Nutrient Resorption and Stoichiometric Characteristics of Wuyi Rock Tea Cultivars

Nutrient resorption is an important strategy for plants to retain critical nutrients from senesced leaves and plays important roles in nutrient cycling and ecosystem productivity. As a main economic crop and soil and water conservation species, Wuyi Rock tea has been widely planted in Fujian Province, China. However, foliar nutrient resorptions of Wuyi Rock tea cultivars have not been well quantified. In this study, three Wuyi Rock tea cultivars (Wuyi Jingui, Wuyi Rougui, and Wuyi Shuixian) were selected in the Wuyishan National Soil and Water Conservation, Science and Technology Demonstration Park. Resorption efficiencies of nitrogen (NRE), phosphorus (PRE), and potassium (KRE) along with their stoichiometric characteristics were determined. PRE of the three tea cultivars was significantly higher than KRE and NRE, indicating that tea cultivars were P limited due to low P availability for the tea growth. With the exception of Wuyi Rougui, leaf N and P contents of the other two cultivars (Wuyi Jingui and Wuyi Shuixian) had strong homeostasis under the changing soil environments. Leaf thickness and specific leaf area were positively and significantly correlated with KRE, and total chlorophyll concentration was positively correlated with NRE, indicating that leaf functional traits can be used as indicators for nutrient resorption status. Wuyi Rock tea cultivars had strong adaptabilities to the environments and had high carbon sequestration capabilities; thus, they and could be introduced into nutrient-poor mountainous areas for both economic benefits and soil and water conservation

mTOR Signaling in X/A‐Like Cells Contributes to Lipid Homeostasis in Mice

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147831/1/hep30229-sup-0001-FigS1-S8.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147831/2/hep30229_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147831/3/hep30229.pd

Expression of Robo4 in the fibrovascular membranes from patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy and its role in RF/6A and RPE cells

Purpose: Robo4, a member of the roundabout (Robo) family, acts as a neuronal guidance receptor and plays some role in vasculogenesis and angiogenesis. This study investigated the effect of Robo4 on the formation of fibrovascular membranes (FVMs) from patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy and its roles in choroid-retina endothelial (RF/6A) and human retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells. Methods: RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry were used to determine the levels of mRNA and the presence and distribution of Robo4 in FVMs. Small interfering RNA (siRNA) technology was used to knock down Robo4 expression and to study its effects on RF/6A and RPE cells in vitro. Cell proliferation, migration, spreading, cycling, and apoptosis were assessed with MTT assay, Boyden chamber assay, immunocytochemistry, and flow cytometry. Tube formation by RF/6A on Matrigel was also analyzed. Results: The level of Robo4 mRNA was high in FVMs. Robo4 was expressed in the vessels and fibrous-like tissue co-immunostained for CD31 and GFAP, respectively. Robo4 siRNA knockdown inhibited cell proliferation and migration. Tube formation by RF/6A cells was also disturbed. Under hypoxic conditions, more apoptotic cells were evident among the knockdown cells than among the control cells (p < 0.01). Conclusions: Robo4 may play a role in the formation of FVMs. Silencing the expression of Robo4 in RF/6A and RPE cells inhibited their proliferation and reduced their tolerance of hypoxic conditions, suggesting physiologic functions of Robo4 in the cells of the retina.http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000267136400001&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=8e1609b174ce4e31116a60747a720701Biochemistry & Molecular BiologyOphthalmologySCI(E)PubMed15ARTICLE112-131057-10691

Protective effect of paeoniflorin against oxidative stress in human retinal pigment epithelium in vitro

Purpose: This study was conducted to determine whether paeoniflorin (PF) could prevent H(2)O(2)-induced oxidative stress in ARPE-19 cells and to elucidate the molecular pathways involved in this protection. Methods: Cultured ARPE-19 cells were subjected to oxidative stress with H(2)O(2) in the presence and absence of PF. The preventive effective of PF on reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cell death induced by H(2)O(2) was determined by 2', 7'-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (H(2)DCFDA) fluorescence and 3-(4, 5dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5 diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The ability of PF to protect RPE cells against ROS-mediated apoptosis was assessed by caspase-3 activity and 4', 6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) staining. Furthermore, the protective effect of PF via the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway was determined by western blot analysis. Results: PF protected ARPE-19 cells from H(2)O(2)-induced cell death with low toxicity. H(2)O(2)-induced oxidative stress increased ROS production and caspase-3 activity, which was significantly inhibited by PF in a dose-dependent manner. Pretreatment with PF attenuated H(2)O(2)-induced p38MAPK and extracellular signal regulated kinase (ERK) phosphorylation in human RPE cells, which contributed to cell viability in ARPE-19 cells. Conclusions: This is the first report to show that PF can protect ARPE-19 cells from the cellular apoptosis induced by oxidative stress. The results of this study open new avenues for the use of PF in treatment of ocular diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), where oxidative stress plays a major role in disease pathogenesis.Biochemistry & Molecular BiologyOphthalmologySCI(E)PubMed1ARTICLE373-783512-35221

Long-term liver lesion tracking in contrast-enhanced ultrasound videos via a siamese network with temporal motion attention

Propose: Contrast-enhanced ultrasound has shown great promises for diagnosis and monitoring in a wide range of clinical conditions. Meanwhile, to obtain accurate and effective location of lesion in contrast-enhanced ultrasound videos is the basis for subsequent diagnosis and qualitative treatment, which is a challenging task nowadays.Methods: We propose to upgrade a siamese architecture-based neural network for robust and accurate landmark tracking in contrast-enhanced ultrasound videos. Due to few researches on it, the general inherent assumptions of the constant position model and the missing motion model remain unaddressed limitations. In our proposed model, we overcome these limitations by introducing two modules into the original architecture. We use a temporal motion attention based on Lucas Kanade optic flow and Karman filter to model the regular movement and better instruct location prediction. Moreover, we design a pipeline of template update to ensure timely adaptation to feature changes.Results: Eventually, the whole framework was performed on our collected datasets. It has achieved the average mean IoU values of 86.43% on 33 labeled videos with a total of 37,549 frames. In terms of tracking stability, our model has smaller TE of 19.2 pixels and RMSE of 27.6 with the FPS of 8.36 ± 3.23 compared to other classical tracking models.Conclusion: We designed and implemented a pipeline for tracking focal areas in contrast-enhanced ultrasound videos, which takes the siamese network as the backbone and uses optical flow and Kalman filter algorithm to provide position prior information. It turns out that these two additional modules are helpful for the analysis of CEUS videos. We hope that our work can provide an idea for the analysis of CEUS videos

Simplified HIV Testing and Treatment in China: Analysis of Mortality Rates Before and After a Structural Intervention.

BackgroundMultistage stepwise HIV testing and treatment initiation procedures can result in lost opportunities to provide timely antiretroviral therapy (ART). Incomplete patient engagement along the continuum of HIV care translates into high levels of preventable mortality. We aimed to evaluate the ability of a simplified test and treat structural intervention to reduce mortality.Methods and findingsIn the "pre-intervention 2010" (from January 2010 to December 2010) and "pre-intervention 2011" (from January 2011 to December 2011) phases, patients who screened HIV-positive at health care facilities in Zhongshan and Pubei counties in Guangxi, China, followed the standard-of-care process. In the "post-intervention 2012" (from July 2012 to June 2013) and "post-intervention 2013" (from July 2013 to June 2014) phases, patients who screened HIV-positive at the same facilities were offered a simplified test and treat intervention, i.e., concurrent HIV confirmatory and CD4 testing and immediate initiation of ART, irrespective of CD4 count. Participants were followed for 6-18 mo until the end of their study phase period. Mortality rates in the pre-intervention and post-intervention phases were compared for all HIV cases and for treatment-eligible HIV cases. A total of 1,034 HIV-positive participants (281 and 339 in the two pre-intervention phases respectively, and 215 and 199 in the two post-intervention phases respectively) were enrolled. Following the structural intervention, receipt of baseline CD4 testing within 30 d of HIV confirmation increased from 67%/61% (pre-intervention 2010/pre-intervention 2011) to 98%/97% (post-intervention 2012/post-intervention 2013) (all p < 0.001 [i.e., for all comparisons between a pre- and post-intervention phase]), and the time from HIV confirmation to ART initiation decreased from 53 d (interquartile range [IQR] 27-141)/43 d (IQR 15-113) to 5 d (IQR 2-12)/5 d (IQR 2-13) (all p < 0.001). Initiation of ART increased from 27%/49% to 91%/89% among all cases (all p < 0.001) and from 39%/62% to 94%/90% among individuals with CD4 count ≤ 350 cells/mm3 or AIDS (all p < 0.001). Mortality decreased from 27%/27% to 10%/10% for all cases (all p < 0.001) and from 40%/35% to 13%/13% for cases with CD4 count ≤ 350 cells/mm3 or AIDS (all p < 0.001). The simplified test and treat intervention was significantly associated with decreased mortality rates compared to pre-intervention 2011 (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 0.385 [95% CI 0.239-0.620] and 0.380 [95% CI 0.233-0.618] for the two post-intervention phases, respectively, for all newly diagnosed HIV cases [both p < 0.001], and aHR 0.369 [95% CI 0.226-0.603] and 0.361 [95% CI 0.221-0.590] for newly diagnosed treatment-eligible HIV cases [both p < 0.001]). The unit cost of an additional patient receiving ART attributable to the intervention was US$83.80. The unit cost of a death prevented because of the intervention was US$234.52.ConclusionsOur results demonstrate that the simplified HIV test and treat intervention promoted successful engagement in care and was associated with a 62% reduction in mortality. Our findings support the implementation of integrated HIV testing and immediate access to ART irrespective of CD4 count, in order to optimize the impact of ART