We previously reported on the strong symbiosis of AMf species (Rhizophagus irregularis CD1) with the cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) which is grown worldwide. in current study, it was thus investigated in farmland to determine the biological control effect of AMF on phosphorus acquisition and related gene expression regulation, plant growth and development, and a series of agronomic traits associated with yield and fiber quality in cotton. When AMF and cotton were symbiotic, the expression of the specific phosphate transporter family genes and P concentration in the cotton biomass were significantly enhanced. The photosynthesis, growth, boll number per plant and the maturity of the fiber were increased through the symbiosis between cotton and AMf. Statistical analysis showed a highly significant increase in yield for inoculated plots compared with that from the non inoculated controls, with an increase percentage of 28.54%. These findings clearly demonstrate here the benefits of AMFbased inoculation on phosphorus acquisition, growth, seed cotton yield and fiber quality in cotton. Further improvement of these beneficial inoculants on crops will help increase farmers' income all over the world both now and in the future. Cotton is an important natural fiber and economic crop that provides substantial benefits to humans and is an important raw material worldwide. While a large number of recent studies have confirmed that arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can improve the growth, yield, quality, and phosphorus acquisition in plants 1-5 , the effect of AMF on these economic and agronomic traits in cotton is largely unknown. Previous research evidence suggests that mycorrhiza-mediated inoculants can reduce the need for P fertilization by at least 25% (and even up to 50%) without any decrease in crop yield 6. We also investigated and reported recently as Zhang et al. on the field biological control effect on cotton Verticillium wilt of AMF application. The nutrient acquisition of crops is mainly controlled by root and soil microorganisms 7 , which play a key role in nutrient circulation and absorption and in fighting against soil pathogens 8,9. Beneficial soil microorganisms are an important part of agricultural ecosystems 7,10,11 and have been used in agriculture more frequently over the past few decades. Nevertheless, the cultivation of the target microorganism is not a simple task, given the large number of microbes, their functional diversity, and the complexity of microbial assemblages. AMF are important beneficial soil microbiota which can be cultured in the laboratory and have established close symbioses with plants over the past 455 million years 12. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) colonize plant roots and can improve the adaptability of host plants, especially by offering additional phosphorus (P) 13,14 , nitrogen (N), and zinc 15 to plants. Root systems were extended, increasing the root surface that is utilized for nutrient uptake by more than 100-fold, by symbiosis with AMF 15. A large group of agricultura...

Background General practitioner (GP) system is proved to be effective in over 50 countries worldwide. Guangdong province, as a reform pilot in China, initiated its patient-GP contract service reform in 2014. This study is designed to assess the patients’ acceptance of General Practitioners Contract (GPC) reform and explore its influencing factors. Methods This survey interviewed 1010 participants from 16 primary health centers (PHCs) chosen from 4 pilot cities in Guangdong during July and December in 2015. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews. The questionnaire was developed to discover the acceptance of GPC and covered three parts: respondents’ socio-demographic characteristics, health service utilization, and the patients’ assessment of primary health care centers. A binary logistic regression model was used to measure the influencing factors of respondents’ acceptance of GPC policy. Results A total of 611(60.5%) participants accepted GPC policy. Compared to patients visited PHCs over 7 times in the previous year, those visited PHCs fewer times reported lower acceptance of GPC policy (OR:0.68, 95% CI:0.49–0.96 for visits ≤3 times and OR:0.57, 95% CI:0.38–0.84 for visits = 4–6 times). Patients’ satisfaction with medical service coverage was positively associated with patients’ acceptance of GPC (OR: 1.72, 95% CI:1.01–3.98 for the satisfied versus the dissatisfied; OR: 1.38, 95% CI:0.92–3.30 for neutral versus the dissatisfied), and the satisfaction with drug list also positively influenced patients’ acceptance of GPC policy (OR: 1.44, 95% CI:1.26–2.73 for the satisfied versus the dissatisfied; OR:1.61, 95% CI:1.36–2.99 for neutral versus the dissatisfied). Meanwhile, age and education had positive impacts on the acceptance of the GPC policy. Conclusion This study finds out that patients’ satisfaction with medical service coverage and drug list are the influencing factors for the acceptance of GPC policy. Therefore, improvement of medical service accessibility such as better follow-up of patients with chronic diseases and enhanced referral service, as well as the expansion of drug list, will improve patients’ acceptance of GPC policy. It also finds that patients using more primary health service are inclined to accept GPC policy, so more attractive and high-quality service should be provided in PHCs. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12913-019-4053-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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As one of the important components of electrocardiogram (ECG) signals, QRS signal represents the basic characteristics of ECG signals. The detection of QRS waves is also an essential step for ECG signal analysis. In order to further meet the clinical needs for the accuracy and real-time detection of QRS waves, a simple, fast, reliable, and hardware-friendly algorithm for real-time QRS detection is proposed. The exponential transform (ET) and proportional-derivative (PD) control-based adaptive threshold are designed to detect QRS-complex. The proposed ET can effectively narrow the magnitude difference of QRS peaks, and the PD control-based method can adaptively adjust the current threshold for QRS detection according to thresholds of previous two windows and predefined minimal threshold. The ECG signals from MIT-BIH databases are used to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm. The overall sensitivity, positive predictivity, and accuracy for QRS detection are 99.90%, 99.92%, and 99.82%, respectively. It is also implemented on Altera Cyclone V 5CSEMA5F31C6 Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The time consumed for a 30-min ECG record is approximately 1.3 s. It indicates that the proposed algorithm can be used for wearable heart rate monitoring and automatic ECG analysis.