[Diagnosis and treatment of intravenous leiomyomatosis]

Intravenous leiomyomatosis is a rare type of tumor that is histologically benign but biologically invasive. It originates from the smooth muscle of the uterine or the uterine vein. It can grow through the uterus and extend into the pelvic cavity, or grow along the veins without invading the wall of the venous vessel itself. The tumors are estrogen-dependent and can metastasize through the bloodstream. Thus, in addition to continuous growth, some tumors exhibit isolated growths in the venous system and heart chambers or show disseminated growth in the lungs, although distant metastasis to other regions usually do not occur. Currently, there is limited research on this disease, the majority of which are case reports, surgical experience summaries, and differentiation from ordinary gynecological myomas in terms of pathogenesis and radiological diagnostic experience. There are two main theories on the origin of the disease: uterine smooth muscle and smooth muscle of the uterine veins. Some studies have verified the role of estrogen, progesterone receptor-related pathways, and angiogenesis in the development of the disease. The clinical symptoms of this disease are varied, depending on the affected area. In the early stages, when the tumor only affects the pelvic cavity, patients show mild symptoms resulting from pelvic organ compression. When it progresses to the inferior vena cava and heart, patients show more complex symptoms resulting from venous return obstruction, cardiac obstruction, and hemodynamics appearing. Different institutions have proposed different disease staging and classification strategies for different clinical purposes. Some are based on the affected area of the lesion; others are based on the size of the tumor. Although surgery remains the main treatment for this disease, the specific surgical approach, adjuvant drug therapy, and prognosis still need further exploration.

[Effects of 24 Years Different Straw Return on Soil Carbon, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Extracellular Enzymatic Stoichiometry in Dryland of the Loess Plateau, China]

Exploring the biogeochemical cycle characteristics of soil carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in farmland in the dryland of the loess plateau can provide scientific basis and technical support for efficient crop production and sustainable land use. Here, based on a long-term (24 year) straw return field experiment in Shouyang, Shanxi province, the effects of different straw return regimes, i.e., straw mulching (SM), direct straw return (DS), animal-digested straw return (AS), and non-straw return (CK), on the stoichiometric ratio of soil elements and extracellular enzyme activities were studied. The vector angle and length were calculated to indicate the resource constraints faced by microorganisms. The vector angle was greater than 45° and less than 45°, indicating that microorganisms were limited by phosphorus and nitrogen, respectively. The greater the deviation from 45°, the greater the degree of limitation, and the longer the vector length, the more severely limited by carbon. The results showed that ① the soil C/N and C/P of long-term straw returning ranged from 9.81 to 14.28 and from 14.58 to 21.92, with the mean values of 12.36 and 17.51, respectively, which were 6.0% and 4.2% lower than that at the initial stage of the experiment. The soil N/P was distributed between 1.27 and 1.57, with an average of 1.42, which was 2.2% higher than that in the initial stage. The soil C/N and C/P ratios showed a trend of first decreasing and then increasing, the soil N/P ratio basically showed a flat trend, and there was no significant difference in soil element metering ratios between different straw returning treatments. ② Compared with the 24-year long-term non-straw return treatment, the activities of β-1,4-glucosidase (BG) and β-1,4-N-acetylglucosaminidase (NAG) in the soil of the long-term straw mulching treatment increased by 134.4% and 107.5% (P<0.05), the activities of BG and alkaline phosphatase (AP) in the soil of the long-term straw mulching treatment decreased by 59.3% and 59.5% (P<0.05), respectively, and the activities of NAG in the soil of the long-term straw mulching treatment increased by 102.8% (P<0.05). Under the long-term straw returning treatment, soil microorganisms were faced with carbon and phosphorus limitation as a whole. Long-term straw mulching aggravated microbial carbon limitation, and animal-digested straw return could alleviate the degree of carbon limitation. Compared with that in the 24-year long-term non-straw return treatment, soil EEA_C/N could be significantly reduced by the animal-digested straw return treatment, and soil EEA_C/P could be increased by the direct straw return treatment. The three straw returning methods had no significant indigenous effect on soil EEA_N/P. The overall vector angle was greater than 45°, and the vector length increased by 3.8%-20.1% compared with that in the initial stage. ③ Correlation analysis showed that C and N inputs were significantly negatively correlated with BG activity; available nitrogen was significantly correlated with NAG activity, AP activity, and EEA_C/N; C/P was significantly positively correlated with EEA_C/N; there were significant correlations between N/P and NAG activity, AP activity, EEA_C/N, and EEA_C/P; and there was no significant correlation between EEA_N/P and any environmental factors. In conclusion, the availability of soil nitrogen and phosphorus elements and N/P ratio had significant effects on soil extracellular enzyme activity and stoichiometric characteristics under different long-term straw returning treatments. In the future, more attention should be paid to the improvement of organic carbon and the promotion of nitrogen and phosphorus availability in farmland soil in soil-efficient cultivation and agricultural production activities.

δ-Quench Measurement of a Pure Quantum-State Wave Function

The measurement of a quantum state wave function not only acts as a fundamental part in quantum physics but also plays an important role in developing practical quantum technologies. Conventional quantum state tomography has been widely used to estimate quantum wave functions, which usually requires complicated measurement techniques. The recent weak-value-based quantum measurement circumvents this resource issue but relies on an extra pointer space. Here, we theoretically propose and then experimentally demonstrate a direct and efficient measurement strategy based on a δ-quench probe: by quenching its complex probability amplitude one by one (δ quench) in the given basis, we can directly obtain the quantum wave function of a pure ensemble by projecting the quenched state onto a postselection state. We confirm its power by experimentally measuring photonic complex temporal wave functions. This new method is versatile and can find applications in quantum information science and engineering.

Multiplex Assay for Identifying Animal Species Found in the Tibetan Area Using the Mitochondrial 12S rRNA Gene

Southwestern China has an area with unique natural conditions located in alpine regions at altitudes from 2000 to 5000 m; this area is referred to as the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau (QTP). Unique animals, such as yaks (Bos grunniens), are found extensively on the plateau of Southwestern China due to its unique environment. In recent years, the prevalence of fake meat products such as fake jerky has increased in this area. This research was conducted as an attempt to develop a reliable multiplex polymerase chain reaction (mPCR) detection method for identifying nine animal species found in QTP. We developed the mPCR method using the specific sites found in 12S rRNA region of these nine species, which was effective in discriminating between the nine species and was successful in terms of validated reproducibility, detection limit (<6 pg total DNA), discrimination of mixed samples, and specificity (approximately 99%) using real meat samples. Our results show that the mPCR detection method can overcome the limitations of prior detection methods, such as restriction fragment length polymorphism or high-resolution melting analysis methods.

Transcriptomic analysis of Camellia ptilophylla and identification of genes associated with flavonoid and caffeine biosynthesis

Camellia ptilophylla, or cocoa tea, is naturally decaffeinated and its predominant catechins and purine alkaloids are trans-catechins and theobromine Regular tea [Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Ktze.] is evolutionarily close to cocoa tea and produces cis-catechins and caffeine. Here, the transcriptome of C. ptilophylla was sequenced using the 101-bp paired-end technique. The quality of the raw data was assessed to yield 70,227,953 cleaned reads totaling 7.09 Gbp, which were assembled de novo into 56,695 unique transcripts and then clustered into 44,749 unigenes. In catechin biosynthesis, leucoanthocyanidin reductase (LAR) catalyzes the transition of leucoanthocyanidin to trans-catechins, while anthocyanidin synthase (ANS) and anthocyanidin reductase (ANR) catalyze cis-catechin production. Our data demonstrate that two LAR genes (CpLAR1 and CpLAR2) by C. ptilophylla may be advantageous due to the combined effects of this quantitative trait, permitting increased leucoanthocyanidin consumption for the synthesis of trans-catechins. In contrast, the only ANS gene observed in C. sinensis (CsANS) shared high identity (99.2%) to one homolog from C. ptilophylla (CpANS1), but lower identity (~80%) to another (CpANS2). We hypothesized that the diverged CpANS2 might have lost its ability to synthesize cis-catechins. C. ptilophylla and C. sinensis each contain two copies of ANR, which share high identity and may share the same function. Transcriptomic sequencing captured two N-methyl nucleosidase genes named NMT1 and NMT2. NMT2 was highly identical to three orthologous genes TCS2, PCS2, and ICS2, which did not undergo methylation in vitro; in contrast, NMT1 was less identical to TCS, PCS and ICS, indicating that NMT1 may undergo neofunctionalization.

[Percutaneous catheter drainage for post-traumatic perinephric urinoma]

From June 1989 to April 1992, 5 patients with post-traumatic perinephric urinoma were treated by using percutaneous catheter drainage. The urinoma disappeared and the renal function restored in all the 5 patients 18-27 days (average 21.8 days) after continual drainage. Follow-up for 1-4 (averaging 2-6 years) years showed non-recurrence of the urinoma in all the 5 patients. The procedure is characterized by less distress and economical to the patients. It can keep the kidneys intact. The pathogenesis, pathology, diagnosis and treatment are discussed along with a review of the literature.