Metabolomic and transcriptomic profiling of three types of litchi pericarps reveals that changes in the hormone balance constitute the molecular basis of the fruit cracking susceptibility of Litchi chinensis cv. Baitangying.

Many Litchi chinensis cv. Baitangying orchards are suffering from a serious fruit cracking problem, but few studies have improved our understanding of the mechanism or the molecular basis of cracking susceptibility in 'Baitangying'. We conducted metabolome and transcriptome analyses of three types of litchi pericarps. To prevent passive progression after fruit cracking from affecting the results, we mainly focused on 11 metabolites and 101 genes that showed the same regulatory status and overlap in pairwise comparisons of cracking 'Baitangying' versus noncracking 'Baitangying' and noncracking 'Baitangying' versus noncracking 'Feizixiao'. Compared with the cracking-resistant cultivar 'Feizixiao', the 'Baitangying' pericarp has higher abscisic acid contents, and the presence of relevant metabolites and genes suggests increased biosynthesis of ethylene and jasmonic acid and decreased auxin and brassinosteroid biosynthesis. The fruit cracking-susceptible trait in 'Baitangying' might be associated with differences in the balance of these five types of hormones between the pericarp of this cultivar and that of 'Feizixiao'. Additionally, combined analyses showed a correspondence between the metabolite profiles and transcript patterns. qRT-PCR validation indicated the reliability of our high-throughput results. The acquired information might help in further studying the mechanisms that mediate fruit cracking susceptibility in 'Baitangying' and other litchi cultivars.

The MEDEA FAR-EAST Study: Conceptual framework, methods and first findings of a multicenter cross-sectional observational study.

BACKGROUND: The substantial increase in cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in China over the last three decades warrants comprehensive preventive primary and secondary strategies. Prolonged prehospital delay (PHD) has been identified as a substantial barrier to timely therapeutic interventions for acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Despite worldwide efforts to decrease the patient's decision-making time, minimal change has been achieved so far. Here, we aim to describe the conceptual framework and methods and outline key data of the MEDEA FAR-EAST Study, which aimed to elucidate in-depth barriers contributing to delay in Chinese AMI-patients. METHODS: Data sources of this multicenter cross-sectional observational study are a standardized bedside interview, a self-administered tailored questionnaire tool and the patient chart. PHD was defined as the main outcome and triangulated at bedside. Standard operation procedures ensured uniform data collection by trained study personnel. The study was ethically approved by Tongji-Hospital and applied to all participating hospitals. RESULTS: Among 379 consecutively screened patients, 296 (78.1%) fulfilled eligibility criteria. A total of 241 (81.4%) AMI-patients were male and 55 (18.6%) female. Mean age was 62.9 years. Prehospital delay time was assessed for 294 (99.3%) patients. Overall median PHD was 151 min with no significant sex difference. Symptom mismatch was present in 200 (69.7%) patients and 106 (39.0%) patients did not attribute their symptoms to cardiac origin. A total of 33 (12.4%) patients suffered from depression, 31 (11.7%) from anxiety and 141 (53.2%) patients employed denial as their major coping style. CONCLUSION: This is the first study on prehospital delay with emphasis on psychological variables in Chinese AMI-patients. A comprehensive assessment tool to measure clinical and psychological factors was successfully implemented. Socio-demographic key data proved a good fit into preexisting Chinese literature. Potential barriers including cardiac denial and symptom-mismatch were assessed for the first time in Chinese AMI-patients. The pretested selection of instruments allows future in depth investigations into barriers to delay of Chinese AMI-patients and enables inter-cultural comparisons.

Statin Function as an Anti-inflammation Therapy for Depression in Patients With Coronary Artery Disease by Downregulating Interleukin-1ß.

It is well known that inflammation contributes to the development of coronary artery disease (CAD) and depressive symptoms. Previous studies have shown that long-term application of statin reduces the occurrence of depression in patients with CAD. However, the mechanism remains unclear. We hypothesized that inflammation contributes to depression in patients with CAD and statin function as an anti-inflammation therapy for those depressive patients. Patients with confirmed CAD hospitalized in the Department of Cardiology of Tongji Hospital in Shanghai, China, were enrolled. Depression was identified as none (ND), mild (MiD), moderate (MoD), or severe (SD) on the basis of scores of the patient health questionnaire with 9 items. Inflammatory factors in peripheral blood were measured using a chemiluminescence immunoassay and Bio-plex. Luciferase expression level was detected using the Dual-Luciferase Reporter Assay System for IL-1ß or NF-κB expression by transfection in human umbilical vein endothelial cells, and patient serum was added. Data obtained from 217 patients with CAD were analyzed. The IL-1ß level of CAD with SD was 14.70, which was significantly higher than that of CAD with ND 7.52, MiD 7.73, or MoD 8.63. Luciferase reporter gene analysis showed that IL-1ß or NF-κB expression level was upregulated by the serum of CAD and depression patients. After the addition of atorvastatin, IL-1ß or NF-κB luciferase reporter expression level decreased. It suggested that depression in patients with CAD is associated with inflammation. Statin may function as an anti-inflammation therapy for depression in patients with CAD by downregulation of IL-1ß.

Investigation on Imbibition Mechanism of Tight Core Based on NMR Test.

Seepage is important to improve the postpressure production enhancement effect of tight oil and gas reservoirs. To study the microscopic percolation law of different pores, this paper first characterizes the pore structure of tight cores. High-pressure spontaneous percolation experiments and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) tests were combined. The T 2 spectra at different times of percolation were used. The percolation law of different pore types was quantitatively characterized from a microscopic perspective. The effect of different interfacial tensions on the percolation was clarified. Results show that the pore size has a good match with the NMR T 2 relaxation time. The core pore development is dominated by submicrometer pores, which account for more than 70%. The percolation rate is fast at the beginning and then decreases and stabilizes at 48 h. The pore size of the submicropore is small, the capillary force is large, and the recovery rate of percolation is high, followed by those of the micropore and the medium-pore. The higher the porosity and permeability of the core, the greater the overall seepage recovery rate. The sensitivity of submicrometer pores to interfacial tension is great, and the recovery rate increases by 40.9% when the interfacial tension decreases from 17.1 to 1.46 mN/m. Furthermore, as the interfacial tension decreases, the recovery rate of different pores appears to increase first and then decrease. The surfactant formulation must be selected reasonably in practical production.

Effect of Guanxin Danshen Dripping Pills on Coronary Heart Disease Comorbid with Depression or Anxiety: The ADECODE-Real World Study.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of Guanxin Danshen Dripping Pill (GXDSDP) in treating anxiety and depression in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). METHODS: A total of 1,428 patients diagnosed with CHD screened for anxiety, depression, and quality of life (QOL) at baseline received 0.4 g of GXDSDP treatment 3 times per day and returned for monthly reassessment. Patients were recruited after stable treatment for CHD and received assessment of General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ) for evaluating anxiety, depression, and QOL. Patients were followed up 3 times, once every 4 weeks, during outpatient visits for 12 weeks. RESULTS: At the third follow-up (F3), the anxiety symptom of 63.79% (673/1,055) of the patients improved to sub-clinical level, and the GAD-7 score improved significantly (8.11 vs. 3.87, P<0.01); 57.52% (585/1,017) patients' depressive symptoms improved to sub-clinical level, with a significant improvement in PHQ-9 score (8.69 vs. 4.41, P<0.01) at F3. All aspects of QOL significantly improved at the end of treatment compared to those at baseline (all P<0.01) as assessed by SAQ: physical limitation (31.17 vs. 34.14), anginal stability (2.74 vs. 4.14), anginal frequency (8.16 vs. 9.10), treatment satisfaction (13.43 vs. 16.29), and disease perception (8.69 vs. 11.02). CONCLUSIONS: A fixed dosage of GXDSDP may be a potential treatment option for CHD patients comorbid with anxiety or depression. (Registration No. ChiCTR2100051523).

Learning-Based Inverse Bi-Scale Material Fitting From Tabular BRDFs.

Relating small-scale structures to large-scale appearance is a key element in material appearance design. Bi-scale material design requires finding small-scale structures - meso-scale geometry and micro-scale BRDFs - that produce a desired large-scale appearance expressed as a macro-scale BRDF. The adjustment of small-scale geometry and reflectances to achieve a desired appearance can become a tedious trial-and-error process. We present a learning-based solution to fit a target macro-scale BRDF with a combination of a meso-scale geometry and micro-scale BRDF. We confront challenges in representation at both scales. At the large scale we need macro-scale BRDFs that are both compact and expressive. At the small scale we need diverse combinations of geometric patterns and potentially spatially varying micro-BRDFs. For large-scale macro-BRDFs, we propose a novel 2D subset of a tabular BRDF representation that well preserves important appearance features for learning. For small-scale details, we represent geometries and BRDFs in different categories with different physical parameters to define multiple independent continuous search spaces. To build the mapping between large-scale macro-BRDFs and small-scale details, we propose an end-to-end model that takes the subset BRDF as input and performs classification and parameter estimation on small-scale details to find an accurate reconstruction. Compared with other fitting methods, our learning-based solution provides higher reconstruction accuracy and covers a wider gamut of appearance.

Downregulation of interleukin-1 beta via Jmjd3 inhibition improves post-myocardial infarction depression.

Background: Patients with myocardial infarction (MI) comorbid with the depressive disorder may have increased serum cytokine concentrations, notably, of interleukin-1 beta (IL-1ß). The histone H3 lysine-27 (H3K27) demethylase Jmjd3 is crucial in cytokine regulation, and administering an H3K27 demethylase-selective inhibitor (GSK J4) might ameliorate inflammatory symptoms. We hypothesized that Jmjd3 might regulate IL-1ß concentrations, thus affecting the development of post-MI depression (PMD). In this study, a mouse model was created to examine the connection between IL-1ß and PMD and determine the regulatory function of cytokine in controlling inflammation and depressive symptoms. Methods: MI was induced in 30 5-week-old male C57BL/6N mice via a left coronary ligation, and MI onset was confirmed by electrocardiogram (ECG). After treatment with dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) or GSK J4 for 14 days, the mice were subjected to tail-suspension tests (TSTs) and forced swimming tests (FSTs) before being sacrificed for tissue harvest. Results: In the TSTs, the GSK J4-treated MI mice displayed a significantly shorter immobility time than did the DMSO-treated MI mice (P<0.001). In the FSTs, the DMSO-treated MI mice showed a significantly longer immobility time than did the DMSO-treated sham-operated mice (P<0.001). The GSK J4-treated MI mice had a significantly reduced immobility time compared to the DMSO-treated MI mice (P<0.001). IL-1ß expression in the myocardium, hippocampus, prefrontal cortex (PFC), and hypothalamus increased after MI onset (P=0.003, 0.015, 0.0003, and 0.013, respectively) but decreased after treatment with GSK J4 (P<0.001, P=0.005, P<0.001, P=0.018, respectively). In the myocardium and hypothalamus, Jmjd3 expression levels were lower in mice that received GSK J4 treatment than in those that received DMSO treatment (P<0.05). Conclusions: GSK J4 inhibited the cardiac expression of IL-1ß and Jmjd3, and alleviated PMD in MI mice. Therefore, IL-1ß and Jmjd3 may be critical in the pathogenesis of PMD, and Jmjd3 may potentially serve as a target for PMD treatment.

[Taxonomic status of Anopheles yatsushiroensis in Rongcheng City of Shandong Province].

OBJECTIVE: To clarify the taxonomic status of Anopheles yatsushiroensis in Rongcheng City of Shandong Province. METHODS: By the end of August 2009, Anopheles yatsushiroensis were collected in the western suburbs of Wangjia Village of Rongcheng City, and raised for the next generation of various types of adult mosquitoes. Through morphological identification of filial generation various types, mosquito feet of 1-2 mosquitoes of various types were taken for complete DNA extraction, and complete sequence analysis of rDNA-ITS2 alignment was made by PCR. Multiple sequnence comparison was carried out with those previously documented by DNAstar7.1, including An. yatsushiroensis in Shandong Province (YSD, AY306128), An. yatsushiroensis in Sichuan Province (YSC, AY170925), An. yatsushiroensis in Liaoning Province (YLN, AY170923) and An. yatsushiroensis from South Korea (YK, AF146749). RESULTS: 56 An. yatsushiroensis with blood meal were collected in Rongcheng City, of which 7 successfully laid eggs, and received 354 adult mosquitoes of filiar generation, including 240 An. yatsushiroensis (Y type), 8 An. pullus (P type) and 106 hybrid type (H). The rDNA-ITS2 sequence alignment homology between single-parent female offspring of adult mosquitoes and various types of An. yatsushiroensis segments (JN865249, JN865246, JN865247, JN865248) was 98.7-100%, and the rDNA-ITS2 sequence alignment homology to those from Sichuan (YSC), Liaoning (YLN) and Korea (YK) was 98.5%-99.3%, 98.7%-99.6% and 98.7 to 100%, respectively, while to the original An. yatsushiroensis from Rongcheng (YSD), it was only 67.1%-68.5%. CONCLUSION: There are Y, P and H types of An. yatsushiroensis in Rongcheng City, Shandong Province, but the rDNA-ITS2 sequence is close to An. pullus. The local distribution of An. pullus is deduced.

Long-term fertilization affects functional soil organic carbon protection mechanisms in a profile of Chinese loess plateau soil.

Crop productivity and soil health are limited by organic carbon (OC), however, the variations in the mechanisms of SOC preservation in a complete soil profile subjected to long-term fertilization remains unclear. The objective of the study was to examined the content and profile distribution of the distinctive SOC protection mechanisms on a complete profile (0-100 cm) of Eumorthic Anthrosols in Northwest China after 23 years of chemical and manure fertilization. The soil was fractionated by combined physical-chemical and density floatation techniques. Throughout the profile, significant variations were observed among fractions. In the topsoil (0-20 and 20-40 cm), mineral coupling with the fertilization of manure (MNPK) enhanced total SOC content and recorded for 29% of SOC in the 0-20 and 20-40 cm layers. Moreover, MNPK increased the SOC content of the unprotected cPOC fraction by 60.9% and 61.5% in the 0-20 and 20-40 cm layer, while SOC content was low in the subsoil layers (40-60, 60-80 and 80-100 cm, respectively) compared with the control (C). The highest OC under MNPK in physically protected micro-aggregates (µagg) (6.36 and 6.06 g C kg-1), and occluded particulate organic carbon (iPOC) (1.41 and 1.29 g C kg-1) was found in the topsoil layers. The unprotected cPOC fraction was the greatest C accumulating fraction in the topsoil layers, followed by µagg and H-µSilt fractions in the soil profile, implying that these fractions were the most sensitive to the fertilization treatments. Overall, the unprotected, physically protected, and physico-chemically protected fractions were the dominant fractions for the sequestration of carbon across fertilization treatments and soil layers.

Sensitization of avian pathogenic Escherichia coli to amoxicillin in vitro and in vivo in the presence of surfactin.

The purpose of this study is to assess the antibiotics adjuvant effect of surfactin for boosting the treatment effect of amoxicillin. Surfactin is used as a surfactant to mediate flux of mono-and divalent cations, such as calcium, across lipid bilayer membranes. In this study, we demonstrated that surfactin can increase the activity of amoxicillin against avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) in vitro with antimicrobial assays such as minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) and fractional inhibitory concentration (FIC). Additionally in the model of chick infection, surfactin exerted adjuvant effects with amoxicillin against APEC by lowering the numerical value of mortality and liver bacterial loads, and regulating the expression of inflammatory cytokines et al. We concluded that surfactin can act as a novel antimicrobial adjuvant with amoxicillin against AEPC infection in chicken.

Experimental measurements of leaf carbon isotope discrimination and gas exchange in the progenies of Plantago depressa and Setaria viridis collected from a wide altitudinal range.

Significant correlations between leaf carbon isotope discrimination (Delta) and altitude and between gas exchange and altitude have been reported in previous studies, raising the question of whether the altitudinal variations in discrimination and gas exchange can be attributed to genetic differences among populations from different altitudes. Studies that focus on in situ analysis cannot distinguish the effects of genetic variation from environmental variation. This article describes an experiment in which seeds of Plantago depressa (C3 species) and Setaria viridis (C4 species) collected from a wide altitudinal range were grown in the same environment. Carbon isotopic ratios (delta(13)C) and gas exchange of the seedlings were measured. The progenies of P. depressa and S. viridis no longer display any significant Delta decreases with the altitude of origin as seen in situ. Furthermore, photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, the ratio of intercellular to ambient CO(2) and intrinsic water use efficiency for P. depressa and S. viridis grown in the greenhouse are also not significantly related to the altitude of origin. The observations suggest that altitudinal variations in Delta and gas exchange are not because of genotypic differences, independent of photosynthetic type.

Local Nogo-66 administration reduces neuropathic pain after sciatic nerve transection in rat.

Neuropathic pain after periphery nerve injury is frequently accompanied by the regeneration of the injured nerve fibers. We tested in this study whether local administration of Nogo-66, a well-studied axon growth inhibiting peptide in the central nerve system, could reduce the pain related behavior after sciatic nerve transection in rat. Nogo-66 peptide was purified as a GST fusion protein. Its inhibitory function was testified by neurite outgrowth assay of primary cultured neurons, and then it was given directly at the lesion site by a minipump for 2 weeks. Mechanical nociceptive withdrawal responses and heat hyperalgesia responses were assessed during a 4-week period, and autotomy was evaluated during a 6-week period. The results showed that the mechanical allodynia and heat hyperalgesia scores of the rats treated with GST-Nogo-66 were significantly higher than the controls between 7 and 14 days after sciatic nerve transection. The autotomy scores in the GST-Nogo-66 group were significantly lower than the controls from 28 days after surgery. Taken together, the results of our present study suggest that Nogo-66 may be utilized to decrease the neuropathic pain after periphery nerve injury.

Altitudinal variation in leaf nitrogen concentration on the eastern slope of Mount Gongga on the Tibetan Plateau, China.

Mount Gongga spans 6500 m in elevation and has intact and continuous vertical vegetation belts, ranging from subtropical evergreen broad-leaved vegetation to an alpine frigid sparse grass and desert zone. Investigating the altitudinal trends in leaf nitrogen (N) on Mount Gongga can increase our understanding of the global biogeography of foliar N. In this study, 460 leaf samples from mosses, ferns, and seed plants were collected along an altitudinal gradient on the eastern slope of Mount Gongga, and the variation in leaf N concentration (mass basis) with elevation was analyzed. There are considerable differences in leaf N between mosses and ferns, mosses and seed plants, C(4) and C(3) plants, and evergreen and deciduous woody plants. The general altitudial pattern of leaf N in Mount Gongga plants was that leaf N kept increasing until an elevation of about 2200 m above sea level, with a corresponding mean annual temperature (MAT) of 8.5°C, and then decreased with increasing elevation. However, the evergreen woody plants displayed a decline trend in leaf N across the altitude gradient. Our findings provide an insight into the altitudinal variation in leaf N.