Effects of Salt Stress on Physiological and Agronomic Traits of Rice Genotypes with Contrasting Salt Tolerance.

Salinity is one of the major constraints to crop production. Rice is a main staple food and is highly sensitive to salinity. This study aimed to elucidate the effects of salt stress on physiological and agronomic traits of rice genotypes with contrasting salt tolerance. Six contrasting rice genotypes (DJWJ, JFX, NSIC, HKN, XD2H and HHZ), including three salt-tolerant and three salt-sensitive rice genotypes, were grown under two different salt concentrations (0 and 100 mmol L-1 NaCl solution). The results showed that growth, physiological and yield-related traits of both salt-sensitive and salt-tolerant rice were significantly affected by salt stress. In general, plant height, tiller number, dry weight and relative growth rate showed 15.7%, 11.2%, 25.2% and 24.6% more reduction in salt-sensitive rice than in salt-tolerant rice, respectively. On the contrary, antioxidant enzyme activity (superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, catalase), osmotic adjustment substances (proline, soluble protein, malondialdehyde (MDA)) and Na+ content were significantly increased under salt stress, and the increase was far higher in salt-tolerant rice except for MDA. Furthermore, grain yield and yield components significantly decreased under salt stress. Overall, the salt-sensitive rice genotypes showed a 15.3% greater reduction in grain yield, 5.1% reduction in spikelets per panicle, 7.4% reduction in grain-filling percentage and 6.1% reduction in grain weight compared to salt-tolerant genotypes under salt stress. However, a modest gap showed a decline in panicles (22.2% vs. 22.8%) and total spikelets (45.4% vs. 42.1%) between salt-sensitive and salt-tolerant rice under salinity conditions. This study revealed that the yield advantage of salt-tolerant rice was partially caused by more biomass accumulation, growth rate, strong antioxidant capacity and osmotic adjustment ability under salt stress, which contributed to more spikelets per panicle, high grain-filling percentage and grain weight. The results of this study could be helpful in understanding the physiological mechanism of contrasting rice genotypes' responses to salt stress and to the breeding of salt-tolerant rice.

Treatment of Ulcerative Colitis by Cationic Liposome Delivered NLRP3 siRNA.

Purpose: The abnormal activation of NLRP3 inflammasome is related to the occurrence and development of ulcerative colitis (UC). However, the ideal drug and delivery system remain important factors limiting the targeting of NLRP3 inflammasome in UC therapy. Gene therapy by delivering siRNA is effective in treating various diseases. Therefore, delivering siNLRP3 using an ideal vector for UC treatment is necessary. Materials and Methods: Nanoparticles delivering siNLRP3 were developed based on cationic liposome (CLP/siNLRP3). Their ability to inhibit NLRP3 inflammasome activation was monitored using Western blot (WB) and Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). The ASC oligomerization in LPS-primed peritoneal macrophages (PMs) was detected by WB and immunofluorescence. Moreover, we assessed the role of CLP/siNLRP3 on dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced UC by examining NLRP3 levels, pro-inflammatory cytokines expression, and disease-associated index (DAI). Flow cytometry (FCM) was used to detect the contents of macrophages and T cells. Finally, we assessed the safety of CLP/siNLRP3. Results: The prepared CLP was spherical, with a small particle size (94 nm) and low permeability. The CLP could efficiently protect siNLRP3 from degradation and then deliver siNLRP3 into PMs, inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Also, the CLP/siNLRP3 could inhibit the secretion of mature IL-1ß and IL-18 from PMs, thereby achieving a favorable anti-inflammation effect. In vivo, CLP/siNLRP3 could effectively alleviate intestinal injury in UC mice, which was attributed to down-regulating levels of IL-1ß and IL-18, inhibiting infiltration of macrophages and other immune cells, and the polarization of M1 macrophages. Finally, pathological testing of tissue sections and blood biochemical tests showed no significant toxic effects of CLP/siNLRP3. Conclusion: We introduced a prospective approach for the efficient delivery of siRNA in vitro and in vivo with high safety and stability, which was found to have great potential in treating NLRP3-driven diseases in an RNA-silencing manner.

Carbon emission reduction in prefabrication construction during materialization stage: A BIM-based life-cycle assessment approach.

Prefabrication has gained its popularity in countries including China due to its various advantages such as quality control, waste reduction, onsite and offsite parallel coordination, and so on. It has also been recognized as a key strategy to reduce construction-induced carbon emissions. However, there is limited research to examine carbon emission reduction in prefabrication by using the advanced technological artefacts, e.g., building information modeling (BIM), emerging from the technology sphere. As a digital representation of a facility, BIM provides a cyber platform based on which many assessment and simulation works can be performed without having to construct the physical facility. This paper aims to develop a BIM-based approach to measuring carbon emission reduction during the materialization stage of a prefabricated building project. Findings from the study indicate that BIM is an efficient and effective method for measuring carbon emissions from the construction of new buildings and that prefabrication reduces carbon emissions when compared with conventional construction methods. The research contributes to the body of knowledge relating to the reduction of carbon emissions through prefabrication. This is pertinent to contractors, homebuyers and governments who are constantly seeking ways to achieve a circular economy.