No abstract

Thermal conductivity is a fundamental physical property governing heat transfer in soil. It depends on soil types, pore structure, temperature, and moisture content, and can vary over an order of magnitude. Some theories have been established to address the effect of temperature on thermal conductivity. Other theoretical works focus on the effect of moisture content on thermal conductivity of different sandy and loamy soils. This work addresses the effect of all soil types and moisture content on thermal conductivity for ambient temperatures from 20 to 25°C. Thermal conductivity varies little within the hydration and capillary regimes, varies moderately within the funicular regime, and varies greatly within the pendular regime. A closed-form equation is proposed and validated by explicitly considering the soil-water retention regimes. Results taken from the literature for 25 soils and from the current study for two clay soils show that the closed-form equation can accurately predict thermal conductivity of all types of unsaturated soil.

Calreticulin (CRT) is an endoplasmic reticulum luminal Ca(2+)-binding chaperone protein. By immunizing mice with recombinant fragment (rCRT/39-272), six clones of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) were generated and characterized. Based on these mAbs, a microplate chemiluminescent enzyme immunoassay (CLEIA) system with a measured limit of detection of 0.09 ng/ml was developed. Using this CLEIA system, it was found that soluble CRT (sCRT) level in serum samples from 58 lung cancer patients was significantly higher than that from 40 healthy individuals (only 9 were detectable, P < 0.0001). Among them, serum sCRT in the small cell lung cancer was lower than that in adenocarcinoma (P = 0.0085), while both were lower than that in the squamous cell carcinoma (P = 0.013, P = 0.0012, respectively). Moreover, it was found that sCRT in sera from the patients after chemotherapy was higher than that from the patients without chemotherapy (P = 0.042). Further study by immunohistochemistry showed that CRT was also highly expressed in the cytoplasm and on the membrane of the lung cancer cells, while there was a trace amount of CRT expression in normal lung cells. Correspondingly, the expression level of CRT on lung cancer cell membrane was associated with the tumor pathological grade. This study demonstrates that sCRT concentration in sera of lung cancer patients is higher than that in sera of healthy individuals, and CRT expression level on lung cancer cell membrane is associated with tumor pathological classification and grade. These findings suggest that CRT may be used as a biomarker in lung cancer prediction and diagnosis.

Jatropha curcas is considered to be one of the greatest potential biofuel plants. However, the application of J. curcas is limited by a lack of high yielding varieties. Polyploids often generate useful germplasm for genetic improvement in many plants. Here, tetraploid and octoploid J. curcas were obtained by treating the shoot tips of seedlings with colchicine. The ploidy of J. curcas was determined by measuring the nuclear DNA content with flow cytometry and by counting chromosomes. Treatment with 0.1% colchicine for seven days was the most effective condition for producing polyploid plants, yielding 15% tetraploids. There was no significant plant height difference between tetraploid and diploid plants, but octoploid plants grew slowly and were about one-third the height of diploid plants. With increased ploidy, the stomata and pollen grains became larger, stomatal density decreased, the leaves became thicker, and the net photosynthetic rate and stomatal conductance decreased. Compared with diploid plants, the tetraploid plants had larger leaves, male and female flowers and pollen, but the octoploid leaves were about half the size of the diploid leaves. The fruits and seeds of the tetraploid plants were larger than those of the diploid, but the single seed weight and oil content were decreased. The octoploid plants were sterile, with no flower buds on three-year-old plants. The polyploid plants obtained in this study could be useful for breeding programs and for studies of flower development and abiotic stress tolerance in J. curcas.