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Alternaria alternata, as a main decay fungus of goji berry, can produce mycotoxins such as alternariol (AOH), alternariol monomethyl ether (AME), and tenuazonic acid (TeA). Carvacrol (CVR) has exhibited a broad-spectrum antifungal activity in vitro. We assumed that CVR can also be applied to control Alternaria rot on goji berries and mycotoxins produced by the pathogens. To investigate whether CVR impacts the accumulation of mycotoxins and cell membrane damage of A. alternata, the antifungal activity of CVR on the fungal growth and mycotoxin production was evaluated in this study. The results showed that the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of CVR against A. alternata was 0.12 µL/mL. Meanwhile, the destruction of plasma membrane integrity, cytoplasmic leakage, intracellular oxidative damage, and inhibitory effect in vivo were also observed in A. alternata treated with CVR. Moreover, CVR significantly reduced the accumulation of AOH, AME, and TeA. Transcriptomic profiling was performed by means of comparative RNA-Seq analysis to research the gene expression level of A. alternata, which attested to significant changes in nitrogen metabolism, carbon utilization, fatty acid oxidation, and antioxidant enzymes in CVR-treated A. alternata. This study suggests a new understanding of the molecular mechanism of response to CVR treatment in A. alternata, indicating that CVR is a novel antifungal agent with the potential to be applied to various fungi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To compare the impact of erector spinae plane block (ESPB) and paravertebral block (PVB) on the quality of postoperative recovery (QoR) of patients following laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG). Methods: A total of 110 patients who underwent elective LSG under general anesthesia were randomly assigned to receive either ultrasound-guided bilateral ESPB or PVB at T8 levels. Before anesthesia induction, 40 mL of 0.33% ropivacaine was administered. The primary outcome was the QoR-15 score at 24 hours postoperatively. Results: At 24 hours postoperatively, the QoR-15 score was comparable between the ESPB and PVB groups (131 (112–140) vs. 124 (111–142.5), P = 0.525). Consistently, there was no significant difference in QoR-15 scores at 48 hours postoperatively, numerical rating scale (NRS) pain scores at any postoperative time points, time to first ambulation, time to first anal exhaust, postoperative cumulative oxycodone consumption, and incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) between the two groups (all P > 0.05). No nerve block-related complications were observed in either group. Conclusion: In patients undergoing LSG, preoperative bilateral ultrasound-guided ESPB yields comparable postoperative recovery to preoperative bilateral ultrasound-guided PVB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The needles of 6 species of Pinus bungeana Zucc., Cedrus deodara (Roxb.) G. Don, Pinus tabuliformis Carr., Larix gmelinii (Rupr.) Kuzen., Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica Litv. and Pinus armandii Franch from Gansu were studied. The antioxidant activity of ethanol extracts with different concentrations were determined by DPPH, ABTS and Cupric reducing antioxidant power assays methods. The pine needles with the strongest antioxidant activity were selected using the entropy method for further exploration, in order to provide reference for its further development and application. According to the entropy evaluation method, the 40% ethanol extract exhibited superior antioxidant activity among various ethanol concentrations, while pine needles of Cedrus deodara demonstrated optimal performance among different varieties. Notably, the 40% ethanol extract of Cedrus deodara from Tianshui achieved a remarkable score of 99.52%, highlighting their potential as a valuable resource for further research on anti-aging properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is one of the mycotoxins that poses a serious threat to human and animal health. Curcumin (CUR) is a major bioactive component of turmeric that provides multiple health benefits. CUR can reduce the toxicities induced by mycotoxins, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain largely unknown. To explore the effects of CUR on OTA toxicity and identify the key regulators and metabolites involved in the biological processes, we performed metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses of livers from OTA-exposed mice. We found that CUR can alleviate the toxic effects of OTA on body growth and liver functions. In addition, CUR supplementation significantly affects the expressions of 1584 genes and 97 metabolites. Integrated analyses of transcriptomic and metabolomic data showed that the pathways including Arachidonic acid metabolism, Purine metabolism, and Cholesterol metabolism were significantly enriched. Pantothenic acid (PA) was identified as a key metabolite, the exogenous supplementation of which was observed to significantly alleviate the OTA-induced accumulation of reactive oxygen species and cell apoptosis. Further mechanistical analyses revealed that PA can downregulate the expression level of proapoptotic protein BAX, enhance the expression level of apoptosis inhibitory protein BCL2, and decrease the level of phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (pERK1/2). This study demonstrated that CUR can alleviate the adverse effects of OTA by influencing the transcriptomic and metabolomic profiles of livers, which may contribute to the application of CUR in food and feed products for the prevention of OTA toxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We should take the initiative to seize opportunities, scientifically respond to challenges, reasonably solve problems existing in development. effectively promote the accelerated transformation of development mode and the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure in pastoral areas of Inner Mongolia, and promote their coordinated development, innovative development, green development and modernization. By analyzing the development status of ecology, production and life in pastoral areas of Inner Mongolia, this paper finds out the problems existing in its development, and puts forward policy suggestions.

In this study, HPLC was used to determine the content of shikimic acid in pine trees from different varieties, origins, and parts, in order to provide reference for its further development and application. HPLC test was performed on a 30 °C Agilent Eclipse Plus C18 column (250 mm x 4.6 mm, 5 µm), with the mobile phase comprising of methanol/0.1% phosphoric acid solution (10:90,V/V), and the detection wavelength was set at 217 nm. The differences in the content of shikimic acid were analyzed by visual analysis and cluster analysis methods. The results showed that shikimic acid was linearly good (r=0.999 5), with the average recovery rate of 100.4%(n=6) and the RSD of 1.71%. The content of shikimic acid was in six pine trees from high to low was Cedrus deodara (Roxb) G. Don, Pinus armandi Franch., Pinus bungeana Zucc. ex Endl., Pinus tabulaeformis Carr., Larix gmelinii (Rupr.) Kuzen., and P. sylvestris var. mongolica Litv., in which C. deodara pine needles from Tianshui had the highest content at 31.47 mg/g. The shikimic acid in six pine trees can be divided into three categories by cluster analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Particle discrimination technology is widely used in multiple fields. Phoswich detectors are detectors based on pulse shape discrimination technology that combine two or more scintillators with different time characteristics to achieve particle discrimination. This study focuses on a phoswich detector composed of BGO/EJ-260 and uses machine learning algorithms to classify pulses to achieve β / γ classification. Experiments were conducted using the 137Cs radioactive source and three different models were trained: Gaussian mixture model, support vector machine, and convolutional neural network. The classification capabilities of the three models were tested and the results were discussed. The calculation results show that all three models achieved pulse data classification and accurately marked most pulses to the correct category. The classification ability of low-amplitude pulses by the Gaussian mixture model and support vector machine is limited by data processing, while the convolutional neural network model avoids this problem. For higher amplitude pulses, all three models showed that high classification accuracy, with the convolutional neural network model achieving a classification accuracy of 96.1% in the training set, achieves the expected goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]