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Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common malignant tumour in the adult brain and hard to treat. Nuclear factor κB (NF‐κB) signalling has a crucial role in the tumorigenesis of GBM. EGFR signalling is an important driver of NF‐κB activation in GBM; however, the correlation between EGFR and the NF‐κB pathway remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the role of mucosa‐associated lymphoma antigen 1 (MALT1) in glioma progression and evaluated the anti‐tumour activity and effectiveness of MI‐2, a MALT1 inhibitor in a pre‐clinical GBM model. We identified a paracaspase MALT1 that is involved in EGFR‐induced NF‐kB activation in GBM. MALT1 deficiency or inhibition significantly affected the proliferation, survival, migration and invasion of GBM cells both in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, MALT1 inhibition caused G1 cell cycle arrest by regulating multiple cell cycle–associated proteins. Mechanistically, MALTI inhibition blocks the degradation of IκBα and prevents the nuclear accumulation of the NF‐κB p65 subunit in GBM cells. This study found that MALT1, a key signal transduction cascade, can mediate EGFR‐induced NF‐kB activation in GBM and may be potentially used as a novel therapeutic target for GBM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the names of five gods and spirits that appear in Chu divination records. It proposes that "Dashui" 大水 refers to the god of the sea, the Sea Approver in Zhuangzi ; "Weishan" 危山 is the mountain Sanwei in Chuci , a land of immortality; "Gongmei" 宮禖 is likely the high goddess of childbirth, who was once a Chu ancestress; and "Sijin" 司祲 and "Sizhe" 司折 are two heavenly gods, the former in charge of people's fortune, and the latter in charge of people's lifespans. The latter is similar to the Overseer of Youth's Fate in Chuci. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key points: Maternal exercise improves the metabolic health of maternal mice challenged with a high‐fat diet.Exercise intervention of obese mothers prevents fetal overgrowth.Exercise intervention reverses impaired placental vascularization in obese mice.Maternal exercise activates placental AMP‐activated protein kinase, which was inhibited as a result of maternal obesity. More than one‐third of pregnant women in the USA are obese and maternal obesity (MO) negatively affects fetal development, which predisposes offspring to metabolic diseases. The placenta mediates nutrient delivery to fetuses and its function is impaired as a result of MO. Exercise ameliorates metabolic dysfunction resulting from obesity, although its effect on placental function of obese mothers has not been explored. In the present study, C57BL/6J female mice were randomly assigned into two groups fed either a control or a high‐fat diet (HFD) and then the mice on each diet were further divided into two subgroups with/without exercise. In HFD‐induced obese mice, daily treadmill exercise during pregnancy reduced body weight gain, lowered serum glucose and lipid concentration, and improved insulin sensitivity of maternal mice. Importantly, maternal exercise prevented fetal overgrowth (macrosomia) induced by MO. To further examine the preventive effects of exercise on fetal overgrowth, placental vascularization and nutrient transporters were analysed. Vascular density and the expression of vasculogenic factors were reduced as a result of MO but were recovered by maternal exercise. On the other hand, the contents of nutrient transporters were not substantially altered by MO or exercise, suggesting that the protective effects of exercise in MO‐induced fetal overgrowth were primarily a result of the alteration of placental vascularization and improved maternal metabolism. Furthermore, exercise enhanced downstream insulin signalling and activated AMP‐activated protein kinase in HFD placenta. In sum, maternal exercise prevented fetal overgrowth induced by MO, which was associated with improved maternal metabolism and placental vascularization in obese mothers with exercise. Key points: Maternal exercise improves the metabolic health of maternal mice challenged with a high‐fat diet.Exercise intervention of obese mothers prevents fetal overgrowth.Exercise intervention reverses impaired placental vascularization in obese mice.Maternal exercise activates placental AMP‐activated protein kinase, which was inhibited as a result of maternal obesity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a deadly disease with poor prognosis in the general population. We aimed to quantitate overall survival of patients with PC after irreversible electroporation (IRE) and the incidence of relevant complications. Methods. We performed a literature search via five electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus, and Cochrane Library databases) up to August 2017. The primary outcomes were overall survival and prognosis. Secondary outcomes included the response of post-IRE complications. Fixed-effects or random-effects meta-analysis was conducted to pool these data. Results. A total of 15 eligible articles involving 535 patients were included. The primary outcomes showed that the pooled prevalence estimates of overall survival were 94.1% (95% CI: 90.7–97.5), 80.9% (95% CI: 72.5–89.4), 54.5% (95% CI: 38.3–70.6), and 33.8% (95% CI: 14.2–53.5) at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months, and the pooled prevalence data of complete response (CR) at 2 months, partial response (PR) at 3 months, and progression at 3 months were 12.5% (95% CI: 2.9–22.2), 48.5% (95% CI: 39.4–57.6), and 19.7% (95% CI: 7.3–32.2), respectively. The secondary outcomes showed that the pooled prevalence values of post-IRE complications were abscess 6.6% (95% CI: 0.2–13), fistula 10.6% (95% CI: 2.5–18.7), pain 33.5% (95% CI: 14.5–52.5), infection 16.1% (95% CI: 3.9–28.4), thrombosis 4.9% (95% CI: 1.2–8.5), pancreatitis 7.2% (95% CI: 3.1–11.2), bleeding 4.2% (95% CI: −0.5–8.9), cholangitis 4.2% (95% CI: −0.5–8.9), nausea 9.6% (95% CI: 4.4–14.8), biliary obstruction 13.8% (95% CI: 4.2–23.3), chest tightness 7.6% (95% CI: 0.5–14.6), and hypoglycemia 5.9% (95% CI: −0.4–12.2). Conclusions. This meta-analysis indicated a clear survival benefit for PC patients who received irreversible electroporation therapy, although future safety and effectivity monitoring from more large-scale studies will be needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By analyzing Zhu Xi and Zhang Zai’s three representative explanatory paradigms—that of Feng Youlan, Mou Zongsan and Zhang Dainian, the paper tries to show that studying Chinese philosophy in a Western way and emphasizing logical consistency will unavoidably lead to the defects of simplicity and partiality. In addition to Buddhism and Daoism, Song-Ming philosophy had also absorbed thoughts from the Pre-Qin, Han, Wei and Jin dynasties. The existence of multiple philosophical thoughts and their new synthesis lead to internal contradictions in Song-Ming philosophy and Li Xue 理学 (Neo-Confucianism in the Song and Ming dynasties). The contradiction between the doctrine of tiandao 天道 (the way in which the world runs) and that of xinxing 心性 (mind and human nature) was even sharper. Li Xue and Xin Xue also overlapped one another. The transition from the doctrine of tiandao to that of xinxing was a long journey. It was begun by Zhu Xi in his later years, and was finally completed by Wang Yangming. Unveiling the complexity and special characteristics of Song-Ming philosophy is a task for scholars on the history of Chinese philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article applies a synthetic approach of philological, religious, philosophical, and cultural studies to explore the original meaning of the terms dao and de, two primary concepts in traditional Chinese intellectual history. Through an etymological analysis of the characters dao and de, and supported by both received and discovered texts and materials, this article demonstrates that dao originally represented the spirit of the Pole Star/High God and the movement of Heaven, and de, in relation to dao, originally represented the impartial virtue and power of Heaven. In terms of this new interpretation, the article further discusses the signification of dao and de in the Laozi to uncover the mystic aspects of the text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yi, a term denoting one of the primary concepts of Confucian ethics, has proven to be one of the most difficult terms to interpret and translate. It has been rendered as ‘righteousness’, ‘rightness’, ‘right conduct’, ‘propriety’, ‘justice’, ‘morality’, ‘duty’, ‘sense of duty’, ‘obligation’, and so forth. The aim of this article is to open new avenues to discuss the original and extended meanings of yi by the means of paleographic, archaeological, and socio-cultural studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on Chinese historian Gu Jiegang's vision of a new China in his studies of ancient history. Gu's historical studies in the context of nationalism; Cultural and ethnic pluralism; Stratification theory.

Sacrifice to mountain and water spirits was already a state ritual in the earliest dynasties of China, which later gradually formed a system of five sacred peaks, five strongholds, four seas, and four waterways, which was mainly constructed by the Confucian ritual culture. A number of modern scholars have studied the five sacred peaks from different perspectives, yielding fruitful results, but major issues are still being debated or need to be plumbed more broadly and deeply, and the whole sacrificial system has not yet drawn sufficient attention. Applying a combined approach of religious, historical, geographical, and political studies, I provide here, with new discoveries and conclusions, the first comprehensive study of the formational process of this sacrificial system and its embodied religious-political conceptions, showing how these geographical landmarks were gradually integrated with religious beliefs and ritual-political institutions to become symbols of territorial, sacred, and political legitimacy that helped to maintain the unification and government of the traditional Chinese imperium for two thousand years. A historical map of the locations of the sacrificial temples for the eighteen mountain and water spirits is appended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Montesquieu wrote that "China is a despotic state whose principle is fear". And indeed, in the early modern context in China, fear and despotism, on the one hand, were opposed to ziyou 自由 ("freedom"), on the other. These constructs created a discursive space in which theorists of the nation-state felt the need to articulate the complex relations binding despotism to fear. By contrast, during the early empires in China a different set of relations was imagined, wherein salutary fear was aligned against both despotism and freedom and, crucially, with according others a proper sense of dignity. For by the arguments of remote antiquity, "submission to instruction and fear of the gods" functioned both as a vital check on despotism and as the key barrier to the unchecked and unhampered self-assertion by subjects and rulers. Yet this notion of ritual operating within a circle of fear it helped to foster has so far escaped scholarly notice, perhaps because it does not square with the ritual theories that dominate our modern discourse and perhaps because such ritual fear has been dismissed easily as remnant, primitive superstition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Dietary methionine is closely related to oxidative stress metabolism. Lambs were treated with methionine restriction and subsequent methionine re-feeding. The relationship among dietary methionine pattern, methionine metabolism, and antioxidant reactions was studied by detecting methionine metabolite content and antioxidant expression in order to provide theoretical basis for amino acid nutrition and healthy feeding of lambs. Our objective was to investigate the effect of methionine restriction and resuming supply on liver antioxidant response in lambs. The concentrations of methionine and its metabolites and the expression of the nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), a redox sensitive factor, were detected after methionine restriction treatment for 50 days and methionine supply recovery for 29 days. The expression of glutathione (GSH) S-transferase (GST), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) were characterized at the level of transcription and translation. Methionine restriction can directly change the content of methionine and its metabolites in plasma and liver, and affect the redox state of lambs by activating the Nrf2 signaling pathway. Liver tissue can adapt to oxidative environment by upregulating the expression of antioxidant enzymes such as GSH-Px and SOD. Moreover, it was found that there was a lag effect in the recovery of metabolism after methionine supplementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]