Distribution of tick-borne diseases in China

As an important contributor to vector-borne diseases in China, in recent years, tick-borne diseases have attracted much attention because of their increasing incidence and consequent significant harm to livestock and human health. The most commonly observed human tick-borne diseases in China include Lyme borreliosis (known as Lyme disease in China), tick-borne encephalitis (known as Forest encephalitis in China), Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (known as Xinjiang hemorrhagic fever in China), Q-fever, tularemia and North-Asia tick-borne spotted fever. In recent years, some emerging tick-borne diseases, such as human monocytic ehrlichiosis, human granulocytic anaplasmosis, and a novel bunyavirus infection, have been reported frequently in China. Other tick-borne diseases that are not as frequently reported in China include Colorado fever, oriental spotted fever and piroplasmosis. Detailed information regarding the history, characteristics, and current epidemic status of these human tick-borne diseases in China will be reviewed in this paper. It is clear that greater efforts in government management and research are required for the prevention, control, diagnosis, and treatment of tick-borne diseases, as well as for the control of ticks, in order to decrease the tick-borne disease burden in China

Experimental Test of Tracking the King Problem

In quantum theory, the retrodiction problem is not as clear as its classical counterpart because of the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics. In classical physics, the measurement outcomes of the present state can be used directly for predicting the future events and inferring the past events which is known as retrodiction. However, as a probabilistic theory, quantum-mechanical retrodiction is a nontrivial problem that has been investigated for a long time, of which the Mean King Problem is one of the most extensively studied issues. Here, we present the first experimental test of a variant of the Mean King Problem, which has a more stringent regulation and is termed "Tracking the King". We demonstrate that Alice, by harnessing the shared entanglement and controlled-not gate, can successfully retrodict the choice of King's measurement without knowing any measurement outcome. Our results also provide a counterintuitive quantum communication to deliver information hidden in the choice of measurement.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, 2 table

Modulating Linker Composition of Haptens Resulted in Improved Immunoassay for Histamine.

Histamine (HA) is an important food contaminant generated during food fermentation or spoilage. However, an immunoassay for direct (derivatization free) determination of HA has rarely been reported due to its small size to induce the desired antibodies by its current hapten-protein conjugates. In this work, despite violating the classical hapten design criteria which recommend introducing a linear aliphatic (phenyl free) linker into the immunizing hapten, a novel haptens, HA-245 designed and synthesized with a phenyl-contained linker, exhibited significantly enhanced immunological properties. Thus, a quality-improved monoclonal antibody (Mab) against HA was elicited by its hapten-carrier conjugates. Then, as the linear aliphatic linker contained haptens, Hapten B was used as linker-heterologous coating haptens to eliminate the recognition of linker antibodies. Indirect competitive ELISA (ic-ELISA) was developed with a 50% inhibition concentration (IC50) of 0.21 mg/L and a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.06 mg/L in buffer solution. The average recoveries of HA from spiked food samples for this ic-ELISA ranged from 84.1% and 108.5%, and the analysis results agreed well with those of referenced LC-MS/MS. This investigation not only realized derivatization-free immunoassay for HA, but also provided a valuable guidance for hapten design and development of immunoassay for small molecules

Influence of eight rootstocks on fruit quality of Morus multicaulis cv. ‘Zijing’ and the comprehensive evaluation of fruit quality traits

Mulberry (Morus L.) has become an important crop throughout the world due to its fruits have been industrially exploited for various commercially valuable products. Many studies on mulberry related to genetic diversity, fruit quality, and breeding programs have been carried out, but little information on mulberry rootstocks is available, especially the possibility of applying grafting to improve the fruit quality. Here, we evaluated the effects of 8 different rootstocks on the fruit quality of ‘Zijing’ mulberry. Twelve fruit quality traits were extremely different except for the fruit shape index (FSI). ‘Zijing’ on ‘Zheza 2’ had the highest fruit weight (FW) and size, as well as titratable acidity (TA), but lower levels of other compounds content except the total soluble solids content (TSS) were detected. ‘Yuesang 51’ exhibited the highest soluble sugar content (SSC), reducing sugar content (RSC), SSC/TA ratio, anthocyanin content (AC) and the lower TA. In contrast, the lowest TSS, SSC and RSC were shown in ‘Guisang 5’. Moreover, ‘Guisang 12’ exhibited the highest TSS and soluble protein content (SPC). The highest vitamin C content (VC) was observed in ‘Guisang 6’. ‘Tang 10 × Lun109’, Zhenzhubai seedlings, ‘Yuesang 11’ together with ‘Yuesang 51’ had the lowest and similar levels of TA. Most importantly, these fruit quality traits were evaluated by principal component analysis (PCA), and ‘Yuesang 51’ with good comprehensive fruit quality was screened out, followed by ‘Guisangyou 12’. Overall, these results contribute to evaluating the roles of different rootstocks on improving fruit quality of mulberry

An Hα Imaging Survey of All (Ultra)luminous Infrared Galaxies at Decl. ≥ -30 in the GOALS Sample

This paper presents the result of Hα imaging for luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies. It is a complete subsample of the Great Observatories All-sky LIRG Survey (GOALS) with decl. ≥ -30 , and consists of 148 galaxies with log(L IR/L ) ≥ 11.0. All the Hα images were carried out using the 2.16 m telescope at the Xinglong Station of the National Astronomy Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC), during the year from 2006 to 2009. We obtained the pure Hα luminosity for each galaxy and corrected the luminosity for [N ii] emission, filter transmission, and extinction. We also classified these galaxies based on their morphology and interaction. We found that the distribution of star-forming regions in these galaxies is related to this classification. As the merging process advanced, these galaxies tended to have a more compact distribution of star-forming regions, higher L IR, and warmer IR-color (f 60/f 100). These results imply that the degree of dynamical disturbance plays an important role in determining the distribution of a star-forming region

Periodontal Disease and Breast Cancer: A Meta-Analysis of 1,73,162 Participants

Objective: To investigate the correlation between periodontal disease and breast cancer.Materials and Methods: PubMed and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases were searched up to February 8, 2018 for observational studies examining the association between periodontal disease and breast cancer. Study selection was conducted according to predesigned eligibility criteria, and two authors independently extracted data from included studies. Meta-analysis was performed using the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis v2 software and risk estimates were calculated as relative risks (RRs) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs).Results: A total of 11 study were included. Meta-analysis indicated that periodontal disease significantly increased the risk of breast cancer by 1.22-fold (RR = 1.22, 95% CI = 1.06–1.40). Amongst participants with periodontal patients and a history of periodontal therapy, the risk of developing breast cancer was not significant (RR = 1.23; 95% CI = 0.95–1.60). The association results between periodontal diseases and breast cancer were found to be robust, as evident in the leave-one-out sensitivity analysis.Conclusions: Periodontal disease may be a potential risk factor for the development of breast cancer among women, and thus effective periodontal therapy may present as a valuable preventive measure against breast cancer