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Advanced techniques capable of early, rapid, and nondestructive detection of the impacts of drought on fruit tree and the measurement of the underlying photosynthetic traits on a large scale are necessary to meet the challenges of precision farming and full prediction of yield increases. We tested the application of hyperspectral reflectance as a high-throughput phenotyping approach for early identification of water stress and rapid assessment of leaf photosynthetic traits in citrus trees by conducting a greenhouse experiment. To this end, photosynthetic CO2 assimilation rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (Cond) and transpiration rate (Trmmol) were measured with gas-exchange approaches alongside measurements of leaf hyperspectral reflectance from citrus grown across a gradient of soil drought levels six times, during 20 days of stress induction and 13 days of rewatering. Water stress caused Pn, Cond, and Trmmol rapid and continuous decline throughout the entire drought period. The upper layer was more sensitive to drought than middle and lower layers. Water stress could also bring continuous and dynamic changes of the mean spectral reflectance and absorptance over time. After trees were rewatered, these differences were not obvious. The original reflectance spectra of the four water stresses were surprisingly of low diversity and could not track drought responses, whereas specific hyperspectral spectral vegetation indices (SVIs) and absorption features or wavelength position variables presented great potential. The following machine-learning algorithms: random forest (RF), support vector machine (SVM), gradient boost (GDboost), and adaptive boosting (Adaboost) were used to develop a measure of photosynthesis from leaf reflectance spectra. The performance of four machine-learning algorithms were assessed, and RF algorithm yielded the highest predictive power for predicting photosynthetic parameters (R2 was 0.92, 0.89, and 0.88 for Pn, Cond, and Trmmol, respectively). Our results indicated that leaf hyperspectral reflectance is a reliable and stable method for monitoring water stress and yield increase, with great potential to be applied in large-scale orchards.

ObjectiveChronic nonbacterial prostatitis (CNP) has remained one of the most prevalent urological diseases, particularly in older men. Dihydroartemisinin (DHA) has been identified as a semi-synthetic derivative of artemisinin that exhibits broad protective effects. However, the role of DHA in inhibiting CNP inflammation and prostatic epithelial cell proliferation remains largely unknown.Materials and methodsCNP animal model was induced by carrageenan in C57BL/6 mouse. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and Western blot were used to examine inflammatory cytokines and proliferation genes expression. Immunofluorescence and immunochemistry staining were used to detect and E2F7 expression. Human prostatic epithelial cells (HPECs) and RWPE-1 was induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to mimic CNP model in vitro. Cell proliferation was determined using MTS assay.ResultsDHA significantly alleviated the rough epithelium and inhibited multilamellar cell formation in the prostatic gland cavity and prostatic index induced by carrageenan. In addition, DHA decreased the expression of TNF-α and IL-6 inflammatory factors in prostatitis tissues and in LPS-induced epithelial cells. Upregulation of transcription factor E2F7, which expression was inhibited by DHA, was found in CNP tissues, human BPH tissues and LPS-induced epithelial cells inflammatory response. Mechanically, we found that depletion of E2F7 by shRNA inhibited epithelial cell proliferation and LPS-induced inflammation while DHA further enhance these effects. Furthermore, HIF1α was transcriptional regulated by E2F7 and involved in E2F7-inhibited CNP and cellular inflammatory response. Interestingly, we found that inhibition of HIF1α blocks E2F7-induced cell inflammatory response but does not obstruct E2F7-promoted cell growth.ConclusionThe results revealed that DHA inhibits the CNP and inflammation by blocking the E2F7/HIF1α pathway. Our findings provide new evidence for the mechanism of DHA and its key role in CNP, which may provide an alternative solution for the prevention and treatment of CNP.

In the winter of 2015,the first dengue vaccine（Dengvaxia）was approved for clinical use.Dengue virus is the most prevalent mosquito-transmitted viral pathogen in humans（Qin and Shi,2014）.Even though the approved Dengvaxia has its weaknesses（e.g.,low protection against serotype-2virus）,it has been recently licensed to Mexico,Philippines,

Abstract Obtaining variation in water use and photosynthetic capacity is a promising route toward yield increases, but it is still too laborious for large-scale rapid monitoring and prediction. We tested the application of hyperspectral reflectance as a high-throughput phenotyping approach for early identification of water stress and rapid assessment of leaf photosynthetic traits in citrus trees. To this end, photosynthetic CO2 assimilation rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (Cond) and transpiration rate (Trmmol) were measured with gas-exchange approaches alongside measurements of leaf hyperspectral reflectance from citrus grown across a gradient of soil drought levels. Water stress caused Pn, Cond and Trmmol rapid and continuous decreases in whole drought period. Upper layer was more sensitive to drought than middle and lower layers. Original reflectance spectra of three drought treatments were surprisingly of low diversity and could not track drought responses, whereas specific hyperspectral spectral vegetation indices (SVIs) and absorption features or wavelength position variables presented great potential. Performance of four machine learning algorithms were assessed and random forest (RF) algorithm yielded the highest predictive power for predicting photosynthetic parameters. Our results indicated that leaf hyperspectral reflectance was a reliable and stable method for monitoring water stress and yield increasing in large-scale orchards. Highlight An efficient and stable methods using hyperspectral features for early and pre-visual identification of drought and machine learning techniques for predicting photosynthetic capacity. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Footnotes * Authors’ email Jing-Jing Zhou: hupodingxiangyu{at}mail.hzau.edu.cn * Ya-Hao Zhang: zyh666{at}webmail.hzau.edu.cn * Ze-Min Han: HZM{at}webmail.hzau.edu.cn * Xiao-Yang Liu: xiaoyang.liu{at}webmail.hzau.edu.cn * Yong-Feng Jian: JYongFeng{at}webmail.hzau.edu.cn * Chun-Gen Hu: chungen{at}mail.hzau.edu.cn

Aim： Excess dietary fat intake can induce lipotoxicity in non-adipose tissues. The aim of this study was to observe the effects of dietary high-fat lard intake on thyroid in rats. Methods： Male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed a high-fat lard diet for 24 weeks, and then the rats were fed a normal control diet （acute dietary modification） or the high-fat lard diet for another 6 weeks. The serum lipid profile, total thyroxine （TF4）, free thyroxine （FT4） and thyrotropin （TSH） levels were determined at the 12, 18, 24 and 30 weeks. High-frequency ultrasound scanning of the thyroid glands was performed at the 24 or 30 weeks. After the rats were sacrificed, the thyroid glands were collected for histological and immunohistochemical analyses, Results： The high-fat lard diet significantly increased triglyceride levels in both the serum and thyroid, and decreased serum TT4 and FT4 levels in parallel with elevated serum TSH levels. Ultrasonic imaging revealed enlarged thyroid glands with lowered echotexture and relatively heterogeneous features in the high-fat lard fed rats. The thyroid glands from the high-fat lard fed rats exhibited enlarged follicle cavities and flattened follicular epithelial cells under light microscopy, and dilated endoplasmic reticulum cisternae, twisted nuclei, fewer microvilli and secretory vesicles under transmission electron microscopy. Furthermore, the thyroid glands from the high- fat lard fed rats showed markedly low levels of thyroid hormone synthesis-related proteins ]-I＇F-1 and NIS. Acute dietary modification by withdrawal of the high-fat lard diet for 6 weeks failed to ameliorate the high-fat lard diet-induced thyroid changes. Conclusion： Dietary high-fat lard intake induces significant thyroid dysfunction and abnormal morphology in rats, which can not be corrected by short-term dietary modification.

Background： Recently, calreticulin （CALR） gene mutations have been identified in patients with essential thrombocythemia （ET）. A high-frequency of ET cases without Janus kinase 2 （JAK2） mutations contain CALR mutations and exhibit clinical characteristics different from those with mutant JAK2. Thus, we investigated the frequency and clinical features of Chinese patients of Han ethnicity with CALR mutations in ET. Methods： We recruited 310 Chinese patients of Han ethnicity with ET to analyze states of CALR, JAK2 V617F, and MPLW5 15 mutations by polymerase chain reaction and direct sequencing. We analyzed the relationship between the mutations and clinical features. Results： CALR, JAK2V617E and MPLW515 mutations were detected in 30% （n = 92）, 48% （n = 149）, and 1% （n = 4） of patients with ET, respectively. The mutation types of CALR involved deletion and insertion of base pairs. Most of them were Type 1 （52-bp deletion） and Type 2 （5-bp insertion, TTGTC） mutations, leading to de1367fs46 and ins385fs47, respectively. The three mutations were exclusive. Clinically, patients with mutated CALR had a lower hemoglobin level, lower white blood cell （WBC） count, and higher platelet count compared to those with mutated JAK2 （P 〈 0.05）. Furthermore, a significant difference was found in WBCs between wild-type patients （triple negative for JAK2, MPL, and CALR mutations） and patients with JAK2 mutations. Patients with CA LR mutations predominantly clustered into low or intermediate groups according to the International Prognostic Score of thrombosis for ET （P 〈 0.05）. Conclusions： CALR mutations were frequent in Chinese patients with ET, especially in those without JAK2 or MPL mutations. Compared withJAK2 mutant ET, CALR mutant ET showed a different clinical manifestation and an unfavorable prognosis. Thus, C4LR is a potentially valuable diagnostic marker and therapeutic target in ET.

The microstructure and room-temperature tensile properties of Ti14,a new α＋Ti2Cu alloy,were investigated after conventional forging at 950°C and semi-solid forging at 1000 and 1050°C,respectively.Results show that coarse grains and grain boundaries are obtained in the semi-solid alloys.The coarse grain boundaries are attributed to Ti2Cu phase precipitations occurred on the grain boundaries during the solidification.It is found that more Ti2Cu phase precipitates on the grain boundaries at a higher semi-solid forging temperature,which forms precipitated zones and coarsens the grain boundaries.Tensile tests exhibit high strength and low ductility for the semi-solid forged alloys,especially after forging at 1000°C.Fracture analysis reveals the evidence of ductile failure mechanisms for the conventional forged alloy and cleavage fracture mechanisms for the alloy after semi-solid forging at 1050°C.

Reaction behaviors occurring in Ti/Al foil metallurgy were systematically investigated.Particular emphasis was focused on the reaction between solid Al and Ti as well as subsequent reaction between TiAl_3 and Ti layer.In the solid reaction between Al and Ti,the presence of residual Al is mainly caused by inhomogeneous growth of TiAl_3 layer and micro-voids existing at the interface.However,through reaction between molten Al and Ti,TiAl_3/Ti multilayer can be achieved with complete consumption of Al.During subsequent high-temperature heat treatment,TiAl_3/Ti multilayer will eventually turn into Ti_3Al/TiAl multilayer accompanying with simultaneous formation and successive disappearance of intermediate phases,such as TiAl_2 and Ti_2Al_5.Moreover,it is found that the growth direction of TiAl layer changes as a function of annealing time between different couples in multi-intermetallics system.

α-smooth muscle actin （α-SMA） and tenascin-C are stress-induced phenotypic features of myofibroblasts. The expression levels of these two proteins closely correlate with the extracellular mechanical microenvironment. We investigated how the expression of α-SMA and tenascin-C was altered in the periodontal ligament （PDL） under orthodontic loading to indirectly reveal the intrinsic mechanical microenvironment in the PDL. In this study, we demonstrated the synergistic effects of transforming growth factor-β1 （TGF-β1） and mechanical tensile or compressive stress on myofibroblast differentiation from human periodontal ligament cells （hPDLCs）. The hPDLCs under higher tensile or compressive stress significantly increased their levels of α-SMA and tenascin-C compared with those under lower tensile or compressive stress. A similar trend was observed in the tension and compression areas of the PDL under continuous light or heavy orthodontic load in rats. During the time-course analysis of expression, we observed that an increase in α-SMA levels was matched by an increase in tenascin-C levels in the PDL under orthodontic load in vivo. The time-dependent variation of α-SMA and tenascin-C expression in the PDL may indicate the time-dependent variation of intrinsic stress under constant extrinsic loading.

INTRODUCTION ＂End-stage heart disease＂ commonly refers to an irreversible stage of cardiac decompensation caused by a variety of pathologies that cannot be treated using conventional drugs or traditional surgical treatments. The life expectancy of patients with end-stage heart disease ranges from 〈6 months to 1 year. Therapeutic strategies for end-stage heart disease patients are primarily based on three approaches： Internal medicine therapy, surgical therapy （heart transplantation）, and multiple organ protection therapy via the core method of mechanical circulation assistance. Among these approaches, heart transplantation has become recognized as the most efl＇ective treatment.