Resumo Eventos de estresse de alta temperatura são fatores críticos que inibem o rendimento das culturas. Enquanto isso, a população mundial está crescendo muito rapidamente e atingirá até 9 bilhões em 2050. Para alimentar a crescente população mundial, é uma tarefa desafiadora aumentar cerca de 70% da produção global de alimentos. As culturas alimentares têm uma contribuição significativa para a procura global de alimentos e a segurança alimentar. No entanto, as consequências do aumento de eventos de estresse por calor estão destruindo suas habilidades de sobreviver e manter a produção quando submetidos a estresse de alta temperatura. Portanto, há uma necessidade urgente de entender melhor o mecanismo de resposta e tolerância das safras de alimentos após a exposição ao estresse por calor. Aqui, nosso objetivo foi fornecer atualizações recentes sobre o impacto do estresse de alta temperatura no rendimento de culturas de alimentos, polinização, polinizadores e novas estratégias para melhorar a tolerância de culturas de alimentos sob estresse de alta temperatura. É importante ressaltar que o desenvolvimento de culturas alimentares transgênicas resistentes ao calor pode garantir segurança alimentar por meio da transformação de genes superiores em germoplasma atual, que estão associados a várias vias de sinalização, bem como à regulação epigenética em resposta ao estresse de alta temperatura extrema.

Abstract High temperature stress events are critical factors inhibiting crop yield. Meanwhile, world population is growing very rapidly and will be reached up to 9 billion by 2050. To feed increasing world population, it is challenging task to increase about 70% global food productions. Food crops have significant contribution toward global food demand and food security. However, consequences from increasing heat stress events are demolishing their abilities to survive and sustain yield when subjected to extreme high temperature stress. Therefore, there is dire need to better understand response and tolerance mechanism of food crops following exposure to heat stress. Here, we aimed to provide recent update on impact of high temperature stress on crop yield of food crops, pollination, pollinators, and novel strategies for improving tolerance of food crop under high temperature stress. Importantly, development of heat-resistant transgenic food crops can grant food security through transformation of superior genes into current germplasm, which are associated with various signaling pathways as well as epigenetic regulation in response to extreme high temperature stress.

We investigated the risk factors for pulmonary hypertension (PH) in patients receiving maintenance peritoneal dialysis (MPD). A group of 180 end-stage renal disease patients (124 men and 56 women; mean age: 56.43±8.36) were enrolled in our study, which was conducted between January 2009 and June 2014. All of the patients received MPD treatment in the Dialysis Center of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University. Clinical data, laboratory indices, and echocardiographic data from these patients were collected, and follow-ups were scheduled bi-monthly. The incidence and relevant risk factors of PH were analyzed. The differences in measurement data were compared by t-test and enumeration data were compared with the χ2 test. Among the 180 patients receiving MPD, 60 were diagnosed with PH. The remaining 120 were regarded as the non-PH group. Significant differences were observed in the clinical data, laboratory indices, and echocardiographic data between the PH and non-PH patients (all P<0.05). Furthermore, hypertensive nephropathy patients on MPD showed a significantly higher incidence of PH compared with non-hypertensive nephropathy patients (P<0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that the proportion of internal arteriovenous fistula, C-reactive protein levels, and ejection fraction were the highest risk factors for PH in patients receiving MPD. Our study shows that there is a high incidence of PH in patients receiving MPD and hypertensive nephropathy patients have an increased susceptibility to PH.

ABSTRACT Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have an increased susceptibility to bacterial, viral, fungal and parasitic infections. Cryptococcal infection of the central nervous system (CNS) is a rare but often fatal complication of SLE. Here, we describe a case of cryptococcal meningitis in a female patient with active SLE, who was successfully treated with amphotericin B. This case suggests that the clinical findings of SLE patients with cryptococcal meningitis are non-specific and misleading, and early use of amphotericin B has a good response.

RESUMEN Los pacientes con lupus eritematoso sistémico (LES) tienen una mayor susceptibilidad a las infecciones bacterianas, virales, fúngicas y parasitarias. La infección criptocócica del sistema nervioso central (SNC) es una complicación rara, pero a menudo fatal de LES. Aquí, describimos un caso de meningitis criptocócica en un paciente femenino con LES activo, que fue tratada con éxito con anfotericina B. Este caso sugiere que los resultados clínicos de pacientes de LES con meningitis criptocócica son no específicos y engañosos, y el uso temprano de la anfotericina B tiene una buena respuesta.

The paper presents the synthesis and performance of an immobilized phospholipase A1 with practical application for oil degumming. The polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) had a number of properties indicating this polymer as a good enzyme carrier. The combination with alginate made a macro-porous structure, evidenced by SEM analyses. When the process time in boric acid solution was 30 minutes, the results revealed that beads prepared with 10% (w/v) PVA and 2% (w/v) sodium alginate in 4% (w/v) boric acid and 2% (w/v) calcium chloride solution exhibited high immobilized enzyme activity, immobilization yield and stability. The pH and temperature optimum for the PVA-alginate immobilized phospholipase A1were 5.6 and 58 °C, respectively. The enzyme immobilized in the beads retained 50.37% of the initial activity in the eighth cycle. The enzyme biocatalyst immobilized in the beads retained 78.58% of the initial activity after storing 6 weeks at 4 °C.

Sodium phosphate (Na3PO4) was chosen as catalyst for biodiesel preparation from rapeseed oil. The effects of mass ratio of catalyst to oil, molar ratio of methanol to oil, reaction temperature and rotation speed on biodiesel yield were investigated. For a mass ratio of catalyst to oil of 3%, molar ratio of methanol to oil of 9:1, reaction temperature of 343K and rotation speed of 600rpm, the transesterification was nearly completed within 20 minutes. Na3PO4 has a similar activity to homogeneous catalysts. Na3PO4 could be used repeatedly for 8 runs without any activation treatment and no obvious activity loss was observed. The concentrations of catalyst in biodiesel ranged from 0.6 to 0.7 mg/g. Compared to Na3PO4, Na3PO4.10H2O was cheaper, but the final yield was 71.3%, much lower than that of Na3PO4 at 99.7%.