Gentiana straminea Maxim. (Gentianaceae) is an important traditional Tibetan herb that is mainly distributed on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Despite its agricultural and pharmacological importance, there remains a paucity of microsatellite markers, particularly expressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeat (EST-SSR) markers, available for this local endemic species. In this study, based on previous Illumina transcriptome data of G. straminea, a total of 96 EST-SSR markers were initially designed and tested. Thirty-two of 96 loci (33.33%) were successfully amplified and verified for validation. Among them, 10 were polymorphic and had clear bands. The polymorphism information content values were 0.09–0.799, the number of alleles per locus ranged from 3 to 14, and the levels of observed and expected heterozygosity were 0.078–0.722 and 0.238–0.884, respectively, which suggested a high level of information. Moreover, cross-amplification was successful for 10 loci in two other related species, Gentiana macrophylla Pallas and Gentiana dahurica Fischer. These EST-SSR markers provide a valuable tool for investigating the genetic diversity related to quantitative traits and population genetic studies on G. straminea and related species in sect. Cruciata Gaudin.

This paper retrospectively analysed the prevalence of macrolide-resistant Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MRMP) in some parts of China. Between January 2013 and December 2019, we collected 4,145 respiratory samples, including pharyngeal swabs and alveolar lavage fluid. The highest PCR-positive rate of M. pneumoniae was 74.5% in Beijing, the highest resistance rate was 100% in Shanghai, and Gansu was the lowest with 20%. The highest PCR-positive rate of M. pneumoniae was 74.5% in 2013, and the highest MRMP was 97.4% in 2019; the PCR-positive rate of M. pneumoniae for adults in Beijing was 17.9% and the MRMP was 10.48%. Among the children diagnosed with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), the PCR-positive and macrolide-resistant rates of M. pneumoniae were both higher in the severe ones. A2063G in domain V of 23S rRNA was the major macrolide-resistant mutation, accounting for more than 90%. The MIC values of all MRMP to erythromycin and azithromycin were ≥ 64 μg/ml, and the MICs of tetracycline and levofloxacin were ≤ 0.5 μg/ml and ≤ 1 μg/ml, respectively. The macrolide resistance varied in different regions and years. Among inpatients, the macrolide-resistant rate was higher in severe pneumonia. A2063G was the common mutation, and we found no resistance to tetracycline and levofloxacin.

The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of anemia in twin pregnancies and the influence of anemia on maternal and neonatal outcomes. This retrospective study included twin pregnant women who delivered in a tertiary hospital in China from January 2018 to December 2018. Patients were divided by WHO criteria (hemoglobin <11.0 g/dL): the anemic and nonanemic groups. Patients with anemia were further classified as recovered or unrecovered subgroup after oral iron therapy. Maternal and neonatal outcomes in women carrying twins were compared using Student’s t test and the chi-squared test or the Fisher exact test. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression models were used to determine the association of maternal and neonatal characteristics with anemia. Linear regression analysis was used to estimate mean birth weight and gestational week. The prevalence of anemia was 42.6% (182/427) in twin pregnancies. The anemic group had higher rates of low 1-minute Apgar score (4.4% vs. 1.8%, p = .028), perinatal death (1.9% vs. 0.2%, p = .012) and neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admission (27.2% vs. 20.2%, p = .017; adjusted OR, 1.478; 95% CI [1.07, 2.044]). The recovered subgroup had lower NICU admission rate (13.5% vs. 30.3%, p = .006; OR, 0.388; 95% CI [0.186, 0.809]), higher gestational week and birth weight (β, 0.954 week; 95% CI [0.114, 1.794] and β, 171.01 g; 95% CI [9.894, 332.126] respectively). The prevalence of anemia in twin gestation is high. Anemia is associated with adverse neonatal outcomes, and correction of anemia significantly improved the pregnancy outcomes.

A stalagmite was collected in northern Hungary from the Vacska Cave, where monitoring and ventilation-based site selection had been conducted. The stalagmite covers the 10–8 ka (relative to AD 1950) period, including the so-called 8.2 ka event, and showed preceding signs of climate change that were evaluated by petrographic observations, 14C activities, Sr concentrations, and stable isotope compositions of calcite and inclusion-hosted water. Comparisons of speleothem records show that isotope peaks at ca. 8.5 ka are related to a regional climate anomaly, rather than to a continental-scale event. In accordance with regional proxy records, the 8.2 ka event was associated with a series of temperature and precipitation amount changes, starting with cooling and a reduction in the winter-to-summer precipitation ratio, and then becoming a humid and warm phase at 8.15 ka. X-ray diffraction-based crystallinity parameter (FWHM) values provided evidence for diagenetic alteration of the stable oxygen isotope compositions of inclusion waters. Nevertheless, the stable hydrogen isotope compositions of inclusion waters and the oxygen isotope values of the host calcite revealed elevated d-excess values, and therefore increased Mediterranean moisture contribution during the 8.2 ka event, which indirectly indicate the southward displacement of moisture transport from the Atlantic Ocean.

Breast cancer is a high-risk disease with a high mortality rate among women. Chemotherapy plays an important role in the treatment of breast cancer. However, chemotherapy eventually results in tumours that are resistant to drugs. In recent years, many studies have revealed that the activation of Wnt/β-catenin signalling is crucial for the emergence and growth of breast tumours as well as the development of drug resistance. Additionally, drugs that target this pathway can reverse drug resistance in breast cancer therapy. Traditional Chinese medicine has the properties of multi-target and tenderness. Therefore, integrating traditional Chinese medicine and modern medicine into chemotherapy provides a new strategy for reversing the drug resistance of breast tumours. This paper mainly reviews the possible mechanism of Wnt/β-catenin in promoting the process of breast tumour drug resistance, and the progress of alkaloids extracted from traditional Chinese medicine in the targeting of this pathway in order to reverse the drug resistance of breast cancer.

A multidecadal-resolved stalagmite δ18O record from two nearby caves, Lianhua and Dragon, in Shanxi Province, northern China, characterizes the detailed East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) intensity changes at 114.6–108.3 ka during Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 5d. Our record shows an intensification of the EASM at 114.6–109.5 ka, followed by a rapid weakening at 109.5–108.4 ka. The millennial-scale strong monsoonal event appears to be correlated with the warm Greenland interstadial 25 (GI 25), whereas the weak monsoonal event is related to the cold Greenland stadial 25 within dating errors. The GI 25 monsoonal event registered in our record is also documented in various published time series from different regions of China. The lines of evidence indicate that this event occurred over the entirety of monsoonal China and was also broadly antiphase, similar to the corresponding event on a millennial time scale in the South American monsoon territory. In our record, one 700 yr weak monsoon event at 110.7+0.6−0.5 to 110.0+0.8−0.4 ka divides the GI 25 into three substages. These multicentennial to millennial–scale monsoon events correspond to two warm periods and an intervening cold interval for the intra-interstadial climate oscillations within GI 25, thus supporting a persistent coupling of the high- and low-latitude climate systems over the last glacial period.

Spatial profiles of impurity emission measurements in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectroscopic range in radiofrequency (RF)-heated discharges are combined with one-dimensional and three-dimensional transport simulations to study the effects of resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs) on core impurity accumulation at EAST. The amount of impurity line emission mitigation by RMPs appears to be correlated with the ion Z for lithium, carbon, iron and tungsten monitored, i.e. stronger suppression of accumulation for heavier ions. The targeted effect on the most detrimental high-Z impurities suggests a possible advantage using RMPs for impurity control. Profiles of transport coefficients are calculated with the STRAHL one-dimensional impurity transport code, keeping $\nu /D$ fixed and using the measured spatial profiles of $\textrm{F}{\textrm{e}^{20 + }}$, $\textrm{F}{\textrm{e}^{21 + }}$ and $\textrm{F}{\textrm{e}^{22 + }}$ to disentangle the transport coefficients. The iron diffusion coefficient ${D_{\textrm{Fe}}}$ increases from $1.0- 2.0\;{\textrm{m}^2}\;{\textrm{s}^{ - 1}}$ to $1.5- 3.0\;{\textrm{m}^2}\;{\textrm{s}^{ - 1}}$ from the core region to the edge region $(\rho \gt 0.5)$ after the onset of RMPs. Meanwhile, an inward pinch of iron convective velocity ${\nu _{\textrm{Fe}}}$ decreases in magnitude in the inner core region and increases significantly in the outer confined region, simultaneously contributing to preserving centrally peaked $\textrm{Fe}$ profiles and exhausting the impurities. The ${D_{\textrm{Fe}}}$ and ${\nu _{\textrm{Fe}}}$ variations lead to reduced impurity contents in the plasma. The three-dimensional edge impurity transport code EMC3-EIRENE was also applied for a case of RMP-mitigated high-Z accumulation at EAST and compared to that of low-Z carbon. The exhaust of ${\textrm{C}^{6 + }}$ toward the scrape-off layer accompanying an overall suppression of heavier ${\textrm{W}^{30 + }}$ is observed when using RMPs.

Continuous hBN films have been grown by means of a radio-frequency-sputtering technology, and their material properties have been investigated. The prepared hBN films can achieve good smoothness in a large area. The surface morphologies and compositions of the hBN films on Si substrate and Al film have been characterized, indicating that there is no difference. The 101-phase peak of hBN film is the strongest, and the optical band gap of the fabricated film is 5.84 eV. An attempt on the fabrication of the hBN based resistive switching (RS) device has been made by using an Ag/hBN/Al structure, leading to the observation of a clear and stable RS behavior. The device exhibits a resistance window (high-resistivity state/low-resistivity state) of around 102, and the RS behaviors of hBN film prepared by sputtering were first observed. It has been found that the opening voltage for the device is changed when a different cycle voltage is applied because of the built-in electric field increasing with the increase of applied cycle voltage. The mechanism of the RS behavior has been analyzed, which lay a foundation for the application of hBN as RS material in resistive random access memory to improve the storage density.

The docking simulators are significant ground test equipment for aerospace projects. The fidelity of docking simulation highly depends on the accuracy performance. This paper investigates the kinematic accuracy for the developed docking simulator. A novel kinematic calibration method which can reduce the number of parameters for error modeling is presented. The principle of parameters separation is studied. A simplified error model is derived based on Taylor series. This method can contribute to the simplification of the error model, fewer measurements, and easier convergence during the parameters identification. The calibration experiment validates this method for further accuracy enhancement.

Klebsiella pneumoniae is a common pathogen associated with nosocomial infections and is characterised serologically by capsular polysaccharide (K) and lipopolysaccharide O antigens. We surveyed a total of 348 non-duplicate K. pneumoniae clinical isolates collected over a 1-year period in a tertiary care hospital, and determined their O and K serotypes by sequencing of the wbb Y and wzi gene loci, respectively. Isolates were also screened for antimicrobial resistance and hypervirulent phenotypes; 94 (27.0%) were identified as carbapenem-resistant (CRKP) and 110 (31.6%) as hypervirulent (hvKP). isolates fell into 58 K, and six O types, with 92.0% and 94.2% typeability, respectively. The predominant K types were K14K64 (16.38%), K1 (14.66%), K2 (8.05%) and K57 (5.46%), while O1 (46%), O2a (27.9%) and O3 (11.8%) were the most common. CRKP and hvKP strains had different serotype distributions with O2a:K14K64 (41.0%) being the most frequent among CRKP, and O1:K1 (26.4%) and O1:K2 (17.3%) among hvKP strains. Serotyping by gene sequencing proved to be a useful tool to inform the clinical epidemiology of K. pneumoniae infections and provides valuable data relevant to vaccine design.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients were classified into four clinical stages (uncomplicated illness, mild, severe and critical pneumonia) depending on disease severity. We aim to investigate the corresponding clinical, radiological and laboratory characteristics between different clinical stages. A retrospective, single-centre study of 101 confirmed patients with COVID-19 at Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University from 2 January to 28 January 2020 was enrolled; follow-up endpoint was on 8 February 2020. Clinical data were collected and compared during the course of illness. The median age of the 101 patients was 51.0 years and 33.6% were medical staff. Fever (68%), cough (50%) and fatigue (23%) are the most common symptoms. About 26% patients underwent the mechanical ventilation and 98% patients were treated with antibiotics. Thirty-seven per cent patients were cured and 11 died. On admission, the number of patients with uncomplicated illness, mild, severe and critical pneumonia were 2 [2%], 86 [85%], 11 [11%] and 2 [2%]. Forty-four of the 86 mild pneumonia progressed to severe illness within 4 days, with nine patients worsened due to critical pneumonia within 4 days. Two of the 11 severe patients improved to mild condition while three others deteriorated. Significant differences were observed among groups of different clinical stages in numbers of influenced pulmonary segments (6 vs. 12 vs. 17, P < 0.001). A significantly upward trend was witnessed in ground-glass opacities overlapped with striped shadows (33% vs. 42% vs. 55% vs. 80%, P < 0.001), while pure ground-glass opacities gradually decreased as disease progressed (45% vs. 35% vs. 24% vs. 13%, P < 0.001) within 12 days. Lymphocytes, prealbumin and albumin showed a downtrend as disease progressed from mild to severe or critical condition, an uptrend was found in white blood cells, C-reactive protein, neutrophils and lactate dehydrogenase. The proportions of serum amyloid A > 300 mg/l in mild, severe and critical conditions were 18%, 46% and 71%, respectively.

Influenza activity is subject to environmental factors. Accurate forecasting of influenza epidemics would permit timely and effective implementation of public health interventions, but it remains challenging. In this study, we aimed to develop random forest (RF) regression models including meterological factors to predict seasonal influenza activity in Jiangsu provine, China. Coefficient of determination (R2) and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) were employed to evaluate the models' performance. Three RF models with optimum parameters were constructed to predict influenza like illness (ILI) activity, influenza A and B (Flu-A and Flu-B) positive rates in Jiangsu. The models for Flu-B and ILI presented excellent performance with MAPEs <10%. The predicted values of the Flu-A model also matched the real trend very well, although its MAPE reached to 19.49% in the test set. The lagged dependent variables were vital predictors in each model. Seasonality was more pronounced in the models for ILI and Flu-A. The modification effects of the meteorological factors and their lagged terms on the prediction accuracy differed across the three models, while temperature always played an important role. Notably, atmospheric pressure made a major contribution to ILI and Flu-B forecasting. In brief, RF models performed well in influenza activity prediction. Impacts of meteorological factors on the predictive models for influenza activity are type-specific.

Androgenetic embryonic stem (AgES) cells offer a possible tool for patient-specific pluripotent stem cells that will benefit genomic imprinting studies and clinic applications. However, the difficulty in producing androgenetic embryos and the unbalanced expression of imprinted genes make the therapeutic applicability of AgES cells uncertain. In this study, we produced androgenetic embryos by injecting two sperm into an enucleated metaphase II (MII) oocyte. By this method, 88.48% of oocytes survived after injection, and 20.24% of these developed to the blastocyst stage. We successfully generated AgES cell lines from the androgenetic embryos and assayed the expression of imprinted genes in the cell lines. We found that the morphological characteristics of AgES cells were similar to that of fertilized embryonic stem cells (fES), such as expression of key pluripotent markers, and generation of cell derivatives representing all three germ layers following in vivo and in vitro differentiation. Furthermore, activation of paternal imprinted genes was detected, H19, ASC12 and Tss3 in AgES cell activation levels were lower while other examined genes showed no significant difference to that of fES cells. Interestingly, among examined maternal imprinted genes, only Mest and Igf2 were significantly increased, while levels of other detected genes were no different to that of fES cells. These results demonstrated that activation of some paternal imprinted genes, as well as recovery of maternal imprinted genes, was present in AgES cells. We differentiated AgES cells into a beating embryoid body in vitro, and discovered that the AgES cells did not show significant higher efficiency in myocardial differentiation potential.

Paediatric Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (MPP) is a major cause of community-acquired pneumonia in China. Data on epidemiology of paediatric MPP from China are little known. This study retrospectively collected data from June 2006 to June 2016 in Beijing Children's Hospital, Capital Medical University of North China and aims to explore the epidemiological features of paediatric MPP and severe MPP (SMPP) in North China during the past 10 years. A total of 27 498 paediatric patients with pneumonia were enrolled. Among them, 37.5% of paediatric patients had MPP. In this area, an epidemic took place every 2–3 years at the peak, and the positive rate of MPP increased during these peak years over time. The peak age of MPP was between the ages of 6 and 10 years, accounting for 75.2%, significantly more compared with other age groups (χ2 = 1384.1, P < 0.0001). The epidemics peaked in September, October and November (χ2 = 904.9, P < 0.0001). Additionally, 13.0% of MPP paediatric patients were SMPP, but over time, the rate of SMPP increased, reaching 42.6% in 2016. The mean age of paediatric patients with SMPP (6.7 ± 3.0 years old) was younger than that of patients with non-SMPP (7.4 ± 3.2 years old) (t = 3.60, P = 0.0001). The prevalence of MPP and SMPP is common in China, especially in children from 6 to 10 years old. Paediatric patients with SMPP tend to be younger than those with non-SMPP. MPP outbreaks occur every 2–3 years in North China. September, October and November are the peak months, unlike in South China. Understanding the epidemiological characteristics of paediatric MPP can contribute to timely treatment and diagnosis, and may improve the prognosis of children with SMPP.

The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the prognostic significance of pre-treatment immunological and nutritional statuses in patients with locally advanced gastric cancer (GC), and to use the risk factors to develop a predictive score. A total of 731 patients who underwent gastrectomy for stage II/III GC from November 2010 to December 2015 were recruited into this retrospective study. On the basis of univariate and further multivariate Cox regression analyses, decreased pretreatment lymphocyte count (<1·5×109/litre) and prealbumin concentrations (<180 mg/l) were identified to be independently associated with poorer overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). Low albumin concentrations (<33 g/l) were identified as an independent risk factor only for OS, but not for DFS. Thereafter, patients who had a decreased prealbumin concentration and lymphocyte count were given a combination of serum prealbumin concentration and lymphocyte count (Co-PaL) score of 2. Patients with only one or neither of these concentrations were given a Co-PaL score of 1 or 0, respectively. Both the OS and the DFS time were inversely related to the Co-PaL scores, and the differences among the three groups were all significant. In contrast, the prognosis did not differ significantly between patients with good nutrition and those with mild to moderate malnutrition according to the prognostic nutritional index. This study indicated that the simple scoring system could accurately predict the prognosis of patients who underwent gastrectomy for stage II/III GC. The score might be helpful in terms of clinical preoperative decision-making.

We demonstrate a nonlinearity optimization method by altering distribution of passive fibers in a dissipative-soliton mode-locked fiber laser to level up output parameters. In the numerical simulation, we found that the passive fiber segment after gain fiber characterizes the highest average B-integral among fiber segments. By reducing the length of this fiber section and keeping the total passive fiber length as constant, the output pulse energy can be effectively scaled up while maintaining a short dechirped pulse duration, resulting in boosting peak power. With this method, 37-nJ pulses are generated from a dissipative-soliton mode-locked cladding pumped ytterbium-doped single-mode fiber laser in the experiment. The pulse can be dechirped to 66 fs with 350 kW peak power. Moreover, the pulse pedestal is suppressed by a vector-dispersion compressor.

A type of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}/4$–$\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}/4$ ultra-broadband antireflective coating has been developed using modified low refractive silica and high refractive silica layers by a sol–gel dip coating method for amplifier blast shields of the Shen Guang II high power laser facility (SG-II facility). Deposition of the first layer (high refractive index silica) involves baking at $200\,^{\circ }\text{C}$ in the post-treatment step. The second layer (low refractive index, $n=1.20$) uses low refractive index silica sol modified by acid catalysis. Thermal baking at temperatures no less than $500\,^{\circ }\text{C}$ for 60 min offers chemical stability, ethanol scratch resistance, and resistance to washing with water. The average residual reflection of dual-side-coated fused silica glass was less than 1% in the spectral range from 450 to 950 nm. Transmission gain has been evaluated by taking into account angular light, and the results show that the transmission gain increases with increasing light incidence. Even at $60^{\circ }$, the transmission spectrum of the broadband antireflective coating effectively covered the main absorption peak of Nd:glass.