Differences and allometric relationships among assimilative branch traits of four shrubs in Central Asia.

Shrubs play a major role in maintaining ecosystem stability in the arid deserts of Central Asia. During the long-term adaptation to extreme arid environments, shrubs have developed special assimilative branches that replace leaves for photosynthesis. In this study, four dominant shrubs with assimilative branches, namely Haloxylon ammodendron, Haloxylon persicum, Calligonum mongolicum, and Ephedra przewalskii, were selected as the research objects, and the dry mass, total length, node number, and basal diameter of their assimilative branches and the average length of the first three nodes were carefully measured, and the allometric relationships among five traits of four species were systematically compared. The results indicated that: (1) Four desert shrubs have different assimilative branches traits. Compared with H. persicum and H. ammodendron, C. mongolicum and E. przewalskii have longer internodes and fewer nodes. The dry mass of H. ammodendron and the basal diameter of H. persicum were the smallest; (2) Significant allometric scaling relationships were found between dry mass, total length, basal diameter, and each trait of assimilative branches, all of which were significantly less than 1; (3) The scaling exponents of the allometric relationship between four traits and the dry mass of assimilative branches of H. persicum were greater or significantly greater than those of H. ammodendron. The scaling exponents of the relationships between the basal diameter, dry mass, and total length of E. przewalskii were higher than those of the other three shrubs. Therefore, although different species have adapted to drought and high temperatures by convergence, there was great variability in morphological characteristics of assimilative branches, as well as in the scaling exponents of relationships among traits. The results of this study will provide valuable insights into the ecological functions of assimilative branches and survival strategies of these shrubs to cope with aridity and drought in desert environments.

Characteristics of Visual Evoked Potential in Different Parts of Visual Impairment. / 不同部位损伤致视力障碍的视觉诱发电位特征.

OBJECTIVES: To study the quantitative and qualitative differences of visual evoked potential (VEP) in monocular visual impairment after different parts of visual pathway injury. METHODS: A total of 91 subjects with monocular visual impairment caused by trauma were selected and divided into intraocular refractive media-injury group (eyeball injury group for short), optic nerve injury group, central nervous system injury and intracranial combined injury group according to the injury cause and anatomical segment. Pattern Reversal visual evoked potential (PR-VEP) P100 peak time and amplitude, Flash visual evoked potential (F-VEP) P2 peak time and amplitude were recorded respectively. SPSS 26.0 software was used to analyze the differences of quantitative (peak time and amplitude) and qualitative indexes (spatial frequency sweep-VEP acuity threshold, and abnormal waveform category and frequency) of the four groups. RESULTS: Compared with healthy eyes, the PR-VEP P100 waveforms of the intraocular eyeball injury group and the F-VEP P2 waveforms of the optic nerve group showed significant differences in prolonged peak time and decreased amplitude in injured eyes (P<0.05). The PR-VEP amplitudes of healthy eyes were lower than those of injured eyes at multiple spatial frequencies in central nervous system injury group and intracranial combined injury group (P<0.05).The amplitude of PR-VEP in patients with visual impairment involving central injury was lower than that in patients with eye injury at multiple spatial frequencies. The frequency of VEP P waveforms reaching the threshold of the intraocular injury group and the optic nerve injury group were siginificantly different from the intracranial combined injury group, respectively(P<0.008 3), and the frequency of abnormal reduction of VEP amplitude of threshold were significantly different from the central nervous system injury group, respectively(P<0.008 3). CONCLUSIONS: VEP can distinguish central injury from peripheral injury, eyeball injury from nerve injury in peripheral injury, but cannot distinguish simple intracranial injury from complex injury, which provides basic data and basis for further research on the location of visual impairment injury.

A cationic tetrahedral Zn(ii) cluster based on a new salicylamide imine multidentate ligand: synthesis, structure and fluorescence sensing study.

A monocationic ZnII tetrahedral cluster, [Zn4L3(µ3-OH)]·NO3·1.25H2O (Zn4L3) based on a new salicylamide imine ligand H2L, H2L = 1-(2-hydroxy-3-methoxy-benzamido)-3-(2-hydroxy-3-methoxy-benzylideneamino)-propane, has been prepared. Single crystal X-ray analysis reveals that three deprotonated ligands L2- chelate three Zn(ii) centres with their salicylamide moiety in such a way that the three salicylimine groups attached to the other side of the three chelates are converged to bind another Zn(ii) centre to provide a tetrahedral cluster with two phenyl groups of the same ligand L2- being close enough to present a strong intramolecular ππ stacking effect. Fluorescence studies indicate that Zn4L3 is stable in water and exhibits highly sensitive and selective recognition of phosphates against other common anions including CO32-, HCO3-, NO3-, F-, Cl-, Br-, I-, HSO4-, SO42-, OAc-, BF4-, ClO4- and CF3SO3- in HEPES buffer solution (pH = 7.4) + DMSO (V : V = 1 : 9). The excellent sensing capability of Zn4L3 for phosphate against other common anions with a low detection limit of 0.15 µM renders it a candidate probe for phosphate detection. Furthermore, the observed fluorescence quenching responses of Zn4L3 towards phosphates were highly reversible. The possible sensing mechanisms for phosphate detection by Zn4L3 was investigated by means of 1H NMR, UV-Vis spectra and high-resolution ESI-MS spectra and the results indicate that phosphates could exclusively decompose Zn4L3 to release H2L in HEPES buffer solution (pH = 7.4) + DMSO (V : V = 1 : 9).

Coordination-Driven Self-Assembled ZnII6-LnIII3 Metallocycles Based on a Salicylamide Imine Ligand: Synthesis, Structure, and Selective Luminescence Enhancement Induced by OAc.

Five heterometallic ZnII6-LnIII3 macrocycles based on a salicylamide imine multidentate unsymmetrical ligand H2L [1-(2-hydroxy-3-methoxy-benzamido)-2-(2-hydroxy-3-methoxy-benzylideneamino)-ethane] have been prepared via a coordination-driven self-assembly strategy. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis reveals that the five metallocycles are isomorphic with a formula of [Zn6Ln3L6(OH)2(NO3)4(H2O)]·3NO3· nCH3CN (ZnLn-1, where Ln = Pr, Nd, Eu, Tb, or Yb; for ZnPr-1, n = 4; for ZnNd-1, ZnEu-1, and ZnTb-1, n = 2; for ZnYb-1, n = 3), where six octadentate ligands L2- and two in situ-formed µ2-OH- ions bridged the alternating ZnII-LnIII-ZnII subunits into a macrocycle. Along with the structural novelty, ZnNd-1 shows distinctive enhanced emission in the visible and near-infrared range upon addition of OAc-. On the basis of ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, 1H nuclear magnetic resonance, single-crystal X-ray diffraction, and high-resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, we deduced that this emission enhancement could be attributed to the synergistic effect of TICT and the absent nonradiative transition of µ2-OH- induced distinctively by OAc- bridging. Our results demonstrate that the NdIII-containing heterometallic macrocycle can act as a host for anion exchanging and provide a nice example of heterometallic macrocycles with interesting properties and potential applications.

IL-33 Exerts Neuroprotective Effect in Mice Intracerebral Hemorrhage Model Through Suppressing Inflammation/Apoptotic/Autophagic Pathway.

Interleukin-33 (IL-33) is a recently identified member of the IL-1 family that exerts biologic functions by binding to a heterodimer composed of IL-1 receptor-related protein ST2L and IL-1RAcP. However, the role of IL-33 and whether IL-33 accounts for inflammation, apoptotic, and autophagic neuropathology after intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) are not clear. Here, we established a mouse ICH model in this study, to determine the role of IL-33 and explore the underlying mechanism. Male mice were subjected to an infusion of type IV collagenase/saline into the left striatum to induce ICH/sham model. IL-33, soluble ST2 (sST2), or saline were also administered by a single intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) injection, respectively. The results showed that the expression level of IL-33 markedly decreased within 6 h and reached the valleys at 6 and 72 h after ICH vs. sham group. In parallel, ST2L (a transmembrane form receptor of IL-33) significantly increased within 6 h and reached the peaks at 6 h and 24 h after ICH vs. sham group. In addition, administration of IL-33 alleviated cerebral water contents, reduced the number of PI- and TUNEL-positive cells, and improved neurological function after ICH. Moreover, IL-33 treatment apparently suppressed the expression of pro-inflammation cytokines IL-1ß and TNF-α, evidently increased Bcl-2 but decreased cleaved-caspase-3, and obviously decreased the levels of autophagy-associated proteins LC3-II and Beclin-1 but maintained P62 at high level after ICH. On the contrary, treatment with sST2, a decoy receptor of IL-33, exacerbated ICH-induced brain damage and neurological dysfunction by promoting apoptosis, and enhancing autophagic activity. In conclusion, IL-33 provides neuroprotection through suppressing inflammation, apoptotic, and autophagic activation in collagenase-induced ICH model.

[Research Progress of Event-related Potential in Mild Cognitive Impairment].

Mild cognitive impairment caused by craniocerebral trauma is the key points and difficulties in judicial authentication. This article has comparative analysis of each mode of event-related potential (classical Oddball, Eriksen flanker task and so on), which can provide a more objective method for such craniocerebral trauma cases in clinical forensic judicial authentication.