The study is aimed to investigate the reproductive biology characteristics of Polygonatum cyrtonema, especially including phenology, flower bud differentiation, flowering timing, floral traits, pollen vigor and stigma receptivity. The results showed that P. cyrtonema forms inflorescence before the leaves spread. In the wild, P. cyrtonema is mainly pollinated by insects such as bumblebees, with a seed setting rate of 65.12%. The seed setting rate of indoor single plant isolation or self-pollination enclosed by parchment paper bag is 0, indicating that it is self-incompatible. In Lin'an city, seedlings begin to emerge from mid-March to early April(the temperature is higher than 7.5 ℃), buds begin to emerge from the end of March to mid-April, and then undergo the full bloom stage from mid-to-late April, and the final flowering stage from the end of April to mid-May. The whole flowering period lasts 36 to 45 days. There are obvious differences in the phenology of different provenances. The flowers come into bloom from the base to the top along the aboveground main axis, which usually contain 4-22 inflorescences with(2-) 4-10(-21) flowers per inflorescence. The flowering pe-riod for a single plant is 26-38 days. The single flower lasts about 20-25 days from budding to opening and withers 2 days after pollination, and then the ovary will gradually expand. If unpollinated, it will continue to bloom for 3-5 days and then wither. Flower development period is significantly related to pollen vigor and stigma remittance. The pollen viability is the highest when the flower is fully opened with anthers gathering on the stigma, and the receptivity is the strongest when the stigma protrudes out of the perianth and secretes mucus. The fruits and seeds ripen in October, and proper shading can ensure the smooth development and maturity of the seeds. This study provides a basis for the hybrid breeding and seed production of P. cyrtonema.
Flowers ; Plant Breeding ; Pollination ; Polygonatum ; Reproduction

Anterograde viral tracers are powerful and essential tools for dissecting the output targets of a brain region of interest. They have been developed from herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) strain H129 (H129), and have been successfully applied to map diverse neural circuits. Initially, the anterograde polysynaptic tracer H129-G4 was used by many groups. We then developed the first monosynaptic tracer, H129-dTK-tdT, which was highly successful, yet improvements are needed. Now, by inserting another tdTomato expression cassette into the H129-dTK-tdT genome, we have created H129-dTK-T2, an updated version of H129-dTK-tdT that has improved labeling intensity. To help scientists produce and apply our H129-derived viral tracers, here we provide the protocol describing our detailed and standardized procedures. Commonly-encountered technical problems and their solutions are also discussed in detail. Broadly, the dissemination of this protocol will greatly support scientists to apply these viral tracers on a large scale.

Objective: To study the modification effect of age on the association between body mass index and the risk of hypertension. Methods: People age ≥18 years old were selected by clusters, from a rural area of Henan province. In total, 20 194 people were recruited at baseline during 2007 and 2008, and the follow-up study was completed from 2013 to 2014. Logistic regression model was used to assess the risk of incident hypertension by baseline BMI and age-specific BMI. Results: During the 6-year follow-up period, 1 950 hypertensive persons were detected, including 784 men and 1 166 women, with cumulative incidence rates as 19.96%, 20.51%, and 19.61%, respectively. Compared with those whose BMI<22 kg/m(2), the RRs of hypertension were 1.09 (0.93-1.27), 1.17 (1.01-1.37), 1.34 (1.14-1.58) and 1.31 (1.09-1.56) for participants with BMI as 22-, 24-, 26- and ≥28 kg/m(2), respectively. In young and middle-aged populations, the risk of hypertension gradually increased with the rise of BMI (trend P<0.05). However, in the elderly, the increasing trend on the risk of hypertension risk was not as significantly obvious (trend P>0.05). Conclusion: The effect of BMI on the incidence of hypertension seemed to depend on age. Our findings suggested that a weight reduction program would be more effective on young or middle-aged populations, to prevent the development of hypertension.
Adolescent ; Age Factors ; Aged ; Asian People/statistics & numerical data* ; Body Mass Index ; Cohort Studies ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Hypertension/ethnology* ; Incidence ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Risk Factors ; Rural Population

Shanghai Diet and Health Survey (SDHS) was designed to prospectively access local residents' food consumption, energy and nutrient intake, related chemical contaminant exposure, and the seasonal change trend to explore the relationship of diet with health. Data from SDHS can be used as fundamental information and scientific evidences for the development of local nutrition and food safety policies.
China ; Diet ; Energy Intake ; Health Surveys ; Nutrition Policy ; Nutrition Surveys

BAome III criteria. METHODS: After EAR3Q was developed by Asian experts by cCKGROUND/AIMS: The development-processes by regional socio-cultural adaptation of an Enhanced Asian Rome III questionnaire (EAR3Q), a cultural adaptation of the Rome III diagnostic questionnaire (R3DQ), and its translation-validation in Asian languages are presented. As English is not the first language for most Asians, translation-validation of EAR3Q is essential. Hence, we aimed to culturally adapt the R3DQ to develop EAR3Q and linguistically validate it to show that the EAR3Q is able to allocate diagnosis according to Ronsensus, it was translated into Chinese, Hindi-Telugu, Indonesian, Korean, and Thai, following Rome Foundation guidelines; these were then validated on native subjects (healthy [n = 60], and patients with irritable bowel syndrome [n = 59], functional dyspepsia [n = 53] and functional constipation [n = 61]) diagnosed by clinicians using Rome III criteria, negative alarm features and investigations. RESULTS: Experts noted words for constipation, bloating, fullness and heartburn, posed difficulty. The English back-translated questionnaires demonstrated concordance with the original EAR3Q. Sensitivity and specificity of the questionnaires were high enough to diagnose respective functional gastrointestinal disorders (gold standard: clinical diagnoses) in most except Korean and Indonesian languages. Questionnaires often uncovered overlapping functional gastrointestinal disorders. Test-retest agreement (kappa) values of the translated questionnaires were high (0.700-1.000) except in Korean (0.300-0.500) and Indonesian (0.100-0.400) languages at the initial and 2-week follow-up visit. CONCLUSIONS: Though Chinese, Hindi and Telugu translations were performed well, Korean and Indonesian versions were not. Questionnaires often uncovered overlapping FGIDs, which were quite common.
Asia ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Constipation ; Diagnosis* ; Dyspepsia ; Follow-Up Studies ; Gastrointestinal Diseases ; Heartburn ; Humans ; Irritable Bowel Syndrome ; Surveys and Questionnaires* ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Translations

Abstract. Species-diagnostic anatomical characters of fleshflies are not known for most immature stages or even adults, and an existing key may be incomplete or difûcult for nonspecialists to use. The use of sarcophagids for PMI estimations has been greatly hampered by their highly similar morphological characters. DNA-based method can be used as a supplemental means of morphological method in identification of forensically important sarcophagid flies. However, relying solely on single DNA fragment for delimiting species is considered to be unreliable, especially when the fragment was small. Sequence data of selected regions of the cytochrome oxidase subunit two (COII) and 16S ribosomal RNA (16SrRNA) genes of the most important Chinese fleshfly taxa associated with cadavers are presented, which can be instrumental for implementation of the Chinese Sarcophagidae database. Phylogenetic analysis of the sequenced segments showed that all sarcophagid specimens were properly assigned into five species, which indicated the possibility of separation congeneric species with the short fragments.

Insect larvae and adult insects found on human corpses can provide important forensic evidence however it is useful to be able to prove evidence of association. Without this, it could be claimed that the insect evidence was a contaminant or had been planted on the body. This paper describes how mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and STR analysis of the crop contents of larvae of the blowfly Aldrichina grahami collected from separated body parts was used to provide evidence of association.

BACKGROUNDCardiovascular disease is a major cause of mortality and morbidity in patients with chronic kidney disease. Macrophage death in advanced atherosclerosis promotes necrosis and plaque destabilization. In vitro data from peritoneal macrophages show apoptosis triggered through endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress caused by free cholesterol accumulation plays an important role. Here we used THP-1 cells differentiated by 100 ng/ml of phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) for five days as an in vitro model, to investigate if acetylated low-density lipoprotein (AcLDL) loading could also induce apoptosis and its underlying mechanisms.

METHODSOil red O staining was used to examine the lipid droplets. Confocal microscopy was used to visualize the uptake of AcLDL. Hoechst 33258 stain and the caspase 3,7 assay were used to detect apoptosis. High performance liquid chromatography was used in the intracellular free cholesterol (FC) and cholesterol ester (CE) assay. Western blotting was used to demonstrate the protein level. Real-time PCR was used to detect the changes of mRNAs. ER free cholesterol was also assayed.

RESULTSConfocal microscopy showed THP-1 cells differentiated by 100 ng/ml of PMA for five days uptake more AcLDL than differentiated for two days. Hoechst 33258 stain showed AcLDL could induce apoptosis in THP-1 macrophages in a time and dose dependent manner. Exposure of THP-1 macrophages to 100 microg/ml of AcLDL for 24 hours resulted in a significant increase in caspase 3,7 activity, a significant increase in FC and CE mass of 1.5 and 2.4-fold, meanwhile, a significant increase in transcription factor C/EBP homologous protein and a decrease in Bcl-2 both in protein and mRNA levels were observed with an 8-fold rise of free cholesterol in the ER.

CONCLUSIONER stress is involved in AcLDL induced apoptosis in THP-1 macrophages with free cholesterol accumulation in the ER.

Apoptosis ; drug effects ; Blotting, Western ; Cell Differentiation ; physiology ; Cell Line ; Cholesterol ; metabolism ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Endoplasmic Reticulum ; metabolism ; Humans ; Lipoproteins, LDL ; pharmacology ; Macrophages ; cytology ; drug effects ; Microscopy, Confocal ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 ; genetics ; Transcription Factor CHOP ; genetics

OBJECTIVETo understand the infected status of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), sexually transmitted disease (STD) and relative risk behaviors of men who have sex with men (MSM) in Beijing.

METHODSRespondent-driven sampling (RDS) was adopted to recruit target population and to conduct behavior and serological studies among MSM. RDSAT 5.5 was used to analyze data.

RESULTSAmong 427 MSM, the age distribution was as follows: below 30 and less than 35 were 65.4% and 81.0% respectively. 69.2% (95% CI: 63.9-75.5) of them had 12 years or less of education. 73.3% (95% CI: 66.7-79.8) of them were non-Beijing registered residents. The urban and rural registered residents almost accounted for half of all the recruits. HIV positive rate was 4.6% (95% CI: 2.2-7.6) while 56.3% (95% CI: 50.9-62.5) of them reported having had bisexual sex preference. Only 14.8% (95% CI: 10.8-19.6) of them had ever had HIV test, while 22.8% (95% CI: 18.7-27.8) reported ever having had STDs. 55.3% (95% CI: 49.3-61.9) and 55.1% (95% CI: 48.7-61.3) of them had unprotected insert and receptive anal sex over the last 6 months.

CONCLUSIONData from the HIV positive rate showed that there was a trend of increase among MSM in Beijing which called for urgent care to them.

Adult ; China ; epidemiology ; Epidemiologic Studies ; HIV Infections ; epidemiology ; Homosexuality, Male ; Humans ; Male ; Risk-Taking ; Sexually Transmitted Diseases ; epidemiology ; Unsafe Sex ; Urban Population ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo analyze the genetic characteristics of two rabies virus isolates from Henan province and to compare their relations hip with known rabies virus isolates and vaccine strains.

METHODSRabies viral antigens were detected in 100 canine brains by immunofluorescence assay method. Rabies virus was isolated through inoculating the suspensions of positive brains into suckling mice. N gene and G were amplified by RT-PCR and sequenced. Phylogenetic trees were constructed for the analysis on genetic characteristics of rabies virus.

RESULTSTwo rabies virus strains were isolated (Henan Hb1 and Henan Sq1). Data from sequential comparison revealed that the nucleotide and amino acid identities of N and G gene between the two isolates were 99.3% and 98.9%, and 98.7% and 98.4% respectively. The two isolates were more closely related to CTN, with the homogeny of N gene and G gene as 89.1% and 85.6%-85.7% at the nucleotide level, but 97.6%-98.0% and 92.3% at the amino acid level respectively, than to other vaccine strains. When comparing with other known viruses including Chinese isolates, the two stains shared closer identity with the isolates from Indonesia, and the rates of homogeny of N and G gene were 92.1%-93.2% and 91.9%-92.1% at the nucleotide level, 97.5%-98.6% and 96.0%-96.2% at the amino acid level, respectively. Data from the deduced amino acid sequences revealed that some amino acid residues including the residues in the N and G antigenic sites were substituted in the two isolates. Furthermore, phylogenetic analysis showed that the two isolates were also more closely related to the strains from Indonesia and vaccine strain CTN than to any other known street viruses and vaccine strains.

CONCLUSIONBoth Henan Hbl and Henan Sql belonged to genotype 1. However, the N and G gene diverged from known street viruses and vaccine strains at either nucleotide level or amino acid level.

Amino Acid Sequence ; Animals ; Base Sequence ; Brain ; virology ; China ; DNA, Viral ; analysis ; Dogs ; virology ; Genes, Viral ; Genotype ; Mice ; Phylogeny ; Rabies Vaccines ; Rabies virus ; classification ; genetics ; isolation & purification ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Sequence Analysis, DNA