Search

Gastrodia elata is an achlorophyllous and fully mycoheterotrophic orchid which obtains carbon and other nutrients from Armillaria species in its life cycle. Many researchers suggested that plant hormones, as signing molecules, play a central role in the plant-fungi interaction. In the process of Armillaria gallica 012 m cultivation, both exogenous indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) distinctly stimulated the growth of mycelia in solid media. The differential expression genes (DEGs) of A. gallica 012 m with IAA versus blank control (BK) and IBA versus BK were investigated. The results showed that more than 80% of DEGs of the IAA group were coincident with the DEGs of the IBA group, and more than half of upregulated DEGs and most of the downregulated DEGs of the IAA group coincided with those DEGs of the IBA group. Above research implied that A. gallica 012 m could perceive IAA and IBA, and possess similar responses and signaling pathways to IAA and IBA. The overlapping differential genes of the IAA group and IBA group were analyzed by GO term, and the results showed that several DEGs identified were related to biological processes including positive regulation of the biological process and biological process. The downregulated NmrA-like and FKBP_C genes might be benefit to the growth of mycelia. Those results can explain that exiguous IAA and IBA improved the growth of A. gallica to some extent. We speculate that IAA and IBA are signaling molecules, and regulate the expression of growth-related genes of A. gallica 012 m by the same signaling pathway.

Sitophilus oryzae and Sitophilus zeamais are the two main insect pests that infest stored grain worldwide. Accurate and rapid identification of the two pests is challenging because of their similar appearances. The S. zeamais adults are darker and shinier than S. oryzae in visible light. Convolutional neural network (CNN) can be applied for the effective differentiation due to its high effectiveness in object recognition.We propose a multilayer convolutional structure (MCS) feature extractor to extract insect characteristics within each layer of the CNN architecture. A region proposal network is adopted to determine the location of a potential pest in the wheat background. The precision of classification and the robustness of bounding box regression are increased by including deeper layer variables into the classification and bounding box regression subnets, as well as combining loss functions softmax and smooth L1. The proposed multilayer convolutional structure network (MCSNet) achieves the mean average precision of 87.89 ± 2.36% from the laboratory test, with an average detection speed of 0.182 ± 0.005 s per test. The model was further assessed with the field trials, and the obtained accuracy was 90.35 ± 3.12%. For all test conditions, the average precision for S. oryzae was higher than that for S. zeamais.The proposed MCSNet model has demonstrated that it is a fast and accurate method for detecting sibling species from visible light images in both laboratory and field trials. This will ultimately be applied for pest management together with an upgraded industrial camera system, which has been installed in over 100 000 grain depots of China.

Background The majority of previous studies of the clinical outcome of video‐assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) versus open lobectomy for pathological N2 non‐small cell lung cancer (pN2 NSCLC) have been single‐center experiences with small patient numbers. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate these procedures but in a large cohort of Chinese patients with pathological N2 NSCLC in real‐world conditions. Methods Patients who underwent lobectomy for pN2 NSCLC by either VATS or thoracotomy were retrospectively reviewed from 10 tertiary hospitals between January 2014 and September 2017. Perioperative outcomes and overall survival of the patients were analyzed. Cox regression analysis was performed to identify potential prognostic factors. Propensity‐score analysis was performed to reduce cofounding biases and compare the clinical outcomes between both groups. Results Among 2144 pN2 NSCLC, 1244 patients were managed by VATS and 900 by open procedure. A total of 305 (24.5%) and 344 patients died during VATS and the thoracotomy group during a median follow‐up of 16.7 and 15.6 months, respectively. VATS lobectomy patients had better overall survival when compared with those undergoing the open procedure (P, The present study aimed to investigate the clinical outcome of video‐assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) versus open lobectomy for pathological N2 non‐small cell lung cancer (pN2 NSCLC) using a large cohort of Chinese patients in real world conditions. VATS lobectomy might be a feasible alternative for pN2 NSCLC.

Scope Phaseolus vulgaris L. is rich in alpha‐amylase inhibitor and has been used for reducing glycemia and calories absorption through preventing or delaying the digestion of complex carbohydrate. A randomized, double‐blinded, placebo‐controlled study was conducted on obese volunteers to evaluate the degree of significate weight loss by regular intake Phaseolus vulgaris cultivated from Southwestern region of China. Method The volunteers were divided into two groups, homogeneous for age, gender, and body weight. Phaseolus vulgaris extract or placebo was given 2,400 mg per day before each daily meal for 35 consecutive days. Each subject's body weight, fat mass, body mass index, blood biochemical parameters, skinfold fat thickness, and waist/hip circumferences were monitored and analyzed. Result and conclusion As a result, the average amount of weight lost by the Phaseolus vulgaris extract group was 2.24 kg (average of 0.448 kg per week), compared with a 0.29 kg weight loss (average of 0.058 kg per week) in placebo group after 35 days. The differences between groups were significant (p, A Phaseolus vulgaris extract produced from Southwestern region of China reduces body weight gain in obese subjects. There is no serious side effects report following consumption of Phaseolus vulgaris extract. Phaseolus vulgaris extract has the potential to induce weight loss caused by carbohydrates through its alpha‐amylase inhibiting activity.

Nafion particles novelly doped with ruthenium (II) tris(2,2'-bipyridyl) are synthesized by using the re-precipitation method. Characterization including SEM sizing and quantification of Ru(bpy)32+ in the Nafion particles via UV-Vis spectroscopy was conducted. The synthesized Ru-Nafion particles were investigated electrochemically at both ensemble and single particle levels. Voltammetry of the drop-cast Ru-Nafion particles evidences the successful incorporation of Ru(bpy)32+ into the Nafion particle but only a small fraction of the incorporated Ru(bpy)32+ was detected due at least in part to the formation of the likely agglomerated and irregular 'mat' associated with the dropcast technique. In contrast, nano-impact experiments provided a quantitative determination of the amount of Ru(bpy)32+ in single Ru-Nafion particles. Finally, oxidation of solution phase oxalate mediated by Ru(bpy)32+ within individual Nafion particles was observed, showing the electrocatalytic properties of the Ru-Nafion particles.

BACKGROUND The most important aroma-active compounds of two types of chocolate and cocoa liquor used for their production were analysed by gas chromatography–olfactometry–mass spectrometry (GC-O-MS) and aroma extract dilution analysis (AEDA). Furthermore, the relationship between odorants and sensory perception of chocolate was measured by quantitative analysis, sensory evaluation and correlation analysis. In addition, some chemicals were added to the original dark or milk chocolate to validate their roles in the aroma property of chocolate. RESULTS A total of 32 major aroma-active compounds were identified in the chocolate with the flavour dilution factors of 27–729 by AEDA, including seven aldehydes, six pyrazines, three pyrroles, four carboxylic acids, four lactones, two alcohols, two ketones, one ester, one pyrone, one furan and one sulfur-containing compound. Further quantitative analysis showed that dark chocolate had higher contents of pyrazine, pyrrole, carboxylic acids, alcohols and Strecker aldehydes, whereas the concentration of lactones, esters, long chain aldehydes and ketones were higher in the milk type. CONCLUSION Differences in volatile composition and descriptive flavour attributes between the dark and milk chocolate were observed. The relationship between aroma-active compounds and sensory perception in the chocolate was verified. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry

The aim of this article is to provide a systematic method to perform numerical and experimental evaluation on the optical properties of Al-doped ZnO nano thin films. Some different doping density samples are deposited for testing the transmittance. The results show that the transmittance of Al-doped ZnO has a nonlinear relation with the optical constants and Al-doped quantity. The optical band gap of the Al-doped ZnO decreases with the Al doping quantity increasing. Meanwhile, the Maxwell-Garnett (MG) theory is used to investigate the optical properties of Al-doped ZnO nano thin films in visible range. The comparison can illustrate the validity of both test and design method. It implies a potential design and evaluation method for developing a new type of ceramic nano thin film in engineering.

A new type of packed glass capillary column (PGCC) with a core, and its potential usage in practice are described. The permeability of the column is considerably greater than that of conventional PGCC and its N/(Pi-Po) value is also higher. This novel PGCC column has been successfully applied to the analysis of trace levels of ethyne, cyclopropane, propadiene, propyne, and other C1C4 impurities in pure ethene, propene, 1,3-butadiene, and catalytic cracking gas samples as well as other petrochemical gases such as liquified petroleum gas.