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Salmonella is a significant foodborne zoonotic pathogen that endangers both human and animal health. The goal of this research is to gain a preliminary understanding of Salmonella contamination and antimicrobial resistance in the chicken production chain in Hubei Province, China. 1149 animal and environmental samples were collected from chicken farms, slaughterhouses, and retail markets in six cities across Hubei Province in China from 2019 to 2020, yielding Salmonella isolation rates of 4.68% (28/598), 12.21% (47/385), and 9.64% (16/166), respectively. Seventeen distinct serotypes were detected among 53 non-clonal Salmonella strains, of which Meleagridis (26.42%, 14/53) was the dominant serotype. Almost half of the strains (49.06%, 26/53) were multi-drug resistant (MDR). Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) showed that 10 resistance genes (tetA, blaTEM, parC, qnrS1, floR, aac(6′)-Iy, aph(6)-Id, aph(3″)-Ib, aac(6′)-Iaa and sul2) and 7 categories of virulence genes were present in all three links in 22 non-clonal dominant serotype strains. It was shown that Salmonella in the chicken production chain in Hubei Province had a high resistance rate to Tetracycline (TET, 73.58%), Ofloxacin (OFL, 69.81%), Florfenicol (FFC, 60.38%) and Ampicillin (AMP, 39.62%) which was consistent with the widespread use of these drugs in the husbandry industry in China. Salmonella ST types determined by MLST and serotypes determined by WGS had a one-to-one correlation. Minimum spanning tree analysis revealed that there was cross contamination of Salmonella in farms and slaughterhouses, slaughterhouses and markets, animal samples and environmental samples. This work provides useful information for the prevention and control of contamination and antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella in the chicken production chain, as well as demonstrating the dependable role of WGS in Salmonella molecular typing.

Palygorskite-rich mudstone interbedded with gypsum occurs in the Neogene Baiyanghe Formation in the Yangtaiwatan basin, northwest China, but the genesis of palygorskite in the mudstone is unclear. The objective of the present study was to clarify the manner by which the palygorskite evolved by analyzing the mineralogical and geochemical characteristics of the mudstone. The mineralogical composition of bulk-rock mudstone consisted of clay minerals, quartz, feldspar, dolomite, calcite, and gypsum. Palygorskite is dominant in the clay fraction together with illite and accessory chlorite and kaolinite. The interwoven rod-like palygorskite aggregates and delicate palygorskite particles indicated an authigenic origin. The bulk rock of palygorskite-rich mudstone was rich in the trace elements Cs, U, B, Li, Sb, Bi, and As, which, together with REE, all showed very positive correlation with major element oxides Al2O3, Fe2O3, MgO, K2O, and TiO2 of the mudstone, indicating that the REE and trace elements occurred mainly in the clay minerals. The detrital illite, chlorite, and kaolinite were the main original host of the REE and enriched trace elements. Statistical analyses showed that the authigenic palygorskite had strong affinity to such elements compared to the detrital clay minerals. In addition, the chondrite-normalized REE of the bulk mudstone showed essentially the same pattern irrespective of the proportions of detrital illite, kaolinite, chlorite, and authigenic palygorskite present in the samples. Thus, the conclusion reached was that palygorskite was generated from the dissolution of detrital clay minerals. The REE and enriched trace elements in authigenic palygorskite were inherited from the detrital clay minerals.

The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between pre-pregnancy maternal weight status and offspring physician visits for mental health conditions in childhood and adolescence. We conducted a population-based retrospective cohort study of singleton infants born between the years of 1989 and 1993 using a linkage of the Nova Scotia Atlee Perinatal Database with administrative health data. Offspring were followed from birth to age 18 years. Maternal weight status was categorized according to WHO body mass index cutoffs. The number of physician visits for any mental health condition, mood, anxiety, and adjustment disorders, conduct disorder, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) from age 0-18 years was determined from ICD codes in physician billings and hospital discharge abstract data. Negative binomial regression adjusting for sociodemographics, maternal psychiatric disorders and smoking was used to model the association. In total, 38,211 mother-offspring pairs were included in the cohort. Within the first 18 years of life, offspring of mothers with obesity had significantly more physician visits for any mental health condition [adjusted incidence rate ratio (IRR) 1.26, 95% CI 1.19-1.34], mood, anxiety, and adjustment disorders (IRR 1.16, 95% CI 1.07-1.25), conduct disorder (IRR 1.25, 95% CI 1.08-1.45), and ADHD (IRR 1.45, 95% CI 1.24-1.69) compared to mothers of normal weight. Associations for mood, anxiety, and adjustment disorders and conduct disorder were strongest at 13-18 years. Offspring of mothers with obesity appear to use health care for mental health conditions more frequently than offspring of normal weight mothers.

A nitrogen-fixing, endospore-forming bacterium, designated strain L201T was isolated from the leaves of Bryophyllum pinnatum growing in South China Agricultural University. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strain L201T is affiliated with the genus Paenibacillus, and closely related to Paenibacillus albidus Q4-3T (97.4%), Paenibacillus odorifer DSM 15391T (97.3%) and Paenibacillus borealis DSM 13188T (97.2%). The main fatty acids components was anteiso-C15:0 (48.1%). The predominant isoprenoid quinone was MK-7. The major polar lipids were found to be diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylglycerol. The G+C content of strain L201T was 43.9%. DNA–DNA relatedness between L201T and the reference strain was 29.8%. Biological and biochemical tests, protein patterns, genomic DNA fingerprinting and comparison of cellular fatty acids distinguished strain L201T from the closely related Paenibacillus species. Based on these data, the novel species Paenibacillus bryophyllum sp. nov. is proposed, with the type strain L201T(= KCTC 33951 T = GDMCC 1.1251 T).

Plasma etching is a powerful technique for transferring high-resolution lithographic patterns into HgCdTe material with low etch-induced damage, and it is important for fabricating small-pixel-size HgCdTe infrared focal plane array (IRFPA) detectors. P- to n-type conversion is known to occur during plasma etching of vacancy-doped HgCdTe; however, it is usually unwanted and its removal requires extra steps. Etching at cryogenic temperatures can reduce the etch-induced type conversion depth in HgCdTe via the electrical damage mechanism. Laser beam-induced current (LBIC) is a nondestructive photoelectric characterization technique which can provide information regarding the vertical and lateral electrical field distribution, such as defects and p–n junctions. In this work, inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching of HgCdTe was implemented at cryogenic temperatures. For an Ar/CH4 (30:1 in SCCM) plasma with ICP input power of 1000 W and RF-coupled DC bias of ∼ 25 V, a HgCdTe sample was dry-etched at 123 K for 5 min using ICP. The sample was then processed to remove a thin layer of the plasma-etched region while maintaining a ladder-like damaged layer by continuously controlling the wet chemical etching time. Combining the ladder etching method and LBIC measurement, the ICP etching-induced electrical damage depth was measured and estimated to be about 20 nm. The results indicate that ICP etching at cryogenic temperatures can significantly suppress plasma etching-induced electrical damage, which is beneficial for defining HgCdTe mesa arrays.

Several outbreaks of Streptococcus agalactiae infection of bighead carp (Aristichthys nobilis) were observed in China. The molecular epidemiology and pathogenicity of S. agalactiae in bighead carp and tilapia (Oreochromis sp.) is poorly understood. In the present study, we identified S. agalactiae strains isolated from diseased bighead carp using the API 20 Strep kit and 16S rDNA sequencing and determined whether these strains came from tilapia. Of the 46 identified S. agalactiae strains, 24 strains were successfully isolated from diseased bighead carps, 20 S. agalactiae strains were isolated from tilapia, and two S. agalactiae strains were isolated from tiger frog (Hoplobatrachus chinensis). The results of molecular typing, including multilocus sequence typing, molecular serotyping, surface protein gene detection, and virulence-related gene detection showed that the 44 strains from bighead carp and tilapia were highly similar, whereas different from tiger frog GBS strains. Remarkably, the bighead carp strain Hn1404 showed high virulence in bighead carp and zebrafish. Moreover, this strain was pathogenic to Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). In addition, comparative genomic analysis showed that isolate Hn1404 had a close relationship with the bighead carp and tilapia S. agalactiae strains. All the analyses of the genetic characteristics of bighead carp and tilapia strains showed that tilapia S. agalactiae strains could be transmitted to other fish species such as bighead carp.

The present study was performed to evaluate the effects of different concentration of rumen-protected methionine (RPMet) with a low level of crude protein (CP) using rumen simulation technology on many parameters. The experiment was assigned randomly into four treatments: (1) high protein diet (163.39 g/kg CP) without RPMet (HP); (2) low protein diet (146.33 g/kg CP) without RPMet (LP); (3) low protein diet, supplement with low RPMet (RPMet: 0.11 g/kg) (LPLMet); and (4) low protein diet, supplement with high RPMet (RPMet: 0.81 g/kg) (LPHMet), mixed with 20 g basal diet in each fermenter. Based on National Research Council (NRC) (Nutrient requirements of dairy cattle, National Academies Press, Washington, DC, 2001) recommendation for dairy ruminants HP diet was formulated as positive normal control and LP as a negative control. Results demonstrated that CP disappearance was found significantly higher (P 0.05) with LP. However, neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and gross energy (GE) were found a parallel among supplement groups compared to HP and higher than LP. Furthermore, microbial crude protein, total and short chain fatty acids were found similar in LPHMet and HP and found significantly higher than LPLMet and LP. The R. albus population of LPHMet found parallel to HP and pointedly higher than LP in a solid and liquid fraction. Daily production of ammonia nitrogen, total gas, and methane were higher in HP than LP, LPLMet, and LPHMet. Overall, results concluded that values of digestibility, rumen fermentation, microbial crude protein, and R. albus population were similar of LPHMet to that of HP group. However, production of ammonia-N, total gas, and methane volume were significantly higher in the HP group than LPLMet, LPHMet, and LP groups. In conclusion, rumen-protected methionine is a good feed supplement to low dietary protein in the level of 0.81 g/kg.

Background Increasing evidence has demonstrated that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) play a role in the construction of tumor microenvironments. Co-culture between tumor cells and MSCs provides an easy and useful platform for mimicking tumor microenvironments and identifying the important members involved in tumor progress. The long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been shown to regulate different tumorigenic processes. In this study, we aimed to examine functional lncRNA deregulations associated with breast cancer malignancy instigated by MSC-MCF-7 co-culture. Methods The microarrays were used to profile the expression changes of lncRNAs in MCF-7 cells during epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) induced by co-culture with MSCs. We found that an intergenic lncRNA KB-1732A1.1 (termed LincK, partly overlapped with GASL1) was significantly elevated. To investigate the biological function of LincK, the expression of EMT markers, cell migration, invasion, proliferation, and colony formation were evaluated in vitro and xenograft assay in nude mice were performed in vivo. Furthermore, we detected LincK expression in clinical samples using RNAscope® technology and verified aberrant expression of LincK in breast cancer data sets from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) by bioinformatic analysis. The underlying mechanisms of LincK were investigated using mRNA microarray analyses, Western blot, RNA pull down, and RNA immunoprecipitation. Results LincK induced an EMT progress in breast cancer cells (BCC) MCF-7, MDA-MB-453, and MDA-MB-231. The depletion of LincK decreased the growth, migration, and invasion in BCC, whereas the overexpression of LincK exerted the opposite effects. Moreover, knockdown of LincK repressed tumorigenesis, and ectopic expression of LincK promoted tumor growth in MCF-7 xenograft model. LincK ablation in MDA-MB-231 cells dramatically impaired lung metastasis when incubated intravenously into nude mice. Further, LincK was frequently elevated in breast cancer compared with normal breast tissue in clinical samples. Mechanistically, LincK may share common miRNA response elements with PBK and ZEB1 and regulate the effects of miR-200 s. Conclusion LincK plays a significant role in regulating EMT and tumor growth and could be a potential therapeutic target in breast cancer. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13045-019-0707-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Previewing answer-choice options before finishing reading the text is a widely employed test-taking behavior. In the present study we examined whether previewing is related to item response accuracy and response time, using data from Chinese learners of varying English proficiency levels and English native speakers. We examined eye movement patterns of participants who completed online multiple-choice sentence completion tasks, and how previewing was related to reading performance and whether the relation varied as a function of English proficiency level. The results showed that, relative to no previewing, previewing was associated with a significantly lower probability of answering an item correctly but not with significantly longer response time. Importantly, these relations varied across English proficiency levels such that participants with higher proficiency performed better without previewing, but there was no difference for lower-intermediate learners of English. These findings suggest that previewing does not facilitate performance on a sentence comprehension task, but instead interferes with the comprehension process, particularly for individuals with relatively high language proficiency.

Monomers and polymers containing electronically isolated diphenylvinyl-substituted indole rings were synthesized and characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectroscopies as well as by gel permeation chromatography. The polymers represent amorphous materials with glass transition temperatures of 91–109°C and thermal decomposition starting above 307°C. Electron photoemission spectra of thin films of the synthesized polymers revealed ionization potentials of 5.54–5.58 eV. The synthesized polymers were tested as hole-transporting materials in simple electroluminescent organic light-emitting diode (OLED) devices with tris(quinolin-8-olato)aluminium (Alq3) as an emitter as well as an electron-transporting layer. A green OLED device containing a hole-transporting layer of poly[1-(2,3-epithiopropyl)-2-methyl-3-(2,2-diphenylvinyl)indole] exhibited the best overall performance with a driving voltage of 4.0 V, maximum photometric efficiency of 2.8 cd/A and maximum brightness of about 4200 cd/m2.

In 2013, a novel disease was detected in tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus × O. aureus) in Guangzhou, South China. To identify the causative pathogen, we conducted histological examination, bacteria isolation, and purification, and sequenced the 16S rRNA gene of isolates. Infected fish had a large number of white granulomas in the kidney, liver, heart, and spleen. The head kidney and spleen were markedly swollen. A bacterium strain designated as gz201301 was recovered from the spleen of infected tilapia. The 16S rRNA sequence of gz201301 revealed that it was highly similar to F. noatunensis subsp. orientalis. This is the first report of a Francisella-like infection in farmed tilapia in China.

Twin compounds containing two phenylvinyl-substituted carbazole rings were synthesized by multi-step synthesis. The compounds were characterized by thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, and electron photoemission spectroscopy. The thermal stability of the materials was very high; initial thermal degradation temperatures were in the range 411–419°C. The glass-transition temperatures of the amorphous materials were in the range 74–119°C. Electron photoemission spectra of thin layers of the compounds revealed ionization potentials were in the range 5.05–5.45 eV. The hole-transporting properties of thin amorphous layers of the twin compounds were tested in organic light-emitting diodes with Alq3 as green emitter. The best overall performance was observed for a device based on the twin compound containing 3-[2-(4-methylphenyl)vinyl]carbazole groups; the turn-on voltage was 2.6 V, the maximum photometric efficiency 2.34 cd/A, and maximum brightness approximately 7380 cd/m2. At a brightness of 1000 cd/m2 the photometric efficiency was 23% higher than for a PEDOT:PSS-based device.

Fluorine is ubiquitous and the most active non-metal element in nature. While many microorganisms have developed fluoride resistance as a result of the widespread and prolonged application of oral hygiene products, the mechanisms used by these organisms to overcome fluoride toxicity are incompletely understood. In this study, a fluoride-resistant strain, Enterobacter cloacae FRM, was identified which could grow well at a fluoride concentration of 4,000 mg/L. According to comparative genomics, transcriptome under fluoride stress, and sequence analyses of two fluoride-resistant fosmid clones, the genomic island GI3 was found to be important for fluoride resistance. The result of quantitative RT-PCR indicated that six genes on GI3, ppaC, uspA, eno, gpmA, crcB, and orf5249, which encode a fluoride transporter, fluoride-inhibited enzymes, and a universal stress protein, reside in an operon and are transcribed into two mRNAs activated by fluoride with a fluoride riboswitch. The results of knockout and complementation experiments indicated that these genes work together to provide high fluoride resistance to E. cloacae FRM. This study clarified the resistance mechanism of this high fluoride-resistant organism and has expanded our understanding of the biological effects of fluoride.

The PAD regime, composed of bortezomib, adriamycin and dexamethasone, improves the outcomes of patients with advanced multiple myeloma (MM), but at the same time produces high frequency of serious toxic side effects. For the first time, we evaluated the efficacy and safety of a bortezomib-dose-reduced PAD regime in the treatment of relapsed/refractory MM in this clinical study. Forty-five patients were treated with two to six 21-day cycles of PAD, comprising bortezomib at 1.3 mg/m(2) (P1AD, n = 21) or 1.0 mg/m(2) (P2AD, n = 24) (days 1, 4, 8, 11), adriamycin at 9 mg/m(2) (days 1-4) and dexamethasone at 40 mg/day (days 1-4). Overall, 36 patients (80 %) showed at least partial remission (PR), in which 9 cases (20 %) showed complete remission (CR) and 10 cases (22 %) showed very good partial remission (VGPR). The efficacy of PAD regimen in advanced MM patients was not related to the traditional prognostic factors. There was no significant difference between P1AD and P2AD in the rates of PR, CR or VGPR, 1.5-year progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) (81 % vs. 79 %, 48 % vs. 38 %, 64 % vs. 59 %, and 85 % vs. 73 %, respectively). However, the grade 3-4 toxic effects, including thrombocytopenia (13 % vs. 38 %), peripheral neuropathy (8 % vs. 33 %) and 3-4 grade gastrointestinal reaction (13 % vs. 43 %), were markedly inhibited after P2AD compared to P1AD (P 0.05). The bortezomib-dose-reduced PAD regime reduced the incidence of adverse reactions without affecting the treatment efficacy in patients with advanced MM.

Embryogenic callus was obtained from young petiole, stem, and root explants of 4-year-old Siberian ginseng plants on medium supplemented with 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid. Embryogenic callus differentiated into somatic embryos (SEs), most of which could germinate but developed abnormally. Friable embryogenic callus was induced mainly from the root regions of germinated primary SEs or regenerated plantlets on plant growth regulator-free medium. Histological studies showed that the embryogenic callus initiated from the subepidermal cells of young roots. The bioreactor system was more efficient than suspension culture regarding the number and growth of SEs, although a similar amount of embryonic tissue was used. An average of 115,370 germinated SEs developed from an initial 400 mg of embryogenic callus, and 64.7 % of germinated SEs converted into plantlets after a 4-weeks culture on agar medium. During the bioreactor culture process, secondary SEs were induced directly from SEs at various stages, a phenomenon that rarely occurred in suspension culture. These secondary SEs developed quickly and germinated during the bioreactor culture process. Proline content and peroxidase and catalase activities of SEs cultured in bioreactors were higher than in SEs cultured in suspension culture.

The acaricidal activity of trans-cinnamaldehyde was evaluated in vitro on Psoroptes cuniculi. In this study, different concentrations of trans-cinnamaldehyde were tested, and the observed mites mortality was compared with that observed in untreated and treated (Acacerulen R®) controls. The morphological changes in P. cuniculi treated with trans-cinnamaldehyde were examined with light microscopy. By the analysis of variance one-way test, up to 8 μg/ml of trans-cinnamaldehyde gave highly significant (P

For the wireless sensor node integrated with photoelectric micro-power supply, the photoelectric micro-power supply (PMPS) determines their life time, stability and adaptability to the local environment. The design of PMPS involves the study related to incident light power, photoelectric conversion efficiency of solar cells, characterization of storage devices, energy management and operation state control of sensor nodes, etc. The design process of PMPS is complicated. In this study, in order to simplify the design process of the PMPS and optimize it, we analyze all of the power parameters for the PMPS for sensor nodes. According to the energy transmission modes of PMPS for sensor nodes, the design model of PMPS is established. The rationality of PMPS is verified by experiments and simulations based on wireless sensor node (Ginze3).

Temperature-insensitive fiber Bragg grating (FBG) dynamic pressure sensing based on reflection spectrum bandwidth modulation and differential optical power detection is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. A special double-hole cantilever beam is designed to induce linear strain-gradient distribution along the sensing FBG, resulting in FBG reflection spectrum symmetrical broadening and optical power increase. Based on the theory of optical waveguide and material mechanics, the causation of FBG spectrum broadening under the linear strain-gradient is analyzed, and the corresponding force-to-bandwidth broadening relation and force-to-optical power relation are formulized. FBG spectrum bandwidth and reflection optical power linearly change with applied pressure and both of them are insensitive to spatially uniform temperature variations. For a temperature range from −10°C to 80°C, the measured pressure fluctuates less than 1.8% F.S. (120 kPa) without any temperature compensation. The system acquisition time is up to about 80 Hz for dynamic pressure measurement.

The reduction of CO2 under hydrothermal conditions has been investigated. In typical experiment, Fe-powder, Ni-powder, solvent, and CO2 have been reacted in a batch-type micro autoclave under hydrothermal conditions for several hours. Methane, formic acid, and hydrogen were generated after treatment in water. With the rise of Ni amount, the methane yield increased while hydrogen and formic acid decreased. It is supposed that Ni has acted as a hydrogenation catalyst. In basic solution, CO2 was converted to formic acid selectively at 300°C involved with trace of methane. Considering the reduction characteristics of formic acid, the reaction pathway has been discussed. In experiments with the mixture of Fe and Fe3O4, trace of methanol was detected at the experiments with less amount of metallic Fe. It is inferred that the control on the effect of reductant is indispensable for oxygenated organic compound formation. Experiment on the effect of water has been conducted using hydrogen. Ethane yield increased with the amount of water, while there was no drastic change in the yield of methane. From these results, it is supposed that the steam reforming reaction of methane was involved in the reduction of CO2, and effected on the C–C bond formation.

Zebrafish pdgf-a gene was cloned and its expression pattern studied during zebrafish embryogenesis. Zebrafish pdgf-a mRNA was present at high levels in fertilized eggs as well as in all embryonic cells up to the end of gastrulation. Spatially restricted expression started after the onset of segmentation and was mainly localized in the developing central nervous system, including forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain, and the developing pharyngeal arches. Transient expression was also detected in Kupffer's vesicle, a teleost-specific structure, and in lateral trunk and tail regions surrounding the neural keel, as well as areas of the developing pronephros.

Zn- and Li-birnessites were synthesized from Na-birnessite by ion-exchange reactions. The ion-exchange reaction, chemical lithiation reaction in non-aqueous solution, and stability for these birnessites were investigated by XRD, TG-DTA, and chemical analyses. The Zn-birnessite showed greater thermal stability than Li-birnessite. The Zn- and Li-birnessites can be lithiated up to Li/Mn molar ratios of 0.45 and 1.08, respectively, by reaction in a LiI-acetonitrile solution. The lithiation of Zn-birnessite progressed by a redox topotactic reaction, but the Li-birnessite was unstable during the lithiation reaction. The lithiated Zn-birnessite showed greater thermal stability than lithiated Li-birnessite. The Zn species in the interlayer space of lithiated Zn-birnessite acts as a pillar for the stabilization of the layered structure.

This study aims to consolidate concrete waste using a CO 2 -solidification method. The CO 2 -solidification method was used to solidify milling dust of autoclaved lightweight concrete. The effects of water content, compaction pressure, curing time and reaction temperature on sample CO 2 content were investigated. The flexural strength of the solidified samples was determined by conducting four point bending tests.

We consider the type II superstring compactified on Calabi-Yau threefolds at finite temperature. The latter is implemented at the string level by a free action on the Euclidean time circle. We show that all Kahler and complex structure moduli involved in the gauge theories geometrically engineered in the vicinity of singular loci are lifted by the stringy thermal effective potential. The analysis is based on the effective gauged supergravity at low energy, without integrating out the BPS states becoming massless at the singular loci. The universal form of the action in the weak coupling regime at low enough temperature is determined in two cases. Namely the conifold locus, as well as a locus where the internal space develops a genus-g curve of A{N-1} singularities, realizing an SU(N) gauge theory coupled to g hypermultiplets in the adjoint. In general, the favored points of stabilization sit at the intersection of several singular loci. Thus the entire vector multiplet moduli space can be lifted, together with hypermultiplet moduli. The scalars are dynamically stabilized during the cosmological evolution induced by the back-reaction of the thermal effective potential. When the universe expands and the temperature T drops, the scalars converge to minima, with damped oscillations. Moreover, they store an energy density that scales as T^4, which never dominates over radiation. The reason for this is that the mass they acquire at one-loop is of order the temperature scale, which is time-dependent. As an example we analyze the type IIA compactification on a Calabi-Yau space with Hodge numbers h{11}=2 and h{12}=128. In this case, both Kahler moduli are stabilized, where the internal space develops a node and an enhanced SU(2) gauge theory coupled to 2 adjoint hypermultiplets. This shows that in the dual thermal heterotic picture on K3xT^2, the torus modulus and the axio-dilaton are stabilized., Comment: 59 pages, comments added in the introduction on how moduli stabilization by thermal effects in the early universe is related to late time moduli stabilization by non-thermal effects

We consider the cosmological evolution induced by the free energy F of a gas of maximally supersymmetric heterotic strings at finite temperature and weak coupling in dimension D>=4. We show that F, which plays the role of an effective potential, has minima associated to enhanced gauge symmetries, where all internal moduli can be attracted and dynamically stabilized. Using the fact that the heterotic/type I S-duality remains valid at finite temperature and can be applied at each instant of a quasi-static evolution, we find in the dual type I cosmology that all internal NS-NS and RR moduli in the closed string sector and the Wilson lines in the open string sector can be stabilized. For the special case of D=6, the internal volume modulus remains a flat direction, while the dilaton is stabilized. An essential role is played by light D-string modes wrapping the internal manifold and whose contribution to the free energy cannot be omitted, even when the type I string is at weak coupling. As a result, the order of magnitude of the internal radii expectation values on the type I side is (lambda_I alpha')^{1/2}, where lambda_I is the ten-dimensional string coupling. The non-perturbative corrections to the type I free energy can alternatively be described as effects of "thermal E1-instantons", whose worldsheets wrap the compact Euclidean time cycle., 39 pages, 1 figure

This article reviews 573 cases of acute pyrethroid poisoning reported in the Chinese medical literatures during 1983-1988. There were 325 cases of acute deltamethrin poisoning (occupational 158, accidental 167), 196 patients of acute fenvalerate poisoning (occupational 63, accidental 133, including 2 cases of ingestive fenvalerate-organophosphate mixture poisoning), 45 cases of acute cypermethrin poisoning (occupational 6, accidental 39) and 7 cases of other pyrethroid poisoning (occupational 2, accidental 5). The clinical manifestations have been reviewed and analysed. The diagnosis, gradation and differential diagnosis of occupational acute pyrethroid poisoning have been discussed.