Search

Our team's pharmacological and clinical trials proved that ligustrazine/borneol spray had a definite effect on ischemic stroke (IS). To solve the shortcomings of ligustrazine/borneol spray, such as low bioavailability, short half-life, and poor compatibility between borneol and ligustrazine, ligustrazine-loaded borneol liposomes (LIP@TMP) were successfully prepared by a thin-film ultrasonication method. The average particle size of LIP@TMP was 282.4 ± 3.6 nm, the drug loading rate was 14.5 ± 0.6%, and the entrapment efficiency was 42.7 ± 1.0%, which had excellent stability and sustained release ability. In addition, live/dead fluorescent staining and the CCK-8 test confirmed that LIP@TMP had good biocompatibility. Moreover, middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) rat model experiments further demonstrated that LIP@TMP could significantly alleviate cerebral ischemia and reperfusion injury by improving neurological scores, reducing cerebral infarct volume, promoting neurogenesis, inhibiting inflammation, and reducing tissue damage. In addition, LIP@TMP enhanced neuronal marker doublecortin (DCX) and neuronal nuclei (NEUN), inhibited inflammatory factors (TNF-α and IL-1β), and reduced apoptosis signal molecules (TUNEL and caspase-3). The findings of this study suggested that the prepared LIP@TMP had tremendous potential for the treatment of cerebral ischemia.

Carbonate reservoirs in Western China are characterized by deep burial, high temperature, and strong heterogeneity. In this paper, based on the physical properties of high-temperature carbonate reservoirs, the authors have developed an autogenic acidic fracturing fluid suitable for high-temperature carbonate reservoirs. The performance of the new acidic fluid has been experimentally evaluated. The results show that the fluid demonstrates satisfactory viscosity-temperature performance, and after continuous shear tests at 140°C for 2 h the viscosity of the fluid remains about 100 mPa∙s. At room temperature (RT), the pH value of the fluid is neutral, and the titratable acid concentration could reach 15.49% at 90°C. When subjected to high temperatures, the fluid is characterized by a high acid concentration, low acid generation rate, and moderate corrosion inhibition rate. The static rock corrosion rates of the fluid at room temperature and 140°C are 0.00009125 and 0.009575 g/min, respectively. The corrosion rate is slow, and the effective action distance of the fluid can be five times higher than that of a thickened acid and three times higher than that of a cross-linked acid. The experimental results verify the acid’s ability to transform high-temperature carbonate reservoirs and good applicability in high-temperature carbonate reservoirs. The proposed autogenic acidic fracturing fluid system provides essential technical support for the efficient development of high-temperature carbonate reservoirs.

Introduction Breast cancer (BC) is a prevalent malignant tumor among women. Numerous studies have been reported that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) were associated with various human diseases. Materials and Methods In the current study, 681 patients with BC and 680 unrelated controls were recruited to investigate the correlation between lncRNA cancer susceptibility candidate 15 (CASC15) polymorphisms and BC risk in Chinese Han women. We performed single-nucleotide polymorphism genotyping using the Agena MassARRAY platform. The relationship between lncRNA CASC15 polymorphisms and the risk of BC were evaluated through odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Results Our results suggested that the lncRNA CASC15 rs7740084 “G/G” genotype and rs1928168 “T/C” genotype significantly reduced BC risk in different genetic models (P = .045, P = .029, and P = .047, respectively). However, rs9393266 “C/T” and “C/T-T/T” genotypes were correlated with the risk of BC (P = .021 and P = .048). In addition, we also observed that rs1928168 was related to the risk of BC in patients with age > 50 years (P = .025), body mass index > 24 (P = .006), and tumor size (P = .035). For rs9393266, it was revealed that the “C/T” and “C/T-T/T” genotypes were related to BC risk in people with age ≤ 50 years (P = .005) and body mass index > 24 (P = .023). Conclusion In summary, our results revealed a potential interaction between lncRNA CASC15 polymorphisms and BC susceptibility. The results provided an important insight into lncRNA CASC15 function in the development of BC.

The Himalayan marmot (Marmota himalayana), a natural host and transmitter of plague, is also susceptible to the hepadnavirus infection. To reveal the genetic basis of the hepadnavirus susceptibility and the immune response to plague, we systematically characterized the features of immune genes in Himalayan marmot with those of human and mouse. We found that the entire major histocompatibility complex region and the hepatitis B virus pathway genes of the Himalayan marmot were conserved with those of humans. A Trim (tripartite motif) gene cluster involved in immune response and antiviral activity displays dynamic evolution, which is reflected by the duplication of Trim5 and the absence of Trim22 and Trim34. Three key regions of Ntcp, which is critical for hepatitis B virus entry, had high identity among seven species of Marmota. Moreover, we observed a severe alveolar hemorrhage, inflammatory infiltrate in the infected lungs and livers from Himalayan marmots after infection of EV76, a live attenuated Yersinia pestis strain. Lots of immune genes were remarkably up-regulated, which several hub genes Il2rγ, Tra29, and Nlrp7 are placed at the center of the gene network. These findings suggest that Himalayan marmot is a potential animal model for study on the hepadnavirus and plague infection.

Background Marmots are large Holarctic rodents with unique biological features, making them potential animal models in various research fields. Due to the rapid accumulation of the genetic data in marmots, a highly integrative database is urgent needed. Description iMarmot is freely available on the web at http://www.marmotdb.org/ and currently contains the biological information of 14 marmots, genomic sequence of 6 marmots, syntenic relationship and orthologs among 3 marmots, and expression profiles of several hibernators and plague hosts. To assist with the genomic and transcriptomic analysis, we also integrated a set of analysis and visualization tools, such as KEGG or GO enrichment analysis, PCA, Blast, Muscle, GeneWise, Lastz, and JBrowse. Particularly, one DEGs (differentially expressed genes) module has been implemented in this database to visualize the gene expression changes in hibernators and plague hosts. Conclusion This database will provide comprehensive information and analysis platform for researchers interested in understanding the biological features of marmots.

Plasma lipid and glucose levels are important parameters for evaluating the onset and development of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. In clinical and experimental studies of humans or mice, fasting is often required before testing plasma lipid and glucose levels. The rabbit is a valuable animal model for cardiovascular disease research. However, whether fasting is necessary for measuring plasma lipid and glucose levels in rabbits remains unclear. In the current study, 12 healthy Japanese white rabbits (males weighing 2.5–3.0 kg) were randomly divided into a chow diet group ( n = 6) and a high cholesterol diet group ( n = 6). They were fed either a standard chow diet or a chow diet supplemented with 0.5% cholesterol and 3% corn oil for 12 weeks. After 12 weeks, the plasma levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and glucose were measured before and after various fasting durations (8, 12, 16, 20 and 24 h). The results showed that there were no significant differences in lipid levels between the fasting and non-fasting samples, whereas glucose levels were lower after 8 h of fasting than in the absence of fasting. Moreover, the glucose levels were restored to normal after 8 h of refeeding. These results indicate that fasting does not affect plasma lipid values in rabbits but that fasting is important for determining the glucose level in rabbits. These findings may be helpful for future rabbit experiments and beneficial for animal welfare.

Summary The Himalayan marmot (Marmota himalayana) is a hibernating mammal that inhabits the high-elevation regions of the Himalayan mountains. Here we present a draft genome of the Himalayan marmot, with a total assembly length of 2.47 Gb. Phylogenetic analyses showed that the Himalayan marmot diverged from the Mongolian marmot approximately 1.98 million years ago. Transcriptional changes during hibernation included genes responsible for fatty acid metabolism in liver and genes involved in complement and coagulation cascades and stem cell pluripotency pathways in brain. Two selective sweep genes, Slc25a14 and ψAamp, showed apparent genotyping differences between low- and high-altitude populations. As a processed pseudogene, ψAamp may be biologically active to influence the stability of Aamp through competitive microRNA binding. These findings shed light on the molecular and genetic basis underlying adaptation to extreme environments in the Himalayan marmot., Graphical Abstract, Highlights • This is the first report on a draft genome of Himalayan marmot • Selective sweep genes Slc25a14 and ψAamp were potentially involved in hypoxic adaptation • Stem cell pluripotency pathway may be implicated in cold resistance during hibernation, Physiology; Genetics; Evolutionary Biology; Bioinformatics; Omics

Arrhythmia is a common cardiovascular disease; the electrocardiogram (ECG) is widely used as an effective tool for detecting arrhythmia. However, real-time arrhythmia detection monitoring is difficult, so this study proposes a long short-term memory-residual model. Individual beats provide morphological features and combined with adjacent segments provide temporal features. Our proposed model captures the time-domain and morphological ECG signal information simultaneously and fuses the two information types. At the same time, the attention block is applied to the network to further strengthen the useful information, capture the hidden information in the ECG signal, and improve the model classification performance. Our model was finally trained and tested on the MIT-BIH arrhythmia database, and the entire dataset was divided into intrapatient and interpatient modes. Accuracies of 99.11% and 85.65%, respectively, were obtained under the two modes. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method is an efficient automated detection method.

Background Post-cholecystectomy diarrhea (PCD) frequently occurs in patients following gallbladder removal. PCD is part of the post-cholecystectomy (PC) syndrome, and is difficult to treat. After cholecystectomy, bile enters the duodenum directly, independent of the timing of meals. The interaction between the bile acids and the intestinal microbes is changed. Therefore, the occurrence of PCD may be related to the change in microbiota. However, little is known about the relationship between the gut microbiota and PCD. Aim To better understand the role of the gut microbiota in PCD patients. Methods Fecal DNA was isolated. The diversity and profiles of the gut microbiota were analyzed by performing high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The gut microbiota were characterized in a healthy control (HC) group and a PC group. Subsequently, the PC group was further divided into a PCD group and a post-cholecystectomy non-diarrhea group (PCND) according to the patients' clinical symptoms. The composition, diversity and richness of microbial communities were determined and compared. Results In the PC and HC groups, 720 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were identified. The PC group had fewer OTUs than the HC group. β-diversity was decreased in the PC group. This indicated decreased microbial diversity in the PC group. Fifteen taxa with differential abundance between the HC and PC groups were identified. In the PCD group compared to the PCND group, significant decreases in microbial diversity, Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio, and richness of probiotic microbiota (Bifidobacterium and Lactococcus), and an increase in detrimental microbiota (Prevotella and Sutterella) were observed. Moreover, a negative correlation was found between Prevotella and Bifidobacterium. Using a Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes functional analysis, it was found that the abundances of gut microbiota involved in lipid metabolism pathways were markedly lower in the PCD group compared to the PCND group. Conclusion This study demonstrated that gut dysbiosis may play a critical role in PCD, which provides new insights into therapeutic options for PCD patients.

BACKGROUND Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia harmful to human health. The morbidity and mortality of AF increase with age. However, due to its small amplitude and short duration, as well as its complexity and nonlinearity, it is very difficult to carry out accurate analysis only through expert experience. Therefore, the automatic detection of AF becomes extremely important. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this paper is to develop a method of automatic detection of AF, more accurate and efficient automatic detection of the occurrence of AF. METHODS In this paper, a deep learning model consisting of a convolutional neural network (CNN) and a bi-directional long short-term memory (BLSTM) network is proposed to detect AF automatically. The model is mainly composed of six convolutional layers, three pooling layers, a BLSTM layer and a fully connected layer. In addition, the data of MIT-BIH AFDB database is divided into different lengths of ECG segments, which are used as input to the network to verify the effect of different lengths of ECG segments on the final result. RESULTS The method proposed also achieved excellent results on ECG signals of 1 second. Most importantly, our proposed method achieved the best performances on ECG signals of 10 seconds, with an accuracy of 99.57%，a sensitivity of 99.65%,and a specificity of 99.49%. CONCLUSIONS This method requires no complex pretreatment and retains the characteristics of the original ECG to the greatest extent. Compared with the existing studies, the proposed method has higher accuracy and provides an effective solution for the automatic detection of AF.

Background Gut microbiota plays an important role in many metabolic diseases such as diabetes and atherosclerosis. Apolipoprotein E (apoE) knock-out (KO) mice are frequently used for the study of hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis. However, it is unknown whether apoE KO mice have altered gut microbiota when challenged with a Western diet. Methods In the current study, we assessed the gut microbiota profiling of apoE KO mice and compared with wild-type mice fed either a normal chow or Western diet for 12 weeks using 16S pyrosequencing. Results On a western diet, the gut microbiota diversity was significantly decreased in apoE KO mice compared with wild type (WT) mice. Firmicutes and Erysipelotrichaceae were significantly increased in WT mice but Erysipelotrichaceae was unchanged in apoE KO mice on a Western diet. The weighted UniFrac principal coordinate analysis exhibited clear separation between WT and apoE KO mice on the first vector (58.6%) with significant changes of two dominant phyla (Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes) and seven dominant families (Porphyromonadaceae, Lachnospiraceae, Ruminococcaceae, Desulfovibrionaceae, Helicobacteraceae, Erysipelotrichaceae and Veillonellaceae). Lachnospiraceae was significantly enriched in apoE KO mice on a Western diet. In addition, Lachnospiraceae and Ruminococcaceae were positively correlated with relative atherosclerosis lesion size in apoE KO. Conclusions Collectively, our study showed that there are marked changes in the gut microbiota of apoE KO mice, particularly challenged with a Western diet and these alterations may be possibly associated with atherosclerosis. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12944-018-0811-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Nanofluid flow boiling is becoming a research focus these years, although few correlation of nanofluid flow boiling was proposed in the last researches. In this paper, nanofluid was prepared by adjusting the nanoparticles into the deionized water and dispersing by an ultrasonic oscillation. Nanofluid saturated flow boiling heat transfer in a vertical tube is experimentally investigated in this work. Furthermore, nanoparticle shapes and sizes are scanned by TEM before and after boiling and it has been ensured that the nanoparticles haven’t been changed during the experimental process. Several relevant dimensionless parameters for nanofluid saturated flow boiling were proposed to present the influences of heat flux, pressure and thermal properties. Based on the research above, a new correlation for nanofluid saturated flow boiling was presented with 300 experimental points. This correlation apply to both AlN/H 2 O nanofluid and Al 2 O 3 /H 2 O nanofluid (0.1–0.5 Vol.%). The pressure range of application for the correlation is 0.2–0.8 MPa, and it is 48–289 kW m −2 for heat flux, 350–1100 kg m −2 s −1 for mass flow rate. The correlation adjust residual sum of squares (A-R 2 ) is 0.9594. Its mean absolute deviation (MAD) is 4.3% and it predicts 99% of the entire database within ±15% for AlN/H 2 O nanofluid and 94.5% of the entire database within ±15% for Al 2 O 3 /H 2 O nanofluid.

Supplemental Material for Fasting is not required for measuring plasma lipid levels in rabbits by Rong Wang, Ruihan Liu, Lu Li, Baoning Liu, Liang Bai, Weirong Wang, Sihai Zhao and Enqi Liu in Laboratory Animals

Rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) are one of the most widely used animal models for the study of human lipid metabolism and atherosclerosis because they are more sensitive to a cholesterol diet than other experimental animals such as rodents. Currently, two hypercholesterolemic rabbit models are frequently used for atherosclerosis studies. One is a cholesterol-fed wild-type rabbit and the other is the Watanabe heritable hyperlipidemic (WHHL) rabbit, which is genetically deficient in low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor function. Wild-type rabbits can be easily induced to develop severe hypercholesterolemia with a cholesterol-rich diet due to the marked increase in hepatically and intestinally derived remnant lipoproteins, called β-very low density lipoproteins (VLDL), which are rich in cholesteryl esters. WHHL rabbits are characterized by elevated plasma LDL levels on a standard chow diet, which resembles human familial hypercholesterolemia. Therefore, both rabbit models develop aortic and coronary atherosclerosis, but the elevated plasma cholesterol levels are caused by completely different mechanisms. In addition, cholesterol-fed rabbits but not WHHL rabbits exhibit different degrees of hepatosteatosis. Recently, we along with others have shown that there are many differentially expressed genes in the atherosclerotic lesions and livers of cholesterol-fed rabbits that are either significantly up- or down-regulated, compared with those in normal rabbits, including genes involved in the regulation of inflammation and lipid metabolism. Therefore, dietary cholesterol plays an important role not only in hypercholesterolemia and atherosclerosis but also in hepatosteatosis. In this review, we make an overview of the recent progress in genomic and transcriptomic analyses of hypercholesterolemic rabbits. These transcriptomic profiling data should provide novel insight into the relationship between hypercholesterolemia and atherosclerosis or hepatic dysfunction caused by dietary cholesterol.

The Brassica genus encompasses three diploid and three allopolyploid genomes, but a clear understanding of the evolution of agriculturally important traits via polyploidy is lacking. We assembled an allopolyploid Brassica juncea genome by shotgun and single-molecule reads integrated to genomic and genetic maps. We discovered that the A subgenomes of B. juncea and Brassica napus each had independent origins. Results suggested that A subgenomes of B. juncea were of monophyletic origin and evolved into vegetable-use and oil-use subvarieties. Homoeolog expression dominance occurs between subgenomes of allopolyploid B. juncea, in which differentially expressed genes display more selection potential than neutral genes. Homoeolog expression dominance in B. juncea has facilitated selection of glucosinolate and lipid metabolism genes in subvarieties used as vegetables and for oil production. These homoeolog expression dominance relationships among Brassicaceae genomes have contributed to selection response, predicting the directional effects of selection in a polyploid crop genome.

Pleurochrysis carterae is a calcified coccolithophorid species that usually blooms in the coastal area and causes aquaculture losses. The cellular calcification, blooming and many other critical species specific eco-physiological processes are closely related to various metabolic pathways. The purpose of this study is to apply the unbiased and non-destructive method of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to detect the unknown holistic metabolite of P. carterae. The results show that NMR spectroscopic method is practical in the analysis of metabolites of phytoplankton. The metabolome of P. carterae was dominated by 26 metabolites involved in a number of different primary and secondary metabolic pathways. Organic acids and their derivatives, amino acids, sugars, nucleic aides were mainly detected. The abundant metabolites are that closely related to the process of cellular osmotic adjustment, which possibly reflect the active ability of P. carterae to adapt to the versatile coastal niche. DMSP (dimethylsulphoniopropionate) was the most dominant metabolite in P. carterae, up to 2.065±0.278 mg/g lyophilized cells, followed by glutamate and lactose, the contents were 0.349±0.035 and 0.301±0.073 mg/g lyophilized cells respectively. Other metabolites that had the content ranged between 0.1–0.2 mg/g lyophilized cells were alanine, isethionate and arabinose. Amino acid (valine, phenylalanine, isoleucine, tyrosine), organic acid salts (lactate, succinate), scyllitol and uracil had content ranged from 0.01 to below 0.1 mg/g lyophilized cells. Trigonelline, fumarate and formate were detected in very low content (only thousandths of 1 mg per gram of lyophilized cells or below). Our results of the holistic metabolites of P. carterae are the basic references for the further studies when multiple problems will be addressed to this notorious blooming calcifying species.

Rabbits are a suitable animal model for atherosclerosis due to their sensitivity to dietary cholesterol. Moreover, rabbits have lipoprotein profiles that are more similar to humans than those of other laboratory animals. However, little is known about the transcriptomic information related to atherosclerosis in rabbits. We aimed to determine the changes in the livers of rabbits fed a normal chow diet (control) or high cholesterol diet (HCD) by histological examinations and RNA sequencing analysis. Compared with the control group, the lipid levels and small LDL subfractions in plasma were increased, and aortic atherosclerotic plaques were formed in the HCD group. Most importantly, HCD resulted in lipid accumulation and inflammation in the livers. Transcriptomic analysis of the liver showed that HCD induces 1183 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) that mainly participate in the regulation of inflammation and lipid metabolism. Furthermore, the signaling pathways involved in inflammation and lipid metabolism were enriched by KEGG pathway analysis. In addition, hepatic DEGs of the HCD group were further validated by real-time PCR. These results suggest that HCD causes liver lipid accumulation and inflammatory response. Although the relationships between these hepatic changes and atherogenesis need further investigation, these findings provide a fundamental framework for future research on human atherosclerosis using rabbit models.

In this work, AlN/H2O and Al2O3/H2O nanofluid was prepared by an ultrasonic oscillation. Moreover, saturated flow boiling heat transfer in a vertical tube is experimentally investigated by nanofluid, with 0.1% volume concentration and 30nm diameter for AlN and 20nm diameter for γAl2O3. Several factors are under consideration, including heat flux on the heating surface (48–289kW·m−2), pressure (0.2–0.8Mpa) and mass flow rate (350–1100 kg·m−2·s−1). The results show that the saturated flow boiling heat transfer of AlN/H2O nanofluid is improved mostly about 64% compared with deionized water and Al2O3/H2O nanofluid is improved mostly about 61% compared with deionized water, and the average Nusselt number enhancement rates of nanofluid compared with deionized water are 23% for Al2O3/H2O nanofluid and 31% for Al2O3/H2O nanofluid in the range of this work. Furthermore, the heat transfer capacity of nanofluid increases with increasing heat flux on the heating surface and pressure. It is proved that nanoparticle deposited on the heating surface by SEM observations and TEM observations for nanoparticle confirm that nanoparticle does not change obviously after boiling. In addition, the enhancement rate of nanofluid saturated flow boiling heat transfer capacity increases with increasing pressure, but the influence of mass flow rate is negligible. In this study, as the thermal conductivity of AlN is greater than that of Al2O3, the heat transfer capacity of AlN/H2O nanofluid is greater than that of Al2O3/H2O nanofluid under the same conditions.

In present work, Al2O3/H2O nanofluid was prepared by ultrasonic oscillation. Furthermore, nanofluid flow boiling heat transfer in a vertical cube is experimentally studied, with 0.1% and 0.5% volume concentration and 20nm diameter. Some factors are under consideration, including heat flux on the heating surface (48∼289kW·m−2), pressure (0.2∼0.8MPa) and mass flow rate (400∼1100 kgm−2s−1). The results confirm that the flow boiling heat transfer of Al2O3/H2O nanofluid is improved mostly about 86% compared with pure water. And the average Nusselt number enhancement rate of nanofluid compared with deionized water is 35% in the range of this work. Moreover, the heat transfer capacity of nanofluid increase with the heat flux on the heating surface, pressure and the volume concentration of nanoparticle. It is proved that nanoparticle deposited on the heating surface by SEM observations, and TEM observations for nanoparticle confirm that nanoparticle have not obviously changed after boiling. In addition, the enhancement rate of nanofluid flow boiling heat transfer capacity increase with the pressure, and the influence of mass flow rate is negligible. In conclusion, this work is a supplement for nanofluid flow boiling heating transfer, especially for the influence of pressure.Copyright © 2016 by ASME

Coccolithophorids are one of the dominant groups of marine phytoplankton. They are found in large numbers throughout the surface euphotic zone of the ocean, and are able to form large-scale blooms that persist for long periods of time. Coccolithophorid cells are covered by species-specific calcium carbonate crystals of various structures. In the process of calcification in coccolithophorids, Ca2+ is absorbed into cells from the culture medium, and a coccolith unit is formed inside the cell. Then, the coccolith unit extrudes to the cell surface where it is constructed into crystal layers. The formation of these crystals is regulated by cellular metabolism under different environmental conditions. The carbon biogeochemical cycle in the coccolithophorids involves both photosynthetic and calcification processes, which not only play an important role in population dynamics, but also in the global carbon cycle and climate change. However, one important question remains, namely, whether the relationship between photosynthesis and calcification is species-dependent. Previous studies have yielded controversial results, even in the same species. In this paper, we selected Pleurochrysis carterae, a coccolithophore species that frequently blooms in coastal areas, to study the relationship between calcification and photosynthesis. First, we studied population growth in a batch culture over several days. For batch cultures, P. carterae was inoculated into a 10 L bioreactor at an initial cell density of approximately 5 × 104 cells mL−1. The culture conditions were optimal for cell growth. Dissolved oxygen (DO) was detected during all the culture period, and the rate of photosynthetic oxygen evolution was calculated according the DO changes during the 12-h illumination period. Algal samples (10 mL) were collected during the population growth phases. The calcium carbonate content on the cell surface was determined each day by chemical titration. Next, we studied the relationship between photosynthesis and calcification at the cellular level by observing patterns of recalcification during a 12-h period. In this study, non-calcified cells were obtained by decalcifying calcified cells collected during the exponential growth period in MES-NaOH buffer solution (pH 5.5). The non-calcified cells were inoculated into culture media containing different concentrations of Ca2+ (0, 5, 20, 40, 50, or 100 mg L−1). The rate of recalcification was determined by microscopic analyses in which the number of recalcified cells per 100 cells was counted at 0, 3, 6, 9, and 12 h of culture. Ca2+ absorbed into the cell was detected by measuring the fluorescence intensity of Fluo-3/AM labeled Ca2+. The rate of photosynthetic oxygen evolution in the non-calcified cell cultures was detected by measuring the changes in dissolved oxygen during the 12-h illumination period. The results showed that during the population growth period, the rate of photosynthetic oxygen evolution was inversely related to the calcium carbonate content per cell. When the amount of calcium carbonate on the cell surface increased, the relative photosynthetic ability (the rate of photosynthetic oxygen evolution) decreased, and vice versa. Both recalcification rates and photosynthetic oxygen evolution were affected by the extracellular calcium concentration. Non-calcified cells showed different recalcification abilities at different extracellular Ca2+ concentrations. The recalcification rate of non-calcified cells was positively correlated with the extracellular calcium concentration when [Ca2+] in the medium ranged from 0 to 100 mg L−1. However, photosynthetic oxygen evolution was suppressed at higher cell calcification rates, especially when extracellular [Ca2+] was 50–100 mg L−1. Our analyses of the population growth process and the cell recalcification process confirmed that photosynthesis is inversely related to calcification in P. carterae.

Following publication of this article, the authors have corrected 426 chimeric scaffolds in this genome (total scaffold number 10,684). The genome assembly has now been improved as V1.5, and the updated genome assembly is available to be downloaded from http://brassicadb.org/brad/datasets/pub/Genomes/Brassica_juncea/V1.5/ .

To solve the problem that standard Particle Swarm Optimization can get into local optimum prematurely, an improved Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm is proposed. The improved algorithm can be used to optimize every parameters of Auto carrier landing system. It improves the population diversity and the searching efficiency of particle swarm by introducing mutation operator based on orthogonal design area and modifying particles speed. The effectiveness of this algorithm is verified by using simulation experiments.