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The human brain can effortlessly recognize and localize objects, whereas current 3D object detection methods based on LiDAR point clouds still report inferior performance for detecting occluded and distant objects: The point cloud appearance varies greatly due to occlusion, and has inherent variance in point densities along the distance to sensors. Therefore, designing feature representations robust to such point clouds is critical. Inspired by human associative recognition, we propose a novel 3D detection framework that associates intact features for objects via domain adaptation. We bridge the gap between the perceptual domain, where features are derived from real scenes with sub-optimal representations, and the conceptual domain, where features are extracted from augmented scenes that consist of non-occlusion objects with rich detailed information. A feasible method is investigated to construct conceptual scenes without external datasets. We further introduce an attention-based re-weighting module that adaptively strengthens the feature adaptation of more informative regions. The network's feature enhancement ability is exploited without introducing extra cost during inference, which is plug-and-play in various 3D detection frameworks. We achieve new state-of-the-art performance on the KITTI 3D detection benchmark in both accuracy and speed. Experiments on nuScenes and Waymo datasets also validate the versatility of our method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To assess whether preoperative facet joint parameters in patients with degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis (DS) are risk factors for cage subsidence (CS) following transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF).We enrolled 112 patients with L4-5 DS who underwent TLIF and were followed up for > 1 year. Preoperative demographic characteristics, functional areas of paraspinal muscles and psoas major muscles (PS), total functional area relative to vertebral body area, functional cross-sectional area (FCSA) of PS and lumbar spine extensor muscles, normalized FCSA of PS to the vertebral body area (FCSA/VBA), lumbar indentation value, facet joint orientation, facet joint tropism (FT), cross-sectional area of the superior articular process (SAPA), intervertebral height index, vertebral Hounsfield unit (HU) value, lordosis distribution index, t-scores, sagittal plane parameters, visual analog scale (VAS) for low back pain, VAS for leg pain, Oswestry disability index, global alignment and proportion score and European quality of life-5 dimensions (EQ-5D) were assessed.Postoperative CS showed significant correlations with preoperative FO(L3-4), FT (L3 and L5), SAPA(L3-5), L5-HU, FCSA/VBA(L3-4), Pre- T-score, post-6-month VAS for back pain and EQ-5D scores among other factors. According to ROC curve analysis, the optimal decision points for FO(L3-4), L3-SAPA, FCSA/VBA(L3-4), L5-HU, and Pre- T-score were 35.88°, 43.76°,114.93, 1.73, 1.55, 136, and − 2.49.This study identified preoperative FO, SAPA, preoperative CT, Pre- T-score and the FCSA/VBA as independent risk factors for CS after TLIF for DS. These risk factors should enable spinal surgeons to closely monitor and prevent the occurrence of CS.Methods: To assess whether preoperative facet joint parameters in patients with degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis (DS) are risk factors for cage subsidence (CS) following transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF).We enrolled 112 patients with L4-5 DS who underwent TLIF and were followed up for > 1 year. Preoperative demographic characteristics, functional areas of paraspinal muscles and psoas major muscles (PS), total functional area relative to vertebral body area, functional cross-sectional area (FCSA) of PS and lumbar spine extensor muscles, normalized FCSA of PS to the vertebral body area (FCSA/VBA), lumbar indentation value, facet joint orientation, facet joint tropism (FT), cross-sectional area of the superior articular process (SAPA), intervertebral height index, vertebral Hounsfield unit (HU) value, lordosis distribution index, t-scores, sagittal plane parameters, visual analog scale (VAS) for low back pain, VAS for leg pain, Oswestry disability index, global alignment and proportion score and European quality of life-5 dimensions (EQ-5D) were assessed.Postoperative CS showed significant correlations with preoperative FO(L3-4), FT (L3 and L5), SAPA(L3-5), L5-HU, FCSA/VBA(L3-4), Pre- T-score, post-6-month VAS for back pain and EQ-5D scores among other factors. According to ROC curve analysis, the optimal decision points for FO(L3-4), L3-SAPA, FCSA/VBA(L3-4), L5-HU, and Pre- T-score were 35.88°, 43.76°,114.93, 1.73, 1.55, 136, and − 2.49.This study identified preoperative FO, SAPA, preoperative CT, Pre- T-score and the FCSA/VBA as independent risk factors for CS after TLIF for DS. These risk factors should enable spinal surgeons to closely monitor and prevent the occurrence of CS.Results: To assess whether preoperative facet joint parameters in patients with degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis (DS) are risk factors for cage subsidence (CS) following transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF).We enrolled 112 patients with L4-5 DS who underwent TLIF and were followed up for > 1 year. Preoperative demographic characteristics, functional areas of paraspinal muscles and psoas major muscles (PS), total functional area relative to vertebral body area, functional cross-sectional area (FCSA) of PS and lumbar spine extensor muscles, normalized FCSA of PS to the vertebral body area (FCSA/VBA), lumbar indentation value, facet joint orientation, facet joint tropism (FT), cross-sectional area of the superior articular process (SAPA), intervertebral height index, vertebral Hounsfield unit (HU) value, lordosis distribution index, t-scores, sagittal plane parameters, visual analog scale (VAS) for low back pain, VAS for leg pain, Oswestry disability index, global alignment and proportion score and European quality of life-5 dimensions (EQ-5D) were assessed.Postoperative CS showed significant correlations with preoperative FO(L3-4), FT (L3 and L5), SAPA(L3-5), L5-HU, FCSA/VBA(L3-4), Pre- T-score, post-6-month VAS for back pain and EQ-5D scores among other factors. According to ROC curve analysis, the optimal decision points for FO(L3-4), L3-SAPA, FCSA/VBA(L3-4), L5-HU, and Pre- T-score were 35.88°, 43.76°,114.93, 1.73, 1.55, 136, and − 2.49.This study identified preoperative FO, SAPA, preoperative CT, Pre- T-score and the FCSA/VBA as independent risk factors for CS after TLIF for DS. These risk factors should enable spinal surgeons to closely monitor and prevent the occurrence of CS.Conclusions: To assess whether preoperative facet joint parameters in patients with degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis (DS) are risk factors for cage subsidence (CS) following transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF).We enrolled 112 patients with L4-5 DS who underwent TLIF and were followed up for > 1 year. Preoperative demographic characteristics, functional areas of paraspinal muscles and psoas major muscles (PS), total functional area relative to vertebral body area, functional cross-sectional area (FCSA) of PS and lumbar spine extensor muscles, normalized FCSA of PS to the vertebral body area (FCSA/VBA), lumbar indentation value, facet joint orientation, facet joint tropism (FT), cross-sectional area of the superior articular process (SAPA), intervertebral height index, vertebral Hounsfield unit (HU) value, lordosis distribution index, t-scores, sagittal plane parameters, visual analog scale (VAS) for low back pain, VAS for leg pain, Oswestry disability index, global alignment and proportion score and European quality of life-5 dimensions (EQ-5D) were assessed.Postoperative CS showed significant correlations with preoperative FO(L3-4), FT (L3 and L5), SAPA(L3-5), L5-HU, FCSA/VBA(L3-4), Pre- T-score, post-6-month VAS for back pain and EQ-5D scores among other factors. According to ROC curve analysis, the optimal decision points for FO(L3-4), L3-SAPA, FCSA/VBA(L3-4), L5-HU, and Pre- T-score were 35.88°, 43.76°,114.93, 1.73, 1.55, 136, and − 2.49.This study identified preoperative FO, SAPA, preoperative CT, Pre- T-score and the FCSA/VBA as independent risk factors for CS after TLIF for DS. These risk factors should enable spinal surgeons to closely monitor and prevent the occurrence of CS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Visual landscape satisfaction was positively correlated with soundscape evaluation. • Architectural aesthetics contributed most to the soundscape evaluation. • An SEM of "visual landscape factors–soundscape evaluation" was built. • Relationship between visual landscape and soundscape was analyzed via VR experiments. The visual landscape influences the soundscape experience of urban public spaces. The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationships among visual landscape factors and soundscape evaluation of old residential areas and determine their main influencing factors. In Tianjin, China, six typical old residential areas were selected to collect sound and video information. Virtual reality (VR) was used to create an evaluation environment, and subjective evaluations of the visual landscape and soundscape were accessed through questionnaire (N = 256). The results show that the evaluation of soundscape and visual landscape satisfaction of the central square in the old residential area is superior to that of the public space along the street, as affected by spatial location, sound characteristics and other factors. Greenery satisfaction, environmental cleanliness, and architectural aesthetics were significantly positively correlated with soundscape evaluation. Additionally, three latent variables, namely, visual landscape factors, spatial factors and soundscape evaluation factors, were identified through factor analysis, and a structural equation model (SEM) of "visual landscape factors – soundscape evaluation" was built. The visual landscape factors in old residential areas were found to be important factors affecting soundscape evaluation. The standardization coefficient was 0.46 (P ≤ 0.01). Although the spatial factors have no direct contribution to the soundscape evaluation of the old residential areas, its observation variable, environmental cleanliness, is significantly positively correlated with all the observed variables of the soundscape evaluation factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To explore the clinical utility of detecting chromosome copy number variants (CNVs) in the fetus by noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) using the low-pass whole-genome sequencing.Methods: Eight hundred and seventy-three singleton pregnancies with chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA) available between January 2017 to December 2019 and stored enough plasma sample for NIPT testing were included in this study. The CMA results show that forty-eight pregnancies with CNVs and eight hundred and twenty-five pregnancies are normal. Each pregnancy's plasma sample was blindly tested with NIPT at a depth of 0.51-1.19x for CNVs detection. The performance of the NIPT method for CNVs detection compared with the CMA method is evaluated.Results: A total of fifty-two CNVs ranging from 0.1-47.3 Mb identified in forty-eight samples were identified by NIPT, of which thirty-four CNVs were consistent with CMA results. Additionally, eighteen CNVs were missed by NIPT. The overall sensitivity and specificity for the detection of CNVs were 65.38% (95% CI: 51.76%-76.89%) and 97.45% (95% CI: 96.12%-98.35%), respectively. However, for the detection of CNVs larger than 2 Mb and CNVs less than 2Mb, the sensitivities were 81.58% (95% CI: 66.27%-91.09%) and 21.43% (95% CI: 6.84%-48.32%), respectively.Conclusion: Our study demonstrated that the NIPT might be an alternative method for screening CNVs comparable with other studies. However, CNVs less than 2Mb in length shows poor sensitivity by NIPT. Noninvasive CNVs detection based on the NIPT method still needs more clinical validation studies and technical improvement to achieve clinically acceptable accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a typical class of persistent organic pollutants that is ubiquitous worldwide. Previous animal studies suggested that PAHs had adverse effects on female reproduction. However, the human data regarding relationship of PAHs exposure with women reproductive health, such as ovarian dysfunction, are scarce. In this case-control study, the associations of serum levels of PAHs with the risk of premature ovarian failure (POF) and reproductive hormones in Chinese women were investigated, with recruiting 157 POF patients and 217 healthy women. The serum levels of 12 types of PAHs, as well as reproductive hormones, including follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone and anti-mullerian hormone, were determined. In the logistic regression models, most individual PAH congeners showed significantly positive correlations with the risk of POF (p < 0.05), except for fluorine and pyrene. Benzo(a)pyrene (BaP), as the most carcinogenic PAH congener, was observed to be significantly positively associated with the risk of POF. After adjustment for age, body mass index, educational levels and household income, per one-unit increase in the log-transformed BaP concentration was significantly correlated with 2.191-fold increased risk of POF (OR = 2.191, 95%CI: 1.634–2.938, p < 0.05). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report an association between internal exposure levels of PAHs and the increased risk of POF in women. Image 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) plays an important role in the negative regulation of insulin and leptin signaling. The development of small molecular inhibitors targeting PTP1B has been validated as a potential therapeutic strategy for Type 2 diabetes (T2D). In this work, we have identified a series of compounds containing dihydropyridine thione and particular chiral structure as novel PTP1B inhibitors. Among those, compound 4b showed moderate activity with IC 50 value of 3.33 μM and meanwhile with good selectivity (>30-fold) against TCPTP. The further MOA study of PTP1B demonstrated that compounds 4b is a substrate-competitive inhibitor. The binding mode analysis suggested that compound 4b simultaneously occupies the active site and the second phosphotyrosine (pTyr) binding site of PTP1B. Furthermore, the cell viability assay of compound 4b showed tolerable cytotoxicity in L02 cells, thus 4b may be prospectively used to further in vivo study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China’s understanding of the national image has gone through three stages. Chinese experts and scholars are generally aware of the importance of the national image, but their research results are mostly passive stress responses to the reality of the “demonization” of China’s image. Research on Western images of China features the change from individual research to group research, from overall analysis to delicate classification, and from a specific historical period (shorter historical period) to a longer historical period. There are many studies on the image of China from the perspective of famous Western thinkers, politicians and writers. The research results can be basically classified into two categories: Western-centralism and China-centralism. On this basis, the research on Western images of China is both realistic and illusory, and conclusions drawn are both objective and stereotyped. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although some persistent organic pollutants (POPs) may not be currently in production, many of these chemicals still exist ubiquitously in the environment and continue to represent significant environmental health concern. One of the important concerns of POPs exposure may lead to the adverse reproductive consequences including primary ovarian insufficiency (POI), but the limited evidence has been reported so far. Our case-control study was performed to explore the association between serum levels of selected POPs and risk for POI in a Chinese female population, including 157 cases and 217 healthy controls. Serum concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and serum levels of reproductive hormones [follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) and estradiol] were measured. The medians of dioxin-like PCBs (DL-PCBs) and p,p′-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (p,p′-DDT) were significantly higher in case sera than in controls. Higher concentrations of DL-PCBs and p,p'-DDT were significantly associated with elevated risk of POI. A dose-response relationship was observed between the sum of DL-PCBs (Σ 6 DL-PCBs) and the risk of POI (p for trend = 0.003), with odds ratios for the second and third tertiles, compared with the first, of 1.31- (95% CIs: 0.67–2.57) and 3.15-fold (95% CIs: 1.63–6.10), respectively. Similar results were observed for the sum of p,p′-DDT and its metabolites (Σ 2 p,p′-DDTs). In control women, FSH levels were negatively associated with PCBs exposure, while LH had a positive association with OCPs. In patients with POI, exposure to PCBs was correlated with higher levels of LH, whereas exposure to OCPs was associated with lower levels of AMH. To the best of our knowledge, this study for the first provided evidence that exposure to PCBs and DDT could be the potential risk factors for POI in women. Unlabelled Image • The medians of dioxin-like PCBs and p,p'-DDT were significantly higher in POI patients than in controls. • Higher concentrations of dioxin-liake PCBs and p,p'-DDT were significantly associated with elevated risk of POI. • Reproductive hormone levels were associated with the serum concentrations of PCBs and OCPs in women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Abstract The protein-protein interaction between WDR5 (WD40 repeat protein 5) and MLL1 (mixed-lineage leukemia 1) is important for maintaining optimal H3K4 methyltransferase activity of MLL1. Dysregulation of MLL1 catalytic function is relevant to mixed-lineage leukemia, and targeting WDR5-MLL1 interaction could be a promising therapeutic strategy for leukemia harboring MLL1 fusion proteins. To date, several peptidomimetic and non-peptidomimetic small-molecule inhibitors targeting WDR5-MLL1 interaction have been reported, yet the discovery walk of new drugs inhibiting MLL1 methytransferase activity is still in its infancy. It's urgent to find other small-molecule WDR5-MLL1 inhibitors with novel scaffolds. In this study, through fluorescence polarization (FP)-based high throughput screening, several small-molecule inhibitors with potent inhibitory activities in vitro against WDR5-MLL1 interaction were discovered. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) assays were carried out to confirm the direct binding between hit compounds and WDR5. Subsequent similarity-based analog searching of the 4 hits led to several inhibitors with better activity, among them, DC_M5_2 displayed highest inhibitory activity with IC 50 values of 9.63 ± 1.46 µM. Furthermore, a molecular docking study was performed and disclosed the binding modes and interaction mechanisms between two most potent inhibitors and WDR5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pyrethroids, a class of insecticides that are widely used worldwide, have been identified as endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs). Our recent epidemiological study reported on an association of increased pyrethroids exposure with elevated gonadotropins levels and earlier pubertal development in Chinese boys. In this study, we further investigated the effects of cypermethrin (CP), one of the most ubiquitous pyrethroid insecticides, on hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis and pubertal onset in male animal models. Early postnatal exposure to CP at environmentally relevant doses (0.5, 5, and 50 μg/kg CP) significantly accelerated the age of puberty onset in male mice. Administration of CP induced a dose-dependent increase in serum levels of luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and testosterone in male mice. CP did not affect gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) gene expression in the hypothalamus, but CP at higher concentrations stimulated GnRH pulse frequency. CP could induce the secretion of LH and FSH, as well as the expression of gonadotropin subunit genes [chorionic gonadotropin α (CGα), LHβ, and FSHβ] in pituitary gonadotropes. CP stimulated testosterone production and the expression of steroidogenesis-related genes [steroidogenic acute regulatory (StAR) and Cytochrome p 450, family 11, subfamily A, polypeptide 1 (CYP11A1)] in testicular Leydig cells. The interference with hypothalamic sodium channels as well as calcium channels in pituitary gonadotropes and testicular Leydig cells was responsible for CP-induced HPG axis maturation. Our findings established in animal models provide further evidence for the biological plausibility of pyrethroid exposure as a potentially environmental contributor to earlier puberty in males. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although an acceleration of male pubertal development has been observed, precisely which endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) might contribute to the advancing onset of puberty in boys remains unclear. Here, pyrethroids, a class of widely used insecticides that have been considered as EDCs, are proposed as new environmental risk factors. In this study, 463 boys at the age of 9-16 years old were recruited in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. The common metabolites of pyrethroids, 3-phenoxybenzoic acid (3-PBA), and 4-fluoro-3-phenoxybenzoic acid (4-F-3-PBA), as well as gonadotropins, including luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), were analyzed in urine samples. Pubertal development was assessed based on Tanner stages and testicular volume (TV). A positive association between 3-PBA and gonadotropins was found (p < 0.001), in which a 10% increase in 3-PBA was associated with a 2.4% and 2.9% increase in LH and FSH, respectively. Higher urinary levels of 3-PBA in boys were associated with 275% and 280% increase in the risk of being genitalia stage 3 (G3) and G4, respectively (p < 0.05). There was a significant (132%) induction in odd of being TV 12-19 mL with increasing 3-PBA concentration compared to being in TV < 4 mL (p < 0.05). For the first time to our knowledge, this work reports on an association of increased pyrethroid exposure with elevated gonadotropins levels and earlier pubertal development in boys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, Pixian Douban (PXDB) was produced in a closed system of multi-scale temperature and flow fields constructed with the materials of pseudoplastic fluid in a gradient steady-state temperature field. The flavors and microorganisms of PXDB in the MTFF were compared with those in the traditional process with original materials (TPOM) and the traditional process with materials of pseudoplastic fluid (TPPF). The contents of organic acids, free amino acids and flavors in the MTFF were higher than those in the TPPF and TPOM. Chitinophagaceae_Unclassified and Bradyrhizobium_Unclassified were the predominant bacteria while Phyllachora sp. UB03986 and Rhizopus oryzae were identified as the core fungi at the species levels in the processes. The correlation analysis showed that 26 bacterial and 6 fungal were significantly correlated with the flavors. The results indicated that the closed system of MTFF could improve the product quality and was helpful to realize the controllable PXDB production. • A system of multi-scale temperature and flow fields was designed in this study. • The contents of the flavor substances in the system were the highest. • The flavor characteristics were more stable during the fermentation in the system. • The growth of dominant microbes was strongly enhanced in the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More attention is being paid to the enantioselective toxicity of chiral pesticides. However, limited investigations have been done to assess the ecological risks of chiral pesticides to soil community. Fenvalerate (FV), an extensively used synthetic pyrethroid, is a typical chiral pesticide. The most insecticidally active enantiomer of FV, esfenvalerate (ESFV), also has been marketed and widely used. In this study, the toxicological sensitivity and bioaccumulation of FV and ESFV in earthworms were assessed. The results showed that FV was less toxic than ESFV, but more accumulated in earthworms. ESFV was at least 4 times more toxic to earthworms than FV according to the filter paper contact toxicity test and the artificial soil test. Enantiospecific induction in oxidative stress was observed in earthworms exposed to FV and ESFV. The bioaccumulation of FV and ESFV in earthworm tissues was also enantioselective, preferentially accumulating FV. The uptake of ESFV by earthworms was lower than that of FV, so that the biota to soil accumulation factor (BSAF) value of ESFV was lower than that of FV. Our findings suggest that the enantioselective toxicity and bioaccumulation of chiral pesticides should be considered for evaluating ecological risks of these compounds to non-target organisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co-occurrence of pesticides such as synthetic pyrethroids and metals in aquatic ecosystems raises concerns over their combined ecological effects. Cypermethrin, 1 of the top 5 synthetic pyrethroids in use, has been extensively detected in surface water. Cadmium (Cd) has been recognized as 1 of the most toxic metals and is a common contaminant in the aquatic system. However, little information is available regarding their joint toxicity. In the present study, combined toxicity of cypermethrin and Cd and the underlying mechanisms were investigated. Zebrafish embryos and adults were exposed to the individual contaminant or binary mixtures. Co-exposure to cypermethrin and Cd produced synergistic effects on the occurrence of crooked body, pericardial edema, and noninflation of swim bladder. The addition of Cd significantly potentiated cypermethrin-induced spasms and caused more oxidative stress in zebrafish larvae. Cypermethrin-mediated induction of transcription levels and catalytic activities of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzyme were significantly down-regulated by Cd in both zebrafish larvae and adults. Chemical analytical data showed that in vitro elimination of cypermethrin by CYP1A1 was inhibited by Cd. The addition of Cd caused an elevation of in vivo cypermethrin residue levels in the mixture-exposed adult zebrafish. These results suggest that the enhanced toxicity of cypermethrin in the presence of Cd results from the inhibitory effects of Cd on CYP-mediated biotransformation of this pesticide. The authors' findings provide a deeper understanding of the mechanistic basis accounting for the joint toxicity of cypermethrin and Cd. Environ Toxicol Chem 2016;35:435-445. © 2015 SETAC [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A closed system of gradient steady-state temperature field was built to ferment PBP. • The contents of physicochemical factors in the new system had been further increased. • The flavor characteristics of the FG products were more stable in whole fermentation. • The new system affected microbe evolutions greatly and improved the fungal diversity. • Bacillus associated with 22 flavors were identified as the core microbes in the FG. A closed system of gradient steady-state temperature field (GSTF) was constructed to ferment Pixian broad bean paste (PBP). The contents of physicochemical factors and organic acids in the fermentation under GSTF (FG) were closer to those in the traditional fermentation (TF). The taste intensities of 8 free amino acids in the FG were higher than those in the constant temperature fermentation (CTF), but 14 in the TF showed the highest among the processes of FG, CTF and TF. The FG product had the most volatiles with 87, and its flavor properties were more stable. The FG produced great effects on the microbe evolutions especially improved the fungal diversity. Bacillus were identified as the core microbes in the FG while the roles of Staphylococcus , Lactobacillus and Pantoea were strengthened. The results indicated that the fermentation characteristics in the FG had been further improved compared with the CTF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family of cytokines plays a key role in vasculogenesis, angiogenesis, and lymphangiogenesis. VEGF-A is the main member of this family, alongside placental growth factor (PlGF), VEGF-B/C/D in mammals, and VEGF-E/F in other organisms. To study the activities of these growth factors under physiological and pathological conditions, resulting in therapeutic applications in cancer and age-related macular degeneration, blocking ligands have been developed. These have mostly been large biomolecules like antibodies. Ligands with high affinities, at least in the nanomolar range, and accurate structural data from X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy have been described. They constitute the main focus of this overview, which evidences similarities and differences in their binding modes. For VEGF-A ligands, and to a limited extent also for PlGF, a transition is now observed towards developing smaller ligands like nanobodies and peptides. These include unnatural amino acids and chemical modifications for designed and improved properties, such as serum stability and greater affinity. However, this review also highlights the scarcity of such small molecular entities and the striking lack of small organic molecule ligands. It also shows the gap between the rather large array of ligands targeting VEGF-A and the general absence of ligands binding other VEGF members, besides some antibodies. Future developments in these directions are expected in the upcoming years, and the study of these growth factors and their promising therapeutic applications will be welcomed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on tributary drama, especially the drama commissioned and performed on the occasion of Lord Macartney's mission to the Qianlong emperor in 1793, the first diplomatic contact between Great Britain and China. Origin of tributary drama; Typical Qing tributary drama; Discussion of Qianlong's eagerness for monumental glory; Examination of the later versions of the Si hai sheng ping.

This article is based on largely uninvestigated archival material in the First Historical Archives in Beijing. It addresses the following issues: (1) How and why an internal office, the Nanfu, which was responsible for drama performances inside the palace, expanded its functions to become a monitoring organisation, the Shengpingshu, which exercised censorship over all the drama groups in the capital. (2) How political events were reflected in drama performed on both public and private occasions, thus shedding light on the inner world of individual emperors. (3) How these institutional changes led to the Qing court playing an active role in the transformation of a regional lower-class entertainment into Peking opera, a national art form appreciated by all classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to investigate the dynamic asymmetric impact of equity market uncertainty on the energy market. For that reason, we first apply the asymmetric Granger causality test to capture both positive and negative EMV and oil shocks. We find the existence of the asymmetric effect, displaying as negative EMV shocks are the primary driving factors of positive oil shocks, while positive EMV shocks can affect negative oil shocks. Further, on the basis of three rolling-window procedures, we extend the asymmetric causality test to detect the structural breakpoints and time-varying characteristics of the causal relationships running from EMV shocks to oil shocks. Results show that some extreme events may lead to a structural breakpoint in their relationships. In particular, the negative effects of EMV shocks on oil shocks seem to be more lasting than the positive ones. Our findings may provide a new perspective on asset allocation, energy portfolio construction, and risk management. • This paper investigates the asymmetric impact of EMV shocks on crude oil shocks. • We extend the asymmetric causality test based on three rolling-window procedures. • The results show a significant asymmetric impact of EMV on the crude oil market. • We find the structural breakpoints and time-varying characters of their causality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owing to the imbalance of observed data and user's preference, it is necessary and meaningful to think over the multilevel characteristics of recommendation information (RI) during the recommendation process. At the same time, to better summarize user's preference and enhance user's beliefs, the interpretability of recommendation results also become more and more important in recommender system (RS). In view of the multilevel characteristics of RI and the interpretability of recommendation results, this paper proposes a novel interpretable sequential three-way recommendation strategy, namely, CTR-based cost-sensitive sequential three-way recommendation (CTR-CS3WR). First, in order to construct the interpretable granular features and multilevel information, we introduce collaborative topic regression (CTR) and design three novel granulation methods: PMF-based, LDA-based and CTR-based granulation method. Then, with the consideration of decision cost and time cost, a sequential three-way recommendation strategy is proposed to realize the multilevel recommendation. Finally, extensive experiments on two CiteUlike datasets verify the effectiveness of our proposed granulation methods and recommendation strategy. • PMF-based and LDA-based granulation methods are designed to obtain granular features. • A CTR-based granulation method is proposed to conduct interpretable granulation. • A CTR-based cost-sensitive sequential three-way recommendation strategy is conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• It is important to learn spatial-invariant feature representation for facial expression recognition which introduces no extra cost during inference. • Landmark is helpful for recognizing facial expressions with GCNs. • Global feature is indispensable for producing discriminative features. Despite the recent effort from computer vision community, facial expression recognition (FER) remains a largely unsolved problem. This is because the appearance of people's face undergoes dramatic changes due to changes in view angle, pose, illumination plus ambiguous facial expressions and low-quality facial images. In this work, we show the advantage of feature representation learning by dynamically graph message propagating subject to FER discriminative learning constraints and minimizing the distance of expression-agnostic transformed instance feature pairs. Specifically, we formulate a novel Harmonious Representation Learning (HRL) model for joint learning of landmark-guided graph message propagation, and spatially invariant feature learning using only generic matching metrics. Extensive comparative evaluations demonstrate the superiority of our proposed approach for FER over a variety of state-of-the-art methods on three major benchmark datasets including SFEW 2.0, RAF-DB, and CK+. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recommender systems (RSs) are effective technologies and tools used to deal with the problems of information overload, and have been developed rapidly in nearly two decades. In this paper, with the consideration of uncertain and multi-level characteristic of recommendation information (RI), we combine three-way decisions with granular computing, and build a novel dynamic three-way recommendation model to address the limitations of static two-way recommendation. First, we propose a dynamic three-way granularity recommendation (DTWGR), which adopts a top-down dynamic recommendation strategy based on the granular structure of RI. Second, we introduce a matrix factorization framework and further utilize three methods: SVD, SVD++ and NMF, to construct the granular structure of RI. In addition, three extended recommendation algorithms, namely, DTWGR-SVD, DTWGRSVD ++ and DTWGR-NMF, are proposed by combining DTWGR with matrix factorization. The recommendation cost caused by misclassification cost and teaching cost, is carefully investigated in our work. Finally, experimental results of three well-known Movielens data sets validate the effectiveness and reliability of our proposed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The healing process of a diabetic wound (DW) is often impeded by a series of interrelated factors, including severe infection, persistent inflammation, and excessive oxidative stress. Therefore, it is particularly crucial to develop a medical dressing that can address these issues simultaneously. To this end, different ratios of Bletilla striata polysaccharide (BSP) and berberine (BER) were physically blended with Carbomer 940 (CBM940) to develop a composite hydrogel as a medical dressing. The BSP/BER hydrogel was characterized using SEM, FTIR, rheological testing and other techniques. The anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antibacterial properties of the hydrogel were evaluated using cell and bacterial models in vitro. A DW model of ICR mice was established to evaluate the effect of the hydrogel on DW healing in vivo. The hydrogel exhibited excellent biocompatibility and remarkable antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties. In addition, animal experiments showed that the BSP/BER hydrogel significantly accelerated wound healing in DW mice. Among the different formulations, the LBSP/BER hydrogel (2% BSP, mBER:mBSP = 1:40) demonstrated the most remarkable efficacy. In conclusion, the BSP/BER hydrogel developed exhibited immense properties and great potential as a medical dressing for the repair of DW, addressing a crucial need in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The purpose of this survey is to evaluate the knowledge of Chinese pregnant women about fetal chromosomal aneuploidy and microdeletion and microduplication syndromes, and Non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT).Study Design: Written questionnaires were distributed to pregnant women who visited the fetal medicine clinic of the third affiliated hospital of Guangzhou medical university. A total of 330 questionnaires were given. Twenty-two questionnaires with incomplete information were excluded from further analysis. The remaining 308 cases were incorporated into the final analysis. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 26. Comparisons between categorical variables were tested by the use of crosstabs and χ 2 test.Results: Among pregnant women, the recognition of Down syndrome was the highest (93.5 %), followed by maternal serum screening (74.0 %) and NIPT (69.2 %) for chromosomal aneuploidy. The awareness rates of chromosomal microdeletions and microduplications (18.2 %) and monogenic disorders (13.3 %) were the lowest. There were no significant differences in age, education, and conception way between pregnant women (P > 0.05). When asked the opinion on increasing the testing range of NIPT, more than 50 % of pregnant women chose to follow the provider's advice.Conclusion: More than half of pregnant women lacked knowledge of screening methods for fetal chromosomal abnormalities. Less than 20 % of pregnant women knew microdeletion microduplication syndromes. To enhance the understanding of chromosomal abnormalities can ensure that women can actively choose tests rather than passively agreeing to their provider's recommendations so as to avoid missing the optimal prenatal screening time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the physicochemical properties and aroma characteristics of broad bean koji in the disk starter propagation system (DSPS) were studied by comparing with those in the incubator koji-making system (IKS) and the traditional koji-making system (TKS). The total acid content, amino acid nitrogen content, spore numbers and enzyme activities in the DSPS were significantly higher than those in the TKS and IKS. Among the 194 volatiles detected by GC×GC–MS in these three processes, 133, 159 and 123 appeared in DSPS, TKS and IKS, respectively. Fourteen volatiles were identified as aroma-active compounds by GC–O–MS, of which 10 compounds with OAVs greater than 1 were identified as key aromas. The koji qualities in different systems presented differences gradually with the incubation continuing by PCA analysis. The quantity of physicochemical properties associated with enzyme activity in the DSPS, IKS and TKS was 23, 17 and 22 respectively by the correlation analysis. The results indicated that a better quality of broad bean koji could be obtained in the DSPS. [Display omitted] • A disk starter propagation system was constructed to incubate broad bean koji. • The disk starter propagation system improved the physicochemical properties of koji. • The alcohols were the largest group of identified volatiles in broad bean koji. • Fourteen volatiles were identified as aroma-active compounds in broad bean koji. • The quality of broad bean koji was better in the disk starter propagation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thallium exposure has been associated with female reproductive health, but little is known about its potential association with premature ovarian insufficiency (POI). In this study, a total of 169 patients with POI and 209 healthy women were recruited from Zhejiang province, China. Urinary thallium concentrations were significantly positively associated with the risk of POI [adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 1.63, 95% CI: 1.25–2.13, p < 0.001], geometric mean values of which were significantly higher in POI cases (0.213 μg/L, 0.302 μg/g for creatinine adjustment) than those of controls (0.153 μg/L, 0.233 μg/g for creatinine adjustment). Furthermore, the serum levels of follicle-stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone were positively associated with urinary thallium concentrations, whereas anti-Mullerian hormone and estradiol were negatively correlated with thallium. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to provide evidence that thallium exposure at currently environmental levels is the potential risk factor for POI in women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bromadiolone, a potent second-generation anticoagulant rodenticide, has been extensively used worldwide for the field control of rodents. Invertebrates may be at risk from primary poisoning as a result of bromadiolone bait applications. However, there are few data regarding the toxicity and bioaccumulation of bromadiolone to earthworms. In this study, we reported that bromadiolone was toxic to earthworms at 1 mg/kg soil, which is a likely concentration in the field following application of bromadiolone baits. Exposure to bromadiolone resulted in a significant inhibition of earthworm growth. The antioxidant activities of superoxide dismutase and catalase were slightly increased in earthworms, while malondialdehyde content (as a molecular marker indicative of the damage to lipid peroxidation) was dominantly elevated over the duration of exposure. Bromadiolone in soil is bioaccumulative to earthworms. The biota to soil accumulation factors (BSAFs) of bromadiolone were concentration dependent and BSAFs decreased as the level of bromadiolone in soil increased. These results suggest earthworms are not only the potential subject to primary poisoning but also the source of secondary exposure for insectivores and scavengers following application of bromadiolone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CXXC5 , a zinc-finger protein, is known for its role in epigenetic regulation via binding to unmethylated CpG islands in gene promoters. As a transcription factor and epigenetic regulator, CXXC5 modulates various signaling processes and acts as a key coordinator. Altered expression or activity of CXXC5 has been linked to various pathological conditions, including tumorigenesis. Despite its known role in cancer, CXXC5 's function and mechanism in ovarian cancer are unclear. We analyzed multiple public databases and found that CXXC5 is highly expressed in ovarian cancer, with high expression correlating with poor patient prognosis. We show that CXXC5 expression is regulated by oxygen concentration and is a direct target of HIF1A. CXXC5 is critical for maintaining the proliferative potential of ovarian cancer cells, with knockdown decreasing and overexpression increasing cell proliferation. Loss of CXXC5 led to inactivation of multiple inflammatory signaling pathways, while overexpression activated these pathways. Through in vitro and in vivo experiments, we confirmed ZNF143 and EGR1 as downstream transcription factors of CXXC5 , mediating its proliferative potential in ovarian cancer. Our findings suggest that the CXXC5 - ZNF143 / EGR1 axis forms a network driving ovarian cell proliferation and tumorigenesis, and highlight CXXC5 as a potential therapeutic target for ovarian cancer treatment. • CXXC5 is highly expressed in ovarian cancer and is associated with poor prognosis. • Deletion of CXXC5 inhibits ovarian cancer cell proliferation and affects inflammatory signaling pathways • The expression of CXXC5 is regulated by oxygen concentration and is the direct target of HIF1A. • ZNF143 and EGR1 are downstream transcription factors of CXXC5 , which affect cell proliferation in ovarian cancer. • CXXC5 drove inflammation and ovarian cancer proliferation via transcriptional activation of ZNF143 and EGR1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5), an important member in PRMT family, has been validated as a promising anticancer target. In this study, through the combination of virtual screening and biological experiments, we have identified two PRMT5 inhibitors with novel scaffold structures. Among them, compound Y2431 showed moderate activity with IC50 value of 10.09 μM and displayed good selectivity against other methyltransferases. The molecular docking analysis and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations suggested that the compound occupied the substrate-arginine binding site. Furthermore, Y2431 exhibited anti-proliferative activity to leukemia cells by inducing cell cycle arrest. Overall, the hit compound could provide a novel scaffold for further optimization of small-molecule PRMT5 inhibitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depth completion can predict a dense depth map by taking a sparse depth map and the aligned RGB image as input, but the acquisition of ground truth annotations is labor-intensive and non-scalable. Therefore, we resort to semi-supervised learning, where we only need to annotate a few images and leverage massive unlabeled data without ground truth labels to facilitate model learning. In this paper, we propose SEED , a SE lf- E nsembling D epth completion framework to enhance the generalization of the model on unlabeled data. Specifically, SEED contains a pair of the teacher and student models, which are given high-density and low-density sparse depth maps as input respectively. The main idea underpinning SEED is to enforce the density-aware consistency by encouraging consistent prediction across different-density input depth maps. One empirical challenge is that the pseudo-depth labels produced by the teacher model inevitably contain wrong depth values, which would mislead the convergence of the student model. To resist the noisy labels, we propose an automatic method to measure the reliability of the generated pseudo-depth labels adaptively. By leveraging the discrepancy of prediction distributions, we model the pixel-wise uncertainty map as the prediction variance and rectify the training process from noisy labels explicitly. To our knowledge, we are among the early semi-supervised attempts on the depth completion task. Extensive experiments on both outdoor and indoor datasets demonstrate that SEED consistently improves the performance of the baseline model by a large margin and even is on par with several fully-supervised methods. • The acquisition of ground truth annotations for depth completion is labor-intensive and non-scalable. • Our method leverages massive unlabeled data without ground truth labels to facilitate model learning. • The main idea is to enforce the density-aware consistency across different-density input depth maps. • Our method consistently improves the performance of the baseline model by a large margin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The anti-inflammatory activity of polysaccharides derived from Melastoma dodecandrum Lour. was evaluated in pyretic mice and HEK-Blue™ hTLR4 cells. The testing led to the identification of MDP2-1, which was then investigated for its structural characteristics and anti-inflammatory effects. Results showed that MDP2-1 had a molecular weight of 29.234 kDa and primarily consisted of galactose, arabinose, rhamnose, glucose, glucuronic acid, and galacturonic acid. Its main backbone was composed of →4)-α-D-Gal p A-(1→, →2)-α-L-Rha p -(1→, →3,4)-α-D-Gal p A-(1→, →2,4)-α-D-Glc p A-(1→, and its side chains were connected by →4)-α-D-Gal p -(1→, α-D-Gal p -(1→, →4)-β-D-Glc p -(1→, and α-L-Ara f -(1→. In vivo experiments on mice demonstrated that MDP2-1 attenuated LPS-induced acute lung injury, and in vitro experiments on RAW264.7 cells showed that MDP2-1 reduced the levels of inflammatory mediators and mitigated LPS-induced inflammatory damage by inhibiting the activation of the TLR4 downstream NF-κB/MAPK pathway. These findings suggest that MDP2-1 is a novel anti-inflammatory agent for therapeutic interventions. [Display omitted] • A polysaccharide MDP2-1 was isolated from the ethnic medicine Melastoma dodecandrum Lour. with anti-inflammatory function. • The structural characteristics and biological activity of MDP2-1 were studied. • Atomization of MDP2-1 can attenuate ALI induced by LPS in mice. • The anti-inflammatory effect of MDP2-1 is realized through the NF-κB/MAPK signaling pathway downstream of TLR4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To evaluate the perinatal outcomes in women with selective termination using ultrasound-guided radiofrequency ablation (RFA).Methods: Complicated monochorionic (MC) twin pregnancies and multiple pregnancies with an indication for selective termination by ultrasound-guided coagulation of the umbilical cord with RFA under local anesthesia between July 2013 and Jan 2020 were reviewed. We analyzed the indications, gestational age at the time of the procedure, cycles of RFA, duration of the procedure, and perinatal outcome.Results: Three hundred and thirteen patients were treated during this period. Seven of whom were lost of follow-up. The remaining 306 cases, including 266 pairs of monochorionic diamniotic (MCDA) twins (86.93%), two pairs of monoamniotic twins (0.65%), 30 dichorionic triamniotic (DCTA) triplets (1%), and three monochorionic triamniotic (MCTA) triplets (0.98%), were analyzed. Indications included twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) (n = 91), selective fetal growth restriction (sFGR) (n = 83), severe discordant structural malformation (n = 78), multifetal pregnancy reduction (MFPR) (n = 78), twin reverse arterial perfusion sequence (TRAPS) (n = 19), and twin anemia-polycythemia sequence (TAPS) (n = 3). Upon comparison of RFA performed before and after 20 weeks, the co-twin loss rate (20.9% vs. 21.5%), the incidence of preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM) within 24 h (1.5% vs. 1.2%), and the median gestational age at delivery [35.93 (28-38) weeks vs. 36 (28.54-38.14) weeks] were similar (p > 0.05).Conclusions: RFA is a reasonable option when indicated in multiple pregnancies and complicated monochorionic pregnancies. In our experience, the overall survival rate was 78.76% with RFA in selective feticide, and early treatment increases the likelihood of survival for the remaining fetus because the fetal loss rate is similar before and after 20 weeks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Schizophrenia is currently considered to be a polygene-related disease with unknown etiology. This research will verify whether the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of the long intergenic noncoding RNA01080 (linc01080) contributes to the susceptibility and phenotypic heterogeneity of schizophrenia, with a view to providing data support for the prevention and individualized treatment of this disease. Method: The SNP rs7990916 in linc01080 were genotyped in 1139 schizophrenic and 1039 controls in a Southern Chinese Han population by the improved multiplex ligation detection reaction (imLDR) technique. Meanwhile, we assessed and analyzed the association between this SNP and schizophrenics' clinical symptoms, and the cognitive function. Result: There was no significant difference in genotype distribution, allele frequency distribution, gender stratification analysis between the two groups. However, the SNP of rs7990916 was significantly associated with the age of onset in patients with schizophrenia (P = 8.22E-07), patients with T allele had earlier onset age compared with CC genotype carriers. In terms of cognitive function, patients with T allele scored lower than CC genotype carriers in the Tower of London score and symbol coding score in the Brief assessment of Cognition (BACS), and the difference was statistically significant (P = 0.014, P = 0.022, respectively). Conclusion: Our data show for the first time that linc01080 polymorphism may affect the age of onset and neurocognitive function in patients with schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creeping bentgrass ( Agrostis stolonifera L.) is the most widely cultivated and high-value turfgrass species. Genetic linkage maps of creeping bentgrass were constructed for quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis of gray snow mold ( Typhula incarnata) resistance, recovery and leaf width. A segregating population of 188 pseudo-F progeny was developed by two-way pseudo-testcross mapping strategy. Amplified fragment length polymorphism, new developed Agrostis specific expressed sequence tag-single sequence repeat (SSR), random amplified polymorphic DNA and genomic SSR markers corresponding to DNA polymorphisms heterozygous in one parent and null in the other, were scored and placed on two separate genetic linkage maps, representing each parent. In the male parent map, 100 markers were mapped to 14 linkage groups covering a total length of 793 cM with an average interval of 8.2 cM. In the female parent map, 146 markers were clustered in another 14 linkage groups spanning 805 cM with an average distance of 5.9 cM between adjacent markers. We identified three putative QTL for leaf width and one QTL for snow mold disease resistance. The construction of a linkage map and QTL analysis are expected to facilitate the development of disease resistant creeping bentgrass cultivars by using molecular marker-assisted selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A reliable analytical method was developed for acrylamide analysis using GMWCNTs as DSPE sorbent. • High amount of acrylamide was found in the thermally processed Atractylodis Macrocephalae Rhizoma. • High health risk of taking processed Atractylodis Macrocephalae Rhizoma is worthy of concern. As one of the medicine homologous foods in China, Atractylodis Macrocephalae Rhizoma (AMR) is usually distributed after thermal processing, which raised the possibility of acrylamide pollution and a potential carcinogenic risk. In this study, a method was developed for the determination of the acrylamide in AMR using graphited multiwalled carbon nanotubes as the dispersive solid phase extraction sorbent and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. The concentration of acrylamide was investigated at processing conditions of 80℃-210℃ and 5 min–100 min. Method validation results demonstrated the reliability of the method with good linearity, accuracy and precision. Significant increment of acrylamide was found in AMR after thermal processing with the highest concentration at 9826 μg/kg, which led to a margin of exposure at 90.83–181.7 according to the BMDL 10 of carcinogenicity at 0.17 mg/kg, indicating a high health risk of taking thermally processed AMR, and monitoring and controlling should be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Doubanjiang-meju has been used as an intermediate for producing Pixian Douban (PXDB) and contributes significantly to its flavor. In this study, a profiling analysis of volatile compounds in open fermented doubanjiang-meju (OFD) and closed fermented doubanjiang-meju (CFD) was performed with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) and gas chromatography–olfactometry (GC–O). A total of 42 and 50 volatile compounds were identified in the OFD and CFD, respectively. Compared with the OFD, more diversity and higher concentrations of alcohols and esters were found in the CFD. Ten and 12 volatile compounds were finally identified as the major aroma-active compounds in the OFD and CFD, respectively, by the combined analysis of aroma intensity values and odor activity values (OAVs). The CFD had significantly stronger umami and soy sauce flavor but weaker beany when compared with the OFD (p < 0.05) by quantitative descriptive analysis (QDA), which were basically consistent with intensity values of aroma compounds obtained with GC–O. The results indicated that the CFD had better characteristics of volatile compounds than those of the OFD, which provided a basis of further study for the closed fermentation process of tank fermenter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an essential flavor condiment in Sichuan cuisine, Pixian Douban (PXDB) is usually produced by open fermentation process in strip pools or ceramic vats. In this study, an experiment of PXDB fermentation was conducted for 90 days in a closed system of gradient steady‐state temperature field (GSTF). To investigate the characterization of volatile compounds of PXDB in the closed system, the volatiles in three kinds of samples including samples of GSTF (SGT), samples of constant temperature (SCT), and samples of traditional fermentation (STF) were analyzed. The results showed that 75, 67, and 68 volatile compounds were detected in SGT, SCT, and STF, respectively. Compared with the traditional fermentation, the process in the closed system of GSTF was conducive to produce more kinds of esters and alcohols. A total of 22 major aroma active compounds were identified in three samples by combination analyses of gas chromatography‐olfactometry (GC‐O) and odor activity value (OAV). The appearance, smell, texture, and taste of the three different samples had shown different changes, but the sensory characteristics of the SGT were more similar to those of the STF by quantitative descriptive analysis (QDA) and principal component analysis (PCA). This study indicated that the closed system of GSTF could be applied in PXDB fermentation to obtain higher quality products, which brought a bright prospect of replacing the traditional fermentation process to realize the controllable industrialized production of PXDB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To assess the indications and complications of late amniocentesis and the advanced genetic test results in a tertiary university fetal medical medicine unit.Methods: In this retrospective study, women that underwent amniocentesis at 24+ 0 to 39+ 4 weeks, between January 2014 and December 2019, were recruited. Indications, complications, genetic test results, and pregnancy outcomes were reported for each pregnancy and compared with those who underwent the traditional amniocentesis at 16+ 0 to 23+ 6 weeks (control group). Information was retrieved from patient medical records, checked by research staff, and analyzed.Results: Of the 1287 women (1321 fetuses) included in the late amniocentesis group, late detected sonographic abnormalities (85.5%) were the most common indication. The overall incidence of preterm birth and intrauterine demise after amniocentesis were 2.5 and 1.3%, respectively. Sixty-nine fetuses with aneuploidy (5.3%) and seventy-two fetuses with pathogenic copy number variations (5.5%) were identified by chromosomal microarray analysis. The maximal diagnostic yield (70%) was in the subgroup of fetuses with the abnormal diagnostic test results, followed by abnormal NIPT results (35.7%) and multiple abnormalities (23.8%). And 35.4% of the pregnancies were finally terminated.Conclusions: Due to the high detection rates of advanced genetic technologies and the safety of the invasive procedure (3.9% vs 4.0%), it is reasonable to recommend late amniocentesis as an effective and reliable method to detect late-onset fetal abnormalities. However, chromosomal microarray and whole-exome sequencing may result in uncertain results like variants of uncertain significance. Comprehensive genetic counseling is necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bletilla striata polysaccharides (BSP) extracted from the B. striata tuber, have been demonstrated to possess anti-inflammatory properties. However, their potential protective effect against ARDS and their role in regulating cell pyroptosis remained unexplored. The aim of this study was to investigate the therapeutic effect of BSP in the alleviation of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced ARDS, and to explore its mechanism of action. The effect of BSP was assessed by LPS injection into the intraperitoneal cavity in vivo; pathological changes of ARDS mice were gauged by immunohistochemical, hematoxylin and eosin staining, and immunofluorescence assays. MH-S cells were used to model the pyroptosis in vitro. Finally, the pyroptosis of alveolar macrophage was detected by western blots, qPCR, and flow cytometry for NLRP3/caspase1/GSDMD and HMGB1/TLR4 pathway-associated proteins and mRNA. BSP could significantly increase the weight and survival rate of mice with ARDS, alleviate the cytokine storm in the lungs, and reduce lung damage in vivo. BSP inhibited the inflammation caused by LPS/Nigericin significantly in vitro. Compared with the control group, there was a remarkable surge in the incidence of pyroptosis observed in ARDS lung tissue and alveolar macrophages, whereas BSP significantly diminished the pyroptosis ratio. Besides, BSP reduced NLRP3/caspase1/GSDMD and HMGB1/TLR4 levels in ARDS lung tissue and MH-S cells. These findings proved that BSP could improve LPS-induced ARDS via inhibiting pyroptosis, and this effect was mediated by NLRP3/caspase1/GSDMD and HMGB1/TLR4, suggesting a therapeutic potential of BSP as an anti-inflammatory agent for ARDS treatment. [Display omitted] • Bletilla striata polysaccharide is an ingredient for the treatment of ARDS. • The inhibition of NLRP3/caspase1/GSDMD and HMGB1/TLR4 is a mechanism of BSP treating ARDS. • To provide new ideas for the treatment of lung injury caused by ARDS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ten urinary biomarkers of organophosphate esters (OPEs) from six parent OPEs were analyzed in urine from adolescents students in Eastern China. Bis (1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate, urinary biomarker of tris (1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TDCIPP), was detected in all urine samples with the highest residual concentration of 6.2 ng/mL (median). Bis (1-chloro-propyl) hydroxyl-2-propyl phosphate, dibutyl phosphate, biomarkers of tris (1-chloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TCIPP), tri- n -butyl phosphate (TNBP), respectively, and tris (2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP), were also frequently detected with median concentrations of 1.5, 2.6 and 0.3 ng/mL, respectively. Results indicate that exposure to OPEs, in particular to TDCIPP, TNBP, TCIPP and TCEP, was highly prevalent for adolescent students. The exposure pathways of OPEs were then evaluated according to the OPE internal body burdens (IBBs). Three pathways were identified as the main pathways for adolescents exposed to OPEs including dermal absorption, oral intake of food and dust and inhalation. Unlabelled Image • Ten urinary biomarkers of OPEs were analyzed in adolescents. • BDCIPP was detected as the most abundant biomarker in urine. • TDCIPP was calculated as the major parent OPE in adolescents. • Exposure to OPEs was highly prevalent for adolescents. • The exposure pathways of OPEs were evaluated based on internal body burdens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • miR-20a was down-regulated in PMA/A23187-treated HMC-1 cells. • miR-20a inhibited pro-inflammatory cytokines but promoted IL-10 expression. • miR-20a targeted HDAC4 and suppressed its expression. Abstract micro-RNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding RNAs which play important role in human diseases. Dysregulated miRNAs have been identified in asthma patient while their precise roles in asthma are not well elucidated. We compared the expression level of total 11 miRNAs between PMA/A23187-treated and control HMC-1 mast cells. We determined the effect of miR-20a on inflammation by overexpressing miR-20a mimic or its antagonist. We further predicted histone deacetylase 4 (HDAC4) as potential target of miR-20a and explored the effects of miR-20a on HDAC4 expression and histone modification. miR-20a was down-regulated in PMA/A23187-treated HMC-1 cells. miR-20a inhibited expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin 1 beta (IL-1β) and Interferon gamma (IFN-γ) while promoted Interleukin 10 (IL-10) production. miR-20a targeted HDAC4 and suppressed its expression, which contributed to epigenetically regulation of IL-10 expression by miR-20a. hsa-miR-20a-5p attenuates allergic inflammation in HMC-1 cells by targeting HDAC4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging evidence suggests that the DOCK4 gene increases susceptibility to schizophrenia. However, no study has hitherto repeated this association in Chinese, and further investigated the relationship between DOCK4 and clinical symptoms in schizophrenic patients using clinical scales and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In this study, we genotyped three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (rs2074127, rs2217262, and rs2074130) within the DOCK4 gene using a case-control design (including 1289 healthy controls and 1351 patients with schizophrenia). 55 first-episode schizophrenia (FES) patients and 59 healthy participants were divided by the genotypes of rs2074130 into CC and CT+TT groups. We further investigated the association with clinical symptoms and neural characteristics (brain activation/connectivity and nodal network metrics). Our results showed significant associations between all selected SNPs and schizophrenia (all P < 0.05). In patients, letter fluency and motor speed scores of T allele carriers were significantly higher than the CC group (all P < 0.05). Interestingly, greater brain activity, functional connectivity, and betweenness centrality (BC) in language processing and motor coordination were also observed in the corresponding brain zones in patients with the T allele based on a two-way ANCOVA model. Moreover, a potential positive correlation was found between brain activity/connectivity of these brain regions and verbal fluency and motor speed. Our findings suggest that the DOCK4 gene may contribute to the onset of schizophrenia and lead to language processing and motor coordination dysfunction in this patient population from China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benomyl and carbendazim are benzimidazole fungicides that are used throughout the world against a wide range of fungal diseases of agricultural products. There is as yet little information regarding the toxicity of benzimidazole fungicides to human placenta. In this study, we utilized human placental trophoblast cell line HTR-8/SVneo (HTR-8) to access the toxic effects of benomyl and carbendazim. Our data showed that these two fungicides decreased cell viability and the percentages of cells in G0/G1 phase, as well as induced apoptosis of HTR-8 cells. The invasion and migration of HTR-8 cells were significantly inhibited by benomyl and carbendazim. We further found that benomyl and carbendazim altered the expression of protease systems (MMPs/TIPMs and uPA/PAI-1) and adhesion molecules (integrin α5 and β1) in HTR-8 cells. Our present study firstly shows the deleterious effects of benomyl and carbendazim on placental cells and suggests a potential risk of benzimidazole fungicides to human reproduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We compare the morphological, anatomical, developmental and physiological and biochemical responses of a double petal (DP) type jasmine (Jasminum sambac Aiton) to shading with a multi petal (MP) one. In both types, plant height, internode length, leaf size and leaf relative water content were all increased by shading, while leaf tissue density, reproductive development and the number of flowers decreased. Shaded leaves produced fewer but larger mesophyll and vein vascular cells. The total protein contents in shaded leaves were higher than those in non-shaded leaves for a shading period of 21 d (DP type) and 14 d (MP type), but thereafter they fell below the levels found in leaves exposed to full sunlight. Under shading, both peroxidase (POD, EC 1.11.1.7) and superoxide dismutase (SOD, EC 1.15.1.1) activities were induced, catalase (CAT, EC 1.11.1.6) activity was repressed, and that of ascorbate peroxidase (APX, EC 1.11.1.11) was irregular. Total soluble sugar and malondialdehyde contents in both types were significantly reduced by shading. The results showed that DP jasmine overall tolerated shading better than the MP type, because of the former with more efficient photosynthetic and metabolic rates, reasonable allocation of photosynthates as well as higher contents of proteins and antioxidant enzymes. A moderate level and duration of shading (20–50% irradiance no longer than 28 d) was beneficial to jasmine plant growth, but extremely low (5% irradiance) and/or prolonged (>28 d) shading was detrimental to both vegetative growth and reproductive development and should be avoided, particularly in the plantation of MP type. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A double petal (DP) and a multi petal (MP) type jasmine (Jasminum sambac Ait.) growth and flowering was known largely affected by different levels of irradiance. Here, our objective was to determine the effects of shade on photosynthesis related characteristics and chloroplast ultrastructure of these two types. In both types, net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (g s ) and transpiration rate increased with decreasing irradiance from 100% to 20%, while both maximum and variable fluorescence showed a steady increase, and photochemical and nonphotochemical quenching indexes declined. At each conducted time, chlorophyll a, b and carotenoids contents in DP type shaded leaves increased whereas those in MP type decreased at 5% irradiance (considered as extreme shade). The maximum photochemical efficiency of photosystem II of DP plants showed subtle changes but that of MP plants declined by shading thereafter 21 days of treatment. Observation of chloroplast ultrastructure showed its best development in the leaves of DP and MP types mostly from 50% to 20% irradiance (considered as weak and moderate shade, respectively). At each shade treatment, Pn, g s and water use efficiency of DP-jasmine were always higher than those of MP-jasmine, thus the shade tolerance ability of the former was higher than that of the latter. The results showed that full sunlight and 5% natural irradiance caused photoinhibition and light deficiency of jasmine plants respectively, and modulating chloroplast development by the more numbers of thylakoids and grana to contain more photosynthetic pigments is an important shade tolerance mechanism of DP type. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Schematic diagram of multifunctional composite sponge preparation and their properties. [Display omitted] • Ethanol extract and polysaccharide of Bletilla striata were complementarily mixed. • Ethanol extract of B. striata improved antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. • The multifunctional sponge exhibited excellent biodegradability and biocompatibility. • An efficient freeze-drying process was adopted to reduce the cost of wound dressing. Development of a fully functional dressing that can be applied throughout wound healing remains challenging. In this study, Bletilla striata polysaccharide (BSP) and the ethanol extract of B. striata (EEB) were physically blended and vacuum freeze-dried into a new medical dressing with various functions, such as hemostasis, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and wound healing promotion. The in vivo and in vitro blood coagulation evaluation results showed that the most obvious hemostasis effects coming from the EEB25 sponge was probably due to good water absorption capacity. The drug sensitivity test results showed that the sponges presented a good antibacterial effect originated from the addition of EEB. In addition, the EEB25 sponge showed significant anti-inflammatory effects, as well as excellent biodegradability and biocompatibility. The full-thickness wound experiment illustrated the wound healing rates of EEB25 group on the 8th day and 16th day was 82.76 ± 2.78% and 95.36 ± 3.72%, respectively, which showed significant differences (p < 0.05) in comparison to the model group. Histological observations showed that the EEB25 group formed dense collagen fibers, granulation tissue and numerous new blood vessels on the 16th day, with the skin basically cured. Therefore, BSP/EEB multifunctional composite sponge provided a new perspective for the safe application of wound dressings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transcriptional enhancer associated domain family members (TEADs) are the most important downstream effectors that play the pivotal role in the development, regeneration and tissue homeostasis. Recent biochemical studies have demonstrated that TEADs could undergo autopalmitoylation that is indispensable for its function making the lipid-binding pocket an attractive target for chemical intervention. Herein, through structure-based virtual screen and rational medicinal chemistry optimization, we identified DC-TEADin02 as the most potent, selective, covalent TEAD autopalmitoylation inhibitor with the IC 50 value of 197 ± 19 nM while it showed minimal effect on TEAD-YAP interaction. Further biochemical counter-screens demonstrate the specific thiol reactivity and selectivity of DC-TEADin02 over the kinase family, lipid-binding proteins and epigenetic targets. Notably, DC-TEADin02 inhibited TEADs transcription activity leading to downregulation of YAP-related downstream gene expression. Taken together, our findings proved the validity of modulating transcriptional output in the Hippo signaling pathway through irreversible chemical interventions of TEADs autopalmitoylation activity, which may serve as a qualified chemical tool for TEADs palmitoylation-related studies in the future. Image 1 • DC-TEADin02 is the most potent TEAD autopalmitoylation inhibitor ever reported. • DC-TEADin02 inhibits TEADs transcription activity and downstream gene expression. • DC-TEADin02 shows minimal reactivity with biologically relevant nucleophiles. • DC-TEADin02 is selective over other lipid-binding proteins. • The study demonstrates how virtual screen cooperating with rational optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]