Search

Expression of FosB gene in striatum is essential in addiction establishment. Activated glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) induce FosB gene expression in response to stressor. Therefore, elevation of FosB expression in striatum serves as one mechanism by which stress increases risk for addiction. In this study, adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were used to investigate whether chronic stress result in histone modifications at FosB gene promoter in striatum and how these histone modifications affect FosB expression and the establishment of addiction behavior after administration of drugs of abuse. Animals were randomly assigned to three groups: Electric foot shock (EFS) group received 7-day EFS to induce chronic stress; electric foot shock plus mifepristone (EFS + Mif) group were injected with mifepristone, a nonspecific GRs antagonist, before EFS; control group did not receive any EFS. All groups then received 2-day conditioned place preference (CPP) training with morphine (5 mg/kg body weight) to test vulnerability to drug addiction. Before and after morphine administration, FosB mRNA in striatum was quantified by real-time RT-PCR. Levels of histone H3/H4 acetylation and histone H3K4 dimethylation at FosB promoter in striatum after morphine administration were measured by using chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) plus real-time PCR. EFS group had stronger place preference to morphine and had significantly higher level of FosB mRNA in striatum than the other two groups. H3K4 dimethylation was 2.6-fold higher in EFS group than control group, while no statistical difference in H3/H4 acetylation. Mifepristone administration before EFS decreased histone H3K4 dimethylation and FosB mRNA in striatum, and also diminished morphine-induced conditioned place preference. Altogether, increased level of H3K4 dimethylation at FosB promoter in striatum is partially dependent on the activation of GR and responsible for the elevated level of morphine-induced FosB mRNA in chronic stressed animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unless the targeted mesh is developable, metric distortion is inevitable during the process of surface mesh parameterization, thus one important objective of all involved parametric studies is to reduce the metric distortion. In order to further reduce area and angle distortion, a novel method of boundary-free mesh parameterization is presented in the paper. Firstly, the initial boundary-fixed conformal parameterization from 3D surface mesh patch to a plane is performed in the method. Then, based on the initial parameterization, the iterations of boundary-free quasi-harmonic parameterization are developed, where the tensor field is updated in each iterative step and the principal curvature direction is utilized to terminate the iteration. The solution of the novel method is convenient to calculate since it involves a series of linear systems. In our novel parameterization method, lower metric distortion and considerable efficiency have been obtained in experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Vitamin D may play a role in skeletal muscle because of the discovery of VDR in skeletal muscle. However, vitamin D deficiency is a global problem, including athletes. Studies examining the effect of vitamin D supplementation on muscle function in athletes have inconsistent results. Therefore, we aimed to quantitatively summarize the evidence for the effect of vitamin D supplementation on skeletal muscle strength and explosive power of athletes using a meta-analysis. Methods: PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science were searched for studies to identify randomized controlled trials or controlled trials meeting the inclusion criteria. By a meta-analysis, effect sizes (standardized mean differences, SMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) was calculated to compare reported outcomes across studies, I2 index was used to assessing heterogeneity, and heterogeneity factors were identified by regression analysis. The potential publication and sensitivity analyses were also assessed. Results: Eight RCTs involving 284 athletes were included. The protocols used to evaluate the muscle strength of athletes were inconsistent across the included studies, and muscle explosive power was assessed via vertical jump tests. The results indicated that vitamin D supplementation had no impact on overall muscle strength outcomes (SMD 0.05, 95% CI: -0.39 to 0.48, p = 0.84). In subgroup analysis, vitamin D supplementation had an effect on lower-limb muscle strength (SMD 0.55, 95% CI:0.12 to 0.98, p = 0.01) but not upper-limb muscle strength (SMD -0.19, 95% CI:-0.73 to 0.36, p = 0.50) or muscle explosive power (SMD 0.05, 95% CI:-0.24 to 0.34, p = 0.73). Vitamin D supplementation was more effective for athletes trained indoors (SMD 0.48, 95% CI:0.06 to 0.90, p = 0.02). Conclusions: Vitamin D supplementation positively affected lower limb muscle strength in athletes, but not upper limb muscle strength or muscle power. Different muscle groups and functions may respond differently to vitamin D supplementation. Additional studies should focus on determining the appropriate vitamin D supplementation methods and optimal serum 25(OH)D levels for athletes. Registration: The protocol for our study is registered in the international prospective register of systematic reviews (PROSPERO registration number ). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The DEP1 (dense and erect panicle 1) gene, which corresponds to the erect panicle architecture, shows a pleiotropic effect in increasing grain yield and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in rice. Nevertheless, it remains unclear whether the carbon−nitrogen metabolic balance changes as the dep1 allele enhances nitrogen uptake and assimilation. In this study, we generated transgenic Akitakomati plants by overexpressing dep1 and analyzed the carbon−nitrogen metabolic status, gene expression profiles, and grain yield and quality. Under either low or high nitrogen growth conditions, the carbon−nitrogen metabolic balance of dep1-overexpressed lines was broken in stem sheaths and leaves but not in grains; the dep1-overexpressed plants showed higher expressions of glutamine synthetase (GS) and glutamate synthase (GOGAT) genes than the wildtype, along with increased total nitrogen and soluble protein content in the straw at maturity. However, the ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RUBISCO) and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) genes were downregulated in dep1-overexpressed plants, leading to a decreased carbohydrate content and carbon/nitrogen ratio. Although the unbalanced carbon−nitrogen metabolism decreased the grain-filling rate, grain setting percentage, 1000 grain weight, and grain quality in dep1-overexpressed lines, it led to increased grain numbers per panicle and consequently increased grain yield. Our results suggest that an unbalanced carbon−nitrogen metabolic status is a major limiting factor for further improving grain yield and quality in erect panicle varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT) on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in adults with overweight and obesity. Methods: Twenty-two articles were included by searching six databases, the total number of subjects was 620 in these articles. Outcomes were synthesised using a random-effects meta-analysis of the Standardized mean difference (SMD) in CVD risk factors. Results: HIIT and MICT resulted in statistically significant reductions in Weight, BMI, fat%, total cholesterol(TC), and improvement in VO2max. Compared with MICT, subgroup of durations of HIIT training interval ≥2 min can significantly increase VO2max (SMD = 0.444, 95% CI:0.037~0.851,P = 0.032), subgroup of energy expenditure of HIIT equal to MICT can significantly increase VO2max (SMD = 0.399, 95% CI:0.106~0.692,P = 0.008). Conclusions: HIIT appears to provide similar benefits to MICT for improving body composition, VO2maxand TC, but HIIT spent less time than MICT by 9.7 min on one session. HIIT is superior to MICT in improving cardiopulmonary fitness when durations of HIIT training interval ≥2 min or energy expenditure of HIIT same as MICT. PROSPERO ID: CRD42016045835. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traffic congestion in freeway network is a prevalent transportation problem and leads to a strong degradation of freeway network facilities. This paper proposes a new coordinated optimization approach for freeway network, aiming to relieve the traffic congestion in freeway network equipped with the coordinated traffic controllers. The challenge is how to solve the problem between the traffic control goals of each path and those of the network. In this paper, the bi-level programming theory is used to address this problem. More exactly, in the path level, the optimal control model is designed to relieve congestion in each path of the test network. Furthermore, in the network level, the optimal model considers the traffic equilibrium and cost optimization. The efficiency of the proposed approach is tested on a well-known traffic network calibrated by the field test data of freeway network. The results show that the proposed approach has positive effects in balancing traffic load and improving the service level of freeway networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the neonatal period, the ability to generate immune effector and memory responses to vaccines or pathogens is often questioned. This study was undertaken to obtain a global view of the natural differences in the expression of immune genes early in life. Our hypothesis was that transcriptome analyses of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of foals (on day 1 and day 42 after birth) and adult horses would show differential gene expression profiles that characterize natural immune processes. Gene ontology enrichment analysis provided assessment of biological processes affected by age, and a list of 897 genes with ≥2 fold higher (p<0.01) expression in day 42 when compared to day 1 foal samples. Up-regulated genes included B cell and T cell receptor diversity genes; DNA replication enzymes; natural killer cell receptors; granzyme B and perforin; complement receptors; immunomodulatory receptors; cell adhesion molecules; and cytokines/chemokines and their receptors. The list of 1,383 genes that had higher (p<0.01) expression on day 1 when compared to day 42 foal samples was populated by genes with roles in innate immunity such as antimicrobial proteins; pathogen recognition receptors; cytokines/chemokines and their receptors; cell adhesion molecules; co-stimulatory molecules; and T cell receptor delta chain. Within the 742 genes with increased expression between day 42 foal and adult samples, B cell immunity was the main biological process (p = 2.4E-04). Novel data on markedly low (p<0.0001) TLR3 gene expression, and high (p≤0.01) expression of IL27, IL13RA1, IREM-1, SIRL-1, and SIRPα on day 1 compared to day 42 foal samples point out potential mechanisms of increased susceptibility to pathogens in early life. The results portray a progression from innate immune gene expression predominance early in life to adaptive immune gene expression increasing with age with a putative overlay of immune suppressing genes in the neonatal phase. These results provide insight to the unique attributes of the equine neonatal and young immune system, and offer many avenues of future investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objective: Genetic factors including TNF-β have been considered as important components in the aetiology of migraine. Many studies have investigated the association between TNF-β 252A>G polymorphism and migraine risk, with debatable results. This study was designed to examine whether the TNF-β 252A>G polymorphism confers genetic susceptibility to migraine in diverse populations. Method: Studies eligible for this meta-analysis were searched in the PubMed, Embase, and CNKI by using the keywords “tumor necrosis factor”, “TNF”, “252A>G”, “rs909253”, “polymorphism”, “polymorphisms”, “variant”, “SNP”, combined with “migraine” or “migraine with aura (MA)” or “migraine without aura (MO)”. Pooled ORs and 95% CI were appropriately calculated using the fixed-effect model. Results: We finally included a total of seven studies, providing 5 557 migraineurs and 20 543 unrelated healthy controls. Meta-analysis results showed no statistical evidence of a significant association between TNF-β 252A>G polymorphism and overall migraine risk. Stratified analyses by type of migraine and gender revealed similar results. Interestingly, an OR with 95% CI representing an increased migraine risk was indicated in Asians under the recessive model (GG vs. AG + AA: OR, 1.38; 95%CI, 1.04–1.84; P for heterogeneity, 0.665). Conclusions: Our findings appear to support the hypothesis that genetic variability of 252A>G polymorphism in TNF region may modulate risk of migraine in the population of Asian ancestry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous data mining models have been proposed to construct computer-aided medical expert systems. Bayesian network classifiers (BNCs) are more distinct and understandable than other models. To graphically describe the dependency relationships among clinical variables for thyroid disease diagnosis and ensure the rationality of the diagnosis results, the proposed k-dependence causal forest (KCF) model generates a series of submodels in the framework of maximum spanning tree (MST) and demonstrates stronger dependence representation. Friedman test on 12 UCI datasets shows that KCF has classification accuracy advantage over the other state-of-the-art BNCs, such as Naive Bayes, tree augmented Naive Bayes, and k-dependence Bayesian classifier. Our extensive experimental comparison on 4 medical datasets also proves the feasibility and effectiveness of KCF in terms of sensitivity and specificity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The correspondence of a stack of planar contours in ICT (industrial computed tomography)-based reverse engineering, a key step in surface reconstruction, is difficult when the contours or topology of the object are complex. Given the regularity of industrial parts and similarity of the inter-layer contours, a specialized shape-based inter-layer contours correspondence method for ICT-based reverse engineering was presented to solve the above problem based on the vectorized contours. In this paper, the vectorized contours extracted from the slices consist of three graphical primitives: circles, arcs and segments. First, the correspondence of the inter-layer primitives is conducted based on the characteristics of the primitives. Second, based on the corresponded primitives, the inter-layer contours correspond with each other using the proximity rules and exhaustive search. The proposed method can make full use of the shape information to handle industrial parts with complex structures. The feasibility and superiority of this method have been demonstrated via the related experiments. This method can play an instructive role in practice and provide a reference for the related research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radioactive immunoassay (RIA) is a traditional serum hormone assay method, but the application of the method in reproductive studies is limited by the associated radioactivity. The aim of present study was to evaluate the reliability of RIA and to compare its canine serum progesterone concentration determination accuracy to that of the electric chemiluminescence immunoassay (ECLI). In vivo matured oocytes were utilized for canine somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), and serum progesterone levels were assessed to accurately determine ovulation and oocyte maturation. Canine serum progesterone concentrations during both proestrus and estrus were analyzed by RIA and ECLI to determine the ovulation day. Although both methods detected similar progesterone levels before ovulation, the mean progesterone concentration determined using ECLI was significantly higher than of RIA three days before ovulation. Following ovulation, oocytes were collected by surgery, and a lower percentage of mature oocytes were observed using ECLI (39%) as compared to RIA (67%) if 4-8ng/ml of progesterone were used for determination of ovulation. A high percentage of mature oocytes was observed using ECLI when 6–15 ng/mL of progesterone was used for ovulation determination. To determine whether ECLI could be used for canine cloning, six canines were selected as oocyte donors, and two puppies were obtained after SCNT and embryo transfer. In conclusion, compared to the traditional RIA method, the ECLI method is a safe and reliable method for canine cloning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breast cancer is recognized as a major public health problem in developing countries; however, there is very little evidence of behavioral factors associated with breast cancer risk. This study was conducted to identify lifestyles as risk factors for breast cancer among Central African women. A case-control study was conducted with 174 cases confirmed histologically by the pathology unit of the National Laboratory and 348 age-matched controls. Data collection tools included a questionnaire with interviews and medical records of patients. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 20. Odd ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were obtained by unconditional logistic regression. In total, 522 women were studied with a mean age of 45.8 (SD = 13.4) years. By unconditional logistic regression model, women with breast cancer were more likely to have attained illiterate and elementary education level [11.23 (95% CI, 4.65–27.14) and 2.40 (95% CI, 1.15–4.99)], married [2.09 (95% CI, 1.18–3.71)], positive family history [2.31 (95% CI, 1.36–3.91)], radiation exposure [8.21 (95% CI, 5.04–13.38)], consumption charcuterie [10.82 (95% CI, 2.39–48.90)], fresh fish consumption [4.26 (95% CI, 1.56–11.65)], groundnut consumption [6.46 (95% CI, 2.57–16.27)], soybean consumption [16.74 (95% CI, 8.03–39.84)], alcohol [2.53 (95% CI, 1.39–4.60)], habit of keeping money in bras[3.57 (95% CI, 2.24–5.69)], overweight [5.36 (95% CI, 4.46–24.57)] and obesity [3.11(95% CI, 2.39–20.42)]. However, decreased risk of breast cancer was associated with being employed [0.32 (95% CI, 0.19–0.56)], urban residence [0.16 (95% CI, 0.07–0.37)], groundnut oil consumption [0.05 (95% CI, 0.02–0.14)], wine consumption [0.16 (95% CI, 0.09–0.26)], non habit of keeping cell phone in bras [0.56 (95% CI, 0.35–0.89)] and physical activity [0.71(95% CI, 0.14–0.84)]. The study showed that little or no education, marriage, positive family history of cancer, radiation exposure, charcuterie, fresh fish, groundnut, soybean, alcohol, habit of keeping money in bras, overweight and obesity were associated with breast cancer risk among Central African women living in Bangui. Women living in Bangui should be more cautious on the behavioral risk associated with breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gastric intestinal metaplasia (GIM) is a precancerous lesion of the stomach. The detection of GIM using conventional white-light endoscopy (WLE) is difficult. In this study, we determined whether acetic acid-enhanced narrow band imaging (AA-NBI) improves the detection of GIM. A consecutive cohort of 132 individuals aged 40 years or older was subjected to upper gastrointestinal endoscopy using WLE, NBI and AA-NBI. The ability of the three methods to diagnose GIM in patients was compared. Histological assessment (per-patient and per-biopsy) was used for the accuracy assessment. Sixty-six (50.0%) out of the 132 individuals examined were found to have GIM, of which 44 (66.7%) were diagnosed correctly by NBI (sensitivity 66.7% and specificity 68.2%) and 58 (87.9%) were correctly identified by AA–NBI (sensitivity 87.9% and specificity 68.2%), as compared to only 22 (33.3%) by WLE (sensitivity 33.3% and specificity 28.8%). Therefore, the sensitivity of AA–NBI in the diagnosis of GIM was significantly higher than NBI (p<0.05) and WLE (p < 0.001). Our study indicates that AA-NBI can improve the accuracy of endoscopy-targeted biopsies for GIM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Postnatal human cardiomyocyte proliferation declines rapidly with age, which has been suggested to be correlated with increases in oxidative DNA damage in mice and plays an important role in regulating cardiomyocyte proliferation. However, the relationship between oxidative DNA damage and age in humans is unclear. Methods: Sixty right ventricular outflow myocardial tissue specimens were obtained from ventricular septal defect infant patients during routine congenital cardiac surgery. These specimens were divided into three groups based on age: group A (age 0–6 months), group B (age, 7–12 months), and group C (>12 months). Each tissue specimen was subjected to DNA extraction, RNA extraction, and immunofluorescence. Results: Immunofluorescence and qRT-PCR analysis revealed that DNA damage markers—mitochondrial DNA copy number, oxoguanine 8, and phosphorylated ataxia telangiectasia mutated—were highest in Group B. However immunofluorescence and qRT-PCR demonstrated that two cell proliferation markers, Ki67 and cyclin D2, were decreased with age. In addition, wheat germ agglutinin-staining indicated that the average size of cardiomyocytes increased with age. Conclusions: Oxidative DNA damage of cardiomyocytes was not correlated positively with age in human beings. Oxidative DNA damage is unable to fully explain the reduced proliferation of human cardiomyocytes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aims of this study are to identify the most important predictors of total diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes and estimate the mean change in the predicted probability among aged 45+ adults in China. We used baseline data collected from 2011 wave of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) (n = 9,513). First, we estimated the prevalence of diagnosed, measured, total diagnosed, and undiagnosed diabetes. Second, we used probit models to determine whether individual attributes, socioeconomic characteristics and behavioral health factors, including smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity, central obesity, are associated with total diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes. We also consider other factors, including contact with medical system, hypertension and urban/rural settings. Third, we estimated average marginal effects of variables in probit models. Among Chinese people aged 45+, the prevalence of diagnosed, measured, total diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes were 5.8% (95%CI, 5.3%-6.3%), 14.7% (95%CI, 14.0%-15.4%), 17.0% (95%CI, 16.3%-17.7%), 11.3% (95%CI, 10.6%-12.0%), respectively. The probability of total diagnosed diabetes is 3.3% (95% CI, 1.2%-5.3%) and 10.2% (95% CI, 7.0%-13.5%) higher for overweight and obesity than normal BMI, 5.0% (95% CI, 3.0%-7.1%) higher for central obesity than normal waist circumference, 5.4% (95% CI, 3.7%-7.0%) higher for hypertensive than normotensive and 1.8% (95% CI, 0.8%- 2.7%) higher in urban areas than in rural areas, respectively. The probability of undiagnosed diabetes is 2.7% (95% CI, 1.2%-4.2%) and 7.2% (95% CI, 4.7%-9.6%) higher for overweight and obesity than normal BMI, 2.6% (95% CI, 0.9%-4.4%) higher for central obesity than normal waist circumference and 2.6% (95% CI, 1.2%-4.0%) higher for hypertensive than normotensive, respectively, and -1.5% (95% CI, -2.5% to -0.5%) lower for individuals who were in contact with the medical system. Greater focus on prevention of diabetes is necessary for obesity, central obesity, hypertensive and in urban areas for middle-aged and older in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study objective was to retrospectively analyze the metabolic variables derived from 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) as predictors of progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in advanced lung adenocarcinoma stratified by epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation status. A total of 176 patients (91, EGFR mutation; 85, wild-type EGFR) who underwent 18F-FDG PET/CT before treatment were enrolled. The main 18F-FDG PET/CT-derived variables: primary tumor maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmaxT), primary tumor total lesion glycolysis (TLGT), the maximum SUVmax of all selected lesions in whole body determined using the Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors (RECIST) 1.1 criteria (SUVmaxWBR), and whole-body total TLG determined using the RECIST 1.1 criteria (TLGWBR) were measured. Survival analysis regarding TLGWBR, and other factors in advanced lung adenocarcinoma patients stratified using EGFR mutation status, were evaluated. The results indicated that high TLGWBR (≥259.85), EGFR wild-type, and high serum LDH were independent predictors of worse PFS and OS in all patients with advanced lung adenocarcinoma. Among patients with wild-type EGFR, only TLGWBR retained significance as an independent predictor of both PFS and OS. Among patients with the EGFR mutation, high serum LDH level was an independent predictor of worse PFS and OS, and high TLGWBR (≥259.85) was an independent predictor of worse PFS but not worse OS. In conclusion, TLGWBR is a promising parameter for prognostic stratification of patients with advanced lung adenocarcinoma and EGFR status; however, it cannot be used to further stratify the risk of worse OS for patients with the EGFR mutation. Further prospective studies are needed to validate our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Water undergoes structural change as it interfaces with hydrophilic surfaces, including the many hydrophilic surfaces within the cell. This interfacial water has become known as “Exclusion Zone (EZ) water” or “fourth-phase water” []. Methods: We tested the hypothesis that anesthetics diminish the amount of EZ water, and that this change may correlate with functional changes in anesthesia. By using the local anesthetics Lidocaine and Bupivacaine as well as a general inhalational anesthetic, Isoflurane, we tracked the EZ size as these anesthetics were introduced. Results: All three anesthetics diminished EZ size in a concentration-dependent manner at concentrations of 0.18 mM and greater for Bupivacaine, 0.85 mM and greater for Lidocaine, and 0.2% for Isoflurane. At extremely low (micromolar) concentrations, however, all three anesthetics increased EZ size. Conclusions: The sharp increase of EZ size associated with micromolar anesthetic concentrations follows a similar pattern to induction of general anesthesia, from the excitation stage (Stage II) to the depression and overdose stages of surgical anesthesia (Stages III and IV). The results are consistent with the hypothesis that anesthetics may act on water, a fundamental organizational component common to all cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtually all studies of plant-herbivore-natural enemy interactions focus on plant quality as the major constraint on development and survival. However, for many gregarious feeding insect herbivores that feed on small or ephemeral plants, the quantity of resources is much more limiting, yet this area has received virtually no attention. Here, in both lab and semi-field experiments using tents containing variably sized clusters of food plants, we studied the effects of periodic food deprivation in a tri-trophic system where quantitative constraints are profoundly important on insect performance. The large cabbage white Pieris brassicae, is a specialist herbivore of relatively small wild brassicaceous plants that grow in variable densities, with black mustard (Brassica nigra) being one of the most important. Larvae of P. brassicae are in turn attacked by a specialist endoparasitoid wasp, Cotesia glomerata. Increasing the length of food deprivation of newly molted final instar caterpillars significantly decreased herbivore and parasitoid survival and biomass, but shortened their development time. Moreover, the ability of caterpillars to recover when provided with food again was correlated with the length of the food deprivation period. In outdoor tents with natural vegetation, we created conditions similar to those faced by P. brassicae in nature by manipulating plant density. Low densities of B. nigra lead to potential starvation of P. brassicae broods and their parasitoids, replicating nutritional conditions of the lab experiments. The ability of both unparasitized and parasitized caterpillars to find corner plants was similar but decreased with central plant density. Survival of both the herbivore and parasitoid increased with plant density and was higher for unparasitized than for parasitized caterpillars. Our results, in comparison with previous studies, reveal that quantitative constraints are far more important that qualitative constraints on the performance of gregarious insect herbivores and their gregarious parasitoids in nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the reasons for the progressive yield decline observed in cereals production is the rapid build-up of populations of the cereal cyst nematode (CCN, Heterodera avenae). These nematodes secrete so-call effectors into their host plant to suppress the plant defense responses, alter plant signaling pathways and then induce the formation of syncytium after infection. However, little is known about its molecular mechanism and parasitism during incompatible infection. To gain insight into its repertoire of parasitism genes, we investigated the transcriptome of the early parasitic second-stage (30 hours, 3 days and 9 days post infection) juveniles of the CCN as well as the CCN infected tissue of the host Aegilops variabilis by Illumina sequencing. Among all assembled unigenes, 681 putative genes of parasitic nematode were found, in which 56 putative effectors were identified, including novel pioneer genes and genes corresponding to previously reported effectors. All the 681 CCN unigenes were mapped to 229 GO terms and 200 KEGG pathways, including growth, development and several stimulus-related signaling pathways. Sixteen clusters were involved in the CCN unigene expression atlas at the early stages during infection process, and three of which were significantly gene-enriched. Besides, the protein-protein interaction network analysis revealed 35 node unigenes which may play an important role in the plant-CCN interaction. Moreover, in a comparison of differentially expressed genes between the pre-parasitic juveniles and the early parasitic juveniles, we found that hydrolase activity was up-regulated in pre J2s whereas binding activity was upregulated in infective J2s. RT-qPCR analysis on some selected genes showed detectable expression, indicating possible secretion of the proteins and putative role in infection. This study provided better insights into the incompatible interaction between H. avenae and the host plant Ae. varabilis. Moreover, RNAi targets with potential lethality were screened out and primarily validated, which provide candidates for engineering-based control of cereal cyst nematode in crops breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leaves of C4 crops usually have higher radiation, water and nitrogen use efficiencies compared to the C3 species. Engineering C4 traits into C3 crops has been proposed as one of the most promising ways to repeal the biomass yield ceiling. To better understand the function of C4 photosynthesis, and to identify candidate genes that are associated with the C4 pathways, a comparative transcription network analysis was conducted on leaf developmental gradients of three C4 species including maize, green foxtail and sorghum and one C3 species, rice. By combining the methods of gene co-expression and differentially co-expression networks, we identified a total of 128 C4 specific genes. Besides the classic C4 shuttle genes, a new set of genes associated with light reaction, starch and sucrose metabolism, metabolites transportation, as well as transcription regulation, were identified as involved in C4 photosynthesis. These findings will provide important insights into the differential gene regulation between C3 and C4 species, and a good genetic resource for establishing C4 pathways in C3 crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phosphorylation is catalyzed by protein kinases and is irreplaceable in regulating biological processes. Identification of phosphorylation sites with their corresponding kinases contributes to the understanding of molecular mechanisms. Mass spectrometry analysis of phosphor-proteomes generates a large number of phosphorylated sites. However, experimental methods are costly and time-consuming, and most phosphorylation sites determined by experimental methods lack kinase information. Therefore, computational methods are urgently needed to address the kinase identification problem. To this end, we propose a new kernel-based machine learning method called Supervised Laplacian Regularized Least Squares (SLapRLS), which adopts a new method to construct kernels based on the similarity matrix and minimizes both structure risk and overall inconsistency between labels and similarities. The results predicted using both Phospho.ELM and an additional independent test dataset indicate that SLapRLS can more effectively identify kinases compared to other existing algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we aimed to predict newly diagnosed patient responses to antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging tools to explore changes in spontaneous brain activity. We recruited 21 newly diagnosed epileptic patients, 8 drug-resistant (DR) patients, 11 well-healed (WH) patients, and 13 healthy controls. After a 12-month follow-up, 11 newly diagnosed epileptic patients who showed a poor response to AEDs were placed into the seizures uncontrolled (SUC) group, while 10 patients were enrolled in the seizure-controlled (SC) group. By calculating the amplitude of fractional low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF) of blood oxygen level-dependent signals to measure brain activity during rest, we found that the SUC patients showed increased activity in the bilateral occipital lobe, particularly in the cuneus and lingual gyrus compared with the SC group and healthy controls. Interestingly, DR patients also showed increased activity in the identical cuneus and lingual gyrus regions, which comprise Brodmann’s area 17 (BA17), compared with the SUC patients; however, these abnormalities were not observed in SC and WH patients. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves indicated that the fALFF value of BA17 could differentiate SUC patients from SC patients and healthy controls with sufficient sensitivity and specificity prior to the administration of medication. Functional connectivity analysis was subsequently performed to evaluate the difference in connectivity between BA17 and other brain regions in the SUC, SC and control groups. Regions nearby the cuneus and lingual gyrus were found positive connectivity increased changes or positive connectivity changes with BA17 in the SUC patients, while remarkably negative connectivity increased changes or positive connectivity decreased changes were found in the SC patients. Additionally, default mode network (DMN) regions showed negative connectivity increased changes or negative changes with BA17 in the SUC patients. The abnormal increased in BA17 activity may be a key point that plays a substantial role in facilitating seizure onset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to extract concave and convex feature regions via segmenting surface mesh of a mechanical part whose surface geometry exhibits drastic variations and concave-convex features are equally important when modeling. Referring to the original approach based on the minima rule (MR) in cognitive science, we have created a revised minima rule (RMR) and presented an improved approach based on RMR in the paper. Using the logarithmic function in terms of the minimum curvatures that are normalized by the expectation and the standard deviation on the vertices of the mesh, we determined the solution formulas for the feature vertices according to RMR. Because only a small range of the threshold parameters was selected from in the determined formulas, an iterative process was implemented to realize the automatic selection of thresholds. Finally according to the obtained feature vertices, the feature edges and facets were obtained by growing neighbors. The improved approach overcomes the inherent inadequacies of the original approach for our objective in the paper, realizes full automation without setting parameters, and obtains better results compared with the latest conventional approaches. We demonstrated the feasibility and superiority of our approach by performing certain experimental comparisons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Public hospitals deliver over ninety percent of all outpatient and inpatient services in China. Their quality is graded into three levels (A, B, and C) largely based on structural resources, but empirical evidence on the quality of process and outcome of care is extremely scarce. As expectations for quality care rise with higher living standards and cost of care, such evidence is urgently needed and vital to improve care and to inform future health reforms. Methods: We compiled and analyzed a multicenter database of over 4 million inpatient discharge summary records to provide a comprehensive assessment of the level and variations in clinical outcomes of hospitalization at 39 tertiary hospitals in Beijing. We assessed six outcome measures of clinical quality: in-hospital mortality rates (RSMR) for AMI, stroke, pneumonia and CABG, post-procedural complication rate (RS-CR), and failure-to-rescue rate (RS-FTR). The measures were adjusted for pre-admission patient case-mix using indirect standardization method with hierarchical linear mixed models. Results: We found good overall quality with large variations by hospital and condition (mean/range, in %): RSMR-AMI: 6.23 (2.37–14.48), RSMR-stroke: 4.18 (3.58–4.44), RSMR-pneumonia: 7.78 (7.20–8.59), RSMR-CABG: 1.93 (1.55–2.23), RS-CR: 11.38 (9.9–12.88), and RS-FTR: 6.41 (5.17–7.58). Hospital grade was not significantly associated with any risk-adjusted outcome measures. Conclusions: Going to a higher grade public hospital does not always lead to better patient outcome because hospital grade only contains information about hospital structural resources. A hospital report card with some outcome measures of quality would provide valuable information to patients in choosing providers, and for regulators to identify gaps in health care quality. Reducing the variations in clinical practice and patient outcome should be a focus for policy makers in the next round of health sector reforms in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study was mainly conducted to determine whether dietary leucine supplementation could attenuate the decrease of the mucin production in the jejunal mucosa of weaned pigs infected by porcine rotavirus (PRV). A total of 24 crossbred barrows weaned at 21 d of age were assigned randomly to 1 of 2 diets supplemented with 1.00% L-leucine or 0.68% L-alanine (isonitrogenous control) for 17 d. On day 11, all pigs were orally infused PRV or the sterile essential medium. During the first 10 d of trial, dietary leucine supplementation could improve the feed efficiency (P = 0.09). The ADG and feed efficiency were impaired by PRV infusion (P<0.05). PRV infusion also increased mean cumulative score of diarrhea, serum rotavirus antibody concentration and crypt depth of the jejunal mucosa (P<0.05), and decreased villus height: crypt depth (P = 0.07), goblet cell numbers (P<0.05), mucin 1 and 2 concentrations (P<0.05) and phosphorylated mTOR level (P<0.05) of the jejunal mucosa in weaned pigs. Dietary leucine supplementation could attenuate the effects of PRV infusion on feed efficiency (P = 0.09) and mean cumulative score of diarrhea (P = 0.09), and improve the effects of PRV infusion on villus height: crypt depth (P = 0.06), goblet cell numbers (P<0.05), mucin 1 (P = 0.08) and 2 (P = 0.07) concentrations and phosphorylated mTOR level (P = 0.08) of the jejunal mucosa in weaned pigs. These results suggest that dietary 1% leucine supplementation alleviated the decrease of mucin production and goblet cell numbers in the jejunal mucosa of weaned pigs challenged by PRV possibly via activation of the mTOR signaling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]