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A new pyridine-acylamide ligand, L-L-N¹,N4-di(pyridin-3-yl)naphthalene-1,4-dicarboxamide, has been synthesized. Based on L, four types of carboxylate ligands as co-ligands and two metal ions (Zn(II) and Cd(II)), seven new metal-organic frameworks have been synthesized and structurally characterized. Compounds 1 and 2 are composed of SBU I (a helical {Zn(L)}n chain), while compounds 3-7 are composed of SBU II (a M2L2 metallocycle). In 1, with Hbtc²- anions connected to the neighboring Zn(II) ions of one SBU I, an infinite 1D chain is formed, while in 2, the neighboring SBUs I are bridged by ip²- anions forming a 2D structure. With SBUs II extended by oba²- ligands, compound 3 shows a 2D network. Compound 4 exhibits a 1D infinite chain with SBUs II bridged by nap²- ligands. Compounds 5 and 6 are isomers in which SBUs II are extended by nap²- ligands to afford a 2D network. In compound 7, SBUs II are linked together by Hbtc²- ligands featuring an infinite 1D chain. All of these compounds have a 3D framework governed by hydrogen bond interactions. Comparing all the compounds, it can be seen that the structural characteristics of the L ligand and organic counteranions simultaneously play an important role in their construction. Moreover, their thermostability and photoluminescence properties were explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new N-donor ligand, N¹,N4-di(pyridin-4-yl)naphthalene-1,4-dicarboxamide (L), has been designed and applied to generate seven new acylamide-MOFs, namely Cd(L)(tp) (1), Cd(L)(tp)(H2O) ⋅(H2O) 3⋅(CH3CH2OH) 3 (2), Zn(L)(nip) (3), [Zn(nip) 2][H2L] (4), Zn(HL)(btc)⋅(H2O)0.5 (5), Zn(L)(nap) (6), and Zn(L)(ip) ⋅(H2O) 2⋅(CH3CH2OH) (7) (H2tp = terephthalic acid, H2nip = 5-nitroisophthalic acid, H2nap = naphthalene-1,4-dicarboxylic acid, H3btc = benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylic acid, H2ip = isophthalic acid). 1 presents a rare 4-connected sra framework with 8-fold interpenetration in a [4 + 4] manner. Similar reaction conditions, except for the reaction temperature and solvent, employed for 1 produced compound 2, which shows a 2D net with two-fold interpenetration in a parallel fashion. Compound 3 and compound 4 were also synthesized with the same materials but using different solvents and reaction temperatures; 3 shows a 2D two-fold interpenetrating net in a parallel fashion and 4 is a 1D chain but presents a 3D supramolecular net. In 5, the 2D layer is constructed by the Zn ions and btc3-ligands, and the singly protonated L ligand acts as a decoration while playing a puncturing role. 6 is a 3D pillared layered framework with α-Po topology and three-fold interpenetration, where Zn ions combine with the nap2-ligands to form a 2D layer and the L ligands act as the pillars. 7 also presents a 2D net. Moreover, the thermogravimetric and fluorescence properties of some compounds have been explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes the preparation of the acylamide coordination polymer called Cd(L)0.5(NDC) (1). Topics discussed include the steps in preparing the coordination polymer, the topological features of the polymer and the architectural, topological and functional properties of coordination polymers or metal-organic frameworks (MOF).

Herein, through altering the reaction temperature, the coordination mode of the acylamide ligand is well controlled with or without the oxygen coordination site. The resulting two new coordination polymers have the formulas Cd3(L)2(bdc)3.4(H2O) (1) and Cd(L)(bdc)·2(H2O) (2) (L = N1,N4-bis(pyridin-3-ylmethyl)- terephthalamide, H2bdc = terephthalic acid). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we report two clusters, namely Co4(Q)8 (1), Co4Na2(Q)2(L)4 (2) (H2L = 7,7'-(ethane-1,1-diyl)diquinolin-8-ol, HQ = 8-hydroxyquinoline), where their formation is well controlled by the reactants. When NaN3 is used, compound 2 a heterometallic cluster, Na2Co4, was obtained. By contrast, without the addition of NaN3, a distinct homometallic Co4 cluster is generated. Importantly, this is accompanied by the formation of ligand L2-, which is also dependent on the addition of NaN3. Further, their magnetic properties are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to improve the precision of forecasting extreme temperature time series, a refined rank set pair analysis model with a refined rank transformation function is proposed to improve precision of its prediction. The measured values of the annual highest temperature of two China's cities, Taiyuan and Shijiazhuang, in July are taken to examine the performance of a refined rank set pair model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes a modified frequency computation method to calculate the optimal environmental flows. This method was used to design monthly environ-mental flows in Lancang river. The environmental flows calculated by the method are compared with those by the ecological flow method and the Tennant method, revealing its effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to explore the mechanism of phosphorus adsorption in the bioretention media. The phosphorus adsorption characteristics of four me-dia of bioretention are studied by four isothermal adsorption experiments. The result indicate that the maximal adsorption capacity (qm) of phosphorus of the four bioretention media are found to be media I (0.3365 mg/g), media II (0.3302 mg/g), media III (0.2751 mg/g) and media IV 0.8435 mg/g), respectively. The negative values of Gibbs free energy of phosphorus indicate that each of the phosphorus adsorption process by the four bioretention media is a spontaneous process. The mean sorption energies obtained from DR isotherm were 0.0758, 0.0772, 0.0803 and 0.0632 kJ/mol respectively, which indicate the physical na-ture of the adsorbate/adsorbent interactions. Two kinetic models including pseudo first-order and pseudo second-order equation were selected to follow the adsorption process. The results showed that the adsorption of phosphorus with the four types of bioretention media could be described by the pseudo second-order equation. The media IV was the better media of bioretention with high phosphorus removal capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using scanning electron microscopy, we studied the floral ontogeny of Sinojackia xylocarpa. There are 6-7 (-8) sepals. Sepal initiation is staggered; adaxial sepals arise later than abaxial and lateral ones. There are (5-) 6-7 (-8) petals, initiated simultaneously. Petals alternate with the sepals, and occasionally there are two petals instead of one between two sepals. The (10-) 12-14 (-16) stamens are initiated centripetally in two sets (whorls). These floral organ numbers deviate from those of the otherwise mostly pentamerous family Styracaceae. The ovary consists of three (rarely four) locules. In each of the locules, two rows of ovules are differentiated basipetally. Placentation is axile with (5-) 6 (-7) ovules in each locule. Ovules are unitegmic and are ascending with the micropyle directed downwards. Intra-ovarian trichomes are present as in other representatives of Styracaceae and seem to be an apomorphic character of the family as they are absent in the closely related Symplocaceae and Diapensiaceae. Various levels of organ union occur in anthetic S. xylocarpa. The calyx is synsepalous and the ovary syncarpous. Possibly, the basal connation of petals and stamens is postgenital (and not congenital), but this needs further study. The outward curvature of the young anthers of the inner stamen whorl superficially simulates an obdiplostemonous androecium. However, the sequence of stamen initiation shows a diplostemonous pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mutations in OTOF gene, encoding otoferlin, cause DFNB9 deafness and non-syndromic auditory neuropathy (AN). The aim of this study is to identify OTOF mutations in Chinese patients with non-syndromic auditory neuropathy. Methods: 73 unrelated Chinese Han patients with AN, including one case of temperature sensitive non-syndromic auditory neuropathy (TS-NSRAN) and 92 ethnicity-matched controls with normal hearing were screened. Forty-five pairs of PCR primers were designed to amplify all of the exons and their flanking regions of the OTOF gene. The PCR products were sequenced and analyzed for mutation identification. Results: Five novel possibly pathogenic variants (c.1740delC, c.2975_2978delAG, c.1194T>A, c.1780G>A, c.4819C > T) were identified in the group of 73 AN patients, in which two novel mutant alleles (c.2975_2978delAG + c.4819C > T) were identified in one Chinese TS-NSRAN case. Besides, 10 non-pathogenic variants of the OTOF gene were found in AN patients and controls. Conclusions: Screening revealed that mutations in the OTOF gene account for AN in 4 of 73(5.5%) sporadic AN patients, which shows a lower genetic load of that gene in contrast to the previous studies based on other populations. Notably, we found two novel mutant alleles related to temperature sensitive non-syndromic auditory neuropathy. This mutation screening study further confirms that the OTOF gene contributes to ANs and to TS-NSRAN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meiosis and mitosis of six Chinese Actinidiaceae were studied:Saurauia tristylaDC.,S. miniataC. F. Liang&Y. S. Wang,Actinidia chinensisPlach.,A. deliciosa(Cheval.) C. F. Liang&A. R. Ferguson,A. indochinensisMerr. andClematoclethra lasiocladaMaxim. The chromosome numbers ofSaurauia tristylaandS. miniatawere 2n = 6x = 78, establishing a base chromosome number ofx = 13 in the genus, differing from the previous report ofx = 15. The chromosome number ofClematoclethrawas first reported to be 2n = 4x = 48 (x = 12), while that ofActinidiawasx = 29, consistent with previous reports. The base chromosome number ofClematoclethra(x = 12) was derived from an aneuploid decrease fromSaurauia(x = 13).Actinidia (x = 29) was derived from the palaeotetraploid (x = 14), which was formed through the increase of the basic chromosome numberx = 13 tox = 14 by aneuploidy and through the breakage of a centromere to add one more new chromosome. The chromosome data inActinidiawere consistent with the geographical and morphological evidence for the evolution of the three genera. The tropical American and Asian disjunct distribution pattern and the diversity of base chromosome numbers ofSaurauiafurther support the probability that the genus was an early divergent from a common ancestor ofActinidiaandClematoclethra. © 2005 The Linnean Society of London,Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2005,147, 369–374. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gastric adenomyoma (AM) is a rare benign tumor characterized by gland-like structures embedded within a smooth muscle stroma. We report a case of a 68-yearold man with gastric AM admitted to our hospital for melana. Endoscopic examination revealed a gastric mass of about 4 cm in diameter, located in the antrum. Histologic examination of the excised specimen showed irregularly arranged glands and interlacing smooth muscle bundles surrounding the glandular elements. Although gastric AM is rare, it should be considered in differential diagnosis of extramucosal gastric tumor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, the room-temperature properties of Al[sub 2]O[sub 3]-Ti[sub 3]SiC[sub 2] composites with different Ti[sub 3]SiC[sub 2] contents are determined. The composites are prepared by attrition milling Al[sub 2]O[sub 3] and Ti[sub 3]SiC[sub 2] mixture powders followed by spark plasma sintering (SPS) under vacuum. From a closer examination of the dependencies of the electrical conductivity on compositions in this system, we determined the percolation threshold at which an interconnected network of electrically conductive phase arises. Since the hardness of Ti[sub 3]SiC[sub 2] is lower than that of Al[sub 2]O[sub 3], the Vickers hardness decreased with the increasing of Ti[sub 3]SiC[sub 2] content while the fracture toughness and the strength increased. The maximum strength (673 MPa) and the maximum toughness (9.3 MPa·m[sup ½]) were reached in the pure Ti[sub 3]SiC[sub 2] material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims Life form, mating system and seed dispersal are important adaptive traits of plants. In the first effort to characterize in detail the population genetic structure and dynamics of wild Medicago species in China, a population genetic study of two closely related Medicago species, M. lupulina and M. ruthenica, that are distinct in these traits, are reported. These species are valuable germplasm resources for the improvement of Medicago forage crops but are under threat of habitat destruction. Methods Three hundred and twenty-eight individuals from 16 populations of the annual species, M. lupulina, and 447 individuals from 15 populations of the perennial species, M. ruthenica, were studied using 15 and 17 microsatellite loci, respectively. Conventional and Bayesian-clustering analyses were utilized to estimate population genetic structure, mating system and gene flow. Key Results Genetic diversity of M. lupulina (mean HE = 0·246) was lower than that of M. ruthenica (mean HE = 0·677). Populations of M. lupulina were more highly differentiated (FST = 0·535) than those of M. ruthenica (FST = 0·130). For M. lupulina, 55·5 % of the genetic variation was partitioned among populations, whereas 76·6 % of the variation existed within populations of M. ruthenica. Based on the genetic data, the selfing rates of M. lupulina and M. ruthenica were estimated at 95·8 % and 29·5 %, respectively. The genetic differentiation among populations of both species was positively correlated with geographical distance. Conclusions The mating system differentiation estimated from the genetic data is consistent with floral morphology and observed pollinator visitation. There was a much higher historical gene flow in M. ruthenica than in M. lupulina, despite more effective seed dispersal mechanisms in M. lupulina. The population genetic structure and geographical distribution of the two Medicago species have been shaped by life form, mating systems and seed dispersal mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Recent evidences have suggested that human microorganisms participate in important biological activities in the human body. The dysfunction of host-microbiota interactions could lead to complex human disorders. The knowledge on host-microbiota interactions can provide valuable insights into understanding the pathological mechanism of diseases. However, it is time-consuming and costly to identify the disorder-specific microbes from the biological “haystack” merely by routine wet-lab experiments. With the developments in next-generation sequencing and omics-based trials, it is imperative to develop computational prediction models for predicting microbe-disease associations on a large scale. Results Based on the known microbe-disease associations derived from the Human Microbe-Disease Association Database (HMDAD), the proposed model shows reliable performance with high values of the area under ROC curve (AUC) of 0.9456 and 0.8866 in leave-one-out cross validations and five-fold cross validations, respectively. In case studies of colorectal carcinoma, 80% out of the top-20 predicted microbes have been experimentally confirmed via published literatures. Conclusion Based on the assumption that functionally similar microbes tend to share the similar interaction patterns with human diseases, we here propose a group based computational model of Bayesian disease-oriented ranking to prioritize the most potential microbes associating with various human diseases. Based on the sequence information of genes, two computational approaches (BLAST+ and MEGA 7) are leveraged to measure the microbe-microbe similarity from different perspectives. The disease-disease similarity is calculated by capturing the hierarchy information from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) data. The experimental results illustrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed model. This work is expected to facilitate the characterization and identification of promising microbial biomarkers.

Owing to early diagnosis and rapid development of treatments for cancers, the five-year survival rate of all cancer types has markedly improved worldwide. Over time, however, there has been an increase in the number of cancer patients who develop coronary artery disease (CAD) due to different causes. First, many risk factors are shared between cancer and CAD. Second, inflammation and oxidative stress are common underlying pathogeneses in both disorders. Lastly, cancer therapy can result in endothelial injury, coronary artery spasm, and coagulation, thereby increasing the risk of CAD. As more cancer patients are being diagnosed with CAD, specialized cardiac care should be established to minimize the cardiovascular mortality of cancer survivors. Keywords: Cancer, Coronary artery disease, Cardio-oncology

Precision medicine has become a novel and rising concept, which depends much on the identification of individual genomic signatures for different patients. The cancer cell lines could reflect the “omic” diversity of primary tumors, based on which many works have been carried out to study the cancer biology and drug discovery both in experimental and computational aspects. In this work, we presented a novel method to utilize weighted graph regularized matrix factorization (WGRMF) for inferring anticancer drug response in cell lines. We constructed a p-nearest neighbor graph to sparsify drug similarity matrix and cell line similarity matrix, respectively. Using the sparsified matrices in the graph regularization terms, we performed matrix factorization to generate the latent matrices for drug and cell line. The graph regularization terms including neighbor information could help to exclude the noisy ingredient and improve the prediction accuracy. The 10-fold cross-validation was implemented, and the Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC), root-mean-square error (RMSE), PCCsr, and RMSEsr averaged over all drugs were calculated to evaluate the performance of WGRMF. The results on the Genomics of Drug Sensitivity in Cancer (GDSC) dataset are 0.64 ± 0.16, 1.37 ± 0.35, 0.73 ± 0.14, and 1.71 ± 0.44 for PCC, RMSE, PCCsr, and RMSEsr in turn. And for the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE) dataset, WGRMF got results of 0.72 ± 0.09, 0.56 ± 0.19, 0.79 ± 0.07, and 0.69 ± 0.19, respectively. The results showed the superiority of WGRMF compared with previous methods. Besides, based on the prediction results using the GDSC dataset, three types of case studies were carried out. The results from both cross-validation and case studies have shown the effectiveness of WGRMF on the prediction of drug response in cell lines. Keywords: drug response, cell line, graph regularization, matrix factorization, response prediction

Abstract Background l-2-aminobutyric acid (l-ABA) is an unnatural amino acid that is a key intermediate for the synthesis of several important pharmaceuticals. To make the biosynthesis of l-ABA environmental friendly and more suitable for the industrial-scale production. We expand the nature metabolic network of Escherichia coli using metabolic engineering approach for the production of l-ABA. Results In this study, Escherichia coli THR strain with a modified pathway for threonine-hyperproduction was engineered via deletion of the rhtA gene from the chromosome. To redirect carbon flux from 2-ketobutyrate (2-KB) to l-ABA, the ilvIH gene was deleted to block the l-isoleucine pathway. Furthermore, the ilvA gene from Escherichia coli W3110 and the leuDH gene from Thermoactinomyces intermedius were amplified and co-overexpressed. The promoter was altered to regulate the expression strength of ilvA* and leuDH. The final engineered strain E. coli THR ΔrhtAΔilvIH/Gap-ilvA*-Pbs-leuDH was able to produce 9.33 g/L of l-ABA with a yield of 0.19 g/L/h by fed-batch fermentation in a 5 L bioreactor. Conclusions This novel metabolically tailored strain offers a promising approach to fulfill industrial requirements for production of l-ABA.

With increasingly fierce competition for jobs, the pressures on people have risen in recent years, leading to lifestyle and diet disorders that result in significantly higher risks of cardiovascular disease. Hypertension is one of the common chronic cardiovascular diseases; however, mainstream blood pressure measurement devices are relatively heavy. When multiple measurements are required, the user experience and the measurement results may be unsatisfactory. In this paper, we describe the design of a signal collection module that collects pulse waves and electrocardiograph (ECG) signals. The collected signals are input into a signal processing module to filter the noise and amplify the useful physiological signals. Then, we use a wavelet transform to eliminate baseline drift noise and detect the feature points of the pulse waves and ECG signals. We propose the concept of detecting the wave shape associated with an instance, an approach that minimizes the impact of atypical pulse waves on blood pressure measurements. Finally, we propose an improved method for measuring blood pressure based on pulse wave velocity that improves the accuracy of blood pressure measurements by 58%. Moreover, the results meet the american medical instrument promotion association standards, which demonstrate the feasibility of our measurement system.

Background: Previous studies revealed that culprit vessels of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) were often related to mild or moderate stenosis. However, recent studies suggested that severe stenosis was primarily found in culprit lesions. The objective of this study was to analyze the stenosis severity of culprit lesions in STEMI patients and to clarify the paradoxical results. Methods: A total of 489 consecutive STEMI patients who underwent primary percutaneous coronary intervention were retrospectively studied from January 2012 to December 2014. The patients were divided into three groups based on stenosis severity using quantitative coronary analysis: Group A, 314 cases, stenosis ≥70%; Group B, 127 cases, stenosis 50–70%; and Group C, 48 cases, stenosis ≤50%. The clinical, demographic, and angiographic data of all groups were analyzed. Results: Patients in Group A exhibited a significantly higher prevalence of history of angina pectoris (95.9% vs. 62.5%, P< 0.001), multivessel disease (73.2% vs. 54.2%, P = 0.007), and lower cardiac ejection fraction (53.3 ± 8.6 vs. 56.8 ± 8.4, P= 0.009) than those in Group C. Multivariable analysis revealed that history of angina pectoris (odds ratio [OR]: 13.89, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 6.21–31.11) and multivessel disease (OR: 2.32, 95% CI: 1.25–4.31) were correlated with severe stenosis of the culprit lesion in Group A. Conclusions: Most culprit lesions in STEMI patients were severe stenosis. These patients exhibited a higher prevalence of angina history and multivessel diseases.

The early-diverging eudicot order Trochodendrales contains only two monospecific genera, Tetracentron and Trochodendron. Although an extensive fossil record indicates that the clade is perhaps 100 million years old and was widespread throughout the Northern Hemisphere during the Paleogene and Neogene, the two extant genera are both narrowly distributed in eastern Asia. Recent phylogenetic analyses strongly support a clade of Trochodendrales, Buxales, and Gunneridae (core eudicots), but complete plastome analyses do not resolve the relationships among these groups with strong support. However, plastid phylogenomic analyses have not included data for Tetracentron. To better resolve basal eudicot relationships and to clarify when the two extant genera of Trochodendrales diverged, we sequenced the complete plastid genome of Tetracentron sinense using Illumina technology. The Tetracentron and Trochodendron plastomes possess the typical gene content and arrangement that characterize most angiosperm plastid genomes, but both genomes have the same unusual ∼4 kb expansion of the inverted repeat region to include five genes (rpl22, rps3, rpl16, rpl14, and rps8) that are normally found in the large single-copy region. Maximum likelihood analyses of an 83-gene, 88 taxon angiosperm data set yield an identical tree topology as previous plastid-based trees, and moderately support the sister relationship between Buxaceae and Gunneridae. Molecular dating analyses suggest that Tetracentron and Trochodendron diverged between 44-30 million years ago, which is congruent with the fossil record of Trochodendrales and with previous estimates of the divergence time of these two taxa. We also characterize 154 simple sequence repeat loci from the Tetracentron sinense and Trochodendron aralioides plastomes that will be useful in future studies of population genetic structure for these relict species, both of which are of conservation concern.

The mechanism of the effects of flumorph (a novel fungicide) was investigated by analyzing alterations of hyphal morphology, cell wall deposition patterns, F-actin organization, and other organelles in Phytophthora melonis. Calcofluor white staining suggested that flumorph did not inhibit the synthesis of cell wall materials, but disturbed the polar deposition of newly synthesized cell wall materials during cystospore germination and hyphal growth. After exposure to flumorph, zoospores were able to switch into cystospores accompanied with the formation of a cell wall, whereas cystospores failed to induce the isotropic-polar switch and did not produce germ tubes but continued the isotropic growth phase. In flumorph-treated hyphae, the most characteristic change was the development of periodic swelling ("beaded" morphology) and the disruption of tip growth. Newly synthesized cell wall materials were deposited uniformly throughout the diffuse expanded region of hyphae, in contrast to their normal polarized patterns of deposition. These alterations were the result of F-actin disruption, identified with the fluorescein isothiocynate (FITC)-phalloidin staining. The disruption of F-actin also was accompanied by disorganized organelIes: each swelling of subapical hyphae was associated with a nucleus. Vesicles did not undergo polarized secretion to the apical hyphae, but diffused around nuclei for the subapical growth; thus, the cell wall was thickened with periodic expansion along the hyphae. Upon removing flumorph, normal tip growth and organized F-actin were observed again. These data, as well as data published earlier, suggest that flumorph may be involved in the impairment of cell polar growth through directly or indirectly disrupting the organization of F-actin. The primary site of action by flumorph in the disruption of the F-actin organization is under investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]