Light absorption enhancement of black carbon and its impact factors during winter in a megacity of the Sichuan Basin, China.

Carbonaceous aerosols play a vital role in global climate patterns due to their potent light absorption capabilities. However, the light absorption enhancement effect (Eabs) of black carbon (BC) is still subject to great uncertainties due to factors such as the mixing state, coating material, and particle size distribution. In this study, fine particulate matter (PM2.5) samples were collected in Chengdu, a megacity in the Sichuan Basin, during the winter of 2020 and 2021. The chemical components of PM2.5 and the light absorption properties of BC were investigated. The results revealed that secondary inorganic aerosols and carbonaceous aerosols were the dominant components in PM2.5. Additionally, the aerosol filter filtration-dissolution (AFD) treatment could improve the accuracy of measuring elemental carbon (EC) through thermal/optical analysis. During winter in Chengdu, the absorption enhancement values of BC ranged between 1.56 and 2.27, depending on the absorption wavelength and the mixing state of BC and non-BC materials. The presence of internally mixed BC and non-BC materials significantly contributed to Eabs, accounting for an average of 68 % at 405 nm and 100 % at 635 nm. The thickness of the BC coating influenced Eabs, displaying an increasing-then-decreasing trend. This trend was primarily attributed to the hygroscopic growth and dehydration shrinkage of particulate matter. Nitrate, as the major component of BC coating, played a crucial role in the lensing effect and exhibited fast growth during variation in Eabs. By combining the results from PMF, we identified the secondary formation and vehicle emission as the primary contributors to Eabs. Consequently, this study can provide valuable insights into the optical parameters, which are essential for assessing the environmental quality, improving regional atmospheric conditions, and formulating effective air pollution control strategies.

Transition of allele-specific DNA hydroxymethylation at regulatory loci is associated with phenotypic variation in monozygotic twins discordant for psychiatric disorders.

BACKGROUND: Major psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia (SCZ) and bipolar disorder (BPD) are complex genetic mental illnesses. Their non-Mendelian features, such as those observed in monozygotic twins discordant for SCZ or BPD, are likely complicated by environmental modifiers of genetic effects. 5-Hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) is an important epigenetic mark in gene regulation, and whether it is linked to genetic variants that contribute to non-Mendelian features remains largely unexplored. METHODS: We combined the 5hmC-selective chemical labeling method (5hmC-seq) and whole-genome sequencing (WGS) analysis of peripheral blood DNA obtained from monozygotic (MZ) twins discordant for SCZ or BPD to identify allelic imbalances in hydroxymethylome maps, and examined association of allele-specific hydroxymethylation (AShM) transition with disease susceptibility based on Bayes factors (BF) derived from the Bayesian generalized additive linear mixed model. We then performed multi-omics integrative analysis to determine the molecular pathogenic basis of those AShM sites. We finally employed luciferase reporter, CRISPR/Cas9 technology, electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA), chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), PCR, FM4-64 imaging analysis, and RNA sequencing to validate the function of interested AShM sites in the human neuroblastoma SK-N-SH cells and human embryonic kidney 293T (HEK293T) cells. RESULTS: We identified thousands of genetic variants associated with AShM imbalances that exhibited phenotypic variation-associated AShM changes at regulatory loci. These AShM marks showed plausible associations with SCZ or BPD based on their effects on interactions among transcription factors (TFs), DNA methylation levels, or other epigenomic marks and thus contributed to dysregulated gene expression, which ultimately increased disease susceptibility. We then validated that competitive binding of POU3F2 on the alternative allele at the AShM site rs4558409 (G/T) in PLLP-enhanced PLLP expression, while the hydroxymethylated alternative allele, which alleviated the POU3F2 binding activity at the rs4558409 site, might be associated with the downregulated PLLP expression observed in BPD or SCZ. Moreover, disruption of rs4558409 promoted neural development and vesicle trafficking. CONCLUSION: Our study provides a powerful strategy for prioritizing regulatory risk variants and contributes to our understanding of the interplay between genetic and epigenetic factors in mediating SCZ or BPD susceptibility.

Investigating Emotion EEG Patterns for Depression Detection with Attentive Simple Graph Convolutional Network.

Depression severely limits daily functioning, diminishes quality of life and possibly leads to self-harm and suicide. Noninvasive electroencephalography (EEG) has been shown effective as biomarkers for objective depression diagnose and treatment response prediction, and dry EEG electrodes further extend its availability for clinical use. Even though many efforts have been made to identify depression biomarkers, searching reliable EEG biomarkers for depression detection remains challenging. This work presents a systematic investigation of capabilities of emotion EEG patterns for depression detection using a dry EEG electrode system. We design an emotion elicitation paradigm with happy, neutral and sad emotions and collect EEG signals during film watching from 33 depressed patients and 40 healthy controls. The mean activation levels at frontal and temporal sites in the alpha, beta and gamma bands of the depressed group are different to those of the healthy group, indicating the impacts of depressive symptoms on the emotion experiences. To leverage the topology information among EEG channels for emotion recognition and depression detection, an Attentive Simple Graph Convolutional network is built. The deep depression-health classifier achieves a sensitivity of 81.93% and a specificity of 91.69% on the happy emotions, suggesting the promising use of the emotion neural patterns for distinguishing the depressed patients from the healthy controls.

Alterations of functional connectivity in young people with depression mediate the relationship between sleep quality and cognitive function.

BACKGROUND: Sleep disturbances is common in young people with depression, and poor sleep quality affects the ability to learn. In this study, we examined possible resting-state functional connectivity abnormalities between regions of interest, and clarified the relationship with depressive symptoms, sleep quality, and cognitive function. METHODS: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was collected on 42 healthy controls (HCs), 82 youth depressive patients (44 without sleep disturbances (NSD), and 38 with sleep disturbances (SD)). Regions of interest were defined by using Brainnetome Atlas. Functional connectivity was calculated, and its associations with depressive symptoms, sleep quality, and cognitive function were examined using correlation analysis and mediation analysis. RESULTS: The left and right caudal of cingulate gyrus, tongue and larynx region of postcentral gyrus were significant brain regions in NSD versus SD. The average functional connectivity between these regions was associated with poor sleep quality (r = 0.368, p = 0.001) and worse working memory (r = -0.256, p = 0.023) and mediated the relationship between sleep quality and working memory (c = -0.738, c' = -0.500). LIMITATION: Data consistency in this study was not good enough. This study did not monitor sleep rhythms to provide objective sleep-related data. CONCLUSION: The functional connectivity between the left and right caudal of cingulate gyrus with tongue and larynx region of postcentral gyrus may be the neural mechanism by which sleep disturbances affect working memory. This provides an intervention target for clinically improving cognitive function in young people with depression.

Ecosystem services relationship characteristics of the degraded alpine shrub meadow on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

Alpine shrub meadows hold significant importance as grassland ecosystems on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP). They provide a range of vital ecosystem services (ESs) and are commonly utilized as summer pastures by herders, resulting in short grazing periods and high grazing intensities. Unfortunately, these practices have led to varying degrees of degradation, thereby affecting the sustainable provision of ESs. However, the current knowledge regarding changes in ESs and their characteristics under the influence of degradation, particularly the differences between alpine shrub and alpine meadow ecosystems, is insufficient. To address this gap, this study aimed to investigate and analyse changes in four ESs within alpine shrub meadows across different levels of degradation, as well as explore their relationships. The research was conducted in a summer pasture located in the northeastern QTP. The findings revealed a substantial reduction of 85.9% in forage supply due to degradation in alpine shrub meadows. Moreover, regulating services experienced a decline followed by an increase in instances of heavy degradation. Trade-offs were observed between provisioning and regulating services, while synergistic relationships were identified among different regulating services. Degradation exacerbated imbalances between provisioning and regulating services, whereas light degradation allowed for a better equilibrium between the two. Comparatively, alpine meadows exhibited higher levels of forage supply and carbon storage services, whereas alpine shrub ecosystems displayed greater nutrient supply and water retention services. It was observed that changes in ESs and relationship patterns within alpine shrub meadows were significantly influenced by the presence of alpine meadows. Consequently, safeguarding the structural integrity of alpine meadows and addressing conflicts over ESs is essential to ensure coordination and sustainability of ESs within alpine shrub meadows. The outcomes of this study provide valuable insights for ecosystem management and ecological restoration initiatives in alpine shrub meadows on the QTP.

Dynamic effect of economic growth on the persistence of suicide rates.

Positive and negative economic growth is closely related to the suicide rate. To answer the question whether economic development has a dynamic impact on this rate, we used a panel smooth transition autoregressive model to evaluate the threshold effect of economic growth rate on the persistence of suicide. The research period was from 1994 to 2020, and the results show that the suicide rate had a persistent effect, which varied over time depending on the transition variable within different threshold intervals. However, the persistent effect was manifested in different degrees with the change in the economic growth rate and as the lag period of the suicide rate increased, the effect of the influence gradually decreased. We investigated different lag periods and noted that the impact on the suicide rate was the strongest in the first year after an economic change and then reduced to be only marginal after three years. This means that the growth momentum of the suicide rate within the first two years after a change in the economic growth rate, should be included in policy considerations of how to prevent suicides.

Gelation and the Self-Healing Behavior of the Chitosan-Catechol Hydrogel.

Mussel-inspired adhesive hydrogels have been developed in biomedical fields due to their strong adhesive property, cohesive capability, biocompatibility, and hemostatic ability. Catechol-functionalized chitosan is a potential polymer used to prepare adhesive hydrogels. However, the unique gelation mechanism and self-healing properties of catechol-grafted chitosan alone have not yet been explored. Herein, catechol-grafted chitosan (CC) was synthesized and further concentrated to obtain the self-healing CC hydrogels. The gelation mechanism of CC hydrogels may be attributed to the formation of hydrogen bonding, cation-π interactions, Michael addition, or Schiff base reactions during concentration phases. Rheological studies showed that the CC hydrogel owned self-healing properties in repeated damage-healing cycles. Coherent small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) analyses revealed the formation of a mesoscale structure (~9 nm) as the solid content of the hydrogel increased. In situ SAXS combined with rheometry verified the strain-dependent behavior of the CC hydrogel. The CC hydrogel displayed the osmotic-responsive behavior and enhanced adhesive strength (0.38 N/cm2) after immersion in the physiological saline. The CC scaffold prepared by lyophilizing the CC hydrogel revealed a macroporous structure (~200 µm), a high swelling ratio (9656%), good compressibility, and durability. This work provides an insight into the design of using chitosan-catechol alone to produce hydrogels or scaffolds with tunable mechanical properties for further applications in biomedical fields.

Multimodal Emotion Recognition in Response to Oil Paintings.

Most previous affective studies use facial expression pictures, music or movie clips as emotional stimuli, which are either too simplified without contexts or too dynamic for emotion annotations. In this work, we evaluate the effectiveness of oil paintings as stimuli. We develop an emotion stimuli dataset with 114 oil paintings selected from subject ratings to evoke three emotional states (i.e., negative, neutral and positive), and acquire both EEG and eye tracking data from 20 subjects while watching the oil paintings. Furthermore, we propose a novel affective model for multimodal emotion recognition by 1) extracting informative features of EEG signals from both the time domain and the frequency domain, 2) exploring topological information embedded in EEG channels with graph neural networks (GNNs), and 3) combining EEG and eye tracking data with a deep autoencoder neural network. From the exper-iments, our model obtains an averaged classification accuracy of 94.72 % ± 1.47 %, which demonstrates the feasibility of using oil paintings as emotion elicitation material.

PEP-sNASP Peptide Alleviates LPS-Induced Acute Lung Injury Through the TLR4/TRAF6 Axis.

Acute lung injury (ALI) is a severe inflammatory lung disease associated with macrophages. Somatic nuclear autoantigenic sperm protein (sNASP) is a negative regulator of Toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling that targets tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor-associated factor 6 (TRAF6) in macrophages, which is required to maintain homeostasis of the innate immune response. In the present study, we generated a cell permeable PEP-sNASP peptide using the sNASP protein N-terminal domain, and examined its potential therapeutic effect in a mouse model of ALI induced by the intranasal administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and elucidated the underlying molecular mechanisms in RAW 264.7 cells. In vivo, PEP-sNASP peptide treatment markedly ameliorated pathological injury, reduced the wet/dry (W/D) weight ratio of the lungs and the production of proinflammatory cytokines (interleukin (IL)-1ß, IL-6, and TNF-α). In vitro, we demonstrated that when the PEP-sNASP peptide was transduced into RAW 264.7 cells, it bound to TRAF6, which markedly decreased LPS-induced proinflammatory cytokines by inhibiting TRAF6 autoubiquitination, nuclear factor (NF)-κB activation, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and cellular nitric oxide (NO) levels. Furthermore, the PEP-sNASP peptide also inhibited NLR family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome activation. Our results therefore suggest that the PEP-sNASP may provide a potential protein therapy against oxidative stress and pulmonary inflammation via selective TRAF6 signaling.

Characterization of the spatial distribution of plateau pika burrows along an alpine grassland degradation gradient on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Plateau pika burrows are common feature of degraded grassland in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) and serve as an important indicator of pika activity and grassland degradation. However, the current understanding of the spatial pattern changes of pika burrows and their critical thresholds across a degradation gradient in alpine grassland is deficient. In this study, we investigated and quantified changes in the spatial pattern of plateau pika burrows under typical degraded alpine shrub meadows in the northeastern QTP using an unmanned aerial vehicle and landscape pattern metrics. The degradation of the alpine shrub meadow leads to a change in landscape pattern from a two-layered structure of alpine shrub and alpine meadow to a mosaic of alpine meadow and bare soil, with plateau pika burrows scattered throughout. Moderate degradation is the tipping point for changes in surface landscape patterns, followed by the disappearance of alpine shrub, the retreat of alpine meadows and the encroachment of bare soil, and the increasing density and size of pika burrows. The area characteristics of alpine meadows have influenced changes in the spatial pattern of pika burrow, and maintaining its proportional area is a vital measure to control the threat of pika burrows to pastures. The results of this paper provide a methodological reference and guidance for the sustainable utilization of grassland on the QTP.

Surgery for advanced-stage non-small cell lung cancer: lobectomy or sub-lobar resection?

BACKGROUND: Metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has many comorbidities, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary heart disease, and older age-related comorbidities. A survival benefit was observed in such patients who underwent surgery for selected oligometastatic disease. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no evidence to support whether lobectomy (compared with sub-lobar resection) would further prolong these patients' lives. METHODS: Patients with metastatic NSCLC who underwent primary tumor resection were identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database and then divided into lobectomy and sub-lobar resection groups. Propensity score matching (PSM, 1:1) was performed to match the baseline characteristics of the two groups. Cancer-specific survival (CSS) was estimated. RESULTS: In total, 24,268 patients with metastatic NSCLC were identified; 4,114 (16.95%) underwent primary tumor surgery, and of these, 2,045 (49.71%) underwent lobectomy and 1,766 (42.93%) underwent sub-lobar resection. After PSM, 644 patients in each group were included. Lobectomy was independently correlated with longer median CSS time [hazards ratio (HR): 0.70, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.61-0.80, P<0.001]. The 1, 2, and 3-year survival rates after PSM also favored the lobectomy group. However, no significant survival difference was found for wedge resection and segmentectomy (HR: 0.96, 95% CI: 0.70-1.31, P=0.490). The 1-, 2-, and 3-year survival rates after PSM also exhibited no difference within the sub-lobar group. We explored whether lymph node dissection would provide additional survival benefits for stage IV NSCLC patients. According to the multivariate Cox analysis of the matched population, lymph node dissection was independently associated with better CSS (HR: 0.76, 95% CI: 0.66-0.88, P<0.001) and overall survival (OS) (HR: 0.74, 95% CI: 0.65-0.86, P<0.001). We confirmed this result in the different types of surgery and found that the lymph node dissection group consistently had better survival outcomes both in the lobectomy group and sub-lobar resection population. According to the subgroup analysis, with the exception of stage T4 and brain metastatic patients, all of the patient subtypes exhibited greater benefit from lobectomy than sub-lobar resection. CONCLUSIONS: Lobectomy has a greater survival benefit in metastatic NSCLC patients compared with sub-lobar resection when radical treatment of primary site was indicated.

Restoration of Degraded Grassland Significantly Improves Water Storage in Alpine Grasslands in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Alpine grassland has very important water conservation function. Grassland degradation seriously affects the water conservation function; moreover, there is little understanding of the change of water state during grassland restoration. Our study aims to bridge this gap and improve our understanding of changes in soil moisture during the restoration process. In this study, the water storage, vegetation, and meteorology of a non-degradation grassland (grazing intensity of 7.5 sheep/ha) and a severely degraded grassland (grazing intensity of 12-18 sheep/ha) were monitored in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau for seven consecutive years. We used correlation, stepwise regression, and the boosted regression trees (BRT) model analyses, five environmental factors were considered to be the most important factors affecting water storage. The severely degraded grassland recovered by light grazing treatment for 7 years, with increases in biomass, litter, and vegetation cover, and a soil-water storage capacity 41.9% higher in 2018 compared to that in 2012. This increase in soil-water storage was primarily due to the increase in surface soil moisture content. The key factors that influenced water storage were listed in a decreasing order: air temperature, litter, soil heat flux, precipitation, and wind speed. Their percentage contributions to soil-water storage were 50.52, 24.02, 10.86, 7.82, and 6.77%, respectively. Current and future climate change threatens soil-water conservation in alpine grasslands; however, grassland restoration is an effective solution to improve the soil-water retention capacity in degraded grassland soils.

Spontaneous ventilation video-assisted thoracic surgery for mediastinal tumor resection in patients with pulmonary function deficiency.

BACKGROUND: Whether non-intubated spontaneous ventilation video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (SV-VATS) is a safe procedure remains controversial for mediastinal tumor patients with impaired lung function. Herein, we assessed feasibility of SV-VATS in lung function deficiency patients underwent mediastinal tumor resection. METHODS: From December 2015 to February 2020, 32 mediastinal tumor patients with impaired lung function (preoperative forced expiratory volume in 1 second <70% of the predicted value) were retrospectively collected. Patients were divided into two groups: SV-VATS group and mechanical ventilation VATS (MV-VATS) group. Intraoperative and postoperative variables were compared between two cohorts. RESULTS: Fifteen patients (46.88%) underwent SV-VATS and 17 patients (53.12%) were performed with MV-VATS. The most common causes of lung function deficiency were smoking (81.25%) and COPD (71.88%). Patients in the SV-VATS group had similar blood loss (20.63 vs. 18.76 mL, P=0.417) with MV-VATS group. The anesthesia time (217.51 vs. 197.76 min; P=0.343) and surgery time (141.23 vs. 132.36 min; P=0.209) were also similar between groups. Five people suffered postoperative complications in each group, in which 1 patient underwent MV-VATS was transferred to intensive care unit (ICU) because of prolonged extubation owing to hypoxia. There was no difference on chest tube removal time (2.6 vs. 2.3 days; P=0.172) or hospital duration (5.03 vs. 4.74 days; P=0.297) in patients underwent SV-VATS and MV-VATS. CONCLUSIONS: SV-VATS is safe and provides similar short-term results to MV-VATS for mediastinal tumor resection in patients with limited pulmonary function.

Comparison of different surgical approaches for anterior mediastinal tumor.

BACKGROUND: Different video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) approaches may related to heterogeneous clinical outcomes in anterior mediastinal tumor surgery. Herein, we assessed the comparison between the subxiphoid and intercostal approach, and also compare the left versus the right incision in the intercostal approach for anterior mediastinal tumor patients. METHODS: Clinical data of patients receiving thoracoscopic anterior mediastinal tumor resection were retrospectively collected. Patients were divided into two groups according to the approaches: subxiphoid and the intercostal group. The intercostal group was further subdivided into two groups according to different sides: left and right incision group. Intraoperative and postoperative variables were compared between subgroups. RESULTS: A total of 238 patients were consecutively included in this analysis; 198 (83.2%) patients received intercostal procedure and 40 (16.8%) patients received subxiphoid approach. After 1:1 propensity score matching, all baseline characters were well balanced between intercostal and subxiphoid approach, left and right intercostal approach. The visual analogue scale (VAS) pain score was lower in patients underwent subxiphoid approach than intercostal group at first post-operative evaluation in 12-24 h (4.36 vs. 2.23; P=0.03). According to left and right approach, postoperative drainage time (1.9 vs. 1.2 days, P=0.016), postoperative drainage volume (312.1 vs. 193.9 mL, P=0.041) and hospitalization time (5.3 vs. 4.1 days, P=0.043) were significantly increased in the left thoracic approach group compared with the right thoracic approach. CONCLUSIONS: Subxiphoid approach is associated with less pain compared with intercostal approach. The right intercostal thoracic approach may offer better clinical effect of short-term postoperative recovery.

Feasibility and safety of PD-1/L1 inhibitors for non-small cell lung cancer in front-line treatment: a Bayesian network meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: This Bayesian network meta-analysis (NMA) was conducted to compare efficacy and safety of programmed death 1/ligand 1 (PD-1/L1) inhibitors in previous untreated advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. METHODS: Eligible studies evaluating first-line anti-PD-1/L1 based regimens in advanced NSCLC patients were included. Overall survival (OS), progression free survival (PFS), objective response rate (ORR), as well as treatment-related severe adverse events (tr-SAE) were synthesized within the Bayesian framework. Subgroup analysis was conducted according to PD-L1 expression. RESULTS: Twelve studies including 7,490 patients and 9 treatment strategies were enrolled in this study. For the PD-L1 expression non-selective patients, all chemo-immunotherapies were significantly better than chemotherapy for prolonging OS and PFS, except for caremlizumab plus chemotherapy (HR =0.72) failed to show advantages for OS. In addition, pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy showed better PFS than nivolumab plus ipilimumab (HR =0.66). In PD-L1 ≥50% patients, all immunotherapy was better than chemotherapy for OS, except for nivolumab (HR =0.83) and nivolumab plus ipilimumab (HR =0.70). For PFS, pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy (HR =0.39), atezolizumab plus chemotherapy (HR =0.47) and pembrolizumab (HR =0.67) were significantly better than chemotherapy. In PD-L1 1-49% patients, pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy (HR =0.52) and atezolizumab plus chemotherapy (HR =0.70) were better than chemotherapy for PFS. In the PD-L1 positive or negative group, all included corresponding regimens were equivalence according to OS and PFS. CONCLUSIONS: We conducted a systematic comparison of first line immunotherapy for advanced NSCLC. Chemo-immunotherapies were better than chemotherapy and mono-immunotherapies in most patients. Pembrolizumab might have better efficacy than other PD-1/L1 inhibitors.

Biomass allocation and productivity-richness relationship across four grassland types at the Qinghai Plateau.

Aboveground biomass (AGB) and belowground biomass (BGB) allocation and productivity-richness relationship are controversial. Here, we assessed AGB and BGB allocation and the productivity-richness relationship at community level across four grassland types based on the biomass data collected from 80 sites across the Qinghai Plateau during 2011-2012. The reduced major axis regression and general linear models were used and showed that (a) the median values of AGB were significantly higher in alpine meadow than in other three grassland types; the ratio of root to shoot (R/S) was significantly higher in desert grassland (36.06) than intemperate grassland (16.60), alpine meadow (13.35), and meadow steppe (19.46). The temperate grassland had deeper root distribution than the other three grasslands, with about 91.45% roots distributed in the top 30 cm soil layer. (b) The slopes between log AGB and log BGB in the temperate grassland and meadow steppe were 1.09 and 1, respectively, whereas that in the desert grassland was 1.12, which was significantly different from the isometric allocation relationship. A competitive relationship between AGB and BGB was observed in the alpine meadow with a slope of -1.83, indicating a trade-off between AGB and BGB in the alpine meadow. (c) A positive productivity-richness relationship existed across the four grassland types, suggesting that the positive productivity-richness relationship might not be affected by the environmental factors at the plant location. Our results provide a new insight for biomass allocation and biodiversity-ecosystem functioning research.

[Discussion on Information-based Management of Medical Device Standard].

The information-based management of medical device standards is of great significance for promoting the development of the medical device standardization. Here we analyzed the important role of the information-based management of medical device standards in the delicacy management of the whole process of establishing and modifying medical device standards, introduced its present situation and upgrade of information-based management system of medical device standards, and put forward work ideas and suggestions for it.

Preparation of hemoglobin (Hb) imprinted polymer by Hb catalyzed eATRP and its application in biosensor.

Molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) was prepared on the surface of Au electrode by electrochemically mediated atom transfer radical polymerization (eATRP) with hemoglobin (Hb) both as catalyst and template molecule. Firstly, the condition for eATRP such as the potential, time and Hb concentration were selected and determined to be -0.51 V, 120 min and 20mg/mL, respectively. Further, the electrode modified with MIP (MIP/Au) was carefully examined by cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Finally, the MIP/Au electrode was used as a biosensor and successfully applied for the determination of Hb by differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) measurement. The results of experiments showed that the proposed biosensor displayed a broader linear range and a lower detection limit for Hb determination when it was compared to those Hb sensors based on MIP. The linear range was from 1.0 × 10(-10) to 1.0 × 10(1)mg/L with a detection limit of 7.8 × 10(-11)mg/L (S/N=3.3). In a word, the work of this paper established a useful way for the preparation and application of biosensor based on protein imprinted polymers.