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This study aimed to assess the clinical characteristics affecting outcomes after immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) therapies in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, and the underlying mechanism in tumor immune micro-environment (TIME).A total of 144 patients treated with ICI-based strategies were retrospectively analyzed. Expression of 10 immune antibodies in tumor tissues from other 60 untreated NSCLC patients were sequentially tested using multiplexed immunofluorescence (mIF) staining method. Correlation of clinical characteristics with ICI treatment outcomes and TIME characteristics were analyzed.Multivariate logistic and cox regression indicated that BoM negatively affected disease control rate (OR = 0.32, 95%CI: 0.13-0.82, P = 0.018), progression free survival (HR = 3.44, 95% CI:1.97-6.00, P 0.001) and overall survival (HR = 3.24, 95% CI:1.62-6.50, P = 0.001), irrespective of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression. BoM patients were with significantly lower PD-L1, and this heterogeneity of TIME was then confirmed in the mIF staining, where 36 (61.0%) patients were clustered into immune-subtype A, with low expression of all the detected immune markers, similar to "cold" tumors, and 23 (39.0%) in cluster B with likely "hot" tumors. More patients in immune-subtype A were non-smokers (63.9% vs. 39.1% P = 0.063), with BoM (66.7% vs. 21.7%, P = 0.001), in stage IV(88.9% vs. 65.2%, P = 0.045), and with adenocarcinoma (91.7% vs. 69.6%, P = 0.037). Multivariate logistic regression indicated that BoM was independently associated with the "cold" immune characteristics (OR = 0.19, 95% CI:0.04-0.84, P = 0.028). Combination therapy with chemotherapy /antiangiogenesis or use of bisphosphonate during ICI treatment significantly improved clinical outcomes in BoM patients.BoM displays adverse impact on clinical outcomes after ICI treatments in NSCLC patients. The "cold" characteristics of TIME may be the underlying mechanism for the attenuated efficacy of ICIs in bone metastatic NSCLC patients.

As one of the key technologies for intensive additive repair (i.e., using a type of powder to repair various substrates), the method of accurately predicting the strength of repaired samples based on the chemical composition of filling materials and base materials needs to be explored urgently. An intensive additive repair experiment based on the laser coaxial powder feeding cladding technology was carried out using an independently designed intensive high-strength martensitic stainless steel (IHMSS) powder and eight types of substrates. A new approach was presented: the distance between the composition points of the IHMSS powder and the substrate to be repaired, as shown in Schaeffler's diagram (D), and their orientation relationship (θ) can provide a basis for describing the bonding strength of the repaired interface between the aforementioned materials. With the increase in D and θ, the ratios of tensile strength and elongation of additive repair parts to those of base materials decreased. When θ was below 1.12, the tensile strength of repaired interface in the normal direction was more than 83% that of the substrate to be repaired. Incomplete fusion and cracks were found on the cross section of the additive parts when θ exceeded 1.12. When D exceeded 13%, a high microhardness phase was formed near the interface. Further analysis results show that, with the increase in D and θ, the gradients of microstructure, composition, and microhardness at the repaired interface will be increased.

By taking molybdenum (Mo) having favorable metallurgical compatibility with both titanium and iron as the interlayer material, the butt joint of TA1/Q235B layered bimetallic sheet with thickness of 6 mm was prepared by utilizing narrow gap multi-pass laser welding with low heat input. Mo generally can favorably isolate Ti from Fe, meanwhile the transition zone of Mo and steel adjacent to Mo interlayer was softened according to the results of microhardness test. The results of face bending testing showed that the softened zone was beneficial to the mechanical properties of the welded joint, which could restrict the crack propagation along the interface of Mo/steel in fusion zone so that fracture appeared in the BM side. The microstructures of the softened zone exhibited a low dislocation density observed by a transmission electron microscope (TEM), which may be the main reason leading to a low microhardness. In additon, Mo interlayer was confined in a small zone, which only accounted for about 6.5% of the total area of cross section of the fusion zone while a small amount of FeTi and λ brittle intermetallic compounds (IMCs) still appeared around the Mo/steel interface in fusion zone. The tensile strength of the welded joint was 467 MPa, which took up about 93% that of base metal. The results of this paper will help guide endeavours for the fabrication of pipes and containers made of Ti/steel bimetallic sheets.

MBLS10A-200 magnesium-lithium (Mg-Li) alloy is a novel ultralight material, with the density, tensile strength and elongation rate of 1.5 g/cm3, 160 MPa and 60%, respectively. At present, the material is increasingly widely applied in structures with complex shapes of various fields such as aeronautics, astronautics and electronic engineering. At present, the industrial circle has put forward increasingly urgent demand for the welding technique of MBLS10A-200 alloy and the protection technology for corrosion resistance of the welded joints of the alloy. However, related research is rarely reported. Laser welding of MBLS10A-200 Mg-Li alloy with 5 mm in thickness was studied to further obtain the butt joint, with the elongation rate of about 54% and the same strength as base metal (BM). Moreover, the corrosion resistance of laser welded joint was detected by using electrochemistry method. During the experiment, it can be found that the corrosion resistance of metals in the welded seam zone (WSZ) was far higher than that of the BM. The corrosion current density of metals in WSZ was about 10-5 A/cm2, which declined by two orders of magnitude compared with BMs which were about 10-7 A/cm2 and the charge transfer resistance of welded seam zone increased by 4.8 times compared with BMs.

In Part Ⅰ of this series, it can be found that the corrosion resistance of metals in the welded seam zone (WSZ) was far higher than that of the base metal (BM) of MBLS10A-200 Mg-Li alloy. Therefore, the feasibility of improving the corrosion resistance of MBLS10A-200 Mg-Li alloy through laser surface melting (LSM) was further explored. Meanwhile, laser shock peening (LSP) treatment was also used for contrast. The results showed that the surface melted zone with the corrosion resistance through LSM superior to that of metals in WSZ of MBLS10A-200 alloy through laser welding can be prepared by controlling heat input through increasing the scanning speed of laser beam, while LSP has limited impact on the electrochemical corrosion resistance of MBLS10A-200 alloy. The corrosion current density (Jcorr) of the samples subjected LSM declined by two orders of magnitude compared with the base metal (BM) while the charge transfer resistance increased by 17 times compared with BM. An analysis indicated that owing to the fast cooling rate during laser processing, the multi-phase microstructures (i.e. α phase, β phase and Li2MgAl) of BM were transformed into β single-phase microstructure in WSZ and surface melted zone. In this way, not only solid solution strengthening of the metals in WSZ was realized but also the micro-galvanic coupling generated due to the difference of electric potentials of multi-phase microstructures were reduced, thus improving the corrosion resistance of surface melted zone.

Lung cancer organoids (LCOs) have sprung up in more and more researching fields, because of their ability to recapitulate the three-dimensional structure and functions of the in vivo counterpart organs. However, the culture system for LCOs is still immature, resulting in limited success rate and low tumor purity when culturing LCOs. This is mainly due to the deficiency of an optimal formula of culture medium specially for LCOs. Various cytokines and small molecules have been added in the LCOs culturing system. Compound screening, considering both the mechanism of these molecules and the complexity of lung cancer types is warranted to optimize LCOs culture medium. As methods to culture LCOs increase in sophistication, this model will undoubtedly stand its ground in the coming years in every aspect of cancer researches, especially with major advantages in the field of personalized medicine and tumor microenvironment researches.

The in vivo determination of selenomethionine (SeMet) converted from selenium-enriched yeast (SeY) rather than the determination of in vitro hydrolyzed SeMet is a better parameter for the evaluation of SeY quality. A UPLC-MS/MS method was developed for the quantification of SeMet in rat plasma and the oral bioavailability of SeMet converted from SeY in rats. After a simple extraction with perchloric acid, SeMet and the internal standard methylselenocysteine (MSC) were separated on a C18 column with isocratic elution of water:acetonitrile:formic acid (99:1:0.1, v/v/v) and detected in the multiple reaction monitoring mode. The method was accurate (92.6-104.3%) and precise (1.8-11.0%), and the recovery was 79.4-95.4%. It was successfully applied to pharmacokinetic and bioavailability studies of SeY in rats following the intravenous administration of SeMet and intragastric administration of SeY. SeMet in vivo, converted from SeY, is reported for the first time, and the results suggested that the SeY bioavailability in rats is 87%.

The ecosystems of China seas and coasts are undergoing rapid changes under the strong influences of both global climate change and anthropogenic activities. To understand the scope of these changes and the mechanisms behind them is of paramount importance for the sustainable development of China, and for the establishment of national policies on environment protection and climate change mitigation. Here we provide a brief review of the impacts of global climate change and human activities on the oceans in general, and on the ecosystems of China seas and coasts in particular. More importantly, we discuss the challenges we are facing and propose several research foci for China seas/coasts ecosystem studies, including long-term time series observations on multiple scales, facilities for simulation study, blue carbon, coastal ecological security, prediction of ecosystem evolution and ecosystem-based management. We also establish a link to the Future Earth program from the perspectives of two newly formed national alliances, the China Future Ocean Alliance and the Pan-China Ocean Carbon Alliance.

The relationship between microscopic parameters and polymer charging caused by defocused electron beam irradiation is investigated using a dynamic scattering-transport model. The dynamic charging process of an irradiated polymer using a defocused 30 keV electron beam is conducted. In this study, the space charge distribution with a 30 keV non-penetrating e-beam is negative and supported by some existing experimental data. The internal potential is negative, but relatively high near the surface, and it decreases to a maximum negative value at z = 6 μm and finally tend to 0 at the bottom of film. The leakage current and the surface potential behave similarly, and the secondary electron and leakage currents follow the charging equilibrium condition. The surface potential decreases with increasing beam current density, trap concentration, capture cross section, film thickness and electron–hole recombination rate, but with decreasing electron mobility and electron energy. The total charge density increases with increasing beam current density, trap concentration, capture cross section, film thickness and electron–hole recombination rate, but with decreasing electron mobility and electron energy. This study shows a comprehensive analysis of microscopic factors of surface charging characteristics in an electron-based surface microscopy and analysis.

a Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing Institute of Heart Lung and Blood Vessel Diseases, The Key Laboratory of Remodeling-related Cardiovascular Diseases, Ministry of Education, Department of Atherosclerosis, 2 Anzhen Road, ChaoYang District, Beijing 100029, China b Department of Radiology, The China–Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing 100029, China c Department of Cardiac Surgery, Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, 2 Anzhen Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100029, China d Department of Imaging, Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, 2 Anzhen Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100029, China e Department of Emergency, Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, 2 Anzhen Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100029, China f National Engineering Laboratory for Druggable Gene and Protein Screening, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, Jilin, China g Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China

Objective The purpose of the present study was to assess the efficacy of the long-term results after video-assisted pulmonary vein isolation and left atrial appendage excision for lone atrial fibrillation (AF) and to determine the most significant risk factors for the long-term results. Methods From December 2006 to December 2012, 332 consecutive patients with lone AF underwent minimally invasive surgical ablation at our center. Of the 332 patients, 91, who had undergone video-assisted pulmonary vein isolation >5 years earlier, were evaluated in the present study (48 with paroxysmal AF, 21 with persistent AF, and 22 with long-standing persistent AF). The median follow-up period was 66 months. The primary endpoint was the success rate of video-assisted pulmonary vein isolation, defined as the absence of any atrial arrhythmia recurrence lasting >30 seconds at the clinical visit and on the electrocardiogram or long-term cardiac rhythm recording after discharge. Results During the follow-up period, 1 patient (1.1%) experienced a stroke and 4 (4.4%) died of noncardiac disease. At the 5-year follow-up point, 43 of 78 patients (55.1%) were in normal sinus rhythm. Of the 39 patients with paroxysmal AF and 39 with nonparoxysmal AF, 27 (69.2%) and 16 (44.1%) were in normal sinus rhythm, respectively. The results of the univariate and multivariate analyses of the preoperative risk factors for AF recurrence showed a left atrial diameter of ≥44 mm (hazard ratio, 5.56; 95% confidence interval, 1.68-18.387; P = .005) and an AF duration of ≥31.5 months (hazard ratio, 3.67; 95% confidence interval, 1.50-8.95; P = .004) were the most significant independent risk factors. Conclusions Patients with lone AF with a large preoperative left atrial diameter and long AF duration will not be suitable for video-assisted pulmonary vein isolation alone and might need to undergo ablation of the lesions.

In this work, we studied the catalytic kinetics of the alliin/alliinase system using a fiber-optic in situ monitoring system (fiber-optic drug dissolution test system, FODT) to explore the application of a fiber-optic sensor analysis technique in the process of monitoring catalytic kinetics. According to Lambert–Beer's law and with the assistance of the computational relationship of alliin, allicin and pyruvate, we established two mathematical models, including obtaining the absorptivity of each substance in the reaction and looking at the products as a whole. According to the UV spectra of alliin, alliinase, sodium pyruvate, an allicin solution and the analyte corresponding to the allicin peak extracted from an HPLC/PDA chromatogram, an optical probe with a 5-mm gap was chosen for the measurement, and 230 nm was chosen as the detection wavelength during the catalysis reaction. Then, we determined the value of every parameter in the mathematical model at 230 nm and recorded the information into the workstation. A certain concentration of alliinase was well-mixed with a series of alliin solutions in the volume ratio 1:1, and the concentration variation of alliin was monitored in real time. The maximum reaction rates for various concentrations of the substrate were obtained using Origin 7.5 software. To this end, a double-reciprocal plot was used to calculate the parameters of the catalytic kinetics of the alliin/alliinase system, including the Michaelis constant ( K m ) and the maximum velocity ( V max ), which was compared to HPLC results.

Air-exposed silver surface is investigated in a multifunctional ultrahigh vacuum system to find out the quantitative relation between thermal treatment and the electron-induced secondary electron yield (SEY). Silver-coated samples are heated in the range of about 100–320 °C for up to 120 min, and thermal desorption is characterized. The SEY is then measured in situ as a function of primary electron energy. The maximum SEY is found to decrease almost linearly with the increase in the logarithmic thermal desorption amount determined by the heating time in a designed process. Reduction of SEY also shows a linear relationship with sample temperature in the observed range. Residual gas analysis demonstrates that the SEY reduction depends strongly on the rapid water desorption. In combination with the results of Ar-ion cleaning and Monte Carlo simulation, this work provides a new insight into the SEY variation due to surface desorption of different gases.

Background Peripheral blood-based gene expression patterns have been investigated as biomarkers to monitor the immune system and rule out rejection after heart transplantation. Recent advances in the high-throughput deep sequencing (HTS) technologies provide new leads in transcriptome analysis. Methods By performing Solexa/Illumina's digital gene expression (DGE) profiling, we analyzed gene expression profiles of PBMCs from 6 quiescent (grade 0) and 6 rejection (grade 2R&3R) heart transplant recipients at more than 6months after transplantation. Subsequently, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was carried out in an independent validation cohort of 47 individuals from three rejection groups (ISHLT, grade 0,1R, 2R&3R). Results Through DGE sequencing and qPCR validation, 10 genes were identified as informative genes for detection of cardiac transplant rejection. A further clustering analysis showed that the 10 genes were not only effective for distinguishing patients with acute cardiac allograft rejection, but also informative for discriminating patients with renal allograft rejection based on both blood and biopsy samples. Moreover, PPI network analysis revealed that the 10 genes were connected to each other within a short interaction distance. Conclusions We proposed a 10-gene signature for heart transplant patients at high-risk of developing severe rejection, which was found to be effective as well in other organ transplant. Moreover, we supposed that these genes function systematically as biomarkers in long-time allograft rejection. Further validation in broad transplant population would be required before the non-invasive biomarkers can be generally utilized to predict the risk of transplant rejection.

Combined effects of sample parameters on polymer charging due to electron irradiation are explored by a novel approach of contour in parallel computing. Transient processes of negative charging of a Kapton film sample irradiated by 10 keV electrons are simulated with a simultaneous scattering-transport model and the existing experimental secondary electron current. As a function of sample thickness and electron mobility, the contour maps are then presented of the steady-state leakage current and surface potential and the total charge accumulated in a charging process. It is found that the leakage current and surface potential behave similarly in the contour form, and the total charge has the local maximum with respect to the sample thickness. Generally, the sample thickness affects the charging process more than the electron mobility, but both have less influence in very strong and weak charging states. Accompanied by discussion of charge dissipation effects, this study offers a comprehensive insight into complicated charging phenomena in electron-based surface microscopy, analysis and measurement.

Chronic inflammation plays an important role in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) development and progression. Aim of this study is to determine whether inflammation-related parameters predict distant metastasis in NPC patients.335 newly diagnosed non-metastatic NPC patients were recruited. The values of the C-reactive protein (CRP), lactate dehydrogenase, albumin, globulin, white blood cell and neutrophil at baseline were measured.Among the above six parameters, only CRP was independently associated with distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS). CRP concentration of advanced T-/TNM-classification patients was higher than those with early classification (P = 0.001). Higher-CRP (CRP ⩾ 2.46 mg/L) predicted shorter overall survival, disease-free survival and DMFS than lower-CRP (CRP2.46 mg/L). In a multivariable model, higher-CRP and advanced N-classification were independent predictors of distant metastasis. On the basis of these two parameters, a prognostic NC-model was developed as following: (1) low-risk (early N-classification and lower-CRP); (2) intermediate-risk (advanced N-classification or higher-CRP) and (3) the high-risk distant metastasis (advanced N-classification and higher-CRP). When compared with the low-risk group, the hazard ratios (HRs) for distant metastasis and death for the intermediate-/high-risk patients were 3.6/16.1 and 2.26/7.61, respectively (both P0.001).We developed a new prognostic model based on CRP and N-classification for predicting distant metastasis and death of NPC patients, which may facilitate patient counselling and individualised treatment.

Recently, an algorithm, namely recursive reduced least squares support vector regression (RR-LSSVR), was proposed to reduce the number of support vectors, which demonstrates better sparseness compared with other algorithms. However, it does not consider the effects between the previously selected support vectors and the will-selected ones during the selection process. Actually, they are not independent. Hence, in this paper, an improved scheme, named as IRR-LSSVR, is proposed to update the support weights immediately when a new sample is selected as support vector. As a result, the training sample leading to the largest reduction in the target function is chosen to construct the approximation subset. To show the efficacy and feasibility of our proposed IRR-LSSVR, a lot of experiments are done, which are all favorable for our viewpoints. That is, the IRR-LSSVR needs less number of support vectors to reach the almost same generalization performance as RR-LSSVR, which is beneficial to reducing the testing time and favorable for the realtime.

Although kernel minimum squared error (KMSE) is computationally simple, i.e., it only needs solving a linear equation set, it suffers from the drawback that in the testing phase the computational efficiency decreases seriously as the training samples increase. The underlying reason is that the solution of Naive KMSE is represented by all the training samples in the feature space. Hence, in this paper, a method of selecting significant nodes for KMSE is proposed. During each calculation round, the presented algorithm prunes the training sample making least contribution to the objective function, hence called as PLOC-KMSE. To accelerate the training procedure, a batch of so-called nonsignificant nodes is pruned instead of one by one in PLOC-KMSE, and this speedup algorithm is named MPLOC-KMSE for short. To show the efficacy and feasibility of the proposed PLOC-KMSE and MPLOC-KMSE, the experiments on benchmark data sets and real-world instances are reported. The experimental results demonstrate that PLOC-KMSE and MPLOC-KMSE require the fewest significant nodes compared with other algorithms. That is to say, their computational efficiency in the testing phase is best, thus suitable for environments having a strict demand of computational efficiency. In addition, from the performed experiments, it is easily known that the proposed MPLOC-KMSE accelerates the training procedure without sacrificing the computational efficiency of testing phase to reach the almost same generalization performance. Finally, although PLOC and MPLOC are proposed in regression domain, they can be easily extended to classification problem and other algorithms such as kernel ridge regression.

In this paper, a fast method of selecting features for kernel minimum squared error (KMSE) is proposed to mitigate the computational burden in the case where the size of the training patterns is large. Compared with other existent algorithms of selecting features for KMSE, this iterative KMSE, viz. IKMSE, shows better property of enhancing the computational efficiency without sacrificing the generalization performance. Experimental reports on the benchmark data sets, nonlinear autoregressive model and real problem address the efficacy and feasibility of the proposed IKMSE. In addition, IKMSE can be easily extended to classification fields.

Image quality of MeV transmission electrons is an important factor for both observation and electron tomography of microns-thick specimens with the high voltage electron microscope (HVEM) and the ultra-HVEM. In this work, we have investigated image quality of a tilted thick specimen by experiment and analysis. In a 3 MV ultra-HVEM, we obtained transmission electron images in amplitude contrast of 100 nm gold particles on the top surface of a tilted 5 microm thick amorphous epoxy-resin film. From line profiles of the images, we then measured and evaluated image blurring, contrast, and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) under different effective thicknesses of the tilted specimen and accelerating voltages of electrons. The variation of imaging blurring was consistent with the analysis based on multiple elastic scattering. When the effective thickness almost tripled, image blurring increased from approximately 3 to approximately 20 nm at the accelerating voltage of 3 MV. For the increase of accelerating voltage from 1 to 3 MV in the condition of the 14.6 microm effective thickness, due to the reduction of multiple scattering effects, image blurring decreased from approximately 54 to approximately 20 nm, and image contrast and SNR were both obviously enhanced by a factor of approximately 3 to preferable values. The specimen thickness was shown to influence image quality more than the accelerating voltage. Moreover, improvement on image quality of thick specimens due to increasing the accelerating voltage would become less when it was further increased from 2 to 3 MV in this work.

Space charge and surface potential profiles are investigated with numerical simulation for dielectric films of SiO2 positively charged by a focused electron beam. By combining the Monte Carlo method and the finite difference method, the simulation is preformed with a newly developed comprehensive two-dimensional model including electron scattering, charge transport and trapping. Results show that the space charge is distributed positively, like a semi-ellipsoid, within a high-density region of electrons and holes, but negatively outside the region due to electron diffusion along the radial and beam incident directions. Simultaneously, peak positions of the positive and negative space charge densities shift outwards or downwards with electron beam irradiation. The surface potential, along the radial direction, has a nearly flat-top around the center, abruptly decreases to negative values outside the high-density region and finally increases to zero gradually. Influences of electron beam and film parameters on the surface potential profile in the equilibrium state are also shown and analyzed. Furthermore, the variation of secondary electron signal of a large-scale integration sample positively charged in scanning electron microscopic observation is simulated and validated by experiment.

Multiple scattering has an important influence on the analysis of microns-thick specimens with MeV electrons. In this paper, we report on effects of multiple scattering of MeV electrons on electron transmission and imaging of tilted and thick amorphous film specimens by experiment and theoretical analysis. Electron transmission for microns-thick epoxy-resin and SiO 2 specimens calculated by the multiple elastic-scattering theory is in good agreement with measurements in the ultrahigh voltage electron microscope (ultra-HVEM) at Osaka University. Electron transmission and electron energy are then presented in an approximate power law. The bright-field ultra-HVEM images of gold particles on the top or bottom surfaces of 5 and 15 μm thick specimens further illustrate the effect of multiple scattering on image quality. The observed top‐bottom effect for the very thick specimens appears to be mainly caused by multiple elastic scattering. With increase in the accelerating voltage from 1 to 2 MV, image blurring, contrast, the signal-to-noise ratio, and the top‐bottom effect are improved because of reduction in the influence of multiple scattering. However, the effect of specimen thickness on image blurring is shown to be stronger than that of accelerating voltage. At the 2 MV accelerating voltage, the 100 nm gold particle can be imaged with less blurring of ∼4 nm when located at the bottom surface of a 15 μm thick epoxy-resin specimen.

A stabilized nodal integration technique is adopted by adding the square of the residual of the equilibrium equation to the potential energy functional. An approach is proposed based on Voronoi diagram to evaluate nodal volumes accurately. It is a key issue for nodal integration of Galerkin meshless methods. Furthermore, as the dual of Voronoi diagram, the corresponding Delaunay triangles are at hand provided Voronoi diagram construction is completed. A realistic technique is proposed based on background Delaunay triangles for post-processing of meshless results in the whole domain of interest. Two elastic stress analysis problems are investigated, which demonstrate the approach is realistic, versatile and robust.

In order to explore the relationship between the phosphorylation of D1 protein and the function of PSII reaction center, the changes in chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, PSII electron transport activity and D1 protein amount were observed after dephosphorylation of phosphorylated D1 proteins caused by FSBA (5′- p -fluorosulfonylbenzoyl adenosine, an inhibitor of protein kinase) treatment. Also, phosphorylated and non-phosphorylated D1 proteins (D1* and D1, respectively) were analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and Western Blotting. The following results were obtained. (1) D1* could be up to 74% of the total D1 proteins in dark-adapted soybean leaves and could be completely dephosphorylated by FSBA (1 mM) treatment for 2 h. (2) Dephosphorylation of D1* resulted in neither substantial net loss of D1 proteins nor the significant changes in value of chlorophyll fluorescence parameters. (3) The electron transport activity of PS II (H 2 O→1,4-BQ) was not changed significantly after D1* was completely dephosphorylated. Based on these results, it is concluded that D1 protein phosphorylation/dephosphorylation alone has no significant effect on the function of PS II reaction center in soybean leaves.

Based on Pb-I phase diagram, phase transition of PbI2 immiscible melt (L2 + L3) was analyzed. It indicates that PbI2 crystal growth is accompanied with precipitation of excessive Pb. Hereby, with an improved growth ampoule, an intact and translucent PbI2 crystal was growth by vertical Bridgman technique. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis shows that the structure of the grown crystal is 2H with hexagonal space group ( P 3 ¯ m 1 ). Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) microanalysis shows the precipitated material is 100% Pb. The experimental results accord with the phase transition analysis and indicate a convenient way to grow single crystals from immiscible melt.

The routine modelling method for GM(1,1) grey model is described in details and its disadvantages are pointed out. The annealing evolution algorithm derived from simulated annealing and combined with the strategy of evolution in the genetic algorithm is applied to GM(1,1) modelling, and the uniform design method is adopted in the algorithm to optimize the important parameters N (the population), L (the length of Markov chain) and K (the total cooling step). The least sum of absolute deviations is considered as optimizing function and a robust GM(1,1) grey model is achieved. Considering the quality of results and time consumption for calculation, the optimized parameters are as follows: N =10, L =5, K =20, λ =4, α =0.9. The proposed method is applied to the study on the relationship between capacity factors of six polyaromatic hydrocarbons and the composition of the mobile phase in reverse-phase liquid chromatography and satisfactory results may be obtained even a set of abnormal data with an outlier exists.