Abstract Accumulating reports have showed that altered expression of blood-circulating (miRNAs) can serve as diagnostic biomarkers of cancer, but descriptions of serum exosomal miRNAs in AML are still lacking. The present study was designed to measure serum exosomal miR-21 levels in AML patients and explore its correlation with clinical variables and prognosis. In this study, blood samples were collected from 135 AML patients and 60 controls. Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to detect serum exosomal miR-21 expression levels. The data showed that serum exosomal miR-21 levels were significantly higher in AML patients than those in healthy controls. In addition, serum exosomal miR-21 levels were significantly decreased at one month and three months after their treatment. Further receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that serum exosomal miR-21 level could identify AML patients from normal controls with relative high sensitivity and specificity. Moreover, serum exosomal miR-21 upregulation was closely associated with worse clinical features and shorter survival. In multivariate Cox regression analysis, serum exosomal miR-21 expression showed a significance correlation with survival. In conclusion, serum exosomal miR-21 could be used to predict the diagnosis and prognosis of AML patients.

Abstract Hordeum californicum (H. californicum, 2n=2X=14, HcHc), one of the wild relatives of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), harbors many desirable genes and is a potential genetic resource for wheat improvement. In this study, an elite line ND646 was selected from a BC4F5 population, which was developed using 60Co-γ irradiated wheat-H. californicum disomic addition line WJ28-1 (DA6Hc) as the donor parent and Ningchun 4 as the recurrent parent. ND646 was identified as a novel wheat-H. californicum 6HcS/6BL translocation line using genomic in situ hybridization (GISH), fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), and H. californicum-specific expressed sequence tag (EST) markers. Further evaluation revealed that ND646 had excellent performance in several traits, such as a higher sedimentation value (SV), higher water absorption rate (WAR), and higher hardness index (HI). More importantly, it had more kernels per spike (KPS), a higher grain yields (GY), and good resistance to powdery mildew, leaf rust, and 2,4-D butylate (2,4-D). Its excellent phenotypic performance laid the foundation for further investigation of its genetic architecture and makes ND646 a useful germplasm resource for wheat breeding.

ABSTRACT Purpose To investigate the relationship between atherosclerotic abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) and CXC chemokine receptor type 2 (CXCR2). Methods Mouse AAA model was established by embedding angiotensin-II pump (1000 ng/kg/min) in ApoE-/- mice. Mice were received SB225002, a selective CXCR2 antagonist, for treatment. Blood pressure was recorded, and CXCR2+ macrophages were examined by flow cytometry analysis. Terminal-deoxynucleotidyl transferase mediated nick end labeling (TUNEL) staining was performed to detect cell apoptosis of abdominal aortic aneurysms. Macrophages were isolated from ApoE-/- mice and treated with Ang II and/or SB225002. Dihydroethidium staining was carried out to determine reactive oxygen species (ROS) activity. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was performed to determine the production of IL-1β and TNF-α. The corresponding gene expressions were measured using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), western blot, and immunohistochemistry staining. Results We found that Ang II activated the expression of CXCR2 in monocytes during the formation of AAA. Inhibition of CXCR2 significantly reduced the size of AAA, attenuated inflammation and phenotypic changes in blood vessels. Ang II-induced macrophages exhibited elevated ROS activity, and elevated levels of 1β and TNF-α, which were then partly abolished by SB225002. Conclusions CXCR2 plays an important role in AAA, suggesting that inhibiting CXCR2 may be a new treatment for AAA.

Abstract Purpose: To investigate the relations of neuropeptide Y (NPY) and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) expressions with fetal brain injury in rats with intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP). Methods: Sixty rats pregnant for 15 days were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The ICP model was established in experimental group. On the 21st day, the blood biochemical test, histopathological examination of pregnant rat liver and fetal brain tissues and immunohistochemical analysis of fetal rat brain tissues were performed. Results: On the 21st day, the alanineaminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase and total bile acid levels in experimental group were significantly higher than control group (P<0.01). Compared with control group, there was obvious vacuolar degeneration in pregnant rat liver tissue and fetal brain tissue in experimental group. NPY expression in fetal brain tissue was negative in control group and positive in experimental group. HO-1 expression in fetal brain tissue was strongly positive in control group and positive in experimental group. There was significant difference of immunohistochemical staining optical density between two groups (P<0.01). Conclusion: In fetal brain of ICP rats, the NPY expression is increased, and the HO-1 expression is decreased, which may be related to the fetal brain injury.

Abstract An improved dynamic contact model for mass-spring and finite element systems is proposed in this paper. The proposed model avoids the numerical troubles of spurious high-frequency oscillations for mass-spring and finite element systems in dynamic contact problems by using the parametric quadratic programming technique. The iterative process for determination of contact states are not required for each time step in the proposed method, as the contact states are transformed into the base exchanges in the solution of a standard quadratic programming problem. The proposed methodology improves stability and has good convergence behavior for dynamic contact problems. Numerical results demonstrate the validity of the proposed method.

The aim of this study was to enhance the production of vitamin K2 by using N-methyl-N-nitro-N-nitroso-guanidine (NTG) and low energy ion beam implantation and optimizing the fermentation medium. Mutation resulted in 1.66-fold higher production of vitamin K2 than that of the parentl strain. The production by the mutant BN-P15-11-1was increased 55% and reached 3.593±0.107 mg/L by using the Plackett-Burman and Box-Behnken designs to optimize the fermentation medium. The optimal fermentation culture medium was composed of (g/L) glycerol 69.6, sucrose 34.5, K2HPO4 4.0, peptone 20, yeast extract 25 and fermented at 37 °C and 150 rpm for 72 h. The results showed that the NTG and low energy ion beam implantation mutations and optimizing fermentation medium were effective methods to enhance vitamin K2production.

Com o objetivo de aprimorar as propriedades eletroquímicas da liga do tipo AB3 La0,78Mg0,22Ni2,67Mn0,11Al0,11Co0,52 como eletrodo negativo de bateria Ni-MH, seus compósitos relacionados La0,78Mg0,22Ni2,67Mn0,11Al0,11Co0,52-x wt.% M1Ni3,5Co0,6Mn0,4Al0,5 (x = 0, 10, 20, 30) foram preparados. A análise por difratometria de raios X (XRD) revelou que os compósitos consistem principalmente das fases LaNi5 e La2Ni7. Apesar da pequena diminuição na capacidade de descarga máxima, o rendimento do ciclo foi significativamente melhorado. Experimentos de polarização linear (LP), polarização anódica (AP) e descarga de potencial degrau revelaram um aumento inicial da cinética eletroquímica que na sequência diminui com o aumento de x.

For improving the electrochemical properties of nonstoichiometric AB3-type La0.78Mg0.22Ni2.67Mn0.11Al0.11Co0.52 alloy as negative electrode of Ni-MH battery, its related composites La0.78Mg0.22Ni2.67Mn0.11Al0.11Co0.52-x wt.% M1Ni3.5Co0.6Mn0.4Al0.5 (x = 0, 10, 20, 30) were prepared. Analysis by X-ray diffractometry (XRD) revealed that the composites consist mainly of LaNi5 and La2Ni7 phases. Despite the small decrease in the maximum discharge capacity, the cycle performance was significantly enhanced. Linear polarization (LP), anodic polarization (AP) and potential step discharge experiments revealed that the electrochemical kinetics increases first and then decreases with increasing x.

Sichuan basin, situated in the west of China, is the fourth biggest basin in China. In order to describe a systematic study of the cry2-type genes resources from Bacillus thuringiensis strains of Sichuan basin, a total of 791 Bacillus thuringiensis strains have been screened from 2650 soil samples in different ecological regions. The method of PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) was used to identify the type of cry2 genes. The results showed that 322 Bacillus thuringiensis strains harbored cry2-type genes and four different RFLP patterns were found. The combination of cry2Aa/cry2Ab genes was the most frequent (90.4%), followed by cry2Aa (6.8%) and cry2Ab alone (2.5%), and only one novel type of cry2 gene was cloned from one isolate (JF19-2). The full-length of this novel gene was obtained by the method of thermal asymmetric interlaced PCR (Tail-PCR), which was designated as cry2Ag1 (GenBank No. ACH91610) by the Bt Pesticide Crystal Protein Nomenclature Committee. In addition, the result of scanning electron microscopic (SEM) observation showed that these strains had erose, spherical, bipyramidal, and square crystal. And the results of sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) demonstrated that these strains harbored about one to three major proteins. These strains exhibited a wide range of insecticidal spectrum toxic to Aedes aegypti (Diptera) and Pieris rapae Linnaeus, 1758 (Lepidoptera). Particularly, JF19-2 contained cry2Ag gene had the highest insecticidal activity. All these researches mentioned above revealed the diversity and particularity of cry2-type gene resources from Bacillus thuringiensis strains in Sichuan basin.