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Background and Aims: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is a common occurrence in liver transplantation (LT) even in an era of preventive strategies. However, the diagnosis of CMV colitis remains challenging. This study aimed to focus on the clinical significance of endoscopic biopsy-proven CMV colitis in patients following living donor liver transplantation (LDLT). Methods: From January 2007 to December 2021, a total of 55 CMV colitis cases were retrospectively enrolled and divided into a non-LDLT group in 53 and an LDLT group in 2 cases. Clinical demographics, diagnostic measurement, histopathology, and anti-viral therapy were investigated. Results: There were 1630 cases undergoing LDLT in the period 2007–2021, with only 2 recipients being confirmed to have CMV colitis in 2021 (2/114, 1-year incidence: 1.75%). Comparisons between the 53 non-LDLT cases and 2 LDLT cases are as follows: Serum anti-CMV immunoglobulin M (IgM) was shown to be positive (n = 3, 5.5% vs. n = 0, p = 1.0) and negative (n = 20, 37.7% vs. n = 2, 100%, p = 0.16); anti-CMV immunoglobulin G (IgG) was positive (n = 19, 35.8% vs. n = 2, 100%, p = 0.14) and none were negative; CMV DNAemia was shown to be detectable (n = 14, 26.4% vs. n = 1, 50%, p = 0.47) and undetectable (n = 14, 26.4% vs. n = 1, 50%, p = 0.47). Among the two recipients with CMV colitis, one had CMV DNAemia and the other had no CMV DNAemia upon the development of symptoms; negative anti-CMV-IgM and positive anti-CMV-IgG were observed both pre-transplant and post-transplant; finally, CMV colitis was documented based on the presence of inclusion bodies and positive immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining in histology. Conclusion: Patients with immunocompromised status, in particular organ transplantation, may have positive serum anti-CMV IgM/IgG antibodies both before and after transplantation. This study emphasized the fact that endoscopic biopsy with IHC staining may be a more powerful tool for making an accurate diagnosis of CMV colitis in the setting of living donor liver transplantation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electronic and nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of Al13-TCNQ/F4-TCNQ were systematically investigated using density functional theory methods. The Al13-TCNQ/F4-TCNQ complex has a high ionization potential of 7.51/6.71 eV and a strong binding energy of 1.93/2.39 eV, indicating its high structural stability. The stability of the complexes is confirmed through atom-centered density matrix propagation simulation at different temperatures up to 2000 fs. TCNQ/F4-TCNQ (electron donor) interacts with Al13 to form a charge-transfer framework, and F4-TCNQ is a stronger electron acceptor. A113-TCNQ and A113-F4-TCNQ complexes exhibit excellent NLO responses [static first and second hyperpolarizability (β0 and γ0), hyper-Rayleigh scattering coefficient (βHRS), frequency-dependent first hyperpolarizability β(−2ω; ω, ω) and β(−ω; ω, 0)], which are crucial evaluation indexes for designing NLO materials. The static and dynamic hyperpolarizability increases with the enhancement of the electron-acceptor capacity, for example, the β0 value of Al13-F4-TCNQ (92 275 au) is larger than that of Al13-TCNQ (76 720 au). The absorption spectrum reveals that these molecules have deep ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) transparent regions, and hence are new UV and IR NLO molecules. Therefore, linking an Al13 cluster with TCNQ/F4-TCNQ is an effective strategy to design stable potential candidates for high-performance NLO molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steroidal glycoalkaloids (SGAs), the nitrogen-containing compounds produced primarily by Liliaceae and Solanaceae species, are toxic to animals and humans and have putative roles in defense against pests. UDP-glycosyltransferases (UGTs) catalyze the final glycosylation steps of SGA biosynthesis. Although previously published studies focused on the effect of UGT proteins on SGA biosynthesis, research to understand the effects of constitutive overexpression of UGTs on plant phenotype and fruit development is limited. The constitutive overexpression of a UGT encoding gene, GAME 17, may provide an alternative method to study the role of UGTs on the fruit development. In this study, we have identified 162 SlUGT proteins in tomato that are classified into t 23 groups. Gene structure and motif analyses have demonstrated that all SlUGTs have similar intron/exon distribution and motif compositions. RNA-seq data analysis has shown that SlUGTs exhibit differential expression patterns in different organs or different stages of fruit development. When the constitutive promoter 35S is used to control the expression of GAME 17, we have observed significant differences in growth parameters (i.e., plant height, leaf length, leaf width, internode length, and stem diameter) between WT and transgenic plants under high-CO2 conditions, and slight differences in growth parameters between WT and transgenic plants have beendetected. In addition, the contents of glucose, fructose, and soluble sugar of transgenic plants are significantly higher than those of WT plants. The increases in glucose, fructose, and soluble sugar in transgenic tomato fruits at three developmental stages under high-CO2 conditions are significantly higher than under natural conditions. This study provides additional evidence that the GAME 17 gene plays an important role in controlling plant phenotype and sugar homeostasis, especially in environments with high concentration of CO2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Asthma mortality among children and adolescents at the national level in China was unreported. The aim of this study was to analyze the mortality of asthma among children and adolescents in China using a nationally representative database. Methods: This was a descriptive study using data from the Disease Surveillance Points (DSPs) system. All asthma‐related deaths among children and adolescents aged 0–19 years occurring in DSPs across China from 2008 to 2018 were included. Multilevel Poisson regression models were used to compute the total, age-, gender-, region- and residence-specific asthma mortality rates and to investigate the significance of trends and factors associated with asthma mortality. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics were used to estimate the national asthma deaths. Results: Total asthma mortality rate among Chinese children and adolescents fluctuated between 0.020 (0.009, 0.045) and 0.059 (0.025, 0.137) per 100,000 and showed an overall downward trend (RR, 0.909; 95% CI 0.854–0.968) during the study period (2008–2018). Asthma mortality rate was higher in the western China (RR 2.356, 95% CI 1.513, 3.669) and varied over a ninefold range among DSPs in China. The estimated number of deaths decreased by 51.38% from 2008 (n = 148; 95% CI 58,379) to 2018 (n = 71; 95% CI 34, 109). Conclusions: Asthma mortality rate among children and adolescents in China was at a low level compared to rates worldwide and decreased significantly from 2008 to 2018. Compared with most countries in the world, the number of asthma deaths was higher in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relativistic Bethe–Salpeter method is adopted to study the OZI-allowed strong decays of the 2 + state B 2 ∗ (5747) 0 , with emphasis on the relativistic corrections. We first study the partial waves in the wave functions used and find that there are P, D, and F partial waves in the B 2 ∗ (5747) 0 meson, with ratios of P / D / F = 1 : 0.421 : 0.051 . We also find that S / P / D = 1 : 0.354 : 0.046 for B ∗ , and S / P = 1 : 0.343 for the B meson. The large components of the D wave in B 2 ∗ (5747) 0 and the P wave in B (∗) mean that large relativistic effects exist in these states. Second, we calculate the strong decays, and the total decay width Γ (B 2 ∗ (5747) 0) = 25.9 MeV and the branching fraction Γ (B 2 ∗ (5747) 0 → B ∗ π) / Γ (B 2 ∗ (5747) 0 → B π) = 0.96 obtained are consistent with experimental data. Third, we study the contributions of different partial waves in the initial and final wave functions, and find that the relativistic effects are about 15 % and 11 % for B 2 ∗ (5747) 0 → B π and B 2 ∗ (5747) 0 → B ∗ π , respectively, which are much smaller than our expected effects, showing that the relativistic corrections cancel each other in these decays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Symmetric covalent organic frame-work (COF) photocatalysts generally suffer from inefficient charge separation and short-lived photoexcited states. By performing density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) calculations, we find that partial substitution with one or two substituents (N or NH2) in the linkage of the representative symmetric COF (N0-COF) gives rise to the separation of charge carriers in the resulting COFs (i.e., N1-COF, N2-COF, (NH2)1-N0-COF, and (NH2)2-N0-COF). Moreover, we also find that the energy levels of the highest occupied crystal orbital (HOCO) and the lowest unoccupied crystal orbital (LUCO) of the N0-COF can shift away from or toward the vacuum level, depending on the electron-withdrawing or electron-donating characters of the substituent. Therefore, we propose that partial substitution with carefully chosen electron-withdrawing or electron-donating substituents in the linkages of symmetric COFs can lead to efficient charge separation as well as appropriate HOCO and LUCO positions of the generated COFs for specific photocatalytic reactions. The proposed rule can be utilized to further boost the photocatalytic performance of many symmetric COFs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]