Abstract Jiangshui is a traditional fermented food in Northwest China with high nutritional value and special pharmacological effects. To study the microbial community structure and differences in the main metabolic pathways and metabolites in naturally fermented Jiangshui, the microbial diversity and nontargeted metabolomics analyses were performed on 18 samples of Jiangshui from three different production areas, namely, Tianshui, Gansu, Guyuan, Ningxia, and Ankang, Shaanxi. First, the microbial diversity was analyzed using 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing. Lactobacillus was the dominant bacterial genus in the three regions, and the relative abundance of the samples in each region ranged from 72.69% to 99.95%. The dominant fungal genus was Dipodascus, with a relative abundance > 40%. Second, untargeted metabolomics was used to analyze the differences among metabolites in Jiangshui samples. Significant differences were found in 761 different metabolites detected in Jiangshui from the three different regions. Based on ESI+, 78 significantly different metabolites were screened using variable importance projection (VIP) value > 1, fold change (FC) < 1, and P-value < 0.05. Finally, based on joint analysis, the microbiome and metabolite groups of Jiangshui samples from the three different regions were evenly and closely clustered, and the microorganisms and metabolites were highly correlated. The results provide theoretical basis and reference for Jiangshui in other regions.

Abstract Surgery is currently the major approach treating kidney cancer, which is insensitive to chemo-/radio-therapy. However, due to the limitation of current diagnostic technique, certain number of patients has lost the opportunity of surgery. Therefore the searching for novel effective treatment approach is of critical importance. Ginsenoside Rg3 can inhibit proliferation and induce apoptosis of various tumor cells. It effect in kidney cancer, however, is still lacked. This study thus treated kidney cancer cell line 786-O with ginsenoside Rg3 to illustrate its effect on cell proliferation and apoptosis, and investigated possible mechanism.Gradient concentrations of ginsenoside Rg3 was used to treat 786-O cells, whose proliferation was measured by CCK8 assay. The apoptotic rate was quantified using flow cytometry. Western blotting was used to measure protein expression levels of p-Akt, p-mTOR and p-STAT3. Ginsenoside Rg3 significantly inhibited proliferation of kidney cancer cell 786-O in a dose- and time-dependent manner: higher concentration and longer treatment time caused more significant inhibition on cell proliferation. Similar patterns also occurred for the induction for cell apoptosis by ginsenoside Rg3. The expression levels of p-Akt, p-mTOR and p-STAT3, however, were decreased with higher dosages of ginsenoside Rg3, and were negatively correlated with apoptotic ratio. Ginsenoside Rg3 can exert anti-tumor role via inducing apoptosis and inhibiting proliferation of 786-O cells, possibly via the blocking of Akt/mTOR/STAT3 pathway.

Abstract: Stable isotopes of oxygen (δ18O) and hydrogen (δD) in water were used as important indicators to research the hydrologic cycle or processes. To study the hydrologic cycle characteristics of the Jinxiuchuan basin, the isotope labelling and the industrial salt tracing method were used in this research. Sixty-seven samples of different water bodies were collected at different sampling sites from July 2011 to July 2012. The stable hydrogen and oxygen isotopes in water samples were measured by using Liquid Water Isotope Analyzer (LWIA-24d) to study the conversion relationship among precipitation, river water, soil water, and groundwater of the Jinxiuchuan basin in Jinan. The results show that δD and δ18O varied from 35.6 ‰ to 128.3 ‰ and from 5.3 ‰ to 17.5‰, respectively. A meteoric water line of δD = 7.16δ18O + 4.35‰, which was in accordance with the global meteoric water line and the meteoric water line of China, was established in the Jinxiuchuan basin. The deuterium excess values vary with time and space, ranging from 5.1 to 22.3‰, and increase gradually from the southeast to the northwest. In addition, the exchange of different water bodies was determined preliminarily, the rates of precipitation transforming into river water, soil water, and groundwater are 43.76%, 21.91% and 6.84%, and the remaining is 27.49% returned to the atmosphere. The results indicated the hydrologic cycle characteristics in the Jinxiuchuan basin. It may provide the references for precipitation isotopes research in semi-humid regions.

Resumen: Se emplearon isótopos estables de oxígeno (δ18O) e hidrógeno (δD) en agua como indicadores importantes para comprender el ciclo hidrológico o sus procesos. Para comprender las características del ciclo hidrológico en la cuenca de Jinxiuchuan, en este estudio se empleó el método de marcaje isotópico y la técnica de trazabilidad de sal industrial. Se tomaron 67 muestras de distintos cuerpos de agua en diferentes sitios de muestreo de julio de 2011 a julio de 2012. Se midieron los isótopos estables de hidrógeno y oxígeno en las muestras de agua mediante el uso del Analizador de Isótopos en Agua Líquida (LWIA-24-d) para examinar el vínculo entre la precipitación, el agua de río, el agua de suelo y el agua subterránea de la cuenca de Jinxiuchuan, en Jinan. Los resultados muestran que δD y δ18O variaron de 35.6 ‰ a 128.3 ‰ y de 5.3 ‰ a 17.5 ‰, respectivamente. La línea de agua meteórica se estableció en la cuenca de Jinxiuchuan, por ejemplo δD=7.16δ18O+4.35 ‰, lo cual concordó con la línea de agua meteórica global y la línea de agua meteórica de China. Los valores de exceso de deuterio varían en el tiempo y el espacio, entre 5.1 y 22 ‰, e incrementan gradualmente del sudeste al noroeste. Asimismo, se determinó preliminarmente el intercambio de distintos cuerpos de agua; los índices de precipitación que se transformó en agua de río, agua de suelo y agua subterránea son de 43.76%, 21.91% y 6.84%, y el restante 27.49% regresó a la atmósfera. Los resultados indicaron las características del ciclo hidrológico en la cuenca de Jinxiuchuan, las cuales tienen valor de referencia para la investigación de isótopos en la precipitación en regiones semihúmedas.

Hot compression tests of as-cast Ti-6Al-2Zr-1Mo-1V alloy in a wide temperature range of 1073-1323 K and strain rate range of 0.01-10 s-1 were conducted by a servo-hydraulic and computer-controlled Gleeble-1500 machine. The hot flow behaviors of Ti-6Al-2Zr-1Mo-1V alloy show highly non-linear relationships with strain, strain rate and temperature. In order to accurately and effectively characterize the complex flow behaviors, support vector regression (SVR) which is a machine learning method was combined with Genetic Algorithm (GA) to characterize the flow behaviors, namely, the GA-SVR. The study abilities, generation abilities, and modeling efficiencies of the improved Arrhenius-type constitutive model, ANN, and GA-SVR for flow behaviors of as-cast Ti-6Al-2Zr-1Mo-1V alloy were detailedly compared. Comparison results show that the study ability of the GA-SVR is as strong as the ANN. The generation abilities and modeling efficiencies of these models were shown as follows in ascending order: the improved Arrhenius-type constitutive model < ANN < GA-SVR. Based on the established GA-SVR, the continuously three-dimensional relationships among flow stress, temperature, strain, and strain rate were constructed, which improve the simulation accuracy and related research fields where stress-strain data play important roles.