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Abstract Establishing specific reference intervals (RIs) of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 [25(OH)D] for children is essential for improving the accuracy of diagnosis and prognosis monitoring of diseases such as rickets and growth retardation. The study including 6,627 healthy children was conducted to establish specific RIs of 25(OH)D for children in Nanning area of China. The results showed that there were statistically significant differences among age, season, and gender of serum 25(OH)D levels, and the age-specific RIs of serum 25(OH)D were 20.3 ~ 53.6 ng/mL for 0 ~ ≤ 1 year and 18.9 ~ 49.6 ng/mL for 2 ~ ≤ 3 years. The age-, season-specific RIs of serum 25(OH)D for 4 ~ ≤ 6 years in spring–summer and autumn–winter were 15.8 ~ 42.6 ng/mL and 15.2 ~ 37.7 ng/mL, respectively. The age-, gender-specific RIs of serum 25(OH)D for 7 ~ ≤ 18 years for males and females were 12.1 ~ 36.1 ng/mL and 10.8 ~ 35.3 ng/mL, respectively. This study successfully established the RIs of serum 25(OH)D, which may help to improve disease diagnosis and monitoring for children in the Nanning area of China.

AbstractPurpose Due to the poor and unpredictable prognosis of breast cancer (BC) patients with bone metastasis, it is necessary to find convenient and available prognostic predictors. This study aimed to recognize the clinical and prognostic factors related to clinical laboratory examination and to construct a prognostic nomogram for BC bone metastasis.Methods We retrospectively analyzed 32 candidate indicators from clinical features and laboratory examination data of 276 BC patients with bone metastasis. Univariate and multivariate regression analyses were performed to identify significant prognostic factors related to BC with bone metastasis. Nomogram was constructed and estimated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, calibration curves, and decision curve analysis.Results Patients were randomly grouped into training (n = 197) and validation cohorts (n = 79). In training cohort, the multivariate regression analysis revealed that age, other organ metastasis sites, serum level of lactate dehydrogenase, globulin, white blood cell count, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin, and monocyte ratio were independent prognostic factors for BC with bone metastasis. The prognostic nomogram in training cohort exhibited areas under the ROC curve (AUCs) of 0.797, 0.782, and 0.794, respectively, for predicting 1-, 3-, and 5-year overall survival. In validation cohort, the nomogram still showed acceptable discrimination ability (AUCs: 0.723, 0.742, and 0.704) and calibration.Conclusion This study constructed a novel prognostic nomogram for BC patients with bone metastasis. It could serve as a potential tool of survival assessment to help individual treatment decision-making for clinicians.

Abstract This paper proposes an adaptive compensation control algorithm for solving the actuator failures problem of nonlinear stochastic multi‐agent systems (MASs) under the directed communication topology. It should be emphasized that the coexistence of unknown nonlinearities, stochastic perturbations and actuator failures makes the implementation of control protocol very difficult and extremely challenging. To achieve the control objective, fuzzy logic systems (FLSs) are first employed to deal with the unknown nonlinearities of each agent. Then, the threshold‐based event‐triggered mechanism is further considered to reduce the communication burden of the system in the case of limited communication resources. Moreover, the issue of “explosion of complexity” is solved by using dynamic surface control (DSC) technique in the process of backstepping design. With these efforts, the actuator failures are circumvented and the outputs of the followers converge to the convex hull spanned by the multiple leaders' outputs. Finally, the simulation results of multiple single‐link robots show the validity of the proposed design scheme.

Conventional eye treatment formulation such as eye drops has shortcomings including low drug utilization and poor patient compliance. The contact lens(CL), well-known as visual correction lens, is considered to be a more promising ophthalmic drug delivery vehicle owing to its good biocompatibility, long-term wearing comfort, prolonged drug residence time and improved bioavailability. In order to improve the drug loading efficiency and prolong the release time, researchers have developed a variety of strategies to modify traditional CL, including the introduction of vitamin E molecular barrier, application of molecular imprinting technology of CL, increasing interactions between the drug and polymer matrix by introducing special genes, and incorporation of nanocarriers or drug-loaded polymer films. In this paper, the preparation methods and pros and cons of drug-loaded CL are reviewed. At last, the existing problems and future developments of CL as ophthalmic drug delivery carrier are briefly discussed.

Abstract Background The pathogenesis of ulcerative colitis (UC) is closely related to the gut microbiota. Moxibustion has been used to improve the inflammation and gastrointestinal dysfunctions in gastrointestinal disorders such as UC. In this study, we investigated whether moxibustion could improve the gut microbial dysbiosis induced by dextran sulphate sodium. Methods Twenty-five male rats were randomly assigned into five groups. The UC rat model was established by administering DSS solution. The rats in the moxibustion and normal rats with moxibustion groups were treated with moxibustion at Tianshu (bilateral, ST25) points, and the mesalazine group rats were treated with mesalazine once daily for 7 consecutive days. Disease activity index (DAI) and haematoxylin and eosin staining were used to evaluate the effect of moxibustion. Gut microbiota profiling was conducted by metagenomic high throughput sequencing technology. The gut microbiota composition, diversity and function were analyzed and compared using metagenomics methodologies. Results The DAI scores and histopathology scores in the moxibustion and mesalazine groups were significantly decreased compared with the UC group (P

In the context of the era of big data,various industries want to train recommendation models based on user behavior data to provide users with accurate recommendations.The common characteristics of the used data are huge amount,carrying sensitive information,and easy to obtain.The recommendation system is sharing users' private data in real time while bringing accurate recommendation and market profit.Differential privacy,as a privacy protection technology,can cleverly solve the problem of privacy leakage in recommendation applications.No matter the attacker has any relevant background knowledge,differential privacy strictly defines privacy protection,and provides quantitative evaluation methods to ensure that the level of privacy protection provided by the data set is comparable.First,the concept of differential privacy and the research on mainstream recommendation algorithms is briefly described.Second,the combined application of differential privacy and recommendation algorithms is analyzed,such as matrix factorization,deep learning recommendation,and collaborative filtering.A large number of comparative experiments have been conducted on recommendation algorithms based on differential privacy technology.Then the application scenarios of the combination of differential privacy and each recommendation algorithm and the remaining problems are discussed.Finally,effective suggestions are put forward for the future development direction of the recommendation algorithm based on differential privacy.

In this paper, the problem of synchronization for neutral-type quaternion-valued neural networks (NQVNNs) with mixed delays is investigated. By making full use of the information of the time-delay state, a linear feedback controller and a novel nonlinear feedback controller are constructed to research the global synchronization and finite-time synchronization of the system respectively. In the case where the activation function of the network is not required to be separated into two complex parts or four real parts, the sufficient conditions of synchronization of NQVNNs are acquired based on establishing appropriate Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional, applying the synchronization method of drive-response and some inequality techniques. The obtained delay-dependent synchronization results are less conservative than some existing ones via numerical example comparisons. Two numerical examples with simulations are provided to verify the effectiveness of the obtained results.

Infectious bursal disease (IBD) is caused by infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV), which has a genome consisting of two segments of double-stranded linear RNA. IBDVs have been traditionally divided into four phenotypes based on their pathogenicity and antigenicity, including classic, variant, very virulent, and attenuated IBDV. With the emergences of divergent molecular characteristics of novel strains produced by continuous mutations and recombination, it is increasingly difficult to define new IBDV strains using the traditional descriptive classification method. The most common classification scheme for IBDV with segmented genome is based solely on segment A, while the significance of segment B has been largely neglected. In this study, an improved scheme for IBDV genotype classification based on the molecular characteristics of both VP2 (a viral capsid protein encoded by segment A) and VP1 (an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase protein encoded by segment B) was proposed for the first time. In this scheme, IBDV was classified into nine genogroups of A and five genogroups of B, respectively; the genogroup A2 was further divided into four lineages. The commonly used phenotypic classifications of classic, variant, very virulent, and attenuated IBDVs correspond to the A1B1, A2B1, A3B2, and A8B1 genotypes of the proposed classification scheme. The novel variant IBDVs including the strains identified in this study were classified as belonging to genotype A2dB1. The flexibility and versatility of this improved classification scheme will allow the unambiguous identification of existing and emerging IBDV strains, which will greatly facilitate molecular epidemiology studies of IBDV.

Despite highly effective vaccines, Marek’s disease (MD) causes great economic loss to the poultry industry annually, largely due to the continuous emergence of new MD virus (MDV) strains. To explore the pathogenic characteristics of newly emerged MDV strains, we selected two strains (AH/1807 and DH/18) with clinically different pathotypes. We studied each strain’s infection process and pathogenicity and observed differences in immunosuppression and vaccine resistance. Specific pathogen-free chickens, unvaccinated or vaccinated with CVI988, were challenged with AH/1807 or DH/18. Both infections induced MD damage; however, differences were observed in terms of mortality (AH/1807: 77.8%, DH/18: 50%) and tumor rates (AH/1807: 50%, DH/18: 33.3%). The immune protection indices of the vaccine also differed (AH/1807: 94.1, DH/18: 61.1). Additionally, while both strains caused interferon-β and interferon-γ expression to decline, DH/18 infection caused stronger immunosuppression than AH/1807. This inhibition persisted even after vaccination, leading to increased replication of DH/18 that ultimately broke through vaccine immune protection. These results indicate that both strains have different characteristics, and that strains such as DH/18, which cause weaker pathogenic damage but can break through vaccine immune protection, require further attention. Our findings increase the understanding of the differences between epidemic strains and factors underlying MD vaccination failure in China.

Abstract Background Hepatitis B virus-related acute-on-chronic liver failure (HBV-ACLF) is a severe condition with high mortality due to lack of efficient therapy. Until now, the use of methylprednisolone (MP) in HBV-ACLF is still controversial. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of MP in HBV-ACLF. Methods Totally 171 HBV-ACLF patients from three medical centers were randomly allocated into MP group (83 patients treated with MP intravenously guttae for 7 days plus standard treatment: 1.5 mg/kg/day [day 1–3], 1 mg/kg/day [day 4–5], and 0.5 mg/kg/day [day 6–7]) and control group (88 patients treated with standard treatment). The primary endpoints were 6-month mortality and prognostic factors for 6-month survival. The survival time, cause of death, adverse events, liver function, and HBV DNA replication were analyzed. Results The 6-month mortality was significantly lower in MP group than control group [32.4% vs. 42.5%, P = 0.0037]. MP treatment was an independent prognostic factor for 6-month survival [HR (95% CI) 0.547(0.308–0.973); P = 0.040]. Factors associated with reduced 6-month mortality in MP group included HBV DNA and lymphocyte/monocyte ratio (LMR) (P 0.05). Conclusions MP therapy is an effective and safe clinical strategy in HBV-ACLF, increasing the 6-month survival rate. Clinical trials registered at http://www.chictr.org.cn as ChiCTR-TRC-13003113 registered on 16 March 2013.

Abstract Background Babesiosis is an emerging tick-borne zoonotic infectious disease. Babesia microti is responsible for most cases of human babesiosis globally. It is important to investigate the prevalence of B. microti in the mammalian host population of a specific region in order to elucidate mechanisms of pathogen transmission and to define geographic areas where humans face the greatest risk of exposure. The aim of this study is to understand the prevalence and genotypes of B. microti in the small mammals that are found in Beijing, China. Methods We trapped small mammals from all of the 16 urban, suburban, and outer suburban districts of Beijing during the years 2014, 2017 and 2018. Genomic DNA was extracted from the heart tissues individually and the Babesia 18S rRNA gene was detected by PCR. The genotypes of B. microti were identified based on sequence alignments and phylogenetic analysis. The morphology of the parasites was observed under light microscopy. The risk factors were analyzed statistically based on both univariate analyses and multivariate logistic regression. Results A total of 1391 small mammals were collected. Positive infection of B. microti was detected in 12.1% (168/1391) of small mammals from 15 out of the 16 districts. Both Kobe-type and U.S.-type B. microti, accounting for 9.5% and 2.7%, respectively, were identified. Classic diverse morphologic forms of B. microti were observed. Specific types of ecological habitats including shrub areas, broad-leaved forest, and cropland were revealed to be risk factors associated with B. microti infection. Conclusions This study demonstrated the wide prevalence of B. microti infection in eight species of small mammals in Beijing, with Kobe-type more prevalent than U.S.-type. This study provides fundamental information for the development of informed prevention and control measures by public health authorities; the data gathered indicates a need for further monitoring of both clinical diseases in individuals presenting with babesiosis-like symptoms, as well as the infection status of ticks in high risk areas.

Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy and outcomes of the coracoid osteotomy with or without Bristow–Latarjet procedures in the treatment of chronic anterior shoulder dislocation (CASD). Methods Between January 2013 and January 2019, 20 shoulders of 18 patients who were diagnosed with chronic anterior dislocation and underwent open reduction in our trauma center were retrospectively studied. Open coracoid osteotomy with Bristow–Latarjet procedures were performed on 16 shoulders and open coracoid osteotomy without Bristow–Latarjet procedures were performed on four shoulders. Open coracoid osteotomy with or without Bristow–Latarjet procedures were chosen on the basis of the stability of the shoulder after reduction. Outcomes were assessed preoperatively and postoperatively with the visual analog scale (VAS) for pain, the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (ASES) score, the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) shoulder rating scale, and the range of motion (ROM) for shoulder activity. Results There were three males and 15 females with an average age of 60.94 ± 2.69 years. The time between dislocation and treatment ranged from 21 to 240 days with an average of 73.3 ± 14.4 days. All patients were available for a mean follow‐up of 15.2 ± 4.3 months. No procedure‐related death or incision‐related superficial or deep tissue infection was identified in all cases. No iatrogenic neurovascular injuries or fractures were found in this study. At the time of 12 months follow‐up, the range of motion and the shoulder functional evaluation (VAS [P

Infectious bursal disease (IBD), caused by IBD virus (IBDV), is one of the most devastating and immunosuppressive diseases of the poultry and has been a constraint on the sustainable poultry production around the globe including Pakistan. While the disease is threatening the poultry industry, the nature of predominant strains of IBDV in Pakistan remained ill-defined. In this study, an epidemiology survey was conducted in the main chicken-farming regions of Pakistan. The batch of Pakistan IBDVs genes simultaneously covering both VP1 and VP2 were amplified, sequenced, and analyzed. The unique segment-reassortant IBDVs (vv-A/Uniq-B), carrying segment A from vvIBDV and segment B from one unique ancestor, were identified as one important type of circulating strains in Pakistan. The data also discovered the characteristic molecular features of Pakistan IBDVs, which will contribute to scientific vaccine selection and effective prevention of the disease.

Immune cells may become less responsive, or ‘exhausted’, upon chronic viral infection, but the underlying mechanism and crosstalk are still unclear. Here the authors show that, upon chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, natural killer cell exhaustion is induced by NKG2A signalling to instruct downstream exhaustion of CD8+ T cells and HCV persistence.

Metastasis is the major feature of gastric cancer (GC) that contributes to poor prognosis. There is an urgent need to identify novel agents targeting GC metastasis. Moringa oleifera Lam (M. oleifera) has long been used by the public as foods for its nutritional and medicinal virtues. However, its anti-metastatic potential against GC remains unknown. Here, we showed that residues of M. oleifera (MO) can specifically suppress metastasis of GC cells at a lower dosage, at least partially through reversing the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Furthermore, RNA-sequencing analysis revealed that a bona fide metastasis suppressor, NDRG1, was significantly upregulated by MO treatment. Knockdown of NDRG1 by a short interfering RNA dramatically attenuated the anti-metastasis effect of MO in GC cells. Thus, we demonstrate that MO suppresses EMT-mediated metastasis of GC by augmenting the metastatic suppressor NDRG1. Our findings also address the potential therapeutic significance of MO in the treatment of GC metastasis.

Abstract Hierarchical SnO2 blooming nanoflowers were successfully fabricated via a simple yet facile hydrothermal method with the help of different surfactants. Here we focus on exploring the promotion effects of surfactants on the self-assembly of 2D SnO2 nanosheets into 3D SnO2 flower-like structures as well as their gas-sensing performances. The polyporous flower-like SnO2 sensor exhibits excellent gas-sensing performances to ethanol and H2S gas due to high porosity when polyvinyl pyrrolidone is added into the precursor solution as a surfactant. The response/recovery times were about 5 s/8 s for 100 ppm ethanol and 4 s/20 s for 100 ppm H2S, respectively. Especially, the maximum response value of H2S is estimated to be 368 at 180 °C, which is one or two orders of magnitude higher than that of other test gases in this study. That indicates that the sensor fabricated with the help of polyvinyl pyrrolidone has good selectivity to H2S.

This paper develops an adaptive radical basis function neural-network (NN)-based controller design strategy that uses integral Lyapunov functions for a class of non-strict-feedback nonlinear systems subject to perturbations. The design difficulty caused by the non-strict-feedback system structure is handled by using the inherent property of the square of neural network's base vector. The design procedure of the adaptive NN tracking controller is presented by using backstepping technique, which can update the adaptive laws at any time and solve the design problem derived from the correlation degree of the controlled plant. The uniform ultimate boundedness and good tracking performance of the derived closed-loop system are ensured with the design controller. Finally, a comparative simulation example is carried out to prove the effectiveness of the proposed control method.

Glycogen serves as the principal energy reserve for metabolic processes in aquatic shellfish and substantially contributes to the flavor and quality of oysters. The Jinjiang oyster (Crassostrea ariakensis) is an economically and ecologically important species in China. In the present study, RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and assay for transposase-accessible chromatin using sequencing (ATAC-seq) were performed to investigate gene expression and chromatin accessibility variations in oysters with different glycogen contents. Analysis identified 9 483 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and 7 215 genes with significantly differential chromatin accessibility (DCAGs) were obtained, with an overlap of 2 600 genes between them. Notably, a significant proportion of these genes were enriched in pathways related to glycogen metabolism, including “Glycogen metabolic process” and “Starch and sucrose metabolism”. In addition, genomewide association study (GWAS) identified 526 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci associated with glycogen content. These loci corresponded to 241 genes, 63 of which were categorized as both DEGs and DCAGs. This study enriches basic research data and provides insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the regulation of glycogen metabolism in C. ariakensis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract A number of condensate reservoirs with high concentrations of H2S have been discovered in the deep dolomite reservoirs of the lower Ordovician Yingshan Formation (O1y) in the Tazhong Uplift, where the formation water has a high pH value. In the O1y reservoir, the concentrations of Mg2+ and SO4 2− in the formation water are higher than those in the upper Ordovician formation. The concentration of H2S in the condensate reservoirs and the concentration of Mg2+ in the formation water correlate well in the O1y reservoirs of the Tazhong Uplift, which indicates a presumed thermochemical sulfate reduction (TSR) origin of H2S according to the oxidation theory of contact ion-pairs (CIPs). Besides, the pH values of the formation water are positively correlated with the concentration of H2S in the condensate reservoirs, which may indicate that high pH might be another factor to promote and maintain TSR. Oil–source correlation of biomarkers in the sulfuretted condensates indicates the Cambrian source rocks could be the origin of condensates. The formation water in the condensate reservoirs of O1y is similar to that in the Cambrian; therefore, the TSR of sulfate-CIPs likely occurred in the Cambrian. High H2S-bearing condensates are mainly located near the No. 1 Fault and NE-SW strike-slip faults, which are the major migration pathway of deep fluids in the Tazhong Uplift. The redox between sulfate-CIPs and hydrocarbons is the generation mechanism of H2S in the deep dolomite condensate reservoirs of the Tazhong Uplift. This finding should be helpful to predict the fluid properties of deep dolomite reservoirs.

Abstract In order to investigate the impact of U-ore on organic matter maturation and isotopic fractionation, we designed hydrous pyrolysis experiments on Type-II kerogen samples, supposing that the water and water–mineral interaction play a role. U-ore was set as the variable for comparison. Meanwhile, anhydrous pyrolysis under the same conditions was carried out as the control experiments. The determination of liquid products indicates that the presence of water and minerals obviously enhanced the yields of C15+ and the amounts of hydrocarbon and non-hydrocarbon gases. Such results may be attributed to water-organic matter reaction in the high-temperature system, which can provide additional hydrogen and oxygen for the generation of gas and liquid products from organic matter. It is found that δD values of hydrocarbon gases generated in both hydrous pyrolysis experiments are much lower than those in anhydrous pyrolysis. What is more, δD values are lower in the hydrous pyrolysis with uranium ore. Therefore, we can infer that water-derived hydrogen played a significant role during the kerogen thermal evolution and the hydrocarbon generation in our experiments. Isotopic exchange was facilitated by the reversible equilibration between reaction intermediaries with hydrogen under hydrothermal conditions with uranium ore. Carbon isotopic fractionations of hydrocarbon gases were somehow affected by the presence of water and the uranium ore. The increased level of i-C4/n-C4 ratios for gas products in hydrous pyrolysis implied the carbocation mechanism for water-kerogen reactions.

Based on density functional theory(DFT), using virtual crystal approximation and generalized gradient approximation(GGA)with pseudopotential method, the lattices and energies for five crystallines of vanadium hydrides are optimized and calculated. The phonon densities of states are calculated based on density functional perturbation theory(DFPT). The standard Heat capacities, Entropies, Helmholtz free energies and Gibbs functions of vanadium and its hydride are deduced at 298.15K. The calculated results are discussed and compared with experimental data.

Infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) is responsible for the highly contagious infectious bursal disease of chickens. Further understanding the gene-function is necessary to design the tailored vaccine. The amino acid residue 279, located on strand PF of VP2, is one of the three residues that have been reported to be involved in cell-tropism but with some inconsistency. In this study, to further clarify the amino acids involved in the cell tropism of IBDV, a series of mutations about residue 279 were introduced into the VP2 of vvIBDV Gx strain. With the reverse genetic system, we found single mutation of D279N, double mutations of D279N/A284T or Q253H/D279N were not enough to adapt IBDV to chicken embryo fibroblast (CEF) cell. To evaluate whether residue 279 could influence the replication and virulence of IBDV, the virus rGxHT-279 with three mutations (Q253H/D279N/A284T) was rescued and evaluated. Results showed that the mutation of residue 279 in VP2 had no efficient effects on both the replication efficiency in vitro and the virulence to SPF chickens of IBDV. In summary, the results demonstrated that residue 279 of VP2 did not contribute efficiently to cell tropism, replication efficiency, and virulence of IBDV at least in some strains. These findings provided further information for understanding the gene function of IBDV.

Objective To determine the optimal timing of electroencephalogram (EEG) in predicting the outcome in patients with massive cerebral hemispheric infarction (MCHI) by evaluating and comparing the EEG changes during different acute stages after onset. Methods A total of 72 MCHI patients were selected to be monitored by bedside EEG at two stages: 1-3 and 4-7 d after onset, respectively. The outcome after 3 months was assessed as good [Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) score 3-5] or poor (GOS score 1-2). Then the predictive accuracy of EEG patterns and gradings (the Synek scale) were calculated and compared between two stages to confirm the optimal timing of prediction. Results In 72 cases, 62.50% (45/72) had good and 37.50% (27/72) had poor outcome 3 months after onset. Benign EEG patterns were protective factors for the outcome of MCHI (1-3 d: RR = 0.357, 95%CI: 0.153-0.834, Mantel-Haenszel χ2 = 6.147, P = 0.013; 4-7 d: RR = 0.240, 95%CI: 0.102-0.564, Mantel-Haenszel χ2 = 13.601, P = 0.000) and they could predict good outcome with incidence rate of 82.14% (23/28)-85.71% (30/35) and the accuracy of 62.50%-72.22% . Malignant EEG patterns at 4-7 d were risk factors for the outcome of MCHI (RR = 2.909, 95%CI: 1.611-5.253, Mantel-Haenszel χ2 = 11.110, P = 0.001), and they could predict poor outcome with incidence rate of 66.67% (16/24) and the accuracy of 73.63%. There was a significant negative correlation between the Synek scale and GOS score both during 1-3 d (rs = - 0.354, P = 0.002) and 4-7 d (rs = - 0.417, P = 0.000) after onset, indicating the higher the Synek scale was, the worse the outcome would be. The accuracy (83.33% vs 70.78%; χ2 = 4.000, P = 0.039), consistency (Kappa test: κ = 0.639, 95%CI: 0.522-0.746 vs κ = 0.406, 95%CI: 0.353-0.459; P = 0.001) and area under curves (0.86 ± 0.05, 95%CI: 0.761-0.958 vs 0.69 ± 0.07, 95%CI: 0.554-0.822; P = 0.002) of the Synek scale for prediction of long-term outcome during 4-7 d after onset were significantly higher than those during 1-3 d after onset. Conclusions EEG patterns and the Synek scale during 1-3 d after MCHI onset could be used to evaluate the severity of brain injury and to further guide medical treatment, while the Synek scale during 4-7 d after onset could be used to evaluate the long-term outcome and treatment with a high accuracy. DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1672-6731.2015.12.005

Staphylococcus argenteus is an emerging pathogen that is recognized as non-pigmented Staphylococcus aureus. However, the molecular characteristics of S. argenteus and its virulence factors have not been well studied. The present study analyzed 96 isolates of S. argenteus recovered from blood. Identification of S. argenteus was based on results of MALDI-TOF MS and lacking crtM gene. All 96 isolates were methicillin-susceptible. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) revealed four sequence types: ST2250 (n = 72), ST2793 (n = 12), ST1223 (n = 10), and ST2198 (n = 2). All 72 ST2250 isolates harbored CRISPR loci with polymorphism of direct repeats and spacers, but no other STs carried CRISPR loci. To date, ST2793 isolates have rarely been reported in other countries. Collagen-binding adhesin gene (cna) and staphylococcal enterotoxin type C (sec) were detected in 12 (100%) and 8 (67%) ST2793 isolates, respectively. ST1223 has been reported as food poisoning pathogens, and enterotoxin gene clusters (egc) were detected in all 10 isolates, while seb gene was detected in three isolates. Two ST2198 isolates carried bone sialoprotein-binding protein gene (bbp), belonging to agr type IV. Our focus on the heterogeneity of molecular characterization in four ST types of S. argenteus revealed that S. argenteus had been isolated as early as 2000. Each ST type of S. argenteus harbors particular genetic markers that may contribute to their virulence.

Wampee is one of the characteristic fruits in southern China, and its brittle and thin skin can easily be damaged. In this study, principal components analysis (PCA) and minimum noise fraction (MNF) analysis were carried out on the two wampee varieties by hyperspectral imaging technology, and 680nm was determined to be the optimal characteristic wavelength. The accurate recognition rate obtained from PCA algorithm for wampee samples of two varieties was about 83.75%, and that obtained from MNF algorithm for two variety samples was 85%. It was indicated that the wampee damaged can be identified more accurately and effectively by MNF based on hyperspectral imaging technology

Petrogenesis of lacustrine dolostone is closely related with paleo-lake water conditions. Here we report the high spatial-resolution petrographic and geochemical results of a lacustrine dolomite nodule from the Qingshankou Formation, the Songliao Basin. Sedimentary and elemental signatures confirm the protogenetic origin of this nodule and its effectiveness in recording geochemical characteristics of paleolake water during dolomitization. The low Y/Ho ratios, middle rare earth element (MREE) enrichment and subtle positive Eu anomalies within the nodule indicate a fresh water source. However, the Sr isotope values in the core of the nodule (0.7076-0.7080) are close to contemporaneous seawater (0.7074), yet different from the modern river (0.7120) and the host black shale (0.7100). On the premise of excluding the influence of hydrothermal fluids, the significantly low strontium isotope values of the lacustrine dolomite might be caused by seawater interference during dolomitization. Our findings demonstrate that lacustrine dolomite within black shales is not only a faithful tracer of diagenetic water environment, but also a novel and easily identified mineralogical evidence for episodic seawater intrusion event (91 Ma) in the Songliao Basin, which supplements other paleontological and geochemical evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is a powerful endocrine hormone modulating glucose and lipid metabolism and represents a promising drug for type 2 diabetes. The present study was to determine the effect of FGF21 on high glucose-induced damage and dysfunction in endothelial cells. Methods: The protein expression of β-klotho was examined in human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVECs) using immunofluorescence and Western blotting. HUVECs were cultured in medium with normal glucose (NG), high glucose (HG) and HG + FGF21 (30 nM). Cell viability, migration, reactive oxygen species (ROS), malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase, nitric oxide (NO) production, intracellular cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) phosphorylation at Ser-1177/Ser-633 sites were measured. Results: β-klotho, the anchor protein of FGF21, is expressed in HUVECs. Administration of FGF21 prevented HG-induced impairment of cell viability, migration, oxidant stress, NO production and intracellular cGMP levels in HUVECs. FGF21 also rescued HG-induced decrease of eNOS phosphorylation at Ser-1177 and Ser-633. HG and FGF21 had no effects on eNOS phosphorylation at Ser-617 and Thr-495. Inhibition of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), but not Akt or Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II, abolished the protective effect of FGF21 on eNOS phosphorylation at Ser-1177. The protective effect of FGF21 on eNOS phosphorylation at Ser-633 was also abolished by inhibition of AMPK but not by Akt or cAMP-dependent protein kinase A. Conclusion: Our results provide the first evidence that FGF21 protects against high glucose induced cell damage and eNOS dysfunction in an AMPK-dependent manner in HUVECs, and suggest that FGF21 may be a promoting therapeutic agent for vascular complications in diabetes.

Marek’s disease (MD) virus (MDV) has been evolving continuously, leading to increasing vaccination failure. Here, the MDV field strain BS/15 was isolated from a severely diseased Chinese chicken flock previously vaccinated with CVI988. To explore the causes of vaccination failure, specific-pathogen free (SPF) chickens vaccinated with CVI988 or 814 and unvaccinated controls were challenged with either BS/15 or the reference strain Md5. Both strains induced MD lesions in unvaccinated chickens with similar mortality rates of 85.7% and 80.0% during the experimental period, respectively. However, unvaccinated chickens inoculated with BS/15 exhibited a higher tumor development rate (64.3% vs. 40.0%), but prolonged survival and diminished immune defects compared to Md5-challenged counterparts. These results suggest that BS/15 and Md5 show a similar virulence but manifest with different pathogenic characteristics. Moreover, the protective indices of CVI988 and 814 were 33.3 and 66.7 for BS/15, and 92.9 and 100 for Md5, respectively, indicating that neither vaccine could provide efficient protection against BS/15. Taken together, these data suggest that MD vaccination failure is probably due to the existence of variant MDV strains with known virulence and unexpected vaccine resistance. Our findings should be helpful for understanding the pathogenicity and evolution of MDV strains prevalent in China.

Lithospermic acid B (LAB), an active component isolated from Salvia miltiorrhiza radix, has been reported to have antioxidant effects. We examined the effects of LAB on the prevention of diabetic retinopathy in Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima Fatty (OLETF) rats, an animal model of type 2 diabetes.LAB (10 or 20 mg/kg) or normal saline were given orally once daily to 24-week-old male OLETF rats for 52 weeks. At the end of treatment, fundoscopic findings, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression in the eyeball, VEGF levels in the ocular fluid, and any structural abnormalities in the retina were assessed. Glucose metabolism, serum levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP1), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα) and urinary 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) levels were also measured. Treatment with LAB prevented vascular leakage and basement membrane thickening in retinal capillaries in a dose-dependent manner. Insulin resistance and glucose intolerance were significantly improved by LAB treatment. The levels of serum hsCRP, MCP1, TNFα, and urinary 8-OHdG were lower in the LAB-treated OLETF rats than in the controls.Treatment with LAB had a preventive effect on the development of diabetic retinopathy in this animal model, probably because of its antioxidative effects and anti-inflammatory effects.

BackgroundAvian reovirus (ARV) causes arthritis, tenosynovitis, runting-stunting syndrome (RSS), malabsorption syndrome (MAS) and immunosuppression in chickens. σB is one of the major structural proteins of ARV, which is able to induce group-specific antibodies against the virus.Methods and resultsThe present study described the identification of two linear B-cell epitopes in ARV σB through expressing a set of partially overlapping and consecutive truncated peptides spanning σB screened with two monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) 1F4 and 1H3-1.The data indicated that (21)KTPACW(26) (epitope A) and (32)WDTVTFH(38) (epitope B) were minimal determinants of the linear B cell epitopes. Antibodies present in the serum of ARV-positive chickens recognized the minimal linear epitopes in Western blot analyses. By sequence alignment analysis, we determined that the epitopes A and B were not conserved among ARV, duck reovirus (DRV) and turkey reovirus (TRV) strains. Western blot assays, confirmed that epitopes A and B were ARV-specific epitopes, and they could not react with the corresponding peptides of DRV and TRV.Conclusions and significanceWe identified (21)KTPACW(26) and (32)WDTVTFH(38) as σB -specific epitopes recognized by mAbs 1F4 and 1H3-1, respectively. The results in this study may have potential applications in development of diagnostic techniques and epitope-based marker vaccines against ARV groups.