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The effects of magnetized water irrigation on the growth and ionic movements of one-year-old potted seedlings of Populus × euramericana ‘Neva’ were investigated. A magnetic treatment device was used to treat the plants. The contents of K+, Na+, Ca2+, and Mg2+in leaves and roots were analyzed by atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS), and the fluxes of K+, Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, and H+in mesophyll cells and in meristematic zones were measured using a noninvasive micro-test technique (NIMT) after 30 days of treatment. After 90 days, the plants were harvested, and their growth indices and root morphology were measured. The results showed that (i) compared with nonmagnetic treatments (NMT), the magnetic treatments (MT) led to higher K+and Mg2+contents and lower Ca2+content in roots and leaves, while the Na+content was lower and the K+/Na+ratio was higher; (ii) MT enhanced Na+efflux, increased H+influx, and decreased K+and Mg2+efflux compared with NMT; (iii) MT resulted in greater height, diameter, and leaf area of the plants and increased the length, surface area, and number of root tips compared with NMT; and (iv) stomatal conductance (Gs), net photosynthetic rate (Pn), intercellular CO2concentration (Ci), and water use efficiency (WUE) were increased in MT, whereas both transpiration rate (Tr) and stomatal limiting value (Ls) were decreased compared with NMT. The results indicate that the use of magnetized water can promote plant quality and regulate the ion absorption, transpiration, and distribution. Thus, MT is conducive to the re-establishment of ionic homeostatic mechanisms via ion-selective absorption and transportation under salt stress.

Graphene oxide (GO) is an attractive option for large scale production of graphene. On the other hand, the graphene obtained by the reduction of GO has inevitable structural defects, and the vacant lattice sites will significantly restrict its conductivity. It has been demonstrated that thermal annealing in hydrogen is an efficient method to reduce defects and heal the lattice in GO samples. However, it is still not clear how the defects and/or disordering influence the photoelectric conversion efficiency and the carrier relaxation pathway in GO. Herein, time-domain terahertz (THz) spectroscopy is employed to characterize the properties of the multilayer GO films which were annealed in hydrogen at various temperatures. Upon photoexcitation, a transient increase of the conductivity was observed for the reduced graphene oxide (RGO) samples. The ultrafast carrier relaxation process can be well assigned to the carrier–carrier scattering and carrier–phonon coupling. Our results demonstrated that the RGO films ...

A capillary electrophoresis (CE) method combined with online and offline enrichment for improving the detection sensitivity of chondroitin sulfate (CS) is established. The online enrichment method is based on the field-amplified sample stacking and large volume electrokinetic injection, and offline enrichment is based on the association between cetyltrimethylammonium chloride and CS. Experimental parameters affecting CE method such as the type and pH of background electrolyte, the injection mode and time and the steps of offline enrichment were optimized. Under optimum conditions, the calibration plot between CS concentration and peak area was linear in the range of 1 ~ 100 μg/mL. The enrichment factor was 130 times and the limit of detection was 50 ng/mL. The average recovery was 103.5% and the relative standard deviation of peak area was

Aqueous film-forming foam is used widely as a means of fire extinguishing, especially for both chemical process industry and oil industry fires. The corresponding low-expansion foam generator always uses negative pressure generated by a high-velocity jet to draw in air to create a low-expansion foam. Considering the interactions between factors, an orthogonal test was established to characterize their performance. This conclusion was verified using the method recommended in GB15308-2006, the standard issued by the Standardization Administration of the People's Republic of China. It was found that the nozzle convergence angle and the ratio of the nozzle position to the throat pipe diameter of the generator were the predominant factors. The optimal foam generator configuration had a nozzle position of 1.2 times the diameter of the throat pipe, a nozzle convergence angle of 11o and throat pipe length of 7.5 times the diameter of the throat pipe. This study contributes to the optimization of a low-expansion foam generator.

THz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) is used to study the THz-optical properties of a single crystal bismuth ferrite (BiFeO 3 ). The anisotropy of BiFeO 3 is strongly dependent on the temperature. A giant birefringence is observed up to around 3.6.

Objective Tourette syndrome (TS) is a childhood-onset neuro-developmental disorder and the genetic factors play an important role in its etiology. As pericentrin (PCNT) binds to disruption-in-schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) and is a risk factor for many mental illnesses, we aimed to investigate the effect of PCNT on TS in the Chinese Han population. Methods Five tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (rs17371795, rs2839227, rs2839228, rs6518291 and rs9983522) in PCNT were screened in 407 TS nuclear family trios and 506 healthy persons by the TaqMan assays real-time. A common case–control study was designed to recognize differences in the genetic distributions. Additionally, we conducted a family based association study including transmission disequilibrium test, haplotype relative risk, and haplotype-based haplotype relative risk for these SNPs. Results The allele frequencies revealed a significant difference of rs17371795, rs2839227 and rs2839228 between TS patients and controls (for rs17371795: P=0.002, OR=0.691, 95% CI=0.547–0.874; for rs2839227: P=0.001, OR=0.682, 95% CI=0.540–0.860; for rs2839228: P=0.028, OR=0.775, 95% CI=0.618–0.973) and genotypic distributions showed a positive association only in rs17371795 and rs2839227 (for rs17371795: P=0.010; for rs2839227: P=0.008). Moreover, only rs2839227 remained significant after Bonferroni correction (P

Reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) plays a pivotal role in the electron-transfer chain of biological system. Analysis of many biological markers is based on the detection of the enzymatically generated NADH. In this paper, a sensitive hydrogen peroxide (H

Background Biologic products, such as rituximab and adalimumab, have revolutionized the treatment for chronic inflammatory disorders, providing an option to patients who were non-responsive to conventional systemic therapies. In China, rituximab is only approved for the treatment of certain haematologic malignancies. At present, there are several approved biosimilar drugs in Europe but none in China. HLX01, a China-manufactured proposed rituximab biosimilar, was first developed for patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma later as a new drug for the treatment for autoimmune diseases. Currently, HLX01’s biosimilar NDA for the treatment of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is being reviewed by authorities in China. Objectives Evaluation of clinical PK, safety and exploratory efficacy in RA patients to support the development of HLX01 for the treatment of autoimmune disease Methods We conducted a multi-centre, randomised, double-blind, parallel active-controlled clinical trial to compare the PK, PD safety and exploratory efficacy (ACR20 and DAS28-CRP) between HLX01 and Europe sourced rituximab (EU-RTX) as two-1000 mg intravenous infusions (Days 1 and 15) in moderately to severely active RA patients who have had inadequate response to treatment with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). The PK equivalence was achieved if 90% confidence intervals (CIs) for the test-to-reference ratios of area under the curve from time zero to infinity (AUC(0-inf)) and maximum observed concentration (Cmax) fall within the pre-defined 80-125% equivalence margin. Results In the study, a total of 196 patients randomised at 1:1 ratio to HLX01 and EU-RTX and 179 subjects (88 in HLX01 group; 91 subjects in EU-RTX group) were included in the PK pre-protocol set (PPS). The 90% confidence intervals (CI) for the ratio of geometric means for the pairwise comparisons of the primary PK endpoint AUC (0-inf) (Figure 1), as well as AUC(0-14d), AUC(0-t,1), AUC(15d-t), Cmax,1, Cmax,2, Cmin were within the pre-specified limits of 80-125% (Table 1). Based on the ACR20 and DAS28-CRP results at week 24, HLX01 group and EU-RTX group are similar. In addition to the efficacy similarity, there was also no statistical difference in safety and immunogenicity between the two treatment groups. Conclusion We report successful demonstration of similarity in PK, safety and initial efficacy between first China-manufactured biosimilar of rituximab, HLX01, and Europe-sourced rituximab in patients with moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis. These results support the Phase 3 confirmatory clinical trial for the development of HLX01 for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Disclosure of Interests Xiaofeng Zeng: None declared, Yongfu Wang: None declared, Zhenyu Jiang: None declared, Zhuoli Zhang: None declared, Lan He: None declared, Xiao Zhang: None declared, Xin Lu: None declared, Xiumei Liu: None declared, Jian Xu: None declared, Cibo Huang: None declared, Rui Liu: None declared, Xiaoxia Zuo: None declared, Baozeng Zhao Employee of: Employee of Shanghai Henlius Biotech Inc., Wenting Qiu Employee of: Employee of Shanghai Henlius Biotech Inc., Katherine Chai Employee of: I am an employee of Shanghai Henlius, Xinjun Guo Employee of: Employee of Shanghai Henlius Biotech Inc., Xin Zhang Employee of: I am an employee of Shanghai Henlius Biotech,Inc., Eugene Liu Employee of: I am an employee of Shanghai Henlius Biotech,Inc., Alvin Luk Employee of: I am an employee of Shanghai Henlius Biotech,Inc., Weidong Jiang Shareholder of: I am the co-founder of Shanghai Henlius Biotech,Inc., Employee of: I am an employee of Shanghai Henlius Biotech,Inc., Scott Liu Shareholder of: I am the CEO of Shanghai Henlius Biotech,Inc., Employee of: I am an employee of Shanghai Henlius Biotech,Inc., Pei Hu: None declared, Xia Chen: None declared

The P450 side-chain cleavage enzymes P450scc (Cyp11a) and 11β-hydroxylase (Cyp11b) play important roles in sex steroid and cortisol production. Here, two duplicates of cyp11 genes were identified in Japanese flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus): Pocyp11a and Pocyp11b, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis and amino acid sequence alignment revealed that Pocyp11a and Pocyp11b shared significant identity with sequences of other teleost fish species. The quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) results indicated that among the studied tissues, brain tissue showed the highest expression of Pocyp11a, followed by kidney and testis tissues, whereas Pocyp11b expression was highest in the testis. The expression patterns of these two genes showed sexual dimorphism, with both genes showing higher expression in the testis than in the ovary. In-situ hybridization analysis demonstrated that Pocyp11a and Pocyp11b mRNA were both detected in oocytes, spermatocytes, and Sertoli cells, indicating that they might be involved in hormone synthesis. The expression levels of Pocyp11a and Pocyp11b were significantly downregulated by treatment with 17α-methyltestosterone (17α-MT) in the testis and ovary in both in vivo and studies. In vivo studies showed that Pocyp11a and Pocyp11b transcripts were suppressed by 17β-estradiol (E2 ) treatment in both the testis and ovary. In addition, in vitro studies showed that the expression level of Pocyp11b was decreased by treatment with E2 , whereas that of Pocyp11a was largely unaffected. Moreover, the expression levels of Pocyp11a and Pocyp11b in the testis cell line were significantly upregulated after NR0b1 and NR5a2 (p < .05) treatment. These results indicate that Pocyp11a and Pocyp11b might play important roles in sex hormone biosynthesis. Our research can assist future studies of the mechanisms of steroid biosynthesis and functional differences between cyp11a and cyp11b in Japanese flounder.

PIK3CA has been extensively investigated from its molecular mechanism perspective and association with its mutations in different types of cancers. However, little has been reported regarding the pathological significance of PIK3CA expression in teleost. Here, in our present study, three PIK3CA genes termed SmPIK3CAa, SmPIK3CAb and SmPIK3CA-like were firstly identified in the genome of turbot S. maximus. Although these three genes located in different chromosomes, all of them share the same five domains. Phylogenetic and synteny analysis indicated that SmPIK3CAa, SmPIK3CAb and SmPIK3CA-like were three paralogs that may originate from duplication of the same ancestral PIK3CA gene. Subcellular localization analysis confirmed the cytoplasm distribution of these three paralogs. All three SmPIK3CA were ubiquitously expressed in examined tissues in turbot, with the higher expression levels in immune-related tissues such as blood, spleen, kidney, gills and intestines. Upon Vibrio anguillarum challenge, SmPIK3CAa and SmPIK3CA-like transcripts were significantly induced in spleen, intestine and blood despite of differential expression levels and responsive time points. Additionally, individuals in resistant group showed significantly higher expression level of both two genes than in the susceptible group. Moreover, four SNPs (102, 2530, 3027 and 3060) and one haplotype (Hap2) located in exon region of SmPIK3CA-like were identified and confirmed to be associated with V. anguillarum resistance in turbot by association analysis in different populations. Taken together, these results suggested that functional differentiation occurred in three SmPIK3CA paralogs with Vibrio anguillarum resistance and SmPIK3CAa and SmPIK3CA-like probable play potential roles in innate immune response to pathogenic invasions in turbot.

Ubiquitin-specific-processing proteases (USPs), the largest deubiquitinating enzyme (DUB) subfamily, play critical roles in cancer. However, clinical utility of USPs is hindered by limited knowledge about their varied and substrate-dependent actions. Here, we performed a comprehensive investigation on pan-cancer impacts of USPs by integrating multi-omics data and annotated data resources, especially a deubiquitination network. Meaningful insights into the roles of 54 USPs in 29 types of cancers were generated. Although rare mutations were observed, a majority of USPs exhibited significant expressional alterations, prognostic impacts and strong correlations with cancer hallmark pathways. Notably, from our DUB-substrate interaction prediction model, additional USP-substrate interactions (USIs) were recognized to complement knowledge gap about cancer-relevant USIs. Intriguingly, expression signatures of the USIs revealed clinically meaningful cancer subtypes, where key USPs and substrates cooperatively contributed to significant prognosis differences among subtypes. Overall, this investigation provides a valuable resource to assist mechanism research and clinical utility about USPs.

To study the effect of Edwardsiella tarda infection on miRNAs expression profile in Japanese flounder, fish were injected intraperitoneally with E. tarda. The miRNAs involved in regulating immune responses were analyzed by high-throughput sequencing. A total of 164 mature miRNAs were identified, of which 17 miRNAs were differentially expressed (DE miRNAs) after E. tarda infection, indicating that they were immune-related miRNAs. To further examine the relationship between the miRNAs and their predicted target mRNAs, a total of 22 predicted target mRNAs, mainly related to endocytic signaling pathway, NF-κB signaling pathway, and p53 signaling pathway, were detected with miRNA mimics in HEK-293T cells by dual-luciferase reporter experiments. Finally, we confirmed that insulin receptor substrate-2 (IRS2a and IRS2b) were regulated by miR-7a. And the target sites of the 3' untranslated region (UTR) of IRS2a and IRS2b were verified by dual-luciferase reporter experiments. Furthermore, we found that the E. tarda and LPS significantly increased host miR-7a expression. In vivo and in vitro studies revealed that IRS2-mediated PI3K/AKT/GSK3β signaling pathway was suppressed. Taken together, these results implied that miR-7a might be a key regulator of PI3K/AKT/GSK3β signaling pathway via suppressing the IRS2a and IRS2b genes.

Fusarium asiaticum is a critical pathogen of Fusarium head blight (FHB) in the southern part of China. The fungicide phenamacril has been extensively used for controlling FHB in recent years, which reduced both FHB severity and mycotoxin production. Our previous report indicated that resistance of F. asiaticum to phenamacril was related to mutations in myosin5. A recent article revealed that the resistance level of phenamacril-resistant mutants was associated with the genotypes of myosin5 in these mutants. In total, we obtained 239 resistant isolates by fungicide domestication, and 82 resistant mutants were randomly selected for further study. Of these mutants, 25.6, 7.3, and 67.1% showed low resistance (LR), moderate resistance (MR), and high resistance (HR), respectively, to phenamacril determined by 50% effective concentration values. Point mutations A135T, V151M, P204S, I434M, A577T, R580G/H, or I581F led to LR. Point mutations S418R, I424R, and A577G were responsible for MR and point mutations K216R/E, S217P/L, or E420K/G/D conferred HR. Interestingly, all of the mutations concentrated in the myosin5 motor domain and mutations conferring HR occurred at codon 217 and 420, which we called the core region. Homology modeling revealed that mutations far from the core region led to a lower resistance degree. Phenotype assays revealed that the most highly resistant mutants did not significantly change pathogenicity but decreased conidia production compared with the wild type, which may slow down the formation of the resistant pathogen population in the fields.

The use of saline water in irrigation is cause for concern due to the reduced availability of fresh water resources for agroforestry in some regions; however, salinity can negatively affect plant populations, such as Populus. Here, magnetic techniques were employed to investigate their effects on improving salinity tolerance in Populus. Irrigation experiments were performed with Populus applying magnetized water (MW) and non-magnetized water (NMW), and seedling growth and development in 1-year-old potted seedlings of Populus × euramericana ‘Neva’ were evaluated under saline conditions. A magnetic treatment device with a low-intensity magnetic field was used for the management of irrigation water. Two average salinity levels, 0 and 4.0 g L−1 of NaCl, were used with MW and NMW, yielding four treatments of irrigation water. The experiments were performed according to a single-factor randomized block design. Seedling growth; the biomass of leaves, roots and stems; photosynthetic parameters and nutrient contents were measured. The results showed that, compared with the non-magnetic treatment (NMT), magnetic treatment (MT) led to improvements in seedling height, basal diameter, leaf area and biomass of leaves and roots (but not stem biomass). Net photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, intercellular CO2 concentration and water use efficiency were increased in MT, whereas both transpiration rate and stomatal limiting value were decreased in MT compared with those in NMT. In addition, MT promoted root development, as evidenced by improvements in the length, surface area, mean diameter, volume and tips of the roots. The microelement contents analyses indicated that MT led to higher contents of Fe, Zn and Cu in leaves and roots and a lower content of Mn. MT led to increased contents of C and P and an increased C/N ratio in leaves but a decreased N content; in the roots, the C content and the ratios of C/N and C/P were increased. These results indicated that irrigation with MW appeared to promote seedling growth, root development, photosynthesis and mineral nutrient contents. The properties of saline water were improved by MT, indicating that MT-treated saline water can be used for irrigation.

Breaking the recalcitrant structure of native crystalline cellulose is an energy demanding rate liming step in the production of glucose from cellulosic biomass. Mix-milling of lignocellulosic substrates (with P2O5) dramatically increased glucose yield. In this work, the changes of physicochemical characteristics (morphology, structure, degree of polymerization (DP), solubility) of cellulose during mix-milling (with P2O5) are correlated with glucose yield in the subsequent chemical hydrolysis process. The mix-milling enables highly efficient breakdown of cellulose I crystalline to smaller amorphous particles with low DP, which is recrystallized into cellulose II structure after water-wetting. As a result, the mix-milled cellulose (MMC) shows higher hydrolysis reactivity than that of single-milled cellulose (SMC). The results showed that small particle size, low DP, higher solubility and cellulose II content are correlated with the hydrolysis reactivity of cellulose.

Kinesins, of which there are 650 members in 15 classes, have two main functions: cell separation and protein transport. In S. cerevisiae, the kinesin-like myosin passenger-protein Smy1(belonging to the TRAFAC class myosin-kinesin ATPase superfamily), which is transported by myosin-5,is part of a negative feedback mechanism that controls actin cable length and prevents overgrowth. The current study determined that defect deletion mutants of FaSmy1 had reduced development of hyphal growth, asexual spore production, pathogenicity, DON biosynthesis, and resistance to phenamacril. These results indicated that FaSmy1 is essential for the growth, development, reproduction and pathogenicity of F. asiaticum. FaSmy1 could be a useful target gene for development of new fungicides for control of Fusarium head blight.

Diketones are ubiquitous blocks for organic synthesis. This work shows a highly active catalyst for the production of diketone 1-hydroxyhexane-2,5-dione (HHD) by hydrogenation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF), a biobased platform chemical. Half-sandwich Cp*Ir complexes with ortho-hydroxyl group functionalized bipyridine ligands were synthesized and found to exhibit remarkably high catalytic activity for this reaction in acidic water. The HHD formation rate was further increased when the bipyridine ligands of Cp*Ir complexes were modified by an electron-donating group. A bipyridine ligand with both dimethylamino and ortho-hydroxyl groups achieved a HHD formation turnover frequency (TOF) of 31 560 h–1 by H2 and a TOF of 6140 h–1 by formic acid, representing 180-fold and 3 000-fold over the activities of the best reported results, respectively.

This study reports the use of diethylenetriamine as background electrolyte for the simultaneous separation of hyaluronan acid, chondroitin sulfate, dermatan sulfate and heparin. The analytes were baseline separated by using an uncoated fused silica capillary at 37°C with a run time of 23min. The migration order, with hyaluronan acid at first and heparin at last, was related to the sulfation degree. The effect of salt concentration on resolution and migration order was also investigated. The developed method was applied to the simultaneous determination of hyaluronan acid and chondroitin sulfate in mouse plasma. Interferences in plasma were removed by protein precipitation and glycosaminoglycans were further purified by ethanol precipitation. The method was validated over the concentration range from 50 to 600μg/mL for hyaluronan acid and 500 to 6000μg/mL for chondroitin sulfate in mouse plasma. Results from assay validations showed that the method was selective and robust.

The inhibition of lignin phenolics on fermenting microbes has become one of the major barriers in developing an economically viable process for cellulosic ethanol production. In this study, the toxicity to yeast cells and the inhibition to the very high gravity (VHG) fermentation of the phenolic compounds were investigated in the absence or presence of polyethylene glycol (PEG). It was found that the inhibitory effects of phenolic compounds on VHG ethanol fermentation depend on the activity of their hydroxyl (–OH) hydrogen. 250 g L−1 PEG-1000 detoxified 2.0 g L−1 guaiacol in the fermentation broth, and boosted the ethanol concentration from 131 g L−1 to 173 g L−1. The inhibitory effect of 5.0 g L−1 guaiacol on ethanol fermentation was also alleviated, and the ethanol concentration was increased from 51 g L−1 to 151 g L−1 after detoxification with 250 g L−1 PEG-1000. The 1H-NMR of hydroxyl group (–OH) of phenolic compounds in PEG revealed the role of hydrogen bonding formation on the in situ detoxification mechanism of PEG, and the order in the strength of the intermolecular hydrogen bond between phenolic compounds and PEG. Furthermore, the kinetics of VHG ethanol fermentation in the presence of phenolic compounds were determined. The obtained kinetic model (phenolic compounds inhibitory effect) fits well the kinetics of ethanol production from lignocellulosic hydrolyzates using batch VHG ethanol fermentation technology.

Incipient plasmonic bubble formation is observed around gold nanopillars with different inter-nanopillar separations. The experimental measurements and theoretical analysis show that the nanobubble formation is due to the enhanced plasmonic resonance rather than from the laser heating. Inter-nanopillar distribution may lead to threshold fluence variations. The lifetime of plasmonic bubbles can reach several minutes. Furthermore, both the radius and the growth rate of the plasmonic nanobubble increase as the inter-nanopillar distribution decreases. Smaller-spacing distributed arrays produced larger bubbles. The maximum growth rate of the bubbles can be reached at about 883.5×10−6 m/s on 1 μm nanopillars, but it is only 56.9×10−6 m/s on 4 μm nanopillars.

Japanese flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) is an economically important flatfish endemic to Asia that faces natural challenges, such as heat shock and bacterial infection. Here, we investigated whether heat shock protein 20 (hsp20) in Japanese flounder played a role in immune reactions against Edwardsiella tarda. Hsp20 is ubiquitously produced by cells in the stress response; it not only functions as a chaperone and housekeeping protein but also participates in the immune response during infection. In this study, we identified and annotated 13 hsp20 genes using bioinformatic methods in Japanese flounder. Phylogenetic and selection pressure analysis showed that the hsp20 genes were evolutionarily-constrained and their function was conserved. Hsp20 genes are also involved in the embryogenesis and act as the sentinel role in an unchallenged organism. Moreover, the regulated expression patterns of hsp20 genes after E. tarda infection were examined for the first time in Japanese flounder. Eleven out of 13 genes were differentially expressed after bacterial challenge, which indicated that they may be involved in disease response genes or as disease defence against pathogens. These results provide valuable information for clarifying the evolutionary relationship of the hsp20 genes, and early insights into the immune functions of hsp20 genes in Japanese flounder.

THz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) is used to study the THz-optical properties of a single crystal bismuth ferrite BiFeO3 (BFO). It can be found that the anisotropy of BiFeO3 is strongly dependent on the temperature. A giant birefringence up to around 3.6 is observed at 1 THz. The presence of a spatially modulated cycloidal antiferromagnetic structure leads to spin cycloid resonances (SCR) ψ and Φ, corresponding to the out-of-plane and in-plane modes of the spin cycloid, respectively. We distinguish the SCR with respect to their response to orthogonal polarizations of the electric fields of the incident THz beam. In addition, we observe a resonance appearing below 140 K, which might be interpreted as an electromagnon mode and related to a spin reorientation transition. Our present observations present that the temperature and polarization, as the external control parameters, can be used to modulate the THz optical properties of BFO single crystal.

Salinity is one of the major environmental stresses that can inhibit plant growth and development and cause physiological and metabolic changes. In this study, a pot experiment was performed involving two-year-old grape seedlings. Three different concentrations of NaCl solutions composed of tap water were used to irrigate the potted grapevine in the presence and absence of a magnetic device. The growth parameters and photosynthesis characteristics were analyzed during the stress treatments under field conditions. The results were as follows: Compared with those of the plants irrigated with non-magnetized saline water (NMSW), the growth of the aboveground parts (growth quantity, internode length, basal diameter, leaf area and leaf number) and the root growth (total root length, surface area, mean diameter, volume and root tip number) of plants irrigated with magnetized saline water (MSW) increased in response to the different treatment solutions, and the biomass of the leaves, stems and roots increased by 2.0 %∼45.0 %. The proportion of material allocated to the leaves and roots increased, and the root/crown ratio increased when exposed to 6.0 g·L−1 NaCl solutions. Compared with those in the plants irrigated with NMSW, the chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and carotenoid contents in the plants irrigated with MSW increased by 3.0 %∼13.0 %. Moreover, compared with NMSW, MSW led to increases in the net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (Gs), transpiration rate (Tr), limiting value of stomata (Ls) and water-use efficiency (WUE), while the intercellular CO2 concentration (Ci) decreased. The ratio of specific activity parameters per unit area exhibited the largest increase (from 12.0 % to 26.0 %), and photosynthetic performance indexes increased by 18.0 %–56.0 %. Generally, the abovementioned results indicate alleviated inhibition of grape growth under irrigation with MSW. Moreover, treatment with MSW reduced the damage of saline water to the photosynthetic mechanism in grapevine, helped maintain the photosynthetic activity in the mesophyll cells, and promoted efficient electron transport between the photosystems, thus promoting the biomass production of the grapevine.

Reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) plays a pivotal role in the electron-transfer chain of biological system. Analysis of many biological markers is based on the detection of the enzymatically generated NADH. In this paper, a sensitive hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) biosensor, fabricated by carbon nanotubes (CNTs)/tetrathiafulvalene (TTF)/horseradish peroxidase (HRP), was applied for detecting the NADH in a buffer containing methylene blue (MB) at low operating potential of - 0.3 V (vs. Ag/AgCl). Since the NADH could be oxidized by MB to release H2O2, the electrochemical biosensor enables to detect the NADH in the MB buffer. And the low working potential made the biosensor avoid the interference from other electroactive substances. Linear response ranges from 10 μM to 790 μM, with a sensitivity of 4.76 μA mM−1 and a detection limit of 1.53 μM were obtained under the optimum conditions. The proposed sensor provided a promising approach for sensitively detecting the NADH.

Children with global developmental delay (GDD) were trained with the Portage Guide to Early Education (PGEE) program. In the treatment group, the PGEE program was performed on children with GDD (45 cases) through a combination of family and hospital interventions, in a 1-to-1 ratio. The Gesell Infant Development Scale (GESELL) developmental quotient (DQ) and social adaptability were measured before and 6 months after PGEE implementation in the treatment group. These parameters were also evaluated in a control group (30 cases) during an initial visit and 6 months later. Before the PGEE intervention, no significant differences were observed between the general characteristics of children in the control and treatment groups. Six months after the PGEE intervention, the DQ values of the children with GDD in the treatment group (64.7 ± 9.5) were significantly higher than those before treatment (54.6 ± 9.3) and those of the control group (58.3 ± 10.2) (P

High methane dissolution capacity in a liquid is important for methane storage and transformation. In this work, methane solubility in different ionic liquids (ILs) was studied and was found associated with IL’s structural and physical properties. In imidazolium-based ILs, ILs containing C–F and long alkyl chain showed high methane solubility mainly due to lower surface tension and molar density. Reducing the surface tension of solvent by adding 0.16 mol of trimethyl-1-propanaminium iodide (FC-134) with respect to [Bmim][NTf2] increased methane solubility by 39.3%. In situ high-pressure attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic results indicated a reversible process of methane dissolution in the ILs. The antisymmetric C–H stretching band of dissolved methane in ILs showed highly prominent rotational–vibrational bands with high intensity and narrow half-peak width compared to gaseous methane. Induced interaction between methane and IL resulted in increased dipole variation streng...

Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F (TwHF) alone or in combination with methotrexate (MTX) has been shown to be more effective than MTX monotherapy in controlling the manifestations in subjects with disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD)-naive active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) over a 6-month period. The long-term impact of these therapies on disease activity and radiographic progression in RA has not been examined. Patients with DMARD-naive RA enrolled in the “Comparison of Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F with methotrexate in the Treatment of Active Rheumatoid Arthritis” (TRIFRA) study were randomly allocated into three arms with TwHF or MTX or the two in combination. Clinical indexes and radiographic data at baseline and year 2 was collected and compared using an intent-to-treat (ITT) and a per-protocol (PP) analysis. Two radiologists blinded to the treatment scored the images independently. Of 207 subjects 109 completed the 2-year follow up. The number of subjects withdrawing from the study and the number adhering to the initial regimens were similar among the three groups (p > = 0.05). In the ITT analysis, proportions of patients reaching American College of Rheumatology 50% (ACR50) response criteria were 46.4%, 58.0% and 50.7% in the MTX, TwHF and MTX + TwHF groups (TwHF vs MTX monotherapy, p = 0.004). Similar patterns were found in ACR20, ACR70, Clinical Disease Activity Index good responses, European League Against Rheumatism good response, remission rate and low disease activity rate at year 2. The results of the PP analysis agreed with those in the ITT analysis. The changes in total Sharp scores and joint erosion and joint space narrowing during the 2 years were associated with changes in disease activity measured by the 28-joint count Disease Activity Score and were comparable among the three groups (p > 0.05). Adverse events were similar in the three treatment groups. During the 2-year therapy period, TwHF monotherapy was not inferior to MTX monotherapy in controlling disease activity and retarding radiological progression in patients with active RA. This is a follow-up study. Original trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov , NCT01613079 . Registered on 4 June 2012.

Terahertz (THz) time-domain spectroscopy can be used to investigate the spintronic effects, such as low-energy magnons and magnetotransports, in the ultrafast operation regime, sub-picosecond time scale and/or terahertz frequency range.

A novel pretreatment method-concerted ionic liquid (CIL) pretreatment was proposed and the mechanism of CIL pretreatment to overcome the recalcitrance of biomass was investigated in this study. The CIL refers to a combination of a protic ionic liquid (PIL) pyrrolidinium acetate ([Pyrr][AC]) and an aprotic ionic liquid (AIL) 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([BMIM][AC]) in varied proportion. In the CIL system, [Pyrr][AC] selectively dissolves lignin from biomass and [BMIM][AC] dissolves part of cellulose and hemicelluloses. Besides lignin, hemicelluloses are also an important factor of biomass recalcitrance. Optimized [BMIM][AC] fraction in the CIL pretreatment resulted in the efficient removal of lignocellulose complex while [Pyrr][AC] selectively fractionated lignin component. CILs exhibited superior efficiency in overcoming the recalcitrance of eucalyptus bark over that of the individual constituent ionic liquids. Compared to pretreatments by individual ILs of the pair, the CIL pretreatment increased the glucose yield by 30% from the cellulose of eucalyptus bark. High cellulose conversion of 91% (wt%) was achieved from enzymatic conversion of eucalyptus bark by optimizing the lignin and hemicelluloses removal.

1,3-Dichloropropene (1,3-D) is a potential candidate as a soil fumigant because of the restriction of methyl bromide (MB) in soil fumigation. So far, little is known about the bacteria diversity in 1,3-D fumigated soil. Therefore, the impact of 1,3-D on soil bacterial community was determined by the 16S rRNA gene amplicon 454 sequencing. A total of 230,617 valid reads and 19,366 OTUs were obtained from the thirteen samples. 454 sequencing results revealed that Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria and Firmicutes were predominant phylum in soils. Bacterial diversity was affected initially, while recovered in the later treatments and soils from 1,3-D treatment plots had a higher bacterial diversity. The results of this study demonstrated that 1,3-D had only a short-term and transitory impact on the indigenous soil microbial community. Our study would provide useful information for evaluating ecological safety of 1,3-D in China.

Microbiological food safety surveillance is a system that collects data regarding food contamination by foodborne pathogens, parasites, viruses, and other harmful microbiological factors. It helps to understand the spectrum of food safety, timely detect food safety hazards, and provide relevant data for food safety supervision, risk assessment, and standards-setting. The study discusses the microbiological surveillance of food safety in China, and introduces the policies and history of the national microbiological surveillance system. In addition, the function and duties of different organizations and institutions are provided in this work, as well as the generation and content of the surveillance plan, quality control, database, and achievement of the microbiological surveillance of food safety in China.

Kisspeptins are neuropeptides that play important roles in the reproduction and the onset of puberty in vertebrate by activating their receptor, Kissr. In the present study, we first isolated kiss1 and kissr4 genes from an ovoviviparous fish, the black rockfish (Sebastes schlegeli) by homologue cloning. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the kiss and kissr of S. schlegeli belonged to kiss1 and kissr4 respectively. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis showed that the kissr4 was expressed mainly in the brain and testis, while the kiss1 was expressed predominantly in the heart of both sexes. As for the different gonadal maturation stages the kiss1 showed different expression patterns in different tissues. During the early development stage, expression levels of the ligand and receptor genes showed similar increasing trends. The promoter region of kissr4 contained several putative transcription factor (TF) binding sites which may have the function of regulating kisspeptin system gene expression, providing potential targets for future in-depth investigation. These results together confirmed that the kisspeptin system in S. schlegeli may be involved in reproduction and other activities. Furthermore, our study laid the groundwork for further learning about the evolution and function of kisspeptin system in fish even vertebrate.

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O157 is an important foodborne pathogen. The aims of this study were to determine genetic relatedness of STEC O157 isolated from foods in China. STEC O157 isolates from food were characterized by virulence gene typing, antibiotyping, Multi-locus sequence typing (MLST), pulsed-field gel electrophoresis analysis (PFGE), Multi-locus variable number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA), and the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) clade typing. Of the 30 STEC O157 isolates analyzed, all isolates harbored eae, exhA, stx1 and/or stx2 genes with stx2c subtype predominating. By MLST, they were relatively homogenous with only 4 STs. PFGE and MLVA generated 22 pulsotyples and 23 patterns, respectively, which showed considerable diversity. Only one clade 8 isolate was detected. These results indicate that STEC O157 isolates from foods in China were heterogeneous. There was no correlation between genotypic characteristics and sources of isolates. Since different subtyping methods often give different discriminatory powers, the use of more than one subtyping approach is necessary in providing a more accurate picture of the genetic diversity of STEC O157. Four isolates were from ready-to-eat meat or salads, underscores the risk of infections. There is a need for surveillance of STEC O157 in foods and clinically and implementation of prevention strategies to prevent outbreaks of STEC O157 infections in China.

Purpose – The aim of this paper, which is based on Cheng et al.’s (2012) research, is to re-examines the relationship between a firms’ voluntary disclosure of forward-looking non-financial information (FNFI) and investment efficiency. Design/methodology/approach – The authors chose firms that publicly traded in the Shenzhen and Shanghai stock markets from 2005 to 2011, a total of 926 firms and 6,482 firm-year. To control the endogeneity problem between FNFI and investment efficiency, the authors lagged the FNFI variable for one year. Findings – The authors found that FNFI alleviates a firms’ underinvestment but leads to overinvestment. These effects become gradually weaker over time. In addition, the results indicate that corporate governance helps improve the quality of FNFI, thus boosting investors’ confidence and easing financial constraints. Research limitations/implications – The limitations of this paper are mainly focused on the measure of FNFI. The authors only considered the quantity of FNFI disclosed by firms and ignored other characteristics of FNFI. Originality/value – Based on Cheng et al.’s (2012) static findings, this paper considers the dynamic role of FNFI in firms’ investment decisions.

In this work, a CE method with bare gold nanorods (GNRs) based pseudostationary phase was developed and applied for the separation of chondroitin sulfate (CS) isomers, CS, and dermatan sulfate (DS). The separation efficiency was investigated by varying the experimental parameters such as concentration and pH of the BGE, separation voltage, internal diameter of capillary, different size, and morphology of gold nanomaterials. Results showed that different size and morphology of gold nanomaterials had different effects on the separation of CS and DS. The best separation of CS and DS was achieved in the BGE composed of aqueous 150 mmol/L (mM) ethylenediamine + 20 mM sodium dihydrogen phosphate + 30% v/v GNRs, pH 4.5, at the separation voltage of -10 kV. Capillary was 59.2 cm in length (effective length 49 cm), 50 μm id capillary thermostated at 25°C. CE with bare GNRs used as pseudostationary phase was shown to be a suitable technique for the separation of CS and DS mixtures with wider peaks. RSD of migration time and peak area of CS and DS were 0.13, 0.14 and 0.86, 1.07%, respectively.

A series of amine-sulfonate functionalized ionic liquids (ASF-ILs) were synthesized, characterized, and evaluated for the dissolution of model biopolymers (cellulose, xylan, kraft lignin and lignosulfonate). The ASF-ILs were prepared in high atomic efficiency. Most of the ASF-ILs dissolve kraft lignin and lignosulfonate efficiently at 373 K, with solubilities of 0.220–0.385 g for kraft lignin and of 0.150–0.290 g for lignosulfonate per gram of ASF-ILs. In contrast, xylan and cellulose are scarcely soluble (

An electrophoretically mediated microanalysis (EMMA) protocol for the determination of different chondroitin sulfate (CS) origins based on the difference in the content of unsaturated disaccharides produced by degradation with chondroitinase ABC was developed. Separations were performed in an uncoated fused silica capillary (total length: 60.2 cm, effective length: 50 cm, 50 μm i.d.) at 20 kV and 37 °C. The influences of various parameters, such as different kinds of separation buffers, substrate concentration and incubation time, on separation were investigated. The optimum conditions were as follows: separation buffer, 25 mM tetraborate buffer (pH 9.5); incubation buffer, 50 mM Tris-60 mM acetate buffer (pH 8.0); sample injection, 5 s at 0.5 psi; CS concentration, 500 μg mL−1; incubation time, 8 min. Nonsulfated, monosulfated, disulfated and trisulfated Δ-disaccharides were separated well under the above optimal conditions. The developed method was used to determine the amounts of disaccharides in CS from different sources and the results were compared with those obtained by offline analysis. The results indicated that the developed method could successfully distinguish CS with minor differences and could obtain good coherence results compared with the traditional method.

We report a low-energy collective excitation mode in charge-ordered multiferroic LuFe2O4 via terahertz time domain spectroscopy. Upon cooling from 300 K to 40 K, the central resonance frequency showed a pronounced hardening from 0.85 THz to 1.15 THz. In analogy to the well-known low-energy optical properties of LuFe2O4, we attributed this emerging resonance to the charge-density-wave (CDW) collective excitations. By using the Drude-Lorentz model fitting, we observe the CDW col-lective mode becomes increasingly damped with increasing the temperature. Furthermore, we analyze the kinks of the CDW collective mode at the magnetic transition temperature, which indicates the coupling of spin order with electric polarization.

We report the broadband terahertz (THz) radiation in ferromagnetic half-metallic Heusler alloy Co

GATA4 is a well-known transcription factor of the GATA family implicated in regulation of sex determination and gonadal development in mammals. In this study, we cloned the full-length cDNA of Paralichthys olivaceus gata4 (Po-gata4). Phylogenetic, gene structure, and synteny analysis showed that Po-GATA4 is homologous to GATA4 of teleost and tetrapod. Po-gata4 transcripts were detected in Sertoli cells, spermatogonia, oogonia and oocytes, with higher transcript levels overall in the testis than the ovary. The promoter region of P. olivaceus R-spondin1was found to contain a GATA4-binding motif. Results of CBA (cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence-based binding assay) indicated that GATA4 could indeed bind to the promoter sequence of R-spondin1. Moreover, human GATA4 recombinant protein could upregulate R-spondin1 in P. olivaceus ovary cells and FBCs (flounder brain cell line). In FBCs, overexpression of Po-gata4 resulted in elevated transcript levels of R-spondin1. Taken together, our results indicate that Po-GATA4 is involved in gonadal development by regulating R-spondin1 expression.

Marine organisms are commonly under threats from various pathogens. Edwardsiella tarda is one of the fish pathogens that seriously infect cultured and wild fish species. Bacteremia caused by E. tarda can be a fatal disease in humans. Fish gill is a mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue that directly contacted with sea water. Generating gill transcriptomic resources that challenged by E. tarda is crucial for understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying gill immune responses. In this study, we performed transcriptome profiling of gene expression in Japanese flounder gills (Paralichthys olivaceus) challenged by E. tarda with different stress duration. An average of 40 million clean reads per library were obtained, of which approximately 83.2% were successfully mapped to the reference genome. 456 and 1037 differential expressed genes (DEGs) were identified at 8 h and 48 h post-injection, respectively. Gene annotation analysis and protein–protein interaction networks were conducted to obtain the key interaction relationships of immune-related DEGs during pathogens infection. 24 hub genes with multiple protein-protein interaction relationships or involved in multiple KEGG signaling pathways were discovered and validated by qRT-PCR. These hub genes mainly participated in Leukocyte transendothelial migration signaling pathway, B cell receptor signaling pathway, Wnt signaling pathway and Apoptosis signaling pathway. This study represents the first gill transcriptomic analysis based on protein–protein interaction networks in fish and provides valuable gene resources for understanding the fish gill immunity, which can pave the way to understand the molecular mechanisms of immune responses with E. tarda infection.

A new method for one-step synthesis of ketones from biobased 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) and its derivatives is reported. Bipyridine coordinated Cp*-Iridium(III) complexes (Cp*, 1,2,3,4,5-pentamethylcyclopenta-1,3-diene) exhibit highly efficient catalytic performance for hydrogenation/hydrolytic ring opening of 5-HMF and derivatives to produce ketones. The catalytic mechanism is proposed to proceed via carbonyl hydrogenation, hydroxyl group promoted and directed hydrolytic furan ring opening, followed by hydrogenation of α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compound based on the experimental and independent events’ statistical calculation results.

The catalytic isomerization of aldoses to ketones is an important fundamental step for the transformation of cellulosic biomass to biobased chemicals and liquid fuels. The results of this work reveal for the first time the distinctive coordination chemistry features of four classes of metal chlorides, CrCl3, VCl3, FeCl3, and PtCl2 in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([BMIM]Cl), that are well correlated to the drastically different catalytic performances of the metal chlorides in the isomerization of glucose. The relative bond strengths and the number of ligands to which the metal ions are coordinated by oxygen atoms of different sources and by chloride were studied by probing model compounds with in situ far-infrared (FIR) and by reaction studies. The superior performance of CrCl3 for this reaction is now distinguished from that of other metal chlorides, on the basis of its selective Cr(III) ene-diol coordination chemistry. We also offer new insights into the mechanism involved in the conversion of gl...

a b s t r a c t While chromium trichloride hydrate (CrCl3·6H2O) effectively catalyzed the isomerization of glucose into fructose in aqueous solution, a general product selectivity behavior was observed independent of reaction variables such as reaction time, temperature, catalyst loading, halide ion, and initial glucose concentra- tion. By studying the mixed solution of dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) and water at varied DMSO/H2O ratios, it was found that deviation from the general water-phase fructose yield curve, with concomitant 5- hydroxymethylfurfral (HMF) formation, occurred when the fructose concentration in available water became sufficiently high in DMSO rich solvent mix. Therefore, tuning the solvent system was the most effective approach to change the product distribution from CrCl3·6H2O catalyzed glucose conversion. The apparent activation energy of glucose conversion in the studied system was estimated to be 58.6 kJ mol −1 . Special attention was also given to gain some mechanistic insights by control experiments with simple model compounds and additives, 13 C NMR and UV-vis spectroscopic analyses.

A novel microwave-assisted route to synthesize cucurbit[n]uril in SO3H-functionalized ionic liquids was reported, which enabled the automatic separation of cucurbit[6]uril through anion assembly. For the first time, the route has realized synthesis–assembly–separation of cucurbit[6]uril in one pot. The reaction yield and separation efficiency can be tuned by choice of anionic groups in ionic liquids.