Quantitative trait loci analysis for chlorophyll content of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) seedlings under low-light stress

An increase in chlorophyll content is an adaptive response to low-light stress and can be used to evaluate low-light tolerance. The effects of low-light stress (100 ìmol·m-2.s-1) on the chlorophyll content of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) were investigated in a set of 123 F2:3 lines in the seedling stage in the autumn of 2008 and spring of 2009. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis was undertaken on the basis of a genetic linkage map of the corresponding F2 population that was constructed using composite interval mapping. F2:3-based QTL analysis of the chlorophyll-a (chl.a), chlorophyll-b (chl.b) and chlorophyll-a+b (chl.a+b) content in the 2 environments revealed 21 QTLs located on the linkage groups 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7, which accounted for 4.8 - 17.3% of the phenotypic variation. In the spring of 2009, the total phenotypic variation among the F2:3 lines accounted for by the QTLs for chl.a, chl.b and chl.a+b were 44.5, 29.4 and39.0%, respectively. In the autumn of 2008, 11 QTLs were identified, which accounted for 4.8 - 14.9% of the observed phenotypic variation and an additive effect of -8.10 to 20.85. Four major-effect QTLs (chla2.1, chlb2.2, chlb3.1 and chla+b2.2) were detected under both conditions. The QTL information presented in this research, together with the data from our previous study on heredity of low-light tolerant traits, will facilitate the breeding of low-light-stress-resistant cucumbers

TransCom: a virtual disk-based cloud computing platform for heterogeneous services

PublishedJournal ArticleThis paper presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of TransCom, a virtual disk (Vdisk) based cloud computing platform that supports heterogeneous services of operating systems (OSes) and their applications in enterprise environments. In TransCom, clients store all data and software, including OS and application software, on Vdisks that correspond to disk images located on centralized servers, while computing tasks are carried out by the clients. Users can choose to boot any client for using the desired OS, including Windows, and access software and data services from Vdisks as usual without consideration of any other tasks, such as installation, maintenance, and management. By centralizing storage yet distributing computing tasks, TransCom can greatly reduce the potential system maintenance and management costs. We have implemented a multi-platform TransCom prototype that supports both Windows and Linux services. The extensive evaluation based on both test-bed experiments and real-usage experiments has demonstrated that TransCom is a feasible, scalable, and efficient solution for successful real-world use. © 2004-2012 IEEE

Outcomes of total hip arthroplasty, as a salvage procedure, following failed internal fixation of intracapsular fractures of the femoral neck: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

AIMS: The optimal management of intracapsular fractures of the femoral neck in independently mobile patients remains open to debate. Successful fixation obviates the limitations of arthroplasty for this group of patients. However, with fixation failure rates as high as 30%, the outcome of revision surgery to salvage total hip arthroplasty (THA) must be considered. We carried out a systematic review to compare the outcomes of salvage THA and primary THA for intracapsular fractures of the femoral neck. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We performed a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) compliant systematic review, using the PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane libraries databases. A meta-analysis was performed where possible, and a narrative synthesis when a meta-analysis was not possible. RESULTS: Our analyses revealed a significantly increased risk of complications including deep infection, early dislocation and peri-prosthetic fracture with salvage THA when compared with primary THA for an intracapsular fracture of the femoral neck (overall risk ratio of 3.15). Functional outcomes assessment using EuroQoL (EQ)-5D were not significantly different (p = 0.3). CONCLUSION: Salvage THA carries a significantly higher risk of complications than primary THA for intracapsular fractured neck of femur. Current literature is still lacking well designed studies to provide a full answer to the question. TAKE HOME MESSAGE: Salvage THA is associated with more complications than primary THA for intracapsular neck of femur fractures

Joint relay scheduling, channel access, and power allocation for green cognitive radio communications

PublishedJournal Article© 1983-2012 IEEE. The capacity of cognitive radio (CR) systems can be enhanced significantly by deploying relay nodes to exploit the spatial diversity. However, the inevitable imperfect sensing in CR has vital effects on the policy of relay selection, channel access, and power allocation that play pivotal roles in the system capacity. The increase in transmission power can improve the system capacity, but results in high energy consumption, which incurs the increase of carbon emission and network operational cost. Most of the existing schemes for CR systems have not jointly considered the imperfect sensing scenario and the tradeoff between the system capacity and energy consumption. To fill in this gap, this paper proposes an energy-aware centralized relay selection scheme that takes into account the relay selection, channel access, and power allocation jointly in CR with imperfect sensing. Specifically, the CR system is formulated as a partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) to achieve the goal of balancing the system capacity and energy consumption as well as maximizing the system reward. The optimal policy for relay selection, channel access, and power allocation is then derived by virtue of a dynamic programming approach. A dimension reduction strategy is further applied to reduce its high computation complexity. Extensive simulation experiments and results are presented and analysed to demonstrate the significant performance improvement compared to the existing schemes. The performance results show that the received reward increases more than 50% and the network lifetime increases more than 35%, but the system capacity is reduced less than 6% only.This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 61201219, 61171111, 61472150, and 61173045 and in part by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under Grant 2013QN122

Evaluating aggregate effects of rare and common variants in the 1000 Genomes Project exon sequencing data using latent variable structural equation modeling

Methods that can evaluate aggregate effects of rare and common variants are limited. Therefore, we applied a two-stage approach to evaluate aggregate gene effects in the 1000 Genomes Project data, which contain 24,487 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 697 unrelated individuals from 7 populations. In stage 1, we identified potentially interesting genes (PIGs) as those having at least one SNP meeting Bonferroni correction using univariate, multiple regression models. In stage 2, we evaluate aggregate PIG effects on trait, Q1, by modeling each gene as a latent construct, which is defined by multiple common and rare variants, using the multivariate statistical framework of structural equation modeling (SEM). In stage 1, we found that PIGs varied markedly between a randomly selected replicate (replicate 137) and 100 other replicates, with the exception of FLT1. In stage 1, collapsing rare variants decreased false positives but increased false negatives. In stage 2, we developed a good-fitting SEM model that included all nine genes simulated to affect Q1 (FLT1, KDR, ARNT, ELAV4, FLT4, HIF1A, HIF3A, VEGFA, VEGFC) and found that FLT1 had the largest effect on Q1 (βstd = 0.33 ± 0.05). Using replicate 137 estimates as population values, we found that the mean relative bias in the parameters (loadings, paths, residuals) and their standard errors across 100 replicates was on average, less than 5%. Our latent variable SEM approach provides a viable framework for modeling aggregate effects of rare and common variants in multiple genes, but more elegant methods are needed in stage 1 to minimize type I and type II error

Superconducting ECR ion source: From 24-28 GHz SECRAL to 45 GHz fourth generation ECR.

The development of superconducting ECR source with higher magnetic fields and higher microwave frequency is the most straight forward path to achieve higher beam intensity and higher charge state performance. SECRAL, a superconducting third generation ECR ion source, is designed for 24-28 GHz microwave frequency operation with an innovative magnet configuration of sextupole coils located outside the three solenoids. SECRAL at 24 GHz has already produced a number of record beam intensities, such as 40Ar12+ 1.4 emA, 129Xe26+ 1.1 emA, 129Xe30+ 0.36 emA, and 209Bi31+ 0.68 emA. SECRAL-II, an upgraded version of SECRAL, was built successfully in less than 3 years and has recently been commissioned at full power of a 28 GHz gyrotron and three-frequency heating (28 + 45 + 18 GHz). New record beam intensities for highly charged ion production have been achieved, such as 620 eμA 40Ar16+, 15 eμA 40Ar18+, 146 eμA 86Kr28+, 0.5 eμA 86Kr33+, 53 eμA 129Xe38+, and 17 eμA 129Xe42+. Recent beam test results at SECRAL and SECRAL II have demonstrated that the production of more intense highly charged heavy ion beams needs higher microwave power and higher frequency, as the scaling law predicted. A 45 GHz superconducting ECR ion source FECR (a first fourth generation ECR ion source) is being built at IMP. FECR will be the world's first Nb3Sn superconducting-magnet-based ECR ion source with 6.5 T axial mirror field, 3.5 T sextupole field on the plasma chamber inner wall, and 20 kW at a 45 GHz microwave coupling system. This paper will focus on SECRAL performance studies at 24-28 GHz and technical design of 45 GHz FECR, which demonstrates a technical path for highly charged ion beam production from 24 to 28 GHz SECRAL to 45 GHz FECR

Protective effect of wild Corni fructus methanolic extract against acute alcoholic liver injury in mice

Background: In Chinese folk medicine, Corni fructus (C. fructus) has traditionally been used to improve liver function, although the mechanism underlying its activity remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the protective effects of wild C. fructus methanolic extract against acute alcoholic liver injury.Methods: Alcohol was administered to mice for three consecutive days, either alone or in combination with C. fructus methanolic extract (50, 100, or 200mg/kg body weight/d). Serum and liver tissue were collected from the animals and subjected to biochemical and histopathological analyses.Results:C. fructus significantly alleviated alcohol-induced liver injury by reducing serum alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, and thiobarbituric acid reactive species, inhibiting hydroxyl radicals (center dot OH), and increasing total superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, and glutathione in the liver (P<0.05). In addition, the C. fructus treatment inhibited the expression and activity of cytochrome P450 2E1 (P<0.05)Conclusions:C. fructus could be a promising natural substance for ameliorating acute alcohol-induced oxidative stress and hepatic injury.- This work was supported by the Construction Project of Shaanxi Collaborative Innovation Center (2015, Shaanxi Sci-tech University); High-End Foreign Experts Recruitment Program [Grant GDW20146100228]; and Key Construction Program of International Cooperation Base in S&T Shaanxi Province, China [Grant 2015SD0018].info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The association between internet addiction and psychiatric co-morbidity: A meta-analysis

Background: This study evaluates the association between Internal Addiction (IA) and psychiatric co-morbidity in the literature.Methods: Meta-analyses were conducted on cross-sectional, case-control and cohort studies which examined the relationship between IA and psychiatric co-morbidity. Selected studies were extracted from major online databases. The inclusion criteria are as follows: 1) studies conducted on human subjects; 2) IA and psychiatric co-morbidity were assessed by standardised questionnaires; and 3) availability of adequate information to calculate the effect size. Random-effects models were used to calculate the aggregate prevalence and the pooled odds ratios (OR).Results: Eight studies comprising 1641 patients suffering from IA and 11210 controls were included. Our analyses demonstrated a significant and positive association between IA and alcohol abuse (OR = 3.05, 95% CI = 2.14-4.37, z = 6.12, P < 0.001), attention deficit and hyperactivity (OR = 2.85, 95% CI = 2.15-3.77, z = 7.27, P < 0.001), depression (OR = 2.77, 95% CI = 2.04-3.75, z = 6.55, P < 0.001) and anxiety (OR = 2.70, 95% CI = 1.46-4.97, z = 3.18, P = 0.001).Conclusions: IA is significantly associated with alcohol abuse, attention deficit and hyperactivity, depression and anxiety. © 2014 Ho et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd