Objective To investigate the value of wrist MRI in bone age estimation for male adoles-cents in Shanghai,Zhejiang and Jiangsu.Methods A total of 124 Han male adolescents aged 6.0 to 18.0 years from Shanghai,Zhejiang and Jiangsu were selected as subjects.Their weight and height were measured,and T1WI and T2WI sequences of the wrist were scanned.The distal ends of the ra-dius and ulna,and the first to five metacarpal epiphyses and corresponding metaphyses were selected as observational indexes after MRI images of the wrist were obtained.The development of each index was classified(0-2 grades)by a deputy senior imaging expert,then the maximum width of each in-dex was measured by another deputy senior expert.Height,weight,classification and maximum width of indexes were used as input variables,and age was used as the target variable.Support vector ma-chine,random forest,current reality tree,and linear regression models were established to estimate the bone age,and the model with the highest accuracy was selected.Results The height,weight,classifica-tion of wrist bone epiphysis development,maximum width of each bone metaphysis and epiphysis were all correlated with age(P<0.05).The accuracies of the support vector machine were the highest when the differences between bone age and actual chronological age were within 1.0 and 1.5 years(88.7%and 96.0%,respectively).Conclusion It is feasible to estimate bone age by using MRI images.Quantifying the maximum width of the epiphysis and corresponding metaphysis of bone and combining it with MRI image classification can effectively reduce the estimation error.

This study aimed to establish the baseline sensitivity of Botrytis cinerea from Panax ginseng to prochloraz, and ensure the fitness of prochloraz-resistant mutants and the cross-resistance of B. cinerea to prochloraz and commonly used fungicides for the prevention and control of gray mold including boscalid, pyraclostrobin, iprodione, and pyrimethanil. The sensitivity of B. cinerea from P. ginseng to fungicides was determined by the mycelial growth rate method. The prochloraz-resistant mutants were screened out through fungicide domestication and ultraviolet(UV) induction. The fitness of resistant mutants was determined through the stability of subculture, mycelial growth rate, and pathogenicity test. The cross-resistance between prochloraz and the four fungicides was determined by Person correlation analysis. The results showed that all B. cinerea strains tested were sensitive to prochloraz, and the EC_(50) value ranged from 0.004 8 to 0.062 9 μg·mL~(-1), with an average of 0.022 μg·mL~(-1). The sensitivity frequency distribution diagram showed that 89 B. cinerea strains were located within the main peak with a continuous single peak curve, and the average EC_(50) value of 0.018 μg·mL~(-1) was taken as the baseline sensitivity of B. cinerea to prochloraz. The fungicide domestication and UV induction obtained 6 resistant mutants, among which 2 strains were unstable and the other 2 strains showed decreased resistance after multiple generations of culture. Furthermore, the mycelial growth rate and spore yield of all resistant mutants were lower than those of their parents, and the pathogenicity of most mutants was lower than that of their parents. In addition, prochloraz had no obvious cross-resistance with boscalid, pyraclostrobin, iprodione, and pyrimethanil. In conclusion, prochloraz has great potential for controlling gray mold in P. ginseng, and the resistance risk of B. cinerea to prochloraz is low.
Humans ; Panax ; Fungicides, Industrial

Objective: Tea polyphenols are natural extracts used widely throughout the world. However, the severe astringency of tea polyphenols has reduced patient compliance. Based on the analysis of the formation mechanism of astringency, this paper hopes to propose a new method to control the astringency of tea polyphenols and improve patient compliance without changing its effect. Methods: Artificial saliva was used to prepare the tea polyphenols solution with different pH, using β-casein to imitate salivary protein, and preparing 1.2 mg/mL β-casein solution. A fluorescence quenching test was used to study the interaction between tea polyphenols and β-casein, combined with the stability test results of the compound, we can choose the pH with weak binding but good stability as the best pH for masking astringency. The taste-masking tablets were prepared under the best pH conditions, and the Xinnaojian Original Tablets were prepared according to the conventional preparation method. The disintegration time limit and solubility were tested respectively. The astringency of Xinnaojian original tablets and taste-masking tablets was evaluated by visual analogue scale (VAS). Results: The result of the fluorescence quenching test prompted that the combination force was the weakest when the pH was 4.9. Further synchronous fluorescence analysis showed that an increase in pH resulted in a decrease of the binding sites between tea polyphenols and β-casein, and this decrease was closely related to changes in tryptophan residues in β-casein. Both original and taste-masking Xinnaojian Tablets were prepared. Volunteers’ VAS scores illustrated that the astringency improved significantly with the masking tablets (P < 0.05). Conclusion: This pH-adjusting masking treatment had little effect on the recovery of polyphenols from the tablets or the dissolution of the tablets. This study provides a novel and feasible astringency masking technology for tea polyphenols and its preparation.

Root rot was occurred widely in the production area of Rehmannia glutinosa, and which result in serious influence on the yield and quality of R. glutinosa. In the present work, a new phytopathogen was isolated from roots with root rot symptom in the production area of R. glutinosa. The colony of the pathogen growing on PDA medium was gray-black, the structure of hyphae was compact, the aerial hyphae was less developed, and the back of the colony was black. The hyphae of the pathogen were uneven in size, about 2 to 3 μm in diameter and twined with each other, the conidia of the pathogen were small, nearly round and about 1 μm in diameter. The healthy roots of R. glutinosa were inoculated with the pathogen in vitro, black-brown rot was observed at the inoculate sites after a few days' incubation. The rhizosphere soil of healthy R. glutinosa seedlings were inoculated in vivo, the leaves were wilted and the roots were black-brown rotted after several days' normal culture, the symptoms were consistent with those observed in the field. The genomic DNA of the pathogen was amplified by fungus rDNA-ITS universal primer ITS1/ITS4 and homologous analyzed, the pathogen was in a branch with Heterophoma sp., Phoma sp., P. novae-verbascicola and P. herbarum with the nuclear acid homology of 99.21% to 99.43%. The pathogen shown 97.00% to 98.02% nuclear acid homology with H. verbascicola, H. novae-verbascicola, H. poolensis, P. herbarum, H. sylvatica, H. verbascicola and H. verbasci-densiflori when amplified by the tub2 gene special primer Btub2 fd/Btub4 rd, and H. novae-verbascicola was the highest. The pathogen was in a branch with H. novae-verbascicola when amplified by the lsu gene special primer LR0 R/LR7. Based on the morphological characteristics, nucleotide sequence analysis and Koch's test results, the isolated pathogen causing root rot of R. glutinosa was identified as H. novae-verbascicola. This study is of great significance for the further theoretical research on root rot of R. glutinosa and root rot control in field.
DNA, Ribosomal ; Fungi/genetics* ; Plant Leaves ; Rehmannia/genetics* ; Seedlings

Trollius chinensis is a traditional Chinese medicinal material in China, the wild resource of T. chinensis are now exhausted, and commercial medicinal T. chinensis mainly depends on artificial cultivation. As one of the most severely happened diseases at the seedling period, damping off has been a serious threaten to the breeding of T. chinensis seedlings. However, no related research have been reported so far. So, the authors collected damping-off samples of T. chinensis in 2018 from seedling breeding nursery in Guyuan, Hebei province, and carried out study on taxonomic identification of the pathogen. Damping off occurs in the T. chinensis production area from mid-May to late June every year. At the beginning, brown lesions were observed on the basal stem, then the lesions circumferential expanded and constricted, and finally resulted in the fall and death of T. chinensis seedlings. Pathogenic isolate was growing rapidly on the PDA medium, well developed aerial mycelia were grey white at first, then turned brown gradually, and a great number of small dark brown sclerotia were developed in the middle and periphery of the colony. Mycelial diameter of the pathogen was about 7 to 10 μm, near right angle or acute angle branches, near branches with septa, branches and septa with constriction. After the healthy T. chinensis seedlings were inoculated by pathogenic isolate, damping-off was observed soon, and the symptom was as same as those observed in the field. Through homogenous blast, the rDNA-ITS sequence of the pathogenic isolate shown 99.49% to 99.84% homology with Rhizoctonia solani, R. solani AG-1 IC mycelium anastomosis group and Thanatephorus cucumeris, the sexual type of Rhizoctonia. Furthermore, obvious mycelial anastomosis phenomena were observed when the pathogenic isolate and R. solani AG-1 IC strain were confronting cultured. Based on the results above, the pathogenic isolate causing damping off of T. chinensis was identified as R. solani AG-1 IC mycelial anastomosis group. RESULTS:: in the present work have important significance for further research on basic biology of the pathogen and integrated control of damping off causing by it on T. chinensis.
Basidiomycota ; Plant Breeding ; Plant Diseases ; Rhizoctonia ; Seedlings

The aims of this study were to determine the prognostic value of primary tumor surgery and identify optimal candidates for such surgery among patients with seminoma and distant metastasis at diagnosis. We identified 521 patients with seminoma and distant metastasis at diagnosis between 2004 and 2014 from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. Among these patients, 434 had undergone surgery, whereas 87 had not. The prognostic value of primary tumor surgery was assessed by Kaplan-Meier methods, log-rank analyses, and multivariate Cox's proportional hazards model. Survival curves and forest plots were also plotted. Survival analysis indicated that patients who underwent surgery had a better 5-year overall survival and cancer-specific survival than those who did not. Multivariate analyses demonstrated that primary tumor surgery is an independent prognostic factor for overall survival and cancer-specific survival, along with age at diagnosis, M stage, and marital status. In addition, primary tumor surgery still had considerable prognostic value in the subgroup of patients with lymph node metastasis. Further, forest plots demonstrated that patients with M1a stage, N1 or N2-3 stage, and a younger age at diagnosis (<60 years) may benefit from primary tumor surgery. In conclusion, our findings indicate that primary tumor surgery is correlated with improved survival in patients with seminoma and distant metastasis. Furthermore, primary tumor surgery is an independent prognostic indicator for patients with seminoma and distant metastasis.

In this study, physical fingerprint and multivariate statistical analysis was applied to characterize the quality consistency of different sources of carboxymethylcellulose sodium, and the visualization of R language was used to explore the intrinsic correlation on its performances, and we drew contour maps between independent variables and flowability of powder to find the design space. Through the physical fingerprint and multivariate statistical analysis, it was found that there were differences in the powder properties of carboxymethylcellulose sodium from different sources, and its moisture content, bulk density and tapped density have a great influence on the fluidity. The fillibility was positively correlated with flowability, both negatively correlated with compressibility by R intelligent visualization analysis, which was statistically significant (P < 0.01). When the angle of repose is 30° - 40°, the appropriate design space was found as 5.092 2% < moisture content < 7.006 7%, 0.560 2 g·cm^-3 < bulk density < 0.579 9 g·cm^-3, and 0.646 3 g·cm^-3 < tapped density < 0.816 5 g·cm^-3. The results show that it is scientific and feasible to evaluate the quality consistency of pharmaceutical excipients by using the physical fingerprint, multivariate statistical analysis and visualization methods, which provides new ideas for the production and quality evaluation of excipients and the development of generic prescriptions.

To detect possible pathogenic virus(es) in woad (Isatis tinctoria) cultivated at Institute of Medicinal Plant Development in Beijing, reverse transcription(RT)-PCR was performed using total RNA of symptomatic woad leaves with primers for poty-, polero-, tobamovirus, broad bean wilt virus 2(BBWV2) and cucumber mosaic virus (CMV). A 657 bp fragment was amplified from symptomatic woad using CMV primers. Sequencing and BLAST analysis indicated that this fragment shared 99% nucleotide identity and 100% amino acid identity with CMV-Vi isolate. The isolate was named CMV-Isatis tinctorial (CMV-It). Phylogenetic analysis based on nucleotide sequences of CP genes showed that CMV-It clustered with CMV-K and belonged to subgroup I. To our knowledge, this is first identification of CMV in woad by RT-PCR and the CP gene was analyzed. This work provided data for research and control of woad mosaic disease.

WRKY transcription factor is one of the most important transcription factor families widely existing in higher plants, which playing critical role in plant morphogenesis, development, biotic (including phytopathogens, pests etc.) and abiotic (drought, salt, chilling, high temperature, etc.) stress. In the present work, primers used to amplify full-length gene encoding WRKY transcription factor were designed based on the transcriptome data of P. ginseng that induced by benzoic acid, one of the most important autotoxins identified from root exudates and rhizosphere soil of P. ginseng. Then, a WRKY gene, temporarily named as WRKY7, was confirmed by RT-RCR. Furthermore, sequencing and sequence analysis of WRKY7 was conducted. Results indicated that, the full length cDNA of WRKY7 was 1 216 bp, the open reading frame (ORF) of which was 1 014 bp, encodes 337 amino acids. Homologous analysis and phylogenetic tree showed that, WRKY7 belonged to the Ⅲ category of WRKY families, which showing 87% similarity to WRKY6 in P. quinquefolius. Real-time PCR results showed that the expression of WRKY7 in P. ginseng induced by benzoic acid was up-regulated markedly than the control, so we speculated that WRKY7 was involved in the response to benzoic acid stress, which will be helpful for further research on the molecular mechanism of ginseng plant response to benzoic acid stress.

INTRODUCTIONMultimodality therapy, including preoperative chemoradiotherapy (CRT) and total mesorectal excision (TME), has effectively reduced local recurrence rates of rectal cancer over the past decade. However, the benefits and risks of the addition of neoadjuvant CRT to surgery need to be evaluated. This study was to compare the efficacy of TME with versus without preoperative concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) involving XELOX regimen (oxaliplatin plus capecitabine) in Chinese patients with stages II and III mid/low rectal adenocarcinoma.

METHODSWe randomly assigned patients to the TME group (TME without preoperative CCRT) or CCRT + TME group (TME with preoperative CCRT). The primary endpoint was disease-free survival (DFS); the secondary endpoints were overall survival (OS), local and distant recurrence, tumor response to CRT, toxicity, sphincter preservation, and surgical complications. An interim analysis of the potential inferiority of DFS in the CCRT + TME group was planned when the first 180 patients had been followed up for at least 6 months.

RESULTSA total of 94 patients in the TME group and 90 patients in the CCRT + TME group were able to be evaluated. The 3-year DFS and OS rates were 86.3 % and 91.5 % in the whole cohort, respectively. The 3-year DFS rates of the TME and CCRT + TME groups were 85.7% and 87.9 % (P = 0.766), respectively, and the 3-year OS rates were 90.7 % and 92.3 % (P = 0.855), respectively. The functional sphincter preservation rates of the TME and CCRT + TME groups were 71.3 % and 70.0 % (P = 0.849), respectively. In the TME group, 16 (17.0 %) patients were proven to have pTNM stage I disease after surgery. In the CCRT + TME group, 32 (35.6 %) patients achieved a pathologic complete response (pCR).

CONCLUSIONSPreliminary results indicated no significant differences in the DFS, OS, or functional sphincter preservation rates between the TME and CCRT + TME groups. However, preoperative CCRT with XELOX yielded a high pCR rate. Newer techniques are needed to improve the staging accuracy, and further investigation is warranted.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBERChi CTR-TRC-08000122.

Adenocarcinoma ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; Chemoradiotherapy ; Combined Modality Therapy ; Deoxycytidine ; analogs & derivatives ; Disease-Free Survival ; Fluorouracil ; analogs & derivatives ; Humans ; Neoadjuvant Therapy ; Neoplasm Staging ; Organoplatinum Compounds ; Prognosis ; Prospective Studies ; Rectal Neoplasms ; Survival Rate