Abstract Background: A lot of congenital melanocytic nevi (CMN) carry the somatic mutation in the oncogene BRAF V600E. But the detailed histopathologic characteristics and the proliferative activity of CMN with BRAF V600E gene mutation have not been systematically documented. Objective: To identify the proliferative activity and histopathological features correlating them with BRAF V600E gene mutation status in CMN. Methods: CMN were retrospectively identified from the laboratory reporting system. Mutations were determined by Sanger sequencing. The CMN were divided into a mutant group and control group according to whether there was BRAF gene mutation and were strictly matched according to gender, age, nevus size, and location. Histopathological analysis, analysis of Ki67 expression by immunohistochemistry and laser confocal fluorescence microscopy were performed. Results: The differences in Ki67 index, the depth of nevus cell involvement and the number of nevus cell nests between the mutant group and the control group was statistically significant, with p-values of 0.041, 0.002 and 0.007, respectively. Compared with BRAFV600E negative nevi, BRAF V600E positive nevi often exhibited predominantly nested intraepidermal melanocytes, and larger junctional nests, but the difference in this datasets were not statistically significant. The number of nests (p = 0.001) was positively correlated with the proportion of Ki67 positive cells. Study limitations: A small sample of patients were included and there was no follow-up. Conclusions: BRAF V600E gene mutations were associated with high proliferative activity and distinct histopathological features in congenital melanocytic nevi.

SUMMARY OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the sex-specific association between hyperuricemia and the risk of hypertension and whether obesity mediates this association. METHODS: This study included 31,395 (47.0% women) adults without hypertension, cardiovascular disease, or cancer at baseline who completed at least one follow-up annual examination between 2009 and 2016. Cox regression models were performed to calculate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Mediation analysis was conducted to estimate the effect of body mass index on the association between hyperuricemia and hypertension. RESULTS: During a median 2.9-year follow-up, hyperuricemia was significantly associated with a higher risk of hypertension (HR 1.15, 95%CI 1.07-1.24 for all participants; HR 1.12, 95%CI 1.03-1.22 for men; and HR 1.23, 95%CI 1.02-1.48 for women) after adjustment for potential confounders. Additional adjustment for body mass index attenuated this association (HR 1.09, 95%CI 1.08-1.10 for all participants; HR 1.07; 95%CI 0.98-1.16 for men; HR 1.18; 95%CI 0.96-1.44 for women). Mediation analysis showed that BMI partially mediated the relationship between hyperuricemia and incident hypertension (indirect effect HR 1.09, 95%CI 1.08-1.10; direct effect: HR 1.08, 95%CI 1.02-1.15). The percentage of the mediation effect was 53.2% (95%CI 37.9-84.5). CONCLUSION: Hyperuricemia is associated with a risk of hypertension in both sexes, and BMI partially mediates hyperuricemia-related incident hypertension.

Abstract Allium mongolicum Regel is a desert plant that shows great resistance to wind erosion, drought, and low temperatures and is widely distributed in the desert lands of China. Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying its drought resistance is essential for uncovering drought resistance genes and improving its beneficial traits. Here, a de novo RNA-Seq assembly analysis was conducted using the roots of 1-month-old seedlings under drought stress. Using pairwise comparisons of untreated plants (CK), 48-hour drought plants (G48h), and 96-hour drought plants (G96h), in total, 2,211 differentially expressed unigenes (DEGs) were obtained. Furthermore, using functional annotation, these DEGs were mainly involved in the plasma membrane, photosynthesis, and secondary carbohydrate metabolism. Moreover, genes involved in the ABA-mediated signaling pathway and secondary metabolism were upregulated in the roots. These results suggest that desert plants may use signaling and secondary metabolic pathways as adaptive responses to drought stress. Collectively, this work could help elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying the ability of A. mongolicum Regel to respond to drought stress and aid in the selection of novel drought tolerance genes.

Resumen Allium mongolicum Regel es un tipo de planta desértica que muestra una gran resistencia a la erosión eólica, la sequía y las bajas temperaturas; se distribuye ampliamente en las tierras desérticas de China. Comprender los mecanismos moleculares subyacentes a la resistencia a la sequía de A. mongolicum Regel es esencial para descubrir genes resistentes a la sequía y mejorar este rasgo beneficioso en otras plantas. Aquí, el análisis de ensamblaje de ARN-Seq de novo se llevó a cabo utilizando las raíces de plántulas de 1 mes de edad en respuesta al estrés por sequía. Utilizando comparaciones por pares de plantas no tratadas (CK), plantas de 48 horas (G48h) y plantas de 96 horas (G96h), se obtuvieron un total de 2.211 unigenes (DEGs) expresados diferencialmente. Mientras tanto, usando la anotación funcional, estos DEGs fueron implicados principalmente en la membrana de plasma, la fotosíntesis, y el metabolismo de carbohidrato secundario. Por otra parte, los genes implicados en el camino ABA-mediado de la señalización y en metabolismo secundario para arriba fueron regulados para arriba en raíces. Estos resultados sugieren que las plantas del desierto pueden utilizar la señalización y las vías metabólicas secundarias como respuestas adaptativas al estrés por sequía. Colectivamente, este trabajo ayudará a comprender los mecanismos moleculares subyacentes a la capacidad de A. mongolicum Regel para responder al estrés por sequía y ayudar en la selección de nuevos genes de tolerancia a la sequía.

Abstract Objective To explore the molecular mechanism of neuropathologic damage induced by radiofrequency ablation at different temperatures. Methods This is basic research, and 36 SD rats were used to construct the neuropathological injury model. The rats were subjected to radiofrequency stimulation at different temperatures and were divided into 6 groups according to the temperature injury: 42°, 47°, 52°, 57°, 62°, and 67°C groups. Conduction time, conduction distance, and nerve conduction velocity were recorded after temperature injury. HE-staining was used to observe the histopathological morphology of the sciatic nerve. The expression of SCN9A, SCN3B, and NFASC protein in sciatic nerve tissue were detected by western blot. Results With the increase in temperature, nerve conduction velocity gradually decreased, and neurons were damaged when the temperature was 67°C. HE-staining showed that the degrees of degeneration of neurons in rats at 47°, 52°, 57°, 62°, and 67°C were gradually increased. The expression of SCN9A, SCN3B protein in 57°, 62°, 67°C groups were much higher than that of NC, 42°, 47°, 52°C groups. However, the expression of NFASC protein in 57°, 62°, 67°C groups was much lower than that of the NC, 42°, 47°, 52°C groups. Conclusion There was a positive correlation between temperature caused by the radiofrequency stimulation to neuropathological damage. The mechanism is closely related to the expression of SCN9A, SCN3B, and NFASC protein in nerve tissue caused by heat transfer injury.

Abstract Xuan-Mugua is a Chinese traditional fruit and is mainly preserved by air drying. To explore the effect of temperature on the drying property and quality of the fruits, they were sliced and dried at 60-90 °C. The results indicated that the drying time shortened from 150 to 80 min with the increasing temperature and the minimal time was found at 90 °C. The total phenolic content and antioxidant activity generally decreased by 5.09-18.27% at higher temperature (90 °C) and their maximums respectively appeared at 60 and 80 °C. Compared with the medium temperatures (60 and 70°C), the phenolic profiles changed obviously at higher temperatures (80 and 90 °C), and a transformation of chlorogenic acid was detected; besides, with the increasing temperature, the main phenolics including catechin and chlorogenic acid respectively decreased by 29.3% and 18.4%. Taking the above findings together, 70 °C should be the proper temperature to dry Xuan-Mugua fruits.

Abstract In order to realize the rapid nondestructive detection of mildew peanut in the process of peanuts storage, hyperspectral imaging technology was proposed to detect mildew peanut. A total of 200 peanuts were selected from 5 kinds of peanuts purchased in the market for moldy treatment, and the remaining 400 peanuts were kept sterile. After completion, samples were collected with a hyperspectral instrument to obtain spectral data of the samples. According to the characteristics of the data, 10 pre-processing algorithms were used to de-noise the data, and Median Filtering (MF) had the best effect, with the recognition accuracy reaching 97.7%. GBDT, LightGBM, CatBoost and XGBoost algorithms were used to extract important feature bands in the spectral data pre-processed by MF. GBDT, LightGBM, CatBoost and XGBoost algorithms were used to model the extracted feature bands. The results showed that LightGBM is the best algorithm with a detection rate of 99.10%. Optuna algorithm was used to tune its parameters. Compared with the previous model, the running time of the optimized model was improved by about 0.25 s. The results showed that hyperspectral imaging provides an efficient and nondestructive method for detecting mildew in peanut storage.

Abstract The research constructs a novel structure by integrating two parts of online object detection pipelines into the current state-of-the-art Mask R-CNN algorithm to improve the detection performance. The DJI Mavic Air drone is used to collect low-altitude sensing images of strawberry plant canopies. The data augmentation method is employed to feed more instances into the original image dataset to boost the generalization and robustness of the detection model in the training procedure. A ResNet50 backbone combined with a feature pyramid network is presented to extract the features of strawberry plant canopies. The online hard example mining algorithm is introduced to mine hard samples to learn rich features and update model weights. Soft non-maximum suppression based on recursive application on the remaining detection boxes within the predefined overlap threshold is proposed to improve the performance of identifying the large complex overlapping area of strawberry plant canopies. The qualitative results demonstrate that the improved detection model had an AP50 of 96.9 and an AR of 78.5 on the test set, which are approximately 30% higher than the original values.

SUMMARY OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the use of four concomitant Chinese medicines with azithromycin in the treatment of mycoplasma pneumonia in children (MPC) by using network meta-analysis (NMA) and ranking them according to their performances. METHODS: There were a total of 130 randomly controlled trials of four different concomitant Chinese medicines with azithromycin for the treatment of MPC in many databases, and an NMA was conducted in them by using Stata (version 13.0) software to evaluate the odds ratio (OR) and sequence of the different combinations. The included studies were divided into two groups: control group (azithromycin alone) and observation group (one of four azithromycin combinations). RESULTS: A total of 13119 cases were included in this study, and the results showed that the pooled OR and 95% confidence interval (CI) of MPC improvement compared with azithromycin alone were 4.76 (3.18–7.14) for azithromycin and Reduning, 5.66 (4.50–7.12) for azithromycin and Tanreqing, 4.84 (3.35–7.01) for azithromycin and Xiyanping, and 4.58 (3.59–5.83) for azithromycin and Yanhuning, respectively. This study shows the significant efficacy of Chinese concomitant drug. The combination of azithromycin with Tanreqing is the best candidate of concomitant drug in terms of clinical efficacy. Its surface under the cumulative ranking (SUCRA) score was 85.5, while the SUCRA score for the azithromycin and Yanhuning combination was the worst, which is 48.4. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of azithromycin with Tanreqing is the most promising group among four combinations for the treatment of MPC.

Abstract Purpose: To investigate the therapeutic benefits of Hydroxysafflor yellow A (HSYA) on blood-brain barrier (BBB) vulnerability after traumatic brain injury (TBI) and identify its potential action of mechanisms on TBIinduced injuries. Methods: The rat TBI model was performed by using a controlled cortical impact device. The BBB permeability induced by TBI was measured through Evans Blue dye superflux and western blotting or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for tight junctional proteins (TJPs). The post-TBI changes in oxidative stress markers, inflammatory response and neuron apoptosis in brain tissue were also tested. Results: Herein, the results showed that HSYA acutely attenuated BBB permeability via increasing the production of the TJPs, including occludin, claudin-1 and zonula occludens protein 24 h after TBI. Additionally, HSYA could suppress the secretion of proinflammatory factors, such as interleukin-1β, interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor-α (IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α), and also concurrently down-regulate the expression of inflammation-related Toll-like receptor 4/nuclear factor kappa-B (TLR4/NF-kB) protein. These HSYA challenged changes were accompanied by the decreased TBI induced oxidative stress markers and inhibited the expression of apoptosis proteins Bax, caspase-3 and caspase-9. Conclusions: Taken together, all findings suggested that HSYA (30 mg/kg) are against TBI through improving the integrity in BBB, which are associated with the antioxidant, anti-inflammation and antiapoptosis via the probable mechanism of down-regulation of the TLR4/NF-kB pathway, and its in-detail protective mechanisms are under study.

OBJECTIVES: Anemia and changes in platelets (PLT) are common in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In our study, we aimed to verify whether PLT count can independently reflect the severity of IBD. METHODS: In our hospital, 137 Crohn’s Disease (CD), 69 Ulcerative colitis (UC) patients, and 412 healthy controls were included to compare the differences in PLT count. In addition, the effect of anemia, C-reactive protein (CRP), age, CD activity index (CDAI) or Mayo on PLTs was also analyzed. If PLTs independently affected CD or UC, we used the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve to verify the diagnostic value and obtain the cut-off value of PLT. RESULTS: CD and UC patients had higher PLT than controls (p<0.001, p<0.001; respectively). In CD patients, the results showed that patients with anemia (P<0.01), Iron Deficiency Anemia (IDA) (p<0.001), CRP≥8 mg/L (p=0.046), and CDAI≥150 (p<0.001) had higher PLT, while in UC patients, those with anemia (p=0.018), CRP≥8 mg/L (p=0.045), and Mayo≥3 (p=0.029) had higher PLT. Univariate analysis showed that CDAI was positively correlated with PLT count (p<0.001), while hemoglobin (p=0.001) and age (p<0.001) were negatively correlated with PLT in CD. In UC patients, Mayo (p=0.001) and CRP (p<0.001) were positively correlated with PLT, while hemoglobin (p=0.002) was negatively correlated. Finally, by linear stepwise multivariate analysis, we clarified the positive relationship between PLT and CD (p<0.001) by eliminating the interference of hemoglobin, and determined the cut-off value of PLT as 298×109/L. For UC, we did not obtain similar results. CONCLUSIONS: PLT can be an indicator of disease severity in CD, while there is a lack of evidence regarding this finding in UC.

A simple and sensitive electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) biosensor was designed for the determination of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The gold nanoparticles (GNPs) were electrochemically deposited on the glassy carbon electrode as a base electrode and the biosensor was fabricated by self-assembling a special peptide (GIGKLHSAGKF) used as molecular recognition onto the GNPs surface according to the Au–S bond. Polyethylene glycol and 6-mercapto-1-hexanol were used to block the remaining sites of the modified electrode surface. When binding of LPS, the biosensor had a good response to different concentrations of LPS and the charge transfer resistance of the biosensor was directly related to the logarithm of LPS concentrations in the range of 0.01 pg mL-1-1.0 ng mL-1 with a limit of detection of 2.0 fg mL-1. The characteristics of the electrochemically deposited GNPs and the optimization concentration and the self-assembly time of peptide, as well as the performance of the EIS biosensors for LPS were investigated. The biosensor was used for real serum sample determination with satisfactory results.

Abstract The fruits of Xanthium strumarium L., Asteraceae, have been used for various diseases in Chinese folk medicine, including allergic rhinitis, tympanitis, arthritis, ozena etc. The current study was aimed to investigate the therapeutic effects of caffeoylquinic acids from fruits of X. strumarium on allergic rhinitis in animals. The toxicity test indicated that the caffeoylquinic acids have no obvious toxicity. By using HPLC assays combined with reference standards, ten caffeoylquinic acids were identified as the predominant constituents. Anti-allergic activities of the caffeoylquinic acids were evaluated using passive cutaneous anaphylaxis test and Schultz-Dale test; dimethylbenzene induced ear edema test was performed to evaluate its anti-inflammatory effect. Then, the allergic rhinitis model in rats was established to evaluate the therapeutic effects of the caffeoylquinic acids against allergic rhinitis with the following indexes: allergic rhinitis symptom scores, serum levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, histopathological examination, and histamine release. Our study revealed that the caffeoylquinic acids showed obvious anti-allergic and anti-inflammatory properties, and its treatments were beneficial for ameliorating the nasal symptoms, decreasing pro-inflammatory cytokines, and inhibiting the releases of histamine. Collectively, the caffeoylquinic acids might be utilized as effective and safe disease therapeutic agents for allergic rhinitis.

RESUMO: As influências do emprego de subprodutos que contêm silício, cálcio, magnésio e potássio, sobre a qualidade do solo ácido na Península de Jiaodong da China, foram estudadas e comparadas com a da cal através do monitoramento das propriedades físico-químicas e atividades enzimáticas do solo ácido ao longo de um 120- período do dia. Os resultados mostraram que as alterações dos subprodutos e a cal aumentaram significativamente as atividades de pH, CE e enzimas do solo. As alterações dos subprodutos obviamente inibiram o carbono da biomassa microbiana e a respiração do solo, mas o solo tratado com cal apresentou um maior nível de emissão de CO2. Em comparação com as modificações do subproduto, o solo tratado tinha o maior pH, a atividade da peroxidase, a atividade da fenol oxidase e a atividade da invertease. Portanto, o cal pode ser uma escolha melhor em relação às alterações dos subprodutos para melhorar as propriedades químicas e biológicas do solo ácido na Península de Jiaodong da China.

ABSTRACT: The influences of byproduct amendments, containing silicon, calcium, magnesium and potassium, on acidic soil quality in Jiaodong Peninsula of China had been studied and compared with that of lime through monitoring physicochemical properties and enzyme activities of acidic soil over a 120-day period. Byproduct amendments (1125, 2250, 4500 and 9000 kg ha-1) and lime 2250 kg ha-1 was applied in the acidic soil. Results showed that both byproduct amendments and lime significantly increased the pH, EC and enzyme activities of soil. The by-product amendments inhibited microbial biomass carbon and soil respiration. Nevertheless, the lime-treated soil had a much more higher level of CO2 emission than the by-product amendments-treated soil. Compared to the by-product amendments-treated soil, the lime-treated soil had the higher pH, peroxidase activity, phenol oxidase activity and invertase activity. Therefore, lime might be a better choice over by-product amendments to improve chemical and biological properties of the acidic soil in Jiaodong Peninsula of China. For soils lacking available calcium and magnesium, the mixture of 4500 kg ha-1 amendments and 2250 kg ha-1 lime was recommend to treat the soil.

ABSTRACT This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary protein and net energy (NE) levels on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, nitrogen metabolism, and faecal microbiota of growing-finishing pigs. Eighteen crossed barrows were randomly allocated into one of three dietary treatments: high protein + high NE diet, low protein + high NE diet, and low protein + low NE diet. The whole experiment lasted 90 days and was divided into three phases (phase I: 25-50 kg; phase II: 50-75 kg; phase III: 75-105 kg). All pigs were individually housed in a metabolism cage and subjected to four-day total faeces and urine collection period at the end of each phase. There was no significant difference in growth performance, nutrient digestibility, serum total protein, and albumin concentrations of pigs among the dietary treatments. Compared with the high protein + high NE diet, pigs fed low protein + high NE and low protein + low NE diets had lower N intake, urine N, and total N excretion in each phase. At the end of the experiment, pigs fed the low protein + high NE and low protein + low NE diets had lower blood urea nitrogen, serum NH3-N concentrations, faecal pH value, faecal NH3-N concentration, and faecal Escherichia coli count than those fed the high protein + high NE diet. However, there was no significant difference in all of the above indexes between low protein + high NE and low protein + low NE diets. Decreasing the dietary protein content by 3.5 percentage units has no adverse effects on growth performance and nutrient digestibility of pigs while significantly reduces N excretion and faecal Escherichia coli count. Moreover, further decreasing dietary NE level in the low-protein diet by 0.35-0.5 MJ/kg does not affect growth performance, nutrient digestibility, N excretion, blood profiles, and faecal Escherichia coli count of pigs.