BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Niche complementarity arising from divergence in resource use is an important mechanism underlying species coexistence. We hypothesized fertilization with different N forms would ...generate plastic divergence among species with regard to their N form uptake and preference. METHODS: In the eighth year of a long-term N fertilization experiment in an alpine meadow on the Tibetan plateau, we labeled 11 common plant species with ammonium-¹⁵N or nitate-¹⁵N in subplots without fertilization (control) or fertilized with 7.5 g N m⁻² yr⁻¹ in the form of ammonium, nitrate, or ammonium nitrate to trace N form uptake. RESULTS: Depending on species, fertilization with nitrate or ammonium nitrate had positive, negative or neutral effects on NO₃-N uptake rate, although ammonium fertilization showed little impact. By contrast, fertilization with any N form had little impact on NH₄-N uptake rate. Consequently, effects of nitrate fertilization and ammonium nitrate fertilization on relative N form preference diverged among the species and the functional groups (grasses, sedges, legumes and forbs). CONCLUSIONS: Alpine plant species can diverge in N form uptake and preference in response to long-term N fertilization, and such divergence may contribute to species coexistence after long-term fertilization.
Epicoccanes A–D (1–4) are four novel metabolites of an endophytic fungus Epicoccum nigrum. Their distinct unprecedented structures are hypothesized as oxidative dimers of pyrogallol analogues. ...Compounds 1 and 2 possess a novel spirobicyclo3.2.1octane-6,1′-cyclopentane or -cyclohexane core skeleton. Compound 3 is of a unique cage-like pentacyclic system, which unusually contained three continuous spiro-carbons. Compound 4 is a highly rearranged dimer with five contiguous chiral centers. The absolute structures of 1 and 2 were deduced by electronic circular dichroism (ECD) calculations, and those of 3 and 4 were determined by X-ray crystallography. Compounds 1 and 4 showed potential antiliver fibrosis activity.
To explore the effect of combined hematological and physical measurement indicators on the prognosis of patients undergoing surgery for gastric or colorectal cancer and to screen for the best ...prognostic indicators.
Gastric and colorectal cancer is a widespread health concern worldwide and one of the major contributors to cancer-related death. The hematological and physical measurement indicators have been shown to associate with the prognosis of patients undergoing surgery for gastric or colorectal cancer, respectively, but it is still unclear whether the combination of the two can reflect the prognosis more effectively.
Thirteen hematological indicators and 5 physical measurement indicators were selected in this study, and the most promising ones were screened using LASSO regression. Then, the best prognostic indicators were selected by time-ROC curves. Survival curves were constructed using the Kaplan-Meier method, and the effects of hematological and physical measurement indicators on the prognosis of patients undergoing surgery for gastric or colorectal cancers were evaluated by Cox proportional risk regression analysis. In addition, the relationship between hematological and physical measurement indicators on secondary outcomes, including length of stay, hospitalization costs, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and patients' subjective global assessment scores (PGSGA), was explored.
After initial screening, among the hematological indicators, the geriatric nutritional risk index (GNRI) showed the highest mean area under the curve (AUC) values. Among body measures, calf circumference (CC) showed the highest mean AUC value. Further analyses showed that the combination of combined nutritional prognostic index (GNRI) and calf circumference (CC) (GNRI-CC) had the best performance in predicting the prognosis of patients undergoing surgery for gastric or colorectal cancers. Low GNRI, low CC, and low GNRI-low CC increased the risk of death by 44%, 48%, and 104%, respectively. Sensitivity analyses showed the same trend. In addition, low GNRI-low CC increased the risk of malnutrition by 17%.
This study emphasizes that a combination of blood measures and body measures is essential to accurately assess the prognosis of patients undergoing surgery for gastric or colorectal cancers. The GNRI-CC is a good prognostic indicator and can also assess the risk of possible malnutrition.
The active lone pair electron effect and highly flexible coordination geometry of Pb2+ prevented the rational construction of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) but promoted excellent fluorescence ...tuning. The regulation on organic and alkali templates facilitated the assemblies of three new Pb-MOFs: Pb2(pia)2(DMA)·DMA (1), Pb2(pia)2(DMF)·1.5DMF (2), and Pb2(pia)2(DMF)·NEt3 (3). They were rigid rod-spacer and double-walls frameworks, which possess defective dicubane Pb4O6 based metal-carboxyl chains constructed from both semidirected and holodirected Pb2+ ions. These MOFs exhibited thermal stability up to 370 °C and unprecedented chemical stability in H2O and acidic (pH 2) and alkaline (pH 12) aqueous solutions, found for the first time in Pb-MOFs. A single-phase and rare-earth-free white-emitting phosphor, 1, was screen out, which showed a near-sunlight and human-vision-friendly broadband spectrum covering the full visible region, possessing the close-to-pure-white chromaticity coordinates of (0.332, 0.347), a near-daylight color temperature of 5696 K, and a high color rendering index of 95. The replacement of DMF as apical ligand and guest in 2 resulted in an intrinsic single and narrow emission at 562 nm with yellow color. The convenient yellow-and-blue color-tuning until white for 2 was realized by either solution or solid blending with blue-emissive H2pia, benefited from their highly matched excitation spectra. Using large NEt3 as template guest induced great framework distortion for 3 and led to white emission with chromaticity coordinates of (0.302, 0.294), stemming from nonequivalent dual emission at 450 and 545 nm. In-depth structure analysis revealed intra-/interchain Pb···Pb interactions in the lead(II)-carboxyl chains greatly affected the photochemical output.
Active transposable elements (TEs) have drawn more attention as they continue to create new insertions and contribute to genetic diversity of the genome. However, only a few have been discovered in ...rice up to now, and their activities are mostly induced by artificial treatments (e.g., tissue culture, hybridization etc.) rather than under normal growth conditions. To systematically survey the current activity of TEs in natural rice accessions and identify rice accessions carrying highly active TEs, the transposon insertion polymorphisms (TIPs) profile was used to identify singleton insertions, which were unique to a single accession and represented the new insertion of TEs in the genome. As a result, 10,924 high-confidence singletons from 251 TE families were obtained, covering all investigated TE types. The number of singletons varied substantially among different superfamilies/families, perhaps reflecting distinct current activity. Particularly, eight TE families maintained potentially higher activity in 3,000 natural rice accessions. Sixty percent of rice accessions were detected to contain singletons, indicating the extensive activity of TEs in natural rice accessions. Thirty-five TE families exhibited potentially high activity in at least one rice accession, and the majority of them showed variable activity among different rice groups/subgroups. These naturally active TEs would be ideal candidates for elucidating the molecular mechanisms underlying the transposition and activation of TEs, as well as investigating the interactions between TEs and the host genome.
Memristors, which feature small sizes, fast speeds, low power, CMOS compatibility and nonvolatile modulation of device resistance, are promising candidates for next-generation data storage and ...in-memory computing paradigms. Compared to the binary logics enabled by memristor devices, ternary logics with larger information-carrying capacity can provide higher computation efficiency with simple operation schemes, reduced circuit complexity and smaller chip areas. In this study, we report the fabrication of memristor devices based on nano-columnar crystalline ZnO thin films; they show symmetric and reliable multi-level resistive switching characteristics over three hundred cycles, which benefits the implementation of univariate ternary logic operations. Experimental results demonstrate that a three-valued logic complete set can be realized by the univariate operations of the present ZnO memristor device, and a ternary multiplier unit circuit is designed for potential applications. The present methodology can be beneficial for constructing future high-performance computation architectures.
Memristors, which feature small sizes, fast speeds, low power, CMOS compatibility and nonvolatile modulation of device resistance, are promising candidates for next-generation data storage and in-memory computing paradigms.
Parathyroid adenoma (PA), one of the most common causes of hyperparathyroidism, generally involves a single parathyroid gland and is manifested as hyperparathyroidism. Bronchogenic cysts are rare ...congenital cystic lesions caused by a development malformation in bronchi during the embryonic period, which mostly occur in the lung and mediastinum, with an extremely low morbidity rate in the neck. A 27-year-old young female was found to suffer from hyperparathyroidism on routine physical examination, and further examination suggested a cystic lesion in the right inferior parathyroid area combined with a tracheal diverticulum. Therefore, she was initially diagnosed with cystic hyperplasia of the parathyroid glands complicated by a tracheal diverticulum. Gasless endoscopic resection of neck masses
via
an axillary approach was performed because of the high requirements for the surgical cosmetic effect of the patient. During the surgery, we observed that the preoperatively diagnosed cystic lesion was a combination of two masses, which were successfully resected under endoscopy. Based on the postoperative pathology and clinical features, the patient was eventually diagnosed with a rare case of triple diseases including PA, cervical bronchial cyst, and tracheal diverticulum. Now, the patient recovered well as per the follow-up with no signs of recurrence and was extremely satisfied with the cosmetic effect of the surgery.
In this paper, we present the discovery of a novel salicylic acid derivative, moldavica acid A (1), and a new natural dibenzob,foxepin, moldavica acid B (2), together with four known phenylpropionic ...acids (3-6) and protocatechuic acid (7) that were isolated from Dracocephalum moldavica L. Their structures were elucidated by comprehensive spectroscopic methods, including infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance. Compound 1 is the first example of salicylic acid linking a carboxylated α-pyrone via an ethyl bridge. Beyond expanding the knowledge of the chemical diversity of D. moldavica, both compounds 1 and 2 were shown to upregulate the expression of Kruppel-like factor 2, which could serve as a prospective therapeutic target for the treatment of atherosclerosis.
The fatigue properties of the Ti-6.5Al-3.5Mo-l.5Zr-0.3Si alloy produced by direct laser deposition (DLD) have been investigated. The fatigue limit of the alloy perpendicular to and parallel to the ...deposition direction at specified life of 107 and stress ration of 0.1 is 337MPa and 365MPa, respectively. The porosities of specimens are among 0.014–0.028%, averaged porosity is 0.02%. The fatigue cracks initiate at the pores near the surface, which are located mostly at the column grain boundary during solidification. The size of pore and its distance from the surface are two important factors to control the fatigue life of specimen, i.e., bigger the pore or nearer to the surface, shorter the fatigue life. The fatigue fracture consists of fatigue source, radial slow crack growth and rough fast fracture region. The columnar grains boundaries of Ti-6.5Al-3.5Mo-l.5Zr-0.3Si alloy by epitaxial growth from the underlying template grains layer-by-layer during direct laser deposition are the weak joints under the cyclic stress and crack formed propagates preferentially along the grain boundaries, which should be a key factor leading to the difference of fracture morphology in the region of fatigue source and final fast fracture, and also the lower fatigue limit of specimen perpendicular to the deposition direction than that parallel to the deposition direction.
Objective To investigate the feasibility of leg wound closure and reconstruction of maxillofacial soft defect by a fusiform-designed skin paddle in fibula free flap (FFF). Methods Fifty patients who ...underwent FFF for reconstruction of maxillofacial soft defect were divided into two groups. The fusiform group (20 patients) was treated using a fusiform-designed skin paddle in FFF (skin paddle width less than 2 cm), and leg wound was closed using primary suturing. Reconstruction of the maxillofacial soft defect or filling of dead space was achieved by folding the fusiform skin paddle. The conventional group (30 patients) was treated using the conventional-designed skin paddle (skin paddle width no less than 2.5 cm). The leg wound was closed using mattress suturing or skin graft, while reconstruction of the maxillofacial soft defect or filling of dead space by conventional way. The average postoperative length of hospital stay, healing time of leg wound, and post-surgical complications were recorded at least 6 months after the surgery. Results Compared with traditional method, the fusiform-designed skin paddle reduced the average healing time of the leg wound (fusiform group: 11.05 days, conventional group: 14.77 days, P < 0.05). The average length-to-width ratio in fusiform group was significantly greater than that of in conventional group (fusiform group: 5.85, conventional group: 2.93, P < 0.05), and no difference was observed on the graft size of skin paddle between two groups (fusiform group: 23.13, conventional group: 27.13, P > 0.05). The post-surgical early complications of the leg wound in the conventional group were higher than that of in the fusiform group (fusiform group: 0%, conventional group: 6.67%), while the post-surgical late complication of the donor site between the two groups showed no case. Healing disorders of maxillofacial soft reconstruction in the conventional group were higher than that of in the fusiform group (fusiform group: 5.26%, conventional group: 20.69%). Conclusions Fusiform-designed skin paddle for closure of the leg wound and maxillofacial soft defect is a feasible alternative to the conventional- designed skin paddle. The fusiform- designed skin paddle resulted in the less postoperative length of hospital stay, shorter healing time of leg wound and less complication.
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