Classification of the Congenital Defect of the Lumbar Facet Joint: Case Report and Literature Review.

BACKGROUND: Congenital lumbar facet joint defect is a rare congenital developmental disorder with only a few reported cases in the literature, primarily affecting the L5-S1 segments. This study reports the first case of a defect in the left L3 inferior articular process; and presents a review of the existing literature on the subject, proposes a classification system, and validates the inter-observer and intra-observer reliability of this classification system. CASE PRESENTATION: A 14-year-old boy presented to our orthopedic clinic with persistent lower back pain for 1 month. Imaging analysis, including CT scans, 3D reconstruction, and MRI, revealed a congenital lumbar facet joint defect at the L3 level, which has not been reported. Conservative treatment resulted in a significant improvement in his symptoms, and he is currently under follow-up care. CONCLUSION: Congenital defect of the lumbar facet joint is a rare spinal condition. This article reports the first patient with a defect in the left L3 inferior articular process and conducts a comprehensive literature review, proposing a classification of articular process defects into five types. The two most common types are Types B and C. We have demonstrated that this system is reliable and reproducible and have described the treatment of each type.

Complete Removal of Residual Particles and Realization of Mechanical Properties to Improve Osseointegration in Additively Manufactured Ti6Al4 V Scaffolds through Flowing Acid Etching.

Massive unmelted Ti6Al4 V (Ti64) particles presented across all surfaces of additively manufactured Ti64 scaffolds significantly impacted the designed surface topography, mechanical properties, and permeability, reducing the osseointegration of the scaffolds. In this study, the proposed flowing acid etching (FAE) method presented high efficiency in eliminating Ti64 particles and enhancing the surface modification capacity across all surfaces of Ti64 scaffolds. The Ti64 particles across all surfaces of the scaffolds were completely removed effectively and evenly. The surface topography of the scaffolds closely resembled the design after the 75 s FAE treatment. The actual elastic modulus of the treated scaffolds (3.206 ± 0.040 GPa) was closer to the designed value (3.110 GPa), and a micrometer-scale structure was constructed on the inner and outer surfaces of the scaffolds after the 90 s FAE treatment. However, the yield strength of scaffolds was reduced to 89.743 ± 0.893 MPa from 118.251 ± 0.982 MPa after the 90 s FAE treatment. The FAE method also showed higher efficiency in decreasing the roughness and enhancing the hydrophilicity and surface energy of all of the surfaces. The FAE treatment improved the permeability of scaffolds efficiently, and the permeability of scaffolds increased to 11.93 ± 0.21 × 10-10 mm2 from 8.57 ± 0.021 × 10-10 mm2 after the 90 s FAE treatment. The treated Ti64 scaffolds after the 90 s FAE treatment exhibited optimized osseointegration effects in vitro and in vivo. In conclusion, the FAE method was an efficient way to eliminate unmelted Ti64 particles and obtain ideal surface topography, mechanical properties, and permeability to promote osseointegration in additively manufactured Ti64 scaffolds.

Silicon flower structures by maskless plasma etching.

Silicon nano/microstructures are widely utilized in the semiconductor industry, and plasma etching is the most prominent method for fabricating silicon nano/microstructures. Among the variety of silicon nano/microstructures, black silicon with light-trapping properties has garnered broad interest from both the scientific and industrial communities. However, the fabrication mechanism of black silicon remains unclear, and the light absorption of black silicon only focuses on the near-infrared region thus far. Herein, we demonstrate that black silicon can be fabricated from individual flower-like silicon microstructures. Using fluorocarbon gases as etchants, silicon flower microstructures have been formed via maskless plasma etching. Black silicon forming from silicon flower microstructures exhibits strong absorption with wavelength from 0.25 µm to 20 µm. The result provides novel insight into the understanding of the plasma etching mechanism in addition to offering further significant practical applications for device manufacturing.

Quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics studies on mechanistic photophysics of cytosine aza-analogues: 2,4-diamino-1,3,5-triazine and 2-amino-1,3,5-triazine in aqueous solution.

The excited-state properties and photophysics of cytosine aza-analogues, i.e., 2,4-diamino-1,3,5-triazine (2,4-DT) and 2-amino-1,3,5-triazine (2-AT) in solution have been systematically explored using the QM(MS-CASPT2//CASSCF)/MM approach. The excited-state nonradiative relaxation mechanisms for the initially photoexcited S1(ππ*) state decay back to the S0 state are proposed in terms of the present computed minima, surface crossings (conical intersections and singlet-triplet crossings), and excited-state decay paths in the S1, S2, T1, T2, and S0 states. Upon photoexcitation to the bright S1(ππ*) state, 2,4-DT quickly relaxes to its S1 minimum and then overcomes a small energy barrier of 5.1 kcal mol-1 to approach a S1/S0 conical intersection, where the S1 system hops to the S0 state through S1 → S0 internal conversion (IC). In addition, at the S1 minimum, the system could partially undergo intersystem crossing (ISC) to the T1 state, followed by further ISC to the S0 state via the T1/S0 crossing point. In the T1 state, an energy barrier of 7.9 kcal mol-1 will trap 2,4-DT for a while. In parallel, for 2-AT, the system first relaxes to the S1 minimum and then S1 → S0 IC or S1 → T1 → S0 ISCs take place to the S0 state by surmounting a large barrier of 15.3 kcal mol-1 or 11.9 kcal mol-1, respectively, which heavily suppress electronic transition to the S0 state. Different from 2,4-DT, upon photoexcitation in the Franck-Condon region, 2-AT can quickly evolve in an essentially barrierless manner to nearby S2/S1 conical intersection, where the S2 and T1 states can be populated. Once it hops to the S2 state, the system will overcome a relatively small barrier (6.6 kcal mol-1vs. 15.3 kcal mol-1) through IC to the S0 state. Similarly, an energy barrier of 11.9 kcal mol-1 heavily suppresses the T1 state transformation to the S0 state. The present work manifests that the amination/deamination of the triazine rings can affect some degree of different vertical and adiabatic excitation energies and nonradiative decay pathways in solution. It not only rationalizes excited-state decay dynamics of 2,4-DT and 2-AT in aqueous solution but could also provide insights into the understanding of the photophysics of aza-nucleobases.

Posterior Temporary C1-2 Pedicle Screws Fixation for the Treatment of Unstable C1-2 Complex Fractures: Minimum of 2-Year Follow-Up.

STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective. OBJECTIVES: To present rarely reported complex fractures of the upper cervical spine (C1-C2) and discuss the clinical results of the posterior temporary C1-2 pedicle screws fixation for C1-C2 stabilization. METHODS: A total of 19 patients were included in the study (18 males and 1 female). Their age ranged from 23 to 66 years (mean age of 39.6 years). The patients were diagnosed with complex fractures of the atlas and the axis of the upper cervical spine and underwent posterior temporary C1-2 pedicle screws fixation. The patients underwent a serial postoperative clinical examination at approximately 3, 6, 9 months, and annually thereafter. The neck disability index (NDI) and the range of neck rotary motion were used to evaluate the postoperative clinical efficacy of the patients. RESULTS: The average operation time and blood loss were 110 ± 25 min and 50 ± 12 ml, respectively. The mean follow-up was 38 ± 11 months (range 22 to 60 months). The neck rotary motion before removal, immediately after removal, and the last follow-up were 68.7 ± 7.1°, 115.1 ± 11.7°, and 149.3 ± 8.9° (P < 0.01). The NDI scores before and after the operation were 42.7 ± 4.3, 11.1 ± 4.0 (P < 0.01), and the NDI score 2 days after the internal fixation was removed was 7.3 ± 2.9, which was better than immediately after the operation (P < 0.01), and 2 years after the internal fixation was removed. The NDI score was 2.0 ± 0.8, which was significantly better than 2 days after the internal fixation was taken out (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Posterior temporary screw fixation is a good alternative surgical treatment for unstable C1-C2 complex fractures.

The Biomechanical Effects of Different Bag-Carrying Styles on Lumbar Spine and Paraspinal Muscles: A Combined Musculoskeletal and Finite Element Study.

OBJECTIVES: Bags such as handbags, shoulder bags, and backpacks are commonly used. However, it is difficult to assess the biomechanical effects of bag-carrying styles on the lumbar spine and paraspinal muscles using traditional methods. This study aimed to evaluate the biomechanical effects of bag-carrying styles on the lumbar spine. METHODS: We developed a hybrid model that combined a finite element (FE) model of the lumbar spine and musculoskeletal models of three bag-carrying styles. The image data was collected from a 26-years-old, 176 cm and 70 kg volunteer. OpenSim and ABAQUS were used to do the musculoskeletal analysis and finite analysis. Paraspinal muscle force, intervertebral compressive force (ICF), and intervertebral shear force (ISF) on L1 were calculated and loaded into the FE model to assess the stress distribution on the lumbar spine. RESULTS: Different paraspinal muscle activation occurred in the three bag-carrying models. The increase in the ICF generated by all three bags was greater than the bags' weights. The handbag produced greater muscle force, ICF, ISF, and peak stress on the nucleus pulposus than the backpack and shoulder bag of the same weight. Peak stress on the intervertebral discs in the backpack model and the L1-L4 segments of the shoulder bag model increased linearly with bag weight, and increased exponentially with bag weight in the handbag model. CONCLUSION: Unbalanced bag-carrying styles (shoulder bags and handbags) led to greater muscle force, which generated greater ICF, ISF, and peak stress on the lumbar spine. The backpack produced the least burden on the lumbar spine and paraspinal muscles. Heavy handbags should be used carefully in daily life.

[Grain yield estimation of wheat-maize rotation cultivated land based on Sentinel-2 multi-spectral image: A case study in Caoxian County, Shandong, China]. / 基于Sentinel-2å¤šå ‰è°±å½±åƒçš„å°éº¦-玉米轮作耕地粮食产量估测­­ä»¥æ›¹åŽ¿ä¸ºä¾‹.

Establishing the remote sensing yield estimation model of wheat-maize rotation cultivated land can timely and accurately estimate the comprehensive grain yield. Taking the winter wheat-summer maize rotation cultivated land in Caoxian County, Shandong Province, as test object, using the Sentinel-2 images from 2018 to 2019, we compared the time-series feature classification based on QGIS platform and support vector machine algorithm to select the best method and extract sowing area of wheat-maize rotation cultivated land. Based on the correlation between wheat and maize vegetation index and the statistical yield, we screened the sensitive vegetation indices and their growth period, and obtained the vegetation index integral value of the sensitive spectral period by using the Newton-trapezoid integration method. We constructed the multiple linear regression and three machine learning (random forest, RF; neural network model, BP; support vector machine model, SVM) models based on the integral value combination to get the best and and optimized yield estimation model. The results showed that the accuracy rate of extracting wheat and maize sowing area based on time-series features using QGIS platform reached 94.6%, with the overall accuracy and Kappa coefficient were 5.9% and 0.12 higher than those of the support vector machine algorithm, respectively. The remote sensing yield estimation in sensitive spectral period was better than that in single growth period. The normalized differential vegetation index and ratio vegetation index integral group of wheat and enhanced vegetation index and structure intensify pigment vegetable index integral group of maize could more effectively aggregate spectral information. The optimal combination of vegetation index integral was difference, and the fitting accuracy of machine learning algorithm was higher than that of empirical statistical model. The optimal yield estimation model was the difference value group-random forest (DVG-RF) model of machine learning algorithm (R2=0.843, root mean square error=2.822 kg·hm-2), with a yield estimation accuracy of 93.4%. We explored the use of QGIS platform to extract the sowing area, and carried out a systematical case study on grain yield estimation method of wheat-maize rotation cultivated land. The established multi-vegetation index integral combination model was effective and feasible, which could improve accuracy and efficiency of yield estimation.

A simple pre-disease state prediction method based on variations of gene vector features.

BACKGROUND: The progression of disease can be divided into three states: normal, pre-disease, and disease. Since a pre-disease state is the tipping point of disease deterioration, accurately predicting pre-disease state may help to prevent the progression of disease and develop feasible treatment in time. METHODS: In the perspective of gene regulatory network, the expression of a gene is regulated by its upstream genes, and then it also regulates that of its downstream genes. In this study, we define the expression value of these genes as a gene vector to depict its state in a specific sample. Then, we propose a novel pre-disease prediction method by such vector features. RESULTS: The results of an influenza virus infection dataset show that our method can successfully predict the pre-disease state. Furthermore, the pre-disease state related genes predicted by our methods are highly associated with each other and enriched in influenza virus infection related pathways. In addition, our method is more time efficient in calculation than previous works. The code of our method is accessed at https://github.com/ZhenshenBao/sPGVF.git.

Detect the early-warning signals of diseases based on signaling pathway perturbations on a single sample.

BACKGROUND: During the pathogenesisof complex diseases, a sudden health deterioration will occur as results of the cumulative effect of various internal or external factors. The prediction of an early warning signal (pre-disease state) before such deterioration is very important in clinical practice, especially for a single sample. The single-sample landscape entropy (SLE) was proposed to tackle this issue. However, the PPI used in SLE was lack of definite biological meanings. Besides, the calculation of multiple correlations based on limited reference samples in SLE is time-consuming and suspect. RESULTS: Abnormal signals generally exert their effect through the static definite biological functions in signaling pathways across the development of diseases. Thus, it is a natural way to study the propagation of the early-warning signals based on the signaling pathways in the KEGG database. In this paper, we propose a signaling perturbation method named SSP, to study the early-warning signal in signaling pathways for single dynamic time-series data. Results in three real datasets including the influenza virus infection, lung adenocarcinoma, and acute lung injury show that the proposed SSP outperformed the SLE. Moreover, the early-warning signal can be detected by one important signaling pathway PI3K-Akt. CONCLUSIONS: These results all indicate that the static model in pathways could simplify the detection of the early-warning signals.

Analysis of flavonoids and phenylethanoid glycosides in the Tibetan herb Lagotis brevituba Maxim based on UHPLC-LTQ-orbitrap-MS / 药学学报

Ultra high performance liquid chromatography tandem linear ion trap orbitrap mass spectrometry (UHPLC-LTQ-orbitrap-MS) was applied to analyze and identify flavonoids and phenylethanoid glycosides in the Tibetan herb Lagotis brevituba Maxim. A method of data-dependent scan coupling with dynamic exclusion was developed for analyzing flavonoids and phenylethanoid glycosides under positive and negative ion mode of electrospray ionization (ESI). The compounds of Lagotis brevituba Maxim. were systematically identified through exact molecular mass, fragmentation patterns, retention time and reported references. A total of 167 compounds were detected, of which 84 were flavonoids and 83 were phenylethanoid glycosides, which greatly enriched the number and types of flavonoids and phenylethanol glycosides in Lagotis genus medicinal plants. Baohuoside Ⅰ, 4 disaccharide O-glycoside flavonoids (composed of deoxyhexose and glucuronic acid), 9 C-glycoside flavonoids, 15 tetrasaccharide phenylethanoid glycosides and 5 phenylethanoid glycosides with substituents on the β-position of the phenylethyl group were identified in Lagotis genus medicinal plants for the first time. This study provides scientific support for elucidating the material basis and improving the quality control of Lagotis brevituba Maxim.

Unprecedented observation and characterization of sulfur-centred bifurcated hydrogen bonds.

Owing to the small electronegativity of the sulfur atom, it is commonly supposed that at most one weak H-bond can be formed between a sulfur atom and an H-bond donor. In this paper, an unprecedented 2 : 1 binding species generated from two molecules of phenol and a molecule of thioether was observed and characterized by various nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques, Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) techniques and density functional theory (DFT) calculations, revealing the formation of sulfur-centred O-H⋯S⋯H-O bifurcated H-bonds. This work may provide a simple and efficient method for the quantitative analysis of weak H-bonds between small organic molecules.

Construction of China national newborn growth standards based on a large low-risk sample.

Most published newborn growth references are based on conventional monitoring data that usually included both low- and high-risk pregnancies. We sought to develop a set of neonatal growth standards constructed from only a large sample of low-risk pregnancies. A total of 24,375 naturally conceived singleton live births with gestational ages of 24-42 weeks were collected in 69 hospitals in thirteen Chinese cities between 2015 and 2018. Unhealthy infants or those with high-risk mother were excluded. Smoothed percentile curves of six anthropometric indicators were established using the Generalized Additive Model for Location, Scale and Shape. The 3rd, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th, and 97th percentile references for birth weight, length, head circumference, weight/length, body mass index, and ponderal index were calculated for neonates with gestational ages of 24-42 weeks. This set of neonatal growth standards with six anthropometric indicators can provide more tools for growth and nutrition assessment and body proportionality in neonatal clinical practice. These standards might also help to show the differences between growth curves based on low-risk and mixed low- and high-risk pregnancies.

[Remote sensing inversion of cultivated land fertility at county scale based on SWCI-NDVI feature space]. / 基于SWCI-NDVI特征空间的县域耕地地力遥感反演.

It is objective needs during utilization and management of regional cultivated land resource to use remote sensing to accurately and efficiently retrieve the status of cultivated land fertility at county level and realize the gradation of cultivated land rapidly. In this study, with Dongping County as a case, using Landsat TM satellite imagery and cultivated land fertility evaluation data, the moisture vegetation fertility index (MVFI) was constructed based on surface water capacity index (SWCI) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and then the optimal inversion model was optimized to obtain the best inversion model, which was further applied and verified at the county scale. The results showed that the correlation coefficient between MVFI and integrated fertility index (IFI) was -0.753, which could comprehensively reflect the growth of winter wheat, soil moisture and land fertility, and had clear biophysical significance. The best inversion model was the quadratic model, with high inversion accuracy. This model was suitable for the inversion of cultivated land fertility in the county. The spatial distribution and uniformity of the inversion results were similar to the results of soil fertility evaluation. The area differences between the high, medium and low grades were all less than 2.9%. This study provided a remote sensing inversion method of cultivated land fertility based on the feature space theory, which could effectively improve the evaluation efficiency and prediction accuracy of cultivated land fertility at the county scale.

Analysis on the law of height growth spurt in adolescence of children and adolescents in Zhongshan City / 北京大学学报(医学版)

OBJECTIVE@#To analyze the characteristics of the age at peak height velocity and peak height velocity of primary and middle school students in Zhongshan City, Guangdong Province, and to explore the law of the sudden increase in adolescent height in this area, and to understand the law of height growth spurt in adolescence by longitudinal tracking of the height of children and adolescents in Zhong-shan City.@*METHODS@#Based on the physical examination database of primary and middle school students in Zhongshan City, Guangdong Province from 2005 to 2016, individuals who had been continuously tracked for more than 6 times were selected as research samples. SITAR model was used to fit the height data of the sample population, and the age at peak height velocity and peak height velocity were calcula-ted.@*RESULTS@#A total of 49 579 subjects were included in this study, including 26 524 boys and 26 008 urban students. The median follow-up ages of boys and girls were 7.74 and 7.72 years, respectively. The boy's height spurt peak age was (12.72±0.89) years, and later than the girls at the age of (10.98±0.95) years (t=207.639, P < 0.001), the boy's height spurt peak velocity of (10.12±1.49) cm/year, higher than the girls of (8.35±1.12) cm/year (t=150.826, P < 0.001). The gender differences of height spurt peak age and height spurt peak speed in urban and rural students were consistent with the whole sample. The height surge peak age of urban male students was earlier than that of rural male students, and the height surge peak speed of urban female students was lower than that of rural female students.@*CONCLUSION@#The peak age of the surge of girls was earlier than that of boys, but the peak rate of the surge of girls was lower than that of boys, the peak age of urban students was earlier than that of rural students, but the peak rate of urban boys was lower than that of rural boys in Guangdong Province.

Clinical Characteristics and Genetic Analysis of Klippel-Feil Syndrome / 中国医学科学院学报

Objective To summarize clinical characteristics and investigate possible pathogenic gene of Klippel-Feil syndrome(KFS)by the self-designed multigene panel sequencing,so as to decipher the molecular basis for early diagnosis and targeted therapy.Methods From January 2015 to December 2018,we consecutively recruited 25 patients who were diagnosed with KFS in Peking Union Medical College Hospital.The demographic information,clinical manifestations,physical examination and radiological assessments were analyzed.Multigene panel sequencing was performed after DNA extraction from peripheral blood.The possible pathogenic mutations of KFS were explored on the basis of bioinformatics analysis.Results The KFS cohort consisted of 25 patients,including 15 males and 10 females,with a mean age of(12.9±7.3)years.Limited cervical range of motion was the most common clinical feature(12 cases,48%).Based on the Samartzis classification,the proportion of patients suffered from short neck(P=0.031)and limited cervical range of motion(P=0.026)in type Ⅲ KFS was significantly higher than that in type Ⅱ and type Ⅰ KFS.Panel sequencing detected a total of 11 pathogenic missense mutations in eight patients,including COL6A1,COL6A2,CDAN1,GLI3,FLNB,CHRNG,MYH3,POR,and TNXB.There was no pathogenic mutation found in five reported pathogenic genes(GDF6,MEOX1,GDF3,MYO18B and RIPPLY2)associated with KFS.Conclusions Our study has shown that patients with multiple contiguous cervical fusions are more likely to manifest short neck,limited cervical range of motion,and clinical triad.Therefore,these patients need additional attention and follow-up.Our analysis highlights novel KFS-related genetic variants,such as COL6A and CDAN1,extending the spectrum of known mutations contributing to this syndrome and providing a basis for elucidating the pathogenesis of KFS.

[Multi-scale spatial variability of soil salinity in typical fields of the Yellow River Delta in summer]. / é»„æ²³ä¸‰è§’æ´²å¤å­£å ¸åž‹ç”°å—åœŸå£¤ç›åˆ†çš„å¤šå°ºåº¦ç©ºé—´å˜å¼‚.

Soil salinization severely hinders the development of agricultural economy in the Yellow River Delta. Clarifying the spatial variability of soil salinity at multiple scales in the field is of great significance for the improvement and utilization of saline soils and agricultural production. In this study, by dividing the three dimensions of field, plot and ridge, we collceted 152 sets of conducti-vity data through field survey sampling in a summer maize field in Kenli County of the Yellow River delta. The methods of classic statistics, geostatistics and Kriging interpolation were used to analyze the spatial variability and scale effects of multi-scale soil salt in the field. The results showed that soil in this area was moderately salinized, with the extent of soil salinity moderately varying at three scales. From the field, plot to the ridge scale, with the decreases of sampling scale, the variability of soil salinity increased and the standard deviation increased. The ridge and plot scales showed strong spatial correlation. The optimal model was Gaussian model, which was mainly affected by structural factors. The field scale was of medium spatial correlation, with exponential model as the optimal one, which was influenced by both random factors and structural factors. The spatial distribution characteristics of soil salinity at different scales were significantly different. The spatial chara-cteristics at small scale were masked at large scale, showing obvious scale effect. The distribution of soil salinity at the micro-ridge scale between ridges had obvious variation. Soil salt content gradually decreased with the micro-topography from high to low, while vegetation coverage changed from sparse to dense.

Deep Learning-Based Method of Diagnosing Hyperlipidemia and Providing Diagnostic Markers Automatically.

INTRODUCTION: The research of auxiliary diagnosis has always been one of the hotspots in the world. The implementation of auxiliary diagnosis support algorithm for medical text data faces challenges with interpretability and creditability. The improvement of clinical diagnostic techniques means not only the improvement of diagnostic accuracy but also the further study of diagnostic basis. Traditional research methods for diagnostic markers often require a large amount of time and economic costs. Research objects are often dozens of samples, and it is, therefore, difficult to synthesize large amounts of data. Therefore, the comprehensiveness and reliability of traditional methods have yet to be improved. Therefore, the establishment of a model that can automatically diagnose diseases and automatically provide a diagnostic basis at the same time has a positive effect on the improvement of medical diagnostic techniques. METHODS: Here, we established an auxiliary diagnostic tool based on attention deep learning algorithm to diagnostic hyperlipemia and automatically predict the corresponding diagnostic markers using hematological parameters. In this paper, we not only demonstrated the ability of the proposed model to automatically diagnose diseases using text-based medical data, such as physiological parameters, but also demonstrated its ability to forecast disease diagnostic markers. Human physiological parameters are used as input to the model, and the doctor's diagnosis results as an output. Through the attention layer, the degree of attention of the model to different physiological parameters can be obtained, that is, the model provides a diagnostic basis. RESULTS: It achieved 94% ACC, 97.48% AUC, 96% sensitivity and 92% specificity with the test dataset. All the above samples are drawn from clinical practice. Moreover, the model predicted the diagnostic markers of hyperlipidemia by the attention mechanism, and the results were fully agreeable to the golden criteria. DISCUSSION: The auxiliary diagnosis system proposed in this paper not only achieves the accurate and robust performance, and can be used for the preliminary diagnosis of patients, but also showing its great potential to discover new diagnostic markers. Therefore, it not only can improve the efficiency of clinical diagnosis but also shorten the research period of researching a diagnosis basis to an extent. It has a positive significance to the development of the medical diagnosis level.

Differential physiological, transcriptomic and metabolomic responses of Arabidopsis leaves under prolonged warming and heat shock.

BACKGROUND: Elevated temperature as a result of global climate warming, either in form of sudden heatwave (heat shock) or prolonged warming, has profound effects on the growth and development of plants. However, how plants differentially respond to these two forms of elevated temperatures is largely unknown. Here we have therefore performed a comprehensive comparison of multi-level responses of Arabidopsis leaves to heat shock and prolonged warming. RESULTS: The plant responded to prolonged warming through decreased stomatal conductance, and to heat shock by increased transpiration. In carbon metabolism, the glycolysis pathway was enhanced while the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle was inhibited under prolonged warming, and heat shock significantly limited the conversion of pyruvate into acetyl coenzyme A. The cellular concentration of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and the activities of antioxidant enzymes were increased under both conditions but exhibited a higher induction under heat shock. Interestingly, the transcription factors, class A1 heat shock factors (HSFA1s) and dehydration responsive element-binding proteins (DREBs), were up-regulated under heat shock, whereas with prolonged warming, other abiotic stress response pathways, especially basic leucine zipper factors (bZIPs) were up-regulated instead. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings reveal that Arabidopsis exhibits different response patterns under heat shock versus prolonged warming, and plants employ distinctly different response strategies to combat these two types of thermal stress.

Determination of 53 pesticide residues in different category of Fritillaria by QuEChERS and GC-MS/MS / 中草药

Objective: To establish a method for simultaneous determination of 53 kinds of pesticides residual in different category of Fritillaria by using QuEChERS and gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry, and applying to 193 batches sample screening. Methods: The forbidden, restricted and commonly used pesticides were selected as detecting indexes according to the result of this investigation. The samples were prepared by QuEChERS, and quantitative analysis was carried out by GC-MS/MS multiple-reaction monitoring (MRM) model. There were three supplemental levels for determining recoveries and RSD. Results: The results showed that all the 53 pesticides had good linearity in certain ranges with the correlation coefficients (R) higher than 0.997 8. The recoveries of more than 86.8% pesticides were ranged from 60% to 140% at three supplemental levels (1×LOD, 2×LOD, and 10×LOD), with the RSDs less than 15%. The LOD ranged of all pesticides were below 0.01 mg/kg. The result of 193 batches sample screening showed that 91 batches sample were detected 14 pesticides, and the detection rate was 47.2%. Conclusion: The detecting indexes is meaningful and the developed method is simple, rapid, sensitive, and reliable for screening multiple pesticide residues in different category of Fritillaria. The result has certain reference value for the cultivation and circulation supervision of different category of Fritillaria.