干旱荒漠区生态环境质量遥感动态监测——以古尔班通古特沙漠为例

利用遥感生态指数(RSEI)对区域生态变化进行评价,可以快速、高效、客观地获取研究区生态环境变化状况.本研究以两期Landsat数据为数据源,计算研究区绿度、湿度、热度、干度4个生态因子的遥感生态指数,并基于主成分分析法确定其权重,对古尔班通古特沙漠2006—2017年间的生态环境时空格局进行定性和定量评价.结果表明: 湿度和绿度对古尔班通古特沙漠生态环境质量起正面作用,而热度和干度对生态环境质量起负面作用,其中代表绿度指标的归一化植被指数(NDVI)的贡献最大.2006—2017年间,古尔班通古特沙漠的RSEI有所下降,其均值从0.294下降至0.243,降幅达20.1%,研究区的生态环境状况呈现整体变差的趋势.古尔班通古特沙漠中部生态环境较为稳定,东北部植被覆盖密集区及南缘灌溉区生态环境质量变好,沙漠南部及西北部区域生态环境质量变差.     

In vivo monitoring blood‐brain barrier permeability using spectral imaging through optical clearing skull window

The blood‐brain barrier (BBB) plays a key role in the health of the central nervous system. Opening the BBB is very important for drug delivery to brain tissues to enhance the therapeutic effect on brain diseases. It is necessary to in vivo monitor the BBB permeability for assessing drug release with high resolution; however, an effective method is lacking. In this work, we developed a new method that combined spectral imaging with an optical clearing skull window to in vivo dynamically monitor BBB opening caused by 5‐aminolevulinic acid (5‐ALA)‐mediated photodynamic therapy (PDT), in which the Evans blue dye (EBd) acted as an indicator of the BBB permeability. Using this method, we effectively monitored the cerebrovascular EBd leakage process. Moreover, the analysis of changes in the vascular and extravascular EBd concentrations demonstrated that the PDT‐induced BBB opening exhibited spatiotemporal differences in the cortex. This spectral imaging method based on the optical clearing skull window provides a low‐cost and simply operated tool for in vivo monitoring BBB opening process. This has a high potential for the visualization of drug delivery to the central nervous system. Thus, it is of tremendous significance in brain disease therapy. Monitoring the changes in PDT‐induced BBB permeability by evaluating the EBd concentration using an optical clearing skull window. (A) Entire brains and coronal sections following treatment of PDT with/without an optical clearing skull window after injection of EBd. (B) Typical EBd distribution maps before and after laser irradiation captured by the spectral imaging method. (Colorbar represents the EBd concentration).      

Quantitative assessment of optical clearing methods in various intact mouse organs

Various tissue optical clearing techniques have sprung up for large volume imaging. However, there are few methods showed clearing and imaging data on different organs while most of them were focused on mouse brain, and as a result, it is difficult to select the suitable method for organs in practical applications due to lack of quantitative evaluation and comprehensive comparison. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate and compare the performances of clearing methods for different organs. In this paper, several typical optical clearing methods were applied, including 3DISCO, uDISCO, SeeDB, FRUIT, CUBIC, ScaleS and PACT to clear intact brain, heart, kidney, liver, spleen, stomach, lung, small intestine, skin and muscle. The clearing efficiency, sample deformation, fluorescence preservation and imaging depth of these methods were quantitatively evaluated. Finally, based on the systemic evaluation of various parameters described above, the appropriate clearing method for specific organ including kidney or intestine was screened out. This paper will provide important references for selection of appropriate clearing methods in related researches.      

Optical coherence tomography to detect acute esophageal radiation‐induced damage in mice: A validation study

Radiation therapy for patients with non‐small‐cell lung cancer is hampered by acute radiation‐induced toxicity in the esophagus. This study aims to validate that optical coherence tomography (OCT), a minimally invasive imaging technique with high resolution (~10 μm), is able to visualize and monitor acute radiation‐induced esophageal damage (ARIED) in mice. We compare our findings with histopathology as the gold standard. Irradiated mice receive a single dose of 40 Gy at proximal and distal spots of the esophagus of 10.0 mm in diameter. We scan mice using OCT at two, three, and seven days post‐irradiation. In OCT analysis, we define ARIED as a presence of distorted esophageal layering, change in backscattering signal properties, or change in the esophageal wall thickness. The average esophageal wall thickness is 0.53 mm larger on OCT when ARIED is present based on histopathology. The overall sensitivity and specificity of OCT to detect ARIED compared to histopathology are 94% and 47%, respectively. However, the overall sensitivity of OCT to assess ARIED is 100% seven days post‐irradiation. We validate the capability of OCT to detect ARIED induced by high doses in mice. Nevertheless, clinical studies are required to assess the potential role of OCT to visualize ARIED in humans.      

Development of high‐resolution DNA barcodes for Dioscorea species discrimination and phylogenetic analysis

The genus Dioscorea is widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions, and is economically important in terms of food supply and pharmaceutical applications. However, DNA barcodes are relatively unsuccessful in discriminating between Dioscorea species, with the highest discrimination rate (23.26%) derived from matK sequences. In this study, we compared genic and intergenic regions of three Dioscorea chloroplast genomes and found that the density of SNPs and indels in intergenic sites was about twice and seven times higher than that of SNPs and indels in the genic regions, respectively. A total of 52 primer pairs covering highly variable regions were designed and seven pairs of primers had 80%–100% PCR success rate. PCR amplicons of 73 Dioscorea individuals and assembled sequences of 47 Dioscorea SRAs were used for estimating intraspecific and interspecific divergence for the seven loci: The rpoB‐trnC locus had the highest interspecific divergence. Automatic barcoding gap discovery (ABGD), Poisson tree processes (PTP), and generalized mixed Yule coalescence (GMYC) analysis were applied for species delimitation based on the seven loci and successfully identified the majority of species, except for species in the Enantiophyllum section. Phylogenetic analysis of 51 Dioscorea individuals (28 species) showed that most individuals belonging to the same species tended to cluster in the same group. Our results suggest that the variable loci derived from comparative analysis of plastid genome sequences could be good DNA barcode candidates for taxonomic analysis and species delimitation.     

Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stromal Cell-Derived Periostin Promotes B-ALL Progression by Modulating CCL2 in Leukemia Cells

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Expanded Expression Landscape and Prioritization of Circular RNAs in Mammals

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An analysis of intraoperative blood transfusion of cardiac surgery in one hospital from 2014 to 2016

To investigate the usage of blood componentsfor cardiac surgery inthe First Hospital of Lanzhou University, data from January 2014 to December 2016 were collected for analysis, including the number of cardiac surgeries and blood transfusions. There were 1 589 males and 1 076 females, aged from 1 to 73 years, with an average age of (53.97 ± 11.33) years, in this study. The results showed that the rate of blood-free surgery in the hospital increased year by year,while the proportion of blood-used operation to total operations decreased every year. The ratio of plasma and platelets used in cardiac surgery decreased, while the cryoprecipitate ratio used in cardiac surgery increased. This study indicates that the transfusion medical level in cardiac surgery is improved continuously, and that the infusion of blood components has become more secure, efficient and rational.