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The utilization of digital statistical processes in images and videos can effectively tackle numerous challenges encountered in optical sensors. This research endeavors to overcome the limitations inherent in traditional focus models, particularly their inadequate accuracy. It aims to bolster the precision of real-time perception and dynamic control by employing enhanced data fusion methodologies. The ultimate objective is to facilitate information services that enable seamless interaction and profound integration between computational and physical processes within an open environment. To achieve this, an enhanced sum-modulus difference (SMD) evaluation function has been proposed. This innovation is founded on the concept of threshold value evaluation, aimed at rectifying the accuracy shortcomings of traditional focusing models. Through the computation of each gray value after threshold segmentation, the method identifies the most suitable threshold for image segmentation. This identified threshold is then applied to the focus search strategy employing the radial basis function (RBF) algorithm. Furthermore, an intelligent focusing system has been developed on the Zynq development platform, encompassing both hardware design and software program development. The test results affirm that the focusing model based on the improved SMD evaluation function rapidly identifies the peak point of the gray variance curve, ascertains the optimal focal plane position, and notably enhances the sensitivity of the focusing model., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Deng et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Objectives: To assess the efficacy of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for patients with chronic pain., Materials and Methods: The research conducted a systematic search of the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) databases following the PRISMA guidelines. The retrieval time limit was from the establishment of the database to October 2023. A meta-analysis was carried out for the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that meet the inclusion and exclusion criteria by using RevMan 5.3., Results: Twenty-one RCTs were included. At post-treatment, a significant medium effect size (ES) was found in measuring pain interference, functional impairment, pain acceptance, psychological inflexibility, and depression; Pain intensity, anxiety, and quality of life (QOL) had a small ES. At three months post-treatment, a large ES was found in measuring functional impairment, and a medium ES was found in the other indicators., Conclusion: The researchers provided evidence for the effectiveness of ACT as an intervention for patients with chronic pain, which can be applied by clinicians or nurses in practice. Future research should explore the applicability of ACT to different pain conditions and modalities., Implications for Nursing: Post-treatment data highlight the efficacy of ACT in moderating pain-related outcomes. Clinical nurses are encouraged to incorporate ACT into routine patient education and interventions, including promoting pain acceptance, promoting mindfulness practices, and using cognitive stress reduction techniques. Standardized follow-up after an ACT intervention for patients with chronic pain is critical, including regular assessment, feedback, and realignment of treatment strategies. Overall, ACT became an important tool for nurses to improve the lives of patients with chronic pain., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Ye et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

The establishment of an evaluation indicator system that can accurately assess the sustainability of a supply chain while further enhancing its performance is vital and relevant. Based on the connotation of sustainable supply chains and triple bottom line theory, indicators are initially proposed from economic, environmental, and social dimensions. To increase the explanatory power of the indicator system and decrease information redundancy, the coefficient of variation is applied to identify the indicators with weak interpretation intensity, the ill-conditioned index cycle method is utilized to filter out indicators with redundant information, and data on 100 Chinese listed companies from 2019 to 2021 are used as samples. A performance evaluation indicator system of sustainable supply chains with 16 indicators is ultimately established. The information interpretation strength index and cumulative information contribution rate verify the rationality of the final indicator system. The outcome demonstrates that this screening method can strengthen the representativeness of the indicator system and rapidly reduce redundancy, leading to the better discrimination of the evaluation results. The findings of this study provide an indicator system and a methodological reference for both companies and policymakers and can aid in the transformation of supply chains toward sustainability., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Deng et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Plum Rains Season (PRS) has the typical characteristics of outdoor air temperature dramatic changes and high air humidity in the hot summer and cold winter region in China. When the outdoor temperature rises rapidly during PRS, the building envelope surface temperature is probably lower than the indoor air dew point temperature, resulting in moisture condensation. This paper evaluates the influence of geographical location and outdoor meteorological parameters on the indoor humidity environment. The effects of critical parameters such as altitude, average temperature, relative humidity, total precipitation, total precipitation days, atmospheric pressure, and wind speed on the building envelope moisture condensation in nine typical cities in the hot summer and cold winter region were simulated and analyzed. The results show that the Condensation Frequency (CFn) in the western, central, and eastern regions reached the highest in April, May, and June, respectively. Among the nine typical cities, Changsha has the highest Condensation Risk (CR). In addition, the altitude, total precipitation, and atmospheric pressure have little effect on the indoor humidity environment, and it is not directly related to CR; The average temperature and total precipitation days were not related to CR in the western and eastern regions and positively correlated with CR in the central region; The wind speed was positively correlated with CR in the western and central regions and negatively correlated in the eastern region; The relative humidity can affect the indoor humidity environment and moisture condensation on the inner surface of walls, when the relative humidity increases, the CR increases., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 He et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

With progressive urbanization and the development and utilization of urban underground space, underground urban complexes (UUCs) have been increasingly used. UUCs have brought much convenience to people's lives. However, due to their enclosed nature and complexity, it has been an urgent issue to avoid (or reduce) casualties and allow rapid and safe evacuation of people during an emergency. In this study, the evacuation simulation software Pathfinder was used. Based on the steering model, the variation of the total evacuation time and pedestrian flow at main exits with different simulated evacuation measures, congestion at key nodes and people's path selection were compared and analyzed. Then, the critical locations in the spatial layout of UUCs that were prone to evacuation bottleneck effects were focused on and determined. The evacuation effectiveness of UUCs in an emergency was studied to investigate the problems of emergency evacuation in UUCs. It is found that in UUCs, the bottleneck effects were likely to occur at stairway entrances and exits as well as supermarket checkout counters and caused severe congestion. These locations should be focused on during emergency evacuation. For key locations prone to evacuation bottlenecks, increasing the width of exits or setting up auxiliary evacuation channels could be an effective measure to improve evacuation efficiency. In addition, formulating rational evacuation rules can be a favorable measure for emergency evacuation. However, during the evacuation, the herd mentality in people has an uncertain (positive or negative) impact on evacuation effectiveness. Setting up diversion walls may improve evacuation efficiency and reduce congestion to a certain extent, while evacuation confusion and chaos are prone to occur after diversion. These findings in this study have significant implications for improving the emergency management of UUCs., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2022 Wei et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: The prevailing consensus from large epidemiological studies is that breastfeeding is associated with improved IQ and cognitive functioning in later childhood and adolescence. Current research is exploring the association between breastfeeding and early brain development in preterm infants., Objective: To explore the differences in brain gray matter between breastmilk-fed and formula-fed preterm infants using structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging., Methods: A convenience sample of breastmilk-fed preterm infants(n = 34) and formula-fed infants (n = 22) aged approximately 32 weeks. At near term-equivalent age, MR scanning was performed. Gray matter structural and functional differences between the two groups were assessed using MATLAB software for voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) analysis., Results: Maternal and neonatal demographic characteristics showed no significant difference between the two groups. Breastmilk-fed infants had greater regional gray matter volume on MRI than formula-fed infants in multiple brain regions, including the bilateral frontal lobe (BA11, BA46), right temporal lobe (BA37), and left caudate nucleus, at a statistical threshold of p<0.01 (AlphaSim corrected) with a cluster size of >40 voxels. Compared with formula-fed infants, breastmilk-fed infants showed increased brain activation on fMRI in the right superior temporal gyrus (BA41)., Conclusion: Breastmilk-fed infants had greater regional gray matter development and increased regional gray matter function compared with formula-fed infants at near term-equivalent age, suggesting breastmilk feeding in the early period after birth may have some degree of influence on early brain development in preterm infants., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2022 Zhang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Trichome is important for help plant resist adversity and external damage. However, it often affects the appearance and taste of vegetables. In the present study, the trichome density of leaves from two Chinese cabbage cultivars with and without trichomes treated at low temperature are analyzed by biological microscope, and the differentially expressed genes related to trichomes formation were screened through transcriptome sequencing. The results showed that the number of leaves trichomes was reduced by 34.7% at low temperature compared with room temperature. A total of 661 differentially expression genes effecting trichomes formation were identified at the CT vs C, LCT vs LC, CT vs LCT. Several differentially expression genes from every comparison group were enriched in plant hormone signal transduction and amino acid biosynthesis pathway. Combined with the central genes obtained by WGCNA analysis, five candidate genes Bra029778, Bra026393, Bra030270, Bra037264 and Bra009655 were screened. qRT-PCR analysis verified that the gene expression differences were in line with the trend of transcriptome data. This study not only found possible new key genes and laid a foundation for revealing the molecular mechanism regulating the formation of trichome in Chinese cabbage, but also provided a new way to study plant surface trichomes., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Xinjiang is the largest arid and saline agricultural region in China. The common irrigation methods in this area are traditional flood irrigation and drip irrigation. In this study, we investigated the effects of these two irrigation methods on the fungal diversity, community structures, and functions in alfalfa rhizosphere soil as well as the associated environmental factors in northern Tianshan Mountain (Xinjiang, China). Soil enzyme activities (urease and neutral phosphatase) were significantly higher in the drip-irrigated alfalfa rhizosphere soil than in the flood-irrigated alfalfa rhizosphere soil, whereas the fungal alpha diversity in the drip-irrigated alfalfa rhizosphere soil was significantly lower than that in the flood-irrigated alfalfa rhizosphere soil. Six dominant fungal phyla were identified (>0.1%), with Ascomycota being the most abundant in all soils, followed by Basidiomycota (5.47%), Mortierellomycota (1.07%), Glomeromycota (0.55%), Rozellomycota (0.27%), and Chytridiomycota (0.14%). Ascomycota and Glomeromycota species were significantly less abundant in drip-irrigated alfalfa rhizosphere soil than in flood-irrigated alfalfa rhizosphere soil. A LEFSe analysis identified Cladosporiaceae (20.8%) species as the most abundant marker fungi in drip-irrigated alfalfa rhizosphere soil. Of the 13 fungal functional groups identified on the basis of the functional annotation using the FUNGuild database, Ectomycorrhizal (22.29%) was the primary functional group. Compared with flood irrigation, drip irrigation significantly decreased the relative abundance of Ectomycorrhizal and Arbuscular&#95;Mycorrhizal, while increasing the relative abundance of Plant&#95;Pathogen, although not significantly (P = 0.19). Available potassium was revealed to be the main environmental factor influencing soil enzyme activities, fungal alpha diversity, fungal community structures, and fungal functions in response to the different irrigation methods. In conclusion, drip irrigation may be more appropriate than flood irrigation in the Tianshan dryland agricultural area for enhancing soil enzyme activities, but it may also increase the abundance of plant pathogenic fungi in the soil., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

The leaf serves as an important assimilation organ of plants, and the anatomical structure of leaves can reflect the adaptability of the plant to the environment to a certain extent. The current study aimed to cultivate superior local cultivars, and 35 healthy individual plants were selected from the Camellia oleifera germplasm resource nursery for a comparative study of the leaf structure. In July 2019, the leaves were collected from 35 selected healthy C. oleifera plants, and the leaf structure was observed by using the paraffin section method. Healthy individual plants were screened using variance analysis, correlation analysis and cluster analysis. The representative indices were selected according to the cluster membership, correlation indices and coefficient of variation (C/V) for a comprehensive evaluation of drought resistance via the membership function. There were extremely significant differences in 11 indices of leaf structure for these 35 healthy plants. C18 had the greatest leaf thickness, C7 the largest spongy tissue, and C38 the largest ratio of palisade tissue thickness to spongy tissue thickness (P/S). The clustering results of the healthy individual plants differed significantly. The membership function showed that the drought resistance of 35 C. oleifera plants was divided into five categories. C18 had very strong drought resistance, and C3, C7 and C40 had strong drought resistance. There were significant differences in terms of the upper epidermis, P/S ratio and spongy tissue among the C. oleifera plants. C18, C3, C7 and C40 exhibited satisfactory drought resistance. Although C39 and C26 had moderate drought resistance, their P/S ratios were high, which might be used to cultivate high-yield and drought-resistant C. oleifera varieties. The leaf P/S ratio of C. oleifera from low-hot valley areas was high. Among various leaf structures, spongy tissue, upper epidermis, P/S ratio and cuticle constitute the drought resistance evaluation indices for C. oleifera grown in low-hot valley areas., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

In the poverty alleviation supply chain, subsidies for enterprises or farmers are widely implemented as part of government policy. However, subsidy fraud often occurs, such as misreporting cost information to secure subsidies. Inspired by this, our study aims to explore the optimal decision-making problem of the three-level (government + enterprises + farmers) poverty alleviation supply chain under asymmetric cost information. Four-stage models are constructed to capture the interactions among these three players. Additionally, numerical examples are used to analyze the implications of key parameters, such as cost coefficient and punitive measures coefficient, on supply chain members' optimal decision and profit. Our findings demonstrate that both the enterprise and the farmer can obtain maximum profit from the misreporting behavior. Unfortunately, this behavior always damages the profit of other participants and weakens the efficiency of subsidy policy. Moreover, to mitigate the negative implication of misreporting behavior, the government can establish punitive measures to curtail misreporting. Our work provides important policy implications for governments and enterprises. To ensure that more consumers have access to poverty alleviation products, government organizations should prioritize such projects. In addition, the provision of public facilities and technical guidance should be more effective and prompt to share enterprises' and farmers' costs. We further recommend that subsidy policies be formulated according to recipients' performance in poverty alleviation projects, with corresponding supervision and punitive measures. Finally, in cooperating with farmers in poverty alleviation, enterprises should maximize their interests and reduce costs through technological innovation and channel sharing., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

After an earthquake, affected areas have insufficient medicinal supplies, thereby necessitating substantial distribution of first-aid medicine from other supply centers. To make a proper distribution schedule, we considered the timing of supply and demand. In the present study, a "sequential time window" is used to describe the time to generate of supply and demand and the time of supply delivery. Then, considering the sequential time window, we proposed two multiobjective scheduling models with the consideration of demand uncertainty; two multiobjective stochastic programming models were also proposed to solve the scheduling models. Moreover, this paper describes a simulation that was performed based on a first-aid medicine distribution problem during a Wenchuan earthquake response. The simulation results show that the methodologies proposed in this paper provide effective schedules for the distribution of first-aid medicine. The developed distribution schedule enables some supplies in the former time windows to be used in latter time windows. This schedule increases the utility of limited stocks and avoids the risk that all the supplies are used in the short-term, leaving no supplies for long-term use., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae infects both sheep and goats causing pneumonia resulting in considerable economic losses worldwide. Current diagnosis methods such as bacteriological culture, serology, and PCR are time consuming and require sophisticated laboratory setups. Here we report the development of two rapid, specific and sensitive assays; an isothermal DNA amplification using recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) and a real-time PCR for the detection of M. ovipneumoniae. The target for both assays is a specific region of gene WP&#95;069098309.1, which encodes a hypothetical protein and is conserved in the genome sequences of ten publicly available M. ovipneumoniae strains. The RPA assay performed well at 39°C for 20 min and was combined with a lateral flow dipstick (RPA-LFD) for easy visualization of the amplicons. The detection limit of the RPA-LFD assay was nine genome copies of M. ovipneumoniae per reaction and was comparable to sensitivity of the real-time PCR assay. Both assays showed no cross-reaction with 38 other ovine and caprine pathogenic microorganisms and two parasites of ruminants, demonstrating a high degree of specificity. The assays were validated using bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and nasal swab samples collected from sheep. The positive rate of RPA-LFD (97.4%) was higher than the real-time PCR (95.8%) with DNA as a template purified from the clinical samples. The RPA assay was significantly better at detecting M. ovipneumoniae in clinical samples compared to the real-time PCR when DNA extraction was omitted (50% and 34.4% positive rate for RPA-LFD and real-time PCR respectively). The RPA-LFD developed here allows easy and rapid detection of M. ovipneumoniae infection without DNA extraction, suggesting its potential as a point-of-care test for field settings., Competing Interests: All the authors employed by AgResearch Ltd or the University of Bern declare that no competing interests exist. All the authors declare that affiliation of the authors with AgResearch Ltd or the University of Bern does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

In this study, third-generation full-length (FL) transcriptome sequencing was performed of loquat using single-molecule real-time(SMRT) sequencing from the pooled cDNA of embryos of young loquat fruit under different low temperatures (three biological replicates for treatments of 1°C, -1°C, and -3°C, for 12 h or 24 h) and the control group(three biological replicates for treatments of room temperature), Illumina sequencing was used to correct FL transcriptome sequences. A total of 3 PacBio Iso-Seq libraries (1-2 kb, 2-3 kb and 3-6 kb) and 21 Illumina transcriptome libraries were constructed, a total of 13.41 Gb of clean reads were generated, which included 215,636 reads of insert (ROIs) and 121,654 FL, non-chimaric (FLNC) reads. Transcript clustering analysis of the FLNC reads revealed 76,586 consensus isoforms, and a total of 12,520 high-quality transcript sequences corrected with non-FL sequences were used for subsequent analysis. After the redundant reads were removed, 38,435 transcripts were obtained. A total of 27,905 coding DNA sequences (CDSs) were identified, and 407 long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) were ultimately predicted. Additionally, 24,832 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were identified, and a total of 1,295 alternative splicing (AS) events were predicted. Furthermore, 37,993 transcripts were annotated in eight functional databases. This is the first study to perform SMRT sequencing of the FL transcriptome of loquat. The obtained transcriptomic data are conducive for further exploration of the mechanism of loquat freezing injury and thus serve as an important theoretical basis for generating new loquat material and for identifying new ways to improve loquat cold resistance., Competing Interests: NO authors have competing interests.

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a serious global public health problem in the present. TB also affects other sites (extrapulmonary tuberculosis, EPTB), and accounts for a significant proportion of tuberculosis cases worldwide. In order to comprehensively understand epidemiology of EBTB in China, and improve early diagnosis and treatment, we conducted a large-scale multi-center observational study to assess the demographic data and the prevalence of common EPTB inpatients, and further evaluate the prevalence of EPTB concurrent with Pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) and the associations between multiple EPTB types and gender-age group in China. All consecutive age≥15yr inpatients with a confirmed diagnosis of EPTB during the period from January 2011 to December 2017 were included in the study. The descriptive statistical analysis included median and quartile measurements for continuous variables, and frequencies and proportions with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for categorical variables. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was used to compare the association of multiple EPTB types between age group and gender. The results showed that the proportion of 15-24 years and 25-34 years in EPTB inpatients were the most and the ratio of male: female was 1.51. Approximately 70% of EPTB inpatients were concurrent with PTB or other types of EPTB. The most common of EPTB was tuberculous pleurisy (50.15%), followed by bronchial tuberculosis (14.96%), tuberculous lymphadenitis of the neck (7.24%), tuberculous meningitis (7.23%), etc. It was found that many EPTB inpatients concurrent with PTB. The highest prevalence of EPTB concurrent with PTB was pharyngeal/laryngeal tuberculosis (91.31%), followed by bronchial tuberculosis (89.52%), tuberculosis of hilar lymph nodes (79.52%), tuberculosis of mediastinal lymph nodes (79.13%), intestinal tuberculosis (72.04%), tuberculous pleurisy (65.31%) and tuberculous meningitis (62.64%), etc. The results from EPTB concurrent with PTB suggested that females EPTB inpatients were less likely to be at higher risk of concurrent PTB (aOR = 0.819, 95%CI:0.803-0.835) after adjusted by age. As age increasing, the trend risk of concurrent PTB decreased (aOR = 0.994, 95%CI: 0.989-0.999) after adjusted by gender. Our study demonstrated that the common EPTB were tuberculous pleurisy, bronchial tuberculosis, tuberculous lymphadenitis of the neck, tuberculous meningitis, etc. A majority of patients with pharyngeal/laryngeal tuberculosis, bronchial tuberculosis, tuberculosis of hilar/mediastinal lymph nodes, intestinal tuberculosis, tuberculous pleurisy, tuberculous meningitis, etc. were concurrent with PTB. Female EPTB inpatients were less likely to be at higher risk of concurrent PTB, and as age increasing, the trend risk of concurrent PTB decreased. The clinicians should be alert to the presence of concurrent tuberculosis in EPTB, and all suspected cases of EPTB should be assessed for concomitant PTB to determine whether the case is infectious and to help for early diagnosis and treatment., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Background: The respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the main cause of bronchiolitis in infants and interferon (IFN) α is a commercial antiviral drug. The nebulization of IFN α1b could be a viable treatment method. In this study, the therapeutic effects and safety of IFN α1b delivery via nebulization in infant bronchiolitis were investigated in this multi-center prospective study., Methods and Findings: Bronchiolitis patients admitted to 22 hospitals who met the inclusion criteria were enrolled and randomly allocated to four groups: control, IFN Intramuscular Injection, IFN Nebulization 1 (1 μg/kg), and IFN Nebulization 2 (2 μg/kg) groups. All patients were observed for 7 days. The therapeutic effects and safety of different IFN delivery doses and delivery modes were evaluated. Coughing severity change, as scored by the researchers and parents, between days 1 and 3 was significantly different between the IFN Nebulization 2 and control groups. Lowell wheezing score change between days 3 and 5 was significantly different between IFN Nebulization 1 and control groups. There were no significant differences among the four groups regarding the number of consecutive days with fever, three-concave sign, fatigue and sleepiness, and loss of appetite. There were no cases of severe complications, no recurrence of fever, and no regression of mental status., Conclusions: IFN-α1b could more effectively alleviate coughing and wheezing in bronchiolitis. IFN-α1b nebulization had significant advantages in shortening the duration of wheezing and alleviating coughing., Competing Interests: LC was funded by the Support Program of Science & Technology Department of Sichuan Province (No. 2015SZ0152). HL was funded by the Support Program of Science & Technology Department of Sichuan Province (No. 2013SZ0040). The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Climate changes, including chronic changes in precipitation amounts, will influence plant physiology and growth. However, such precipitation effects on switchgrass, a major bioenergy crop, have not been well investigated. We conducted a two-year precipitation simulation experiment using large pots (95 L) in an environmentally controlled greenhouse in Nashville, TN. Five precipitation treatments (ambient precipitation, and -50%, -33%, +33%, and +50% of ambient) were applied in a randomized complete block design with lowland "Alamo" switchgrass plants one year after they were established from tillers. The growing season progression of leaf physiology, tiller number, height, and aboveground biomass were determined each growing season. Precipitation treatments significantly affected leaf physiology, growth, and aboveground biomass. The photosynthetic rates in the wet (+50% and +33%) treatments were significantly enhanced by 15.9% and 8.1%, respectively, than the ambient treatment. Both leaf biomass and plant height were largely increased, resulting in dramatically increases in aboveground biomass by 56.5% and 49.6% in the +50% and +33% treatments, respectively. Compared to the ambient treatment, the drought (-33% and -50%) treatments did not influence leaf physiology, but the -50% treatment significantly reduced leaf biomass by 37.8%, plant height by 16.3%, and aboveground biomass by 38.9%. This study demonstrated that while switchgrass in general is a drought tolerant grass, severe drought significantly reduces Alamo's growth and biomass, and that high precipitation stimulates its photosynthesis and growth.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a considerable health problem worldwide, and the prevalence of OA varies in different regions. In this study, the prevalence of OA in Kashin-Beck disease (KBD) and non-KBD endemic areas was examined, respectively. According to monitoring data, 4 types of regions (including none, mild, moderate and high KBD endemic areas) in Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces were selected. All local residents were eligible for inclusion criteria have undergone X-ray images of hands and anteroposterior image of knees. A total of 1673 cases were collected, 1446 cases were analyzed after removing the KBD patients (227). The overall hand OA and knee OA detection rates were 33.3% (481/1446) and 56.6% (818/1446), respectively. After being standardized by age, the detection rate of hand OA in the KBD endemic areas was significantly higher than that in the non-endemic endemic areas. Differently, there was no significant difference in the detection rates of knee OA between the KBD endemic areas and the non-endemic area. The correlation coefficient between the severity of OA and the severity of knee OA was 0.358 and 0.197 in the KBD and non-KBD endemic areas, respectively. Where the KBD historical prevalence level was higher, the severity of the residents' hand OA was more serious. The detection rates of hand OA and knee OA increased with age. The detection rate of knee OA increased with the increase in body mass index. The prevalence of hand OA was closely related to the pathogenic factors of Kashin-Beck disease, and the prevalence of knee OA had no significant correlation with KBD pathogenic factors.

The current study assesses the factor structure and construct validity of the self-reported Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU) in 637 Chinese community adults (mean age = 25.98, SD = 5.79). A series of theoretical models proposed in previous studies were tested through confirmatory factor analyses. Results indicated that a shortened form that consists of 11 items (ICU-11) to assess callousness and uncaring factors has excellent overall fit. Additionally, correlations with a wide range of external variables demonstrated that this shortened form has similar construct validity compared to the original ICU. In conclusion, our findings suggest that the ICU-11 may be a promising self-report tool that could be a good substitute for the original form to assess callous-uncaring traits in adults.

Craniofacial registration is used to establish the point-to-point correspondence in a unified coordinate system among human craniofacial models. It is the foundation of craniofacial reconstruction and other craniofacial statistical analysis research. In this paper, a non-rigid 3D craniofacial registration method using thin-plate spline transform and cylindrical surface projection is proposed. First, the gradient descent optimization is utilized to improve a cylindrical surface fitting (CSF) for the reference craniofacial model. Second, the thin-plate spline transform (TPST) is applied to deform a target craniofacial model to the reference model. Finally, the cylindrical surface projection (CSP) is used to derive the point correspondence between the reference and deformed target models. To accelerate the procedure, the iterative closest point ICP algorithm is used to obtain a rough correspondence, which can provide a possible intersection area of the CSP. Finally, the inverse TPST is used to map the obtained corresponding points from the deformed target craniofacial model to the original model, and it can be realized directly by the correspondence between the original target model and the deformed target model. Three types of registration, namely, reflexive, involutive and transitive registration, are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed craniofacial registration algorithm. Comparison with the methods in the literature shows that the proposed method is more accurate.

We sought to assess light characteristics and user acceptability of a prototype Bright Classroom (BC), designed to prevent children's myopia by exposing them to light conditions resembling the outdoors. Conditions were measured throughout the school year in the glass-constructed BC, a traditional classroom (TC) and outdoors. Teachers and children completed user questionnaires, and children rated reading comfort at different light intensities. A total of 230 children (mean age 10.2 years, 57.4% boys) and 13 teachers (36.8 years, 15.4% men) completed questionnaires. The median (Inter Quartile Range) light intensity in the BC (2,540 [1,330-4,060] lux) was greater than the TC (477 [245-738] lux, P < 0.001), though less than outdoors (19,500 [8,960-36,000] lux, P < 0.001). A prominent spectral peak at 490-560 nm was present in the BC and outdoors, but less so in the TC. Teachers and children gave higher overall ratings to the BC than TC, and light intensity in the BC in summer and on sunny days (>5,000 lux) was at the upper limit of children's comfort for reading. In summary, light intensity in the BC exceeds TC, and is at the practical upper limit for routine use. Children and teachers prefer the BC.

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most prevalent cancer type and the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, it is urgently needed to discover a new marker for the progress of CRC. Many long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been reported to be abnormally expressed in CRC, and may be feasible as effective biomarkers and prognostic factors. The aim of this study was to identify the prognostic value of various lncRNAs in CRC., Methods: Pubmed, Web of Science, Embase and Cochrane Library were searched for potentially related studies. A total of 34 eligible studies including 30 on overall survival (OS), 7 on disease-free survival (DFS), 1 on relapse-free survival (RFS), 2 on disease-specific survival (DSS) and 29 on clinicopathological features were qualified from the databases., Results: The results showed that the expression levels of lncRNAs were significantly associated with poor OS (hazard ratio (HR) = 2.08, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.68-2.57, P<0.001, I2 = 70%), DFS (HR = 1.79, 95% CI = 1.54-2.08, P<0.001, I2 = 6%) and DSS (HR = 0.11, 95% CI = 0.02-0.54, P = 0.007, I2 = 14%). Subgroup analysis further showed that lncRNA transcription level was significantly associated with tumor differentiation (odds ratio (OR) = 0.51, 95% CI = 0.34-0.77, P = 0.001), lymph node metastasis (OR = 1.63, 95% CI = 1.23-2.17, P = 0.0007), distant metastasis (OR = 2.06, 95% CI = 1.29-3.30, P = 0.002), TNM stage (OR = 0.44, 95% CI = 0.32-0.62, P<0.001), tumor invasion depth (OR = 0.48, 95% CI = 0.39-0.60, P<0.001)., Conclusions: The meta-analysis demonstrated that abnormal lncRNA transcription level may serve as a promising indicator for prognostic of patients with CRC.

The computer-aided craniofacial reconstruction (CFR) technique has been widely used in the fields of criminal investigation, archaeology, anthropology and cosmetic surgery. The evaluation of craniofacial reconstruction results is important for improving the effect of craniofacial reconstruction. Here, we used the sparse principal component analysis (SPCA) method to evaluate the similarity between two sets of craniofacial data. Compared with principal component analysis (PCA), SPCA can effectively reduce the dimensionality and simultaneously produce sparse principal components with sparse loadings, thus making it easy to explain the results. The experimental results indicated that the evaluation results of PCA and SPCA are consistent to a large extent. To compare the inconsistent results, we performed a subjective test, which indicated that the result of SPCA is superior to that of PCA. Most importantly, SPCA can not only compare the similarity of two craniofacial datasets but also locate regions of high similarity, which is important for improving the craniofacial reconstruction effect. In addition, the areas or features that are important for craniofacial similarity measurements can be determined from a large amount of data. We conclude that the craniofacial contour is the most important factor in craniofacial similarity evaluation. This conclusion is consistent with the conclusions of psychological experiments on face recognition and our subjective test. The results may provide important guidance for three- or two-dimensional face similarity evaluation, analysis and face recognition.

Introduction: To identify key intervention factors and reduce road traffic injury (RTI)-associated mortality, this study compared outcomes and influencing factors of single and multiple road traffic injuries (RTIs) in Shanghai., Methods: Based on the design of National Trauma Data Bank, this study collected demographic, injury, and outcome data from RTI patients treated at the four largest trauma centers in Shanghai from January 2011 to January 2015. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, univariate analysis, and hierarchical logistic regression analysis., Results: Among 2397 participants, 59.4% had a single injury, and 40.6% had multiple injuries. Most patients' outcome was cure or improvement. For single-RTI patients, length of stay, body region, central nervous system injury, acute renal failure, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, bacterial infection, and coma were significantly related to outcome. For multiple-RTI patients, age, admission pathway, prehospital time, length of stay, number of body regions, body region, injury condition, injury severity score, and coma were significantly related to outcome., Conclusions: Emergency rescue in road traffic accidents should focus on high-risk groups (the elderly), high-incidence body regions (head, thorax, pelvis) and number of injuries, injury condition (central nervous system injury, coma, complications, admission pathway), injury severity (critically injured patients), and time factors (particularly prehospital time).

Object: To compare the clinical efficacy of titanium mesh cages and autogenous iliac bone graft to restore vertebral height through posterior approach in patients with thoracic and lumbar spinal tuberculosis., Method: 59 patients with spinal tuberculosis underwent interbody fusion and internal fixation through posterior approach in our department from January 2011 to December 2013. In group A, 34 patients obtained titanium mesh for the reconstruction of vertebral height, among them 25 patients (group A1) suffered from single-segment spinal tuberculosis, and 9 patients, (group A2) had multi-segment spinal tuberculosis. In group B, 25 patients got autogenous iliac bone graft to restore vertebral height, including 24 patients with single-segment spinal tuberculosis (group B1), and 1 patient with multi-segment spinal tuberculosis (group B2). The clinical efficacy was evaluated based on average operation time, blood loss, hospital stays, hospitalization expenses, visual analog scale (VAS), Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-Reactive protein (CRP), neurological function recovery, bony fusion, intervertebral height, Cobb angle and postoperative complications., Results: Final follow-up time was an average of 35.5 months ranging from 15 to 56 months. All patients were completely cured and obtained solid bone fusion. The bony fusion time was 9.4±6.1 months in group A1, 10.2±2.7 months in group A2 and 8.7±3.6 months in group B1. There were no significant difference among three groups (P>0.05). The Cobb correction and restoration of intervertebral height significantly improved compared with those in preoperation, but without significant difference among three groups (P>0.05). The loss of angular correction and intervertebral height in group A1 were found to be less than those in group B1 (P<0.05), but with no significant difference between group A1 and group A2, and between group A2 and group B1 (P>0.05). Patients in group B1 got the most loss of angular correction and intervertebral height. In addition, neurological function was revealed to be significantly improved after surgery. There were significant differences of VAS, ODI, ESR and CRP between preoperation and postoperation at the final follow-up time (P<0.05), with no significant difference among three groups (P>0.05). No statistically significant difference was found when analyzing blood loss, hospital stays, hospitalization expenses, and corrective cost among three groups (P>0.05). Complications included cerebrospinal fluid leakage (2 cases in group A1 and group A2), sinus formation (3 cases in group A1, group A2 and group B1), and intervertebral infection (1 case in group B1), but no implant failure or donor site complications was found in any patient., Conclusions: Titanium mesh cages could obtain good clinical efficacy comparable to autogenous iliac bone graft when treating single-segment spinal tuberculosis, and may be better than autogenous iliac bone graft for treating multi-segment spinal tuberculosis.

Background: Accumulating evidence has demonstrated that cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is involved in head and neck cancers, especially in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). However, the association between COX-2 expression and lymph node metastasis in NPC remains uncertain. This systematic review and meta-analysis meta-analysis investigated the relationship between COX-2 expression and lymph node metastasis and other signs of disease progression in NPC., Methods: Previously published studies assessing COX-2 expression and lymph node metastasis in NPC were identified in four English databases and three Chinese ones (Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang, Vip Journal Integration Platform) up to November 2016. Quality of all eligible studies was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale (NOS). Pooled odds ratios (OR) and their 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) were calculated with fixed-effects or random-effects model to evaluate the effects of COX-2 expression on lymph node metastasis., Results: A total of 27 studies with 1797 NPC patients met the inclusion criteria. The expression of COX-2 was significantly higher in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma than those without the carcinoma, with a combined OR of 21.17 (95%CI = 15.02-29.85, I2 = 35.1%, Pheterogeneity = 0.070). A statistically significant association between COX-2 expression and lymph node metastasis in NPC patients, with an OR of 4.44 (95%CI = 3.46-5.70, I2 = 38.3%, Pheterogeneity = 0.024), and with other indicators of disease progression. Subgroup analyses based on COX-2 assay and staging criteria of TNM showed no significant heterogeneity., Conclusions: The results suggest that expression of COX-2 is associated with lymph node metastasis and disease progression in NPC, indicating a potential role in evaluation of prognosis and in treatment decisions. COX-2 inhibitors have potential in the treatment of NPC that should be further investigated.

Disintegration in thalamocortical integration suggests its role in the mechanistic 'switch' from recreational to dysregulated drug seeking/addiction. In this study, we aimed to address whether thalamic nuclear groups show altered functional connectivity within the cerebral cortex in chronic ketamine users. One hundred and thirty subjects (41 ketamine users and 89 control subjects) underwent rsfMRI (resting-state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging). Based on partial correlation functional connectivity analysis we partitioned the thalamus into six nuclear groups that correspond well with human histology. Then, in the area of each nuclear group, the functional connectivity differences between the chronic ketamine user group and normal control group were investigated. We found that the ketamine user group showed significantly less connectivity between the thalamic nuclear groups and the cortical regions-of-interest, including the prefrontal cortex, the motor cortex /supplementary motor area, and the posterior parietal cortex. However, no increased thalamic connectivity was observed for these regions as compared with controls. This study provides the first evidence of abnormal thalamocortical connectivity of resting state brain activity in chronic ketamine users. Further understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms of the thalamus in addiction (ketamine addiction) may facilitate the evaluation of much-needed novel pharmacological agents for improved therapy of this complex disease., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Objectives: To identify differential protein expression pattern associated with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)., Methods: Twenty women were recruited for the study, ten with PCOS as a test group and ten without PCOS as a control group. Differential in-gel electrophoresis (DIGE) analysis and mass spectroscopy were employed to identify proteins that were differentially expressed between the PCOS and normal ovaries. The differentially expressed proteins were further validated by western blot (WB) and immunohistochemistry (IHC)., Results: DIGE analysis revealed eighteen differentially expressed proteins in the PCOS ovaries of which thirteen were upregulated, and five downregulated. WB and IHC confirmed the differential expression of membrane-associated progesterone receptor component 1 (PGRMC1), retinol-binding protein 1 (RBP1), heat shock protein 90B1, calmodulin 1, annexin A6, and tropomyosin 2. Also, WB analysis revealed significantly (P<0.05) higher expression of PGRMC1 and RBP1 in PCOS ovaries as compared to the normal ovaries. The differential expression of the proteins was also validated by IHC., Conclusions: The present study identified novel differentially expressed proteins in the ovarian tissues of women with PCOS that can serve as potential biomarkers for the diagnosis and development of novel therapeutics for the treatment of PCOS using molecular interventions., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Purpose: The main goal of this study was to compare the quality of life (QOL) and its association with physical activity (PA) among patients diagnosed with different types of cancer. Based on the results, we tentatively present suggestions for the cancer health care model., Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 2915 cancer survivors recruited from multi-community cancer rehabilitation centers, all of which were affiliated with the Shanghai Cancer Rehabilitation Club. We collected data including socio-demographic characteristics and information about PA. All the subjects included were asked to complete the European Organization for Research and Treatment Quality of Life Questionnaires (EORTC QLQ-C30) and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General Questionnaire (FACT-G). Multiple linear regression models were employed to control the potential confounding factors., Results: Lung cancer survivors reported the worst dyspnea. Colorectal cancer survivors claimed the highest level of constipation and diarrhea. Liver cancer survivors indicated greatest loss of appetite and financial difficulties. Generally, survivors with PA tended to reported better QOL, although these associations among liver cancer survivors were not statistically significant. Moreover, survivors of all cancer types who performed PA did not report significant lower level of constipation or diarrhea. The relationship between PA frequency and QOL among cancer survivors remained unexplored., Conclusions: Both QOL and its association with PA vary among survivors of different cancer types. The detailed results can assist clinicians and public health practitioners with improving health care management., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) is a globally important crop belonging to the family Cucurbitaceae. The grafting technique is commonly used to improve its tolerance to stress, as well as to enhance its nutrient uptake and utilization. It is believed that miRNA is most likely involved in its nutrient-starvation response as a graft-transportable signal. The quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction is the preferred method for miRNA functional analysis, in which reliable reference genes for normalization are crucial to ensure the accuracy. The purpose of this study was to select appropriate reference genes in scion (watermelon) and rootstocks (squash and bottle gourd) of grafted watermelon plants under normal growth conditions and nutrient stresses (nitrogen and phosphorus starvation). Under nutrient starvation, geNorm identified miR167c and miR167f as two most stable genes in both watermelon leaves and squash roots. miR166b was recommended by both geNorm and NormFinder as the best reference in bottle gourd roots under nutrient limitation. Expression of a new Cucurbitaceae miRNA, miR85, was used to validate the reliability of candidate reference genes under nutrient starvation. Moreover, by comparing several target genes expression in qRT-PCR analysis with those in RNA-seq data, miR166b and miR167c were proved to be the most suitable reference genes to normalize miRNA expression under normal growth condition in scion and rootstock tissues, respectively. This study represents the first comprehensive survey of the stability of miRNA reference genes in Cucurbitaceae and provides valuable information for investigating more accurate miRNA expression involving grafted watermelon plants., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Phage display was used to identify peptide mimics of an immunologically protective nematode glycan (CarLA) by screening a constrained C7C peptide library for ligands that bound to an anti-CarLA mAb (PAB1). Characterisation of these peptide mimotopes revealed functional similarities with an epitope that is defined by PAB1. Mimotope vaccinations of mice with three selected individual phage clones facilitated the induction of antibody responses that recognised the purified, native CarLA molecule which was obtained from Trichostrongylus colubriformis. Furthermore, these mimotopes are specifically recognised by antibodies in the saliva of animals that were immune to natural polygeneric nematode challenge. This shows that antibodies to the PAB1 epitope form part of the mucosal polyclonal anti-CarLA antibody response of nematode immune host animals. This demonstrates that the selected peptide mimotopes are of biological relevance. These peptides are the first to mimic the PAB1 epitope of CarLA, a defined larval glycan epitope which is conserved between many nematode species., Competing Interests: The authors wish to declare no competing interests. This study was funded by the New Zealand Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Objective: We aimed to investigate the associations between diabetes and quality of life (QOL) among breast cancer survivors., Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted at 34 Cancer Recovery Clubs across China from May 2014 to January 2015. Quality of life was measured by the Quality of Life Questionnaire-Core 30 (EORTC QLQ-C30) and the Quality of Life Questionnaire-Breast Cancer Module 23 (QLQ-BR23, simplified Chinese version). Information on social-demography, diagnosis and treatment of tumors, and diabetes mellitus were collected by self-reported questionnaires. Univariate analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) was performed to assess the difference in QOL between patients with or without diabetes mellitus, and multiple linear regression models were used to examine the associations after controlling for confounders., Results: Diabetes, both of type 1 diabetes (T1DM) and type 2 diabetes (T2DM) significantly reduced QOL. This effect of diabetes on QOL is independent of tumor size, regional lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis and tumor stage index (TNM). After adjusting for different social-demography, diagnosis and treatment of the tumor, the tumor's stage and other chronic comorbidities, breast cancer survivors with diabetes got significantly lower scores in functional dimensions (including physical, role, emotional and social functionings measured by EORTC QLQ-C30; body image (BRBI) and future perspective (BRFU) measured by QLQ-BR23, as well as economic difficulties than those without diabetes (Padjusted<0.05). Diabetic patients also obtained higher scores in symptom dimensions, including fatigue, nausea and vomiting, pain, dyspnoea, insomnia, constipation and diarrhoea measured by EORTC QLQ-C30; side effects, breast symptoms and upset by hair loss measured by QLQ-BR23 (Padjusted<0.05). Compared to patients with T1DM, those with T2DM are likely to suffer more by loss of functioning., Conclusions: Diabetes was associated with the decreased QOL for breast cancer survivors.

Objective: Thoracic radiotherapy (TRT) is a critical component of the treatment of limited-stage small cell lung cancer (LS-SCLC). However, the optimal radiation dose/fractionation remains elusive. This study reviewed current evidence and explored the dose-response relationship in patients with LS-SCLC who were treated with radiochemotherapy., Materials and Methods: A quantitative analysis was performed through a systematic search of PubMed, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library. The correlations between the biological effective dose (BED) and median overall survival (mOS), median progression-free survival (mPFS), 1-, 3-, and 5-year overall survival (OS) as well as local relapse (LR) were evaluated., Results: In all, 2389 patients in 19 trials were included in this study. Among these 19 trials, seven were conducted in Europe, eight were conducted in Asia and four were conducted in the United States. The 19 trials that were included consisted of 29 arms with 24 concurrent and 5 sequential TRT arms. For all included studies, the results showed that a higher BED prolonged the mOS (R2 = 0.198, p<0.001) and the mPFS (R2 = 0.045, p<0.001). The results also showed that increased BED improved the 1-, 3-, and 5-year OS. A 10-Gy increment added a 6.3%, a 5.1% and a 3.7% benefit for the 1-, 3-, and 5-year OS, respectively. Additionally, BED was negatively correlated with LR (R2 = 0.09, p<0.001). A subgroup analysis of concurrent TRT showed that a high BED prolonged the mOS (p<0.001) and the mPFS (p<0.001), improved the 1-, 3-, and 5-year OS (p<0.001) and decreased the rate of LR (p<0.001)., Conclusion: This study showed that an increased BED was associated with improved OS, PFS and decreased LR in patients with LS-SCLC who were treated with combined chemoradiotherapy, which indicates that the strategy of radiation dose escalation over a limited time frame is worth exploring in a prospective clinical trial.

Objective: To evaluate the accuracy of the McMonnies questionnaire (MQ) as a screening tool for dry eye (DE) among Chinese ophthalmic outpatients., Methods: We recruited 27718 cases from 94 hospitals (research centers), randomly selected from 45 cities in 23 provinces from July to November in 2013. Only symptomatic outpatients were included and they were in a high risk of DE. Outpatients meeting the criteria filled out questionnaires and then underwent clinical examinations by qualified medical practitioners. We mainly evaluated sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), and area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC) to evaluate the accuracy of the questionnaire in the diagnosis of dry eye., Results: Of all the subjects included in the study, sensitivity, specificity, and DOR were 0.77, 0.86 and 20.6, respectively. AUC was 0.865 with a 95% CI (0.861, 0.869). The prevalence of DE among the outpatients claiming "constantly" as the frequency of symptom was over 90%. Scratchiness was a more accurate diagnostic indication than dryness, soreness, grittiness or burning. Different cut points of McMonnies Index (MI) scores can be utilized to optimize the screening results., Conclusions: MQ can be an effective screening tool for dry eye. We can take full advantage of MI score during the screening process.

Purpose: To explore the possibility that inhibiting triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-1 (TREM-1) and Dendritic cell-associated C-type lectin-1(Dectin-1) could modulate the innate immune response and alleviate the severity of corneal fungal keratitis., Method: TREM-1 and Dectin-1 expression was detected in fungus-infected human corneal specimens by real-time PCR. C57BL/6 (B6) mice were injected with Aspergillus fumigatus and divided into 4 groups that received subconjunctival injections of PBS and IgG as a control (group I), mTREM-1/IgG fusion protein (group II), the soluble β-glucan antagonist laminarin (group III), or mTREM-1/Fc and laminarin (group IV). Corneal virulence was evaluated based on clinical scores. TREM-1 and Dectin-1 mRNA levels were assayed using real-time PCR. The distribution patterns of TREM-1, Dectin-1 and cellular infiltrates in fungus-infected corneas were examined by immunohistochemistry. Moreover, changes in T Helper Type1 (Th1)-/ T Helper Type1 (Th2)- type cytokines and proinflammatory cytokines were measured., Results: The expression of TREM-1 and Dectin-1 increased significantly and correlated positively with the progression of fungal keratitis. Most infiltrated cells were neutrophils and secondarily macrophages in infected cornea. The clinical scores decreased after interfering with TREM-1 and Dectin-1 expression in infected mouse corneas. Levels of Th1-type cytokines including interleukin-12 (IL-12), IL-18 and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) were decreased in the cornea, while the levels of Th2-type cytokines, including IL-4, IL-5 and IL-10, showed obvious increases., Conclusion: TREM-1 and Dectin-1 function concurrently in the corneal innate immune response by regulating inflammatory cytokine expression in fungal keratitis. Inhibition of TREM-1 and Dectin-1 can alleviate the severity of corneal damage by downregulating the excessive inflammatory response.

The novel human papillomavirus type 199 (HPV199) was initially identified in a nasopharyngeal swab sample obtained from a 25 year-old immunocompetent male. The complete genome of HPV199 is 7,184 bp in length with a GC content of 36.5%. Comparative genomic characterization of HPV199 and its closest relatives showed the classical genomic organization of Gammapapillomaviruses (Gamma-PVs). HPV199 has seven major open reading frames (ORFs), encoding five early (E1, E2, E4, E6, and E7) and two late (L1 and L2) proteins, while lacking the E5 ORF. The long control region (LCR) of 513 bp is located between the L1 and E6 ORFs. Phylogenetic analysis additionally confirmed that HPV-199 clusters into the Gamma-PV genus, species Gamma-12, additionally containing HPV127, HV132, HPV148, HPV165, and three putative HPV types: KC5, CG2 and CG3. HPV199 is most closely related to HPV127 (nucleotide identity 77%). The complete viral genome sequence of additional HPV199 isolate was determined from anal canal swab sample. Two HPV199 complete viral sequences exhibit 99.4% nucleotide identity. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first member of Gamma-PV with complete nucleotide sequences determined from two independent clinical samples. To evaluate the tissue tropism of the novel HPV type, 916 clinical samples were tested using HPV199 type-specific real-time PCR: HPV199 was detected in 2/76 tissue samples of histologically confirmed common warts, 2/108 samples of eyebrow hair follicles, 2/137 anal canal swabs obtained from individuals with clinically evident anal pathology, 4/184 nasopharyngeal swabs and 3/411 cervical swabs obtained from women with normal cervical cytology. Although HPV199 was found in 1.4% of cutaneous and mucosal samples only, it exhibits dual tissue tropism. According to the results of our study and literature data, dual tropism of all Gamma-12 members is highly possible.

Background: Previous studies conducted in Western countries independently demonstrated that loneliness and rumination are remarkable risk factors of depression among the elderly in both community and nursing homes. However, knowledge on the relationship between these three constructs among the elderly in Eastern countries is scarce. The current study aims to determine the relationship between loneliness, rumination, and depression among Chinese elderly in nursing homes., Methods: A total of 71 elderly participants with an average age of 82.49 years completed this six-month longitudinal study. Physical reports indicated that none of the participants were clinically depressed before the study. At Time 1, their loneliness and rumination were measured using UCLA-8 Loneliness Scale and Ruminative Responses Scale. Six months later, the participants completed the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale to assess depressive symptoms (Time 2)., Results: Multiple regression analysis revealed that both loneliness and rumination at Time 1 were the predictors of depression symptoms at Time 2 among the Chinese elderly in nursing homes. However, in the mediation analysis using PROCESS, the indirect effect between loneliness at Time 1 and depression symptoms at Time 2 was insignificant., Conclusions: Results suggest that previous loneliness and rumination thinking are predictors of future depression symptoms among the Chinese elderly in nursing homes. However, the insignificant mediation further suggests that the differences between loneliness and rumination should be explored in future studies. Findings have important implications for mental health professionals in nursing homes in China.

Objective: To study the main molecular mechanisms responsible for itraconazole resistance in clinical isolates of Candida krusei., Methods: The 14α-demethylases encoded by ERG11 gene in the 16 C.krusei clinical isolates were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and their nucleotide sequences were determined to detect point mutations. Meanwhile, ERG11 and efflux transporters (ABC1 and ABC2) genes were determined by quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) for their expression in itraconazole-resistant (R), itraconazole-susceptible dose dependent (SDD) and itraconazole-susceptible (S) C.krusei at the mRNA level., Results: We found 7-point mutations in ERG11 gene of all the C.krusei clinical isolates, including 6 synonymous mutations and 1 missense mutation (C44T). However, the missense mutation was found in the three groups. The mRNA levels of ERG11 gene in itraconazole-resistant isolates showed higher expression compared with itraconazole-susceptible dose dependent and itraconazole-susceptible ones (P = 0.015 and P = 0.002 respectively). ABC2 gene mRNA levels in itraconazole-resistant group was significantly higher than the other two groups, and the levels of their expression in the isolates appeared to increase with the decrease of susceptibility to itraconazole (P = 0.007 in SDD compared with S, P = 0.016 in SDD with R, and P<0.001 in S with R respectively). While ABC1 gene presented lower expression in itraconazole resistant strains. However, the mRNA levels of ERG11, ABC1 and ABC2 in a C.krusei (CK10) resistant to both itraconazole and voriconazole were expressed highest in all the itraconazole-resistant isolates., Conclusions: There are ERG11 gene polymorphisms in clinical isolates of C.krusei. ERG11 gene mutations may not be involved in the development of itraconazole resistance in C.krusei. ERG11 and ABC2 overexpression might be responsible for the acquired itraconazole resistance of these clinical isolates.

In the last 20 years or so, chemists and molecular biologists have synthesized some novel DNA polyhedra. Polyhedral links were introduced to model DNA polyhedra and study topological properties of DNA polyhedra. As a very powerful invariant of oriented links, the Homfly polynomial of some of such polyhedral links with small number of crossings has been obtained. However, it is a challenge to compute Homfly polynomials of polyhedral links with large number of crossings such as double crossover 3-regular links considered here. In this paper, a general method is given for computing the chain polynomial of the truncated cubic graph with two different labels from the chain polynomial of the original labeled cubic graph by substitutions. As a result, we can obtain the Homfly polynomial of the double crossover 3-regular link which has relatively large number of crossings.

Background: A three-year field experiment was conducted to examine the responses of corn yield and soil nitrous oxide (N2O) emission to various management practices in middle Tennessee., Methodology/principal Findings: The management practices include no-tillage + regular applications of urea ammonium nitrate (NT-URAN); no-tillage + regular applications of URAN + denitrification inhibitor (NT-inhibitor); no-tillage + regular applications of URAN + biochar (NT-biochar); no-tillage + 20% applications of URAN + chicken litter (NT-litter), no-tillage + split applications of URAN (NT-split); and conventional tillage + regular applications of URAN as a control (CT-URAN). Fertilizer equivalent to 217 kg N ha(-1) was applied to each of the experimental plots. Results showed that no-tillage (NT-URAN) significantly increased corn yield by 28% over the conventional tillage (CT-URAN) due to soil water conservation. The management practices significantly altered soil N2O emission, with the highest in the CT-URAN (0.48 mg N2O m(-2) h(-1)) and the lowest in the NT-inhibitor (0.20 mg N2O m(-2) h(-1)) and NT-biochar (0.16 mg N2O m(-2) h(-1)) treatments. Significant exponential relationships between soil N2O emission and water filled pore space were revealed in all treatments. However, variations in soil N2O emission among the treatments were positively correlated with the moisture sensitivity of soil N2O emission that likely reflects an interactive effect between soil properties and WFPS., Conclusion/significance: Our results indicated that improved fertilizer and soil management have the potential to maintain highly productive corn yield while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The objective of this investigation was to evaluate whether intravaginal infusion of a lactic acid bacteria (LAB) cocktail around parturition could influence the immune response, incidence rate of uterine infections, and the overall health status of periparturient dairy cows. One hundred pregnant Holstein dairy cows were assigned to 1 of the 3 experimental groups as follows: 1) one dose of LAB on wk -2 and -1, and one dose of carrier (sterile skim milk) on wk +1 relative to the expected day of parturition (TRT1); 2) one dose of LAB on wk -2, -1, and +1 (TRT2), and 3) one dose of carrier on wk -2, -1, and +1 (CTR). The LAB were a lyophilized culture mixture composed of Lactobacillus sakei FUA3089, Pediococcus acidilactici FUA3138, and Pediococcus acidilactici FUA3140 with a cell count of 108-109 cfu/dose. Blood samples and vaginal mucus were collected once a week from wk -2 to +3 and analyzed for content of serum total immunoglobulin G (IgG), lipopolysaccharide-binding protein (LBP), serum amyloid A (SAA), haptoglobin (Hp), tumor necrosis factor (TNF), interleukin (IL)-1, IL-6, and vaginal mucus secretory IgA (sIgA). Clinical observations including rectal temperature, vaginal discharges, retained placenta, displaced abomasum, and laminitis were monitored from wk -2 to +8 relative to calving. Results showed that intravaginal LAB lowered the incidence of metritis and total uterine infections. Intravaginal LAB also were associated with lower concentrations of systemic LBP, an overall tendency for lower SAA, and greater vaginal mucus sIgA. No differences were observed for serum concentrations of Hp, TNF, IL-1, IL-6 and total IgG among the treatment groups. Administration with LAB had no effect on the incidence rates of other transition cow diseases. Overall intravaginal LAB lowered uterine infections and improved local and systemic immune responses in the treated transition dairy cows.

Long non-coding RNA has been involved in cancer progression, and high HOX transcript antisense intergenic RNA (HOTAIR) is thought to be a poor prognostic indicator in tumorigenesis of multiple types of cancer. Hence, the present study further reveals its prognostic value in tumor malignancy. A systematic review of PubMed and Web of Science was carried out to select literatures relevant to the correlation between HOTAIR expression levels and clinical outcome of various tumors. Overall survival (OS), metastasis-free survival (MFS), recurrence-free survival (RFS), and disease-free survival (DFS) were subsequently analyzed. Data from studies directly reporting a hazard ratio (HR) and the corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) or a P value as well as survival curves were pooled in the current meta-analysis. A total of 2255 patients from 19 literatures almost published in 2011 or later were included in the analysis. The results suggest that HOTAIR was highly associated with HR for OS of 2.33 (95%CI = 1.77-3.09, Pheterogeneity = 0.016). Stratified analyses indicate that elevated levels of HOTAIR appears to be a powerful prognostic biomarker for patients with colorectal cancer (HR = 3.02, 95CI% = 1.84-4.95, Pheterogeneity = 0.699) and esophageal squamous cell carcinomas (HR = 2.24, 95CI% = 1.67-3.01, Pheterogeneity = 0.711), a similar effect was also observed in analysis method and specimen, except for ethnicity. In addition, Hazard ratios for up-regulation of HOTAIR for MFS, RFS, and DFS were 2.32 (P<0.001), 1.98 (P = 0.369), and 3.29 (P = 0.001), respectively. In summary, the high level of HOTAIR is intimately associated with an adverse OS in numerous cancers, suggesting that HOTAIR may act as a potential biomarker for the development of malignancies.

Background: Despite the probably causal link between Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) infection and Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC), a rare but aggressive skin malignancy, little is known about the seroepidemiology of MCPyV among healthy adults in China., Methods: Serum antibodies against MCPyV were evaluated by multiplex serology in a population-based study of 5548 adults (including 1587 heterosexual couples) aged 25-65 years who were enrolled from rural Anyang, China in 2007-2009. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the risk factors for the seropositivity of MCPyV., Results: The seroprevalence for MCPyV was 61.0%. MCPyV seropositivity was significantly higher in males than in females (64.5% vs. 57.7%, P<0.001), and for both genders, showed a trend of increase with age (Male: Ptrend<0.001; Female: P(trend)<0.001). Furthermore, among antibody positives, antibody levels of MCPyV increased with advancing age (P(trend )=0.017). MCPyV seropositivity of one spouse was significantly associated with that of the other partner (Adjusted OR=1.32, 95% CI: 1.07-1.62). However, there was no association between sexual behaviors and the seropositivity of MCPyV., Conclusions: High seroprevalence of MCPyV was observed in healthy Chinese individuals. Serological evidence suggests that nonsexual horizontal spread of MCPyV can occur among family members, and further research in this regard is needed.

Background: Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play widespread roles in gene regulation and cellular processes. However, the functional roles of lncRNAs in colorectal cancer (CRC) are not yet well elucidated. The aim of the present study was to measure the levels of lncRNA 91H expression in CRC and evaluate its clinical significance and biological roles in the development and progression of CRC., Methods: 91H expression and copy number variation (CNV) were measured in 72 CRC tumor tissues and adjacent normal tissues by real-time PCR. The biological roles of 91H were evaluated by MTT, scratch wound assay, migration and invasion assays, and flow cytometry., Results: 91H was significantly overexpressed in cancerous tissue and CRC cell lines compared with adjacent normal tissue and a normal human intestinal epithelial cell line. Moreover, 91H overexpression was closely associated with distant metastasis and poor prognosis in patients with CRC, except for CNV of 91H. Multivariate analysis indicated that 91H expression was an independent prognostic indicator, as well as distant metastasis. Our in vitro data indicated that knockdown of 91H inhibited the proliferation, migration, and invasiveness of CRC cells., Conclusions: 91H played an important role in the molecular etiology of CRC and might be regarded as a novel prognosis indicator in patients with CRC.

Background: LIM and SH3 protein 1 (LASP-1) is a specific focal adhesion protein that is known to be involved in numerous biological and pathological processes. LASP-1 overexpression has been described in several types of cancers, but its expression and role in clear cell renal cell cancer (ccRCC) remains unknown., Methods: Using immunohistochemistry, we analyzed LASP-1 protein expression in 216 clinicopathologically characterized ccRCC cases. We also examined LASP-1 expression in 20 paired ccRCC tissues and in 2 cell lines by real-time PCR and Western blot. Using RNA interference, we investigated the effects of LASP-1 depletion on tumor cell behavior in vitro. Statistical analyses were used to determine the associations between LASP-1 levels, tumor features and patient outcomes., Results: LASP-1 overexpression was observed in ccRCC tissues (P<0.0001) compared to adjuvant nontumorous tissues, and its expression levels were closely correlated with overall survival and recurrence-free survival (P = 0.044 and 0.006, respectively) in patients with ccRCC. RNA interference-mediated silencing of the LASP-1 gene in 786-0 ccRCC cells significantly inhibited cell migration., Conclusions: The results of the present study indicate that LASP-1 may serve as a prognostic biomarker for ccRCC patients and may be a promising target for the treatment of ccRCC.

Background: To have a better understanding of the mechanisms of exercise limitation in mild-to-moderate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), we compared detailed respiratory physiology in patients with COPD and healthy age- and sex-matched controls., Methods: Data were collected during the pre-treatment, patient characterization phase of a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, crossover study. Patients with COPD met Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) 1 or 2 spirometric criteria, were symptomatic, and had evidence of gas trapping during exercise. All participants completed pulmonary function and symptom-limited incremental treadmill exercise tests., Results: Chronic activity-related dyspnea measured by Baseline Dyspnea Index was similarly increased in patients with GOLD 1 (n = 41) and 2 (n = 63) COPD compared with controls (n = 104). Plethysmographic lung volumes were increased and lung diffusing capacity was decreased in both GOLD groups. Peak oxygen uptake and work rate were reduced in both GOLD groups compared with controls (p<0.001). Submaximal ventilation, dyspnea, and leg discomfort ratings were higher for a given work rate in both GOLD groups compared with controls. Resting inspiratory capacity, peak ventilation, and tidal volume were reduced in patients with GOLD 2 COPD compared with patients with GOLD 1 COPD and controls (p<0.001)., Conclusions: Lower exercise tolerance in patients with GOLD 1 and 2 COPD compared with controls was explained by greater mechanical abnormalities, greater ventilatory requirements, and increased subjective discomfort. Lower resting inspiratory capacity in patients with GOLD 2 COPD was associated with greater mechanical constraints and lower peak ventilation compared with patients with GOLD 1 COPD and controls., Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01072396.