, progression-free survival and toxicity were compared. RESULTS: The overall response rate (CR + PR) in the CCRT group (91.6 %) was significantly higher than that in the SCRT group (67.7 %), P = 0.023. The median PFS and median OS were significantly higher in CCRT group (19.7 and 33.6 months) than those in SCRT group (11.6 and 15.7 months), P < 0.05. The acute toxic effect was more severe in the CCRT group than in the SCRT group, but the grade 3-4 acute toxicities were similar in two groups. CONCLUSIONS: It suggested that both CCRT and SCRT with capecitabine and cisplatin are tolerable and effective for elderly patients with locally advanced ESCC. Concurrent CRT might be superior to SCRT.

Transgenerational inheritance of modified DNA methylation patterns and enhanced tolerance induced by heavy metal stress in rice (Oryza sativa L.).

BACKGROUND: DNA methylation is sensitive and responsive to stressful environmental conditions. Nonetheless, the extent to which condition-induced somatic methylation modifications can impose transgenerational effects remains to be fully understood. Even less is known about the biological relevance of the induced epigenetic changes for potentially altered well-being of the organismal progenies regarding adaptation to the specific condition their progenitors experienced. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We analyzed DNA methylation pattern by gel-blotting at genomic loci representing transposable elements and protein-coding genes in leaf-tissue of heavy metal-treated rice (Oryza sativa) plants (S0), and its three successive organismal generations. We assessed expression of putative genes involved in establishing and/or maintaining DNA methylation patterns by reverse transcription (RT)-PCR. We measured growth of the stressed plants and their unstressed progenies vs. the control plants. We found (1) relative to control, DNA methylation patterns were modified in leaf-tissue of the immediately treated plants, and the modifications were exclusively confined to CHG hypomethylation; (2) the CHG-demethylated states were heritable via both maternal and paternal germline, albeit often accompanying further hypomethylation; (3) altered expression of genes encoding for DNA methyltransferases, DNA glycosylase and SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling factor (DDM1) were induced by the stress; (4) progenies of the stressed plants exhibited enhanced tolerance to the same stress their progenitor experienced, and this transgenerational inheritance of the effect of condition accompanying heritability of modified methylation patterns. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our findings suggest that stressful environmental condition can produce transgenerational epigenetic modifications. Progenies of stressed plants may develop enhanced adaptability to the condition, and this acquired trait is inheritable and accord with transmission of the epigenetic modifications. We suggest that environmental induction of heritable modifications in DNA methylation provides a plausible molecular underpinning for the still contentious paradigm of inheritance of acquired traits originally put forward by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck more than 200 years ago.