Diagnosis of Uterine Rupture with Ultrasound: An Unusual Presentation with Extrusion of Fetus into the Broad Ligament at Second Trimester

We describe an unusual case of uterine rupture caused by intra-amniotic ethacridine used for second trimester pregnancy termination. Ultrasound revealed no amniotic sac or fetal parts in the uterine cavity; instead, major parts of the dead fetus enclosed by membranous demarcation were found expulsed to the left side of the uterus. This membranous structure enclosing products of conception on one side of the uterus was detected by ultrasound and turned out to be the broad ligament. Uterine rupture was confirmed at surgery, and the fetus was expelled into the broad ligament through the lateral wall. The ultrasound findings may help to confirm this rare type of uterine rupture

Comparative Analysis of Fatty Acid Desaturases in Cyanobacterial Genomes

Fatty acid desaturases are enzymes that introduce double bonds into the hydrocarbon chains of fatty acids. The fatty acid desaturases from 37 cyanobacterial genomes were identified and classified based upon their conserved histidine-rich motifs and phylogenetic analysis, which help to determine the amounts and distributions of desaturases in cyanobacterial species. The filamentous or N2-fixing cyanobacteria usually possess more types of fatty acid desaturases than that of unicellular species. The pathway of acyl-lipid desaturation for unicellular marine cyanobacteria Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus differs from that of other cyanobacteria, indicating different phylogenetic histories of the two genera from other cyanobacteria isolated from freshwater, soil, or symbiont. Strain Gloeobacter violaceus PCC 7421 was isolated from calcareous rock and lacks thylakoid membranes. The types and amounts of desaturases of this strain are distinct to those of other cyanobacteria, reflecting the earliest divergence of it from the cyanobacterial line. Three thermophilic unicellular strains, Thermosynechococcus elongatus BP-1 and two Synechococcus Yellowstone species, lack highly unsaturated fatty acids in lipids and contain only one Δ9 desaturase in contrast with mesophilic strains, which is probably due to their thermic habitats. Thus, the amounts and types of fatty acid desaturases are various among different cyanobacterial species, which may result from the adaption to environments in evolution

Entrained Collective Rhythms of Multicellular Systems: Partial Impulsive Control Strategy

This paper is concerned with the study of entrained collective rhythms of multicellular systems by using partial impulsive control strategy. The objective is to design an impulsive controller based on only those partially available cell states, so that the entrained collective rhythms are guaranteed for the multicellular systems with cell-to-cell communication mechanism. By using the newly developed impulsive integrodifferential inequality, the sufficient conditions are derived to achieve the entrained collective rhythms of multicellular systems. A synthetic multicellular system with simulation results is finally given to illustrate the usefulness of the developed results

Research progress of coal seam gas content determination technology and equipment

Gas content is an important parameter for the prediction of coal and gas outburst risk, the estimation of coal seam gas resource, and the design of mine gas control engineering. Focusing on how to accurately and quickly determine the gas content of coal seams in large area, and relying on the National Science and Technology Major Project, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Joint Fund of Coal Enterprises and other projects to develop scientific and technological research, some progress had been made in sampling and testing, and the main manifestations were as follows. ① The development of sampling for gas content determination in coal seam has gone through four stages, namely, orifice sampling, core tube spot sampling, pressure injection spot sampling, and sealed sampling. The pressure holding capacity of the sealed sampling equipment reached 11.5 MPa, and the diameter of coal core reached 38 mm. ② According to different geological conditions of coal seams, three types of sampling techniques had been developed, including directional long borehole sealed sampling along coal seam, floor cross-layer borehole sealed sampling, and comb-shaped directional long borehole sealed sampling in roof or floor. ③ In the hard coal seams of Jiaozuo mining area in Henan Province and Jincheng mining area in Shanxi Province, the sampling depth of the directional long borehole along the seam reached 516 m, and the gas content of the coal seam measured by the sealed sampling method was increased by an average of 0.44 and 1.04 times compared with the conventional sampling method, respectively. In the broken soft coal seam of the Huainan mining area in Anhui Province, the sealed sampling depth of the cross-layer borehole reached 209 m, and the measured gas content of the coal seam was increased by 0.26 times on average compared with the conventional sampling method. In the broken soft coal seam of the Huaibei mining area in Anhui Province, the comb drilling sealed sampling depth reached 484 m in roof or floor, and the measured coal seam gas content was 0.19 times higher than that of the conventional sampling method. The sealed sampling method was superior than the conventional sampling method in terms of determination accuracy and detection range of coal seam gas content. ④ In terms of gas content testing, in addition to the traditional natural desorption test, a series of coal mine gas content rapid test equipment had been developed, which can measure the gas content of coal seam within 30 min at the earliest, and was generally used for gas content testing in 100-meter hole. It is proposed that the sealed sampling equipment for coal seam gas content determination needs to be developed in the direction of miniaturization and lightweight, and it can realize sealed sampling with the drilling. In the test, a reasonable desorption termination limit should be determined according to the actual situation, and the testing equipment and sealed sampling equipment should be further combined to achieve the rapid and accurate determination of gas content in deep hole. Sealed sampling technology has become the main means of accurate exploration and prediction of coal seam gas content in large areas, and it is an important technical guarantee for the safe and efficient coal mining

Identification and Characterization of microRNAs from Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) by High-Throughput Sequencing

BACKGROUND: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are noncoding RNAs of approximately 21 nt that regulate gene expression in plants post-transcriptionally by endonucleolytic cleavage or translational inhibition. miRNAs play essential roles in numerous developmental and physiological processes and many of them are conserved across species. Extensive studies of miRNAs have been done in a few model plants; however, less is known about the diversity of these regulatory RNAs in peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.), one of the most important oilseed crops cultivated worldwide. RESULTS: A library of small RNA from peanut was constructed for deep sequencing. In addition to 126 known miRNAs from 33 families, 25 novel peanut miRNAs were identified. The miRNA* sequences of four novel miRNAs were discovered, providing additional evidence for the existence of miRNAs. Twenty of the novel miRNAs were considered to be species-specific because no homolog has been found for other plant species. qRT-PCR was used to analyze the expression of seven miRNAs in different tissues and in seed at different developmental stages and some showed tissue- and/or growth stage-specific expression. Furthermore, potential targets of these putative miRNAs were predicted on the basis of the sequence homology search. CONCLUSIONS: We have identified large numbers of miRNAs and their related target genes through deep sequencing of a small RNA library. This study of the identification and characterization of miRNAs in peanut can initiate further study on peanut miRNA regulation mechanisms, and help toward a greater understanding of the important roles of miRNAs in peanut

The Sensor Proteins BcSho1 and BcSln1 Are Involved in, Though Not Essential to, Vegetative Differentiation, Pathogenicity and Osmotic Stress Tolerance in Botrytis cinerea

High-osmolarity glycerol (HOG) signaling pathway belongs to mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades that regulate responses of organism to diverse extracellular stimuli. The membrane spanning proteins Sho1 and Sln1 serve as biosensors of HOG pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In this study, we investigated the biological functions of BcSHO1 and BcSLN1 in the gray mold fungus Botrytis cinerea. Target gene deletion demonstrated that both BcSHO1 and BcSLN1 are important for mycelial growth, conidiation and sclerotial formation. The BcSHO1 and BcSLN1 double deletion mutant ΔBcSln1-Sho1 produced much more, but smaller sclerotia than ΔBcSho1 and the wild-type (WT) strain, while ΔBcSln1 failed to develop sclerotia on all tested media, instead, formed a large number of conidia. Infection tests revealed that the virulence of ΔBcSln1-Sho1 decreased significantly, however, ΔBcSho1 or ΔBcSln1 showed no difference with the WT strain. In addition, ΔBcSln1-Sho1 exhibited resistance to osmotic stress by negatively regulating the phosphorylation of BcSak1 (yeast Hog1). All the phenotypic defects of mutants were recovered by target gene complementation. These results suggest that BcSHO1 and BcSLN1 share some functional redundancy in the regulation of fungal development, pathogenesis and osmotic stress response in B. cinerea

Overexpression of Smad2 Reveals Its Concerted Action with Smad4 in Regulating TGF- β-Mediated Epidermal Homeostasis

AbstractMembers of the transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) superfamily are critical regulators for epithelial growth and can alter the differentiation of keratinocytes. Transduction of TGF-β signaling depends on the phosphorylation and activation of Smad proteins by heteromeric complexes of ligand-specific type I and II receptors. To understand the function of TGF-β and activin-specific Smad, we generated transgenic mice that overexpress Smad2 in epidermis under the control of keratin 14 promoter. Overexpression of Smad2 increases endogenous Smad4 and TGF-β1 expression while heterozygous loss of Smad2 reduces their expression levels, suggesting a concerted action of Smad2 and -4 in regulating TGF-β signaling during skin development. These transgenic mice have delayed hair growth, underdeveloped ears, and shorter tails. In their skin, there is severe thickening of the epidermis with disorganized epidermal architecture, indistinguishable basement membrane, and dermal fibrosis. These abnormal phenotypes are due to increased proliferation of the basal epidermal cells and abnormalities in the program of keratinocyte differentiation. The ectodermally derived enamel structure is also abnormal. Collectively, our study presents the first in vivo evidence that, by providing an auto-feedback in TGF-β signaling, Smad2 plays a pivotal role in regulating TGF-β-mediated epidermal homeostasis

Research Progress on Survival Mechanism and Control Measures of Salmonella enterica Serovar Enteritidis in Egg White

Salmonella is one of the most common pathogens causing foodborne diseases. Eggs and egg products are important food vehicles for its transmission. Among the many serotypes of Salmonella, S. enterica serovar Enteritidis has a unique advantage in surviving egg white because of its resist to antibacterial molecules in egg white, which can lead to food poisoning. In recent years, the survival strategies of S. enteritidis serovar Enteritidis in egg white have been explored by using molecular biological techniques such as transposon mutations, in vivo expression, high-throughput sequencing and omics, and some key metabolic pathways and stress resistance-related genes/proteins have been discovered. However, the function of stress resistance-related genes has not been fully revealed, and there is a lack of a comprehensive summary of the existing research. Therefore, the current situation and transmission routes of Salmonella contaminated eggs are briefly introduced in this review. Furthermore, the latest progress in research on the survival mechanism of S. enteritidis serovar Enteritidis in egg white is summarized from the perspectives of nutrient availability, membrane stress response, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) damage repair, alkaline pH adaptation, osmotic stress response and energy metabolism. Finally, the biological control methods for Salmonella are summarized, including vaccines, bacteriophages, and probiotics. Meanwhile, future research directions are discussed. This article will provide an important reference for effective control of Salmonella in eggs and egg products

Effects of a transtheoretical model-based WeChat health education programme on self-management among haemodialysis patients: A longitudinal experimental intervention study.

AIM(#br)To examine the effects of a transtheoretical model-based WeChat health education programme on self-management in haemodialysis patients in China.(#br)DESIGN(#br)A longitudinal experimental intervention study.(#br)METHODS(#br)Patients (N = 120) who underwent haemodialysis from December 2015-November 2017 were recruited and randomly allocated to either group 1 (who received a 3-month WeChat health education immediately after randomization) or group 2 (who was combined with group 1 and received the same intervention at the 5th month after enrolment in the study). Self-management, knowledge and self-efficacy were assessed at baseline (T0 ), 3 months after enrolment in the study (T1 ), 21 months after enrolment in the study (T2 ).(#br)RESULTS(#br)There were significant group effects on self-efficacy; time effects on partnership, self-care, emotion management with total self-management; interaction effects on problem-solving and emotion management within total self-management according to the two-way repeated measures ANCOVA. Further between-group comparisons indicated that patients in group 1 had better self-management than those in group 2 at T1 . Within-group comparisons demonstrated that, compared with the baseline values, group 1 had significantly improved self-management at T1 ; however, group 2 had improved self-management at T2 .(#br)CONCLUSION(#br)The transtheoretical model-based WeChat health education programme had a potentially positive effect on improving the self-management of haemodialysis patients.(#br)IMPACT(#br)Self-management is often difficult yet crucial for haemodialysis patients. This study indicated that the transtheoretical model-based WeChat health education resulted in improved self-management in haemodialysis patients and can be implemented in continuing care during the interdialysis period to improve self-management in patients.(#br)TRIAL REGISTRATION(#br)ChiCTR1800018172.(#br)目的: 探讨基于跨理论模型的微信健康教育项目对中国血液透析患者自我管理的影响。 设计: 纵向实验干预研究。 方法: 从2015年12月- 2017年11月接受血液透析的患者(N = 120)被召集来,随机分配到第1组(在随机化后立即接受为期3个月的微信健康教育的人群)或第2组(与第1组结合并在研究登记后的第5个月接受了相同干预的人群)。自我管理、知识和自我效能感分别在基线(T0)、研究登记后3个月(T1)、研究登记后21个月(T2)进行评估。 结果: 群体效应对自我效能感有显著影响;时间对伙伴关系、自我照顾、情绪管理和全面自我管理有显著影响;根据双向重复测量ANCOVA,在完全自我管理中,相互作用对问题解决和情绪管理有显著影响。 结论: 基于跨理论模型的微信健康教育项目对改善血液透析患者的自我管理具有潜在性积极作用。 影响: 自我管理通常是困难的,但对血液透析患者至关重要。本研究表明,基于跨理论模型的微信健康教育改善了血液透析患者的自我管理,可以在透析期间的持续护理中实施,以改善患者的自我管理。 试验注册: ChiCTR1800018172。

Detection and differentiation of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato in ticks collected from sheep and cattle in China

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Lyme disease caused by <it>Borrelia burgdorferi </it>sensu lato complex is an important endemic zoonosis whose distribution is closely related to the main ixodid tick vectors. In China, isolated cases of Lyme disease infection of humans have been reported in 29 provinces. Ticks, especially ixodid ticks are abundant and a wide arrange of <it>Borrelia </it>natural reservoirs are present. In this study, we developed a reverse line blot (RLB) to identify <it>Borrelia </it>spp. in ticks collected from sheep and cattle in 7 Provinces covering the main extensive livestock regions in China.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Four species-specific RLB oligonucleotide probes were deduced from the spacer region between the 5S-23S rRNA gene, along with an oligonucleotide probe which was common to all. The species specific probes were shown to discriminate between four genomic groups of <it>B. burgdorferi </it>sensu lato i.e. <it>B. burgdorferi </it>sensu stricto, <it>B. garinii, B. afzelii</it>, and <it>B. valaisiana</it>, and to bind only to their respective target sequences, with no cross reaction to non target DNA. Furthermore, the RLB could detect between 0.1 pg and 1 pg of <it>Borrelia </it>DNA.</p> <p>A total of 723 tick samples (<it>Haemaphysalis, Boophilus, Rhipicephalus </it>and <it>Dermacentor</it>) from sheep and cattle were examined with RLB, and a subset of 667 corresponding samples were examined with PCR as a comparison. The overall infection rate detected with RLB was higher than that of the PCR test.</p> <p>The infection rate of <it>B. burgdoreri </it>sensu stricto was 40% in south areas; while the <it>B. garinii infection rate </it>was 40% in north areas. The highest detection rates of <it>B. afzelii </it>and <it>B. valaisiana </it>were 28% and 22%, respectively. Mixed infections were also found in 7% of the ticks analyzed, mainly in the North. The proportion of <it>B. garinii </it>genotype in ticks was overall highest at 34% in the whole investigation area.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In this study, the RLB assay was used to detect <it>B. burgdorferi </it>sensu lato in ticks collected from sheep and cattle in China. The results showed that <it>B. burdorferi senso stricto </it>and <it>B. afzelii </it>were mainly distributed in the South; while <it>B. garinii </it>and <it>B. valaisiana </it>were dominant in the North. <it>Borrelia </it>spirochaetes were detected in <it>Rhipicephalus </it>spp for the first time. It is suggested that the <it>Rhipicephalus </it>spps might play a role in transmitting <it>Borrelia </it>spirochaetes.</p