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Objective To analyze the microflora structure and abundance of ileum and colon of SPF male SD rats by high-throughput sequencing technique.MethodsThe ileal and colonic lumen contents of 30 SPF male SD rats were collected, the total bacterial DNA in the contents was extracted and amplified by PCR. The V3-V4 region of bacterial 16S rRNA in the samples was sequenced using Illumina NovaSeq sequencing platform. Then the species structure and abundance of the intestinal flora were analyzed at the phylum and genus level based on validated data. The diversity and differences between ileal and colonic flora were analyzed using the QIIME software (amplicon) analysis tool. The Tax4Fun program was applied to predict the dominant gene enrichment pathways of ileal and colonic flora.ResultsAt the phylum level, the dominant microflora in the ileum of male SD rats were Firmicutes and Actinobacteria, accounting for more than 98%. The dominant colonic microbial community were mainly Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes, accounting for more than 95%. At the genus level, Lactobacillus and Alistipes were the predominant bacteria in the ileum. The colon was dominated by Lactobacillus and Romboutsia. In terms of flora diversity, the alpha diversity of colonic flora including richness index (Chao1 index) and diversity index (Shannon index) were significantly higher than those of ileum (P < 0.01), and the structural variability of the composition of its flora species was smaller than that of ileum; the ileal flora with significant structural variability were mainly of the phylum Firmicutes, Romboutsia, Peptostreptococcaceae, while the colonic flora had significant structural differences in Bacteroidales. In terms of flora function, the ileal flora dominant genes were significantly enriched in lipid-like metabolism, polyketide metabolism, membrane transport, biodegradation and other pathways, while the colonic flora dominant genes were significantly enriched in glycan biosynthesis metabolism, energy metabolism, biosynthesis of cofactor and vitamins and other products, and other pathways.ConclusionThere are significant differences in structure and abundance between the ileal and colonic flora of SPF male SD rats, and the abundance and diversity of colonic flora are higher than those of ileal flora.

The infant gut microbiome is increasingly recognized as a reservoir of antibiotic resistance genes, yet the assembly of gut resistome in infants and its influencing factors remain largely unknown. We characterized resistome in 4132 metagenomes from 963 infants in six countries and 4285 resistance genes were observed. The inherent resistome pattern of healthy infants (N = 272) could be distinguished by two stages: a multicompound resistance phase (Months 0-7) and a tetracycline-mupirocin-β-lactam-dominant phase (Months 8-14). Microbial taxonomy explained 40.7% of the gut resistome of healthy infants, with Escherichia (25.5%) harboring the most resistance genes. In a further analysis with all available infants (N = 963), we found age was the strongest influencer on the resistome and was negatively correlated with the overall resistance during the first 3 years (p

How much can we infer about the past and future, given our knowledge of the present? Unlike temporally symmetric inferences about simple sequences, inferences about our own lives are asymmetric: we are better able to infer the past than the future, since we remember our past but not our future (i.e., the psychological arrow of time). What happens when both the past and future are unobserved, as when we make inferences about other people’s lives? We had participants view segments of a character-driven television drama. They wrote out what would happen just before or after each just-watched segment. Participants were better at inferring past (versus future) events. This asymmetry was driven by participants’ reliance on characters’ conversational references in the narrative, which tended to favor the past. Our work reveals a temporal asymmetry in how observations of other people’s behaviors can inform us about the past and future.

Understanding how people rate their confidence is critical for the characterization of a wide range of perceptual, memory, motor and cognitive processes. To enable the continued exploration of these processes, we created a large database of confidence studies spanning a broad set of paradigms, participant populations and fields of study. The data from each study are structured in a common, easy-to-use format that can be easily imported and analysed using multiple software packages. Each dataset is accompanied by an explanation regarding the nature of the collected data. At the time of publication, the Confidence Database (which is available at https://osf.io/s46pr/) contained 145 datasets with data from more than 8,700 participants and almost 4 million trials. The database will remain open for new submissions indefinitely and is expected to continue to grow. Here we show the usefulness of this large collection of datasets in four different analyses that provide precise estimations of several foundational confidence-related effects.

Background: The association of lung function with the risk of developing prodromal and clinical-diagnosed Parkinson's disease (PD) and with the risk of mortality among individuals with PD remains unknown. Objective: To prospectively examine the associations of lung function with the risk of prodromal, clinical-diagnosed PD, and PD-related mortality in participants of the UK Biobank. Methods: Included were 452,518 participants free of PD at baseline. Baseline lung function, including forced expiratory volume in 1-s (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC), peak expiratory flow (PEF), and FEV1/FVC ratio, was assessed. Eight prodromal features were measured using self-reported diagnoses, hospital admission, and primary care data. Incident PD cases were identified using linkages with hospital admission, death register, and self-report. Vital status and date of death were provided by the UK National Health Service (NHS) and the NHS Central Register. We used Cox proportional hazard models to evaluate these associations. Results: Poor lung function was associated with higher risk of PD in a dose-response relationship: the adjusted hazard ratio comparing the lowest vs. the highest lung function quintile was 1.18 (95% CI, 1.02– 1.37) for FEV1, 1.14 (95% CI, 0.99– 1.29) for FVC, and 1.23 (95% CI, 1.08– 1.41) for PEF (p-trend <0.05 for all). Similar results were obtained for risk of prodromal PD and mortality among individuals with PD. Conclusions: The current study showed that individuals with poor lung function had a high future risk of prodromal and clinical PD and a higher rate of PD-related mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate correlation between neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR), IL-6 and lymphocyte subsets and prognosis of viral pneumonia complicated with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Methods: A total of 98 patients with viral pneumonia complicated with ARDS admitted to Xinxiang Central Hospital/the Fourth Clinical College from May 2017 to June 2019 were selected, NLR, IL-6 and lymphocyte subsets expressions in patients with different severity were analyzed. Correlation between NLR, IL-6 and lymphocyte subsets levels in prognosis of viral pneumonia complicated with ARDS was analyzed by Pearson correlation. Logistc regression was used to analyze prognostic risk factors of viral pneumonia complicated with ARDS. Results: With aggravation of viral pneumonia complicated with ARDS, NLR and IL-6 levels were significantly increased (P<0.05), while CD3+T, CD4+T and CD19+T cells levels were significantly decreased (P<0.05). Pearson correlation analysis results showed that NLR and IL-6 were positively correlated with prognosis of viral pneumonia complicated with ARDS (P<0.05), while CD3+T, CD4+T, CD19+T and CD8+T cells were negatively correlated with prognosis of ARDS with viral pneumonia (P<0.05). Multivariate Logistic analysis showed that NLR, IL-6, CD3+T and CD19+T cells were risk factors for viral pneumonia complicated with ARDS (P<0.05). Conclusion: Serum NLR, IL-6, CD3+T and CD19+T cells are closely related to severity and prognosis of patients with viral pneumonia complicated with ARDS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porous liquids (PLs) are the combination of porous solid material and flowing liquid, which provides alternative options to solve difficulties in the development of porous solids. With the booming development of PLs since 2015, plenty of syntheses and applications have been reported with a specific focus on gas adsorption. Given the lack of a comprehensive review, this paper reviews the application of PLs in CO2 capture. To start with, ground-breaking case studies are reviewed to help understand the progress of PLs research. Then, as a major part of this paper, studies of PLs for CO2 capture are reviewed separately. Moreover, five basic properties of porous liquids, including stability, viscosity, selectivity, porosity, capacity, and the influencing factors are systemically reviewed respectively. Furthermore, gas storage and release mechanisms in PLs are briefly outlined, and potential processing methods of PLs used for CO2 capture are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacillus subtilis is ubiquitously and broadly distributed in various environments but is mostly isolated from soil. Given that B. subtilis is known as a plant growth‐promoting rhizobacterium in agriculture, we aimed to describe the natural distribution of this species and uncover how biotic and abiotic factors affect its distribution. When comparing different soils, we discovered that B. subtilis group species are most abundant in grasslands but can rarely be isolated from forest soil, even if the soil sample sites are situated in proximity. Differential analysis revealed that spore‐forming bacteria exhibited enrichments in the grassland, suggesting niche overlap or synergistic interactions leading to the proliferation of certain Bacillus species in grassland environments. Network analysis further revealed that Bacillus and other Bacillota established a densely interconnected hub module in the grassland, characterised by positive associations indicating co‐occurrence, a pattern not observed in the forest soil. Speculating that this difference was driven by abiotic factors, we combined amplicon sequencing with physico‐chemical analysis of soil samples and found multiple chemical variables, mainly pH, to affect microbial composition. Our study pinpoints the factors that influence B. subtilis abundance in natural soils and, therefore, offers insights for designing B. subtilis‐based biocontrol products in agricultural settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]