The original article was inadvertently published with an inaccurate application rate of the composted pig manure. The correct application rate is shown here: N, P, K and organic manure were applied in the form of urea (120 kg N ha-1 per year), calcium superphosphate (60 kg P 2 O 5 ha-1 per year), KCl (120 kg K 2 O ha-1 per year), and composted pig manure (30 t ha-1 per year), respectively. Plant Soil (2010) 326:523

Interleukin (IL)‐21 is a CD4+ T‐cell‐derived cytokine, which is involved in innate and adaptive immune response. In this study, we analysed IL‐21 receptor (IL‐21R) expression in peripheral blood and synovial fluid mononuclear cells, and investigated the role of IL‐21 in the induction of proinflammatory cytokine production by peripheral blood T cells (PB‐T) and synovial fluid T cells (SF‐T) from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Immunohistochemical staining demonstrated that IL‐21R‐positive cells were significantly increased in inflamed synovial tissues of RA patients compared with osteoarthritis (OA) and healthy controls. Flow cytometric analysis confirmed that IL‐21R was mainly expressed in freshly isolated CD4, CD8, B and NK cells from peripheral blood and synovial fluid, but decreased gradually in T cells 24 h after anti‐CD3 stimulation. PB‐ and SF‐T cells from RA patients were more responsive to IL‐21 when compared with controls. Importantly, isolated PB‐ or SF‐T cells from RA patients, when stimulated with IL‐21 and anti‐CD3 MoAb, secreted markedly higher levels of TNF‐α and IFN‐γ than controls. These data indicate that IL‐21R is overexpressed in the inflamed synovial membrane and in peripheral blood or synovial fluid leukocytes of RA patients, and that IL‐21 enhances local T‐cell activation, proliferation and proinflammatory cytokine secretion. Thus, blockade of IL‐21R signalling pathway may have a therapeutic potential in acute RA patients.

The original article was inadvertently published with an inaccurate application rate of the composted pig manure. The correct application rate is shown here: N, P, K and organic manure were applied in the form of urea (120

The gut microbiome is a microbial ecosystem which expresses 100 times more genes than the human host, plays an essential role in human health and disease pathogenesis. Since most intestinal microbial species are difficult to culture, next generation sequencing technologies have been widely applied to study the gut microbiome, including 16S rRNA, 18S rRNA, internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequencing, shotgun metagenomic sequencing, metatranscriptomic sequencing and viromic sequencing. Various software tools were developed to analyze different sequencing data. In this review, we summarize commonly used computational tools for gut microbiome data analysis, which extended our understanding of the gut microbiome in health and diseases.

c-Met is highly expressed and constitutively activated in various human tumors. We employed adenovirus-mediated RNA interference technique to knock down c-Met expression in hepatocellular carcinoma cells and observed its effects on hepatocellular carcinoma cell growth in vitro and in vivo. Among the five hepatocellular carcinoma and one normal human liver cell lines we analyzed, c-Met was highly expressed and constitutively tyrosine phosphorylated in only MHCC97-L and HCCLM3 hepatocellular carcinoma cells. Knockdown of c-Met could inhibit MHCC97-L cells proliferation by arresting cells at G 0 -G 1 phase. Soft agar colony formation assay indicated that the colony forming ability of MHCC97-L cells decreased by f70% after adenovirus AdH1-small interfering RNA (siRNA)/met infection. In vivo experiments showed that adenovirus AdH1-siRNA/met inhibited the tumorigenicity of MHCC97-L cells and significantly suppressed tumor growth when injected directly into tumors. These results suggest that knockdown of c-Met by adenovirus-delivered siRNA may be a potential therapeutic strategy for treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma in which c-Met is overexpressed. [Mol Cancer Ther 2005;4(10):1577 -84]

Little is known about effects of high nitrogen (N) fertilization on soil chemical properties, enzyme and microbial activities involved in N and C transformation. Soil EC, pH, mineral N, three enzyme activities, nitrification capacity, and microbial functional diversity were evaluated under conventional N rate (270 or 300 kg N ha −1 season −1 , N4), 80% (N3), 60% (N2), 40% (N1) and 0% (N0) of N4 during a 2-year cucumber/tomato rotation in polytunnel greenhouse lands in Eastern China. Soil EC, NH 4 + -N and NO 3 − -N were significantly increased, whilst pH, activities of dehydrogenase, urease and neutral phosphatase, nitrification capacity, and microbial functional diversity decreased significantly with N application rate. Microbial diversity indices deducted from the Csource utilization pattern were significantly lower under the highest N4 rate in the same vegetable season, but varied with seasons among N rates. Both principal component analysis and C substrate utilization patterns displayed significant separation of soil microbial communities between the higher N4 or N3 and the lower N0, N1 and N2 rates. Our results indicated that a 40% reduction of the conventional N fertilization rate was practical to reduce excess N input while maintaining the sustainability of such greenhouse-based intensive vegetable systems in China's Yangtze River Delta.

Abstract. As a major alkaline gas in the atmosphere, NH3 significantly impacts atmospheric chemistry, ecological environment, and biodiversity. Gridded NH3 emission inventories can significantly affect the accuracy of model concentrations and play a crucial role in the refinement of mitigation strategies. However, several uncertainties are still associated with existing NH3 emission inventories in China. Therefore, in this study, we focused on improving fertilizer-application-related NH3 emission inventories. We comprehensively evaluated the dates and times of fertilizer application to the major crops that are cultivated in China, improved the spatial allocation methods for NH3 emissions from croplands with different rice types, and established a gridded NH3 emission inventory for mainland China with a resolution of 5 min × 5 min in 2016. The results showed that the atmospheric NH3 emissions in mainland China amounted to 12.11 Tg, with livestock waste (44.8 %) and fertilizer application (38.6 %) being the two main NH3 emission sources in China. Obvious spatial variability in NH3 emissions was also identified, and high emissions were predominantly concentrated in North China. Further, NH3 emissions tended to be high in summer and low in winter, and the ratio for the July–January period was 3.08. Furthermore, maize and rice fertilization in summer was primarily responsible for the increase in NH3 emissions in China, and the evaluation of the spatial and temporal accuracy of the NH3 emission inventory established in this study using the WRF-Chem and ground-station- and satellite-based observations showed that it was more accurate than other inventories.

No abstract