The Role of Paragus quadri-fasciatus Meigen on Aphid Control and the Observations of its Biological Characteristics

Four-strip small syrphid fly, Paragus quadri-fasciatus Meigen is the important natural enemy of aphids in our region. A fly can eat about 800 aphids during its whole life. There are more than 10 kinds of aphids can be food of this fly, such as soybean aphid, Chinese sorghum aphid and radish aphid etc. The fly has 3~4 generations each year in Tonghua county, Jilin province. The adult of the first generation appears after the last ten-day period of April each year. It takes 30~35 days to complete one generation. The fly can oviposit 84~124 eggs in its whole life. Major natural enemies of the fly are ichneumon wasps, spiders, lacewings and etc.Originating text in Chinese.Citation: Gao, Junfeng, Jiang, Lianfeng, Zhang, Guangxin, Li, Chunshan, Zhao, Guangquan. (1996). The Role of Paragus quadri-fasciatus Meigen on Aphid Control and the Observations of its Biological Characteristics. Journal of Jilin Agricultural Sciences, 5(2), 60-61

Tunable plasmonic reflection by bound 1D electron states in a 2D Dirac metal

We show that surface plasmons of a two-dimensional Dirac metal such as graphene can be reflected by line-like perturbations hosting one-dimensional electron states. The reflection originates from a strong enhancement of the local optical conductivity caused by optical transitions involving these bound states. We propose that the bound states can be systematically created, controlled, and liquidated by an ultranarrow electrostatic gate. Using infrared nanoimaging, we obtain experimental evidence for the locally enhanced conductivity of graphene induced by a carbon nanotube gate, which supports this theoretical concept.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures, submitted to PR

Online Risk Monitoring Using Offline Simulation

Estimating portfolio risk measures and classifying portfolio risk levels in real time are important yet challenging tasks. In this paper, we propose to build a logistic regression model using data generated in past simulation experiments and to use the model to predict portfolio risk measures and classify risk levels at any time. We further explore regularization techniques, simulation model structure, and additional simulation budget to enhance the estimators of the logistic regression model to make its predictions more precise. Our numerical results show that the proposed methods work well. Our work may be viewed as an example of the recently proposed idea of simulation analytics, which treats a simulation model as a data generator and proposes to apply data analytics tools to the simulation outputs to uncover conditional statements. Our work shows that the simulation analytics idea is viable and promising in the field of financial risk management

Antibacterial characterization of Bacillus velezensis LG37 and mining of genes related to biosynthesis of antibacterial substances

Bacillus velezensis LG37 secretes various antibacterial substances and inhibits the growth of other bacteria. Here, we analyzed the antibacterial characteristics and the screening and verification of genes related to the synthesis of the antibacterial substance of LG37 by antibacterial activities experiment, Local BLAST+, and RT-PCR. LG37 was isolated from aquaculture water and preserved in our laboratory. The phylogenetic tree was used to analyze the genetic relationship between LG37 and the bacteriostatic test indicator strain. LG37 had a more substantial inhibitory effect on closely related strains, while the inhibitory effect on the more distantly related strains was weak. Combined with the results of genome sequencing, the ribosomal peptide (RP) bacteriocin gene and non-ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPSs) related gene clusters were screened and analyzed. A total of six gene-coding RP bacteriocins and two genes coding surfactins and fengycin A NRPSs gene cluster were screened. Local BLAST+ analysis revealed a total of 11 NRPSs gene clusters. The active expression of the NRPSs and RP encoding genes was further validated by RT-PCR. The findings revealed various genes and gene clusters encoding RP bacteriocins and NRPSs in B. velezensis LG37. The bacterium is potentially valuable in diverse applications in aquaculture

Computer-Aided Drug Design of Capuramycin Analogues as Anti-Tuberculosis Antibiotics by 3D-QSAR and Molecular Docking

Capuramycin and a few semisynthetic derivatives have shown potential as anti-tuberculosis antibiotics.To understand their mechanism of action and structureactivity relationships a 3D-QSAR and molecular docking studies were performed. A set of 52 capuramycin derivatives for the training set and 13 for the validation set was used. A highly predictive MFA model was obtained with crossvalidated q2 of 0.398, and non-cross validated partial least-squares (PLS) analysis showed a conventional r2 of 0.976 and r2pred of 0.839. The model has an excellent predictive ability. Combining the 3D-QSAR and molecular docking studies, a number of new capuramycin analogs with predicted improved activities were designed. Biological activity tests of one analog showed useful antibiotic activity against Mycobacterium smegmatis MC2 155 and Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv. Computer-aided molecular docking and 3D-QSAR can improve the design of new capuramycin antimycobacterial antibiotics

ATF4 Contributes to Ovulation via Regulating COX2/PGE2 Expression: A Potential Role of ATF4 in PCOS

Ovulatory disorder is common in patients with hyperprolactinemia or polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Previous studies have shown that ATF4 plays critical role in apoptosis and glucose homeostasis, but its role in regulating reproductive function was not explored. The present study investigated the role of ATF4 in ovarian ovulatory function. Human granulosa cells (hGCs) from 48 women newly diagnosed with PCOS and 37 controls were used to determine ATF4 expression. In vitro cultured hGCs were used to detect the upstream and downstream genes of ATF4. A shRNA- Atf4 lentiviral vector (shAtf4) was injected into rat ovaries to establish an in vivo gene knockdown model to further assess the in vivo relevance of the results from PCOS women. We found that ATF4 expression was lower in hGCs from PCOS patients than in hGCs from non-PCOS women. Many pivotal transcripts involved in cumulus-oocyte complex (COC) expansion, extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling, and progesterone production were significantly down-regulated after ATF4 knockdown. ChIP-qPCR assays indicated that ATF4 could directly bind to the COX2 promoter and that ATF4 knockdown could attenuate human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG)-induced COX2 expression and PGE2 production. The in vivo study showed that shRNA-lentivirus mediated Atf4 knockdown in rat ovaries led to reduced number of retrieved oocytes. Collectively, these findings suggested previously unknown roles of ATF4 in ovulation. Furthermore, ATF4 malfunction in PCOS patients may impact the ovulation process, which could contribute, in part, to the pathogenesis of PCOS

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead