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Blaps rynchopetera Fairmaire has long been used as a folk medicine by the Yi and Bai ethnic groups in China to treat fever, cough, gastritis, boils, and tumors. In the present study, the cytotoxicity of the defensive secretion (TDS) of B. rynchopetera against AGS Caco-2, HepG2 U251 and Bel-7402 was tested, and the results revealed that TDS had potent cytotoxicity against testing cells with IC50 values of 45.8, 17.4, 53.6, 98.4 and 23.4 g/mL, respectively. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis was employed to clarify the cytotoxic constituents in TDS of B. rynchopetera and five volatile compounds, including 2-ethyl-2,5-cyclohexadiene-1,4-dione (3, 31.00%), 1-tridecene (5, 28.02%), 2-methyl-2,5-cyclohexadiene-1,4-dione (2, 22.86%), hydroquinone (4, 1.33%), and p-benzoquinone (1, 1.01%), were identified. Chemical constituent investigation on TDS further supported the presence of 5 above compounds. A cytotoxic assay indicated that compounds 1, 2, 3 and 4 exhibited significant cytotoxicity against the testing cell lines, implying that benzoquinones and hydroquinone played important roles in the cytotoxicity of TDS of B. rynchopetera. TDS is a cytotoxic natural material and further studies investigating mechanisms and inhibitory activities on other cell lines is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to analyze the relationship of nonlinear, coupling, delay between crop transpiration rate and greenhouse environment parameters, the time series of greenhouse environment parameters:air temperature, air humidity, soil temperature, solar radiation, leaf temperature, and soil moisture were used as inputs, and the transpiration rate of cucumber was used as output. The low-frequency and high-frequency time series by the method of wavelet decomposition-reconstruction were used to establish the prediction models of nonlinear autoregressive with external input (NARX) dynamic neural sub networks respectively, and the predicted value of the subnets were accumulated as the predicted value of transpiration rate of cucumber. The results showed that: the regression coefficients (R2) between predicted values by the subnets based on the time series of low-frequency A1 and high-frequency D1 by one layer of wavelet decomposition-reconstruction and the target value of transpiration rate by decomposition-reconstruction were 0.949 and 0.853 respectively, and the mean absolute error(MAE)were 5.36 and 2.00 g.h-1 respectively. The regression coefficients between predicted values by the subnets based on the time series of low-frequency A2 and high-frequency D2 by two layers of wavelet decomposition-reconstruction and the target value of transpiration rate by decomposition-reconstruction were 0.983 and 0.849 respectively, and the MAE were 2.88 and 2.56 g.h-1 respectively. The regression coefficient between accumulated predictive values (A1+D1) by the NARX dynamic neural sub networks based on the time series of low-frequency A1 and high-frequency D1 by one layer of wavelet decomposition-reconstruction and the measured value of transpiration rate was 0.945, and the MAE was 5.76 g.h-1. The regression coefficient between accumulated predictive values (A2+D2+D1) by the NARX dynamic neural sub networks based on the time series of low-frequency A2 and high-frequency D2 and D1 by two layers of wavelet decomposition-reconstruction and the measured value of transpiration rate was 0.974, and the MAE was 4.42 g.h-1. The regression coefficients between predicted value of the original time series by the NARX dynamic neural network and the measured value of transpiration rate was 0.857, and the MAE was 10.09 g.h-1. Synthetic time series of low-frequency and high-frequency time series of forecast, can improve the accuracy of time series prediction. The regression coefficients between predicted value of the original time series by the BP neural network and NAR neural network under the same network structure and the measured value of transpiration rate were 0.596 and 0.839 respectively, and the MAE were 19.55 and 9.45 g.h-1 respectively. The forecast performance of NARX was better than NAR and BP neural network, which can forecast the transpiration rate of cucumber in the greenhouse accurately. This method can be extended up to predict the parameters for the multivariable, nonlinear, strong coupling and delay system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obesity exhibits a wide variety of electrocardiogram (ECG) abnormalities in adults, which often lead to cardiovascular events. However, there is currently no evidence of an association between obesity and ECG variables in children and adolescents. The present study aimed to explore the associations between obesity and ECG intervals and axes in children and adolescents. A cross-sectional observational study of 5,556 students aged 5-18 years was performed. Anthropometric data, blood pressure and standard 12-lead ECGs were collected for each participant. ECG variables were measured manually based on the temporal alignment of simultaneous 12 leads using a CV200 ECG Work Station. Overweight and obese groups demonstrated significantly longer PR intervals, wider QRS durations and leftward shifts of frontal P-wave, QRS and T-wave axes, while the obese group also demonstrated significantly higher heart rates, compared with normal weight groups within normotensive or hypertensive subjects (P<0.05). Abdominal obesity was also associated with longer PR intervals, wider QRS duration and a leftward shift of frontal ECG axes compared with normal waist circumference (WC) within normotensive or hypertensive subjects (P<0.05). Gender was a possible factor affecting the ECG variables. Furthermore, the ECG variables, including PR interval, QRS duration and frontal P-wave, QRS and T-wave axes, were significantly linearly correlated with body mass index, WC and waist-to-height ratio adjusted for age, gender, ethnicity and blood pressure. However, there was no significant association between obesity and the corrected QT interval (P>0.05). The results of the current study indicate that in children and adolescents, general and abdominal obesity is associated with longer PR intervals, wider QRS duration and a leftward shift of frontal P-wave, QRS and T-wave axes, independent of age, gender, ethnicity and blood pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dense Cr2O3/Al2O3 composite coating was fabricated on 321L stainless steel by electrodepositing an Al2O3 layer on a Cr2O3 coating. The composition, structure, and properties of the obtained ceramic coating were investigated. The results showed that Al2O3 fully infiltrated the Cr2O3 coating and significantly improved the compactness of the ceramic coating by filling in the pores and cracks between the Cr2O3 grains. The composite ceramic coating was heat-treated at 750 °C and exhibited a high microhardness of 219.4 HV500g, a bonding strength of 46.5 MPa, and excellent anti-corrosion and deuterium permeation suppression properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the ratio of Th17 cells and CD4⁺CD25⁺Foxp3⁺ regulatory T (Treg) cells in peripheral blood from patients with multiple myeloma (MM) and explore its pathological effects., Methods: 70 MM patients were divided into three groups: newly diagnosed group (n=30), plateau stage group (n=23) and relapsed/refractory group (n=17). The controls consisted of 20 healthy donors. The frequencies of Th17 and Treg cells were detected by flow cytometry., Results: Compared with controls [(0.72±0.33)%] and plateau stage group [(0.74±0.29)%], frequencies of Th17 cells were higher in newly diagnosed group [(1.62±0.65)%] and relapsed/refractory group [(1.45±0.51)%], respectively (P<0.05). Compared with controls [(2.33±0.90)%] and plateau stage group [(1.69±0.70)%], frequencies of Treg cells were significantly lower in newly diagnosed group [(0.55±0.23)%] and relapsed/refractory group [(0.82±0.54)%], respectively (P<0.05). The ratios of Th17/Treg in newly diagnosed group and relapsed/refractory group were higher than those in controls (P<0.05). There were no differences of the frequencies of CD3⁺CD4⁺ T cells and Th17 cells between plateau stage group and controls. The frequencies of Treg cells were significantly lower in plateau stage group than that in controls (P<0.05), and the ratio of Th17/Treg was significantly higher in plateau stage group than that in controls (P<0.05)., Conclusion: The remarkable abnormality of T cells subsets was reduction of CD4⁺ T cells in MM. Higher frequency of Th17 and lower ratio of Treg could lead to imbalance of Th17/Treg, which may play a critical role in the pathogenesis of MM.

This study was purposed to investigate the ratio of Th17 cells and CD4(+)CD25(+)Foxp3(+) regulatory T (Treg) cells in peripheral blood of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and to explore their roles in the pathogenesis and clinical diagnosis. Based on the number of peripheral lymphocytes and treatment condition, the CLL patients were divided into 2 groups: untreated group (n = 30) and remission group (n = 15), the healthy control group (n = 20) was set up as well. The frequencies of Th17 and Treg cells of all cases were detected by flow cytometry (FCM). The results showed that frequencies of CD3(+)CD4(+)T cells and Th17 cells were significantly higher in untreated group than that in healthy control group (P < 0.05), the frequencies of CD3(+)CD8(+)T cells and Treg cells were significantly lower in untreated group than that in healthy control group (P < 0.05), the ratio of Th17/Treg was significantly higher in untreated group than that in healthy control group (P < 0.05). The frequencies of Th17 were not statistically different between remission and healthy control groups, the frequencies of Treg cells were significantly lower in remission group than that in healthy control group (P < 0.05), the ratio of Th17/Treg was significantly higher in remission group than that in healthy control group (P < 0.05), frequencies of Th17 cells were markedly lower in remission group than that in untreated group (P < 0.05). It is concluded that Th17/Treg imbalance exists in patients with CLL, which may play a key role in pathogenesis and development of CLL.