AmCBF1 Transcription Factor Regulates Plant Architecture by Repressing GhPP2C1 or GhPP2C2 in Gossypium hirsutum.

Dwarfism is a beneficial trait in many crops. Dwarf crops hold certain advantages over taller crops in lodging resistance, fertilizer tolerance, and yield. Overexpression of CBF/DREB transcription factors can lead to dwarfing in many plant species, but the molecular mechanism of plant dwarfing caused by overexpression of CBF/DREB in upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) remains unclear. In this study, we observed that overexpression of the Ammopiptanthus mongolicus AmCBF1 transcription factor in upland cotton R15 reduced plant height, whereas virus-induced gene silencing of AmCBF1 in the derived dwarf lines L28 and L30 partially restored plant height. Five protein phosphatase (PP2C) genes (GhPP2C1 to GhPP2C5) in cotton were identified by RNA-sequencing among genes differentially expressed in L28 or L30 in comparison with R15 and thus may play an important role in AmCBF1-regulated dwarfing in cotton. Gene expression analysis showed that the GhPP2C genes were down-regulated significantly in L28 and L30, and silencing of GhPP2C1 or GhPP2C2 in R15 inhibited the growth of cotton seedlings. Subcellular localization assays revealed that GhPP2C1 was localized to the cell membrane and nucleus, whereas GhPP2C2 was exclusively localized to the nucleus. Yeast one-hybrid and dual-luciferase assays showed that AmCBF1 was able to bind to the CRT/DRE elements of the upstream promoter of GhPP2C1 or GhPP2C2 and repress their expression. These findings provide insight into the mechanism of dwarfing and may contribute to the breeding of dwarf cultivars of upland cotton.

The implementation of HACCP management system in a chocolate ice cream plant.

To guarantee the safety of chocolate ice cream production, the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) system was applied to the production process. The biological, chemical, and physical hazards that may exist in every step of chocolate ice cream production were identified. In addition, the critical control points were selected and the critical limits, monitoring, corrective measures, records, and verifications were established. The critical control points, which include pasteurization and freezing, were identified. Implementing the HACCP system in food manufacturing can effectively ensure food safety and quality, expand the market, and improve the manufacturers' management level.

A secure EHR system based on hybrid clouds.

Consequently, application services rendering remote medical services and electronic health record (EHR) have become a hot topic and stimulating increased interest in studying this subject in recent years. Information and communication technologies have been applied to the medical services and healthcare area for a number of years to resolve problems in medical management. Sharing EHR information can provide professional medical programs with consultancy, evaluation, and tracing services can certainly improve accessibility to the public receiving medical services or medical information at remote sites. With the widespread use of EHR, building a secure EHR sharing environment has attracted a lot of attention in both healthcare industry and academic community. Cloud computing paradigm is one of the popular healthIT infrastructures for facilitating EHR sharing and EHR integration. In this paper, we propose an EHR sharing and integration system in healthcare clouds and analyze the arising security and privacy issues in access and management of EHRs.

[Survey on the knowledge of epilepsy to patients and their family members].

OBJECTIVE: To study the epilepsy patients and their family members on their knowledge of the disease. METHODS: A 34-point questionnaire with 34 questions related to epilepsy knowledge was used for the survey on 170 pairs of epilepsy patients and their family members in Huashan hospital. Characters of the disease on the subjects were recorded. RESULTS: The mean scores of the epilepsy knowledge of the patients and their family members were 16.5 +/- 8.2 and 16.1 +/- 8.5, respectively. The scores were quite low with no statistical difference between patients and their family members. The rate of correct answer in the urban subjects was obviously higher than those subjects living in the rural areas. All the subjects lacked the knowledge on the "cause of disease" when comparing with items as "diagnosis" and "treatment". Multivariate analysis showed that rural residents (P = 0.0001, OR = 52.963) and low education level (P = 0.0294, OR = 2.266) related to low epilepsy knowledge score among epilepsy patients. However, for family members, the factor related to low score was only living in the rural area (P = 0.0001, OR = 37.229). CONCLUSION: Education on the epilepsy knowledge should be strengthened, especially in the rural areas.