Effects of space flight factors on genetic diversity of Buchloe dactyloides seeds

The objective of this research was to investigate the effects of space flight factors on Buchloe dactyloides “Jingyin No.3” seeds. After the retrieval, basic turf characters of plants were tested. Among the 100 plants tested, 21 showed great change on phenotype characters, including leaf blade length and width, height, stem diameter, number of tillers, number and length of stolon, length of stolon inter node, leaf color and extent of leaf turning yellow. 33 primers were screened in inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSR) analysis to evaluate DNA variation between mutations and their ground controls. Results show that 15.6 reliable bands were generated by 7 primers, of which 12.9 (80.9%) were polymorphic. Based on the study, we can conclude that the space flight factors could induce inheritable mutagenic changes on B. dactyloides seeds, and do further research to demonstrate these changes in genetic material of the mutants.Key words: Genetic diversity, Buchloe dactyloides, spaceflight, inter-simple sequence repeats

5-[(2-Chloro-4-nitro­anilino)methyl­idene]-2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxane-4,6-dione

In the title compound, C13H11ClN2O6, the dihedral angles between the benzene ring and the amino­methyl­ene unit and between the amino­methyl­ene group and the dioxane ring are 8.19 (14) and 1.39 (17)°, respectively. The dioxane ring has a half-boat conformation, in which the C atom between the dioxane O atoms is 0.662 (4)Å out of the plane through the remaining ring atoms. Intra­molecular N—H⋯O and N—H⋯Cl inter­actions occur

The prevalence of autism spectrum disorders in China: A comprehensive meta-analysis

There are conflicting prevalence estimates of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) in mainland China (China thereafter). This study is a comprehensive meta-analysis of the pooled prevalence of ASDs in the general population in China. Study investigators independently conducted a systematic literature search of the following databases: PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese biomedical literature service system, and Wan Fang. Studies reporting prevalence of ASDs and autism in Chinese population were identified and analysed using the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis program with the random effects model. Forty-four studies were included in the meta-analysis comprising 2,337,321 subjects of whom 46.66 % were females. The mean age of subjects ranged from 1.6 to 8 years. Based on diagnostic criteria the pooled prevalence of ASDs was 39.23 per 10,000 (95% CI: 28.44-50.03 per 10,000, I2=89.2%); specifically, the prevalence of autism was 10.18 per 10,000 (95% CI: 8.46-11.89 per 10,000, I2=92.5%). Subgroup analyses revealed significant difference in the prevalence of ASDs between genders (72.77 per 10,000 in males vs. 16.45 per 10,000 in females). In conclusion, the prevalence of ASDs and autism in China was found generally lower than those reported in other countries. Further studies are needed to clarify the variation in prevalence

Structure of Co-2 × 2 nanoislands grown on Ag/Ge(111)-√3 × √3 surface studied by scanning tunneling microscopy

We have found that Co-2 × 2 islands grown on an Ag/Ge(111)-√3 × √3 surface have hcp structure with the (11-20) orientation. The island evolution involves transformation of the unit cell shape from parallelogram into rectangular, which is accompanied by the island shape transformation from hexagonal into stripe-like. Identified are two crystallographic directions for the island growth, the pseudo-[0001] and the pseudo-[1-100]. We have observed the occurrence of a lateral shift between the topmost and the underlying bilayers in the case of the island growth along the pseudo-[0001] direction. In contrast, the topmost and the underlying bilayers are unshifted for the growth along the pseudo-[1-100] direction

KMT2A promotes melanoma cell growth by targeting hTERT signaling pathway.

Melanoma is an aggressive cutaneous malignancy, illuminating the exact mechanisms and finding novel therapeutic targets are urgently needed. In this study, we identified KMT2A as a potential target, which promoted the growth of human melanoma cells. KMT2A knockdown significantly inhibited cell viability and cell migration and induced apoptosis, whereas KMT2A overexpression effectively promoted cell proliferation in various melanoma cell lines. Further study showed that KMT2A regulated melanoma cell growth by targeting the hTERT-dependent signal pathway. Knockdown of KMT2A markedly inhibited the promoter activity and expression of hTERT, and hTERT overexpression rescued the viability inhibition caused by KMT2A knockdown. Moreover, KMT2A knockdown suppressed tumorsphere formation and the expression of cancer stem cell markers, which was also reversed by hTERT overexpression. In addition, the results from a xenograft mouse model confirmed that KMT2A promoted melanoma growth via hTERT signaling. Finally, analyses of clinical samples demonstrated that the expression of KMT2A and hTERT were positively correlated in melanoma tumor tissues, and KMT2A high expression predicted poor prognosis in melanoma patients. Collectively, our results indicate that KMT2A promotes melanoma growth by activating the hTERT signaling, suggesting that the KMT2A/hTERT signaling pathway may be a potential therapeutic target for melanoma

Solar microwave millisecond spike at 2.84 GHz

Using the high time resolution of 1 ms, the data of solar microwave millisecond spike (MMS) event was recorded more than two hundred times at the frequency of 2.84 GHz at Beijing (Peking) Observatory since May 1981. A preliminary analysis was made. It can be seen from the data that the MMS-events have a variety of the fast activities such as the dispersed and isolated spikes, the clusters of the crowded spikes, the weak spikes superimposed on the noise background, and the phenomena of absorption. The marked differences from that observed with lower time resolution are presented. Using the data, a valuable statistical analysis was made. There are close correlations between MMS-events and hard X-ray bursts, and fast drifting bursts. The MMS events are highly dependent on the type of active regions and the magnetic field configuration. It seems to be crucial to find out the accurate positions on the active region where the MMS-events happen and to make co-operative observations at different bands during the special period when specific active regions appear on the solar disk

Antifungal effects of sisal leaf juice on Lasiodiplodia theobromae, the causal agent of mulberry root rot

This study was carried out to evaluate the antifungal activities of leaf juices (fresh juice, fermented juice, boiled juice and sterile juice) of nine sisal varieties on Lasiodiplodia theobromae, the causal agent of mulberry root rot. Results show that all the leaf juices could inhibit the mycelial growth in different degrees (the inhibitory rates ranged from 63.3 to 100%), due to different varieties and treatments. Among the nine varieties, the inhibition effects of hybrid 76416 and Agave americana were the best with absolute inhibition of all the leaf juice treatments against the mycelial growth, followed by Agave Amaniensis, Agave virdis, Agave angustifolia and Hybrid 11648. The inhibitory effect of some fresh juices would be cut down after being fermented, boiled and sterilized. The treated mycelia of L.theobromae were malformed, enlarged, broken and plasma leaked when observed under the microscope. Most of the leaf juices could inhibit the conidial germination absolutely, except A.amaniensis, H.11648 and A. angustifolia. The average germination rate of A. amaniensis, H.11648 and A. angustifolia was 72.4, 16.6 and 13%, respectively. The control efficiency of the fresh juice of H. 11648 against mulberry root rot in the field reached 73.1%.Key words: Sisal, leaf juice, anti-fungi, anti-fungal activities, mulberry root rot, Lasiodiplodia theobromae

User-adaptive sketch-based 3D CAD model retrieval

3D CAD models are an important digital resource in the manufacturing industry. 3D CAD model retrieval has become a key technology in product lifecycle management enabling the reuse of existing design data. In this paper, we propose a new method to retrieve 3D CAD models based on 2D pen-based sketch inputs. Sketching is a common and convenient method for communicating design intent during early stages of product design, e.g., conceptual design. However, converting sketched information into precise 3D engineering models is cumbersome, and much of this effort can be avoided by reuse of existing data. To achieve this purpose, we present a user-adaptive sketch-based retrieval method in this paper. The contributions of this work are twofold. Firstly, we propose a statistical measure for CAD model retrieval: the measure is based on sketch similarity and accounts for users’ drawing habits. Secondly, for 3D CAD models in the database, we propose a sketch generation pipeline that represents each 3D CAD model by a small yet sufficient set of sketches that are perceptually similar to human drawings. User studies and experiments that demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in the design process are presented