Abstract: Background: Historical and contemporary climates may shape the distributional patterns of plant species richness across different scales. However, few studies have focused on the effects of historical and contemporary climate changes on the distributional patterns of plant richness in Chinese protected areas across different taxonomic levels. Hypotheses: Historical and contemporary climates can have an important legacy effect on the large-scale distributional patterns of plant richness across different taxonomic levels. Studied species: Vascular plants. Study site: China. Method: We used data on plant richness at the family, genus, and species levels from Chinese protected areas and applied regression modelling to explore the relationships between climate change and plant richness among vascular, fern, seed, gymnosperm, and angiosperm plants based on paleoclimate (Last Glacial Maximum; LGM, ca. 22,000 years ago) and contemporary climate data. Results: The large-scale distributional patterns of plant richness could be predicted across different taxonomic levels on the basis of paleoclimate and contemporary climate data. Specifically, historical and contemporary climate variables were found to better correlate with fern plant richness than seed plant richness. For seed plants, the explanatory power of historical and contemporary climate variables was found to be stronger for the richness of gymnosperms than for the richness of angiosperms. Conclusions: The distributional pattern of plant richness could be predicted across different taxonomic levels after including paleoclimate (LGM, ca. 22,000 years ago) and contemporary climate data from China. Our study could support the effectiveness of the management of protected areas in China.

Resumen: Antecedentes: Los climas históricos y contemporáneos contribuyen a conformar el patrón de la distribución de la riqueza de especies de plantas a diferentes escalas. Sin embargo, muy pocos estudios se han concentrado en entender los efectos de los cambios históricos y contemporáneos del clima en el patrón de la distribución de la riqueza de plantas en diferentes niveles taxonómicos en China. Hipótesis: Los climas históricos y contemporáneos pueden tener un importante efecto de legado en los patrones de distribución a gran escala de la riqueza de plantas a diferentes niveles taxonómicos. Especies de estudio: Plantas vasculares. Sitio de estudio: China. Métodos: Empleando datos de reservas naturales chinas y modelado de Regresión Ponderada Geográficamente aplicada junto con el método de Mínimos Cuadrados Ordinarios, utilizamos la información de riqueza de plantas a nivel de familia, género y especies para explorar las relaciones entre el cambio climático histórico y contemporáneo, y la riqueza de plantas a nivel de familia, género y especie entre diferentes grupos de plantas vasculares, helechos, semillas, gimnospermas y angiospermas. Resultados: En comparación con las plantas de semilla, los climas históricos y contemporáneos predicen mejor la riqueza de helechos. Para las plantas con semillas, los poderes explicativos de los climas históricos y contemporáneos son más fuertes para la riqueza de gimnospermas que para la de angiospermas. Conclusiones: El patrón de distribución de la riqueza de plantas se pueden predecir a diferentes niveles taxonómicos utilizando datos paleoclimáticos y de clima contemporáneo en China.

Background: Streptococcus pneumoni ae, which cause noninvasive pneumococcal diseases, severely impair children's health. This study analyzed serotype distribution and antimicrobial resistance of S. pneumoni ae from January 2012 to December 2012 in a Children's Hospital, Shanghai. Methods: A total of 328 pneumococcal isolates were serotyped by multiplex sequential PCR and/or capsule-quellung reaction. The minimum inhibitory concentrations for 11 antimi- crobial agents were determined by broth microdilution method. Results: Among 328 strains, 19F (36.3%), 19A (13.4%), 6A (11.9%), 23F (11.0%), 14 (5.8%), 6B (5.2%), and 15B/C (4.3%) were the most common serotypes. The coverage rates of 7-, 10-, and 13-valent conjugate vaccines (PCV7, PCV10, and PCV13) were 58.2%, 58.2%, and 84.1%, respectively. Out of the isolates, 26 (7.9%) strains were penicillin resistant. Most of the strains displayed high resistance rate to macrolides (98.5% to erythromycin, 97.9% to azithromycin, and 97.0% to clindamycin). Conclusions: The potential coverage of PCV13 is higher than PCV7 and PCV10 because of the emergence of 19A and there should be long-term and systematic surveillance for non-vaccine serotypes.

Two-day-old specific pathogen-free (SPF) chickens were divided into two groups. Group I was inoculated orally with fowl adenovirus VIII (FAV-VIII). Group II served as a negative control. Chickens were investigated at various days post-inoculation (dpi) by flow cytometric analysis for changes in T lymphocyte subpopulations in immune system and blood. In the thymus, CD3+ T lymphocytes were increased at 25 dpi, with significant increases in the FAV infected noted at 1, 12, 20dpi (p<0.05). This was accompanied by a corresponding increase of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In the spleen, CD3+ and CD4+ T lymphocytes were increased significantly at 30 dpi (p<0.01) whereas CD8+ and TCR γ δ+ T lymphocytes were decreased at 1 (p<0.05), 30 dpi (p<0.01). An increase of CD3+, CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes was noticed in peripheral blood, and accompanied by a decrease of TCR γ δ+ T lymphocytes. These results demonstrated that infection with FAV-VIII causes significant fluctuations in T lymphocyte subpopulations in thymus, blood and spleen. It can be concluded that an infection with FAV-VIII has profound effects on the immune system, especially on cell mediated immune competency.

Virulence genes of Escherichia coli (E. coli) isolates from healthy dairy cows were identified and characterized by a multiplex PCR assay and serogrouping test. The results showed that among the target genes, eaeA was most frequently detected, accounting for 22.11% (67/303) in all strains from 101 cows. For categorization of E. coli, aEPEC was the category with widest distribution detected in 55 (18.15%) strains from 22 cattle. All of 84 PCR-positive strains belonged to 14 O serogroups, and O149 (25.00%) was most common identified, followed by O2 (17.86%), O8 (11.90%) and O103 (9.52%) with relatively high prevalence.

Um lipopeptídio biosurfactante produzido por Bacillus natto TK-1 apresenta intensa atividade de superfície. Verificou-se que o biosurfactante apresentou atividade antiadesiva contra várias cepas bacterianas, e também atividade antimicrobiana de amplo espectro. O biosurfactante causou uma redução significativa na viabilidade de células tumorais, de forma dose-dependente.

A lipopeptide biosurfactant produced by Bacillus natto TK-1 has a strong surface activity. The biosurfactant was found to be an anti-adhesive agent against several bacterial strains, and also showed a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity. The biosurfactant induced a significant reduction in tumor cells viability in a dose- dependent manner.