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Cadmium (Cd) is a toxic non-essential element accumulated easily in living organisms due to its non-biodegradable nature. A slight increase in Cd levels will threaten the health of terrestrial and aquatic organisms. Therefore, Cd contamination and its effects on the ecosystems and organisms have become a major topic of eco-toxicological research. The present study investigated the eco-toxicological effects of Cd-supplemented diet on some life history traits and specific enzyme activities of carboxylesterase (CarE), glutathione S-transferase (GST), acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and cytochrome P450 monooxygenases (P450s) in the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera. The results showed that Cd significantly decreased larval survival, pupation and emergence, and reduced body mass of the sixth instar larvae, pupae, adult moths and female fecundity. Cd-supplemented diet also delayed the development of larvae and pupae and shortened the life span of the cotton bollworm moth. In addition, dietary Cd inhibit...

The blue sheep is an endemic species to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and surrounding regions. It has been regarded as having 2 subspecies: Pseudois nayaur nayaur and P. n. szechuanensis. However, such a classification remains controversial. Herein, we analyze 10 microsatellite loci and part of the mitochondrial control region for clarification in such taxonomic debates. We use samples from 168 individuals from 6 geographic populations covering almost all the distribution areas of the species in China to carry out comparisons. Phylogenetic trees derived from both the microsatellite and mitochondrial markers combined with the discriminant analysis of principal components (DAPC) and the STRUCTURE analysis reveal that the individuals in the Helan Mountains are well grouped with a distinct evolutionary lineage and are significantly different from the other populations of P. n. szechuanensis according to Fst values, implying that this isolated population should be categorized as a valid subspecies; namely, Pseudois nayaur alashanicus. The isolation-by-distance (IBD) analysis shows a significant positive relationship between genetic and geographical distances among the populations.

Unconventional resource development is increasing quickly in many places worldwide. For unconventional resources, multistage completions play a key role for both reservoir performance and well economics, which makes completion optimization a critical technical and commercial decision. This work integrates the reservoir modeling, fracture simulation, production forecast, and synthetic data pool generation via Monte Carlo methods, and it simplifies the final optimization process into a selection from multiple options. There are many approaches used to optimize completion parameters in shale gas development in the Sichuan basin. Although a trial and error method may work well with an adequate number of wells, this approach is not efficient with few wells because it would take many years to optimize the drilling and completion strategy. Also, such an approach may produce ambiguous results related to high uncertainty due to drilling quality and completion inconsistencies. An innovative workflow is defined in this work that combines reservoir modeling, fracture network simulation, production matching, regression analysis, and Monte Carlo methods. The procedure begins with modeling of the reservoir using the proper geological environment and reservoir properties. Based on this model, the hydraulic fracture network is simulated with varied compl etion parameter sets, including fluid volume, proppant volume, perforation spacing, and stage spacing. Production forecasting is then performed for each of the fracture network simulations, and the result is matched with previous offset well performance. Regression analysis is used to simplify the relationships between the input (completion parameters) and the output (production results). Finally, based on the regression results, a Monte Carlo method is used to generate a large number of input and output pairs creating a type of synthetic completion choice catalog. This catalog provides a pool of completion options, effectively reducing the optimization process to a choice of the best fit-for-purpose options. A synthetic model based on Sichuan shale gas is used in this study to validate the workflow on a single- well basis. It successfully produced many synthetic simulation results. With the large number of completion parameters—production result pairs—it is easy to filter the results and identify which combinations are preferred in terms of cost and production. This work also demonstrates that optimization is subject to the definition of purpose and duration of the objectives, which can be used as an important evidence to support different strategies.

Indoleacetic acid (IAA) is a plant growth regulator that plays an important role in plant growth and development, and participates in the regulation of abiotic stress. To explore the effect of IAA on cadmium toxicity in Cinnamomum camphora, an indoor potted experiment was conducted with one-year-old C. camphora seedlings. The influence of IAA on cadmium accumulation, net photosynthetic rates, respiration, photosynthetic pigments (chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll and carotenoids), osmoregulatory substances (proline, soluble sugar and soluble protein) and the malondialdehyde content in C. camphora leaves treated with 30 mg kg−1 cadmium was analysed with or without the addition of 10 mg kg−1 IAA. Cadmium accumulation in the leaves of C. camphora with the addition of exogenous IAA was significantly higher than accumulation during cadmium stress without additional IAA (ca 69.10% after 60 days' incubation). During the culture period, the net photosynthetic rate in C. camphora leaves subjected to cadmium stress without the addition of IAA was up to 24.31% lower than that of control plants. The net photosynthetic rate in C. camphora leaves subjected to cadmium stress and addition of IAA was up to 30.31% higher than that of leaves subjected to cadmium stress without the addition of IAA. Chlorophyll a, total chlorophyll and carotenoid contents in the cadmium-stressed leaves without the addition of IAA were lower than those in the control treatment. The presence of IAA increased the chlorophyll a, total chlorophyll and carotenoid contents relative to the cadmium stress without the addition of IAA. The respiration rate and concentrations of proline, soluble sugar, soluble protein and malondialdehyde in C. camphora leaves subjected to cadmium stress without the addition of IAA were higher than those in the control. The addition of IAA reduced the respiration rate, and the concentrations of proline, soluble sugar, soluble protein and malondialdehyde in C. camphora leaves when compared with the cadmium stress without the addition of IAA. These results indicate that exogenous IAA improves photosynthetic performance and the growth environment of C. camphora by enhancing the net photosynthetic rate, increasing concentrations of osmoregulatory substances, removing reactive oxygen radicals and eliminating potential damage, thereby reducing the toxic effects of cadmium on C. camphora.

As a cyber attack which leverages social engineering and other sophisticated techniques to steal sensitive information from users, phishing attack has been a critical threat to cyber security for a long time. Although researchers have proposed lots of countermeasures, phishing criminals figure out circumventions eventually since such countermeasures require substantial manual feature engineering and can not detect newly emerging phishing attacks well enough, which makes developing an efficient and effective phishing detection method an urgent need. In this work, we propose a novel phishing website detection approach by detecting the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of a website, which is proved to be an effective and efficient detection approach. To be specific, our novel capsule-based neural network mainly includes several parallel branches wherein one convolutional layer extracts shallow features from URLs and the subsequent two capsule layers generate accurate feature representations of URLs from the shallow features and discriminate the legitimacy of URLs. The final output of our approach is obtained by averaging the outputs of all branches. Extensive experiments on a validated dataset collected from the Internet demonstrate that our approach can achieve competitive performance against other state-of-the-art detection methods while maintaining a tolerable time overhead.

KS is a tight-sandstone and high-pressure-high-temperature (HPHT) gas reservoir in northwest China. It is characterized by a depth of more than 6000 m, temperature over 175°C, and pore pressure over 110 MPa. Despite the high unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of sandstone, almost half of the wells encountered sanding issues. The sanding wells exhibited low production rate, nozzle and pipeline erosion, sanding up, and even permanent closure. Investigating the sanding mechanism and developing solutions for sanding prevention are urgent needs due to the economic loss of low production. An integrated sanding study was conducted to investigate the sanding mechanism. The entire sanding process was analyzed, including stress field alteration during production, rock failure, softening, and sand grain migration. First, wells with sanding issues were identified through production characteristics and field observation. After this, analysis of laboratory tests was performed to better understand the tight-sandstone properties, especially UCS, the softening parameter, and residual strength. Based on the tests, an elastoplastic damage model was proposed to delineate rock failure and sanding behavior. Then, a finite element model was built to simulate the damage of a perforation hole with field data, including hole diameter and length, rock stiffness and strength, drawdown, depletion, and so on. More simulation scenarios were performed to investigate the continuous sanding, transient sanding, and water hammer effect. Grain migration in perforation holes and in pipelines was also studied. It was revealed that shear failure of perforation hole induced by drawdown and depletion was the root cause of sanding problem. Meanwhile, it was also confirmed that erosion and water hammer effect had very limited effect on sanding. Use of the elastoplastic damage model for the simulation of perforation hole failure enabled predicting the sand amount and determining the critical drawdown and depletion for sanding. In the end, an approach to identifying wells with high sanding risk and the key factors behind the sanding were provided, and sanding prevention suggestions were proposed. The new elastoplastic damage model explains the sanding mechanism in a tight-sandstone reservoir and enables evaluating the sand volume, which has rarely been published previously. Laboratory tests, field observation, and numerical simulation were combined effectively to investigate the sanding issue. By utilizing the model, producers can find the key factors behind sanding issues, prevent sanding with a better production strategy, and avoid the economic loss, which are critical for the long-term exploration and production of this area.

Hepatitis B virus X protein (HBx), encoded by the hepatitis B virus (HBV) genome, plays a pivotal in mediating pathogenicity in liver diseases. However, the underlying mechanisms are still needed to be elucidated. Receptor-interacting protein 1 (RIP1) has been identified as a serine/threonine kinase with various biological functions in cell fate, proliferation, and death. In the current study, we found that overexpression of HBx in LO2 human normal hepatocytes increased the expression of RIP1. Importantly, our results indicate that blockage of RIP1 using its specific antagonist necrostatin-1 (Nec-1) ameliorated HBx-induced oxidative stress by mitigating the production of ROS and Nox-4 expression. Also, the presence of Nec-1 improved HBx-induced mitochondrial dysfunction by increasing MMP. Importantly, we found that Nec-1 could inhibit the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6, IL-8, and CXCL2 as well as the secretion of HMGB1. Mechanistically, we found that Nec-1 treatment suppressed the activation of the JNK/AP-1 and NF-κB signalling pathways. Our findings implicated a novel biological function of RIP1 in HBx-induced cytotoxicity and inflammation in human normal hepatocytes. Antagonism of RIP1 might be a potential therapeutic approach for the treatment of HBV-associated liver diseases.

Gravity-driven membrane (GDM) filtration is promising for decentralized drinking water treatments. To improve the permeability and permeate quality of GDM process, three GDM systems (in-line coagulation system, pre-coagulation system, and system without coagulation as control) were operated in parallel at 65 mbar for 63 days to evaluate the effects of coagulation on flux development, permeate quality, composition and structure of the biofouling layer. The optimal dose of coagulant (polyaluminium chloride) was determined as 4 mg/L. The stable flux increased by 140% and 210% in the in-line coagulation and pre-coagulation systems compared to that of the control system, respectively. Dissolved organic compounds were removed by 31.9% and 29.4% in the in-line coagulation and pre-coagulation systems, while the control system showed a poor removal efficiency (5%). The effective removal of organics from raw water by coagulation resulted in less substrates available in the biofouling layers, thus affecting the production of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) by limiting the biological processes. The EPS content in the biofouling layer of pre-coagulation system was the lowest, consistent with the highest flux. And such nutrient-poor biofouling layers modified the microbial community, changing the dominant bacteria from Firmicutes to Actinobacteria, thereby affecting the flux. Loose and heterogeneous biofouling layers with numerous holes and cracks were observed under coagulation conditions, which was conducive to the passage of water. All systems exhibited excellent ammonia removal efficiency (96%), but coagulation extended the start-up time for nitrification from 3 days to 5 days. Overall, these results demonstrate that coagulation can improve the GDM filtration performance, and the pre-coagulation system is globally optimal.

Summary Activity in the Ordos Basin, China, has mostly occurred in the low-permeability, clay-rich Chang 7 sandstone, and has used multifractured horizontal wells as the preferred completion technique. To improve further the production potential and to increase operational efficiency, a dual-well pad site was engineered to try a pad-drilling approach and to evaluate different completion techniques, use integrated work flows, and accelerate the development cycle. The pilot project involved two pads with two horizontal wells each, with the intention to compare the local multistage stimulation practice of using a tubing-conveyed completion method to a wireline-conveyed plug-and-perforation technique. The current tubing-conveyed completion practice affects the completion efficiency of the well from the standpoints of surface efficiency, engineering work flow, post-fracturing performance, and subsequent commercial performance. The wells completed with the plug-and-perforation technique were completed in a shorter period of time; simultaneous operations enabled flowback water from the first well to be recycled and reused on pumping operations on the second well, further improving the project performance, and first-year cumulative production was 20% higher compared with surrounding offsets. Three vertical wells were placed between the parallel horizontal wells to enable real-time fracturing monitoring and to improve subsurface understanding. To have a more-precise microseismic mapping result, the closest vertical well was selected as the monitoring well. The study demonstrates the importance of an integrated approach that accounts for well design, engineering work flow, technology used during the execution, and subsequent evaluation while improving overall productivity. Both the efficiency and the production result were breakthroughs in this area.

The formation of Typhoon Durian (2001) was simulated well by the Weather Research and Forecasting model. The vorticity field was separated into three scales: small scale (L 120 km), where L is wavelength. During the formation, small-scale vorticity anomalies, associated with convection, aggregated radially inward and rotated anticlockwise. The system-scale vorticity field presented a distinct mid-level vortex before genesis, and then a well-organized low-level vortex. The spectral power of the low-level vorticity at the small scale barely changed, while that at the system scale continued to grow steadily. The vorticity growth or spin-up of the near-surface tropical cyclone embryo was mainly due to the convergence of vertical vorticity flux at the planetary boundary layer. The positive (negative) effect of vorticity flux convergence at lower (middle-to-upper) levels appears to cause the shift of system-scale vorticity center from the middle to lower troposphere.

A set of kinetic energy (KE) budget equations associated with four horizontal flow components was derived to study the KE characteristics during the genesis of Tropical Cyclone (TC) Durian (2001) in the South China Sea using numerical simulation data. The genesis process was divided into three stages: the monsoon trough stage (stage 1), the midlevel mesoscale convective vortex (MCV) stage (stage 2), and the establishment stage of the TC vortex (stage 3). Analysis showed that the KE of the symmetric rotational flow (SRF) was the largest and kept increasing, especially in stages 2 and 3, representing the symmetrization process during TC genesis. The KE of the SRF was mainly converted from the KE of the symmetric divergent flow (SDF), largely transformed from the available potential energy (APE). It was found that vortical hot towers (VHTs) emerged abundantly, aggregated, and merged within the MCV region in stages 1 and 2. From the energy budget perspective, massive moist-convection-produced latent heat was concentrated and accumulated within the MCV region, especially in stage 2, and further warmed the atmosphere, benefiting the accumulation of APE and the transformation from APE to KE. As a result, the midlevel circulation (or MCV) grew strong rapidly. In stage 3, the intensity and number of VHTs both decreased. However, affected by increasing lower-level inward radial wind, latent heat released by the organized convection, instead of disorganized VHTs in the first two stages, continuously contributed to the strengthening of the surface TC circulation as well as the warm core.

Based on the governing equations for water species in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, a three-dimensional WRF-based surface precipitation equation was obtained and applied to investigate the surface rainfall processes of a torrential rain event. Sensitivity experiments were performed to further explore roles of surface evaporation in the heavy rainfall event. The results show that the contributions of moisture-related processes to precipitation (QWV, including water vapor local change (QWVL), surface evaporation (QWVE), moisture advection (QWVA), and so on) dominate the torrential rain event, while the contributions of cloud-related processes (QCM) also play indispensable roles whose maximum net contributions could exceed 20%. QWVA dominates the budget of water vapor, while QWVL and QWVE play smaller but by no means negligible roles in the event. Sensitivity experiments show that the changes of surface evaporation affect both moisture-related processes and cloud-related processes, and then influence the intensity and regional redistribution of precipitation. Surface evaporation favors the accumulation of convective available potential energy and enhances the instability of atmosphere, being prone to the development of convective systems. Meanwhile, it also affects the development of vertical motions and cloud systems. Thus accurate estimation of surface evaporation is necessary for accurate simulation and forecast of surface precipitation.

High-resolution data of a torrential rainfall event in Sichuan, China, simulated by the WRF model, were used to analyze the cloud microphysical differences with precipitation intensity. Six-hourly accumulated rainfall was classified into five bins based on rainfall intensity, and the cloud microphysical characteristics and processes in different bins were studied. The results show that: (1) Hydrometeor content differed distinctly among different bins. Mixing ratios of cloud water, rain water, and graupel enhanced significantly and monotonously with increasing rainfall intensity. With increasing precipitation intensity, the monotonous increase in cloud water number concentration was significant. Meanwhile, number concentrations of rain water and graupel increased at first and then decreased or increased slowly in larger rainfall bins. (2) With precipitation intensity increasing, cloud microphysical conversion processes closely related to the production of rainwater, directly (accretion of cloud wat...

An extreme rainfall event in the coastal metropolitan city of Guangzhou, China is simulated by the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model using three bulk microphysics schemes to explore the capability to reproduce the observed precipitation features by these schemes and their differences. The detailed comparison among the three runs in terms of radar reflectivity, precipitation, thermodynamic fields and microphysical processes are conducted. Results show that all the simulations can reproduce the two main heavy rainfall centers in Guangzhou and the first convection initiation. The accumulated precipitation in the simulation using the WSM6 scheme performs better than the others in terms of intensity and distribution compared to observations. The weaker accumulated precipitation in the second heavy rainfall center in the simulations using the Thompson and Morrison schemes result from their more dispersed precipitation distributions dominated by the cold pool intensity and distribution. The latent heating from the water vapor condensation dominates the convection initiation and storm development. The latent cooling from the rain water evaporation dominates the cold pool intensity and distribution, which influences the storm moving and subsequent convection propagation, and finally the intensity and distribution of surface precipitation. Sensitivity experiments of the latent heat confirm the dominant roles of latent heating/cooling, especially the water vapor condensation heating and rain water evaporation cooling, in the differences of the thermodynamic fields, storm development, convection propagation and surface precipitation among the three simulations.

The Phytotoxicity of and mechanism underlying selenite-mediated tolerance to Cd stress in Typha angustifolia were studied hydroponically with respect to metal uptake and translocation, photosynthesis-related parameters, contents of proline and O2•ˉ, products of lipid peroxidation, cell viability, enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants, glyoxalases and phytochelatins. T. angustifolia were exposed to 25, 50 and 100 μM of Cd alone and in conjunction with 5 mg L−1 of selenite in full-strength Hoagland's nutrient solution for 30 days. Results showed that Cd contents in T. angustifolia leaves and roots increased in a dose-dependent manner and were higher in roots, but those of BAC, BCF and TF changed in a contrary pattern. Addition of selenite to Cd-containing treatments further reduced Cd levels in T. angustifolia leaves and roots, as well as BAC, BCF and TF. A diphasic effect was found in T. angustifolia for the contents of total chlorophyll, GSH, PC and GSSG, as well as activities of CAT, POD, SOD and GR, in response to Cd stress alone and in conjunction with selenite supplementation, but the same effect was not observed for Pn, Cond, Tr, Ci, Fv/Fm and ϕPSII. In contrast, exogenous selenite supplementation enhanced the contents of total chlorophyll and the non-enzymatic antioxidants, as well as activities of enzymatic antioxidants, while the values of photosynthetic fluorescence parameters were rescued. Selenite addition decreased Cd-induced cell death. Proline contents and Gly I activities in T. angustifolia leaves kept increasing in a dose-dependent manner of Cd concentrations in the growth media and selenite addition further enhanced both parameters. Addition of selenite could quench Cd-mediated generation of MDA, O2•ˉ and MG in T. angustifolia leaves and reduce Cd-induced Gly II activity. A U-shaped GSH/GSSG ratio in T. angustifolia leaves suggests a possible trade-off between PC synthesis and GR activity since both share the same substrate GSH. Therefore, confined BAC, BCF and TF were a mechanism that confers T. angustifolia tolerance to Cd stress, and that exogenous selenite supplementation could depress Cd-induced stress in T. angustifolia by rescuing the photosynthetic fluorescence, enhancing non-enzymatic and enzymatic antioxidants that scavenge O2•ˉ and MG, and potentiating PC synthesis that chelates Cd.

The interparcel mixing algorithm in the Lagrangian advection scheme with shape matrix (LASM) is updated to make the scheme more robust. The linear degeneration criterion is replaced by the maximum deviation of the skeleton points so that the new algorithm is more effective in controlling the shape of parcels, which is vital for long time simulation. LASM is inherently shape-preserving without any complicated filter or limiter, and it is linear. This fact contributes to the ability to preserve the sum of multiple tracers exactly on the parcels in LASM. A newly proposed terminator "toy"-chemistry test is used to test LASM, which shows that LASM can preserve the weighted sum of two reactive species precisely. The physics–dynamics coupling (i.e., tendency evaluation type) is also discussed. A flow generated by a WRF large-eddy simulation is also used to test the 3-D extension of LASM.

Understanding the habitat selection and population genetic structure of an endangered species can play important roles in its protection. The Wuchuan odorous frog (

Two common organic wastes from agriculture (rice straw) and forestry (sawdust) were applied to a petroleum-contaminated soil to estimate their effectiveness in the removal of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Rice straw was the more effective amendment than the other treatments in reducing TPH contents and addition of sawdust resulted in a significant decrease in PAH removal, particularly high-molecular-weight (5-6 ring) PAHs. Principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) indicates that rice straw treatment separated only the bacterial community but sawdust greatly affected both the soil bacterial and fungal communities. Moreover, the abundance of some petroleum degraders such as the bacteria Sphingomonas, Idiomarina and Phenylobacterium and the fungi Humicola, Wallemia and Graphium was promoted by inputs of the two agricultural and forestry wastes. These results highlight the potential of waste applications in accelerating hydrocarbon biodegradation which may be attributed to the enrichment of keystone taxa that show strong positive associations with hydrocarbon degradation.

Four gramineous energy plants, Miscanthus sacchariflorus, M. floridulus, Phragmites australis, and Arundo donax were grown on copper tailings in the field for four years. Their phytoremediation potential was examined in terms of their effects on the fractions of heavy metals and soil enzyme activities. Results showed that plantation of these four gramineous plants has improved the proportion of organic material (OM)-binding fraction of heavy metals in copper tailings as a whole, and reduced the proportion of exchangeable and residual fractions. In particular, M. sacchariflorus growth improved significantly the proportion of the OM-binding fractions of Cu (1.73 times), Cd (1.71 times), Zn (1.18 times), and Pb (3.14 times) (P < 0.05) and reduced markedly the residual fractions of Cu (64.45%), Cd (82.38%), Zn (61.43%), and Pb (73.41%) (P < 0.05). Except for A. donax, the growth of other three energy plants improved the activity of phosphatase, urease and dehydrogenase in copper tailings to some extent. In particular, the activity of soil phosphatase and urease in planted tailings differed significantly from that of control (P < 0.05). The effect of M. sacchariflorus growth on soil enzyme was the highest, followed by P. australis, M. floridulus, and A. donax. The content of each heavy metal fraction in soil was correlated with soil enzyme activities, especially the content of OM-binding fraction, which correlated significantly with the activities of phosphatase, urease and dehydrogenase in soil. According to the effects of four gramineous plants growth on activity of soil enzymes and fractions of heavy metals, M. sacchariflorus had the optimal effects for phytoremediation. Therefore, M. sacchariflorus was a candidate plant with great potential for the revegetation of heavy metal tailings.

Background: Radiotherapy is a standard treatment for a significant fraction of cancer patients. Nonetheless, to this day radiation resistance is a key impediment in gastric cancer (GC) treatment. Moreover, GC is characterized by its substantial neo-angiogenesis, driven by high levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) correlated with the presence of stomach cancer. The aim of our study was to address if VEGFR inhibitors treatments impact the negative effect of radiotherapy regiments of gastric cancer. Materials and methods: Isolation of exosomes released by SGC-7901 and BGC-823 lines after irradiation at 0 Gy or 6 Gy was performed by differential ultra-centrifugation. Incubation of Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVEC) was carried out with different concentrations of exosomes from non- or irradiated GC cells to address their proliferation and survival fraction (SF) by MTS. 6 Gy irradiated cells exosomes at concentration of 20 µg/ml were compared to EC incubated with the same exosome concentration from non-irradiated human GC cells over 72-hour time course. Wound-healing and Transwell assays were performed in a migration buffer consisting of exosomes released by non- or irradiated SGC-7901 and BGC-823 cells over 24-hour time course. HUVEC cells stained with DAPI that have passed through a gluten gel were counted in order to monitor their invasion capacity. Employing IC50, 60 µg/ml was determined as the optimal Apatinib (YN968D1) concentration for the half-life of HUVEC, and incubated with exosomes from irradiated GC cells. The aforementioned assays were performed in the background of the same conditions in order to analyse the effect of Apatinib on HUVEC progression. Results: We show that proliferation, motility and invasive capacity of HUVEC are enhanced upon incubation with exosomes released by irradiated GC cell lines. Importantly, the latter is counteracted by the VEGFR-2 inhibitor Apatinib which hinders ECs progression. Conclusion / Significance: Combining radiotherapy and VEGFR inhibitors treatment can provide potentially a substantial impact in decreasing cancer death rates by averting the negative effect of radiotherapy regiments and provide better standard for cancer patients.

The objective of this study was to establish the effects of cold expansion, chamfering, bolt clamping, and their combinations on the fatigue life of an aluminum–lithium alloy single plate. Fatigue tests were conducted to quantify the anti-fatigue effects of the different techniques. A scanning electron microscope was used to perform fracture analyses of the used specimens, and the residual stresses were measured using an X-ray diffraction device. In addition, three-dimensional finite element models of the specimens were established and used to characterize their stress states, and the Smith–Watson–Topper method was used to predict the fatigue lives of the specimens. The fatigue test results showed that all the considered processes improved the fatigue life of the pristine specimen. The most effective was a combination of 3.2% cold expansion, 1-mm chamfering, and bolt clamping using a 6.4-N m torque, which improved the fatigue life of the pristine specimen by a factor of 15.5. The finite element method results also revealed that this combination decreased the maximum stress and confirmed its superiority in relation to the other fatigue-life enhancement techniques in terms of the anti-fatigue effect. The Smith–Watson–Topper method underestimated the specimen fatigue life, but the accuracy satisfied engineering requirements.

Water vapor sources and transport paths associated with torrential rains are very important to research and forecasts. This study investigates the main moisture sources and transport paths related to torrential rainfall events in the Sichuan basin of China, which is located east of the Tibetan Plateau, using a Lagrangian flexible particle dispersion model (FLEXPART). Based on the analysis of the torrential rainfall distribution during 2009–13, four study areas are selected in the basin. Particles that have a great contribution to the torrential rainfall events within the four study areas are traced back for 10 days, and a quantitative analysis of the contributions from various moisture sources to the torrential rainfall events is also conducted. The results indicate that a large number of target particles start at the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, land on the Indo-China Peninsula, and finally reach the study areas. This is an important moisture transport path for the torrential rainfall events within the four study areas. Another important path is from the neighborhood of the Sichuan basin. The total moisture supplies from all examined moisture sources within the whole atmospheric layer account for more than 90% of precipitation within the study areas. There are two major moisture sources, the Sichuan basin and the Bay of Bengal, and the South China Sea could be another important moisture source region for the torrential rains in the northeastern Sichuan basin.

In July 2013, an extreme precipitation event occurred in Sichuan, China, causing severe flooding, debris flows, and substantial losses. Moisture sources and transport of this event and quantification of the contribution from moisture sources were studied using the Lagrangian method. The results show that the vast majority of particles influencing this event originated from the relatively lower troposphere south of the precipitation region and can be traced back to the Arabian Sea. Moreover, the total moisture from the source regions accounts for more than 80% of the precipitation; moisture originating from the India Peninsula–Bay of Bengal–Indo-China Peninsula region had the highest contribution.

High-resolution numerical simulation data of a rainstorm triggering debris flow in Sichuan Province of China simulated by the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model were used to study the dominant cloud microphysical processes of the torrential rainfall. The results showed that: (1) In the strong precipitation period, particle sizes of all hydrometeors increased, and mean-mass diameters of graupel increased the most significantly, as compared with those in the weak precipitation period; (2) The terminal velocity of raindrops was the strongest among all hydrometeors, followed by graupel’s, which was much smaller than that of raindrops. Differences between various hydrometeors’ terminal velocities in the strong precipitation period were larger than those in the weak precipitation period, which favored relative motion, collection interaction and transformation between the particles. Absolute terminal velocity values of raindrops and graupel were significantly greater than those of air upward velocity, and the stronger the precipitation was, the greater the differences between them were; (3) The orders of magnitudes of the various hydrometeors’ sources and sinks in the strong precipitation period were larger than those in the weak precipitation period, causing a difference in the intensity of precipitation. Water vapor, cloud water, raindrops, graupel and their exchange processes played a major role in the production of the torrential rainfall, and there were two main processes via which raindrops were generated: abundant water vapor condensed into cloud water and, on the one hand, accretion of cloud water by rain water formed rain water, while on the other hand, accretion of cloud water by graupel formed graupel, and then the melting of graupel formed rain water.

Keshen is a high-pressure/high temperature (HP/HT) tight-sandstone gas reservoir with reservoir pressure over 110 MPa and temperature over 175°C. The sandstone is very hard, with unconfined compressive strength (UCS) greater than 100 MPa. Given the HP/HT nature and natural fracture system in the reservoir, with aid of stimulation, many wells produced at a very high rate with the mean value exceeding 500,000 m3/d. In the last few years, many production wells in this reservoir experienced severe sanding issues that contradicted the conventional understanding that sanding would not occur in such hard rock. The sanding wells exhibited large fluctuations of production rate and wellhead pressure, erosion of chocks and nozzles, and eventually major or even complete loss of production. A solution to address the sanding issues was urgently needed because the sanding issues had caused a major decline in production and resulted in significant economic loss. Due to the unconventional nature of the sanding issues, the typical sanding prediction methods based on solely on evaluating rock failure were not adequate to reveal the underlying sanding mechanism and develop a viable operational solution to address the sanding issues. To this end, a new workflow was formulated and applied to this study. The workflow started with detailed data mining on the massive amount of drilling, completion, stimulation, and production data from this reservoir to investigate possible relationships of drilling practices, completion options, and production schedules to the occurrence and severity of sanding issues. The analysis revealed that downhole flow velocity and production drawdown were the two major controlling factors in the occurrence of sand production. Further geomechanics simulation and particle migration simulation with a multiphase dynamic flow simulator confirmed that the production drawdown would cause failure of the rock near the wellbore and the gas flow could transport the sand debris to the wellbore and lift it up to the surface. In addition, the fluctuation of production rate was caused by blockage due to accumulation in the wells and production tubing of sand particles that were flushed out after downhole pressure buildup. Based on the analysis, the threshold of flow velocity and the threshold of drawdown were identified, and these thresholds can be used in the reservoir management to address the sanding issues. The experience in Keshen shows that sanding is possible in HP/HT high-productivity sandstone gas reservoirs, even in extremely hard formation, which overturns some prior conceptions on sanding. The information shared from this paper could bring up the attention of those operating similar HP/HT tight sandstone reservoirs around the world.

The analysis of three-dimensional (3D) braided composites is difficult due to its complex microstructure. A novel representative unit cell (RUC) and shear specimen model is introduced to predict elastic properties and failure behavior of 3D 8-harness satin weave composites fastener under shear load. The RUC model is developed to predict engineering constants of composites in several damage status. The connection between macro and meso stress is established by RUC model, which is used to predict the shear strength of fastener based on two scale failure method. Experiments of simulated fastener is performed under shear test. Close correlation is obtained between experimental data and predictions, which demonstrates the validity of this model. The fastener shear strength and failure process under different load angle are also discussed, which indicate the shear strength decreases with the increase of load angle and different damage propagation process occurs.

Cold expansion and interference fitting both can improve the fatigue life of 7075-T6 aluminum alloy single plates. To study the combination effect of the two techniques on fatigue life improvement, a numerical analysis method was employed to simulate the specimens with different cold expansion and interference fit degrees. Finite element methods were conducted to capture the residual stress, and the Smith-Watson-Topper (SWT) method was used to predict the fatigue life. The simulation results revealed that, compared with single technique enhanced specimens, the combined enhanced specimens of 4% cold expansion and 2% interference fit increase the fatigue life by 12–38%.

This paper focuses on the phytoaccumulation and translocation of copper (Cu) in rape grown in the Cu-polluted paddy soil. Pot experiments were conducted in greenhouse conditions to examine the Cu availability and uptake by rape in a paddy soil. The soil was spiked with different concentrations of Cu (0, 100, 300, 500 and 1,000 mg kg−1 soil, added as CuSO4) to simulate soil Cu contamination. After 8 months of growth, plant shoots, stems, pod shells and rapeseeds were harvested for analysis. The concentrations of Cu in the roots and aerial parts of the rape and available Cu in soils were then extracted and determined. Chemical fractions of Cu in the paddy soil of rape were also investigated by sequential extraction techniques. The findings showed that Cu in the clean paddy soil was mainly distributed in residual fractions. However, the most drastic increase was observed in Fe–Mn oxides-bound fractions and organic-bound fractions with increasing soil Cu concentrations. Exchangeable fractions played a more important role than other fractions in controlling the mobility and phytoavailability of Cu. Rape growth was stimulated by low concentrations of Cu, but inhibited by high concentrations. Compares to the aerial parts, the roots were more sensitive to Cu toxicity. The correlation analysis showed that Cu in exchangeable fractions made the greatest contribution on the accumulation of Cu in rapes. The factor analysis results showed that the exchangeable fractions in roots can be indicator of Cu availability. Meanwhile, the bio-concentration factors and the translocation factors of Cu in rape were determined and the results showed that Cu had lower accumulation in the edible parts of the rape.

In the original proposal of Wayne et al. (Int J Syst Bacteriol 37:463–464, 1987), two measures of genetic relatedness were proposed to set the boundary for prokaryotic species. The first was the change in the melting temperature (ΔTm) of heteroduplex DNA and the second was the extent of DNA–DNA hybridization (DDH). While this approach was justified given the experimental error inherent in these methods, genomic sequencing has the potential to measure both parameters with great precision. The average nucleotide identity (ANIb), a surrogate for the ΔTm, and the calculated DDH (cDDH) were determined from the complete genomes of representatives of 17 genera of prokaryotes. When the ANIb was >75 %, the ratio (100-cDDH)/(100-ANIb) was 3.69 ± 0.93 (± SD) and varied from about 2.35 to 4.59 between genera. The differences among genera was highly significant (p

Surface ocean waters are dominated by planktonic bacterial lineages with highly reduced genomes. The best examples are the cyanobacterial genus Prochlorococcus, the alphaproteobacterial clade SAR11 and the gammaproteobacterial clade SAR86, which together represent over 50% of the cells in surface oceans. Several studies have identified signatures of selection on these lineages in today's ocean and have postulated selection as the primary force throughout their evolutionary history. However, massive loss of genomic DNA in these lineages often occurred in the distant past, and the selective pressures underlying these ancient events have not been assessed. Here, we probe ancient selective pressures by computing %GC-corrected rates of conservative and radical nonsynonymous nucleotide substitutions. Surprisingly, we found an excess of radical changes in several of these lineages in comparison to their relatives with larger genomes. Furthermore, analyses of allelic genome sequences of several populations within these lineages consistently supported that radical replacements are more likely to be deleterious than conservative changes. Our results suggest coincidence of massive genomic DNA losses and increased power of genetic drift, but we also suggest that additional evidence independent of the nucleotide substitution analyses is needed to support a primary role of genetic drift driving ancient genome reduction of marine bacterioplankton lineages.

The main pay of the Keshen gas field is a tight sand formation with very low porosity (2% to 7%) and permeability (0.001md-0.1md). Due to the ultra-deep formation depth and superior high reservoir pressure (greater than 116 MPa) and temperatures (above 160°C), the well construction and field development costs are very high. Therefore, stimulation treatments is essential for achieving sufficiently high production rate and the basis for justifying the costs. Natural fractures (NF) are developed in the reservoir with high heterogeneity which leads to complex production mechanism due to interaction between matrix and NFs, and causes difficulties on stimulation optimization. To better understand the reservoir and optimize the well stimulation, the matrix properties, natural fracture, geomechanical data and stimulation data has been reviewed along with production data. Massive production history matching work has been done to evaluate the NFs. Other dynamic data like the well testing data and pressure data also reviewed to help understand NFs development in the full field scal. Production analysis was conducted to link the rock properties, NFs and wells' performance, and provided full understanding of production controlling factor in this reservoir. The post production analysis helped to understand the efficiency of stimulation. The production behavior for different stimulation strategy also have been illustrated by the simulation models to investigate the impaction on the stimualtion optimization strategy by the interaction between matrix and NFs. The study provided a good understanding of the production mechanism in this kind of natural fractured reservoir and NF's impact on the stimulation efficiency. The heterogeneity of NF results in very different production mechanism given similar matrix petrophysical behavior. Based on production mechanism, each well requires a customized stimulation to maximize the production potential. This study presented a case study for evaluating the production mechanism and highlighted the importance on evaluating the production mechanism on optimizing the stimulation for the naturally fractured tight reservoir.

// Jian Zou 1, 2, * , Zhu Cao 1, 2, * , Jianyang Zhang 1, 2, * , Tingting Chen 1, 2 , Shizhou Yang 1, 2 , Yongjie Huang 1, 2 , Die Hong 1 , Yang Li 1 , Xiaojing Chen 2 , Xinyu Wang 1 , Xiaodong Cheng 1 , Weiguo Lu 1, 2 , Xing Xie 1, 2 1 The Department of Gynecologic Oncology, Women’s Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310006, China 2 Women’s Reproductive Health Laboratory of Zhejiang Province, Women’s Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310006, China * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Xing Xie, email: xiex@zju.edu.cn Keywords: HPV receptor, SNP, type-specific HPV infection, cervical lesions Received: February 16, 2016 Accepted: April 26, 2016 Published: May 20, 2016 ABSTRACT Human papillomavirus (HPV) infects cervical epithelial cells through cellular membrane receptors, and then induces the initiation and progression of cervical cancer. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) may impact the susceptibility and outcome of diseases, but it’s still unknown whether variant in HPV receptor and associated genes is associated with type-specific HPV infection and cervical lesion progression. We examined 96 SNPs in 8 genes which may participate in the HPV infection process in 875 samples with HPV negative or single HPV16, 18, 52, 58 positive from 3299 cervical exfoliated cell samples, by Illumina BeadXpress VeraCode platform, and analyzed the correlation between the SNPs and type-specific HPV infection and cervical lesions progression. We found rs28384376 in EGFR and rs12034979 in HSPG2 significantly correlated to HPV16 infection; rs2575738, rs2575712, rs2575735 in SDC2 and rs6697265 in HSPG2 significantly correlated to HPV18 infection; rs10510097 in FGFR2 , rs12718946 in EGFR significantly correlated to HPV52 infection; rs4947972 in EGFR , rs2981451 in FGFR2 , rs2575735 in SDC2 significantly correlated to HPV58 infection. And rs3135772, rs1047057 and rs2556537 in FGFR2 , rs12034979 in HSPG2 , rs16894821 in SDC2 significantly correlated to cervical lesion progression induced by HPV16 infection; rs6697265 and rs6680566 in HSPG2 , rs16860426 in ITGA6 by HPV18 infection; rs878949 in HSPG2 , rs12718946 and rs12668175 in EGFR by HPV52 infection; no SNP by HPV58 infection. Our findings suggest that HPV receptor and associated gene variants may influence the susceptibilities to HPV type-specific infection and cervical lesion progression, which might have a potential application value in cervical cancer screening and therapy.

Activity in the Ordos basin, China, has mostly occurred in the low permeability, clay-rich Chang 7 sandstone and has utilized multi-fractured horizontal wells as the preferred completion technique. To further improve the production potential and increase operational efficiency a dual-well pad site was engineered to trial a pad drilling approach, and to evaluate different completion techniques, utilize integrated workflows, and accelerate the development cycle.The pilot project involved two pads with two horizontal wells each, with the intention to compare the local multistage stimulation practice of using a tubing-conveyed completion method to a wireline-conveyed plug-and-perforation technique. The current tubing-conveyed completion practice impacts the completion efficiency of the well from the standpoints of surface efficiency, engineering workflow, post-fracturing performance, and subsequent commercial performance. The wells completed with the plug-and-perforation technique were completed in a shorter period of time; simultaneous operations enabled flowback water from the first well to be recycled and reused on pumping operations on the second well, further improving the project performance, and first-year cumulative production were 20% higher when compared to surrounding offsets.Three vertical wells were placed between the parallel horizontal wells to enable real-time fracturing monitoring and improve subsurface understanding. To have a more precise microseismic mapping result, the closest vertical well was selected as the monitoring well.The study demonstrates the importance of an integrated approach that accounts for well design, engineering workflow, technology used during the execution, and subsequent evaluation while improving overall productivity. Both the efficiency and production result were breakthroughs in this area.

Cervical cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related deaths in women from developing countries. Identification of novel prognostic predictors or therapeutic targets may improve patient prognosis. In the current study, we demonstrated by real-time PCR that miR-224 expression was significantly upregulated (1.82-fold, P = 0.0025) in cervical cancer tissues (n = 126) compared with in normal cervical tissues (n = 64). Higher expression of miR-224 was significantly associated with poorer prognostic factors, including advanced FIGO stage, nodal metastasis, larger tumor size, vascular involvement and deep stromal invasion (all P < 0.05). Enforced expression of miR-224 promoted cell proliferation, migration and invasion in SiHa and CaSki cancer cell lines. Bioinformatic analysis indicated that RASSF8 (RAS-association domain family 8) was a potential target of miR-224. Western blot analysis and luciferase reporter assay showed that overexpressed miR-224 inhibited RASSF8 protein expression and decreased the activity of a luciferase reporter containing the 3' untranslated region (UTR) of RASSF8, respectively. Further, RASSF8 knockdown by specific RNAi showed similar effects in cervical cancer cells transfected with miR-224 mimic. Our findings suggest that miR-224 directly targets RASSF8 and thereby acts as a tumor promoter in cervical cancer progression.

In this paper, we propose a model that combines Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) for music generation. We first convert MIDI-format music file into a musical score matrix, and then establish convolution layers to extract feature of the musical score matrix. Finally, the output of the convolution layers is split in the direction of the time axis and input into the LSTM, so as to achieve the purpose of music generation. The result of the model was verified by comparison of accuracy, time-domain analysis, frequency-domain analysis and human-auditory evaluation. The results show that Convolution-LSTM performs better in music genertaion than LSTM, with more pronounced undulations and clearer melody.

The effects of copper accumulation and resistance in two biotypes of Cynodon dactylon were studied. Results showed that at a low concentration of copper (

The Keshen reservoir is a naturally fractured, deep, tight gas sandstone reservoir under high-tectonic stress. Stimulation is critical to the successful development of the Keshen gas field. However, due to the heterogeneity of the natural fracture system in the reservoir, there is large variation in natural productivity from production wells, which mandates different types of stimulation operations from simple acidizing to massive hydraulic fracturing. Hence, to improve the efficiency of reservoir stimulation and overall performance of the reservoir development, reliably evaluating the natural productivity from production wells and optimizing well stimulation strategy (by selecting appropriate stimulation operations) are required. To this end, single well production history matches were conducted to calculate the natural fracture (NF) permeabilities for 12 acidizing wells with known matrix petrophysical properties. It was found out that the NF permeability is clearly correlated to the intersection angle ((, angle between maximum horizontal stress and NF strike) and Young's modulus (E), based on detailed natural fracture interpretation and geomechanics analysis. By using a correlation with the intersection angle and Young's modulus, the NF permeabilities for seven hydraulic fractured wells with large size treatment were obtained and the natural productivity for each well was predicted. By comparing predicted natural productivity with actual post-stimulation productivity, the productivity enhancement by hydraulic fracturing treatment was determined. The comparison showed that the productivity improvements by hydraulic fracturing treatment were very limited and unnecessary for the wells with high natural productivity, while improvements were substantial for others. Subsequently, the well stimulation selection criterion was formulated, which classified wells into three categories based on the natural productivity, and specified stimulation method was recommended for each well category, respectively. This paper shows an example: the natural productivity of a newly drilled well was predicted, and massive hydraulic fracturing was selected based on the stimulation treatment selected criterion. The well was successfully stimulated with absolute open flow (AOF) of 3.6 MMm3/d, which doubled the natural productivity. The workflow used to estimate the natural productivity of the tectonically active Keshen reservoir and to establish the well stimulation selection criterion, and their application and validation, which are rarely published previously, are presented in this paper.

Ran Ni,1 Yongjie Huang,2 Jing Wang11Department of Respiration Medicine, 2Department of Geriatric Respiration and Sleep, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, People’s Republic of ChinaBackground: Accumulating evidence has emphasized causative links between aberrant microRNA (miR) expression patterns and cancer development. Abnormally expressed miRNA-98 (miR-98) was found in certain types of human cancers. The biological roles of miR-98 in lung cancer, however, remain largely undefined.Methods: We evaluated the expression of miR-98 in normal lung tissues, lung cancer tissues, normal human bronchial epithelial cells, and lung cancer cells using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Effect of miR-98 on proliferation of lung cancer cells was investigated using MTT assay and colony formation assay. Transwell assay was used to assess the effects of miR-98 on migration and invasion of lung cancer cells. Whether miR-98 targets the 3'-untranslated region (3'-UTR) of integrin β3 (ITGB3) coding gene ITGB3 mRNA was ascertained using luciferase reporter assay. Finally, we transplanted miR-98 expressing A549 cells into nude mice to observe the effect of miR-98 on tumor growth in vivo.Results: We confirmed that miR-98 was frequently low expressed in lung cancer tissues and human lung cancer cells. Reintroduction of miR-98 into lung cancer cells inhibited cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro and suppressed tumor formation in a nude mouse model. Furthermore, we identified that miR-98 exerted inhibitory roles by directly binding to 3'-UTR of ITGB3 mRNA, thus negatively regulated the expression of ITGB3. Interestingly, upon restoring the expression of ITGB3, the effect of miR-98 on cell proliferation was partially reversed.Conclusion: Our findings suggest that miR-98 prevents proliferation, migration, and invasion of lung cancer cells by directly binding to the 3'-UTR of ITGB3 mRNA and could be a promising treatment option in anticancer therapy.Keywords: miR-98, proliferation, migration, invasion, integrin β3 (ITGB3)

Miscanthus sacchariflorus (Maxim.) Benth. is a metallophyte suitable for the phytoremediation of mine wastes. The tolerance and accumulation of M. sacchariflorus to cadmium was studied by pot experiments. The results showed that O2·- generation rate, plasma membrane permeability and MDA content of M. sacchariflorus leaves increased with increasing Cd concentrations in soil, but significant effect was only observed when Cd concentrations were ≥50 mg·kg(-1). SOD and POD activities increased initially but decreased later on, whereas CAT activity only increased significantly at higher Cd concentrations, 50-100 mg·kg(-1). The content of photosynthetic pigment and growth of M. sacchariflorus were both not significantly affected when Cd concentration was ≤25 mg·kg(-1). In contrast, both parameters were significantly affected when Cd concentration was ≥50 mg·kg(-1). M. sacchariflorus could accumulate much Cd, but most of the Cd assimilated was retained in the belowground part, suggesting that M. sacchariflorus has poor ability to translocate Cd to the aboveground part. Our results suggested that although M. sacchariflorus was not a hyper-accumulator, it has a strong capacity to tolerate and stabilize the Cd. Therefore, M. sacchariflorus has a certain potential in the phytostabilization of Cd-contaminated soils.

To evaluate the T-SPOT. TB assay for the diagnosis of tuberculosis in a large clinical samples.We analyzed the T-SPOT. TB results of 1 084 tuberculosis (TB) suspects who were admitted to the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from February 2011 to October 2011. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio of T-SPOT. TB were analyzed according to the final diagnosis. Among these patients, 60 were retested by T-SPOT. TB after 2-4 week anti-tuberculosis treatment, and spot forming cells (SFCs) were compared before and after treatment. Paired t-test was used for comparison between groups.Three hundred and eighty-four patients were eventually diagnosed to have TB. Among 54 patients with laboratory diagnosis of TB, 42 were T-SPOT. TB positive, and the sensitivity was 77.8% (42/54). In 330 cases clinically diagnosed as tuberculosis, 289 were T-SPOT. TB positive, and the sensitivity was 87.6% (289/330). The total sensitivity of T-SPOT. TB was 86.2% (331/384). In 700 non-TB patients, 638 cases were T-SPOT. TB negative, and the specificity was 91.1% (638/700). The positive predictive value, negative predictive value, positive likelihood ratio and negative likelihood ratio were 84.2% (331/393), 92.3% (638/691), 9.69 and 0.15, respectively. Sixty patients were retested by the T-SPOT. TB after anti-TB treatment (2-4 weeks), and the results showed that both ESAT-6 and CFP-10 specific SFCs (47 and 18, respectively) decreased significantly compared with those before anti-TB treatment (99 and 49, respectively).in this large scale study indicate that T-SPOT. TB is a promising test for the diagnosis of tuberculosis due to its high sensitivity and specificity.

This study was carried out to investigate the effects of resveratrol on cigarette smoke (CS)-induced lung injury. Experimental mice were administrated with 1 mg/kg or 3 mg/ kg resveratrol orally, 1 h prior to CS exposure (five cigarettes a day for 3 consecutive days). Airway inflammation and gene expression changes were assessed. CS exposure increased the number of pulmonary inflammatory cells, coupled with elevated production of tumor necrosis factor α and interleukin-6 in bronchoalveolar lavage fluids. Resveratrol treatment decreased CS-induced lung inflammation. Resveratrol restored the activities of superoxide dismutase, GSH peroxidase, and catalase in CS-treated mice. CS significantly enhanced the nuclear translocation of nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) and NF-κB DNA binding activity, which was impaired by resveratrol pretreatment. In addition, resveratrol promoted CS-induced heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) expression and activation. Our results collectively indicate that resveratrol attenuates CS-induced lung oxidative injury, which involves decreased NF-κB activity and the elevated HO-1 expression and activity.

Prokaryotic genomes are diverse in terms of their nucleotide and oligonucleotide composition as well as presence of various sequence features that can affect physical properties of the DNA molecule. We present a survey of local sequence patterns which have a potential to promote non-canonical DNA conformations (i.e. different from standard B-DNA double helix) and interpret the results in terms of relationships with organisms' habitats, phylogenetic classifications, and other characteristics. Our present work differs from earlier similar surveys not only by investigating a wider range of sequence patterns in a large number of genomes but also by using a more realistic null model to assess significant deviations. Our results show that simple sequence repeats and Z-DNA-promoting patterns are generally suppressed in prokaryotic genomes, whereas palindromes and inverted repeats are over-represented. Representation of patterns that promote Z-DNA and intrinsic DNA curvature increases with increasing optimal growth temperature (OGT), and decreases with increasing oxygen requirement. Additionally, representations of close direct repeats, palindromes and inverted repeats exhibit clear negative trends with increasing OGT. The observed relationships with environmental characteristics, particularly OGT, suggest possible evolutionary scenarios of structural adaptation of DNA to particular environmental niches.

Cognitive impairment in diabetes (CID) is a severe chronic complication of diabetes mellitus, and its pathogenesis has not yet been fully understood. Increasing evidence has shown that the distribution and expression of N-methyl-D-aspartame receptor (NMDAR) and subunits NR2A and NR2B, which all participated in the development of the central nervous system and formation of learning and memory, are correlated with the occurrence and development of CID.

Objective The aim of this study was to characterize the clinical significance of GMFG, a novel ADF/cofilin superfamily protein, and investigate its role in cell migration and invasion in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Methods The expression of GMFG in EOC tissues and ovarian cancer cell lines was evaluated by immunohistochemistry and immunoblotting respectively. The data were statistically analyzed for the associations of GMFG expression with clinicopathologic parameters and survival. In vitro cell migration and invasion assays were performed to determine the role of GMFG in cell migratory behaviors. The effect of GMFG on reorganization of actin cytoskeleton was investigated by immunostaining. Results GMFG was overexpressed in EOC. Up-regulated GMFG expression was closely correlated with advanced FIGO stage and chemoresistance of the disease. EOC patients with higher GMFG expression showed poorer progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). In vitro cellular assays revealed that GMFG promoted cell migration and invasion. GMFG expression altered actin cytoskeleton organization probably by interacting with the Arp2/3 complex. Conclusion GMFG expression independently predicts poorer prognosis in patients with EOC. Ectopic overexpression of GMFG contributes to the malignant biological behavior of ovarian cancer cells.

The QUASAR Penta-guide Phantom with fiducial markers was scanned, and the CT images were transferred to Pinnacle workstation. Skin and target volumes were contoured and transferred to TomoPlan treatment planning system. The phantom was scanned with Megavoltage CT (MVCT). MVCT images were matched to the planning CT. Automatic adjustment of treatment couch was completed. It was found that the green laser coincided with the etched center crosshairs in lateral and longitudinal directions with an error less than 2 mm. However 2 mm vertical tabletop lag was found, but could be eventually corrected. Verifications for specific patients with head and pelvic tumors were also completed, the residual setup error were analyzed. The automatic movement of tabletop after image match is satisfactory.