Correlation between Aphids, Aphidiinae and Hyperparasitoids in Different Habitats

Aphids are one of the major pests of economical crops in China. Field surveys showed that Macrosiphum avence, Rhopalosiphum padi, Schizaphis graminum, Myzus persicae, Aphis glycines and Lipaphis erysimi are the main aphid species found in agricultural fields. Besides lady beetles and spiders, aphidiine braconids also play an important role in controlling aphids, including Ephedrus plagiator, E. nacheri, Aphidius euenae, Diaeretiella rapae, A. ervi, and A. picipes. However, Aphidiinae are also attacked by many hyperparasitoids, which include Aphidencyrtus aphidivorus, Pachyneuron aphidis, Asaphes vulgaris, Lygocerus koebelai and Figites sp.Originating text in Chinese.Citation: Zhang, Guoan, Guan, Yue, Wang, Qinghai. (2000). Correlation between Aphids, Aphidiinae and Hyperparasitoids in Different Habitats. 8th National Biological Control Conference, Symposium on Insect Control by Microbiology, 29-29

The Plasma LncRNA Acting as Fingerprint in Hilar Cholangiocarcinoma

Background & Aims: Current studies have indicated that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) could act as tumor biomarkers for disease diagnosis and prognosis prediction. In this study, we mainly focused on determining the expression of circulating lncRNAs in patients suffering for hilar cholangiocarcinoma (HC), aiming to reveal the potential lncRNA as a fingerprint. Methods: A total 12 lncRNAs were previously proven to be aberrantly expressed in HC tumor tissues. All of the 12 lncRNAs were selected as candidate targets for subsequent circulating lncRNA assay. The candidate lncRNAs were validated by qRT-PCR arranged in training and validation sets. The risk score analysis was employed. Data was presented with receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC). Results: Circulating PCAT1, MALAT1, and CPS1-IT1 were significantly increased in plasma samples of HC patients in both the training set and validation set. Through ROC analysis, we found that the three plasmatic lncRNAs presented the area under ROC curve value (AUC) as 0.784, 0.860, and 0.677. Further combination with the three factors indicated a higher power (AUC, 0.893; sensitivity, 85.5%; specificity, 93.2%). Conclusion: This was the first time to reveal the potential circulating fingerprints for predicting HC. PCAT1, MALAT1, and CPS1-IT1 may act as novel early diagnosis biomarkers for predicting HC

MicroRNAome of Porcine Pre- and Postnatal Development

The domestic pig is of enormous agricultural significance and valuable models for many human diseases. Information concerning the pig microRNAome (miRNAome) has been long overdue and elucidation of this information will permit an atlas of microRNA (miRNA) regulation functions and networks to be constructed. Here we performed a comprehensive search for porcine miRNAs on ten small RNA sequencing libraries prepared from a mixture of tissues obtained during the entire pig lifetime, from the fetal period through adulthood. The sequencing results were analyzed using mammalian miRNAs, the precursor hairpins (pre-miRNAs) and the first release of the high-coverage porcine genome assembly (Sscrofa9, April 2009) and the available expressed sequence tag (EST) sequences. Our results extend the repertoire of pig miRNAome to 867 pre-miRNAs (623 with genomic coordinates) encoding for 1,004 miRNAs, of which 777 are unique. We preformed real-time quantitative PCR (q-PCR) experiments for selected 30 miRNAs in 47 tissue-specific samples and found agreement between the sequencing and q-PCR data. This broad survey provides detailed information about multiple variants of mature sequences, precursors, chromosomal organization, development-specific expression, and conservation patterns. Our data mining produced a broad view of the pig miRNAome, consisting of miRNAs and isomiRs and a wealth of information of pig miRNA characteristics. These results are prelude to the advancement in pig biology as well the use of pigs as model organism for human biological and biomedical studies

Molecular properties of CD133+ glioblastoma stem cells derived from treatment-refractory recurrent brain tumors

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) remains refractory to conventional therapy. CD133+ GBM cells have been recently isolated and characterized as chemo-/radio-resistant tumor-initiating cells and are hypothesized to be responsible for post-treatment recurrence. In order to explore the molecular properties of tumorigenic CD133+ GBM cells that resist treatment, we isolated CD133+ GBM cells from tumors that are recurrent and have previously received chemo-/radio-therapy. We found that the purified CD133+ GBM cells sorted from the CD133+ GBM spheres express SOX2 and CD44 and are capable of clonal self-renewal and dividing to produce fast-growing CD133− progeny, which form the major cell population within GBM spheres. Intracranial injection of purified CD133+, not CD133− GBM daughter cells, can lead to the development of YKL-40+ infiltrating tumors that display hypervascularity and pseudopalisading necrosis-like features in mouse brain. The molecular profile of purified CD133+ GBM cells revealed characteristics of neuroectoderm-like cells, expressing both radial glial and neural crest cell developmental genes, and portraying a slow-growing, non-differentiated, polarized/migratory, astrogliogenic, and chondrogenic phenotype. These data suggest that at least a subset of treated and recurrent GBM tumors may be seeded by CD133+ GBM cells with neural and mesenchymal properties. The data also imply that CD133+ GBM cells may be clinically indolent/quiescent prior to undergoing proliferative cell division (PCD) to produce CD133− GBM effector progeny. Identifying intrinsic and extrinsic cues, which promote CD133+ GBM cell self-renewal and PCD to support ongoing tumor regeneration may highlight novel therapeutic strategies to greatly diminish the recurrence rate of GBM

Research on Soft Flutter of 420m-Span Pedestrian Suspension Bridge and Its Aerodynamic Measures

In order to study the flutter of long-span pedestrian suspension bridge and its aerodynamic control, a 420m-span pedestrian suspension bridge is used as an engineering example, the wind-induced vibration of seven particular aerodynamic sections is studied by wind tunnel tests, and the soft flutter phenomenon of two kinds of aerodynamic sections is identified. The results show that the wind fairing and the wind-retaining plate measures are not necessarily effective measures to improve the wind-induced stability of long-span pedestrian suspension bridge, as these two measures may reduce the flutter stability: the wind fairing section in the positive angle of attack is prone to torsion-based soft flutter phenomenon, in which the vertical vibration spectrum contains multiple vibration frequencies, so the conventional formulation of the linearized self-excited forces is no longer satisfied; the wind-retaining plate section in the negative angle of attack is prone to soft flutter dominated by vertical vibration, and the beat vibration phenomenon is found in the torsional vibration time history of the wind-retaining section. Slotting in the center of the girder section can significantly change the flow state of the section, which is an effective measure to improve the flutter stability of the pedestrian suspension bridge

An Optimization Design Method of Rigid-Flexible Soft Fingers Based on Dielectric Elastomer Actuators

The soft gripper has received extensive attention, due to its good adaptability and flexibility. The dielectric elastomer (DE) actuator as a flexible electroactive polymer that provides a new approach for soft grippers. However, they have the disadvantage of having a poor rigidity. Therefore, the optimization design method of a rigid-flexible soft finger is presented to improve the rigidity of the soft finger. We analyzed the interaction of the rigid and soft materials, using the finite element method (FEM), and researched the influence of the parameters (compression of the spring and pre-stretching ratio of the DE) on the bending angle. The optimal parameters were obtained using the FEM. We experimentally verified the accuracy of the proposed method. The maximum bending angle is 19.66°. Compared with the theoretical result, the maximum error is 3.84%. Simultaneously, the soft gripper with three fingers can grasp various objects and the maximum grasping quality is 11.21 g