Search

In order to improve the quality and efficiency of agriculture, increase farmers' income steadily and rapidly, and improve the ecological environment of agriculture, a strong city of organic agriculture should be constructed in Nanchong City. Based on ecological agriculture, Nanchang makes great efforts to build a strong city of organic agriculture, takes environmental protection supervision as an opportunity to promote sustainable agricultural development feasibly, takes regional brands as the starting point, and promotes the development of agricultural brand. The main measures and achievements of the development of organic agriculture in Nanchang City are analyzed and discussed starting with the next work plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogen is blended with natural gas to form hydrogenated natural gas (HCNG), which is a new, efficient and clean energy. CHEMKIN-PRO 19.0 software was combined with the GRI-Mech 3.0 mechanism to evaluate the capacity of H2 blending in reducing CO and CO2 emissions. Influences of H2 blending on combustion reactions of the CH4-air mixture were investigated. The results showed that the main reactants and products (CH4, CO, and CO2) decreased in gradient with increasing H2 blending ratio, accompanied by a shorter reaction duration and a faster reaction rate. After adding H2, important key radicals H, O, and OH increase significantly, so that the combustion reactions become more violent. Sensitivity analysis reveals that among relevant elementary reactions of CO and CO2, R38 (with its promotional effect) and R158 (with its inhibitory effect) show the greatest sensitivity. As the H2 concentration increases, the sensitivity of the two reactions (separately with promotional and inhibitory effects) decreases. Blending H2 in the natural gas can improve the combustion rate and reduce the generation of emissions CO and CO2, which is of important significance for realizing low-carbon goals and reducing air pollution.

In order to provide certain references for further deepening the development of processing industry of agricultural products, this paper analyzed and elaborated the basic principles, construction priorities and safeguard measures of the development of deep processing industry of agricultural products in Nanchong City of Sichuan Province. Besides, it made a scientific planning for accelerating the deep processing of agricultural products in Nanchong City in 2018 - 2020, to ensure the full implementation of fine and deep processing of agricultural products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial clusters have an obvious role in promoting regional economic development and can enhance region core competitiveness.In order to rapidly promote the economic development of Nanchong,from the aspects of agricultural resources,brand advantages,modern agricultural demonstration zones,deep processing of agricultural products and cold chain logistics,the development status of modern agricultural industrial clusters of 100 billion output in Nanchong City is summarized in this article. For existing problems,resolution strategies are proposed from the aspects of focuses,work paths and safeguards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To carefully implement the rural revitalization strategy,further promote the structural reform of the agricultural supply front,implement the "155 Development Strategy",speed up the cultivation of the modern agricultural industrial clusters with output of 100 billion yuan,and constantly consolidate the industrial foundation of the " Second City in Chengdu-Chongqing Line",the Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government of Nanchong City decided to implement the " 300 Demonstration Projects" of modern agriculture. It firmly grasps the " bull nose"( key part) of the project,energetically implements the construction of 100 modern circular agricultural demonstration parks,100 agricultural leading enterprises with output value of 100 billion yuan,and 100 agricultural new business model demonstration projects( hereinafter referred to as 300 Demonstration Projects),to realize the goal of the output value of the modern agriculture industrial clusters of Nanchong City exceeds 100 billion yuan in 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: SNPs in the promoter region of miRNAs have been reported to be associated with cancer prognosis. Our previous study found that miR-146b had a strong correlation with the stage classification of gastric cancer and contributed to tumor progression. The current study was aimed at investigating whether an SNP located in the promoter region of miR-146b could affect the survival rate of gastric cancer. Methods: Using bioinformatics tools, we identified one SNP (rs1536309) that is located in the miR-146b promoter. We genotyped this SNP site to assess its association with gastric cancer prognosis in 940 cases. Results: We found that the dominant model of miR-146b rs1536309 was associated with a higher survival rate of gastric cancer. The association remained significant in the subgroup analysis by age (=60), sex (male), tumor size (=5 cm), histologic type (diffuse), lymph node metastasis (N0), distant metastasis (M0), and TNM stage (I/II). Conclusions: Our results suggested that the miR-146b rs1536309 polymorphism may be a potential biomarker for the prognosis of gastric cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Printing is a promising method for the large-scale, high-throughput, and low-cost fabrication of electronics. Specifically, the contact printing approach shows great potential for realizing high-performance electronics with aligned quasi-1D materials. Despite being known for more than a decade, reports on a precisely controlled system to carry out contact printing are rare and printed nanowires (NWs) suffer from issues such as location-to-location and batch-to-batch variations. To address this problem, we present here a novel design for a tailor-made contact printing system with highly accurate control of printing parameters (applied force: 0–6 N ± 0.3%, sliding velocity: 0–200 mm/s, sliding distance: 0–100 mm) to enable the uniform printing of nanowires (NWs) aligned along 93% of the large printed area (1 cm2). The system employs self-leveling platforms to achieve optimal alignment between substrates, whereas the fully automated process minimizes human-induced variation. The printing dynamics of the developed system are explored on both rigid and flexible substrates. The uniformity in printing is carefully examined by a series of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images and by fabricating a 5 × 5 array of NW-based photodetectors. This work will pave the way for the future realization of highly uniform, large-area electronics based on printed NWs.

Abstract Pregnant women are generally more susceptible to viral infection. Although the impact of SARS-CoV-2 in pregnancy remains to be determined, evidence indicates that the risk factors for severe COVID-19 are similar in pregnancy to the general population. Here we systemically analyzed the clinical characteristics of pregnant and non-pregnant female COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized during the same period and found that pregnant patients developed marked lymphopenia and higher inflammation evident by higher C-reactive protein and IL-6. To elucidate the pathways that might contribute to immunopathology or protective immunity against COVID-19 during pregnancy, we applied single-cell mRNA sequencing to profile peripheral blood mononuclear cells from four pregnant and six non-pregnant female patients after recovery along with four pregnant and three non-pregnant healthy donors. We found normal clonal expansion of T cells in the pregnant patients, heightened activation and chemotaxis in NK, NKT, and MAIT cells, and differential interferon responses in the monocyte compartment. Our data present a unique feature in both innate and adaptive immune responses in pregnant patients recovered from COVID-19.

Abstract Rapid thermal annealing is an effective way to improve the optical properties of semiconductor materials and devices. In this paper, the emission characteristics of GaAs0.92Sb0.08/Al0.3Ga0.7As multiple quantum wells, which investigated by temperature-dependent photoluminescence, are adjusted through strain and interfacial diffusion via rapid thermal annealing. The light-hole (LH) exciton emission and the heavy-hole (HH) exciton emission are observed at room temperature. After annealing, the LH and HH emission peaks have blue shift. It can be ascribed to the variation of interfacial strain at low annealing temperature and the interfacial diffusion between barrier layer and well layer at high annealing temperature. This work is of great significance for emission adjustment of strained multiple quantum wells.

BackgroundHelicobacter pylori (HP), a gram-negative spiral-shaped microaerophilic bacterium, colonizes the stomach of approximately 50% of the world’s population, which is considered a risk factor for gastritis, peptic ulcers, gastric cancer, and other malignancies. HP is also considered carcinogenic since it involves the mutation and damage of multiple HP-related genes. Stomach adenocarcinoma (STAD) is a common stom5ach cancer with a poor prognosis and high risk of metastasis in the advanced stage. Therefore, an early diagnosis and targeted therapies are needed to ensure a better prognosis. In this study, a scoring system was constructed based on three HP infection–related candidate genes to enable a more accurate prediction of tumor progression and metastasis and response to immunotherapies.MethodsHP infection–induced mutation patterns of STAD samples from six cohorts were comprehensively assessed based on 73 HP-related genes, which were then correlated with the immune cell–infiltrating characteristics of the tumor microenvironment (TME). The risk signature was constructed to quantify the influence of HP infection on individual tumors. Subsequently, an accurate nomogram was generated to improve the clinical applicability of the risk signature. We conducted immunohistochemical experiments and used the Affiliated Hospital of Youjiang Medical University for Nationalities (AHYMUN) cohort data set with survival information to further verify the clinical value of this risk signature.ResultsTwo distinct HP-related mutation patterns with different immune cell–infiltrating characteristics (ICIC) and survival possibility were identified. We demonstrated that the evaluation of HP infection–induced mutation patterns of tumor could assist the prediction of stages, phenotypes, stromal activity, genetic diversity, and patient prognosis. A low risk score involved an increased mutation burden and activation of immune responses, with a higher 5-year survival rate and enhanced response to anti-PD-1/L1 immunotherapy, while a high risk score involved stromal activation and poorer survival. The efficiency of the risk signature was further evidenced by the nomogram.ConclusionsSTAD patients with a low risk score demonstrated significant therapeutic advantages and clinical benefits. HP infection–induced mutations play a nonnegligible role in STAD development. Quantifying the HP-related mutation patterns of individual tumors will contribute to phenotype classification, guide more effective targeted and personalized therapies, and enable more accurate predictions of metastasis and prognosis.

Objective Recent studies have reported a correlation between non-coding RNAs such as circular RNAs (circRNAs) and clinical value of various cancers. However, the diagnostic and prognostic role of circRNA in breast cancer remains controversial.Design Systematic review and meta-analysis.Methods Diagnostic efficacy was estimated by sensitivity, specificity and area under the curve (AUC). Pooled HRs with 95% CIs estimated overall survival (OS), and ORs with 95% CIs investigated clinical features.Results By searching PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, CNKI and Cochrane Library, we obtained a total of 29 studies with 4405 patients. A shorter survival time was associated with high expression levels of tumour-promoter circRNAs (OS: HR=2.43, 95% CI 2.20 to 2.92, p

In recent years, mobile phone location (MPL) data have been widely used to determine the spatial trajectories of users. Although this massive amount of MPL data can provide insight into human movement, definite conclusions cannot be drawn because of positioning bias: the locations of MPL data are usually not the phone users' actual locations. In recent years, the spatial accuracy of MPL data has been increasingly evaluated. Such efforts have led to many insights regarding the quality and applicability of MPL data. Despite these achievements, to the best of our knowledge, no studies have quantitatively assessed the spatial accuracy of MPL data by considering geographical influencing factors. In this study, we built a linear evaluation model based on geographical weighted regression (GWR) and a nonlinear evaluation model based on a random forest (RF) to quantify the relationship between geographical factors and the positioning bias of MPL data. Nanjing city in China is used as the test case. The results show that both the GWR model and RF model have good stability. However, the RF model's overall prediction performance is much better than that of the GWR model. The RF model can estimate the spatial accuracy of the MPL data within narrow margins of error. The importance ranking of geographical variables shows that the population density, elevation and building density are the three most important factors, while the normalised difference water index (NDWI) and distance to the nearest cell tower (DNCT) are the least important variables. The RF model constructed in this study can be used to evaluate the spatial accuracy of MPL data and simulate the spatial distribution of the positioning bias of the MPL data covering the study area.

Abstract ZnO nanowires play a very important role in optoelectronic devices due to the wide bandgap and high exciton binding energy. However, for one-dimensional nanowire, due to the large surface to volume ratio, surface traps and surface adsorbed species acts as an alternate pathway for the de-excitation of carriers. Ar plasma treatment is a useful method to enhance the optical property of ZnO nanowires. It is necessary to study the optical properties of ZnO nanowires treated by plasma with different energies. Here, we used laser spectroscopy to investigate the plasma treatments with various energies on ZnO nanowires. Significantly improved emission has been observed for low and moderate Ar plasma treatments, which can be ascribed to the surface cleaning effects and increased neutral donor-bound excitons. It is worth mentioning that about 60-folds enhancements of the emission at room temperature can be achieved under 200 W Ar plasma treatment. When the plasma energy exceeds the threshold, high-ion beam energy will cause irreparable damage to the ZnO nanowires. Thanks to the enhanced optical performance, random lasing is observed under optical pumping at room temperature. And the stability has been improved dramatically. By using this simple method, the optical property and stability of ZnO nanowires can be effectively enhanced. These results will play an important role in the development of low dimensional ZnO-based optoelectronic devices.

Pregnant women are generally more susceptible to viral infection. Although the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on pregnant women remains to be determined, evidence indicates that risks of adverse clinical outcomes are similar in pregnancy to the general population. Here we analyzed clinical symptoms and outcomes of 20 pregnant and 299 reproductive-aged non-pregnant female COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized during the same period. Laboratory measurements were compared among mild cases and healthy pregnant women. Our study found that pregnant patients showed enhanced innate immune response evident by higher neutrophils and C-reactive protein. Cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors (CCGFs) profiles from 11 pregnant and 4 non-pregnant COVID-19 patients and 10 healthy pregnant female patients, and lymphocyte subsets analysis of 7 pregnant patients and 19 non-pregnant patients, indicate suppressed cytokine storm and potential enhanced CD8+ T cell and NK cell activity in pregnant patients with COVID-19, which may be essential in contributing to the unique anti-SARS-CoV-2 response in pregnancy.

Abstract  Mucosal microvacular thrombi in rectal biopsies were observed in some ulcerative colitis (UC). Heparin may be effective in steroid resistant UC in some studies, however, the new results of meta-analysis demonstrated a non-significant effect of heparin in controlled clinical trials, differing markedly from observational studies. The objective of this study was to identify colonic microvascular thrombi in larger cases with UC, and analyse its possible risk factors: age, gender, histologic score, extent of lesions and operation or biopsy specimens, and assess the significance of microvascular thrombosis in patients with UC. The microvascular thrombi were identified by immunohistochemical staining with anti-CD61 monoclonal antibody and Martius scarlet blue (MSB) staining in 40 colonic tissue samples of UC (31 biopsy specimens and nine operated cases) and 12 cases of normal colon tissue from operated colonic carcinoma. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the relationship of age, gender, degree of histology, origin of the specimens, extent of lesions and microvascular thrombi examined. Microvascular thrombi were positive in 14 of 40 UC cases, and none in the controls. The presence of microvascular thrombi was related to operation specimens with odds ratio 11.667, P=0.0179, it might be also related to histologic score (OR=1.350) and extent of lesions (OR=1.619). These results suggest that microvascular thrombosis may be one of the important pathogenesis in some UC, and that the effect of anticoagulant treatment still needs to be assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This study investigates the potential interrelationship between gene expression and biosynthesis of vitamin C, E and folate in sweet corn sprouts. Germination of sweet corn kernels was conducted in light and dark environments to determine if this relationship was regulated by photo-illumination. Results indicated that light and dark environments affected the DHAR, TMT and GTPCH expression and that these genes were the predominant genes of vitamin C, E and folate biosynthesis pathways respectively during the germination. Levels of vitamin C and folate increased during the germination of sweet corn seeds while vitamin E had a declining manner. Sweet corn sprouts had higher vitamin C and E levels as well as relevant gene expression levels in light environment while illumination had little influence on the folate contents and the gene expression levels during the germination. These results indicate that there might be a collaborative relationship between vitamin C and folate regulation during sweet corn seed germination, while an inhibitive regulation might exist between vitamin C and E.

Electroactive biomaterials are fascinating for tissue engineering applications because of their ability to deliver electrical stimulation directly to cells, tissue, and organs. One particularly attractive conductive filler for electroactive biomaterials is silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) because of their high conductivity, antibacterial activity, and ability to promote bone healing. However, production of AgNPs involves a toxic reducing agent which would inhibit biological scaffold performance. This work explores facile and green synthesis of AgNPs using extract of Cilembu sweet potato and studies the effect of baking and precursor concentrations (1, 10 and 100 mM) on AgNPs’ properties. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) results revealed that the smallest particle size of AgNPs (9.95 ± 3.69 nm) with nodular morphology was obtained by utilization of baked extract and ten mM AgNO3. Polycaprolactone (PCL)/AgNPs scaffolds exhibited several enhancements compared to PCL scaffolds. Compressive strength was six times greater (3.88 ± 0.42 MPa), more hydrophilic (contact angle of 76.8 ± 1.7°), conductive (2.3 ± 0.5 × 10−3 S/cm) and exhibited anti-bacterial properties against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC3658 (99.5% reduction of surviving bacteria). Despite the promising results, further investigation on biological assessment is required to obtain comprehensive study of this scaffold. This green synthesis approach together with the use of 3D printing opens a new route to manufacture AgNPs-based electroactive with improved anti-bacterial properties without utilization of any toxic organic solvents.

Oxygen vacancies (OVs) have critical effects on the photoelectric characterizations and photocatalytic activity of nanoceria, but the contributions of surface OVs on the promoted photocatalytic properties are not clear yet. In this work, we synthesized ceria nanopolyhedron (P-CeO2), ceria nanocube (C-CeO2) and ceria nanorod (R-CeO2), respectively, and annealed them at 600 °C in air, 30%, 60% or pure H2. After annealing, the surface OVs concentration of ceria elevates with the rising of H2 concentration. Photocatalytic activity of annealed ceria is promoted with the increasing of surface OVs, the methylene blue photodegradation ratio with pure hydrogen annealed of P-CeO2, C-CeO2 or R-CeO2 is 93.82%, 85.15% and 90.09%, respectively. Band gap of annealed ceria expands first and then tends to narrow slightly with the rising of surface OVs, while the valence band (VB) and conductive band (CB) of annealed ceria changed slightly. Both of photoluminescence spectra and photocurrent results indicate that the separation efficiency of photoinduced electron-hole pairs is significantly enhanced with the increasing of the surface OVs concentration. The notable weakened recombination of photogenerated carrier is suggested to attribute a momentous contribution on the enhanced photocatalytic activity of ceria which contains surface OVs.

In this study, the phytochemical profiles, total and cellular antioxidant activities of five different Chinese chestnut (Castanea mollissima BL.) cultivars were analyzed. Phenolics, flavonoids as well as phytochemical compounds in five cultivars of chestnut kernels were determined. Results showed that the free forms played a dominant role in total phenolics, flavonoids and antioxidant activities of all five cultivars of chestnut kernels. The cultivar ‘Fyou’ showed the highest total and free phenolic contents, ‘Heguoyihao’ showed the highest total and free flavonoids contents, and ‘Chushuhong’ showed the highest total and cellular antioxidant activities. Eight phenolic compounds were detected, and chlorogenic acid, gallic acid, and quercetin were shown as three predominant components in all five cultivars. These results provide valuable information which may be a guidance for selection of good chestnut variety to be used as functional food.

The intention of this study was to investigate the effect of steaming processing on phenolic profiles and antioxidant activities in chestnuts. Steaming processing at different times and temperatures depicted diverse impacts on free and bound fractions. Though, bound phenolics were stable but long time steaming at higher temperatures tended to improve the levels of phenolics, flavonoids as well as antioxidant activities in chestnut kernels, by up to 60.11% of the original value. Seven phenolic compounds including ferulic acid, chlorogenic acid, gallic acid, vanillic acid, syringate, p-coumaric acid and quercetin were found to change during thermal processes. Significant relationships (p < 0.05) were identified between total phenolics and total antioxidant activities. However, the consistency of chlorogenic acid (p < 0.01) only with cellular antioxidant activity indicated poor bio-accessibility of the phytochemicals in chestnuts. However, this situation could be partly improved by steaming. Steaming could improve the cellular accessibility of free phytochemicals, particularly, increasing the bio-accessibility by 41.96%. This study provided valuable information on dynamic changes of phenolic profiles and antioxidant activity of chestnuts under a steaming process, which could offer possible guidance for the chestnut processing industry in the future.

A novel Fe3O4@rhamnolipid@BiOBr (FRB) was synthesized via a modified precipitation method and applied in the plasma discharge system. Rhamnolipid was used as biosurfactant to modify Fe3O4 by interacting with Fe3O4 via its aliphatic chain. The results show that the prepared FRB magnetic photocatalyst exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity and Fenton reaction behavior in the plasma discharge system. Meanwhile, the addition of FRB could improve energy efficiency of defluorination by 21.29 mg kW−1 h−1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]