Spatial distributions and environmentally-mediated factors of dimethylsulfoxide off the northern Antarctic Peninsula in summer.

Spatial distributions of dissolved and particulate dimethylsulfoxide (DMSOd and DMSOp) were investigated off the northern Antarctic Peninsula during the austral summer of 2018, an ecologically and climatically important region of the world. In the upper waters, DMSOd was concentrated in the ice-melt zone because DMSO functions physiologically as an intracellular osmolyte and cryoprotectant. DMSOd concentrations had a weak positive correlation with temperature but a negative correlation with nutrients. This highlighted the importance of temperature-dependent biological activities and photolysis in DMSOd production and the important role of the intracellular antioxidation system in phytoplankton cells. The decrease of average DMSOp:Chl-a ratios in upper waters from west to east, along with decreasing temperatures and increasing diatoms proportions in the phytoplankton, illustrates how seawater DMSO production capacities depend on ambient temperatures and the composition of phytoplankton assemblages. DMSOp were accumulated in deep waters through bio-debris accumulation and microbial activity.

Bevacizumab attenuates osteosarcoma angiogenesis by suppressing MIAT encapsulated by serum-derived extracellular vesicles and facilitating miR-613-mediated GPR158 inhibition.

Targeting angiogenesis has been considered a promising treatment for a large number of malignancies, including osteosarcoma. Bevacizumab (Bev) is an anti-vascular endothelial growth factor being used for this purpose. We herein investigate the therapeutic potential of Bev in angiogenesis during osteosarcoma and the related mechanisms. Bioinformatics were performed for identification of osteosarcoma-related microarray dataset to collect related lncRNA and miRNA, with MIAT and miR-613 obtained. The predicted binding site between miR-613 and GPR158 3'UTR region was further confirmed by luciferase assay. Then, their effects combined with treatment with Bev on osteosarcoma cells were explored by the gain- and loss-of-function. After extraction from osteosarcoma patients' serum (serum-EVs) and identification, EVs were co-cultured with osteosarcoma cells, the biological behaviors of which were detected by CCK-8 assay and microtubule formation in vitro. A mouse tumor xenograft model was used to determine the effect of Bev on tumor angiogenesis in vivo. Bev inhibited osteosarcoma cell proliferation and angiogenesis in vivo and in vitro. Besides, serum-EVs could transfer MIAT (EV-MIAT) into osteosarcoma cells, where it is competitively bound to miR-613 to elevate GPR158, thus promoting osteosarcoma cell proliferation and angiogenesis. Furthermore, Bev arrested osteosarcoma cell proliferation and angiogenesis by inhibiting EV-MIAT and inducing miR-613-mediated GPR158 inhibition. In conclusion, the Bev-mediated MIAT/miR-613/GPR158 regulatory feedback revealed a new molecular mechanism in the pathogenesis of osteosarcoma angiogenesis.

Occurrence, distribution, and sea-air fluxes of volatile halocarbons in the upper ocean off the northern Antarctic Peninsula in summer.

We studied the spatial variations of six volatile halocarbons (VHCs), namely, iodomethane (CH3I), chloroform (CHCl3), tetrachloroethylene (C2Cl4), bromodichloromethane (CHBrCl2), dibromomethane (CH2Br2), and carbon tetrachloride (CCl4), and the environmental influencing factors involved in the cycling of VHCs in the upper ocean (0-500 m) off the Northern Antarctic Peninsula (NAP) during the summer of 2018. About 5%-10% of the total biogenic VHCs in the upper ocean were accumulated in the assemblage layer (AL) with high chlorophyll a. However, higher VHCs levels were observed in the dicothermal layer (DL) compared with the AL because of the preservation from winter and production from dinoflagellates and chlorophytes. Owing to the co-existence occurrence of sharp seasonal pycnocline and thick permanent pycnocline, DL could be an important VHCs reservoir in the upper water column during summer. In response to melting of sea ice and glacier, decreased salinity was responsible for ca. 50% of the variation in the CH2Br2 and CCl4 concentrations, which corresponded with increased CH2Br2 and CCl4 concentrations in the less saline water mass. Anthropogenic CCl4 was found with an average concentration of 44.9 pmol/L, and there was a strong positive relationship between CCl4 and CHCl3 in the upper water, indicating their similar source of pollutant transport caused by anthropogenic activities. Calculated sea-to-air fluxes of CCl4, C2Cl4, CHBrCl2, and CH2Br2 averaged 478.7, 93.7, 33.7, and 61.8 nmol/(m2·d) in summer, respectively, indicating that the waters off the NAP are important sources of VHCs for the atmosphere and exert potentially adverse impacts on the Antarctica ozone depletion.

Visible-Light Photocatalytic Activity of Fe and/or Ni Doped Ilmenite Derived-Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles.

Pure TiO2 nanoparticles and ones doped with Fe and/or Ni were successfully prepared by a co-precipitation method from ilmenite. The samples were structurally characterized by XRD, XPS, FT-IR, UV-vis, SEM, EDX, AAS and BET measurement. The XRD results showed that all samples were anatase TiO2, and no characteristic peaks of dopants were observed. The crystallite sizes of all doped TiO2 nanoparticles were less than 20 nm and doping TiO2 with metal ions can suppress the crystal growth of the particles. The XRD and XPS results indicated that TiO2 was uniformly doped and its crystalline phase was not changed by doping. The specific surface area of Fe-Ni/TiO2 is bigger than that of the un-doped TiO2. The pore size and pore volume of Fe-Ni/TiO2 is smaller than that of the un-doped. UV-vis spectra of the samples showed that the absorption edge red shifted with increasing doped metal content. The photocatalytic activity was evaluated in oxidative degradation of methylene blue (MB) with H2O2 under visible light irradiation. When doped with a single type of transition metal, the photocatalytic performance of Ni-doped samples was lower than that of Fe-doped ones. For the co-doped catalysts, the catalytic efficiency of 0.5%Fe4%Ni/TiO2 was the highest, reaching 93.34% after 250 min. Metal doping enhanced the photocatalytic decomposition of methylene blue compared with that of pure TiO2 by up to 1.5 times. The synergistic effects of the two metal ions improved the photocatalytic performance. The particles exhibited pronounced activity in degradation of MB as well as efficient recyclability. The photocatalytic degradation mechanism of methylene blue was analyzed.

[Distribution pattern and influencing factors of vegetation carbon storage of Tamarix chinense in the coastal wetland of Laizhou Bay, China]. / èŽ±å·žæ¹¾æ»¨æµ·æŸ½æŸ³æž—æ¹¿åœ°æ¤è¢«ç¢³å‚¨é‡çš„åˆ†å¸ƒç‰¹å¾åŠå ¶å½±å“å› ç´ .

The tamarisk shrub wetland located at the south of Laizhou Bay is the largest tamarisk area existing in the northern China, which is also the important part of the wetland ecological rehabilitation project 'Southern Mangrove Northern Tamarisk' in China. Based on the field data from Changyi National Marine Ecological Special Reserve surveyed in August 2014, we investigated the spatial patterns of vegetation, biomass, carbon content, and the associated environmental parameters in this area. The results showed that the average vegetation biomass and carbon storage were 949.0 g·m-2 and 393.1 g·m-2, respectively. They were higher in the central area than in the eastern and the western parts, and were generally the highest for the shrub part aboveground, followed by that underground, and the lowest for the litter. There were two single-species communities (dominated by Tamarix chinensis and Suaeda salsa, respectively) and four mixed communities. The carbon storage was the highest for the T. chinensis community, followed by the mixed communities and the lowest for S. salsa community. The water content and conductivity of surface soil in this area were generally low, probably due to the reduced intertidal waves blocked by the dam in the north. The vegetation carbon storage was most influenced by soil nutrients (total nitrogen and total phosphorus) and silt particle content rather than salinity. Furthermore, the alteration of the soil hydrologic condition caused the succession of vegetation communities in this area. When the salt tolerance community (e.g., S. salsa) shifted to the light salt tolerance community (e.g., Setaria viridis, Artemisia capillaries), the vegetation carbon storage increased significantly.

[Effect of health education intervention on schistosomiasis control in Mianyang City].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of health education on schistosomiasis control in Mianyang City. METHODS: The population aged 6-65 years in 12 moderately and heavy schistosomiasis endemic villages of 6 endemic counties in Mianyang City were selected as the investigation objects, among which, the health education on schistosomiasis control were implemented. The questionnaire surveys were carried out to understand the knowledge, attitude and behavior on schistosomiasis control of the target population, and the scores before and after the intervention were compared to evaluate the effect. RESULTS: Totally 600 people were investigated, including 298 villagers and 302 students. After the health education intervention, the average scores of knowledge, attitude and behavior on schistosomiasis control of the villagers improved from (77.17 ± 5.04) , (77.83 ± 5.74), (72.17 ± 2.48) to (89.12 ± 3.18), 100, 100, respectively, while those of the students improved from (79.50 ± 5.82), (84.33 ± 2.66), (82.17 ± 4.71) to (87.00 ± 3.59), 100, 100, respectively, all the differences were statistically significant (all P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The health education of schistosomiasis control in Mianyang City achieves a good effect. How to consolidate the results and enhance the consciousness of the mass to participate in schistosomiasis control is still the primary mission at present.

Infection of prions and treatment of PrP106-126 alter the endogenous status of protein 14-3-3 and trigger the mitochondrial apoptosis possibly via activating Bax pathway.

The 14-3-3 proteins are a family of highly homologous and ubiquitously expressed isoforms that are involved in a wide variety of physiological processes. 14-3-3 have showed actively molecular interaction with PrP and positive 14-3-3 is frequently observed in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples of the patients with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). However, the alterations of 14-3-3 in the brain tissues of patients with prion diseases remain little addressed. To address the possible change of brain 14-3-3 during prion infection, we firstly tested the levels of 14-3-3 in the brain tissues of scrapie agent 263 K infected hamsters. Obviously decreased 14-3-3 were observed in the samples of the infected animals, showing time-dependent reduction in the incubation period, while the amounts of S-nitrosylated 14-3-3 were increased in the brains collected at the late stage. A low level of 14-3-3 was also observed in the scrapie infectious cell line SMB-S15, accompanied with up-regulated Bax and down-regulated Bcl-2. Moreover, we found that treatment of PrP106-126 on the cultured cells decreased the cellular 14-3-3 and caused translocations of cellular Bax to the membrane fractions. Knockdown of cellular 14-3-3 sensitized the cultured cells to the challenge of PrP106-126. These data illustrate that significant down-regulation of brain 14-3-3 levels during prion infection may not only be a scenario of the terminal consequence of interacting with abnormal PrP(Sc) but may also participate in the pathogenesis of neuronal damage.

[The 2A protease of enterovirus 71 cleaves nup62 to inhibit nuclear transport].

To study the impact of the enterovirus 71(EV71) on the nuclear transport mechanism,The pGFP-NLS vector with nuclear location signal(NLS) was constructed, RD cells transfected by the pGFP-NLS vector were inoculated with the EV71 or cotransfected by EV71-2A vector. The results showed that GFP protein with NLS was expressed in the cytoplasm due to the inhibition of nuclear transport. In order to further study the mechanism of the EV71 to prevent nuclear transport,Nup62 was detected by Western blotting after RD cells were infected with EV71 or transfected by EV71-2A vector. The results showed that decreased expression of Nup62 could be detected after infection with EV71 and transfection by EV71-2A vector. This study demonstrates that the cleavage of Nup62 by EV71 2A protease may be the mechanism of nuclear transport inhibition.

[Research on determination of total volatile organic sulfur compounds in the atmosphere].

A detection technology was established comprising trap, desorption, oxidation and UV fluorescence determination process, and used for the test of total concentration of trace volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) in the atmosphere. A cryogenic trap-thermal desorption device was developed, integrating the advantages of solid retention method and cryogenic condensation method, which was applied to capture and enrich trace volatile organic sulfur compounds. Under high temperature and combustion-supporting gas, the VSCs were completely oxidized into sulfur dioxide. By analyzing the content of sulfur dioxide through ultraviolet fluorescence method indirectly calculated to gain the total concentration of volatile organic sulfur compounds. The trapping temperature, desorption temperature and the oxidation temperature were 5 degrees C, 150 degrees C and 1 000 degrees C, and the precision and recovery of the method were 5.46% and 99.6%-109.2%, respectively. The content of trace amounts of atmospheric VSCs determined from February to April at Qingdao was 42-195 ng x m(-3).