Preface for special issue on biofilm and c-di-GMP--Microbial society, c-di-GMP regulation, and new research techniques / 生物工程学报

Biofilm is prevalent in various ecological niches, in which microbial cells interconnect with each other through extracellular polymeric substances including polysaccharides, extracellular DNA, and proteins. When living in biofilms, the microbial cells employ small signalling chemicals as their "language" to communicate mutually, and exhibit remarkable differences in physiology compared to those living in planktonic state. It has been proven that the development of biofilm is subject to the regulation of c-di-GMP, an important second messenger found in prokaryotes. Given its important roles of biofilms in microbial infection, industry application, plant-microbe interactions and environmental pollustion, biofilm is one of frontier research areas in microbiology. This special issue of "Biofilm and c-di-GMP" systematically reviews the current progresses in the multiple research frontiers, including biotechnology, infectious diseases, environmental microbiology and plant pathology, with special focus on the methods and techniques in biofilm research. We hope that the issue will boost the interest of students and young scientists in this exciting area of microbiology.

Research and design of integrated gateway between PACS and HIS/RIS / 医疗卫生装备

Gateway between PACS and HIS/RIS is studied in this paper, which is starving for solution for the construction of hospital informatization. The methods for information interchange between PACS and HIS/RIS is presented and then the design and realization of the gateway above are put forward.