Sex-specific responses of Populus deltoides to defoliation

There has been an increasing interest in understanding the differential effects of sexual dimorphism on plant stress responses. However, there is no clear pattern in the responses of the sexes to defoliation. In this study, the effects of different severity of artificial defoliation on biomass production, total nonstructural carbohydrate (NSC) concentration, and photosynthetic rate (PN) of male and female Populus deltoides were examined. We used half and full defoliation to observe the differences between the sexes in three harvest dates (1 week, 4 weeks, and 8 weeks after treatments). We hypothesized that female and male P. deltoides compared with an undefoliated control would have compensatory growth in response to defoliation treatments. Results showed that half and full defoliation reduced the growth of both sexes. Following half defoliation, root growth was reduced, especially in males, at T2 (4 weeks after defoliation) and T3 (8 weeks after defoliation), while males showed an increase in height increment under the half defoliation compared with the nondefoliation treatments. By contrast, females were more negatively affected by defoliation than males in terms of biomass after 8 weeks. One week after defoliation, PN increased significantly in females and males under half defoliation (+30%, +32%, respectively) and full defoliation (+58%, +56%, respectively). However, 8 weeks after defoliation, there was little difference in PN between defoliated and undefoliated female cuttings. Increases in stomatal conductance (gs) and leaf nitrogen were observed under fully defoliated female and male cuttings. Moreover, males had less NSC concentrations following half defoliation compared with females. Our results indicate that leaf compensatory growth in male cuttings of P. deltoides was maintained by obtaining greater photosynthetic capacity, higher leaf nitrogen, and lower NSC concentration following half and full defoliation. Our results highlight that females suffered from greater negative effects than did males following half defoliation, but under full defoliation, the differences between both sexes were subtle

A Review of Policy Framework Research on Promoting Sustainable Transformation of Digital Innovation

With the increasing demand for digital innovation scenarios, it is important to complement and improve the policy system for the governance of digital innovation activities. Combining the previous research results on the analysis of antecedent variables, basic effects and potential mechanisms of digital innovation, and based on the citation analysis of digital innovation topics based on the Citespace method, we find that in the past two decades, the topic of digital innovation policy research has gradually shifted from focusing on “constraining policies to control negative impacts” to focusing on “constructive policies to expand positive impacts”. The digital transformation has brought about multidimensional and profound impacts on the governance of innovation activities, and it is necessary to accelerate the theoretical research on policy frameworks for the new areas of technology socialization effects. Summarizing some of the important progresses, we propose a policy framework covering three aspects: policy needs for sustainable transformation of digital innovation, policy orientation and policy dimensions for sustainable transformation of digital innovation, creating R&D opportunities, optimizing R&D organization, building ecological advantages, improving R&D governance, knowledge creation, enabling applications, collaborative promotion, standardizing management, national digital innovation system, digital innovation foundation, data governance capacity, digital security and other aspects of the conceptual framework of the basic policies for sustainable transformation of digital innovation. The research viewpoints and conclusions are of theoretical reference value for further research on key policy conditions for digital innovation, major policy impact effects and digital innovation governance mechanisms

Impact of Etiology on the Outcomes in Heart Failure Patients Treated with Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy: A Meta-Analysis

<div><p>Background</p><p>Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) has been extensively demonstrated to benefit heart failure patients, but the role of underlying heart failure etiology in the outcomes was not consistently proven. This meta-analysis aimed to determine whether efficacy and effectiveness of CRT is affected by underlying heart failure etiology.</p><p>Methods and Results</p><p>Searches of MEDLINE, EMBASE and Cochrane databases were conducted to identify RCTs and observational studies that reported clinical and functional outcomes of CRT in ischemic cardiomyopathy (ICM) and non-ischemic cardiomyopathy (NICM) patients. Efficacy of CRT was assessed in 7 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with 7072 patients and effectiveness of CRT was evaluated in 14 observational studies with 3463 patients In the pooled analysis of RCTs, we found that CRT decreased mortality or heart failure hospitalization by 29% in ICM patients (95% confidence interval [CI], 21% to 35%), and by 28% (95% CI, 18% to 37%) in NICM patients. No significant difference was observed between the 2 etiology groups (P = 0.55). In the pooled analysis of observational studies, however, we found that ICM patients had a 54% greater risk for mortality or HF hospitalization than NICM patients (relative risk: 1.54; 95% CI: 1.30–1.83; P<0.001). Both RCTs and observational studies demonstrated that NICM patients had greater echocardiographic improvements in the left ventricular ejection fraction and end-systolic volume, as compared with ICM patients (both P<0.001).</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>CRT might reduce mortality or heart failure hospitalization in both ICM and NICM patients similarly. The improvement of the left ventricular function and remodeling is greater in NICM patients.</p></div

Forest Plots Showing the Impact of HF Etiology on Mortality or HF Hospitalization.

<p>(A): data from RCTs; (B): data from observational studies. COMPANION trial was 3 arms design; CI, confidence interval; HF, heart failure; ICD, implantable cardioverter-defibrillator; ICM, ischemic cardiomyopathy; MT, medical therapy; NICM, non-ischemic cardiomyopathy; PCS, prospective cohort studies; RCS, retrospective cohort studies; RR, relative risk; and other abbreviations as in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0094614#pone-0094614-g001" target="_blank">Figure 1</a>.</p

Pooled Analyses of Secondary Outcomes (the Change from Baseline) in NICM Group versus ICM Group.

<p>WMD in change of Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction (A), SMD in change of Left Ventricular End-systolic Volume (B), WMD in change of 6-Min Walking Distance (C), and WMD in change of Quality of Life (D). WMD, weighted mean difference; SMD, standardized mean difference; and other abbreviations as in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0094614#pone-0094614-g002" target="_blank">Figure 2</a>.</p

Characteristics of Observational Studies Included in the Meta-analysis.

<p>ICM, ischemic cardiomyopathy; NICM, non-ischemic cardiomyopathy; other abbreviations as in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0094614#pone-0094614-t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a>.</p