Soil and vegetation characteristics during the formation of typical degraded grassland.

To understand the formation process of typical poisonous plant degraded grassland, we studied the cha-racteristics of vegetation and soil during the gradual expansion of into the native grassland of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The results showed that population density, plant height, coverage, and biomass of increased during the formation of degraded grassland. In comparison with native grassland, the degraded grassland had higher total aboveground biomass (113.

New polyketides from the basidiomycetous fungus sp.

Two new polyketides, pholiotones B and C ( and ), and four known compounds, trichodermatide D (), vermistatin (), dehydroaltenuene A () and terpestacin () were isolated from the crude extract of sp. Their structures were identified by NMR and MS spectroscopic data. The absolute configurations of compounds and were elucidated by modified Mosher's method, electronic circular dichroism (ECD) calculations and C NMR calculations as well as DP4+ probability analyses.

Effect of sheep grazing on seed circulation on the Loess Plateau.

In grazing ecosystems, mature seeds fall directly to the soil to form the soil seed bank (SSB), or are ingested by grazing livestock to become part of the dung seed bank (DSB; i.e., seed circulation).

Burrow characteristics and ecological significance of in the northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

Burrows provide burrowing animals with a place to hibernate, reproduce, and avoid predators and harsh weather conditions and thus have a vital impact on their survival. However, the general physical characteristics and ecological functions of burrows as well as whether there are differences in burrow traits under different terrains (e.g.

DMFMDA: Prediction of Microbe-Disease Associations Based on Deep Matrix Factorization Using Bayesian Personalized Ranking.

Identifying the microbe-disease associations is conducive to understanding the pathogenesis of disease from the perspective of microbe. In this paper, we propose a deep matrix factorization prediction model (DMFMDA) based on deep neural network. First, the disease one-hot encoding is fed into neural network, which is transformed into a low-dimensional dense vector in implicit semantic space via embedding layer, and so is microbe.

Exploring the potential microRNA sponge interactions of breast cancer based on some known interactions.

MicroRNA (miRNA) sponges' regulatory mechanisms play an important role in developing human cancer. Herein, we develop a new method to explore potential miRNA sponge interactions (EPMSIs) for breast cancer. Based on some known interactions, and a matching gene expression profile, EPMSIs explored other potential miRNA sponge interactions for breast cancer.

Characterization and Biological Activities of Seed Oil Extracted from Maxim. by the Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Extraction Method.

Characterization of the structure and pharmacological activity of Maxim., a traditional Tibetan medicinal and edible fruit, has not yet been reported. In this study, central composite design (CCD) combined with response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to optimize the extraction conditions of oil (BDSO) using the supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO) extraction method, and the results were compared with those obtained by the petroleum ether extraction (PEE) method.

Induction of osteoclast-like cell formation by leptin-induced soluble intercellular adhesion molecule secreted from cancer cells.

Background: Leptin is considered a tumorigenic adipokine, suggested to promote tumorigenesis and progression in many cancers. On the other hand, intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) shows altered expression in a variety of benign and malignant diseases. Histologically, ICAM-1 expression is reported as proportional to cancer stage and considered as a potential diagnosis biomarker.

A Novel Method for Identifying the Potential Cancer Driver Genes Based on Molecular Data Integration.

The identification of the cancer driver genes is essential for personalized therapy. The mutation frequency of most driver genes is in the middle (2-20%) or even lower range, which makes it difficult to find the driver genes with low-frequency mutations. Other forms of genomic aberrations, such as copy number variations (CNVs) and epigenetic changes, may also reflect cancer progression.

Design and Usability Evaluation of Mobile Cloud Healthcare System for Diabetes Prevention.

In this study, a mobile cloud healthcare system was implemented to assist middle- and old-aged people with diabetes preventive healthcare. First of all, a prototype system was developed. It was a system relying on data mining computing technology and big data analytics.

Prediction of Microbe-Disease Associations by Graph Regularized Non-Negative Matrix Factorization.

More and more evidence shows that microbes play crucial roles in human health and disease. The exploration of the relationship between microbes and diseases will help people to better understand the underlying pathogenesis and have important implications for disease diagnosis and prevention. However, the known associations between microbes and diseases are very less.

Fisetin inhibits cell migration via inducing HO-1 and reducing MMPs expression in breast cancer cell lines.

Metastasis is commonly seen in advanced stage of cancers, and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are commonly up-regulated and have been identified as critical regulators. In this present study, a flavonoid, fisetin, which can be found in diverse foods, is investigated for its ability to inhibit cell motility, and the underlying mechanism is also studied in breast cancer cells (4T1 and JC cells). We have revealed that fisetin increased HO-1 mRNA and protein expressions.

An Integrated Framework for Identifying Mutated Driver Pathway and Cancer Progression.

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies provide amount of somatic mutation data in a large number of patients. The identification of mutated driver pathway and cancer progression from these data is a challenging task because of the heterogeneity of interpatient. In addition, cancer progression at the pathway level has been proved to be more reasonable than at the gene level.

[Seed morphology and effects of sheep rumen digestion on seed germination of 28 Gramineae plants.].

An experiment was undertaken to compare the morphological characteristics of seeds of 28 Gramineae plants which widely distributed in north Xinjiang and to study their digestion in the rumen of sheep. After determining their morphological characteristics including seed length, width, height, seed shape index, 100-seed mass, and seed germination percentage, seeds were put into nylon bags and then placed in the rumen of sheep through a fistula. The bags were removed at different times to determine the morphological characteristics and seed germination rates.

Triterpenic Acids from Potentilla parvifolia and Their Protective Effects against Okadaic Acid Induced Neurotoxicity in Differentiated SH-SY5Y Cells.

Six triterpenic acids were separated and purified from the ethyl acetate extractive fraction of ethanol extracts of Potentilla parvifolia FISCH. using a variety of chromatographic methods. The neuroprotective effects of these triterpenoids were investigated in the present study, in which the okadaic acid induced neurotoxicity in human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells were used as an Alzheimer's disease cell model in vitro.

An efficient strategy for identifying cancer-related key genes based on graph entropy.

Gene networks are beneficial to identify functional genes that are highly relevant to clinical outcomes. Most of the current methods require information about the interaction of genes or proteins to construct genetic network connection. However, the conclusion of these methods may be bias because of the current incompleteness of human interactome.

MIMPFC: Identifying miRNA-mRNA regulatory modules by combining phase-only correlation and improved rough-fuzzy clustering.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play a key role in gene expression and regulation in various organisms. They control a wide range of biological processes and are involved in several types of cancers by causing mRNA degradation or translational inhibition. However, the functions of most miRNAs and their precise regulatory mechanisms remain elusive.

Inhibition of estrogen receptor reduces connexin 43 expression in breast cancers.

Connexins are widely supported as tumor suppressors due to their downregulation in cancers, nevertheless, more recent evidence suggests roles for connexins in facilitating tumor progression in later stages, including metastasis. One of the key factors regulating the expression, modification, stability, and localization of connexins is hormone receptors in hormone-dependent cancers. It is reasonable to consider that hormones/hormone receptors may modulate connexins expression and play critical roles in the cellular control of connexins during breast cancer progression.

GSMC: Combining Parallel Gibbs Sampling with Maximal Cliques for Hunting DNA Motif.

Regulatory elements are responsible for regulating gene transcription. Therefore, identification of these elements is a tremendous challenge in the field of gene expression. Transcription factors (TFs) play a key role in gene regulation by binding to target promoter sequences.

Effects of Gui Zhu Yi Kun formula on the P53/AMPK pathway of autophagy in granulosa cells of rats with polycystic ovary syndrome.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the molecular mechanism associated with the traditional Chinese medicine formula Gui Zhu Yi Kun formula (GZYKF), in the treatment of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). In this study, granulosa cells (GCs) of rats with PCOS were cultured and treated with testosterone propionate (TP) alone or with serum from rats treated with different doses of GZYKF. The effect of TP on cell growth was assayed using the MTT method.

Inhibition and Dispersal of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Biofilms by Combination Treatment with Escapin Intermediate Products and Hydrogen Peroxide.

Escapin is an l-amino acid oxidase that acts on lysine to produce hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), ammonia, and equilibrium mixtures of several organic acids collectively called escapin intermediate products (EIP). Previous work showed that the combination of synthetic EIP and H2O2 functions synergistically as an antimicrobial toward diverse planktonic bacteria. We initiated the present study to investigate how the combination of EIP and H2O2 affected bacterial biofilms, using Pseudomonas aeruginosa as a model.

study of the carotenoid-cleavage enzyme from TS-82 revealed substrate specificities and generation of norisoprenoid flavors.

Reactions of a crude enzyme extracted from TS-82 to cleave carbon-carbon bonds in bicyclic and monocyclic carotenoid substrates were investigated. Dependencies of enzyme activities on processing temperature and pH were investigated and non-volatile and volatile breakdown products were characterized. The crude enzyme showed a maximum activity with zeaxanthin, followed in decreasing order by β-carotene, canthaxanthin, astaxanthin, and β-apo-8'-carotenal.