Correlation between in vitro starch digestibility and starch structure/physicochemical properties in rice.

Natural resistant starch (RS) in rice provides human health benefits, and its concentration in rice is influenced by the structure and physicochemical properties of starch. The native starch structures and physicochemical properties of three rice varieties, QR, BR58, and BR50, and their relationships to in vitro digestibility were studied. The starch granules in all three varieties were irregular or polyhedral in shape. There were a few oval granules and a few pinhole structures in QR, no oval granules but a higher number of pinholes in BR58, and no oval granules and pinholes in BR50. QR is a low-amylose (13.8 %), low-RS (0.2 %) variety. BR58 is a low-amylose (15.3 %), high-RS (6.5 %) variety. BR50 is a high-amylose (26.7 %), high-RS (8.3 %) variety. All three starches exhibited typical A-type diffraction patterns. Starch molecular weight, chain length distribution, starch branching degree, pasting capabilities, and thermal properties differed considerably between the rice starches. The RS contents of the rice starch varieties were positively correlated with AAC, Mw/Mn, Mz/Mn, peak 3, B, PTime, and Tp and negatively correlated with Mn, peak 2, DB, PV, and BD, according to Pearson's correlation analysis. These findings may be helpful for the breeding and development of high-RS rice varieties.

Deep reinforcement learning-based approach for rumor influence minimization in social networks.

Spreading malicious rumors on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and WeChat can trigger political conflicts, sway public opinion, and cause social disruption. A rumor can spread rapidly across a network and can be difficult to control once it has gained traction.Rumor influence minimization (RIM) is a central problem in information diffusion and network theory that involves finding ways to minimize rumor spread within a social network. Existing research on the RIM problem has focused on blocking the actions of influential users who can drive rumor propagation. These traditional static solutions do not adequately capture the dynamics and characteristics of rumor evolution from a global perspective. A deep reinforcement learning strategy that takes into account a wide range of factors may be an effective way of addressing the RIM challenge. This study introduces the dynamic rumor influence minimization (DRIM) problem, a step-by-step discrete time optimization method for controlling rumors. In addition, we provide a dynamic rumor-blocking approach, namely RLDB, based on deep reinforcement learning. First, a static rumor propagation model (SRPM) and a dynamic rumor propagation model (DRPM) based on of independent cascade patterns are presented. The primary benefit of the DPRM is that it can dynamically adjust the probability matrix according to the number of individuals affected by rumors in a social network, thereby improving the accuracy of rumor propagation simulation. Second, the RLDB strategy identifies the users to block in order to minimize rumor influence by observing the dynamics of user states and social network architectures. Finally, we assess the blocking model using four real-world datasets with different sizes. The experimental results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed approach on heuristics such as out-degree(OD), betweenness centrality(BC), and PageRank(PR).

Analysis of biofilm expansion rate of Bacillus subtilis (MTC871) on agar substrates with different stiffness.

The surface morphology of mature biofilms is heterogeneous and can be divided into concentric rings wrinkles (I), labyrinthine networks wrinkles (II), radial ridges wrinkles (III), and branches wrinkles (IV), according to surface wrinkle structure and distribution characteristics. Due to the wrinkle structures, channels are formed between the biofilm and substrate and transport nutrients, water, metabolic products, etc. We find that expansion rate variations of biofilms growing on substrates with high and low agar concentrations (1.5, 2.0, 2.5 wt.%) are not in the same phase. In the first 3 days' growth, the interaction stress between biofilm and each agar substrate increases, which makes the biofilm expansion rate decreases before wrinkle pattern IV (branches) comes up. After 3 days, in the later growth stage after wrinkle pattern IV appears, the biofilm has larger expansion rate growing on 2.0 wt.% agar concentration, which has the larger wrinkle distance in wrinkle pattern IV reducing energy consumption. Our study shows that the stiff substrate does not always inhibit the biofilm expansion, although it does in the earlier stage; after that, mature biofilms acquire larger expansion rate by adjusting the growth mode through the wrinkle evolution even in nutrient extremely depletion.

A hot topic diffusion approach based on the independent cascade model and trending search lists in online social networks.

In online social networks, users can quickly get hot topic information from trending search lists where publishers and participants may not have neighbor relationships. This paper aims to predict the diffusion trend of a hot topic in networks. For this purpose, this paper first proposes user diffusion willingness, doubt degree, topic contribution, topic popularity and the number of new users. Then, it proposes a hot topic diffusion approach based on the independent cascade (IC) model and trending search lists, named the ICTSL model. The experimental results on three hot topics show that the predictive results of the proposed ICTSL model are consistent with the actual topic data to a great extent. Compared with the IC, independent cascade with propagation background (ICPB), competitive complementary independent cascade diffusion (CCIC) and second-order IC models, the Mean Square Error of the proposed ICTSL model is decreased by approximately 0.78%-3.71% on three real topics.

Matrix Producing Cells Induce the Morphological Difference in the Bacillus subtilis Biofilm.

There is a 'coffee ring' in the Bacillus subtilis biofilm center, and the colony biofilm morphologies are distinct inside and outside the 'coffee ring'. In this paper, we study this morphological difference and explain the reasons of the 'coffee ring' formation and further the causes to the morphological variation. We developed a quantitative method to characterize the surface morphology, the outer area is thicker than the inner area of the 'coffee ring', and the thickness amplitude in outer area is larger than inner area of the 'coffee ring'. We adopt a logistic growth model to obtain how the environmental resistance influence the colony biofilm thickness. Dead cells provide gaps for stress release and make folds formation in colony biofilm. we developed a technique for optical imaging and matching cells with the BRISK algorithm to capture the distribution and movement of motile cells and matrix producing cells in the colony biofilm. Matrix producing cells are mainly distribute in the outside of the 'coffee ring', and the extracellular matrix (ECM) prevents the motile cells moving outward from center. Motile cells mainly locate inside the ring, a small amount of dead motile cells outside the 'coffee ring' give rise to radial folds formation. There are no ECM blocking cell movements inside the ring, which result in uniform folds formation. The distribution of ECM and different phenotypes lead to the formation of the 'coffee ring', which is verified by using eps and flagellar mutants.

Simulation of various biofilm fractal morphologies by agent-based model.

Biofilms are clusters of bacteria wrapped in extracellular matrix and polymers. The study of biofilm morphological transformation has been around for a long time and has attracted widespread attention. In this paper, we present a model for biofilm growth based on the interaction force, in which bacteria are treated as tiny particles and locations of particles are updated by calculating the repulsive forces among particles. We adapt a continuity equation to indicate nutrient concentration variation in the substrate. Based on the above, we study the morphological transformation of biofilms. We find that nutrient concentration and nutrient diffusion rate dominate different biofilm morphological transition processes, in which biofilms would grow into fractal morphology under the conditions of low nutrient concentration and nutrient diffusivity. At the same time, we expand our model by introducing a second particle to mimic extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in biofilms. We find that the interaction between different particles can lead to phase separation patterns between cells and EPSs, and the adhesion effect of EPS can attenuate this phenomenon. In contrast to single particle system models, branches are inhibited due to EPS filling in dual particle system models, and this invalidation is boosted by the enhancement of the depletion effect.

The formation mechanism of Bacillus subtilis biofilm surface morphology under competitive environment.

Material properties and growth environments affect the surface morphology of biofilms. Taken the biofilm growing in competitive environments as the object, which is compared with the single biofilm, we find that the competitive environment has an impact on the biofilm thickness and wrinkle patterns. Through diffusion-limited growth theoretical model analysis, it shows that the competitive environment is caused by cells competing for nutrition, and the competitive environment reacts on biofilms, which affect the phenotypic differentiation, causing changes in the stiffness of the biofilm. Using the theoretical and finite element simulation, we compare these results of bi-layer and tri-layer film-substrate models with experimental observations, and find that tri-layer film-substrate model is in line with the reality, which means that the layer between the biofilm and substrate plays an import role for wrinkle formation. Based on the above analysis, we further study effects of biofilm stiffness and interlayer thickness on wrinkles under competitive environment.

Transcription Factor ELF1 Modulates Cisplatin Sensitivity in Prostate Cancer by Targeting MEIS Homeobox 2.

As a widely used first-line agent for prostate cancer treatment, cisplatin is facing drug resistance which has resulted in chemotherapy failure in many prostate cancer patients, while the related molecular mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we discovered that MEIS homeobox 2 (MEIS2) was lowly expressed in prostate cancer tissues by bioinformatics analysis, which had a close connection with the T stage and N stage of the tumor. Cell function experiments demonstrated that MEIS2 overexpression was capable of significantly suppressing proliferation of tumor cells, arresting prostate cancer cells in G0/G1 phase, and promoting DNA damage, thereby enhancing the sensitivity of prostate cancer to cisplatin. Dual-luciferase assay and chromatin co-immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays confirmed the binding relationship between MEIS2 and ELF1. The results of rescue assay showed that ELF1 could promote DNA damage and enhance the sensitivity of tumor cells to cisplatin by activating MEIS2. In conclusion, the results of this study demonstrated that ELF1 could modulate DNA damage through activating MEIS2 and thus enhance cisplatin sensitivity in prostate cancer. This study suggested that the ELF1/MEIS2 axis may be a therapeutic target to strengthen cisplatin sensitivity in prostate cancer.

Fractal morphology facilitates Bacillus subtilis biofilm growth.

In the late stage of Bacillus subtilis biofilm growth, to adapt the extremely nutrient-lacking environment, the biofilm edge grows into a complex branching structure, which allows the biofilm to expand outward at a faster speed, comparing to the expansion speed of the biofilm edge without branching structure. The fractal analysis shows that the fractal dimension (Fd) decreases along the radius in the biofilm branching structure, as shown in Figs. 1d and 3a. The variation of Fd along the radius is not monotonic, which is because of the texture evolution induced by the bacterial clusters' movement. By using the wide field stereomicroscope and image analysis, we find that the ridges in the mature branching structure are composed of inactive substances, and most of the bacterial clusters move through the valleys. Further analysis shows that bacterial clusters move to the area with the high Succolarity (Suc) value.

Cytokine levels in sputum, not serum, may be more helpful for indicating the damage in the lung and the prognosis of severe COVID-19 - A case series.

PURPOSE: To describe the relationship between the severity of lung damage and cytokine levels in sputum, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), serum. METHOD: Eight severe patients infected with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) were admitted and their cytokines and chest computed tomography (CT) were analyzed. RESULTS: Compared with in serum, IL-6 and TNF-α in sputum and in BALF show more directly reflect the severity of COVID-19 critical patients. The gradient ratio of IL-6 levels may predict the prognosis of severe patients. CONCLUSION: Cytokine levels in the sputum may be more helpful for indicating lung damage. Local intervention through the respiratory tract is expected to benefit patients with severe COVID-19.

Effects of a Chlorogenic Acid-Containing Herbal Medicine (LASNB) on Colon Cancer.

BACKGROUND: Plant polyphenols, which contain phenolic acids such as chlorogenic acid (CGA), can be used for the treatment of gastrointestinal cancer and have gained increasing attention in recent years. In this study, we explored a novel CGA-containing herbal medicine named LASNB, which was extracted from Lonicera japonica Thunb., Agrimonia eupatoria L., and Scutellaria barbata D.Don. METHODS: CGA in LASNB was analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The biological functions and molecular mechanisms of LASNB were investigated in colon cancer cell lines (HCT116, HCT15, and CT26), a normal colon cell line (NCM460), and a CT26 xenograft model. To assess safety, hematological toxicity and pathology of the liver, kidney, and lung were evaluated. RESULTS: LASNB suppressed HCT116, HCT15, and CT26 colon cancer progression by inhibiting proliferation capacity, promoting cell apoptosis, and suppressing cell migration both in vitro and in vivo. Investigation into the underlying molecular mechanism indicated that LASNB suppressed the activation of receptor tyrosine kinase- (RTK-) MEK-ERK and NF-κB pathways. With regard to safety, slight interstitial vascular congestion in the lung was observed, but no severe pathological or hematological toxicity was detected. CONCLUSIONS: We found that LASNB suppressed the progression of colon cancer via the RTK-MEK-ERK and NF-κB pathways, with no severe toxicity observed. Therefore, LASNB has the potential to be used as a supplementary herbal medicine for the treatment of colon cancer.

Expression and prognostic values of ARID family members in breast cancer.

The ARID family is a superfamily of 15 members containing a domain that interacts with AT-rich DNA elements. However, the expression and prognostic roles of each ARID in breast cancer are still elusive. We used the TCGA and Kaplan-Meier plotter databases to assess the expression and prognostic values of ARID mRNA levels in breast cancer respectively. In the present study, 6 members were significantly lower in tumor tissues than those in the normal tissues, while 6 members were significantly higher. Further assessment of ARID expression in breast cancer with different molecular subtypes, 3 members were significantly higher in no-luminal molecular subtype than those in the luminal molecular subtype, and 6 members were significantly higher. In regard to prognostic values, high expression of ARID1A, ARID2, ARID3B, ARID4A, ARID5A, ARID5B, JARID1A were associated with favorable outcome, while ARID4B and JARID1B were correlated to a worse outcome. We further analyzed the prognostic value of ARID in different intrinsic subtypes and clinicopathological features of breast cancer. We found many meaningful ARID family biomarkers in breast cancer. The relevant results will expound the role of ARID in breast cancer and may further provide new insight to explore the ARID-targeting reagents for treating breast cancer patients.

Hsa_circ_0008537 facilitates liver carcinogenesis by upregulating MCL1 and Snail1 expression via miR­153­3p.

The biological functions of circular RNAs in liver tumorigenesis have been well demonstrated by a number of studies. Nevertheless, to the best of our knowledge, the role and mechanism of action of hsa_circ_0008537 (circ_0008537) in liver cancer pathogenesis remain undetermined. In the present study, circ_0008537 expression was associated with the GLI3 gene and was markedly increased in liver cancer tissue specimens and cells. High expression levels of circ_0008537 exhibited a poor prognosis. In addition, circ_0008537 overexpression resulted in an increased proliferation, migration and invasion of liver cancer cells, whereas circ_0008537 knockdown exhibited opposite effects. circ_0008537 acted as a sponge of microRNA­153­3p (miR­153­3p), and a negative correlation was observed between circ_0008537 and miR­153­3p expression in liver cancer. Transfection with miR­153­3p further abolished the effects of circ_0008537 on the malignant behavior of liver cancer cells. Furthermore, circ_0008537 indirectly affected the expression levels of pro­survival protein myeloid cell leukemia 1 (MCL1) and snail family zinc finger 1 (Snail1) via miR­153­3p in liver cancer cells. In conclusion, the data indicated that circ_0008537 facilitated liver carcinogenesis by indirectly regulating miR­153­3p and leading to the release of MCL1 and Snail1.

Position-Enhanced Multi-Head Self-Attention Based Bidirectional Gated Recurrent Unit for Aspect-Level Sentiment Classification.

Aspect-level sentiment classification (ASC) is an interesting and challenging research task to identify the sentiment polarities of aspect words in sentences. Previous attention-based methods rarely consider the position information of aspect and contextual words. For an aspect word in a sentence, its adjacent words should be given more attention than the long distant words. Based on this consideration, this article designs a position influence vector to represent the position information between an aspect word and the context. By combining the position influence vector, multi-head self-attention mechanism and bidirectional gated recurrent unit (BiGRU), a position-enhanced multi-head self-attention network based BiGRU (PMHSAT-BiGRU) model is proposed. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed model, this article makes a large number of experiments on SemEval2014 restaurant, SemEval2014 laptop, SemEval2015 restaurant, and SemEval2016 restaurant data sets. The experiment results show that the performance of the proposed PMHSAT-BiGRU model is obviously better than the baselines. Specially, compared with the original LSTM model, the Accuracy values of the proposed PMHSAT-BiGRU model on the four data sets are improved by 5.72, 6.06, 4.52, and 3.15%, respectively.

Study on the Anticancer Effect of an Astragaloside- and Chlorogenic Acid-Containing Herbal Medicine (RLT-03) in Breast Cancer.

BACKGROUND: Although surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and endocrine therapy are widely used in clinical practice for breast cancer treatment, herbal medicines (HMs) are considered as an alternative to palliative treatments because of their coordinated intervention effects and relatively low side effects. Astragaloside (AS) and chlorogenic acid (CGA) are major active ingredients of Radix Astragali and Lonicera japonica, which have shown antitumorigenic properties in certain cancers, but the role of HMs containing both AS and CGA remains unclear in breast cancer. In this study, we explored an AS- and CGA-containing HM (RLT-03) extracted from Radix Astragali, Lonicerae Japonicae Flos, Trichosanthin, and Rhizoma imperatae. METHODS: RLT-03 was extracted using water and n-butanol, and the AS and CGA ingredients in RLT-03 were identified by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and evaporative light-scattering detector (ELSD). 4T1, EMT6, BT-549, and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell lines were used, and an EMT6 xenograft model was established. Cell proliferation, migration, and apoptosis were measured in vitro, and tumor volume and weight were observed in vivo. The expression of VEGF, EGF, IL-10, TGF-ß, and CD34 and cell apoptosis in tumors were examined. RESULTS: RLT-03 inhibited cell viability and induced apoptosis in a dose- and time-dependent manner. In vivo, tumor volume and weight were reduced, and the expression of VEGF, EGF, IL-10, TGF-ß, and CD34 was suppressed in the tumor microenvironment, while cell apoptosis was induced. CONCLUSION: RLT-03 exhibited therapeutic effects against breast cancer by regulating the expression of ligands of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) and inflammatory factors. Thus, RLT-03 represents a potential supplementary HM that can be used in breast cancer therapy.

Severe Bilateral Breast Mucinous Carcinoma with Bilateral Lungs and Cutaneous Metastasis: A Case Report and Literature Review.

The case of a female who had severe, rare, terminal breast mucinous carcinoma (BMC) and failed to receive surgery and chemotherapy was reported. The patient was diagnosed with pure BMC (ER++, PR++, CerbB-2-, and Ki-67 10%) accompanied with bilateral lungs, bilateral chest walls with skin ulcer (D = 14 cm), lymph nodes of bilateral armpits, and right supraclavicular metastases. ECOG (Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group) and NRS (Numeric Rating Scale) pain scores were 4 and 6, respectively. Because the patient refused traditional chemotherapy and radiotherapy on religious grounds, an herbal medicine containing Panax ginseng, Agrimonia pilosa, and white flower Patrinia herb was administered; extensive nursing for tumor debridement was also provided. Quality of Life (QOL) improved and pain reduced. Tumor-bearing survival time was prolonged. The present case dictates that herbal extract medicines and supportive treatment can be helpful for uncommon severe BMC as an appropriate alternative treatment.

Rapid bone repair in a patient with lung cancer metastases to the spine using a novel herbal medicine: A case report.

The prognosis of lung carcinoma with metastasis to the bone, particularly to the spine, is poor. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are established treatments for metastatic bone disease, but their effectiveness is unsatisfactory and bone repair following their use is slow and difficult. Medicine prepared from herbal extracts may be an alternative treatment option. The present study discusses the case of a 59-year-old patient diagnosed with squamous cell lung cancer (T2N3M1) in which first-line chemotherapy using docetaxel plus cisplatin failed. Heavy multiple bone metastases were detected in the T9 vertebra and sixth left rib, resulting in a high risk of pathological fracture. Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) and numerical rating scale (NRS) scores of pain were 2 and 4, respectively. A second-line treatment was chosen consisting of biological intracontrol treatment (BICT) plus bisphosphonates administered over 40 days. BICT is a therapy involving the use of herbal extracts (including ginseng, herba agrimoniae, hairyvein agrimonia herb, white flower patrinia herb and arginine) and palliative care. A partial positive response was reached following use of this regimen, particularly with regard to bone repair. A computed tomography scan revealed a 90% reduction in the broken area of the rib cage and T9 vertebra. The bone repair was rapid and almost complete. In addition, growth of the primary tumor in the right pulmonary hilar and metastasis in the mediastinal lymph nodes were stabilized following treatment. ECOG and NRS scores were decreased to 1 and 0, respectively, leading to an improved quality of life. Based on these results, the present study suggests that this herbal medicine-based regimen promotes bone repair and inhibits tumor growth, with low toxicity. However, the mechanism by which herbal medicine promotes rapid bone repair is unclear. Further studies are required to determine whether cells in the tumor microenvironment are stimulated to undergo re-differentiation by unidentified herbal substances.

The De-Etiolated 1 Homolog of Arabidopsis Modulates the ABA Signaling Pathway and ABA Biosynthesis in Rice.

DEETIOLATED1 (DET1) plays a critical role in developmental and environmental responses in many plants. To date, the functions of OsDET1 in rice (Oryza sativa) have been largely unknown. OsDET1 is an ortholog of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) DET1 Here, we found that OsDET1 is essential for maintaining normal rice development. The repression of OsDET1 had detrimental effects on plant development, and leaded to contradictory phenotypes related to abscisic acid (ABA) in OsDET1 interference (RNAi) plants. We found that OsDET1 is involved in modulating ABA signaling in rice. OsDET1 RNAi plants exhibited an ABA hypersensitivity phenotype. Using yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) and bimolecular fluorescence complementation assays, we determined that OsDET1 interacts physically with DAMAGED-SPECIFIC DNA-BINDING PROTEIN1 (OsDDB1) and CONSTITUTIVE PHOTOMORPHOGENIC10 (COP10); DET1- and DDB1-ASSOCIATED1 binds to the ABA receptors OsPYL5 and OsDDB1. We found that the degradation of OsPYL5 was delayed in OsDET1 RNAi plants. These findings suggest that OsDET1 deficiency disturbs the COP10-DET1-DDB1 complex, which is responsible for ABA receptor (OsPYL) degradation, eventually leading to ABA sensitivity in rice. Additionally, OsDET1 also modulated ABA biosynthesis, as ABA biosynthesis was inhibited in OsDET1 RNAi plants and promoted in OsDET1-overexpressing transgenic plants. In conclusion, our data suggest that OsDET1 plays an important role in maintaining normal development in rice and mediates the cross talk between ABA biosynthesis and ABA signaling pathways in rice.

Use of a novel herbal medicine in a 75-year-old woman with multi-metastatic pancreatic cancer: A case report and review of the literature.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive types of malignant tumors and is associated with an extremely poor prognosis. Despite numerous research efforts over the last few years, little progress has been made in the understanding and treatment of the disease. Gemcitabine-based regimens are considered as the first-line treatment for pancreatic cancer, but the effects of chemotherapy on the disease are limited. Natural products extracted from herbs represent a valuable resource for novel bioactive anticancer agents and could benefit multi-metastasis pancreatic adenocarcinoma patients with an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group status of 3. Biological intra-control cancer treatment (BICT) is a novel systemic therapy involving palliative care and herbal extract combinations [including ginseng (Panax ginseng C.A. Mey.), Herba Agrimonia (Agrimonia pilosa Ledeb.), White Flower Patrinia Herb (Thlaspi arvense Linn.) and arginine], which has been approved by the State Food and Drug Association. The treatment is intended to regulate and inhibit blood vessel generation and tumor growth by inhibiting epidermal growth factor receptor and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor expression, and to manage symptoms to improve the quality of the treatment. The present study discusses the case of a 75-year-old female diagnosed with pancreatic cancer with multiple metastases in the liver and lymph nodes. The patient was administered BICT and achieved survival for 11 months without side-effects of a severity greater than grade 1 according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events. The study also describes a possible approach to providing palliative care and treating late-stage, metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinomas in elderly patients.