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Premise of the Study We isolated and characterized 16 expressed sequence tag–simple sequence repeat (EST‐SSR) markers in Itea chinensis (Iteaceae), a common evergreen broadleaf tree, for future studies on the genetic diversity and spatial genetic structure of the species. Methods and Results Based on transcriptome data of I. chinensis, a total of 36 primer pairs were initially designed and tested. Of these, 16 were successfully amplified and showed clear polymorphism. For these markers, the number of alleles per locus varied from two to 15. The observed and expected heterozygosity ranged from 0 to 0.600 and 0.072 to 0.554, respectively. Furthermore, all loci were successfully cross‐amplified in two congeneric species, I. oblonga and I. yangchunensis. Conclusions The EST‐SSR markers described here can be used to study the genetic diversity and phylogeographic patterns of I. chinensis and other related species in Itea.

A method based on the QuEChERS (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe) purification combined with ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC–MS/MS), was optimized for the simultaneous quantification of 25 mycotoxins in cereals. Samples were extracted with a solution containing 80% acetonitrile and 0.1% formic acid, and purified with QuEChERS before being separated by a C18 column. The mass spectrometry was conducted by using positive electrospray ionization (ESI+) and multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) models. The method gave good linear relations with regression coefficients ranging from 0.9950 to 0.9999. The detection limits ranged from 0.03 to 15.0 µg·kg−1, and the average recovery at three different concentrations ranged from 60.2% to 115.8%, with relative standard deviations (RSD%) varying from 0.7% to 19.6% for the 25 mycotoxins. The method is simple, rapid, accurate, and an improvement compared with the existing methods published so far.

This paper proposes a new hardware system to measure the blood glucose concentration. This system has the characteristics of noninvasive, simple and quick. Firstly, we use near-infrared light irradiation fingers. The infrared light transmittance can receive a signal about the blood glucose concentration. Then after an amplifier amplification, this signals will transmit to the Arduino. We use the Arduino Uno board as the CPU to analysis and processing the signal. Through comparison with the standards set, our system can determine blood glucose concentration of the measuring signal. Finally, the results will show on the LCD screen, and it can transmission to a phone or laptop for storage via Bluetooth at the same time. It is convenient that customers to know their changing trends in blood glucose levels. Patients will try to take measures to control the adverse effects caused by high blood glucose when they know their blood glucose levels.

Diabetes is one of the most common critical illnesses around us. There is no effective way to effect a radical cure of diabetes. However, we could control the state of diabetes by insulin injection and other ways. The only thing we have to do is detect the patients' blood glucose frequently. Due to many dangerous and inconvenient issues of invasive blood glucose measurement, many scientists were working for non-invasive blood glucose in recent years. The difficulties of non-invasive blood glucose measurement are how to collect the right glucose signal and denoising. This paper mainly introduces the current status of diabetes and then overview the methods of non-invasive blood glucose measurement in recent years. Finally, we compared the methods and discuss the future work.

Camellia granthamiana is a wild camellia resource endemic to China and is listed as a Vulnerable species globally. Here, we reported and characterized its complete chloroplast (cp) genome by using Illumina pair-end sequencing data. The total chloroplast genome size was 157,001 bp, including inverted repeats (IRs) of 26,042 bp, separated by a large single copy (LSC) and a small single copy (SSC) of 86,622 and 18,295 bp, respectively. A total of 131 genes, including 36 tRNA, 8 Rrna, and 87 protein-coding genes were identified. Phylogenetic analysis showed that C. granthamiana is sister to C. sinensis with 100% value support.

Camellia ptilophylla is a natural caffeine-free tea plant endemic to China with high commercial and therapeutic values. Here, we report the complete chloroplast genome assembled using Illumina pair-end sequencing data. The chloroplast genome was 157,097 bp in length, with a large single copy (LSC) region of 86,631 bp, a small single copy (SSC) region of 18,286 bp, separated by two inverted repeat (IR) regions of 26,090 bp each. It contains a total of 132 genes, with an overall GC content of 37.3%. The phylogenetic analysis showed that C. ptilophylla is sister to a congeneric species, C. reticulata.

This paper proposes a method for selecting the singular spectrum analysis components via the empirical mode decomposition approach for extracting the useful information for noninvasive blood glucose estimation systems. To perform the grouping, the total number of the groups of the singular spectrum analysis components is equal to the total number of the intrinsic mode functions. First each normalized singular spectrum analysis component is compared to each normalized intrinsic mode function. Second, the singular spectrum analysis component is assigned to the group corresponding to the intrinsic mode function having the highest correlation coefficient. Third, all the singular spectrum components belong to the same group are summed up together. This technique is applied to extracting the useful information for noninvasive blood glucose estimation systems. In particular, the measured signal is decomposed into a number of components via both the singular spectrum analysis approach and the empirical mode decomposition approach. After applying our proposed grouping method to obtain the singular spectrum analysis components, the obtained components enjoy the advantages of both the singular spectrum analysis approach and the empirical mode decomposition approach. Computer numerical simulations are performed on the practical measurements. The results show that more robust information can be found in the obtained singular spectrum analysis components.

Ear rot is a serious disease that affects maize yield and grain quality worldwide. The mycotoxins are often hazardous to humans and livestock. In samples collected in China between 2009 and 2014, Fusarium verticillioides and F. graminearum species complex were the dominant fungi causing ear rot. According to the TEF-1α gene sequence, F. graminearum species complex in China included three independent species: F. graminearum, F. meridionale, and F. boothii. The key gene FUM1 responsible for the biosynthesis of fumonisin was detected in all 82 F. verticillioides isolates. Among these, 57 isolates mainly produced fumonisin B1, ranging from 2.52 to 18,416.44 µg/g for each gram of dry hyphal weight, in vitro. Three different toxigenic chemotypes were detected among 78 F. graminearum species complex: 15-ADON, NIV and 15-ADON+NIV. Sixty and 16 isolates represented the 15-ADON and NIV chemotypes, respectively; two isolates carried both 15-ADON and NIV-producing segments. All the isolates carrying NIV-specific segment were F. meridionale. The in vitro production of 15-ADON, 3-ADON, DON, and ZEN varied from 5.43 to 81,539.49; 6.04 to 19,590.61; 13.35 to 19,795.33; and 1.77 to 430.24 µg/g of dry hyphal weight, respectively. Altogether, our present data demonstrate potential main mycotoxin production of dominant pathogenic Fusarium in China.

The mushroom Coprinopsis cinerea is a classic experimental model for multicellular development in fungi because it grows on defined media, completes its life cycle in 2 weeks, produces some 10 8 synchronized meiocytes, and can be manipulated at all stages in development by mutation and transformation. The 37-megabase genome of C. cinerea was sequenced and assembled into 13 chromosomes. Meiotic recombination rates vary greatly along the chromosomes, and retrotransposons are absent in large regions of the genome with low levels of meiotic recombination. Single-copy genes with identifiable orthologs in other basidiomycetes are predominant in low-recombination regions of the chromosome. In contrast, paralogous multicopy genes are found in the highly recombining regions, including a large family of protein kinases (FunK1) unique to multicellular fungi. Analyses of P450 and hydrophobin gene families confirmed that local gene duplications drive the expansions of paralogous copies and the expansions occur in independent lineages of Agaricomycotina fungi. Gene-expression patterns from microarrays were used to dissect the transcriptional program of dikaryon formation (mating). Several members of the FunK1 kinase family are differentially regulated during sexual morphogenesis, and coordinate regulation of adjacent duplications is rare. The genomes of C. cinerea and Laccaria bicolor , a symbiotic basidiomycete, share extensive regions of synteny. The largest syntenic blocks occur in regions with low meiotic recombination rates, no transposable elements, and tight gene spacing, where orthologous single-copy genes are overrepresented. The chromosome assembly of C. cinerea is an essential resource in understanding the evolution of multicellularity in the fungi.

A new species, Camellia psilocarpa (Theaceae), from Guangdong Province, China, is described and illustrated. It is morphologically most similar to C. magnocarpa, from which it differs by having ovate-oblong leaves with apex caudate or long acuminate, bracteoles and sepals 10-12, grayish white velutinous outside, and especially smaller fruit. The morphological evidence shows that the new species is a member of Camellia sect. Camellia. Additionally, a molecular and phylogenetic analysis using two chloroplast DNA markers also gave support to its taxonomic position.

Premise of the Study We isolated and characterized 16 expressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeat (EST-SSR) markers in Itea chinensis (Iteaceae), a common evergreen broadleaf tree, for future studies on the genetic diversity and spatial genetic structure of the species. Methods and Results Based on transcriptome data of I. chinensis, a total of 36 primer pairs were initially designed and tested. Of these, 16 were successfully amplified and showed clear polymorphism. For these markers, the number of alleles per locus varied from two to 15. The observed and expected heterozygosity ranged from 0 to 0.600 and 0.072 to 0.554, respectively. Furthermore, all loci were successfully cross-amplified in two congeneric species, I. oblonga and I. yangchunensis. Conclusions The EST-SSR markers described here can be used to study the genetic diversity and phylogeographic patterns of I. chinensis and other related species in Itea.

Telomere-linked RecQ helicase (TLH) genes have been identified in several fungi, where they occur as small gene families with each member copy residing within ~10 kb of a telomere. Here we describe the characterization of all 11 TLH gene copies in the reference strain of the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. A consensus gene prediction revealed that the previously reported TLH1 gene is actually a mutated copy, and the full-length gene is almost two times longer. Only four full-length TLH genes were present in the strain that was analyzed, with the remaining copies containing premature stops caused by point mutations, indels, transposon insertions, and a telomere truncation. Interestingly, all of the TLH gene copies possessed numerous mutations indicative of the action of the repeat-induced point mutation process. However, there was evidence of purifying selection indicating maintenance of gene function. Alignment of full-length proteins from M. oryzae, Schizosaccharomyces pombe and M. anisopliae revealed the presence of a novel, highly conserved protein motif which suggests that the telomere-linked helicases have different functions and/or substrates to the RecQ helicases encoded by "internal" genes.

Eukaryotic pathogens of humans often evade the immune system by switching the expression of surface proteins encoded by subtelomeric gene families. To determine if plant pathogenic fungi use a similar mechanism to avoid host defenses, we sequenced the 14 chromosome ends of the rice blast pathogen, Magnaporthe oryzae. One telomere is directly joined to ribosomal RNA-encoding genes, at the end of the approximately 2 Mb rDNA array. Two are attached to chromosome-unique sequences, and the remainder adjoin a distinct subtelomere region, consisting of a telomere-linked RecQ-helicase (TLH) gene flanked by several blocks of tandem repeats. Unlike other microbes, M.oryzae exhibits very little gene amplification in the subtelomere regions-out of 261 predicted genes found within 100 kb of the telomeres, only four were present at more than one chromosome end. Therefore, it seems unlikely that M.oryzae uses switching mechanisms to evade host defenses. Instead, the M.oryzae telomeres have undergone frequent terminal truncation, and there is evidence of extensive ectopic recombination among transposons in these regions. We propose that the M.oryzae chromosome termini play more subtle roles in host adaptation by promoting the loss of terminally-positioned genes that tend to trigger host defenses.

Summary: TERMINUS is a set of tools to map telomeres on draft sequences of whole genome shotgun sequencing projects. It mines raw sequence reads (from a trace archive) for telomeric reads, assembles them into contigs representing individual chromosome ends and BLASTs the resulting consensus sequences against the genome assembly to identify telomere-proximal genomic contigs. Finally, it estimates the sizes of telomeric gaps and identifies clones for gap closure. TERMINUS is implemented as a set of Perl scripts that requires two sets of inputs: the NCBI Trace Archive files for a given genome project; and ancillary genome assembly information. Results are output in spreadsheets containing information that facilitates manual validation. Availability: The TERMINUS package and supplementary information can be downloaded from http://www.genome.kbrin.uky.edu/fungi_tel/terminus/ Contact: [email protected]

Neurospora crassa is a central organism in the history of twentieth-century genetics, biochemistry and molecular biology. Here, we report a high-quality draft sequence of the N. crassa genome. The approximately 40-megabase genome encodes about 10,000 protein-coding genes—more than twice as many as in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe and only about 25% fewer than in the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster. Analysis of the gene set yields insights into unexpected aspects of Neurospora biology including the identification of genes potentially associated with red light photobiology, genes implicated in secondary metabolism, and important differences in Ca21 signalling as compared with plants and animals. Neurospora possesses the widest array of genome defence mechanisms known for any eukaryotic organism, including a process unique to fungi called repeat-induced point mutation (RIP). Genome analysis suggests that RIP has had a profound impact on genome evolution, greatly slowing the creation of new genes through genomic duplication and resulting in a genome with an unusually low proportion of closely related genes.

The spline joint is a kind of widely used joint structures in the rotor system. Its discontinuous mechanical characteristics results from the contact surface. The surface will slide and deform when the spool deforms. As a consequence, the joint stiffness is always smaller than that of the integral configuration. This affects the rotor stiffness distribution and the rotor dynamics further. The objective of this study is to investigate the stiffness mechanical characteristics of the spline joint and their affecting factors. Based on the characteristics of structure and mechanical state, a spline joint stiffness mechanical model is built to explain the stiffness loss and its affecting factors. The cylindrical coordinate contact model is used to describe the contact of the cylindrical centering surface. And then a spline joint simulation model, taking the characteristics of the contact into account, is built by the nonlinear finite element method. At last, in the static stiffness experiment, the displacement of the spline joints is measured in different assembling and loading conditions. The results show that, the linear and angular stiffness loss of spline joint is significant and has a close relationship with the load and assembling condition. The study shows the effectiveness in controlling the mechanical properties of the rotor with spline joints by carefully adjusting structural design, load and assembling parameters.Copyright © 2014 by ASME

Chronic renal failure is very common, affecting 30%-40% of community-dwelling elderly. We wished to verify whether geriatric psychiatry patients are at increased risk of renal dysfunction compared to elderly controls, as well as whether lithium exposure and other factors are important predictors of risk.This is a four-year retrospective cohort and nested case-control study at a Canadian tertiary-care hospital using data from March 2007 to March 2011. We compared 82 geriatric psychiatry outpatients and 200 psychotropic-naïve family medicine controls aged ≥65. Our main continuous measure of renal outcome was change in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). Multivariate analyses were performed to determine potential risk factors for renal dysfunction in geriatric psychiatry patients, including age, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, diuretics, and lithium duration.Clinically important decreases in eGFR (8 mL/min/1.73 m(2)) were found in 40.2% of geriatric psychiatry patients compared to 29.5% of controls (p = 0.040). Multivariate analyses found that lithium duration was independently associated with adverse renal outcome in patients with eGFR60 mL/min/1.73 m(2). In this sub-population, lithium users had clinically important decreases in eGFR when compared to non-lithium users: 10.3 vs. 0.40 mL/min/1.73 m(2) (p = 0.017).Geriatric psychiatry patients are at a greater risk for clinically important decreases of renal function than similarly aged controls. Lithium appears to be an important risk factor for renal dysfunction when eGFR is60 mL/min/1.73 m(2). However, in the majority of older adults who have normal kidney function, lithium use appears to be safe.

BACKGROUND An effective enterovirus 71 (EV71) vaccine is needed to control the annual outbreaks of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) in China. Adequate epidemiologic data relating to HFMD are needed to make decisions about appropriate public health interventions and implementation of the new EV71 vaccine. METHODS We analyzed the population-based epidemiologic characteristics, clinical outcome and laboratory investigation of the 2011 HFMD outbreak in children based on the citywide surveillance system in Shanghai. RESULTS The incidence rate of HFMD was 25.8 per 1000 in children

Aim of this article is to provide an overview of modifiable and nonmodifiable factor in the development of Nosocomial Infections (NIs) in the Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs).Endotracheal tube intubation/Mechanical ventilation is a lifesaving invasive procedure which is associated with their own potential complications, like ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP), sepsis, Ventilator associated-tracheo-bronchitis(VAT), acute respiratory distress syndrome, pulmonary embolism, Barotrauma and pulmonary edema, which can occur among the patients receiving mechanical ventilation. Among the above listed complication, Neonatal sepsis is the most common and VAP is the second most common encountered Nosocomial infection, which account for the most of the morbidity and mortality in the NICUs and ventilated patients. PubMed, Embase and google scholar have been searched for the articles meeting our criteria,total fourteen articles have been used. Neither any alterations or modifications nor any Software’s were used in this article. In some recent research article and literature, some strategy have been mentioned, which are resulting in better control of Nosocomial infection due to ventilator or endotracheal tube intubation. Gram-negative bacteria are most prevalent in the developing countries and Gram-positive in the developed countries, Klebsiella pneumonia, E. coli and staphylococcus aureus are the most common reason for NIs. Increasing number of NIs and multidrug resistance bacteria are matter of concern for Neonatologist around the world.

Background Mean shift, an iterative technique for identifying the local maxima of a probability density function, has been successfully used as a clustering method in computer vision and image processing. We apply the mean shift technique to the high dimensional space of phylogeny trees. The basic idea behind this technique is to, given a set of sample points, shift each point in the direction of the gradient of the underlying density function in an iterative manner until the points concentrate at the local maxima of the density function and form natural clusters [1]. We have developed software named MSCTrees based on a variant of the mean shift method, called the adaptive mean shift [2], to perform cluster analysis on a set of multidimensional data points corresponding to phylogenetic trees.

Ustilago maydis is a ubiquitous pathogen of maize and a well-established model organism for the study of plant-microbe interactions. This basidiomycete fungus does not use aggressive virulence strategies to kill its host. U. maydis belongs to the group of biotrophic parasites (the smuts) that depend on living tissue for proliferation and development. Here we report the genome sequence for a member of this economically important group of biotrophic fungi. The 20.5-million-base U. maydis genome assembly contains 6,902 predicted protein-encoding genes and lacks pathogenicity signatures found in the genomes of aggressive pathogenic fungi, for example a battery of cell-wall-degrading enzymes. However, we detected unexpected genomic features responsible for the pathogenicity of this organism. Specifically, we found 12 clusters of genes encoding small secreted proteins with unknown function. A significant fraction of these genes exists in small gene families. Expression analysis showed that most of the genes contained in these clusters are regulated together and induced in infected tissue. Deletion of individual clusters altered the virulence of U. maydis in five cases, ranging from a complete lack of symptoms to hypervirulence. Despite years of research into the mechanism of pathogenicity in U. maydis, no 'true' virulence factors had been previously identified. Thus, the discovery of the secreted protein gene clusters and the functional demonstration of their decisive role in the infection process illuminate previously unknown mechanisms of pathogenicity operating in biotrophic fungi. Genomic analysis is, similarly, likely to open up new avenues for the discovery of virulence determinants in other pathogens.

International audience; Aspergillus fumigatus is exceptional among microorganisms in being both a primary and opportunistic pathogen as well as a major allergen. Its conidia production is prolific, and so human respiratory tract exposure is almost constant. A. fumigatus is isolated from human habitats and vegetable compost heaps. In immunocompromised individuals, the incidence of invasive infection can be as high as 50% and the mortality rate is often about 50% (ref. 2). The interaction of A. fumigatus and other airborne fungi with the immune system is increasingly linked to severe asthma and sinusitis. Although the burden of invasive disease caused by A. fumigatus is substantial, the basic biology of the organism is mostly obscure. Here we show the complete 29.4-megabase genome sequence of the clinical isolate Af293, which consists of eight chromosomes containing 9,926 predicted genes. Microarray analysis revealed temperature-dependent expression of distinct sets of genes, as well as 700 A. fumigatus genes not present or significantly diverged in the closely related sexual species Neosartorya fischeri, many of which may have roles in the pathogenicity phenotype. The Af293 genome sequence provides an unparalleled resource for the future understanding of this remarkable fungus.

Magnaporthe grisea is the most destructive pathogen of rice worldwide and the principal model organism for elucidating the molecular basis of fungal disease of plants. Here, we report the draft sequence of the M. grisea genome. Analysis of the gene set provides an insight into the adaptations required by a fungus to cause disease. The genome encodes a large and diverse set of secreted proteins, including those defined by unusual carbohydrate-binding domains. This fungus also possesses an expanded family of G-protein-coupled receptors, several new virulence-associated genes and large suites of enzymes involved in secondary metabolism. Consistent with a role in fungal pathogenesis, the expression of several of these genes is upregulated during the early stages of infection-related development. The M. grisea genome has been subject to invasion and proliferation of active transposable elements, reflecting the clonal nature of this fungus imposed by widespread rice cultivation.

Summary: BLAST is a widely used alignment tool for detecting matches between a query sequence and entries in nucleotide sequence databases. Matches (high-scoring pairs, HSPs) are assigned a score based on alignment length and quality and, by default, are reported with the top-scoring matches listed first. For certain types of searches, however, this method of reporting is not optimal. This is particularly true when searching a genome sequence with a query that was derived from the same genome, or a closely related one. If the genome is complex and the assembly is far from complete, correct matches are often relegated to low positions in the results, where they may be easily overlooked. To rectify this problem, we developed TruMatch---a program that parses standard BLAST outputs and identifies HSPs that involve query segments with unique matches to the assembly. Candidates for bona fide matches between a query sequence and a genome assembly are listed at the top of the TruMatch output. Availability: TruMatch is written in Perl and is freely available to non-commercial users via web download at the URL: http://genome.kbrin.uky.edu/fungi_tel/TruMatch/ Contact: farman@uky.edu

Nature 438, 1151–1156 (2005) There are two errors in the author listings for this Letter: the surname of Anne Lafon was misspelt as 'Lafton' and the affiliation of Hiroyuki Horiuchi should have been number 16 (and not 15, as was published).