Chub movement is attracted by the collision sounds associated with spawning activities.

Cyprinids (carps, chubs and minnows) possess well-developed hearing and high sensitivity to sound pressure. The sensitive hearing may assist cyprinids with searching for food, territory defense, and mating behavior. Many paired fishes violently shake in sand and gravel while spawning in rivers. However, no study has examined the ecological importance of the collision sound made by the behavior. This study examined whether cohabitated chubs (Opsariichthys evolans and Zacco platypus) use the collision sound as a signal to locate spawning events so they can be a male satellite or egg eater. Three types of sounds (i.e., collision sound, music noise and ambient noise) were played with or without jerkbaits at the midstream of the Keelung River, Taiwan during the spawning season in 2018 and 2019. Generalized linear mixed models were then built to examine the effects of the sound types and the presence of jerkbaits on the number of individuals that the two chubs attracted. Results showed significantly different levels of attractiveness among the three sound types, with the collision sound attracting most fishes, including both females and males, followed by music noise and ambient noise. The presence of jerkbaits increased the number of fishes attracted, but the effect was only statistically marginally significant. These results suggest that the collision sound as an acoustic signal may be more important than a visual signal for the chubs to locate spawning events of other mating pairs, probably because of the longer transmission distance of the former. The present study demonstrates the ecological meanings of the collision sounds made in association with spawning activities of the chubs and implies that the native chub's spawning activities may be affected by the introduced Z. platypus. More studies on the interactions between these cohabitated chubs will benefit the conservation of native chubs.

Nitric Oxide Inhibits Al-Induced Programmed Cell Death in Root Tips of Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) by Affecting Physiological Properties of Antioxidants Systems and Cell Wall.

It has been reported that nitric oxide (NO) is a negative regulator of aluminum (Al)-induced programmed cell death (PCD) in peanut root tips. However, the inhibiting mechanism of NO on Al-induced PCD is unclear. In order to investigate the mechanism by which NO inhibits Al-induced PCD, the effects of co-treatment Al with the exogenous NO donor or the NO-specific scavenger on peanut root tips, the physiological properties of antioxidants systems and cell wall (CW) in root tip cells of NO inhibiting Al-induced PCD were studied with two peanut cultivars. The results showed that Al exposure induced endogenous NO accumulation, and endogenous NO burst increased antioxidant enzyme activity in response to Al stress. The addition of NO donor sodium nitroprusside (SNP) relieved Al-induced root elongation inhibition, cell death and Al adsorption in CW, as well as oxidative damage and ROS accumulation. Furthermore, co-treatment with the exogenous NO donor decreased MDA content, LOX activity and pectin methylesterase (PME) activity, increased xyloglucan endotransglucosylase (XET) activity and relative expression of the xyloglucan endotransglucosylase/hydrolase (XTH-32) gene. Taken together, exogenous NO alleviated Al-induced PCD by inhibiting Al adsorption in CW, enhancing antioxidant defense and reducing peroxidation of membrane lipids, alleviating the inhibition of Al on root elongation by maintaining the extensibility of CW, decreasing PME activity, and increasing XET activity and relative XTH-32 expression of CW.

Serious periventricular white matter injury has a significant effect on the voiding pattern of preterm infants.

AIM: To evaluate the effect of serious periventricular white matter injury (PWMI) on the voiding patterns of preterm infants. METHODS: Free voiding was continuously observed for eight hours in 19 preterm infants with serious PWMI and 16 infants without PWMI. The infants had a gestational age of 32-35 weeks and a postnatal age of 9-15 days. Voiding frequency, voided volume, postvoid residual volume, empty voiding, awake voiding and interrupted voiding were recorded and compared between the two groups of infants. RESULTS: The voiding frequency ((5.1 ± 1.0) vs. (7.0 ± 1.1)), awake voiding percentage ((23 ± 11)% vs. (42 ± 7)%) and empty voiding percentage (lower quartile = 16% vs. 28%, median = 20% vs. 33%, upper quartile = 28% vs. 40%) were significantly lower, while the voided volume ((19.9 ± 6.6) mL vs.(15.9 ± 5.3) mL)and postvoid residual volume (lower quartile = 1 mL. vs. 0 mL., median = 3 mL. vs. 2 mL., upper quartile = 3 mL. vs. 2 mL.) were significantly higher in the injured preterm infants, compared with the healthy infants (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Serious PWMI has a significant effect on the voiding pattern of preterm infants, and the senior nerve centre plays a role in the voiding reflex of preterm infants.

Melamine-related urinary stones in 195 infants and young children: clinical features within 2 years of follow-up.

OBJECTIVE: To summarize the clinical features and follow-up, the effects of melamine-tainted milk powder (MMP) consumption on kidney and body growth in children who suffered from melamine-related urinary stones (MUS) 2 years earlier were checked. MEASUREMENTS: Body height and weight, kidney and bladder morphology monitored by ultrasound, urinalysis and renal function were recorded. Plain abdominal radiography was performed for differential diagnosis. The first follow-up was carried out at 15 months and the second 2 years later for patients who showed any abnormality at the first follow-up. Two hundred age- and gender-matched cohorts were included. RESULTS: All cases received conservative treatment in hospital. Fifteen months of follow-up was successfully carried out in 167 cases. 91 children had residual MUS at the time of discharge, 58 MUS disappeared completely, 25 dissolved partially, 1 increased in size, and 7 did not change. At 2 years of follow-up, the residual stones all disappeared except for 1 case; the patient who showed a delayed development with regard to height caught up at 24 months of follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Conservative treatment shows a high effectiveness in cases with residual MUS. Consumption of MMP with timely treatment did not demonstrate an evident impact on kidney and bladder although body height is slightly affected in a few cases.

[SiRNA targeting ICP4 attenuates HSV-1 replication].

HSV-1, a neurotropic virus, always leads to severe nervous symptoms. It is hard to completely eradicate the latent viruses after conventional therapy so that recurrence is inevitable. ICP is a key regulator for HSV replication and transcription that determines the cytolytic infection or latent state. In search of new anti-virus strategy targeting HSV-1ICP4, two pairs of siRNA were designed, and a recombinant eukaryotic lentiviral expression plasmid pLKO-puro(r)-hU6-siRNA was constructed. Vero cells were transfected with the designed siRNAs by Lipofectamine 2000 and four stable monoclonal cell lines were established by puromycin screening method. The ICP4 expression at mRNA level was detected with real-time PCR, and the HSV-1 replication was measured with TCID50 assay. SiRNA was shown as an effective way to inhibit the expression of ICP4 in monoclonal cell lines. Meanwhile, HSV-1 replication was significantly inhibited when ICP4 was shut down by siRNA. We conclude that siRNA targeting ICP4 attenuates HSV-1 replication. Further more, multi-site siRNAs show stronger inhibitory effect on viral replication, which may be an effective and feasible approach for biological anti-viral drugs.

Multilayered polyelectrolyte-coated gold nanorods as multifunctional optical contrast agents for cancer cell imaging.

We report the application of multilayered polyelectrolyte-coated gold nanorods (GNRs) as multifunctional optical contrast agents for cancer cell imaging. The surface modification of GNRs improves their chemical stability and facilitates them to be taken up by cancer cells through electrostatic interaction. The unique longitudinal surface plasmon resonance property of GNRs makes them suitable as both "scattering contrast agents" and "Raman contrast agents". In our experiments, the staining of GNRs in cells was further confirmed by dark field microscopy and Raman microscopy. Our experiment results indicated that GNRs have great potential as multifunctional "optical contrast agents" for future in vivo animal imaging.

[Analysis of Flt-3 expression and Flt-3/ITD mutation in acute myeloid leukemia cells].

This study was aimed to explore the relationship between Flt-3 expression, Flt-3/ITD mutation in acute leukemia (AL) cell line and pathogenesis of AL, especially AML. The Flt-3 expression and Flt-3/ITD mutation were detected by RT-PCR and sequencing method in 82 leukemia cell lines including 20 AML, 57 ALL and 5 CML cell lines. The results indicated that positive results of Flt-3 expression were obtained in 48 out of 77 AL cell line, the positive rate was 62%; 12 cell lines were positive in 20 AML cell lines, the positive rate was 60%; 33 cell lines was positive in 57 ALL cell lines, the positive rate was 58%; 3 cell lines were positive in 5 CML cell lines, the positive rate was 60%. There was abnormal gene product in 1 AMOL cell line out of 12 AML cell lines with Flt-3 positive expression (positive rate 8.3%). DNA sequencing of abnormal gene product showed two coding duplication sequence with 29 bp long. The positive rate of Flt-3 expression in undifferentiated cell line was prominently higher than that in mature B cell ALL (P < 0.05). It is concluded that the Flt-3 expression is different in various leukemia cells. Flt-3/ITD duplication was found in one AML cell line. The detection of Flt-3 gene and Flt-3/ITD mutation may contribute to the diagnosis of ALL, especially to AML.

[Analysis of DEK-CAN fusion gene expression in acute myeloid leukemia patients with 6; 9 chromosome translocation].

This study was aimed to explore the relationship of 6; 9 chromosome translocation with DEK-CAN fusion gene expression in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and its clinical significance. Chromosome specimens were prepared by routine method after short-term culture of bone marrow cells; karyotype analysis was performed by R banding technique; the expression of fusion gene DEK-CAN was analyzed by RT-nested-PCR in mononuclear cells of bone marrow or peripheral blood of 4 AML patients, for 3 patients received allo-BMT out of 4 patients the dynamic follow-up was performed. The results indicated that t (6; 9) (p23; q34) was confirmed by chromosome karyotype analysis in the four AML patients. The DEK-CAN fusion gene was found during in all four de novo, relapsed and CR patients (100%). And the expression of DEK-CAN fusion gene enhanced apparently in de novo and relapsed patients, and weakened in CR patient. DEK-CAN mRNA was found in the three patients during 1-24 months after allo-BMT. Clinical data showed 2 patients relapsed and died after CR for 1-24 months; the other two patients received allo-BMT got CR and still survive. It is concluded that DEK-CAN fusion gene is the molecular basis in pathogenesis of AML. The detection of DEK-CAN fusion gene is significant for diagnosis of AML, evaluation of curative effect, and predication of prognosis.