No abstract

Global warming affects not only rice yield but also grain quality. A better understanding of the effects of climate factors on rice quality provides information for new breeding strategies to develop varieties of rice adapted to a changing world. Chalkiness is a key trait of physical quality, and along with head rice yield, is used to determine the price of rice in all markets. In the present study, we show that for every ∼1% decrease in chalkiness, an increase of ∼1% in head rice yield follows, illustrating the dual impact of chalk on amount of marketable rice and its value. Previous studies in controlled growing conditions report that chalkiness is associated with high temperature. From 1980–2009 at IRRI, Los Baños, the Philippines, annual minimum and mean temperatures, and diurnal variation changed significantly. The objective of this study was to determine how climate impacts chalkiness in field conditions over four wet and dry seasons. We show that low relative humidity and a high vapour pressure deficit in the dry season associate with low chalk and high head rice yield in spite of higher maximum temperature, but in the opposite conditions of the wet season, chalk is high and head rice yield is low. The data therefore suggest that transpirational cooling is a key factor affecting chalkiness and head rice yield, and global warming per se might not be the major factor that decreases the amount and quality of rice, but other climate factors in combination, that enable the crop to maintain a cool canopy.

Intron length polymorphisms (ILPs) have been used as genetic markers in some studies. However, a systematic investigation and large-scale exploitation of ILP markers has not been reported. In this study, we performed a genome-wide search of ILPs between two subspecies (indica and japonica) in rice using the draft genomic sequences of cultivars 93-11 (indica) and Nipponbare (japonica) and 32,127 full-length cDNA sequences of Nipponbare obtained from public databases. We identified 13,308 putative ILPs. Based on these putative ILPs, we developed 5811 candidate ILP markers via electronic-PCR with primers designed in flanking exons. We further conducted experiment to verify the candidate ILP markers. Out of 215 candidate ILP markers tested on 93-11, Nipponbare and their hybrid, we successfully exploited 173 codominant ILP markers. Further analyses on 10 rice accessions showed that these ILP markers were widely applicable and most (71.1%) exhibited subspecies specificity. This feature suggests that ILPs would be useful for the studies of genome evolution and inter-subspecies heterosis and for cross-subspecies marker-assisted selection in rice. In addition, by testing 51 pairs of the ILP primers on five Gramineae plants and three dicot plants, we found another desirable characteristic of rice ILP markers that they have high transferability to other plants.

Naturally colored cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) fibers (CCFs) are of interest in the textile industry because they require little dyeing and result in less environmental pollution. Pigmentation is one of the most important factors that differentiate CCFs from white cotton fiber (WCF) during fiber maturation. Many factors are involved in pigmentation, some of which we compared between CCFs and WCF with isogenetic backgrounds. These included the type of pigment, the activity of phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL), the concentration of total carbohydrates, and the type of soluble saccharide. We aimed to determine the causes of different fiber colors and found that flavonoids were the dominant type of pigment in the CCFs. At maturity (50 d post anthesis [DPA]), the WCF had only about 1/3 the amount of flavonoids as the brown cotton fiber (BCF) and 1/10 that of the green cotton fiber (GCF). During the course of fiber maturation (in particular, the stage before 8 DPA), CCFs had much higher PAL activity than the WCF. Of the fibers, the GCF had the highest concentration of carbohydrates over the course of maturation. However, higher concentrations of total carbohydrates did not always lead to higher concentrations of cellulose. This was very likely due to the synthesis of flavonoids and their derivatives consuming a large amount of carbohydrates that otherwise might be used for the synthesis of cellulose.

Nurse managers should pay great attention to the nurses' perception of quality of work life, and make great efforts in developing strategies and projects that can strengthen the nurses' embeddedness or connection with the job.

BackgroundAlthough China experienced great improvement in their health system, disputes between patients and doctors have increasingly intensified, reaching an unprecedented level. Retrospective analysis of medical malpractice litigation can discover the characteristics and fundamental cause of these disagreements.MethodsWe analyzed medical malpractice litigation data from 1998 to 2011 for characteristics of claims via a litigation database within a nationwide database of cases (1086 cases) in China, including claims, liabilities, injures, and compensation payments.ResultsAmong the cases analyzed, 76 percent of claims received compensation in civil judgment (640 out of 841), while 93 percent were fault liability in paid judgment (597 out of 640). The average time span between the occurrence of the injury dispute and closure of claims was 3 years. Twenty-two percent of claims (183 of 841) were caused by injury, poisoning, and other external causes. Seventy-nine percent of claims (472 of 597) were contributed to by errors in medical technology. The median damage compensation payment for death was significantly lower than for serious injuries (P < 0.001; death, $13270 [IQR, $7617–$23181]; serious injury, $23721 [IQR, $10367–$57058]). Finally, there was no statistically significant difference in the median mental compensation between minor injury, serious injury, and death (P = 0.836).ConclusionThe social reasons for the conflict and high payment were catastrophic out-of-pocket health-care expense in addition to the high expectations for treatment in China. There were no distinguishing features between China and other countries with respect to time of suits, facilities, and specialties in these claims. The compensation for damages in different medical injuries was unfair in China.

This study aimed to assess health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of Heilongjiang adult populations by using the EuroQol five-dimension three-level (EQ-5D-3L) questionnaire and to identify factors associated with HRQOL. Data from the National Health Services Survey (NHSS) 2008 in Heilongjiang province were obtained. Results of EQ-5D-3L questionnaires completed by 11,523 adult respondents (18 years or older) were converted to health index scores using a recently developed Chinese value set. Multivariate linear regression and logistic regression models were established to determine demographic, socioeconomic, health, and lifestyle factors that were associated with HRQOL and reported problems in the five dimensions of EQ-5D-3L. The Heilongjiang population had a mean EQ-5D-3L index score of 0.959. Lower EQ-5D-3L index scores were associated with older age, lower levels of education, chronic conditions, temporary accommodation, poverty, unemployment, and lack of regular physical activities. Older respondents and those who were unemployed, had chronic conditions, and lived in poverty were more likely to report problems in all of the five health dimensions. Higher educational attainment was associated with lower odds of reporting health problems in mobility, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression. Low socioeconomic status is associated with poor HRQOL. Regional population norms for EQ-5D-3L are needed for health economic studies due to great socioeconomic disparities across regions in China. Overall, the Heilongjiang population has a similar level of HRQOL compared with the national average.

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.