Potential role of epithelial-mesenchymal transition induced by periodontal pathogens in oral cancer.

With the increasing incidence of oral cancer in the world, it has become a hotspot to explore the pathogenesis and prevention of oral cancer. It has been proved there is a strong link between periodontal pathogens and oral cancer. However, the specific molecular and cellular pathogenic mechanisms remain to be further elucidated. Emerging evidence suggests that periodontal pathogens-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is closely related to the progression of oral cancer. Cells undergoing EMT showed increased motility, aggressiveness and stemness, which provide a pro-tumour environment and promote malignant metastasis of oral cancer. Plenty of studies proposed periodontal pathogens promote carcinogenesis via EMT. In the current review, we discussed the association between the development of oral cancer and periodontal pathogens, and summarized various mechanisms of EMT caused by periodontal pathogens, which are supposed to play an important role in oral cancer, to provide targets for future research in the fight against oral cancer.

RhoA/ROCK1 regulates the mitochondrial dysfunction through Drp1 induced by Porphyromonas gingivalis in endothelial cells.

Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) is a pivotal pathogen of periodontitis. Our previous studies have confirmed that mitochondrial dysfunction in the endothelial cells caused by P. gingivalis was dependent on Drp1, which may be the mechanism of P. gingivalis causing endothelial dysfunction. Nevertheless, the signalling pathway induced the mitochondrial dysfunction remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of the RhoA/ROCK1 pathway in regulating mitochondrial dysfunction caused by P. gingivalis. P. gingivalis was used to infect EA.hy926 cells (endothelial cells). The expression and activation of RhoA and ROCK1 were assessed by western blotting and pull-down assay. The morphology of mitochondria was observed by mitochondrial staining and transmission electron microscopy. Mitochondrial function was measured by ATP content, mitochondrial DNA and mitochondrial permeability transition pore openness. The phosphorylation and translocation of Drp1 were evaluated using western blotting and immunofluorescence. The role of the RhoA/ROCK1 pathway in mitochondrial dysfunction was investigated using RhoA and ROCK1 inhibitors. The activation of RhoA/ROCK1 pathway and mitochondrial dysfunction were observed in P. gingivalis-infected endothelial cells. Furthermore, RhoA or ROCK1 inhibitors partly prevented mitochondrial dysfunction caused by P. gingivalis. The increased phosphorylation and mitochondrial translocation of Drp1 induced by P. gingivalis were both blocked by RhoA and ROCK1 inhibitors. In conclusion, we demonstrate that the RhoA/ROCK1 pathway was involved in mitochondrial dysfunction caused by P. gingivalis by regulating the phosphorylation and mitochondrial translocation of Drp1. Our research illuminated a possible new mechanism by which P. gingivalis promotes endothelial dysfunction.

Highly sensitive curvature fiber sensor based on an enhanced core diameter mismatch.

In this study, a curvature fiber sensor based on an enhanced core diameter mismatch is experimentally proposed and theoretically investigated. The structure is fabricated by splicing two types of step multimode and coreless fibers to excite the high-order cladding modes to improve the curvature sensitivity. Experimental results show that the highest curvature sensitivities of the structure reach -114.74 nm/m-1 in the Dip 1272 nm, -91.08 nm/m-1 in Dip 1408 nm, and -61.10 nm/m-1 in Dip 1644 nm in the measuring range of 0-0.49778 m-1. Meanwhile, the sensor's temperature and strain responses were also tested, which shows little influence on the curvature measurement. Additionally, the proposed fiber sensor exhibits features of easy fabrication, simple structure, and high mechanical strength. This study proposes a device for curvature measurement with potential use in material mechanics and optical fiber sensor design.

Point-coated long-period fiber grating for temperature measurement.

In this paper, a temperature sensor based on a point-coated long-period fiber grating (PC-LPFG) is proposed and investigated. This structure is fabricated using a thermal filling method. The point-coating approach effectively increases the coupling efficiency between the sensing unit and the surrounding medium. The polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), with high thermal optical coefficient (TOC) and thermal expansion coefficient (TEC), improves the temperature sensitivity of the PC-LPFG. Experimental results show that the temperature sensitivities of this sensor are 2.948 nm/°C and 6.717 nm/°C in the temperature ranges of 80.4-91°C and 91-97°C, respectively. The hot point-coating method of the PC-LPFG provides a new, to the best of our knowledge, approach to combining optic fiber sensors with high polymer materials.

High-sensitivity strain sensor based on a helical-core long-period fiber grating.

A highly sensitive strain sensor based on a helical-core long-period fiber grating (HC-LPFG) is proposed and experimentally investigated. The helical core is fabricated in the common single-mode fiber by using a high-frequency CO2 laser and hydrogen-oxygen flame. This helical shape core of the structure experienced the highly centralized refractive index modulation, which enhances the strain sensitivity and shortens the length of the sensing area to 2 mm. Experimental results indicate that the maximum strain sensitivity of the HC-LPFG reaches -97 pm/µÉ› within the measuring range of 0-400 µÉ›.

Untargeted urine metabolite profiling by mass spectrometry aided by multivariate statistical analysis to predict prostate cancer treatment outcome.

Deciphering metabolomic networks has been demonstrated to provide valuable information for diagnosing and monitoring diseases. Herein, we report a technique to monitor untargeted urine metabolites to evaluate prostate cancer aggressiveness and treatment outcome. Direct chemical profiling of urine was achieved by a combined procedure of hyphenating laser diode thermal desorption with atmospheric pressure chemical ionization mass spectrometry (LDTD-APCI-MS). We describe a conceptually new approach to monitoring preoperative urinary metabolic alterations associated with prostate cancer recurrence. By evaluating mass/charge (m/z) ratios and peak intensities of ions detected by mass spectroscopy of urine samples, we revealed that intensities at m/z 313.2740 (±0.0003) and 341.3054 (±0.0006) attributable to monoacylglycerol backbone fragments from glycerides can be statistically correlated to disease progression.

Eubacterium coprostanoligenes and Methanoculleus identified as potential producers of metabolites that contribute to swine manure foaming.

AIM: Swine manure foaming is a major problem, causing damage to property, livestock, and people. Here, we identified the main chemicals and microbes that contribute to foaming. METHODS AND RESULTS: Foaming and non-foaming swine manure were sampled from farms in Iowa and Illinois. Targeted and untargeted metabolomics analyses identified chemical markers that differed between foaming and non-foaming manure and between manure layers. Microbial community analysis and metagenomics were performed on a subset of samples. Foam contained significantly higher levels of total bile acids and long chain fatty acids like palmitic, stearic and oleic acid than the other manure layers. Foam layers also had significantly higher levels of ubiquinone 9 and ubiquinone 10. The slurry layer of foaming samples contained more alanine, isoleucine/leucine, diacylglycerols (DG), phosphtatidylethanolamines, and vitamin K2, while ceramide was significantly increased in the slurry layer of non-foaming samples. Eubacterium coprostanoligenes and Methanoculleus were more abundant in foaming samples, and E. coprostanoligenes was significantly correlated with levels of DG. Genes involved in diacylglycerol biosynthesis and in the biosynthesis of branched-chain hydrophobic amino acids were overrepresented in foaming samples. CONCLUSIONS: A mechanism for manure foaming is hypothesized in which proliferation of Methanoculleus leads to excessive production of methane, while production of DG by E. coprostanoligenes and hydrophobic proteins by Methanosphaera stadtmanae facilitates bubble formation and stabilization. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF STUDY: While some chemical and biological treatments have been developed to treat swine manure foaming, its causes remain unknown. We identified key microbes and metabolites that correlate with foaming and point to possible roles of other factors like animal feed.

Characterization of the Key Aroma Compounds of Three Kinds of Chinese Representative Black Tea and Elucidation of the Perceptual Interactions of Methyl Salicylate and Floral Odorants.

Jinjunmei (JJM), Keemun (KM), and Dianhong (DH) are the representative black teas in China, and they have always been favored by consumers. In this study, we aim to obtain the aroma characteristic information of volatile components in black tea samples through headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME), solvent-assisted flavor evaporation (SAFE), and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry combined with gas chromatography-olfactometry technology. The results showed that 70 compounds including α-methylbenzyl alcohol (isomer of ß-phenylethanol) were identified as odorants. Among them, 39 compounds such as linalool and geraniol showed a high degree of aroma contribution. Furthermore, the Feller's additive model was used to explore the perceptual interactions among the methyl salicylate and the floral compounds (10 groups): five groups of binary compounds showed masking effect after mixing, one group showed additive effect, and four groups showed synergistic effect. The ratio (R) was compared with the aroma index (n) of Steven's law, which found a high-fitness exponential relationship. The results of this study help to provide additional and new theoretical guidance for improving the aroma quality of black tea.

Identification of gut microbiota and microbial metabolites regulated by an antimicrobial peptide lipocalin 2 in high fat diet-induced obesity.

Lipocalin 2 (Lcn2), as an antimicrobial peptide is expressed in intestine, and the upregulation of intestinal Lcn2 has been linked to inflammatory bowel disease. However, the role of Lcn2 in shaping gut microbiota during diet-induced obesity (DIO) remains unknown. We found that short-term high fat diet (HFD) feeding strongly stimulates intestinal Lcn2 expression and secretion into the gut lumen. As the HFD feeding prolongs, fecal Lcn2 levels turn to decrease. Lcn2 deficiency accelerates the development of HFD-induced intestinal inflammation and microbiota dysbiosis. Moreover, Lcn2 deficiency leads to the remodeling of microbiota-derived metabolome, including decreased production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and SCFA-producing microbes. Most importantly, we have identified Lcn2-targeted bacteria and microbiota-derived metabolites that potentially play roles in DIO and metabolic dysregulation. Correlation analyses suggest that Lcn2-targeted Dubosiella and Angelakisella have a novel role in regulating SCFAs production and obesity. Our results provide a novel mechanism involving Lcn2 as an antimicrobial host factor in the control of gut microbiota symbiosis during DIO.

Refractometer based on fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer composed of two micro bending cores.

In this paper, a novel refractometer based on Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) is proposed and experimentally investigated. The MZI is composed of 2 micro bending cores (MBCs), one of which excites the cladding modes and the other couples the modes back. This structure is formed by high-frequency CO2 laser polishing and oxyhydrogen flame heating. With the unique deformation method, the interaction between the fiber core and the external status gets enhanced, moreover, higher modes in the cladding are excited, which leads to a high refractive index (RI) sensitivity. Due to the high temperature of the oxyhydrogen flame, the core of CO2 polished fiber is modulated, furthermore, the cladding shape of MBC tends to be circular. Hence, relatively small modulating regions of 500 µm can form for interference. In the experiment, 2 transmission dips are chosen for RI measuring, which possesses the wavelength of 1530.4 nm and 1600.8 nm, respectively. The RI sensitivities of the 2 transmission dips are -271.7 nm/RIU and -333.8 nm/RIU with the RI range of 1.33-1.42. The temperature characteristic is also experimentally analyzed and the temperature sensitivities of which are 0.121 nm/℃ and 0.171 nm/℃ in the range of 34℃-154℃. By solving the matrix equation, the proposed sensor can be applied for simultaneous measurement of RI and temperature.

Compact fiber strain sensor fabricated by a CO2 laser.

In this Letter, a novel, to the best of our knowledge, parallel inclined planes long period fiber grating (PIP-LPFG) for strain measurement is proposed. This structure is fabricated by a high frequency CO2 laser, which has polished periodic parallel inclined planes on a single mode fiber (SMF). Refractive index modulation (RIM) over a large area on the surface of the SMF significantly shortens the total length of the grating, and the structure of parallel inclined planes efficiently enhance the strain sensitivity of PIP-LPFG. Experimental results show that this LPFG with a miniature length of 3.9 mm has a good repeatability and stability of strain response, which can reach to 116 pm/µÎµ in the dynamic range of 0-425 µÎµ. Meanwhile, the temperature sensitivity of PIP-LPFG is 54.7 pm/°C in the dynamic range of 30-170°C.

Highly sensitive strain sensor based on a long-period fiber grating with chain-shaped structure.

In this paper, a novel chain-shaped long-period fiber grating (CS-LPFG) for strain measurement is investigated and experimentally demonstrated. This structure is achieved by polishing periodic slant planes on a single-mode fiber with a high-frequency CO2 laser. The chain-shaped structures improved the strain sensitivity of the sensor while shortening the length of the sensing unit. Experimental results show that the strain sensitivity of CS-LPFG is 34.8 pm/µÎµ in the range of 0-650 µÎµ, and the total length of the sensing unit is significantly reduced to 7.5 mm. Meanwhile, the temperature-strain cross talk is 1.6 µÎµ/°C, which is much lower than that of most fiber strain sensors.

Few-mode fiber-embedded long-period fiber grating for simultaneous measurement of refractive index and temperature.

A few-mode fiber (FMF)-embedded long-period fiber grating is proposed as a sensor for simultaneous measurement of refractive index and temperature. Periodically embedding the FMFs induces the local refractive index modulation to achieve a compact sensor size and obtains a low insertion loss. The simulated results show that the two resonance dips have opposite waveguide dispersion coefficients. Therefore, they show different refractive indices and temperature sensitivities in the experiment. At the same time, the spectral characteristics of double-resonance dips provides a condition for simultaneous measurement of two parameters. By monitoring wavelength shift of the two dips, the simultaneous measurement of refractive index and temperature is easily realized.

UAV-YOLO: Small Object Detection on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Perspective.

Object detection, as a fundamental task in computer vision, has been developed enormously, but is still challenging work, especially for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) perspective due to small scale of the target. In this study, the authors develop a special detection method for small objects in UAV perspective. Based on YOLOv3, the Resblock in darknet is first optimized by concatenating two ResNet units that have the same width and height. Then, the entire darknet structure is improved by increasing convolution operation at an early layer to enrich spatial information. Both these two optimizations can enlarge the receptive filed. Furthermore, UAV-viewed dataset is collected to UAV perspective or small object detection. An optimized training method is also proposed based on collected UAV-viewed dataset. The experimental results on public dataset and our collected UAV-viewed dataset show distinct performance improvement on small object detection with keeping the same level performance on normal dataset, which means our proposed method adapts to different kinds of conditions.

Erythrocyte PUFAs, circulating acylcarnitines, and metabolic syndrome risk: a prospective study in Chinese.

The effects of PUFAs on metabolic syndrome (MetS) remain to be characterized, particularly in Asians. We aimed to investigate the prospective associations of PUFAs with MetS and the role of acylcarnitines in these associations in Chinese individuals. Among 1,245 Chinese men and women aged 50-70 years who completed a 6 year follow-up, baseline erythrocyte FAs and plasma acylcarnitines were profiled using gas chromatography coupled with positive chemical ionization and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, respectively. Total n-6 PUFAs and three 22-carbon n-6 PUFAs were significantly associated with lower MetS risk comparing extreme quartiles: relative risks (RRs) (95% CIs) were 0.75 (0.57, 0.97) for total n-6 PUFAs, 0.69 (0.56, 0.85) for 22:2n-6, 0.76 (0.59, 0.99) for 22:4n-6, and 0.74 (0.58, 0.94) for 22:5n-6, while 18:3n-3 and 18:3n-6 were positively associated with MetS risk. In a network analysis, a module mostly consisting of long-chain n-6 PUFAs and very-long-chain saturated FAs was inversely associated with incident MetS (RR per SD: 0.84; 95% CI: 0.76, 0.92), and this module was more strongly associated with lower MetS risk when a short- to medium-chain acylcarnitine (C5-C10) module score was lower (Pinteraction = 0.03). Our data suggested inverse associations of total n-6 and certain long-chain n-6 PUFAs with cardiometabolic disorders, and this association might be modified by certain acy-l-carnitines.

Differentiation in the microbial ecology and activity of suspended and attached bacteria in a nitritation-anammox process.

A directed differentiation between the biofilm and suspension was observed in the molecular microbial ecology and gene expression of different bacteria in a biofilm nitritation-anammox process operated at varying hydraulic residence times (HRT) and nitrogen loading rates (NLR). The highest degree of enrichment observed in the biofilm was of anaerobic ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AMX) followed by that of Nitrospira spp. related nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB). For AMX, a major shift from Candidatus "Brocadia fulgida" to Candidatus "Kuenenia stuttgartiensis" in both suspension and biofilm was observed with progressively shorter HRT, using discriminatory biomarkers targeting the hydrazine synthase (hzsA) gene. In parallel, expression of the hydrazine oxidoreductase gene (hzo), a functional biomarker for AMX energy metabolism, became progressively prominent in the biofilm. A marginal but statistically significant enrichment in the biofilm was observed for Nitrosomonas europaea related ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB). In direct contrast to AMX, the gene expression of ammonia monooxygenase subunit A (amoA), a functional biomarker for AOB energy metabolism, progressively increased in suspension. Using gene expression and biomass concentration measures in conjunction, it was determined that signatures of AOB metabolism were primarily present in the biofilm throughout the study. On the other hand, AMX metabolism gradually shifted from being uniformly distributed in both the biofilm and suspension to primarily the biofilm at shorter HRTs and higher NLRs. These results therefore highlight the complexity and key differences in the microbial ecology, gene expression and activity between the biofilm and suspension of a nitritation-anammox process and the biokinetic and metabolic drivers for such niche segregation.

Lipopolysaccharide binding protein, obesity status and incidence of metabolic syndrome: a prospective study among middle-aged and older Chinese.

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Although microbiota-derived endotoxaemia has previously been shown to induce metabolic disorders, data from population-based longitudinal studies are scarce. This study therefore investigated the associations between lipopolysaccharide binding protein (LBP) levels and 6 year incident metabolic syndrome (MetS), as well as the potentially modifying effects of obesity status in middle-aged and older Chinese men and women. METHODS: A total of 2,529 men and women aged 50-70 years from Beijing and Shanghai, China, were followed for 6 years. Those free of MetS at baseline (1,312) were included in the analyses for the risk of developing MetS. Baseline plasma LBP was measured using an ELISA kit. RESULTS: During the 6 year follow-up, 449 (34.2%) participants developed MetS. Baseline LBP was significantly associated with BMI, waist circumference, blood lipid profile and C-reactive protein (CRP) both at baseline and during follow-up (all p < 0.05). The RR for incident MetS comparing extreme quartiles of LBP was 1.28 (95% CI 1.04, 1.58), after multivariate adjustment including BMI and CRP. In stratified analysis, LBP was positively associated with incident MetS only in normal-weight participants (RR, comparing extreme tertiles, 1.59; 95% CI 1.18, 2.15; p(trend)= 0.002), but not in their overweight/obese counterparts (RR, comparing extreme tertiles, 0.99; 95% CI 0.80, 1.22; p(trend) = 0.880). A significant interaction was observed between LBP and obesity status (p(interaction) = 0.013). CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: Our study suggested that elevated plasma LBP was associated with an increased risk of developing MetS among middle-aged and older Chinese, especially in normal-weight individuals.

Bacillus alkalicola sp. nov., an alkaliphilic, gram-positive bacterium isolated from Zhabuye Lake in Tibet, China.

A Gram-positive, alkaliphilic bacterium, designated strain Zby6(T), was isolated from Zhabuye Lake in Tibet, China. The strain was able to grow at pH 8.0-11.0 (optimum at pH 10.0), in 0-8 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum at 3 %, w/v) and at 10-45 °C (optimum at 37 °C). Cells of the isolate were facultatively anaerobic and spore-forming rods with polar flagellum. The predominant isoprenoid quinone was MK-7, and its cell wall peptidoglycan contained meso-diaminopimelic acid. The major cellular fatty acids were iso-C(15:0), C(16:0) and anteiso-C(15:0). The major polar lipids consisted of phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, and phosphatidylethanolamine. The genomic DNA G+C content of the isolate was 38.9 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain Zby6(T) was a member of the genus Bacillus and most closely related to Bacillus cellulosilyticus DSM 2522(T) (97.7 % similarity). The DNA-DNA relatedness value between strain Zby6(T) and B. cellulosilyticus DSM 2522(T) was 59.2 ± 1.8 %. Comparative analysis of genotypic and phenotypic features indicated that strain Zby6(T) represents a novel species of the genus Bacillus, for which the name Bacillus alkalicola sp. nov. is proposed; the type strain is Zby6(T) (=CGMCC 1.10368(T) = JCM 17098(T) = NBRC 107743(T)).

Characterization of Urinary N-Acetyltaurine as a Biomarker of Hyperacetatemia in Mice.

Acetate is an important metabolite in metabolic fluxes. Its presence in biological entities originates from both exogenous inputs and endogenous metabolism. Because the change in blood acetate level has been associated with both beneficial and adverse health outcomes, blood acetate analysis has been used to monitor the systemic status of acetate turnover. The present study examined the use of urinary N-acetyltaurine (NAT) as a marker to reflect the hyperacetatemic status of mice from exogenous inputs and endogenous metabolism, including triacetin dosing, ethanol dosing, and streptozotocin-induced diabetes. The results showed that triacetin dosing increased serum acetate and urinary NAT but not other N-acetylated amino acids in urine. The co-occurrences of increased serum acetate and elevated urinary NAT were also observed in both ethanol dosing and streptozotocin-induced diabetes. Furthermore, the renal cortex was determined as an active site for NAT synthesis. Overall, urinary NAT behaved as an effective marker of hyperacetatemia in three experimental mouse models, warranting further investigation into its application in humans.

Image Captioning via Dynamic Path Customization.

This article explores a novel dynamic network for vision and language (V&L) tasks, where the inferring structure is customized on the fly for different inputs. Most previous state-of-the-art (SOTA) approaches are static and handcrafted networks, which not only heavily rely on expert knowledge but also ignore the semantic diversity of input samples, therefore resulting in suboptimal performance. To address these issues, we propose a novel Dynamic Transformer Network (DTNet) for image captioning, which dynamically assigns customized paths to different samples, leading to discriminative yet accurate captions. Specifically, to build a rich routing space and improve routing efficiency, we introduce five types of basic cells and group them into two separate routing spaces according to their operating domains, i.e., spatial and channel. Then, we design a Spatial-Channel Joint Router (SCJR), which endows the model with the capability of path customization based on both spatial and channel information of the input sample. To validate the effectiveness of our proposed DTNet, we conduct extensive experiments on the MS-COCO dataset and achieve new SOTA performance on both the Karpathy split and the online test server. The source code is publicly available at https://github.com/xmu-xiaoma666/DTNet.