The assessment of seed quality and physiological potential is essential in seed production and crop breeding. In the process of rapid detection of seed viability using tetrazolium (TZ) staining, it is necessary to spend a lot of labour and material resources to explore the pretreatment and staining methods of hard and solid seeds with physical barriers. This study explores the TZ staining methods of six hard seeds (Tilia miqueliana, Tilia henryana, Sassafras tzumu, Prunus subhirtella, Prunus sibirica, and Juglans mandshurica) and summarizes the TZ staining conditions required for hard seeds by combining the difference in fat content between seeds and the kinship between species, thus providing a rapid viability test method for the protection of germplasm resources of endangered plants and the optimization of seed bank construction. The TZ staining of six species of hard seeds requires a staining temperature above 35 °C and a TZ solution concentration higher than 1%. Endospermic seeds require shorter staining times than exalbuminous seeds. The higher the fat content of the seeds, the lower the required incubation temperature and TZ concentration for staining, and the longer the staining time. And the closer the relationship between the two species, the more similar their staining conditions become. The TZ staining method of similar species can be predicted according to the genetic distance between the phylogenetic trees, and the viability of new species can be detected quickly.

Pregnancy is a complex biological process. The establishment and maintenance of foetal–maternal interface are pivotal events. Decidual immune cells and inflammatory cytokines play indispensable roles in the foetal–maternal interface. The disfunction of decidual immune cells leads to adverse pregnancy outcome. Tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α, a common inflammatory cytokine, has critical roles in different stages of normal pregnancy process. However, the relationship between the disorder of TNF-α and adverse pregnancy outcomes, including preeclampsia (PE), intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), spontaneous abortion (SA), preterm birth and so on, is still indefinite. In this review, we thoroughly reviewed the effect of TNF-α disorder on pathological conditions. Moreover, we summarized the reports about the adverse pregnancy outcomes (PE, IUGR, SA and preterm birth) of using anti-TNF-α drugs (infliximab, etanercept and adalimumab, certolizumab and golimumab) currently in the clinical studies. Overall, IUGR, SA and preterm birth are the most common adverse pregnancy outcomes of anti-TNF-α drugs. Our review may provide insight for the immunological treatment of pregnancy-related complication, and help practitioners make informed decisions based on the current evidences.

Renal fibrosis is common especially in the elderly population. Recently, we found that vitamin D deficiency caused prostatic hyperplasia. This study aimed to investigate whether vitamin D deficiency promotes renal fibrosis and functional impairment. All mice except controls were fed with vitamin D-deficient (VDD) diets, beginning from their early life. The absolute and relative kidney weights on postnatal week 20 were decreased in VDD diet-fed male pups but not in female pups. A mild pathological damage was observed in VDD diet-fed male pups but not in females. Further analysis showed that VDD-induced pathological damage was aggravated, accompanied by renal dysfunction in 40-week-old male pups. An obvious collagen deposition was observed in VDD diet-fed 40-week-old male pups. Moreover, renal α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), a marker of epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT), and Tgf-β mRNA were up-regulated. The in vitro experiment showed that 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 alleviated transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1)-mediated down-regulation of E-cadherin and inhibited TGF-β1-evoked up-regulation of N-cadherin, vimentin and α-SMA in renal epithelial HK-2 cells. Moreover, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 suppressed TGF-β1-evoked Smad2/3 phosphorylation in HK-2 cells. These results provide experimental evidence that long-term vitamin D deficiency promotes renal fibrosis and functional impairment, at least partially, through aggravating TGF-β/Smad2/3-mediated EMT in middle-aged male mice.

The Wulian complex is located on the northern margin of the Sulu orogenic belt, and was formed by collision between the North China Craton (NCC) to the north and South China Craton (SCC) to the south. It consists of the metasedimentary Wulian Group, gneissic granite and meta-diorite. The U–Pb analyses for the detrital zircons from the Wulian Group exhibit one predominant age population of 2600–2400 Ma with a peak at c. 2.5 Ga and several secondary age populations of > 3000, 3000–2800, 2800–2600, 2200–2000, 1900–1800, 1500–1300 and 1250–950 Ma; some metamorphic zircons have metamorphic ages of c. 2.7, 2.55–2.45, 2.1–2.0 and 1.95–1.80 Ga, which are consistent with magmatic-metamorphic events in the SCC. Additionally, the Wulian Group was intruded by the gneissic granite and meta-diorite at c. 0.76 Ga, attributed to Neoproterozoic syn-rifting bimodal magmatic activity in the SCC and derived from partial melting of Archaean continental crust and depleted mantle, respectively. The Wulian Group therefore has tectonic affinity to the SCC and was mainly sourced from the SCC. The detrital zircons have positive and negative ϵHf(t) values, indicating that their source rocks were derived from reworking of both ancient and juvenile crustal rocks. The major early Precambrian crustal growth took place during c. 3.4–2.5 Ga with a dominant peak at 2.96 Ga and several secondary peaks at 3.27, 2.74 and 2.52 Ga. The two oldest zircons with ages of 3307 and 3347 Ma record the recycling of ancient continental crust (> 3.35 Ga) and crustal growth prior to c. 3.95 Ga in the SCC.

Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) effect is currently the major limitation for the power scaling of single-frequency/narrow linewidth fiber laser systems. A single-mode linearly polarized all-fiber amplifier system is set up to investigate SBS effect in triple-frequency high-power amplifiers. With this amplifier, up to 302 W output power with 83% slope efficiency is achieved and the SBS threshold is scaled up to 12 dB. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest output power of multifrequency laser from a single-mode polarization maintaining fiber. Good spectral properties and high brightness make this laser source available for the application of second harmonic generation, coherent beam combining.

This work designed a facile preparation for an SiO2/C composite as the anode material for lithium ion battery. Both SiO2 and carbon are amorphous. SiO2 and carbon are mixed uniformly. The SiO2/C composite shows high specific capacity, cycle stability, and rate capability in lithium ion battery charge–discharge test. A stable reversible capacity of 1024 mA h/g at the current density of 100 mA/g is reached. The capacity retains 83% after 100 cycles. The uniform mixture of SiO2 and carbon leads to reduced volume change during the lithiation and delithiation of SiO2, together with the amorphous nature of SiO2 explains the high cycling stability. The carbon coating is a key factor for the high capacity and stability due to the increased electrical conductivity and reduced volume change. The resistance of the solid electrolyte interface film and charge transfer resistance of the SiO2/C composite are much smaller than those of pure carbon, which is a direct proof of the improved conductivity of the material by the carbon coating.

Quiver Hopf algebras are classified by means of ramification systems with irreducible representations. This leads to the classification of Nichols algebras over group algebras and pointed Hopf algebras of type one.

To increase our understanding of the relationships of trunk fat mass (FMtrunk) and four anthropometric indices in Chinese males, 1090 males aged 20–40 years were randomly recruited from the city of Changsha, China. Waist circumference (WC) and hip circumference (HC) were measured using standardized equipment, and three other anthropometric indices of BMI, waist:hip ratio (WHR) and conicity index (CoI) were calculated using weight, height, HC and WC. FMtrunk (in kg) was measured using a Hologic QDR 4500 W dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scanner. There was an increasing trend of FMtrunk, %FMtrunk (percentage of FMtrunk) and BMI, WC, WHR, CoI in successively older age groups (e.g. the mean FMtrunk values were 4·63 (sd 2·58), 5·39 (sd 2·74), 5·93 (sd 2·82), 6·57 (sd 2·94) in four 5-year age groups, respectively). FMtrunk and %FMtrunk were significantly correlated with four anthropometric indices with the Pearson's correlation coefficients ranging from 0·25 to 0·86. Principal component analysis was performed to form three principal components that interpreted over 99·5% of the total variation of four related anthropometric indices in all age groups, with over 65% of the total variation accounted by principal component 1. Multiple regression analyses showed that three principal components explained a greater variance (R2 70·0–80·1%) in FMtrunk than did BMI or WC alone (R2 57·8–74·1%). The present results suggest that there is an increasing trend of FMtrunk and four anthropometric indices in successively older age groups; that age has important effects on the relationships of FMtrunk and studied anthropometric indices; and that the accuracy of predicting FMtrunk using four anthropometric indices is higher than using BMI or WC alone.

This study used three winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes (H6756, H311 and SP8581) to compare the effects of sampling time, callus induction media, differentiation media and rooting media on in vitro culture of young spikes in wheat. In all these three genotypes, the frequencies of green plantlet differentiation were high when their young spikes were cultured between the stages of protective glume primordium formation and pistil and stamen primordium formation, but low at other stages. The optimum medium for callus induction was Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium+2 mg/l 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). The optimum green plantlet differentiation medium was MS medium. Some abnormal plantlets regenerated from calli. When these plantlets were transferred to another differentiation medium [MS+1.0 mg/l 1-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA)+0.2 mg/l 6-benzylaminopurine (6-BA)], shoot formation and elongation were induced. This allowed 90.91% of them to develop into normal green plantlets. The optimum rooting medium was 1/2MS+0.2 mg/l 3-Indolylacetonitrile (IAA)+80 g/l sucrose. An efficient regeneration system for young spike culture of wheat was set up based on such methods. Using this wheat-regeneration system, young spikes and immature embryos of 17 genotypes of wheat were in vitro cultured to study and compare the callus induction frequencies and green plantlet differentiation frequencies. The results of two successive years showed that in 15 out of the 17 genotypes (88.24%) the green plantlet differentiation frequencies were higher than those of immature embryos by 6.2–65.1%. These results showed that the regeneration system established in this trial for young spike culture of wheat was effective.

Eggs of Pelodiscus sinensis were incubated under one fluctuating and four constant temperatures, and hatchlings from different incubation temperatures were maintained under identical conditions to assess the effects of incubation temperature on sexual phenotype and hatchling growth. The incubation length decreased as temperature increased, but it did not differ between sexes within each temperature treatment. Hatching success was higher at intermediate temperatures (28 °C, 30 °C and the fluctuating temperature regime) than at low (24 °C) and high (34 °C) temperatures. The sex ratio of hatchlings did not differ from equality within each temperature treatment. Thus, our data support previous work that P. sinensis does not have temperature-dependent sex determination, and add evidence for the prediction that turtles within the Trionychidae have genotypic sex determination exclusively. Incubation temperature affected hatchling mass, with hatchlings from intermediate incubation temperatures being heavier than those from low (24 °C) and high (34 °C) incubation temperatures. Hatching size was not a predictor of post-hatching growth. Incubation temperature affected hatchling growth, with hatchlings from 24 °C overall growing faster than did hatchlings from higher incubation temperatures. The influence of incubation temperature on hatchling growth was well buffered within the range of constant temperatures from 28 °C to 34 °C. Fluctuating incubation temperatures augmented male growth but reduced female growth, as female embryos were more vulnerable to extremely high temperatures.

The strain relaxation and the misfit dislocation density in micron size windows with different mask materials were studied. Experiments showed that the misfit dislocation density and the strain in the SiGe films would be affected not only by the size of the windows but the mask material. Experiments also showed that after annealing the SiGe films grown in the micron size windows would be much more stable than films grown in the large area on the same wafer.

The concept of cleft extensions, or equivalently of crossed products, for a Hopf algebra is a generalization of Galois extensions with normal basis and of crossed products for a group. The study of these subjects was founded independently by Blattner-Cohen-Montgomery [1] and by Doi-Takeuchi [4]. In this paper, we determine the isomorphic classes of cleft extensions for a infinite dimensional non-commutative, non-cocommutative Hopf algebra kq[X, X–l, Y], which is generated by a group-like element X and a (1,X)-primitive element Y. We also consider the quotient algebras of the cleft extensions.