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Artemisia, along with Chenopodiaceae, is the dominant component growing in the desert and dry grassland of the Northern Hemisphere. Artemisia pollen with its high productivity, wide distribution, and easy identification is usually regarded as an eco-indicator for assessing aridity and distinguishing grassland from desert vegetation in terms of the pollen relative abundance ratio of Chenopodiaceae/Artemisia (C/A). Nevertheless, divergent opinions on the degree of aridity evaluated by Artemisia pollen have been circulating in the palynological community for a long time. To solve the confusion, we first selected 36 species from nine clades and three outgroups of Artemisia based on the phylogenetic framework, which attempts to cover the maximum range of pollen morphological variation. Then, sampling, experiments, photography, and measurements were taken using standard methods. Here, we present pollen datasets containing 4018 original pollen photographs, 9360 pollen morphological trait measurements, information on 30 858 source plant occurrences, and corresponding environmental factors. Hierarchical cluster analysis on pollen morphological traits was carried out to subdivide Artemisia pollen into three types. When plotting the three pollen types of Artemisia onto the global terrestrial biomes, different pollen types of Artemisia were found to have different habitat ranges. These findings change the traditional concept of Artemisia being restricted to arid and semi-arid environments. The data framework that we designed is open and expandable for new pollen data of Artemisia worldwide. In the future, linking pollen morphology with habitat via these pollen datasets will create additional knowledge that will increase the resolution of the ecological environment in the geological past. The Artemisia pollen datasets are freely available at Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6900308; Lu et al., 2022).

Abstract Background China has had about 1.2 billion mobile-phone users, and this number continues to grow. However, mobile-health services (mHealth) are currently in the initial stage, and have not yet prevailed in China. Additionally, the prevalence of Parkinson’s disease (PD) in China is 1700/100,000 (≥65 years). Indeed, these PD patients would benefit from mHealth to manage their disease. Therefore, we designed a study to determine attitudes toward smartphone applications (apps) for chronic condition self-management, and to discover the practicality of these apps among PD patients in China. Methods We selected 204 participants with PD between 52 and 87 years old and surveyed their attitudes concerning the use of smartphone apps for chronic condition management via questionnaires. Results Among the participants, 65.19% had smartphones. Among these smartphone users, 82.84% expressed a preference for using apps for PD management. This group tended to be younger and more frequent web users with higher education and better medication compliance, and they tended to have a longer PD course and worse conditions (P

The 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCov) has caused increasing number of infected cases globally. This study was performed to analyze information regarding the transmission route and presence of viral nucleic acids on several clinical samples. Confirmed 2019-nCov-infected cases were identified in Dongyang and were treated according to guidelines for the diagnosis of 2019-nCov infection released by the National Health Commission. Information regarding the contacts that the infected people had was collected to determine whether it caused clustered cases. A series of successive nucleic acid examination of feces, oropharyngeal swabs, and sputum was also performed, and the results were analyzed. A total of 19 confirmed cases of 2019-nCov infection were identified in Dongyang, Zhejiang Province, China. Five cases showed severe symptoms, and the remaining ones showed mild manifestations. Ten cases infected from two asymptomatic individuals were clustered into two groups. Among 14 cases with consecutive nucleic acid test results, four patients showed positive results in feces after their negative conversion in oropharyngeal swabs. Asymptomatic individuals with the virus could cause 2019-nCov clustered cases, and the clustered cases may differ from sporadic cases on age and length of hospitalization. In addition, nucleic acids in feces last longer than those in oropharyngeal swabs.

Phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) is a specific branch point enzyme of primary and secondary metabolism. The Citrus reticulata Blanco PAL gene was cloned and designated as CrPAL1. The cDNA sequence of CrPAL1 was 2 166 bp, encoding 721 amino acid residues. Sequence alignment indicates that CrPAL1 shared a high identity with PAL genes found in other plants. Both the dominant and catalytic active sites of CrPAL1 were similar to PAL proteins observed in Petroselinum crispum. Phylogenetic tree analysis indicates that CrPAL1 was more closely related to PALs in Citrus clementina × C. reticulata and Poncirus trifoliata than to those from other plants. Subcellular localization reveals that CrPAL1-green fluorescent protein fusion protein was specifically localized in the plasma membrane. Activity of PAL as well as CrPAL1 expression increased under Fe deficiency. A similar result was noted for total phenolic content. The root exudates of C. reticulata strongly promoted reutilization of apoplastic Fe in roots. Furthermore, Fe was more desorbed from the cell wall under Fe deficiency than in sufficient Fe supply.

The cytochrome P450c17-I (CYP17-I) is one of the enzymes critical to gonadal development and the synthesis of androgens. Two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were detected within the coding region of the CYP17-I gene in a population of 75 male Japanese flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus). They were SNP1 (c.C445T) located in exon2 and SNP2 (c.T980C (p.Phe307Leu)) located in exon5. Four physiological indices, which were serum testosterone (T), serum 17β-estradiol (E2), Hepatosomatic index (HSI), and Gonadosomatic index (GSI), were studied to examine the effect of the two SNPs on the reproductive endocrines of Japanese flounder. Multiple comparisons revealed that CT genotype of SNP1 had a much lower T level than CC genotype (p

Carbon nanotube (CNT) bulk samples were fabricated by spark plasma sintering (SPS), which, as a rapid consolidation technique preserved the phase structure and diameter of cylindrical tubules of the CNTs even at high temperatures of up to 2000 degree celcius. This low thermal conductivity of CNT bulk materials was explained on the basis of multiple physical elements including intensive tube-tube interactions.

The study of crystal growth and spectroscopic characteristics of Tm(super 3+): GdAl3(BO3)4 crystal is reported. The spectroscopic parameters such as intensity parameters, oscillator strengths, radiative transition probabilities, radiative lifetime as well as branching ratios based on the Judd-Ofelt (J-O) theory are presented.

Studies the strain versus electric field and strain versus stress response characteristics of oriented crystals of Pb(Bi[sub 1/3]BII[sub 2/3])O[sub 3]-PbTiO[sub 3]. Observation of a ferroelastic switching under moderate uniaxial prestress levels under zero field; Occurrence of an elastic softening during switching.

OBJECTIVES: Histone deacetylases (HDACs) plays important roles in the regulation of genes expression and contribute to the growth of cancer cells. The present study aimed to investigate the function of HDAC5 in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). PATIENTS AND METHODS: The expression of HDAC5 in human hepatocellular carcinoma tissues and cells was detected. MTT assay was used to measure the proliferation of HCC cell lines. siRNA technology was employed to down-regulate the protein expression of HDAC5 and Six1. RESULTS: Western blot showed that the HDAC5 expression was increased in human HCC tissues. The mRNA and protein levels of HDAC5 were up-regulated in human HCC cell lines. MTT assay showed that over-expression of HDAC5 promoted cell proliferation in human HCC cell lines. Down-regulation of HDAC5 caused a significantly inhibition of liver cancer cells proliferation. Furthermore, we found that HDAC5 promoted the Six1 expression both at the mRNA and protein levels in HCC cell lines. CONCLUSIONS: The current study demonstrated for the first time that HDAC5 promoted HCC cell proliferation through up-regulation of Six1 expression and might provide novel therapeutic targets in the treatment of HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe a class of metallic glasses that consists of low-cost components and exhibiting multiple superior properties such as exceptionally low glass transition temperature (∼35–60 °C), ultralow elastic moduli (∼23 GPa) comparable to that of human bones, high elasticity and strength, ultralow density (<2 g/cm3), exceptional thermodynamic and kinetic stability in supercooled liquid state, strong liquid fragility, ultrahigh specific strength and lower electrical resistivity, and polymerlike thermoplastic formability near room temperature. Such metallic glasses could have potential applications and facilitate studies of the nature of glasses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-temperature polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistors were fabricated by nickel-induced lateral crystallization of amorphous silicon. Line and oval-shaped nickel source patterns were compared, The oval-shaped nickel source was found to render better device performance, including lower leakage current and higher on/off current ratio. The observation is interpreted by the crystallization and nickel diffusion behavior. The oval-shaped nickel source introduces less nickel in the channels, which is the physical mechanism responsible for the improved performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Piezoelectric nanofibers are of great importance in their potential applications as smart fibers and textiles to bring changes to daily lives. By employing the technique of electrospinning, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) nanofibers modified with polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and single-wall carbon nanotubes (CNTs) (referred to as CNT/PMMA/PVDF) are prepared. The electric field induced displacement of the as-prepared nanofibers is characterized by piezoresponse force microscopy. Compared with the pure PVDF nanofibers, the CNT/PMMA/PVDF nanofibers exhibit a great enhancement of about 196% for the electric field induced displacement, while increments of about 104% and 78% are obtained for the PMMA/PVDF and CNT/PVDF nanofibers, respectively. A structural analysis indicates that the hydrogen bonding between the O atom in the carbonyl group of PMMA and the hydrogen atom in the CH2 groups of PVDF, the promotion of the nucleation of crystallites by CNTs, work synergistically to produce the high electroactive response of the CNT/PMMA/PVDF nanofibers. Based on the high-performance nanofibers, a prototype of a flexible nanofiber generator is fabricated, which exhibits a typical electrical output of 3.11 V upon a repeated impact-release loading at a frequency of 50 Hz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The magnetic relaxation properties of two derivatives of Mn12 single-molecule magnets (SMMs), Mn12-Ac and Mn12-tBuAc, are investigated and compared in this paper. By a simplified “hole digging” method, the hyperfine fields turn out to be very similar in these two compounds (39 ± 5 mT for Mn12-Ac at −3.55 T and 32 ± 5 mT for Mn12-tBuAc at −3.2 T). The small difference of hyperfine fields received by the same magnetic cores Mn12O12 in these two SMMs shows that the hyperfine field is not the main source of the large difference of magnetic relaxation rates between Mn12-Ac and Mn12-tBuAc. The intentional inclined-field experiments show that a larger transverse component of the dipolar field in Mn12-Ac causes a faster magnetic relaxation rate only when the transverse component of the external applied field Hx exceeds 0.5 T. On the other hand, a larger longitudinal component of the dipolar field pushes more molecules out of tunneling, then decreases the relaxation rate. Therefore, the faster magnetic relaxation rates in Mn12-tBuAc result from its smaller . Furthermore, it is found that the hereditable characteristic of the “hole digging” effect in these two SMMs is relative to the dipolar field distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the turn of the millennium, multi-phase magnetoelectric (ME) composites have been subject to attention and development, and giant ME effects have been found in laminate composites of piezoelectric and magnetostrictive layers. From an application perspective, the practical usefulness of a magnetic sensor is determined not only by the output signal of the sensor in response to an incident magnetic field, but also by the equivalent magnetic noise generated in the absence of such an incident field. Here, a short review of developments in equivalent magnetic noise reduction for ME sensors is presented. This review focuses on internal noise, the analysis of the noise contributions and a summary of noise reduction strategies. Furthermore, external vibration noise is also discussed. The review concludes with an outlook on future possibilities and scientific challenges in the field of ME magnetic sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]