Gut microbiota-driven regulation of queen bee ovarian metabolism.

With the global prevalence of mites, more and more beekeepers resort to confining the queen bee in a queen cage to control mite infestation or to breed superior and robust queen bees. However, the impact of such practices on the queen bee remains largely unknown. Therefore, we subjected the queen bees to a 21-day egg-laying restriction treatment (from the egg stage to the emergence of adult worker bees) and analyzed the queen bees' ovarian metabolites and gut microbiota after 21 days, aiming to assess the queen bees' quality and assist beekeepers in better hive management.

Tumor Tropic Delivery of Hyaluronic Acid-Poly (D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) Polymeric Micelles Using Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Glioma Therapy.

Tumor penetration and the accumulation of nanomedicines are crucial challenges in solid tumor therapy. By taking advantage of the MSC tumor-tropic property, we developed a mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-based drug delivery system in which paclitaxel (PTX)-encapsulating hyaluronic acid-poly (D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) polymeric micelles (PTX/HA-PLGA micelles) were loaded for glioma therapy. The results indicated that CD44 overexpressed on the surface of both MSCs and tumor cells not only improved PTX/HA-PLGA micelle loading in MSCs, but also promoted the drug transfer between MSCs and adjacent cancer cells.

[Spatiotemporal variation of growing season length of vegetation in China.].

We analyzed the variation trend of growing season length (GSL) of different periods in provinces (regions) of China and the corresponding movement velocity of GSL isolines at 150, 200, 250, 300 and 350 days, based on daily mean temperature data of 822 meteorological stations from 1951 to 2017. In this study, the definition of GSL given by the world meteorological organization was adopted, together with Slope, Hurst and Mann-Kendall indices. The results showed that the GSL in northern China changed significantly during 1951-2017.