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Kadsura coccinea (Lem.) A. C. Smith is an evergreen liana widely cultivated in China for its economic importance in traditional medicine. Many phytochemical studies on the stems and roots of K. coccinea have shown a variety of biological activities, such as anti-hepatitis, anti-HIV, and anti-tumor (Yang et al. 2020). In July 2021, symptoms of leaf spot were observed in a plantation of K. coccinea in Longan (23°03´N, 107°54´E), Guangxi province, China. The incidence of this disease was 36%, and severity varies from approximately 20 to 40% of leaf surface coverage. Symptoms began as small brown spots that expanded into irregular to nearly flower-shaped lesions. To isolate the pathogen, leaves with spots were collected, sterilized with 75% ethanol for 15 s followed by 2% sodium hypochlorite for 120 s, rinsed three times in sterilized distilled water, cut into 5 × 5 mm pieces, and placed onto potato dextrose agar (PDA) plates. The plates were kept in an incubator at 26°C in the dark for at least 2 days. A total of 27 fungal colonies of similar morphology out of 30 pieces of infected tissues were isolated. Four representative isolates (HBB1 to HBB4) were selected to study for further characterization. Fungal colonies were initially grayish-white and then turned greenish-gray on PDA. The black pycnidium and immature conidia appeared over PDA plates after 18 days. The immature conidia were colorless and transparent, elliptical, and had a single-cell structure. After 5 days, the immature conidia gradually become black and develop into mature conidia. The mature conidia were dark brown and two-celled with longitudinal striations, 20.41–29.93 × 12.42–17.19 μm (average 26.07×14.51 μm; n = 100). For DNA-based identification, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, translation elongation factor 1 alpha (EF1-α), and β-tubulin (TUB) genes of the isolates were amplified and sequenced using the primers ITS1/ITS4 (White et al. 1990), EF1-728F/EF1-986R (Carbone and Kohn 1999), and Bt2a/Bt2b (Glass and Donaldson 1995), respectively. Sequences were submitted to GenBank (Accession nos. MW045412 to MW045415 for ITS, MW065559 to MW065562 for EF1-α, and MW065555 to MW065558 for TUB). A phylogenetic analysis was conducted using the Maximum Likelihood method on concatenated sequences of the three genes, which showed that the four Chinese isolates from K. coccinea were clustered with reference isolates of Lasiodiplodia theobromae including the ex-neotype CBS 164.96. Pathogenicity tests were performed on young, fully expanded leaves of 2-year seedlings. A 10 μL conidial suspension (1×106 conidia/mL) was inoculated on each wound on the left-half leaf and a 10 μL sterile water was inoculated on each wound on the right-half leaf (control). Each treatment was repeated three times. Inoculated leaves were wrapped in plastic bags for 5 days and plants were maintained in a growth chamber at 27°C, 85% relative humidity. Brown leaf spots appeared 5 to 6 days after inoculation, whereas the control leaves treated with sterile water showed no symptoms. All re-isolations from spots produced colonies with the same morphological characters as L. theobromae, completing Koch’s postulates. To our knowledge, this is the first report of L. theobromae causing leaf spot on K. coccinea in China and worldwide. Severe leaf disease caused by L. theobromae threatens K. coccinea production. The disease threatens K. coccinea growth, and effective control measures should be identified to reduce losses.

Jia Yu,1,* Hongyan Sun,2,* Jinhua Zhu,3,* Xintong Wei,1 Hongfei Shi,2 Bin Shen,3 Liyun Ren,1 Yan He,1 Rongyan Zhang,3 Mingzhi Zhang,1 Hao Peng1,4 1Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Medical College of Soochow University, Suzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2Center for Disease Prevention and Control of Tianning District, Changzhou, People’s Republic of China; 3Center for Disease Prevention and Control of Wujiang District, Suzhou, People’s Republic of China; 4Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Preventive and Translational Medicine for Geriatric Diseases, Soochow University, Suzhou, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Hao PengDepartment of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Medical College of Soochow University, 199 Renai Road, Industrial Park, Suzhou, 215123, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86 512 6588 0078Fax +86 512 6588 0052Email penghao@suda.edu.cnObjective: The relationship between obesity and hyperuricemia has been demonstrated by many studies. However, whether or to what extent metabolic condition influents the association between obesity and hyperuricemia was not clear. Here, we aimed to examine the association between obese-metabolic phenotype and hyperuricemia in a large sample of Chinese adults.Methods: According to BMI and metabolic syndrome, obese-metabolic phenotype was defined as metabolically unhealthy obesity (MUO), metabolically healthy obesity (MHO), metabolically unhealthy non-obesity (MUNO) and metabolically healthy non-obesity (MHNO)in the Tianning cohort (N=5072). We conducted a cross-sectional analysis between obese-metabolic phenotype and hyperuricemia, followed by a Mendelian Randomization analysis using GWAS summary data to confirm the causality between uric acid and BMI.Results: The average level of serum UA showed 41.87-higher μmol/L in participants with MHO (β=41.87, P< 0.001) and 63.18-higher μmol/L in participants with MUO (β=63.18, P< 0.001), compared to those with MHNO. Compared to participants with MHNO, those with MUO had the highest likelihood to have hyperuricemia (OR=4.56, P< 0.001), followed by those with MHO (OR=3.32, P< 0.001). Mendelian randomization analysis indicated that uric acid was more likely to be a consequence of BMI (β=0.059, P=6.54× 10− 154).Conclusion: MUO, in comparison with MHO, was significantly associated with hyperuricemia in Chinese adults.Keywords: metabolic syndrome, obesity, serum uric acid, hyperuricemia

IntroductionEndometriosis is a reproductive disorder closely associated with hypoxia stress. Increasing evidences have implied the important roles of angiotensin II (ANG II) receptors in the pathophysiology of endometriosis. Thus, we speculated that Azilsartan (AZL), an ANG II receptor blocker, might have an effective function in controlling endometriosis.Material and methodsThe endometriotic animal model was established in female SD rats (6-8 weeks old, 200-220 g). Rats were divided into sham group and endometriosis (EMS) group. Rats in EMS group were anaesthetized by halothane and a mid-ventral incision was performed to expose the bowels. Human endometrial stromal cell line T-HESC was used for the in vitro assays. The T-HESC cells were cultured in DMEM-F12 mediumwith 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS, Hyclone), and 4 mM L-glutamine, 0.25% HEPES plus necessary antibiotics (Sigma-Aldrich, USA), at 37°C in a humidified atmosphere of 5% CO2.ResultsThe results show that upregulation of ANG II type 1 (AT1) receptor was observed in the endometriotic rat models. Treatment with AZL prevented the development of endometriotic lesions and suppressed the expressions of HIF-1α and cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) in endometriotic rats. In vitro assays proved that hypoxia-induced proliferation, migration, and invasion of T-HESC cells were attenuated by AZL. AZL inhibited the expression levels of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), COX-2, and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) production in hypoxia-induced T-HESC cells. Overexpression of HIF-1α blocked the effects of AZL on T-HESC cells in response to hypoxia.ConclusionsAZL showed therapeutic function on endometriosis through inhibiting hypoxia-induced cell proliferation, migration, and invasion of T-HESC cells via HIF-1α/COX-2/PGE2 signaling.

Objectives: Furin has been associated with hypertension through unclear underlying mechanisms. FURIN promoter methylation may participate in the underlying mechanisms, but no evidence supports this possibility. Here, we performed a prospective analysis to study the association between FURIN promoter methylation and incident hypertension. Methods: DNA methylation levels in the FURIN promoter were quantified by target bisulfite sequencing using peripheral blood from 1043 participants in the Gusu cohort (mean age: 50 years, 30% men) who were free of hypertension at baseline. After an average of 4 years of follow-up, 149 (14.3%) participants developed hypertension. Multiple testing was controlled for by measuring the false-discovery rate. Results: Of the eight CpG loci assayed, DNA methylation levels at Chr15: 91416118 were significantly associated with incident hypertension after adjusting for covariates and multiple testing (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.38, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.17–1.64, q = 0.001). The weighted truncated-product method, which combines single CpG associations, revealed that DNA methylation at multiple CpG sites was jointly associated with incident hypertension (P < 0.001). Using the average methylation level of all CpG sites as a surrogate for FURIN promoter methylation revealed a similar association (HR = 1.36, 95% CI: 1.08–1.72, P = 0.009). Almost all CpG methylations negatively correlated with serum furin levels, which mediated approximately 29.44% of the association between FURIN promoter methylation and incident hypertension. Conclusions: These results suggest that FURIN promoter hypermethylation is associated with an increased risk for hypertension in Chinese adults, partially through suppressing furin expression or excretion.

The sweet potato weevil, Cylas formicarius (Fabricius) (Coleoptera: Brentidae), is a destructive insect pest that damages sweet potatoes both in the field and during storage. To identify new environmentally friendly insecticides to control this insect pest, three assays (olfactory test, anti-feeding assay, and toxicity assay) were conducted to evaluate the efficacy and mode of action of 10 botanical insecticides against C. formicarius adults in 2015 and 2016. Of these 10 botanical insecticides, tea saponin, pyrethrins, and veratrine showed significant repellency in olfactory tests. Eight botanical insecticides showed anti-feeding effects in the feeding choice test. Five botanical insecticides had high toxicity. Among them, the lethal concentrations of rotenone were lowest followed by pyrethrins. The lethal time values of rotenone were shortest followed by nicotine. In conclusion, rotenone, pyrethrins, nicotine, and toosendanin have the potential to control C. formicarius adults. Of these, pyrethrins and toosendanin are more environmentally friendly than rotenone and nicotine and were identified as better insecticides to control C. formicarius. Key words: Toxicity, repellency, anti-feeding, Coleoptera, Brentidae, environmentally friendly insecticides.

Background As a key enzyme of natriuretic peptides system playing an integral role in energy homeostasis, furin may be a potential contributor to obesity. However, the association between furin and obesity has been scarcely studied. This study aims to examine the prospective association between serum furin and abdominal obesity. Methods Waist circumference (WC) was measured twice 4 years apart for a total of 892 Chinese adults free of abdominal obesity at baseline. Abdominal obesity was defined as WC over 85 cm for men and as WC over 80 cm for women. A Cox proportional hazard model was constructed to examine the association of baseline serum furin with incident abdominal obesity. Results After an average 4 years of follow-up, 184 participants developed new abdominal obesity. Baseline serum furin was significantly associated with dynamic body weight during follow-up (β=−0.593, p=0.003). Participants with a higher level of serum furin at baseline were less likely to develop new abdominal obesity compared with those with a lower level of serum furin (HR=0.81, 95% CI 0.67 to 0.97). Conclusions A lower level of serum furin predicts a higher risk of developing future abdominal obesity in Chinese adults. Furin deficiency may be a contributor to abdominal obesity but still needs further investigations.

Corin, a physical activator of atrial natriuretic peptide, has been associated with hypertension with unclear mechanisms. Here, we aimed to examine whetherDNA methylation levels ofOf the 9 CpGs assayed, hypermethylation at all CpGs were significantly associated with a lower level of blood pressure in the discovery sample and eight associations were also significant in the replication sample (all FDR-adjusted p0.05). Serum corin mediated approximately 3.07% (p=0.004), 6.25% (p=0.002) and 10.11% (p=0.034) of the associations of hypermethylation at one CpG (Chr4:47840096) with systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and hypertension, respectively. All these mediations passed the causal inference test.These results suggest that hypermethylation in the

Illicium difengpi B. N. Chang et al., a shrub with aromatic odor in the Illicium genus, is extensively used as a medicinal plant in China. In June of 2020, a leaf spot on I. difengpi with incidence of about sixty percent was observed in a field located in Guilin (25°4'40"N; 110°18'21"E), Guangxi Province, China. Initial leaf symptoms were round spots with gray centers, surrounded by yellow halos. The spots gradually spread and merged. Six samples of symptomatic leaves were collected from six diseased plants, and they were surface disinfested before isolation. Potato dextrose agar (PDA) was used to culture pathogens. Successively, pure cultures were obtained by transferring hyphal tips to new PDA plates. A total of 10 isolates were obtained from the affected leaves. Two single-spore isolates (GX-1 and GX-2) were obtained and confirmed to be identical based on morphological characteristics. The representative isolate GX-2 was selected for further study on morphological and molecular characteristics. The colony of isolate GX-2 was about 4 cm in diameter on a PDA plate in 5 days, dark green with a granular surface, and irregular white edge. Conidia were hyaline, unicellular, oval, narrow at the end with a single apical appendage, and 8.2 to 13.8 × 3.7 to 7.2 µm (n = 50). Spermatia were hyaline, bacilliform with swollen ends, 3.8 to 8.9 × 1.3 to 1.9 µm (n = 50). Morphological characteristics of isolate GX-2 were consistent with the description of Phyllosticta capitalensis (Wikee et al. 2013). The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, translation elongation factor 1-α (tef1-α), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPDH) and actin (ACT) were amplified using primers ITS1/ITS4, EF-728F/EF-986R, Gpd1-LM/Gpd2-LM and ACT-512F/ACT-783R, respectively (Wikee et al. 2013). Sequences were deposited in GenBank with accession numbers OL505439 for ITS, OL539429 for ACT, OL539430 for tef1-α and OL539431 for GPDH. BLAST analysis in GenBank showed that these sequences were 99 to 100% similar to the corresponding ITS (MT649668), ACT (MN958710), tef1-α (MN958711) and GPDH (KU716077) sequences of P. capitalensis. Also, the phylogenetic tree based on genes of ITS, tef1-α, GPDH and ACT by the maximum likelihood method showed that isolate GX-2 clustered together with P. capitalensis. The pathogenicity tests were carried out on a healthy 3 year-old plant in the greenhouse with 80% relative humidity at 25 °C. Four sterilized leaves were wounded with a needle and inoculated with 20 μL spore suspension (1 × 106 spores/ml). Another four sterilized leaves were inoculated with 20 μL sterile water as a control. All plants were incubated in a chamber with 98% relative humidity at 25 ± 1°C. After 12 days, disease symptoms similar to the field were observed on leaves, whereas control plants remained healthy. P. capitalensis was successfully reisolated only from the inoculated leaves and identified based on morphological characters. P. capitalensis caused leaf spots on various host plants around the world (Wikee et al. 2013), including on tea plants in China (Cheng et al. 2019) and oil palm in Malaysia (Nasehi et al. 2020), but it has not been reported on I. difengpi. Thus, this is the first report of P. capitalensis causing leaf spot on I. difengpi. This study will provide an important reference for the control of the disease. The epidemiology of this disease should be investigated in further research.

Epoxiconazole (EPX) has a long half-life in soil and causes various toxicological effects in both the ecosystem and mammals. In this study, eight strains of bacteria capable of degrading EPX were isolated from pesticide-contaminated soil, with strain F1 showing the best effect. This strain was identified as Pseudomonas sp. by 16S rRNA gene sequencing and physiological-biochemical analyses. Our results indicated that strain F1 has a high capacity to degrade EPX, removing 92.1% of EPX within 6 days. The temperature and pH were the two most important environmental factors affecting EPX degradation, followed by substrate concentration and inoculum dose. In addition, strain F1 has a high capacity to promote EPX degradation in soils, with a lower t

Shujing Huang,1,&ast; Hongyan Sun,2,&ast; Jia Yu,3 Hongfei Shi,2 Liyun Ren,3 Yan He,3 Mingzhi Zhang,3 Hao Peng,3,4 Heng Guo1 1Department of Public Health, School of Medicine, Shihezi University, Shihezi, People’s Republic of China; 2Center for Disease Prevention and Control of Tianning District, Changzhou, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Medical College of Soochow University, Suzhou, People’s Republic of China; 4Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Preventive and Translational Medicine for Geriatric Diseases, Suzhou, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Heng GuoDepartment of Public Health, School of Medicine, Shihezi University, North 2nd Road, Shihezi, 832000, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86 993 205 7153Email shzuguoheng@foxmail.comHao PengDepartment of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Medical College of Soochow University, 199 Renai Road, Industrial Park, Suzhou, 215123, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86 512 6588 0078Fax +86 512 6588 0052Email penghao@suda.edu.cnPurpose: Sleep duration was associated with large artery atherosclerosis, but its association with atherosclerosis in lower extremity arteries was not well studied. Together with sleep, physical activity constitutes main component of our daily life and influences sleep. Here, we aimed to examine the independent and joint associations of sleep duration and physical activity with peripheral artery disease (PAD) in Chinese adults.Patients and Methods: In Tianning cohort, night-time sleep duration and physical activity were assessed by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire, respectively, for 5130 participants (51.0± 15.6 years, 58.7% female). PAD was defined as ankle-brachial index (ABI) < 0.9. General linear, and logistic regression models were used to assess the associations of sleep duration and physical activity with PAD. The biological interaction between sleep duration and physical activity on PAD was examined using additive model.Results: Compared to participants sleeping 6– 8.9 h, those sleeping ≥ 9 h had a 0.02 lower ABI (β=− 0.02, P=0.007) and 38% higher odds of PAD (OR=1.38, P=0.035). Compared to physically active participants sleeping 6– 8.9 h, among ≥ 9 h group, physically inactive individuals had significantly increased odds of PAD (OR=2.40, P< 0.001), whereas physically active individuals did not (OR=1.15, P=0.472). On additive scale, attributable proportion due to interaction (0.40, 95% CI: 0.07, 0.73) indicated a significant interaction between sleep duration and physical activity on PAD.Conclusion: Being physically active may attenuate the detrimental association between prolonged sleep duration and PAD. Moreover, we found a significant interaction between prolonged sleep duration and physical inactivity in the prevalence of PAD.Keywords: lower extremity disease, Tianning cohort, sleep duration, joint association, physical activity

As a key enzyme of the natriuretic peptides system, corin may participate in the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Its level in circulation predicted CVD recurrence in patients with myocardial infarction and heart failure, but no study examined this prediction in general populations.This study sought to examine the prospective association between corin and CVD in a community-based population of Chinese adults.The Gusu cohort included 2,498 participants (mean age 53 years, 39% men) who were free of CVD at baseline. Serum corin was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits at baseline and CVD events were followed every 2 years for all participants. A competing-risks survival regression model was used to examine the association between serum corin and CVD.During 10 years of follow-up, 210 participants developed CVD including 88 stroke events. A higher serum corin (after log-transformation) at baseline was significantly associated with an increased risk of CVD (HR: 1.88;A higher serum corin at baseline predicted a higher risk of CVD events and stroke, but not coronary heart disease, in Chinese adults, independent of conventional risk factors. Serum corin may be a predictor for stroke but the underlying mechanism needs further investigation.

Background and aims Osteopontin is implicated in atherosclerosis, and its expression is upregulated in response to brain injury. The aim of this study was to prospectively investigate the associations between plasma osteopontin levels and adverse clinical outcomes in ischemic stroke patients. Methods We measured baseline plasma osteopontin levels in 3545 ischemic stroke patients from the China Antihypertensive Trial in Acute Ischemic Stroke (CATIS). The primary outcome was the composite outcome of death and major disability (modified Rankin scale score ≥3) at 1 year after ischemic stroke, and secondary outcomes included major disability, death, and the composite outcome of death and vascular events. Results During 1 year of follow-up, patients in the fourth quartile of plasma osteopontin had the highest risks of primary outcome, major disability, death, and the composite outcome of death and vascular events. After multivariate adjustment, the odds ratios or hazard ratios (95 % confidence intervals) associated with each standard deviation increase in log-transformed osteopontin were 1.20 (1.09–1.33) for primary outcome, 1.11 (1.00–1.23) for major disability, 1.29 (1.10–1.52) for death, and 1.15 (1.01–1.30) for the composite outcome of death and vascular events. The addition of plasma osteopontin to conventional risk factors significantly improved the risk reclassification for the primary outcome (net reclassification improvement: 16.91%, p Conclusions Elevated plasma osteopontin levels at baseline were associated with increased risks of adverse clinical outcomes at 1 year after ischemic stroke, suggesting that osteopontin is a promising prognostic biomarker for ischemic stroke.

Kadsura coccinea (Lem.) A. C. Smith, an evergreen liana, is widely cultivated in China for its economic importance in traditional medicine. Many phytochemical studies on the stems and roots of K. c...

Background Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), one of the main members of the natriuretic peptides system, has been associated with hypertension and related complications, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are not very clear. Here, we aimed to examine whether DNA methylation, a molecular modification to the genome, of the natriuretic peptide A gene (NPPA), the coding gene of ANP, was associated with hypertension. Methods Peripheral blood DNA methylation of NPPA promoter was quantified by target bisulfite sequencing in 2498 community members (mean aged 53 years, 38% men) as a discovery sample and 1771 independent participants (mean aged 62 years, 54% men) as a replication sample. In both samples, we conducted a single CpG association analysis, followed by a gene-based association analysis, to examine the association between NPPA promoter methylation and hypertension, adjusting for age, sex, education level, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity, fasting glucose, and lipids. Multiple testing was controlled by the false discovery rate approach. Results Of the 9 CpG loci assayed, hypermethylation at 5 CpGs (CpG1, CpG3, CpG6, CpG8, and CpG9) was significantly associated with a lower odds of prevalent hypertension in the discovery sample, and one CpG methylation (CpG1 located at Chr1:11908353) was successfully replicated in the replication sample (OR = 0.82, 95%CI 0.74–0.91, q = 0.002) after adjusting for covariates and multiple testing. The gene-based analysis found that DNA methylation of the 9 CpGs at NPPA promoter as a whole was significantly associated with blood pressure and prevalent hypertension in both samples (all P < 0.05). Conclusions DNA methylation levels at NPPA promoter were decreased in Chinese adults with hypertension. Aberrant DNA methylation of the NPPA gene may participate in the mechanisms of hypertension.

Hypothesis: Corin protein, a physiological activator of the atrial natriuretic peptide, has been associated with hypertension with unclear mechanisms. Its coding gene methylation may be involved in the underlined mechanisms but with no evidence. Objectives: We aimed to examine 1) whether CORIN gene methylation was associated with hypertension and 2) whether this association was mediated by corin protein. Methods: As illustrated in the following picture, peripheral blood DNA methylation of CORIN promoter was quantified by targeted bisulfite sequencing in 2,498 community members (mean aged 53 years, 38% men) as a discovery sample and 1,771 independent participants (mean aged 62 years, 54% men) as a replication sample. We constructed a causal mediation model with DNA methylation as the predictor variable, serum corin as the mediator variable, and blood pressure as the outcome variable, adjusting for age, sex, education level, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity, fasting glucose, lipids, and antihypertensive medications. Multiple testing was controlled by adjusting for the total number of CpG loci tested. Results: Of the 9 CpG loci assayed, hyper-methylation methylation of 8 CpGs was significantly associated with lower systolic blood pressure in the discovery sample and 7 associations were also significant in the replication sample (all FDR-adjusted P P =0.038). Serum corin mediated approximately 2.45% (95%CI: 0.05%-7.00%, P =0.046), 7.15% (95%CI: 0.60%-28.00%, P =0.036), and 6.37% (95%CI: 0.10%-42.00%, P =0.048) of the negative associations of hyper-methylation at this CpG site with systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and hypertension, respectively. Conclusions: Hyper-methylation at CORIN promoter is associated with hypertension, at least partially through suppressing corin expression or excretion.

The accumulation of pesticides in vegetables may have serious effects on human health and ecosystems via food chains; therefore, it is of great importance to investigate the uptake and accumulation behaviours of pesticides in vegetable tissues. In the present study, the uptake, translocation and accumulation of five neonicotinoids, thiamethoxam (THIM), clothianidin (CLO), thiacloprid (THID), acetamiprid (ACE) and dinotefuran (DIN), in komatsuna (Brassica rapa var. perviridis, a vegetable) were investigated. The concentrations of neonicotinoids in vegetable tissues ranged from 0.068 ± 0.002 to 29.6 ± 2.5 mg/kg. During the cultivation (except for the first day), the concentration of each neonicotinoid in shoots was the highest, followed by roots and the soil. The concentrating of neonicotinoids from the soil to roots followed the order of THIM > CLO > THID > DIN > ACE, while the order of the ability of translocation neonicotinoids from roots to shoots was the just opposite. The difference in uptake and translocation behaviours of the test neonicotinoids seems to be not correlated with the octanol/water partition coefficient (logKow), water solubility or dissociation constant (pKa), but significantly correlated with molecular weight. In addition, a greater concentration of the THIM-metabolite clothianidin (M-CLO) was detected in vegetable shoots than in roots and the soil.

Kadsura coccinea (Lem.) A. C. Smith, an evergreen liana, is widely cultivated in China for its economic importance in traditional medicine. Many phytochemical studies on the stems and roots of K. coccinea have shown numerous biological activities, such as anti-tumor, anti-HIV, and anti-oxidant (Yang et al. 2020). In June 2019, an anthracnose on K. coccinea was observed in a plantation in Longan (23°03´N, 107°54´E), Guangxi province. Disease incidence was up to 30% in a plantation. Its symptoms began as small brown spots that expanded into nearly circular spots (Fig. 1A). To isolate pathogen, diseased leaves were collected. The leaves were sterilized with 75% ethanol for 15 s followed by 2% sodium hypochlorite for 90 s, then rinsed three times in sterilized distilled water, cut into 5 × 5 mm pieces, and placed into potato dextrose agar (PDA) plates. The plates were incubated in an incubator at 25°C in dark for 2-3 days. Fungal colonies with similar morphology of 27 isolates were isolated from the 30 infected tissues. Six representative isolates (YB1 to YB6) were selected to further study their characterization. Fungal colonies were grayish-white, orange-yellow conidial masses could be observed in colonies (Fig. 1C). The mature conidia were colorless and transparent, elliptical, and single-celled, 13.0-21.0 × 4.0-8.0 μm (average 16.92 × 5.92 µm; n =100) (Fig. 1B). The DNA sequences of ribosomal internal transcribed spacer region (ITS), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate (GAPDH), calmodulin (CAL), actin (ACT), chitin synthase (CHS-1) and β-tubulin (TUB2) were amplified by PCR using the primer pairs ITS1/ITS4, GDF/GDR, CL1C/CL2C, ACT-512F/ACT-783R, CHS-79F/CHS-354R, and T1/Bt2b (Wang et al. 2020), respectively. Sequences were submitted to GenBank (Accession nos. MZ040489 to MZ040494 for ITS, MZ069043 to MZ069048 for GAPDH, MZ069049 to MZ069054 for CAL, MZ069055 to MZ069060 for ACT, MZ069061 to MZ069066 for CHS-1, and MZ069067 to MZ069072 for TUB2). These sequences were 98%-100% identical to that of reference isolates JX010278, JX010019, JX009709, GQ856775, GQ856730, and JX010410 of Colletotrichum siamense CBS 125378 ex-type recorded in GenBank. Phylogenetic analysis of combined ITS, GAPDH, CAL, ACT, CHS-1, TUB2 genes with 16 sequences obtained from GenBank using maximum likelihood method showed that the six isolates clustered with two reference isolates of Colletotrichum siamense as a distinct clade (Fig. 2). Based on morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analysis, six isolates were identified as C. siamense. Pathogenicity tests were performed on young, fully expanded leaves of 1-year seedlings. Every leaf was punctured at 6 points on the right half and 6 points on the left half using a sterile needle. A 10 μl conidial suspension (1×106 conidia/ml) was inoculated on each wound on the left-half leaf and a 10 μl sterile water was inoculated on each wound on the right-half leaf (control). Each treatment was repeated three times. Inoculated leaves were wrapped in plastic bags for 2 days and after removing the bags, plants were maintained in a growth chamber at 28°C, 80% relative humidity, and a 12-h photoperiod. Anthracnose spots formed 2 to 3 days after inoculation, whereas the control leaves remained symptomless. Morphological characters matched the descriptions of C. siamense. The pathogen was previously reported to cause anthracnose on Aloe vera (Azad et al. 2020), postharvest anthracnose in mango (Liu et al. 2017), pod rot in cacao (Serrato-Diaz et al. 2020). To our knowledge, this is the first report of anthracnose on K. coccinea caused by C. siamense in China.

Furin, a key enzyme of natriuretic peptide system, has been suggested to play a role in microalbuminuria, but the association between furin and microalbuminuria has been scarcely studied. Leveraging a longitudinal cohort of Chinese adults who had urinary albumin measured twice 4 years apart, we examined the cross-sectional and prospective associations of baseline serum furin with microalbuminuria, adjusting for age, sex, education level, smoking, drinking, obesity, blood pressure, glucose, lipids, and antihypertensive medications. The cross-sectional analysis in 2175 participants (53 ± 10 years, 38% men) found that a 10-time higher level of serum furin was significantly associated with a 64% higher risk of having microalbuminuria (OR = 1.64, P = 0.005). The longitudinal analysis found a positive association between baseline serum furin and dynamic elevation of albumin excretion during follow-up. The prospective analysis in 1357 participants free of microalbuminuria at baseline found that a 10-time higher level of serum furin at baseline was significantly associated with a 1.28-time higher risk of developing microalbuminuria 4 years later (OR = 2.28, P

Additional file 1: Supplementary Table S1. Biologic processes for the NPPA gene identified by Gene Ontology (GO). Supplementary Figure S1. The Pearson correlation matrix among DNA methylation levels of all CpG loci assayed in NPPA promoter in the discovery sample. Supplementary Figure S2. Results of the meta-analysis. Supplementary Figure S3. Gene net-work involving the NPPA gene.

OBJECTIVES Although hyperuricemia, microalbuminuria, and hypertension are highly correlated, their temporal relationship is largely unknown. We aimed to examine whether microalbuminuria mediated the association between hyperuricemia and hypertension. METHODS Leveraging a longitudinal cohort including 1981 Chinese adults who had blood pressures, urinary albumin to creatinine ratio (UACR), and uric acid measured twice 4 years apart, we examined the temporal relationships among hyperuricemia, microalbuminuria, and hypertension by cross-lagged panel analysis followed by a causal mediation analysis to confirm the temporal consequence. Age, sex, education level, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity, blood glucose, and lipids were adjusted. RESULTS The cross-lagged panel analysis demonstrated that the relationship from baseline UACR to follow-up uric acid was significantly smaller than that from baseline uric acid to follow-up UACR (β: 0.010 vs. 0.054, P

The cardiovascular protective role of furin has been suggested by some animal-based studies but has not been well studied in humans. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine the prospective association between serum furin and high blood pressure in a longitudinal cohort of Chinese adults. Leveraging a longitudinal prospective cohort with blood pressure examined twice on average 4 years apart, we systemically examined the cross-sectional, longitudinal, and prospective associations of baseline serum furin with blood pressure and incident hypertension. Conventional risk factors, including age, sex, education level, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, BMI, fasting glucose, and lipids, were controlled. All participants included were free of cardiovascular and kidney disease at baseline. The cross-sectional analysis of 2312 participants (mean age 53 years) revealed that individuals with the lowest quartile of serum furin had average systolic, diastolic, and mean arterial blood pressures that were 2.58, 1.38, and 1.61 mmHg higher, respectively, than the corresponding pressures in individuals with the highest quartile (all P

With the combinations of diglycidyl ether diphenolate methyl ester (DGEDP-Me), a rigid high-viscosity bio-based epoxy resin and a flexible lower viscosity epoxy resin from cashew nut shell liquid (NC-514), resin viscosity was controlled and important improvements were realized in cured epoxy resin toughness relative to the neat resins. The viscosities of DGEDP-Me/NC-514 mixtures varied from 660 to 26 Pa.s, and curing was performed using stoichiometric amounts of a diamine cross-linker. Using scanning electron microscopy analysis of fractured surfaces, the cured materials were shown to be one-phase. Furthermore, all resin compositions were transparent and have one alpha transition temperature, confirming resin miscibility. Storage modulus values for cured thermosets range from 3000 to 1000 MPa, and alpha transition temperatures varied linearly (158 to 27°C) as a function of the epoxy resin composition. Oscillatory rheology at different weight percentages of the flexible and rigid epoxy resin components was used to determine the average molecular weight between cross-links which was correlated to material toughness. Relative to the neat high-viscosity resin, 1:1 wt/wt mixtures of the rigid and flexible epoxy resin components gave increases in the impact strength and mode I fracture toughness of 136 and 66%, respectively. Higher percentages of the flexible epoxy resin resulted in decreased toughness.

Centrifugal jet spinning (CJS) is a highly efficient, low-cost, and versatile method for fabricating polymer nanofiber assemblies, especially in comparison to electrospinning. The process uses centrifugal forces coupled with the viscoelastic properties and the mass transfer characteristics of spinning solutions to promote the controlled thinning of a polymer solution filament into nanofibers. In this study, three different spinning stages (jet initiation, jet extension, and fiber formation) were analyzed in terms of the roles of fluid viscoelasticity, centrifugal forces, and solvent mass transfer. Four different polymer solution systems were used, which enables a wide range of fluid viscoelasticity properties and solvent mass transfer properties, and polymer fibers were fabricated under different rotational speeds for these polymer solutions. The key dimensionless groups that determine the product morphology (beads, beads-on-fiber, and continuous fiber) and the radius of the fiber (when fibers are formed)...

Silica nanotubes are widely used in nanotechnology because of their unique properties. In this paper, silica nanotube fibers with wall thickness less than 100 nm and outer diameters ranging between 300 nm and 500 nm are fabricated using the centrifugal jet spinning (CJS) technique with two steps: spinning and annealing. Polyvinylpyrrolidone-silica (PVP-silica) composite fibers are initially spun with engineered spinning solutions. By controlling the degree of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) hydrolysis, unreacted excess TEOS is introduced into spinning solutions to form a dual-solvent system with ethanol. Because of the differential vapor pressures of TEOS and ethanol as well as their differential solubility of PVP and dispersion of silica, dual-solvent evaporation induces phase separation in the spinning solution. This promotes the formation of hollow structure in PVP-silica fibers during spinning. Silica nanotube fibers are obtained with subsequent thermal annealing of PVP-silica composite fibers. The diameter and wall thickness of the silica nanotubes can be controlled by tuning the content of TEOS in the initial spinning solutions. The mechanism of tubular structure formation is also explained and examined with the help of elemental analysis. The method used in this paper can provide a new direction for efficient and large-scale fabrication of nanomaterials with controlled morphologies.

The thermomechanical properties of epoxy filled with two different types of silica nanofillers: spherical nanoparticles and nanofibers were investigated as a function of silica nanofiller aspect ratio and concentration. Results indicated that at room temperature and at 8.74% silica nanofiber concentration (by volume) the thermal conductivity of epoxy increased twofold and coefficient of thermal expansion (CET) decreased by ∼40%. Silica nanofiber filled epoxy showed 1.4 times greater CET and 1.5 times greater thermal conductivity compared to spherical nanoparticle filled epoxy. The significant changes observed in thermomechanical properties of silica nanofiber filled epoxy were attributed to its high aspect ratio by constraining the polymer matrix as well as reducing the phonon scattering due to the formation of a continuous fiber network within the matrix. In addition to being electrically insulating, the improved properties of silica nanofiber filled epoxy make it an extremely attractive material as underfill and encapsulant in advanced electronic packaging industry.

A novel silicone-epoxy oligomer was synthesized and evaluated for its use as the polymer in photopolymerizable dental composites. This synthesized oligomer contained rigid and non-rigid groups with 1-8 epoxy functionalities as characterized using 1H NMR and 29Si NMR and MALDI-TOF analysis. In comparison to the traditional BisGMA/TEGDMA monomer system, the photo-polymerized silicone-epoxy demonstrated significantly improved material properties (148% greater elastic modulus, 12% greater ultimate strength, 48% greater fracture toughness), as well as 61% lower polymerization shrinkage and 58% lower polymerization stresses. Furthermore, the silicone-epoxy system demonstrated enhanced resistance to degradation of its material properties after accelerated (24hr) aging, i.e. exposure to severe hydrolytic (boiling in ethanol at 100 ᵒC), oxidative (exposed to 5% H2O2), and low pH (0.05M acetic acid) stress. Under these conditions, the properties of conventional BisGMA/TEGDMA systems deteriorated by 22-47%, while the properties of the silicone-epoxy composites decreased by 2-10%. Bisphosphonate additives enhanced the precipitation of mineral in a dose-dependent manner, but inhibited polymerization due to interactions with epoxy groups. Bisphosphonate additives also dose-dependently demonstrated anti-bacterial efficacy as demonstrated using live-dead, MTT and crystral violet assays. The silicone-epoxy polymer was demonstrated to be biocompatible when compared to tissue culture plastic. When calcium fluoride was incorporated into this system, fluoride was found to be released quantities significant enough to engender anti-bacterial effects. In summary, the designed multifunctional dental resin exhibits higher stability as demonstrated by lower chemical, mechanical and enzymatic degradation.

Polycationic nanocomplexes are a robust means for achieving nucleic acid condensation and efficient intracellular gene deliveries. To enhance delivery, a multilayered nanoparticle consisting of a core of electrostatically bound elements was used. These included a histone-mimetic peptides, poly-l-arginine and poly-d-glutamic acid was coated with silicate before surface functionalization with poly-l-arginine. Transfection efficiencies and duration of expression were similar when using green fluorescent protein (GFP) plasmid DNA (pDNA) or GFP mRNA. These nanoparticles demonstrated significantly higher (>100%) and significantly longer (15 vs. 4 days) transfection efficiencies in comparison to a commercial transfection agent (Lipofectamine 2000). Reprogramming of human foreskin fibroblasts using mRNA to the Sox2 transcription factor resulted in three-fold higher neurosphere formation in comparison to the commercial reagent. These results demonstrate the potential of these nanoparticles as ideal vectors for gene delivery.

Objective To assess the clinical effects of acupuncture treatment for primary dysmenorrhea.

The centrifugal jet spinning (CJS) method has been developed to enable large-scale synthesis of barium titanate nanofibers. Barium titanate nanofibers with fiber diameters down to 50 nm and grain sizes around 25 nm were prepared with CJS by spinning a sol–gel solution of barium titanate and poly(vinylpyrrolidone) with subsequent heat treatment at 850 °C. XRD and FTIR analyses demonstrated high purity and tetragonal perovskite structured barium titanate nanofibers. SEM and TEM images confirm the continuous high aspect ratio structure of barium titanate nanofibers after heat treatment. It is demonstrated that the CJS technique offers a highly efficient method for large-scale fabrication of ceramic nanofibers at production rates of up to 0.3 g/min.

PLLA fibrous tissue scaffolds with controlled fiber nanoscale surface roughness are fabricated with a novel centrifugal jet spinning process. The centrifugal jet spinning technique is a highly efficient synthesis method for micron- to nano-sized fibers with a production rate up to 0.5 g min(-1). During the centrifugal jet spinning process, a polymer solution jet is stretched by the centrifugal force of a rotating chamber. By engineering the rheological properties of the polymer solution, solvent evaporation rate and centrifugal force that are applied on the solution jet, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and poly(l-lactic acid) (PLLA) composite fibers with various diameters are fabricated. Viscosity measurements of polymer solutions allowed us to determine critical polymer chain entanglement limits that allow the generation of continuous fiber as opposed to beads or beaded fibers. Above a critical concentration at which polymer chains are partially or fully entangled, lower polymer concentrations and higher centrifugal forces resulted in thinner fibers. Etching of PVP from the PLLA-PVP composite fibers doped with increasing PVP concentrations yielded PLLA fibers with increasing nano-scale surface roughness and porosity, which increased the fiber hydrophilicity dramatically. Scanning electron micrographs of the etched composite fibers suggest that PVP and PLLA were co-contiguously phase separated within the composite fibers during spinning and nano-scale roughness features were created after the partial etching of PVP. To study the tissue regeneration efficacy of the engineered PLLA fiber matrix, human dermal fibroblasts are used to simulate partial skin graft. Fibers with increased PLLA surface roughness and porosity demonstrated a trend towards higher cell attachment and proliferation.