Greater hydraulic safety contributes to higher growth resilience to drought across seven pine species in a semi-arid environment.

Quantifying inter-specific variations of tree resilience to drought and revealing the underlying mechanisms are of great importance to the understanding of forest functionality, particularly in water-limited regions. So far, comprehensive studies incorporating investigations in inter-specific variations of long-term growth patterns of trees and the underlying physiological mechanisms are very limited. Here, in a semi-arid site of northern China, tree radial growth rate, inter-annual tree-ring growth responses to climate variability, as well as physiological characteristics pertinent to xylem hydraulics, carbon assimilation and drought tolerance were analyzed in seven pine species growing in a common environment.

The interaction between nonstructural carbohydrate reserves and xylem hydraulics in Korean pine trees across an altitudinal gradient.

Nonstructural carbohydrates (NSC) have been proposed to play an important role in maintaining the hydraulic integrity of trees, particularly in environments with high risks of embolism formation, but knowledge about the interaction between NSC reserves and xylem hydraulics is still very limited. We studied the variation of NSC reserves and hydraulic traits in Pinus koraiensis Sieb. et Zucc.

An research on the isolation methods of frozen-thawed human ovarian preantral follicles.

Objective: To explore the effective isolation method for preantral follicles from human frozen-thawed ovarian tissue.

Methods: The ovarian cortical tissue was frozen by direct cover vitrification (DCV). The frozen-thawed ovarian tissue was used for isolation of preantral follicles with collagenase combined with mechanical method and mechanical method alone, respectively.

[CO2 response process and its simulation of Prunus sibirica photosynthesis under different soil moisture conditions].

Taking the two-year old potted Prunus sibirica seedlings as test materials, and using CIRAS-2 photosynthetic system, this paper studied the CO2 response process of P. sibirica photosynthesis in semi-arid loess hilly region under eight soil moisture conditions. The CO2 response data of P.

Molecular karyotype single nucleotide polymorphism analysis of early fetal demise.

We explored the application of single nucleotide polymorphism microarray (SNP array) in molecular karyotype analysis for early spontaneous abortion detection in assisted reproductive technology (ART). SNP array was performed in 81 cases. Of the 81 cases, 16 experienced natural conception (NC) and 65 were pregnant by ART.

Relationship between processed total motile sperm count of husband or donor semen and pregnancy outcome following intrauterine insemination.

We retrospectively analyzed 6,360 artificial insemination cycles of husband's semen through intrauterine insemination (AIH-IUI) or artificial insemination with donor semen through intrauterine insemination (AID-IUI) in patients with infertility between August, 1998 and August, 2010. The relationship between processed total motile sperm count (PTMS) and pregnancy outcome was determined. The study was divided into 6 groups according to PTMS.

Brain edema after intracerebral hemorrhage in rats: the role of iron overload and aquaporin 4.

Object: Brain edema formation following intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) appears to be partly related to erythrocyte lysis and hemoglobin release. An increase of brain water content was associated with an increase of brain iron, which is an erythrocyte degradation product. Expression of AQP4 is highly modified in several brain disorders, and it can play a key role in cerebral edema formation.