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Abstract Background Strongyllodes variegatus (Fairmaire) is a major insect pest of oilseed rape in China. Despite its economic importance, the contribution of its population genetics in the development of any suitable protection control strategy for the management of oilseed rape crops is poorly studied. It is a much urgent need to prevent its spread to the rest of the world. Results Using the sequences of mitochondrial DNA cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) and cytochrome b (Cytb) as genetic markers, we analyzed the population genetic diversity and structure of 437 individuals collected from 15 S. variegatus populations located in different oilseed rape production areas in China. In addition, we estimated the demographic history using neutrality test and mismatch distribution analysis. The high level of genetic diversity was detected among the COI and Cytb sequences of S. variegatus. The population structure analyses strongly suggested three distinct genetic and geographical regions in China with limited gene flow. The Mantel test showed that the genetic distance was greatly influenced by the geographical distance. The demographic analyses showed that S. variegatus had experienced population fluctuation during the Pleistocene Epoch, which was likely to be related to the climatic changes. Conclusion Overall, these results demonstrate that the strong genetic structure of S. variegatus populations in China, which is attributed by the isolation through the geographical distance among populations, their weak flight capacity and subsequent adaptation to the regional ecological conditions.

Anastatus japonicus Ashmead is an egg parasitoid wasp important for the biological control of fruit crop pests. The olfaction of parasitoids is crucial to searching for host pests in fruit crops. In this study, we sequenced and analyzed the antennal and abdominal transcriptomes of A. japonicus to better understand the olfactory mechanisms in this species. A total of 201 putative olfactory receptor genes were identified, including 184 odorant receptors (ORs) and 17 ionotropic receptors (IRs). Then, we assayed the tissue-specific and sex-biased expression profiles of those genes based on the transcriptional levels. In total, 165 ORs and 15 IRs had upregulated expression in the antennae. The expression levels of 133 ORs, including odorant receptor co-receptor (AjapORco), and 10 IRs, including AjapIR8a, were significantly different between the female and male antennae. Our results provide valuable information for further studies on the molecular mechanisms of the olfactory system in A. japonicus.

Plant resistance to aphids might be present in different plant tissues, such as the epidermis, mesophyll and phloem, but not all of them play a key role in determining the feeding preference of aphids. In this study, electrically recorded feeding behaviors of cabbage aphids were combined with choice tests and microscopic observations to understand the feeding preference of cabbage aphids on oilseed rape cultivars. The choice tests showed that more cabbage aphids survived on ‘Qianyou18’, and less on ‘Zhongshuang11’, compared with the other cultivars. The results of the choice tests were paradoxical with the results analyzed from the general and mesophyll-associated variables. The thick upper epidermis with bushy long trichomes on the leaves of ‘Zhongshuang11’ delayed the first probe of the cabbage aphids. The duration of phloem-feeding was similar among the four cultivars although there were differences in the hindrance of the mesophyll. However, salivation was increased when the aphids fed on ‘Zhongshuang11’, further indicating that the leaf’s physical properties could be important for aphid feeding preference on the four cultivars.

Driven by the “double carbon” goal, the security of wind power integrated system is importance and highlighted. The open circuit fault in switch of PMSG drive system often occurs, with high concealment and obvious load characteristics. Generally, the data-driven diagnosis method needs try many times to find feature parameters, choose several of them and obtain large sample size to distinguish the fault. To solve these shortages, a fault diagnosis method based on cluster analysis is proposed to this paper. The features are projected into the 3-D space. These features, who can classify into 6 clusters, are retained. Further, the intra-class distance and the inter-class distance are used to measure the retained features. By this measurement, the distinguish ability and deformation degree of these features is assessed. In order to keep the highlight ability, the assessed features are composed to serval groups, which have two features with diffident codes. After the above process, the definitive features are chosen and used to train the BPNN. Finally, the open circuit fault diagnosis of PMSG drive system under multi wind speed and multi switch open circuit fault is realized by the trained BPNN. The definitive feature not only ensures the anti-interference performance of fault diagnosis, but also avoids the blindness of fault diagnosis feature extraction, which has certain engineering practical significance.

Abstract Background Postoperative delirium in elderly patients is a common and costly complication after surgery. Propofol and sevoflurane are commonly used anesthetics during general anesthesia, and the sedative and anti-inflammatory mechanisms of the two medications are different. The aim of this trial is to compare the impact of propofol with sevoflurane on the incidence of postoperative delirium in elderly patients after spine surgery. Methods A single-center randomized controlled trial will be performed at First Affiliated Hospital of Shandong First Medical University, China. A total of 298 participants will be enrolled in the study and randomized to propofol infusion or sevoflurane inhalation groups. The primary outcome is the incidence of delirium within 7 days after surgery. Secondary outcomes include the day of postoperative delirium onset, duration (time from first to last delirium-positive day), and total delirium-positive days among patients who developed delirium; tracheal intubation time in PACU; the length of stay in PACU; the rate of postoperative shivering; the rate of postoperative nausea and vomiting; the rate of emergence agitation; pain severity; QoR40 at the first day after surgery; the length of stay in hospital after surgery; and the incidence of non-delirium complications within 30 days after surgery. Discussion The primary objective of this study is to compare the impact of propofol and sevoflurane on the incidence of postoperative delirium for elderly patients undergoing spine surgery. The results may help inform strategies to the optimal selection of maintenance drugs for general anesthesia in elderly patients undergoing spine surgery. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05158998 . Registered on 14 December 2021

The primary processed product of Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer (P. ginseng) is red ginseng. As technology advances, new products of red ginseng have arisen. Red ginseng products, e.g., traditional red ginseng, sun ginseng, black ginseng, fermented red ginseng, and puffed red ginseng, are commonly used in herbal medicine. Ginsenosides are the major secondary metabolites of P. ginseng. The constituents of P. ginseng are significantly changed during processing, and several pharmacological activities of red ginseng products are dramatically increased compared to white ginseng. In this paper, we aimed to review the ginsenosides and pharmacological activities of various red ginseng products, the transformation law of ginsenosides in processing, and some clinical trials of red ginseng products. This article will help to highlight the diverse pharmacological properties of red ginseng products and aid in the future development of red ginseng industrialization.

Klinefelter syndrome (KS) is one of the most frequent genetic abnormalities and the leading genetic cause of nonobstructive azoospermia. The breeding and study of KS mouse models are essential to advancing our knowledge of the underlying pathological mechanism. Karyotyping and fluorescence in situ hybridization are reliable methods for identifying chromosomal contents. However, technical issues associated with these methods can decrease the efficiency of breeding KS mouse models and limit studies that require rapid identification of target mice. To overcome these limitations, we developed three polymerase chain reaction-based assays to measure specific genetic information, including presence or absence of the sex determining region of chromosome Y (Sry), copy number of amelogenin, X-linked (Amelx), and inactive X specific transcripts (Xist) levels. Through a combined analysis of the assay results, we can infer the karyotype of target mice. We confirmed the utility of our assays with the successful generation of KS mouse models. Our assays are rapid, inexpensive, high capacity, easy to perform, and only require small sample amounts. Therefore, they facilitate the breeding and study of KS mouse models and help advance our knowledge of the pathological mechanism underlying KS.

Crematogaster matsumurai (Forel 1901) is an important arboreal ant species commonly found on Phyllostachys heterocycla (Carr.) in Lishui, Zhejiang, China. This study analyzed the mitochondrial genome sequence of C. matsumurai and discussed its phylogenetic relationship in Hymenoptera. The circular mitochondrial genome was 16,028 bp long, including a standard set of 22 transfer RNAs (tRNAs), two ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs), and 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), which showed the typical insect mitochondrial genome arrangement. The AT and GC contents of the mitochondrial genome sequence were 76.92% and 23.08%, respectively. The maximum-likelihood (ML) phylogenetic analysis based on whole mitochondrial genome sequences showed that C. matsumurai is closest to Crematogaster teranishii.

Abstract With the rapid development of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the emergence of 5G, traditional silicon-based electronics no longer fully meet market demands such as nonplanar application scenarios due to mechanical mismatch. This provides unprecedented opportunities for flexible electronics that bypass the physical rigidity through the introduction of flexible materials. In recent decades, biological materials with outstanding biocompatibility and biodegradability, which are considered some of the most promising candidates for next-generation flexible electronics, have received increasing attention, e.g., silk fibroin, cellulose, pectin, chitosan, and melanin. Among them, silk fibroin presents greater superiorities in biocompatibility and biodegradability, and moreover, it also possesses a variety of attractive properties, such as adjustable water solubility, remarkable optical transmittance, high mechanical robustness, light weight, and ease of processing, which are partially or even completely lacking in other biological materials. Therefore, silk fibroin has been widely used as fundamental components for the construction of biocompatible flexible electronics, particularly for wearable and implantable devices. Furthermore, in recent years, more attention has been paid to the investigation of the functional characteristics of silk fibroin, such as the dielectric properties, piezoelectric properties, strong ability to lose electrons, and sensitivity to environmental variables. Here, this paper not only reviews the preparation technologies for various forms of silk fibroin and the recent progress in the use of silk fibroin as a fundamental material but also focuses on the recent advanced works in which silk fibroin serves as functional components. Additionally, the challenges and future development of silk fibroin-based flexible electronics are summarized. (1) This review focuses on silk fibroin serving as active functional components to construct flexible electronics. (2) Recent representative reports on flexible electronic devices that applied silk fibroin as fundamental supporting components are summarized. (3) This review summarizes the current typical silk fibroin-based materials and the corresponding advanced preparation technologies. (4) The current challenges and future development of silk fibroin-based flexible electronic devices are analyzed.

AIM: To compare and study the differences of eyeball biometric measurements among Han, Hani and Yi nationality in Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture(Honghe Prefecture), and prediction accuracy of the intraocular lens(IOL)degree by SRK-T and Haigis formulas in the different eye axes, to provide further objective clinical evidence for the majority of basic-level hospitals and the blind prevention and treatment projects in minority areas.METHODS: Selected 186 cases(200 eyes)cataract patients in our department, divided them into three groups according to different nations, get their eyeball biometric measurements(ocular axial length, anterior chamber depth and corneal curvature)by A-ultrasound combined with corneal curvature meter and corneal topography, and then compared the differences. According to the different eye axes, they were divided into three groups and then randomly divided into two groups. SRK-T and Haigis formulas were used to predict the IOL degree, and collected postoperative optometry results, calculated the absolute prediction error, then conducted statistical analysis. RESULTS: There were no difference in the mean axial length, mean anterior chamber depth and mean corneal curvature(measured respectively by corneal topography and corneal keratometer)in the different ethnic groups(P>0.05), and the mean corneal curvature measured by the two methods had no difference(P>0.05). There were no difference of the mean corneal curvature measured by the two methods in the three axial eye groups(P>0.05)and in the same axial eye group(P>0.05). There were no difference in the absolute error of the two IOL measurement formulas in the three eye axis groups(P>0.05). The absolute error calculated by SRK-T formula for the short and the middle eye axis groups were smaller, while it calculated by Haigis formula for long eye axis group was smaller.CONCLUSION: In our department, there are no statistical difference in the eye biometrics of Han, Yi and Hani nationality. Corneal curvature measured by corneal topography and corneal keratometer have no significant difference. SRK-T and Haigis formula both have high predictive value for IOL degree, SRK-T formula has smaller predictive error for patients which with short and middle eye axis, and Haigis formula has better predictive value for the long ones.

Purpose: The Ocular Response Analyzer (ORA) is one of the most commonly used devices to measure corneal biomechanics in vivo. Until now, the relationship between the output parameters and corneal typical biomechanical parameters was not clear. Hence, we defined the output parameters of ORA as ORA output parameters. This study aims to propose a method to determine corneal biomechanical parameters based on ORA measurements by finite element simulation and parametric analysis.Methods: Finite element analysis was used to simulate the mechanics process of ORA measurements with different intraocular pressure (IOP), corneal geometrical parameters and corneal biomechanical parameters. A simplified geometrical optics model was built to simulate the optical process of the measurements to extract ORA output parameters. After that, 70% of the simulated data was used to establish the quantitative relationship between corneal biomechanical parameters and ORA output parameters by parametric analysis and 30% of the simulated data was used to validate the established model. Besides, ten normal subjects were included to evaluate the normal range of corneal biomechanical parameters calculated from ORA.Results: The quantitative relationship between corneal biomechanical parameters and ORA output parameters is established by combining parametric analysis with finite element simulation. The elastic modulus (E) and relaxation limit (G∞) of the ten normal subjects were 0.65 ± 0.07 MPa and 0.26 ± 0.15, respectively.Conclusions: A method was proposed to determine corneal biomechanical parameters based on the results of ORA measurements. The magnitude of the corneal biomechanical parameters calculated according to our method was reasonable.

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate the validity of corneal elastic modulus (E) calculated from corneal visualization Scheimpflug technology (Corvis ST) in diagnosing keratoconus (KC) and forme fruste keratoconus (FFKC).Methods: Fifty KC patients (50 eyes), 36 FFKC patients (36 eyes, the eyes were without morphological abnormality, while the contralateral eye was diagnosed as clinical keratoconus), and 50 healthy patients (50 eyes) were enrolled and underwent Corvis measurements. We calculated E according to the relation between airpuff force and corneal apical displacement. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis were used to identify the predictive accuracy of the E and other dynamic corneal response (DCR) parameters. Besides, we used backpropagation (BP) neural network to establish the keratoconus diagnosis model.Results: 1) There was significant difference between KC and healthy subjects in the following DCR parameters: the first/second applanation time (A1T/A2T), velocity at first/second applanation (A1V/A2V), the highest concavity time (HCT), peak distance (PD), deformation amplitude (DA), Ambrosio relational thickness to the horizontal profile (ARTh). 2) A1T and E were smaller in FFKC and KC compared with healthy subjects. 3) ROC analysis showed that E (AUC = 0.746) was more accurate than other DCR parameters in detecting FFKC (AUC of these DCR parameters was not more than 0.719). 4) Keratoconus diagnosis model by BP neural network showed a more accurate diagnostic efficiency of 92.5%. The ROC analysis showed that the predicted value (AUC = 0.877) of BP neural network model was more sensitive in the detection FFKC than the Corvis built-in parameters CBI (AUC = 0.610, p = 0.041) and TBI (AUC = 0.659, p = 0.034).Conclusion: Corneal elastic modulus was found to have improved predictability in detecting FFKC patients from healthy subjects and may be used as an additional parameter for the diagnosis of keratoconus.

Abstract Seasonal variations in the transports of total alkalinity (TAlk) and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) from the Lower Changjiang (Yangtze) River/Estuary to the East China Sea were investigated based on a series of field surveys in 2015–2017, including monthly samplings at Datong Station and seasonal mapping cruises in the Changjiang Estuary and the adjacent northwestern East China Sea. In comparison with historical data sets, the Changjiang TAlk flux varied around a nearly stable average over the past 55 years. This is much different from some American rivers, where TAlk export fluxes increased for a century long. To assess effects of riverine carbonate inputs on coastal carbonate chemistry, we compared several cases showing freshwater‐dilution‐induced decline in coastal aragonite saturation state (Ωarag), including rainwater dilution and riverine water dilution. Without riverine carbonate inputs, the effect of a unit of salinity decrease (due to rainwater dilution) on Ωarag was expected to be counteracted by a DIC removal of 10 μmol/kg relative to the baseline value along relevant conservative mixing line, when coastal Ωarag was close to a critical value of 1.5. Considering terrestrial carbonate inputs from Changjiang, however, the freshwater‐dilution‐induced coastal Ωarag suppression decreased by 12%. Our data also showed that more than 10% of wet‐season DIC flux discharged from the Changjiang Estuary was sequestered by biological activities in nearshore areas, while the TAlk flux was rarely affected. This biological alteration effectively transformed the terrestrial carbonate system from a feature of DIC:TAlk >1.0 to the usual seawater feature of DIC:TAlk

Development of chemoresistance remains a major challenge in treating esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients despite treatment advances. However, the role of RAC1 in chemoresistance of ESCC and the underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. In this study, we found that higher levels of RAC1 expression were associated with poorer prognosis in ESCC patients. Enhanced RAC1 expression increased cell proliferation, migration, and chemoresistance in vitro. Combination therapy using RAC1 inhibitor EHop‐016 and cisplatin significantly promoted cell viability inhibition, G2/M phase cycle arrest, and apoptosis when compared to each monotherapy. Mechanistically, glycolysis was significantly downregulated in the RAC1 inhibitor monotherapy group and the combination group via inhibiting AKT/FOXO3a signaling when compared to the control group. Moreover, the silencing of RAC1 inhibited AKT/FOXO3a signaling and cell glycolysis while the upregulation of RAC1 produced an opposite effect. In murine xenograft models, the tumor volume and the expression of glycolytic enzymes were significantly reduced in combination therapy when compared to each monotherapy group. Overall, our study demonstrates that targeting RAC1 with an inhibitor overcomes cisplatin resistance in ESCC by suppressing glycolytic enzymes, which provides a promising strategy for treatment of ESCC in clinical practice.

As one of the main forces in the futures market, agricultural product futures occupy an important position in China’s market. As China’s futures market started late and its maturity was low, there are many risks. This study focuses on the Dalian soybean futures market. Dynamic risk measurement models were established to empirically analyze risk measurement problems under different confidence levels. Then, the conditional variance calculated by the volatility model was introduced into the value-at-risk model, and the accuracy of the risk measurement was tested using the failure rate test model. The empirical results show that the risk values calculated by the established models at the 99% and 95% confidence levels are more valuable through the failure rate test, and the risk of China’s soybean futures market can be measured more accurately. The characteristics of “peak thick tail” and “leverage effect” are added to the combination model to calculate the conditional variance more accurately. The failure rate test method is used to test the model, which enriches the research problem of risk measurement.

Transient global ischemia (TGI) is a major public health problem, and it heightens the need of effective treatments. The present study was undertaken to investigate whether recombinant polypeptide Tat-HA-NR2B9c improves spatial learning and memory deficits in rats after TGI. Rats were subjected to 20-min ischemia induced by four-vessel occlusion (4-VO) method and daily injected with Tat-HA-NR2B9c (1.12 mg/kg) for 1 week. Tat-HA-NR2B9c increased CREB activity, upregulated B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) expression after treated for 24 h. There was a significant increase in dendrite spine density in hippocampal CA1 region and BrdU-positive cells and BrdU/NeuN-positive cells in the dentate gyrus after Tat-HA-NR2B9c treatment, compared with ischemia group at postischemic day 28. Inhibition of the CREB activation by recombinant lentivirus, LV-CREB133-GFP, abolished the upregulation effects of Tat-HA-NR2B9c on Bcl-2 expression. Moreover, Tat-HA-NR2B9c improved the impaired spatial learning and memory ability in Morris water maze. These results suggest that Tat-HA-NR2B9c substantially ameliorated the TGI-induced loss of dendrite spine in hippocampal CA1, increased neurogenesis in dentate gyrus, and significantly improved cognitive abilities by the CREB pathway in rats after transient global cerebral ischemia. It may be served as a treatment for TGI.

AIM: To investigate the clinical efficacy and safety of phototherapeutic keratectomy(PTK)in the treatment of bullous keratopathy(BK).METHODS: A retrospective analysis of 60 cases(60 eyes)of BK patients from Department of Ophthalmology in our hospital October 2011 to July 2014 was undergone. Clinical data of all patients with treatment of PTK were analyzed. Best corrected visual acuity(BCVA), corneal curvature, corneal astigmatism, corneal thickness and corneal endothelial cell density(ECD), postoperative complications before and after surgery were compared.RESULTS: BCVA, corneal curvature, corneal astigmatism of patients before surgery were 0.05±0.01 and 37.02±5.38, 1.08±0.67D, which were significantly less than those of postoperative(respectively 0.45±0.13 and 46.27±7.02, 1.92±0.73D), the differences were statistically significant(all PPPCONCLUSION: Excimer laser technology has high safety in the treatment of bullous keratopathy, it should be promoted in clinical practice.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the impact and cost-benefit value of pharmacist interventions for prophylactic antibiotic use in surgical patients undergoing clean or clean-contaminated operations. METHODS: A pre-to-post intervention study was performed in the Department of Urological Surgery of a tertiary hospital. Patients admitted from January through June 2011, undergoing clean or clean-contaminated surgery, served as the pre-intervention group; patients admitted from January through June 2012 formed the post-intervention group. Pharmacist interventions were performed for the surgeries in the post-intervention group. The criteria for the rational use of antibiotic prophylaxis were established by the hospital administration. The pharmacist interventions included real-time monitoring of medical records and controlling of the prescriptions of prophylactic antibiotics against the criteria. The pre- and post-intervention groups were then compared to evaluate the outcomes of the pharmacist interventions. A cost-benefit analysis was performed to determine the economic effects of implementing the pharmacist intervention on preoperative antibiotic prophylaxis. RESULTS: After the pharmacist intervention, a significant decrease was found in the rate of no indications for prophylactic antibiotic use (p = 0.004), the rate of broad-spectrum antibiotic use (p