Study of J/Psi decays into eta Kstar Kstar-bar

We report the first observation of \mPJpsi \to \mPeta\mPKst\mAPKst decay in a \mPJpsi sample of 58 million events collected with the BESII detector. The branching fraction is determined to be $(1.15 \pm 0.13 \pm 0.22)\times 10^{-3}$. The selected signal event sample is further used to search for the \mPY resonance through \mPJpsi \to \mPeta \mPY, \mPY\to\mPKst\mAPKst. No evidence of a signal is seen. An upper limit of \mathrm{Br}(\mPJpsi \to \mPeta \mPY)\cdot\mathrm{Br}(\mPY\to\mPKst\mAPKst) < 2.52\times 10^{-4} is set at the 90% confidence level.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

PDK2 promotes chondrogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells by upregulation of Sox6 and activation of JNK/MAPK/ERK pathway

This study was undertaken to clarify the role and mechanism of pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase isoform 2 (PDK2) in chondrogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). MSCs were isolated from femurs and tibias of Sprague-Dawley rats, weighing 300-400 g (5 females and 5 males). Overexpression and knockdown of PDK2 were transfected into MSCs and then cell viability, adhesion and migration were assessed. Additionally, the roles of aberrant PDK2 in chondrogenesis markers SRY-related high mobility group-box 6 (Sox6), type ΙΙ procollagen gene (COL2A1), cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP), aggrecan (AGC1), type ΙX procollagen gene (COL9A2) and collagen type 1 alpha 1 (COL1A1) were measured by quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The expressions of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and extracellular regulated protein kinase (ERK) were measured. Overexpressing PDK2 promoted cell viability, adhesion and inhibited cell migration in MSCs (all P<0.05). qRT-PCR assay showed a potent increase in the mRNA expressions of all chondrogenesis markers in response to overexpressing PDK2 (P<0.01 or P<0.05). PDK2 overexpression also induced a significant accumulation in mRNA and protein expressions of JNK, p38MAPK and ERK in MSCs compared to the control (P<0.01 or P<0.05). Meanwhile, silencing PDK2 exerted the opposite effects on MSCs. This study shows a preliminary positive role and potential mechanisms of PDK2 in chondrogenic differentiation of MSCs. It lays the theoretical groundwork for uncovering the functions of PDK2 and provides a promising basis for repairing cartilage lesions in osteoarthritis

Estimating plant root water uptake using a neural network approach

Water uptake by plant roots is an important process in the hydrological cycle, not only for plant growth but also for the role it plays in shaping microbial community and bringing in physical and biochemical changes to soils. The ability of roots to extract water is determined by combined soil and plant characteristics, and how to model it has been of interest for many years. Most macroscopic models for water uptake operate at soil profile scale under the assumption that the uptake rate depends on root density and soil moisture. Whilst proved appropriate, these models need spatio-temporal root density distributions, which is tedious to measure in situ and prone to uncertainty because of the complexity of root architecture hidden in the opaque soils. As a result, developing alternative methods that do not explicitly need the root density to estimate the root water uptake is practically useful but has not yet been addressed. This paper presents and tests such an approach. The method is based on a neural network model, estimating the water uptake using different types of data that are easy to measure in the field. Sunflower grown in a sandy loam subjected to water stress and salinity was taken as a demonstrating example. The inputs to the neural network model included soil moisture, electrical conductivity of the soil solution, height and diameter of plant shoot, potential evapotranspiration, atmospheric humidity and air temperature. The outputs were the root water uptake rate at different depths in the soil profile. To train and test the model, the root water uptake rate was directly measured based on mass balance and Darcy's law assessed from the measured soil moisture content and soil water matric potential in profiles from the soil surface to a depth of 100 cm. The 'measured' root water uptake agreed well with that predicted by the neural network model. The successful performance of the model provides an alternative and more practical way to estimate the root water uptake at field scale.Sunflower Pedotransfer function Water stress Soil salinity