Construction of a Novel Female Sterility System for Hybrid Rice.

The main constraints of current hybrid rice technology using male sterility (MS) are the low yield and high labor costs of hybrid rice seed (HRS) production. Therefore, there is an urgent need for innovative new hybrid rice technology. Fortunately, we discovered a unique spontaneous sporophytic female-sterile rice mutant controlled by a single recessive locus in the nucleus. Because female-sterile mutant lines cannot produce any selfed-seeds but their pollen has totally normal functions, female sterility (FS) lines may be considered ideal pollen donors to replace the female-fertile pollen donor parent lines currently used in the HRS production. In this study, a genetically engineered FS-based system was constructed to propagate a pure transgene-free FS line using a bentazon herbicide screening. Additionally, the ability of the FS + MS (FM)-line system, with mixed plantings of FS and MS lines, to produce HRS was tested. The pilot field experiment results showed that HRS of the FM-line system was more efficient compared with the conventional FS to MS strip planting control mode. Thus, this study provides new insights into genetic engineering technology and a promising strategy for the utilization of FS in hybrid rice.

Advances in Random Fiber Lasers and Their Sensing Application.

Compared with conventional laser, random laser (RL) has no resonant cavity, reducing the requirement of cavity design. In recent years, the random fiber laser (RFL), a novel kind of RL, has made great progress in theories and experiments. The RFL has a simpler structure, a more flexible design, and higher reliability. It has valuable applications for earth sciences, biological life sciences, and national defense security, due to these unique properties. This paper reviews the development of RFLs in the last decade, including their configurations based on various optical fibers and their output properties, especially the method of control. Moreover, we also introduce their applications in the optical fiber sensing system, which is a very important and practical orientation to study. Finally, this paper presents the prospects of RFLs.

Left-Behind Status Worsens Prognosis of ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction in Elderly Patients from Southwest China.

BACKGROUND This study aimed to assess the association between left-behind status and the prognosis of ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). MATERIAL AND METHODS A total of 1 015 patients with STEMI patients from 4 tertiary medical centers in southwest China were enrolled and categorized into left-behind and not-left-behind groups. The primary endpoints were major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events (MACCEs), which were assessed with Kaplan-Meier curves. Multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to explore the predictive value of left-behind status for MACCEs. RESULTS Patients in the left-behind group were older than those in the not-left-behind group (70 vs. 65 years, P<0.001). The patients in the left-behind group had a lower incidence of history of coronary heart disease and diabetes mellitus than those in the not-left-behind group. Meanwhile, the left-behind group had higher levels of alanine aminotransferase (42 vs. 31, P<0.001), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentration (2.64 vs. 2.62, P=0.001) and cardiac troponin I (5.11 vs. 2.84, P=0.001) than the not-left-behind group. During the 18-month follow-up, the left-behind group experienced a higher rate of adverse events than the not-left-behind group (123/26.2% vs. 81/14.8%, P<0.001). After multivariate adjustment, the left-behind group also had a 1.778-fold (95% CI: 1.241-2.547, P=0.002) higher risk of experiencing MACCEs than the not-left-behind group. CONCLUSIONS Left-behind status is an independent predictor of STEMI prognosis.

Direct Synthesis of Water-Dispersible Magnetic/Plasmonic Heteronanostructures for Multimodality Biomedical Imaging.

Magnetic/plasmonic hybrid nanoparticles are highly desirable for multimodal bioimaging and biosensing. Although the synthesis of heterodimeric nanoparticles has been reported, the products are usually hydrophobic so that post-treatment procedures are required to transfer them into water which are often difficult to perform and cause damages to the structures. Direct synthesis of hydrophilic hybrid nanostructures has remained a grand challenge albeit its immediate advantage of biocompatibility. Herein we report a general seed-mediated approach to the synthesis of hydrophilic and biocompatible M-Fe3O4 (M = Au, Ag, and Pd) heterodimers, in which the size of metals and Fe3O4 can be independently regulated in a wide range. Benefiting from the aqueous synthesis, this approach can be further extended to design more complex heterodimeric structures such as AgPtalloy-Fe3O4, Aucore@Pdshell-Fe3O4, and Aushell-Fe3O4. The hydrophilic nature of our heterodimers makes them readily useful for biomedical applications without the need of additional ligand exchange processes in contrast to those prepared in nonpolar solvents. These nanoscale magnetic/plasmonic heterostructures were shown to be ideally suited for integrated biomedical diagnoses, such as magnetic resonance imaging, photoacoustic imaging, optical coherence tomography, and computed tomography, in virtue of their biocompatibility and combined tunable magnetic and plasmonic properties.

Infrared extinction and microwave absorption properties of hybrid Fe3O4@SiO2@Ag nanospheres synthesized via a facile seed-mediated growth route.

Fe3O4@SiO2@Ag ternary hybrid nanoparticles were synthesized via a facile seed-mediated growth route. X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and vibrating sample magnetometer measurements were used to characterize the as-prepared product. The results indicated that the nanoparticles exhibited excellent magnetic properties and an extremely dense structure with Ag layer thicknesses of 30, 40, and 50 nm. Furthermore, the microwave shielding effectiveness exceeded 20 dB over almost the entire frequency range (2-18 GHz), and the effectiveness obviously improved as the thickness of the Ag layer increased. In addition, the IR extinction coefficient of the nanoparticles was calculated by a finite-difference time-domain method, which showed that the nanoparticles can inherit the extinction performance of pure silver when the Ag shell thickness was 30 nm. Specifically, after assembling into chains, the peak position of the IR extinction curves displayed a significant redshift and an intensity increase as the number of nanoparticles increased in the chain, which dramatically promoted the IR extinction capability. As a result, the Fe3O4@SiO2@Ag nanoparticles are expected to be used as a new multispectral interference material.

Efficacy of arsenic trioxide drug-eluting stents in the treatment of coronary heart disease.

The aim of the current study was to evaluate the safety and clinical efficacy of arsenic trioxide drug-eluting (AVI) stents, manufactured in China, for the treatment of coronary heart disease (CHD). Between January and August 2014, 40 patients with CHD admitted to Yongchuan Hospital with implanted AVI stents alone were selected. A one-year clinical follow-up was completed and one year postoperative coronary angiography was reviewed. Major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), recurrent angina, stent restenosis and stent thrombosis cases were detected. All 40 patients with CHD completed the one-year clinical follow-up, as well as the one-year postoperative coronary angiography. The follow-up results indicated that the MACE rate was 15.0% (6/40), the target lesion revascularization rate was 15.0% (6/40), the angina recurrence rate was 32.5% (13/40), the in-stent restenosis rate was 20.0% (8/40) and the stent thrombosis rate was zero. There were no cases of cardiac death or nonfatal myocardial infarction. The incidence of restenosis was higher following implantation of the AVI stent and the safety and clinical efficacy were worse than expected.

Screening and identification of the antibacterial bioactive compounds from Lonicera japonica Thunb. leaves.

Our aim was to screen for antibacterial bioactive compounds from Lonicera japonica leaves. Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli were used as the indicator bacteria. Bacteriostatic assay-guided extraction and stepwise partitioning of the samples yielded five compounds of interest. Antimicrobial activities of the compounds were determined using a disk diffusion assay. Extracts, fractions, and compounds from L. japonica leaves possessed considerable antibacterial activities against the tested bacterial strains and the most active fraction was attributed to J3B2, which primarily contained 3,5-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid and 4,5-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid. Meanwhile, five bacteriostatic constituents were isolated (3-O-caffeoylquinic acid, secoxyloganin, luteoloside, 3,5-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid and 4,5-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid), among which, secoxyloganin was isolated for the first time from leaves. The antibacterial activity of the compounds was in the order of 3,5-bis-O-caffeoyl quinic acid, 4,5-bis-O-caffeoylquinic acid, luteoloside>3-O-caffeoylquinic acid>secoxyloganin. Our results suggested that the phenolic compounds might significantly contribute to antibacterial activity and were the most responsible for the bacteriostatic activity of L. japonica leaves.

[Detection of sterigmatocystin based on the novel aflatoxin-oxidase/chitosan-single-walled carbon nanotubes/poly-o-phenylenediamine modified electrode].

A sensitive electrochemical biosensor based on Aflatoxin-Oxidase (AFO) was developed for detection of sterigmatocystin (ST). The enzyme was immobilized on chitosan-single-walled carbon nanotubes (CS-SWCNTs) hybrid film, which attached to the poly-o-phenylenediamine (POPD)-modified Au electrode. The fabricated procedures of the biosensor were characterized with atomic force microscopy (AFM), fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The cyclic voltammetric results of the biosensor indicated that AFO exhibited a surface-controlled and quasi-reversible electrochemical redox behavior with a formal potential of -0.436 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) in 0.1 mol/L PBS (pH 7.0), which resulted from the direct electron transfer between entrapped AFO and the underlying electrode. The enzymatic electrode exhibited an excellent electrocatalytic response to ST. The linear range of ST determination was from 10 ng/mL to 310 ng/mL with correlation coefficient of 0.997, the detection limit was 3 ng/mL (S/N=3), and the response time was less than 10 seconds. The apparent Michaelis-Menten constant (K(M)app) was estimated to be 7.13 micromol/L. The biosensor had the advantages of good repeatability and stability, remaining 85.6% of its original current value after storage at 4 degrees C for a month, and the RSD for 11 replicate determination of 20 ng/mL ST was 3.9%. This AFO/CS-SWCNTs/POPD/Au modified electrode showed high selectivity and sensitivity in real sample analysis, giving values of recovery in the range of 87.6%-105.5%. The proposed method can be applied to the determination of ST in real samples with satisfactory results.