[Effects of long-term rainfall addition on the morphological characteristics and point pattern of desert plants]. / é•¿æœŸæ¨¡æ‹Ÿå¢žé›¨å¯¹è’æ¼ æ¤ç‰©å½¢æ€ç‰¹å¾åŠç©ºé—´åˆ†å¸ƒæ ¼å±€çš„å½±å“.

Studying the effects of rainfall change on morphological characteristics, spatial pattern and spatial correlation of desert dominant plants could help to predict the response of desert ecosystem to global climate change. We conducted a 10-year simulated rainfall addition experiment and examined the morphological characteristics, spatial pattern and spatial correlation of typical desert plant species, Nitraria tangutorum and Artemisia ordosica, under long-term simulated rainfall enhancement conditions in Ulanbuh desert, using Programita software, Ripley's K function, and Monte Carlo method. The results showed that there were significant differences in the number, height, average crown and base diameter of the desert plants under different treatments. The number, height, average crown and base diameter of N. tangutorum and A. ordosica were significantly larger than CK, all of which increased with the amount of rainfall. When the amount of rainfall addition was less than 72 mm, the branch of N. tangutorum showed cluster distribution. When it was larger than 72 mm, it showed a tendency to decrease the aggregation intensity with rainfall increasing. The spatial distribution of A. ordosica population was characterized by random distribution-cluster distribution-random distribution pattern with rainfall increasing. In terms of spatial association, branch of N. tangutorum and A. ordosica showed negative correlation under control, but no correlation or positive correlation with rainfall increasing. When the amount of rainfall increased to 144 mm, the spatial association between two species changed from negative to positive. Under the scenario of increasing rainfall, soil moisture was improved, which would lead to a positive correlation between species and be more conducive to the coexistence and growth of N. tangutorum and A. ordosica.

[Correlation study on chemical constitutes of cardiac glycosides in Taxillus chinensis and its Nerium indicum host by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS].

To build up an identification method on cardiac glycosides in Taxillus chinensis and its Nerium indicum host, and evaluate the influence on medicine quality from host to T. chinensis, ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole-time-of-flight tandem mass-mass spectrometry(UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS)was applied. The samples of T. chinensis(harvested from N. indicum)and its N. indicum host were collected in field. The samples of T. chinensis(harvested from Morus alba)and its M. alba host was taken as control substance. All samples were extracted by ultrasonic extraction in 70% ethanol. Chromatographic separation was performed on an ACQUITY UPLC HSS T3 C_(18)(2.1 mm×100 mm,1.8 µm)column at 40 ℃. Gradient elution was applied, and the mobile phase was consisted of 0.1% formic acid water and acetonitrile. The 0.5 µL of sample solution was injected and the flow rate of the mobile phase was kept at 0.6 mL·min~(-1) in each run. It was done to identify cardiac glycosides and explore the chemical composition correlation in T. chinensis and its N. indicum host by analyzing positive and negative ion mode mass spectrometry data, elemental composition, cardiac glycoside reference substance and searching related literatures. A total of 29 cardiac glycosides were identified, 28 of it belonged to N. indicum host, 5 belonged to T. chinensis(harvested from N. indicum host), none of cardiac glycoside was identified in T. chinensis(harvested from M. alba host). The result could provide a reference in evaluating the influence in T. chinensis medicine quality from host. It was rapid, accurate, and comprehensive to identify cardiac glycosides in T. chinensis and its N. indicum host by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS.

Involvement of thalamus in initiation of epileptic seizures induced by pilocarpine in mice.

Studies have suggested that thalamus is involved in temporal lobe epilepsy, but the role of thalamus is still unclear. We obtained local filed potentials (LFPs) and single-unit activities from CA1 of hippocampus and parafascicular nucleus of thalamus during the development of epileptic seizures induced by pilocarpine in mice. Two measures, redundancy and directionality index, were used to analyze the electrophysiological characters of neuronal activities and the information flow between thalamus and hippocampus. We found that LFPs became more regular during the seizure in both hippocampus and thalamus, and in some cases LFPs showed a transient disorder at seizure onset. The variation tendency of the peak values of cross-correlation function between neurons matched the variation tendency of the redundancy of LFPs. The information tended to flow from thalamus to hippocampus during seizure initiation period no matter what the information flow direction was before the seizure. In some cases the information flow was symmetrically bidirectional, but none was found in which the information flowed from hippocampus to thalamus during the seizure initiation period. In addition, inactivation of thalamus by tetrodotoxin (TTX) resulted in a suppression of seizures. These results suggest that thalamus may play an important role in the initiation of epileptic seizures.

[Effect of acupoint catgut embedding on height of adolescents with spleen qi deficiency].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of acupoint catgut embedding on height of adolescents with spleen qi deficiency. METHODS: Three hundred voluntary adolescents with spleen qi deficiency syndrome who want to increase height were stratified according to sex first, and then randomly divided into an observation group, a control group and a placebo group, 100 cases in each group. The observation group was treated with acupoint catgut embedding at Zusanli (ST 36), Pishu (BL 20), Weishu (BL 21) etc. The control group was treated with oral administration of Lysine Dicalcium Phosphate particles, and the placebo group was treated with oral administration of flour capsule. The height was measured and the therapeutic effects were detected after treatment of 3 months and 6 months respectively. RESULTS: The total effective rate of 95.0% (95/100) in the observation group was superior to that of 49.0% (49/100) in the control group and 0 (0/100) in the placebo group (both P < 0.05). The height increased more obviously in the observation group than that of the control group and the placebo group, there were significant differences among three groups (all P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Acupoint catgut embedding can increase the height and improve the symptoms of the adolescents with slow growth caused by spleen qi deficiency.

Fluoride in drinking water, brick tea infusion and human urine in two counties in Inner Mongolia, China.

The objective of this study was to detect the fluoride level in the drinking water and the urine of habitants aged 16-55 years living in Inner Mongolia China. Furthermore, fluoride concentration of the brick tea infusion samples which were drunk by Mongolia herdsmen in everyday life living in SumuErga village of Ejin Horo Banner, Inner Mongolia China was also determined. A total of 117 participants (61 female and 56 male) were recruited from two counties for a cross-sectional study on health effects of chronic fluoride exposure from drinking water and drinking brick tea infusion. The fluoride concentration in drinking water, urine and brick tea infusion samples were determined using fluoride ion selective electrode method obtained from the Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China. The average fluoride concentration in drinking water samples was 0.32+/-0.01 mg/L at AretengXire town of Ejin Horo Banner, 0.70+/-0.19 mg/L at SumuErga village of Ejin Horo Banner, and 2.68+/-1.15 mg/L at ZhalaiNuoer district of Manzhouli city. The average fluoride concentration in brick tea infusion samples which collected from Mongolia herdsmen at SumuErga village of Ejin Horo Banner was 1.81+/-1.09 mg/L. The average urinary fluoride concentration at AretengXire town of Ejin Horo Banner was 0.59+/-0.48 mg/L, at SumuErga village of Ejin Horo Banner was 1.45+/-0.93 mg/L and at ZhalaiNuoer district of Manzhouli city was 3.06+/-1.53 mg/L. The higher fluoride levels in the urine of participants may be associated to higher fluoride in drinking water at ZhalaiNuoer of Manzhouli city. However, drinking brick tea infusions with higher fluoride may be the cause of the higher fluoride contents in the Mongolia herdsmen's urine.