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This study analyzed the factors influencing adolescents' non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) behavior and their interrelationships, and established a total influencing factor model. Through a literature analysis and semi-structured interviews with 87 adolescents and 27 experts in Guangxi Province, China, 13 influencing factors were identified from six aspects: physiological factors, cognitive factors, emotional factors, social support factors, social environment, and NSSI behavior. A system of factors influencing adolescents' NSSI behavior and a model of the factors influencing the comprehensive antagonism multilevel explanatory structure were obtained using a combination of Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory technique and Total Adversarial Interpretive Structural Model. In descending order, NSSI, emotional state, self-efficacy, and self-cognition influenced adolescents' NSSI behavior. Social environment, exercise, and recreation had a greater impact on other factors, while NSSI, emotional regulation ability, and emotional state were greatly affected by other factors. Emotion regulation ability, self-cognition, self-efficacy, family support, school support, social support, and sleep were found to be the core factors influencing NSSI behavior of adolescents. These factors could be used to directly intervene in adolescent NSSI behavior. Timely treatment of adolescents' negative emotional states is directly conducive to preventing NSSI behavior and alleviating its severity.

Continuous cropping of tomato is increasingly practiced in greenhouse cultivation, leading to several soil-related obstacles. In this study, a type of microbial restoration substrate (MRS) was used to amend soils from the re-cropping of tomato for 8 years under greenhouse-cultivated conditions. Two treatments were established: using 1,500 kg hm−2 of MRS to amend soil as treatment (TR), and non-MRS as control (CK). The severity of bacterial wilt (BW), soil properties and rhizobacterial community composition under two different treatments were compared. The application of MRS led to an average 83.75% reduction in the severity of BW, and significantly increased the plant height, root activity and yield. Meanwhile, soil pH, soil organic contents (SOC), total nitrogen (TN) and exchangeable calcium were significantly increased (P

Wildlife is a reservoir of emerging infectious diseases of humans and domestic animals. Marmota himalayana mainly resides 2800–4000 m above sea level in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, and is the primary animal reservoir of plague pathogen Yersinia pestis. Recently we isolated a new species, Escherichia marmotae from the faeces of M. himalayana. In this study we characterised E. marmotae by genomic analysis and in vitro virulence testing to determine its potential as a human pathogen. We sequenced the genomes of the seven E. marmotae strains and found that they contained a plasmid that carried a Shigella-like type III secretion system (T3SS) and their effectors, and shared the same O antigen gene cluster as Shigella dysenterae 8 and E. coli O38. We also showed that E. marmotae was invasive to HEp-2 cells although it was much less invasive than Shigella. Thus E. marmotae is likely to be an invasive pathogen. However, E. marmotae has a truncated IpaA invasin, and lacks the environmental response regulator VirF and the IcsA-actin based intracellular motility, rendering it far less invasive in comparison to Shigella. E. marmotae also carried a diverse set of virulence factors in addition to the T3SS, including an IS1414 encoded enterotoxin gene astA with 37 copies, E. coli virulence genes lifA/efa, cif, and epeA, and the sfp gene cluster, Yersinia T3SS effector yopJ, one Type II secretion system and two Type VI secretion systems. Therefore, E. marmotae is a potential invasive pathogen.

Tomato bacterial wilt (BW) caused by Ralstonia solanacearum seriously restricts tomato production and no effective control measures are available. A microbial restoration substrate (MRS) had been proved to be effective control of tomato BW in a greenhouse cultivation. In this study, MRS was combined with an avirulent Ralstonia solanacearum (aRS) strain to control the disease under an open field condition. In the two consecutive year (2017 and 2018) trials, the combined use of aRS and MRS resulted in better disease control compared with either aRS or MRS alone. Moreover, the combined treatment was more effective than expected and suggesting a synergistic control effect. Compared with control (CK, non-aRS or MRS), the application of aRS and MRS treatments alone or in combination could all promote plant growth, increase root activity and yield (e.g. the yield for the treatment of aRS + MRS increased by 463.64% in 2017). Soil nutrients, including soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, total phosphorus and total potassium contents were also significantly increased by the application of aRS and MRS treatments alone or in combination (P < 0.05). The application of MRS or in combination with aRS changed the soil from acidic to neutral, which is one of the key factors for controlling BW. The soil enzymatic activities were notably influenced by the combined use of aRS and MRS, which increased urease (87.37% in 2017 and 60.89% in 2018), catalase (93.67% in 2017 and 279.37% in 2018) and alkaline phosphatase activities (193.77% in 2017 and 455.73% in 2018). These results suggest that the combination of MRS and aRS could effectively control tomato BW and thus represents a promising new tool to control this disease.

Blood-brain barrier (BBB) dysfunction occurs in cerebrovascular diseases and neurodegenerative disorders such as stroke. Opening of the BBB during a stroke has a negative impact on acute outcomes. We have recently demonstrated that miR-34a regulates the BBB by targeting cytochrome c (CYC) in vitro. To investigate the role of miR-34a in a stroke, we purified primary cerebrovascular endothelial cells (pCECs) from mouse brains following 1 h transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO) and measured real-time PCR to detect miR-34a levels. We demonstrate that the miR-34a levels are elevated in pCECs from tMCAO mice at the time point of BBB opening following 1 h tMCAO and reperfusion. Interestingly, knockout of miR-34a significantly reduces BBB permeability, alleviates disruption of tight junctions, and improves stroke outcomes compared to wild-type (WT) controls. CYC is decreased in the ischemic hemispheres and pCECs from WT but not in miR-34a−/− mice following stroke reperfusion. We further confirmed CYC is a target of miR-34a by a dural luciferase reporter gene assay in vitro. Our study provides the first description of miR-34a affecting stroke outcomes and may lead to discovery of new mechanisms and treatments for cerebrovascular and neurodegenerative diseases such as stroke.

A series of potential chiral compounds containing an α,β-unsaturated ketone was developed for anion detection. The interplay of compounds and biological momentous anions (Cl−, H2PO4−, I−, AcO−, HS−, F−, and Br−) was evaluated by UV-vis experiments, fluorescence experiments, and electrochemical tests. By comparison, compound 1 had the best selectivity and compound 5 had the strongest binding ability among the five compounds. And compound 5 had the highest sensitivity to H2PO4− among the measured anions, and it also can be applied to actual samples, the content of H2PO4− tested in the potassium dihydrogen phosphate fertilizer solution reached above 97.5% of the marked content, and the recovery rates were within the range of 98.5–99.1%, attesting that this method was reliable for the test of H2PO4− in fertilizer. Through HRMS titration, circular dichroism and optical rotation experiments, the probable interacted mechanism was proved that the interaction site was the C=C of the α,β-unsaturated ketone structure. In addition, the interacted mechanism was researched from the perspective of chirality. Furthermore, theoretical investigation analysis was introduced to reveal that the roles of molecular frontier orbitals in molecular interplay were determined. Therefore, this series of potential chiral compounds has potential application prospects in anion recognition.

Reductions in persistent HPV infection and related diseases occurrence have been proved among vaccinated males. However, little was known on awareness of HPV and the vaccine in males, especially in high-risk subgroups such as men who have sex with men (MSM), in China. A multicenter cross-sectional study was conducted in MSM from 10 selected cities in mainland China. HPV awareness and vaccination acceptability were investigated through interviews and questionnaires. In total, 3057 eligible participants aged 18 years older from 10 cities were investigated. Only 20.6% (629/3057) of them had ever heard of HPV and 4.8% (146/3057) had heard of HPV vaccine. Factors that potentially influence willingness for HPV vaccination were found to be safety of the vaccine (54.2%, 1656/3057) and severity of HPV infection (52.3%, 1599/3057). After education, 97.8% (2882/2946) of participants would like to pay for HPV vaccination, and only a minority of them (2.5%, 75/2946) would like to afford more than 2000 RMB. Our results showed that the awareness on HPV and the vaccine were quite poor among MSM in mainland China. To promote the application of HPV vaccination in male populations, appropriate information delivery and education on HPV infection and health should be enhanced as well as in females.

Using Wheat 90 K SNP assay, kernel-related traits of Chinese bread wheat were used to perform association mapping in 14 environments by GWAS. Results indicated that 996 and 953 of 4417 and 3172 significant SNPs for kernel length and thousand-kernel weight were located on the chromosome 7B. Haplotype analysis of these SNPs on 7B generated the block containing the predicted TaGW8-B1 gene. TaGW8-B1 gene was further cloned by sequencing in bread wheat and a 276-bp InDel was found in the first intron. TaGW8-B1 without and with the 276-bp InDel were designated as TaGW8-B1a and TaGW8-B1b, respectively. Analysis of agronomic traits indicated that cultivars with TaGW8-B1a possessed significantly wider kernel width, significantly more kernel number per spike, longer kernel length, higher thousand-kernel weight and more spikelet number per spike than cultivars with TaGW8-B1b. Furthermore, cultivars with TaGW8-B1a possessed significantly higher yield than cultivars with TaGW8-B1b. Therefore, TaGW8-B1a was considered as a potentially superior allele. Meanwhile, TaGW8-B1a possessed a significantly higher expression level than TaGW8-B1b in mature seeds by qRT-PCR. It possibly suggested that the high expression of TaGW8-B1 was positively associated with kernel size in bread wheat. Distribution of TaGW8-B1 allele indicated that TaGW8-B1a has been positively selected in Chinese wheat.

It is essential to conduct hydrodynamic experiments for fishing gear at small attack angles along the flow direction to better understand the hydrodynamic characteristics of netting and application of gear. The hydrodynamic characteristics of netting panels made of different materials at small attack angles were investigated by a self-designed setup; this is essential for the effective use of netting on different types of gears. As confirmed by experiments, the measured drag of designed frame without netting accounted for less than 20% of the total setup drag including experimental netting and remained in a steady state under various current speeds and small attack angles, indicating that the self-designed frame setup is suitable for such trials. The drag coefficient was determined by varying the attack angle, solidity ratio, Reynolds number, knot types, weave pattern, and twine materials at small attack angles. The results indicate that the drag coefficient increased as the attack angle increased, but decreased as the solidity ratio and Reynolds number increased. The drag generated by knot accounted for 21% of the total drag of nylon (PA) netting. For braided knotless netting, the drag coefficient of PA netting was about 8.4% lower than that of polythene netting (PE) and 7% lower than that of polyester netting (PES). Compared with twined netting, the braided netting exhibited a higher resistance to flow, corresponding to higher values of drag coefficient.

A series of chemsensors (1–4) containing fluorobenzene group based on coumarin derivatives have been developed for the selective and sensitive detection of H2S. The advantages of the synthesized fluorescent probe (compound 1) were the low detection limit (4 × 10−6 mol·L−1), good selectivity and high sensitivity which had been demonstrated through UV-vis, fluorescent titration experiments. Besides cytotoxicity test of compounds (1 and 2) was studied and the results indicated that compounds (1 and 2) showed almost no cytotoxicityat at a concentration of 150 μg·mL−1. The interacted mechanism was the thiolysis reaction of dinitrophenyl ether which had been confirmed by fluorescence and HRMS titration experiment. In addition, probe 1 can also detect HS− selectively by naked eye in pure DMSO solvent.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic lung disease characterized by abnormal inflammation, persistent and progressive lung function decline. The anti-inflammatory actions of tanshinone IIA, which is the most important active component from Chinese herbal medicine Danshen, have been well studied. However, it remains unknown whether sodium tanshinone IIA sulfonate (STS) protects against the development of COPD. Here we found that STS inhalation (5 mg/kg, 30 min per session, twice a day) significantly attenuated lung function decline, airspace enlargement, mucus production, bronchial collagen deposition, inflammatory responses and oxidative stress caused by cigarette smoke (CS) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) exposures in mice. Moreover, treatment with STS (10 μg/ml) reduced CS extract (CSE)-induced IL-6 and IL-8 secretion in human bronchial epithelial (16HBE) cells. The anti-inflammatory actions of STS were associated with inhibition of ERK1/2 and NF-κB activations. Interestingly, STS inhibited CS-induced reduction of cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) in mouse lungs and in 16HBE cells. Treatment with a specific CFTR inhibitor CFTR-Inh172 augmented CSE-induced ERK1/2 and NF-κB-dependent inflammatory responses, but abolished the inhibitory action of STS on IL-6 and IL-8 secretion in 16HBE cells. These results demonstrate that CS-induced COPD and down-regulation of CFTR are prevented by STS.

Chronic occult lead poisoning often develops ensuing occupational lead exposure. Early diagnosis of lead poisoning is critical for timely discontinuation of lead exposure and for prognosis. This study explored the value of urinary kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1) in diagnosing renal injury induced by lead at an early stage. We retrospectively analyzed 92 workers exposed to occupational lead and demonstrated a better correlation ship between blood lead levels and urine excretion of KIM-1 than other traditional renal injury biomarkers following creatinine adjustment. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis of the ability of diverse biomarkers for predicting kidney injury in lead-exposed workers demonstrated that the order of predicting accuracy of the studied biomarkers is as follows: urinary KIM-1-to-creatinine ratio > urinary N-acetyl-β-(D)-glucosaminidase-to-creatinine ratio > urinary β2-microglobulin-to-creatinine ratio > urinary α1-microglobulin-to-creatinine ratio, with the Youden index being 16.59 ng/g, 14.01 U/g, 0.15 mg/g, and 4.63 mg/g, respectively. Collectively, our findings suggest that short-period occupational lead exposure may cause injury of renal tubules. Urinary excretion of KIM-1 correlates with blood lead levels better than other traditional renal injury biomarkers, including N-acetyl-β-(D)-glucosaminidase, α1-microglobulin, and β2-microglobulin. Longitudinal surveillance of urinary KIM-1 may aid for early diagnosis of renal tubular injury in workers with occupational lead exposure.

Elucidation of the metabolic pathways determining pigmentation and their underlying regulatory mechanisms in maize kernels is of high importance in attempts to improve the nutritional composition of our food. In this study, we compared dynamics in the transcriptome and metabolome between colored SW93 and white SW48 by integrating RNA-Seq and non-targeted metabolomics. Our data revealed that expression of enzyme coding genes and levels of primary metabolites decreased gradually from 11 to 21 DAP, corresponding well with the physiological change of developing maize kernels from differentiation through reserve accumulation to maturation, which was cultivar independent. A remarkable up-regulation of anthocyanin and phlobaphene pathway distinguished SW93 from SW48, in which anthocyanin regulating transcriptional factors (R1 and C1), enzyme encoding genes involved in both pathways and corresponding metabolic intermediates were up-regulated concurrently in SW93 but not in SW48. The shift from the shikimate pathway of primary metabolism to the flavonoid pathway of secondary metabolism, however, appears to be under posttranscriptional regulation. This study revealed the link between primary metabolism and kernel coloration, which facilitate further study to explore fundamental questions regarding the evolution of seed metabolic capabilities as well as their potential applications in maize improvement regarding both staple and functional foods.

The effect of three kinds of anti-site disorder to electronic structure and magnetic properties of the LiMgPdSb-type CoMnTiSi alloy are investigated. It was found the Mn-Ti anti-site disorder can induce the diluted magnetism in CoMnTiSi matrix. The magnetic structure has an oscillation between the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic states with the different degree of Mn-Ti anti-site disorder. Two novel characteristics: the diluted antiferromagnetic half-metallicity and the diluted zero-gap half-metallity are found in the different degree range of the Mn-Ti anti-site disorder. The Co-Mn and Co-Ti anti-site disorder have little effect on the magnetic properties. The width of energy gap and the intensity of DOS at the Fermi level can be adjusted by the degree of Co-Mn or Co-Ti anti-site disorder. The independent control to the carrier concentration and magnetization can be realized by introducing the different anti-site disorder.

A simple method combing Mn2+ doping with a hierarchical structure was developed for the improvement of thin-film sensors and efficient detection of the explosives relevant to improvised explosive devices (IEDs). ZnS hierarchical nanospheres (HNs) were prepared via a solution-based route and their sensing performances were manipulated by Mn2+ doping. The responses of the sensors based on ZnS HNs towards 8 explosives generally increase firstly and then decrease with the increase of the doped Mn2+ concentration, reaching the climate at 5% Mn2+. Furthermore, the sensory array based on ZnS HNs with different doping levels achieved the sensitive and discriminative detection of 6 analytes relevant to IEDs and 2 military explosives in less than 5 s at room temperature. Importantly, the superior sensing performances make ZnS HNs material interesting in the field of chemiresistive sensors, and this simple method could be a very promising strategy to put the sensors based on thin-films of one-dimensional (1D) nanostructures into practical IEDs detection.

An innovative technology has been developed involving a simple and sensitive optical spectrometric method termed matrix-assisted plasma atomization emission spectrometry (MAPAES) for surface sampling elemental analysis using a piece of filter paper (FP) for sample introduction. MAPAES was carried out by direct interaction of the plasma tail plume with the matrix surface. The FP absorbs energy from the plasma source and releases combustion heating to the analytes originally present on its surface, thus to promote the atomization and excitation process. The matrix-assisted plasma atomization excitation phenomenon was observed for multiple elements. The FP matrix served as the partial energy producer and also the sample substrate to adsorb sample solution. Qualitative and quantitative determinations of metal ions were achieved by atomic emission measurements for elements Ba, Cu, Eu, In, Mn, Ni, Rh and Y. The detection limits were down to pg level with linear correlation coefficients better than 0.99. The proposed MAPAES provides a new way for atomic spectrometry which offers advantages of fast analysis speed, little sample consumption, less sample pretreatment, small size and cost-effective.

Farnesoid X receptor (FXR) plays a pivotal role in the regulation of various metabolic pathways as well as liver regeneration. However, the casual link between cell proliferative effects during liver regeneration and metabolic regulation of FXR was elusive. In this study, we found that FXR activation significantly promotes HepG2 cell proliferation accompanied with metabolic switch towards the excessive accumulation of aerobic glycolytic intermediates including lactic acid, pyruvate and the subsequently increased biosynthesis of glycine. This FXR-induced metabolic switch was found dependent on an up-regulation of pyruvate dehydrogenate kinase 4 (PDK4), a FXR target gene. FXR agonists were found to promote liver regeneration in the murine model of APAP induced liver injury, which was associated with a metabolic switch favoring the accumulation of glycolytic intermediates as precursors for generation of biomass. However, FXR activation has little effect on the glycolytic metabolism in healthy primary hepatocytes in vitro and the liver of healthy mice in vivo. Therefore, we conclude that FXR may promote the proliferation of tumor cells and the hepatocytes in the process of liver regeneration by activating the PDK4-mediated metabolic reprogramming to generate glycolytic intermediates essential for rapid biomass generation, establishing a mechanistic link between cell proliferation and metabolic switch.

CRISPR/Cas9 -mediated DNA cleavage (CCMDC) is becoming increasingly used for efficient genome engineering. Proto-spacer adjacent motif (PAM) adjacent to target sequence is one of the key components in the design of CCMDC strategies. It has been reported that NAG sequences are the predominant non-canonical PAM for CCMDC at the human EMX locus, but it is not clear whether it is universal at other loci. In the present study, we attempted to use a GFP-reporter system to comprehensively and quantitatively test the efficiency of CCMDC with non-canonical PAMs in human cells. The initial results indicated that the effectiveness of NGA PAM for CCMDC is much higher than that of other 14 PAMs including NAG. Then we further designed another three pairs of NGG, NGA and NAG PAMs at different locations in the GFP gene and investigated the corresponding DNA cleavage efficiency. We observed that one group of NGA PAMs have a relatively higher DNA cleavage efficiency, while the other groups have lower efficiency, compared with the corresponding NAG PAMs. Our study clearly demonstrates that NAG may not be the universally predominant non-canonical PAM for CCMDC in human cells. These findings raise more concerns over off-target effects in CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome engineering.