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• Savin juniper is an excellent species for desertification control in arid and semi-arid areas, where it typically establishes under the protection of nurse plants. Ultimately, established plants emerge into full sunlight as they grow, and this transition is accompanied by an increase in the preponderance of scale-like vs. needle-like leaf forms. • To test how age and variable sunlight environments affect shade tolerance in savin juniper, we established a pot study under field conditions with two age cohorts (1- and 4-year-old rooted scions) and three sunlight regimes (10%, 50% and 100% light transmittance). We measured growth, leaf parameters, photosynthesis, chlorophyll fluorescence and foliar pigments on a monthly basis (seven growing months per year, from 2015 to 2017). • Overall, there was little interaction for all variables, and both cohort and light regime had significant effects. Leaf form and spacing varied continuously, tending towards shorter, more closely spaced and more appressed scale leaves with higher dry leaf mass per area in older plants or under higher sunlight. There were no clear age-related patterns in carotenoids but both cohort and light had significant effects on gas exchange and chlorophyll fluorescence variables. • Savin juniper shows an intermediate tolerance to shade that changes with growth in that younger plants were less tolerant of full sun than older plants, consistent with its reliance on nurse plants for ultimate establishment in the open.

In savin juniper, age and season can affect photosynthesis, chlorophyll fluorescence and photoprotective pigments. In spring, 2-year-old plants had more lutein than 5-year-olds, but the reverse occurred during summer and autumn. Savin juniper is an endemic evergreen shrub in the Mu Us Desert, where it establishes only with the protection of larger plants. Ultimately, established plants emerge into full sunlight as they grow. To explore how photoprotection responses change during this transition, a pot study was established under field conditions with three sunlight regimes (10%, 50% and 100% light transmittance) and two age cohorts (1- and 4-year-old rooted scions). To avoid potentially confounding effects of differences in leaf form, after one year we measured photosynthesis, chlorophyll fluorescence and foliar pigments of 2- and 5-year-old savin juniper on a monthly basis from April to October. For gas exchange and fluorescence variables, there were no interactions between cohort and sunlight except for intrinsic water-use efficiency in June; however, there were many interactions regarding pigment concentrations and ratios. Generally, 5-year-old plants had higher mean chlorophyll, total carotenoids, and chlorophyll a/b ratios than 2-year-old plants, but lower mean β-carotene/α-carotene ratio, zeaxanthin and lutein. Plants under brighter light had lower mean lutein. There were obvious changes in β-carotene/α-carotene, zeaxanthin and lutein in June, July and August, respectively. Under 100% sunlight, lutein concentration was higher in 2-year-old than 5-year-old plants from April to June, but this pattern reversed from July to October. The effects of age and season, in addition to the prevailing light regime, need to be considered when investigating the role of carotenoids in photoprotection.

The effects of vegetation restoration on matrix structure and erosion resistance of iron tailings were studied at dump sites in Malanzhuang, Qian’an, Hebei province, China. The restoration process involved soil spray sowing restoration model with Rhus typhina, soil and iron tailings admixture spray sowing restoration model with Amorpha fruticosa Linn. and six-hole brick restoration model with Pinus tabulaeformis Carriere.–Amorpha fruticosa Linn. mixed-forest, and direct restoration model with Hippophae rhamnoides and Sabina vulgaris. Results show that the composition and distribution of particles and aggregates were closely related to erosion resistance (P A. fruticosa soil and iron tailings admixture spray sowing > mixed-forest six-hole brick > H. rhamnoides direct restoration > S. vulgaris direct restoration. The R. typhina soil spray sowing restoration model resulted in the greatest improvement in matrix structure of iron tailings, increasing the clay (10.6%) and large particle aggregates (18.7%) contents significantly (P

Viral myocarditis is a common cardiovascular disease, which seriously endangers the health of people and even leads to sudden unexpected death. MicroRNAs play very important roles in various physical and pathological processes including cardiogenesis and heart diseases. In recent years, miR-20b has been implicated in various diseases such as breast cancer, gastric cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, cardiovascular diseases. However, the function of miR-20b in the pathological progress of viral myocarditis has not been reported. In this study, we found that miR-20b was up-regulated in mouse heart tissues post Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) infection. Bioinformatics analysis identified ZFP-148, a transcription factor that plays essential roles in the regulation of virus replication, is one of the predicted targets of miR-20b. MiR-20b expression was found to be up-regulated and ZFP-148 protein level was markedly repressed during viral myocarditis. Further studies demonstrated that miR-20b directly binds to the 3'-UTR of ZFP-148 and suppresses its translation. Moreover, aberrant expression of miR-20b promoted the expression of anti-apoptosis proteins Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL, suggesting that altered gene expression might promote cardiomyocytes survival in viral myocarditis. Our findings indicated that miR-20b might be a potential therapeutic target for CVB3-induced viral myocarditis and a useful marker for the diagnosis of viral myocarditis.

To explicate the structure and dynamics of dominant tree populations of the natural se-condary forest in Mulanweichang, the canopy stratum composition, diameter class structure, static life table, survival curve, mortality curve, survival function and the time series prediction were studied. The results showed that there were 9 populations in canopy stratum, with Acer mono, Quercus mongolica, Tilia mandshurica and Betula platyphylla as the dominant populations. The survival curve of A. mono and T. mandshurica populations approximately belonged to Deevey-2 type, while that of Q. mongolica population and B. platyphylla population belonged to Deevey-3 type and Deevey-2 type, respectively. With the increase of diameter class, the mortality rate curves and the vanishing rate curves of all tree populations changed similarly. The maximum mortality rate and va-nishing rate of A. mono, Q. mongolica and T. mandshurica populations appeared in 4,1and1diameter class, respectively. B. platyphylla changed little over all diameter classes. The 4 survival functions showed that A. mono, Q. mongolica and T. mandshurica populations declined at early stage, but became relatively stable at intermediate and late stages. The B. platyphylla population had no obvious change. The time series prediction showed that the number of small-sized (1-2) individuals of B. platyphylla decreased gradually and tended to decline, while the populations of A. mono, Q. mongolica and T. mandshurica were fairly stable. We suspected that A. mono, Q. mongo-lica and T. mandshurica would finally dominate within this natural secondary forest.为了阐明木兰围场天然次生林优势种群的结构和动态特征,对群落乔木层组成以及优势种群的径级结构、静态生命表、存活曲线、死亡曲线、生存函数和时间序列预测等进行研究.结果表明: 群落乔木层有9个种群,其中,五角枫、蒙古栎、糠椴和白桦种群为群落的优势种群;五角枫和糠椴种群存活曲线接近于Deevey-Ⅱ型,蒙古栎种群存活曲线趋于Deevey-Ⅲ型,白桦种群存活曲线为Deevey-Ⅱ型;随着径级的增加,各优势种群的死亡率和消失率曲线呈现相似的变化趋势,五角枫、蒙古栎、糠椴种群的消失率和死亡率分别在Ⅳ、Ⅰ和Ⅰ径级下出现最大值,而白桦种群在各径级呈现稳定的变化趋势;4种生存函数曲线分析表明,五角枫、蒙古栎和糠椴种群具有前期锐减、中后期相对稳定的特点;白桦种群数量波动不明显,具有较稳定的特点.种群数量的时间序列预测表明,白桦种群小径级(Ⅰ～Ⅱ级)个体数量逐渐减少,种群未来有趋于衰退的趋势,五角枫、蒙古栎和糠椴种群趋于相对稳定.推测该次生林将逐步演替为以五角枫、蒙古栎和糠椴为主要树种的天然次生林.

Viral myocarditis is a common cardiovascular disease, which seriously endangers the health of people and even leads to sudden unexpected death. MicroRNAs play very important roles in various physical and pathological processes including cardiogenesis and heart diseases. In recent years, miR-20b has been implicated in various diseases such as breast cancer, gastric cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, cardiovascular diseases. However, the function of miR-20b in the pathological progress of viral myocarditis has not been reported. In this study, we found that miR-20b was up-regulated in mouse heart tissues post Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) infection. Bioinformatics analysis identified ZFP-148, a transcription factor that plays essential roles in the regulation of virus replication, is one of the predicted targets of miR-20b. MiR-20b expression was found to be up-regulated and ZFP-148 protein level was markedly repressed during viral myocarditis. Further studies demonstrated that miR-20b directly binds to the 3'-UTR of ZFP-148 and suppresses its translation. Moreover, aberrant expression of miR-20b promoted the expression of anti-apoptosis proteins Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL, suggesting that altered gene expression might promote cardiomyocytes survival in viral myocarditis. Our findings indicated that miR-20b might be a potential therapeutic target for CVB3-induced viral myocarditis and a useful marker for the diagnosis of viral myocarditis.

Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) results in inflammation, and glucocorticoids have been proven to be effective inhibitors of ICH‑induced inflammation. However, the precise underlying mechanisms of ICH‑induced inflammation and glucocorticoid function remain largely undefined. Using a mouse ICH model, the present study demonstrated that the short non‑coding RNA molecule microRNA‑155 (miR‑155) is involved in the inflammatory process initiated by ICH in mice. Increased mRNA expression levels of miR‑155, as well as the pro‑inflammatory cytokines interferon‑β (IFN‑β), tumor necrosis factor‑α (TNF‑α) and interleukin‑6 (IL‑6), were observed in vivo following ICH. By contrast, the expression level of suppressor of cytokine signaling 1 (SOCS‑1) protein was reduced in the ICH group compared with control mice. Similar results were observed in vitro using astrocytes, the primary effector cells in ICH. Compared with wild type astrocytes, astrocytes overexpressing miR‑155 exhibited significant inhibition of SOCS‑1 protein expression levels. These results suggest that miR‑155 contributes to the development of ICH‑induced inflammation in mice by downregulating SOCS‑1 protein expression levels and promoting pro‑inflammatory cytokine (IFN‑β, TNF‑α and IL‑6) production. Expression levels of miR‑155 and pro‑inflammatory cytokines in the ICH group were significantly decreased following dexamethasone administration. This suggests that glucocorticoids attenuate ICH‑induced inflammation by targeting the miR‑155/SOCS‑1 signaling pathway in mice. In conclusion, the results of the present study demonstrated that the miR‑155/SOCS‑1 signaling pathway is required for ICH‑induced inflammation, and glucocorticoids inhibit this process by targeting the miR‑155/SOCS‑1 signaling pathway.

Targeting dosage form is a kind of targeting drug delivery system which can be used to lock drugs aroud the target organs, tissues, cells and obtain more effective treatment for dose concentration, thus reducing the side-effects of such drugs while increasing their effeciveness. Targeting dosage form is the fourth-generation drug dosage form and it is ideal system for administration because it release the theraping drugs in the targeting-site. Particular emphasis was placed on liposome due to it was used as a drug carrier. Meanwhile, the highlights of research were on magnetic and enzyme targeting preparations. In addition, oral colon targeting drug delivery system, drugs were carried to ileocecum and release to get local and whole effect, is also an important part of targeting dosage form. The study on traditional chinese medicine (TCM) targeting dosage form is still at beginning stage in China. At present, most of study on TCM and natural products targeting drugs were focus on simple effective component and merely on TCM effective positions in relative with the difficult for determing their quality standard and procedure of preparing. It is the kernel item for TCM modernization and the key for TCM internationalization to develop new dosage form and new technology of TCM. There is a need in collaboration with multiple discipline. It will be a important research subject to develop TCM targeting preparation in the near future. TCM targeting dosage form can be classified into liposome, nanoparticles, multiple emulsion etc according to the difference of carrier and oral, rectal, colonic, nasal, dermal, ocular system on a basis of administration and so on. This paper made a summary on TCM and natural products targeting dosage form according to different targeting positions and introduce the procedure of preparing compared with the effect in vivo and manifest that TCM and natural products targeting dosage form will have good exploit prospect.

To investigate the optimal time of termination of pregnancy for patients with hemolysis elevated liver enzymes and low platelet (HELLP) syndrome.57 patients with HELLP syndrome admitted from October 1992 to September 2001 were enrolled. According to the length from the time diagnoses confirmed to the time of delivery, patients were divided into 3 groups; group I, within 24 hours, group II, 24 to 48 hours and group III, over 48 hours. Complications, maternal and perinatal mortality were analyzed retrospectively between different groups.Maternal and perinatal mortality were 7% and 11% in group I, 16% and 21% in group II, 64% and 73% in group III with significant differences between group III and group I or group III and group II (P0.05). Incidence of DIC, ARF and neonatal asphyxia was 11%, 4% and 19% in group I compared with 55%, 36% and 64% in group III, significantly higher in group III than those in group I (P0.05). Incidence of ARF in maternal was 4% in group I and 37% in group II with significant difference (P0.05).Pregnancy should be terminated as soon as possible once diagnosis of HELLP is confirmed with optimal time within 48 hours.