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Induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CMs) have an irreplaceable role in the treatment of myocardial infarction (MI), which can be injected into the transplanted area with new cardiomyocytes (Cardiomyocytes, CMs), and improve myocardial function. However, the immaturity of the structure and function of iPSC-CMs is the main bottleneck at present. Since collagen participates in the formation of extracellular matrix (ECM), we synthesized nano colloidal gelatin (Gel) with collagen as the main component, and confirmed that the biomaterial has good biocompatibility and is suitable for cellular in vitro growth. Subsequently, we combined the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway inhibitor BEZ-235 with Gel and found that the two combined increased the sarcomere length and action potential amplitude (APA) of iPSC-CMs, and improved the Ca2+processing ability, the maturation of mitochondrial morphological structure and metabolic function. Not only that, Gel can also prolong the retention rate of iPSC-CMs in the myocardium and increase the expression of Cx43 and angiogenesis in the transplanted area of mature iPSC-CMs, which also provides a reliable basis for the subsequent treatment of mature iPSC-CMs.

The intestinal flora plays a key role in digestion and nutrient absorption, and its composition in fish can vary depending on feeding practices and growth stages. Siniperca chuatsifeeds on live bait throughout its life, and preliminary developments have been made for compound feed as an alternative to live bait in aquaculture. We investigated changes in the intestinal flora of S. chuatsiunder three different feeding practices (live bait, compound feed, and mixed diet) at different growth stages by 16S rRNA sequencing. A total of 4,220,390 valid sequences were obtained, clustered into 9103 ASVs. The intestinal flora of S. chuatsiwas dominated by Pseudomonadota, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidota. With growth, the α-diversity of the intestinal flora in the live bait group and mixed diet group significantly decreased (p < 0.05), while the α-diversity in the compound feed group did not change significantly (p > 0.05). There were no significant differences in α-diversity among the feeding practices at either one month or two months of age (p > 0.05). At three months of age, the α-diversity was significantly higher in the compound feed group compared to the mixed diet group or live bait group (p < 0.05). Functional prediction revealed that the carbohydrate metabolism pathway was most enriched in the compound feed group, while the amino acid metabolism pathway was most enriched in the live bait group. In the mixed diet group, both the amino acid metabolism and carbohydrate metabolism pathways were similarly enriched. A relatively high number of marker genera were observed in the compound feed group, of which Stenotrophomonasand Cetobacteriumare potentially valuable in the application of feed additives for S. chuatsi. This study provides insights into the adaptation mechanisms of intestinal flora to compound feed, supporting diet domestication and the optimization of compound feed formulation for S. chuatsi.

Telemedicine has gained tremendous development during the COVID‐19 pandemic. With deblocking and opening, telemedicine accelerates the evolvution of the medical “snack community” and undermines the perception of medical students and staff, which promotes the incidence of psychosocial‐related disorders. Moreover, the inconsistent telemedicine adaptability between medical workers and patients aggravates the doctor–patient conflict due to the aging population and COVID‐19 squeal. Telemedicine is colliding with the national healthcare system, whose synchronization with conventional medical service is crucial to coordinate the relationship among medical payment, patient privacy and qualifications of clinicians. This study puts more emphasis on the double‐edged sword role of telemedicine in clinical practice and medical education during the COVID‐19 pandemic and beyond. Overall, while telemedicine has demonstrated its utility in health care throughout the COVID pandemic, it is pretty critical to continue evaluating the efficacy and limitations of telemedicine in order to maintain equal access to medical service and high‐quality medical education. A new concept as telemedicine‐medical “snack community”‐PHS ecosystem, where the psychological health education system and partners healthcare system with enough bandwidth, especially 5G technology, could optimize the effect of telemedicine on medical practice and education, is proposed. “Telemedicine‐medical ‘snack community’‐PHS ecosystem” indicates the plight during the transformation of traditional culture into sack culture in modern society.The supports of regulations made by government and the third‐party supervision are prerequisite for medical education and fitness of medical practitioners and patients.Constructions of infrastructure, medical education and expertise of medical workers are far more important.

The advancement of high-energy-density batteries is vital for the development of lightweight, durable, and intelligent fully electric mobility systems. Reducing battery weight not only increases energy density but also confers load-bearing properties to the energy storage setup. These integrated batteries, known as rigid structural batteries, effectively encapsulate the concept of structural energy storage. The design of rigid structural batteries follows principles of mechanical/electrochemical decoupling at the microscale, and coupling at the macroscale. Based on achieving mechanical/electrochemical decoupling at different scales, we categorize rigid structural batteries into component-level, unit-level, and material-level rigid structural batteries. This review aims to summarize the progress in this field concerning mechanical/electrochemical decoupling at various scales and discuss fundamental design principles and core issues to address in rigid structural batteries. It also proposes strategies for the expeditious implementation of rigid structural batteries, aiming for long-term breakthroughs to surpass performance bottlenecks.

Molecular ferroelectrics have attracted much attention because of their excellent piezoelectricity, mechanical workability, and second harmonic effect. Here, we successfully prepared two molecular ferroelectrics [1,5–3.2.2-Hdabcn]X (X = ClO4−, 1; ReO4−, 2) by reactions of a quasi-spherical amine 1,5-diazabicycle[3.2.2]nonane (1.5–3.2.2-dabcn) with HX aqueous solution. Compounds 1and 2undergo high-temperature phase transitions at 381 K (1) and 396 K (2). Before and after the phase transition, they crystallize in the polar point group mm2, and the centrosymmetric point groups mmmand 4/mmm, respectively. According to Aizu rules, these two compounds experience mmmFmm2 and 4/mmmFmm2 type ferroelectric phase transitions, respectively. The ferroelectricity of both compounds is well expressed in their polycrystalline film at room temperature with low coercive voltages of 13 V for 1and 25 V for 2. Using piezoelectric force microscopy (PFM), the 180° anti-parallel ferroelectric domains and the reversible polarization switching can be clearly observed in 1and 2. This high-temperature molecular ferroelectric material has great application potential in flexible materials, biomechanics, intelligent wearables and other fields.

The merger of strain–release of 1,2-oxazetidines with carboxylic acid directed C–H activation in catalytic synthesis of isoindolinones is reported for the first time. This reaction opens a new and sustainable avenue to prepare a range of structurally diverse isoindolinone skeletons from readily available benzoic acids. The success of late-stage functionalization of some bioactive acids, and concise synthesis of biologically important skeletons demonstrated its great synthetic potential in drug discovery. Mechanistic studies indicated a plausible C–H activation/β-carbon elimination/intramolecular cyclization cascade pathway.

A new tandem annulation of p-quinone methides (p-QMs) with ynamides is described. This cascade reaction features a unique combination of (2 + 2) annulation, retro-4π electrocyclization, and imino-Nazarov cyclization, wherein vinyl p-quinone methides (p-VQMs) as one of the key intermediates have been identified chemically. Significantly, an unusual structural reconstruction of p-QMs involving the cleavage of the C5–C6 bond and the late-stage formation of the C4–C6 bond is involved, leading to a methodology development for the construction of functionalized aminoindenes.

Cardiovascular disease is still one of the leading causes of death in the world, and heart transplantation is the current major treatment for end-stage cardiovascular diseases. However, because of the shortage of heart donors, new sources of cardiac regenerative medicine are greatly needed. The prominent development of tissue engineering using bioactive materials has creatively laid a direct promising foundation. Whereas, how to precisely pattern a cardiac structure with complete biological function still requires technological breakthroughs. Recently, the emerging three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting technology for tissue engineering has shown great advantages in generating micro-scale cardiac tissues, which has established its impressive potential as a novel foundation for cardiovascular regeneration. Whether 3D bioprinted hearts can replace traditional heart transplantation as a novel strategy for treating cardiovascular diseases in the future is a frontier issue. In this review article, we emphasize the current knowledge and future perspectives regarding available bioinks, bioprinting strategies and the latest outcome progress in cardiac 3D bioprinting to move this promising medical approach towards potential clinical implementation.

Topological materials that possess spin-momentum locked surface states provide an ideal platform to manipulate the quantum spin states by electrical means. However, an antisymmetric magnetoresistance (MR) superimposed on the spin-polarized transport signals is usually observed in the spin potentiometric measurements of topological materials, rendering more power loss and reduced signal-to-noise ratio. Here we reveal the mechanism of surface–bulk interaction for the observed antisymmetric linear MR in the spin transport of Dirac semimetal Cd3As2nanoplates. The antisymmetric linear MR can be eliminated through sample surface modifications. As a consequence, clean signals of charge current induced spin-polarized transport are observed, robust up to room temperature. The purification of spin signals can be attributed to the isolation of surface and bulk transport channels via forming a charge depletion layer with surface modifications. This surface engineering strategy should be valuable for high-performance spintronic devices on topological materials.

Characterized by bulk Dirac or Weyl cones and surface Fermi-arc states, topological semimetals have sparked enormous research interest in recent years. The nanostructures, with large surface-to-volume ratio and easy field-effect gating, provide ideal platforms to detect and manipulate the topological quantum states. Exotic physical properties originating from these topological states endow topological semimetals attractive for future topological electronics (topotronics). For example, the linear energy dispersion relation is promising for broadband infrared photodetectors, the spin-momentum locking nature of topological surface states is valuable for spintronics, and the topological superconductivity is highly desirable for fault-tolerant qubits. For real-life applications, topological semimetals in the form of nanostructures are necessary in terms of convenient fabrication and integration. Here, we review the recent progresses in topological semimetal nanostructures and start with the quantum transport properties. Then topological semimetal-based electronic devices are introduced. Finally, we discuss several important aspects that should receive great effort in the future, including controllable synthesis, manipulation of quantum states, topological field effect transistors, spintronic applications, and topological quantum computation.

Genetically modified wheat has not been commercially utilized in agriculture largely due to regulatory hurdles associated with traditional transformation methods. Development of marker-free transgenic wheat plants will help to facilitate biosafety evaluation and the eventual environmental release of transgenic wheat varieties. In this study, the marker-free transgenic wheat plants previously obtained by Agrobacterium-mediated co-transformation of double T-DNAs vector were identified by fluorescence in situhybridization (FISH) in the T1generation, and their genetic stability and agronomic traits were analyzed in T2and T3generations. FISH analysis indicated that the transgene often integrated into a position at the distal region of wheat chromosomes. Furthermore, we show that the GUStransgene was stably inherited in the marker-free transgenic plants in T1to T3generations. No significant differences in agronomic traits or grain characteristics were observed in T3generation, with the exception of a small variation in spike length and grains per spike in a few lines. The selection marker of bargene was not found in the transgenic plants through T1to T3generations. The results from this investigation lay a solid foundation for the potential application of the marker-free transgenic wheat plants achieved through the co-transformation of double T-DNAs vector by Agrobacteriumin agriculture after biosafty evaluation.

Wheat relative species are important for agriculture production, functional genomics study and wheat improvement as useful genetic resources. In this study, a regeneration related wheat gene TaWOX5was applied to establish the Agrobacterium-mediated transformation systems of Triticum monococcum, hexaploid triticale, and rye (Secale cerealeL.) using their immature embryos. Transgenic plants were efficiently generated. During the transformation process, the Agrobacteriuminfection efficiency was assessed by histochemical staining for β-glucuronidase (GUS). Finally, the transgenic nature of regenerated plants was verified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based genotyping for presence of the GUSand bialaphos resistance(bar) genes, histochemical staining for GUS protein, and QuickStix strip assay for bar protein. The transformation efficiency of T. monococcumgenotype PI428182 was 94.4%; the efficiencies of four hexaploid triticale genotypes Lin456, ZS3297, ZS1257, and ZS3224 were 52.1, 41.2, 19.4, and 16.0%, respectively; the transformation efficiency of rye cultivar Lanzhou Heimai was 7.8%. Fluorescence in situhybridization (FISH) and genomic in situhybridization (GISH) analysis indicated that the GUStransgenes were integrated into the distal or near centromere (proximal) region of the chromosomes in transgenic T. monococcumand hexaploid triticale plants; in the transgenic hexaploid triticale plants, the foreign DNA fragment was randomly integrated into the AABB genome and RR genome. Furthermore, the transgene was proved to be almost stably inherited in the next generation by Mendel’s law. The findings in this study will promote genetic improvement for grain or forage production of the three plant species and for functional genomics study of cereal species including wheat.

T6V#2S·6AL and T6V#4S·6DL translocation chromosomes developed from the cross of wheat and different Dasypyrum villosumaccessions have good powdery mildew (PM) resistance, but their pairing and pyramiding behavior remains unclear. Results in this study indicated that the pairing frequency rate of the two differently originated 6VS chromosomes in their F1hybrid was 18.9% according to genomic in situhybridization (GISH); the PM resistance plants in the F2generation from the cross between T6V#4S·6DL translocation line Pm97033 and its PM susceptible wheat variety Wan7107 was fewer than expected. However, the ratio of the resistant vs. the susceptible plants of 15:1 in the F2generation derived from the cross between the two translocation lines of T6V#2S·6AL and T6V#4S·6DL fitted well. Plants segregation ratio (homozygous:heterozygous:lacking) revealed by molecular marker for T6V#4S·6DL or T6V#2S·6AL in their F2populations fitted the expected values of 1:2:1 well, inferring that the pairing of the two alien chromosome arms facilitates the transmission of T6V#4S·6DL from the F1to the F2generation. A quadrivalent was also observed in 21% of pollen mother cells (PMCs) of homozygote plants containing the two pairs of translocated chromosomes. The chromosome pairing between 6V#2S and 6V#4S indicates that it will be possible to obtain recombinants and clarify if the PM resistance determinant on one alien chromosome arm is different from that on the other.

Locating of important agronomic genes onto chromosome is helpful for efficient development of new wheat varieties. Wheat chromosome substitution lines between two varieties have been widely used for locating genes because of their distinctive advantages in genetic analysis, compared with the aneuploid genetic materials. Apart from the substituted chromosome, the other chromosomes between the substitution lines and their recipient parent should be identical, which eases the gene locating practice. In this study, a set of chromosome substitution lines with cv. Wichita (WI) as the recipient parent and cv. Cheyenne (CNN) as the donor parent were studied for the composition of high molecular weight glutenin subunits (HMW-GS) as well as a range of agronomic important traits. Results revealed that the substitution lines of WI(CNN5D), WI(CNN6A) and WI(CNN7B) had higher plant heights than the two parents of WI and CNN, and WI(CNN3D) had later maturity than the parents. By sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) analysis, a substitution line WI(CNN5B) was found to contain different HMW-GS patterns from its two parents, in which 1By9 was replaced by 1By8 on chromosome 1BL. Simple sequence repeat (SSR) analysis confirmed that the variation on 1BL in WI(CNN5B) was originated from Chinese Spring (CS). It is concluded that chromosomal fragments from bridge material and donor parent were quite often retained in intracultivaral chromosome substitution lines except the substituting chromosomes.

The objectives of this study were to develop a probability model of Staphylococcus aureusenterotoxin A (SEA) production as affected by water activity (aw), pH, and temperature in broth and assess its applicability for milk. The probability of SEA production was assessed in tryptic soy broth using 24 combinations of aw(0.86 to 0.99), pH (5.0 to 7.0), and storage temperature (10 to 30°C). The observed probabilities were fitted with a logistic regression to develop a probability model. The model had a concordant value of 97.5% and concordant index of 0.98, indicating that the model satisfactorily describes the probability of SEA production. The model showed that aw, pH, and temperature were significant factors affecting the probability of toxin production. The model predictions were in good agreement with the observed values obtained from milk. The model may help manufacturers in selecting product pH and awand storage temperatures to prevent SEA production.

CK1 (casein kinase 1) is a family of serine/threonine protein kinase that is ubiquitously expressed in eukaryotic organism. CK1 members are involved in the regulation of many cellular processes. Particularly, CK1 was reported to phosphorylate Rec8 subunits of cohesin complex and regulate chromosome segregation in meiosis in budding yeast and fission yeast.1-3Here we investigated the expression, subcellular localization and potential functions of CK1α, CK1δ and CK1ε during mouse oocyte meiotic maturation. We found that CK1α, CK1δ and CK1ε all concentrated at the spindle poles and co-localized with γ-tubulin in oocytes at both metaphase I (MI) and metaphase II (MII) stages. However, depletion of CK1 by RNAi or overexpression of wild type or kinase-dead CK1 showed no effects on either spindle organization or chromosome segregation during oocyte meiotic maturation. Thus, CK1 is not the kinase that phosphorylates Rec8 cohesin in mammalian oocytes, and CK1 may not be essential for spindle organization and meiotic progression although they localize at spindle poles.

Genetic transformation is an important technique for functional genomics study and genetic improvement of plants. Until now, Agrobacterium-mediated transformation methods using cotyledon as explants has been the major approach for cucumber, and its frequency has been up to 23%. For example, significantly enhancement of the transformation efficiency of this plant species was achieved from the cotyledon explants of the cultivar Poinsett 76 infected by Agrobacteriumstrains EHA105 with efficient positive selection system in lots of experiments. This review is to summarize some key factors influencing cucumber regeneration and genetic transformation, including target genes, selection systems and the ways of transgene introduction, and then to put forward some strategies for the increasing of cucumber transformation efficiency. In the future, it is high possible for cucumber to be potential bioreactor to produce vaccine and biomaterials for human beings.

The regeneration rate of wheat immature embryo varies among genotypes, howbeit many elite agriculture wheat varieties have low regeneration rates. Optimization of tissue culture conditions and attempts of adding signal molecules are effective ways to increase plant regeneration rate. Inter-culture is one of ways that have not been investigated in plant tissue culture. Moreover, the use of arabinogalactan proteins (AGPs) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) have been reported to increase regeneration rate in a few plant species other than wheat. The current research pioneeringly uses inter-culture of immature embryos of different wheat genotypes, and also investigates impacts of AGP and H2O2on the induction of embryogenic calli and plant regeneration. As a result, high-frequency regeneration wheat cultivars Kenong 199 (KN199) and Xinchun 9 (XC9), together with low-frequency regeneration wheat line Chinese Spring (CS), presented striking increase in the induction of embryogenic calli and plant regeneration rate of CS through inter-culture strategy, up to 52.19 and 67.98%, respectively. Adding 50 to 200 mg L−1AGP or 0.005 to 0.01 ‰ H2O2to the callus induction medium, enhanced growth of embryogenic calli and plant regeneration rate in quite a few wheat genotypes. At 50 mg L−1AGP application level in callus induction medium plant regeneration rates of 8.49, 409.06 and 283.16% were achieved for Jimai 22 (JM22), Jingdong 18 (JD18) and Yangmai 18 (YM18), respectively; whereas at 100 mg L−1AGP level, CS (105.44%), Chuannong 16 (CN16) (80.60%) and Ningchun 4 (NC4) (62.87%) acted the best. Moreover CS (79.05%), JM22 (7.55%), CN16 (101.87%), YM18 (365.56%), Yangmai 20 (YM20) (10.48%), and CB301 (187.40%) were more responsive to 0.005 ‰ of H2O2, and NC4 (35.37%) obtained the highest shoot regeneration rates at 0.01 ‰ of H2O2. Overall, these two methods, inter-culture and AGP (or H2O2) application, can be further applied to wheat transgenic research.

Aquatic product, known as one of the good resources for white meat, has been widely accepted by the consumers due to its high protein, low fat, especially low cholesterol. With the fast development of living standards around the world, the consumer demands for high quality, nutrition, safety and freshness of fishery food are increasing. Thus, high efficient preservation technologies for aquatic products become particularly important. Superchilling is one of the controlled-temperature preservation technologies for seafood. Aquatic products can be kept in better quality under superchilling conditions. This review introduced the principle and development of superchilling process, mainly focusing on research progresses and technical difficulties of superchilling. The growth mechanism of ice crystals and the feasibility of application of computational fluid dynamics in analyzing the temperatures variation and ice crystals during superchilling progress were also discussed, which will provide theoretical foundation for its improvement and application.

The immature embryos (IEs) of wheat are the most widely used tissues for in vitroculture and genetic transformation due to its high regeneration competency. However, this explant can only be maintained in 4°C daily cooler for a short period time for its use in plant tissue culture or transformation experiments. This study aimed to investigate the effects of environmental temperature, cryopreservation storage temperature, and heat shock culture (HSC) temperature on the regeneration frequency of wheat IEs. Results indicated that environmental temperature significantly affected the induction of embryonic calli. The optimum total accumulated temperature (TAT) during the time of anthesis and sampling for regeneration of these tissues was around 280°C for spring wheat type cv. CB037 and approximately 300°C for winter wheat type cv. Kenong 199. Regeneration ability obviously declined when the highest environmental temperature was over 35°C for 1 d or a high temperature between 30 and 33°C lasted for 5 d during anthesis and sampling. This finding was verified by culturing the freshly isolated IEs under different temperatures from 29 to 37°C in different controlled growth incubators for 5 d; the IEs almost completely lost regeneration ability when the temperature rose to 37°C. Cryopreservation of −20°C caused the wheat samples lost ability of producing callus or embryonic callus in a few days, and cryopreservation of −10°C more than 10 d made the regeneration potential of the tissues dramatically declined. Comparatively, the temperature that best maintained high regeneration ability was −5°C, at which the materials can be maintained for around 1 mon. In addition, the preservation of the immature samples at −5 or −10°C inhibited the direct germination of the IEs, avoiding the embryo axis removing process. Our results are useful for ensuring that field collection and cryopreservation of the wheat IEs are done correctly to enable tissue culture and genetic transformation.

Apoptosis-related speck-like protein (ASC) is a key adapter protein in many inflammasome protein complexes, which mediates inflammation and host defense. In this study, an ASC gene (named Msasc) was identified and cloned from the liver tissue of Micropterus salmoides. The full-length cDNA sequence of Msascwas 573 bp, encoding 190 amino acids. Protein prediction shows that MsAsc contains two conserved domains, including the pyrin domain and caspase recruitment domain. The tissue distribution of MsascmRNA in M. salmoideswas investigated using the qPCR method. The expression of this gene could be detected in eight types of tissues, among which the heart, gill, and liver tissues showed a relatively higher expression level; the expression level was the lowest in the brain. When infected with Aeromonas veronii, the expression of Msascin the spleen and liver tissues of M. salmoidesreached its peak at 24 h after infection. Cell transfection experiment showed that MsAsc was distributed in HeLa cells in a diffuse manner. Results of the immune challenge experiment revealed that the inflammasome stimulator nigericin could markedly induce the aggregation of MsAsc in HeLa cells. These results suggest that Msascis involved in the immune response of M. salmoidesto A. veroniiinfection. This study lays a foundation for an in-depth understanding of the antibacterial function of Msascin M. salmoides.

IMPORTANCE Nonanatomic factors, such as histologic grade and biomarkers, can guide breast cancer management but are not included in the current TNM staging system. OBJECTIVE To use as an example the triple-negative phenotype (TNP) defined by the absence of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2) to examine whether such inclusion improves the prognostic accuracy of TNM staging for breast cancer. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Women diagnosed with primary invasive ductal breast cancer from January 1, 1991, through December 31, 2008, were identified from a prospective institutional database. Excluded were patients who received neoadjuvant therapy, those whose staging information was incomplete, or those whose tumor lacked ER, PR, and HER2 data. Breast cancers were categorized by TNM stage and by the presence or absence of TNP. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Overall survival at 5 years. RESULTS Database review identified 1842 consecutive eligible patients with breast cancer. When patients were stratified by TNM stage, overall survival curves for those with TNP breast cancer matched those for patients whose non-TNP breast cancer was 1 TNM stage higher. Multivariable analysis showed that TNP status was a powerful prognostic variable, and the likelihood ratio test revealed that the prognostic accuracy of the TNM staging system that incorporated TNP was superior to the current TNM staging system (P &lt; .001). A TNM staging system that incorporated TNP reduced early-stage compression by 15%. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE The internationally recognized and easily reproducible examination of ER, PR, and HER2 status exemplifies how nonanatomic factors can improve the prognostic accuracy of breast cancer staging.

Time-Temperature Indicator (TTI) is an intelligent or smart package. It is a simple device that can be attached to food packaging to indirectly reflect the full or partial temperature history and quality status of the food product. TTI is utilized widely throughout food processing and distribution of cold chain. An alkaline lipase TTI has been developed, which based on the reaction between alkaline lipase and glycerol tributyrate. Experiments under several isothermal conditions (1.3℃，6.1℃，10.9℃，15.5℃，20.6℃，25.4℃) were conducted and the Arrhenius parameters of the TTI were derived. The developed TTI chemical reaction system showed an Arrhenius behavior, the activation energy was 45.07±2.25 kJ/mol.

Bone mass and inflammation are implicated in the pathogenesis of osteoporosis. We hypothesized that leptin and leptin receptor gene might be associated with osteoporosis by activating the inflammatory pathway. Therefore, we analyzed polymorphisms of the leptin (gene symbol, LEP) and leptin receptor (gene symbol, LEPR) genes and determined their associations with proinflammatory cytokine levels in patients with osteoporosis. We assessed polymorphisms in LEP(−2548G > A) and LEPR(Lys109Arg, Gln223Arg, and Lys656Asn) and calculated odds ratios for the genotype and allele distributions between patients and controls. Serum leptin, soluble leptin receptor, interleukin (IL)-1, IL-6, IL-7, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) and were verified by in vitro lymphocyte proliferation assays and ELISAs. We found a higher frequency of the A allele for LEPat −2548 in patients with osteoporosis compared with the control group. The A allele was associated with differences in serum leptin, soluble leptin receptor, IL-1, IL-6, and TNF levels compared with the wild-type G allele (p< 0.05). The G allele in Lys109Arg and Gln223Arg was associated with increased risk of osteoporosis and with differences in serum leptin, soluble leptin receptor, IL-1, IL-6, and TNF levels compared with the wild-type A allele (p< 0.05). The Lys656Asn genotype was not associated with the risk of osteoporosis. In vitro lymphocyte proliferation assays and ELISAs confirmed these results. Polymorphisms in LEPand LEPRare associated with increased risk of osteoporosis, possibly by increasing the expression of proinflammatory cytokines.

Along with the computer technology and the rapid development of communication network, wireless network sensor will be exploring new medical mode, a breakthrough in the medical field, the main monitoring and measuring the human body physiological parameters, for the human body can be all kinds of condition monitoring, data transfer to all kinds of communication terminal. Without having to leave home, monitoring their own physical condition anytime, anywhere and the test results, in the form of network transmission will be updated to medical personnel information database, doctors and patients are more closely connected on a timely base and effective communication and treatment can be easily carried out.

AbstractIn April 2011, 40% mortality of Largemouth Bass Micropterus salmoidesjuveniles occurred at a farm of Zhongshan City, Guangdong Province, China. Infected fish became lethargic, exhibited corkscrew and irregular swimming, and developed a distended abdomen and crooked body. Fish began to die within 2 d after the appearance of clinical signs. In order to analyze the pathogeny and diagnose the disease earlier, observation of clinical signs, cell infection, titer calculation, electron microscopy, immersion infection assay for fish, and nucleotide sequence analysis were carried out. Fathead minnow (FHM) cell cultures, inoculated with filtrate of liver and spleen homogenates from the diseased fish, developed the obvious cytopathic effect 46 h after inoculation in the primary culture and 24 h at the first passage. Typical rhabdovirus particles, 115–143 nm in length and 62–78 nm in diameter, were observed in infected FHM cells by direct transmission electron microscopy. The isolated virus produced a titer of 107.15TCID50/mL. Immersion-Fish infected with the virus had similar clinical signs and 80% mortality with 102.5LD50/mL. The data indicated that the rhabdovirus was the lethal pathogeny of the current disease. Based on nucleoprotein-gene nucleotide sequence multiple alignment analysis, the newly isolated virus is a strain of Siniperca chuatsirhabdovirus (SCRV) under family Rhabdoviridae, which was initially isolated from Mandarin Fish Siniperca chuatsi. Up to the present, at least four virus strains have been isolated from diseased Largemouth Bass, which have had different clinical signs. Comparison of the clinical signs can help in an early diagnosis of the disease.Received October 30, 2012; accepted April 19, 2013

Enhanced recovery after surgery programs in colorectal surgery aim to attenuate the surgical stress response, reduce complications and shorten hospital stay.

AbstractTo conserve water in the mandarin orange canning industry, a water reclamation system was designed for a production scale of 50 kL/h. The discharged water from mandarin transportation using a conveyor belt was collected in a pool, chlorinated, filtered by active carbon, and then UV-sterilized. This water was then reused for the processes of segmenting, transportation, and washing after alkaline solution treatment. The water quality had been monitored during the water reclamation. The results showed that the reused water quality was improved by the system and the main physicochemical properties and sensory index were conformed to the requirements of Chinese National Standard GB5749 except the index of chemical oxygen demand. The reused water contained about 0.4 ppm of chlorine and 10 μg/mL of pectin. The total bacterial count was and no Escherichia coliwas detected. The seasonal production monitoring results showed that the quality of disposed water from this system remained stable. This technology might be useful for water reclamation in other fruit processing plants.

Based on the Selective Catalystic Reduction (SCR) DeNOx project for 2×330MW-unit in a coal power plant, the gas flow field in SCR system has been optimized by numerical simulation. The optimized simulation results were compared with the physical model experiment, and the fly ash sedimentation in the duct was also investigated. Correlation analysis of the results shows that, the flow field predicted by numerical simulation matches very well with that of physical model experiment. Numerical simulation can not only predict but also improve the flow field in SCR system. The combination of simulation and physical model experiment provides a reliable basis for flow field optimization design in SCR system.

A non-contact ultrasonic system to monitor the yogurt fermentation process through a stainless steel reactor wall is described. During the process, the acoustic impedance was determined by using multiple reflections of ultrasound within the stainless steel wall. Thus, the wall was part of the measurement system. By basing on measurement multiple reflections, the instrument sensitivity is increased by the power of the reflection coefficient. Experimental results show that the acoustic impedance changes continuously while pH declines. It is very useful, especially on production scale for yogurt that the acoustic impedance measurement does not demand a liquid transparent to ultrasound. Also, this noncontact sensing method can reduce the risk of food contamination from measuring instrument, and contribute to hygienization for food manufacture industries.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the nutritional quality of reconstituted milk by determining concentrations of several important proteins. Difference in protein between raw milk and reconstituted milk was determined with spectrophotometer, HPLC, fluorometry, ELISA, photon correlation spectroscopy. Total undenatured whey protein, β-lactoglobulin, α-lactalbumin, chemically available lysine, insulin-like growth factor-Ⅰ (IGF-Ⅰ), epidermal growth factor (EGF), immunoglobulin G (IgG) contents and casein micelle size were analyzed for both raw milk and reconstituted milk. Results showed that reconstituted milk had a significant decrease (P&lt;0.01) in total undenatured whey protein, β-lactoglobulin, α-lactalbumin, chemically available lysine, IGF-Ⅰ, EGF and IgG. The decrease of casein micelle particle size confirmed that most of the whey protein denatured and associated with the casein micelle occurred in the processing of milk powder manufacture. It is concluded that reconstituted milk has a lower nutritional value than that of raw milk.

Autophagy plays an important role in targeting cellular proteins, protein aggregates and organelles for degradation for cell survival. Autophagy dysfunction has been extensively described in neurodegenerative conditions linked to protein misfolding and aggregation. However, the role of autophagy in the prion disease process is unclear. Here, we show that when expressed in mouse neuroblastoma N2a cells, cytoplasmic PrP (cyPrP) aggregates lead to endoplasmic reticulum stress (ER stress), activation of reticulon 3 (RTN3), impairment of ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS), induction of autophagy and apoptosis. RTN3 belongs to the reticulon family with the highest expression in the brain and RTN3 is often activated under ER stress. To assess the function of RTN3 in pathological conditions involving cyPrP protein misfolding, we knocked down the expression of RTN3 in cyPrP-transfected cells; unexpectedly, the inhibition of expression of RTN3 enhances the induction of autophagy resulted from cyPrP aggregates, and the process is mediated by the enhanced interaction between Bcl-2 and Beclin1 promoted by RTN3, which enhances Bcl-2-mediated inhibition of Beclin 1-dependent autophagy. Furthermore, down-regulation of RTN3 promoted the clearance of cyPrP aggregates, allowed the activity of the UPS to resume and alleviated ER stress; ultimately, apoptosis due to the cyPrP aggregates was inhibited. Together, these data suggest that RTN3 negatively regulates autophagy to block the clearance of cyPrP aggregates and provide a clue regarding the potential to induce autophagy for the treatment of prion disease and other neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson disease (PD), Alzheimer disease (AD) and Huntington disease (HD).

Agro-wastes contribute major social, economic, and environmental challenges for food production and circular economy systems. The current increasing demand for clean label food production and use of natural bioactive compounds could turn these challenges into opportunities providing avenues for proper utilization of agro-wastes to produce valuable products. This study aimed to investigate the potential use of kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis) leaves as a source of proanthocyanidins (PAs) bioactive phenolic phytochemicals. Kiwifruit leaves PAs were extracted, purified, identified, and evaluated for their antioxidant and anti-proliferative activities. The structural composition of the purified PAs was characterized using HPLC-QTOF-MS/MS and MALDI-TOF-MS. The results showed that purified kiwifruit leaves PAs (PKLPs) comprised mainly procyanidins, propelargonidins, and prodelphindins ranging from dimers to hexamers with (epi)catechin as terminal units and (epi)afzelechin or (epi)gallocatechin as dominant extension units. This study reports the structure of novel PKLPs monomer fractions was unique compared to the PAs that extracted from the other plant sources. The PKLPs exhibited higher phenolic content than the skin and flesh of several kiwifruit cultivars. Moreover, the PKLPs exhibited higher in vitroantioxidant activity in chemical-based (DPPH, ABTS, and FRAP) assays and H2O2-induced injury cell model than ascorbic, Trolox, and catechin (p < 0.01). A remarkable dose-dependent anti-proliferation activity (IC50 = 186.04 ± 2.61 μg/mL) against HepG2 cells was observed. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that kiwifruit leaves waste could serve as a sustainable and low-cost source of PAs, a group of multi-functional bioactive compounds that plays a key role in the food and pharmaceutical industries.

HYPOTHESIS The status of the sentinel node (SN) confers important prognostic information for patients with thin melanoma. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS We queried our melanoma database to identify patients undergoing sentinel lymph node biopsy for thin (≤1.00-mm) cutaneous melanoma at a tertiary care cancer institute. Slides of tumor-positive SNs were reviewed by a melanoma pathologist to confirm nodal status and intranodal tumor burden, defined as isolated tumor cells, micrometastasis, or macrometastasis (≤0.20, 0.21-2.00, or >2.00 mm, respectively). Nodal status was correlated with patient age and primary tumor depth (≤ 0.25, 0.26-0.50, 0.51-0.75, or 0.76-1.00 mm). Survival was determined by log-rank test. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Disease-free and melanoma-specific survival. RESULTS Of 1592 patients who underwent sentinel lymph node biopsy from 1991 to 2004, 631 (40%) had thin melanomas; 31 of the 631 patients (5%) had a tumor-positive SN. At a median follow-up of 57 months for the 631 patients, the mean (SD) 10-year rate of disease-free survival was 96% (1%) vs 54% (10%) for patients with tumor-negative vs tumor-positive SNs, respectively (P &lt; .001); the mean (SD) 10-year rate of melanoma-specific survival was 98% (1%) vs 83% (8%), respectively (P &lt; .001). Tumor-positive SNs were more common in patients aged 50 years and younger (P = .04). The SN status maintained importance on multivariate analysis for both disease-free survival (P &lt; .001) and melanoma-specific survival (P &lt; .001). CONCLUSIONS The status of the SN is significantly linked to survival in patients with thin melanoma. Therefore, sentinel lymph node biopsy should be considered to obtain complete prognostic information.Arch Surg. 2008;143(9):892-900--

A FAST (fluorescence of advanced Maillard products and Soluble Tryptophan) method for identification of reconstituted milk made from skim milk powder in the fresh milk was developed. Considering milk and skim milk powders variations from different seasons and countries, milk was collected from different dairy farms in different seasons and skim milk powders were collected from different countries to measure the Tryptophan (Trp), advanced Maillard products (AMP) fluorescence values. The results showed that there were differences (P<0.01) between raw and reconstituted milk. The plot of values in each mixed level of raw and reconstituted milk had a correlation coefficient >0.97. The FAST method is a simple, rapid, low-cost and sensitive method enabling the detection of 5% reconstituted milk in fresh milk. The measurement of the Trp, AMP fluorescence values and calculation of the FAST index is a suitable method for large-scale monitoring of fresh milk samples.

The median survival time is only 2–6 months after a diagnosis of metastases from intraocular melanoma. Because complete resection of metastatic melanoma from a cutaneous primary tumor can prolong survival, the authors hypothesized that resection also might benefit patients with metastases from an intraocular site. From 1971 to 1999, 112 patients with metastatic melanoma from an intraocular site were enrolled in various treatment protocols after informed consent was obtained. Prospectively recorded clinical variables and follow-up information were retrieved from the patient database. Survival curves were estimated using the Kaplan–Meier method. Univariate analysis was performed with the log-rank test. Multivariate analysis was performed using the Cox proportional hazards regression model. Propensity score analysis was used to reduce the imbalance between subgroups and to assess treatment effect. Seventy-eight patients (70%) presented with liver involvement. Twenty-four patients (21%) underwent resection of metastatic lesions. At a median follow-up time of 11 months (range, 1–97 months; > 36 months for survivors), the median survival period was 11 months and the 5-year survival rate was 7%. Univariate analysis showed that surgical resection, site of metastases, number of metastatic lesions, and disease-free interval were correlated significantly with survival (P &lt; 0.001, P &lt; 0.001, P &lt; 0.001, and P = 0.031, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed that surgical resection was significant (P = 0.008) but that the site of metastases was not (P = 0.146). The median survival and the 5-year survival rate were 38 months and 39%, respectively, for surgical patients, versus 9 months and 0%, respectively, for nonsurgical patients. After adjusting for covariate imbalance by propensity score analysis, surgery remained significant (P = 0.021) on multivariate analysis. Complete resection may prolong survival in certain patients with distant metastases from intraocular primary melanoma. However, the overall unfavorable prognosis indicates an urgent need for more effective nonsurgical interventions. Cancer 2004;100:122–9. © 2003 American Cancer Society.

An organic–inorganic hybrid molecule [3.3.0-H2dabco]ZnBr4(1) with switchable phase transition, dielectric anomaly, and second harmonic generation (SHG) effect was synthesized by reaction of 1,5-diazabicyclo[3.3.0]octane (3.3.0-dabco) with ZnBr2in concentrated hydrobromic acid aqueous solution. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dielectric measurements revealed that 1exhibits a reversible high-temperature phase transition, accompanied by a distinct step-like dielectric anomaly at 373 K. Exceptionally, the single crystal structure analysis at different temperatures revealed that 1undergoes reverse symmetry breaking during the phase transition, in which the high-symmetry space group Ccin the low temperature phase (LTP) is transformed to the low-symmetry space group P1̅ in the high temperature phase (HTP). In addition, with the conversion from the non-centrosymmetric (NCS) to the centrosymmetric (CS) space group, the SHG of 1can switch from SHG-ON to SHG-OFF for at least four cycles without obvious decay.

The effects of natural convection on temperature and solute distributions, growth rate and growth uniformity along the interface are studied for CdTe single crystal growth by the traveling heater method (THM). The study is carried out by developing a thermosolutal convection model to simulate the coupled heat, solute and fluid flow fields in the growth ampoule. The model takes both thermal and solutal convections into account for this material growth and is implemented by the finite element method using the penalty function formulation. Simulation results show that the solute distribution in the liquid zone is significantly influenced by the convective mass transfer and the growth rate increases substantially. This is consistent with experimental observations. The simulations point out the importance of controlling convection for uniform growth. The uniformity of growth along the growing interface is closely related to the effect of the natural convection there. Weaker convection in the interface region is desired for the uniform growth. The heater thermal gradient and the asymmetric distance (offset) between the axial positions of heater peak temperature and solution zone center affect the natural convective state and are investigated through modeling. It is found that a smaller heater thermal gradient and a larger offset moderate the effect of natural convection in the substrate interface region, allowing uniform growth. The model predicts the heater thermal gradient and related growth rate for the crystal growth industry.

Heteropoly acids (HPAs), such as dodecatungstosilicic acid (SiW12), adsorb strongly on to activated carbons. The surface chemical properties of the activated carbons have a pronounced effect on the adsorption of HPAs. To obtain activated carbons with the desired surface chemical properties, modification with mineral acids has been applied. The adsorption isotherms of SiW12from aqueous solution and various acidic media on to the various carbons have been studied. On the basis of the results obtained, an adsorption model for HPAs from acidic media is presented.

In light of the recent discovery of the Ξ++cc by the LHCb Collaboration, we study the stable doubly heavy tetraquarks. These states are compact exotic hadrons which can be approximated as the diquark-antidiquark correlations. In the flavor SU(3) symmetry, they form a SU(3) triplet or antisextet. The spectra of the stable doubly heavy tetraquark states are predicted by the Sakharov-Zeldovich formula. We find that the Tâbbud(3) is about 73 MeV below the BB threshold at SET I. We then study the semileptonic and nonleptonic weak decays of the stable doubly heavy tetraquark states. The doubly heavy tetraquark decay amplitudes are parametrized in terms of flavor SU(3)-irreducible parts. Ratios between decay widths of different channels are also derived. At the end, we collect the Cabibbo allowed two-body and three-body decay channels, which are most promising to search for the stable doubly heavy tetraquark states at the LHCb and Belle II experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systematic study of the dealloying of Au-Ag and Au(Pt)-Ag alloys shows that the dealloying occurs by two processes: a primary dealloyingprocess that selectively dissolves Ag from the parent alloy and creates a nanoporous (np) structure, and a secondarydealloying process that occurs behind the corrosion front and further dissolves the residual Ag from the nano-ligaments. The secondary dealloyingcan occur during coarsening, and/or when a more anodic potential is applied. With suppressed np structure coarsening in Pt-containing samples, we found that the intrinsic np structure created by the primary dealloyingcontains small ligament diameter (3–7 nm) and high concentration of residual Ag (∼50 at.%), irrespective of the dealloying potentials. Dilatometry experiments show that the volume shrinkages are rather small during primary dealloyingand are large during secondary dealloying. The primary dealloyingcan be explained by the percolation dissolution mechanism. Although the mechanism of the secondary dealloying(without coarsening) remains unclear, we point out that the kinetics of the secondary dealloyingis decisive to some important characters of np metals, such as the crack formation and the final residual Ag concentrations.