One-Step Synthesis of Novel Renewable Vegetable Oil-Based Acrylate Prepolymers and Their Application in UV-Curable Coatings

With the rapid development of social economy, problems such as volatile organic compound (VOC) pollution and the excessive consumption of global petroleum resources have become increasingly prominent. People are beginning to realize that these problems not only affect the ecological environment, but also hinder the development of the organic polymer material industry based on raw fossil materials. Therefore, the modification and application of bio-based materials are of theoretical and practical significance. In this study, a series of vegetable oil-based acrylate prepolymers were synthesized by one-step acrylation using palm oil, olive oil, peanut oil, rapeseed oil, corn oil, canola oil, and grapeseed oil as raw materials, and the effect of different double bond contents on the product structure and grafting rate was investigated. Furthermore, the as-prepared vegetable oil-based acrylate prepolymers, polyurethane acrylate (PUA-2665), trimethylolpropane triacrylate (TMPTA), and photoinitiator (PI-1173) were mixed thoroughly to prepare ultraviolet (UV)-curable films. The effect of different grafting numbers on the properties of these films was investigated. The results showed that as the degree of unsaturation increased, the acrylate grafting number and the cross-linking density increased, although the acrylation (grafting reaction) rate decreased. The reason was mainly because increasing the double bond content could accelerate the reaction rate, while the grafted acrylic groups had a steric hindrance effect to prevent the adjacent double bonds from participating in the reaction. Furthermore, the increase in grafting number brought about the increase in the structural functionality of prepolymers and the cross-linking density of cured films, which led to the enhancement in the thermal (glass transition temperature) and mechanical (tensile strength, Young’s modulus) properties of the cured films.

A melt-electrowritten filter for capture and culture of circulating colon cancer cells

Metastasis is the major cause of death in cancer patients accounting for about 90% of the mortality. The detection and analysis of the hallmark of metastasis, circulating tumor cells (CTCs), have significant impact in cancer biology and clinical practice. However, the scarcity of CTCs in blood, particularly in that of colorectal cancer patients, is a serious bottleneck in the development of CTC-based precision medicine. Herein, the melt electrowriting (MEW) technology was used for reproductive fabrication of a biocompatible antibody-presenting polycaprolactone filter with tailored porous structure. It is demonstrated, for the first time, that such filter can be used not only to catch cancer cells spiked in whole blood but also to culture the cancer cells directly on site. Specifically, HT29 colon cancer cells can be captured with an efficiency of 85%, and when spiked into 4 mL of whole blood, 47% were captured on one Ø12mm filter. Furthermore, repeated capture and culture experiments have shown that as few as 20 HT29 colon cancer cells spiked into 4 mL of whole blood can be captured on the filter and within 2 weeks be expanded on site to become tumor bodies that are visible to the untrained eye. This filter allows for downstream analysis, such as flow cytometry, immunocytochemistry, Western blotting, and rt-qPCR. This technology represents a simple and cost-effective platform that potentially enables fast and efficient culture of rare CTCs from patients' blood. This provides non-invasive alternatives for solid biopsy tumor materials for treatment screening, with great potential to realize precision medicine for cancer treatment.

Evidence of anomalous conventional and spontaneous exchange bias, high coercivity in Fe doped NiCr2O4 spinel

NiCr2-xFexO4 (x = 0 and 0.2) polycrystalline ceramics have been synthesized successfully through a simple co-precipitation technique to study the evolution of structural and magnetic properties by doping Fe. X-ray diffraction (XRD) reveals that the high-temperature cubic phase (space group Fd3[combining macron]m) observed at 320 K in bulk NiCr2O4 is stabilized at room temperature by decreasing the particle size to nanometer in x = 0 as well as after incorporating 20 at% Fe in the NiCr2O4 lattice. The cation distribution obtained from X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) analysis illustrates that while in x = 0, Ni2+ and Cr3+ ions occupy the tetrahedral (A) and octahedral (B) sites, respectively, x = 0.2, Fe3+ and Cr3+ ions occupy the A and B sites, respectively, and Ni2+ ions are distributed among the A and B sites. This transformation from the normal to mixed spinel structure strongly affects the magnetic properties. While the paramagnetic to long-range ferrimagnetic ordering temperature TC is enhanced from 71 to 192 K, significantly large coercive field (HC) of ∼29 kOe is observed for x = 0.2 as compared to the HC ∼13 kOe for x = 0. Moreover, unusually large conventional and spontaneous exchange bias fields of ∼26 and ∼2.6 kOe are observed for x = 0.2, which is absent for x = 0. The presence of anomalous exchange bias field is ascribed to the unidirectional exchange anisotropy between the two magnetic sublattices at A and B sites. The training effect of the exchange bias field is discussed using a phenomenological model, which considers the contribution from irreversible uncompensated spins that modify the exchange anisotropy at the interface between A and B magnetic sublattices. In addition, diffuse neutron scattering (DNS) with XYZ analysis is employed for both compositions to clearly illustrate the low-temperature peculiar magnetic phase transitions such as spin spiral transition, TS and spin lock-in transition, Tl. The DNS demonstrates that while Tl decreases from 10 K to 7 K with the incorporation of Fe in the NiCr2O4 lattice, TS significantly increases from 28 K to 50 K.

[The consideration about study design and implementation of vaccine clinic trials]

The safety of prophylactic vaccine is one of the key points both in clinical trials and evaluation. Based on the review practice of vaccine registration clinical trials in recent years, we puts forward a series of thoughts and suggestions on the common problems of safety study on vaccine, including the hypothesis of safety study, the consideration of inclusion/exclusion criteria and suspension/termination criteria for study; the routine requirements of safety study and some special issue such as medical laboratory test index, vaccine virus shedding and safety of adjuvant, and further clarifies the requirements of safety observation on sequential enrollment; also emphasized the scientific judgment of causality and the quality of safety monitoring. It can be used for reference by vaccine researchers and to explore appropriate solutions to promote vaccine research & development and risk control in China.

CTXA hip: the effect of partial volume correction on volumetric bone mineral density data for cortical and trabecular bone

This study compares the results of computed tomography X-ray absorptiometry (CTXA) hip volumetric BMD (vBMD) analyses of cortical and trabecular bone with and without partial volume correction. For cortical bone in some circumstances, corrected cortical volumes were negative and corrected vBMD was very high. For trabecular bone, the correction effects are smaller. CTXA volumetric data should be interpreted with caution.

PURPOSE

Previous studies have reported concerns about the reliability of CTXA hip cortical vBMD measurements generated using partial volume (PV) correction (the "default" analysis, with cortical PV correction). To date, no studies have examined the results of the alternative ("new") analysis (with trabecular PV correction). This study presents in vivo and phantom data comparing the corrected and uncorrected data for cortical and trabecular bone respectively.

METHODS

We used the commercial QCTPro CTXA software to analyze CT scans of 129 elderly Chinese men and women and an anthropomorphic European Proximal Femur phantom (EPFP) and accessed data for two alternative scan analyses using the database dump utility. The CTXA software gives the user two methods of performing the PV correction: (1) a default analysis in which only cortical bone results are corrected; (2) a new analysis in which only trabecular bone results are corrected. Both methods are based on a numerical recalculation of vBMD values without any change in volume of interest (VOI) placement.

RESULT

In vivo, the results of the two analyses for integral bone were the same while cortical and trabecular results were different. PV correction of cortical bone led to a decrease of cortical volume for all four VOIs: total hip (TH), femoral neck (FN), trochanter (TR), and intertrochanter (IT) volumes were reduced on average by 7.8 cm³, 0.9 cm³, 2.5 cm³, and 4.3 cm³ respectively. For TR, where cortex was thinnest, average corrected cortical volume was negative (- 0.4± 1.3 cm³). Corrected cortical vBMD values were much larger than uncorrected ones for TH, FN, and IT. Scatter plots of corrected cortical vBMD against cortical bone thickness showed that elevated results correlated with thinner cortices. When trabecular bone was corrected for the PV effect, trabecular volumes of TH, FN, TR, and IT were reduced on average by 7.9 cm³, 0.8 cm³, 2.6 cm³, and 4.4 cm³ respectively, while vBMD measurements were increased correspondingly. The trabecular volume and vBMD measurements of the two datasets both had highly positive correlations. For the EPFP, the PV-corrected FN data deviated from the nominal phantom value, but was closer for the TR and IT VOIs. Both corrected and uncorrected data overestimated trabecular vBMD, with the corrected results showing greater deviation from nominal values.

CONCLUSION

The default and new CTXA analyses for volumetric data generate different results, both for cortical and trabecular bone. For cortical bone, the uncorrected results are subject to partial volume effects but the correction method of the default analysis overcorrects the effect leading to in part unreasonable results for cortical bone volume and BMD. For trabecular bone, the correction effects are smaller. CTXA volumetric data should be interpreted with caution.

[The consideration about safety data analysis and expression in instructions of vaccine clinic trials]

The safety of prophylactic vaccine is one of the key points both in clinical trials and evaluation. Based on the review practice of vaccine registration clinical trials in recent years, we summarized the common problems in safety analysis and report and accordingly puts forward a series of thoughts and suggestions, including discussing the role of statistics in safety analysis, putting forward the framework of safety analysis and report involved analysis content, analysis index and analysis dimension, in which attention is paid to the severity analysis; emphasizing the initiative analysis on risk signal and encouraging the evidence-based initiative safety evaluation. At the same time, this paper discusses the basic principles of the presentation of safety data in the package inserts, as well as the comprehensive consideration of the safety data of each phase of the trial and different subjects. It can be used for reference by sponsor to promote vaccine clinical research and evaluation in China.

Infectious diseases and antimicrobial prescribing: Online spaced education for junior doctors

BACKGROUND

Inappropriate antimicrobial prescribing may harm patients and drive antimicrobial resistance. Junior doctors' knowledge of infectious diseases and antimicrobial prescribing is inadequate. Online spaced case-based learning can improve knowledge.

OBJECTIVE

To develop infectious diseases and antimicrobial prescribing course content for online spaced education and assess its effectiveness and feasibility for junior doctors.

METHODS

Infectious diseases and antimicrobial course content was developed for an online spaced education platform (Qstream Inc., Burlington, MA). Junior doctors (postgraduate years 1-3) at two tertiary teaching hospitals in Sydney participated in the study. Course content was provided with Qstream at one hospital and at the other hospital via two face-to-face (FTF) tutorials from August to October 2017. Knowledge and self-confidence were compared before and after training within and between both cohorts.

RESULTS

Participation in the course was higher in the Qstream cohort with 48/127 (37.8%) completing the course compared with 44/110 (40%) attending one or both FTF sessions, of whom 22/110 (20%) attended both. Improvement in mean knowledge score from 69.7% to 81.5% in the Qstream cohort was significantly greater than the FTF cohort's minimal improvement from 67.6% to 67.9% (95% CI 2.79-20.33; P=0.01). In the Qstream cohort mean confidence rating (0-10) improvement from 5.14 to 6.55 was greater than the FTF group improvement from 5.37 to 5.85 (95% CI 0.132-1.171; P=0.02). Qstream feedback was very positive.

CONCLUSIONS

Online spaced education in infectious diseases and antimicrobial prescribing was feasible, acceptable and effective for junior doctors. It has potential to reduce inappropriate antimicrobial prescribing and warrants further investigation.

Morphogenesis and vitality of seedlings of Ginkgo biloba in outdoor conditions

Ginkgo biloba L. is a relic tree that is preserved in natural conditions only in China. In the North-East Ukraine ginkgo is only in the process of introduction, but in certain places ginkgo trees are grown for decorative purposes which show high vitality. Therefore a relevant and promising task is the creation of industrial plantations of ginkgo for collection of its leaves. The objective of the study was morphological peculiarities of ginkgo plants and their vital condition depending on the calendar age of the seedlings at the stage when they were transplanted into the soil. For growing ginkgo, in our studies, a combined two-stage system was approbated, accor­ding to which seedlings were grown in greenhouses during 2–3 years, and then moved into soil outdoors. In our study, as planting material we used seedlings of ginkgo from a plant nursery (greenhouse) of Sumy National Agrarian University planted in 2014 and 2015. Seedlings were planted in the soil in early spring. Seedlings for growth completion were planted in rows with inter-row distance of 0.8 m and distance between the plants measuring 2.5–3.0 m. We studied the condition of the seedlings in two variants: variant 1 – three-year old seedlings obtained in the greenhouse were transplanted in spring 2018; variant 2 – two-year old seedlings obtained in greenhouse were transplanted in spring 2017. Comparative morphometric analysis and evaluation of vitality of these plants was performed in August 2019. Both groups of seedlings were five years old at the time of survey. For evaluation of morphometric structure of the ginkgo seedlings and their vital condition we used randomized selections of specimens in amount of up to 30 from plantations of variants 1 and 2. Analysis of the plants was conducted during the end of the vegetative period of 2019, when active growth of the plants stopped. Four main parameters of the plants were recorded: height, value of annual increment, diameter of the stem near the root neck and the number of leaves. Vital condition of the seedlings was evaluated on the basis of algorithm of vital analysis. Vitality of each seedling was evaluated by the coefficient of Q vitality, value of which was in interval from 0 to 1.0. Depending on the value of Q the seedlings were divided into five classes of vitality: 0–0.2 – cc (specimens of the lowest vitality), 0.2–0.4 – c (low vita­lity), 0.4–0.6 – b (average vitality), 0.6–0.8 – a (high vitality), 0.8–1.0 – aa (specimens with highest vitality). Comparative analysis of morphological peculiarities of the ginkgo seedlings revealed that two-year plants transplanted outdoors from the greenhouse had higher annual increment of the main stem, diameter of stem and number of leaves. Vital condition of such seedlings was the highest and was evaluated using Q index, which ranges between vitality of classes b to aa. This allows recommending a two-stage scheme of growing seedlings of ginkgo in North-East Ukraine. The optimum age for transplanting seedlings from greenhouses to open soil is two years.

Dietary mannan oligosaccharide ameliorates cyclic heat stress-induced damages on intestinal oxidative status and barrier integrity of broilers

This study investigated protective effects of mannan oligosaccharide (MOS) inclusion on growth performance, intestinal oxidative status, and barrier integrity of cyclic heat-stressed broilers. A total of 240 one-day-old chicks were allocated into 3 treatments of 10 replicates each. Control broilers reared at a thermoneutral temperature were fed a basal diet, whereas broilers in heat stress and MOS groups raised at a cyclic high temperature (32 to 33°C for 8 h/d) were given the basal diet supplemented with 0 or 250 mg/kg MOS, respectively. Compared with control group, heat stress decreased (P < 0.05) average daily gain and feed conversion ratio during grower, finisher, and entire periods, average daily feed intake during finisher and entire periods, and ileal superoxide dismutase activity at 42 D, whereas increased (P < 0.05) rectal temperature at 21 and 42 D and jejunal malondialdehyde content at 42 D. Dietary MOS increased (P < 0.05) average daily gain, average daily feed intake, and feed conversion ratio during finisher and entire periods, but decreased (P < 0.05) jejunal malondialdehyde concentration of heat-stressed broilers at 42 D. Heat stress decreased (P < 0.05) jejunal villus height (VH) and claudin-3 gene expression at 21 D, and VH and VH: crypt depth (CD) ratio in jejunum and ileum as well as mRNA abundances of jejunal mucin 2 and occludin, and ileal mucin 2, zonula occludens-1, and occludin, and claudin-3 at 42 D, whereas increased (P < 0.05) serum D-lactate acid content at 21 and 42 D, and serum diamine oxidase activity and jejunal CD at 42 D. The MOS supplementation increased (P < 0.05) jejunal VH at 21 D, VH and VH: CD of jejunum and ileum at 42 D, mRNA abundances of jejunal occludin and ileal mucin 2, zonula occludens-1, and occludin at 42 D, whereas reduced (P < 0.05) ileal CD at 42 D. These results suggested that MOS improved growth performance, and oxidative status and barrier integrity in the intestine of broilers under cyclic heat stress.

[Clinical characteristics and prognosis of high-risk neuroblastoma with bone marrow metastasis in children]

Objective: To analyze the clinical characteristics of newly treated high-risk group neuroblastoma (NB) patients with bone marrow metastasis and to explore the prognostic factors. Methods: The clinical features (sex, age, stage, risk group, pathological type, metastatic site, etc.) of 203 newly treated high-risk NB patients with bone marrow metastasis admitted to Hematology Oncology Center, Beijing Children's Hospital from January 2007 to December 2016 were analyzed retrospectively. There were 118 males (58.1%) and 85 females (41.9%). Kaplan-Meier method was used for survival analysis and Cox regression was used to analyze the prognostic factors. Results: The age at onset of the 203 patients was 41 months (9-147 months). The metastatic sites at diagnosis were as follows: bone in 195 cases (96.1%), distant lymph nodes in 104 cases (51.2%), skull and endomeninx in 61 cases (30.0%), orbit in 30 cases (14.8%), pleura in 16 cases (7.9%), liver in 13 cases(6.4%), canalis spinalis in 13 cases (6.4%), other sites in 11 cases (5.4%) and skin and soft tissue in 10 cases (4.9%). In all, 194 cases were enrolled for prognostic analysis. The follow-up time was 36 months (1 day-138 months) , and the 5-years event free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) were 36.1% and 39.7%, respectively. A total of 118 patients (60.8%) had events (first relapse or death) with the time to event occurrence was 15 months (1 day-72 months), whereas 112 patients (57.7%) died with the event occurrence to death time was 3 months (1 day-21 months). There was no significant difference in 5-years OS between radiotherapy group and non-radiotherapy group (42.3% vs. 38.3%, χ(2)=3.671, P=0.055). The 5-years OS in transplantation group was significantly better than the non-transplantation group (44.3% vs. 35.5%, χ(2)=8.878, P=0.003), and the radiotherapy combined transplantation group also had a better 5-years OS rate than the non-radiotherapy combined transplantation group (45.8% vs. 37.3%, χ(2)=5.945, P=0.015). Univariate survival analysis showed lactate dehydrogenase ≥ 1 500 U/L, the amplification of MYCN, the metastatic sites of orbit, canalis spinalis and pleura were associated with poor prognosis of newly diagnosed high-risk NB patients (χ(2)=21.064, 13.601, 3.998, 6.183, 15.307, all P<0.05). The amplification of MYCN and the metastatic sites of pleura were risk factors for prognosis of newly diagnosed high-risk NB patients by Cox regression models (HR=1.896,1.100, 95%CI: 1.113-3.231, 1.020-1.187, both P<0.05). Conclusions: The prognosis is unfavorable in high-risk group NB patients with BM metastasis. Radiotherapy combined with transplantation can further improve the prognosis of these patients. The amplification of MYCN and the metastatic sites of pleura were the poor prognostic factors for high-risk NB patients with bone marrow metastasis.

[Clinical and prognostic analysis of single-center multidisciplinary treatment for rhabdomyosarcoma in children]

Objective: To summarize the clinical characteristics, treatment response and prognostic factors of rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) in children. Methods: The clinical characteristics such as age at diagnosis, primary tumor site, tumor size, pathological type, clinical stage, and risk grouping of 213 RMS patients (140 males and 73 females) treated in Hematology Oncology Center of Beijing Children's Hospital, Capital Medical University, from May 2006 to June 2018 were analyzed retrospectively. The clinical characteristics, overall survival (OS), event free survival (EFS) and prognostic factors of children treated with the Beijing Children's Hospital-Rhabdomyosarcoma (BCH-RMS) regimen were analyzed. Survival data were analyzed by Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, and single factor analysis was performed by Log-Rank test. Results: The diagnostic age of 213 cases was 48.0 months (ranged 3.0-187.5 months), of which 136 cases (63.8%) were younger than 10 years old. The head and neck region was the most common primary site of tumor (30%, 64 cases), followed by the genitourinary tract (26.8%, 57 cases). Among pathological subtypes, embryonal RMS accounted for 71.4% (152 cases), while alveolar RMS and anaplastic RMS accounted for only 26.8% (57 cases) and 1.9% (4 cases), respectively. According to the Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Study Group (IRS), IRS-Ⅲ and Ⅳ accounted for 85.0% (181 cases) of all RMS patients. In all patients, 9.4% (20 cases) patients were divided in to low-risk group, 52.1% (111 cases) patients in to intermediate -risk group, 25.8% (55 cases) patients in to high-risk group, and 12.7% (27 cases) patients in to the central nervous system invasion group, respectively. All patients with RMS received chemotherapy. The cycles of chemotherapy were 13.5 (ranged 5.0-18.0) for patients without event occurrence, while 14.2 (ranged 3.0-30.0) for patients with event occurrence. Among the 213 patients, 200 patients had surgical operation, of whom 103 patients underwent surgery before chemotherapy and 97 patients at the end of chemotherapy, 21 patients had secondary surgical resection. Radiotherapy was performed in 114 patients. The follow-up time was 23.0 months (ranged 0.5-151.0 months) . There were 98 patients with relapsed or progressed disease and 67 patients with death. The median time to progression was 10 months, of which 67 (68.4%) relapse occurred within 1 year and no recurrence occurred after follow-up for more than 5 years. The 3-year EFS and 5-year EFS were (52±4) % and (48±4) %, while the 3-year OS and 5-year OS were (65±4) % and (64±4) % by survival analysis. The 5-year OS of the low-risk, intermediate-risk, the high-risk were 100%, (74±5) %, (48±8) %, and the 2-year OS of the central nervous system invasion group was (36±11) % (χ(2)=33.52, P<0.01). The 5-year EFS of the low-risk, intermediate-risk, the high-risk were (93±6) %, (51±5) %, (36±7) % and the 2-year EFS of the central nervous system invasion group was (31±10) % (χ(2)=24.73, P<0.01) . Survival factor analysis suggested that the OS of children was correlated with age(χ(2)=4.16, P=0.038), tumor TNM stage (χ(2)=22.02, P=0.001), IRS group (χ(2)=4.49, P<0.01) and the risk group (χ(2)=33.52, P<0.01). Conclusions: This study showed that the median age of newly diagnosed RMS patients was 4 years. The head and neck and the genitourinary tract were the most common primary origin of RMS. The OS was low in single-center RMS children. The median time to recurrence was 10 months, and recurrence was rare 3 years later.

1183Beta-Adrenoceptor activation increases cardiac galectin-3 levels via the hippo signaling pathway

Background

Galectin-3 (Gal-3) is a clinical biomarker for risk of cardiovascular disease and a disease mediator forming a therapeutic target. However, the mechanism(s) that regulate cardiac expression of Gal-3 remains unknown. Activation of the sympatho-β-adrenergic system is a hallmark of heart disease, but the relationship of βAR activation and cardiac content of Gal-3 remains unknown.

Purpose

To determine the role of βAR activation in regulating cardiac Gal-3 level and the responsible mechanism focusing on the Hippo signalling pathway.

Methods

Wild-type and Gal-3 gene deleted (Gal3-KO) mice were used. To test the role of the Hippo pathway, we used transgenic (TG) mouse strains with cardiac overexpression of mammalian-20-like sterile kinase 1 (Mst1, mammalian orthology of Drosophila Hippo kinase) either in wild-type form (TG-Mst1) or dominative-negative kinase dead mutant form (TG-dnMst1). Effects of β-antagonist (isoprenaline, ISO) and antagonists were determined. We measured phosphorylation (Ser127) of YAP as a transcription co-regulator acting as the main signal output of the Hippo pathway.

Results

In wild-type mice, treatment with ISO led to a time- and dose-dependent increase in cardiac expression of Gal-3 (Fig. A) accompanied by elevated circulating Gal-3 levels (Fig. B). ISO treatment stimulated cardiac expression of Mst1 and YAP hyper-phosphorylation (i.e. inactivation, Fig. C), indicating activation of the Hippo signalling. These effects of ISO were inhibited by β-blockers (propranolol, Prop; carvedilol, Carv; Fig. D,E). Relative to non-TG controls, ISO-induced expression of Gal-3 was inhibited by 75% in TG-dnMst1 mice (inactivated Mst1), but exaggerated by 7-fold in TG-Mst1 mice (activated Mst1). Mst1-TG mice had a 45-fold increase in Gal-3 content, YAP hyper-phosphorylation and enhanced pro-fibrotic signaling. In Mst1-TG mice, whilst blood Gal-3 level was unchanged, treatment with ISO (6 mg, 2 days) evoked a marked increase in cardiac and blood Gal-3 levels. Using rat cardiomyoblasts, we showed that ISO-mediated Mst1 expression and YAP phosphorylation were PKA-dependent and that siRNA-mediated YAP knockdown led to Gal-3 upregulation. The role of Gal-3 in mediating ISO-induced cardiomyopathy was examined by treating wild-type and Gal3-KO mice with ISO (30 mg/kg, 7 days). ISO-treated wild-type mice had 8-fold increase in cardiac Gal-3, ventricular dysfunction, fibrosis, hypertrophy and activated inflammatory or fibrotic signalling. All these changes, except hypertrophy, were abolished by Gal3-KO.

beta-AR regulates galectin-3

Conclusion

βAR stimulation increases cardiac expression of Gal-3 through activation of the Hippo signalling pathway. This is accompanied by elevated circulating Gal-3 level. βAR antagonists inhibited βAR-Mst1 (Hippo) signalling and cardiac Gal-3 expression, actions likely contributing to the overall efficacy of β-blockers.

Acknowledgement/Funding

NHMRC of Australia; Nature Science Fund of China

Long-term decomposed straw return positively affects the soil microbial community

AIMS

In order to understand the response of soil microbial communities to the long-term of decomposed straw return, the modifications of soil microbial community structure and composition induced by more than 10 years of fresh and decomposed straw return was investigated and the key environmental factors were analysed.

METHODS AND RESULTS

Phospholipid fatty acid analysis and high-through sequencing technique were applied to analyse the structure and composition of the soil microbial communities. Compared with fresh straw, returning decomposed straw increased the relative abundance of bacteria and fungi by 1·9 and 7·7% at a rate of ~3750 kg ha^-1 , and increased by 23·1 and 5·7%, at a rate of ~7500 kg ha^-1 respectively. The relative abundance of the bacteria related to soil nitrification increased, but the ones related to soil denitrification decreased with decomposed straw return, which led to higher total nitrogen contents in soils. Moreover, returning decomposed straw reduced pathogenic fungal populations (genus of Alternara), which had significantly positive correlation with soil electric conductivity. It indicated that the long-term of decomposed straw return might have lower risk of soil-borne disease mainly for the reasonable soil salinity.

CONCLUSIONS

Long-term of decomposed straw return could provide suitable nutrient and salinity for healthier development of soil microbial community, both in abundance and structure, compared with fresh straw return.

SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY

The results of the study helps to better understand how the microbial community modifications induced by decomposed straw return benefit on soil health. The obtained key factors impacting soil microbial community variations is meaningful in soil health management under conditions of straw return.

Tau positron emission tomography imaging in C9orf72 repeat expansion carriers

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

AV-1451 (18 F-AV-1451, flortaucipir) positron emission tomography was performed in C9orf72 expansion carriers to assess tau accumulation and disease manifestation.

METHODS

Nine clinically characterized C9orf72 expansion carriers and 18 age- and gender- matched cognitively normal individuals were psychometrically evaluated and underwent tau positron emission tomography imaging. The regional AV-1451 standard uptake value ratios from multiple brain regions were analyzed. Spearman correlation was performed to relate the AV-1451 standard uptake value ratio to clinical, psychometric and cerebrospinal fluid measures.

RESULTS

C9orf72 expansion carriers had increased AV-1451 binding in the entorhinal cortex compared to controls. Primary age-related tauopathy was observed postmortem in one patient. AV-1451 uptake did not correlate with clinical severity, disease duration, psychometric performance or cerebrospinal fluid markers.

CONCLUSION

C9orf72 expansion carriers exhibited increased AV-1451 uptake in entorhinal cortex compared to cognitively normal controls, suggesting a propensity for primary age-related tauopathy. However, AV-1451 accumulation was not associated with psychometric performance in our cohort.

[Case report and diagnosis of Noonan syndrome with multiple lentigines with deafness as its main clinical feature]

Summary Noonan syndrome with multiple lentigines（NSML） is a disorder with syndromic hearing loss. Abnormalities of other systems in NSML have received increasing attention, but hearing loss is rarely concerned. And due to the incomplete phenotype, some patients with NSML maybe missed or maybe confused with other syndromic deafness such as Waardenburg syndrome. Our study will familiarize more otolaryngologists with Leopard syndrome. A 5-year-old boy with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss and numerous symmetrically distributed dark brown macules that had good effect of cochlear implantation was collected in this study. And his father had bilateral sensorineural hearing loss and numerous symmetrically distributed dark brown macules. Waardenburg syndrome was initially diagnosed by clinical phenotype and its molecular etiology was confirmed by gene diagnosis. Waardenburg syndrome-related deafness genes and 131 known deafness genes were not identified by second-generation sequencing. Whole-exon sequencing was performed for 4 individuals in the family and the results were confirmed by Sanger sequencing. This study confirmed the diagnosis by identifying a disease-causing mutation in the PTPN11 gene, which was a heterozygous missense mutation at p. Tyr279Cys（c. 836A>G）. The mutation co-segregated with hearing loss in the family. Our results demonstrated that hearing loss in this family was caused by heterozygous mutations in PTPN11. These cases will familiarize more otolaryngologists with NSML, and they emphasize the importance of considering NSML as a possible cause of hearing problems.

Record Purcell factors in ultracompact hybrid plasmonic ring resonators

For integrated optical devices and traveling-wave resonators, realistic use of the superior wave-matter interaction offered by plasmonics is impeded by ohmic loss, which increases rapidly with mode volume reduction. In this work, we report composite hybrid plasmonic waveguides (CHPWs) that are not only capable of guiding subwavelength optical mode with long-range propagation but also unrestricted by stringent requirements in structural, material, or modal symmetry. In these asymmetric CHPWs, the versatility afforded by coupling dissimilar plasmonic modes provides improved fabrication tolerance and more degrees of device design optimization. Experimental realization of CHPWs demonstrates propagation loss and mode area of 0.03 dB/μm and 0.002 μm2, corresponding to the smallest combination among long-range plasmonic structures reported to date. CHPW ring resonators with 2.5-μm radius were realized with record Purcell factor compared with existing plasmonic and dielectric resonators of similar radii.

Clinical characteristics and treatments of patients with alpha-fetoprotein producing gastric carcinoma

Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is a well-known tumor marker of hepatic carcinoma and yolk sac tumor. Alpha-fetoprotein producing gastric carcinoma (AFPGC) is a rare type of gastric cancer with high malignancy and poor prognosis, which make it different from other types of gastric cancer. This rare gastric cancer patient subgroup is likely frequently misdiagnosed which may be related to lack of knowledge of the disease. The purpose of this article is to summarize the mechanism of AFP positive gastric cancer, classification, biological behavior and treatment, in order to assist clinical practitioners to detect AFPGC earlier and treat it better. Previous studies have showed that AFPGC has a complex pathophysiology mechanism. AFPGC is more aggressive and characterized by stronger proliferation, neovascularization, lymphatic invasion and distant metastasis. Furthermore, so far there has been no standard treatment for patients with AFPGC. Nevertheless, our present study summarizes some effective treatments based on previous research outcome. In conclusion, the present study demonstrates that the importance of detecting AFP routinely in serum and tissues in gastric cancer cases, which will greatly improve the diagnosis rate of AFPGC, and in regards to treatment, surgery, chemotherapy, targeted therapy and interventional treatment may have positive impacts on AFPGC treatment outcome. However, further study with a larger sample is required to confirm the reliability and validity of these methods.