Research on the allelopathic potential of wheat

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Investigation of therapeutic efficacy and mechanisms of polysaccharide of dendrobium officinale in alleviating cigarette-induced pulmonary inflammation

Posters: no. 13PS36Dendrobium officinale is a medicinal plant from the Orchidaceae family. It has been listed in the latest edition of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia as medicinal material Dendrobii Officinalis Caulis (Tiepishihu) because of its treatment efficacy. According to the Pharmacopoeia it benefits the stomach, promotes the production of body fluid, nourishes yin and eliminates evil-heat. Consequently it com...published_or_final_versio

Spinal Astrocytic Activation Is Involved in a Virally-Induced Rat Model of Neuropathic Pain

Postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), the most common complication of herpes zoster (HZ), plays a major role in decreased life quality of HZ patients. However, the neural mechanisms underlying PHN remain unclear. Here, using a PHN rat model at 2 weeks after varicella zoster virus infection, we found that spinal astrocytes were dramatically activated. The mechanical allodynia and spinal central sensitization were significantly attenuated by intrathecally injected L-α-aminoadipate (astrocytic specific inhibitor) whereas minocycline (microglial specific inhibitor) had no effect, which indicated that spinal astrocyte but not microglia contributed to the chronic pain in PHN rat. Further study was taken to investigate the molecular mechanism of astrocyte-incudced allodynia in PHN rat at post-infection 2 weeks. Results showed that nitric oxide (NO) produced by inducible nitric oxide synthase mediated the development of spinal astrocytic activation, and activated astrocytes dramatically increased interleukin-1β expression which induced N-methyl-D-aspartic acid receptor (NMDAR) phosphorylation in spinal dorsal horn neurons to strengthen pain transmission. Taken together, these results suggest that spinal activated astrocytes may be one of the most important factors in the pathophysiology of PHN and “NO-Astrocyte-Cytokine-NMDAR-Neuron” pathway may be the detailed neural mechanisms underlying PHN. Thus, inhibiting spinal astrocytic activation may represent a novel therapeutic strategy for clinical management of PHN

Real time monitoring of PWV from SGCAN and its application test in numerical weather forecast

GPS data from Shanghai GPS Comprehensive and Application Network(SGCAN) in the summer of 2002 are analyzed. The Ultra-rapid orbit of IGS(IGU) is used directly in real-time processing. Reliable Precipitable Water Vapor (PWV) series can be obtained with the assistant of remote stations. Considering the effect of ocean tide, the accuracy of PWV can be improved. The difference between GPS/PVFV and Radiosonde observations is about 2mm. Comparison between the outputs of MM5 and GPS/PWV shows that GPS can be regarded as one means to real-time check up the result of MM5 numerical prediction. Continuous GPS/PWV series in the whole Meiyu season reflects the changing processes of PWV in detail before and after the onset of the Meiyu Season in the Yangtz River Delta in 2002 summer. The variations of GPS/PWV show that the onset of the Meiyu season was from southwest to northeast and completed in about 7 similar to 8 hours. The rainband moved back and forth among the Yangtz River Delta, Huaihe area and the south to the Yangtz river area in the Meiyu season. The statistics of PWV peaks and one-hour rain explain some short-term forecast ability of GPS/PWV for rainstorms. The humidity condition of numerical forecast model is optimized after GPS/PWV being interpolated to the grids of the initial field using the Cressman method. The accuracy of numerical forecast is improved. One example is provided in this paper which shows the potential of GPS/PWV in improving numerical forecast

Electrochromatic carbon nanotube/polydiacetylene nanocomposite fibres

Chromatic materials such as polydiacetylene change colour in response to a wide variety of environmental stimuli, including changes in temperature, pH and chemical or mechanical stress, and have been extensively explored as sensing devices(1-4). Here, we report the facile synthesis of carbon nanotube/polydiacetylene nanocomposite fibres that rapidly and reversibly respond to electrical current, with the resulting colour change being readily observable with the naked eye. These composite fibres also chromatically respond to a broad spectrum of other stimulations. For example, they exhibit rapid and reversible stress-induced chromatism with negligible elongation. These electrochromatic nanocomposite fibres could have various applications in sensing