Resumo Exceto por alguns insetos-pau que são economicamente valiosos, a maioria das espécies pode ser considerada praga florestal, por isso é extremamente importante obter informações sobre o uso de hospedeiros de plantas de mais insetos-pau. Neste artigo, as plantas hospedeiras de três espécies de bicho-pau foram registradas pela primeira vez. Também descobrimos que esses bichos-pau podem se alimentar de flores ou folhas de plantas. Lopaphus unidentatus (Chen & He, 1995) (Phasmida: Lonchodidae) atacou a parede de Hypericum choisianum. ex N. Robson, 1973 (Hypericaceae), Leurophasma dolichocercum Bi, 1995 (Phasmida: Aschiphasmatidae) atacou Antenoron filiforme (Thunb.) Roberty & Vautier, 1964 (Polygonaceae) e Megalophasma granulatum Bi, 1995 (Phasmida: Lonchodidae orientaled) atacou Chen, 1991 (Urticaceae). Finalmente, tivemos a sorte de também obter fotos deles se acasalando e se alimentando.

Abstract Except for a few stick insects that are economically valuable, most species be considered to be forest pests, so it is extremely important to obtain plant host-use information of more stick insects. In this paper, the plant hosts of three species of stick insects were recorded for the first time. We also discovered these stick insects can feed upon the flowers or leaves of plants. Lopaphus unidentatus (Chen & He, 1995) (Phasmida: Lonchodidae) attacked Hypericum choisianum Wall. ex N. Robson, 1973 (Hypericaceae), Leurophasma dolichocercum Bi, 1995 (Phasmida: Aschiphasmatidae) attacked Antenoron filiforme (Thunb.) Roberty & Vautier, 1964 (Polygonaceae) and Megalophasma granulatum Bi, 1995 (Phasmida: Lonchodidae) attacked Debregeasia orientalis C. J. Chen, 1991 (Urticaceae). Finally, we were lucky enough to also obtain photographs of them mating and feeding.

RESUMO Infecção com o vírus Hepatite E (HEV) é uma importante questão de saúde pública global. Infecções HEV são reconhecidas como doença zoológica. Acredita-se que suínos são o principal reservatório de HEV. Recentemente iaques, vacas, e gado amarelo foram reportados como novos reservatórios do HEV. Porém, não se sabe se outras espécies de gado e búfalo são sensíveis a infecção HEV. Para investigar a prevalência de infecção HEV em búfalos, foram realizados prova de imunoabsorção enzimática e polimerização em cadeia inversa ancorada em transcrição. Apenas um búfalo foi positivo para o anticorpo anti-HEV IgM (1/106, 0,94%), e nenhum foi positivo para o anticorpo anti-HEV IgG. Para nossa surpresa cinco (5/106, 4,72%) e três amostras de leite (3/40, 7,50%) de búfalos foram positivos para HEV RNA. Todas as estirpes de HEV isoladas de búfalos pertencem ao genótipo 4. Resultados indicam que búfalos podem ser um reservatório de HEV.

ABSTRACT Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection is an important global public health issue. HEV infections are recognized as a zoonotic disease. Swine are believed to be the main reservoir of HEV. Recently, yaks, cows, and yellow cattle have been reported as new reservoirs of HEV. However, whether other species of cattle and buffaloes are sensitive to HEV infection is unknown. To investigate the prevalence of HEV infection in buffaloes, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and reverse transcription-nested polymerase chain reaction (RT-nPCR) were performed. Only one buffalo was positive to anti-HEV IgM antibody (1/106, 0.94%), and none were positive for anti-HEV IgG antibody. To our surprise, five serum (5/106, 4.72%) and three milk samples (3/40, 7.50%) from buffaloes were positive to HEV RNA. All strains of HEV isolated from buffaloes belong to genotype 4. Results indicate that buffaloes may be a new reservoir of HEV.

RESUMO: Solanum nigrum L. (erva-moura), uma planta daninha perene anual de curta duração, tornou-se uma planta daninha problemática em sistemas agrícolas na China central. Foram conduzidos experimentos em laboratório e em casa de vegetação para examinar a influência de vários fatores abióticos na germinação de sementes de erva-moura para o desenvolvimento de programas eficazes de controle de plantas daninhas. As sementes germinaram em temperaturas constantes de 15 a 30 oC, mas não ocorreu germinação em temperaturas abaixo de 10 oC ou acima de 35 oC. Também foi observada germinação das sementes em regimes de temperaturas alternadas de 15/5 oC a 40/30 oC, com germinação máxima (> 93,5%) nas temperaturas alternadas de 25/15 oC e 30/20 oC. Houve redução da germinação à medida que o potencial osmótico se tornou mais negativo, e nenhuma germinação foi observada a ≤ 0,8 MPa. Além disso, foi observada redução da germinação em função do estresse salino e alcalino, e nas concentrações ≥ 200 mM de NaCl ou ≥ 150 mM de NaHCO3 não ocorreu germinação. A germinação das sementes não foi afetada de forma significativa pelos valores de pH de 5 a 10, porém a emergência de plântulas sofreu influência significativa da profundidade de sementes, com emergência máxima (93,1%) a 1 cm de profundidade.

ABSTRACT: Solanum nigrum L. (black nightshade), an annual to short-lived perennial weed, has become a problem weed in farming systems in central China. Laboratory and greenhouse experiments were conducted to examine the influence of various abiotic factors on seed germination of black nightshade to develop effective weed control programs. Seeds germinated at a range of constant temperatures from 15 to 30 oC, but no germination occurred at temperatures below 10 oC or above 35 oC. Seeds also germinated at alternating temperature regimes from 15/5 to 40/30 oC, with maximum germination (> 93.5%) at the alternating temperatures of 25/15 and 30/20 oC. Germination decreased as osmotic potential became more negative, and no germination was observed at ≤ -0.8 MPa. Moreover, germination was reduced by saline and alkaline stresses and no germination occurred at ≥ 200 mM NaCl or ≥ 150 mM NaHCO3 concentrations. Seed germination was not significantly affected by pH values from 5 to 10. Seedling emergence was significantly affected by burial depth with maximum emergence (93.1%) at 1 cm depth.

Abstract Digital image correlation (DIC) method has been widely used on dynamical experiments. This full-field and real-time method can fill in the gap of traditional point-based measurements of typical structures subjected to soft body impact such as bird strike. In order to get further understandings of soft body impact process, the present study analyzed the time-dependent energy exchange during impact experiments. The dynamic responses of the aluminum target panels were obtained using 3D digital image correlation method so that their displacement and strain field histories can be tracked. By introducing the material properties of the targets, their time-dependent stress state and consequently the strain energy can be calculated. With the help of time-dependent profiles of target panels, their energy absorption properties were theoretically analyzed, including the exchange of kinetic energy and plastic work. The results showed that when the impact loadings were increased, the plastic work generated by radial membrane force became the major source of energy dissipation. The transverse movements consumed more kinetic energies than rotatory moments. This research may provide a further application of DIC results and help to better understand the soft body impact process on targets with large deformations.

Cover stress re-establishment has a significant influence on the deformation and development of permeability in the fractured rock mass, which control the surface subsidence and water inflow after longwall caving mining. This paper reviews previous studies on cover stress re-establishment in the goaf after coal mining, and proposes a new analytical model based on the stress-strain characteristics of the caved rock mass and the voussoir beam theory. A scale model test is also conducted to study the cover stress re-establishment based on a coal mining case. A function was derived for cover stress re-establishment in the goaf, which can be approximately described as a logarithmic function and which agreed well with two completely re-established monitoring sites from the scale model test. The scale model test also indicated that cover stress reestablishment presents a hysteresis phenomenon. A 'stress balance' model was built for calculating the distance of cover stress re-establishment in the goaf, and the result from the model was lower than the results from the previous two methods. The cover stress re-establishment function and the 'stress balance' model will be of great significance for a better understanding of the stress distribution in the goaf.

This study aimed to explore the effects of continuous blood purification (CBP) treatment in pigs affected with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). A total of 12 healthy male pigs, weighing 12±1.8 kg, were randomly and equally assigned to the control and experimental groups. The ARDS pig model was prepared by intravenous injections of endotoxin (20 µg/kg). The control group was given conventional supportive therapy, while the experimental group was given continuous veno-venous hemofiltration therapy. During the treatment process, the variations in dynamic lung compliance, oxygenation index, hemodynamics, and urine volume per hour at different times (Baseline, 0, 2, 4, and 6 h) were recorded. The levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α), interleukin 6 (IL-6), and IL-10 in serum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were measured using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The histomorphological changes of the lung, heart, and kidney were visualized using a light microscope. The nuclear factor κB p65 protein content of the heart, lung, and kidney tissues was also detected using western blot. The experimental group outperformed the control group in both respiratory and hemodynamic events. CBP treatment cleared TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-10 partially from serum and BALF. The pathological examination of the heart, lung, and kidney tissues revealed that the injury was less severe in the experimental group. CBP treatment can improve the organ functions of pigs affected with endotoxin-induced ARDS and protect these organs to some extent.

Cardiac remodeling involves changes in heart shape, size, structure, and function after injury to the myocardium. The proinflammatory adaptor protein myeloid differentiation protein 88 (MyD88) contributes to cardiac remodeling. To investigate whether excessive MyD88 levels initiate spontaneous cardiac remodeling at the whole-organism level, we generated a transgenic MyD88 mouse model with a cardiac-specific promoter. MyD88 mice (male, 20-30 g, n=∼80) were born at the expected Mendelian ratio and demonstrated similar morphology of the heart and cardiomyocytes with that of wild-type controls. Although heart weight was unaffected, cardiac contractility of MyD88 hearts was mildly reduced, as shown by echocardiographic examination, compared with wild-type controls. Moreover, the cardiac dysfunction phenotype was associated with elevation of ANF and BNP expression. Collectively, our data provide novel evidence of the critical role of balanced MyD88 signaling in maintaining physiological function in the adult heart.

A contraparte de um espécime anteriormente descrito, contendo uma fêmea de pterossauro não-pterodactiloide com um ovo, revela a existência de um segundo ovo, este situado dentro da cavidade corporal desta fêmea prenhe. O exemplar demonstra claramente que os pterossauros possuíam dois ovidutos funcionais, e evidencia que a redução de um oviduto não foi um pré-requisito para o desenvolvimento do voo ativo pelo menos neste grupo. A análise da composição de um dos ovos sugere a ausência de uma camada externa formada por carbonato de cálcio. Seções histológicas de um fêmur não registram osso medular e demonstram que este pterossauro atingiu maturidade reprodutiva antes da maturidade óssea. O presente estudo evidencia que os pterossauros punham ovos de tamanho ainda menor do que se supunha e que desenvolveram uma estratégia reprodutiva mais similar a dos répteis basais do que a das aves. Se pterossauros eram altamente precociais ou necessitavam de cuidado parental ainda está aberto à discussão.

The counterpart of a previously described non-pterodactyloid pterosaur with an egg revealed the presence of a second egg inside the body cavity of this gravid female. It clearly shows that pterosaurs had two functional oviducts and demonstrates that the reduction of one oviduct was not a prerequisite for developing powered flight, at least in this group. Compositional analysis of one egg suggests the lack of a hard external layer of calcium carbonate. Histological sections of one femur lack medullary bone and further demonstrate that this pterosaur reached reproductive maturity before skeletal maturity. This study shows that pterosaurs laid eggs even smaller than previously thought and had a reproductive strategy more similar to basal reptiles than to birds. Whether pterosaurs were highly precocial or needed parental care is still open to debate.

Protein phosphatase magnesium/manganese-dependent 1D (PPM1D) is a p53-induced phosphatase that functions as a negative regulator of stress response pathways and has oncogenic properties. However, the functional role ofPPM1D in bladder cancer (BC) remains largely unknown. In the present study, lentivirus vectors carrying small hairpin RNA (shRNA) targeting PPM1D were used to explore the effects ofPPM1D knockdown on BC cell proliferation and tumorigenesis. shRNA-mediated knockdown of PPM1D significantly inhibited cell growth and colony forming ability in the BC cell lines 5637 and T24. Flow cytometric analysis showed that PPM1D silencing increased the proportion of cells in the G0/G1 phase. Downregulation of PPM1Dalso inhibited 5637 cell tumorigenicity in nude mice. The results of the present study suggest that PPM1D plays a potentially important role in BC tumorigenicity, and lentivirus-mediated delivery of shRNA againstPPM1D might be a promising therapeutic strategy for the treatment of BC.

To investigate signal regulation models of gastric cancer, databases and literature were used to construct the signaling network in humans. Topological characteristics of the network were analyzed by CytoScape. After marking gastric cancer-related genes extracted from the CancerResource, GeneRIF, and COSMIC databases, the FANMOD software was used for the mining of gastric cancer-related motifs in a network with three vertices. The significant motif difference method was adopted to identify significantly different motifs in the normal and cancer states. Finally, we conducted a series of analyses of the significantly different motifs, including gene ontology, function annotation of genes, and model classification. A human signaling network was constructed, with 1643 nodes and 5089 regulating interactions. The network was configured to have the characteristics of other biological networks. There were 57,942 motifs marked with gastric cancer-related genes out of a total of 69,492 motifs, and 264 motifs were selected as significantly different motifs by calculating the significant motif difference (SMD) scores. Genes in significantly different motifs were mainly enriched in functions associated with cancer genesis, such as regulation of cell death, amino acid phosphorylation of proteins, and intracellular signaling cascades. The top five significantly different motifs were mainly cascade and positive feedback types. Almost all genes in the five motifs were cancer related, including EPOR,MAPK14, BCL2L1, KRT18,PTPN6, CASP3, TGFBR2,AR, and CASP7. The development of cancer might be curbed by inhibiting signal transductions upstream and downstream of the selected motifs.

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) is widely used as an effective medium to integrate physical world and information world of Internet of Things (IOT). While keeping energy consumption at a minimal level, WSN requires reliable communication. Multicasting is a general operation performed by the Base Station, where data is to be transmitted to a set of destination nodes. Generally, the packets are routed in a multi-hop approach, where some intermediate nodes are also used for packet forwarding. This problem can be reduced to the well-known Steiner tree problem, which has proven to be NP-complete for deterministic link descriptors and cost functions. In this paper, we propose a novel multicast protocol, named heuristic algorithms for the solution of the Quality of Service (QoS) constrained multicast routing problem, with incomplete information in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). As information aggregation or randomly fluctuating traffic loads, link measures are considered to be random variables. Simulation results show that the Hop Neural Networks (HNN) based heuristics with a properly chosen additive measures can yield to a good solution for this traditionally NP complex problem, when compared to the best multicast algorithms known.

Anemia is a frequent complication in hemodialysis patients. Compared to conventional hemodialysis (CHD), short daily hemodialysis (sDHD) has been reported to be effective in many countries except China. The aim of the present study was to determine whether sDHD could improve anemia and quality of life (QOL) for Chinese outpatients with end-stage renal disease. Twenty-seven patients (16 males/11 females) were converted from CHD to sDHD. All laboratory values were measured before conversion (baseline), at 3 months after conversion (sDHD1), and at 6 months after conversion (sDHD2). The patient's QOL was evaluated at baseline and 6 months after conversion using the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36). Hemoglobin concentration increased significantly from 107.4±7.9 g/L at baseline to 114.4±6.8 g/L (P<0.05) at sDHD1, and 118.3±8.4 g/L (P<0.001) at sDHD2 (Student paired t-test). However, the dose requirement for erythropoietin decreased from 6847.8±1057.3 U/week at baseline to 5869.6±1094.6 U/week (P<0.05) at sDHD2. Weekly stdKt/V increased significantly from 2.05±0.13 at baseline to 2.73±0.20 (P<0.001) at sDHD1, and 2.84±0.26 (P<0.001) at sDHD2. C-reactive protein decreased from baseline to sDHD1 and sDHD2, but without statistically significant differences. Physical and mental health survey scores increased in the 6 months following conversion to sDHD. sDHD may increase hemoglobin levels, decrease exogenous erythropoietin dose requirements, and improve QOL in Chinese hemodialysis patients compared to CHD. A possible mechanism for improvement of clinical outcomes may be optimized management of uremia associated with the higher efficiency of sDHD.