Search

In order to investigate the epidemic characteristics of economically motivated food adulteration (EMA) in China, we analyzed the frequency and/or percentage of parameters of EMAs from 2000 to 2020. A total of 6477 EMAs were collected from a portal based in China and evaluated, the results showed that 69% of the EMAs were identified through supervisions and 95.7% EMAs were discovered in the sale process. The top three specifications of EMA information were listed as follows: the regions were Guangdong, Shandong, and Henan; the fraud means were illegal addition, substitution or dilution, and unqualified hygiene; the food types were meat, vegetable, and fruit. Our findings indicated that supervision of the production process of the main food types is of utmost importance to prevent EMA, according to adulterating phase, fraud means, and adulterer type.

SALT OVERLY SENSITIVE1 (SOS1) is a key component of plant salt tolerance. However, how SOS1 transcription is dynamically regulated in plant response to different salinity conditions remains elusive. Here, we report that C-type Cyclin1;1 (CycC1;1) negatively regulates salt tolerance by interfering with WRKY75-mediated transcriptional activation of SOS1 in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Disruption of CycC1;1 promotes SOS1 expression and salt tolerance in Arabidopsis because CycC1;1 interferes with RNA polymerase II recruitment by occupying the SOS1 promoter. Enhanced salt tolerance of the cycc1;1 mutant was completely compromised by an SOS1 mutation. Moreover, CycC1;1 physically interacts with the transcription factor WRKY75, which can bind to the SOS1 promoter and activate SOS1 expression. In contrast to the cycc1;1 mutant, the wrky75 mutant has attenuated SOS1 expression and salt tolerance, whereas overexpression of SOS1 rescues the salt sensitivity of wrky75. Intriguingly, CycC1;1 inhibits WRKY75-mediated transcriptional activation of SOS1 via their interaction. Thus, increased SOS1 expression and salt tolerance in cycc1;1 were abolished by WRKY75 mutation. Our findings demonstrate that CycC1;1 forms a complex with WRKY75 to inactivate SOS1 transcription under low salinity conditions. By contrast, under high salinity conditions, SOS1 transcription and plant salt tolerance are activated at least partially by increased WRKY75 expression but decreased CycC1;1 expression.

A series of luminescence phosphors M0.955Al2 –xGaxSi2O8∶Eu2+ (M=Ca, Sr, Ba, x = 0~1.0) were prepared via solid-state reaction in weak reductive atmosphere. The lattice positions were discussed. It was found that when Ga3+ entered MAl2Si2O8 lattice and substituted Al3+, complete solid solutions formed. The lattice parameters (a, b, c) and unit cell volume of phosphors M 0.955Al2 –xGaxSi2O8: Eu2+ (M=Ca, Sr, Ba, x = 0~1.0) increased linearly, the lattice parameters (α, β,γ) of Ca0.955Al2–xGaxSi2O8∶Eu2+(CAS) decreased linearly and the lattice parameter β of Sr0.955Al2–xGaxSi2O8∶Eu2+(SAS) and Ba0.955Al2–xGaxSi2O8∶Eu2+(BAS) increased linearly as Ga3+ content increased.

Regulation of seed germination is important for plant survival and propagation. ABSCISIC ACID (ABA) INSENSITIVE5 (ABI5), the central transcription factor in the ABA signaling pathway, plays a fundamental role in the regulation of ABA-responsive gene expression during seed germination; however, how ABI5 transcriptional activation activity is regulated remains to be elucidated. Here, we report that C-type Cyclin1;1 (CycC1;1) is an ABI5-interacting partner affecting the ABA response and seed germination in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). The CycC1;1 loss-of-function mutant is hypersensitive to ABA, and this phenotype was rescued by mutation of ABI5. Moreover, CycC1;1 suppresses ABI5 transcriptional activation activity for ABI5-targeted genes including ABI5 itself by occupying their promoters and disrupting RNA polymerase II recruitment; thus the cycc1;1 mutant shows increased expression of ABI5 and genes downstream of ABI5. Furthermore, ABA reduces the interaction between CycC1;1 and ABI5, while phospho-mimic but not phospho-dead mutation of serine-42 in ABI5 abolishes CycC1;1 interaction with ABI5 and relieves CycC1;1 inhibition of ABI5-mediated transcriptional activation of downstream target genes. Together, our study illustrates that CycC1;1 negatively modulates the ABA response by interacting with and inhibiting ABI5, while ABA relieves the CycC1;1 interaction with and inhibition of ABI5 to activate ABI5 activity for the ABA response, thereby inhibiting seed germination.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a common malignant tumor. Alcohol consumption is positively correlated with CRC malignant metastasis; however, the mechanism is unclear. The interaction between laminin-γ2 (LAMC2) and integrin-β1 (ITGB1) plays a role in premetastatic niche signaling, which may induce epithelial mesenchymal transformation (EMT) and lead to metastasis.To investigate the effects of alcohol on CRC metastasis from the molecular mechanism of the premetastatic niche.The interaction between LAMC2 and ITGB1 was measured by Duolink assay, and the expression levels of LAMC2, ITGB1 and focal adhesion kinase (FAK), snail, fibronectin, N-cadherin and special AT-rich sequence binding protein 1 (SATB1) were measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, immunohistochemistry and western blotting. Interleukin-1β (IL-1β), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and IL-6 levels were measuredThe lymph node metastasis rate was higher in the alcohol group than non-alcohol group. There was a significant increase in interaction signals between LAMC2 and ITGB1, and an increase in phosphorylate-FAK/FAK, snail, fibronectin, N-cadherin and SATB1, whereas E-cadherin was reduced in the alcohol group compared to the non-alcohol group in both animal and clinical samples. Serum IL-1β, TNF-α and IL-6 were higher in alcohol group than in non-alcohol group. Alcohol may promote CRC metastasis by influencing the molecular mechanism of the premetastatic niche.Our study suggests that alcohol promotes EMT-mediated premetastatic niche formation of CRC by activating the early interaction between LAMC2 and ITGB1 and lead to CRC metastasis.

Low phosphate (LP) in soil is a common nutrient stress that severely restricts agricultural production, but the role, if any, of the major stress phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) in plant phosphate (Pi) starvation responses remains elusive. Here, we report that LP-induced ABA accumulation promotes Pi uptake in an ABA INSENSITIVE5 (ABI5)-dependent manner in Arabidopsis thaliana. LP significantly activated plant ABA biosynthesis, metabolism, and stress responses, suggesting a role of ABA in the plant response to Pi availability. LP-induced ABA accumulation and expression of two major high-affinity phosphate transporter genes PHOSPHATE TRANSPORTER1;1/1;4 (PHT1;1/1;4) were severely impaired in a mutant lacking BETA-GLUCOSIDASE1 (BG1), which converts conjugated ABA to active ABA, and the mutant had shorter roots and less Pi content than wild-type plants under LP conditions. Moreover, a mutant of ABI5, which encodes a central transcription factor in ABA signaling, also exhibited suppressed root elongation and had reduced Pi content under LP conditions. ABI5 facilitated Pi acquisition by activating the expression of PHT1;1 by directly binding to its promoter, while overexpression of PHT1;1 completely rescued its Pi content under LP conditions. Together, our findings illustrate a molecular mechanism by which ABA positively modulates phosphate acquisition through ABI5 in the Arabidopsis response to phosphate deficiency.

In order to explore the concentrations of heavy metals and the influence of fencing on Hongze lake, the content, source, and spatial distribution characteristics of heavy metals in surface sediments and ecological risks were analyzed in 2018 after part of the fence around Hongze Lake was removed. The results showed that the average contents of Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Cd, and Pb in the surface sediments in Hongze Lake were 66.78, 33.89, 25.35, 74.77, 16.55, 0.23, and 27.20 mg·kg

With the rapid development of the modern economy, transportation safety and security are becoming critical. The standards for the management of transportation systems are also becoming higher and higher. The modern real-time control technology is integrated into the real-time control of the intelligent traffic system. This paper establishes a smart transportation system that uses traffic pavement cameras to detect traffic flow in a specific period. The system used the background difference method based on the Gaussian model and the Camshift algorithm based on the Kalman filter. It is mainly divided into background modeling, foreground detection, vehicle tracking, and vehicle flow calculation. After background detection, remove the background parts and then use foreground detection to accurately extract different vehicle types of various models that need to be processed. Through tracking and scientific statistics of the detected targets, real-time traffic flow data is calculated. The traffic flow changes are intuitively fed back to the system users in a line chart. Thus significantly reduce the manual part’s workload, effectively improve the efficiency and effectiveness of traffic management.

As an ideal hydrogen production route, electrolyzed water still faces the challenges of high cost of noble-metal electrocatalysts and low performance of non-noble-metal catalysts in scalable applications. Recently, introduction of external fields (such as magnetic fields, light fields, etc.) to improve the electrocatalytic water splitting performance of non-noble-metal catalysts has attracted great attention due to their simplicity. Here, a simple method for preparing magnetic superstructure (NiFe2O4@MOF-74) is described, and the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) behavior of its carbonized derivative, a ferromagnetic superstructure, is revealed in a wide range of applied voltage under an AC magnetic field. The overpotential (@10 mA cm–2) required for the HER of the obtained ferromagnetic superstructure in 1 M KOH was reduced by 31 mV (7.7%) when a much small AC magnetic field (only 2.3 mT) is applied. Surprisingly, the promotion effect of the AC magnetic field is not monotonically increasing with the increase of the applied voltage or the strength of AC magnetic field, but increasing first, then weakening. This unusual behavior is believed to be mainly caused by the enhanced induced electromotive force and the additional energy by the applied AC magnetic field. This discovery provides a new idea for adjusting the performance of electrocatalytic reactions.\ud \ud

As an ideal hydrogen production route, electrolyzed water still faces the challenges of high cost of noble-metal electrocatalysts and low performance of non-noble-metal catalysts in scalable applications. Recently, introduction of external fields (such as magnetic fields, light fields, etc.) to improve the electrocatalytic water splitting performance of non-noble-metal catalysts has attracted great attention due to their simplicity. Here, a simple method for preparing magnetic superstructure (NiFe

ZnO based varistors with high voltage gradient and excellent mechanical and thermal properties were fabricated by Ga2O3 doping and using nanoparticles. The compositions and microstructure of the varistors, as well as their electrical, mechanical and thermal properties were investigated by XRD, XPS, SEM, E-J, C-V, mechanical and thermal expansion measurements. Also, the mechanism of Ga2O3 addition on electrical and mechanical properties of the varistors was discussed detailedly. Results showed that the added Ga2O3 preferentially occupied the lattice position of ZnO crystal through the formation of a substitutional solid solution (Donor doping), they then occupied the void position through the formation of an interstitial solid solution (Acceptor doping), in which residual Ga2O3 existed in the grain boundary and served as inversion boundaries. The formation of the substitutional and interstitial solid solutions helped to improve the electrical properties, when the Ga2O3 content was 0.40 mol%, E1mA, α and K were 1235.00 V·mm− 1, 46.0 and 1.37, respectively, being due to the small particle size and the relative content of donor, acceptor and grain boundary in ZnO grain; The increased content of inversion boundaries stimulated the abnormal growth of ZnO grain, and the formed plate-like grain helped to improve the mechanical properties and thermal expansion coefficient of the varistors, values of σf, Ef, and KIC reached 147.43 MPa, 213.61 GPa and 2.05 MPa·m1/2, showing improvements of 25.29%, 47.67%, and 38.51%, respectively, compared with those of ZnO varistors without Ga2O3.

To investigate the distribution, source, and ecological risk of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) residues in Lake Gucheng, surface water, sediment, and biological samples were collected from 12 sampling sites of Lake Gucheng and its inlets and outlets during summer and winter, and the concentrations of 19 OCPs were analyzed. The results showed that the concentration (dry weight) of OCPs in Lake Gucheng ranged from 26.74 to 48.12 ng·L

Normal cells mainly rely on oxidative phosphorylation as an effective energy source in the presence of oxygen. In contrast, most cancer cells use less efficient glycolysis to produce ATP and essential biomolecules. Cancer cells gain the characteristics of metabolic adaptation by reprogramming their metabolic mechanisms to meet the needs of rapid tumor growth. A subset of cancer cells with stem characteristics and the ability to regenerate exist throughout the tumor and are therefore called cancer stem cells (CSCs). New evidence indicates that CSCs have different metabolic phenotypes compared with differentiated cancer cells. CSCs can dynamically transform their metabolic state to favor glycolysis or oxidative metabolism. The mechanism of the metabolic plasticity of CSCs has not been fully elucidated, and existing evidence indicates that the metabolic phenotype of cancer cells is closely related to the tumor microenvironment. Targeting CSC metabolism may provide new and effective methods for the treatment of tumors. In this review, we summarize the metabolic characteristics of cancer cells and CSCs and the mechanisms of the metabolic interplay between the tumor microenvironment and CSCs, and discuss the clinical implications of targeting CSC metabolism.

Background: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) prescriptions should be decided according to the TCM treatment principle, and the warming-yang or cooling-heat should be the guide of treatment principle outline. Methods: In order to identify which treatment principle, warming-yang or cooling-heat should be combined with epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), we combined the typical warming-yang drug, Shen-fu (SF), and the typical cooling-heat drug, Qing-kai-ling (QKL) with gefitinib in resistant NSCLC models. Results: The results demonstrated that QKL combined with gefitinib induced significantly increased cell viability inhibition and apoptosis in A549 cell line and significantly smaller tumor volume and lower tumor weight in H1975 xenograft transplanted nude mice. On the contrary, SF combined with gefitinib had significant antagonism effect on both cell viability inhibition and apoptosis in vitro , and on tumor weight in vivo . EGFR phosphorylation inhibition and the downstream PI3K/AKT and RAS/RAF/ERK pathway inhibition served an important role in the synergism effect between QKL and gefitinib in H1975 xenograft transplanted nude mice. Conclusions: The present study indicated that cooling-heat TCM treatment principle may reverse or delay NSCLC resistance to EGFR-TKIs, and combination of them warrants further study.

In this paper, we explore the effect of using different convolutional layers, batch normalization and the global average pooling layer upon a convolutional neural network (CNN) based gaze tracking system. A novel method is proposed to label the participant&rsquo, s face images as gaze points retrieved from eye tracker while watching videos for building a training dataset that is closer to human visual behavior. The participants can swing their head freely, therefore, the most real and natural images can be obtained without too many restrictions. The labeled data are classified according to the coordinate of gaze and area of interest on the screen. Therefore, varied network architectures are applied to estimate and compare the effects including the number of convolutional layers, batch normalization (BN) and the global average pooling (GAP) layer instead of the fully connected layer. Three schemes, including the single eye image, double eyes image and facial image, with data augmentation are used to feed into neural network to train and evaluate the efficiency. The input image of the eye or face for an eye tracking system is mostly a small-sized image with relatively few features. The results show that BN and GAP are helpful in overcoming the problem to train models and in reducing the amount of network parameters. It is shown that the accuracy is significantly improved when using GAP and BN at the mean time. Overall, the face scheme has a highest accuracy of 0.883 when BN and GAP are used at the mean time. Additionally, comparing to the fully connected layer set to 512 cases, the number of parameters is reduced by less than 50% and the accuracy is improved by about 2%. A detection accuracy comparison of our model with the existing George and Routray methods shows that our proposed method achieves better prediction accuracy of more than 6%.

Most eye-tracking experiments are limited to single subjects because gaze points are difficult to track when multiple users are involved and environmental factors might cause interference. To overcome this problem, this paper proposes a method for gaze tracking that can be applied for multiple users simultaneously. Four models, including FASEM, FAEM and FAFRCM in the signal-user environment, as well as FAEM and FAMAM in the multiple-user environment, are proposed, and we collected raw data of gazing behaviors to train the models. Through a modified VGG19 architecture and adjusting the Number of Convolutional Layers (NoCL), we obtained and compared the accuracy of various models to determine the most suitable architecture. Since data for multiple-users is not easy to obtain, in this paper, we trained the model first with single users, then extended it to multiple users with transfer learning. Finally, we propose an adaptive method to integrate the benefits of FAEM and FAMAM.

This study proposes a novel approach using YOLO based deep learning network to help the teacher grading 3D modeling objects created by the learners automatically. The training dataset is the collections of rendering outputs from the teacher's 3D modeling object. The testing data is the rendering outputs of the learners' projects. The grading will rely on the testing results of recognition confidences. This is an initial study from draft inspiration by the deep learning network on object detections and recognitions. More applications and modifications are to be discussed, designed and examined in further studies.

In this paper, the effect of the raw particle size and the annealing process on the compositions, microstructure, mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties of ZnO varistors was investigated using X-ray diffraction, infrared, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, electric field–current density, capacitance–voltage, mechanical, and thermal expansion measurements. Furthermore, the ZnO grain growth mechanism during the annealing process was discussed in detail. Results show that when the raw particle size equaled 90 nm and sintering was performed at 1100 °C for 2 h, the obtained ZnO-based varistors possessed excellent mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties; the E1mA, α, JL, and K values were 1015.3 V mm–1, 37.98, 2.45 μA cm–2, and 1.37, respectively, due to the highest bulk density and the finest uniform particle size distribution. When annealing occurred at 300 °C for three times, values of σf, KIC, E1mA, α, JL, and K reached 175.35 MPa, 1.96 MPa m1/2, 1180.2 V mm–1, 43.58, 2.15 μA cm–2, and 1.2, indicating improvements of approximately 14.7%, 4%, 16.2%, 14.7%, − 12.2%, and 11.11% compared with those of the non-annealed ZnO-based varistors, respectively, being due to the improved uniformity of grain size distribution and the re-distribution of donor Al3+ and Y3+ in the ZnO crystal and grain boundary. The annealing process lead to the transformation of Sb3+ to Sb5+ in the ZnO crystal, which could generate two additional coordination sites. The newly generated sites could combine with O2- in other crystals to increase the grain growth, resulting in clear grain growth on the surface, improved grain size distribution, and regular grain shape in the interior of ZnO-based varistors.

// Huihui Chen 1, * , Wei Lu 1, 3, * , Chongjie Huang 2, * , Kefeng Ding 1 , Dajing Xia 3 , Yihua Wu 3, 4 and Mao Cai 2 1 Department of Oncology, Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University College of Medicine, Hangzhou, China 2 Department of Anorectal Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children’s Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China 3 Department of Toxicology, Zhejiang University School of Public Health, Hangzhou, China 4 Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Zhejiang University School of Public Health, Hangzhou, China * These authors have considered co-first authors Correspondence to: Mao Cai, email: caicai20012001@sina.com Yihua Wu, email: georgewuer@126.com Keywords: ZEB family, digestive cancer, prognostic value, cohort-based analysis, secondary analysis Received: October 02, 2016 Accepted: November 24, 2016 Published: February 23, 2017 ABSTRACT Background: Digestive cancers are common malignancies worldwide, however there are few effective prognostic markers available. In this study we comprehensively investigated the prognostic significance of ZEB1 and ZEB2 in digestive cancers. Methods: Electronic databases were searched and studies met the selection criteria were included. Study information was recorded and quality assessment was performed according to the REMARK guideline. Hazard ratios and its corresponding 95% confidence intervals were extracted and pooled. Sensitivity analyses, subgroup analyses, cumulative meta-analyses and secondary analyses were also performed to increase the stability and reliability of our results. Results: 24 cohort studies were included in the study. High ZEB1 and ZEB2 levels predicted poor overall survival, meanwhile high ZEB2 levels predicted poor disease free survival for digestive cancer patients. From subgroup analyses we observed ZEB1 was found to be significantly associated with poor overall survival for patients with pancreatic cancer, gastric cancer and colorectal cancer, while ZEB2 was found to be significantly associated with poor overall survival for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and gastric cancer. Furthermore, by conducting secondary analyses we confirmed both ZEB1 and ZEB2 played important roles in gastric cancer prediction. In addition, we found high ZEB1 and ZEB2 expression were significantly associated with depth of invasion, lymph node metastasis and TNM stage in digestive cancer patients. Conclusions: The present study validated the prognostic value and clinicopathological association of ZEB1 and ZEB2 in digestive cancers, especially in gastric cancer.

As extremely important inflammatory cells in the tumor microenvironment, tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) can secrete a variety of chemokines and cytokines, which play an important role in the occurrence of tumor growth and metastasis. Recent years, increasing studies have shown that macrophages are associated with tumor chemotherapy sensitivity. The chemical substances produced by macrophages affect the efficacy of chemotherapeutic agents. In addition, some chemotherapeutic agents have an effect on the recruitment and bioactivity of macrophages in the tumor issue, which influences the anti-tumor efficacy of chemotherapy drugs. In this review, we summarize the roles of macrophages in the chemotherapy resistance, including the regulatory mechanism and the strategy of targeting macrophages.

Accumulated evidence suggests that M2-like polarized tumor associated macrophages (TAMs) plays an important role in cancer progression and metastasis, establishing TAMs, especially M2-like TAMs as an appealing target for therapy intervention. Here we found that metformin significantly suppressed IL-13 induced M2-like polarization of macrophages, as illustrated by reduced expression of CD206, down-regulation of M2 marker mRNAs, and inhibition of M2-like macrophages promoted migration of cancer cells and endothelial cells. Metformin triggered AMPKα1 activation in macrophage and silencing of AMPKα1 partially abrogated the inhibitory effect of metformin in IL-13 induced M2-like polarization. Administration of AICAR, another activator of AMPK, also blocked the M2-like polarization of macrophages. Metformin greatly reduced the number of metastases of Lewis lung cancer without affecting tumor growth. In tumor tissues, the percentage of M2-like macrophage was decreased and the area of pericyte-coated vessels was increased. Further, the anti-metastatic effect of metformin was abolished when the animals were treated with macrophages eliminating agent clodronate liposome. These findings suggest that metformin is able to block the M2-like polarization of macrophages partially through AMPKα1, which plays an important role in metformin inhibited metastasis of Lewis lung cancer.

This paper proposes a method to explore the navigation of audience by estimating gaze points and labeling them to the objects of video or web content. The cluster based gaze estimation and statistics based labeling method are proposed to support the multiple user environments as well as improve the accuracy and usability. In addition, the number of feature clusters is accorded as the amount of areas of target screen. Additionally, statistics based labeling method is proposed to mapping the gaze points to target object by computing the probability. Moreover, this method can provide a good manner to estimate the attentive objects. The visualization of attentive blocks and the amount of probabilities are presented to illustrate the navigation of audience as attentive object. Therefore, this visualization method can exhibit the navigation behavior of audience more real, besides overcomes the problem of difficult labeling objects. The experimental results demonstrate the proposed method provide more robustness for long range as well as diversity environments.

4-Amino-2-Trifluoromethyl-Phenyl Retinate (ATPR) is one of the retinoid derivatives designed and synthesized in our team. In this paper, we explored the potential anti-tumor effects of ATPR in breast cancer. Here we found that ATPR showed remarkable anti-proliferative effects in a dose- and time-dependent manner, caused cell cycle arrest in the G0/G1 phase and significantly increased the expression of retinoid receptor-induced gene-1 (RRIG1). ATPR decreased the expression of phosphorylation-ERK (p-ERK) and increased the expression of estrogen receptor β (ERβ) and phosphorylation-p38 (p-p38). Following RRIG1 knockdown by RNAi interference, we found that the changes of ERβ, p-ERK and p-p38 induced by ATPR were both depressed. Our data suggest that ATPR could inhibit the proliferation and induce differentiation of MCF-7 cells via mediating the expression of RRIG1.

For the purpose of construction an effective element model, the US- FE-LSPIM TRI3 element formulation, which is based on the concept of unsymmetric finite element formulation, is established. Classical linear triangle shape functions and FE-LSPIM TRI3 element shape functions are used as test and trial functions respectively. Classical linear triangle shape functions fulfill the requirements of continuity in displacement field for test functions. The FE-LSPIM TRI3 element shape functions synthesize the individual strengths of meshfree and finite element methods so they are more proper for trial functions. The element is applied in free vibration analysis of two dimension solids. Typical benchmark problems are solved. The results show that this element is more accurate and capable of good performances under both regular and irregular meshes.