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Ginseng saponins (ginsenosides), bioactive compounds derived from ginseng, are widely used natural products with potent therapeutic properties in the management of various ailments, particularly tumors, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and immune system disorders. Autophagy, a highly regulated and multistep process involving the breakdown of impaired organelles and macromolecules by autophagolysosomes and autophagy-related genes (ATGs), has gained increasing attention as a potential target for ginsenoside-mediated disease treatment. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of recent research advances in the understanding of autophagy-related signaling pathways and the role of ginsenoside-mediated autophagy regulation. By delving into the intricate autophagy signaling pathways underpinning the pharmacological properties of ginsenosides, we highlight their therapeutic potential in addressing various conditions. Our findings serve as a comprehensive reference for further investigation into the medicinal properties of ginseng or ginseng-related products., (© 2024 Wiley-VHCA AG, Zurich, Switzerland.)

Ecosystem service assessment and prediction play a crucial role in sustainable regional development and resource management. Liaoning Province, as a typical representative of Northeast China, faces rapid development challenges such as urbanization, industrialization, and agricultural modernization. At the same time, there is an urgent need for a deeper understanding of the evolution trends of its ecosystems and their impact on ecosystem services. This study employed the InVEST-Markov-PLUS model to conduct simulated research on the assessment of past and future ecosystem services and multi-scenario predictions in Liaoning Province. Based on the land-use changes in Liaoning Province from 2000 to 2020, the InVEST model was used to evaluate the spatiotemporal variations in carbon storage, soil conservation, and water yield in the ecosystem services from 2000 to 2020. Additionally, the equivalent factor method was employed to calculate the value of ecosystem services in Liaoning Province during the same period. Furthermore, by integrating the PLUS and Markov models with the actual conditions of Liaoning Province, four land-use development scenarios for 2030 were constructed, including natural development, economic priority, ecological protection, and cropland protection. The land-use distribution and the quantities and values of ecosystem services under these scenarios were simulated. The study revealed the following findings： ① From 2000 to 2020, carbon storage and soil retention in Liaoning Province showed an overall increasing trend, whereas water yield exhibited a fluctuating decrease trend initially, followed by an increase and then another decrease. ② Carbon storage and soil retention in Liaoning Province showed higher values in the eastern mountainous areas and western hilly regions, with lower values in the central region. Water yield showed a decreasing trend from east to west. ③ The value of ecosystem services increased from 547.94 billion yuan to 565.53 billion yuan, with a total increase of 17.58 billion yuan during the study period. All four types of services showed an increase, with cultural services experiencing the fastest change. ④ In 2030, carbon storage and soil retention in Liaoning Province decreased in all scenarios except for in the ecological protection scenario. Water yield increased only in the cropland protection scenario, whereas it decreased in the other three scenarios. The value of ecosystem services in the study area increased in all scenarios except for in the economic priority scenario.

Diagnostic absorption features can indicate the existence of specific materials, which is the foundation of mineral analysis with optical remote sensing data. In hyperspectral data processing, the most commonly used method to extract absorption feature, is Continuum Removal (CR). As for multispectral data, Principle Component Analysis and other indirect methods were used to extract absorption information, and little research has been done on full-band absorption feature extraction. Classification of similar minerals is one of the major difficulties in mineral spectral analysis, while there is no valid index for spectral difference between similar mineral groups. Absorption feature extraction may improve the classification accuracy, but there is no research to investigate the impact of absorption feature extraction on spectral difference between similar minerals. This paper summarized the principle of mineral spectral difference, and proposed the concept of Class Separability Ratio (CSR), which was verified to be a valid index for spectral difference between similar mineral categories. Through comparison experiments on alunite and kaolinite spectra, including USGS spectral library spectra and resampled spectra in accordance with the band settings of HYPERION, ASTER and OLI, the impact of absorption feature extraction on spectral difference between similar minerals were investigated. Experimental results show that valid absorption feature extraction can greatly enhance the spectral difference between similar minerals, and the spectral difference is positively correlated with spectral resolution. Besides, the results of CR can be severely affected by spectral resolution and band center positions, and the absorption feature spectra extraction results for multispectral datasets need to be improved. This research laid the foundation of precise identification between similar mineral categories, and provided valuable reference for the band settings of future geology remote sensing sensors.

qnrD, unlike other qnr genes, is mainly located on small nonconjugative plasmids. We investigated the presence of qnrD among 1,373 Enterobacteriaceae isolates in China. Twelve qnrD-positive strains were detected, and all were nonsusceptible to fluoroquinolones. The complete sequence of plasmids showed that the qnrD determinants were located on two plasmids with a respective size of ~4.2 and 2.7 k-bp. Interestingly, the identification of qnrD in this study revealed the highest prevalence of Proteeae among Enterobacteriaceae identified.

The precise analysis of mineral abundance is a key difficulty in hyperspectral remote sensing research. In the present paper, based on linear spectral mixture model, the derivative of ratio spectroscopy (DRS) was introduced for spectral unmixing of visible to short-wave infrared (Vis-SWIR; 0.4 - 2.5 microm) reflectance data. The mixtures of different proportions of plaster and allochite were analyzed to estimate the accuracy of the spectral unmixing model based on DRS. For the best 5 strong linear bands, the Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) of the abundances and the actual abundances were higher than 99.9%, while the root mean square error (RMSE) is less than 2.2%. The result shows that the new spectral unmixing model based on DRS is simple, of rigorous mathematical proof, and highly precise. It has a great potential in high-precision quantitative analysis of spectral mixture with fixed endmembers.

One hundred two pathogenic Escherichia coli isolates from diseased pigs were analyzed for serotypes, virulence genes, antimicrobial susceptibility, and the molecular basis of phenicol resistance. Of these 102 E. coli isolates, 101 were typeable and belonged to 27 different O serogroups. However, 69% of these isolates belonged to one of the following eight serogroups: O8, O54, O64, O65, O92, O108, O119, and O120. Serogroups O8 (23%) and O64 (10%) were the most prevalent among typeable isolates. High-resistance phenotypes were observed in all the isolates, with the majority displaying resistance to chloramphenicol (89%), streptomycin (83%), enrofloxacin (78%), and doxycycline (60%). The chloramphenicol resistance genes cat1, cat2, and cmlA were detected in 58%, 49%, and 65%, respectively, of the chloramphenicol-resistant isolates. The floR gene was detected in 57% of the florfenicol-resistant isolates and in 52% of chloramphenicol-resistant isolates. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis showed that the 32 floR-positive isolates with florfenicol minimum inhibitory concentration ≥ 8 μg mL⁻¹ belonged to 25 different pulsed-field gel electrophoresis profiles, indicating the spread of floR among swine pathogenic E. coli isolates.

The synthesis and characterization of ruthenium(II) complexes, [Ru(cyclam)(bqdi)] x ZnCl(4) (1 x ZnCl(4); cyclam = 1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane, bqdi = o-benzoquinonediimine), [Ru(cyclam)(nqdi)] x (ClO(4))(2) (2 x (ClO(4))(2); nqdi = 2,3-naphthoquinonediimine), and [Ru(cyclam)(phi)] x (ClO(4))(2) (3 x (ClO(4))(2); phi = 9,10-phenanthroquinonediimine), are described. The DNA binding properties and biological activity of the Ru(II) complexes were studied by various biophysical and cytological techniques. As expected, only 3 showed significant binding with DNA. The thermodynamic profile of the binding of 3 and DNA was constructed by analyzing the experimental data of absorption titration and UV melting studies with the McGhee equation, van't Hoff's equation, and the Gibbs-Helmholtz equation. Compound 3 binds double-stranded DNA with a binding constant of 5.0 x 10(4) M(-1) at 20 degrees C, and the binding mode of the complex to DNA was proved to be intercalative. Cytotoxicity and induced type of cell death of 1-3 were also investigated. Basically, metal complexes with ligands of molecular shape closely related to the structure of DNA are more likely to bind DNA and possess higher toxicity.