[Identification, biological characteristics, and control of pathogen causing Pinellia ternata soft rot in Hubei province].

This study was designed to identify the pathogen causing soft rot of Pinellia ternata in Qianjiang of Hubei province and screen out the effective bactericides, so as to provide a theoretical basis for the control of soft rot of P. ternata. In this study, the pathogen was identified based on molecular biology and physiological biochemistry, followed by the detection of pathogenicity and pathogenicity spectrum via plant tissue inoculation in vitro and the indoor toxicity determination using the inhibition zone method to screen out bactericide with good antibacterial effects. The control effect of the bactericide against P. ternata soft rot was verified by the leave and tuber inoculation in vitro. The phylogenetic tree was constructed based on the 16 S rDNA, dnaX gene, and recA gene sequences, respectively, and the result showed that the pathogen belonged to the same branch as the type strain Dickeya fangzhongdai JS5. The physiological and biochemical tests showed that the pathogen was identical to D. fangzhongdai, which proved that the pathogen was D. fangzhongdai. The pathogenicity test indicated that the pathogen could obviously infect leaves at 24 h and tubers in 3 d. As revealed by the indoor toxicity test, 0.3% tetramycin, 5% allicin, and 80% ethylicin had good antibacterial activities, with EC_(50) values all less than 50 mg·L~(-1). Tests in tissues in vitro showed that 5% allicin exhibited the best control effect, followed by 0.3% tetramycin and 10% zhongshengmycin oligosaccharide, and their preventive effects were better than curative effects. Therefore, 5% allicin can be used as the preferred agent for the control of P. ternata soft rot, and 0.3% tetramycin and 10% zhongshengmycin oligosaccharide as the alternatives. This study has provided a certain theoretical basis for the control of P. ternata soft rot.

[Isolation and identification of pathogen of Dendrobium officinale gray mold and its prevention and control].

Through investigation,it was found that the main disease of leaves was grey mold on Dendrobium officinale in Hubei province,which has a great impact on the yield and quality of D. officinale. The identification of morphological and molecular biological was used to prove that the pathogen was Botrytis cinerea. Through test the effect of 5 plant source fungicides and 4 antibiotic fungicides on mycelial growth of strain HS1,which proved 0. 3% eugenol had the best inhibitory effect,EC50 was 0. 29 mg·L-1,the second was1% osthol and EC50 was 1. 12 mg·L-1,the EC50 of 0. 5% matrine was 9. 16 mg·L-1,the EC50 of the other six fungicides was higher than 10 mg·L-1. The field control effect test proved that 0. 3% eugenol had the best control effect,reaching 89. 44%,secondly for 1%osthole,which was 77. 17%,0. 5% matrine was in the third place with 62. 37% of effective rate. However,the control effect of the other fungicides was less than 60%. The three plant-derived fungicides were safe for the produce of D. officinale and showed no phytotoxicity. The effect of these fungicides on the growth of D. candidum was tested,and proved that all the fungicides were safe and harmless to D. candidum. This study provides a research basis for the safe and effective prevention and control gray mold of D. officinale.

Smartphone-Based Microfluidic Colorimetric Sensor for Gaseous Formaldehyde Determination with High Sensitivity and Selectivity.

Formaldehyde is one of the most dangerous air pollutants, which can cause sick building syndrome. Thus, it is very crucial to precisely determine formaldehyde with a low cost and simple operation. In this paper, a smartphone-based microfluidic colorimetric sensor is devised for gaseous formaldehyde determination with high sensitivity and selectivity. Specifically, a novel microfluidic chip is proposed based on the 4-aminohydrazine-5-mercapto-1,2,4-triazole (AHMT) method to determine formaldehyde; the chip consists of two reagent reservoirs, one reaction reservoir and a mixing column. In this design to prevent the fluid from flowing out while letting the gas molecule in, a hydrophobic porous poly tetra fluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane is put on the top of the reaction reservoir. Using the microfluidic chip sensor, a smartphone-based formaldehyde determination system is developed, which makes the measuring process automated and simple. As per the experiment results, the limit-of-detection (LOD) of the system is as low as 0.01 ppm, which is much lower than the maximum exposure concentration (0.08 ppm) recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Moreover, the sensor is hardly affected by acetaldehyde, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or acidic-alkaline, which shows great selectivity. Finally, the performance of the proposed sensor is verified by using it for the determination of formaldehyde in a newly decorated house.

[Identification of endophytic bacteria BZJN1 and research on biological control of root rot of Atractylodes macrocephala].

In this study， an endophytic bacteria strain BZJN1 was isolated from Atractylodes macrocephala， and identified as Bacillus subtilis by physiological and biochemical tests and molecular identification. Strain BZJN1 could inhibit the growth of mycelia of Ceratobasidium sp. significantly， and the inhibition rate was more than 70%. The mycelium growth deformity with bulge as spherical and partially exhaustible in apex or central with microscopic observation. The inhibitory rates under 3% and 6% concentrations of the cell free fermentation were 22.7% and 38.7% expectively. The field test proved that the control efficacy of treatment of 1×108 cfu·mL⁻¹ is 75.27% and 72.37% after 10 and 20 days. All the treatments of strain BZJN1 was able to promote the growth of A. macrocephala， the treatment of 1×108 cfu·mL⁻¹ could able to increase the yield to 14.1%.

[Study on Dry Matter Accumulation and Nutrient Uptake of Shiyao Angelica sinensis].

OBJECTIVE: To study the dry matter accumulation and nutrient uptake of Shiyao Angelica sinensis, in order to provide theoretical basis for reasonable fertilization. METHODS: The aerial part(stems and leaves) and root were collected in different growth periods, and the fresh weight, dry weight and contents of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium were measured. RESULTS: The dry matter accumulation and nutrient uptake were well fitted a Logistic equation with the increase of the number of days after sowing. In the early stage of Shiyao Angelica sinensis growth, the dry matter accumulation and nutrient uptake were very slow. Beginning in late July, the dry matter accumulation and nutrient uptake of stems and leaves sped up. Starting from the occurrence peak in August, the roots of nutrient uptake sped up. In late September, the dry matter accumulation of root reached a peak. In early October, the dry matter accumulation and nutrient uptake slowed down significantly. The middle of October was the harvest time. CONCLUSION: Some phosphorus should be applied as base fertilizer in the plantation of Shiyao Angelica sinensis, and nitrogen should be applied as top fertilizer in different growth periods.

Antidepressant activity of astilbin: involvement of monoaminergic neurotransmitters and BDNF signal pathway.

Depression and related mood disorders are among the world's greatest public health problems. Previous studies have demonstrated that astilbin (AST) has broad pharmacological functions which may modulate numerous pathways, such as antioxidant, scavenging free radicals, anti-inflammatory and so on, similarly to some of other flavonoids. In this study, the antidepressant-like effect of AST was investigated using chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) model of depression in mice. The results showed that chronic administration of AST at doses of 10, 20 and 40 mg/kg (intraperitoneally (i.p.), 21 d) reduced depressive-like behaviors of mice in the forced swim test (FST), tail suspension test (TST) and sucrose preference test (SPT) without affecting locomotor activity. AST increased the contents of serotonin (5-HT) and dopamine (DA) in the frontal cortex of CUMS mice. Additionally, it was shown that AST treatment restored the CUMS-induced inhibition of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) 1/2 and AKT phosphorylation in the frontal cortex, conformed to the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression. Our findings suggest that AST has antidepressant activities and the mechanisms, at least in part, relate to up-regulation of monoaminergic neurotransmitters (5-HT and DA) and activation of the BDNF signaling pathway.

Serratus Plane Block in Breast Cancer Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

The serratus plane block is a regional anesthesia technique awaiting efficacy and safety evaluation in breast cancer surgery, but evidence is unclear. This meta-analysis evaluates the analgesic effectiveness of serratus plane block vis-à-vis general anesthesia and paravertebral block for breast cancer surgery. We searched for randomized controlled trials in PubMed, the Cochrane Library, and Web of Science with no language limitation, comparing the serratus plane block with multimodal analgesia or the thoracic paravertebral block in breast cancer surgery. The Hartung-Knapp-Sidik-Jonkman method in combination with a random-effects model was used to pool data. We included 12 randomized controlled trials (799 patients). Compared with multimodal analgesia, pooled outcomes favored the use of serratus plane block for effectively alleviating acute postoperative pain severity at multiple time points. The serratus plane block also resulted in decreased postoperative analgesic consumption of 28.81mg (95% confidence interval [CI]: -51.20, -6.43), decreased intraoperative fentanyl consumption of -56.46 mg (95% CI: -79.61, -33.30), increased duration of postoperative anesthesia of 243.85 min (95% CI: 104.38, 383.31), and reduced postoperative nausea and vomiting with a log relative risk of -1.07 (95% CI: -1.90, -0.24). Compared with the thoracic paravertebral block, the serratus plane block was not statically worse for all of the outcomes assessed. No adverse effects were reported. The serratus plane block effectively alleviates acute postoperative pain, reduces the rate of postoperative nausea and vomiting, and improves perioperative anesthesia outcomes in breast cancer surgery, and it may represent an alternative to thoracic paravertebral block.

An Ultrahigh Linear Sensitive Temperature Sensor Based on PANI:Graphene and PDMS Hybrid with Negative Temperature Compensation.

The detection of human body temperature is one of the important indicators to reflect the physical condition. In order to accurately judge the state of the human body, a high-performance temperature sensor with fast response, high sensitivity, and good linearity characteristics is urgently needed. In this paper, the positive temperature characteristics of graphene-polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite with high sensitivity were studied. Besides, doping polyaniline (PANI) with special negative temperature characteristics as the temperature compensation of the composite finally creatively solved the problem of sensor nonlinearity from the material level. Thus, the PANI:graphene and PDMS hybrid temperature sensor with extraordinary linearity and high sensitivity is realized by establishing the space-gap model and mathematical theoretical analysis. The prepared sensor exhibits high sensitivity (1.60%/°C), linearity (R2 = 0.99), accuracy (0.3 °C), and time response (0.7 s) in the temperature sensing range of 25-40 °C. Based on this, the fabricated temperature sensor can combine with the read-out circuit and filter circuit with a high-precision analog digital converter (ADC) to monitor real-time skin temperature, ambient temperature, and respiratory rate, et al. This high-performance temperature sensor reveals its great potential in electronic skin, disease diagnosis, medical monitoring, and other fields.

Light-Controlled Reconfigurable Optical Synapse Based on Carbon Nanotubes/2D Perovskite Heterostructure for Image Recognition.

Two-dimensional (2D) halide perovskite material is characterized by a mixed conducting behavior that possesses both electronic and ionic conductivity. The study on the influence of the light on ion migration in the 2D perovskite is helpful to improve the performance of perovskite-based optoelectronic devices. Here, we constructed an exfoliated 2D perovskite/carbon nanotubes (CNTs) heterostructure optical synapse, in which CNTs can be used as nanoprobes to qualitatively observe the ion aggregation or dissipation process in 2D perovskite, and found that light significantly changes the memory curve of the reconfigurable optical synapses. Through the molecular dynamic simulation, the dynamic process of ion migration in the heterostructure was simulated and the electrostatic interaction effect of nonequilibrium charge distribution of CNTs on iodide ion was demonstrated. Finally, an effective light-controlled process was realized through the synapses, which in situ regulated the performance of the weight-value discretized BP (WD-BP) neural network. This work lays a foundation for the future development of intelligent nano-optoelectronic devices.

Strain-boosted hyperoxic graphene oxide efficiently loading and improving performances of microcystinase.

Harmful Microcystis blooms (HMBs) and microcystins (MCs) that are produced by Microcystis seriously threaten water ecosystems and human health. This study demonstrates an eco-friendly strategy for simultaneous removal of MCs and HMBs by adopting unique hyperoxic graphene oxides (HGOs) as carrier and pure microcystinase A (PMlrA) as connecting bridge to form stable HGOs@MlrA composite. After oxidation, HGOs yield inherent structural strain effects for boosting the immobilization of MlrA by material characterization and density functional theory calculations. HGO5 exhibits higher loading capacities for crude MlrA (1,559 mg·g-1) and pure MlrA (1,659 mg·g-1). Moreover, the performances of HGO5@MlrA composite, including the capability of removing MCs and HMBs, the ecological and human safety compared to MlrA or HGO5 treatment alone, have been studied. These results indicate that HGO5 can be used as a promising candidate material to effectively improve the application potential of MlrA in the simultaneous removal of MCs and HMBs.

[Expression of human testis development related gene 1 in testicular cancer detected by tissue microarray].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the protein expression of human testis development related gene 1 (TDRG1) in human testicular cancer and its pathological significance. METHODS: The expression levels of TDRG1 were detected in the testis tissues of testicular cancer patients and normal men by tissue microarray and immunohistochemistry, and the results were analyzed. RESULTS: Immunohistochemistry exhibited positive expression of the TDRG1 protein in the testis of 73.3% (11/15) of the normal men, 83.3% (10/12) of the patients with embryonal carcinoma, 80.0% (8/10) of those with yolk sac tumor, 26.9% (7/26) of those with seminoma, and 57.1% (4/7) of those with teratoma. The expression levels of TDRG1 in the testis tissues of the seminoma and teratoma groups were shown to be significantly lower than that of the normal control (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05), but those of the embryonal carcinoma and yolk sac tumor groups exhibited no significant differences from that of the latter (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: The significantly reduced expression of the TDRG1 protein in patients with seminoma or teratoma indicates that TDRG1 may be a candidate cancer suppressor gene.

Purification and characterization of a novel ribosome-inactivating protein from seeds of Trichosanthes kirilowii Maxim.

A novel ribosome-inactivating protein, designated Trichosanthrip, was purified from mature seeds of Trichosanthes kirilowii Maxim by cation-exchange and gel-filtration chromatography. Trichosanthrip migrated as a single band in SDS-PAGE, with an apparent molecular mass of approximately 13kDa. The molecular mass of Trichosanthrip was 10,964.617Da as determined by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Trichosanthrip showed N-glycosidase activity on 28 S rRNA and strongly inhibited cell-free protein synthesis, with an IC(50) of 1.6ng/ml. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry showed that Trichosanthrip was a novel protein with similar sequence to other proteins present in members of the Cucurbitaceae.