Combined application of biochar and N increased temperature sensitivity of soil respiration but still decreased the soil CO emissions in moso bamboo plantations.

Biochar addition to soil is increasing worldwide, the effect of combined application of biochar and nitrogen (N) fertilizer on soil respiration is still unknown. Understanding of the interactive effects of biochar and N fertilizer addition on temperature sensitivity of soil respiration and temporal dynamics of soil CO emissions in forest ecosystems remains limited. We conducted a full factorial experiment with biochar (B, B and B with 0, 5 and 20 t·ha, respectively) and N fertilizer addition (N and N with 0 and 50 kg·ha NHNO, respectively) as factors, to study their effects on soil respiration rate, temperature sensitivity (Q), soil available nutrients, and their relations in moso bamboo plantations in subtropical China from April 2014 to April 2016.

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition may be involved in the immune evasion of circulating gastric tumor cells via downregulation of ULBP1.

Background: Increasing numbers of studies have demonstrated that circulating tumor cells (CTCs) undergo a phenotypic change termed epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and researchers have proposed that EMT might provide CTCs with increased potential to survive in the different microenvironments encountered during metastasis through various ways, such as by increasing cell survival and early colonization. However, the exact role of EMT in CTCs remains unclear.

Methods: In this study, we identified CTCs of 41 patients with gastric cancer using Cyttel-CTC and im-FISH (immune-fluorescence in situ hybridization) methods, and tested the expression of EMT markers and ULBP1 (a major member of the NKG2D-natural killer [NK] group 2 member D-ligand family) on CTCs.