Objective:To reveal the differences in the transcriptome maps of brain tissues in mice subjected to Flash irradiation and conventional dose rate irradiation with electron beams and to explain the biological effect and mechanisms of Flash irradiation from multiple perspectives.Methods:Following the principle of grouping based on approximate body weights, 36 female C57BL/6J mice were divided into three groups, i. e., the control, conventional dose rate irradiation (CONV), and Flash irradiation (Flash) groups, with 12 mice in each group. Both the CONV and Flash groups received a single 15 Gy whole-brain irradiation with 9 MeV electron beams. At 3 d post-irradiation, the whole-brain tissue specimens were collected for hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining to observe pathological changes. At 1, 3, and 10 weeks post-irradiation, the motion function, cognitive ability, depression level, and spatial memory capacity of the mice were assessed using ethology. At 1 and 10 weeks after behavioral experiments, brain tissue samples were collected and snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen for reference-based transcriptome sequencing. Accordingly, the differences in the transcriptome maps of radiation-induced brain injury between CONV and Flash groups were analyzed.Results:The HE staining-based pathological result revealed that compared to the CONV group, the Flash group exhibited reduced glial cell hyperplasia and inflammatory cell infiltration in brain tissues. Ethological research result at 1 week post-irradiation showed that the CONV group manifested a significantly decreased total traveled distance compared to the control and Flash groups ( t = 5.51, 2.38, P < 0.05) and a significantly increased immobility time compared to the control group ( t = 3.60, P < 0.05). Ethological research result at 3 weeks post-irradiation indicated that compared to the CONV group, the Flash group displayed significantly alleviated cognitive impairment ( t = 3.35, P < 0.05) and reduced depression levels ( t = 2.39, P < 0.05). Ethological research result at 10 weeks post-irradiation demonstrated that the CONV group showed the worst cognitive performance, significantly differing from the control group ( t = 4.53, P < 0.05). Transcriptome sequencing result revealed that besides immune-related pathways, the Flash group also exhibited multiple upregulated metabolic pathways and fibroblast growth factor (FGF)-related pathways compared to the CONV group. Conclusions:Compared to conventional dose rate irradiation, Flash irradiation can effectively alleviate radiation-induced brain injury in mice. This effect is associated with various metabolic pathways (including amino acid metabolism) and FGF-related pathways besides immune pathways.

Objective:To reveal the differences in the transcriptome maps of brain tissues in mice subjected to Flash irradiation and conventional dose rate irradiation with electron beams and to explain the biological effect and mechanisms of Flash irradiation from multiple perspectives.Methods:Following the principle of grouping based on approximate body weights, 36 female C57BL/6J mice were divided into three groups, i. e., the control, conventional dose rate irradiation (CONV), and Flash irradiation (Flash) groups, with 12 mice in each group. Both the CONV and Flash groups received a single 15 Gy whole-brain irradiation with 9 MeV electron beams. At 3 d post-irradiation, the whole-brain tissue specimens were collected for hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining to observe pathological changes. At 1, 3, and 10 weeks post-irradiation, the motion function, cognitive ability, depression level, and spatial memory capacity of the mice were assessed using ethology. At 1 and 10 weeks after behavioral experiments, brain tissue samples were collected and snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen for reference-based transcriptome sequencing. Accordingly, the differences in the transcriptome maps of radiation-induced brain injury between CONV and Flash groups were analyzed.Results:The HE staining-based pathological result revealed that compared to the CONV group, the Flash group exhibited reduced glial cell hyperplasia and inflammatory cell infiltration in brain tissues. Ethological research result at 1 week post-irradiation showed that the CONV group manifested a significantly decreased total traveled distance compared to the control and Flash groups ( t = 5.51, 2.38, P < 0.05) and a significantly increased immobility time compared to the control group ( t = 3.60, P < 0.05). Ethological research result at 3 weeks post-irradiation indicated that compared to the CONV group, the Flash group displayed significantly alleviated cognitive impairment ( t = 3.35, P < 0.05) and reduced depression levels ( t = 2.39, P < 0.05). Ethological research result at 10 weeks post-irradiation demonstrated that the CONV group showed the worst cognitive performance, significantly differing from the control group ( t = 4.53, P < 0.05). Transcriptome sequencing result revealed that besides immune-related pathways, the Flash group also exhibited multiple upregulated metabolic pathways and fibroblast growth factor (FGF)-related pathways compared to the CONV group. Conclusions:Compared to conventional dose rate irradiation, Flash irradiation can effectively alleviate radiation-induced brain injury in mice. This effect is associated with various metabolic pathways (including amino acid metabolism) and FGF-related pathways besides immune pathways.

Objective:To explore the impacts of workload and expected income index on the salary satisfaction of medical staff at public hospitals.Methods:From October 15th to November 10th, 2020, the salary system reform monitoring questionnaire for medical staff in public hospitals formulated by development center for medical science & technology National Health Commission was adopted to evaluate the workload, actual income, expected income and salary satisfaction of 120 pilot public hospitals for salary reforms in 21 cities (prefectures) in Sichuan province. The questionnaire survey was conducted among 8 651 medical staff of these hospitals. Descriptive analysis was carried out on the results of the questionnaire; the ratio of expected income to actual income, namely the expected income index, was used to reflect the relative difference between expected income and actual income; χ2 test and binary logistic regression were used to analyze the influencing factors of salary satisfaction. Results:8 133 valid questionnaires were recovered. The average working time per week of the survey subjects was 48.17 hours, and the average longest continuous working time was 15.30 hours; 85.63% (6 964) of the medical staff had expected income index greater than 1. The average score of salary satisfaction was 58.22 points and 57.72% (4 694) of the medical staff were dissatisfied. The longer the continuous working time (16-72 h versus 8-9 h, OR=0.755), the greater the expected income index (>1 versus =1, OR=0.522), and the lower the salary satisfaction. Conclusions:The workload of medical staff was heavy, the salary failed to meet the expected level, the sense of satisfaction was low. It is suggested to monitor in real time and dynamically adjust the workload of medical staff in combination with the actual situation, formulate the salary level in line with the technical labor value of different medical staff, and establish a comprehensive performance appraisal mechanism.

Stomatal density is important for crop yield. In this paper, we studied the epidermal pattern factors (EPFs) related to stomatal development. Prokaryotic expression vectors were constructed to obtain EPFs. Then the relationship between EPFs and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) was established. First, AtEPF1, AtEPF2 and AtEPFL9 were cloned and constructed to pET28a vectors. Then recombinant plasmids pET28a-AtEPF1, pET28a-AtEPF2 and pET28a-AtEPFL9 were digested and sequenced, showing successful construction. Finally, they were transformed into E. coli BL21(DE3) separately and induced to express by isopropyl β-D-galactoside (IPTG). The optimized expression conditions including IPTG concentration (0.5, 0.3 and 0.05 mmol/L), temperature (28 °C, 28 °C and 16 °C) and induction time (16 h, 16 h and 20 h) were obtained. The bands of purified proteins were about 18 kDa, 19 kDa and 14.5 kDa, respectively. In order to identify their function, the purified AtEPF2 and AtEPFL9 were presented to Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings. Interestingly, the H2S production rate decreased or increased compared with the control, showing significant differences. That is, EPFs affected the production of endogenous H2S in plants. These results provide a foundation for further study of the relationship between H2S and EPFs on stomatal development, but also a possible way to increase the yield or enhance the stress resistance.
Arabidopsis ; genetics ; metabolism ; Arabidopsis Proteins ; genetics ; isolation & purification ; metabolism ; Escherichia coli ; genetics ; Genetic Vectors ; genetics ; Hydrogen Sulfide ; metabolism ; Plasmids ; genetics ; Seedlings ; metabolism

Objective: To evaluate the clinical characteristics of T-cell acute leukemia/lymphoma (T-ALL) and explore the prognosis significance of early T-cell precursor leukemia/lymphoma. Methods: A cohort of 126 patients diagnosed with T-ALL from 2008 to 2014 in West China Hospital, Sichuan University were enrolled in this study. They were further categorized by immunophenotype according to the expression of T-cell lineage markers CD1a, CD8, CD5 and one or more stem cell or myeloid markers. The laboratory indicators and prognosis factors were also statistically analyzed. Results: Of all patients, the ratio of male to female was 2.5∶1, with the median age of 25 years old (range 14 to 77) . The percentage of ETP-ALL was up to 47.6%. T-ALL patients showed higher ratio in first clinical remission rate (CR₁) than T-LBL ones (64.4% vs 30.8%, P=0.032) . Group with WBC count higher than 50×10⁹/L at presentation showed higher ration of achieving CR₁ than those lower than 50×10⁹/L (78.4% vs 50.9%, P=0.010) . In comparison with the non-ETP-ALL, ETP-ALL patients had older age of onset (P<0.001) , lower WBC count (P<0.001) , lower risk of CNS involvement (10.0% vs 30.2%, P=0.009) and slightly inferior overall survival (P=0.073) . T-cell lineage markers CD1a^-, CD8^- and CD4^- positive patients had higher CR₁ than their corresponding negative ones (P=0.002, P=0.000, P=0.001) , while CD33^- and CD56^- positive patients had lower ratio of achieving CR₁ than their negative ones, respectively (P=0.035, P=0.035) . Conclusion Flow cytometry and associated markers for immunophenotyping was of significance in the diagnosis and prognosis monitoring of T-ALL/LBL. The percentage of ETP-ALL/LBL subtype was high in Chinese adolescent and adult T-ALL patients. ETP-ALL/LBL was a high risk subtype, which needs more precise standard for diagnosis and advanced therapies for better outcome.